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Four Pillars

Tinking Turtle Raverly

We Made out Like Bandits, I Tell ‘Ya

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Michael and I belong to a CSA, Spiral Path, which we pick up once a week from the Silver Spring Farmer’s Market.  Every once and a while Spiral Path will have an open farm day for its members.  It’s a cross between a harvest festival and a good backyard party, and we’ve been wanting to go for a while.  The only drawback is that the farm is 3 hrs away in PA.

However, this last weekend Michael and I had Ray visiting (who has a car that gets double the miles to the gallon that our car does). Coincidentally, there was an open farm day.  We decided to make a day of it, and got up REALLY early (before the sun rose) and drove to Spiral Path.

The drive was well worth it.  There was a fabulous pot-luck, tours of the farm, heyrides and other wonderful events.  Michael and I hadn’t quite realized how big Spiral Path is – they service 2250 members.  Just for perspective, most CSA’s have around 200 members.  Spiral Path is huge, but still very down to earth.  All the growing they do is organic, and you can see the values they hold in every choice they made about how the food is grown and prepared for shipment.  Michael and I feel very passionately about supporting efforts like this, and it’s great to know that we not only are getting great value for our food, but that it is going to a solid business model.

The most lovely part of the open farm day is the goodies that you get for free.  Spiral Path has a chunk of produce that it grows that for whatever reason isn’t considered sell-able – either it has blemishes, is too small, or has something else wrong with it.  Normally they donate the “reject food” to the local food shelter, but when they have the open farm days, they make this extra produce available to the members for free.

Our bounty from Spiral Path (the veggies) and Rock Hill (the apples)

Take a look at our haul:

We took home: 2 pumpkins, 2 butternut squash, 2 spaghetti squash, yellow squash, green beans, eggplant, summer squash, and a whole bunch of peppers, of various sweet and spicy flavors.

Finally, Spiral Path also had a herb garden where members could cut their own herbs.  We brought home mint, sage, and lots and lots of basil (for making pesto).

The event ended at 3, and by that time I was pretty tuckered out.  But we weren’t done yet.  On the way home, we stopped by Rock Hill Orchard, and picked up some Empire and Jonathan apples.  Just because it’s the beginning of fall, and that’s what you got to do.  Go apple picking.

Weekend Ravels

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Over the weekend Michael and I decided we needed to take a bike ride, as the weather was lovely and it wasn’t looking like this week would be very pleasant.  We decided to go to Arlington Cemetery, because I’d never been and it had been a long time since Michael was there.

It was a lovely, beautiful bike ride and a great way to spend the afternoon.  I find there’s a peace and reverence to cemeteries that I find quite comforting.  The sense of time there always manages to put things in perspective.

Six Week Saga

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It’s no secret that I’m not the best cook.  I’m not the worst, but if given my druthers, I’d let Michael do all the cooking, and I’d (mostly) happily do the dishes.  I’m prone to intuitive jumps in logic sometimes, which serves me well in knit or crochet… no so much in cooking.  That’s how you get meatballs that are no longer meatballs and turkeyloaf you can pour out of a pan.  (My philosophy for a long time with cooking was if I didn’t understand a step, I’d just skip it.  Hey, as long as it was cooked, it really didn’t matter how it got there, right?  Right?)

But the next six weeks Michael is going to be in in intense summer courses, which means Monday through Thursday I am responsible for the cooking, even on nights I get home late… because Michael will be getting home later.  *wince*  So before this week Michael and I sat down to brainstorm meals we could freeze, prepare before-time, and have ready to go.  That way I’m not tempted to take shortcuts that won’t work or make a mistake because I’m tired.

So… anyone have any good freezer-ready meals, or things that we can do and prep beforehand?  Anything would be good.

Travel, Alone/Lonely, Random Bits, Driving a Manual!

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Michael is traveling for work.  Sometime around my senior year of college I realized I really wasn’t a person that did well living alone.  Now, this is not to say I dislike having alone time.  Being the oldest of four children, I used to beg my mother for some time to play when I did not have to share.  But I always knew I could go back and play with my siblings, or someone.  When I went off to camp I shared a cabin with 7 other girls, and there was always someone to play with.  When I moved to college I had room mates.

