Glorious Colours of Autumn

I love this time of year, don't you?



This is what I saw this afternoon when I was on my way to my knitting group. We haven't hit our full fall foliage swing here in Delaware - but it is on its way.



And here is a macro (not a great one, I admit...) of Christmas present # 3:



The yarn is Malabrigo - and if I see this same colourway at Stitches East, I am scooping up enough of it to make at least a vest. I love how all the blues and greens move together.

While I am at it, here is a macro shot of recently completed Christmas present #4:



See some similarities...? Yes, there is method to my madness ;)

Christmas Present #3 Finished!

I'm a bit too tired to take a macro picture of said finished object, so I will do that tomorrow when I am more with it.

A few days ago I received a thank you letter from the Dulaan people thanking me for the six objects (4 hats, 1 sweater, 1 scarf) I mailed to them earlier this year - and it made me feel so good for having done that. After these Christmas presents are finished I'm planning to start working on some more Dulaan projects... and in fact, I plan to enroll (yeah, fancy term from a work seminar on convincing people to do what you want) some of my family members at Christmas and have them help me with this. Ladies, I haven't mentioned this to any of you yet... so now consider yourself warned. I will provide the yarn and the ideas - I need your hands and time.

My New Stylist

I apologize for my absence - I was laid low was something last week. It was ironic - I had my normal check up at my internist on Wednesday and he mentioned they had received their shipment of flu shots that morning and would I like one? I declined as we get flu shots free at work. And wouldn't you know it, the very next day I start feeling like utter crap. Temperature flucuations - fever - shivers - sinus headache - sudden exhaustion - I was a wreck. Someone did try and cheer me up, however - Willow decided she would make me feel better by making me look pretty:



What would I do without her?

Yes - I am crocheting in this picture. No - I am not trading sides. I learned how to crochet long before I took up knitting but I much prefer knitting. I have this striped afghan on my sofa that has been sitting untouched since we moved into this apartment and until a few days ago it was only Willow-sized. I needed a break from my Christmas projects, so I added about 8 inches to the striped afghan. Come to think of it, the afghan is my oldest UFO, not the lacework from the last post!

And lest I forget, here is a pic of my last Project Colorswap package, from Juli :



Inside were 3 skeins of Lion Brand Jiffy in a pinky-creamsicle colour, 2 skeins of kitchen cotton, a package of Mary Engelbreit stationery, strawberry lifesaver candies, and the latest issue of "Knit Simple." Thanks, Juli - I have a subscription to this magazine, but I will pass on this copy to my Mom!

Blogstalking: Oldest UFO

For those of you tuning in who are not knitters, in knit-speak a UFO is not an unidentified flying object, but rather an unfinished object. Yeah, I know the acronym is not exact, but deal with it. This week's blogstalking project is to post a picture of your oldest or longest-standing UFO, so here is mine:



I'm not entirely sure how old it is - to give you an idea, this laceweight wool from Knitpicks was purchased when Knitpicks first started selling their own yarn. Two years ago? I decided to try my hand at lace and soon found that I really don't have the patience for it. My dream yarn has to be an aran weight or worsted weight - because as pretty as laceweight wool is, the projects are way to fussy for me. I may change my mind later, but seeing as I have pulled this one of the project shelf and I haven't touched it in probably two years and it is only about three inches long I think it will be frogged toute de suite.

That being said, I *love* these needles. They are needles intended for children and are only 6" long. They are perfect for doing gauge projects because they just fit in your hands.

A Day At The Zoo

This is something we have been promising Willow for some time now. But, with looking for houses, me travelling on business, and Andrew's class and homework schedule we just were not able to manage it... but, this weekend was free, the weather forecast *seemed* promising (grumble, grumble) so off we went to the Philadelphia Zoo.

