The Longest Wednesday February 18, 2009

So I don’t know what it was about today, but it felt like it lasted about 72 hours. At least.

Yesterday was so nice and fast, I suppose it had to balance out, but since the workday was completely uninteresting and I felt totally exhausted and had a headache all day, today was a poor choice for a longer-than-average day. I got the heel turned on the sock at work, though, which was nice.

I made chili for dinner again. It was (in my opinion anyway) very nearly knock-your-socks-off spicy. Delicious, as usual, but very very spicy. Almost too spicy for me to eat. (this time, Janelle did not finish before me. she’s convinced that last time she was replaced by an alien.)

At knittin’ kitten tonight, no one showed up that I had already met. Four others did show up, but they were all strangers to us so it felt a bit like bizarro knitnight. They were nice enough, though, so we still had a good time. I got the gusset done on the sock. I am now here:

Aaand here’s that bit compared to the first sock, which is complete:

I have about 4 or 5 inches to go before the toe.

That’s 4 or 5 inches of half 2×2 rib, half stockinette.

You see why these socks have languished on the needles for so long.

sigh

Oh well, at least I have my mindless tv knitting cut out for me for a while. And hey, since I’m not doin’ the deadline thing, if I really get sick of it I can put ‘em down and work on something else for a while! Hooray!

Take a look, it’s in a book, on reading railroad February 17, 2009

Isn’t that how it goes?

Tonight we went over to Mike and Kaitlyn’s, had dinner, and played 1/2 a game of Monopoly. I did, in fact, buy Reading Railroad, and have since had the Reading Rainbow theme song running through my head. It was good times for all. For the curious, Mike and Kaitlyn served a very nice stir fry of vegetables (and steak for those inclined) with rice and a cranberry-nut salad, and lemon bars for dessert. We provided the beer. It was quite a tasty meal.

The wrap was, in fact, done blocking today! It’s lovely, and I almost wish I could keep it. I’ll be shipping it off to my aunt ASAP, though.

As far as work went today, it wasn’t as busy as I had thought it might be, being the day after a holiday and all. I had 25 tickets in first thing, but it was fairly slow overall. I got about 1/2 of the heel flap done on Cory’s second brown sock.

Still no takers on the sock pattern, though I’ve had 34 faves and 11 queues. I’m glad people like the look of it, anyway!

Two for His Heels Available! February 16, 2009

See that blue thing in the upper right corner? See where it says “patterns”? Go ahead and click on it. I’ve got both of my patterns up, now, with a link to the free one and a paypal button for the newly minted Two for His Heels pattern! I’ve also put it up on Ravelry. I’ll let you all know if I get any takers

What’s Large and Damp and Lies on the Floor? February 16, 2009

This.

Comfort Wrap; Plymouth Yarn Boku, 9.25 skeins (~915 yards); Totally Autumn pattern (one repeat narrower and 2 repeats longer); knit on size 10 addi turbos. Finished size 68″ by 28″.

Yes, the wrap is finally done. I finished it around 3:30 today, and had it blocking by 4:15. The finished size is exactly right, and even unblocked it fit nicely around me, so I think it should be a nice cozy size for my aunt (who is much more slim than I am).  And I am SO glad to be done with it.

Now, as stated previously, I am taking a break from any and all deadline knitting. If I have previously told you I’d make something for you, please do not pester me to work on it or finish it. I may work on it if I decide that is what I feel like working on, but I’m not going to “buckle down” and finish any one specific thing. I’ll get back to that sort of thing when I’ve recovered, because for the last 7 months I have done nothing but deadline knitting. Sometimes they were self imposed deadlines, sometimes holiday gift deadlines, and sometimes challenge deadlines, but I haven’t had the freedom to do whatever I like whenever I want to since last August. Maybe even before that, I can’t remember.

Since all I really did today is knit, I don’t have much else to say. I knit a few more rows on the heel flap of Cory’s Deadly Boring Brown Socks®, but as my hands kind of hurt from marathon knitting the wrap all day I quickly set it aside. Size 1 needles + stringy yarn with no bounce + already painful thumb joint = bad.

I lied about the pictures February 15, 2009

Because I forgot my camera. All day.

I made double chocolate brownies this morning, for tonight’s dinner, and then almost right away went over to Nicole’s for fun and shenanigans. We picked up Nicole and Kiah and went to Taco Bell for lunch, then headed to Target for cheap chocolates and hair dye for Nicole. For those that don’t know, Nicole has had bright blue hair for the last couple of years, but has recently decided it isn’t worth the hassle anymore. She chose a golden brown, but it ended up dyeing her roots a pale gold and the pinkish faded blue ended up a very pretty raspberry color. It’s not what she expected, but it looks really cool, so she isn’t complainin’.

