Cattywampus

Pictureless

Work has been busy lately, we're on quarters so we just started last week.  I feel like my summer disappears in orientations and then registration, and finally by the time classes start it's fall and I the last thing I really remember, it was June.

This weekend was a weekend of recovery.  I could use a week of recovery, but who couldn't?

I spent a lot of time knitting.  Knitting a button band that is probably wrong (pictures with explanation at a later date b/c I'm sure as heck am not ripping it out BEFORE I block it on the very slim chance it's actually right), fixing another pair of socks, weaving in endless ends (ha!) on my fingerless mitts.

Ooh, not pictureless, I have a picture of them!

I adore these.  They are Minnesota Mittens from the Folk Mittens book, double stranded except for the fingers & thumb, and I really hope they do a better job of keeping my digits warm this winter.  They also match my hat, in a non-matchy sort of way.  They are slightly different sizes because I made one last winter and one last week, you can tell if you look at the cuff, the one on the right is longer than the one on the left, but they're mine and I defy anyone to walk up on the subway and laugh and point b/c my mitten cuffs are two different lengths.  I will poke them with my signature dpns, and then who will be laughing???  Actually, maybe everyone, because that's a fairly amusing image.

(hah!  look, two pictures!)

And next up is a scarf that will be in the same colors, but also non-matchy. 

The only other exciting thing that happened this weekend (other than lots of sleep) is that i made Vodka Sauce for the first time.  I love that Pioneer Woman, she has some really good recipes.  I had NO idea vodka sauce was that easy.  Also, I made more garlic knots to go with it, if I'm going to cook with heavy cream, why not throw in too much butter with a side dish?  

I made the mistake of going on the Tom Bihn group on Rav for kicks & giggles yesterday and ended up back at the Tom Bihn website considering buying another Swift in Crimson.  I think Crimson would be better for fall, don't you?  Hmf.  I know I don't NEED two of the same bags in different colors, but the purple is getting slightly boring and I love the bag still, no desire to try something new.  Maybe if I destash enough stuff and just wait until I have enough money from destash to buy it.  Someone on Rav has offered to take the purple one off my hands, but I'm not sure I want to actually get rid of it yet.  It would be fun to go back & forth, and of course whichever one I'm not carrying to work would make a great knitting bag.

Speaking of, I have quite a few things in the destash if you want to take a look.

And speaking of destash, I realized last week I had sold enough stuff that I could purchase something with the money (this was before I decided I needed another swift) and have ordered some BFL sport from Lisa Souza.  A bit of a splurge, but since all the money for the purchase was from destashing, I think it's perfectly justified.  There will absolutely be pictures when that comes in, loveliness!

Happy Monday, happy rainy, sleepy, wish I had the day off, Monday.

Fixing and Mending

Over the last few months I had accumulated a pile of things that needed to be fixed.  The only thing I hate worse than admitting something needs to be redone is actually redoing it.

I started with Elaine's Blouse, I finished it last fall, never really got a lot of use out of it, but couldn't really put my finger on what the problem was with it.  I got it out for a cool day last week and realized what the problem was.  It's the hem.

Ugh.  Do you see that hem?  It sticks out like it has a mind of its own.  What's that about?  So I dug out the leftover yarn, cut off the hem, picked up the stitches and knit a ribbed hem.

The ribbing will relax a bit when I wash it, but I think it will be fine.  At least it isn't like having little bits of cardboard on the bottom of my sweater.

I think it's MUCH better.

Next up was the hoodie I made to wear to belgium, Azami, with this crazy long hood that made the sweater try to choke me b/c it was so heavy it pulled the whole neckline up slowly but inexorably.

I don't like being choked, it doesn't work for me, so now I have this.

It's not perfect, but I think it's functional and I'll wear it more than with the hood, and it didn't change the look on the front.

Weird lighting.  But I have to say, then when I think about all the time, the endless endless endless hours I spent knitting that freaking hood, ooooooooh that makes me crazy!

Next up were Scott's flip top mitts.  The had some problems, the top didn't stay in place and cover his fingers completely, so I ripped off the top and reconfigured it, moving the flip-top base as low as it could go on the back of the hand and making it taller.  I have to say, the new one looks like  a better mitten shape, so I think that's a good sign.  

I also cut down the stitch count on the flip top to make it fit a little snugger around his fingers.  Hopefully all of those things will make them better and more functional mitts.

