Mead Making Part II

A couple weeks ago I posted about the mead that I am brewing. Today I continue with that process by showing the first racking. The picture to the left is the bucket of mead after the initial fermentation. I wanted to make a semi-sweet to sweet so I added 1.5 extra pounds of honey during this racking. All racking means is to move the brewed liquid from one container to another. The container to the right is the container the mead will spend the next 30-45 days in to continuing to ferment. Now how do you get the mead into that container with out getting any of sediment on the bottom of the first bucket into the next? Through the siphoning system. This system was a little tricky to get working but once it start it was like magic. The mead goes up through the tube and down into the better bottle below. Once the better bottle is filled with a little bit of space at the top the stopper it put in the top and the airlock is added at the top of that. So you get a setup like the picture on the right and the picture on the right is what is left over. EWWW!!! The clarity is actually pretty good right now but it will become a very clear like a white wine. I have 2 more rackings to go before I bottle and then I wait for 4 weeks to 6 months or longer to age. I won't be talking about mead for about a month because this is a low maintainance hobby.

New Bed, New Socks, New Kitty

This weekend Matt and I went back down to Direct Buy to re-pick out a bed, nightstand and TV Armoire. After looking at every.single.book. we finally picked out a really nice all cherry mission style from Crawford Furniture the collection is called Auburn Heights. We now have a few extra weeks for it to come in (it take 4-6 weeks) so we are going to get the bedroom all ready, by painting and picking out drapes. It is actually quite nice to order furniture and not have it for a while, it really prevents impulse purchases. I don't know why some one would have an impulse purchase on something this expensive but still it is really nice. Getting it through Direct Buy was awsome because we got it for a little under half price. The next purchase from them will probably be a bar hutch/china cabinet for behind the wetbar so we can display all our liquor and have a place to mix drinks properly. However, we still need to save up to get the pellet stove insert for the downstairs fireplace that needs some love.
I decided to start a new sock pattern because my Loopy Legend's Wendy's Ferns and Toadstools was calling my from my yarn closet. I started my first ever toe up sock in the Leyburn Sock pattern. The picutre on the left has the best color, but the picture on the right is a nice close up of the pattern. Sometimes I wish I could just get both color and texture correct in the same picture. I guess that will come in time. I have also been working on my Adamas shawl. I am on the 4th repeat of the second chart. It is coming along slowly but I have decided to put a lifeline in the beginning of every repeat. The previous try on this pattern failed miserably because of the yarn and not the pattern. I am really REALLY happy they discontinued that yarn for everyone's sanity. Smooth yarn is really the way to go with lace work.
Last but not least we have a new kitty visitor coming to our house in the evenings, he/she is very fuzzy and cute. I will take a better picture if it would come around in the daytime. It eats our dry like it hasn't eaten in days and sleeps in "Pete's House" on the deck. Here is an ok picture of all the cats being curious about the new cat.
On one final note, the mead has slowed its bubbling. This weekend will be my first racking and I hope it goes well considering I have no.idea.what.I.am.doing. What could go wrong?

bubble bubble

I am home sick for a couple days so it gives me some time to post about stuff. (sorry the video is sideways and yes that is all it does right now because it is boring) I started my mead on Sunday. For all that do not know what mead is here is a great site all about the stuff. The short answer is that it is wine made with honey instead of grapes. It can be dry or sweet and can be very different from batch to batch year to year, because all honey is different. I made 3 gallons and that is about 15 750 mL bottles. I hope it turns out ok because that is a lot of waiting for nothing. The next step is the first racking and that is where I move the contents from one container to another. I will post about this process in about 2 weeks.
Last post I mentioned we are getting a new bed. Well that got put on hold when the manufacture called an said that they no longer make Queen size only King, this does not help us. Now we have to start from scratch and pick out a new style. In the meantime we almost had a house fire because the main 220 amp line that came from the street was arcing in our electrical box. We had to get an entire new box, during this ordeal we had no hot water, but we did get a super sweet new box with space to add new breakers if necessary.
Lots of snow this year as well, we still have 2 more months of this stuff an I haven't seen my lawn in a month. This is the 8 inches we just got yesterday. We got the 4x4 jeep stuck in the driveway. You don't get jeeps stuck they don't get stuck. Anyway the hubby had to go use the snow blower so we could actually get the jeep up the driveway. At least the cats are happy about it, they want to go out and explore the new world that smells so different than the other day.

