AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

Ardenwood 2013

Life at Squam is idyllic and beautiful even when it rains. While I had my iPad with me, I didn't take any pictures. I just immersed myself in craft, beauty and the feeling of nature all around.

(Picture taken by Cal Patch, who was an excellent teacher)

This was the first year I could really say that I worked past my comfort zone. For the past two years I've taken knitting and embroidery, but I wouldn't say that the classes I took were mentally challenging. The challenge was just in being at Squam and meeting new people and being open to meeting people. Last year my cabinmates were both stronger at sewing and as a group we decided to expand past our comfort zones.

This year instead of knitting I took Card Weaving with John Mullarkey and Squam Smock with Cal Patch. Now, I have done weaving before on the rigid heddle, but I have been reading about tablet and card weaving for a few years now and thinking that the online instructions were a bit hard to understand. So, card weaving wasn't quite as far outside my comfort zone. I mean, it is still playing with string.

But sewing? For me even with a good teacher I don't always feel comfortable seeing the next step, and so I spend a lot of time confirming that the thing I am pretty sure I am supposed to do next is really the thing I'm supposed to do.

Squam Smock wasn't really that much different in that regard, but I was able to move a bit past asking about everything and to just do some of the things. My only regret is that I didn't have the time to trace out the pattern so I could make another one.

The pattern is easy and flexible enough (without the pockets) that I think I can make it again without feeling like I need hand holding. And well, it is definitely roomy enough to take me through pregnancy and not-maternity enough to wear afterwards without feeling like I am in a moomoo.

I did combine a few things together this year. I embroidered my fabric, to draw on my skills from last year. I am also hoping to card weave a band to sew onto the bottom. It would be nice to be able to wear it to Squam next year (I hope I'll be able to go) and see the different elements all together as a single whole.

Oh, and yes, the sweater is my Breezy Cardigan, which I finished only a few days before Squam. It still needs a separate reveal, but it worked well in the mixed weather of Squam Lake in the spring.

[10 Tuesday] the joys of a long weekend

This week's 10 for Tuesday is what we did this weekend. In the United States, this past weekend was Memorial Day weekend. In the past, it is a weekend where I ran a half marathon, but those days are at least temporarily behind me.

This weekend instead of running involved almost a trifecta.

1. We tried to see the Sox play on Friday, but while the game itself wasn't rained out, I was. It was wet and cold and I took my pregnant body home rather than see how long I could hack it. I guess that means I couldn't hack it very long.

2. Replaced my Fuel Band. I love my Fuel Band, but I was getting an 802 error. So, Friday I walked to the Nike Store and dripped on their floor while they replaced it for me. I love the replacement policy on these little devices. Of course, mine is set to 3000, which for someone who wears it all day long is a little low. Even one moderate length dog walk gets me a third of the way there.

3. Walk the dog. Even when it was raining it still needed to happen and so out I went.

4. Knitting. It was the Knitter's Brunch at Gather Here, and I found my gift certificate and bought fabric for a class at Squam and a single 50 gram skein of sock yarn to help finish my Breezy Cardigan. I got a fair amount of knitting done, and by the end of the long weekend had finished my second sleeve.

5. Made cookies. Specifically spicy olive oil chocolate chip cookies.

6. Made barbeque flavored vegetable burgers (is it me or does it sound pretentious to spell out vegetable in this context instead of using veggie). I base mine on the recipe in Angry Chicken. The latest batch was a little vegetable light and so it made 8 burgers. I am planning to make another batch using some more of the great northern beans I cooked up.

7. Went to a barbeque. I brought the veggie burgers and 10 of the cookies and almost all of the cookies went. So, apparently 1 tablespoon of ghost chili olive oil wasn't too much after all.

8. Researched recipes. I made this fluffy white cake today, but I spent a decent chunk of the weekend looking for a recipe. Just a note. If you try to make the entire recipe in a deep 9" pan, then expect it to take at least 50 minutes before you need to check it. I started checking at 30 minutes, and then again every 5 minutes. I eventually got tired of that and instead checked it every 10 minutes. I estimate that I finally pulled it out at about 65 minutes.

9. Cleaned. What? We thought for a while that we were having an open house this weekend, so cleaning was definitely on the list of things to do.

10. Ate ice cream. My friend made this amazing rocky road (not chocolate based) ice cream that she will be sharing next month. Of course, this makes me want to make the Nutella Rocky Road ice cream again. I have all of the ingredients for it, though after tonight's cake making I also have 7 egg yolks to use up.

