Category Archives: knitting

whispering?

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You know, the act of finishing off a whisper cardigan. I snapped these photos last weekend, before a super busy week of research travel.

I think I’m going to love this sweater. I bound off moments after these photos — just needed to make sure it seemed long enough — and then promptly tucked it into my knitting bag for safekeeping while I was away. On the list for this week? Blocking the bottom edge to reduce the rolling. And then, if it stays cool and gray, wearing it out of the house! (I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: I clearly didn’t give any thought at all to the placement of the mirror in my new home — I need to place one somewhere other than a dark hallway near the bathroom with yellowish light.) Also, I didn’t even need to break into the third skein of this Knitpicks laceweight yarn. Real FO photos to come once it is blocked.

Oh, and that blueberry crumble I posted about last week?

It was delicious. More soon.

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!

shhh…

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Greetings, readers, from somewhere that is neither here nor there. I really have been meaning to blog, not least to share about the fantastic weekend I spent with blog-friends-turned-real-friends, Mick and Laura. (Would you believe that we didn’t really do any knitting or spinning because we were too busy talking, eating, and drinking?)

Anyway, I’m on a fancy bus pointed towards a city with a library that has some stuff that might be useful for my dissertation, and now seems as good a time as any to (a) try to get back into a blogging rhythm, and (b) learn how to use wordpress on my shiny iPhone. (I hate to admit it, but I do think the iPhone may be a factor in my recent blogging slump. The teaching definitely kept me super busy earlier in the summer, but I’ve also noticed that the camera on the iPhone is so good that I rarely reach for my regular camera, and I am not in the habit of daily syncing my phone with m computer. Bottom line? I’ve been slow to upload photos, and that seems to be disrupting my blogging routine.) I am going to try to be better- and maybe wordpress on the iPhone will help!

So, to connect back to today’s post title, does anybody recognize the knitting in my lap? That’s right, it’s my whisper cardigan, and it is almost done! I grabbed it because it is small and light, and at a place where the knitting is easy. Most of my WIPs are at stages that require more concentration than I have right now. I’m so happy to be knitting on this again!

More soon!

FO: stripey shawl.

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Eventually I’ll take a wingspan photograph so you can see the size of this basic triangle shawl, but for now, I’ll just say that I LOVE this, and that it is just long enough for me to wrap all the way around with the point(s) in front. Made from 250ish yards of handspun singles in two different colorways (one is Sadia from AVFKW in bfl, and the other might be half of a 2-color bump from SCF in Hades, possibly also bfl). I can dig up those details if anybody is dying to know. The brown is a purpley brown, and the lighter shade is a lovely coral with lots of depth. Originally I had intended to use this pair to make Daybreak, but at the start of last month I got sick, needed a simple project, and just couldn’t wrap my sinus-addled brain around the pattern, so I started this instead. I used the cast on and set up from Mary Heather-Cogar’s Simple Things (a pattern I highly recommend), and the rest is really just stockinette stripes, with a few garter ridges close to the very end to stop the edges from rolling too horribly.

Here’s one of many awkward pictures I attempted to take of myself wearing this shawl — I like this one for its blurriness and for the glare on my glasses. (Adds a certain sparkle to the image, maybe?)

I’ve learned that half-assed blocking still results in lovely drape, so I’ll keep that in mind for future projects. (It is so nice to have a towel rack on the door to my shower to hang blocking shawls!)

This silliness was occurring while I was trying to take pictures of the shawl.

Coltrane considers his reading options on the bookshelf. Boh wishes he could read…

Hooray for Friday.

Sweet, silly dogs.

dog days.

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Hi, folks. Sorry to disappear this week! I’m TAing summer school for high schoolers for the next three weeks, and my schedule has gotten kind of crazy! Hoping to be back into a rhythm very soon. In the meantime, here’s a whole bunch of pictures of Boh and his best friend Coltrane, who spent five days of his summer vacation here with us this week!

More soon!

PQRS: an alphabet post.

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P. As in, peonies the size of my head. Also, Pearl and the Beard. (Have you entered the album giveaway yet? You have until Wednesday to comment on Friday’s post!)

