Yet another project and general update time

I am like a shark circling around and around but who has not yet gone in for the kill. There are still no new pants in my life, or any other finished garments, but I just ordered a kit to make a customized dress form. I need the dress form for a draping class that I signed up for on impulse. I wanted to take the class on sewing your own underwear and just figured, what the hey, that's near my birthday, I'll treat myself and do both. I'm excited. The dress form project should be interesting. I'm trying to get some others to join me in the adventure. I don't know many other sew-ers who live near me, but I have one person who might be interested, so that's something. And The Professor has graciously agreed to cover my nearly naked body in plaster cast material.

I haven't felt much like writing here lately. Nothing good to report, and I don't really feel like this blog is the place for whining about my life, so I have been laying low.

I watched a wretched movie recently. Just Friends. I will spare us all the bother and just say Don't See It. Trust me.

On the knitting front, I bought some new yarn. Linen and silk because I wanted to make something cute and summery. Still working on it. I scoured Ravelry for patterns, and finally I found one that is exactly what I was looking for (Ravelry link), but no pattern is available and the maker hasn't yet responded to my message asking for more details on when one might be for sale. Not so patiently, I wait, and meanwhile I contemplate just trying to figure out how to make it myself.

I also bought some Berroco Suede because it is one of the exact colors that was recommended as flattering by my guru, Cynthia Guffey. The color I got is called, I only just realized, Clint. What an unflattering and odd name. Clint? Seriously? Who thought of that? The pattern I planned to make was Coachella (another not-so-appetizing name), but I'm starting to think better of it. The neckline is exactly what I want, but as for the rest of the shaping, well, I don't own a racer-back bra, and this garment is not going to look good sans undergarb.

The really big news around here is that in a week from today, The Professor and I will begin our Grand Home Wiring Update Adventure. We're going to devote a full week plus a day or two to trying to get our entire home upgraded from knob-and-tube to romex. Pray for us.

Check it out

I finally took the time to install the amazingly cool Ravelry progress bars on my blog. Look! It's right there on the right. These are all the knitting projects I haven't touched in ages. Links to more details (hyperlinked project name) are only available for Ravelry members, alas, but clicking the little photos takes you to the larger image on Flickr. I added these in preparation for a big Getting Unstuck on My Knitting Projects post. Stay tuned!

I just can't get enough

Today I finally registered to attend a couple classes at Knitter's Connection in Columbus in June. I ought to have registered a week or two ago to get the early bird discount, but I just couldn't decide which class to take on Friday. I settled for a design class with Ruth Lantz in the afternoon. I have only drawn sketches of ideas, but I've never designed my own garment. I did design a couple non-garment items, but that's different, isn't it?

The whole point of going was to take a Cat Bordhi class, and I'm signed up for her Saturday class with my cool new fiber friend, Janis. The class should be interesting, and meeting Janis will be a blast. We've already established that we must have been separated at birth. I am also signed up to attend the lecture by Casey and Jess of Ravelry fame on Thursday night. I want to think of a nice present to bring them for the incredible gift they have given to all of us. Hey, I wouldn't have met Janis if it weren't for Ravelry! I think every knitter/spinner/crocheter and her mother is already on this site, but if you're not, and you like playing with fiber even a little bit, run, don't walk to sign up. It's a vast database of all things knitting/crochet-- patterns, yarns, people-- and just an incredibly well-designed site with tons of useful and fun features. Trust me, it's not just another internet time suck, although it is very addictive.

But wait, there's more. At the end of this month, I'll be hitting the Original Sewing & Quilting Expo, Cleveland Edition. I've been to this show 3 years running, maybe 4, I can't recall, but every time I go I have a great time. I've only had a friend go with me once, which was the best, but it's worth going alone, so that's what I do. I am a devout groupie of Cynthia Guffey, and I've signed up for all her classes again this year. The most exciting one will be the day-long class making pants. I might actually come home with a finished (or nearly) pair of pants and the confidence to make another. I can only hope.

