CSA Farm Tour

Ever since I read* Michael Pollan's two extraordinary books on food, the food industry and how we eat - "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food", I have been aching to join a CSA. Community Supported Agriculture strikes to the heart of several things that make it super appealing to me: 1. Local food tastes better. 2. Local food has a smaller carbon footprint 3. Buying from a local farmer means we are cycling our money and energy back into the local economy 4. Buying local means we are helping to save land from overdevelopment. 4. It's sustainable agriculture, not factory farming.

Little did I realize when I signed up for the Carroll Gardens CSA that I would also get to meet the farmers growing my food supply for the next five months and see that food in the ground.

Last Sunday I bundled my Mom, two other CSA'ers and myself into the car and drove out east to Exit 71 on the L.I.E., made a left and then a right and arrived at the Garden of Eve Organic Farm. I am not the Hamptons type (ya think?!) so I am not familiar with the terrain out there. I was surprised and a bit worried to see one sod farm after another as we made the trip from the highway to the farm. Sod farms? Boy, talk about a monoculture! The epitomy of anti-environmental on so many levels. Subject for another posting, I think.

This farm pastures 1,200 chickens who produce countless organic eggs. The rest of the 130 acres is devoted to vegetables and fruits. Chris, the farmer took us all on a tour and showed us an infinite variety of plantings - early lettuce, peas, cucumbers, carrots, eggplant, potatoes, flowers, tomatoes, radishes, turnips, fava beans, string beans, and on and on and on. All organic, all grown by a small group of dedicated people who believe strongly in what they do.

And when we arrived at the farm, I was so pleasantly surprised to run into Christine, who was my next door neighbor till April when she packed up her apartment, stuffed it all into a storage bin and headed out to chase her dream of learning to be a farmer. HEY Christine, you are growing MY food!! Yay! Her original plans in North Carolina fell through so whoosh!!, she landed in Long Island and will be an intern on the farm for about a year. She, like so many people facing layoffs or just realization that corporate life is as awful as can be are making choices to strike out on their own and follow their passions. One of my passengers is doing just that this summer when she quits here corporate gig to study organic gourmet cooking.

My Mom thinks I am a bit nutty trying to eat more organically and nearly elminating our meat consumption. She focuses more on what food costs and not how healthy it is. At 85 it is hard for her to change her way of thinking, which is basically "if it hasn't killed me yet..." For me, now that I am a knitter, I think alot about renewable resources. For instance, if you kill the sheep, no more fleece! But it's also about humane treatment of animals. If I do eat meat, I want to be sure the animal was treated with respect before he sacrificed his life for me. I want to be aware of where my food comes from and how it was raised.

Speaking of animals, there were a few at the farm. Some of them, like the piglets are internship projects. These little ones were only one month old and already about 25 - 30 pounds. The goal is to raise these two and send them to slaughter. However, the intern gave them names. Somehow, I don't think they will make it to the dinner table. In the meantime they were doing a good job rooting around in the dirt which is what pigs do. Duh, it dawned on me why the pig snout is shaped the way it is. Little bulldozers. Gosh I need to get out more, don't I!?

This Tom Turkey puffed himself up and stayed that way - like he sucked in a bunch of air and would not release. Initially I thought he was struttin' his stuff for the hen turkey. Being macho and all. Upon reflection I think he was threatened by all the people and was in defensive mode. In any event, I found myself completely fascinated by this bird. I've seen my share of wild Turkeys but this guy's entire costume were something to behold.

I especially love the red and blue contrast, I see it in yarn and it appeals to me.

Of course, there were sheep. What's a farm without some sheep? Always sheep! And goats. I adore goats - those satanic faces!! Their curiosity!! Their willingness to eat anything!

For those interested, the sheep are Border Leicesters. The goats are Nigerian Dwarf Goats and the turkeys are Bourbon Red Heritage, (a rare breed!!). You can read more about the farm animals here.

So next Saturday starts the weekly progression of produce from the farm. We will be enjoying the production from now till Thanksgiving. I'll surely see Christine again -- she'll be doing the deliveries -- and we will get regular updates on what's going on down on the farm. Living the farmer life albeit vicariously from a Brooklyn brownstone.

