Cattywampus

Playing Catch-up

hello!  I guess it's been two weeks since I posted last, it seems I have lots to share so maybe I'll split this up into two separate posts, I'll see if it gets unwieldy.

First, I met Jocelyn Friday morning to chat, knit, and have lunch, alas I did not document any of it outside of the fact that we had the exact same Zauerball (sp?) colorway, what are the chances of that?

 

With or without documentation it was fabulous fun to get together in real life and have time to talk!

Then later that same day, to celebrate dh's #decade birthday we went to Cooperstown, not for the baseball hall of fame as you might first think, but to a Bed & Brew weekend that the Inn at Cooperstown holds with Ommegang Brewery.  It was SO.  MUCH.  FUN.  

 

We found this giant bottle of beer (a jereboam sp?) in our room with two Hennepin glasses to match it.  This picture cracks me up b/c it looks like maybe I am just really small and the beer is normal sized.  An alice in wonderland effect, if you will.

Then Friday night the Innkeeper hosts a beer sharing event, they ask everyone to bring their favorites and it's just a free for all of sampling different regional craft beers and getting to know the other people who are there for the weekend as well.  

Needless to say, we didn't start saturday morning too early, so we pretty much hung out in our room doing crossword puzzles and watching it snow.

 

Pretty!  It was a really pleasant way to spend the afternoon.  In the late afternoon a trolley came to pick us up and take us to the brewery where we were given a guided tour.

 

I hadn't ever been on a brewery tour, so it was pretty interesting.  It's amazing how small this operation really is, all the bottles are hand fed and hand boxed, that made me stop and think.  It also made me realize that buying local beer made by small breweries is actually supporting the local economy in a way I hadn't thought about before, so I feel good about that too. 

Then we went into the gift shop for a beer tasting with some fancy cheeses.

 

As part of the package DH got an Ommegang Hoodie, of which I have no picture but you can see the sweatshirts & shirts behind the dudes.

After that there was a 5 course meal, each course was paired with one of their beers.  No pictures of this, but it was OUTSTANDING.  Then after all that beer they let us loose in the gift shop - they're no fools!

So that was LAST weekend.  And since my finished Tang is in the picture above I will show you the rest of the FO pics for that.

 

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE IT.

 

warm and cozy and the brooks farm fourplay is an amazing yarn 50/50 wool silk it is soft and drapey and gorgeous.  I am now out of fourplay and am very sad about that.  I already have plans to go to MDSW this year to stock up.  

 

Sorry for the grainy quality of the photos, I'm not sure what happened, it's all rainy and yucky today, I'm sure that played into it.

Okay, so that's about half of what I have to say, I'll stop here and do another post cuz this is getting crazy long.  Sorry for the lack of linkage, I am feeling behind in the world and am afraid if I stop to link I'll lose my momentum.

Two week Shawl

A few weeks ago I found out that dh's work was having a gala and he wasn't supposed to work at the gala, we were supposed to GO to the gala.  ACK!  So there was a frantic search for a dress and shoes, and of course an even more frantic search for a ridiculously quick shawl pattern that I could finish in that time period.

Anne recommended Trevi, and I chose Road to China Light because I fell in love with the color and it didn't hurt that it was a sport weight yarn and that would make it go even quicker.

It turned out lovely, the yarn is absurdly soft, and it really kept me warm.  I'm glad I had it, it was really chilly in the ballroom.  I had never been to a gala before, it turns out it's like a black tie wedding, except nobody is the center of attention.  Weird.  

 

In other news, I decided I was going to darn socks this weekend.  I had 5 pairs that were in dire need of help, two that I had given to a friend and she had returned them for fixing and 3 of my own pairs.  I am SO thrilled that she wears them to a point that they need to be fixed, there's nothing better than knowing my handknit gifts are appreciated and used to that point.

Duke helped me collect the socks and the leftover yarn to use.

