I'm At It Again

I can blog from the subway with this thing (phone)! While I'm commuting to work! So exciting - because I've got bees in my bonnet.

Do you ever feel like you're living in a ghost world? Everything around you has already changed irrevocably but it's still there. Nothing looks outwardly different but everything you live with, everything you're walking around is hollow or just a shadow. It's only a matter of time before all of it disappears.

If I had time to meditate today it would probably be one of those sessions where I'd just cry for half an hour. It's not that everything is so terrible - some things are great (like my meatloaf) Life is just so damned confusing.

Hearts kind of suck. They make you love stuff. People, creatures, situations, even objects. You have no control. You want things that are bad for you - AND good for you AT THE SAME TIME. How can you tell which? It doesn't matter which  because you can't have them anyway. Or you can and then it's a big mess. You love, then you lose! Then your stupid heart stops working altogether and you die! Who invented this crazy system? Absurd!

So many things going on all the time. Love, loss, joy, heartbreak, beauty, horror, ALL AT ONCE!

It's enough to make a gal just want to sit on the sofa, knit, and watch alternating episodes of "Miss Marple" and "The X-Files" while eating bon-bons and drinking single malt scotch for a month. 

Thank heaven I have this chocolate bar at my desk. 

That might calm me down. It's a known fact that chocolate causes a chemical reaction in the human brain that creates a direct connection to the stable "Astral Chocolate Plane" of The Universe. Known. Fact. 

Gotta go do stuff now. Chase papers around, find numbers 'n' stuff.

Thanksgiving Plans

Oh yeah! Big doings today. I put my laundry away. Kewl!

I also went to Whole Foods today, like a maniac, because I realized that I will, after all, need to make some food for our Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow despite the fact that we are not celebrating at our house. Pete's brother, Marc, has invited us to celebrate at his house. You may remember Marc from other Thanksgivings such as this one, or this one, or this Halloween.

I will be making a side dish of farro, mushrooms, roasted sunchokes, pecans, dried cranberries, parsley and a bunch of other stuff that I figure will taste good (you know, like shallots, salt 'n' pepper, whatevs) While at the Evil Emporium, I mean, Whole Foods (it really is convenient - sorry) I whim-grabbed a frozen brie en croute. I'm pretty psyched about that.

Marc is providing fish he caught himself for dinner. I really appreciate guilt free fish because anxiety about overfishing has been known to keep me up at night. Fish are tasty but I fret about them. He's also making brussels sprouts.

And he mentioned something about football. So I should remember to bring my knitting. In truth, I like watching football from time to time. I love those exciting running plays and interceptions 'n' stuff. As with most sports I don't care much who wins. I just like to see people do things they're really, really good at. I suppose there will be entertaining ads too but if I hear the terms "Black Friday" or "doorbusters" one more time (and we all know I will) I may just have to scream really loud. Or drink. I could make it a drinking game.

And now for the moment of shame: I bought a pumpkin pie. I admit it. I did. And - ugh - whipped cream in a spray can. I didn't want to have to bring my mixer to Marc's house for the whipped cream. We're having a laid back, bacheloresque Thanksgiving. So I bought a pie instead of making one. I may still make a tarte tatin though. I haven't decided how I feel yet about only having one kind of pie on Thanksgiving. We shall see if my inner Martha Stewart kicks in or if I can lull her into passivity with brie en croute.

So! Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! If you don't celebrate Thanksgiving then Happy Thursday to you! If I am wise I will remember to post what I am thankful for tomorrow. Best of luck to us all! MWAH! MWAH!

I Blew It Off

I'm not in California anymore and it's 12:27 AM eastern time. I blew off Tuesday's post until now. Yes I did. I guess I was in a cranky mood and felt like shooting myself in the foot. Tonight I'll be sleeping under (or next to) a large pile of clean laundry. I did the laundry, I just haven't put it away yet. More foot shooting. Just one of those days. Tomorrow (or do I mean today?) when I wake up it will be a different day.

While I was not posting I was knitting. I mostly finished this cowl thing.

I think I'm going to take it apart though. It's a bit snug and longer than it needs to be. It was an experiment that I think needs a redesign. This is the cowl made with Madeline Tosh merino that I mentioned back in my Halloween post. At least now I know one skein is enough for a cowl and that the yarn's not itchy.

