FO: Turning Another Square

These little hats are ingenious, and a great way to use up scraps. I was able to squeeze a second one out using the same two skeins of yarn as the first one, with just dipping into a wee bit of a second skein of the brown Shelter yarn to finish it off. The striping pattern in the Noro is much darker than my first hat from this skein:



But I am easily amused and it was so different looking that I didn't really mind making the same hat twice. However, my faithful model was a little miffed by the redundancy.



See, much different with the darker stripes of Noro, right?

I made this for Scott, who is attempting to teach us conversational French. He is a very patient man. I think I mentioned to him that "I am a bottle of red wine" the other night, instead of "I have a bottle of red wine". Silly verbs. I am a lot of things. A linguist is not one of them, but I'm giving it a good try and I'm finding it easier as I go along.



Even though it's a bit late in the season for a wooly knitted hat gift, it was perfectly cold, rainy and dreary the night we met up for class. I still want a nice warm hat some days, and other days a skimpy little tank to flutter around in works as well. Ahh, spring.

I love this pattern so hard. I'll be whipping up some more, I'm sure. I can cast on Monday morning on the subway and be done with it for the ride home Tuesday night without even thinking about it. Plus, it's a great way to use up scraps.

Specs: Size 4 needles, a bit under a half skein of Noro, a bit over a half skein of Shelter. The pattern is a free one: Turn a Square by Jared Flood.

Hambition

First off, my apologies to Sparrows and Honeybees because I ate her share of ham and now I'm rubbing it in her face by posting food porn pictures of it.

I was a vegetarian for 10 years or so. It feels like another lifetime at this point. My original motives as a teenager was to annoy my family with my special diet. Then I perhaps drank some koolaid that the PETA people were handing out. Oh, and having a lot of farm animals with names hanging around didn't help either. It all conspired to create a magic meatless vacuum in my life. It continued that way for quite some time, with nary a craving or a tempting thought of eating it otherwise. That is until I moved to the city, far removed from farm animals, which also happens to have lots of really good steakhouses. Filet Minion and Sirloin were my gateway drugs, especially when there were martinis plentiful to quell the bit of guilt.

I still eat a ton of vegetables and I try not to eat meat too often for health and environmental reasons. If the animal was humanely raised, then I have no moral issue with it. Finding a good source for it took a little time though.

I was overjoyed when I discovered The Piggery. They raise heirloom breeds- Mulefoot and Berkshires- on their farm in upstate New York. They get to roam around and root and be happy social pigs for their entire lives. In turn, they make for wonderful eats. None of this lean, dried out and flavorless pork you get in the store. This is real-deal pork for people who aren't afraid of a little fat in their lives. Because they practice snout-to-tail cooking, you get a lot of interesting bits as well with your share....headcheese, pate, scrapple. I make it policy to at least give everything a try, and it's all been really excellent.

Our weekly share has been a culinary adventure for me. Aside from Bacon, I have never cooked pork before. It started with a chop that I fried up and smothered with caramelized apples, some ribs that have set me off drooling on a clean shirt while daydreaming about them at work, a cluster of sausages that I uncased and used for dumpling filling, lots of heavenly bacon, and, most recently, ham.

I did some research on cooking this. I knew this had to be a little trashy in order for it to work. I kept coming across recipes for ham in coca-cola- it seemed like it was a staple of the American South to cook it in soda. I'm not a soda drinker at all, but having a super-sweet glaze seemed like a fun idea. I rummaged around in the fridge and found this:



Ginger soda (with pomegranate and hibiscus, naturally) is one of my favorite cocktail mixers. I've been mixing it with bourbon lately, but it's also good with rum and vodka. It's not as cloying as ginger ale, and it has a nice spicy bite to it. I found it went great with ham as well.



The ham was 2.5 lbs, so I put it in a pot and covered it with the pop. I threw in some onions and some fresh ginger and let it simmer away for an hour and a half. It smelled heavenly. Hog heavenly.

Once it was cooked, I took it out of the pot, pinned some pineapples and cloves to it, and threw it in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes, and then a quick broil which smoked up the house and set off the fire alarm, like it does every time.



It bronzed and baked the outside crisp, but the ample layer of fat insured the inner ham did not dry out a bit. I served it with a side of collard greens with plenty of garlic, just to keep it real.



It was delicious. The salty ham was balanced nicely by the sweet cola bath and the heady spice of ginger, and the tart acid of the pineapple. Also, the next morning was made hedonistic and immensely pleasurable by sending the leftover slices to the fry pan for a quick browning and then frying a couple eggs in the bit of grease it left behind.

