Fresh Made Seltzer

I love drinking seltzer...just plain bubbly water.  Since Thaddeus drinks it too, I've suggested for a while that we get one of those home seltzer makers:

Soda On-Demand

How many of you have gotten one of these Soda Stream, CO2 infusers?

Overall, it's cheaper to make your own seltzer and it saves on plastic...right?

I couldn't understand why Thaddeus wouldn't want one of these.

Until I realized he wanted to do it in a more industrial (and cost-savings way).

Yes, with a 5 pound tank of CO2, a regulator, a hose and some special caps that fit soda bottles, we are now making GALLONS of our own Seltzer water.  The initial outlay of $164 allowed us to buy all the equipment necessary and fill the tank with CO2.  This set-up will last for at least 6 months and then we just need to pay about $10 to refill the tank with CO2.

I imagine we'll cover the cost of this equipment in less than 2 years of savings on buying seltzer.  Plus, we'll add a lot less plastic to the World.

Current Crochet

Making slow, but steady progress on the crochet basket weave blanket/afghan.

I'm also re-making the heel samples for my workshop, but that shouldn't take too much of my knitting time.

Finn

Just didn't want to go too long without a photo of the most wonderful cat.

Here he is watching us eat lunch today.  I'm loving this guy more and more.

New Thaddeus Recipe

This side-dish is amazing...we had something similar in a restaurant and we loved it.

Curried Chickpea Fries

This dish is a healthier alternative to French fries, it can be completely gluten free and has a ton of flavor.  I personally love the flavor of  Indian spices, but you could substitute rosemary, or chive

Curried Chickpea Fries
Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Time: About 1½ hours, largely unattended

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup chickpea flour
2 cups water (you could also use vegetable or chicken stock)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
Salt and black pepper

1. Grease an 8- or 9-inch pan (Thaddeus uses a round pie pan, but most people use a square pan).
2. Whisk chickpea flour, cumin and turmeric into boiling water (you definitely want to use a whisk for this).
3. Boil while whisking constantly for 2 minutes.
4. Spread the chickpea flour mixture as evenly as possible into the greased pan, cover with foil or plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.
5. Put at least 2 inches of the oil in a large, deep pot over medium-high heat. Cut the chickpea flour cake into ½-by-3-inch strips. Add one of the strips to the oil to test whether it’s hot enough; the oil should immediately bubble vigorously. Working in batches, cook the remaining strips until deep golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the strips to paper towels to drain, season with salt, and serve hot.

Current Knitting/Crocheting

I'm doing a workshop at this year's Men's Spring Knitting Retreat on knitting a sock heel that forms more to the real anatomy of a foot than commercial socks, so I've started knitting up some samples.

I also did some additional crochet on the Crochet Basketweave Afghan, until I realized I had miscounted the number of rows in one of the stripes, so I had to rip back a bit.

I have recovered and gone a little past where I was, but I did promise a progress photo.

Readers' Comments/Questions

Thanks for the two comments about using EverNote instead of OneNote.

I made a comment that I still like OneNote better (see my response in last blog entry comments), but I have to now qualify my comments.

OneNote on Windows is an excellent product...better than EverNote in my opinion.  But on Mac OS, OneNote (which is a free app) is not as good...in fact in some ways it sucks.  I tried copying an Excel table into EverNote and also into OneNote...EverNote handled it great, OneNote wouldn't format the damn thing into a table no matter what I tried (whereas in Windows, it works like a charm).  Those kinds of platform-based inconsistencies with Microsoft products drive me nuts.

Sheep To Shawl

Who has ever been to and/or participated in a Sheep To Shawl contest?

What I Imagine

So, I guess the concept is that teams comprised of a person that shears a sheep, at least one person the prepares the fiber for spinning, at least one person that spins the fiber and then someone that crafts the resulting yarn into a shawl?

Right so far?

I'm picturing some dirty, poo-covered sheep being sheared fast and carelessly, with lots of second cuts.  Then someone carding rolags of greasy, dirty roving, while a third person spins the rolags with complete abandon into a thick, greasy cord of yarn.  And this yarn is then knit into some grease-laden monstrosity of a shawl that will be auctioned off for some charity.

Well, I guess there are some options that are a little less awful than mine.

My local yarn store, Twist Knitting and Spinning is sponsoring a Sheep to Shawl Demonstration and Auction on Saturday, April 12th and the shawl will be auctioned off on Sunday, April 13th.  I was fortunate enough to have seen the final shawl created from last year's event, and it was simply gorgeous.  But in my defense, the shawl was woven, not knit, the loom was warped in advance, and the fiber was washed and prepared for spinning prior to the event (not sheared and spun "in the grease").

I'm hoping to be there if anyone would like to meet up.

Current Knitting
I worked a bit more on the Zauberball sock, but haven't quite finished it yet.  I was distracted with yet another knitting project.

Have you ever seen the documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk?  If you haven't, you should.  If you have, then did you catch the sweater-vest that Henry Der was wearing during his interview?

I liked the center panel (which is hard to see in this photo), so I've decided to make something like that for myself.  Here's what I've completed so far.

I'm using the Icelandic wool I bought at The Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival which I made a full size pullover from previously from this yarn, and I think I have enough left over for the vest.

I'll keep you updated on progress.

Productive Weekends Can Be So Satisfying!

My to-do list was starting to feel a bit overwhelming, so I took it one task at a time this weekend, and ended up getting an enormous amount completed.  Including some crochet!

The Incredible Lightness of Being

I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by all I had to do, so now having completed some of the more daunting tasks, I'm feeling so much lighter than I was toward the end of last week.

Primarily, I finished filing mine and Thaddeus' tax returns, which is never an easy feat, and even a bit more difficult because of our marital status.

Having been married at the end of last year, and living in a State that doesn't recognize the marriage, it required that I calculate a fake Pennsylvania State return as if we were married and carry over some of those numbers to our federal return.  Then, I had to file both mine and Thaddeus' State taxes separately for the returns that actually get filed with the State.

One of these days, we'll have full equality.

Then, I had a bunch of work to do on the Men's Spring Knitting Retreat coming up in May...clean up the finances, work on the scholarship nominations, send out correspondence, etc.  This work is always a joy, especially compared to tax preparation, but it was still nice to get it all tidied up.

Finally, I got some fiber work  in.

Current Crochet.

I was able to add just over one more wide stripe of color to the basket weave blanket.

I noticed that the colorways on the two balls of variegated yarns are different (the top one is more purple), but I kind of like that it's not completely the same.

As I do more and more of this stitch pattern, it gets more and more relaxing and enjoyable to do.  Or maybe it's just feeling relieved at completing some daunting tasks in my life.