Puppy Love

 Well, after tonight, I can finally do the reveal on the last secret project, which for those of you following along on Ravelry and here on the blog, was referred to as Secret Project V. Because Alison has been super cool to organize all the baby blanket projects during this most recent baby wave and prior baby waves, we decided it would be fun to do a mini-baby blanket for her for Edgar, her Chihuahua-shihtzu mix. This time, Tracy volunteered to do the assembly and edging, so all I was responsible for was doing my square. The color's not right in the picture of the square , but it shows the cables best. I did cables to represent rope toys.

We presented the blanket at tonight's monthly meeting at Borders. I think Alison was surprised. She was told it was in her best interests to attend this evening. Apparently that threw her off track because she asked Tracy if we were doing an intervention or something. I'm not sure why she thought we'd stage one. What could she need an intervention from??

In any case, I think she liked it.  It's certainly her color.  And it was dog themed.  There were paw prints, dog houses, and fire hydrants.  Hopefully Edgar doesn't decide to chew it up on the first night.

Not much else has gone on since my last blog post.  I know, I know, two posts in one week.  The universe must be ending.  I did get my purple glasses for those of you not on facebook.  The picture of me blows, but you can see the purple here.  Also, I've been working on the Tramline Cable Sweater and I have two 20 row pattern repeats done.  This picture shows the cables much better than one row repeat did.   Of course I spent much of guild this evening fixing a problem in the outer rice stitch section which occurred 4 rows down from the row I was working on.  So I only got about 3 rows of "net" knitting tonight.  Sigh.

Looking forward to this weekend.  Will be trying to fit in the Wool Arts Tour. 

That's all the news that's fit to print. 

Long Time Gone

Hmm, it's been a month since I blogged.  Not sure how that happened exactly.  Remember that thing I posted about trying to slow down?  Yeah, not so much. 

First, in fiber news,  I finished the Smoke Ring with Lace Edging for me, and I finally got it blocked. Then Mindy C said she loved it and would like to knit one someday, but she didn't think she could.  I know she will be able to eventually, but since I have yarn in my stash and it only took me a couple of weeks, and she helped me get my current job, I decided to knit one for her in blue. It's the same yarn, Jaggerspun Zephyr Wool-Silk 2/18.  Of course, because the yarn is so fine and the lace is so fine, this did basically nothing to reduce my stash.  I still have 900 yards of the purple and 1200 yards of the blue.

I also had the privilege of finishing a hat for a fellow knitter who was a friend's mother.  She was making it for her great-grandson, who is two.  It won't fit him until he's a teenager, but at least he'll have it.  I hope someone finishes my last project for me when the time comes, if I haven't managed it myself.  She did up to the top of the white snowflakes and I did the rest of the hat, tassel and the two ear flaps.  I hope she's knitting with cashmere in the great beyond.

Given that the lace wasn't making a dent in the stash, I decided that the next project should be something with bigger yarn that takes up more space.  So I'm using Cascade 220 Heathers in an eggplant color to do the Tramline Cable Sweater by Vermont Fiber Designs. It's for me :) I like it so far, but it's complicated so it is going slow. I've put probably 6 hours or so into it, and I have one pattern repeat done.  But it is going to remove some actual space from the stash when it is complete. Not that it really helps, given the size of the stash, but it is a start.

The two pictures show the whole width of the sweater and a close up so you can actually see the cables.  You don't really get the whole effect of the cables traveling, I need to have to have two repeats completed for that, but go take a look at the link for the sweater and you'll see.  That wraps it up for fiber news this month.

In writing news, I've gained quite a bit on the novel.  Linda D and I have been doing writing challenges against each other, where we compete to gain the required number of words in a specific time frame.  We've added about 15,000 words or so.  I'm not saying it's all good, or that it doesn't need to be polished or the plot points refined, but I can't do that unless the raw material is on the page.  Linda spoke in her blog about her needing to wait to hear the characters speak to her.  I'm not sure that's what happens for me.  I think what does happen for me, and maybe it's the same thing really, is that I sit at the computer and ask myself, what if?  What if X happened next?  What would the characters do next?  How would they react, based on who I've decided they are and their personalities?  And I write it down.  I'm at 49,782 words which is very nearly one half of my 100,000 word goal.  It's not like I'm going to stop immediately at 100,000 words if the story's not finished, or if the story ends at 90,000 words, I'm going to stretch it to 100,000 words.  But I seem to need to have a plan for all things, and when I started writing a novel, I needed to know what that meant, so I researched what a normal novel length was on average, which is 100,000 words.  So I'm shooting for that roughly.  We were supposed to do a challenge this past weekend, but the stars weren't aligned, I guess, because neither Linda nor I wrote a single word.  For me it was just a case of having too many household chores and just not making myself do it. 

