[misc] Heat Wave

We had a spell of super hot and muggy days. Penny was like this most of the time:

I took the inflated raft to the pond:

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The veg garden is coming along- I've picked a couple small tomatoes. I think I can grab a couple little eggplants soon. The hot peppers are coming along. I need to thin the carrots. The cucumbers, squash and pumpkins are flowering. 

I think it might be chanterelle foraging time in the next week or so.

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We had a couple people up for dinner Saturday evening. I made:

Bone-in pork roast. This is an easy, cheap, impressive roast- you just have to watch the internal temp.

Roasted potatoes 

Sauteed spinach

Big Batch Quick Dinner Rolls. I did 24 rolls on a half sheet pan. This was crazy fast and easy- I'm pretty sure this will be my go-to rolls for a large group from now on.

Garlic scape butter

Peach-blueberry crumble tart and vanilla ice cream

Sunday was spent doing all the dishes. Sigh. 

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Tour de Fleece started June 28. It's pretty much the only time of year I spin yarn and I've slowly made my way though 12 oz so far. I still have plying to do... and I think I'll do 8 oz more. All the fiber I grabbed from the stash is rainbow-y this year.

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Lavender outside should be ready to harvest soon. Then annual lemon-lavender cookies! And lavender sachets.

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I crocheted a couple small doilies- need to take pics. I'm going to get back to sewing face masks and wind some yarn for a little knit shawlette.

[misc] Penny Monday

Penny, blending into the random stuffed animal and knitting project chair:

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It was a great weekend- I took Friday off, which is exactly what I needed. I got some new fabric for face masks- as well as elastic (!!!)- and spent the weekend sewing. Did a lot of baking. It was not too warm but sunny. 

I'm nearing the end of the Fantastitch shawl. My knitting time has been replaced by sewing but really, I've hardly knit much over the past month. It feels like ever since I started teleworking, I haven't wanted to knit. 

Going to send out some face mask in the mail today. And sew more this week. 

[misc] Murderface Tuesday

We let Murderface and Penny out a bit during lunch while we're home, teleworking.

We try to keep them around the porch, not venturing too far. Penny's pretty good about it:

There are wild animals around here, obviously. I videoed a fox last Friday morning, who didn't seem too bothered that I was standing outside the garage:

So we don't just let the cats stay outside. It'll be nice once it's warm enough to leave windows open, then Penny will stop howling at the front door all day long. 

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Still waiting on elastic in the mail to be able to make more masks. I found my stash of soap fabrics:

I've been buying Orange Cat soaps for years at the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival. They come wrapped in bits of fabric. I was going to save them to make charm squares for a quilt but they are the perfect size for small face masks. I washed all the fabrics and they're ironed/cut. I just really need the elastic. 

[misc] Guitar case = cat trap

After a couple days of high temps that melted practically all the snow, things are frigid again. This includes the wood floors in the house. Penny snuggles into the faux fur lining of an open guitar case:

Then I caught Murderface in it last night.

I just have to lure Santana into it and then the trifecta will be complete.

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We did get a tree last night- an 8ft tall frasier fir. It's up in the stand and glorious but...listing a little. I'm going to see how it looks after work today, make some vertical adjustments and then decorate tonight.

[misc] Murderface and Penny

MF and Penpen sharing a window:

That's a good spot for hummingbird watching. 

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So close to finishing the socks. I'll be able to tonight!

Last night I got our CSA and there were fava beans- still in the pod. I've never had fresh fava beans and had to do a little research on how to prepare. You shell them and then blanch/shock and then pop the beans out of their skins. It's twice as much work but it was worth it. There were very green and creamy. I did a simple pan sautee with olive oil, onions and mint, but if I get them again, I'd try a minty pesto.

I picked up all my floss for Steotch 7. The Joanns in West Leb has a very complete and well organized floss wall. Now to organize the floss I bought.

Is it Friday yet?

[misc] Penny Monday

Penny gets into bed at night and either snuggles in behind my knees or between my legs (depending if I'm laying on my side or back). Then she stares at me, telepathically telling me to put my phone away and turn off the light.

Had a good weekend. Saturday was sunny and warm- nearly 70 degrees. I cleaning up a lot of the two front flowerbeds. I tried to bring Penny out on her leash but she was too scared. Santana did come out but started to get a little wiley (like she might bolt), so we brought her back in. Murderface stayed in the window inside where he's content. Lots of good little spots of catnip starting to grow.

