Knitting 40 shades of green

fun in the mail

My mother never really took to knitting although I have taught her how.  I think she likes the idea of knitting better than actually doing it.  She has many other hobbies so I don't worry about it too much.  However, it would seem that she retains an interest in this craft due to my own interest.  She came across a contest which had as its prize a "skein of the month" club. 

She sent out a few e-mails and soon found that she need not enter the contest and could just subscribe to the club.  However, there is that problem of not knitting.  So, lucky me, she signed me up.  The club is sponsored by Webs and is inspired by the book One Skein Wonders.

Each month you are sent a skein of yarn, a pattern that can be completed with that skein of yarn and some other little trinket or gift from Webs.  This month's selection was a skein of Sheep Shop Yarn in Sheep 3.  This is a 30% silk and 70% wool yarn.  They also included the pattern Silky Leaves Scarf.

I will have to cast this on soon to try out this new yarn and I look forward to surprises in the mail for the rest of the year!  Thanks Mom!!

Socks, socks, socks

Surely, I have mentioned before that my tastes run parallel to most 3 year olds? Back when Interweave Knits was pairing all of the sweaters with Crinoline and taffeta -- I had to make all of those sweaters and wished I could get away with the outfit. Pattern tights are one of my favorite things to wear (although I admit to not being that wonderfully eccentric or creative to pull off the look so I don't do it very often) and fun socks... well, I love fun socks.

I learned to knit socks because a friend of mine who was a fairly new knitter wanted to knit socks. I found a pattern and just made sure I stayed ahead of her in the knitting so that I could advise her as she got to the next section. Then another knitting friend was having trouble with a pattern for socks - it was toe up and so I took it upon myself to learn to knit that way so that I could help her learn to knit socks and for a long while we met every Sunday at the local Panera Bread and knit socks (or mostly she knit socks and I worked on whatever I was working on, she has made a lot of socks) for what we called Sock Sunday. I taught Wendy to make socks and she ended up with three socks none of which were the same and none of which fit (to her credit she has since made many successful socks pairs).

Well, I started the year with 4 pair of hand knit socks (I have made an additional two pair which were gifted). This is clearly not enough. How can a person get through the week with only 4 pairs of hand knit socks? Last year I set a goal to knit a pair a month and my first pair took more than 6 months so this year the goal is a bit more realistic -- 6 pairs for the year -- averaging a pair every two months. I am off to a good start at I finished up a pair of socks on January 3.  (I have given up on getting a good photo)

• Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A.
• Yarn:  Claudia Hand Painted Yarns in Walk in the Woods
• Started:  August 12, 2007
• Finished:  January 3, 2008
• Notes:  The pattern is well written but I think on more than one occasion I was thrown off by the shifting of the stitches before the next repeat and may or may not have fixed it.  I kept forgetting and it would effect the ridges so I would tear out or make it make sense for me which isn't noticeable but is likely not true to pattern.

And there is another pair that is halfway finished if I can just remember the cast on...

Random Thought Wednesday

1. I got an i-Pod for Christmas. Until this time I have been sticking to my Luddite ways and using CDs (at least I got past cassette tapes and I finally got rid of my record player). My CD came from the factory programed to display Mandarin Chinese as its language. When the directions tell you to click on "settings" to change the language you have to be able to read it in the language already on the player. Took me quite some time and a friend's iPod to figure it out. When I finally got to the list of languages they are all in alphabetic order from Chinese on down. There is no English in the list though because they put that at the top. I may have been heard to query the gifter: "Where did you buy this thing? It has every language except English." I did finally figure it out. Now that I have an iPod if anyone has great PODCASTs to recommend (the only word that shows up in recognizable type when your iPod is set for Mandarin), I would be interested to hear other's opinions.

2. I always, always, always cut up too many vegetables when making a veggie tray for a party. (Maybe it has to do with the fact that I make way too much food -- which would you eat -- cheese potato skins or raw veggies?) I have bags and bags of the things in my fridge. I see a stir fry or veggie soup in my future.

3. Last Saturday marked ten years since I started my current job. It surprises me that I have been here so long. I don't think I will get my ten year plaque (what do people do with those?) until June since they don't count partial years. I will always be a half year ahead.

