mangofeet

Still plying...

2009-11-15T19:16:00.002-05:00

But I've got roughly a bobbinful done. Actually, I could have gotten a bit more on the bobbin, but both plies broke at the same time, and I took it as a sign that I should stop and wind off the yarn.
And here it is:

There's a little bit of barber-poling, but most of the color changes are subtle enough that it doesn't really show.

If fact, as I was winding onto the niddy-noddy, I was often surprised to see that a whole new color had started without me even noticing.
If I haven't screwed up the count, I've got 625 yards so far.
Now I just need to find a shawl pattern with a lace pattern than can handle stripes of color. Anybody have suggestions?

Good news! I didn't crash into the cruiser!

2009-11-14T19:25:00.004-05:00

On the way to work this morning, in a steady cold drizzle, I saw flashing blue lights on the bridge not far from my job. I slowed down and saw a state police cruiser, a pickup truck in a diagonal postion on the bridge, and another vehicle after that, all in my lane. The trooper was standing next to some scattered debris, on the other side of the bridge, and I assumed he was directing traffic, since we were now down to a one-lane situation.
At first I thought he was waving me through - he was swinging his arm back and forth, not making the universal the-cop-says-stop gesture with a straight-arm open palm. But then I realized he was swinging his arm with palm outward - an awkward, non-standard, ambiguous gesture. At the last moment, I decided he wasn't waving me through, after all, so put on the brakes.
The brakes didn't catch. I just kept going, at least another car-length. Finally, finally, I came to a stop just a couple of feet behind the parked cruiser's rear bumper. I thought my brakes had failed. I had an adrenaline surge that could have powered up a small city. I gasped with relief when the car stopped moving.
The trooper came walking toward my car. "Don't tell him your brakes failed," I said to myself. "That's a ticket for defective equipment."
I rolled down my window.
"I didn't think you were going to stop," he said.
I stammered something to the effect that I'd been a little concerned, myself, while the voice in the back of my head was saying "Don't mention the brakes. Don't mention the brakes." And I was hoping he'd been too far away to notice the look of terror on my face.
"Everyone else seemed to see my blinking blue light and slow down," he said.
I started to say something about the ambiguity of his gesturing, but then thought "Don't criticize the cop. They don't like that. They write tickets for that."
Now I had two things whirling around in my head that I was trying not to blurt out. Smiling seemed like a good response. Silent smiling, with no talking whatsoever.
"Try to slow it down. It's icy out there," he said.
Icy? It's icy? No wonder I couldn't stop. Not my brakes. Ice. (That also explained why the pickup was diagonal in the road ahead...)
"Yes, sir!" I piped up as he walked away.
He let a couple more cars come through from the other direction, then finally waved me through.
I drove slowly that last little bit to work.

The trouble with spinning

2009-11-13T21:59:00.002-05:00

Recently I've realized that I'm doing a lot less knitting since I learned to spin. Time that used to be used for knitting has gotten sucked up by the wheel. I now have a lot of yarn, but instead of knitting something with it, I grab more fiber and start spinning the next project.
For instance, I have a huge list of shawls I want to knit. Maplewing, Aeolian, Laminaria, to name a few. (My queue is now long enough to circle the earth at least three times.) I have patterns printed out, I've spun the yarn. I want I want I want to knit these shawls with a white-hot passion. Have I cast on any of them?
No. I'm spinning more yarn.
And we won't discuss how many fleeces I have in my craft room. Or the balls of roving.
Is there any way I can learn to knit using only my left foot? I need the right one for treadling, you see...

