Q4 and 2024 Finished List (10/29), and December cookbook challenge

First, the cookbook challenge! Last night I used the Santa Fe School of Cooking Flavors of the Southwest recipe for Lamb Adovada with chipotle sauce and carmelized corn... The recipes serves 10, so I used 1/3 of the meat it called for, 1/2 of the marinade ingredients, but made full versions of sauce and the corn. I served it with roasted fingerling potatoes and a beet and apple salad with a lime vinaigrette, and a 2016 Sea Smoke pinot noir. The lamb was from Dixon, which probably has  the best lamb in the region. DH declared it restaurant quality (which made me smile). We both felt the sauce and corn served 4, the lamb was about right for 4 servings as well. Note that the sauce does not need the extra chipotle that I added.

A quick mention of bread and all things wheat... I not only made sourdough for Christmas Eve, but also cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning! Two issues... I screwed up weighing the flour (don't judge me) so had to eyeball the appropriate amount; I think I added too much; the buns were just slightly dry. Second, I missed the part of the recipe that said to leave them out on the counter for 2 hours after sitting in the fridge all night, but managed to leave them out for 45 minutes and we just had breakfast a little later.  Everyone went back for seconds! But sadly, I feel like I'm suffering from the wheat, and need to kick it out of my diet for a few weeks to check. I think the right solution is to keep using this wheat, but not on a daily basis; maybe a couple times a month?

On to the list of what I've accomplished this quarter...

Done:

 

Six of the unfinsished objects from my list (UFO's)

• The tote bag from the embroidered pieces I made a few years ago, now proudly transporting groceries for K.C.
• 3 purple ikat towels.
• Those two hand towels (of four) that I made a year or three ago but never hemmed? Yep, they are hemmed and on the shelf waiting for guests.

Some new stuff:

• Komebukuro #1 and #2
• More cards for Christmas, same tree as before, and a few more Zig prints
• The Weave-In runner

So 10 things this quarter and a total of 29 for the year. I may have to stop counting each towel, they're quick once they're on the loom and it feels a little like cheating?

What's up for 2025?

• More cookbook challenges: I need to keep my head in the cooking game to not lose my skills; plus it's just fun.  I'll keep baking bread, just not as much.
• More physical effort; I need to be in better shape, and some weight loss would be good too. Having a e-bike makes riding from the house possible, and DH found a lock that makes leaving the bike to go into a shop or cafe possible; this'll let me run some basic errands on bike. Did I mention 90-120 minutes of exercise makes me sleep really really well?

  

  2025: year of the busy hands

• German. I'm enrolled in German classes.
• More printing: I really like printing! What's holding me back is art skills.  I am finally ready to admit that not making art does not make for better art. I've made a list of things I want to try on linoleum block, and plan on making a series of post cards to send to friends. 
• In 2024, I made a goal to make some things for fun and give them away. A scarf and a baby blanket went to charity auctions; another baby blanket found a baby; two towels went to friends. I'd envisioned a box of thinks that I could pull from when needed (ha!). I enjoyed making and gifting, so expect more of it. 
• Finish more of the unfinished projects, and make sure the list is up to date. First up, a vest that ONLY needs seams and buttons.
• Weave up some of the free 10/2 cotton (more on that later).
• Mostly, stay busy and keep my head out of the political news.

Best Bread yet! A Festivus Miracle

Something just worked... I'm thinking it's a Festivus miracle. Crumb was open and full of small to medium holes. Tasted great. I think a little more rise would be better but I'm very very happy.  

UtOh, Oven...

Purple towels done, and two have
found their forever homes

The bread I posted the photo of? I thought it was pretty successful, but it didn't have the big holes and didn't rise as much as I'd hoped. I also thought there might have been an issue with the oven, so I bought a thermometer... Yep, it's not heating right and honestly I'm surprised that the last bread was even edible. It *should* get fixed tomorrow, December 23rd, otherwise I need to rethink my Christmas menu...

I finished weaving the three purple towels (playing yarn chicken) but managed to have enough warp left to weave 4 inches or so extra... I'll put that in my bag of small bits that I might one day make small bags (or komebukuro?) from. 

I think I've detailed the dyeing issues... to add to that, I'll say that tieing a 2" resist alternating with 2" color doesn't give very interesting shifted patterns. So I'll spend some time thinking about what to do next, meanwhile I'll get some other projects done. 

I did notice that I had only one treadling error that I didn't notice and fix while weaving, but there were a number of issues with skipped threads, and a few selvedge issues. Honestly, I'm a better weaver than that but I missed having something on the loom so much that I just sped through it without thinking. One of the 3, I'll keep, and I have a friend with a purple kitchen who will get another... The third will go to my buddy P; I showed it to her at knit night this week, mentioning I don't know anyone whose kitchen was a good match and she would like one. 

The runner for the Weave-in is going well; I'll do a seperate post on that.  I've warped for two runners (a test runner, and one for that weekend); here's a preview of the color work section. I'm also winding a warp for towels with carrots on them for a charity auction.

Weave-in runner sample started!

