Craziness

Things have been a little nuts lately. Some highlights:

Geek Boy cut down a tree yesterday. He then told our neighbor that he was putting Miracle-Gro around the the stump in the hopes it would come back. That's because she laughed at us last year when we said the obviously dead tree might still come back.

Even though it's not necessarily their "signature beer," I think New Belgium's Trippel is their yummiest!

Our most recent cooking club theme was chocolate. Early responders took the dessert or mole option, so I needed to find something that could be a side dish. Strange as it may sound, roasted parsnip and vanilla chocolate soup is quite tasty.

I'm thoroughly enjoying Cranford, can't believe how Torchwood ended, and will go nuts if I don't find out soon who the fifth is.

Oliver Wyman may have just become my favorite audio book narrator. I'm even enjoying him more than Jim Dale. (Which reminds me...is Pushing Daisies coming back?)

I have a big meeting tomorrow afternoon, and forgot to get my hair cut last week. I'm heading into deranged poodle territory, and my hairdresser is closed today. So, I may have to go to a drop in place, which has never been a problem before, but this time there will be no wiggle room.

Very little knitting has been done.

Startitis Continues...

...but things are getting finished.

This weekend was the second baby shower in the past month. I missed the first one for cooking club, but Geek Boy represented (we were mistakenly informed that it would be a co-ed shower...and the father is a friend of his...unfortunately, he spent that afternoon hearing the word uterus more than he would have liked).

Anyway, after a crisis of yarn shortage, I think Haiku came out quite well.


The sleeves are done in Plymouth Wildflower, my favorite baby yarn. I don't remember what the green yarn was. Something I got when Technicolor Sheep was going out of business. Luckily, with the construction of the sweater, the green rows at the top of the sleeves blend in well with the body of the sweater, making it look intentional.

The hat is my basic baby hat. Plymouth Wildflower, 72 stitches. Quick and easy. If it's for a girl, a little eyelet pattern gets thrown in.

The new mom loved them. And the grandmom, who is my mom's best friend, called my mom the next day to comment on how much they all liked the sweater and hat.

So, with one item off the needles, my rampant spring startitis needed something new. Archiknist recently posted pictures of her purple shawl, from Victorian Lace Today. I was smitten. I checked the book out from the library and spent last night leisurely pouring over the patterns. I have some weddings coming up and thought a nice wrap would come in handy for over-air-conditioned receptions. There's some Sundara silk and fingering silky merino marinating in the stash. I have plans for the silk, but have been trying to figure out what to do with the silky merino. When I got home today (primary elections were today, and we're a polling place, so I was in at 5.45 AM and got to leave around 2.30PM), I mowed our seriously overgrown lawn, and then settled in with the book again and decided to do this:


It's aspiring to be the Handsome Triangle in Sundara fingering silky merino in Blossom (which I think will look lovely with my brown summer wedding dress). This is my first lace. I have the lifeline going already. The benefit to this pattern is that it's one where I can just knit until I run out of yarn. I'm hoping that I'm right in thinking that the magic of lace is in the blocking. Because right now, it just looks like a big old blob. However, I think one of my first tasks tomorrow is to photocopy and seriously enlarge the chart. Otherwise I might go cross-eyed.

I've also finished the first Rustic Arrow sock for Sockdown April. I had hoped to get my electric pear yarn in a good shot with the blossoms on the pear tree out front, but suddenly, they were all blowing off, so I had to go with what was left.

A Tale of Three Socks

I have been experiencing severe sock knitting ADD lately.


Now, I've never been a totally monogamous knitter, but this is ridiculous. Usually, I have a pair of socks on the needles, and then one other project, either something big, or something with a deadline. The year started out well. I participated in the mitten swap, and stayed pretty faithful to the mittens, since they were on deadline, and the stranded knitting was new to me. I think they turned out pretty well and were definitely well-received by Theresa in CA.


Meanwhile, I had started a pair of Nutkins for my mom. She loves her knit socks that I gave her last year. I made a new pair for her back in the fall. Unfortunately, they didn't fit over her heel, so she gave them back to me so they didn't just sit.


Then, just when the mittens were finished and on their way to CA, Geek Boy and I took a long weekend trip to Texas to visit his step-mom. As a general rule, I always start a new project when we travel. I've never had a problem taking my knitting on a plane, but just in case my particular TSA agent doesn't want to let knitting needles through that day, I don't want to lose work that I've already done. (I realize that this doesn't make that much sense, since on the return trip I could lose it all, but hey...)

So, I pulled out my Cherry Blossom yarn from Sundara, thinking it would be great spring knitting (plus, the yarn has been languishing for almost a year in the stash). A pair of Nutkins for me. I really like this pattern, and I had memorized it, so it would make for easy plane and car knitting.


And then, I decided I wanted to do the Sockdown challenge for April, and found a pattern with no picture, Judy Summer's Rustic Arrow, which called for sportweight yarn, and I had another Sundara yarn, Electric Pear, hanging out in the stash.


As if that's not enough. My fertile friends are at it again. There are six babies due between the end of this month and August. The first one got a little hat. The next shower is in two weeks, and I rescued a Haiku from the UFO pile and thought it would be perfect. The body and most of one sleeve were done. Finished sleeve one, and started sleeve two. Then it happened. Four rows left, but no yarn. Emergency trip to Finely a Knitting Party, since Cathy stocks Plymouth Wildflower. I figured for four rows, dye lot wouldn't be that big a deal. But she didn't have the color. Ugh!

