Where I'm not today, with a shawl

According to the itinerary, today on the Craft Cruise we would be in Dublin, "the home of Guinness Beer, numerous literary greats, and the rock band U2; a fun city that is currently enjoying the status of being one of the hottest and most livable cities in Europe."  Instead, as for the last four months, I am home.

Upside of being home in the summer is the fruit arriving at the local farmstands, and I have had to ration myself on blueberries and peaches or I would eat little else.  Ditto corn, which is so sweet and fresh you can eat it raw!  I am already planning to freeze portions for the winter.  Tomatoes are not yet in enough but when the season hits, I'll be ready.

I get my CSA share about every other week, sharing it with three other people and we take turns.  Yesterday was one of my weeks, and to my disappointment I seem to always miss the weeks with fennel.  I did get parsley, celery, zucchini, eggplant, purple basil, green beans, chard, scallion, and garlic.  My share partner got the napa cabbage instead of chard because her stove is disconnected for kitchen remodeling so she could take only things that can be eaten raw.  She did get the two bigger zucchini as I got the eggplant.  Otherwise we split fairly evenly.  We're both going to farmstands for fruit this week.

Since I planned to start the Boneyard Shawl the day I should have left on the cruise, I had time to finish a hat and scarf for charity:

Scarf folded at left is about 66" long.

Other side of the hat.

These were made from leftovers of my grandmother's holiday vest from last winter.  Lion Brand "Ferris Wheel" in Buttercup.  Just a simple 1 sc 1 dc pattern, hat made up on the fly.

I also started a scarf in the Uzume pattern, using some Noro Silk Garden that had been waiting in my stash for something to happen:

She's right - it's pretty in a shaded yarn.

Shannon Okey, the designer, had mused on Cooperative Press' Facebook page about how it would look in a shaded yarn, and offered to send yarn to a knitter interested in making one.  Since I had yarn in my stash I figured I'd just go ahead, especially as I knew I'd put it aside midmonth.  More photos when it progresses.  The pattern is fairly easy, I've had just one blip when I didn't do the correct cable row in sequence and I decided to frog.

July Mini-Resolution Update

I did start the shawl on July 11th, the day we were to have set sail from Amsterdam: 

The yarn is from Hedgehog Fibres, their merino aran in "Ferrum".  Not one of Stephen West's yarns, although I bought it in his shop.  And ..... I just wasn't feeling it.  It's lovely yarn, quite silky-soft, and the colour glows, but somehow as a shawl it wasn't thrilling me.  I kept seeing me wearing it as a vest instead, even though I don't usually wear autumn colours.

So I went back to the yarn I'd purchased in his shop last year, which included a handful of miniskeins from an Amsterdam dyer called Undercover Otter:

I remember having plans to make mittens out of these but have decided the shawl will be a better use.  Handily, if I were traveling "for reals", it is a very compact item, even though it is growing quite nicely:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3 - Yes, I added a stripe of Colour 2.

Day 4 - Finished Colour 1.

Day 5 - On to Colour 3!  Currently 12" deep, 24" across top.

Clearly, this is Meant To Be.  Yes, if I were on the cruise I couldn't have done the switch, but if I were smart I would have begun and learned the issue before I left home.  Or made the other choice before I left.  Or purchased more yarn in his shop......

Herbfest 2012

Saturday was Herbfest, which I found out about through a friend.  She was trying to organize a group to be there all day; I couldn't go until after class.  So I told her I would just go on my own.  I got there just as the morning's steady rain turned into a true gullywasher - and apparently just as the foraging class got to the edge of the woods.

When I decided to wade across the rushing walkway, since it looked as if the gullies would get washed for quite a while yet, I passed the two tents where farms sold plants.  Checked in, paying $5 and adding my nonperishable food items to the cartons by the door.  Was directed to the two classrooms, and got to the kitchen to find that everybody was just starting to straggle back from their morning swim.

As the students dried off and the teacher, Lynn Murdock, started to explain what they had managed to gather (and sent someone out to collect some nettles from the side of the barn, so that people could see what they looked like - the cutter was advised to hold a basket underneath and cut so that the pieces fell into it, to avoid touching the stinging hairs), Bun Lai of Miya's Sushi walked in.  He started cooking some of the greens, showed the class the multigrain sushi rice he had brought, and rolled up some sushi for us to try, integrating the clover, plantain, lamb's quarters, and dandelion greens.  While cooking, Bun and Lynn discussed sustainable eating, Bun's latest ventures in expanding the locavote options, and answered questions from the class.

You can see a picture of the finished sushi on Bun's blog - my friends Caryl and Bill are two of the smiling faces in the background, but I was too far back to make it into the shot.

After an abbreviated lunch break (because of the cooking time - but we had two or three bites of sushi, which tided me over for a bit) I went to the other building for the next two classes I wanted to take:  a class on Nutritional Herbs with Rosemari Roast followed by one on making tinctures with Debra Hultgren.  These two classes fit well together.  In the first one, I received a sample of dried nettle, about one day's worth if you drink the strong infusion that several teachers recommend.  It was interesting that when asked, the attendees defined "nutrition" in terms of "balance" and "organic" and "eat a variety of foods", only getting down to "vitamins" as the seventh or eighth thing on our list.  Apparently this is unusual even for persons interested in health and "Food as Medicine."

After the second class, I went back to see if there was anything else I wanted to buy, having done a speed-shop through the small vendor hall (a few vendors apparently couldn't make it in the torrents of the morning) and picked up some freeze-dried corn and peas .  I love these!  They make such a great snack.  You can see the total of my shopping here:

OK, the knitting piled up at the bottom is not a new purchase.  It was the auto-knitting I took to work on during classes when I wasn't taking notes.  It will be a basic variation on the Steppe Sweater for Mittens for Akkol's tween collection, Patons Classic Wool doubled on US#10.5 needles.  I started after my morning class (the bit I did in class was too wide, frogged and restarted) so the 7" shown here was only the Herbfest knitting.  Yes, it's a very easy pattern to follow!  Just plain knitting.

Specifics about my purchases are:

A "Got Organic" clay-dyed T-shirt, a rosemary flaxseed-filled muscle warming pad (microwave briefly, apply to sore or tense area, repeat as needed), a pair of beesewax candles, and a small bar of beeswax.  Sewers know about the benefit of waxing thread that will be used in high-stress areas, such as buttons, for added strength.  I've wanted a clay-dyed T-shirt since seeing some in a store on my family's trip through the Southwest last year, and not wanting to promote a specific company.  This one is perfect!

You can see the peas and corn in this photo, plus the bag of dried nettles from my afternoon class.  Also showing are four bars of soap:  Chocolate and Coffee, which will be gifts for my SIL, and Ginger-Lemon and Rosemary-Sage for me.

The baskets were made by a women's cooperative in Vietnam, and were on clear-out by the vendor.  He said that they had closed their shop and he was tired of paying inventory tax.  I bought one whole set, and the remaining baskets from a set that was broken.  They are very smooth inside, and will be handy for storing and organzing things.

Two items are not in the photo:  lemon balm and may apple.  I bought live plants and put them in the ground as soon as I got home.  The rain had stopped and the earth was of course very soft and wet, perfect for setting the plents.  Both of these (I am completely unfamiliar with may apple) are supposed to grow well in shade, and that is mostly what my property has (and why I can't grow more of the herbs that I love and wish I could have on hand, as I did in Texas).  We shall see!