Addicted to fiber

Back to food and wellness

2012-01-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

Here's a local website that delivers fresh, local, organic produce to your door! It's not produce from one farm like a CSA, it's a group of farmers with varied meats and produce. I just found out about it!
Organicfood2you it's more expensive that Weaver Street (and that's saying something) but if you go together with other people you can receive a 5% discount on your order. How cool is that?

This week I found out I'm behind the pop culture times again. I thinks it's because I never really watched Oprah. Kris Carr was diagnosed with a rare and incurable stage 4 cancer in 2003. She went on a "deep healing pilgrimage" and is still here talking about it! A lot of what she's talks about food and health wise are things I already know and practice. I'm not sure I'll ever be into enemas (flashbacks to surgery when I was five!), but I'm all about detoxing and green foods, so you never know!

I was doing pretty well exercising before the back injury/tooth removal/severe cold/burn and then with the holidays I got back into baking. I had a three week affair perfecting a chocolate scone recipe. It's top-notch, but I didn't need all those scones. Last week I HAD to make a Ukrainian poppyseed cake and then regretted we ate it in two days (mostly me, I admit it).

Richard and I have given up alcohol (before the holidays) and I'm happy to report I'm sleeping better. Well, I would be but for Steve's small bladder. I'm back to bursting (45 second bursts of running with one minute fast walking recovery for 17 minutes) and it feels good!

Today I woke up with a severe headache from dehydration. I realized yesterday my total fluid intake was a pot of English Breakfast Tea (I shared) and a glass of water at lunch. Duh. In order to cure what ailed me today, which includes mental/emotional angst as well, I drank lots of hot water with lemon, practiced meditating and yoga which I haven't done seriously for years. Boy have I lost flexibility! I still had the headache for most of the day and was mighty blue for most of it, but I think I'm back on the upswing.

I'm thinking bursting three days a week and yoga the other three and I'll be well rounded. Meditating is something I should go back to doing whenever I can. My mind needs practice being still.

And just because Steve is my BFF these days. Here's a little video of him, he's figured out how to use a pull-string on a cat toy. Tiger-Cato and Button never liked it,but Steve thinks it's the bomb!

Making mozzarella...yum!

2012-01-04T11:41:00.000-08:00

This past Christmas I asked for cheesemaking kits from The Cheese Queen. Everyone that I've told that to looks at me oddly. Do you think that means cheesemaking isn't at the top of everyone's list?

So far I've made ricotta and mozzarella to put in my favorite spinach calzones. The hardest part about cheesemaking for me is throwing away the whey. A gallon of milk yields about three-quarters to one pound of cheese and almost seven pounds of whey. There are recipes for making pizza dough out of whey (which I did for the calzones) and last night I boiled my manicotti in it and is worked fine.

Here's what mozzarella looks like after the rennet is added and it sets.

After you slice it in the pot and stir the curds around for a while you lift them out with a slotted spoon and have a lovely, silky, puffy pile of curds.

Then you dip the curds in very hot water and stretch them like taffy. After a bit you have a luscious hunk of mozzarella! How amazing is that?!

This is the leftover whey.

See what I mean? That's a lot! I'd save it, but that would take half gallon canning jars and more storage space than I will ever possibly have in my lifetime.

Because I'm playing with cultures again, I remembered all my kombucha and kefir making from last year. I didn't save my kefir grains, so I ordered some more and they arrived yesterday. My kombucha mothers have been living in the back of the refrigerator in a tightly sealed Mason jar. When I took them out they looked and smelled the same so I made two batches of tea and their brewing their little mothers out!

Today I'm dyeing twenty more skeins of yarn for Cozy! I can't wait to see the "re-do" of the place. Deb and Emily are working hard to everything ready for re-opening on Friday. I'm very thankful they're letting me have more space for yarn. It should keep me busy for a while!

There's an Eowyn sized hole in my house

2011-12-30T06:39:00.000-08:00

and heart. I've stuffed it with Steve.

Isn't he adorable?! His dad is Australian Shepherd and his mother is a walking hound. He could herd cows or hunt deer - a multi-purpose dog if you will. My hope is that the brains of his dad will outweigh the calling of his nose when needed.

He's pretty darn smart. He knows "sit" and is working on "shake", "down", and he understands "no" but isn't wedded to the idea. We're working on it. They say the hardest part of leash training is keeping a hound's nose in the air instead of on the ground. Honestly, I have no idea how you do that. Other than holding a treat out in front of him the whole time, Steve's nose is positively glued to the ground.

His skinny little tail bobs adorably while he scampers down a trail. All he does is try to win Mac's favor, but it's not working. I remember when Mac did the same thing with Eowyn. It took a little while but finally Eowyn started playing with him (a.k.a. trying to chew on his head). We used to call it the Mac and Eowyn Show. Maybe Mac's not done grieving yet.

Here's a favorite picture of Mac and Eowyn in action. No dogs were hurt during the photo session. Someday maybe it will be Mac and Steve...

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

2011-12-27T08:51:00.001-08:00

There's been a lot of death in my life this year. That is death in a spiritual sense. Death to old ways of doing things, to phases of life, to friendships, etc. There have been a few births too, but mostly death.

The biggest non-tangible thing I lost this year was my self-confidence. After deciding to leave my job of twenty-two years (all for very good self-care reasons) I was confident and secure that I could find something else with all my varying abilities to survive. This has not been the case. This has been a very sharp blow to my self-esteem and confidence. I've known work done with hands and heart is less valued than work done with degrees, but to have strangers look at my list of skills and not realize the experience and ability that I have is frustrating.

The second biggest loss came Monday, my sweet Eowyn died. I found her nine years and eleven months ago one morning at work. She was in someone's garbage at house down the street with a broken chain (an actual short lead, not a tie out chain) around her neck. She was so skinny when my friend Mel and I put her on the porch to hold her until Animal Control could come she slipped between the rails. When they finally arrived the guy took one look at her and said, "Well, we'll take her in but she's got two strikes against her already. She's part chow (black spots on her tongue and fluffy chow-like fur with pricked ears) and she's pregnant. If she passes the personality test, which I think she will (she was lying on her back and he was rubbing her belly), no one wants a pregnant dog." I asked him if I could think about taking her and he said he'd leave her and if I called back he'd come and get her.

After wrestling with the pros and cons I decided to bring her home. The peeps and I were all very into Lord of the Rings at that point and as she was blonde Eowyn seemed the perfect name. She was very submissive and sweet with the peeps. And ravenously hungry.

The next day I brought her back to Durham to take her to the vet. Mel and I were walking her on the street in front of where we worked and a car zoomed up to the curb and called, "Nala!" A woman got out of the car and said, "That's my dog, we've been looking all over for her! That's my daughter's dog."

"How long has she been missing?" I asked. I noticed Eowyn didn't look excited to see her. No happy tail wag or straining on the leash to get to her.

"Three days!"

"I found her yesterday right there." I pointed to the house next door.

"We live in the next house over."

Suddenly I remember seeing Eowyn. Tied on a three foot chain to a Dogloo all day, every day. "She's starving and she's pregnant."

"Oh. You can keep her then. She ate her last litters. We usually keep her in the basement when she's in heat."

I was absolutely horrified. I knew dogs would eat their litters if they didn't think it was safe for them, or if they were starving and I decided there was no way she was going back to them. Even if this woman changed her mind. I told the woman I was taking her to the vet in a few minutes and needed to walk her. She continued talking to Mel while I took Eowyn further up the street.

After a trip to the vet, where I was reassured that since Eowyn was now getting food and attention, I should keep an eye on her during her labor, but things would probably be ok. She was right! Eowyn was a loving, diligent, doggie-mama. She birthed eight puppies (their were at least three different dads) and she went on to have a long, happy life.

There's an Eowyn sized hole in my house now. I miss the sound of her breathing (snoring much of the time), walking around the house, sleeping on the bed with me, and going for walks. She gave my life a rhythm and was very comforting when I was getting used to being "single" on the days I didn't have the peeps. She came along at a perfect time in my life. I'll miss her.

New yarn on Etsy

2011-12-15T07:50:00.000-08:00

On Monday I dyed ten skeins of yarn. They are finally dry, detangled, and ready to show. Here is a picture from my phone:

There's another blue (more muted) that went up on Etsy, but didn't fit in the bowl that I really like. I also made some new labels I'm hoping will work better than having tags flop around.

In knitting news, I'm working on Abyssal in a wool/silk blend I bought long ago for something else entirely. I find casting on tedious when the numbers get that large, but I'm almost done with the fourth repeat of the pattern and will soon head into short rows.

Morgan is home from school - yesterday with a fever and bodyaches - today with a massive head ache. He's been in bed all morning and looks pathetic. I used to kind of enjoy when the peeps were little and sick (especially Morgan) because it was the only time he'd sit still and snuggle with me. Now he's too large to snuggle, but it still breaks my heart to see him so miserable.

There's been a request for mac and cheese for dinner from Chicky. At her dad's house it comes out of a box and she reminded me I haven't made any in forever. That's an easy fix!

Another internet party where I'm arriving late, are you there already?

2011-12-12T07:51:00.000-08:00

The amazing indie dyer and spinner Sarah and I communicate almost daily by rav mail (a.k.a. Ravelry for those of you that have lives strangely unencumbered by fiber). We've been doing this for years and have never actually met in person. We have video chatted once, and talked on the phone a couple times when I went MIA in the wool world for a while. Anyway, she is a fabulous friend and hooks me up with all kinds of things I should know about, but don't.

Yesterday's revelation was Paperback Swap - What the wool? Exactly people, just like the name implies you exchange books (and also CD's or DVD's) for free. Honestly, what could be better? I heart books, but sometimes I heart impulse buys and I have a slew of books I read once and will never read again. I signed up (easy peasy), posted 18 books, got two credits for two books and someone is waiting for me to print a shipping label and mail a book to them. If someone orders one of your books you agree to pay the postage and mail it. That's it.

Of course, I've already created a wish list with all kinds of cook books and a few knitting books on it. There is a tricksy part where they make new books available so if you were weak and tempted you could click that button and get exactly what you wish for immediately, but I'm not falling for that old trick. Patience, Grasshopper. Someone may suddenly decide to cast aside all their Jamie Oliver or Interweave Press books. I shall wait very quietly...

While I'm waiting quietly I've been playing with some new dyes I bought. They've got their pros and cons, but I do like the end results. The skeins working on some drying outside before they come in for the night.

Today was only a ten skein day because I had other things I needed to do before the peeps get home. Namely burst for the first time in two weeks and get groceries. My leg is now healed enough to run, wear pants instead of skirts, and have a small dog sit on my lap. Mac is just as glad as I am that the healing is happening. Although he does look pretty snug on his down blanket.

And just because the Homesick Texan where I virtually live these days, posted a recipe that looked dangerously delicious I'm making Oyster Cracker Crack. Thank you Lisa Fain, my children adore you!

Seasoned oyster crackers
Ingredients:
1 pkg. 12-14 oz. oyster crackers
1/2 cup of canola oil
1/2 tsp fresh dill weed
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp lemon pepper
1 pkg. ranch dressing, original (do not use low fat!)

Method:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees
Mix oil with herbs and spices
Put crackers in a 9 x 13 inch pan
Pour oil and herb mixture over crackers, gently stir
Cook in oven for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally

Tomorrow when the fibers are dry there shall be pictures!

Anybody need some yarn?

2011-12-07T05:21:00.001-08:00

I've been dyeing yarn, but not putting it in my Etsy shop. It's been going on consignment to Cozy where it is selling well! Who wouldn't buy scrumptious yarn if it's right there in front of them? Exactly. Unlike the interwebs where one is reduced to choosing by descriptive words and well-lit pictures, seeing a yarn in person brings in all one's senses into play. It's much harder to resist in person.

Here's a sample of some of my "regular" dyeing that is soon leaving my abode. This is 100% superwash Blue Faced Leicester in DK weight. There are 246 yards per hank.

More bags have been knit and felted and are waiting on their zipper insertion. I'm taking the little buggers with me next time. Shortening a zipper is no big deal, but why do it if it's not absolutely necessary?

There are twenty skeins of yarn out on the patio drying at this very moment. They are all merino (none superwash) and are a departure from my regular dyeing method. I'm pleased with the results and will post pictures once they are dry.

I'm hoping my new printer gets here so I'm not making 20 handmade labels for yarn. My handwriting has gotten crappy due to lack of use and I hate inflicting it on others!

More FO's!

2011-12-01T10:38:00.001-08:00

Despite my wounds I'm getting quite a few items finished! The leggings were done long ago but needed a proper picture. The pattern is from tinyowlknits and they have an easy pattern to memorize and go quickly. I finished them faster than a pair of socks.

While I was out of commission with my back I made several of these leaf washcloths. Perfect for gifts with some handmade soap!

And I've finished two more bags

and some yarn to split between Cozy and Etsy. The yarn is supersoft, superwash blue-faced leicester. It drinks up the dye happily and has a glorious sheen. Seen here in a lofty aran weight.

It's going to be hard to decide what skeins will go to Cozy and which will go in the shop! Decisions, decisions.

How to wound yourself making iced tea

2011-11-30T10:32:00.001-08:00

I love a good DIY post, don't you? Here's one I like to call: How to Get Second Degree Burns Making Iced Tea.

I grew up drinking iced tea all day, everyday (except breakfast). My mother made a huge Tupperware jug of it and it lived in the refrigerator year round. I think we may have been the only people in Grand Marais, MN (native or transplants) that did. My mother's recipe involves Red Rose tea bags, lemon concentrate, and a boatload of sugar.

Several months ago I started making a green tea version which I would cold brew and add a modest amount of sugar syrup at the end. If you really want to burn the crap out of yourself making iced tea you can't do it with a cold brew. The second important element is a glass jar - very important for this post.

First, I'm assuming you'll be taking your nice cold glass pitcher out of the refrigerator and pouring that last tidge into a glass for yourself. That's how it works at my house and how I know it's time to make more tea. Then set the jar on the counter and put in your required number of tea bags. I use six for a two quart pitcher. Fill your tea kettle with water and put it on to boil. Start making dinner, I was planning on chicken enchiladas with chili gravy. Make sure your children are on task with their homework. Take screaming tea kettle and start filling the pitcher while you are listening to someone in the other room yell to you about something that's supposed to be important, but you're not sure since you can't hear them clearly. Notice a crackling sound and see the cold pitcher break and hot water come gushing towards you.

I'm a little hazy with the specifics after that because hot water was on my thighs and my steaming wet skirt was clinging to my skin. I do remember throwing the tea kettle and screaming, "I need to be in cold water!" When I was looking to rent a house nine years ago I thought it was important for the four of us to have more than one bathroom, in case anybody had an emergency. Case in point!

The Chickster was brave and helpful. She was very calm while she helped me untie my skirt and get it off. I was cussing and crying, I'm not too proud to admit it. She turned the water on lukewarm and told me to go ahead and get in with my clothes on. It was cooling, but the beating water of the shower really hurt. While I was standing there crying and freaking out I was realizing that for the third Monday in a row something bad was going on with my body. First it was a pulled muscle in my back, then my molar that had to be removed, and now burns. Seriously, can this be over now?!

Chicky let me know when the other bathroom was free and started filling the tub for me. I sat in the bathtub for forty minutes, other than the burns on my thighs the rest of me was freezing. Happily I had some silver sulfadiazine cream on hand so I didn't feel pressured to head off to the ER and wait for four to six hours for an intern to come in and look at it and give me a prescription of the same thing.

At the risk of raising people's traditional ire, I will confess I've not used it. As soon as I was out of the tub Chicky and I applied pure aloe vera gel straight out of the refrigerator. Before bed I used a salve I made and keep on hand of beeswax, honey, plantain, and chickweed. In the morning it didn't look too bad, I had blisters but nothing looked incredibly unhappy. I applied the purest honey in the world, Manuka, and re-bandaged it. Today, the blisters are bigger, but there's no sign of infection and it looks like it's healing nicely.

I'd show you a picture, but it's not attractive and more than a little off-putting.

Yes, dinner did get made. Richard came over and he and his sous chef, Chicky, did the work while I gave directions from a chair. They were excellent! Unfortunately, we never did have any iced tea and now I don't have a pitcher to make any more. Why was I brewing ice tea with hot water this time? Honestly, I have no idea. I may have been trying to save "the good water" I buy in bulk from Whole Paycheck or Weaver Street. Clearly I need to stick with cold brewing.

A little bit of this and that

2011-11-29T10:23:00.001-08:00

My Thanksgiving consisted mostly of knitting in front of the computer I was using like a tv. Did I mention how much I love Parenthood? I like the characters, the amazing cast, the story line - I'm pretty much all about the Bravermans these days. A friend told me about it and I started watching on Netflix from the beginning. I am completely caught up now thanks to hulu, lots of knitting, and plenty of alone time.

I managed to do a little spinning too.

The spindle on the right has been Navajo plied into 88 yards of this.

I finished the second handspun/commercial yarn cowl. Shorter than the first version, but equally cozy.

Here's a close up.

Chicky and a chicken doing some model work on the cowl. (The chicken is a natural, isn't she?)

Here's a close up of the cowl without a chicken in the way.

I've also been knitting and felting small bags. Here's the one listed on Etsy and I'm off to take pictures of the second. They're turning out well - it's hard to list them. I keep thinking they would make great gifts.

I have a freaky story of how I burned myself last night, but I'll save that for another day. Today is all about the wool!

Curious looking at a car on craigslist

2011-11-27T04:11:00.001-08:00

A couple weeks ago Richard told me he was looking at old BMW's on craigslist for fun. We both adore craigslist, sometimes we'll look at postings for furniture or houses and laugh our asses off at the picture, description, or the actual object itself. Here is one example of what I am talking about. My favorites are where the seller is yelling at you in all caps. "PRICE FIRM. NO NEGOTIATING. DON'T CALL UNLESS YOU'RE SERIOUS. DON'T WASTE MY TIME." I wonder if anyone calls those people.

