Of Socks & Food

  Wow--the whole food change thing has really struck a chord with folks! I'm so grateful for the support 'out there', and amazed that there are so many others facing the same challenge. Is this what the age of convenience has done to us? Have we abandoned and forgotten 'real food' and are now suffering the numerous consequences? Sunday we shopped for the week's food; I was down with a nasty stomach bug and barely got through shopping, but went because I was determined to start this plan first thing Monday morning. Poor Linda was stuck making the first batch of the Ultrabroth. It took an hour of prep, and another 90 minutes of cooking; she's so good to me. Yesterday, came home from work and was immediately tied to the kitchen, chopping and prepping for dinner; even with Linda's help, it was over an hour, and included a lengthy discussion of whether to start mauling vegetables for the next batch of broth or wait until tonight when dinner itself will require less prep (and you better believe we're going to make a bigger batch of broth this time!). Told her this 'new' way of eating will make me crazy, because it suddenly feels like it's consuming me. Planning, prepping, considering what I 'can' or 'can't' eat have taken over my life already. I had no idea how much I relied on convenience/processed food, and how little time I spent preparing fresh, healthy, unadulterated food. And yet, I would have said that I cook alot and use plenty of vegetables and such. After all, I live for Farm Market shopping and go into ecstasies of glee over fresh brussels sprouts and tomatoes. But clearly, convenience, not freshness, was my go-to ingredient.
  The first day went surprisingingly well! I stayed with the plan...breakfast was plain, fat-free Greek yogurt with a dollop of Simply Fruit stirred in, and an apple later. Lunch was Ultrabroth, edamame & grape tomatoes. Dinner was Lemon-Garlic-Basil chicken breasts and Gingered Carrots with Red Onions & Broccoli. I admit, I'm so accustomed to a sweet treat at night that all the knitting in the world couldn't silence that wee voice whispering sweet nothings in my ear (and I don't mean Linda) about 9 pm. My solution was half an apple, nuked with cinnamon and a teaspoon of maple syrup. It worked, comforting and shushing that voice without throwing the day's efforts out the window into the cold, dark night. And I was very surprised at how little I was tempted to answer the call of the vending machine yesterday afternoon. It's awfully close to my office, and its siren song of Twix bars and Rice Krispie Treats often drowns out all other sounds. But yesterday I just covered my ears, sipped the salty-sweet Ultrabroth, and went on with my work. Pretty cool. Drinking the Chinese herbal formula twice a day--ugh.

Less manageable with each cup, but the hives are improving, not dramatically, but noticeably, so I'll suck it up at least until the next visit Friday.
  This blog is not going to become all about food and changing my eating lifestyle, I promise. It's a big part of the picture for me at the moment, but there will always be wool, and critters, and life in our neck of the woods. Ya know what I've been doing? Knitting a sock! Settled myself down at CountryWool's 'sit & knit' Saturday afternoon, and Claudia was infinitely patient. I hadn't made as much of a disaster as I'd thought, but because of one significant and irreparable error, we pulled it out to the start of the heel flap, and I worked it right through the heel turn & the gusset! By golly, it looks like a sock!

I am knitting a sock for real!! And it might one day be finished! On the easy part now, just straight knitting for several inches to complete the foot. I refuse to even look at the toe directions at the moment; having too much fun watching this actually become sock-like! Do I dare envision a sock-filled world ahead of me?

Scenes from a Weekend

  Well, word pictures, not photos--sorry! Woolen wonders, murmered conversation over knitted creations, progress in spinning, lanolin-greased fleece becoming yarn singles. Magical yarn alchemy shared in a sun-bathed basket--who knew poinsettia's red leaves could turn wool such a lush, roll-around-in-it green? Simmering leeks, bacon and chicken warming the chill of a February night. Waking to sunlight (rarer than one might think) and steaming coffee. A drive through the mountains, warm sunlight streaming through the windows, Linda's hand in mine as Morning Has Broken sings joy into the car. The warm scent of anise and soy sauce, a dancing fire, lazy dogs and Downton Abbey. A full moon cold and bright as truth, with Venus and Jupiter pointing the way.
  Is it any wonder I have no desire to wake up to go to work tomorrow? Hope your weekend was as sweet and gentle as mine...

