Customer Profile: Irene Erker (Ravelry name: Knitting4Sweetie)

This month my eyes are on Irene who is a fantastic and talented lady I have gotten to know through open knit times here at Knitted Together.

Irene is a first generation American who learned to crochet from her Yugoslavian grandmother.  Thirty years later, Irene's mother taught her to knit with just a minor drawback - all the knitting terms Irene learned were in Hungarian because her mother didn't know the English terminology!  When Irene returned to Iowa she walked into Knitted Together, put her hand out to Nancy and said, "Hi, I'm Irene and I'm new to knitting."  Irene said that Nancy was so kind and helpful that first day that she was truly bitten by the knitting bug and hasn't put her needles down since.  Irene knits with the "Friday Afternoon Sparklers" - a wonderful group of gals who meet at open knit time at KT.  Irene is currently working on Embossed Leaves by Teva Durham and is using Artyarns Silk Rhapsody.  Check out more of her projects on Ravelry.

She is married to a wonderful man who loves it when she knits (he says it keeps her yelling to a minimum) and they have three children who also reap the benefits from more knitting and less yelling.  While living in San Diego, Irene was a formulation/method development chemist for a pharmaceutical company.  She has since replaced her lab career with cooking (Irene indicates she loves to cook, cook, cook!) and would like to share one of her favorite recipes with her KT friends.

Cherry Scones

•  2 cups flour 
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder 
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• 1/3 cup chilled butter (cut into pieces) 
• 1 egg 
• 2/3 cup whipping cream (can sub low-fat milk) 
• 1 cup dried cherries (add chocolate chips, if desired) 
• 1 tsp almond or vanilla extract 
• egg wash (1 egg, 1 tsp water)

Preheat over to 375 degrees.  Combine dry ingredients in food processor.  Pulse.  Add butter pieces.  Pulse.  Add wet ingredients.  Pulse until dough is formed.  Spoon-drop dough onto greased baking sheet.  Brush top with egg wash.  Bake 15-18 minutes.  ENJOY!!

If you or someone you know would like to be in the Customer Profile, please contact Renee at Knitted Together (515-222-9276), by email:  reneepetrie@live.com or send me a pm on Ravelry (BobIsMyCat).  I would love to hear from you!  This could be one of those cases where it's better to volunteer before I volunteer you :)  Mwahahahahahahaha!!!!

Happy Knitting!
Renee