New Year Fiber Resolutions

I hope your NYE was swell and fabulous! Ours certainly was. We had a little pre-dinner cocktail party in the lobby of the Westin Seattle while we were all (10 of us) waiting for our rooms. While we were there, we tried to scope out the best possible party to crash after dinner. The hotel lobby was jam packed with people coming and going, many with cases of booze, platters of delicious looking things, and coolers full of who-knows-what. It seems that this place is a happening joint on NYE. We are probably 8 blocks or so south of the Space Needle, and we all had high-floor rooms facing the Needle, important for the fireworks that took place later.

After we got settled into our rooms, we went across the street to the Icon Grill restaurant for a lovely dinner. The place was bustling, and nicely decorated for the holidays, adding to the festive spirit. After dinner, being the old farts wild partiers that we all are, we went back to our respective rooms with plans for naps and to meet at about 11PM for the fireworks show. The latter was pretty spectacular. At exactly midnight, the Space Needle lit up like a Roman candle for eight minutes, accompanied by an enthusiastic musical show. We had little food nibbles that everybody brought, along with a variety of sparkling beverages. We all managed to stay up and talk for another hour, then gave it up and called it done for the old year.

This morning we’re having breakfast up the street, then back home to get those black eyed peas done for luck.

Here are some photos from the evening:

Now for those resolutions. I’m terrible at NY resolutions. They don’t usually last a month around here. So I’m not doing any craft resolutions, except one. I’m going to try to do a new set of fiber-yarn goals at the beginning of each month. I did sign up for the 11 mittens in 2011 challenge on Ravelry, but I have no real illusions that this will last. My goals for January? Here they are:

Finish at least two spindle spinning projects that are languishing, a blue/black merino/bamboo blend that just needs plying, and some merino silk that has been on the spindle since last summer.

Finish the Big Pink Baby Thing.

Finish the pair of socks on the needles, an embarrassingly aged project.

Work on the True Blood Faery sweater. I’d like to finish the bodice section by the end of the month.

Finish the mittens (dog mittens) that have been on the needles since last year, and start the first pair for 2011.

There you go. Have a great weekend!

Happy New Year!

So, what’s everybody doing tonight? John and I actually have plans to celebrate! Well, I guess we usually celebrate, if you can call staying home and trying to stay awake till midnight celebrating. 😉

I just realized this is actually the first year since we’ve been married that we’re actually going out for NYE. (16 years, if anybody wants to know.) We have friends with an apartment in the Big City (Seattle!), and we’re joining them for the evening. Dinner out, then rooms at a hotel with a view of the Space Needle and the fireworks. I’m hoping we don’t embarrass ourselves and fall asleep before the champagne gets opened.

For those of you who are on the edges of your seats over the sauerkraut saga, we did survive. It was a little saltier than I’d like. I just rinsed it in a colander this time. Next time, I think I’ll actually soak it in a big kettle of fresh water for a bit. It was pretty good though. Here’s what it looked like.

Next time we’re going to try a pork roast with it. I know you can hardly wait.

While we’re on the topic of food, don’t forget to get your black eyed peas lined up for tomorrow. Here are mine, ready to go.

Here’s how I make them, for those of you who don’t already have your favorite recipe.

Next up, some exciting photos of holiday acquisitions! Have a happy and safe New Year!

How Do You Know When It’s Done?

Sauerkraut, that is.

The correct answer, of course, is “when you have to hold your breath walking through the garage because of the stench”. It reached that point last week, but I put off dealing with it until today. It’s an icky, rainy day in the northwest, too nasty to do much else, so I figured I might as well put this in jars and in the refrigerator. At first I thought I’d put this up in quart jars, but it appears to be the wrong time of year to buy canning jars around here. Currently John is out foraging for a gallon glass jug, but here’s the interim solution:

I’m pretty sure that storing this stuff in plastic will doom the plastic containers to smell like sauerkraut forever, but so be it. I never really talked about what you do with this stuff once you get it in your crock. Periodically during the brining process, oh, about once a week when I remembered, I took the rock out, then scooped out some of the nasty liquid on top, along with whatever yucky stuff had started to grow, then the plate. I mixed the kraut up a bit, added a bit more fresh brine, mixed again, then washed the plate and the rock and replaced. I haven’t tasted it yet, since I’m a bit of a stickler about food poisoning, so I’ll plan on heating it up as I use it. It looks and smells like a fine batch of kraut, however. It’s just that a gallon or so of it is a bit overwhelming all at once. Tonight’s dinner is sausages and kraut, I’ll report back if we survive.