Chores

2009-11-12T21:18:00.005-05:00

Madman and I have a loose system for chores - last one out in the morning feeds the critters, first one home feeds the critters. Our schedules vary enough that we both get tagged, though admittedly he gets stuck more often than I do. (On the other hand, there was an 18 month stretch where he worked out-of-state for 5 days a week, and I tended everything the days he was gone.) Back in the days when we only had chickens, chores only took a few minutes. But these days, with rabbits, sheep, and chickens, the time necessary to get them all fed and watered can really add up - especially now that cold weather is here, and waterers are frozen solid and have to be either thawed or swapped out.
We'd moved this year's young chickens in with the main flock so there was only one group of chickens to feed. (Though, we've had to pull one older hen out and isolate her. She's an egg-eater. And she's not laying. She'll go into the freezer the next time we have a day off together and can do the deed. It's all about being a team-player, ya see.) We've got two chicken waterers, so in cold weather we have one thawing while the other one is watering.
Today was my day off, so my turn to do both morning and afternoon chores. I fed and watered sheep, fed rabbits and switched their waterers, fed and watered Miss Future-Stew, then headed for the main chicken coop. After filling their feed and water, I started rummaging through nest boxes, looking for eggs. Every box seemed to have a chicken in it this morning - which is good news, since it means egg production is going up. (They're just coming out of molt, when they hardly laid any eggs at all. We were getting 3 eggs a day from 15 hens. Not good.) The chicken coop is fairly dark, so I've always left the door open so I could see into the nest boxes. (Not every round light-colored thing in a nest box is an egg. Sometimes it's a big clump of chicken poop. It's good to know that before you pick it up...) It has never occurred to our 'senior' chickens to go out that door - after all, everything they want in life is in that coop. Food. Water. The companionship of the flock. And they have a perfectly good little chicken-sized door for going out if they want. The big door is for Mom and Dad, the little door is for chickens.
Not the new girls, however. When I turned from the last nest box, with a handful of eggs, I saw 3 of the little biddies standing in a group just outside the door.
When I was done gasping (and trust me, taking care of livestock will leave you gasping more often than you would think. Worse than kids.) I moved quickly, but don't-panic-the-chickens quickly, to head them off. Luckily, chickens are indecisive creatures. They were still in "Okay. Now what?" mode when I scooped them up as a unit and stuffed them back into the coop. (And without breaking my handful of eggs, I might add.)
Now, that was a relief. The prospect of chasing chickens around the yard had flashed before my eyes. Add to that, the fact that I would have had to leave the coop door open in order to get them back in, meanwhile the chickens who were in the coop would have gotten curious about the commotion outside the coop, and would have come out to see what was going on. (Chickens are very curious creatures. And stupid. Curiousity and Stupidity are a really bad combination.)
I had a mental picture of spending my morning putting one chicken in the coop while two more got out. Sort of like a video game for the truly masochistic...

Oh, yeah, there's fiber around here, too...

2009-11-11T20:15:00.004-05:00

Though admittedly, there's been precious little fiber content on here lately.
Wanna see the Merino-Tencel? I've started plying. The colors are subtle and gorgeous, with a sheen from the tencel that practically gives it a personality. I wish I could take a photo that really did it justice. This is the best of the way-too-many-attempts:

I'm in serious love with this stuff. Serious. Thank you, AnnaMarie, for ~~threatening to kick my ass~~ enabling me.
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Leftovers

2009-11-10T19:00:00.002-05:00

Pork Roast is followed by Pork Pot Pie as surely as Autumn follows Summer.

And yes, those biscuits are heart-shaped. I've been doing that since the time I couldn't find my regular biscuit cutter, and the plainest shaped cookie cutter I could find was a heart. When I discovered that hearts fit into the casserole dish much better than the round biscuits, I never looked back...

Eggs!

2009-11-09T20:45:00.002-05:00

Woohoo! The pullets are starting to lay!

Shown with one of our "normal" eggs, for scale. (Most of our hens lay eggs in the extra large range, with a few larges and some jumbos, just for fun.) Our little beginners start small, then gradually lay larger and larger eggs until they hit whatever size is normal for them. These pullet eggs usually turn up on the floor of the chicken coop, as the young ladies haven't quite figured out the nest boxes yet.

I always picture that first egg as quite the surprise - the little hen spinning around to look, with an exclamation of "What the hell was that?!?"

It's all about the food

2009-11-08T20:07:00.005-05:00

Though I spent the morning just lolling around slothfully, I ended up in full production in the afternoon. First, I made these:And these aren't just cake doughnuts, like I made last fall. These are honest-to-goodness, full-tilt-crazy Raised Glazed Doughnuts. They're lumpy, bumpy, and oddly-shaped, but oh my goodness, they're tasty...
A pork roast was popped into the oven, potatoes were peeled for mashed, and I tried an experiment with one of our "Delicorn" squashes.
I made a baked stuffed squash, with a filling made of bacon, sauted onions, apples, brown sugar, and a big pinch of cloves. Here are the two squash halves, stuffed and ready for the oven.

And here they are after a good long bake. (You can see on the left one where I poked with a fork to see if it was done.)

