28 posts from 2007

Been a long time since I've written: Mea culpa, mea culpa. Life tends to grab me and run away at top speed.

This past week, I got my hands on a yarn winder for half price at JoAnn.com, and I've been using it with my umbrella swift to wind up any and all hanks of yarn I have lying about the house.
This also means that I finally had the tools to frog my Malabrigo merino poncho and ball it up for a new project.

I loved my poncho: It was my first big project, the first larger-than-a-scarf garment I was actually able to wear, and the Malabrigo meant it was insanely soft and cuddly. I'd been looking at it lately, though, and finding some amateurish mistakes: Parts where the stitches were seriously uneven, parts where the pick-up for the hood gapped and pulled and left holes, parts where I'd dropped stitches and never noticed. That poncho was always warm and something I was incredibly happy to wear, but I knew the longer I wore it, the more it would come apart and eventually fall apart irreparably.
So I took it apart and salvaged the yarn, frogging the six to seven skeins by winding it onto the swift, and then wound it up into a center-pull cake on the winder. (Which prompted the fiance -- who had patiently helped me with the project by playing engine to keep the swift rotating while I frogged lengths of yarn free -- to comment that the night's work sure looked pointless now.  ... I then grinned at him and reminded him that all the hanks of yarn I get require winding into balls, and the balls are then knit into projects, and that's all part of the process rather than wasted effort -- and that seemed to leave him a little more gratified.)

I'm now halfway through the back of a modified Roam -- I'm opting out on the seed stitch, since my left wrist started hurting when I was working up a Roam as written (in the shade redwood forest of fingering-weight Memories), and because the Malabrigo is decidedly heavier than DK weight, I've had to do a little math to keep it sized appropriately. I'm having fun doing it at any rate, and I'm getting to intermittently cuddle my Malabrigo again.

Honestly, I love that wool. If only it weren't so expensive, I swear I'd use it to the exclusion of all other yarns... Excepting for the friends of mine that are wool sensitives, of course, but for me? I'd live in the stuff, especially since they seem to now offer it in both lace and chunky weights, and I'm pretty much hopelessly in love with all things merino.

I'm rather fixated on the current pseudo-Roam I've got going, though, so with any luck I'll have pictures of a finished hoodie in the next couple of weeks.

... I'll admit to increasing the stash by a cone of cobweb-weight cashmere, but that serves a purpose otherwise known as the veil I'm knitting for my wedding. But. Even that had a purpose, and it wasn't a "Well, I want to knit this for myself just because. Present time, happy unbirthday to me!!" project.
I've been designing my freakin' wedding dress, for goodness' sake. I can see it in my head, and I should really be picking up my needles and the appropriate cones to start up on that.

So what happens instead?
The Fall Knitty comes out, and I go and fall head-over-needles for Roam.

'No,' I tell myself. 'If you're going to focus on a pattern from there, put down the lace section of the Stitchionary and look at Muir. That's something that could work for the wedding, right?'
So my knitting Id largely shushes, but simmers and grumbles.

'No, I'm not making Roam,' I tell my noisy little Id.
'No, I'm not adding to the stash.'
'No, I can't find the recommended Great Big Sea yarn. Yes, I've looked. Everywhere. All right, I'll prove it, you pushy little underbrain.'

So I search, and today? Today, I see this, written a couple days-ish after my last hunt.

Well, feck.
Now she's pointed out substitutions, and I actually have ten skeins of the now-discontinued Memories from Knitpicks -- which is a fingering weight uber-soft merino that I originally bought in three shades to make Thermal, and would fit the looser gauge for more drape requirement.
I keep having images of the red, brown and black yarn in a drawer in my bedroom, neatly balled up for my use.
It would be a perfect Roam, you know.

... Pardon me.
I have to go cast on and make my inner yarn ho shut up.

While I don't know how many people really read this, I've been uncharacteristically quiet here lately -- Mea culpa. I've been tied up in a project over at LiveJournal -- Two Ingredients, a food-challenge community. (My co-moderator came up with the idea, and I just couldn't say no. I've been taking the odd weeks, which strikes me as appropriate.)

There've been some really interesting things to come out of that place, so far.
Also, I'm amused that my typically assigned ingredients seem to be a main ingredient and a spice: Fish and capers. Tomatoes and thyme. Chocolate and garlic.
... All right, I'm kidding with the last one, though I keep threatening to actually do it. ;)

I'm also currently trying to mock up our journal icon, since I already have the perfect image... Now, I just need a line drawing of a chef hat or a spoon, and the thing can go up.
GimpShop is nice and mostly works for what I need, but I kind of miss my student copy of Photoshop: I knew exactly how to get what I wanted from Photoshop, right down to the filters. Darn you, Adobe, why do you have to be so freakin' expensive?