OK, John just sent me a photo from Target. John and Tar-zhay save the day!

On the knitting front, I’m still working on the Passionately Pink Surprise Baby Present. (I’m going to have to pick a name and stick to it at some point.) I better get on it, since the recipient was born earlier today! I have a new grand-niece, Rowan Annabelle! I don’t have a photo yet, but I hear tell she is gorgeous.

I hope everyone’s holiday season is going well. We had a fairly low key weekend, since I had to work. I was pretty grumpy about the whole thing, but to put a positive spin on it, at least I have a job and don’t have to live in a box under the bridge. Where the hell would I ever keep all the yarn?

We did have the annual Solstice friends and neighbors gathering this year. It was quite a festive event. I made cassoulet, which I’ve never done before. Rather than putting up a billion photos here, I’ll just link the Picasa photo album that John put together. Let’s just say that our coronaries all probably took a hit from the duck fat and sausage load.

Well, the guy with the kraut jar is home, so I’m off to finish that project. Next time, maybe some actual knitting!

What’s Playing At Your House?

OK, I admit it. This is a “filler” post, one of those things you put up when you’ve got nothing in the knitting department. I’m knitting the same stuff, the only thing that I’ve made any big progress on is a gift, and it’s mostly Shocking Pink Garter Stitch, anyway, so photos really wouldn’t help.

John and I are trying to do a gradual dredging out of all the crap in this house. We’ve been making progress in weeding through the gazillion books around here. Anything that’s already been read is going, and anything that we both look at and shake our heads at goes as well. The music collection is the next frontier. We have a bazillion (is that more than a gazillion or less?) CDs also. We finally have our home music system set up so we play music from ITunes straight to the stereo system, so there really is no need to keep the actual CDs once they are burned to the computer.

As part of this, the whole CD collection is in paper bags sitting next to my computer, and every time I’m up here, I burn a few of them to the hard drive. It’s a pretty eclectic collection, even I must say. One of the things I discovered recently is that you can sort your music by how many times each song has been played. Here are my top 10 or so played songs.

1. Memories Are Made of This, by Dean Martin

2. Set ’em Up Joe, by Vern Gosdin (I know I’ve mentioned him before, the greatest country singer of all time)

3. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, by the Andrews Sisters

4. If Wishing Made It So, by the Subdudes

5. It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere, by Alan Jackson & Jimmy Buffett

6. Cuando me enamoro, by Andrea Bocelli

7. I’m Gonna Be Strong, by Buddy Miller

8. Blues Stay Away From Me, by Jorma Kaukonen

9. Blue Moon, by the Mavericks

10. Smoking Panatelas On the Blue Mediterranean Sea, by the Aqua Velvets

11. Running From Mercy, by Rickie Lee Jones

12. Bird On A Wire, by Leonard Cohen

There you have it. Speaking of the Mavericks, we’re headed to the big city today to hear Raul Malo perform at the Tractor Tavern tonight. Here’s a video of him singing Let It Be Me.

And another one of him singing Blue Moon, with the Mavericks.

I’m pretty sure that I’m going to enjoy it. I’ll report back next time. What’s on your playlist?

John Might Have A Point…

I hope everyone had a terrific Thanksgiving! We had a house full of “happy” on turkey day, with 14 family members and friends around the table (actually 2 tables!). We ended up roasting a 20-pound turkey, along with a biggish ham. Fortunately everybody took plastic bags and boxes of leftovers home so I don’t have to eat turkey for the rest of the winter. The stock is already made from the carcass. I was going to make a big pot of bean soup today with the ham bone, but got way sidetracked, so we’re having something much quicker to cook for supper tonight.

Here’s one of the things I did manage to get done today. Sauerkraut!

