Tour de Fleece DNF*

Fail. I wrecked my shoulder (again) last week, and I know from experience that I have to let it rest. There's been no spinning, and very little knitting or sewing, for me this week. I'm glad I at least got the first batch plied, and I've started the second batch of singles, so it's not a complete disaster.

The little bit of stuff I have been working on is the ongoing Colette sweater, a pair of mittens for the knit-along I'm leading at Pacific Fabrics, baby quilt projects, and a quilt for my mom (not a surprise, although she may be surprised to hear that it's actually in progress now).

Random notes:

To women who wear low-rise jeans: if you choose to wear these jeans to an outdoor concert, and you sit on the ground, be aware that if your shirt is short, the nice folks behind you are totally staring at your ass. Way, way too much of your ass. Please, for the love of all that's decent, pull up your pants or wear a longer damn shirt.

To Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings: you totally rocked. Zoo Tunes is cool and all, but I'd love to hear them in a club where I could actually SEE Sharon Jones (she's tiny, and we were well back in the crowd), and where she didn't have to worry about keeping it family-friendly.

To Gardenburger: please resolve your production difficulties so that our beloved sizzling soy sausage patties return to a nearby freezer case. Boca breakfast patties aren't nearly as good (plus they're weirdly proportioned for breakfast bread products such as English muffins), and I really don't like Morningstar that much either. I've been cranky since I'm not getting my protein for breakfast.

*DNF = Did Not Finish, fyi for those of you who don't spend as much time as Trent and me following cycling coverage.

Sad lack of pictures

We had a busy weekend, but I have no photographic evidence. Saturday morning I did manage to motivate myself to do my third run of the week. (Special note to concerned friends and family: yes, I am wearing supportive undergarments, and yes, I am being very careful to avoid the ice.) Saturday afternoon Nancy and I went to Ballard and visited the Quilting Loft (a bit of fabric was purchased). Saturday night we met up with friends and went to Mesob for Ethiopian food. It was very, very yummy, and I ate too much. Sunday we went to Accordi-o-Rama at Town Hall. It was pretty darn cool. Accordion players, by and large, don't take themselves too seriously, and the show ended with a polka band, so what's not to love?

This morning I hauled myself out of bed in time to go for my morning waddle. I'm repeating week 1, on the grounds that I'm pathetic. It was really damn cold this morning. Ouch.

I've got lots of projects in progress at the moment, but most are in an unphotographable state, and the camera's batteries are dead besides. Crap. Maybe later.

Thanksgiving report, and a little craftiness

Yes, I'm still alive. Yes, I'm a terrible blogger. Yes, I know no one is reading this. I enjoy talking to the voices in my head.

Thanksgiving
Here's what having a really good friend means: you can invite her over for Thanksgiving, then realize you've invited too many people, ask her to host instead, ask to invite a few more people while you're at it, and she's totally cool with that and ends up hosting a giant, wonderful, celebratory dinner. Nancy, you're my hero.

Thanksgiving is really the sacred holiday for Trent and I. We believe in food, drink, and friends, and we forged into it with our usual enthusiasm this year. We cooked turkey (17 lbs of organic free range), dressing, gravy, and sweet potatoes, and transported them to Nancy's. She made a ton more food, and then the 11 other people who came over also brought food. It was carb-o-riffic. A forthcoming blog entry will feature favorite easy recipes.

Nancy provided art supplies for decorative turkeys, but someone made a slug, too.

We got to see our foster dog Briscoe (now Nancy's dog).

I've got more pictures, but I'm a tad reluctant to post non-family members on the blog without their agreement. But here's Jenine (Perkster of the comments) sniffing Trent's wine. She's practically family, as are Dan, Avril and Roger in the background, so I'm willing to post silly pictures of her.


Craftiness
I've been doing a lot of sewing lately, but some of it is for gifts, and some of it I just don't have pictures of. I did make another in the ongoing series of messenger bags:

I've also been knitting intermittently. The long term projects are hard to photograph (lace in progress is ugly, y'all, especially when it's 700 or so stitches jammed on a 29" circular needle). But here's some socks, just to prove I still knit.

The red (kind of pink on my monitor) is Panda Wool, and is a class model for a sock class I'm teaching at the Northgate Pacific Fabric and Crafts in February. I just finished it. The black tweedy one is for Trent. I temporarily lost the second ball of yarn, but I've now found it and can carry on with sock 2. The burgundy pair are from my birthday sock yarn from last year. Sock 2, as you can see, is almost done, but therefore I don't carry it around to work on it very much because I constantly need to check it against sock 1.

I'll try to make the next post sooner, and with recipes.

Got my goat

Adventures in cooking
Lake City, my 'hood, has a new store, the Discount Warehouse. It's a purveyor of Halal meats, assorted Indian and Mediterranean foods, and some other oddities. I bought some delicious (and insanely low priced) lamb for stew last week. Today, Trent and I went there to try to get some stew beef. They didn't have any boneless stew beef, so we ended up buying goat.

Why?

Why not.

So, we asked the nice guy at the counter how he'd suggest cooking goat. They sell boxed spice mixes for assorted Indian foods [edited to add: the spice mixes are from Pakistan, but you'd recognize some of the dish names from Indian restaurants], and he recommended the "Karahi/Fry Gosht spice mix for meat", which we duly purchased. Trent cooked it while I went off to the Bernina shop for a demo of some soon-to-be-released pattern software. It was delicious, but holy mother of Ganesh, it was HOT. What's more, the recipe on the box recommended adding 8-10 chiles, which we didn't do. My throat hurts just thinking about it.

At any rate, should you find yourself in Lake City, and find yourself thinking, gee, I could use some meat, I can highly recommend the Discount Warehouse. It's a little hard to spot, tucked away on the backside of the Rekhi building, but it's well worth a stop. Where else are you going to buy your fresh goat and lethal spice mix?