4. Have you seen Rachel's finished Henley Perfected? If not it is here. This is the first time I have seen it on a blog (I know I am way behind in blog-lines so it could be out there lots) and now I really want to make one. I may have to go searching through the stash.

5.  I have eaten so many raw veggies today that I am craving fatty foods -- do you think Chubble bread and Cherry Garcia Ice Cream count as dinner?

Dark Days Eat Local Challenge: 2008

I haven't made it to the farmers' market lately though we do have two markets in the area that are open year round. My CSA has a winter share that delivers every other week but the first two deliveries have been organic Florida citrus that John picked up while visiting his sister at Christmas. Seasonal, for sure, and he was already making the drive but not quite local. Our latest delivery also included some turnips with greens, braising greens, salad and broccoli.  I decided to try out another option of fresh veggies by sampling the veggetable box avaible from Food Matters and I hope I don't end up with way too much food so that I am wasting things...I better start entertaining more.

Well, friends came up from Richmond to visit for the weekend for an evening of hockey and another that was filled with watching the superbowl.  I figured that I better get some food made up in advance but it was unlikely that I would be able to fit in a trip to the open markets.  We would have to see what I had in the house. I have a Peruvian Chicken and Sweetpotato Stew on the menu and was tempted to make a variation of chubble bread after seeing it on Bri's blog last week.

So I set to chopping onions (these were the last of the local onions in the house, I sure hope I get some in a CSA box or I better make it to the market next weekend), grinding peanuts and cutting up sweet potatos (yes, I did get out my chef's knife).

The stew turned out pretty well, I made it on Saturday and then warmed it up and put it in the crock pot for people to eat during the game -- adding the cilantro after the second heating.

The chubble bread was really fun to make. It really wasn't hard as most of the heavy kneading is done in a stand mixer.I made a few changes, I subbed smoked mozarella for the cheddar, romano for the Parmesan (because that is what I had on hand and added fresh garlic and oregan rather than the dried. It was absolutely yummy and it was hard not to scarf it all down as it came out of the oven.

• onion, Twin Springs Fruit Farm, Ortanna, PA (72 miles)
• sweet potato, Olin Fox Farms, Reedville, VA (81 miles)
• peanuts, Producer's Peanut Company, Suffolk, VA (148 miles)
• Patrick Henry corn meal, Byrd Mill, Ashland, VA (76 miles)
• chicken, Cibola Farms, Culpeper, VA (55 miles)
• flour, Byrd Mill, Ashland, VA (76 miles)
• smoked applewood mozzerella, Blue Ridge Dairy, Leesburg, VA (32 miles)
• garlic, Twin Springs Fruit Farm, Ortanna, PA (72 miles)

nonlocal:  cilantro, parsley, olive oil, romano cheese, yeast, spices

Did you miss me? and a poem for St Brigid

Maybe you have noticed that I haven't blogged much lately. I am not sure why. I think about blogging but blogging and blog reading haven't been happening much lately. There seems some disconnect when I am actually in front of a computer. I am trying to pare down my hundreds of bloglines and thought I would put up a post so that you all don't forget about me.

Let see what have I been up to?

I have been to quite a few hockey games and my team is finally starting to show some promise since firing the coach and bringing on Bruce Boudreau. We may even have a chance at the playoffs. I better start saving money for playoff tickets just one point out of first place in out division.  However, other than a few sock rounds on the metro this isn't ideal knitting climate.  I can't have Stevie yelling, "This is no time for knitting!"  Although Chris' colorful taunts to Victor Kozlov have me wondering just what would you bake in a Russian Tart.  (He is British, by explanation).

There has been lots of visiting with both friends and family which has taken time away from knitting, documenting cooking adventures, and blogging.

I owe a finished object or two for 2008. I definitely have a pair of socks to show off and I have almost finished the striped sweater (just the button hole band, buttons and the seams, oh and the ends before I started knitting them in).  And I need a photo shoot for Jade.

I have started another pair of socks and set a goal to make at least 6 pair of socks for me this year -- I need more hand knit socks and only managed 2 pair last year.

I am continuing to pull out abandoned projects to breath new life into them --

and I am still doing the Dark Days of Winter challenge and will post on my CSA and meals soon.  Really soon, I promise...

edited to add:  I missed the feast of St Brigit yesterday (not sure how it slipped my mind) so here is my contribution to the silent poetry reading

The Red Wheelbarrow ~ William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.