I came home and re-examined. There was enough of the body color left to finish the four rows. Now I'll just have to undo the last for rows of the first sleeve so they match. (The first sleeve is camera shy, and I couldn't find it for the photo shoot...it was located later, hiding in another knitting bag.)

And now I want to start something on slightly larger needles because I just got these great stitch markers.

I was never a big fan of the "fancy" stitch markers. I mean, the little plastic loops work just fine, and are only a couple of bucks. But when I ordered from Zen String last year, she included a little set of stitch markers. I discovered I loved having them hanging from my project. And since I've recently become addicted to etsy, I finally ordered some new ones for myself.

So, that's what I've been up to for the last month or so. There were some other things. A little heartbreak (nothing serious), some travelling, some airport taxi service, new appliances and new beers (more on those later). Thanks for coming back.

Mindless Becomes Mindful

For the most part, I'm pretty easy going. One year, I was hosting Thanksgiving dinner for my family. I think that year we had maybe 19 people coming for dinner. Our oven died in the middle of cooking the turkey, and refused to be resurrected. Luckily my folks don't live far away, so we just finished the cooking over there and warmed all the side dishes on the outdoor grill. When my mom showed up with the fully-cooked turkey, she just looked at me and said, "19 people for dinner, your oven dies, and you LAUGH. You are *such* your father's daughter." (But, really, is there anything funnier than warm side dishes huddling together in a dead oven trying to keep warm?)

However, lately, I have been having trouble taking things in stride. So Geek Boy and I enrolled in the Penn Program for Stress Management (he took it many years ago). The program is based on mindful meditation and the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn. It's been very interesting. The goal is to practice being present in the moment. Paying attention to your breathing, the physical sensations in your body, your thoughts (which you then let go of), and what's happening now.

It's been an interesting experience. I'm not usually someone who goes for things like this. In fact, when I first brought up the idea of taking the class, Geek Boy's first comment was, "You do know it's based on meditation, right?"

A side benefit has been one night out each week with Geek Boy. I take the train downtown after work and meet him at his office, we go to dinner and then to class. It's really lovely.

The train ride isn't very long, but with waiting time, I can get some knitting done. When this started, I decided to take the Nutkin socks with me as train knitting. Lovely yarn, interesting pattern, that was easy to memorize. Perfect mindless knitting.


Then something weird happened. I started getting mindful about my mindless knitting. Rather than just zipping away while looking out the window, I started watching my hands, the needles, the color changes in the yarn. Nothing new was happening. It's still just knitting. I just started using that time to just knit and not to think about anything else (well, as much as possible...it's only the 5th week I've been trying this whole thing, and I've got a long way to go).

Now, I haven't become a perfectly mindful knitter. Most of the time, I still just pull something out to keep my hands busy and have something to show for my addictions to Jon Stewart, Keith Olberman and Mike Rowe. But every now and then, it's nice to stop, breathe, knit.

And it doesn't hurt that the yarn is gorgeous. (Claudia Handpaint in a colorway I think is called Urban Jungle.)

In other knitting news...progress continues on the mitten swap mittens.


This is actually start #3. The first one was too tight. The second attempt, I tried double knitting, and it was too big. Now, I'm doing two handed color work with weaving and it seems to be just right. It's also going much faster than the double knitting. I'm further along than the picture indicates. I took it a couple of days ago, but haven't had a chance to post. I'm well into the third repeat of the pattern.

And today's fun in the mailbox:

Sundara Yarn Fingering Silky Merino in Blossom. New yarn! Yay!

Oh, and this week's soup is a fabulous Potato, Bacon and Horseradish soup from New England Soup Factory. Yummy!

C Is for...

...Cooking!

I love to cook. In college I enjoyed the nights when we skipped the caf and used the dorm kitchen. Better yet was senior year when we had our own apartment and our own kitchen. We weren't amazing cooks. Some company had come out with Chicken Tonight sauces. So, we had a lot of shrimp cocktail and chicken cacciatore. Nothing terribly exciting, but it was homemade, so it was good.

When I moved out on my own, my mom took me out to buy a set of pots and pans and she gave me my first cookbook.


I love this cookbook. This does not contain any groundbreaking recipes, but it was a great starter cookbook. Now, when I want comfort food, I go back to these dishes. With a bunch of years cooking experience under my belt, I can improvise much more. There's a shrimp and angel hair pasta casserole that I still occasionally make. Before, I would have had to have all of the listed ingredients. Now, I do a lot of, "I can use this, instead of this," and end up with something that feels the same but is radically different.

My cooking skills have grown, as has the cookbook collection.


It actually outgrew the bookcase and a portion is now housed above the sock yarn basket.


And then there are the magazines (Cooking Light, Everyday and Real Simple subscriptions (housed below the knitting book collection).


We keep our cookbooks in the living room instead of the kitchen because they're really reading material. I'll sit on a Friday night while watching TV, perusing the books, looking for ideas for the week, and making my shopping list.

Gotta keep the spice cabinet stocked. (These are just the savory spices...baking spices, honeys and specialty blends are on a lazy susan in another cabinet.)