Happy Halloween!

Long time no blog. Mea culpa. Life ate my life (again) and I've just been tweeting and Facebooking. Effing Facebooking. What a waste of time! Oh yeah, and Pintrest too.

Enough about that. I'll try to remedy the situation by doing NaBloPoMo next month (which is tomorrow) There's lots to catch you up on but I won't do it chronologically. Disorder is how I roll. That's one area in which life and I are in agreement.

To start on a positive note and in keeping with this blog's theme, here are some shots of something I finished making this summer: my first lace shawl.

I loved making this thing. The lace looks pretty intricate but it was in fact an easy pattern to keep track of. The yarn was so beautiful: lovely colors and a delicious texture. It's the Jambo Shawl made with Curious Creek Meru yarn. Such a pleasure to handle and look at for hours. It gave me something with which to occupy my hands and eyes while traveling too. This is also the first knitting project I've ever blocked. Wait, that's not true, I blocked a tam o' shanter. If you don't block them they just look like blobs. But this shawl was really rewarding to block. I used lace blocking wires and pins from KnitPicks. It came out looking really pro. Do I wear shawls? So far no. I am hopeful though. I'm really proud of this one.

Now I'm working on a cowl made out of Noro Ayatori which I'm not sure I'm going to love (I love the yarn, I'm not sure I love what I've done with it) and another cowl in a fishnet lace pattern made with Madeline Tosh Merino.

In the last few months I've made countless salads, cookies, bread, brownies, tarte tatins, a pot pie, some installations and a whole bunch of other junk, some of which may appear in later posts.

As far as new art goes, I'm working on a mythology of my own. But there'll be plenty of time to talk about that in later posts. Hopefully it will be more interesting than knitting and salads. If everything goes well I will have photos of myself dressed as one of my characters for Halloween tonight.

In re-reading this I see that this is not the most lucid writing I've done. I had a couple of migraines last week and it appears my brain isn't one-hundred percent back to normal. Maybe we can watch this improve over the next month.

Now I'm starting to remember how frigging long it takes to blog. No wonder I like tweeting so much.

Something Or Other

I finished these fingerless gloves last night.

I'm surprised by how warm the vestigial finger nubbies are.

We have about a million photos of Fay. She's so darned cute how could I not photograph her all the time?

A propos of nothing, I am doing NaNoWriMo this month. I am hilariously behind. I wrote like a nut on the first day and haven't written a word since. I'm around twelve-thousand words behind. HA HA HA HA HA! Yeah, we'll see what we get.

Big Plans For Today (Plus Shoes)

It's supposed to dump two feet of snow on us today so I plan to shovel, keep the fire going in the fireplace and knit.  These are all things I can do with or without power.  I'm hoping to do them with power.

Now for the shoes.  Irregular Choice keeps adding new ones.  I don't know how long they can keep it up.  I mean, how many out of control shoes can a company sell at one time? I know I've posted a lot of shoe photos here but I still have not posted all the styles and colors they have.  These are from the U.S. site:

Hi plow guy!  Thank you!!!

What To Do And Some Things I Did

I am usually a very disorganized thinker.  Most of the time I try to fight it with lists (lots of lists) and Brunhilde, my Franklin planner.  Due to the events of August I've been giving myself permission to kind of let it slide.

Since my return from California I've been to Vermont and back, paid the bills, written some thank you notes and set up my art show (which looks like it will be poorly attended due to hurricane Earl.  Oh well, Robert [my gallery mate] and I will just have to drink all the wine)

Not bad, but next to me sits a pile of other things I need to do.  There are people I need to call, emails I need to respond to, errands I have to run.  I've kind of shelved my new art project.  It's sitting up there, a bright colored, bulky tome on the eye-level shelf in my mind, but I haven't had the space to get to it.

Today all I want to do is stay in bed and read, knit and sleep.  But then that's all I ever want to do.

What I'm wondering is, is it time yet to start cracking the whip at myself again? You may already be aware that I'm prone to sloth.  This is what worries me.  Where does one draw the line between being kind to oneself and milking it?

Here are the socks I knit for my dad this summer.  I'm really glad I finished them in time for him to see them.  They're a little big for me.

I made them with Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn.  Dad lived in Japan for a few years in his twenties.  Japanese culture was an important part of his aesthetic.  Also, he introduced sushi to me and to almost everyone I know.  I thought it would be appropriate to use Japanese yarn.

