Food, food and more food

It seems to run in cycles, but these days my life is all about food.

This morning I've made puttanesca sauce for dinner tonight (yes, my kids love anchovies!) and a batch of hummus (my son especially loves it).

I've been picking and cooking green beans every day for days, we got a little behind on the harvesting.

Tonight I'm going to make several batches of pesto with the basil I picked yesterday. Also picked bunches and bunches of mint, which are currently hanging to dry (we use dried mint in cooking several times a week.)

This weekend I'm going to try pickling cherry tomatoes and freezing the larger tomatoes that volunteered in our garden this summer. Also, this weekend we will make an enormous batch of red sauce the way the Italian's nonna used to make it, which involves large quantities of canned tomatoes, meat and many, many hours of cooking down (stirring every twelve minutes!)

Hooray for good food! I feel like a squirrel, packing food away for the winter, but there's nothing like food in the freezer to give you a warm feeling.

Thwarted

Warning - this is a blog post that would be better if I had supporting photographs. I actually do have the photographs, but if I wait for the time when I can post them, this blog post will never happen.

So, imagine if you will...

I have been spinning lately. Not a lot, but enough to remind me how much I enjoy spinning and how much I miss it.

I did a lot of spinning when I first started, about 12 years ago. I was working a more than full time job, but didn't have kids and indulged myself. I got a nice wheel, picked up a used Pat Green drumcarder, and had fun at the Monterey Fleece auction several years running.

Then I quit my job and went back to school. Then I had a kid. Then I had another kid. Then all of a sudden I realized I hadn't touched the spinning wheel for a long time! (Then more time passed...)

Lately I've been focused on using supplies I already have on hand, trying to use things up and whenever possible not replace them (I'm talking cleaning supplies, soap, pantry, yarn, everything). I've felt weighted down by the stuff that fills every nook and cranny of my 1000 sq ft house, and I'm trying to lighten the load. To that end I've been going through drawers, shelves, bins, etc. taking stock of what I have. (Not in any systematic kind of way, just randomly, but still it's a start).

Plus I've had a few things lately that I couldn't find, so I've been looking through all sorts of things. And I have found all sorts of thing. Fleeces that were brought home in 1997, washed, sorted, and still sitting there. All sorts of yarn, spinning fiber, etc.

All of this has inspired me to want to get out the carder and get cracking through some of the fleece. Easier said than done.

For several days I looked for the manual and instructions. This shouldn't have been necessary, except when last I used it I had set it up with the motor, and with two children in the house I wanted to switch it back to manual crank in the hopes that would decrease the chance of injury.

Finally it occurred to me to look for paperwork in the file cabinet. (No mean feat - I had to move four bikes to open the 'long term storage' file cabinet).

Then I had to wait two days for a window of time to get out the carder. Finally this morning I had time. I followed the instructions and reattached the crank, wiped the surfaces clean, oiled the necessary spots, attached the drive band and was ready to go. I thought the carding cloth might be dusty so I pulled out some random waste fleece and carded on a light batt. Things were going well - the kids were busy in the other room, I pretty much remembered what I was doing, the carder looked in good shape, everything was fine. I decided to switch the position of the crank to make it easier to doff the batt. As I was calmly undoing the screw, excited about getting to actually card some wool today, I hear a slight "plunk" and look up to see half of the drive band lazily uncurl from the gears and flop to the table.

Damn drive band failed at the join, making the carder completely inoperable. I don't blame the manufacturer - it's been sitting on a shelf for years (although I was smart enough to remove the drive band from the carder!) and I'm sure whatever they use to join the band gets brittle over time.

It's not a tragedy, I've got plenty of other things to do with my time, but it was disappointing. I'll call Pat Green tomorrow and see if I can glue it back together or if I need to get a new band (if so, I'll probably get a new band for the motor at the same time!) Hopefully by next weekend I'll be up and running, at which point it will probably be another month before I find the time to do it!

Behind my Back

My little girl is a reader (any of you who have met her are nodding your heads at this point). Since I am a librarian I supply her with a never-ending stream of library books (the Italian once looked at the bag of books I brought home from work and asked "did you leave any books for anyone else?")

I make it a policy to not interfere too much with what she reads. I occasionally try to get her to read slightly longer, more complex books, but if she wants to read large quantities of short chapter books I don't get in her way. Reading is a skill that needs to be practiced and to some extent it doesn't matter what they read, as long as they are reading.

There have been two instances when I have not let her read something. The first was the day she brought home a "Mary-Kate and Ashley" book from the library. I read the first page and decided it was the moral equivalent of Fluff'n'Nutter and told her to find something else. This was at least a year ago.