A few things...

It has been a crazy couple of months. A lot of new things going on in my life not revolving around knitting. Even though I haven't been knitting a lot I still have managed a few projects.
I finished a baby surprise jacket for a co-workers baby in December. It is swimming on her now but in a few months she will get a lot of use out of it. Knitted garments are great for babies because they stretch and you get a longer life out of them.

The holidays are over even though our tree is still up. I was taking the ornaments off this week. I think the cats liked the tree more than us because they could chew on the branches and have a little bit of outside, without going outside in the snow. Speaking of snow, we have had enough, I am done. The lake needs to freeze over so we get no more.

I am learning to make mead, I got a universal brewing kit so I am going to make my own honey mead. I am very excited. When I actually have time to set it up it will be complete in 3 months. I will have to age it a few years though so we will see how well I do and how well it ages.

In a couple weeks we will have a brand new bedroom set. It is cherry with brushed nickel plating. We got the bed, a TV armoire, and 2 night stands. While we are waiting for it to arrive we are going to take down the rest of the wallpaper and paint the walls a pretty like yellow-green. Since the bedroom is downstairs it will be a nice bright color to liven up the space.
Back to knitting... I am currently working on 3 projects, the adamas shawl, the transition fingerless mitts, and the merepoix bodice. Each in various stages of completeness. I am a terrible picture taker, because my first mitt is actually complete. It fits which is wonderful.

Now my other hand will be cold until the other is complete.
In the professional world, am now on 3 projects and my manager cannot deside which project is the most important. I am wasting a lot of time being shuffled between projects and it is very distracting. This coming week is no different. I am sure there will be meetings this week requiring me to shift my focus again. I probably won't have time to post for a week or 2.

Bed is calling me...now! Goodnight!

plurk plurk plurk ... no post

I have been really neglecting my online life. I mostly plurk and update my life from there. I am alive and really busy. Work is crazy, starting a new organization for Objectivist in Ohio. I also still have my etsy shop and I have made a list of new years resolutions that I will stick to because I have a plan. Keeping this blog up todate is not one of them but I will do my best to work on updating more often.

This weekend...

Well I actually have plans this weekend.  Since it is suppose to rain all weekend long I plan to clean the house and then work on filling my etsy shop up.  I have been reminded, pestered, nagged.. or whatever word you would like to put with it by my knitterly friends to put more new items up on the site.  This is my weekend when the winter job comes back into play. 

Stop by the shop in a week or so and their should be fun stuff available. 

Getting Back to some UFOs

UFO == UnFinished Object
I haven't had a chance to knit or post in a while and it seeming like a once a month thing instead of a once a week thing. So I will make this one count.

I have picked up some of my UFOs over the past couple weeks to see if I can get them off my list. I have about 7 total and most of them are ZZZzzzZZZ hibernating. I picked up my Mirepoix Bodice again and my Chevron Scarf. I have about an inch more completed of the colorwork section of the sweater and I have to increase that section for about 2 more inches than the pattern requires. The Chevron Scarf is coming along nicely, I have about 5 more inches onto that. It isn't a hard pattern so I have decided to work on it on Tuesdays when I go to my local Stitch and Bitch. As for my other projects I have 1 sock done of the Noro socks that I have been working on. I am doing that one with an after though heal to see if I like that way better. I also have the cuff completed of the second sock.

I have also been spinning some fibers. Here are a few of my creations.