road trip, part 1.

Posted on by
1

ladybug1

Boh and I camped halfway, and I managed to capture the last (blurry) moments of an Ozark sunset.

ladybug2camp

While this picture reveals a general state of disarray — a mere moment in my packing up process, I assure you — it highlights the importance of good coffee. I came equipped to make my own, and it was delicious. (This was the only time I got out my camp stove on the whole trip, and I’m glad I brought it!)

driving3

Several hundred miles later, the backside of the mountains I used to photograph out my front door came into view.

abq4backyardknitting

The next morning, Boh and I were lounging in the sun in the backyard of our dear hosts. I miss desert mornings most of all, and I tried to absorb as much early morning sun as I could. (Yep, that’s Mara. She’s getting bigger and ever more blob-like.)

abqhike1

abqhike2

[ETA: this photo taken by the lovely oogaknits on ravelry.]

We enjoyed a leisurely stroll above 10,000 feet (and were surprised by how well we slept that night).

abqhike3

(to be continued…)

west.

Posted on by
6

Boh and I are heading west — driving out for healthy doses of the desert and several dear friends. We’ll be away for about 2 weeks, but I imagine we may have time for the occasional post or two.

strawberrymuffins

The last of the strawberries have been turned into muffins for the drive.

maraprogress

maraprogress2

Mara has reached “blob” stage — a critical moment in the life-cycle of a large knit, if you ask me. (It’s when there are more stitches than needle space, and the knit can no longer be laid out flat.)

I’m bringing Mara, my On-Hold Socks, my vanilla socks, and my Whisper cardigan on the trip. Boh is hoping that I’ll find time for sock knitting.

layingonbedboh

The tent is packed, the ipod is charged, directions are printed, and there is big bin o’ warm stuff (including my stripes! sweater and my new snail hat) in the back of the car.

I just need to drink my coffee, pack the cooler, and load up the dog.

Take it easy.

spontaneous snail.

Posted on by
5

Yesterday I saw this post over at cosymakes, and this post over at knithoundbrooklyn, and decided that my pink cvm handspun (from cosy’s shop, of course) needed to become a snail hat (a la Elizabeth Zimmerman).

snail1

I dug out my copy of EZ’s Knitting Without Tears, and cast on. A few podcasts later, I was ready to decrease. Things may have gotten slightly wonky near the top, but handspun covers a multitude of sins — errr, mistakes.

snail2 above

snail three

Though this looks like a pretty pink snail, it knits up in a manner that more closely resembles the gait of a cheetah. (I’ll stop with the jokes now.)

I have no picture of Boh for you this morning, but as you can imagine, he is worried. Bright pink bulky handspun is NOT sock yarn, and he was glaring at me from his perch on my bed as I worked on this.

Happy Friday!

two pairs concurrently?

Posted on by
4

bohyarnpiratesock

You’ve got to be kidding me.

emeraldcity1

emeraldcity2

Don’t worry, Boh. I’m making good progress. See?

onhold wip

I even cast on my On-Hold socks for the KAL and knit the toe AND one whole pattern repeat.

bohypsock2

You still look very, very worried.

Maybe it’s because you’ve seen me knitting quite a bit on something that is not a sock?

bsdmara

(Boh is actually laying on my bed, whimpering quietly to himself as I write this. I thought it was sock-related, but upon investigation, it seems that he managed to drop his bone between the bed and the radiator. Opposable thumbs are required for retrieval. The whimpering stopped the moment I returned the bone.) Don’t worry, big dog. We’ll be okay.

a theory.

Posted on by
4

swift and winder

I have a theory about WIPs and startitis, and it goes something like this: without a swift and ball winder, the knitter is obligated to think on new projects before readying the yarn and diving in. Winding yarn by hand is a repetitive, sometimes meditative, often simply time-consuming, and occasionally quite annoying process. When you know, deep in your subconscious self, that you need to wind multiple skeins of laceweight by hand (a la Whisper), you think long and hard about the project before you commit. With a yarn swift and ball winder, all of that pre-project thinking (at least at first) is replaced by a little voice that says “Squee! I get to turn that little handle and make yarn cakes! In the kitchen! No oven required!”

emerald city wound

mara wound

I speak from experience.

It all started innocently enough: I needed to select and wind my yarn for the July pattern for the Socks from the Toe Up KAL (the On-Hold socks). I chose Shibuiknits sock in ginger, which has been waiting patiently for a special pattern. I’m planning to cast on later today.

