duchessofgravity

a break in the rain

2011-02-19T20:07:00.000-08:00

up to my eyeballs

2010-11-11T11:56:00.000-08:00

in photos, letters, and scraps of genealogy compiled by family members and collected (rescued) from dad's house. my step mom was ready to trash the lot...3 whole boxes of photos back to my great- great- greats, diaries, school papers, news clippings...and then some

i'm in heaven and i'm in hell.
how to organize?
ancestry is helping but i just get more information on top of what i have from there. and i don't want to upload everything. i'd rather not continue the subscription indefinitely, it gets a little expensive.

i'll keep you posted. and if i find an exceptional photo i'll post it here. the scanner is on order and then i have a whole other project to start. digitizing it all.
whew :)

we'll talk about the 5 crates of slides that i rescued another time...

time.

2010-07-28T17:22:00.000-07:00

want to lose almost 24 hours straight?
go sign up for a free 2 week trial of ancestry.com

what a trip!

now if i can just con dave into letting me fib that we're married i can track down his family too!

;)

considering

2010-07-28T00:47:00.000-07:00

i may be coming back.

maybe.

but not all the time.
so don't hold me to anything.
i never promised.

but i want to share.
sometimes.
i think.

sunset at the beach - friday foto

2009-10-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

who doesn't love a good sunset?

what do you do

2009-10-08T00:04:00.001-07:00

with a beautiful day off?

well we went for a "scent"ic drive out to the beach.
we being the dog.
and me.

she loves to stick her nose out the window and smell where we are going.

we took a few lonely roads.

ok, so maybe like 10 little roads.
i make turns at random when i'm not in a hurry.

and can you blame me?
just check out the view!

it really was spectacular.

i would love to live out this way!

we finally arrived at north beach in point reyes national seashore.
they have a few beaches where leashed pets are allowed.

i snacked on a quick lunch of tomatoes, figs, raisins, and almonds
(from the farmer's market again)

then we headed down to the water.

my baby is 12 and she's never seen the ocean. i must be a terrible mother or something.
she was just staring and staring. she couldn't get enough.

after repeatedly chasing and running away from the waves for a half an hour she was content to just sit back and relax on a dune.

and then she stood and told me it was time to go by waking toward the car.
kids.
i think she was just tired out.
she slept the whole hour and a half it took me to get home.
via a different wandering path :)

friday foto - pumpkin time

2009-10-02T19:59:00.001-07:00

fall is pumpkins and squash, indian corn, and crisp air. i can't wait to head out to the pumpkin patch to pick out ours next weekend :)

and as a bonus a funny story for you.

when i was little mom used to volunteer at my school. she always helped out when they did hearing and vision tests at the beginning of the school year. she recently told me a funny story about one of those years.

she was working with a little girl who just wouldn't speak. mom asked her her name. she wouldn't tell her she tried laughing with her and telling her a story but nothing doing. finally mom asked her what her mother called her at home. to which she replied "puuuunkin." and she didn't say another word the whole time ;)

ah you have to love the south :)

never

2009-10-01T01:54:00.000-07:00

and i do mean ever
drink coffee at 9 pm.
no matter how good it would taste with smores pie.

i promise you'll regret it at 2 am.
i promise.

the good news.
although shari's took over the baker's square down the street, there is still free pie on wednesdays. we were skeptical, but the food is still good. even though it took half an hour to pick out dinner since we were unfamiliar with the menu.

the bad news.
there is free pie on wednesdays.

getting organized

2009-10-01T00:24:00.000-07:00

so about a hundred years ago when i was in school i had a handheld computer. it helped me keep track of birthdays, addresses, assignments, and my high score in bejeweled...

today it came out of the box in the back of the closet for the first time in i don't know how many years. you see i think i'll be needing to keep track of my bejeweled scores in my new position.

no?
k, how 'bout this? i think i might need a better calendar than my free hallmark one. in the past it has served me well. until now i was able to write down my schedule and then scribble in schedule changes in those one inch squares. i could happily cross off days until vacation started. i could draw lines through days i couldn't work for some event or another. i could even fit in knitting night notices and the occasional lunch date. alas i think i'll need more space now. there will be actual stuff happening during my days. more stuff than making coffee that is. (i'm kinda panicking here can you tell?) i saw my training manual when i picked up my schedule yesterday-not only are there 40 hours on that schedule-that book is 5 inches thick!

so it was either crawl through a stack of boxes for the old clie or head to the office supply store and shell out cash for one off those paper planner jobbies. heck no. i'd rather use my completely defunct piece of technology thank you very much.*

have you ever noticed how long it takes to get organized?
i spent about 5 minutes putting my work schedule into the computer. then about 5 more looking up birthdays in my address book. i'll do the actual addresses another day i think. it will take an hour i'm sure to get them all in one place. then i spent 20 minutes getting the updated info on all the knitting events in the area and adding them in. i marked when dave's family is coming to visit. and then a couple of weddings that are coming up. finally i hit the little blue button. and wonder of wonders - it actually syncs properly. i'm amazed. and then i spent about 2 hours looking for games to put on the handlheld. what can i say? i have to see how high i can get that score on bejeweled :)

*thank you very much to dave who found the software to get it to work on my much newer but still dinosaur of a computer. you've gotta love those technology guys who can get this reluctant stuff to talk to each other. he's better than a therapist!

farmer's bounty

2009-09-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

i think my favorite place this year may just be the santa rosa farmer's market.

it has been fantastic to pick up the freshest produce week after week*. not only does everything taste great, the colors are fantastic.

i just love heirloom tomatoes

there are every shape, color, and size imaginable available

the best part today was the tomato tasting...i think i ate 2 or 3 whole tomatoes worth. well if you were to glue the hodgepodge of types they had into one fantastic fruit!

there are also all kinds of squash

beets and radishes, carrots and more

and the peppers!

purple green red yellow orange

sweet hot and everything between

and the best part
well best after tasting everything
(i love samples)
is bringing home your favorites

2 kinds of pears, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, black mission figs, apples, nectarines, plums, basil

i see fruit salad and pizza in our future!

*oh, and its not just the best place for produce, there are also: preserves, honey, bread, pies, olive oil, vinegar, cheeses, cider, fresh fish, and plants. the veggies i didn't get include: lettuces, shitake mushrooms still on the log, tomatillos, melons, every potato ever, fresh cut flowers, salad greens, fresh eggs (duck and chicken). and the list could go on. you can see why i love this market! and it happens twice a week!

friday foto - fall

2009-09-25T13:34:00.000-07:00

it's official; fall is here

breaking radio silence

2009-09-21T18:30:00.001-07:00

i know it has been a little quiet around here.
but i was trying not to spill the beans.
i've been teetering on the edge of my coffee house seat here for a while but it is now official.

i've made assistant store manager!

it's really exciting and a little bit scary. i'm moving stores again which is sad. but it is a move in the right direction.

yippee!

friday foto - tule elk

2009-09-19T19:32:00.001-07:00

a couple of weekends ago we headed out to point reyes national seashore and caught sight of some tule elk. i'd never seen this kind of elk before,

there are some ladies off in the distance if you squint you can almost see them lying down...

but this guy is on the wrong side of the 8 foot livestock fence and the other side of a cattle guard from the girls hanging out with a bunch of cows...

silly guy

if only

2009-09-16T01:04:00.000-07:00

if only i could stop reading for 5 minutes
i would have time to knit.
that is if i could stop stitching for 5 minutes too :)

friday foto

2009-09-04T19:58:00.001-07:00

harvest moon.

mike over at friday foto proposed a labor day theme this week and this is what i saw tonight.
moonrise over sonoma mountain.
school is in full swing.
and its getting crisp at night.
i don't see labor day as the end of summer but more the unofficial start of fall.

the neverending project

2009-08-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

you may well remember that many many moons ago in a far off land called orlando i started...
the blanket.

no?
let me refresh your memory...

i knit a garter stitch wash cloth to teach a friend's child to knit...

i decided hey that would make a neat blanket.

and i knit a bunch of strips in garter. and i hated how it looked seamed up.
so i frogged it.
and i knit it up in stripes on the knitting machine my mom found for me at a junk sale.

in it's most recent incarnation it looked like this

and that is how it stayed for over a year.
every now and then i would wind in a few ends but there are a lot of ends there.
and i didn't want to weave in ends.
that is such a waste of time.
especially when i'd rather be knitting!

well. i guess if you get me bored enough.
and you finish all my projects.
i can be convinced that old projects need to come to a close!

so 24 episodes of dexter later.
it is seamed.
the ends are woven in.
yes i had nightmares after seeing that much gore.
but that is beside the point!
it is done.
or almost.

now i have the dilemma of choosing the edging...

wait step back with me a second. this thing was constructed strangely and i have only myself to blame.

the top edge was knit on the machine. in a long narrow strip. i then picked up the stitches along the side of that top strip and knit in three panels down.
(the machine is only so wide i couldn't pick up stitches the whole way across)
i then seamed those panels together.
the whole thing is in stockinette and it rolls up on itself. no one would ever be able to curl up under it. it would end up hanging them!

i like how the stripes and blocks go together. but i'm not sure how to edge it. i' like how the top looks but it curls under too.

see here's how that top edge looks

i thought all along i would just do an i-cord edge all the way around. in the green. because that color of cotton ease is still available. but there is so much green in the blanket it just washed into the background.
no good.

soooooo i decided to try stripes.

which looks ok.
but i'm not a huge fan.
and it is a major pain in the you know what to change colors on i-cords every 2 rows while picking up stitches along the edge.

so i have a dilemma.

what kind of edging would you do? i've contemplated getting out the machine to knit a long strip in stripes for each edge and then sew that strip to the blanket. but that strip will still curl under. so i'm kinda at a loss.
comments?
suggestions?
help?
thanks in advance.
;)

ugh.

2009-08-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

some yarn just doesn't want to be what you want it to be.
the pattern isn't right.
knitting them just doesn't make you happy.
you try a different pattern and that just doesn't help.
heck sometimes.
you just don't even want the yarn to be yarn after a while.
you just want the yarn.
and the project.
to just go away.

so say goodbye.

these are headed to the frog pond.

anybody want some slightly used but perfectly acceptable sock yarn?
i'm just over it.
let me know.

stick a spoon in these and stir!

2009-08-29T06:00:00.001-07:00

lots of sugar in my cappuccino please.

or maybe iced. it has been a hot day...

i guess as long as it is caffeinated it shouldn't really matter right?

i think i deserve it!

cause these babies are done!

the venezia socks.
or cappuccino as i call them.

i used the pattern charts and just knit these up.

for my second attempt at stranded color work i think they turned out great!

if i had it to do over again i would probably have used a different pattern for the sole.
the stripe is a little too bold for the swishiness of the instep and leg pattern.

but hey.
you learn.

the specifics:

pattern: chart from the venezia sweater by Eunny Jang

yarn: sock it to me 4 ply in coffee bean and latte

needles: knitpicks harmony circs size 1. socks knit as 2 magic loops simultaneously
(these needles are actually growing on me)

details: magic cast on 16 stitches in coffee bean, increase at edges on every row to 26 then every other row to 36 stitches. move one stitch from sole of sock(35) to instep(37). begin working instep in pattern centering one pattern motif on the sock. coffee bean is background color, latte is foreground color. latte carried on top for dominance. sole done in 1x1 stripe pattern with one dark section of 2 stitches on each side to set off the instep pattern. worked half a pattern repeat on one sock then on the other sock and work socks in leapfrog manner to maintain gauge. this is not what i usually mean by 2 socks on 2 circs. sigh. work 2 pattern repeats per foot. then work a lifestyle heel in coffee bean. then work 2 pattern repeats for the leg. 15 rows in 1x1 rib in coffee bean. and these babies are done!

i don't know if i'll do a lot of color work in the future.
but i can do it.
and i guess that is all that matters.

in the works

2009-08-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

so there is a sweater in the works...

i just don't know what it is yet.

i've been doing research.

i just haven't come to a decision.

you see shirley gifted me with some of her stash yarn a while back.
ok so it was almost a year ago.
and i thought i would make her a sweater.
crazy i know.
why knit a knitter a sweater?
well she weighs all of 95 pounds soaking wet so it will be a fast knit.
and she did gift me the yarn.
and i don't really need the yarn seeing as i can knit at least 6 sweaters from the stash right now. so shirley is getting a sweater.

i'm leaning in a couple of different directions.

i want to knit an interweave sweater cause well i have the subscription so why not right?

so here are the candidates:

1) nantucket jacket
2) wheat-ear cable yoke
3) tangled yoke cardigan
3) climbing vines pullover
4) diminishing rib cardigan

and i also figure the recipient might want a say in said sweater...

so i'll keep you posted.
but in the meantime. what do you think?

friday foto - the dog days of summer

2009-08-28T18:41:00.000-07:00

we needed a little color here to brighten things up.
the grass is all dead.
and the heat is incredible (well for here it's hot).

i can't wait for fall. soon i can already tell it is changing.
maybe some fog tonight.
now wouldn't that be nice!

oops!

