What's That?

A Hat?* 

Finally a Finished Object! (an FO, in craft speak). This hat only took two days to knit up, and  I probably could have done it in one if I were super crazy (I'm not, I've always been just plain batty). I finished it Wednesday and have been wearing it everyday since then. This basically means "around the house" – I don't get out much. But I did get to stroll down to the park in it, and I wore it over to a friend's house. All her siblings (from the five year old up, Surprisingly enough, to the fourteen-year old boy) thought it was a "cool hat" and were duly allowed to try it on (okay, well, not the fourteen year old).

Stat Time:

Pattern: 1930s Beret

Yarn: Wool of Andes Bulky in Pewter - I used One-and-a-bit-of-a-second skein 

Mods: Added an owl from Kate Davis' awesome sweater, since that's what the yarn was originally meant for. I also cast on 63 stitches and worked from the brim up, increasing to 108 about nine rows before starting the decreases. In the picture the hat is pinned with a brooch, but I have since added bobby pins to dramatize the fold. If When I knit this again I will go up another size in needles for the hat so it will be more "floppy," as right now the yarn tends to perk up on its own. I also haven't blocked it yet though. 

Finishing something was such a great feeling that I started working on my knee socks. The ones I started  waaaaay back. Yes, I'm still on the first one. Yes, I knit slow. But I've started the calf increases so I can't be that far from the finish. One of the other projects I vowed to undertake this summer was sewing. I started on a skirt before going on The Road Trip, but lack of interfacing for the waist band lead to it being set aside. I now have interfacing, not to mention more fabric, so hopefully it will be finished before the week is out. It's Butterick 6550, view E if your interested. It has pockets, which all my currents skirts are in desperate need of, and incorporates a fun front pleat. The pattern is from my mom's collection, but I may end up stealing it permanently.
          I'm also half way through Simplicity 2364 in a gorgeous blue cotton knit. Halfway for a second time, since, in a tragic example of beginner's bliss, I began the shirt in the same un-stretchy cotton I'm using for my skirt. This time around I can actually put the shirt on without dislocating a shoulder. All it needs is the sleeves and some fitting (which I'll probably mess up, but hopefully in an educational way).

That's all for finishing, or almost all. My siblings and I, in another vain attempt to up our waning geekiness, are trying to play D&D and I'm in charge of making the dungeons, so this afternoon I'll be calculating the worth of various gems and magical items.

Emeralds of Owlish Wisdom: + 3 to all craft related experience rolls.

* "What's that? A hat? A crazy, funk, junky hat. Overslept, hair unsightly, tryin' to look like Kiera Knightly. We've been there, we've done that, we see right through your funky hat." And if your sniggering because you know where this quote comes from, HA! You are no more innocent than I.

Memories at the Mall

Clouds in my while stopping for coffee

This Thursday I was blessed to be able to spend time with one of my dear friends from college. My dad, who loves to spoil his family's enjoyment of restaurant food, made fried catfish, and fried shrimp (battered in flour and old bay) the first night, and grilled Lamb and potatoes the second  (with a lovely tomato and mozzarella salad as a side). The excuse for this trip was the Smithsonian Museum.  After visiting it again on Thursday I can't help wondering how I ever walked through three museums with four children last year. To give you an idea of how exhausting this trip was, my friend and I arrived at L'Enfant station (a fairly close metro) at around nine-thirty, and boarded the smithsonian metro at around six or seven. That's ten hours of walking. We spent around three hours in both the Natural History Museum and the American History Museum. Each. This is not to mention the time we first spent wandering around the Castle and the Air and Space Museum (is their synonym for museum?). Despite this, we didn't see everything in any of the buildings, even though they were ever so much emptier than last year – a testament, I suppose, to the difference that a looming school year can make on people's calenders.

