Chicken (Tortilla) Soup for the Soul

Fall is definitely in the air! I saw a couple of naked trees over the weekend which was a bit startling. Most trees are just starting to change color here, but in a few micro-climates, it's possible to find trees that have lost most or all of their leaves this early in the season. And shoot, it's not like we had an unusually hot summer either--in fact, we only had *19* clear days in Seattle for the summer of 2007. That's basically just 20-21% clear days for the summer.

This is the baby project I'm working on (below). The mommy-to-be is a stealth reader of the blog and while she knows of the project's existence and even the yarn, I figure there'sno sense in showing any details yet. The race is on right now since the due date is closer to the end of October and I sort of timed my original effort to within a week or two of that. But...it looks like the baby is going to make an earlier appearance (probably wants to see those trees with the leaves still on!) so I'm now setting aside all other projects and focusing on this one.

I hope to finish by the time this weekend is over since I start my first knitting "class" of the Fall on 10/6 and I have a project picked out for our Knitter's Choice sessions. Here it is--the Alligator Scarf kit from Morehouse Merino:

I know the evenings are getting cooler *upper 40s now) because I have more cat bodies snuggling in next to me at night. Generally, it's The Boys doing the cuddling. Smokie usually comes in early earning (4? or so?) and her first move is to try to sleep on my chest with her fanny pushed up under my chin or on my face. I generally wake up right away because I can't breathe. Last time she did it, I made Distress Noises which were completely ineffective in getting her to move. So...she runs away if a fish splashes in the aquarium (in the bedroom) and makes a Startling Noise, but apparently me making sounds like I'm-choking-and-please-get-off doesn't phase her in the least.

Perhaps she knows I'm faking it.

I'm rather inordinately pleased at my culinary skill over the weekend. I've long been a fan of Claim Jumper's Chicken tortilla Soup. Besides being quite tasty, it is also just spicy enough that I always have a tissue handy and I can count on it clearing out my allergy-plagued shinuses for at least an hour or two. After much searching on the 'net Saturday, I found a recipe that seemed promising. I made a couple adjustments: I used a pre-roasted chicken from the grocery store (duh! probably even cheaper too!) and I pureed the soup before adding the chicken. Otherwise, it's a very weird texture with lumps from the tomatoes and tortillas and weird green bits of cilantro drifting around. I also added the cut off kernels from 3 ears of corn when I added the chicken. If you like avocadoes, adding sliced or chopped avocado when you serve would be good too. Add some garlic or cheese bread (I had Texas Toast) and a salad and...

Ooooo, it's so good! (anybody else remember Mr. Food?)

This Little Piggy Went to the Fair

I'm going to SEMI break my rule about work talk on the blog tonight. I help organize social activities at work and today we went to the Puyallup Fair for the afternoon. Lunch, rides, exhibits, the works. So....I thought I'd share a couple of favorite moments. Of course not ALL of them were caught on my camera, but there are enough pictures to post tonight I should make up in volume for the lack of quantity of posts lately.

We spent the most time here, with the piglets. Just watching. Way too cute. They kept climbing on each other and every once in a while one would check in with Mom--walk by her head, she would snuffle, then they would touch wet, pink noses and baby piglet felt comforted and went back to eating. As the piglets finished nursing they would walk over, stand in the straw and some fell asleep standing up, just gradually sinking down.

For the knitters, here's a picture of wool-on-the-hoof getting a bath.

This is Tony. Tony is a city boy. I was shocked (and will admit to an unseemly amount of laughter) when Tony stopped to look at a sheared ewe and managed to wonder out loud about whether it was a baby cow (I quote here) or a sheep.

We then showed Tony what a cow looks like. And told him baby cows are called calves. Tony is not going to be able to live this experience down.

Well, unless it's this. I roamed the fair with a group of 5 and Tony was the only guy with us. We were walking through an exhibit hall when the gals realized Tony had disappeared. We turned around and saw him lured in by the Steam Cleaner! Our advice? If you're buying that for the house, for goodness' sake don't save it as a "special" gift for your wife's birthday or Christmas.

My fair haul. I got a back support which I'm hoping might help with my posture sitting on the couch for hours knitting. I also got a bunch of dip mixes (so handy for the holidays), a caramel apple, and I won this little stuffed fish which is destined to be a cat toy.

