2/10/2007

Zero Waste

I want the world to be like these people want to make it.

Supper

Two experimental dishes tonight, on the whole a success. Spinach Kugel, which came out much too salty, but was good otherwise. I'm looking forward to trying again with less salt and maybe some cheddar cheese melted on top. The other was Sweet Potato Pancakes. They were good, if a bit too oniony for me.

I find that the older I get the less I need onions in my food. I can smell them for a long time after I cook with them – like, when I wake up in the morning even if I've showered the night before the onion smell is the first thing I'm aware of, and I notice it for at least a day or two on the kitchen surfaces, though I do clean thoroughly. It's not even that I don't like the smell, but it's too much when it's first thing in the morning, and constant. I've never talked about it with anyone else to know if this increased sensitivity is completely unheard of.

Fine Cabled Mitts

I've finished the first one, cast on and begun the ribbing for the second. I have such a rake of projects waiting in the wings, I'm starting to feel a little strung out (heh heh, get it?) about it: I have promised M.M. I'd FINALLY make the Siberian Husky puppy from World Of Knitted Toys. I made the Eskimo doll almost a year ago and am starting to feel totally guilty that I haven't followed through on that yet. I'd also like to make something for my nephew from that book. Then, there is Noro Silk Garden for a hat for me. And M.M. needs a hat. And I have some soft chunky yarn to make a quick hat for a present… haven't decided which of two people I'm going to give it to.

And all that is before I get back to my socks. I'm on the foot, just need to knit a few more inches before I start the toe decreases, but it's on hold because I decided it made more sense to work on seasonal stuff since I won't want to wear lacy socks until it gets a bit warmer anyway. Plus, my aunt asked me to work on a sweater she started a couple of years ago and hasn't had time or inclination to finish. She did the ribbing at the hem, and petered out on the stockinette of the body. I have no idea why I let myself get roped into it. It's going to be a long time before I get to it.

Tomorrow is another day for knitting.

How to Use the Wool Winder

1. For setting yarn guide up:
1) Hold the yarn guide by hand
2) Turn it clockwise
3) Thrust it in over a boss positioned at the reverse side of the base until clicking

2. For setting yarn winder on table:
1) Set the winder on table as shown in sketch, underlaying plastic clamp with rubber at the edge of table.
2) Fasten the winder with the clamp by turning wing nut to left

3. For fitting bobbin into bobbin holder
1) Fit bobbin in bobbin holder in a right position
2) Keeping bobbin holder by hand, turn bobbin to left by another hand as far as it goes


4. For winding yarns
1) Thread yarns through yarn guide and put the end of yarns into the ditch on top of the bobbin.
2) Holding the yarn by left hand to give a slight tension onto the yarn, move the nadle in the dirrection [sic] of arrow.

5. After winding yarns up
1) Take the wound ball out of bobbin after picking the first end of yarns up.
2) Alternatively take the wound ball with bobbin out of bobbin holder, detouching the bobbin by turning it to right.

6. How to use wound balls
1) For the wound ball taken out of bobbin, pick the first end of yarns up from core of the ball.
2) For those yarns like lace-yarns, summer fine-yarns and nep-yarns, take the ball with bobbin out of bobbin holder and take yarns from the outermost side of the ball to use.

2/06/2007

News Roundup


One morning a couple of weeks ago – one of the first actually cold mornings we'd had this winter – M.M. decided she wanted to have a picnic outside before breakfast. So she got a blanket and a bowl with wheat thins (the organic kind with no sugar, obviously) and raisins, and took it all out to the farthest corner of the back yard and sat there by herself for a long time eating her pre-breakfast snack. She even came in to replenish her bowl a couple of times. Go figure. Anyway, the above photo is my pseudo-artistic documentation of her little outdoor adventure.

Since then, we've been to Massachusetts and back. I did replace my glasses, and I really like the new ones. The sunglasses clipon is much better than the old ones, but I'm very very unhappy to have had to shell out all that money to replace glasses that were themselves new less than a year ago. However, what's done is done. Move on. Accept reality. All that crap.

I'm having February Funks as Anne Margaret called them. It's cold, I'm tired, M.M. is getting over a cold and has been a cranky mucous factory all week, I need a haircut, and some exercise, and a social life, and a job…

But, we did get the woodstove going, so the kitchen is nice and cozy, and the laundry is clean, for the moment anyway. When we got back from Massachusetts the dining room and one living room wall had been painted. I had chosen the color before we left. I loved it on the chip when Melissa, the helpful and cheerful and talented painter, was here, but as soon as she left I got a scared sinking feeling in my belly that I had made a terrible mistake. I wanted it to be bright and cheerful, because these rooms don't get a lot of light, especially in summertime, and I was afraid of making it depressing and cold in here. So I chose a pastel yellow-green color to complement the dusty plum colored couch and the jewel tones in the funky curtains I got from Pier 1 about 6 years ago.

When we got home it was late, I was tired, and the paint looked horrible. I hated it. It looked like snot-green, pee-green, electric, intense, flourescent… I was sure it was horrible and I started trying to figure out how I was going to fix it. Now I'm happy to say that living with it for a few days, seeing it in different lights (boy does it change with the light, this color!), I'm coming to like it. It's definitely cheery and fun. Here it is on the walls. Please ignore the unholy mess that is my entire life house dining room.



Of course there's no hope of getting a true color in the photo. So use your imagination.