The Cauldron

Sproing!

2011-05-23T12:47:00.000-04:00

Spring has been springing up and down the street. Lilacs are blooming, the apple tree on the corner is covered with blossoms, and hanging baskets full of impatiens and pansies are hanging on people's porches. The front flower bed has been a little neglected, but we're making progress cleaning out the weeds and grass and maple seedlings in preparation for planting roses and irises. While we probably won't get any flowers from the irises this year, it's possible the roses might manage to produce something besides a single bud. I can't wait to see how things turn out. =^..^=
Well.. I'm here. I've been here for a bit more than a month and am fairly settled in. Last weekend, the kitty came to join; she, too, has been settling in, though the first few days were a bit bumpy. She loves taking advantage of the window screens by sitting on the sill and letting the breezes bring her all manner of interesting scents and sounds, and that's when she's not poking her little nose into Rasputin's closet or behind the washing machine. The house is less quiet with her yowling pronouncements and complaints after she kicks her catnip mouse under a piece of furniture and can't get it back out.
Baking has been sort of up and down. I've decided I'm not too keen on whole wheat flour because I keep getting nice little bready doorstops. A number of people have made suggestions on dealing with this problem, but I think I'll revert to my normal routine of using all-purpose flour instead of continuing to do battle with the doorstop monster. Mmph!
Still knitting and spinning, of course. My drafting technique has changed a little since I watched Abby Franquemont's Respect the Spindle video, but I think it's improved and allowed me to spin a more consistent yarn. Now I just need to work on my carding and not abuse the brushes so. >.<

Boxing

2011-02-17T12:42:00.000-05:00

I started boxing up my things a few days ago in preparation for the epic journey. It's kind of strange how about eighty percent of my life is tied up in books. Awhile ago, I started trying to reassemble the more beloved books from my childhood, like Blueberries For Sal and The Sky Is Full Of Stars. When I started packing things into the first box, I realized that if I actually read about half the books I own, I'd be a really well read person.. the combination of things like Ovid and Chaucer is probably not that unusual, but throw in a few things like Dragonology and Good Faerie/Bad Faerie, and things start to become a little more tangled.
I've arrived at the conclusion that the ratio of boxes will end up being something like 2:1... until we start thinking about yarn.
So far I'm likely to end up with one box kitchen stuff, one box of clothes, four boxes of books, two boxes of yarn, and gods alone know what other impedimenta will manifest when it comes time to start loading the car.
The last time I moved, it was literally around the corner. I've lived in the same house for twenty-five years. The prospect of moving household to become part of another household is a little daunting, but I know the various parties involved will do everything they can to make the transition as smooth as possible.
The weather has also changed rather dramatically. The past week was mostly somewhere around freezing temperatures, but now its up to 70. I'm sitting outside as I write this, enjoying the sunshine and watching a single honeybee look for something appetizing. The plants are trying to bud, but I think they'll be in for a nasty shock when they realize it's still February.
A philosophical question has been tugging at my subconscious: At what point does something change from being "yours" to being "ours"? Is it a gradual shift in perception? Or is it something that happens all at once?

HOLICOW

2011-02-09T20:22:00.000-05:00

Good gad.. It's official.

Zounds...

2011-02-03T15:37:00.000-05:00

It's been entirely too long since my last post. Much has happened, though, so now seems as good a time as any. =^.^=
In January, shortly after New Years, we lost our beloved Dog. Suffice it to say that after a protracted struggle with degenerative arthritis, she's in Elysium now, chasing bunnies and running through fields, her ears flapping and her tail wagging.
On about January 3, Rasputin and I left for Vermont. After a couple of hiccups involving the unexpected demise of one of the front tires along the interstate, we reached his parents' house. We were exhausted, hungry, and stressed; his parents gave us a wonderful dinner of fried eggplant and salad and bread before letting us continue on our way home.
The original plan was that I was supposed to stay a week, during which I would do a bit of job hunting and we'd hang out with his friends and family while doing whatever it is couples do. And then the first snowstorm hit. I got a phone call from the airline saying that my flight was cancelled and that I could reschedule without any additional fees. It snowed... and snowed... and snowed... and.. yeah. The following weeks were conducted in much the same vein: the weather continues to conspire with someone--Rasputin, perhaps?--to keep me here.
I've been pleasantly surprised that, in spite of my expectation that one or the other of us would begin to suffer from Too Much Birthday, everything has been going beautifully. No fights, no arguments, no throwing of canned goods, and no trifling disagreements. We work well together and I feel that I've been integrated into a household and a routine in a way that's comfortable. I'm not a Stepford Girlfriend, which pleases me enormously, and I'm comfortable with the way things are. All that needs to change is my employment situation. There's a document preservation/conservation place here.. that's one of the places on my list of applications.
Much cooking, baking, visiting back and forth with Rasputin's parents, gaming with GURPS or other similar things (I'm getting the hang of it slowly.. I think), and now the addition of two new friends in the neighborhood is an unexpected bonus. Among other things, I finished the Earl Grey socks; he was so thrilled with them that he said, "You're awesome. My first pair of real socks!" and immediately put them on. I need to take a picture of the finished socks at some point, I guess. Next up is likely to be a pair of Glittens or some Dragon Paws. Note: This officially means I've succeeded in finishing my Yule knitting... a month late. And now I have several birthdays and a few more holidays to knit for. Ye gads.. Fortunately, I'm situated perfectly to take advantage of Webs and The Green Mountain Spinnery. Oh, yeah.. the Golding Spindle folks live practically next door.
There's a pair of octogenarians next door. And they like pumpkin bread. The wife is a knitter who's currently working on a complicated Aran sweater; the husband is an avid genealogist. This morning after Rasputin left for work--armed with a bento box filled with salad, rice, and some of his Cajun blackened chicken--I decided I wanted to make some pumpkin bread. I discovered, however, that we only had one egg in the house. It sounds very clichéd to go knocking on someone's door to ask for a cup of sugar, but that's pretty much what I did.. and I promised to return as soon as the pumpkin bread was ready. Which I did. And spent the next two hours chatting with the missus--she used to have Old English Sheepdogs and loves to read... I'll bet she's got lots and lots of interesting stories to share about all manner of things. Both of them, really. When I finally made my way back home, I came away with an armload of knitting books which were destined to be recycled.. including one from 1961. SelkieB, you're right.. there's nothing better than learning things with someone who's either very aged or very youthful. =^.^=
Assuming the weather cooperates, I'll be heading south next Wednesday. And in the spring sometime, I'll be packing up my books, yarn, and other important gear (pens, ink, laptop, and cat) and moving.
Zounds... It's daunting.

Winter Solstice Delights

2010-12-21T15:16:00.000-05:00

Julekake

5.5 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 cup sugar (or more or less if desired)

1/2 tsp Fiori di Sicilia

1 cup candied orange peel and/or dried apricots (or that dried fruit mix they sell for fruitcake)

.5 cup coarsely chopped almonds

1 cup melted, salted butter

2 cups scalded milk

1 tbsp yeast

1 tin of almond paste

confectioner’s sugar for dusting

(I use a standing mixer, so my technique isn’t exactly standard.) Mix dry ingredients, sugar, and yeast in large bowl while the milk is scalding and the butter is melting. When the temp drops to about 130, pour it into the dry ingredients and mix, mix, mix. Add the fruit and nuts and keep mixing. If the dough is slightly sticky, add a bit more flour and keep mixing until the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl; turn out onto a floured surface and knead about ten or fifteen times before returning the dough to an oiled bowl to rest. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise for an hour in a warm place. When the dough has doubled, punch down; repeat. When the dough has risen a second time, punch it down again, knead it a few times and divide it into however many loaves you plan to make. Divide the marchpane into the same number of pieces and roll into a cylinder or rope. Shape the dough around the marchpane, pinching the seam and tucking it under; after the dough has been shaped, let the loaves rest on buttered baking sheet (covered with a towel) while the oven heats to 350.. about 35 minutes or so. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes and remove from oven. Move to cooling rack and let the bread rest until it’s cool, then roll it in confectioner’s sugar (or just sprinkle if you feel like being a bit more conservative with the sweetness :P), shake gently to get rid of excess.

Happy Solstice, kids. =^.^=

Frumious..

2010-12-01T23:35:00.001-05:00

When all is said and done, and people are pains in the fanny, there is much satisfaction to be derived from the fact that yes, dammit, I'm good at what I do and I can knit them under the table. Case in point.. I have now finished another object on my list of holiday gifts and intend to crow about it.

1. For Rasputin, there is half a pair of ____. The other will be completed as time permits, which hopefully means before the self-imposed deadline of New Year's Eve.

2. For Heather, there is a ____. I'm thrilled with the way it turned out.

3. For Rasputin's mum, there is also a pair of _____. They're heavier than I was expecting, which is blamed on the fact that I didn't check the yarn label before I started knitting. Oh, well.. they'll be just fine for those long, cold New England winters.

I still have a ways to go yet, but.. yeah.. I'm feeling accomplished. So put that in your pipe and smoke it, you pompous prat.

For your listening pleasure we present...

2010-10-31T16:25:00.019-04:00

Suggested Samhain playlist:
From Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, the excerpt "The Little Hut On Chicken's Legs"
From Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, the fifth movement "Songe d'une nuit de sabbat"
Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre
From Mozart's Don Giovanni, the aria "Don Giovanni! A cenar teco m'invitasti!"
Mussorgsky's Night On Bald Mountain

Blessed be.

Little Pink Socks

2010-10-08T17:56:00.000-04:00

It's taken me seven months to finish these, mostly due to an inordinate amount of dawdling. Here at long last are the socks I started for the Snow White and Rose Red-along.

A while ago, Rachael asked if I had any favorite sock yarns. I was left scratching my head and pleading the fifth because I felt my experience in the realm of socks was inadequate to allow me to answer the question properly. In the interim, I've gained a little more experience with different types of yarn, so I can definitely say that I'm really liking the merino/bamboo blend I used for the Wasabi Peas. It handles well and has beautiful stitch definition, as well as a little bit of a shimmer from the bamboo. I'm guessing it'll wear pretty well, but the recipient will have to answer that for me when I pester her for an update. My second choice--though definitely not because it's a lesser yarn, I assure you--would probably be the Black Bunny Fibers BFL. Amazingly soft and squishy, and with equally amazing stitch definition. And.. it tickles.
I still need to do some more research.. um.. knitting... especially with the Malabrigo Sock and Dream In Color Smooshy lurking in my stash. But for some reason, I'm having a terrible time coming up with a pattern worthy of my beloved skein of Butter Peeps. ;)

Philosophe

2010-09-25T20:03:00.000-04:00

Another WIP defeated. Still three left to finish and then it's onward to other things. Here's Voltaire in all his green glory. I found out, much to my chagrin, that 220 yards of Cascade is only half a scarf; the rest is Handpaintedyarn.com Colonia. Yum.

Candide, ou L'Optimiste

2010-09-15T12:15:00.000-04:00

I got the autumn issue of Interweave Knits yesterday and can't decide whether I'm thrilled or disappointed. The majority of the patterns in it are sweaters, with the odd sprinkling of hats and one or two pairs of socks. Most of the sweaters don't really do anything for me, but there are a couple I might someday decide to try, like the pullover with the leafy lace insets in the sleeves and neckline. The downside is that I'll probably have to modify it somehow to make it a v-neck, or in the very least make some minor changes so that it's not the rolled, semi-turtleneck that the pattern is originally for.
I've been fairly productive recently. My list of WIPs has shrunk by three projects, so that now I've got a scarf, two shawls, and two pairs of socks to finish before the board is completely cleared. The scarf is making me want to go upstairs and see what books by Voltaire we have hiding in the study/studio/library. I seem to have miscalculated somewhere, because I'm halfway through the scarf and have run out of yarn. Zounds.. Looks like I get to start perusing KnitPicks.. again.

September Song

2010-09-04T14:14:00.000-04:00

Wow. It's been entirely too long since my last post. There's been quite a bit going on: knitting, cheesemaking, more knitting, work... flimsy excuses all, I know, but that's the way it goes.

It's cooler today, which is a welcome change after a summer of high temperatures and humidity, and very little rain. The wind, however, is less welcome since it's making the hackberry trees throw branches and bits of branches all over the house--one surprised me last night when I came home from grocery shopping by whacking me on the head. I have a nice bruise on the bridge of my nose where it hit my spectacles.. ow. Could have been worse, though, if the chunk of wood had been any bigger. As I'm writing this, I hear sirens, which makes me wonder if something serious has been blown over or there are power lines down on the other side of town.
Last night was also cheese night. The cheese is under 15 pounds of flour so that some of the remaining whey gets squeezed out. Should be a nice batch of cheese with a gallon of goat's milk and a pint of heavy cream. The cream gives it a silkier texture almost like really firm cream cheese, and the flavor of the goat's milk makes it.. well.. it's got that sort of chevre tang. Yum. I might make bagels this evening just to have a good vehicle for the cheese.
The gray scarf is done. It doesn't really need blocking, but I'm still going to throw it in the wash after I weave in the loose ends. The cat--surprise!--insisted on lying on my lap or on the yarn, or biting the yarn and slobbering on it, and I'm guessing the person who commissioned it probably doesn't want kitty drool on it. Ick.
Spinning has been going a bit slower recently, mostly because my time has been taken up elsewhere. The tension peg for my spinning wheel is still MIA, probably because it got sucked up into the vacuum.. which distresses me greatly. It's getting to the time of year when it's cool enough to sit outside and spin, though I can do that with a spindle until our little gray cat interferes.. she loves to come and give the dangling spindle a good smack, then run away and glare at it, which she repeats a few more times before I'm forced to shoo her away. I've got several nekkid spindles, which is unusual.. especially since I've got all this lovely wool to work with. At the moment, I'm working my way through the EKF Sock Batts, the merino/tencel roving, and Sally's gorgeous BFL. I really should finish the Artisan Acre BFL, too, it's so gorgeous.. sigh. Too many choices...

Down the Rabbit Hole

2010-08-19T17:24:00.001-04:00

Yarn. With something to show the scale. I finally wound up my TdF project today--what there is of it. I think if I'd been cycling in the race, I would probably be the cyclist whose support team lost the map, fell down a manhole, and wound up wandering around the Court of Miracles at midnight.
I still have about half the wool left to spin, but that shouldn't take too long if I'm attentive and make a feeble attempt at project monogamy. I'm very pleased with the way this came out. The yarn is remarkably consistent, so it's destined to be plied and knit into a pair of striped mitts if there ends up being enough of it by the time I finish the rest of the wool.
Another package of wool arrived today, so I'm officially going on a fiber-free diet until October. Corgi Hill Farm. Again. =^.^= Merino and cashmere blend in the Red Queen colorway. I seem to be shifting away from my usual blues and greens and gravitating to stronger reds, for some reason. This is definitely worth it, though.

Note to self: Stop dawdling and get a niddy-noddy! Your projects will thank you for it.

Spider Silk

2010-07-21T13:28:00.000-04:00

The other part of my TDF project isn't going quite as well as I'd hoped. Of the two ounces I've got, I've spun less than a quarter... but Florenz was very cooperative and gave it his best effort. The brown yarn is KnitPicks Palette, so you can sort of get an idea of scale if you look at the embiggened version of the picture.

Allez... SPIN!

