Home made apple sauce

I made applesauce with my dad today. I've done a number of canning projects with him before but never applesauce. He has a tree in his yard that puts out golden delicious and red delicious apples and the crop was just so tasty this year so the applesauce came out extra yummy.

I was surprised how easy it is to make apple sauce compared to the other projects we've done like jam and pickles. Basically it's just wash and chop apples (leaving in core and skin). Heat on stove with tiny bit of lemon. Send through kitchen aid food mill. Then can (fill jar, attach lid, boil for 20 minutes). Then eat. Yummmmmm.

What not to do when playing D&D

I've recently begun playing D&D (dungeons and dragons for the uninitiated). It's a roll playing game where you create a character with certain attributes and go on adventures and deal with any problems (usually monsters) the dungeon master throws at you.

Since I'm new at this I've compiled a list of mistakes I'm trying to learn from. So here is what not to do based on my own experience.

#1: Don't let someone else roll (create) your character. My friend James rolled the stats for my character while I picked out other stuff. And that is how I ended up with a -1 dexterity and a -1 initiative. Initiative isn't that big a deal but with a -1 dex I can't dodge anything or be stealthy at all. The heavy armor I'm wearing doesn't help either but that's besides the point.

#2: Don't let someone else choose your spells. James also chose my prepared spells (I'm playing a cleric), and gave me one where I could make the ground shake and thunder but it doesn't actually do anything. Why? Why would anyone choose that?

#3: Team shit show. We have some team members who make very questionable decisions. At every turn. Add that to the fact that half our party keeps rolling super low and you get what we've started calling team shit show.

Basically we end up going in with no plan, and just attack, but we're not that skilled so we end up all almost dead and running away as fast as possible.

#4 You don't need to interact with every NPC you meet.
We spent like 3 hours on a caravan trying to get stuff to happen when we met people but they refused. After the first hour, just leave them alone until you get to your destination. Maybe then it wouldn't take 3 hours.

WIPs Wednesday

Here are the knitting projects I'm working on here at WIP HQ:

Finished Objects

While not technically a WIP it's so hot off the needles I wanted to share it anyway. I made a sweater for my nephew, and I am very pleased with the results. Link to my project page if you're curious about the pattern/yarn/etc.

Knitting

For my first actual WIP a Spiralucious Cowl for myself out of some handspun. I had to start over 3 times before I finally got the pattern right. Partly because it was late and partly because I wasn't actually reading the directions, so it's my own fault. It should go fairly quickly from here (fingers crossed).

4th time's a charm

I'm working on the sleeves of indifference shrug also for myself out of my hand spun. I'm knitting the sleeves two at a time because I'm getting low on yarn and I want them to be the same length if I run out before completing them.

Last but not least for my knitting I'm about 1/3 of the way through the front of East Village, a sweater I'm knitting for my grandpa. I've knit the back already so I'm probably a bit more than 1/2 way through the sweater. I'm thinking I might need more yarn than I have considering how quickly I've been going through it, but we bought it locally so hopefully it'll be easy to get more. If the color doesn't match up exactly I can alternate skeins on the sleeves. 

Spinning
For my spinning I'm still working on the 4ozs of BFL that my mom got me when she was visiting Maine last month. It is so lovely to spin, soft and supple I love it. I'm about 1/2 way through spinning the singles, hopefully I'll have some time to spin more this week. This picture just shows the blue but there is also dark green and some purple in it. So when it's plied up there will be a lot of cool striping.

That's it for this week. Stay tuned for more updates next week.

A DIY success: paint!

After the trial that was my last DIY attempt I was a little weary of jumping into another one. But this time I had Cooper to help me and also it's something I've done successfully in the past: paint some walls. Cooper and I had talked about painting accent walls when we moved into our apartment in June but I was studying for the bar and he works full time so it never happened. But now that I've got much more time on my hands the project sounded much more appealing. So we picked out some paint colors at one of my many trips to Home Depot in the last few weeks and waited for the Labor Day paint sale that the friendly paint person told us was coming. 

The bedroom

We started in the bedroom. 