Some Pozole recipes

I found this in my drafts... I was looking for these recipes! I'm pretty darn happy with my pressure cooker, and who doesn't like pozole?  Posting this so I don't lose them...

https://www.simplyhappyfoodie.com/instant-pot-posole-pork-stew/

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020110-pressure-cooker-chipotle-chicken-pozole

https://blog.williams-sonoma.com/instant-pot-chicken-posole/

Because Pozole isn't particularly photogenic, and I'd like this post to have a thumbnail, here's a linocut by the Australian artist Dorrit Black, a little wonky in the frame.

Some Bread success!

Bread is looking better

I've been talking and reading a lot about sourdough recently... It's starting to make sense. I baked this loaf yesterday! There was definitely oven spring... It had not risen enough and was a little dense, but it's tasty and I'm happy with progress!

What some of the books/websites  are suggesting is to keep a large active pre-ferment going at all times so that you have the 100-200 gm of starter ready at short notice. The Perfect Loaf recommends a much smaller starter (less waste!!!) and an extra 8-10 hours to build the pre-ferment.  He also has a recommended timeline that suits me better...  There were a couple of issues. I was halving the recipe and I think I got the water wrong; the dough was much too dry, so I added water until it "seemed right". The bread kept it's shape when I took it out of the banneton (at first) but I wonder if under-hydration caused it not to rise as much... 

Another issue was that the oven never reported it was at temp (450 F). Did it hit that temp? I have no way of knowing.  Also, I had the raw loaf out of the fridge and waiting to go in the oven... and waiting... and waiting... So DH ordered me a thermometer and I'll be able to test it. I also suspect the dutch oven wasn't warm enough. 

I didn't do the November cookbook challenge. The recipe I picked called for preserved lemons and mine smelled funky... I ended up making a Rick Bayless Chicken Escabeche recipe. I've repurchased preserved lemons and will go back to the Moroccan cookbook in January.

December's cookibook is Santa Fe School of Cooking Flavors of the Southwest: I've already cooked the Black Bean Soup (added extra chili). Very tasty and fast in the Instant Pot.

Komebukuro #1

I've also finished the second rice bag (Komebukuro). It's very similar to the first rice bag but I used a lighter weight lining without interfacing, and added a zipper to one of the lining pieces. I have all of the instructions and pieces in a box, at some point I'll have to decide whether to make another one or two.  This is the first one; the second one looks very much like it and currently holds my knitting in a very stylish fashion.

The purple towels are off the loom but not hemmed yet. Both looms are currently naked! Oh no! I'm hoping to get projects on them this week.

Purple Towels?

We ate our way through Santa Fe last week...

• The tasting menu at Sazon was amazing but the synchronized service was a bit odd. I tried the tasting menu which offered a lot of tequila... not my favorite but it was interesting. 
• Dined at the Shed for the first time; really solid NM cuisine and very popular. Fortunately mid-November is not a popular time in town.  Note that the Shed does not serve Sopaipillas.
• DH's sis joined us for dinner at the Pink Adobe; we enjoyed that quite a bit... I had a huarache and now I want to cook some.
• Met my brother and his wife at Cafe Pasquals; it never disappoints.
• We had one disappointing meal, at Coyote Cafe's rooftop cantina; I had an enchilada... the chile was ok but the enchilada had too much cheese and sour cream on it which made it feel gloppy.
• Finally, dinner at Artichoke Cafe in ABQ... still solid after all these years. 

Museum wise:

• The Museum of American Indian Culture on Museum Hill had an amazing Navajo rug exhibit; there were a few works and commentary by Barbara Teller Ornalez and Linda Teller Pete. I've taken a few classes from them so it was nice to see their work given the praise it deserves. ... The wedge weave tapestries were amazing. Some of the pieces were attributed to "a once know artist" instead of "an unknown artist which I really appreciated.
• The nearby Botanical Garden had an outdoor exhibit of works by Native American sculptors. 
• SITE in the Railyard had some really interesting contemporary art exhibits; pictures of the Arctic taken through a (melting) lens of ice in a huge boxlike homemade camera; huge cyanotypes of trans and non-binary artists, created on the National Mall in DC (the film was as interesting at the art); and an exhibit which used found glass bound with wire to create surfaces and sculptures. This is the first time I've really enjoyed contemporary art exhibits.

Zig, getting attention from the backup 

We also visited our favorite galleries, and attended the opening of a fiber arts show, run by EVFAC, at the Masonic temple. Very little of it was by Native American artists but the work in general was very high quality and certainly worth a visit if you're in town when it happens, and like to look at fiber-y things.

I can't really help but post this selfie... I don't really mind being the backup human; Z snuggled up with me after DH had gotten out of bed. He was VERY happy to be shedding hair on a handmade quilt again.

Komebukuro, just needs rice

Komebukuro #1 is done. I'm pretty happy with it, but I used a chambray for the lining and it's a little heavy with the recommended interfacing. I'll use a lighter fabric next time, and maybe skip the interfacing. I added a zipper pocket on one side of the lining. I have blocks ready for a second one and I think I have most of the fabric I need for 1-2 more. I think it's super cute but there's a lot of time in it; it's also larger than I expected, about a 8" cube. Someone on Etsy was selling bags with machine embroidered Sashiko on them (for $65ish) and it turns out I have some images for that... I might try that if I want to do more. 

I also started weaving on the ikat towels I was threading last report.... It's looking fun! I may try a different weft for the next one, possibly a lighter weight yarn and plain weave instead of twill. Not thrilled with the purple... It was supposed to be blue but there was a dye mishap...

