Postcard from Delaware

While it is raining hard today, I did manage to take some good photos earlier this weekend and the garden is looking pretty:

Mike and Ruthy 3212

Mike and Ruthy 3212, photos and collage by Lab Cat.

A great concert by Mike and Ruthy in support of their NY EP. It was marvellous to see them in concert after such a long while. Hopefully they will be back in PA soon.

Knitting 2011

Scarf for Betsy (choir director)

Yarn: Stash Yarn

Pattern: Garter Stitch

Diamond Sparkle Socks

Yarn: Speshul Snowflakes Yarn Club Dec 2010 Mulled Wine on Sparkle Feet

Pattern: Toe Up with Diamond Pattern

Blue Diamond Socks

Yarn: Knit One Crochet Two Sock in Denim

Pattern: Toe Up with all over diamond pattern

Blue Skirt

Yarn: New Lanark Mills Donegal Silk Tweed DK in Blue Heather

Pattern: Olive Skirt by Veronik Avery

Prayer Flag Batt Hat

Yarn: Handspun on miniBosworth from AbbyBatts Prayer Flag 2 and 3 ply

Pattern: Top down hat

Large Cable Cowl

Yarn: Stash Icelandic

Pattern: September Mystery 220:  Quick Cabled Cowl by Gabrielle O’Leary

Water Bottle Holder

Yarn: Autumn House Farm Finnegan’s Rainbow

Pattern: September Mystery 220: Hempathy H20 Tote by Leanne Brown

Moz’s Socks

Yarn: Sockina Cotton in blue colorway

Pattern: Toe Up Socks using Chrissy Gardiner and Cat Bordhi’s worksheets in twisted rib

Nicky’s Dishcloths

Yarn: Lily’s Sugar n’ Cream in cotton

Pattern: Ballband Dishcloth from Mason and Dixon Book 1

Dad’s Cardigan

Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Superwash Wool

Pattern: Top Down Raglan based on Barbara Walker’s with major adjustments

And from the front:

2011 Photo Round Up

My 2011 knitting summary will come later.  In the meantime, here are twelve photos from 2011:

January
Last year I took part, for the first half of the year, in 25of2011, the idea being to take a themed photo each week.  One of the first photos I took was titled “This is Me!” for which I stretched the theme a little and also allows you to see a bit of the snowy garden.

February
Murphy makes his first appearance of the year hiding away from the snow and cold. Will it be his last appearance?

March
After an exceedingly snowy winter, I was glad when spring flowers appeared at the end of March.

April
April bought more Spring flowers, including cherry tree blossom at Longwood Gardens

May
May is the beginning of fiber festival season with Maryland Sheep and Wool. As a keen and eager spinner, I am more than ever interested in the animals whose product I love so much.

June
I travelled a lot in June. First to England and then to Wilmington VT. I loved the Green Mountain State. Visiting and falling in love with VT, made really devastating when the flooding happened after Hurricane Irene.

July
I have a large collection of Daylilies in my garden. This was there month. Not sure if they usually flower in July. 2011 was a strange year for gardening.

August
I went home to England again to help Dad pack. He has moved nearer, like right next door, to my brother. This was the last time I’ll visit my childhood home. I took lots of pictures and in some I almost expect Mum to appear around the corner. This was one of her favorite spots, looking at the garden while washing up:

September
I started a new job and one weekend explored Nockamixon State Park. It has lots of water:

October
Well, there had to be one fiber related photograph. It seems that I only took photos of spinning in October.

November
And here is Murphy again:

December
Spending some time with family in England.  My Dad and brother now live in St Albans so I had an afternoon of photography of St Albans Cathedral:

 

Aunt Judy 1933 – 2011

After a long illness, my aunt Judy, my Mum’s sister, died yesterday. She was 78. August 2010, Judy collapsed at her home and was unable to walk. The rumored diagnosis was secondary tumors from breast cancer in her spine, but I don’t know if that was ever confirmed. Judy was 15 months younger than my Mum and survived her by 11 months. Both Moscow sisters, as my uncle called them, are very much missed by their daughter/niece.

Mum, my brother, and Judy

Dad, Judy and Mum

Music is Transformative

Just before I go to bed, I wanted to make some quick notes about the thoughts I had at the Béla Fleck and the Flecktones concert Thursday night. As I expected Béla and crew played at the top of their form. They were outstanding. (I won’t say anything about the support act as I have recovered from the painful death it put me through.)

