Thystle

Screen Time vs. Page Time

2009-03-06T00:29:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago, I purchased a few books that I've been wanting to read for awhile that I couldn't find at my local libraries. I've been reading them voraciously! Made it through one, when I started getting that "blah" feeling partway through the next one. You know that feeling, sorta like you need to take a shower but you know you are technically clean, or perhaps like a jolt of caffeine will move you out of that zoney space. Or a jog. But you can't get moving. A wee bit of funk going on in your head where nothing sounds quite satisfying and you're headed towards grumpsville. I noticed it, but wasn't sure how to get out of it. Reading more sounded like it would leave me in more of the same space. But circumstances being what they were with my life (i.e., attending to my son) other forms of diversion didn't seem available, and quite frankly, I was hooked on my book, so I kept reading. The book I was reading at the time is called The Artist's Way, A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving this book, but I was basically stuffed on the written word. Yet there I was reading Chapter 4, when Cameron calls for you to submit to a week of reading deprivation. A-ha! Of course, that's exactly what I need right now. So while part of me is hankering to find out all the other ideas in the book, I know what I really need is some quiet time.

"Reading deprivation casts us into our inner silence, a space some of us begin to immediately fill with new words - long, gossipy conversations, television bingeing, the radio as a constant, chatty companion. We often cannot hear our own inner voice, the voice of our artist's inspiration, above the static. "

So, I'm picking up my meditative knitting, eyeing my spinning, observing my breath, getting into my sewing studio, playing chess. Soduko anyone?

Playing chess?! That's actually a part of my screen time lately. My husband and I are playing chess. I learned to play chess as a child but never really played as an adult. But somehow my MMORPGing, Sacred-loving, husband has gotten into the game. First as a way to connect with distant family members and now me, his not so distant family. Its nice to play electronically with a toddler tornado in the house. I don't have to worry if my little guy has stolen my knight or if my husband has "accidentally" moved my rook. I'm enjoying relaxing into the game (I tend to get riled up into looking at every possible move and I'm a wee bit competitive with my husband sometimes) and to just play. One game will last days, but that's ok. Its a nice speed. My husband has also discovered that several of his bachelor friends have a chess client for their iPhones. So he's been playing them as well. He's been walking around the house with his phone in his hand, playing chess and describing what's unfolding over at his friends' place. One of them will play Grand Theft Auto 4, while the other 3 guys are all playing chess with everyone else. Then the Playstation dude will hand off the controller and give some one else a chance and get his chess moves in. A groan will go up as someone looses their queen. An ancient two player turn based game has become a social connectivity tool.

I find it interesting to look at my experiences with books vs. video games the past few weeks. The conventional view is that books are somehow higher culturally than video games. Video games are bad and books are good. Especially if you are a child. As parents we need to make sure that our children are getting the good stuff and we need to limit the bad stuff. As an unschooler and, dare I say, as a Buddhist, that's not my world view. They are ways to occupy my time, nothing more and nothing less. And its interesting to see an example turned on its head. Not good, not bad but rather what's working and what's not working for me. I've obviously OD'ed on the written word and have been exercising other parts of my brain via the internet, even connecting with my husband between parenting duties. Rejecting the conventional view, ditching the cultural values surrounding acceptable pastimes as they are doing me little good, and tuning in to my own knowledge of what is helpful to me right now.

I think I will try to sew a bit more tonight and give Cameron another shot in a few days after my brain has been given some space to breath. In. Out. Always there.

February Bloom Day

2009-02-15T12:30:00.000-08:00

So apparently there is a tradition (well just two years old now, which in blogging circles means a tradition) of posting pictures of what is blooming in your garden on the 15th of every month. I say apparently because only recently have I started perusing the garden blogs out there and so I'm still getting the lay of the land so to speak. But I find it a lovely tradition started by Carol at May Dreams Garden blog and would like to give it a go, despite the fact that I don't consider this a gardening blog, just a sorta, sometimes wannabe gardening blog. And to confound the situation even further, for this go around I'm not even going to show case my own garden (not because I don't have anything blooming - I do! at rough count there are 7 things in bloom) but I went on a walk recently on Mt. Davidson, my local open space, and thought I would show what's blooming in a semi-native urban park in the middle of San Francisco. Plus that's what I have pictures of as the middle of the month approached (these were taken on the 9th). So here you go and sorry I don't know the names, let alone the latin names or most of these. And my knowledge of natives vs. exotics while not non-existent, leaves much to be desired. If you recognize something pipe up! I'm just speculating on many of these.

Something in the nightshade family.

I have no idea. They looked like they had been hit with a yellow spray paint can from a distance.

Perhaps a native Vaccinum (V. ovatum?)

A ribes - R. sanguineum?

Natives? Exotics? The pink one? The yellow one?

Three flowers - the pink flower again, plus something legumacea like and a blackberry flower.

I saw perhaps 3 other plants blooming that I didn't get pictures of. This was definitely a casual perusal, not an exhaustive search. But here are a few more pictures without flowers (that I can see) but I like them nonetheless.

And one last one - the view from Mt. Davidson of my house. Can you see it?