This zoo has marble and bronze statues throughout - mostly life-sized, so you can get a good idea of how tall you would be next to the animal. Here is Andrew and Willow in front of the elephants:



Here is Willow as a baboon. Not much of a stretch ;)



The zoo was celebrating its 'Fall Beastival' this weekend. Local farmers donate their extra fall produce to the zoo for the animals, and almost everywhere we went today we saw animals eating pumpkin. I can't think raw pumpkin tastes very good, but these tortises were going nuts over it - it is the fastest I have ever seen them move!



Andrew and the pouty baboon. Three minutes prior there were about 10 kids climbing all over this statue in front of the new big cats exhibit... and one of the zoo workers came and yelled at them (and their parents) that this was dangerous. Willow was upset because she wanted to climb up there like all the other kids.



This was the best photo op - this juvenile gorilla was right up against the glass looking at Willow, but Willow freaked out and didn't want to get anywhere near the gorilla. The only way she would even sit this close is if Daddy held her:



But then she was more then willing to sidle up to the bronze gorilla outside the primate house:



She liked the bears as well:



Our zoo trip was cut short when it started raining... on a day that the weather was forecasted to be 65'F and sunny!!! We went quickly through the big cats exhibit and promised Willow we would be back to take a more in-depth look at a later date.

And now for the close-ups on the finished Christmas presents...




No guesses because I won't confirm or deny anyway!

Christmas Present #2 Finished!

I'm on a roll now! I think I will take Cristi's suggestion and post macros shots of the yarn and stitches later and not show the actual object.

Yay me!

Blogstalking - Books and More (Library!)

Our Blogstalking task for last week was to take pictures of our books/bookshelves/library - something like that, to show off. Well, for starters, in out 780 square foot apartment (yes, I had warned you before it was small) there are two bedrooms, 1 kitchen, 1 dining room (ha! glorified hallway, really), 1 living room... and 7 bookshelves. And that doesn't count the books that are stacked up on the floor, beside sofas, or in the car. There is virtually no organization to these shelves, other than Willow has the bottom shelf on the big bookcase, and the bookshelf closest to where I knit has my knitting books.

I'm not taking pictures of them all because I am just not in a cleaning and dusting mood right now, so I present to you Bookshelf #1:



This is the first bookshelf you see when you enter our apartment, and since it is sort of out of the living area, it has the books we want to keep but don't read on a regular basic... like the Riverside Shakespeare, the Bible, War and Peace. I seem to have cut off the magazine boxes at the top - but that is where all my knitting magazines live.

And now, Bookshelf #2:



This one is in the living room and the most commonly used bookshelf. The bottom, as you can see, is mostly Willow's books and the top shelf is mostly mass market paperbacks that we have bought with the intent to read but haven't got around to it yet. As for the middle, it looks like a mixture of hardcover novels and large paperbacks that wouldn't fit anywhere else - and unlike the top shelf, we have read nearly all the books in the middle. The three canisters on the top shelf is our change piggy banks - pennies in Big Ben, dimes in the British post box, and nickels in the globe.

On another subject altogether, there is knitting going on around here... But precious little of it I can show you!

Whew - this is hard. I know I am not going to get something made for everyone for Christmas, but I am trying my damnedest. In the meantime, the various in-process projects (and I think I have 6 going on right now) have to stay off the blog. I wish I had something non-Christmas-present intended to show off because I feel like a slacker with the lack of knitting pictures lately.

Drowning Here...

Ever have one of those days when you know you already have too much on your plate and you are struggling with it as it is and then someone adds a few other things to the pile and you can't say no? Don't worry - I'm not being a pushover - it's a work thing. And it isn't even *extra* stuff - my normal quarterly tasks - but in this quarter it seems that everything is due within the same 3 day period. And I will be in class three days next week (Foundation in Accounting and Statistics then Introduction to Pharmaceutical Marketing). And I'm not exaggerating about the 3 day span - usually I have 2-3 weeks to knock all this stuff back.

Sigh...