Richard refers to himself as "certified". Certified means you are an experienced buyer and seller, you post clear pictures facing in the right direction, and you're not selling crap that should be in the trash or set out on the street for the taking. When he comes across gems like the ones above he'll say, "they're not certified" with obvious disdain.

Anyway, back to old BMW's. Richard found a 1991 318is about 40 minutes away. He asked me to come along and look at it. "I don't want to buy it, I'm just curious about it." I'm usually up for a drive in the country on a sunny afternoonm, so I said sure.

As we were driving in the Jeep to Timbuktu, um, I mean Alamance, I asked Richard about my role in this adventure.

"What do you mean?"

"Can I be chatty? Am I supposed to be quiet? Ask questions? Am I the good cop or the bad cop?"

"You can say whatever you want!"

"Ok. Just checking."

We get there and see this sweet little car (I did say it's cute even though that's possibly not a cool way to describe a potential man mobile). The guy selling the car and did the work on it is a BMW nut and had four or five others he was in the process of restoring/collecting. Richard asks questions about the car, we look at the inside (very nice interior), the exterior, under the hood where the guy replaced all the hoses, etc. There's more man talk and heartwarming stories of shadetree mechanic adventure and then the guy asks if we'd like to take it for a drive. Of course, why on earth did we drive all the way out here but to ride in this little chariot?!

As we get into the car and pull the doors shut I remember my fondness for substantial car doors. Unlike most cars now, which might be big, the steel is so thin it reminds me of riding in a tin can. The car sits low to the ground, there's plenty of leg room and as Richard turns the key the engine rumbles to life. We both look at each other and grin, "Listen to her growl!" When we get out of the gravel driveway and onto the road Richard says, "This is fantastic!" And it truly is. We talk about how great it is, how much fun it is to drive, and how they don't make cars like it anymore.

When we get back to the guy's house, we both tell him how sweet it is and Richard asks more questions about the shape of the car. The guy is totally upfront and says there's a small oil leak he can't figure out, the odometer is broken but his estimate of the mileage is such and such and he shows us every mark on the body of the car.

Before we leave I walk over to the car, lean down and pet it and say to them, "I vote yes!" The guy and Richard laugh. Richard tells the guy he's interested, but he has to think about it and he'll call him in a day or so.

We get in the car and Richard looks at me smiling and says, "What the hell was that? 'I vote yes!'"

"You told me I could say anything I wanted!"

"Well, I changed my mind. From now on you keep quiet!" he laughed. "Now I have a dilemma, I really like the car. I was hoping we'd get here and there would be something seriously wrong with it."

"Ah, that way it wouldn't be an issue. Now what are you going to do?"

Richard sighs, "I have to think about it."

After agonizing deliberation on Richard's part, a week later we picked up the car. Her name is Buttah because of her amazing smooth shifting ability. Right now she's getting her pin striping removed, but her favorite past time is driving on back country roads with her sun roof open.

My new favorite comfort food

2011-11-23T17:48:00.001-08:00

I don't post pictures of food - even though I am something of a photographer. Why, you ask? The short answer is my house is "vintage" but not "antique". No big windows or bright interiors. The peeps and I withstood seven months of interior renovations which did, indeed, brighten the inside. The small windows and many trees, however, inhibit indoor photography.

For my Etsy shops, I set-up my own make-shift light box, but that doesn't work out so well with food. I take pictures, but don't like them and don't use them. I've thought about shooting outside, but since it gets dark so early that isn't really an option these days, and I'd have to fed off cats and chickens on the picnic table. And it's not level. Which is why we don't eat outside. Viscous cycle.

For the time being, you'll have to rely on my taste buds and truthful love of food to convince you whatever I'm suggesting is good. And tonight, the Night Before Thanksgiving I give you Baked Brie w/ Pasta. If you can afford it, buy the best brie available - it's worth it. If you're like me, a foodie on a super tight budget, go to your local supermarket and buy the only brie they have (I think I might just be the only person to buy brie at my local supermarket, judging by the dryness when I opened the package). Adding EVOO, garlic, and herbs is like magic and will make it more than palatable - it will make it difficult to stop from eating the whole wheel! Trust me.

This is a Ministry of Food recipe from Jamie Oliver that is meant to be shared. The original calls for the delectable Camembert, but you can not find it at the Food Liar in Hillsborough, NC. I omitted the spinach simply because I didn't have any on hand. I am a big fan of greens and think they should definitely be added if you have them - or are planning ahead.

Ingredients
(serves 4-6)

- a box of Camembert Cheese (250g)
- 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
- 1 sprig of fresh rosemary, pick the leaves off the woody stalk
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- extra virgin olive oil
- 100g grated parmesan cheese
- 400g dried rigatoni
- 150g fresh spinach

Directions

1. Open the box of cheese and unwrap it. Place it back to the wooden container (Note: mine did not come in a wooden container so I placed it in a oven safe dish like what you see in the photo).
2. Score a circle into the top of the skin, then lift it off and discard.
3. Lay the garlic slices on top of the cheese, sprinkle some pepper and drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil.
4. Scatter the rosemary leaves over the top and gently pat with your fingers to coat them in the oil.
5. Bake the cheese in a preheated oven of 180C (350F) for about 25 minutes, until golden and melted.
6. When the cheese has 10 minutes left to cook, add the pasta to the pan and cook according to packet instructions.
7. When the pasta is cooked, add the spinach to the pan – it only needs cooking for 10 seconds or so.
8. Drain the pasta and spinach to the pan and let it wilt.
9. Drizzle with a couple of good lugs of extra virgin olive oil and add the grated Parmesan. If the sauce is too thick for you, add a splash of reserved cooking water to thin out a bit. Season with salt and pepper and give it a good stir.
10. Remove the cheese from the oven. Divide the pasta between your serving bowls. Either drizzle the melted Camembert on top or pop cheese on the table and let everyone help themselves to a lovely, gooey spoonful.

The things I wonder about

2011-11-21T10:16:00.001-08:00

When Richard and I were leaving Home Depot on Sunday (with supplies to fix my leaky kitchen sink) we saw a sofa box truck. I don't know if they exist everywhere or just around here, but they're usually parked in a parking lot right along a road and have sofas and chairs wrapped in plastic for sale. There's no sign, no business name anywhere.

me: I wonder how you get into that business.

Richard: What business?

me: The Selling Sofas on the Side of the Road business. I mean, where do you get your sofas?

Richard: I don't know how that works. Maybe they fell off a truck. What made you think of that?

me: The guy back there with the sofas wrapped in plastic and leaning up against the side of his box truck. Do you think he takes debit cards? Not very many people carry cash these days and that looks kind of like a "cash only" set up over there. I wonder if he collects sales tax?

Richard: How many people look for sofas on the side of the road? Don't you usually go to a store for that kind of thing?

me: "Hey honey, we really need a new sofa. Let's go cruise around and see if we see one of those trucks by the side of the road."

Richard: I doubt you'd get enough impulse buys to make a living.

me: No kidding.

Best brownies evah!

2011-11-21T10:10:00.000-08:00

Since I was stranded in bed with my iPhone last week recovering from a pulled muscle in my back, I spent quite a bit of time on the Epicurious app. I found what looked to be an easy, quick brownie recipe with great reviews. While in Atlanta a few weekends ago I visited Your Dekalb Farmers Market, which is a post in and of itself, and picked up a jar of Dulche de Leche. Up to this point I'd only made my own and seeing it there on the shelf reminded me how much I liked it, and that it would be so super yummy with some chocolate! Hence, brownies with dulche de leche!

I like my brownies moist, but not overly sweet. These brownies are rich from all the butter and a little bite suffices nicely. They were so delicious Chicky and I made two batches that week because they were so popular. Both times I made the brownies I dropped dollops of dulche de leche on the top and spread it with an off set spatula. Another option, for a more candy-like top on the brownies, is to wait and spread on the dulche de leche after the brownies come out of the oven and cool.

Best Cocoa Brownies Evah!
from Epicurious

Makes 16 large or 25 smaller brownies

Use the best cocoa you have for these - any unsweetened natural or Dutch-process will work.

10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cold large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup walnut or pecan pieces (optional)

Special equipment: an 8-inch square baking pan.

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line the bottom and sides of the baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides.

Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium heatproof bowl and set the bowl in a wide skillet of barely simmering water. Stir from time to time until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger fairly quickly after dipping it in to test. Remove the bowl from the skillet and set aside briefly until the mixture is only warm, not hot.

Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Stir in the nuts, if using. Spread evenly in the lined pan. Add dulche de leche by dropping a spoon full here and there and then spreading the dropped caramel lightly with an off-set spatula.

Bake until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter. 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely on rack.

Lift up the ends of the parchment or foil liner, and transfer brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 or 25 squares.

This is Alton Brown's Dulche de Leche recipe. It's totally worth the effort and believe me, you will find a way to use up the extra. It's good on ice cream, cake, and straight off the spoon!

Ingredients

• 1 quart whole milk

• 12 ounces sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups

• 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

Combine the milk, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds in a large, 4-quart saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the baking soda and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered at a bare simmer. Stir occasionally, but do not re-incorporate the foam that appears on the top of the mixture. Continue to cook for 1 hour. Remove the vanilla bean after 1 hour and continue to cook until the mixture is a dark caramel color and has reduced to about 1 cup, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to a month.

Enjoy!

How to fix your car radio after 11 months of silence

2011-11-21T05:42:00.001-08:00

Last Christmas Hazel (my 2004 Honda Odyssey) needed a new battery. As is the case these days, when you unplug the battery the radio shuts down and you have to put in a code to make it work again. When I bought Hazel she didn't have an owner's manual and I had no idea where the code would be. According to the interwebs it's supposed to be on a label inside the glovebox. Nope, not there. I looked through all my papers from Carmax and couldn't find it either. Then I resorted to using a flashlight and trying any numbers I found on any labels anywhere I could find on the car. No luck.

On the Honda website you can type in your vehicle's VIN and I can't remember what else and they'll give it to you. The problem with that was I was not listed as the owner of the vehicle. So I had to wait until their very specific customer service hours and call. The man tried to be helpful and he suggested all the things I'd already tried thanks to the help of the Google. Finally he said, "I'm sorry, 2004 was the year before we started keeping the numbers here in our database. My only suggestion is to take off the dash and write down every five digit number you see and try them." That's a pretty expensive option at the dealer.

I gave up trying for almost a year. Richard and I looked up taking off the dash and it seems pretty complicated and like you could break any number of things in the process. Yesterday was fix-it day and he was willing to try again. We did succeed in taking off the part of the dash around the radio without breaking it. The sticking point was removing the connection for the indoor dimmer - it was locked in somehow and no amount of squeezing or pulling was getting it disconnected (it was that or the airbag button and I'm not messing with the airbag connection). Richard went inside to look up what to do next while I decided to have one last look through the glovebox.

As I'm digging around looking for labels stuck to the inside I notice a little plastic pouch that has a card in it. Oh shit. Guess what the card said? Radio code. I have no idea how I missed it. I don't know how often I've looked in that damn thing! I went in to show Richard, worried he would be mad, and he laughed so hard! His only comment was, "Now we can fix it!"

The funny thing is that after 11 months without a radio, I keep forgetting to turn it on. At least I'll be able to listed to music through the iPod again. The only radio I listen to is NPR and sometimes I just want music.

So really, the only way to fix your car radio is to find the code. Check the glovebox. I bet it's in there.

Another FO!

2011-11-15T04:58:00.001-08:00

I've been on a bit of a giant cowl/infinity scarf jag. They've been everywhere in the knitting world for several years, but it's gone mainstream, as they say. There's a free pattern on Ravelry by Karen Caitlin called Eileen Fisher Inspired Capelet. It knits up fast, is easy and there are many ways to modify it to suit your personal taste. I finished one, as written, and am working on another.

There are so many ways to wear it! All stretched out for a very neat, classy appearance.

Or more scrunched up like a scarf/shawl, cuddling the neck and warming the shoulders.

The leg warmers and shadowbox are done, but I need my model for pictures. I'm not sure if we'll get to it today, but definitely sometime soon.

Down for the count, part 2

2011-11-12T04:43:00.001-08:00

The continued saga of hurting my back, healing, and maybe having minions of my very own (finally!).

Tuesday morning when the alarm sounded I had to wake my bed buddy (Chicky - my constant companion and nursemaid) to turn it off. Things I do every morning, like let the chickens down and set up their run, feed and water various animals, laundry, etc. I had to ask for help. Asking for help is hard for me. I hate asking and, in my opinion, there are only two ways of doing things, my way and the wrong way. Perhaps this is one reason why minions are hard for me to find.

With sunrise being earlier, the chickens want down from the coop earlier as well. It was already 7 am and they'd been waiting a while. I knew my only chance was to ask the boys before they sat down for breakfast. I did and there was bleary eyed confusion, but they went out and moved the ark and let the ramp down. There's also attaching the coop, but I knew better than to ask and be flatly turned down.

After breakfast is the normal hunting and gathering of clothing. I believe laundry should be folded and put away in drawers, but the peeps seem to prefer scavenging about the floor and various surfaces in their rooms and moaning about how they can't find what they need/want. My previous evening's suggestion of doing laundry has come back to smack them in the face - there are no clean jeans. I ask them to collect everything blue and start the washer, I won't be able to move it to the dryer, but I can make sure they do it when they come home and we might be able to squeeze another load in after that. They did it almost completely without complaint!

After slowly but surely packing lunches I was pretty over being on my feet, so I drove the peeps to school and came home to rest. Ice, ice, and more ice. Ibuprophen wasn't doing anything and I stopped taking it. I did watch many episodes of Friday Night Lights, a comedy, and started reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. A friend told me once you start it you can't put it down and she was right!

Richard came over to check on me later in the morning. While he was here he moved the laundry, set up the chicken run, went and fetched dinner supplies, and brought me lunch. It was lovely. Since we watch Mad Men together we decided to watch one episode after lunch. It was really about all the time I could stand sitting upright in a chair - even a comfortable one.

After Richard was gone I went into the rabbit hole of Pinterest for a while and took a nap. When Chicky arrived home I was very thankful for her company and her nursemaid abilities. She made sure I had my drug of choice - chardonnay - water, ice, and fixed my pillows for me. That evening she huddled down in bed with me and we watched a couple episodes of Parenthood (my new absolute favorite show) and a romantic comedy together. On my iPhone. The boys came in and made fun of us watching stuff on the tiny screen, but it worked and I was lying down. All good, as far as I was concerned.

I did get myself out of bed to make dinner, the peeps did the dishes, worked on laundry. I.e., got the load out of the dryer and put it on the sofa. This seems to be the preferred gathering place for laundry. I used to put it somewhere they wanted to sit so they would be more inclined to fold it, but they just changed their preferred sitting preference.

Other than that, everything I ask them to do, they did. Mostly without complaint. It made me feel all warm inside, like they really were growing up and being more responsible. And they really cared. That was when the idea of them being my minions started to solidify. Question was, would they do my bidding more easily after I was healthy since they've had all this practice?

Down for the count, part 1

2011-11-09T12:18:00.000-08:00

On Monday I tried to finish one of our last mowing jobs of the season all by myself. There were lots of leaves and I hate raking so I decided to use the mower with a bag. The yard needed mowing and I was thinking about killing two birds with one stone. It was slow going with all the bag emptying and I was getting close to done when I started on the hill by the road. That part of the yard was still shaded and the long grass was wet; it seemed safer to push the mower up the hill from the bottom than for me to slide down the hill and into the mower blade from the top. The hill is steep at the bottom - about an eighty degree angle - and I had to push and stretch my arms out to get a decent bit mowed so it would be easier from the top when I got there. On the eighth upward push I felt a pain in my back. The next push began and ended with the mower going nowhere and me in extreme pain.

I hate it when a plan doesn't come together. I realized I'd have to bring the boys back after school to finish mowing one side of the house, part of the front yard and load the lawnmower back in the van. My back has been tender for as long as I can remember, but I've never hurt it this badly before. Taking a shower was slow and painful and I could not wait to carefully lower myself in bed and stay there for a while. Four ibuprophen and a heating pad later and I didn't feel much better. (I know now that I should have had ice on it instead.)

The sweet Chicky came home after finding me in bed and telling her what happened, we went to the store to get dinner. On the way up our road, we found the boys walking home from the bus. I stopped to pick them up and fill them in on the situation. They could see I was obviously in pain and we decided to go get the yard stuff out of the way. We drove over to the house and they made short work of the remaining yard and leaves. The predominating conversation on our travel was how much more convenient this would all be if they boys were driving. That thought had passed through my mind when I was struggling to get into the car earlier in the day, but in other more lucid moments I keep remembering they're only 14. I know driving is coming up, but I am not sure I'm ready for it.

When we arrived at home I went straight to bed with my iPhone and watched an episode of Parenthood. It's our current favorite series on Netflix. I'm also hooked on Friday Night Lights, but I watch that one alone. Chicky made some awesome cocoa brownies with dulche de leche on top, prepared dinner, and brought me some food. All the peeps were thoughtful and attentive. I asked them to clean up and they managed to do most of it. I had a thrilling thought, maybe I have my very own minions!? Only time would tell.

Before they went to bed I asked if they needed any laundry done. No response. "I won't be able to do any of your laundry tomorrow so if you need anything you should do it now." Crickets, literally. Oh, well. If they really need it they'll do it, I thought and went to sleep.

A Fresh Tart returns?

2011-11-03T09:26:00.000-07:00

I've been toying with the idea of purchasing some kitchen time over at The Durham Cookery. I took a tour a couple months ago, but wasn't sure about the logistics. I'm still not completely sure of what I want to do - other than make sweet and savory tarts, quick breads, scones, and soups - but being able to rent that space would open up some options. With the holidays coming up and no real need to eat a boat load of baked goods myself, I could rent the space once every couple of weeks and do cookies and breads as gifts, or fill orders for people that wanted some baked yummies for themselves.

