Happy Morning Spent

I took advantage of this lovely, crisp morning to catch up on some knitting and visit with the chooks and kitty...

I've been missing the beauty and discipline that only a Starmore celtic cabled sweater can offer, so I've succumbed :

Why yes, that is Cromarty lying on the chair there.  I feel like I've been holding out on you...I've been working on the back for a couple of weeks and I hope to soon finish it.

Kitty, now called Calleigh has decided that I am indeed not the Antichrist, and will sit near me, and occasionally allow a quick pat, but only on her neck and back.  She lounged beside me and spent a fair bit of time with her toilet this morning.

She rather reminds me of a Renoir bather looking at the curve of her long, sinuous back.  She still longs to hug steal away the chickens. <sigh> Yet another reason why we have to keep them somewhat contained.

The girls have been exceedingly busy, giving us between 2 and 4 eggs daily.  Though they are likely to take the next day off, if I do get 4 eggs in a day.  The sweeties are still quite young, and working out their groove.  Right now we get  mostly medium eggs--almost large really, from the Australorps, and smalls from the Easter Eggers.  No matter the size, they are so, so, tasty.

We

feasted and celebrated the Equinox at home this year.  I spent a fair bit of the day in the kitchen.  See?

Recipe found here.  Though I made some substitutions and adaptations based on ingredients and utensils.  

I used some canned milk in place of the cream, reserving some for painting the crusts.  That worked out rather nicely.  I didn't have a deep dish 9 inch pie pan/plate, but it did fit into a regular  9.5 inch glass dish just fine.  Since I couldn't find any leaf shaped cookie cutters near the house (!) and I didn't want to waste time or resources to drive all the way across town, I cut all the leaves by hand for the top.

Wow, it's so tasty and delicious! Some of the best flavors of Autumn together in one dish.  It paired nicely with the roasted pork, stuffed kabocha squash, mashed potatoes and challah.  Mmmmm...gotta go and have another piece.

Meán Fomhair

It's almost here...amazing how the time flies.

I'm making last-minute preparations for our celebration : the roast is defrosting, the ritual is coalescing nicely, and I'm working on my holiday playlist, too.

What am I listening to on the Equinox?

1. Autumn Time -- Libana
2. Coinlach Glas an Fhómhair -- Clannad
3. Harvest Chant -- Reclaiming and Friends
4. The Rain Song -- Led Zepelin 
5. The Mabon -- Damh the Bard 
6. Harvest Home -- Big Country 
7. Fly, Fly, Fly -- Libana
8. Autumn Child -- Lúnasa
9. Fields of Gold -- Sting
10. Persephone -- Dead Can Dance
11. Terminal Frost -- Pink Floyd
12. Na Laetha Geal M'óige -- Enya
13. Sparks -- Reclaiming Collective
14. Prelude in D Flat Major -- Chopin
15. A River Of Birds -- Libana
16. The First Of Autumn -- Enya
17. Mabon -- Omnia
18. The Wind That Shakes The Barley -- Dead Can Dance
19. Mabon -- Lisa Thiel 
20. Humble Yourself -- Ella
21. Demeter's Song -- Reclaiming Collective
22. Pocket Full Of Stones -- David Gilmour 
23. Cauldron Of Changes -- Lindie-Lila
24. Harvest Dance -- Gwyddion Pennderwen
25. Serpent Mound -- Kellianna
26. Scarecrow -- Pink Floyd
27. September In The Rain -- the Beatles
28. The Rain Came Down -- Steve Earle
29. Rain On The Scarecrow -- John Mellencamp
30. Marche Funebre -- Chopin
31. Scarborough Fair -- Simon and Garfunkel
32. Concerto No. 3 in F Major (L'Autunno) -- Vivaldi 
33. Which Wood -- Mostly Autumn 
34. Free The Heart/ Powerful Song -- Reclaiming

What's in your playlist?  How are your plans for the Equinox coming along?

Brighid's Mantle

Quite a while back, I got some really cute mystery yarn from a dear friend's stash and thought I knew what I would do with it right away...I was going to make a dragon amigurumi and it was going to be awesome and fun.  Hahahahaha.  That was not to be.

The yarn marinated in the stash for a while, and no, I'm not telling for how long.  We'll just say it's been a bit.  By then, the need for a cute green dragon made of a bamboo blend yarn faded, and the fascination with the idea of making my own little Brighid's Mantle began. 

Imbolc was coming, and found me making a regular vigil for Brighid every 20 days via a Ravelry group.  Reading and researching various customs and folklore for St Brigid's Day kept making references to a mantle.  You can find versions of the story here, here, and here.  I just had to make one, especially for vigil nights, and also for healing. 

I immediately thought of that yarn.   That pretty, soft, green yarn.

So I gathered up the yarn and hurried out to place the ball into one of my favorite trees in the yard for blessing on the eve of St Brigid's Day/Candlemas/Imbolc.  

Then I had to figure out what to knit it into.  It had to be knitted.  It had to be cabled.  I remembered a pretty celtic cable on a wrap from Alice Starmore's,  Aran Knitting.  Chart "C"'s cable seemed rather nice, and not too wide.  As I only had one wrapper-less ball,  I had no idea how much was there.  So I began, adding a border of 3 stitches on each side in garter stitch, slipping the first stitch with every row to the chart.  

I worked on it here and there.  And soon, I was close to finishing.  I timed its finishing to be on a "vigil night", late last month. 

 I can't wait to hold it while I keep the next one. 

My Mantle measures 4 inches by 42 inches without the fringe, post blocking.  I used almost the entire ball, save ~ one yard.  Those scraps, mostly trimmings from the fringe, will be saved for healing bundles and the like later on.  

After a bit of brainstorming, I believe this yarn to be NaturallyCaron.com  Spa in a color called Green Sleeves.  It's 75% acrylic, 25% bamboo, and I'm sure that accounts for the curl at the long edges that just won't seem to block out.    

Yum

DH came home from VT to a surprise:

Eggs!

They're so pretty, dainty and delicious!