A couple of unrelated things...

This is what the "pizzas" looked like that Tai Chi Man and I had for dinner last night. (The boys had the usual yeasted pizza.)

It's just a tortilla topped with hummus, red onion, red bell pepper, yellow tomatoes (from our garden), black sundried olives (the only kind we like), oregano and olive oil.



And to completely change the subject, I wanted to show you how busy Tai Chi Man was on Sunday. When I arrived home at 11am from my weekend retreat, he had been blowing and washing all the debris off the driveway. About 4 hours were then spent coating the driveway with a (water-based) sealer. It looks like new!


His old running shoes were ruined!

Making tortillas

The last time I made tortillas, I thought to myself, "I really must put this recipe on my blog." So many people are so used to buying things pre-made that they think making it from scratch is hard or too much bother. Tortillas are really easy, but you need to reserve a block of time when you won't be interrupted, as you'll be rolling out and flipping tortillas every minute or so.


I know there are many brands of tortillas available in the stores, but I have found no wheat tortillas that are just the basic ingredients. They have the omnipresent whey or "mono- and diglycerides" in them and who knows where those come from!


This recipe will make 8 large tortillas. You'll need a large frying pan. If you only have a small pan, cut the dough into twice as many pieces, but bear in mind you'll be standing there for twice as long! Good if it's winter and you want to keep warm, but not if it's high summer and you're already too hot.


You'll need:

4 cups whole spelt flour (or other wholegrain flour - no white or bleached please =P )
half a teaspoon good salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon lime juice
about a cup and a half of water
extra flour for dusting the countertop for rolling out

Mix the flour, salt and baking soda together in a bowl.
Mix the lime juice and water in a jug.
Add the liquid to the flour, but don't just dump it all in at once - you want the dough to be just right, not too crumbly, not too sticky. Add more water if necessary, and if you add too much, put a little more flour in.
Knead the dough lightly for a minute, then form it into a ball. Cut it into 8 pieces - the easiest way is to cut the ball in half one way, then in half crosswise, then cut each quarter into two.
Preheat your frying pan. No need to oil it. Out of a possible 9 settings, I use #5. Hotter than medium but not burning hot.
Sprinkle some flour on your work surface - be generous - and roll out the first dough ball as thin as you can make it. (I used to roll out a few at a time ready for cooking, but now I prefer to do them singly so they don't get a chance to dry out or stick to the counter.)
Once the pan seems hot, put in the first tortilla. Immediately roll out the second. After about a minute, you will see bubbles appearing on top of the tortilla in the pan. This is good - flip it over. After about another minute, peek underneath and the bottom should have browned. Whip it out and place it on a wire rack, and put the next one in. Roll out the third.
And so on, until there's none left.

These really are best eaten fresh and warm, though they can be reheated in a dry frying pan later on. I just made a batch of these and plan to make an "alkalising pizza" for dinner. A tortilla topped with hummus, fresh tomatoes, onions, olives and herbs. Very quick and needs no extra cooking. Or make a wrap with lots of fresh vegetables.

Weekend retreat

My weekend in the cabin went well. I arrived Friday evening while it was still light, thankfully. The 15km gravel road took me at least half an hour to drive up (I am estimating, as I didn’t take a watch with me, and I didn’t know what the time was for the whole weekend...the sun was my only guide). I had to be careful, as at times there was a ditch on one side of the road and a ravine on the other.


My cabin was only a few metres from the edge of the lake and faced south. It was basic - just one room with a bed, armchair, dining table and two wooden chairs, a woodstove, and small kitchen area with a sink (no taps) and a three-ring gas burner. To get in, I had to unlock a padlock. When I was inside, a tiny hook just about held the door shut, though I could see daylight around the edges! I took drinking water with me, and water for washing was obtained from a tap near the office.

I was grateful to get the woodstove heated up (though it took me a few attempts to get the fire going sufficiently).

Friday night I didn’t sleep very well - that’s not unusual when I’m in a strange bed - and the first time I woke up, I had to go to the outhouse with my flashlight (creepy) and then I made myself tea and porridge thinking it must be nearly morning. In the end I went back to bed and woke again at dawn - then back to bed again and up when the sun was high.

