Carol's Lunatic Cafe

Got a new Kindle?

2011-12-25T12:56:00.000-06:00

Did you by any chance get a new Kindle for Christmas/Hannukah/Solstice/Whatever? If so, I'd like to encourage you to check out one of my favorite authors: Dani Amore.

Dani is a new, independent author. You'll see that the Kindle versions of her works are pretty cheap, but don't let that fool you; I've paid much more for books I have enjoyed far less! If you enjoy mysteries and/or thrillers, I really think you'll enjoy her books.

No, I have no affiliation with the author. I just like her work and want to read more of it. I figure healthy book sales are a good way to encourage more books. So please, check it out. Then you'll know what I'm talking about when I say I can hardly wait for Murder With Sarcastic Intent.

Makin' rum balls

2011-12-19T18:52:00.000-06:00

Made rum balls today; the b/f's father would never forgive me if I didn't make these for him. Also making oatmeal cookies and spritz. Feeling a little sick from taste-testing everything, but I have to make sure they're good, right?

It's Apple Butter Time!

2011-12-12T10:22:00.000-06:00

Actually, anytime you can buy apples is apple butter time. Which is the same as saying that anytime is apple butter time. But this weekend I decided it was apple butter time for me. I've never made apple butter before, but had read so much about making it in the slow cooker that I wanted to give it a try.

I bought just over 3 pounds of honeycrisp apples as the local farmer's market. To that I added four apples that had been in our refrigerator's crisper a little longer than optimum. They hadn't gone bad, but they weren't crisp anymore, which is how I like my apples. I'm guessing it all added up to about 4 1/2 pounds (a couple of those crisper apples were pretty big).

After washing them and removing all those silly little labels, I cut them up and tossed them in my biggest pot - cores, skins and all.

I added two cups of apple juice. The juice I used was unfiltered, so it was more like apple cider.

I brought everything to a boil and boiled for about half an hour, stirring occasionally, until the apples were soft.

This is why I didn't have to peel or core; my Victorio strainer. I just recently bought this thing, and I love it already. All the cooked apple glop went into the strainer, and I started cranking.

Applesauce came out of the strainer part.

The parts that weren't applesauce plopped into another bowl. This stuff went into the compost.

I measured the applesauce into my slow cooker; I got 8 cups. I added brown sugar, cinnamon and cloves and started it on low. I think my slow cooker must be slower than most, because after 12 hours on low (with the lid propped open a little for 10 of those hours), it still wasn't cooked down enough. So I cranked it up to high for about 4 hours or so. Even then, I was getting a little bit of liquid separation when I put a spoonful on a chilled plate (like they show here), but it was really thick and held its shape well, so I decided it was done enough. Also, I was pretty much out of time if I still wanted to can it. (I just noticed that site says nothing about a chilled plate; I was sure I saw that somewhere. But maybe I was testing wrong. Oops.)

Doesn't that look dark and rich?

I ladled the finished apple butter into pint jars. I forgot to take pics at this point, but I did remember to taste a little bit of the butter remaining in the pot after filling the jars. It was super yummy; very pronounced apple flavor. Much better than any apple butter I have bought!

After processing in a water bath for 15 minutes, I had three lovely jars of apple butter. I figure there is about a pound and a half of apples in each jar. Two of those jars will be gifts, but I am definitely keeping one for me!

Here's the recipe in a more useable form:

Apple Butter
makes 3 pints

4-5 lbs apples, cut up (Peel and core if you don't have a strainer designed to remove peels, etc.)
2 cups apple juice or cider

Combine in large pot and boil for about 30 minutes, until apples are soft. Process through strainer or food mill to make applesauce.

8 cups applesauce
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves

Stir together in slow cooker. Cook for a couple of hours with lid closed, then prop open lid with a chopstick or wooden spoon. Amount of time is going to vary depending on your slow cooker. I recommend trying 8 hours on low. If that isn't doing the job, set it on high, but keep an eye on it.

Once apple butter is done, you can freeze it, or can it. To can, process for 15 minutes in a water bath canner. These folks have some good instructions on water bath canning if you aren't familiar with it.

I went to San Francisco, and all I got was...

2011-12-03T16:48:00.000-06:00

I went to San Francisco on business for a couple of days this week. The work I was going to do was a piece of cake; should be able to finish it up in a day. Then the second day I would go in, hang around for a while to make sure all was well, then slip out early and do a little sightseeing.

They say that no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. I think something similar applies to IT work. One of the computers I had shipped out earlier was damaged in transit, and was unsalvageable. No problem; they have a spare computer, I'll use that! The spare was dead, too; I suspect a failed video card. We managed to wrangle a third computer by the end of the first day, and most of the second was spent getting that ready and testing it.

So, no sightseeing, and the only picture I got was of this black squirrel I saw on my way to lunch on Day 1:

I had never seen a black squirrel before, so I guess the trip wasn't a total loss. Every time I look at this picture, I want to pick him up and pet him.

Hanging in there

2011-07-30T18:29:00.000-05:00

The herbs along the front walk are still alive, in spite of 90-degree days for weeks. They haven't gotten as big as I expected, so there is quite a bit of space between the plants. I planted additional herb seeds - chives, cilantro, and cutting celery - and they all sprouted, but the excessive heat proved to be too much for them, and they finally gave up. I'm trying again, starting them indoors; maybe next month I'll have more herbs to add. My Egyptian walking onions are due to arrive in August, so perhaps by first frost the front walk will be liberally lined with herbs.

Speaking of the heat, the birds have been slaking their thirst by pecking at my tomatoes. So I improvised a bird bath by placing an upturned composter lid in a bed of excess mulch. I fill it each morning, and they really seem to enjoy it.

The cats and I enjoy watching them from the dining room window. And no more holes pecked in tomatoes since I set this up, so everyone wins!

Gardening challenges

2011-06-11T15:18:00.003-05:00

Aside from the usual gardening challenges - this year, that includes a cold, wet spring immediately followed by 90-degree days - this is one of my gardening challenges I am attacking this year. That's the strip of dirt between our front walk and the garage. In the past, I've done the usual thing and planted flowers. Unfortunately, this strip receives very little rain due to the eaves overhead. Since I don't use the front door much, I often forget about the flowers baking in dry dirt between double heat-sinks of building and concrete. It doesn't help that I don't get terribly excited about flowers; they just don't excite me like growing something I can eat does.

My goal this year is to avoid this turning into bare dirt with a few dried-out plants to shame me. My efforts started last fall, when I planted a bunch of daffodils. Flowers that come up year after year when it's still cold outside do excite me, so that worked out well. I was so overjoyed to see something green that I kept checking on them, and therefore remembered to water. But, as you can see, their time is over, with just a few leaves lying about now.

Now we are in phase 2 of the Front Walk Challenge. I've planted a few herbs which are supposed to handle heat well. Starting from the right, we have thyme, then purple sage, globe basil, and golden sage. The golden sage has been heaved out of the ground twice so far by moles, so it is struggling a bit, but the others seem to be doing well. At least, they aren't dead yet! But I still have quite a bit of space, so I'm thinking of other things to put in there. I've ordered some Egyptian walking onions, which sound interesting. The only thing is, nothing I've read tells me how tall they get. I hope they don't look too crazy once they get going. I think it would be really cool to harvest tiny little onions from just outside my front door. And, of course, I'm more likely to remember to water cool, edible growing things. I'll post additional pics as the season progresses.

Thanksgiving dinner on the hoof

2010-10-26T15:30:00.003-05:00

We have a pair of wild turkeys in the neighborhood that hardly merit the term "wild".

Here they are, strolling casually across the street in front of my Jeep. While I think the tom is actually a wild turkey, we think the hen is an escapee from a local school's "summer project".

Some of the neighbors have been putting out corn for them, which is totally eradicating any fear they once had of humans. The b/f is making plans to secure our Thanksgiving dinner; these plans seem to require purchasing an anvil from Acme, stringing lines and pulleys through the neighborhood, and maybe using one of our trees for a catapult. I haven't been paying a lot of attention to the details.

Coming up short

2010-05-08T19:51:00.001-05:00

Since the weather has been warming up (except for today-brrrr!), I no longer have a cat on my lap every time I sit down. This has allowed me to enjoy knitting without enduring dirty feline looks (Hilfy really seems to resent getting poked with DPNs). I'm finally ready to start the toe on my current socks:

There's just one problem - see that little bitty ball of yarn? You know, the little scrap of yarn just to the right of the needles? That's all that is left of ball #1. And I only have one more ball. Yes, it's a 50 gram ball (or at least the label says so). No, I don't have super-long feet (quite average, actually). The yarn is a tad thicker than most sock yarns; I had to go up a needle size from my usual #2, but I didn't think too much about that. After all, I usually have quite a bit left over after knitting a pair of socks. Guess I should have paid more attention to the label; right next to "50 grams", it said "120 m", which I now know is only about 130 yards. Oops.

Now I need to find something in a similar weight to do the toes in. Which I would really like to do without buying more yarn. Wish me luck; something tells me I'm going to need it.

Opening Day

2010-04-22T20:01:00.005-05:00

Happy Earth Day! Today was Opening Day for my garden. We had the ceremonial first delivery of compost here in the midst of the sugar snap peas:

As you can see, it went off without a hitch. You can really rely on Tonka trucks to deliver.

The opening day ceremonies were sparsely attended; basically it was just me, with a brief appearance by this surprise visitor:

I don't think he appreciated my impersonation of the paparazzi, because he disappeared into a hole next to that garden bed after I snapped a few pics.

I had a lovely Earth Day. I planted tomatoes and peppers, composted, mulched, and got a great quantity of soil under my fingernails. I also helped the b/f spread (purchased) compost over much of the front lawn, in hopes of making it look like less of an eyesore. Now it is gently raining, a perfect end to a fine day.

Eeek!

2010-04-12T19:55:00.002-05:00

B/f was outside, mowing the lawn. I hear the lawnmower stop, then shortly thereafter, b/f sticks his head inside the back door, calling, "Honey! Come here!"

I hasten over, and am greeted by this:

A laugh a minute, that b/f of mine.

Lentil surprise

2010-04-11T13:45:00.009-05:00

In my continuing search for lunches that aren't sandwiches, I stumbled across the Hillbilly Housewife's Taco Style Lentils and Rice. I decided to give it a whirl, even though I had yet to find a way to prepare lentils that I liked. They always seemed so bland and blech. But chili powder and cumin definitely aren't bland, and I figured, as cheap as it is, I wouldn't have wasted much if I didn't like it. I did decide to cut the recipe in half, since the whole recipe would make a whole LOT of lunches.

I must admit, I was skeptical. I mean, taco-anything without tomatoes? I was going to toss in some canned diced tomatoes, just on general principles, but then discovered I didn't have any. So I made it as indicated, except I substituted fresh onion and garlic for the powders. I just tossed everything in my rice cooker, reducing the water to the amount specified for my model. Pushed the button, and walked away.

A while later, the rice cooker beeped, and I had this:

Which, admittedly, doesn't look very exciting, but let me tell you, this stuff is good! I like it warmed up with some grated cheese on top, but I imagine it would make a good burrito or taco filling, as the Hillbilly Housewife suggests. This half-recipe makes three lunch-size servings for me of about a cup each. Add a piece of fruit and maybe a cookie, and I've got a lunch that is a very nice change from sandwich monotony.

Reluctant meal planning

2010-03-21T11:58:00.001-05:00

So, I've been doing a lot of reading of food blogs lately, especially since I don't cook, and don't much like bothering with thinking about cooking. Lucky for me, the b/f is quite willing to do all the cooking, but he does like some help in meal planning. So I've been trying to do my bit by coming up with suggestions for meals that are tasty, healthy, and can be prepared in a reasonable amount of time. I'm here to tell you, that is not easy.

At the same time, I've also been looking for ideas on what to take for lunch during the week. Which is more of a challenge than the dinner thing, because if you Google "lunch ideas" or something similar, everything seems to be about what to prepare for your kid's lunch. Apparently, adults never get bored with whatever it is that they're brown bagging. Or maybe they just go out for lunch when they can't face another sandwich. Personally, I'm at least as tired of my restaurant options around work as I am with the sandwiches I've been taking. And it really adds insult to injury to drop ten bucks for a lunch that you didn't particularly enjoy.

Today I made some waldorf salad as something a little different to go along with my sandwich. I've never made this before, so I based it off this recipe. I started with that recipe because the calories per serving were more reasonable than others (some of them were quite high). I dropped the cabbage and reduced the amounts to give me just enough for lunch for a couple of days. Here's what I came up with:

Waldorf Salad

1 Tbl. mayonnaise
1 tsp. sugar
1 pinch salt
1 apple, cored and chopped
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
1 Tbl. chopped walnuts

Stir together mayo, sugar, and salt. Mix in remaining ingredients. Chill.

Pretty easy, huh? It tastes pretty good, and gave me two servings, about a cup each. I figure each serving is around 120 calories, which is quite reasonable. This, plus a sandwich and one of the bran muffins I found in the freezer today should make a nice lunch.

Blog discovery

2010-03-20T14:34:00.002-05:00

This week I discovered Less is Enough, and devoured (pun intended) her Dollar a Day project. I have to say I was impressed by what that woman could eat for just a dollar. There have been times in my life when money was exceedingly tight, and I'm rather proud that I managed to never go hungry. With some planning and creativity, I always had enough to eat. I discovered that I like spaghetti sauce better without meat in it, and beans and cornbread will fill me up faster than I ever imagined. While white flour is cheaper than whole wheat, whole grains will keep you full for a lot longer. And, if you can find a cheap hand mill and a source of cheap wheat berries (which I did), you can produce a lot of cheap, filling food. Buy, boy, this woman has me beat. I don't think I ever managed fresh fruit when things were really tight; maybe some discounted canned peaches on occasion, but that's it. My hat is off to you, Rebecca Currie.

