2015-Week 13 and 14

In weeks 13 and 14 of 2015 I embrace the energy of spring and start a bunch of stuff.

Packing my Bags

I literally packed my bags this week to take several short hikes around the neighborhood and surrounding parks. It's been nice getting back out and watching the trees go from bare to budding to full flower, hearing the birds and enjoying the sun, when its out. Indoors, I've been doing lots of cooking, yarn winding and organizing. I got in several orders of yarn for future sweaters, socks and birthday and holiday gifts.

This spring is bearing witness to the preparations for major change that is coming this summer; my daughter coming back from a year away at school and combining households with my significant other. I'm sorting through stuff, mental and physical, to decide what stays, what goes, what needs to find a different place to be and what I just need to accept. I'm looking at what things encourage my creativity, inspire me and promote healthy well-being and what is just holding me down or back or making me feel bad. Through all of this I'm still plugging away at my knitting projects. They, if nothing else, seem to keep me in balance.

First Steps

It seems like a lot of stuff, and it is but over the last two weeks I started the last of my March projects and several of my April Knit-A-Longs (KALs). I started the Sock Knitters Anonymous (SKA) March Mystery Sock in the Crave Yarn Summit in the Voice the Vision colorway, a deep rich teal and will be doing this for the SKA March MOCK challenge.

I cast on another simple BF sock, this one with blue stripes in the cuff and blue contrast heel toes. I'm going to try to get a better fit for this pair for his giant feet even if it means 4.5 inch heel flaps and miles of foot knitting because he's already wearing holes in the first pair I made him. I guess I should be flattered that he won't take the first pair off except to wash and put right back on but he's hard on his feet so I'm looking for a stronger yarn.

I started another mystery KAL, this one by Heidi Nick called "Enough Already, Mother Nature". I'm doing it out of some Knit Picks Stroll Tweed in Marine Heather colorway. This one triple  dips in Heidi's April KAL, SKA's April designer challenge, and is the feature April/May Mystery pattern in the Solid Sock group.

I'm also doing another sock for SKA's April theme challenge: food/drink that will also qualify for the Solid Sock April theme: Green. This one is called My Cup of Tea, and I'm knitting it out of Knit Picks Stroll Solids in Green Heather. I started this cast on but I already think I'm going to have to change needles and restart as its so big.

Next on the needles is a just for fun, gift project for my nephew Henry, a Tin Can Knits Flax sweater in Loops and Threads Impeccable Solids yarn in True Grey colorway.It's such a quick project, I finished the body and have stared on the first sleeve already. I'm knitting it in the 1-2 year size but he's a big boy so I'm not going to wait for his birthday or fall to send it to him in case it will be too snug. This will also help me gauge sizing the next few projects I want to make for him if my sister will give me feedback of the current and future fit. When I finish it I'm going to take as is and stretched measurements for comparison to photos and her feedback.

Finally, the last project I cast on is also my current favorite, a Captain America inspired shawl for the Tales of Suspense MKAL. I decided to use stash yarn and pulled out my KnitCircus Thrilling gradient skein in the Edge of Night colorway that goes from blue to grey and use up the last of the Abstract Fiber O'Keefe in Solid Red to get a very classic red and blue stars and stripes. I know the red will run out before I finish clue two but the designer indicated that solid will look good too so my will be a hybrid. The duration of this MKAL is timed to take us up to the release of the next Marvel movie so I'm really going to try to keep up with the clue releases so I can wear it to opening night. I know...I'm such a geek but I love it.

Along the Path 

In addition to all the new stuff I've started I'm also still working on all my March KAL projects and some older stuff too. Here is a round up of where I'm at with the stuff that's already in progress.

I'm still knitting on my Inconceivable socks from the Buttercups Hero's pattern that was part of the February/March Solid Sock Mystery. I'm doing both socks at the same time on separate dpns and have gotten through half of clue 2 on the cuff.

I added a few rows to the second Alohomora sock, from Sock Madness 9, round 1. Since I didn't finish in time, there is no pressure to finish this but I would like to wear the pair sometime this year so I'm continuing to work on it when I feel like it.

I've also been working hard on my Solar Flare Shawl for the Eco Chic MKAL. I'm still really loving this gradient yarn from The Unique Sheep and it feels like I should be getting further than I am since its surprisingly easy to memorize each new row repeat and there are only 9 of them. However, despite my progress I'm still woefully behind and still making my way through the rows above 58.

