Lorette

Give Us This Day…

The Daily Bread

Here’s the bread that I came up with yesterday.

And here’s the recipe, such as it is. You’re on your own as to the details. I mix this up in the bread machine on the dough setting, then make a free-form loaf and bake it in the oven directly on a baking stone.

I’ve discovered that there is a lot of flexibility in a bread recipe. I basically start with a formula of 3 cups of flour and 1 cup of water, and improvise from there. My bread machine is a Zojirushi, and they don’t make the particular model I have any longer. It makes a 1 1/2 pound loaf, so if yours is smaller, you’ll need to modify the amounts accordingly. My machine calls for adding the liquids in the bottom, then the dry ingredients, and the yeast on the top.

I use King Arthur flours, and keep everything except the unbleached white in the freezer. I use that up fast enough that I don’t worry about it. The yeast I use is SAF-Instant brand, and I buy it in bulk and store it in a tin in the refrigerator. The added gluten flour gives you more of a rise out of your flour. I use it if I’m adding whole wheat or rye flour, about a Tbl of gluten flour for each cup of ww or rye that I’m using. If you’re going to bake the bread directly in the bread machine, watch it with the gluten flour; it gives the bread a nice oven spring, and you might overflow the pan! If you take a look at that loaf in the bread pan, it never would have made it through the machine cooking cycle.

2 cups KA unbleached white flour
1 cup KA pumpernickel flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tbl gluten flour
1 Tbl olive oil
2 Tbl honey
1 cup water
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 cup seed/grain mix, soaked in just enough hot water to cover

More flour or water as needed

Put the ingredients in the bread machine according to your machine’s instructions. Let the seeds/hot water stuff cool a bit before adding. You can use a commercial cereal mix, or mix your own (wheat flakes, oats, a variety of seeds, polenta, bulghur wheat, etc.). I mix up a plastic container full and keep it in the freezer.

Once your bread machine starts, open the lid and play around with adding more flour/water as needed. You want a ball of dough that is floury enough to stick together, not too wet, but not too floury either. With experience, you’ll figure out how much to add. Remember that after you add more flour, it might take a bit before it absorbs the liquid, especially if you’re using ww or rye flours. If you add too much flour, you’ll get a leaden ball that feels more like a brick. After the machine is finished with the dough cycle, take it out, knead a bit to get a feel for the dough, add more flour if it’s sticky. Form your loaf, either in a pan or on a board, let it rise again until almost double. I sprinkled this one with poppy seeds, then slashed the top right before popping it in the oven. I beat an egg white and brush a little of it on the top so the seeds stick before I do the sprinkling.

I keep a baking stone in my oven, and preheat for at least 30 minutes so the stone is evenly heated. This one I started at 400 degrees, but this is a bit flexible as well. My oven runs cool, so you might try 375. Watch the bread, if it’s looking like it’s getting too brown on the outside but not done in the middle, turn the oven down, or cover your bread with a piece of foil. I start checking the bread at about 20-30 minutes, and use an instant thermometer to tell when it’s done. Stick it in the middle, when it reads somewhere around 190 degrees, you’re there. Your bread should also sound hollow when you pick it up out of the oven and tap on the bottom.

I also use a spray bottle and shoot a little water in the oven towards the oven walls every few minutes during the first 5-8 minutes or so to create steam. This gives it a nicer crust, but mostly makes me feel like Julia Child. If you have an oven light, don’t spray right on the bulb, the cool water could break it. Julia would never do that.

When it’s done, take it out, put it on a rack, and admire it. But restrain yourself from cutting into it until it’s cool, or nearly so. Bread, like a roast, cooks more when you take it out of the oven. If you cut into it right away, you’ll get an unsatisfying texture, more gummy than not. And remember that homemade bread doesn’t keep as well as store bought. This is usually not a problem around my house!

This is a great resource for bread bakers, and has a lot of other cooking tips as well. My favorite bread book is this one. Peter Reinhart’s books are also lovely, though not about bread machine baking. Yesterday’s bread was from one of his books, and is his Struan bread, one of my all time favorites. Here’s a link to the recipe.

