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July 31, 2008: Chocolate Garbanzo Bean Cake Nancy came over for a few hours yesterday and I made lunch. A few years ago Nancy was experimenting with a gluten-free diet and one of her favorite desserts was this flourless chocolate cake. She's no longer on that diet, but I like this cake so much that I made it for dessert yesterday. She brought raspberries from Susan's garden to make a sauce for it.
I didn't tell my kids what was in the cake until they had sucked down a couple of pieces. They didn't seem to care. It's such an easy recipe (it took all of 3 minutes to throw all the ingredients into the Cuisinart and flip the switch) that I wonder why I don't make it more often. I definitely prefer it to regular chocolate cake. The only change I'm going to make next time is to use coconut oil instead of canola oil. I use coconut oil a lot—it's not as bad for you as some would have you think. I've been using it for a couple of years now and my cholesterol levels are fine. I cleaned up my knitting area yesterday; yarn was beginning to take over. Now I feel a bit more organized. Tomorrow's post includes a sneak peek at the projects from the Fall issue of the newsletter! Stay tuned!
July 30, 2008: Four Weeks to Go . . . . . . until school starts. Not that I am counting or anything. I just like to know where I am in the schedule. The Fall issue of the newsletter is done—yay!—except for that little swatch, which I will knit today. I am mostly happy with the photos. I might tweak them a bit before printing, we'll see. While we were in Ohio, my sister and I got to go through some boxes of photos at my grandmother's house. I found this one:
I am sure my mother will shoot me for posting this, as she was having a really bad hair day here (trust me, that is so unlike her), but I love this picture. When I was little, I used to twirl my hair and suck my thumb. I've given up the thumb-sucking, but I still twirl my hair on occasion. The other person in the picture is my father's younger sister Ellen. We were all sitting on the couch at my grandmother's house. Don't you love that top my mother is wearing? It's got such a cool pattern on it. We had a Girl Scout troop outing at the water park yesterday. It was hot, but there was a pretty stiff cool breeze which made it feel cooler. I just hung out on a chaise lounge and read a book. I never got hot enough to justify jumping into 50-degree water. The water in the pool is not heated, something that is probably okay in North Carolina but not in Montana. Brrr. Today my friend Susan's mother is coming over for a visit. Susan is in California this week visiting her dad, and she left her mom (who also lives in California but spends summers with Susan) up here with Susan's husband and older daughter. I like Nancy a lot, and we always try to get together for lunch at least once while she's here. I told Susan that her mother was welcome to come down and spend the day with me. She doesn't get around so well so she'll likely just hang out on the couch and I'll get to knit and visit with her. A cold front came through last night. It's supposed to be windy today as a result. I'm hoping people have enough sense not to light any slash piles—other fire departments have been called out several times this week to extinguish fires lit by people who clearly don't understand that it's illegal to burn right now, for a reason. And check out Chrissy Gardiner's blog today—she's got a great recap of her trip to Montana!
July 27, 2008: Make Room I had to cut one of the scheduled patterns out of the Fall newsletter layout yesterday. Even at the expanded 24 pages, I just never seem to have enough room in the Fall and Winter issues for everything I want to include. But I suppose too much material is better than too little. I've included a technical article in this issue, something that has been sadly lacking in recent issues. It's made me realize how much I want to get back to working on Cables 2. I was (and still am) hoping to have that book out in 2008. The issue is finished except for a small swatch I need to knit up to accompany the article, and three more project photos (which I can't take until the battery is done charging). It's been so darn bright here lately that I can't get a shot without everything looking washed out. A friend of mine suggested I look into some polarizing filters, so a trip to the camera store is on the list for this week. Despite a few hiccups along the way, this issue has come together pretty well and I am pleased with it. I just looked out in the front yard and there are two fawns bedded down. The dogs are in the house, otherwise I am sure the fawns would have stayed in the woods. And there is at least one baby robin in the nest in the porch above the laundry room door (the husband's comment about that was, "Nothing like building a nest right over the mouth of the lion's den."). I hope the mama robin is smart enough to take the baby out to the safety of the garden when it is time to teach it to fly.