The lake is at least partly managed by people - there’s a dam at the western end of it. I suspect it is also stocked with fish for the people who come to rent boats and go fishing. An open area runs around it, between the tree line (high water mark) and the water. I enjoyed a walk around part of the lake on Saturday morning.

There are black cows ranging around the area - I was told that the rancher is supposed to keep them away from the lake, but isn’t very successful. In fact, the most hazardous thing I saw all weekend was the large cowpats strewn everywhere. Apparently they've only seen three bears in the last 30 years, but I was still wary. I would have loved to see some deer, but no luck. I did see some tiny chipmunks though.

I had started knitting the Droplet hat before I left and I finished it sitting in the sun on Saturday afternoon. I never want to knit bobbles again! I think I will give this hat to someone who will suit it better than me.

Later I made the project that I had originally planned for this weekend - a drawstring bag to keep my tarot cards safe. I have a mini set of Motherpeace cards so only needed to make a small bag. Referring to some instructions I had brought with me for making different shapes from the centre out, I decreased for the base of the bag to form a pentagon. I’m pleased with how it turned out. You’ll see I used the blue colourway of yarn for the bag - I started with the green/brown, but it was getting a depressingly army-camouflage effect - NOT something I wanted.





Saturday night, on another trip to the outhouse, I stepped outside the cabin door and was awestruck by the sky. Stars - billions of them. No light pollution blocks the view of the stars up there. I could see Orion directly in front of me (one of the few constellations I actually recognise) but it was just part of a huge wash of stars. They were so bright, they were reflected in the lake. I stayed outside for as long as my nervous disposition would let me, just gazing at the wonder of it all.






This was a very introspective weekend. Much thinking, meditating, visualising, left-handed drawing, reading and interpreting of tarot cards. I had some enlightening thoughts while wandering about on the beach or sitting on a rock.





It was so unusual to just have to take care of myself. If the whole family had gone to a cabin like that, I would have remained in the role of mother/caretaker, washing dishes, constantly making sure that everyone had enough to eat, etc. This weekend, I was just me. And I had a chance to find out more about who this “me” really is, what I believe in, what I want, without interruptions or time limits.

I certainly wasn’t lonely (there were people around with whom I could have interacted more if I had felt like it) but I was glad to be coming home Sunday morning. A break like that does make you appreciate what you have - a loving husband, nutty kids, hot and cold running water and an ensuite bathroom!

Last word before the weekend

I leave in about an hour for the cabin in the hills where I will be spending the next two nights. Most of my stuff is loaded in the car, the ratatouille which will feed the husband tonight and tomorrow is simmering away on the stove, and the kids are looking forward to me being gone so they don't have to listen to my nagging for a while!

I did the weekly shop this morning - three stores, about 15 bags of groceries! All is tucked away in pantry and fridge, awaiting hungry vultures...er, menfolk.

Back Sunday....

Love finishing things

The red scarf is finished. It came out a perfect 6.5 inches wide by 64 inches long (exactly my height, and they do say that's the best length for a scarf)! Feels lovely and I don't intend to part with it.


The hooded baby top that I have named Bamboo Baby on Ravelry is also done, except for a button. Above is a side view, and below a front view. I crocheted a loop at the front for the button, and knitted a little i-cord tail after doing the three-needle bind off on the hood.

I think it might actually fit a small person quite well, so I shall give it to my neighbour along with the snail hat I made a little while ago.

What next? Well, I still have some Bernat Satin in Wine Mist left over from making my Brea Bag, so I am going to immediately dive in and make the Droplet Hat from Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature. I am *gasp* not going to bother with a gauge swatch, but will just start knitting it on the suggested needles and see how it goes.

New profile pic

You may have noticed that I have a new photo on my homepage. I thought it was time for an update, so the boys took a few photos of me knitting on my scarf....while wearing it. This Lion Brand Homespun scarf feels SO soft and warm, there's no way I'm giving this one away! This one's for me.