Remedial Spinning

  Let me say right up front that the self-indulgent whine that follows is the product of a mixture of prednisone-induced moodiness (unresolved severe allergy that is awaiting diagnosis), the end of three long, discouraging weeks at work, and sadness because my younger son is semi-moving to Boston temporarily. Minus that sludge-in-the-soul combo, I might be laughing at myself after today's class, not despairing of ever being a capable woolly person.

  Today was plying and finishing class. Plying is when you take multiple single yarns that you've spun, and spin them together to create yarn you can make stuff with. Sounds easy enough. Hah! There are twists and turns and treadle speeds and ratios...and a sad mess. Today I was the remedial student. It was embarrassing. There I was surrounded by creative people...there was the womon who infused wool with the color of late summer sunshine--using marigolds no less, the guy who had no questions but great--and clearly achievable--plans for the roving he was smoothly and flawlessly spinning, and another womon quietly sitting in a corner plying three singles together to create a fine, lovely yarn of wool and angora; when she talked about the sweater she'd make from it, I knew I'd be seeing that sweater, and lusting after it! But my wheel and I produced a tangled mess, that even my absolutely untrained eyes knew didn't vaguely resemble something usable.

  I never expected to sit down at the wheel and 'get it' all at once. But to be so infatuated with wool, to love the feel and energy of it, to want to linger long and have a meaningful relationship with it, only to still be knitting squares and spinning slubby singles that bceome painfully plied pairings is discouraging. All that mess up there, and here's the little segment that is what it should have been:

  Do you ever feel like you came into your own life too late? I didn't meet Linda until I was 43. Didn't meet wool until I was 48. Didn't figure out that a homespun life with critters (besides cats) and gardens might be what my soul longed for. And now that I know all this, sometimes it just seems too late for all of it. Not too late in years; I'm only 50 1/2. No...too late to learn new tricks. Too late to be a student all over again, to face failure and be the remedial student, that 'one' who needs all the extra help. Too late to get up and feed chickens before going to work. Too late to relish digging and sweating on a hot summer day even for the profound joy of biting into the sweet flesh of a sunbathed tomato. That's how I'm feeling today. Tomorrow I'll sit at the wheel and spin my singles and count the treadling in an effort to create something consistent and worth plying. Tomorrow I'll read Backyard Poultry and talk with Linda about how we'll address all those things that made me quit on chickens (like Winter housing and fencing) so we can try again and be successful. Tomorrow--or some snowy day (if we EVER get one this Winter)--we'll pull out the seed catalogs and garden bed drawings, and plan again. But today, I'm just tired and discouraged. Today I feel like the little match girl peering in the windows at the wondrous creations of people who speak the language of wool, and feeling like I'm never gonna get there. Deep sigh.

Sunday Spinning

I'm all set for tomorrow's spinning class, the first in the year-long Sheep-to-Sweater series at Countrywool!

Winter Saturday Morning

Thought I'd share my morning with you. First, I needed to pick up a little more yarn for Patrick's fledgling blanket, so headed off to

Needed a niddy noddy for the upcoming sheep-to-sweater class, so picked that up as well, and availed myself of Claudia's help in fixing the mistake it turns out I hadn't made. Thanks, Claudia!!

Then it was off to Acres Coop's Winter Market:

I see Curried-Carrot Parsnip Soup in the immediate future, along with roasted brussels sprouts.

One of my favorite vendors wasn't there, so the last stop was Lick.

Cheese and more cheese! I was restrained and just picked up one wedge of Hudson Red and some fresh mozzarella (for tonight's pasta with roasted garlic and mushrooms dinner).