We watched some bloopers and extras from a few shows/movies and hung out for a while, and then around 4:15 we headed home. After a bit of a nap (I had a headache all day) I started working on dinner, as Mike and Kaitlyn were coming over. I made an Asian salad (spinach, carrots, mushrooms, and  cashews with teriyaki sauce), biscuits, and corn-tomato risotto. They brought a bottle of Reisling with them, as well, and then we had the brownies and some ice cream for dessert. Everything seemed to go over quite well.

Afterwards, we played Apples to Apples for a while and then played some Guitar Hero. It was a very nice evening- a nice whole day, actually- and the best part is, I don’t have to go to work tomorrow. YESSS.

I got about half done with repeat 8 of the wrap, and I’m nearing completion. I am still pretty confident that I can get this finished tomorrow, especially since we have basically nothing going on (except cleaning the massive amount of dishes from tonight’s dinner and maybe baking some bread). The issue is going to be blocking… where I’ll do it (probably the craft room floor) and how long it’ll take to dry (probably 2 days). I hope to mail it on Wednesday.

Vamlumtimes Day is serious times. February 14, 2009

Happy Day Before Cheap Chocolate Day, everyone! Hope you got what you wanted if you wanted something, or did what you wanted if you had plans. Me? I cleaned. Ohhh did I ever clean. Cory and I each took half of the apartment and deep cleaned the heck out of it. My side was the bathroom, craft room, and bedroom. Everything looks so much better… now if only it would stay this nice!

Other than cleaning, we got some groceries (as we’re having company for dinner tomorrow), and then we ate popcorn and watched Young Frankenstein. Cory hadn’t seen it, but it’s just one of those Mel Brooks movies you’ve gotta see.

I finished the 7th repeat today, as well, in between cleaning sprees, and I’m a few rows into rep. 8. I hope to finish 8 tomorrow. It’s getting really long now- long enough that I can almost use it as a blanket while I’m knitting it.

Short entry tonight, as it’s so late. Sorry about that. I’ll have more- and probably pictures- tomorrow.

Seven of Nine February 13, 2009

You will be assimilated.

Man, I’ve been waiting since skein 3 to make that Star Trek reference. I am so pathetic! But it is totally still funny.

Yes, I am now 1/2 done with skein (and repeat) 7 out of 9 total. It’s long enough now that people do one of these -> O.O when I pick it up, and then they say something like “wow, that’s huge!”. I feel pretty good about the progress- that means between now and Tuesday, I have 2.5 repeats to do. No problem, as long as I stick to it.

I did this half-repeat at Drunken Knit Night,  a once-monthly group that meets at Merlin’s Rest pub. It’s a huge group, and a lot of fun. This is only the 2nd time I’ve gotten to go. Cory likes it too- the same night is Kilt Night at that pub, so he gets an excuse to wear his kilt. He loves that thing. I met a bunch of people, and one is even planning to go to Knittin’ Kitten (as she’s in the market for a knitting group and we hit it off pretty well).

Tomorrow is the day I lovingly call “The Day Before Cheap Candy Day”- or “Vamlumtimes Day” if I’m feeling StrongBadish. Cory and I don’t really celebrate in the traditional, Hallmark, flowers-and-candy sense of the word, but we do like to take a lazy day to spend just being together, no real chores or deadlines. We’ll probably just laze about tomorrow. I intend to knit and watch some tv, and maybe bake something. We’re still out of bread.

Sunday’s a bigger day- we’re having guests for dinner, and probably hanging out with Nicole in the afternoon, so we have to work out what to make, buy the ingredients, hang out with Nicole, and then run home, cook, and be charming hosts for a while. Which means part of tomorrow will be spent cleanin’ (boooo).

I feel a touch guilty about the frequency of no-photo posts lately. As I’ve been knitting the same dang thing non-stop for 3 weeks… I just can only post so many photos of the same thing a couple of inches larger, or at a slightly different angle. More photos once it’s done- promise.

Bonus post! February 12, 2009

Second post of the day, I know, craziness.

I just got a random, out of the blue message on Etsy, from someone who had noticed my shop lying fallow, so I decided to go ahead and relist all of my old shop items I have sitting around. I’m also doing a promotion to benefit the victims of the Australian bushfires- 10% of all proceeds from now til March 7 will go to the Australian Red Cross.

