it’s good to be home

Posted on Posted in Bare Naked Wools, book reviews/events, designing, food and garden

impatiens09_10

did you have a nice labor day weekend? we did a little traveling to visit our moms and actually ended up taking a couple of extra days, so that we were gone for a full week—i KNOW! that never happens, haha!

raceDayB09_10

just before we left i ran the canton city charity chase. i haven’t been racing much this year, so i was looking forward to this one as the course is plotted to go through our neighborhood. i had to laugh when i opened my eyes that morning—after weeks without a drop of rain, it was showering outside. of course.

raceDay09_10

no worries though, it was barely misting by the time i left the house to walk downtown to the start line. this is a smallish race which was sadly reduced in length this year to a 10k; last year i ran it as a half marathon. so we didn’t cover all the territory i’m used to running, but i did have to bust a move and run a bit faster than i’m used to. one side effect of not racing much is that i’m not diligent about speed training; i run very consistently day to day but i don’t put in time doing drills (haha, i’m not much of a coach; i like to just have fun).

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still, i didn’t do badly at all; a cool morning, nice people, and a course i love all made it a good run and i took second in my age group. plus, at the end there were fruity snacks, what’s not to love?

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back home i spent the rest of the day in the garden and later, the kitchen. i picked green beans, squash, eggplant, greens, and tomatoes. i processed some tomatoes into puree, both roasted and  stewed, then chopped some of the vegetables into parts for a curry, which i was craving for dinner. everything in it came from our garden, except for the tofu and carrots, which i didn’t grow this year.

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mmmm. after dinner i made a batch of pie dough so i could bake a fresh peach pie on tuesday to bring on our trip.

by wednesday morning we were ready to roll. i drove the first leg and david took over after a few hours so i could knit. i was more reasonable about the knitting i packed on this trip—just two bigger projects with extra yarn for each. one was secret and i worked on that almost exclusively at first so as to finish it up and get it off my plate.

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the other was (is) the project i am knitting with that gorgeous deep red vesta i showed you last week or so? mmm—full of cabled goodness. more on that later . . .

even though my mom said not to bring a lot, i did; there was too much produce to leave it sitting for five days. payback for all the times we tell her not to do something and she does it anyway, haha.

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and good thing i did—the box of vegetables i brought along was completely gobbled up by the time we left. we ate fresh greens for dinner a couple of times, we used the beans in several dishes, including this yummy potato and green bean salad, which was an absolute snap to make (just five ingredients) and can be served warm or cold.

here’s how: take equal parts green beans and small waxy potatoes (i had 1.5 pounds of each; my mom bought some fancy tricolor fingerling potatoes). scrub potatoes and cut with skin on into chunks; top beans and rinse.

place potatoes in a pan of heavily salted (about 1/3 cup) cold water as you cut them. bring the pan to a boil and reduce heat to simmer; cook til tender (about 15 mins). throw beans into the pot for the last couple of minutes and cook until they are bright green all over but still crunchy.

while the vegetables cook, whisk together 2 tablespoons of stone ground mustard, 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, and 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar in a large salad bowl.

drain and rinse potatoes and beans in cold water to stop cooking and transfer to the bowl with dressing while still warm. toss to coat, season with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of fresh oil if desired.

that’s it! it’s nice to make this dish before starting supper so the dressing can penetrate the warm vegetables. it tastes great cold as well and keeps for several days in the fridge. of course you can make it fancier, but it’s just great the way it is and takes less than a half hour to make. for me, this could be dinner on a hot summer night (with peach pie thrown in, natch)

garageBefore09_10

it was very important to fortify ourselves because one of our main tasks on this trip was to tackle my mom’s garage, which had become a catchall for the overflow from her house. so much so that she has to park the car in a very particular way just so she can get out of it. i find that too limiting for comfort; she needs to be able to move freely going in and out. besides, everything was getting very disorganized too with lots hidden out of view—not good.

friday was slated as the big day. i had a feeling it was going to be an all-day, all-out, drag down fight to throw out as much as we should.

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well it did take all day, but we made some progress. mom thought we threw out too much and i think we could have done more, but at least now the boxes are labelled, food is stored all in one spot, there is some space to navigate, and she can reach most of the important items without being attacked from all sides by falling debris.

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i did lose the battle over this enormous box of department store shopping bags (there must be over a hundred, i swear. and a story for each one).

it makes me think more clearly though about my own stuff—i know i have some of these same fondnesses for things i don’t really need or use. our house has plenty that can—and should—be delivered to its next life. i keep saying that we should take a couple of weeks completely off from work and the computers to tackle a purging of our house, but i don’t make sure it happens (partially because i find it overwhelming). food for thought.

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aside from that job, we did do quite a few really fun things over the weekend—you know moss doesn’t grow on my mom, haha. we went to an interesting photography show at the albany institute of art with my cousin, david went to long island to spend an afternoon with his mom (who is back in the ICU), and we got together with my sister’s family one night. i got some nice long runs in on roads surrounding the albany pine bush and we also watched old movies at night, when david and i got some knitting done (for me, that’s the best part of ANY day).