I asked them to pick the best of the bunch and here it is. I'm also using the same picture on my Ravelry profile.

Teaching Taekwon-do

We had some fun today. Ninja Boy and I went to one of the local elementary schools to help our instructor with a class. This was a BIG class - 60 boys and girls in Grade 6. One of the girls comes to our Taekwondo club and her black belt mum was there to help too.

So with four black belts and two teachers, we did our best to keep the mob under control!

I think most of the kids had fun. We did a warmup, some front and side kicks, some partner kicking and self defence. Towards the end, the instructor asked Ninja Boy to demonstrate some more advanced kicks, which he did, and then he set up a board break.

Three children crouched down next to each other and Ninja Boy performed a flying side kick over them and broke the board. I was so pleased that he did it - and the kids watching were impressed. (Unfortunately I didn't take the camera.)

The other mum and I did a bit of sparring with all our protective equipment on too.

I think our instructor will find a class of ten kids easy after today!

Hooded baby top and yet another garter stitch scarf

The back and front of the baby top done, I seamed the shoulders for 6 garter ridges from the armhole edges (about 1.5 inches). Then I picked up stitches around the neck edge. With hindsight, I should have slipped the first stitch of each row as I knitted the back and front pieces, as it would have made for a neater result. As it was, I picked up a stitch for each ridge and then increased 2 stitches at the centre back on alternate rows until I had 63 stitches. I think that'll make the hood about the right size, though I won't know for sure until it's done.

I am now on the straight stretch. I took a look at some other hooded baby sweater patterns on the internet and they seem to recommend a depth of 7 inches, so once I have knitted that length I'll do a three-needle bind off.

After that, all that will remain is to sew up the side seams and find a baby to fit into it!


The endless green of the bamboo yarn had me itching to knit something else, so I started a red scarf with the skein of Lion Brand Homespun that was left over from my machine-knitted wrap. On the ball band were directions for a garter stitch scarf knitted out of one skein, double strands, on 15mm needles. Well, I don't seem to have 15mm needles (amazing, I thought I owned every size there was) so I'm using 12mm. I cast on 15 stitches and I'll just keep going until it's run out.

It's good TV knitting - I have a DVD of a British sitcom series from the library, which I can watch while I'm knitting (Yes, Prime Minister).

Women and power

Something has been happening within me for the last week or so. I feel a sense of energy that needs to be released or directed. Sometimes I feel it in my solar plexus, sometimes in my chest. It's not unpleasant - it's the sort of feeling you get as a kid when it's your birthday tomorrow!

At my age, I am expecting changes in my body - hormone fluctuations, monthly cycle ups and downs.

But what I am feeling right now is a wish to claim my power as a woman. To feel as though I am connected to all my female ancestors, those who understood our connection to all things. To find rituals that are meaningful to me in celebrating who I am, my place in the world, and the cycles of nature.

I have just finished reading an empowering book, Woman at the Edge of Two Worlds by Lynn Andrews. It is written by an American shaman who talks about her own path through menopause and the experiences of her four apprentices. It is a book that I am grateful to have found before experiencing menopause as its knowledge will help me understand the changes to come and realise that women who no longer bleed move into a new phase of powerfulness and wisdom.

I had put a few books on hold at the library just by searching "shamanism" and one that came in today is Shakti Woman: Feeling our Fire, Healing our World: The New Female Shamanism. It's written by Vicki Noble, the author of Motherpeace (I have the tarot cards and am planning on buying the Motherpeace book to help me interpret the cards more fully).

I have only just started reading this book, but I am enjoying its message. Something I have been aware of for some time is how much I dislike patriarchal religions. Most, if not all, religions today were invented - yes, invented - by men for two main reasons, as I see it. First, to replace pagan traditions and beliefs, and secondly to disempower women.

We have lost so much knowledge from the days when women lived in tribes, giving birth naturally, menstruating together in tune with the cycles of the moon, living immersed in nature.

