Carpal Tunnel Syndrome be Dammned

I'm knitting. And it hurts. My arm aches and aches. Which really sucks as I have a whole lot of work to do. I've taken to wearing a splint while online and knitting and hopefully this will provide some relief. I had taken a summer break hoping the pain would go away with some rest but it's back in full force.



I'm halfway done one sleeve on the SKB.



I'm progressing down my Jaywalker again -- this is going to be a 3-balls of yarn pair of socks. Luckily the LYS had another ball and in the same dyelot too. I swear these are the slowest going socks ever. I knit and I knit and I always have two more inches until I can start the toe decreases. If I were not so in love with the colors and striping I would rip out and start something else.



Next I've started a pair of sidewinders. I've only knit the first part and it is remarkably unremarkable. These will be fun just to see how the sock takes shape.


This morning I cast on for another dishcloth. One can never have enough of these. Knitting on size 6 needles feels like quite a treat after the 0s and 1s for the socks. Even the SKB is on a 4.

Lastly I'm going to cast on a pair of longies out of the Mystic Creations yarn from a few years ago. A friend has asked me to be at her birth (a homebirth) and as they're a cloth diapering family I'm thinking these will be a nice addition to the babe's winter wardrobe.



Little Man is turning 5 this week and on Saturday we're having our last party of the season. They don't really stress me out too much anymore but it will be nice to have it out of the way. Next week begins our Waldorf class (We need more kids! If you're in the area and know of anyone interested please let me know) and I'm hoping to get the Enki curriculum in the next few months with any birthday money I can scrape together.

Cleveland is a great town for local eating this summer. Between our CSA share, the City Fresh share and the farmer's market we've had pretty much all local produce this season. As I mainly cook vegan we're doing pretty good on keeping our food money close to home. I'm not sure how the fall/winter scene is going to look as I haven't canned (next year!) but hopefully Whole Foods won't consume too much of our food budget. Tonight I'm going to try this tomato sauce recipe in hopes of making a ton next week and freezing it for winter.

Unfortunately the running has not been so great. With the mugginess of August I decided it would be best to run in the morning before the kids awake. Unfortunately almost every time I wake so does wee girl. Here's hoping the coolness of fall will let me run in the evening. Now I have to go knit. . .

July??

I can't believe July is over -- I'm not sure I've even knit more than a row or two. No spinning at all. Instead we visited my family in Baltimore, I exercised a ton and read quite a few books. I'm organizing a Waldorf class to meet one day a week in the fall if you know of anyone that's interested.

Now that Ohio's farms are finally churning out the food we've been spending our weekends eating our way through the local veggies. On Saturdays the kids and I hit our local farmer's market for produce, on Sunday we get our CSA pick-up and the rest of the week I cook it all up. I'm looking to add in one other CSA in the hopes that I can stop the need to visit Whole Foods mid way through the week. While we've been doing many of these things for years, my passion to use the food well has been spurned on by reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I think it presents farming in a pretty idealistic manner, however it was still enjoyable and thought provoking. Last week's lesson -- okra does not work well roasted. Bleh! Tough as leather.

Unfortunately, my own garden has not done well. I think I got everything in too late and then our local groundhog ate many things. Now I'm just waiting for my tomatoes to ripen.



The daylillies are almost over but here are three pretty ones:







Now the missing pics from last post:


Spunky Club Handspun


Cherry Tree Hill Sock Yarn from Melissa


Cascade Sierra bought from a yarn store gift cert. from my brother! Destined to be a Tomato.



On Sunday we did haircuts! This is his Robby (my brother) in training cut.



Muffin batter bowl licking!

The Crafting Blahs

The finished skein from last week's post

The doldrums of February combined with a very active January find me with NOTHING on the needles or wheel. I cast on a balaclava for Chris but ripped it as I was foolishly attempting to knit from memory and was doing k2p2 instead of k2p3 even though I had a ton of stitches. You'd think I would have been proactive enough to consult the pattern after an inch or so of thinking "Gee, that looks awfully big." But no I waited until I had 3 inches completed.

Instead I've been reading and sleeping. :) I do much of my crafting in the evenings after both children are asleep but now that I've given up caffeine I find myself going to bed an hour or so earlier. I guess it's good to be getting the rest my body needs but my brain is craving a bit more.

Reading wise I've devoured a bunch of cooking books -- Eat to Live by Joel Furhman, Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl. All three are good reads. I read the first two during the same week which made for an interesting juxtaposition as they are at the opposite ends of the eating spectrum. The former proposing a vegan, nutrient dense, low-fat diet and the other cooking offal in butter and cream. We're trying out the program outlined in Eat to Live and are doing pretty well -- we may be exhibiting a green tinge from all of the salad we are eating but otherwise feel satiated and healthy.

I do expect happy crafting days ahead of me as I have a large KnitPicks order coming my way with yarn for Chris's striped scarf, a surprise hat and a ton of dye for my Tunis roving. I also was lucky enough to have some spinning questions answered by a lovely and talented spinner. I can't wait to read the next post about drafting. I have more HPY fiber on the way as well as some other yummy stuff to spin and will test out her suggestions.

Thanks to the blizzard outside tomorrow will be our third day in a row home. Normally we are home on Tuesdays but get out and be merry the others. Today was surprisingly pleasant and hopefully tomorrow will be more of the same.

Lastly, I have to mention that my vacuum died the other week and I replaced it with the Roomba (for those that wanted a report, this is a Remanufactured Roomba Discovery) that my heart has been coveting. I LOVE it. It freaking rocks. I was doubtful that it would stand up to the fur but it does a great job even if I do have to empty it after every use. Now my only problem is figuring out how to keep Little Girl from turning it on every ten minutes. Hopefully the novelty will wear off soon.

On Cooking

After 4 years of allergies my son is eating like a normal person and it is wonderful. Well, we're still on Feingold so not quite normal, but normal enough to celebrate. All of the possibilities leave me wanting to start cooking again. I cook dinner almost every night but it is not something I really enjoy. Like housework it is just something I do as my job.

However now that I can use butter, cheese and flour again I feel like maybe scrumptous food should appear on our plates. Lasagna sounds wonderful (though we haven't tried tomatoes lately) as does spinach salad with bacon and eggs. Tonight we're having Portugese Canja (chicken soup with rice and lemon) with garlic bread. Yum yum yum.

Part of my desire to cook comes from reading a fun new book: Talking with My Mouth Full: Crab Cakes, Bundt Cakes and Other Kitchen Stories by Bonny Wolf. An enjoyable read with a ton of recipes (I'm thinking I should buy the book as I have so many pages dogeared.) The Irish Soda Bread is kick ass and takes 5 minutes to mix up and 45 minutes to bake.

Now that I've finished that I'm going to start another cooking book -- Julie & Julia by Julie Powell. Maybe I'll be trying French cuisine next.

The knitting has been unremarkable. More felted mocs, more baby hats, blah blah blah. Another friend is due with a baby soon and I still have two babies already in the world who need hats.