The second time was more recently. The kids had expressed an interest in the Harry Potter books and I decided they would be a good read-aloud series. For many months this was our bedtime reading. Both kids seemed to enjoy the books; Buddy would occasionally look at a Lego catalog while I read, but he is four and his attention span wasn't always up to the challenge. We read the first three books and got partway through the fourth, at which point Punkin got impatient with the slow pace and finished the last three hundred pages one day while we were in Massachusetts this summer.

I tried to continue to read from this book at bedtime but Buddy decided he wasn't interested and Punkin had already read it so we moved on to something else. The next day, before I'd had a chance to talk to her about it, I found Punkin sitting and reading book 5 in the series (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). I had already decided that we were going to have to stop at this point in the series and wait a little while before we read any more. (If you haven't read these books at this point Harry is 15 and dealing with many challenging issues, not the least of which is a teacher who forces him to write lines in his arm as punishment for breaking the rules.) It seemed like things were getting a bit intense for a third grader.

Punkin objected, of course, but didn't really press the issue. This was in August, and I haven't given it much thought since. We read one of the Lemony Snicket books and are now reading By the Great Horn Spoon, which is especially fun since we went up to Sacramento for a little sight-seeing at the end of the summer and this book takes place during the California Gold Rush.

Fast forward to this evening - Back to School Night at Punkin's school. The Italian and I went, sat through several presentations and got a chance to chat with Punkin's teacher (a thoroughly pleasant young woman.) We chatted for a minute about Punkin and I said something about how much she reads. The teacher said "oh yes, I can hardly tear her away from the Harry Potter book she's reading!"

At which point proud mama disappeared and irritated mama appeared. I tried to keep a poker face, although I think I did a poor job of it. I hope her teacher doesn't end up thinking that I'm one of those uber-controlling moms, because I'm generally not.

After picking the kids up from the friend who was watching them I managed to wait until we were home and getting ready for bed. I asked Punkin if she was reading a Harry Potter book at school, and she said yes. I asked her which book, and she said book 5. I thought it was fair to at least establish the facts.

I tried to be calm, and I think I was. (Tensions were running high because Buddy was having a screaming melt-down about something with his dad in the next room). I was brushing Punkin's hair and her face was buried against my chest. I talked to her about not doing things behind my back, about my reasons for asking her not to read that book, and how I would prefer if she talk to me about things instead of doing an end-run around me. At which point I discovered that she was crying. Made me feel like a cad.

We talked a little bit more about how she could have handled the issue differently, I told her she should try to make the case and find some other solution. I really stressed that I didn't want her going behind my back about things, that I wanted her to talk to me about things like this and try to find a solution together.

She cheered up a bit, although I think she really understood that I was disappointed and she didn't like the way that made her feel. I hope I struck the right balance.

This parenting business is hard.

Knitting - River Forest Gansey

Looking back through my past 12 months of posts I was struck by how little I was blogging about knitting on what is ostensibly a knitting blog.

I do, in fact knit. I don't, however, have much patience for photographing/downloading/editing/uploading etc of the images. Part of the issue is that my computer is old and slower than dirt (shh, don't tell the Italian, he's been pointing out for some time now that I need a new computer.)

So I'm going to try to streamline the process a little bit in the hopes that I will actually post photos more often, even if they are low quality.

My latest knitting project is Jolene Trace's River Forest Gansey (from Melanie Falick's Handknit Holidays) which I am making for my son. My LYS Purlescence had a sale on Cascade 220 earlier in the summer and I enjoy working with that yarn, plus it is moderately priced (even more so when it is 40% off!) So I took Buddy and we picked out this beautiful orange together. I love making things for the kids in bright colors, and this orange looks great on him.



I finished the pieces two nights ago and got them blocked this morning (with the boy's help, of course). This is just the back. The pattern is a pullover which I have converted to a cardigan with a plan to put a zipper in the front. I am really excited with this project - it has been fun to knit, the boy is excited and I think he will get some good use out of it.

I was less than thrilled with the quality of the pattern - there were too many little mistakes. Nothing that I couldn't work my way through, but with a better job of editing the pattern it would be more user friendly.

More Milestones

They're coming fast and furious these days, aren't they?

16 years ago today the Italian and I were married.

We had, and I hope I don't sound immodest, one of the most entertaining weddings I have ever attended. We had audience participation in the ceremony, cross-dressing at the reception, and vocal performances by both the bridesmaids and groomsmen (there were six of each).

It was a blast, the parts of it that I can remember. I was suffering from severe sleep deprivation and stress, so some of it is a blur. But it was one of the best times I've ever had.

It's been sixteen years since then, which is hard to believe some days. He still makes me laugh (much of the time), and he still makes me angry (some of the time) and I can't imagine my life any other way.

We're going out for a drink tonight, just as soon as our friend who is going to watch the kids arrives.

Hope you all have a pleasant evening and a lovely weekend.