Rainy birthday

2010-03-13T09:06:00.004-06:00

Today is my birthday, and it's raining. But I don't really mind, because it has finally warmed up enough that I can venture outside - sans coat - without risking hypothermia. It has been a long, dreary, cold winter, and I am cheered beyond words to see my crocuses waking up:

So, while I would really like to get out in the garden and play in the dirt, I'm far from sad to be settling for this:

A sock and a movie. Do I know how to party, or what?

Rainy Memorial Day

2009-05-25T13:08:00.007-05:00

We can't fly our real flag today since it is raining, but at least I can fly a virtual flag here.

The rain doesn't bode well for the dinner we have planned today (requires a grill, natch), but it is good for the garden. The past week has been warm (sometimes hot), with clear skies. Lovely weather, but the long, slow soaking rain we are getting now is perfect.

The garden is really doing well; sometimes I sit on the back porch and just admire it. The potatoes are quite lush:

And just starting to flower:

According to what I have read, those flowers mean that potatoes are starting to form underground. I did manage to fill up the potato bed to the top of the frame as planned. Four coir bricks + compost, topped with about an inch of chopped leaves from last fall. Hope it works!

In the past week, I've managed to get the last of the tomatoes in the ground. I left a little space for the cherry peppers that come next:

The tomatoes that stayed in their pots longer are farther along than the ones I got in the ground as soon as frost danger was past, but they're starting to wake up and get growing after the warm weather this past week:

My sugar snap peas are starting to bear; I'll have some to eat soon! But I definitely need more than 13 pea plants next year. I'm thinking we'll get one good meal out of these.

Since the peas should be done soon, I set out the cantaloupe plants in front of the peas. I'm guessing the peas will be done by the time the cantaloupe vines reach the trellis.

That just leaves the corn to be planted. I wanted to do that today, but I'm not going to dig in all that mud. Unfortunately, we are supposed to have rain for two more days. I'm crossing my fingers that things will be dry enough by next weekend. And that I won't have to clear out too many weeds to make room for the corn.

What a difference

2009-05-03T19:19:00.005-05:00

Last weekend, it was beautifully warm and sunny, so I spent quite a bit of time in the garden. Moved compost around, cleared a few weeds, planted some of the tomato and pepper plants I bought on Earth Day, and just generally admired things.

Since then, the temps have dropped and it has rained almost daily. Not that I'm complaining about the temperature drop; the weather has been cool, not cold, which is just fine for spring. And while the rain has made it much too soggy to do anymore planting, it has been great for the garden that is planted.

Last weekend, I was very excited to see potato plants just starting to peek through the soil:

And now, look! A growth explosion!

I added a little soil/compost mix around the plants, but I'm going to need a lot more in order to have soil up to the level of the top of the frame like I want. Trying to figure out where to get it all from.

Last weekend, I counted 13 pea plants up:

I still have all 13, with respectable growth:

I know I planted more than 13 seeds, but I think maybe I didn't cover them up enough. Several of them were showing above the soil after a couple of days, which I think may have been rather tempting to birds. We'll see how much I can harvest from 13 plants.

Last weekend, I planted some of the tomatoes and peppers:

Celebrity tomatoes on the right, Early Girl on the left, with one red and one orange bell pepper. Jalapeno peppers in front, along with an Arkansas Traveler tomato (just because I thought it would be interesting to try). They look just the same this weekend, so I won't make you look at a second picture. They won't do much of anything until it gets a little warmer.

I'm just as pleased as punch with my garden; I've been sitting on the back steps admiring it, wishing I could get out there and play. But working soggy soil is not a good idea, so I will possess my soul in patience and wait for better conditions. At least for a while.

Busy weekend

2009-04-12T16:20:00.005-05:00

I've had a productive weekend. Friday, I was off work, so I finally finished my income taxes. I always put that off because doing the taxes for my business is such a bore. But I buckled down and got it done; glad that's off my plate!

Doing my taxes made me take a hard look at some of my inventory. So, on Saturday, after cleaning house, I listed on eBay some stuff that has been sitting on my shelves too long. I'm tired of looking at the stuff. It's listed here; please take it off my hands!

Today, I got to have fun. This morning, the b/f and I went target shooting. It was a bit cold and windy, but we managed to stick it out for a couple of hours. Then we came home, and while the b/f cleaned guns, I played in the dirt. I'm pleased to say the asparagus is doing well:

I think I'll have some for dinner tonight. And some of my snow peas are up:

I planted quite a bit more than that, though; hope some more will be showing up soon! And I got my potatoes planted (finally). No pics of that, since there's nothing to see but dirt right now. I'm really hoping they'll do well this year. I've never had good luck with potatoes before, but I recently read that they should be planted 2-3 weeks before the average last frost date. I've always planted them well after! If this spring is like the last three, they should have plenty of cool weather to produce lots of potatoes for me. Mmmmm, home grown potatoes; my mouth is watering just thinking about it. It's amazing to me how much better they taste than the ones from the store (and I like those just fine).

Now I'm toying with the idea of buying a cold frame like this one. Not only would it be handy in the spring, but I've been reading Four Season Harvest again, and I have a hankering to give it a try. Fresh veggies next winter sure would be nice. But really, right now, I just want to be able to do more in the garden. It seems like nice weather is taking so long to get here, and I'm dying to get my hands dirty.

The Princess' reign ends

2009-03-25T20:19:00.009-05:00

For the past nine years, this household has been graced with the presence of Daisy Duke, aka Princess Daisy.

Easily the most affectionate cat I have ever known, Daisy mothered everybody and everything that she got near. In fact, the one time she encountered a mouse, she started cleaning it like it was a kitten.

After a brief illness, Daisy passed away today.

Goodbye, Princess Daisy. Thank you for brightening our lives. We will miss you.

What's wrong with this picture?

2009-03-21T15:24:00.001-05:00

Peter seems to think there is something missing.

I don't think that's what I ordered...

2009-03-14T17:20:00.003-05:00

Didn't know Pampered Chef sold ferocious tabby cats...

Swatching

2009-03-14T16:48:00.004-05:00

The b/f has asked for a new pillow to prop his feet on when watching TV. He picked out the yarn, and I played with a few different stitches and needle sizes before deciding on half-linen stitch on size 6 needles. See, here's my swatch:

Even though I swatched, I knew my gauge was just an approximation; my swatch was knit back and forth on conventional needles, and I was planning on doing the real thing on circs. I purl tighter than I knit, so I knew my gauge would be a little looser when knitting in the round. Also, the gauge varied depending on which row I checked. So I took a guess and cast on, knit a couple of inches, then removed the knitting from my needles so I could check it against the pillow form:

Good thing I started out knowing I might be making a full-size swatch, because that is what it turned out to be. I have about 16 stitches too many. Now I'm going to have a frog-fest and start over.

Optimism

2009-02-23T19:07:00.003-06:00

Even though the weather is still awfully cold, I'm showing my confidence that spring will eventually arrive; I placed my seed order for my garden!

I've been perusing catalogs for months, deciding what to plant. Tomatoes, of course; red and orange bell peppers; the cherry peppers I grew last year were fabulous, so those are in; and jalapenos for the b/f. I recently read an article about growing potatoes, and learned the likely reason I had such bad luck in the past (planted much too late!); I'm giving them another try. Going to give corn a shot, if we don't have such a long, cold, wet spring again. And some red cabbage and carrots sound good.

Now, I just have to figure out how to shoehorn all this into the space I have!

At long last

2009-02-16T19:41:00.005-06:00

At long last, my Carbon Twist socks are done. One of the reasons it took me so long was that I got a bit distracted along the way. I was about 80% done with the pair, when I started hankerin' for a good bit of plain ol' stockinette. So I made a hat:

A baby hat, made of Kroy sock yarn. Just a simple rolled brim hat, so there wasn't even a couple of inches of ribbing. Lost the label, so I don't remember the colorway. It took the better part of a skein. Lots of stockinette. But it wasn't enough; I started another hat:

This one is made with tapestry wool. I had a little bit of a gauge accident; I meant this to fit a child, but it fits me! I think I'll wash it in warm water to see if I can shrink it just a little, before I ship it off. Probably to the Cheyenne River Reservation.

After that, I was ready to tackle garter rib again. And now, finally, I'm done:

Knit Picks Essential sock yarn, in Carbon Twist; my own sock recipe. I'm so pleased, you'd think I'd invented socks, or at least that these were my first pair. I didn't, and they aren't, but they are so warm and soft and cooshy that I'm thrilled. I keep wiggling my toes in joy.

I now have no socks on the needles at all. Don't know when the last time that was; back before I learned to knit socks, probably. But the b/f is going to start picketing if I don't knit him a pillow, so that's up next. But I have picked out the yarn for the next pair:

Lang Jawoll 0061, Dark Red. I haven't decided on the stitch pattern yet, except it won't be garter rib.

Almost a disappointment

2008-11-29T12:24:00.006-06:00

This year, the b/f decided he didn't really feel like cooking for Thanksgiving, and I must admit that the idea of cleaning up after wasn't thrilling me. So, the three of us (b/f, his father, and I) decided to go to Bevo Mill for our Thanksgiving feast. We have enjoyed the Bevo many times before: the German food and the Bavarian decor are great! We checked their menu; turkey, ham, roast beef, even turduken (which I was looking forward to trying); all the usual Thanksgiving trimmings, plus some German fare, like potato pancakes and red cabbage; and a dessert list to make your head swim. I made the reservations for 5:00, and started looking forward to Thanksgiving with red cabbage.

We arrived a little early, so we had to wait a short while for a table. No problem; gave us time to develop more appetite! Soon we were shown to a table, where we tossed our coats and headed for the buffet.

Where we found they were Out. Of. Turkey. They had the end of a ham left, and some fatty-looking roast beef. The turducken was long gone. Also no sweet potatoes, no potato pancakes. Our waiter told us they ran out of pumpkin pie around 1 in the afternoon. All pies were gone by 3. It took more than half an hour to get all this information, that essential food was gone and no more was coming.

What a disappointment! Not just in the lack of a Thanksgiving dinner, but in the management who left the panicked-looking wait staff to preside over a nearly-empty buffet table in the face of a lot of hungry diners. Or non-diners, as was the case for most. Including us.

We ditched that place, and went to Denny's. Gave up the idea of having a traditional dinner, and enjoyed their new Prime Rib Skillet (very tasty, I highly recommend). And you know what? It was OK. We spent some nice time together, and that's really what I want from holidays; quality time with family. After eating at Denny's, we went to the b/f's father's house for pie. He had, quite fortuitously, made a pumpkin pie that day, just because he had the makin's in the house. After we had the pie, I didn't even feel like I had been robbed of my Thanksgiving dinner. And we discovered that Peter likes pumpkin pie. (Don't worry, we only gave him the tiniest taste, to see if he would eat it. Sorry, didn't think to take my camera, so no pics).

So, Thanksgiving dinner was almost a disappointment. But it wasn't, because I was with people I love. And because there was pie.

Hilfy seems to approve of the M-D washcloth.

Baby, it's cold outside

2008-11-22T11:25:00.006-06:00

The temps have suddenly dropped around here. It's like we skipped fall, and went straight to winter. I am seriously unprepared for this cold! The weather was staying so nice; I was checking the weather forecast each day to see if I needed to wear a light, long-sleeved shirt to work, or would a short-sleeved polo be better?

Then, boom! Cold weather hits. Unfortunately, I spent the summer singing, like the grasshopper in the fable, instead of working to prepare for the winter, like the industrious ant. I have just this much of my Weekend Sweater completed:

It isn't that I don't want to work on my sweater, it's that I don't want to unravel the first attempt. I mean, that sounds seriously boring. It's much more fun to knit socks:

Another CIC pair (left), and working on a pair for me (now that I'm done grieving over my broken needles).

But I'm alternately scolding myself and promising same self that I'll start unraveling the sweater so I can knit it anew. Seriously, I want that sweater. I need that sweater. I'll get to work on that right away.

Right after I complete a couple more rounds on my sock.

Daisy exercises her franchise

2008-11-04T22:15:00.002-06:00

"Forget about the coffee and doughnuts; where can I get some free tuna?"

Not for the faint of heart

2008-10-15T19:12:00.004-05:00

So, I finally finished my Jawoll socks. Took me a full week just to finish the toe; that dark yarn was hard to see, and when I had time to knit, I didn't have enough light to tell if the previous row had a decrease or not. But, finally, they were done:

After struggling to finish those dark socks, what do you think I started for my next project?

Yep, another pair of dark socks. But if you could feel how soft and squishy this Knit Picks Essential is (Carbon Twist colorway), you would totally understand. So, I merrily cast on and started ribbing. Then, the next day, tragedy struck:

Is that a heart-breaking picture, or what? I had my knitting bag slung over my shoulder as I was getting in the Jeep, when I lost my balance and fell against the front seat. With my bag between me and the seat. I heard a sickening snap, and knew immediately what had happened.

OK, for tragedy, it really doesn't measure up to what I see on the news every night. But I've had those needles for over 20 years, and I'm really sorry to see them go. To add insult to injury, I'm currently out of size 2 bamboo DPNs in my eBay store, so I couldn't even grab another set right away. Fortunately, I did find something to cheer myself up with:

I'm back to knitting little socks for CIC. Tapestry wool on size 3s; haven't broken them, fortunately.

Summer's over

2008-09-01T14:41:00.011-05:00

Summer's over, and I'm feeling a little sad. Oh, we'll have summer weather for a while yet, and it's not like I have to go back to school or anything (actually, I always looked forward to starting a new school year). Maybe it's because we had a casual dress code at work and I got to wear jeans all summer, and tomorrow I have to go back to regular work clothes. Or maybe it's just that now it's September, I know that cold weather will be here before you know it, and I hate cold weather. Whatever the reason, I'm sad that Labor Day weekend is drawing to a close, and it feels like summer is over.