2010-07-12T00:05:00.001-04:00

Like Hannibal and the intrepid cyclists, I took on the Alps today for the Team Tale Spin challenge. The roving is superwash BFL in Liquid Amber from Artisan Acre; the spindle is my IST Wood Emporium baby in tulipwood and walnut.
The fairy tale I chose was Vasilisa the Beautiful. The story is that of Vasilissa's visit to Baba Yaga; the colors of the roving fit perfectly with the various fiery motifs sprinkled throughout the story... from the fire Vasilissa is sent to fetch, to the second horseman, to the glow of the skull Baba Yaga sends back home with Vasilissa... and the skull's reaction to the wicked stepmother.
As usual, I forgot to use something to show the scale, but you get the idea. ;)

Fleur de Fleece

2010-07-07T10:52:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend, I finally got started on my TdF spinning. Which was awkward because I had to keep migrating from one room to another to avoid hordes of guests at the party I went to. It's so hard avoiding people at parties, especially when you're doing something peculiar like sitting on a barstool and using a drop spindle.. I was good, though, and didn't get too prickly when they asked questions.
This is my first attempt at spinning silk with any real consistency. Florenz has been performing well. He's a little heavier than most of my other spindles, but numerous people have said that it's possible to spin fine yarn on heavy spindles--Mrs. Dragonfly sure proved that with the sewing thread she spun as a test before she and Mr. Dragonfly sent Florenz on his way to my mailbox. I haven't done a WPI test yet, either, but un-fluffed, it looks like it should be fairly close between lace weight and fingering weights. Still not sure if I want to spin it in two parts, then ply it with itself, or wind it into a ball and then chain ply it to make something more substantial. Either way, knitting anything with yarn that fine would take ages, even on biggish needles. Unfortunately, I didn't think to include a penny for scale this time, but you get the idea.

Here's the silk in its unspun form. It's very soft and just a little bit fly-away, so whatever I'm wearing ends up with a slight dusting of silk fibers.
The colors are (as you can see from the above picture) blending to produce something closer to coral.. which isn't quite what I was aiming for. It would be tragic to over-dye it, I think, so I'll just leave it as it is and entertain suggestions for projects when I figure out how many yards I've got when it's all spun up. Corgi Hill Farm is... I need to stop looking at her Etsy shop. Really, I do.

Peppery Paprikash

2010-07-04T00:34:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day of TdF. Fail. I went to work this morning and fumed, then came home and continued to fume. The net result of all the fuming was that I wound off the rest of the first Werefox batt and now have.. three spindles in a state of dishabille. Scandal.
A couple days ago, my IST Wood Emporium spindle arrived and was promptly draped in red Wensleydale. My first experience with a true long-wool is essentially this: because the staples are so long, you can draft until you're practically blue in the face and the single will refuse to drift apart. And you can spin really, really, really fine yarn consisting of almost minuscule amounts of fiber. It's insane. KnittySpin carried an article on this very subject a while back and I'm pleased to see that what I thought was hairiness is normal behavior for long-wools like Wensleydale. No pictures yet, unfortunately, because I wound off the small amount of yarn and am getting ready to actually start my TdF project tomorrow.

One thing about Wensleydale, thought, is that it's not exactly soft. It's incredibly lustrous and has that.. sort of weird, fuzzy halo thing goin' on, but it's probably not going to be well suited to something you'd wear next to the skin. I've been thinking about a lace project.. I'm probably nuts to consider it, but Veil of Isis looks like it would be perfect for this. Assuming I get through TdF.
Tomorrow, I'm off to go bumping along a mountain road.. and by the time I reach the end of said mountain road, I'll probably be so rattled at having nearly fallen into the numerous chuck holes that I won't be in any shape to do much spinning. I somehow doubt the fearless cyclists who compete in the non-woolly version of this event ever have to worry about being swallowed by chuck holes or chased by deer..

Who-who?

2010-06-23T21:57:00.000-04:00

Guess who's come back to our woods? The little ones are starting to fledge, so if I listen carefully when I'm outside at night, I can hear the insistent query of "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee?" Warms the cockles of my heart, it does.

Victory Garden

2010-06-11T10:43:00.001-04:00

One Wasabi Pea on a bed of lettuce. I'm extremely pleased with it, even if I'm winding up a little bit late. For the Snow White, Rose Red knit-along, here's the first of Urdda's socks. As Freyalyn suggests, maybe I'll just concentrate on finishing the second sock so I have one less project to worry about before TdF starts.

Tour de Fleece

2010-06-10T23:25:00.000-04:00

Tour de Fleece is just around the corner, so I'm going to give it a try this year under the banner of Team Tale Spinners. I'm warming up slowly with Florenz, but I have a couple empty spindles to take up the slack when he gets a full tummy of mulberry silk. The other possibility, though the amount is rather daunting, is the gorgeous merino/camel/tussah blend I got--also from Corgi Hill Farm. For now, though, my master plan is to spin this stuff and find a truly amazing scarf pattern to use it with. Pictures forthcoming... but I swear it's getting really hard to wait for Tour de Fleece. My fingers keep twitching toward the silk, but I'm trying. Really, I am. Really. Promise.

When It Rains, It Pours

2010-06-04T17:28:00.002-04:00

Certainly true today. Not only did we have a cloudburst, but the post office had three parcels for me today. I'm so spoiled.. And very lucky.
1. Package No. 1: My Dragonfly Workshop spindle. It's so amazingly nifty it needed a name, so I've dubbed it Florenz after Florenz Ziegfeld. Bloodwood whorl and holly shaft, weighing in at just about 1.5 oz. Mrs. Dragonfly left her test leaders on it and, I kid you not, they're literally fine enough to be used as sewing thread. I can't emphasize this enough: The Dragonfly Workshop is utterly and absolutely awesome. (Florenz is wearing a penny for scale and has a nice little tuft of BFL/silk fluff from Corgi Hill Farm.)

2. Package No. 2: Fiber. From Corgi Hill. I want to wrap myself in it and snuggle. *siiiiiigh* Totally spoiled. Yup. Merino/camel/tussah. *siiiiiiigh* And it makes me think of Rachael's "Modo vernant omnia" because it's green like chrysoprase.
3. And last, but certainly not least, Package No. 3: A book. Emma, I hope you didn't punish your husband too severely for forgetting the package was under the papers on his desk! It arrived safely and I'm planning to start reading it tonight.
As a slight sidenote, the Folklore and Fairy Tales sisters have mentioned Raymond Feist on several occasions; his novel Faerietale was among the titles they talked about, and much to my annoyance, the library didn't have a copy. One of them (Emma, you're a peach) very kindly offered to send me her very own copy, and here it is after an epic journey from under a pile of papers on a desk in Canada. This is my first attempt at reading Raymond Feist. I totally blame my Fairy Tale sisters for my deliquency at the library... and for the length of my "Books I Must Read" list.

And, on yet another detour, Erin, I hope you and your new husband will be very happy together. Felicitations, congratulations, and many celebratory sparkling-cider-bubbly toasts on the occasion of your nuptials.

Fireflies and other omens

2010-06-02T09:57:00.001-04:00

While I was driving to work yesterday morning, I saw a chipmunk go tearing across the road with its little tail held high. I took it to be a good sign--I'm always looking for some sort of good omen before I actually arrive at work. I'm not really sure what a chipmunk might mean, but the day wasn't bad.

This morning, I saw a kingfisher zoom across the yard in the direction of the river. I'm not working today, but the presence of the kingfisher does indeed seem like a good sign. Combined with the arrival of fireflies who entertain us with their little bio-luminescent bums, the summer should be off to a marvelous start.

I've got fiber coming in the mail. More Corgi Hill fiber, to be exact. AnneMarie had a sale a little while ago and was kind enough to hold on to some of the merino/camel/silk for me. If I can, I'll spin it into lace or fingering weight yarn for a scarf or shawl. The fiber is a mix of greens and white that she called "Leeks", so I'll have to find a pattern that's appropriately earthy. Any suggestions, my knitterly friends? Or should I wait until the yarn is spun before I solicit ideas... hm...

I've got a couple spindles on the way, too. One is coming all the way from the Isle of Wight, from the IST workshop, and the other is coming from Mr. Dragonfly, who was kind enough to do another custom job for me: a square bloodwood whorl with a holly shaft. I think I need a bigger jar, but this should be it for a while. My collection is extensive enough to have a lot of bases covered: the Corgi Hill Werefox batts are still going, then there's the Ashland Bay merino/tencel blend, and then there's Sally's BFL. And, gasp, there's one spindle that's quite nekkid, but not for lack of anything to spin since my fiber basket overfloweth.

Knitting has been a slow process since I started slaying zombies for Umbrella Corp. I have two pairs of socks in progress--a pair of very pink Wasabi Peas and a pair of green, leafy Midsummer Night's Dreams with Liberty's Yarns' Kaguya and Pagewood Farm's Denali--and I'm almost finished with my sweater vest. I'm a little stumped on how and where to put the Umbrella logo, especially since the chart I've got is so huge. It needs to be smaller and a little more discreet, I think, so I guess it's back to the drawing board for that part of it. In the meantime, though, I'll work on picking up stitches around the armholes--it's easier to do if you slip the first stitch of every row, but you have to be careful to adjust the number to make the 2x2 ribbing work.

Bad BP! Bad! Bad!

2010-05-18T13:52:00.000-04:00

I'm saddened and angered by recent events caused by the laxity of a certain oil company. They're irresponsible and shortsighted, and should be ashamed of themselves. According to a number of news sources, the oil has now begun to reach as far as Key West, Florida; the ecological ramifications are horrendous.

I will no longer buy gas from British Petroleum stations and encourage you to do likewise. Boycott BP!

Fire Night

2010-05-01T17:20:00.001-04:00

It feels like forever since I last posted anything here. Things have been dreadfully hectic since I've taken a post with the Umbrella Corporation--I jokingly refer to my erstwhile employer in this way and sometimes catch myself about to tell people that I work for that organization when the usual stupid "What are you doing now?" question comes up. My InfernalNet buddies already know this joke, though, and the punchline--of course--is that I kill zombies for a living. Fortunately, however, my duties as a low-ranking zombie slayer don't take up all my time, so I'm still able to do things like knit (whee!) and spin (hoo-hah!) and read.
I finally finished the Whirlpool socks, so that's one less WIP to wrestle with. For some reason, the toes of socks feel like they take an age; I feel the same way about sweater sleeves: You knit and knit and knit, and after all that time and effort, you've got.. half an inch. I have two pairs of socks in progress, but one of them requires circular needles because there's so much moving of stitches back and forth now that I've reached the gusset; late last night, I started a pair of these using the Pagewood Farms sock yarn I got from Ellen a few months ago. So far I've only been able to finish the toe of the first sock and do the first six rows of the foot, but I anticipate a relatively swift victory if I can manage to knit while I'm sleeping or working. Alas, I still have the Forest Path to finish, and right now I just don't feel like fighting the intricacies of entrelac and lace.
I missed the first day of Maryland Sheep and Wool Fest. I also missed the local Morris Dancers' troupe and most of the May Day festivities. I will, however, still wish everyone a gloriously happy Beltaine and hope you get up to some mischief. ;-)

Grrrrrr.

2010-04-21T18:50:00.000-04:00

I’m furious at the vet. Of course we expected them to do a bunch of tests… but if the dog is falling down in front of you because her legs won’t hold her and you still claim you’re uncomfortable with euthanasia without trying drugs, what kind of that say about you? The dog was at the vet all day, apparently with neither food nor water; when I went to fetch her after three phone calls with inconclusive answers, she was weak, terrified, and barely able to stand up. When I got her to the car, she tried twice to get in on her own and fell both times because her hind legs wouldn’t push to get her in the rest of the way. And this was in full view of the front desk behind glass doors, with a vet looking on. I went back in and demanded that someone come give me a hand getting the dog into the car because, hello, she’s falling down!
So, after doing a test to prove that she didn’t have Lyme disease--which we already pretty much knew, the vet announced that x-rays are required to determine whether or not she has arthritis. Oh, and we need to pull some of her teeth. But first, let’s put her on some anti-inflammatory/analgesic medication to see if we can get her comfortable. Oh, and by the way, she’s lived well beyond the average life expectancy of a Great Dane, so every day that she’s a live you should really be thankful for. The subtext is probably “So why, you fool, are you asking me if the treatment for arthritis is going to extend her life, let alone give her any quality of life, when she could keel over by the time you finish getting her in the front door of your house?” And, of course, they have to protect themselves from lawsuits.
I’m hurt and frustrated. I’ve spent the entire day in a state of anxiety, fear, sorrow, and dim hope. I don’t want to lose my dog, but I don’t want her to suffer lingering pain, either. She’s never been “just a dog”. She’s my friend and sidekick, she’s been a rock, and she’s a member of the family. She made a place for herself in my heart and it hurts me terribly to see her so unhappy.
Poor baby. She ate some ground beef and drank about a gallon of water, and now she’s asleep

Foxfire

2010-04-01T15:53:00.002-04:00

Confound you!" snapped the fox. "Give me back my ball!" The man ignored its pleas till finally it said tearfully, "All right, you've got the ball, but you don't know how to keep it. It won't be any good to you. For me, it's a terrible loss. I tell you, if you don't give it back, I'll be your enemy forever. If you do give it back though, I'll stick to you like a protector god." - 12th-century Japanese folktale.
Ball of foxie yarn. No, I didn't go a-raiding and snitch a kitsune's hoshi-no-tama. It really needs to be skeined, soaked, and whacked against a solid suface, but I'm happy with the way it turned out. I'm planning to leave it unplied and just knit with it pretty much as is, but in order to do the shawl I still need to spin the other batt. All this has to wait until I get a niddy-noddy, because I don't see myself winding off four ounces of yarn on a tissue box or cookie sheet.

Foxie, Foxie..

2010-03-30T16:16:00.000-04:00

I'm 1.4 oz into the Werefox batts and I know exactly what I'm going to do with the yarn. It's begging to be a Shipwreck Shawl. A Shipwreck Shawl knit for a folkloric creature whose reputation precedes it. You'd think, given the nautical nature imparted by its name, I'd be knitting it for Scylla or Charibdis, or maybe for Amphitrite, but the yarn really doesn't fit any of them.

I guess I could really go in any number of directions with the wool. The brown and red could be vaguely autumnal, so it could just as easily adopt a forest-y name, but I think I'll stick with the obvious and let it keep its name while giving it a slight change of locale by pulling the tail--or tails--of the mischevious kitsune. I can't think of a better example of foxie naughtiness than Tamamo-no-mae... even if she didn't find herself being shipwrecked.

Toadies!

2010-03-26T18:19:00.001-04:00

Some amphibious creature has spawned in the little goldfish pond behind our house. The past couple of days have been cool and rainy, and in the wee hours of the night, there have been some very croaky sounds coming from the pond. I was just out there looking for evidence of frogs or toads, but of the adults there was no sign. There were, however, enormous masses of gelatinous eggs; they've obviously been fertilized because there are little... things... visible to the naked eye, and they look like they're well on their way to producing another generation of some amphibian or other.

Hell, yeah. We have amphibians. And we're proud of it.

Reviews

2010-03-10T13:17:00.000-05:00

I started doing yarn reviews a while ago, but never really got up a good head of steam. Now, however, I'm concentrating on reviewing yarn and fiber from indie dyers, and I've started a blog over on Wordpress for that very purpose. So far, I've only done two reviews, but I have plenty of things lined up for the next few months, which will likely be done once a month to keep me from burning out or running out of people. :-p I'm trying to plan ahead and alternate yarn and spinning fiber. The list so far is as follows:
April: Liberty's Yarn Kaguya
May: Twisted Fiber Art Roving Lively
June: Serendipitous Ewe Chance Sock
July: Enchanted Knoll Farm Superwash Batts
August: CraftsMeow Ice Cream Sundae

Just in case any indie dyers happen to read this, if you're interested in having your yarn or fiber reviewed, feel free to send me an e-mail or a message through Ravelry. Or leave me a comment here.

