A Worthy Cause

Now, I'm not traditionally big on writing about causes, only because there are just way too many out there to consider. Plus, my funds are pretty tight at this point in my life! What better time to start using up all the yarn and roving stash I have eating up space in the house! Anywho, a friend of mine told me about Kirsten, a knitting woman who's father passed away. He had Alzheimer's Disease.

Now that I'm well past 40 I have started thinking about these types of diseases, ie., Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. They are both terrible things, and place such a burden on family and friends, especially the spouse, who must alter their lives to provide total physical and medical attention.

I've been deriving much pleasure from the interconnectiveness of this small world we are in; through my GLBT knit list, and especially through Ravelry.com. I've met many wonderful and talented people, including finding other gay men who knit, right here in Vermont! (A post about our little group will appear magically here tomorrow!) I've been blessed with many new friends, not only in Vermont, but in the US and Canada. In my hope to share some of my talents and interests (and a bit of money), I donated to the Dr. G's Alzheimer's Disease Fund. Just $10 is enough, but I'm sure they'd accept more if you can spare it!

This is her blogsite, Through the Loops, and the link to the donation area is on the right. Here are some pics of what i spun up, and the beginning of the vest! Click on for a larger view...

Thanks for caring!

Tea Review: Japanese Shincha, Hibiki-An

Similar to Beaujolais nouveau, shincha is the first japanese sencha of the season. Typically only the first week or two of picking the new, bright green shoots, shincha is a must have for tea connoisseurs! In my journey through teas, I have gone from first flush Darjeelings of the season, which are light, fruity, and slightly acidic, to various first picks of Assam, Ceylon, and China greens. However, to cup a shincha is to embark on a blissful journey of fresh, green delight!

My two selections are from hibiki-an from Japan. The first (I haven't tried yet) is Farmer's Shincha. Available at $26 for 5.64oz. They shipped it in two small, sealed bags. This is great, as it will only last for a month or so before degrading after opening. Once opened, it needs to be stored in a tightly sealed jar, out of light and heat sources. When shincha is processed, it goes through five stages: steaming, drying, shaping, sorting leaves and stems, and drying. The tea leaves that don't go through the final two finishing processes, sorting and drying, are called "Aracha", which means unaffected or minimally processed. Japanese tea farmers have been enjoying "Aracha" for many years - it is the traditional drink for farmers. "Aracha" contains stems, known as "Karigane" and therefore has a natural unprocessed taste. "Karigane" tea stems also make the tea more sweet in flavor.

The second tea, which I tried, is Shincha Fukamushi. It was available at 2.82 oz for $21. I've seen shincha prices vary from $18 to $38+ per oz, so this is on the low side, but still very high quality. When I cut the bag open, I immediately could smell the green, fresh, smell. This tea had almost a minty hint to it! The leaves were a very nice, dark emerald green.

I steeped it in my cute Littlemountaintea.com steeper, which holds an amazing 18oz, which is 3 tea cups worth. I usually use 1.5 teaspoons of tea, and do two infusions per batch. I steeped each infusion for 30 seconds, which were combined in the beaker. The infusion was a medium-light green. Very typical of shincha. The fragrance was very grassy and fresh. I was salivating over this one!

The liquor was amazing. A nice contrast of grassy, mellow, with a nice blend of bitterness. I used 180 degree water, but I think it was a bit too hot. It was more bitter than mellow. Shincha, and most senchas, typically are more mellow with slightly cooler water. 170-176 should be fine. The second batch I steeped, which was the 3rd and 4th infusions, I used 170 degrees. Again, I steeped each infusion for just 30 seconds. This round was much smoother! Very nice and crisp. The sweetness was more pronounced, yet still crisp. Unfortunately, by this time the fragrance was gone. But very enjoyable. I highly recommend this tea! You can find it at Hibiki-An.com.

Why I Heart Vermont!

The pics say it all!

