AWOL

Yes, I have been gone forever. I'll be back soon. Now that I've written this, I promise a proper post tomorrow!

Temptation, thy name is Ben, and sometimes Jerry

You do not want to eat this.

I warned you!

The post in which I expect to become a rockstar and fail miserably

I had just finished telling the Very-Soon-to-be-Doctor Husband that I wanted my posts to evolve organically, but I knew that I had a good story. I didn't want to go to the grocery store yet again this week, and after all we really need to get rid of the food in our kitchen before Moving Day (now November 26!). I raided our pantry and freezer for long-ignored and maligned "food" that we didn't want to move. There was the single can of green enchilada sauce to a half-used bag of frozen mixed veggies from the dark recesses of our freezer. I pulled everything together with the expectation that I could pull off an amazing casserole and humbly tell an amusing story to the blog world.

This plan went horrifyingly wrong. Well, not completely, because Charlie loved it. He even asked for seconds! I'm not sure how sophisticated his palate can be, considering that he would eat cat food if we let him. This became the casserole that tasted like freezer burn, the casserole that was inedible, and the casserole that kept on giving in the worst way possible.

This, which I expected to be able to turn from water (or in this case, more like festering raw sewage) into wine...

A veritable menagerie of crap

Turned to this:

Warning: this doesn't taste nearly as delightful as it looks

Christian and I picked at it for awhile in the hopes that we would hit the good spot, and then eventually gave up and went to bed hungry.

On the knitting front....the Cable Rib socks are finished! Hopefully they fit the recipient.

I have a great gift for making socks look like they're different sizes in photos.

I really loved the Radiant Twist yarn. The colors are perfect and the yarn is the perfect mixture of tight spin coupled with the sproinginess that I adore. I assume that the base yarn is Louet but indie dyers are pretty tight-lipped about which yarns they use.

I have eagerly moved on to Mona's Mystery Socks. I love the yarn more every day:

I am totally smitten.

It's amazing how different the yarn looks at different times of the day:

An artsy shot with Grandma's cookie jar

The contrast between the yellows and pinks just isn't there at night. I find myself getting up in the morning and looking at the sock first thing to see what it really looks like in the sunlight.

Juliet continues to grow a few rows a day, but basically looks the same.

Tomorrow the family starts to pour in for Dissertation Day. I can't believe how quickly things are moving, after months that seemed to creep by. I have a feeling that we'll be throwing stuff into boxes at the last minute. This really isn't a change from how we usually operate.

Well, time to get a few precious rows in before bed. Cheers!

Counterproduction

It makes perfect sense that although I am dying to cast on a brand shiny new pair of socks, I neglect the existing WIPs entirely, and begin new, non-sock related ventures. Payback is a bitch, however, and I believe that my unfinished socks have conspired to jinx any new project that I attempt.

Exhibit A:

This Calorimetry is eating my head.

I look like a lobotomy patient. I assumed that I didn't need to knit a gauge swatch since I went down a needle size from the suggested pattern. It looked a little big while I was knitting it, but I assumed that since it was ribbed it would end up a little smaller. I'm contemplating trying to shrink it a little in the wash.

The socks that are out to get me:

Finished Undulating Ribs

Unfinished (but nearly finished!) Cable Rib Socks

And poor Juliet...

I keep thinking of this color as "Lion Brand Buddhist Mustard".

There appears to be nothing wrong with this (yet). Maybe the socks haven't noticed her.

Toys for evil parents

Actually, this isn't about toys that one gives to parents, it's about toys that are gifted to their children so as to slowly drive their parents criminally insane. Observe...

I don't know what this one is called, but if I had to guess, it's the
Brain Borer 2000: A Baby's Revenge

This toy is simple--it's got four turntables (but no microphone!), and when you push the button (actually, I'm sure that YOU would never push the button of doom, but your son surely will) the turntable rotates and a little song plays. Over. And over. And over. And over again. Until the batteries die and your child then begs you to change the batteries. This is no awarding-winning song either such as Funkytown or Sweet Child O' Mine. I don't know the name of the song (does pure evil truly have a name?) and I won't bore your brain with the tune here. There are gears/blocks that supposed to stack on this toy, but from a child's viewpoint they are completely optional. Anything can get thrown on this toy, and it takes amazingly huge batteries so it can handle the weight. Wooden blocks, cat toys, food, clothes, sippy cups and shoes have all ended up on this thing. Apparently it's tasty as well:

Undulating Ribs grows:

wine not included

And Black Bunny continues to beckon:

Look how pretty!

And I just downloaded Juliet, so I'm considering knitting along with NaKniSweMo. It's less than 50,000 stitches I'm sure so I might have to participate in spirit. I don't know how stringent the rules are.

Houston awaits!

Boo to you!

Hello from my perch in Palm Coast, FL. Charlie and I are spending some quality time once again with BooMa and BooPa so that Christian can work that much harder and be finished that much faster. (shall we chant: THE END IS IN SIGHT 1,000 times more to remind us?)

We spent a wonderful weekend at Disney, and the brainwashing is really starting to work on Charlie, now that he has discovered that characters like Nemo and Mickey exist outside of books and off of t-shirts. We went to a WDW Not-So-Scary Halloween party where BooPa made sure that he collected his entrance fee in candy. Charlie helped, and since there was no charge for him to get in his haul was pure profit! Yes, we all did steal candy from a baby. Don't worry--we gave him all of our boxes of raisins in return. Pictures forthcoming, as soon as someone sends me a good one to post. (yes, I am talking to you, Aunt Kari)

I finished Christian's Red Dawn socks on the way down to the Disney compound. I am in love with the colors:

Yummy yummy!

Hopefully they fit!

The colorway is called Central Park from Cherry Blossom Fibers, and this truly does remind me of the time that Dr. Husband and I spend in New York City in October several years ago. These knit up so fast in sport weight on size 4's. I am really digging the sport weight yarn lately, which is unfortunate since now most everybody lives in a warmer climate. I'm not sure how much play these will get when we move to Planet Houston.

I immediately cast on these:

It is hard to tell, but the ribs, they do undulate.

They are Undulating Rib socks from Favorite Socks. I had to go down several needle sizes to get anything close to gauge (along with the rest of the world, if you check Ravelry). The yarn is the new Kaffe Fassett stuff from Regia. This is the first time that I've use any yarn that has nylon in it, and honestly, I prefer merino over all else. I love the soft and squishy. I'm sure that these will hold up wonderfully, however, and am loving the colors (Mirage Fog).

I'm racing through these since I am inspired to cast on some yummy Black Bunny that I have waiting in the wings.

Cheers!

Sexy Old People

You’ll have to forgive me for my absence. Hopefully the 10 of you that have been reading my blog are still here somewhere. A lot has been going on in the land of Siamese Catfood Breath, the most important is that THERE IS NOW AN END IN SIGHT. D-Day, as in Dissertation Defense Day (should that be DD Day?) is officially November 13 (2007!). We are over the moon.

Now, back to the sexy old people. Things were looking pretty bleak at the end of last week, so instead of sitting around watching Christian work, we all decided to head to Chicago for an overnight visit. Since we are broke, the trip almost didn’t happen after it appeared that we couldn’t get a hotel room for less than $220, but thanks to Princeline we ended up staying on the 18th floor of the Hyatt Regency for $100.

The Hyatt Regency is very pretty and in a great location, but apparently has cleverly disguised rice paper for walls. We had a sexy old couple staying next to us, and although we never met them, we HEARD them a lot. Sexy old people don’t care who can hear them. Sexy old people aren’t afraid to moan. Sexy old people aren't afraid to talk dirty when everyone can hear them. And what do sexy old people do when awakened by the toddler next door decides to get up (and stay up) at 4:30 in the morning? Have more sex! What do the parents of the toddler do at 4:30 in the morning? Wish that they were sexy old people.

On the knitting front, I have finished the cloud bolero and Charlie’s vest. My Sea Lettuce Scarf has been attempted and frogged once again and some mystery knitting are in progress. I leave you with a snapshot of my only souvenir, a skein of yarn bought at a Chicago store whose name is escaping me:

Conjoined Creations, color Clue, soy silk lace

I think that this would make a very pretty Storm Water Scarf. I love patterns that you can just knit until the end, and not have to worry about running out of yarn.

Cheers!

Sweaty sweaty knitting

The Chelsea Fleece Fair was, as always, a huge success. I am proud of myself because I only went over $15 of the budget that I had set. I picked up 4 different kinds of handspun, more than enough to make at least one garment for everyone in the family. I immediately cast on this:

After some discussion on Ravelry with Houston knitters, I decided that I needed a layering piece for the Houston ‘winter’. This is the Cloud Bolero, but instead of keeping it bolero length, I’m going to keep knitting until I run out of yarn (my favorite thing to do) and make it vest length (hopefully), much like this one.

I have had a lot of difficulty maintaining my interest on this particular project for the past 2 days, not because it isn’t turning out great, which it is, but because suddenly we are in the mid 80’s again, and it is too HOT to knit chunky wool and mohair! I forced myself to do several rows yesterday despite the heat, but I’ve also been casting about for a pair of socks to work on in the interim.

I’ve cast on and frogged two pairs, and am now selecting a third. Hopefully the yarn/pattern combination will work this time. I won’t show them because they might be Christmas socks, I haven’t decided yet. I can show you Charlie’s newest pair, covered in Siamese catfood breath:

My cat's breath smells like, well, garbage, to be honest.

My goal was use up all of my Sundara Sock yarn, and I still have 2 tiny balls left. I’m determined not to let an inch of this gorgeous stuff go to waste.

I’ll leave you with last night’s dinner—Stir-Fried Broccoli, Mushrooms, and Peppers with Carmelized Tofu. This was a huge hit with everyone, and we’ll definitely be making this one again. Charlie ate the broccoli (bocky!), tofu (fufu!) and peppers (pepper!).

Strange Things That We Find on Our Floors

Charlie likes a lot of normal toddler stuff like trains, fishies and Barney (who is really not so bad compared to the Satan Spawn that is the Teletubbies). He also likes some strange things, which we find around our house all of the time.

Observe….

Exhibit A: Butterflies

I think that it is sweet that he likes butterflies. One of his favorite books is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle because there is a butterfly at the end. I even contemplated making his first birthday cake a butterfly since that was one of the things that he really liked. He’s obsessed with these teeny tiny butterfly magnets and we find them everywhere.

Not that weird? I agree. Read on…

Exhibit B: A potato

He discovered potatoes last week while visiting his grandma and has been scouting them out ever since. If I leave the pantry door open for a minute all of the potatoes are thrown on the floor. His favorite thing to do is to wait until he has my attention and then pretend to eat a raw, dirty potato. Go nuts!

Exhibit C: A pinecone (or 50!)

Last summer my soon-to-be Doctor Husband took our son on a walk and they came back with a freshly plucked pinecone. Charlie has been obsessed with them ever since to the extreme that sometimes he even wants to take one to bed with him. He knows exactly where the pine trees are when we go on walks, and begs for a pinecone when we round the bend. I really don’t mind the fact that he likes pinecones because 1.) I like to think that he likes them because he likes nature, 2.) they’re FREE and 3.) there is a never-ending supply of them.

Ok, knitting content.

Remember the Sea Lettuce Scarf? Frogged. I don’t have enough yarn to make it the way that I want. I have some mods in mind, but I’m really thinking that I’ll pick up something at the Fleece Fair tomorrow in order to really highlight this pattern. In the meantime, I’ve been making some Toddler team colors socks with the Dissertation leftovers:

I’m using this random number generator to determine the stripes, and am having a hoot of a time with them. Let’s not think about Michigan’s record right now, and just enjoy the socks, shall we?

Socky Beety

First off, I finished the Anastasias. What a quick and fun knit! The pattern is really easy to memorize and it seems to fly, even on size 1s.

How much do I love Hello Yarn? Let me count the ways, over and over and over….

I’m hoping that these will be my Houston winter shoes. Crocs are perfect for showing off hand knit socks.

Secondly, I’ve succumbed to the Sea Lettuce scarf. I’m still torn on whether I want to do the one that is 20 stitches across or the 32 stitch scarf (this one is 32).

I’m concerned because I only have one skein and am hoping that it will be a nice length. I don’t have high hopes for this though, and see another skein in my future. I forgot how much garter stitch sucks yardage. I’ve also had a problem sticking with any project larger than socks lately, and the urge to frog this always looms. Wish me luck, because as of right now, I really like the result.

And last, this book is changing the way that I cook.

It’s a wonderful read if you love the slow food movement. As a result I purchased this veggie cookbook, and am trying to cook exclusively vegetarian at home.

I made patty pan squash fritters with sweet potato muffins several days ago for dinner, and last night I made this recipe:

…which will never be repeated. Ever, ever, ever again. Although the soon-to-be Doctor Husband told me that it was good “for a beet dish”, he said it about 10 times, which is a sure sign that this dish was a dud. I thought that it was delicious, and Charlie acted like he was dying when he ate one bite. To any family who may be reading, don’t worry, we still think that turkeys are delicious and wonderful, and we won’t mess with the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Tomorrow on the menu: fig and arugula salad with goat cheese croutons!

I hope that we can eat as well in Houston as here. I already checked, and Rice U. hosts a farmer’s market once a week.

I’ve also cast on a tiny baby sock, as my knitting ADD knows no bounds as of late.

I suck at goodbyes, and also conclusions, so I’ll just leave this as it is. Cheers.

Better late than never

Wow! I didn't intend to be away for so long! Charlie and I went to Lansing for a few days to spend some quality time with Grandma and give the soon-to-be-doctor Husband some much needed work time. We had a great time, and of course went to Threadbear Fiber Arts Studio while we were there. I can’t believe that we'll be moving away from this amazing store in a month. While we were there I picked up this Lucy Neatby pattern and some Jitterbug. Hopefully one skein is enough for a nice size scarf. I wouldn’t have even been interested in this pattern if it wasn't for this picture. Isn’t it beautiful? I think it looks so much different from the picture on the pattern. I hope that the Jitterbug colors work. I just love purple and orange together.

I also, finished the Augustas:

They look like they're different sizes but it's just my amazing picture-taking skillz.