And I'm still waiting to hear from another friend about whether or not we are definitely on to meet up at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in early May. I want to try out a bunch of different spinning wheels to see what kind I like, so in case I ever get around to buying one, I'll know which kind I want to buy. Meanwhile, the rented wheel sits untouched in the corner in the living room, so I don't know how soon I'll buy a wheel, because clearly the spinning bug hasn't got its teeth sunk too deep into me yet.

Movie: Batman Begins

It occurs to me that some people might be wondering to themselves, Why is this woman posting about movies that are so old and out of date? Good question. This section of the blog posts grew out of the profile I had on the alumnae forum for my alma mater, where it asks you to describe books and movies that you like, in order for others to judge whether they might form an affinity with you, I suppose. I consume too many books and movies to keep a little profile thingy like that up to date in any meaningful way, so I started using the journal function of that profile to track movies and books, and when I started the blog I moved that over here. I also figure that I'm not the only one who doesn't get to the theaters to see every new movie and is often casting about for what to bring home from the library/video store. So, for anyone scratching their heads over this mystery, there you go.

Saturday night I had tried to gather some people together to try out contra dancing (I have an acquaintance who goes and it sounds like fun), but alas, I was unsuccessful. I must confess that I didn't try that hard, just sent a mass email the day before. Next time I'll have to get on the horn and do a better job selling the idea. The one taker wound up with a headache, so we just gave it a miss, stayed home, ate delicious homemade bread with delicious homemade soup and watched a video. The Professor is finally making an effort to check out shows from the library that he is interested in watching (having had it up to here with British murder mysteries, no doubt), hence Batman Begins. I was prepared to mock it and really just focus on getting some knitting done while hanging out with The Professor, but I really enjoyed it. I loved some of Morgan Freeman's lines, and the way they wove in all the gizmos Batman has and why he has them. Katie Holmes I could have done without. Sorry, but her character was just a little too reminiscent of her Dawson's Creek character. I thought she was decent in Thank You for Smoking, but if she just dropped out of movie-making, I would feel no great loss. Anyhow, Batman Begins was a fun movie. Made me wish we had some other Batman movies on hand to do a little marathon.

And good news, I did get a bunch of knitting done. Finished the first sleeve for my Fair Isle Yoke sweater, which is possibly morphing into a cardigan instead of a pullover. On Sunday I got the second sleeve going, and I made bread again and got some more spinning done while The Professor practiced piano (finally! I love when he plays, and I'm hoping he'll do it more often). The whole wheat version of the bread was even more delicious, and as I am writing this right now more bread, a double batch of the whole wheat variation, is rising in the oven. Man, I feel so cool. I am making bread. I didn't think I had it in me. I need to go do some more spinning to make my morning of homemaking activities really feel complete.

Fiber fun updates

Here's the progress so far (end of yesterday, aka Day 6) on my sweater:


This photo taken at the end of Day 2 shows the color a little better (even though it also highlights my less than incredible ribbing):


I love the subtle changes in the hand dyed yarn. It's from Shelridge Farms, their Soft Touch DK. Yum. I'm using a size US#3 needle, and I'm surprised how fast it's going. It is just a stockinette tube for the moment, so I shouldn't be too shocked, but I still am a little.

Here are the promised shots of the Two-Tone Shrug:



And a shot of my addition to the pattern, an armpit gusset to make it a little less fitted (this shot does the best job of showing the true colors out of any of these photos):


I have also been using this baby:



to produce this:


which is my 4th go at the wheel. A definite improvement over my first few tries as you can see.

#1 on a drop spindle, at which point I decided not to pursue spinning at all:



#2 on a very nice two-treadle wheel sort of like this one, I think.




And my 2nd go at a wheel, first time on the one-treadle Ashford pictured above:



The disastrous results of my 3rd attempt at the wheel are fortunately hidden by the stuff I spun on the 4th try.

Phew, that's a lot of pictures! Thank you to my awesome friend Geno for the Flickr photo uploading tips.

