I've been dyeing

a little.

Sleepytime

Labyrinth

BFL pin roving

Precious Metals

Teal is the New Black

Ripe Limes


I've been trying to move outside of my color comfort zones. I've been having a great time just messing around. The problem is, what am I going to do with all this yarn, now? (and the names? totally so much fun coming up with them)

Christmas

Oh yes, I said it. Yes I did.

I have a strong desire to just get all the makework of Christmas done early this year. I like the idea of contacting people and I like my friends and family but honestly, cards are a pain in the derriere. I love giving presents but I dislike being pushed to figure something out and find it at the last minute. I am annoyed by long lines at the post office. I avoid putting together packages (I don't really understand why, it just seems to take me forever.)

I feel like this every year but it seems particularly strong this time. I love Christmas. I like laid-back holidays; we never had high-expectation holidays when I was a kid and I continue to refuse to stress out about something that's supposed to make me happy, at least on the day of. This year I'd just like to extend that for most of the month, since I enjoy the ambiance so much (5 billion repeats of "All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth" is NOT AMBIANCE, it's NOISE). I don't enjoy shopping in crowds at all, and if I do it in November, then I won't have to in December. But all the decorations? Even some of the cheesy old carols? The smell of pine? Pretty lights? LOVE.

We're probably not traveling this year - for the first time in 9 years. The Love Monkey's work thought it'd be a good idea to have some January deadline (yeah, that always works SO WELL), so he can't really take off extra time. I made him absolutely promise not to work Christmas, though, not even unofficially. I'm secretly happy I do not have to battle airlines and weather and cope with buses and luggage and travel, although we'll miss being with family.

Anyway. Christmas. Maybe I was a crow in previous life, since I have such an affinity for shiny, pretty, and glittery, especially in December. Everything else seems so dark and cold during this time of year, and winter holidays seem to cut right through that.

-------------------

I bought a suit this weekend. There was an extremely lucky happy accident for me at a consignment shop on Saturday. I have never owned a suit in my life; my "pretend I look professional" clothes are sad and don't really communicate that message very well. I wonder if this is another checkbox on the "adult" list I can check off.

We pause for station identification

Ha ha, get it, PAWS!!???!!

Because crappy puns are about all I can manage today. Not sick, just meh. It's okay, this happens ever late autumn/winter.


Frances believes I should look more into hibernation.

Stupid Monday

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah rain rain blah blah blah blah blah blah blah rain rain rain rain

Pretending I am an artiste

Which is really easy to do when you've got subjects as beautiful as the ones in the Japanese Gardens in Fall.






The 'rents loved it, and the farmer's market was great too (Sadly the chile man was GONE! I guess that was his last weekend 2 weeks ago.) It was a lovely Saturday.

Rainy Friday

I'm rocking the drowned rat look today. I biked to work in the rain, and it wasn't just drizzle today. Not super heavy, but heavy enough. It was FABULOUS! I had the streets mostly to myself (besides the cars), and it wasn't really that cold; I wore knee-high wool socks under my pants and they keep me pretty warm even when wet.

I had on a rain jacket, no problems there, but my shoes are soaking wet. Ah well. I brought extra socks and I keep a pair of sandals stashed under my desk at work. I'm wearing my red Hawaiian shirt today (made in Hawaii!) in honor of the weather.

See, I really really needed to move around today, quickly. And for a bonus, when you're sweating, the rain isn't really all that noticeable (except when it was whipping into my face. bleh. Need to get clear goggles or something).

I love my parents and enjoy having them around, but I'm also used to my own ways of doing things and it's stressful to me to upset my routine. Doesn't that just make me sound fusty? But it's true, and it's easier to cope with if I acknowledge it. I've also gots lots of fun psychological baggage and that always comes screaming to the fore when family is around. Oh, nothing horrible, just regular stuff.

