a birthday

Ella will be 12 tomorrow. It's hard to believe I've had her for that long, and yet I can't easily remember a time in my life when she wasn't along for the ride, offering head butts, opinions and sweet puppy kisses. My dogs are each so very different that i don't bother to try and pick favorites, now; each occupies a place in my heart. Ella's breeder remarked to me, when I had her as a bouncy young thing that "You will look back, years and dogs from now, and understand that she is the best dog you'll ever have." Gotta love a breeder who is kennel-blind, no? But she's right, she must be right, I think. Even with only a few years past... anyway, for my sweet gray old lady, who still loves walking in inclement weather,swimming, rolling in goose-poop and worse, catching frisbees and begging incessantly for whatever handout she can talk you out of, a huge Happy Birthday! And many more.

I have a 3 day weekend, my treat after an altogether too-long three day work week. I know that sounds awful to those who are working longer weeks, but really, I had a job interview, gave and graded upwards of 50 tests, had to teach a model lesson before a jury of my peers, dealt with weather and temperature extremes and generally was tried and taxed beyond my tolerance. I have nothing planned, beyond a little grading and a little knitting. I am open to ambition and events coming up, namely the making of banana french toast for breakfast tomorrow morning, as I have a going-stale loaf of home baked bread and some overripe bananas on the counter.

It is a hazy, too-hot, too-muggy day, uninspiring. In conflict with the new moon, which is supposed to be an extremely auspicious one for all kinds of beginnings, but I find myself still mired in the middle of things I need to finish. Fortitude for the long stretch, that's what I ask. Fortitude.

luck turning round

I came home late today, late for me, anyway, at 4:30pm. I work half time, so 7:30 to 4:30 is a grueling day. Working part time has played havoc with my work ethic as well as my bank account. meh. It'll change soon enough if I'm lucky, and if not, well, I enjoy the downtime.

Anyway, I noticed that our front yard has become wildly overgrown. We don't own a lawn mower anymore, and we pay a guy to mow, but he's been crazy busy with his other job lately, and so hasn't gotten around to us. I do like the meadow effect of the yard all filled up with clover and dandelions and forget-me-nots, though, and so it's really no problem. We have so much clover that the grass was fragrant, and I decided to look around for bees. 20 minutes yielded one bee. One bee in a yard that should have been buzzing audibly. Was it just the wrong time of day? Or is (and I do believe that this is more likely) colony collapse syndrome hitting them hard here? Sad.

I did find a four-leaf clover, though, which made me happy. P suggests that finding one on Cinco de Mayo is extra lucky. I hope so. I did not win the $266 million lottery last night, but maybe today things are turning around...

Last entry, I promised you fibery goodness, and I intend to deliver. I have really been enjoying spinning different types of fiber on the Louet, and I was determined to buy myself a good cross-section of fun fiber to play with. I had a bit of a budget, and a bit of a space concern, so I truly didn't go crazy (did I?) with it, but I think I found some fun stuff:
I was totally seduced by these shiny happy colors at the Ivy Brambles booth. Merino, soft, fragrant and with the irresistable name: "Impatiens". Sometimes I look at this pic and think it looks like clown guts, but I think it will be fun to spin up. I think I'm going to use this to try this fractal spinning technique I've been reading about. There are lots of examples and discussions of it on Ravelry and if you google "fractal spinning" a lot of blog entries come up, so I'm feeling inspired.

Here's some 80/20 Blueface Leicester/silk from Carolina Homespun. I fell in love with the color and feel of this lovely stuff. It's so shiny and soft. I'm currently spinning it up, and while I like it a lot, it isn't as easy to spin as the pure BFL I've spun up earlier. The silk makes it a little slicker and I find myself swinging between spinning fairy hair and sportweight singles. Getting some consistency is a challenge. I'll ply it up, so it won't be a huge deal; I'm finding that plying, while a bit boring, is vastly improving the appearance of my efforts.

I wanted some undyed, more natural wool, so I got some Coopworth roving from Carolina, as well. I like this pretty brown. I've been reading Clara Parke's "The Knitter's Book of Wool" about the different sheepy breeds and qualities of wool, and learned that this breed was developed by crossing Border Leicester and Romney sheep. The natural colored ones are allowed to be registered in the USA, but in Australia and NZ only white ones are allowed. I'm told it's easy to spin, and good for outerwear.


Some Merino/silk from Ellen's Half-Pint Farm. I'm completely smitten by these gothy colors. I had been browsing a display of Socks that Rock yarn, and had fallen quite in love with the Raven Clan colors, but had resisted buying any sock yarn for my stash. When I saw this roving, I couldn't resist. I also got a wee bag of firestar shiny glittery stuff to spin in with it.

My husband is working round the clock, these days, as his office is handling wildlife refuge issues for the Gulf oil spill, right now. Reports are grim, and sad, as oil reached land, finally today, on some islands where brown pelicans are nesting. The pelicans had recently been removed from the Endangered Species list, because they'd been doing so much better, after nearly dying out, several years ago. Very sad, this spill, and a little surreal, right now.
***ETA: Correction: Oil has reached land, but has not been seen on the islands where the pelicans are actually nesting! That is good news!

I leave you with my current favorite Avett Brothers song. This changes from day to day, but today it's Perfect Space.

green things and a Stitches report

Lots going on around here. Work has been intense, and as much as my job is not my dream job, it does occupy my time and my mind. I have nothing lined up for next year yet, and it's starting to grind on me, although my common sense side reminds me that I have NEVER, EVER gotten a job for the next school year before July, and so I'd better strap on my waiting shoes and stop bellyaching about this little blip in my employment life. While arguably happy not to think about repeating this year's job again, I do appreciate the paycheck and the freedom that part time employment brings. meh. Onward and upward.

I have been working faithfully on the NRN Central Park Hoodie, and am done with the back and nearly one front. This is an easy, soothing knit. The Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed is a joy, soft, rustic and the greyish yellow (grellow?) is pretty. I'm hoping that I chose the right size to make; I've heard all kinds of things about how this pattern runs small, but I do know this yarn grows a little bit, and I am so gun shy after knitting up Ariann and having it grow into such gigantic proportions. Ariann is frogged, by the way. My sister came down for Stitches South and graciously frogged it and skeined it up. It's been packed off to our friend Niki, as a gift. Niki is a pink fiend, and a relatively new knitter. I will not be defeated by this pattern, and have some yarn in stash that is slated for Ariann Redux, but it's not gonna happen right now. But CPH WAS the perfect antidote for being burned by a tricksy pattern, I gotta say. Here's an older pic of the progress:
It's full-on spring here, with our woods gone green, and more pollen than you can shake a stick at. Every day, something new is blooming and changing, and the weather swings wildly from mid 80's to low 60's. I felt a mosquito the other day, but they aren't back in force yet. Lots of new green things in my house, these days, too.
I took advantage of the Webs spring sale to stash some pretty green Berocco Ultra Alpaca. I have never used this yarn, and am not so knowledgeable about the ways of alpaca, but I love the peaty green color and am pretty dazzled by its softness, too.