What I Would Make If I Had Time

2009-02-12T23:17:00.001-08:00

I was flipping through a Gardener's Supply catalog before tossing it into the blue bin thinking I might find something of interest if I was going to be starting seeds (which I'm not) but stumbled across two items that were interesting. Interesting to make but not interesting enough to buy (sorry Gardener's Supply). I think they've probably been carry these items forever, but this is the first time they actually caught my eye. The first is a Garden Gear Organizer. Like so:

This would come in very handy for me. We live in an attached house (think townhouse although nobody ever calls them that in San Francisco so I can't tell you if there is a subtle difference between a real town house and what we live in). So no side yards and an itty bitty (although it feels spacious to me by city standards- approx. 30'x30') back yard. All my gardening supplies are stored in the garage and I bring them into the backyard via a hallway. However, I'm always forgetting something and then go running back into the garage to pull out my gloves or trowel or pruning shears, etc. I could hang one of these in my hallway and have it just inside the back door. Currently, things have a way of making their way out of the garage and then hanging out just inside and outside the door, so something to stash the small things would be nice. Plus, and this is the best part, I'm pretty sure I could actually sew one o these things myself. When you could conceivably actually make something, it starts seeming a lot more handy :)

The other item is a "Living Wall":

Basically a planter that you can hang on a vertical surface. I would love to have something like this for some of my external walls, either in a central patio/courtyard or on the north side of my house (a.k.a. the backyard). A way to green up some space with an tiny footprint. Some of the house plants that survive here when grown outdoors might work well in that we know they do ok in pots and can take the low light conditions of indoors (so north facing walls are a similar situation). The only difference being that instead of 70 degrees, the more typical temperature is 50 to 60 degrees, although being next to the house it would get the protection of the coldest nights. And I almost think I could make one of these, despite having little woodworking experience.

But for now I think both of these are going to be filed under if I ever have the time. So I'll let you know how they work out in about twenty years :)

February Goings On

2009-02-10T22:42:00.001-08:00

Grrr, accidentally posted over an old post! Reposting to get it right.

February Check In

On my needles: EC Skirt. An easy knit I can do without using my frontal lobe, so should go fairly quickly.
On my spindle: Almost done with the final (third) play of coopsworth so I should be able to start plying soon. However, I also purchased a new spindle! Woot! It's a Maggie 0.8 oz (from the top of my head so don't quote me) hi top with a pretty curved top. I'm working on some Targhee on it. Pictures soon.
On my nightstand: I've got scores of half finished books lying around but nothing has really grabbed me lately exceptThe Noble Eightfold Path by Bhikkhu Bodhi. I've read it before but its oh so intense and worth reading scores of times.
Screentime: Connections a BBC series (10 episodes in 1978, and 30 more in the 90's) takes an "interdisciplinary approach to the history of science and invention and demonstrates how various discoveries, scientific achievements, and historical world events built off one another in an interconnected way to bring about particular aspects of modern technology". Only on episode two but so digging it. Geeking out big time!
In my garden: I'm working on removing a few large roots from one of my beds and then lining it with gopher proofing. It makes me nervous to cut up the roots of the tree, but I think we'll be ok. I'm also resetting the raised bed and starting to dig a trench for my irrigation system (to run beneath the garden path). I've signed up at the Garden Registry, which is tracking edible/Victory gardens in the city. It looks like an interesting app, although I'm wishing it had social networking capabilities.
In my studio: Nothing but a big ole mess :) My son really needs some more pants, so perhaps soon, I'll break down and clean up, get organized and sew.
In the kitchen: Nothing but a clean kitchen :) Haven't been able to get out to farmer's market lately, since the household has been running on a p.m. schedule lately and I think most markets are winding down early afternoon.
This and that: Nothing here.

Longies

2009-02-05T15:46:00.001-08:00

I recently finished these infant longies (link is for Ravelry users only) (longies being wool pants that cover a cloth diaper) for a friend (who had this blessingway). Her son is still a bit too small to wear them so no "sportin" pictures yet. I love these. I hadn't meant to fall in love with them, but I did. I love the colors and and love the stripes and I did a wee bit of stranded work on them as well. The stripes and stranded work are more or less random (or random within a mental set of rules I made up, but then as I went down the legs I realized I was running out of green so started using more brown and blue. And if you look closely you'll see some snafus.). I wasn't sure how to handle the short rows with stripes, so I just included the short rows within one stripes. This pictures shows the back of the pants and how the two green fat green stripes on the butt get wider.

They are the picky pants pattern and I chose to use a seed stitch cuff, happy/dreamy sigh. I used Cascade Yarns Pastaza (50% llama, 50% wool) which was a joy to work with. The orangey/brown color is actually red and yellow fibers blended together so that from a distance it looks brown (see color 071 here). So subtle but made me happy while I was knitting it. Its a single ply so I hope it wears well enough and isn't too pilly.

Lemons

2009-01-30T17:21:00.001-08:00

As I mentioned in my New Year's post, I'm getting interested in preserving summer's bounty and in my neck of the wood's its really any time of year's bounty. I'm not sure I can pinpoint any one reason why it interests me, but all sorts of things seem to be conspiring to say, "this just makes sense". Environmental reasons, self sufficiency, health benefits of homegrown food, frugality, preserving quality ingredients for cooking. Heck, even novelty! So with winter in Northern California we have Meyer lemons! Now, I don't actually have meyer lemons, despite the fact that I have a meyer lemon tree. Its sadly neglected from being in a pot and not receiving suitable attention. I have plans of putting it in the ground, but haven't done it yet. No, my in-laws in Chico have come through with LOADS of beautiful lemons. So good. If I'm going to be processing foods in bulk for preserving I need to find out what exactly a bushel is, because I suspect I had one of lemons. If not one then at least a large fraction of one. So I cut these guys in half, juiced 'em by hand and then froze them in ice cube trays to create 1 tablespoon servings or approximately half a lemon. And then stored them in a ziploc bag. I have 8 dozen cubes which should last me for quite some time. I'm not sure what my lemon using frequency is, but 8 dozen is roughly equal to 1 lemon a week. Not too shabby. They will probably get freezer burned before then, so I'll try to use them up a bit faster.