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Mexicana Chocolate Chip Cookies

0300 hours

Mexicana Chocolate Chip Cookies

Squam is in under two weeks. For the past two years I have made cookies to share with the cabinmates and cookies to have out at registration. So, today I started out making cookies.

This will be the smallest batch of cookies, because they might be too traumatic for other more normal people.

I made olive oil chocolate chip cookies (the things I find when i decide I want to add more things to Pinterest).

My cookies are not the same even though almost everything matches. It is the additions that make them unique.

The nice thing about the olive oil cookies is that they do not contain butter and if you forgo the optional milk and use dairy free chocolate chips, then these cookies are dairy free. I, however, have plenty of milk to use up, so I used a tablespoon of milk. Low enough dairy that some of my lactose intolerant friends could eat it unmedicated, though admittedly not all of them.

My cookies?

Ghost chili infused olive oil.

My friends and I were going to do a hell night in March, which never panned out. However, to prep for my part, I started infusing the olive oil last year (July or August, though my memory is a bit rusty). I've got about half of the bottle left. I have used the oil in granola (I love it there), and I have used it in my favorite bread recipe, and I have given some of it away. It isn't hard to make. 

Ghost Chili infused olive oil

Ingredients
1 750ml container of cold pressed virgin olive oil (I used Il Grezzo, because it has a relatively wide recappable mouth)
4-6 dried ghost chili peppers

Instructions
Yes, two ingredients. Most infused olive oils are labors of time not of ingredients.

Remove about 1/4 cup of olive oil from the container and set aside. Cut the ghost chilis into strips and put the strips into the olive oil. Top off with the remaining olive oil. It might not all fit depending on the available headspace. Store in a cool dry place for at least a month before using.

Now, it is better if you can swirl or mix it up every couple of weeks, but that isn't necessary. It is also unnecessary to remove the ghost chilis. I have been leaving mine in and it doesn't necessarily taste like ghost chilis, but it does taste like distilled spice. As such it can be added sparingly (if you have mostly normal spice tolerances) to anything you want to add heat to without interfering with the other spices.

For the olive oil chocolate chip cookies, I measured out a single tablespoon of the ghost chili olive oil and then topped up the rest to the 1/4 cup mark. The heat is not noticable at first, but is definitely present by the end of half a cookie. To round out the Mexican chocolate flavor, I added a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the dry ingredients. I also used less chocolate chips, a scant cup rather than a heaping cup, but there is still chocolate in almost every bite (for smaller bites).

there are no good titles

I'm away and then back again and then away. It's not that I don't want to write on the blog, it is that I don't have anything to say or rather don't have anything I think I should say.

And even that isn't true.

I'm almost 23 weeks along (one of the stupid pregnancy counters helps me remember). I am feeling kicking, which is awesome. I am assuming that at some point it will become onerous, but I have been waiting long enough that I am pretty sure that even onerous painful kicks will be super welcome.

I am knititng. Right now I am knitting the Breezy Cardigan and have been for almost 2 months. It is a top down, seamless cardigan by Hannah Fettig. Mine has been mostly a stash busting experience, so it is stripy. And feels huge. I'm on the second sleeeve and after that I have the ribbing on both the left and right front and then the collar ribbing. I am hoping to be done in time for Squam.

I love Squam. It feels weird that I might be having my last trip to Squam. I know people come from all over, but I've always been a few hours travel away. This time next year I will be in Kentucky, and travel will be more complicated. I have to wonder if I will be able to make that difference, or maybe I will be able to convince my husband that he can come with and we can make a family trip of it (well, sans Victor and Saru-chan. Dogs aren't allowed).

But rather than borrowing trouble, or at least borrowing that trouble, I'm entering into that low grade panic. Our home is still on the market. I know people are seeing it. The latest group included a couple with two daughters, and our house is definitely perfect for a family. I don't need it to sell right away, but constantly thinking about it selling is just not fun. It makes for strange(r) dreams. What felt like far away (house shopping trip in June) is now countable on one hand (weeks, on one hand!).

So, to manage stress. Knitting, baking and cleaning. More of the knitting and cleaning and a bit less baking, but my house has to be spotless for showings after all.

There will be pictures next post and it won't be 3 weeks or more I promise. I just want to finish the current sleeve!