And finally...a picture of the finished Opal Corn Snake socks.

Fall has arrived!

This may be the last weekend of summer as far as the calendar is concerned, but here in the Seattle area, Fall weather has arrived. Today has featured rain, lots of clouds, trees changing and I've now got the first fire of the season going in the fireplace. BTW, it's not exactly that cold, but...I was just in the mood for a cozy atmosphere.

Work has been a bit crazy lately which has slowed the knitting down to a near crawl. I've also fully realized that with lace, it's not the lace knitting that bothers me, it's the blocking that is a total PITA. I'm trying to get some projects fully done though that have been sitting around. So...tonight the cashmere scarf in fall colors is now pinned out and will dry overnight. Cashmere really stretches out when wet. I prefer to thread it onto my blocking wires first and then spray wet and stretch and pin.

I may opt out of the CSA for winter (that's the community supported agriculture). My last box was supposed to come with a melon--farmer's choice. That's cool. I really wanted a cantaloup though and didn't care if I ended up with two, so I ordered one to be included (at $4.99). So, I got home, opened my box and there was only one melon. Now...not only did they forget my extra $4.99 cantaloupe, but the one that I got? Well...it was only slightly bigger than the grapefruit I got! I weighed it too--1 pound, 4 ounces. You know, that's a really small cantaloupe. And it's not like organic melons don't grow nice and big--I've been seeing some gorgeous melons at the farmer's market. The cantaloupe situation hasn't been an isolated one--some of the produce just really looks like the 2nd or 3rd tier in quality. I hate to be some kind of cynical CSA member, but either I've got someone packing my box who goes "oh yeah, it's Traaaaacy....lemme mess with her again" and they give me all the vegetables with the squishy, rotted out spots, or else it's us folks with the small boxes that get the small choices. I totally believe in the CSA principles, but the quality vs. price thing is starting to bug me. What do you think? Am I being unrealistic? (and I seriously would have been unhappy if I'd received a 1.25 pound cantaloupe for $4.99!).

Over the last week I've been going through all my knitting books and magazines and putting together an Excel file listing all the projects I'd be interested in doing at some point. I'm not really prioritizing them at this point, just getting a good feel for how many patterns I have. It'll make me think twice (or thrice) before I pick up any new knitting books.

Smilin' Smokie

Smokie is enjoying what may be the last evening of the year with warm temperatures. She sort of looks like a little puddle of smoked cat. In the second picture, my camera was too slow to actually catch her in full meow, but this little tail end of it makes her look like she has a Cheshire grin going on.

Perfect Pancakes

I seem to be fixated on pancakes lately. When my sister was here, we went out for breakfast her last morning and since we had to return the rental car, we did that first. We then found ourselves in an area where the restaurant choice was a major chain that we definitely felt ho-hum about or...an unknown. We gambled on the unknown.

I've loved pancakes as a weekend breakfast treat forever. I never, EVER want to taste eggs--they're ok for baking, but eggs on their own? Blech. That means omelets are never something I'm interested in and looking at a breakfast menu narrows down real fast for me since most combinations include eggs and french toast...well...most restaurants slather their french toast in eggy batter and I know someone must love that rind of chicken-ovum material around the edge, but not me. So...pancakes. Waffles. Hashbrowns. Biscuits. Fresh fruit. and...BACON (mmmm....bacon).

So I order pancakes at the Unknown place. And they are weirdly spongy (like...well...like a twinkie cake) and EXCESSIVELY eggy in taste. Like...Eggcakes. Couldn't even eat them. And that is a FIRST for me with pancakes. My sister and I got to talking about the perfect pancakes and we agree--you've just got to find a Pancake Breakfast event hosted by a service club like the Lions or Elks. Those big giant griddles. Happy pancake makers. And absolutely sizzling hot off the grill with lots of butter. It's now been over a week since I was thwarted in my quest for--if not perfect, at least decent pancakes--and I find myself craving them. I even made a couple myself last night for dinner. But I think this holiday weekend I'll be scanning the paper to see if a club somewhere is hosting a pancake breakfast so I can check them out.

