kitty: Happy Belated World Wide Knit in Public Day!!!

Happy Belated World Wide Knit in Public Day!!!!! How did you spend your day?

My day started off with breakfast at La Chatelaine - (La Chatelaine Restaurant on Lane)

M and I had a leisurely breakfast and had a breakfast sandwich, small caesar salad, with tea/coffee. The morning was pretty perfect especially considering the storms had kept us up almost all night with cracks of thunder and lightening that lite up the bedroom.

Then we started our long list of errands for the day. The first stop was our favorite used camera store. You really never know what treasures you will find hidden among the huge inventory. (World of Used Photography - worldofusedphotography.com ) Here is a photo of M testing a lens I really really want that he has in stock. Just trying to find a good reason to own it. It really needs a full frame camera and I would need to take more portraits.. Should I buy or should I dream?

After finishing our errands we decided to park at the top of the Short North and walk to North Market. We had planned on going to take photos of roses in the Park of Roses for our exercise for the day, but they had a rose show going on at the time and a wedding. No fun to just take photos of random people when you want to take photos of flowers. We ended up stopping to get a drink and for me to knit a few rows.

Did you know realize that Columbus, Ohio probably has the most World Wide Knit in Public Day events going on than any other place in the world. TNNA has been taking place for several years now at the Convention Center.

Knitting came along for dinner at our favorite little Chinese restaurant Lotus Grill There English menu is average Americanized Chinese food, but there Chinese menu truly rocks. There food is always consistent and the owners are truly dear. You can not help but love the guy who works the front desk, he always makes us laugh. The price are even great to boot.

And of course the day would not be complete without hitting Stauf's for coffee. It really is the perfect place for M to work and me to knit. As an added bonus though MG and her husband stopped by to join us. We spent a lot of time though watching the insane line for Jeni's ice cream two doors down. (Jeni's Fresh Ice Cream - Grandview Heights, OH) ( Don't forget Jeni's new book is out - Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream) At one point a woman came in saying she had stood and counted 165 people waiting. We just sat in amazement.

So much to my delight MG and I spent the last few hours of knit in public day together knitting in public. What every good knitbuddy should do!!!! Happy Knit in Public Day!!!

PS: The project that you see in all the photos is "Cria" pattern by Ysolda in her new upcoming book Little Red in the City.

kitty: mittens for MG

Name: Mittens for MG Designer: Ysolda Teague Pattern : Snapdragon flip-tops Fiber: Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted Needle: 3.25mm & 3.0

Sorry for such a bad photos, but as we all know red is just about impossible to photograph and have it come across correctly. Though in my defense the photo up above was taken as MG was walking into the house minutes before she received her mittens. So it wasn't ideal lighting either. MG has been ridding her bike to her classes and I have been really worried about her little fingers getting to cold. So I thought she needed a new pair of mittens for Christmas. I fear they are to big for her even though I used her brother as a model (M's hands are smaller than mine). But it is the thought that counts right... (cry... I really did want them to be perfect) Snapdragon Flip Tops is an adorable pattern. I lengthened the cabeling since I knew she wanted longer cuffs and I changed how the points of the mittens were done. While I was in London last week, I searched for two cool buttons at Liberty and Loop, but none were to bad had. So to finish it off , I went through my vintage button collection and found 2 sets of buttons to use on the cuffs.

(iphone photos taken in the middle of the night)

MG: time to go...

knitting Regia Canyon Color

hi there, been a long while again...

early in april i suddenly decided i was ready and wanting to go back to school. the application process (GRE, facing old professors, facing my curriculum vitae, facing fears) then promptly gobbled up the next two months. now i await the yea or nay from an MS program nearby, a small decision on which the course of my future pivots.

with all this, i realized i was becoming less and less talkative about my knitting. and considering my already sparse contributions here, it's probably best to hang up my blogging hat after all...

i know it's time to go, but it's making me very sad today. i've had amazing fun in this space with Kitty Kitty, and i can't say enough about what knibuddies has given me. thank you all (including you, my knitbuddy) for the knitting fun, for your kindness, solidarity, and sympathies. most importantly, thank you for the daily reminder that strangers are warmer and kinder than i ever imagined.

Kitty Kitty will be staying; she has some exciting things planned here! i'll still be hanging out as her reader of course, so see you in the comments. many thanks and much love, MG.

MG: i made bread!

my first loaf of bread--real, bona fide, cake yeast, slow-rise, hand-kneaded loaf of bread. a whole wheat milk loaf based on a shokupan recipe in a Japanese magazine. the flavor worked out a bit bland and needs tweaking, but the texture is surprisingly nice. light, soft, and supple. feeling all chuffed and can't stop thinking "i made this!?"

smeared with butter & gooseberry jam

MG: wiggly

i've had a package of bo kanten (japanese stick agar made by freeze-drying seaweed) in the cupboard for years, waiting for me to brave the world of agar jellies. it had an unapproachable air, a cache of unknown quirks and techniques hidden from me, so i would google and read and think and put it off--repeat ad nauseum.

most of the recipes i found were created for gelatin (similar jelling agent, but of animal origin); add to that agar powders and agar flakes, whose volumes are an unreliable measure, it was hard to know how much stick kanten to use. finally, i happened upon this panna cotta at Chocolate and Zucchini. the recipe was written for agar; it gave the agar measurement by weight; AND it's a panna cotta, which means the soft side of the rubbery jelly spectrum. i do not like rubbery jellies. i still indulged in a bit of characteristic hesitation then went about making the unknowns into knowns.


