S.F.O

Very Berry shirt


I got the papaya pink (that was the official name) Claudia hand painted silk the summer i moved to DC, it is 5 years now. It was in hibernation for long time, finally i found elegant cup sleeve shirt by Debbie Bliss (fall 2008). I ended up knitting with two strands, pairing it with ruby red solid of the same quality. I was little afraid to wear it for the first time, it looks kind of fragile, but so far it keeps shape just fine and i even do not see any piling.

Butterflies


Being so pleased with the result above, i went for another full silk project, this time simple peasant blouse (Interweave Knits Summer 2008), it is started from the top with quite interesting double hem, i could not resist to add some lace to the edges to make it more interesting. The more colorful yarn is silk & seacel (fiber made of sea weeds) which i got in Laramie, WY, on our little honeymoon trip 3 years ago. Since it was just one skein i combined it with hand painted lace silk i got last fall in Virginia Montpelier Sheep & Sheep Dog fair (October 1-2 this year).
Final product turned to be slightly bigger than i expected, as it stretched a bit after blocking (so it is more tunic than shirt now), but it does not really matter, i really love how it feels next to skin.

Hana Banana


This is one of the rare single color things i ever made, i always get bored more quickly with these. I found inspiration in good old European Verena (spring 2009), i was looking for something simple and airy since the yarn itself is little bulky, (cotton/linen blend, stashed since 2008). I quite like to wear it, it has surprisingly nice drape to it.

Reading this after myself i realize that most of the materials & patterns are at least 2 years old (!) - I guess i need some time to digest in order to come up with an idea worth realization :)

Winter is Over!

Well ... at least where we are, that is. We had two sunny days in row in 70' (!), so of course i am getting into gardening mood. I know, it is still too early to go outside, so all i have for now is the potted greenery. I was glad to find out that my kind of neglected orchids survived all the last year construction mess just fine (except they did not bloom) and they started flowering again, at least some of them.


And I am so very proud about my Hawaiian acquisitions ;)


the stick with miniature leaves pushing on the top is a plumeria and the little creature behind it is Kauai coffee plant. Hmm ... actually, it is of the Kona variety when i think about it, we bought them both right before we left the island (Kauai) in the little store at the airport. They are understandably very restrictive about what you can take or bring in plant-wise over there, so everything living has to be specially certified before leaving. Anyhow, i am still sorry i did not pick some real Kauai raw beans to sow when we went to see the coffee plantation there, the "fruits" were just ripe, oh well silly me. Plumeria produces those very sweet smelling white flowers which are traditionally used for leis. For me it is the best fragrance ever, it always will remind me of my most favorite place in the world ... the trees were blooming under our windows when we went for our honeymoon:). I am so happy about these little guys :) I was worried they will not survive the winter, we brought them in the middle of November last year, after squishing them for eleven or so hours in plane. Yet, the coffee one revived quickly, but i had no hopes for the stick. Well, fortunately, the nature is an almighty sorceress :)


(this one is from my lunch time walk, just happy about the blue skies and green...uhmm...spring chimera?)

The Sound of Music

We have had plenty of that in past week, on Tuesday we went to see another of the old time legends, Robert Plant & his Band of Joy with Patty Griffin.


He is singing lots of duets with ladies who can supply the heights he probably cannot reach any more these days (on his last CD) and it works nicely. We had fun that evening, especially since he as well performed some old Led Zeppelin songs ( It's Been a Long Time, Tangerine, Whole Lotta Love) - as close as one can get (minus the jeans).


Than, to pre-celebrate our anniversary, we went to waltz dancing this Sunday. It is organized on regular basis at stylish art deco Glen Echo Spanish Ballroom, with some basic class at the beginning and live band through out. It was little bit like at the first dance lessons we went through at high school in Czech. They unfortunately have not teach us the Viennese Waltz though, which caused some confusion for me and poor W. since I tried to steer him all the time. People just circle ballroom here, which is kind of boring, and as the amount of couples increased with time, it was little bit like maneuver through the traffic on the beltway (as W. commented). But, overall I think it was not so bad as the first attempt. It is great exercise and I am promised we shall be back. I really would like to learn some salsa...and tango perhaps...