I love my job. Who knew that someone as artsy-fartsy as I am with a degree in Applied Linguistics and a background in teaching would get such a kick out of accounting, spreadsheets gloriola, and the sociological aspects of my industry? This is something I want people in college and university to know - that just because you are inclined to study one discipline does not mean you cannot excel in another discipline altogether.

I repeat, I love my job. Just right now I wish things were spread out a bit more.

Happy Belated Anniversary to Us

Okay, so I don't take very clear self-portraits early on a Sunday morning after the house imp has denied us sleep.



Look at the pretty sparkly things in my ears :) Yesterday was my and Andrew's 9th anniversary. The anniversary of our marriage, not our wedding. You may remember back in June I said we were celebrating our anniversary - that was our wedding anniversary. We were married in City Hall in Sakura City, Japan in September 1997 and then had a wedding service with all our friends and family in June 1998 when we returned to North America.

Anywho, the pretty things in my ears...

I am a horrible person to buy presents for - Andrew will attest to that. He asks me what I want and my most common response is, "I don't know." I mean, there are little knitting-related things I would like, but never in a million years would Andrew get something like that for me. I think he thinks I spend to much time knitting anyway (go figure). The problem with this time of year is our anniversary is in September, my birthday is in November, and then Christmas slams into you before you know it. I just can't think of that many things I want! So, after a minor argument about this the other day, I started thinking about presents, and I decided that I really wanted a pair of nice earrings that I could wear all the time and not even know they were there.

So, after celebrating our anniversary with a joint Platelet Pheresis donation, and a lunch at Don Pablo's (where I inadverantly blew my points for the day - who knew a bowl of chicken soup could have 580 calories and 38 grams of fat?!!?), we went to the Macy's, where they were having a huge jewelry sale (50% off, then an extra 20% off if you donated $5 to their heart health charity drive)... and after perusing many pairs of gold hoops, I was enchanted with the ones I'm wearing - very small hoops with even smaller diamonds in them.

I feel so pretty!

And better yet, I can't even feel that they are there!

Thank you, Andrew.

Oh, the Agony of it All!

I have a real, live finished object...

And I can't post a picture of it because it is a Christmas and the person it is intended for sometimes reads my blog and I don't want this person to see his/her present! However, here is a shot of the leftover wool so you can see what it was made of:



Lovely soft Malabrigo in shades of blue. Wait a second... I just thought of something... it isn't even the middle of September and I have a Christmas present finished! Yay me! I cast on for the next Christmas present about three minutes after I wove in the ends on the first present.

I had to take a picture of the three of us for two reasons - one because Willow needed a picture for school, and two because our former employer in Japan needed a picture for their 30th anniversary publication... so here you go:



Yeah... she looks like her Daddy.

Back from the Mile High City... and Celebrities I Have Seen: Blogstalking

Jet-lagged once again... hopefully I will get over this one quicker - the time difference was only two hours rather than three hours this time. I haven't been to Denver since 2001 when Andrew and I moved from Boulder, CO back to the East Coast... and truthfully, we were more in Littleton than Denver... but I digress. I was at an industry conference and had an interesting time - ate way too much good food (and had a stomach ache for the last half of the trip), had a whopper of a margarita, and got to see Garden of the Gods and a mini-rodeo at The Flying W Ranch.

I'm afraid this edition of Blogstalking will be picture-less... because the odd time I have come across a celebrity I have not had a camera with me. Let's see... the only celebrity who has ever spoken to me is Jon Voight. It was back in 97/98 - somewhere around there. I was LAX, suffering through a 4 hour layover on my trip home from Tokyo to Vancouver. There was nowhere to sit downstairs, so I went upstairs to the luxury/club area. I didn't go in - I'm not that brazen! There were benches near the entrance and no one was up there, so I sat down, had turned on my laptop and was trying to keep myself awake and entertained before I had to catch my connecting flight. Apparently this didn't work because I fell asleep. I was woken up by Mr. Voight, who informed me I was about to drop my computer on the floor. I recognized him right away but didn't make a big deal out of it because I kind of feel celebrities deserve their privacy and he was being nice to me.

