Whack it with a Hammer or "The Peleton"

bEpisode 10

I Production Scheduling
1. Happy 4th of July
2. Events
1. Sunday Brunch with the Cuyahoga Falls Knitter and Hookers.
2. Crooked River Fiber Fling in Peninsula, Oh August 4th-7th.
3. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo October 22 and 23rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds. This one is still tentative as of now.
4. Yankee Peddler Festival in Canal Fulton, OH 3 weekends in September the weekend of the 10th, 17th, and 24th.
3. Production
4. What's in my Tea Pot?
5. Shipping
6. Materials Sourcing
7. After 5

II Events
1. Sunday Brunch with the Cuyohoga Falls Knitters and Hookers.
1. Everyone pretty much owns being a hooker. How cool is that!
2. I love getting together with this knit group I wish I could do it more often. The conversation at my end of the table was lively and I can't wait for next month.
3. I brought my Clapotis to knit on and nothing went awry . (Huzzah!)
4. Panera had their ovens set to “inferno” I'm usually a fan of all things Panera but the wafting smell of burnt bagel is not very appetizing. The coffee wasn't getting a reprieve either and was being served just this side of boiling. .
2. Crooked River Fiber Fling in Peninsula, Oh August 4th-7th.
3. Ann Arbor Fiber Expo October 22 and 23rd at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds. This one is still tentative as of now.
4. Yankee Peddler Festival in Canal Fulton, OH 3 weekends in September the weekend of the 10th, 17th, and 24th.
1. I know I can get Joe to go to this one. Anything he can wander around with a turkey leg in hand is his kind of event.
III Production / Shipping

1. The Clapotis by Kate Gilbert from Knitty.com is on the needles I'm doing this out of Malabrigo in the Archangel colorway, I've been a knitting fiend this week. After soooo many long weeks of light weight sock yarn while I slogged through the Daybreak I rocketed through the Clapotis. All the knitting is done and all the stitches are dropped. All that's left is weave in the ends and to block. I may totally cheat though and weave in the ends and wear it out to the fireworks tonight.
2. What's next? Well I think It looks like I'll be headed back to the land of lace weigh yarn. I think I'll be casting on the EMBASSY SCARF by Amy Polcyn. I'll be knitting this in the Knitpicks Shadow lace weight in Foxtrot.
IV What's in my Tea Pot

1. We had a huge download week this week and smashed 1100 downloads. Episode 9 was the first episode that had over 100 downloads in the week of release So in honor of that I've pulled something special out of the stash.
2. A legendary oolong tea from the Fujian province of China. Ti Kuan Yin is one of China's most beloved oolongs and is extremely time-consuming to produce (well over a dozen distinct steps in the processing are observed). This loosely rolled, lightly oxidized or 'green' Ti Kuan Yin yields a pale golden cup with a soft, buttery texture and orchid notes that linger and reveal a subtle complexity that will delight a fine palate. As the liquor cools, a sweet finish becomes apparent and offers faint hints of honeydew melon. We highly recommend multiple steepings to fully open the hand-rolled leaves, whose character will seemingly evolve through three or more infusions.
3. I'm on the 3rd infusion in my pot and it's holding up well. This tea has the same perfumey quality that I like in Jasmine. It's really nice. I wouldn't mind having this in the house but I'm not as ecstatic about it as I would have to be to pay the 49.00. This is one that will go on my Christmas list...:) I got this as part of my care package from Adagio Teas. My recommendation is to get the sample! It's worth the 9 bucks!
4. Oh and check out the story on the web site Ti Kuan Yin it tells about how the bodhisattva Kuan Yin gave the tea to a farmer. I love reading little tid bitty things like that...;)
V Materials Sourcing
1. It's Tour De Fleece ! Cadel Evans is narrowly avoiding Crashes, Thor Hushovd is defending his yellow jersey, Philippe Gilbert is sprinting! Me I've got on my rookie white jersey and I'm looking to join the peleton and get my spin on. Yeah I know that's awful...
1. My goal is to card and spin the 16 oz of mystery fiber I got from Green Field village.
2. I'm not happy with my fiber. It's full of veg matter. Tons of seeds, and bits of hay and it's full of second cuts.
3. I had intended to use wool combs on this and spin from sliver. As with all things time and money have changed my plans. I'm carding this with my new cards and rolling my own rolags.
1. I've never carded before.
1. I've already missed and taken the skin off my knuckles. Ow.!
2. Transferring the fiber from one card to an other is definitley an art form.
2. I've never spun from a rolag
3. I've never spun long draw.
4. Why don't we teach long draw woolen spinning before we teach the inch worm worsted form of drafting?
1. The fiber is drafting from the rolag “like Butta”
2. The single seems to be more even. Hurray!
3. Even though the single is more even the fiber is very slubby,
1. I'm trying to fix the slubs as I go along but it seems to be a losing battle.
2. I have one bobbin complete and one bobbin a quarter of the way full I'll be experimenting with plying methods later on today.
5. Looking at my pile of fiber I may be really over omitted!
6. I've been eyeballing my new rovings from woolfest last week. I can't wait to play with those. They'll be a great post tour reward!
VI After Five
1. B has gotten married.
1. B has little girl friend in day care
2. They've both been at the center since they were 6 weeks old.
3. This week on the way home B says I'm going to marry J.
1. you can come, and Dadda can come, ...Ollie too...
2. You need to get me another one suit. The black one was too tough.
3. J and I will have a huge wedding cake.
2. So the next day on the way home B says I kissed J!
1. What the what?
2. Apparently they got married at play time
3. the cake was large and of play dough
4. I have no idea what my new inlaws think of all this. J is a very vocal 4 yr old and I can only guess that they've heard the story
3. Ernest takes over my living room.
1. Joe found a 3 movie DVD of old Ernest movies, Of course the boys love them They’re funny the 1st few times but after the 3rd viewing in a week they get a bit old. I was sooo happy to escape to knitting group this week!
4. Joe goes coco nutty
5. This march we were able to take the kids on a cruise to that Bahama’s for spring break. Not something we can usually afford to do. So this was special. Joe and I had gone to the Bahama’s on our honeymoon so we had some things in mind that we wanted to revisit. One was a tropical drink stand in the Port Lucaya straw market. In our honeymoon video we have the perfect pina colada being drank out of the freshest yummiest coconuts we ever had, My husband up to that point had claimed to not liking coconut I think he ate two a day while we were there, Fast forward 6 years... we're back at the drink stand that we've been dreaming of and the coconuts are AWFUL! Green and unripe. So since then Joe has been on the look out for coconuts. He brought two home last night, He doesn't know the 1st thing about opening them. Years ago I went to a 6 week bar tending course and one of the things they covered was how to open a coconut. They did theirs with a hammer and a ice pick. We used a screw driver. Puncture the coconut through two of the “eyes” one is to let the mile out and one is to let the air in. Most coconuts are sold scored around the middle now. After the water is drained some well placed whacks the the blunt back of a heavy knife blade around the score lime should crack it in half. Wee just beat ours with the hammer until it shattered. Ours was for eating not for making cute cups.
6. My DAR app was approved this week and it’s the 4th we're feeling especially patriotic. We'll be off watching the fireworks with friends tonight. Have a happy and safe 4th everyone!