a simple yarn

Almost a week has elapsed since I last posted. Hmmpf. Trying to keep those darn spinning plates in the air….

So many plates to balance…some urgent….some important….some urgent AND important….and some neither urgent NOR important, but needing to be done all the same. It’s the middle of October….much of the busyness has passed, and there’s still a bit to go, but the end is in sight. Whew!

In the midst of all this activity, though, a couple of fun things to share….in no particular order…

New Friends
Met up with Diane-From-Toronto-Who’s-Moving-To-Dublin this week as she and spouse are searching for housing. Lovely to finally meet someone after months of blog comments and emails. Had a great chat over coffee. Hopefully I could answer some questions. Topics such as utilities, transport, schools are easy enough. Others, however, are a little more challenging…

‘What about yarn shops?’ she asked.
‘Um,’ I replied, ‘they’re coming, slowly but surely.’
‘How do you get your roving?’ she enquired.
‘Um,’ I replied, ’slowly but surely.’

And thus, as a consolation, she handed me a bag of beautiful blood red merino roving. Yum!

Hatting Adventures
Was so chuffed about my first hat project that I decided to do another….warmer this time, as the Sublime is soft, to be sure, but light weight. Need something for winter gales. So, of course opt for warm, woolly yarn…Lamb’s Pride and Manos del Uruguay…in cute Inca-style. Need to line with fabric, I think. But the styling is well-suited for a cutie four-year old.

No intros, quips, quotes, notes, or warnings needed….

After a few stops and starts, knitting forward and ripping back, with a few alterations for four-year-old appeal, in a glorious moment of quiet and uninterrupted peace, my first hat project for Leonie is complete.

‘Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.’                             -Alexander Pope

Call me a fool.

I was visiting a fellow weaver. She has been doing this for over thirty years. I have been doing it for less than one. She has vast experience. I have very little. So, she asked me what my next weaving project was and when I shared what the next houndstooth warp was to be, there was a definite pause, a mental adjustment, and a cautious ‘my you certainly know how to pick a challenge’ or something to that effect.

As if the thwoinging first thread wasn’t frustrating enough. Or the bouncing bouclé wasn’t challenging enough. My next study in houndstooth is…

But you know what? I think it’s my favourite so far. So incredibly soft and lovely in natural undyed colours…cream and dark brown. And a big thanks to the ‘angel’ of this story, Sharon, for donating the yarn to the cause.

Attention, please…as a change from starting a story, making a linguistic or cultural detour and then returning to the main tale, I believe I will alter my path and begin with the diversion…

Wha’? It’s a Dublin thing. And it’s what my son says perhaps a million-and-one times per day.

‘Alex?’ say I.
‘Wha’?’ says he.

Son, please shut the door.
Wha’?

Have you done your homework?
Wha’?

Do you see the pattern? Trouble is…it’s contagious. After having a bit of a laugh with Husband-Will about our son’s verbal acclimation to living in Dublin to the point of it influencing his early days of spelling, I am now horrified to find myself in the same oral slump! So much for earning a degree in communications.

Warning: Linguistic diversion completed. Main story to follow…

So, Grainne says to me, ‘Cheryl, are you going to be making soap again this year to sell at the school Autumn Fair fundraiser?’

Wha’?!?

Eeek! How could I have let the entire summer get past me without making soap! What was I thinking with all of those leisurely warm days?! I could have been making vast quantities of soap, now-sitting-in-the-cupboard-curing-even-as-we-speak! Argh…too late now. Even if I could set aside a week to get multiple batches made (which of course is not possible as I am still in the throws of Christmas weaving and knitting, the Knitting & Stitching Show exhibition and as I recall there are still only 24 hours in each day and still only 7 days in each week but having only 6 available because I really need a day of rest every 1 out of 7, pause for breath), there’s not enough time for the soap to cure. End of run-on sentence.

Drat.