My sister Teri, lucky duck that she is, met this beautiful man way up in the Yukon... sigh...

With the wind and rain and branches everywhere...

Ernesto is on his way out, and while we hardly even got a glancing blow out of him, the yard outside is a mess. I would take a picture, but the rain is still coming down at such a pace that the picture would just be a grey blur. There are branches everywhere and I am sure the garden is a big mudpie right now... We had about 4 inches of rain in the last two days of August and at least 2 inches in the last 24 hours. It feels like autumn already - I don't believe it temperature even made it to 65'F yesterday.

I wanted to have some bright and colourful yarn pics to show off but apparently the gloominess is affecting my camera as well. Here is some of the yarn I bought at KnitPurl in Portland, OR last week:



Mmm... more Koigu! Unfortunately this pic is not doing justice to the colours at all. I did ask to have the stuff wound at the store - but Koigu looks its prettiest when it is still in its skein. They are sort of a turquoise-y green with a dab of purple thrown in. These will be socks for *ME* someday - probably sometime after Christmas because there are too many other things that need to get completed before now and then.

Cashsoft Aran in a soft dark blue - this stuff really lives up to its soft name! This is destined to be made into someone's Christmas present, so I can't get much more into it. I have a feeling I am going to love working with this...



I did buy something else at KnitPurl, but it went directly into my Colorswap partner's package - so I will have to post a link when she posts them on her blog.

And for all you blogstalkers, here is my addition to the "Feets Up" category. I have had a pedicure recently so my feet don't look so bad. They were definitely tired toesies by the time this pic was taken. The colours of the Koigu look a bit better here:



Psst... don't tell my mother-in-law that my feet were on the table. She'll yell at me! I did throw the table cloth in the wash right afterward - partly because of the feet and partly because the darling progeny had decided to paint with raspberries earlier in the day. I love Tide-to-Go sticks!


Someone asked me what I am knitting right now since there haven't been any current project pics up in a while. I have a navy blue Malabrigo hat going right now, a washcloth (the quick 'throw-in-the-suitcase' project), and Andrew's cabled sweater. Since the weather has been cooler I have been more inclined toward the sweater - I'm almost at the point where I have to decrease for the armholes on the back.... so maybe 20% finished?

Back From the City of Roses... and a wonderful Colorswap package!

I just returned last night from a four-day business trip in Portland, OR. I haven't been to Portland since I was a child and for whatever reason, I have a much clearer memory of the dunes on the coast than the city - so this trip was a nice re-introduction. Portland is an imminently walkable city. My co-worker Oskar and I walked all around the city before we had dinner each night and being the nice Swedish man that he is, Oskar indulged me when I wanted to go into tourist shops to buy Willow her asked-for yellow t-shirt and even better, let me wander starry-eyed around the many-floored Powell Bookstore...

Sorry... I got lost in the moment there. I could have spent lots of money in that bookstore but I was limiting myself to one book because I only had one small suitcase and my small carry-on was already full of yarn I had bought at Knit Purl... more on that tomorrow (batteries for the camera need recharging).

I digress... back to the walking. Whilst perambulating, we came across this sign:



I don't know... beer-soaked sushi? Sushi-flavoured beer? Any which way you cut it, I don't think it is for me. It isn't even a Japanese beer!

One day I had lunch in the multi-syllabic McCormick and Schmick's restaurant where I had to take a picture of the dome roof that was made entirely of stained glass:



Portland is known as the City of Roses, and unfortunately by the middle-end of August most of the smelly beauties are past their prime, but there were these gigantic hanging baskets everywhere! I wish there was something in the picture to gauge scale, but I would say that the basket is easily 5 feet long:



A day before I left for Portland I received my August Colorswap package from my incredibly generous partner Elizabeth:



In it was Interweave's Scarf Style book (which I have had out of the library 2-3 times and am so happy to have a copy of my own!), different vanilla scented body sprays and lotions (yum!), size 1 Brittany sock needles (She reads my blog!!!), a gorgeous candle from the Biltmore estate, a brass sheep needle gauge, a kit to knit a chocolate brown satin bag, a skein of Fiesta Dazzle in the Coyote colorway, a skein of Noro Transitions of creamy beiges and tans... and... and...