And my nice countertop stove (where all the soup comes together). Peeking out from the corner there, you can see the bottles of balsamic vinegar lined up. I think there are 5 right now, including white, cherry and at least one high end bottle. (I tried getting a shot of my awesome wall oven, which once died while cooking the Thanksgiving turkey, but it's stainless, and reflects the flash in an awful way.) The pitcher belonged to my Nanny. When she moved into my folks' house I claimed this. It's old. It's stained. And I wouldn't make iced tea in anything else.


My sister, known around these parts as The Kid (despite being 27), just got married this summer. She and her husband (The Boy...he's 22) have tight finances. A few months ago, it got really bad, in large part due to their love of fast food. They were 10- and 15-dollaring themselves to death...financially and in terms of their heath. My folks worked with them to try and get their budget under control. As the big sister, I felt I had to try and do something. Luckily, I have a wonderful Geek Boy who goes along with all of my ideas. The Kid and I signed up for Dinner by Design, one of these come-spend-two-hours-preparing-frozen-meals places. For a few months we treated them to a freezer full of meals. The Kid and I had a great time together. Almost every day she would call me and tell me what they had for dinner and how good it was.

After two months, I got the hang of how the whole DbD thing worked. Now once a month we go grocery shopping together. We get everything she'll need for a month's worth of meals, head back to their apartment, prepare all of the meals and stuff her freezer. Some of it is simple stuff. We make hamburgers or put chicken and marinade in a ziplock bag. It can be a little difficult since The Boy is a very picky eater. But we've managed and we'll keep doing it.

So, C is for cooking: for the fun of putting together meals for myself and Geek Boy; for varied reading on a Friday night; but most of all, for time well spent with The Kid and the chance to know she and The Boy are saving some money and eating healthy.

I can't let this post go by without a C is for Cats.

Skitty

Fret

B Is for...

...Beer.

(Please don't say this surprises you.)

I sometimes feel funny about my beer snobbish-ness. There's something very high-falutin' sounding about going to visit a winery or going to a wine tasting. But a brewery tour or beer tasting just makes you sound like a lush. Probably a hold over from way back when, when those who ruled were from the wine-producing countries like France and Italy, and those up in the malt-growing, beer producing area were the "worker bees."

It's something that I enjoy and I'm learning not to apologize for it. Sometimes I get to use my beer knowledge for things like impressing my uncles. Like yesterday when my uncle was talking about a case of Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA someone gave him for his birthday. I suggested he savor it, since the hops shortage means it may not be around for much longer. My mom just shook her head. "It's hard enough to see you drinking beer. But now you're an expert."

I don't drink a lot of it, rarely more than one or two in a sitting, but I drink what I enjoy. Monk's Sour Flemish Ale is right at the top of my list. Along with Dogfish Head Peche (once again, thanks, Tina).

We took a tour of Flying Fish Brewery in New Jersey yesterday. Lots of fun. The guys who own it are very down to earth and make a great product. I've always liked their Abbey Dubble (Belgian beers are always a favorite). One of their current seasonals is the 4-pack pictured, Imperial Espresso Porter. It's delicious. Roasty with a little coffee and chocolate flavor. It almost matches the memory of the holy grail of beers (we need another trip to Toronto).

Most interesting thing I learned yesterday, and a good reason to continue my affection for small breweries, Flying Fish employs Goodwill workers for all of their package assembly. They send all of their packaging materials to a local Goodwill employer and the people in the program put together the boxes and carryalls. It's not a huge thing, but it's nice to know they look for ways to be part of the community.

We'll be heading to a mid-winter brew fest in a couple of weeks, and even managed to score tickets to the Meet the Brewers "after-party." Can't wait for that. In the meantime, I'll head down to the cellar and see what's good for Super Bowl watching.

A Week of Surprises

So this has been a pretty good week. Loaded with surprises.

New book, gift tags, and recipe cards

On Sunday I started a new cooking club with a group of friends. Some are friends from high school. One is my biking buddy; we met while training for a century ride four years ago. One is a relatively new friend, and she brought an old friend of hers. I love mixing friend groups and seeing how easily friends from different parts of my life fit together. All of these friends hit it off smashingly. It was wonderful. We had lots of good food (our theme for the dinner was "Mushy Foods" since one person had oral surgery about a month ago and is still recovering).

But to start the day off, Biker Friend, who is also a knitter, gave me a small gift from when she went to Stitches back in the fall. They are tags for knitting gifts. Without a good macro lens (and I can't even find my regular lens right now), I can't get a good clear shot of them. They have a cat tangled up in yarn and say, " Now I know this may be hard for you to believe but...I MADE THIS! Don't just stand there dumbfounded, get excited or something!" I can't wait to give my next knitted gift.

Tuesday night I found a package in the mail. My used copy of EZ's Knitter's Workshop. This wasn't exactly a surprise, since I had ordered it, but it was coming from a non-major retailer, so I had no idea when it would arrive. Like some other people, I'm just now really appreciating EZ. To cap it off, several friends have recently announced pregnancies, so Baby Surprise Jackets for everyone!

Then there was today.

A few years back, Geek Boy came home one night with this joke:

A guy gets on an elevator with a beautiful woman. Desperate to make conversation, he smiles broadly at her and says, "T.G.I.F."
She smiles ruefully and says, "S.H.I.T."
Confused, he replies, "T.G.I.F."
Again, "S.H.I.T."
Desperate, he says to her, "Thank goodness it's Friday."
She shakes her head and says, "Sorry, hon, it's Thursday."