Full of Surprises

2010-03-09T15:52:00.000-05:00

This arrived today from Minnesota. It was cleverly disguised as a bottle of single malt Scottish whiskey, but since it didn't slosh when I shook the tin, I figured the contents weren't whiskey after all. Hardly a disappointment, I assure you! So, from the Dragonfly Workshop, I'm now the very lucky (and very thrilled) owner of a curly koa and walnut spindle. And I now have a tool worthy of spinning my Corgi Hill Farm batts. Having the proper equipment makes all the difference--I adore my other spindles, and they all have special projects associated with them, but the Corgi Hill batts needed the right vehicle. Mr. and Mrs. Dragonfly very kindly included some samples of fiber for me to play with--some baby llama, which I've never met before, and some superfine merino. O.O I'm absolutely floored by the care and kindness with which they treat their clients. It's a lovely spindle and it spins beautifully. And it's mine, mine, mine, all mine! :P

re:View Black Bunny Fibers BFL Sock

2010-02-27T19:30:00.005-05:00

Few people are able to take the experience garnered from helping their children with a craft project and turn it into a full-fledged business venture. Black Bunny Fiber’s Carol Sulcoski, however, did exactly that. After experimenting with Kool Aid, Ms. Sulcoski switched to professional dyes and took her friends’ suggestion by posting her hand dyed yarn on Etsy. From there, she moved to her own website where she—with some assistance from bunny Charcoal, after which her business is named—continues to dye and sell yarn and spinning fiber, including wool from endangered breeds which she sometimes finds at fiber shows.

Ms. Sulcoski’s approach to dyeing produces a wide array of colorways ranging from the more subtly shaded Algae and Grape Goulash to the bold variegation of How Now and Paper Parasol, so even those who prefer a the calmest color scheme will likely find something to love. In either case, the colors are a richly saturated visual treat. How Now caught my attention and, over the holidays, someone was kind enough to give me a skein of Black Bunny Fibers BFL Sock yarn in that very colorway.

I've never actually giggled while winding yarn because it was so soft it tickled my fingers. Blue-Faced Leicester certainly falls into that category. BFL, according to the Blue-Faced Leicester Union website, is classified as a longwool breed. This means that, typically, the wool has a longer staple length—between three and six inches per strand—and micron count of about 26. In layman’s terms, the lower the micron count, the finer the wool, and the finer the wool, the softer the end product is likely to be, which is exactly why the yarn tickled my fingers when I wound it up. And that’s also why the finished yarn is such a delight to knit with.

That the yarn is soft has already been established. While not as tightly spun as some sock yarns, it’s still spun tightly enough to have a slightly bouncy texture and—joy!—lack of splittiness when confronted by sharp, pointy DPNs. There’s a subtle sheen that shows up in low light and is probably impossible to photograph, but it only adds to the experience by enhancing the visual appeal. Even finding a pattern to suit the wild unusual color combination was less of a challenge because, perhaps not by coincidence, Ms. Sulcoski also happens to have provided a solution in the form of the book Knitting Socks With Handpainted Yarn, to which she and a number of well known sock knitters contributed patterns. My hank of How Now is slowly turning into a pair of Whirlpool Socks, and I’m very pleased with the results.

Black Bunny Fiber's BFL sock yarn: soft, shimmery, splashed with saturated colors. It’s hard not to develop a soft spot for it.

Here Comes the Sun

2010-02-22T15:10:00.005-05:00

The first time I knit something with my own handspun, the yarn was fairly inconsistent in terms of thickness and wpi. The Beltaine Hat turned into a Beltaine Bag, and it's still waiting for me to sew the lining in place and actually knit a handle. Sigh.

Maybe I've gotten more practice and enough muscle memory, or maybe it's that I have more control with a spindle than I do with the wheel, but the yarn was consistent enough not to have the same gauge problems as my previous handspun project. The scarflette is finished, and it's a lot brighter than I'm accustomed to--I'm a slightly more somber, cool color person, but I'm trying to branch out into.. um.. happier... colors. I appear to have succeeded beyond my wildest aspirations. O.o

Socially Climbing Vines

2010-02-21T12:29:00.006-05:00

The unexpected can be oddly pleasant. I finished my Strangling Vines last night, dunked it, and pinned it to the ironing board; it's amazing how much the yarn relaxed and softened in the process. Not only did the yarn relax, but by the time the scarf was dry enough to photograph, I found out that its blocked length exceeds my height by about eight inches. O.o
Anyway... here's the finished, blocked, almost completely dry scarf. The colors are pretty accurate and the lace pattern shows fairly well.

Red Hot Pokers

2010-02-19T14:06:00.004-05:00

They're not the prettiest flowers, but they work as yarn. It took me about a week to ply all the handspun using the Navajo plying method, and today I dip-dyed it with a mix of KoolAid and Wilton paste. I'm pretty proud of it. Now, assuming it dries in time, and I get my other Ravelympics project finished, this will magically turn into a Pearl-Barred Scallop Scarf. Or, in the very least, a scarflette.. I have no idea how much there is in yardage, but it's roughly 1.8 oz of even rougher fingering-to-heavy-fingering-weight yarn.

When It Freezes Over...

2010-02-16T11:40:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was rotten. I left for the grocery store at about 11 because the forecast called for more snow; when I got back at about 11:30, the power company was very kindly blocking the street. Our street is never more than one and a half lanes under the best of conditions due to parked cars taking up the other half of the other lane, so with the remaining snow having been pushed into huge heaps by the plow, we're reduced to one lane--Gods forbid that you should meet a car coming in the opposite direction when it's like this, because one or the other of you will end up having to back allllll the way to the nearest intersection in order to let the other pass. And Gods forbid that any emergency services should need to get through..
"Twenty minutes," said the young man who was directing traffic at the intersection.
I thought I'd go get a cup of coffee, linger for twenty minutes, and come home. I was wrong. Got back to the entrance to our street and saw a blue VW Beetle on the other side of the power company truck; some poor college student was trying to get home or to work or to someplace other than a one-lane-dead-end street. The young man who was directing traffic said the Blue Beetle had been waiting for about twenty minutes, and when he asked his colleagues if they would let me by, the response was a snappish "No!"
So off I went again, but not for another cup of coffee. I called all my friends who lived locally and all of them were either at work or not at home, so I couldn't seek refuge. I could have gone to the university library, but since I don't have a parking sticker, I wouldn't have been able to park on campus--forget metered parking! With the snow, it's nearly impossible to find a spot, and I didn't feel like jousting for one with a student desperate to get to class. I could also have gone to any of the shops or restaurants in the business district, but again, I probably wouldn't have been able to find a place to park. So for the next twenty minutes, I drove aimlessly around the town and when I finally felt like making another attempt to reach my domicile, I was surprised to see a police cruiser commanding the power company truck to move.
When I got home, mom was in quite a state and told me that she needed to be taken to the doctor PDQ. So off we went...
The moral of the story is this: The municipal government is utterly unprepared and ill-equipped to cope with emergencies of any kind. The administrators seem incapable of coordinating with emergency services or the utility companies to even prepare for any possible disasters, which is the exact opposite of the way it should be. Of course, if you're a merchant who has a shop in the business district, chances are the ambulance will be able to get to you even if hell freezes over, never mind that the little people who actually live here might have fallen off the cliff into the frigid waters of the Potomac River, or fallen down the stairs and broken both legs, or suffered a coronary or a stroke due to the frustration and powerlessness that results from the inadequacies of the town's administrators.
/RANT

On to happier topics, sort of. Since I spent part of my day yesterday waiting for mom to come out of the doctor's office, I got a fair bit done on one of my Ravelympics projects. Strangling Vines is a nice, easily memorized pattern of yarn-overs and decreases, so I didn't actually have to take the pattern with me. It's a nice pattern, but the yarn I chose probably wasn't the best option among all the things I had in my stash. Earthly Hues does gorgeous work with plant dyes, and I hoped that the pattern would do the yarn justice--and the other way around. The Foxfire colorway is a mix of autumnal browns and reds that are knitting up into a lazily zig-zagging pooled effect that everyone seems to like but me!
Silly me. I decided to spin a bunch of white yarn, ply it, dye it, then knit it for my second project. So far I've plied about half the yarn using the Navajo plying technique in the second video I posted; the spindle shaft is filled to the point that the combined weight of the yarn and spindle keeps pulling the yarn through the hook so the spindle slides down. After I get the yarn plied, then I get to skein it. And then I get to dye it. And then I get to wait until it dries... and then either reskein it or just wind it into a ball before I use it. *sigh!* At least I've picked a pattern and have a vague idea of what colors I want to use, so I'm heading in the right direction. I think...

Frozen Wasteland

2010-02-12T11:57:00.005-05:00

Everyone around here is sick of snow. There were even reports of people suffering extreme cases of cabin fever who, in the throes of the mania resulting lengthy confinement due to bad weather, threatened the snowplowmen with injury if their roads weren't plowed right this minute. That, however, was in the city. Some of the news articles about snow-related silliness were cause for much hilarity, like the fellow who wore dress pants while using an oar from a rubber raft to dig out his car. O.o

Here at Chez Duchesse, sanity has endured. Mom's baked cookies (twice!), I've been trying desperately to finish spinning the yarn for one of my Ravelympics projects, and knitting like a madwoman. I've spent more time watching Murder, She Wrote than I care to admit, and I'm ready for the first bit of green to reveal itself and proclaim the coming of Spring.

Even the snow seems ready for winter to be over.

Snow, snow, go away!

2010-02-08T18:27:00.003-05:00

I'm sick of snow. We got a hefty 27 or 30 inches last week which, according to Yahoo exceedes D.C.-area snowfall mentioned in Thomas Jefferson's journals. The bad news is that we're due to get more snow over the next few days; the National Weather Service claims it's supposed to be between 10 and 20 inches.
I think I'm ready for Spring. NOW.

Grand Plie

2010-01-16T14:11:00.005-05:00

Here's another Navajo plying video. This isn't ply-on-the-fly.. it's the real thing. With a drop spindle. Fascinating. O.O

For some reason, the embed isn't working quite right, but you should be able to find it on google if it continues to misbehave. Thanks, Emmaknits for sharing this with me. :)

...hereby...

2010-01-03T14:54:00.004-05:00

I always fail miserably at making resolutions, though last year I think I did manage to do more yoga and eat more fruits and vegetables; the WIPs sure didn't go quite as well as I thought they would, though.
This year, however, I'm still plugging away at the WIPs--all of them are left from last year--and my resolutions stand thus:
1. I resolve to be more vitriolic and vituperative. (tee-hee)
2. I resolve to.. well, this one's private.
3. I resolve to actually FINISH a few projects.
4. I resolve to at least try to be more aggressive about a certain subject which seems to get certain people in a lather because I still haven't succeeded in doing what they feel is the most important thing under the sun. I blame their ethics, not mine, because I'm perfectly happy doing what I'm doing and that's all there is to it. After all, I'm not committing felonies or defrauding the government or behaving like a hoyden, thank you very much. (Was that convoluted enough for you, you unmitigated toads? You know who you are.)

I don't really think I'll succeed in Resolutions 2 or 4, but I'm quite ready to dish out a good dose of vitriolic vituperation. ;)

Blue Moons

2009-12-31T15:40:00.005-05:00

My spindle technique is definitely improving. I still have a ways to go before I succeed in getting a truly consistent single, let alone a truly consistent twist in the plied yarn, but I'm getting better at it.
Among the tricks I've picked up while hanging out in the Spindlers Ravelry group, there's a neat video demonstrating a ply-on-the-fly technique. As far as I can tell, it's sort of a modified (?) Navajo plying technique that gives you a three-ply yarn without the necessity of fiddling with three spindles at once. Or four, counting the one doing the actual plying. It's still a little fiddly since you have to stop every so often, loop the yarn, ply it, then wind the plied yarn around the shaft before resuming with the single strand. It makes more sense if you watch the video, though. ;)

So that's what I've been trying to do after I did such a crummy job of spinning the mulberry silk. Poor silk. It deserved better treatment than being used to relearn the art of drop spindling. I've progressed, though, and have two spindles with fiber on them. The fire agate has some of SallyInWales's hand dyed BFL on it, and I'm finding out that having a notch in the whorl really does help. Even if I choose not to take advantage of it, having it there feels better--sort of like training wheels, I guess--because, if the single slips, the notch will probably keep it from getting away from me.
The cedar spindle does have a notch, and I've made more progress with it--it's starting to fill up, which means I'll have to figure out how to move the cop from the shaft to some other storage thingy before I can keep going. The Mountain Colors Targhee is really, really easy to spin (for some reason I'm finding the BFL a little more challenging.. go figure).
I've been considering expanding my collection and, after dithering, I picked a Dragoncraft spindle with gorgeous blue swirls and a moon embedded in it. It took a little wiggling to get the whorl really tightly in place, but I think I've got it on there well enough that it won't come off without a lot of abuse... which I certainly don't intend to dish out. This one weigh just a tiny bit less than the other two (the fire agate weighs 1.48 oz and the cedar weighs 1.44 oz) at 1.3 oz, but is still considered a mid-weight spindle. I've been operating under the assumption that lighter weights produce lighter yarns, but a number of people have suggested that this is false and that an experienced spinner could probably use any size spindle to make even very light yarns. I'm not sure that's true for, say, a 2 oz spindle, though, since some people recommend using heavier ones for plying. It's a puzzle. O.o
It was purely coincidental, I'm sure, that the package arrived on a day that, while also the day of New Year's Eve, falls on a blue moon. In view of the utter blueness of the day, I picked up the blue Corriedale/bamboo blend--I gave up after having been frustrated by its quirky, slubby nature--and took another stab at spinning it. It's going better than my initial attempt, which may well be due in part to my practice with the other two spindles. The picture doesn't do the spindle justice... or the fiber, for that matter.
There are all kinds of little white and brown hairs in the mix. It seems I wasn't as thorough about cleaning my cards as I thought I was, so there's a little bit of alpaca fluff still stuck in there, and it's giving the yarn an interesting texture.
All this fiber! Combined with the sock yarn mom gave me for Christmas, I may never surface except to blink blearily at the outside world and make Grinch-like comments before I disappear again. Now it looks like I really do need a bigger jar to stash my spindles in... *sigh!*

Wintery

2009-12-20T22:48:00.008-05:00

Happy Solstice, you guys. I hope you're all staying safe and warm somewhere, enjoying good company, good food, and that you're not too fussed by the fact that we on the east coast of the United States got upwards of a foot of snow. ;-)

Daily Dose

2009-12-08T18:43:00.004-05:00

What's a girl to do when she's sold her spinning wheel and feels like spinning? Like an itch that needs scratching, the urge to spin fiber is something that isn't likely to go quietly into the night and twiddle its thumbs. The solutions are myriad, of course, and the easiest is to concoct some sort of spindle-type device with a CD, a rubber grommet, and a dowel or spare knitting needle of the appropriate width. And then we have Etsy, which is a black hole into which many people fall, never to be seen again. In the best possible way, naturally.

I've decided to wait until May to get a new wheel. Don't let this statement mislead you, though, because I've spent hours doing research and pestering people like Rachael for advice on smaller wheels. That's the problem, really. An Ashford Traditional is small, yes, but like a lot of Saxony wheels, it does still take up a lot of space because of its width, and I need something with less width. Since Rachael posted about getting a Merlin Tree Hitch Hiker--and her subsequent woes and resolution of same--I've been intrigued by the cute baby wheel idea. The downside, according to Rachael, is that if you're tall, you'll probably have to slouch uncomfortably to accomodate the Hitch Hiker's diminutive proportions. Rachael is tall. I'm tall-ish. So that means the Hitch Hiker and I probably might not be suited to each other, even though its small footprint and small pricetag are quite an inducement. I intend to test these guys at Maryland Sheep and Wool in May and see how much slouching is required. She also suggested trying something like an Ashford Kiwi, which also has a fairly small footprint and pricetag, and the added bonus of not having to slouch. That's another one on my test list.