2009-08-28T11:39:00.001-07:00

yes i know this is a knitting blog too.

i promise knitting content will arrive shortly. i've just got to narrow down the short list of sweater patterns :)

oh, and photograph some socks. cause you know there are socks!

friday foto

2009-08-21T11:50:00.001-07:00

i just couldn't kick the flower bug. the veggies are doing well but the patio needed a little color. say hello to the newest addition to the family :) i love geraniums!

friday foto

2009-08-14T17:51:00.001-07:00

we were wandering the city with dave's folks last week and i saw the neatest building. i just love the details they used to put into the simplest things
we

friday foto

2009-08-07T08:54:00.001-07:00

when in wine county you know are surrounded by wine and vineyards and it just follows...you're completely surrounded by grapes

the in-laws are coming

2009-08-04T04:00:00.000-07:00

the in-laws are coming.
dave's mom and her guy are here to visit from philly.

you know what that means right...
touring, running around, touring, running around some more, and eating out way too much.

i can do this.
it's only a week...

headed out

2009-08-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

when it is time to go home all there is time to do is to clean up house and head out

with a last minute milkshake from the chatterbox of course

wave goodbye to the eagles and the phillies

and sit an hour and a half on the runway with 20 other planes for no apparent reason

so much to do!

2009-08-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

with only a few days to relax. a trip to the beach turns into a blur of "i just want to sit here" mixed with "but we have to do this too" so several days worth of photos divided into day parts. cause really it is all running together :) think sandra bullock from that movie premonition where the days are out of order...but nobody's gonna die.

sunrise:

over the ocean. after waking up early not feeling well from a late night out with the family. i took one for the team ad finished the wine...don't do that. not good. i ran the 2 blocks to the boardwalk and over the dunes to the water to get these couple of shots.

seagulls and beachcombers are your only company when it's this early!

i've never seen so many mussel shells when it wasn't after dinner.

midday:

on the boardwalk. after the beach you go to the boardwalk to grab lunch at mack and mancos. apparently the best pizza ever. i'm not convinced. but heck i don't really get the wawa obsession either. but chesesteaks i totally get. so i'm not beyond hope ;)

you have to swim only between the green flags by the lifeguard station. so you get hundreds of families jammed into tiny spaces with wide open spaces between. this is so bizarre to me. i've always "swum at my own risk" and sat by myself. dave couldn't belive i'd never seen a lifeguard away from the pool! so it is crowded when you try to body surf and at one point i got kicked in the nose. fortunately it wasn't broken but damn that smarts!

back to the boardwalk 6 or 8 times. for no good reason. or to buy postcards. or for more pizza or to search for the perfect hat for dave. which we still don't have by the way.

we spent an afternoon at the family of friend's of a friend's place on the bay in the next town over. (say that ten times fast) where we all floated in that raft back there for a while drinking coronas and waving to the boats as then went by. then the dave and mark (dave's brother) had to leave for a philies game so fran (mark's girlfriend) and i went out in a sea kayak for about an hour.

you can almost see mark's friend in one out between the reeds.

fran and i got pretty lost in the reeds for a while but we found our way out and surprisingly did pretty well. we never tipped over and we figured out how to turn. had we waited for the tide to come in we would have been able to find our way out very easily!

we drove back and forth across this little bridge i don't know how many times :)

evening:

and we walked out on the beach at night. strictly forbidden but a great place to see the stars

and you have to go to the boardwalk at night cause you've been there all week why not go again?

and we tried to ride the ferris wheel. but it closes down when there is moisture in the air because then the brakes don't work...which i appreciate. but i really wanted to go!

every thing is lit up at the miniature golf places. we never made it to one so i guess we'll have to go back. for that and the ferris wheel :)

we went out to a piano bar with mark and fran one night to see a pair of dueling piano players that mark really likes. he's been going to their shows for years.

and we spent an evening at harrah's. buffet, video roulette (the real tables were $25 a spin) and i doubled dave's money...now he wants to drag me to vegas. sigh.

oh and there are no photos but when we were too tired to go out some evenings we played games on the wii. and i'm not a video game person but it is awesome! we might just have to get one!

a very good trip. fun was had by all. sunburns were acquired. there is sand still in my ears a week later. but i could definitely see myself going back down the jersey shore :)

rain delay

2009-08-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

8 people, one baby, crammed into one shore house because of rain.
needless to say, i went for a 4 mile walk on the beach in the pouring rain.

i only got a couple of photos because i was afraid i was going to destroy the camera.
instead i used my eyes.

i saw seaweed on the tide-line in every shade imaginable.
bright shiney green, gold, and yellow. brown, black, red, pink, and rust.
all those.
plus everything in between.
the reeds were broken and twisted by the storm. cast out among the suds like a giant's game of sticks.
raindrops marked the sand and water. tiny craters pocked overlapping along the shore. stinging my skin as i walk into the wind.
the lonely gulls cry as the soar in the wind while others stand patiently beak to the wind.
the lifeguards wearing rain suits with and huddle in their chairs. their lifeguard stands wrapped in saran wrap against the wind and water. watchig the water. but no one is swimming.

friday foto

2009-07-31T04:00:00.000-07:00

it's night time on the carousel down at wonderland on the ocean city boardwalk

down the jersey shore

2009-07-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

we headed out for sun, sand, and fun in ocean city, nj.

our first sight of the philadelphia skyline

container ships being offloaded

there's the city!

bridges

and there was just had a little traffic

there were flowers planted along the way

and you know i love me a blue sky.

i love the beach

2009-07-26T10:48:00.000-07:00

we had a wonderful time on our vacation.
i'm still in the process of collecting photos from all the cameras on the trip so once they are organized i'll post a bit about our trip to the jersey shore :)

friday foto

2009-07-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

at low tide
rain
and
seaweed
on the beach

friday foto

2009-07-17T09:02:00.000-07:00

so any guesses as to what we'll be driving under on our way to the airport tonight?

finished socks!

2009-07-11T11:13:00.000-07:00

i really thought these were going to take forever when i cast on for them but the knit up really quickly! they also took a lot less yarn than i thought they would. at the point when the below picture was taken i had only used 2 balls of yarn (1oog). only 3 inches of sock were knit from that 3rd ball of yarn. i finally have sock yarn leftovers!

and i only used 20g of the third ball. woo hoo. there is plenty of grey left for a pair or argyle socks! not that i'll be casting on for those any time soon. one pair of color work socks is enough for me right now.

i also thought i would have to crochet some elastic into the tops to keep them up but i wore them around the house yesterday evening (dave thought it was ridiculous to wear them in july) and they didn't slouch once! actually dave may have thought it ridiculous to wear them at all. we shall see if he still thinks that they are silly come december. mental note. get a nifty wool skirt!

i did have a bit of trouble with the calf shaping. first i knit it as directed but it didn't fit right. then i had an epiphany and knit it my own way and that didn't fit. finally i did a cross between the two and magic. it worked! after that these socks were a snap.

better photos to come soon i promise. i just couldn't wait til dave gets home to take them!

the details:
pattern:
lacey cables knee socks by susan gutperl
yarn:
sock it to me 4 ply by elann in grey heather used 120g (2.4 balls)
needles:
sole, back of leg to calf to shaping, and inside of picot hem on 0's, instep, front of leg throughout, and calf shaping on 1's.
modifications:
some kind of wacky increases at the back center to get enough stitches for 2 pattern motifs up the back. decreased those increases away after calf so socks would stay up. 2 pattern repeats after decreases before picot edge.

friday foto

2009-07-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

this is one of my favorite photos ever. several years ago i took a school trip to some telescopes down in new mexico with my photometry* class from C.U. we took a side trip into white sands national monument. we spent the day playing in the dunes, rolling and sliding downhill, making sand angels, and taking photos. i guess there had been a storm the night before because there was this giant puddle in the parking lot. pretty neat huh? if you ever get the opportunity to visit there do. it is absolutely beautiful.

*a fancy name for an astronomy science class where you use telescopes with spectrometers to take data and use computers to reduce a nights worth of freezing your butt off at the observatory into a stack of numbers :)

mary mary

2009-07-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

way back in february or something silly like that i planted my vegetable garden. we only have a patio so everything is in pots. but seeing as it hardly ever freezes i doubt the winter will be a problem next year. i love the climate here! we have such even temperatures that everything was just able to keep growing without a problem!

well this is how we started out

tomatoes on either end (cherry and early girl) with peppers in the middle (banana and jalapeno) around the tomatoes i planted green onion seeds thinking that we would have enough onion tops for a few baked potatoes this summer...

well just look at them now...

the onions are almost taking over. the good news is that they don't seem to be slowing down the tomatoes. and the onions seem to have dissuaded the aphids from taking over the tomatoes.

just a few more days and we'll be eating fresh tomato salad!

if anyone knows why those tomato leaves are curling like that and how i can correct this please let me know. it is really weird.

oh and the peppers

they hardly look like the same plants do they?
and neige just couldn't stay out of the at least one shot!

the peppers are still babies but when they grow there should be dozens. the plant is doing really well considering that it took a dive off the patio railing a few weeks ago during a bad windstorm. it just lost one branch but i thought it was a goner! it lives on the patio floor now!

we've also got a few herbs.

the mint, oregano, thyme, and sage went from this

to this!

the rosemary is doing well also

and of course you can't forget the flowers!

the nasturtiums i started from seeds are just beautiful. i haven't planted these since i was a kid at my grandmother's house. we had a whole row in the garden one year!

they have been blooming so prolifically that i can't keep up with pulling off old flowers. they are even going to seed! i hope the gardeners for the apartment complex won't be too angry when they come up in the downstairs flower bed next spring! the flowers smell so sweet. and i have heard you can even eat them! the best part, they are attracting hummingbirds.

although we have had a bit of an aphid problem the petunias and snow carpet are recovering nicely

i don't usually go for chemicals, but when after months of dish soap, vegetable oil, boiled garlic, spraying with water, organic commercial sprays, and lots of love were not working on the bugs i had to resign myself to using bomide. it seems to be working. i'll have to apply it once or twice more to be sure, but so far the plants look much happier. i had to throw out a couple of the plants that were too badly infested to save, which was truly sad. but hopefully if i get things under control i will be able to get a few more before the end of summer :) i'd love to hang a nice geranium from the ceiling and get another mum. and i really do miss the violas. they were so sweet.

bad socks!