Mom & I are spending evenings knitting on the couch; it's pretty awesome. She and Grandma taught me to knit in the first place, and now I'm showing her how to do sock heels. (She decided to make Christmas socks for everyone this year (sock gifting is our obscure family tradition) and she chose 4 different patterns with 3 different heels and hasn't ever done socks before. Although the beauty of doing an ENORMOUS sock on worsted weight yarn is that you can see everything you're doing really well.)

She picked up heel flaps just like that (ha, ha, 'picked up'). I haven't ever done afterthought heels but the directions were enough that we worked through them together, and tonight it's a short row heel. Meanwhile I am working on mittens for the nieces. Whoosh, they go fast (and I am a slow, slow knitter).

Tomorrow we'll hit the downtown farmer's market, and maybe the Japanese Garden, and perhaps some Fabric Depot goodness or just lounge about and play a couple games. I'm really grateful they were able to retire this year, because they're getting up there and I thought they ought to have some time to enjoy themselves. They seem to be having a pretty good time with it.

Can't talk, parents here

* spent a good chunk of the weekend cleaning. Necessary but not fun
* this visit they are now telling me what they prefer to eat. Win!
* why did I make my dentist checkup for 8 am? WHY?

October Saturday at the Farmer's Market

(warning: picture heavy)
I had to drop off the Love Monkey for an early thingy at PSU, and stopped at the downtown farmer's market. I got there before they even opened. It's a perfect, beautiful fall day today, crisp and clear (and cold in the morning).
Zinnias!

I think I'd like a Fuji. No, a Honeycrisp! But what about those Galas?
I bought 2 Winter Bananas for making a crisp tonight. Or maybe apple cake. I am having trouble deciding.

Lot of independent cheese makers, especially this time of year as the produce winds down. This guy makes some fantastic French cheese with names I've never heard of.


The Chile Man Roasteth. I am SO HAPPY this guy is here. Otherwise I have to wait until I visit my parents in New Mexico to get my green chile fix. He's got the goods too: Sandia, Española, and Barker Hot, among all the usual poblanos and jalapenos. Oh, we are definitely having some this weekend. YUM


Pimientos de Padron & chestnuts. Yeah, I got some. It was completely impulsive, as I have NO IDEA how to cook chestnuts. None. Fortunately I admitted my ignorance to the seller and she gave me a run down on how to roast them.

Artichoke bloom

Navel-gazing for fun and profitlessness

I know, I promised dyeing, but I didn't feel well enough to don a face mask and mix up solutions on Saturday (coughing & dust mask do not mix well), and Sunday I got carried away mixing up stock solutions and um, didn't get to the dyeing part until late?

I was reading through Fillyjonk's ideas for a new sweater (set aside the momentary fact that I have yet to complete an adult sweater, ok?) and something clicked in my head that I've been mulling over for years. Maybe I can articulate it now. It's kind of a theory of acquisition. Let's use clothing as an example. I'm drawn to certain patterns, colors, drapes - that I probably wouldn't ever wear. Willet is an example. I agree with Fillyjonk, it is very cute and sweet. But then I've learned to examine my thoughts and come to the conclusion that I'd be trying to purchase being the kind of person who would wear that. It would look all wrong on me.

I suppose you could say it didn't fit my personal style or blah blah whatever but do I even HAVE a personal style? Lately, I pretty much wear whatever I can get my hands on that fits me well, which is pretty scarce these days. I do a lot of nicer t-shirts. I'm not sure I really want to be doing a lot of nicer t-shirts but I suppose it's comfortable if nothing else.

But if I bought/made this thing, would I change to be someone who would wear it?

All of this is entangled in weight issues too, since I would look MUCH different in many of the clothes I see than the model in the picture does, and also there is the back of my mind trying to purchase her SHAPE and not just her clothes blah blah blah. But things that they tell me are designed to look good on big people so often just repel me. I have never learned to love the wrap sweater, and frankly, I've seen very few pictures of people I think look good in one.