Spinning Notes

Okay, so here are some pics of me spinning. (note: click on the pics for larger viewing.) Don't laugh! It's in our TV room, which is kind of getting cluttered with all my STUFF. It's not in our cleaner living room, so most of the mess is in here. You'll see lots of knitting and spinning stuff around me. It's like my throne room! Lol. And, it's about 11:30 or midnight, and I think i was watching Indiana returns or something political. Note our beloved rescue kitty Tigger, who is perched on the table next to the wheel--the flyer is spinning--hence the blurred shot. He'll sit there for hours, occasionally swiping at the moving parts of the wheel, or he'll try to bit the knot of the drive band whipping by...

The fiber is something I bought probably 7 or 8 years ago. Now that I'm fundless I'm trying to use up what I have. I bought 1 pound of the corriedale wool with the pretty colors. The single is coming out mostly blueish, with some nice reds and other colors here and there. I also have 8 oz of light grey merino with silk noils.

I have the damnest time with blogger, trying to get the pics to go where i want them! The pics have a mind of their own. It doesn't matter if i choose no format, or even a format. Anyone with blogger have an idea how to place these wherever you want? Maybe I have to have more text than pics so that the text flows around the pics. I'll just have to type more. Oh, I see, if there is enough text to go around all the pics I can place them on the right...duh...

Anyway, the fiber is really long, which is great for doing a wicked long draw. It will probably fluff up a bit after plying and washing (I always wash my skeins after plying and letting them rest). So, I'm spinning for sockweight yarn. I was getting kind of tired last night when I started the second bobbin, which i got 1/2 filled, but my spinning started to suck. It was getting down to laceweight and thinner. One thing I've noted, since I've been spinning so much thinner yarn lately, it's very hard to get back to spinning the way I did in the first couple years of spinning. I've been spinning for over 15 years now. When I attended SOAR '96 or '97 in Smugglers' Notch, Vermont, I took a workshop with the fabulous and talented Rita Buchanan. It was "spinning bulky yarns". What a hoot!

ETA: pic of the two skeins I plied last night. At the right, you can see how the color of the plied yarn is mostly blueish green now. It's wet, but I am hoping it is less blue than green. I have a really cool vest I want to make with it. Vermont Gay Men's Knit Group tomorrow! More on that later...

Have a great day and enjoy the pics!

Spring's Eternal Bliss...or something like that!

It's a lovely day in NW Vermont. Almost 70 degrees f. Here's a little snapshot off of one of our need-to-be-replaced decks... In the background are some birch trees I let grow about 4 years ago. They create a nice light backdrop for the flowering crab tree. The leaves are burgundy red on one side and a coppery tone on the other. They pale to a greenish color in the summer. The blossoms are a light pink. We have another one that stays red/bronze all year, and the blossoms are a darker red. Picture in a couple days when it flowers.

Two or three years ago we had a heavy March snowstorm that broke off the center right leading branch. You can see about 40% up from the bottom the tree now kind of goes to the left. some branches are filling out in the middle and there is one leader that may strengthen....

Spinning: here is a pic of the last three things I spun. Left: is the shetland I got from Carolina Homespun. Really nice. Long fibers, spun up really stretchy, and fluffed up after the wash. In this case, I found that I could spin it thinner than the desired end result. In the middle is the merino/alpaca blend. I got that at Paradise Fibers. It is 70/30 merino/alpaca. I have enough for socks....yum! The skein on the right is the romney wool/angora bunny blend. Maybe only 20% bunny, but it's REALLY soft! I have about 8 oz of each of the fibers.

Blogging: Oh! What to do?! I emailed Zhenya about all the wonderful things in life I want to blog about: knitting, spinning, cooking, Zen, being gay and alcoholic in Vermont, etc. Each one in itself is time consuming. Oh wait! I also have to spend the time DOING the things! Lol. I'll try to do a short blurb about each one, if there's anything going on about it.

Have a great day!