Now, almost every week, on Thursday, one of us will look at the other and say, "T.G.I.F." just for the fun of the response. But today was a good Thursday. I finished interviewing candidates for the open position I have at work, and my top choice accepted. I have several community groups who have agreed to partner with us for a grant I'm writing, and write letters of support (there is the downside that I have only a few days left to write the grant, but I'm not focusing on that now). Another grant, that I have more time for, is coming together. Best of all, when I got home and looked at the mail pile, there was a little package for me. I didn't remember ordering anything, but since I've recently developed an addiction to Etsy, maybe I forgot about something. Nope. Return address: Secret Pal. Inside I found a great pack of recipe cards. Perfect for organizing the new variations on soup and new cooking club recipes. So, thank you, secret pal! You made my Thursday!

Now off to curl up with my mega-biography of Caron McCullers (one of the pending grants is for a community read of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, so I thought I'd brush up on all things Caron McCullers).

Sunday Soup and a Week of Socks

I was going to try and actually do my soup post yesterday, but I was so tired by the time I sat down after dinner, I could barely stay awake.

Yesterday, Geek Boy invited his brother over for dinner. I decided to do a little Greek Fest. Chicken Shawarma sandwiches, courtesy of Rachel Ray. Now, I have to admit, that Rachel Ray is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. She's perky and goofy. And way overexposed. I laugh when Anthony Bourdain goes off on her. BUT...I like her recipes. I find myself going back to them over and over. And several of them are in our top picks. And this chicken is very close to the top. It was delicious. And I made lots, so we'll have leftovers for a few days.

Once I had picked this, I thought a nice Greek-ish soup would be a good complement. Enter Spinach, Feta and Pine Nut Soup. Yummy! I don't know how "Greek" it is, but it has feta cheese, so that's enough for me.

Luckily, I have a sous chef in the house. Geek Boy does all of my chopping for me. I'm not very good at small dice and he is. And he figures it's a small price to pay for homemade soup each week.

My mise en place for the day, courtesy of Geek Boy.


Big lesson learned in this outing. Soups with leaf spinach in them do not play well with the stick blender. The leaves get caught up in all the little vents and just spin around. So, this eventually got dumped in the blender. The end result:


Nice and creamy, with little hunks of feta. And I love these little containers. I think they're Gladlock or something like that. The important part is that they have screw top lids and are a perfect single serving size. Nice and easy for work day lunches.

Today is a lazy day. For the first time in 6 years, I don't have a board meeting tonight. Our monthly meeting always fall on MLK day and my board says, no problem, we can meet anyway. But this year, since a number of them have plans for the long weekend, we're postponed until tomorrow. And I get a full day off. And I finished these finally:

Jaywaylkers in Trekking

This makes four pairs of hand knit socks for me. Which means that I can wear hand knit socks to work every day this week! It's the little things that make me happy.

Now to start my mitten swap mittens!

And as an extra special treat...Geek Boy and I are off to a Meet the Brewers night at Brigid's. Yummy!

A is for...

...alpaca.

My souvenir yarn from our cruise last year. We had to take a ferry between Washington and Vancouver Island. On our return trip, we had some time to kill and some Canadian money still to spend. So, I hung out with the bags while Geek Boy went into the shop to get some sodas and munchies. When he came back, he handed me our Canadian cash and told me, "They have yarn." Inside I found a basket full of alpaca from Villa D'Oro. I got 9 ounces. No idea what the yardage is. And still no idea what I'll do with it. But it's a great memento of that trip.





...aunts.

This is only two of the six I have (the third person in the photo is my mom, aunt to 14, aunt-in-law to 5, great-aunt to 6). My aunts are all very different and have given so much to me in their own ways. MB is the closest in age (not counting J, who I don't call "aunt" because she married my uncle only a few years ago, and is just 3 years my senior, and I love her dearly) and the one who used to set me up on blind dates. B is my godmother and crafting mentor and leader of family insanity. H is the one I would talk to about things I couldn't talk to my mom about. K is the silly one. R is the nice one. I can't imagine not being close to them. And, being an aunt myself now, it's one the best things I get to be in my life. I love the Chickpea and Geek Boy Jr with all my heart and any time I spend with them is the highlight of my week. They're still little. I just hope that as time goes on, I will be as good to them as my aunts are to me.

Yarn, Yarn Everywhere...

...but not a single mitten. At least not yet*.

I hit Finely a Knitting Party after work the other night to select the yarn for the swap mittens. Lesson learned for the night: It's really hard to buy for someone you only know from a few blog posts (and stalking her Ravelry profile). After wandering around for a while and going back and forth on the worsted v. sock weight issue (worsted will go faster...but there was a better selection of sock), I finally decided on this:

(Altered to keep my swap buddy from accidentally finding me out.)

My biggest reservation, for some reason, was that worsted would be warmer. Now, I'm having this debate with myself while my feet are nice and toasty inside some hand knit socks. Cathy (the owner extraordinaire) reminded me that it's about the fiber, not the weight. So, sock weight it is.

Next question...which pattern? I had one picked out. I did my swatch. Consulted Ann Budd for the number of stitches I would need. Redid the chart on graph paper to make it easier to follow. Then started looking through Stitchionary again. Not sure why. Lo and behold, there's a pattern that will exactly fit my stitch count. How lucky is that?