Making Me Happy

2009-01-29T23:45:00.001-08:00

I recently bought one of these:

It's a part that screws to the bottom of my camera creating a quick release to attach the camera to my tripod. I lost the last one before I got my digital camera and then I found it again, but promptly forgot where I found it. A few day ago it occurred to me that there might be a chance of finding a replacement part, even if the tripod was twenty years old. A quick search on Amazon found one for twelve dollars with shipping - that sold me plus there were many comments from people saying they would get multiple ones because they were losing them as well, which made me feel a bit better as well. So now I can take pictures like this (my street at dusk):

I'm very happy right now - I really love how this tripod works - you know when you actually enjoy using something as opposed to just enjoying the results? I'd really like to take some horticultural photos soon. Maybe even some to share!

New Year's Thoughts

2009-01-15T08:53:00.001-08:00

I know. I'm so behind on this one. But Happy New Year and what are my resolutions for 2009? I'm not one for making resolutions. I used to make them because on some level they appealed to me (the list making aspect of my persona, I dare say), but they never lasted more than a week. And being a different person since becoming a mother, I still like the idea of them but changed a bit to fit with my change in personality. Some people talk about intentions and that's a bit more my speed. Not hard and fast rules, nobody gets beaten up with guilt when I'm less than perfect; lots of flexibility built in since things can change. More like an evaluation on perspective - what's important? what do I like doing? what can I realistically do? what do I want to do that I'm not doing much on now? So what things am I thinking about with regards to how to spend my hobby and spare time? Well let's see...

In general. I was involved in planning two blessingways that took place about a month apart. I really loved doing that. I loved the creative process around it and I loved making new traditions. I loved doing something special for people who are special to me. And when it was over, I loved not feeling like I had any more obligations. I realize now that since my son was born, I haven't taken on many "have-to's" or "need-to's", instead playing it slow. I really like this lifestyle. So whenever possible I would like to keep that openness. Already there are several opportunities that are popping up that I would love to take advantage of, but am hesitant to add more appointments to my calendar, so it will be a balancing act.

Knitting. I have a few project on the immediate horizon, mainly gifts and requests people have made. Someone in my family wants a knitted item? Hell yeah, I'm there! Beyond that, I don't have any goals, like learn to knit intarsia, for example. However, I do have some thoughts on what I should be doing with my knitting time. I think I will be more productive if I stick to simple and portable projects. I got hung up on a few projects because I wasn't in love with them or they weren't practical with the realities of chasing a little boy wherever he wanted to go. So no stranded knitting (too many balls of yarn to tote around and get tangled) even though I loved how my last project turned out. And definitely no lace since its so hard to concentrate on - well very little lace and I'll have to think hard and long about that because some of my hand spun is calling out to be knitted in lace, so if I do knit lace it will be after hours knitting. Smaller to medium projects in patterns I can keep in my head are good (say k2, p2). Things that come in two's aren't ideal since I tend to lose speed but in general things that come in twos are smaller so I'll have to balance those two ideas. So baby things, toddler clothes, scarves, cowls, hats, and in twos, gloves, socks and fingerless mitts.

Spinning. I love spinning. I really do. I want a wheel and hand carders and other toys and fun stuff. But I honestly don't have the time and if I got a wheel I could only use it after hours when little fingers didn't want to play with it and I just don't have the time for special projects when my son is sleeping. Spindle spinning makes so much more sense, since I can spin in the living room, playroom, garden or bathroom. So no gadgets this year, I'm thinking. And while I'm at it no classes either, since I'll just end up buying gadgets or fiber if I take a class. Meeting up with other spinners may fit in there some where since it takes little time and it might help my spindle spinning. Getting more spindles is definitely in order, since I'm learning to spin finer and dropping my 2.2 oz spindle a lot in the process, which I believe means I'm spinning too fine for it. Plus most spindles are dirt cheap compared to a new wheel.

I have approximately 52 oz of fiber in my stash (and I've spun only about 7 oz on top of that EVER so yes, I'm still very much a novice). AND I signed up for the Wooly Wonders fiber club at A Verb For Keeping Warm, which will bring me an addition 4 oz of wool fiber every month. I would like to stay on top of my stash so spinning 2 oz a week seems like a reasonable way to do this. It remains to be seen if this is feasible considering how much time I'm putting into it. Perhaps budgeting for 1 oz a week with the expectation that my stash won't grow by much is more in line with reality.

Reading & screen time. I have no particular thoughts on intention or objectives with regard to reading or screen time but figured I would follow my status reports format and include it here. Reading and gaming interests wax and wane. I would like to work on archiving my blogs into a print on demand service like blurb. So I guess I can add that to my wish list. And what's on my reading list reflects what my current interests are, mostly since I'm not a big fiction reader.

Sewing. I have several projects I would like to work in with sewing. Some pants for my son and placemats and napkins for the kitchen. Perhaps some cushions and pillows for the house. But sewing is a tough one since in general it requires my complete attention and that's being heavily rationed lately. But I haven't felt a strong urge to embroider like I did last year. I suspect the time to reward ratio isn't good for me.