Sunday I went to a microgreens workshop with my sister at D Acres Farm in Dorchester, NH. It was informative and we went home with a little container to grow at home. 

Not much knitting done. Even less sewing. It's approaching the point where gardening/outdoor time is substantially replacing crafty/indoor time. Which is fine with me. I'll reserve indoor chores/tasks for when it's raining.

[misc] Penny Monday

Penny, keeping watch:

For woodchucks. They are up and out of hibernation- I saw a couple through this window yesterday at dusk. Two have already moved into the deluxe Rock Wall Apartments. 

Last week I was teaching at work and on Monday I came down with the sneezes and sniffles. I said, "Tis but allergies- I'm sure it's just the snow melting and exposing the ground." I tried to convince myself it was still allergies on Tuesday. Wednesday I was feeling really bad and had to leave work early. Same on Thursday and I had to line someone up to close out the class for me on Friday so I could take the day as sick leave.

Throughout last week, Santana wasn't eating. She was getting skinny again. We'd put wet food down, she'd take two bites, then run away and hide. She did consume more when it was just liquids (half and half, water from canned tuna fish, etc) but I took her to the vet on Friday to see what's up. Clearly, it was a problem with her mouth... probably her teeth. The vet took a look and saw bad teeth and an infection. Santana got an antibiotic shot and more medicine to take at home. After a few days, she's back to eating normally and not looking so skinny. (The vet did say that Santana's doing extremely well recovering from her stoke- which occurred only three weeks ago.)

The rest of the weekend was devoted to crafty things. I had a lingering cough but was feeling better overall. I sewed a couple quilt blocks, ironed some denim patches onto a couple pairs of Dollar's jeans, finished my knit shawl, tea pot cosy, plain vanilla socks, started a new spinning project... Lots of different stuff.

I'm still working on the knit sweater and crocheted afghan but had to started a quick, bulky, pink hat last night- just to have something small and easy to work on. Not sure what I'll start up next... but I have ideas...

For any local people- there is an upcoming yarn dyeing workshop at Scratch Supple Co. in Lebanon, NH on Sunday, April 28 (12pm). I heard about it via a Green Mountain Knitting Guild newsletter. It's $35 and you can learn more from the Ravelry event page.

[misc] Murderface Thursday

Someone barfed all over the bed while we were at work yesterday. 

He knows what he did.

I had to wash my quilt, Dollar's quilt, sheets and pillowcases. Sigh. All this on top of vacuuming the entire house before band members arrive (they spend the entire time in the basement and wouldn't see 90% of what I was vacuuming but I didn't do it over the weekend and I wanted to for my own peace of mind) and washing all the dishes. And I was trying to find a place to store the Instant Pot, so it's not taking up space on the counter all the time and I ended up pulling everything out of the bottom of the pantry closet (like you do, once you get going cleaning something) and... it was an ordeal.

But as I got into bed last night, into fresh warm sheets, under a clean, fluffy quilt, I looked over at Penny (sitting by my head, waiting for treats) and whispered, "I'm kind of glad Murderface puked. Everything is so nice and clean now. ... But he sure as shit isn't getting breakfast in bed anymore."

[misc] Murderface Monday

You know it's cold out when the cats deign to touch one another while napping:

We ran all our errands on Saturday morning and brought home a Christmas tree. Decorated on Sunday during football commercial breaks.

I'm working on green skull caps with a skull stitch marker:

These hats will be for one group of band members. For the other group: fingerless mitts. Both projects are using up a lot of stash yarn, which is awesome. (My internal yarn-o-meter is creeping towards "IT'S OKAY TO BUY MORE YARN NOW" the more yarn I use up... but I'll wait until after the holidays are over.)

For local people, King Arthur Flour has posted their free Bake for Good classes. Sign up! The classes are fun and educational- and free!

I did hit the kimchi pretty hard this weekend. Hard not to do with yummy, fresh kimchi in the fridge. Feeling a little bad for Dollar, I made a big pot of beef stew yesterday. 

[misc] TGIF Penny

Aww, Penny has been featured so much this week. Tucked in on Monday. With the teddy bears on Tuesday. With the octopus on Wednesday. Now on Friday.

I've started listening to podcasts in my craft room on Wednesday nights (band practice has moved to our basement for the winter- they practice right under the living room so it's too noisy to watch anything on the TV) and Penny eventually comes to keep me company in the chaise lounge.