*reading is really listening these days, thanks to my Audible account and the wonders of iPods.

Sheep Festivals

Last Sunday we drove up to Cummington MA for the MA Sheep & Woolfest. This is a small sheep festival but served as a terrific introduction to all things sheepy and wooly for husband, who was curious about this crazy passion of mine. "Oh, so this is what it's all about...very eeenteresting..."

Being a photographer, he amused himself with likely subjects while I rooted around in vendor stalls and had some great chats with the various sellers.

Among the wonders I picked up were some fiber (you knew that would happen, right?). These two beauties are from Spunky Eclectic - such vibrant color in her stall!

It was fun to meet Amy and big bonus, Adrian from Hello Yarn was there, avec husband too! Two of my favorite fiber enablers in one place!!

My friend Cathy turned me on to curly locks, so when I spied a whole heaping pile of them at Buckwheat Bridge Fibers, I had to get some of my own.

The dyed batch is all clean and ready to spin while the two natural colored ones will require some preparation on my part. I've never done any cleaning and prepping of fibers so this is a good way for me to dip my toe into that aspect of the spinning world.

I found some Jacob sheep roving and was delighted when the seller explained to me how Jacobs are the most intelligent of all sheep. They are a rare breed, probably ancient in history and are one of the few remaining breeds to still carry two sets of horns. I think they look even more satanic with the extra set of horns, and what with the intelligence factor, how could I resist? Besides, I love the idea of natural striping resulting from their spotted fleece.

Other indulgences included a bunch of lovely vintage buttons from a wonderful man named Jan Marek Raczkowski, originally from Poland and now making a home and studio in central CT. There were so many wonderful choices I could have blown my entire budget in one fell swoop but forced myself to stop with four cards.

Last but not least, my main goal was to find a wrap gauge and a smaller spindle. The Bosworths were there and Sheila helped me select this lovely little yellow spindle, made from Pau Amarillo -- just perfect for silk, sample skeins and other little projects. This thing spins like nobody's business! You can see how the yellow one is much smaller than my Bubinga Midi.

After I made my spindle purchase Sheila directed me to the next barn where I found exactly what I was looking for. Really, the whole reason I wanted to drive 3.5 hours up and back. This little walnut wrap gauge, which will help me categorize my spun yarn by telling me how many wraps per inch I have. I know I know, I could have easily made one for myself with a simple dowel. But I had been fantasizing about something really tactile and wonderful. And this little tool does it all. It has one-inch and half-inch sections. I likey.

Temptation abounded throughout the day. There were two fleeces calling my name. But I resisted, knowing that I am still a beginner and I have so many other things to do, it just wasn't practical. But I did learn lots more about fleeces. What to look for, the different breeds, fiber types. I see a fleece in my future, just not now. I also took a quick Navajo Ply workshop for a mere $10 while husband watched the Sheep Dog trials. Amazing dogs.

The weather held out until the drive home, when we drove right into a monster thunderstorm and we hydroplaned down Route 91 for about 90 minutes. Despite the precarious drive the day was superb and it was oh so nice to get out of Dodge for a day.

Late Introduction

BOYOBOY, this post is long overdue. Allow me to introduce you to my spinning wheel, my Kromski Sonata, living with me since early January, and becoming a major part of my life.

Getting a wheel was not in the short term plan. In fact, there was no plan. It was only October that I bought a little drop spindle, thinking I would tinker with it for a bit before deciding whether I even liked spinning I never mentioned wanting a wheel. I never even sat down in front of one. I had not attempted to spin on a wheel and quite frankly, I was a little wheel shy.

My friends kept telling me eventually, I would succumb. They tempted me by showing me their lovely yarns and clucking on and on about how.much.fun. it all is. I resisted temptation. I played around a bit with the spindle, but I didn't feel like it would really catch on. In fact, the few lame attempts I made with the spindle left me a bit...ambivalent. Like I just didn't think I was that into it. After a few weeks of dabbling, I went back to knitting, and simply put the idea of spinning on the back burner.

All throughout the fall months I was deep into other projects and then whoosh, Christmas was just around the corner so lots of little knitting projects were on my mind and on the needles. Oh, yea and then there was the complete collapse of the entire global economic system that had me feeling pretty pretty pretty gloomy. To say the least. I slogged through the Christmas season and figured, BAH - I gotz the knitting and that's enough for now.

