What do Squidlings do on a Snow Day?

They build snowpeople! Which, unfortunately, were knocked down just a few hours later by some anonymous jerks.

Snow Day Redux

Yup, for the second time in a month, we have a snow day. We'll ignore the fact that the last snow day was off by a day (we should have been off the day after and not the day of).

Plans for the day? Maybe to weave off this warp that has proved to be a challenge.
There have been broken warp thread galore, threading issues and the challenge of weaving off a 39 shot repeat. The challenge there is that I keep getting interrupted and lose my place in the pattern. Despite all these issues, however, I love how it is coming out.

The yarn is some that has been marinating in the stash for 10 years or so. The weft is a slubby, loosely spun yarn, the warp, a nice wool two-ply that keeps breaking.

Next up on the loom, some more blue and white cotton for, I think, baby blankets. I have some cotton of unknown provenance that has been marinating in the stash for even longer than the wool above. My only questions are: is it thick enough for baby blankets and ... what pattern?

Just Strolling Along ...

Schacht did not ship my stroller at the same time as the loom. Why? I have no idea but the good folks at The Woolery were on top of it even before I emailed them and the stroller arrived last night.

This morning, with no warp on the loom to worry about, I tackled the stroller installation.

Forewarned by Dave, I paid close attention to the pictures and gave up early on interpreting their badly written instructions. (I also kept Dave's post on the subject open on my laptop near at hand.)

After a minor misstep or two, I was finally on the right track. With the assistance of my fabulous husband, I managed to get everything together in about half an hour.

See?
Just a note to the folks at Schacht ... wouldn't it make more sense if there were a notch at the bottom of each brace instead of a slot? This is something that we may attempt to "remedy" with the dremel tool. Just not now.
And this? Look closely at the "middle" bolt. It snapped off as Mike was putting the nut on. I'll hit home depot tomorrow and replace it. Can't blame the manufacturer for this one and not worth contacting them for something I can get easily right here.

And there you have it, a loom on wheels. Something to make my downstairs neighbor a little happier as I fold and unfold the loom. It also now makes it possible to easily bring the loom into the living room should I so desire. But not out on to the terrace. Navigating the narrow door is still a bit more effort then I think I want to tackle right now even though I LOVE weaving outside.

Back to threading my third warp!

I'm going to have to figure out ...

... what to do with all this fabric!

Just a taste of the latest to come off the loom. Better pictures after I wash both sets of yardage.

(Tho most of this is a scarf for Little Squid who chose the pattern, helped warp the loom and wove a fair amount of the yardage.)

Point Twill threading on 4 shafts -- I've ordered a book on 8 shaft weaving and it should arrive on Monday.

First Efforts

A 3 yard sampler of twills and tabby-twills.


I threaded the loom with straight twill draw on 4 shafts (let's pretend that I have the language down) and played with different tie-ups and patterns. We did about 3 inches or so of each pattern or until we got bored of it.


We? Yeah, the kids took turns too. Especially Little Squid. He's taken to weaving like a Squid to water. He's enjoying it so much that the next warp is a scarf for him. We will thread the loom in a point twill and he will either pick a single pattern or we will weave it as a scarf-sampler.

(For all those weaving mavens out there, please excuse our wonky weaving. It was our first effort and still needs to be washed, cut apart and hemmed into usable, if interesting, dish towels. Hey, I believe in everything being used, even one's first efforts if possible. The sett was probably too loose for the yarn that I used and there are other issues but hey, we had fun!)

Loom Love

Yes, yes I have spent the entire day setting up my new loom.


Why do you ask?

Love Letters

I had absolutely no intention of writing a Valentine's Day post but then I started clearing out space for my loom. In the space where the loom will temporarily reside was a box of mementos taken from my mother-in-law's apartment after her passing several years ago. There are pieces of my father-in-law's stamp collection and a bulging envelope of cards and letters.

Poking through it, I grabbed a small handful of the correspondence and took them into the living room to peruse. On top was a letter from my father-in-law to my mother-in-law the summer before he began full time employment in 1956.

As I finished reading the first one aloud, Squidette commented "I've never seen a real love letter before, just read about them in books."

Pictured below is the original letter. Transcribed below are the contents for your enjoyment.

Dearest!

I received your wonderful letter today & am, of course, happy you miss me as I miss you.

Today I ordered a new pair of frames: charcoal gray shell for the upper half & silver rim for the lower half of the frame. Thus do you bend me to your will.

