Saturday, January 26, 2008

house cleaning

another not exciting - if anything rather annoying - post. Everyone who reads my blog with any RSS reader - change the feed to either http://knitguy.com/?feed=atom or http://knitguy.com/?feed=rss2 . Both of those seem to work though if one doesn't please, please reply to any of my posts so I know there's a problem.

Same blog new URL

Visually this isn't a very exciting page because I just haven't uploaded any pictures lately but - I have a new URL. From now on this blog can be found at www.knitguy.com its new as of a few minutes ago. All of the posts (and the comments that go with them) have been transfered from this page to that one and at the moment I'm fiddling with all of the options on Wordpress (namely trying to find a template that I like). But yea - so new blog url at www.knitguy.com

oh - also - I will probably attempt to find a way to redirect knitguy.blogspot.com to the new URL but as that would involve me procrastinating more than I already am so don't count on it happening anytime soon.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

I got a package! (not that one Emily, Shannon, and Gail)

I got a package from Edinburgh today! I sent my friend Fee money to buy me roving with and this is what came today.

Counter clockwise from the top: Undyed merino (brown) 600g, Milk protein (casein) 100g, Mixed merino pack in ocean colors 200g, Undyed gotland 200g

This is maybe the best package, I've ever gotten (now how many times have I said that....). I think I'm going to use the gotland for the Kool-haas hat. I was also amused today because I get all of my mail sent to my school so I picked up the package in the reception. Because I was really excited I opened it and showed James, one of the people who works in the reception, the contents. He picked up one of the things of gotland and stroking it said "aw man, can I just sit here and stroke this all day?" It was amazing!

Oh, the other package still hasn't come yet....

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Long time

For whatever reason I've been neglecting /putting off writing in the blog for a while (I guess thats what happens when you fix your wheel). I've been preocuping myself with more knitting than spinning, I don't have a whole lot of roving or tops in my room so I've been making myself spin less because I know I'll end up using it all and then get sad because I have nothing left. Never fear though - the magnificent Fee has put a ton of roving in the mail for me (I gave her money to pick some stuff up and send it with the candy Ant brought me) so I should be getting it by mid-week.

I also finally finished Bartholomew's Tantalizing Socks this past Monday. Sadly I didn't have enough yarn to finish the toe so I used some left over Zen String

Then Tuesday morning I found the Cobblestone Pullover pattern on sale on Interweave Press' website, so I bought that along with the pattern for the Koolhaas Hat and proceeded to go to the yarn store I go to the most often here and pick up the yarn for the sweater and start that day.

Body and six or so inches of the first sleeve

This is what happens when I start something and I'm on a break from school and have no other projects....I knit like crazy. I finished the body tonight and am about six or so inches (I'm eyeballing it) into the first sleeve. After that I have the second sleeve and then the yoke and I'm done.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

A new year and new goodies

So some of you know that my wheel has been having some issues as of late - the wheel itself (as in, the large wheel that turns :) ) would move about .75 cm forward when I would treadle and rub up against the rocker bar that connects the two treadles. After emailing Gord Lendrum and the people I bought it from it had been determined that I need to tighten the bolt on the frame that connects the wheel to the frame. Of course this involves a wrench which is not something one brings when studying abroad. I finally went out to find one today and came back with this.

Gusto (an Austrian cooking magazine), Zotter chocolate, and the ever important wrench (and bits)

Well, low and behold, after a bit of screwing it works! Of course one of the little plastic feet things came off at some point last month and I think it got vacuumed up at some point - not a super big deal but now it walks ever so slightly when I spin but its not too noticeable (probably because its on carpet) and I can find another foot thing somewhere (if not in Vienna I'll get one in Portland this summer). But yes - now my wheel is back to normal and I can spin again! Now...about ordering more roving....

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Christmas in Krakow

I got back from Krakow on Thursday afternoon and while I didn't take a whole lot of pictures of Krakow itself we cooked a lot and, thus, that is what I took pictures of.


Most of that is from Christmas Eve dinner. The menu was:
  • Green Salad
  • Potato Salad
  • Beet Salad
  • Fried Carp (breaded and un-breaded)
  • Deviled Eggs
  • Bread
  • White Wine
  • Mulled Wine
  • Warm Beer
  • Crepes (with a number of topics
Apparently in Poland and The Czech Republic fried carp is a Christmas tradition. We weren't quite sure whether or not they make it breaded or not so - we did it both ways, un-breaded was my my favorite.

The next morning Aurora and I got up early to make breakfast for Annie and Sarah (who is visiting me in 6 and a half hours!). Of course we didn't take any pictures of it but it included:
  • Orange Juice
  • Potato Hash (made from the leftover potato salad)
  • Crepes
  • Apple Sauce (homemade by yours truly)
  • Scrambled Eggs
  • French Toast (made with repurposed crepe batter with some flour, sugar, and cinnamon added)
Then for dinner on Christmas day we had Borscht, Salad, and these fried sandwiches (soaked in the excess french toast batter - who would have known crepe batter could be turned into so many things) that had cheese (though mine were cheeseless), sauted mushrooms and eggplant, and mustard on them.

Now for New Years Eve, the menu so far is, empanadas (with the recipe that Sarah got from an 80 year old Argentine woman), salad, maybe schnitzel (because ya know - schnitzel and empanadas go together so well...) and...we'll see what else.
There endeth the cooking segment for the day :)

Thursday, December 20, 2007

and i'm back - the lost post

So currently I don't have internet - the people at my dorm are changing over services or something like that and I've been without it for 3 or 4 days now. That being said, I got new goodies from Loop on etsy this week!



I was trying to hold out because I don't have very much roving at the moment and, clearly, I love spinning but I ended up spinning up some of it.

100% bamboo