This past month, Mom started her move to AZ.  She is currently in Indianapolis, crashing with Judy and Frank for a bit, before she heads on her way to Tucson.  I'm very happy that she finally went, because Maine makes her seriously unhappy.  And I think she should be happy.  On her way out of dodge, she stopped with me for a weekend.  Of course, we went to Taipei Tokyo and then we went to the Used Book Superstore in Salem to get some reading for Mom's trip.  How can you beat paperbacks for $1.99?  I also introduced my mother to Beatles Rockband.  We just have a microphone, and Mom's performance proved that it's all about knowing the words and nothing to do with the actual singing.  So there's hope for Shawn yet :)

The following weekend, Shawn and I checked out a store called McKinnon's Meat Market in Salem, which is basically a butcher shop and deli with a grocery attached.  If you are a carnivore, it's unbelievable the extent of the different meats and cuts of meat available.  However, the rest of the grocery store is very basic and they do not have much dairy-free or dairy replacements available, so I couldn't do a whole grocery shop there.  I also attended my writer's group meeting at Mary S's house which was great.  I made a dairy free spinach onion dip that I loved, and we basically at the entire thing.  I had promised the recipe, so here it is:

1 12oz pkg Mori-Nu Silken Lite Firm Tofu
1/2 cup Nayonaise or regular mayo
1 pkg of French onion soup mix
1 (10 oz) pkg frozen spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
2-3 medium green onions, chopped or ¼ cup
1 (8 oz) can water chestnuts, coarsely chopped
3 cloves of garlic minced or just process in food processor.

Take tofu and soup mix and blend together in food processor/blender/whatever. Then mix in mayo and garlic in food processor. Then mix in spinach. Then put the mixture and the spring onions and water chestnuts in a bowl and mix up with a spoon. Let it set at least an hour, but I think overnight is best.

It was almost like I could have real dip again. Still haven't found a coffee cream replacement that I like yet.  I tried the MimicCreme that was suggested to me.  While it was the closest I found so far, unfortunately for me, about thirty seconds after I swallow the coffee with the MimicCreme in it, I get a soapy aftertaste in my mouth.  So that's a wash too. Sigh.  I did try the Chocolate Pecan Pie from the Sweet Utopia vegan dessert book, and it was pretty good. I even found a dairy free pre-made graham cracker crust so I didn't have to make it.

The following weekend I had an eye appointment and my slight change in prescription coupled with the number and variety of scratches in my current lenses meant new glasses.  They are purple.  I tried to find a picture of the frames online, but apparently not all things are google accessible.  So I'll post a picture of me wearing them when I get them. We also had dinner with Brian and Joanne and Shawn's grandparents on Sunday at which the Chocolate Pecan Pie made its debut.

This past weekend was chore heavy.  I had been ignoring the laundry or doing a load here and there as necessary for some time, so the backlog had continued to grow.  So it was eight loads on Saturday.  The same may be said for my checkbook, so balancing took some time on Saturday as well.

This month will be a bit busy as the Wool Arts Tour is next weekend, two weeks after that is Stitches East
and the weekend after that is the ManchVegas knitting retreat in Portland, Maine.  These events will also be dangerous to my net worth, so I'm going to have to be very careful.

Because the month of October will be so busy, we are planning to hold our writing group meeting virtually, and I am in charge of setting that up and coming up with some writing exercises in lieu of the meeting.  If anyone has any good ideas, feel free to forward them along.  I have grand aspirations of finding an exercise tailored to each of the members, but we'll see about that, or if I get desperate at the last minute and just slog something together.

Stay tuned for further updates as we receive them from our affiliates.

