Knit of the Living Dead

by Peggy Ehrhart

  Roland was already hard at work on his project—evidently a new section of the camel-colored sweater he was making his wife for Christmas. “I certainly take everything I read in the Register with a grain of salt,” he observed without looking up. “But I am surprised that Lucas Clayborn didn’t try to take credit for solving the mystery. The police do little enough that’s useful, considering what I pay to the town in taxes.”

  Pamela was eager to get back to her knitting too. Only one section of the cornflower-blue sweater remained, a sleeve. She knew she wouldn’t be able to immerse herself in the rhythms of knitting until she’d satisfied the group’s curiosity, but she began to cast on anyway.

  “The main clue was the necklace that Martha wore,” Bettina said. “It was a little gold charm on a chain, and Pamela recognized that the charm was a spindle.”

  Pamela twisted yarn around the fingers of her left hand, guided her knitting needle through the loop she’d created, and looped more yarn with her right hand, casting on stitch by stitch. She was happy when Holly spoke up, and all eyes turned in that direction.

  “It was a sad story,” Holly said. “Martha’s story, I mean. Imagine—to be in love with a man and think he loves you back, and then your sister comes to visit, and all of a sudden he’s smitten with her instead.” She shook her head sadly, though her expressive features retained their charm. “Smart, serious people like that, studying ancient Greece and whatever, and almost professors. And now, of course, we know she was that person shrieking across the street last week. Who would think people like professors could get caught up in such a desperate kind of love?”

  Next to her on the sofa, Gwen stirred. “I’m a professor.” She laughed. “We are human.”

  “Oh!” Holly’s eyes opened wide, and she turned to Gwen. “I didn’t know,” she said. “I thought you were just . . . a person.”

  “I should have made a more complete introduction,” Bettina said from her perch across the room. And she explained about meeting Greg Dixon at Wendelstaff and how Gwen came to be a guest at Knit and Nibble that night.

  “And so your love story had a happy ending!” Holly exclaimed, with a smile that brought back the dimple.

  “Very!” Gwen nodded with a smile, but minus a dimple of her own. “And now”—she lifted her in-progress knitting from her lap—“I’m finishing his birthday present.”

  “What is it?” Holly stared at the piece of knitting—a few inches of ribbing topped by a few rows of stockinette stich, in a natural brown shade.

  “The beginnings of a sleeve.” Gwen manipulated the piece of knitting so it lay on her arm with the ribbing at her wrist. “I didn’t finish in time, so I had to give him the sweater with no sleeves. He’s been wearing it anyway.”

  Pamela’s eyes met Bettina’s across the room, and Bettina winked. So, the missing sweater sleeves had an explanation much more benign than her theory that they’d been unraveled to serve as a murder weapon!

  “Now, Pamela”—Holly swiveled toward where Pamela was sitting on the little wooden chair—“how did you figure out that Martha had a motive that tied her to the murders?”

  “She called me,” Nell said from her end of the sofa.

  “I remembered something Harold had mentioned.” Pamela amplified Nell’s statement. “Mary had once told him and Nell about the whirlwind romance that led to her marrying her sister’s boyfriend.” Then she went on, “But the real breakthrough came from an article I was copyediting for Fiber Craft—all about the Fates, in Greek mythology. One of them spins the thread of life with a spindle and one of them decides how long the thread will be and one of them cuts it off with shears.” Pamela held both knitting needles with one hand while she made a snipping motion with two fingers of the other. “Martha was doing a research project on the Fates, and I remembered that there was a person at the bonfire dressed as a Greek goddess, and Martha wore a little spindle charm around her neck.”

  “Though she should have worn the shears,” Bettina interjected.

  Pamela continued. “The bonfire was the night the first murder took place. Martha thought the person in the Bo Peep outfit was Mary.”

  Despite all the talking, people had been knitting too, and not only Roland and Gwen. Nell was partway through a festive bright green stocking for the children at the women’s shelter. Pamela had at least cast on for the cornflower-blue sleeve. Bettina had gotten Felicity launched on the project she’d inquired about that day at Hyler’s, the boxy waist-length sweater, and then she had resumed work on the Nordic-style sweater for Wilfred. Karen was busy with the baby blanket for her friend. Holly had embarked on a sweater for Desmond for Christmas, in navy-blue merino wool.

