Back for Lunch

Yesterday I went back to my former school for lunch with the “girls”. I guess I’ve been away long enough that it was really familiar but definitely my former school, my old office, my previous job. I still knew all the old buzz words and could empathize with what they’re going through but I’m done – I’m not the one responsible any more. It felt good! Apparently it’s been a tough few months with lots of staff turnover and more than the usual problems involved with running a large school kitchen. And I’m not the one responsible. I’ve gone on to teaching knitting classes, taking classes myself in things I’m interested in, and catching up on stuff I’ve always wanted to do but never had the time. It really is true that I can’t imagine how I found the time for work before. I’m truly blessed.

So what have I been doing? I’ve been spending most of my knitting time on the Hemlock Ring Afghan. I decided that I should keep going beyond the standard size since I have so much yarn left. As far as I can tell from reading other peoples info about their Hemlock the standard size blocks out to about 48” around. I’d rather have a more substantial afghan and so I’m going to go as far as my yarn will let me. I weighed the yarn ball before and after row 57 and it took me 8 gms to knit that row. All 504 stitches of it. I roughly estimated that I should be able to knit up through row 70 and that I should get an afghan about 54 inches in diameter. We’ll see how my estimating skills are! Here is what it looks like now.

I’ve ordered a whole cone!! of Jaggerspun Zephyr wool/silk laceweight yarn. I’ve got two shawls in my queue that I’m planning on making with it. The Orkney Pi shawl, and the Slow Bee shawl. (ravelry link) I’m not sure I’m in my right mind (am I ever?) considering that the cone has almost a mile of yarn on it! That’s a lot of knitting. Of course I have several sweaters in progress, the Great American Aran Afghan, the Charlotte’s Web Shawl, and I imagine several other unfinished objects. But why let that stop me. I have all the time in the world right. And more ideas and projects than can be completed in my lifetime. But I’m having fun and getting a lot done.

By the way my daughter Amy went to see the Yarn Harlot in Philadelphia and Abigail got her picture on her blog! She looks cute as always, and she's wearing a onsie that Amy made for her. And as long as I'm talking about Abigail I might as well show you what she looks like at her first ball game. Taken by Amy in Baltimore and the Yankees lost.

Too Much Good Cooking

If you look closely at the Compadre and me you would notice that I really do like to cook. And that I’ve been doing more of it at home since retiring from my full time cooking job. I’ve got a bookcase of cookbooks, a box of magazine clippings and a large folder on my computer of recipes to try. And it’s been so much fun to try them. The Compadre read an article in one of his news magazines about what not to get your wife for a gift – written by a woman. Her top thing that a husband shouldn’t get his wife was – get this – a Kitchen Aid mixer! Ha, ha, ha, ha! He knows me well to know that the absolute best gift he could get me – and I don’t really need it – would be the new 6 qt. kitchen aid mixer. Better than diamonds – well almost. When we remodeled our kitchen we made sure that the distance between the countertop and the upper cupboards was enough to fit one. But my old 5 qt. mixer is still gamely mixing along and I can’t justify replacing it. It’s made countless loaves of bread, batches of stiff cookie dough, and everything else I can throw at it. I sound like an advertisement don’t I. I really do like my mixer! I saved up money to buy it, by taking care of a friend’s daughter for her while she worked, back in the days when I was a stay at home mom with a very limited budget. I’ve never regretted that purchase.

So anyway, last week I made The Pioneer Woman’s Apricot Oatmeal Bars twice – they were that good. I had two pot luck type of activities to bring them to so I just had to make them - I had to, I tell you. One of the ways I “improved” on her recipe is that I mixed it in the kitchen aid. Why mix by hand when the mixer will do it for you so much more easily and better too! It does work to do it by hand but you have to wait for the butter to really soften or you’ll be working very hard! I also used peach preserves instead of apricot but that is minor. You could use any kind of jam, jelly or preserves you wanted. I happened to have peach on hand. I’m sorry but this is the only picture I took. They went fast, they were so good. Easy to make too.

Shepherd's Harvest

My, time flies when you're having fun! It's been a while since I posted. With Shepherd's Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival, Mother's Day, my birthday, and teaching I've been very busy.

Saturday, I went with my friend Betty to Shepherd's Harvest and we had a wonderful time. I think that I've finally gotten to the point where I know that my stash is adequate and I really didn't buy all that much. (Compadre, I reserve the right to change my mind!) I did look at a lot of spinning wheels because I've decided that my Ashford Traditional is going to be replaced. I bought it used and it has a slightly warped wheel and it is frustrating to spin on. I will keep my Babe for a traveling wheel and so I'm looking for a nice, versatile, beautiful, easy to spin on wheel to use at home. I might have found it in the Majacraft Rose that I tried. A trip to Detta's Spindle is in my future. Detta has the best selection of wheels I've ever seen and she is a fount of knowledge about them. I'm sure that I'll find something that I like there. Oh, and I'm going to give my Ashford to my daughter Amy. I'm sure she'll be able to figure out how to fix it and make it work - after all she's an engineer!


Here is what I bought. The shuttle and book were from the Mielke's Farm booth and the pattern from the Earth Heart Designs booth. Betty and I did the rational thing and looked at everything first and then went back for the things that we remembered and still wanted. Remembering them was important - if you don't remember that you wanted something then you didn't really want it that badly did you!

And here's the animal photos. Cute lambs, lhama's, alpaca's. I didn't get the young man's name that posed with his animal but when we asked how much it would cost he asked his Dad and the answer was 300 - 600.

























