A Fatal Yarn

by Peggy Ehrhart

  “Thank you so much, Nell,” she said, “for letting us contribute tonight’s nibble.”

  She advanced to Nell’s coffee table and folded the top and sides of the box back to reveal a cake, nearly as tall as it was wide, iced in satiny pink fondant and decorated with a cascade of fondant posies. The words “Thank You Knit & Nibble” were inscribed across the top in a shade of green that matched the posies’ foliage.

  “It’s from the bakery in Timberley,” Melanie added. “They do such charming work.” She leaned toward the loveseat, grasped Pamela’s hand, and said, “Thank you so much!” Her voice thinned, as if she was fighting tears, but she carried on, grasping Bettina’s hand and repeating her thanks.

  Then she straightened up and looked around. “And all of you, for the food, and the phone calls, and just . . . just . . . knowing . . . that Roland was innocent.” With a mighty sniffle, she stopped, blinking furiously. Roland pulled a faultlessly laundered handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to his wife.

  “Melanie has spoken for me,” he said, his lean face serious. “You”—he surveyed the group, his gaze lingering when it reached Pamela—“didn’t have to do anything. But you did.” He looked around again. “All of you.”

  “We are all each other’s responsibility,” Nell said, “and this cake looks very sugary!” She suppressed a smile when she caught sight of Harold shaking a finger in a way that mocked her tendency to scold. “But we do have something to celebrate tonight, and a little sugar won’t be amiss—though, Pamela—and Bettina—you know I disapprove of these dangerous things you get up to.”

  Melanie took her leave then, after repeating her thanks. Harold retreated, bearing the cake off to the kitchen. Nell took a seat on the long sofa that faced the fireplace and motioned Roland to join her.

  As people dipped into their knitting bags for yarn, needles, and works in progress, Pamela retrieved the two completed infant caps from her own bag. She rose from the loveseat and edged past the coffee table to deliver them to Nell.

  “More to come,” she promised, as Nell fingered the two little pale peach offerings.

  Next to Nell, Roland had begun to extract his work in progress from the large shopping bag that had taken the place of his usual briefcase. Cries of amazement from Holly and Karen greeted it as it emerged—a seemingly endless swath of angora the color of pistachio ice cream.

  “Have you joined the Yarnvaders?” Holly inquired. The entire work in progress now occupied the sofa cushion between Nell and Roland in a giant fuzzy heap. One end of it still hung from a knitting needle and was tethered to a partial skein of angora yarn. “That looks like it could dress one of those . . . one of those . . .”

  “Baobab trees,” Nell supplied. “The nature channel had a program on them the other night. Their trunks are so big someone built a pub inside one.”

  “If he was in the Yarnvaders, he wouldn’t be able to tell us,” Bettina said. “The members are sworn to secrecy. There have to be at least a few Yarnvaders around here though. Pamela and I talked to one person who’s been involved in knitting those tree-sweaters—though she didn’t come right out and say she was a Yarnvader. But it seems that someone else, or lots of someones, must come around at night to put them on.”

  Karen looked up from her knitting. “Lots of people must be knitting the tree-sweaters too. They’re everywhere.”

  Roland looked up too, though he wasn’t knitting. He’d just been staring at the fuzzy results of his industry. “Did they actually do any good?” he asked, his forehead creasing. “Save any trees?”

  “They might have,” Bettina said. “A senior member of the town council called the Advocate today. The council is going to consider a resolution that would let property owners hire tree surgeons to trim branches away from the power wires and deduct part of the cost from their property taxes.”

  Roland, surprisingly, had no response.

  Pamela returned to her place on the loveseat. She took up the partial skein of soft white yarn she’d brought and began to cast on for another infant cap. Next to her Bettina was studying the instructions for the sleeve of the Nordic-style sweater. Across the coffee table, Holly was casting off on a vibrant green rectangle for her color-block afghan. Karen was at work on a tiny pink sleeve in a lacy pattern.

  Nell’s voice broke the silence. “This yarn would make a lot of infant caps,” she said, fingering a bit of the pistachio angora that had encroached onto her lap.

  Roland looked startled, as if he’d been summoned back from somewhere far away. “I . . . I’m not sure . . . do you think . . . ?”

  Pamela fielded more questions. Yes, the police had responded quickly to her 911 call. No, Marjorie hadn’t put up a struggle. She had in fact been quite docile as she was carried off, despite her menacing behavior with the griddle. Pamela hadn’t gone around to Cassie’s house knowing exactly that she was about to solve Diefenbach’s murder. But sitting in her own kitchen after Bettina left, she had gradually become sure that Marjorie was behind Cassie’s death by poisoning.

