String Notes

Ah… a Saturday at home alone. Nick is off doing SCA stuff, and I’m here doing… whatever I want!

After a lazy morning, I put on Amanda Palmer‘s new album, and set to it. I’ve cleaned the kitchen and put away all the crap in the dining room so I can do some sewing. I didn’t throw anything away, but I did think about it. We got new bins for the pet food, freeing up a large drawer. (Why yes, I do have kitchen drawers large enough for a 40-lb bag of dogfood, AND 15 lb of catfood, and room left over.) I love putting things away. We have too much stuff, but as long as it can go somewhere it isn’t so bad.

The cleaning and sorting alternated with the dyeing.

Today it was Blue-faced Leicester. Two batches are in the oven, two cooling on the stove, and two rinsing in the sink.

I appear to have mastered the essential rule of dyeing: Don’t mess with the wool. I won’t know for certain until it’s dry, but it looks like I did a good job and they’re all still nicely fluffy and not a bit felted. *crosses fingers*

It’s a beautiful day here, but moving steadily toward autumn, so I geared up in my exploring clothes, and braved the tomato jungle. (Not me, but excellent exploring clothes, and they aren’t even black!)

Except for the lingering aroma of tomato vines I emerged unscathed, and it was a profitable expedition.

I brought back a big bunch of basil and parsley. I’m thinking of roasting the tomatoes with the herbs and some olive oil – after the wool is out of the oven – and freezing whatever I don’t eat tonight. (I have oregano and thyme too, but those require shoes for retrieval. Um, so much for my claim of explorer gear, I suppose.)

I was (mildly) scolded for having a LiveJournal page but not using it, so I installed a WordPress plugin that is supposed to echo this to that. Comments are enabled both places. (But my main page is nicer, honest.)