I ripped back to the beginning and started over on the Goddess Knits Anniversary MKAL Shawl because I found a mistake in the beginning of the pattern and it was faster to re-do it than to tink back and fix it.  I'm really happy with the pattern now and ready to start clue 2 when i get the time.

I pulled out my first shawl project, the Waterspout by Ana Dalvi, that I'm making for K and put on a few more rows. Also still making slow progress on the Guinevere Shawl for the March Mega-KAL monthly Shawl KAL.

Final Destination

Unfortunately, I haven't actually finished anything in the last two weeks. I was hoping to get the Flax sweater done but those little sleeves are deceptive. Maybe I'll have better luck in the next few weeks.

One Local Summer Week 10

In celebration of our first homegrown tomato and the bounty that is available here in Northern Virginia, K and I spend Monday evening washing, spinning, slicing, dicing, shredding, and throwing our very own local salad buffet party. Here is K holding the first of the Purple Russian tomato and one of the red bell peppers.

After harvesting the fresh tomato, bell pepper, spinach, chard, beet greens and nasturtium blossoms from the garden we pulled out the cucumber, green beans and peaches from our farm share and added the smoked ham and lettuce we got from the farmers market and the cheese that gets delivered, along with our milk, from South Mountain Creamery. Each got its own little bowl and once we sat down at the table we got to pick our own combination of fresh, local produce to make our party salad.

Here is what mine looked like.
And here is K adding the final touch to her creation: cheese, cheese, and mom can I have some more cheese?

Disclaimer: items pictured on this child's plate may or most likely may not have actually been eaten. This image has been provided to represent a sampling of likely edible objects. Each was tried, however not all passed the "I don't like it" test equally. The cheese, however, was delicious.

One Local Summer Week 6

This week its all about the pizza, made with local flour and covered with local toppings, of course. After finally making the time to read Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day I mixed up a batch of dough for last weeks Caramelized Onion Rolls and it was so successful that the book stayed out and the remaining dough went into the fridge. Leaving books on my crowded kitchen counter usually results in one of three things: food gets spilled on them, they get buried under other things that get left on the counter or they get used again in a moment of "I have too much raw food and no meal in mind...oh, I think I'll look in here".

And that's how I randomly flipped to the page on pizza dough and realized that, yes, I could use the same whole wheat dough I had for the rolls to make a pizza crust. I mixed up the next batch using the lite whole wheat this afternoon and now, more than 5 pizza experiments later I will say while that having the proper equipment results in a little less chaos and better looking pizzas, you can make it work with what ever is on hand and though it may be irregularly shaped it will still taste great. From the time I got the idea to make pizza (dough already in fridge) to the time we were sitting down to eat was 40 minutes; 20 minutes to warm the oven and baking stone while I prepped the ingredients and taught K how to grate cheese, 5 minutes to roll out dough and cover with prepared toppings, 8-10 minutes to cook pizza, and another 5 to let it cool and do a little bit of cleanup prior to cutting the slices and sitting down to a very satisfying meal.

The wheat flours for the crust all came from Wade's Mill, stored in the big containers in the fridge shot above. I don't have any local yeast sources yet so I buy it in bulk. I had a great big jar of Bigg Riggs pasta sauce that I needed only half of for a pasta dish I'm planning for tomorrow so I used the other half of it as the basis for all but this one, where I splurged on a container of their fresh pesto at yesterday's market and if you look closely you can just see the hint of green underneath all the toppings.
Speaking of the toppings, because I'm lactose intolerant you won't find the beautifully melted local mozzarella (it's really good but I just can't) orbs or specialty cheeses that are readily available at the farmers markets. But, for my daughters sake, who probably ate more cheese while grating it than was left to go on all the pizzas combined, I did use some of the Colby that I ordered with my milk delivery from South Mountain Creamery (more on that soon) and a little bit of imported Parmesan, because it bothers me less and I really like the flavor. On the first pizza I made (not pictured due to severe deformity) I used the leftover caramelized onions from the rolls and it was so good that made some more with onions from Potomac Vegetable Farms and added it on every subsequent pie. Other toppings included diced cherry tomato's from I forget where, fresh basil leaves from my porch, home-canned raw-packed sweet corn from last years farm share, shredded leftover chicken that came from a whole bird I roasted with a home devised spice rub and had picked up frozen from a local vendor at the Percelville farmers market a while back.