So. I very rarely buy pattern booklets or magazines or books of patterns because usually 97% of most patterns 1) don't look like something I would wear, or 2) would look like crap on big ol' me (this isn't hyperbole. 3 out of every 100 commercial patterns is about my appeal rate)

Meh, I forget the point here. Something about transforming into the person who'd wear those clothes. Right now I'm only transforming into MC Phlegm (rockin' the bronchial tubes, yo yo!)

Bah, sick

I've had a cold since Tuesday, early morning. I know exactly who I got it from too, I am looking at YOU, hacking, coughing, sneezing lady sitting directly behind me at the book signing at Knit/Purl on Monday night. So as a public request, I ask you please: people, if you are sick, STAY HOME, unless you really have to go out. The cold's now moved down to my lungs and it's so much fun coughing until my head and chest hurt. The Love Monkey picked it up today and I am force-feeding him zinc because hoo boy was I out of it for a couple days, just sleeping and staring at walls. I finally started getting a sense of smell back yesterday (and, by extension, was able to taste more than sweet/sour/salty/bitter).

I checked out a book of short stories by Connie Willis from the library a couple weeks ago and am very grateful I did - they're just about my attention span at this point and I find I enjoy her writing. This is only the second thing I've read from her. The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories. It's a pretty thick hardback from the library, but it's larger text so I'm already 3/4 done. Then again, there has been the few days of afore-mentioned wall-staring.

Last week I ripped through The Gone-Away World, by Nick Harkaway. It was a bit rough getting used to the cadence of his writing (maybe because he's British?), but after 50 pages I wanted to find out what happened and after 100 I was fairly well hooked. And then it proceeded to break my heart. The main theme resonated a bit too close to my own opinions on the subject. Plus, you know, it has ninjas. And secret weapons, mimes, and true love gone astray. I sound like the beginning of the Princess Bride.

Tomorrow: adventures in dyeing roving. A.k.a. what not to felt.

Greetings from Oregon

I found this fine, fine specimen of a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk on the wall near the hose yesterday. (It looks big in the picture but it was only 5" or so long.)

I am irritated at everyone and everything tonight, except then I read the Wikipedia page on banana slugs and it's full of awesome. Pneumostome? Estivate? Detrivore? Why didn't I go into biology and study slugs?

Oh, and those Green Zebra tomatoes?
Yeah, not so much Green Zebras.

I don't tweet

Because I'm too lazy to set it up.

But life seems to be best summed up in one-liners lately. Or maybe I'm just lazy again.

Topic one: allergies
My sinuses are making a determined effort to kill me.

Cetirizine works but makes me tired all the time (sleep for 10 hours a night). I suspect that it also has the odd side effect of raising my blood pressure.

Loratadine works, but only at full strength, for a few hours.

At least there's benedryl, for when I can't sleep.

Really tired of sneezing. The BACK OF MY THROAT ITCHES


Topic two: dyeing
Really grooving on this lately. Especially the overdyeing.

Overdyeing also extends the fun, seeing as a) I don't have a yarn sale business, so b) I have way, way too much yarn.

Kraemer Jeannie has a really, really fast strike time. wow. Should have used that for my turquoise-brown mix, instead of the nylon/wool.


Topic three: knitting
Knittingly frustrated. I keep swatching for designs, can't ever get things right.

I really ought to pick up K's sweater, rip it out, and start over.


Topic four: weather
It's 90 degrees here today. Summer++!


Topic four: climate, meteorology, and popular belief
The Autumnal equinox is not the "first day of fall".

For no good reason, it bugs the hell out of me when people say this.

Don't believe me? The summer solstice, until relatively recently, was known as MIDSUMMER. MID. summer. That's because as the day with the longest amount of sunlight at the most direct angle, by all rights it should be the hottest day of the year (except it's not, because the earth takes a while to warm up and so lags behind a bit)

Which ought to be the smack dab middle of the season, not the beginning.

Really? end of December the "beginning" of winter? Where I live winter pretty much sets in by the end of November.

Grumpy old coot.

Remember that domesticity thing?

