Dainty Kitty

I Finished My Mrs. Beetons!

 

   

Dead Like Me, Mittens & Snow Cream

I don't know what the finally tally was but we had to have gotten at least a foot of snow this weekend.  I wish I'd thought to take a few photos but I haven't left my apartment since I got home around two on Friday afternoon.  I have been nothing but loungy and pajama clad, watching the first season of "Dead Like Me."  All fourteen episodes. 

I did managed to do two things other than watch movies and old television shows.  One, I made snow cream for the first time...I was going to say since I was a kid but I think I made it with Nate over ten years ago.  Still, it's been a long time - you know, pollution and all that.  I couldn't help it...all that whiteness piled up outside and I didn't even have to leave my apartment to get any.    It wasn't exactly as I'd remembered it but it was till pretty good. 

I also finished my mittens.  Knitted with Di. Ve Autunno using the Easy Mittens patter in One Skein Wonders.  I had to add a few stitches to the hand but it was quick, easy knit and - hey! - I finished a pair of something!



I started the second Mrs. Beeton while I finished up season two of Bosom Buddies this afternoon.  I really need to do some housework before I go to bed but I think I'll placate myself with a load of dishes and a load of laundry and then a little more knitting along with an episode of the The Flight of the Conchords which I've heard is brilliant.  After all, I have to ease myself back in to reality....

The Weekend

It's sixty degrees outside and I have the windows open.  That is a beautiful thing. 

First of all, thank you for all of the hugs and comments from my last post.  This is unfamiliar territory for me and, while I feel pretty okay now, the news was...well, upsetting.

I have managed to do a couple of things this weekend, though. 

I covered a couch. 

A doll house couch but still a couch! It was a hideous yellow with flowers.  I think I'm back on the doll house kick but I'm not going to finish the one that I bought and started to build.  It's too cheap and flimsy.  Instead, I'm going to see if my dad would like to do a father/daughter project and help me build a fairly simple, plain, two story box house.  I haven't asked him yet - I might even have a template made before I do.  I'm sure he'll be willing - it'll just be a matter of finding time to do it.

I made Cheddar Baked Chicken for dinner which was phenomenal.  Seriously, I know it sounds weird with the cheddar and the Rice Krispies (although it's a combination I've seen one other time) but...I'm really looking forward to having the last piece for dinner tonight [edited to add: it's REALLY not very good the next day - it loses its crispness and it just kinda greasy.  I'm taking this as permission to eat every single bit the next time I make it].   Teeny tip - it's best right out of the oven.  I tried a bite as soon as it came out because I was a little leery and it was wonderful but the potatoes still had a few minutes so by the time we sat down it was still great but...much better right out of the oven.

I'm growing my hair out so I've been wearing scarves nearly every day.  This is one I found in the dollar section at Target.  A dollar!

I also picked up another one with skulls on it.  This photo, I noticed, is also a testament to the fact that I'm tired.  Hello, dark circles! 

Anyway, I love cute skulls like this sticker I have on my car:

And, yes, I really do carry a Vera Bradley purse.

I am also in love with the movie, soundtrack and star of Once.  It's a great movie and I can't stop listening to the soundtrack.  "Falling Slowly" won an Oscar which was nice because things I like never tend to win anything.  Bonus: Glen Hansard is yummy...and I don't even like redheads.  I also bought a cd by his band, The Frames, which is like more of Once which is beautiful.

Oh and I've nearly finished my other mitten. 

So that's it.  I'm sad that the weekend is nearly over but there's something that makes me feel better about starting a new week.  Before this weekend had even started, I had deemed last week The Week That Never Was because it Sucked. 

One Half

I finished my very first mitten last night (it's not as pretty as the mitten my friend finished over at Karma Kitties but it's a mitten never the less) and realized I now have four projects that are currently mate-less.  The Kolenyas, Mrs. Beetons, a mitten and a sock. 

I know I'll finish the other Mrs. Beeton - I'm just waiting for another skien of Rowan Kidsilk because I screwed the first one up and couldn't really frog it without ruining the yarn so I'm short - and the mitten because it was easy and I love the yarn.  And maybe the Kolenya although it's been hibernating for quite some time.  But that sock?  Maybe not but - someday, hopefully. 

I just know that I'm really not into knitting things twice. 

