Today's progress

[treeskin]

One (1) load of laundry done
Cleaned kitchen so I could do mead things
Decanted and bottled one batch of oak leaf mead
Opened carboy on second batch of mead, frowned at the ook, and dumped the whole business in the compost pile
Cleaned carboys
Finished By's gift afghan, got the ends woven in, folded afghan for presentation, and left it in his chair (it's un-encatted so far)
Counted afghan squares, since I lost track: 192/169 squares

I'll update more about the trip later; I'm still not feeling too social.

Comments

[iarraidh.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you were even brewing.

Coolness!

[treeskin.livejournal.com]

Done it off and on (more off, lately) for over a decade.

I have 10-yr-old spiced apple wine stashed somewhere. And maybe a few bottles of pear wine left, that are about that old.

Makes it hard to drink my newer stuff, because the well-aged ones are sooo smooth.

[cammie018.livejournal.com]

John says we still have the filter. There are several cases of bottles in the basement, all of which will have to be washed, and there is a bag of plastic corks ( 1 gross ) around here somewhere, if we can find it, you are welcome to all of it.

[treeskin.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much, and it certainly isn't a hurry. (Since I dumped the "oh, that's not shiny" batch on the compost pile yesterday....)

Probably won't need bottles and such until May or June. Then, hopefully, I'll need a bunch, because the rum project will have worked out.

You wouldn't happen to have a recipe for gin, would you? Not the dump stuff in the bathtub kind, I mean the proper, spiced and distilled kind.

[cammie018.livejournal.com]

Now Jera,
I know you are not talking about the highly illegal activity of making moonshine gin, and If I did just happen to know a recipe, and know how to build a still (that will not explode :) I would of course never share that information in a public forum, I’ll tell ya later :)

[treeskin.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, it's not for me. One of the folks at work used to be in the Peace Corps, and someone he worked with there made it. He lost his copy of the recipe, and sent me on a quest to retrieve it.

[ladymurmur.livejournal.com]

Just call me the elephant's child today - I'm all full of questions.

What is the pattern for By's gift afghan?
Do you have a favorite not-just-garter-stitch dishcloth pattern? (I'm whipping one out for my mom, diagonal garter with eyelets around the edges - easy peasy - and am enjoying how quick of a little project this is. Looking for more ideas).
What flavor is "oakleaf" mead?
Do you leave all your end-weaving in until the end of the project, or do you do it in spurts as you go?
Is it silly to be annoyed that most knit stithces aren't reversible? Most recent annoyance: Trinity stitch looks so cool on one side, but boring on the reverse.
How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of the tootsie pop? Why don't more guys use that as a training tool? I think it would work much better than the run of the mill "alphabet trick".

Time for caffiene and back to work. *sigh*

I can't answer the knitting questions, but...

[cammie018.livejournal.com]

"How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of the tootsie pop?"


about 5 minutes if ya do it right :)

and on that note, I'm going to work :)

Answers to questions, in order

[treeskin.livejournal.com]

By's Afghan: there really isn't a pattern. It's shades of black and grey, two strands of yarn held together, worked in a rectangular granny pattern until it was big enough. The center was grey (a strand of plain grey acrylic with a strand of grey red heart symphony) and very soft, then a few inches of black lion brand thick chenille (very hard to count stitches in, I might add), then a bit of basic black, then a wide band of joanne's soft boucle in shaded greys, then a narrow border of black. It's a very manly afghan.


A Not-Garter-St Dishcloth: I like the scrubby action of the garter st, so I do a lot of those. This (http://www.mielkesfarm.com/dishclth.htm) round dishcloth is garter st, but it's a neat constuction. (It's easy than it looks, honest. I've done loads of these.) This (http://www.jimsyldesign.com/~dishbout/kpatterns/petal.html) is a slightly fancier version of that round cloth. This (http://www.jimsyldesign.com/~dishbout/kpatterns/swirl.html) is a stockingette cloth, octagonal, worked in the same method. This one (http://www.jimsyldesign.com/~dishbout/kpatterns/dblflower.html) is more complicated, but very pretty, and not too hard to keep track of when you're working it.

I've also done a bunch of this (http://www.knittingonthenet.com/patterns/clothpetal.htm) five-petalled cloth, which also has an unusual construction. But it's fun, and you can jazz it up once you get the pattern down.

A basic mitered square dishcloth (http://sasw.blogspot.com/2005/01/dishcloths.html), also garter stitch, but fast to work and adaptable. <a href="http://www.jimsyldesign.com/~dishbout/kpatterns/seedstitch.html>This</a> is a seed-st pattern that'd be fairly reversable.

More Knitting Answers

[treeskin.livejournal.com]

And finally, I've not made this om dishcloth (http://talithascrazyknittingbag.blogspot.com/2005/12/om-dishcloth-pattern-aka-why-are-all.html), but the texture pattern amuses me greatly, and I've added it to my list for later.

Or check out the dishcloth directory (http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/directory/dishcloths.php) at knittingpatterncentral.com

And if that's not enough, get out your favorite stitch dictionary, pick a stitch you like the look of, and knit a square of it.

Even More Answers

[treeskin.livejournal.com]

Oak lead mead was just that--mead, with a tea of red oak leaves added.

It tastes like mead, with those spicy honey flavors, and a bit of a smoky background (to me, anyway) that must come from the oak. It is currently a bit astringent, still a bit of the "green wine" flavor, but it's going to be a fine, fine pale amber dry wine in six months. A tiny bit of sugar takes the edge off now, and I might take it to the NYE party, to tease the brewers with.

And Yet More Answers

[treeskin.livejournal.com]

End weaving: depends on the project. If I can AT ALL knit or crochet the ends in as I go, that's the most desirable. It's fastest, and most secure. Otherwise, I'm generally lazy, and leave the end-weaving for last.

Reversible knitting stitches: never thought about it. But I don't do that much knitting where both sides are public. Ooooo, did you know that you can make cables reversible? On trinity st in particular, I usually use that as a lace st, and it's much better that way. You might check out the star st listed in the dishcloth directory I mentioned above; that might give you more interest on both sides.

Last Answers

[treeskin.livejournal.com]

Don't eat toosie pops, so I wouldn't know how long it takes, but you're right, that sounds like a much better teaching aid. Probably, most guys are too hung up on the "it's not a manly thing to do" BS to try it.

Re: Last Answers

[iarraidh.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not 'most guys'.

I know a couple of ladies that are, too :)