I found a great video on youtube and I used that as a starting point.

With a lightbulb substituting as my darning egg, I got started. 

 

My first effort, it didn't come out fabulously, but it'll do for now.

 

It's mate didn't actually have a hole yet, so I swiss darned that one.

 

Which, as I understand it, is simply duplicate stitch over the worn yarn to reinforce it.  (and even if it isn't, that's what I did!)

My next attempt came out a little better.

 

and again it's mate didn't quite have a hole yet, so it got the swiss darning treatment, which I have to say I prefer, so I will try to get to the socks before holes actually start.

 

So four pairs done, one to go.  It is rather time consuming, but pretty zen-like once you get the hang of it.  I am definitely glad to know how to fix them so I don't have to give up on entire socks b/c of one little hole.  

I also learned that top down socks with slip stitch heels wear better for me than toe up socks, so it's a good thing I switched back to that style!  

I have two sweaters going and I managed to take a picture of one of them, Tang, from Fitted Knits.

 

I'm almost on the sleeves, it's all downhill from here!

Salt Lake City is Purty

This is a belated post, I was at a conference in Salt Lake City the weekend before last and it was GORGEOUS!

We had a chance to tour Temple Square, see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform in person, it was amazing!

 

Crazy bird man, check!

 

We ventured out to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake

 

 

 

Even the city itself had the most amazing views!

 

It was gorgeous, you should go.  

Oh & I can't forget The Black Sheep - here's my souvenir yarn!  The store was cute and the people were very friendly and helpful.  

Sorry for the short (on words) post, it seems that if I let something go too long I have very little to say about it, but I did go, it was lovely and I do recommend it if you have a chance to stop by there on the way to or from somewhere.  

Food. Fall is about food.

Is it that this is the time of year when our ancestors used to harvest and store food, is it the natural turn of the seasons that signal our bodies to want hearty, warm meals?  I don't know what it is, but in the fall I want to cook and I want to eat hearty, filling, and probably fattening foods.

Friday I was off and I spent a good bit of time cooking.  For lunch I made curried roasted butternut squash and put it on a salad with crunch sprouts (these are new for me, I love them!), goat cheese, & french lentils.

This week I went to a class on indian cooking and learned to make a few things (theoretically).

 

Hmf.  That came out smaller than I anticipated...

Anyway.  So yesterday I roasted my own spices.

 

So that's a no-go with the plastic spoon, it started to melt.  That's a first.

Then I ground them in a coffee grinder and made chicken curry that ACTUALLY tasted like real chicken curry, not just an acceptable at home substitute, but real chicken curry.  YUM.  Of course I forgot to take a pic of that, the eating took precedence there.

I also made what the instructor called mint chutney, this is what I know as the green stuff that comes with the papadum at restaurants.

 

And I made the papadum to go with it.  First of all, this is enough green stuff to serve at a dinner party and second of all, it was so hot that you couldn't eat more than two bites without crying.  We both like spicy food, so this was no meager level of spiciness.  I think this may be my fault, the recipe said green chiles, the only green chiles I found at the market were serrano chiles, and they're green, so I put in two of those (recipe said four, but they smelled really hot, so I held back).  Maybe serranos are hotter than those little green chiles?  Either that or I got super, super hot chiles.  Whatever happened, I have no idea what we're going to do with this much of it!

Verdict:  Delicious and worth all the effort with the spice roasting & all that.

Tonight - chicken parm

 

with fresh pasta from DiBruno Bros.  Again I say YUM.

Tomorrow - leftovers baby!

Fall is here

Today was a gorgeous fall day and after perusing the October Bon Appetit, the mood to make fall foods struck me.

I started with a lentil and roasted squash salad for lunch, I forgot the goat cheese, it was good without it, but it would have been even yummier with that addition.  

Then I made an apple spice cake, mine's not that pretty, but it sure is good!