Here's are a few things off the old menu:

Savory tarts - roasted potato & mushroom (with fresh tarragon and Emmenthaler)
- roasted leek & celery
- spinach & mushroom

Sweet tarts - pumpkin spice
- apple (sugar and spiced apples in custard)
- raspberry-cranberry linzer
- baked lemon

Scones - dried cranberry
- candied ginger
- pumpkin
- cheddar-parmesan

Tea breads - chocolate banana
- cardamom banana with pistachios
- zucchini
- fresh grated ginger gingerbread
- carrot cake with lime icing

Cookies - shortbread
- coconut macaroons
- toffee bars
- fig newtons

Any menu suggestions? My only reservation with making tarts is that I'd have to be very organized as I'd need to rent the bakery and the kitchen portion of the cookery. It means an added cost and maybe having one other person help to make it efficient. See? It's all the details that keep me guessing. Any thoughts and suggestions are most welcome!

So much knitting, so little time.

2011-10-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

It's kind of depressing to look at your WIPs on Ravelry and see how long projects have been lingering on the needles. Well, it's depressing for ME to realize it anyway. In particular, I've started on a pair of leg warmers (for me)

and new gauntlets,

while finding this

and this

in my favorite knitting bag. That's a lot of knitting work to do! Yesterday was not a particularly good day for me, so I watched quite a bit of Netflix and TEDtalks while knitting the Stockholm Scarf (aka the giant cowl). Progress has slowed on the gauntlet as I've misplaced one of the needles. I'm sure it will turn up, it's just not in any of the regular places needles hide in the house. If the kitty cat found it and was playing with it, it may be long gone!

Since it's a lovely afternoon and no one is burning any leaves (yet!) I think I'll go and knit in the sun. Natural vitamin D may be just the cure for what ails me.

Another FO

2011-10-19T16:10:00.001-07:00

I finally finished Chicky's bunny slippers! The pattern hopsalot is by Tinyowlknits - her patterns are on Ravelry, Etsy, and her own website. Lots of fun patterns, please check her out.

The other exciting thing got delivered in the mail - a flitchy for processing debit and credit cards on my phone! How cool is that?

Stocking the store!

2011-10-19T08:19:00.000-07:00

Last week kind of got away from me and absolutely nothing got listed in the Etsy shop. The interwebs and Etsy were being a bit slow this morning, but after three hours of editing and posting I have quite a bit done! Since I now have the handy-dandy widget to the left (I mean the other left) I'll not post pictures here.

The super good news is my cat is back! I'm wondering if it has something to do with the full moon. Maybe occasionally he turns into something else for a week. (I know, I read too many books with werewolves.) I'd rather imagine that than him being stuck up a tree somewhere out of hearing. It's hard to imagine him out in the wild for a long time since most of the time he's here this is what he's doing:

After days of beautiful weather it is raining (hard) in fits and starts. I haven't been exercising for a week (I wasn't kidding when I said last week got away from me) but I don't want to get caught in a downpour. I'll have to check the radar situation...

Shop update?

2011-10-10T10:44:00.000-07:00

To all of you I met and talked to yesterday at Cozy I'd like to say "thank you" for checking out my fibers! I thought today was going to be all about a fiber photo shoot and updating the Etsy shop, but as the day progresses I see how wrong I was in that assumption. Some of my yarns will be at Cozy and I'm sorting through them right now. Once I get that figured out I will start the listing process.

Add to the mix I'm starting a temporary, full-time job tomorrow (say that five times fast, whydon'tcha). I'm entering Customer Service for the holidays. Should be interesting, right? That's what I'm thinking.

In the Land of Knitting, I'm working on another hood/cowl with some rust colored, super squishy handspun I love (and have yet to finish spinning) and more of the ggh "Bali." If I had made Chicky the shawl that yarn was destined for all those years ago I wouldn't be having this much fun right now. Chicky's bunny slippers are short one ear, I think I can whip that out while I'm watching a soccer game this afternoon. Sometimes I get kind of hepped up at soccer and have been known to lose bracelets because I'm flailing my arms about and yelling. Knitting hampers this sort of behavior and while it's embarrassing that your mother knits while at a soccer game, it's more embarrassing if she's jumping up and down, flailing her arms. (It's interesting to note they're not embarrassed if I'm on the sidelines with a camera at all.)

The sweet Tiger-Cato has gone missing. I haven't seen him since Saturday night and I'm starting to worry he's stuck in a tree somewhere. I've walked up and down our street quietly listening for his pathetic "Help!" mews and haven't heard any. I'm hoping he's just pissed at me because I went away for part of the weekend and now he's playing hard to get. Here's the picture that's on my desktop after my computer turns on in the morning.

I miss that not so little Bugger!

Hood/cowl finished!

2011-10-06T06:58:00.000-07:00

After over a year on the needles, the commercial and handspun yarn collaboration is finally finished! I am very pleased with the results too! My model wasn't feeling very well that day, as you can see in on of the pictures, but she put on one cheery face with effort.

This was designed with two thoughts in mind: keeping warm and showing off Sarah's beautiful handspun yarn. I made it very loose fitting, so even when it's up in "hood" position, if you have long hair and it happens to get worn up a lot there's plenty of room for a pony tail or bun. (Of course it will look funny in the back, but as an avid hater of static electricity it's worth it!)

When worn down it cozies up to the neck very nicely. In this picture the model is feeling very puny, but loved the cowl so much when the shoot was over she left it on. (Sore throat, in case you were wondering and she's feeling fine now).

Here Chicky is demonstrating how long it is. I love the purl rows of handspun strutting their stuff and contrasting with the white commercial yarn. It took one skein of Sarah's hand spun and one skein of ggh "Bali."

There's another on the needles already. It won't take a year this time, I hope.

Pin It

Running the gauntlet

2011-09-30T06:58:00.000-07:00

The gauntlets are finished. Here they are, modeled by the recipient. First we have the back of said mitts.

Then the front, less seen, side.

And finally, full on "Oh!"

She likes them, I love them. We're happy.

There's still daily spinning. Here is some blue three ply - I'm digging the way the blues look all cozied up side by side.

And yesterday's spinning, that is today's plying project (one bobbin is done and having a bath as I type).

If the temperature stays lovely, and the neighbors don't burn any plastic today, I may head out to the patio for my spinning stint. The cooler temperatures are having a lovely effect on my sleeping ability and my overall disposition. Very nice.

Hand spinning

2011-09-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

Now that all the yarn I have is dyed for Cozy, it's time to concentrate on spinning. On Sunday I dug an old roving I dyed (and didn't sell) and started spinning. Instead of filling two bobbins and plying them together for a barber pole effect, I decided to Navajo ply to try and keep the variegated colors more consistent. Before spinning, I divided the roving in half (cross-wise) so one gauntlet will have more blue than the other, but this is a girl that likes to wear different color socks so I don't think we'll have an issue. I was so pleased with the results I didn't even wash the skein before using it!

Chicky has been "borrowing" my mohair gauntlets for two winters. (Maybe it's time she has some of her own?) The other mitt is 3/4 done. I'll post a picture with a Chicky inside them when they're finished!

I've spun two bobbins of blue/purple roving and am letting them rest before Navajo plying them as well. I know it's not a true ply, but it's more efficient then traditional plying for me since I only have a few bobbins. And I don't have to be as methodical about spinning the rovings in the same direction to get the results I'd like. Sometimes the easy way is just fine!

Events

2011-09-24T05:04:00.000-07:00

Fast approaching is the 2011 Autumn Yarn Crawl. I have been invited to sell my fiber goods at Cozy in Durham for the event on Sunday, October 9. I've been spinning and dyeing up a storm and I have plenty more to do in the upcoming week or so. Everything in the Etsy shop is going too. Here's some of the new fiber.

Pin It

I'm looking forward to hanging out with lots of other fiber lovers again, it's been a while! My wheel and hand spindle will be coming along to demo. Be there or be square!

buddha mollie

2011-09-11T14:23:00.001-07:00

buddha mollie, a photo by freshtart on Flickr.

Yesterday Mollie did some jumping for me. Here's my favorite picture from the set.

Got wool?

2011-09-10T07:03:00.001-07:00

Got wool, a photo by freshtart on Flickr. Pin It

I couldn't actually de-stash - it's like selling a family heirloom or something. Maybe I just like my wool; we can count it towards insulating the house, right? Instead I've reopened http://etsy.com/shop/blackethelcash there's roving to follow soon.

Major Yarn De-stash

2011-06-24T10:45:00.000-07:00

I'm in the process of gathering yarn for a massive de-stash! There's some hand-dyed and spun by yours truly, lots of sock yarn, and some novelty yarns that looked good to me at the time, but I should have known I'd never use them.

Stay tuned!

Getting started...

2011-06-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

There are a whole host of projects going right now. One is The Collins Crew another is my photography website and I've also been working on my etsy shop (see all the new stuff over on the right?). I'm working on listing some of my personal antique collection (in order to show I have good taste) and also let people know I will be on the lookout for what their favorite things are as well.

In addition to online shops, I'm heading out to local brink and mortar shops with postcards, greeting cards, and business cards in hand to see what may happen. The first shop I tried wants local buildings for the tourist trade - which I need to do earlier in the morning, as the commuter traffic starts to become an issue around 7:20 am (I already made an attempt last week).

The chickens are doing well. I let the girls out for a while this morning while I watered the garden. They are completely infatuated with blackberries. Luckily we have tons of them ripening all around the edges of our yard. Want to visit with a chicken? Hold out a blackberry and "bwaock" invitingly.

In a rare moment of brilliance, I decided to move the guinea pigs out of Erin's room and into the hutch we used when the chickens were peeps. The chickens were intrigued by this. The guineas seem happier with more sunshine and room to... sit in their houses. When they were inside they kept me (and Erin) awake at night by tugging on their water bottle, doing odd guinea pig dances in the night, and... sitting in their houses.

We're also trying to take out local food options more seriously. I didn't subscribe to a CSA this year, but I'm all about shopping at local farms and stores for as much of our food as I can. We found some great local beef up at McAdams Farm as well as potatoes, squash, cherry tomatoes, and cherries! They're open three afternoons a week and, while I like supporting our co-op, buying it directly from the farmer is cheaper and I know exactly where the money is going.

Soon I'll give an update on the trials of my bee hive. It's a steep learning curve right now!

Change of pace

2011-06-15T03:25:00.001-07:00

After many years teaching small children (22 years)) and doing administrative tasks (16 of those same years) I decided to say adios to my job. Without any real certainty of what would come along next. Wow, you might be thinking, in this economy? I hear you. All I can say was the time had come and I couldn't do it anymore. For many reasons.

I am also a girl who worries - a lot - about financial matters so this is a really scary place to be. I'm trying to figure out a reasonable plan of things we as a family can do without, what we can do for ourselves (e.g., making our own bread to save money) and how I am going to support all of us.

Right now, I'm working on a photography website. I enjoy taking pictures of children and I'd like to work that into a job. It's going to take time to get my name out there, so that's not something for the short term. Here it is so far Rochelle Eisenberger Photography I'd love any and all feedback. I know a couple of things I need to work on, but I'm a novice so it's using up my patience quickly!

Today is going to be about putting out flyers for the kids' summer job efforts: babysitting, dog walking, lawn mowing, and weeding. We're patching things together, but hopefully it will work out!

New finds

2011-01-11T04:14:00.000-08:00

My weekends tend to be leisurely. One of my favorite things to do is browse antique stores, yard sales, and thrift shops for good finds. Sometimes, something good comes from a local consignment shop, like my Most Beautiful Yarn Storage

or a nasty basement

craigslist

or my favorite shop out of town (The Ivy Cottage).

My house is pretty full of dressers, hutches, and cupboards at this point. I see good ones all the time, just this past weekend in fact (and I bought it, but it's waiting for me to pick it up). It's going in my room. Many people have little rooms attached to their bedrooms. I believe they're called walk-in closets. I have the old fashioned closet. It holds very little and for years has been the place I stash toys and things I've taken from my children for various misuses. I think right now there are a couple of Nerf guns and an old chin-up bar in there. Who knows what would happen if I actually cleaned it out. It is currently difficult to get in there because someone who shall remain nameless, but looks like this:

runs as fast as he can every time he hears the door and dives to the very back of the mess. My closet is also the only place in my house to store my under used exercise ball. Anytime I fetch the wicked creature out of there I have to take the ball out, dig though hanging dresses, shoes, and knitting projects I'm also hiding from his paws. Honestly, he looks so harmless most of the time.

Anyway, I've branched out into smaller things too. Since I've been renting I've been telling myself not to buy pretties because "who knows where I'll be in the future." Well, I've been here for nine years (?!), so I guess this is where I'll be for a while. My bare walls are filling up and it feels much more cozy and homey. I can't believe it took so long. R had to tell me it was ok to spend money on things like that, and I had to find things I liked and felt worth it. The hunt is most of the fun! Now the giant spot over my desk has a lovely Andrew Wyeth print

I found a few things on etsy I liked. This one by Kat Hannah is a favorite and I keep adding things all the time!

Now my problem seems to be stopping. I'm justifying some purchases by saying, "Oh, someone else would love to have that. I'll put it on Etsy!" What a dangerous slippery slope this has become! Will it ever end? Maybe not. It sure is fun!

The Story of Tiger (now also Cato)

2011-01-04T18:10:00.001-08:00

This past spring my man and the boys worked on a patio. This was a lovely project and has been a pleasant and flat place to sit in our yard. The only flat space in our yard. Here's the almost finished product - in the end it has another row of slate as a step down.

All this familial cooperation fueled my desire for chickens. Now there were willing builders and coop tenders! I read about having a coop, went and visited my friend Sarah's Super Coop,

(isn't it amazing?) and searched backyard chickens for a coop I liked. The weekend before the coop building was to commence, the peeps (my human ones) were sitting on the patio talking when Morgan spied a kitten by the neighbor's shed. Their shed butts up to our chain link fence. There was a wee little orange kitten panting to beat the band. The kids gave it water and tried to get close to it, but it would dive under the shed before they were even two feet away. They tried to catch it for two afternoons straight. Chicky spent one evening "meowing" and being eaten by mosquitos in the woodsy bit of our yard trying to lure it through the fence. They were shameless enough to resort to canned tuna and the old box, stick, and string trap. They got really close a few times, but never caught the kitten. The peeps went to their dad's house and they asked if I would try and catch it. I reminded them we weren't supposed to have a dog in this house, I didn't think the landlords would be too thrilled with a cat either. They left and hatched a plan for The Black Ops to initiate when they got back.

That weekend my favorite man and I got pavers and started leveling a place in the back yard. We chose a spot partially covered by trees, so the chickens wouldn't overheat. It was really hot, even for June, and I noticed that wee kitten sitting and panting right by the shed. After talking with R (my man) - while he was doing the work, since I was distracted by the kitten - I decided I would try and catch it. My attempts were apparently very funny and I was about as subtle as a train crashing through the underbrush. A little later that day I saw my neighbor and told him about the kitten. He said, "He's still there?" His mama and the rest of his litter were caught in a trap and Animal Control was bringing another trap by the upcoming week. Well, that seemed to solve my problem, the cat would be caught and gone and I wouldn't have to deal with the "may we keep it?" situation that was brewing.

The peeps came back on Monday and I filled them in on the kitten scoop. Instead of abating the issue, it seemed to incense it. The kitten was an orphan - we had to save it! Sure enough, Animal Control brought the trap on Monday and they put a piece of fur in it as bait. I was hoping it wasn't the kitten's former mother's fur, if you know what I mean. For as wily as that kitten was, whatever smell was on that fur was his quick undoing. He was in that cage and caught within ten minutes! The Black Ops had a plan: one of them would jump over the fence and hand the cage back over two the other two. Someone else would open the cage and Operative #3 would put the kitten in a backpack. After the replacement of the trap all three operatives would smuggle the kitten into the house. The first time they tried the plan the kitten skittered out of that cage and back under the shed. Operative #1 was surprised at how fast that little bugger moved! I think he thought the kitten would be calm and grateful. That little creature only saw freedom. It was even more surprising to me that not even fifteen minutes after that the kitten was back in the cage! This time Black Ops were ready and had their maneuver down! It went off without a hitch and we now have a kitten. Tiger. The next day we took him to the vet and he weighed 1.75 lbs. Sweet!

This kitten has made me gaga over it! I never knew I was such a cat person (R can't believe it either). I only ever had one other cat in my life - a full grown stray with an interesting personality - but this kitten is the bomb!

That is the story of How We Got Tiger. Next will be: How Tiger Became Cato

Gratuitous Tiger-Cato shot

2010-12-31T13:39:00.000-08:00

We've been letting Tiger-Cato outside these days. He doesn't stay out for more than an hour or so at a time (except for that one night when he got stuck up in a not very high tree), but he has a very interesting way of letting me know he wants to come back inside. This move cracks Chicky up, she's usually laughing so hard she can't open the door!

It was just she and I this morning so we had lovely Custardy Popovers for brunch. I was in the mood for savory so I had mine with sausage and sharp cheddar cheese, she was in the mood for sweet and had lemon curd. To each his own! (I got to use my "new" cast iron muffin tin too. The extra batter had to go in a ramekin, which is also fine.) They were delicious!

After a week of seeing snow on the ground, it's almost gone now. It was nice while it lasted!

Back in action

2010-12-30T09:06:00.001-08:00

After a lovely week of r & r at the beach, I'm back and ready for action! All the animals (well, not the guinea pigs and snake) and had a restful time as well. See? Proof.

Button didn't make a sofa appearance. He was hanging out in a plant.

I've done a little knitting (literally). I love these little guys. I found some of my first hand spun ever and used that. I made a couple more and gave them as wee gifts.

Made a scarf for Mollie, too.