2009-07-07T13:45:00.000-07:00

almost a year ago now i was working on my pomatomus socks when i realized that i had one sock with 67 stitches, and the other had 73...the pattern calls for 72 stitches around the leg. d'oh!

these guys promptly went in the bad knitting basket to think about what they had done.

when i cast on for the cappuccino socks last week i couldn't figure out what had happened to my size one addi's.
then i remembered.
so out they came.

the 73 stitch sock was an easy fix. i knit two stitches together. switched to my contrast yarn. and knit up the twisted ribbing.

the second sock, well that is going to take some frogging. i have to figure out where the last correct stitch count was and re-knit from there. in the meantime. check out that twisted stitch pattern. neat huh?

gosh it sure is a pain to p1, k1tbl over and over and over again :)

well i just could let well enough alone. i knit through the gimpiness and just held my bandaided finger out of the way and figured out that it was only in the last row that i got off on stitches. what an idiot. i could have been wearing these socks for a whole year! oh well. into the basket with you! i'll wind in ends another day!

from left to right:
hippo, colofornia, ditto, grumpy, rainbow

knitter down

2009-07-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

so dave and i went to the farmers market. collected fresh eggplant, zucchini, and mushrooms. and brought them home for dinner :)

but while i was slicing veggies i sliced my finger. oops. and it's my index on my left hand! you know what that means right? no knitting. at lease for a couple of days. dang-it. and i was doing so well on my socks. oh well.

so after i washed the blood off what did we do with those veggies?
well dave cubed up the rest (my chopping privileges have been revoked for a while.) and we tossed the pieces with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, some sea salt and fresh pepper, and some dry herbs. then, we roasted them at 400 degrees for 30 minutes (which was may have been a bit too long) and served them up with a box of celery, onion, and cornbread stuffing and a rotisserie chicken from the grocery. what can i say? sometimes i take shortcuts :)

finish it off with a glass of what we like to call 2-buck-chuck* and you're done.

so, what's a broken knitter to do?
see, i know you think all those socks i crank out are actually done when i post pictures.
well, i have a confession to make...

i actually have a few ends left to wind in :)

*there is a line of wine available at trader joe's by charles shaw nicknamed 2 buck chuck. it is called this obviously because it only costs $1.99. before you run screaming, it is actually ok. perfectly acceptable table wine. we usually keep a bottle around the house. the shiraz or cab sav. are both good. and this trip i picked up the sauv. blanc just to try. decent wine, though i doubt i would serve it for guests :)

cappucino

2009-07-05T12:20:00.000-07:00

so the plan is to knit 2 socks before the end of september.

first you have to make sense of the chart.

i know there are mistakes in that but don't worry i fixed 'em.

then you knit the world's smallest swatch.

i realized i was carrying the pattern color in the wrong hand because it just didn't pop. so i switched for the socks.

then you wind up 4 balls of yarn and cast on. at like midnight. cause it is finally july and you can.

i learned the last time that 4 balls of yarn.
2 socks.
and 2 circs.
is a recipe for disaster.
so i am working these socks one at a time. magic loop style. so that is still 2 socks on 2 circs. just separate.

so i knit the toes together. why not. then i separated my socks and started the first sock.

and then the second sock.
leapfrog fashion.
when one sock gets to half a pattern repeat then i set it down and knit a whole pattern repeat on the second sock. then i knit a whole pattern repeat on the first.

so far i am 3/4 and 1/2 of a repeat in.

but let me tell you. i usually carry the yarn in my right hand when i knit. my left is seriously bad at keeping tension. and holy cow is it sore. bring on the tiger balm cause these socks are going to give me a knitting related injury i can see it now.

the pattern is looking pretty good. i think these will definitely need blocking. especially the sides where the magic loop thing happens. sigh. i never had socks with ladders before. myst be the colorwork and uneven tension. but i still love the yarn!

quizzie

2009-07-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

Your Result

You are a Knitter, with the capital K.
You are never found without needles and yarn in hand. Your favorite place is the yarn shop and you can never seem to leave without buying needles or wool or a pattern or those fantastic stich markers. Darn yarn fumes.
Your stash of yarn is the kind that spills out of closets and is taking over the house. And it's still growing. Beware of SABLE (Stash Aquisition Beyond Life Expectancy). You may need to bequeath yarn to people in your will.
Knitting is a lifestyle for you, not just a hobby. You do it for fun, to make presents, or to cool off. We need more of your kind in the world. Go start a knitting club at your school or local coffeshop.

well, that's me now you try :)

happy fourth of july.

friday foto

2009-07-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

it only seems fitting that since dee started all this that i show florida a little love.

mom came to visit us in orlando a little over a year ago. we took a trip down south to the everglades and while we were there we made the long trek down to key west.
we had some shrimp.
and some pie.
and drove back just in time for sunset.

sock yarn from your stash swap.

2009-07-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

can i first just say that this is the best idea for a swap ever! everyone has a little ball of wonderful in their stash that they frankly just don't want or would be willing to part with so why not just trade it out? right?

so i know get to the point already!

i had a note in the mailbox today that they had a package for me at the office. the girl sorting through her junk mail in the mailroom looked at me weird when i squealed...so what if i'm thirty. i can squeal when i know there is yarn waiting for me! then i was at the leasing office to get my package and they handed me some media mail package for dave. and i saw in the teetering pile of boxes that there was a message on the side of another box saying "sock yarn swap." so i asked if i could have my other package too? they said that dave's stupid book was all i had. but i knew different. that yarn had to be mine! and it was!

karen. my swap partner. is awesome! by the way. check it out!

super cute notes right?

and great color choices. this is so me!

karen, you must know someone who works at starbucks cause that lotion is the only stuff we have ever found that will seal up the destruction we put our hands through every day. and there are the sweetest little and i love the chocolate. i heart cadbury!

the tealight is neato i've seen the electric ones but have never had one. and the bird holder is great. it goes with the bird theme i've been leaning towards in my half of the office! and can i just say that the guys at the loopy ewe are brilliant. that book has spots to write all the stuff you ever needed to know about your socks, yarn, patterns, and stores in one convenient and cute little book!

and yes. how did she know that we were changing over to green here in gravity land! this project bag is absolutely perfect. and from what i have learned reading her blog; i bet she sewed it herself! its perfect. i can put that new little sock book, a pair of socks in progress, as well as my pattern in there and still have room to spare for a piece of emergency chocolate!

and the last and best, trekking. heck yeah! nuf said!

karen you rock. thank you so much!

W.T.F!

2009-07-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

i mean really.

is it so much to ask that a product does what it is intended to do without crapping out on you?
there i was knitting along minding my own business when...

yup.
thats a sock.
half done with my first ever lifestyle heel.
you know i don't like change. i am perfectly happy with my plain-jane ordinary short row heels. heck when i try something new something always goes wrong...
but i was willing to try.
you know me i don't frog things.
i just go with it.
well i had frogged this stupid heel 4 times to get it how i wanted it...until disaster struck.

yeah see there.

here lemme help you out.

the cable just popped out of the needle.
the stitches just zipped off the cable.
and the heel with to hell in a handbasket.

stinking knitpicks circs.
"durable fixed circular needles" my @ss.
i had heard that this happens.
but never to me.
not til now.

sigh.
you'll be hapy to know that the sock was saved.
the heel navigated without further drama and the second heel went great.

see

not half bad if i do say so myself. i may even use this method again. its relatively straightforward. no holes at the turns - as advertized. just don'tattempt it when you're sleep deprived like i was the first time.

i am loving this yarn. it's elann's sock it to me in grey heather.
love love love.
did i say love?

soft. it is feeling like it will be sturdy. i get great stitch definition. it doesn't squish down to nothing on my 0's but i get a nice solid fabric on my 1's too.
i'm so happy i might just have to cast on for some more socks.

with one of the other 3 colors i got :)
yeay.

and cause i know you want to know the recipe is lacy cable knee socks.
i can't wait to get a spiffy wool skirt to wear with these this winter.

oh and as for the needles...
fortunately i had a couple more sets. unfortunately another one of my 0's did the same thing. yesterday. i will be contacting the company after i cool off. but do i really want them to send me replacements? heck it will probably just happen again. sigh. time to buy more addi's. this would never happen with addi's.

and i would have used my addi's but they are tied up right now.
with another sock disaster.
but we're not gonna talk about that right now.
maybe someday i'll try to figure that one out.
in the meantime.

knit knit knit.

a little bit crazy

2009-06-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

a lotta bit fun

a while back i joined the sock.knitters.anonymous. group over on ravelry.
cause i gotta admit.
i have a problem.

they have these neat sockdown challenges that encourage you to stretch your knitting wings a bit.
so far i haven't joined in, but the july challenge is to knit socks using fairisle, colorwork, or intarsia!

now you may remember that once upon a time i did a little bit of this. and it was tough. but it was great. having conquered my fear of lace i think it's time to face a little more of my fear. i've wanted to knit the venezia sweater from interweave knits - well since it came out. but i just can't bring myself to do it.
it's huge.
but socks.
now that's doable.

my plan.
knit a pair of socks using the charts from venezia
i want to stick to two colors so i don't lose my mind.
more than i already have that is.
so here goes nothing!

whadda ya think?

good color choices?
the color names are coffee bean and latte.
hey, what can i say?
maybe i have more than one kind of problem :)

i told you i was gonna get into more of that yarn!

now here's the kicker.
i can't cast on til july...

why?

2009-06-30T14:41:00.000-07:00

where'd all that stuff come from?
what's going on here?
why the face lift?

because it was time

i've been wanting to share my photography for a while. so check out those boxes up top. they will take you to my flickr photos. i never got around to posting pics from my trip to europe or a lot of other things so now i can just dump 'em in there. eventually they will all be there so check 'em out!

i needed to get a bit more organized.

and heck there's some neat groups out there i wanted to join.

and i've been a little stuck on green lately.

so done, done, and done.

sigh.
i've been in front of the computer for a couple three days now.

so now i think i'm gonna go knit.
i'll tell you about the disaster when i've had a little time to cool off!

it's contagious

2009-06-29T19:27:00.000-07:00

some people are mixing things up a bit and sometimes that is all it takes.

please excuse the mess while gravity goes green.

edit:
well we're getting there. i have to wait til my resident genius gets back from his business trip to work out a couple of kinks but i mostly like it :)

i'm 4!

2009-06-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

so i missed my bloggversary by 16 days...but in my defense i was off having fun and just now realized. so yippee! 4 years with only a few hiccups along the way :) thanks for reading.

finally

2009-06-27T09:31:00.000-07:00

well, "finally" is what sue of mew mew's will say when she receives a package in the mail next week :)

you see the thanksgiving before last i was in colorado. and i offered to knit up new store sample clogs for her when i stopped in to the shop. well. the yarn went into the suitcase. then into the stash. and i promptly forgot. because who thinks of felted wool clogs in orlando? right?

well i just saw sue week before last.
and guess what!
they're done!
and they're my colors.

but alas i don't get to keep them.

project specs:

pattern:
fiber trends felted clog women's size medium.

yarn:
kraemer yarns mauch chunky single stranded, mc - kiwi, cc - buterscotch

needles:
boye size 13 interchangeables (ick i know but i only use them for felting)

modifications:
i knit the inner sole from the cc.
the upper clog from the mc.
then the cuff in the cc.
i then knit the outer clog (exceptt fo rthe last row) in the mc.
I knit that last row in the cc. then attached the sole and knit one more row to bind off*.

and because of the mods i made i only had to use 2 balls of yarn!!! super slick huh? she gave me three to use but i'm sending the extra back to sue with the slippers. i used this same kind yarn to knit up mom's slippers that i took to her over vacation. we felted those up and she loves them. but she has homework. i forgot to take a photo. so she has to take one and send it to me. oops. we'll see how long that takes :) so at some indeterminate time in the future you will be able to see how this yarn felts up. i liked knitting with it for the most part. i don't know why but it made my nose itch. that usually only happens with angora. i don't get it :(

* i call this the faux bumper. for those of you not familiar with the pattern you can knit an extra row with tons of increases to make this big floppy "bumper" on the clog. i don't like it. you trip over it. but i like the color contrast. so this is what i came up with to combat klumsy slippers :)

a little knitting update

2009-06-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

well on the return trip i didn't have a window seat and i guess it is just as well. it was cloudy the whole way back.

i did get to finish up my colofornia socks though check them out!

i have been reading cookie a's sock book. and i had been thinking about how to make stitch patterns do more than just cover an area knitted fabric. i played with several different ideas and came up withthe following:

i started the stitch pattern at te top f the toe and created a diagonal triangle out from the center of the toe by tiling stitch pattern components. here i'm not explainin gwell check out the original pattern here. and take a look at my notes:

see how the pattern lends itself to the modification i made? i really like the pointy toe. as i worked along i decided i had to change the heel up a bit too!

i inverted the changes i made to the pattern on the toes for the heel. i wanted a longer stretch of stockinette on the heel so that the socks would wear a little more smoothly in shoes. it looks neat too.

the stitches in my socks came out more lacey than the seem to have in the ones shown on knitty. i don't know why that is. but they came out great i think.

specs:
pattern: coupling
yarn: trekking xxl overdyed by yours truly.
needles: knitpicks nickel size 0
mods: used stitch pattern to create a diagonal pattern for toe and heel.

colorado trip part 5

2009-06-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

after leaving the wool market we headed up to rocky mountain national park. i never get tired of this place and will always go back whenever i am in colorado. after renewing my annual pass we drove along trail ridge road through the park. mom an i have a favorite route back from estes park. it involves driving through r.m.n.p. from east to west along trail ridge road, down through winter park, then east along i-70. this is the long way for sure. but it is just beautiful.

as we drove through the park we stopped at all my favorite pull offs for photos. i think i have these same photos over and over. the trees grow. the seasons change but they are about the same every time!

