Back to school...T-minus one week!

Today we went and bought all the supplies that the kiddo needed for school. We had a great time exploring a not-so-local art supply store for things on the list and other treasures too. It was fun!


Last week we were in Rhode Island to visit my family. My uncle and his family have a great house in Little Compton, RI, right on the Massachusetts border. It was a great place to all get together! My sister and my other aunt came too and the kiddo had a great time playing with his teenage cousins. He also discovered Bocce. The kid can through a heavy ball remarkably far!

It was also his first experience with both ocean swimming (the Pacific is way too cold for swimming in Oregon) and with fishing (without a hook for obvious reasons...)

We got to explore the area around Little Compton quite a bit as well and I discovered a yarn shop that rivals Boersma's Knitting Basket! If you are ever in Rhode Island, there is a shop in Tiverton called Sakonnet Purls that is to die for! I found all sorts of goodies, and they have a little shed outside where every skein is $4. I, of course, could not resist that and got some lovely Cleckheaton and some funky Noro that is made of Ganpi (a sort of tree bark we think...) I am making a string bag out of the Noro and so far, so good!

We also ate way too much local corn. It was so good! As were the locally caught clams, mussels and lobsters. Yummy!

Fun with food coloring...

A big box arrived yesterday from KnitPicks with a bunch of undyed worsted wool. The plan is to have the kiddo help dye it using food color. He picked out kelly green food coloring (Wilton's) at the store yesterday and perhaps today we will fire up the dye pot before violin lesson. We did some Kool-Aid dyeing a couple of years ago and had a great time with that. This time, I think we will do less dipping and more pouring...

There was an article in the most recent issue of knitty.com that talked about this and I got inspired!

I also ordered some undyed sock yarn. I really like it as it is VERY soft! It is 75% superwash Merino, 25% nylon and the plan there is to dye it with royal blue food color. If it dyes up relatively easily, it may be the new sock yarn of choice because it is so soft!

We also got our meager garden started this weekend. So far the plants are doing quite well. We planted cherry tomatoes (Supersweet 100), Brandywines, and one called Mr. Stripey, which I mostly bought because of the name. It is an heirloom variety that is yellow with red stripes in the flesh. We had a hard time trying to find a place in the yard that would get full sun, but settled on this spot close to the house. I hope that the reflected heat from the house will do the plants good. You can see the results of last weekend's digging project in the background, if you look hard. The pipe that goes underground used to be a long piece of black flex pipe that we tripped over almost every day! This looks much better and my muscles are finally beginning to get back to normal after lots of shovel work!

We also planted a few cucumbers that the kiddo picked out. I am not sure that they will do much since they are planted underneath the day lilies and roses in a flower bed, but who knows!
The herb pot on the back porch looks great and is almost ready for kitchen use. We have basil, chives, thyme and cilantro. Yummy! I will probably get some more basil plants to plant near the tomatoes next week at the farmers market!

Last night we ate sausages from the farmers market and they were okay, but not great. We also had panzanella (bread salad) with olive bread from the market, tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella. It was delish!

Digging in the dirt

There was not much string in my weekend, unless you count the level line that we used to dig a trench in the side yard. We have a sump pump in the basement that was dumping water out of the catch basin into a splash pad on the side of the house. Once it had a drain pipe but for some reason it had been cut off. The water mostly pooled right next to the house so we figured it was seeping back into the basement. Not good!

I decided to put my geological skills to work and we built a lovely drain for the pump! Actually I was tired of tripping over the piece of flex-pipe that we had stuck on the end of the pipe coming out of the house as a stop gap. We dug a 10 foot long trench about 12" deep with a 2' x 2' chamber at the end, laid in a 4" sewer pipe and then lined the chamber and the end of the trench with landscape cloth and filled it with gravel. Hopefully it will last a good long time.

Even the kiddo was helpful on the project. What 5 year old boy doesn't love to dig! He found all sorts of good things too... A cicada still in its chrysalis, lots of worms, big white grubs, and lots of rocks!

