i had a strange dream last night that jake and i moved to toronto. this morning i got to do one of my favoritest morning things… drink coffee out of one of our mugs and lounge about in my jim-jams as long as i like, dabbling in various knit projects, reading a little, and puttering around the internets and house:
ahhhh. so satisfying. but what isn’t satisfying is that we have not been receiving mail for about a week now. so after i finished my relaxing morning, i put on my veronica mars cap and went out to find out why. after talking to a couple of people, being put on hold/transferred about five times, i got told that they had no idea why we weren’t getting mail, and they had no idea where any of our mail was, but that they would make inquiries. agh! i was frustrated!
less than an hour later, we got our first mail in a week, a lo and behold! the package i was especially excited about was in it! chronographia (blog and ravelry links!) and i indulged in a hat swap, conditions being only that we weren’t to use any pre-published patterns. here’s the hat she made for me:
the colors aren’t quite accurate, but there is only so much i can ask of my camera late at night with absolutely no natural light to help it out…
yay! i also got a lovely card and a mix! thank you, chronographia!
it occurred to me that you haven’t seen any pictures of the bedroom since the paint dried.
so here is an accurate color of the bedroom, and also the headboard of our bed, made by jake’s extremely talented father, a skilled and awesome woodworker. do you see the owl?
i’ll get around to it. but first: for those celebrating, happy thanksgiving! for the rest of you, happy day!
i couldn’t find the recipe for the veggie medley that was requested of me, so i ended up making stir fry:
super tasty. green beans, bell pepper, onion, carrot, portabella, and garlic. nom nom nom! much food was eaten, family enjoyed, and i ate well but managed not to stuff myself silly. success!
in the UP, i made an impulse purchase of two skeins of berroco jasper. almost immediately, i was grasped by the idea of a colorwork hat involving squares within squares that bowed into arrows at the top.
jake has been desiring a new hat for a couple of months. i think since july, when i made one of his good friends a hat for his birthday, and jake got to pick the pattern and colors (my cairn) jake started jonesing.
deets:
yarn: berroco jasper, two skeins.
color a: verde lavras (primarily greens and purple)
color b: copper silk (quiet blue-greys and orange)
needles: my faves, addi turbos size 4
pattern: my own, tried and true colorwork hat pattern. any dk, worsted or aran weight yarn can be knit on size 4’s into a dense and roomy hat at 120 sts. as for my broham’s hat i mixed all three weights into the hat without any change in gauge, and not too much noticeable difference.
(side story time: my brother has crap luck with my knits. he lost this hat that i made him within a couple of months. i would have been miffed but he seemed pretty sad about it, so i let it go. also, his jayne cobb hat almost got lost at a concert, but his girlfriend saw it sticking out of some dudes back pocket and nicked it back. there are a plethora of jayne cobb hats floating around, but how many have a little red patch job in the orange section? i texted him the other day when i was at a yarn store to see if he had any idea what colors he wants this years hat to be. he texted back immediately that he would like a black, grey and white hat, in exactly the same pattern as last years. i was incredibly amused, as my brother is one of the most laid back people i have ever met, and it sounded like he was just waiting for me to ask. end side note.)
i’m really proud of my crown decreasing, fy to the i. when i started this hat i wasn’t sure about the colorways together, but as i went on i became a little obsessed with it. now i really really like. it seems like i choose very similar colors for jake on a regular basis, as it goes with his scarf and mitts pretty well, considering that wasn’t a consideration!
i mentioned that the cast on bug had bit me?
the cardinal rule, or duck duck goose the second (if you don’t include estella’s blue lagoon as a rough prototype), for soom. in some mountain colors yarn… not sure which. gotta dig up the yarn band. the yarn is gorgeous, but it refused to photograph well tonight. cross your fingers, i hope it’ll do better in natural light.
jake’s new colorwork hat in berroco jasper.
wonder womans mitts of truth (aka-susie’s reading mitts in malabrigo frank ochre)
and the local roving i bought in the U.P.:
shetland on the left (‘a gouche, louisa!'[french kiss, anyone?]), suri alpaca on the right.
ah! back at home. we were listening the bill bryson’s a walk in the woods on the journey home. between the trip and listening to his descriptions of camping, it made me really appreciate coming home. the luxury of our own walls and roof, the computer and warmth and things that are here for our convenience. lurvly, really.
sorry to report that no knitting pictures were accomplished whatsoever. oops! plenty of others were though! brief overview:
1. port washington, 2. birch, 3. tower, 4. willey’s tire shop, 5. hoary ground, 6. clock tower, 7. aino, estella and the older girls, 8. savings bank, 9. the new old underwood, 10. restaurant molding, 11. stool marks, 12. DSC_0306, 13. DSC_0309, 14. at the old place, 15. icy water reflection, 16. Champion School
Today was yarn shopping in Marquette, as well as lunch at an awesome Irish pub, the wild rover, and they had bangers and mash, which was glorious. It seems like I only get a chance every other year or so. The mashed potatoes were amazing, a definite tie with my favorite, fat willys.
Yarn shopping was good. I found what I was looking for at the knitters niche. They had a small selection of locally raised wool, handspun, machine spun and roving. I bought 4 oz of a warm brown Shetland and even warmer brown suri alpaca. I think I’ll spin it into some laceweight. I’m thinking of using my drop spindle, as I have one project on the wheel and another waiting in the wings.
Les mittens merlot are blocking, and I have hopes of photos tomorrow. I also have hopes of blogging tomorrow from the home computer, though this borrowed iPhone certainly ain’t the worst!