Three steps to putting a house on the market

Yesterday I mentioned that our house went up on the market. Now, we've had to do this before when we sold our condo, and it doesn't get easier.

For us, the steps usually go like this.

1. Realtor comes over and we walk her through the house/lot and have her tell us what things we should fix. She says declutter about 50 times, and notes a few minor repairs that will have a nice impact on the resale value of our home.

2. We get to the half way stage and have her come by to make sure nothing has changed. While we have obviously gotten rid of a ton of stuff, she says declutter about 30 times and we cry on the inside.

3. After 20 more trips to Good Will and 10 trips to free cycle stuff on the curb, we clean (and pay someone else to clean) our place to shining sparkliness and she comes by and tells us that we need a ton of new smoke/CO detectors, because the laws changed again.

4. We do all that and the house goes on the market. Profit?

If you are like me - and you'll know you are like me if any of the following words could apply to you: hobbyist, packrat, hoarder (but not like the TV kind), slob - then the first step is to take half of your stuff and put it in storage, or a pod. This is the high level getting rid of crap stage, and it is just the stuff you know without considering it that you want to keep.

That won't be enough. With the remaining half of the stuff, decide if you want to keep it, consolidate it into something else (I bought a pressure cooker/multicooker, so I could get rid of multiple small appliances), and get rid of/donate at least another third of your items. Buy trash bags and fill them. Make trips to the dumpster or curb.

Eventually you will be back down to the amount of stuff you had one or two dwellings ago, and that is probably closer to right. If you have a lot of things on your counters, move them into cabinets or drawers. No one wants to see even useful appliances out all over the place.

Scrub. Nope. It's not fun, which is why we hired someone to do at least the bulk of it, or it would have taken us another 2 weeks to get the house on the market.

What does that have to do with knitting? Well, I ran a stash sale and it is still going on. I also have more yarn to put up for sale. It's like the potential mess that keeps on giving. Now I'm going to procrastinate for a bit on touch up cleaning and knit.

[10 Tuesday] tomorrow is May 1st

May 1st is around the corner, and ever since college that has meant May Day at Fenmere. Now, I haven't been active in the SCA for more than a decade a long time, but it is still a remembrance of the rites of spring. This week's 10 for Tuesday were things you were looking forward to in May.

1. Going through at least 5 pounds of flour. I have tons, but I also have a gazillion food tabs up on my computer. My current use flour recipes that I hope to make soon are:

• Quick Chocolate Cake (vegan)
• Granny's Chocolate Cobbler
• English Muffins
• Whole Wheat Bread

That isn't close to the full list, but definitely an overview.

2. Finishing two sweaters. I have both a baby sweater and an adult cardigan on the needles, and I would like both of them done before Squam.

3. Selling our house. I am hoping it sells fast, but selling fast just changes one set of issues for another (though the second set of issues are easy to deal with in comparison).

4. Ultrasound. I had one just a couple of days ago, and I have a follow up in a couple of weeks. Seeing the ultrasound is really fascinating.

5. Seeing Iron Man 3. I'm not sure if it will have something funnier than shawarma, but maybe.

6. The Red Sox. My tickets are for May 24th (if I remember correctly), and it will be nice to see the game up close and personal.

7. Maintenance. It is a wonderful spot to be in. Two weeks ago we were cleaning and painting and busy all weekend long. Now we just have to maintain the cleanliness of the house and do small improvements.

8. More naps. Being in maintenance land means we can have more naps.

9. Stanley Cup playoffs. The long skate to the cup is about to start and that means more hockey on non-cable TV. Yeah!

10. Well, I've mentioned naps, and cleaning, and knitting and delicious food. Isn't that enough? No? Well, the nicer weather means I can enjoy walking outside. I'm hoping to get a couple of nice walks sans dog, because it is just nice to walk at my own pace and sans poo bags.

0300 hours

Now that the house is clean enough to go on the market, I've been having bizarre dreams. This is the second night where I've woken up from a dream that at least in part has me either late or missing Squam or a similar event. Now, Squam isn't for another 6 weeks or so. There is no explanation.

Instead I wake up, play Kingdom of Loathing, read my web comics and then right when I should be getting up and walking the dog finally feeling sleepy again.

So, I've kind of made a little hidden announcement a few posts ago about being pregnant. Not to bog down the blog with a lot of TMI that no one needs, suffice to say that the first trimester is the "exhausted all the time" period, and the second trimester is "yeah, I finally have energy again" trimester. I'd be posting a ton more if all of that energy hadn't gone into cleaning house.

