My New Toy

I got my Spin Dryer yesterday and I love it. I washed up some mittens, socks, and a sweater in the early evening yesterday and they are all dry this morning.



I have my work cut out for mover the next few days as I get my woolens washed and ready to store for the summer. It's always a bit sad when I need to put the sweaters, hats and mittens away. I will miss them. With the help of this spin dryer it will be done in no time. Since it's supposed to snow on Saturday maybe I should wait a few more days.

Shawls - Lots of them

I've been yarning lots of shawls. So many that I joined the 10 shawls in 2010 group on Ravelry. So my list of shawls to make keeps getting longer and longer.

Shawl One: Ultra Traveling Woman


Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante
Did extra repeats of the horseshoe pattern and could have done more. I had over an ounce of fiber left.
Ultra Alpaca Fine - Love the feel of the yarn but it's splitty. So I 'm not sure if I would buy it again.
US 6 needles




Shawl Two:


All Shawl by Doris Chan
Changed up the edging. I replaced the pineapple border to the shell stitch. I like this shawl but I'm not sure it's my color. They yarn is super soft.
Cascade Heritage Paints and Solid - Used up what was left from my Dreaming of Spring socks.
I/5.5 mm hook






Shawl Three: Red Wine Saroyan


Saroyan by Liz Abinante
I did a few extra pattern repeats in the middle section.
US 10 Needles
365 yards of Cascade 220

It's really soft and squishy but it's more like scarf in style so I don't know how much I will use it. I find I really like my triangular shawls as scarves as they stay on and looks pretty too.




Shawl Four: A nod to the gods shawl


Three-cornered Scarf by Ruth Hollowell in Intentional Spinner by Judith MacKenzie McCuin
US 8 but I wish I had used US 10
Used all but a small bit of my Wenslydale handspun single
I love how this turned out as the colors transition wonderfully.

The fiber before spinning:


Spun Fiber:




Shawl Five: In the Dark


198 Yards of Heaven Shawl by Christy Verity
I used more of a sport weight yarn than the worsted yarn called for in the pattern. Hence I used about 288 yards of my very own black merino handspun yarn. I also omitted the edging rows using some else's mods from Ravelry.
US 8 needles

The handspun yarn:


A bad photos of me wearing it for scale:


Five done and five more to go. I have one on the needles right now and the yarn for one more.

Mad spinning

Since I finally managed to knit and crochet down most of the yarn stash. Someday I need to show you all what I have been making. What I feel most proud about is all the spinning have been doing. I've been spinning so much that my legs are sore. Really it's true.



Doesn't it look lovely. I started a shawl with some of it last night while sipping a beer with some fiber friends. I needed that beer!



It will be the 3 corner shawl from The Intentional Spinner.

Wine: Tisdale Shiraz

I tried this wine for the first time tonight. It caught my eye recently as it's very inexpensive. At my local discount liquor store it's only $3.31 a bottle. So a steal by my accounts when I usually go for bottle at about $9-10. Tisdale Shiraz is a very good red wine and would do fine more most. In the glass you smell a very distinct oakiness. It goes down quite smooth with a bit of fruitiness but not sweet. I'd say this particular bottle tastes as good as any of the Gnarly Head wines I favor that cost anywhere from $8-10 and way better than Barefoot wines and cheaper too!



So go ahead and pour yourself a glass.

No Impact Man

I picked up the audiobook of No Impact Man at the library yesterday. I vaguely remember a friend recommending it on facebook. I began it today with a bit of trepidation because my youthful idealism has been slowly replaced by middle aged cynicism. My cynicism is due to the fact that I did try to be No Impact Mom when my kids were younger. We bought a Wonder Wash for cryin' out loud and tried to do the laundry of a family of three whe one of those three was in diapers. What a joke...ahh the beginning of my cynical despair at such a tender age of 29yrs or so.

Back to the No Impact Man. I was a bit worried it would be on the preachy side. I'm hard enough on myself so I really don't need to have someone tell me how much I have failed. I'm pleased to say I really enjoy Colin Beavan's insight and struggles and I'm only on disc one. His own inner dialogue on our impact on the planet so far mirrors mine quite a bit. So I'm thinking again what to do, what do to do to save the world so to speak because I'm not going to buy another wonder wash. But maybe, just maybe we shouldn't replace our broken microwave.

So today I feel like sharing a bit what's coming up for me while listening to this book. This quote really stands out for me:

"What's so great about trying to be right if it makes you separate. What's so great about trying to be right if it makes you lonely?"

I found this to be so true when I was a strict vegetarian. This separated me from others and made it more difficult to sit down and just enjoy a meal with others. My feeling at the time of vegetarian rightness also separated me from others.

I'll be back later to share what other bits of wisdom from the book or not because my track record on the blog kind of sucks.

My Poor Blog

My poor neglected blog. It needs a serious revamp and some posting love. Someday.

Black Bean and Squash Burritos

I don't have a pretty picture of them but they are good. My daughter loved them so that makes them double good.

I loosely followed the recipe here. I used butternut squash because that's what I had. I peeled it before I baked it. I passed on the coriander but added a wee bit of chipolte chili powder. Just a pinch because it's spicy, if you like it hot feel free to add more.