The best part was that when we sat down to eat my normally picky daughter,who only eats cheese on her slices as I've been informed numerous times, asked for a big slice and ate it right up, onions and all.

Yarn and Rhubarb

It was a rather blah looking, too hot, too humid day so I scraped my plans for a second day of hiking with the wee one and we cooked and relaxed instead. This gave me some time to put in some serious mileage on several long outstanding needlecraft projects, ironically they were all winter or cold-weather projects.

First, I got as far as I am going to until it gets cooler on a pair of fleece pants and matching jumper dress for K. The elastic is in the the waistband but I'll hold of on sewing it until the fall so that I can size it properly; no need to sew it in now and then rip it out and fix it later if she grew over the summer. The dress is also on hold needing only bias tape in the armholes and potentially a button up the back to get it over her big head, again if she keeps growing. Next, I got one step away from finished sewing new liners for some of my lined baskets...with X-mas prints on the accent band. Yeah, I know, but now I'm ahead of the game for next year. These are to replace the current fall liners that they came with. If I start now I should be able to finish spring themed ones in time for 2010. I'm also trying to pickup cross stitching again, but I only have the yarns that came with my little how to book so I'm pretty limited in what I can make right now. I'm hoping to add some detail to K's cloths and also lettering on the basket liners.

Then I got in a few more rows of my crochet sampler stitch scarf in a variegated 'fiesta jewel' Red Heart yarn, that is turning out to be much better than I anticipated. I think that I might actually want to keep this one for me instead of donating it to the K dress up bin. That's pretty good considering that I only taught myself crochet a few weeks ago and this is my first crochet project. Last, but not least, I finally knit over the one third mark on Mom's X-mas scarf. I turned on Batman Begins and just dug in while K was napping and got another 6 inches which pushed me up over 1/3 of my intended final length. This is a nice washable wool in a deep heather blue with creamy white stripes at the tip. If I can figure out how, I'm also still considering adding pockets on the end but that depends on if I can get this done before next X-mas.

This evening K was a great helper in the kitchen. She rolled out her own pizza dough and picked the orange cheese while I formed the rest and topped them with feta, zucchini and pizza sauce with sweet peppers and onions. She washed strawberries while I cut the rhubarb. She mixed dry ingredients for muffins while I mixed them for cobbler biscuits. She dumped flour on the floor and all over her front while I chopped the strawberries and mixed them with the rhubarb and sugar. She cleaned up while I melted butter and poured the wet stuff for the muffins. She stirred the wet stuff while I mixed and kneaded the biscuit dough. She put muffin papers in the tin while I mixed up rhubarb into the batter and she held the tray as I spooned it in. She generously piled the tops with the cinnamon sugar and I put them in the oven. As I cut the biscuits and assembled the strawberry-rhubarb cobbler, she washed up and took her pizza to the table. She refused to eat said pizza but was nice about it and asked for a muffin instead. We both enjoyed the muffins, though she ate mostly just the tops, and are looking forward to cobbler with ice cream for dessert.

Starting the Seeds

After explaining to my dd why mom was buying a huge shelf and moving her easel and the junk in the corner so that could be assembled, why mom was buying soil, and why we were cleaning the porch and setting up pots and planters in the freezing cold of February it was inevitable that she would want to plant seeds right now! Of course my seeds weren't here yet, I didn't have anything set up and the thought of mixing soil on a freezing blustery week vs. mixing it in my living room just to make her happy meant that we had lots of "talks" about patients and planning and the speed of the postal service. I finally made a trip to home depot to pick up more soil, a few seed packets, a few flats and plant markers and I spread out one of our waterproof mats and let K make multiple trips to the bathroom to fill her water canister so that she could water the soil pellets and watch them expand. This made her happy but it still wasn't enough.I only placed my seed orders last week and it was my own fault for introducing something before I was ready to have her involved in it but to a certain extent it was unavoidable as her curiosity would have led her to insist on answers only shortly after everything began to be set up.