So to say that receiving a spinning wheel for my birthday was a complete surprise is the understatement of the century. It is a rare thing to render me speechless, but speechless I was. Thunderstruck. Floored. Amazed. Incredulous. These words begin to approximate how my response upon learning the news that a spinning wheel was being delivered any day.

I mean, there were no whisperings of wheel desire, no wistful comments about wheels I had seen, no expression of serious intent to own a wheel. In recollection, there was NADA discussion whatsoever. So you can imagine how my husband blew my mind when he said he went on the Internets to research the options. How he landed on the Kromski line and chose it because "it looked pretty". He liked the classical turnings and the walnut finish. He thought it would "match our house nicely". Okay, WOW. He decided on the portable model after discussing with a dealer and realized there's lots of potential when one can have wheel and travel. Such a practical guy sometimes! What a great choice!!

Yes, I was amazed. And I was completely intimidated. Seriously. In waaaay over my head. But I didnt' want to admit that to him, so I said nothing.

The wheel sat in it's packing for a week or so until I could muster up the courage to unpack it and put it together. Then it sat in my little office for a week while I messed around with the treadles and watched a few YouTube videos on spinning. It was around this time that I got serious about the spindle. I figured I needed to learn how to draft the fiber and suddenly the spindle seemed a bit less intimidating when compared to the wheel. Strange, how my little brain works.

That's how the lumpy green Cormo yarn came into being. Call it the intimidation yarn because I made it almost as a way to avoid making yarn with the wheel. Crazy, right? Yea, thought so.

Husband kept looking at me a bit weird like he was trying to figure out when I would start spinning. I made some excuses about how I needed to practice on other things before diving in. He kept his mouth shut but I'm sure he wondered if he had made a mistake. I wondered it too.

Until I finally sat down late one Saturday evening and started to play. And before I knew it, I was spinning some singles. They were a bit of a mess, the tension was too high, the drafting was lame, the first attempts were not pretty. I imagine everyone's first yarns are similar.

But it was SUCH A RUSH. Like when I was back in high school experimenting with... oh, never mind. You know. That kind of rush. Only better. Oh man, I would spin for a little while and the intensity of so many things happening at once would reach a crescendo and I'd have to stop and walk away for a few minutes. My brain was exploding. It was too much to absorb and I could only take it in short intervals. I was up till around 3AM blowing my mind that night.

Imagine husband's relief when weeks later I announced to him how much I LOVE spinning yarn with this wheel and how this is the perfect wheel to learn the craft. He did good. Really really good. My friends look upon him with a sense of amazement (he digs that big time).

It's safe to say I have since succumbed to the siren call of the fiber. I joined fiber clubs and started to receive the most amazing shipments of rovings and dyed fiber. I started stalking independent fiber sellers and cruised flickr to see what gorgeous yarn was possible.

And I got a bit more serious about learning more. I turned to two books in particular, "The Intentional Spinner: A Holistic Approach to Making Yarn" by Judith MacKenzie McCuin and "Start Spinning: Everything You Need to Know to Make Great Yarn", by Maggie Casey. These became my subway reading for about a month. People stared at me. It's not every day people are reading books about spinning yarn while commuting, let's face it. Most people are content with consumer novels and Sudoku puzzlers. I'd go to bed with these books and fall asleep reading passages over and over, committing the information to memory.

So. In these months I've thought lots about spinning and knitting. What they mean to me. How I relate to them. Knitting was love at first sight. I fell head over heels in love. I took that first class and there was no looking back. That was three years ago. It became my salvation in many ways, too many to go into here. Spinning on the other hand, was a slow burn. I needed to be around it a bit before I made up my mind. I needed to spend time getting to know spinning. This is a love that grew over time. It's still growing and still evolving. Both kinds of love work. Both endure. They arrive at the same place from different paths. And I have room for both.

Handspun AND Handknit

This neck warmer is all goodness. It's the hand spun Kool Aid dyed BFL from three weeks ago. Just a tube with garter rows at the start and finish, easy peasy. But look at how nicely it striped up! I could try to BS you all by saying "oh, I planned that. It took me weeks of calculations to work it out, blah blah blah...." Yearight. Pure luck. Honestly? I would have preferred that kind of luck when I bought that loser Mega Millions ticket instead. Bah!

