yarn along: sweater and swatching

It's yarn along day. Yippee!

This week I have been working on my Strawberry Summer Sweater (thanks to Marfa for the name idea). I am almost finished. Today I did the bottom rib and the rib around the neck. Now I just have to knit the sleeves (only 3 rounds each), but I don't have the right size needles. Since progress is halted on that I went ahead and swatched for my Audrey in Unst. I can already tell that it's going to look good in yellow. I hit gauge, so I guess I might go ahead and cast on. I've got the right needles to get started, but need to get a few more to make the whole thing. I figure at some point I'm going to have a stock of needles and when I decide to make a new project I'll be able to pluck them from my stash rather than buying some. This day will come, won't it? 

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Right now I'm reading On Writing and have enjoyed King's memories of how he started writing. I also like that he gives concrete instructions about writing. Sometimes "everyone works differently" isn't enough to get me started; King's suggestions are helpful for people like me who want more guidance.

I've been listening to audio books every day. I'm making an effort not to watch TV, so audio books are filling that place. I thought I was productive while I watched TV--I always have yarn and hook or needles in hand--but I get much more done when I am only listening and crafting. This week I listened to the first Harry Potter book and Alice in Wonderland. Today I started Heidi and found myself longing to carve wooden spoons, build a three-legged stool, and eat goat cheese. It sounds like such a dreamy life in the mountains. I downloaded Alice and Heidi from Librivox, a site that records public domain books. I've found this website helpful for searching, if you're interested in free audio books. 

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Do you listen to audio books? Are there any you'd recommend?

csa day: leafy greens

Our CSA box this week included:

Kale, lots of lettuce, chard, radishes, sugar snap peas, and turnips

Tuesday's dinner

Weekly Menu

Sunday: Black bean and rice tacos

Monday: Leftovers

Tuesday/Wednesday: Barbecue tofu sandwiches, roasted turnips, salad with radishes and sugar snap peas, lemon garlic soy dressing

Thursday/Friday: Spring Garden Soup and rice. This is a miso soup with lots of greens. It's from How It All Vegan. (No, I'm not going vegan. I've had this book since high school when I saw the authors do a cooking demonstration. I was getting rid of things the other day and found some good recipes in this book, so it gets to stay around a while longer.)

Saturday: Dinner with K's family

Sunday: Chard gratin, homemade bread, fried eggs

Monday: Leftovers

We are shifting our meal planning to coordinate with our CSA delivery, so our weekly menu will start on Tuesdays instead of Sundays. We get our vegetables on Monday nights and have decided to use the produce as a jumping off point for meals. We'll then make a list of groceries needed to round out the meals. This is the first year we've shifted our planning/shopping. I think it's a necessary step to using all of the vegetables we get. 

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The sugar snap peas tasted so sweet that I kept eating them like candy as I made dinner tonight. I wanted to balance that sweetness in the salad with a little tartness, so I threw together a lemon garlic soy dressing. It was snappy enough to balance the peas. 

Lemon Garlic Soy Dressing

(*Please note, these measurements are approximate. I eyeballed with these amounts in mind. Also, this recipe makes just enough dressing for two people. Multiply if you want more.)

2 TBSP olive oil

1 TBSP soy sauce

1 TBSP lemon juice (or a bit less. K would prefer less tang. I liked it.)

1 clove of garlic

Blend all ingredients together. I use a Magic Bullet and have dressing in seconds. If you'd prefer an unplugged method, mince the garlic and whisk everything together. 

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Just so I don't give you the wrong idea, we don't eat vegetables all the time. We also make room for sweets. These are sugar cookies I baked to celebrate my sister's college graduation. Festive, huh? She liked the cookies, but our real graduation present to her was helping to move all of her stuff home from school on a hot and humid afternoon. We love you a lot, Jules. 

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What's going on in your kitchen this week?

Maine in May

Seeing

{Portland Head Light}

Eating

{Red's Eats, Lobster Shack at Two Lights, Pie in the Sky Pizza, Bartley's Dockside}

Sleeping

{Manor House Inn, Bar Harbor}

Drinking

{Tea time at the Manor House, popovers at Jordan Pond House, coffee in Portland, The Great Lost Bear--a top ten U.S. beer bar}

Searching for treasures

{Kennebunk Beach}

Still searching

{Bar Harbor}

Balancing

{Jordan Pond trail, Acadia National Park}

Hiking

{View of Sand Beach from Ocean Path trail, Acadia}

Breathtaking

{The Bubbles, Acadia}

We adored our getaway to Maine. The days were cloudy and rainy at times, but the fog added a touch of mystery and the rain gave us an excuse to take it easy. We spent our time strolling and then ducking into warm places for tea or coffee. We had such a cozy trip. It was the first time we've ventured to the Northeast, but I know we'll be back to see what else the region holds.

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Where have you been lately? 

Or do you have any plans to travel soon?

