January 2011 Archives

In case fellow Ravelers haven't seen, apparently the Remnants board is being put down. I'd have to say that 90% of my time on Ravelry was spent reading the Remnants board. I didn't often post there, but I liked reading the various topics.

I'm really not interested in joining more groups. As it is, I'm not interested in most of the groups that I currently belong to.

In the last 30 days, I've only participated in 3 of my 12 groups, and even in the past year have really only participated actively in one group.

All of my Ravelry time was browsing through Remnants. I understand the moderating of it was a pain in the ass, but part of me also doesn't understand why it had to be moderated. Have a small disclaimer... unmoderated forum, enter at your own risk.

I guess I'm forced now to actually spend time on my knitting......

Just teasing. I saw this over on Ravelry and had to post it here.

As I've moved past the waist increases and decreases on the body, and reached the part of the instructions that say to knit until the body reaches the final length, I decided to put Ginevra on some waste yarn and get a feel for the fit and length.

The picture is somewhat deceiving because of the big open neck.

It appears as if I'm barely to the waist, but in actuality the sweater is just about 2 inches shy of an acceptable length. At this point, I have 3 skeins of yarn left. I think that I'll be working on the sleeves to see how much yarn I have left and base the final length on that. The malabrigo is knitting up into a nice heavy sweater, so a 3/4 length sleeve might be a good idea.

With a push, I could probably have this finished in a week. My goal, however, is to have a pretty new sweater for the 1st day of classes in about 3 weeks.

Back in the spring as our lease was nearly up, Kevin and I thought about moving. While we didn't actually look at any apartments in person, from my online searches there didn't appear to be anything easily found that met our requirements. And so we decided to stay put.

Around November, we some how got to discussing our living room furniture and Kevin expressed that he'd like to upgrade the room. This was great news to me because I really like rearranging furniture and redesigning rooms. In addition, it meant that we could stop using the "floor couch." (Our 3-person Ektorp Ikea couch in November 2009 suffered an unrepairable crack along the main support beam that could only be rectified by removing the couch's feet and sitting the couch directly on the floor. This meant sitting about 6 inches closer to the ground which was odd at first. We wanted to get a new couch immediately, but since it was the holiday season delayed and delayed until a year later!) This was also more great news for me because we got to go to my favorite store--Ikea!!!

It was the most amazing Ikea trip ever... we only spent $30. But we tried out lots of couches and chairs and tables and bookcases deciding what we wanted.

In the end, we completely redid the living room with a corner couch, 2 new chairs, and 2 new bookcases. We moved a few of the existing pieces to new locations and the "floor couch" and poang chairs went into the 2nd bedroom, which is really more of a second living room now.

Here's a little taste of the new room:

We had the new living room set up before x-mas and our Vermont vacation. But the second living room/bedroom was a mess of furniture and junk. For a small room, it has taken me 2 weeks to get it in order, and I still have a small pile of papers and stuff to sort and recycling to take out before it is fully finished.

The most exciting thing for me about fixing up the second room is that I finally have book shelf space for all of my knitting books and magazines!!

(Can you tell from these 2 pictures that we have a ton of books?! And that's not even all of them! Also, ignore that yellow crocheted blanket to the right... that's hiding the horrible tower of air conditioners.)

All of this cleaning also helped me to unearth 5 old gift cards that have about $100 on them. Of course, the reason the gift cards went missing in the first place was because they are to stores/restaurants that we don't go to often, but now that I've found them, I'm going to be sure that someone uses them!!

For x-mas 2010 with the in-laws, it was decided that we'd all have a destination x-mas. My sister-in-law found a great cabin outside Arlington, VT that had enough space for the whole clan. We arrived on x-mas eve and spent 4 days snuggled by the fire, singing karaoke, playing Kinnect, and eating lots and lots of food.

The cabin was fully decorated for the holidays by the owner, so we enjoyed the tree and lights.

Kevin was in charge of the fireplace and keeping us all cozy and warm.

Kevin's sister got the best gift of the night... a 5lb gummy bear!!

(above pictures courtesy of my sister-in-law's brother)
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When we arrived on Friday, the weather was beautiful and everything was peacefully snowy.

But by the time we left on Monday, we were being hit by the storm that dumped 20 inches of snow in NYC.