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on labor day we took a ride to visit my aunt and detoured through Saratoga Springs on the way home. david had never visited and it’s really at its best in summer. monday was the last day of the racing season, so the town was buzzing.

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we didn’t actually go into the track (maybe another time), but we did stop in the center of town to walk around the park and fill a couple of bottles with spring water.

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it was a scorcher so we took our time strolling—just an easy-going break from the drive home.

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oh, i almost forgot—i took along my dark blue triticum sweater to see if it would fit my mom. i had steam blocked the pieces before sewing them together, but never gave the whole garment a complete soak and wash. so once i determined that she liked it and where it might need some blocking to customize the fit, i gave it a wash and laid it out to dry. it really looks nice on her i think.

vendangeSleeveA09_10

progress continued on this project as the week went on; i’ve been using the construction of the sleeves to finalize gauges and proportions (the cable is quite large and i love it). the vesta yarn by spirit trail fiberworks is absolutely divine—sooo soft and cushy! it interchanges really nicely with our own worsted weight selections as well, so i know already that i’ll be making another one of these in BNWs—probably chebris worsted (i’m thinking frappé). i’m pretty excited about it, but since it’s  a larger project, i think i’ll just report on it in bits and pieces.

the yarn is not available to purchase yet, but will debut at rhineneck next month—see it in the spirit trail booth.

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now that my secret projects are done (at least for a while) and the vesta project is clipping along well, i’ve been thinking about future projects since we left albany. even though it’s still very warm (it’s supposed to remain so during september), fall and winter are definitely coming at some point and i want to be ready. labor day just makes it feel more real. so i’ve been swatching away on ideas for outfits and layering pieces that will work together and as parts of other combinations.

in other words, the fun has begun.

 

17 thoughts on “it’s good to be home

  1. What a great post. Good pictures and lots of action. I love seeing your garden pictures and am a little jealous. We had a great garden and a long growing season in Washington. Now that we are in Nome, AK, not so much. I am nursing along some of our canned goods we brought with us. As always, the knitting pictures are fun to see. Your Mom looks great in that picture. I hope David’s Mom is doing better by now.

  2. Yay, second place in your age group. Well done, Anne.

    Your mom looks so cute in the Triticum. I’m glad you had a nice visit with her. The garage tidying was great. I think every family has a bag of shopping bags. I finally ditched mine. But my whole house could use a decluttering.

    So sorry to hear that David’s mom is back in ICU. I hope she will stabilize soon.

    Glad you all are back home after what sounds like a very nice trip.

  3. Oh, man, I want some of that curry! The swatches and cables are intriguing. Can’t wait to see what the magenta becomes…

  4. Your triticum sweater looks great on your Mom – the colour really suits her. Sorry to hear about David’s Mom, I hope she recovers very soon.

    I love the cable design for your new sweater. I’m always drawn to patterns that feature cables so I can’t wait to see the finished project!

  5. I am bonkers over the charcoal cable swatch ya know. 😉 I love the others too. The vesta swatch is looking very interesting. I guess I must be mood in the mood for cables.

  6. Love those cables, in fact I love all the swatches! Your Mum looks lovely in the Triticum. Sorry to hear that David’s Mum is not doing so well right now.

  7. Good wishes to David’s mom. Your swatches are lovely, and Mom looks terrific in her sweater! Been doing some clean-outs ourselves, and it’s slow going. Thanks for keeping me inspired in many facets of life!

  8. Triticum in that shade of blue looks fabulous on your Mom w/her beautiful hair. So very sorry about David’s Mom and her continuing health issues. Hard to see a loved one suffer, and not be able to “fix it.”

  9. Boiled new red potatoes with green beans steamed over them were a late-summer staple in my house growing up. Still my favorite way to eat new potatoes (with a lot of butter, of course)!

  10. welcome home! looks like a lovely productive trip and so nice to see both your mothers.

    i’ve got 3 skeins of gray Vesta hovering in the wings, waiting to see how much will be needed formthis next cable sweater…so looking forward to it.

  11. Haha – know ALL about bag collections! Had to close my eyes and pitch my ‘bag of bags’ into recycling when we moved. Love those bottom swatches – can’t wait.

  12. I can’t understand why my daughters aren’t fighting over who will inherit my paper bag collection LOL! Love the color of that yarn.

  13. God bless your mom that she is so active! She looks so good in the sweater…how proud she must be to wear it! And those gray swatches….you had me at the gray!

  14. So interesting that you would mention “outfits” and “layering pieces.” I have had an enormous interest in that lately. I love to see and concentrate on your sweaters in context. Which makes the picture of your mom all the more lovely! What a beautiful sweater! So beautiful on her! And such a lovely outfit!

    I finished the Mister this week and had occasion again to mention to someone who admired it that — there is no one better in the business than Anne Hanson. You have made my knitting skills grow by leaps and bounds! Thank you!

  15. Sorry to hear of one’s troubles; sending best wishes to David’s mum, and you both, during these times.

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