Bah

I HAVE been working on things - quite a lot actually. I've just been busy at work, too, so my time that I get to myself in the evenings has NOT been spent in front of the computer. I really owe people pictures that I have yet to transfer from my camera, and I REALLY need to update this.

I finished a few small things, continued slogging through some bigger things, and I am moving. That's the biggest thing. There's no time to sit and watch a movie, which means I'm probably not sitting still to knit either. Plus, the house that we moved into is kept a bit cooler than the apartment that we came from so all my projects on metal needles are freezing in my hands. Sigh. I'll get there.

Food Coma

Christmas was nice and quiet for us. I've spent the last few days baking - 4 different kinds of cookies: gingerbread, snickerdoodles, apricot/shortbread pinwheels and chocolate chip (ALL VEGAN!) and one set of vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. So. Much. Good. Food. Lots of good friends too. I had friends from work join us for Butternut Squash soup and Dutch Chocolate Silk Pie on Christmas Eve, and they brought their 3-year-old son who just had us laughing all night. Then, Christmas morning was spent with another vegan family we know and we stuffed ourselves silly. Once we could move enough, we spent the afternoon playing Rock Band on the Playstation 3. Hahahaha - that's a hilarious game to watch.


Yesterday, our friend Nick came up to spend a few days. After a lunch of falafel, we wandered around the mall playing with gift cards that we received, then headed home. It's just too rainy and cold out to enjoy the day outside.


For tonight's dessert, I threw together my vanilla cupcakes with soy cream cheese icing.

Almost all of the snow we got a week ago has been washed away by the rain.

67 days later...

I've been busy, I swear. I've been knitting too. Mostly just busy though. The only reason I've even writing now is because I have no actual plans for 17 days. I heart the holidays.

During this busy semester, I joined a choir, and we gave 2 concerts. Joy!! I had forgotten how much I loved to sing - in a group, not solo. I met a lot of amazing women and I'm trying to move the class I teach in the Spring so I can continue to sing. Here's hoping!

At the beginning of November, we went to visit a friend on Shelter Island, which is at the east end of Long Island. Monty had his first ferry ride.

Actually, he had 4 ferry rides in 2 days. And a nice long walk out onto an amazing peninsula. It was a great weekend.

He seemed scared to slide off the painted turtle and wouldn't hold still. Oh well.

Also at the beginning of November, I received my second PRGE package from LifeJunkie.

An amazing collection that I will surely use in the new year. I was also more timely in responding to LifeJunkie to thank her for her generosity - this blog is WAAAY behind the times.

The Thanksgiving holiday was full of friends, family and food. So. Much. Food. Also, being a vegan made it interesting. Everyone around us was VERY considerate. I did get to see the sausage stuffing, boiled kielbasa and roasted turkey though, so don't think I missed out. A good time was had by all.

Right after the holiday - maybe as a stress reliever - I got a new tattoo.

Introducing:
Joyce, at the top, and Angelina, knitting on the tree stump. These are two girls created by Henry Darger in his posthumously discovered 15,145-page, single-spaced fantasy manuscript called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.

We have a book about Darger that contains a number of the illustrations from this work, and I love them. I love looking at the colors and tracing the altercations and wars. After looking at this book so much, I decided to get the tattoo done with two of the girls that refer to me. Angelina, the knitter, is obvious. Joyce, the flower child, is for my music side, since I plan to have the roses colored for the music fraternity that I belong to. Altogether, the whole tattoo is based on a visual art that I respect and admire.

That said, I love that Darger was pretty crazy. From Wikipedia:
"In 1968, Darger became interested in tracing some of his frustrations back to his childhood. It was in this year that he wrote The History of My Life, a book that spends 206 pages detailing his early life before veering off into 4,672 pages of fiction about a huge twister called "Sweetie Pie," probably based on memories of the tornado he had witnessed in 1908."

Make of that what you will.

