crafty_packrat

Lemon tart, bacon-gruyere wheel, almond croissant, red raspberries, 2 quarts of strawberries, a red bell pepper, a pint of snacking peppers, a carrot cake muffin, oatmeal raisin cookies, 3 mushroom-and-lentil handpies, 2 cheeseburger handpies, a roasted vegetable muffin, cranberry ginger butter cookies, a lemon brownie, a lemondoodle stack, and a chewy ginger stack.

The Master Gardeners were there today, so I got a free eggplant and a free marigold.

I got compliments on my shirt today -- a Velvet Night button-down from MorningWitch -- and my packbasket, which continues to be a favorite of many vendors at the market.

Also, I stumbled upon this crocheted hostess apron Pansies for Remembrance -- the original poster did transcribe the pattern and it is actually not that difficult -- I've certainly made difficult patterns before. I desperately want to make it now and know I should keep working on everything else I've already started instead.

I finished pleasance's Rhodopsin socks yesterday. The yarn is an Isomer colorway from String Theory Colorworks, a dye studio where all the yarn bases are named for physics terms, and all the colorways are named from science (usually chemistry, biology, or astronomy).



I have another isomer colorway for myself, in Tetrodotoxin, which I'm going to try as toe-up socks.

I finished the Contact Spread portion of the MKAL last night -- 2 hours and 20 minutes to knit 10 rows, with 269 stitches on the needles at the end. That's Clue 1 done.

I already have Clue 2, and if I do at least 10 rows a night, I will be finished with that by the time Clue 3 is released on Friday.



I also dug out the sewing machine sanj left with me when she went off to grad school forever ago. It is a Singer Touch and Sew model 636, and weighs a ton. It's probably an all-metal machine from 1960s. I think I can get it operating, and since there was approximately 6 yards of muslin packed with it, along with some fat quarters, my attempts at mask-making will proceed apace. Eventually.

1/2 lb mushrooms, 4 pieces of strudel (apple pecan and cheese blueberry), pink lady apples, Greek almond cake, salted caramel olive oil cake, and 8 lbs of potato.

I'm probably going to make mushroom ragout for dinner.

Also, ordered enough yarn to make the 5 baby cousins each a wool scarf -- 4 gators, 1 diplodocus -- and one less whimsical scarf for my foster-nephew, who is older than the babies and deserves a scarf a teenager would like.

Finished today, 1 ounce of handspun laceweight in a colorway called "Blacktop Chalk Art".

This is from the fiber I picked up at MD Sheep & Wool, which I attended with el and temve this year. I have another ounce, which I will ply with this one when I finish it.

I'm not sure what I'll make out of this, but probably another scarf, or possibly a hat.

Went to Maryland Sheep and Wool with temve, and managed to see the whole thing in six hours, including the exhibition barn full of different breeds of sheep. The Valais Blacknose were a breed new to the festival this year, and looked as much like plush toys as you'd think.

I bought a lot of plants: hot peppers (Joe Parker, buena mulata, pasilla, Islander), tomatillos, dwarf cherry tomatoes, and cotton (3 different fiber colors!). Also bought three jars of honey, two bags of honey candy, a CD of hammered dulcimer music, one spindle, one bundle of fiber, one basket, two knitting kits, and three skeins of glow-under-ultraviolet sock yarn.

I received three compliments for the red linen lace shawl I knit myself years ago and wore because it was only slightly cool today, not boiling hot nor unseasonably chilly. It did rain, and I did have to duck outside into the drizzle when my brother called my about setting up my dad's new cellphone.

Also, I spotted one of my coworker's had entered the garment competition and got a very respectable Third Place in a crochet category, so I will congratulate her on Monday.

We shared a bag of roasted, cinnamon & sugar coated pecans -- Tem hadn't had them before, because almonds are the more usual thing in Europe -- and had lamb-burgers sold by a troop of Boy Scouts, who were adorable and trying very hard to be good at the customer service thing, but still needed coaching from their dads. (Also, the dads and older boys were doing the cooking, leaving the customer-facing service to the younger boys, who at least couldn't set themselves on fire accidentally with that responsibility).

After we left -- right on time since it began to rain in earnest -- we stopped at the Trader Joe's on the way home, and I now have enough chicken to make either chicken & dumplings or chicken pibil tacos tomorrow, depending on how much energy I have.

Yesterday I rode up to MdS&W with wolfshark, her spouse and her friend -- taking the back roads and winding state highways up. We got there at about 10 am, as planned.

( The first thing )