there are a few pines in the foreground that look pretty bad. they are just a few of the trees in the park that are affected by the mountain pine beetle infestation that is terrorizing the rocky mountains. as we traversed the park it jut got worse and worse. there are thousands of acres of dead trees. the beetle is a native species. it would be hard on the environment, really expensive, and almost impossible to do any kind of widespread spraying to counteract the pests. so they are just trying to save trees in certain areas. in some places they had already begun to cut down the dead trees for fire safety. i don' t know how they could ever cut them all down though. the range of the affected area is just incredible. i couldn't even begin to photograph it. it was sickening to even see.

just to give you an idea. several years ago mom and i took a long weekend to grand lake remember? well i took this photo back then.

i drove down this same road just two weeks ago and i don't think a single one of the above pine trees is still alive. if it is. it doesn't have long...

ok. that is enough of the depressing news.

near the top of the pass, well above treeline, there is a stopping point where you can see the alpine tundra ecosystem. it is incedible that these plants can even grow. miniaturized versions of plants you may know struggle to keep hold in high windsand freezing temperatures.

i wanted to yell at those idiots for walking on the tundra. it can take years for the plants to recover from a single footprint.

anyhoo. the soapbox is officially put away. i promise.

as you drive along trail ridge road you see these poles standing up beside the road...

well they mark the edge of the road so the snowplows don't fall off the side of the mountain. aren't they exciting!

we continued our drive up to the alpine visitor center. it is high. i mean really high there. i've been living at sea level or just about for a little over 2 years. i was huffing and puffing just to get air! forget climbing up to the top. i was happy to just look out the windows at the view! makes you cold just to see it doesn't it? can you believe that was taken in june?

afterleaving the visitor center we were headed out of the park. after a final stop at the grand lake visitor center that is. mom has to stamp her national park passport you know! can't miss out on that!

we did have to stop along the side of the road a couple of times though. whenever there is a creature out and about everyone stops to get a good look...

this time we were suprised with a special treat. we saw 6 moose that day! i have never seen a moose in r.m.n.p. the last time i saw one at all was about 8 years ago in yellowstone. of course then we didn't take a picture because we expected to see so many. this time. we took pictures!

this guy was grazing on the willows near the far edge of a meadow on the west side of the park.

and this little guy was wading through the stream with his momma. while we were watching the moose my mom overheard a little boy telling his mother that this was a special day. yes it was little guy.

colorado trip part 4

2009-06-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

on our last day in estes we headed over to the estes park wool market. ive been a couple of other years and i was really looking forward to getting about a sweater's worth of nice wool. rememebr that? well i didn't get anything. not one stinking thing. but i did make quite a few new friends :)

that guy on my right was blowing in my ear!

dontcha just want to hug them all!

bye guys :)

colorado trip part 3

2009-06-24T11:40:00.000-07:00

when we got to estes we hit the grocery store for firewood, marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers... kay had never had a real smore before! we then headed up to the y-camp to settle in for the night.

my first morning in estes park at the y-camp started bright and early. mom woke me with the birdies. or even a little before to watch the sunrise.

i love how the snow on the mountains goes all pink at sunrise

for breakfast we had fruit salad and bagel pieces fried in butter. if you've never tried this, do. it is just decadent. obviously the diet was on hold for this trip!

we headed in to town to do a little window shopping. it is so fun to wander in the shops up there. there are so many pretty things to look at and so many touristy junk shops. it is highly entertaining!

i only gave in to the cheese factor once this trip. it is always so hard. but look at this little guy. isn't he cute. he's only about 2 inches tall. i think he needs socks. i have tons of yarn leftover from my colofornia socks. maybe i can make him a teeney little pair :)

he's the new gravity mascot!

we looked around in all the shops we wanted and then it was time to grab snacks! we got a candy apple (granny smith with caramel rolled in pecan pieces) and a bag of candies from the old fashioned candy shop. they had a bunch of things i hadn't seen since the last time we were in estes! we grabbed lunch at a little italian bistro and headed back to the camp. mom and i played miniature golf - I THINK WE WERE BOTH AT LEAST 30 OVER PAR- and we watched the sun go down over the mountains. the deer and elk wandered through camp grazing on grass and flowers while we watched. it was a really neat place to be! i'd never been to the estes park location but we have stayed at the grand lake location a few times.

before we left saturday morning i made sure to take some last minute photos.

i used photoshop to stitch together the view from or cabin :)

as always, click for big

you just have to love the timer function on your camera :)

colorado trip part 2

2009-06-23T22:19:00.000-07:00

the day I arrived my mom, cousin kay, aunt judy, and i headed off for one of our favorite pastimes.
thrift store shopping.

there are quite a few of these in the denver area and we just love to see what treasures we will turn up. i think mom's wardrobe is comprised almost entirely of thrifted clothing.
:)
I found a few sleeveless tops to fluff out my summer wardrobe. but my super score was a set of 4 cappucino cups

"cappucino please"

and a teapot.

can you guess what i spent on these 5 pieces?
i doubt it.
you're going to guess too high.
i just know it!

i spent a grand total of $3.10 can you believe it?
the cups were $.80 apiece, the teapot a whopping $3.00. it was all on sale for half price!

i also picked up a couple of neat children's birding books.
and a copy of tasha tudor's garden.
it's a beautiful book.
i'm ready to head out for more pots to plant just everything i can on my patio!

after hitting several thrift stores we decided to call it a night. we had to get up early the next day for a tour of the denver mint. the denver location makes only coins. you get to see the rolls of metal they use to punch out blanks. the dies used to print on images and the whole operation in motion. our tour guide was very high energy and he made the tour a lot of fun. especially for the kiddos in the group.

what really blew my mind was seeing hundreds of shiny new coins rolling off conveyors into enormous bins. then later seeing those bins waiting on the loading dock for a truck. i don't have any pictures of the mint of course. they are more strict than the airport about what can be taken inside...and i understand why.

after leaving the mint we headed towards boulder. mom needed a new spine for her stunt kite. if i remember correctly dave crashed it and broke it. but i'm not telling her that. we had some fun wandering around the novelty, kite, and toy store: into the wind.

once upon a time i worked there. talk about a fun place to spend the summer :) but boy is that place noisy. there are wind chimes, and tambourines, drums, and xylophones. blocks and wind up toys, dice and bouncy balls. and that is just the start. there are kites hung on every flat surface and tilted at crazy angles from the ceiling. the two story storefront has brick walls and a wooden floor. yes it echoes. loudly. i used to leave work at night ot sit in my car in the quiet with my eyes closed for at least 15 minutes before i even attempted to drive. talk about sensory overload!

the store is located on the walking mall, pearl street. i remember walking along pearl before the shops opened. grabbing a coffee or just enjoying the flowers planted in the beds along the street. the shop guys and i would hit one of 3 or 4 favorite places for lunch most days. there was foolish craig's for burgers, sandwiches, or breakfast, bj's brewhouse for burgers or pizza and of course the occasional after work beer (i say occasional but the bartender usuall had my order up by the time i hit the bar), lucille's for the best creole food outside louisianna, and of course the last and the best: illegal petes for the best burritos anywhere, where mom, kay and i grabbed some lunch before heading out of town. if you're ever in the boulder area i highly reccomend grabbing a bite to eat at one of these places. they are the epitome of the pearl street experience for me.

on our way to estes we had decided to stop in and tour the celestial seasonings plant just outside boulder proper.

i had never been before and it is really neat to see. they have all of thier teas available to be tasted before the tour. they had several teas prepared but the real treat was picking your own favorite tea off the list and having they prepare acup just for you :)

i had no idea that there were so many. you only see a few of them at the grocery store!

i tried one of their new line of whole leaf teas that comes in a pyramid shaped tea bag. it was really delicious! i don't think that these are available in stores yet but they are definitely worth the wait. keep an eye on on the tea aisle.

after the tour i grabbed a box of one of dave's favorite flavors. he love's green tea with toasted rice and brews it by the pot at home. now he'll be able to take a box of tea bags to work with him for break time.

i also picked up some white tea chai. i love chai but this tea has such a subtle flavor. i can't wait to have another cup!

i also picked up a couple of treasures for my sock yarn swap from your stash partner. but i'm not telling what til she gets her package in the mail :)

of course cameras are not permitted on the tour so i don't have any pictures of the inside of the plant. but it really is neat. you walk past bundles of tea ingredients from all over the world. crates are stacked nearly two stories high and every few feet the scent changes. clove and hibiscus, then lemon grass and blueberry. i hope you'll get a chance to check this out if you're ever in the area.

they have a whole room where they keep only tea leaves. this is so that the tea does not take on the aroma of all the other botanicals in the plant. and since mint is so strong and would overpower everything else. they have a whole other room just for the mints (catnip, peppermint, and spearmint)! the mint room is a mind changing experience. and i mean that literally. my sinuses have never been so clear!

after leaving celestial seasonings we headed up to the mountains. mom had booked a cabin for us at the YMCA of the rockies on the west side of estes.

more about that later :)

colorado trip part 1

2009-06-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

a couple of weeks ago i got up at o-dark-thirty to hop a plane to colorado.
i cast on for a new pair of socks while i was waiting for my plane.

and got started with my tunes going on the i-pod...
and i knit,
and i knit.
i boarded the plane,
and i knit some more.
i finally looked up from my knitting...

and it was almost time to land.
who knew.
good music and good yarn.
what a wonderful combination.

mom has moved since i left colorado. i finally got to see her new place. can you tell why she picked it? can you tell we're related? not just the haircut, but our insatiable love of all things growing.

pansies, cosmos, shasta daisies, and icelandic poppies

bird of paradise, shasta daisies, lime tree, peonies, broccoli and cauliflower, delphinium, flax, nasturtium, zucchini, summer squash, tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, sugar snap peas, bush beans, columbine, snap dragon, 3 kinds of roses, dusty miller, red and green leaf lettuces, carnations, holly hocks, tulips, daffodils, violas, and a dozen others we couldn't name because they weren't yet blooming, and a few i've never seen before.

she took this apartment because the leasing agent said she could plant anything she wanted to in those two beds - except corn. no hardship there. corn isn't very pretty. i just wish i had taken a photo the day i left. it had been raining in denver for a week or so and this bed was a riot of color.

her apartment backs up to an open courtyard/park that has a couple of ponds. the ponds attract geese and ducks. one of the neighbors likes to feed the geese. about two dozen geese stand at his window - looking in - until feeding time. twice a day.

this guy got there first.

the babies weren't in as big of a hurry. aren't they sweet?

going home

2009-06-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

it is always bittersweet traveling home. i've had such a nice visit here; but it has made me terribly homesick.
for colorado.
we love california and have enjoyed our time there so far. but i've never lived anywhere as long as i did in colorado. it will always be home.

mom and i have had a great visit. don't worry photos of our travels are soon to come. and of the goodies oh my goodness the goodies. i had to shift some of my suitcase contents into my carryone for fear of having and overweight suitcase!

so yeah

2009-06-09T14:54:00.000-07:00

i was going to leave those socks to think about what they had done...

well then i was knitting on these and i finished them up!

and then i just couldn't bear to leave the other socks unfinished.

and now they even fit right :)

and they get the neige stamp of approval.

now i just gotta do something about the empty needle situation.

re-thinking

2009-06-08T15:44:00.001-07:00

otherwise known as re-knitting...

what do you do when you knit a super secret pair of socks for a happy no occasion surprise and give them to their intended recipient only to have them say "i love them but..."

those dreaded words.

dave's new socks fit like a dream. the toe was not too tight. the foot was perfect the leg didn't slouch. not too tall. not too short. but i knit them with that spiffy new "y-shaped" heel. remember that? well i was thinking he always says socks feel too tight in the toe or heel so maybe if i did this trick they would feel better? apparently not. the heel was too "baggy."

boys.
and then he asks. get this. "can you fix it?" well yes. of course i can re-knit the whole leg of the socks.

why not?

well then i started thinking. i've read about afterthought heels. i never thought i would knit an afterthought heel. why would i? i mean you knit a sock - be it toe up or top down - the logical time to knit the heel is in the middle right? why do it after? so i looked it up again. and i decided. hell why not right? how hard can it be?

famous last words.

before:

pick up the stitches along the edge of the heel.

hold your breath

the heel

the hole

the mess after unraveling those bits of string. short rows are not fun to unravel from the wrong side by the way.

get the stitches all even and aligned with the toe

and repeat.

these are going in the bad knitting bin for a while. i stared at the cross eyed for almost 2 hours. i don't want to look at them for at least a week.

i'll let you know when i have an after photo for you...

and there had better not ever be another "but..."