A new plant we've acquired, as well; a kind of sword fern. Note the new little baby fiddleheads down in the center of the cluster.

So, as I said, my sis flew down so we could go to Stitches South here in Atlanta. We had a great time. I took a class, "Complete from the Top Down" taught by Barry Klein, the owner of Trendsetter Yarns, and who is one of the top ten men in knitting according to Knitty. He was a great teacher, and the class was terrific. We worked on a little top down sweater. I didn't get very far, but I learned a lot about increasing, decreasing and raglan shaping, which are things that have confused me, in the past, as I've blindly followed patterns without much understanding. Stitches was generally a joy, though my wallet is considerably lighter, after a lot of shopping for spinning fiber. The fiber purchases will be blogged later, as they deserve their own attention. It was fun to see the "faces" of knitbloglandia at Stitches. I finally met and chatted with the lovely Rachael and bought her book. I also spoke with Carrieoke and saw her adorable baby, though it was really just the top of his head, as he was snugly wrapped and sound asleep. Team Ravelry was out and about and handing out Ravelry buttons. I bought a few notions; Kollage square dpns, stitch markers, needle tips and a skein of Euroflax linen that was priced so low that I couldn't walk away from it, especially seeing the Ilene bag my sis was making.

Today is my last day off from an unusual 4 day weekend. Sorry to see it end.

spring's promise delivered

I've been feeling a bit prickly, the past few days, disappointed in Spring's wimpy weather so far. Things seem to be turning around, though, and it's supposed to be unseasonably warm - even in the 80's, the rest of the week. I'm looking forward to it; I've got some new little shade plants to put out. Today I planted some new hellebores, which I don't expect to do much, as I got them out late. Tomorrow, hostas, lungworts and cyclamen bulbs. All this perennial planting and bulb growing is sort of a distraction to me from my real mission, which is figuring out to do with 1/2 an acre of dirt and shade. I think I need to subdivide it into bedded areas which I'll fence off from the dogs, at least temporarily, and try and establish some shade-tolerant groundcover. It feels overwhelming.

We had some tequila, limes and oranges leftover from a tequila-lime chicken dish that P. made last week. I made a drink, using the 3-2-1 Formula: 3 parts tequila, (1.5oz) 2 parts lime juice,(1 oz) and one part (1/2 oz) Cointreau. A sort of margarita, though I didn't salt the glass. Extremely yummy and sippable. I'm going to make another one, this weekend, adding in fresh squeezed orange juice in addition to the limes. Gotta figure out the proportions for this new drink, though.


On Ravelry, I'm in a group for soap and dishcloth swapping. I like the idea of swapping yarn and knitted things, but most swaps I've checked out have impossibly high spending requirements, and too many rules. This group runs a periodic swap that involves sending someone a knitted washcloth, and a bar of soap. Nothing more, nothing less...a $10 maximum spending limit. I knitted this cloth for my partner:
My swappee sent me this: I love the butterflies and the soap, a deliciously grapefruit-lily scented one, is handmade from a North Carolina Cherokee Indian village. It's currently scenting my stash of laceweight yarn, til my current shower soap runs out. The swappiness was a thrill. It's been just a drop in the bucket of cool stuff that's been coming in the mail, lately; a wheelwarming gift of some blue-faced leicester roving from Opal, my Stitches South registration... not to mention the spinning fibers I've been ordering. Here's a peek at the last of the lilac n' lemon romney drafted up and ready to spin: and a look at some of the singles on the bobbin. I spun it all up and plied it. Seems to be a light worsted weight. I think it looks like marshmallow peeps. So seasonal.

Is anyone else as ridiculously happy as I am about the upcoming remake of Clash of the Titans? "Release the krakon" is our new household phrase for letting Cricket outside in the mornings.

a gratuitous blog

Whoo-eee, the blogging mojo, it has not arisen in a coon's age. I've been working (something about writing 45 narrative report cards just turns the brain to jelly) and cooking (scratch pancakes, carnitas, whole wheat scones, kale chips...) and spinning up a storm on the louet, which is still nameless. Nevertheless, in spite of no writing, there has been some sporadic knitting. Here is a progress shot of Talia, who is finished, now, except for the picking up stitches and knitting the edging of the armholes, which for some reason, is a process that scares me. I have a hard time doing this in a pretty way, and even though I believe in the forgiveness of black, fuzzy yarn, I keep putting it off. For a person described as brave, I am kinda chicken like that.
This is a fun little knit. The Lamb's Pride is one of my favorite yarns to work with, even though it sheds nasty mohair all over the place. It is just about the perfect worsted single. If I could spin a single this pretty, I'd just plotz with joy.

P and I have both been cooking with all our hearts, of late. Even though more complex things have been made, my old standby of doing veg on the grill is still making its appearance. I made a sort of asian marinade for these things; mirin, shoyu, grated ginger, garlic and sesame oil. A great foil for the portobello slices.


Spring is here, and our 30's and 40's have turned into 50's and 60's, with an occasional heavenly dose of 70 degrees. I feel myself coming back to life, with the return of the sun, though Georgia is rainier than I'd like. Is it the year? Or is this the Seattle of the South that no one ever mentioned to me? P and I both agreed that after this rainy, rainy winter, we realized that all our talk of moving to Portland was just talk, and that we'd just collapse in sodden entropy in such a steadily gray and rainy place. oy.

I leave you with a recipe for something I've recently been experimenting with, the kale chip. I took a bunch of dinosaur (tuscan, lacinato, black...its names are many) kale leaves, and carved out the thick central rib, so the leaf became like a long "V" shape. Then I put the leaves in a bowl and poured a couple Tbsp. of olive oil on them, a splash of cider vinegar, and a good toss of sea salt. Using my fingers, I massaged each leaf with the oil mixture, so they were quite coated. I spread 'em out on parchment paper on a baking sheet and stuck 'em in a 300 degree oven for about 15 minutes, til they became crispy. Took 'em out and consumed while they were still warm and chip-like. YUM. I love cooked kale, and didn't really need an excuse to eat it, but these salty, vinegary, crispy treats are my new obsession. Great with a cocktail, or just as an emotional eating alternative to the Ben n' Jerry's, if you need variety in your diet! I think you can do it with regular curly kale, though it might be more challenging to get the ribs out, and get them nicely coated with the oil. I think I could also do them on the grill, too, but it might require more vigilance and temperature tweaking.

spin sugar spin

It's the end of my spring break, which of course, is the saddest thing. We took a long (too long!) road trip up to VA, to visit my mom. 350 miles is too far to drive in one day on rather boring highways, with 2 antsy dogs. Thank the goddess for Starbucks and the Avett Brothers! Which isn't feel-good music at all, resulting in our 9pm arrival at my mom's all kinda glum, not because of a bad drive, or lack of joy in seeing her, but because of the twists and turns of "I and Love and You". Ah, well, it was nice to get out into the country, again, anyway. We went to church the next morning for a dedication service. My family was donating some projection equipment in memory of dada. Nice to be back in the old home area, running into high school friends, distant relatives and folk whose names I couldn't tell you, but whose faces are indelibly engraved upon my childhood memory.