Cooking. So I've been reading Local Flavors by Deborah Madison and that has me all fired up on local food again or perhaps I should say more. I would like to try to shop at farmer's markets and give up grocery store produce as much as possible, including our delivery box which is somewhat local. I'm interested in learning what is truly seasonal and fresh from the field vs. taken from cold storage and learning more about who is farming my food. So, one, I want to try to visit all the farmer's markets in the city. I've already been to the Tuesday morning Ferry Building Market (I know, I know so behind the curve on this! but I'm learning!) and Heart of the City Wednesday market. Its nice to get outside and shop in the middle of winter - true its been sunny on the days I shopped, but hey, I'm trying! Two, I also want to try new and perhaps exotic to me produce. I bought a bunch of nettles earlier this week. I think Buddha's Hand might be up next. Three, I'm on a "storing food from when its at its peak" kick. In other words, putting food by - canning, freezing, drying, pickling, etc. So I'm reading quite a bit about it now, but trying to imagine how this will be implemented. It only makes sense to store foods that we'll actually eat. So on the canning front that pretty much means tomato and tomato products (tomato sauce, salsa?, chopped tomatoes). Canned fruits and vegetables don't have any appeal to me, nor does sugar loaded jams. And we don't have much room in the freezer. I could probably elucidate this idea a bit more.

Gardening. The weather has been gorgeous here and I'm fired up again about vegetable gardening after reading Local Flavors and any time I read anything by Pollan. So what's it going to take to make a productive garden? I think infrastructure will be the watchword for 2009. 2007 was about dreaming and removing the old pond. 2008 was making the beds and learning about pest management. That make improvements based on what learned in 2009 - lining beds with wire to help gopher proof (mostly done), low fencing to keep marauding toddlers and dogs out of the beds (purchased but not installed), and installing drip irrigation (big project with many trips to the store, I'm guessing). And if I have time, planting all of the raised beds with edibles, fill in central beds with edibles and organics, plant my lemon tree and look into limes, pineapple guavas, and other fruit trees. And if I'm still needing things to do, look at redoing my perimeter beds and starting on a compost pile. Although as important as that compost pile is it will take a bit of thought because it really is a compost system (how to gather scraps, how to turn the pile, etc.). So might be a 2010 intention.

Mindfulness - This is my big intention for the year. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself last month about my lack of crafting and I started thinking about 2009... What do I want 2009 to look like? And I realized that what's most important to me is my meditation practice of which I've been very sporadic this past year. I've never really gotten it firmly established and when it comes time at the end of the day, when I'm waiting for that opening to sit, I'm too tired and haven't found the initiative to make the time. But I know that this is what's important to me. I've signed up for a class(? for lack of a better word) to help me get going. Its a bit scary since some of the meetings are long (like 8 hours) and I haven't been away from my son like that before. But it seems like a good kind of scary. Honestly, I think the hardest part will be making time to sit.

So there it is! 2009 all laid out.

Have I mentioned how much I love planning even when moving at a snail's pace? Just keep plunking away at it, brings a smile to my face.
It sounds almost pathetic really to think about it - spinning only 1 oz a week?? But in a really weird way it makes me happy. I have so little free time and I'm still able to blog and take photos, sew and read, cook and garden, knit and spin! Such a lucky woman! I'm looking forward to reading this post in a year and see how much (or little) I've done and whether my thoughts on the subject have changed. How fun!

Status report

2008-12-09T17:56:00.001-08:00

On my needles: Longies. Still. Yes, taking a back seat to spinning. Apparently this isn't uncommon in new spinners.
On my spindle: Working on my third spinning project. A natural colored coopsworth wool in brown. finished one single and I'm going to try to do two more to make a three ply.
On my nightstand: Color in Spinning, Hold Onto Your Kids
Screentime: Kung Fu Panda got some serious play when my son was sick and I didn't immediately get totally sick of it. Probably my favorite Dreamworks movie to date; they aren't batting very well in my park.
In my garden: Nothin! Well nothing that I'm involved in. I'm sure it keeps doing what nature intended for it to do.
In my studio: I recently made a little bag for the bleggingway. I love simple little pretty sewing projects.
In the kitchen: Made some plain ordinary choco chip cookies recently, didn't even use whole grains, but nothing to blog about (oops, too late)
This and that: For the blessingway, a friend and I made these paraffin luminaries in blue and white. That was fun.

Let's Try This...

2008-12-09T17:37:00.001-08:00

So I had this bone deep realization the other day that my days are numbered. Perhaps its part of being a mother, but I think it was the first time that I applied it to my craft production. I think I was bemoaning the fact that I wasn't getting much done. Sort of, a poor me, attitude. When I realized I will never get it all done. Ever. And that was a bit liberating. And a bit trying. And somehow appropriate. I mean if you got all your crafting done, that means you ran out of ideas, which means alot, alot alot.

I've always considered myself a more process oriented person, but realized there is room for improvement on that front. As the year winds down and I start thinking about next year and beyond, I realize there are areas of my world where I would like to spend more time (*cough* zafu *cough*) and that there are so many hours in the day. More crafting isn't going to get me any closer to ... what exactly? But less doing and more being? Well, that sounds about right. Challenging, to be sure, but right.

So, I thought I would try out a periodic status report of hobby goodness, like I used to have on the sidebar, but then removed because it wasn't tied into rss feeds, and then I was going to make it into a blog entry, but sorta forgot, because i get caught up in "oh it needs a photo" perfectionist thinking. So the form might look a little like this and quite possibly won't have photos, but it will be quick to update (good when you don't know how long you have at the computer before your little one wakes up) and I think I will enjoy seeing what I've made and things I've read or eaten. It satisfies the former (now mostly gone) list maker in me, but the focus is on what's happening now - not is it a FO or not AND not what still needs to be done.