Well, I've spent the summer being a knitting fribble, knitting lots of little things, mostly little socks, with an occasional washcloth thrown in. But now I feel like I need to buckle down and get cracking on some things I'm going to need before the cold winds blow.

To clear the decks, so to speak, I finished up a pair of socks for A4A--the pair on the right, made with some hand dyed yarn I had lying about. I used this pattern, the garter rib variation, only I used 48 stitches instead of 32, to fit the needs of their current campaign for 7-14 year olds. The pair on the left I made a while back with some donated yarn and set aside until someone needed socks that size. Both pair are a little too small for me, so that should be a good size for some teenager. I'll pack them up tonight and send them off tomorrow.

Then, I picked up the socks I set aside way back when, tinked back two rounds (if I had realized I only needed to undo two rounds, I wound't have procrastinated so long), and got back to work. I finished the heel:

so now I only have one sock foot to do, and I have a new pair of socks. Woo hoo!

Next: I'll unravel this sweater and get back to work knitting it to actually fit me!

Totally worth it

2008-08-02T11:34:00.003-05:00

OK, now that the new television is installed, and the HD satellite is hooked up, I have to say that all the work we did to get ready was worth it. It does have a beautiful picture, and watching movies on it is awesome. I am glad, though, that the b/f handled all the preparations for the satellite installation (including sinking a mounting post sufficiently deep in the ground that the house will blow away before the satellite budges). And the b/f is on the phone, yet again, with the satellite people getting our service straightened out. Why is it that changing television service providers is always such a mess? This happens whenever we make a switch; we arrange for a certain service package, then when it is installed, it's nothing like what we ordered. So we have to spend hours straightening it out. Do they do this on purpose? Such uniformity of incompetence strikes me as unlikely.

Once this switchover is finally complete, I plan to plunk my behind on the couch and spend some quality time enjoying a few movies. Perhaps accompanied with a suitable adult beverage to help me forget all the hassles.

Miniature Harvest

2008-07-27T17:44:00.004-05:00

Today I harvested one tomato and two bell peppers from my garden; such bounty! I just had to take a picture:

OK, they're tiny; but my b/f tells me the 'mater was quite tasty! And I do have a more-respectable sized tomato on the vine; should be ready to harvest in a couple of days.

I promise that one's bigger than the little-bitty one shown above.

I'm afraid I never got to plant corn or cantaloupe like I wanted. A cold, wet spring, then too much work to do at work, and suddenly it was too late in the season to plant. At least I've been able to get good produce at the farmer's market.

One benefit of the wet spring, we are having a positive explosion in the toad population around here. It seems I can't walk across the lawn, or work in the garden, without disturbing two or three cute little toads. Unless I have a camera in my hand, that is. Apparently, they are quite camera-shy, since my efforts to snap a pic have been for nought. But take my word for it, they're little, and cute, and I keep encouraging them to hop toward my garden. No better way to control pests than a few friendly toads!

And if my produce is going to be practically doll-sized, I can't afford to be sharing it with bugs.

Worth it?

2008-07-19T22:16:00.005-05:00

The b/f has decided it's time for an HD television. I'm all for it; no more letterbox format for movies! But first, we had to choose a new entertainment center since the old one won't hold the size TV we want. Which was a real chore, since neither one of us finds furniture shopping anything close to fun. But we finally found one that meets our needs, and it was delivered yesterday. Hilfy, of course, had to inspect it:

Since the old entertainment center was being moved, the b/f decided it was time to paint the wall behind it. Said wall had a couple of marks on it, which I found quite ignorable, but I went along with the plan. Of course, since that wall was being painted, the rest of the great room should be painted as well. And the foyer (even I found some of the marks in there hard to ignore). And the dining room, mainly because it connects to the great room. How did a new television morph into so much work?

Painting started yesterday and continued today, and there's more to do tomorrow. All I can say is, this better be one hell of a TV when it finally gets here.

Success!

2008-06-30T21:49:00.003-05:00

I decided to try making sourdough bread in the Crock Pot again, this time making the loaf a little smaller to avoid the problems I encountered last time. I used the same recipe, reducing it by one-third:

2/3 c sourdough starter
2 c bread flour
2/3 c water
1 tsp salt

Except I substituted 1/4 c multigrain cereal for 1/4 c of the flour, so it was really 1/4 c cereal and 1 3/4 c bread flour. Stirred it all together and let it rise until double, then dumped it out on a floured surface (my trusty Silpat), formed a loaf, the plopped it into my buttered Bread n Cake Bake pan (really is a pity that Rival quit making those, but you can score one on eBay without parting with any more money than I did when I bought mine new).

I let the loaf rise about an hour and a half, until it was a little more than double, then put it in the Crock Pot on high for 3 hours. And out came this:

Isn't it cute? Here it is sliced:

I meant to add some sugar to aid browning, but I forgot. I'll try that next time. But it tastes delicious, and I didn't have to heat up the kitchen! I'm so pleased to be able to continue to make sourdough bread through the summer.

Why do I do this to myself?

2008-06-24T21:38:00.005-05:00

I have been crazy busy lately, mostly at my day job, plus a little consulting work on the side. I have neglected my garden terribly, so it looks like I am growing little besides weeds. So, when they started talking at work about upgrading to a new version of Office, and needing to provide training for the employees, what do I do?

I volunteer.

Yup, I volunteered to teach the training classes. After all, I'm very knowledgeable about Office, and I've taught loads of classes before. Piece of cake, right?

Of course, when I stopped teaching for the community college, I threw out all my training materials. No need to have them cluttering up my clutter room any more. So I had to recreate everything, which added nicely to my workload. And I forgot how, as a teaching date draws near, my stomach becomes more and more tense with dread at getting up in front of everyone and pretending to be an expert. I've been reminded of that quite effectively the last few days. I've decided that "volunteer" should really be a four-letter word. And not a fun one, either.

If it weren't for little woolen socks, I'd be a basket case. I finished the last pair I showed off in progress:

And another pair:

And started yet another:

These things have been my lifeline; I pick up my needles and that knot in my stomach starts to ease. At least someone will benefit from my foolishness. And next time I'll bite my tongue before blithely volunteering.

Oops

2008-06-01T15:21:00.008-05:00

A few days ago, I decided to perform an experiment this weekend. I wanted to make sourdough bread, but the weather has suddenly turned warm. As I've mentioned before, I don't like to turn on the oven when the A/C is running, so I decided it was time to try baking sourdough bread in the Crock-Pot.

I've baked regular white bread in the Crock-Pot before, using a recipe from this book and my Bread ‘n Cake Bake Pan. It tasted great, but the recipe was too big for the pan, and the top crust stuck to the lid of the pan. The white bread recipe called for 4 cups flour; I wanted to use this recipe for my sourdough bread, which I've gotten good results with before. I thought about reducing the size of the recipe somewhat, but decided it should be OK, since it only has 3 cups flour, plus what is in the sourdough starter.

I stirred everything up Saturday morning, following the recipe as written, except I replaced 1/4 cup of the flour with multigrain hot cereal (uncooked), since we all know it's a really good idea to change more than one thing at a time with a recipe. Here it is after mixing:

Left it out for a few hours, then popped it in the refrigerator since we had a graduation party to go to. This is how it looked when it came out of the fridge this morning:

After breakfast, I dumped it out of the bowl and shaped it. Does that look like a lot of dough for that pan to you?

But it only filled it about one-third full, as you can see here:

Less than an hour later, it had doubled in size. The dough rebounded easily when I poked it with my finger, so it could have risen more, but I wanted to leave plenty of room for oven spring. See; lots of room left:

I put the lid on and popped it in the Crock-Pot, turned it on high, and (im)patiently waited 2 hours and 15 long minutes. The house smelled heavenly! When I took the pan out, I got the first hint that maybe things weren't altogether perfect:

I could see dough through the vent holes in the bake pan. I showed such patience that I should be nominated to sainthood: I waited the five minutes cooling time prescribed by the Rival cookbook before removing the lid...

and tearing off the top crust. Yup, the bread rose up to the lid and baked itself right onto it. I had greased the lid (just in case), but it didn't help; the crust ripped right off the loaf.

Here it is out of the pan:

Crust could be a little browner, but crumb doesn't look bad at all:

I must confess at this point that I forfeited my sainthood and sliced the bread before it was completely cool. I figured, since I had already torn off the top crust, the point was moot, anyway. I just couldn't wait any longer to taste it. And it was yummy, no doubt about it. Nice sour flavor, slightly chewy crumb (because I didn't let it cool long enough?). I didn't care (much) that it didn't look beautiful; it tasted great.

So, class, what have we learned from today's experiment?

1. Bread rises like crazy in the Crock-Pot; give it ample room to grow.

2. A little sugar to aid browning wouldn't be amiss

3. Bread doesn't have to look beautiful to taste good

No, Yitzhak...

2008-05-31T20:19:00.002-05:00

thank you.

Remembering

2008-05-26T12:36:00.002-05:00

Visit www.kate.net for more Memorial Day images

What a crock

2008-05-24T22:27:00.006-05:00

The weather-guessers have been predicting nice weather this weekend; sunny and warm Saturday and Sunday, cooler and maybe some rain Monday. I figured, great, I'd play in the dirt on the sunny days, and maybe bake some cookies on Monday if it was cool enough. Hah!

This morning was cloudy and gloomy. I kept looking from the forecast to the sky; cloudy and getting cloudier. About a couple of hours after the rain started, the forecasts were updated to rain all weekend. &^%$#@!

Since the garden was out, we headed for the movies. Saw Prince Caspian; not bad, but not as good as the first one. If you're a Narnia fan, then I'd recommend seeing it. If you're not, well, it's still worth seeing, but maybe wait until it's on cable.

On the plus side, I did get a little knitting in. I finished one pair of socks for CIC:

Hand dyed Knit Picks WotA. Love those orange toes! I think they might actually glow in the dark.

I started another pair:

using some Cascade 220 I got in a swap a while back. I'm ready to start the toe, which is what the blue yarn is for. For some reason, I get such a kick out of contrast toes. Doesn't take much to amuse me, I guess.

For instance, sneaking up on cats for extreme closeups while they are trying to nap is a hoot.

It had to happen

2008-05-18T19:39:00.005-05:00

I knew that if I just held on long enough, the cold and rain would end and I wouldn't dread going outside. I just had to be patient and avoid succumbing to lethal mildew. Well, it finally happened. The clouds cleared, the rain ended, and that fiery ball we like to call the Sun came out to play. We've had three days now without any rain to speak of. It has been just lovely.

In spite of having excessive amounts of work to do this weekend, I finally got to play in the dirt today. The b/f is entirely responsible for this, BTW, because not only did he mow the lawn yesterday without any assistance from me, today he took care of the housecleaning chores. This enabled me complete the "work" work I had to do, as well as the eBay work I needed to do, and still have time to head out to the garden. About time, too; my plants were seriously straining the confines of their little plastic pots.

First I planted the peppers; there are four jalapenos in front, and four bell peppers in back (two yellow, two red).

Then I planted the tomatoes; Early Girl on the left, and Celebrity on the right.

Still to come are the cantaloupe and corn. I won't be photographing those beds today, however, because I have some really serious weeding to do first. The kind that requires a shovel. I'm going to be really popular with the vermin when I'm done, though; most of it is catnip.

Playin' hooky

2008-05-15T10:30:00.004-05:00

Well, not exactly. I have to work Saturday night, so I'm taking a half-day off today. It wasn't supposed to rain until this afternoon, so I was planning on doing some planting in the garden. However, it's been drizzling all morning, so I decided to bake instead.

Today I made oatmeal muffins. These are a slightly sweet, wholegrain muffin that I like to take in my lunch. They are very tasty with cottage cheese and some fruit. Very easy to make, too:

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Muffins
(makes 12)

1 egg
3/4 c buttermilk
1/3 c brown sugar
1/4 c oil
1 c whole wheat flour (I used freshly ground white wheat)
1 c quick cooking oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Heat oven to 400F. Beat together the egg, brown sugar, buttermilk and oil. Stir in remaining ingredients, just until moistened.

Pour into lined muffin tin or silicone muffin cups; fill about 2/3 full. Bake about 20 minutes, until slightly browned. Cool on rack; remove muffins from tin (if you used one) when you can without burning yourself; finish cooling on rack.

Makes a nice mid-morning snack, too.

No reruns, please

2008-05-11T21:24:00.002-05:00

I definitely don't want a repeat of this weekend. Internet outage Saturday was slightly inconvenient, but we were planning to go to the movies anyway (saw Iron Man; great flick, definitely recommended). Storms started while we were doing a little shopping after the movie and continued all night, so I was robbed of my favorite weekend activity--catching up on my sleep. It was just too darn noisy outside! Rain stopped sometime Sunday a.m., but the high winds continued--what the b/f calls scenic winds, because so much of the scenery goes blowing by. So, with all that, we weren't terribly surprised when the power went out during Sunday breakfast, and stayed out most of the day.

OK, I'll admit that I wasn't heartbroken to realize I couldn't clean house without electricity. But no music, no television, no computers; aaarrrrgggghhhh! I couldn't ~~play in the dirt~~ work in my garden with wind gusts threatening to send me tumbling into the woods. I swear, if it weren't for knitting and audiobooks, I would have gone nuts. I've really been enjoying mindlessly working on my second patch of the 9-patch afghan:

While looking for more yarn scraps for aforementioned 9-patch, I came across some yarn I handdyed sometime back for a project, which I then decided not to make. It's been a while since I've made any socks for CIC, so I figured it was time for a pair. I've got one made and the barest beginnings of a second.

I really like the way this yarn turned out; the way the colors vary from medium blue to indigo to purple.

