Pearly Whites & Knitting Angst

I had a dentist appointment this morning. It was just a regular cleaning, not even x-rays this time.

I don't much care to go to the dentist but I REALLY don't like having my teeth drilled, so I am A+++ Great Dental Hygiene person. Oh yes I floss.

It's probably wrong and all messed up that I get a little glow inside when I get "Wow, you have great teeth!" compliments from the dentist. It's my little opportunity for professional approval, seeing as I'm a fatty and always get the lose weight talk from the doctor (at least he's nice about it.)

Anyway, hooray, no cavities! Safe for another 6 months.
The robins do not care about the state of your teeth.

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I've been kinda off lately, hence all the navel gazing. Also I've been suffering through a spate of the gimmes. You know, happiness through retail therapy? What I really need is less of things. sigh.

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I made aioli last night for the first time. Wow, was that easy. I don't think I've ever done an emulsion before besides salad dressing (and that always separates, I don't shake it up enough). This was garlic aioli with rosemary and thyme, as a sauce for roasted root vegetables. I sometimes like to buy weird veggies and try them. Yeah, I don't know how to explain the Weird Vegetable Fascination either. I mean, fennel? Leeks? You just haven't lived 'til you've stared at celeriac, wondering what to do with it.

Although, I've never used to be much of a vegetable fan, they always needed to be slathered with sauces and spreads to mask the taste. That was until I discovered that I do like veggies, I just don't like how they'd usually been served to me. I'm a fan of the raw and the lightly cooked. And I've also discovered that I adore roasting. Cauliflower didn't have to be watery and boring, but it could be sweet and nutty. Broccoli? Doesn't have to be steamed into pale green submission.

So the wild hair up my rear this time was parsnips and rutabagas (I got some carrots to, as a backup) (Cook's Illustrated described people as thinking of parsnips as "pale, anemic carrots," which cracks me up.) After some initial confusion as to how large or small to slice the Vegetables of Mystery, I roasted for about 45 with some carrots, onions and garlic. Mmmmm yum, they were delicious, especially with a little touch of the aioli. Did you know rutabagas turn this lovely golden color when roasted?

The hen-and-chicks is not interested in the color of roasted rutabagas, as long as you do not eat them.

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SeekrIt Project is done and submitted. Now I'm working on a hat, just a 3x2 rib, but it's made out of something special. My friend and coworker Cassidy gave me the first handspun she ever made with her new wheel, as a thank you for some dyes I'd given her. Her first handspun! Aren't you supposed to enshrine that up on the mantle, like bronzed baby shoes? She says she doesn't care for the colors.

Cassidy's handspun

And here comes the Knitting Angst. See, I like to knit. I actually enjoy just forming the stitches and watching it grow. Color changes? Even more engrossing. I also like to design because I like doing my own thing. But I really don't like the involved angst. Some days I'm better at coping than others, but right now, I Just Want To Knit.

So. Try #1 at the hat was too small (yes I knit a gauge swatch). Also seemed a little too open so I went down a needle size. Try #2 seemed way too big until I tried it on and it's just perfect now. Whew. I'm happily knitting along on my big ribbed tube (I tell K it's a cat cozy), but the yarn is getting a bit thicker as I go along and now I'm all worried. Is it too stiff? Should I go up a needle size? I'll have to decrease a bunch of stitches so it's not too big. Am I losing the essential lovely springiness of the yarn?

Gah, it's this WORRY that bugs me more than anything else. See, really, I should just go up a needle size or 2, try that out and see how it looks, and if I like it better, rip it out back to the part where I'm afraid it's too stiff and change to the other needle. But I DON'T WANT TO RIP AGAIN. grrr. I want it to be perfect NOW, the first time. grump.

This whole obsessively perfect-on-the-first try thing is bugging the hell out of me.

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Aw crud. Something happened (no, nothing big. I'm just crap at regulating how I feel these days. Tiny little things make huge waves), and now I feel like dirty smelly 5-day-old garbage. I'm going back in my hermit hole.