My goal is to work towards more personal strength (emotionally and spiritually), to embrace the changes I will experience in my body over the next few years, and to become a "crone" or "wise woman" who will be a mentor to others. Quite a challenge, but the work has already started!

Lovely afternoon

Thank you to my friend Anne for taking me to the Lake Tai restaurant for a belated birthday lunch. Not only do they have great vegan food, but they are also across the road from the Art of Yarn. I went in there afterwards and a whole hour just slipped by - don't know how THAT happened!

I picked up some yarn, carried it around for a while, found something else, put the first choice back, found something else and put the second choice back. The yarn I finally decided on was this...

Araucania Pima Cotton, hand-dyed in Chile.

Very pretty. Not sure exactly what I'm going to knit with it yet, but it will go with me on my retreat next weekend. I do need a bag for my tarot cards, so that might be the first thing I make with the green/brown. It will be interesting to see how the colours appear in the knitting - it always looks quite different on the skein.

I also visited a local bookstore to look for something for Ninja Boy's birthday. He turns 13 tomorrow. When Computer Geek was the same age, we bought him a journal and asked various friends and relations to offer advice for his "coming of age" journal. I thought of doing that again, so had a look at the journals in the store. There was one possibility, a silver one with Asian characters on it. Then I looked around the books to see if there was an appropriate teen book I could get instead.

I found this...

The Dangerous Book for Boys. I had a good look through it, and whilst I wouldn't say that the information contained in it was dangerous, it does have a lot of interesting stuff in it which I think will appeal to the birthday boy. We shall find out tomorrow!

I'm so excited!

I'm really looking forward to next weekend. I am taking a (well-earned) break from family life and disappearing to a little cabin next to a lake for a couple of nights.

I'll drive there on Friday night (it's not a long drive) and come home Sunday.

I've been meaning to have a retreat of some kind for years. Tai Chi Man had a weekend away last year, I think it was, and now it's my turn. I'll be taking my tarot cards, some simple knitting, a notebook and coloured pencils, warm clothing (it's at a higher altitude than my house) and some basic foodstuffs and plan to have lots of quiet, meditative, time to myself.

I can't wait!

The back is done

Today's photo was taken yesterday afternoon, out on my deck. Can you see the orangey tinge to it? The sky went very hazy and the sunlight had a definite orange tint, so I'm thinking there was smoke in the air, though I don't know of any forest fires in the area. (However, I'm not one for following the news, so there could be a raging forest fire just behind the next mountain and I'd be the last to know about it!)

Anyway, I thought I'd show you how close I was to the end of the ball of yarn when I completed the back of the baby top. There's probably no more than a yard left on that cardboard inner tube. This is good news as I will definitely have enough yarn to complete the project.

My calculations must have been a little off, as the length from neck to hem is half an inch shorter than I would have liked. And I knitted four fewer rows to get the 8 inch width from armhole to armhole. So it's a good thing that I did knit the back first, as now I will be sure to place the front neck opening in the right place.

Tai Chi Man is gone for a couple of days to the Kootenays, east of here. He has to take the occasional trip there for work, whether it's fixing, servicing or installing something. Life goes on much the same for the rest of us, except dinner last night was a way simpler affair, and when the kids go to bed after midnight I don't have to keep shushing them and hope they don't wake their dad, who is usually in bed by 10pm!

A little designing

I'm grabbing the opportunity for a mid-afternoon post while the two younger boys procrastinate instead of finishing their math. Today they're learning how to multiply and divide decimals - not too hard once you know where to put the decimal point in the answer. However they are busy goofing around with my exercise ball instead.

Yesterday afternoon I knitted up a gauge swatch with some Sirdar Just Bamboo which I've had for months. I only have four 50gram balls so can't make anything particularly big, but after seeing a cute little garter stitch baby sweater in Weekend Knitting I thought I'd have enough for something similar. Borrowing the measurements from the schematic, I sketched out a design for a sleeveless baby top with a hood.

The back and front are very simple, both the same shape, with a slit opening at the front to allow extra room for the baby's head to go through. When I've knitted them and joined them together, I'll pick up stitches around the neck and knit a hood. Not sure exactly how yet, but I'll figure it out as I go.