On Sunday we went to the local farmers market and found all sorts of goodies. There is a guy that sells pasta that is to die for! This time we got pumpkin ravioli and they tasted like little pillows of pumpkin pie. Most excellent with sage butter on top! We also decided to try the local meat purveyor and bought some pork sausages and ground buffalo. DH has an idea for pesto buffalo burgers... Sounds yummy to me! We tried some bread from a place called the Bread Ovens at Quail Creek Farm. This is the best bread I have tasted since we moved. (It is just as good as Red Fox Bakery in McMinnville, Oregon) We got one loaf of Olive bread and one of Potato and White Truffle. The potato is just about the best tasting thing on earth! There was not much in the way of veg, but we did get some asparagus and some strawberries. Yummy!

More playing with plastic...

Well, the crocheted plastic bags were working pretty well, but I am really a knitter at heart so I switched to pointy sticks. I started with the basic Booga Bag, although slightly downsized for experimentation sake. I am not sure what I will do for handles on this one... Here is the progress so far:






I have switched methods of cutting up the bags and this way works much better. I fold the bags into quarters longwise and then slice the bags into strips. I take the resulting rings and link them together to form a 2-ply "yarn" to work with. The strips are only about 3/4 to 1 inch wide and the result knits up quite well on big needles. Of course, none of this helps keep my husband from looking at me like he thinks I am crazy!

I have also been working on my cardigan. It is a totally made up design in Mission Falls 1824 Cotton. The colors in the photo are a bit off. They are really Lentil and Sea. The Lentil reminds me of my friend Karol who LOVES the icky greens! I have the bottom half of the bodice done and most of one sleeve so far. This is how it looks right now...

I like this one and am going to make raglan sleeves so the stripes can continue uninterupted for the top. I figured that drop or set in sleeves would look to perpedicular to me! Eventually it will have a button placket made of the blue yarn. I think it will be a perfect fall sweater!

I also realized that I haven't posted the DONE photo of the Alice Starmore sweater that I finished last month. It is very cozy and fits just beautifully. This one is made in Cleckheaton Country 8-ply, my favorite sweater yarn of all...

The kiddo took the picture, but he did a great job of getting the sweater in the frame!

On a totally non-knitting note, Sunday was our first trip to the local farmers market. It was a beautiful day and there were quite a few folks out. We bought some herb plants... Basil to replace the ones that were burnt by frost a couple of weeks ago, a lemon thyme, cilantro. The kiddo picked out some cucumber starts. He loves the cukes! I am going to wait until next week for tomatoes. This time I didn't see any good heirloom starts, mostly hybrids and not a single cherry tomato plant! The good news is that we found eggs, a guy who makes rightous tortellini, local honey, and a really delicious carrot loaf. Next week we will visit the meat guy who has organic meat, including buffalo and goat! Unfortunately there were no cheese vendors this time...

So... This is a blog...

Well, it seems that all my friends have blogs, so I figure why not... A little about me...

I knit too much. Since the first of the year I have made 3 and a half sweaters and one and a half socks. One sweater is a baby sweater (for a nephew due in June), one is for me (think adult-sized complicated Aran sweater), and one is for my amazing kiddo (Mission Falls 1824 Cotton with bright colored stripes on a black background... He picked the colors!)

I just finished the TKGA Master Knitter program and am qualified to call myself a Master Knitter. I am not sure what that gets me other than the warm fuzzy feeling that I am done. The process to get the certification is rather long and it took me about 3 years to finish.

I love to cook and to eat. We recently moved from Oregon to Virginia and I am going through food withdrawal. Last summer we managed to eat locally (and I mean truly local) produced food for about 2/3 of our diet. It is really easy when you live 50 miles from the pacific ocean, and in the middle of the Willamette Valley. Half of our fruit came from our neighborhood! Our neighbors had apple, pear, plum, and cherry trees. We had blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries in the front yard as well as tomatoes and garlic. Now that we live in Northern Virginia and it is harder to find good local food, but we are beginning to figure it out. There is a good farmer's market that just started back up here, but I have not been able to find anywhere that sells local products in the suburban sprawl. I will keep trying! One good thing is that we have excellent meat available since there are half a dozen halal butchers in the area.

I am blessed with a kiddo that will eat anything. The only food that he down right hates is potatoes. He won't eat them in any form. Not fries, not mashed, not chips, not au gratin! Of all the things that he could refuse to eat, this is actually pretty easy to live with. I certainly don't miss the idea that McDonald's fries could be a staple. He loves olives, and good bread (you know the kind with hard crust and chewy center), and adores blue cheese and chevre. Not bad for a mere child of five!