• US 1 circular Addi’s
• KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud in Iris Heather
• Flutter by MimKnits

]]> http://www.stephannietallent.com/2008/07/01/its-now-tv-knitting/knitting/feed http://www.stephannietallent.com/2008/06/30/independence-goals/spanish-bungalow/yard-garden http://www.stephannietallent.com/2008/06/30/independence-goals/spanish-bungalow/yard-garden#comments Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:50:19 +0000 admin http://www.stephannietallent.com/?p=449 Quick update on the Independence goals:

• Plant something:  nada but we did clean out the garage and I have identified several sets of bins to make into homemade earthboxes (PDF here)
• Harvest something:  ate some Santa Rosa plums;  ate some plums from a coworker off her Santa Rosa plum tree
• Preserve something:  nada, not enough to harvest
• Plan/Manage:  does cleaning the garage count and finding my containers count?  see Plant Something above.  The following still need to be worked on

1. making self-watering containers
2. picking out appropriate veggies/lettuce for said containers
3. ordering said seeds
4. finalizing my yearly garden calendar (for native plants, fruit trees, and veggies) so I don’t get such a late start on various things (and so Dave knows the overall picture)
5. finding the local food sources for beef
6. learning about canning and ordering equipment
7. set up my ‘dye studio’
8. watering system for the fruit trees and food garden and containers

• Cook Something New:  I didn’t, but Dave learned how to roast a chicken
• Work on Local Food Systems:  Identified a source of chickens, Rainbow Ranch, and bought a couple chickens to try — very good!  Bison we can get at the Torrance Saturday FM.  Eggs?  need to look into and talk to the guys at the FM.
• Reduce Waste:  no change here, still composting & recycling
• Learned a new skill:  I learned a new provisional cast on for knitting (okay, I’m stretching here!)

The first two starts at Flutterby were swatches.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

FWIW I started on US 3 and am now on (and happy with) the fabric in US 1’s…..

Time to change that.

I just purchased Sensual Knits for MimKnit’s Cleopatra Wrap pattern. I purchased an extra skein of Malabrigo lace in Indigo expressly for this, making a special trip to Twist Yarns, looking at all the skeins Cathy had, trying to get the closest matching (if you know Malabrigo, you know the same dyelot (which all the other skeins were) doesn’t mean the skeins are going to be even remotely alike).

I was doing beautifully til I realized I made an error in one section. I fudged it a little to try to fix it, dropping a stitch and trying to create a YO, etc.

The mistake wasn’t noticeable to Dave, but then he’s missed huge hunks of lettuce stuck between my front teeth before (you know how your bare your teeth at someone after a meal so they can check for embarrassing bits of food? like if you’ve been married awhile, or are really close friends, or it’s your mom?).

Of course it was glaringly obvious to me. And if I’d wanted to show the eventual FO to a fellow knitter, they’d've zeroed right in on it.

So, after continuing another six or eight rows (in the vain hope it would, I suppose, magically fix itself), I decided to try to rip just that section (after diligently googling several tutorials and examples) and reknit the offending rows.

Of course it didn’t work. It was late at night. The yarn is really skinny (duh, it’s LACEWEIGHT) and sticky/grabby so whenever I ripped, it wouldn’t want to rip, then I would apply a bit more pressure and BOOM it ripped several more rows down. And knitting it back up was not fun. The center part looked fine, but the edges had too much yarn, and when I tried to even it out….ARGH.

So it’s frogged.

I decided then to make my first attempt the Flutter Scarf. Smaller, less stuff going on, easier. Not that the pattern for the Cleo wrap is hard — it’s not. It’s the same sort of YO/SSK/K2Tog sort of thing as the New England socks.

Regardless, I’m using some KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud in Iris that I’d been offering FSOT. Longtime stash yarn. Good. I’ve learned a new provisional cast on, which is also good. I’m now a couple pattern repeats into it and, so far, all is well.

I’m thinking the Cleo wrap will be my next new WIP, after I successfully conquer Flutterby.

• Plant something
• Harvest something
• Preserve something
• Plan/Manage
• Cook Something New
• Work on Local Food Systems
• Reduce Waste
• Learned a new skill

Planting:  right now I don’t have anywhere to plant anything else.  I do want to make some self-watering containers out of some currently unused storage bins ala The Urban Homestead book so I can start some summer lettuces, chives, etc.

Harvesting:  well, we do have leeks we can harvest.  Because I was late planting my tomatoes, we don’t have any of those yet.  And we have been harvesting a small amount of fruit from our trees as it becomes ripe.

Preserving:  um, this goes under learning a new skill first.  I want to learn how to can this summer.  Or else our surplus tomatoes will be sundried.

Cook something new:  Will look for something new at the Hermosa FM this Friday.  Does this mean a new sort of foodstuff?  or a new recipe?

Work on local food systems:  I’m currently trying to identify sources of chicken & grass fed & finished beef.   I thought I was being good getting these at Whole Foods til I read the corporate organic chapters in Omnivore’s Dilemma.  We usually get our fruits & veggies from the FM but I want to make this a weekly habit instead of a ‘oops, we forgot to go to the FM and now we need to get these at Whole Foods’ situation.

I’ve been going through sites/stores at Local Harvest, Eat Wild, and Eat Well Guide.

