Archive for July, 2010

TDF…And For My Next Trick…

{ July 28, 2010 @ 2:31 pm } · { fiberlicious, spinning, Warning: Potentially Bad Idea Ahead! }
{ Comments (4) }

Tour de Fleece wrapped up on Sunday and, to be honest, I was kind of relieved. I had a good Tour but, man, it was intense! Trying to finish things under deadline, posting everyday on Rav—it was like a part-time job!

I did complete two more projects before the Tour finished. First, I finished up the Cocoa Latte singles.

Baby alpaca, cashmere and tussah silk

Definitely my most successful singles to date. Only very slightly off balance, no kinky-crimpy-rollbackey things going on, super soft and no breakage. I rule.

Nicely textured and substantial singles

Plus, I ended up with 826 yards worth, and it bloomed in the wash into a nice light fingering weight: Perfect for a nice, drapey, lacy something or other.

Second, I finished the superwash merino/bamboo two-ply laceweight. A very wise woman reminded me that black lace is for crazy people…

Photos just can’t capture this correctly…it swirls with turquoise and amethyst and it’s super shiny

…and she’s right. Plying all 871 yards of this was an exercise in patience the likes of which I haven’t experienced since The Great Soy Silk Disaster of 2010. Thankfully, I was smart enough to do this on the wheel. Even with Evelyn humming away, this still seemed to take forever to ply.

The dyer called this colorway, “Milky Way.” I think it works.

Because of an unfortunate incident with a ball winder (Have you ever seen a ball of singles literally jump off the winder mid-winding? I have…it predated the The Infamous Pomegranate Tea Incident by mere moments.) I lost a whole mess of singles off the first bobbin.

Which necessitated a couple Andean bracelets while plying to make up for the difference in yardage on the two bobbins while plying.

Which led to a tangled mess on the second Andean bracelet and me finally uttering a crass expletive as I broke the single, threw away the tangle and declared the skein done.

Which also means there’s a whole mess of knots in the hank, since superwash doesn’t spit-splice too well.

Which means no Rhinebeck for this one. But that’s ok. When I finally decide to be completely crazy and knit something with this, it’ll still be really beautiful.

So, that’s it. Three Tour de Fleece skeins completed and a whole bunch other washed and finished. And, on the very last day of the Tour, I started a new project on Evelyn: My first true three-ply out of this top.

Four ounces of punta wool top from Fiber Fancy in “Vivid Rainbow”

The first two plies are done and waiting on their bobbins. The third ply is two full color repeats away from finished. I’m hauling ass on this one because I decided to take on another intense challenge right away—the 4! Ounce! Challenge (Rav link).  And since I’m technically on stashdown, and because she’s a super awesome person and is my official stashdown partner, Jenni gave me some Spunky Eclectic four-ounce put-ups of shetland and organic merino.

Of course, I’ve never actually designed a pattern…well, a pattern that I intended to share with other people. And I’ll have from August 1 to September 30 to spin, finish yarn, design, knit and publish. So, yeah…intense challenge….should be fun….maybe…

I’m thinking fingering weight two-ply out of the shetland, triangular lacy thing, very rustic and autumnal based on the colorway (pics to come of that)…no way I’m attempting to spindle spin, though. I figure if I crank away at it on Evelyn, I can probably spin and ply the four ounces in a little more than a week. Famous last words…

So, yeah…the “Vivid” three-ply needs to get on and off my bobbins right quick. We’re working on that.

Eye Candy Friday – Limoncello Edition

{ July 23, 2010 @ 9:35 pm } · { Eye Candy Friday }
{ Comments (6) }

First batch—all 11 bottles worth—is officially done.

I didn’t think I’d use that many bottles, but my inability to make proper estimates is pretty legendary. Guess I’ll have to order and etch another case of before the second batch is done!

Saying Good-bye, or The End of an Era

{ July 22, 2010 @ 3:09 pm } · { weaselies }
{ Comments (10) }

Wednesday, I said good-bye to Leroy. It was not unexpected, but still tough.

It was tougher still on Miranda. I said good-bye to her yesterday.

Leroy and Miranda, bestest of buddies, at a much happier time

Also not unexpected, especially with her best buddy gone. Ferrets bond very closely; on top of her illness, the heartache of losing her cagemate and being alone for the first time in her entire life was too much. I expected her to give up very quickly after losing Leroy, and I’m grateful that she wasn’t alone very long.