And maybe I'll actually have some photos this weekend.  I've also almost finished a crocheted basket for my mom - it just needs a second handle.  And perhaps, if I finish the other one, I'll get a shot of the mitten in use since the weather is snowy and cold here.  In fact, I had a very expensive drive to work this morning.  I slid into a curb and, when I took my car to the repair shop, found out that my front tires are legally bald (which I find funny for some reason) and the rim is ruined.  Yep, that drive that cost me a little over four hundred dollars.  One the teeny tiny bright side, the bald tires mean that I'm not a lousy driver. 

Addams Hat

Late last week I remembered that I needed a fairly quick gift for a baby shower for a guy that I work with (and his wife, of course).  I crocheted a baby bootie that I think was really a bootie for a two-year old (it was huge), tried another pattern that was teeny tiny and then gave up on the whole bootie idea.

Yesterday I was feeling kind of down (money, the lack of and my inability to save it when I do have it is quite sad) and stayed in all day, working on a pair of Mrs. Beetons (which I frogged after getting to the wrist of the first one because, once I put the two cuffs together, I was unhappy with the very first row of the inner cuff - heartbreaking) and watching the Addams Family Season One on dvd.  The need for a baby shower gift was still lurking there in the back of my mind.  Knocked out by the disappointment of ripping out all of the work on the Beetons, I finally decided just to make an umbilical cord hat.  I knew it would be quick knit and it would be easy so I could still keep an eye on Gomez (ah how I had a crush on him as a young girl). 

I completely forgot to scribble down the yarn but will add it later.  The yarn is Universal Yarn Inc.'s Classic Worsted Tapestry. I bought two skeins of it on a whim (along with two skeins of something else that I have no plans for either) when I went to a yarn shop up north, Ewetopia, back in December - just because I went back to pet it twice.  It's the most amazingly soft yarn and look at the bevy of stripes and shapes it created.  Perfect for a little boy.  The parents are keeping the name of their boy to be under wraps so I titled the photo Addams Hat since that mysterious and spooky family kept me entertained while I worked on it.  A few minutes later I realized that was kind of ironic - the father's name is Adam.   

Oh, and that bunny?  I bought him last Easter at a thrift shop.  He's one of my very favorite thrift finds and stays out all year (because even though he came from an Easter display they had set up, he's really not very Easter-y). 

Much happiness - it's a three day work week for me!  We have next Monday off for Presidents Day so I decided to take Thursday and Friday off so that I could have a five day weekend.   

Tired and Sad

In the knitting world I've hit a wall with the cabled hat.  I need to hunt down two skeins of Classic Elite Inca Alpaca in Peruvian Earth, damn it.  The Yarn and Needle, where I originally bought it, doesn't have it so I'm checking a couple of other places before I break down and order it online.  I found it on sale at a shop where I've bought things before but the shipping and handling is more than one skein and I can't bring myself to do that quite yet.  And I'll check other online shops.  I order so little when I do shop online that it's silly for me to do so, really. 

I did order the yarn to make a pair of Mrs. Beetons in green.  I was reminded that this pattern was in my Ravelry queue during the beautiful weather we had earlier this week - in the upper sixties.  I'd like to have them finished to wear for spring.  Maybe with a new denim jacket as they won't really work with my three-quarter sleeve jacket.

Proud Cable Knitter

Chullo In a Day

Yesterday I decided I would NOT be done in by the Chullo.  I spent the entire day watching a bad movie (Enduring Love - Daniel Craig may be hot but this movie?  Not so much) and several episodes of Medium Season One and Knitting with a capital K. 

Shortly after ten-thirty last night, I finished the braids, steamed it just a tad and took a photo.

I was going to wait to post about it until I could get a better photo of it. Eventually there will be a Chullo Part Two with all of the messy details that haven't been bitched about in past posts but for now - I defeated the bastard.  So there. 

Hospitality & The Hat

I was playing around with Picnick, making a new Ravelry avatar, earlier today.  I had to hurry off to lunch so I didn't get to make it quite as snowy as I would've liked - I'll have to resnowflake it later. 

I  was feeling good/happy enough to get out and about last night. Thankfully, my fairly newly found Ravelry friend, dharma (okay, so can I use your real name now, too?) opened her home to me for a few much needed out and about hours.  Good company and affectionate animals - just what the doctor ordered to sweep out the last of that grumpiness.

There's just something so comforting about sitting in someone's kitchen, chatting while they cook.  First she made scones - which we sampled with homemade strawberry jelly egads they were good - and, after a bit of knitting to go with our constant chatter, she made potato leek soup.  The smell!  Heavenly.  It was still clinging to my clothes when I got home.   