The squash got a thumbs up, though next time I think I'll use more onion, and a lighter hand with the cloves. This is the first year we've grown enough squash that I dare to experiment. When you only get 5 or 6, you hate to lose one to a cooking accident.

Pork roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffed squash, and doughnuts for dessert. Madman had to roll me to the computer chair...

Jean's Beans

2009-11-07T20:41:00.004-05:00

Madman has been diligently shelling dried beans in the evenings, as we watch a dvd or two. (I'm usually spinning or knitting.) He finished up the Jean's Beans first, since they were new to us and we were anxious to see how they turned out.

Not a bad output for the roughly 12-foot row we planted. (I love growing dried beans. You plant them, weed them a time or two early in the season, then just ignore them until the plants are well and truly dead. None of that pesky every-day-checking-for-ripeness. Gotta love it.)

My best guess is that they're a variety of Jacob's Cattle beans. (Anyone out there have a good theory? Leigh?) There's quite a bit of variation in color, but I don't know if that's just a part of not being completely dry yet. (It's been a very wet year - sort of counter-productive to growing dried beans...) They're a beautiful bean, anyway. We'll be testing them this winter for flavor. Can't beat bean soup on a cold winter day.

Prepare to crack up...

2009-11-06T19:14:00.002-05:00

One of my daughters shared this with me today:
airtoons

Some of them made me laugh so hard, I had tears running down my face.
Enjoy!

Okay, so I lied...

2009-11-05T21:10:00.004-05:00

I fully intended to play with the book I mentioned yesterday, but when I heard that Norma was headed for AnnaMarie's, how could I stay home? I bustled through my errands and the things that absolutely had to be done around the house, threw my knitting in the car, and hit the highway.
AnnaMarie had lunch ready for us - she made an amazing split pea soup. (Note: if AnnaMarie ever offers to cook something for you, just pull up a chair at the table and wait quietly for Nirvana. Seriously.)
We sat and knitted and talked and laughed. Spinning and spindles, blogging and bloggers, food and farms, books, yarn, pets, patterns, festivals, tv shows - we covered a lot of territory in conversation. The woodstove made the room cozy, and the company made it cozier.
An afternoon of food, friends, and fiber? Balm for a weary soul.
Naturally, I forgot my camera...

I love my library.

2009-11-04T20:17:00.002-05:00

I just got this book from the library. Tomorrow is my day off. I'm going to play...
Homemade chocolate sandwich cookies, anyone? Or peanut butter cups? Or...

Today was definitely better

2009-11-03T19:25:00.003-05:00

Much easier day, today. Yesterday I had to work 7 to 5, which is a two-hour earlier start than my normal 9-5. Coming on the heels of the time-change, it was a little rocky. I was so afraid the alarm wouldn't go off, or that I would oversleep, that I woke up every 20 minutes, gasping and thinking "OMG - what time is it?!?" All. Night. Long. Not restful. Stir in a little extra anxiety - "Oh, no! Did I set the alarm clock right for the time change?" - that made me get up out of bed at 3:00 am to go check my watch and my cell phone for the correct time, and you have a recipe for almost no sleep at all.
Then the long day at work.
*sigh*
As it was, last night after hitting 'publish', I decided I didn't even have enough energy for lolcats. I sat down on the couch, picked up my knitting, and promptly fell asleep.

I'm so tired, my brain hurts.

2009-11-02T21:27:00.003-05:00

Loooong day at work today. Luckily supper was just leftovers. (Leftover mooseloaf. Heh.)
I've been trying to think of something to post. I give up. I'm headed over to look at some lolcats. See you there.

November 1st. Is it NaBloPoMo?

2009-11-01T20:15:00.003-05:00

I'm three-quarters of the way through the second bobbin of the Merino-Tencel. Here's a look at bobbin one:The second batch of roving seems to have longer runs of the teal - not that I'm objecting. I'm dying of curiosity to see what it will look like plyed.
I've been working on the gray/black scarf, as well. I won't bother with a photo - it looks just like the last pic I put up, only about twice as long.

We've been wrapping up the garden. Madman dug the rest of the carrots, and has been rototilling diligently, getting ready to put it to bed for the winter.
Tonight for supper was the last of the swiss chard, which unbelievably was still growing, despite cold, snow, wind, and rain. Served up with baked potatoes, and a nice slab of mooseloaf.
Only in Vermont.