This link tells you a little bit about adding other stuff to your bread, and what you might expect when you do so.

I’ll now return you to your regular knitblogging programming.

Been There, Done That…

…Bought The T-Shirt!

The theme this year was the changing face of bluegrass, and as such, included a few artists that stretched the definition a bit. Some of it didn’t work for me, most did, as usual. I’ll listen to it all, though my favorite is still traditional Appalachian style old-timey music. There wasn’t much of that this year. Uncle Earl was as close as it got, and they were every bit as good as they were last year.

Other favorites? Crooked Still, with a great lead singer and a cello player (yes, cello!) that will knock your socks off. All the girls seem to like him, too. There was a lot of girly screaming every time he played a solo. Blue Highway, playing more straight-up bluegrass, and with one of the best dobro guys around, Rob Ickes. John Cowan, Darrell Scott, and Pat Flynn, each a great musician, and together they were dynamite. Cowan’s voice will send chills up your spine. The Infamous Stringdusters are a great bluegrass jam band. Mike Dowling is a wonderful acoustic roots-blues guitarist, and was one of my favorites of the festival. Doyle Lawson and his band were polished, as usual.

My personal favorite? This one was a surprise to me. Mike Marshall has never been one of my favorite performers. He plays mandolin, and is one of the best in the business, but his music tends to run a bit experimental for my taste. This time out, he performed with Hamilton de Holanda, a Brazilian bandolim virtuoso. Their music is astounding. I don’t buy many albums any more, as I can listen to pretty much anything I want on Rhapsody, but these two were good enough to warrant buying the CD. Mike also did a solo performance on Sunday of Bach’s Chaconne (yes, Bach on a mandolin) that was terrific.

The festival also provided many hours of uninterrupted knitting time. I saw a couple of other knitters there this year, including Leah, who is knitting Rogue. She was also knitting it in a dark purply yarn, in near dark. I was having trouble just managing socks in stockinette. I didn’t take any photos at the festival; after I lost my binoculars a couple of years ago at Wintergrass, I try not to take anything that might tempt another thief. (You’d think bluegrass fans wouldn’t be pickpockets, but there you have it.)

And the socks, you ask? How much sock can I knit over a four day festival? (Actually, two evenings, Saturday afternoon and evening, and all day Sunday.) I started on Thursday evening just past the gusset on the first sock. Here’s where I finished Sunday night.

Can’t tell from that photo? Here’s another:

I also have been working on the mystery baby project, using some of my closely guarded Cotton Ease stash. I still can’t show a real picture, or it wouldn’t be much of a surprise, now, would it. Here’s a hint:

By the way, Cotton Ease is back on the market, with newer, better colors. Once I use up the stash I have, I might just have to buy more. (Who am I kidding, I probably won’t wait that long!)

And just to tempt your taste buds, here’s the bread I made earlier this week.

It’s white-bread, but with cooked brown rice, polenta, and enough wheat bran to give it a nice chewy texture. It’s already gone, so I need to go make more. I make my bread in the bread machine, but generally bake it in the oven. I’ve finally gotten to the point where I don’t need much of a recipe; I just start with the right proportions of flour and water, then add the other ingredients according to whim. Yum, now I’m hungry.

Oh, and in case you can’t find it, here’s a link to Wintergrass. Yes, I already have my tickets for next year. Did you really need to ask?

February….

It’s been a loony, busy week around here. As is usual for a work week, I didn’t get much else done. Now that the work week is over, it’s time for a little fun. First was Mardi Gras, Knitting Doctor style. We had Fat Tuesday at our house with a couple of neighbors. We made homemade chicken and andouille sausage gumbo and cornbread for supper, then played a competitive game of dominos to top off the evening. This photo is to prove that I can play Mexican Train and knit socks at the same time.

Note the lovely jewelry that I am wearing in that photo.

There aren’t many other knitting photos in this post, so if that’s all you came for, you might want to look away now.

Here’s a shot I got of Will this morning. He stared intently out that window for over an hour, at exactly the same spot. I finally got up to see what he was looking at, which of course was nothing. He turned and gave me that “see, I made you get up and look, all humans are helpless against my superior powers” look that only cats have.

