Tag Archives: outside

lakeside.

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We spent Saturday afternoon by the lake, on a blanket, reading. Looks cozy, but actually it got pretty windy, and after an hour or so we retreated indoors for nachos. I rewarded myself with a margarita. See, all this is relevant because in these pictures, even though you can’t see it, there is yarn in my bag. Malabrigo, to be exact. And it is destined to become another windschief hat. This one’s for the boy.

I cast on with my coffee this morning, before my 8 am yoga class. The colorway is verdeazul, and already I love the combination of the malabrigo worsted and twisted rib — so squishy! I’m planning to curl up with Boh and the boy this evening and knit some more ribbing. After all, it is fall break…

charging/recharging.

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So, school started on Wednesday. And even though I only had a few obligations on campus, and managed to can and cowl on Thursday (see what I did there? OED, here I come) the start of the semester is emotionally exhausting — something about trying to get comfortable in a slightly different routine. With all this in mind, my friend J. and I planned an afternoon hike, and it was just the kind of recharging we needed.

We headed out of town just after five, and hiked a nearby four-mile loop as we enjoyed the evening light. This really is my backyard — closer than my yoga teacher’s home studio, which is in one of the next towns over. Boh and I need to do this more.

When Boh and I returned, I made this colorful meal — nothing more than a bunch of farm veggies sauteed. I added some leftover rice from the fridge and it sopped up some of the broth created by the fresh tomatoes, and then I stirred in chunks of goat cheese feta to add a creamy texture. Super good, and just what I needed after that hike. This is the thing about cooking from a farm share — veggies that were harvested this week (often in the hours just before the afternoon member pick-up) are so full of flavor and earthy sweetness that you don’t have to do much of anything to them to make something absolutely delicious.

In between finishing one book and starting another, I inched towards the decrease row at the neckline of idlewood. Another inch or so and I’ll be there. I need to wind up another skein of yarn!

This morning, I worked on plying two bobbins of that super soft natural brown alpaca together. I tried to underply a bit, with the idea that a less tightly plied yarn would allow more a soft, alpaca-y halo in the finished yarn. It is soaking right now, so we’ll see how it turns out. On today’s agenda? Brunch with the boy, an afternoon birthday celebration near the lake, and a whole lot of reading/prepping for the week in between. Happy Sunday!

soup, a stroll, a sock, a seaman’s cap.

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Yep, this post is brought to you by the letter S.

Leftover soup is one of my favorite things. It makes for the perfect lazy lunch. This is carrot soup (from Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Cooking) with smoked paprika on top, and beer bread (a fantastic recipe I got from Jodi, who found it here) toasted in the oven. I’ve made this bread three or four times already, and it is wonderful. After a cozy lunch at my yellow table, Boh and I headed out for a longer walk, thanks to the sunshine and slightly warmer temperatures.

Handknit socks in hiking boots — also one of my favorite things.

Sigh. (Also an S-word, if you’re keeping track.)

Boh made silly, sleepy faces while I did some reading, and then I made some serious progress on a toe up, gusset heel sock and my brother’s seaman’s cap. See?

Hope your Sunday involves (or at least invokes the spirit of) soup, strolling, sock-knitting, silly dog faces, etc. More soon.

twentyten.

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I made my list of things to remember to do or think about this semester and tacked it up on the fridge, and then I snapped a picture of the snow falling outside.

My knitterly goals for 2010? Not goals so much as ideas and possibilities: handspun socks, something cabled, spinning for a sweater, a nice balance of knitting that calms me and knitting that challenges me. I also plan to keep working on my spinning — which will allow me to keep something handspun on the needles all (or most of) the time.

And with that, how about some knitting and spinning progress to kick off the new year?

This stuff is awesome. 155 yards of about 3.5 oz of Crown Mountain Farms superwash merino in Albatross, destined to be mittens for my brother.

You know, because I’m keeping these:

Boh is so ready for 2010. (Or dinner.) Happy New Year!

light/tunnel.

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Yesterday it was cold enough for me to wear my Stripes! Yay! I’ve put it on a few times since I finished it over the summer (as you know) to admire it, but it hasn’t really been cold enough for me to do more than wear it for ten minutes in the morning. Yesterday, though, it snowed much of the day, and the temperature was well under freezing. It’s cold again today, so the first thing I did when I got out of bed was pull on Stripes! (Well, and pull on pants over my also very stripey long underwear. Too much information?) See that second picture? That’s me hugging myself. This sweater makes me want to curl up with Boh.

Particularly when it’s like this outside:

This sweater also helped me to provisionally conclude my writing project. I’m going to read it again today, and then turn it in for comments. Last night, I filled that first bobbin with most of the first braid of Pigeonroof Studios fiber:

Today’s plan? Grade one last paper, sit down with the calculator and figure out my students’ grades for the semester, and read through my draft one more time. Hence the title of this post.

Thanks for all of your encouragement this week. Here’s hoping that the light appears soon for you guys, no matter what kind of deadlines you’re dealing with!

disaster/resolution.

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I did something totally stupid and avoidable yesterday while knitting on bracken and decompressing from a long and stressful day: I somehow managed to twist the vest around while picking up the ribbed button band/collar border. I noticed when I bound off.