I'm knitting it in garter stitch from side to side - that'll make the stitch-picking-up part easy. One stitch for each ridge around the neckline.

I've made good progress on the back since I photographed this yesterday, but I'm very close to the end of the first ball and I'm hoping I'll have enough yarn.

Kyle's baby blanket and hat

I finished the baby blanket last night and couldn't resist immediately casting on for a matching hat. Starting it, I knew it would be a very quick knit, so I had to stay up to finish it, and then of course I had to stay up even later to write up the pattern for the blog!

So here it is.

Yarn: Lion Brand Homespun (bulky weight: per skein 6ozs/170g, 185yds/169m)
4 skeins for both hat and blanket (making the hat alone will take 60g or about 2ozs)
Gauge for both items: 2 sts to 1 inch on #15 (10mm) needles with two strands held together throughout
Both items are knitted flat, although a circular needle is recommended to hold the bulk of the work.

The blanket has a garter stitch border and three large cables on a reverse stockinette (stocking) stitch background. The hat has a garter stitch brim and the remainder is in st st.

Finished size for the blanket is about 28ins wide by 30ins long. The hat has a circumference of 16ins and a depth of 6ins.


Directions for the blanket:

Holding two strands of yarn together, cast on 60 sts.

Knit 5 rows, then commence pattern.

Pattern: Rows 1, 3, 7 and 9 - K4, P9, K6, P8, K6, P8, K6, P9, K4
Row 5 - K4, P9, C6F, P8, C6F, P8, C6F, P9, K4
Rows 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 - K13, P6, K8, P6, K8, P6, K13

C6F means to place the next 3 sts on a cable needle, hold them to the front, knit the next 3 sts, then knit the sts from the cable needle. (I used a large crochet hook instead of a cable needle and it worked well.)

Work 9 repeats of the ten row pattern.

Knit 5 rows.

Bind off loosely. Weave in tails.


Directions for the hat:

With two strands of yarn held together, cast on 34 sts.

Knit 5 rows.

Starting with a purl row, work st st (one row knit, one row purl) until hat measures 5 ins from cast on edge, ending with a purl row.

Decrease for crown:

1st dec row - *K2, K2 tog* repeat from * to * across row to last 2 sts, K2
2nd dec row - *P1, P2tog* rep from * to * across row to last 2 sts, P2
3rd dec row - *K2 tog* across row
4th dec row - *P2tog* across row to last st, P1

5 sts remain

Cut yarn with a 12 inch tail, thread darning needle with both strands, draw yarn through remaining stitches on needle and pull to gather. Sew up seam using mattress stitch, taking half a stitch from each side to minimise bulk.
Weave in tails.


Abbreviations:
K - knit
P - purl
K2tog - knit two together
P2tog - purl two together
dec - decrease
sts - stitches
st st - stockinette stitch
ins - inches
rep - repeat

"One-night-stand" wrap

One night with your Bond knitting machine is all you’ll need for this wrap.

You’ll need:
Three skeins of Lion Brand Homespun (this is Candy Apple)
a 6.5mm crochet hook
a large-eyed darning needle

Set up your Bond with a #4 keyplate. My gauge was about 9.5 sts and 15 rows to 4 inches.

Push out every other needle across the machine (50 needles) and, working from the left and starting with a slipknot, e-wrap cast on 50 sts.

Hang the weighted hem, push the needles back into working position and, starting with the carriage on the right, knit 250 rows. Change to a new skein when necessary (I found one skein lasted about 100 rows). Rehang the hem when your work hits the floor! I counted my rows in sets of ten, writing them down as I went - if you have a row counter, then it’s even easier.

Bind off using the backstitch method. Cut the yarn leaving a length about three times the width of your knitting. Thread up a darning needle and use a back-stitch-type motion to bind off all stitches loosely.

The knitting part took me no more than an hour.