And get a load of this Merino sheep. He has so much wool it looks like he(or she) can't even move!

My birthday was on Mother's Day this year and so it made for a celebration packed day! I had fun and was treated with lot's of special love. My daughter Anita found a list of restaurants that give you something free on your birthday. We went to Romano's Macaroni Grill and had a wonderful meal and I shared my free piece of chocolate cake with everyone. Mmmmm.

Yeast Matters

Some weeks ago I told you that I had tried the Almost No Knead Bread (by Cook's Illustrated) recipe and that the jury was still out. I haven't forgotten that and have been working on figuring out why all the testimonials about the bread recipe were so glowing and my results were so - not. I tried it twice and altered the temperature of the oven - the recipe says to preheat to 500 and then to lower to 425 - I reduced the temps by 25 degrees. I think that my oven is a little hot - if you try this recipe use your judgment about the temp and your oven. Anyway, both times the bread was dense and just not as good as I wanted it to be. It took watching the video and paying attention closely for me to realize that - of course - yeast matters. When you're using only 1/4 tsp. of yeast and your yeast is of unknown age, well, maybe it's the problem. Duh. So the third time was the charm and as I write, I'm making it a fourth time. It's good bread. More expensive than I would like because we don't normally drink beer very often here and gosh, once you open the bottle someone has to drink the rest. But I guess sacrifices can be made for a good loaf of bread. I'm going to figure out how to make two loaves at once so that I can more efficiently use the oven heat and of course the beer. I'm trying lately to be more environmentally aware.

So the recipe is available on the cooks illustrated website and I got it somehow without signing up for the "14 day free trial" but now I can't link to it directly. But Breadtopia has two excellent videos that tell you how to do it. It takes 3 cups of flour, 1/4 tsp of yeast, 1 1/2 tsp of salt, 7 oz. of water, 3 oz. of beer and 1 tablespoon of vinegar. I used a measuring cup and didn't weigh it and it worked just fine. Watch the videos for his step by step portrayal of the unusual method. I used my cast iron dutch oven and it worked very well. You have to have a dutch oven that can go in the oven - some have handles that can't take the high heat. Make sure you check yours out before trying this.







My bread looked like this last night. Today it's all gone! It's easy and fun to make. If you've got the equipment I recommend trying it. Good eating!

Maryland Sheep and Wool Guest Post

My mom asked me to do a guest blog post and I’ll admit I was a little intimidated. Hardly anything knitting related intimidates me (except maybe intarsia) but writing about it makes me a little nervous. Actually this was kind of fun and I could perhaps be talked into it again.

On Saturday I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival with my friend Jen and my daughter Abigail. I’ve never been to something like this before so it was pretty neat to see so many knitters in one place. I saw many knitted sweaters, shawls and socks etc. and people knitting while sitting in the shade or standing in line. It took an hour and a half to get there and half an hour to get into the parking lot.

First we looked at a lot of sheep. Abigail wasn’t too fond of the sheep barns and she started fussing. She did stare down a sheep and won the staring contest. Later we found some alpaca. They were for sale, but I’d have to sell both our cars to pay for them. Jen asked if Eric could ride an alpaca to work.

There were lots and lots of fun booths. I was tempted by the buffalo yarn with cashmere and quivet. It was very soft and I could make a lace scarf. I was also tempted by some beautiful glass knitting needles. Both of these items would probably end up sitting looking pretty on a shelf, so instead I bought some sock yarn. Jen laughed at me as I waited in a very long line to buy Socks That Rock. I figured it must be good stuff if so many people wanted it. They were picked pretty bare when I checked back in the afternoon. I got some sock yarn from another booth too, but the yarn isn’t labeled, I paid cash and I didn’t get a business card so I can’t tell you who sold it to me. It turns out I must like orange because all four sock yarns have orange in them.

I also bought a small print of a sheep painting “High Strung” by Conni Togel and a children’s book for Abigail called Sheep Take a Hike by Nancy E. Shaw. I waited in another very long line to buy a gyro until Jen came back with a gyro from another booth. People behind me were wondering where she got it so fast.

There was a group of people sitting with antique sock knitting machines knitting socks. They had one there with a long tube that you could knit on. It would be great to own a sock knitting machine like my Mom does, but sometimes the fun part of knitting socks is the time spent with the lovely yarn.

In all, Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival was a lot of fun and I hope Mom can come with me next year.

Amulet Bag Fun

I'm teaching how to make this amulet bag at Double Ewe in early June so I made up a shop sample this weekend. I've made them before but I had forgotten how much fun they are to knit. The weight of the beads makes the bag feel so nice. The pattern is on the Rainey sister's blog and is very well written. One thing though. If you're going to knit with black DMC perle cotton 8 you sure need good eyes, a magnifying glass or daylight! My next one will be white!!



In other news, my daughter Amy went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival last Saturday and she's going to guest blog about it! Stay tuned.

Hemlock Happiness

I'm loving this project! It's lace knitting but with big yarn and big needles and I can see what I'm doing. And now that I'm on the feather and fan part there are 4 rows of mindless knitting in between the pattern rows. I can't wait until it's done and I can block it. Right now it looks kind of blob like but blocking is the magic. Hemlock Ring Afghan in Cascade Ecological Wool. I'm doing it just like the pattern - no modifications! I'm planning on making it as big as the two skeins of yarn allow me to. Happy knitting!