I picked a bunch of lettuce this morning to make a salad for the funeral. I am kind of disappointed with my lettuce crop—rather, I should say I am disappointed in my mixed greens crop. DD#2 and I seeded the bed right before we left for Ohio. The bed is in the shadiest part of the garden (under a tree), so the greens won't bolt. Guess what? In the space of a mere three weeks, all the spinach, kale, mustard, and other greens bolted. Blah. I had to pull all of them out because they were too bitter to eat. We're down to green and red lettuce (and some sorrel, which is in another part of the garden), but I am missing the other greens. I like a little bitterness, but not so bitter that it makes your face screw up. I am trying to use up the lettuce so I can plant another crop of mixed greens before it gets too cold. Maybe this time the plants won't bolt. Someone in the neighborhood has taken to leaving their dogs out at night. I don't think those dogs sleep at all—I can hear them barking all night long. Of course, this means that when Chester wakes up at 3:52 a.m. (I have no idea why), he feels it's important to join in. I refuse to get out of bed before 4:30 a.m. Consequently, I usually lay there for half an hour thinking unkind things about people in my neighborhood. Time to head to the funeral.
July 25, 2008: Stuff Is Happening I met with the DVD producer this morning to go over a preliminary edit of the DVD. It's so exciting! There are a few minor things I would like to re-shoot if time permits, but if I can't, I still think it will be a great DVD. We're already talking about getting DVD #2 started before the end of August. I got a picture of the Mystery Afghan; the light has been way too bright and harsh but I am hoping to get a better picture this weekend:
I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the way this turned out. The yarn was the perfect choice. I've got another sweater blocking upstairs. I am glad it's hot and arid right now because sweaters don't take long at all to dry in this weather. Unfortunately, dry thunderstorms are on the menu for next week. We've been lucky and have not had much lightning this summer. Another elderly lady from our church died this week. The funeral is Monday; I haven't heard anything yet so I don't think I need to play or sing at this one. I will make some food for the luncheon, though. This particular lady and her husband often sat behind me in church. I have notoriously messy hair. One Sunday morning I turned around to say hi to them after the service and she was sitting there with a comb on her lap. She looked at me and said, "I was going to fix your hair for you." What a sweetheart. My kids are at the lake with some friends of ours. I am enjoying the peace and quiet and the opportunity to get some work done on the newsletter.
July 24, 2008: Welcome to Planet Janet How cool is this? When I checked into Ravelry yesterday morning, there was an invitation to join the Planet Janet forum, a group dedicated to all the Janets on Ravelry (apparently there are ten pages of us). I discovered that there is another Janet Kaye in the world (same spelling). I belong to way too many forums already, but the Planet Janet forum is one I've put at the top of my list to read. And of course I had to go to YouTube and listen to the Schoolhouse Rock song. It took me two hours to put the fringe on the Mystery Afghan last night, and it required all but 15" of a full skein of yarn (which is 246 yards). It looks SO wonderful. I want to get a picture of it as soon as possible to send to Bev Galeskas at Fiber Trends, because it was she who suggested the Natural Wool yarn. (Fiber Trends is now the US distributor for Naturally Yarns from New Zealand.) I think she'll be thrilled to see the result. And Melanie and I are going to offer the afghan as an ongoing project class this fall. I'm not working on any major projects right now. I have to finish the Yak scarf but that won't take long. The husband joined the local gun club and is going to spend part of Saturday there for some event. He said I could take my .22 with me and practice by myself while he's at the event, but I think I would rather take my knitting (probably the scarf to finish) and watch him shoot. I have a couple of ideas percolating; we'll see what floats to the top and wants to be knitted up first. I leave you with another Ohio picture. This was taken from the top of Perry's Monument on the island of Put-In-Bay, overlooking the town. We were lucky to get to go to the top of the monument, as they are closing it soon to repair some of the structure.
It was a cool and rainy day and the members of my party didn't like my golf cart driving. Golf carts aren't MegaCabs, that's for sure.
July 23, 2008: Moths As Design Inspiration The hike yesterday was wonderful. We went with my friend Susan (the one I refer to as my kids' other mother) who is our Girl Scout troop leader. She and I had four girls with us—my two, Susan's younger one, and another girl from the troop. The remaining four girls in the troop couldn't make it. Armed with bear spray, snacks, water, and some plants and bird books, we drove down to the trailhead and set off.
