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finished: boheme sweater

boheme sweater

I’m excited to finally post pics of this baby sweater. It was a fun little knit, even though I had to rip back a few times in the beginning because of missed buttonholes. (I must be out of practice knitting and watching tv.)

The only thing I changed about the pattern was the picot bind off. I chose a picot hem instead, which lies flatter and feels more finished to me.

boheme sweater

My friend Lisa introduced me to Boheme and has knitted up quite a few of them. It really is the perfect three-season sweater: over long sleeves in the Fall, a turtleneck in the Winter and a tank top in the Spring. I’ll definitely be making another one. I’ve see a few feather and fan versions that are really cute.

What’s your favorite baby sweater pattern? Knit or crochet. Share in the comments!

pattern notes: You can find the pattern on Ravelry here. I used some Patons Rio from my stash. I love this yarn and wish it hadn’t been discontinued. I only have two skeins left.

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my daughter’s second art show

art camp lincoln childrens museum

You may remember the excitement of my daughter’s first art show last year. Well, this summer she did the full-day elementary art camp and had a blast. Once again, the campers exhibited their artwork, but this year they did so at the Sheldon Museum of Art. She was pretty excited.

In addition to showing us all of her work, she took us on a tour of some of her favorite exhibits that she visited earlier in the week. She was so excited and proud. It was adorable.

art camp sheldon art museum

I still need to write about the other camps she’s taken this summer. She came home from science camp exclaiming she wanted to be a scientist, or maybe an artist that draws science pictures. This week was insect camp. She brought home a jar of mealy worms, which I’ve been told are really dark winged beetle larvae, and tomorrow they are having cricket cookies for a snack. Oh, my!

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this week

crochet

fireworks

strategic air command

photos from instagram

this week I:

crocheted a gift card sleeve — It was a nice project to use up leftover sock yarn.

watched the most amazing fireworks — from my front lawn. My neighbors put on a pretty awesome show.

took lots of photos of fireworks — I’ve given up trying to capture the perfect nighttime explosion, so this year I focused on what happens on the ground.

spent hours sorting — legos, cars, beads, books, tinker toys, stuffed animals, etc. and put them back where they belong. The next day my daughter took them all out again.

took lots of photos of planes — visited the Strategic Air and Space Museum. I couldn’t fit an entire B-52 Bomber in my viewfinder, so I focused on details: wings, cockpits, engines, propellers.

made pesto — with kale, beet greens and italian parsley. It was awesome.

read I Remember Nothing — by Nora Ephron. Next up is I Feel Bad About My Neck. I love library e-books.

What have you been up to this week?

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csa bags five and six: recipe planning goes improv

csa cabbage cole slaw

week five: green cabbage, beets, kale, garlic, summer squash
week six: potatoes, beets, bok choy, green onions, parsley, basil

Planning how to use my CSA veggies has pretty much gone out the window. My kitchen faces west, and it gets too hot in the late afternoon to use the oven. I’ve just been grabbing things out of the fridge and making things up as I go.

  • I’ve been pan sautéing anything and everything: beets, turnips, carrots, cabbage, zucchini. I find you can’t go wrong with a base of red onion, garlic and lemon.
  • I’m still making kale chips in the mornings when it’s cool.
  • Extra greens are finding their way into smoothies.
  • The cabbage came just in time to make some slaw for a potluck picnic. I’m not usually a fan of traditional picnic sides, but this lime and peanut coleslaw was deliciously different.
  • Speaking of non-traditional picnic sides, I’ve fallen in love with this no-mayo potato avocado salad. I skip the chives and add lemon zest. It’s good either warm or chilled.
  • My favorite new-to-me veggie so far has been the candy-striped chioggia beets. I hope we get lots more of these. Aren’t they pretty?

csa candy striped beets

There’s no CSA pickup this week. I’m looking forward to using up all of our odds and ends with generous amounts of basil and parsley.

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fabric for a baby quilt

baby quilt fabric

My friend Lauren used fabric to cover shelves and make embroidery hoop swatches for her baby girl’s nursery. We were chatting about what to do with the leftover fabric and I suggested a baby quilt. Let me tell you, when I saw all of this cute fabric, I was so happy when she said yes. These prints are so sweet!

I can’t make my standard Easy Baby Quilt, but still want a design that’s simple. Maybe an Easy Baby Quilt Level 2? We’ll see.

knitted sweater update: It’s finished and adorable, but not yet delivered.

kombucha update: OhMyGoodnessThisTeaTastesSoGood!

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the mother of all tea

kombucha tea

Do you drink kombucha? I’ve seen it mentioned here and there over the past year, and when my CSA offered a class about it, I decided to learn more. I love tea — black, green, herbal, caff, decaf — I drink it all. How could I not be interested in a fermented tea drink?

Taking a class made me feel more confident that this is a really easy process. Tasting different brews gave me an idea how different tea leaves and brew time affect the end product. I was also glad to learn kombucha has a low pH, so I don’t have to be concerned about botulism. (Remember when I worried about that when I canned apples?)