The Batch One ...

So...my xmass present this year was a beer home-brewing kit and after a little postponing, the day D of the first trial happened to be this Saturday . I was thinking, best way how to learn the tricks would be to get prepacked beer kit, to see what and how much of it is used and hopefully find some process ideas in the "user's manual". I have chosen Imperial IPA, my favorite style, since i like the hop flavor in my brew and good IPA has plenty of that. That particular beer is started with grain steeping (just like a tea),


than after some on and off flame exercise and used grains disposal (btw, dogs ate all the grains next morning + gauaze bag, i was a bit surprised, but it was probably irresistibly tasty;)) the malt and hops are added to the "wort" (how the true brew-master would call the mixture) in prescribed time intervals.


The brewing itself was not so time demanding, just hour or so,


but the trick is to cool the wort down as fast as possible and that took quite a long time even outside in the freezing winter evening. I foresee some copper cooler coming to us soon since it would be impossible to accomplish that in suggested hour interval in any warmer weather.


I was curious how the "raw" beer tastes, it is mostly sweet, little bit like grain cereal made from scratch - and than the hops bring the bitterness and wonderful smell. Our czech friend stopped by and to create some atmosphere we let run in a background old czech hop picking movie "Starci na Chmelu" and were remembering the times we used to go to hop-picking in high school. The recipe yields 5 gallons of liquid for fermentation but only about half is actually brewed, the rest is water added to wort just before the fermentation start (that trick is done by beer yeast mixed in)


(measuring the gravity here, i was a bit off what i was supposed to be, oh well..)
The taste of whatever i tried was somehow concentrated, i am very curious how it will end up. The fermented liquid will be transferred into carboy (big glass jar) for secondary fermentation this coming Saturday, that should clear up the muddiness, and than bottling is ahead of us in another 2 weeks. This kind of beer should sit in bottles for at least 3 weeks, so our first batch shall be ready for the spring welcome party sometime in March :)

Philadelphia Story

We were having quiet coffe&waffles breakfast and watching Sunday Morning on CBS when they came up with "The Top 100 Chinese Restaurant Awards" announcement, and who would believe, the first prize went to this PA place, which is relatively close to us (it is Philly suburb). The next on the program was an interview with Gregg Allman from Allman Brothers, he was remembering their concert at the Fillmore in 1971 (released on album). We had little discussion on the topic (i like the band and W. not so much) but this particular album was highly apprised so W.decided to give it a second chance, jokingly pointing out that it would probably keep us company all the way to that Chinese restaurant if we ever decide to go ... and next thing we are sitting in the car en route to PA listening the Allman Brothers (btw, the album lasted all the way from beltway to downtown Philly)!!!


We never made it to that Chinese place but we came across colorfull Mexican restaurant called El Vez


and it was possibly the best Mexican food I ever had (me:creamy corn soup with seared scallop & omelet with pulled crab meat, w:tortilla soup & huevos rancheros, both frozen blood orange margaritas)


It was quite cold day, so we walked just a bit to the gallery W. wanted to visit, got the notorious LOVE statue picture on the way ;),




discovered Fabric Workshop and Museum, but were too tired to visit (we shall do so next time) and just rushed through colorful marketplace on the way back to Precious (the car ;)).



We liked the liveliness of the Philly downtown and shall be back soon since there is the famous Flower Show coming in March !

Looking Back ...

We had very quiet holidays this year, no traveling, but plenty of fire in the cozy dark rooms, and some good dinners with nice glass of wine here and there. I liked it very much that way (but I understand it was probably exception, oh well ...)

The tree is down now and all is new and fresh in this 2011 year. We picked up skiing with my dear W,

we went twice so far to the nearest "resort" (Whitetail,PA that is) and both time we had great time (even though it was followed with some muscle discomfort next day). I hope we will manage more runs this season.