Once upon a time, I quilted. A lot. I've been 99% knitter for the last 18 months, but I know someday my crafting pendulum will swing back and I'll find something closer to a 50/50 balance between quilting and knitting. So...tonight I'm sharing pictures of one of my favorite quilts "Life Can Be Crazy." 'Cause, you know, it can. The original pattern comes from a book of all folk/country patterns and I took a class with this and EVERYBODY else did their quilts in folk/country colorways so this was a bit of a shocker for many of them. This is one of a couple quilts where I really got into 30s fabrics. I really like to use a black fabric in 30s quilts to "pop" all those other colors that can sometimes get a little too "sweet" for me in a big quilt.

Luther Burbank's Small World

And picking up somewhere near where I left off....

OK, see if you can follow this. I had one of those "gee, it's a small world" moments this last week. Our company has a Volunteer Day every year and we go out and do some community activity in groups. We had several choices this year, some in August, some in October. Since I like to be outside, August is (generally speaking) a better bet in Seattle so I picked a day at a local park billed as "trail clean-up." Now...I walk a lot at this particular park. It's beautiful; on the beach and with a lot of dirt trails on the bluff above. We arrived and...oops...not quite trail maintenance. Instead, the park "ranger" rather gleefully showed us (well, we hiked a mile to the site) this big chunk of hillside full of downed trees, brush and covered in....blackberries. Our job? (oh, you're fast, I'll bet you figured this out just THAT fast!) Remove the blackberries. Did I say it was a STEEP hillside? Oh yeah, and after removal, he had two big piles of mulch we could spread which would help the native plants settle in and slow the re-growth of the blackberries.

This could be a really long story, so let me just say almost all of us grabbed loppers and shovels and dug in. While it was hard work, we actually had a lot of fun (and untold jokes everytime someone's cell phone rang and we got to yell out "Is that your BlackBerry ringing?"--we're a really quick group like that). I also used a LOT of Bactine, aspirin, and tylenol when I got home.

I'm getting to the small world part...I knew that these blackberries were a non-native invasive plant and we had been trying to recollect when it arrived. I thought the 1870s. After doing a little internet searching (I'll bet those door-to-door salesmen don't sell many encyclopedias in this electronic age), it turns out that what we were removing was the Himalyan Blackberry. And, it was brought to North America in 1885 by Luther Burbank. Burbank was an incredible botanist/horticulturalist who developed a lot of stuff. I was fascinated that his Wikipedia bio lists all these accomplishments, but managed to gloss over the invasive species he also introduced. The Himalayan Blackberry is destroying a lot of native species in both Canada and the US.

Anyway. Luther Burbank was ultimately responsible for the liberal amount of Bactine I had to douse my legs and arms with Wednesday. Burbank turned up in my life earlier though. He was very active in California, including the San Jose area where there is a portion of the city named after him (the Burbank district). From 1935-1941 there was also a velodrome (a bicycle racing track) named for him (the Burbank Velodrome, aka the Garden City Velodrome). I just happened to do my master's thesis on the Burbank Velodrome. I remember when I realized where the name came from because there are/were a lot of places in San Jose and surrounding areas with "Burbank" in the name.

It's not exactly one of those "six degrees of Luther Burbank" kind of stories, and probably not especially interesting, but what the hell, I'm blogging again, ok?

In knitting news....I'm within a few days of finishing another cashmere scarf. This one is variegated in fall colors. I probably should have used a stockinette stitch pattern instead of garter stitch (it's lace), but I started liking it partway in and I've done enough frogging of other projects. The frogging? That would be MS3 (mystery stole 3). The whole wing thing--not me. And...I'd sort of been nervous about the width (or lack of width) so rather than do another matching half, it's in the frog pond waiting for a day to pull it all apart. Also almost done are the Opal Rainforest Corn Snake socks. Yet another project with orange in it so I think I'm about ready for Fall.

Weird picture of the cashmere scarf, but you can see the color movement at least:



I've cast on my monster pullover in Cascade Sierra and will have that as an active project for September along with a baby blanket (in a lace pattern; I must be outta my mind).

Yarn stores in the area are now coming out with their Fall class lists which is great. Classes are few and far between here in the summer so it's nice to have some stuff to look forward to. I'm registered for a Knitter's Choice class in October (not sure yet what my project will be) and an Aran class in November.

$2.18

That's how much I spent to amuse myself with tonight's post: $2.18.

