You know when you have a really good weekend? A weekend where you feel like you really weekend-ed as well as you could? For me, this was one of those weekends.
There was yarn shopping in Wellington with the lovely Kate of Rosalind Craft Supplies:
And then we had beer (with knitting, of course!):
We came up the coast and rescued Mr. N from never-ending dissertating by going to a delicious brewery and BBQ place:
[Er, I didn’t take a picture of that … but imagine some yummy beer and BBQ here.]
The next morning there was brunch:
And even knitting for a new project!
In our first real life meeting a week few weeks ago (Kate and Mr. N are university friends, but we’d had some long distance chat about our mutual love of knitting), Kate and I discovered we both loved Kate Davies and Jen Arnall-Culliford’s new Book of Haps and had an especial fondness for the Nut Hap. We’d spotted some yarn – Ashford’s Tekapo 8 ply – that seemed like it would be perfect. A hap-a-long was born!
The original hap’s colors were based on the Nut Hatch, and Kate and I decided we’d base ours on New Zealand birds. I’ve chosen the Sacred Kingfisher. I’ve never seen one in person, but they popped up in a local news story the other evening, and I thought they were just lovely.
My swatch is drying at the moment, as is my blocked Islay and Marigoldjen Socks. A very good knitting weekend indeed.
Also, because it’s Fourth of July and the food content’s been thin on the ground around these parts of late, I have a recipe to share with you! We did a Fourth of July dinner here tonight, and rather than traditional coleslaw, I tried this Ruby Red Salad — a beet and cabbage slaw — that Naomi had found in the Sunday magazine of the paper. I modified it a bit, and it was a big hit! I know beets are everywhere lately, and I haven’t really jumped on the beet bandwagon — I like them fine, but don’t get that excited about them. But this salad was great. I added some carrots to the mix, and went for a more even cabbage-beet ratio (the original recipe called for two beets). I found the dressing a bit light on acid, so added some white wine vinegar. It might be a bit late for you to try this out for your 4th of July BBQ, but try it for your next cookout — I don’t think you’ll regret it.
Ruby Red Slaw (Sunday Star Times, June 26, 2016, with modifications.) [gf, vegan]
- 1/4-1/3 red cabbage, thinly sliced
- 1 beet, peeled and grated (hello messy hands!)
- 1 large carrot, grated or in ribbons
- 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced (pop it in some cold water while you prep the other ingredients and it’ll take away the onion’s harshness)
- 1/4 c. chopped mint leaves
- zest of 1/2 orange
- juice from one orange
- a few splashes white wine vinegar
- 2 TBSP+ olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Toss together the cabbage, beet, carrot, red onion and mint. In small bowl, mix together orange zest, orange juice, the vinegar (I didn’t measure how much I used, so start with a teaspoon and see if it’s acidic enough — add more to taste), the olive oil and salt and pepper. If you need to, add a 1/2 tsp warm water to thin the dressing. Add more oil and vinegar to taste. Add dressing to the veg, and you’re done!
With burgers (oh, grass-fed NZ beef, you are delicious) and one of my favorite potato salads, it was a very tasty meal!
If you’re in the US, hope you’re having a wonderful holiday weekend! Happy knitting (and cooking)!
fiber and sustenance 
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