Wow, I sat down to start writing this blog and was immediately interrupted. I have totally forgotten the direction this was going to take.

Just before that I went into the guest room, which once was my studio, I thought I would do some drawing, Just a few little sketches or something to get the direction of the portrait projects, But guess what I have no materials here. They are all in boxes in the back of the shop. So since I don't feel like driving the 45 minutes there and 45 minutes back.... maybe I'll draw with a ball point pen.

I'm just feeling very frustrated today. I hate not having my stuff around.

There it is

The current studio wall.

Studio View

I have been working on these images in the studio. I finally have a group in the machine.Now I'm trying to decide on the colors and yarn weights and all of that boring stuff. I'm not excited about any of the color ways, yet, but I'm getting closer to a yarn type. I am also trying to post a studio view of the things samples that I've done so far. Somehow the photos don't want to get posted. A small technical glitch that I hope I have straighten out soon.

Happy New Year

Just a quick little post to wish everyone a very good year of the dog.

1 or 2 things about project runway

I know this isn't a T.V. blog or a "reality" blog but last night on project runway ..... I just have to comment.
1. I think Zulema so deserved to get the "auf Wiedersehen" from Heidi. That dress was a nightmare. But I wonder why doesn't Michael Kors get the Auf Wiedersehen. His inspiration was so lame. And those sneering faces, like he just step in a big pile of dog s**t. He needs to go.
All of this is covered at blogging project runway. read it!
Why, Why, Why, Zulema did you take Tarah away from Nick? That was his muse. But now I would say " Nick get over it" .
You still can win and Zulema's gone.
Santino. We have seen it all before. (yawn).
Chloe, one more step.
I think that I have lost my mind

Input

Today was a day of inputting the portraits into the 970. I got all of them in and tomorrow the plan is to try knitting them. I really want to be knitting them right now but since the studio is a 45 minute drive I will just leave early in the morning. I really couldn't have done this without microrevolt&knitpro.

I'm too busy cooking dinner at the moment to write much more. I'm cooking the Marcella Hazan Baked Bluefish Genoese Style from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. I love this recipe. I'm using striped bass tonight but I would suggest that anyone cooking from this recipe follow the directions from Marcella exactly the first time and work on the variations later.

I am so looking forward to knitting the new images tomorrow. I'll post photos.

Does anyone read this blog?

Home

I'm back. I've been thinking about the direction I want this to go in. So far I know it's a jumble.
Is it cooking?
Is it Knitting?
Is it an on line journal?
So far I think I will just keep trying to add a post each day and use this to find the direction. I still have to figure out how to link. So this is short while I think about things and try to get it all a little bit clearer to myself.

Wednesday 'til...

Here is the pile of knitted scarves waiting for the final manipulations. At this point I don't know what the finished product will look like exactly...


Finished and fulled. Washed and dried. These are going to come along with me this weekend so I can try to gauge a response.

So here it is Wednesday. We leave super extra early tomorrow and I won't be back until Sunday night, so I guess this will have to last until then.
I did manage to get the scarves done. The before and after shots really don't tell the whole story.

The truth is today was a just a boring day. One of those days filled with little chores and things that just had to be finished.
Tonight for dinner it has to be easy. I'm using some of the paprika from Hungary, a mix of both types from Cynthia and Carol. And I'll serve that over couscous. With some steamed vegetables and a simple salad. That is about all that I can muster today. Looking forward to lots of good eating this weekend though.

Kim Chee

Today I have been thinking about Kim Chee. I keep thinking that I should try to make it. I found a few recipes and most of them look fairly simple. My bf thinks that everything in the house will smell but I would guess that's only if you're fermenting it, right?

Another thing related to food. I finally made it to Cafe with Love in Saugerties, I went for lunch and it was very good, and the atmosphere was so so cozy. I'm going to try to get back there soon. They are also opened for diner Fri, Sat, and Sun so we're looking forward to trying dinner. We shared a Thai crab sandwich and a pear and bleu cheese salad. Both were super. and we loved the coffee and the Dutch style apple pie was , well what can I say there wasn't a crumb left. If anyone reading this blog is in Saugerties New York , Luc and Nina are welcoming hosts and I think you will like eating there.

Beauty Queen Blanket

Since I have been posting some images of the older work and it's so cold outside I thought this was appropriate.

It doesn't look like I will get too much work done in the studio today. I'm packing for the upcoming show. I do still plan on having about a dozen of the fulled scarves finished by Wednesday though. I should be able to work on them in the evening while watching T.V. I have to look and see what's on. Maybe we have Tivoed something.