Then, I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to have a vanilla sock on the needles to keep in my bag? These patterned socks are stunning, but they are not mindless, throw in a bag/take out the door/knit a few rows here and there socks. They are serious socks. Enter the Yarn Pirate sock in colorway Emerald City. (Isn’t it lovely?)

And then, I thought, socks can be tough to knit on while watching The Wire — I need something squooshier and fatter to work on in the evenings, something that is so simple and soothing that I can keep knitting while crazy things happen in Southeast Baltimore.

Thus, I wound up the Beaverslide merino lambswool in the snapdragon colorway (1 skein to start), which is destined to become Mara, a supersoft, brightly colored wrap. I’m already part of the way there:

mara started

I now fully understand how easy it is to somehow have a gazillion things on the needles. And I’m not complaining! I love my new toys. (For those interested, I broke down and got the new Paradise Fibers yarn swift after watching the video on their website. It didn’t hurt that they had a coupon for a discount on the swift AND a discount on the Royal ball winder. I may have acquired some more spinning fiber as well, but that was just to get me to the land of free shipping. You understand.)

No farm picture today — instead of coming right home and photographing the week’s haul, Boh and I went to see dear people and dog friends, eat farm food, drink homebrew and frolic in the yard — a lovely evening.

I will tell you that my share included: harukei turnips, beets, belgian endive, kale, chard, mint, parsley, garlic scapes, broccoli, sugar snap peas, and a few more strawberries…

FO: lacy ribs socks.

Posted on by
6

fo lacy ribs pair

fo lacy ribs kitchen

Details:

Yarn: Yarn Pirate superwash BFL in the cupcake colorway
Needles: 2 circs, 2.5 mm
Toe: Judy’s Magic Cast on (it really is magic!)
Heel: slip stitch heel, as per pattern
Bind off: Russian Bind off
Size: Medium
Start: June 16th, 10 PM EST
Finish: June 30th, 10 AM EST (whew!)

For those of you who haven’t been following along, I knit these as part of the Socks from the Toe Up KAL on Ravelry. The KAL is a long one — knitting through Wendy Johnson’s book, one pair per month. There are great prizes, folks at all stages of sock knitting, and a super supportive knitting community. I’m learning new things, and I’m having a great time.

fo lacy ribs boh

As you can see, sock supervising is exhausting work.

taste-testing, peas, pesto.

Posted on by
4

jaminaction

Strawberry-balsamic jam on a slice of fresh-from-the-oven homemade bread. Not a bad start to Sunday morning.

compoteinaction

Strawberry-rhubarb-fresh mint compote over plain, local yogurt. A mid-Sunday morning snack.

pickled sugar snap peas

Deb does it again — saw this recipe for pickled sugar snap peas over at smitten kitchen, and had to mix up a batch. I can start eating them this evening…

pesto

More green in a jar. In the spirit of eating everything in my share, I chopped up the remaining garlic scapes, picked my basil stems clean, tossed a few walnuts and a generous helping of olive oil into my mini-cuisinart and began blending, adding more olive oil and some salt and pepper to taste to get it right. My new favorite sandwich, courtesy of the folks up at P’s farm, is toasted bread (in a cast-iron skillet), cheese, pesto and as many greens as you can fit into a sandwich — fried egg optional. Yum!

But where are you, you may be wondering, on that sock? Is there a chance you’ll make the KAL deadline? I don’t even want to show you what Boh looks like this morning. He’s concerned. Very concerned. He thought the weekend’s canning adventures were over, and then yesterday he watched as I left for about an hour, Border’s coupon in hand, and returned with 2 more books on pickling and preserving…

sock2gusset

I did get a few solid hours of work on sock number 2 in yesterday, thanks to the very last episode of Season 2 of The Wire, and some knitting podcasts. I’m in the midst of the gusset increases, and if I can turn the heel and get an inch or two of the leg done today, I just might be able to eek out a full pair before it becomes July.

i blame the strawberries.

Posted on by
6

I did not knit AT ALL yesterday, despite my KAL deadline. Boh is displeased.

bohdispleased

Also, I may have developed a repetitive strawberry hulling injury.

7plus colander

I blame the strawberries.

I picked 7 more quarts early yesterday morning, plus a big blue colander full. I mean, I couldn’t help it. I brought the colander along just in case, and I just had to fill it. We had a lot of rain on Friday, which meant that the berries grew even more rotund and juicy. Saturday morning was cool, humid and overcast, and I had the patch to myself. If I didn’t pick a few more, those strawberries were going to overripen on the vine, and we can’t have that. No, we cannot.