I haven’t made this in years. When we lived in Montana, I made it every fall. The last time I made it, we lived in Texas, and it never got cold enough to keep the whole crock from turning into a slimy rotten mess. Then my antique Red Wing crock cracked, and it just never got done again. I happened to discover earlier this fall that Red Wing still sells these things, and sooner than you could say “crackpot”, a new one was on the way to my house. Here’s photographic evidence of the work of the afternoon.

Organic cabbage, from our local CSA farmer. She had a farm sale last week with all the late fall stuff leftover from the season, and John came home with two big bags of cabbage. Yes, the “4” on the crock means that it’s a 4-gallon crock.

Shredding pretty much done. This was about 4-5 cabbages, I lost count. I have two cabbages leftover, but this will have to settle first.

The rock from our garden that will weigh down the plate.

So here are the short instructions. This is actually about as easy as it gets to make. Get your cabbage, take off any yucky leaves off the outside. You don’t even need to wash them. Quarter the cabbages and core them, then slice thinly. Layer it in the crock with kosher salt, stopping to mix it around now and then. The rough estimate is about 3 tablespoons of salt to 5 pounds of cabbage, but you rinse the stuff before you eat it, so it’s not as much as it sounds. When you get the crock close to full, put a plate on top that fits fairly closely, then a cool rock to weigh it down. Cover it with a dishtowel, and Bob’s your uncle. You should stir this up every couple hours until it makes some juice, and you want the salty brine to cover the cabbage by an inch or so. The cabbage will compact down as it settles, so you can add more cabbage in a day or so if you have more. If it doesn’t make enough brine, you can make a brine solution and add it. Once it’s made a little brine, set it someplace cool until it turns into sauerkraut, maybe 4-6 weeks, but I can never wait that long to eat some. It’s like eating half-pickled dills, I never can wait for those either. You probably want it someplace between 50-60 degrees for the wait, so it doesn’t spoil.

John’s point? He asked what the hell we are going to do with 4 gallons of sauerkraut once it’s done. Oh, he of little faith. I come from good Polish-German peasant stock, so this shouldn’t be a problem. This stuff is so much better than store-bought that you wouldn’t believe it. If you’re not as big a fan, Red Wing sells much smaller crocks!

Progress, I Guess…

Because I’m knitting a Startling Pink Secret Project which I can’t show photos of on the blog, I decided to drag out one of the UFO’s from my short list of remaining UFO projects. Here’s the original list of all of them that I put together earlier this year:

1) True Blood Faery sweater

2) Crazy King Cole Mohair thing, um, stole RIP

3) Wollmeise Squashed Frog Socks Finished

4) Grey Ribbed Peace Fleece Socks with red accents RIP

5) Frootloops Morning Glory Stole

6) Puppy Mittens

7) Evenstar Shawl

8 ) Baktus Shawlette Finished

9) Euroflax Linen Facecloth Finished

10) Spirit In The Sky Beret Finished

11) Startling Pink Secret Project (new)

12) Brown Sanguine Gryphon socks (relatively new)

Six projects remain. I should renumber them so the UFO’s are on the top of the list.

1) True Blood Faery sweater

2) Frootloops Morning Glory Stole

3) Puppy Mittens

4) Evenstar Shawl

5) Startling Pink Secret Project (new)

6) Brown Sanguine Gryphon socks (relatively new)

7) Crazy King Cole Mohair thing, um, stole RIP

8 ) Wollmeise Squashed Frog Socks Finished

9) Grey Ribbed Peace Fleece Socks with red accents RIP

10 ) Baktus Shawlette Finished

11) Euroflax Linen Facecloth Finished

12) Spirit In The Sky Beret Finished

There, that makes me happier. Anyway, what was I saying?? Oh, yes, knitting. I dragged out the Puppy Mittens.

These were originally intended to be John’s, a nice little cozy pair of mittens to wear at the dog park. I stuffed the whole mess into a bag last spring when I got tired of them. Here they are again.

I finally had to face the reason that they got stuffed into a bag and hidden away in my office.

I have rather skinny hands. John’s hands are relatively small for a guy, but not this small. Damn damn damn.

Out they came. Here they are, restarted on larger needles.

I should be able to tell for sure in another inch or so if they’ll fit. If not, they’ll be mine, and I’ll make him different mittens. I better get busy. It’s just damned cold and icky outside, and supposed to get colder yet as the week goes on. I’d be embarrassed to have to wear store-bought mittens.