*You know how there are some movie lines that just stick with you for no apparent reason? One of my oldest movie quotes is "Bubbles, bubbles everywhere. But not a drop to drink. At least not yet," from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I've been quoting that, in one form or another, since I saw that movie for the first time, way back when.

Sundays Are for Soup

Okay, it's Monday, but I was busy making soup yesterday, so I thought I'd get caught up.

A few years ago, I would have told you how I most definitely did. not. like. soup. It goes with the whole not liking hot liquids thing. I don't like hot coffee or tea (although I'll drink both iced). And while I love chocolate milk, hot chocolate holds no appeal.

The Geek Boy, however, has always been a soup fan. After Christmas, he would traditionally make bean soup using the left over ham bone. And my family loved this. My Nanny always made bean soup. And even though I didn't eat it, I loved when he made it because it made our house smell like my Nanny and Grandpop's house when I was little. As my Nanny got older, her soup making skills, shall we say, deteriorated. So, all of my family's ham bones came to Geek Boy to keep Nan from destroying it. (The last bean soup she ever made was completely inedible, according to my mom.)

One Christmas, when we dropped the requisite container of soup off at my folks' house, my Nan (who lived with my mom and dad) asked me how I liked it. I told her I didn't have any because I didn't like soup. She let me have it. How could I not at least show Geek Boy the courtesy of trying the soup since he went to all the trouble to make it. So, shame-faced, I had a bowl when we got home.

And I liked it.

That's when it hit me. It wasn't so much that I didn't like soup. I just didn't like the stuff in a can. (Although, to be honest, when I'm really sick, it has to be Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup and nothing else. I need those soggy noodles and itty-bitty bits of chicken.)

At that point I became a soup fanatic. Scouring the cookbooks on cold days to see what I had the ingredients for. And then this fall, we took a trip to Providence and took a soups and sauces class at Johnson and Wales University. Now it was serious.

So, since the fall, every weekend I've made a different kind of soup. After Thanksgiving, I took the turkey carcass and made a freezer full of turkey stock. One Sunday night, while dining on that week's soup, Geek Boy looked at me and said, "I'm really glad you decided you like soup."

Following that thought, I was gifted with many soup cookbooks this Christmas. From the Geek Boy I received The New England Soup Factory Cookbook. And from my folks, 500 Soups. Now every Friday night I pour over both books, making my grocery list.

So, I thought I would start documenting my soup journey each week. This week, it was 500 Soups. Spiced Lentil, Chickpea and Chorizo Soup. A few years ago I discovered chorizo and find myself drawn to any recipe that calls for it.

This used just two links of chorizo, which I decdied to completely remove from their casings and cook up loose, which as definitely the way to go. That, with the cumin, corriander and cinnamon, just warmed the house all day long. This was also the first time I workd with dried lentils. Usually I go for canned beans of any kind, but it only takes 20 minutes to prepare lentils, so it didn't seem that intimidating.

The spices make this a very warm, not spicy soup. Perfect for this week that is starting to feel like winter again.

In other news...I got my mitten swap partner yesterday. Tomorrow will bring a trip to the Finely a Knitting Party to see if I can find the right yarn. I'm thinking maybe Lamb's Pride. But we'll see what's available.

Mattress Stitch - The Cornstarch of Knitting

I'm easily amused/amazed by the simplest things.

Back at Thanksgiving, we had lots of bags of fresh cranberries, so I decided to make some fresh cranberry sauce for dinner. This was the first time I had ever tried this, and was disproportionately amazed to see how quickly things thickened up once the cornstarch had been added. I'm a dork, and i freely admit it.

So, right before Christmas, I was finally able to get Fitted Knits from the library. And I fell in love with the Alexandra Ballerina Sweater. My goal became to knit that sweater before my time with the book was up. So, armed with a handful of 50% off coupons for Michael's, I bought up their entire stock of Patons Rumors in Dewberry Heather ball-by-ball and got to work on December 26th (the book needed to be returned on January 4th, and since two other people had holds on it, there would be no renewals).


The evening of January 3rd, I had one sleeve to go and was up seaming the final sleeve and weaving in ends until 10.30. Admittedly, 10.30 isn't that late, but I'm usually doing my pre-bedtime ritual by then.



Now, normally, I hate, loathe, despise, abhor, abominate seaming. I don't like it at all. That was one of the reasons I was attracted to this sweater, because it was knit in the round. Except for the sleeves. And I couldn't really see why the sleeves were knit flat, but hey, I was willing to do that little bit. As I was oh-so-carefully working my mattress stitch, I was amazed at how neat it was, and at the little neat ridge it formed inside the sleeve. And it was very similar to my awe of how cornstarch nicely thickened my cranberry sauce.

Like I said, I'm a dork.

This, however, has not convinced me that I like seaming lots of little parts. In fact, if anything, it reinforced the fact that I really don't want to have to do a lot of it. So, in an effort to start the new year off with a somewhat clean slate, I went back and looked at the progress I had made on my Tilted Duster cardigan.


I love the look of this sweater. I did from the moment I saw the fall issue of Interweave Knits. But the thought of seaming all the parts and then picking up all those stitches for the skirt...ugh! (Picking up stitches is my second least favorite knitting task...I even modify most of my socks to have short row heels for just this reason.) So, I frogged. And tonight I may cast on instead for the Cobblestone Pullover. I've seen this with a modified yoke (ravelry link) to have a button band, so I may try that in order to use my very cool devil buttons which go perfectly with the orange Cascade.