At one end of my house, life was just beginning; at the other, it was ending—something not lost on me at all in the past week.

So, this week marks an end of an era for me. The Decade of Weasels is over.

It’s kind of surreal. There’s no ferret cage anymore. There’s no more playtime at night. No more emergency trips to Target for litter, all-purpose cleaner and paper towels for cage cleaning. No more little jars of chicken baby food on hand for when someone isn’t feeling good. No sound of someone lapping at a water bottle.

None of that. Just an empty space where the cage used to be.

Ten years of work and laughter and tears and vet visits and weasel kisses and frustration and lots and lots of Febreeze…just done. Just like that.

Very weird.

So, I can now convert the ferret room into a room for the kittens, which will be good, because I was more than a little worried about how badly they’d destroy my house if allowed to run loose while I’m at work. My plans to convert it into a den with extra sleeping space can go on hold for the next two months. There’s a bonus.

I won’t change the blog name/URL or my Rav handle because, really, it’d just be too much of a hassle.

And I’ll just distract myself with the five new little lives that’ll be taking over the ferret room.

Rest sweetly, my kiddos. I love you, and I’m so very glad you’re at peace together.

Tour de Fleece: Day 18 Progress Edition

{ July 20, 2010 @ 1:41 pm } · { fiberlicious, spinning }
{ Comments (7) }

Despite all the kitten excitement and the myriad distractions all around me, I’ve done pretty well in my first Tour de Fleece so far.

I’ve spun every day of the tour except July 15—which, given that there were brand new kitties to oggle, I think that’s understandable—so I’m planning to skip tomorrow’s day of rest and keep on going. I technically already took a rest day, so I think that’ll make up for it.

One of my goals was to get all the random skeins I’ve finished over the past few months washed, thwacked, put up, labelled and stashed away.

Finally officially done

Success! I’d accumulated quite a few—seven, to be exact—random skeins that needed finishing. Such a slacker. Well, they’re finished now. And two of them never got any attention here. Time to remedy that.

First is “Soft Forest Light”—261 yards of fingering weight Navajo ply out of two ounces of angora/bombyx silk blend from Corgi Hill Farm, finished just before Tour de Fleece began.

Super soft stuff

I should come right out and say it: I’m so not crazy about this.

I loved the fiber as it was in the top, and spinning it was a nice challenge. The angora would matt down on itself in my hand, so I was constantly fluffing and re-fluffing, and the short staple was a good change of pace for me.

Meh…

But the color. Oh, I really don’t like the color. In the top, the colors were vibrant and deep. But only on the surface fibers. The inside of the top was white white white, which totally washed out all the colors except for the initial dark brown section. The result is more pastel and muted than I wanted, and parts look muddy to me.

Eh….

It’s not awful, but it’s not my cup of tea. It is nice and soft and it has a lovely halo. Maybe I’ll make something with it. Or maybe I’ll just give it away to someone who actually loves it. We’ll see…

This next one, though, was my first completed Tour de Fleece project, and it’s the exact opposite of Soft Forest Light. This is “Surf Song,” and I love love love it!

Soooo pretty!

Fingering weight two-ply, spun from 4.5 ounces of BFL/tussah silk top, also dyed by Corgi Hill Farm. I got 507 yards out of the top, spun on my Spanish Peacock spindle and plied on Evelyn.

Swirls of blue

This blend was amazing to spin, and the dye-job was perfect. It did bleed a little on my hands, and it shed some dye in the wash as well, but none of that did anything to lessen the beautiful colors.

Better than I ever could have hoped for

Two-plying on the wheel was awesome, too. So much faster. There’s not really much more to say about this one…except don’t be surprised if you see it at Rhinebeck this year. I do think it wants to go to Rhinebeck.

OK, last one of this, I promise…

But that’s not all, folks! This has been a productive Tour thus far!

I also got all four ounces of these Cocoa Latte batts…

Dreamy soft batts

…spun into fingering weight singles. They’re baby alpaca, cashmere and tussah twice-blended batts from…wait for it…Corgi Hill Farm. Shocking, I know.

