Gray

The sun declined to rise today leaving the world gray and wet. I used the rainy day to start the work of freeing my bobbins.

First up is a UFO so old the 8oz of luxury fiber only cost $12. Except the term "only" isn't right as I hemmed and hawed before buying it because that $12 was a lot of money. You know, back when lattes didn't come in Pumpkin Spice. That's some deep stash.

Zipping

I've dusted off...Ha! Like I leave them alone long enough for them to get dusty. Let me start again.

Once again, I'm listening to the Dresden Files audio books while spinning and I'm zipping through my fiber at a speed that I find a little concerning. I hope my stash is large enough to keep up.

 2 oz of Cashmere and by the next morning it's yarn.

I remember my first time spinning cashmere and it was a slow, painstaking process involving sweaty hands and me clenched over the wheel trying to keep control. Now I can spin it like it's nothing. I can spin it like it's made of dandelion fluff and fairy dust. Heck, I could probably spin dandelion fluff and fairy dust if given half a chance. That's what 19 years of practice will get a person.

Gratuitous shot of  Sumi-e as he insists that I stop spinning to give him phone time.

Indian Summer

Not every day is a walk at the lake but everyday is a walk in the park across the street from my home.

 It's the crystal clear part of October with the first hint of fall color on the trees.

 Late summer flowers are filled with butterflies.

Fall flowers are in full bloom.

The last few days have been a spectacular Indian Summer. I spun up a yarn to capture the colors as summer turns into autumn.

4oz of merino/tencel blend spun fingering weight into a self striping yarn.

Sunrise at the Lake

There was lots of wildlife on our walk today. Ducks, geese, rabbits and deer all ignoring the early risers. As the sun comes up the path gets busier and they slip away until dusk.

Eclipse 08.21.2017

My house was in the path of the total eclipse. This morning a severe rain storm rolled though with thick black clouds, high winds, and another lightening strike to my trees but by 11:30am start of the eclipse the clouds had parted. I had a normal work day, however, I was able to nip out to see it progress and then at the time of the eclipse everyone was given half an hour away from their desk so I saw the full eclipse and watched the sun reemerge.

I did it old school with a pinhole projector and just looking at it during the totality so I wasn't able to take photos of the sun as I didn't want to risk my iPhone. My eyes- sure, but not the iPhone. Instead I bring to the blog-

The Phases of Galen

 12:30pm it's noticeably darker

 12:45pm dusk, like just after the has sun has passed the horizon at sunset. This was as dark as I was expecting.

1:09pm at totality and it's dark enough the camera gives up the ghost. I would call this deep twilight, not quite night dark but much darker than I would have ever guessed.

My neighborhood had a nice half an hour of shooting off fireworks and having a celebration before wrapping it up as another workday.

Deja Vu

I'm back to dividing the body from the arms on my Zombie Apocalypse sweater and have reknit all the unravled yarn. When I went to add new yarn I couldn't find it. I'm not sure if it's in a safe place or out in the open camouflaged by other yarn but as I didn't have time to look for it I picked up my default knitting sock yarn blanket.

While knitting I watched Charlize Theron in Aeon Flux. What a deja vu moment. I've never seen the movie, didn't recognize the story or plot, and yet I have seen each and every action scene from that movie before, and I don't mean on Liquid Television.  I finally decided that the movie trailer way back when must have shown all the action scenes, or I watched a "Making Of...." piece someplace, or something.

The sock yarn blanket is to the point it needs two new colors every row as it increases in width. I had been looking at mini skien clubs when I noticed the clearance colors of Louet Gems at Webs and that a 50g skein was marked down to the same price as 10g mini. I took the amount of one month subscription of a box of minis and used it on the clearance yarn.

I'm set for 5 more rows I'm hopeful that 5 rows will also get the final width too. At that point I'll only need new colors as the current yarn runs out.

I'm going to hold out as long as I can but I feel the grays are dwindling rapidly and soon I will need to be buying replacement full size skeins of the base colors. Emotionally I'm worried. The rational part of my brain says it's going to be a non issue for the rest of the year. Almost out, yes, but a small amount on distance on the blanket is a whole lot of knitting .