And now, because I know you all are wondering what the title of this post has to do with anything, other than that I am at least partially oriented:

February is indeed my favorite month. It’s time again for Tacoma’s bluegrass festival, Wintergrass. It started last night, continues tonight, and all day Saturday and Sunday. I have my sock knitting ready, and a backup plan in the unlikely event that I finish these (this is only the first of the pair). I don’t plan on missing a note.

More Sunsets, Knitting Update

Here are more vacation photos. See the previous few posts for details of where we were, in case you haven’t been hanging on every word that I post.

Yet another sunset from our condo. In weeding through the photos, it appears that we took at least 50 sunset photos from our balcony on the various evenings that we were there at sunset. Thank heavens for digital, is all I can say.

We did make it out to Catalina Island. I had that silly song in my head for the whole trip, by the way. We took the Catalina Flyer over, and spent the whole day, taking a bus trip inland to check the place out.

Here’s the bus:

And more beach/knitting shots.

We stopped at the Wrigley ranch for refreshments part-way through the tour. I took a knitting break with this fine fellow.

There were cute horses, and a cute real cowboy.

There were buffalo:

And the ferry ride back to the mainland, at yet another sunset.

We met our Germany friends for breakfast Sunday morning before we took off for home. We discovered the Crystal Cove Beach Cottages during our trip. This was a thriving beach community from the 1930’s to the 1950’s, and subsequently fell into disrepair. It has been turned into a historic district and is slowly being restored as rental cottages. The restaurant on the property, the Beachcomber, is just a hoot. I want their martini flag for our dock. We didn’t get any photos, as it was drizzly that morning, but someday intend to go back there for a vacation.

On to knitting. I worked on the Laurel Hill sweater during the trip, and finished both the front and back. Now it’s on to Sleeve Island, nothing like Catalina Island, I’m sure. Maybe playing that song would make it go faster. Then again, maybe not.

I also got quite a bit done on the first of the Solar Energy socks. I wasn’t quite certain that I liked this color once I started knitting, but it’s growing on me. It’s striping in a rather interesting fashion.

It’s actually not quite that…yellow. It’s more maize and khaki, with light purple and orange in the stripey part. I’ll try to get the color better with the next, hopefully daylight, photo.

I’m also still working on a lace project, but it’s gotten to that point where it just can’t be photographed without looking like a blob. The last photo I took of the Forest Canopy shawl was way back in September. It’s bigger than that now, but too big to spread out and get a decent photo. You’ll just have to wait.

This week is a work week, so stay tuned for another post. Who knows if I’ll get any knitting, or posting, done this week. All I have to say, is that it’s cocktail hour here, with or without the martini flag.

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An addendum: One of my new favorite knitting blogs: TECHknitting; check it out!

Trains, Planes, and Knitting

We’re back from the Great California Train trip of 2007, and boy, do I have pictures. The trip was a blast, and I’d definitely do Amtrak again. We took the Coast Starlight from Tacoma to Los Angeles, then drove to Newport Beach, where we had a condo a little ways from the water. We flew home yesterday, and I finally sort of have my act together to post a few photos. We booked a “roomette” for the trip, which is two seats facing each other in a compartment that has a big window and a sliding door to the train corridor. At night, the two seats fold down for a single bed, and a bunk folds down from above for the second bed. We slept in this type of room the last time we were on Amtrak several years ago, and it is cramped but better than sleeping sitting up in a chair. The bathroom and shower are down the hall, and shared.

After we got on the train, we asked about upgrading to a larger compartment. Just as a tip, if you do this, you are definitely risking that there won’t be a larger room available, especially during the busier travel seasons, but they quite frequently will upgrade you for much less than you would pay by booking it directly. Fortunately, they had one “luxury” compartment available all the way to LA, and we were first to ask. These rooms still have bunk beds, but the compartment is about twice the size, and has a bathroom/shower combo that is just barely big enough to stand up in and turn around to rinse off. It works, though. Here’s the train pulling in to the Tacoma station:

The Coast Starlight route goes by the water through Tacoma, then cuts inland for awhile until you get into California. Much of the route through CA goes right by the water. Here’s a view of both the new and old Tacoma Narrows Bridges. The one on the left is the new one, in the process of being built.