In further dorknitude, today is the deadline for the No-More-Humdrum-Mittens Swap. I am so excited for this. Can't wait to see who I will be knitting for here. I've been scouring mitten patterns, as well as spending time looking at colorwork patterns from the Stitchionary. I've even found a sock pattern that could be fun to convert. Plus there's the challenge of finding other little "stuff" to include in the package.

I'm just a dork, what can I say?

No-More-Humdrum Mittens Swap

Okay, I've joined my first swap. I never was a big fan of hats or mittens until I started knitting. Now, I'm ticked off when I can't wear my fabulous hat because it's too warm out. So, a mitten swap seemed the perfect place to jump into the on-line swapping world.

How long have you been knitting & how did you learn?
I've been knitting for about 5 years. When my sister-in-law told us she was pregnant with the Chickpea, I got it into my head that I had to make something for my soon-to-be niece or nephew. As a librarian, there was only one way to learn...check a book out of the library. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Knitting and Crocheting.

Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
Intermediate. I've got most of the techniques down, but I've still got a bit to learn.

What are your favorite colors? Any you dislike?
Red, purple, green...really, I like them all. Deep shades and bright shades most of all. Pastels are okay, but not the first ones I'd go to.

Do you like Latvian type patterns? If so, what are your favorite patterns?
I like them, but don't know them well enough to have a favorite.

Do you desire mittens for yourself, your "special someone else" or your child?
For me, please!

What is the measurement from your wrist to the tip of your longest finger?
8 inches

What is the circumference of your hand at it's widest point?
7.5 inches

What other things do you enjoy knitting?
Socks, hats, sweaters in the round...I hate seaming. But mostly socks and hats.

What sort of needles do you enjoy working with? (straights vs circs, bamboo vs aluminum)
I made the switch to circs early in my knitting career, after losing straights mid-project to my cats. I'd get up to go to the bathroom and come back to a missing needle. There's one that I still never found. I use DPNs for socks and hats. And mostly I use bamboos.

What’s one project you’ve not yet tried but are dying to make?
Lace. I've got Eunny Jang's Print O' the Wave Stole in my queue, and some gorgeous Cornflower Sundara Silk Yarn. I'm just a little nervous about starting it. I've never done lace, and I've never worked with silk.

What’s one yarn you’ve not yet tried but are dying to work with?
Silk, see above. And bamboo.

What other hobbies do you have? Do you spin? Sew? Garden? Cook?
I love to cook. And now that it's winter, I get to do a lot of soups and breads. I'm trying my hand at sewing again (waiting for my copy of Bend The Rules). Does beer count as a hobby?

Besides yarn, do you collect anything?
Geek boy and I collect pint glasses from local breweries. Other than that, not really. I'm trying to beat the clutter.

What kind of goodies do you enjoy? Sweets? Salty? Anything you hate or are allergic to?
I'm lucky enough to live without allergies. I'm definitely a fan of the salty...nuts, pretzels, trail mix, stuff like that. Not a big fan of chocolate (unless it's coating some nice salty pretzels).

Do you have any kids? Pets?
We are owned by two cats. And, while we don't have kids of our own, we time-share four of the five kids next door. This means that they love to "help" the Geek Boy with his outdoor projects. In return, he does things like helping them build a quarter pipe skate ramp for their driveway.

What is your favorite part of Winter?
Soup and bread on cold rainy/snowy days, curled up on the couch with Geek Boy. Wearing hand knit scarves, hats and mittens.

What is your least favorite part of Winter?
Shoveling snow, particularly at work. Driving in the snow.

Things That Warm a Knitting Beer-Geek Girl's Heart

So, when last I posted to this blog, I had just had the meal of my life at Brigid's. Well, on Monday, the Geek Boy went back (without me *sniff* I had a work meeting). On Monday nights they have a beer tasting in their upstairs room, and he stopped in to find out how they did it and if we could arrange an event there. He only stayed at the tasting for a little bit, then it got crowded and hot, so he made his way down to the bar for a little something to eat before heading home.

While sitting at the bar, the guy next to him struck up a conversation, asking what he had tried and what he thought. Geek Boy mentioned a few beers and said he was particularly impressed with an offering from the new Dock Street. Good answer. Apparently Random Guy at the Bar was their brewer. It seems that when Brigid's offers these tastings, many of the brewers hang around. So, not only did I miss a trip to my new favorite place, I missed a chance to meet some well-known local brewers.

So, how did this warm my heart? One of them, who happens to be from the brewery that makes on of my top two favorite Saisons in Philly, commented on the Geek Boy's scarf.

(Pardon the crappy photos...I'm never home when it's light out these days.)

He told him it was custom made for him. Brewer guy thought it was very cool. Brewer Guy thought my knitting was cool!

And this comes just two weeks after another random compliment.

Last spring when we went on our cruise, I made myself a pair of Peekabook Mittens. And they were great. Kept my hands warm on deck, but I could easily pop my fingers out to take pictures. On our way home, Geek Boy asked me to make him a similar pair, but "the kind with fingers and the mitten part over the top." So, I made him a pair back in October out of Socks That Rock mediumweight.