shame

2009-06-06T16:12:00.000-07:00

i admit it was pride that drove me to haul out the sock yarn today. and a little bit of rivalry. but shame rules now. you see i thought i might have as many pair in my stash as dee. but i find my sock stash meager and at the same time shameful. i have not nearly as many pair as she, but far too many pair to actually knit... no more sock yarn for me. i can knit another 45 pair of socks. i currently have 3 pair on the needles.

i went through the rest of the stash and got out all the wool ease and all the other ick yarn from my stash and it is set aside to take to a charity craft thrift shop. now thats a good place to support. :) it also makes a little space in the stash :)

so i have a little space, tons of sock yarn, and i realized that i don't need any more sweater yarn either. i can make at least 5 or 8 sweaters easy from the stash. so no more. i have to be good when i go to the woolmarket! well....maybe i can spring for some nice heathery or tweedy brown wool for a cardigan. i've been dying to make a nice wool cardigan for years. i'll let you know what i find when i get back from colorado :)

thats right i forgot to mention. dave is going to be all by his lonesome for a week and a half while i head home :) mom made plans for my cousin to visit too! we're going thrift store shopping. woo hoo. and kay (cousin) has never been to denver so we're going to tour the denver mint and the celestial seasonings tea factory. i can't wait to hit the peppermint room. they say it is life altering. or at least it clears the sinuses...then we're going to hit my all time favorite restaurant, oscar blues. it's a lyons tradition for us. then it's off to estes park for a couple of days. we'll check out the wool market, go hiking in rocky mountain national park, and stop in on some of the cool little shops in estes. and if i'm lucky we'll hit the the candy apple place. yum. so that's the plan. at least for the first couple of days. we shall just have to wait and see what other mischief we get up to :)

i will take tons of pictures of course. i promise ;)

day tripping

2009-06-05T16:29:00.000-07:00

last week we had a friend of dave's in town to visit. jon had never been to northern california so you know what that means :)
wine tasting.
touring.
and a whole lot of walking :)
we went wine tasting 2 different days and headed down to san francisco another.
one of the wine days we spent up in the russian river valley. they are famous for their pinot noir up there. and i have to say they were good. great even. but i'm a zinfandel girl so that is what i came home with. not white zin. please don't confuse youself there. eeeeww! bright fruity with just a hint of tannins and wow. wonderful flavor! mind you i was just taking the tiniest of sips. i was the DD. which means that dave and i would share a tasting. which is more than enough even if i wasn't the driver. we hit about 4 vineyards. and a place that makes hard ciders. let me tell you i love cider. not the sticky sweet stuff. crisper and drier. now that's for me!

after we finished up tasting we took the road on out to the coast. it is just all so close so why not! we saw where the russin river heads for the ocean. and walked along the beach for a while. i just love the rocks along the coast. there are thes tiny little beaches in the curve of a cliff. with big angry looking rocks off the shore. i can only imagine how terrifying it would have been to sail this coastline years ago before it was charted!

if you can't tell i'm a bit of a shutterbug. i just can't help it. i want to be able to share all the beautiful sights with you here. and i also want to see if i find something worth saving you know? a little bit of every trip stored away in my computer. that way i can visit whenever i like :)

afterwards we headed back towrds petaluma. jon's aunt and uncle lived there for years and he was keen to see the old buildings. i guess his uncle helped build a bunch of them way back when petaluma was young. neat huh?

afterwards we went to a local restaurant, the central market, that specializes in fresh local foods. it was all as organic. farm fresh. and free range. yum! they don't even have a freezer so you know wha tyou are getting is as good as it gets! the atmosphere was very relaxed. but the food was to die for! if you are ever in the area i suggest you check it out.

every tuesday night they have a different wine promoter in to the restaurant to do a wine tasting with the guests. we tried out the wine, of course. it was from the mendocino area just a bit further north of us than we have ranged so far. i think that is where we have to head next. we've been to sonoma, napa, and now the russian river valley.

california

2009-06-03T14:48:00.000-07:00

sonoma county to be exact.

you know you actually live here when your day off involves an errand to pick up a couple bottles that would otherwise be very hard to find.

by the way we have beautiful weather right now. absolutely beautiful.

today consisted of an half an hour drive through gorgeous country. over the hill, through some hayfields, past a few vineyards, and a couple of dairies. i arrived at my destination to pick up some wine for a wedding present for a friend. and some for the household stash of course. turned around. and repeat. did i mention the gorgeous drive.

yes i think it is beginning to sink in.
i live in california.

oh i forgot to mention lunch...

a nice sauv blanc, country style bread, apple, dry aged jack, and baby swiss cheeses.
all local.

of course there is some knitting time to immediately follow.
i think i could die happy.

finito!

2009-05-15T17:31:00.001-07:00

omg i'm done! and its gorgeous. photos soon. as soon as it dries :)

i promised, and here they are!

yes that's it. and those are full size tomato cages. this sucker is huge!!!

the transition blossom and edge motifs

all up close and personal like

and of course my favorite.
the stars :)

blocking

2009-05-15T17:30:00.000-07:00

sorta completely totally wrong...this is why you block ion a grid.

and here is how it is supposed to look

oh my aching back! if only i could lie down and rest...oh wait...

soaking

2009-05-15T16:53:00.000-07:00

hurry up and finish already!

what a mess!

weaving ends

2009-05-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

2 more to go

casting off

2009-05-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

i think i can, i think i can!

knew i could!

last row!!!

2009-05-15T14:46:00.000-07:00

i can't believe i'm almost done!

basket case

2009-05-10T12:02:00.001-07:00

so under here somewhere is my knitting basket. of this i am fully convinced...

where exactly is a different question entirely.

i'm about 8 rows from finishing my laminaria. so of course i immediately put it down and cast on for 3 pair of socks. the first pair, black with red marl contrasty toes for dave. shhhh. secret socks. ;) the secone pair, some olive green lace socks for myself... no you don't see them there, they have since been frogged. pace is just too fuzzy for lace. and third a pair of panda cotton socks for me. for me. finally panda cotton for me. fourth pair out of panda cotton and i'm actually going to get to wear these! i cannot wait :)

but knitting has been going slowly. we've been trying to use that extra room in the house more in the last couple of weeks. we used to be great about it but lately. not so much. it really is silly too. we have all the gadgets and every tool we could possible want. but no more excuses. we're cooking now!

recently i decided to stew up some lentils for dinner. and it sounded good to have some cornbread on the side. and then out of the bloue my head said greens would be good with this. but i'd never made them. my mom never made them i hadn't had them since granny was alive. i had no idea how to cook up a "mess" of mustard greens. yes that's what granny used to call a bunch. and yes it was a mess. sandy muddy stuff! i thought i would never get them clean. we thought they turned out good. mom's still skeptical. i called her to ask how granny used to prepare them and she couldn't believe it. she hates the stuff. i think we're going to try swiss chard next time. one thing was missing though. granny used to pour what she called pepper sauce over the greens. it was little tiny hot peppers that were canned in vinegar and you just used the vinegar over greens. i am convinced i have seen this in the store but have been unable to locate it here. of course granny used to can her own. that and canned pears, and fig preserves. all from her own backyard. can you tell yet that i grew up for a time in the south? :)

next i decided we should start baking our own bread again. i did this for a while and i'm not sure why i stopped. oh wait thats right...it was 80 bazillion degrees all the time in orlando!

so we got some sourdough starter going and baked up the best whole wheat sourdough yesterday.

and then we ate a whole loaf between us... maybe that's why i stopped baking bread? but we're planning on taking some to work on the next batches. we did take a loaf to one of dave's friends so we wouldn' thave 3 whole loaves in the house at once!

tonights men consists of a southwestern style salad and a turkey green chile soup. we like to toast corn tortila in the oven to make fresh chips. super tasty and not so oily asstore bought chips. dave is cursing me over all this healthy food. he says it tastes good. better than bad stuff even. and he wants to know what i have done to him... you know it was all part of my evil plan :)

so that is what is going on in gravity land.
a little bit of knitting.
and a whole lot of cooking.
hope you all had a great mother's day :)

super blue green algae

2009-04-04T15:23:00.001-07:00

i am loving knitting this shawl. the girls at the shop were joking about starting a pool to see how long it takes me to finish it though :) they may have a point. i'm currently 8 or is it 9 repeats into the star chart. i decided to copy knitala she did some fantastic modifications to this pattern and what am i but a copycat right? but that means i'll be knitting on the star chart forever!

this photo was taken at 7 repeats in and i think i'm going to shoot for 11 or 13 i haven't decided yet i guess i will see how big it is then :) the yarn is isager and i love love love the color. i couldn't believe it when i found this. it is a single ply of woll and it goes a little thin at spots but seems really storng and the colors...i'm trying to get through this pattern so i can go buy more for another project! they have the perfect celery colored yarn for this! wheee. yes i have been bitten by the lace bug what can i say?

yessssss master

2009-04-04T15:10:00.000-07:00

frankensocks

the socks are done! and i love 'em. super fun to knit but gee i hate twisted stitches...

yarn:dale baby ull one ball each
needles:knitpicks nickel size 1.5
mods:one extra pattern repeat on the leg, contrasting heel, and a stockinette toe

stick a fork in 'em

2009-03-27T19:47:00.000-07:00

i'm done.

for my friend shirley.

pattern: spring pools socks
modifications: curved toe, y-shaped short row heel, funny ribbing on cuff
yarn: elann sock it to me - esprit
needles: knitpicks harmony size 1 circs

mmmm. food.

2009-03-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

so i came across this somewhere and it looked like fun so here goes!

Original instructions:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. (i can't figure out how to do strike throughs so i'm putting these in parentheses)

i also underlined things that i've never tried that sound particularly interesting or things that I’d just like to know what all the fuss is about.
my favorites are italicized ;)

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. ~~Steak tartare~~
5. Crocodile
6. ~~Black pudding~~
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. ~~Foie gras~~
24. Rice and beans
25. ~~Brawn, or head cheese~~
26. ~~Raw Scotch Bonnet Pepper~~
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl - duh...where do we live now?
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. ~~Cognac with a fat cigar~~ - i'll just skip the cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. ~~Oxtail~~
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects – I once swallowed a bug while riding my bike as a kid. Does this count?
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. ~~Fugu~~
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. ~~Sea urchin~~
51. Prickly pear - we made jelly from these once...i may still have stickers in my fingers to this day.
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. ~~McDonald’s Big Mac Meal~~ - yes it’s true I’ve never had a big mac.
56. Spaetzle
57. ~~Dirty gin martini~~ – I cannot stand gin
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. ~~Sweetbreads~~
63. Kaolin - you've had it too if you've ever had a "shake" in place of a "milkshake"
64. Currywurst
65. ~~Durian~~ - no,I am not that brave.
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. ~~Haggis~~
69. Fried plantain
70. ~~Chitterlings, or andouillette~~
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. ~~Roadkill~~
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. ~~Kobe beef~~
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. ~~Horse~~
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam - unfortunately...
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano - a friend here just gave us the recipe
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

so those are my answers. fun huh? the food thing has always been fun for me. i love to go to new restaurants and try new things. we always had to try something at least once when we were growing up. this was a rule my brother and sister had before me and it seemed to work so they reused it when i came along even though it had backfired on my mom. when they were at some small mom and pop place in italy mom had to eat tongue with the membrane still on it. i'm with her. i don't think i could eat something that was about to taste me back...

i'll try almost anything now.
but i don't enjoy blood; so i don't eat beef or other red meats. i've tried, i just don't like it. i was a vegetarian - well the pesce-dairy-egg type vegetarian however you're supposed to say that all fancy like :) for about 12 years. dave likes to say that he got me to eat meat again and in a way he did. i got so sick of eating salads and pasta when we would go out to restaurants (and dave loves to go out) that i started eating chicken. it evolved into eating some pork. and well that's where it stopped.

dave and i both love to cook. we recently (about a week ago) got a grill and we're loving having that to use to burn dinner. fish chicken vegetables. it is all fair game. we even grilled red potatoes last night instead of baking them and they turned out pretty good. i just stuck them around the edges when we started our fish for dinner and left them until the coals died out.

we've also been on this salad kick recently. we tear up some lettuce and bury it in all kinds of stuff. here's what we had for dinner last night.

red leaf lettuce
mandarin oranges
wasabi peas
carrots
celery
green onions
raw red bell pepper
shelled edamame
cold cooked bamboo rice
grilled steelhead marinated in teriyaki sauce
dressed with a splace each of:
thai peanut sauce, rice wine vinegar, garlic chili paste, lime juice, and honey

just for reference - that is my 4 quart pyrex bread bowl :) we like our salads here.

i'm gonna go throw together a southwestern inspired salad now.

neat-o!

