She Paints With Yarn

Up Swing

Mary — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:10:10 +0000

More music!

A Little Music

Mary — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:25:49 +0000

A friend of my shared a playlist on her blog a few days ago. Hannah’s was upbeat and fun- I liked the idea of sharing playlists right away. It’s one thing to enjoy an album as the artist intended it, to move through its ups and downs, and appreciate the flow from one song to the next. In fact, most of the time, I listen to albums in their entirety instead of just one song at a time. But when I’m in the mood to mix things up, I truly appreciate the emotive power a good playlist can have. So, I’m sharing a favorite playlist of mine. I made this a few years ago (a sheer testament of how much I love it- most playlists get deleted after a week or two) and I still listen to it on a fairly regular basis. I guess it’s sort of become an album of its own in my mind. I listen to this when I want to relax, or need to find that quite place in my head after a long day. Many people have asked me to burn this for them and I never seem to get around to it, so here she is:

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An Exercise in Nostalgia

Mary — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:06:06 +0000

Is it possible to be nostalgic for something you can’t really remember? My dad cooked a lot when I was young. In fact, I have almost no memories of my mother in the kitchen before he died. He made all sorts of things- mostly dishes rich in saturated fat with a side of starch. Not that I’m complaining- I loved it growing up. I’m sure he’s 100% of the reason I love to cook (ok, ok, that’s a lie. Julia Child also has something to do with that). I was going though a cook book in my kitchen this afternoon looking for a cookie recipe for my sister. I also found something that I didn’t expect to find- my dad’s chicken fried steak, gravy, and french fried (yes, actually fried, none of that oven baked crap) potatoes. The strange part is, I don’t actually remember him cooking this. I remember lots of his food, but this one somehow escaped the ol’ hippocampus.

Anyway, I think I’ll make this stuff soon. The following week, I’ll probably eat only salad, this stuff looks absolutely horrible for you. Deliciously horrible. Whipping cream and peanut oil, anyone?

In other, non saturated fat related news, my shawl class is going swimmingly. Picking 4 lace patterns with the same stitch count is frustrating, but I’ve worked up a few options that I’m excited about. Now, to knit about a billion swatches. Which is, perhaps, my least favorite part of the design process. I’d love to just pick a few things, stick them together and then – BAM- have it work. Sadly, the wool gods don’t work that way. Here’s what I’m using for my planning stages ( the blue) and the for the final stages (the pink)

Speaking of wool gods- I went to a sheep farm on Monday. The sheep were really friendly and absolutely adorable. Evidence:

Who can resist that face?

I really need to update my flickr with my YIP shots- I’ve not missed a single day this year, yet I can’t seem to get motivated to upload them to flickr- maybe I’ll do it later this evening.

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Snow!

Mary — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 21:24:11 +0000

It feels like we never get significant amounts of snow here, and when we do, it’s never pretty. I must admit, as a southerner, my version of “significant snow” is fairly wimpy. The past few days though, have been really pretty outside. I just wish I could make it off our street,I need to get beads…

I thought I’d share some of the snow pictures I took a few days ago. Enjoy!

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Dear Julia,

Mary — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:09:33 +0000

Thank you for making my world taste better.

Love, Your serventless American Cook,

Mary Catherine

For christmas, I received the two volume set of Mastering The Art of French Cooking. Subsequently, I’ve been cooking up a frenzy. Tonight, I finally thought to take pictures before the food was devoured, so for your taste bud teasing pleasure, I present:

Julia’s Roasted Chicken with Mushroom Sauce, potatoes, and green beans:

The beans and potatoes were my own recipe, but the rest is all Julia. I cut a bit of her butter out, though, as I have no desire to die of a heart attack before the age of thirty. :)

Bon Appetit!

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Spin, Spin, Spin

Mary — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:08:36 +0000

That, my dear friends, is yarn. But not just any yarn- it’s the first yarn I spun on my new double treadle Fricke spinning wheel. I LOVE it. The wheel and the yarn, that is. It’s from 8 0z of Merino fiber and in total I got about 264 yards of two ply worsted-ish weight. There are some thick to thin places, but it’s the most even thing I’ve spun on the wheel yet. I’m not entirely satisfied with the yards I got compared to the weight, but I think I will get better with that in time. That, or I have off kilter expectations. If you’re a spinner, would you leave me a comment and let me know how much yarn I should expect to get from 8oz? Either an answer to that question or a resource I could use to find it would be greatly appreciated.

The colorway of the roving is “Primrose”, though if I think of a better name I may call it something else. It’s slightly heathered, I’m sure it will be even prettier knit up. I managed not to put so much twist in it that it would lose it’s softness. This stuff is incredibly soft. I just want to pet it!

I already have a 2 oz. pink / purple mystery wool batt going, but after I finish that, I’m moving on to:

This color is really hard to photograph- it’s less pink than the pictures indicate.

Oh, and one more picture- a better image of the BFL I spun on the rented wheel:

sigh I love yarn. :)

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Spinning

Mary — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:14:04 +0000

Last weekend, I rented a spinning wheel from ReBelle. It was a single treadle Fricke, and I completely fell in love. I’ve been spinning on a spindle for just over a year now. I’m surprised I didn’t want to try a wheel sooner, but now that I have tried it, there’s no gong back for me. The wheel is so much faster, and after I got through my first pound or so of fiber, I was making yarn that I actually liked! I started with some undyed merino. That went pretty horribly, mostly because I wasn’t used to the wheel yet. It sucked, but I plied it anyway (and it still sucked then). I then spun some more of the same fiber, and it went much better. Feeling confidant, I moved on to something prettier- some hand dyed BFL from frabjous fibers. BFL is a bit easier to spin than merino, but I didn’t want to start with it because I didn’t want to mess up the gorgeous colors. Here’s what i ended up with:

Not bad for my first real wheel spun yarn! I know it has lots of room for improvement (it needs more twist in the ply) but i still LOVE it. Did I mention that it’s navajo plied? Yep, I tackled that beast early on, and I love the way it distributes the color- no barber poll here! Then, I moved back to some merino. This time it was dyed, in a gorgeous color called primrose. I wish I had included something for scale in this picture- these singles are about fingering weight, though it goes up to sport in a few places.

