weekend frolicking. also, buttercup.

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Boh and I took a long, meandering walk with M. this weekend. This spot was new to me, despite being just a few miles from my house.

We walked through meadows, shady forests, and then with our feet (paws) in the creek. Boh loved it, and we’ll definitely be back.

That put Boh to sleep for the rest of the afternoon!

Which allowed me plenty of time to keep working on Buttercup.

I’m really enjoying this, and if I bring this with me to the lectures of my summer TAing gig (planning to check that the prof I’m working for is okay with this, but I think he will be), I think the stockinette portion will move right along.

This book is significantly larger than Boh’s head. Not that anyone is measuring. I’m off to campus for a couple of meetings today. And later, I have a date with the lake. (It’s a standing date, really, for any days where the temperature is supposed to reach into the 90s.) Stay cool!

cup(pow) of lilac wine?

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Forgive me. I’m doing that thing where I try to link all the things I want to tell you about in a phrase. It’s okay if you want to roll your eyes. But when you’re done with that, look at this:

After I posted about recap mason jar lids for narrow mouth jars, blog friend dearmary offered to order me a cuppow coffee lid for wide mouth jars as part of an order she was planning. We met on Thursday, and talked for an hour. (And she not only brought me the cuppow; she also brought me a jar and a sweet, stripey handknit mason jar cozy!) All of this affirmed what I already knew to be true: blog friends are the best.  Also, the cuppow has my highest recommendation. I filled it with a latte right away, and when I was done, I flipped the lid inside out and put the regular mason jar lid disc over it, sealing in any remaining coffee drips and making it possible to toss the whole thing in my bag. I am going to use this ALL THE TIME.

I finished blocking my lilac wine cowl and snapped a few FO pictures.

I ended up using between 2/3 and 3/4 of my skein of Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 sock yarn. I could have kept going; I intended to, even, but I developed some sort of lilac wine fatigue last week and was ready to bind off.

I think I’ll get a lot of use out of this — in overly air-conditioned lecture halls and during in-between seasons, especially.

I took a few photos of the cemetery on my walk down the hill from campus. I’m captivated by the house-style mausoleums built into the hillside.

Can you tell we’re onto the random pictures from my iPhone segment of the blog? I’ve been eating strawberries twice a day this week. (I picked a gallon last week at the farm, and I’ve managed to eat them all. So good.)

More pesto, this time with garlic scapes and farm basil.

And then there’s Boh and his pile of paws. I’ll post photos of the weekend adventures that prompted such deep sleep soon.

wednesday, start to finish.

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Yesterday morning, I swatched for Buttercup with my coffee. I bought the yarn for this three summers ago, when I was back in the southwest the summer after my first year of grad school. It’s Queensland Cotolino, and I’ve got 8 balls of it. 8 balls x 105 meters = roughly the amount required for the XS size. Good thing I’m not working on a Ph.D. in math…

So I swatched on 5s, and got gauge. But then I went down a needle size, because I know that this is going to grow when I block it. I like the drape with 4s, and it isn’t so tight that I will hate knitting it. Decision made. So I unraveled what I had, because I’m going to need every last inch of this stuff. Normally I swatch — for real — and wash and block the swatch to make sure I’m happy. This project officially goes in the “by-the-seat-of-my-pants pile.” I don’t think I’m going to go as A-line flowy as the pattern suggests, though I do want some of the increases. Also, everything I read on ravelry suggests that I should go down a size so that the neck isn’t too low and open. I’m knitting the small, and we’ll see what happens. Worst case? Someone I know will get an adorable summer sweater.

Then I had radish toast for lunch. (Radish toast, in this iteration, is toast, butter, arugula, radish slices, and salt and pepper. It is even more delicious than you think it is. Trust me.)

My progress right after lunch, strawberry smoothie in hand. (Note: I picked a gallon of strawberries at the farm on Tuesday, and I’ve already managed to eat 3 quarts. I’ll probably polish off the last one today.)

No, I do not normally stand like this. But these are the jeans I bought to replace the ones I ripped. And they are straight — or even tapered — at the leg. And that wasn’t clear in the pictures I snapped where I was standing not awkwardly. So here you go. I think I like them.

Boh and I took an afternoon walk with our friend J. and the dog she is taking care of this week. It was lovely.