It's hard to get a picture of the full wall because of the shape of the room but this will give you a good idea of what it looked like. The walls are all a yellow off white. We picked a blue color, not too surprising actually, both my rooms in Hawaii had blue walls (one also had green but that's beside the point). 

Cooper started prepping the room while I finished breakfast.

We had one roller and one corner brush so cooper started with the edges and I started with the roller. 

I was a little worried about the color since we didn't do a test strip but I think it turned out just lovely. We did two coats of paint and with both of us working it went quickly.

The kittens liked having all our stuff moved around. 

I really liked how it looks. 

My phone camera isn't doing a great job of capturing the color which is a tad warmer than it looks in the picture but oh well. I still love it.

Round 2: the living room

We prepped this area while the first coat of paint was drying upstairs, which went much more quickly after having done one room.

We had to lock the kitties in the spare bedroom while we painted downstairs. Which I think they sort of liked since I usually keep them out of there while I'm not in there. For good reason, as while we were painting we heard a crash and discovered this:

And this

Waldorf trying to look innocent above the place the bin belongs.

But better a little mess than kittens in wet paint. 

I was more worried about not having tested this color than the bedroom color. It's a rather light green. And we have really warm lighting in the room already. 

It looks light in this picture because we've got the lights on.

But as we put on the second coat and it dried it got a little darker. 

This is just the natural light.

And in the natural light it looks much cooler. I think I like how it came out though. 

It seems bright but this side of the room is the darkest and we didn't want to make it feel darker with a dark color. It's also the largest room in the apartment since it's open to the dining area (behind me in this picture). So it's a bold color but I think since it has so much space to fill (and it's only on one wall) it works out. And if I hate it later I'll just get a new color. 

All this painting has made me consider painting our spare bedroom too, we have a lot of blue and green paint left and it really didn't take that long with the two of use. But I don't feel like moving any more furniture today, so that may be a project for a few months from now. If ever.

So one more time the before and afters and then that's a wrap.

Knitting tutorials and tricks that have recently blown my mind

I've been knitting for a while. I learned when I was 7 (thank you Waldorf school) and got really into it in college. So I tend to think of myself as a pretty experienced knitter. Then I read something online or listen to something a podcast that makes me go, oh duh. So I thought I'd share some of the things I've been learning recently with you.

This morning's revelation is curtesy of Ysolda's blog. You don't have to make a slip knot to start casting on. I know I should have realized this because when I cast on for toe up socks I don't but I just thought they were special and I always make a slip knot. 

From Stitched in Sweden I recently learned how to do a biased bind off so that you get a smoother edge when casting off a few stitches each row (like when making sleeve caps). Here is the tutorial. 

This last one isn't so much a technique as knitting theory. I read this article this morning explaining different types of sleeve construction. I liked it because it helped me understand how the set in sleeve should be assembled and why it was done the way it is done. Which is helpful for me since I knit a lot of set in sleeve sweaters. 

I'm sure I'll have follow up posts in the future as I'm always learning new things in knitting and this is turning into a pretty knitting focused blog. But that's where my life is right now, I knit a lot, so I'm ok with that.

Two at a time knitting

I mentioned in my previous post that I am knitting sleeves two at a time right now, my first time ever. I like this method a lot and I think it will become my go-to method for sleeves and I plan on trying it out for socks soon.

Luckily I already have most of my needles in 40in long circulars since I am a whole hearted magic loop fanatic. I hate dpns and once I learned magic loop I've never gone back. So I can fit two sleeves or two socks on my needles no problem.

How to not tangle the yarn

The tutorial I used to start my sleeves didn't have super helpful suggestions for how to keep the yarn from tangling, it just suggests turning the work one way at the end of the row and then the opposite way the next row. So I thought I'd share what I discovered to be the best and easiest way to keep the yarn from tangling.

I should mention I'm knitting from two separate balls.

First, start with yarn that is not tangled. The working yarn for each sleeve is on the right of its sleeve ready to be worked.

Knit across the first sleeve. And here is the trick keep the working yarn from the first sleeve between the sleeves. In this picture I've left the yarn just hanging down, make sure it stays in the right there while you knit across the second sleeve.