Plan/manage:  A lot can go into this.  Let’s make the immediate goals include

1. making self-watering containers (a subset of this is cleaning out the garage to identify the best containers for this)
2. picking out appropriate veggies/lettuce for said containers
3. ordering said seeds
4. finalizing my yearly garden calendar (for native plants, fruit trees, and veggies) so I don’t get such a late start on various things (and so Dave knows the overall picture)
5. finding the local food sources for meat
6. learning about canning and ordering equipment
7. set up my ‘dye studio’
8. watering system for the fruit trees and food garden and containers

Reduce waste:  We already compost all our vegetable & fruit scraps.  I recently bought some Pyrex containers with lids so I wouldn’t be using ziplock baggies as much.

Learn a new skill:  Well, as noted, I want to learn different ways of preserving our garden bounty.  I’d like to make different cheeses, too (all I’ve made is mozzarella). I’m still very much learning to spin, and would like to learn to dye this summer.  I’m also learning how to prepare fleece including using Ma Petite.

(From left and moving clockwise: Obi, Cali and Megs)

Next, Drifting Pleats:

And finally, Rigel:

]]> http://www.stephannietallent.com/2008/06/15/drifting-pleats-and-gratuitous-pet-pics/knitting/feed http://www.stephannietallent.com/2008/06/15/june-goals-or-why-do-i-bother/knitting http://www.stephannietallent.com/2008/06/15/june-goals-or-why-do-i-bother/knitting#comments Sun, 15 Jun 2008 16:29:42 +0000 admin http://www.stephannietallent.com/?p=440 I finished the Drifting Pleats scarf. I started a new sweater (Mr Greenjeans again, this time in Malabrigo).

I did not finish Dave’s Irish Moss scarf, I did not work on the Eyelet Cardi. I did not work on Herbstlied. I’m in the process of frogging the current rendition of the boucle scarf. (Have already frogged once.)

I did spin a little.

June goal: finish the Malabrigo sweater.

That’s it. Short and sweet.

It’s a massive, sturdy piece of equipment once assembled. I put it together last night, making the proper bloody sacrifices (the licker drum bit my ankle), and carded 8 or so batts (yes, I’m obsessive) of the fleece from an online auction to help a farm that got flooded. (I thought I’d blogged about that but apparently not.)

(BREAK)

Okay, I just did a few more batts this morning. I think I have enough for a couple sweaters once I get this whole fleece carded.

I may try dyeing some of it for some subtle hints of color.

The tri was Sunday, we drove down Friday afternoon and arrived a little before 9pm at the Cow Hollow Motor Inn (cheap large clean rooms very close to the start/finish of the triathlon).  We had some very tasty pizza at Amici’s, across the street from the motel.

The next morning we drove the bike course, visited the tri expo & picked up Dave’s packet & listened to the race brief.  We had take out lunch from the Blue Barn (shared a Rooster chicken sandwich, delicious) then went to Sports Basement to get Dave a drifit t-shirt for the race (he forgot his at home).

I’d made Open Table reservations earlier in the week for Saturday and Sunday nights.  Saturday we met Dave’s friend Cosmo at A 16 — very tasty Italian food, Cosmo had pizza, Dave and I shared a really good arugula and nectarine salad, I had gnocchi in a corn broth and a side of broccoli, Dave had swordfish and a side of potatoes.  We shared the aprium parfait for dessert.  I’d go back.

Dawn of race day was clear and cool.  I dropped Dave off at the transition zone then headed back to the room for a few hours.  By the time I got back to the tri area the first swimmers were heading to T1 — the current was wickedly fast!  I headed down to the beach by the yacht club and watched for Dave.  A lot of people were way overshooting the exit point.  Dave got out right where he was supposed to, yay!  He looked tired.  I got a couple pics then ran around to the spot where the athletes where putting off shoes etc for the run to T1.  I got to cheer Dave on as he went past the first water stop.  He ran on to T1 and I walked quickly to a spot where I could cheer and take pics as he rode by on the bike.

I cheered everyone on as best as I could.  Since I’m still getting over bronchitis, my voice wasn’t doing so great by the end of the race.  I was able to get pics of Dave on the bike and a pic of Dave as he started  on the run.  I didn’t get finish pics b/c Dave got a little misoriented on the run back — he ended up on the spectator side of the fence because some of the cones had been moved.

Afterwards Dave grabbed some cookies and we walked back to the motel.  He showered (another yay!) and we grabbed lunch at the Blue Barn (again), sharing a Rooster and a large salad and a Pellegrino.

Naptime then over to the California Wine Merchant for some pre-dinner, celebratory wine drinking!  Of the wines I tried I loved the Stemmler Pinot Noir.  Dave tried a Duckhorn Sauv Blanc and two different (one French, one Californian) Viogniers.

Sunday night we had dinner — a mix of small plates — at Laiola.  Absolutely delicious.  The  only dish I wasn’t as excited about was the Tortilla Española– I think it needed a bit more oomph in the garnish.  We also had the “Esquiexada” of Pacific Halibut (mostly for Dave, but I tried a bite, no hint whatsoever of fishiness, very light and tasty), Chickpea croquetas (very tasty olive aioli), Cigrons amb morcilla (chickpeas with blood sausage, very savory), Bacon-wrapped Medjool dates (our favorite),  and some ham-wrapped roasted peaches.  We would most definitely go back.  It was a lot of fun.

Monday we grabbed coffee at the Chestnut Street Coffee Roastery (actually our daily coffee fix, short walk from the motel) and headed out to Paso Robles for a bit of winetasting on the way home.  We visited Pianetta (nice!), Falcon’s Nest, and Tobin James (to whose wine club we belong).

And the knitting?  I finally finished my Drifting Pleats scarf (pattern from Knitting New Scarves).  Two skeins of Malabrigo silky merino (about 1 yard, if that, leftover).