Spicy

Back to the Budget Byte App

149 calories for 1/2c

African Peanut Stew from the app. This is very good! I've been making a different recipe for years that uses a whole 2c container of peanut butter instead of Budget Bytes 1/2c. That recipe is thick and rich and dense. This recipe is light, fresh, and but rather thin right off the stove however the next day its thickened up into the dense soup I'm expecting. With 1/4 of the peanut butter I will be replacing my old standby with this one. I just need to remember to make it spicier next time. 

 

Horrible photo of the Kit Kat hat but the only current photo of me on my phone. Hat knit out of scraps of Plymouth Encore

Today is my year anniversary of my 30lb weight loss.  It's thrown about that 95% of the people that loose weight gain it all back plus more in the first year. While that study from the 1950s isn't likely to represent the general population I went into this determined I would beat the odds whatever the % might be. 

How have I done it? Quite simply by learning the calorie count of food and the amount I need. Like everything in life, simple isn't the same as easy, but, man, is it worth it. So worth it. Physically I feel better in my 40s than any other point in my life. A year later I'm still amazed at how much fun it is to be light on my feet. It. Is. Awesome.

Flax Seeds and Slivered Almonds

The nice thing about the cookbook is that there will be a run of recipes that use the same ingredients. The flax seeds and slivered almonds that I bought special for the Breakfast Parfait are then used in the next recipe, Cherry-Almond Granola. Maybe the app does that too but if it does it's not as evident. I appreciate the specialty ingredients are being used again in other dishes. 

Cherry-Almond Granola is pretty good.  I'm not keen on the amount of oil it uses and I left out the almond extract all together (I already mentioned how I feel about Marzipan) and I disagree with the choice to add the dried cranberries before cooking, but I'm thrilled to see a granola recipe in a current publication. It's so easy to make.

What I did like is the vanilla. I've never added vanilla to granola before and there is a substantial amount. The vanilla holds well and comes through the mild sweetness of the granola and accents the nutty flavor of the slivered almonds and roasted flax seeds. I also like that it isn't sweet at all. I will make this again. - maybe- At 305 calories for a small bowl filled half full I would rather more filling things for breakfast. Oatmeal is a calorie dense and I'll be glad to leave this section of the book.

With the oven on and the ingredients out I also made Autumn Delight Baked Oatmeal. Now this is what I'm talking about. It's so good!

Pumpkin and apples, cinnamon and cloves, along with some of the dried cranberries left from the last recipe. It's rich and sweet and reminds me of coffee cake. At 260 calories for a reasonable sized slice this is a winner.

Well, except that I promptly ate two slices and wanted a third but that's my issue and not a problem with the recipe. I was able to get the rest safely away in the freezer for later.

The Future is Now

The second recipe from my 14 days of Budget Bytes is Thai Curry Vegetable Soup from the App. While the cookbook is new recipes, not to be found online, the app recipes are directly from the blog.

The cool thing about the app is that it's hands free voice activated and it talks through the steps. I prop it up in a safe corner of the kitchen and say "Next" when I'm ready for the next set of ingredients and instructions and it reads them out to me. This recipe is voiced by the author and some have a robot voice but they are all too cool. It has built in timers and little how to videos.  The app has a learn to cook feeling to it with the how to videos but I'm really enjoying it. It's amazing living in the future.

This recipe turned out pretty good. Just pretty good because at the end the instructions were to balance the salty/sweet/sour levels as I've never tasted a similar soup before I had a hard time choosing the balance.

As far as the budget it called for Fish Sauce at $3.59. That's a hefty price for a 1/2 Tablespoon if I don't end up using it again. 

193 cal per 1/2 cup. It's pretty amazing that there are places I can input the ingredients and it pops out a nutrition label including the calories. Truly living in the future.

I'm enjoying how Breathing Space starts by knitting the ribbing then the neck shaping is done by short rows. I've always felt that this would be an elegant way to start a sweater with no picking up the stitches for the ribbing at the end but I've never gotten around to trying it before now. I really like it.