2009-03-17T19:06:00.000-07:00

you know how you can be surfing long on the internet for just hours and you're not really sure how you got where you are but you're there. and you found something so super cool. but you have no idea how you got there. but you did. and it is just so super cool that you have to drop everything and try it right away?

no no, not that kind of experimentation.

knitting. really.

you have to go check out this heel it is the coolest thing i ever saw.
go.
now.
i'll wait.

see?
told ya!

it is this "Y" shaped double short rowed heel thingamabob. it's not that hard to do you just have to take notes so your heels will match ;)
i'm bad with notes but i'll make an effort.

here's what i did:
i had 29 stitches on my heel.
i short rowed down to 17 stitches.
i short rowed back up to 23 stitches.
i short rowed back down to 17 stitches.
then short rowed all the way back up to 29 stitches.

and voila! y shaped heel.

i don't have the leg of these done yet so i can't really judge how the fit will be but it looks comfortable. not as squashed as my usual short row. i can't wait to see what it looks like with sock yarn with actual stitch definition!

and that's not the only thing she has on this blog. i may never "effing kitchener" again.

i think i'm gonna have to knit more stuff just to try these things out.

edit:
so i got a ravelry message and it reminded me how i got to the instructions for this neat method. thanks lucciola :)

igor update

2009-03-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

i finally figured out this pattern.

it just didn't make sense for the first 3 pattern repeats and i had to frog the blue sock 3 times...but we're back on track now and i'm having fun. did i ever mention how much i hate knitting two socks separately? well that is what i did til the pattern made sense. on repeat per sock til i got it straight. then getting both socks onto one set of needles, now that's a nightmare. realizing that i'd been using 2 different sizes of needles for the 2 socks...sigh. but now its ok. i did an extra pattern repeat to lengthen the sock leg. which makes me nervous. top down you can run out of yarn. i just didn't want th ebrain damage of trying to turn over this pattern. its just not worth it sometimes . i'm about to start a heel. top down heel flap. can you believe it. i never do that. anyhoo. socking along :)

socking along

2009-03-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

so i joined the thrifty sock knitters club on ravelry and am having oodles of fun so far. it is a neat group. they don't make you buy yarn. you can just use from your stash or however you want. they just recommend monthly patterns and set up a place to post questions and comments about your progress. neat huh? my march socks are the spring pools socks and i'm having fun knitting them so far. i plan to give them to shirley seeing as she gave me the yarn. it is esprit by elann and i had never knit wit hit before. it's kind of like fixation wtihout as much sheen and it is super sticky (doesn't glide at all) and i'm not sure how much i like it. it should make comfortable socks but i don't like knitting with it at all. I'm also using my knitpicks harmony (wood) circulars for the first time on this project and i don' tknow if it is the yarn or the needles or the combination but i don't klike them much either. they feel like they are gonna break on every k3tog. also, our computer refuses to talk to the printer so i'm stuck staring at the computer screen to knit these socks...i keep losing my place in the chart (i can't seem to remember the 20 row pattern repeat for some reason)
needless to say i can't wait to finish this project.

i'm loving the stitch pattern though. it reminds me of sea creatures in a tide pool :)

updates

2009-03-06T12:55:00.000-08:00

so i've posted photos of all the things that were missing photos on my ravelry page. its a lot of photos. it took hours. so go check there. don't make me repost them all here :) please? i'll do progress reports here from now on i was just really behind. the project names to the right will link you to the ravelry project page for each project.

in the meantime i just cast on for these last night.

why oh why did i pick another twisted rib stitch pattern? i mean really. oh well. they should be really cute when i'm done. and have you seen the movie? if not you have to go and rent it. its adorable!

erm. yeah.

2009-02-27T00:03:00.000-08:00

although the furniture is here, my mental house is vacant. i've been on an emotional roller coaster. i'm knitting to stay sane or what passes as such. eventually there will be photographic proof of said knitting. but for now. you will have to take my word for it. the knit projects links go to ravelry...go sign up!

i'll be getting the blog back in working order in the coming weeks. patience. dave still has so fix my computer. in the meantime a couple of updates.

we moved to california in a ridiculously short amount of time (finding a house, a store, packing and driving in 3 weeks)

i've spent a lot of time with the family back in texas. visiting with family, taking care of my dad and saying goodbye.

settling into our new place and my new store. california rocks by the way. it is beautiful here. i can't wait to get back out and hike some more. my new store is great. i love it too. i have the best manager who has been incerdibly understanding with my recent frequent absences. but she's a knitter so of course she's cooler than the average bear :)

and not having cable is the best decision we ever made :) i've been reading so much. i've added a section over to the right so i can catalogue what i'm reading. i just have to figure out a way to rate my reads... hmmm. did i ever mention how much i hate programming. sigh. so far i just have a progress report for each story. i'm thinking a star system. we shall see. the links are to wiki so be warned if you don't like spoilers.

i'm knitting a ton. socks, earbands, hats, and sweaters oh my. now if i could just remember to photograph things before they go out...

hellooooooooo ooo ooo

2008-10-29T12:07:00.001-07:00

empty apartment. it echoes even!

blog back up for a limited few.

2008-10-22T15:02:00.002-07:00

there have been requests that i reopen the blog. i'll post photos and content sporadically. especially until the move and unpack is complete. but here it is. just for you :)

not so winter blues

2008-01-24T08:53:00.000-08:00

you know those doldrums you get when it's cold and dreary and cloudy and you just wanna cry for no reason? well down here it really is for no reason. because it's not winter. not in the strictest most wonderful sense of the word. you see its cooler here about 70... need i go on? you folks in the cold places don't know how lucky you are. we're missing snowboarding. and watching the snow. and fires in fireplaces. and scraping off the cars even. sigh. i'm not trying to be a sad sally but sheesh. what happened to winter? i know i know we live in florida now i should be happy i could go to the beach today if i wanted to but heck. gimme some snow man!

ok.
rant over.

i have photos. really i do. they're in the camera. i can't get them out. my computer is dead/dying and the boy has to order parts. so just imagine you're seeing freshly buttonholed baby clothes. a recovered rocker and some mostly finished socks. have that image. now hang on to it. til my computer gets fixed i'm stuck using this linux thing of the boy's without photoshop, with all my nifty photo editing gadgets :(

so stay tune. k?

bad blogger

2007-12-14T11:58:00.001-08:00

i haven't posted i'm sorry.
and now you just have to forgive me for the photo barf that is about to ensue.
just realize that my mind, house, and workspace are in the same state of chaos...

and in no particular order...

quilt blocks

quilt top

quilt back

quilt closeup

no comments from the peanut gallery regarding wonky crooked quilting stitches. dave has already informed me of such.
dave. dog.

this is dave's friend jon. we go to jon's for thanksgiving. this is jon and the hat i knitted for him on turkey day while i was waiting for the others to stop playing video games. i promised the hatwould be finished in time for gathering turkey from the grill. our host was not disappointed. his ears were warm. he was amused.

yarn: double stranded red heart. needles: borrowed clover dpns size 10.5. beggars can't be choosers and bored knitters are definitely beggars. thanks brandy for the loans it was better than watching video gaming i promise :)

we have friends who are preggers. you know this if you've been following along. a few months ago these hats were requested by the daddy to be. mini hat recipient is also the recipient of above dayglo quilt (colors selected by future mom). colors selected by dad for hats. he wants to freak out the grandparents i think

head to toe leads us to hogwarts socks. from round one. my rescue knitter, marker maker, needler, and swap mom were fantastic. thanks guys.

pattern: eyelet spirals, yarn:mama llama bamboo sock, thanks again guys you rock!
next up rocking stuffies fabulous books found at a second hand shop in louisville, colorado

i'm dying to make the elephant

these are from the 70's if i rmember correctly

can't you tell?

i cannot wait to make these guys. but i have to because i'm only 2 more outfits in to the baby clothes

courduroy jumper in the newborn size

and the romper in the medium size from the same pattern

so glad to see others are making these smocks too!

i filed away the colorado thanksgiving trip stash acquirements before i photographed anything. and i'm sorry but i've been swamped. can you tell? the yarn was some manos mohair for a sweater. some meunch bulky for some slippers for sue's shop, some trekking for mom some more socks, some dale from shuttles for overdying and then more socks, some panda cotton from sue's, and i think thats it. if i've forgotton we won't find out til who knows when :(

also recently acquired. the shirt i ordered from ravelry. and the nifty buttons. i love buttons.

and last but certainly not least. mom and auntie found a knittingmachine and ribbing attachment in fantastic condition at a junk sale up in the mountains. cost? $50 with all the required and then some books to figure out how to use the beastie. books. learning courses, patterns gallore. yups thats 3 whole binders and some pamphlets and the regular books too.

the downside. shipping was double.
now how does this thing go???

back!

2007-11-28T09:01:00.000-08:00

whew. it was a great trip. i loved seeing everyone, and relaxing and all. but sometimes it is nice to be home and sleeping in your own bed.

i have oodles of stuff to show off. finished stuff. shopping stuff. packages received in the mail stuff. early christmas stuff. but unfortunately, that is all gonna have to wait.

this house is a disaster and someone has to fix it! oh right, that would be me. sigh.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

2007-11-22T07:46:00.001-08:00

I hope you all are enjoying your time with your families. don't eat too much and enjoy the opportunity to relax :)

colorado here i come!

2007-11-14T19:00:00.000-08:00

sorry to post twice in one day, but i'm crazy excited cause i get to go home to colorado for 2 whole weeks for turkey! yippee. i'll be arriving this friday night and heading back tuesday after turkey weekend so give a holler (i still have the same colorado cell #) if you're in town and have some knitting time available. i hope to catch up with the boulder stitch n bitchers. and i'm hanging out with cathi and the kids for sure :) but i'd love to see everyone else too. so drop me a line and we'll try to get together ok? when i return i hope to have oodles of finished projects to share with dee and the girls here. all the projects i'm packing may not even fit in my backpack. ack!

Hogwarts, hoggy warty hogwarts

2007-11-14T11:09:00.000-08:00

so i was waiting to post about my outgoing and incoming hogwarts sock swap (year 2 swap) until after my pal received her socks. and then i was waiting on my package. and then i got busy with work and sleep and stuff. and then i got sick. so here it is. rather tardy. but here nonetheless :)

my pal and i had a rather rough road with this round of socks. here emmeline (stacey) is the saga of your socks

so i wanted to knit for you the eames pattern that my friend kate designed. and i soon found out that i am not cut out for mosaic knitting. sigh. the stitches were all wonky. the sock was completely inelastic. it looked generally like poo. i'm sure it's not the pattern. it has got to be me! so i sent you my copy of the pattern a new printout that is so a less mangled copy than my working copy in hopes that you will have better luck than i :)

and the sole was soooo friggin cute

oh well. frog time

next i decided that maybe i could replicate my color-work feat of year one. remember these guys?

it was going really well.

i even got clever and decided to have the stairs "change" like in the stories.

and i house striped the sole and everything. and they were crazy wonky too the tension was uneven throughout. i blame bad starbucks. but that's another story. and the sock was so tight through the heel no person could ever wear these super neat socks. double sigh.

so i opted for a simpler doable sock.

and with confidence i decided to do some colorwork

i was going for a cathedral window kinda stitch pattern to go with the hand stitched bookmark i did. i also sent along some coffee. of course and a hand painted bag. more on the bags later i swear.

and in return i received the bestest package ever!!!

my socks

side view

top view

they fit incredibly and they are gorgeous. she bobined those cables up the side can you believe it???

and i got the most gorgeous sock yarn

and a pattern that is likely to kick my ass and be absolutely incredible to work on. gosh i just hope i can do it!

best of all she sent along a hand sewn project bag. this puppy is perfect. it fits 2 sets of socks!

she also sent along the neatest bead bookmark that is sleeping in my harry potter book 2 as i type. yippee :)

it's beginning to feel a lot like fall...

