Ghettogria!

So one of my friends and her husband just bought their first home, and were having their house warming that was BYOB.  One of my favorite things to take is sangria, but it's so expensive to buy all the fruit for it, so I had this idea to use a fruit smoothie like Odwalla or Naked instead of fresh fruit.

Unfortunately when I looked at the ingredient label I discovered that they use emulsifiers in them and I didn't want that in the gria so I ended up hitting the organic juice section to get what I wanted.  I also picted up a pint of fresh mixed berries so there'd still be a bit of fruit floating about, and a decent bottle of locally produced red wine.


Now for the mixing!  When I got home I put all the ingredients together and this is what I had.



From the Left: Santa Cruz Berry Nectar, Cayalla 2005, from the Edgefield Distillery Brandy, Pear Brandy, and Longshot Brandy, and down in front a pint of mixed berries.

I used 2 c. of the juice, all the wine, a 1/2 c. of all three brandies mixed together in fairly close to equal parts, and the whole container of berries sliced up.  Mix it all up taste it to see if it needs more juice or brandy, let it sit in the fridge overnight to mellow out, and Voila you have nice strong sangria that only cost you about $6 in fruit & juice instead of closer to $30 (yes I have spent that much before and it was some darn fine gria).

Leap into Insanity

Well it's been quite awhile since I last posted anything, I just wasn't in a real creative mood; but now one of my favorite seasons is in full swing and so likewise I too should get back into the swing of things.

So I'm kicking it off by digging out the baby blanket I was supposed to have done in September, I'm calling it the Quilt of Insanity because it's slowly eating away at mine.  The fault lies with me though the pattern New Traditions Baby Blanket is clearly written, it's just very repetitious and I have attention issues.  This is where I am right now.



I decided to knit all the squares for each design at the same time, which while more efficient because I only have o carry one or two balls of yarn with me, and after the first square or so I no longer have to think about what I'm doing.  It also means that I'm doing the exact same thing 4 or 8 times per square times 6 all at once, this has the rather off effect of making it seem like you're not making much progress even though you've been knitting quite diligently.

But I've had a nice break from it now and as the mother of the intended recipient will be back at work in a couple more months it's time to pick it back up and finish, hopefully.

Ahh, Camping in Spring

Last weekend a couple friends and I headed down to the Newport area and stayed at the Beverly Beach campground, unfortunately it's still rain season here so it was pretty wet and cold.  We spent most of the time huddled around the fire, which was very high maintenance because the wood was green & wet.  I did get some decent pictures though.



I really liked the lines of this stump.




Not sure why but I've always loved barnacle encrusted things.



The trees at the beach always look so beat up, and these in particular look like they are trying to lean as far away as they can.



That is exactly as I found it, I thought it was kind of remarkable that not only had it settled right side up but it's completely intact.



This log looked like a lizard sunning or an otter, or salamander to me.



So pretty.



One of the greatest things about Beverly Beach is the rocks, the beach is littered with them, and you can see the distinct strata in them.  This particular layer looks to be wearing in the nearly geometric pattern.

Today, is a Good Day to Dye

A few years ago at the very first Blue Moon Fiber Arts Barn Sale I acquired this cone of mystery yarn.



Fully intending at the time to use it to experiment with dye, I did hit a bit of a block though when in researching dyeing methods I found out that what type of fiber the yarn was really makes a difference on what you can get away with using as a dye agent.  I know there are tests you can do to help determine what it is but I just thought it was better to plunk some of the yarn into a bath with Koolaid and nuke it until it was hot.  If memory serves it worked pretty well though there was a pretty heavy dye to yarn ratio.  Anyway due to my inexperience and unlearned state I dropped the project, until a few days ago when I was talking to my friend JL and she was interested in using vegetables and plants to dye fabric & rust dyeing.


Having been inspired to pick up the project again I dug the old cone out from the depths of my stash, picked up some Wilton's gel dye, and some inexpensive measuring implements that I wont be sad if they get all stained and they can be used in the future if I get into more chemically dyes.  When it was all said and done I had a pretty decent dye kit put together, for a first timer.



Since I don't have a knitty knotty I used my yarn swift to make hanks, it worked pretty well other than it was a bit hard to gauge how much yarn was there, the process was further complicated by my little helper, I kept having to stop take it away from her.



Since I really like them I figured I'd try making a variegated solid so I pinned the yarn up on the edges of the bin in a few places, added in the hot water, and then used boiling water to hydrate the gel before adding it to the main bath.