I visited H & R tonight for a hot dog supper & received an unsolicited opinion of you (I never solicit opinions about you). Quoth H: "Renee is a lovely girl." Quoth I: "I know it."

So you see my days have been uneventful, being composed of errands or visits. But I am glad for tasks to do to fill my time so that I have less time to think alone & long for you. I enjoy whenever the conversation turns to you & me because that is a topic I am very interested in. Yet I don't want to make a pest of myself & act like a lovesick youth who bores everyone with talk of his love. Personally I like to think about you, about things we've done & about our future. I am so very happy that our relatives get along well together & we with them, because altho this is not a matter of paramount importance, harmonious relationships will make life less aggravating than it might be.

My eye doctor yesterday reminded me of how he had, 2 years ago, predictied how a trip away from home (at Columbia) would make a big change in my life and when I retrospect concerning this last semester & of the things accomplished in so short a time I feel amazed. I am thankful & happy & joyous & overwhelmed & satisfied & everything else that we're together & each other's. I can recall how I used to be afraid, at one time, that you would have another date & turn me down. Yet years ago I foresaw that when I would fall in love that everything would go smoothly, & it has.

I miss you, yet I don't mind missing you because whenever I feel sad I know that in a few days I'll be in N.Y. & seeing you.

I feel a bit nervous & uncertain about working. I suppose this is due to the novelty of the situation, just as I was nervous & uncertain when I was about to begin at Harvard & Columbia. I know that there are millions of persons who would love to change places with me because of my potential career & wonderful fiancee. I wish I could tell you how much I love you but words are not counters of feeling but only express thought.

Love,
XXXXX,
Marvin

(If you look at the pictures at the bottom of the last page of the letter, the first one is a frowny face and the caption reads "me without Renee" and the second one is a smiley face and the caption reads "me with Renee")

First Left to Brooklyn

I have noticed that my commute is somewhat quicker if I manage to stay out of Brooklyn ...

(I'll wait while you all come to the realization that I have a 5 mile intra-boro commute that involves no bridges or tunnels or even, most days, highways.)

And on to our tale ...

This morning I dragged myself out of bed a bit earlier than usual so that I would have extra time to clean the snow and ice off of the car and still arrive at work on time. No, biking was not in the plan.

I did the usual ... shower, dress, dry hair ... and skipped the make-up figuring I'd steal some time and do it at work. After dressing in flannel lined jeans -- mom-style jeans -- and my uber warm Sorel boots (work slacks and shoes in my tote), I carefully made my way out to the car. Carefully, I say, because as nicely as the walks around our Co-op are cleared, the parking lot is a mess of ice and snow.

Picking my way across the lot I was suddenly jerked from my snow induced stupor as I realized that my car was not covered in 5 inches of snow/ice/ick but was mostly cleaned off ... and my husband was putting the finishing touches on it.

(You can all go "awww" now.)

So I did what any self-respecting wife would do (and could legally do, in public, in a parking lot, in freezing weather), I offered him a lift to work (he was going to take the subway). Hey, he saved me 20 minutes of freezing labor.

I carefully navigated my way out of the parking lot, taking only 5 minutes to actually get moving after spinning the wheels a bit in the slush (thank you oh tub of 12 year old kitty litter that lives in my car for just such an emergency). Cautiously, because the streets, while not horrible, were still rather slushy and I had not yet had sufficient caffeine, I made my way to the hallowed edifice that is Stuyvesant High School and dropped off my fabulous spouse and, making a U turn, headed off to work.

On the rare occasions that I drop Mike at work, I then head south, down West Street and through the tunnel that loops around the bottom of Manhattan and leaves one heading North, up the FDR Drive. This was my intent this morning.

I quickly got into the left lane and looked carefully for the signs indicating the tunnel. And when I didn't see them, but did see altered traffic patterns due to the construction at Ground Zero, I took the first ramp to my left. I figured that I was already past the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel entrance.

I figured wrong.

Yes, I wound up in Brooklyn.

Oops.

But I still got to work early.

And I still have a wonderful spouse.

*** And my loom is still delayed in a FedEx warehouse in Middletown, PA due to the weather.

Snow and Song

Today we had something totally unprecedented ... a snow day announced at 11:00 a.m. the day before the storm. No kidding. That said, here in Manhattan, the storm was rather unremarkable except for it's exceptional ability to get one wet. After standing for a mere hour in the snow while Little Squid sledded with friends, I was totally soaked. As in my parka was dripping and my double layered glove-mitten combo had soaked through to my skin. Good thing the kids threw in the towel when they did.

