Rhubarb is one of the luxuries of summer I can hardly wait for every year. We have already had a cobbler, and right now a very large bunch is cooking on low heat to become desert for next week and maybe longer. It’s a taste from my childhood that I’ve never gotten tired of. Cold with sliced bananas is probably my favorite way to eat it sweet…mixed with sweet potato and lentils is my savory choice.

I was interested to see that my friend Josefin strips the skin and dries it for basket making. She did a fun post last week on just that topic.

Picking up fresh veges at the Farmer’s Market weekly is keeping me on my toes. I purchased a “farm share” at the beginning of the season, so I have a full bag of goodies to work with every week. Right now we’re getting lots of greens, so there will be a braised green dish this week (kale, Swiss Chard, beet greens), probably with garlic and pine nuts, and I still have left-over asparagus from last week.

After spending most of this past week in bed with the flu, it occurred to me that I didn’t actually have to have consumed every leaf by the end of the week. To whit, a huge package of chopped greens, one of fennel and one of asparagus have gone into the freezer, and it will be followed this afternoon by green beans.

WWKIP

Last weekend was World Wide Knit in Public weekend. The weather didn’t look like it would cooperate, but Sharon from my Wednesday knitting group and I drove to Webs to knit with a group of folks from the shop and their customers. I had managed to mangle a finger on my right hand while wrestling with a can of cat food, and the location of the cut was not working for knitting, so I spent the morning spinning instead. It turned out that I was the only spinner there, so I was able to mesmerize everyone with the wheel spinning around. Two ladies told me that it made them feel so relaxed that they wanted to go to sleep.

This makes me think of all of the prior WWKIP days I’ve enjoyed. Many with knitting friends from Hingham and Hull (south of Boston), a memorable day in Boston with the renown Alesdair Post-Quinn (who was, of course, making something wonderful in double-knitting), and another in Stockholm. It is just amazing and wonderful to think of all of the incredible people I’ve met through this simple activity of winding string around sticks.

This is the back of a simple vest. It’s a “test knit” to prepare for the vest project I need to turn in for my second level Master Knitter program. Left over yarn from Mom. She was making a sweater and actually never got very far. I started to rip it back, but the yarn wasn’t very cooperative, so I’m just taking what is unused to make this simple garment. The focus of the project is to demonstrate seaming, picking up stitches, and ribbing. Pretty straightforward. The vest I’ll submit will be a child’s size rather than a “me” size. There is so much knitting to do in this level that I’m taking a little break with this one by making it in a small size.

In the ongoing attempt to improve my spinning, I’m signed up for a multi-week spin-along sponsored by The Woolery, which will begin on Monday. It will focus on three breed types (Shetland, BFL and Polwarth) with a goal of producing 3 reliable weights of each. Initially I was thinking I’d use one wheel for all three weights and breeds, but am thinking more about using 3 different wheels (one per breed) and trying to get the three weights from each of the wheels. My new Majacraft Little Gems is the strongest candidate. I’ll probably use an e-spinner and my Schact Ladybug for the other two. I thought long and hard about using a spindle for one, and haven’t dismissed it entirely. I’m just worried that my spindle spinning isn’t up to the challenge of a worsted-weight yarn.

At least I’ve been able to clean up the studio well enough in one corner to lay out all of the tools and materials (most of the mess is strategically hidden off-camera).