After I finished Dad's socks I made some for my mom too.  Unfortunately I don't have a photo of them.  I made Mom's socks out of Socrates yarn in Wednesday Night Green.  That yarn is incredibly soft and fuzzy.

Garden Report For 4/25/10, Etc.

Today's gardening was done in street clothes and flip flops because my entire body ached and I didn't want to get too serious.  I pruned the roses, cut back the physocarpus and planted the new viburnum.

Of course the area in which I planted the new viburnum will need to be thoroughly weeded in the next coming weeks.  I thought it and I could wait until after the mulch arrives.

I'm still a little scared about the butterfly bushes.  I'm also afraid that the place I've chosen for the irises will be too wet or too weedy for them.  I will do my best.  If it starts looking bad I'll just move them.

In other making news, I got fed-up and started a new Noro sock.  Just one at a time this time.

I'm still working on these knee socks.  They live in Cambridge and are what I knit when I'm there.  I'm making good progress on this - the back and sleeves are done and I'm just starting on the right front.  I just wanted to add a little, fun project so I started a simple sock.  The plan is to eventually finish a pair.

Something I Made

Hey!

I made this scarf for my friend Lisa.

The pattern is from last winter's Vogue Knitting. It's made with Twinkle Handknits Soft Chunky - a quality yarn with nice yardage for the buck. The pattern was fun and fast and easy to knit. I did detect an error in the chart, though, which was easily fixed.

They used a different chunky yarn held double in the magazine. I tried doubling this yarn but the swatch came out too stiff and weighed nearly a million pounds. No one wants to wear a scarf that threatens to choke them.

A Sorry NaBloPoMo Post

Here's my progress on the cabled knee socks that I started in July. If they weren't going to be knee socks I'd be done by now.

Of course I'm putting them aside now to work on the Lust Blanket.

Has anybody noticed that every episode of "House" is exactly like every other episode of "House"?

Motifs So Far

Here's what I've got so far for the lust blanket. These have been made over the last several weeks. I'm not positive that all of these will end up in the final product but it's a start. I'm going to make a bunch more larger motifs and then assemble them together with crochet.

It's really fun to be able to try out new techniques and to see what all of these odd yarns I've always been curious about can do. I predict that there will be a lot more ruffles.

Field Trip Part II

Yesterday I went to a YARN WAREHOUSE!!!!!!

I got all of this FRIGGIN' AMAZING YARN for super-duper cheap!!!!! Not only that but it was so fun to be in a yarn warehouse. It's something that fiber nuts dream about. I managed to keep my head though because I was on a mission: I needed materials for my newest art project, the Lust Blanket.

The Lust Blanket will be a freeform construction - my first attempt. You might think, "Freeform. No rules. Easy." That's not what I'm thinking. I'm finding it a little tricky to decide which method, which motif, which pattern, which color combo to try next. All the possibilities are blowing my mind.

I'll plow through though - the yarn is calling me...

How To Torture Mel

This is a screenshot of the purlsoho swatches for Koigu Premium merino yarn. When you go to this page and roll over each little swatch it shows you a portrait of each colored skein of yarn.

Those bastards. I want them all.

To me each image of each skein is like a portrait of a child in a third world country who you could sponsor for a year. I know that means there's something wrong with me. It's a callous and horrible thing to say. But I'm not positive that all those photos of children are for real whereas this yarn is real for sure. If I had the money I could own them all and if I had the time I could make stuff with all of those beautiful skeins.

I love them all. Really - go to the page and rollover those beautiful grays. Each one is a revelation. Not to mention the brights and the purples (and lavenders and violets - though actually not a strong showing here) which I'm always a sucker for.

A couple of years ago I bought a skein of their Kersti merino crepe. I know I've mentioned it before. It was the first batch of Koigu I'd ever tried. There was only one skein left and it was the perfect color (or color range - it's not solid) for me, deep purple-berry colors. I know it's the only one and I'll never have enough of it to make a sweater. I just have one skein. I don't know if I could even make a pair of fingerless mitts from it. I love it so.

So, if you should go to any of those two pages I've linked to above and you happen to fall in love with a color (or color combo) that you truly love and there's only one skein left in that dye lot, well I can only apologize for putting you in that position. I don't know what's worse, having the beautiful skein and not knowing what to make from it or just not getting into that situation in the first place.