Meanwhile ... the squidlings performed last week, turning their annual violin recital into the Squid show. The highlight was this clarinet-oboe duet.

Yes, I did say it was a violin recital. There were 5 other kids who all played the violin -- as did my offspring. Want to see?

Little Squid Solo

Little Squid - Squidette Violin Duet

Squidette Solo ... Squidette Solo ... Squidette Solo ... Squidette Solo (it was an entire sonata and could not be uploaded to Youtube in one piece)

As for my loom (because I know it is as much at the top of your mind as it is on mine ... (yeah, right)) ... it is held up due to the weather and is currently paused somewhere in Pennsylvania. It was supposed to arrive in the area tomorrow but that just is not happening. Oh well, I couldn't arrange for delivery before Monday anyway ...

Cest La Z

Cest La Z is the latest addition to my blogroll. Penned by my fabulous spouse, it is currently addressing issues in Computer Science education with a, so far, single departure towards biking.

Mike is trying his hand out with blogging and we only ask that you give him a chance to figure out his spacing issues -- something to do with the script he is using to upload his text.

Mike has been tooling around cyberspace since he was in high school -- where he learned to program big IBM machines with punch cards. He and I were some of the earliest cyberdaters as we spent long hours chatting from our college computers -- his at home and mine in a computer lab on campus and later from a "dumb" terminal in my dorm room hooked up to a 200 baud modem that I had to stick my phone handset into.

He's taught computer science for most of his almost 20 year teaching career and has seen trends come and go. Opinionated and strong minded, he fights for what he believes is best for his students -- and given where so many of them have wound up, it works.

So go check him out -- but don't give up if computer science education is not your thing. I suspect that, come summer, there will be more travel, biking and history on tap.

Cest La Z!

One Ball Down ...

I spun 11 skeins of the background color for Mike's new sweater. Each skein averages about 200 yards of sport weight yarn. The piece below measures about 13 inches (it looks smaller due to the curling that I didn't bother to eliminate for the photo). It has used, so far ...

ONE ball of yarn. Just a hunch here, I think I may have enough yarn for this thing ...

(And the entire sweater will not be this boring, just the back and arms. The front has some seriously exciting intarsia going on.)

A tale of Two Sweaters ...

One finished!*

And one begun!**

* Sweater for Little Squid. Generic Basketweave pattern stitch using the guidelines from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns.

**Sweater for Mike. Hand dyed, hand spun, roughly sport weight yarn. Construction guidelines will be from the same book, pattern will be one-of-a-kind. Look for the finished product sometime around October.

Yogurt

I've been looking for something really deep to post about and even had a huge monologue going on last night as I was trying to fall asleep. Unfortunately, it was all about work stuff which I really can't post about. Sorry! Let's just leave the work stuff with this: there was a public hearing regarding the fate of my school last week. It goes up for a vote on the 26th.

On the home front, I'm still plugging away on Little Squid's sweater -- front, back and right arm are done. Left arm is about halfway up his forearm. My rigid heddle loom is now clear of weaving and the final product will be run through the wash tomorrow. And I've started spinning the alpaca-merino blend that I bought at Rhinebeck.

I've also made some yogurt.

You may remember this post where Little Squid and I experimented with frozen yogurt using our homemade product. We never did master it but hey, that's what next summer is for. Right?

Meanwhile I have continued to make yogurt every week or two using the same method. Recently I've seen some posts on other blogs raving about a Crock-pot method of making yogurt.

I studied it, thought hard about it, and decided that I will stick with my method. It is fairly simple and only requires about 2 hours of my time depending on the temperature of my kitchen. In cooler weather the cooling processes occurs much more quickly then it does in the heat of summer.So, for those who are interested, this is my adaptation of Harold McGee's yogurt making technique as originally published in the New York Time on April 15, 2009.

***

First, heat the milk to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. I do this by heating about 12 ounces milk at a time on high in the microwave for 1 minute (in a 4 cup measuring cup) and then dumping it into a pot on the stove with the flame at a medium setting. (I make a gallon of yogurt at a time. You can easily make less.)

While it is heating, I monitor the temperature and twiddle my thumbs. This is actually why I microwave the milk. The one minute intervals keep me interested enough that I do not walk away and then forget that I have milk heating.