2007-11-07T23:52:00.000-08:00

finally

the windows are open and the fans are on and there is not a ton of humidity. its actually bearable. now is summer were like this!!!

and if you walk into your local starbucks it looks like christmas. thats right folks i helped out with the dark set for holiday roll out tonight and i've never opened so many cardboard boxes in my entire life. holy cow. the worst of it. out landlord won't provide recycling friendly containers on the property. so it all went into the dumpster!!! sigh. but there are so many cute things it's enough to make you crazy. fortunately i don't think i want any of the mugs this year. which is good. we loaded up on clearance halloween and the cupboards are jammed ;)

and i know i've been lax, but i promise i have wonderful things to show you. both things sent and received. for the hogwarts swap. but my camera is on the fritz again. i'm gonna get new batteries tomorrow and see if it works. otherwise i'll be smuggling dave's away to do a knitting photo shoot :)

and i have socky and hatty updates to post too. but again the camera. sigh. don't you hate technology!

creature

2007-11-02T07:14:00.000-07:00

So i was at target the other day to pick up something normal. like a prescription or milk or something and i somehow found myself in the socks. i know crazy huh? and they had these fabulous coordinating knee socks. and i said to myself "you know those would make some pretty darn cool creatures"

so i brought 'em home and i looked at my stupid sock creatures book. and i promptly chickened out and headed for the sock drawer for practices socks :)

i picked out a pattern. decided he had to have wings. and started chopping.

i also decided that he needed a contrasting mouth so i found those instructions too.

and while i watched the rockies lose 4 straight games in a row. my creature was born...do yo uthink he soaked up any of that bad luck?

update by necessity

2007-10-30T08:28:00.001-07:00

what will prompt a girl to post faster than you can even say post? even after eon's of blog inactivity? hrmmm. well someone linking to her blog without warning for one ;) so here is the update roll in no particular order...

the bed and breakfast pullover cabled cardi is on seaming island i have one sleeve seamed and th other is lying peacefully beside it meditating. i hate seaming. i particularly hate seaming when you have to get all that ribbing with increases to line up...why do sleeves have to be shaped eh? sorry no photo but do you have to see the same no progress shot? again?

next up dave and i decided to make pizza for dinner this weekend. we had seen yet another episode of alton brown's good eats this one on pizza and dave has been wanting to make it. but it requires preparing the dough the day before. dave doesn't like to do things the day before. he's an in the moment go to the grocery store 10 minutes before a dinner party kind of guy. so when i had to run to the store yet again the other day to grab one last thing 'cause he doesn't like lists. i picked up everything we needed to make pizza. or so i thought. i didn't get pepperoni. well who knew. and guess what i found in the bakery case? pre-made pizza dough. the good kind nne of that pilsbury crap. all you have to do is let it sit at room temperature for an hour. which is how long you preheat the pizza stone. woo hoo!

it killed me to wait for them to cook.

came out pretty tasty if i do say so myself. on te left my choice. leftover jarred alfredo sauce with frozen spinach and canned artichokes. on the right daves with leftover homemade gravy (read spaghetti sauce) with half spinach and half sliced up frozenmeatballs. not bad for a "last minute" kinda dinner :)

oh wait you wanted knitting news? well ok.

i started another afghan. another you ask? well theres a deep dark secret lying in the UFO bin. we're not gonna talk about that one right now.

this one is going along pretty well. i'm having fun at least. i finally figured out a use for all that lavendar and blue cotton ease (the old stuff). throw in some lime (the new stuff) and the silk cotton artful yarns fable (that's the multi in the photo above) that i had in the stash and oila. garter stich blanket in the works.

what prompted this madness you ask? well a friends daughter wanted to learn to knit. a garter stitch washcloth was the assignment. i made one too and the squashy cotton garter ridges hooked me. and i'm off on a mission. fun no?

so thats it for now. there are some socks in the works. you'll have to patient for that post. so there is knitting and sewing. and a stupid creature or 6. i haven't decided on our family size yet.

i'm having too much fun to post right now but i will catch you up :)

it's a sad day

2007-10-13T22:08:00.000-07:00

for starbucks
when a great manager resigns because he's getting too much crap from his boss.
a shitton of crap from the guys upstairs and not a whole lot of help.
we like to try to set our team up for success.
but we don't try to set them up for failure.
and that is what has been happening!

i'm probably gonna hear something 'cause i'm posting this but it's got to be said.

since april i've been working in the second busiest store in central florida.
until recently we were beating out all the others in our district.
this means we have to work hard.
really hard.
just to keep up.
forget about getting ahead.
keeping things shiny clean?
no way.
shoot for passable.
cause you can't really do much else.
there's not enough time
it is impossible to stay on top.
when you're understaffed.
when you can't get labor hours.
when you have only 2 team members in the store for 2 hours at a time!
you barely get things done.
and the bosse's boss.
well she laid into him.
made it impossible.
destroyed the ideal of starbucks.
it's supposed to be a company who cares for it's partners
thats what we are.
partners.
or we're suppposed to be.
not employees.

we had a great manager.
he cared about his staff.
and tomorrow is his last day.
'cause it's not the company he fell in love with.

me neither.
my "fun" job.
not so fun anymore.
i gave my notice too.

boys are stupid

2007-10-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

i've been working on this sweater right?

and i've finished the sleeves seamed the shoulders struggled through the collar and tried it on and dave says the collar looks funny.

but the colors are really pretty on me...
nice after note hon. it's solid
any hoo.
i need reassurance or the cold hard truth.

cables in the collar or no?
the patterns calls to continue them but i'm not so sure it looks right.
of course switching to ribbing would look wierd too.
sigh...

what?

2007-10-03T09:46:00.001-07:00

that wasn't enough sewing for you?
is this place a sweat shop or something?
cause that is what i'm starting to think :)

remember my blocking board turned sewing board?
well there are 4 pattern envelopes up there.

kate and i picked out fabrics for most of those cute little outfits, a quilt, and a crib skirt for her soon to be bouncing baby girl. who we will call batman. parents choice i swear. some people call their unborn children peanut or something cute like that. they said batman one day and well for dave and i it stuck. this kid will be batman til she graduates college so help me!

anyhoo i am losing focus here.

this bin is full of fabric. my mission (i was silly enough to accept it) is to turn all that into adorable little dresses, bloomers jumpers and overalls. oh not to mention i agreed piece a quilted duvet cover and appliqué on nifty little birds and trees for a bed skirt.

oh me oh my what have i done???

but don't you worry. i am having a ton of fun. i have finished 2 of the jumpers. (i think there are a total of 3). i have also stitched up 3 pair of bloomers. we're adding elastic after we meet batman. see we don't know how big she is gonna be :)

so how many pieces in the baby sewing queue?
lets see here...
3 reversible jumpers (2 are done)
4 pair of overalls
3 gathered dresses
1 gathered top with pants
3 or 4 coordinating hats
2 onesies
and a million little bloomers (3 are done)

holy crap what have i done?

what? you want to see the madness? ok you asked for it.

the jumpers look like this. silly no? i think they kinda look like bats.
but they fold up into the cutest little smock dress thingeys

and best of all they are reversible. 2 for 1 dresses and so neat to stitch up. except for those little ear things at the top. thats a beast to maneuver around. what? i'm not a perfect seamstress. oh and the best thing about these smocks they should double as summer shirts when batman gets older. thank gods i don't know if i could do all this again!

after i lived through the first jumper i got a little more adventurous and added seam binding across the top of the pocket of jumper two

and on the reverse i decided to add a long apron style pocket along the bottom edge in a coordinating pink with a yellow lining.

and check out the back. it is so neat the way those wings just fold over to make straps!

so first try on a new pattern not so great. second try and i'm having a blast! one more to go and on to more confusing things :)

i'm making coordinating/matching bloomers for all the dresses. (who likes to see a diaper)? and here are the first three pair

they are such a pain to make for something so small! who would have thought right? but there are a bunch of seams to finish and not a lot of space to do it in!

so what is next in the baby queue? well i've decided to make some funky overalls with mismatched panels of these fabrics

you know me i can't resist purple. this outfit is going to be a surprise though. see kate doesn't know about it since i got it on a stealth trip to jo-ann :) there is also a surprise onesie in the works i just haven't photographed the fabric yet.

oh and as far as surprises go. i got an email from her mom yesterday. she's trying to find fabric to match the stuff she rescued from kate's bedroom curtains when she was a kid! and i'm not sure if this is a surprise cause what better way to find something kate likes than to ask her...but i don't know if i can!

it really is cute but it is proving to be hard to find coordinating fabrics that we think kate will like. her mom wants a quilt top to go with this as the bottom. but doesn't want to go all cutsey and pink. as you can see above outfits kate likes more modern styles and we're not sure what to do. we like the polka dot on this umbrella

but i'm having a hard time finding blue and green dots. sigh. any of you who like to buy fabric online let me know if you happen across something you think would go. i'm completely open for ideas at this point. in other words help!!!

sewing machine

2007-10-03T09:31:00.000-07:00

thats right no love machines here i exist only to sew :)

and someone is not too happy about it...

neige doesn't seem to think that sewing and photographing the evidence is a worthy use of my time. she's been following me around and "hmphing" at me lately :)

i finished up mom's christmas present a couple of weeks ago.
we picked out the fabric together after she decided that she needed a new summer robe. he rold one was about 10 years old. yes i agree. she needed a new one. so here it is!

isn't it fun? i edged the robe ad sleeves with a nice mottled mustard color and decided to do the tie and pockets with the same. it took a while to figure out the construction on this puppy. the collar was way more confusing than i thought it was going to be but after an emergency trip to jo-ann to visit the nice lady who sold me my machine i figured it out.
then i whipped up the coordinating bottoms in about a second. that has got to be the easiest pants pattern i have ever seen. it is just 3 pieces and that includes the drawstring!!!! now i just need to find a couple of blue tee's for her and she can have this at last.

oh, didn't i mention that. it was for christmas last year. oops.
better late than never i always say.
now i'm glad i never gave mom the blog address. no surprises spoiled here!

just for fun i took a closeup of the fabric. i love the pattern. it reminds me of the curtains and tablecloths i saw in provence. if you ever go buy one! they are so fun and cheerful.
i love love love the blues and yellows!

for those of you silly enough to want to try this on your own the pattern is mccalls 3370 i made size medium. best of all, the robe and pants should be plenty long enough for mom (she's fairly tall and nothing is ever long enough it seems).

sick day

2007-10-02T13:37:00.000-07:00

so what do you do when you manage to get a couple days off cause you're nearly dead but not quite and you just can't sleep any more?

you knit of course!

you get out the comfy pj's and all the extra pillows, you let the dog have dave's half of the bed, and you break out the needles and pattern. but first you open the blinds to let in the smidgen of sunshine making its way in between the rain-clouds, you bird watch out the window with your new bird book (purchased because the one dad lent you (published in 1983) doesn't tell you what those one all grey wading birds are out there), you keep the cell phone handy just in case someone decides to call (which they only do when the phone is forgotten in the other room), oh and you also move the small television in from the office (after dumping all of dave's laundry off the dresser into a basket first)
oh damn laundry.
oh well i'll wash some stuff before work tomorrow. yes i have to go back tomorrow but i think i'm felling better now i didn't take any cold medicine today and i'm not dead yet so i think i'm on my way to recovery. whew. if i can just stop sniffling and sneezing for five minutes.

anyhoo.
you want to hear about the knitting i guess.

remember way back when, before we moved to hell (florida) how i was knitting on that nifty cabled bed and breakfast pullover from interweave? no? well maybe that is because moving got crazy and i forgot to post about it. oh well. i started it ages ago back when it was cold and i was still in colorado, where it made sense to knit sweaters in aran weight washable wool (color # 26). and it got bundled away into the never ever gonna get finished UFO bin at the back of the closet. well i dug it out and decided i could wear it when i go back to colorado for thanksgiving. but only if it was finished.

so yesterday i finished the front. (from the neckline up).
and today i finished the back. (from the armholes up).

and i cast on for the sleeves. and if i keep this up all there will be left to do is seam and wind in all those beastly ends. you know how i hate that part...

but then it will be finished. which is good. because yesterday i also ordered 18 balls of this.

to knit this!

in khaki (#13) of course it is absolutely killing me not to buy more to make every other sweater and summer top i've been dying to make...

but i just don't have the time.
sigh.

i've been sewing toooo much for kate and the little one. and the dad to be has commissioned matching daddy and baby skull caps (yes closely fitted hats with skull and cross bones on them). and that yarn is on its way too. along with the yarn for kate's socks, and some more socks for dave...
yikes.
i better get knitting.
so much to do so little time!

damn

2007-10-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

i was so gonna take a million photos and post this week while dave is gone for a conference...and i had to catch the flu/cold/whatever it is that is going around. just imagine half sewn baby clothes for my friend kate, a half completed sweater pulled out of the UFO bag of shame, hogwarts socks more than half completed, and another pair for myself struggling to be more than just toes. i'm working on stuff i swear. i just have to get up the energy to get out of bed. oh and when i do they expect me in at work today. ugh. 2.5 hours till shift is too late to call in huh? damn.

photos soon i swear.
til then try to guess which sweater i'm working on :)

not dead.

