Cooking and Crocheting

Ahhh, February has pretty much been and gone and I feel I've barely batted an eyelash. {sigh} It's not as though I haven't been busy. Late January and the first half of February found me refining and testing a six course menu I was going to be cooking for a Valentine's event.

What an exciting gala it turned out to be. It certainly had its challenges... of the eight people originally slated to help me, only four initially showed up.  A couple more helping hands did appear later on in the evening and we cranked it out.

Guests started their evening with homemade rustic crackers served with a Kalamata and black olive tapenade. We followed that with meatballs that had been stuffed with gruyere, saged turkey sausage and apricots in a plate of a cherry sangria sauce. Then we had butternut squash bisque garnished with creme fraische. The fourth course was a spinach chiffonade topped with crumbled blue cheese, pecans and a homemade orange honey dijon dressing. The fifth course consisted of pork noisettes in a raspberry reduction sauce and a side of garlic potato salpicon. And before dessert, we all enjoyed a Champagne, lime and cucumber sorbet.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves... and I have made promises to share recipes!

In the meantime, now that I find myself with a hint of free time, I have had a photo on one of my Pinterest boards that has been screaming my name:

This image originally linked to the site for VivaTerra, but the rug is no longer available for purchase.

The motifs remind me of mums. And, while I adore the color way of the carpet in the image, I'm going to profess my cheapness yet one more time. I already have such an abundance of yarn at my disposal I can't justify spending money on more. And, although I don't have these delicate earthy tones in my stash, I DO have some heavy duty carpet yarn in my possession that is screaming to be used for just such a purpose.

The yarn came to me via my mother-in-law who, in her earlier years, had the same tastes in colors as I do now. I have a yellow that is about the same tint as the one in the photo above. My brown is a warmer color that is closer to tan. And instead of varying shades of grey, I will be working with aquas and dashes of citron green and a royal blue. It will definitely have more of a seaside palette, and will be a nice bright addition to my work area.

The biggest challenge I had was figuring out a stitch pattern that would mimic the design above. I spent a day making notes, crocheting, tearing apart and then ripping things again before I finally came to a solution that leaves me happy. Most importantly, the stitch work is relatively easy and quick to work up. I'll snap a pic tomorrow of the progress I've made so far.  My first endeavor is most definitely going to be small. But if it turns out cute enough, I just might be aiming at a larger scale design for my girls' room in some of the other multitudinous hues still in my yarn basket!...