[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?

[cooking] Lemon Lavender Cookies

I finally made some lemon lavender cookies with my homegrown/dried lavender:

This is the recipe that I follow. I made these cookies for the first time last year and fell in love of the flavor. They're especially good with new lavender. The plan is to enter them into the fair this year.

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Still knitting on the socks but I've turned the second heel and it's smooth sailing from here on out. I'm tempted to pile up all the yarn I want to wind and keep it in front of me, as incentive to hurry up. I would like to knit the mariposa shawl in time to enter it into the fair.

Speaking of which, I need to mail in the registration form by Sept. 1.

I joined Steotch 7 on Facebook. As if I need another project but... I'll give it a go. First pattern drops August 17. I think you can still sign up if you're into cross-stitching. Search FB for Steotchalong.

Things are still blooming like crazy around the house. Some of the daylilies are starting to be on their way out, though, and it's making me sad. The nights are getting cooler and I feel fall creeping closer...

[gardening] Monarch Butterfly

Saw my first monarch butterfly of the summer on the (aptly named) butterfly weed plant yesterday:

And as I was standing there, trying to get a good picture, I looked down and saw a monarch caterpillar on a stem:

I really hope this caterpillar makes it's chrysalis where I can see it and watch it while it... incubates? Gestates? Transmogrifies? Turns into a butterfly.

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Another night of no knitting and I'm starting to lose my mind. I had to clean up my craft room. It was already in an embarrassing state and I got home to find that someone (my money's on Santana) had jumped up onto the table and knocked alllllll kinds of stuff off. There it was- patterns, fabric, knitting needles, yarn- strewn all over the floor and I was like, "You can't really even tell there's extra mess. I gotta clean this shit up."

The room feels fresher and more inviting to finish up projects.

Also, I ran out of space on my phone and had to start moving pictures to my computer. Dollar asked what I was doing (I'm never sitting at the kitchen desk, looking at a laptop) and I said "Downloading pictures, I have too many on my phone. Guess how many I have." He said, "Oh god, 3000?" I frowned. He said, "10,000?" I looked down and shamefully said "21,000" and covered my face with my hands. It's so many photos, I can't even download them all at once. I spent hours trying to get the last 12 months of pictures moved to an external harddrive and deleted from my phone. And there are still a couple more years to do...

But it was nice to look back- see all the nice memories over the last year. I should start compiling and ordering photo books.

Lots to do this weekend- baking and cooking and pickling and knitting and sewing and gardening... and maybe some chores. TGIFFFFFF.

[gardening] Polymerous Daylily

I know I just posted a million pictures of daylilies but this one is different, I swear:

It's the bottom bloom... It's polymerous- it has four petals and sepals instead of three. This only happened once last year (that I noticed) with a different variety. It's so cool when I see it- like finding a four-leaf clover. Maybe one day I'll catch a super mutant one with five petals and sepals. I'd probably immediately drive to the convenience store for a lottery ticket.

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I have nothing new to show other than flowers. I haven't even knit for the last two nights. Last night I got distracted with laundry, dishes and making new flower bouquets. It sounds so frivolous... "Oh, no, I can't clean the litterboxes, I have to arrange all these flowers I just pranced around outside collecting- tee hee!" But this is only the fourth time I've had time to do this since spring and it is kind of becoming a chore. I have no issue leaving the old, dead, dry flowers in their vases forever- but after a while I start to get paranoid that it's bad luck.

The bucket of flowers I collected:

It was close to 8pm by the time I was done making bouquets and the night pictures I took aren't the best. I'll take a pic later today. 

Then at the very end of the night, I sat on the couch with dried lavender bundles and rolled them upside down between my palms over a big bowl to collect the buds while I watched the finale of the "will you accept my rose" show. It is my guilty pleasure only because I get to think things like, "Girl, he is trash. You are so stupid."

Tonight, hopefully I'll make some lemon lavender cookies.

[knitting] Glamour Socks

My travel knitting last week was a new pair of socks:

The pattern is free on Ravelry- Glamour Socks. I'm using Knit Picks Stroll yarn and Harmony DPNs. It's a thoroughly enjoyable, addicting and quick knit.

It also has a pretty beaded cuff:

The beads actually dictated the yarn for this project. I went into my seed bead stash- found blue beads and matched it closely to this yarn. For beaded projects (normally shawls), I bead as I go but for this, I did pre-string the beads onto the yarn.

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We had some lovely rain last night that cooled everything down by at least 15 degrees. And all the flowers needed it. 

Oh yeah, and I did make Vermont Curry for Avengers Endgame:

Had to break out the crocheted Infinity Gauntlet.

[gardening] Daylilies

This post is just going to be pictures of daylilies.

Gold edge to the above daylily:

I love daylilies so much. There are at least 6 different varieties that haven't even started blooming yet.