Anyway! Point is, there's been a lot of food over the past month, and I suspect I'll be back-dating some of the recipes and the like, as well as more knitting talk. I still haven't really posted anything about my No Sheep Swap experience with pictures, and I would still really like to -- so, that'll be going up, too.
(Not to mention the stuff that came with a recent-ish Etsy purchase from one of my downstream No Sheep buddies. Seriously, there was some REALLY cool stuff that came out of that package!)

Side note: I'm also contemplating a move for this journal to Wordpress, since I get the feeling I may be a little too dependent on Six Apart for my blogging needs. Alternately, some folk I know on LJ seem to be dual-posting from their Wordpress journals... So when I'm feeling a little less technologically lazy, I think I may look at trying to link this journal in that way. Wish me luck!

Or, food / semi-review post! Don't read this if you're hungry.

The other night, I went out to dinner with the co-workers: We all earned a service award, essentially, and the dinner was our thank-you from the company. When we earned the same award last year, our reward was a dinner at Claim Jumper's (and I'm still dreaming of their ginger creme brulee) -- this year, we were treated to the Kitchen Table at Buca's.

While not my first trip to Buca's, it was my first experience at the Kitchen Table -- and if you ever get the chance, I'd say, take that table at least once. It's interesting to watch everything going on in the kitchen, they'll bring dishes by your table and tell you what they are as they go out, and you get to interact directly with your chefs.

I have to say, I was really fond of ours. She had some excellent suggestions, and, er, we may have gotten to talking about unusual food combinations (like the ingredient choices made in the porchetta rustica -- more on that later). Also, she was a former California Pizza Kitchen chef, so she was listening intently when we started talking about them -- and then she and I got to talking about the Peking Duck pizza that (alas) is no longer on the CPK menu.

I had a lot of fun, and it was interesting to see how the kitchen worked. But I digress from the real reason we were there: The food.

I'm sad to report that for the first time in the years since I've been going to our local Buca's, I did not get the caprese. I'm an enormous fan of the way they make it, but there was just not enough interest at the table, it seemed -- though the day's salad special made its way onto our table, and I wasn't sorry in the least. The Bossman and I polished off most of that (and the leftovers, such as they were, made it home with me) -- he more after the spinach, and me attacking and devouring the fresh, flavorful wedges of tomato.
It was a 'warm spinach and tomato salad,' but it was also so much more than that. They touched the spinach, slivers of red onion and beefsteak tomatoes to the pan just long enough to warm them, and then added candied pecans and what I believe was a house balsamic vinaigrette -- if I'd been able to think past the goodness dancing on my tongue, I would have asked what went into it -- and then tossed with a mild, white goat cheese. The tomatoes were definitely my favorite, though chasing the onions and pecans around my plate were a very close second. -- I may very well have to call over there and ask what balsamic they use, because theirs was so much more mild than the stuff I keep at home, and managed to be sweeter without being cloying. (Time to upgrade!)
I do not know what kind of goat cheese they used, alas, but I think it needed a little more oomph to really make itself known: It didn't stand up all that well when paired with the dressing. Feta'd be all wrong, but it needed something... Guess it's time to go cheese tasting and expand my goat cheese repertoire.

Before that, though, we had bruschetta and the trio sampler -- battered shrimp, calamari, and mozzarella, only one of which I'll touch. The breaded mozzarella wasn't what I was typically used to: They appeared to be thin, breaded rounds of cheese, and tasted more baked than fried; I was so relieved to see something other than the fat, leaky fingers of fried, breaded cheese dripping with grease, that I did perhaps snitch one more than I should have. (No one complained since the shrimp and calamari were otherwise theirs.)
The bruschetta was little more than fresh chopped tomatoes and basil atop the house bread, drizzled with garlicky olive oil. I did love it, but the toppings were a little light. Maybe they needed a touch more garlic and onion, who could say?

And then we ordered the main course.

I was first to pipe up, and I requested the porchetta rustica: Herb-rubbed pork sliced into rounds, and topped with a sauce of red wine, balsamic, blueberries, capers and hazelnuts, served with a side of roasted potatoes and veggies.  (I have to admit, I've recently found a mild obsession with capers, especially when in these kind of dishes.)
The boss wrinkled his nose at the blueberries -- "Blueberries? In a wine sauce, on pork?" -- but I persisted and received backup from the rest of the group, so it made its way to our table and I was so very not sorry. (Neither, for that matter, was he -- he actually admitted it worked, in spite of the perceived weirdness.) I'm now going to have to dedicate my life to duplicating that dish. ;)

Of course, our chef was listening in while I announced to Bossman that I make it a point to try my hand at making ans tasting 'weird foods.'  It was an amusing couple minutes while I defended myself by pointing to his reaction to the blueberries and capers on pork. ;)

There were other things we ordered, though I did not touch the linguine fruitti di mare -- Again with the calamari and shrimp, only including mussels and clams, which are also not my cup of tea. Meant more for the co-workers, right?