First skein, little over 400 yards, on the niddy to rest before finishing

There’s two skeins of these. The first finished really nicely; the second is resting on the niddy noddy for a couple days before washing and finishing. They’re far more successful than my first set of singles, so I’m pretty psyched. They’re also nice and soft and slightly textured from the silk.

Proper pics to come once the second skein is finished.

Finally, in non-Corgi Tour de Fleece action, I finished up all the superwash merino/bamboo lacewight singles from the Dyeing for Colour top that I had on Evelyn.

The new bobbins make Evelyn an extremely productive production wheel.

I’ll have it plied up and finished before the end of the Tour, I think…barring anything unforseen, of course.

Thursday is Challenge Day, so I’ll either work on the crazy cobweb bombyx or on the locks I’m tail-spinning into an art yarn. Or maybe both. I can only work on that silk in small doses; it makes my hands crampy. And the Tour ends on Sunday! Whew! Maybe I’ll cast on a new knitting project in celebration…I may have felt the bite of the Sweater Bug recently…

In unrelated news, the kittens are six days old now.

I know. So sweet they make your teeth rot just looking at ‘um.

They’re growing like crazy! I’m working on maintaining interspecies harmony in the house. It’s a bit of a struggle right now. Protective mommy is protective. Scaredy puppy is scaredy. Squirty bottle is squirty.

Eye Candy Friday: Bitty Kitty Edition, Plus Baby Pool Winners

{ July 16, 2010 @ 10:06 am } · { Everybody loves a giveaway!, Eye Candy Friday, I'm honestly not a cat person...seriously... }
{ Comments (8) }

Welcome to the world, bitty kitties! I’m very much looking forward to getting to know you all!

Tilly had her babies yesterday morning. Momma was a champ. Her labor took about three hours and all five little kiddos are healthy squirmy bundles of cuteness…and they’re big too! Poor Tilly looks so skinny now!

 I know I said on a couple Rav forums I’d have the winners of Tilly’s Baby Pool Giveaway up last night, but I’m a slacker and was totally distracted. Oh, well. I’m very pleased to announce that Divine Bird Jenny has won the bombyx silk from Fiber-Fancy. Jenny had the only correct guess of July 15 for Tilly’s delivery date. Congrats Jenny!

On the litter size contest, we had eight correct guesses of five kittens. The great and powerful random number generator selected Comment No. 39, Bryn, as the winner of those two skeins of Koigu. Congrats Bryn!

Thanks everyone for playing, and happy Friday!

Eye Candy Friday

{ July 9, 2010 @ 11:01 pm } · { Eye Candy Friday }
{ Comments (2) }

Ok, so Friday’s almost over. But technically it’s still Friday. So I say it counts!

My Tour de Fleece goal for the day was wash all the unwashed skeins of handspun I’ve accumulated over the last couple of months. Well, I got them all washed and hung in the bathroom, but a certain someone—someone with a history of stealing handspun and having her way with it—is stalking my skeins.

Not good, preggo kitty. But you do make for a pretty picture!

The Catch-all Catch-up Post

{ July 8, 2010 @ 10:06 pm } · { musings, Queen of the Kitchen, the awesome, Uncategorized, weekender }
{ Comments (6) }

So much to do, so little time to blog!

So here you go, one giant catch-all catch-up post. Aren’t you excited? I know I am…

~~~~~~~

Last weekend, for the Fourth of July, the girls and I went to the big farmer’s market. It was pretty awesome! Delicious breakfast, fresh native blueberries, huge bunches of basil, a delicious smoothie to keep me from passing out in the heat, handmade soaps and other goodies. We grabbed lunch afterwards at the famous Shady Glen, then went back to my place to relax for a while before fireworks.

I also used up some of that wonderful basil and a whole mess of limoncello lemons I had hanging around to make this for us to bring to the fireworks.

Jenni was very excited about basil lemonade and farmer’s market bread at the fireworks

I *highly* recommend this recipe. Especially if you like gin. Which I do. A lot. The recipe says lightly spiked. It’s not. I assure you, it’s very spiked. And very tasty.

The park was packed for fireworks! So, we threw down a couple of blankets and, being who we are and seeing how it’s Tour de Fleece and all, we busted out the spindles and got to work.

Kris works on her silk…
…while I make some progress on the BFL/tussah.

The sun went down nice and easy—as did the lemonade—and the fireworks show was great.

Pretty sunset in advance of pretty fireworks

All-in-all, a great holiday.