So here are these four guys playing their hearts out and living the music. I had an epiphany: “What can I do to perform at this level of excellence?” Music is not the way as I lack motivation to practice, let alone the talent. So I wondered how I could teach with excellence at all times. What can I do to make sure that I give my students the best possible experience in the classroom? What would that mean? Don’t get me wrong, I am sure to make mistakes on the way, but I want to try.

Later at the concert one of the Flecktones [sorry cannot remember who] shared a story about Frank Gehry. In a recent biography, Frank Gehry’s therapist was interviewed and was quoted as saying that while regular people come to him to ask how they could be better people, better parents, better investors, better ME Me Me; Frank Gehry came asking how he could change the world.

So can I change the world? How would I want to change the world? If I knew that, perhaps I could find the lever I need to change the world.

Food is the answer. More people should know how their food gets from the farm to their mouths and understand the effects food has on their bodies. Everyone should know this. Everyone should be yelling and screaming that the food supply sucks. Mass produced food is too full of fat, salt, and sugar. Many prepared food lacks flavor and is of poor quality. Until we understand the effect of this food and start to complain loudly, processed food will not improve.

Even though I am a food scientist, I rarely buy prepared meals as I prefer spending the time to make high quality meals at home. Oh, I don’t make everything from scratch. I buy bread and ice cream. I buy chips and salsa, humus and falafel. Given time I could make, and have made, these at home; maybe not the chips and I still often make humus.  However, most of my meals are home cooked; usually starting with me chopping onions and mashing garlic. I can make meals in 15 min, including boiling pasta and, for Thanksgiving and Christmas I make meals that need to be started a few days ahead.

Despite Listeria monocytogenes in cantaloupes, food safety is not the issue. Knowing how food is produced is important as it allows us to realize that cantaloupes are grown and processed before reaching the supermarkets and therefore at risk of being contaminated. Knowing that food with a long shelf life has to be treated with preservatives, and probably heat treated to the extent that few vitamins remain is incredibly important. Knowing that if you make your own food you can limit that amount of sodium present and therefore reduce high blood pressure and risk of strokes is important.  Rather than complaining about high fructose corn syrup, realize that it is not only cheap but also extends shelf life. Then make your own whatever with sugar or honey; which would taste better anyway.

The Food Industry is not completely to blame for the quality of the food supply. There are many good people working in those multinational corporations who are creating and manufacturing healthy wholesome food. On a mass produced level, this is very difficult with many challenges. We have to accept that a main objective of most food companies is not philanthropy but making a profit. Given the low prices we expect to pay for food, most profits are based on cents in the dollar so the companies make money by selling large volumes. One good thing is that the food industry is not controlling the story on the sustainable locavore food movement like it did for the GMO food. Thus, food manufacturers are running to catch up with the likes of Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman, Alice Walker and any customer of a local farmer’s market. So consumers and food activists can lead the way and, hopefully, change the food industry.

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones probably won’t tell you anything about food, but you should try and catch one of their concerts. Because of their extraordinary performance, I am going to be the best food science and nutrition educator I can.

Spinning

I feel in love with some Icelandic fiber that I got in a friend’s destash, I am probably about half way through spinning and then I want it to become part of this vest (rav link) or similar but not felted.  I am not sure what to do about the other colors. I spent along time at KDO market looking for the right blues to go with the gray-brown yarn as I want[ed] it to be a study in blue.  One question is whether this project, and other handspun projects, should be spun and knitted all from the same breed of fiber or should I mix and match.  I haven’t looked further for other Icelandic fibers so probably is will be a mixed breed vest.

In the meantime a friend on Rav started her own dyeing business, Schafenfreude Fibers, and I couldn’t resist being one of the first of her online purchasers especially with this polwarth dyed in grassy. My order number was 4.  I am so keeping that receipt.

I am still spinning the Fabulous Fibers BFL I purchased in Vermont over the summer. Slowly getting through it. This yarn also wants to be a vest but I don’t think it will work with the Icelandic yarn above.

So Many Changes

So much has happened in the last few months that I am only now catching up with myself.  In August I started a new position so in the months before included a telephone interview and an onsite interview.  I finally heard that I had the position about a month before I started.  It worked out well as I simply went from one job to the next – I even had overlap in salaries one week.  I am enjoying the work and being in a new environment.