  Silence fell over the little group as industry replaced conversation and the projects on their busy needles grew, row by row. After a time, Roland paused, surveyed his progress, and nudged back his faultlessly starched shirt cuff to reveal the face of his impressive watch.

  “Eight o’clock,” he announced.

  Gwen and Felicity looked startled as Pamela and Bettina jumped up and scurried for the kitchen—until Nell explained that Roland announcing break time was a long-standing Knit and Nibble ritual.

  In the kitchen, Pamela lit the flame under the kettle as Bettina poured heavy cream into the cut-glass cream pitcher and carried it, with the matching sugar bowl, to the dining room. When she returned to the kitchen, Pamela’s mixer was whirring and beaters were clattering against the side of a small bowl. She had poured the rest of the cream into the bowl, added a few spoons of sugar, and was coaxing the mixture into a sweet and fluffy cloud. The trifle sat on the kitchen table next to her, waiting for its final touch.

  The whirr of the mixer and the clatter of beaters were joined by the whistling of the kettle. For a few minutes, the small kitchen bustled with activity as Bettina prepared the coffee and set more water boiling for the tea, while Pamela spooned whipped cream over the many-layered trifle and transferred the empty bowl and the beaters to the sink.

  “I’ll serve the coffee and tea,” Bettina said. “You go ahead, with your trifle.” She made a shooing motion toward the door that led to the dining room.

  “Ohhh, look at this!” Holly was the first to comment as she led the way through the arch that separated Pamela’s living room from her dining room.

  An antique crystal chandelier, left behind by the previous occupants of the house, hung over Pamela’s dining room table. Its soft light was the perfect illumination for the rose-garlanded wedding china and the apple trifle in its splendid cut-glass bowl, all prettily arranged on the lace tablecloth.

  Pamela stood near the trifle, silver spoon in hand, and scooped generous servings—ladyfingers, apple, and custard in alternating layers, and topped with a fluff of white—into the bowls she’d set out. Bettina stood nearby, dispensing coffee from the carafe as the tea continued to steep.

  “Let’s eat in here,” Bettina suggested. “Eight people are a lot to crowd around the coffee table.”

  The dining room chairs were retrieved from the living room and the kitchen chairs borrowed from the kitchen. Soon eight people had distributed themselves around Pamela’s dining room table, Pamela at the head and Bettina at the foot. The light from the chandelier softened Nell’s age and lent a kind of glamour to the younger women. And once the Knit and Nibblers had tasted the trifle, pleasure caused their eyes to close and their lips to curve up as satisfied hums rose all around the table. Even Roland seemed transported, his intense expression mellowing as, spoon by spoon, he emptied his bowl.

  Pamela herself was very pleased with her creation. The assertive flavor and texture of the Rhode Island Greenings had stood up to the stewing process, the ladyfingers had absorbed the apples’ moisture without becoming soggy, the custard lent richness and the whipped cream a smooth sweetness. But she hastened to respond to the group’s praise by pointing out that the apples had come from Bettina and Wilfred.

  As people leaned back then, with bowls empty but coffee and tea
still to be finished, conversation turned once again to Halloween night and the harrowing few weeks that had followed.

  “But I do love this little town,” Holly said, “though when Desmond and I moved here and I joined Knit and Nibble, I never suspected that I’d be rubbing shoulders with an ace detective like Pamela Paterson.”

  Pamela looked down at her empty bowl. Bettina had helped, and Nell too.

  “I certainly hope Arborville doesn’t have any more murders,” Holly went on, “but if it should . . . detecting seems so adventurous. And I could help with disguises. I know a lot about hair, and wigs, and makeup . . .”

  “Oh no you don’t!” Nell turned to Holly, who sat next to her. “Pamela sets a very bad example.”

  Nell’s vehemence was startling. China clunked against china as cups reconnected with saucers. Eyes widened in surprise.