Today, I cruised over to Bored At Work, and lo-and-behold the latest entry is entitled "Strange Knits and Yarn Monsters." Amazing. I personally have knitted the Nautie from Knitty. Very fun. DH has a love for all things tentacled. I have seen most of the patterns on the B@W link, but if you check them out, I'm sure you'll find your fave.

In knitting news, I took this past weekend to plan out my holiday knitting. There are a couple of patterns that I have been wanting to try out, as well as a few items that I think are really beautiful, but just not for me.
First up: brooklyntweed's Noro Scarf.

Such a beautiful scarf! Such a simple idea, and yet, not one that I would have thought of. I almost always love what he comes out with. Plus, I have been looking for a justified reason to purchase and try Noro's Silk Garden.

I like to try a yarn - really knit something out of it - before I commit to any projects with it. What if it ends up splitting a lot? What if it sheds more than my cat? With my fickle finishing tendencies, I need to be aware of what could potentially end my work on a given project.
Not that I should need a reason to work with a silk blend, but it's nice to have a reason regardless. Now that I'm working on the first one, I am already thinking that I might make a second one in different colors. I am very quickly falling in love with Noro. Very soft on the hands, and the colors change smoothly, so I find myself hiding the balls of yarn so that I don't know exactly which color is coming next.

Another scarf/wrap that I may include in my gift list is the Phiaro Scarf by Katie Himmelberg. Other gifts may include Struan by Ysolda, Dashing by Cheryl Niamath, and at least one or two other things. Plus, I'm still trying to finish up a sweater that I started for last christmas (I have my sister working on that one right now).

I work on stuff for myself in 2009.

I got a package! I got a package!

I got an amazing package from my awesome spoiler, Life Junkie!



In all, I received:



A Magic Ball of mohair and a coordinating pattern from Be Sweet, Orange Jelly Belly beans, Karma Checks, an adorable tin of peppermints, and freshly roasted coffee from Lexington Coffee Roasters. The book that Life Junkie included is similar to a personal favorite, Persepolis. This one, Blankets, is also an illustrated novel.



I love this!! Thank you so much, Life Junkie!!

Another two weeks have gone by.

I've been working on a toe-up sock of BMFA mediumweight. I have also been chugging along on my Central Park Hoodie. I'm on the second sleeve. Slowly but surely with this one.

I received my Rockin' Sock Club yarn and pattern today, which was a nice perk to a really rainy day. It's really pretty yarn, and I think I may actually knit these up. I haven't done that since January.

Receiving my sock yarn inspired me to throw two more little goodies into the box for my PRGE spoilee. They don't know who they are yet, but they will soon!

I need a nap.

In knitting, I have to admit that I laid the Central Park Hoodie aside for a while. I was zooming right along, and then I had a moment where I thought to check my needle size. For some reason, I thought I had knitted an entire front panel at a 6 instead of an 8. It was starting to get warmer out, though, so it made sense to lay down the cardigan and work on socks for a while. Which I did.

Then, the other day, I was re-organizing my stash (again) and a ball from the CPH collection rolled to a stop at my feet. This, of course, reminded me that I hadn't actually checked to see if I was wrong on tat front panel, or whatever. So, I started working on one of the sleeves to get myself back into gear. The sleeve is coming along really well, and I finally got to checking that front panel - it's completely fine. Of course it is. So now I'm back to it.

All was not lost, though, since it is now getting cooler, and I'm now getting impatient to have this hoodie done already. I was browsing Ravelry, and I found Ester and I am smitten. I think I have yarn in the stash for it, too.

Also, while I was perusing the Ester pattern, I saw a link for Grumperina's Cable without a Cable Needle Tutorial. It's very easy to follow, and has sped up my sleeve a bit.

In non-knitting news, my mom and I went to Beatles tribute festival, Abbey Road on the River. It was awesome. So many great renditions of the awesome music of The Beatles.

This is a band called Beatlemania Now! and they were really good. They looked, sounded and acted just like the original guys. Kinda eerie. My mom was really astounded and she had a blast watching them.

Welcome to Hartford.

A new store just opened up: Mario's Discount Furniture & Lines!









Is it a spelling error, a printing error, or purposeful.....?