Everyone in class left with a SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast) to start their own batch of tea. (That’s mine pictured above.) I’m brewing in a one gallon glass container and mine has already started to grow into a stereotypical round mushroom-looking mother. I guess that means I’m doing it right!

I have to say I’m a little nervous about this, like when I made yogurt for the first time. In a world that’s so anti-bacterial, it’s weird to invite it into your home and into your food.

What do you think about kombucha? Ever heard of it before? Do you buy it at the health food store? Brew it at home? I’m curious!

p.s. Here’s a sneak peek of my current knitting project.

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csa bag four: lots and lots of greens

csa cabbage

week four: kale, cilantro, napa cabbage, salad mix, carrots, head lettuce

Well, I’m definitely back to eating lots of salads. I’m also excited to make another batch of cilantro pesto. My daughter cheered for more kale chips, which I made yesterday. I don’t expect them to last past tonight’s dinner.

I made saag “paneer” with the turnip greens and collards. It’s amazing how such a big bowl of greens can cook down to such a small amount of puree. I had to add two bunches of fresh spinach from the store to feed four adults. I also substituted extra firm tofu for paneer to make it healthier. The dish got a thumbs up from my mother-in-law, who is from India. Yay!

The napa cabbage found its way into Heidi Swanson’s Japanese pizza recipe with a few modifications. I skipped the leeks and added some shredded carrots and chopped green onions. It was so good I ate my portion straight from the pan – never even added the garnish.

My favorite salad right now: salad greens tossed with balsamic vinaigrette, chopped tomato and strawberries, hard boiled egg whites, crumbled feta cheese and a sprinkle of sunflower seeds.

This is starting to sound like a food blog! Don’t worry, I’ve got some knitting that’s almost ready to share. Pics to come soon!

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csa bags two and three

csa cilantro

week two: broccoli, green garlic, radishes, salad turnips, lettuce mix, cilantro
week three: broccoli, salad turnips, purple top turnips, head lettuce, collards, green onions

I need to do a little bit of catch up on my CSA notes. Even though I planned out how to use my veggies the first week, I wound up throwing things together at the last minute in the evenings.

  • Instead of the kale salad, I made kale chips. They are one of my daughter’s favorite and she practically ate the whole batch in one sitting.
  • I was in the mood for Indian food, so I added the radish greens to my Channa Masala for Dummies recipe. Yum!
  • I roasted one batch of radishes in the oven at 350 degrees. I usually roast veggies at 500 degrees, but I was afraid the radishes would cook too fast. Instead, they didn’t get that brown crispy outside my family loves. They were good, but not great.
  • I pan sauteed the second batch of radishes with chopped turnips, broccoli stems and onions. I let them get nice and caramelized, then added the turnip greens until wilted. Yum!
  • That big bowl of cilantro pictured above lasted a long time. I added chopped leaves to all kinds of dishes, but used most of it to make cilantro pesto.
  • After the second week, I bought a salad spinner and it’s made life so much easier!
  • I’m still buying a few organic staples from the store each week: lemons, tomatoes, avocados and strawberries.

My favorite sandwich right now: fried egg over medium with tomato and avocado slices on multigrain toast.

My big plan for this week is to make saag with the turnip greens and collards. I’ve done a little research and even though most recipes use a mix of spinach and mustard greens, saag is technically any type of green. Crossing my fingers on this one!

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a bookish kind of summer

There’s something special about a good book. The lines between fiction and real life get blurred. You feel like you really know the characters and miss their company when you’re finished reading. You almost don’t want their story to end because you hate saying goodbye.

A good book can take over your life. “Just one more chapter” becomes “is it really 2 am?” You abandon things like knitting, crochet, sewing, blogging — even laundry. You’ll be hunched over your book in the living room and hear grumbles from the kitchen that “there’s nothing in this house to eat.”

summer reading

I’m not the only one in the house bitten by the book worm. The first day of summer vacation my daughter insisted we go to the library to sign up for the reading program. A librarian had visited school and my daughter knew exactly where to go and what to do. She picked out her books and announced that she was ready to get her own library card.

Once home, she quickly finished her picture books and picked up Judy Moody, Girl Detective. I should have seen it coming, but I was surprised on our next visit that she didn’t even want to look in the picture book section. One chapter book and my girl was hooked. We came home with another Judy Moody, a few Cam Jansens and a Little House.

And so it begins: reading at the table, in the car, before going to bed. “Just one more chapter, Mama!” “Can I just finish this page?”

summer reading

I’ve finally come back to reality. The laundry is folded and the pantry has been restocked. I’ve got an untouched stack of craft books that need to be read before their due date. Friends are having babies this summer and I’ve got to start on gifts. Time to get back in the world of non-fiction and get some things done!

My daughter, on the other hand, is a lost cause. I’m so happy for her.