[spinning] Autumn Batt

I can never resist a pretty batt to spin. Opening up a batt is like opening up a pretty wrapped present. I picked this one up from the Fiber Stash booth at the Vermont Sheep and Wool festival this year:

I have to hurry up and prep the fiber before any of the cats (coughPENNYcoughcough) see it opened up on the table and try to rip it apart or, more likely, sit / lay / roll around on it.

Pre-drafting the thick pieces of batt into ready-to-spin balls of fiber:

Spinning the singles:

The finished two-ply:

At this point, I feel as thought I have a dozen skeins of handspun in various autumnal shades. I should figure out a way to use them all together.

[spinning] Purple Fiber Stash

Picked up a few bumps of fiber from the vendor Fiber Stash from the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival this year. I love soft, bouncy merino and couldn't resist spinning this right away:

I only had 4 oz and split it into three equal portions, to make a true 3-ply.

The finished yarn:

Love this yarn so much. 

[boardgames] Carnage on the Mountain

Went up to Killington on Saturday for Carnage on the Mountain. This game convention moved from Fairlee, VT and the new location is great. The Grand Resort is really nice and clean. I ran a couple games on Saturday. First, Shadows Over Camelot:

Then a homemade Twin State Ticket to Ride in the evening. Generally, I run two games at every convention for free entry. I think next year I'll just skip running games and sign up to play new games instead. I've wanted to play a historical miniatures scenario for years. Here's one set-up for the Seven Years' War:

The new vendor area is nice- I picked up a few new games. Hive was recommended as a good 2-player so I got that. The rules are simple but it's 100% strategy (no luck-based elements), so appeals to Dollar and I. We played a couple times Sunday- it's a nice tile game.

I was surprised to see snow up at Killington on Saturday but then woke up to this at home Sunday morning:

In the immortal words of No No No Cat: "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO." Ugh, I so don't want to deal with snow yet. Snow tires. Plowing. Shoveling. I mean, really. I still have some Lily of the Valley bulbs that I ordered this summer that need to be delivered and put into the ground still. 

[knitting] Baby hats to donate

I'm making some baby hats to donate to Alice Peck Day's birthing center:

Using up leftover yarn that is machine washable.

[knitting] Handspun Mohair Mittens

Wool/mohair fiber by Fantom Farm (love them so much!) purchased at the 2010 Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival:

Spun into a bulky two-ply:

Knit into a pair of plain mittens:

I think these are going to be my work-horse mittens for all the snow I will inevitably have to shovel this winter. The mohair is a tad itchy/scratchy but the knit fabric is tough and strong.

[knitting] Pup Tent 2

I had one skein of Shelter yarn and decided to make another Pup Tent. I made this pattern once a couple years ago but didn't get a picture of that hat- it was given away.

Pattern: Pup Tent

Yarn: Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, one skein

Needles: US 8

Notes: I made the large size and was not in any danger of running out of yarn. 

The yarn itself is rustic. There is a decent amount of vegetable matter spun into it so that, if you're like me and MUST pick it all out as you go, it's a bit annoying. I've run into this with many of the yarns spun at Harrisville. 

I'm making this pattern again but changing a few aspects.

[misc] Penny Monday

Nobody knows the trouble I've seen...

Nobody knows... my sorrow...

Penny, locked away in Laundry Basket Jail. I want to fashion a little tin cup for her to drag along the bars.

Her jail is nice, though. I don't think many people locked away compare it to curling up into a pile of warm, clean clothes.

Good weekend- productive knitting-wise. Finished a hat, a pair of mittens and a skein of yarn. Started all new Nerd Wars projects for the month of November.

[knitting] Kimono Scarf

Finished a scarf that I started in 2008:

2008!!!!

It was big project. It was lace-weight. It got repetitive and boring really fast. But, it was time to finish it. For good.

Here's where it was when I pulled it from the depths of my hide-it-and-forget-about-it bins:

About halfway through a ball of Alpaca With a Twist Fino. Pattern is Kimono Shawl from Folk Shawls. I made it scarf-sized.

All finished and blocked:

Not the most glamorous photo of it but it's quite stunning in real life. The lightness of the lace is very nice.

I made a mistake on one row on this scarf somewhere (yarn-overs were shifted). I only noticed it when I had worked so much more past it that I decided it wasn't worth ripping back to. When I blocked the scarf, I stood and scared at it for a good 5 minutes, looking for the error. I couldn't see it and thought, "Fine. If I made the scarf and I can't find it, hopefully no one else will notice it. Ever."