I'm thinking a pair of socks for me might be next.

Caution, thy name is Hilfy

2008-05-03T23:08:00.002-05:00

Hilfy examines the great outdoors--from the safety of her doorway.

I've gone too far

2008-04-30T20:06:00.004-05:00

So, I've been knitting away mindlessly on my mindless sock, when it occurred to me that I had made quite a bit of progress, and maybe I should measure to see how close I was to starting the heel. Well, you can probably guess what I found; I had mindlessly knit too much. I now need to rip out about a quarter inch of knitting. You can probably also guess what I did next. That's right, I set it aside to forget about, and reached for another mindless knitting project.

This is the beginning of a 9-patch Afghan for Afghans which has been languishing for a while. Good thing Afghans like bright colors, huh? This is just the ticket for TV knitting; last night I happily cranked away on it while ignoring something or other on TV. Today I measured what I have on the needles; it's 13 inches wide by 15 inches long, which means I should bind off soon and start another patch. Which also means that soon I need to deal with something I've been studiously ignoring.

I have a lot of ends to weave in.

Holiday delayed

2008-04-27T19:38:00.004-05:00

One of the downsides of starting a new job is no vacation days. Last Tuesday, for the first time in ten years, I had to work on Earth Day. It was a lovely day, too; a little bit of rain in the morning, but then sunny and warm. *sigh* We did have cake at work, though, and you could wear jeans if you brought in some clothes to recycle (given to a charity), or donated some gardening gear to another charity, or wore something organic. I thought about rubbing some of my garden's soil into my skin and telling everyone I was doing the organic thing, but I opted for clearing some clothes out of my closet instead. Don't want to seem too odd too soon.

Yesterday was a nice day, though, sunny if a bit cool, so I had my Earth Day celebration a little late. My Tonka truck made its ceremonial delivery of compost, this year in the asparagus bed:

Followed by a good thick layer of compost, delivered by shovel. Then I spread three wheelbarrow loads of compost around in the other beds. What was left from one compost bin was layered with the contents of the other, each layer watered just right. I now have one bin filled to the very top, cooking away, and one bin standing empty and ready for duty. All that digging and stirring and layering of compost was quite a bit of work, although I was enjoying myself too much to notice. Once I quit for the day, though, my muscles let me know that I exerted myself a bit more than usual. And this morning...oh, boy, was I sore! But it was worth it; I had a wonderful holiday observance.

Happy belated Earth Day!

Neglected my chores

2008-04-07T19:57:00.005-05:00

I had planned for Sunday to be my day for baking, cleaning house, and laundry. The baking part helps to make up for the other two. But after eating the lovely waffles the b/f made for breakfast, we decided to go look at some new houses being built in St. Charles county. The fact that we heard gunfire Saturday night just kind of underscored the knowledge that our neighborhood definitely isn't improving, and we are going to have to move eventually.

So we looked at some lovely (expensive!) houses in a very nice neighborhood, and talked to some friendly residents. And we totally blew off cleaning the house. Hope nobody drops by unexpectedly.

However, some things are too important to let go, and right now, baking is one of those things. The weather is actually beginning to warm up a little, albeit quite begrudgingly. Since I don't turn on the oven if the A/C is on, I want to enjoy baking as much as I can while I can. So, tonight I rushed home from work, and whipped up a sourdough spice cake that made the house smell heavenly.

Housework be hanged. I've got my priorities in order.

Workin' for a living

2008-03-29T16:16:00.005-05:00

Man, I had forgotten how tiring it is to actually put in a full day at work. Cuts into the knitting time in more ways than one. First, I'm not knitting at work much any more. Second, when I sit down to relax of an evening, half the time I fall asleep. I find that I don't get much knitting done when I am asleep (although more than once, I still had the needles in my hands).

I can't just blame work for my sleepiness, though; some blame also goes to the vermin in the house. Like when Hilfy inexplicably stuck a paw into my armpit in the middle of the night. Somewhat startling, to say the least. Not to mention the nights that Yitzhak decides to yowl about how much she likes the swatch I gave her. The desire to vocalize this joy seems to occur around 2 a.m. I've taken to sleeping with that swatch under my pillow, to prevent her from enjoying it too much.

In spite of all this, however, I have managed to get a little knitting done. I have about half of a sleeve for my Weekend Sweater:

I like the drape of the yarn better this go-round; the size 4 needles are definitely an improvement. I'm going to take the sleeve off the needles before I go any further, and check my gauge. Once bitten, and all that.

I also have just over half of a pair of socks:

Of course, I tried on the one sock as soon as the ends were woven in; perfect fit! It's nice to get something right. Knitting socks can be a real morale-booster. Just one more reason why I love 'em.

I should probably wake her up. Show her what it feels like.

Success in my quest

2008-03-16T17:15:00.002-05:00

Recently, I've been in the mood to bake with sourdough. Once upon a time, I had a very vigorous, tasty sourdough starter, but I quit baking almost entirely for some time, so it died. I've tried several times to get another starter like that one, with minimal success. I've had starters that tasted good, but weren't what I would call vigorous, even when coddled with bottled water. A couple of weeks ago, I tried Carl Griffith's 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter, which is certainly vigorous, but only mildly sour; I wanted a tangy, sour sourdough! So, I decided to try the San Francisco sourdough starter from this site. I mainly chose this one because the seller wasn't charging exorbitant shipping rates; it really annoys me when someone wants to charge me $4 to ship a quarter-ounce of dried starter.

Anyway, the starter arrived Wednesday, so I followed directions and stirred it up with flour and water (just plain ol' tap water; if it couldn't handle that, I wasn't messin' with it!). I fed it twice a day for three days, then last night mixed up some No-Knead Sourdough Bread. Baked it this afternoon:

I almost left it in too long; next time I'll check it sooner. Even so, when I took my first bite I thought, "Oh yeah, that's what I've been looking for!" Tangy flavor, tender crumb, and a blissfully crisp crust. I'm in heaven. I think I'll just eat bread for dinner tonight.

Next weekend, we are definitely having sourdough pancakes!

Yes, I'm still knitting

2008-03-11T21:50:00.003-05:00

Although not as much, now that I work at work, instead of knitting at work. I was very excited last weekend to complete the first decrease round on the yoke of my Weekend Sweater, which meant that I was halfway done with the yoke. Not far to go now!

After snapping that pic, I decided to measure it while it was spread out, just to check. I measured across the chest twice, because the first time I couldn't believe what I was seeing was correct. %#@! It was smaller than it was supposed to be; four inches smaller. Double %#@! How could that happen? While I had the measuring tape handy, I checked my gauge. Instead of the 6 stitches/inch I planned on, it was 6.5. That half a stitch really added up.

Not wanting to believe my measurements, I decided to try it on. While it was wearable, it was a lot closer fitting than I planned. I was going for zero ease across the bust, so four inches of negative ease made for a very snug sweater. The b/f would like it, but it wasn't really the look I was going for. So, I made a tough decision:

I started over. Looks like I won't be wearing my new sweater this season, no matter how slow spring is in getting here.

But my knitting time wasn't wasted; I learned a few things:

1. The body length was just what I wanted; I'll make it the same length again.

2. The sleeves were a little short. I'll lengthen them an inch.

3. I'll check my gauge often, to make sure I'm staying on track!

My days are numbered

2008-03-04T21:46:00.003-06:00

Sunday it was sunny and 70 degrees; today we got 10 inches of snow. As a result, they closed the office early today, and I got home around 4:30. I was just starting to take off my coat when Hilfy went to the front door and demanded to go outside. Being a well trained cat owner who follows orders, I zipped my coat back up, scooped up Hilfy and took her outside.

I wish I could have gotten a picture of her enjoying the snow, but I was only about halfway down the front walk when she scrambled from my embrace and flew back to the door. I mean, I know intellectually that her feet must have encountered the ground somewhere along the route, but I never actually saw it. As far as I could tell, she was airborne until she was on the porch, her front paws against the door, her tail bushed out like a bottle brush, ordering me in no uncertain terms to let her the ^&%$#@! back in the house.

I'm pretty sure she's going to kill me; I just hope she takes me out in my sleep and doesn't torture me first.

Hilfy, obviously plotting my demise.

Hilfy likes to help

2008-03-01T20:43:00.002-06:00

The b/f was running ethernet cable to the entertainment system. Hilfy, of course, had to help.

I've gone and done it now

2008-02-23T13:39:00.007-06:00

I came home early Thursday (snow/ice/sleet made it advisable), so I had a quiet hour or two to myself. I got out my favorite sweater and measured it for the 4th time (at least); then I measured the parts of my Weekend Sweater once more; then I took a deep breath and joined the pieces together:

I've been waffling and dithering over measurements for weeks, but every time I would check, I kept getting the same results, so I decided it was time to move forward. I'm excited, and a bit nervous (kind of how I feel about the new job starting Monday). I'm really looking forward to completing this sweater. Not only do I want to find out if I figured correctly to get the fit I want, but I really like the feel of this yarn (KnitPicks' Telemark in Charcoal Heather). It's soft and springy, and I think it's going to be wonderful to wear. I'm so excited, I just want to spend the weekend on the couch, knitting away!

Hilfy inspects my work.

The things you find

2008-02-17T17:17:00.007-06:00

I finished the Magic Slipper booties a few days ago; finally got around to taking a pic today prior to tucking them into a box of clothing heading to the Cheyenne River Reservation. I stuffed them with some oddments of yarn to give you a better look:

While looking for a scrap of yarn and a tapestry needle to tie the booties together for their trip, I found this lurking under the pile of yarn and WIPs that inhabit one corner of our sofa:

A pair of socks just waiting for one final toe to be sewn up! I had forgotten all about these; I think I finished them while I was sick, and didn't feel up to the challenge of Kitchener with a head cold. So, a few minutes later, I had a pair of socks for CIC:

Man, that was easy. I ought to sort through that corner more often.

Hard to type like this...

2008-02-16T19:51:00.000-06:00

...with a cat between me and the keyboard.

Last Time

2008-02-09T13:37:00.000-06:00

This is the last time I'll have to twiddle my thumbs at work on the weekend because--drum roll, please--I got a new job! Someplace where I'll only have to work on the weekend if there is work that actually needs to be done on the weekend (what a concept). I start in two weeks. I'll be sorry to say goodbye to a lot of the people here, but I won't be sorry to leave behind some of the policies and rules they've come up with lately.

I'm celebrating with the cutest little bootie:

Sockpixie's Magic Slipper, made with unknown sock yarn given to me by Shelly Kang, when the Yarn Harlot encouraged everyone to bury her house with yarn. I've been looking for ideas on how to use all those little bits of lovely yarn, and this is an excellent method! It took me a few tries to get this right; I just couldn't seem to get the sole the right length so I could pick up the specified number of stitches. I found that if I start decreasing the sole when I have 21 ridges from the cast on edge (42 rows), I am able to pick up the right number of stitches. Or, at least, I think I will; I actually started decreasing after 22 ridges for this one, and I picked up 2 more stitches than planned (1 extra on each side). I didn't feel like ripping it out (again), so I just did one more decrease round. Works for me!

Hilfy pacing in front of the door this morning;
apparently, she thought she was coming to work with me.

Delish

2008-02-02T15:09:00.000-06:00

Tried out the Retsel mill today; big improvement over the old one! With my old mill, I struggled to grind a cup of flour. With the Retsel, I ground about 3 cups and, while it was a bit of a workout, it still wasn't as much effort as 1 cup with the old one. I'm sold!

I used some of the flour to make muffins. I've made this recipe before (the whole wheat variation), and they're quite tasty. But in rummaging around in the frig I came across some applesauce I really should use up, so this is what I made:

Whole Wheat Applesauce Muffins
(makes 12 muffins)

2 Tbl oil
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbl baking powder
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour

Beat the egg, then mix in oil, milk, applesauce, and brown sugar. Add the remaining ingredients and stir just until everything is moistened and well mixed (you don't want to overbeat muffins; they'll toughen up).

Pour into muffin tin (greased or lined with paper cups) or silicone muffin cups (as I did). Bake at 400 F for about 20 minutes.

I tried one as soon as they were cool enough (that's why there are only 11 in the pic), and boy, are they yummy! For the whole wheat flour, I used hard white wheat. I'd like to try soft wheat, if I can find it, and see how these would be with all whole wheat flour (instead half whole wheat, half white). I used chunky applesauce, so there are nice moist little bits of apple here and there. I meant to add cinnamon, but I forgot. Maybe I'll try that next time.

Yesterday I turned the heel on the CIC sock, but didn't do much more, because I was engrossed in a book. A while back, I was poking around Amazon.com, and saw a mention of a TV movie coming out soon with Tom Selleck playing a police chief named Jesse Stone. And, what's this? This isn't the first such movie? Tom Selleck has played this character before? How did I miss this? Who is this Jesse Stone character, anyway?

So, I learned there are several books featuring Jesse Stone, police chief of Paradise, Massachusetts. Sounded interesting, so I hit paperbackswap.com and snagged the first book in the series, Night Passage by Robert B. Parker. I am loving this book! Strong but flawed protagonist (as the best heroes are), suspense, intrigue...I'm really hooked. And the character seems tailor-made for Tom Selleck; before I was a quarter of the way into the book, I put Stone Cold (Tom's first Jesse Stone movie) on my NetFlix list. Can hardly wait to get it.

Can you guess whodunit, Hilfy? No, don't tell me, I want to find out on my own.

It's finally here!

2008-02-01T14:23:00.000-06:00

The b/f and I have the day off; convenient since we got about 6 inches of snow last night. This morning we had a big breakfast, then worked it off shoveling our driveway and his father's. I'm worn out! Which is too bad, since I had planned on spending the day playing with this:

My grain mill finally arrived! I only ordered one can of wheat with it, but as you can see, they sent me two, I assume because it took so long to ship. I'm really looking forward to setting it up and giving it a whirl. I've been gathering recipes to try out; my mouth's watering just thinking about whole wheat applesauce muffins.