Realizing it was gonna be a bit large I backed up a row or two and borrowed the yarn to make an I-cord. After a quick dash to my local yarn store for a big button, it took about 30 minutes of fiddling to get the proper placement.

I really didn't want to reknit the whole thing with fewer stitches because I feared that purple stripe would morph into a purple spiral! Nosiree, I liked it just the way it was, so folding it was my solution to adding warmth. And in a Icannotbelievethis moment, I ended up with literally 6 inches of yarn to spare. Close shave, but soooo satisfying to see it all used up proper.

It sort of matches the ancient, worn out tank top I was wearing during the ahem, "photo shoot". I promise you, that was not intentional. If I recall, I had just finished sweeping all the rain borne tree stuff from the front, and in my usual glamorous approach to these photo sessions, I chose that moment to grab a few shots before the light faded. Tired, sweaty, no make up grab shots. Living the vida loca, I tell you.

Goo Goo Eyes

This guy is my little lover boy. Rudy Valentino G.

We adopted him as a stray in December 2004. Lola is still outraged.

He is one happy happy dog. His tail is perpetually wagging. Even in his 'sleep'. He can appear to be passed out, but if I walk by, his tail starts to thump thump thump on the floor. Cracks me up every time.

Rudy always greets me when I come home at the end of the day. Soooo happy to see me. Missed me so much, where have I been all day? Let's play with the squeaky squirrel for a few minutes, okay?

I love his cheerful personality. This guy reminds me to laugh a little. I've come to really appreciate his clownish antics in the last few weeks. Thank you, Rudy. Right back at ya, Rude Dude.

Some Knitting, Too

Lest you think it's only spin, spin, spin around here, (the name is Knithound...), there's been knitting, too. First up, the shawl that took the Internets by storm over the winter - Ishbel, by Ysolda Teague, a very talented young designer. Just about everyone I follow on Flickr and the blog world made one. Every week someone else popped up with a gorgeous shawl and I was overcome with shawl envy. As soon as I finished whatever project was preventing me from moving forward (um, memory fails again, again) I succumbed to temptation.

Lucky for me, the extra simmer time allowed me to ruminate over which yarn to use and to resist all temptation to purchase new yarn. You see, the yarn stash is stowed in a dark guest room closet and this sometimes causes an out of sight out of mind phenomenon. In between all the knitting and spinning I decided it was high time to document the stash . That meant one Saturday furiously photographing a huge batch of yarn in the brief hours of cooperating light. There's more work to do in that department, but I digress.

So, when digging through the sock/fingering bin (some sweet choices in that bin I tell ya), I realized this yarn, Sundara's Silky Merino, would make a wonderful Ishbel. And the colors might even have a bit of spring in them, what with the yellow and greens. She calls it The Life Aquatic and it was a Club shipment back in December. Lurve this yarn. Super soft, nice stitch definition, beeUteeful color.

It took about three weeks to finish, and around the time we had a freak summer weekend (90 in April?! Fried Daffodils!), I cast off the zillions of stitches, whew! At one point, somewhere in the second repeat of Sections A & B, Ishbel and I had a come to Jesus moment. It was all out war, I tell you. Ishbel almost won but I would.not.give.up. It was all knit a row, tink back two. Knit two rows, tink back three. Over and over and over. Hair ripping frustration ensued. About the same time I was stomping on this project, Ashley was having the very same scene over in her neck of the woods.

In the process, I may have discovered a teensy little error in the written pattern. Mind you, this was NOT what was causing my little battle, but Row 1 of Section A, end of row says: "...k1, ssk, yo, k3". But the chart says and this would create a perfect mirror to the start of the row: "...ssk, k1, yo, k3". Whatever. I sure wasn't about to rip back hundreds, thousands of stitches for this little indiscretion. My fault for not comparing the written pattern to the chart. Nice of Ysolda to provide the option anyway!

By the way, when knitting lace are you a chart follower or a written directions follower? It occurred to me I usually follow charts, probably because that's what is provided, but this time for some reason I followed the written directions. I have NO idea which I prefer. I think I can adapt to either. It's just something I thought about while knitting this. Wow, deep thoughts, huh? Jeez.