With a Spoon

The first recipe in Budget Bytes is "Banana Bread Baked Oatmeal". There are three flavors I detest; marzipan, spearmint, and banana- so banana anything just isn't happening. Moving along I spotted "Breakfast Parfaits" known other places as overnight oats.

After grocery shopping I was too tired to cook but I could assemble some fruit and oatmeal in a Mason jar..... crap.... I don't have a Mason jar. My Pinterest account will be revoked!

With some digging I found a mostly empty jar of pesto in my fridge and after eating it up with a spoon I was able to assemble a Breakfast Parfait.

The jar even says Mason. Take that, Pinterest.

It might look hefty in the super sized photo but that is a really small jar packed with 276 calories. That is a mighty calorie punch for what looks like a small snack and it's not at all meal sized. I'm dubious it will keep me full.

When I had it for lunch it was not good. Not good at all. The oat and flax seeds had soaked up the moisture from the yogurt leaving them gummy and the yogurt the consistency of cheese. I don't know how long it would have kept me full as I spent the rest of the day with friends noshing on vegetables, dip, and nachos.

The next jar (it had Mango Salsa that I polished off with a spoon) is better. It looks meal sized in volume and at 320 calories is a meal. I added pineapple juice with the pineapple so the texture is better but overall it was uninspiring. This batch was a bit like paste and it was difficult to mix in the jar. It did keep me full for hours so it was acceptable but it's doubtful I'll ever make overnight oats again. My goal in life is to eat tasty food not acceptable food.

Budget Bytes isn't the only gift I've received this year. I was given two tasty tasty skiens of malabrigo in my favorite color. Malabrigo is the dark chocolate of the yarn world and as far removed from overnight oats as possible. They are an excellent addition the to the 2017 Stash rebuild.

Yarn

Stash building 2017 has begun with two sweater quantities from Webs clearance. I'm a few years late to the party but I'll finally be able to knit fingering weight sweaters.

 The Araucania "Bubblegum" is a disappointing coral color and not bubblegum pink at all. I adore Araucania and once it's over dyed with more pink or turned into red it should be stunning.

The Viking Nordlys is better than I imagined. That's good because I bought it for a specific pattern.

I haven't bought yarn for a pattern since.... never? "Never" doesn't sound right but almost never is close. I prefer to find a yarn I love then search for a pattern that fits. However, I'm loving Veera Välimäki Breathing Space and have been on the lookout for a suitable yarn for a while. 

I couldn't wait and cast on right away. I do have a knitted swatch that is still drying to verify my gauge and I want to know if the single yarn skews the knitting.

I'm also loving my orchid. This plant was my housewarming orchid that I bought as I moved into this place. Here it is, two summer later, in bloom again!

I'm a terror to house plants and can't keep anything alive but Mother In Law Tongue and Grocery Store Orchids. Both are dead easy to grow but as orchids have a reputation of being difficult I allow myself to feel smug that they thrive under my neglectful care. "Grocery Store Orchids" or Phalaenopsis Orchids also know as “Moth Orchids”don't have any sort of reputation of being difficult and are actually know for their hardiness but I latch onto the term orchid and go with it.

What Are We Eating?

It's quite common for knitting blogs and podcasts to have a "What are we reading" segment and in a play on words I'm going to use it as an excuse to fan girl out a little on Budget Bytes.

I've read the food blog budgetbytes.com for about forever and while I don't get to cook the recipes as often as I like, I've always enjoyed them. I've been pretty vocal about recipes posted online as being terrible but budgetbytes.com (and allrecipes.com) has never failed me.

I was given the cookbook for my birthday and I bought the App hours after it was released. The app is FANTASTIC! This has inspired me with ideas of cooking my way though both all "Julia and Julia" style. Or the way knitters talk about knitting every pattern in an especially exciting pattern book. It will probably end the same as any knitters declaration to "knit ever pattern" but at the moment I'm stoked.

I set up my meal plan and made my grocery list.

The before photo.

Yes, my fridge looks like this before every grocery shopping trip. I'm against wasting money on spoilage and try to plan my meals so all the fresh food is eaten 2-3 days before the next bi-weekly trip. Occasionally lettuce goes bad on me or I'm making an emergency stir-fry with vegitable about to turn, but overall it works great.