Of course, most people aren't insane about color the way I am.

Back to Making - At Last

Here is a current project I'm working on: I'm knitting two cabled socks on one circular needle. They're going to be knee socks. I've kind of been dragging my feet on this project, I'm not sure why.

One good thing about knitting socks this way is that I know these socks will be exactly the same in all measurements. Working toe-up means I'll be able to tell in time if I'm running out of yarn.

The only bad thing about working this way is that it feels like it takes unusually long to finish a round for sock knitting. I have to remind myself that it's really a double round, maybe more like a sweater than a sock.

Still No Car Photos

Ms. Observant just noticed that she never posted one word about the closing on her house.

I'll tell you right now we were a little bit sad but overwhelmingly relieved. It was a great house and we loved living there. Now we don't live there and that's completely okay. It's not even a little bit weird, possibly because we still haven't had time to think about it too much.

If we go on like this we might not ever think it's weird!

One thing I may have learned (you know how slippery lessons can be) is that I don't want to live in a big house again. I'd live in a sort-of big house as long as I could afford to have someone else come and clean it regularly.

Since we still have Vermont (with a clogged sink in the bathroom upstairs among other things) we still have maintenance issues and plenty of them. But maybe we've cut them in half. We no longer have tenants and that's a load off.

Of course you can't shirk all of life's hassles. Then you'd be dead - or as good as. I can dream though.

My dream: Making making making all day long, only stopping to eat, have fun with interesting people, play with my dog, go swimming in the ocean (or have a snowball fight or something) read a book, learn some languages, garden, meet more interesting people, daydream, nap...okay, there'd be a fair amount of stopping. Let's call it fifty-fifty, making plus activities.

Enough daydreaming. Time to strategize for the future! (And eat a piece of apple pie)

Commercial Flying

I can admit it now - I used to be afraid to fly.  

It wasn't a problem when I was younger.  Sometime in my twenties it hit and it continued through my thirties.

I forget when I picked up my knitting needles again.  Late thirties maybe?  That's what helped me to fly again.  No knitter ever has enough time to do the knitting they want to do but what else is there to do on a flight?  Might as well indulge.

After a few years of knitting on flights I can now say that I actually love flying.  It seems impossible to believe but I actually love the airport.  I love getting the yogurt parfait at some sandwich stand.  I love looking at all the people on my way to the gate and I love sitting at the gate waiting for my flight and setting up my in-flight knitting project.

Okay, sometimes I pray furiously when there's so much turbulence that I can't get my needle to go in the right loop.  Sometimes I worry about Fay when she's panting in a carry-on bag under the seat in front of me.  Also, I would never ordinarily choose to eat whatever dehydrated salt-based slurry product it is they hand out with the complimentary drink.  Flying has grown on me though.

Babblesville

I was waaaay too cranky to not go running today. Fortunately the weather is beautiful today: it's sunny and sixty degrees! What a break!

I found out that I'm kinda out of shape. Crap! I had a nice run at the reservoir and ran with my iPod for the first time ever. I'm not so nuts about the flapping earbud cable and the music did distract me a little from what was going on with my body. That said I'll probably try it again.

So yesterday when I was talking about the good people I've been encountering lately I neglected to mention the little old lady that ran me and another girl over with her wheelie suitcase on her stampede towards the D train we were all trying to board. I'm not exaggerating - she came from behind us and ran over our feet with her bag! That wasn't so awesome. It was okay though, no harm done. I didn't mention her, obviously, because she was off topic.

My job this week is to reclaim our house for the humans/pugs and make it less hospitable to the rodents. On Saturday I took a large load of stuff to Goodwill. We have a lot of recyclables ready to go for trash night tonight - yay! Progress continues. It feels good to get rid of the useless crud that seems to collect when you're not paying attention.

My goal is to make the house presentable for some kind of party I'm hoping to have soon. Inauguration maybe? It's been something like eleven years since we've had a party. That is inexcusable!

Before that I am intent on becoming Christmassy this year. Intent! Cleaning out the house is part of that. I'm also determined to either make my Christmas gifts or to get them at little "shoppes" this year. I've done my Christmas shopping on line for many years now. It's so simple and efficient. But once in a while I'll make it into a little brick and mortar and be really sorry I didn't go there in the first place. When you go to an actual store they have music playing and decorations up and people are (usually) feeling jolly. Sometimes they have nice stinky candles or potpourri going. It sort of gets a person feeling festive.