On my needles: (this is for knitting)
On my spindle: (this is for yarn I'm spinning)
On my nightstand: (books I'm reading)
Screentime: (movies, tv and videogames)
In my garden: (current projects, ongoing maintenance, and what the veggies are up to)
In my studio: (sewing projects)
In the kitchen: (things i'm planning on or recently made)
This and that: (misc crafting that's probably not a regular feature)

So, I'll try to update this when I can and count my breaths when I can and share with you, at least one little photo series for this post. Yes, I started spinning. Coopsworth into a single which I hope to make into a three ply.

Photo Essay

2008-12-09T16:45:00.001-08:00

I'm having a hard time to find time to work on my hobbies let alone blog about them. So here are a few of photos to show that I haven't totally been slacking in the creating/enteraining myself department (all the laundry I do because my LO has the stomach flu apparently doesn't count). Many of the photos are related to a blessingway at my house but I can't take credit for the beautiful belly mehndi.

Things To Keep Me Busy

2008-11-27T19:07:00.001-08:00

Keeping The Momentum

2008-10-29T00:30:00.001-07:00

Short on writing, but I have a few photos to share of the season! First up, made my first cheesecake - pumpkin pie flavored. It was a flop. I'm not sure why, but I think it was in too small a pan and so didn't setup in the middle. I will try, try again when I get the chance.

Some lovely things happening in my garden. My parsley (a biennial) is going to seed. Very pretty. I just realized I should pick some for the house. I like the wildness of the vegetable garden gone to seed. Plus its supposed to be good for beneficial insects of which I need plenty of help (notice the caterpillar on my cabbage?)

And finally holiday festivities!

Where to start?

2008-10-25T23:50:00.001-07:00

Its been so long since I've blogged that I'm not sure where to start. We've had an illness that kept me occupied and lots of crafting. Hrmm, do I craft or do I blog about crafting? I do like to journal about what I'm doing, but when time gets pinched too thin, the blogging gets the short stick, unfortunately.

I've made slow progress on the garden. When I put it that way it doesn't sound too great. But when I saw I've made slow PROGRESS on the garden, well, that sounds much nicer. I'm still trying to get four garden beds in order - that means all lined with hardware cloth to keep gophers our and then put in drip irrigation (currently on overhead sprinkler) and then plant a cover crop (probably, fava beans). And that will probably take several more months at my current rate. But I'm ok with that since progress tends to be made in fits and starts. I got two beds planted with veggies this year. The first one did well despite the fact that I crammed everyone and their sister into it. We harvested some very fine potatoes from it. Beautiful, almost iridescent purple potatoes. We shared the harvest with friends and it was delicious.

However, the second bed despite being planted with cabbage, chard, spinach, lettuce and cilantro, I've decided to call a moratorium on harvesting from it. Why? I was getting frustrated with protecting it - protecting it from squirrels digging it up, caterpillars devouring the cabbage, the dog meandering through and little toddler hands full of good intentions "replanting" all the seedlings, not to mention the regular weeding and fertilizing that needed to happen. So I'm going to revisit the plot next year when said toddler is a little older and I get some sort of above ground varmint protection put it.

It actually feels quite good to reach this decision. I started the garden over a year ago and progress has been slow but measurable. However, I was starting to feel the pressure to keep things maintained and to keep food coming in. The pressure to not fail, but still fearing the caterpillar and the dog messing everything up! But the wonderful thing that has happened to me since becoming a mother is the ability to not be such a perfectionist. I love knowing that I can say, "ok, enough for this season" and then knowing that I'll pick up right where I left off (minus that pile of weeds that's accumulated) in January (or February or March). Its amazing how you can give something up (paralyzing perfectionism) and in the process somehow get ahead (in the long view).

In the studio

2008-09-27T20:55:00.001-07:00

Here's what's going down downstairs these days. My first attempt at quilting, and, no, its not a blanket. I'm not sure its going to turn out, so I'm afraid to publicly declare what it's going to be. But I was happy with the turn of events around fabric selection. I was going for the brownish plaid but didn't have enough and had picked up the corduroy cowboy on a whim, and then I needed a lot of fabric for the quilted part. A thrifted yellow flowered sheet from my stash worked out well, I think. A bit kitschy, but in a fun way (yes, its for my son - does that excuse me?). I know I declared my love for patterns in an earlier post, but I'm flying solo on this one and keeping my fingers crossed that it will turn out ok. I'm fighting a bug now so just keeping it mellow for the time being. Maybe I'll finish it next month.

Knitting Urge

2008-09-23T21:56:00.001-07:00

I've knit very very little since the end of August. Like maybe 200 stitches. Because I've been focusing my hobby time on sewing. And I'm making progress on that front. But I find myself missing knitting. The more I do it, the more I realize its so incredibly relaxing. Sorta like yoga. The repetition. The rhythm. The way you don't have to think about it and can let your mind wander or instead be calm and mindful.

Somewhere on one of the (too) many blogs that I read, and I don't remember where so I can't give props, someone mentioned that Debbie Bliss has a knitting mag out now. I found the premier issue (Fall/Winter) when I was at Jo Anne's picking up some plaid flannel for a sewing project. I've purchased an Interweave magazine once and was pretty disappointed (lots of boring sweaters) so I wasn't sure whether I should spend the $7.95 for it. I'm glad I did! It has lots of things that I'm excited about. Now mind you my knitting queue is full all the way through January, but I can dream can't I? Here's what caught my eye.