We also ordered some pasta dishes (that were tasty, but I was way too full to truly appreciate) and a side of tuscan beans and escarole in marinara. It was my first time knowingly trying escarole, and I have to say I enjoyed it: I like it in much the same way I like cooked spinach, but it's got ... Hm. Perhaps not 'more' flavor, but that's the best term I can come up with at the moment. Cooked spinach can be a background flavor: Escarole isn't. I'm probably going to have to track it down fresh to form a better educated opinion.

I discovered something, however: While the co-worker-turned-friend at my left was squeezing his lemon onto his linguine di mare at his seat next to me, I took my first bite of the Tuscan white beans, and wow. The scent of lemon that hit me was enough to make that dish pop, and I was actively disappointed that the bites afterward lacked that citrus-y hint. I've decided that this weekend, I will be making white beans with greens (likely spinach, since I always have that on hand), olive oil, and lemon juice/zest.

Honestly, I only had enough room for a spoonful of tiramisu. In-sane.
Great food, though. I'm clearly going to have to drag people back that way to go get more of the things I really liked.

A few weeks ago, I went and wrote up an info-dump on cooking sites to share with my friends: After all, there are so many good places for recipes out there.

I'd hope that any Internet foodie already knows about the good places for recipes: Epicurious.com. Epicurean.com. Myriads of food blogs like 101 Cookbooks and Simply Recipes. And as for community sites -- I had my start with AllRecipes.com, but when it comes to that sort of site, I'm personally fond of Recipezaar.

But did you ever think of NPR as a source of recipes?

They are. I've added their feed to my iGoogle page, and I pounce the moment I see a new link -- It's not the best place for searching for a specific recipe, true, but they seem to have some of the more interesting food-related articles out there.
Today's love fest is for NPR's Kitchen Window: Granita by Any Name -- Call it an extension of my Spice Cream obsession, especially when considering the offerings of Sangria or Orange, Grand Marnier and Lavender Granitas. Coupled with the hot weather, I can hardly think of anything better.

On the News with Food front, I'm also terribly fond of the LA Times' every-Wednesday Food section, but word to the wise if you want to look -- You need to be subscribed to even be able to peek at most of the articles. Boo hoo.

I know I've had a link-dump before on other places with recipes: I remember going on and on about Williams-Sonoma's recipe and technique pages, though you really have to be relentless in searching that site sometimes. Cooking.com. Café Beyond -- Two out of three of these contain recipes and techniques, so I usually end up saving the page in some format for the info as there doesn't appear to be an archive. (Alas.)

Plenty of good resources out there.

 
I must have been on to something, since I've added not one, but three new food blogs to my reading collection from the time I originally shared that information. I found Orangette thanks to following a link out of NPR's Kitchen Window, my dear friend C. glibly sent me a link to Heather Christo ("My co-worker's friend is launching her foodie website and I thought it was nifty," she says. "Take a peek!"), and Simply Recipes linked to Tea & Cookies two days ago. (Two days that I've spend going through Tea's blog, deciding amidst the travel, tea, grilling lessons, and keys to a well-prepared kitchen that she's a person I wish I had the chance to get to know in person.)

Clearly, the Internets are plotting toward inundating me with food blogs to get back at me for going all knittery.

So. There's a world of intimidatingly good cooks out there that are also really fascinating people... Not that the two are mutually exclusive. Actually, seems to me most interesting people are foodies or otherwise passionate about something.
... Tea may also have posted this meme in one of the more recent (but still older) posts. I'll admit to a  weakness for interesting memes, so...

EIGHT FOOD THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT ME

1) WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE FOODS?

Sushi. I can't narrow it down more than this, because that's just cruel. Shiro-Maguro nigiri (albacore sushi) is a favorite, but so are hamachi (yellowtail), toro (the fatty tuna), anago/unagi (eels), and my crispy, ever-present spider roll or salmon-skin handrolls. There's so many different flavors, textures, and colors that there's no bigger pleasure for me than a nice selection of different sushi, set at center for everyone at the table to share.

