Yearly Archives: 2010

boh, a book sale (do, a deer).

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At $2.50 a book, I did very well at our local, twice-annual book sale. We’re planning to head back next weekend to check out the fiction, which will be 50 cents a book on Sunday. Awesome.

This picture does not do the subtle colors of Parritch, Targhee from the Hello Yarn Fiber Club, justice. I’m planning a three-ply, and this is bobbin number 1. I’m hoping to spend a little time at the wheel today, perhaps in between bouts of working on my last paper of the semester and grading final exams.

Here’s a knits-in-action shot from last week — looks like the weather is going to be cool and rainy again today, which means I’ll be able to wear my Shalom!

Which will bring us back to Boh, Boh, Boh, Boh, Boh.

FO: shalom.

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Boh is anxious about button selection.

And here’s what I settled on. (Boh’s anxiety was completely valid, by the way. Turns out I made four buttonholes. Didn’t realize that until I sewed on three buttons and tried on the sweater. I’m not sure yet if I’ll move the top button down, leave it as is, buy another funky orange button, or swap the buttons entirely. Thoughts?)

Here’s a full length shot, even though the brilliance of the sunshine puts me (and shalom) in shadow.

Have I told you lately that I love this sweater? School and life got in the way of me finishing this earlier in the spring. Despite the fact that it took me a few months to knit, this is actually a super quick, super rewarding knit.

Yarn:  2.75 skeins of Cascade 220

Mods: I followed the pattern, but I used worsted weight yarn and size 7 needles (thanks to all the shalom knitters on ravelry for their detailed notes). To account for my smaller gauge, I added a repeat of the twisted rib yoke section, and then pretty much knit until it seemed to hit me at the right spot. Oh — and I added a fourth buttonhole, even though there is not currently a button to pair it with.

Even though all of my decisions about sizing occurred totally on the fly, this might be my best fitting sweater to date. Go figure. The weather around here is spring-y, and not too hot, so I should have lots of opportunity to wear my shalom this week!

smart.

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Hello, friends. Rooster here, typing to you from the smartest phone I’ve ever had. It was time to trade in my trusty Razr, and while six months ago (when I bought that phone another battery) I was looking for something simple, this time around the lure of the internet (all the time) and the explosion of texting/social networking among friends old and new made taking advantage of this upgrade offer to get something shiny and fancy a no-brainer. And whoa – I can even blog from this thing!

I am attempting to add a photo, also taken by my new blackberry curve. Here we go! Regular laptop blogging will resume shortly. Happy weekend!

brainstorming.

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First of all, look at those eyes. Understanding that the last several days have been spent at the computer, Boh has been hanging out, looking forlorn, under my desk. The good news is that yesterday I turned in a big paper. Which means the worst is over, and while I still have a bit of reading, writing, and grading spread out over the next few weeks, I’m back. And happy about it.

And now I need your help! My cousin is getting married this summer, and I’ve been attempting to find a dress to wear. I’m thinking about this one:

(Forgive the awkward bad mirror picture.) She’s asked me to do a reading at the wedding, which is in a church, which means I need something to cover my shoulders. And here’s where the brainstorming comes in. Clearly, it would be awesome if I could knit myself something to go with this dress. What should I make? A shawl? A shrug? In what color? I’d love to hear what you think.

And I’ll have knitting and spinning to share soon — I promise.

pancakes/eggers.

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A lazy Saturday brunch.

This evening’s activities: prepping for my final sections, snuggling with Boh.

Boh responds unfavorably to my attempts at photo composition.

I’m itching to spend some time with my knitting needles and my wheel. A few more days filled to bursting with meetings and final class sessions, and then I’ll have big enough chunks of time to warrant focusing on my end-of-semester writing, which will likely require some dedicated time for thinking (read: knitting/spinning).

baked chicken meatballs.

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Still grading, still writing, still scrambling to figure out some kind of balance. Meatballs help. Especially these meatballs. The recipe has been waiting patiently in my binder o’ things to try, and I rediscovered it during a procrastinatory (yep, I’m making up words) purge of the recipe pile a few weeks ago. Enter a meat-eating boy. How could I not make these for dinner? Surprisingly quick, incredibly delicious, and perfect with a spring salad of romaine, radishes, carrots, cherry tomatoes and goat cheese.

No knitting — but I’ve done a (very) little bit of writing. If only the 100 words I’ve written here could somehow count towards the 1000 I need to turn in tomorrow…

Hope the sun is shining where you are. Here, it has made all the difference.

flowers and a wurm.

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And pancakes. For dinner.

I managed to knit a few rows on my wurm hat while at a lecture on Springsteen on Monday afternoon. I realize it doesn’t look like I’ve made any progress, but it felt good to have this project in my hands again. I could listen to Thunder Road over and over (oh wait, I do), and my week is certainly better than it would have been because I was able to listen to Bruce, blaring loud, in a rather stuffy lecture hall. (Roy Orbison’s singin’ for the lonely/hey that’s me and I want you only.)

And then I filled my apartment with flowers, which is an important step in grading a huge stack of papers. Clearly.

one more row.

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I knit one more row on my shalom today. Boh napped. I managed to snap a picture.

Things are going to be crazy (and thus, sporadic around here) for another week or so, but after that, I’m really looking forward to catching up in blogland. I may not be commenting/responding as quickly as I usually do, but I’m still reading. (And Boh is still napping.)

ripped jeans.

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I inherited these awesome ripped jeans several years ago from my dear friend champ, and changing out of skinny-conference-paper-giving-jeans into cozy sigh-with-relief-and-curl-up-with-boh jeans was exactly what I needed yesterday afternoon. (I know I tucked that into a ridiculous string of hyphenated words, but I gave my first conference paper yesterday, and I’m happy with how it went. Hooray!)

Also, I’ve done those dishes. Thanks, everyone, for your sweet responses to the giddiness of my last post. (I’m still grinning about all of that.)

Tonight, I made (and then ate too much) mushroom pizza. I also made some progress on my teal shalom. A few more inches, and I will be good to go.

I am still thrilled with the accidentally perfect sizing, and I’m pretty sure this is only going to require three skeins of Cascade 220. We’re getting into the crazy part of the semester — I’m expecting a huge pile of papers to grade tomorrow, and it is time for me to really get a move on with the writing I need to turn in next month, so my posting might be a bit erratic, but I’ll try not to disappear entirely. Spending time in this space makes me happy.