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(As always, click on the images above to view them larger.)

Yarn along: balsam fir socks

Yarning along a day late this week

This week I've been working on my Balsam Fir socks, named after all of the lovely firs we found in Maine. Our hikes through moss and evergreens were permeated with the scent of fir and pine.  I worked on this sock on our vacation and still am only halfway through it. Progress is so slow with tiny yarn! I've also been distracted with books lately. This week I'm reading Radical Homemakers, and last week I read The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, which is a really fun mystery.

And because I didn't post last week, but was participating in the yarn along in spirit, here's what I would have posted if I had had computer access:

I've got a lovely pile of Chickadee yarn that I picked up at KnitWit in Portland. I've been admiring Quince yarns online, and once I saw some skeins in person I couldn't wait to knit something with it. Chickadee has a lot of bounce to it--I can't stop squeezing it. My yellow skeins are waiting to be knit into my very own Audrey in Unst cardigan. I won't let myself start on it until I finish my summer sweater, which is stalled at the moment because I misread the pattern. Still, I can't help dreaming of knitting more cardigans. Shalom and Estelle are calling my name, too. The more the merrier!

As far as books go, I've been craving suspense and mystery, so I picked up a quaint island page-turner by Karen MacInerney. It's been a fun read.

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What are you reading/making this week?

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csa day: "lettuce" begin

Lettuce sandwich with tofurkey and cheese

Our first CSA day of the year! It felt like Christmas to open our door and find a box of fresh vegetables there waiting for us.

This is the first year that K and I have a CSA subscription to ourselves because the past two years we've split it with my family. I'm a little nervous about being able to use all of the vegetables each week, but I'm taking this as a good challenge to try to eat more veggies and keep my diet more local. I think I'll be cooking/preparing food more, maybe freezing or pickling things, sharing with friends, and hosting family and friends to help us eat this bounty. I'd really like to cut our grocery bill down to the minimum (local eggs and milk, yogurt, flour, etc.) and eat mainly from our CSA. I'll be documenting the process here, so hopefully I can get some help when I run out of ideas for what to do with all the radishes and greens I get.

Our vegetables from Finger Picking Farms

This week we got four kinds of lettuce--Panisse, Green Towers, Bronze Arrowhead, and Jericho. We also got Red Russian Kale, turnips, garlic chives, radishes, and strawberries. The strawberries were so tiny and sweet that K and I ate them as soon as we had the box in the door, so no photos of those.

Olive Bread + Bean and Olive Soup

The menu for this week

Sunday/Monday: White bean and black olive soup from my favorite cookbook, Olive bread from this book (pre-CSA meals)

Tuesday: Dinner out for Dad's birthday (Happy Birthday!)

Wednesday/Thursday: Big salad with lots of lettuce, garlic chives, radishes, eggs, and parmesan. Garlic oregano vinaigrette. Olive bread. White bean dip.

Friday: Kale and Turnip greens tart, adapted from this recipe.

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What are you eating this week? 

Are any of you getting a CSA subscription this year?

  

green tea leaves cardigan

Last week K and I sneaked away for a vacation in Maine. It was cool and rainy the entire time we were there, but we managed to have fun in spite of the weather. We got in a couple of wet, foggy hikes in Acadia, which of course warranted lots of tea time to warm up afterward. It was my idea of a wonderful week. 

I took along my very first knitted sweater, which you may have glimpsed as it was coming into being. However, now that it is a full-fledged sweater, let me introduce you...

This is my green tea leaves cardigan. 

I am so proud to have made it. 

I can't help but look at my hands in disbelief and wonder, how did this happen? A pile of yarn is now a sweater; it's sooooo exciting! I have to thank my knitting teacher, Tonya, for helping me throughout the knitting process and for motivating me to make a sweater in the first place. I see lots of sweater-knitting in my future.

I wore my tea leaves cardigan as my jacket in Maine on city strolls and wooded hikes, while scouring outlet shops and hunting for sea glass. The wool stayed warm even as salt water spray and foggy droplets beaded up on it, and I felt amazing wearing it, knowing that my own cleverness and effort were being put to good, tangible use. 

click on photos to enlarge

I'll be writing more about our Maine adventures, my latest yarn endeavors, and our CSA (which starts today!) soon. I'll also be working on responding to comments and visiting your blogs. I've missed you!

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What's going on with you this week? 

crocheted stone from margie

I recently won a giveaway on Margie's blog, resurrection fern. Her crocheted stones have been inspiring me for years now, and lately she's been documenting her experiments with natural plant dyes. She has created some wonderful colored yarns and fabrics from materials she's gathered near her home.

I was so happy to receive my giveaway package from Margie. The bamboo "stone" feels so light and smooth. I'm amazed at the colors Margie has achieved--such stunning robin's egg blue and deep, dusty purple. This stone will definitely be treasured. 

Thank you, Margie!