I've got a couple other projects on the needles, but not worth a photo at this point. While I was on my vacation I've found a couple good things to put in Vintage Black Ethel! More yellow ware and a fabulous old lunch carrier (tiffin). I've had a couple other good finds for my own personal use, I'm going to photograph them soon.

Today's chores include a stout cake, more cleaning, and some knitting.

Where is spring?

2010-02-23T17:16:00.000-08:00

I can't believe February is close to over and there has been SNOW in the south! I'm irritated by the fact there may be more tonight. Coming from a land where snow is an everyday winter reality, the fact that life essentially stops because of the stuff is annoying. The boys have lost their spring break to snow make up days. One day we got the phone call school was cancelled at 7:30 am as we were on our way to school! I'm longing for green, redbud flowers, daffodils, and all those little yellow flowers on the forest floor around here.

This year is looking pretty eventful: the boys will officially be teenagers in a couple of months and it's Chicky's last year of elementary school. All of a sudden this parenting thing has a different meaning. The foundation has been laid for the people they will become. I see glimmers of their future selves along with all the confusion of being mired in their present anxieties. I've taken a long look at my parenting skills and found them wanting so I'm back in Educate Thyself land. First off, children can be frustrating. I've got a pretty short fuse some days. After dealing with children under three during the day, coming home to three ten and over "tweens" with their quick-witted verbal (and sometimes physical) spatting can put me over the edge. When the kids were little I read, Nancy Samalin's book Loving Your Child is not Enough and I found it helpful. I'm not sure why she left my resource list, but she has another book Love and Anger: the Parental Dilemma and it has helped immensely. Somehow, I carried my work role as teacher over to my family and I have interfered too much in the kids' arguments and haven't let them handle it themselves. Now, I confidently walk out of the room when the squabbling starts and since they see no one gets much of a reaction about the name calling it stops. I have also tuned out the Universals (i.e., "you always say that to me but you never do her!"), the "it's not fair!", and my need to reason with people that are not reasonable. I'm sleeping better, so it must be working.

My lover teases me for the number of books on my nightstand, which is usually telling about my current emotional crisis status, to wit: Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, but I know how it ends so while it's interesting, it's not pressing; The Secret Lives of Girls by Sharon Lamb; Reviving Ophelia by Mary Piper; Getting it Right with Teens by Madelyn Swift (I've seen her a couple times at NAEYC conferences and she is smart, funny, and practical);Lost Boys by James Garbanio, Bryan Peterson's Understanding Photography Field Guide; and Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. Can you tell I'm feeling unsettled about this newly paved portion of life's highway? I gave Shiver to Chicky for the winter holiday and she liked it and thought I should read it too. I do like to read what the kids are reading and I spent a good part of January reading The Last Olympian series and enjoyed the characters as much as Harry Potter. I thought it was brilliant that girls kicked ass and there weren't lots of long drawn out boring bits like house elf sub-plots or a never ending quidditch world cup.

I've also been playing around with my camera more - new lens means more practice needed! And I'm currently debating how to work photography and my need for exercise into some cohesive doable, enjoyable thing. I'm thinking hiking is my only option here. Resistance bands and a camera aren't going to work and trying to hold a yoga pose while focusing isn't good either. I've been doing a bit of ice skating since December (I got a pair of figure skates as an early birthday present!) but I fall too often to be out there with a camera. I saw a woman fall and heard her camera SMACK the ice. Very sad sound indeed.

Oh, I'm also the mother of boys who throw balls and catch them with sticks. Yep. Lacrosse. So far they think it's more fun than soccer and wondered why they haven't been doing it longer. I can tell them why - it's more expensive.

Two easy after Thanksgiving foods

2009-11-27T17:09:00.000-08:00

After cooking the feast and eating leftovers for a day or so I'm ready to move on in the world of food. Since I am totally enamored of Jamie Oliver I've been getting his mag from the UK ($65/year - sort of a surprise when I added it to my cart. I was aware of the general exchange rate, but not the specifics). So, I've got the pile of them on my desk right now and each one has a fold out section of recipes for the month. Typically quicker than the ones in the main part of the magazine and I've had a little rash of making them this week.

Since I already have a scale (which I bought for weighing WOOL) and the recipes are mostly in metric weights, it's easier to weigh everything out before cooking. Kind of like you're supposed to do it, heh. For dinner I made a double batch of Chorizo & Butter Bean Stew

1/2 lb sliced chorizo
2 red onions, sliced
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1 tsp smoked paprike
14.5 oz can of butter beans
14.5 oz can tomatoes

Cook chorizo, red onions, and garlic over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add 1 tsp paprika, tomatoes, and beans, then cook on low heat for 20 minutes.

Serve with crusty bread.

The double batch will be nice for lunches this week!

Then, for tomorrow when I get the peeps back, I made Lemon & Poppy Seed Drizzle Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat 1 1/4 cup sugar with 3 eggs until light. Add 1 3/4 cup self-rising flour, 14 T melted butter (almost two sticks), grated zest of 1 lemon and 2 T poppy seeds. Mix batter until smooth. Spoon batter into a buttered and floured 8" cake pan and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool, then split in half horizontally. Whisk 6 oz double cream with 2 T powdered sugar to soft peaks. Spread thickly over the bottom half of the cake. Mix a scant cup of powdered sugar with the juice of 1/2 lemon, and slice the other lemon half very thinly. Place the top half of cake on the cream, spread with icing, top with lemon slices and finish with a scattering of poppy seeds.

I haven't tasted all three bits together yet, but they were each damn good separate!

I'm dog sitting until Sunday - Eowyn is pleased, she loves Mac. Yesterday afternoon I couldn't find them and then when I was putting laundry away I found them on Chicky's bed. Happy dogs. I wonder if they'll leave any room for her tomorrow night?

The back of the Arwen sweater is finished and I'm finally on to the left side. I'm done with the hem and have increased for the cabled edge. I've only done two sets of the cable repeats, but the pattern is emerging - yea.

You can't go back

2009-11-14T11:44:00.000-08:00

My man and I like music... a lot. Last week while he was on a long drive he heard that the Steve Miller Band would be coming to Durham. Now I love 70's music and could sing "The Joker" and "Big Old Jet Airliner" for you, but I won't. My man was excited; he loved them while he was in college and so I said ok, let's go. I had more than a small feeling it wasn't going to be great because a.) the band hasn't released an album in a very long time and b.) once they played their five hits, how exciting could it be? Bob Dylan? STILL puts out albums and plays old and new stuff whenever he tours. Willie Nelson? Same thing, only Willie has some Vegas cheese moves - he winks and points at people while he plays - I never would have guessed, he looks so mellow and all. Anyhoo, after a long workday we headed out to the Piedmont Restaurant where I had some fresh tagliatelle with ragù bolognese & parmesan and my man had choucroute garnie: housemade sauerkraut, potatoes, boudin blanc, pork belly, smoked pork loin & mustard jus. Both were very good but we were kind of hurried since we needed to get to the show at 8 pm. I will say that starting a concert at 8 pm on a Friday night without any opening band makes me feel old. I appreciated it, but I'll tell you why in a minute.

We had seats in the third level balcony (a.k.a. The Jane Fonda Workout Section - you wouldn't believe the burn!). The crowd was multi-generational, as they say nowadays, there were some high school kids mixed in with the predominantly 50 and 60 year old crowd. I only saw two people I knew in the entire crowd: my old vet (before we moved to Hillsborough) and a bag guy from the Food Lion by my house. For me, at an event in Durham that is rare. The Steve Miller Band came out and the crowd at the DPAC was standing up and screaming for joy. I was not. One guy, the back-up singer danced the whole time (he's almost 70 and he's got some moves, but that is not cool for rock. KC & the Sunshine Band? Definitely. Steve Miller Band? Not so much) and the band had no passion for the music. They were definitely going through the motions. We left after six songs. It was nice that since the band went on early, we could come home watch some tv and get to bed at a decent hour! Heh.

For today's fun, raking one of the many layers of leaves of the season. I have two fairly willing helpers and one that is purposely not helping in hopes I will let him out of the job. He is sorely mistaken.

Here's the fun we're having:

The leafy hell is over for now. I've not got the chutzpah for flogging the peeps and doing the backyard - which is twice the size of the front.

I was inspired to make pork empanadas with thyme from Everyday Food. It was good, but dry. I didn't add the raisins because I figured the peeps would be less likely to eat the finished product if they knew they were in there (and they would ask believe me. They were all over the pine nuts, "What is this?"). I used fresh sage and thyme from the garden in the dough and filling as the recipe instructs and the peeps liked them.

In knitting news I'm working on the Mushroom Hat which is large enough to accommodate a bun. I have long hair that I usually wear up and I love wearing hats, but it's an issue. This hat will hopefully solve that. I'm using some yarn I dyed a long time ago and it is dyed in colors I wouldn't normally choose for myself. If I end up not liking it Chicky can have it.

I'm headed to DC for the National Association of Young Children conference this Wednesday, so I should be able to get lots of knitting done while I'm sitting in sessions. The line-up is not very exciting, many people I look forward to seeing when I go aren't presenting this year. I've got multiple classes high-lighted for each time slot in case they're full (or suck). I sit in the back so as not to disturb people if I leave. The number of people there tends to overwhelm me a bit, so I'm planning on reading and relaxing in my hotel room at night. I've got a book, a couple knitting projects and my iPod ready to go.

A brief respite...

2009-11-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

Last year, sixth grade was a HUGE transition for our family. There was suddenly daily homework, band, and constant assessments going on at school. Seventh grade has, so far, been the same but more pleasant for the boys because they are now allowed to participate in school sports. They made the soccer team for fall. The boys liked having a couple hours of physical activity four days a week. Sure, it was harder to fit homework and practicing instruments into the shortened evenings, but it was worth it. Soccer season just ended and the boys are sad they have to ride the bus home and lug their instruments up the hill every day. This Friday, try-outs start for the winter season sports. Bowen wants to try-out for basketball and Morgan for ultimate frisbee. We'll see how it goes. My only hope is that if they make it their practice times are similar.

In knitting news, there's been the finishing of another sweater! The Scoop Pullover by Cathy Carron is finished. By the end of the process, I was pretty tired of the ribbing bit. I used Ashland Bay Klickitat which I purchased from Paradise Fibers. When I was finished I dyed it - for future reference - not the best idea since it didn't dye evenly. I feared this might be the case, but it was worse than I thought and I ended up re-dying it. Thankfully, my long locks hide the worst of it on the back.

I do like the end color and the fit. My only complaint is (and I have this with other ribbed sweaters, but somehow I thought if I knit it myself it wouldn't happen) that by the end of the day the rib has lost a bit of it's elasticity and doesn't look or fit as well as it does after it's freshly laundered. I really am not fond of a sweater I have to wash every single time I wear it. So, I've only worn it once. Maybe it will end up being a Special Occasion Sweater.

Currently on the needles, the beautifulArwen by Kate Gilbert. I'm using Plymouth Yarn Galway Worsted - I can't afford the softer stuff right now. The pattern looks a bit tedious, and the plain back is rather a bore, but I'm chugging along. Only nine more inches until I can work on the right or left side.

Lately, I've been opting for reading before going to bed instead of knitting. Work has been pretty tiring and sometimes I fall asleep while I'm reading and the next night I have to go back a page or so before any of the story looks familiar. You might think I should just go straight for the sleeping bit, but my brain doesn't seem to work that way. I have to get it all distracted and focused on something other than the one thousand things I worry about every night before The Sandman comes anywhere near me. I'm hoping the time change will help with that tonight!

You're hat looks like...

2009-10-28T18:07:00.001-07:00

I usually wear a black, wide brimmed hat when it rains because one of my biggest pet peeves is rain on my glasses lenses. Rain on the inside of the lenses is the worst. I have to take the time to not only clean the rain off, but search through my purse/African market basket to find the expensive little glasses cleaner cloth tucked neatly into it's pouch. The cloth works really well, but finding it is a huge undertaking. Besides, I love a hat.

My hat has seen better days. I've machine washed it one too many times and the floppy, but posable brim is now only floppy. My new rain hat is my cow girl hat, which I also love but seldom wear. It rained a couple days this week so I've actually been seen wearing it. Today when I was leaving work one of the parents said, "That hat looks like the one that old country singer that was on heroin used to wear." And I said, "Which one? There are so many, but Steve Earle is my personal favorite." The parent thought for a moment, "This is a woman." I took a stab, "Lucinda Williams?" "Yes!" Honestly, I can say that Lucinda looks road worn, for sure, but mid-50s is not my idea of old. Of course, I'm a decade closer that this man was so maybe that's the reason I've been thinking about it.

And then, six months later...

2009-10-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

What can I say? Life has been happening at it's regular pace and I have stopped dyeing, and really stopped knitting for quite a while. The interesting part is I've been hanging out with my man more, playing golf (I had no idea I even liked golf, let alone would show some aptitude for it), working in the garden, and getting some much needed storage for my house. Now... finally... I'm knitting again!

The cooler temperatures have been bringing out my need to cook all day at least one day on the weekend. This past weekend it was making plum butter and roasting a pumpkin for pie (the pie happened yesterday, after the chili). I have been reminded by friends and family alike that it has been a long time since I made spinach calzones, so that may be this weekend's work.

For the knitting bits, I've really only knit two things recently. The first is the One Skein Shawl by Clara Parkes. The yarn was dyed and spun by the sweet and talented Sarah. It is hanging out on one of my furniture/storage finds - an old, but not completely original Hoosier cabinet.

My second knit is the popular Whisper Cardi by Hannah Fettig. There's a reason it is so popular; it is light, stylish, and beautiful. I used the Morehouse Farm Merino Lace the pattern called for and it was a pleasure to knit. The pictures of the sweater are good, but excuse my harried look. Some days are long.

The back is the best part of the whole sweater (please excuse the hair and the crooked seam on my ass).

I'm toying with the idea of making it again in a worsted weight. Right now I'm working on the Scoop pullover by Cathy Carron. I'm using an undyed worsted weight that I am going to dye when finished. I can't believe I'm doing it that way either, but that's how I'm rolling on this project.

I just got my Fiber Share from Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm. I thought I asked for a spinner's share, but it's probably just as well I didn't get one as I haven't been spinning either. I have another sweater project in mind for it.

Usually, by this time of year I'm well on the way of churning out knitting for the holidays. Only family members are getting any hand knit love this year. I'm going back to baking for friends and extended family - I enjoy doing that as well, and I think they might like receiving edible gifts more! This year may be a cookie basket, I have to start digging through recipes.

No new loom... yet

2009-04-02T05:20:00.000-07:00

My loom that I ordered on March 23 (not that I'm keeping track) is backordered. Sigh. It was a good thing I went ahead and loaded up the loom for another project. See how even the selvedges are? Yep, this is the END of the scarf. For the previous two-thirds of the scarf, it didn't look good at all.

To illustrate very clearly, here is a photo of both ends.

The final measurements end up being 3 1/4" x 79". I was very careful when I had to reload my shuttle, but somehow the stripes were altered. It is a hand painted yarn, so that could account for the variation, but I spent quite a while trying to figure it out and fix it to no avail. Still working that learning curve!

It has rained here so much I'm beginning to grow webs between my toes. Things are blooming and it is a nice contrast between the blooms and the dark gray sky but I'm desperate for some sunshine. Cloudy days are fine for photography, so the dog and I went for a walk at Ayr Mount last weekend. No one else was there (I like that) but it is hard trying to take pictures while holding the dog's leash somewhere out of the way or having the dog lurch at some good smell while I'm mashing the shutter button. Despite the technical difficulties, I had fun.

Saw beaver handiwork at the edge of the trail.

New growth in the cemetary.

And a relatively new tree scar.

The baby cape is almost finished - I'm on the hood! I'm making myself finish it before I cast on for the Whisper Cardigan. I bought the yarn almost immediately after I got the magazine. It's not often I buy the exact yarn in the pattern, but it looks so scrumptious and lightweight, I knew I had to do it. Can't wait to wind those skeins!

New fiber addiction

2009-03-28T10:24:00.000-07:00

One day a very long time ago, a co-worker was cleaning out the storage room at work and pulled out a box that contained a table loom destined for the curb. I claimed it and it has sat in whatever houses I've inhabited for almost twenty years. I've gotten it out a couple of times and tried to decipher the directions, but they are very sparse. Goggleing the model and loom didn't turn up any help either. Lately, the weaving bug has been buzzing in my ear and I've been looking at rigid heddle looms. I wold love a floor loom, but my house is small (and so is my budget).

In the midst of this I bought Chicky a loom for her birthday. It came with very clear directions and an impressive project book.She loves it and has made her first scarf. She wants to make a hoodie next.

Reading her instruction manual made me think that perhaps I could get that old loom out of the attic and manage to figure it out. I did! Here it is without the 10 dent heddle attached yet.

My first project didn't turn out so well. My selvedges SUCK and the weave is too open. I used linen for the warp and some of my early handspun (romney) for the weft. I only handwashed it and I've since read a good go through the washing machine might tighten things up a bit.

Since warping the loom is a two person job, I went ahead and decided on my next project while the peeps were here to help. It's going to be a scarf with Opal sock yarn as the warp and Fiesta Boomerang as the weft. My left selvedges look good, the right have not been so great, but now that I'm over halfway through look much better. I hate the learning curve sometimes.
I did order a 32" Kromski Harp and the book Hands On Rigid Heddle Weaving by Betty Linn Davenport. The loom is backordered and I'm trying to be calm and patient until it gets here. Meanwhile, I'm thinking about placemats...

Back from the edge of the planet

2009-03-02T11:26:00.000-08:00

Nope, I didn't fall off the planet. I was worried for a while, right before Christmas when I thought I might, but it didn't happen.