May is such a long time away, though! In the meantime, what do I do? Etsy is home to about a billion creative people, a good number of whom sell gorgeous things; I'll keep my opinion about the so-called "upcycled suitcase pet bed" to myself... ahem. My main interest, though, is drop spindles, which cost about 1/4 as much as a spinning wheel at most.. unless you're looking at Golding spindles, and they're not on Etsy anyway. *sigh*

So. Spindles. I blundered into a Ravelry group devoted to this subject--one of several, I might add--and looked at pictures until my eyes couldn't focus anymore. And then I went back to Etsy and looked some more. And finally settled on a fire agate top-whorl spindle with a black rosewood shaft. It weighs slightly more than 1.5 oz and is delightful to look at. Does it spin? Hell, yes. Does it spin well? Definitely. And Maiysha does such a wonderful job of packing the spindles, it almost seems a pity to undo it all to get the thing out of its carefully secured nest of bubblewrap and tissue paper. And then there's the fiber she sent with it: a little bit more than half an ounce of her hand dyed mulberry silk (see picture to the left). I've never worked with pure silk before, so this is going to be a challenge which, I think, I'll put off until I've succeeded in re-learning the use of a drop spindle. She also sent a handcarded bit of roving with--hee!--some sparkly stuff in it. This, too, will wait until I've mastered spindle spinning. It's too gorgeous... and too fluffy... and.. and.. *sigh* I want one of everything in her Etsy shop. I tried spinning a tiny bit of the silk and it came out with a few little bloops of fiber where I didn't draft it quite as evenly.. but.. but.. it's like embroidery thread, it's so thin. O.o Wow. I guess I'm a little beyond the park-and-draft stage, but.. barely.

I'd also been dithering over the Banksia pod spindles I saw. On Etsy, of course. Banksia pods come from Australia and have all sorts of neat holes and textured bits where their petals/needles/quills used to be. I dithered too long, alas, and the one I loved most was snapped up before I could get up the nerve to buy it; in the meantime, the young man responsible for creating the spindles posted a beautifully finished cedar spindle with a curly maple shaft. And, of course, I completely fell in love with it and dithered. And then I bought it. It, too, arrived today. It weighs a little bit less than the fire agate spindle, but it spins... and spins... and spins...

I tried spinning a wee bit of some of the Corriedale/bamboo blend I started fiddling with a couple weeks ago, and I'm really enjoying it. I have to figure out how to draft a little less aggressively, though, because the yarn I'm spinning is so thin it'll probably produce lace weight yarn after it's plied. Which is fine, really, 'cause you can never have too much lace weight yarn. Really. Promise.

I think I should be in good shape until May, at which point I'll probably skip buying a wheel altogether and get a Bosworth spindle.... and a Golding spindle.... and... and... *sigh* I think I need a bigger vase to accomodate the impending growth of my collection.

Damage

2009-11-24T18:11:00.002-05:00

I feel like such a ninny. Mom warned me about putting my mitts on top of the woodstove to warm them. She said they might get hurt. This is old news to some of my Ravelry buddies, but I actually succeeded in burning a hole in my nice, warm Noro Evangelines. How? By putting them on top of the woodstove to warm before I put them on my hands. Naturally, I managed to put them on the hottest part of the stovetop.
This leaves me with a dilemma: the burnt mitt has unsightly brown scorch marks on it, so do I somehow frog what remains of it and knit the yarn into something else, or do I toss it and knit another mitt--assuming I can dig up another ball of yarn in the right colorway, or do I toss them both and knit a new pair with some wonderful new yarn?
The options for the latter will likely not include Malabrigo. I've found that it pills quite badly after less than two months of wear; mom's mitts are in bad shape and either need to be plucked or shaved to rid them of all the little bits of fuzz. Otherwise, the list will probably be something like this:
1. Frog Tree Merino Worsted. This is iffy since it's a softly spun single that might well pill as badly as the Malabrigo. The upshot is that it's soft and probably won't itch.
2. Noro Kureyon. Doesn't pill horrendously, even after two years of heavy winter wear. It does, however, itch a little.
3. Patons Classic Wool. Not too itchy, not too soft, and probably won't pill as badly since it's plied.
4. KnitPicks Wool of the Andes Worsted. Also plied and neither too soft nor too itchy. It does pill, at least in the form of sweaters, but might be well suited to something like mitts.
5. Bartlett Yarns Fisherman 3-ply. This might be too itchy for mitts...

Wow. I have less in the way of worsted yarn than I thought I did. Lots of sock yarn, lots of lace yarn, but where did all my worsted go? O.o

Not From A Box!

2009-11-18T18:51:00.004-05:00

I've been wanting to do this for a while, but there have been a number of things sidetracking me and disrupting my kitchen activity lately. Now that things have calmed down, I can proceed with kitchen activities relatively unimpeded; since the weather is gray and yucky, I have an extra excuse to putter in the kitchen and do things like bake cookies. In the meantime, though, dinner:

3 chicken breasts cut into bite-size-ish pieces
1 tbsp peanut oil (or other, if you have allergies)
3 oz Pinot Grigio or other white whine (yes, I know it's misspelled)
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp coarse dijon mustard
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp flour
1/2 tsp spice blend (see below)
salt and pepper to taste
1 8 oz bag of shredded carrots and broccoli, or other shredded vegetables

Sautee the chicken over medium-high heat until it's cooked almost completely; season with salt and pepper. Whisk the wine, lemon juice, and mustard in a small bowl and use the liquid to deglaze the pan. Add flour, butter, and spices, and continue cooking until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened. Turn off the heat and add the vegetables, tossing to coat with the sauce. Put the lid back on the pan for about five minutes to let the vegetables steam.

Spice blend: Equal parts ground ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, black pepper, chimayo pepper, garlic powder, nutmeg, and pimenton dulce. Mix the spices together and store them in a jar. This goes pretty well with just about everything from fish to soup.

Froggery

2009-11-11T01:05:00.003-05:00

This has been a bad year for me as far as finishing things. I've started projects with the best of intentions, the most important of which was to challenge myself to learn and master some new technique or other. I tried entrelac, proceeded from a simple entrelac scarf to entrelac-with-lace-that-will-remain-nameless, then after getting to about the sixth row of blocks, set it aside in favor of something else.
Then came the Sockdown challenge. First, it was yellow, then it was men's socks (like I know enough men who deserve handknit socks *snort*), and now it's mosaic knitting. The yellow challenge wasn't really a challenge as much as it was an experiment to see if I could knit in a color that wasn't my usual blue/green. Coinciding with the yellow sock, there was the sock with little lace cat footprints marching up the leg; one sock is finished, the other hasn't even begun. I tried twice to do the October Sockdown and failed completely with Nancy Bush's Gentlemen's Socks With Lozenge Pattern.
I keep saying it isn't the pattern designer's fault, and it's really not. I crave challenges and colors to test my knitty mettle; most challenges aren't insurmountable, but when the pattern offers only one option as far as size goes, I start to get annoyed, especially when my meagre math skills end up going completely out the window. Funny.. I can do enough algebra to tell you how far it is from the corner of the house to the other end of the solar system, and to figure out the rate of speed of a ballbearing falling from Point A to Point B, but I can't for the life of me adjust a sock pattern from a men's 11.5 to a men's 6.5. It sounds simple to subtract stitches, but is it really that easy?
Okay. So October Sockdown was a complete failure. November is obviously in progress, and so far I'm doing fairly well with the mosaic knitting. My only problem, however, is that the yarn I chose--of all the glorious indie-dyer yarn languishing in my basket--the two shades of brown KnitPicks Palette are utterly and completely blah! In ball form, there's enough contrast to show that yes, they really are two different hues. Knit together, though? It's too subtle and neither color pops enough to do the pattern justice.
I'm knitting more slowly than my fellows, some of whom are knitting amazing socks that look like little pieces of knitterly Op Art without the headache inducing stripes, so it's pretty likely I won't finish my November socks during the month of November.
Holiday knitting? There isn't much this year. Last year's knitted gifts ended up crammed in the backs of people's sock drawers and were never used or enjoyed. That takes a big chunk out of my to-do list, really, and means there's more yarn for me to be selfish about. Not that I don't still have good-sized to-do list: Mitts for two different people, a pair of socks for someone else, and a scarf for someone else. This all hinges, however, on whether or not I can find patterns appropriate to the people in question, yarn appropriate to said patterns, time to knit the objects, and enough swallows to dispatch as couriers.
This, naturally, begs the question "What... is the velocity of an unladen swallow?"

Samhain Greetings

2009-10-31T12:47:00.004-04:00

Happy Samhain, everyone.

Oct-Ogre

2009-10-23T13:57:00.005-04:00

What is it with the month of October? Normally, October is such a good month for me, but this year it feels like one thing after another has been going wrong or somehow getting derailed; other people appear to be suffering similar mishaps.
We're having company tomorrow to overnight, so for the past couple of weeks, things have been moved around, rearranged, taken upstairs, taken downstairs, shoved into storage space, or otherwise removed from the house in an effort to make things tidier. Last week, though, it rained almost all week and was about 40 degrees during the day. That meant there firewood needed to be hauled into the house, the stove needed to be cleaned and the ashes dumped in the garden, and then more cleaning because ash and bits of bark go everywhere. The wood got soaked even through the tarp, which made starting the stove a bit of a struggle.
Then we found out our elderly friend died, which has made us feel even less like doing house-related stuff, let alone have company in the first place. *sigh*
Then there was the Night of the Butter Peeps, which was pretty damned scary, especially since I was outside when the thing was making that terrible racket. 11:30 at night, raining, pitch black outside, and no visible source of unearthly wailing screams would probably be enough to make a few doughty souls flee, which was exactly what I did. I dragged the dog into the house, slammed the door and leaned against it, then fell on the couch and sniffled. I'm not given to hysteria, but I was frightened enough to cry. I still have no idea what the source of the noise was, but after all my research I have a pretty good idea what it wasn't--foxes, deer, owls, raccoons, black bears, rabbits, and possums don't produce such a sound, even under extreme duress. That leaves some twerp pulling a prank or some other animal heretofore unidentified. Mom, in an attempt to cheer me up, decreed that October 15 will henceforth be known as the Night of the Butter Peeps, and that we will celebrate by making a s'more cake with some sort of marshmallow peeps as the decoration.
There have been other annoyances not really worth detailing here, but I'm really ready for October to be over, because hopefully November will be better.

In Spirit

2009-10-13T14:52:00.004-04:00

Mom got a phonecall today. It concerned a death. For many years, mom was friends with a Hungarian woman who taught French at the university here; mom had been a student of hers, and even after Madame retired, they were close friends.
I remember being about eleven or so when my parents went to Europe for a vacation; since there were no relatives to babysit, I stayed with Frances and her parents, and also with Madame. She would walk me to school every morning and, as we walked, she would talk and I would listen; among the things she spoke of was the complete account of the achievements of Charlemagne, encapsulated to fit the fifteen minutes it took to walk from her apartment above the bakery to the elementary school. After school, she would help me with my math homework and mutter the calculations under her breath, always in Hungarian, while she checked things using a little slate and a piece of chalk.
Years later, we would talk about books and current events; she was scandalized because I revealed I had no idea who Charlie Rose was, and that I didn't watch his show. She would issue forceful pronouncements about the behavior of this president or that politician, daring me to debate with her. I would lend her books on mythology, and she'd suggest something more popular like The DaVinci Code.
About eight years ago, she suffered a stroke that left her partially paralized; she went to a convalescent home and, with the help of physical therapists, was able to regain some of the abilities she lost. Later, she moved elsewhere, and then moved again, this time to Switzerland. She came back for her birthday a few years ago. It was difficult for me to see how much she'd changed from the vibrant, outspoken, strong person she'd been all through my childhood. Her daughter, in the meantime, kept us updated through letters with reports of both progress and decline; other friends who went abroad to visit her at the nursing home in Switzerland also told us how she was doing.
Today we got a phonecall telling us she's dead. Mom took the call and, somewhere between the birth of her friend's first grandchild and a bouncing e-mail, there came the news.

Through her life, she was a dancer, a swordswoman, a nurse, a physical therapist, and a teacher. She was a traveller, a reader, an avid witness to the changes in the political climate. She wrote letters, read books, took long walks every day, and took the time to help an eleven-year-old learn long division. She loved coffee ice cream, tulips and white carnations, believed strongly in the benefits of charcoal tablets, and enjoyed watching sunsets from the window of her apartment above the bakery. She was gracious, generous, a wonderful storyteller and listener, and enjoyed friendships with people of all ages and walks of life.
I'll miss you, Madame.

I Covet You

2009-10-12T17:15:00.003-04:00

I'm not normally covetous by nature, but occasionally my desire for soft, squishy yarn leads to my stash approaching SABLE. Due to my current enthusiasm for socks and sock yarn, I've recently acquired a few things that, while I do have plans for them, are so soft and squishy I almost can't bring myself to knit with them; these include the CraftsMeow yarns (okay, I am actually knitting with one of them...) and some Serendipitous Ewe which is earmarked for a pair of socks for dad. I'm not sure it'll be used for such purposes since I also recently found out that at least one pair of socks has been relegated to the back of dad's sock drawer, which I find infuriating. Still, it might end up as a pair of socks for someone, if I can determine who among my vast acquaintanceship might be worthy...
This being said, my I Covet You list now consists of the following:
1. Dream In Color's Smooshy in Butter Peeps (I'm completely obsessed with this colorway for reasons I'm at a loss to explain.)
2. Enchanted Knoll Farm's fingering weight in Dragon's Blood.
3. Pagewood Farm's Alyeska in Ireland.
4. Black Bunny Fiber's Blue-Faced Leicester in How Now (which does not, apparently, come with a brown cow.. go figure.)
5. The Alpaca Yarn Company's Heels and Toes in Purple Rain (No, I'm not now and have never claimed to be a fan of you-know-who. I just really like the interplay of purples in the yarn.)
6. Earthly Hues' Seedling in Foxfire.
7. Fly Designs's Cashmara Sock in Blood Red and Brick.
8. Lisa Souza's Sock! in Wild Things.
9. Three Irish Girls' McClellan in Rhiannon and Kieran.
10. Slackford Studio's Pathway Sock in Pesto.
11. Abundant Yarn's Larrisa Brown Sock in Jules Verne.

Of Imperial Apricots

2009-10-08T17:28:00.003-04:00

I recently had a bit of a debacle with some yarn. At the Mountain Heritage Festival, I was lucky enough to run across a booth where the vendor had a basket of handspun yarn for sale for outrageously low prices. I grabbed a giant skein of white yarn and approached the woman; I was sure the price tag was wrong. That much handspun yarn couldn't possibly be a mere eight dollars! The vendor's husband looked at me over the tops of his glasses and said, "She's over spinning. She's into plying now." As if that's an excuse to practically throw away all the beautiful yarn! I still didn't quite believe the yarn was only $8, but I paid for it and left the fairground, my head filled with dreams of using the cochineal or osage orange sawdust I'd gotten at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Fest two years before.

The yarn sat in my knitting basket until I felt like pulling out my kitchen scale. It weighed in at 1 lb 4.4 oz, which really is a whole hell of a lot of yarn... I found a step-by-step article on Knitty and followed the directions for mordanting and dyeing the yarn with cochineal. And then things fell apart: the dye ran and ran. And ran some more. A few people have suggested that the lingering bits of cochineal beetles which are still--ick--lodged in the wool are the cause, and I swear I'm about to attack the stuff with the vaccuum to see if I can get the last buggy bits out that way. I've shaken the yarn outside, I've whacked it against the exterior of the house, shaken it some more, and finally just hung it over the back of a chair. The net result of that particular little venture ended up being more a rose color than the red I was aiming for, and I was a little disappointed.

The little cloud went away today, though, after I broke out the KoolAid and Wilton dyes. A few days ago, I got a ball of white Patons Classic Wool and decided to try for a rich, intense purple. Supposedly, since KoolAid is already pretty acidic, you don't really need to add vinegar to the pot; I did anyway. Vinegar and salt. I didn't want to take any chances with the dye running when I rinsed it. After several dunks in a mix of hot water and hair conditioner (tee-hee), the water stayed clean, so I guess it worked. I hung the yarn up outside to drip dry, then remembered I had a bag of handspun alpaca upstairs in the Tub o' Yarn. What to do, what to do, I thought, and then a little lightbulb lit up.

