Dark Days challenge - squash fail

week 11 of 20

Halfway there, wherever there may be...

Today I had the inspiration to use the spaghetti squash that a friend had given me, excess from her local CSA share. I cooked up a tasty red sauce, with some locally grown red onion, garlic from my Olympia friends, some "Oregon-grown" crimini, some home canned tomato sauce, and Italian sausage (made at my neighborhood New Seasons from local Pacific Village pork). And I followed the directions on the squash for how to cook it, while I have made "faux-ghetti" by grating summer squash and liked it very much, I've never actually cooked spaghetti squash before...

When I cut it open, it was full of long strings alright, but mostly the long strands of the sprouted seeds that filled it. Not appetizing, and when I tasted the stringy flesh along the sides, it was quite bitter. I guess this is not a kind of squash that is meant to store for months, unlike the butternut, or the amazing long-storing delicata. Since I'm not eating grain, and I had this lovely red sauce with nothing to put it on, the sauce will go in the freezer to wait for something else, and I'll scrounge a stir-fry from what else is in the fridge. Not every experiment meal works out.

Update at 9 PM - A small sweet potato, (found at the back of the fridge) - steamed, it was a good vehicle for half of the red sauce, with some grated Rumianos dry-jack as a garnish

oh no, and yes and yes

I need to take a sabbatical from knitting. I guess that working on the sweater-vest was just a bit more than my wrist could tolerate. Today, after two days "rest" I tried a little knitting, just a tad, to start the adorable tiny octopus... my wrist immediately felt much worse. So, yarn-crafting goes on the back burner, and I need to find something else to do on the bus.

But despite that, here is something tiny that pleases me very much, Little Bo-Peep is finished! And since the rain held off this afternoon, I could take her and her sheep outside for a photo shoot...

where is that pesky sheep?

I'm pretty happy with Little Bo-Peep, though only 3 ½" tall, she's more elaborate than the other seasonal sprites I've made. She's dressed in wool felt clothing, all hand embroidered. She is wearing stripey socks, embroidered pantaloons, a green dress, light green apron with an embroidered daisy, and an embroidered jacket. Her neck ruffle is a "silk" flower, and she has a wee straw hat (thrifted from Goodwill). She, and her lamb, will make a great start for some springtime vignettes on the living room windowsill. I think that I'll liberate the black sheep ornament to add to her flock.

For this project I broke my resolution to only purchase infrastructure this year; I wanted springtime colors for the clothing, and that delightful shop Gossamer has merino wool felt in a wide variety of colors, including some plant dyed wool felt. Rose sells not only big sheets of felt, but small squares that are perfect for projects like this one.

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In additional brighter news, my leafy heart ornament that I donated to the Etsy fundraiser "Hearts for Haiti" sold in one day! This made me so happy, I immediately donated another one... Not only does it help raise money for Doctors Without Borders, but it means that someone out there liked it enough to buy it. (I don't get much traffic through my own Etsy store, so it is hard for me to tell if things I make are actually salable)

bits and bobs - a busy day

Lots to do today, so a short-ish post ...

Potluck CraftTeaParty here on Sunday. I was thinking of having some papercraft bits (brown paper, glue sticks, paper doilies, colored pencils, snips) around for folks to make valentine crafts if desired. Does this sound like fun, or too twee, or would you all prefer the usual sit, knit, chat? As always extra potluck nibbles are welcome.

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I was just gifted with "CORE Transformation", which looks like a VeryUsefulBook™ (many thanks to E). I'm intending to work through some of the processes described, and there are activities that will be much easier if I can play, on my home cassette player (I know, ancient obsolete technology, but I make do) a tape of myself reading the "instructions" aloud. Anyone out there have a tape recorder I can borrow, or the ability to help me make such a tape?

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When I came home from errands yesterday, there were two (2!!) small packages waiting for me under the mailbox. One was the aforementioned book, and the other was the replacement for the circular needle that broke. Celia, the owner of Purl District yarn shop, was apologetic about the break, reminded me that the needles are guaranteed, and was speedy about mailing me a replacement needle. If I am ever in Silverton, I'll surely stop in to her shop.

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I should have known better than to try... The evil empire aka Joann Fabrics, was having their pattern sale. I wasted three hours yesterday trekking over to their only store in Portland, attempting to get this pattern, McCalls 6024, for $1.99. That whole section in their pattern drawer was missing many patterns, and as usual, the workers there had no information at all. I rarely ever buy patterns, but this one looks like a good shortcut to duplicating this dress, which is no longer available, and not in my size anyway.

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I'm almost finished with my entry in the Felt Smackdown, which closes tomorrow. All that is left is her face, and gluing the parts together. I'm doing "Little Bo Peep", and being me, looked up some documentation. The nursery rhyme dates from the beginning of the nineteenth century, and so I looked at what childrens clothing was like at that time. In an number of illustrations, they showed little jackets, and also neck ruffles. Since LBP is only 3 1/2" tall, I simplified the clothing a bit, and as a nod to the inspiring Sally Mavor "Wee Folk" used a bit of silk flower for the neck ruffle.

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In food news, the pea seeds, that I've had in a jar on the countertop, finally started to sprout, and are now in a flowerpot of dirt, hopefully to become fresh pea greens for late winter salad nibbles. And the food for Februarys Can Jam has been announced, it is carrots! So my question is, should I try making pickled carrots, or attempt the carrot cake jam, or maybe veer off in another direction entirely? There was quite a bit of interest last night at Family Potluck in the carrot cake jam...

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Speaking of Family Potluck... "If a tree falls in the neighborhood and no one hears it, did it really happen?" While we were having dinner and conversation, the wind had picked up considerably outside, but until a neighbor came to the door, we had no idea that this would be the eventual result

As Nichole said, (quoting from her Facebook page), "16 guests for dinner, 8 cars in the cul-de-sac, 5 houses, 100 foot plus tall fir tree from our yard falls in the wind at 8pm and doesn't hit a thing - priceless!"

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Well, off the the hardware store for bits to fix the shower handset, and TJ for crackers and cheese for Sunday...