This is perfect timing as my freezer meals are depleted too.

  Freezer storage containers clean and ready to go!

They are so cute and tickles me that they are the same size. Each holds exactly 4oz of water. For real. The one on the right fits better in the freezer so I'm working my way to only having that shape.

After shopping! I may have gone a bit overboard in my excitement. That is a lot of food to cook in two weeks. Much of it will end up in freezer meals so I have faith it won't spoil. But, wow, that is a lot for two weeks.

My food cupboard, yes, my kitchen is small and only has one... My food cupboard is overflowing. I had to buy a surprising amount of specialty ingredients so at the moment it's not feeling very frugal. That doesn't matter as long as it's delicious.

No pictured: my freezer is worrisomely full of ingredients too. Will they get used up at a rate sufficient to add the freezer meals? Will I be able to tetris everything to fit? Will the lack of a deep freeze cause my goal of making 14 recipes in 14 days crash and burn before it gets off the ground? 

Now to get cooking and find out.

Test Drive

While waiting for my yarn to show up in the mail I did a little swatching.

The yarn is Berroco Linsey a 64% cotton 34% Linen blend. The yarn is fabulous! The color not so much. It's a sage green marl. The color is classic but it dulls my complexion and I don't sparkle when I hold it up to my face. That's the danger of online ordering. The color isn't terrible and the yarn so wonderful I still plan to use it for a sweater. With a deep V neck or as a cardigan it should work.

I swatched plain, texted, and cabled. When finished I traced around it on paper adding notes on gauge, needle size (size 3/3.25 mm), brand of needle, and anything else I could think of before throwing it a load of laundry.

Here it is out of the dryer. It shrunk a little in width and substantially in length. The finished gauge is 22 stitches over 4 inches and not the 20 stitches for the project I was swathing for. Also the fabric is too fluid to hold the shape of a cardigan. I like it the way it is so I'm not going to swatch with lager needles. It won't work for what I had in mind but I'll put this away for later and all the information will be waiting.

It's nice to put a yarn through it's paces once and a while.

The 80's Called and They Want Their Sweater Back

Browsing online I saw stores stocking textured striped raglan sweaters this spring. I was smitten and since they are striped it meant that I would be able to dig up yarn from my stash.  I don't have many sweater quantities left but I have plenty of scraps. 

This sweater pleased me to no end in April but pulling it out today, so I could start the sleeves, I don't know if I can continue. Ugh. I though pink and sea foam quite striking in 1987 but I don't think these two colors would be combined even then. The only thing that keeps me from ripping it out is knowing the colors will fade in the wash from the prior projects. It might have a chance but at the moment it is firmly in time out.

Actually- I can't see ripping this one out. If I'm not inspired to finish it will go strait into the trash because of all the cut ends.

It's this sweater right after the socks that decided me. After years of knitting down the stash 2017 is going to be a stash rebuilding year. I want to have sweater quantities on hand. Lots and lots of sweater quantities.

While I wait for my yarn order to be delivered I pulled out a partial ball of TOFUtsies from scraps to make ankle socks for the gym. I cast on and made it through the heel flap at the dog park. Inspired by the defunct Lichen Ribbed Socks, I'm going to work my way through all the heel variations in Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush again. I keep reverting to the French heel by default because it's popular and I have it memorized but there are so many other variations.

Or wait! Maybe I won't work my way through the traditional heels again but do a study in short row heels. It's been years since I've even thought of short row heels.

Anyway, I want a wack of shorty TOFUtsies socks for summer and plan different heel variations.

Not Literally Forever

I love how hand knit socks last FOREVER! But it's not literally forever so I post whenever a pair comes to their end.

Lichen Ribbed Socks from the book Knitting Vintage Socks: New Twists on Classic Patterns by Nancy Bush.

I knit these in 2008 as I was knitting my way through all the different sock heels in the book.  The yarn is SWTC TOFUtsies  made from 50% superwash wool, 25% soy silk, 22.5% cotton, 2.5% chitin (made from shrimp and crab shells!).