I've always been pretty indifferent to yellow, but after the September Sockdown, I decided I sort of like it. Not screaming, neon, blinding yellow, but muted, soft, sunny yellow and mustardy Grey Poupon yellow and (I blush to confess) that color known as Butter Peeps. By itself, the lemonade flavored KoolAid is pretty blah; I added a generous blob of Lemon Yellow Wilton dye and got a bright, sunny yellow. A good dunk in another bath of hair conditioner and hot water, and the water was clean. Well! How about that!

The picture is fairly accurate, but the colors are a little more saturated than it makes them seem. It's almost enough to make me want to order some naked sock yarn from KnitPicks or something and take a stab at dyeing some for myself... maybe I'll even put Jacquard dyes on my Christmas list! Or maybe I'll just let it lie and not pick up yet another hobby unless absolutely necessary.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, the yarns Apricus and Imperatrix. Rachael, I blame you for their names. :-P

All Hail the Great Pumpkin!

2009-10-07T17:23:00.002-04:00

This is what I get for following links. The Forum Funnies had a thread about pumpkins and pumpkin-related stuff, and in one of the posts there was a link to what amounts to a fondue served in a pumpkin instead of a fondue thingie. Now, if all my far-flung friends all happened to converge on the house at the right time of year, I would have a complete meal consisting of nothing but pumpkin things.

Appetizer: The pumpkin fondue thingie with appropriate bits of things to dip.
Soup: Pumpkin soup with cream, sherry, and sausage. Annadamma bread, while not made with pumpkin, tastes vaguely pumpkin-y, so that or some sort of brioche.
Main course: Pumpkin lasagne with Italian sausage and mushrooms. And salad.. I'm not sure there would be pumpkin there, but you need salad... right?
Dessert: Pumpkin cheesecake with a molasses-spice cookie crust. And coffee. Have to have coffee.

The whole pumpkin thing is really making me want to make these, which means I would need to either roast my own pumpkin seeds or find a good source for fresh pumpkin seeds.

Baby Bundties

2009-09-22T15:53:00.003-04:00

I've been intrigued by the idea of baked donuts since I saw a donut pan in the Baker's Catalogue. Donut pans, as it turns out, aren't to be found locally for love or money, but baby bundt pans there are in abundance. Yesterday, I broke down and got a baby bundt pan while I was out with mom, and since then I've made two batches of pumpkin donuts; neither was what I'd call completely successful, but they weren't inedible, either.
The first recipe I tried was this one. The texture was a little lighter, but I made a couple of mistakes; I forgot the baking soda and used too much milk. Somehow, though, they turned out pretty well. The second I tried was this one, and somehow, the texture came out very dense and cakey, and I don't like it at all. Turns out I forgot to add baking soda again, which could have something to do with the problem. They're okay, I guess--everything goes better with a bourbon-nutmeg glaze, doesn't it?
I'd like to try one of the King Arthur donut mixes at some point, but I don't really want to pay UPS shipping for one package of donut mix, no matter how good it might be!

Bourbon glaze:
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup powdered sugar
about 2 tbsp bourbon

Pick Up Sticks

2009-09-18T17:02:00.004-04:00

This is where I solicit advice from experienced knitters who use double-pointed needles.
I've got some Susan Bates needles in sizes 1, 2, and 3, and the smaller sizes actually hurt my hands. They work perfectly well to knit with, but using them is never comfortable. I also have a couple sets of Clover bamboo needles, which are fine for knitting socks; they grip the yarn without being sticky, they're comfortable to handle, but the tips are a little on the blunt side for my tastes and they tend to chip over time. Next on the list, I've got two sets of KnitPicks Harmony needles with which I have a love/hate relationship. The tips aren't extremely stabby, but they're sharp enough to slide through stitches easily; the resin impregnated wood is comfortable in my hands, but it can split apart at the ends, which results in yarn snags and occasional sharp edges that can snag my fingers as well. I have one set of KnitPicks nickle-plated needles, too, but I rarely use them because they're so cold to knit with and the seven inch length is a little tricky for me to fiddle with. They're smooth, of course, and rather slippery--metal doesn't usually grip yarn, does it?
Last, I've also had (no longer, alas) a set of Brittany birch needles in smaller sizes. After a while, these also chipped at the ends and I had to smooth the edges with sandpaper to keep the yarn from snagging; the smaller sizes made me feel like I was knitting with toothpicks and, yes, I did break one of the needles while I was trying on a sock--that's how I ended up with my first set of Harmony needles.
I now appeal to my knitterly buddies: Can you recommend double-pointed needles that are comfortable to knit with, slightly stabby-sharp, and of a more economical price range than the Signature needles?

Yarn Delivery!

2009-09-08T16:49:00.002-04:00

Yarny goodness of several types arrived in today's post, and I'm happy as could be. It's soft, it's squishy, it's sproingy, it's face touchy... it's... it's Craft's Meow sock yarn. And I can't wait to knit with it. The colors are very lush and appealing, especially in the Caramel Soft Serve; the Witch's Brew is just.. awesome. Gah. I'm not usually at a loss for descriptive words, so I think I'll just quit while I'm ahead and give you pictures of my yarny goodies.

Before I forget, I got another package today. Yarn, a silly postcard--thanks, Greenethumb, for the giggle--and a little tin of faerie mints. The yarn is KnitPicks Essential in a gorgeous semi-solid dark yellow-gold. I've never knit with it before, but as soon as I finished tidying up, I cast on for the Catnip socks. Essential, or Stroll as it's now called, seems to get mixed reviews, so if I'm a dissenting voice, that's too bad. I'm completely enjoying it. It's incredibly soft and has a fair amount of bounce, so I can imagine that it's going to make a really good pair of socks. The color reminds me of ripe wheat fields in the autumn, maybe under a very thunderstormy sky.

So far the Catnip socks are going fairly well, but since I'm only working on the toe, I'm not sure how much chance there is of making a mistake. Of course, I could be wrong. Ahem.

Okay.. pictures.

Around the bend

2009-09-07T17:10:00.003-04:00

Fall is in the air. I can tell by the way I'm sneezing and because the poison ivy is turning a glorious shade of red on the trees across the street, which usually happens before the deciduous trees start to change color.
The Rivendell socks are going fairly well; I finished the first one a few days ago and it fits. I made a few minor modifications, like going up a needle size and using a different type of cast on than the one suggested. My go-to cast on is usually the knitted one, but it's pretty un-stretchy and doesn't work very well for sock cuffs because I tend to do it too tightly and then knit through the backs of the stitches on the first row. This means that I have to learn a new cast on besides the evil backward-loop.
When I first learnt to knit about twenty years ago, my elderly neighbor taught me the backward-loop method. The problem was that because she was left-handed, she taught me to cast on as though I were also a southpaw, so I've always done a reversed-backward-loop and never learnt to do it the right-handed way. For me, the backward-loop always produces a long gap between the next loop to be worked and the right-hand needle, which generally means I use the dangly yarn between the needles to cast on extra stitches and take up the slack. As a result, this is my least favorite method to use; that's why I started using the knitted cast on.
The lack of flexibility in the knitted cast on is fine for things that don't really need a lot of give, like shawls or potholders, or maybe even a sweater--if you're one of those people who does it loosely and hits the gauge dead on without having to swatch, maybe it matters even less--but it's probably not your best bet for a nice, stretchy sock cuff. Since most patterns seem to call for the long-tail method anyway--which I've mistakenly thought was the backward-loop for the last five years... oops--it's probably better to stick with what the pattern suggests unless you just don't care.
After consulting a number of sage souls on Ravelry, I headed off to YouTube to see what the twisted German cast on was all about. Rumor has it that it's super-stretchy and is about on the same level as the long-tail cast on. I skipped the long-tail videos altogether and, after watching the same video (KnitWitch, your video is to blame for my new brand of delinquency) about fifteen times to make sure I knew what I was doing, I cast on the second Rivendell sock. And the cuff is way more flexible than the first one I did. The downside is that I misjudged the amount of yarn I'd need to do the required 63 stitches and was left with a tail about a foot long even after I finished. This, I've been told, probably isn't uncommon since there's a lot of trial and error involved calculating the exact amount. The first time I tried to cast on, I didn't leave enough extra yarn to make a 63 stitch cuff. Needless to say, I frogged the cuff and had to start all over; my sock now has a little blob of blue yarn hanging at the beginning of the round.
I said the sock was going well... and it really is.. or will be if I can figure out where I made my mistake. I've finished the first chart and am two rows into the second, and it's that second row that's got me puzzled. I have the right number of stitches, but for some reason I can't seem to get them arranged the right way so the twisted stitch does what it's supposed to. Since I obviously finished the first sock and got something that actually vaguely resembles the pattern in the book, then I should be able to manage the second one just fine. Right?

I broke down and ordered more sock yarn. *sigh* Just two skeins, but that's enough to set my fingers twitching at all the possibilities. It should arrive tomorrow, and that's not quite soon enough for me. The CraftsMeow's proprietoress does gorgeous work.. it's going to be tough to decide which pattern will go best with which yarn.

Advancing On Adventurous

2009-08-30T23:38:00.005-04:00

I know Janel Laidman's new book just came out and, as usual, I'm running behind. I'm two seasons behind on Supernatural, I'm two books behind on the Sano Ichiro series, and now one book behind with Janel's creations. Gah.
Last year, before her first book came out, I found--and I don't remember how--the pattern for Nordic Lights on the Spindlicity website. My attempt at knitting the socks wasn't a complete disaster, but it probably would have been better if I'd gone up a full needle size instead of just half. That wasn't the author's fault at all, but it was certainly mine since I didn't--as usual--do a gauge swatch or periodic checks to see if the sock would fit. I liked the pattern so much, I asked for a copy of the finished book for Christmas, and I'm just now getting around to tackling one of the patterns from it. The rest of the patterns in the book are amazing. There's colorwork, there's lace, there are cables, cuff down, toe up, sideways... something for everyone, really. I have plans to knit a certain pair of socks for a certain scientifically-inclined friend if I can track down some yarn worthy of the task. Ms. Laidman's thorough descriptions of the necessary techniques are covered in the index... with pictures, no less!
The subtitle "Socks For Adventurous Knitters" definitely fits. I don't really consider myself an expert knitter, but neither am I a novice, so when I read through the instructions for the Rivendell socks, I thought I'd be fine as long as I stuck to the directions and remembered to go up a full needle size. I'm still progressing through the leg of the first sock and it's taken me three days, two different types of yarn, and three frogs to figure it out. Even with pictures, I had some difficulty with the concept of wrapped, clustered stitches, and it took the assistance of several people on Ravelry to get it sorted out--thank you ElvaUndine, Greenethumb, et al. Once I succeeded, however, I felt quite sheepish because it's really not as difficult or confusing as it seems at first glance.
Rivendell's complexities are best served by yarn with subtle shading or a solid color and not, as I found out, the wildly shifting colors of something like Kauni or Patons Kroy Sox FX. Thank the Mother of All for the two balls of Dalegarn Daletta hiding in my stash, though I find myself fantasizing over knitting another pair in something like this...

Ugh.

2009-08-29T20:46:00.003-04:00

12 o’clock high: Noise from the university football game and tailgate party, but muffled by the box fan and air conditioner.
3:30 PM: It’s absolutely quiet. Even the cicadas seemed to be snoozing, perhaps anticipating the impending flood of unnatural noise.
4:30 PM: Noise from the park is audible over the box fan, air conditioner, and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. It appears I crowed prematurely. If it continues to increase in volume, I shall unearth headphones and continue to listen to Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar while knitting.
7:56 PM: Now clearly audible over air conditioner, box fan, and Johnny Dollar. Mom and I have to shout at each other to be heard from five feet away. Forget the headphones, I want earplugs.
8:48 PM: A brief lull, followed by throbbing bass and someone who clearly can't sing wailing into a microphone. Supposedly only another twelve minutes of this nonsense.

In an attempt to do something constructive during today's... lovely activities, I cast on for a pair of Rivendell socks and was promptly stymied by the third row of the pattern. I understand how to do the clustered stitches, but I'm not quite sure what to do at the end of Row 3. Theoretically, you can divide the cuff of the sock into three needles of 21 stitches, and after knitting two rows of the ribbing, you start working Chart A (or Chart 1, if you prefer). Row 3 goes something like this: Cluster four stitches, follow the pattern for the next 14 stitches, cluster seven stitches, work 14 stitches, cluster another seven stitches, and so on until you get to the end of the row. But what happens next? Is it cluster three stitches or is it cluster seven by picking up the first four stitches of the following row? I'm so confused! I'll refrain from speculating on whether or not the volume of the Awful Din has affected the way my synapses work....

What do you say to a cup of tea?

2009-08-18T21:52:00.006-04:00

If this were an episode of Father Ted, the response would likely be something rude. Since, however, this isn't an episode of Father Ted, the response would be some expression of gratitude. I was astonished to find a message from a fellow blogger/knitter/Raveler (the almighty Teabird, whose sagacious blog entries always makes you stop and think) saying she was picking me for an award. I'm not exactly sure what all this means in the grand scheme of existence, but it was a touching gesture and I really appreciate the thought.
The blurb on her blog explains the award thusly:

Do you reach for a cup of cocoa or tea when you're relaxing, seeking comfort, sharing a plate of cookies with family and friends? You know that feeling you get when you drink a yummy cup of cocoa, tea or a hot toddy? That is what the Heartfelt award is all about: feeling warm inside!

Put the logo on your blog/post. Nominate up to 9 blogs which make you feel comfy or warm inside. Be sure to link to your nominees within the post. Let them know about the award by commenting on their blog. Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award.

My nominations are:
Christybelle of Confessions Of A Misplaced Southern Belle
Rachael of Modo Vernant Omnia
Clara of Purly Everlasting
And everyone else whose blogs I read faithfully.

The Un-Joy of Cooking

2009-08-17T15:21:00.004-04:00

I respect The Joy of Cooking. I really do. I'm sure updated versions published after 1975 are an absolute delight, but alas, the version lying in the kitchen is from the days before digital thermometers. You'd think that TJOC is like Julia Child: much about technique and practically infallible. It's not. Even Julia Child burnt things on The French Chef (see the potato episode from the first season if you don't believe me).
I've made several recipes from our copy of the book and every single one of them had to be tweaked one way or another to account for either modern equipment or modern ingredients--like 1975 is somehow medieval and cooking is really alchemy. Such examples include the muffins. Muffins? I like my muffins a little to the cakey side, not as bread dough cleverly shaped to resemble a slightly pyramidal muffin. Waffles? I like my waffle batter to be a little stiffer than runny yogurt, which is exactly the consistency I got when I followed the recipe to the letter. Shortbread? The jury's still out because the dough is stashed in the fridge to chill, but the recipe did require quite a lot of tweaking to get a consistency more like the results I got last time I made shortbread.
The untweaked recipe calls for a cup of butter, a cup of sugar, two eggs, two and a half cups of flour, sour cream, and a teaspoon of baking powder. I took one look at the glop in the mixing bowl and shook my head. And this is somehow supposed to be rollable-outable? I don't think anything short of a stint in the freezer would have made such a thing possible, and even then it would probably have been like the Blob oozing around on the marble slab.

The tweaked recipe is below:

Almond Coconut Shortbread
1 c unsalted butter
1 c granulated sugar
2 eggs
3 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
shredded coconut (enough to make things interesting but not enough to end up with macaroons)
4 oz slivered almonds (toasted, if you want a more intense almond flavor)
1 tsp vanilla

Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla, salt, and eggs until smooth, and add flour gradually. Add almonds and shredded coconut and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Divid dough in half and roll into a cylinder using waxed paper; chill for a couple of hours or until firm. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Unwrap dough and cut into 1/4 inch slices; put on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes or until just beginning to brown. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet before moving them too a cutting board or cooling rack.

Quiet, please!

