toast

My toast t-shirt that I recently purchased from Threadless (during their $5 sale) has been making me absurdly happy.

It is really hard to be a grouch, even on a day like today when it is pissing rain, when wearing this shirt. I just look down and smile at the happy toast spreading on the jam. What could be nicer?

And then I go make myself (another) piece of toast. Right now I'm working my way through a loaf of my new favorite bread-for-toast: Zingerman's 8-grain 3-seed bread, a bread that is equally good with thick cut orange marmalade and sharp cheddar cheese.

Maybe not such a good t-shirt for people on low carb diets, but awfully good for me.

Still relevant!

You might think that a sweater jacket made of chunky yarn would be irrelevant in April.

You would be wrong:
This is the view of the back deck. 6 inches of this crap fell on Sunday night and led to a snow day for the critters on Monday. In April! The snow was like wet concrete and broke some branches off of the large lilac (which was already budding) in the yard. I had already packed away the critters' winter boots in the attic and had to go rummage around and retrieve them. Grrrrr. It had better melt before Friday when the kids' spring break begins because I want to spend as much of next week as possible out of doors.

But the shit-load of snow was a motivator. I finally faced my zipper fear and finished my Urban Aran Cardigan. And I think it turned out pretty well.
The best decision I made was to double the length of the collar, fold it over and sew it down on the inside. This has given it enough heft to stand up properly and not flop outwards and look messy:
I got the idea for the collar trick from this zipper installation tutorial. I didn't actually follow her method for zipper installation though. I ended up basting the two fronts together using red scrap yarn. Then I pinned and basted the edges of the zipper to the cardigan (using hot pink thread so it would be easy to see when removing). Then I pulled out the red scrap yarn and sewed the sweater as close to the zipper as possible. I did all the sewing by hand because my sewing machine and I do not have a very trusting relationship. It took a little experimenting to find the best distance for the seam which would cover as much of the zipper as possible without letting the wool get caught in the teeth. Then I went back, pulled out the hot pink basting and sewed down the edge of the zipper (with black thread).

A knit buttonhole band would be much faster to accomplish, but I do really like the feel of the zipper with this particular sweater. It makes it more like a lightweight jacket. And, unfortunately, it looks like I'll get some wear out of this particular garment before packing it away for the summer.

Bitter cravings

It is a gray and rainy day but I have this in my belly:

Bitter Breakfast of Champions. Or Breakfast of Bitter Champions?

I've been craving bitter flavors lately--I've made an eaten 4 batches of slow cooked greens this week (collards, turnip greens, kale and even some escarole). Big batches. And Brian has only consumed one serving. I've wanted hoppy beer and strong black coffee. So for breakfast today I made some cheese grits, topped them with a large mound of re-heated leftover greens and made a cup of black coffee (I'm holding off on the beer. For now.)

God it was good. And eating a bowl of bitterness has put me in a good mood so I am actually sweeter (temperament wise) than usual.

I'm not sure if this is some nutritional cry from my body or just a phase I'm going through but the good thing is that bitter flavor cravings are pretty cheap to satisfy. Vast quantities of collard, mustard and turnip greens can be had for very little money. Kale is only slightly more expensive. And escarole's price depends on where you shop--if it is thought of as an exotic produce item for yuppies in a market where the cashiers know what it is, then it is likely to be a little pricey. But if it is unlabeled, crammed into a far corner of the grocery store, and it stumps the cashiers, then it is usually pretty cheap.

Here's my master recipe for greens:

• either 1 T of olive oil or 1/2 slice of bacon, diced into small pieces
  
• one big fat garlic clove, cut into slices
• a shake of red hot pepper flakes
• a sprinkle of salt and grind of pepper
• two (or more!) big bunches of greens, stemmed and cleaned (no need to dry them) and cut into reasonable sized pieces
• hot pepper sauce
• juice of 1/2 a lemon

Get all of the above prepped and then in a big pot heat your oil or fry up your 1/2 slice of bacon. Toss in the garlic, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and let sizzle for a little bit. Dump in your vast quantity of greens and give them a good stir. You might want to add a little water to the pot (depending on how wet your greens were). Slam on the lid and turn down the heat. If you are using relatively quick cooking greens like kale or escarole then you can come back in about 10 minutes and the greens will be ready for the lemon juice and/or hot pepper sauce. If you are using slower cooking greens (collards in particular) be patient. Go back and add a little more water. Set them on super low heat and let them soften up. Ignore them for an hour (just make sure the pot doesn't dry out because burning collards smell nasty). Then go back and add lemon juice, hot pepper sauce and additional salt and pepper to your taste.

The best thing about using collards is that the leftovers look about the same as freshly made (in other words, kinda ugly) so you can make a jumbo batch. Kale usually looks pretty when it is freshly made and then gets a little disturbing looking after exposure to lemon juice (yellowy-browny edges). It still tastes just fine but leaves a little to be desired in the aesthetics department. Then again, greens are not exactly a pretty-party food so who the hell cares.

