Food first, then fiber!

A trio of shibori fabric masks.

Food first!

I've continued to cook out of Great Foods without Fuss. I made a lovely curry shrimp, which I paired with a sweet and sour eggplant recipe (the eggplant was heavily modified because of ingredients). I also cooked cod with mint and onions, an Italian recipe, and was frankly shocked at how well mint goes with fish.

I also tried the easy pot de creme recipe.  I don't know where my brain was but I used unsweetened chocolate instead of semi sweet chocolate in a recipe with no sugar. The resulting product was really very interesting but not enjoyable to eat.  I'll have to try it again but with the right chocolate.

Saturday we had a zoom with some friends... DH adorably asked for some tapas, maybe patatas bravas and chorizo. Turns out I had everything I needed! I used The Food Lab's recipe for oven roasted crispy potatoes (I swear they taste crunchy fried but without that much oil), made a bravas sauce with a recipe from the internet, and made chorizo braised in red wine, also from the internet.  Sunday we had ribs off the grill and some cole slaw. I'm rockin' the SIP impromptu "what can I cook with these ingredients" menus. This week it's back to rice cakes and fuzzy water!

DH has chosen one of Rick Bayless' Mex cookbooks for June.

Graduated to the yarn stash!

On the fiber front,

• I raided the hand dyed fabric stash, and make this trio of shibori masks; one for my sister, one for my landscaper, and one for me! I fussy cut some of the other fabric and came up with some crazy designs. I really need to have more mask fun. Anyways, tally 4 more masks to my total. 

• I finished spinning and plying the silk... I now have 250 grams of silk yarn instead of 250 grams of silk roving. 

• I cleaned up the studio and came across a shirt that I'd stopped working on because it had frustrated me, but honestly can't figure out what is wrong with it. Faced with a decision of finding a place to put it or finishing it, I finished it. Photo to come later.

• Just last night I finished weaving my shadow weave project! I now have 3 1/2 yards of 14" fabric; I'll have to wet finish it (and it'll shrink up a bit more) before I figure out if it's suitable for a shirt or if it needs to be a vest. 

And one more photo just because he's so darn cute...

May news

18 masks for ABQ

It's now a month later and I realized I'm neglecting this blog as time passes by... Here's a rundown on the projects I'm working on.

I went on a mask making spree, supplying masks to friends and family; I also sent 18 to my niece in Albuquerque who has been giving them to her friend and co-workers. I'm about masked-out. Today I made three more from some shibori fabric I dyed a few years ago. I'm quite proud of these.

A perfect trio of 3 shibori masks

On the spinning side, I finally finished spinning the 200g of silk I dyed in a Merike Saarnit class years ago; I still need to ply it up a bunch.  I'd like to order some silk from Redfish Dyeworks and use it together in a shawl.

I started knitting again; I cast on Laura Bryant's Double Your Pleasure cowl with a kit I bought at Stitches a couple of years ago; am knitting along with K and T from one of my knitting groups.  I finished the first couple of inches and have realized I need to pull back a couple of rows... Meanwhile here is the yarn.

Double Your Pleasure 

I've also been putting a lot of time into quilting on the Festivus quilt; I'm working on the border but will need to put a few more stitches into a couple of the blocks, as well as do the setting strips. I'd like to finish this soon!

And finally, I'm still weaving a shadow weave piece of fabric destined for clothing. It's slow going.

Double weave on the loom

I've spent considerable time in the garden in the last couple of months, and hoping to be spending more time doing other things in the next couple of months.

Bangkok chicken, rice with
turmeric, roast aspargus and
yummy Slovenian wine

Finally, the cookbook challenge! The April cookbook challenge was Lopez-Alt's The Food Lab. I made a butterflied roast chicken and some amazing crispy roasted potatoes that I'm craving now... I also set off the smoke alarm with the chicken and was forced to learn to clean the oven. May is Great Foods without Fuss by  McCollough and Witt; a fabulous cookbook!  I made the Bangkok Chicken with grilled chicken and will make a curried shrimp dish later this week. There's also a recipe for pot de creme as well that I'll try before the month is out.