But I'll probably spend the rest of the day on the couch instead, finishing up these CIC socks, maybe watching a movie. Not a bad way, really, to spend a snowy day.

Not a pretty sight

2008-01-27T12:46:00.001-06:00

That's how my front porch looked when I got home Saturday; depressingly devoid of packages. I'm beginning to doubt the fates want me to have that grain mill after all.

At least I was able to work on my ILG sock at work Saturday. I finished the leg; now I just have to find my notes on what I did to center the pattern before starting the heel. I take some small comfort in the fact that it won't be long now before I can wear these lovely socks.

I also started another pair of socks for CIC in one of my favorite colors. There's nothing like wool in pretty colors to cheer one up after a disappointment!

Worth the wait?

2008-01-26T09:12:00.000-06:00

A couple of years ago, I bought a cheap grain mill, since I like freshly ground whole grain flour. I did a little research and bought one that most users liked. The first time I used it, it worked great. The second time, it seized up and I couldn't make that handle turn for nothing. The b/f examined it and said things like "out of round" and "metal galling". I didn't want to try to return it to the manufacturer (in Romania), so the b/f fixed it and it worked again, but it's harder to use than it should be.

Ever since, I have been dreaming of a good grain mill. I researched and read forums and reviews and descriptions of parts and designs. The fates seemed to be in my favor when I received my year-end bonus just after I discovered the mill I wanted was on sale. So, on Dec. 7, I ordered the Retsel Uni-Ark Special.

Since then I have been waiting. Yes, that's right, it's been eight weeks, and I'm still waiting. I started out being very patient, accumulating recipes I wanted to try, checking out local sources for whole grains (it's very hard to buy corn these days; perhaps it's all going into our fuel tanks?). But for the last three or four weeks, I have been increasingly antsy. I was about to just cancel the @#$%! order when, finally, they notified me it had been shipped. My mill was handed over to the P.O. on Wednesday, Jan. 23. Since it is coming Priority Mail, it should arrive today. There was a possibility it would be waiting on my porch when I got home Friday, but no such luck. Which is just as well, since I'm working today, and it would have been very hard to leave it behind after such prolonged anticipation.

So, I'm watching the clock hands crawl around the dial, bouncing in my seat hoping-hoping-hoping when I get home I'll have a new ~~toy to play with~~ quality tool for creating healthful foods. If it's not there, I'll probably just throw a tantrum.

I'm going to hide out until I know it's safe;
she's really getting way too excited about this.

More better

2008-01-19T12:03:00.000-06:00

This cold is hanging on something fierce, but I am feeling a little better. I did manage to command enough brain power to graft the toe on the socks for CIC:

Lion Wool, Ocean Blues colorway, my usual toddler sock pattern. These make pair #4 in my personal Magic28 challenge to make 28 pair for charity. Luckily, I've set no deadline for myself!

I was going to pick up my Weekend Sweater and join up all the pieces, but as best as I can tell, I need a longer circular needle. I thought I bought a longer one, but I can't find it. It's about 50/50 which is faulty; my memory or my ability to find it. So, I'm ordering another needle; as soon as it gets here, I plan to really focus on finishing that sweater. It's cold, dammit, and I need more wool!

Speaking of cold, it's supposed to be brutally cold here today; temps are supposed to drop down to 8 freakin' degrees. I have become a total wimp when it comes to cold weather; I used to be OK as long as it stayed above 0. Now, I start kvetching when it gets below freezing. Anyway, my plans today involve staying inside, resting (to chase away this lousy cold), maybe watching a movie. If I get really ambitious, I might bake a little. Carbohydrates are very good for a cold.

Make room for me, kids; I'm joining you.

The perfect yarn

2008-01-12T13:58:00.000-06:00

I am very slowly getting over the cold I got hit with last weekend. That's my excuse for sticking with super-simple knitting and ignoring the Weekend Sweater and the ILG socks.

I finished the socks for CIC, except for grafting one toe:

I made a washcloth (Chinese Waves), although it turned out smaller than I had planned (only about 7.5 inches square):

And I started another pair of mindless socks, since I finished the Wildfoote socks on New Year's Eve:

I'm using Lang Jawoll in a lovely cobalt and black marl. When I was looking through the stash, I was thinking how much I wished I had something like this in a sock yarn. And, lo and behold, there it was! I think I scored it on eBay sometime back. I think it's lovely when your stash gets big enough that you forget what's in there. Then you find nice surprises like this one.

"Oh Lord, she's come up with a justification for letting her stash grow beyond reckoning."

Bad timing

2008-01-06T12:25:00.000-06:00

Today is unseasonably warm, and I would love to do some work in the garden. I had planned to spread compost in the vegetable beds, then cover them up with cardboard so they would be ready for planting come spring. The cardboard keeps the soil moist and holds in the warmth, promoting worm activity while supressing weeds. Come spring, I just have to remove the cardboard and start planting.

Unfortunately, I am laid low with a sinus infection, and don't feel like doing anything but lying on the couch breathing through my mouth (such an attractive picture, isn't it?). If I feel energetic, I may work on this a bit:

Socks for CIC, in my usual pattern, with Lion Wool, Ocean Blues colorway. Yes, these are the ones I started earlier, trying to adapt the Little Sky booties pattern. Just didn't like it, so I frogged and started over. I've knit this pattern so many times that I hardly have to think about it. Hardly thinking is about as much as I can handle today.

This warm weather is supposed to last a couple more days, which I figure is about how long I expect to feel crummy. Is pessimism a symptom of a sinus infection?

Hilfy's happy

2008-01-05T22:03:00.000-06:00

Hilfy likes it when we receive packages in the mail. Especially if they contain crinkly paper.

Celebrating with an FO!

2007-12-31T16:40:00.001-06:00

I'll be ringing in the new year sporting my just-finished Wildfoote socks! As soon as I wove in the last end, I popped them on my feet. They feel wonderful and I love the colors--royal, navy, forest green and scarlet (colorway is called Bluegrass).

I started these some time ago, but I feel like I have a new pair of socks with hardly any effort. I decided to keep a plain-stockinette sock handy to work on when other projects were at a "pay attention" stage, and I needed some mindless knitting. So, I picked them up now and then, without ever thinking of them as an official project. And now they're done, and I'm pleased as punch.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Still recovering

2007-12-29T16:19:00.001-06:00

We had a very nice visit with my family, and returned to St. Louis in time to take the b/f's father out for dinner on his birthday eve. His b-day is Dec. 25, and there never seem to be any restaurants open that day! On his birthday morn, we returned to his house bearing gifts, mostly edibles since he has decided at his age there doesn't seem much sense on spending money on durable goods. However, he got a new microwave, whether he wanted it or not. The old one was 25 years old, and the display was no longer legible. I must admit it was fun lugging in that big box, when he had been saying not to buy him anything.

After the whirl of traveling, wrapping and baking, I've been glad to relax a little bit the last few days! Still haven't picked up the Weekend Sweater yet. Part of the reason is that I want to re-measure all my sweaters to see if I need to add a bit more length to the body. Since this is an EZ pattern, such decisions are totally up to me, and since I don't have any sweaters that fit me exactly as I want this one to, there is a bit of guess-work involved. The rest of the reason I've been avoiding my sweater is because my brain still feels fried after all the planning and plotting to get everything accomplished in time. Whew!

Instead of sweater knitting, I've been enjoying mindless knitting on my Wildfoote sock #2; I'm about halfway through the foot:

I also started a pair of socks for CIC, based on the Little Sky booties from New Pathways for Sock Knitters. I sized them up to 32 stitches around, instead of 24. Not too sure how they are going to turn out; they seem rather big through the instep. I may end up frogging these:

But it has been nice to take it easy and not think too much. My brain is tired.

Yes, Yitzhak, you can relax now. We're home.

Home Alone

2007-12-22T08:46:00.000-06:00

My Weekend Sweater is at an exciting point; it is nearly ready to have all its pieces joined together. But I'm visiting my family, and I didn't think it would make a good travel project, so it is languishing home alone.

Also home alone are the vermin, but not for lack of trying. First, Yitzhak tried to sneak into the suitcase:
Then, Hilfy tried to stow away:
Princess Daisy seemed to think such antics are beneath her:
I really hope they aren't trashing the house.

Work and poetry

2007-12-15T13:02:00.000-06:00

As planned, I'm working on my sleeve at work today. The office is as quiet as a tomb, so I should be able to get a nice bit done. After a while, I think I'll take a break and enter the reward codes from those Coke caps. That is, if the snow holds off. We got a little last night and this morning, just an inch or so. Nothing to give me any trouble driving to work. But we're supposed to get more today and tonight, with a total accumulation of 6-8 inches. If it starts snowing in earnest, I'm gonna blow this popsicle stand.

The b/f is, apparently, somewhat at loose ends today (poor man--he doesn't knit). When he finds himself with time to kill, he tends to clean. Usually the kitchen, and you can bet money there will be bleach involved (operating rooms should be as sanitized as our kitchen when he's done with it). The cats seem to like the smell of bleach for some reason; if he cleans up a spot on the floor with bleach, Hilfy and Yitzhak will roll around on that spot. All of which I share with you so you can understand the poem he sent me:

Where are you?
You're not here
Lost
Bleach the kitchen
The tang
Draws a cat to my feet
Maybe I'll boil out the coffeemaker

I love that man.

Mmmmmm....yummmmmmmy

2007-12-14T20:23:00.001-06:00

I've already picked out the yarn for my next sweater; I've been yearning for this yarn forever, and I finally broke down and bought it. I didn't have a pattern in mind, so I just popped over to Knitting Fool and asked "How many skeins?" The Fool recommended 8, so I bought 9 to be safe.

How about an extreme closeup?

It's so soft and wonderfully squishy; I can hardly wait to be able to wear it. If it was in hanks instead of center-pull skeins, I'd probably walk around the house with it draped over my shoulders.

I was looking at the aforementioned issue of Knit 'n Style, and my eye was caught by this pattern:

Not because I liked the sweater, but because it is knit from the top down. That's the direction I want to go in for my next sweater, so I was looking at the instructions, and wondering if I could substitute my yummy, plummy, Silk 'n' Wool. It would be a tough conversion, since the pattern uses a gauge of 8 stitches = 4 inches, and my yarn recommends 19 stitches = 4 inches. I was doing some ciphering, when I noticed something. Checked a few numbers...aha! They used Elizabeth's Percentage System! Well, shoot, I don't need a pattern for this; what was I thinking? I'll just refer to EZ and use the yarn I want with the gauge I want. After all, it's just a raglan sweater with a simple rolled edge for the neck, cuffs and hem. EZ generally worked from the hem up, but she did cover top down construction in Spun Out #7. Once again, I'm glad I sprang for all the Spun Out designs; they just keep coming in handy.

So, my second sweater is poised in the starting gate...ready to start any time...but I have to finish the first one first! Well, I suppose I don't have to, but I want to, so I can evaluate decisions I made about length and width. I have to work Saturday, so I hope to make some progress on those sleeves.

False Advertising

2007-12-11T17:31:00.000-06:00

So, I bought this issue of Knit 'n Style because the cover promised an interview with the Yarn Harlot. What a disappointment! Apparently the article's author had a phone conversation with the Harlot, because there is a one-sentence quote from her. Otherwise, the rest of the article is a synopsis of her latest book and a few high points from her blog. Um, already read that, thanks anyway.

At least I did get some laughs from some of the "39 New Projects for the New Year". This one looks like it would make a very nice horse blanket:

This actually would probably be very cute if they didn't use such a fuzzy yarn. If it weren't for the name, you'd never know there was a cable there:

Can someone tell me why this woman is wearing an afghan?

OK, I'll quit being so catty now. I don't want to give the impression that there isn't anything worthwhile in this issue. It's just that most of the projects that I like are short-sleeve cotton sweaters suitable for spring. Right now, I'm all about the wool; it's cold outside! I have one sleeve almost done on my Weekend Sweater, and about half an inch of cuff complete of the other sleeve. Unfortunately, I left that cuff at work, so I can't work on it tonight. Grrrr. Guess I'll start a pair of socks for CIC; I haven't made anything for them for a while.

Cake and cold weather

2007-12-08T17:07:00.000-06:00

Thursday was the b/f's birthday. We both took the day off work and lazed around all day, which I think is a fine way to celebrate. In the afternoon we went to his father's house, where there were presents:

and cake:

Even Peter had a little cake, although he wasn't allowed any of the chocolate icing:

We also took off Friday, since it seemed silly to go to work for one day before the weekend. So today is my third day off in a row, and I could seriously get used to this life. Especially since the weather has been ugly and cold and wet; I've been very happy to stay inside. I've been working on my Weekend Sweater; the body is ready for the sleeves to be added, so I've started one sleeve:

I plan for the sleeves to be my carry-around project for a while, to speed the project along a bit. With this cold weather, I seriously need another sweater or three. Times like this I wish I could knit faster. Because, really, I could use some more wool socks, too.

Multigrain rolls recipe

2007-12-05T14:34:00.000-06:00

Debbie asked for my recipe for the rolls I showed off recently. This is just a variation of the b/f's favorite white bread recipe. I made the dough in my bread machine, but it could be done by hand as well.