Here I am, settling in to the compartment for the long trip.

Of course, Sweetpea got to go along. That’s John in the mirror of our compartment.

I did a little knitting in the observation car, along the coast.

The “first class” compartments (the cars with the sleepers) normally have a separate parlor car, which is supposedly pretty fancy, but they are all offline for renovation. We’ll just have to plan another trip, I guess. They do have wine tasting on this route, every afternoon, for the “sleeper people”. Here we are enjoying a glass.

All your meals are included when you book a sleeper. You get to share the table with another couple while you are eating, so we met some interesting people on the route. The Coast Starlight is notorious for being late, but it seems to be getting better. We were only about 90 minutes late getting into LA, but as this was strictly a pleasure jaunt, the time issue didn’t bother us.

Here’s a photo of the first sunset from the balcony of our condo.

Our first lunch was at the Crab Cooker, which is sort of an institution in Newport. Fortunately, it wasn’t very busy when we were there.

We met up with friends from Germany that just happened to be in Newport on family business. It was purely coincidence, and we only found out that they were going to be there a week before we left home. Strange, indeed. They spent one night at our condo, and we had a couple of lunches together as well. We played a killer game of Mexican Train the night they stayed with us. Here’s me concentrating.

I still lost. And don’t let that water bottle worry you. The bourbon glass just didn’t make it into the photo.

Guess where we ate?

Mmmmm. Two double-doubles, with cheese, and chocolate shakes. Worth the whole train trip, right there.

We walked on the beach:

We took a boat tour of the Newport Harbor:

…With our friends from Germany:

We saw more sunsets, this one on Laguna Beach:

I’ll post the rest of the pictures later this week when I get them sorted out. There might also be a knitting update photo or two! How exciting!

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In even more exciting news, my friend Kris, the Knitting Wannabe, and her husband Dana have opened up an online yarn shop, Sonny and Shear.

Go, shop! I am on this crazy yarn fast, and can’t shop again until the 15th, but I’ve got my credit card number memorized and I’m ready. Buy enough yarn to keep her in business. I am overjoyed to no end to have a friend who owns a real yarn shop. I need to get a sign that says “will work for yarn”.

26 Miles…

Romance, Romance, Romance, Romance

I couldn’t resist…

**see the previous post, if this makes absolutely NO sense to you. Just so that song is stuck in your head, like it’s in mine!

Excuses, Excuses

Ahem. To explain further what happened in the previous post.

There were martinis involved. And wine. Then I decided to cast on for a new sock. I picked out a set of Brittany Birch double points, size 2.00 mm, and did a Twisted German cast on. If you’ve ever used this, you know it’s a bit fiddly by itself. The first row after the cast on is even fiddlier. I started a cuff with 2 by 2 ribbing, and got all the way to the end of the round. Damn, I was off by 2 stitches. I went back and counted. I had counted right, it was just that somewhere along the line I threw in a 4 by 2 section. I ripped it out, started over. Got the cast on done, struggled through the first round, and was off again. I’d counted wrong that time. 3rd try. Cast on the right number, did the rib correctly, snapped the damn birch needle while finishing the last needle’s worth of stitches. There you have it. That yarn is just seriously lucky that the whole mess didn’t get pitched into the fireplace.

The good news is that Brittany has a needle replacement policy. They don’t say anything on their website about exclusions for vodka-soaked knitting accidents, so I went ahead and emailed them. We’ll see if they send me a new one.

The other good news? I got the sock off and running yesterday. I threw in the towel on the Twisted German cast on and ribbing, and did a plain long tail cast on and a picot cuff. I definitely would not recommend doing that really fiddly hemming row while drinking. I was stone sober when I did this:

You might also notice that I changed to much less breakable Pony Pearls for the remainder of the sock. This yarn is a little bit lighter than some fingering weight sock yarn, and I’ll need to do the whole thing on the 2 mm size. I just didn’t have the heart to subject any more Brittany needles to alcohol abuse.

Thanks for all the comments on the double-ended stitch markers, by the way. I’m working on a new-and-improved version, and will post a tutorial on how to make these at some point later this month.