~~~~~~~

I had so many limoncello lemons around because I officially started Batch No. 2 over the long weekend.

Lemonliscious!

Sixteen more organic lemons got zested and combined with two more 750 mL bottles of 100-proof Smirnoff vodka. Batch No. 1 got strained and mixed with simple syrup as well, so only a few more weeks until I have actual, finished limoncello to put in my pretty hand-etched bottles!

~~~~~~~

As mentioned, Tour de Fleece is well underway! So far, I’ve spun every day since it started and met all my little daily personal goals. I started the second half of the superwash merino/bamboo top on Evelyn…

Fine, shiny singles

…but mostly I’ve been working on the “Surf Song” BFL/tussah from Corgi Hill Farm that was on my Spanish Peacock spindle. I got all the singles finished and wound off over a couple of days…

Loved spinning this blend. It practically drafts itself!

…and decided to ply them up on Evelyn, a feat made much easier since that groovy woodturner guy I know totally rocks and hooked me up with a mess of new bobbins.

Stupid happy with how this plied up. Stupid happy.

I had some tension/take-up/bobbin-packing/tangled-mess issues while working on this, and had to split it over three bobbins to finish it. Oh, well. It was my first time plying on the wheel, so there’s still a learning curve at play here. I’ll just splice them all together while I skein them up.

And wow, it was sooo much faster than two-plying on a spindle! Can’t wait to check my yardage.

~~~~~~~

One of my finds at the aforementioned farmer’s market was these squash blossoms.

Female zuchinni blossoms, all cleaned and de-pistoled, ready for cooking

I couldn’t resist them! They looked so fresh and wonderful, and I’ve always wanted to try them.

I mixed up a stuffing of cream cheese, a splash of lemon juice, some sea salt and pepper, fresh sliced garlic and some more of that gorgeous basil…

Such a wonderful bunch of basil! It makes me a little teary just looking at it.

…to create this super tasty concoction.

Soooo delicious…

I had to stop myself from eating it right out of the bowl! I stuffed the squash blossoms with this goodness. Mind you, I had very diligent helpful helpers…

We’ll help you, Momma. We’re very helpful.

…one a little more eager than the other.

What? I’m helping you! I’m super helpful.

When the blossoms were all stuffed and ready, I got some olive oil heating in a pan and mixed a Farmer’s Cow egg and some soymilk together for a light wash.

Ready to go

I rolled them in the egg wash, then some all-purpose flour and then dropped them in the pan for a light fry.

Not a great pic, but trust me: These were great.

They came out awesome! So simple and so delicious! Next time, I’ll cut off the little zuchinni ends and use them for something else. They were good, but totally overpowered by the awesome that was those blossoms.