I woke up to about four inches of snow this morning. Eowyn woke me up at 5:30 am absolutely determined to go outside. I made her wait about half an hour because she has this evil habit of barking - sometimes it's a cat or a squirrel, but most of the time I have no idea why and it bugs the shit out of me. I had a hard time finding her lead under the snow and she made herself all heavy when she thought I was trying to take her back inside (I just needed to scrape my boots in another direction a bit to look for the tie-out, but she didn't understand my explanation). Since I was already up, I had my coffee and made my grocery list for Tres Leches cake. My co-workers have put up with listening to me whine about my desire to make this cake for a few weeks now. I try not to bake if I don't have a reason to do so, it's an expensive habit in money and calories! My excuse today: my birthday was Friday, but my children were (and still are, thanks to the snow) at their dad's house and we didn't get a chance to celebrate.

By the time I had all the ingredients at room temperature it was time for a spot of tea. According to my web research, Tres Leches is best if it has at least the night to set in the fridge. Basically it's a sponge cake soaked in three milks: heavy cream, evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk, and then frosted with a vanilla cream frosting. YUM!

Saturday I used my new birthday present and made some of Jamie Oliver's English Onion Soup from the Jamie at Home cookbook. LOVE. THE. DUTCH. OVEN. It and I are going to be best friends, I can tell already.

Then, because I made some last weekend (and the peeps liked it for breakfast) I made another batch of Aunt Melissa's Granola from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I add all kinds of dried fruit to it and I like it because it's not overly sweet. One batch fills my old blue Ball Perfect Mason jar and seems to be just enough for a week.

Other than cooking, which really has been happening a lot, I'm working on Daphne's Baby Cape (rav link) and the comments posted about the yarn requirements being waaaaaay off are quite correct. I'm on the third skein (pattern calls for three) and I'm less than halfway done. The baby I'm making it for was born this past Wednesday and the rows are over 200 stitches; it's kind of a garter stitch slog at this point. I haven't been watching much TV and I haven't figured out Elizabeth Zimmerman's trick of reading and knitting (other than patterns) at the same time so the knitting has suffered.

I did give in and read the Twilight series. My interest waned, however, when it got weighed down in a lack of character development. There were several loopholes that really pissed me off, but I digress. Since I was all in a dither when I was done I had to go back and re-read my favorite vampire book Sunshine. Much more how vampires are supposed to behave, thankyouverymuch. I have a PILE of books next to my bed and I decided to go light and funny next. Dennis Leary fits the bill. After that the old bedside reading gets heavier.

Plans for the rest of the day? Watch some DVR'd shows and knit - the cape awaits!

Noro... YUM!

2008-11-29T06:23:00.000-08:00

As soon as I saw b r o o k l y n t w e e d 's (I know it's not really his) Noro Stripe Scarf I was smitten, but kind of forgot about it because of all the other projects I had going on. Then The Harlot got on board, and I went, "Oh yea, I wanted to do that!" So I did, and am still doing it. The scarf is almost half done.

The mittens are a mitered variation on the theme (EZ's pattern in The Knitter's Almanac). This mitten is the second mitten I've knitted. Where is the first, you ask? Good question. I hated the color line up so much I frogged it. I rewound one ball the opposite direction in hopes of making it more pleasing... time will tell.

The hat hasn't been started, but it will soon. I have the yarn already.

My felted clogs are done. After three trips though the wash they're perfect! I lurve them and will only be taking them off to leave the house! Before felting they're rather unattractive.

But after felting all their floppy hideousness is GONE and they are transformed into warm, sturdy, beautiful clogs.

This is the first time I have had my children for more than five days in many months. They all came with me to the Annual Thanksgiving Feast at work (I made Lynne Rosetto Casper's Fast and Crisp Roast Turkey for the third year and it is a huge hit. I am a believer in brining a turkey, this one has quite a few extras in the brine, but the juicy flavorful bird after the roasting is worth it. If you do look at the recipe, it really does roast at 450 degrees for a fraction of the time it usually takes to roast a turkey.

On actual Thanksgiving I made another smaller bird for the four of us, and tired to duplicate my friend Becca's amazing sweet and savory dressing. After two more turkey based meals I made a huge vat of soup (with veggies roasted under the bird for that very purpose) and put it in the freezer. Maybe we'll be able to eat it in a week or two.

We went for a walk at Ayr Mount it's only about a mile from our house and the poet's walk is a nice path through the woods and by a pond and ends up at the house. The Kirkland house was built in 1815 and was the first in the federal style in the area. There are 265 acres and we've only seen a small portion of that so far, but since it's close and the Eno River flows through it I'm sure we'll go often.

One more day of knitting and leisure and then it's back to the regular grind!

Ring of Fire

2008-11-19T18:06:00.000-08:00

Still churning out the knitting - I think the drop in temperature has been helpful - and am over three-quarters done on the Through the Loops Mystery Socks! It's a beautiful pattern, but the shapely cables make my ankles look disappointingly thick. Hence the photograph on the sock blocker! I have yet to get a picture that accurately shows the many shades of brown in the yarn.

I'm also working on the Noro Scarf (it's a Ravelry link) that will have matching mitered mittens and a hat. I have never made a "set" of matching anything other than socks and scarves and I figured why the hell not?

Morgan's Opal socks are finished - finally. I "finished" the first one when he wasn't here and when he got back from his dad's I had him try it on and it was definitely too short. I undid the end and lengthened it and now they are perfect. Bowen has outgrown last year's pair and has asked for another, with my production rate I asked him not to hold his breath!

I'm working on another fambly calendar to send to the Grandfolk and we decided to have some fun with light trails. Once we got the dog out of the room it went much better and with less danger of anyone catching on fire in the process. We're going to try again tomorrow night, it's pretty hard for the kids to hold still with the shutter open for any length of time, but they did pretty well. The fambly portrait known as The Ring of Fire:

Maybe by Saturday I'll have some new felted clogs finished! I had high hopes of making each of us a pair, but the large needle size wreaks havoc on my fingers and wrists. They are a pretty quick knit, though.

Ummm.... bread

2008-11-09T05:24:00.000-08:00

I haven't been dyeing at all lately, but I've been knitting so much I'm going to have to back off because my hands are pretty sore. In addition to the knitting I've been baking quite a bit. Pumpkins are in season and my family loves pumpkin bread and pies. We've had four loaves of bread in the past couple weeks (and given two away) and there's still some pumpkin in the fridge. I also bought Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day which came highly recommended by Susan Gibbs. She's right - it rocks! I've been baking bread since high school and have always loved it, but with all the other things I have to do in a day hasn't been possible to fit bread making into the schedule. WRONG! My new routine is to mix up a batch of wet dough on the weekends and then take a hunk out of the fridge when I get home from work and while supper is cooking, put that lovely loaf in the oven and presto - dinner and good bread are ready! I've made the basic broule and the bagels - both are delicious. The bagels are for the kids' lunches, although we did celebrate with them the morning after the election since they were shaped like an "O". If I end up roasting another pumpkin today I'm going to try the Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread. A mediocre shot of the yummy bagels is below (CFB's in the kitchen fixture with no natural light is my least favorite lighting situation).

I finally finished Foliage. I tried back in January and after frogging a couple of times figured my mind was not in the right place. It was this time! I decided to do a rolled brim since (thanks to the beauty of top down knitting) I could see after the three pattern repeats a rib pattern would have been down over my eyes!

Another FO, The Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf knit in the lovely Broken Yolks dyed by Sarah spun and cabled by me. I like the color shifts throughout. Morgan has his eye on this one.

It looks like it's going to be another lovely fall day, maybe perfect for more baking.

Hat day

2008-10-19T18:12:00.000-07:00

I have a thing for hats; I buy some and make a hell of a lot more. This year all the kids liked the Noro hat by Saartje de Bruijn and asked me to make them each one. I finally finished Morgan's last week and asked our friend Mel to take some pictures of them. Her partner Angela is in the background making sure we're all "even".

Then I got Morgan to model MY finished Nehalem (pattern by Oat Couture). I used the worsted weight Beaverslide Dry Goods yarn I got a few weeks ago. It has a fabulous octagon in the back in addition to the lovely cable on the band. Unfortunately my dear son has the hat on backwards and some of the lovely cable band isn't so lovely in the back. I used a provisional cast on to eliminate the seam, but the pattern isn't quite right and it bugs me. Wouldn't bother me at all if it were in the back.

After the photo shoot we went to two local cemeteries for fun. One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, William Hooper is buried here in Hillsborough. Some of the gravestones are almost worn completely smooth and they have plaques asking people not to do rubbings. I think the earliest gravestone we found was 1806. Several markers for men that were in the Civil War too. Here's a tribute I was surprised by -

I didn't think he would have been allowed to serve on the Supreme Court of NC after being a Colonel in the Confederate Army. May have to google him to find out "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey used to say.

Hillsborough Handmade Parade: Nesting

2008-10-18T11:41:00.001-07:00

Hillsborough Handmade Parade: Nesting
Originally uploaded by Oberazzi

The cutest woodpeckers EVER.

Catching up

2008-10-17T16:27:00.000-07:00

Dead silence in blog land lately, but there's been a fair amount of action in reality. Last weekend was the first annual Hillsborough Handmade Parade with the theme The Eno and her Creatures. Hillsborough loves a parade and typically has a good turn out for such events. This one is sponsored by the Hillsborough Arts Council and had some workshops offered by Paperhand Puppet Intervention. We have some friends that were planning on participating and I thought it would be small and cute, but had no idea the turnout would be so fantastic! The costumes, the community band (I didn't know we had one), the drums, the crowds - awesome! I brought along the camera, but the battery died after only three pictures and I didn't bring any back-up. So lame of me. At soccer that very morning, we starting talking telling another Hillsborough resident about our day's plan and she offered to bring The Original Dragon from the very first Eno River Festival and needed eight people to make it go. Here's the result

Lewis was very patient with my attempts at picture taking and the result was still rather fuzzy. Sorry.

And the last picture before the battery died was of a dragonfly. It was stunning and was created by Michael Brown, Mark Donley, Tinka Jordy and Jennifer Miller for the Hillsborough Arts Council.

My very favorite costume was a small flock of red-headed woodpeckers; one complete with a nest. So cute.

Today I've finished another hat and am going to work on my Through The Loops Mystery Sock. I forgot to go up in needle size after the cuff and the cables have made sock #1 too small to fit. I'm almost finished with the third clue for sock #2 and then I shall go back and rip out all the beautiful cable bits back to the cuff and try and finish by Wednesday. Tomorrow there are plans for a family photo shoot (with knitting) and some knitted bits on their own.

The leaves are starting to turn and soccer was cold this morning. I'm getting in the mood for winter - bring on the wool!

Fiber progress

2008-09-28T11:27:00.000-07:00

I've had a burst of knitting FO's in the past couple days. The main reason is that a yarn order I placed had some weird glitch by arriving in Greensboro when it was supposed to (some people track weather systems, I track packages) and then nothing was posted to the system for FOUR days. After the four days of tracking silence the package suddenly made an appearance in California! As a result, there has been no dyeing this weekend. I have been knitting, spinning, cleaning carpets, and trying to get caught up with the elusive laundry cycle.

The Family of Noro Hats is almost complete. Only the first is actually knitted with Noro yarn, all the rest are done in various shades of hand-dyed by me. Bowen's is done and I cannot seem to get an accurate shot of the colors. It's not this yellow at all.

I'm hoping when he comes back to my house tomorrow we can get an outdoor shot that will do the colors justice. Morgan's is on the needles and moving along nicely.

The Mason-Dixon Knitters have a new book Knitting Outside the Lines and I've been making the quick knit, purposeful Monteagle Bag. It calls for Euroflax but since I don't have any of that lying around I used good ole Peaches 'n Creme.

For the second bag I did a double-knit cast-on so I wouldn't have to seam the bottom and I used some of the left over Hempathy from the Hip in Hemp skirt. I think the bottom of the bag is the most beautiful part!

I used it today and it handled some beets and rustic bread very well.

One of my orders did arrive this week. After all the hullabaloo about Beaverslide Dry Goods from b r o o k l y n t w e e d I decided to give them a try. I opened the box and look at how beautiful my merino/kid mohair roving is:

A giant ball of fiber love! I ordered some yarn too, one fisherman's weight and the other two are worsted. Each yarn is a two ply.

I see more hats in my near future!

Cozy yarn sale

2008-09-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

This is belated, sorry about that, but Cozy's Annual Yarn Sale was a smashing success! I knew it would make all the difference if people could actually touch the yarn and see the colors up close. I dyed 32 skeins specifically for the sale and only came home with ten of those - not too shabby! Plus the knitter and Cozette love was well worth the effort.

One of the Cozettes, Lisa, has a blog and did a post with some pictures. The most amazing thing was the line of ten or twelve women waiting outside before the sale started. I was tucked back in the "personal care" section and a whoosh of women went to the back where the yarn is - a few with LISTS of what they wanted to grab. I met lots of great knitters, was totally impressed by the mellowness of the Cozettes in the midst of fiber lust-filled customers, and have found a few of them on Ravelry (I love that).

Yesterday I took a day trip, after two soccer games in the morning, to the Rising Meadow Farm's Sixth Annual Farm Fest. I got to chat with Mary Ann Pagano of Three Water's Farm. Mary Ann taught me to spin and I bought my first wheel from her. In addition to beautiful fibers in several forms, she also makes goat's milk soap -
I bought ten bars as handmade soap is a weakness of mine. I also stopped in at the booth by Gate City Yarns and bought a featherweight Bosworth spindle. Under the same tent I found Iseespots Farm and bought a nice nostepinne and a maxi Bosworth - I know, that was pretty indulgent!

I also bought four "truffles" of moorit roving from Rising Meadow Farm. There were six different colors and it was hard to choose only two. Each truffle is 2 oz a piece.

The food was also good. There were lamb and grass-fed beef offerings, drinks to benefit the local Girl Scouts ( a glass of cider, lemonade, or bottled water at $1 each)! Given that drinks are usually the thing that kill me at events I was flabbergasted and went back for some muscadine cider!

The stove has been on almost all day and thanks to the breeze, many of the rovings (superwash merino) are almost dry. One of the local knitters happened to notice some of my roving that had been spun into a lovely single by Mama Blue. Heart was one of my favorite rovings. This is what it looked like before it was gorgeously spun:

For some strange reason I was plagued by an inability to sleep well all week. I'm hoping cooler weather this week will help that situation.

MIddle school, lots of yarn, new smalls

2008-08-29T17:52:00.000-07:00

The first week of middle school was kind of rough. Granted, we had an experience (as a family) a few years ago that rocked us to the core of our being and transition continues to bring it to the surface. One of the boys has been terrified every day of school while the other has been nervous, but dealing in a very brave way (this is EXACTLY the opposite of kindergarten, just for the record). There have been tears every morning, nightmares each night, a boy in my bed around five literally shaking with fear, and the horrid realities of motherhood: the ones where you are the hard ass. It's a hard one to balance, the mom of kindness and support and the mom of you-just-have-to-suck-it-up-cause-it's-life. I hate it.

For the past five years I've had a week off at work and my children have been in school. While that means I've made 140 mile round trip drives for each of those five weeks, it also means I've had time to myself while my kids are in school. This year the boys had their last week of vacation while I was off. I still had to drive 140 miles that week for school trips (Chicky's been back in school since mid-July), and since I hurt my ankle we couldn't do anything really fun, but it was nice spending time with the boys alone. I haven't gotten to do that since Chicky was born!

After a really crappy day at work and the middle school transition sadness I came home to find a box on my front stoop from my very dear friend Sarah. She and I have NEVER met in person, but we met through Ravelry and send messages as often as we can. We send boxes to each other every so often and when I opened mine, here's what I found:

Let me just say that it is almost scary how well this woman knows me! Favorite colors, favorite weaknesses, and humor right up my alley! Her box absolutely made my day! The rovings are stunning as usual, and that is no small compliment. I've bought rovings that look good on-line but are dull and a mere shadow of their pictured selves when seen up-close and in person. The superwash Blue-Faced Leicester looks like fun to spin and the brilliant colors will shine through - I can't wait!

Before back-to-school week I dyed a lot of yarn and am still re-skeining it - I don't like buying skeins and having them tangled and I would hate someone cussing me while they try and make a center-pull ball. I have 22 done and ten more to go! All the yarn is headed for Cozy on September 7. Here's a sneak peak at some of the yarn.

At work we've begun a new session with new children and getting to know them is a great joy and emotional sacrifice. In order to get to know small children you need to build trust with them, which typically means letting them be sad for as long as they need to and comforting them so they realize that you are able/willing to do that for them. The good part is that when they are not sad getting to know them it is incredibly fun. Emotionally it can take a toll and my children know from being in my class while it was happening, as well as talking about it with me during each new session, that it can be physically exhausting as well. Since I haven't gotten much sleep this week from my own boys' anxiety, I'm hoping the next three nights will give me some time/space to rejuvenate and be have some fun on Monday with my children and be ready for other people's again on Tuesday.

I'm barely awake and would love to go read The Sotry of Edgar Sawtelle but I think If I did manage to keep my eyes open, I'd never remember what I had "read"!

Here's to good sleep and better dreams!

Hip in Hemp

2008-08-20T18:04:00.000-07:00

The skirt is finished! I love the Hempathy yarn and will knit another! Lovely hand and drape, holds it's shape nicely and has lots of ventilation! Perfection!!!

Better pictures will follow soon. This one was taken balancing on my hurt foot while standing in front of a mirror propped on the sofa. Way too much going on at one time. If I trusted one of my children to hold the camera I'd let them take a picture. Notice the if.

The boys and I went to the Open House for their middle school, which starts next week and I have yet another list of school supplies to buy. I can't believe the list! I guess I should be pleased that they even need colored pencils, scissors, and a glue stick in sixth grade. The specific binders, composition books, calculators, etc. are wearing on me. They get to start band this year, too - very exciting. On Friday they go all day for orientation, we'll see how that goes!

I'm overwhelmed and it hasn't even started!

You never know until you try

2008-08-19T17:30:00.000-07:00

I have found my dyeing muse! I feel like illustrator Stephen Gammel before he found "his" way of painting. I was happy with the dyeing, but now that I've found a technique that looks like I've been imagining it all this time I don't think I'll ever go back to dyeing in any of my "old" ways again! (As an aside, I love Stephen Gammel's illustrations - particularly his "own" style. Monster Mama is one of my favorites.)