Fortunately the owner has a contract with a plow to come and clear the driveway. As soon as that was cleared, we lined up the cars for packing.

Of course, even though the driveway was plowed, it wasn't easy to get out. The first to go got stuck, slid, and end up in a ditch!

But with some teamwork and ingenuity, we all pulled together and managed to get the car unstuck and on the road. Kevin and I went next and ended up in a snow bank on the other side, but fortunately we were able to get free with just a little push.

The drive home was harrowing and nerve-wrecking until we made it to the highway which was mostly clear. Unfortunately, when we got home, we had to dig out the driveway before we were able to park.

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Despite the storm, it was a fun way to spend the holiday!!!

After my Kollage square needle broke, I realized it was a good opportunity to stop and assess the size of Ginevra. I realized this was especially important given that the website for the needles stated that most people need to go up a needle size on these needles because of the square shape. I really wish that was stated in the information on Webs where I purchased the needles. And of course without a gauge swatch (yes, no one's fault but my own), I was significantly off. *Sigh*

This left me with two choices. 1) Order two new size 10 Kollage needles or two new size 9 needles of another brand. 2) Recalculate the pattern numbers based on my gauge.

I opted for choice 2. So I've started Ginevra over again following the numbers for two sizes up. Happily the replacement needle from Kollage was sent out immediately and arrived within two days of my email. That's some great customer service!! My only worry now with Ginevra is that I'll run out of yarn, but I figure that if that's the case, I'll just have to stop at 3/4 length sleeves.

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In other news, I've been re-inspired about bread baking. I had taken a long break for several reasons (including it being too hot in the summer, worry that bread was making me fat, lack of time, laziness). One big reason I stopped as well was because I wasn't completely satisfied with the artisan breads in 5 minutes a day method. Sure it was easy to mix up, throw in the fridge, wait, and then shape and bake. The bread was decent... especially the challah and italian breads. But I often found that I couldn't use all of the dough before it went gross. Likewise, we'd eat some of the bread and the rest would just sit untouched. (And trying to eat it all went along with the I think the bread is making me fat fear.) And so bread baking waned.

For my birthday, Kevin's parents sent me the book "52 Loaves." Interestingly, I'd come across the book myself and had it sitting in my Amazon cart waiting until I need to add something to reach that free shipping mark. The book is about one man's pursuit to make the perfect loaf of bread by baking a loaf once a week for an entire year.

The book arrived just as the semester ended and I had time to actually read something for myself. I read the book in just a few days, and would have read it quicker if I didn't have so much grading interrupting me. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and it did inspire me to start bread baking again, and to do it the traditional way... no machine, no fridge, and kneading by hand.

(Just as a side note... while I loved the book and found it humorous and thoughtful, as a numbers/research trained person, I couldn't help but long for more detailed information about the bread he baked each week. Each week he baked a loaf and fed it to his family. If I were him, I would have constructed some type of rating sheet or survey to be filled out for every loaf. That way I could quantify any improvements in my baking. There were many weeks/chapters in which he mentioned the bread, mentioned a failure or minor success, but never really focuses on the bread. In many ways, the book is more about the man and the journey, not the actual bread. So that irked me some, but again didn't really make me love the book less.)

In the book, Alexander discusses the greatness of using a levain or starter in making your own bread. He includes a recipe at the end of his book for how to make your own starter from apples. His book inspired me, but I was not so inspired as to make my own starter (I'm still lazy by nature). So I ordered a sourdough starter from King Arthur.

The starter arrived just a few days before x-mas (along with some gifts for others). I followed the instructions and I fed it and allowed it to bubble, and fed it some more. Of course, I also bought it an appropriate home. I put it into the fridge to wait for me until I returned from the holiday.

Wednesday night, I prepped and fed the starter and left it out on the counter. Thursday morning I followed the instructions for a basic rustic sourdough bread that King Arthur sent with the starter. I even mixed and kneaded the dough by hand! By Thursday afternoon, the apartment smelled of bread and I had two batards singing, crackling, and cooling.

The bread was great! Perfect crust and a nice soft interior. The flavor was very mild and not very sour. I can't wait to make another batch.

In all the excitement about the bread, I didn't get a chance to take pictures to document the yumminess, but I promise I will for next time!