Gotta love him

2009-10-28T23:00:00.002-04:00

"Uh-oh." Madman said. "You dropped your knitting garrotte."
He picked up my circular needle from the floor and set it on the coffee table for me.

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A Different Sort of Carrot

2009-10-24T19:18:00.003-04:00

Now, Madman and I have grown some interesting things in our garden over the years. The tomatillos that ate the greenhouse, the fence post that thought it was a tree, the tomato that thought it was a housepet...
But this critter takes the cake. Meet our newest carrot.

Frankly, I can't thing of anything to say. Or rather, I can think of any number of things to say, but perhaps it's best to keep such thoughts to myself...

Oi!

2009-10-22T23:03:00.005-04:00

The last couple of weeks have been a blur. Long days at work, struggling to do more than was physically possible in the hours available. I drag my butt home, eat supper, and fall asleep on the couch. Usually with knitting in my hand...

Yesterday was exciting, though. As I neared home, I saw a hot-air balloon up in the sky over my house. I ran inside for the camera.
My photo-editing software is not being co-operative, so this isn't a very good picture:(Objects in camera may be much closer than they appear...)
The balloon was actually close enough to the ground (and to my house) that I could see and hear the burner firing.

Goldie was keeping an eye on it.
Though the youngsters were more interested in whether I was going to give them grain or not.

This is a balloon that we see several times a year in our neighborhood. The flyers are an older couple (and by older, I mean they're in their 80's) who balloon in warm weather, and cross-country ski in the winter. My in-laws first met them when their balloon made an emergency landing in the yard. Nice folk.
Watching a hot-air balloon always leaves me torn. Part of me is saying "Oh, doesn't that look like fun?" and the other part is saying "Are you insane???? That thing is way off the ground!"

The Dark-side of the Scarf

2009-10-14T20:49:00.003-04:00

Laurie expressed interest in seeing the back of my scarf-in-progress.

All those sl1wyif and sl1wyib stitches give you lots of little carries on the backside. There's a shadowy image of the diamonds that is sort of interesting, though. If I was ~~totally insane~~ slightly masochistic, I'd be knitting this in the round, so there would be no 'wrong side.' But I don't really need to be any crazier than I already am, so I'm continuing with the original plan.

Oh, No!!!!

2009-10-13T21:31:00.003-04:00

What we saw by the dawn's early light:

It's only mid-October. But it is Vermont, after all.
Still snowing as I got ready to leave for work.

The sheep don't seem concerned.

There was talk all day of "This won't stick." But there's always an inherent fatalism in that remark. This one won't stick, but the next one might. The one after will stick, for sure. We'll be back in the land of boots and snowshovels.
Full battle gear will be required before leaving the house: hat, coat, scarf, boots, gloves. Ice scraper. Snow brush. Extra time will have to be allowed in the morning for shoveling out to the car, brushing off the snow, warming up the engine.

*sigh*
It's only mid-October...

Post 200. Whoda thunk it?

2009-10-11T15:42:00.004-04:00

I was hoping to think of something special for a milestone post. But the most special thing going on seems to be that I put a knot in my back from spinning too much, and had to take a few days applying heat, resting, and mostly groaning. Alternating with grumbling. And jonesing for the wheel...

Here's what I've got so far:

One thing I've learned is that it takes a looooong time to fill a bobbin with singles for laceweight. I'm getting close to being halfway through that first 2oz batch of merino-tencel. At this rate, I may finish the plying in time for cake and ice cream at my 100th birthday party.

I did manage to get a little knitting done. The scarf moves forward:

It's actually a simple slip-stitch pattern, with only one color at a time in play. I like the way it looks more complicated than it is.

And today started with a cold rainy morning - perfect for staying indoors and baking. I invented a recipe for oatmeal/apple/walnut scones. Though, technically it's really a bannock, since it's baked in one piece.

Want a closer look?

I'm going to try to sneak in a little spinning today, now that my back is better. I just need to remember to step away from the wheel...

What are the odds?

2009-10-04T18:43:00.005-04:00

What are the odds that I sat up late last night and tested out the merino/tencel?

Yeah...

And also? Laceweight?

Yeah...