I did not have the heart to take pictures, but I performed the equivalent of open heart surgery on my vest. I ripped out the seam between the front and back on the right shoulder, and then cut the ribbing. In my mind, I had envisioned being able to pick up stitches on both sides, knit, and kitchener (you know, sort of like making a thumb), but since I had to cut my knitting VERTICALLY, that did not happen. We’re only talking about seven rows here, but there were seven separate ends on each side. (Obviously. Just not to me BEFORE I cut.) So I picked out a few columns to get long enough ends to weave in or (ahem) knot, and then I re-seamed the shoulder, and then picked up stitches from the seam edge and knit a handful of rows in ribbing to fill in the gap I had created. Then I did the ugliest suturing anyone has ever seen, and decided that no one will notice. It looks a lot better now that I’ve picked up and knit the stitches for the armhole ribbing.

bracken needs buttons

Now it just needs buttons. The jury is still out on whether this is a flattering style on me. Bracken is getting a nice, hot, luxurious soak as we speak, and if everything evens out a bit (and if I can get a bit more length out of it) this could be a super fun layering piece. Remember my note on row gauge, and how I figured it was close enough? Those might be famous last words. My ribbing is another half-inch or so wider than the pattern calls for, which might make for some awkwardly fitting armholes. Fingers crossed…

sunset ithaca

So, that’s a bit of a mess, but to make up for it, the universe delivered one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve seen in awhile.

sunset windows

I love the reflection of the sunset in the windows of the house behind mine. What a way to welcome the weekend!

yellow.

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It was a quiet Friday, spent trying to catch up with the week: lots of list-making and stock-taking, but also a longer walk to the reservoir with Boh to clear my head and stretch his (okay, our) legs.

yellow1 six mile creek

yellow2 six mile creek

It was a proper eve of Halloween — the sky was grey, the wind, howling, and the familiar scent of leaves settling and decomposing whirled about us. The seasons are starting to turn again, but there are some leaves, branches, whole trees, even, that seem to resist. These solitary bursts of yellow made me smile, and I found myself looking for pockets of color in the muted beauty of these woods.

leaves six mile creek

leaves2 six mile creek

wind in weeds six mile creek

late fall six mile creek

Everything always seems more manageable after a walk along this path.

ming muffins1

ming muffins 2

The oven helps, too. A friend of mine from college has this gorgeous cupcake website that you should all check out, and yesterday she posted a recipe for savory cheddar and scallion cupcakes. Moments after reading this, I was in the kitchen melting butter and measuring out flour. Yum.

winter storage first bobbin

I also finished the first bobbin of Winter Storage, and I’m hoping to start the next one this afternoon — but only if I can get some writing done today.

boh admiring himself

I’ll leave you with a bit of Boh humor. I caught Boh admiring himself in the mirror yesterday. He was so engrossed in his own reflection that I was able to snap a few pictures before he starting looking at me in the mirror. Silly, silly dog.

rustling.

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(Not cattle. More like leaves, branches, half-thoughts, glimpses of moments past.)

sundaywalk1

sundaywalk2

This is one of my favorite paths to wander along, as those of you who’ve been reading for the summer, even the last year, are well aware.

sundaywalk3

The wind in the beech trees, the water pouring over the spillway, even the distinctive vibration from the trucks on the state road I walk to get here; these sounds stir me. I see and hear echoes of words I have felt, said, thought. My memory surprises me. These walks are harder on some days than others, but always strangely restorative.

sundaywalk4

Yesterday’s walk (and the walk I took last week, with our houseguest) was different. After an incredibly delicious mushroom-leek quiche (everyone should find friends who will bring breakfast to your house) that I wish I had photographed to share here, we bundled up and headed out the door with Boh and Coltrane. I guess I write all of this to say that it seems important to experience solitary places with other people. It’s not that the reservoir was transformed by the company; more that I noticed new things around me, and at the same time, rustled up a little less. It is nice to turn my regular route into a space filled with chatter, storytelling, community.

sundaywalkamyandtalia

sundaywalk5

sundaywalk7

One of the great things about friends who are also early-risers is that you can enjoy an indulgent brunch and take a relaxing walk AND have plenty of time left over for productivity, of both the academic and fiber-y variety.

polwarth bw

In between bouts of reading and writing, I sat down at my wheel and spun up two bobbins of luxurious polwarth from Southern Cross Fibres in the Boogie Wonderland colorway. This was incredible stuff to spin, and the depth of these greys and greens is stunning.  We’ll see if I can get through today’s pile fast enough to start plying this today.

foliage.

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oct six mile1

oct six mile2

I stand in pretty much the same place to take my pictures of the reservoir near my house, so you can really see how much the leaves have changed over the last few weeks. Yesterday was the perfect day for a walk through the falling leaves.

bread inside

bread marmalade

We baked a loaf of no-knead bread, and enjoyed it with delicious marmalade brought home from a friend’s summer in France (thanks, K!) as our dessert last night.

joshandboh

Also, I thought you all might enjoy a picture of Boh’s “Um, can you wake up now?” technique. He has certainly made a new friend this weekend!

More knitting soon, I promise.

and then there were two.

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skein2 cmfbfl fo

Two  skeins of handspun Crown Mountain Farms brown bfl! This second skein (on the left) is 166 yards of 3-ply. I decided to use the bobbins from the first skein, and two of them still had a bit of yarn leftover from the first round of plying, so I divided these three ounces to account for the additional fiber and hoped that everything would even out. So with that in mind (slightly more fiber), I’m really happy with the consistency of my spinning! Here’s a close-up of the second skein:

skein2 cmf bfl macro

Boh and I walked down to the reservoir to stretch our legs and check out the fall foliage, and we were not disappointed.

smc4 leaves

smc1

smc3

smc5 boh

Making time to do this is important to me. There’s something about being in a relationship that made it easier to leave all of the work that piles up and prioritize spending time together. This fall, I’m really trying to make sure I take some of that time for myself.

The weather this weekend was absolutely lovely, and I’m hoping for an October filled with cool mornings, crisp fall breezes, and clear skies.