What the heck will I do with Purple Towels?

New distraction, and obsessed with Komebukuro

I have a new distraction, an ebike, and can now climb a hill to the house! That'll likely make me less productive, but I'll be smiling a whole lot...

I've tried to figure out what happened to my interest in mosaic. The answer is the Studio has become a dumping ground for all kinds of crapola... This week I spent some time organizing and cleaning. It'll need another couple of rounds then I'll back at in and finishing that little table.

One side of my komebukuro

I've also been spending a lot of time on the komebukuro kit I picked up in Oregon.  I'll be working on them again and should finish one just before Thanksgiving. Here's one of the panels, most of the embroidery done, bathed in the oversaturated light at the end of the day...  Currently wondering if I should make some bags using my awesome embroidery machine instead of doing it by hand? And wondering where to take the rice?

I'm mostly done threading the loom with ikat. I have low expectations for this project; there were a lot of issues getting the warp on. But the shifting looks better than I feared. Before I use the warp shifter for another project, I'll need to evaluate some best practices for both dyeing and dressing the loom.

On the knitting front, the body of the vest is finished and I'm working on sleeve bands, button bands, etc. I've got a start on a cashmere cardigan.  I also am not pleased with the silk sweater I made (Shiny) and need to maybe add a couple of darts and definately shorten the sleeves.

Ikat Warp shifter!!! Komebukuro, and some cooking

Warp shifter? More info in a later post

I asked DH to make an ikat warp shifter for me: I'm currently trying to learn how to use it. Here's a teaser photo! And when I'm weaving I'll publish a review and some notes. I suspect this won't be a good test as the warp was poorly dyed (by me)... but weaving it anyways.

The October cookbook was Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean... I choose a baked fish dish, covered with a tahini sauce and chopped hazelnuts; I'd cook that again. Paula suggested to eat it with pickled veggies, and yep, that's the right side dish. This cookbook is organized differently than most modern cookbooks, and may not appeal to everyone, and I enjoyed the stories about where she found the recipes... And the Eastern Med covers a HUGE area, which was fascinating as well. 

Pasta wanna-be

For DH's birthday, I made cheese canneloni and a salad with the last tomatoes from the garden... I took a photo at the start but failed to take one of the finished dish! I made a pan of 3 servings, and yep, they were all gone... but there are 2 smaller pans in the freezer to eat later.  We opened a bottle of 2007 Castello di Ama Chianti Classico that we bought at the winery on our 25th anniversary trip... it needed some time to open up and in act was a lot better on the 2nd day. We've noted that for the other bottle we have.

P. and I picked up a pattern and fabric kit for Komebukuro at Sew Creative in Ashland; awesome shop!!! Komebukuro are Japanese Rice bags, used to carry offering of rice to the temple... these bags are super popular for project bags or lunch bags right now. I bought a fabric kit for it but can easily see using leftover fabrics; these bags are embellished with applique, and sashiko and boro stitching.  So far I've sewn together the sides of two bags; the kit is supposed to have enough for three. I'll use scrap fabric for the lining and maybe get a couple more bags from the nice thickish fabric in the kit... (What am I going to do with a bunch of bags? Hmmm...)

On the weaving front, I'm working very slowly through warping with the warp shifter. I don't know what I'm doing and that makes me hesitate. I will likely warp up a runner on the other empty loom.

The beginnings of my komebukuro

Sewing wise, I have nothing currently planned other than the rice bags. 

I cast on the April Cardigan (a v-necked cardigan in blue cashmere) for travel knitting, repeatedly. I finally got the hang of the right facing and left facing increases and am knitting away. It's a simple top down cardi and it's going pretty fast in the DK weight cashmere.

Still working on the Modular Color Vest version 2, since I screwed up version 1 pretty badly. I'd unraveled it and cast it on a while ago. I'm about 2/3 complete. 

Craftsy! I'm using it!

I started this tote based on instructions in Christina Cameli's Craftsy Class (The
Scrappy Tote Bag). This is the 3rd bag I've made... the other two are in the trunk of DH's car and he regularly uses them for groceries. I made the two embroidered panels from another Craftsy class (Eileen Roche's The Machine Embroidered Quilt) when I first got the embroidery machine, and have been wanting to incorporate them into something since.

Craftsy, incidentally, is a learning service offering hundreds of video classes in mostly arts and crafts... Quilting, knitting, spinning, sewing, fine art, cooking, and a lot of other things. I joined during the pandemic; the first year is VERY inexpensive, and after the first year, a full subscription to as many classes as you can view is fairly reasonable. I do not use it to it's full potential, although I'd like to use it more often. I can give a free year to three friends so if you're reading this and want to check it out, let me know!

Grocery bag, all scraps; the embroidered
panels are a little wishy-washy

I like working on these bags because it gives me a chance to practice some basic skills on a small and low stress project ending with a lovely useful item. They are, however, not low effort projects; after piecing the panels together, they are hand quilted, then the bag is sewn together and lined. 

On this one,  I used Bernina's Pinpoint Placement for the applique, and the Stitch Regulator for the free hand quilting... I also used the walking foot for the bulky things like sewing on the straps, and a variety of other methods, tools, etc. All of the materials are scrap from my stash. 