Still working on the worsted socks (at the toe of sock #1- ohhhh these worsted socks go so fast!) and I started the cable portion of a hat. I found a couple balls of machine washable yarn in the worsted-sock-yarn stash that I think I'm going to used for a toddler sweater instead.

I finally visited a new(ish) local spice shop called Little Istanbul in White River Junction. I've followed Sirali Kebap for a while on Instagram and I'm obsessed with their videos and food. They show you everything that goes into what they're making but don't explicitly state what all the spices are and I am so unfamiliar with this cuisine. I'm soooooo happy to have a spice shop to pick up pre-mixed spice blends. I picked up a few one-ounce baggies:

I plan to try some of these over the three-day weekend. I just have to find recipes... Three day weekeeeeeeeeeeend!!

[misc] Weekend Penny

Every picture I take of Penny napping, wrapped in a blanket makes it look like she has a cold:

Her little paw sticking out the bottom of the blanket is so cute to me.

Was a good weekend. Got some chores done and knit a few little toys. Made some rieska- which I should make more often. It's fast, a good use for rye flour/oats/buttermilk and tastes so nice and rustic. Tried to watch all of the Pats game last night but with the time change and deciding to "lay down on the couch to watch the second half", I was asleep in minutes.

[misc] Penny Thursday

Penny in nice, hot, fresh-from-the-dryer clean laundry. Now that the weather has cooled (it snowed last night!), she starts pacing and meowing around the dryer as soon as the cycle is done. 

She's feeling a little mad at me. She's been having some bad chin acne. She used to get the small blackheads and but it's gotten worse and I think it's from stress or over grooming. I've been consistently cleaning her chin every day and using a hot compress for a few minutes. It's visibly helping but she hates it and now runs away when I approach her. Still, if I'm sitting on the couch, she gets into my lap and she sleeps with me in bed at night... and she hung out with me in the craft room last night while I working on some weaving. But if I approach her with a paper towel in one hand and a hot cloth in the other, she runs and hides. Siiiiigh. :( 

Penny would probably be even more angry if she knew I was telling everyone about her chin acne.

[misc] Penny Thursday

Penny, helping guard against chipmunks yesterday afternoon:

That's catnip down by her tail. No getting high on the job for her- she never does catnip when she's outside. 

The large flowerbed is looking nice:

I don't think any of that phlox bloomed last year; some critter ate off all the unopened buds... But I'm happy they are able to bloom this year. 

Vacation starts in T - 4 hours.

Cooking plans: Pasta. Egg pasta. Herb pasta. Squid ink pasta? Beet pasta? Two-colored pasta? Homemade ricotta for filled pasta. I've got to start cleaning out the freezer to make room for all the pasta I want to make.

Also, savory quick bread. I'm hosting the June bakealong challenge for the Ravelry cooking group- and I still need to pick a recipe!

Harvest and use some of the rhubarb. I'm waiting for the mint to get a little bit bigger before I rip it back (and away from other plants it's surrounding)- need to look up mint recipes.

Knitting plans: Finish the socks.

Sewing plans: More quilt blocks.

Crochet plans: Go back to Sophie's Universe?

Weaving plans: Weave... something?

Spinning plans: None. I'm participating in Tour de Fleece in July. 

Gardening plans: plant annuals, fertilize, mulch, re-edge beds, divide and move plants, re-do the outdoor fire pit... misc this and that. 

Whatever I'm doing, it's going to be awesome. I can't ever think of a time I've had 10 days off in a row.

[misc] Penny Friday

Took Penny out yesterday:

We have at least three chipmunks and they've been digging up and eating the bulbs of my asiatic lilies. Between the deer and the 'chucks and the 'munks, the gardening struggle is real. Because the cats don't go outside, the chipmunks are fairly brazen and, I'd go so far as to say, haughty. While Penny was busy eating grass around the front porch, a chipmunk popped out of his hole in the front yard and was looking at us like, "What is SHE doing out here?" He still came over and kind of got all taunt-y to Penny while safely hiding under the porch. But, I don't think Penny would even know what to do if she caught him. She has 'interacted' with mice in the house in the past but those scenarios always end with me catching the mouse under a colander and then throwing it outside. Apparently, neither one if us is capable of killing anything larger than a fly.