They turned out well, and I cast on immediately for another pair of toe-ups: This is Hello Yarn Sock—amazing stuff. I have a vague idea of gifting some socks to my family for Christmas since I’m on such a sock kick, but the Sea Lettuce Scarf is calling me with it's siren song. People do wear scarves in Houston, right? Maybe to combat the air conditioning, not the outside air itself.

Guilty as Charged

I'm almost finished with the first Augusta, so I'm allowed to dream about new projects, right? (I'm actually much farther now then when I took the picture this afternoon.)

The yarn that I'm dreaming about....

A big mess of Hello Yarn!

Something beautifully dyed from Radiant Twist!


Or good old-fashioned Socks that Rawwwwwwck?

And then there are the patterns. Could my next project be something from Interweave, like Ambrosia, the Genome socks, or Honeycomb?

Or the Red Dwarf Socks?

Or Bellatrix?

Or how about some Anastasias?

I think that I'm getting back to my knitting roots---I learned on socks, and they've always been my first love. I'm going to ride the desire and see where it goes next...

Inspiration Monday and another FO

Do you read The Keyboard Biologist Knits? If not, please check out Theresa's blog. I've been reading her posts for about 2 years now, and she always has something new to say. She knits, spins, quilts, designs patterns, and recently has become a mom. She tackles each project with a thoughtfulness that could only come from a scientist; treating each project as if it is an experiment, and documenting all of her 'discoveries' along the way. She inspires me to spin more, which mostly just involves ogling fleece these days.

And now...Breeze is done! This is the first time that I've knit socks with cotton, and to be honest, I'm lukewarm about this material. I need my sock yarn to have a little more elasticity and bounce. But they do fit perfectly (on me, and hopefully on the recipient), the pattern was really fun, and just interesting enough to stay exciting through both socks.

Pattern: Breeze
(the first pattern that I've ever finished from Knitty, believe it or not)
Yarn: Dolce Amore by Filatura Di Crosa, 198 yards per skein, about 3/4 of the skein used
Needles: my trusty size 1 1/2 dpns
For: Mom #2's birthday

As I've mentioned before, I'm hopelessly in love with anklets at the moment, and might make this pattern again, this time in merino. Click here for an absolutely stunning pair knit up in Jitterbug.

Despite my better judgment, since I've got three unfinished projects on the needles at the moment, I cast on another pair of anklets:

They're toe-up (obviously)--my first ever, and I have to say, they are easier than expected. I am smitten with toe-up socks right now. The next couple of days will be spent searching the internet for some patterns and if I'm not careful (and this ALWAYS happens), I'll have 10 ideas lined up in my mind, which makes me just want to finish (or in some cases, frog) whatever I'm working on so that I can cast on a new shiny project.

I need to live more in the moment and enjoy the work at hand instead of constantly looking into the future. Maybe in knitting and in life?

Frantic Gift Knitting Time

One of my knitting New Year's resolutions this year was to knit more gifts. I have accomplished this goal several times over, and am doing it again right now. I'm working on the first Knitty pattern that I have ever actually completed--Breeze. I've started and frogged several Knitty projects ---Pomatomus kicked my ass once, wrong yarn once, I never seemed to have the right yarn for Clapotis, and Katja looked like a giant dishcloth because I tried to use cheap variegated yarn instead of Rowan. Breeze has finally sustained my interest, looks greats, and the niggling feeling that I sometimes get mid-project that causes me to frog isn't coming.

This pattern serves its purpose for the recipient--it's not wool (allergy, ick!), it's quick to knit, and it will cover perpetually cold feet when a move is made to Arizona. This pattern is also scratching my itchy urge to knit anklets right now. This is my second pair in as many months and there is at least one more pair in the future. Breeze will also work for the August Sockdown Challenge on Ravelry, since they have lacey components.

Can I be completely selfish for a moment? Thanks to this wonderful little dude, my knitting time is at a premium right now. A result I'm always happy to have the gift given to the recipient and get back to my own projects. Shhh-don't tell!

Late for the Party

The reason that I am late to start a blog is the same reason that I am often late to parties: what on earth do I have to contribute or say that isn't already being said by people far more fabulous than myself? I still don't know the answer to this question, but I've decided that I'm not out to change the world, just to show off my knitting.

Obsessed? Hopelessly.

Without further ado, my first FO, the Dissertation Socks:

Pattern: Scala, by Stephanie van Der Linden (inspired after seeing this)

Yarns: Sundara Sock Yarn in Grape Hyacinth (from my first Petals Collection shipment)
Black Bunny Sock Yarn in Squash (it dissappears about 5 minutes after she lists them on Etsy)

Needles: size 0 for the cuffs, 1 for the rest

For: My super-smart husband, who is about to be an official PhD.

I totally used my husband's dissertation defense as an excuse to knit socks. Is that selfish or what?