Another Happy Weekend

And, a bit of randomness.

First, spinning. I bought some cotton fiber a while back to try to learn to spin it. My first effort was with a very lightweight drop spindle, and it was a total disaster. Cotton fiber has a very short staple length, less than an inch, so unless you get a ton of twist into it very quickly, it just drifts apart. I’m not easily discouraged, however. After a bit of research, I found an Akha spindle. It sat here for the past few weeks, staring at me, and yesterday I decided to try to conquer it.

Here were my first few attempts at cotton yarn.

Um, yes, I know. That didn’t go so well. I downloaded an “e-book” from the Bellwether, and in no time, I had progressed to this.

Still a little uneven, but much better. It doesn’t look quite so much like dryer lint at this point. I’ll keep working on it.

Next up, knitting. I’m still working on that big-ass cabled sweater project. I’ve done more rows, but the photos don’t really look like it. I have started another mystery project that will take up all my knitting time until it’s done. Unfortunately, since it’s sort of a surprise, I can’t show photos here. Remember this? That was the very pink Wallaby for my niece Angie’s first baby, Riley. After I sent her that, Angie asked for the rest of the yarn, since she wanted to learn to knit, and loved the color. Off it went to her. Apparently it’s been marinating as stash for the past few years. Angie is now expecting their second baby, another daughter. I got an email from her a few weeks ago. She asked very plaintively if I’d knit something for the new baby if she mailed the yarn back. Here it is.

The Pepto Pink Cotton Ease is very happy to be back in my stash. I have an unreasonable love for the old colors of this stuff. The newer colors are OK, but just not as screamingly vivid as the original colors. You’ll just have to wait and see what this becomes. I will say it won’t be another Wallaby. That’s all I’m spilling for now.

Here’s another random photo.

My Christmas cacti are clearly confused again.

Last, but certainly not least, today is a very special day. Somebody in my house might just be having a very significant birthday. John and I went shopping yesterday, and came home with a cool present for him to celebrate. It came in this box.

The television that came in this box replaced an ancient TV that was so old I’m surprised it had color. The birthday boy is very happy. We’re doing up the day properly. We’re off to Seattle today. We have tickets to the symphony tonight after a swell dinner here. Tomorrow we’re going out for brunch, then we have tickets to see the Picasso exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. He definitely deserves a special celebration. It’s not every day, after all, that you qualify for Medicare. 😉

Wish him a happy birthday, we’re off for the party!

Weird Things

Ok. I should be in bed, since I have to be at work in some semblance of sanity eight hours from now. But I had to check the blog search stats before I headed off to sleep.

“My yarn is a knotted mess”

That one I can understand. My sympathies. I’ve been there, honey, I can’t fix it for you. There isn’t enough whiskey in the cabinet for that.

“how many stitches are in a 1000 meter spindle”

If you can spin with a 1000 meter spindle, I really want to see the video.

“carolina blue sock yarn”

My husband would be very, very happy if you found this for him (he’s a Tarheel).

“squashed frog spinal cord”

I’m sure that made sense to someone. I think I need more whiskey to figure that out, and decipher why it got you to my blog.

“geoduck knitting pattern”

Now really, people. Have you ever seen a geoduck? Why would you want to knit one, never mind eat one??

I am really off to bed. I should know better to check these things at near-midnight.

Lookie Here!

It’s Knitting! On a knitting blog, no less. First up is the True Blood Faery Ring sweater. After the cable set-up dust-up, I’ve managed to get a few inches of that cable section done finally.

Sorry for the crappy photos. It would appear that we’ve entered the grey and gloomy season around here. Try clicking on them, but the lighting is just so lousy that it might not help. Notice that pesky seed stitch out there under the armpits, where it belongs.

The Major has more or less shamed me into hauling this out and working on it in earnest. She suggested that we ought to get our butts in gear and finish these, and I think she outranks me, so here we go. She has the body and part of both sleeves done, and if she keeps it up will be done with hers by Thanksgiving, if not sooner. I also pulled out the buttons to show someone this past week, and that got me all excited about this project again. Here they are, in case you forgot.

Yes, they really do have little fairies on them. I think I spent more on the buttons than I did on the yarn.