Instead, here are 10 baby patterns (all rav links, because I'm lazy that way) that I think are cool, and might get around to making.

1. Sleepy Monkey Blanket
2. Dinosaur Leg Warmers
3. Saartje's Baby Bootees - I almost made these for a friend a year or so ago, and decided instead to try to make something match.
4. Aviatrix Baby Hat - Someone at knitting is making this and it is completely adorable.
5. Community Blanket - I bought the pattern/took the class at the last Squam, but it really isn't as much fun to make on one's lonesome.
6. Hockey Skates - My husband really wants me to make these as part of a set that I've already started (a jersey to look like a BU hockey player, a hockey helmet hat, and the skates). We saw someone wearing the set at a BU game and he insisted that I find it and make it.
7. I have the pattern for the Baby Surprise Jacket, so I might make that, but there are a ton of awesome things to make. Tulips was made multiple times a few years ago by Yarn Harlot. Multiple makings of a pattern to me is a sign that it must be awesome.
8. Bibs. Not because I will need hand knit ones, but because sometimes it is just nice to knit something simple. Of course, I'm working on a sweater for myself right now (sock yarn cardigan, which feels like it is taking forever), so this idea will probably be punted to the curb.
9. Monster pants. I don't know what it is about babies, but it seems like the goal is either to dress them in super serious clothes (like grampa sweaters and vests or fancy little sweaters and dresses) or in clothing that they would never pick once they are old enough to make a real decision. I have a mix of both including a sweater I started for a friend or a coworker for her baby more than 4 years ago.
10. These converse booties would have been for a friend if I had managed to finish the baby blanket sooner.

Of course, instead of making any of these (including the baby sweater I started more than a month ago and some fingerless mitts started at about the same time), I am working on Breezy Cardigan. Now, I have no idea what is going through my head, but I mistype that name as Breathless at least once every time I write about it. The sweater is part of a knit along with the Toil and Trouble group on Ravelry, and I might be the slowest knitter there. I'm also pretty sure that I'm the largest knitter there. These things might be related.

Mine is made of a hodge podge of sock yarns as to be a stash busting sweater. I've only bought a single additional skein of yarn in order to guarantee that one of the colors is used throughout the sweater.

That picture is more than a week old and I'm almost to the increases at the waist (or rather right below) and only have about 5 inches before I can start the bottom ribbing. Unfortunately 370+ stitches a row is slow. I'm almost out of the dark blue color, and need to go through my partial balls and find another blue. That part is easy. The hard part is deciding which blue is dark enough and big enough to hopefully last through the bottom of the body, before I have to decide again on the sleeves. I hope it won't be too Frankenstein-y when I'm done.

What are you knitting right now?

[10 Tuesday] Bad jokes edition

So, do you want the bad jokes or the Bad (wink, wink) jokes? So, to be blunt, most of my favorite jokes are either dirty or very not PC. Also, I feel as a natural blonde (no longer under red hair dye) that it is OK for me to make blonde jokes, so there are an unfortunately large amount of jokes for that too. Needless to say, my favorite blonde jokes are even less clean/PC. You've been warned.

1. The Red Banana Joke. This is one of the kings of the long joke theme for me. One of my friends told me this joke except all of the locations were changed. Unsurprisingly, the last location was frat row at his university. If you are a better joke teller than I, it can be a lot of fun. Me? I do much better on the shorter jokes.

2. The Mongol Horde Joke. Similarily long, but this one makes my history friends happy. The variant I've heard is very slightly different. Definitely not PC in today's world.

3. Not so much a joke as a funny video. Cats in Water. Like many things on the Internet, don't read the comments. They are just not safe.

4. How about those blonde jokes. They are not PC or clean in almost any way. Try this one: What's the difference between a male blonde and a female blonde? Female blonde has a higher sperm count.

5. Or maybe this one? What was the deaf blonde sitting on the newspaper? She was lip reading.

6. The Ultimate Dog Tease. Umm, yeah, video, but it is still funny (what, this was way better than pranks).

7. Now one of my friends from after college liked to tell this joke about a rock. I'd link to it, but I've never been able to find it. Like the first two jokes, it is definitely on the long side. Do you know how hard it is to find a joke only knowing, "Rocks don't move"? Definitely hard.