I know that I have at least 30 different kinds but I'm sure it's actually closer to 40. They are hardy and need little care other than keeping weeds away. And they are so beautiful- I feel so lucky to have a special daylily garden/grower so close so that I can get interesting new specimens every year.

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Made some kimchi stew for dinner last night. Vermont Curry is the plan for tonight- with Avengers: Endgame. 

Just found out that the American Cheese Society Conference is happening this week in Richmond, VA. The winners will be announced this weekend and then I can go on my annual cheese scavenger hunt next week!!

[knitting] Foxy Mittens

Wrapped up my super special mittens:

Pattern: Foxy Mittens from Winter Knits from Scandinavia by Jenny Alderbrandt

Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun fingering, one ball each orange and white (with plenty of yarn leftover)

Needles: US 2

This was not a particularly difficult knit, you just had to pay attention since every single row on the fox face side was different. I'm happy with my tension and how they blocked.

I love my Estonian mitten blockers for this type of mitten with an afterthought flat thumb:

These end up rather long mittens, but that's okay by me.

There's only a bit of duplicate stitch left to do (black for the nose and around the eyes, yellow or green for the irises) and then it's done done. And ready for the fair.

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Was in DC for the end of last week. Upgraded to first class for the flight down for $46. Worth it. Had good food in the city. Happy Hour oysters at Clyde's, which is always a treat. Delicious and spicy dandan noodles at Farmers and Distillers.

And at Urbano in Alexandria, a revelation: house pork rinds and guacamole. You may be skeptical. I was. But it's the best combo and I'm kind of angry that this secret has been kept from me for so long. The pork rinds came out still crackling and popping. The guacamole was fresh and creamy. Together, it was dynamite. And it's keto or whatever if you're into that no-carbs life.

The only downside to this trip was no sleep. I stayed in a different area of downtown than normal and it was just police siren after police siren after police siren all flipping night. And street lights- I couldn't figure out how to close the curtains (it was harder than it sounds). And I tried to keep the room cool but the noisy AC would kick on and off all night. It was two nights of poor sleep in 45 minute increments. I was happy to get home.

My travel knitting was a new pair of socks (already done with one- going to cast on for the second tonight). My travel listening was the podcast Conan O'Brian Needs a Friend (I'm totally hooked). 

Back at home, over the weekend I cooked and watched the newest season of Jerry Seinfield's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. It was so good I binged all the episodes on Saturday morning.

Avengers Endgame comes out for digital purchase tomorrow so... I know what I'm watching tomorrow night!!!!

[gardening] Harvesting Lavender

Harvested the lavender this weekend:

I started these lavender plants when we first moved to this house, 8 years ago. That first winter I winter-sowed a crazy amount of seeds. The English lavender did well and I planted it in a few spots along the rock wall.

Over the last couple years, I've dug up a few small divisions and tried putting them around in some new places. Those plants are still small but growing. Progress is slow but the new plants did produce flowers this year.

I grab a handful at a time and snip without much deference. It only take about 10 minutes to do all the plants.

Back inside, without a fan, I sweat at the table while I stripped the lower leaves from the stems and bundled them together for drying. I was fussy at first, trying to group the stems together by height, but after an hour, grumbling and drenched in sweat, I reached the "Oh F- it! I don't care!" moment and started bundling them faster. 

And then I hang them upside down in the basement stairwell to dry:

I'll be making simple sachets and picking over some of the buds for culinary use. I made lemon lavender cookies last year that were the bomb. I'll try the recipe again and try to perfect it- I would like to enter them into the fair this year.

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I finished the mittens last night! Knit the thumbs, closed the gaps, sewed in ends, blocked... now I just have to wait for them to dry and then do the duplicate stitching.

I have a pile of yarn that I want to wind for misc projects but I'm traveling for work tomorrow. My plane knitting will be socks... but what pattern? I think a solid color with pretty cabling would be nice.

[cooking] Black Raspberry Bars

I went walking around on Friday afternoon, looking for more chanterelles. I found only one but I did see many wild black raspberries beginning to ripen along an old 4th class road on the property. I convinced Dollar to come help me pick in the 400 degree weather on Saturday. Ugh, the weather this weekend was brutal. But we managed to get about a pint and a half's worth:

Which was more than enough for some oat-y black raspberry bars. Before baking:

After:

I did want to do a thin tart with a pretty lattice top but the thought of bringing together pastry dough and rolling it out and cutting it and weaving a lattice... I felt hot and tired just contemplating all that work. This bar recipe is easy- mix some stuff together with melted butter, press most of it into the bottom of a pan, add a layer of sugary fruit, sprinkle the rest of the crumb mixture on top. Easy to do even when it's 500 degrees outside.

We had this with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. And the 600 degree weather didn't seem so bad.

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We watched all of Good Omens- so funny and good. We've started Killing Eve and that's been excellent, as well. I think we'll check out The Boys once we're done with this series.