So...a very quick background. If you've been hiding in a hole somewhere and haven't caught this item on the news, some clever researchers have recently discovered that children are highly susceptible to brand advertisements, specifically, McDonald's. When presented with the exact same item in a Mickey D wrapper versus a plain wrapper, more children selected the item in a McDonald's wrapper and said it tasted better. So...hamburgers? McDonald's. Apple juice? McDonald's. CARROTS? McDonald's. I have to admit, I kept waiting for them to say "and yes, that's right, children actually liked brussels sprouts and peas when presented in a McDonald's wrapper."

So...that brings me to this. And heck, I don't know if anyone else will find this funny, but I do, and it's my blog. I decided to conduct some testing of my own.

Our test knitter preferred yarn packaged in...

The residual aura of french fries probably affected this particular choice:



Cats are not so easily fooled and really don't give a damn what kind of wrapper their treats are served in.

An exhausted test marketer.

Finally, I'm Baaaaack

I know, I know, I've been missing in action. So...to recap, the vacation ended and I went back to work and a large black hole swallowed me. Something like that.

Before the vacation ended, I went on a train excursion which was kinda cool. And I FORGOT my camera which I found set out with my extra clothes on the sofa when I returned home. My memory is clearly not what it used to be. But I get a chance to redeem myself because I'll be taking another train trip with the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad next week with my sister.

Oh, yeah, did I mention I have the July vacation and then two weeks later, the AUGUST vacation? So...I don't really have to return to reality until the August vacation is over. That starts this Friday if I'm lucky and can add an extra day; otherwise it starts Saturday.

So...some knitting has been finished and I figured I'd feature that today since I'm sure we all figured I'd get some knitting done while on vacation. The big push was for the Kimono Shawl (from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls book). This was a long knit for me because...well...because I'm kinda slow. But this is a pattern I would definitely recommend as a first lace project because it's very straightforward, you can use markers for the pattern repeats and it's just a nice clean pattern. I worked this in Koigu KPPM (fingering weight) yarn, 7 skeins, on Knitpicks Options needles, US 5 needles. The Koigu blocked out BEAUTIFULLY. I had worried about the length because I did several repeats fewer (but I used heavier yarn). This shawl absolutely screams FALL! to me. I adore the colors, it's a nice weight for all those transition days. I plan to get a Romi shawl pin--one of the copper ones because that will look so beautiful with this yarn and any other warm colors. Let's see...I blocked to 24 x 91" with 19 repeats in case someone is looking to repeat. And...had I been in a more aggressive mood, it would definitely have been easy to get another 6 inches in length but I maxed out the foam mats I had assembled so this was perfect (I had been praying for at least 80" so was thrilled).

After much crawling on my knees, all pinned out:

Drying:

The finished shawl!

A final close-up:

Also completed (the knitting) during vacation is my Victorian Ruby Scarf. I finished this a day after I had put all of my blocking stuff back away and didn't have the heart for another session of threading blocking wires through wet yarn so it's waiting to be blocked. This was completed with Kid Extra Mohair (a baby mohair/nylon blend, 80/20). I had two balls of 268 yards each and did 51 repeats of the center pattern and used...oh...one ball and maybe three-fifths of the second. I use Knitpicks Options, size 5 for this scarf. It's going to be quite wide blocked (and it really needs the blocking to finish it off), but even unblocked it has a cool floaty look. I need some really cold days to wear mohair though but I can already imagine how neat this will look against a black coat. This is actually a quick knit, but the second border was a bit tricky for me initially to set up. My ONLY suggestion for improvement of the VLT book is that there should have been some photographs in the "how to" section showing more of the border stuff. I know people who do knitted on borders don't even have to think about it, but for me (and from the postings on some forums, many others) the concept of knitting on borders is sort of like knitting a sock the first time--you have to just pray a bit, have a little faith, and then cross your fingers. And videos or good photos go a long way in helping. Anyway, here's the Victorian Ruby (Lime) Scarf unblocked.

The cat baths have NOT happened yet because we haven't even hit 80 in the last 2 weeks. Pod has such thick fur and on a mid-80s day can take pretty much 12 hours to completely dry so I really have to wait for a hot (by Northwest standards) day before I get the cats all wet.