This amuses me

I don't have teeny tiny little hands, I actually have fairly long hands for a woman, but those mitts dwarf me, for some reason it cracks me up to see how much bigger his mitts are.

Next up, some duplicate stitching on a heel that's totally threadbare.

I got a darning egg from knit picks, replacing the handy lightbulb I had been using, and this is better because now I'm not afraid that if I grip it too hard it will shatter in my hands, that would be bad.

About 30 min later I have this

It's not perfect, and it's not going to last forever, but it will get me another year out of these socks and that's good enough for me.  I have 4 more pairs to mend, some that actually need to be darned, but mostly a duplicate stitch situation.  I am much happier to do the duplicate stitch before the hole actually forms than to do the darning.

I have recently tried out a new double strand heel in an effort to slow down this process, I'm optimistic about that, I don't remember the details offhand, but I will post them when I finish the other sock.

It was a gorgeous weekend this weekend, for some reason that put me into a frenzy of fixing.  Whatever you did this weekend, I hope you felt as productive as I did!!

Yumminess

I know quite a few people out there have the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day book, so I just have to share this.

On saturday we went to an italian place for lunch and I was mourning the loss of these fantastic garlic knots that we used to get at a little red & white checked tablecloth kind of place in Greensboro.  So there I was, complaining about not being able to get them and it occurred to me that OMG I could MAKE garlic knots!!  

Thank goodness for google, eh?   I googled a few recipes, wound up with one I was happy with, ignored the making the bread dough part and just used the dough I had ready to go in the fridge and voila!

Garlic knots!

OMG people, SO.  Freaking.  Good.

They were a little big for a side for two people, I will try to make them smaller next time, and my knots weren't perfect - but hey, put enough garlic and butter on them and who's criticizing your knots???  That's right...nobody.  

Do it.  You know you want to.  They're amazingly yummy!

A tip:  Stand anxiously over the oven while you are baking them, I baked these 18 minutes and that was a bit too long, make them smaller and I would say 10-12 minutes to get that ooey-gooeyness-smooshy inside that you want in something like this.

Fall is on the way!

And I am getting ready, to start I just finished Ballard from one of the recent Berroco bookles.

We took the pups to the park on this gorgeous not-quite-fall day and got some decent pics.

I haven't washed it yet, so it will probably get a tad longer, but that's fine, long seems to be in this year.  This top was super easy and fast, I knit a good chunk of it on our car trip to MA.  I like the way the changing texture gives it interest instead of any complicated pattern or shaping.  I wasn't too sure about the decoration, but I decided to try it, tho much simpler than the way they had done it in the book and I actually like it.  It dresses up what would otherwise be a quite casual top.

I used Vintage, the recommended yarn, you just can't beat the price tag.  It is a bit splitty and a bit shiny for my taste, but I think that's only noticeable close up.

It is just lovely out today, I hope you are enjoying some of the same weather!!

Bartram's Garden

Yesterday we took a boat tour of the Schuylkill River south and went to Bartram's Gardens, what a gorgeous day for that trip! 

 

That is a old rail bridge, an old style of draw bridge that turns to let the boats go through instead of raising upward.  Funky.

 

The grounds include the family house, dating back to the mid 1700s, and extensive gardens.  Bartram was the first person labeled a botanist and he made a life's work of collecting all the native plant species in the new world.  I don't know how many are still in the garden to this day, but there are lots and lots of plants and some really, really giant trees.

 

I mean, WOW.  It's a London Plane tree - whatever that is, it gets big.  It's hard to judge how tall a tree is from the ground, but it looked at least 200 feet tall.  HUGE.

It was SUCH a gorgeous day to be out and about.  Not too hot, not too cool, just enough breeze...

 

How funny to be this close to the city but OH so far away!

 

And look at this map from 1777

 

The little grid in the center is center city, that TOTALLY explains why it's so straight and orderly there and then all the roads go haywire and in wonky directions once you get out of the immediate center of the city.  That William Penn, he was a planner, but do you think he could have even envisioned what his little city has turned into?  I think he would be impressed.

The Schuylkill River development corp is in the process of extending the path along the river all the way down to Bartram's Garden, that would be 4 miles of pathway with picnic spots, fishing spots, etc.  What they are doing is really amazing.  Things have changed a lot in the last 5 years or so and I guess we should expect them to keep changing - in a good way.  It's nice to see an organization so bound and determined to provide functional, useful green space in the city when so many others are just trying to make things more efficient, convenient or what have you.  Go Schuylkill River Foundation!