Q. For quantity. As in, how many retro table and chair sets can I fit on my porch? Also, aQua. (4 chairs and a table for 20 bucks, thanks to Craig and his marvelous list.)

R. Ricotta. Rich, homemade ricotta from Deb over at smitten kitchen, to be precise. This is Really good. Like, change-your-plans-for-the-day good. Whole milk, some heavy cream, lemon juice, and salt. The only reason I can come up with for not making this as soon as possible is that you need to go get a meat or candy thermometer. You should maybe go do that now.

S. Salad. And not just any salad; Summer Salad. Here at Casa Rooster, a Summer Salad is a salad that is eaten out of a larger-than-normal bowl.

Yup.

S also stands for Stripes. I’ve been making progress at a leisurely pace on my handspun stripey shawl, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Boh seems to like it too.

Happy Monday, folks. Hope your week is off to an excellent start.

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.

salsa and stripes.

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‘Morning, all. I’m feeling cautiously optimistic about this sore throat, and a little stir crazy from almost two full days on the couch. Time to catch up on some blogging. First up? Salsa.

I saw this super simple recipe over at A Friend to Knit With — and while I would’ve kept on scrolling in my old apartment because it called for using the broiler (and I was never able to clean that one well enough to feel good about using it), on Saturday morning I thought, what better way to celebrate a new stove? And so I ventured to the grocery store on graduation morning for salsa ingredients. And it was worth it. (I did use onions, too. They just aren’t in the pictures.)

Initially I was worried that it would be too spicy, but it mellowed a bit in the fridge. (Or maybe I got a mouthful of chile seeds when I tasted it? Either way, I was really happy with the results.)

As you can see, Boh was also worried about the spiciness of the salsa. Saturday night, a small group of friends from the department came over to hang out and enjoy the sunset. There were two different kinds of homebrew (yum!) and Boh made several new friends. I didn’t snap any pictures, but it was really nice to be social again, and I was awake way past my bedtime. Sunday was when I started feeling less than awesome, and I pretty much sat on the porch all day and worked on my Stripe Study Shawl. These don’t count as FO pictures because the lighting is bad and the ends aren’t woven in, but here’s a look at how it turned out:

I really love this, and even though summer weather has just begun, I will keep my fingers crossed for an evening or two when it is cool enough for me to sit on the porch with this shawl around my shoulders. I’ll post official FO pictures once I weave in the ends and find a better spot for photos!

 

sick day.

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I have lots to show you: homemade fire-roasted salsa, Boh being silly, millet “fried rice” from Super Natural Cooking, the ingredients that go into a hot toddy…but tonight, I’ll just stick with these two pictures of the couch. This is what a sick day looks like. (And really, it’s been two.)

I started making a Daybreak shawl last night, but (a) there was counting involved, and the sore throat that had spread to my ears wasn’t having any of it and (b) my handspun singles were not so pleased with having to knit and purl M1L and M1R (or rather, I was anxious about it — the stitches around those increases were tightening, putting stress on a single that isn’t as strong as I’d like it to be everywhere). So I ripped it out and cast on another Simple Things shawl by Mary-Heather Cogar, using the handspun I’d initially set aside for Daybreak: 2 oz. of AVFKW bfl in the Sadia colorway, and what I think is 2 oz. of SCF club fiber in one of the Hades colorways. Today I knit stripes while watching all available episodes of The Voice and three (count ’em) movies on Netflix. I also drank more mugs of hot liquid containing one or all of the following than I can count: black tea, lemon juice, honey, apple cider vinegar, and whiskey. Hoping I’ll be on the mend tomorrow.

finally, knitting.

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Boh refused to look at me while I was taking pictures of the border of my stripe study shawl. He was too busy watching the door for his best dog friend to arrive to be concerned with the less-than-one-inch (!) I have left to knit on this project. Silly Boh. And then he did this:

Oh, that face. I love this dog. Know what else I love? Fresh flowers. These came from the yard:

It was supposed to be stormy today, but it has turned out to be a beautiful day. My fingers are crossed for a colorful sunset, as a handful of folks from my department are coming over for porch drinks soon. Happy holiday weekend!