This really refreshed many of the things I learned when I did the last bag in 2021... I really like to combo of colors and textures (you can't see texture in the photo). I do wish I'd used softer blues and reds to match the center panels better; they are pink on hand dyed indigo dyed cotton. But I didn't want it to be too feminine, and I suppose I have the election on my mind and am channeling our patriotic colors. The word Patriot, and things that are red, white, and blue, belong to both parties, although I suspect both sides forget that too often.

Construction wise, I need to remember to leave enough room on the straps to edge stitch the top after the lining is put in... that and relax and enjoy the quilting. I had one mishap with the rotary cutter (my nemesis!) where I destroyed one of the embroidered panels and had to do another. It's good to remember to be careful with very sharp things.

I do intend to make a bag for a charity auction in the spring... gotta get going on that... And the quilting is motivating me to do more quilting. Maybe finish a couple of the quilts I have in progress.

There's nothing on the looms right now. I started tearing strips of sheets for some rag rug weaving but wow! it's very slow. Meanwhile, DH has finally implemented the ikat warp shifter he's been thinking about for over a year now... it's ready and now I need to get a project on it!

I'll blog separately about the Knitting Retreat.

Now I know why they weigh the dough when
they divide it.. the runt tasted delicious !

I've been cooking a lot, too. I'm just back from a trip to France followed a week later by a trip to Ashland, Oregon for a knitting retreat. So I guess I'm "nesting" a little. Yesterday I cooked sheet pan ratatouille, and today I made slow cooker dal using olive oil instead of ghee, and Paul Hollywood's Ciabatta. All was tasty although the ciabatta didn't have the large airy holes it ought to... The bonus to both of the dishes is that I can store it in the nearly empty freezer for the next few months.  I did revive my sourdough starter and will try some sourdough later this week; I also do it to save the discard to make crackers for DH. It's nice to make him something he really enjoys :)

Q3 '24 finished list (7/19)

Motif from a 4000 year old Iranian pot

Let's face it, I'm not going to finish anything else before EOQ tomorrow...  This quarter I finished:

• Red fabric and a shirt from it just in time to wear to Sweden (counting as two items)
• A swedish rag rug while in Sweden
• 2 runners, one of which now lives in France. I'm keeping the on with too many mistakes :) It doesn't look much different from the sample on the loom I showed in an earlier post.
  
• Cowl using planned pooling, which looks like flowers on a brown background.  I don't have photos yet. 

  Crappy watercolor but fun cards?

  
  
• I carved a stamp depicting Zig, and made a small run of cards, Zig, the dancers, and my frog. And I took an old watercolor drawing and chopped it up into a few cards as well... Now I have a dozen cards plus 4 or 5 postcards.

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September's cookbook challenge was Plenty: I made the Veggie pie, which was pretty much a quiche with roasted tomatoes, onions, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, and feta. I'd make that again. 

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I think I said this a few posts ago, but I need to shift some of my attention from making things to working out; I've lost a level of fitness and frankly it's now or never. I need to revisit my time and priorities... But I'll still be working on things. 

I'd like to spend more time printing... so I'll be looking at a periodic goal to carve a new stamp or learn a new technique.

I'd like to work through some of the stuff that's on Craftsy.

I'd like to set a periodic goal to work though that list of unfinished projects I came up with last March.

SOOOOO.... having said all of that, this is what's on my list for Q4. Note that having said I'd devote more time to it, the list has gotten longer than any other quarter.

Finishing: 

• Those two darn towels I just can't seem to finish.

Printing:

• I need a Christmas card, and have no ideas.
• I'd like to carve a block depicting G&M's Zig.

Knitting:

• I frogged and restarted the Modular Color Vest. It should go fast, it's thick yarn; I'm about 1/4 done with it now.
• The Day Dream sweater (Frogging, need to start over), or another sweater.

Spinning:

• The Diver's Cove roving is singles, needs to be plied.
• I have a bobbin of merino/tencel singles that need to be plied.

Weaving:

• A basket? I have the materials
• I've loosely promised some vegetable towels by April or so. It would be nice to make one or more veggie bags to go with it.
• I have double weave pillows designed and colors picked out... I need 2 for me and two for K.
• An Ikat (DH is working on a warp shifter for me)
• Placemats for the lodge using rag rug techniques.
• The poppy table, so I can start the table by the pool. I came back from France with some ideas.

Sewing:

• The tote bag from the embroidered piece I made a few years ago.
• Finish a started quilt
• Work more with the embroidery class I started.

I'm including the UFO LIST from March just to keep me honest... And yes! It's getting shorter.

Knitting: 

• Anna Zilboorg Sweater- I need to fish it out and make a plan 
• A Capella- frog and return the yarn to the yarn pool 
• Sunset and Sand- needs a decision frog or finish! 
• The jacket with the embroidery that needs rework. If I recall correctly there's an issue with the collar, and the sleeves, and I'm not sure what else...

Weaving:

• This is super easy, since it's either on the loom or not...  and there are projects on both looms. 
• However, there are two hand towels that need hemming. 
• I do have four ikat warps (one I dyed, two from Indonesia, and one from a friend) that need weaving. 

