Boring blog post title, yes. Boring sweater? Nope!
Other things that are not boring:
Homeless flowers from my neighbors’ wedding that I get to enjoy because they are honeymooning.
Biscuits.
This guy. Also, I’m healthy. Finally. And today I have class and some meetings that I should’ve had last week. It will certainly feel good to cross those things off the ever-looming to-do list.
Happy Friday!
I am by no means healthy, but progress (in the form of a hacking cough) is occurring. The good news is that my nose no longer begins to drip the second I look down, meaning that yesterday I was able to do some of my wallowing in illness while knitting.
Sickness trumps gift-knitting, so even though there are a few more WIPs to finish in the Christmas pile (Thuja for my uncle, that acrylic scarf for my mom), I decided that I could knit a few rows on my 28thirty yesterday. As you can see, I knit until it was time to separate the sleeve stitches from the body, and then I let my sniffeling self try it on before bedtime. I love how this is coming along, so much so that I think I am going to take it with on my mini-spring break weekend adventure to the Catskills. (Fingers crossed that my health is much improved by the morning.)
Yesterday I made a very simple couscous vegetable soup — saw this post over at everybody like sandwiches and decided that it was just the thing my sick self needed.
This guy has been a huge help to me this week. Dogs know when you don’t feel good, I think, because Boh has been extra kind in the cuddling and quiet time department. He has certainly earned some frolicking time in the Catskills!
Nope, I didn’t knit this — but someone did. This slouchy, sheepy cardigan is a find from my new favorite thrift store in town. The sweater has been clearly loved — a few small holes, some evidence of repair, a missing button, but I just could not leave it to languish on the hanger. This sweater is perfect for reading, tea-drinking, and crafting, don’t you think?
And it cost me 9 dollars. Crazy. While wearing this sweater, I made some progress on my toe up socks at a lovely craft night/This American Life radio gathering hosted by a dear friend. Here’s the Monday morning kitchen photo of how sock number 2 is coming along:
I can’t wait to wear these. Maybe by the end of the week?
Also, we enjoyed more “Deb appreciation time” this weekend, in the form of smitten kitchen recipe preparation. On Friday afternoon, I made her key lime coconut cake. I halved the sugar in the frosting, but otherwise, followed Deb’s instructions. This is a a fantastic dessert — light, citrusy and a little sweet, with the added bonus that it is easy to rationalize eating a slice for breakfast.
We also made a recipe from Deb’s archives for dinner on Friday night: the indian-spiced vegetable fritters. These were absolutely delicious, and the process was just what we needed. Nice to be in the kitchen together chopping, frying, stirring, etc. after a long week. We were too busy eating to take lots of photos, but I do have one of the final batch of fritters in the frying pan:
Again, yum. I ate the last few fritters for dinner on Sunday straight out of the fridge, and they were just as tasty!
How did it become March? As seems to be my blogging/morning routine, it’s time to pour a second cup of coffee and continue reading. Have a great day!
Wednesday is the day I get to stay home. I have no obligations calling me to campus, but I tend to have the most important book of the week to read — often for a meeting Thursday morning one-on-one with my advisor. These are the books that tend to speak to me, and these meetings, while often incredibly challenging, leave me with a feeling of affirmation that this is what I want to be doing. That part feels good.
The actual process of reading a book for a Thursday meeting? Time consuming, because it needs to be read carefully (and should be, given that it is more relevant to my fields than most of what I read in my other classes). It is so easy to read 20 pages, only to realize that your mind was wandering, and you didn’t really catch what so-and-so was getting at in chapter 3. That does not quite cut it during Thursday meeting, so I’ve taken to using Wednesday to get other things done during the reading process in order to make sure I’m paying attention. All this to say that, despite the fact that I have no actual pictures of the reading process, I can show you lots of the things I got done yesterday, in between chapters:
Hung out with the dog:
Baked oatmeal-cranberry-walnut cookies, based on Deb’s recipe from earlier this week:
Worked more of the foot of the sock, in 5 or 6 row increments throughout the day:
After a particularly long chapter, I took this guy to the dog park:
What a ham. I also managed to do laundry, bake a loaf of bread, and have an ichat knitting date with a dear friend. I realize that this post makes grad school look like a piece of cake, but I stand by this particular approach to Wednesday: solid, focused reading, a chapter at a time, interspersed with productive tasks (laundry, errands, food prep) and fun (knitting, playing with dog) helps things to stick better, and means I don’t waste as much time losing focus/drifting off/etc. Note to self — do this more!
Apologies if the blog is getting a bit repetitive! These days I feel like my schedule looks a lot like this:
Read (a lot). Knit (a little). Repeat.
Time to pour another cup of coffee, read the epilogue, and make some thoughtful notes for my meeting.
This week, I’ve been reading a lot about Progress (with a capital P) and modernization in the 19th century. Something about all the language of improvement, advancement, expansion, etc. made me pick up my toe up sock project again (despite the fact that I think I most enjoyed reading things that explored the uneasiness with ideas of modernity that existed alongside the narrative of Progress).
Strange light in my house this morning — these socks have a lot more green in them than you can see in this photo. The lights and darks are definitely pooling, and there is a big weird dark splotch near the top (a function of the calf shaping I’m adding rather sporadically), but I actually love the big chunks of light/dark that make stripes.