Once the milk reaches 180 degrees it is time to cool it. I do this in two or three or, when making 2 gallons at a time as I do during the summer, 4 bowls.


During the warmer weather I surround the bowls with reusable cold packs to help it cool faster. I also stir it frequently to increase the amount of milk that comes in contact with the cooler parts of the bowl (and the air).

When the temperature of the milk reaches 120 degrees, I take yogurt that I've set aside from the last batch (2 tablespoons of yogurt for every quart of milk used) and mix it with some of the warm milk to thin out the yogurt.



This yogurt-milk slurry then gets mixed into the warm milk and the mixture gets put into a large container. I use a gallon Tupperware pitcher that we've had forever.


The pitcher gets a lid (I have no idea where the official lid is these days) and then gets wrapped in towels.


Usually I use three towels but this time I used four -- one underneath the pitcher to insulate it from the cold counter. Our kitchen was really cold.


Then the wrapped pitcher of pre-yogurt sits on the counter for about 6 hours, more or less. More if you like it tarter, less if you like it more naturally sweet.

The neo-yogurt then chills overnight in the fridge and is ready for eating in the morning.

I, personally, take it one step further and strain the yogurt in a HUGE fine meshed strainer that we got at a restaurant supply store. Mike cut the handle off of it so that the strainer, sitting on top of a storage container, fits in the fridge. Half a gallon of yogurt fits in the strainer at a time.

One hour usually makes it thick enough for my taste but you can strain longer if you want. Half of the last batch strained overnight by accident. It is incredibly thick and smooth and luscious!

And there you go. A gallon of milk costs between $2.39 (Costco) and $3.50 (Whole Foods 365 brand). A quart of my previous favorite yogurt, Greek Goddess, costs $5.99 at Fairway -- more elsewhere. A gallon of milk makes 2.5 to 4 quarts of yogurt depending on how much you strain it. Monetarily it makes sense but that's not why I do it.

I do it because it is too easy and too good not to.The only down-side is the cleaning of the pan. The stuck on milk can be tough to clean with a regular sponge or dishrag so I use this curly thing. It gets it right off and then I toss the curly thing into the dishwasher to get all the milk-curd crud out. Hey, it works.

Goals: Update #4

Done! All of the goals that I posted at the start of break have been accomplished.

• Little Squid now has new, warm mittens
• Papa Squid has a big sack of homespun sweater yarn
• and we finished the puzzle.

In addition:

• I'm almost done with the woven scarf(?) (might be 2 or 3, it seems to be taking forever!)
• I built another airlift hydroponic system
• I made a fresh batch of yogurt
• I figured out how I'm conducting my last 3 weeks of classes
• I graded the papers that I brought home
• I played lots of Wii with the kids and Mike
• I played a few board games with the kids (and Mike)
  
• I slept until 7 or (gasp!) later almost every day
• I started a major cleaning of the kitchen which will ultimately lead to a paint job during either February or Spring break (I'm taking it in small chunks so it is not too overwhelming. 15 - 20 minutes a night of serious cabinet and wall scrubbing.)
• and I ordered a big-girl Loom.

My goals for the next month are:

• To spend lots of time at work making sure that the student programs are ready to go on February 1.

That's it. I really can't put anything else on the list with that looming. Oh, and maybe warp my loom once it arrives at the end of the month. (Like that won't happen!)

I'll try to get some pictures of the yarn posted later, and maybe the yardage if I manage to finish it off.

Goals: Update #3

This was not one of my goals. Nor was it executed by my nimble fingers.

What is it? It's the mascot of the Stuyvesant Computer Science teachers. It does not have a name but there is a school-wide contest in full swing to name it.

And this handsome fellow is a red green velvet whoopie pie.

Mike and Squidette have been on a whoopie pie tear for about 2 weeks now. Yum!

Finally, I give you Little Squid who is mostly back to his fairly sunny and strange self.
I love my family!

(And as to my own goals -- more weaving has been done and the end of the road is in sight on the spinning front. I've even made some progress on Little Squid's sweater.)

Goals: Interrupted

On Friday the kids went skating and Mike and I settled in for a quiet morning along.

Then we smelled something plastic-y burning.

It took a good hour or more of sniffing about before we finally figured out that Little Squid's humidifier was melting down. Before we went to open up the window I grabbed a box and then went to grab Lynx from his habitat so that he would not get a chill.

I'm the one that got the chill.

Lynx was dead.