Water under the Keel

It's been a busy couple of weeks.  I am again seemingly running myself off my feet again. So I'm going to take a deep breath and try to slow down. (I know that some of you are laughing yourselves sick at that comment, stop it.)

In fiber news, I did a hat for Lora K, which I liked, but as Sarah A put it, "I can see why you don't wear hats now."  Sigh.  Here's me modeling the hat for photographic documentation purposes for Ravelry. It looks better in person and I'm sure that it will look lovely on Lora.  I just look awful in hats.

Gina H's mom recently had surgery and Gina asked for volunteers for to a square for a blanket for her.  I took a spin on Ravelry to find some patterns as Gina was looking for floral squares, but I didn't like any of them, so I designed one. I wrote it up as a freebie on Ravelry, and you can download it here.  It's named, appropriately enough, Iris Afghan Square.  Shockingly original, right?  Also, if you are not a Ravelry member, I just put a download link for the square for a pdf, in the gadget boxes to the side of this post.  Apparently people like it, or it's because it's free, but 75 people had downloaded the file as of this morning.

I also finally got to give Kristie and Chris, what has been referred to as Secret Project II for those of you following along, or the Debbie Bliss Bunny All in One, for baby Alex. Attention Knitterly, if I ever say "oh, I'm going to do something in garter because it will be quick" during another baby wave, I would appreciate it if one of you would kick me in the head. Thanks. Now I only have one Secret Project left to unveil.

Anyway, moving on to the important stuff, here's pictures of baby Alex.

Alex is a cutie, but with such cute parents, what can you expect? 

I also had dinner with Lisa E last week, and it was great to see her.  We went to Taipai Tokyo because since the whole milk thing, I basically live there.  Asian food does not generally have milk in it, so I have a lot of choices, whereas other cuisines have little or no choices for me.  Of course we were there for three hours, because that seems to be a standard dinner length for us :) 

On Saturday last weekend, I went to Boston to see Laura V.  I know I've probably mentioned this before, but it's funny how much Boston is actually home for me.  When I cross the bridge entering the city from 93, I get a relaxed sense of calm and giddy butterflies in my stomach, like I'm excited to finally be home again.  Maine does not do that for me in the slightest.  In fact, when I cross the bridge in Portsmouth and go over the border, I get the feeling of having cement blocks on my shoulders, and I think, oh god, not this again (this is the PG version of that thought). I've lived in New Hampshire for 13 years now, but I don't really seem to care about it one way or the other.  But Boston makes me all sunshine-y and cheery.

We decided to do silly touristy things and take the T from Laura's to Government Center and go to Faneuil Hall and then to the New England Aquarium from there.  We grabbed some salads from one of the vendors and then got in line at the aquarium.  I forgot that it was summer and that it was not a school day. I did get some great pictures, courtesy of cleaning them up with photoshop after.  Here's an example to your left.  This is unedited, exactly as it came out of the camera. On the right is the picture after extensive fiddling with photoshop.  There are way too many pictures to even put a selection of them here, but there's a public link to my facebook album located here. 

After the aquarium, we were supposed to go to a restaurant that does shabu-shabu in Brookline, but there is now a Wagamama at Faneuil Hall, and since I had not been to one since I visited New Zealand, we ended up going there instead.  I had the ginger chicken udon which was teppan-fried udon noodles with chicken, egg, beansprouts, red and spring onions, mangetout and chili, garnished with pickled ginger and coriander. It was so yummy!  And it was so good to see Laura.

In other fiber news, I've been meaning to mention this for a couple of weeks, but I discovered a knitting comic strip. I was emailed by a woman on Ravelry that wanted advice about upsizing the Ruth's Cardigan in Kauni yarn, since I had mentioned it in my project that I was having to upsize it.  In responding I mentioned I liked her tattoo, which was a ball of yarn with a crown on it.  She responded that it was symbolic of the knitting comic strip that she writes, the Knit Princess.  You should check it out, it's pretty funny and her new book is available on Amazon.  There's also a link in my blog list.