Still have lots of chores, but my reward when it's done?

Wishing all of you a lovely Saturday, as well!

Just Kidding....

I was serious, and I did mean it when I ended my blog. But the thing is, I miss it. I miss that sense of journaling, of recording what's happening in my world. So maybe it isn't the next great American novel. Maybe it isn't life-changing and mind-altering. It's still my work and it was a pleasure. So I need to write it for the pleasure of writing it. If I'm blessed with 'followers', I'll be grateful for each and every one. And if I'm not so blessed, well, fewer people are following my notebook scribblings...and I don't question their validity! Well, yeah, I do, but not because I'm the only one who sees 'em. Those discussions are between my Muse and my hypercritical self.
So I'm back to the blogging world. I have stuff to write about! I'm going to be taking a year-long sheep-to-sweater class and am captivated by Claudia of CountryWool describing it as a spiritual process. We're having serious chicken discussions again. I'm back on Weight Watchers and this time using a treadmill to make the goal of a healthy me a reality. It's gonna be a good year, so this Would-Be Mountain Womon is back!

That's What Weekends Are For

It's Monday morning already, even though it feels like it should only still be last Friday.  It was a good weekend, and a savored one, even though the house is still in disarray, and the last load of laundry is going through its 6th wash since an unfortunate accident involving a bottle of aroma diffuser (allegedly nag champa-scented but yeah, not so much) and the already loaded, open washing machine.  It was a weekend of learning and loving, the high points being a class on Saturday and a date on Sunday.


I took a class on "Learning to Knit with Wool", taught by Claudia of Countrywool.  It was a beginners' class but because there were only two students, she did a wonderful job of working with what we didn't know rather than rehashing what we were both comfortable with.  I'm proud to say I now know how to increase stitches, maybe fix a mistake or two, am far more comfortable binding off, got to work with a different yarn than my 'usual' alpaca--Brown Sheep Company's Lamb's Pride which is a merino/mohair blend that is soft and springy, learned about 'spit splicing', (although I assure you, no spit was--or will ever be--involved) which joins yarns together with nary a trace, and no weaving in of ends to be done later, and....drumroll please....how to cable stitch!!!!!  What a glorious feeling to create a cable stitch, to add dimension and an actual desigm where there would otherwise be...flatness.  Claudia referred to it as 'magic', and it felt that way.  I only did a swatch, but I'm ridiculously tickled by it:

How cool is this?????

 

Her teaching style was patient, skillful, matter-of-fact, and thorough, and I came home feeling less intimidated than I have been by knitting.  I came home and worked on the cable stitch a while longer and then began finishing off the shawl.  A few loose ends remain to be woven in, but it's just about done.  Turns out to be much wider than needed, but it's soft and functional and I'm longing for a few chilly evenings so that I can knit while wrapped in its embracing warmth.

And then there was Sunday.  We ventured to Windham and Hunter to see what 5' and 7' of snow look like.  While a week's worth of melting took away some of the awe factor, seeing the guy using the front end loader to dig out his driveway, and the house whose entire walkway to the door was flanked by snow walls taller than us gave us deep respect for the people dealing with that mess!  And then.....Linda's been working long and hard, so I asked her on a date without telling her details.  She's been wanting to see Alice in Wonderland, and after a consultation with my sister, I decided to REALLY surprise my beloved with an IMAX 3D version.  I'd never seen anything 3D,and it had been decades since she had.  Wow.  If one is going to splurge on movie tickets, one gets her money's worth with this version.  The storyline was a tad slow, but the expected favorite aspects were present.  Some reviews called Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter a 'manic Carrottop', but we found him restrained and touching.  There was humor and the visuals were intense, and while it would have been lackluster at a regular theatre, it was quite the ride seen this way.  Our date continued with an Italian-style dinner and...well....we both were sound asleep about 20 minutes after we got home.  Hey--romance means different things at different times; last night it meant falling asleep snuggled up after a very sweet day.