I even ate the leftovers cold the next day. Still amazing!

~~~~~~~

Guess who’s still pregnant?

These kids are driving me crazy already…

Tilly’s belly just keeps on growing, and last night—for the first time—I saw the kids kicking around in there. It was so cool to see. And they must have been really excited about that salmon and tuna Wellness pouch for dinner, because they were having a big ‘ole party up in there. Poor Tilly was so uncomfortable and mopey, I felt so bad for her.

Just leave me alone, um-kay?

Thankfully, she’s back to her happy little self today, and the mopies appear to be gone for now.

All this does mean, however, that the baby pool is still open! Thanks to everyone who’s played so far. And if you haven’t gotten your entry in yet, you still have time. Remember, comments close when the kittens are born.

Tilly’s Baby Pool Giveaway

{ July 5, 2010 @ 4:45 pm } · { Everybody loves a giveaway!, I'm honestly not a cat person...seriously... }
{ Comments (53) }

There’s so much going on! I could blog about farmer’s marketing…or fireworks…or Tour de Fleece.

But instead, we’re going to jump way, way ahead of schedule and have—yes, that’s right!—another giveaway!

This one was all Allison‘s idea, and due to the limited time frame at hand, we’re kicking it off today: Tilly’s Baby Pool Giveaway!

I am just so special.

Tilly’s getting rounder and rounder, but we still have no clue how many kittens she’s having or when she’ll pop. So, just like your office baby pool, here’s the contest:

  • Each person gets one entry. Leave a comment to enter. You can comment more than once, but only one comment will count.
  • You get two chances to win.
  • First, guess how many kittens Tilly will have. Be specific. Entries that say “5 or 6″ or something to that effect will not count. We need a solid number here.
  • Second, guess the day that Tilly will have her kittens. What day of what month do you think they’ll be born?
  • The person who guesses correctly will win! If no one guesses correctly, the person who guesses closest without going over will win. In the event of two or more correct guesses, the winner will be chosen by random.org.
  • There are two prizes, and one person can win both prizes, if they guess correctly.

Now, a lot of people will never get to actually see Tilly in person, so of course you need some belly pics. All the photos in this entire post were taken today.

Also, keep in mind that on Friday, June 25, the vet weighed Tilly in at 9.2 pounds, so she’s not a big girl at all.

And here’s the goods.

The person who guesses the litter size correctly will win these two matching dyelot skeins of Koigu KPPPM, Colorway P838, graciously donated by Allison for this giveaway:

The person who correctly guesses the day Tilly will deliver will win this 2 ounce bump of Fiber Fancy bombyx silk in the “Beautiful Blues” colorway:

Keep in mind: I have no clue when or how many. This is a total game of chance, and she could go at any time so get your guesses in quickly! Comments will close when the kittens are born.

Happy guessing!

Edit — July 15: Tilly went into labor this morning! Comments are now closed  :)

The Destructor of Pie

{ July 3, 2010 @ 1:10 pm } · { I'm honestly not a cat person...seriously..., Queen of the Kitchen }
{ Comments (7) }

Pie-making yesterday went wonderfully. I got some beautiful strawberries from the little produce market across the street to go with my beautiful rhubarb, and crust-making went really well.

Such a lovely pie!

The pie came out gorgeous and smelled wonderful. I couldn’t wait for it to cool a bit so that I could dig in and try it!

Still warm, with a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream. Perfect.

It tasted divine! Smitten Kitchen’s all-butter really flaky pie crust really makes it. Wow, that crust is wonderful, and so easy to make. I was really pleased with the whole deal.

So, I ate my slice, wrapped the remaining pie up in plastic and called it a night.

This morning, I woke up to this.

The hell?!?!?!

O.M.G. Someone destroyed my pie!

It couldn’t be Madori, she’s much too short, so that only leaves one culprit.

What makes you think it was me?

Whoever would have thought a cat would go for a damn fruit pie?!?! I’m chalking this up to uber-pregnant kitty hormones, and have learned my lesson: No more pies left where a certain someone can get into them. Ever.

It’s also worth noting that a certain someone also really enjoyed the pie’s crust.

Oh…sad pie…so sad…

So, that crust recipe gets an official paws up from La Casa de Weasel.

Is is wrong that—despite the teeth marks and cat slobber—I still want to eat the pie? It was so good…I can’t bring myself to throw it away yet.

That would be really gross, though, wouldn’t it?

Eye Candy Friday – Pie Precourser Edition

{ July 2, 2010 @ 8:55 am } · { Eye Candy Friday }
{ Comments (3) }

Yesterday, I walked to the farmer’s market near my office with some coworkers to grab some lunch and also picked up these beautiful stalks of fresh rubarb. They looked amazing and, since I’m on furlough from work today, I’ve got big plans for pie.

The fresh produce market across the street has the most amazing looking things, so I’ll hopefully be supplementing the rubarb with some beautiful strawberries for this pie from Smitten Kitchen.

I love strawberry rubarb pie. I’m even going to try my hand at homemade pie crust. I know…be impressed.

Is it wrong that, instead of going to a recipe site, I now go to Smitten Kitchen first when I’m looking to make something fabulous?

Also, it’s officially been a month since I started the limoncello, which means it’s officially time for straining and simple-syrup and, in a few more weeks, bottling. Yay! So, that’s on the agenda for today as well.

Finally, the girls and I are going to the big farmer’s market on Sunday, and I’m totally psyched. I have my little heart set on a whole mess of fresh blueberries, which are just coming into season here. I have a strong desire for fresh pies and muffins and especially this milkshake, for which I will brave the throes of lactose intolerance because, wow…that looks amazing.

So, agave nectar’s on my list of things to pick up today. Perhaps along with another bunch of lemons and more vodka. This four-day weekend’s going to be delicious.

Happy Friday, everyone!

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