Falling off the wagon

Today I made my first purchase this year of a new item that wasn't food or hygiene related. I bought yarn. I took a pledge (to myself and to a friend) not to buy any new yarn in 2008 even before we officially decided to do the Compact, so it feels doubly lousy. The circumstances are extenuating. I have three pairs of socks on the needles for which I am going to run out of each color before I finish the second sock, and in all three cases, the first sock is completely done, with ends woven in and everything, making creative color mixing to stretch the yarn I have an unappealing option. The socks were all started in September. I knew I needed the yarn since October, just never got around to buying it.

But I went a little further and got some other colors of yarn to use as accents for some fair isle sweaters I have planned. I have the base yarn for four different fair isle sweaters, but not enough accent yarn for even one of them as it stands now. I could just make solid sweaters, but I wanted them to be fair isle when I bought the base yarn, I just didn't buy the accent yarn at the time because I didn't have the color card. I tried to buy accent yarn at last year's Stitches Midwest, and I did get some, but they didn't have all of the colors I wanted.

I am usually so excited when buying yarn, but the (completely self-induced) guilt is ruining my usual high. I think the only cure is to go start one of the sweaters for which the accent yarn will soon be winging its way to me, but I want to finish at least one of the BSJs this weekend. Both of them have been sitting there for weeks now with their ends dangling, their shoulder seams unsewn and the buttons languishing in a coaster on the end table. I did finish my shrug finally, and it looks great. Photos to come post-blocking.

I am hoping this will be my only departure from my non-yarn-buying path this year. And I'm saying this with a trip to Scotland planned in the coming months. Home of many sheep and much delicious yarn. If I feel this cruddy getting stuff I need to finish using stuff that's already in my stash, how am I going to feel if I just haul off and buy completely new stuff? I can't even think about it.

Movie: Clerks II

Thursday night I indulged myself in a second viewing of this movie, and I loved it all over again. I think the highlight for me is Randall's face during his conversation with Elias about why Elias and his girlfriend Mira haven't sealed the deal, as it were. Classic. Anything with Elias is one of my favorite parts of the movie, but every part of it is so wonderful that I can't really have a favorite. And what am I saying? What about Jay?! Ah, Jason Mewes, I adore him. I want to knit him a nice hat; that's how much I love Jason Mewes. I wonder what kind of hat he would like? Grey? Black? Plain? With a design on it? I can't let him keep wearing this sort of store-bought crap, can I? Hmmm, better get hats made for me and The Professor first. Yes, it's true. I'm a knitter without a hat. And a knitter with a sweetie without a hat. I made him one but it came out so ugly (I haven't even photographed it-- it's that bad) that it's an outside work hat, right out of the gate.

Anyhow, if you haven't yet seen Clerks II, give it a try. It's pure gold. All hail Kevin Smith.

Catching up

I've been fairly busy the last week or so. Last Tuesday I went to the monthly Entrepreneurs for Sustainability meeting with a very cool woman, Jennifer, that I met at last November's Ladies Who Launch meeting at the Cleveland Wine School. It was the best E4S meeting I've ever attended, because it was basically all networking but with a little structure. Their meetings are often rather presentation-heavy, and while I've learned lots of interesting stuff, there are only so many people you can meet when you squeeze the meeting people part in around the edges. In a small world moment, I ran into Don O. and his wife, Barbie. That was a nice suprise. I also ran into two of my fellow classmates in the Greening Your Home class at the Nature Center, a couple who have a construction business that is big on reusing and salvaging materials. Sweet. The most interesting person I met that night was Hank Haberman, who is working on spreading urban forest permaculture throughout northeast Ohio. Cool. Let's start with our yard.

On Wednesday, my new-ish friend Kimberly came over for a little knitting and gabbing. I got a few rows done on the preemie BSJ, which has since been finished and is awaiting seaming, even though I had planned to work on the larger of the two charity blankets still languishing in my knitting basket. Thursday I did some work with a new organizing client, and that evening was the Greening Your Home class at the Nature Center, where we had a nice review of some of the stuff we learned at Yestermorrow last summer about the stack effect, vapor barrier, etc. I also got a business card of someone who does green rehab locally, so that was good.