We have no idea why but suspect that the fumes may have dealt the final blow. He had been bruminating (kind of like hibernation but not quite) and was very thin from not eating. He had also just shed prior to starting brumination, a stressful activity for a lizard so we suspect that he was particularly vulnerable to any oddity like plastic fumes.

Lynx was a good pet. He was a "forever" pet and we expected to have him around for a very long time.

He is sorely missed by all of us but most of all, by Little Squid.

Rest in Peace, Lynx.

8/15/09 -- 12/25/09

Goals: Update #2

Another project in progress ...
thick socks for me out of hand spun wool. I do not expect to finish them this break but did finish the first one yesterday while visiting friends.

Then there is Little Squid's sweater, back in the queue now that his mittens are finished. My first goal is simply to finish the front before the end of the week. And maybe a sleeve ...

And in the finished column ...
Ta Da! We all put some serious time in on it and finally finished it!

Goals: Update #1

Yes, I know that break is only 24 hours (or so) old. But hey! I've had no obligations and my initial goals were modest.

We started on Tuesday with this partial mitten.
By last night we had this complete mitten (ends hidden and all) and this partial mitten.

As of 30 minutes ago we now have ...
one happy kid with warm hands!

The puzzle, meanwhile, has also seen some progress. Here we are Tuesday night ...
and last night ...
and tonight ...
Squidette has been rather obsessed with it today. I think I added about a dozen pieces in between weight lifting sets this morning.

There was also some weaving done. I took before and after pictures but they look the same! I think there is another 18 inches or so of warp on the loom so give me another day or three to finish it off.

Goals

Here are the first* of my winter break "want to finish" projects:

Mittens for Little Squid, who joined his mother in denial last year and wore mittens that were were very neat (double knit-neat) but a tad too small. We have both come to our senses and his new sweater is in time-out while I whip up a pair of too large double-stranded mittens using the same yarn. (I told you, I have a lot of it -- it came from a sweater that was too big on Mike even when he was 60 pounds heavier.)


Speaking of my husband ...
I intend to finish the spinning and plying for his new sweater. Six skeins of the main color are done and I think I have another 3-5 skeins yet to spin and ply. The contrast colors are done.

And then there is this puzzle ...
A 1000 piece, black and white opus of an Escher print. It's been in progress since before Halloween.

*By the first of, I do indeed mean that there are several more ...

Performing in Public

It's performance season here at chez squid. At least for Squidette.

On Wednesday she performed with the New York City All-City High School Concert Band (All-City to those in the know) at the MetLife atrium.

As real New Yorkers know, the MetLife building is really the PanAm building but that is rather irrelevant to our tale.

The important thing, is that the atrium of the MetLife/PanAm building is a major entry way to Grand Central Station and hence a venue from which one can be seen by hundreds of people over the span of the concert.

While the families, and some lucky bystanders, got to sit, most of the commuters experienced the concert as they strolled by or above the venue. Many took video or pictures on their phones and most gave huge smiles to see and hear the teens performing classic concert band standards with a few classic holiday tunes tossed in for good measure.

I just thought it was awesome that so many people got a taste of what can happen when kids are taught to play and enjoy music.

And then I got sad as Mike told me that All-City was just so much bigger in his day.

We debated the reasons for this but my side is that fewer kids are being exposed to music in school. We spend so much time on reading and math that art and music, subjects that truly expand ones world view and exercise the brain in so very different ways, have gone by the wayside. And then I got sad when I thought of how badly these programs have been gutted financially.

Boro-wide (the junior high version of All-City) started at the very end of October this year instead of two weeks earlier so that the city could save the money on the instructors' salaries. And, there may not be a Carnegie performance for whichever boroughs were scheduled to play there this year because they couldn't get the down payment in on time. Again, due to budget cuts.

Makes me want to run a fundraiser for them. I already gave them money from my own wallet so it is time to get others to do the same. But after the holidays.
Meanwhile ... I give you Squidette and friends. No, she is not dating her stand partner (though he's a nice boy and I wouldn't object). And yes, he does kind of look (and act) like Little Squid (hence the reason she will probably never hook up with him). Doesn't really matter since she's not allowed to date until she's 30 ...

The performance, by the way, was awesome! And she has her first ever singing solo this Friday followed by a reprise of the MetLife performance at the All-City rehearsal school on Saturday.

And Little Squid? He auditioned for his school play last week and had a call back on Friday so you can expect some kvelling about him in the future.

Happy Hanuckah, folks!