With the crochet hook and starting near a corner, single crochet (double in UK) around the wrap, working 1 st between each row along the sides and 1 st between each st along the ends. Crochet over the yarn tails as you go (the tails that were left when you changed to a new skein). At the corners, work **1 single crochet (double crochet in UK), 2 chain, 1 single (double)** into the corner st. When you get back to where you started, slipstitch (single crochet in UK) to join to the first st and fasten off. Weave in tail.

The crocheting took me about an hour too.

It’s a wrap!

A date with my Bond

I felt like a change of pace this evening. I spent some time with my knitting machine and completed a whole project in a couple of hours. I have typed up the pattern but need to photograph the finished item, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see it.

Project monogamy is not for me! It's good to have more than one project on the go: a simple one/a more complicated one, a portable one/a bigger project to keep your lap warm on the sofa, one on skinny needles/one on big needles. It keeps things interesting and guarantees that you'll never be without something to keep your hands busy.

See you tomorrow!

Midlife crisis? Me?

I thought some of you who are at THAT time of life might be interested in a newsletter that I just signed up for. Here's a sentence from my first newsletter that explains it...

Tips, tools, and treasures for leading edge, midlife women who are ready to become their own fairy godmothers and give themselves permission to be there for themselves the way they always have been for others.

Sounds interesting, huh! Check it out here: Midlife Fairy Godmothers.com

Ratatouille

A friend came over today and we had some of my ratatouille for lunch. She liked it and I said I'd post the recipe, so here it is. I don't measure anything so this is really a guideline.



a large eggplant (aubergine), diced
a large zucchini (courgette), sliced
tomatoes, maybe 6 large ones, roughly chopped
a large onion or a couple of medium ones, chopped
garlic, 1 - 3 cloves, crushed
a couple of bell peppers - I like red, but you can use any colour - chopped
black olives - a few
herbs, fresh or dried (eg oregano, basil, thyme)
salt (the good stuff please, either seasalt or Himalayan)
black pepper
olive oil

I start with a good dose of olive oil - enough to cover the bottom of a large saucepan. Warm it up, but don't let it smoke. Saute the onions and garlic for a few minutes, then add the eggplant. Eggplant is like a sponge, it'll soak up that oil like crazy. Then toss in the rest of the ingredients and simmer it for a long time - say an hour. It benefits from long cooking. In fact, it'll probably taste even better if you let it cool and warm it up and eat it the next day.

Good on its own, or with salad, bread, noodles, whatever.

The Fall Knitty is out

Another quickie post tonight, just to let you know that Knitty is out with its usual range of unique and inventive knitting patterns.

I love this cap. A lot of hats don't suit me, but I think this one would.

Knotions

Have you heard about this? A new online knitting "magazine". Free patterns, articles etc. And have I ever found a great sweater that I just have to knit, if I can find a vegan yarn to substitute for the wool (gauge: 3.5 sts to the inch). It's called Terra and it's designed by Jacqueline Landry. I discovered her blog today and she designs some awesome stuff. Go take a look!

Knitting stalled...stop...life getting in way...stop

A quick telegram - er, I mean blog post - to say the baby blanket has not grown at all the last two days.

Monday is usually my housework day. I did the bathrooms but the vacuuming was put aside so I could start blitzing the kitchen. Dusted the tops of the wall units - yuk, don't do that job too often, the dust was flying everywhere! Started tidying and cleaning drawers and cupboards. Still lots to do on that.

The joy of cleaning was interrupted by a visit to the dentist - we were collecting a nightguard for Computer Geek (so he can't grind his teeth in his sleep).

And Ninja Boy and I had a Taekwondo class in the evening. So the knitting was neglected.

I did get to the vacuuming today. I also had a haircut this morning and a visit from a friend this afternoon (we traded fruit - she brought prune plums and took peaches home).

At 4.30pm, Ninja Boy and I were to be found at the Taekwondo dojang again. The instructor had asked us to help out with the kids white belt class as there were some new students and he would appreciate the extra instructors. There was a good instructor/student ratio in that class - four black belts and six white belt kids. After that class, there was another for kids with a bit more experience, so we stayed to help out at that one too. And THEN we trained in the mixed family class - all ages and belt levels. And that's not all - we stayed on for a fourth hour and participated in the boxing/kickboxing class. It was a mighty relief to get home and have a shower and something to eat!