In current project news, I'm working on Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer's Smoke Ring with Lace Edging which is a cross between a cowl and a wimple.  I'm using Jaggerspun Zephyr which is a merino silk blend and I'm quite liking it now that I have it on bamboos.  Metal needles weren't working so much, they were too slippery for the yarn.  You can't really see what it's really going to look like because lace always needs to be blocked within an inch of it's life, but I'm happy with it so far.  I may even be able to wear it to work with a suit.

This weekend we are planning to be slugs, other than me needing to do laundry because I have no clothes left, and balancing the checkbook and paying the bills.  I have no plans other than guild and I am not making any.  I am going to slow it down, damn it.

That's all the news that's fit to print.  Stay tuned for breaking news.

Do You Want to Know A Secret?

Well, I can finally unveil Secret Project IV, Parts A and B to all and sundry. We presented Sarah A with the afghan on Thursday night at Alison M's home. When a member of our group gets pregnant, we normally do a group project. We all knit a square and usually I'm idiot enough to volunteer to put the thing together. My square is shown before the assembly. We also had enough squares this time to do a pillow too.

Thanks to Mary T, Mary S, Donna D, Angi F, Mary Kate R, Tracy B, Alison M, Ellen R, Lora K, Sally H-D, Paula M, Stephie S, Linda D, and Nancy B. I had to take several pictures to get them all in and they are not the greatest, but they were the best I could get.

I think Sarah A was pleased, if not surprised.  It's kind of hard to be surprised, when she got one a year and a half ago or so for Gabriel, Sally H-D got one two months ago, and we asked her to pick out the color. I can't believe that the time has gone so quickly and that she'll be having the little munchkin in three weeks or less.

(If you click on the pictures, they get bigger so that you can see the individual squares) Now I only have two more secret projects to unveil on the blog once the recipients have received them.  

This past week I helped a friend make these handkerchief bonnets for her niece's christening, as she doesn't sew. Which would have been a piece of cake, if (a) we had actually just used a handkerchief, instead of cutting them from material and (b) if we had used a lace edging rather than using the all over lace sleeves from her mother's wedding dress for the sake of sentimentality. I get the sentimentality but it was a royal pain in the neck. They did turn out beautifully though, given all of the above hassle. You're supposed to just be able to cut a couple of stitches and then it turns back into a handkerchief that a boy can give to his future wife for something old at their wedding and a girl can use for her something old at her wedding. We made two, one for her niece and one for her nephew.  Remind me that the next time someone asks me to help them sew something, I'm supposed to say no. I'm really not the greatest seamstress as it is too exacting for me and I can't fudge things or make them work the way I can with knitting.

I did manage to finish the fingerless mitts this week at Alison's which I would have finished on Sunday, had I knit at all after coming home from guild last week.  I like them, but there were a one size fits all pattern, and I don't think it actually does.  I had to cut off one of the cable repeats to insure that it would still fit, and I think I'd have been happier overall if I'd gone up a needle size to compensate for my fat little hands.  I do think that I'll make another pair of them in a slightly less screaming color and in a finer yarn for the office, and I'll leave these ones at home.  Not the same pattern though. I love, love the yarn though.  It's Malabrigo merino worsted and it's just yummy soft.  It's one of those yarns that I could just roll in.

I've started another "not for me" project for a friend that should be quick.  Once that's done, I need to find my next complicated wacky project for me.  I'm thinking about a lace stole, but we'll see.  I have three hundred or so patterns faved on ravelry.com and I finally finished tagging them so I can easily search them for things I can do next.  Yes, I know that I'm compulsive, thank you for your concern, moving on.  I really want to work on stash reduction, and be serious about it.  (I say this as I have one knitting convention to go to at the end of October and a knitting retreat at the beginning of November. My inner knitter says HA!)  But in fairness to me, I did do the mitts with stash and the project for my friend is stash yarn too. So every bit is progress.  On second thought though, lace yarn does not take up much space, so maybe I should do a sweater for me.  Hmmm. 

This week I also managed to write some as I was hosting the writing group at my house this week. I made a chocolate toasted walnut wheat bread using Ghiradelli chocolate chips (dairy free) which was good, it was sort of like the bread and chocolate at Bread and Chocolate in Concord. Which is good, because I can't have that any more. So now I can make this instead.  Writing group went well I think.  Mary S's haikus were hilarious, and Mary Kate and I are slogging forward.  I did sort through my timeline issue, but I still don't think it's right.  I need to add more stuff.  So that's the goal for next month.  I also need to do the re-writes that have been suggested, but that I haven't managed in slogging through the time lines.  But I now have 125 pages and 37,191 words. 