TWO SKEINS OF KOIGU!!



Oh my goodness. You should have heard me shriek when I pulled these out of the bag. I had never even seen Koigu before much less felt it in person... and I am in love with these two charcoal skeins of merino softness. I can see how it is possible to become a Koigu junkie on very short acquaintance. Elizabeth, thank you so much!

Weighing Options

Thanks for all of your input. I think in the heat of the summer all I can think about is that I have no clue when I would wear the clapotis again. Maybe I should revisit this decision when the weather is cooler. I did like Libi's suggestion of just getting more of the yarn and making a vest then. I have one grapefruit-sized ball left and I've been looking online and can't figure out if it is colourway 9438 or 9436 Cascade Quatro - I'm leaning toward the former. Now to find a pattern - I'm thinking a vest with a v-neck and a single cable - or maybe two (one up each um, protuberance).

Clapotis Sacrilege

I like the wool (Cascade Quattro in a strawberry/orange/rhubarb/beige mix) I made my Clapotis out of, but the truth is that in its one year existence, I've worn it twice. Once to the party above and once to my department's Christmas party. I just don't see myself wearing it again in the near future and feel guilty about it.

So...

(Don't hit me here...)

I'm thinking of frogging my Clapotis and using the wool to make a vest instead. I think I used 5 skeins of the Quattro, so there should be enough.

Any objections?

Blogstalking #5

PICT0006, originally uploaded by jochibi.

Someone did guess this one - although they guessed the picture would say "Happy Father's Day!" rather than "Happy Mother'd Day!"

Blogstalking #4

PICT0005, originally uploaded by jochibi.

Okay, I think nearly everyone guessed this one correctly - it is one of my chair legs.

Blogstalking #3

pict0004, originally uploaded by jochibi.

A chainmail corset? Something you stick your face in to make an imprint (okay, that confused me...)?

No - it's the vent above my stove! (No one guessed this one - again, not even my sister who has been in my apartment...)

Blogstalking Reveal #2

PICT0002, originally uploaded by jochibi.

My clock. This is one a few people guessed correctly.

Blogstalking Reveal

PICT0001, originally uploaded by jochibi.

A wine bottle? A vase? No, it is wrapping paper taped to a mailing tube that I use as my long needle case!

Nobody guessed this... even my sister Teri who has *seen* the tube...

Try Again

I can't post any pics right now no matter what method I try - I'll try again later.

Blogstalking: Macro Guessing Game

This week's assignment for Blogstalking is to take macro shots with your digital camera and have people guess what the objects are. Now, I have a cheapie digital camera and it doesn't have a macro feature, so I was left to use the paltry 2X zoom and then use software to cut an inset out of the photo. Guess away!

Photo #1



Photo #2



Photo #3



Photo #4



Photo #5



*******************************************************

On a side note here, I am having an absolute horrible time with my allergies this year. This is the worst it has been since before Willow was born - the first summer we were in Delaware my eyes nearly swelled shut due to some allergen. I am going to have to seriously consider getting allergy shots - I tried nearly every OTC medicine (Claritin, Tavist, Benadryl, Dimetapp, Aleve Cold and Sinus, Chlor-trimeton) and they either make me a groggy mess or are useful for about 4 hours and then I'm back to square one again... even for the meds that claim they are for 24 hours. Does anyone have any better ideas?

A Willow Original

"Daddy" By Willow

SP7 Package Number Two!

Woo-hoo! Look what the mailman brought me!



