Talking of organic food, Dan Barber over at the New York Times seems to think that chefs are the key to improving our food choices.
Chefs can help move our food system into the future by continuing to demand the most flavorful food.
This is Part 2 of a series on US food label laws and regulations. Part 1 is here.
This post is about the regulations that cover organic standards for food labels. It is not about organic agriculture. If you want to know more about how the US government defines organic production, you can wade through the relevant regulations!
The final national organic standards rule was published in the Federal Register on December 21, 2000 and the law was activated April 21, 2001. This law, the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA), set up the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) and is administered by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). As well as defining what is permitted in organic production, it also defines how to label organic food products. Agriculture is covered by Title 7 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Food, if you remember, is Title 21.
Photo Credit: USDA (no longer shown on website)
I have had a good few weeks finishing off knitting projects. Partly because I have so many ideas of new projects I am desperate to start.
Another wash cloth. I adapted the NunuMaya I made last month to make it with eight petals:
I bought the extra yarn I needed and finished the Top Down Cable Hat that I showed you on Wednesday:
I would make some changes next time. At least I now know that you need 150-200 yards of yarn to make this hat. One ball only had 118 yards.
Finally, I finished Hannah’s Baby’s Blanket with plenty of time to spare for the Baby Shower:
It does not show up in the picture, but as well as the red and the black, there was also dark blue and dark green. I really like the suddenness of the red and subtleties of the blue and green. I knew the Baby Shower was in May so I planned to be finished by May. I even had time to attach Icord all the way round:
I’ve since found out that the baby shower is not until the end of May. Oh well, it is nice to be done.
I am starting Kate Gilbert’s Camellia which I will be using the blue cotton bam boo shown for the eight petaled NunuMaya in the first picture. In fact the NunuMaya was my swatch.
Is posted at A Cat Nap. A great lot of reading from science women.
The photos below don’t show this too well, but I seem to be in a plum mood with my knitting. It is one of my favorite colors so I could knit with it all the time.
I am knitting a hat for PhysioProf as part of this agreement. I decided not to use my own chart with the requested text as I wanted to knit a top down cable hat. So that’s what I did. Unfortunately, one ball of Wool Bam Boo was not enough so I have to go to my LYS and get another to finish it, I only have about 2″ left to knit. Grrr.
The yarn does glitter in the flash; it isn’t that shiny in real life, but the flash was needed to show the detail. I love the way the yarn shows up the cables. I am thinking of using this for something cabley for autumn.
For Mum, I am knitting Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Rib Warmer (I’m not using a kit from Schoolhouse Press, even though that is where the link goes to). I decided to use some yarn (Feelings by Zitron - no link) found in my stash, which I obviously bought at a guild yarn swap, because there was a price on the bag with a guild member’s name. I wish I could remember buying it (and some of the other yarns in my stash).
I showed you this rib warmer about a month ago and I’ve made some progress since. I’ve been finishing off something else, but you’ll have to wait for a FO Friday to find out what. (Note to self: Take pictures for Friday.) The rib warmer is part of a knitalong with my local guild. I am really enjoying knitting it. It is easy and clever at the same time. I’m planning on knitting another one very soon. (Despite the 16 items queued in Ravelry and the odd ideas I keep having and not following through.)
The Rib Warmer shall go with the seed stitch hat I finished last month. The hat was sent to Mum as an American Mothers’ Day present. Not that she is American, it is just that the British one was in March or something, so while I appreciate her every day of the year, I send her celebratory stuff for the American one as I usually know when that one is happening.
That reminds me that Fathers’ Day (celebrated on the same day in both US and UK - we agreed about something) is coming up soon. I know what I want to knit for Dad, but when?
Simon’s Cat ‘Let Me In!’
First seen at William the Coroner’s site
You could almost do the opposite of this for Murphy when he is in his desperate “let me out” mood. I shall keep heavy objects away from him at this time. At least he is not as able as Simon’s Cat at picking up objects.
I am exhausted from yesterday’s jaunt to MSW. It was a great day with lots of lovely yarns to see. I am well contented with the yarn that I purchased:
From the left: Bartlettyarn wool sport weight; Triple ‘R’ Farms merino sock yarn and Jamie Harmon’s single ply merino and angora.
I don’t know what I am going to knit with any of these yet. The Bartlett yarn would make a great outer sweater - I might even make a Baby Surprise Jacket with it doubled up. The sock yarn does not tempt me into knitting socks, I have yet to be tempted in that direction, but a nice shawl or scarf would suit this colorway, which needs to shown off. Actually, I can see me matching it with other yarns and using it for a freestyle or modular vest or cardigan. Jamie Harmon had some wonderful double ply yarns which she made up with these single plyed yarns. I will probably knit a hat with these and then get more yarn from her in the fall when it is cooler and I can think wool sweaters.
I stopped and admired Brooks Farm Yarns:
Which I realize doesn’t help the vendor very much, but I have lots of her fiber left from a previous MSW and still no idea of what to knit with it. Gorgeous yarns though. I encouraged everyone else to purchase from her.
I also purchased a print from Conni Togel. Visit her site, you won’t be disappointed.
The festival got too hot and too busy for me:
But I enjoyed seeing all the lovely yarns and eating funnel cake and generally having a good day. Watching the sheepdog demos is always a highlight, even though they seemed to have some hornery sheep this year. While she said they were blue face Leicesters I wondered if they had any Shropshire sheep relations which are well known for being stubborn and stealing hikers’ lunches.
There were Angora goats and Alpaca on display
Did you think Murphy would mind if, one year, I bought one home?
I became an American citizen this morning. Conveniently time for I as part of my abcalong project. Also convenient was the fact that I just finished these washcloths:
Short of knitting something more patriotic, which I am not sure I would want any way, I thought stars on blue was very appropriate for the occasion*.
I also think it was appropriate that I became American on May Day, which is also International Workers Day or Labour Day. Since I grew up in England, I learnt to do strange dances around a pole on May Day. Phew, escaped from such weirdnesses by becoming American. Now I can adopt, if I so chose, American celebrations such as the National Day of Prayer and I can singing, with impunity, great songs such as “This Land is Your Land” - all verses of it:
words and music by Woody Guthrie
Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and meAs I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and meChorus
I’ve roamed and rambled and I’ve followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me
Chorus
The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and meChorus
As I was walkin’ - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin’
But on the other side …. it didn’t say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!Chorus
In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’
If this land’s still made for you and me.Chorus (2x)
©1956 (renewed 1984), 1958 (renewed 1986) and 1970 TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc.(BMI)
*Additionally, these washcloths mean that this post is also FO Friday. These NunuYaya’s are very additive. I did change the pattern slightly for the white one. Instead of decreasing at the edges I decreased in the middle, using “slip 2 tog, k1, pass both slipped stitches together over knitted stitch”, this gives that nice ridge in the middle. The red is in Cliche** and the white is 2nd time cotton. Cliche is a dream to knit with, with no splitting of the yarn while I was knitting. This has been a problem with the other cottons I have used. The final wash cloth was very soft washcloth and will be good for using on your face. 2nd time cotton produced a rougher washcloth which would really defoliate well. Their gauges came out similar, the white cloth was knitted for more rounds, additionally its row gauge may be slightly bigger than Cliche’s.
I am enjoying this pattern so much that I also started on one as a swatch with 8 petals using Classic Elite Cotton Bam Boo. I need to sew in the yarn ends and then I can show it you.
**The JCA Craft and Reynolds website who create Artful Yarns is under construction.
This one is for any student out there:
A monk: “What is the fundamental teaching?”
Yun-men: “No question, no answer”
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