I’m leaving on another little jaunt tomorrow, for a week. We are using a week of our timeshare in Newport Beach, California. As an aside, ever since my husband mentioned that Santa Catalina Island is off the coast of CA near there, that song has been running through my head. You know the one, well, at least you do if you’re as old as I am. You know, “26 miles across the sea, Santa Catalina is a-waitin’ for me. Santa Catalina, the island of romance, romance, romance, romance.”

The really fun thing is that we’re taking the train from here to there. We get on the Coast Starlight (incidentally, the Amtrak line with the worst on-time record) tomorrow AM, and get to LA late Saturday night. You know what that means, don’t you?

Two (maybe three!) whole days of completely uninterrupted knitting time! We’re taking the laptop along, so if we have wireless access while we’re gone, I’ll post, but otherwise I’ll see you all in a week.

Excuse me, I need to go pack my knitting. And the martini shaker. They don’t say anything about not being able to take one on the train.

Martinis and Knitting

Or, A Cautionary Tale, shown in photos.

The End.

*martini by John, mixologist

New Socks! New Yarn! Madrona!

First, the new socks. I finished the hot pink babies earlier this afternoon, and here they are.

Note Lucy’s feigned indifference. Here’s another photo:

Specifications:

Yarn: Socks That Rock , lightweight, in Hotflash.
Pattern: basic top down, 2 by 2 ribbed cuff, stocking stitch, heel flap, etc. Nothing fancy, but it works. I use a Twisted German cast on, just because I like how it looks.
Needles: Ivore, 2mm for the cuff, 2.25mm for the rest.
Started: A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away. (Sometime in October, for crying out loud.)
Finished: Today.
What I learned: I’m still not bored by a plain vanilla sock pattern. I have tons of sock patterns, and don’t ever use them. Every time I start a new pair of socks, I look through them all, and end up making one just like this. Socks are my carry-around-to-knit-in-public project, and the thing I pick up when I only have time for two stitches and nothing more. You can gauge how busy my life has been by how long it takes me to complete the socks. It’s been a busy few months for me.

Here are two photos to show you my latest stitch marker invention. I’m always on the lookout for ways to keep track of gusset and toe decreases (I don’t use stitch markers for socks except for those parts). I used to use two markers of different colors linked together, but came up with this:

It’s a two-colored double-ended stitch marker! When I get to the beginning of the round, I turn the marker upside down. If the top bead is red, that means that the round I’m working needs decreases. If it’s green, I just knit around straight. Very ingenious, if I do say so myself.

What’s next on the sock knitting agenda? I just reached into the bag* and came up with this:

It’s Dicentra Designs, in Solar Energy. In real life it looks more orange and purple. Because you can’t have too many orange and purple socks. This looks to be a bit finer weight than the STR, I am even contemplating trying it on 2mm needles. Guess what pattern I’ll be using? Yup, same thing. I’m not even looking through that stack over there. For a change I’ll use a different brand of needles, so I don’t get bored.

Last but not least, Madrona. I went again for a few hours on Saturday, to knit and shop. I used my “free” yarn day** and bought some lovely things. I also met up with some lovely knitters in the lobby and had a little knit-in. Let’s see; Stephanie, Kris, Ryan and TMK, Rebecca, Saralyn. I think that’s all the blog-people. There were many other apparently blogless people there knitting, and one guy who sat there all afternoon with his laptop. I never did figure him out. He wasn’t knitting, he didn’t look at all interested in picking up knitters, maybe he just randomly picked the Sheraton to hang out.

Now, I know what you really want to see. The yarn. It’s all about the yarn. When I cave and go shopping, I don’t screw around. Looky here.

The whole yarn pile:

What’s in that mix, you ask? First up, some Sea Silk. I’ve been coveting that yarn forever, but wasn’t about to pay that price without being able to touch the stuff. One touch, it was in my shopping bag. There are many more colors that are flashier, but this cream stuff just makes my mouth water. It’s the color of English clotted cream.

The color in the second picture is more like the real thing. This will be a lace shawl someday.

That’s Blue Moon Fiber Arts Bambu, in Henpecked. For a lacy stole.

