Category Archives: from my front door

mojo?

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Have you seen mine? Because I’ve had a hard time finding it lately in the knitting/spinning/blogging department. (Also, the dissertation department.) But you know what? I’m newly resolved not to let it bother me. I’m sure it will come back; after all, this space is dear to me.

But enough of that. Want to see what I’ve been up to this week?

Swimming. (Suit drying on the porch.)

Eating. (More specifically, eating tomatoes: in tarts, broiled on bread with cheese, and straight from the cutting board.)

Picking flowers. (And putting them all over the house.)

Lounging with Boh.

And today? Well, today I’m taking Saturday seriously. I slept in, made pancakes, read for pleasure, and frolicked a bit with Boh. I even put on my swimsuit in order to encourage the sun to come out. See?

Still rainy, but it might clear up enough for me to take a quick dip.

I’m also macerating blueberries on the kitchen counter. Later today, they’ll become this blueberry crumble. (Berries courtesy of Laura.)

I don’t have any new pictures to share of my Whisper cardigan, but I have been knitting on it. Photographic evidence soon. Happy weekend!

not helping.

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Apologies for my blog-silence the last few weeks. As you can see, Boh is not helping me finish up this grading. Perhaps I can distract you with this pretty sunset?

There will be blog content soon, I promise. (Why am I confident that I can deliver on this? Because blog friends are coming to visit this weekend! More soon!)

 

red at night, sailors’ delight.

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Or so they say.

Yesterday I started feeling better — hooray! I returned an overdue library book, did some grocery shopping, went to the bank, and when I got home, I decided it was time to (literally) test the waters. So I threw on a tank top and shorts, grabbed a towel and Boh, and we went for a swim. (And by swim, I mean I waded and coaxed Boh into a depth requiring that he swim. He did, but he didn’t seem thrilled about it. So we got out of the water, I hooked him to the picnic table at the end of the dock, and swam a few “laps” nearby.) It was cold, but refreshing, and surprisingly deep! There are stairs at water’s edge and then a ladder at the end of the dock — plenty of the kind of depth Boh likes at the shore (read: places he can stand without needing to swim), but at the end of the dock, definitely over my head. I’m not a big swimmer (I don’t like to get my face wet, though I did go through a phase in high school where my mom and I would swim laps at the Y), but one of my goals for this summer is to get into the lake regularly. (Tough, I know.)

Last night’s sunset was lovely, and I enjoyed it from the porch with my knitting, a small glass of a dear friend’s homebrew, and my sweet dog. Hello, June.

we live here.

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Boh and I enjoyed a gorgeous sunset from the porch last night. Those of you who have been long time readers may remember the pictures I used to take from my front door when I lived in the southwest. I have a feeling you’ll be seeing lots of pictures from my porch.

We live here. (In the, whoa, it looks like we live here, sense.) I have begun to make messes in my new kitchen.

Behold the yarn and fiber closet. I know it has been far too long since I posted about knitting and spinning — first it was the exams, then the move, then the research trip. All that is over now. I spent yesterday afternoon trying to unpack my fiber, which basically meant that I had to go to the store to acquire tools for closet organization. I’m so thrilled with these hanging racks for my yarn and fiber. Stay tuned for a picture of the “book” case (read: yarn case) in my bedroom. And, of course, actual knitting!

FO: sour fig.

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Boh decided that he wanted to pose alongside my finished skein of Hello Yarn shetland in Sour Fig. This is 201 yards of 2-ply, and I have a second, smaller skein of 85 yards. This stuff looks to me to be mostly sport weight, and I’m wondering if it would make a nice wurm hat. Thoughts? (Too variegated? I am also craving another set of mitts.)

Yesterday also involved this:

And this:

Friday. I managed to eat ALL of that apple crisp last night, this morning, and as a late lunch today. Boh and I just took a nice, sunshine-filled walk around the neighborhood, and I’m hoping that I have energy enough to do a bit more work this afternoon.

shoveling, sour cherries, sweetness.

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As you can see, today’s post is also sponsored by the letter S. Despite yesterday’s whining about the snow day that was not to be, all of my students showed up for section. If things had been reversed, I would’ve picked snowshoeing over school, so they all get a great big high-five. When I returned home, a mountain of shoveling awaited me.

The door to my apartment is on the back of the house. I’d say my part of town got about 15 new inches of snow on Thursday and Friday, and then some high winds helped to create some substantial driveway drifts! I shoveled a winding path from the street, zigzagging around the cars in the driveway, and around the back of the house to my door. Every time Boh and I walk down it, I feel like I’ve created some kind of Olympic ice luge or bobsled track. I also had to dig out my car, which I did in two 1-hour chunks.