Quilting (Can the list really still be this long?):

• Fan blocks: I've been dithering about what to do with them for 20 years or so.
• The first Judy Niemeyer quilt (straighter pieces): I may need to figure out setting strips but otherwise I think I photoed a layout and I should be ready to finish the top.
• The second Judy Niemeyer class (curved pieces): I stopped while piecing the top together but I did photo the layout; so I need to remember what I was doing and do it.
• Judy Niemeyer place mat kit: it's in the bookshelf, waiting to be made.
• Chili pepper quilt: Ick
• Around the Twist quilt: It's done except I think a couple of the corners need sewing? This'll probably go to donation
• One or two Hawaiians (small) that need quilting
• A cute but fussy quilt that I started in pinks and blues but I'm not sure I'm precise enough to finish

Sewing:

• I have all the pieces ready for a big grocery bag, just do it

Spinning:

• Honestly I have no idea.

Mosaic:

• A table: Unsure of how I want the background to be
• A stepping stone: there's an area I made that needs rework.

Clearly I'm not counting raw materials (quilting fabric, knitting yarn, weaving yarn, tiles, sewing fabric). Let's not go there.

Some cards...

I took a class on my birthday from Molly Hashimoto, a print artist who's work I admire greatly... The class was relief printing (lino block) combined with water color. My goal was to create something quickly and get feedback before I went on vacation!

Photo, drawing, 
drawing transferred to block

I settled on a photo of the Ziggle... Carved in the rubbery Speedball speedycut block.  I don't happen to like this material; I feel like I don't have much control, and in fact struggled to get the lines around the eyes correct (I finally fixed them with a Sharpie). I also gouged out too deep of a line on one of the whiskers. After some reflection, and thinking about how Molly carved in her demo, I think my issue is that I'm going too deep. 

Colorized. Molly suggested I tint the mouth pink
and add some shading with blue (bottom right);
I don't have the water color skills for the shading

Here it is colorized; I fixed a section of the nose and drew in the right pupil by Sharpie. It's printed on watercolor paper or postcard (whatever I had) with a water soluble oil based ink, then watercolored with leftovers from my water color class. The eye color is pretty close to Zig's and I prefer the bluer green in the background. It definately captures his character, and I feel it's got a rough feeling of the old Kabuki posters... The one on the left is affixed to a card. I'm ridiculously pleased with these. 

I also printed up a few more frogs, and some of the dancers I'd copied from a 4,000 year old (chalcolithic) vase from Iran... Looking forward to carving some more!

Things that work:

• Putting a border around the print frames it and prevents some of the carving chatter marks. Breaking the border with an element of the picture can be effective.
• Carving deep on the speedy cuts doesn't work, but carving shallow might be fun to experiment with. I have colored ink; Molly uses almost exclusively black.
• Need to wait for the ink to dry to water color; 2 days seems good (depending on weather).
• A drying rack is a good idea.
• I ripped the paper which give fun edges, but I didn't rip all sides; maybe rethink this, or use the paper cutter for straighter sides. It might have been easier to use paper that was larger than I needed, I cut them pretty close.

And a quick note... the Cowl is done, the runners are done. No photos of them yet.

Going deep on a couple of subjects...

Let's face it, getting Covid on my trip to Sweden has derailed my travelogue...  I will get back to it... but meanwhile, this is some of what I'm doing; I'll go deep on a few things instead of being comprehensive.

Sourdough

There was something wrong with my starter... I suspected mold so I discarded it and tried to capture wild stuff. It's an interesting process; at first it smelled like dirty socks, then more dirty socks... but after a week it had a nice sour taste and smelled like beer. I assume it goes through phases as it acidifies (lactic acid) then finally settles on a colony of yeast and bacteria that are more pleasing to my nose. 

After 10 days, I'm baking bread... the starter doesn't seem as robust as it could be and I frankly was out of time baking-wise so I had to just slam it in the oven; it hasn't risen as the other batches did.  I've parked the starter in the fridge for the week (too much discard to process into crackers!!) and will revive it and try again next week; if it doesn't work I'll start over in October with the freeze dried starter I just got from the mill. 

V. mentioned that you can ask a nice baker to give you some starter in France... I may talk to Tartine if that doesn't work.

Cowl

I realized I didn't have enough yarn to finish... And I don't want to buy more (it's an indy dyer, so probably couldn't get any to match well enough anyways!) The cowl has an interesting feature where it increases 10 stitches then decreases 10 stitches then joins for the neck part. I asked my knitting buddies and we have no idea why the pattern maker did that; the only thing we can figure is that it might be to make it lay flatter on the back? So I ripped out the section of 10 increases and 10 decreases and joined it. I will have plenty of yarn now to finish. I need to buy a brown top to wear it with...

I think the reason I ended up short on yarn is because I've doubled the icord edge on both sides (knitted the 3 stitches twice), to make it lay flatter. I'm happy with that decision.

Weaving Stuff

Crappy hotel room pic of 
the rag rug

I might have implied I was in Sweden to weave a rug (I was) and so there is a new rug... It has these cute little bow inlays that probably won't survive an vacuum cleaner so it'll be a wall piece. Right now it's laying over an ottoman at the lodge, and I think I'd like to weave a rug to lay over the ottoman...