Vacation, Part 3

No museum for me earlier today. I knitted like crazy and cast off the kimono shawl right before I had to jump in the car to drive over to get my CSA box. BTW, nice box this week. There are some golden beets that I need to contemplate--roast them perhaps? (the weather is cool enough for that). Also some peppers that, um, I think are not sweet peppers. Krystal, my blue abby who died a couple years ago, would have loved them. She adored all peppers EXCEPT the sweet ones. Ate 'em raw. My job was to hold the pepper and she would gnaw them from the side. Pretty amazing.

Today's CSA Box


After tossing things into the frig (btw, aren't those some huge onions?), I changed clothes and headed out to Stitch-n-Pitch. And the sun was out! I found the parking spot I wanted. It's not the cheapest lot, but it's the one that guarantees I never get lost finding it or the stadium and it gives me fast egress headed toward home--all important items in my book. I got there a full 2 hours before game time so had lots of time to browse the yarn store displays. I bought....nothing! Amazed myself with that control. Great Yarns, a shop I really like up in Everett was giving out 20% off coupons for purchases made in the store by 8/16. Well, THAT'S a no brainer. They had the one thing I sort lusted after--Cashwool (a laceweight merino) in all the new, cool, colors. I'll save the coupon for my vacation mid-August and drive up and get some with the coupon discount; I'm planning to head up there then to meet up with a new friend, Beth, then anyway so we can have a little shopping fun.

Here are a few pictures of a couple of the yarn displays--Great Yarns and Churchmouse Yarn & Tea (on Bainbridge Island)--both are stores I highly recommend.

The Great Yarns folks


And the Churchmouse Yarn & Tea crew


I have to admit that I am NOT big on crowds and I bailed on the game pretty darn early. I figured if I'm not having a great time, then why hang out? Besides, I think I have enough time now to block out the kimono shawl before going to bed. It was probably that calling me home. And look what I found when I walked in the door:



Mm-hmm. That is Pod. He was sound asleep when I walked in. Happy as a clam. That is my unblocked kimono shawl he is so happily sleeping on. I have to tell you, that quilt under it? It's been there for weeks. Just for the cats to have a place to sleep next to me while I knit. Has Pod slept on the quilt? No sir. It probably took him 30 seconds after I walked out the door to the game to figure out I'd left the shawl there on the couch. Within Pod distance. Even as I type out this blog entry (and think my normal variety of cuss words at the whole picture upload and formatting headaches) Pod is....purring and sleeping over on the shawl. He never disturbs yarn in balls or skeins, but boy does he love knitted stuff. At least I know he has excellent taste :-)

Vacation, Part 2

I spent most of today down at the Seattle Center--a former World's Fair location with a lot of stuff happenin'. I went to see Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix on the IMAX screen. I didn't realize it, but the last 25 minutes were in 3D--cool. I had trouble getting into this Potter movie though. It was a combination of things--I don't think I especially cared for the director's take on some things. It wasn't just leaving parts of the original story out which I expect to accommodate the length of a movie, but that some things were "rewritten." And...I felt the movie was darker than it needed to be--EVERYTHING looked dark and dank and dirty. Ultimately, I was also distracted having read book 7 recently by looking at people and thinking "this one lives," "this one dies in two years," etc. I have to admit, I almost liked the preview for a couple of 3D IMAX features--one on dinosaurs and one on sea critters. The dinosaur one had a t-rex with his head in the audience and the sea one had things swimming in the whole stadium. It was a more sophisticated 3D effect than in Potter since the 3D movies were specifically designed to be in 3D.

I had wanted to spend some time at the International Fountain too, but it was closed for maintenance. Bummer.

In addition to knitting like mad on the kimono shawl, I've also made some earrings this week. Nothing fancy--I really like a single dangling "whatever" look anyway and that is incredibly easy to do. I had picked up some sterling findings the week before vacation since I was out and I react to base metals. The simple approach works well for sterling too since I don't have to worry about messing up and wasting a precious metal.



A big annual event is on the horizon - cat baths. I usually do it once a year, on a nice warm day. I need it to get up to about 85 so the cats dry out faster and don't catch colds. Pod especially - his fur is so thick, it can take him a good 4-8 hours to dry out depending on the humidity. I'm not expecting to be very popular when this happens. I'll try to take pictures ;-)