2009-08-11T20:26:00.003-04:00

It's no secret that I like a relatively quiet environment. I read, knit, listen to my vintage radio shows, cook, and do various other things, and no one's ever complained about the volume at which I do them. The neighbors haven't come to bang on the door in protest or called the police because I've been knitting at 2 AM. The animals haven't been driven away by the thumping bass of my spinning wheel, the birds haven't dropped from the sky because I'm reading too loudly, and the plants haven't withered because I'm cooking at too loud a volume.
There's a rock concert planned for the little park in our neighborhood. Forget planned! They've been actively promoting it. From what I've been told, the town sprang for electrical hookups in the park and this will allow any and all to use amplifiers for their music.
To say I hate music is absolutely incorrect. Once upon a time, there was a man who went up to the park to play his bagpipes. As it turned out, he was preparing to perform at a wedding. Then there was the elderly man who took his fiddle to the park one spring afternoon. There was also a classmate of mine who went up there to play his banjo, and I suppose there have been other people who have gone to take advantage of the quiet to practice penny whistles. None of them used amplifiers and none of the residents were bothered. So it's really not the music that bothers me, but the fact that if it's amplified, it's impossible to escape without actually fleeing town and/or buying earplugs.
I question the wisdom of the coordinators' choice of venue. A 1.5 acre park at the end of a dead-end street is hardly the right place to have a charity event for a number of reasons--parking, inability of emergency services to get through if needed, impact on residents who may not necessarily want to hear a garage band blasting at top volume, impact on the wildlife who may be terrified, not only of the noise, but also of the people tromping all over their habitat without any thought for what might be living there. The promoters had a number of other options: the university football stadium, the university concert hall, the university's new theatre building, the big park outside of town. All of those have electricity ample parking which would not only allow the tourists to fall out of their cars and into the venue without having to walk two or three blocks through August heat while perspiring and carrying picnic baskets, toddlers, and whatever impedimenta required to enjoy a concert. And yet, the promoters chose the park here. The only reason I can think of is that the venue, if you can call it that, is a mere stone's throw from the commercial district.
For about twenty years, dad's said that the town government's main aim is to further the interests of the two-block commercial district. None of the merchants will benefit from the concert because they're all closing in protest--which I say with heavy irony. Nor are they the ones who are affected by the problem since--surprise--most of them don't live locally, let alone in our neighborhood. Of course, if asked, most of them would probably say it's a wonderful idea to have a steady stream of people listening to a steady stream of amplified noise because it's for a good cause. I think there's a flaw there somewhere. Ahem.
The whole thing reminds me of a scene in As Time Goes By. Lionel has gone to Norwich to plug his book and is unaware that the publisher has presented it as a gritty, nonfiction adventure in which a coffee planter hacks his way through the Kenyan wilderness while slaughtering elephants. In response to the publicity, a number of students attend the lecture in the hope of protesting the apparent atrocities committed against the elephants of Kenya by Lionel-the-elephant-killer. One of the students stands up and says, "Because of you, my children may never see a wild elephant!"
There may not be any wild elephants here, but thanks to the thoughtful people downtown, there are generations yet unborn who might never see an oriole or a bluebird in an urban setting, or hear the foxes barking or the woodpecker knocking. Dramatic? Maybe, but definitely apropos.

Edit: 12:30 August 13- Found this article. Am in total sympathy with the citizens of Prague but doubt that Madonna will cancel her concert just because three thousand people are against it. I wish them luck in their attempt, though!

Umbrella up, umbrella down

2009-07-31T14:13:00.001-04:00

Summer has been relatively cool here. It’s a rare day that the temperature breaks 90; the norm is usually somewhere between 80 and 85 on most days, and the humidity hasn’t been too bad. Today, however, it’s actually cold, which means it' must be somewhere between 60 and 70. I’m wearing a sweater and fuzzy socks, which is definitely weird for the last day of July. There’s so much moisture in the air that there’s no point in baking—not even cookies!—and it feels like my hair is never going to dry. The plants are getting a good drink, though.

My knitting has been sadly neglected for the past couple of days, and that bothers me. I’m on the third tier of the Forest Path, steadily heading toward the fourth, but things have come grinding to a halt because of the beady stuff. You’d think I could do both at the same time, really, but for some reason I find myself eyeing the box of beads on the dining room table and thinking, “I wonder what interesting things I can do with this, that, and the other?”

Forest Path, I’m sorry I’ve left you to languish on the wing chair. Your purple silkiness is a delightful challenge and you deserve better than to be neglected. I hereby promise to resume working on you as soon as possible so you can be finished and blocked by summer’s end.

A Shameless Shilling

2009-07-25T17:58:00.004-04:00

In a slight change of direction--both literal and figurative--I'm still working on the Forest Path Stole. It took me all afternoon to wind up all six skeins of Gloss, but I think it was definitely worth it. Attempt Number 2 is languishing in the cat's bed; handpainted yarn is lovely for a lot of projects, but I don't really feel that lace is one of them. I'll probably finish the tier I'm working on, then do the top edge and border, and leave it at that. It's too hot to be working with pure alpaca in a heavier weight anyway. I might have managed with lace weight alpaca in 90 humidity, but DK is out of the question even with air conditioning. I feel sort of guilty saying so. O.o
The size 3 needles are giving me a tighter fabric, but it's still open enough to allow the lace patterns to come come through; the color doesn't seem to be obscuring the lacy parts, either, which helps. I have a feeling I may have quite a bit of yarn left over at the end. This doesn't surprise me since I rarely bother with--I know, I know--gauge swatches before I start a project. I'm into the second tier and still haven't checked to see how many stitches per inch there are. Who knows what the finished dimensions will be even after it's blocked. I'm a long way from blocking yet, though.
The diagam in the book is a little frustrating, as are the nupps. Much discussion of the nupp problem has been had--there's that blasted passive voice again--on Ravelry. Some people suggest leaving them out altogether in favor of putting a bead in the spot where the nupp would have been; others suggest using a smaller sized sock needle to fish around and snag the working yarn. Among the more interesting tidbits of information on the subject is this: Estonian women were paid for their finished pieces by weight and nupps were a pretty, unobtrusive way of adding a little weight to their knitting. Incidentally, I had no idea at all it was really pronounced noop. As for the diagram, however, the arrows are merely there to indicate which direction the tier is being worked in and not actually pointing to the tier it appears to be beside. Tier 1 with its accompanying left-pointing arrow is really worked from right to left; Tier 2 is worked from left to right, as indicated by the right-pointing arrow. I guess the assumption is that at least a few people who want to start something that complicated already have some familiarity with the ins and outs of entrelac and don't need an explanation.
I, being a noob, took one look and nearly threw the book out the window. That was shorly before the mimeograph-purple ball of fuzz ended up as packing material. Since then, I've succeeded in making it as far as Tier 3 (that's on the ungodly heavy Attempt Number 2) without making any enormous mistakes. I don't know that anyone else would notice--or even care--that I transposed two of the blocks because I wasn't paying attention to the diagram. Attempt Number 3, however, is proceeding smoothly. For now, at least. Chances are I'll transpose a few more blocks after I finish Tier 2 because Tiers 3 and onward are relatively uncharted (ha-ha) territory.

After giving it some thought--and serious googling--it seemed like a good idea. Mom, beast that she is, talked me into developing the idea a little further. The whole metaphysics thing, y'see, which means this is really a thoroughly, completely shameless plug for idea put forth in my last post.
I now direct your attention--if you'll excuse the plug--to Markedly Metaphysical, which is where further fruits of beady business will probably be displayed. In the passive voice, no less. *sigh*

Still None of Your Beadness

2009-07-24T16:16:00.006-04:00

The stitchmarker monster is still lurking, and this is the result of this morning's efforts. Since the beads are technically mom's, I have no idea what most of them are; this means I have to pester her for the particulars. In this case, she tells me the little leaves and rectangular thingie are rhyolite which is, according to some metaphysics websites, associated with cats, the elements Earth and Air, and the planet Mercury. Metaphysical stitch markers? I wonder if there's a niche market there somewhere. :P

None of Your Beadness

2009-07-18T14:44:00.003-04:00

It seems like everyone makes stitch markers. Etsy and Artfire are packed with people who make adorable little markers with beads shaped like lobsters and hotdogs; then there are those who use tiny little pearls and semi-precious stones. All of them are a practically endless series of variations on a theme. Mom and I discussed it and our verdict is that it's easy to do and is likely to have a fairly low overhead while still allowing someone to make a small profit.
About ten years ago, mom got the bead bug while she was trying to reconcile herself to being a writer who worked for commercial publications which she felt tended to take advantage of tragedies as a way of making a buck. Her brother-in-law sent her an e-mail asking her to interview people locally and write an article on the impact of a certain September tragedy in such a far-flung place as our semi-rural community; such a story, he said, would be of great interest to the Brazilian newspaper he worked for. Mom was surprised and, I think, a little appalled. How could people stand to capitalize on a tragedy of that scale? Instead, she decided to channel her creative energies toward something less likely to leave a foul taste in her mouth. And that's how we ended up with a hydraulic press in the living room. And a workshop full of beads from all over the world.
Mom's first show was in Pennsylvania, and it was memorable for a number of reasons not the least of which was the elderly Mennonite gentleman who approached us and suggested we would be enjoying a warm climate after we shuffled off the mortal coil. Shows, as it turned out, were hellish more often than not: the scramble to get ready to leave, get the car packed, the tent put up (which always required help), the endless flow of people who made nice comments like "But that'll snag on my sweater", the scramble to get things packed back up at the end of the show, get the car re-packed, and then drive home and unload everything until the next show rolled around. Of course, there was always a positive aspect to all that brouhaha, and that made the exhaustion worth it. In the end, mom decided to quit going to shows and opted for a quieter avenue for her pieces.
She recently changed gears again and went back to writing, though with a less commercial edge--and certainly one that's less likely to capitalize on grief. Which leaves us with a workshop full of beads and a hydraulic press in the living room. A few days ago, while she was taking a break from writing, I asked her if she'd show me how to make stitch markers. She rummaged around in the workshop and came back with a little pouch full of headpins, a little drawer full of glass beads, and several pairs of pliers, and, after about an hour, I'd succeeded in contracting a new hobby.
I'm not quite sure what to do about this, but here's photographic evidence of my labors.

Glossing Over

2009-07-15T14:16:00.001-04:00

Things have taken a turn for the better—after taking a turn for the worse—with the Forest Path Shawl. My initial attempt using the Handpainted lace yarn didn’t go very well. It’s not that the yarn isn’t nice. It is nice with its fuzzy little halo; the downside, though, is that for a project like this, the halo gets fuzzier with handling and the end result is that things start sticking together. What happened was really my fault. I picked up too many stitches for the first block of Tier 2 and didn’t realize it until after I’d knit about five rows; when I tried to unravel those five rows, things stuck together because of all that fuzz. Ultimately, the yarn broke and I was left with a big tangle. Attempt Number 1 was sent to Aubrey Kenworthy as packing material in a package containing a bottle of ink. Waste not, want not, I guess. She, clever creature that she is, adopted it as a piece of art for her craft room wall; that, oddly, makes me feel better about the FPS Debacle.

I decided, then, after my first failed attempt, that perhaps I might do better with some yarn that wasn’t just a single. Operating under the theory that plied yarn is stronger and has a little more character and self-control, I ordered some Gloss yarn from KnitPicks. It arrived today, along with a number of surprises from the admirable Mrs. Kenworthy (whose atelier can be found here) and a yarny murder mystery from a friend in North Carolina. In the interval between frogging my first attempt and the arrival of the Gloss—which is a lovely dark purple like a cross between J. Herbin’s Poussier de Lune ink and a purple crocus—I cast on for a second attempt with some yarn I found buried in my stash. I’ve since found out that Araucania has discontinued its Atacama line, so if I don’t finish with the yarn I’ve got, that’s the end of that. Atacama is DK weight, so size 6 needles seemed like a good idea. I’m not entirely pleased with the results thus far, but that’s mostly because handpainted yarn can sometimes obscure the intricacies of lace with its variegated, shifting colors. I am, however, very much enjoying the fact that, no matter how much I handle it, it doesn’t stick together and it doesn’t seem to want to get all fuzzy. In fact, when it came time to start a new ball, I had a terrible time getting the ends to splice… wow. Alpaca, by the way, just does not taste very good.

So now I have to decide whether I want to actually finish the remaining eighteen tiers of Atacama or just go ahead and cast on Attempt Number 3.

Entre Nous, Entrelac...

2009-07-05T17:06:00.007-04:00

When I said I'd be jumping in at the deep end, I had no idea exactly how deep and murky the water would be. Lace I can handle, but the entrelac is proving to be quite a challenge--which is fine since I like challenges.

I cast on for the stole, worked the 20 rows of seed stitch, finished the triangles at the base, and then realized I had no idea how to proceed. Gulp! The first logical step would really have been to look for a good tutorial rather than trying to get started without knowing what I was doing.

Finally, after much Google-fu, I discovered that YouTube doesn't seem to have any tutorials on entrelac. From there, I went to About.com and found one with nice pictures and crappily written text which could use a hefty dose of red pencil. Naturally, without a good explanation, the pictures aren't quite as useful. Next, I went to a blog with pictures and a nice clear description of which stitches get picked up at which point. And, after working the first three tiers of blocks while staring at the tutorial, I figured I could proceed on my own until I forgot a step.

One problem, which is pretty minor, is that it doesn't recommend slipping the first stitch of the row on the selvage edge of each block and side triangle. Slipped stitches make life much easier when it comes time to pick them up again for the beginning of a new row of blocks. Another problem, which is probably due to some error I'm making, is that I occasionally end up with a hole that isn't all that dissimilar to the one I get when I'm working the first row of the gusset after all those stitches have been picked up. It's a little unsightly, but since this is a trial run, I'm not expecting to get it right the first time. I hate picking up stitches, but for socks and entrelac (among other things!), it's a necessary evil. It ranks with casting on, which I also hate... but I don't think it's possible to knit without casting on somehow. On the other hand, I'm also learning how to knit backwards, so I'm really getting more out of this than just the basics for entrelac.

The stole is on hold until I'm sure I'm ready for it, which means I'm fiddling with a ball of Noro Kureyon in what I feel is a rather unfortunate colorway--I hate pink, and there's plenty of pink in it--which probably isn't enough to produce more than a giant potholder.

Love-In-Idleness

2009-07-02T12:01:00.003-04:00

"Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell:

It fell upon a little western flower,

Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound,

And maidens call it love-in-idleness." - A Midsummer Night's Dream: Act II, Scene I

When the summer KAL started, I decided to delay reading/watching/listening to the chosen source of inspiration until I got closer to actually finishing the Fountain Pen Shawl, but last week I sat down to watch one of the more recent film versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Movies are always tricky because they have to compress or cut things to fit into about 100 minutes, but it's worth the frustration of missing details to see Stanley Tucci's Puck stealing a bicycle to go tearing through the woods in pursuit of Helena and Demetrius.

The discussion of the play has ranged all over the place, from manga versions of it--these I have got to see--to an opera, to the similarities between the faerie principals to major Gods and Goddesses from a number of pantheons, to the relationships between characters and why is Oberon so hell-bent on taking Titania's pageboy. I think we'd probably be an effective think-tank if anyone cared to hire us en masse.

Among the more minor notes in the discussion was the question of what, exactly, is this thing called Love-In-Idleness. Anumber of sources suggest it's most probably a variety of wild pansy with (and this is from a source whose credibility is somewhat questionable.. Wiki, I love you, but you know it's true) psycho-active qualities. It still exists in the form of Johnny-Jump-Ups, also called violet pensee, and it's still purple.

After rooting through four boxes of yarn, I found some laceweight in an appropriate--if rather violent--shade of purple that reminds me of the old mimeographed worksheets we got in elementary school. Everyone hated them because they were so hard to read, which was blamed entirely on the color. In this case, it works just fine, and since I haven't actually started the tricky entrelac parts of the pattern, I have yet to go bonkers.

You're sic! SIC!