More BMFA, this time Seduction sock yarn, in Downpour. This is a simply divine merino/tencel blend. I wasn’t the only one that got sucked in at the BMFA stand, by the way. It was nearly a stampede.

This is more sock yarn, because as we all know, sock yarn doesn’t count. This is Monarch merino sport weight, in Red Hat. More purple.

Don’t any of you dare email my husband and tell him how much all this cost. As far as he knows, yarn is yarn, Sea Silk and Encore are interchangeable. Let’s keep it that way, eh? Can I count on you?

It’s martini time again! Until next time…

*Okay, okay, the sock stash isn’t in a bag, it’s a whole stinking closet. You know what I mean.

** Free Yarn Day, from YFC. Link is above.

Laundry Day

This is what sock laundry day looks like at my house:

For the record, I do my socks in the washer. I throw them in on the delicate cycle, and they mostly do OK. Our washer and dryer are on their last go-around, and I’ve told my spouse that I don’t care about any other features for a new one, it has to have a handknit cycle.

I went to Madrona last night to hear the Yarn Harlot (do I really need to link to her?) speak about charity knitting. Of course I took my charity knitting:

Yes Kris, those are different needles than I started it on. I got about 5 inches done last night, got home, decided the fabric was much too stiff, ripped out, started over. Repeat as necessary. The yarn is Beaverslide Dry Goods, their 2 ply fisherman weight 100% wool yarn. The color is Alpine Fir. I have a bunch of lone skeins of worsted and heavy worsted weight yarn in the stash that is perfect for Dulaan hats, mittens, and scarves. This will be a scarf.

We had dinner at a little Thai restaurant just up the street from the convention center. The place was packed with knitters, most of them knitting. There was a line waiting for tables, most of them knitting. I can’t imagine what the people that run that place must have thought. In my ideal alternate universe, this is what every restaurant would look like. Of course I forgot my camera. I sat beside Fiona Ellis at the knitting bee, and she was wearing that lovely cabled hoodie, Celtic Icon*, from her book, Inspired Cable Knits. I wanted to steal it. I didn’t think she’d want to trade for the 5 inches of ribbed scarf I had on the needles, so I kept my mouth shut, and just sat there and envied it. Once again, no photos, as the camera was at home.

Tonight she is talking at a free session about the Knitter’s Muse. Unfortunately, for some reason that escapes me**, I signed up for an extra work shift, so I can’t go. I’m going tomorrow just to sit in the lobby of the Sheraton and knit with all the other people that didn’t get around to signing up for classes. Come on out and join us if you’re in the neighborhood!

*Does anybody else think that this sweater would look better just in one color? Even with the subtler color scheme used in the book, I think I’d like it better in all one color.

**Oh yeah, my husband reminds me that it’s to pay down the yarn debt. Now I remember.

TBR: 1 Down, 11 To Go

I finished the first book in the TBR list that I came up with a few posts ago. I’ve decided to do “book reports” to keep a record of what I’ve read, as well as my thoughts on the individual books. If you’re interested in a knitting post, check back next time. It will just be more pink knitting, anyway.

All Souls’ Rising, by Madison Smartt Bell, is the first of a trilogy of novels about the slave revolt in Haiti in the 1790’s. I found this to be a difficult read, for a number of reasons. First, it deals with a period of history that I knew little or nothing about. The book just jumps into the story, without a lot of expository passages to tell you what’s been going on. In Bell’s defense, he includes a chronology in the back of the book, but for those of us not familiar with this event, it involves a lot of flipping back and forth. The story takes place at the time of the French Revolution. Haiti was a French colony at the time, and slavery was a central part of the economy. From the accounts in the book, it was also an extremely barbaric place. The revolutionary fervor spread to the colony of Haiti, and ultimately led to an uprising of all people of color on the island, slaves and free mulattos alike. The history is rather convoluted, and even after finishing the first book in the series, I’m not entirely clear as to all the events that took place. I’m also unfamiliar enough with the history to know how much of the book is factual, and how much fictional license Bell took with the story. This article clears up some of the historical confusion, and will be very helpful in keeping up with the narrative.

