Work took me to Chicago, then I went to North Carolina to see Kinky Boots with family (DNiece #1 loves it as much as I; over Christmas I introduced my nieces to the original film) and stayed for the discussion afterwards. It was not about the show, as talkbacks usually are, but about LGBTQ+ persons and their lives in North Carolina. My mother ended up talking to one of the panelists about adoption and all kinds of things, until we all were kicked out so they could set for the next show. If you haven't seen the show - you must do, if only for the showstopping Act I ending.
I stayed a couple days for a recital by Lawrence Brownlee, which was wonderful.
From there I went to Stitches West to help friends at their booth. As I said last month, my mini-resolution was to make a sample bag from their hemp yarn. That didn't work out because I was rushing and the yarn was snarling and it was a bad combination. So on the day home between trips I grabbed a couple hanks of Makimo that I had lying around for other purposes, and before Stitches West ended they had a sample of the bag in their own yarn:
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| Closeup of the bag bottom and the lace pattern. |
The small pink balls are all the yarn I had left after finishing the bag. There is more pink on the handles than the pattern instructs; I was using the Makimo doubled (the original used a worsted weight cotton, and Makimo is a DK weight), which gave a little less yardage than the original yarn. I started the pink when the purple ran out. So you can make the bag with two hanks of Makimo.
I bought almost nothing (some stitch markers as a gift, and a couple patterns) because I don't need yarn and didn't find anything that made me excited to dip into my purchasing money for DFW Fiber Fest. The big names that I really like will be there, and I enjoy buying from small indie dyers who mostly cannot afford to be at Stitches events.
I returned just in time for Fat Tuesday. A local makerspace held a Fat Tuesday party but it was also Science on Screen night at Real Art Ways, so I made a cameo, dropping off some from-the-pantry jambalaya on the way to the talk and film. It was fairly interesting, the talk more than the film. I look forward to the next two but may be out of town for one.
Wednesday I went to a library cookbook club that I'd just found out about, where they cook from a specific cookbook each month, sample and talk about the recipes. This month's choice was Food52's Genius Desserts, and since I didn't have time to swing by the library to select a recipe I did some online research and chose World Peace Cookies. We agreed that having nothing but desserts was a LOT to take, even if you just do a bite of each one - and most were too good to stop at a single bite. Luckily for me, about tw0-thirds contained chocolate, so I didn't have as much to taste as the others. But what I did taste was fantastic: Lemon cookies (with a hidden ingredient of avocado); Guinness stout cake that was like the tenderest gingerbread ever; espresso gelato; blueberry cake with pecans; the famous 62nd Street Lemon Cake; almond cake. Most of these I would make, yes.
Not for tomorrow's monthly brunch, however. If I had Guinness around I might make the cake, but I decided to make potato cakes instead. These are something between boxty, which is a griddle-cooked bread, and scones. I doubled the recipe and am leaving out the seasoning, so they will be plain and make nice sandwiches - if any are left!
Resolutions for March
As noted above, I completed the knitting mini-resolution I set for February. For March, I am going to make a baby blanket for friends. I bought the yarn some time ago, and thought I knew what pattern I'd do, then a new one came out and I decided to do it instead. No photos until it's delivered in April.
Then I have to finish the items I am making for Mittens for Akkol's grads program. I signed up for four: a purple scarf, a blue and orange hat, and a red and yellow (or gold) sweater and scarf. I chose these because they will use up yarn in my stash. I have a purple scarf, but decided I may offer it for sale at an upcoming sheep-to-shawl-and-beyond event, plus I had some other yarn reclaimed from the sweater that I pulled apart, making the multicolored yarn used in part of it into a scarf. I'm using broken rib stitch and it's going fairly fast.
Books: Still finishing The Ballad of Frankie Silver. I don't have much sit-and-read time, but I am enjoying the historical chapters, which are written in the first-person voice of a young frontier lawyer and court clerk. So I'm behind on the February book but decided to finish The Agony and the Ecstasy, which I started some time ago and put aside for an unremembered reason when I was halfway through. Hopefully I'll get caught up in March. I do have the "book with a nature word in the title" set aside, and it's fairly short - more about it in the next post, once I've started reading.
In Other News..........
Covid-19 is big in the news. With stories like Communion of Dreams and others, could it become a truly devastating pandemic like the 1918 Flu Epidemic? I guess we shall see. My parents are pressuring me to skip the North Texas Irish Festival this year. I am a manager and we are shorthanded and I hate to not go.
We had more snow today - the weather went from clear and sunny, to a snow squall, and back to sunny within an hour:
