28 November 2005

Fresh out. None.

No pictures. No time. No dining.

Not much sleep (3 hours). Not enough people for the tasks at hand. Not enough hours for the people at the tasks at hand. Not enough time to do knitting. (How do people get halves of sweaters done in an evening or a day? Who has that much time?)

AND

No Cheese to Go with my Whine.

If I'm back to the blog before Monday it's a miracle or I've run away from home.

25 November 2005

The Hat Spoke

"Quirky," it said. "Dumpy but warm."

I have a lovely dumpy little hat of blues and greens. I am wearing it even now, as the office is chilly, and I'm just conscientious enough to not turn up the heat when I should really head for home.

I shall take pics in the morning. In spite of best efforts to use up yarn, I still have a little bit of three of the five yarn bits that went into the hat. Not in the mood for a lengthy stocking cap. Still. Leftovers? Maybe I need mittens. Wonder what I have that could pair up with the leftovers to make up mittens. Solid and quick but with leftover interest at the cuffs?

Goodness, how alarming. One very nice little scarflet now has a quirky but dumpy hat that doesn't REALLY go with it, per se, and I now scheme about mittens? Perhaps it's because I have so much ELSE to do.

On the one project out, one project up front, I committed instantly this morning to frogging the Big as a Bucket hat. I shall be reknitting. I really enjoyed that little hat, and it HAS a scarf to match. I want it back, just not as bucket-y.

Tonight, though, there shall be dinner, wine, and sewing.

22 November 2005

Dream weekend date

Rowan calls it a print, but it's not.  But the grey is delicious. 


If I didn't have to sew a million costumy things over Thanksgiving,

this would be my weekend.  I have JUST the cardigan for it.
Image hosted by Photobucket.com


A girl can dream, can't she?

Project obsessions

Interesting to look sideways at the project I've been starting and frogging and starting and frogging for 20 minute stretches most mornings and evenings this week.

I need another hat. I have two, and the one quick knit I adored fell into a puddle and BLOOMED. (Hadn't washed it, so this became it's first wash.) It falls over my face. I wear a large hat size, but this is a bucket.

Finished a scarflet of Malabrigo worsted from mittenfarce and thought the leftover a suitable piece of a quick hat. Not enough, of course, but accent worthy. Add in some little tastings of homespun from soapfibergal. Still shy of yardage, of course. The rest of the airplane sock wool thought it looked nice with them. Of course, it's a much thinner worsted than the Malabrigo worsted. (Both worsted, it's true.) Last night, from the depths of a box sprung the oddball of bluespruce Green Mountain from a cable sweater done years and years ago. This morning I remembered another bit of teal that may be thin worsted, may be thinner.

I have a band on the hat that makes a rib of the gioia scarf stitch pattern. I'm striping it as whim carries me. I took the 76 trombones / stitches format from some recent IK and will PRAY that it fits. Given the relax of the malabrigo, I may be fine.

Anyway, I'm curious to see what the hat tells me it will be.

19 November 2005

Friday night Block party

I blocked gioia. I had a manhattan.

A good time was had by all.

13 November 2005

soup

Happy to report that on this cold, blustery day I took care of me!

Cooked the rest of yesterday's blueberry pancake batter.
Put together a crockpot of a garlic potato soup, to be served with a lovely swirl of pesto. (From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker)
Made a small pot of apple-cranberry sauce.
Cooked up a pot of Cauliflower soup with tomato & cheese. (Moosewood Daily Specials)
Ate little bits of the latter items as well as the last of the ukrainian borsch, some yogurt, and other healthy refrigerator oddments.

The crispers have been cleaned, in the process, with only salady and other fresh things remaining. My refrigerator looks civilized. I have a wonderful assortment of lunches and suppers for carrying to work for the rest of the week.

I'm so proud. Even work this evening felt better because of it. I can actually go home now and knit.

12 November 2005

No restraint

Back from fabric shopping and swatching.

I'm sorry to report that I showed a surprising lapse in restraint, and I bought a small piece of decorator's fabric for a bag. For myself. It was an under 3.00 indulgence, and it will look smart with both red coat and black. I guess I'm not so sorry after all. (Hey. Looking out for the boss, right?)

However, permission is granted to ask me if I've made the bag yet until there is evidence of BAG.

On taking care of the boss

That's right, I mean me. Or you, taking care of you. If it were my job to take care of the boss, I'd be brilliant at it. I do not, however, look out for myself with the same regard.

Last night a body would have thought I'd made a ten course meal, the way I chirped over having been home for a rare evening. I sauted a few veg and leftover rice from forgotten takeout, tossing in a little sesame oil and soy. I tossed a little broccoli in another pan with garlic, a dab of sesame oil, soy, korean chile paste, and a little thickener. I steamed a few thai-veg potstickets - more like gyoza, with thinner wrappers - from the last Joetrader shopping venture.

I put on comfy could-be-jammies. I made a manhattan. I dined. I didn't end up knitting. Looked through mail. Half listened to non-engaging television. And despite the glamour and appeal of such an evening, (ooh, leftover rice!) I actually felt like I'd treated myself. Pathetic, I'm thinking.

So this morning I made blueberry pancakes from some of the summer's frozen stash. I made coffee and drank it from a cup. My kitchen looks cleanish. I have washed the new blue la creuset tea kettle and placed it on the stove.

I am resolved I need to take better care. I can still be excited about dining at home in my jammies with a rare adult beverage, but maybe I can indulge in this more often than once every two months.

At least I was smart enough to pick up some boxes of good soup, and I'll be taking those to work for happier quick nutrition on the fly. Carrot ginger is currently the soup in the workspace fridge.

Okay, back to work. I have to see if fabric stores I used to go to in the greater metro area still exist. These are not your chain stores but the good old fabric-district type places. Wish me luck. We're going fabric shopping!

09 November 2005

Finished Objects, with apologies for photography

Yes, so I downloaded a few. Haven't had a chance to select carefully. In the thumbnails they don't look half so blurry. Looked at the big screen slide show but forgot some of the numbers. Such as they are, here are a few of the knitting bits in action.





03 November 2005

02 November 2005

The Towering Stash

Knittyboard Q: Where do you stash your stash?
Answer? Overhead in the closet.
Pictures are from spring. The tub of needles is now full of yarn. Needles are nicely organized elsewhere. Scary, innit?