More buttercup. I’m really enjoying the feel of this yarn, at least right now. And the stitch definition makes me swoon!

So does this sunset — truly the golden hour.

simple rib blues.

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I did some great work on my latest pinwheel blanket yesterday — and I’m really excited to finish this because I can’t wait to send it off to the newlyweds I have in mind. (There are, in fact, three recently married friends of mine who are also sometime-readers of this blog. They know they’ll be getting something hand-knit, so I feel like it is okay to share this stuff. If I kept my wedding-gift-knitting secret, I’d have nothing to share on the blog! If you’re reading right now, this may or may not be for you! There. Now we’ve got some suspense.)

Now, on to the simple rib blues. Ever get those? When all of a sudden you feel like something is taking forever, and you just need to finish it now? That’s how I felt yesterday. I was catching up on Stash and Burn, and realizing that I haven’t done very much Rooster knitting, so I picked up my Lilac Wine cowl. During the semester, this was exactly the kind of knitting I needed — soothing and satisfying. But last night, I needed to finish it. Maybe it has to do with the fact that it is summer, and I’ve got fewer things (okay, right now I have one huge dissertation-shaped thing) on my plate, but all of sudden I was so sick of this ribbing! I had been planning to knit until I ran out of yarn, but I looked at my never-ending ball of Fleece Artist Merino and decided that I couldn’t wait that long.

So I slipped my cowl over my head, needles and all, and took a look in the mirror.

And I decided that it was big enough. So I went back to the pattern to look at the instructions for the tubular bind off, only to discover that it is super tedious: four set-up rows, and then kitchenering all the way around the 180 stitches of this cowl. Nope. Not happening. So I looked at some other projects on ravelry, and decided to do Jenny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off instead.

And now it is blocking on the dining room table. It feels so good to have this off the needles. I’ll post FO pictures once it is dry.

Unrelated, but here’s what I ate for dinner the other night: a spinach and arugula salad with beets and carrots, all from the farm, plus a fried egg. Yum.

And then there’s this guy. This is the face he gave me when I tried to convince him to get off the couch and go outside before bed last night.

And here are his ears, flopping in the wind. Sweet, sweet dog. Happy Wednesday!

peonies to pinwheels.

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I picked this peony at the farm last week when I went to pick up my first summer share. It is almost ready to bloom. (And I appreciate that it is taking its time. It’s the perfect company for me as I wrestle with writing a conference panel proposal this week.)

Sweet, sleepy Boh.

New dress and scarf! I wore these to campus on Friday. So comfortable and easy. (And all because I dragged myself to the Gap to replace the jeans I ripped a few weeks ago.)

I had Tango again this weekend. The dogs played so hard that they were happy to hang out with me as I worked on the couch.

And then yesterday we had a last-minute visit from my brother — and his sweet dog, Dexter! We went to the farmers’ market, ate strawberries, olive bread, and french radishes on the porch, and took a nice long walk.

And then I finally transferred my pinwheel blanket in progress to an appropriately sized needle. I’m almost through the first skein of Cascade 220. (And I’m planning to knit it to a 3-skein size.) So far so good! Now, back to Monday!

 

rooster everyday?

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I can’t believe I’m writing this post, but I’m laughing at my own ridiculousness, and since Boh can’t really appreciate it, I’m sharing it with you. Do you guys read Kendi Everyday? Because I do. And while I do not have my finger on the pulse of fashion, there’s a lot that I enjoy about her style and tone. She makes me want to be better at walking in tall shoes. (Also, I love her collection of fabulous, big bags.) I might have put on a gazillion (okay, three) different outfits on Sunday. Partly, it was the need to feel pretty. Partly, it was the need to get myself into a zone of productivity. I might have snapped some pictures of these possibilities, so please, laugh along with me at the crazy things that are sometimes necessary to get oneself out of the house.

Yup, I put on heels. I might have worn them while I made my oatmeal. I feel like I should wear these more, if only to justify the expense. (I bought them to be in a wedding in March.)

Here’s the rest of the outfit. Button-down shirts are a tried-and-true strategy for getting work done. Apologies if this is way too much information.