Screen Time

2008-09-22T17:33:00.001-07:00

We've gotten two new video games going in the house. Unusual I know considering how long we've been playing Warcraft. The first is the final/actual/non-beta release of Warhammer Online (very confusing with Warcraft talk in our house I know). We only got one copy since I don't have much time to play. I've started a zealot on Mr. Thystle's account and its only level 5 or so.
The other game is Spore. You get to create a life form and guide it through the evolutionary process. Its a bit like 5 games in one depending on which stage you're at. Single celled animal, multi-celled animal, tribal animal, etc. Here's my first creation - Bob (not so creative on the names, sorry). Having fun exploring worlds and making critters.

September Sewing

2008-09-19T00:20:00.001-07:00

So as I was finishing up THE sweater, I decided that I was too far behind in sewing and decided that I should make September all about sewing. It turns out that its National Sewing Month. How appropriate is that!

Also, fortuitously Oliver + S came out with their Fall line which includes some little boy clothes! Yeah! Not a huge selection - a pair of pants plus instructions for making freezer paper design on a t-shirt, and a unisex pair of pajamas. I got both sets of patterns. I did the pants (sandbox pants) for H. I love, love, love them. I love working from a pattern. My mind is too discombobulated to concentrate on sewing without a pattern. I also made a little drawstring type of bag for my sister to put her clothes pins in and I messed up something as simple as that. So, yes, patterns are good for my current state of mind. The pants have both elastic and drawstring (love that combo) and the pockets are lined with contrasting fabric as is the waistband. The lined pockets are nice but you can't see them so getting fancy with the fabric patterns probably isn't necessary. I used a pair of my old beloved pajama bottoms as fabric. I ripped them at the crotch beyond repair so ripped the seams and reused the panels. They were from the Gap and the tag said they were from Holiday '01 line. They even have little red paint stains from when we painted our office "confederate red" (doesn't everyone paint their house in their pajamas?) . I love the fact that my son's pants have these little reminders of were they came from. And lastly I wanted to beam with pride that I did my first buttonholes as well. Read the manual and went to town. Easy peasy! I loved how they turned out - they look so comfortable. However, the sizing might be a bit off. The inseam seemed a bit short. I made the size 2. Also, H recently moved out of diapers much to my surprise, so the crotch is very low because rise is too big, as is all of his pants now. I haven't tried the pants on him with a diaper so they might be too short once the rise is accounted for. Here are some photos with H wearing them out and about at the aquarium.

Finished Sweater

2008-09-18T23:30:00.001-07:00

It's done! My very first sweater. It turned out great. Very big, but I was sorta anticipating that. I had no idea how long it would take me and was afraid if it ran small the size 2 wouldn't fit him. This is the next size up - a four and seems to be true to size so he might be able to wear it in 12 months or so. I was a little afraid that the sleeves wouldn't fit right, but I think I was able to ease it ok and it doesn't seem to look too bad. I used a machine to attach the snap tape and that was a bit difficult so my stitches aren't very straight. So don't look too closely there. Also, the yarn is the kind of cotton that is grown naturally in different colors so no dying it. However, there was some variability on either different batches of the yarn (dye lots if you will) so that one of the sleeves looks beiger next to the greenish body of the sweater. Oh well, I don't think its terribly noticeable. I don't know if I'll do cotton again. I figured I would use cotton so I could machine wash it, but after spending all this time on it, I'll probably hand wash it anyways. And the cotton is so heavy and tends to sag. We'll see how this one wears as well. But overall I'm ready to cast on the next sweater, but will probably wait until after the holidays before I tackle anything.

FO!

2008-09-14T07:29:00.001-07:00

When I got to the point in knitting my sweater where I needed to do the finishing work like blocking and seaming but I still wanted to keep knitting and purling, I cast on this pattern called Scaruffle. I messed up on it big time somehow. Its knit tightly on small needles and then you knit through the front and back of every stitch to double the number of stitches to make the ruffle and then switch to larger needles to make it fluffy. Then you do short rows to make the nice beveled edges. Somehow when I was doing kfb I got turned around. So half of the scarf that wasn't done doing kfb has no ruffle and half that was kfb twice has way too much ruffle. Its in kidsilk haze, which was lovely to knit on the large needles and torture on the small needles but impossible to frog. So its going to remain a very lopsided Scaruffle. I think I'll toss it into the little guys dress up box. I know 18 months is still a little young for a dress up box, but you gotta start on it sometime.

Baby Booties

2008-08-01T23:02:00.001-07:00

I'm still working on my first sweater. Its coming along, but slowed down by sickness and a baby that isn't inclined to go to bed early. However, I have a friend that's 36 weeks pregnant and we had a tea in her honor earlier this week. So I quickly whipped up a pair of baby booties. It's my first attempt at them and they are easy and quite satisfying to pull off. The pattern is a freebie: Perfect Baby Booties (sorry Ravelry link - you've signed up already, no?). It was an interesting knit, since I was in a hurry and couldn't really figure out how they were constructed in my quick read through. So I just cast on and started knitting. They are knit in the flat with the seam going down the back of the sock and through most of the sole. There is shaping in the toe of the sole and then short rows on the instep/stockinette portion. I used Rowan Cotton Wool a 50/50 blend of cotton and merino wool. Apparently mixing animal and plant fibers is not all that common, but in theory its supposed to give you the best of both worlds - the warmth and resilience of wool and softness and washability of cotton. Fun and I'm sure I'll be trying some more booties (you know who you are!).

