Food Again!

Life, lately, has been hectic, stressful, and verging on the unpleasant. Not that anything so very terrible has happened, more that the smaller stressful things in our lives have all ramped up at the same time. Which has not been overly helpful.

As a result, many things have fallen by the wayside, including the quality of the food we have been eating. In all honesty, in the last few weeks it has been a win if we so much as made beans on toast for dinner. Rather more takeaway than is advisable has been consumed.

That's life, and what's done is done. There is no point is stressing about that too. However, it is time to reset. New stress levels are starting to be accommodated (although sadly not particularly reduced, but what can you do?), and I think we are all starting to feel the negative effects of the way we have been eating.

However, I also do not want to get over-zealous and set something up that we are destined to fail at.

A huge part of our problem is that when someone inevitably asks the question "So, what are we doing for dinner?" no-one else has an answer. So first we have to think of ideas, and then decide between them. And then actually do it. There are too many potential exit points there. The initial question, brainstorming, deciding, and then action.

I have tried meal planning multiple times, and always with limited success, and I really am not sure why. It should solve this problem. What it has shown is that although there are too many potential exit points in the discussion that can easily lead to a trip to McDonalds or somewhere, the biggest hurdle for us is action. I have mentioned not being an enthusiastic cook, and frankly, I loathe it. We really do need to start cooking more, though, so I am trying to come up with a plan which will encourage further cooking, but not make it feel like a gigantic failure if we end up getting takeaway or eating fish finger sandwiches (never a failure, actually, I love them!).

This is my plan. To come up with some meals. As easy and quick as possible. Right now, I don't want to over concern myself with nutrition on the basis that almost anything we cook at home will be healthier than the deep fried offerings of our local takeaway emporia. This is more about habit building, right now. Here are the meals.

Burgers - we have some in the fridge, waiting to be eaten. We will eat them with steamed vegetables.
Pan-fried salmon - also with steamed vegetables.
Puff pastry vegetable and cheese tarts
Shepherd's pie

So, two staples, one new idea and one that takes a little longer, but is not particularly complicated. 4 meals, in 7 days. Let's start there, and see how we go!

It's All About Crochet

A few weeks ago, I learned to crochet. This has become something rather like an obsession.

I took some big bulky yarn (Katia Peru) that I had left over from another project and basically crocheted them into a bunch of squares, joined them up with double crochet, and voilà, I had a blanket! I'm so ridiculously proud of it!

I have attempted a couple of other crochet projects, without as much success, but in fairness, getting out the Rowan Kidsilk Haze was probably not my brightest idea ever. However, I am using my new skills on an excellent stash busting adventure: a sock yarn blanket!

I have never had much success with making blankets. I get bored. However, I think this is going to work. One square is such a small investment, and it is comparatively so speedy. The main thing is that it can deal with those little tiny bits of yarn that I have knocking about. As well as some of the not so tiny bits of yarn. I hate having yarn leftovers - they stress me out by making my stash look bigger than it is - and it does not need a lot of help with that, honestly!

Already I have been able to mark about four yarns on Ravelry as "all used up", so I think it is already qualifying as a success!

Things That I Like

A thing that I like is line dried clothes.

It is only relatively recently that this has been an option for me. For over ten years I lived either in a flat or in a university residence and so there was a distinct lack of options for drying outside. Most of that time I did not have a tumble dryer either (only the halls of residence times), and my clothes mostly smelled damp.

I am not a particular fan of tumble dryers. They are enormously resource heavy and my electricity bill is really quite high enough. I'll admit, though, that when it is cold and gloomy and it takes so long for your clothes to dry inside that they get a bit musty, I have often wished I had one.

However, as I say: line drying! I love that they smell nice: not musty, not of cooking smells, just clean and fresh. No one has invented a product that can do this yet. Somehow they feel softer too.

That, my friends, is my positive for this gloomy Sunday morning.

Quiet

Today is a quiet day. Even the dog is quiet. Generally she is not!

My partner in crime is off for the day, and I am having a day of quiet. I need a day of quiet.

Today has involved finishing a cardigan (pictures in due course!); two loads of washing; some spinning; and a desperate attempt to catch up with podcasts.