Kurt helped me can 7 pints of peaches tonight. I am now tiredly listening to the seals pop close. It's really entertaining. Did I mention I was tired?

(I know, 7 pints, not so many. If I was going to all that work, I should have made a bunch more, right? Except I can barely get through that many in one winter. I do pint jars because it takes me a couple weeks to go through one and that's about as long as they last. Also I only bought one box because I am insane and thought I would need more for the cobbler and fresh eating but no, I got through about 5 of 15 GINORMOUS peaches. If I really lose my mind this weekend maybe I'll buy a box of the Hales)

In other news, this is Harley:
Harley is the neighbor's new cat and he is very friendly and also dumb as rocks. He also likes to hang out in our yard. A lot. Frances is not okay with this development. Harley still hasn't picked up on that yet, as he still comes and hangs around until Frances the 3 legged wonder cat chases him out.

Full disclosure:
Well, I didn't get to the curtains. I need to dye the fabric yet because the piece I was thinking about is, I think, just not quite long enough.

Postcards from the garden

I'm really a haphazard gardener. I don't put in enough time or effort to make it look really nice. I use to think I was a plant killer until someone gave me a pothos as a house-warming present and The Plant That Would Not Die is still alive and has a few dozen clones around (the beauty of pothoses (pothii?) are that you are supposed to ignore them. I water mine maybe once a week. It hates more than that, despite that if you cut off a branch and leave it in water it'll grow roots. Go figure). Then I found that peas and mint are pretty much a given, as long as you water them, and the rest, well, if it survives, great. If not, I'm usually not heartbroken.

Anyway. Really I need to get a nice picture of the black and blue sage because it's a knockout, grows and blooms all summer, and a perennial to boot (oh, and dang, they drew HUMMINGBIRDS the other day!). But work is killing off what little brain I have right now and so I'm going to cheat and use pictures from the last few months.

These tomatoes are breaking my heart. They are Green Zebras and I have a whole plant full of heavy huge juicy... unripe tomatoes. They've been unripe for about a month now and I don't hold out much hope for them, now that it's September. They get less and less sun every day. sigh, teach me to plant tomatoes somewhere that doesn't get a full 8 hours of direct sun every day. I could use the excuse it's been a bad tomato year here; despite the heat wave in July it really wasn't that warm a summer. But I'd be eating green zebras now if I had put them in a better place. Maybe.

Baby heartbreaker tomato

Pink tiger flowers. These come up in the backyard every year, no thanks to me. They were here when I got here. Very pretty, though.

New daylily plants I bought bare-root in May (April?) I'm pleased they actually bloomed this year. And because I like red.

Frances says: surely you could find some tuna about your person?

I cook better than Chili's

And that's all I have to say today.

August Sky

It's been an unusual August; way more rain than usual, and not big thunderstorm rain, either. Sadly it kind of feels like Fall. I like Fall but I like to get in my full Summer experience.

The skies have been so gorgeous lately. It's all purple and raining lightly right now but I can never capture the color on camera. The western sky, all different shades of violet. Maybe I can dye something like that.

These are from a couple weeks ago

I am so domestic it's painful

Last weekend: Cleaned the carpets (by myself! with one of those rented cleaners!)

This weekend's plan: Curtains.

More pictures from Sock Summit

Sock snakes at the Skacel booth! My favorite is the zauberball orange-pink-purple one.

Zardra's Rivendells in the sock museum.

I try to get some of Jenifleur's coolness to rub off on me. I'm wearing my handmade CAKE! shirt. I should get the Love Monkey to take a front & back picture.

Camille and Imbrium! (waving frantically to Imbrium) Hi Imbrium! It was so cool to actually meet with you. Thanks for hanging with me.

Fickleknitter and her hat of awesomeness. Truly, I feel less irradiated already (she let me try it on)


This is what is technically known as a metric craptonne of yarn. (hey, and fiber, too)

I like this one because they both look like they're having such a great time. That's Jen & assistant, with the colorways inspired & created by assistant.