Today was a very successful dyeing day! I have three new rovings up at Etsy and am busy dyeing yarn to sell at Cozy's Annual Yarn Sale on Sept 7. Deb and Margaret are allowing me to bring my wheel and spin in the shop and sell rovings and yarn on that day! I'm trying to remain calm about the whole thing, but I'm nervous.

Ok, the rovings. All are in superwash merino and are a combination of techniques. What I like best are the blending of colors and the sudden surprises of other colors. My favorite is called Too Blue because there's a lot of purple in it and purple is my all time favorite. For like the last twenty years or so.

Then comes the green with other colors peeping through. This is Salad (I have run out of name ideas).

And the next - Heart - has the brown overtones.

The yarns are still drying or in process. The boys are amazed/horrified at how I can make this take all day. There are kettles on the stove right now and one of them came into the kitchen and said, "How long are you going to keep doing this?" Huh. Hadn't really given it much thought. Until I'm done?

What do you mean, "it's not broken"?

2008-08-13T16:39:00.000-07:00

Hmmm. As you can tell my orthopedist visit was annoying. All this pain is apparently a strained tendon. There's still swelling and bruising and now I have thereputic exercises (with pain) and the boot for another 13 DAYS. FUCK! Sigh. I am a horrible patient, this is during my "vacation" when two of my three children are home and expect something FUN to happen, and I would like a little fun myself. Also, about three weeks before this accident I had been very much into exercising again and I feel myself melting back into blobness.

Despite foot pain I have been dyeing... and dyeing... and dyeing. I'm doing some over-dyeing which takes longer, but the results seem worth it. I've used up all my merino/tencel roving and have moved on to superwash corriedale and merino. The merino/tencel is so soft and silky, but frustrating to photograph because of it's lovely sheen. My favorite of the batch is Plums.

The superwash corriedale (the only dry one) is called Wild Side.

I've been spinning from the stash and found some blue-faced leicester from funky carolina. Yep, more bulky! The first skein is 81 yards with nine wraps-per-inch. Skein two is on the Turkish spindle as I type.

Tonight I hope to finish the last twelve rows of the hemp skirt and begin weaving in the 300 ends. In addition to knitting, I'm cooking Jamie Oliver's Tomato and Sausage Bake. I got some beautiful heirloom tomatoes, local sausage, and crusty rustic bread. YUM!!

Hurt foot, well foot

2008-08-11T16:24:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty quiet in blog-land, but in real life I've been doing stuff while I heal. It's tough, I tell you. I didn't succeed in meeting my goal for Le Tour de Fleece. I did not spin everyday. I did, however, rekindle my flame for spinning and have been having a very good time.

Two weeks ago tomorrow, the kids and I had just finished our library trip and were enjoying Loco Pops in town. When I went to step off the curb my Rainbow flip-flop slipped, my ankle twisted and I went down like a dead bug. After almost crying and NOT saying any of the words I wanted to, the kids helped me up and we went home. Luckily it was my left foot and Hazel is an automatic so I could still drive. When we got home and I was propped up on the sofa with pillows and ice I said to Chicky, "I don't think I even cussed ONCE when it happened." She said, "No mama, you didn't! I was impressed, if it had been Daddy he would've said all kinds of stuff!" The kids were fabulous and took good care of me.

Having some hideous experiences with emergency rooms in the past, I decided to live with the pain for the night and go to the orthopedist the next day. I did and the doctor said it was a Type 2 sprain. I guess they decide that by gently pulling on the ankle/leg and seeing how far apart the joint will go. Anyway, three x-rays, a prescription, and a boot later and we were out the door. Drugs, did I mention drugs were given too? I didn't go to work for the rest of the week, stayed well-iced and drugged and marveled at how long it takes a sprain to heal.

Two weeks later, it's still swollen and bruised (my toes look scary!) and it hurts to wear the boot, but since I work with small children and the idea of someone accidentally bumping it makes me cringe, I'm wearing the damned thing. Wednesday I go back to have another x-ray and see how it's healing.

The good news: while I was drugged and healing I got a new Turkish drop spindle from Jenkins. It's a purpleheart and I LOVE IT. I can sit on the sofa and spin forever!

I spun some of my fiber from Sarah - Mountainscape. It was a dream to spin - I'm doing a whole bunch of bulky right now for a Danish shawl.

I also spun one of my rovings, Spring Fling superfine merino and got enough fingering weight for a pair of socks.

Then I went back to bulky happiness and spun up Frances Farmer superwash corriedale that I had left over.

Right now there's some Blue-faced Leicester on the spindle, and my hemp skirt is about 50 rows shy of finished! Maybe I'll get to wear it before winter comes after all!

Wheel's on Fire

2008-07-12T10:02:00.000-07:00

Le Tour de Fleece has been inspiring! I finished Colorshow a couple days ago. It is spun thick/thin and it came out to 4 1/8 ounces, 166 yards, 11 WPI (average). I found it in my stash that I dyed a while ago. I'm fairly certain it's Falklands wool.I am not a novelty yarn kind of person, fluff, glitz, pom-poms, and ladders do nothing for me. So, it was kind of odd that I decided to ply my next spinning Monarch corriedale from http://pigeonroofstudios.etsy.com with gold thread. My first skein didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, I was trying desperately not to over-spin the single (I didn't), but when it came time to ply with the S-twist it fell apart occasionally. The second skein I ran through the wheel an extra time to make sure there was enough Z-twist in it before plying. I don't have the stats for skein two yet because it's still drying, but here's a picture.I took some of my superfine superwash merino (Spring Fling) out of the Etsy shop to spin. It is smooth, fluffy, and glides quickly onto the bobbin. Almost done with the first half of the top, and have had to push myself to walk past the wheel to clean and do laundry. Some dyeing happened this morning. I'm in the superwash corriedale right now. They're baking in the back yard sun - 86 degrees and in a black plastic bag should put the temperature up to a reasonable temp for setting the dye. I love opening up dyed wool packets when they're done - it's like gifts!

Merrily spinning

2008-07-07T16:52:00.000-07:00

I've been spinning for le tour! I've finished Ember, but I didn't divide the roving evenly and ended up having quite a bit of the creamy part leftover. I used that to ply with the leftover "random" spun. It has mellowed it quite nicely.

Ember (two skeins 260 yards)

and the rest of the random (haven't measured it yet)

Tonight I'm starting on some Pigeon Roof Studios corriedale in the Monarch colorway. I don't have any pictures of the roving yet, I'll do that tonight and share tomorrow.

The peeps and I went to the library this afternoon, so I have to go remind them it's time to start the nightly reading. When they're done with their time, we're starting The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman for reading aloud.

Le Tour de Fleece

2008-07-05T18:02:00.000-07:00

Katherine is doing another Le Tour de Fleece and this year the challenge is to spin from your stash. This is perfect for me since I haven't been spinning at all and have a lovely stash to pick from! It's going to be a good break from the sadness of Ziggy the Noro Sock (I digress, more Ziggy later). My goal is to spin every day from today through July 27. I'm not picky, drop spindle or wheel. Today I've been spinning some fiber I got from Sarah back in March - the happy, soft Ember. It's superwash Corriedale and it practically spins itself!

Ziggy, as I mentioned earlier, is half finished. The problem is I don't know if I want to make the other one. I am a very loose knitter, I knit this sock so loose I was afraid the stitches were going to looks big and gappy when I was done. They don't. I can barely get my foot into the sock. It will be really hard for me to knit another sock the same way knowing it will barely fit, so maybe Le Tour de Fleece is perfect timing! A break from knitting right now might be just what I need.

I'll try and post spinning pictures tomorrow. Who knows? There may even be a finished yarn!

Over the Rhine

2008-06-29T03:52:00.000-07:00

For the past few days I have been besotted with a band that has been around for a long time, but I had never heard, Over the Rhine. If you follow the link, there's a blue box on the page that is a record player and you can hear their whole album The Trumpet Child. The band is a husband and wife with varying supporting musicians from what I gather. I cannot get over her voice. I've heard other people say she sounds like Nora Jones and I can hear that, but it's more sophisticated too. I had the record player open on my desktop and finally went over to iTunes and bought the album. And since I can't resist the little moving pictures on YouTube here's a video of one of the stripped down songs live:

When we were at a friend's pool last week (the same one we rescued tadpoles from) Chicky found another gray tree frog and it seemed very content to hang out on her in the water.

Morgan had a turn with it too. My peeps sure like amphibians!

I have about three inches to go on the first ziggy sock! I hope to have a picture up tomorrow - whohoo!

After finishing the household chores of cleaning, I may do some dyeing. I think it will be hot enough that I won't have to steam the wool, I can just leave it out in the sun and the dye will set.

Random bits of knitting and life

2008-06-25T03:24:00.000-07:00

My dear friend Sarah is having a yarn sale over in her shop you might want to check out! I love a sale and thought I'd pass it along. Sarah's color combinations are gorgeous - there are some new rovings and handspun up, too.

In local news, Hillsborough now has a Weaver Street and those of us who have been waiting (and thought the day might never come) are thrilled. It reminds me of the old days, when Wellspring was Wellspring and not Whole Foods and in a smaller building. There are only three checkouts, so I can see some crazy things happening on weekends, but it is lovely. Bulk spices and foods, prepared foods, baked goods, my favorite brands, local meats, and a fabulous chocolate selection! We are moving up in the world, Hillsborough now has it's own chocolatier (Matthew's Chocolates), yarn store, and LocoPops.

I started ziggy last week. Toe-up socks and I have never gotten along. I have a high instep and toe-up socks tend to be way too tight for me, but I haven't been able to figure out how to do a reverse heel flap to resolve the issue. Despite these reservations I decided to knit the stripy Noro socks. The heel didn't work AT ALL for me. After three attempts, I knit in a scrap piece of yarn and said, you shall become an afterthought heel when I am calmer. Last night I put it in, having eight needles poking out from various places and three balls of yarn was probably not my best idea, but it worked! I can't put it on my foot yet, but according to the measurements it should fit. Afterthought heels are notoriously shallow, so I worked six rounds even to start in hopes it would give me the depth I needed. I've noticed in the pictures on Ravelry the heel is not shown on most of them. What does this mean?

Ziggy, before the heel

and after.

I've been seeing this new game on various blogs and decided to do one for myself. Bowen wants to do one too but doesn't have a favorite celebrity crush or so he says (with a huge grin).

1. La Rochelle at night, 2. Pasta Flower, 3. Birches, 4. End of the day, 5. Viggo Waking, 6. Guinness @ Fado in Seattle, 7. our Irish cows (considering the picturesque), 8. coffee and chocolate mousse cake, 9. Shepherdess ~ Morocco, 10. The Calvo Family - Holidays, 11. there's nothing better than summer, 12. JJ's Boulangerie Strawberry Tarts

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

I'll post my new favorite listening tomorrow. I hear my children doing the requested cleaning up, but it sounds a little less tidy than I'd like... sometimes you know things aren't good when it's too quiet and at other times too loud is just as bad!

New "Noro" hat

2008-06-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

I finished another Noro hat. This time I used yarn I hand dyed in self-striping patterns. The colors turned out well, the only thing I'll change for the next go around is slightly longer sections of each color.
Chicky is happy to have hers first (I only had self-striping with pink in it).

And a view from the side.

The boys are listing colors they want in theirs, then comes the dyeing, and then the knitting. Maybe theirs will be done by November?

This past week was full of events for the children: the end of school, the end of elementary school for the boys, a new half-sister at their dad's house, and a tadpole rescue in our friends' pool. The tadpole rescue was the biggest surprise for them and they had a very good time saving gray tree frog tadpoles. The pool had a leak and they have to get a new lining installed, which means draining the water that is left by pump. Unfortunately, what was left of the water in the pool was full of tadpoles. There was a lot of scooping and many didn't make it out of the pool, but I bet several hundred did. The five gallon bucket was teeming with them.

We found three gray tree frogs along the edges (one had to be rescued from the pool, too). Chicky was having a good time carrying them around and putting them over the fence away from the pool.

Other than that, it's been a pretty typical week around here. Next week is the court date from the car accident in April. Now there's some excitement.

Juicy Bug Picnic

2008-06-03T16:47:00.000-07:00

The Juicy Bug I bought for Chicky from Dana was such a hit I ordered three more. Today they went for a picnic in the garden. Chicky made the transportation arrangements after checking with Polly Pocket that the Juicy Bugs could borrow the car.

After a short ride to the garden the Juicy quartet decided to eat under the zinnias. This was Tea Time, which explains the mounds of sugary confections and the lack of fruits and veggies. (Click to enlarge)

Blueberry and Cherries Juicy Bug spilled his tea right away while reaching for some cake.

Bedbug was tired, he's always tired, but he ate a little and enjoyed himself before taking a nap on the car ride home.

Lemon Orange Juicy Bug had an accident and knocked over the cake, but the five second rule was remembered and all was well.

Tiny Pink Dragonfly was just happy to be out of the car and stretch her wings! It was mighty cramped in there.

All in all, it was a fine picnic and they hope to do it again soon.

Hail Among the Seedlings...

2008-05-20T18:47:00.000-07:00

Holy Hannah did we have a storm today! We were driving home from work/school and the gray clouds were congregated over Hillsborough. I wanted to take the kids to LocoPops after a quick post office trip, but I saw the clouds and prepared them for the worst. We weren't in the door five minutes when the winds picked up, thunder and lightening made their presence known, and the rain POURED! Morgan, who is anxious about weather anyway, was seeming more anxious than usual. He had his hoodie on and pulled up over his head, his sunglasses, his pillow, and was lying under a blanket in the hall weeping. I went and stretched out beside him (while an anxious dog walked on me) and tried to find out why this storm was so much worse for him (don't ever mention the word "tornado" around him). He told me he always gets nervous about them and I said I knew that but this seemed worse and that he has seemed more anxious than normal for the past week or so. He wouldn't look at me and I asked if it had anything to do with Myanmar and China and he said yes. So we talked about how we usually knew when to look out for severe weather, and what we would do. This was a pretty big storm, but not like a cyclone or an earthquake. I gave him my standard line that he doesn't need to worry unless I tell him to do so and then I'll be leading the worrying crusade! He came out of the hall but still needed hugs whenever the storm surged. When the hail came along, he was torn between enjoying it and being completely terrified.

Here's some hail in our "flower pot" - there's some rogue chicken weed in it too. These pictures are taken through windows with screens (sorry) but the good camera is not going outside in a storm!

Here's the hail among the seedlings:

You get the idea. Hail. Rain. Lots of rain.

Yesterday, when it was sunny, Chicky modeled the finished Noro Hat. Pattern by Saarje de Bruijn. (Ravelry link to her popular project page). It took a little over one skein of Noro Silk Garden Lite and all the kids wanted it. That one is mine, but I'll make theirs out of yarn I dye myself (no silk on heads of people that LOSE handknits).

I'm motoring away on the Girl's Best Friend Anklets (pattern KnitPicks). The yarn is Sunshine Yarns merino/silk in Salem (browns). I'm on the last row of the cuff and on to the st st. I really like the pattern and will probably do another pair in a lighter color so the pattern shows up a little better. Again, this is yesterday's picture and I was only about half-way through the cuff. You can get an idea of the diamond pattern.

I finally finished Memoirs of a Geisha, and I liked it and was totally absorbed by it, but also horrified at the same time. I still can't get over how many people have been and still are bought and sold in our world. I doubt I'll see the movie of the same name, though. I don't want to spoil my mental image.

The Kite Runner is the newest on the night stand. I hear it's heartbreakingly good and has been highly recommended by a reader with similar taste, so I'm proceeding.

Bed, and just one more row on the socks - are calling to me.

Fiber love

2008-05-18T11:15:00.000-07:00

All the dyeing I've been working on is dry, named, and up on Etsy. My new favorite is called Beginnings and is 4 oz of Falklands dyed some bright, happy, flowery colors that remind me of life's potential in spring.

The next is Berry Fun, and I think it will be lovely spun with the white to contrast the bright orange and magenta.

Boo was going to be called Parfait, but my short-term memory is so bad I forgot! It's too bad my memory can only go downhill from here.

On the subject of memory, I saw an article in Newsweek about a woman that remembers EVERYTHING since she was four years old. She can tell you what she ate for lunch on a certain day 15 years ago. That must be annoying to be overwhelmed by the mundane. If you were married though, you'd have the advantage in arguments! I'd just like the healthy balance I had before I had children.

The last roving is destined to be spun and knit into something for Sarah's mother. She kindly bought raffle tickets even though she doesn't spin or knit! There's a woman that deserves some fibery love! Sarah told me she loves blues, so I dyed some gradated blue Falklands. I wonder what it will become?

A much appreciated Thank You

2008-05-12T18:06:00.000-07:00

You may know that my dear friend sarah held a raffle for me (and generously donated half of her sales in April) to help with expenses towards a vehicle after Inga was tragically totaled. That extraordinary woman's vision and many people's participation raised $678 for me. I have never been so touched by so many people - and all of them people that only know of me through the internet - mostly through Ravelry. What an amazing community! Thank you to everyone. I do have a "new" 2004 Honda Odyssey. In addition to the car payment I have higher insurance rates, so that money is coming in handy right about now. Not to mention a court date next month where I'm hoping the charges will be dropped so the insurance rates don't go up even more.

The short and sweet of it is: thank you - very, very much! It was an unexpected blessing I will remember.

New yarns, new rovings, and FO's

2008-05-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

The Fiber Goddess has been smiling on me lately. I finished Roza's socks, pattern by Grumperina and knitted in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Solids. Love 'em, Cherry Tree Hill is soft and squishy and wears well. They'll get lots of use next fall and winter!

And I finished my Old Shale Smoke Ring, pattern by Cosette Cornelius-Battes (that's a Ravelry link, but you can find it on her blog cosymakes, too). It is busy blocking, so there's no picture right now.

