Rice Noodles with BBQ Pork and Bok Choy

I was craving some noodles so while shopping at Trader Joe's, I found these noodles.

Since I got some bok choy in my CSA box, I washed and chopped the veges and stir fried in some oil and salt.

I then added some bbq pork that my dad had prepared which was resting in the freezer.

With a little oyster sauce, soy sauce, and some water, I had a yummy noodle dish that hit the spot!

Franklin Habit

Meeting Franklin Habit was a hoot! He is the author of "It Itches" and has a blog, the Panopticon. Franklin was the keynote speaker on friday night at the DFW Fiberfest and his talk was hilarious. He was nice enough to sign his book for those who brought them (like me) or who purchased them at the Fiberfest.

There was an emergency incident after the talk and the hunky firemen had to be called - I guess someone just couldn't handle to pressure of meeting "the Man."

The next day, I spent the day with Franklin in his two classes - Photograph Finished Items & Fiber and Franklin's Styles, History & Methods of Lace.

Franklin gave some really good pointers on how to use our cameras out of "auto" mode and we were able to play with the settings and taking photos of various objects. Purples and reds are usually the hardest to photograph.

Franklin's lace history class was very informative and he provided a copy of his pattern Parterre Broderie for us to knit in class. I loved this pattern so much that I rushed out to buy some handspun bamboo yarn from Fiberlady's Fine Fiber to make it.

Lace with Galina

At the DFW Fiberfest, I spent 12 hours with Galina Khmeleva learning about Orenburg Lace. It was very intense and my brain was on overload but Galina is a great teacher and she has so much information to impart. She and her husband, George were also vending at the Fiberfest and had beautiful soft fiber and yarn as well as shawls.

Galina and I next to her beautiful shawls

Galina provided the class with instructions as well as bobbins of 50/50 merino/silk yarn for knitting. We knitted strawberries, cat's paws, peas, mouse prints, accordians, and honey combs to practice knitting to gauge. The best thing about Orenburg lace is that everything is a knit - no purls at all!

She also taught us how the Orenburg lace shawls are constructed where there are no seams and everything including the borders are knit together. It was very intense. My gauge is consistent as always so I was knitting with my US 2 knit pick interchangeable needle tips that I got from p2tog.com.

Galina also gave a demonstration of spinning and plying on russian spindles and provided tips on preparing lace yarn for knitting. She also showed us how to block our lace pieces and a very cool technique for grafting.

Russian spindling demonstration

Blocking sample

Sample of a two color Orenburg Shawl knitted by Galina's mentor Olga

Galina lives in Colorado and I asked if I could visit her studio if I was ever in town. She stated that she would love to show her studio if I provided some advanced notice. When I'm on my trip with Val to see her family, we are going to see if we can visit Galina's studio if she is not too busy on her travel and teaching schedule.

Supperclub with Newbies

Supperclub met on the 18th with a new feature - dinner and a movie. To celebrate Earth Day, we streamed from Netflix, "No Impact Man" with dinner. The menu's theme was spring and my entree was the main protein of Moroccan Cornish Hens. I had to shop specifically for ingredients and had to have 3 people at Henry's help me find the Marsala. Made the paste and marinade one day ahead and marinated most of the day. The hens came from CostCo and the rest from Henry's with the oranges from the CSA.

Ready to bake

Right out of the oven

We had two new members join us - Amy (friend of Kim's) and Arlene (friend of Janet's). Amy was nice enough to bring all of us a can of Italian olive oil. She made the Mustard Dressed Asparagus.

Arlene made the Beet and Blue Cheese Spread as well as the Pita Chips.

Kim tossed the Grapefruit and Fennel Salad.

And Janet brought up the end with the Chocolate Apricot Strudel.

The food was delicious and the movie fair. It sparked a discussion about local foods and it was determined that next month would be fresh and local at Janet's.

Yarn for Sale!

I saw on Facebook today that the yarn I donated to Humanity Handspun is now available in an Etsy store and another one of my skeins sold there! How exciting it that? I haven't been spinning of late as I have been furiously knitting. I was able to finish my Tuscany shawl as well as a lace sampler that I started ages ago when I didn't know what I was doing.

It has been lace, lace, and more lace for me especially now after the DFW Fiberfest. I was overwhelmed by lace.

CSA Bounty

Asparagus, Avocado, Bell Peppers, Bok Choy, Cabbage Red/Green, Carrots, Mustard Greens, Oranges, Parsley, Strawberries, and Zucchini

I picked up my bi-weekly Community Supported Agriculture from Be-Wise Ranch. I gave one of my three containers of strawberries to my next door neighbor. I'm looking forward to turkey stuffed peppers, noodles with bok choy and bbq pork and some salad. I had made cabbage with bacon a few weeks back that was delicious.

DFW Fiberfest

I attended the Dallas Fort Worth Fiberfest this past weekend and it was my first time actually setting foot outside of the DFW airport. The Fiberfest was held in Addison Texas which is north of Dallas. Sue and I met in Dallas for a fiber vacation. We timed our arrival within an hour of each other and we then proceeded to pick up a rental car and headed out to Fort Worth for lunch. Sue had been to Texas many times before and she decided we should go to the Stockyards which is very rustic and cowboyish. We ate at Booger Reds and I took a picture of the bar across from our table. The bar also had stools with saddles.

We had appetizers and Sue loved the smoked salsa so much that she got a jar to got. Due to the traffic, we did not spend much time at the Stockyards and drove to our hotel which took about an hour.

The Fiberfest was awesome and the people were super friendly and there were many vendors with cool stuff to buy. There was a Ravelry meet up on Saturday during lunch and there was a cake for everyone to share.

Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Filling

The Fiberfest featured Galina Khmeleva and Franklin Habit and the theme was lace knitting. More details will follow on the classes and vendors.

In front of the yarn of Brooks Farm

Sale of Yarn

I got an e-mail and Paypal posting from Tina Whitmore at Humanity Handspun stating that two of my skeins of handspun yarn sold at Stitches West. How exciting. The skeins that sold were Blue Streak for $15 and Paris Sparkle for $20. This is so exciting.