1/3 c multigrain cereal (I used Bob's Red Mill Organic 6-grain Cereal)
1/2 c boiling water

Pour boiling water over cereal; cover and let sit for about half an hour. Then dump it into the bread machine pan and add the following:

1/2 c milk, warmed (I don't know what temperature it is, I just nuke it for 30 seconds)
1 tbl lemon juice (you can use vinegar if you don't have lemon juice)
3 tbl olive oil (or other oil, or butter)
1 tbl honey (or sugar, but I find honey makes the bread rise just a little higher)
2 2/3 c bread flour (I prefer King Arthur)
1/2 tsp diastalic malt (not absolutely necessary, but it does make the bread a little fluffier)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast

Mix on dough cycle. Of course, watch it the first 5 minutes or so to make sure it is the right consistency. Add a little liquid or flour, if needed, to get it just right. When done, remove from pan and cut dough into 12 equal sections. I pat the dough into a circle, then cut into fourths, then cut each fourth into thirds. Keeps the sizes pretty uniform. Roll each section into a ball, and place on greased cookie sheet about an inch apart.

Now it's time to let the rolls complete their final rise. I have a gas oven with a pilot light, so I put them in there. Since I don't like covering the bread (because sometimes the dough sticks to the covering), I create a moist environment by putting a pie plate on the rack below the pan of rolls, and pouring boiling water into it. Close the oven door, and you have a nice, warm, moist environment for the bread's final rise. If you don't have a pilot light, I'm told that the hot water, plus keeping the oven light on, will also do the trick. But I haven't tried that myself.

When rolls have doubled in size, remove the pan of water, turn the oven on to 325 degrees F, and bake for about 25 minutes. Makes 1 dozen rolls, a good size for sandwiches or hamburgers.

You could also use this recipe to make a loaf of bread; just use the normal cycle instead of the dough cycle. Makes a 1 1/2 lb loaf. I made a loaf last night, part of my ongoing scheme to get the b/f to consume at least a little whole grain.

Hope you enjoy!

A Day Late

2007-12-02T11:13:00.001-06:00

I'm afraid I didn't get my warm-up box out yesterday, which was the mailing deadline for the Warm-Up Box Challenge for Cheyenne River Reservation. It wasn't because I failed to finish up the last couple of items I wanted to include. I finished up the Little Sky Booties:

They only took about 32g of worsted, give or take a few g (since my postal scale isn't excrutiatingly accurate). Definitely a quick knit.

I finished a warm scarf for Mr. Teddy Bear:

I figure he can be counted on to warm up someone's heart.

It wasn't because I failed to fill the box; with the help of a few purchased items, it's nice and full of things to warm up a person inside and out:

No, I just couldn't get my chores finished on Saturday in time to get the box in the mail. So, it'll go out Monday. I guess, technically, that makes me two days late. Oh well, even if I missed the challenge, it will still be put to good use.

Now that that's done, I'm returning to knitting for me, since the weather is cold and I want more wool! I'm working today, but I brought along ILG Sock #2. I've downloaded a new audio book, Trent's Last Case by E.C. Bentley. If things continue as quiet as they have been so far, I should make some nice progress.

Wish me luck!

Peace Process

2007-12-01T22:46:00.000-06:00

I don't know how things are going in Annapolis, but the peace process has had a big breakthrough here.

Until now, I thought we were doing well when these two managed to tolerate each other, with only occasional episodes when the fact that one continued to draw breath was unbearable to the other. So you can imagine my surprise when I discovered them not only sharing a chair (my chair, natch), but in actual, physical contact with each other. Without any bloodletting.

I'm hoping this is a good omen. Can world peace be far behind?

Finally Did It

2007-11-25T16:26:00.001-06:00

I ripped ILG Sock #2 to before the first mistake. Took me 6 weeks to work up the nerve to rip 12 rounds. But, today I finally did it! Now I'm going to carefully note the modifications on the paper copy of the instructions that I carry about with me so Sock #2 will match Sock #1. It's such a relief to have finally done this; it's been nagging at me since I discovered the mistake. I hate having unpleasant tasks hanging over me; you'd think I'd quit procrastinating just so I didn't have to think about it any more, but somehow it doesn't work that way.

Now, I've heard it said that a glass of wine is a good way to recover from an experience like this. Unfortunately, I don't care for wine. But I do have something to make me feel better:

A big pan of homemade rolls. Tonight's dinner will be leftover turkey sandwiches on these tasty-looking rolls. With stuffing, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Then maybe another roll for dessert. Ah, carbs--is there anything better?

Celebrating Caturday with an FO

2007-11-24T14:45:00.000-06:00

I finished up the last three rounds of the socks for Cheyenne River:

They didn't turn out baby-sized after all; they're big enough to fit a toddler, which is what I was aiming for. Sure did look tiny when I started them! The next pair will be baby-sized, though:

I bought Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters and I'm making the Little Sky learning sock. This book is wild; talk about turning sock knitting on its ear! I love the look of having the gussets on top of the foot; looking forward to trying it out in a sock sized for me so I can see what it feels like. I foresee lots of little socks in my future as I try out all the new ways of shaping woolly foot coverings.

In other news, the b/f found a Caturday video online and wanted me to post it, so here it is for your viewing pleasure:

Add to My Profile More Videos

Happy Caturday!

Groan

2007-11-22T21:19:00.000-06:00

I'm as stuffed as our turkey was.

The b/f & I had his father over for Thanksgiving. We had a very nice feast for the three of us--the cutest little turkey I ever saw, and all the trimmings that we like. The b/f's father made the pumpkin pie; he has a wonderful light touch with pie crust. I ate too much, but wish I could have eaten more, it was so delicious! I console myself with thoughts of leftovers waiting to be enjoyed tomorrow.

Then I called my brother and talked with him and my nephew, who is home from Army training. He joined up a few months ago, finished basic and is now going through specialized training. He is doing very well, and I am so relieved. I was worried when he decided to enlist, not because I didn't think he could do it, but because the military life doesn't agree with everyone. But it seems to agree with him, and I'm so proud!

My father was injured in a fall recently (that sort of thing happens when you are 88 years old), and has been in a nursing home recovering for a couple of weeks. But mom was able to "spring him" for the day, so they could join my brother's family for Thanksgiving. Dad is doing well, and should be able to leave the nursing home soon.

So, I have much to be thankful for. Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was as fine as mine!

So close

2007-11-21T20:06:00.000-06:00

So, I finished up the hat:

There isn't enough for another hat like I hoped (only about 60 yards left), so I'm trying to think of something to make with 60 yards of worsted.

I got within 3 rounds of finishing the sock before I ran out of yarn:

This isn't a crisis or anything, because I have another skein, but doesn't it just seem silly to run out of yarn with just 3 rounds to go? Like, if the yarn really wanted to, it could be long enough to complete the sock. If it just had a little ambition. *sigh*

I've been amusing myself dyeing up little bitty skeins in bright colors for the blanket.

Way back when, I was gifted with a huge pile of tapestry wool by a generous knitter. Some of the skeins are white or cream-colored, so I've been dyeing them up into little hanks of gaudiness.

Dyeing yarn is so much fun! You mix up some dye, then you add your yarn, and you wait. Eventually, you find out if the colors turned out anything like what you had in mind. Sometimes, I don't really have a goal in mind, I just try out ideas to see what they look like. I am often surprised; usually pleasantly. Yarn can give joy in so many ways, can't it?

Growing on me

2007-11-17T16:04:00.000-06:00

When I first started this hat, I didn't like how the yarn looked with my favorite hat pattern. However, after working a bit more, it started to grow on me. Now, I'm about 1.5 sections from completion, and most of the time I like it. I may have enough yarn left when I'm done for a second hat; if so, I plan to make a simple roll-brim hat so I can see how it looks when worked in a more conventional direction.

Now, this I've liked since I started it:

The plan is to eventually put together a 9-patch blanket like this one. I love the riot of color, and the fact that I've found a use for all those leftover bits of yarn, as well as some of the tapestry yarn I was gifted with some time back. Whenever I need some cheering up, I spread this out and pet it a little bit.

Tomorrow, I have to work. Since I have about five minutes' worth of work to do and an 8-hour day to fill, guess how I'll be spending my time? Got it in one--knitting! If I have to give up my Sunday, at least I'll have some FOs to show for it.

Hilfy, queen of the quizzical expression

Lazy Day

2007-11-10T23:07:00.000-06:00

Hilfy lounging on her favorite spot on the sofa.

Wool, glorious wool

2007-11-07T14:24:00.000-06:00

The dorm boots are done, ready for their bath and then to be added to the Warm Up Box for Cheyenne River Reservation. These were made with Peace Fleece Rugged Yarn in Bedouin Blue--took less than 1 skein. I expected this yarn to be rough, since they recommend it as a rug yarn. My only experience with rug yarn has been Aunt Lydia's rug yarn, which is just slightly less scratchy than fiberglass. But this yarn wasn't scratchy at all; not as soft as merino, of course, but I wouldn't hesitate to pop them on my feet. In fact, if I could wear them, I would be sorely tempted not to send them off! I'm really looking forward to seeing how they feel after a nice washing.

I've started a pair of socks for The Box, using my standard 32-stitch sock pattern. I plan on doing the Sherman heel, though, instead of the usual flap-n-gusset heel. This yarn is a light worsted, thinner than the Fisherman's Wool I usually use, so they'll probably be baby-sized. I wish I could remember where I got this yarn; it's so soft! It's superwash wool, and I'd love some socks made with this yarn for my own self. I thought I got it from Herrschner's, but if I did, they don't have it any more. Bummer.

I've been playing around a little with the dyepot (actually, the dye-Crock-Pot), and made this:

I mistakenly set the Crock-Pot on high and it started to boil (eek!). I was sure this would be a felted mass, but it turned out fine. It was just regular wool, not superwash or anything-whew!

Here it is wound into a ball. It came out a little darker than I intended, but I'm sure someone will like the colors. I plan to make another hat to go into The Box. Looking forward to seeing how this knits up.

Our weather has turned cold, and I am loving my wool socks, and thinking how much I need to make more (and in colors that I can actually wear with my work clothes). Pretty soon, I'm sure I'll get up the nerve to fix the error in my ILG socks so I can get back to work on them. After all, I could have ripped out the whole thing & reknit it by now! Just have to screw my courage to the sticking point.

Pretty soon.

Aren't these cute?

2007-11-03T11:25:00.000-05:00

I made these dorm boots using this pattern, except I worked the garter stitch sole on two needles, then switched to DPNs and worked in the round for the remainder. I also used thicker yarn, so even though I made the X-Small size, the sole is 8 inches long, and they are almost big enough for me! These will go into the warm-up box headed for the Cheyenne River Reservation.

I enjoyed this pattern so much that I wanted to try some mods that I have in mind. But first, I wanted to make the "classic" version, so I could better evaluate the advantages of any mods. I used this pattern, modified for my thicker yarn (Peace Fleece MidEast/Maine Island yarn at about 4 st/inch). Today at work, I bound off the first one:

I didn't quite get the modification right for my yarn, because this one measures about 8" long also! I was using US size 8 needles, which really was a little too tight; my wrists and arms were sore after knitting for a while. After making the mate for this one, I'll try it on size 9 needles and see what I get.

One thing I noticed about the two-needle version, is that the decreases don't look as nice. Here is a close up of the left side of the boot:

And here is the right side:

Those ugly stitches that break the decrease line are the ssp decreases. OK, probably no one but a knitter would notice the difference between the smooth decrease line on the left and the jagged one on the right, but I still don't like it.

I do like the looks of the garter stitch cuff better than the ribbed one. I know I could do garter stitch in the round also, but it just seems wrong, somehow. After all, worked flat, garter stitch is the easiest stitch in the world. It offends my tender sensibilities to complicate it so it can be worked in the round. I may have to steel myself to overcome my reluctance; the more I look at that cuff, the cuter it looks to me. Right now, however, I am going to cast on for the mate to the slipper above, and get a little more knitting done on the clock.

Hilfy guarding my coat

Little by little

2007-10-31T18:49:00.000-05:00

The box for Cheyenne River Reservation is filling up little by little. The 11th-hour hat is all dry and ready to go:

And today I picked up a fleece throw on sale, that I thought would make a nice lap robe for the elders. The box isn't looking quite so yawningly empty any more:

But there is still a lot of room for more warm stuff! I might sneak a toy in there, as well; I don't think they'll mind. ;)

Changing Colors

2007-10-27T19:41:00.000-05:00

The leaves on the trees are starting to change colors. Since we had such a dry summer, the weather guessers say the colors won't be spectactular this year, but they're still beautiful to my eyes. I love the fact that this is the view from my back door.

Today, much of my time was spent on the couch (cat on lap), watching TV and knitting (with occasional breaks to sit on the back porch and enjoy the view). The toe-up socks are done and bathed, and I must say I am quite happy with them.

I used Grumperina's bindoff, and it is quite stretchy. I tested it by pulling these socks on over my feet, and while the socks are nowhere large enough for me, the cuff stretched enough to go over my heel.

Speaking of heels, here's a closeup of the Sherman heel. I cranked up the brightness and contrast, so you'd have a chance of seeing it:

Very nice, and no holes this time!

These socks are #3 of the Magic 28. They will be going to Afghans for Afghans, so my box still has just one lonely hat in it. However, I finished the 11th hour hat today, and gave it a bath. Once it's dry, I'll snap a pic and then the box will have two hats! I'm feeling just a wee bit worried about my ability to fill that big box in time.

I started a pair of child's slippers today, using this pattern. Boy, it's a fast knit! I'm almost done with slipper #1. I'm thinking about making a pair in my size, so I can test some ideas for slight modifications. I would really like to not have any seams to sew when I'm done. We'll see what I can come up with.

Hilfy, back when she was a cute little kitten.

Beautiful Day

2007-10-24T13:10:00.000-05:00

It's a beautiful day; sunny and clear, albeit chilly. Wouldja look at that sky? Even better, I have today off. I've been knitting and reading and petting cats, but pretty soon I have to change out of my comfy clothes into something I can be seen in public in and go run some errands. I'm going to go for a bit of a walk first, though, to enjoy the sunshine.