  “But why didn’t Marjorie just dispose of those jars of jam?” Holly asked. “Since she was responsible for them and knew what was in them?” The article in the Register had gone into quite a bit of detail about the reason Pamela showed up at Cassie’s house.

  “Good question,” Roland murmured. He was no longer contemplating the fuzzy heap but had switched his attention to Nell’s busy fingers as she shaped an infant cap, baby blue this time.

  “Haven, I suppose,” Pamela said. “Better to let Haven assume she just wanted to put the jam aside so she could eat it herself than to raise suspicion by making a big deal about having to get rid of it.”

  Roland spoke again, but not to follow up on the topic of the jam. He addressed only Nell, and his voice was quiet, confiding almost. “I’m not sure I could make one,” he said, his eyes on the bit of cap taking shape on Nell’s needles. “There’s no pattern? You just do it out of your head?”

  “It’s not very hard.” Nell turned toward Roland with a kindly smile. “It starts with ribbing, and you know how to do that. Then it’s just plain knitting for a while.” She pulled one of Pamela’s caps from her knitting bag and handed it to Roland. “It only gets tricky when you get near the end.” She pointed to the top of the cap, where strategic decreasing shaped the round. “And I can show you how to do that when the time comes.”

  Roland nodded and slipped the giant swath of knitting off the needle from which it hung. “I won’t unravel the whole thing now,” he said. “I’ll just—”

  Nell handed him scissors and he snipped the strand that bound it to the skein of pistachio angora. In a few minutes he was casting on a new project as Nell bent toward him, quietly counting one, two, three . . .

  He applied himself industriously to his new project, silent as conversation surged around him. But suddenly he stopped, as if responding to some inner signal. He rested his knitting on the arm of the sofa, and pushed back his faultlessly starched shirt cuff to reveal his impressive watch.

  “It’s eight p.m.,” he announced. “Time for our break.”

  Pamela suppressed a smile as Holly applauded.

  * * *

  In the kitchen, as the pleasant gurgle of her percolator signaled that coffee was in progress and as steam rose from the spout of her tea kettle, Nell sliced the pink fondant cake from the Timberley bakery. Everyone got an extra-large piece.

  KNIT

  Cozy Pillow

  This project is a knitted cover for a throw pillow. For added visual interest and to make it easy to put on and take off, it has a flap that folds over and buttons. Ready-made pillow forms in various sizes can be found at most hobby shops or ordered online. These directions will make a cover for a pillow that is 18” square. Use yarn identified on the label as “Bulky” and/or #5, and use #10 needles.

  If you’ve never knitted anything at all, it’s easier to learn the basics by watching than by reading. The internet abounds with tutorials that
show the process clearly, including casting on and off. Just search on “How to knit.” You need only learn the basic knitting stitch. Don’t worry about “purl.” That’s used in alternating rows to create the stockinette stitch, the stitch you see, for example, in a typical sweater. If you use “knit” on every row, you will end up with the stitch called the garter stitch. That’s a fine stitch for this project. The project requires about 330 yards of yarn, three typical-sized skeins—but check the label to make sure of the yardage in the skeins of yarn you plan to use. You might need more skeins, or fewer.

  The project requires a lot of unrelieved knitting, so it’s fun to choose an ombre yarn with colors that change every few feet. You’ll enjoy seeing the patterns that form naturally as you knit, and you’ll end up with a very colorful pillow cover.

  Cast on 40 stitches, using the simple slip-knot cast-on process or the more complicated “long tail” process. Now knit until your piece of knitting is 36” long. After about 15” you will need to start a new skein of yarn, and again when you reach 30”or so. Just tie the beginning of the new skein to the end of the old one, leaving tails of about two inches. The tails will be hidden on the inside of your pillow cover when you join the sides—just make sure that when you join your third skein the tails are on the same side as when you joined your second skein.

  If you’re using ombre yarn, you might want to pull yarn from the new skein until you get to a color that matches where you left off on the old skein—that way the patterns forming as you progress through the changing colors will remain symmetrical. Just cut off the extra yarn from the beginning of the new skein and set it aside.

  At the 36” mark, it’s time to start forming your flap. 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 and you will gradually create something that looks like an envelope flap.