After several false starts, this sock is flying. This expansion of my sock-knitting skill set would not be possible without this tutorial over at knitting by bicycle. The heel does not involve wrapping, and for that, I am extremely grateful. I’m so excited about being able to knit tall socks without worrying about how much yarn I’m using, and I’m thinking that this is going to turn into an almost knee-sock! (Yay.)
I took this picture last week: fried eggs, homemade bread, good coffee, and at least ten minutes with the New Yorker = a good day.
Back to work — hoping to reward myself with finishing this sock today!
Hooray! The seaming is finished. And it wasn’t even that bad. (Note to self: Remember this the next time I let a sweater languish because it needs to be seamed.) Baby sweater seams go super quickly.
Details:
Mission Falls 1824 Cotton, 3.5 (?) balls. (might have been 4.5)
US 7 needles
3-6 mo size.
I would definitely make this again.
The goal was to have this finished in time for my weekly independent study with my advisor — which isn’t for another two hours. Victory!
Time to get back to the book we’re discussing…
The keyword there is “feeling,” folks. Yesterday was such a day: only a few hours of academic work was completed, but I managed to go grocery shopping, make all sorts of deliciousness in the kitchen, teach someone to knit, and attend reading group.
Smashed chickpea salad, adapted from Smitten Kitchen. (Shocking, I know.) My version lacked olives and bread, to make it a sandwich, but this was even better than I expected.
More applesauce bread (I’ve been making at least a loaf a week lately) and Mark Bittman’s basic brownies — I know I’ve posted these before, but it has been several months since the last time I baked them. These were for a friend’s birthday. and they were every bit as good as I remembered them to be. And so easy! Why aren’t you making them already?
Yesterday afternoon, after several days of green grass and muddy walks with Boh, the snow began to fall again, in huge, wet flakes. Yay!
Progress on the baby sweater. At last. The ribbed baby jacket is blocking, and is almost dry. This afternoon, I will sew the seams together and weave in the ends. I ended up making a buttonhole in case I go that route, and after looking at snaps yesterday, I think I’d prefer a bright button. If I can’t make it to the yarn shop, I may swipe the blue button from my gathered cardi. We’ll see…
Time for coffee and actual productivity, instead of just feelings of productivity!
I wasn’t sure how this was going to turn out, as my first plied handspun is definitely a thick-thin yarn. After perusing a bunch of cowl patterns on Ravelry, I settled on something similar to the malabrigo cowl I made a few months ago. I was aiming for a drapey fabric, and figured I’d knit til I ran out of yarn.
I cast on 75 stitches, worked a purl row at some point to counter the roll over, and then knit, knit, knit while catching up with a friend on the other side of the world, listening to This American Life, and even last week’s CraftLit episode. I increased by 9 stitches at a few different points in the middle, worked a decrease row (also 9 st) somewhere, another purl bump row, an increase row, and then at about 14 inches, a purl row close to the bind off. I was worried about getting it over my head, initially, but those fears were totally unfounded. I LOVE this cowl — and not just because it represents my first foray into the spinning side of things. I stayed up an extra hour last night in order to finish this — here’s the token “hold the camera up to the mirror” picture marking my victory:
It’s a good thing you can’t actually see how bleary-eyed I was at this moment — but we all know how certain projects induce a kind of “must…finish…” zombie-like state.
In conclusion: hooray for handspun! (And I will finish that baby sweater by Friday. Really.)
This morning, in need of a little more warmth, I dug deep into one of the drawers under my bed and retrieved my Fad Classic. It seemed like just the thing, and the slight variegation and bumpy, round stitch pattern made me smile. I slipped it on under my cozy navy blue cardigan and looked in the mirror. And I LIKED it. See, I neglected to post FO pictures of this particular project because while I liked it in theory, I really didn’t like the way it fit — seemed not long enough, the neckline didn’t seem all that flattering on my shape, blah blah blah. But today, as a layering item, I’m thrilled, and in honor of Vestuary, I wore my Fad Classic out into the world for the first time. And I’ll be doing it again.
Also, this weekend I wound up my handspun:
I’m really excited to see what it will look like all knit up. Still working on the baby sweater, which needs another inch or so of ribbing and then it will be time for seaming — I will have it done by Friday. I will have it done by Friday. I will have it done by Friday…
I realize that the title of this post may inadvertently direct those looking for actual pictures of sweaters on dogs to my blog, and for that, I apologize. As you can see from Boh’s reaction, this is as close as we’re ever going to get to “sweater on dog”. I would, actually, consider knitting him something if (a) he seemed cold and (b) he didn’t LOVE destruction of knitted things. Surprisingly, he seems to understand the difference between WIP and FO. I can leave this on the couch for hours:
And he will sleep next to it. But if it were finished, and somewhere even the least bit accessible, it might become Boh’s next victim. (Psst. See how close to done I am with this ribbed baby jacket? I really like how it is turning out. My wrist has been a little sore from all of the work I’ve been doing on it, so I think I need to take another week to knit the rest of the ribbing and sew up the side seams — oh, and decide on a closure. What do you think? Button? No button? Snap?)
More classic Boh:
Boh laid like this for hours yesterday. Thinking hard? Needs a lot of blood flow to the brain?
And this. Such a tease. He didn’t actually read any of that book.
Coffee’s ready! Happy Thursday, all.
barefoot rooster 