This summer I visited Dad twice.  He has successfully moved to the house next door to my brother; which makes us all happier.  It is strange to think that I will never see my childhood home again.  I mean even if my some strange quirk I did visit, it would be “our” house any more. In June I visited Wilmington VT for a week and had a great time – I still haven’t sorted out the photos from that trip. Knowing the town made the flooding after Hurricane Irene even more poignant; especially with what happened to Bartleby Books. I’m going to try and get back there next summer to help the local businesses I got to know.

I am trying to sell my house as the new position is just too far for a daily commute.  Unfortunately, the market it so rotten at the moment that I am lucky to get viewers despite not (yet) getting an offer.  In the meantime, I am renting an apartment on a farm (!) and Murphy and I commute weekly back and forth between the two homes.  Murphy has a lot to say about the journey on the journey, but seems to be settled in the new apartment and has his routines.  Hiding under the duvet at 8 am seems to be the main one.  Since where I am staying is rural – the occasional weekend I haven’t gone home I wandered out to a local state park, which was gorgeous.  Mum would have loved the lake and walking by the water.

I am keeping myself occupied with knitting and spinning and buy supplies for the same.  During the summer I took part in the Tour de Fleece and washed two Shetland Fleeces learning a lot about cleaning fleeces in the process.

Initially my water temperature was too low to wash them properly – the water was cooler than the melting point of lanolin, which isn’t very helpful when you are trying to remove the lanolin.  I also learned to study the fleeces and to make selections of the fleece based on the quality of the wool.  With my first fleece I had just grabbed chunks and washed a bit at a time. By the time of the third fleece I divided it into quality criteria and washed each section at a time.

I also dyed some of the Jacob fleece I purchased last year after my beginning spinning class at the Mannings.



The Jacob fiber is being both drum and hand carded.  I have this crazy idea of knitting a color wheel based on both yarn that has been hand dyed or blended on a drum carder.  Packing up to show my house put paid to those plans for now; I did bring hand carders to the farm with me and have done a little Jacob  fiber prep in the last month.

In September I taught two classes at Knitters’ Day Out, which seemed to well received.  The classes were Marvellous Mitres and Carefree Color.  The former showed three different ways to knit a mitre and the latter got students to play with color without worry.  I had them cutting colors out of magazines to match a variegated yarn I had given them. We got some fascinating selections.  While at KDO I made some friends and feel in love with some fiber that just had to come home with me.

Week 23: Long Exposure

I haven’t really done this kind of photo before, so once again I had to pull out my camera’s instruction manual and find out how to do it. Then one morning waking up at 5 am I played with fire.

And phew, I made it halfway!

Tour de Fleece 2011 Round Up

Ooof. I think I am spun out for a while.

Top LH corner: Jacob from Marta – gold batts, mid dark singles, white batts, white yarn 3ply and 2 ply
Top RH: Mad Colors: Wild Side
Middle L: Fabulous Fibers: Summit
Middle: Drying Shetland fleeces
Bottom L + Middle: Drachenwolle
Bottom R: Dad’s cardigan

—
If you remember I had goals. So how did I do?

Goal 1: Prepare lots of Jacob. I got about 100 g carded and a further 20 g waiting for the carder. Still have a long way to go before it is all finished.

Goal 2: Wash fleeces. Thanks to members of Team Suck Less and the FOAY group on Ravelry, I found out that my water is not hot enough to dissolve lanolin. So I had to change my methods and rewash the first few lots. Despite that I am only 3.5 mesh bags away from finishing the second fleece! For this fleece I got fancy and sorted out the fiber into different categories:

Where:
A) Least compacted and long clear locks
B) Back like A but compacted
C) Sides are slightly dirty and not as soft as A or B
D) End of legs – very compacted and not soft
E) Worst, as in dirtiest, locks. Fleece was skirted which means the really nasty bits were already removed.

Goal 3: Spin on my Trindle every day. I span every day but not always on my Trindle. I did, however, spin all the fiber I intended for the Trindle.

Goal 4: Knit Dad’s cardigan. Unfortunately, the last few days have been too hot too knit a thick cardigan but before the heat dome arrived I finished the left sleeve and I’m about a third into the right sleeve.

So all in all tour de fleece 2011 was a success.