Nostalgia

Thank you, thank you, to Everyone who left me comments on my knitting dilemma. Last night I spent my time making a larger swatch to be sure I got the most accurate measurement possible. I used a US 10.5 needle, (6.5mm) needle and got the magic number, 13 stitches per four inches, that I was looking for. At 17 rows per four inches the row gauge is coming up a little short, but I'm going with it, I can take frequent measurements to make up the difference.

Last night I also cast on for the hem on the first piece of the cardigan. But then I had to stop. The only US 10.5 needles I have are only about nine inches long. Not nearly long enough to hold the number of stitches I need. So I might be on hold here, right from the beginning. I'll need to see who has US 10.5 long needles in stock. If I have trouble finding them, I'll probably order some and cast on for one of the front panels first. The front panels might be narrow enough to squeeze onto the smaller length needles.

While I was doing this knitting last night I was getting nostalgic for the Sunday Evenings of my childhood. It all started when the Artist's library request for Little House on the Prairie, season one, came available. Last night I picked it up. We watched just a little bit of it together before bedtime, but it was enough to hook me again. After she went to bed I watched the entire first DVD.

When I was little this was a Sunday night family ritual. Mom would sit on a high chair behind her ironing board and press clothes while we watched. The rest of us would enjoy the show. Mom and Dad took the occasion of the commercials to discuss with us anything they thought was warranted.

I must say I cannot abide ironing and much prefer knitting while watching the shows. (I guess all the Thomas Hardy I've been reading lately is seeping out my fingertips. I don't recall ever hearing myself say the words "I cannot abide" about anything before.)

Maple Taffy

Babette of Babette's Feast posed a question in my comments the other day, "Do you make maple sugar snow ala Laura Ingalls Wilder?"

Let me answer her and tell you all that the Artist has been asking for me to do this nearly every time it has snowed for the past year and one-half or so since she first read about it in Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods.

The descriptions in the book were not enough to direct me, so I found this Wiki page to provide more specifics. Then we were off and running.

The Artist filled my stew pot with fresh clean snow. This was a heavy, wet snow. I hoped that would not matter. The stew pot had to wait outside. I didn't know how long it would take the syrup to boil down. I unsealed the bottle of real maple syrup I was hording in the pantry for some undetermined special occasion. The Artist and the Engineer learned the difference between real maple syrup and the plastic bottle of imitation syrup in our refrigerator.

I located my candy thermometer, the implement in my kitchen that suffers from a most extreme neglect, and attached it to a small sauce pan. Let the heating begin.
I was afraid of the syrup boiling over so I let it heat slowly. It is a good thing the pot of snow was waiting outside. I congratulate myself that I kept the bubbles constant but always within the pan, thankful for the mess that didn't happen.At last the consistency was right and the Artist and I spooned dollops of steaming hot syrup onto the dense snow. They quickly hardened and cooled so that we could pick them up, fold them into bite-size bits, and pop them into our mouths.

Rick and the Engineer were waiting in the next room, peeking into the kitchen. The Engineer, curious about what we were doing on the kitchen floor, resisted eating at first. When I firmly commanded he try a bite, he found "It doesn't hurt me!" and asked for more.

The candy was exquisite because we had made it ourselves. It was something I had been curious about ever since I first read Little House in the Big Woods when I was around the Artist's age.

In another section of the book Wilder describes Ma making the taffy from a combination of maple syrup and molasses. This sounds delightful to me, but the rest of my family is not as enthusiastic for molasses. Is there anything better than molasses on fresh home made waffles?

Aside: We learned the taffy will not keep. We placed some cooled pieces on waxed paper and set them aside for later. After just a few minutes we noticed they had all melted into puddles. I was not going to collect and boil those little puddles again, so we ate the remaining candy immediately. Maybe colder, drier snow would have been better?