The original idea was to knit this up for use with my spring raincoat. No sooner did the heat wave dissipate when we had endless rain for two weeks so YESSSS, I did get to road test this for a few days and I can state with complete assurance, this one is pure WIN.

More Spinning

The yarn you see resting so sweetly on its pillow started out like this:

On it's journey it looked like this:

This one was a tad challenging. The fibers were not neatly aligned. This is Cotswold / CVM (two sheep breeds with what turns out to be very different fiber). The two breeds were not blended in, but rather "folded" together. The bright gold was the softer of the three colors. I don't know which breed it represents, but drafting that fiber was slipperier and they were more aligned. The red and mustard fibers were more 'rustic' and I found myself drafting 'from the fold' somewhat.

I suppose it would have been easier to pre-draft lots of little clouds of fiber and then spin, but instead I stipped long sections and then pre-drafted as I pulled onto the wheel. I was using a long backward draw to get a woolen draft. There are lots of slubs and bumps in this yarn and they displease me somewhat.

My fingers felt a bit waxy after each turn at the wheel. I think the fiber had some lanolin in there. That was interesting. And might have made the spinning a bit more challenging too come to think of it. We're not talking fluffy and smooth here.

I have about 156 yards, 55 grams (just under 2 oz.), spun 2 ply, about fingering weight, . This is the last of the Rhinebeck purchases. Not sure what this yarn will be yet so it will sit in the little handspun pile for now.

Getting the Hang of It

It's getting better every time. Getting better all the time.

100% Romney, 2 oz, purchased at Rhinebeck last year from Fox Hill Farm. Semi-woolen spun yarn, 2 ply, about 106 yards. Looks like either a DK or Worsted weight.

Blue Faced Leicester, 2 oz., Kool Aid dyed by my friend Sarah and gifted to me for my birthday. Woolen spun, 2 ply, about 118 yards. Looks like either a DK or worsted weight.

My proudest spinning achievements so far.

Iceland in Spring

A couple of months ago the cousins got together for a reunion Pot Luck dinner. It was fun catching up with them and it gave me the chance to get to know some of the spouses I'd never really spoken to in the past. In thinking about why, I realized our usual reasons for getting together are either weddings or funerals. With those events, everyone is distracted, or the crowd is large, or it's just not the time and place to simply relax and let a conversation flow. So it was a real treat to just come together for dinner and catching up. It was also oddly liberating to have none of the Aunts and Uncles around.

During the evening cousin Patti and her husband Neal talked about experiences out West and good friends who own a sheep farm in Oregon. They were all excited about my knitting and described the Icelandic sheep on the farm - cute and really wooly little guys!

That was all I needed to remember I had some wonderful Icelandic yarn in my stash and the next day I pulled out my options and started swatching for some fingerless mitts. In addition to the gorgeous gray and Mustard dyed Icelandic I picked up in Rhinebeck, my friend Rosie G decided to sell some fingering weight yarns from her stash. At the time I was in an Icelandic state of mind and snatched them up immediately!

At first glance one would not think these fingerings to be complimentary. The yellow is a variegated with mint green, apricot and pale blue - overall it leans toward the pastel side. And the purple is a dusky tone, with just enough shading to make it well rounded, interesting, lively.

All winter long I've been hankering for some fingerless mitts and was afraid that using just one color as a stand alone would not stretch far enough. So colorwork it is.

Initially I thought I would use these for some Endpaper mitts and try my hand at colorwork. I made a valiant effort, and every time I sat down to work a few rows of the pattern, I would put the project down and stare at it. Something just didn't work for me. Something about the fuzziness of the yarn bothered me when worked up in this pattern. Looking at the half finished mitt now, maybe it wasn't the yarn so much as my knitting skill. I need to practice the two color fair isle technique. Ahem.

I kept going back to my little striped swatch. Finally I succumbed to the siren call of the stripe. Oh, the stripe, you know I love thee. The project certainly took on a quicker pace once I switched over to the stripe. And maybe that's what I needed: something finished. Something I could use at least once or twice before the Spring finally made them unnecessary till months from now.

