I think the silly names for H1N1 are pretty entertaining: hamthrax, aporkalypse, etc. However, six of Niels' classmates and his teacher were all out today with possible swine flu so I'm not laughing anymore. I really don't want it to go through my house. It feels inevitable at this point, though. One of his classmates' mother is a pediatrician and she told me I don't have to panic but she didn't give me much hope that we'd dodge it. Boo.
Anyway, I'm not thinking about swine flu tonight, I'm just working on my sweater and watching TV on Hulu. I love Hulu.
Today was the big day, or first textiles class of the year in a different format than usual. First of all, the kids usually weave on individual frames where the woven piece stays attached and they take it home at the end. This was the first time I had attempted to teach them loom weaving. Then I had my trials and tribulations of figuring out the Beka looms which I detailed here and then I wasn't sure the kids were going to be able to do it. I was sort of right, it was much more fiddly than the Cricket loom but the kids handled it fine and most of them didn't get very frustrated or anything. I think it helps that I was only expecting them to work on it for a few minutes so if they were having too much trouble I just sent them back to the other projects.
One thing I didn't expect was that they wove all they could on the Beka loom pretty quickly. There's a fairly large space on there that is unusable, as far as I can tell. I'm going to warp it longer for the next group. I also can't figure out how to get it to hold the warp snugly enough. You have to push the heddle up and down yourself (There's no up and down spot to rest it) and it pushes the warp threads loose every time. Maybe it's the warp but maybe it's just the way the loom works. Who knows. I think the piece on the Cricket looks better but it might be that the other is pulled out of shape right now by the loom. I need to weave a couple of waste yarn picks and then cut it off and see how it looks.
My sweater is also progressing. It's now 12 inches long and I have started the increases on the waist shaping. Four more inches to the armholes then I'll have to divide it up for the two fronts and the back. Exciting! I love watching a sweater grow.
We were actually doubly lucky this weekend. Lex had entered two separate twitter contests to win a free Tassimo machine and she wound up winning TWO machines - one of which she kindly gave to us. So aside from getting to enjoy a free and delicious 7-course meal, we also got a free hot-drink maker out of the deal!
So what's a Tassimo, you ask? Well, it's basically a machine that eliminates the need to go to Starbucks. In a matter of one minute (Seriously, it doesn't even need to heat the water first!) Tassimo prepares one-cup servings of coffee, espresso, cappuccino, hot chocolate, earl grey, and (best of all, for us non-coffee drinkers) chai! Plus, you can add a second round of brewing to add latte or cappuccino foam to your drink.
It's an incredibly smart system. You buy Tassimo disks that include all you need for the drink you want, then the machine reads a bar code on the disk and does all the work of brewing. No more brewing a whole pot of coffee for one person. No more messy cleanup from steaming your own foam. No more powdered hot chocolate. No more spending $5 on a cup of chai latte at Starbucks. The disks cost between $0.20 and $0.50 each and you would never really need more than 2 disks per cup. So there's huge savings for this DIY machine.
Thanks again, L&G!
I warped (and rewarped, in one case) both of the Beka looms for class today. I inherited some weaving yarns from the same friend who loaned me her warping mill (by way of another friend). I think what I used is mercerized cotton. It is thinner than the acrylic yarn I was using and stiffer so I could actually thread it through the heddle without using the dental floss threader. I didn't discover that until I was into the second loom but... live and learn! This yarn (thread?) isn't stretchy at all, though, so I'm not sure my tension is exactly even and the use of this loom seems somewhat more fiddly than my Cricket. We'll see how the kids handle it.
I have no pictures today because you've already seen the looms warped and my knitting is still a big dark blob of a sweater. Not much to see. I'm finishing the waist decreases on the next row, just to give you an idea of how far I've gotten.
So... boring, eh?
I've become a big fan of Glee. I've always enjoyed the show, but it seems more and more to be coming into its own - or maybe I'm just getting used to the frenetic pace of it. Whatever the reason, I love it.
One of the songs they did has been stuck in my brain since the weekend: Kristen Chenowith's rendition of Maybe This Time, from Cabaret - a song I never used to like in the film, but that seems to have grown on me.
Check it out. Not sure how long this will be up on YouTube, so be quick about it.
I had some success and some failure today. I finished the cap I started yesterday.
I found another hat that I made for myself last year that I never wear and I think will suit my friend's needs. At least, it will keep her head warm and it will be large enough! (She says she has a big head.)
I learned to use a warping mill.
And to thread the Beka Child's Looms that we have for school.
You may also be able to tell that I got my card reader to work again and was able to get photos off of my camera rather than just using my iPhone. The iPhone is great outside but inside it basically stinks.