I have the issue of Surfacing Journal with the interview that Melissa did of me. I like it. I also like the journal and feel a little sadness to think that this was the last one. We really need some type of critical voice in the "fiber arts" arena. and this seemed to be a good one. Thanks Marsha for all of your time put into it. And Melissa thanks for the great questions.

The latest image

I have been working on getting the images for the new work into the knitting machine. So far I have managed to input 2.
I'm also trying to work with a new yarn that I have. I'm happy with these so far. Now I've got to get working on the other images. I'm also still working on the fulled scarves. They have a deadline of this Wednesday.
Today though I am at work and I expect that it will be a fairly busy day since it's the MLK holiday weekend and a lot of people seem to be around. So the knit work is on hold until maybe tonight.
It's cold cold cold outside I'm thinking that I should have soup for lunch.

Last Night's Dinner

Last night during dinner we began talking about movies and guess what, Sunset Boulevard came up in conversation. I think it always does when we're talking about films. I thought hey, I should post some images of the earlier work I've done that isn't on the knitting machine, The first one is this final scene from sunset boulevard.

So what were we eating. It was a typical friday night dinner of Maryland style crab cakes, roasted potatoes and since it's winter, brussel sprouts. My normal way of making the crab cakes includes using about 2 slices of torn up white bread in the mix. We didn't have any white bread in the house so I substituted bread crumbs and it worked. Oh, I also made a mistake by grabbing cilantro out of the fridge instead of the flat leaf parsley, we thought why not so I used that and held back on the secret ingredient, nutmeg. I added some Old Bay and a couple of tablespoons of mayonnaise to hold them together and then broiled them after putting a little pat of butter on top, They worked out really well. I have one with me today for lunch.
Some people call them planned overs. I just say it's a good lunch.

Every year in January ...

When it's cold and damp outside and I'm recovering from the holiday gluttony I usually spend a little bit of time looking back over things that have somehow informed me in my life. One of the things that I do is re-read Moby-Dick. Not just any Moby-Dick but a Norton Critical Edition that I bought, gosh, Twenty or more years ago for 25 cents. This year, with my things being all packed up and scattered between storage, the house and my studio, I couldn't find it. I searched and searched for it going through boxes, basically being a maniac. I know I could have just gotten a new copy, But I had to have that specific one. Then one night I looked at the cookbook shelf and there it was. It was sitting with an anthology of M.F.K. Fisher's writings and a copy of The Irrepressible Toy Dog. Bang it hit me. I remembered that I put all three together in August when Ruby died. I was so sad at the time and had gathered up some comforting things.

So I've been reading the Melville and the Fisher and remembering Ruby, This time though the edition I had been so desperate to locate of the Melville has been driving me crazy. It's yellowing and binding is gone so I have decided to let that one go. I'll buy a new copy. I'm also letting a little bit of the sadness of missing Ruby leave. I'm reading the Fisher though and letting it remind me that when looking back at things its O.K. to get a little teary and good to see what has made me. I'm letting it point me into the next direction.

So somehow all of that has lead me to think of making cassoulet. Sometime in the wintry cold of late January or early February I will perform another winter ritual and make the cassoulet.

Time to work

This is an image of one of the fly pieces. It's done on the machine and then sewn.
Yesterday turned out to be uneventful in the studio, Some plumbers were working on the bathroom in the space upstairs and that meant they needed access to the pipes near the space I'm working in. So there was no knitting accomplished. I'm trying to work on a group of knitted portraits. I'm working on a brother KH-970 and I input all of the images and then knit them as a double bed jacquard. It's a little crazy since I often feel that I don't know what I'm doing (self taught knitting machine user). As soon as I can figure out how to post some images here you'll get to see the work.

Last night when I got home I just didn't feel like cooking so I made a simple soup with whatever was in the refrigerator. Turned out to be cabbage and corn, tasty but very boring.

Let's see how long I can be working before I get interruptions today.

It's all still new to me

To anyone who might be reading these baby step postings. I apologize. I really have no idea about the technical aspects of being a "blogger" and I am learning by doing. Eventually I hope to have some images posted of things that I am currently working on, as well as, my comments on food and it's history. For the first little while though it will be a bit rambling, bear with me. I do want to make this interesting and fun and informative.

I promised I would do this

I have been trying to get myself to start this blog for a while now. I hope it becomes a place where I talk about the things going on in my life concerning my art, knitting and my life, cooking etc... It could get a bit messy. That's the origin of the title.