Here’s the sock in progress.

That’s the first of the pair, the yarn is Sanguine Gryphon Little Traveller yarn, the color name is Penny Pot, NJ.

I also forgot to show you a shopping acquisition from this month. This was my birthday present to myself. During the birthday trip to Seattle, we took the ferry across to Bainbridge Island for a day, and had lunch and did a little window shopping. There is a nice little yarn store there, Churchmouse Yarns, and they happen to be one of the handful of shops that is carrying Jared Flood’s Shelter yarn. I’ve been drooling over photos of it since it appeared in stores, but wasn’t about to plunk down a lot of cash for it until I could see it, since it’s fairly spendy. Well, I saw, I squooshed, then I plunked.

Oh yeah. It really is that pretty. I bought four skeins of this in Button Jar (isn’t that a great name?), and the pattern for Terra. Now I just need to finish the other two shawls in the UFO pile before I can cast on for this.

I’m off to take care of some business. I’m back to work tomorrow for a seven day stretch, so who knows how much knitting or blogging might happen. We’ll see!

Fun On The Left Coast

Well, actually the North Coast. People tend to forget that our country does have a northern coastline, and it’s out here in western Washington. John’s sister Ena and her friend Sherry were visiting this past week from Georgia, and we took a short trip out to the Olympics for a few days. We stayed in a cabin on Lake Crescent and just had a fabulous time. Here’s where we stayed, and here’s a photo of Lake Crescent.

Here are a few more photos.

That’s from Hurricane Ridge, in Olympic National Park.

That was taken yesterday morning, from the deck of our cabin. We had a whole week of gloriously sunny weather while they were here. The fog on the lake was gone by mid morning, and though it was in the 50’s, it was gorgeous outside.

Yesterday we took a drive out to Cape Flattery, which is the northwestern-most point of the continental US. That photo is part of the coastline along the way.

That’s you-know-who, ready for a hike.

That’s part of the boardwalk out to the point.

Sock on vacation. Proof that knitting still happens around here.

My traveling companions.

And last but not least, a fish in hiking shoes. Don’t ask.

I did get a little knitting done, though the inside activities mostly seemed to involve cooking, eating, and drinking. Maybe next time I’ll have some knitting photos to show!

Swear Words, Again

Or,

When Your Closet Shelves Fall Off The Wall, It’s Probably A Sign That You Have Too Much Stuff…

Early this week, at the very beginning of a long, (atypical for my new job) 7 day work stretch, I had a little closet disaster. I had gotten dressed and was at the computer checking email and heard a crash from the other side of the house. John and I rushed to investigate, and found this.

I stood there stunned for a minute, then burst into tears. Fortunately I was already dressed for work, since my underwear basket is at the very back of that mess. After we did a pet head-count to make sure nobody was lost under there, John sent me off to work with assurances that he would figure something out, and he did, of course, being the swell sweetheart that he is. I did figure it was time to dredge out the stuff I don’t ever wear or use. After working at it half-heartedly in bits and pieces, I waded into it in earnest yesterday and finished it up.

Here’s what’s going to the local domestic violence shelter:

Not Lewey, of course, he’s staying here. That’s probably about a hundred pounds of clothing, which is likely why the metal brackets on the shelves finally failed. Here’s what’s left.

The last photo shows the ingenious temporary “closet” that John rigged up, with the help of Randy, the guy that’s done all the remodeling work on this Halloween fun house that is the place we live in.

And yes, those are suitcases sitting there. Today is my birthday, and my sweetie has surprised me with two nights up north in the big city, here. We even have dinner reservations for a swanky French restaurant. And fortunately, I can get to my clothes so I have something to wear! Later, I’m off to pack!

Swear Words…

Or,

It Was Bound To Happen

A basic rule of knitting is this: When you put something in writing on your blog such as “I have actually been very slowly making progress on that True Blood Faery albatross”, the knitting gods will bite you very hard in the butt.

I’m sure you all remember what I’m knitting. In case you don’t, it’s the Faery Ring sweater, by Mary Scott Huff. Here’s the best set of photos of the one she knit for her mom. Look closely at the front cabled section. Get the arrangement of those front cables in your heads so when you look at mine you will know why I invented several new ways to combine all the swear words I know into complete sentences.

