Fiber Fool

Despite our semi-arid climate, I feel very fortunate to live in an area where agriculture and all natural and organic food production is valued. At the height of the growing season there are FOUR farmer’s markets and THREE days each week that one can purchase locally grown produce and other prepared products. I definitely prefer the Saturday morning market in Old Town Fort Collins. It is held in the civic center parking lot at the corner of Oak Street and Howes on the west edge of Old Town.

This is a large market with the widest variety of products to choose from in my experience. In addition to the obvious seasonal produce there are often a booth or three offering locally raised and processed meats. Frequently a local coffee roaster or two can be found. There are also the orchards with their jams, butters and dried fruit in addition to whatever fruit is currently juicy and ripe for savoring.

A handful of gardeners have herb and vegetable starts as well as gorgeously put together container gardens of herbs, flowering plants or succulents. There is even a Bonsai vendor. Gorgeous cut flower can be found at a number of booths too.

Even with all the variety I think my favorite booths are those filled with produce.

The one booth we stop at religiously is the Hazel Dell Mushroom booth. We almost always pick up a half pound mixed bag. It makes for a relatively quick mid-week dinner when I saute them up in a little butter and olive oil with some herbs from the garden and have them on pasta. We often will throw some in with scrambled eggs for weekend brunch too.

This last week, in addition to the mushrooms, I picked up some garlic scapes to round out the couple we got in the CSA and I made a pesto with those plus a little bit of parsley and basil that was delish! We also got apricots to make liqueur and probably the last of the Rainier cherries. I’m looking forward to ripe tomatoes, sweetcorn, eggplant and peaches to make their appearances soon! If you go to a farmer’s market what are your favorite things to pick up?

If you are in the area, you’ll find another market on Saturdays that runs an hour or two later into the day on Drake Road between Shields and College at Drake Center. On Sunday there is one from 11am-2pm on Harmony Road near Ace Hardware, Lee’s Cyclery and Reader’s Cove Bookstore. In that same location on Wednesday around mid-day you can find a market run by the same group. In my experience that one is much smaller than on Sunday. The Harmony markets are kind of nice in that you can go to a central booth and use a debit or credit card to purchase $5 tokens so you don’t have to stop at the ATM to get cash before going. This year I also noticed that several booths can accept food stamps.

I love my town. Pretty much the only thing that would make it better were if my family were here. A huge part of what I love about Fort Collins is the sense of community and city pride. I also love our local businesses and feel they play a major role in those things I like about Fort Collins. I also try to shop and dine local as much as possible to support these businesses.

Since I am sure we are not alone in a lack of resources (time being a big one for me right now) for a summer vacation I thought it would fun over the course of the summer to show you some of the gems of Fort Collins. I’m hoping other local businesses will be willing to participate and let me come take some pictures to share with you guys. My goal is to do so each week this summer.

So, won’t you take a stroll with me through a bit of Historic Old Town Fort Collins with me?

If you wander north along the east side of College Ave (Hwy 287 N), hang a right when you get to Walnut Street.

Go ahead and cross Walnut. Head in the southerly direction (many of the streets down here are oriented to the Cache la Poudre river, not the cardinal directions).

About half way down the block you should see the historic firehouse building.

When you arrive, don’t forget to look up and admire the architectural details!

Upon entering, glance forward and to the right wall and you’ll find four sections of bestsellers - a sure bet if you are looking for something to read but don’t have a specific title in mind. There is a section each for paperback and hardcovers of both fiction and non-fiction.

The shop is long and has almost three distinct sections. The middle section is probably the area I frequent the most - the mysteries! But they have all manner of fiction and non-fiction for all ages. I never cease to be amazed at the selection. They have what I’d like on the shelves much more often than another unnamed big box bookstore in town. Their staff is friendly and helpful as well, but without being pushy.

Don’t mind the glimpses of bare shelves. The day I took photos they were sorting through their books and preparing for a huge sidewalk sale that started yesterday and runs through the weekend in Old Town. It coincides with A Jazz Experience, where several local venues are hosting various jazz groups of all types all weekend long. There are even two outdoor stages with free shows! So if you are in the area you may like to take advantage of free entertainment and great deals!

This is another section I like to check when I come in and I’m sure you are not surprised by this one either. See, Old Firehouse Books sells both new and used books so you never know what treasures you might find. I like to pop in and check the shelves fairly regularly and I keep a list on my phone of titles I’m interested in.

I love that Old Firehouse Books offers new and used books. I can trade in books and can then use my credit to discount future purchases (their web site has the trade details) which helps me buy local but still save some money. They also have customer accounts and for every $100 you spend (which they track with the computer so you don’t have to carry yet another loyalty card in your wallet) you get a $5 coupon.