Early this morning as she was about to start her whining to go somewhere and spend money on something to do we bundled up and headed outside with our garden gloves on to add soil to the 2 new self-watering planters and get them ready for the peas, leeks, spinach and kale. Next, inspired by this video from Finegardening.com , we emptied the existing soil from my terra cotta strawberry jar, drilled drain holes in 3 12" lengths of capped 1/2" PVC pipe and placed them back in the jar with the capped end down to encourage better water distribution so that this year I don't kill the herbs in the middle rows from lack of water. It felt good to get our gloves dirty

Later this morning the first half of my seeds arrived in the mail and as we walked to the mail room to go pick them up K's excitement grew. She couldn't wait to plant. First we pulled out the waterproof mat again and then I pulled down the smallest seed tray. She helped me open up the tops of the now fully expanded and moist soil disks and fluff up the top layer then she picked the seeds out of my hand and placed them in the designated spots. She did this so well, even the tiny thyme seeds. Lastly I placed the labels and moved the flat up to the dark shelf above her reach. Next we prepared the cheap strawberry all-in-one kit by filling the container with its baggie of soil and sprinkling the very few seeds that it came with. This went on the windowsill in front of the shelf. Now my herbs and strawberries are started and as soon as the rest of my seeds come I'll start the majority of my veggies indoors and a few of the cold hardy will go right into the planters. Were expecting snow showers over the next few days so it will probably be mid-week before anything more gets done.

Here is what I have ordered.
From Baker Creek Heritage Seeds:

• Painted Lady Runner Beans (out of stock)
• Blue Podded Peas (out of stock)
• Sugar Snap Peas
• State Half Runner Beans
• Red Mini Bell Peppers
• Sweet Yellow Stuffing Peppers (mini)
• Lemon Cucumber
• Yellow of Parma Onions
• Bleu of Solais Leeks
• Dwarf Siberian Kale
• Puple Russian Tomato
• Kabloona Calendulas
• Sensation Mix Cosmos
• Mexican Mint Marigolds (out of stock)
• Dearf Jewel Mix Nasturtiums
• Lilliput Mix Zennias

From Southern Exposure Seed Exchange:

• Sweet Genovese Basil
• Chives
• Long Standing Cilantro/Coriander
• Cumin
• Greek Oregano
• Summer Thyme
• Sage
• Jacob's Cattle (Trout) Bush Bean
• Small Garden Sampler Garlic Mix-For delivery in the fall
• Spring Mescalin Mix of 6 different lettuce/greens/spinach
• Summer Mescalin Mix of 5 different lettuce/greens

From Bountiful Gardens:

• Anasazi Bush Beans
• Good Mother Stalllard Beans
• Scarlet Emperor Bean
• Forono Beet
• Early Market Carrott
• Rainbow Mix Chard
• Tokinashi All Seasons Diakon Radish
• Orange Jelly Turnips
• Austrian Field Peas (for drying and green mulch)

Came with the Burpee Seed Starter Kit (haven't decided if I will grow these):

• Carnival Hybrid Mix Sweet Pepper
• Genovese Basil
• Blue Lake 47 Bush Bean
• Mediterranean Oregano
• Steak Sandwich Hybrid Tomato
• Fordhook Zucchini
• Straight Eight Cucumber
• Touchon Carrots

Came free with my Cooks Garden supply order:

• Sweet Salad Mix Mesclun

And a stray Ferry Morse packet of Evergreen Bunching Onion picked up at Home Depot

Movie Time

One of the treats that we got on our trip to the Co-Op was good old-fashioned popping corn. I'm a sucker for kettle corn and spent way too much on it last year since they cooked it fresh at the Farm and nothing beats the sweet-salty taste after a long morning of harvesting. But the next best thing to kettle corn is fresh popped corn. I've gotten tired of the artificially buttered packets that you nuke and almost always burn or are left with half of the kernals unpopped. So I splurged and got a large bag of multicolored popping corn kernals from the bulk bins. When we got home I got out my biggest pot and pored in a few handfulls with just a little canola oil and got to shaking. In no time at all it started popping and I began to wonder if I should have started with just one handful, as it seemed to be filling up the pot rather fast. The jiggling kept the popped corn rising and the unpopped kernals would fall to the bottom. Going by instinct I took it off the heat and let it sit for a few while I melted some the creamery butter. I thought it was delicious and K agreed. Amazingly not a single one was burnt and only two kernals were left unpopped.