I hesitate to mention this in a blog entry that has been focused on rambling about the little things we do in our lives, as I don't want to offend anyone, but I think that's part of what life is about, the little things, the big good things, and the bad, terribly, painful things.  So it seems appropriate to me to include it, but I apologize in advance if anyone thinks it is insensitive.  In the last few weeks, three of my friends have had someone special in their lives die.  There are no words of comfort that are sufficient, and nothing that makes it easier but time.  The intensity of pain will recede like a tide, but it resurges every now again for years, and some tides are stronger than others.  But over time the good memories and the joy in having had the person in your life and in having had them influence who you have become, grows stronger than the pain, and we can remember them and take joy in who they were without the pain.  Remember that you are not alone and you have friends who love you and will be there for you as much as you need, while we're waiting for the tide to go out. 

On that somber note, that concludes our broadcast for this week.  Stay tuned for further updates.

Englishman in New York (or Boston rather)

Narrator voice over: As we last left our protagonist (heroine just sounds so dumb), she had just finished describing her great day with her husband on the coast of Maine and New Hampshire.  Now for the continuing story of eclectic pursuits:

Think of the quote above being said in the narrator voice from the intro for Pigs in Space from the Muppet Show.  I know I'm easily amused, but I'm cracking myself up again.  You all may tell me I'm a dork again, and appropriately so.

So anyway, to continue, on Thursday of our vacation I went to see Sting and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra with Laura V, Linda D and her sister Barb L. It was so great! We had really good seats and had a really good time. Linda D cracked me up the whole time, but she really enjoyed it too. I tried to take pictures on the blackberry, but the camera on that thing blows or I'm just not able to figure it out. I had to photoshop the bejesus (is that how you spell that?) out of them, but here are the sort of decent ones.

Linda D just looks rapturously stunned in this picture which was actually pretty accurate.  I really liked the concert and the orchestra was wonderful and it was much more vibrant than I expected.  The conductor of the orchestra was almost dancing and pirouetting like a ballerina and it was making Laura V and I laugh through the whole show.  But I really liked the music and the re-arrangement of the songs. And it was Sting, so how could you want more?

The only bad part was that I didn't get to bed until about 2 a.m. and then, on Friday morning, me being me, I went into the office from 8:30 a.m. or so until about 10:45 am.  When I got back, we took Shawn's grandparents, Shirley and Al, to lunch at Taipei Tokyo.  We hadn't seen them for some time because with Shawn's schedule, we barely see each other.  There may be a possibility of Shawn getting a different shift and still having some time off on the weekends, so we are crossing our fingers.  I'm hoping not to jinx it.

The rest of the day Friday and the rest of the weekend we kind of laid low.  I did a boat load of knitting, as I was supposed to have finished both of the remaining Secret Projects outstanding, to wit, Secret Project IV, Part B and Secret  Project II, by the end of vacation.  However, it didn't quite happen.  

As a result I knit obsessively the following week to try to get it done. Last weekend I was in shouting distance of the finish line. I was watching my friend Kat's daughter Kenna on Friday and Saturday night, so after she went to sleep on the couch waiting for her mom, I was able to make significant progress.  (Funniest quote of the weekend - I asked Kenna what she wanted for dinner while she was playing sword fighting on Wii Resort with Shawn.  Answer "I want revenge for dinner!" She's seven.)  On Friday night I knit obsessively until 2:30 am or so until I started to mess up as I fell asleep while doing it.  On Saturday I was able to finish both parts of Secret Project IV, Part B by mid afternoon.  On I went to Secret Project II for Chris and Kristie.  In between playing Wii with Kenna, I was able to have most of it done.  I finally finished it by 11:00 pm on Sunday, bringing an end to this wave of the baby invasion.  WOOO HOOOO!  I can't post pics until the recipients have received their gifts, but for those of you on Ravelry, pics of Secret Project II are out there, because Chris and Kristie are not knitters.