Thankfully for me (and the pigs) the summer vegetable CSA will be starting up soon.

FO: Wisp

Remember the Buffalo down I spun last year? It was decidedly a pain in the ass to spin, but I was happy with the finished yarn.

Finding a project for it was another story though. I cast on for several before finding the right one. I kept trying to make a lace cowl with it...it's soft and there was enough yardage to make a big wimple type thing. The problem was that the yarn has absolutely no memory or spring to it, making the lace sloppy looking. It reminded me of the webs that spiders had spun when researches got them flying around on LSD.

Wow man. Just wow. Not what I had in mind.

I finally figured out that a lace cowl was not what this yarn was calling out to be. I had a couple of friends who had made a Wisp, and it seemed like the simple lace structure would do the yarn justice.





It's very lightweight and the lace pattern is stretchy. I need to find some light buttons so this could be buttoned up and worn either as a scarf, möbius, cowl, hood, or wrapped around your neck twice for extra warmth. It's a perfectly simple pattern and a great way to wear a soft, special handspun close to your skin.

I used size 7 needles and knitted until I was almost out of yarn/sick of the pattern and couldn't go on any longer. B is for Buffalo (or Bison) and this is part of my A-Z stashdown. Which, you know...I'm almost done with the letter B.

I Made Something Pretty.

Oh, Cormo. I love you so much.



I know, I know. Confessing my love for a sheep could mean serious legal consequences in some states, but really now. It's the wool I'm after.


Singles.

It started out as roving from Foxfire Farm in Massachusetts. It was absolutely addicting to spin, and it was a bit sad when the last bit of fluff flew from my fingers and twisted itself around the bobbin. Foxfire doesn't have a website, but she does show up at her booth in the main hall at Rhinebeck every year. You can tell when you are spinning it that the sheep it came from was loved and cared for.



It was just so crimpy and lovely. Whoever processed it did a good job of not over-processing. It still smelled vaguely and pleasantly of sheep, the crimp was still visable, and it was snowy-white and clean with no vegetation.



It was like spinning a cloud of cotton candy. Except not sticky. And not dyed a nauseating pink. I will retract that statement now.



I spun it woolen, from the fold. It made for a lofty and soft yarn- I spun lace singles and plied them into a fingering weight 2-ply. 368 yards.

I Am Running Away to Join the Circus.

It seems as though a series of odd, tragic, stressful and downright weird events has been plaguing the people around me lately. I feel like everyone I know has been the recipient of bad news and the past few months have been especially trying because of it. Before you draw conclusions about my toxic effect on people, I'm pretty sure I'm not the Bad Seed. Just a helpless-feeling bystander.

Also...my job. It's gotten a bit too much lately. I know I get compensated monetarily quite nicely and really have nothing to complain about, but more days than I care to count I feel like I'm ready to move on. I have the Peace Corps website open in another tab. Oooh, Fiji. Really? You send people to Fiji? Wait...but I have to speak Hindi or Fijian, or be willing to learn? I must admit, my Fijian is a bit rusty at this point. Wait...you don't serve any English-speaking countries at all? How about un peu français, non? Well then. Maybe the Peace Corps is not for me after all. Sitting in an office in Manhattan is really quite nice actually, with the running water and flush toilets. Never mind.

Happily, I am planning a nice little vacation next month. It's piggy-backed with a work trip, but it's in a location that I love and would gladly go for a nice vacation on my own. More on that soon.

I've been knitting in fits and starts, but I chose a bunch of projects that require my full attention at all times. None of this round and round we go stuff...I'm making a lace shawl with the lace pattern on both sides, which means one little mistake could end in disaster and I try to tink back to the blissful and innocent time where I didn't make mistakes. I'm also making an oversized cable sweater, where the cable pattern runs on both sides requiring me to stare at the pattern with laser-like intensity. Then I cast on for an "easy" project, which involves a laceweight and delicate silk/mohair blend to be adorned with dozens of tiny beads. So much fun! Not stressful at all! My dentist says I should try not to grind my teeth during my waking hours!

Maybe it's time to start a really simple hat, or a pair of socks.

I did get something pretty in the mail a couple weeks ago:



It's the March Essential Luxury club from A Verb for Keeping Warm. A very touchable blend of baby camel, merino and silk. I can almost feel my stress melt away as I dream about spinning it. It's gorgeous dahhling, gorgeous. It's going into a bin for a bit as I am still spinning my Shetland fleece and I'm [trying my best to be] a spinning project monogamist. I can actually fill a bobbin with the Shetland in about 45 minutes.