  When you get to the stage where there are 12 stitches remaining on your needle, it’s time to form your buttonhole. This buttonhole will fit a button that’s 1¼" across or slightly larger. Start the row by decreasing one stitch as you did for the other rows. Then knit 3 stitches. Cast off two stitches and continue knitting, decreasing one stitch at the end of the row. You will now have eight stitches on your needle with a 2-stitch gap in the middle. For the next row, decrease one stitch at the beginning, knit two stitches, cast on two stitches, and continue knitting, decreasing one stitch at the end of the row. You will now have eight stitches on your needle again, but with no gap.

  Continue knitting as you were doing before you made the buttonhole, decreasing a stitch at the beginning and end of each row. After three more rows, you will have only two stitches left. Knit them together, cut your yarn off leaving a tail of a few inches, slip the last stitch off the needle, feed the tail through it, and pull tight.

  Fold the bottom of your piece of knitting up so you have a pocket 12” deep. Make sure the tails left from when you added new skeins are on the inside. Thread a yarn needle—a large needle with a large eye and a blunt end—with leftover yarn and sew up the sides, using an overcast stitch and trying to catch only the outer loops. Start at the bottom corners and leave tails of several inches when you reach the top of the folded section.

  Now fold the top of your piece of knitting—the part with the flap—down, so that the edges right before where the flap starts meet the top edges of the pocket you sewed. The triangular flap should be lying over part of the pocket, and the pillow cover should be about 36” square. Rethread the yarn needle with the long tails you left and continue sewing up the sides. When you reach the top corners, loop the remaining tail to make a tight knot.

  To hide the tails left from casting on and from sewing up the sides, use the yarn needle to feed them inside the pillow cover, then cut them to a few inches. Hide the tail left at the tip of the flap by threading the yarn needle with it and stitching in and out along the edge of the flap in an inconspicuous way for about an inch. Cut off the remains of the tail.

  Lay the pillow cover flat and smooth the flap so it lies flat. Position your button under the buttonhole. If your button has big enough holes, use the yarn needle to fasten it to the pillow with yarn. If the holes are too small, use a regular needle and sewing thread.

  For a picture of a finished Cozy Pillow, visit the Knit & Nibble Mysteries page at PeggyEhrhart.com. Click on the cover for A Fatal Yarn and then scroll down on the page that opens.

  NIBBLE

  Lemon Yogurt Easter Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

  Since Easter comes in the spring, sometimes quite early, local seasonal fruit is usually not available. Now we can buy almost any fruit at almost any time, thanks to efficient transport systems. But in earlier times, people based their cooking on what was close at hand. For this reason, traditional Easter desserts don’t usually rely on fresh fruit. Often instead they are based on cheese.

  In acknowledgment of that culinary tradition, this recipe for an Easter dessert uses yogurt and cream cheese, with lemon as flavoring. The cake will not be light and airy. Instead the texture will be rather like pound cake.

  Ingredients for the cake:

  2 cups flour

  1 cup sugar

  ¾ tsp. salt

  ¾ tsp. baking soda

  Scant ½ tsp. baking powder

  2 eggs

  1⅓ cup plain yogurt

  7 tbsp. melted butter

  Juice and minced or grated rind of ½ lemon (about 2 tbsp. juice)

  If you find grating lemon rind tedious—not to mention that most of it ends up stuck in those little holes in the grater—you can use a potato peeler to carve strips of the yellow part of the rind away from the bitter white part and then use a chef’s knife to mince the strips very finely.

  Ingredients for the icing:

  6 oz. cream cheese

  1 cup butter, softened

  2½ cups powdered sugar

  Set the butter and cream cheese out a few

  hours ahead of time to soften.

  To make the cake:

  Sift the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Mix in the sugar using a large spoon. Crack the eggs into a smaller bowl and beat them lightly with a fork or whisk. Add the yogurt, lemon juice, and minced or grated lemon rind to the smaller bowl and use the fork or whisk to blend them thoroughly with the egg. Add the moist ingredients to the dry ingredients and blend them together with the big spoon. Blend in the melted butter.

  Divide the batter between two greased and floured 9” cake pans and bake at 325 degrees for about 35 minutes. Test for doneness with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out clean, remove the cake pans from the oven and let them cool.

  To make the icing:

  Using a mixer, cream the cream cheese and butter until soft and blended. Add the sugar and continue to cream until fluffy.

  Remove the cake layers from their pans. Place one on your serving plate and spread about one-quarter of the icing on it. Top with the other layer and ice the top and sides of the assembled cake with the remaining icing.

  For a picture of Lemon-Yogurt Easter Cake with Cream Cheese Icing, visit the Knit & Nibble Mysteries page at PeggyEhrhart.com. Click on the cover for A Fatal Yarn and then scroll down on the page that opens.