The rug is about 2'x4'. I was inspired by the water lilles (neckrosen) I saw in the Lund botanical gardens and in the river backwaters in Broby. The challenge I gave myself was to use whatever yarn was left after folks picked their colors and make something attractive... It's based on a VERY similar rug made by Nina <last name> our stand in teacher in <get the books name>. 

I'm currently dyeing fabric according to Marie Rollander's instructions, but using procion dyes.  Looks like the ingredient quantities are the same, but she uses washing soda instead of soda ash; I assumed I needed half as much soda ash as washing soda (I need to verify that). I used WAY too much blue dye and not quite enough green dye, so I have dark blues and lighter greens; I like them though. I dyed sheets I had here, plus some from the Thrift Store in San Carlos; the thrifted ones cost me less than $5 a sheet and one was a fun grey pattern with green animals on it. These will become placemats and a runner for the lodge.

Runners on the loom

I'm also making a couple of runners... One for a hostess gift, the other? Maybe we'll use it or maybe it will go in the potential hostess gift pile. I'll attribute the designer and pattern source in a later post.

Other

I've been trying to recover from the Covid episode... mostly I've just been fatigued. Until late last week, I could do one thing per day and the rest of the time I laid around or napped. To be fair, sometimes the one thing was two hours of chopping down brush and hauling it to the chipper pile, so it's not that bad. But I'm finally able to get back to a normal level of activity, and starting to build fitness back. 

I've been doing a fair amount of cooking as well... the only recipe of note was the peach ice cream recipe from The Perfect Scoop.  The fresh peaches give it a beautiful taste and a wonderful peachy pink color. If I made it again, I'd use half and half instead of heavy cream, but it was a delightful dessert along with a plate of fresh berries and sliced peaches.

Travelogue, Broby part 1

 I took the train from Copenhagen to Hassleholm, Sweden to meet up with the tour. The trains are neat and well kept and relatively ontime. What a pleasure to see Sarah and Simon again! We settled down in Broby to start our explorations the next day...

Broby Gastis

We stayed at the Broby Gästgivaregård, a 17th century building that was probably originally an old farmhouse... During the years that Skania was ruled by Denmark, the Danish King established a chain of stables through the region so he could change out his horses when travelling through the region; this became one of them. The last remodel re-exposed a lot of the old beams and gives the building a lot of character; despite it's age it's a comfortable place to stay. It wasn't clear to me if Sylvia and Frederick own it, or just run it; but it's well run with exceptional food.

The very. next morning, I woke up feeling super-crappy and emailed Sarah asking her to bring me a covid test. I tested positive and crawled back into bed. I had about two days of mild fever and slept a lot; then spent the next few days taking slow walks around town while the rest of the group went to the weaving class. Of course I could not join them.

Usually when we travel, DH and I are quite active and busy seeing everything we can possibly fit it... We don't have the concept of "slow travel" figured out. This forced quiet time for me was actually very enjoyable, just to slow down and look at what was around me. 

An old bridge

There's a history park with some old buildings

View from another bridge... this place is beautiful

Old railway converted to a rail-bike path

I also walked through the grocery store a few times, masked... I found this in the cat food aisle. The brand is pronounced Meow...

On the day we left Broby to transition to Lund, I tested negative, but a couple folks were not comfortable sharing a car with me; they took the tour van and I took the bus and train, which was frankly more enjoyable than a trip in the van!

Travelogue: Copenhagen day 2

Half of the hall of Danish chairs

On my second day in Copenhagen, I walked out to the Design Museum. About a third of the museum was current exhibits, one featuring avant garde fashion, the other, Japanese woodblock prints similar to the ones at the recent SF exhibit. The room full of chairs (I think 120?) was interesting as well a few rooms focusing on specific Danish designers (i.e. Poul Henningson). There's also a lovely textile section.  I enjoyed lunch in the garden at the museum cafe! I had the unpronouncable Smørrebrød.

In the afternoon, I did a walking tour with the Danish Architecture Center; we walked through the Borgen, and looked at a variety of older buildings, when across the river to see more modern buildings. The guide, and architecture student, talked about how the river was a run down collection of old warehouses, and the ways that Copenhagen had revitalized the area. It's now a hip collection of restored old buildings, new buildings incorporating old buildings, and straight out new buildings. It's clean, feels safe, and is a lovely place to be. 

det kongelige Bibliotek

Here's det kongelige Bibliotek (the Danish Royal Library), which is relevant to me as it's a source for book info in LibraryThing. 

Dinner was Fiskfrikadelle which was darn tasty.... I ate at a small restaurant on the square with the fuck you statue.  It was fine but I think there's far better food in Copenhagen...

Fiskfrikadelle

More photos at the same location as Day 1....

Social Protest

Travelogue: Copenhagen day 1

 It’s shameful that I only blog about my trips when DH isn’t with me…

This Bee was as big as the 
end of my thumb

I arrived in Copenhagen on Monday night… The airport baggage claim was overflowing with large wagons of baggage and I couldn’t figure out why… Were they staging it for tours or cruises? Can you book your luggage straight through to a cruise? I’m fascinated. At any rate, everything went well so I have no real complaints.