  “I’ve never condoned lay persons meddling in police business,” Nell said primly. “Never.”

  “But Nell—” Bettina’s smile was that of a person who has a rebuttal clearly at hand.

  “But Nell—” At the other end of the table, Pamela mirrored the smile.

  “Never,” Nell repeated. She twisted her head in Bettina’s direction, then in Pamela’s, and the sound that escaped her lips sounded like shhh.

  KNIT

  Trick-or-Treat Tote

  If you want your tote to resemble a pumpkin—like the one I show on my website—choose orange yarn, and you will also need a bit of black felt. Small squares of felt are available at most hobby and craft stores. If you want to line the tote, you will need a piece of fabric measuring about 14” by 24”. Cotton, wool, or flannel is best.

  Use yarn identified on the label as “Medium” and/or #4, and use size 8 needles—though size 7 or 9 is fine if that’s what you have. For the yarn, a skein of 256 yards is more than enough. The tote takes about 200 yards.

  If you’re not already a knitter, watching a video is a great way to master the basics of knitting. Just search the Internet for “how to knit” and you’ll have your choice of tutorials that show the process clearly. This project can be made using the most basic knitting stitch, the garter stitch. For this stitch, you knit every row, not worrying about purl. But the tote looks pretty worked in the stockinette stitch, the stitch you see, for example, in a typical sweater. To create the stockinette stitch, you knit one row, then purl going back in the other direction, then knit, then purl, knit, purl, back and forth. Again, it’s easier to understand purl by viewing a video, but essentially when you purl, you’re creating the backside of knit. To knit, you insert the right-hand needle front to back through the loop of yarn on the left-hand needle. To purl, you insert the needle back to front.

  Cast on 40 stitches, using either the simple slipknot process or the “long tail” process. Casting on is often included in Internet “how to knit” tutorials, or you can search specifically for “casting on.”

  After you’ve cast on, knit 9 inches, then start rounding off the bottom of your tote. You do this by decreasing one stitch at the beginning and end of each row. To decrease, instead of sticking your right-hand needle through one of the stitches looped around the left-hand needle, stick it through two. Then knit the stitch as usual. Each row will thus be shorter than the previous row by two stitches. When you get to the stage where there are 18 stitches remaining on your needle, cast off. Casting off is often included in Internet “how to knit” tutorials, or you can search specifically for “casting off.”

  You have now finished the front (or back) of your bag. Repeat the process to make the back (or front).

  For the strap, cast on 12 stitches, knit 26”, and cast off. Sew the long sides together. If you don’t want to knit the strap for the tote, you can use a length of canvas strapping or sew a strap from fabric.

  Give the tote its pumpkin face before sewing the front and back together. For the pumpkin face, cut a mouth—grinning or frowning—and three triangles for nose and eyes out of black felt. (You can download a PDF with the pattern I invented for the face of my tote from my website.) Position the features on the tote front and pin them into place. Sew them on using black thread, a regular sewing needle, and a whip stitch or applique stitch.

  Note: If you used the stockinette stitch, you will find that the edges of your knitted pieces tend to curl up. Once you’ve sewn the front to the back, the curling will disappear. You can pin the front to the back to stabilize things while you lay out and pin the face. Unpin the front from the back to do the sewing.

  To assemble the tote, place the front and back together with the right sides facing each other. Use a few strategic pins to hold them into place and tame the curling. With a yarn needle—a large needle with a large eye and a blunt end—and more of your yarn, stitch all around except for the top. To make a neat seam, use a whip stitch and catch only the outer loops along each side. If you use all the yarn on your needle, just pass the needle through a loop of yarn to make a knot, rethread the needle, and keep going. When you’ve sewn all the way around, make another knot and work the needle in and out of the seam for an inch or so to hide the tail. Cut off what’s left.