Can you believe how much improvement I got between those two? I was amazed. It was like all the sudden I remembered how to spin, instead of *learning* how to spin. I still have another 4 oz. of that to spin up, then I will ply it together. I can’t wait to see how much yardage it is!!!

So, this evening, I had to take the wheel back to the LYS. But, thanks to my mom, look at this lovely box that came home with me:

There’s a double treadle fricke in that box, waiting for me to assemble it. :D An awesome Christmas present, if I do say so myself! I’ll be assembling it tomorrow, and of course showing off pictures!

Edited to add: Spinners, would you comment with a few of your favorite places to get fiber?

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Pear Tart

Mary — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:41:56 +0000

One of the perks of being at home as opposed to the dorms is access to a full kitchen. We all know I love to cook… a lot. Almost as much as I love knitting. I don’t, however, love to bake. Too much measuring, not enough spontaneity for me. I’m always afraid that when I tweak something it’s going to change a chemical reaction and fux the whole thing up. [Yes, I am aware that is not a word.] Despite that strange fear, I’ve been playing around with a pear tart recipe and have finally gotten it to a point where I’d like to share it. I took pictures the last time I made it, though they were on my phone and are not the best quality. Next time I’ll grab the DSLR and get y’all some decent looking photos.

You will need:

Thoroughly combine the following ingredients.

4 egg yolks

3/4 cup granulated sugar

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cup whole milk

1/4 cup heavy cream or quality rum

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of ground cinnamo

4 egg yolks

3/4 cup granulated sugar

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cup whole milk

1/4 dark rum

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

pinch of ground cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

3-4 FIRM pears

Also, one pie crust- either make your own or use a store bought one. I am horrible with dough, so I use a pre made one…

Combine all ingredients except the pears very thoroughly in a bowl. Core the pears, then slice them into 8ths. Place the crust in your pie pan, pat it down thoroughly. Arrange your pears- either in a circular pattern like I did, or just toss them in if you don’t mind how it looks. Trust me, after one bite, you won’t give a damn what it looks like! Pour the custard mix over the pears. I’ve found that I don’t always use all the custard- you don’t want it to overflow, so use your judgement. This differs based on how many pears you added. Bake at 350 for 45 – 50 minutes. The custard should have a gel like texture- not watery, but not completely solid, either. It will firm up some as it cools. Serve warm or cold- it’s delightful either way!

You may also like to add other fruit- the tart in the pictures also has blackberries. Once it’s cooled, dust with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Yum!

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Moving

Mary — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:35:15 +0000

I’m moving out of the dorm and back in with my mother today. I have incredibly mixed feelings about it. I hate the circumstances, but hopefully it will be for the best. I wrote about it in the mal swap group last night, and I’m really not in the mood to write about it again, so here’s some of what I posted over there (sorry if you’re seeing this twice)..

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, UK is not helping me sort out this financial aid issue that sprung from me withdrawing from a large number of courses when I was sick last year. The appeal process is taking much longer than it should and they are refusing to give me any sort of acceptation to the rules. As such, I’m being forced to take a semester off (since there’s a $8000 hold on my account where they have refused to accept my grants from the govt). Today was my last critique for a long time. It was bittersweet. Actually, it was horrible. I love being an art student. I love being surrounded by artists. Hell, I even love our shitty studio building. I almost cried when it was over because I knew it was my last one for a long time. The rest of UK, and the administration, I will not miss one little bit. But… there’s something magical about that place, and I miss it already. I happened to be going through some of my pieces when Jared called, and was tearing up seconds before the phone rang because I know that living at home is going to be tough on me. Mom and I get along really well, but we don’t always live together well. I’m moving tomorrow, out of the dorms and back home with her. I’m seriously dreading these next few months. School has been a great thing to distract me from the fact that Jared is not here. Stressful, yes, but I’ve been able to work though a lot of those negative things and have gotten to a happy place about school these past 8 weeks or so. I have lots of knitting I want to do, and I’d like to get serious about designing. I have sketches and swatches and such I just have needed the time to flesh them out. I’m just feeling really blah about the whole situation. I don’t understand why a university would have so many stupid policies that are keeping someone who a. has grants and b. wants to be at school from taking classes. And to top it off, when I withdrew before, I had to show medical documentation at the time, so it’s not like they are even questioning those withdraws, they are just mad that I have a certain number of non grade awarded courses.

So, that’s that. Today’s all about packing and getting stuff out of the dorm room. The part I’m dreading most is getting everything back in the house- everything is still a mess from the last time I moved. (What, me, hate packing? Just a bit). I will keep reminding myself that this is just time to explore other things, work on the photo buis, and knit. Lots and lots of knitting.

Speaking of knitting, I have lots of knitting to show you. Alas, I should be packing at this very moment, so it will be tomorrow.

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Dear Blog,

Mary — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:56:41 +0000

I’m so sorry that I’ve abandoned you. I’m back, have lots to share, and will be doing so over the next few days (and yes, I’ll keep it up better, now!). I’ve changed to a better host (yay, less money!) thanks to Brett, and have been bitten by the “must blog” bug again. I have several FOs and WIPs to share, as well as some general life updates, and lots of pretty pictures.

All in the next few days, dears.

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