Etsy is here. Look! Buy! At least maybe consider buying!

PS. I know my photos stink, but I can’t be bothered at the moment. I’m trying to clear this stuff out so I can move on to selling primarily patterns.

Perhaps an intervention is in order February 12, 2009

I love silk.

I love it. I love the feel of it, the sheen of it, the way it catches gently on every ridge of your fingers…

I love the way it smells, the way it can be both firm and soft, the way it drapes…

I love all the different types of silk- mulberry silk, bombyx silk (though I’ve heard it’s another name for Mulberry), tussah silk- I even love fake silks, like soy silk and corn silk, just because they share a name with silk. I love everything about silk, and it is by far my favorite fiber.

My 4 oz of mulberry silk arrived today from Crystal Creek Fibers, as you can see. It is… incredible. If you don’t believe me, come over and stick your hand in it. I dare you.

Also, as it happens, the silk is the perfect motivator for me to do two things. 1. Get better at spinning and 2. Finish this wrap so I can work on spinning. I plowed through another half a repeat, and I plan to finish repeat 6 before bed, or at least get dang close. The wrap is now at 40 inches, unstretched, meaning I’m close to 2/3 done. My initial estimate of 11 skeins was high. 9 repeats should be exactly right, and since 1 skein is just about exactly one repeat, I should be able to do 9 repeats and both borders with 10 skeins, no problem. It may only take 9, we’ll see when I get there. There is in fact such a thing as too long. Goal: 70 inches max, blocked (probably 65 unblocked).

In the interest of finishing the wrap ASAP, I’ve not worked on the pattern, but assuming I get the wrap done by Monday (still very possible at this rate) I should still be able to publish on Monday or Tuesday. I don’t have work on Monday, so plenty of worktime.

Speaking of work- quick note- those of you who’ve known me for more than 9 months know that when I started my job I was doing something I really, really hated, but in about October I started filling in for a lady that went on medical leave. I like her job WAY more and had been just dreading the day she’d come back and I’d have to go back to IMAC hell. Today, I got the news that if she does ever return, she’ll be doing a totally different job, and I’ll be doing this one permanently, no matter what! I’m really happy about this. It makes my job infinitely more liveable to know I’ll never have to go back to that crap fulltime, just when my coworker that still does the job is out. Yay!

Knitting? What knitting? February 11, 2009

Oh you mean THIS knitting.

*cough* Yeah, uh, totally been working on the whole time. *nods* Mmm-hmm. Yup.

Ok, ok, fine, you caught me. I haven’t worked on it since Monday. But yesterday I was busy, and today I got this headache and I was super dizzy and…

What? Excuses? Well maybe, but they’re totally valid, I swear!

Alright, fine. Well I finished the 5th repeat anyway, so lay off. Only four left, I can totally get that done by Monday. Ish. Maybe.

Shut up, ok?

Today was Knittin’ Kitten night! So, yes, I did work on the wrap. For dinner (as this day there are three eating- Janelle always comes with me) I made a really tasty pasta recipe.

It’s called “Fusilli with garbanzo beans” but I used radiatore, and I added peas, and I used a half recipe but doubled the spices… Ok so it’s basically a whole new recipe. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

- 1/2 lb radiatore

- 1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

-1/2 tsp salt, plus a bit for the pasta water

- 1/2 tsp black pepper

- 1 tsp oregano

- 1/2 cup frozen peas

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

- 2 tbsp garlic, chopped

- 1/2 large yellow onion

- 1/2 bag fresh spinach

Directions

Cook pasta as directed. 3 min into cooking time, add frozen peas.

Meanwhile, heat oil over med-high heat. Add onions and cook for 3-4 min. Add garlic and oregano and stir for 30 seconds. Add vinegar, beans, salt, and pepper and cook for 5 minutes.

When pasta is done cooking to your liking, reserve 1/2 cup of cooking liquid. Drain pasta and peas. Add cooking liquid, pasta, and peas to pan with bean mixture and stir. Add spinach and toss/stir until spinach is slightly wilted. Serve.

It was really quite tasty, and very good for you. Nom nom nom.

After dinner we headed out to Knittin’ Kitten. This time I remembered to take pictures! Well… one picture. Then I forgot again. But here is what poor Sam was dealing with…

One heck of a tangle. Apparently she’d left the knitting in her bag all week and it made a real mess of itself. She ended up cutting a big chunk out. Ouch.