The rest of this week has mostly been about getting things back on track.  On Monday I blocked the projects and Shawn was home on a rare night off having traded day.  Tuesday I visited with some of my knitting friends and had a swim at Tracy's.  Since I'm not sure what I want my next knitting masochist project to be, I'm doing some purple fingerless mitts in a worsted Malabrigo as a quickie project.  Plus I've needed some of these forever, and keep getting sidetracked.  After figuring out my yardage totals for finishing each of the Secret Projects, I updated my knitmeter, I'm edging in on almost four miles of yarn for the past year. Yes, again, I am a knit geek. 

Since my writing group is meeting at my apartment for our monthly meeting next weekend, I also tried to get some writing in, but I only gained about 480 words.  I'll need to get more together by tomorrow night, which is when our submissions are supposed to be put on the website. 

In other news, Shawn bought me Beatles Rockband and a microphone.  Which I think is hilarious because he must be a glutton for punishment.  Since we got it, I've been requesting that he serenade me with a song on it.  So far, no dice.

I think I'm mostly caught up to date, which is my cue to either go work on the novel or clean the house for the group.

Stay tuned.

Octopus's Garden

It's been awhile since I blogged.  Think of this as a catch up post.  During the last week in July, Shawn and I had our "staycation" and our third wedding anniversary.  It was a busy week.  Next year I'm actually going to to go somewhere so that I don't over schedule like that again, and so that I don't go into work and work at home again.  I figure that over the course of my vacation, I worked about a normal day. But things ran fairly smoothly so it was probably for the best.  I already blogged about the first day of my vacation, but the yarn I got at the factory give away thing is still cracking me up.  Check out this picture.  I put a strand of sock yarn (fingering weight) for comparison for the knitters on one side, and a large paperclip on the other side for the non knitters.  The strand of yarn is obviously in the middle.  How freaking small is that??  It's still making me laugh.  I'm going to have to dye some and test knitting it, just for giggles.

On Monday during our vacation we had Lora K's boys for the day. So it was all Wii all the time, particularly since Shawn had gotten the new Harry Potter lego game for the Wii.   On Tuesday I went into the office to sign stuff for a couple of hours.  Since I get up at the crack of dawn whether I want to or not, and as Shawn sleeps in every morning due to working late shifts, he didn't even notice I'd gone in.  In the afternoon we went to one of chain of new Used Book Superstores that have opened.  We went to the Salem location.  They charge $1.99 for paperbacks and $2.99 for hardcovers.  I had a coupon so I got 12 books for $11.94, so I was pleased.

Wednesday the 28th was our anniversary, so we decided to go for a Portsmouth Harbor Cruise, which was really nice. Fairly inexpensive too, and we got a discount for having Triple A. I think it wound up costing $30 for both of us. We had a nice ride around the harbor and heard a story about how Humphrey Bogart alleged got his scar and lisp when he was a marine escorting a prisoner to the naval prison pictured to the left which totally looks more like a castle. There were some other historical tidbits about the role of the harbor in the Revolutionary War and World War II, but the specifics have escaped my memory now. We got a little sun burned but it was a really pretty tour and nice to be on the water. I posted a more complete album of photos on facebook. 

The tour took less time than we thought it would, and our dinner reservations weren't until 7:00 pm, so we drove to Nubble Lighthouse which is just a bit north of the York Harbor Inn where we were having dinner.  The York Harbor is where we got married.  We took more pictures of course, and I've posted the complete album on facebook.

I did get a couple of nice shots of seagulls flying which surprised me.  The digital camera is slow.

Dinner at the York Harbor Inn unfortunately was a huge disappointment.  It appears to have gone downhill severely since we were last there, to the point that even with the sentimental value to the place, I doubt we'll go back unless we've heard things have improved.  I even wrote them a letter with the comment card expressing our concerns, which I mailed just about two weeks ago now, and I have not received a response, which is even more disappointing.  But we did have a really good special day, even with the food being kind of lousy.

I can't believe that it's been three years since we got married, and in December it will be seven years since we met.  How is that possible?

Blogger is giving me fits with formatting with the pictures in this, so I'll continue on in another post.

Stay tuned.