I am thinking now that I should reassess my summary statement. I really only had one failure. The yarn I used to warp the loom is far too think. It gets caught on itself when I try to move the heddle up and down to, you know, actually weave. I have to say that I found measuring warp on the mill and threading the heddle one strand at a time with a dental floss threader to be surprisingly meditative. I was resisting doing it because I thought that it would be horribly tedious and much more complicated than warping my cricket loom which is done with a warping peg and the warp is measured directly onto the loom, basically. That way gets it all down to one step, more or less, but this was less stressful, perhaps because I could do the steps sitting down either in front of the mill to measure or at the table with the heddle propped between two books to thread. Having my friend Victoria's mill was key, clearly, as was her advice to use the lease sticks (the sticks you see in the above photo between where the yarn crosses itself) to maintain the cross. Excellent advice!
Tomorrow I hope to obtain thinner yarn and rewarp the loom I threaded and warp another one. I might have to give up on the idea of exclusively working with our school colors because I do have some cotton yarn that was far too thin for the Cricket loom which I think means it will be just right for the Bekas.
I have to say that I was worried that this month being our Arts Focus workshops at school was going to interfere with my daily blogging but it's actually given me more to talk about! If you don't mind reading about weaving, of course.
Our nephews Yosuke and Yusuke are visiting from Japan, along with my sister-in-law. We're having lots of fun together. Chiyo's almost 8 weeks old!
We got lucky. Our friends in Toronto - Lex'n'Ger - invited us for a fancy-pants meal last weekend. They had won the services of a professional chef for an evening, and he was offering to prepare a 7-course meal for the four of us. Junkii and I were thrilled with the invitation, and even more thrilled with what the chef - Matt Kantor from Little Kitchen - came up with. It was the best meal we'd had all year - even better than the awesome meals we prepared over Thanksgiving weekend - so you know it was good.
Here's a rundown:
Course 1: Pan-seared Shrimp Tossed in Charmoula Sauce
None of us had even heard of, let alone tasted, charmoula sauce. It's a marinade from the Moroccan/Algerian corner of Africa and its made up of herbs, oil, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, and dozens of other things. It's got a wonderfully complex set of flavours that suited the shrimp perfectly. It would also go well with grilled fish or other seafood, and we're gonna have to figure out how to make it ourselves before next summer's grilling season gets here. Junkii said it best during the meal: "this is the first time I've ever cut up my shrimp to make them last longer." Me? I just gobbled them whole. Mmmmm.
Course 2: Beet and Grapefruit Salad with Gribiche Sauce
Junkii seems to be developing a fondness for beets. I've never been a big fan, but this worked really well together. The sweetness of the beets and the tart/bitter flavour of the grapefruit was nicely balanced, while the tarragon-based Gribiche sauce (another sauce we had never heard of) helped to bring the flavours all together.
Course 3: Seared Sea Scallop with diced Hidden Rose Apple and Curry Oil on Romanesco Puree
The use of curry oil here was pure awesomeness. Matt even explained how to go about making it (i.e. add curry powder to oil, duh) so maybe we could try to recreate this one. Seems pretty straightforward, otherwise. The diced pieces you see in the photo - the ones that look like carrot - are actually an heirloom varietal of apple called 'Hidden Rose'. The flesh of the apple is naturally that colour. The crunch of the apple pieces was a nice addition to the dish, which - because the scallop was so perfectly cooked - was otherwise very soft.
Course 4: Risotto of Roast Duck, Chanterelles, and Butternut Squash
This risotto was to-die-for. Duck is one of our favorites at any time, but to add it to such a creamy blend of rice, mushroom, and squash... sorry, I'm drooling.
Course 5: Ras el Hanout Lamb Cabbage Rolls on Eggplant Puree with Bordelaise Sauce
The only reason I have any inkling of what Ras el Hanout actually is, is because I watch Top Chef. They use this north African spice blend all the time. So it was a real privilege to get to have it prepared for us. And it was yummy. But the real icing on the cake was that this was also a case where the wine pairing was perfect. I don't remember what the wine tasted like - come on, we had already had 4 courses with paired wines! - but I do remember it went perfectly with the lamb dish. Fantastic! Torrederos Tinto Crianza 2004. Still available at the LCBO if you hurry.
Course 6: Tarragon Ice Cream with Beet Gelee and Candied Grapefruit Rind
I didn't expect this to have such a strong flavour of tarragon in the ice cream, but it was very pronounced - and mighty good. The gelee was a little too delicate and got lost between the tarragon and the candied rind - which also had a very robust flavour.
Course 7: Belgian Endive Terrine with Candied Hazelnuts and Guinness Caramel Sauce
Can't say I tasted a lot of endive in the terrine, but it was delicious either way. To me it had more of a mocha flavour - but perhaps that's just because the Guinness caramel sauce was sooooooo goooooood. Or maybe it's because I really don't know what endive tastes like. We served a trio of beers with this dish. The dark beer is Young's Double Chocolate stout which, to my palate worked perfectly with the dessert, but others at the table felt it overpowered the Guinness sauce. There was also an apple cider served in the trio, and that worked well with the dessert too, counterbalancing the tart cider with the sweet dessert.
So there you have it. Just your average, everyday dinner at home with friends. Thanks L&G for sharing with us! When can we do this again?