Glutton for punishment

Despite its recent major feeding, I think my seam ripper might be getting a little peckish again. That's the only way I can justify my urge to sew again.

Did I mention that one time I actually gave myself a migraine from stress after a day of attempted sewing? It turns out that hunching over a torture machine with extreme tension in your neck for hours on end can trigger a migraine!

And yet, I want to try again.

Blame IKEA. They have a whole bunch of cool new fabrics and I really like one of the super cheap ones:
It has birds and leaves and is only $2.99/yard so when I screw it up, at least my wallet won't hurt (just my pride).

There's another more expensive fabric ($7.99/yard) that I also really like:
The good news is that the cheap one is presently out of stock at my local IKEA and I don't have the confidence to start with the more expensive one, so for now, the girl critter will have a little break from the swearing and ranting.

Writing mitts

I actually finished something! OK, it is something small. I made a pair of fingerless mitts for writing. My office gets a little nippy in the winter and my hands get cold easily so I'm hoping that these will help me keep my butt in my writing chair.

I picked a colorway I thought would cheer me up when it is gloomy outside and psych me into thinking that excellent writing would naturally flow from such cheerfully clad hands. They took less than once skein of Claudia Hand Painted Yarns fingering weight merino in colorway Summer Rose

I adapted the pattern from this one by Weaverknits, just made them a little shorter in the wrist and added some 2 x 2 rib around the edges so they don't roll. I like this pattern a lot more than the one other pair of gloves I have knit mostly because of the thumb shaping. It's a nice contour and keeps my thumbs from getting claustrophobic. And now I'm tempted to try the Neiman sweater pattern that Weaverknits had in the Fall 2007 Knitty.

A contoured thumb is a happy thumb.

It may officially be Spring now, but the weather decided that it would welcome my gloves to the neighborhood by snowing this afternoon...so yeah, those of you who had wet flakes slapping you in the face this afternoon can blame me. Just be thankful that I still haven't finished the Urban Aran cardigan (still frozen with terror at the zipper insert moment) which would have probably called forth a blizzard.

A boost even when you don't think you need it

I've had a terrific morning--kids went off to school with no early morning grumpitude, sun is shining, and I have got a good start on the writing without excessive abuse of caffeine and carbohydrates. But what took the morning from good to great was watching this video:

Extreme Sheep

Just go look. I bet it has the power to transform a shitty morning too.

Advice

You folks have been a great source of advice--I really appreciate the recent CSA advice and thought I'd try out another realm: technology.

Can someone explain to me how they use Facebook?

I signed up for it recently because I was searching for some information about some teachers who work at a summer camp I was considering for my kids (and I did get a much better feel for the teachers in question and whether they'd be a good fit for my kids). And then I forgot about it for a few weeks.

But then I got an email message via Facebook from a long-lost-friend from undergrad. And that is great! It makes me really happy to reconnect with some people from my past (of course there are a number of other people with whom I would prefer not to reconnect; I shall dub them the "undesirables".)

I went back into my profile and put in a link to this blog. And Facebook pointed out a whole bunch of people who I could "friend" some of whom I actually do consider friends! And very few "undesirables"!

But I don't want to sink a lot of time into Facebook--I prefer to stay focused here. I have no problem keeping it up as a bridge to this blog, but is that a good use of it? Is there something I'm missing? or some use of Facebook that you've found that is particularly helpful and unique?

Advice welcomed.

An alternate green...

Last year I made corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day. It was my first time making it and I thought it was really good.

Yesterday I made it again and thought it was disgusting. I'm not sure why--I didn't change anything, but this time it struck me as greasy and chewy and just yucky. Maybe it was just the wrong sort of day; if it had been cold and blustery, maybe I would have thought the same meal was comforting. But it was warm and beautiful and I spent part of the afternoon turning over the soil in my garden beds while the girl critter gathered handfuls of earthworms to play with. It really was the wrong thing to eat at the close of such a day.

What I wish I had made yesterday was a different green dish, this fantastic Indian spinach simmered in yogurt.
I can't get enough of this dish--I go back for seconds and then pretty much lick out the pot. I'd eat it for breakfast if there was ever any left over. And happily it is incredibly easy to make. Next year, I'm going to celebrate St. Patrick's day with this alternate green.


Spinach Simmered in Yogurt
adapted from the recipe by Soban Singh Bedla, Vijay Bedla and Peggy Markel in Food & Wine magazine

1 lb baby spinach, washed
2 T canola oil
3 garlic cloves, put through a garlic press
1/2 a jalapeno pepper, de-seeded if you don't want it too spicy, seeds left in if you want the kick
1 T grated fresh ginger
1 t ground coriander
1 t tumeric
1 C plain whole-milk yogurt
1/2 t salt

Put on a large pot of water to boil. When it comes to the boil, plunge in the spinach and let it wilt (it takes maybe a minute). Dump into a colander and rinse with cool water. Squeeze the water out of the spinach and chop coarsely.