I love hiking with Susan. She has a Master's degree in Botany (the one biology class I never managed to take for my major—go figure), so she is a wealth of information on local flora. The group which created this hiking trail did a wonderful job of posting markers at various places to point out plants we should know. I think the girls got a bit tired of Susan and me stopping to converse about the many interesting plants, but I hope it was educational. We were the only ones on the trail. That made DD#1 a bit nervous. She was walking right behind me (I had the can of bear spray in my hand with the safety off and my fire department radio in my backpack) and at one point she said, "I would feel more comfortable if we were out here with Daddy," to which I responded, "Do you think your mother can't protect you?" and she said, "Ummm, no." How nice to know that. We saw a lot of elk droppings. It's possible there were bears around, but we also made a point of making lot of noise to scare them whenever we went around a bend in the trail. We did see this:
which I thought was just beautiful. The colors are actually more vibrant than they look in this picture, and I kept thinking what a lovely combination that would make for a Fair Isle sweater, if I were inclined to make one. I finished the sweater out of the Rowan Cashsoft Aran. I love the way it turned out, but it seems that my designer's vision of the sweater has run smack into reality and my vision is losing the battle. I've shown this to a couple of people now, and every single one of them says it looks too feminine to be a man's sweater. I just find this very interesting (and rather distressing). I chose the cable pattern specifically because I thought it looked very masculine. And I chose a chunky yarn to emphasize the intended masculinity of the design. It ordinarily would not be a problem, except that the newsletter has been sadly lacking on mens' designs and I wanted to include some in the next couple of issues. If I had intended for it to be a womens' design, I would have incorporated waist shaping and used a thinner yarn. We'll see how it looks after blocking. It's going to go on display at Camas Creek after I get pictures taken and the pattern written for the newsletter. It will be interesting to see what knitters think about the design. Bleh. Maybe I should find a different career.
July 21, 2009: Vacation Inertia As much as I enjoyed our vacation on the east coast, and as much as I enjoy my business and working on my knitting, transitioning between the two is turning out to be more difficult than I had envisioned. I gave myself an additional week "off" last week without tackling all the business stuff I had to do, because I needed to get the husband's construction company stuff taken care of and the house re-stocked with food (the man will eat everything—and I mean everything down to just about the last can of beans—to avoid going to the grocery store while I am gone). Plus I knew Chrissy was coming to visit and I wanted to spend time with her. But this morning I woke up promptly at 4:45 am and headed down to my office. No sense putting off the inevitable. I've made some progress—not as much as I would have liked, but progress nonetheless. I started on the newsletter layout, got two patterns written, followed up on some missing payments from one of my book distributors (it seems like I am always chasing down money from them), and tied up a few other miscellaneous loose ends. This past weekend I washed and blocked the Mystery Afghan (the directions have appeared in the last three issues of the Twists and Turns Newsletter® with the last installment in the coming Fall issue), so tying the fringe on and taking pictures is next on the list. Our boxes of stuff arrived from Ohio today—we always seem to acquire more stuff than we had when we went and I usually ship it back here—so I unpacked and put away the class materials I had sent ahead for my classes at A Tangled Tale. Speaking of the store, here's a picture:
It's such a bright and airy store, one of the nicest places I've taught. It's in the community of Powell, OH. If you're close, make a point of stopping in and tell Doreen that Janet sent you. I'm about out of energy; I just made myself a cup of the coffee I bought at the Blue Crab Coffee Company in St. Michaels, MD, but I think I should have made regular, not decaf (I got some of each). I think it's time to leave the computer and go work on some knitting. While I was at A Tangled Tale, Doreen gave me two skeins of Shokay Shambala yak yarn. It's just a fabulous yarn and I love it. I am making a garter stitch scarf—yes, a garter stitch scarf, but with a twist (literally). It's so cool. I spent more than a few minutes this afternoon trying to locate the second skein of yarn so I could finish it. I knew that it had come home with us, but where it went after it got in the door was beyond me. I finally found it at the bottom of my carry-on bag. Tomorrow's schedule includes a hike—DD#2's Girls Scout troop is meeting at 8 a.m. to go on a hike at the Sprunger-Whitney Nature Trail. I'd like to stay home and work, but I can't pass up a chance to hike. I figure that we'll hike in the morning and head to town to do errands in the afternoon, and that way I'll be able to stay home on Wednesday, instead.
