Fiber Event

8th Annual Sheep Festival
DATE: Sunday, May 31, 2009 TIME: 9 am – 4 pm – rain or shine
LOCATION: Taylor-Bray Farm, 108 Bray Farm Rd. No., Yarmouth Port, MA

Wednesday May 27th

And people think we are fanatical!!!!!!

Anyone coming to my house tomorrow night?? See you then!
DL

Wednesday Recap - To Blog or Not to Blog?

It was fun to get together last night, as it always is.  Yummy food all around, and the conversation ran the gamut of different topics.  We did get into a bit of Loopy Ewe business during a discussion about the swap and the blog.  A couple of the highlights from the meeting:

• Think to yourself, "Self, do I really want to swap or not?"  It's not mandatory, and it's supposed to be fun!
• For the blog to exist, it needs posting and feedback.  Do we want to support the blog in this manner or let it go?
• Kathleen is a very bad dog mommy
• Wendy wants to knit a mustache.  Kari wants to graph her own. ;-)
• DL is trying not to overheat before she finishes that big blanket. 
• Ingrid is a proud supporter of shih tsu polygamy ;-)
• Judi has seen some scary examples of wildlife . . . (well, you know)
• We missed you, Dawn!  

Now back to the swap.  Last night, the idea of knitting tawashi was brought up, and that seemed to spark some interest.  There's info about it here.  There has already been some feedback to that post, and I really appreciate it.  We've had one request for the swap to be due after school lets out, so maybe we can tentatively schedule a due date for the end of June.

In other news, Apple and I went to the vet this morning, who said that it looks like her eye will make a full recovery.  Yay!

And last, but not least, here is the recipe for the dip I made last night.

Mexican Layered Dip, Black Bean Style

1 onion, small dice

1 red pepper, small dice

3/4 cup - 1 cup frozen corn kernels

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

2 pkgs guacasalsa or guacamole

Tabasco

1 cup light sour cream

1 lime, juiced

3/4 - 1 cup shredded reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup grape tomatoes, quartered

1 handful cilantro, chopped 

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add onion and pepper and saute until tender.  Add cumin, coriander, corn and beans and saute until the corn has thawed and the ingredients have melded.  Add 2-3 drops of Tabasco sauce or to taste and season with a pinch of salt. Remove the skillet from the heat and pour the mixture into a bowl to cool.  Add the juice of half the lime and half of the cilantro.  Set aside.  Mix remaining lime juice with sour cream and set aside.  When beans have cooled, spread them in an even layer in the bottom of a shallow dish.  Top with guacasalsa, spreading evenly to edges.  Top with lime flavored sour cream, and spread evenly over guacasalsa.  Sprinkle cheddar cheese next and top with chopped tomatoes and remaining cilantro.  Serve with tortilla chips.

* I've been thinking about the watery business and that may have been due to the lime juice in the sour cream.  I also thought after the fact that maybe I should have strained the sour cream to get the excess liquid out.  This recipe is a work in progress I guess, but this is how I made it yesterday.

Have a nice long weekend, Loopies!  Happy Knitting!

Another Knitting Night

Another knitting night is coming up :) I know DawnK won't be able to make it (we'll miss you!!!)
Is Anyone else not going to be able to make it?
Hope everyone is having a great week!

Wednesday May 13

Tomorrow night is knitting night and I am declaring it pj or sweat pant night! Our dear friend Ingrid has a boo boo and needs to dress comfortably. So feel freee to put on your pj's and party down!

take care,
Dawn K

Roll call May 13th!

Is it a Yay, or a Nay for Wednesday night? All ewe need to do is post here and let yourself be counted!

take care,
Dawn K

Springy Swap Ideas Post

Hello Loopy Ewes!  Here is the post for all of your brilliant swap ideas!   Feel free to post in the comments or post right in this post!  All of the ideas posted in the comments, I will list here so that we can look at them altogether.  Get those creative juices flowing!

I looked up the project that I was attempting to describe the other night (in a very poor fashion, might I add!) and it is called the Knitting Doo-dads Cushion.  Here's a link to the Ravelry page, and here's a link to the pattern's web page.  A contender, maybe?  I guess we'll have to see what all of you Loopies think!

Now, on with the brainstorming!  :-)

Kathleen's recent idea:  Tawashi . . . some examples I found on Ravelry:

• Wishy Washy Fish Tawashi
• BB Style Tawashi
• Tawashi Knot

If you have ideas out there, please post them!  

P.S.  In the interest of keeping things simple and fun, try to focus your brainstorming on one item that we all knit.

Wednesday Night Recap

Let's see . . . last night was fun and certainly chatty.  Some of the highlights:

• 2 Loopies were working on sweaters, 4 Loopies were knitting socks and 1 Loopy was knitting lace.
  
• Dawn taught some of us a new word, and as a teacher duly taught all of us the proper definition.  :-)
• Bella still loves her obscene dog toy.
• DL can kitchener without looking at directions or absolute quiet.  (Wow!)
  
• We established in word and now in print that if you can't make the Loopy Ewes meeting of the week, please call or email your gracious host as soon as you know.  (Loopy Ewe Etiquette!)
• Our next Loopy Swap is looming in the future.  This brings me to the next segment of this post.
  

Loopy Ewe Springy Swap!  Since we were unable to nail down an idea that everyone was on board with, I'd like to now extend the opportunity for sharing swap ideas to the blog floor.  I've decided to post an area for this separately, in case some of you are just bursting with comments about the events from last night.  We wouldn't want to confuse things, right? ;-)

Yummy snacks all around.  I'm glad everyone liked the quinoa salad.  Here's the recipe.  It's sort of a throw together thing, so this is essentially what I did.

Quinoa Salad

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

4 scallions, white and light green parts finely chopped

1 carrot, peeled and grated

1 avocado half, diced

1/2 orange pepper, diced

1 cup of fresh tomatoes, diced (I used Trader Joe's Baby Romas)

2 Tablespoons flat leaf parsley, chopped

2 Tablespoons cilantro, chopped

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil.  Add quinoa, cover pan, reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes until all the water is absorbed.  Let cool.   Add vegetables and herbs and top with dressing, tossing to combine.

The Dressing

2 Tablespoons sherry vinegar (or any vinegar)

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon honey

salt and pepper

Note:  I actually made a double batch of the dressing for this batch of quinoa salad because I thought it flavored all of the ingredients more evenly.  If you have any questions about this recipe, just let me know.

Thanks for hosting, Ingrid!  It's always fun at your house.  :-) 

Happy Knitting, Loopy Ewes!  Swap post coming soon!

K :-)

May 6th Knitting

Hey everyone!

Just curious who, if anyone, is coming tonight :)