Remembrance of a day

I've not been to many funerals. I don't like death and all that accompanies it. I must say that this last one was one of the most peaceful I've been to. I guess death is not so much feared when it will bring relief to suffering. It was also one of those times when everyone in the room knew where she had gone. D and I were joking that she worked so hard here on Earth that Jesus would give her the first week off in Heaven.

My Mother in Law has MS and needs a chair to get around now. So I try to be extra helpful when I am in their house. That plan failed this time because I came down with a bad cold. In the middle of the night when all your crazy thoughts attack you, I thought maybe I have strep throat and now we flew all this way and will still not be able to attend, and now I've just gotten everyone else sick too. It did help me out in one way though. I really did have a reason to be sniffling so much.

I am a crier, it is what I do. Death and funerals seem especially bad for me. I was worried because D's family is so stoic that I would embarrass them with all my blubbering. I held out strong pretty well till we got to singing "How Great Thou Art". I love that song! The line "Then sings my soul" rings directly to me.

It was pretty cool to see a whole row of Red Hat ladies all lined up paying their respects. They were a sight to see. The family chose to display the red hat I had made for her.

So I think we had a classy send off for a classy lady.

Recovering

We had to make a quick trip back to SD for a family funeral. Service was lovely. But I was the first one to come down with a cold and I being the unselfish person that I am, gave it to D.

We have been slow to recover but we are slowly getting there. So that is my excuse for the blog languishing.

Organized randomness?

I made bread this weekend but it was consumed before I could get a picture. Hungry cyclists will do that to a loaf. I lost half of my muffins the same way. They seemed to go over well.

I made an onion bread that was quite tasty. Not what I would like for breakfast but I bet it would go great with chili. I've still not tried the no knead bread. Let's say I'm still doing research, yeah research, that sounds so much better than not getting around to it. I did not know if the 16-18 hours thing is a hard and fast rule, I did not want to be up baking bread at midnight. My luck I'd fall asleep and wake up to smoke in the kitchen. Smoke not my favorite bread flavoring.

We had a new/old yarn shop open in the area so my friend and I made a Saturday of it and had lunch and checked out the yarny goodness. We went to an Irish pub and had pub food. Bangers and Mash!

I've always wanted to try it and I did not get a chance while we were in England. Good golly that meal was good! I told D we have to try it again soon. They had fish and chips too but it was made of Haddock and I am not a big fan of that fish, but I will have to try it.

I was able to take a picture of this yarn before I wound it into a cake. I so want to try it out but I need to get a bit more done on D's Peruvia sweater.

Oh and the following pictures are an example of what happens when you leave the Hubby and cats home alone with nothing to do.

Jack says "Dad said he wanted a close up, Mom."

Cat butt who takes pictures of cat butt? The person just odd enough to marry the person who would post those pictures on their blog.

Wooly

Since the weather is so nice, I have pictures. The grass is getting greener and D is out on his bike as we speak. Well it is more as I type since I have no idea when you will read this and I doubt he will still be out on his bike then. Least I hope he is not.

Look new yarn! This is the Malabrigo worsted yarn I mentioned the other day. I'm planning to make Tang by Wendy Bernard. I was reading over the pattern last night and I have no idea how this is going to work. It is a very different construction than I'm used to but people seem to love it.

I'll be honest patterns rarely make sense when I read through them. It is only when I have sticks and string in hand that I can figure it out. I told you I am a visual person.

D's sweater is moving right along. It should be done just in time for spring. Ah well there is always next winter. It is made out of Berroco Peruvia, 100% Peruvian Highland Wool, color 7183.

That would my lovely knit fabric right there. Kinda cool Huh?

We went out the other night and I went to a wine bar for the first time in my life. As we were sitting there enjoying our wine I had the strongest urge to pull out my knitting. I resisted but I think D would have enjoyed it if I did.

Update

I'm half way through knitting a sweater for D and I've yet to take a picture of it. But my knitting journal is up to date. Well sort of I started knitting a pair of socks and the yarn is pooling badly. The colorway is basically two colors and they are spitting between the front and back of the sock. I'm trying to figure out how to work around this. No ideas just yet.

I'm knitting swatches of Malabrigo worsted yarn to plan my next sweater for me. I tried knitting it on my standard US 8 needles then tried knitting on US 7 needles to compare the fabrics. I'm going to wash them and block them to see which one I like more.