The other difficulty I had with the book is the level of violence. There are some horrific passages describing both the actions of the rebellious slaves as well as the colonial planters and how they treated their slaves. At times I had to set this book aside for a few days, and I’m not really a wimp when it comes to blood and gore in books or movies. Having made it through the first volume, I’d have to say that his portrayal of the violence is probably necessary, as it really is an essential part of the story line.

A third thing that was more of an annoyance and a personal preference than a “difficulty” was Bell’s use of foreign phrases. He uses both French and Creole terms fairly liberally throughout the book. There is a “Devil’s Dictionary” in the back, but again, it involves some annoying flipping around to define terms in the text. A lot of the French passages aren’t translated, which frustrates me in general.

Having said all that, I would recommend this book. It’s generally well-written, and the characters are interesting. Toussaint, the slave who ultimately becomes the leader of the revolt, was probably the character who seemed the most wooden to me, especially early on in the book. His character reads more like a legend (which he was) than a real flesh-and-blood human.

Another slave, Riau, was far more riveting. He seems to be a more sincere character, if rarely likeable. The charactor of Antoine Hebert, the French doctor caught up in the events of the revolution, was my favorite. He travels to Haiti, right as the slave revolt is beginning, to straighten out the affairs of his deceased plantation-owner brother-in-law. He also is on a mission to find his sister, who has disappeared from the plantation with her young child.

The first volume in the trilogy ends during the summer of 1793, when the town of Le Cap is looted and burned by the slave rebels. I am interested enough in the fictional characters in the first volume to have already started the second in the series, “Master Of The Crossroads”. My “one-a-month” reading plan is probably going to get off track fairly quickly. Not only is this one a three-volume series, but the next on my list is “Niccolo Rising“, the first volume in an 8-volume series, “The House Of Niccolo”, by Dorothy Dunnett. While I’ll certainly get 12 books read this year (historically I read many more than that in a year!), it may not end up being the 12 from the list.

Next time: pink knitting, maybe some not-pink knitting, Madrona, and knitting in public!

Sunbreak

Just a quick post to show my “Tuesday Sky”. What a difference from the photo yesterday.

Yes, that’s the same lake. With sunshine. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t rain all the time in the Pacific Northwest. It’s actually not the rain that gets to you, it’s the gloomy, gray skies, day after day, all winter. Every once in awhile we get one of these (the weather guy calls them “sunbreaks”), and it tides us over through another month of gray days. I have a feeling that this particular sunbreak isn’t going to last long, as the sky is mostly clouds, but I can enjoy it while it lasts.

So what am I going to do with that glorious sun? Well, it’s still only in the low 40’s outside, so I might just look at it from the comfort of my knitting chair. This is one of my “off” weeks in my work schedule, so I plan on getting lots of knitting done. I might even get dressed at some point today.

Pink Knitting

First, I joined Rebakah’s Yarn Focus Challenge again this year. That’s what the newest ticker is all about up there. So far, so good, though Madrona is this weekend, so I’m betting that one of my “free” days gets used up.

In pink knitting, I’m still working on those pink STR socks. The last few months have been sort of hopeless on the knitting front around here. I’ve made it to my “weekly” knitting night maybe twice, and haven’t started (or finished!) a project in ages. I made a bit of progress on these last night while catching up on Desperate Housewives and Battlestar Galactica.

A few more episodes worth of knitting, is what I’d guess. What we need around here is a good bluegrass festival, with lots of knitting time. (Guess what’s coming up, soon!)

And more pink:

That’s Cotton Ease, from the stash. It’s a swatch, in case you hadn’t guessed. I can’t tell you what it’s for, as it’s for a baby-on-the-way*, and her mom occasionally reads the blog. All I have to say is that they better be right about it being a girl. And that color is pretty accurate. It really is that shade of pink.

Here’s something I found on the camera that’s most decidedly not pink.

That’s Will. Isn’t he a handsome boy? Though I think he looks a little grumpy there, I must have woke him up for the photo.

Last but not least, my Monday Sky. I’ve missed Saturday Sky countless times, and usually don’t think about it until I’m making the blog rounds and see everybody else’s pictures. Yes, it really is that gloomy around here today.

