Where to Eat in Salem: Passage to India

Part of our new Visiting the Witch City series, in our Where to Eat in Salem posts, I will be sharing some of our favorite restaurants, and visiting new ones to tell you all about it!

This week, Cathy and I visited one of my longtime favorite restaurants in Salem, Passage to India. Affectionally called “Passage,” this family-owned authentic Indian restaurant is right in the heart of downtown - in fact they’re right across the street from our friends at Hauswitch on Washington Street! Downtown Salem is very pedestrian-friendly, so it’s super easy to get to this restaurant

The menu has something for everyone. There are extensive vegetarian and gluten-free options, and they’re all delicious! There are also several vegan options.

We started with paneer pakora, which I always order when I visit Indian restaurants - so far, Passage has my favorite. They are made with stuffed homemade cottage cheese slices, and fried in chickpea batter.

For the main course, we shared chicken tikka masala (always a favorite), and matter paneer. Matter paneer is a classic northern Indian dish made with homemade cottage cheese pieces cooked with peas and spices. Note: when I say spices, I mean flavor not pepper! This is not a spicy “hot” dish.

Cathy wearing her From the Embers shawl!

Delicious!

Passage has been a favorite of mine for over a decade, I highly recommend adding this restaurant to your itinerary when you visit Salem!

Bonus: there is booth seating available, which makes this restaurant super knitter-friendly! Just tuck your project bag next to you in the booth.

Shawls for Grandma Tina

A couple of months ago, I briefly put up a request on Instagram: handmade shawls for my grandma.

The adorable sweet lady in these photos is my grandmother, grandma Tina. She’s 93 years old and lives in Brazil, my home country.

My gran is a super talented seamstress, knitter, and crocheter (among many other skills), and over the decades, she created beautiful heirlooms for the entire family. In the last few years she’s had to stop crafting because of arthritis in her hands and declining eyesight. A couple of years ago, I decided it was her turn to be on the receiving end, and started knitting shawls for her. She’s been so appreciative! I truly believe that only another knitter or crocheter can truly appreciate the effort that goes into a piece,

This amazing lady has had a very difficult couple of years. We lost my father in 2020, and my gran lost her youngest son, which has been incredibly heartbreaking for her. I wanted to shower her with love, so I put out a call: who wanted to knit a shawl for me to bring home to my gran?

After an 11-month delay in my promise to go back and visit her ASAP, I finally made it back in late November, with 10 handknit shawls for my gran. My endless gratitude to those of you who helped me bring her so many smiles. She even wrote a thank you note, which you can hear about in our latest podcast episode!

Rebel knit by Erin Pararas

Be Simple Variations knit by Alex Wechsler

The Age of Brass and Steam knit by Michelle Yanofsky

Reverb Shawl knit by Sarah Boci

The Girl from the Grocery Store by Kat @kefknits

Hitchhiker knit by Sarah Boci

? knit by Lisa Hutchinson

Free Your Fade knit by Tessa Belkin

A Girl's Best Friend knit by Aimee Gilles of La Bien Aimee

Close to You knit by Jennifer Goldenberg

Light and Shadow KAL: Make a Nevasca Shawl!

We are kicking off our next Knit-Along on Thursday, November 4th! If you want to cast on live with us, we’ll be casting on at our Virtual Stitch Night!

Join us and come make your new favorite shawl! Nevasca is super cozy and perfect for wearing over a tshirt in the fall, and for layering up in the winter. It’s also a fun, intuitive knit that you won’t want to put down.

We are officially kicking off on November 4th! Ana will be casting on with Nightshades at our Virtual Stitch Night. The KAL will run until December 15th! If you would like to knit live with us, you can join us every Thursday night at Virtual Stitch night, we will be working on our shawls!

What do you need?

A copy of the Nevasca shawl pattern, and 3 skeins of either Harrisville Daylights or Nightshades!

Why are we calling it the Light and Shadow KAL?

Nevasca was designed to be knit in Harrisville Daylights or Nightshades. Harrisville yarns are spun in an old, family-owned and operated mill right here in New England. Nick, the current Colony family member operating the mill, personally developed both of these beautiful yarn lines.

Nightshades comes in twelve delicate shades of black, and Daylights comes in six delicate shades of ecru. These gorgeous neutral palettes were created for every mood and marbled with just a dusting of color.

Prize:

Our KAL winner will get 3 skeins of Harrisville Daylights or Nightshades! If you make your shawl in Daylights, you will will 3 skeins of Nightshades so you can make the “shadow” to your “light” and vice-versa!

For a chance to win, start your project on or after November 4th and finish by December 15th!

Want extra chances to win? For an extra entry, share your project on Instagram and tag it with #NevascaShawl and #lightandshadowKAL

Snapshots from Rhinebeck!

Rachel Price of Spincycle Yarns

Lindsay Vega, Five Boroughs Yarn

Jocelyn Tunney of O-Wool

Cecilia Nelson-Hurt and Louis Boria, fellow Latine members of Vogue Knitting’s DAC

Aimee Gilles of La Bien Aimee

Annmarie from Harrisville Designs in her new Nevasca Shawl!

Sheep!

Melanie, Ana, and Annie!

Toe-Up Socks!

My finished pair of toe-up socks, not blocked and ends not woven in yet…

I am new to knitting socks. I only started knitting them this past January. So back in February, Ana offered a Crash Course on Toe-Up Socks through Vogue Knitting Live. I decided to take it, and I have fallen in love with knitting toe-up socks. Since taking her class, I decided to knit a pair using Crazy Zauberball in Indisch Rosa.

The pattern I used to knit my socks was provided by Ana with the class she taught. I thought this would work perfectly with my self striping yarn. I’ll let you all be the judge of that! The one thing I really contemplated was how close I wanted the pair to match. With luck, they turned out pretty close. It wouldn’t be a hand knit by me without a mistake! I noticed that I was short a stitch when I got to the ribbing of my second sock. To fix it, I just added an increase in that round to even it out so the ribbing would work out. I had knit the second sock in a day, and didn’t have the heart to rip it out and restart it. In all, this pair of socks took me about 4 days to knit.

The start of my toe up socks after I just finished the toe shaping.

The other slight issue with my socks is that there’s a hole right where the heel meets the rest of the sock. When I weave in my ends, I’ll take some of the scrap yarn and fill in the hole.

The main benefit of knitting toe-up: as soon as the heel is finished, the sock can end whenever you like! I have found that 6 inches after the heel is the perfect height for me. I personally prefer magic loop over double pointed needles for socks, but toe-up can accommodate both methods!

Want to learn how to knit socks? Join Ana’s Toe Up workshop next month!

The second sock after I had finished the short row heel.

My practice sock from Ana’s Vogue Knitting Live Toe Up Course back in February.