I also love that Old Firehouse is an active part of the community. Many of their events make use of other local businesses. For example, next week there is a Barbecue and Beer Tasting with a new local brewery, Equinox. And Saturday, July 31st Cricket McRae will be having a book signing and they are having a cheese tasting to go along with it from the local Windsor Dairy! They also host many different types of book clubs and their e-mail newsletters are informative about upcoming releases and titles their staff are enjoying (which reminds me that each staff member has a recommendation shelf you can peruse too).

You can find Old Firehouse Books online at http://oldfirehousebooks.com/ where you can order books, download e-books, and sign up for their newsletter. You can also connect with them on Facebook and Twitter. They post some really interesting links and send reminders about upcoming evens. They also blog at http://oldfirehousebooks.blogspot.com/.

Here ends the first look at one of my frequented places in Fort Collins. I would love if some of you out there would join me on Fridays and share some of your favorite local businesses with your readers as well so I can add them to my every growing list of places I’d like to visit when time is not so scarce.

Here is a peek of what I’ve been playing with this week. I’m busy working on writing the MSK July newsletter and getting some other patterns ready to go out to test/sample knitters so there hasn’t been a lot of knitting time this week. Though to be honest, I’ve knit this little piece of fair isle a couple times.

Your eyes are not deceiving you. This is stranded colorwork knit flat. I know that is practically unheard of. We all know I like nothing more than a big challenge though, right? In truth, it isn’t terribly difficult. I wouldn’t want to knit an entire sweater this way. Steeking is definitely the way to go. But, thanks to knitting backwards, working colorwork flat is not too difficult. I’m glad that I had learned to knit backwards and knitting entrelac though. It probably would be a tad more tedious if I was also learning how to knit backwards. I taught myself by turning the work and getting the needles and yarn into position than turn it back to have RS facing. I’m glad I did that because I almost always have to refresh myself on how to do it when I do use it. It isn’t something I use regularly.

Knitting backwards is a great skill, as I mentioned, for entrelac, or anything that is somewhat narrow and annoying to keep turning your work. One could even do it for heel flaps! Also, if you hate purling you might find backwards knitting (knitting from left to right) more enjoyable. If you’re curious about knitting backwards there was an article in Knitty back in 2006 and there are a few YouTube videos as well - for throwers like me (with voice instructions) & for continental knitters (with no voice instructions). In actuality, for stranded colorwork I use both techniques because I prefer to carry a yarn in each hand when knitting fair isle.

I thought maybe this weekend would be for lots of knitting, but it has filled quickly. Though, oddly with no plans for the actual holiday. So, perhaps Sunday will be full of lots of knitting. I can hope anyway :-) The heat wave is supposed to break then so that would be great actually.

I’m working on a mini-theme for my ECFs for the upcoming weeks. I’m hoping I can maybe keep the idea going through the entire summer. If it looks like it is going to pull together I’ll share it with you and hopefully have the first in the series next Friday. I’m kind of excited about it and the list of “possibilities” keeps growing and growing.

To all my fellow Americans - Happy Independence Day! Please be safe and enjoy yourselves!

This is what I spent a chunk of last week working with. The yarn is a combo of Madelintosh tosh sock left over from Cirrus and some Louet Gems Fingering I had in my stash. I’m sooooo excited about this project it is just killing me having to keep it mum. I’m hoping sharing this little peek will help ease the pressure a tad.

Because I was figuring out yardage per square inch over several types of stitch patterns I was needing to weigh my knitting at pretty frequent intervals so I could estimate total yardage for the official project. I found weighing the knitting and the balls of yarn it in a bowl the same size as the scale’s platform gave me more consistent readings. I was also spending a good chunk of time out under the patio umbrella listening to audiobooks while I knit and discovered the bowl was a good way to keep track of my yarn and keep it from snagging on weathered wood or picking up bits of pollen that had fallen on the patio and what not.

I guess it is a good thing that I’m the only one who tends to use the metal bowls in our kitchen because I think it might be a while before this one finds it way back. Though I suspect great grandma Davis wouldn’t mind her bowl being put to use in this manner.

Yikes! Almost a full month ago now the wonderful Katheryn of Alpacamundo invited me and my camera down to observe the first day of alpaca shearing. I unfortunately had a meeting that afternoon and the start was delayed a bit so I only got to see the first two (most difficult) shearings.

First up was Eduardo (if I’m remembering correctly). He wasn’t too keen on finding out where he was going…

Kathryn explains to her brother in law how to hold Eduardo and keep him calm after his legs were secured to keep them safely out of harms way.

Once everything is secured it is time for the real business… shearing!

Unfortunately the lucious, ultra-fine fiber of Eduardo led to a lot of this…

There were a lot of helpers around, each with their own job to do to aid Kathryn in the shearing…

The following one cracks me up! Little farmers and ranchers in training, learning to lean on the fence and shoot the shit…

And of course I cannot leave out this helper…

…. who was actually penned up once the shearing got under way.

There guys had such personality I couldn’t resist!

Have a great weekend everyone! And check out Fiber Arts Friday at Wisdom Begins to Wonder for more fibery goodness!