That is, until my senior year, when I got a single.  Michael, who I had been dating for a year and a half at the time, was away at sea, and I for various reasons was not as proximal to my friends as I was used to. (Is proximal a word?  If not, I’m pulling a Shakespeare).  I loved being able to set up my room however I wanted for about a week and a half.  Then I kinda just fell apart.  Without a room-mate there really wasn’t anyone to say “maybe you should go to bed” or “maybe you should eat.”  There was no social pressure to shower regularly.  I went to classes because I was a rule follower and because there was social pressure to go to class, but for a semester I was terribly lonely.  It was awful, and it was about then that I realized I really wasn’t happy living alone.  It also took a while for me to develop coping mechanisms to be able to live alone, which involved numerous alarms to remind me to eat, sleep and wake up.

I was so happy when Michael, and many of my other friends the grade below me, finally came back from abroad.  My second semester went much better, especially because Michael practically lived in my room more than his.

Which basically means that when Michael travels, I wander around the apartment looking rather lost.  It helped before we moved that I had a room mate that would basically take me under her wing while he was gone, but now I just sit home alone, and well, it’s kinda sad.  Normally the second or third day I’ll remember how to live alone, but there’s always an adjustment period.

I also have been known to just eat raw veggies and fruit and yogurt and corn while he is gone.  Which is kinda embarrassing.  But really, I don’t even want to eat my own cooking.

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On a brighter note: I drove to the post office and back in the Manual, and only stalled once, in the parking lot, which practically doesn’t even count.  Didn’t stall out or roll back on any of the hills.  And the other day?  I drove across town for an errand by myself.  Be impressed.  This is hard work, when you learned to drive an automatic.

EDIT:  Just to clarify.  I first learned to drive an automatic.  Now I can drive an automatic AND a manual.

Tension in Knitting, Crochet and Life…

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So life right now has been a bit of a balancing act for me. I’m working at The Yarn Spot, babysitting, and trying to figure out if I can really make a career out of being my multi-directional self. I feel like I swing between too much and too little. I get tense and uptight worrying that I’m not going to make things work, then I relax and let things roll and don’t quite motivate the way I should.

It’s kind of like knitting or crochet… too much tension and your fabric will be too tight (I even saw one sweater where the person couldn’t get their head through the hole), too loose, and the fabric has no form, flopping down over your head like a three-times-too-big hat.

How the heck do you find a balance?

Well, I can’t really tell you how to go about it with life. I’m making some discoveries about myself, and others, and I’ll share those thoughts with you, but I’ve got it far from right. On the other hand, I can share with you my thoughts about knitting. You see, today we had a customer come in. She had switched from throwing (where you feed the yarn out of your right hand) to continental (or picking, where you feed the yarn out of the left hand, kind of like crochet). Her tension was all wonky, and she couldn’t get a consistent gauge. She was an experienced knitter, but this new method of knitting, while faster in the end, was not working for her right now.

We tried a few methods of wrapping the yarn around her fingers to try and get more friction. I showed her my way where I weave the yarn through my fingers and then loop it over my pinkie, and then I showed her the way another one of the employees in the store does it, where she wraps it around her thumb. In the end, the customer did neither way, but combined the two to get her tension where she wanted it.

I guess that’s what I’m trying to do with my life right now. Combine my passions… for children, for books, for yarn, for writing, for designing patterns, for crafting all into one seamless whole.

*grins* We’ll see how it goes.

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In other news, I’m going with the Boyfriend to New Haven this weekend to visit with friends. Not sure what’s going to happen, but I’ll try and take some good pictures to show you! We’ll be taking the train, so the Boyfriend will be pleased.

When I get back, I’m planning to put together a tutorial on holding the yarn when knitting continental, and different ways to modify it for loose or tight knitters.

I’ll keep you updated, Yarnies, for when I get back.

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