Dim Sum. I regret that I have not yet had the chance to go to a 'true' dim sum restaurant in the local Chinatown, but oh. My 'secret' dim sum stop on PCH and Oak is always a pleasure to take friends to, as much because said friends (and family!) let me stop the carts and order for everyone as the morsels laid on the table. I'm always partial to the steamed char siu bao, the deep-fried hom suey gok, the steamed Shanghai bao with their rich, brothy centers plus the plum vinegar / shredded ginger dip, and the slick 'rice noodle' dish hiding their delicious meaty centers between rolled sheets of rice flour and sweet vinegar sauce... Though I can never forget the honey-like thick lotus seed center of my favorite sesame balls.
Sundays are also a treat at that restaurant, because that's when they pull out the things they don't make the rest of the week, and I'm personally of the mind that the char siu flakey pastries are to die for.

Creme Brulée. If you've never sat down with me in a restaurant that has this on the menu, then it's likely that you don't know about my utter weakness against this dessert: I'm an addict. The last two times I went with my mother to the Hamburger Hamlet, I saved room for dessert because they have a peach creme brulée. (Also, serving it with a quarter cup of diced peach pieces served in their own juice and tossed with mint doesn't hurt.) -- When my favorite French restaurant Le Chalet de France was closing, I made it a point to run back from college for the weekend solely to go on their last Saturday open and asked (bold as brass) for their recipe. They gave it to me, and I still have that napkin the maitre'd scribbled the note on hidden away. Ever since then, I collect creme brulée recipes like another of my friends has been known to collect recipes for shortbread and trifles.

Blood Oranges. I do have a fondness for citrus, but blood oranges always take the metaphorical cake for me. There's just something about cutting into a light orange skin and finding that dark purple-red center. It could just be a 'weird color' food thing, but I also still remember one trip out of Green Valley Falls (I think) in El Cajon when I still had friends down that way, and stopping at a roadside stand on a whim, I found them, fragrant and sweet. Just the thing for someone parched out by the sun and hiking through forests -- and I peeled the thing, not knowing any better, dripping the bloody juice all over my shirt while attempting to separate it into the familiar neat orange wedges and getting shredded pulpy pieces instead, but still licking my fingers clean of the juice. Yum.

2) WHAT FOODS DO YOU HATE?

Eggs and catsup. Which is unfortunate, since the fiancé only eats his eggs that way -- but it turns my stomach and I just cannot get through to whatever it is that people see in that combination. It also extends to eggs and any tomato-esque product, be it tabasco, salsa...

Liver. The only liver you'll ever catch me eating is rumaki, and even that's usually just for the bacon and the water chestnut. I used to eat it as a kid, but the flavor's just too heavy or something for me -- and I can't stand the smell when it's cooking.

Celery. Everyone tells me it has no flavor, but I beg to differ. It tastes bitter and sour to me, and not in a way I find pleasant, so I just don't eat it.

3) FOODS YOU LIKE BUT ARE EMBARRASSED TO ADMIT?

BBQ Chips and Ice Cream. Whenever I tell someone about this, they always immediately ask if I'm pregnant. I started eating this at the tender young age of eleven, so I'd sure as hell hope not. ;) It was a combination I read about in a story from my Cricket magazine -- potato chips and chocolate ice cream -- so I was curious enough to try it: We only had the BBQ Lays, so that's what I used. The salt-spice is an interesting addition to the sweet of the ice cream.

4) STRANGEST FOOD YOU'VE EATEN AND ENJOYED?

Does the BBQ chips and ice cream count?
All right, seriously...

Emu. Not terribly weird, but I was amazed to find out it's a bird that cooks up and vaguely resembles red meat. A former boyfriend snuck it into meat sauce in place of beef, and it was terribly good.

Beefalo. Mom saw it in the market once and brought it home: A cross between a cow and a buffalo. I don't remember ever having it again, but the burgers were pretty tasty.

5) COOKING FAILURES THAT STILL RANKLE?

Bad Meatloaf. My mother makes a mean meatloaf, made even funnier by the fact that she can't stand the stuff. My brother, Dad and I can't get enough, so she made it -- but it wasn't her thing. Unsurprisingly, shortly after first moving into my old apartment, I wanted meatloaf. I had all the ingredients necessary except for tomato paste... But I had tomato soup.
Oh God, it was awful. Too sweet, too liquid, even undiluted -- I ended up throwing the meatsplat away (because it certainly wasn't going to be mistaken for a loaf, even with all the breadcrumbs I put in to try and compensate) and just eating the german potatoes I'd fried up as dinner instead.
I did get better, and each time I make meatloaf, it's to thumb my nose at that first attempt... But I'm not ready to forget it just yet.

