winding.

No new knitting progress to share, but I did manage to wind all of this yarn over the weekend — no small feat, given the number of tangles I encountered. Luckily, the colors are so deep and vibrant that it was worth it. Yarn is Fleece Artist Somoku, in colorway Masala. I ordered this (from yarn4socks, great service!) with the intention of using it to make myself a Sunday Market Shawl that would be a bit wider and longer, more airy shawl than scarf — something to cram into my bag for class, where the temperature seems to range from stuffy and overheated to incredibly over-airconditioned. Other patterns I should consider?

Happy Monday!

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boh is worried…

Boh is worried about my june bug socks. He thinks that I’ll get distracted with life and other knitting projects and never finish them. Never fear, my dear dog. The first heel has been turned. And I have proof:

If I can get some serious reading done this morning, I’ll reward myself with some podcast listening and sock knitting later today. Looks like it is going to be a rainy Sunday, worthy of pots of tea and curling up on the couch.

adventuring.

I headed west for the wedding of a dear friend: my first partner in crime at my first real job. The nature of this job required that we move to a brand-new-to-us city, find a house, establish a network, and jump into 18 hour days for almost 4 months. We emerged from that experience dear friends, and though I later left that job and he continued, we’ve each made an effort to routinely catch the other up on what is happening in our lives. The wedding was beautiful, and despite cross country flights and 1000+ miles of driving, I am glad I could be there to celebrate. I have no pictures to share of the event, as I was too busy enjoying it, and, if the truth must be known, finishing up their pinwheel blanket. I wove in the ends moments before the ceremony.

The remote location of the wedding and the red-eyed nature of my flight created a spectacular opportunity: Lassen Volcanic National Park.  I had never even HEARD of Lassen Volcanic National Park. I hit the road early on Sunday and managed to squeeze in two 3-mile hikes and an appropriate amount of oohing, ahhing and roadside reflecting before heading southward to catch my flight. And read. (Didn’t quite get all of that done this week…) A few pictures of my adventure:

More knitting (and new yarn) content soon!

inching along…

I didn’t post this weekend because I felt like I had nothing new to tell you — slowly making progress on my pinwheel (which NEEDS to be done this week), reading a lot of books, occasionally chuckling at the dog and his pouting, baking bread. You know, the usual. And then, I figured that while you might not enjoy me explaining these things in infinite detail, you might want to see the pictures. So that’s what I’ve got for you today.

eggs.

Somehow I managed to use up all of the week’s eggs in a 24-hour period without even realizing it. You see, I made bread pudding (far above, and from Mark Bittman’s big yellow book) in order to put my moving-towards-stale homemade bread to good use. Yesterday’s frittata (recipe here) was absolutely necessary, as I needed to procrastinate AND I had some summer squash begging to be released from the veggie drawer.

Despite all of the reading I’m doing, I have been allowing myself some knitting breaks to clear my head, or, as in the case of this morning, give the coffee a little bit of time to work its magic.

I absolutely love the striping. Yesterday, I began the heel of #1, and I am excited to see how the colors arrange themselves in this part of the sock. (I’m just using the basic fingering weight sock recipe in Ann Budd’s Getting Started Knitting Socks, which I highly recommend.)

Also, it feels like fall here. Hooray for handknits!

another jellyfish.

My third pinwheel is growing…which is a good thing, as it needs to be finished for a wedding I am attending in a few weeks. The rest of my knitting doesn’t look much different from my last posts, so I’ll spare you from trying to figure out if I knit 5 st or 25 st on my other WIPs. I do have some productivity from my kitchen to share:

You’re looking at a soothing, spicy soup that did exactly what I needed it to on Tuesday: address my drippy nose, and transport me to somewhere else. I will certainly be making this again. (If you haven’t checked out Heidi’s recipe blog over at 101 cookbooks, what are you waiting for? That lemony stirfry on the front page is on my list this week.)

Also, a loaf of banana bread. I tend to poke my bananas every day or so to see if they are ready to be turned into bread, specifically, Mark Bittman’s version of banana bread. I like the addition of a little bit of coconut — adds texture and depth without being overly sweet. Yum!

This guy is ready for his close up. He wants you all to know that he is trying very hard to be good, but that sometimes life gest really hard. Exhibit A:

I took this picture out one of our windows, without using the zoom. It is almost too much for Boh to bear. Yesterday he may have attempted to jump through the [closed] window — he bumped his nose on the glass and flopped onto the bed, ready to make another go of it.

This week has had more of a rhythm to it, and now that I have a pile of books to read and think about, I have less time to worry about transitioning into an academic life. Looking forward to the week ahead — we’re finally past introductions and syllabi, which means it is time for “real” grad school to start.

Happy weekend!

brought to you by the letter B.

Brussel sprouts…

Boh asleep on my Bed (note that his head is on the pillow. Silly dog)…

Beret #2. How did that happen?

(no-knead) Bread #4. This time I used bread flour, and Boy is it Beautiful!

I didn’t actually plan for today to be sponsored by the letter B, but it is nice when things turn out that way. Here are the details of my accidentally cast-on and completed star crossed slouchy beret #2:

Yarn/needles: Malabrigo leftovers from Foliage and sassymmetrical, US 11 needles.

Mods: A bunch on this version: On the increase row after the first pattern repeat, I did K3, M1, rather than K2, M1, to make it slightly less slouchy. The second time through, the pattern directs you to do a repeat and a half. I eliminated the half repeat, and began the decreases, knitting the appropriate cable row partway through the decreases. Also, I did some stripey stuff to stretch the Cinnabar color a bit further, and I like how it turned out. Again, the cables and the large needle size make the resulting hat super squishy and soft. It will be easier to put Beret #1 in the mail with this one here for me to enjoy.

Time to slice into that Bread…