Friday was the Cuyahoga Spinners' Guild meeting, so I went there and got some help on my knitting stuckness from the fabulous Judy. I confirmed my suspicion that underarm gussets were the way to go on my Two-Tone Shrug, so that project is back on track. I also confirmed that, yes, I need to rip back on the Nordic Lights wrap, so I'm working myself up to it, because it will be a sad moment when I have to pull about half of it out. And I spun! I did most of a bobbin's worth of yarn, and by the end, it wasn't even looking so bad. I lucked out to sit between two very experienced spinners, so I think I was absorbing some of their skill by osmosis. I did more spinning on Saturday, maybe not quite another half-bobbin full, didn't look as good as Friday's. I think the edge of the couch is not an ideal seat for spinning at home. It's definitely a skill that takes practice to develop.

On Sunday I went to a baby shower for my cousin, and I hadn't yet seamed and sewn on buttons for the BSJ I was making her, so she got (gasp) the smaller of the charity blankets. You know what? She loved it. It's acrylic so that thing can go on the floor, in the washing machine, in the dryer. It can get puked on, spilled on, whatever. That thing will wear like iron and probably be just the same when the child has gone off to college. I feel okay about not giving it to charity after all. And frankly, my track record with baby gifts is that hardly anyone has been gifted the thing I originally began with their baby in mind. It's usually a few babies ago. Hey, you still got a knitted gift. Feel lucky.

This week has been quiet so far until today, working 8 full hours in a row with no break (usual max is 6). Phew! I'm beat. So that's it. I'll post spinning and knitting photos soon. For now, I'm pooped!

Bowling was awesome

We had such a great time bowling that we are going to do it again soon. So those of you who missed it can still get in on the fun. And if it's just The Professor and I who go, that is fine with me, too. What a super fun time. Paul was by far the best of us, and he gave me some good pointers so that I could achieve my initial goal of at least one non-gutter ball. I even got one strike and one spare! That allowed me to accomplish my second goal of all 10 pins down in one turn. Alas, I didn't achieve my final goal of breaking 60 points in one game, but that just leaves me something to strive for next time. Not too shabby for essentially a first-time bowler. I took my camera but was too busy having fun to take pictures. Whoops. Again, I am so grateful to the people who came out to celebrate with us. Thank you.

And the dinner I made to take with us turned out great, if I do say so myself. It was my first time inventing a crock pot dish, and I was a little worried about it. I don't really understand crock pots as well as I do things like baking and sauteeing. With crock pots, you read the recipe, you follow it, and as if by magic, the ingredients become a meal. How many cups of liquid per cups of dry are needed in a crock pot? Who knows? I winged it with 2 C wheat berries, 2 C white beans (northern or navy, I'm not really sure), an onion, and 7 1/2 C veggie stock, because that's what I had. When it was done, 9 hours later (7 on high, 2 on low), I tossed it with grated carrot (2 C?), steamed green beans (1 bag frozen) and a lovely homemade vinaigrette, and it was a very nice wholesome dinner with a little grated parmesan sprinkled on top. Big thanks go to The Professor who babysat it while working from home yesterday afternoon and called to give me periodic updates on the doneness of the beans and wheat berries. I am excited finally to cross the threshhold into experimentation with the crock pot, and if anyone knows of any resources on the science of slow cooking, I'd be much obliged.

Tonight I'm going to an E4S meeting. That's Entrepreneurs for Sustainability, dontcha know. I'm meeting a woman I met at November's Ladies Who Launch meeting there, so that will get me to go, because honestly, I'd just as soon stay home and keep reading the book I'm on now and maybe do some knitting. I got to within 20 sts of the end of BSJ #3 before running out of yarn, and that's using ALL of it, saving nothing for seaming (I can use whatever for that). So I have some scraps in my stash that will just have to do, and I had to cut it a few rows short as it was. I also started a preemie-sized BSJ to donate to Christopher's Angels. Thank you to Seven on the Knittyboard for the link, and thank you to Elizabeth for the pattern.