Runny Cookies. This one still bothers me, because unlike the meatloaf above, I have no idea what went wrong. It was a year ago and I followed the instructions to the letter, used the right amounts of butter / flour / sugar -- and I mixed and chilled and baked like mad, trying to make a small army of chocolate chip cookies that had been requested to go with a friend's All-American Dinner party. I've got the third and fourth sheets ready to go when I open the door to the oven and find the four dozen cookies I'd put in ten minutes prior had all merged into one large, overcooked cookie.
Panic ensued. I thinned out the number of cookies, hoping it had just been a fluke while I willed the first two sheets cool so I could clean and get to the next batch -- and eight minutes after putting them in, I had cookie puddles that much closer resembled chocolate-studded burnt pizzelles than your all-American chocolate chip. Lessening the time further meant they were still puddles and half-raw.
With twenty minutes before we had to leave for the get-together, I ended up dropping dough into my one lonely muffin tin, just desperate to get something semi-presentable: I only had about a dozen and a half of the planned seventy-two cookies and a large amount of frazzled nerves.
Insult to injury: I tried the same recipe the next week, and it went off without a hitch. Maybe it was the sheer volume I was attempting -- Can't say.

6) INGREDIENTS YOU DON'T WANT TO CONSIDER LIVING WITHOUT?

Garlic. I know that there's been a recent movement to try and remove garlic from Italian cooking, since it overwhelms the taste: Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and you're never taking my garlic from me -- You can steal my stinking rose from my cold, dead fingers. If I didn't think it'd get me smacked by all my friends, I'd use it in everything except my baking. (Although, there are several things I can picture that being good in... Foccaccia or popovers, anyone?)

Smoked paprika. I don't use it frequently, but there are just some comfort foods I make that can't do without it -- Chicken paprikash being the primary example, but I also like to sprinkle a little of it into my stews and eggs. There's really no other spice like it, in my opinion.

Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil. The two are always paired in my mind, and always made better with garlic: Still, there's so much I use balsamic in when I'm making dinner, the thought of going without makes me sad. Once I started using balsamic, it was love: I don't understand how my mom can turn her nose up at using it when she's never given it a try.

Cheese. I use cheese at the smallest provocation. It doesn't necessarily matter what kind: I try to keep a selection of blue, asiago or romano, parmesan, sharp cheddar, and brie in my fridge at all times, and I'm even happier if I have a little goat cheese, aged white cheddar, or swiss there, too. The simple act of having gnocchi in the pantry is enough to send me after a double handful of shredded cheese while I brown them in the pan. Yum.

Gnocchi. Certainly the most recent of my pasta-related loves, it nonetheless manages to be my favorite. I will take gnocchi (dried, frozen, packaged fresh or homemade) over any other pasta -- and that's high praise, given my surely inborn, cultural love for spaetzle and my fondness for all things rice noodles. If I had to forgo pasta entirely except for one kind, this would be the one I'd choose to keep. Versatile, able to be a side or a main course, and varying from satisfyingly hearty to temptingly light... There's no question that I'm all about the gnocchi, especially now that I know what to do with them.

Beans. These are a recent addition to my repertoire, but I'm experimenting with them. Fresh beans, canned beans, frozen beans, dried beans -- I already knew I loved green beans, the proof along the bottom shelf of my freezer and pulled out whenever I thought we needed more green in our diet, but having recently found the baked beans recipe, I'm all about broadening the spectrum to include legumes regularly. Also, as someone who's mad about hummus and already has olive oil and garlic listed as ingredients not to be lived without -- Sounds perfect to me.

7) CUISINE YOU'D LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT?

I know surprisingly little about Mexican, Mediterranean, and Persian cuisines. I can do Italian, a little, but even with that there's still a lot of room to learn. (Not that I'm an expert on Asian and French cuisine, by any means... But I feel a little more well versed in those. I can handle coq au vin or off-the-cuff veggie sushi rolls, which must count for something.)

8) FOODS YOU HATED BUT HAVE GROWN TO LOVE?

Avocados. Okay, this is going to have some of my friends gaping at me if not actively laughing or teasing: Oh, how I love avocados. Of course, I only started eating them outside of guacamole during college, and wow. All I need now is a ripe avocado, a spoon, and a little salt and/or a dribble of pure citrus, and yeah. I'm in heaven.

Eggs. Don't look at me like that -- I really didn't like them as a kid, and the parents finally stopped asking me to choke them down when one slid back up at about the age of seven. I was re-introduced to eggs in omelettes, and then I deigned to have scrambled, and by late high school, I was almost willing to eat poached eggs. It took me a while, but now they're one of those ever-present ingredients in my fridge, and not just because you can't make a cake without them... I mean, there's quiche.