Right, Felting-Wizard-And-Fibre-Friend-Holly to the rescue….
So we take this…

Add this…

And using the instructions from Holly’s blog (well, actually I went over to her house and got a one-on-one tutorial, but the blog is very helpful and specific!), and ended up with this…

And this…

And a whole row of this (with more drying on another radiator)…

Felted soap. Lathers great. Not slimy. Don’t need a washcloth. How cool is that? This year at the school Autumn Fair, we’re taking soap to a whole new level.

Clarification: The post title is not an adverb describing my expertise in knitting, but rather a noun, describing the new Sirdar yarn being used…

In the midst of Christmas scarf knitting, I’ve been inspired to knit a cap for Four-Year-Old-Friend-Leonie, who will definitely need it as cooler weather has arrived and her chemo treatments have created the need. So, using the lovely, soft Sublime by Sirdar, I’m practicing my cabling and will give her a new Coronet, from Knitty.com.

What did I say a couple of posts ago?

I think it went something like this…‘Here’s hoping for something ‘normal’ in this week’s produce delivery!’ So, what exactly is normal? Well, for me, it doesn’t include three of the five vegetables I received this week. Sigh.

This week’s veg:

Carrots…yum
Broccoli…yum
Beets…no comment
Cauliflower…glad hubby likes it
Curly kale (again)…back to recipe search

…Dickens, that is.

Please Note: The following is not about any new projects, mind you, just completing a couple of existing works in progress, now shifted to the ‘out’ basket. What a lovely feeling!

Hard Times
I can’t quite figure it out…Beginning knitters start with scarves. And why? Because they are simple. Easy. Not difficult. But for some unknown reason, I can’t for the life of me get any of the manly Christmas scarves to come out to any predictable width and length. Same pattern. Same yarn. Same amount of said yarn…3 balls. Three completely different outcomes. The instructions say that scarf should be 7 inches wide, 50 inches long. Remember that.

Scarf No. 1, Gray: Original pattern calls for 7mm needles. US sizing doesn’t allow for 7mm and so I began with US11/8mm. Knit to specified pattern. Scarf comes out at 5 inches wide, 71 inches long.

Scarf No. 2, Navy:
Need to add stitches to get a manly width on scarf. Fiddle around with gauge and finally end up what I think is close. Knit the 3 balls and end up with 7-1/2 inches wide and 49 inches long. Close enough.

Scarf No. 3, Chocolate:
Then finding that the instructions in the book are wrong and that there’s a correction to make (thought it looked a bit odd), I get the correct ribbing pattern from the This Is Knit folk and proceed. Decide to drop to US10/6mm, just to get some extra length. Because I know my yarn is a bit thinner, I adjust for additional stitches because casting on only 20, as told, will only get me another petite scarf, and I’m thinking I have enough scarves in my winter wardrobe right now! So, make adjustments and after 3 balls of yarn, I now have a product that is 7 inches wide and only 37 inches long. What in the world?!?

Can you believe it? So much for mass production sameness and up with individualised gifting! At least that’s how I’m looking at it…

Great Expectations
And so, the bouclé scarves are finally done. They weren’t difficult. Just didn’t have much extra time to devote to weaving of late. What started out as a great expectation is now a nicely completed project…3 scarves. Truth be told, the edges of the scarves have a bit too long of a carryover thread from one colour to the next. Should have woven them in better, but hey, I’m still a beginner and perhaps a little needle and thread work will fix that right up.

Bleak House
In keeping with the Dickensian themes and titles, I have to say that I’m thrilled to have completed the handwarmers a while back. Mornings are definitely chilly in our house now and I’m getting that tingling in my hands…early warning system that I’m soon to be without circulation. And like Bob Cratchet, we are still making do without the central heating being on. Can’t quite bring ourselves to turn it on. Honestly, it’s not bad for people with normal circulation. So, on go the handwarmers and yes, I can feel a difference, guv’nor!