When I started the cabled section, I spent several hours with knitters’ graph paper and pencil, plotting out the cable arrangement so it would be easier to knit. This past week I finally picked it up again after a couple of months sitting in time-out. I got to about row 10 of the cabled section and stopped. I had made a few minor errors when I was doing the charting part, and every time I would get to those bits, I’d convert it to the correct stitch in my head, but sooner or later I was bound to forget to do so. I figured I’d get out the paper and re-do the chart correctly, to make it more idiot-proof. Here’s a photo of the geeky nerdiness that is me. Click on it to see.

As I was finishing the second, revised, version of my chart, I realized the true error of my ways. This is not a little error. The whole damned jacket is knit in one piece up to the armholes, so each row is 308 stitches. 10 rows of that is 3080 stitches. After smacking my head on the table a few times, I got the sweater and looked hard at it in every direction, hoping that maybe, just maybe I hadn’t followed my own damned chart, but instead, somehow, had magically done it correctly.

Nope. Look again at Mary’s front center section, then mine. There are supposed to be a bunch of cables running beautifully on either side of that front center line. The 21 stitch section of seed stitch in my photo is supposed to be along the sides, under the armholes, not front and center. When I did my chart, I just made up my own arrangement of the cable sections. I have beautiful little cables under my armpits, and lovely seed stitch in front, where it doesn’t belong. I knew there was a reason I hate seed stitch.

Damn, damn, double f-ing damn. And then some. Out it came. There is one good thing. Having gone through this whole exercise, I realize that I really don’t need my honking 5-page chart. There are only 4 different cables, and they are all different stitch counts. There’s a 2-stitch cable, a 4 stitch cable, a 6 stitch cable, and a large 20 stitch cable. Once you get markers placed on the first row, you just do the cable that fits into the number of stitches you have in front of you. And then try to remember to do reverse stockinette stitch on the other stitches. I’m not promising anything at this point.

FO!

This was absolutely the easiest FO in the world! All I had to do was let Dorothy and her husband stay here one night earlier this summer. As a “hostess” gift, she brought this. I’ve been quite remiss in posting about it!

Isn’t that gorgeous? The photo does not do justice to Dorothy’s perfect stitches. Click on it to get a better look. Of course the color is all off. It’s really more of a wine-colored red, not as orangey red as that looks on my monitor. The shawl pattern is Hidcote Garden Shawl, by Miriam Felton, the yarn is an unknown lace from Dorothy’s stash. Whatever it is, I adore it. Thanks, Dorothy! I like the pattern enough that I could see knitting one myself. Though maybe my plan should be to pack up all the lace yarn, send it to Dorothy, and then just invite her down for weekend visits.

Here’s another FO, this time my own. No, it’s not knitting. I’m still working on all the same stuff. Though I have actually been very slowly making progress on that True Blood Faery albatross. I can actually almost see little cables starting to appear, it just doesn’t look like it in a photo. No, this FO is of the spinning variety.

The fiber is from Spunky Eclectic, a merino-tencel blend. The official color name was “Walking on the Sun”. Every time I would spin, all I could think about was that goofy 80’s song “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina & the Waves. I couldn’t get it out of my head, so I decided to change it. I think it looks like a Tequila Sunrise, and I like that song much better, so there you have it. You have to put up with some crappy ads to get to that song by the way, but it’s worth it to watch Glenn Frey sing for a few minutes. Ahem. Yes, well, back to the fiber. It’s spindle-spun, on my Bosworth midi spindle. It’s not washed yet, but I figured I better get a photo up while I was thinking about it.

I ran across this rather grisly news story when bouncing around the internet this week. This is enough to get me to make plans to do a major dredging in the house. We did just that a few years back, hauling carloads of stuff to Goodwill and the local garbage dump. Somehow it always finds its way back in, though. We’re getting to that age where the reality is that someday in the not-too distant future we’ll need and want to downsize to a smaller place. I’m thinking it would be less painful to get rid of stuff in small increments rather than all at once when we are ready  to move. Don’t worry, I’m not starting with the fiber and yarn stash just yet, though. I’m not that crazy.

Next time, I promise a photo or two of my own knitting!