And (mumble mumble) you can see me doing my best eeeevil expression at Camille at the Handknit Heros booth. Yeah, I need to work on the evilness.

Mesmerizing Title Goes Here

I haven't even taken the pictures off the camera yet, I was so tired after this weekend. Not only because of the complete yarn fume overload of the market, meeting a bunch of new people; I helped out a chunk of Friday, and most of Saturday and Sunday. I'm also having trouble writing after I found out Saturday that a friend of mine received some terrible news. I just keeps popping up in my head.

But these two things made me smile this week.

Jenny Owen Young's cover of "Hot In Here" by Nelly (SFW), which I saw first over at Shapely Prose


and "8 Miles Wide", by Storm Large

Bits of the video NSFW, and lyrics definitely NSFW

Total Sensory Overload

Gotta make this quick, since I am already late this morning.





All of these completely fail to show you the scope of this place. It's like 30 yarn stores all specializing in hand-dyed yarn (+ others. The booth across from Rabbitworks is all silk) have set up their favorite stock.

Met a lot of people that I don't have time to link to now. Also need more sleep. I fondled enough yarn for 30 people, and I still didn't see it all.

A conversation about greed

To set the scene: I've been biking to work every day this week. It's been lovely, especially since the temps have plummeted this week and it's perfect and cool in the mornings.

K the love monkey: So are you biking on Friday?

me: No, I'm stopping off at the Sock Summit on the way to work and I thought it'd be more of a bother than just taking the train.

K: Oh, not enough room in the bike bag for yarn? You could take the other one too.

me: I don't really plan on filling two big bags full of yarn

K: So you'd need three then?

P.S.

I feel sorta bad about talking about the SS, because I'm acutely aware that a lot of people who would have like to come can't, and I'm just here because of a lucky accident of geography. I wish I could meet you all. Also I'm hesitant because every year I read around eleventy-billion posts about Rhinebeck and Maryland and it can get really. annoying. Yes, I am a petty person.

On the other hand, I also enjoy the festivals vicariously through the blog posts & pictures. So if you prefer, I'll shut up about it, just let me know.

S-O-C, K-S-U, M-M-(pause)-I-T

The summiteers* should be showing up today. I'm looking forward to seeing the hordes of knitters descend upon the city (although not looking forward to how much my train trip to work on Friday is going to suck. Ah well, small price to pay).

I've been itching to dye the past few weeks. Here's one I did the other day.


I call it "Jungle Boogie" or "I said I wanted it really, really green, dammit"

* Like mousketeers, only with more knit.

They look like little jewels

Little cherry tomato jewels


I never liked raw tomatoes as a kid. I blame this on the fact that my father was a firm beefsteak man, and although he loved his home grown, I am not really into that much acid. These cherry tomatoes are like candy. They are best picked straight off the vine and popped into the mouth, while still warm.

Also, might I mention that these monster plants are now OVER SIX FEET TALL? The stakes aren't high enough to support them any more. As you might've guessed, I don't usually try to grow tomatoes. I might do these again, though, they're so good. And they weren't as much of a pain in the ass to grow as I thought they might be (except for all the stakes. aggh). I did do some crazy amount of digging/amending the soil, though. I live in CLAY LAND.

The pepper plant doesn't look nearly so pretty, but trust me they are as tasty (once grilled up/sauteed, then salted).
We had Pimientos de Padron first as a kind of tapas appetizer. Then I found a place at the farmer's market that sold them and we could make our own. And this year, I found a plant. mmmm, yes.

Sometimes when I can't really figure out my own life and don't know what to do with myself, I turn the left thing into the right thing.
I realize it's a bit obsessive compulsive, probably , but untangling can be very soothing. I think the key thing is that I know I really can't screw it up.

Neurotic much?

I finished some socks. I came off the Sooper Seekrit lace bender and the appeal of stockinette self-patterning was irresistible.
Here they are, trying to hide in the shrubbery.
Basil Uber Alles