My second package from my Knitty SP7 (who has still managed to elude identification) arrived on Monday, and in it was two gorgeous mossy-emerald skeins of Softwist, a lovely denim-blues skein of Top Print (trust me, I've been daydreaming of what to make with these when I really should be doing other things!), a package of cute knitting note cards, and a pattern for 'Pretty Anne' socks. Thank you so much! I am wondering if there is enough yardage on the Softwist to attempt the generic toe-up sock pattern that was unveiled as one of the Knitty surprises yesterday...

Thank you again, SP7!

Dinner Tonight: Blogstalking

This week's Blogstalking task was to complete a photo essay of what you are making for dinner. I thought I was going to have a problem with this one because it has just been too damn hot to cook. Seriously, last week we had sandwiches, hot dogs, leftovers, ate out once - really anything to get out of turning the oven on. Then blessed relief came - yes, it has been in the high 80s (maybe low 90s today), but the humidity has gone away and it has felt so much more comfortable. So, I was going to make my Thai Peanut Noodles with Shredded Chicken... but Sous Chef #1 forgot I asked him to take the chicken breasts out to defrost so I had to come up with something else. I had plans to pick tomatoes at my in-laws' house after my SnB, so I decided dinner tonight would be BLTs.

So, I started out with this:



This box is about 9" wide by 6" tall by 12" long and it is over half full of cherry tomatoes... No, I don't plan for my family to eat all of these. I am bring the bulk of them to work tomorrow to share with my friends. The one I used is the big boy up in the top right hand corner. (Oh, and the riper cherry tomatoes in the bowl against the wall were the ones I picked a few days ago - those are destined to be fresh tomato sauce - just chopped up cherry tomatoes, feta, and green onions - later this week.)

Tomato chosen, I cooked my bacon:



I always cook my bacon in my George Foreman grill, and I cook the entire package at once and refrigerate whatever I don't immediately use so BLTs are an instant option anytime this week.

Then I enlisted Sous Chef #2 to help dry off the just-washed romaine lettuce. She had aspirations of helping with the bacon, but was denied.



Then I chopped up the crudities (um, yeah - fancy word for chopped up vegetables...) and put them aside - we have yellow pepper, red pepper, cucumber, and baby carrots:



Oh! Don't forget the lovely tomato from my in-laws' garden!



Now the secret of my BLTs... what makes them so tasty is my liberal use of seasoned salt and freshly ground black pepper. Nothing terribly exotic, but the seasoned salt and pepper do wonderful things for ripe tomatoes.



And here is Sous Chef #1's sandwich - I don't care for lettuce on mine:



And here is the complete dinner:



And all this work was not good enough for Sous Chef #2. She doesn't care for raw tomatoes (yet strangely enough loves tomato soup, spaghetti sauce, and ketchup), so she had bacon and eggs instead. She didn't get out of eating vegetables, though!



Enjoy!

Precious Little Knitting...

... going on, that is.

It's just too damn hot. I don't think it has quite made it to the century mark yet, but the RealFeel(C) or Humidex factor has pushed it way above that and it is so uncomfortable. Willow and I have been heading straight to the pool after work and playing there until Andrew gets home and I am finding that for the first time since I was about 10 years old I have a tan. Not nearly as dark as Willow - but I am attributing lack-of-purpleness to my diligence with the sunscreen. And this is the first summer that we have gone through multiple tubes of sunscreen - I think we are up to number 4 or 5 now.

The last few days I have read a couple of articles about how the heat is making people short-tempered and nasty... Hell, I don't need to the heat to achieve that! I was in traffic this morning and saw some twit drop some cigarette butts and other garbage into the street just ahead of me. Was she dropped on the head as a child? I wished I had a horn on my car that played an annoying nasal voice saying, "Litterbug! Litterbug!" and then just follow her around until she was so embarrassed she came around and picked it up again. I always see signs on the road saying there is a $50 - $500 fine for littering... and I have never seen that enforced.

Bah. Teri, can I move up with you in the Yukon?