Not the awesome rapper girl. Eliza Marie is missing in action. This is her husband–Jake. She had to work late tonight, so if she was to post a blog every night during the blog-month-thing, I had to step in and make it happen. You see? Good thing she got married. I realize I’m no substitute, but her duty has been fulfilled. Where one is missing, their betrothed shall step in. If one stumbles, they can trust in the steady hand of wedlock. If one’s occupational duty ventures into the wee-est of hours, a husband shall rise to blog-ify. Oh, she’s totally going to edit this when she reads it. BLOG COMPLETE! Jake out!
edit: 1:00 a.m.: eliza home. sleepy. gonna wash my face, brush my teeth and to bed. nothing of import to note.
i have this tendency to be drawn to certain categories of things. for example, any time i see white short sleeved lacy blouses, something in me goes ‘ooooh!’ and i desire to own it. i have about four. this is also true of gored/a-line skirts that hit just below the knee and are made of a drapey fabric. i have at least three in heavy rotation during the summer. also chocolate brown v-neck cardigans.
another thing i am drawn to without fail is heathered greys. in almost any form. t-shirts? 3. sweaters? 3. two store bought, one hand knit. toss in a multitude of jeans and corduroys, some graphic t-shirts, and plenty of knit accessories, and you have a pretty good idea of my basic wardrobe.
today i was perusing the thrift store and my eyes and hands immediately gravitated towards a heather grey crewneck pullover. my hands approved. ‘yes, definitely wool,’ they said. and i was sold as soon as the label read: 100% lambswool. mine! all mine! it doesn’t fit, but it will be harvested for yarn…
to go with the collection of heather grey yarns i have already amassed. (some chunky frog tree alpaca, gloriously soft stonehedge shepherds wool, sandnes garn lanett sock weight, my own over spun singles from getting acquainted with my wheel, a random ball of classic elite, and some leftover lions brand wool-ease from the early days of my hand-knitting).
jake and i also have a collection of ampersands (the most recent of which is a playbill style font printing press one). not to mention my collection of dictionaries and copies of pride & prejudice. i’m sure there are many other things i collect, consciously or no, but those are the ones that occur to me at the moment.
what do you collect?
ps- i am cutting my hair on thursday. the length is getting unmanageable in its maintenance. at least four inches are going. but other than that i’m not sure. how short? bangs or no bangs? any thoughts?
for the last week or so i have been wanting to cast on for everything! shawls, especially. i really loved knitting the swallowtail, and after the intense cabling of my button up cowl, i want some lace, and something fun and interesting. i’ve been eying (does that look like weird spelling to anyone else?) the clothilde, wandering the moors, antonia, ulmus, desdemona, and contemplating another ishbel. i’ve also been looking at colorwork, hats in particular. this seasons twist collective has some great ones: the orvokki (so cute! with buttons!), moxie, and frost tapestry, as well as the good ole standbye inga hat (or another selbu modern? or louisa?)
but i’ve been trying to work with more patterns that i already own. my knitting library is huge when compared with what i’ve actually made from it. i’d like to try to use at least one pattern out of every book or magazine that i own. so in keeping with that, none of the above work… but there is a fantastic version of half bridgewater that i found today that is gorgeous, as well as the beaumont tam, and the idea of converting the willoughby into a triangular lace shawl certainly intrigues me. those are just from made in brooklyn, but as that is my most recent pattern purchase, i have been perusing it the most recently. although i have been reading bits and pieces from elizabeth zimmerman’s the opinionated knitter, which has gone a long way towards convincing me that if i was only allowed to bring one knitting book with me through the rest of my life, that would be it.
i have plenty to work on at the moment, though. another duck duck goose has been requested of me, and that found itself cast on, as well as susie’s reading mitts, and a couple holiday presents are waiting in the wings. ah… so much i want to knit, so little time!
book group was tonight! first one at our place! yay! we read the hound of the baskervilles, and talked sherlock holmes style.
i made my favorite cookies (chocolate chip walnut with sour cream… nom nom nom) and got to use our new electric mixer. it was nice, my biceps weren’t sore from whipping the butter and sugars (i’m such a wimp!). i also got to pull out one of my favorite little doodads:
the amazing/scary/awesome donkey salt/pepper shaker. i don’t have anything dog or detective themed, but this guy kind of looks like a weird dog. i LOVE it, but other people seem put off by the slightly possessed look in his eye, the bling on his teeth, and the amorphous identity of the beast. this creature brings me great joy just by the sheer unlikeliness of his creation.
caitlin also brought over our wedding quilt:
it is awesome, and it has a sheep!
(i will try to take a better picture in better lighting)
next month: if i were you by joan aiken. an awesome out of print book from the 80’s. i really should join in on the amazon reviews list, because there is no good description of this extremely awesome book… brief synopsis found on library thing: As they prepare to leave their English boarding school, Louisa Winship has a dangerous proposal for orphaned Alvey Clement: they look so much alike they could be twins, so why doesn’t Alvey return to Louisa’s home and family, posing as Louisa and freeing her to pursue a forbidden life as a missionary in India? Alvey is intrigued despite herself and accepts, taking her place within Louisa’s family. As she struggles not to reveal her identity, warm-hearted Alvey is drawn deeper into the family’s troubles. Oh, and did I mention Alvey wants to be a novelist and is working on a book called Wicked Lord Love? Just knowing that would have made me want to read this, but the impostor plot really made it a must-read, and I wasn’t disappointed: it’s richly characterized, has a lovely sense of place, and is utterly delightful.
ifandany 