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.

 

More Cookbook Challenge, more bread, some fiber

We're back on the cookbook challenge. DH picked out Alice Waters The Art of Simple Food for June. Today I cooked cream scones, and added pistachios and cranberries to them. I accidentally ate on while it was still warm... it was pretty good. I'll look for something healthier to cook from it...

I made some greek/greekish dishes from the internet and from the Sea Salt and Honey cookbook (which is due back at the library). I made a beet and orange salad, served over some Mizuni and Arugula from the garden; Fava (a spread similar to hummus but with yellow split peas), and shrimp saganaki; the first day we had it with homemade crackers (1/3 whole wheat), the second with homemade whole wheat sourdough, both nights with a nice bottle of Sclavos Robola of Cephalonia (in celebration of Penelope and Odysseus).

The whole wheat sourdough boule did not work out well.  It seemed to have plenty of structure; it got a lot of folding and stretching; the first rise went well, I shaped the loaf and put it in the fridge overnight... It may have been overproofed when I got around to it the next day, but something happened and it just deflated right before it went in the oven. You could even see a little fold at the edge where it fell. I was devastated. However it tasted great and the texture was fine, it was just flatter than expected and it overflowed the dough sling I'd bought just for this purpose. I also used the stock pot because I forgot we had a dutch oven, although I doubt that was the issue. I'll be baking again this weekend to see if I can figure it out!

I used the Clever Carrot's light whole wheat recipe, with the starter named Krusty. https://www.theclevercarrot.com/2014/01/sourdough-bread-a-beginners-guide/)

For the next loaf, I'll use S's instructions and her starter "Hermione"; it's already fed and out of the fridge. I also need to replenish the crackers; I'm going to try a sourdough discard recipe

• Work on the table: Nope. And still looking at other ideas for the pool deck.
• Make 2 runners: Thread is here. I need to wind a warp.
• Bronson Lace: I'm threading.
• Test the Seamwork Hansie pattern: It's done. It's a little baggy on the back of the arm. I'm thinking about how to fix it. This might be related to the fact that my shoulders slope more from neck to arm than they do for the average person. Or it could be that I have a rounded upper back from years of slaving away over a computer screen. Meanwhile, I've decided to use an old pattern that I've used for two sleeveless tops for the Bronson. It'll be fabulous.
• I did a small amount of spinning on the fiber I started at DH's gig.
• I'm knitting on the Invito.
  

I do have some concerns about the Invito fit. It's a top down raglan with a high front v-neck; I should be able to try it on as I go to check the fit. Basically you're increasing along the raglan lines I think until the armpits. Looking at my body shape, I notice a distinct drop off from my shoulder to my arm when my arm is hanging at my side. So... doesn't it make sense that it wouldn't increase as fast once you hit the shoulder? Maybe I'm suppose to wear it standing akimbo? I asked my knitting group and I don't think they understood my point... I'm going to have to either a) think on this a bunch or b) trust the pattern.

I have no photos today so here's one of the mister playing at his gig. It was fun to say "I'm with the band"!

Toast!

The last time I posted (mid May), I seemed to have some momentum... but it feels like it's faded. But one of the reasons I keep this blog is to prove (to myself) that things are not as lazy as they seem!  I've annotated the list I made last time:

• Finish Shiny: Yep! It's done. Although it fit PERFECTLY off the needles, it grew about an inch in every dimension after a quick blocking. Wah. I'm going to wear it a few times before I shorten sleeves or look at other options.
• Work on the table: Yep! I worked on the table! I cut 20 or so more leaves but still need another 20 or 30. I'm looking at ideas for the poolside dining table.
• Make 2 runners: We picked one out! And I ordered fiber! So that's progress.
• Finalize decisions and set up the Bronson lace for weaving: Decisions are made. It's wound. I just can't seem to get the energy to get it on the loom
• Test the Seamwork Hansie pattern: Nope. No progress here, but since I'm waiting on the Bronson lace fabric, yeah, that's okay.

The DH played keyboards at a Jam Session at a local brew pub one Sunday; I walked there (yikes! 10 miles, the last 3 with blisters) but then spent the afternoon spinning on the Nano and listening. I started a blue/green merino/silk/bamboo.

I started a very basic sweater in Invito and I'm pretty excited about it.

You may see a loaf of bread but 
I see Toast and Sandwiches

On the cooking front, I found a wheat that doesn't hurt me!!!  I now have a bread journal; if you're reading this (and you're not me) and want to look at it, send me an email. I currently have 2 sourdough cultures going (should I combine them?).  I've made two loaves of plain white sandwich bread (easy) and one loaf of sourdough sandwich bread using this recipe. I'll admit the sourdough is more interesting, but the plain white bread was pretty good too!  There was also an 18 minute plus baking exercise in Matzo, and some seeded crackers (seeds didn't stick). Still yummy.

I also cooked the stuffed peppers from Tsakiris's Sea Salt and Honey cookbook that I picked up at the library, using leftover turkey from the freezer, quinoa, and some rather interesting spices.  It's not the right cookbook if you want to cook classical greek food, but it's an interesting Greek-ish cookbook with lovely commentary and some interesting dishes!

Lots to report for mid May!

New Born Yarn

I've been spending time in the garden, getting some food crops in for summer, and some out on the bike getting read for a BackRoads tour in September... and it feels like I'm not doing anything in the studio! But I assessed the last few weeks and here's the list:

I finished plying the fiber I'd bought years ago at the KAFF in Oregon... It's 8 ounces of slightly underplied two ply. I plied 4 ounces of varigated singles with 4 ounces of a brown sheep wool labeled "Tasmanian Comeback".

Border of double huck scarf

The double huck samples and project are done. I really liked the class; I learned a lot about how to think about and manipulate structure. It was pretty fussy and I made a number of treadling mistakes and I'm not pleased with the end result. But it's also thick enough to be unwearable in this climate so I'm okay with not wearing it. Will I do it again? I think it would make a wonderful and luxe bath towel (in cotton) but it was so fussy I'm pretty much not interested in weaving it again. This felt like a successful project even though I feel the result was not entirely successful.

Goat, ready for a project

That goat fiber I was spinning? I finally finished plying it all and it's in the finished yarn closet. It's a pile of yummy inconsistently spun worsted-weight+ yarn... Not sure what I'll do with it. The original thought was a carpet but after I started I wished I'd taken more time to remove the VM and to spin it a bit more consistantly.

I finished weaving the Atwater Bronson Lace sample in 20/2 cotton; I sampled at 3 different setts (36, 32.5, and 30). I thought I'd like the denser sett but honestly like the two lighter ones better. I'm still debating 32.5 vs. 30 and am now waffling on color but should be starting that in the next week or so.

DH helped me upgrade my sewing machine and I now have Bernina Pinpoint Placement. I'm working with a snap hoop and I had a lot of issues with the first project... So the pattern is off by a quarter inch or so in a couple of spots. I think it'll still make an okay pillow for somewhere... but it was leftover batting scraps and unbleached muslin for a practice piece so I don't feel that attached. I'll put together a post on all that I am learning.

I also made some decisions about the table-in-progress and did cut some glass for it last week.

Finally, the Shiny sweater is on the homestretch; I only have half a sleeve to go, plus 2 seams and the sleeve hems. I'm pretty excited about this!

I'll spend some time thinking about what's next... but what's clear is:

• Finish Shiny
• Work on the table
• Make 2 runners, one for the France Trip
• Finalize decisions and set up the Bronson lace for weaving
• Test the Seamwork Hansie pattern