Penny's too scared to venture away from the porch when we're outside and that's generally the area that the chipmunk thinks he's the sovereign prince of, so I'm hoping just her periodic presence and smell will be enough to... take this chipmunk down a notch or two? I don't know. I think murder is too much to hope for but maybe a scuffle or two? The question is, who would win that scuffle? Ehhhhh... [shrug]

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TGIF. I have some rhubarb from a coworker, so I'll make a rhubarb-something this weekend. It's plant sale season and I'm going to hit up three local sales tomorrow morning. More garden chores around the house (beds are slowly getting cleaned up). House chores. My niece's b-day on Sunday. Looking forward to it!!

[misc] Penny Thursday

Pen-pen in my lap:

I just told her I had to get up. She was not impressed. I keep my great american aran afghan on a couch in the craft room and do use it when I'm lounging in there. 

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I spent hours washing all the ramps last night. I put some dough into the oven to proof for dinner while I cleaned them. After an hour- I checked the dough. It was in the bottom oven and I had set the top oven, so the dough was still cold. At this point, it was 7:30 and I was like, "No... no No NO!" Dollar came to see what the disaster was and I just said, "We're not having pizza until 9pm." 

As I stood at the sink stripping skin from around bulbs and dunking the ramps in water, pondering all manner of things because I've got nothing but time and thoughts, I wondered whether I subconsciously purposefully sabotaged the timing of dinner. After the first hour, I still had an hour+ worth of ramps to wash. Maybe I set the wrong oven to give myself another hour? There are so many ramps to wash. Is this what being a chef is like? Prepping food for hours on end? Wait- is that what a sous chef does? Would all these ramps be one night's worth of meals at a restaurant? I heard a theory about Westworld- that Logan's father's consciousness was put into Abernathy and that's why he flipped out last season when he saw the picture of the woman in the city- because that would mean it was his daughter in the picture. You know who doesn't get enough credit? Dave Bautista. He was really good in Infinity War. And as Drax in general...

And on and on and on. But it's all worth it when I can take this picture:

[misc] Penny Monday

Penny, on my side of the bed...

She knows I'm going to shoo her to the other side of the bed so I can get in and steal her warm spot. Hah hah hah. 80% of my relationship with Penny is shooing her- out of my seat on the couch (which she steals as soon as I stand up, even if I call fivesies), away from the garage door, away from the other cats... 

This weekend was over too quick. I didn't leave the house because of the sleet and rain and sleety-rain. It was a baking/cooking weekend with not much crafting (and lots of house chores). I'm still knitting away on Fox Paws. I'm nearing the end of the yarn balls and need to start making a decision about (a) ending the project or (b) ordering more yarn. I'm not sure how I feel about the length so far.

Looking forward to the Five Colleges Book Sale this coming weekend! Hunting for the usual: cookbooks, craft books, gardening books. Will swing by the kids section to look for books for my niece.

[knitting] Strawberry Cat Hat

Make (yet another) hat for the cats Sunday morning to wear and enjoy. 

The pattern is from Cats in Hats. Make the red base:

Then sew some random seeds with white yarn. Make a stem and a few leaves. Attach. Voila:

Murderface, so happy to model it:

Penny, even more thrilled:

Actually, she's freaking out because we're by the front door and she thinks she gets to go out for walkies. Sorry, Penny, winter is still here and it will be here forever and we'll never be able to go outside again. (We got another two inches of snow over the weekend.)

Penny's actually quite amenable to hats. Here she is when she first tried it on:

Good thing I made this hat to keep the cats warm. This was my view yesterday morning in my driveway:

Winter forever.

[cooking] Valentine's Day

Got all the cats to agree to Valentine's Day pictures.

Murderface:

Santana:

Penny:

Dinner was pizza (with turkey pepperoni because we eat sooooo healthy):

And dessert- heart shaped brownie with whipped cream and red glitter:

I had to stop by King Arthur Flour for a few things earlier in the week and couldn't resister the edible glitter. Now I need to glitter all the foods since I only used .0001 grams last night.

[misc] TGIF

Cat grass brings all the cats to the kitchen:

So happy it's Friday! (This week has been brutal.) Dropping my quilt off after work! Heading home to watch the Olympics! Going to cuddle with the cats and couch surf! 

[misc] Penny Wednesday

Penny, helping me with my second pair of Camp Out Mitts:

My work holiday party is tomorrow afternoon and I'm going to bring doenjang jjigae (vegan) and mincemeat tarts (loaded with venison, definitely not vegan). Lots of cooking to do tonight. And I didn't make any holiday cookies last night, so I feel behind. Nothing's wrapped. But packages are on their way from Amazon. At least this week is going by fast- I am in dire need of a vacation.