Beets. Yeah, I know, show me a kid who ever liked beets -- but I'll have you know, I've always loved the other traditionally hated veggie, the brussel sprout. Beets never really appealed to me 'til I found a beet salad calling for diced roasted beets, shredded mint and olive oil. I've been partial ever since.

Tomatoes. This is the most recent food ideology changes, since it seems to me that I've only been eating raw tomatoes with anything approaching pleasure for the past year or two (which means it's probably more like five). I couldn't stand them before, the slimy texture of the seeds enough to send me running away -- and truthfully, I still have that issue with cherry tomatoes, but I'm happily eating about every other variety there is. Strawberry tomatoes are a decided favorite, and I really, desperately need to find a plant that grows those for my front yard. Sugar plum and grape tomatoes are a brilliant snack, and the roma will forever be my first tomato love, especially with a little fresh basil and mozzarella. Yum.

So. Anyone else want to answer this one?

I'd meant to do this earlier, but then Six Apart had a power failure and I forgot to sit down and type this up. Mea culpa.

Since I'm still new to dyeing yarn, I admit I shy away from dyes that are less ingestion-friendly than, say, Kool-Aid. (I have cats. One of them was once both smart and stupid enough to get into a closed room and drink bleach: A trip to the Pet Emergency Room and $500 later, I learned not to keep things that could poison my cat in the house.)
This means that I've been having fun figuring out palettes with food coloring.

For my original No Sheep buddy, I finished dyeing a skein of raw silk in variegated shades of orange: I did end up using the dip-dye method after having blathered on about it for months a good while, and I think I like the results. There's an interesting little yellow-orange splatter on the natural section, though: I forgot why I usually use latex gloves to handle the yarn. One, keeps my hands clean. Two, the ridges in my fingerprints seem to be a really good hiding place for dye after I've wiped it off. Oops.

I ended up picking up three one-ounce bottles of Kroger food coloring from the local Food for Less, along with a gallon of white vinegar so I knew I'd have enough: Two red and one yellow.
I used my Rival steamer as the yarn cooking pot, as I've personally found the thing to be useless for actually cooking food: I miss my late '70s, early '80s Rival steamer that I inherited from my Mom when she found it. (Old Christmas or anniversary present, I think it was -- and it worked fabulously, up until the seals gave out. I'm still looking for replacement parts, because that thing was WORTH saving.)

I digress.
Using my newer Rival, I set up the water and vinegar: I was perhaps a little careless with the 8 cups water to 1 cup white vinegar, but it didn't seem to hurt (and, remembering not to put the vinegar in the water for the overnight soak was helpful, too) -- and then in went one bottle each of the red and yellow.  I let the steamer come up to heat and then put all but the last eight to ten inches of yarn in the basin, swished it around, and left the white end hanging out over a bowl. Twenty minutes, tug out another six-ish inches, and set the timer for another 30.
Repeat until I've done this three times, and then add the last bottle of red food color, stirring to mix, and then continue until you're down to the last of the yarn in the pot.

At this point, to make sure all the colors set, I dumped the basin, put in fresh water, and also inserted the steamer basket: Coiled the long hank up in the basket with the darkest part on the bottom and covered it, letting the whole thing steam about 30 minutes. ...This would also be the point where my fingerprints added 'interest' to the white end of the yarn. ;)

Anyway. Currently avoiding putting the thing back on the umbrella swift to wind it into something presentable, but that's only because I'm being lazy: I may also still be remembering my last dye experiment, and the Nick-cat deciding that he'd help with the yarn... By playing with it!
I just remember stepping out of the room for a minute and coming back -- pit stop or something, I forget -- to find Nick in a little nest of blue and green and pink, with the world's most innocent "What? What did I do, Mom?" look on his face.

Felines.
But that's why I'll be setting up the swift outside where he can't assist me this time. ;)

Awww. Swap's over for me. ;)

Juni: Thank you! The Summer Linen you sent over arrived safely yesterday, and I'm quietly going mad trying to decide what to do with it -- since, as you know, I've never used linen yarn before (and I was curious about it).
I'm also endlessly amused at the term 'muggle blog' -- I'm going to have to steal that one from you.
Thank you for all your work as my upstream pal -- It's been a really fun experience for my first skein swap. (And also, one more thank you for the birthday wishes -- It's been a blast so far.)

