Blogiversary!
Thirteen years ago today, I hit the “save” button on my first blog post. I’ve had lots of fun and learned a lot about knitting in that time. Here’s to at least a few more years blogging.
There’s not much new going on at Chez Knitting Doctor. I haven’t gotten alot of knitting done this past week, but finished adding length to one half of John’s sweater. I’m working on the other half. It makes good basketball knitting.
Conversation in my kitchen this morning:
John: “Are you on your way to your Iconoclast infusion?”
Me: “It’s Reclast*, not Iconoclast, but yes.” (He also calls Tessalon cough pills “Teflon pills”.)
John: “Were you intending to wear your slippers?”
Me:
Me: “Why yes, apparently I was.”
That my friends, is the eleventy billionth and eleventy billionth and one reasons why we have to stay married to each other. He makes sure that I don’t go out in public in my jammies and slippers, and I make sure he knows the right names for prescription drugs.
*Reclast is the infusion I get once a year to treat osteoporosis.
We may have taken that “magic of tidying up” a little too far.
The furniture all got sent to storage yesterday. The cats and Lewey went to Bark Central this morning. And the rugs go today.
The guy is here today replacing the wood in the kitchen that was damaged. And next week the sanding and finishing happens.
Most importantly, WE’RE going today as well. We head to the airport tonight, and leave early in the morning for Mexico. When we get back, this mess will all be done.
Don’t even think about that yarn stash. The house, including my stash, is well guarded by our house sitter (AKA vigilant neighbor) while we’re gone.
There likely will be updates while I’m away, though the photos will be the same as the last two January trips, since we’re going to exactly the same place.
Excuse me, I need to go pack. The only thing I’ve done so far is get the knitting projects ready.
I realized today that I never blogged about my dyeing adventure a few weeks ago.
I had bought a whole bag of Bluefaced Leicester white spinning fiber some time back, thinking I’d dye it first and then spin. I’ve discovered that it is a whole lot easier to felt unspun fiber than yarn, so after one attempt, I spun it first with plans to dye later. Here is the result.
The dye material is tickseed, or Coreopsis (with a bit of dried marigold I had saved from last year that wasn’t enough to dye anything by itself). John planted these in pots down by the lake, and I’ve been dead-heading them since they started blooming earlier this summer. I simmered in water for an hour or so, then let sit overnight (mostly because I ran out of time). The next morning I strained out the flowers, and in went the wool.
The wool was mordanted with a mixture of alum and cream of tartar to help the dye set. It all simmered for another hour, then I let it sit until it was cool. Then out of the dye pot, rinse, dry, and skein it up.
That is 366 grams of wool, about 790 yards total. I think it will make a nice rustic wrap of some sort.
I’m home from work today with a migraine, not getting a whole lot accomplished. It’s getting better at this point, though I still feel like somebody poured Karo syrup into my brain. It makes for a waste of a perfectly good day off.
And, because it’s my blog, and I can, I’m posting one more photo of my last finished project. I posted this on Facebook, and somebody commented that all it needed was a tiara. Here you go, Dorothy.
Though THIS is the one I really want.
So you suppose Princess Sofia will send that to me when she grows tired of it?
Even though I made the decision to work part time several months ago, today really feels like “it”. As of this week, I am working 4 days a week, mostly Monday through Thursday with three-day weekends. Today is the beginning of that first three day weekend.
Ahhhhhhh. So what am I going to do with that extra free day?
As I've been warned by many other people who have retired or started working part-time, those extra days seem to fill up with activities pretty quickly.
Knitting, spinning, dyeing, reading, writing, flute playing, blogging, baking. Perhaps even get to the gym now and then.
Let's start with baking, shall we? I used to bake bread quite frequently, but it has gotten so sporadic that some of my bread ingredients have gone past their “use by” date. Here's what's going on in the bread machine today.
As usual, I sort of made this up on the fly. Here's an ingredient list:
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon avocado oil
1 1/2 cup unbleached white bread floor
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rye flour
1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 cup seed/grain blend
I get most of my bread ingredients from King Arthur Flour. Any decent supermarket should carry their basic flours, I buy the other stuff from their online store. The vital wheat gluten helps lighten up whole wheat or rye breads. I use Saf Red label instant yeast, which has never failed me. The Harvest seed blend is from their store as well.
A photo of the finished bread will follow later. I make this up in my bread machine and then bake it in the oven. Bread machine-baked bread is OK, but I like the texture better when it's baked in the oven.
One last photo for the day.
Our peonies are near the end of their blooming, but there are still a few out there!
I'm off to plan the rest of my day!
We're on a little mini-vacation this week. I have a medical meeting later in the week in Boston, and we arrived a few days early to visit Cape Cod since we've never been here before.
Here was the conversation at the breakfast table this AM.