In fiber dyeing, I had some re-dyeing fun with some rovings I detested when I first made them. Glam was reborn as Vampire Glam (cause if I was a vampire, I think I'd need a little glam).

The other I'm calling Tiger Toes, because of the stripy nature of the colors.

And there is yarn! Some Sting

and Bean Pods

and worsted - that's still drying. Aurora is dry though, she's kind of mellow and subdued.

Tonight, five more rovings are in the steamer. Who-hoo, can't wait to see how they turn out! There are a couple more re-dyes in the works.

Recent Etsy purchases

2008-04-29T18:57:00.000-07:00

I meant to post these pictures before MerleFest and totally forgot. I bought some lovely soap from autumn oak in the scent of The 60's (patchouli, sandlewood, and other lovely scents). It came wrapped in some appropriate fabric and with a sample of dyed wool locks (she's also a spinner - how cool is that?). The soap is exactly what I've been looking for and will have some on hand from now on!

Next, I'd fallen in love with dream a little's aliens (look in the sold section) and thought of Chicky when I saw this sweet little Juicy Bug. Chicky loves all things small. When she was little she always had some small thing clutched in her paddy paw, and the sight of anything small still produces an instinctive, "AAAWWW! That's so cute!"

Isn't it sweet? It is sturdy and meant to be played with. It came in a lovely little package that Chicky has kept as well.

Can you blame her? She's been sleeping with the Juicy Bug on the pillow next to her or up in her fairy canopy. It looks like it was made to hang out in a fairy canopy, doesn't it?

She has taken up weaving (they made looms at school) and done some very nice work with Cascade and Lamb's Pride Bulky I had in my stash. I'll take some pictures tomorrow outside of the three she's made so far. I'm thinking of getting her a small loom - she's obsessed and I can certainly relate to that! Here's a picture of her "working" last night

her brothers are requesting custom made belts from her. Rock on, sister!

There's a new fiber update that happened tonight over at Etsy. I've ordered some yarn to dye and I will soon have another skein or two of handspun up in the shop as well.

MerleFest for a day

2008-04-27T13:19:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe I've lived in NC since 1989 and this was my first trip to MerleFest. We went on a one day stint to scope it out. It was amazing and overwhelming. I had little idea of what I was in for; I knew it was big, but I didn't know it was BIG! Next time: backpack containing sunscreen, rain gear, tarp (to cover chairs when it rains), bug juice, camera, wide brim hat (waterproof), light weight sweater, and A KNITTING PROJECT). I'm glad I didn't bring knitting along in my regular bag. In the morning it was blisteringly hot (not fun to knit when your hands are sweaty) and then the thunderstorm came and not only cooled everything by 15-20 degrees, it soaked everything. I decided not to take my camera bag because I didn't feel like lugging it around, but I had to protect it from the elements. There were more DSLR cameras there than I've ever seen! Lots of good lenses. I wasn't brave enough to walk up to the stage and take pictures, there were lots of people to climb over and I kept visualizing myself tripping over the legs.

We saw the Lovell Sisters first (I heard them on A Prairie Home Companion maybe last year? They won the talent under 21 show and they were at MerleFest last year). They are amazing musicians, but their lyrics leave something to be desired for me.

They did a round robin kind of thing with Barefoot. These guys are great! They're out of Anchorage and they play well, have lovely harmonies, and good lyrics. They're kind of a little timid in the performing arena, but they just need a few more shows under their belts and I bet they'll be excellent showmen as well.

A while later the rains came. We were huddled with many others under a picnic shelter like sardines for about 25 minutes. Afterwards, we went to dump the rain out of our chairs - like everybody else without a tarp.

We saw Rhoda Vincent & The Rage on the main stage and it rained on and off the whole time. Those of us that didn't have appropriate gear would vacate the front seats, while those prepared people would just pop open their bumbershoots and hunker down.

The showstoppers were The Carolina Chocolate Drops. They were on the Traditional stage (covered tent - yea!) and it was packed! We were crammed inside the doorway and it started to rain again during their set. They were fabulous!

During their Charleston version of Salty Dog, Rhiannon got up and did The Charleston. They've been having "jug issues" - the jug was a water bottle for the set.

We left after their performance. We were driving back last night and were pretty exhausted from the walking, standing, sitting (each for long periods). I thought my back would feel much worse than it did this morning- that's always good news!

In parting, a video from The Chocolate Drops (not from MerleFest):

Enjoy!

New socks...finally

2008-04-21T16:44:00.000-07:00

Set number two of the handspun that was dyed by funky carolina. I am going to measure the leftovers - I might be able to eek out one more sock! I've been wearing the first pair, they are quite cozy and go well in my Doc Marten Club Mary Janes! There's more color in these socks than I've ever worn in my entire life.

Hazel the Honda is doing well. She has converted me to a mini-van lover - her spacious cargo area with little hooks that hold cloth bags from dashing groceries all over the place is groovy. And her stereo system kicks ass. And the air conditioning works. And the passenger side door opens from the inside (haven't had that in a while). And the hatch doesn't fall on my head. It's the little things.

This past Saturday I saw my other man, Steve Earle, in concert in Charlotte. It was in the McGlohon Theatre, which used to be a church downtown (right across from The Discovery Place). Small theatre, good seats, great company, and Steve playing for 2 1/2 hours. He was fabulous. I wasn't sure how I would feel about the DJ part of it (this album he recorded mostly by himself and there are some "loops" on it). Lots of old songs and all of the new album. None of The Revolution Starts...Now and only one song off Jerusalem. He's producing Joan Baez's new album coming out soon. Can't wait to check that out, too. Allison Moorer (wife #7) played for 45 minutes and that was hard for me. I've said it before and I'll say it again, she has a great voice, but her music and lyrics don't do anything for me. On top of that, she has the stage presence of a wet dishcloth. Sad but true. Here's a sample from this year's tour, but it sounded much better when we saw them.

This weekend is MerleFest... only Saturday for me, but since I'm a first timer it may be enough. I tend to be overwhelmed in crowds and get my fill of them rather quickly. Looking forward to Levon Helm, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Ollabelle. The Avett Brothers are Friday night so I'll miss them. Wah! I'm totally taking my camera. I could kick myself in the ass for not having it at Steve. I didn't know if the theatre would allow it (I should have known they wouldn't care - there are pictures of Steve all over the internet) and we were so close to the front it would have been perfect!!

Raconteurs

2008-04-19T08:52:00.001-07:00

Birthday Wishes

2008-04-19T04:38:00.000-07:00

The boys turned 11 on Thursday - where has the time gone? I have listened to the gown twins I know and always made them two separate cakes. This year there was a time crunch on the cake making (reason to follow) so they have store bought cakes (sorry guys). Bowen

and Morgan thinking about their wishes

Lest you think they were serious, this is what was mostly happening. They can't be serious for more than three minutes. Their natural goofiness kicks in after that.

On Wednesday my friend Becca went to CarMax with me to get our new horse! Hazel the Honda Odyessy. She's a 2004 with only 36K - there were several to choose from, but low milage on this one was key. She has a cargo area in the back that will be perfect for hauling a wet dog home from the Eno, grocery bags, and the large African market basket I carry every day.

A bird already christened the driver's side door. Gotta love that. I've de-Carmaxed her - I've taken off the front plate and the decals. I've bought two other vehicles from Carmax in the past and it's become part of my ritual after purchase. That and getting what ever smell they put in the vehicle OUT. Yesterday I had both side doors and the windows open to let her air out. Still smells like chemicals.

The children are very excited about her too. They can have their own space and not touch each other. I'm sure they can still find a way to fight about looking out windows that aren't "theirs" but so far, it's been argument free. They each have their own vent they can adjust the air flow to, and that is a thrill.

I'm off to see Steve Earle tonight in Charlotte, very exciting. I think Hazel may get her first road trip!

The Raconteurs, the car, and some wool

2008-04-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I can express (or if it's worth trying) the hideousness of the weekend. I spent Saturday in a huge pit of sadness, that was only made slightly bearable by spinning and watching the first season of The Riches. It's hard when I have issues and no children, it gives me too much time to think, worry, and spiral out of reality. Not good.

Sunday was better. Picked up the kids, they had a soccer game, and I downloaded The Raconteurs new album - which rocks in a most spectacular way. Consolers of the Lonely has some very heavy moments. Right now I could listen to "Top Yourself" all day. If I had this on Saturday, I may not have been able to be so fucking gloomy. The kids are totally into it, too.

I get to have the rental car until Saturday. Of course, somehow my ex and my divorce are still interfering with my life. My credit report has issues thanks to my ex. Reason number 1023 to never be legally bound to someone. While things are going fine, it's good. You never know what that person is going to be like with you when it all goes bad. They know your secrets and what will piss you off quicker than a bee in your knickers. Dangerous stuff.

I dyed some fiber Saturday morning before the funk settled. Here's one of my new favorites:

It's name is Squidge.

I promised the peeps I would read some aloud now.

Inga

2008-04-08T15:04:00.000-07:00

The kids and I went today and cleaned our stuff out of the car. I also took a picture, I know several people that didn't get the roadside experience, but have heard enough about it and are curious.

The full on view of Inga.

Next, the close up.

Sad, isn't she? She has been officially claimed a total loss and I'm waiting for the final figures from the insurance company so I know what I have to work with as far as the purchase of a car goes. Rather anxiety producing. As we were there, my stomach got all knotty just looking at Inga. We had a lot of ups and downs together. She certainly was no stranger to riding on a flatbed tow truck. Not that I've been in other accidents, rather her quirkyness led to breakdowns in various places and she was frequently towed to the Volvo shop. I'm sure Crown Volvo in Chapel Hill will miss her (probably not, heh)!

You may also notice the coating of yellow all over Inga. It is spring here and the plants are copulating like there's no tomorrow. I thought I had a cold all of last week, which may be partially true, but now it is all allergy action. Even with all the rain we're still breathing lots of pollen.

The rest of the night's activities include finishing dinner, reading aloud, and going to bed early - all of us. We have soccer and a long day tomorrow.

Morgan's Favorite Skein III

2008-04-05T06:38:00.001-07:00

Morgan's Favorite Skein III
Originally uploaded by theytoldmesew

Because of all the car crash drama, I was negligent and did not post this lovely wonder! Sarah, again, has worked her magic with one of the rovings I hand-painted. I love the colors!

Day of firsts, fits, and tears (all mine, I'm afraid)

2008-04-02T18:39:00.001-07:00

If Wednesday is the hump, things can only get fucking better. The good news first, today is the Vegetarian Special day at Bahn's, my favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Durham (cash only, small seating area). Lunch was spectacular as usual. Next up, Morgan's last visit to the orthopedist for his broken finger. I'm slightly concerned about the NINE x-rays he's had taken of his hand over the last month, but it all looks good. No more splint, except for soccer for the next two weeks. We've had our day, and we're on our way home. A mere two miles from our house, Bowen was talking to me in the back seat and I turned around to look at him and when I turned my head back the pick-up truck in front of me (without it's break lights on) was sitting there and we were approaching quickly. I slammed on the breaks and said, "oh shit!" because I knew we weren't going to stop in time... and we didn't. I hadn't been going 55 mph and the airbags didn't deploy but the front of my '98 Volvo with 161,000 miles was SMASHED TO HELL. The hood had that terrible angle that means doom, antifreeze was leaking all over the road, and those really expensive headlights? they really ARE glass! The car wouldn't start to move it off the road, it had to be pushed. I hit the pick-up truck AND the pick-up truck hit a woman in a rather new looking Toyota SUV of some kind. Sigh. I haven't ever rear ended anyone and the shock was pretty impressive. My mental capacities flew out the window for the next minute or so and then I came to my senses and started looking for my license and registration. Fifteen minutes later the police (state trooper) finally arrived. We each got to make a written statement and I AM FUCKED. I'm bummed about the citation (haven't gotten one of those before either). If I go to court the chances are pretty good they'll drop the charges if I prove I'm taking care of the accident. I'm bummed about MY CAR, cause there's only the one and I was hoping it was here for the long haul (I had money set aside to fix the air conditioning I haven't had for the past two summers) and now she (Inga) is probably gone. There are so many accidents in the area a claim representative can't get to my car until MONDAY! The insurance has arranged a rental which they will cover $30/day up to $900 but I worry.

The amazing news, the stuff that makes me cry ( from sadness earlier) but now from the kindness of virtual friends. Sarah is organizing a raffle to benefit ME! I can't believe it or even wrap my mind around it right now. Prizes include roving, hand spun, and commercial yarns. If you want to get into the action and help me out in the process, head on over to theytoldmesew. Tickets are $1 for ONE ticket and $5 for SIX tickets. I'll post more details as things get more organized.

I am also offering free domestic regular shipping for the month. There was a scheduled update happening this week anyway, but today I was a little distracted. I'll post more rovings tomorrow.

Do I have any idea how lucky I am?

2008-03-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

Hell yea! I got a package today from Sarah! It included French lavender soap, the beautiful Mountainscape in superwash corriedale

Cheerful Ember, also in superwash corriedale,

and a sample of Squoosh in superwash merino

I haven't been knitting so much, and now I doubt I will for another few days! Here is the lovely, cabled Broken Yolks. It came out to 195 yards (would have been 390 as a two-ply), 14 WPI. I love it!

And up close.

Betcha' can't guess what I'm doin' tonight!

seed III

2008-03-24T09:53:00.001-07:00

seed III
Originally uploaded by theytoldmesew

Sarah's picture of my roving that she has spun into this gorgeous skein!

Fiber update

2008-03-24T09:34:00.001-07:00

Just posted a whole slew of roving to Etsy yesterday. The warm weather on Friday and Saturday was most inspiring! I did a few kettle rovings. A couple are merino/tencel and all the others are superwash BFL. I'm calling this one Morgan's Favorites for his love of all things orange.

And Gothic Grapes

Chicky's Sunrise (merino/tencel)

Bowen's Blues (merino/tencel)

And Mixed Fruit

And below, we have from left to right: succotash, it's not easy, tadpole, spring chicken, bouquet, poolside pop, and subdued.

Dyeing was fun, but my other fun is coming along nicely. Broken Yolks is over half-way spun! It is so shiny, smooth, and lovely. I hope to finish it up today!

More spinning coming soon!

Weekend fun, fiber swap, and spinning

2008-03-19T18:43:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a week. It started off at the beach (Wrightsville) with a little walking around and photography in Wilmington. There are old steamboat style houses, along with all manner of Victorian, and just some grand old houses. Almost every house down town has a plaque on the side declaring the year, style, and which person of importance formerly inhabited it. This tree is grafted and has two different flowers on it, I have no idea what they are, but they're lovely. (You can click on it to make it bigger.)

This house was for sale so there was some window peeping. Glancing up, here is some gorgeous design.

That gives way to some amazing cast iron around the porch itself.

Right next door is a Bed and Breakfast with garden. I can only imagine how enjoyable it will be when it's actually blooming.

Back here on the home front, Morgan's hand seems to be healing nicely. He has his check up tomorrow and another two weeks in the splint.

And some happiness in the fibery world, Sarah, and I are swappin' some fiber! My package arrived today:

The roving is superwash merino called Broken Yolks (LOVE IT!) and the yarn is her scrumptious handspun, Secret Garden. Plus, some Hershey Kisses and Peeps! The kids had no idea candy and fiber even existed in the same universe. They said that Sarah can come and stay at our house anytime.

Gratuitous Fiber shots ahead, avert the eyes of the young:

Broken Yolks up close and personal.

And Secret Garden. I'm giving some serious thought to what this should be knit into. The blues and purples are fabulous together. Can't wait!

In order to spin Broken Yolks, I have to ply some more random spun yarn. I've got one skein soaking and the other is on the wheel. Can I just tell you how much I love my tensioned Lazy Kate? Makes the whole thing so much easier, I can't believe I waited so long to buy it. I tried doing it myself on my old Kate and it didn't work out so well. Those Ashford people know what they're doing!

Dyeing, knitting, and spinning

2008-03-11T18:13:00.000-07:00

I've got four more dry rovings - yea! More super soft, superwash corriedale! OK, so some of the colors I'm not so taken with, they look different wet and dry, so sometimes I'm not exactly sure how they'll turn out. "Flashback" I find the boldest. I still think the colors would be fabulous spun - not too overpowering, and great combos plied.

This is "Ruby" and is by far the most conservative color scheme I've ever done!

Mr Mustard. The yellow is actually more mustardy than pictured (that color is giving me fits trying to get it accurately).

Last is"Pam" - my favorite. If no one on Etsy wants it, I'll spin it up into something lovely for me!

I'm double knitting up some samples of the yarn I've been dyeing, so people can have an idea what the pattern will look like. That's the kind of thing I like to know when I'm looking at hand-painted yarns. Double knitting will imitate knitting in the round (I've only cast on 40 sts instead of the 58-62 I usually do for socks). It should give a nice idea of what will happen with color in the round.

There's more random spinning on the Ashford, but I'm contemplating cutting out one of the rovings. I hate "wasting" roving, but this one (I bought it) is pretty compacted and frustrating. I'm thinking of saving it for Chicky to spin, she tends to spin thicker and it won't bother her in the least, and she'll love the colors!

Morgan's finger is healing well. It looks a nasty shade of gray and we're de-funking it daily, but whooee! Stench! I'm glad we can take the splint off and clean it, or I think I would faint from the fumes by the time it had to come off. He's being very good natured about the whole thing. He thought it was cool until Day 2 and then he figured out he'd need to do some adjusting to basic daily tasks for a while. I tried to remind him that this was one of those times his stubborn nature should be helpful.

Still here...

2008-03-09T16:56:00.000-07:00

There has been a giant pause in blog land over here. I've been doing quite a bit of dyeing, some knitting, and today it's been spinning. I've also been playing with the new camera. I was playing with the macro lens the other night and got this picture.

Then, this morning I found the rovings I dyed on Friday afternoon were dry. So, they've been finger crocheted for display purposes. There's one I'm calling Rosemary.

Sage.

Zinnea.

And Hyacinth.

I'm still working on random spinning and have almost a full bobbin. I'm pondering spinning another bobbin of one roving the whole way through and plying it with the random one, or doing another bobbin of random and seeing where the chips fall. No clue yet.

In family news Morgan broke his left pinky on the playground this week. He was playing tag and his finger got wrapped in another kid's shirt. The kid turned quickly and smacked his arm away while it was still wrapped in the shirt. The pinky has a transverse fracture and I am happy to report no special surgery requiring a pin was needed (this was the worst case scenario we were presented with). Morgan took a copy of his x-ray to school and got a cool fancy, custom made splint (gotta love the orthopedist - never go to the ER for broken bones if you have an orthopedist near by - quicker service, more qualified help, and they are nice to you). Bowen broke his arm a couple of years ago, so the boys were comparing stories at the dinner table. Bowen said, "Erin, all you have to do is break something and we'll ALL have had broken bones." She looked at me and said, "Mom's never broken anything, right?" I said, "Nope." She said, "I don't want to break anything either."

It's just another day, really.

2008-02-27T18:30:00.000-08:00

Yep. Just another day. An anniversary of sorts. The big 40! I'm totally psyched because I feel like this will be a much better decade than the last. I spent the first four years of my thirties dealing with very small children and a lackluster spouse. After gathering up my courage to separate it took another six years to actually get divorced! In many ways I bare so little resemblance to that woman I was I am happier, healthier, and my self-esteem truly comes from me and is fine.

Exhaustion has set in for me today. No knitting tonight. No dyeing or spinning. Reading and sleep. It's supposed to get down in the 20's F tonight so I'm hunkering down in my flannel sheets under my duvet and enjoying my toasty, sleepy space.

More dyeing

2008-02-25T16:11:00.001-08:00

I was working on dyeing some on Friday night and part of Saturday and I did some gradated jonquil, fuschia, and greens.

I really love gradated colors when I'm spinning. I keep coming across new color combinations that I think, "Oh, I'd like a pair of socks in THAT!" Right now I've got a pot on the stove, some 64 count merino soaking, and am just waiting for that magical moment of temperature to start some blue roving. I've ordered some more that is on the way, so I'll have lots to do for a while.

I finished the first sock of the second "smitten" yarn. It looks great! I try and upload it to Flikr and it stalls out - not sure why - I've tried resizing the picture and fiddling with options and there's no difference. Maybe the sock doesn't want to be seen by itself. The second is only about 10% done; it may be a while until the photoshoot.

I'm reading Haven Kimmel's new novel "The Used World." I like it, but then I like her writing a lot. I find her fiction and non-fiction equally funny, heart-breaking, and riveting. I'm so glad she moved to Durham, the mere thought that I could run into her on the street or in a store makes me happy.

Off to check the roving!

Bye, bye Uniqlock

2008-02-22T16:38:00.001-08:00

I had to get rid of it. It was too loud and busy and despite the lure of a free cashmere sweater or scarf I reflected that I have never won anything in my life. Well, I once won a cheap "as seen on TV" mandolin in a raffle at a Halloween party when I was 11 or 12. I don't think anyone would call me lucky.

In the World of Fibery Goodness there are more rovings in the dye pot, yarn drying in the shower, and socks still on the needles. The rovings are similar to the previous batch (because I love the colors, that's why) and I'm still pushing the plying together idea. I swear to the Goddess of all Wooly Creatures it is the best thing since a scone! The first I'm calling "redbud" because the fuchsia in it reminds me of my favorite indicator of spring here in North Carolina, the lovely Redbud.

See?

And the other is different shades of browns, I'm calling it Trunks. Naming fibers is not my forte.

Tomorrow cleaning, feeding the snake, dyeing and teaching a friend how to knit socks are all on my To Do list. I'm planning on doing some of it early since I am awake at the crack of dawn (before, actually) every day so that at 9:30 I can sit down and knit or spin while watching my favorite cooking show and Brit Jamie Oliver. He made a Guinness, steak, and cheese pie a couple weeks ago that looked brilliant. I may have to order the UK version of his new cookbook, Jamie at Home, because I can't keep waiting for the US version. I have a scale that does grams anyway, so I'd be set! It's the little things...

Speaking of little things, I'm torn about my favorite Brit comment. I adore Neil Gaiman, Eddie Izzard, and not to mention one of the coolest women I know, Amanda. Hmmm. Maybe they're all my favorite? Here's a little Eddie 'cuz I had the crappiest day and he always makes me laugh.

"Where is my mind?"

2008-02-21T15:40:00.000-08:00

to quote The Pixies. Multi-tasking seems to result in lots of back-tracking because I tend to forget which task I was off to and start on another. Twice this week I've started the laundry but didn't put the lid down because I was going to make one final pass through the kid's rooms to make sure I had whatever I needed, got sidetracked by some other task only to find laundry that had been well-soaked and drained, but never actually washed. UGH!

The thing I'm having fun with right now is some columbia/dorset blend roving. The first is bright gold, red, purple, and plum. And the second is greens and browns. The idea would be to spin separately and ply together. I've been "studying" my random socks for color combos I adore.

My second pair of random socks are almost half done! I've been neglecting all my other projects for socks and I've been feeling guilty about it. They are just as beautiful as the first pair. I've scored some more fiber scraps from funky carolina! Psych! More fun for me! A co-worker wants me to make her some random spun mittens. So far, I've just kind of laughed to avoid having to take any kind of stand one way or another. Honestly, I don't think I'd even make them for my children (their feet grow too fast)! That sounds incredibly selfish, but since I'm not about almost everything else, I think I get to be about this.

There's some more roving cooking in the pot and I need to do a little more work on the last skein of yarn I did (looks too much like an Easter Egg for my taste), and then it is knit and read after the kids are in bed.

More yarn...

2008-02-18T19:03:00.000-08:00

I dyed some more yarn last night - it's hanging up to dry and I've got eight ounces of roving finished and drying too. I'm dying the roving thinking of plying now. The first roving moves from green to brown and the second roving starts orange and moves to a deep plum - all because of random spinning! Once they're dry I'll "ply" the rovings as a sample. When I look at roving I don't think of spinning any hunk all by itself anymore... isn't it funny? Maybe I will do that again one day, but I don't think it'll be anytime soon.

When I used to dye, I did it outside on a giant picnic table and would cold pour the dyes on the roving and then steam them in a bamboo steamer on a gas grill. There's no way I'm brave enough to do that in my house right now. I still harbor a slight aversion to fairly solid dyeing, but we'll see how it goes. It may be just the ticket, and since I'm going to ply with a different color it should keep me amused.

This yarn is rather autumnal, more brown than red and gold, I can't wait to see how it knits up. There are two more skeins ready to go on etsy.

I forgot to show you what my man gave me for Valentine's Day. Grow Your Own Prince. It started out as a frog (which dissolves) and then the prince is supposed to grow over the next 72 hours.

If you look closely you can still see the outline of the frog. Unfortunately, the prince has not grown. Leave it to me to get a dud prince. Heh. My man is a prince, so I'm good.

Setting up shop

2008-02-17T05:48:00.000-08:00

A full five months after I thought I might, I've started setting up the etsy shop. I had a great dyeing set-up (outdoors) with Angela at her house, and I was more than a little afraid to do it in my rental house. I finally said, "WTF?" and just tried it. So far, so good. I seem to have a system that isn't too messy. Only four skeins so far (two are drying), but I had a good time on Sunday. I forgot how much of a nice groove it is. One dry skein is called Spring.

And the other is called Winter Sky. This is the label-less version. I love dark, dark colors so I kept adding more and, of course, after a certain point, it didn't get any darker. The dark sections are really dark, though. Yea!

We had some fun at the Eno today. The kids were in the very cold river, barefooted. People walking by looked shocked, but none of us cared. They were having a great time.

The children were not thrilled that I made them carry their own jackets, shoes, and socks on the way back.

The good news: they survived, they're tired. We're starting a new book and then they are off to bed! And I get to dye some more!

More random spinning!

2008-02-12T15:23:00.000-08:00

My new random spun is called "happiness" because it is and I am! Heh. Next time, I'm not using the bright green, I like it mixed in, but no so much with the red. I love it with the blue and blue greens so I think I'll save it for that. In the end, both skeins total 370 yards and are 15 WPI. MORE SOCKS!

Here's a look at the first skein in "cake"form.

And the second.

I am overly tired today, but the parts came for the dryer yesterday and I got home early enough today to have a go at some home appliance repair. I replaced the heating element first and when I hooked it up cold air was still blowing. I decided not to get frustrated (and pissed) unless the new thermostat wasn't the solution either. It was the solution! There is hot air blowing in my dryer! YEA! I haven't been so happy about doing laundry in a long time.

Off to finish making dinner and do more laundry.

I heart mac

2008-02-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

I have been a mac owner ever since I bought my first computer (all but my first were used). LONGING, is the word I would use to describe my feelings about this beautiful beastie. I have hoping for the past year my financial plan would allow the purchase - it did! I am typing on it this very minute! The things this computer can do!

I did manage to get some spinning done. Experiment number two in "random" spinning. The skein is still drying so I haven't measured yet. The weight is almost 4 ounces.

I'm in the middle of the second bobbin. I found some color pairings I really liked, so I'm thinking a little less random for the next venture. The rest of the evening will be devoted to more spinning, more iMac exploration (digging .mac and photobooth!), and drinking a Guinness or two. Cheers!

Select a candidate

2008-02-05T17:15:00.000-08:00

We had lots of outdoor fun this afternoon in the unseasonably warm weather. Duke Gardens (which used to be free, then was $1/hr for parking and is now $2/hr), and the park. There were eight children and two adults at the gardens. I took lots of pictures of the ducks, but I haven't had a chance to look at them yet.

I have deliberately avoided listening to the primary returns today. This whole Super Tuesday thing kind of pisses me off, we here in North Carolina don't have our primary until May. Yea, not much choosing left by then I'd guess. I'm trying to remain optimistic and hopeful about the future of our country. I figure if the Dumbass in office now can screw things up so badly in eight years, maybe the next person can do a little damage control in four.

I have a lovely widget to share, but the link isn't fitting so well on the page so I'm going to try leaving some space so it will work better. Scroll with me, please. It'll be fun...I promise.

Keep going.

A little more, please.

Almost.

There!

Because we have to, that's why. I like this method, there's so much spin (by the media and the politicians themselves) and this way it's just your opinion and the issues. Enjoy!

Your Web browser software doesn't support frames, but you can visit Select A Candidate™ at www.selectacandidate.org.

You're letting the boys do what?

2008-02-03T18:12:00.000-08:00

In a moment of motherly weakness, I allowed the boys to stay over at their friend's house on Superbowl Sunday. Why? Well, I don't give a shit about football but the boys do, and their friend's whole family loves football. Where do you think they'd rather be? The family also lives very close to their school so they could sleep in a little later after watching the WHOLE game. I think I wouldn't mind football so much - if it weren't for all the commercials. Players probably hate stopping every five minutes; no time to get their groove on.

The smitten socks are finished and blocking as I type!

I'm over half done with a pair of Saartje's booties for a co-worker's soon-to-be-born baby boy. The pattern is so cute, quick, and satisfying. I have plenty of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran left over to make several pair. Tomorrow, there's a trip to the LYS for wee buttons. I'm going to try a crocheted button loop for them. I wish there were a wee foot in this house to try it on! (Note: picture not to scale. Heh.)

The other unfinished chore is repairing the dryer. I'm fairly certain the heating element is shot, so after getting it out of the dryer I went to the parts store which is closed on Sunday (I kind of had the feeling this would be the case), so the old part is just hanging out in the back hatch of the car. The piece was a bitch to get out, and it seems like putting the new one in is only going to be worse. The weather is nice and the laundry is piling up quickly. I do have a clothes line in my back yard, but in Hillsborough people burn their leaves (I know how wrong/terrible it is - not to mention we're in a drought and have a ban on burning) so when I hang out our laundry it smells like burnt leaves. Yuck. I hope the Repair Goddess is with me tomorrow.

Sickness, socks, and spinning

2008-01-30T15:56:00.000-08:00

For the first time in quite a while, I was too sick to knit. Nasty GI bug finally got me. It got many of the children I work with, but we had a week with no more incidents and I got too confident. Sunday night was the great karmic smackdown! The bad news is I was in bed for as almost twenty-four hours (haven't done that since my month of bed rest when I was pregnant with twins). Normally, even when I'm sick, I don't stay down. This time, I couldn't sit up. The good news, I feel much better and what ever bulk I'd added due to Holiday Treats... is gone.

I've tried to make up for lost knitting and spinning time. I'm on the home stretch of my second "smitten" sock! Still enjoying it, although I'm annoyed that I clearly went off "random" somewhere and spun waaay too much red/pink on one bobbin for a while.

Right now, I'm spinning some more chaos with a slightly more controlled environment. I have two ounces of seven or eight different rovings and batts. I haven't done any dying for myself in over a year and this little bit of fun has inspired me to do it again. Now that I've seen all those lovely random pairings, I'm ready to make some on purpose. A whole skein even.

Eowyn is still intrigued by Cocoa. Part of her interest seems like natural dog curiosity, the other part seems more, um, predatory. As a dog, Eowyn has quick, powerful movements and I would rather be cautious with her around Cocoa than sorry. When I was young, we had an Irish Setter (Ginger) and a guinea pig and this dog was terribly confused by the pig and thought it was her baby (same color).
Ginger would lick it (all the while the guinea pig was squeaking indignantly) and push it up under her with her nose to try and get it to nurse. There are cases where dogs and small animals can be friendly. I just don't think Eowyn is like that. See how "curious" Eowyn is?

And she seems to know she needs to feel guilty about it. Look at how she hides her eyes!

Eowyn is just as stubborn as every other living thing in this house. Tonight Chicky said, "I let her sniff Cocoa and Cocoa licked her nose!" Cocoa does lick Chicky (which is weird, I've known at least twenty guinea pigs in my life and none of them licked people!) but licking a dog is another thing. And an Unsafe Practice at the very least. The boys and I have stressed to Chicky the need for caution with both of them in a small space. We'll see how it goes.

Still socking. Heh.

2008-01-24T16:29:00.000-08:00

I've stopped adding my "smitten" pictures to my appropriate flickr groups because I'm worried they'll think I'm crazy for taking so many pictures of one yarn and one sock-in-progress. I'm even going to be reasonable and put a small sized picture below (if you're jonesing for a better view just click on it).

Today was knitting with Chicky's class. They were celebrating the 100th day of school, so our time was short. Here are Chicky (in my Lady Detective hat) with two of her friends knitting. The boys were knitting too, but were more camera evasive.

The children go to their dad's house after school tomorrow and I have a pile of fiber begging to be spun. I'm planning on dividing my time between the socks and the wheel. No wonder I don't get out much - too much fiber and too little time!

I'm waiting for my Zen String shipment (yarn) and my Spunky Eclectic (fiber) to arrive. I'm thinking about setting one of those "wool traps" for the postman (I do have a "man" so I feel ok using the term, but also like I have to defend my use of it). We'll see if it works.

Heath Ledger

2008-01-22T16:24:00.001-08:00

Heath Ledger
Originally uploaded by Boyz_nl

I'm gonna say it - I'm bummed. Liked his acting, and his beautiful face. Chicky said, "Hey, is he a knitter?" I was like, "I wish he were a knitter and still alive." Small conversation and then she said, "He doesn't look like a drug taker." Which led to a bigger conversation about how anyone can do drugs, you don't need to "look like" anything in particular.

"Smitten" socks

2008-01-22T14:41:00.000-08:00

I was so in love with the srappy handspun skeins that I cast on for a pair of socks. So far, they look like this

(I'm using the medium size pictures even though the right side gets cut of a little and messes with my control-freakish need for symmetry. The yarn begs me to do it anyway. See all the layers of color? Isn't it amazing? The sock cuff is about four inches along now. The color shifts keep me entertained and the texture is lovely. This could be the quickest knit socks, for me, EVER!

This past holiday, I received a lovely stump teapot. It is perfect. Holds 16 oz., doesn't drip when it is poured, has a fine mesh infuser, and a flat top for stacking. Isn't it cute?

I like it so much I've used almost all my loose-leaf teas! When I was at Whole Foods today, The Republic of Tea guy was there and he recommended Apricot Honey. It's a rooibus with marigold flowers. Quite tasty. I'm always up for a good tea recommendation.

Yikes, I need to go make dinner. After dinner and clean up... more knitting...or maybe spinning my Spunky Eclectic November fiber...hmmm.

Sweet Coffees

2008-01-21T16:39:00.001-08:00

Sweet Coffees
Originally uploaded by Pacifist®

OHMIGOD! This is the cutest cavy baby picture EVER!

Fiber-luscious weekend

2008-01-21T12:10:00.000-08:00

I have been up to my elbows in fiber this weekend. Almost no knitting and all spinning. I managed to finish spinning and plying my scrap bag from funky carolina.

They came out to about 634 yards, 17-18 WPI, and a little over eight ounces. I wish I had kept a better eye on Chicky - she took a lot of the lovely darker blue-green scraps. I love the random spinning and plying.

And a better picture of funky carolina's superwash merino "remand" colorway. This came out to 243 yards and 15 WPI after plying.

I found this picture of the kids when we were at the Outerbanks a few years ago. I wanted to make a card out of it or something, but never got around to it. It's still one of my favorites.

Chicky is in the middle of a tea party with all of her stuffed animals and Cocoa. The animals are all very well behaved and sitting quite proper on the edges of the blanket. Cocoa has a very special "chair"

I'll giver her credit, she is a very mellow guinea pig (other than her short track racing in the middle of the night). Sure, she's nocturnal, but when Chicky's around that pig has no rest during the day and she takes it well.