2007-09-19T15:27:00.000-07:00

just distracted.

and can you blame me? look at the weather!

i've been trying to find something...anything ...to do other than realize it is crummy and raining out. i guess it has only been raining for a couple of days and i have been a.w.o.l. for longer than that but i have an excuse. really!

i've been re-learning how to sew!

well sort of...
exhibit a:

the first project on my new machine!

view b:

it's a maternity top!

ha!

no really it is a blouse. but it's enormous and those gathers in the front are doing nothing for me. well they definitely do something... but it's nothing good!

fortunately i do know someone who is preggers. (no i am not!) and she'll be trying the top on tomorrow before we go shopping for baby bedroom set patterns and fabric! i am having so much fun getting ready for baby. i like this side of it...shopping, sewing, and knitting. all the fun bits with no morning sickness, no belly, and no baby!

speaking of baby. she will be the recipient of these:

no i'm not planning on kate having a one footed baby...i forgot to take the correct size needles with me on movie night so i couldn't work on shoe number 2. nor am i planning on her having a ridiculously foreshortened baby...i'm just taking bad photos lately. deal.

details:
rollneck, with roll edged sleeves and bottom. shoulder placket raglan sweater. bottoms from last minute knitted gifts also with rolled edges and saartje's bootee"s". the yarn is tatamy tweed so far i've used 2.5 balls and plan to make the bootees in the larger size also.

we had this guy a few weeks ago at work and i couldn't resist...and he matches the above set perfectly. the question is can i bear to part with him?

so see i've been busy. way too busy to post. what with work and sleeping :) heck there's hardly time to knit or sew. and then there is the dilemma ...sew or knit? how does one choose when there are so few spare moments?

so i've been working on a few more random bits. and i'm knitting on some more socks for dave well they are waiting to be frogged and restarted i though his hobbit feet were wider than they really are. d'oh. so yeah. shoot me. oh, not to mention knitting and ripping out the hogwarts socks 2 times...i'm not posting them til later so you'll see the whole excruciating thing later i promise. and there is a super secret bookmark in the works as well. oh, and some stitch markers. i have the yarn somewhere and i have yet to track down the pattern i want to send along. so see, my brain is exploding from all the activity around here!

i'm absolutely loving my new sewing room (aka the dining room) dave is a little less than thrilled but i clean up when people are coming over so i don't know what his deal is.!

and it is good that i have all that space this is my sewing shortlist...stack...whatever

the queue is extensive.
i'll post updates as they come.

this was rather jumbled wasn't it? oh well. so am i it seems.

whew!

2007-08-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

after minor surgery it appears that everything is going to be ok...

dave took a teeny little screwdriver to my camera and was able to resuscitate it.

i'm supposed to be more careful.

right.
me?
careful?

sockapalooza 4 socks!

2007-08-08T17:37:00.000-07:00

yeay they came they came! the post from london is crazy fast!

can you tell neige wanted some attention too? dave was trying to take photos for me and she had to get one of her toys out to get in on the action!

i love love love these socks. they weren't a surprise i found them out really early on in the trade but i don't mind. the anticipation however really did almost kill me.

oh and we'll be seeing photos care of dave's camera until further notice...in the excitement i knocked my camera off the arm of the couch and it is now telling me we have a focus error and the lens will no longer retract. double damn! and i almost had photos of the really cool wrapper and wrap job on theses socks. sigh. thank you! thank you! thank you! they are sooo soft and comfy!

oh bother!

2007-08-08T13:43:00.000-07:00

i'd like to interrupt the regularly scheduled sock rotation:

(wearing rotation that is)
to present to you the finished, completed, done... bamboo socks!

sorry about the blurry photo. i was rather comfy, lazy, settled, relaxed... on the couch and didn't feel like turning around so i wasn't facing the sun. days off will do that to you!

i did the ribbing here a little shorter than i usually like to because i thought that the lacy pattern wanted something a bit more delicate (read shorter) and so did my patience :) of course i had to include some kind of ribbing, edging, border... it looked too funny without.

and i am completely in love with how this heel turned out!!!

in other knitting news. today being the aforesaid day off (sorry for the funny language it appears i've been listening too much to audio books* of late) i decided it was high time to get going on the hogwarts socks.
i'm sure my pal, partner, associate... would appreciate some effort on my part :)

yarn - check.
pattern - check.
needles - check.
ipod - check.
caffeine - check.
GO!

and i was off to a fantastic start see:

the sole looks great. nice. even. tidy.

the top however is a disaster, mess, cluster fuck... or rather was.

sigh. so i've frogged back to the solid toe...i have 64 stitches...and am searching for another pattern, design, idea... i think i am not cool enough for mosaic knitting. my slipped stitches were so ridiculously stretched...the fabric was lumpy and inelastic. not what i had hoped for at all...maybe a larger yarn next time? oh and to top it off! i realized just after i decided to frog that i had made a mistake in the pattern in addition to just knitting poorly. see that lumpy blob instead of the cute little wave on that last dark section. sigh. and the pattern was so perfect for this too. oh well.

fairisle or some form of striping pattern here i come! i just can't do the mosaic thing. :P

and maybe, just maybe. i'll find something that works well to be knit two at once now wouldn't that be fantastic???

edit:
i almost forgot to mention the other new socks i started on yesterday!

i'm not usually one for jacquard yarns but this is kind of fun...the flecks go to the background and the stripes come to the fore. i kind of lie the effect!

and they are positively zooming along!

double edit:
dee is a regular at my shop and she informed me that this yarn is lion brand magic stripes. who knew ;)

*if you have never checked those books out i suggest you do. i'm finding them thoroughly entertaining, enjoyable, interesting, amusing...oh and if you're put off by the synonyms well you'll get that when you get to book 2 ! ok i'm off to find a pattern and continue book 3

new socks

2007-08-07T12:55:00.001-07:00

the bamboo socks are off he needles.
i haven't gotten around to taking photos
rather i just dipped into the stash,
pulled out a really old ball of i don't know which self striping sock yarn

and cast on for some plain jane old stockinette self striping socks.
i'm about halfway through the toes.
wheeee.
i love socks don't you?
done and started in the matter of minutes!
i'll get around to posting bamboo photos soon i promise.

oh in other news.
my sockpalooza pal received her package and the socks fit.
whew.
she loves them.
double whew!

and add ins are always appreciated no?

so now i can reveal :)
stitch markers

fat quarters

and of course the usual chocolates and a bag of coffee!
this exchange was oodles of fun.
time for round 5!!!

why?

2007-08-02T14:45:00.000-07:00

because i said so.

there is
absolutely
positively
no reason to get any more...

i'm just not allowed to.
that photo represents the possibility of 39 pair of socks.
and that is not including the undyed mountain there on the bottom right.
gosh that has got to be a good 10 pair of more all by itself.
sigh.
recount.
49 pair of socks.
i have to get to knitting.
so no more yarn for me.
til this is under control.

in a rough clockwise rotation starting in that black section down there. if there is a yarn type repeat we'll just skip it ok?

roll call:

wildfoote, sisu, falk, plymouth alpaca, pro natura, pace, cotton stretch, regia cotton, louet gems, knitpicks paint your own by me, panda cotton, knitpicks essentials, online cotton, xxl, jawoll lang, mega boots stretch, 1824, digit, sockotta, regia 4ply, knitpicks paint your own by jenifer, online wool, and the undyed is treadsoft and kona superwash sport.

whew!
i had to look at a blowup of the photo to figure out all those ( i packed it all away super quick in case dave comes home) and as i'm terrible about losing ball bands... well heck. some of 'em were guesses for real :)

what prompted this you ask? well i went on a yarn crawl with some of the local girls this last weekend and i plumped the stash with some louet gems and some more trekking. and i really shouldn't have.. obviously. and i was feeling a little guilty. and cathi just asked me if i want to pick up some more sockotta (my secret fave yarn) which i sensibly declined. and am dying to cast on for another pair of socks so i was trying to decide what yarn to use and went stash diving...sigh..and here we ended up.

gosh i hope dave doesn't see this!!! ;)

grrr!

2007-08-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

ok, i need to vent.
no knitting content today.
just work related nonsense.
skip this if you want :)

so today at work
it was a good day mind you we're all having fun everybody in a good mood cranking out drinks like little starbucks machines.
smiling like crazed coffee fiends like we're supposed to and this guy! @#$%&/!
anyhoo.
i'm losing my temper.
this guy skips the line by walking in the second door (which is fine just get in line if you do this) and walks up to the barista let's call her bar wench #1 and she says
"your usual doppio today?"
and he says
"yes with a glass of ice"
my first pet peeve.
the milk at the condiment bar is not for you to make a latte you cheap bastard.
anyway.
he proceeds to walk away from the bar and lean against the wall.
smiles at me and watches us ring people up like he is above that sort of thing.
he then walks over to the coffee for the troops* display.
and makes some comment about how this is confrontational.
well whatever.
each to his own.
don't like it don't participate is my motto.

so the line has disappeared.
i walk over to where he is standing and put away out log book.
we're always leaving it out when we shouldn't and it should not be in plain sight fine.
i move it.
this is the only thing he may have taken offense to i don't know.
and if that is it then whatever.
but i doubt it.
meanwhile wench#1 has made his doppio and set it beside my register.
i mean he hasn't pad why set it on the pass off plane like its done and he can have it right?
and he's still refusing to walk over and pay.
he makes side conversation with wench#2 and our token guy barista.
chatty.
whatever.
but he's not offering to pay.
now get this...
he reaches around the counter takes his espresso from beside my register and walks away with it.
i'm now in shock.
i have an new line, which he just pushed through to get his drink, still unpaid for and leaves with it.
he goes and puts milk and sweet in his ice cup. pours in his shots. and proceeds to start drinking.
i can't believe this guy!
i ring and we make the rest of our customers drinks and he's giving me this simpering look like
well just make me pay then.
cause i'm not gonna.
and i'm getting a little ticked.
and i'm confused
flabbergasted really.
i ask if i can ring him up.
he says no that he's taking this one for free on principle!
what?
jerk.
he then asks why i look offended by his refusal to pay.
i explain that i do not understand why anyone would expect to not pay for their drink.
he acts shocked and says "you really don't know?"

which of course i don't we've been polite, we remembered his drink without his having to order. we made his drink.
we had it ready.
and if he had paid.
it would have lal ben done and taken care of very quickly.
had he gone through the line he would not have had to wait.
everything would have been fresh as it should be if he weren't such an arrogant berk**.
there's nothing that we have done so why be a jerk?
he finally pulls out a credit card and makes as if to give it to me.
and i say "fine."
"you know what today it is on me. but tomorrow..."
and he looks shocked.
and he leaves.
and apparently this guy doesn't feel he needs to pay.

and after asking around to see if anyone understands what has just happened i find out that several of our partners won't even serve him or acknowledge his existence.
cause apparently he's always just a huge jerk!
sheesh!

and maybe you think i'm off because i took such great offense.
but you have to realize that i am the first person to give away drinks and coupons if the service is at the tiniest bit off.
i'm cheerleader perky and super nice to our customers and just don't get why people go off sometimes.
sigh.
i mean i was so rattled i was shaking.
and no i hadn't had too much coffee.

and this was right before i was supposed to leave.
and i didn't want this to ruin my night. so i had to get a pick me up when i left.
cause i was so rattled.
and i got my raspberry mocha.
which i never get because of the sugar.
i'm trying to be good see.
and i was so mixed up.
and so scattered still.
that i ordered my mocha and forgot to ask for decaf.
and dave just came in and i'm trying to explain and he doesn't understand why o got so upset and why i'm going a mile a minute.
sigh.
damn people
and damn caffeine when it's too late to have it.
grr.
now we get to go wait for his brother to come in from the airport and get dinner i guess.
and i have to open early tomorrow.

ok.
one day
one hour
one minute at a time.
breathe.
i have to go wind down.

*we're offering a discount if people want to buy and send coffee to the troops at our store. we le tthem write messages on the bags and then mail it off for them. nice little side project.

**my new word for the dayand i think it applies perfectly in this case for this guy he's got a very receded hairline wears it long, oiled and in a ponytail. he's got this beaky little face and i jus think the word fits.