2009-06-30T18:48:00.005-04:00

Sic hoc adfixum in obice legere potes, et liberaliter educatus et nimis propinquus ades.
I love it. It's going to be my new voicemail greeting. Rachael, I blame you for this... :p

I'm almost finished with the Fountain Pen shawl. Just six more rows before binding off, but it's driving me nuts because everything seems shifted to the right by one stitch and I can't figure out where the mistake is. I have the right number of stitches (minus 32 since I skipped one repeat of the second chart); I'm not at all interested in ripping back 18 rows to the lifeline. Double grrr! I will finish this, though, because I want to move on to the next project on my list: the Forest Path Stole. As usual, I'm jumping in at the deep end by trying to learn entrelac in combination with a more complex lace pattern. I've got the yarn and a pair of jury rigged circular needles... so hopefully I can finish the last six rows of the Fountain Pen shawl without throwing the whole thing out the window in a fit of pique.
Speaking of fountain pens, I sold my Lamy Vista and got a Lamy Safari to replace it. It's red. It has an extra-fine nib. It's a delight to write with. The nib is a little more rigid than I'm used to, but I sort of expected it after consulting with ChristyBelle and reading up on them on Biffy Beans.

Ink-a-dink-a-doo

2009-06-23T13:01:00.002-04:00

I wonder what it would have been like to be in the dining room at the Palmer House in 1905 while, by sheer coincidence, Mark Twain was sitting across the room with his pen in one hand and a fish fork in the other.

Crumb bum...

2009-06-22T01:05:00.003-04:00

Today was one of those crappy days where nothing seemed to go right. About the only thing that turned out was the new batch of cheese. First, I pulled out the kitchen thermometer to check the temp on the milk, and discovered that it was broken, which meant that I'd either get glass in the milk--and the cheese, obviously. I would also have needed it for the gooseberry curd if that had turned out, but it didn't.
A few days ago, I went out into the garden and picked the gooseberries which are, thus far, the about the only thing the stupid deer have left alone this year. Since mom's trying to grow things without using pesticide or other chemicals, that means the deer, the beetles, the worms, and other creepy-crawly things are having a nice time at the salad bar. The gooseberries have big, sharp thorns, however, making them less likely to be eaten by deer... but those thorns don't do much to deter bugs. I washed the berries, cooked them until they were mushy, and then started hunting for the food mill. Which I couldn't find. That left the food processor, which ended up creating a mix of seedy gooseberry pulp and shredded berry skins. I realized after I put the pulp through the strainer that--gak...--there were these horrible little white worms in the pot with the sugar, pulp, and butter. Thank goodness I had yet to add the eggs, otherwise I probably would have screamed. It was disgusting... O.o I abhor waste, but the worms gave me a reason to throw out the beginnings of what I'd hoped would be a lovely gooseberry jammy thing to have on scones or fresh bread. Ick.
So, after throwing out the gooseberry/worm mess, I decided to try making lemon curd. Well, about half the bottle of juice went into the gooseberry glop and, subsequently, into the trash, which left me with about 2/3 of a cup of lemon juice. Mom handed me three limes in the hope that I'd be able to make up the rest of the juice that way. Nope.
I get crabby when I'm tired. I get crabby and I drop things, which meant that after spending the whole day working on--and ruining--gooseberry curd, cheese, cleaning, and trying to figure out how stitches that slipped off the needles and the bloody lifeline were going to get back to where they were supposed to be, I dropped the bowl with the lime juice in it. And lost about half of said juice all over the marble slab. This caused me to deliver several loud expletives before I went looking for more citrus something. The citrus something ended up being frozen pineapple juice. I was not pleased, even though it wasn't wormy--I'm still upset about those stupid little worms...
By the time the lemon-lime-pineapple curd was ready to go into jars, I was further annoyed by the appearance of little tiny globules of egg white at the bottom of the saucepan. And this is after I was really careful and tempered the eggs!
And, on top of all of this, while I was putting away towels in the upstairs bathroom, a bottle of shampoo fell on my head and made me howl like a banshee. I swear.. I'm trying to keep my sense of humor. Really.

Lemon-Lime-Pineapple Curd:
2/3 c lemon juice
1/4 c lime juice
1/2 c pineapple juice (or a total of about 1 1/2 cups of straight citrus juice)
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1/2 c sugar
1 thermometer
1 saucepan
a clean jar big enough to hold the curd

Mix juice, butter, and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat; remove from heat and let cool to about body temperature. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and yolk; gradually add about half the citrus juice and whisk to temper the eggs. Add egg/citrus mix back to original pot and keep whisking while you warm the mixture back to 170 degrees to kill any potential bacteria. Cook over low-medium heat until thickened, then pour through a seive to make sure there aren't any lumps or other intrusive detritis. Pour into jar and let stand until it's cool enough to refrigerate.

Have I said how much I hate tempering eggs? Bleh.

Menage a Fromage

2009-06-18T13:23:00.004-04:00

After all that waiting and fiddling around, the cheese is ready. It rested in the fridge overnight and I had some with my toast and coffee this morning... it tastes like a slightly tangy cream cheese with a faintly herby flavor imparted by (surprise) the thyme and marjoram. Next batch is going to have half as much salt. According to the suggestion on the New England Cheesemaking Supplies website, we calculated that 12 grams of kosher salt would be 2% of the cheese's weight. Toooo salty. Not unpleasantly salty, but I'm definitely using less next time. I'm also trying to figure out how to get a slightly drier texture, which might be difficult since we don't have a cheese cave and there's no place in the house where the cats and dog don't go. I'd be pretty upset if I left a cheese to cure and one of the animals either made off with it or left bits of hair on it!
Still in the process of tracking down a local source for unpasteurized goat's milk, which is tricky since West Virginia prohibits the sale of raw milk. The grocery stores around here tend to sell ultra-pasteurized or canned goat's milk if they sell it at all, and neither of those are suitable for what I want to do. The rennet should show up in the mail either today or tomorrow, but since we don't have any goat's milk to make cheese with--in fact, we're completely out of milk of any kind O.O--it's going to have to wait in the freezer until we do find some. Preferably from goats who are TB- and brucellosis-free.
Mom, I blame you for this! Like I need another hobby. Knitting, spinning, and making soap are all bad enough.
Anyway... here's a picture.

Project Fromage

2009-06-17T20:27:00.002-04:00

I think I got it right this time.

Fromagerie

2009-06-13T13:46:00.003-04:00

I'm usually the one who gets siezed by the impulse to pick up new hobbies, but this time it's Mom. Mom and cheese. Yesterday morning she gave a lengthy discourse on how easy it might be to make cheese using milk and vinegar, so in the evening we trotted out to the grocery store to get dog food and pick up some milk. No one said anything about needing a gallon of milk, so I just grabbed a quart from the cooler and threw it in the cart. Oops.
Turns out it wasn't that hard make half what the recipe which, according to the website she read earlier in the day, was for a gallon of milk and 1/4 cup of white vinegar. No salt, no herbs, no rennet, nothing. When the milk finally deigned to form miniscule curds, I sent Rachael a text message and she, in turn, directed me to the website for the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company.
Mom got a little discouraged when it looked like the curds weren't really doing what they were supposed to do, so it was a big shock when she unwrapped the blob of cheese this morning. Last night before I went to bed, I poured the curds into the collander and let the whey drain through a clean dish towel, and after they'd drained enough to form a cohesive mass, I hung the towel up to drain some more; the result was something similar to queso blanco. Since she wasn't really sure at which point to add the salt, she rolled it in kosher salt and hoped some of the flavor would seep into the cheese. I wonder if brining it somehow might be a good idea next time. Mom's got pictures up on her blog.
So, thanks to Rachael's suggestion, we ordered some packets of starter to make chevre if we can find some goat's milk that isn't ultra-pasteurized.

Les Plushies

2009-05-30T14:49:00.003-04:00

I don't know why, but the existence of Cthulhu plushies amuses me no end. Not that I've ever read any H.P. Lovecraft (other than The Dunwich Horror). But... plushie fanny packs? I spent several hours in pursuit of this and ended up laughing until I cried because the idea was so funny. I guess it boils down the fact that Lovecraftians get no respect and provoke fits of hilarity when in their cuddly forms... and rather than getting yet another fountain pen, I find myself seized by the desire to track down an oversized Cthulhu plushie to occupy a spot next to my oversized stuffed dragon. Alternatively, I'll attempt to knit myself an oversized Cthulhu plushie.

Noms

2009-05-27T21:05:00.000-04:00

Ice cream. Chocolate ice cream.

When the theory is more fun than the practice

2009-05-27T00:07:00.003-04:00

I want homemade ice cream, but it's just not working.
1. Last night we dug out the ice cream maker and its accompanying instruction booklets. We have two: a Green Mountain hand-cranked one that takes advantage of brawny blacksmiths and an electric one that doesn't. Since we haven't got any brawny blacksmiths alongside the pasta in the pantry, we opted to use the electric one.
2. Examined the contents of the fridge and discovered that we. had. no. dairy. products. Can't make ice cream without dairy products of some kind, right? *sigh* Definitely hard to make ice cream without dairy products.
3. Went out to the store to acquire said dairy products and ask about rock salt. Was irritated to discover they only sell it in 25 lb bags. It's summer, which obviously means I don't need 25 lbs of rock salt to defrost the driveway. Went home without the 25 lb bag of rock salt.
4. Got home with assorted dairy substances and promptly left again to buy 25 lbs of rock salt. *sigh*
5. Spent two hours bringing 3 cups of milk, 1.5 cups of sugar, and 1 tbsp of cornstarch to a simmer, and fumed.
6. Spent the following half hour tempering the eggs and trying like hell to get them to be tempered and not scrambled. Mmph.. Successfully, at least.
7. Put the machine together and discovered the ice trays were half empty. Flat out refused to go out for a third time in pursuit of ice cream-related articles.
8. In spite of not having enough ice to go with my 25 lbs of rock salt, I got the machine going. Surprise, surprise.. the machine wasn't cold enough, so the ice cream didn't get hard. It's now in the freezer going through what the manual calls the "Home Freezer Method". I do not anticipate victory.
9. I now have an inkling as to why people buy ice cream more often than they try to make it from scratch. I also now suspect I'm not likely to attempt to make pots de creme since the process is somewhat similar.
10. I want ice cream....... meh.

Psychic Vacuum

2009-05-25T17:07:00.004-04:00

Mom has a knack for making me chuckle--and shriek with laughter, depending on the circumstances--and managed to do so again today. We've been moving furniture and cleaning all afternoon, and while one thing was being moved, something else was bumped. This resulted in my shot glass full of sea salt falling over and some of the salt being sprinkled all over the floor.
Mom realized what had happened, looked stricken, and asked a bit hesitantly, "Is it all right? Will there be some sort of psychic disturbance?"
I told her I thought not and vacuumed up the spilled salt along with the bits of bark and ash from the wood stove--it gets EVERYWHERE even when the stove isn't in use and does it no matter how frequently you sweep and vacuum. Truth is, the salt isn't there as a barrier against things that go bump in the night (Rachael, I know you know what I mean!); it's just there to keep incense sticks from falling over and getting more ash everywhere. And since the top of the stove is now occupied by things other than my paraphernalia--except the little glass of salt-- it might be time to find a new home for it all. Mmph...
At least the vacuum won't suffer any psychic disturbances.

Rust to dust

2009-05-16T00:19:00.003-04:00

Today was the day everyone was supposed to get together in Harper's Ferry to scatter Dr. Walker's ashes. Her wish, they said, was for it to be done where the Shenandoah and Potomac meet. This would be on Park Service land, which meant a special permit was needed. The scattering of ashes mustn't be conducted willy-nilly, or visitors to the park would find ashy remains on the keels of their canoes and kayaks, or on the soles of their shoes; the ranger who talked us through the guidelines was very careful to explain all this. He met us at the gate, and when all the party were assembled--Dr. Walker's caregiver, some of her colleagues and a few friends-- he led us down a road marked "Do Not Enter", then had us park at the train station before he led us down the hill to the riverbank.
I've never attended this kind of event before, and was uncertain of what to expect. Mom took some of the first roses from our garden, enough for each of us to put one in the river, and Dr. Walker's caregiver brought the ashes. It was disconcerting to see Dr. Walker in a cardboard box; I couldn't not think of the ashes as her, and it's still difficult to believe that she's not present in a fleshly state. Mom pointed out that she'll likely not be forgotten because all her students will remember the throaty voice imparting the intricacies of American Federal Government and her dislike of driving in snow, and that as long as there are people who remember her, she's not truly gone.
The Caregiver invited each of us to take a handful of ashes to throw in the river, and mom gave roses to those who wanted them, and the roses went into the river, too. Afterward, everyone stood by and offered some little anecdote about Dr. Walker: How they remembered her being an exotic, feline beauty in her youth, how valued she was as a colleague, how she liked to buy things in large quantities rather, how generous she was. Before we left the riverbank, a pair of Canada geese came paddling upstream against the current, which must have been a difficult task considering how fast the river is moving after all the rain we've had recently.
An omen, maybe?

Is there a noun in the house?

2009-05-13T02:14:00.004-04:00

Mom's the only person I know who actually reads the dictionary. For fun. I'm not sure if an interest in words and etymology is inherited or if it's something you gain in the same way you get a taste for olives and goat's cheese, but I was thinking today. Without bothering to consult a dictionary, which is exactly what mom would suggest, here's what my maunderings amounted to.

1. to detain (v): detention (n)
2. to retain (v): retention (n)
3. to reprise (v): reprisal (n)
4. to deny (v): denial (n)
5. to despise (v): despisal? um.. doubtful, but it makes me laugh.
6. despicable (adv/adj): to despic? mmm.. probably not.

Mud Hog

2009-05-10T14:36:00.004-04:00

1 tbsp Bentonite clay (always use cosmetic grade clay!)
1 tsp Manuka honey (yes, you can use regular honey)
2 drops tea tree oil
unsweetened peppermint tea to make a smooth paste
10 to 15 minutes to sit, knit, read, or do a crossword puzzle

Mix all of the ingredients in a ceramic or glass bowl and stir until it's as smooth as possible; smooth on face and wait until the mask dries. Rinse with warm water and pat dry.

It helps to dissolve the honey in the tea while it's still warm, which I found out after I got started. Common sense, neh? Also found out it's quite difficult to get all the lumps out of the clay, so maybe using a small whisk might help.

Temperature Fugit

2009-04-29T14:33:00.004-04:00

The temp dropped about 35 degrees and I'm thrilled. Yesterday it was 90, today it's about 55, which is perfect as far as I'm concerned: jeans, tank top, and tatty red cotton cardie, here I come. Now, if only it would stay between 55 and 65 until autumn.

I started working on the Fountain Pen Shawl from the Spring IK. So far, so good. Wait.. dammit, I forgot all about lifelines. *sigh* Well, at least I haven't made any mistakes yet, but since I'm only on the second repeat of the second chart, I might well be counting my chickens before they hatch.

Your fairy is called Lichen Willowfilter

She is a caster of weird dreams.

She lives in stony places and tumbling wastes.

She is only seen on midsummer's eve.

She wears heather-coloured dresses. She has delicate green coloured wings like a cicada.

Get your free fairy name here!

Froggery

2009-04-27T17:52:00.002-04:00

Last night was frustrating. I completely forgot that after Chart C comes Chart D, which must be completed before rearranging the stitches in preparation for working the heel flap. Well. Silly me. The second Lakeside sock is now a pile of rainbow-colored spaghetti because I couldn't figure out where the rearranged stitches had originally been, and since I couldn't figure out where the rearranged stitches came from, I decided to... well.. see above. *sigh* Second Sock Syndrome stinks... maybe someday I'll be able to work myself up to restarting and actually finishing the other sock, but right now I'm a little burnt out on Lakeside.
In the meantime, I'm working on a re: view of the Kauni and will try to post it later this week.