But there are many things which make a little effort worth while, and most of them were experinced on Thursday. Not only did my friend and I get a chance to catch up, laugh, and buy hotdogs from a street vendor, but the exhibts were delightful too. We saw the "Read My Pins" exhibt, about Former Secratary of State Madeleine Albright's use of jewerly in diplomacy; walked through the in depth display of mineral formations and precious gems; ooh-ed and aah-ed over the gorgeous (and sometimes outrageous) gowns of America's First Ladies; and generally reveled in the trivia that abounded.

Which makes me feel rather better about being unemployed

The trip was especially nice considering it was threatening to flood up until nine (hence the first picture), when it miraculously cleared to become the sunniest, muggiest day any Marylander could (mistakenly) hope for. Of course, the pretty outfits we had planned out had been abandoned by this point, so we tramped around the Mall a little more disheveled than we would have liked to have been: I in my heavy corduroy skirt, for blocking the damp, and she in her practical tennis shoes. Then, at the end of the day, just as we were purchasing tickets, the rain started up again.

Ah, Providence.

See? No need for that umbrella at all

Time for Tea

When I was in Japan I usually ended up drinking tea four or five times a week. This was a snack like tea, with little sweets (usually with a French appearance) and savory items featuring either rice or nori (seaweed). As the weather got chillier, the drink changed from the brown barley tea (mugicha) to coffee, but the snacks stayed the same. At one of the houses I consistently had tea at, the hostess had a whole collection of tea cups, a few for each season or type of tea I think. Now, I love the slightly fussy feeling having tea gives. There is something decidedly grown up and polished about setting aside time to boil some leaves in serenity. So, when I started feeling a little bored as an Unemployed Person, it was only natural for my thoughts to go quickly from cooking something (anything!), to hosting a tea party for my sister.




Of course, this tea was nothing like the nice luncheon teas I had in Japan. Even the slightly more attainable British standard was not quite achieved. The lunch consisted of Fruit Kabobs, which were the star of the whole meal, but rather more festive than elegant; Rosemary Skewers, which were really too elegant; Chicken Salad, which was simply beautiful; and Cucumber Cream Cheese spread, which was delightfully spring like, yes, and gave us some wonderfully vivid juice as a by product, which mom later used to make bread.




The three real adventures, though, were the baked items. Because a significant portion of the guest list required everything to be gluten free, I tried to test my skills in that direction. They certainly need help. I made rosemary crackers with a GF cupcake mix, because I couldn't find almond flour (and waited too long to buy it on-line because the house's oven was broken and I wasn't sure anything was going to be baked after all). I had to add three extra tablespoons of oil to get the cupcake mix to stick together. The crackers turned out so peculiar that I almost threw them out, but the eighteen year old liked them, and once properly topped by either the chicken salad or the cucumber spread they were edible. I also tried cupcakes made with (homemade) coconut flour, which resulted in the bizarrest, eggy green, muffin things I've ever seen (I used maple syrup instead of agave, and canola oil instead of grape seed,  but I'm pretty sure all the fault lies with my attempt to make my own coconut flour. It was moist and clumpy before I added it to the batter). The cupcakes were received with varying expressions, but enough people tried filching them before the party that I served them anyway, especially since the girls were responsible for decorating their own. Not many flavors can live up to two tablespoons of swiss meringue buttercream (via Martha Stewart, I officially prefer the regular meringue frosting. The buttercream leaves one's mouths unpleasantly coated).

The average age of the participants was eight (the youngest three were five, four, and two), and though they enjoyed all the china and dress up, as far as my effort went, I think the Flower pots were received the best. Once they'd finished devouring the ice cream and chocolate shortbread (I decided not to experiment with GF pound cake, and I knew from experience that shortbread crumbled beautifully), they were allowed to decorate the pots and take them home. There are actually paint markers out there that make coloring pottery a joy to both the artist and the clean up crew. And, in a moment of rare frugality, I remembered I had adhesive foam flowers in varying shapes, sizes, and sparkly-ness.

All in all the tea was great fun (even though we drank smoothie). I was completely tuckered out by the end, and the two days leading up to it held an appalling amount of cooking and preparation, but I would totally do it again. I have to come up with a party for my brother first, though. 

The mom's received boxed versions of the meal