Update: Still weaving the black/white/pink bouclé houndstooth. Still knitting the manly Christmas scarves. Nothing really new in the fibre department. Trying to begin hats for Four-Year-Old-Friend-Leonie. Having a bit of problem getting the gauge right. So what should I do? Right, talk about cabbages and swedes…I mean rutabagas, not people from Sweden.

Warning: Once again, I didn’t take pictures, being in the throws of cooking and all, so the following post is sadly sans photos.

The challenge with eating what’s in season and living in Ireland is that you get a lot of cabbage and, as I’m finding, a lot of swedes, which I now know are rutabagas. So, trying to broaden my cooking palette to include these ’still-not-a-regular-part-of-our-diet’ foods, here’s what we had for dinner. (’Cuz I know that Thursday’s comin’ and with it will be another organic veg delivery, in all probability including something cabbagey or swedey…note I didn’t say swedish…)

Cabbage
Found a recipe for Cabbage Huntington, which looked fairly passable. But, not being sure how my family would react to cabbage without the ‘Americana’ casserole format, I thought I’d at least zizz it up a bit…adding the ever popular cheese.

1 small, crisp cabbage
1 medium onion, chopped (optional)
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup finely cut celery
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup thin cream or milk and cream
Buttered bread or cracker crumbs
Cheddar cheese (optional)

Sauté onions in olive oil in a pan. Add cabbage and cook until tender. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, put butter and celery. Cook slowly for about 5 minutes. Stir in flour. Stir in gradually milk/cream. Here’s where I put in some cheddar cheese, for a bit of zizz. Cook until thick, stirring constantly. Season to taste. Add the cabbage. Spoon into baking dish. Cover with buttered crumbs and bake at about 350 degrees F (which is 180 C) until thoroughly heated and browned on top.

Served this as a side dish with baked chicken and mashed potatoes. Kids declared it fit to eat. Whew!

Swede
Decided not to put the swede in the mashed potatoes. Need to do something new.

Warning: Immediate change of subject.
I’ve always found it interesting that in the supermarket here they sell carrots and parsnips together in a bag. Never understood why until Grainne-The-Irish-Culture-Guru told me about mashing them together with a bit of butter and pepper. Yum, she said. Well, I still haven’t tried it (not having received any parsnips in my organic veg delivery), but thought that I’d try substituting the swede for the parsnip. I mean, a root veg is a root veg, right? So, after peeling and dicing the swede, I cooked them with peeled and chopped carrots until soft. Added some butter, salt and pepper and mashed.

Another passable vegetable dish for the family. Again, whew!

But I gotta confess, all of this Research and Development in the Cooking Department is wearing me out! Here’s hoping for something ‘normal’ in this week’s produce delivery!

As a child, I remember the what-seemed-to-me-endless stream of television commercials for furniture polish that cleaned without adding a waxy buildup. Funny I can’t remember the name of the product…was it Pledge? Anyway, I’ve been experiencing a bit of buildup lately…

And due to the slowness and steadiness in building up this ‘life wax’ as it were, it has not been apparent until seeing it in retrospect, that I’ve been burning that candle at both ends.

Too many commitments.
Some were unavoidable and some are of my own doing. Right, time to put back a little more margin in my life. October will probably be hectic, but will work toward a calmer end of the year.

Too much caffeine.
The lovely end-of-the-day cup has had a few unconscious addendums including the morning-before-working cup and the chatting-with-friends cup (or two). No wonder my head throbs.

So, this morning while still in a horizontal position and being served lovely toast and decaffeinated tea by my daughter-who-would-do-well-in-the-hospitality-trade, I
Did not cook.
Did not knit.
Did not weave.
Did not do emails.
Did not get out of bed for quite a while.

And to clean away some of the wax buildup, I
Read.
Pondered.
Prayed.
Napped.
Read some more.
Napped some more.
Had more decaf tea without a cappuccino in sight until this evening when Husband-Will and I will savour one decaf cup.

Oh sure, after one day of real rest, the wax buildup is not entirely gone (contrary to what most TV adverts would lead you to believe!), but still, it’s a step in the right direction…