Okay, I'm going to stop babbling and move on to productive work! Then later maybe a bath (!) and too much C.S.I. watching and knitting. Cupcakes?

So much for my crabby mood!

Koigu Mitts

It snowed last night - heck - today too. Just flurries. But still it's a good thing I made myself these fingerless mitts. I designed the pattern myself and knitted them out of Koigu KPPPM.

I was inspired to make them back in late June when I was staying with my brother and his girlfriend in Las Vegas while my dad was in the hospital there. Sarah is an avid knitter too and their guest room is where she keeps her stash. That's dangerous when I'm the guest. She had a pair of stockinette mitts that she'd made from Koigu that kept catching my eye.

Those Koigu colors are so subtle and complex and I think they look so beautiful when they're just plain knit. But I also thought this particular color scheme would look good with a cable too.

I chose this cable pattern because to me it symbolizes an interweaving of diverse ideas, sort of a play of different thoughts mixing and mingling with each other in a somewhat orderly fashion. The pattern is a little complex but still symmetrical.

If you look closely you might be able to see that the mitts themselves aren't strictly symmetrical (and that the first photo is a composite) I made them up as I went along starting with the left one. I made some changes in the design on the second, right, one. If I were to make more of these I know I'd make even more changes. I'm not perfectionistic enough to frog and reknit the first two drafts though.

Another Example Of Why It Doesn't Suck To Be Me

That would be today.

Key: asterisked (*) words denote special privileges.

Okay, I am on vacation* but when you have a laptop* that's a relative term. I can say that I'm mostly on vacation.*

Have you heard "Love Is Only Sleeping" by the Monkees lately? It's really good. Listen to it again. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. So is this song by Empire Of The Sun, "Walking On A Dream," which I heard on Dave Allen's blog*.

Yeah, that and Pizzicato Five are playing* as I write.

Today I made some killer garlicky potato salad* with potatoes from a local farm stand* and fresh dill*, cleaned up after the dog (all day but that's just how it has been and will be for the foreseeable future) and went to the beach*. I just came in from having a giant gin and tonic* out in the (beautiful*) back yard*. I had my iPod* plugged in to the outdoor speakers* enabling me to listen to my very favorite music* while gazing at the sunsetting sky* which was full of mare's tail (fair weather) clouds. Did I mention that I had skull and crossbones ice* in my gin and tonic? This is one of the things I've been waiting all summer to do!

I got to feel quite magical* in fact. After my outdoor shower* I pulled on this friggin' awesome cotton dress* that I got on sale*.

Then I sat out there on the chaise lounge,* listened to my music,* sipped my gin and tonic,* accompanied by my dog in her wheelchair,* and watched deer course through the back yard*.

Really the only onerous thing I did today was buy plane tickets* to go do something I really want to do and fully expect to enjoy*. And I bagged up a bunch of trash to take out*. Boo-hoo.

Soon I will make myself a nutritious dinner* from leftovers*. Then I'll probably play video games* or watch some cable T.V.* and knit*.

It's Still Summer At The Beach

It's still hot and sunny on the east end of Long Island. Weather Underground says sun all week. I'll be here.

Yesterday there were two guys on the beach playing live jazz. One had a guitar, one an alto saxophone. Thanks guys - that was great! My favorite saxophone experience ever. I think Pete and I stayed on the beach an hour longer than we would have just because of them.

I've been knitting a sock on the beach with Noro Kureyon sock yarn (Japanese yarn, by the way) It's self-striping and probably itchy. Someday I'll learn the "magic loop" technique and be able to knit two socks at once. This time I got impatient and just cast on to two circular needles.

Usually I don't like to knit at the beach because I feel like I'm getting sun block all over my work. This yarn feels so rough though that I know I'll need to wash it if only to soften it up so I'm not worried.

Last night we had dinner at a restaurant in East Hampton called Fresno. We called at around five and got a reservation for 7 PM. We were a little worried about that. What's wrong with them? It turns out that nothing's wrong with them. Best dinner I've had in quite a while. I know it's nothing new now but whoever invented that molten chocolate cake thing should be rich and famous.