I shall have to drag myself off this computer soon if I am to knit a few rows before bed - so no Bookworm for me tonight.

Going vegan is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint

Going vegan the way to reduce carbon footprint
August 27, 2008 Edition 4

Berlin - Giving up meat could drastically reduce your carbon footprint, with meat-eaters' diets responsible for almost twice the emissions of those of vegetarians, according to a German study.

A diet with meat is responsible for producing in a year the same amount of greenhouse gases as driving a mid-sized car 4 758km, the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IOeW) said yesterday.

But the food a vegetarian consumes in 12 months is responsible for generating the same emissions as driving 2 427km, the IOeW said in a study commissioned by independent consumer protection group Foodwatch.

The calculations are based on emissions of greenhouse gases, including methane produced by the animals themselves, as well as emissions from food production including manufacturing feed and fertiliser and the use of farmland.

Going vegan, giving up meat and dairy products, would cut the emissions released in making what you eat more than seven-fold, to the equivalent of driving 629km, it said.

And if it is all organic, your food footprint is almost a 17th of that of a meat-eater, the equivalent of driving 281km. Beef is environmentally unfriendly, it said, with producing a kilo the same as driving 71km compared with 26km for pork.

*********************************

It seems that many people are realising, finally, that being vegan is of great benefit to the health of humans, the health of animals and the health of the planet.

Here's a link from the New Scientist that supports the above article.

And another from the BBC.

Interested in finding out more about the vegan lifestyle? Look here.

Two FOs and a work-in-progress

I like finishing things. I like being able to use them or give them as gifts. I'm definitely a product knitter.

Above is my finished Brea Bag showing the Sculpey button that I decided to use. I have transferred my everyday bits and pieces from my usual bag into this one and am looking forward to using it.


This is my "escargot" hat, named of course for the snail that I duplicate-stitched (Swiss-darned) on the front. I used some knitter's graph paper that I printed off online, though the snail came out somewhat larger than I anticipated. This is a baby hat, made with some leftover Bernat Satin from the basic hat pattern in The Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd.

And finally, the progress on the baby blanket for my Taekwondo instructor's baby-to-be.


The colour on this is crappy as I took the photo this evening in artificial light and I had to turn off the flash so you could see the cables. I tweaked some of the settings on iPhoto to lighten it up. It's Lion Brand Homespun in Williamsburg, which is a lovely shade of blue. The photo doesn't do it justice.

I am almost at the end of the first two skeins (I'm using two strands at a time) and I'm glad to say that the blanket will turn out to be longer than it is wide. I'll note how many rows I knitted with the first two skeins, so that I can calculate how many rows and inches I can expect the finished article to have. I might even bind off in time to leave a little yarn for a matching hat.

I love it

Thanks to Nannybird, I now have a new award in my sidebar. Thanks, Nan!

Today was the first day when I officially allowed myself some acid-forming foods. Tai Chi Man and I have done our month, with no cheating whatsoever, and I was really looking forward to some fruit.

Breakfast was three peaches. Moderately acid-forming, according to the pH Miracle. Lunch and the main part of dinner were all alkalising, but I enjoyed another three peaches for dessert. I really don't want to live without fruit!

I did lose a little weight over the month and I'm happy about that.

Friday update

I've just realised I haven't posted since Monday. Sorry to make you wait so long! When I started this blog, I was posting nearly every day - now, I find I'm spending less time on the computer, sometimes only using it in the evening rather than morning and evening.

I was "on the go" all day today, except for a small window of opportunity for half an hour before Taekwondo, when I picked up my knitting and did a few rows. We don't usually go to TKD on a Friday, but the September schedule has started and there are lots of new classes. Apart from our main classes, which are for red and black belts on Mondays and Wednesdays at 7.30, we now have lots of other choices to make. Do we go to an extra sparring class? A self defence class? A kickboxing class? The young man who's running the club these days is very motivated and an excellent teacher and is committed to four hours a night, five nights a week, at the dojang - in addition to his full-time day job.