... But, I still have one more package coming for each of my downstream pals.
I've picked up the dye needed for Pal 1's massive skein of raw silk, and now I just need to un- and rewind the hank into sections a little longer than 4' around. (I'm going with the dip-dye method and depending on how pleased I am with the results, may over-dye the whole thing with a lighter color... but if I'm going dip-dye, I think a little more length in the skein keeps things interesting.)
Pal 2's last package is just waiting on some non-wool roving I picked out for her to show up on my doorstep: She's a spinner, I asked if she wanted non-wool roving, and I am also including some yarn, so. She's getting lots o' love through the mail in the next week or two.

I've discovered that I apparently spoil my downstream pals. Another of my knitty friends once told me she's guilty of the same thing: I laughed at her at the time, but I think I know where she's coming from. I tend to overbuy and grab more than one thing for my pals as I want to make sure they've got the thing they want -- I suppose I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to giving gifts. ;)

I'm really glad to have gotten to know a few individuals in this swap... And perhaps that was the point? :)

What a day.
I'm a wee bit tired, but I've been sleeping weirdly lately -- my dreams have been too odd and vivid, and I've been waking up intermittently through the night with feelings of off and discontent: If only I could remember what I'm dreaming, perhaps I could pick it apart and resolve it. C'est la vie.

Picked up a cheapie digital camera that was actually 2 whole megapixels, mostly so I can take pictures of friends, cats, and finished knitting projects. (And I'm going to mock Fry's Electronics a little here: 2 MP camera for what you were charging for a Spider Man licensed digicam with 'VGA Resolution' -- which I forget, but I think was something like 720 x 480. Or less. Hmm...) After all, isn't the whole point of having a blog mentioning knitting and food to share pictures with the world? :)

I'm so pleased that I finished that simple shrug yesterday -- It's done, it's over, woo hoo!
I have a rather guilty love for Caron's yarns, but I've decided their patterns (albeit their free ones) leave much to be desired. And alternately, I love Lionbrands' free patterns for ideas and picking apart, but I'm none too pleased with their yarn these days. There's no winning, is there?
Current project: Twinkletoes in Cascade Fixation, color: black. I couldn't give up that project for long; I'm clearly either stubborn, a glutton for punishment, or both -- but the stretchy cotton is proving so much more satisfying to knit than cotton-ease.

The fiancé asked me two days ago what I wanted for my birthday, and I had a lot of ideas: I was eyeing the dark blue dreadnought acoustic in the Guitar Adoption Center's window, but since my best friend is already responsible for me getting my paws on a tiger striped acoustic from the same place, it might be a little overkill on the guitar front.
I suggested some plastic containers from the local JoAnn's for yarn storage, and he gave me a look for asking for something practical -- I about died on the spot laughing, since there have been times in the past that he's accused me of eschewing practical gifts in favor of frivolous things. (Rightly, perhaps, but hey. Gifts are meant to be fun.)

And then it occurred to me. Rockler's.
I want to make a spinning wheel: A few months ago, I bought Richard Schneider's No-Lathe Saxony-Style Spinning Wheel Construction Manual with the intention of making a spinning wheel, though life conspired to keep me from getting into the project. And, we have a Rockler's Hardware locally, which is honestly the best source in our area for non-pine woods. Red oak. Maple. Exotic woods.
So this weekend, I've talked him into setting foot in the Rockler's with me and figure out what it's going to cost to pick up the materials for making my spinning wheel. If it's more than half the cost of a Kromski Prelude, he's agreed to go halvsies with me on the Prelude itself.
I'll be over here, doing a happy little dance over getting a spinning wheel one way or another and mentally running the benefits of finished vs. unfinished.

Guess this means I have to figure out the best way to make him a space invaders sweater for his birthday. ;)

Last week, Jaime from the No Sheep Swap put out a note requesting notification of abandoned pals: I piped up expressing my concern (and thankfully, my swap pal was just running late -- Late, I can handle! I've been guilty of that myself many, many times) but told her I'd wait a little longer and then asked if she needed any more replacement pals.
Turns out she did, so I've got myself a second downstream buddy.
We've already mailed back and forth a couple times today, and dude. She's hilarious. I think I like her already, and it may help that she's got a mischievous cat prone to messing with her projects, too.

Also means the second skein of raw silk yarn that I bought almost a month ago has a home: I'd originally bought the pair with the intention of dyeing the first one and seeing if it was fit for my downstream pal and having the second on hand in case I threw a small fit over the results -- but now, it seems fortunate as I have one downstream buddy to dye for, and the other is a dye fiend herself and will probably have a blast figuring out what to do with it left plain. Excellent!
I also have feelers out on other things to send her, and I suppose I'll see where that goes.