I prefer to think of that as five days early, not two days late.

*See previous post. This is the Mystery Knitting Project For Baby Riley. Hereafter known as MKPFBR. Angie, I hope you like Pepto Pink!

Blog Update, Finally

We’re back from Arizona, just in time for more rain, snow, and ice. Ick. I am just ready for some nice weather. I’d even take some not-so-nice weather, as long as the ice was gone from my driveway.

The trip was lovely. It was warm and sunny in Phoenix, and we celebrated all the missed holidays in style. The first photo sort of sums up the week: wine, dominos, and knitting.

There was some serious Mexican Train competition that went on all week. We paused long enough to have a baby shower for my niece, Angie, who is due to give birth in April.

Note that there was bourbon involved. Now that’s my kind of baby shower. She is having a girl, and is naming her, and I’m not kidding about this, Riley. They swear that they’re not naming her after my dog. No matter, Riley the dog is quite excited about it.

Don’t let that photo fool you. She really is pretty excited.

To sum up the week since we got back: I worked all week, didn’t knit much. We got iced and snowed in (it doesn’t take much around here), and John drove to Kansas to help a friend move there. They drove a van there with all her belongings, then he flew back, getting sidetracked by weather and not arriving until 1:20 AM. After working a 15 hour day on Monday, I drove to the airport at midnight to get him. Tuesday I woke up with a cold. I hate being sick. That about covers it.

I also have a candidate for Customer Service Award for 2007. Sometime last year (I think it was in the early summer) I bought a knitting bag from Jordana Paige. It’s a lovely little thing, and I used it for a couple of months, until the metal ball clasp broke off the top of the bag. It sat around in my pantry for the past three or four months, and I finally got tired of tripping over it. I wasn’t sure that she would be able to do much about it, as I’d had it for awhile, but I emailed her and told her my sob story. She replied promptly (within hours!), telling me to pack it up and send it back. The UPS man brought me a new one today, at no charge. Lovely! It’s a beautiful bag, and very functional. Go check out her website, and get one of your very own. It comes in lots of lovely colors and styles. Here’s mine:

I’m off to get a bourbon and water. For medicinal purposes, of course, for my cough.

Reading, 2007

I’m blogging this from Arizona, where it hasn’t rained in, oh, at least 24 hours. The sun is shining, I haven’t had a wool sweater on since I got here, and there has been plenty of bourbon consumed. I suppose I might get bored living someplace where the weather stayed the same all the time, but at least it wouldn’t be rain all the time.

I joined TBR (To Be Read) as part of my NY resolution to read more. Here’s my list.

TBR List for 2007

Madison Smartt Bell, All Souls’ Rising
Dorothy Dunnett, Niccolo Rising
Louise Erdrich, The Master Butchers Singing Club
Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride
A. S Byatt, Babel Tower
Carolyn Chute, Merry Men
Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong
Guy Gavriel Kay, Sailing To Sarantium
Peter Matthiessen, Lost Man’s River
Nuala O’Faolain, My Dream Of You
Joyce Carol Oates, The Falls
Orhan Pamuk, Snow

12 books, 12 months. These were chosen randomly from my shelves. I would note that a few of them are “firsts” in their series (the Bell, Dunnett, and Kay books), so I may end up sidetracked. Whatever. (Deb, note that Niccolo made the list!)

And,
An Alternate List, in case of fast reading, or if I despise a book and can’t finish it.
Italo Calvino, If on a winter’s night a traveler
John Updike, In the Beauty Of The Lilies
Ahdaf Soueif, The Map Of Love
Jane Smiley, Moo
John Cowper Powy, A Glastonbury Romance
Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country Of the Pointed Firs
Wallace Stegner, All The Little Live Things

If you want to join, there’s a Yahoo group. The rules are that you choose 12 books that have been hanging around your house collecting dust, and read them over 12 months. There are prizes along the way for those who keep up. They have to be new-to-you books, not re-reads. I think I can find 12 from that list that will work for me in the coming year.

Oh, and you have to sign up by the end of this month, or you’re out of luck.

And now it’s cocktail hour. Until next time…