8. Back to the blonde jokes. What? I don't have a lot of content to work with here. What do you call a blonde who dyes her hair brown? Artificial Intelligence.

9. Also not a joke, but hey, it is also isn't a video! Try this from Not Always Romantic.

10. It's cute, not a joke and still a video. Sorry. But I didn't want to subject you to a long blonde joke. The short ones are bad enough.

Oh, and that moustache? That was the moustache I wore for Pirates of Penzance. I'm donating the boots and throwing out the moustache. It's just not worth moving it all the way to Kentucky.

[10 Tuesday] My mythical Powerball winnings

I always say that life would be different if we won the Powerball, but that would involve also playing the Powerball. Every time it gets into the 100 million range or higher I think about it, and even then usually never remember to buy a ticket. That said, if I won the Powerball, I would do a lot of things.

1. Get some professional pictures taken. I'm a little skeptical about the need for baby bump pictures, but I'm pretty much skeptical about anything where pictures are concerned.

2. Pay off the mortgage and, if there is a way to do it without slapping friends and family with a huge tax burden, do the same for them. Hey, isn't this on pretty much every home owner's list?

3. Go back to school. I'd love to have my degree sooner rather than later, and I've finally paid enough down to actually apply again. As much as I like Wellesley, I obviously cannot go back there as someone who needs night classes. There are just not enough to fill all of the requirements, so I would have to go somewhere else. And well, I'm obviously meant to be a librarian, so finish up and go to library school, natch.

4. Really research opening my own ice cream store or truck, including getting whatever needs to happen done.

5. Umm, I guess if it were a truck, I'd also have to learn how to drive. Well, it is on the list. That time is sooner rather than later.

6. Buy more yarn. We'll ignore for the moment that I am still selling yarn, and have a large plastic bin full of yarn that I need to photograph and post for more yarn sale (and it includes Madeline Tosh).

7. Put some aside (and donate a lot). Well, most aside. If we've lived comfortably on our two salaries this long, I don't think there is any need to go overboard. Especially if we pay off our mortgage.

8. Buy a fancy cheese to celebrate. It is my husband's favorite food (or at least in the ultra short list), so it would be nice.

9. Go to Japan. It is on my vacation wish list, and I cannot remember the last away vacation we had together (Squam is wonderful, but that is me sans husband). I think the last one was a cruise we went on in 2009, which means it feels like forever ago.

10. Get a lawn service. Our neighbors' lawns look pretty good, but ours has shown our struggles to get it all done over the past few years. I am pretty sure that even a single season of a lawn service would be an excellent idea. But this, like my idea to have a cleaner in, is going to remain a happy fantasy.

What do you want to do with your mythical Powerball winnings?

I know what I like

There is something wonderful about buying from indie designers, local artisans, and small businesses. While I don't know the economics of it, but it makes me feel better. The products aren't necessarily cheaper, but you know the creators, can ask questions and get responses, and you know that you are directly making someone's life better.

Like this sock yarn. Ana of Toil and Trouble dyes yarn, and sells both finished pieces and patterns. This is her merino/nylon sock yarn in the Malificent colorway. I don't really remember if I met Ana during a Pints & Purls at Gather Here or if I first saw her tweets when they were retweeted by another maker I know, Liz. This sock yarn came home to me and has been marinating in my stash for a decent chunk of a year.

These socks are standard 60-stitch socks with a picot hem (my version of a fancy sock) with afterthought heels. You can sort of see the random single row of purply-red yarn marking the heel. With self-striping yarns, I like to knit them so that there is no pooling between of the heel and gusset, so I do afterthoughts and get this interesting circle of matching stripes. Though, these socks will still be fraternal. I'm not careful or picky enough to knit them so they start in exactly the same spot.

Ana is selling yarn this weekend as part of the North Shore Yarn Crawl. Of course, I live south of Boston and am car free, so while I don't get to enjoy the crawl, I do get to enjoy any yarn she doesn't sell when it makes it to Etsy (though I hope it all sells).

Buying yarn or bags (I bought a Pansy Maiden bag last year) is a great experience. When I bought my Pansy Maiden bag (I'm hoping to buy a bigger one later this year), I met the designer when I picked up my bag. Shopping local meant no shipping, which was great. I knew when buying the bag that I was helping put kibble and treats into Clementine's bowl, contributing to rent and additional materials for more bags, and maybe a nice dinner out with friends and family.

If you have a favorite local maker, please let me know. I am always interested in finding new interesting shops.