  Lining the tote is optional, but the tote looks nicer and is sturdier with lining. And you can choose a color and/or pattern for the lining that contrasts with the knitted parts of the tote in a fun way. To line the tote, first fold your lining fabric so the right sides are together—if it has a right side—and you have a double piece that’s a little wider than your tote. (I used checked gingham, which is the same on both sides.) Leaving the sewn-up tote inside out, lay it on the folded fabric, and trace around it, using a ruler to draw a pencil line half an inch outside the tote’s edges. Cut along the pencil line. Stitch around the sides and bottom of the lining, ½ inch in from the cut edge, leaving the top open. You can stitch by hand or by machine.

  Turn the tote right side out and sew on the strap. If you are using a knitted strap, smooth it out so the seam runs down one side. Sew one end of the strap to each side of the tote, lining up the side seam of the tote with the middle of the strap end.

  If you are lining the tote, slip the lining inside the tote, leaving the lining’s right sides facing each other, so when you look inside the lined tote you see the right sides. Turn back the extra ½ inch of fabric at the lining’s top and pin the lining to the tote all the way around the tote’s open top. Using a whip stitch, stitch it to the tote using a regular needle and sewing thread that matches the lining.

  For a picture of a finished Trick-or-Treat Tote, as well as some in-progress photos and a PDF pattern for the pumpkin face, visit the Knit & Nibble Mysteries page at PeggyEhrhart.com. Click on the cover for Knit of the Living Dead and scroll down on the page that opens.

  NIBBLE

  Pumpkin-Spice Crumb Cake

  Pamela and Bettina love the Co-Op’s crumb cake all year round, but in the fall, the Co-Op bakery makes a special version: pumpkin-spice crumb cake. In case you don’t have a grocery like the Co-Op near you, here’s a recipe to make pumpkin-spice crumb cake.

  You can buy pumpkin spice (often sold as “pumpkin pie spice”), or you can make your own by mixing 4 tsp. ground cinnamon, 2 tsp. ground ginger, 1 tsp. ground cloves or allspice, and ½ tsp. ground nutmeg. You will end up with quite a bit more than you need for this recipe, but you can store the extra in a small jar and use it to flavor pumpkin pie or many more batches of this crumb cake.

  Ingredients for crumb cake:

  2 cups sifted flour

  1 cup sugar

  2 tsp. baking powder

  ¼ tsp. salt

  ½ cup butter (= one stick, and put it out to soften in advance)

  2 eggs, separated into medium-size bowls (yolks in one, whites in the other)

  ½ cup milk

  1 tsp. pumpkin spice, or 1½ tsp. if you want more intense flavor

  Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives, or squish it in with your fingers, until
the mixture resembles coarse sand. Set aside ½ cup of this crumb mixture for the topping.

  Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks and set them aside. Beat the egg yolks until they are lemon-colored and blend the milk with them.

  Add the yolks and milk to the crumb mixture in the large bowl. Stir to moisten. Fold in the beaten egg whites. The batter may seem stiff and lumpy, but that’s okay.

  Turn the batter into a greased or buttered square pan, 9” x 9” x 2”.

  Blend the pumpkin spice into the ½ cup of the crumb mixture you set aside and use a small spoon to sprinkle the mixture evenly over the top of the batter. Pat down the crumb mixture with the back of the spoon.

  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. Check for doneness by sticking a wooden toothpick into the middle of the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done.

  Let the crumb cake cool before cutting and serving. To serve, leave it in the baking pan, cut it into quarters, and lift out the quarters with a wide, flat spatula or a pancake turner. This recipe makes 8 not-too-big, not-too-small servings, but it’s easier to lift out quarters and then cut them into serving sizes.

  Note: Crumb topping is often also called streusel.

  For pictures of Pumpkin-Spice Crumb Cake, visit the Knit & Nibble Mysteries page at PeggyEhrhart.com. Click on the cover for Knit of the Living Dead and scroll down on the page that opens.

  BONUS NIBBLE

  Roland’s Easy Candy-Corn Halloween Cookies

  For Roland’s cookies, start with a package of Pillsbury’s “Place & Bake” Chocolate Fudge Brownies. You will find them in the refrigerator section of your supermarket. You will also need a package of candy corn—three or more corns for each cookie.

  The “Place & Bake” Brownies are rounds of prepared brownie dough intended to be baked in cupcake tins. But they make great cookies. Here’s what to do: