A little of this, and a bit of that.

Last Friday's CSA included escarole, salad mix, sugar snap peas, fennel, arugula, purple scallions. It was also our first week of fruit; I knew we were getting blueberries, but I have to admit to being surprised that it was a full twelve pints of them! DTY sounded very jealous of all the blueberries and I am sure she wishes there was a way I could bring some to her next week when I go out to visit her, but I just can't see how they would survive the trip stuffed in my suitcase. I promised to get her some at the store instead and I think she'll manage with that solution. So far blueberries have been consumed all by themselves, in mixed greens salad, on homemade granola, on Cheerios, and in pie. If there are any left in a day or so they will probably end up in the freezer.
My first foray with fennel last week was to slice it thickly, coat lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with balsamic vinegar, and then roast on a cookie sheet until tender. (I could have done it on the grill, but decided to forgo the lighting of charcoal for just that.) I had been a bit unsure about it, since it tastes kind of like anise/licorice, but it was totally transformed with cooking! This week we sliced it thinly and sautéd it until tender, then tossed in the head of escarole that had been separated into leaves with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar for a wilted salad. That was also very yum, and Hubband and I both enjoyed the opportunity to try some new food stuffs we have never had before. The arugula has also proven to be tasty, despite my original concerns about the "peppery" taste. (Well, that and the fact that my oldest brother said he didn't particularly care for it. I worry if there is a green leafy food that he doesn't like; it might be dangerous. He has been accused of being part to mostly rabbit by several people.)

 

In the knitting department, I have finished a market bag, which holds a lot of groceries. (I have a five pound bag of flour, a quart of half and half, a pint of cream, and several other things in there, as well as room left over for more stuff if I wanted.) I have also made significant progress on the second Dr. Who Scarf I wave been plugging away at, and another pair of socks about half way done. I hope to have the scarf done before I leave for Portland on Tuesday, but if it isn't, it will be staying home. I will be taking the socks if they aren't done, as well as several other pairs to work on. I am sure there will be a couple of balls of yarn for dishcloths in my bag as well, just in case.

 

I have been doing some more sewing and have finally gotten something made for Hubband. He gets to have my first two zippers on the new machine! This one is the bigger one of the two, at about 7" high and 5" wide;

 

and this one is about 5" high by 4" wide. I was happy with the way they came out and hoped they would be useful to him. He is thrilled with them and that they can clip onto his bag or wherever else he wants. (The clip isn't really visible in the picture, but it is on the loop.)

Really random stuff

I have been slacking on the knitting front lately, mostly due to getting sucked up in the sewing addiction again. This is the apron DTE had asked if I would make for her. I realized it had been slept on by a cat wasn't ironed after I took this picture, so Oribel and I ran the hot metal thing over it and retook its picture. So here it is, sans cat wrinkles but probably still with some stray hairs, but I wasn't nearly as happy with the lighting as I had been earlier. (I'll let you decide which one you like better.)
I have made several other aprons (different patterns though), all gifts so far, and some of them can be seen here and here and, well, here. I have a few more in the works and may get one for myself soon. I am having an awful lot of fun with this new machine even if it means I haven't spent quite as much time knitting. I haven't actually stopped knitting, just slowed down. In fact I have finished another pair of socks, but since we have had over 2" of rain since Friday night, pictures of those will have to wait a bit longer.

 

I made Pita Bread last week for the first time, and probably won't be buying it at the store anymore. It was super easy to make and way tastier than the stuff one buys. Plus it is so cool to watch the magic that happens in the oven and then watch it collapse as soon as it comes out.

 

I made English Muffins as well, but I have made those before. They aren't that hard to make, and are very tasty, but I am not convinced that they are enough better than the ones at the store to make them on a regular basis. I am going to make some more this week to double check that thought though, since I forgot the salt and that has a major influence on the taste (and not really in a good way). At least they looked nice.

Dinner tonight was Chicken Tikka Masala and Turmeric Rice
Dal Palak, and Naan (but without the beans). I actually used a recipe from Cook's Illustrated for the chicken (because it is the one I have used for some time now), but I did make Pastor Ryan's Turmeric rice, though I forgot the peas. (Yes, in fact I do use a rice cooker, thank you very much. It frees up a burner and I don't have to worry about the rice boiling over into the burner pan. Not that I ever boil my rice over, but I'm just saying...)

All the rain we had this weekend, in addition to the inch plus we had during the week has been very good for the garden and yard, though of course now the grass needs to be cut, if it ever dries out long enough, which isn't looking too likely for the next couple of days. But that does give us time to make arrangements for showing our summer lawn girl how to run the riding mower and all. (I guess I need to ask her what she wants to be called around here. That, and see if Oribel will talk to her at all. Oh, and see if she needs her skies back for vet school.)


Just for the record, this works for fleas and ticks, but it doesn't do squat for slugs.

Still kicking

and knitting, as well as other random stuff. I have finished a pair of socks, which brings me to 6 of 12, for those of you that might be wondering, or keeping track. I still have half of another pair done; well half plus a little of the second half.
I have also made a few dishcloths lately, which brings me to eight for the year so far. (I think it is eight, maybe I lost track of one or two. Not so many dishcloths happening due to socks being my new "go to project.")

 

Here is an "in progress" picture of an apron I finished before I left home,

 

and here it is finished. (For those of you that had said you wanted to see what I was sewing.) I will definitely be making more aprons when I get home. However, I might try to do the cutting out part while Oribel is outside so as to not get too much help.

Dad and I are at the library this afternoon, and I am thinking they are going to be closing soon. Hanging out here to do Internet stuff/email check works well as there are all sorts of things to keep dad entertained. (He does OK in the coffee shop for awhile as they have newspapers and books there too, but as one can imagine, there is way more here to entertain him! Oh, and of course he just ran into someone that recognized him from somewhere, so they got to chat for a few minutes!) So I am going to hit publish now, but you might get lucky and get another post soon!

Jacket update

Well, welcome to "One of several reasons why I haven't sewn lately," and this is before machine had been moved to the more convenient location than its normal corner. Except this doesn't include the help I got from the dogs.

 

 

Once I had the machine going, she was helping me by trying to catch the moving fabric, whapping the moving thread-take-up thingy, and then she decided it would be most helpful to just steal the spool of thread and run off with it while I was sewing along. I don't have a separate room to sew in, though I could lock her up in her (bath)room. Of course, then I would just have to listen to her banging the door and Sadie whining about how much her cat was suffering.
In addition to all this help, I defiantly don't have enough of my fabric, so will need to start over with the cutting. It may be just as well. One of my sleeves seems to have gone missing overnight. Who knows when it will turn back up. No, it isn't in the dog's water dish (one of the first places I looked).
Maybe some of those things will just be stuck in my head for a bit longer. Or maybe I will pawn her off on some other family member whenever one is home. Poor person.

Ramblings in hopes of keeping someone interested

I was bit excited about making a Wee Tiny Sock, so yesterday I sat down to just “get started” and a bit under two hours later, I was all done and ready to stick it in the envelope, but I need to wait to know where I am to send it to! Today I decided it was so cool I made another one, a little bit shorter, as the first one was too long for the blocker.
Someone at Wednesday Night Knit Group keeps whining about how she has been burned in glass bead swaps, so she won't try knitting swaps. She also keeps being wowed at how well I have been treated in swaps; I just tell her knitters aren't like those slacker glass toads. I even gave her a chance to try one with a guarantee, but NOOOO....

 

Well, we all decided to have our own “Knit Nite Tiny Sock Swap” but still need to work out the details. Stuff like are we going to do an assigned “make one/get one” trade, or make several and then have socks from lots of friends. Leah joined us this week, she just moved here five weeks ago and we were happy to have her crash our party! She was knitting a very cute Opal Brazil Baby Sweater Set (in case anyone needs ideas for babies).
And in case anyone should think that I don't do anything besides knitting, TA DA!! Today I made a pyramid. It was pretty easy (unlike the last one I built, more on that later). I think it wouldn't have taken me as long as it did if I hadn't had help. Help inspecting the sewing machine as I cleaned the table off, help cutting out fabric, and help ironing; fortunately, no one got hurt in the process. Unfortunately, no pictures were taken other than the finished product, especially since at one point she was hanging off of the end of the ironing board by just a couple of claws on each of her front feet. I was having a hard time not laughing at her swinging in the air!This pyramid will live in our room, to keep the door from getting blasted open in the middle of the night by Someone dashing about. I also made some awesome Black Bean Sweet Potato Stew, but I guess most of you out there know I cook.... It is a very yummy vegetarian stew (aka thick soup). If anyone wants, I would be happy to post the recipe; just leave a comment.
So, about that other pyramid I made... (Did you think I either forgot or was just going to leave you hanging?) I am not sure how many of you out there have worked with clay so I will give a brief overview of how it was made. First off, I will say I am really glad I had my brother's help, because I needed the extra hands and suggestions! This is made from slabs of clay, which means they have been run through a roller; thank goodness I didn't have to do that part without the aid of tools. Then the slabs have to dry some, but not too much, and get decorated. That involved marking all the "brick lines," doing some glazing and texture, cutting windows, and attaching "dimensional bricks." I also had to cut the slabs into the base and sides according to the pattern I had drafted. I also had to cut the lid and make the supports for it to rest on.Then the really hard part of sticking the sides and base together without having them fall in on themselves (more than two hands were needed here, wet clay is really heavy!) and putting stuff inside to hold them up until it was completely dry and ready to do the first fire. Then there was more glazing to be done before the finial firing. This will give you a rough idea of how big it is; the base is about one foot square, which means it is also about a foot tall. I think it probably weighs somewhere between eight and ten pounds.

 

Anybody besides my immediate family, oldest brother, and probably my mom, want to guess what these are?

 

Hint: It is of one of my most favorite harbingers of spring. I know they look a bit gross today, but soon enough they will be cake, pie, and jam!

Yarn swap, TdF, and why I didn't do zippers

I received my Yarn swap box from Stephanie the other day and it had awesome sock yarn in it as well as Chocolate covered Peppermint Altoids, which are every bit as good as the chocolate covered cinnamon ones. I have taken a picture of the stuff she sent, but haven't loaded it onto Kaylee yet. As soon as do I will put the picture up for you all to see.
I have also joined the Tour de France Knit-A-Long, and will be knitting in the Yellow Jersey category. I will have the link up for that tomorrow so you can all see what it is about. I have a bunch of Works-In-Progress that I need/want to finish, as well as new stuff to get started. Some of the new stuff has been in the "I have made it several times in my head already" stage for a while; now it is going to be moved to a new stage and hopefully a fair portion will cross the finish line. Yesterday I finished knitting the bag for HSKS2, and today I sewed up the lining and got it put in. On the knitting front I made 45 inches of I-cord drawstring for it and now that bag is finished! I need to get the rest of the stuff for the kit and it can be off in the post.
I finished the bag for the notions bag exchange, and it has two zippers. Count them, two zippers! Yep, I have been intimidated by sewing zippers for years. Give me a Pile of Leaves costume to sew with a newborn infant around, no problem. Give me a loaf of Great Harvest Sourdough Bread, complete with bag to sew, no problem. Give me a Pixie on a Toadstool to sew, no problem. Heck , give me a Bishop (including Miter) and Priest outfit to sew (shirt, cassock, stole, chasuble/cope each for two young chilren) no problem. Show me a pattern with a zipper and it is, "No can do, it has a zipper. Find a different pattern or we have to see if we can alter this one to have buttons instead." Yes, I said give me buttons over a zipper. I'm sure you are all wondering why I didn't do zippers. Well, the first zipper I sewed in my life was an absolute failure. Now I am willing to overlook a fair amount of stuff in the learning curve process and rarely call anything a failure. That zipper was a mess of a failure. There was no rescuing the zipper or the item I was making. So I concluded that zippers were my enemy and we would just change the pattern to use snaps, buttons, or something else than a zipper. If the pattern couldn't be altered than we found a new pattern. If you don't believe me, just ask DTE, she'll tell you (just like she told her dad at dinner the other night). Well, some years later I learned that there is more than one kind of zipper foot. I knew I needed a special foot to put in a zipper and I knew I had a zipper foot for my sewing machine (which by the way is older than I am). What I didn't know with that first zipper application is that one needs a special kind of zipper foot for an invisible zipper. It turns out that if you try to put in an invisible zipper with a regular zipper foot, you have a mess (and live in fear of zipper application for years afterwards). I have now conquered the zipper. Yes I put two zippers into one bag the other day, and plan to make another bag like it this week, as well as a different bag that also has a zipper. No, they are not invisible zippers. But for now, the bag has to stay invisible until the person I made it for has it in their possession. Then you can see it and all its zippery glory.