My US 4 needles didn't fare so well:

Stained. Which made me wonder: If I were to wear this scarf with a white shirt and got caught in the rain- would this scarf BLEED all over my shirt?

The only answer is to gift this scarf to someone I hate and hope they wear it in the rain. 

Just kidding. I washed the scarf prior to blocking and it did bleed quite a bit. Took a few rinses to get most of the extra dye out. Hm. It should hopefully be okay. Will probably give it to my mom as a Christmas gift. And tell her not to wear it in rain. Or snow. Or fog or anywhere even kind of damp-ish.

[cooking] Maple Cream Candies

Followed this recipe. I didn't want to make too much, so I cut the ingredients down to:

1 cup maple syrup (Grade B)

1/3 cup cream

2 tablespoons butter

Boiled, then simmered until the "ball-in-cold-water" stage. After it cooled a bit, I stir-stir-stirred until it was kind of like a warm paste. Then I pushed small bits into a silicone mold to set.

These came out waaaaaay better than I anticipated. I was worried they would be like the opaque maple candies you find in gift shops and general stores around the state. The light tan ones often shaped like maple leaves. They're usually gritty/grainy like sucking on granular sugar. 

These cream candies are epically smooth. Better than fudge- softer and silkier. I'm not sure if it was the addition of cream and butter- I think the commercial maple candies are only maple syrup that has been boiled and stirred (perhaps over-stirred? which causes the grit, I think?). These candies have super-strong maple flavor from using Grade B syrup- but that also made these darker. Lighter syrup (fancy) would make lighter candies.

[spinning] Icy Fantom

Blend of Wool/Mohair/Viscose by Fantom Farm, purchased at the 2011 Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival:

Spun into just < 700 yards of heavy fingering-weight 2-ply:

This yarn is either going to be a pair to tall socks or a shawl.

Or, I can use it to line a nest for Penny:

I've made a Haruni shawl twice, but never for me. Hmmm...

[misc] Murderface Monday

[cooking] Shakshouka

I recently joined a group on Reddit called 52 Weeks of Cooking. Every week is a different theme. I happened to join when the theme was North African. After searching for recipes online, I settled on Shakshouka:

I basically followed this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I also made some flatbread to accompany it.

This was so tasty. Inexpensive, too. The eggs ended up over cooked- I watched the pan pretty closely for the whites to set- but the yolks were hard by the time the whites were done. Dollar preferred it this way- more substance/chew to the protein. I would have preferred runny yolks. 

[spinning] Copper Fantom

Two skeins of brown wool, about worsted weight.

I bought this at the 2011 VT Sheep and Wool Festival from the Fantom Farm booth. They are a vendor that I always visit when I see they are at a festival. They always have interesting fiber and their prices are excellent. 

I bought this stuff because of all the copper angelina in the fiber. The finished yarn is so sparkly.

I'll probably make a hat or two with this yarn. If I wear it on a sunny winter's day, I'm sure the glittering will be blinding!

[misc] Penny Monday

This is how Penny spent most of last week and the weekend:

She doesn't fight the cone, it just makes her sad to be in it. And after a few days of wearing it and not being able to take baths, she starts licking the inside of the cone. Saturday afternoon, I spent a few hours in the bedroom with her cone-free, while I put away laundry and could monitor her licking. By Sunday, she didn't need the cone anymore.

I planted all my shade plants in the new shade garden I dug behind the house- ostrich ferns, hostas, old fashioned bleeding hearts. And I planted bulbs- crocus around the lawn in front of my house and daffodils down along a couple rock walls. I was a wee bit lazy with the daffodils- only planting them 4 inches deep, rather than 6 - 8. I hope they grow :/

[misc] 'Nip-heads

Murderface and Penny enjoying some fresh catnip:

Totally unrelated to this, Penny has licked a bald spot on her arm. Could be stress. Could be a food allergy or allergy to something else. Could be other things. I don't know. I tried a bitter spray (did not deter her at all), adhesive bandages (she absolutely didn't like that); as a last resort, she's now in the e-collar (aka: cone of shame, leftover from her surgery) strictly to keep her from licking the spot more. 

It's going to take a while to sort out. If it's a food allergy, I've got to figure out what's causing it (the wet food? the dry food? the treats?) and then change that food for all the cats. I don't know what brought this on- we haven't tried new food but that doesn't mean that the food companies haven't changed their recipes.

[vermont] Autumn

Days are getting much shorter and cooler. I'm frantically trying to finish things before winter- getting new bulbs into the ground (crocus and daffodils- I can't wait to see you in the spring!) and staining/painting the front porch. Dollar's doing the last of the mowing- shredding fallen leaves so we don't have to rake.