I’m staying at the Hotel Denmark; it’s around the corner from Tivoli Gardens and next to the National History Museum. It’s a nice hotel but a little too hip for me; also no AC (although I think there’s a fan) and is pretty noisy with the windows open. Restaurant choices in the area are pretty touristy

Viking weaving tablets, weaving sword, etc

Tuesday I visited the National Museum; they have a fantastic antiquities floor full of Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek and Roman artifacts in great condition. The collection was purchased by one of the Kings on a trip to Europe and previously the collection on an Italian Bishop. There were a number of exhibits on Danish pre-history, Viking era, early church and reformation, and colonial period, including the straight ahead message that Denmark was in fact the 7th largest slave trading country; St.Thomas in fact was Danish for a number of years. 

Awesome name for a haunted
cruise ship

There were a lot of spindle whorls, loom weights, and other weaving artifacts in the museum… Also a few very old wool textiles, and some nice knitted objects (post 1600s) and some older naalbinding. It didn’t say, but I think they must have been found in bogs. The weaving looked to be primarily twill. I also went through the Viking Sorceress Exhibit which presented some mythology and anthropological silliness followed by a large exhibit of Viking artifacts.

I went to check out the armor on this horse and rider, and the horse snorted at me! Scared the heck out of me.  Then it continued to make horse noises… There are a large number of paintings and sculptures featuring dragons, as well. Later I had a cardamon bun at the cafe, really really good.

Loud horse

I spent about 2 and a half hours at the museum then started walking…

I walked through the Christiansborg castle (The Borgen) and thought I’d recognized some spaces from the series… The horsey smelling Royal Stables are there as well as a couple other tourable spaces; I didn’t go in.

My route took me through Nyhavn, which was crowded full of tourists.. really lovely but might be better off season. 

Scenic Nyhavn

I saw the Copenhill, a current obsession, on the other side of the water. It’s a state of the art clean burning trash reclamation site (that’s just steam coming out the top); the slope on the left side is an artificial ski slope, there’s a bar at the top, and other recreation facilities… And it’s supposed to not smell like a dump. I'd like to visit it on my next trip.

Copenhill (why can’t we do this?)

On the way, I passed the Queens’s Winter Palace, a dock with multiple mega yachts anchored, and a star shaped park; I didn’t stop at any of them.  At the end of the walk, within site of 3 or 4 floating skyscraper tour boars, covered in tourists and flanked by tour busses, the little mermaid. It took some tricky maneuvering to get her without tourists…

Ariel! Don’t follow the guy!!!

On the way back to the hotel, I passed by another royal palace that had the crown jewels; the National Gallery and a bunch of train stations. Dinner was at Puk (pronounced pook), a Danish restaurant; I had a beet and cheese salad, and turbot with potoatoes. The thunderstorm that rolled through while I was eating cleared enough for me to get back to the hotel without getting wet… All in all, a good day.

More photos here.

Cooking and Baking and Spinning and Some Thread Graduates from the Studio into the Closet

This will be a longer than usual post because I've been doing things...

Cookbook challenge

June was Alice Waters The Art of Simple Food. It's a lovely book but more of a "you can do this"  book than a recipe book. It's got some great stories and some excellent ideas but I really struggled to figure out what to make.  I made a salad dressing and one other recipe but my heart wasn't really in it.

July is Rick Bayless's Mexican Every Day. I cooked chicken with red chile rice (with black beans!) to use up the chicken breasts in the freezer that I accidentally bought... I substituted a mixture of smoked paprika and cayenne for the ancho chile as I had none then served it with the tomatillo and chipotle salsa and a green salad completely from my garden. I'd like to try it again with ancho chile and chicken thighs. This was excellent with a French Gamay. 

Someone at my bread!

Speaking of the garden... I dumped the contents of the compost tumbler into the garden last year when I had to move the tumbler. The cucumbers are going absolutely crazy! I fear we're having a hard time keeping up.

Today, I cooked Rick's basic pinto beans recipe from the same book, 25 minutes in the pressure cooker; they're very basic but I enjoyed them for lunch with some salsa in them.  I used half of them for his cowboy beans recipe from the same book.  I used 8 cups of water and it's way too much, so I'm boiling some off... maybe 6 next time?

I also baked a loaf of whole wheat bread using packaged yeast and the recipe from the Sunrise Flour Mill. It's 1/5th whole wheat, with the rest being bread flour; it rose nicely and has a good taste and crumb. Sadly, I'm pretty sure the sourdough starter had mold on it so I got rid of it. I'll try again when I am home in two weeks or so.

Fiber

Maybe I should have dressed up
for the photo... 

The red fabric is off the loom! and is now a shirt!  It's graduated from the Studio into the Closet! Here's the critique:

I did sample the yarn at three setts and decided it didn't matter that much, and settled at 30 EPI; I think 33 could have been a better choice and have made the sewing easier.

Having said that, the sett was firm enough where I didn't have to go to extreme measures to stablize the cut edges; I did handle it carefully and there was some fraying, but it was manageable. I used French seams and an applied facing made from cotton t shirt material so all the cut edges are enclosed. 

I didn't want to spend the rest of life threading heddles so I opted to have a center seam. I left about an inch on each side of the lace weave in plain weave but it wasn't consistent so the center seam looked a little wonky; I ended up sewing an extra line down the front to compensate. DH said it looked like a purpose style decision (yay!). Regardless, you have to be looking close to see it and I'm not unhappy with the outcome. I didn't factor in the shrinkage correctly and was a tiny bit short on the fabric but it fits anyways.