So, weirdness, in VA... We grew up kind of out in the boonies, and wildlife abounds around the house. Deer, fox, possums, skunks, snakes, raccoons, the occasional bobcat, you name it. Anyway, it being spring, it was the mating season for skunks, otherwise known, in the Virginia vernacular, as "polecats." They are nocturnal, and every night, about 10pm, they'd come out, and do whatever it is they do, the main thing being distributing their scent all around the house, our cars, and the general surrounds. I do not remember this phenomenon, growing up; the story is, that our across-the-road neighbors, who operate a cat rescue of sorts, have managed to attract the polecats with all the catfood laying around. Nice... but not so much. Especially with 2 prey-driven dogs who needed to be walked. Somehow, we managed to avoid being sprayed, and each morning, the smell would be either very faint, or gone. My mom says this goes on through the early spring.

Otherwise, the time was spent hanging out, knitting, reading the thoroughly absorbing "Angels and Demons," watching the Oscars and playing frisbee with the dogs, and just catching up with my ma and her adventures. Somehow, in one of the endless frisbee games, Crick managed to slice open his foot on some unidentified sharp object. It was across the pad of a hind paw, in a place that was impossible for stitches, so he's on antibiotics and instructions to keep it clean and dry. Once back in GA, we were greeted with the usual 3-day downpour, thus necessitating the purchase of these: Little nylon and leather booties called "Muttluks" are just darling, and kind of a pain to put on. It took him a few minutes to learn to walk in them, he kept raising his feet really high in a hilarious prancing motion. The cut is healing, and once our weather dries out again, he can go barefoot once more outside. Apparently, paw pad wounds take a while to heal up. He seems unfazed by it, and it was only by the distressing tracks of blood all over the house that we even found out he'd been hurt.

I joined Chelsea in a slacker's knitalong of the Noro stripey scarf, a la Jared Flood. Here's my own effort.
I am using 2 colorways of Silk Garden: #84 and #47. Not sure how I feel about the way they are meshing, but that's hardly the point, with Noro, is it? Chelsea is farther along that I am, because she was a Noro virgin, and so entranced by the everchanging dazzlement. Jaded Noro whore that I am, I am slogging along at my usual crawl.It was called a slacker's knitalong, due to the lack of rules and deadlines, much akin to our Icarus knitalong. I like this approach, as I am invariably the last horse across the finish line. Still, the Noro moves one right along. This may use up all the Silk Garden in my stash! Not counting the yarn I'll gain from frogging my Klaralund, which I've fallen out of love with, while not falling out of love with the pretty green colorway.

Hawkheart is pushing through the final throes of wrapping up her American Life, to begin the Costa Rican Life, and sent me her spinning wheel; a rehoming of sorts. She used to be a spinner, long before we became friends, but had gotten away from it in recent years. We became friends, teaching together at my first school job, back in the early 90's, sharing passions for dogs, reptiles, birds, tarot, sushi, bicycling, aquariums...but incredibly, not the fiber arts. I knew the wheel was coming, eventually, but didn't expect it quite so soon, but I welcomed it with open arms, nevertheless...

A Louet S10, made in 1987, and still working like a charm. Quiet, with the exception of a tiny, endearing squeak, which I will try and track down, and smooth to spin. I might add here that I have spun on a wheel exactly two times before this. Once, my freshman year in college, for about 5 minutes, and once at Opal's, where she very patiently taught me not to be afraid of the wheel, and not to cry when all I could spin was tight little coils of the Novelty Yarn from Hell. Opal has been the spinning enabler in my life, first getting me hooked on the gateway drug of spindling, and then moving me on to harder stuff. And now the pretty Louet, nameless, thus far, occupies the clamcave, and is happily munching up my modest little fiber stash.

Things I've learned... colonial top is easier to spin than the corriedale I have. I am getting a callus on my fingers from drafting. I don't know if this is to be expected, or if I'm exercising some kind of death grip that isn't really necessary for the process. I am not spinning big scary coils anymore, and am actually starting to have some fun with the whole thing. Here's a progress shot:

Next up, tomorrow or later this week...some kitchen adventures and another WIP!

sorting hat

For Barb and Chris...

The sorting hat says that I belong in Ravenclaw!

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Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose intelligence is surest."

Ravenclaw students tend to be clever, witty, intelligent, and knowledgeable.
Notable residents include Cho Chang and Padma Patil (objects of Harry and Ron's affections), and Luna Lovegood (daughter of The Quibbler magazine's editor).

Take the most scientific Harry Potter
Quiz ever created.

Get Sorted Now!

My Ravenclaw sisters. A supposedly very "scientific" quiz. Lots of questions, too! Like taking the Harry Potter Myers-Briggs. Yeesh.

Snow and self-betterment.

I think our season might be turning a corner. A pagan I used to practice with, Michael, celebrated a ritual with us that he called Vita! In Vita! attention was given to awakening the trees in the garden and surrounding woods, by striking them firmly, yet lovingly, on their trunks with decorated staves and sticks. It was a fun ritual, and usually performed in mid-to-late February, about the time that the maple sap starts to flow. I feel like it's time for Vita! right now, as our days are ever so slightly more light, and longer, I'm seeing new birds around and everyone seems to be singing a new song outside. Today it got up into the 50's. I can safely say that I think I have survived this winter, though there may be yet more to come.

We had our snow last Friday, about 3 1/2 inches here in Chamblee. It was spectacular. This is a pic of the woods across the street from our house. I love how beech trees look in winter, and how they don't seem to lose their papery leaves until the new buds push them off.


The view from the Clamcave window out into the backyard, the woods and the woodpile:

Ella loves cold weather, and will stay outside in falling snow until it piles up on her back and head. She also has been known to lay down in it.

This is Cricket's second snow. He had a good time in this one, and actually was seen frolicking in it. The first snow, he would hurry outside, do his business and race back in, but this time around, he relaxed a little bit. It looks like he's catching snowflakes on his tongue in this pic.


So I am caught in Spring Fever's thrall, and have big plans for enjoying the weekend's supposed 50's and possible 60's weather. I'm going to take my bike out for a ride, and enjoy the sun. I'm trying, somewhat vainly, to regain lost ground in my Ravelympics race...I havent knit in 3 days, due mostly to having too many math papers and tests to grade, catching up on lost sleep, yoga, and perhaps the most critical reason...disgruntlement at having lost my current favorite stitch marker, a red "maneki neko" lucky cat stitch marker that was given me by Opal. I lost the damn thing in the depths of our leather recliner chair, and it refuses to give it up! I turned the chair upside down, on both sides, I shook it, I dug around in it, to no avail. This chair, so comfortable, is all scarred, ripped and a little bit falling apart, but we love it so. It has also eaten quite a number of row counters, countless dpn's, stitch markers, highlighters, and a small fortune in pocket change over the years. It has consumed cell phones, iPods and car keys, and mercifully regurgitated those last critical items back up. But alas, the red lucky cat is not to be seen. I have other stitch markers. I'm just bitter, I guess. That this all happened at 1 am on Monday night is also part of the disgruntlement. I guess that's actually Tuesday morning. I had a long weekend off work, and so was being all crazy with bedtimes, in my Olympic zeal.