So mom got her new laptop today. Her old one died a gruesome death and the replacement, much to her horror, was shipped from Shanghai. It was supposed to arrive tomorrow but got here four days earlier than expected, and FedHex sent it out on Friday while we were doing a bit of grocery shopping. Since no one was home to sign for it, they left us a cute little door hanger saying they'd try again on Monday.
This is Monday. Right? Right. Mom and I were both home this morning. We have a large iron doorknocker with a very authoritative voice and a very large dog with a very authoritative voice, both of whom are excellent at letting us know when someone is at the door.
Well, I went out with the dog at around noon, and when we came back to the door I discovered I hadn't seen the new little door hanger left by FedHex about two hours before I went out with the dog. I found this rather puzzling because we were both home, we have a doorknocker, and the dog usually lets us know when someone is at the door; mom was a bit put out when I showed her the note.
What does she do--indeed, what does any sensible person do--but call FedHex and let them know that 1. We were home, 2. We have a doorknocker that works at least as well as any doorbell, 3. We have a dog who barks when people come to the door. 4. The driver had our phone number and could have called to let us know she was en route, which is what UPS does if they can't find the house.
The response from FedHex was "Your doorbell must have been broken." Um. No. We don't have one! Repeat previous statements about dog and doorknocker.
Well, says FedHex, it's not our fault the package wasn't delivered. The driver, it turned out, was put off by our oh-so-scary carpenter bees, and she got close enough to the door to leave us a little hanging tag, but not close enough to use the knocker. Hmm.. very puzzling indeed since the doorknocker is obviously attached to the front door, not suspended in midair six meters away from it. Mom spent about twenty minutes extracting a satisfactory explanation and/or assurances that the driver would make another attempt to deliver the package later in the afternoon, and when the driver finally did appear, the dog barked and mom sent me outside to accept the package. She's under the impression that I have a slightly more delicate touch, and my first words to the driver were, "I'm so sorry you had such difficulty catching up with us."
No sarcasm there. Really. Really not. *ahem* She got defensive about the bees, so I pointed out that bees generally don't attack people unless they're being disturbed; I do admit, however, that the bees are pretty intimidating and do like to divebomb passersby (occasionally) while they're flying back to their burrows or out to look for floral fast food.
Bottom line: Mom will likely be cranking out a scathing blog post about bad service and an obvious lack of strong work ethic where as certain company is concerned.

The Complaints Department

2009-04-25T16:28:00.005-04:00

1. I hate vacuuming, even when it improves the efficiency with which my desk fan circulates air. The noise is worse than accumulated dust, far as I'm concerned.
2. The German word for "fountain pen" is Füllerfeder. O.o (Addendum: It's been brought to my attention that the word is indeed as above; so then, a fullerfederhalter must be some sort of fountain pen holder.)
3. Visconti's sepia ink makes me think of hot fudge; it gets worse when it's been used to write on that creamy Moleskine paper. *sigh*
4. I hate hot weather. It's gone from 45 to 91 in two days, and I like it not.
5. It's never a good idea to put gelignite in your underwear before you go jogging--no, I can't say I've ever done so, but it just doesn't seem like a good idea to me. At. All.
6. Why aren't candy thermometers more accurate?
7. The turtle walked today with all four legs.
8. I hate stinkbugs and wish they would all go away.
9. I seem to have developed Second Sock Syndrome, which makes the likelihood of my finishing the second Lakeside sock fall to practically nill. However, since I feel I can't start the Owl Socks until I finish the second Lakeside sock, it would seem the Owl Socks will never, ever, ever be knitted.
10. I'm out of library books.

Okay... so they're not really all complaints.

The Temporal Loop

2009-04-21T00:19:00.002-04:00

that is my to-do list has finally, officially been decreased by one line.
I was in denial over the weekend, I admit it.
"No, I'm not sneezing because I caught a cold," I said, "I just have a tickle in my nose."
Two hours later I sounded like I'd been chainsmoking for thirty years. In the past three days, I've slept, used an entire box of tissues, and drunk a fishtank full of ginger ale; my nose is peeling, my voice sounds like a rusty squeezebox, and I still can't quite manage to do more than one or two things before I run out of gas. But somehow--somehow--I've succeeded in knitting that remaining sweater sleeve for the Tam Lin sweater, seamed it, attached it to the body of the sweater, and woven in all those evil little ends.
I should be feeling gleeful and triumphant, even though the KAL ended in November. I should be feeling relieved that I now have a warm, snuggly sweater to wear in this horrendously damp, rainy, chilly weather. I should be feeling gratified because I used yarn I originally got for another project that I ended up deciding not to do. Instead, all I can think about is how crappy I feel and about the difficulties of blocking an adult-sized sweater without the benefit of a blocking board... and in damp weather.
The upshot is that I now have one less project to worry about finishing, so I can now move on to other things. Like taking Nyquil and getting some sleep.

Elastic Sole

2009-04-01T16:59:00.003-04:00

I'm currently engaged in a battle to the death with some elastic and the pair of Llyn y Morwynion socks, and it's not going quite as well as I'd hoped. Since I didn't follow the instructions for the cuff to the very letter, there's no actual opening to insert the elastic, which means that I've tried everything short of screaming in frustration (which doesn't work anyway). As of two minutes ago, I've tried a tapestry needle; this didn't work, since the elastic is too thick to go through the eye of the needle. Next I tried a hairpin threaded with the elastic; this resulted in several hairpins being shot across the room to the twanging sound of elastic at various tensions... Fail. The crochet hook is giving me somewhat more success, but it's still troublesome. I think next time I do this, I'll put the elastic in BEFORE I fold the cuff over and knit all the live stitches together, and hopefully not give myself gangrene in the process. Ahem.

Addendum: YES! I am victorious. At least... for now. Hopefully my knots won't work loose so that I find myself in the middle of the grocery store with my socks around my ankles.

Binge Baking

2009-03-31T16:48:00.004-04:00

Something is wrong. I don't know what, where, or who, but there's one of those annoying feelings that something is wrong, and it's caused me such discomfort that at 1:30 this morning I went down to the kitchen and baked oatmeal cookies. I'm not sure if it's an act of appeasement, since I'm not an appeasing sort of person, but I did feel a bit better after baking cookies, which is no easy task when the house has excellent accoustics and the people sleeping upstairs can hear (and smell) Davros, the microwave, water running for the clean-up, and the banging of baking sheets going in and out of the oven. Oatmeal cookies with maple syrup and cinnamon would probably appease at least a minor boggart... maybe...
This afternoon, I was talked into doing more baking, so I produced a batch of pecan scones. And I also proved that tinfoil isn't an impermeable substance, though how butter gets through the tinfoil and onto the baking sheet is beyond me.

Sockiatry

2009-03-30T15:11:00.002-04:00

Definitely wilder than I'm used to...

Bleh.

2009-03-26T02:00:00.003-04:00

This pretty much sums things up. Icon borrowed from reira_21; it captures my current mood perfectly.

Spring Flings

2009-03-24T14:18:00.003-04:00

Happy Spring!

It's... Alive!

2009-03-18T16:32:00.004-04:00

Yay! I'm so relieved. Vincenzo consented to eat some food today, which means he's out of semi-hibernation mode and has decided it's warm enough to do something besides sulk. As if his.. um.. earlier exploits weren't an indication...

Get A Glue!

2009-03-18T02:09:00.006-04:00

A Google and Wikipedia search turned up all sorts of interesting information about the sock glue, including a blog post about cosplay, which included a blurb about fashion model who was so skinny her pantyhose fell down while she was on the runway; the author suggested the model in question might have benefited from the use of this Japanese sock glue.
According to Wikipedia, during the late 1990s, a number of Japanese high school girls started wearing oversized socks with their uniforms. Originally, the socks were intended for use by hikers and mountain climbers; I assume it was pretty much a tube sock, but eventually a number of companies started manufacturing deliberately oversized socks specifically for export to Japan. Since these socks have cuffs that are wider than the average high school girl's leg, they're not likely to stay up without assistance of some kind, be it a garter or glue. Some clever person came up with the idea of using a glycerin- or water-based adhesive to do exactly that.
The fad caught on among younger students who wanted to imitate their older counterparts, and even the negative reaction by a number of school officials made the idea gain wider appeal... except among adults. Still, it's not hard to find sock glue on a number of websites catering to Japanophiles and cosplay culture.

Finishings

2009-03-17T00:59:00.004-04:00

Socks are done. They knit up in what for me is record time; I'm convinced it's because of all the lacey yarn-overs. The top is a little loose, so either I need to invest in some of that Japanese sock glue that the schoolgirls use to keep their oversized socks from falling down, or I need to stick some elastic in there somehow. I'm astonished I was able to follow the charts without the whole thing turning into an enormous muddle, so much so that I may even make myself a second pair with the rest of the blue Happy Feet yarn... though I might want to go down a needle size if I do. Perhaps this will require a *gasp!* swatch.
The flash still makes the colors look garrish, but without it, the picture doesn't do the yarn justice, either.

As I mentioned in one of the previous posts about these socks, the name I chose for them comes from the Welsh story of Blodeuwedd. Here's the relevent passage from the Mabinogion:

"Then they called together the whole of Gwynedd, and set forth to Ardudwy. And Gwydion went on before and proceeded to Mur y Castell. And when Blodeuwedd heard that he was coming, she took her maidens with her, and fled to the mountain. And they passed through the river Cynvael, and went towards a court that there was upon the mountain, and through fear they could not proceed except with their faces looking backwards, so that unawares they fell into the lake.
"And they were all drowned except Blodeuwedd herself, and her Gwydion overtook. And he said unto her, 'I will not slay thee, but I will do unto thee worse than that. For I will turn thee into a bird; and because of the shame thou hast done unto Llew Llaw Gyffes, thou shalt never show thy face in the light of day henceforth; and that through fear of all the other birds. For it shall be their nature to attack thee, and to chase thee from wheresoever they may find thee. And thou shalt not lose thy name,
but shalt be always called Blodeuwedd.'"

Let's talk about socks, baby.

2009-03-07T00:50:00.002-05:00

The pattern is deceptive. It looks super-complicated, but it knits up really, really quickly.

Get me a turtle, stat!

2009-03-04T18:38:00.003-05:00

I have been severely traumatized by being flashed by the turtle. Went downstairs to take the dog outside, saw that the turtle was doing what looked like downward dog yoga pose, and was terrified by the sight of a purplish-black, vaguely flower-shaped object dangling below his tail. I yelled for mom, ran to the foot of the stairs, and cried, "I think Vincenzo's lost one of his organs!"
I was right.... sort of.... Spring, it seems, has come to Vincenzo's tank. And it was a very, very scary sight.

You know it's cold when...

2009-03-02T16:53:00.005-05:00

This happens. With the heat on in the room. I came back in after my ablutions to make the bed, threw back the covers to straighten rearrange the pillows, and found a very surprised... well... see for yourself.

The socks, after one day of practically nonstop knitting, continue to look the way they're supposed to. I'm beginning to wonder what's going on... The Mini Mochi is lovely. Squishy, rich colors, soft, doesn't pull apart at all, and has great stitch definition. My one complaint is that the dye seems to be rubbing off on my fingers; this is minor as far as I'm concerned. I'll just wash the socks with vinegar when they're finished and maybe that'll fix it. Like I said: MINOR. Definitely not enough to make me stop wanting to use the yarn or yell at the company for what could easily be just a one-off, especially since I suspect it's fixable with a good dose of vinegar.

"...but shalt be always called Blodeuwedd."

2009-03-01T15:20:00.003-05:00

I did it. They're finished, and they actually vaguely resemble the pattern I used. I also managed to finish them in practically record (for me) time, which is almost unheard of considering I used fingering weight yarn and toothpick-sized needles. It helps, though, that mom doesn't have huge feet, otherwise I'd be knitting until Doomsday, which is usually what happens when I use fingering weight yarn and toothpick-sized needles. So, here's photographic evidence of Vinnland socks made with Happy Feet yarn and toothpick-sized needles:

Llyn y Morwynion socks are also on my to-do list, specifically for the Folklore and Fairytale Spring KAL. The pattern is Lakeside, which also ties in with the story of Blodeuwedd, though in a slightly less obvious image taken from much later in the story. I cast on early this morning and have forged my way through two pattern repeats of Chart A. Much to my consternation, the stitches seemed a little off, but when I turned the sock around and looked at it from a different angle, I said, "I'll be... It actually looks like it's supposed to!" Shocking. Shocking.

A Lesson In Thinking Outside the Sock

2009-02-21T23:27:00.002-05:00

While having dinner with dad this evening, I arrived at an unexpected lightbulb moment: If you're using a small ball of yarn or are the stage where the ball of yarn fits into the toe of the sock you're working on, you can wander around without a knitting bag because your ball of yarn has its own little bag attached.... the sock itself. Nifty, if unoriginal.

An Umbrella Swift Kick

2009-02-18T18:01:00.003-05:00

I'm now the proud parent of an umbrella swift. Which means I no longer have any fear of yarn that's put up in skeins or hanks. It still takes me half an hour to wind up a hank of Baruffa Cashwool, but it's much less likely to make me scream with rage at the number of tangles I create while trying to wind yarn from a pile on the bare floor, which is what I did pre-swift. Talk about a much appreciated Valentine's gift from someone who knows me way, way too well. Next time I'm seen in public, I'll probably still be making cranking motions with my right hand because I've spent several days organizing my stash and winding yarn.... it's seriously worth it, though.

sigh

2009-02-17T00:03:00.005-05:00

Dear Masterpiece Classic,
I'm not sure where to begin, because your offenses are many. The local PBS station has been broadcasting your most recent batch of Dickensian tales as well as the adaptations of Jane Austen and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, among other things.
Since the list of crimes against English Literature is so long, I think I'll start with the tragic mishandling of Oliver Twist. I admit in advance that I'm not fond of Dickens; I like badly done Dickens even less, and after no less than three errors, each of which was graver than the last, in the first ten minutes of the miniseries, I was obliged to turn off the television. In the first ten minutes the errors are these: 1. Oliver Twist's mother arrives at the orphanage about to pop. Dickens does not introduce Oliver's mother as anything more than a memory shared by the most odious Mr. Bumble and his cohort. Mention is made of a letter and a locket, but the unfortunate woman isn't actually seen, and certainly not on page one of the book.
2. Oliver is immediately set up as a troublemaker during the scene with the famous "Please, sir, I want some more". This is achieved by the boy taking the initiative and approaching the adults to demand a second helping of whatever glop the orphans are fed. What happened to the drawing of lots to determine which orphan would be given this task? That's blooper number two, and it's a biggie.
3. There is no board of directors before which Oliver is dragged by the unscrupulous Mr. Bumble. Dickens didn't write it, therefore they don't exist, therefore they shouldn't be in the miniseries. Oliver's confrontation with them and the veiled threat that God Seeth Thou only further develops to his role as a troublemaker.
At that point, I turned off the television and fumed. And then I remembered what you'd done to Jane Eyre. And then I decided to blog about it.
Shame on you, Masterpiece Classic! Fie and shame! You're a British production, you're producing films based on English Literature, and this is the best you can do? I'm ashamed for you and I hope the ghost of Alistaire Cooke comes and pinches your collective toe in the middle of the night for this bad behavior.

Sincerely,
Me

Kitty Jutsu

2009-02-12T19:38:00.002-05:00

Camille's only left me one animal, and it wasn't really dead: She caught a mouse and left it in my bedroom slipper, very much alive and very stunned. I'm very amused that this is somehow evidence that she's plotting my demise; the explanation can be found here.

The sock is going better. After conferring with a few fellow Ravellers, the idea is to just do what the chart says and ignore the little voice saying "Wait! That doesn't line up properly!" I've finished one repeat of the chart and just started the second one. Might just have to make myself a pair of these once I finish the current pair.

Frustrations Galore

2009-02-12T02:19:00.002-05:00

Je suis très frustré. I cast on for Vinnland tonight, and while I'm totally digging the short-row toes and falling in love with the yarn I'm using, I can't seem to get the pattern to line up properly on the third row of the chart. I've ripped back twice, tried to fix it by adding an extra purl stitch, ripped back yet again, consulted the errata, and am now glowering at the chart while gnawing on my fountain pen. If other people have mastered this pattern, then it can't be that difficult, especially after I finished Azure and the token Nordic Lights trophy sock.
I'll say it again: Je suis très frustré.