 

I am also making white beans with garlic & sage along with beef roast with root vegetables for dinner.  I guess I was feeling adventurous today.  The root vegetables I chose include carrots, turnips, parsnips, sweet potatoes, and celery root.  Should be interesting, I have no idea what turnips or celery root taste like!  The white beans will get good use later this week in soup and in a red sauce with some sweet sausage.  Yum!  

Now it's a bit late in the day, but I am finally sitting down to knit, I have decided to pick up a shawl I had started and then put down months ago.  (spring things)  Here is where I last left it.

 

The first section is straight forward enough, so I'm going to make it my tv knitting for a while.  Something has happened to my knitting focus lately.  My sweaters have completely stalled - I have NO desire to finish up the sweaters I have in progress.  I just want to knit lace.  So lace it is!  There's no point in fighting that, I knit for fun, so I'll knit whatever strikes my fancy, and right now it's lace.

Moving back in time one day...

Yesterday I took two classes with Jared Flood.  I don't have much to show for it though.  The first class was colorwork & steeking.

 

Here he is looking at Craig's work.  (Craig owns Loop, our fab LYS)

 

That's what I accomplished.  The class was really helpful, I definitely understand a lot of things better and I hope I've learned those little tricks that make colorwork look right.  Handily, this is also my swatch for the knitpicks vest I am planning making.  He did also take the swatch he was working and *eeek!* steeked it, watching him do it really helped me have confidence that it really does work.

The second class was about EPS (EZ's percentage system), which I've used a number of times, but there were a few things that I just wasn't really understanding, like the short row shaping to raise the back neck.

Jared was a great instructor and watching him talk about the different aspects of EPS while showing us those bits on his sweaters really helped.  

Last night we tried to go to a street fair but quickly realized that we are definitely too old to have fun at those things.  Too many people, too much noise, too many lines, too much everything - so we wandered and read menus until we got to a restaurant we had been meaning to try for a while and to my utter delight - they had veal.  I know I shouldn't eat veal, I shouldn't WANT to eat veal, I should be against the whole idea of it - but darn it it's SO DARN GOOD.  I only have it 2 or 3 times a year and we hadn't found a place in Philly that had veal that was worth it.  I cut it with my fork.  Heaven.

All in all, this was a fabulous weekend, as dh said, the only way it could have been better is if we'd won the powerball!  I hope you all had an equally fabulous weekend!

A pictureless post

I have this in my head and I want to get it out, so I'm going to share it with you guys.

I work in a large university advising freshman & sophomore students in a very difficult major.  The kind of major that trying isn't enough, you have to have a certain level of intelligence, an inclination towards the major, you have to be able to give things up to succeed, and you have to love it.

Sometimes students just can't cut it.  Sometimes they flunk out first term and don't ever come back, that's sad, but not traumatizing for me.  What's traumatizing for me is a student who has been plodding along for 2 years, some successes, some failures, but no matter how hard he tries, he can't get anything better than Cs & Ds.  He doesn't know why, he's trying his hardest, he's going to study groups, to the instructors, to his friends for help, etc and he just can't do it.  The student thinks that if he just keeps trying, just one more time, it'll work this time.  Something will click that didn't click before and miraculously he'll be on his way and everything will be fine.

The hardest conversation to have is the one where I say 'have you thought about such & such public school?' or 'what about taking a few terms and going to community college to get some of these classes out of the way and then coming back?'

To them, this is the kiss of death.  To leave their friends?  To be labeled as a failure?  To have to go where all those other kids went and admit that they can't hack it?

But the worst, the absolute worst, is sitting across the desk from this 19 or 20 year old and watching as he realizes his life goals, his dreams, his purpose is coming crashing down around him.  Everything he thought of himself, everything he thought he would do in life, everything he ever wanted to be is no longer possible because it's all centered around this major and the jobs after graduation.  