July 20, 2008: Street Legal I forgot to mention the big news of the household this week: DD#1 got her driver's license. I'm not ready to let her go completely solo to town yet, but she can certainly drive around here by herself. Whew. I renewed my driver's license at the same time she got hers. Her picture is much better than mine, but DD#2 tells me that mine is a huge improvement over my "late 90's" picture (in Montana we get licensed for eight years, not four). I got to see Chrissy and Sydney and Owen one more time last night. I had promised them a peek at the fire engine, but wouldn't you know it—right around dinner time our department got paged out for a grass fire. So the kids played and Chrissy and I sat and talked about knitting until our department was released from the fire. The husband had to fix a piece of equipment on the engine, so he just brought the engine back to our house and parked it in the driveway. We had a lot of fun playing on it. I ran the lights and siren for Owen. Sydney was just fascinated with the backup camera screen in the cab. We all had to take turns standing behind the truck and dancing so she could watch us. Here is Chrissy in the engine:
Owen is driving, and doing a darn fine job in spite of the fact that he can barely see over the steering wheel. The Gardiners are heading back to Portland today, but we promised the kids they could come back next summer and play again (we thought for a moment that Sydney might move in with us but she did leave with her mother). Chrissy is such fun—she's always upbeat and positive and a joy to be around. You'll have to check out her blog in the next couple of days; she took pictures, too, and I can't wait to see what she writes about her experiences here in Montana. Tomorrow it is back to work. I've been making a list of all the knitting- and business-related stuff I need to do so I can prioritze things. First on the list is the fall newsletter. I also have half a dozen patterns to write: some for the newsletter, some for a round of test-knitting (my knitters have been so patient and I would like to give them some work!), and some to sell at Camas Creek. I meet with the DVD producer this week, and yes—there is that book I am supposed to be finishing. I am not lacking for things to do. And I've been trying to spend a half-hour weeding every morning. The husband commented the other day that the garden looks better than it has in five years. I said that's because this is the first time in five years that I've had enough energy to go out there and work, thanks to finally getting diagnosed and put on thyroid meds. Next year I am going to plant even more stuff. I have one more big project to tackle this summer: painting our bedroom. It's the last big room in the house that still has the original coat of eggshell white paint from 12 years ago (I know, how sad is that?). I fell in love with a duvet cover I saw at Bed Bath & Beyond the other day. It's a deep red with gold threads shot through it. I want something kind of elegant, but you have to remember that the husband does concrete for a living. "Concrete" and "elegant" aren't two words I would normally put in the same sentence. So we'll see. Some addtional research is in order. We've got a fire department BBQ this afternoon. I am off to go make some coleslaw.
July 17, 2008: Fun With Chrissy Chrissy Gardiner and her husband and two kids came over for dinner last night. She brought me a skein of Socks That Rock in the colorway Motley Hue, a beautiful muted blue-green. She tells me that it is perfectly acceptable for me NOT to make socks with the yarn, as she knows that I am not a big sock knitter. I think it will become a hat, instead. I finally got to meet Sydney and Owen after reading about their adventures on Chrissy's blog. It took them a few moments to warm up to my girls, but shortly they were out on the swings, playing in the playhouse, and checking out the bear scratches on the side of our house. Chrissy and I did a little downhill skiing on the Wii after dinner (she's such a good sport!) and they headed off to their hotel with a promise to meet me at Camas Creek Yarn this morning. But I am such an idiot!—I went to town without my camera. And we didn't take any pictures last night, either. What a lame blogger I am. We spent an hour or so at Camas Creek talking to Melanie and Andy. Chrissy's husband Bill had a meeting at the golf course at 12:30, so we dropped him off there and she and her kids and I went to iHop for lunch. Sydney and Owen are very entertaining. I remember when my kids were that age and I am just amazed that Chrissy gets as much done as she does. We've got plans for one more get-together tomorrow night, because I promised the kids a visit to the fire station so they could sit in the engines. And I will take my camera. When I got home I went out to the gardening shed and dragged out some soaker hose to put on my veggies. It's supposed to be hot this week with no rain, and we're getting a lot of wind. The wind is drying everything out, so our fire chief says we need to make sure we don't let down our guard. We had a lot of snow this winter and it's tempting to think we won't have a bad fire season. Not necessarily true.
July 16, 2008: Home Again, Home Again The big trip east is history and we are back home in Montana. I do have some cool pictures, but I need to get them organized before I post anything. In the meantime, a quick update from here at the ranch(-ette), and of course it includes garden pics:
Who knew weeds could grow so fast in three weeks? The first thing I did Tuesday morning was get up, have a cup of coffee, and head out to clean up the jungle that popped up while I was gone. I am going to leave the weeds to dry out a bit, then toss them on the compost pile. I have asparagus! I am so happy.
I also have zucchini, strawberries, lettuce, tomatoes, calendula, tons of herbs, and lots of pretty flowers. The beans and peas are straggling, but I think they'll catch up. And remember that little guy from a few weeks ago?
Not only did he move in, but so did a bunch of his siblings. I was trimming back the hops vines yesterday and two of them slithered out onto the path. I saw a couple over on the vegetable side of the garden, too. They are doing a fabulous job of eating all the bugs. I just have to be careful I don't step on them. I'm sure they were happier when no one was tromping around the garden pulling up plants. We also have a black bear or two roaming the neighborhood. The husband saw one about two weeks ago, and yesterday in the paper there was a report that a couple of bears got into a neighbor's beehives. It should be an interesting rest of the summer. We're having very special guests for dinner tonight! Chrissy Gardiner of Gardiner Yarn Works and her family are in Kalispell for the weekend, so tonight it's steaks on the grill, salad from the garden, and hot fudge brownie sundaes for our guests. Pics tomorrow!
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