Me: “I'd like to stop at that yarn shop we passed* yesterday.”
John: “Aren't they closed today?”
Me: “What?”
John: “Aren't all yarn shops closed on Mondays?”
Nice try, dear. Nice try.
Here are a couple of photos. First is from Plymouth, the monument that honors the Pilgrims that came over on the Mayflower.
And next is the sock on the way to Cape Cod.
*Cape Cod appears to be a yarn-rich environment. We drove by at least three yarn shops yesterday. I'm getting a feeling that the yarn-shopping fast may be approaching its end.
It pleases me to no end that my new sock yarn is the same color as the tulips in my kitchen. That is your little bit of cheerful for Wednesday morning.
Me: “Oooooh, you have to come look at this.”
John: “What?” “Huh–nice!” (said in a very half hearted exclamation).
Me: “No, really, it's gorgeous Shetland wool garter stitch! Look at those garter stitch wedges! Look at that lace mesh!”
John: silence
I love him anyway. Even if he has no clue.
My new lace is fabulous.
Short weekend trip, starts today. Baycation! This was sort of a spur of the moment thing, and much needed for a variety of reasons.
Here's the first leg:
Here is my amusing thing of the day. I was sorting through a pile of magazines this morning and found the January and February issues of Flute Talk.
Look at those sweaters! I want both of them. I even have yarn to make the oatmeal colored one. There was no mention in the articles about these two fluters being knitters, but it wouldn't surprise me. My flute teacher is a knitter. As in a lot of the performing arts, there is a fair amount of waiting around down time, perfect for knitting a row or two. And the woman in the top photo mentions in the article that she travels upwards of 5 months a year. That's a lot of travel knitting time.
I'm off to practice. And knit. Or both.
I started the big Dredging Out project of 2015 this AM. The stuff around here has gotten a little out of control, it’s time to de-junk. I started with my office.
Right. Maybe I should have started with a different challenge. But this room is such a holy disaster that it is dragging me into psychosis. I finally got the clutter off the top of the hope chest to get it open.
The Hope Chest of Doom. Really.
Yes, that is my mom’s hope chest. And no, that’s not going anywhere. One of my nieces will probably get it as I get closer to the ultimate retirement. It is currently full of totally useless junk instead of being available for useful storage.
Here are just a couple of examples.
The tassels are from my graduation from high school and medical school. Don’t ask me why I kept them. And no, I have no idea where the college one went. It’s probably in the depths of the hope chest.
The little ceramic girl was made by my mom. Yes, it’s cute. No, I’m not keeping it. At this point in my life it is just clutter. Sentimental clutter, to be sure. I don’t need this to remind me of what a wonderful lady my mom was.
And yes, I got immediately sidetracked into a blog post. You should see how much time I wasted coming up with the ultimate Dredging Out music playlist.
I figured you’d all want to see all the junk I discover. Just wait until I get to the knitting stuff. Yes, some of that is going out of this house too. I have more knitting bags and tape measures than any one person will ever need.
Back to work.
I am ready! Don't forget your blackeyed peas for luck!
Here's my recipe, my only change over the years is that I use diced and sauteed pancetta instead of a ham hock.
This was a conversation over coffee at my house this morning:
Me (reading email): “I got an email from Peace Fleece that ALL of their yarn is 20% off through the weekend!”
John: “And just how much Peace Fleece do you already have in the stash?”
Me (fires up the database, sorts the yarn by manufacturer): “Um, I have enough different colors for six Peace Fleece sweaters. Seven, if you count the one in the knitting bag that I haven’t finished.”
John: “20% off is a great deal. But it’s 100% off if you don’t buy something you don’t need.”
Me (silent for a few minutes): “Point taken.”
Those of you who are NOT on the Cold Sheep–not buying any yarn plan might want to head over to Peace Fleece and get some of your own.
Want to see what six sweaters worth of Peace Fleece looks like? I thought so.
Yes, I tore apart the stash to pull those all out. I’m thinking it’s going to be easier to go buy a new yarn box than to try to get those all back into the correct numbered box.
And as long as I’m at it, here’s the seventh color. This is John’s sweater, or what will be a sweater once I’ve finished the sleeves.
I know you guys don’t care so much about the travel photos as you do about the potential for yarn shopping in my travels.
I am here to swear that I stayed on that Cold Sheep the whole time. On Monday, I’ll have gone EIGHT MONTHS without any yarn buying. That’s some kind of crazy record. I knit so freaking slowly that I haven’t made much of a dent in the stash in that time, so I probably should just continue on.
So what did I buy in France? Not much, as it turns out. We were attempting to travel light and didn’t have a lot of room for stuff. I didn’t look up one yarn shop while I was there.
I did buy pencils. Here they are.
From the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe, I especially like the ones with the sparkly things on the ends where the eraser should be.
I know you are all just thrilled.
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