My Meal Planning Setup

2008-07-25T13:45:00.001-07:00

A friend was discussing being in a cooking rut and believe me, I feel the pain. Not at this particular moment *knock on wood*, but I know how it feels when nothing sounds good to eat but you still want to put something healthy on the table but because you're uninspired its hard to get into the kitchen. So I don't know if this will help her with her particular variety of uninspiredness, but its a system that I've come up with that makes it easier for me to get healthy food on the table regardless of whether or not I'm excited about it. For me, the hardest part of cooking is the meal planning. If I can come up with some idea, once its on the table I usually enjoy it. And, of course, with a toddler the shopping that supports it is the second hardest part. So here's my meal planning system.

I have several go to cookbooks that are seasonally arranged and the recipes I know in general take less than an hour to prepare. In my case they are also vegetarian. One is Fresh Food Fast, which I love, love, love and have made close to everything in it at least once. Its organized around meals of two, sometimes three dishes, and is complete with a shopping list. The other is A Year In a Vegetarian Kitchen, which is single dish based but is pretty consistent in the time it takes to pull together. I've made perhaps half the recipes in this book (again way more than most cookbooks I own). The cookbooks aren't really necessary for my meal planning, but having an easy goto source of recipes is helpful for getting started.

So my system is to come up with a meals ahead of time, organized by the four-seasons and then list the ingredients it requires - all this information is on a 4x6 card (3x5 is too small for my sloppy handwriting). Sorta simple when I type it out. The meal usually consists of two dishes, sometimes one entree and a "Vegy Du Jour" entry (for something simple for whatever is in season - such as steamed brocoli or corn on the cob) or "salad". I think if you were an omnivore it could be even simpler since it seems like an easy fall back system is for meals tend to be organized around a meat dish in the vein of start with a meat, modify it (lemon chicken? roasted rack of lamb?), then add some vegetables. Vegetarian meal planning tends towards ethnic cuisine which doesn't lend itself to such straightforward thinking (more like what kind of stir fry or what sort dish complements squash tamales). But I digress.

To get meal ideas, I usually peruse my cookbooks until I find one dish I want to try and then consider what would go good with a "baked goat cheese, tomato and pesto salad", for example, and making sure it fits within the season and that the two or three dishes I'm thinking about don't take forever to prepare. I'll put the dish names at the top and list which cookbook and page number I can find them at. Or sometimes just put HM for home made. The cards are color coded by the four season (or are on their way to getting color coded - this is a work in progress!). I'll then list the ingredients that it requires in shopping list format, usually lumped together by "produce", "dairy", and "pantry". Sometimes I list staples (soy sauce?) and sometimes I don't (come on, I always have salt around!). After I've made the meal, I like to put comments on the back although, honestly, I don't usually get around to it as much as I would like. From year to year, I usually remember that we like something but not how much we like it. Like the dishes where I wrote that they were "insanely good". Its always good to read that! Some meals are duds and I try to cull those from the stack. If something takes too long to whip up - kiss of death for this household.

I've been pulling together meal ideas for about the last 3 years, so my pile of meal ideas is finally getting substantial, although I still run out of menus before the season is up. Making the meal cards does take some work at first, but then I don't have to reinvent the wheel next year. Its so nice to sit down on Sunday afternoon grab my green summer index cards and pick out 4 or so meals to have for the week, look at the ingredients list, cross check it with what's coming in my produce basket for the week from my CSA and make up my shopping list for Monday morning. I then leave the cards in my kitchen (paper clipped and stuck to the fridge) ready for me to start cooking. The other 3 nights of the week I usually leave open to chance - either left overs, take out, or I'll pencil in something that doesn't require any thinking like tacos or pizza. The setup is a work in progress. Usually towards the middle or end of the season, I'm starting to run out of good menus but there is still plenty of that seasons' produce still in the markets. So I keep adding new menus and culling the duds and it's working out pretty well for us.

Food & Cotton

2008-07-01T21:56:00.001-07:00

Previously on this blog, I mentioned that I'm in love with my new cookbook - King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking. I've made another item from it - Cherry & Chocolate Chip Scones. I know, what's with the fruit & chocolate chip kick? The whole grain in this one is barley flour, 2 to 1 with all-purpose white. They came out very wet - like wetter than cookie wet but drier than a cake. So I made them dropped scones even though they were supposed to be shaped into a circle than cut into wedges. I can't figure out what I did wrong. It called for either 2.5 cups of whole wheat or 2 cups of barley; I went barley and apparently that made all the difference. Perhaps my barley isn't whole grain and that makes it wetter? Or perhaps I fluffed up the barley too much before measuring it? One of the techniques the book recommends is weighing all ingredients. The next time I try these or any recipe from the book, I might do that instead of going by volume. The seemed to bake up fine. They taste awesome and I'm trying to hold myself back from polishing them off. The cherries just aren't doing it for me, however. They are pretty anemic. They are dried Bing and I think I was expecting the tart dried sour cherries. So I'll make a note to tried to find those next time.

Also check out the plate in the picture. Mr. Thystle has given the go ahead to get some salad plates like the one pictured above. So I'm gonna pick up a half a dozen in turquoise and half a dozen in red. Apparently, I'm still stuck on this color combo. Should look nice with our cobalt blue dinner plates we already have. But salad plates seem to be much more our speed for smaller meals (or making dinner seem bigger since it takes up more of the plate) or a sandwich or anything more than our 5 inch saucer plates hold.

Here's how the cotton sweater is coming along. This was the back about 75% of the way done. Currently, I'm actually done with the back and about 75% of the way done with one of the front panels, but just getting around to getting photos off the camera. I'm on a knitting high after taking 4 months to finish those darn socks and I'm scouring Ravelry, finding all sorts of things I want to try. My queue is about 20 projects long right now. Hrmm, interesting... I've also made 20 things in my knitting career as well. But what's so great about a sweater is that once you do a sweater you can do ANYTHING. I'm serious. Knit a cozy for the Golden Gate Bridge? No problem! But this - a Scaruffle - is the next item on my list. Got the needles. Got the yarn. Just gotta finish the sweater first.