Thus, my adventures in water-bath canning began. I didn’t necessarily intend to make jam from the start; I simply got home with all of my berries, looked at my overflowing freezer and the abundance crowding my countertops and realized that jam might be the way to process some of this deliciousness. I ventured out again, intending to try to scavenge a canning stock pot and rack from a thrift store, when I discovered a special on a 21 quart canning pot with its own rack at the grocery store for 24 bucks. Throw in a 12 dollar “welcome to canning” set complete with tongs, jar lifter, funnel, seal checker, and some other thing I can’t remember, a few boxes of lids and some more half-pint jars, and I was ready to go.

Adventures in water-bath canning, take 1: strawberry-balsamic jam.

jam1

jam2

I used Eugenia Bone’s Well Preserved (which I heard about over here) as my guide, and found the instructions to be clear and logical. The book is organized by “master recipes” that require some kind of preservation technique, and then Bone provides a handful of recipes that utilize the preserved food in question. I like the layout and the emphasis on using your preserves, but I may supplement with a massive canning/pickling book to be able to look through a range of options for one particular fruit or veggie.

jame3

I am so excited about this. In fact, as soon as all the jars were in the water bath, I mixed up a batch of no-knead bread (in its second rise right now) to properly enjoy my jam. The tough part about canning is that you have to wait another 6-8 hours for the jars to cool and the seal to set. This morning, as per Eugenia’s instructions, I tested all my seals by unscrewing the tops and picking up the jars by their lids: success! Those seals are tiiight, baby.

So, back to the tough part about jam: no instant gratification. Hence strawberry recipe #2: strawberry-rhubarb compote with mint.

compote1

compote2

Simple, aromatic recipe. I’m planning to enjoy this over yogurt in a few minutes. Plus, it used up another pint of strawberries.

Had enough? No? Good, because I did not stop there. (Boh begged me to pick up the socks, but I ignored him.)

dipped strawberries

No recipe here — I just melted some chocolate chips, added some butter until it was runny enough for dipping, and twirled the biggest, prettiest berries in my colander in the chocolate. I laid them out on wax paper and slid the tray into the fridge to chill.

whatstrawberry

I just couldn’t help it.

granny gear.

Posted on by
5

You know, the smallest (third) chain wheel on a bicycle with at least 3 wheels (a triple crankset). It makes it easier to ride uphill. I rode my bike across the country seven summers ago. 4200 miles, a handful of mountain ranges, and the realization that Missouri is not flat (I had conveniently forgotten the Ozarks), I was even happier to have that granny gear.

Today I moved my drive band to the “granny gear” (third/smallest whorl) of my Lendrum DT, and it struck me that the set-ups are similar: a smaller chain wheel or a smaller wheel makes something (the pedals/crank on a bike or the bobbin on the wheel) spin more easily per revolution of the wheel, making it (a) easier to turn the pedals on a bike while going uphill or (b) easier to make thinner yarn — fewer treadles required to get the bobbin going more quickly.  Among cyclists (or at least among the hardcore, of which I am happily not a member), to use the granny gear is to be shunned/jokingly ridiculed, while in the spinning world, a smaller whorl equals a finer yarn, and is often what the spinner is looking for as s/he develops his/her skills. (I think I got that right, but if I’ve switched or inverted my bicycle and wheel mechanics, I blame it on the strawberries.)

soulwindow1

This is Soul Windows, the colorway of the April 2009 Spunky Eclectic Fiber Club:  4 oz of 90% corriedale/10% nylon. I’m aiming for sock yarn, and so far, I think I’m on the right track. I am absolutely loving these blues!

soulwindow2

I’m working on a super thin single, but one that has enough twist to be sturdy. I’m about halfway through the first bobbin after about 2 hours of spinning today. It feels like it is taking longer than the targhee, which I’m interpreting as a good sign in the land of my wpi. We’ll see…

Also, for those worried about Boh’s emotional state, I did manage to cast on and work the toe of sock #2. I’m aiming to make more progress before bed tonight so that Boh can sleep soundly. It’s so hard to be a dog.

sock2lacyrib

Today was a good day: I woke up early and curled up with coffee, knitting, and Laura Gibson’s most recent album, Beasts of Seasons (link goes to an npr article with links to places to listen) which is incredible, and the perfect accompaniment to the sound of the rain hitting the plants outside my window. I made good progress on a great book I’m reading, and when the weather cleared up partway through the afternoon, Boh and I went for a run. I puttered around in the kitchen, slowly simmering a big meal of greens, and then I sat down at my wheel to spin until sundown. A quiet, calm Friday.