amazing!! like vanilla milk just this side of solid, with a lovely shimmy but little resistance. silky and fragrant like dining on sweet vanilla perfume. but not too sweet. both hubby and i loved it with many toothy grins and wiggling of plates. i looked forward to the next time a mug of the panna cotta could come out to be unmolded, and hubby kept count of the number remaining in the fridge.

i used the stick kanten in the weight specified by the recipe for agar but first soaked it in cold water before tearing it into small pieces then adding it to the rest of the ingredients. i also oiled my small coffee mugs cum molds with walnut oil to help with unmolding. 1 gram of agar to 250ml/1cup of liquid seems to be a good working proportion.

now i want to agar-jelly everything from double cream panna cotta to all milk blancmange(r), and coffee, and almond milk, and cashew milk, and fruit purees, a myriad of things; and savory ones too--terrines, mushroom cream, tomato cream. mm.

there is already a strawberry batch chilling in the fridge.

MG: incomplete

the floppy neck of this sweater desperately needs its buttons, but i've already stolen quite a few warm wears of it. not sure what kind of buttons, nor how the buttons will finish the sweater. i'm feeling reluctant about the finality of completing this sweater... its proportions are just a bit off; something is not quite right. it's somehow not living up to the potential i imagined. it's squooshy and comfortable and warm; it has a cable and a large swath of fabric at the neck; it's yellow. but still somehow not quite right.

MG: back on the wheel

beautifully prepped Abby Batt

getting to know my Lendrum fast flyer. the singles kept snapping, breaking against the metal edge of the orifice on the bobbin side; so i got out one of the nicest preps i have in my stash to practice. finally catching the rhythm, tension, and pull of the fast flyer. 17:1 is much nicer for finer spinning. i can treadle languidly again.

20-odd grams of singles

MG: making cake

cupcakes for a birthday boy

dressed in strawberry cocoa chantilly

cake based on Nigella Lawson's "Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake" (How to be a Domestic Goddess, pg 166). i replaced some of the water with yogurt, decreased the sugar, and melted the butter with the chocolate. oh, and i used white whole wheat flour, my default flour. it seems to work for all sorts of baked goods except for ones needing lots of gluten. chantilly was heavy cream whipped with strawberry extract, cocoa powder, and agave syrup--Meiji's Apollo strawberry chocolate being one of the favorite candies of said birthday boy.

MG: Malabrigo sock

sock one and one fifth

hubby has a routine when visiting yarn stores with me. he heads straight for sock yarns, picks out the enticing ones, and brings them over for discussion: is this machine washable? will these colors stripe? is this the same yarn as his xyz pair? he'll then choose one for his "socks-to-be" stash with all manners of childlike delight, which makes me want to furnish him with a small mountain of handknit socks.

last time we were at Yarnique in Fairborn, they had just gotten some Malabrigo sock, so hubby picked out a skein of purply grape and wine hues. i always struggle a bit working with variegated yarn and swatched quite a few bias stitch patterns. nothing was quite right, so i somehow settled on purl ridges spaced in stocking stitch.

MG: resurfacing

Beaverslide McTaggart Tweed

white kitty likes it too

didn't mean to disappear for so many months without word. needed insulation and silence and invisibility; almost hung up my blogging hat many times... but here i am suddenly wanting to write out loud and sneak the world peeks of my makings. it's good to be here with Kitty Kitty again.

alpaca armwarmers

MG: on the bobbin

MG: i have power!!!!!!!!!

eight days without electricity--even though we were safe and sound--was terrible... nerve-wracking and claustrophobic, hemmed in by all the things we couldn't do for ourselves. now i get to keep food in the house, make myself tea and toast, plug my cellphone in at home, and google/wiki every single question that enters my head... a little more able to care for myself & mine, and my world is a little wider. sigh...

missed you,
love,
MG

MG: a bite of yarn

MG: very much want to see...

[www.klockworx.com/wool/]

...Wool 100%, a movie by Mai Tominaga. the official site has a trailer (4th link from the left along the bottom menu) and stills (6th from the left) to admire. [via Love Forever.]

[www.klockworx.com/wool/]

[www.klockworx.com/wool/]

MG: poolside pop

fiber: handpainted merino/tencel top from Black Ethel Cash's Stash, color Poolside Pop. spun: over-the-fold longdraw; 2-ply; vigorous fulling wash to finish. gauge: 21-28 wpi; 108 grams; 580-ish yards.

MG: ply routes

montgomery county fair

MG: just picked

MG: sockitecture...

...wasn't sure this would work

MG: daily making

merino/tencel

homemade yogurt. creamiest effort to date.

MG: echo bluefaced leicester

i've been spinning and spinning and spinning... addictive fervor at the wheel. been inspired by the beautiful handspuns over at SourCherries, especially by these handspun socks. wanted some of my own. wanted color. i spun with the Olympics (stacking dreams upon dreams) for company when it was available, random sitcoms and dramas when not, even terrible ones. can't seem to spin in quiet.


fiber: handpainted bluefaced leicester top from Black Ethel Cash's Stash, color Echo. spun: over-the-fold longdraw; 2-ply; abusively washed with alternating hot and cold water and plenty of agitation. gauge: mostly 15-17 wpi; 105grams; 250-ish yards.

i hated this yarn when it first came off the wheel. the colors were beautiful, but the yardage was so short and the grist so inconsistent. i was angry with my own spinning. but the skein grew on me as i slowly sorted out my expectations. i'm still a young spinner, and really, i don't desire robotic perfection in my handspun. a day later, i can barely recall why i hated it so. i love the curvaceous coiling of the plies against each other and the shifting muted colors.