Speaking of knitting, it's Wednesday; let's look at some WIPs, shall we?

I'm almost done with the toe-up socks; ready to switch yarns and start the ribbing on Sock #2. I'm very glad I weighed the yarn along the way; look at that little scrap of yarn I have left. I didn't get the little holes at the corners of the heels this time; either because I took care not to wrap the heel stitches too tightly, or because I better understood what I was doing this time. This will definitely be my short-row heel of choice. I plan to use it in the next pair of socks I make for myself so I can wear-test it.

Wildfoote Sock #1 is ready to have the toe kitchenered. What a surprise to be half-done on a pair of socks I hardly remember working on!

Haven't touched ILG Sock #2 since I discovered my error in the cable. Looking closely at it today, it took me a while to find the mistake; it's just a case of a cable crossing over when it should be under (or vice versa; now I don't remember). Now I'm trying to talk myself into letting it go, but I doubt I'll be successful.

The Weekend Sweater continues to grow. It's 11.5 inches long; soon I'll have to start the sleeves!

The 11th-hour hat looks exactly the same as it did last week. I just have a couple more rows to go before I seam up the brim and pick up stitches for the crown. Haven't touched it since I'll need my size 6 DPNs for the crown, and my only pair is in those toe-up socks.

Now for my efforts to sabotage my efforts to tidy up the knitting corner by reducing my WIPs:

First, I started a Sushi Wallet to keep my mp3 player in, so it won't get tangled up in the bottom of my knitting bag. I was paying more attention to the striping sequence than to the instructions, and failed to increase where directed. That's why you see so much unraveled yarn.

Then I saw this and thought it was an excellent way to use up those bits of yarn that I couldn't bear to throw out, but what can you do with just a few yards? So I started this:

So far I have gathered up this much:

I expect this to be a seriously long-term project. But what fun when I need some television knitting!

So, I finished one WIP and started two more. Knitting corner has not improved a bit, but it's a sunny day and I don't care! Now I'm off to soak up some sunshine to keep me going as the days get shorter and shorter.

Tidying Up

2007-10-20T15:19:00.001-05:00

I'm trying to clean up my knitting corner a little; the best way I know to do that is to finish projects so I can put them somewhere else! So, I sewed up the SWS hat (it's been waiting around for the sewing part for days).

I used my favorite hat pattern and made seven sections. Used a little more than one skein, and it fits me nicely. After snapping this pic, I gave it a nice bath; it is now drying in the spare bedroom. One less thing in the knitting corner!

While SWS is deliciously soft, and I love the colors, it is also about as slippery as Teflon. I'm glad I didn't try to make a sweater with it! I think it will be a while before I'm ready to tackle this yarn again.

This hat will be going to the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. The Native American Support group on Yahoo is having a "Warm Up Box" challenge: fill a box with warm items, and ship by Dec. 1 (can be handmade, or purchased). I've picked this box:

It measures 16x12x8.

Doesn't that hat look lonely? I have my work cut out for me.

Princess Daisy likes to survey her realm from the hutch over the b/f's desk

Too close for comfort

2007-10-18T20:18:00.000-05:00

So, before starting these socks, I weighed my ball of yarn - 68g. Just before starting the heel (which would be 1/4 done for the pair), I weighed the ball of yarn again - 51g. I had used 17g, precisely one-fourth of the total. Since neither my scale nor my knitting is extremely precise, I've decided to do the ribbing in a contrast color. I have a boatload of donated tapestry yarn that, doubled, should be about the same thickness as this yarn. Should add a nice touch of color, too. Whew--this weighing and planning sure beats worrying.

These socks will eventually go to Afghans for Afghans; I plan to hold on to them until they call for socks again. BTW, I checked the delivery confirmation number on the socks I sent to them last week; they arrived on Monday, in time to be included in the big delivery to Kabul and Bamiyan. Hooray! I'm anxiously awaiting their report on this campaign; I hope they managed to collect what they needed.

I'm almost done with the turn-up brim portion of my 11th-hour hat. I'm deriving a ridiculous amount of enjoyment from using my very own handspun yarn, unevenness and all. Makes me want to spin more! I wish, though, that I could get a little "in person" spinning instruction, or even an opportunity to watch someone more skillful using a spindle. I suspect that I am terribly awkward and inefficient, and could probably benefit greatly from just a little instruction. Just not sure how to find a skilled spindler in my area! Maybe someday I'll get a chance to attend a festival and score a class--or maybe just spy on some likely-looking spinners.

First time

2007-10-13T17:16:00.001-05:00

After several tries, I finally did the toe on my first toe-up sock. I'm using this pattern except with just 32 stitches. The first time went quite well, really, except once I unzipped the provisional cast on and got all my stitches on needles, I realized I had cast on for a 36-stitch sock. Rip, rip, rip. Do over. Second time was the right number of stitches, but somehow I managed to drop a stitch and didn't notice it for a few rows. It didn't unravel, but I had closed up the gap by knitting past it, so I couldn't just pick it up. Rip, rip, rip. Third time was the proverbial charm; it's going swimmingly now.

By the way, I don't think the recipient will have trouble keeping his socks up; as you can see, this yarn stands up on its own. I don't know what kind of yarn this is, since it was donated by another knitter, but it would best be described as "sturdy". Actually, it is quite reminiscent of Briggs & Little yarn (maybe that's what it is), which softens up quite a bit when washed. Oh, and to prevent my usual "do I have enough yarn" panic, I weighed the yarn before starting: 68 g. Before starting the heel, I'll weigh the remaining yarn again. I figure at that point, I'll be approximately one-quarter done with the pair. As long as I haven't used more than one-quarter of 68 g, I should have enough to finish. Should. (Knocking on wood, throwing salt over shoulder; know of anything else that will help appease the knitting goddesses?)

Speaking of ripping socks, ILG Sock #2 is having a time out. After noting my modifications to Sock #1 so conscientously here on my blog, I neglected to note those mods on my printed instructions. Oops. Now I'm working up the courage to rip back several rows. Really not that big a deal, its less than a dozen rows, but I'm not quite ready yet. I'll think about it tomorrow; tomorrow's another day.

Yitzhak seems to have developed a penchant for sitting on my knitting instructions. So helpful.

My first lunch with Mr. Bento

2007-10-11T10:30:00.000-05:00

When it's time to eat lunch during the week, I usually pick someplace within walking distance, not too expensive, with quick service, so I can silence the hunger pangs with as little bother as possible. But lately, I've been getting really tired of the lunch offerings near where I work. However, I still want to get out of the office for a while, and I don't want to eat sandwiches day after day. A few days ago, while browsing Amazon.com, I happened across Mr. Bento, which led me to Mr. Bento p0rn. Wow, what a wealth of lunch ideas! I ordered me up my very own Mr. Bento, which arrived yesterday. And today, I am taking my very first Mr. Bento lunch.

Hummus and crackers, raw carrots, plain yogurt topped with canned peaches & a little of their syrup, chocolate and candy pumpkins (oh, and a little salt in case the hummus needs it). My plan is to take my little lunch jar to some picnic tables about 5 blocks from the office and enjoy my lunch that didn't come from a deep fryer or a grill.

I'm ridiculously excited about this; usually I find food planning and preparation terribly boring. It's a good thing the b/f likes to cook; if it was left to me, we'd probably both be suffering from malnutrition. But I've been giving a lot of thought to what I can take in Mr. Bento (I have a whopping two menus so far; I'm am seriously not used to this). I'm even thinking about making some lentil soup this weekend to take in my lunch during the week (don't tell anyone, it'll ruin my rep since I DON'T COOK).

This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

Didn't go out

2007-10-09T08:54:00.001-05:00

All weekend, I was seeing ads for Columbus Day sales, thinking "Does anybody actually get this holiday off anymore? Or is it just an excuse for a sale?"

Sunday afternoon, as planned, I finished the socks I'm sending to Afghans for Afghans, gave them a nice bath, and hung them up to dry. Monday morning, I packed them up and started to print out postage to mail them, when I learned of at least one group that gets Columbus Day off--the post office.

So, these socks didn't go out Monday like I planned, but they are going out today, and should still get there in time to go in the shipment to Kabul and Bamiyan.

Oh, and these count as Pair #2 for the Magic 28 challenge; I have challenged myself to knit 28 pairs of socks for charity. Good thing I didn't put a time limit on it, since Pair #1 was finished back in May. Oh well, I figure I have a lot of knitting years ahead of me; I'll get there eventually.

Radioactive Cat

2007-10-06T13:05:00.000-05:00

Another hard day at work. I'm trying to finish a pair of socks for Afghans for Afghans in time for their shipment to children's rehabilitation and health centers in Kabul and Bamiyan. They have to receive the items by Oct 12, which means I need to get these in the mail soon. I'm using yarn sent to me by another knitter, and once I got the leg of the first sock done, I started worrying (natch) that I wouldn't have enough. So, I whipped out another set of size 5 DPNs, and started the second sock from the other end of the ball, which is why you see a forest of needles. I weighed the ball of yarn before starting and after completing the second leg, and I should be OK, especially since I'm using other yarn for heels and toes.

Speaking of heels, I decided to try the Sherman heel for this sock. I referred to instructions here, here, and here. I must say that this is my favorite short-row heel technique that I've tried. I do have a problem with the corners of the heel pulling at the adjacent stitch, though. I think you can see it in this pic.

If anyone else has experienced this and found a resolution, a post in the comments would be most appreciated.

I have another ball of yarn that is probably enough for a pair of socks, but I'm thinking that I'll do the next pair toe up, with Sherman heels & toes. Seems like a perfect time to learn a new technique, and maybe alleviate some anxiety I always seem to experience when using yarn of unknown yardage.

In other news, the b/f recently bought a Geiger counter. (Why? Who knows? But it seems to make him happy.) While roaming about the house with his new ~~toy~~ precision scientific instrument, he discovered that Hilfy is slightly radioactive. Theories include that she is actually a space alien, or perhaps an early Terminator prototype with poor shielding on the power supply.
Personally, I think if she was a Terminator, we'd be mincemeat by now, so I'm leaning towards radioactive space cat.

Off they go

2007-09-29T14:02:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to sewing up the Noro hat this week. Here it is all finished up:

I think I said before this was Noro Kureyon. I was wrong; it's Noro Silk Garden. Very nice yarn to work with, and I love those gradual color changes.

It's time to mail my box to Cheyenne River Reservation, so today I added care tags to all the hatz & mittnz, tossed in a few extras, boxed 'em up & sent 'em off:

Final count was 3 hatz, 7 pr mittnz, 3 happy meal-type toys, 1 balsa wood airplane, and 4 toothbrushes. Hope they enjoy everything!

I've been sorting through the huge box of donated yarn I have, deciding what to make next. I have a couple pair of socks OTN, but they aren't really exciting me. I've picked out some yarn to go with my handspun:

I'm still leaning towards doing a hat, but haven't committed myself yet.

In the meantime, I've completed about 2 inches on ILG Sock #2. I don't think I'll complete the pair in time for the KAL deadline tomorrow. [grin] Although I know some people could definitely do it in that amount of time, I'm not one of them! Besides, I have a baby shower coming up next week, and I have to finish a washcloth that's part of my gift. Heavens, I didn't realize I had so many WIPs! Guess I'd better get to work.

Yitzhak hanging out where she doesn't belong

Lookee what I found!

2007-09-26T15:08:00.000-05:00

I was searching for a particular skein of yarn in the spare bedroom (really have to organize that room one of these days), when I came across this!

A spindle full of singles, waiting to be plyed! I set this aside ages ago, then forgot about it. So, I refreshed my memory with this article, plyed, niddy-noddied, wet set, and now I have this:

88 yards of two-ply handspun; looks to be about a sport or DK weight. Now, I'm trying to decide what to do with it. I'm not really enthusiastic about pink myself, so whatever I make will likely get donated somewhere. My best idea so far is to find some yarn of approximately the same weight in a complimentary color and make KnitPick's 11th hour hat, using the handspun for the brim and the other yarn for the rest. The pattern doesn't seem to be available on their site any more, but I think I download a copy some time ago.

Anyone else have any thoughts on what I can make with this? Input welcome!

Household Supervisor

2007-09-22T22:17:00.000-05:00

Hilfy ensures the dishwasher is loaded properly.

ILG Half Done!

2007-09-19T20:05:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited! Last night I finished I Love Gansey sock #1. Here are the specs:

Pattern: I Love Gansey, available free on Six_Sox_Knitalong Yahoo Group
Yarn: Cervinia Calzetteria in Tan Heather
Needles: HiyaHiya Bamboo DPNs in US Size 2
Gauge: 7.5 st/inch in stockinette

Modifications: Let's see if I remember them all. First off, I went with a little looser gauge than specified. The pattern was written for 8 st/inch. It starts off with 64 stitches, which are then reduced to 62. Now, at that gauge, I use 64 stitches for a plain stockinette sock. Knowing that the cables would make the sock a little less stretchy, I decided to make my sock a little bigger by making my gauge a little looser. (Recommended gauge for this yarn is 7 st/inch, so it's still plenty tight for good wear.) Fits perfect.

I made the slight change to the weaving of the cables as proposed by group member Lia:

I only had to change 2 rows, and it makes just a 10 row repeat--andthis is
convenient for anyone who wants a shorter (or longer) leg:in row 7, I did
P1, CB2B, P2, CB2B, P1 -- so both cables go in thesame direction--and in row
9, I did K1, P2, CB2F, P2, K1, so it is crossed the sameway as row 5. Then
you just repeat the whole business for rows 11-20. (Though you could reverse
it for a 20 row repeat.)

Not being much for hearts, I converted the hearts to diamonds. You can kind of make them out in this pic:
And I think I made the leg a little shorter than written, IIRC. I got it to a length I liked, then started the heel. I chose to make an Eye of Partridge heel rather than one with a heart/diamond (thought this would be more comfortable in shoes).