Nevertheless, I'm determined to get back up on the knitting horse tonight, and try and crank out some more rows on Talia. I'm enjoying the knit; I like the Lamb's Pride yarn, and really love the pattern, so I'm motivated. I doubt I'll medal. But it was a good way to get me started and jazzed up about a project.

Another project I've been working on is the photographing and uploading of my big scary stash onto Ravelry. I'm about 1/3 of the way through that project right now, and am kind of enjoying it. Seeing it all up there makes me realize that I really have no business buying yarn, like ever again in this lifetime. At least with it all up online, I won't have to go diving into it to contemplate future projects, though there's nothing like fondling one's yarn to get the motivation going...I have my sister to thank for all this stash documentation; she started putting hers up, and in true sibling rival fashion (I'll do it if you'll do it) I had to get in on the action.

The sleep project continues with some success. I feel better. I have fallen off the wagon a little bit on the weekends, but make up for it with a nap, and am usually back in bed by 10 on school nights. I haven't had a significant headache in a while. I've cut waaaay back on sugar, too, and carbs in general, and that's helping a lot, too, I'm sure. But I wonder when the compulsion to stay up til 1am or the impulsive desire to eat cupcakes goes away? I can put myself in bed at a decent hour. I note that I feel better, think more clearly, am less cranky and achey, but I still want to stay up late...I guess it's a life pattern, and 40-something years of nocturnal tendencies don't disappear in the space of a month. We won't even analyze the cupcake thing.

My husband used to humorously describe my permanent student status/gym-going/good habit-seeking as "self-betterment." I feel like I'm in some kind of sweet spot for considering options for self-betterment, these days. I know it's a newish moon, and Chinese New Year, and that Mercury has gone direct again. So I'm riding this happy energy of the lengthening days. Could be a function of only being partially employed, though the job feels like it has totally exploded all over my spare time. In a flush of enthusiasm over making positive changes in my life, I went and took myself off Facebook for the duration of Lent, too. That can only be a good thing. I'm missing it, but more like missing it as a thing to do, a compulsion, not necessarily as a thing that brings me pleasure (like a cupcake). I didn't give up blog reading, or Ravel-ing. A girl's gotta have some pleasures in her life... I love Facebook for connecting with old friends and keeping myself amused, but have recently just been blown away by how much time I was spending on it, and by how I was tipping over into potential meaningless drama. Time to get some distance.

For Chelsea: My tomato soup recipe comes from here. I'm going to make more tonight.

Waiting for the white stuff.

You may remember, if you are as old as me, those bumper stickers that people used to have back in the 70's, that simply said "Frodo lives!" Usually on the back of old volvos, driving around funky towns like Davis, Asheville or Hilo... maybe because I'm teetering on the brink of Ravelympics, about to knit something for the Lord of the Rings fandom's Team Middle Earth, or because I'm planning my long-awaited party of a Lord of the Rings reread, but I kept thinking of the phrase "Ariann lives!!" this morning as I continued to dither about how big to actually make her collar, as I still have a bit o' the yarn left. Anyway, my feelings of being strangled and consumed by this sweater have lessened somewhat.

We area all sitting around waiting for a "big" dose of winter weather here in Atlanta, as it's calling for up to 2 inches of snow to dump in the metro area in the next 24 hours. I am astounded and gobsmacked by the walloping that DC and surrounds got, in the big snOMG event last week and before. I'm even kinda over being jealous, as that much weather, repeated that many times, just ceases to be any fun for anyone. I cancelled a trip up to the Olde Country today, as my mom's driveway is reportedly a sheet of black ice, and snow is piled up everywhere around there, too. I'm a little sad, but far less stressed than I would have been, had I been trundling up the road for that visit. I'm a bit sick of winter, here, but if it's gonna stick around, at least bring me some o' that white stuff!!

This week has been parent-teacher conferences at my school, and sweet baby Jebus, were they ever grueling! Most parents were lovely, but doing the meetings (45 of them) at a round table with other teachers, and pretty much back-to-back for 2 days straight, took any voyeuristic joy out of seeing just how far the apples were falling from the trees. There's only so many times I can hear myself saying the same damn things over and over again, and listening to my coworkers do this, too, just made me want to scream. The few crazies we saw, though, were buffered by having the whole team at the table, which was good. We were also able to have our boss call us into (ahem) "meetings" if the conferences were anticipated to be potentially too long. I left work yesterday at 4:30, feeling like I needed to take my brain out of my head and scrub it. Mercifully, a 2 hour nap and a nice yoga class full of forward bends took care of some of that chatter in my head, and what was left was dispatched by a tall, cold Dos Equis draft and the 2 hour premier of the new season of "Survivor: Heroes vs Villains." Now I have a 5 day weekend beginning, so I'm ever so relaxed and happy.

I've been contemplating a severe break from the internets, at least temporarily. I blog rarely, and so taking a break wouldn't really effect this site, here, but I've been looking back on the past 15 years or so, and remembering the days when I felt like I had time to tackle refinishing big pieces of furniture, paint rooms in my house, bicycle 40 miles, go to the gym, keep a clean house, garden a bit, take fun day trips and cook ambitious things like souffles and empanadas. Funny, it turns out all this stuff was going on back in my pre-Facebook/Ravelry/long bloglines mindless internet timewasting era. Imagine that! I actually have some "gotta do" type projects that involve the internets; job applications, photographing and uploading the prodigious stash to Ravelry, Those things, however, do not involve hours of idle chatter on Facebook and surfing Rav for potential projects that I'll never get around to knitting because I'm online so damn much, goofing around. I need to get some balance, here!!

Trying to figure out how this will look, what the parameters will be, can I manage it informally, or do there need to be strict things like the use of applications like Leechblocker and Freedom software put into practice. I kinda think that might help. Anyway, stay tuned for more on this. Or less.

I'm off, now, to bring in a load of firewood for the evening's fireside knitting, and to contemplate dinner (I'm thinking homemade tomato soup) and some housecleaning.

messing around with webcams and cauldrons

contemplating the cauldron
Originally uploaded by cricketella

For ravelry.

ten things

Got the inspiration for this post from Lolly and decided to give it a try.

1. I am prone to insomnia, and have always been a little protective of my sleep; I get headachy and a bit crazy really quickly, upon sleep deprivation. My summer and entire early fall was affected by irregular sleep patterns, and I'm only just now getting back on trac. This year, in 2010, I am making a serious effort to get 7.5 hours per night. I'm about a week into Project Z, as I'm calling it, and it's going well, except for having to fight the temptation to stay up watching late night tv, and hanging out with my husband, who remains a confirmed night owl. I'm following the experiment going on over at Mason-Dixon Knitting, as Ann tries the same thing. Mostly I'm noticing that I DO have more energy in the morning, I haven't had a migraine in a week, and that I'm waking up several times a night and remembering dreams; I must be awakening upon the end of REM cycles? Going to bed early is complicated, though, and involves some planning. Last night, I totally thought I'd blown it, because I got sucked into watching a show on tv about Hoarding, and didn't go to bed til 11. So I re-set my alarm for 7am, and got roughly a good night's sleep... oh yeah, my computer isn't allowed to be in the bedroom after 8pm. I am usually (if a week's worth of sleep practice can be counted as usual) on my bed by 9:45, now.