Vermont Sheep and Wool 09

2009-10-03T19:49:00.004-04:00

AnnaMarie and I set out early this morning in search of Tunbridge, the new central location for Vt Sheep and Wool. Now, she may have an unerring sense of direction, but she was operating under the handicap of having me for a navigator, so it's probably a miracle we found the place. (Even though I have been to Tunbridge many times. That has no influence on the odds of me finding a place again. I'm famous for logically considering all my choices at an intersection, and then turning in exactly the wrong direction.)
We're lucky we went as early as we did, as the weather got progressively worse as the day went on. We spent a good part of the day ducking out of the drizzle, then out of the rain. The fairgrounds got squishier and squishier by the hour. But there were smiles under the umbrellas as we looked at the crowd. Just normal Vermont fall weather...

We looked at every fleece, every batt, every yarn, every color, every spindle, wheel, and swift. We paused for lunch (during one of the downpours) to plan which booths we were going back to. Now, I'd seriously just come to the festival to look. At most, I planned to buy another bobbin for my spinning wheel. I have more fleece and roving than I could spin in a year, even if I quit my job and gave up sleep. But I mentioned that I'd been seeing the merino/tencel roving at The Sheep Shed at Mountain View Farm booth every festival for the last 3 years, loving the colors, and had always kicked myself for not buying - I've never spun tencel before and wanted to give it a try, and this time I was actually going to buy some.
Well, we got back to the booth, I drooled, and finally made up my mind which colors to get (there are too many pretty ones. It was hard.) I actually had 2 of the beauties in my hand, when I spied a gorgeous merino/silk blend that called to me. I held up the tencel blend next to the silk blend. "Oh, I wouldn't ply those together" said AM. "Oh, no," I answered, "I'm just trying to decide which I'd rather have..." To which she replied "Girl, if you don't buy that tencel, I will kick your ass." I laughed and bought the tencel, remarking to the bemused vendor "Now that's the sign of a true friend!"
That's my merino/tencel. I love it. Truly and wholeheartedly. I have 4 ounces of it, thanks to my dear friend, AnnaMarie. I just have to keep remembering that I need to get some knitting done...
We ran into Norma and Joansie - neither AM nor I had met Joansie in person yet, so that was wonderful. And seeing Norma always makes a great day even better. Norma and I had brought along our red-scarves-in-progress, so there was a quick show and tell.
I only took one picture, unfortunately, and sadly the flash took so long to charge that the smiles ran out... The picture came out looking like Norma had just said something shocking to AnnaMarie - and I'm having a good time trying to imagine what could possibly shock AM.
Though Norma would be the one who could do it...

There's a word for that in German

2009-10-02T19:30:00.002-04:00

Looky!Two and a half repeats! With no major errors!
Well, I did have to rip 2 rows and reknit. It was a Hubris Error. I thought I had the pattern down, and didn't look at the book.
You know that feeling of supreme-confidence-of-"I-know-exactly-what-I'm-doing"-that-suddenly-plummets-as-you-look-down-and-realize-you've-royally-screwed-up.
Yeah, there's gotta be a word for that...

Wine, Knittin', and Wrong (Only because that one was easier to come up with something than Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax, Cabbages and Kings)

2009-09-28T20:10:00.004-04:00

The elderberry wine is happily bubbling away in its carboy. When a sufficiency of sediment has settled out, we'll re-rack it, then re-rack again if more sediment presents. Then into bottles it will go, corking will commence, and the wine will be laid down to age. Sometime around this time next year, we'll be tasting it. Then, and only then, will we know if we screwed it up or if we produced a wonder.

The ugly pillowcase that was sacrificed is now a new and terribly interesting color. It's still ugly, but it's now a prettier ugly.

Madman decided to re-pitch yeast in the mead and add some honey. (His avocation is beermaking, so I defer to him in all things brew-y. We are both masters of yeast - I bake, he brews, and life is eternally good.)
(Just as an aside, we hauled out the mead carboy at around 9am yesterday. After looking, and smelling, we decided to taste. He siphoned out a good sample, we tasted and tasted. "Hmmm... Not bad..." "Much better than the last time we tasted it." "Is there alcohol left in here, ya think?" "I think there is! Here, have another taste." Is it decadent to be sampling mead at 9oclock of a Sunday morning?)

I ripped out the failed swatch, shifted down a needle size, and cast on again, with one less repeat of the pattern stitch. I've got this much done. Help me now pretend I don't see a rather large mistake on the left side...

I said, we're ignoring that...
*Sigh*
So, if for every repeat of a diamond, I have to rip back half a diamond, how many repeats will I have to knit before
a) I finish the scarf, or
b) I commit hara-kiri with a set of size 00 dpns.

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