While I had to pay attention while knitting these, I wouldn't say it was difficult, exactly. Just not suitable for a distracting environment. I'm so glad I decided to give it a try! OK, I'll stop gushing now. :)

As mentioned above, pattern is available free on the Six_Sox_Knitalong Yahoo Group. If you decide to give it a whirl, be sure to print out the chart and/or graph as well as the pattern. I used the chart, and it made it much easier to keep track of everything. Give it a try; I bet you'll love it as much as I do!

Summer Vacation Part 3, including knitting report

2007-09-15T15:14:00.000-05:00

Still with me? You hardy soul, you.

Thursday a.m. we went to the Costa Mesa Omelette Parlor for breakfast. We make a point of going there whenever we are visiting the area, it is absolutely wonderful! Tucked away in a corner of a strip mall, we found it quite by chance several years ago. The other restaurants I've mentioned are gentle recommendations. The Omelette Parlor is an absolute must-go if you are in the area. The online reviews often mention long waits; we've never had to wait at all, but we have always gone there during the week. The food is fabulous, the staff is friendly, and the decor is fun. Go; you won't be sorry.

OK, after fortifying ourselves with plenty of calories, we went to Huntington Beach (after a stop back at the hotel for bathing suits and sunscreen, natch. Still wishing for the sheep-dip sunscreen vat.). Huntington is generally considered a better beach for surfing, and we certainly got some good waves. The heat wave had broken and it was a little chilly, but fortunately we had our wet suits (which meant that I only needed about 25% of the sunscreen I put on. Oh well.). I really got a workout that day, but playing at the beach never feels like exertion to me, not like the exercise I force myself to take daily so I don't turn into a slug. Swimming, surfing, splashing about in the water are so much fun that I'll keep on until I drop.

After cleaning up, we went shopping at Southcoast Plaza. I should say window shopping, since this is a very ritzy mall, featuring names like Cartier and Dior. However, I did make one very important purchase:

I got my See's fix. IMHO, See's chocolates are the best in the world. Maybe it's because I grew up with them, but no other chocolate I have ever had matches See's in my book. Buying some See's candy is absolutely essential whenever I visit California. I will not leave the state without it.

Friday was reserved for visiting friends, which is just as well since my muscles were protesting Thursday's activities. Then it was time to pack everything up in preparation for a very early departure Saturday. Insanely early. Criminally early. (I'm really not much of a morning person).

In all this whirl of visiting beaches and islands and ships, I hardly picked up the knitting needles at all. But, I did have quite a bit of car time out and back; 57 hours, in fact. OK, much of that time it was dark, and sometimes I was asleep and sometimes I was driving (tried not to do those last two simultaneously), but what do I have to show for the rest of the time? Here's what I took with me:

1. Sideways garter stitch hat, in Noro Kureyon. Done except for binding off and seaming, which I plan to try doing in one operation. We'll see how that goes. This was perfect car knitting; garter stitch with short rows to keep from being boring, yarn and needles big enough that the occasional bump in the road wasn't a problem. Only downside was, it was over very quickly. I was done before we arrived in California.

2. Wildfoote socks. Made some nice progress, in spite of little bitty needles and fine yarn not exactly being the best choice for car knitting (some of those roads could have been a little smoother).

3. ILG socks. Didn't knit a stitch. Not a good candidate for car knitting, what with cables and charts and such. Thought I would work on them in the hotel, but I never did. See earlier references to being wiped out.

We had a wonderful time on our trip, but we were also glad to get home Sunday afternoon. The vermin seemed a bit wary at first, as if they were wondering, "Do I know you?" But by the time we ate dinner (and fed them theirs) and sat down to relax after that long drive, they not only remembered us but wanted to be near us (or on us) constantly.

Yitzhak and Hilfy help with the mountain of laundry.

Summer Vacation, Part 2

2007-09-12T15:53:00.000-05:00

So, Tuesday afternoon we arrived in Newport Beach. We checked into our hotel, changed into our bathing suits, and I slathered sunscreen all over my pale skin. (I wish I could just dunk myself in a vat of the stuff, like a sheep dip. It would be much faster.) We grabbed our bodyboards and headed for the beach.

Newport Beach isn't great for surfing, but I love it anyway. It has numerous surf shops, souvenier shops, restaurants, et al, just yards from the beach. Some turn up their noses and describe it as "too touristy", but I like the more vibrant, alive feeling provided by the commerce and associated foot traffic. And, although the waves aren't great, I still got in some good rides on my bodyboard. The beach was unusually crowded, I think from a combination of people seeking relief from the heat wave, and the fact that school started the next day for many. I was in heaven; the b/f said I was grinning from ear to ear, and looked like a little kid. I don't doubt it; I'm happiest in the water, especially if that water is off the Southern California coast!

After a couple of hours surfing, we went back to the hotel, washed off the salt, and headed back to the beach for dinner. We tried a new (to us) place: Newport Beach Brewing Company. We loved it--if you find yourself in the area, I highly recommend it! The b/f had a Newport Beach Blonde (good thing I'm not the jealous type), while I had a margarita. I wish I liked beer; there are so many interesting kinds to try, and you can make it yourself as well. Whenever the b/f orders a beer, I try a little in hopes of learning to like the stuff. So far, not much luck.

Oh, we had some food, too.

On Wednesday, we drove to San Diego to visit the Maritime Museum. We saw the ship that played the HMS Surprise in Master and Commander; here I am at the wheel:

and the Berkely, a steam ferry boat; here I am at the engine order telegraph:

and a Russian sub; here I am checking some gauges:

When I saw this on the sub, I could hear Rock Hudson declaring, "The one thing you cannot have on a submarine is a torpedo tube with both ends open to the sea at the same time!"*

We also got to visit the USS Midway; I wish we could have had more time on her, but I was really worn out by the time they ran us out at 5:00.

We then drove to Coronado Island, across a really cool bridge. We went looking for a restaurant the b/f remembers visiting over twenty years ago. Not surprisingly, we didn't find it, so we went to McP's Pub instead. We sat at one of their outside tables so we could enjoy the wonderful weather. The food was good, the location lovely; another place I can recommend without hesitation.

Driving back, I tried taking pictures of the freeway at night. The b/f was really glad when I figured out how to turn off the flash.

I love digital photography.

Next up: Summer Vacation Part 3, with knitting report

*Ice Station Zebra, a great flick

What I did on my summer vacation, Part 1

2007-09-11T13:25:00.000-05:00

We're home again from our lovely vacation. I had every intention of blogging while we were gone, but in the mornings I was eager to get to our destination for the day, and in the evenings, I was wiped out! So much for intentions...

We elected to drive to California (rather than fly) because the b/f wanted to drive his special car on the Californa freeways. So, the better part of two days was spent reaching our destination.

First we visited friends of the b/f in Rosamond, CA for a couple of days. Did a little visiting, a little target shooting, and quite a bit of eating. We saw smoke from forest fires coming over the mountains, and fine ash drifted down on everything. Did I have my camera handy when I could see those smoke clouds? Of course not.

I did snap a pic of the sign at our motel, which I found absurdly amusing:

How old d'you suppose that sign is? I mean, how long has it been since it was considered necessary to advertise the presence of a television at a motel? Anyway, I'm sure this sign will be coming down soon. The place is now a Days Inn; this is how it will look soon. They did a pretty good job of photoshopping the sign in the web site's photo because, trust me, right now it is proudly proclaiming the presence of TV.

There was one little feature of the motel that, oddly enough, isn't mentioned on the corporate site. This is the view when standing in front of the door to our room:

Yes, those are railcars. Right across the street were some very busy train tracks. Although, I must admit, the trains didn't keep me awake at all. Like I said, by the end of each day, I was wiped out.

After two days in the hot, dry desert, I was seriously ready for the coast! So, after a little more visiting Tuesday a.m., we hopped in the car and headed out for my favorite place in the world: Newport Beach!

I'm always so happy when the trees start to look like this.

Stay tuned for our next installment: Summer Vacation, Part 2.

Gettin' excited

2007-08-30T22:13:00.000-05:00

We've started packing for our vacation. The b/f got out the big suitcase last night. Tonight I packed all the clothes I am taking: shirts, shorts, jeans, socks, underwear & bathing suit. It took up one-third of the suitcase. The b/f had the remaining two-thirds full before he had put any shirts in! I'm trying to refrain from teasing him much about being a clothes horse; after all, I haven't packed any knitting yet.

We leave early Saturday morning. Excitement is warring with worry that I'm going to forget something absolutely essential. I probably won't get any sleep tonight.

Mittnz 7 Done!

2007-08-29T17:12:00.000-05:00

Finished Mittnz #7, gave them a nice bath, and once they were dry, tucked them into the box where I am accumulating goodies for the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. I'm glad that now I know how to knit mittens, but I'm also glad to move to something else for a while! I think someone issued a hat challenge for the Rez; I seem to remember that somewhere I have a skein of Noro something or other that should make a nice hat. If I can find it in time, I'll take it along with me on our trip--leaving in just 2.5 days!

My list of knitting to pack is getting to be nearly as long as my list of clothing to pack. I seem to be experiencing some sort of separation anxiety at the thought of leaving anything behind. What if I have a minute or two of idle hands? Horrors! No, no, no...must have lots-n-lots of knitting so I always have something suitable to reach for. I wonder if the b/f would mind hitching a small U-Haul trailer to the back of the Trans Am?

ILG - Ready to start the heel

2007-08-25T10:30:00.001-05:00

Well, I'm ready to start the heel on my first I Love Gansey sock. I'm so excited! I decided to go with a basic heel-stitch heel, rather than carrying the pattern down the heel. I'm not so sure that I would like cables on my heels. I should make faster progress now, since the complicated cable is done. The moss stitch hearts (or, in my case, diamonds) and the 2 stitch cables continue down the instep, but the intricate cables stop here.

A week from today, we leave on vacation. At that time, I should be done or near done with this sock. I expect to have a lot of car-knitting time, but doing the cables on sock #2 would not be a good project for the car! Not sure yet what I'm going to take along. Other than the ILG socks, my current WIPs are pretty mindless knitting. Maybe a little too mindless for super-long stretches in the car. Maybe I should start something new, especially for the trip! Then, I could take along my ILG sock (for those times when I can work on it), and my special trip project, and one of my mindless knitting projects (should never be too far from one of them). My b/f would definitely go insane if I packed that much knitting.

Wish I could take this along:

I always miss the cats when we go on a trip. We're going to be gone longer than usual--9 whole days--hope they don't totally trash the house while we're gone.

WIP Wednesday

2007-08-22T09:30:00.000-05:00

For no other reason than the fact that I like the alliteration, I've decided today will be WIP Wednesday. I shall forthwith show off/confess to my active works in progress (no way am I digging anything out of the closet; this is just stuff I'm currently working on and expect to actually finish in the reasonably near future).

1. I Love Gansey sock. Still lovin' this pattern. I'm starting to move a little more quickly, getting a feel for the pattern so I don't have to check the instructions several times on each row. It's about 4.5 inches long now; another 10-12 rounds and I'll think about starting the heel.

2. Mindless knitting socks; Wildfoote in Bluegrass colorway. I started these a while back so I had something to grab when other projects were at a "pay attention" spot, and I needed something for TV knitting and the like. Not sure exactly when I started them, but I'm really rather surprised how far I have gotten with knitting a few rows now and then. I figure that someday they'll actually be done, and I'll feel like I magically conjured up a pair of handknit socks without any concious effort.

3. Weekend sweater. I actually forgot about this for a few days when I got obsessed with the ILG socks. (So unusual, for a knitter to be obsessed!) Just started the 3rd skein; it's about 7 inches long. I'm able to work on it for longer periods of time now without my arm hurting; don't know if I found a better position or the muscles in question are getting stronger (hope I don't end up with a weirdly muscular right forearm).

4. Mittnz #7. Inching along, bit by bit.

There you have it! I'm off work today, and I had planned to enjoy some knitting. However, as the day drew closer, more and more chores and errands popped up, and it always seemed like today would be just the perfect day to take care of them. Now it looks like I'll be running around all day and won't get to knit until after dinner. *sigh* I'd probably have more knitting time if I went in to work. Note to self: be sure to buy a lottery ticket today (imagine the stash I'd have then!)

I heart Gansey

2007-08-18T11:31:00.001-05:00

I'm still loving the I Love Gansey sock:

I'm using Size 2 (2.75mm) needles and getting 7.5 stitches/inch in stockinette stitch. Even though the sock is worked on 64 stitches, I was afraid that the recommended gauge of 8 st/inch would result in a sock a little too small for me, since the cables would cause it to draw in and be a little less elastic. This looks like it will be just the right size.

I made a slight alteration to the pattern; since I'm not much for hearts, I'm doing diamonds instead. Diamonds seem to crop up in my knitting a lot--in the Girl's Best Friend socks, in the foot pillow I made for the b/f, and now here. I'm beginning to wonder if it's Freudian. I have been wanting some diamond earrings for quite a number of years. If I ever find a new job, perhaps I'll celebrate by treating myself to a pair. Then maybe I can move on to some other pattern.

I haven't found my cable needle(s), but I found a substitute in the kitchen cabinet; a wooden toothpick. At first it was a bit rough and tended to catch on the yarn, but after a little use it has smoothed out and is working quite well. I'm betting that once it has been polished by use to a satiny smoothness, the cable needle(s) I shelled out good money for will turn up.

BTW, tinking a cable pattern isn't easy! I made a mistake at one point; thought it would be easy to fix since I noticed it quickly. Ha! Getting the stitches back in the proper order was no picnic; I finally just ripped out two rows and did them over.

Yitzhak's reviewing my work. Did I get it straightened out OK, Yitzie?