Name:
Location: Crescent City, California, United States

I love to make things with my hands. My current passions are knitting and spinning.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

I sure have had a hard time getting to the computer to do some posting. I have been spending alot of time in the kitchen lately experimenting with some healthier cooking. The latest experiments have been yogurt and milk kefir.
The yogurt was Matsoni which is a mesopilic yogurt, meaning it cultures at room temperature. It came out a little runnier than I am used to. I have heard that homemade yogurt can be that way and sometimes as you make more, it gets thicker. I ended up using it to make some homemade ranch dressing, and I thought the dressing came out great. The milk kefir came out fine and I have used it in cooking as well as for smoothies. I find that I crave the flavor of the kefir smothies.
Yesterday I started a batch of Water Kefir.
The Kefir grains are sitting at the bottom of the jar, and the lemon and raisins are floating at the top. I am anxious to see how this turns out and if I like it. So far, my husband hasn't been too excited about some of my cooking experiments. He doesn't care for sauerkraut or kefir, and I think he was afraid to try my yogurt. He (and my son) do like the homemade granola :)
Now, on to knitting! The latest project on the needles is the Slanting Gretel Tee that was in the Fall 2009 issue of Knits. I am calling my version the Slanting Norte Tee.
The yarn that I am using is some that I got in April at Baabara's Wild and Wooly in Bend, Oregon. If I recall correctly, the wool came from a friend's sheep. It was dyed this nice shade of magenta and is a tweedy spun yarn with bits of brown fiber, then mixed with flash for a little bit of sparkle.
I had a hard time getting going with the pattern, I don't think it helped that I was trying to watch a movie and read a graph at the same time. The little marker is a stitch that need to be attached to the rest of the sweater. When I discovered the loose stitch, I couldn't bear ripping back to it yet again!
Today I am at the part to divide for the sleeves. The end is getting closer, yeah! I have so much knitting on my to do list!

#1 - off the spinning wheel.....

This is some black alpaca that I spun from prepared roving. It is so lovely and soft. I am thinking of doing a color work project using different natural colors of alpaca. I believe I have 4-5 different colors to spin.
#2 - off the spinning wheel...
About a year ago I spun 1 strand of pure buffalo and one strand of buffalo mixed with nylon and plied them together, hoping to make a stronger yarn than just pure buffalo. At Black Sheep Gathering this year, I purchased some more Buffalo roving to ply with the rest of the Buffalo/nylon mix that I had. I finished plying it on Sun, 8-22-2010. Now to wash it and see if I can find a crew sock pattern to use for the yarn.
I have been seeing alot of apron patterns in the store lately, and have been wanting to make a new apron for myself, and possibly another for a gift for someone. I bought a couple of patterns the other day, then found these fabrics to use....


I like the smock pattern with the scalloped hem, and the fact that it covers more of the front of your clothing (I gt kinda messy when I am cooking!).

I also like the full front of the pattern below, again, it covers the front (and protects the clothing) for those of us who are messy cooks!

I am itching to spend some time at my sewing machine doing something other than mending

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