I'm also just glad that the fiancé ended up in a better job, as money was the main reason I'd been afraid I wasn't able to play backup swap pal -- but he took care of that nicely, and better yet, he's doing what he wants to be doing.
I may still be exceedingly proud of him, creeping toward two months later.

Anyway, point was, I've signed up to do the gift-giving pal for someone else, and I'm just pleased about it. Knitters (and crocheters, and other craft-ers) are good people, I think.

Project update: One skein of tonalita's pink zebra down, turned into Fetching -- as mentioned earlier -- and the second's still up for grabs for something, though I have yet to decide what. Perhaps I'll abbreviate a pair of Dashing and have a nearly matched set, since 100 yards seems a little short for other options -- Scarf? Hat? Really not enough, unless someone can point me toward a decent pattern calling for worsted weight.
The Simple Shrug from hell is almost finished! Note: Caron's site lies, it takes 5 skeins  for the large size if you follow their directions, not 4. Though, I suppose I'm cheating by working in the round, but I can't even imagine having enough yarn with 5 skeins if I'd had to seam the thing, too.
Two inches to go on the center ribbing, and then it's done: I suspect I can probably wear it to my birthday dinner tomorrow night without any issues.

Thirty.
I'm going to be thirty in about twelve hours.
My dad keeps joking that he can't trust me anymore -- Darn Pat Boone quote.

... It's really not as horrible as all the 30-year-olds who went before me have made it sound. ;)

This was one of those days: Too damned long for being a short week, too many times that I felt abandoned to the phones at work, and just too tired in general for a single half hour of hand-holding through using Outlook, let alone three back to back. I pulled up to the curb at home, largely convinced that I should set to making myself a margarita before I stopped to feed the cats, and then I found it.

Today was Yarn Day!

Two packages of yarn: One from my No Sheep Swap buddy, and the other from my Yarn of the Month club.
I knew the latter was coming, as Paypal told me I'd been charged for my subscription, but that doesn't make me less happy about it.

Firstly: Thanks, o Yarn Swap Pal! I've always been curious about Debbie Bliss yarns, but never really put my hands on them -- and a cotton/silk/viscose blend was definitely a good choice for me. Now, to figure out what I want to do with the 110-ish yards of Cathay. Hmmm....

Perhaps something with the Celtic knot cable pattern I've been looking at, posted by the Girl from Auntie. It seems like the yarn would have nice stitch definition for that sort of thing! I was also gifted with some recycled sari silk yarn that looks suspiciously like the yarn I buy from Stephanie at RecycledSilk.com -- and that's a good call, too, since I already know how to work with the stuff and enjoy the results. :)

I shall have to post results of what I knit. Hee hee hee. :D

So, Yarn o' the Month. I love getting the little samples of yarn, and I actually dug out my June samples so I could mark each bag with the month I received them: June brought me Lana Knits' hemp, Cascade's Luna, Nashua's June and Maraja by Ornaghi Filati -- only two producers that I'm familiar with, Cascade and Nashua. I haven't knit up the samples into swatches yet: I've been lazy, and mostly content to pull out the little bags and admire the colors. They're nice, they're just not something that I know what to do with, precisely.
July's offerings seem to fire my imagination a little more. It's probably because all the little packets are shades of red or orange or gold, and I respond so much better to those shades: I also recognize three of this month's manufacturers, familiar with Gedifra (Korella), Louet (Kidlin) and Rowan (Damask). I haven't heard of Louisa Harding, but the colors inherent in her Cinnabar rather tickle me, and she's got one hell of a blend going. Viscose/Cotton/Acrylic/Silk/Linen/Polyamide/Acetate? That's a mouthful.
Still, the Kidlin seems to be the one that speaks to me most in the July haul: I look at it, and I can only think of Knitty's cactus flower from Fall last year. It's tempting.

Anyway! I've been burning through my current projects before I can even write about them: Ball 1 of the pink zebra Tonalita has turned into a single pair of Fetching mitts: I'm a little sad that I won't have the option to wear them for another couple months. (Thank you, heat wave.)

Of course, this still leaves the last 100 yards of Tonalita up in the air: I can't decide whether I should make more mitts, a cabled scarf or a hat. Do I even have enough for a hat? Hm.

The Manos yarn is untouched as of yet, but I went and decided this weekend was an excellent time to knit up a tam in black viscose -- It was a whim, there was yarn begging to be used in my stash, and I've gotten to the point that I can quickly freestyle hats. They make me happy.

Again, I need to find my darned digital camera.

So, in general: Thank you, people that conspired to send me yarn and (however unintentionally) cheer me out of a rotten day.

You gave me a smile, and that's all I can ask of you. :)