Heat the vegetable oil in a medium pot. Add garlic, jalapeno and ginger and cook over moderate heat until fragrant (about 2 minutes). Add the coriander and tumeric and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the yogurt and the spinach and cook over low heat until the yogurt begins to separate and look a little cottage-cheese-like, about 5 minutes. Stir in the salt, taste and check for seasoning, and serve.

wow

I went for a walk in Bird Hills Park yesterday wearing shorts.

I saw a fat robin doing its hop, hop, hop.

I had the windows (well, the newer double glass ones that don't have storms) open and there was fresh air in the house.

Is it possible that Spring is here?

I didn't see this coming; I kept waiting for a major Winter depressive period to hit me and whatdayaknow, it never did!

Is Winter really Winter if I don't go through the emotional wringer?

wow.

But hey, while my mood is mighty sunny, my writing production is really lousy. I didn't write a word last week. I wrote two sentences yesterday. I really don't want to write today; I want to go clean up my garden and plant some peas.

Maybe there is a little hope--it is supposed to rain tomorrow.

The UN-tutorial

Wanna make yourself a yoga mat bag out of a spare pillow case?
Well, you should probably go find a competent sewer to show you how. But if you really like to swear and want to strengthen your relationship with your seam ripper, read on.

Sigh. When it comes to process vs. product, this one falls in the latter category--it turned out OK, but man, the process was not pretty.

A little background info: I have finally found a yoga class that a) fits my schedule b) isn't too hard or too easy c) isn't being taught by an angry teacher (I know, an angry yoga teacher? yeah...it wasn't pretty). So now my yoga mat, which had been hanging out at the back of the closet needs to be relatively accessible. After finding the black cat curled up on it every time I turned around (because cats have a magnetic attraction to anything you don't want them to sleep on), and noticing that the sticky surface of the mat was perfect for collecting cat hair, I figured it was time to protect the mat.

Sounds easy, yes? Take a big tube and make it smaller, with a drawstring and a strap. Ha!

Step 1: Locate spare pillowcase, make sure mat will fit:

Looks good.

Step 2: Cut away excess the fabric and use it to make the a shoulder strap:
Folding and pinning the strap...

...and sewing the strap. I "chose" contrasting thread because I couldn't find the white. And because I wanted to make sure everyone could see my crappy stitching.
Wow! This is going pretty well! Maybe I've shaken off that sewing curse!

Oooops. Spoke too soon. Should know better than to have confidence when it comes to sewing.

Fuck up #1: Sewing the tube for the drawstring before adding the buttonholes for the string to come out of.

Time to get out the seam ripper!

Hmm. Where is that thingy? Time to locate the seam ripper.

I sent the girl critter on a quest to find it which she enjoyed because it meant emptying out the four separate boxes of poorly organized sewing crap.

The contents of just one of the four boxes. (Oh look! There's the white thread too!)

Luckily the girl critter located it because from here on out, the seam ripper is the main character of our sordid little craft drama:
So with our purple protagonist, I ripped out edges of the drawstring tube. Yum yum, munch munch. (I found it helpful to imagine the seam ripper as hungry. Then at least I could feel good about feeding it.)

Fuck up #2--Remembering how to do buttonholes. You'll notice that there is a break in the photo documentation of this process. At this time I was too busy swearing a blue streak and ripping/feeding the seam ripper to remember to take photos.

Despite practicing making buttonholes on a spare scrap of fabric, I still screwed up 3 times when trying to make them on the drawstring tube. (More swearing, more snacks for the seam ripper!)

Step whatever: re-sewing the drawstring tube.

Step whatever+1: sewing the side seam.

Fuck up # whatever: sewing the two completed buttonholes into the side seam.

(Insert favorite curse words, start brandishing seam ripper like a fencing foil.)

Try again to sew the side seam without enclosing the much-suffered-for button holes.

Half success! Also known as: Fuck up # whatever+1. This time only one buttonhole was trapped in the seam.

(Sigh. Consider alcohol. Then realize that drunk sewing is probably dangerous.)

Riiiiiiiiip! Munch munch (even the seam ripper is getting full/sick of this). Finally succeed in sewing a seam in which both button holes are not trapped.

Thread through ribbon for draw cord.

Close up of crappy buttonhole with drawcord.

Bag is finally done.
It doesn't look like it tortured me for three hours now does it?

For $12.29 I could have saved myself the grief, not exposed the girl critter to some very creative language and bought a bag that is ventilated (so your mat can breathe?) and has the added bonus of not looking like an old Ikea pillowcase.