On the gardening front - my final two potato seeds are sprouting. I thinned out my first round of radishes even though their roots are just barely starting to swell. They were shading out the carrots underneath. If you'll recall, I sowed them at the same time with the idea being that you harvest the quick producing radishes just when you should start thinning the slow sprouting carrots. But these are some seriously slow radishes and I don't really like radishes but I do like carrots. So I'm playing favorites with my veggies.

A bit of this 'n that

2008-06-28T00:08:00.001-07:00

So something is eating my beans! I have a few more beans coming up from the second sowing that I did but they first set of true leaves are either missing or seriously stunted on the beans. I've read that slugs can do a number on them so that might be the case but I haven't seen any other signs of slugs and I have my copper tape up but perhaps they've breached my defenses already. On a positive note everything from the second sowing is up except my potatoes! Even the cilantro which for some odd reason takes longer to germinate than my carrots do. Hmmmm.

I have another almost finished knitted project. They are super cute slippers for my little H (15 months old now). They are basically socks without a bottom of the foot that are sewn to a fleece lined suede bottom. I used some yarn I had leftover from a poncho I made. Chunky weight so went very fast. The yarn is self striping with large stripes so the slippers don't exactly match. But I had some reservations about the slippers and as a result didn't want to a) buy a whole ball of new yarn when I had a plenty big stash that needed paring down and b) didn't want to waste my stash by going through the self striping yarn to find the right starting color for the second slipper and just started where I left off. The reservations I had about the slippers were that they were going to be too small or rather too small very shortly (partly why I tried to hurry up and knit them) and also that H wouldn't wear them. I've tried the one slipper on a couple of times now and each time he pops it off quickly. I still need to sew the second one on but what with my reservations and my new temptation (see below) I'm in danger of not finishing it. Ack! Must stay on target...

What is really got me going right now is that I've cast on my first sweater! It's for H and is a snap tape cardigan by Mac & Me. Its in an organic cotton that's super soft. My previous encounters with cotton left me longing for my nice resilient wool, but I couldn't imagine making a toddler a wool sweater when I have to do the laundry. Of course, now that I've started I can't imagine not washing the sweater by hand no matter what its made out of, but at least with cotton I feel like I can keep a few of my options open. Its going smoothly so far and the advice I've heard about doing sweaters for the first time (besides test gauge swatch - check) is that you just break it down into pieces. So I've done the ribbed waist portion of the back and have moved on to the stockinette portion of the back before I need to start doing some shaping for the arms. And really that's going to be the most monotonous part, I believe. In other words the largest chunk of stockinette without anything special to do. It's so much fun I wanna wrap up this blogging nonsense so I can get back to it.

Finally, I've got another exciting diversion. I purchased a baking book that I'm so in love with at the moment. King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking. Its a basic how to make everything book - from breakfast stuff (oatmeal, granola, pancakes) to yeast breads, sourdough, cakes, quick breads, flat breads, cookies and pies. This is an area where I feel like I have a lot to learn about the chemistry of cooking and this book seems to deliver all that but all of the recipes include whole grains from spelt and barley to oat and wheat. But they claim to try to not sacrifice taste. So not every recipe includes 100% whole grains if it messes with the functioning or taste of the food. Gonna be making a shopping list when I head to the grocery store to get me some fancy flours!

However, I've only made one recipe so far and considering I've only had the book for a little over 24 hours that is actually saying something about how excited I am about it. Its a Banana Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar. I know. A little deja vu. Results: yummy will probably make again. Called for spelt but I only had whole wheat so used that. Called for letting it rest over night but we're in a hurry around here so ate it all crumbly from the pan. I was aware that it was whole wheat but not distracted by it. So success in my book. Yummy!

Finally, if you follow the current events in the side bar, I mentioned that Tortilla Soup was on my radar. We tried it. H is making a mess of it here. Not bad, but honestly, I think I'm not a soup person because I got more excited about the idea of it than my execution of it.

Cookies

2008-06-24T00:07:00.001-07:00

I made my Banana Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies from 101 Cookbooks Blog. Very tasty. There were three things that set it apart from your typical Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. One was whole wheat pastry flour. Heidi says you can use regular all-purpose flour if you don't have whole wheat pastry. Well, I had white pastry and all-purpose whole wheat. So I wasn't sure which to use and ended up using the white pastry. I once looked up what the difference was between all-pupose, pastry and bread flour but have since forgotten. The result of using the white pastry - well I couldn't really tell a difference from a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe.

It also called for (toasted) wheat germ. I wasn't sure if that meant you should buy pre-toasted wheat germ (like toasted sesame oil) or toast your own wheat germ. I assumed the later and promptly burned the heck out of mine. Second try I took it out of toaster oven early. I loved the chewiness that it added to the cookies. So much that I want to try them again with whole wheat flour as well. I like whole wheat in general but typically don't LOVE whole wheat. But the wheat germ, mmm-mmm. So wanna go all the way for the chewiness factor.

Finally, it called for banana chips coarsely chopped. This is what was supposed to make the cookies. It also called for nuts, which I don't care for in my cookies so increased the banana chips. I'm not sure what I was expecting but I think its good but not stellar. I sideways step in the evolution of the chocolate chip cookie - not better or worse just different. I will probably make them again. How's that?