2. I am fascinated by, and a little afraid of colorwork, in knitting. My knitting resolution this year (besides that monogamy thing) is to try to knit some colorwork. I've got Fake Isle and
Selbu Modern queued up to try, later this winter, and hope to cut my colorwork teeth on some cute hats. My knitting group is kicking around the idea of doing a colorwork knit along in the coming months.

3. I'm a bit of a phone phobe, and would rather email than call people. The huge exception to this rule is with my sister. We text some, but talk a couple times a week; long rambling conversations that usually take place when we're multitasking. Of late, we've been discussing knitting, a lot, and domestic challenges. Last night's random ramble took place in the grocery store, as I was desperately searching for Boboli crusts. Probably I would have been more efficient at finding them, had I not been involved in this babbling on the phone.

4. I adore cooked greens. Seriously, my favorite food, and I think the frequency of them in my diet compensates, somehow, for some of the sugar, animal fats and alcohol that also appear in there. Bitter greens just make me happy. Stir-fried with garlic and red pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice or mojo sauce, tossed in pasta, scrambled into eggs...yum. I think I might have weirded my family out a wee bit, when I served them on Christmas day. I've got a huge bag of collards in the fridge as we speak, just waiting to be cooked up with some black-eyed peas and cornbread. I'd say it's my Southern heritage coming out, but I didn't really grow up eating them in any huge amount, but it is definitely a passion in my kitchen.

5. After years of owning dogs (nearly 12!) and my readers know what a fervent dog geek I am, I have to say, I don't care for dog parks. Part of it is having a dog who is stressed out and snarky with other dogs his size, and who frankly regards little dogs as prey items, but another part of it is just that I see too many irresponsible owners, fights happening (or waiting to happen) and they are not for me, nor my dogs, both of whom went to dog parks regularly, in their time. I occasionally will take Ella, who enjoys a walk-through and meeting and greeting other dogs, though she does not play with them, usually, and still obsesses over frisbees more than her own species. I have also used them to work with Cricket on training issues, just outside their perimeter, or even in the park on a longline, but by and large, I avoid them.

6. I love thrift shopping, but dislike the smell of the thrift store. My finds get immediately washed and rinsed with a liberal dose of lavender oil, upon arrival home. I have not done as much thrifting in Atlanta as I would have liked to, thus far, and need to rectify that situation. Maybe today...

7. Yoga has made me more conscientious about pedicures, even if I give them to myself. The time spent looking at my feet has made me appreciate a nicely polished toenail. In decidedly non-yogic fashion, a topic of conversation in my current yoga class, these days, is comparing various toenail polishes. I didn't start it, honestly. Not sure what B.K.S. Iyengar would have to say about it.

8. Ella sleeps in our bed with us, but she always, always waits for us to give the "go hup" command to jump up on the bed. Cricket doesn't sleep in the bed at night, though he is allowed to lounge on the bed until bedtime. He's too big, is a complete space hog, snores loudly, and his presence provokes too much middle-of-the-night growling and grumbling, and watchdogginess from the cranky Ella who needs her beauty sleep. He cheerfully goes to his crate after the last trip outside, and is rewarded with a biscuit. I grew up sleeping with dogs in the bed, so it seems a normal thing.

9. What started me on the path to knitting, was the purely emotional purchase of a big bag of old knitting needles, at a yard sale in Davis, CA. My friends' housemate was moving to back Denmark and he was getting rid of all his stuff. I was perusing through the tables of his worldly goods, and saw that he was selling his deceased mother's knitting supplies. Mostly needles, and a few skeins of yarn. It made me really sad to think that this part of her legacy in life was just going to some stranger... though I didn't know her. The needles were the old Susan Bates colored aluminum straight needles, in different sizes, and I was thrilled by how pretty they were. The yarn was nondescript, acrylic mostly, with a ball of grey wool. I bought it all for about a dollar, and promptly stashed it off in my house, not to be touched for 3 years or so. Later, my friend Nora and I decided we'd teach ourselves to knit. I broke out the needles; big long pink #8's, and the ball of dark grey wool, which reminded me of Ella's fur so much that I used to pretend that it had been spun from her clippings. I don't use those needles much anymore; I prefer my Denise circulars, or the Lantern Moon straights, so I passed some of them on to my sis, when she was teaching herself to knit. I kept the dpns, though, and the stitch holders, and sometimes think of that Danish lady who used them so long ago to knit her son's sweaters.

10. In 5th grade, I had a kind of mean teacher. I used to ask a lot of questions about what we were going to do next, why things were the way they were, how things worked, etc. One day, she said "Kim, you're really nosy." in front of the class. I was only a little embarrassed, because I'd heard from my grandma that being nosy was kind of rude, and I knew I DID ask a lot of questions... but later, at a parent-teacher conference, she told my mom that I was "really inquisitive" and spun it out as kind of a neutral thing, if not a downright good trait. I never liked her much and felt sorry for her daughter, who was my age, for having to deal with such a snappish mom. A wall of orchids at the Atlanta Botanical Garden (the botgard, as we call it) which has a big orchid show going on at the moment.

monogamy and continued cold snap

It's crackly, crispy cold outside. Temps ranging from early morning teens up to the high 20's the past few days. Cold for which I am entirely unprepared. Needless to say, my mom's Christmas gift of silk thermal underwear was a gloriously timely thing, and I'm layering like crazy. I had convinced myself that this is an unusual phenomenon in GA, but apparently we get a really cold snap every year or so, and people just seem to suffer bad amnesia or something. Nevertheless, the sunshine remains encouraging.

And, and, and...it snowed Thursday! Off and on all day, and into the night, all told, about an inch. Dramatic ice on the roads and sidewalks. My camera battery has died and I haven't taken any pics, so you'll have to take my word for it. Best of all, we got a snow day from school!! For an inch of snow? This is a crazy new world, but hey, I do not complain about impromptu days off, ever.

Knitting continues apace...I knit a few smalls, around Christmas: the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret, which I didn't make so slouchy, and don't have a pic of thus far. But it's getting heavy wear. This is a pattern that seems to be viral; I was first made aware of it by my sis, and then my knitter Jenn has been rocking it hard this winter, as well. You know how I am for viral knits. I also knit Toasty, out of my fetishized stash of Noro Cash Iroha.
They are very warm, but I fear they're taking a beating...funny, I've knit a few sets of fingerless mitts, and ended up giving them all way. Toasty is for me. There's also a pattern on that site for Toast, a simple stockinette armwarmer, which I've been tempted to knit, in some luxe cozy yarn, say something long that runs from wrist to bicep, so I could simply continue wearing my uniform of short sleeved t-shirt through these bitter months... I love the Toasty!!