I really need to convert the needle sizes from US sizing to metric. It is much more precise to think of things in mm instead of US.

Darn it - a sock's tale

I finally decided to take the time to attempt to darn my holey socks, well one of them at least. I remembered reading an article on how to do it on knitty.com. The article is in the summer '08 issue. I remember thinking the instructions were very clear. I assembled my repair kit, including a camera to document my experiment.

Smile for the camera!

Since I did not have a darning egg I used a GE lightbulb. You know they "bring good things to light", and I figured I would need all the help I could get. Yeah, I know that slogan is old so are my light bulbs.

I ran a set of yarn lines across the affected area. After having done this once I would now make those lines closer together. But after I try this on the next sock I may change my mind back to this set up, who knows.

I then ran another set of yarn lines perpendicular to the first set. See how the area closer to the back of the sock is fairly well filled in, but you can still see the lightbulb on the side closer to my thumb?

I switched back and forth running the yarn lines, trying to weave opposite to what I had done before. I got a little distracted by the show I was watching so I may have done one more pass in both directions than I really needed to. Again I'm not sure, only experience will tell me more. I figured it wore out once if I made it too thin it would be more likely to wear out again.

This is the inside of the sock. See how it puckers? I don't think it should be like that. I think I pulled too hard and pulled the fabric in.

It is even puckered on the foot as well.

The fabric looks and feels totally different than the knit fabric. The sock is off to the wash now so we will see if it really is darned. I worry that the puckered area will be uncomfortable under my foot.

So what did I learn? Run the lines closer together and don't pull the work too tightly. It took less yarn and time than I thought it would to repair the damage. I think it took about 3 feet of yarn and around 20-25 minutes. Not bad to get a sock back in the rotation, definitely less time than it took to knit them.

I still need to learn how to duplicate stitch so I can repair before the hole appears.

Oh and FYI I've been looking into what we will call here "bacteria bread" (see my last post).

Sounds like there are a couple of different/basic recipes on the internet. I think each author put out their method's basic recipe. I found one or two on YouTube also. Just look up no knead bread. I think I'm going to give it a try one of the weekends instead of my regular bread, or maybe in addition to my regular bread, since D eats bread like it is going out of style. I might help him with it too. I will keep you posted as to how it turns out or if I chicken out.

Palm Sunday

As we were walking into church today I was flooded with a memory from my childhood.

I grew up in a small farming town in rural South Dakota. We did not have much in the way of exotic things. The coolest car in town was a Trans Am complete with the eagle on the hood and T top. You know like the Smokey and the Bandit car. The most exotic place I could dream of living was Texas. It was as far as my imagination would take me. Granted it was pretty different from South Dakota, at least in my mind it was.

I can remember one year for Palm Sunday the children received a palm leaf frond. Not the whole leaf like we received today, but one single frond from the leaf.

Yeah our Church did not have a lot of money. I think, I thought the frond came from Jerusalem. I remember them telling us the reason it is named Palm Sunday. Jesus was welcomed into the gates of Jerusalem by all the people laying palms on the street before him to honor him.

I remember keeping my frond for a long time. I think that was the exotic and mystical thing I owned in my childhood. It alway struck me that you could be welcomed with such honor one week and persecuted and dead the next.

On a happier note I managed to make bread correctly today, Mediterranean Herbed Bread.

I was looking at the book store this week for a new bread book. I had found it the last time I was in and the idea intrigued me, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I like making bread so I decided to buy the book the next time I was in the store. Well I researched it a bit further and it is a slow rise method, or some such name. Basically you mix the dough and leave it for 16 to 18 hours unrefrigerated then you can cook it or store it in the refrigerator and bake up bits as you want. You allow natural bacteria to do the work that kneading does in regular bread dough. The bread is supposed to be more flavorful and convenient for cooking. (Plus you don't need a bread machine to make the dough.)

I've got to be honest I know that there is beneficial bacteria and what not, but it totally grossed me out to think of bread dough sitting on the counter for the day. I know that we lived for hundreds of years with bacteria, and I hate antibacterial soaps. But come on my stomach did a flip. I think this may be the reason I've not yet attempted making sourdough bread.

Now after reading a book I have from the library, it is not a new concept to do bread this way. I'm a bit more intrigued, I may even purchase a book about it. I mean it can not hurt to try new things, I hope. I am interested in making more bread and different breads too.

What do you think experimental bacteria anyone?