I had a phone problem earlier in the summer which resulted in me still listening to podcasts from July. I suspect my Virgo-esque determination to work my way through logically is resulting in my missing any number of excellent competitions! I never win competitions, though, so it is probably no great loss.

In the last couple of days I have finished my two main knitting projects, which is excellent. I now have a scarf, as well as the cardigan. I do in fact have photos of the scarf:

The downside of completing these things is that I now don't have a big project. I have two pairs of socks, neither of which I am particularly in love with. And my spinning. I think something new might be needed in the not too distant future!

Food, Glorious Food!

Lately we have been having warm weather. Really, unusually warm weather. Where we live 29c is not something you expect to experience. It is not something I like experiencing either. We are not a household that loves the sun.

Nevertheless. It raises some definite questions around food. I'm never a very enthusiastic cook, but in this weather I am an even less enthusiastic cook.

There are obvious places to go, such as salad and chilled soup. Well, chilled soup is weird to me, I do not like. I definitely like salad, but it is not something that fits in easily with my lifestyle. How so? Well, the way my average week pans out I do not have time to go to the shops a couple of times to get new salad ingredients, and salad ingredients are not something you can buy heaps of on Saturday and still expect to be in a good enough condition to make a salad on Friday. Perhaps salad belongs at the beginning of the week, but what about later in the week? What do we eat then?

I do not get on particularly well with bread and pasta so it is not something I would want to rely on too much for warm weather meals - or any meals! So, this is what I am thinking about at the moment. I would like to find a good solution, if I can!

The Gentle Art of Plying

I am a very haphazard spinner. I have never had any real tuition and have basically thrown a barrel full of guess work with a large bundle of instinct and hoped for the best. On the whole, this has worked in that I have created a number of things that are identifiably "yarn". However, the amount of it which has been "good yarn" has been dramatically smaller. Certainly there has been a decided lack of "balanced yarn".

For some time I have been meaning to buy "The Gentle Art of Plying" a DVD presented by Judith MacKenzie. You can buy it as either a DVD or a download from Interweave. And probably from some shops, but in the UK at least, probably not many! I have always felt that plying was my poorest area, skill-wise, and I wanted to improve.

So, a few days ago I bought the download direct from Interweave. I bought the HD version, which I came to regret as the zip file is humungous, 4GB in fact, so several hours of downloading. Frustrated by the fact that the first download failed. However, we got there in the end, and this morning I have watched the first 26 minutes, and I am incredibly excited.

I have learned which type of yarn is good for weaving versus knitting. Which is exciting, as I spin for both. And, perhaps more importantly, I have learned of the extent to which I underspin my singles. Which would go a long way to explaining why I am generally unhappy with my plied yarns.

I am now applying this knowledge to my current spinning project: the blue merino silk I bought at Woolfest 2013. I have one bobbin of singles which, I suspect, I will need to go back and add some twist to. I am part way through the second bobbin, on which I am now trying to increase the twist, which means that the beginning will probably be undertwisted, but for now I will wing it. Adding twist to half a bobbin of singles just sounds irritating. Hopefully the third bobbin will be right first time. You never know, right? This is necessarily going to be a "follow your own adventure" yarn, but that is ok!

A Sock Yarny Solution

To my great joy, I have found a solution to the leftover sock yarn conundrum.

The problem I had when considering weaving for a solution was that I was thinking of weaving like knitting. You make an item. A garment, a toy, a household good. The thing is, with weaving, really, you are just making fabric. Of course, you are making fabric with knitting too, but generally it is fabric shaped in such a way as to make an item. In weaving, really, you are just making fabric. Even if you make an item such as a scarf or a tea towel you are just making fabric. It is just that those items are flat pieces of fabric.

So, the problem was that I was thinking about weaving, for example, a scarf. This scarf, though would be a slightly mad looking colour-fest that I really would not wear. So not all that helpful.

When I realised this whole weaving = fabric thing, inspiration struck. I will make some fabric, and from that fabric I will sew something. Currently I am thinking a bag. Either way, I have realised that creating a piece of fabric will allow me to then create an item.