Photo evidence that is really was 2008 this pair is the second photo, they have faded a bit over the last 9 years. 

Sock made from this yarn are wonderfully soft and cool. They make the best gym socks. However, the yarn is very thin and a little splity so I don't love knitting it. I can't bare to throw these socks away since that hole is from 3 stitches snapping and it should be an easy mending job. However, I know myself and it's unlikely they will ever get mended.

Instead I whipped up a replacement pair. Some Henry's Attic Kona Superwash that I dyed an unfortunate combination of mauve and jade a very long time ago. I'm only knitting it now because my sock yarn stash is so depleted that I'm down to the dregs.

I do love the Kona yarn. It's a sport weight and at 44 stitches a pair of socks knits up in a hot second. I made a basic sock in a garter stitch rib. For all that I disliked the color of the yarn I'm pleased with how they turned out.

Demonstrating for the Class

For sweater knitting this week I watched Brad Pitt in World War Z.  It's another fast zombie movie but since they weren't super fast I didn't mind and the movie was better than I expected.

During the movie I reached the place of separating the sleeves from the sweater. When trying it on I decided I didn't like how the patterning on the back was distorting the fabric so I ripped it back to the neckline to try again.

As the photo of the yarn impersonating a pile of ramen noodles wasn't in focus, here is a shot of Galen and Sumi-e demonstrating the zombie head crushing technique.

Don't worry, no heads are being crushed. I used to stop this every time I saw it but Sumi-e is the one that instigates it and he seems to like it.

This is the third dog Sumi-e has lived with. He ignored Joey, he hid from Finn, but Galen is different for some reason, and they play together several times a day. If it gets to be too much, Sumi-e stalks off with disdain and glowers from inside the safely of the cage made by the coffee table legs.

Concierge

The Friday before Memorial Day my washing machine stopped working mid load. Uh Oh! Then less than an hour later I flushed my toilet and water cascaded into my basement. Ack! I have an emergency fund but I'm not in a place I can buy a new washer and have a plumber come out and replace anything in the same week. Queue the hyperventilating.

That's why I have a home warranty.

I might never recoup the yearly cost, which make sense as I am paying for a concierge service. I'm buying the piece of mind of calling them and they take it from there. Repairmen start showing up at my place. Phone calls are made to me asking how I'm doing. As I take care of everything myself it's nice to be able to hand a problem over to someone else sometimes and they take care of it for a flat fee.

The plumbing was fixed in 24 hours. The washer took 10 days from start to finish (I waited a few days to open the claim because of Memorial Day) and this afternoon a beautiful new washer was installed.

I accepted the washing machine they offered rather than taking the smaller payout to apply toward buying one on my own, and it is hands down the nicest washer I've ever owned. Perhaps the bar is set low as I've only had very old, very used washers and between owning spent years going to a laundromat. But when I opened it and looked down and realized it's load capacity is about double of what I've had to date I could hear angles sing.

It was nice to have it professionally installed instead of my reading step by step through the manual. I have confidence I can install a washer but I'm pleased I didn't have too. Then they removed the old one for me too. No fuss no muss.

This is the year it expires from purchasing my home and I wasn't decided if I would renew but now I'm sold. I'll be keeping it for another year at least.

During those 10 days my bathtub got used for hand washing some tees so I could make it through. Clearly, I need more clothes if I can't go 10 days so I also bought some new graphic tees online. I know. Any excuse. It's taken a year to rebuild my collection in a size that fits but this order finally put me at a rotation I'm comfortable with.

I used the hand washing time to finish a sweater. I wove in the ends as the tees soaked then it took it's own bath. After two days of drying it's almost done.

Play All Day

I had planned on writing a post about movie theater knitting and Marvel and TV knitting and watching Jessica Jones with friends on a Sunday morning. The hats were finished but stiff and needed a blocking before the photos. I quickly washed them and placed them outside to dry.

When I came out to take the photos I was greeted with this.

Galen had swiped the wool hat from the drying rack. He had been outside for a few hours and I suspect playing the whole time.

It looks like I have some decorative mending in my future.