So, a couple weeks back, Geek Boy goes into the coffee shop one morning and the guys there comment on his gloves, wanting to know where he got them. He told them they were custom made (I love the fact that he refers to his hand-knits as "custom-made," one of the 16 gazillion reasons I love him). Apparently, that morning they were having a conversation about convertible mittens, and were trying to decide if they were manly enough to be cool. These were. I wonder if I can work a deal with them to make them all mittens in exchange for a year's worth of free coffee. I think we'd make out in that deal.

Most Amazing Meal...EVER

So, this past weekend, Geek Boy and I headed to the Art Museum with some friends for a scavenger hunt. What a blast. If they are in your area, grab a bunch of friends and go! It was well organized and so much fun.

After the hunt, Geek Boy and I decided to head over to a new-to-us beer bar. We've known about it for a while, but we don't venture downtown very often. That may change. Brigid's is a small little bar in the middle of a Fairmont Park neighborhood. Parking is tight, and we lucked out with a spot right across the street (bonus, it's a neighborhood, so no parking meters). They describe their cuisine as "homestyle." But your mom would have to be Nigella Lawson, Anthony Bourdain and Alton Brown all rolled into one to have this kind of homestyle food. The menu isn't extensive, printed on just one side of an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. And you have to order everything at once; no ordering an appetizer while you decide what you want. We went all out, ordering appetizers, entrees and desserts. When the waitress stopped by to ask how we were doing I pointed at my empty plate and told her that first, I never eat all my vegetables, and second, I would never order this type of entree anywhere else again, because it will never be as good. Apparently this made the chef very happy.

Brigid's is also a great place for beer. They have a great selection of bottled beers from around the world (especially Belgium). On tap they had some local stuff, Victory and Troeg's, as well as some new-to-me stuff. I had a tripel, the name of which I can't remember, and it was very tasty. Then I ordered a Blanche de Bruxelle--somehow, wheat beers have grown on me this summer. Geek Boy also had some great stuff, but I can't remember what they were (reminder: charge the Palm Pilot and actually carry it with you!).

We're already planning to take my folks there for dinner one night, and to get our good beer friends to try Brigid's brunch with us. This has become my hands down favorite restaurant in Philly. If you're inthe Art Museum area, definitely check it out. Hey, it's even made Philadelphia Magazine's list of 50 best meals under $50 (for two). (The Grey Lodge is also on that list...another great beer place in Philly.)

As for knitting...I finished the raspberry tomato.


Obviously, it needs to be blocked. I'm hoping to have it ready to wear when we go to Tria this weekend with some friends. The Mission Falls Cotton went the distance. I didn't have to dig into the "2nd dye lot" skeins. To make it last, I decided to do the neck edging in a different color. I also really liked the look of doing the last two rows of the edging in a different color. Kinda wish I had thought of that before I bound off the bottom. Oh, well. I still really like it.

Serving Time

That's what I feel like I've been doing over the last week.

Last Thursday I was called for jury duty. Technically, I was a standby. So, I dutifully called Wednesday night to hear that all regular and rescheduled jurors were to report, as well as stand-by jurors numbers one through two hundred ten. So, I got there early, expecting a full house. I obviously have no idea how the system works, because that somehow equals only 50 people. We waited until 3.00, when they finally took a panel of 45 people for the one trial that day. Apparently I look fair and impartial, because I got seat number 12 on the jury. Which meant back at 9.30 the next morning for the trial. Luckily it was short--the deliberation took longer than the actual testimony--and we were out by 3.00.

But that made for a lot of sitting around time. If one needed a gauge by which to measure just how much time is spent sitting and waiting during jury duty, well, you could show them this:


By the time I got home on Friday, this is how much progress I had made on my latest sock. Also factor in three false starts. It's just a simple pattern of a knit row, and a knit through the back loop row, with some slipped stitches thrown in for detail. The yarn is Sundara Yarn Sweet Briar Rose sportweight. This is quite possibly the most beautiful yarn I have ever knit with. And, I don't think any of my pictures truly do it justice.

Since Friday, I've had a Knit Night with some friends, spent time manning the library table at the local Arts Festival, and spent time waiting for the police chief to finish his budget meeting with borough council before going in for my turn. So, how much waiting time is that?



A lot. That's why I'm dubbing these the "Serving Time" socks.

Lucky for my mom. I gave her a pair of socks back in January and she just loved them. Every time she wore them to work, she'd call me during the day to tell me how much she loved them. Then the message became how much she loved them, and she needed more. She prefers dark colors for her socks, so these will be perfect.

And for the end of the Summer of Socks, how about another visit from Santa?

Booking Through Thursday

This week's question:

So, this is my question to you–are you a Goldilocks kind of reader?

Do you need the light just right, the background noise just so loud but not too loud, the chair just right, the distractions at a minimum?

Or can you open a book at any time and dip right in, whether it’s for twenty seconds, while waiting for the kettle to boil, or indefinitely, like while waiting interminably at the hospital–as long as the book is open in front of your nose, you’re happy to read?

I can read anywhere, anytime. But I am also extremely distracted. So, I have a book on the nightstand that I read before bed. This book is usually read with at least one cat crawling across my head.

There is also a "carry around" book that I keep in my purse (kind of like a sock in progress) for those times when I'm meeting people and get there early. The carry around book is usually a collection of essays of some sort, so that if a month passes between readings, I can pick it up and not worry about remembering a plot. Think David Sedaris or Laurie Notaro. These books are usually read while sitting in my car, or, better yet, while sitting at a bar, sipping a beer and waiting for a friend.