I decided to freeze some of the tomatoes that we bought last weekend. I used 12 wide-mouth Mason jars, just washing them and pouring in the tomatoes that I had chopped up in the food processor. I did this last year and used them instead of canned and they tasted way better in recipes. We still have a pile of them left on the kitchen counter, but they are keeping well and we are doing our best to eat some at every meal!

I now have three trays of peaches in the cold store room. During the last week, I have been going down to the peach tree every other day and checking every single peach for a bit of "give". If it seems a little soft, I pick it. The first batch still looks good and I am hoping that they will store for long enough that I can enjoy eating some of them without actually having to live on them for a week. I don't want to freeze or can them - my freezer is full enough already.

Don't tell my kids but I have simplified my bread recipe down to the absolute basics. Tonight's pizza dough was just spelt flour, salt and yeast. I cut out the sugar, the kids haven't noticed, and the dough still rises, so that's great!


I finished the knitting part of my Brea Bag and found a boring black handbag at the thrift store for $2 which has a boring handle I can cut off and use for my Brea. If I find something better later on, I can always switch it. Really, I think I should have just continued knitting the gusset strip in the moss stitch until it was long enough to make a handle, as a knitted matching handle would be much nicer. I played with the kids' Sculpey today and made some buttons. Not sure which one I'll use, but one of them should work for my bag. (The thing with fangs and the stick-man-type character on the left belong to Ninja Boy, not me!)



And my latest project: a baby blanket. On Wednesday night, my Taekwondo instructor revealed that his girlfriend is expecting in January. Very exciting news....so what does a knitter do at the first sign of a new baby on the way? Yes, of course, I went to buy more Lion Brand Homespun the very next day in a lovely shade of blue (I don't know if the baby is a boy or girl, but the blue was the nicest colour). I have knitted about 6 inches of the blanket so far. The photo doesn't really show it well, but there are three big cables and a garter stitch border. I made up the pattern. Two strands of yarn, #15 needles (that's 10mm I think), and 2 stitches to the inch.


I think we're all caught up. Back soon!

Keremeos

We managed to get ourselves (minus Computer Geek as usual) out of the house by 10.30am today so that we could head south for a day out.


Tai Chi Man was driving of course, so I made good progress on my Brea bag. By the end of the driving time, I was more than half way through the gusset piece. Just have to find a handle and button for it now - maybe at a thrift store.

We found a fruit stand that was selling 30lbs of tomatoes for $10 - so we bought three boxes! Last year, we used our food processor to chop up a similar load of tomatoes and freeze them in glass mason jars; they tasted way better than canned. At the same fruit stand today we bought some Russian Red garlic (huge heads), two eggplants (aubergines), a giant zucchini (courgette) which was really more of a marrow and a bag of bell peppers.


We then drove through Keremeos (a very small place) and driving around the back roads we found a lovely park - trees, grass, playground - where we relaxed for a while.


The weather was perfect: it was warm in the sun, cool in the shade. Tai Chi Man proved his nickname fits by doing a little Tai Chi! The boys loved the playground.

And I played around with the camera and learned a new function on it - the close-up one! (above - ponderosa pine bark and mushrooms)


We found this little wooden bridge. They call it a covered bridge - well, the sides are covered but the top isn't. Apparently it used to be a railway bridge. Now it's part of a road and cars drive over it.


We stopped at the Grist Mill on the way out of town, hoping to get a cup of tea, and discovered that we could walk around it but there was no one running it. The gardens are being maintained but the museum-type displays and the tour that we so enjoyed last year aren't happening this year.

We stopped at another little town which was on our way back home and has a thriving bakery/coffee shop. The boys had Orangina, we had tea and I bought a couple of baguettes.

It was obvious what was going to be for dinner...


ratatouille. A mixture of eggplant, onions, garlic, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, oregano, salt. Served with home-grown spuds (potatoes), salad and the baguettes. A nice way to wrap up the day.