Tag Archives: farm

two-quart/two-ply.

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2qt

Midway through my dinner — a salad comprised of red lettuce, mustard greens, radishes, harukei turnips, tomatoes, avocado and a homemade vinaigrette, I realized (a)  that I was eating out of a 2-quart metal mixing bowl and (b) that I hadn’t even considered eating out of a cereal bowl.

Ridiculous — and completely awesome.

Something else completely awesome? This targhee 2-ply:

targhee2ply

targhee2ply2

The actual color is in between: not as pink as the first picture, but more vibrant and shiny than the second. It is amazing what light coming through the window will do to the same bobbin! If I’ve done my math right, we’re looking at 327 yards of 2-ply — no wonder it took almost twice the amount of time I had budgeted for plying this morning!

Time was budgeted because today Boh and I are heading to the north country to stay with my dear friend P. and help out in the land of CSA veggies, piglets, and farmers’ markets. We’d be on the road already if it weren’t for the plying that I absolutely HAD to do this morning — that way, the yarn will be dry by the time we return.  (Obsessed? Who, me?)

muffinsforroad

Baked some muffins for the road, washed and hung the yarn to dry, even vacuumed the spot usually occupied by Boh’s box. Time to hit the road! Have a great weekend.

from yolk to yoke.

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I wish I had taken a picture of my most recent quiche — it would be perfect for my cheesy blog post title. Stripes! is the first bottom-up, yoked sweater I’ve ever knitted, and thus I rarely type “yoke.” “Yolk,” however, is a word that gets a lot of play here at chez rooster. Aside from the obvious rooster-chicken train of thought, eggs are a staple in my kitchen. (In fact, fried eggs, homemade toast, and some avocado slices comprise one of my favorite pre-seminar lunches.) Therefore it should come as no surprise to you that every time I sit down to label photos or type about my stripey sweater, my fingers seem to want to refer to the upper portion of this sweater as a yolk, rather than a yoke.

No more. Why, you ask? Because I have actually gone and knitted a YOKE. See?

yoke middecrease

[Boh still can’t work the camera; forgive the dirty mirror and awkward self-photography above and below.] Here is the yoke mid-decrease, and here are several photos of the yoke as it exists at this very moment:

yokehandonhip

yokebackview

yokehandinpocket

One more:

yokehandinfront

I love love love this sweater. (You will too.)

I knit this with an inch and a half of ease, which seems to be the right fit for something I intend to be worn over a layer or two. I knit the sleeves to be a bit long for pulling down over my wrists — in these photos, they look a little baggy, but I think once I graft the underarm seams that won’t be a problem, as I was happy with the fit on my arms before I joined the sleeves to the body.

I have been knitting on this nonstop: several hours when I got home from a barbecue last night, and then for about 3 more hours this morning. I just couldn’t put down the yoke. I’m hoping to bind off, graft the underarms, weave in the ends, and get this baby blocking by the end of tomorrow! I’ll do a real FO post with measurements/specs/details once it is ready to wear.

On a note entirely unrelated to sweater yokes or egg yolks, except maybe that the activity I’m about to describe occurred in the general proximity of chickens, here’s a photo of today’s haul:

3quartsstrawberries

My CSA does a bunch of u-pick produce, and with all the rain we’ve seen this week, the farmers sent out an email saying that the season picking quota thus far had been upped to 5 quarts! I picked up the owners of that lovely greyhound pictured earlier in the week (they are also members of my csa), and we spent an hour or so in the strawberry patch, picking and eating, the sun shining and a slight breeze blowing. All those strawberries had us thinking about ice cream, and we headed up along the lake a few extra miles to a local creamery for a treat. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon…

“i got here followin’ the southern star…

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I crossed that river just to be where you are…” Dylan kept me company on my drive to (and from) the north country. I’ve been overusing the word “lovely” lately, but I don’t care. Boh and I had a lovely weekend catching up with a dear friend/accomplished farmer: roaming amidst cattails and piglets, grinding coffee with a crank, frying eggs recently gathered, sweetening coffee with maple syrup and knitting in morning light. Here’s a whole slew of photos from the trip:

I needed a good dose of mountain air and that feeling that accompanies spending time with dear friends. Being geographically closer to my “people” is one of the best non-academic parts of my new life as a grad student. (Thanks, P. Looking forward to my next trip up.)

startitis is to stress…

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as actual knitting progress is to the beginning of fall break! The sun is shining, beets are roasting in the oven, and I have a long weekend to take a few deep breaths, read more slowly, and enjoy the colors of fall. Here’s what I’ll be working on this weekend:

This is the beginning of a sunday market shawl for me. I cast on a few extra stitches to make it a bit wider/more shawl-like, and I’m planning to just knit until it is super-long for wrapping around myself a gazillion times. (Fleece Artist Somoko in colorway Masala.)

Another boy hat. For a boy. (Malabrigo, colorway Forest.)

Progress on Clue #2 of the Through the Loops Mystery Sock (in Sunshine Yarn). I love this — and I’m getting past the mental block I’ve had on non-stockinette socks!

Totally unrelated, but this pooch loves laundry. All he wanted to do was roll around in the clean sheets. Finally, I had to make the bed, and Boh was sad. Seems he likes the laundry better when it is in a big clean pile.

I’m heading north to hang out on a friend’s farm. We’re planning to knit on the porch, throw down at a barn dance, and give autumn the attention it deserves. To accompany me on the drive, I purchased Telltale Signs, Vol. 8 of the Dylan Bootleg series, and the new Jolie Holland album. I’ve given both a preliminary listen, and for what it’s worth, I highly recommend them.

garlic (and the weather allows me to debut a scarf)

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I have a work share at my local farm. Last year at this time, I was rising before dawn once a week to schlep up to the fields in my work clothes to do things like weed winter lettuces, lay down and pick up drip irrigation tape, and plant garlic, all as the sun slowly rose above the mountains. Life was good. My work schedule makes a morning farm work share practically impossible this year, so I have the next best thing: a warehouse share. I spend a few hours each week restocking vegetables, sweeping up onion peels, making silly faces at the children who accompany their moms to veggie pick up — and, oh yes, volunteering to adopt veggies that don’t quite make the cut. Yesterday, I walked away with handfuls of loose cloves of elephant garlic.

garlic-2.jpg

Last night, I headed to a friend’s house for dinner, and brought a handful to share. We had a delicious Caesar salad — Papa Rooster’s own garlic-heavy recipe, actually, modified to include some scrumptious breaded calamari on top. Apologies — I ate it so quickly that it was gone by the time I remembered my camera.

In honor of the cold weather, please allow Boh to model a ribbed scarf I completed in April. I wore it yesterday, and it was ever so toasty. Details: Brown Sheep Top of the Lamb (2 skeins, I think). It wraps around my neck multiple times, which I absolutely love.

turquoise-ribbed-scarf.jpg