After 10 minutes I removed two of the pins and once it was all dunked I just pinned the two side together in the bath.



After another 10 minutes I took out the last pin and let it go for another 10 minutes.  Then it was time for a good rinsing and lay out to dry, the result was, ok.



I used two different colors Rose & Violet and while the Rose for the most part worked as expected, but when I added the vinegar to the violet it separated and only the pink in the dye stuck to the yarn.  I mean it's not a bad color per se but it's not what I was going for.



There are a few spots that are almost violet but for the most part it's more of a fuchsia or magenta.  I did manage to dye my fingers hot pink, really should have remembered the gloves.

It's Sprung!

Yesterday in honor of the first official day of spring I went downtown and took a walk along the water front, and it was absolutely gorgeous. Here are some pictures from the day.

In the park next to the MAX station there is this huge pink magnolia tree that is just starting to bloom.  The light wasn't right for it to really show off the color of the flower, but I think it's still pretty striking.

There are two parallel rows of trees that create this gorgeous canopied lawn for people to sit under or nap as the case may be.

Or you could practice your tightrope skills, under the cotton candy canopy.

Remembering Last Summer

So I finally took the film I'd used last summer in to be developed, and some of them turned out pretty good.



This is from my department's summer event at the Oregon Zoo, I don't remember what kind of monkey it is but I do remember that it's the habitat close to the naked mole rats & giraffes.



This one is also at the zoo and I think it turned out pretty well too.



This is a storage barn not far from our house that going to seed a bit, but I just love the building.



This is from a photo walk that a couple friend & I took in the rain up at the Portland Rose Test Gardens, the hazy effect was achieved by exhaling on the lens to fog it up and then taking a picture as it started to clear.

As for the rest of the pictures in the batch, well let's just say that I am the Queen of the underexposed & incorrectly focused. It's taken a few rolls for me to start to get what type of shots the Diana & Holga are good for, to remember to change the light & focal setting for each shot, and the different speeds of film.

Due to the fixed lens you really need to either get up close to your subject or photograph really large things. The other thing is that I either need to remember to use the flash when not in direct light or start using more sensitive film to compensate.

Finally developing 120mm is twice as expensive as 35mm, so I've picked up a Mini Diana & Blackbird Fly because it's so much cheaper to develop the film, the Mini Diana can take 24x17 pictures allowing you to double the number of shots you get off a roll, so it's far more cost effective for learning to use film. The Blackbird is one I'd seen and been interested in because it's a twin reflex, and you compose the shot by opening the flaps on the top & looking down into the camera. Here's what they look like...



cute huh?

Of Hibernation

I've been feeling pretty unproductive lately, even with the Ravelympics because I haven't really gone out to any events, I've also been letting the clutter build up and now it's at the point where I just want to take big plastic bags rake it all up and with an elegant flourish loft it onto the back of the nearest dump truck.

I would of course take enough care to make sure I didn't toss out anything important, like yarn, clay, or paint brushes. As I've been mired in unproductiveness and haven't made all that much knitting progress, and have been watching too many movies, and spending FAR FAR too much time on FB (evil evil thing created to consume entire evenings) I've not blogged anything in a while.

Yesterday I realized that it's already halfway through March and it kinda freaked me out a bit because that means OFFF is in about 6 months and I have WAY too much yarn in my stash to even consider going because there is just noway I can go and not come home with another skein or six. It being March also means that I need to kick it into high gear because my Relay for Life team the P-Town Moseying Stitchers (PMS) will need crafty things to sell at local fairs & fund raising events this summer.

So, I'm completely grounded from event setting foot in a yarn store because I can't seem to visit one without a skein or two following me home until after OFFF. Next I have a time-line, the giant Ikea bag of finished items that just need the ends woven in will be done by the end of April. My WIPs Rollin' Eye, Fingerless Evenstar, & the Cloche I promised to make for AV in December (I got the test knit done & ended up changing patterns but more on that later) all need to be finished by mid May. Once that's done it's time for some serious stash burning, I'm going to set my goal at completing one project a week, but not anything too complicated.

It's kind of an insane goal but even if I only manage to complete a project every two weeks, it's the attempt that really matters.

Oh yeah, I'm trying out a new name on the blog the other one was a bit unwieldy, not that this one is any better but I thought I'd at least try it out.