And now for a topic that has never been dear to my heart... monogamy. Gosh, I love that old '80's video of George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" where he, in all his bisexual gorgeousness, writes "MONOGAMY" across the sleeping lover's back in red lipstick. Don't tell me you can resist George in that fleeting moment... but monogamy? Always a toughie for me. Either I wasn't or my boyfriend of the moment wasn't, and it varied, back in the day. Till I took those wedding vows, and now it's a non-issue. I am a monogamous woman. But as a knitter? Never has happened. I have always knit all over the place, on a dozen different projects. But lately, it has seemed, through the knitting of the smalls, and the good examples of friends, who seem to knit monogamously on one project ongoing, and finish lots of stuff on a regular basis, that monogamy is the way to go... So for 2010, I am experimenting with knitting monogamy. Of course this means that upon completing Star-Crossed and Toasty, that I return to my girlfriend, Pink Ariann. So it's all Ariann, all the time. I'm halfway through sleeve #2, now, and intend to be joining that sleeve and finishing this sweater up in the near future, because there are NO DISTRACTIONS on the horizon, if you can believe that. I put the Central Park Hoodie away, and frogged the damn Simple Yet Dullsville shawl, and have started to attend to my Ravelry queue a little more conscientiously. My plan is to finish Ariann, then work on CPH feverishly, til the Olympics. Then, I actually am going to cheat a bit, as I'm planning Talia for Ravelympics. I'm knitting on Team Middle Earth, from the Lord of the Rings Fan Forum on Ravelry, and I figured a vest was both a reasonable and useful project. I'm making it in the recommended Lamb's Pride yarn, which I love.

So, knitting monogamy... just an experiment, but still, stranger things have happened. I leave you with a blog recommendation: Use Real Butter, which I've been cooking from and enjoying for a couple of months now, and a couple of pics from my walk with Ella last weekend, before the snow grabbed us: Doesn't this pine bark look like bricks?
This same Nandina bush has appeared earlier this fall in this blog. It's got a decidedly Holiday feel to it, now, though.

Hail the new, ye lads and lasses...

Thanks for the compliment on Swallowtail. I didn't even realize I'd blogged it. I was trying to, but the entry wasn't showing upon blogger when I was in the process of doing it. Flickr and Blogger don't want me to know that they're secretly friends, I think. Hmmmm...

Happy New Year. A merciless cold has set in here in north Georgia. Temperatures in the 20's, teens and single digits by night, and suddenly my enjoyment of winter is coming to a screeching standstill. Mercifully, the biting, crackling cold is accompanied by brilliant sunshine, and a cessation of the endless mud and rain that had so plagued my days in 2009. So while I'm wearing long underwear and lots of clothes, I'm also not mired hopelessly in my own weather-related depression.

I've joined the working world, at last, with my math teaching gig starting up yesterday. I'm off Tuesdays, a situation I hope to remedy by subbing in local public schools, but am still completing the background checking, fingerprinting, etc. I went in to the math gig yesterday, for a faculty meeting and to look at some student work. It looks doable, though again with the mixed feelings about the culture of private vs public schools and where I want to put my energies in the long run. But a 2010 resolution is to spend less time in the winding halls of my head, and more time in the present, so I'm putting those angsts away for the moment and working to enjoy the kids, the math and the paychecks that will be rolling my way with happy regularity.

A few loose ends pictured here:

The first Christmas tree I've had in years! We never bought them in HI, because imported evergreens are a major source of insect and organism pests in the islands. I realized I'd left all my lights back at my old job, so I had to go out and buy new ones. I wanted all blue, but found the last pack of blue lights at Target, and felt the tree needed more lighting, so hence the colored lights. All the ornaments are old; collected over the years, gifts from students or from my childhood trees... The star is one that I bought in Sacramento, on a special ornament mission with DisKnit. It was really nice to sit in the living room with the lights off and enjoy the reflections and shapes the lights and ornaments made.


Remember the Christmas cactus I repotted for my mom last year? The one that had been in my family for seventy-odd years? Well, this fall, I brought it here, as my dear mom is not a coddler of houseplants. I kept it outside til November, and then brought it in to its current place under our skylight, where it proceeded to bloom for the first time in years, and earlier than it usually does! It was normally, in years past, a Valentine's bloomer, but the conditions and coddling with Miracle-Gro spurred it into action. A happy surprise, especially since I've been too lazy to force any amaryllis or narcissus bulbs to bloom indoors this year.

Also in the unfinished business category of things finally getting done, I spun, washed and skeined up the last of the blue and brown Romney roving. Got about 100 yards of worsted weight for my troubles. I think I'll do a felted project with it; as it's too scratchy to consider making something to wear. I had hoped washing it with hair conditioner might soften it up a little, but no go. Still, it IS pretty.

Ella appreciating my handiwork.


A goal for the new year is to take more pictures and to blog more regularly. Any progress is progress, I'd say.

fast away the old year passes

100_1188
Originally uploaded by busykitty

dispatch from the clamcave

Cricket, doing what I'd like to do for the next 2 months straight...
Sticking my nose in here, because I was reminded by dear Chelsea that it's been over a month since I posted. Thanks for caring enough to check in on me, hon, and I assure you, I'm fine, just in my usual December funk. We won't even talk about November, which wasn't bad, all in all. But December? It's triggering a litany of whines about things that are plaguing me.

I got the Swine Flu, about 10 days before Thanksgiving. Spectacularly sick... what I thought was mere allergy turned into an overnight 102.5 fever, and screaming sore throat and coughing. After that came general nausea, that I think was kind of a reaction to the Tamiflu, which, nevertheless, is a wonder drug. It took a good 10 days for this thing to really run its course, during which I lived on soup and kiwi fruit, slept more than I ever thought possible, and knit not at all. I feel all behind now, in spite of the fact that I'm not on any kind of serious schedule in my life; it just feels like I've lost some time, somehow.

Knitting...I swatched for the Central Park Hoodie, out of lust and curiosity, in Cascade Ecological Wool. Before I knew it, I'd knit an entire sleeve!! Seriously, folks, #9 needles, plump worsted in a soothing chocolatey color and an easy-easy cable can be so hypnotic! I've put it all up on a high shelf now, to marinate while I finish that suddenly abandoned Swallowtail Shawl, and Pinky, which is the new name for Ariann, and some other Christmas knitting, which cannot really be discussed here, just yet. Pinky has a sleeve completed, and one more to go, and Swallowtail...just starting the nupps part. Fun! I had to rip a little, as I was knitting too tightly. V-ron had warned me that I wanted to do the YO's loosely, and she wasn't kidding! So I hope I'm on the right track now. We'll see, later this evening if I've done it right...