Reading anywhere but in bed does bring out my ability to be easily distracted. If someone walks in the restaurant, I have to look. If the kids next door are out, I have to see what they're doing. Who's walking down the street? But I've always been like that, and it doesn't affect my ability to make progress on and retain what I'm reading. In fact, my last reading in public venture was at a Kildaire's bar, enjoying calamari and a Sam Adams while reading Social Networking Software in Libraries. I'm sure the bartender went home that night with a "You won't believe this one" story.

The Queen of the Discount Bin

I admit it. I'm a cheap yarn snob. Or perhaps a frugal fiber aficionado. I like good fibers. I've learned over the years how much nicer they are to knit with. (Although I do also believe that good acrylics have their place too...especially for things that are going to be worn and washed hard.) And I love a good bargain. Which is why I always scour the sale bins at my favorite shops.

On the upside, I can get a lot of something I might have otherwise passed up. Last summer, I picked up a bunch of Berroco Denim Silk for $3 per hank. A few weeks ago, at the same shop, I grabbed about 900 yards of Berroco Lullaby for the same price. And then there's the 100% cashmere I added to the stash when my favorite yarn shop went out of business ($8.50 a ball...I bought all that was left).

The downside to this, is that I have to work with what I find. And usually these yarns are discounted because they've been discontinued. So, I have to search for patterns that fit the yarn.

Back when Mission Falls stopped making their 1824 Cotton, my now defunct favorite yarn shop had a small collection of the stuff in the sale bin for (you guessed it) $3. I grabbed it up, thinking someday I'd find something to do with it. But everything I looked at seemed to require just a little more yarn than I had available.

Then Mission Falls came back! Matching the yarn/dye lot was not going to be possible, but complementary colors could work. And thus:


My version of the Tomato top from No Sheep for You. I'm calling it the Raspberry. I also have a pale green that I may use for the neckline, depending on how much of the raspberry (actually it's called Cosmos) is left.

This is my first attempt at fair isle. I've done some color work before, but not like this. I love it! It's not perfect, but my floats are pretty even. I tried to be very conscious of holding the yarns loosely, but not too loosely. I have this squished up on a pretty small needle, so I can't be sure for a few more inches of exactly how successful I've been (a lot of my Denise cords have broken, probably my cat's fault, and I haven't replaced them yet, so I have limited resources).

I see more fair isle in my future. Time to go raid another clearance bin. Anyone know of any good fair isle socks?

It Is Supposed to Be the Summer of Socks

Well, I started out strong. My first pair of socks done in just under two weeks. A second pair started right away and going strong. Then I got side tracked.

My cousin is expecting her first baby in October. In June, her husband was offered a position in one of his company's foreign offices. Offered is a polite term. There really isn't a choice if he wants his career to keep moving. So this moved up the baby shower time line to mid-August (Dad-to-Be is moving this weekend, New Mama is staying here to have the baby).


Two little hats for the new little one. The blue is the Pea Pod hat from IK. What a great pattern. And I even made it from the recommended yarn. When one of my local shops closed, she had a going out of business sale and I bought up all she had of Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere in this color.

The bumble bee hat is based on my favorite baby hat, made with Plymouth Wildflower. There's not real pattern. Just random striping. My cousin really liked it because it turns out black and yellow are her college colors. I just picked them because she's not finding out if she's having a boy or a girl.

Speaking of which, here's my new entry for Summer of Socks.


(Pardon the kinda crappy picture...these are someone else's design, and I was trying to get the color of the yarn, without giving away the pattern, which is a really great pattern...look for it in the SoS Design Contest.) A pair of socks, one pink, one blue, for the New Mama to wear at the hospital. These (obviously) were not ready for the shower. But I'll be seeing her this weekend, right after Dad-to-Be leaves for foreign shores. So, even if she doesn't want to wear mismatched socks, hopefully they will make her smile.

The yarn is the Knit Picks Color Your Own that I dyed while reading Harry Potter. I'm really excited about how it came out. If I didn't already have so much sock yarn, I'd get some more and stock up on Kool-Aid. And I have enough left to make a pair of baby Jaywalkers in each color.

After these are done, I'm going to try and go gangbusters on some socks for me again. After the cool weather last week, I'm really feeling the need to have at least 5 pairs of handknit socks for the approaching cooler seasons.

Rainy Days and Mondays

It started raining yesterday and continued all through today. It's damp and chilly. The usual capri pants and Birks that I wear almost every day just weren't cutting it today. That, coupled with a staffing crisis at work, could really have started my week off badly. But not so.



The cool weather was a perfect opportunity to wear newly finished Bird of Paradise socks. Anytime the grey got to me today, I just slipped off my shoes and looked at my socks. Happiness!

These are not Summer of Socks socks. I finished them in late May, maybe. The yarn is Sundara Yarn Bird of Paradise, from the Petals Collection. The pattern is the one included with the yarn. I started these socks while we were on our Tall Sails and Ales cruise. The yarn attracted lots of great comments while I was knitting. The captain of the boat asked if the yarn came with its own batteries. While knitting on the plane, a woman commented on how much she loved the colors. The guy she was traveling with said he couldn't believe they let me on the plane "with those things." I told him they actually let me on with 10, since I had another sock in progress in my bag.

Anyway, it was rainy and a Monday, but I had Happy Feet!