Once you've knit both sleeves, when you turn your work just make sure the second sleeve is up higher than the first sleeve and working yarn. This should keep the two yarns separate and tangle free.

Hopefully this has made sense and is helpful for anyone just learning TAAT like I am.

The DIY project from hell

Since I've been funemployed I've been watching a lot of HGTV (home and garden TV for those with actual lives). It's mostly home improvement and home buying shows. It's made me think that I want to do things like that and make out place look awesome like the ones they show in tv. Luckily I am able to retain some sense and remember that I have no skills in this area, the last time I did any woodwork I ended up getting 7 stitches (stupid chisel). For now however, I have low ambition projects on the agenda.

First is to replace the shower head. We live in a condo that probably hasn't been updated since the mid nineties so all the fixtures are old and not very high end. Exhibit A, the current shower head functions but is kind of old and lots of the littles holes are plugged.

For my first try I used this nice shower head my dad gave me (it was extra from their remodel last year).

I've never done anything like this so my first step was of course to google it. This lead me to this tutorial by home depot about installing shower heads. I love the internet, and google of course.

I was eager to start, and step one was remove old shower head. I twisted and twisted but it was on super tightly so I couldn't get it off with just my hands. I went rummaging in our tools but sadly we had no wrenches. So back to Home Depot I went, to procure a wrench or something to help twist off the old shower head.

I found the wrench section and tried to figure out what I needed. I ended up getting a pair of adjustable pliers instead of a wrench because it seemed more multi-tasking useful as the wrenches were both more expensive and had a more limited range of motion.

This is the first tool I think I've ever bought, which made me feel like I must be adulting today. That and the fact that it was my 3rd time in Home Depot in like a week. Why does it always take so many trips? It's one of the mysteries of the universe.

But anyway, back at the work in progress that was my shower. Armed with my new adjustable plier I took off the old shower head.

Then I wrapped the threads of the thingy in plumbers tape and screwed on the new shower head.

Holy water pressure Batman!

Voilá new shower head installed. 

Now, skip to the next morning when Cooper goes to take a shower. Apparently it's got wayyyy too much power for how low the shower head is positioned and water was just spraying everywhere. A consultation with my dad lead me to discover that the old shower head had a pressure reducer inside of it. 

After determining that I only need the blue piece for the new shower head I took it off the spigot, added the pressure reducer and put the shower head back on. The pressure is less but still more than our old shower head. It's also still really low on our shower. It turns out my dad was on his way to Home Depot and he picked up an S pipe shower head extender thing to hopefully solve the height issue. However, we also needed a coupler to attach the extender to the current pipe that sticks out of the wall. So another day, another Home Depot trip for Kira. 

I went to Home Depot, got the connector piece and more plumbers tape (after wondering around not sure where to find what I was looking for for a while). 

Now, it's been a few days and like 4 trips to Home Depot for this one little project. I was excited to be pretty much done. I attach the connector to the pipe that comes out of the wall and attempted to attach the S pipe to the wall. Attempted being the key word. Because it won't screw in. Well it would, if the wall weren't there. 

Now the two curves of pipe aren't identical in their angles and it would screw in the other side but it would be such an angle that way that it would be pretty much useless. 

Sorry for the bad lighting, I was too irritated to care. 

So it seems like we just need a different shower head. Probably one with a hose attachment like the one I took down because that's basically a built in extender that will actually twist. Like the one I bought earlier this week and then returned. Stupid wall. It doesn't help that I skipped my shower this morning to wait and test out the new shower set up. So now I feel like I need a shower but it's still disassembled with the hope that maybe Cooper can figure out something I missed and we don't need to go back to Home Depot. 

This is why I don't DIY. 

Update: I took a shower with just the new shower head and no extender. I thought it was just fine. I had added the other plastic bit that was inside the old shower head that is maybe part of the pressure reducer so maybe that was it. But I don't think it needs to be adjusted anymore. We will leave it for now and if it doesn't work we will get a new one. But I'm glad to be done with this for now since we already have another project lined up for tomorrow: painting.