I wouldn't be true to my blogging self if I didn't mention that the Seasonal Affective Disorder is kicking my ass this year. The combined darkness and cold (relatively speaking - 40's - 50's aren't REALLY cold) plus the rain, plus the fa-la-la commercial Christmas season with its lights and spend-spend mentality are really making me just want to crawl into bed and sleep til about mid-February. Hell, I'd even settle for mid-January...ugh. This, and the impending anniversary of my dad's death, just makes me sad. Using the usual remedies, plus trying to maintain an at-home yoga practice, and hanging in there, but seriously, let's just finish out 2009!!

I managed to hammer out a decent workspace in my office-cum-store room, and my sis and I named it The Clamcave, as a play on the term "mancave." It is cozy, and quite possibly, the warmest room in the house, mostly because of its cavelike structure, and extremely low ceiling. It's still housing the camping equipment, and most of P's library (what's wrong with this picture?) as well as all my teaching stuff, but there's a bit of room for a daybed, an iHome stereo, and my stash, and its got a little window that gets evening sun. Amazing how fast it gets messy, mostly due to the small space, which should be a big space, but see aforementioned storage capacity...

I've had a couple of interviews at a very highfalutin' private school, for a position that I'm not at all sure I want, at this point. I have to go in next week and teach a sample lesson, which would normally have me in a complete tailspin, but I'm not convinced that I'm a match for this school, so I'm not exactly fretting over it. P says he heard through his work grapevine that the parents at this particular institution are a nuisance. It could go any way, I think. I could, in the process of teaching the lesson, fall in love with the kids, and being back in the classroom, at such a fabulous place, or I could further convince myself that a low-key teacher from the trenches and ghettos of public schooldom is no match for the rarefied atmosphere of elite education.

I want money. To buy new hiking boots, to take a road trip to visit Lauriedarlin', to indulge my taste for Malabrigo without counting pennies. To show myself a good time, and to pump up my sad little savings account. But I'm just not sure I want the hassles and the pressure of this fishbowl job. Arrrrgh, between a rock and a hard place.

The Hawaii house finally sold, for real and true. Nice to have that second mortgage out of the way! We did not lose our shirts over it, and can now think about scheduling a kitchen remodel, new hardwood floors, and building a shed for this place, over a 5 year plan. The shed will come first. Mokihana had asked me, some time ago, if I missed Hawaii at all, and the answer is yes, decidedly so. I do not regret the decision to move back to the mainland; but I miss the beauty, the warmth, the incredible light that comes in a place that's so surrounded by sea and sky. I find it almost painful to look at pictures I took, there, sometimes. I keep thinking, when I feel especially stuck or SAD, that "an hour on the beach could cure this." I miss my friends, the flowers, the pidgin, the food. I miss how much of my life took place outdoors, there. Cooking, eating, leisure time. I think I spend a fair amount of time outside here, even in less than perfect weather, but it does not compare, even a little bit! I miss the aloha, even though Georgia is not without its version of aloha spirit.

On a happy note, today was beautiful. High 60's, breezy (in a way that Georgians called "high winds") and sunny. The SAD was chased back for awhile, and I went outside and planted the remainder of my bulbs, and walked around the woods with my dogs, who made much ado over a dead squirrel they found. I stripped ivy off trees and knitted on a stealth malabrigo project out on the picnic table. I watched juncos and wrens scuffle around in the leaves, and ate leftover Indian food. The balm for December...

window into fall

Just ate lunch, a salad I grabbed from out in the world, while doing errands. Am feeling very virtuous, as a result, and hey, Chik Fil-A, in spite of their spelling, has a really decent grilled chicken garden salad.

I'm working on job applications and trying to get my teaching credential. It is an agonizing process that I can't seem to completely finish, so I give it a bit of time each day, all the while, measuring my ambivalence about working, when there's so much to do around here. Hoping a walking/biking distance part-time job will come as a result, but clearly, more elbow grease is needed. But my bank account ain't getting any fatter, so I keep pushing.

I planted hostas, ferns and coral bells (heuchera) in our backyard, and am awaiting the arrival of more shade perennials by the mail. In addition, my yard guy and I took out a whole bunch of young skinny baby trees; mostly beech and maple, thus opening up the backyard. Because it's so shady back there, I'm not really going to rake, but just let the leaves fall and mulch it. Right now, it's entirely covered in leaves and our trees still seem to have 75% of their leaves waiting yet to fall. I am thinking I'll have to rake some, or at least blow the leaves where I want 'em to go.

Knitting on Swallowtail, mostly, these days, but trying to touch Ariann occasionally. I'm thinking to put her on the back burner and knit the Central Park Hoodie from my stashed Cascade Ecological Wool; it's whining at me and I want a cozy brown hoodie more than I want a lacy pink sweater at the moment. But first, the holiday knitting has to be tamed somewhat. Being poor, I'm thinking if I can muster it, (ie, if I can get off damned Facebook long enough) I will give mostly knitted gifts for the yuletide. I've got some ideas and am feeling fairly motivated. But then... come Boxing Day, the hoodie commences!

Tonight is yoga. I have fallen quite in love with Iyengar yoga. I had always taken Ashtanga and Vinyasa classes, and loved the endless rounds of sweaty sun salutations. But I knew my form in my poses wasn't always the best, and felt like I needed a more disciplined practice. Hence the Iyengar, which is slow, precise, and sometimes grueling, but seems to be teaching me things about patience, adjustment, and opening up. I do need to work harder at having an at-home practice, though. The optimum location here seems not to be in any one place, though. My office is nice for standing poses, but doesn't have the clear wall space for some reclining poses I want to do. The living room has the wall, but is just kinda dark...I wasn't thinking "yoga room" when we bought this house, clearly! That's an excuse, now, isn't it?

The afternoon is being spent in cleaning house a bit, roasting some root veggies, and dog walking. Oh yeah, and putting the new flannel sheets on the bed.

We went to the Atlanta Botanical Garden to see the Henry Moore sculptures exhibit. Amazing. This one is my favorite, because of its pastoral setting, and the view of Atlanta's high rises through its window. It was such a beautiful day, right before Halloween. I am still in love with the fall, here, in its slow, stately march toward yellows and browns.

Halloweenish

Stealthy Christmas knitting:the Swallowtail Shawl, in Schaefer Ann.

And a happy end of October/Halloween/Samhain/Daylight Savings Fall Back time to you!

fungi and a progress report

Fall mushrooms in our woods:


I do love the mushroom. I don't eat the ones I find out in my rambles, only the easily recognized morels I've found in Northern VA, but I used to have a neighbor in Arlington who was a great forager of various local 'shrooms. I just don't feel confident of my own ability to find edibles in the fungus family yet. Still, I love the look of them, and take every opportunity to drag P around the woods checking them out, on our hikes. He's actually starting to notice them and point them out to me, now, too, a great victory in the department of making my obsessions contagious! Anyway, fall is the time for finding mushrooms; sunny days after a lot of rain and it seems they spring up out of nowhere.

Knitting is fairly unproductive these days. I'm doing it, and nothing seems to be growing. Meh. Ariann grinds on slowly. I should call her the "minimalist cardigan" since minimal is the effort I'm putting on her right now. I'm cheating on more smalls; this time, a cowl out of some Woolarina handspun BFL from the stash. I started it last week, and knitted it nearly up, then decided it was too big around and ripped it back and re-started it on #8 needles at 75 stitches. Better fabric, and a smaller circumference. Mindless stockinette makes for pleasure, and this pretty wool needs no real technique other than knitting up. I'm all about the utilitarian garment right now.