There's been lots of other fun stuff going on- lots of pork cookery and dumpling folding and beer making and spin-ins and jewelry creating and honey bee education and trying not to fail at it all. Being bored in New York means you probably have no pulse.

The Persistence of Memory

Lots of Randomness for you today.

We've been taking French lessons for a month now. It's one of those really conversational classes that meet in a new location each week so you can talk about your surroundings and learn more real-life applications. It works sometimes, other times it's distracting and hard to piece together what's in your head. I like the instructor and enough people dropped out right away to make it more of a private lesson. I love it when that happens.

Last night we met at the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle so we can talk about clothing and purchasing things. It's a giant upscale mall Manhattan style...really expensive restaurants that takes weeks to get reservations, European shops where you can spend many thousands of dollars on a handbag, and usually some sort of large-scale original artwork where a normal mall might have a penny fountain and topiaries. Also, the Jazz at Lincoln Center concert hall is integrated into the mall, so you can catch a concert here as well. I'll get to more on the artwork in a second.

I walked up from my office after work. I happened to have the little point and shoot camera in my hand when I noticed a phenomenon that I just had to capture.

It's the absolute agony and stress of trying to hail a cab at rush hour, which coincides with the time when all the cab drivers head back to the depots for shift change.



I saw it so many times on my walk. I think I have myself a new photo project. This woman was getting especially cranky- she started to pace around and shoot death glares to all the occupied cabs zooming up Madison Ave without her.





I was getting kind of stressed out just watching her. Maybe this isn't such a good thing for me to peruse.

At the TWC, the artwork they currently have on display are Dali-inspired (and apparently, Dali-approved) bronzes.









Also, they have a couple of enormous permanent Botero bronzes. I read something recently (in the New Yorker maybe?) about how they have to re-bronze the male's naughty bits every few months because passer-bys find them irresistible to touch.



I would highly recommend checking out the Dalis if you are in the area. There are 16 sculptures total, plus original paintings as well.



During the night, the city got a slushy wet coating of snow.



It's pretty and it will either be be gone or gross by the end of the day.

The fresh burst of late winter means I am not so foolish knitting a heavy woolen sweater right now, right? I have a few projects on the needles, all of them complicated and requiring quiet time and no glass of wine to foul things up. I compensated by casting on for another Turn a Square hat with the other half a skein of Noro and Shelter so I have something to do on my commute.



After a day, it's nearly finished. It's a bit further on in the skein than the last hat, so the stripes are much less subtle and it looks completely different.

I've also been spinning up the Shetland fleece:


I have three full bobbins spun up so far, and a slightly noticeable dent in the enormous pile fleece that has been living in my spinning basket. There is hope that I will be reclaiming some floor space back for regular use soon.

Craft Beer Festival

Over the weekend, we headed to Manhattan for a Craft Beer and Food festival. I am still not a beer drinker, but I don't mind trying a couple sips here and there. I was more excited about the food.

I do have to say, the beer wall was impressive. They had over 60 beers on tap to sample.



As with all of these beer events, the people pulling the taps seemed happy and friendly. There were also a lot of homebrewers there to chat with.



One guy sold his car to buy his homebrew system. I'm going to pretend like I didn't hear that.

Biercraft had a booth- this is where I'm forced to stop by every week to pick up the pork share from The Piggery, and buy some nice cheese and chocolates as well. They had some sort of beer-bong like contraption that was infusing the beer with extra hops before pouring.



Hops are in the same family of plants as hemp. The beer being soaked in the hop-bong ended up tasting like skunky pot in the least pleasant way possible. Some people really like their hops.



There was some really amazing food- Smoked brisket from Mexicue, shrimp rolls from Luke's Lobster, bacon brittle from South Houston, frites from the Frites and Meats truck, Cheese from Murray's, some lovely pate from D'orsay cafe...wow. Just wow. We fasted beforehand and I didn't have to eat again until the next day.

After a couple hours, everyone was walking around glassy-eyed and jolly. I can totally get into this hedonistic beer culture, but if I could just brown bag a glass or wine while I'm walking around, I'd be much happier. I left the event noshed out and very sober.

Just coincidentally, there was a bead show going on at the pavilion next door. What luck! I ended up getting some really cool vintage Lucite beads from The Beadin' Path from Freeport, Me. I'll have to take some pictures of them because they are amazing. I found the rest of the vendors kind of ho-hum and nothing special, but it's mostly because I work very close to the bead district and the majority of the vendors were New York based. I've been beading quiet a bit lately and I've been really happy with my creations.