The mitts fit great. And that Icelandic wool - it's really warm. After finishing the mitts I realized there's enough yarn left over to whip out a slouchy hat. Many are the mornings I am racing out of the house to work and my hair is still wet. The 5 blocks to the subway can get mighty cold, but wearing my other hats gives me a serious case of hat head. Why not a slouchy hat to protect the hair from icing up without smashing it like a pancake?

The hat borders on the frumpy and it's key to wear it with a bit of slouch and some hair hanging out. Otherwise it takes on a look of 'shower cap'. Not a good thing. But I am happy with the way it turned out as it will serve it's wet hair purpose nicely.

Now if I could just find an easier way to model my work and shoot it at the same time. I need to find out if this little camera has a remote control. My arms are just not long enough!

Piecing It All Together

Remember all those knitted squares I made about a month ago, destined for the Afghans for Afghans project? Well, the squares are steadily arriving at Prospect Perk, the designated drop off point, all donated by so many charitable knitters in the Knit PH group - it's simply amazing! At last count we have enough for four blankets and the squares keep on comin' on.

It's time to piece them together and prep these blankets for shipment to A4A Headquarters. Tony dropped the squares off (two bags full!) at Eliza's house this morning and later on Liz and I joined her for some homemade scones (yum!) and sewing in her bright, sunny living room.

This one is more of a hodge podge than the next one, which will be all crochet in more muted colors. I learned that sewing crochet squares is more difficult than sewing knitted squares. There's still lots to do before these blankets are finished: weaving in the ends, possibly adding a simple crochet border...

There's talk about continuing this project for months to come. Everyone has lots of leftover yarn from projects and this is a fantastic way to use it up. Knitting squares is very enjoyable and I am seriously considering a personal project using handspun or maybe working up some sampler blankets like the ones Barbara Walker suggests. It's a fun way to try out different stitches and the squares are portable.

All in all this is a fun project and it's a great excuse to get out of the house on a beautiful day and spend some time with friends.

Diversionary Tactics

There are moments during my day job that can drag and let's face it, become plain dull. Sometimes I need to take little escapes to keep myself from burning out. I've been doing this gig a long time so it's not a huge intellectual challenge. There are other challenges to it, but intellectual is not one of them.

To keep myself from completely passing out in boredom or during long conference calls when I have little to do but "listen", I find myself stalking fiber sources. It all started innocently enough. First I was just posting photos of my newest obsession - yarn making - on Flickr. Then, I started linking to other fiber enthusiasts. Then I figured out some of these Flickr friends had Etsy sites selling their fiber. Oh, man.

It's a slippery slope, I tell you. With a click, click, confirm and send I am amassing a small arsenal of fiber fuel. I swear, the combination of Etsy and Paypal will surely spell economic doom for me! Small consolation that I can completely justify these purchases as my little contribution to prop up the economy. And of course, it is a wonderful diversion from the mind numbing portal based web enabled workflow systems we are forced to use in our daily existence. Process monkey for hire!

These fiber balls tickled my retinas when I stumbled onto Yarnzombie's Gaslight Dyeworks out of Ohio. They are mixed with nylon sparkle, curly locks, bamboo, tencel, alpaca, wool, you name it. They delighted me so much I went back the day after they arrived to place another order for Cathy's birthday. The gift arrived in time, the service was superb, thanks Jacki!

Last weekend at the spinning party (I mean, what better way to have a birthday, anyway!) Cathy suggested these would be fantastic done as core spun and I really like that idea. Something ropey, to be used as trim for upholstered pillows?

And this lovely fiber is Bluefaced Leicester combed top dyed by Pumpkinmama on Vines. Erin dyes her fiber up in MA and does some amazing spinning, too. I've been admiring her work for about a month or so, and when this one popped up on Flickr last week, I zoomed over to her site to make sure it would be headed my way. She sells out quickly, so you gotta pounce! This stuff is so pretty, very soft colors. I envision a shawl in fingering weight yarn, or maybe I will use it as a weaving project? Soon, soon.

Weaving? Spinning? Oh yea, I am in deep. Way way deep. And all day long there's a little compartment in my brain churning out ideas, considering options, conjuring ways to make these raw materials into things that please me and keep me amused. Anything as a daytime diversion.