The waking early and the walking are going okay. Ella is the dog of choice on the walks, as she lends herself to just walking; no training, no corrections, no thought whatsoever toward how she's behaving. I walk and she walks. Cricket will come along on some of these, but he requires considerably more handling, and so he's getting his own excursions that are more leisurely, and involve frisbee and off lead time, too. Getting up early is progressing, too, even though the cold, and a couple of headaches this week have threatened to derail me. I soldier on, though. I'm very challenged by going to bed early, I realize, and am totally denying myself my lifelong habit of an afternoon nap, these days, in order to facilitate the re-set of the body clock. Sad, but necessary for this project. I hope the early morning hours will be reward enough to compensate for this loss. I've been putting the walks in the normal nap time (3:00-4:00) which is helping a lot.

Did I ever blog about reading Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love" this summer? I don't think I did. My sis loaned it to me, and I'd been waiting for a couple years to read it. I'd be really interested in hearing what other folk think of this book. I struggled with it. I so loved the idea of the book; after a harrowing time in her life, a woman sets off for a year of travel and self-exploration centered around food in Italy, spirituality in India, and pursuit of pleasure in Bali. But it ran all amok in the telling, and kinda left me cold. I wanted more food, more religion and more Bali, less of the author's self-centered navelgazing. It gets touted by some as a self-help book, but few of us can afford to help ourselves to a year in Italy, India and Bali, now can we? Now there's a movie coming out about it, which really chaps my hide, because my girl Julia Roberts is starring in it, which means I'll have to go see it. And probably, it will be like "Twilight" as a movie. A movie whose book I found a bit grating, but which worked just fine as a pretty little escapist chickflick. With a good soundtrack. Gotta love that Twilight soundtrack.

Today is all about cooking up the food in my fridge. Squash casserole, black eyed peas cooked with bacon, grilled chicken. I'm also really craving some scones or muffins or some breakfasty baked good, so will peruse my recipes for some inspiration there, too. Something that will involve the craisin, the grated orange peel and use of my carefully hoarded stash of walnuts. Something that will fuel my impetus to keep getting my ass out of bed at the crack of dawn.

small pleasures

It's turned from rainy to cold here, and after serious resistance from my frugal self, who is trying to acclimate to the march of autumn, I turned on the heat. Or, rather, sent P to turn it on Saturday morning, when the household temperature had reached 58 degrees. I'd been doing okay, as long as I stayed busy, took frequent trips outside, and employed my handknits in the battle against the advancing chill. My nose felt cold, my cheeks felt rosy, and I was wondering if I could make it to 55 degrees. But it was the getting out of bed in the morning that was the challenge, and the thought of taking a shower was unbearable. So we turned the heat up to 65, which seems to make it liveable without being too tropical. I may crank it up further, but for now, it just feels like a huge relief.

Ariann has been getting some love. I'm not 100% thrilled with her, but my need for warm sweaters supercedes my perfectionism, in this case, and I'm nearly up to the point where I leave the body to make the sleeves, again. But I've also been continuing to indulge my need for smalls, and last week came up with these darling things, from a skein of Kureyon that Blogless Michelle swapped with me for some of the frogged Rosedale.


Details: Maine Morning Mitts: The Knitter's Book of Yarn
Noro Kureyon,#215, #7 dpns.

I love these milky, muted colors, which remind me of mist or smoke overlaying a landscape. The Kureyon 215 colorway is a favorite, though please note that the mitts are definitely fraternal, not identical twins. No color really repeats itself. I had 2 skeins of this yarn, and thought at first to dissect them to make 2 identical, or at least more similar, but the 2nd skein had a different sequence altogether, and at that point, I decided to just surrender to Eisaku Noro's greater wisdom, and go with it. Took a little less than 1 whole skein, and was a pretty easy knit. They've gotten quite a bit of wear, in their 3 days of incarnation, and promise to be a favorite.

Next up, a cowl, in some Woolarina handspun. My quest for woolen warmth, and my shopping of the stash continues!

After a hard struggle last week, with a Monday of crushing depression, I'm starting to crawl out of my hole. The Hawaii house has a buyer, and things are progressing nicely. I am still unemployed, though feeling like this, too will end. Cricket graduated from his training class, and is strongly recommended to continue with his training, which I'm all too willing to do. I'm feeling like things are moving forward, now, if a bit slowly, instead of mired in a horrible muck of stuckness.

I'm working on 2 little life improvement projects right now:

1. Going to bed at a decent hour and getting up earlyish. Since I've moved to Georgia, I've been sleeping in, til 8 or 9 am. It's shocking, unless you consider the fact that our house is in deep shade, and because we're on the far western edge of the time zone, it doesn't even start to get light til around 7am. I've also fallen into P's nocturnal schedule, and have been staying up til 12 or 1am each night. Just crazy. He sleeps in and drives into work around 9 so he can avoid Atlanta's crushing traffic, most days, but it all just leaves me feeling like the day is wasted and I am really worried about how jacked up my body clock is getting. So I've begun the march toward more self-discipline, and an earlier bedtime. A little harder, with the onset of cool weather, but the reward of being up early, while the house is still dark and quiet is worth it.

2. Taking a walk each day. One would think this was a no-brainer, with 2 dogs, but it isn't. We live backing on to woods, with a trail which leads to a meadow, and often I just stroll the dogs back to the meadow and throw the frisbee til they are worn out. Not really exercise for me, though it does grant a certain amount of peace and joy, being out in nature. But by nature, I am a sluggish couch potato, and the walk is more a fitness thing. I'm trying for 30 days of brisk walking, which, if it goes well, will kick over into the Couch to 5k Running Program. I have no designs about running long distances, or even ever more than 5k at a time. But I like to run, at least for a short while, and am looking to get a little fitter, a little stronger, and this looks like a gentler way to do it.

I thought by putting these two things here on the blog, I'd actually be a little stronger in my commitment to actually stick with them. They are my two big projects for this moon cycle, and I'm thinking if I can sustain them for a lunar cycle, they're pretty close to becoming a habit.

P has gone to Denver for a week, and the dogs and I are facing the cold together. I've got 80 bulbs to plant, this week, and my friend Joni and I have a pumpkin patch trip planned for the end of the week, if the weather holds. Last night it was 37 degrees. I brought in the spider plant and the Christmas cactus, against the off-chance that they'd freeze. I do not like this unseasonal cold, and 37 degrees is as cold as I'd expect Atlanta to ever get, and I'd accept it in January, but by gum, mid-October needs to be a little bit warmer!! Especially during the day! Ah well, it's calling for snow in New England, so I should muster some gratitude.

Today's missions are the making of chicken broth, from a roasted chicken carcass I've got laying around. I'm jonesing to make bread, but I just feel I'm not quite organized to do it today. Some housecleaning and the training of the Cricket.