Fabric close up with ruler in inches for scale

The fabric has an obvious diagonal stripe so I slanted it in a V down the front and back, by flipping half of the fabric. But the design is made by threads floating over other threads, and they float horizontally on one side and vertically on the other resulting in each side having a slightly different luster. I suspect I may be the only one to notice this.

I'm extremely happy with the fit, the fabric, the overall look and this will be a piece I'll get a lot of use from!

In other fibery adventures, I hosted a spinning meetup for the Guild at my new fav coffee place,  the Village Hub in Woodside. It's a coffee kiosk in an oak grove at a church, with the goal of building community. Between that and the TdF, I finished the blue green merino/bamboo silk I'd started a while ago. I still need to ply that and the blue/black merino tencel.

The sweater I was knitting is on time out; my gauge is way off and it's never going to fit. This is why we swatch! But I never knit the same as my swatches... Meanwhile, I started a cowl that I bought the yarn for earlier this year, using a technique called assigned pooling. It's a color changing yarn and you do something special every time you encounter a special color. It's a perfect project to take on my trip!

Speaking of trip, I'll be travel-bloging here. 

And lastly, I'm taking a drawing class with G. Here are two apples.

 

 

Q2 Finished list (6/12)

 I feel like I didn't take Q2 seriously, but somehow when I write it all down, it feels like a lot got done!!! 

1. 

   New born yarn!

   Finished spinning and plying the fiber from KAFF, about 8 oz fingering to light fingering 2 ply. It's a little under plied and I may run it back through the wheel to correct that. Under-plying seems to be my issue.
2. Wove a double huck sampler and the scarf. I'm super disappointed in the scarf as there are too many errors, but I'll own it. The class was great, it's just not my structure.
3. The goat fiber is now 3 ply yarn.
   
4. Shiny sweater is now in the closet.
5. Wove a green fabric sample (3 different setts) in preparation for doing the red fabric for the top.
6. A small and poorly executed but nevertheless adorable pine needle basket, from a class by Cata Gomes. I've bought some pine needles and synthetic sinew and will be trying this soon. I'll post the photo of the basic soon

What's in process or slated for Q3?

Two trips, a fiber adventure in Sweden and a bicycle trip in France. This, plus the bike training, should limit the things I can get done from this list, but here it is.

1. I found the two towels that just need hemming.
2. I'll be travelling to Sweden and taking a rag rug class, so I'm assuming I'll have a rag rug when I get home.
3. The red fabric for a shirt on the loom and weaving, and close to done.
4. Two runners for hostess gifts are wound and ready to go on the loom
5. The Day Dream sweater
6. I have double weave pillows designed and colors picked out... I need 2 for me and for K.
7. I have a bobbin of merino/tencel singles that need to be plied.
8. Maybe I'll finish spinning the Diver's Cove roving.
9. A basket?
10. The poppy table, to make it a round 10. We desperately need me to redo the table by the pool so I need to start working on a design for that and make room in the studio, so getting the poppy out and in use is important.

And the usual other projects, mosaic, quilt finishing, bread baking, embroidery, printing, sewing, and all that other stuff I keep getting into.

Greek inspired lunch

 I made a Greek inspired lunch for my sister and her friend J; I love my sister and J is always a treat to hang out with. I loved the recipes, too, so will record them here:

Lamb meatballs, baked, not fried. This made 12 meatballs, which for lunch was plenty, but I think I'd double the recipe if I made it again. Fifteen minutes in the oven is plenty

Tzatziki, with cucumbers from my garden and a little mint to complement the lamb

tzatziki Saturday

Greek Fava which is super easy and very tasty... Essentially, it's hummus made with yellow split peas and no tahini. I got it super smooth in the blender.

A simple greek salad, also with my own cucumbers (super prolific plant!)

Homemade sourdough bread... This was my best effort yet but not very crusty and did not rise as high as I think it should. I wonder if I'm getting my starter ready enough. Still, this was a step in the right direction. I'm going to do more reading and maybe stop overthinking it. Or ping M to see if he can guide me from afar.

I also through in some crackers from the sourdough discard I've been saving. DH loves them and they're easy... so... crackers...

The pressure is on to finish this!

And a peach galette. The peaches were super ripe so I only used a little sugar; a little more would have been better. 

For dinner, DH and just had a slice of bread with some fava and salad.... and a glass of Greywacke The Contours Sauv Blanc... I think 2014? It's a wild yeast and I love the slightly funky taste of it. 

On the fiber front, I've got a few things going... I'm frantically trying to finish this red cotton yardage so I can make a shirt out of it to wear on my trip in two weeks. I'm hoping to weave off the last 20 inches or so tomorrow, it's a fast weave and a lot of fun so it's totally doable. 

Tour de Fleece!

We're also watching the TdF, and despite the fact I promised I would not do the Tour de Fleece, I caved when HH's son 3D printed a little case for it that mounts on a tripod. So I'm spinning Frost Yarn's Diver's Cove that I got at the final Stitches event. For scale, the little spinner is about 4x5 inches.

Last (but not least) I'm still knitting on that sweater in the Invito yarn... no photos. 

All other projects are currently stalled.