Cooking With Intention

Carolyn has been in a cooking slump, which I find very hard to believe. My offering of this week's recipe would have been more timely, however Hughes Network has had us off-line since late Saturday night. We're still off-line with satellite so, in desperation, we are back on dial-up until an astronaut lands on the satellite and rectifies the problem.

Linguni with White Clam Sauce:

I always have canned clams and juice in the pantry so this is my default meal when in a bind

Ingredients:

1/2 medium red onion, minced

8 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 Olive Oil

3/4 C Italian parsley chopped

1 t red pepper flakes (I use 1T)

140z baby clams (I double this since we love clams)

1 bottle clam juice

1/4 C white wine

1 T butter

1/4 C Parmesan cheese or Pecorino-Romano

1# linguini or vermacelli or angel hair pasta

Saute onions in some of the olive oil until translucent. Add the garlic and continue to slowly saute. In a food processor, pour in the remaining olive oil and parsley and whiz it a bit. Add to the sauce pan along with the red pepper flakes. Cook until mushy. Add the white wine, the liquid from the canned clams and the bottle of clam juice. Reduce the volume by about half or until people are screaming to eat. Add the clams and butter and cook for a few more minutes. Before serving, add the grated Parmesan. I'm sure you already know how to cook up the pasta. If not, off with your head!

Five Flippin' Rugs Done

29"X54"
6 epi doubled poly-cotton warp
two 2" strips per shot
bed sheets

The hem is NOT frowning as shown.







28"X42"
Thomas the Engine and 101 Dalmation weft
2" strips, 1 per shot
6 epi/doubled poly-cotton warp


My new bathroom rug for upstairs!
29"X56"

Bed sheets cut into 2" strips

2 strips per shot

I'm very happy with this rug!







Looper rug...ugly, ugly looper rug

30X45

blah, blah, blah




Another rug made from sheets

29"X44

See the shadow of my head?






Thoughts now that the rugs are off the loom:

use 5 - 10 shots of waste yarn between rug hems instead of 3 or 4. Easier to cut
using more than 2 warp threads for the hem would make it too thick to sew on the machine
use T-pins to secure hems. Quilting pins may bend...hell, they do bend!
thicker rugs don't scrunch up as easily.

Sunday on The Farm

I saw the pigs in the upper pond today and ran back to the house to grab the camera. Yup, by the time I got back they were out of the pond. Please introduce yourselves to Snow White and Poka Dot.














For your viewing pleasure, here is Poka Dot once again.


















Just one of the sheep saying hello to me.











Fall at the Funny Farm














I'm working on the fifth rug on the Union and will finish it up tonight. Tomorrow they'll be hemmed and the other loom will be warped. That's my plan. Pictures one of these days soon.

What I *think* I've learned (remember, the rugs are still on the loom):

--1 thicker rugs are more interesting
--2 thicker rugs take (me) twice as long
--3 thinner rugs are fast
--4 6 epi (doubled) is a prettier rug
--5 I prefer lots of contrast in the fabrics
--6 4 rag shuttles is not enough
--7 I'm wondering if doubled warp as weft for the hems is enough. As careful as I am I'm afraid the draw-in will still be too much. I think about this every time I look at the 2 rugs in the bathroom.
--8 Making a list is really procrastination and I need to finish that last rug.

Are you watching the World Series? It's "your duty, Judy"!

The Arbitrary Warp

Charleen asked if the warp was threaded randomly and the answer is yes and no. I wound the warp using 6 balls of yarn all at once, in 4 colors. In that regard it is planned, kind of. When I threaded the reed I threaded from each 6 thread grouping but not necessarily keeping any order. There is some order or patterning in the warp but no consistently so. Clear as mud?

Promised Pictures

Here is a picture of Dave and The Girls at work. What a pretty picture.








On one loom I have The Arbitrary Warp. This is destined to become a jacket. I'm stretching the weft by using two colors. Not too shabby.

The looper rug. Yeah, I know. I should have used blue or navy warp, but this is what is on the loom and I was curious about using loopers. I am so underwhelmed, but I'll get over it. If anyone has suggestions I am open for your comments. I can't wait to finish it so I can get the better rugs off and hemmed.





This photo is for Sue. She and Tanya drove up from MD several years ago and Sue could not imagine me getting another loom in here. Well, here it is. I wish I could have stood back further to get a broader view but the picker and carder were in my way. No, I wasn't going to move that table. I should take a picture of that corner...NOT! Rather like the part of the yurt Sara refused to take a picture of. In the far left hand corner you can see some of my new rug warp. There is another full shelf above that you can't see. Just pretend.

All dressed up and no place to go

Here I am with The Girls. Our friend Dave, the guy in the red hat, uses his draft horses for logging, sleigh and hay rides. He was logging across the street the other day and gave me a call to come see The Girls in action. So I did. Aren't I fetching? (I had just finished cleaning one of the hen houses. Can you say "stinky"? I won't say who or which stunk more.) Ira, to the right, was just walking back from cleaning the tanks at the sap house. In fact The Guys are quite colorful in this picture, brought to you by Himself.

This was the second sweater I had knit some million years ago. You can see I didn't have a handle on decreasing by ?% for the bottom band. I just knew I didn't want to look like a balloon, so instead I look sloppy. The sleeves are long enough for an ape. But hey. It's a great barn sweater and it fits everyone!

I've been weaving and knitting. Pictures at 11 or whenever I get "round tuit".