My parents did a lot of socializing at home or in the homes of others when I was growing up so it's something that I've always loved.  Getting together can be so simple yet so much fun.  And much needed!

Here's where the evening took a turn for the worse.  I was nearly finished with the chullo by the time I got home.  I knitted a few more rows and, after trying it on and checking it out in the hall mirror, I took another look at the pattern.  The pattern I had read wrong.  Bad wrong.  The pattern reads, "Continue knitting in stockinette stitch, until the hat measures 6 inches.  (Measure from the 32 stitches, the front of the hat, between the ear flaps to the needles).  Knit any pattern within the 6 inches."  At some point I really did read the whole pattern in one sitting...but, while knitting, I concentrate on each step as it comes along.  My brain read it as basically, "Knit in stockinette for six inches then knit pattern for six inches" which didn't seem right at the time but who am I to question a pattern?  I am a total dope.  So I took the whole thing apart.  It's gone.  This time around it'll go much faster, I think.  I mean, I've screwed up the parts that are screw up-able - I should be fine now.  This also means I only needed one skein of the camel.   Ah well, Lion Brand has several absolutely adorable holiday amigurumi patterns on their site - that camel color will make a nice reindeer, I think. 

I thought I was finished with this entry but I went to set the categories and discovered that I wasn't.  I had to add a new category: friends.  It's hard to believe that I have no circle of friends to speak of - I've just lost so many friends over the past two years.  Me - the social butterfly.  I think my goal for the beginning of the year is to reach out to some of those lost friends.  Maybe.  I'm leery of it for several legitimate reasons.  When is loosing touch something that just happens due to the business of everyday life and when is it a genuine break up?   Could there be a couple of people who were relieved to loose touch, even after all these years?  I don't know.  And I'm not the same person I was even just a year ago.  Right now I'm thankful for coworkers who must see something different in me because suddenly double dates are brought up when they never were before and for Ravelry and knitting groups that I need to get out to more often. 

Okay, now it's finished.  I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Farrow Rib & a Jalapeno Smack Down

I cast this scarf on last night.  I'm not using a pattern, though, I just cast on 25 stitches and am knitting it in the farrow rib stitch (which the owner of my LYS also said she's heard called the mistake rib - it would be hard to spot a mistake).  I'm using Suri Merino in Donegal Green Heather.  I made Dad a scarf with Suri last year and I'd forgotten how good it feels and at six bucks a skein it's an easy purchase.   Look how pretty....

And when I bind off this scarf, I'll have a tale to tell you.

Here's a little tale to tide you over until then: I had a very bad run in with two jalapenos this evening.  I was making jalapeno chicken corn chowder which calls for two chopped peppers.  I was very careful because today was a really bad allergy day for me so my nose was raw and 100% vulnerable to capsaicins.  Yet - even after I washed my hands - when I brushed the area near my nose, my face caught on fire.  I ran to the bathroom to splash water on it but that only made it worse - I think no amount of hand washing can save you after you've chopped a pepper. 

My entire nose was red as well as about an inch to two inches surrounding it.  It went through my head to take a photo for pure posting pleasure but I couldn't stop trying to make it stop burning long enough to pick up a a camera.   I've never been seriously injured so I don't have much to compare things to when it comes to pain but I'm pretty sure this was the worst I've ever experienced. 

I doused a cloth with milk (because you're supposed to drink milk to cool capsaicins if you're eating an overly hot pepper so why not apply it if your face is experiencing the same kind of pain) which helped a bit.  Then I smothered my face in aloe which, if it were at all possible,  made it even worse (I think it was just a case of more fingers touching the face).  I finally called my mom and she told me to put ice wrapped in a wet washcloth on it and that it would probably just have to burn for awhile.  I was freaking out by this point and trying to stay calm.  Seriously - this was unbelievable pain.  The washcloth helped, though (lesson: always fill your ice trays - I was down to my last two).  She called back a few minutes later to suggest the milk so I didn't feel quite so silly about trying that. 

I'm still really tender, though and I'm afraid to take out my contact lenses.  Every time I chop jalapenos I remind myself that I need to pick up some gloves for that express purpose but I always forget.  Not this time.  This incident is burned - no pun intended - into my brain.

So, in order to avoid taking out my contact lenses I'm going to watch an episode of Veronica Mars and knit.

Oh, farrow rib pattern - in case you're curious and not familiar:

Multiples of three plus one
1. k2 p1 end with k1
2. p1 k2 p1 across
Repeat to desired length.