My job is to help them step back and realize it's better to find out now, while they still have so many options open to them, that maybe a fresh start would be a good thing for them, that maybe even the best option is just another major but still here, so they can stay with their friends.  It's to help them realize that they aren't hitting a brick wall, that there are many, many paths that they can choose from and still be happy with their lives, and I do it, and I think I do it reasonably well.

But oh it breaks my heart.  It truly breaks my heart to watch a young man or woman's dream crumble to the ground before them.  I want so badly to make it be okay for them, but that's not my job, that's their parents job, my job is the reality check and I hate it sometimes.  

Sigh.  That's all.

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K

I love that quote.  Don't you just love that quote?

Sunday night rolls around once again and despite some food poisoning (mild) over the weekend, I am in a stellar mood.  We have decided to go to Belgium this spring.  

We spent our honeymoon in Paris and loved every minute of it and have been meaning to go back to Europe for a few years but life kept getting in the way.  This year we only own one home(such an odd statement, but such a huge one!), we are living where we want to live, we are both employed AND we will both have enough vacation time to make it work.

Combine that with a fellow we met during Beer Week last year, he does these fabulous sounding tours in Belgium, sort of a behind the scenes tour of breweries and some of the monasteries that still brew beer.  The other part that appeals to us is that the whole tour isn't extremely structured, there is a lot of independent time with time to visit museums or just relax in whatever town we happen to be in.  Also combine the whole not having to plan a trip and find decent places to stay on our own - all that is decided for us! - and we are IN.

We had been talking about it for a while and today in the ride home we ended up on a 'you only live once' note.  We don't want to be those people who keep putting off vacations like this because it's not the right time and end up with a life full of 'I wish I had...'

So assuming we can both get the time off approved from work, we are GONE BABY GONE.  In nine months.  

If you are interested in reading about the craziness, here's a link to the website, we will be doing the Ardennes tour.  And as it happens, our anniversary will fall while we are there.  Darn the luck, eh? 

Now then, what do I immediately start thinking about?  What to knit to bring with me, of course!  I have 9 months to do it, so I think I should be able to manage to finish a Pi Shawl, and this seems like a good motivator to make the Pi Shawl, it will serve as an impromptu blanket for traveling as well as a cozy wrap in the chill mountain air.

LOL - I'm totally romanticizing it already, I have no idea if the mountain air will be chill, but it should be, even if it isn't.

Will you help me decide while yarn to use?  I have two fabulous choices.  One that I originally picked out with the intent of doing the Pi Shawl and one that DH bought me this year on our anniv and it would seem fitting.  

Choice number 1, Whorled Peace in a lavender to gray color 2500 yards/8 oz.

Choice number 2, Blue Moon Fiber Arts Laci in Valkyrie, a black/purpleyredish/grey colorway 1750 yards/8oz

A few things to think about.  I am going to make the Firmaments Pi Shawl Version

Which, of course, does look lovely in a solid color, that is a consideration here as well.

This calls for 1700 yards, the Blue Moon is 1750 - that makes me a tad bit nervous, but the Blue Moon is also quite a bit heavier than the Whorled Peace, so the shawl will be more substantial, while the Whorled Peace shawl would be lacier and more featherweight.  

I am also a tad worried about the color variations in the Whorled Peace, the grey being such a different tone than the lavender, I realllly don't want to end up with a stripy shawl.

Given that, I am open to suggestions, should I use one of the two above or should I choose a solid color in another yarn entirely so I don't lose the the gorgeous pattern?

Please vote and help me decide what to bring with me to Belgium!  Did I mention I'm excited??? 

Click Here to take survey 

(Didn't you used to be able to put the survey in a blog post?  Did I miss something here?)

