Swiss Chard

We have been eating frsh greens for dinner for the last couple of nights. Last night was a hit!

Olive oil
Handfull of fresh snap peas
several marinated garlic cloves
Large Sprig of fresh fennel
Generous amount of swiss chard and spinach
Vinegar/ Lemon juice to finish with some kosher salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in the pan and add garlic. Stir about.
Add snap peas and stir about
Add the fresh greens and cook everything until the greens are wilted
Add the vinegar just when complete and dash with salt and fresh ground pepper.

Fantastic! The bitter swiss chard really works well with the vinegar and sweet peas.

Drowning in blue fabric

I'm sewing 2 rather large BC shade flys. (photo from Dragonwing)

I cut out all the fabric Tuesday at Fighter's practice and started sewing everything together Wednesday night. I should have started earlier than I did, but I was enjoying my knitting and didn't want to put it down. That said I only got the wings edged and sewn onto the walls and one half of one shade fully assembled.

I did purchase the wood, paint, sliders and ropes. The person working on the uprights is receiveing the wood today. Glad I'm not having to work on that as well, I'll have plenty of work with just the sewing an painting.

Pavilion painting check in

I think it's looking good. I'll finish the valance design by WW.

Absentee gardening

I guess the garden does much better while I'm gone. When I left there were flowers on the peas and now there are peas to eat.



Yummy peas to snack on. I had them on my salad yesterday, made with lettuce from the garden.

I need to find a recipe for Swiss chard. Anyone have any ideas?



The cherries need to be harvested this week. Wow!



They are sour, but just lovely.

There will be raspberries in about a month.

Cherries!!!!

Wow! Time to pick some fruit this week.



I think I will pit and freeze them until I decide what I should do.

Ariel's Stockings

I finished the stockings about a month ago and finally had a chance to deliver them to the recipient.

The plan was that they were going to be part of a outfit made on site, but the scope of the outfit morphed from 15th c. German to Roman. Yeah knit stockings are not really common for Roman. They were done and I was happy to hand them over. I'm pretty pleased with them.



The stockings are a pattern of my own design. I used size 0 needles and Lang Jawool Superwash in yellow. I did some shaping on the cuff, knee and calf and they fit perfectly. The small clocks on the ankle are a crown and a Calon Cross. The crown is pretty obvious, but the Calon cross is harder to see. I used a Dutch heel for shaping and a wedge toe and kitchnered it closed.

Now to start silk stockings and socks for Northshield's next Queen.

Pavilion painting

I'm trying to get the main elements of the design on my new spoked round in time to take it to Lilies. I won't have the valence design started, but the walls are mostly done and the roof with have the initial elements.

Here's a peek:



The paint it exterior house paint (latex/ water based) and it is thinned with a bit of water. Some people thin it 1 to 1 and mine is more 2 to 1 (2 parts paint to 1 part water).

I tape the lines and paint them on. I use the seam lines as my guide so it's relatively easy to lay it out in sections on my cutting table and work on it in pieces. That's how I painted my spoked oval.



The gonfleurs are added using a stencil. It's tricky using stencils with thinned paint. I find if I add the majority of the paint in the center of the large sections and then work my way to the edge of the stencil with a swirly action it cuts down on the bleed through. It's not an exact science, but they pass the 5' rule.



I like them!

Tonight I will be painting the top of the tent. It's going to get 2 rings and then a series of circles. The valence will get 2 border lines and then I will add the diamonds and lattice after Lillies. It will be very pretty by WW. I need to have the tent dry to pack after work on Wednesday.

I also finished sewing up my floor. That needs to get painted too.

Christmas in June

My friend asked me to re-knit a Christmas stocking that her Grandmother made for her. She made stockings for the whole family, but when Mel was born she switched out the yarn. Cut to many years later and an unfortunate incident with soap and water and the stocking knit with the fine merino wool, which wasn’t color fast, is the worse for wear.

I have one of the original stockings to work from and the design is pretty simple: stockinette and duplicate stitch. I think her Grandmother used Red Heart for the first stocking (which survived the wash just fine, not a surprise) and I’m hoping to find a substitute yarn that will be superwash and a similar gauge.

I found the Caron Wintuk Worsted weight was a pretty good match. I could not match the Kelly Green of the original, but the red and white are spot on and I got gauge.

I cast on 58 stitches on size 3 dps and knit in 1 to 1 rib for 10 rows. Change to size 4 needles and knit flat in stockinette using white for 25 rows.

Change to red, knit stockinette for 28 rows.
Change to green, knit stockinette for 28 rows.
Change to red, knit stockinette for 28 rows.

The heel and foot is knit in the round using a standard Dutch Heel. I should be done with the main knitting pretty quick and then I will do the duplicate stitch and finish the foot.

Sparkle!

Dress up is for kids....NOT!

In an act of pure nostalgia I decided to upload a whole slew of old Halloween photos. These are going back over 10 years so be kind.

Cable Rib Socks

I finished Tuesday night.

I love them!

The design is simple, from the Favorite Socks book by Interweave Press. The yarn was hand dyed by G2 and the base yarn is Knit Picks Bare. I still have enough left to make a pair of baby socks.

Nordskogen Day of Fun

The Day of Fun was hosted at Danr and Katriona's and Tom and Sylvia's home in East Bethel. It was a grand time and I had a load of fun.