Birds are heading south:

Foliage was excellent this year.

My knitting/spinning mojo has been rejuvenated by the cold weather. I (birthday) treated myself to lots of new spinning fiber to keep me occupied throughout the winter.

[vermont] Cider Press

This past Saturday I was invited by my neighbor to a cider press at a local farm. Everyone pools their apples together and you go home with jugs of fresh pressed cider.

First, apples are dumped into a big tub of water to be washed:

Then, using plastic milk crates, scoop out the apples and slowly pour them down a chute where they will be smashed and layered between brown cloths.

The guy below rings a bell to tell you to stop pouring apples while he closes off one layer and preps the next cloth. Then rings the bell to tell you to start pouring again. Then he repeatedly rings the bell to tell you to stop pouring apples all together, it's time to press.

Down at the hydraulic press, the juice is squeezed from the apples.

Any pulp is filtered with the brown cloths but the juice is filtered again, through a finer cloth, before bottling.

The leftover pulp after being pressed (good food for pigs if to have them):

And then you start all over again- wash apples, pour them down the chute, press, bottle. Wash pour press bottle. 

At home, enjoy the fruit (juice) of your labor:

[knitting] Purple Pouch

While working on Davos' Pouch, I finished another small one with leftover Sylvan Spirit yarn from the Green Mountain Spinnery:

You can't see, because the pouch is drawn shut, but I added a row of purl before and after the yarn-over round (which creates the holes that I use to thread the cords through). This was purely for decorative purposes and it looks nice- I might just have to do that to all the pouches that I make from now on.

[knitting] Davos' Pouch

I'm participating again in Nerd Wars on Ravelry. I'm on Team Iron Thone for fans of George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire Series. I knit up a small little pouch for one of the challenges:

Same little dice bag I've made more than a dozen times but this time I added a longer cord, so that I can wear it around my neck. One character from the story, Davos Seaworth, wears a pouch around his neck. His pouch contains a small amount of bones. I'm not sure what I'll keep it mine, but it probably won't be bones.

[knitting] Lilliput Hat

Pattern: Lilliput Hat (free pattern on Ravelry)

Yarn: Made In America Yarns American Lamb

Needles: US 9

Notes: Easy pattern. The chart doesn't show all the even rows, which are knit. I omitted all these rows the first time around and as I started the decreases for the crown, I wondered why it was turning out more like a yarmulke than a beanie. I ripped and re-knit.

One modification that I made was to cast on and work one inch of knit 1, purl 1. This worked well with the pattern as written- the lace pattern flowed from the knit stitches perfectly. 

Cute pattern- fast to work up with bulky yarn. Will definitely make again!

[misc] Apple Picking

Went to Poverty Lane Orchards in Lebanon, NH to pick apples last week.

Their lower orchard, with rare varieties wasn't open yet (possibly this weekend, they said) so I went to the regular larger orchards where they have Cortlands, McIntosh and Macouns. I got a big bag of Cortlands and McIntosh. 

I love apple season! 

I've made a pie already, naturally. I'm trying to think of other ways to cook with the apples, in a savory manner. I don't have a food mill and I don't can, so apple sauce and apple butter and apple jelly are out. I think a pork loin roulade with a shredded apple/walnut/onion/bacon stuffing would be good. Yeah... that does sound good.

[misc] Murderface Monday

Had a good weekend! Went to see Reggie Watts at the HOP on Saturday night and Sunday was my birthday. Had a nice family dinner out. 

[crafts] Autumn Deco Mesh Wreath

Another deco mesh wreath. I made this one the same way as the first one- only this time I added wired ribbon and a coordinating bow.



The only problem now is figuring out how to store the unused wreathes. Will probably put them inside of a white kitchen trash bag and store flat in the basement.

[misc] Banana Phone

New case for my iPhone finally arrived:

That's right, it's a banana. So that when I talk into my phone, it looks like I'm talking into a banana. Or texting into a banana. 

I'll try to remember to not near it to fires.

For email, I've already changed my signature to "Sent from my iBanana."

[cross-stitching] Piranha Plant

[spinning] Polwarth

Not a terribly exciting post today, but this was my first time spinning Polwarth fiber:

8 oz, two ply. This picture is two skeins twisted up together. This fiber was nice- easy to spin. Not as soft and bouncy as merino, but I like it more than corriedale. This is a helpful chart for sheep breeds and their softness. The lower the micron count, the softer the fiber.