Here’s what I actually left the house in: a dress I rarely wear because I feel a little self-conscious in it. The neckline is low, and the blousy, elastic waist means that sometimes I worry it is too short (once I start moving around). This is a style I have never, ever, in a million years thought worked on my frame. But the dress was discounted by something like 80%, so I added it to my shopping cart in December. I wore it on Christmas Day with leggings, boots, and a long black cardigan. I think I love it this way. I felt super stylish as I picked up a book at the library (it was going to be reshelved, so I had to head to campus on Sunday), and then forced myself to do a few hours worth of work at a coffee shop.

Forgive the dark and grainy quality of this picture. This is the reason I decided to write this post. Because I also wore this on Sunday. Not intentionally. First, I had shorts and a shirt on. And then I felt chilled — it wasn’t quite cold out, but it had been raining all day. So I put on my favorite fleece. And then my feet were cold. So I reached for the Uggs that I often pull on while making the coffee on cool mornings. And then I caught a glimpse of myself (and my ridiculous outfit) in the mirror, and decided that this too needed to be documented.

Sometimes this rooster is very silly. Aren’t you glad this isn’t a fashion blog?! Happy Tuesday, folks. More knitting content soon. I promise.

all the bones.

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This is my neighbor’s dog, Tango. Tango loves Boh’s bones. He hung out with us yesterday because his person had an all day event. When his person came over to pick him up, Tango began to gather and chew on all the bones.

See? So very sweet. Boh didn’t seem to mind at all.

We’re working backward today, folks. This also happened yesterday. (My pinwheel is growing.)

Also, this. Boh is asleep on my leg. So much playtime!

And here’s a sunset from earlier in the week — maybe Wednesday?

Boh and his bone. (And nails in need of a trim.)

And just because, here’s a photo of my living room looking extra neat and clean. I snapped this picture before I headed to the wedding in Ohio last week. I rented the house to friends for graduation weekend, so I did some serious cleaning to get ready.

Time for dinner and some knitting while the dogs play. (Tango is here today, too!)

porch life.

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Reading. With chocolate peanut butter ice cream.

Watching a storm roll in from the porch.

A pinwheel blanket begun. A wedding lap blanket the color of the sea.

I did not take this picture on my porch. What kind of flowers are these? This is a snapshot from a walk I took last week in town.

I don’t know why I snapped this picture. But I did wear this outfit on Memorial Day too, so I’m sharing.

This one needs no explanation.

And now I’m all caught up on photos! (And I managed to sneak a little bit of knitting in there.) The wedding I attended last weekend was lovely, and some new friends I made there took me sailing — in a race! It was so much fun, and the perfect way to spend the Sunday morning after a Saturday spent celebrating a very dear friend.

I don’t have any pictures of this, but today I took my first swim in the lake this summer. I’m looking forward to a lot more of that. And now I should really get some work done today…

tending to.

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If I had to sum up the last week or so, I’d say it was filled with “tending to.” Tending to what? All sorts of things — small but lingering stuff on the to-do list, filing, travel planning, long-overdue emailing, etc. Also, a bit of tending to myself — an end-of-the-semester bug forced me to slow down. Boh and I even managed a few afternoons of reading on the couch.

Pure sweetness is what that is. On Saturday, still feeling lousy, but needing to get out of the house, I decided to tackle my extremely forlorn potted plants. (Forlorn is the nice way of saying absolutely dead, I think.) I’m actually pretty proud of my first ever herb collection — I managed to keep my rosemary, thyme, and sage alive well through a mild winter on the porch, though eventually they succumbed to neglect during the busiest part of my semester.

I snapped these right after potting them: sage, rosemary, basil, cilantro, thyme, mint, and some marigolds I picked up on a whim. (M., if you’re reading: I tried to take good care of those bulbs, but nothing happened, and then after I moved them outside, the pot that doesn’t drain developed a green sludge on the surface. So I gave up and planted marigolds.)

I haven’t done any tending of my yard, unless you count Boh’s “fertilizing,” but this year the wildflowers are amazing!

Also amazing? Asparagus. This has been my go-to meal of late: broiled asparagus witha little bit of olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper. Plain for lunch, and with a fried egg on top for dinner.

Boh and I are headed out of town for the weekend: he’s going to frolic with my parents, and I’m off to a dear friend’s wedding. Getting ready to leave has been extra hectic because I’ve been feeling icky this week, and because the lake house won’t be empty while I’m gone. It’s graduation weekend, so a friend who is defending and her family will be enjoying my home in my absence. I sure hope it’s clean enough for them…