Saturday...Saturday

why oh why are you so few?  couldn't we have monday tuesday wednesday SATURDAY thursday friday SATURDAY sunday.  wouldn't that be better?

we are getting to the point in the academic year where work is overwhelming.  the freshmen get antsy, needy, excited, and freaked out.  I left at 5 pm yesterday and I already have 30 emails in my work inbox.  ugh.  and each email is a student with a problem or what they THINK is a problem that needs to be solved.  I don't even want to think what it'll look like by the time I actually get there monday morning.

theoretically I could do what's there today, but that would be about two hours of my saturday and I really don't have those two hours to spare.  we are on our way out of town to see some relatives, which I am very much looking forward to.  

In a not so brief moment, let me tell you how I got obsessed and bought yarn yesterday.  

That Kelly from Knitpicks, she is crafty.  Did you get the email with the fair isle vest in it this week?  Here it is, in case you didn't get it.  I have been wanting to do fair isle for a while, but the alice starmore kits are...um...OMG out of my price range and as much as I've tried to pick out my own colors I never found something I really was sure enough about to commit to.  I do have some yarn to make an EZ fair isle yoke sweater, but I'm talking full on fair isle.  lol Full On Fair Isle - sounds like a WWF smackdown, doesn't it?

Anyway, I don't like either of those colors.  Like I discussed last week, me and neutrals aren't friends anymore so even tho the green & brown is pretty, I'm not doing it b/c it's really just not me.  Likewise, I detest orange, so there you go.  However, I met my knitting group, which we have officially labeled the Philly Knitting Triad because there are all of three of us and it sounds cool, and lo and behold Jennygirl was thinking about it already.  All it took was a little push from me and she tumbled, so the bold kit along with separate colors for me that I managed to pick out with a little help from my friends (thank you Heather, Jen & Susan!)  I went with some teals and softer blues, we'll see how I did in a week or so.  Somehow a vest seems less intimidating than a whole sweater.  Fingers crossed.  

Literally while I was looking at the colors and Jennygirl and I were expressing our trepidations about steeking, I got an email from Loop telling me that Jared Flood would be coming in early October and doing a class on what?  COLORWORK AND STEEKING.  It was meant to be, so I've signed up.  I'm totally excited!  I would also like to go to the afternoon session about EZs 7 seamless sweater patterns, but I will have to see how the budget looks closer to the event.   

Also, the newly published Alice Starmore book is on its way to me via amazon, I can't wait to get that next week as well!  It seems like the stars have aligned for me to try some serious colorwork this year!  (I hope I don't hate it)

Coming next time - pictures!  I am close to being done with my forest canopy with beads and I got my first shipment of the fearless fibers simple value sock club and I am NOT disappointed!

A smattering of things

First, I had a migraine last week & was down for the count, so my progress is minimal.

Second, look, it's dh's finished paperweight, isn't it gorgeous!?!

Third, I finished this slipper in Ysolda's pattern, which was free and I think maybe isn't now, and it's funny lookin'!  

It's comfy, so I'm not overly concerned, but I was going to sew leather bottoms on these so I didn't get any holes in them and now I am reconsidering and thinking about using them until they wear out and then make another pair of loafers, cuz those rocked.

Fourth, I am still, still, still working on the button band of the blue sweater (Ditto).  It is, in fact, going into the black hole of knitting.  This is just the first button band.  I have knitted on it at least 10-12 hours, if not longer, the silly thing is only 16 stitches wide - what the heck???

Fifth, I started the cabled vesty hoodie thing that is all the rage right now and I really want to knit that, but I keep convincing myself that I need to work on the silly button band instead so I'm not getting very far.

Sixth, we went outlet shopping yesterday and I bought a cashmere sweater at brooks brothers on serious sale for $80, my husband laughs when I buy sweaters and always asks 'couldn't you make that?', this time I said, 'not for 80 bucks I couldn't!'  A cuddly, snuggly, perfect cashmere sweater.  When is it going to be cold???