My friend T. did quite a bit of shoveling yesterday too, and she came over last night to commiserate with a bit of wine and some sour cherries, which we promptly turned into coffee cake!

T. is a teacher, and she used part of her snow day to defrost these cherries and pit them. (So even though I didn’t get a snow day, I certainly got to enjoy the spoils of a snow day project!) We made this coffee cake, and it was fantastic.

T.’s sweet dog, Coltrane, came over to play with Boh, and once we convinced him to get up on the couch, he decided to spend much of the evening lounging.

Best friends. (Though Boh was whimpering a bit at the idea that he had to share his couch with Coltrane!)

One last picture — I think I am subconsciously responding to all of the bright whiteness outside! A glance in the mirror had me laughing at my apparent attempt to wear all of the colors of the rainbow at once. Silly rooster!

twentyten.

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I made my list of things to remember to do or think about this semester and tacked it up on the fridge, and then I snapped a picture of the snow falling outside.

My knitterly goals for 2010? Not goals so much as ideas and possibilities: handspun socks, something cabled, spinning for a sweater, a nice balance of knitting that calms me and knitting that challenges me. I also plan to keep working on my spinning — which will allow me to keep something handspun on the needles all (or most of) the time.

And with that, how about some knitting and spinning progress to kick off the new year?

This stuff is awesome. 155 yards of about 3.5 oz of Crown Mountain Farms superwash merino in Albatross, destined to be mittens for my brother.

You know, because I’m keeping these:

Boh is so ready for 2010. (Or dinner.) Happy New Year!

light/tunnel.

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Yesterday it was cold enough for me to wear my Stripes! Yay! I’ve put it on a few times since I finished it over the summer (as you know) to admire it, but it hasn’t really been cold enough for me to do more than wear it for ten minutes in the morning. Yesterday, though, it snowed much of the day, and the temperature was well under freezing. It’s cold again today, so the first thing I did when I got out of bed was pull on Stripes! (Well, and pull on pants over my also very stripey long underwear. Too much information?) See that second picture? That’s me hugging myself. This sweater makes me want to curl up with Boh.

Particularly when it’s like this outside:

This sweater also helped me to provisionally conclude my writing project. I’m going to read it again today, and then turn it in for comments. Last night, I filled that first bobbin with most of the first braid of Pigeonroof Studios fiber:

Today’s plan? Grade one last paper, sit down with the calculator and figure out my students’ grades for the semester, and read through my draft one more time. Hence the title of this post.

Thanks for all of your encouragement this week. Here’s hoping that the light appears soon for you guys, no matter what kind of deadlines you’re dealing with!

disaster/resolution.

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I did something totally stupid and avoidable yesterday while knitting on bracken and decompressing from a long and stressful day: I somehow managed to twist the vest around while picking up the ribbed button band/collar border. I noticed when I bound off.

I did not have the heart to take pictures, but I performed the equivalent of open heart surgery on my vest. I ripped out the seam between the front and back on the right shoulder, and then cut the ribbing. In my mind, I had envisioned being able to pick up stitches on both sides, knit, and kitchener (you know, sort of like making a thumb), but since I had to cut my knitting VERTICALLY, that did not happen. We’re only talking about seven rows here, but there were seven separate ends on each side. (Obviously. Just not to me BEFORE I cut.) So I picked out a few columns to get long enough ends to weave in or (ahem) knot, and then I re-seamed the shoulder, and then picked up stitches from the seam edge and knit a handful of rows in ribbing to fill in the gap I had created. Then I did the ugliest suturing anyone has ever seen, and decided that no one will notice. It looks a lot better now that I’ve picked up and knit the stitches for the armhole ribbing.

bracken needs buttons

Now it just needs buttons. The jury is still out on whether this is a flattering style on me. Bracken is getting a nice, hot, luxurious soak as we speak, and if everything evens out a bit (and if I can get a bit more length out of it) this could be a super fun layering piece. Remember my note on row gauge, and how I figured it was close enough? Those might be famous last words. My ribbing is another half-inch or so wider than the pattern calls for, which might make for some awkwardly fitting armholes. Fingers crossed…

sunset ithaca

So, that’s a bit of a mess, but to make up for it, the universe delivered one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve seen in awhile.

sunset windows

I love the reflection of the sunset in the windows of the house behind mine. What a way to welcome the weekend!