Design Hazards

In December, I decided to design my own top-down V neck sweater (or tee, depending on the yardage I have left for the sleeves) using yarn leftover from other projects: Valley Yarn Northampton in grey (242 yards leftover) from my boatneck bluebell sweater and Cascade 220 in a grey/white twisty tweed (385 yards leftover) from my satchel project. I did a lot of math to get the top part of the sweater to fit just right. And it does! Once I split the sleeves from the body, I decided to wing it. And that has now cost me 2 froggings of the body. Hmpf. The first go round, I did some bust darts on the front and decreases in the center back. The back looked really bad. Lots of puckering. And the stripes looked horrible in the back with the decreases. I knit almost down to my belly button before I frogged that back. Then I tried to do the decreases on the sides, 2 stitches from the place where the sleeves were split, so there were 4 stitches between the decreases. Two things: 1) The decreases started too late and there was bunch of fabric bagging under my arms, 2) the deceases were too close together (both row wise and stitch wise) creating a weird angular shape... basically the shaping was too dramatic. I finished ripping just a few minutes ago. The picture below is half-way frogged back. Yes, that's right, I made it all the way to the waist shaping before I finally admitted to myself that the bust shaping was NOT going to block out. Anyway, away I go again. This time I am starting the bust shaping right away (2nd row after splitting the sleeves from the body), I am doing the decreases 6 stitches away from the center of the under arms (12 stitches between) and I am decreasing every 3rd row instead of every other row. I'm crossing my fingers that the "third time's a charm."

(Also pictured: my breakfast of cream of wheat with cocoa and sucanat and a mug of earl grey in my Washington DC mug. The inauguration is only 2 days away!)

I received a hand-me-down food dehydrator over the holidays, so I'm giving it a go with 4 naval oranges. The kitchen smells divine right now! The only trouble is that the dehydrator didn't come with any instructions, so I'm not sure when to stop it. I guess I'll just keep checking. I'm planning to use these oranges with some rosemary from my herb garden and maybe a few pine cones for a potpourri in the living room.

In other news, Rocky seems to have cabin fever. He's been moping around the house for a few days. I think I know why. We haven't been for a run in a week because of the very cold weather and a bad head cold that I had. Here's the depressed pooch. (I'm not sure why he sits on the stairs like this... it must be comfortable.) Don't worry, buddy, we're going for a run today. I promise!!

I went into the basement this morning to start blocking the basketweave baby blanket, and found Chloe and Cheshire sleeping their heated cat bed. Chesh woke up for the photo op, but Chloe was having none of it. Must have been a long night of pouncing on each other and wrestling.

CSA Harvest 18: October 8, 2008 (and what a day!)

Today was a good great fabulous day! Let me count the ways:

1. Traffic wasn't too bad this morning. I started a new Laura Lippman audio book called Another Thing to Fall on the way to work this morning. I'm excited because this one seems to take place in Baltimore. The book I finished over the weekend (In Big Trouble) was set primarily in Austin. Good book, but one of the big appeals of Lippman's books is the Baltimore setting, so I was a little disappointed.

2. Work was relatively quite. And I found out my promotion paperwork is being processed.

3. Today was the first day I practiced yoga at work since a run in with my appendix on June 16. The only reason I remember the exact date is because it was Father's Day and instead of me visiting my dad for a backyard cookout on Sunday afternoon, he was visiting me in the hospital on Monday morning. But I digress. With a 4 week recovery, followed by a 2.5 week vacation, followed by late Wednesday morning meetings, I have not been to yoga in almost 4 months. It's a shame, really. The classes are lead by a co-worker who is just a fabulous teacher. And the classes are only $9 a pop. And the classes are held 50 feet away from my office. Anyway, I've continued with my practice at home for the last 2 months, but it felt great to be back with the class today. I felt great after our practice: my muscles felt longer, my posture was improved, my mood was lifted!

4. I left work right after yoga practice to get some blocking pins for the hemlock ring blanket and some milk from my favorite grocery store. I sampled some delicious fair trade coffee and headed up to Red Wiggler for our last CSA harvest pick-up.

5. Wow! Look at the amazing harvest this week! This alone would have been exciting enough to make my day fabulous! This week's full share was HUGE, including green tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, pumpkins, butternut squash, kale, turnips, radishes, beets, salad greens, arugula, apples, peppers, eggplant, gourds and garlic. The apples and pumpkins made me giddy with delight! My fall favorites!







Check out the spikey gourd. How pretty!


6. I went for a run after I got home from Red Wiggler. My leg muscles were still feeling nice and long from my earlier yoga practice, so I had a great run! Sub-nine-minute miles for the first time since before the appendectomy! Rocky was a little winded from the pace, but happy to be out and about.

7. To top it off, today was my "ideal" weather day. Overcast and crisp. A high of about 68 degrees. Have I mentioned that I love October?

8. I finished knitting the hemlock ring blanket today! Blocking and pictures to come!

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Oh, also, a blog I meant to post on Sunday:

This weekend was busy busy! By Sunday evening, I didn't feel much like blogging. But I did capture of a few of things I whipped up in the kitchen.

First up, a mild curry with peppers, okra, and bok choy. A dash of garam masala at the end for a little kick of flavor. I've been eating this for lunches this week with with a wild rice/brown rice mixture. Delicious! I even had a co-worker ask for the recipe as I was heating this up in the kitchen on Tuesday.





And then, beer bread! This mix was a gift from last Christmas. So easy (open mix, add beer, bake) and delicious! I expected a lot of unpronounceable ingredients in the bread mix, but I was pleasantly surprised to find just a few items (flour, baking soda, salt, etc.) on the label. We ate the last of the bread this evening with eggs, breakfast sausage, greens, tomatoes, bananas, and cheese. Breakfast for dinner is a favorite in this house!