Seventh, I'm gonna rant for a bit.  I know the swing style is very in right now, but seriously, we don't all look good in swing coats, in fact, after seeing people trying things on at the outlets yesterday I'm beginning to think that it's a style that only extremely thin people look good in, implying therefore that for the most part these sweaters & coats will only look good on 16-22 year olds.  And not that many people who knit their own clothes fall into this age range, so why OH WHY are so many of the patterns that are coming out this year in this top button only situation.  Not only do they not look good on everybody but helllllloooooooooooo - when it's 15 degrees out, what the heck is the point of wearing a wool sweater if you are only going to fasten it at the neck and let it 'swing' very stylishly and very, very open to letting in the cold air???

I don't get it.  I am officially old.  Also, while I am willing to try something on to see if the style suits me, I am not so willing to spend the time knitting a whole, entire sweater to learn that the style doesn't suit me!

Also, let's ignore the fact that the blue sweater I'm making is in this style, I hadn't thought it through before I cast on.  I'm not entirely sure this blue sweater is actually going to look good on me, I think I'm aiming for 'not hideous' at this point, which is a shame b/c the yarn is gorgeous.  

Eigth, and you could probably see this coming, I am annoyed at the blue sweater and want to cast on something else.  I'm itching to start something that would classify as a fall/transitional sweater because by the time I finish it will be time to wear it.  Now to just decide what...maybe Elaine's Blouse, I swatched for it eons ago, it will be a very nice early fall piece if I can finish it in time.

Ninth, another slight rant, I'm going to stop buying tan and brown pants and brown shoes.  I buy them, thinking I don't have any because I never wear them only to come home and find that in fact I do have them, I just never wear them because I tend to buy (and knit) tops in vibrant jewel tones and I don't like the way they look with neutrals.  There is no need to wear browns, nobody is going to notice and ask me why I never wear khaki, I don't have to be fair to the color groups and maintain an equal presence in my wardrobe to avoid discrimination...I can. just. stop. wearing. brown.  And I will.  I have already really, a year or two ago, but I am going to stop feeling like I SHOULD be wearing browns more.  I am not breaking any rules by wearing the colors I like even if they are only in one half of the color pallete. 

Tenth, this house had gone wayyyyy too long without chocolate chip cookies and I have remedied that, so I'm going to go eat another one.  

Longwood Fireworks & Fountains

Yesterday to wrap up our staycation we went to Longwood Gardens for their Fireworks & Fountains show.  We were going to head to the Chadd's Ford winery on the way there, but as it turned out we were tired (apparently the tired that comes with being on vacation is not just from being away from home...) so we decided we could do that another day.

We got there around 6:30 for the BBQ and to walk around the grounds a bit before the show started at 9:15.  This is what we saw

Um.  Apparently you have to claim your spot pretty early.  So we found a spot to plop down our chairs and went to enjoy the bbq (food was really good) and walk through the greenhouses.

I'm going to run through some flower pics, just keep scrolling if you're not interested.

The waterlilies were mostly closed already, but this one was still open.  Aren't these lily pads stupendous?

This one is my fav.  The orange is so vibrant!

After that we went and found our chairs and waited for the show to start, which is when it started raining.

It stopped before the show started though and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Even if we were covered in ash from the fireworks at the end.  I don't think I've ever been so close to being directly underneath fireworks, it was spectacular!

And the fountains are such vibrant colors, they are so cool.  Sorry for the grainy pics, I'm not entirely sure how to use my camera in the dark.

And that wraps up our staycation.  It was great fun, and we are 'home' this morning, going about normal sunday things.  It's funny, I really didn't think I would be as tired as I was since we were staying at home, but we had planned stuff to do just like we were staying at a bed & breakfast so we were quite busy and definitely went out and did WAY more than we would be able to do if we were trying to keep up with normal life at home.

So it turns out, a staycation can wear you out just as much as a vacation can - but the trip home is a lot easier!

I have lots of knitting related things to show you (not much actual knitting, but lots of yarn), I'll have to do that when I have some time later.

DH starts his new job tomorrow so I am wishing him much luck, I hope he loves it!