I cooked!

My most exciting news for the weekend is that I cooked. I have been really bad about cooking for a long time, leaving The Professor to fend for us most of the time for longer than I care to admit. Oh, the shame of it all. But Friday, spurred on by who knows what inspiration, I made some sweet potato soup in the crock pot (recipe from this cookbook) and boiled a big pot of brown rice. I couldn't risk interrupting my momentum to stop and snap photos, but it really didn't look like much anyhow. An enormous yam, an equally enormous onion, cut and plopped unceremoniously into the crockpot, along with some garlic (2 cloves), some spices, and 4 cups of turkey broth made from Old Tom, the turkey The Professor cooked a few weeks back. The broth was treated with the appropriate amount of reverence, especially as it was nicely measured out and clearly labeled in the freezer. After 6 hours in the crock pot, I processed it in the Cuisinart with a little bit of peanut butter and lime juice. Yum. The rice we ladled it over gave it a nice stick-to-your-ribs quality, and I was so glad to have it ready to go when The Professor got home from work.

Yesterday, I made both a casserole and rice pudding. The rice pudding was in the crock pot again, using this recipe, except I left out the apricots and used brown rice and some cream that we needed to use up subbed in for some of the milk. The pudding cooked overnight and made a delicious breakfast this morning-- we both had seconds. The casserole was the leftover rice from Friday plus a can (jar) of beef that we got from The Professor's mom and dad for Xmas (they gave us 10, and they put it up themselves, which made it an extra special gift), some frozen green beans, grated cheese (grated by himself) and some cream of ... soups (celery and mushroom) as well as some eggs and milk. I ought to have put in some spices as it was a bit bland, but it was clearly adequate because while it was cooking, The Professor came downstairs and said, "The whole house smells like dinner," in a happy and satisfied way. Why don't I cook for him more often? He certainly does appreciate it. Oh, and once I added some Worcestershire sauce to it, it was divine. Didn't discover that until eating it as leftovers for lunch today, but there's still half of it left to go. Mmmmmm, Worcestershire sauce. I practically licked the dish.

On the knitting front, BSJ #3 is nearing completion. I forgot to do my increases on the buttonhole row and so had to rip back, so here's a photo I snapped while the needles were out and it actually looked like something:

I will have *just* enough yarn, I think, if that. No I-cord edging this time around, though. I'll have to try it on my next one, because of course there will be more. I continue to be thrilled with the way the color changes worked themselves into nice healthy stripes and the way the two colors of yarn (the variegated hot pink/green/white/orange and the salmon pink) work together.

You can also see evidence in this photo (upper left corner) of me finally managing to read and knit at the same time-- the cookbook holder that has been languishing in one of our icky old cupboards for so long it's acquired a funky smell (and it's lucite, so that's got to be hard to do) comes out of retirement to hold my book on the table in front of me, hands free. I'm reading an excellent book called Made from Scratch (partly responsible for the cooking blitz?), and I'm about half way done. My reading progress is likely to skyrocket now that I can read while I knit. Goodbye, television! Hello, books!

The Professor is working on some rewiring today (upstairs hall light and bathroom outlet), and he opted for the wiring scenario that did not require a trip to the hardware store and the purchase of new materials, so that was good.
Oh, and speaking of not purchasing things, today I glued up my awesome homemade pill box that I made last weekend. From a nondescript gift box to a happy little pill container. I did a much better job this past week of taking my supplements since they were in this handy little box and didn't require me to dole them out of all the different bottles each time. Anything to get them down the hatch.

Time to finish the baby sweater, and ferret out some buttons from my insane button stash. Final photos to come tomorrow-ish. Hope everyone else is having as lovely a weekend as we are.

BSJ #3, End of Day 2

Got quite a bit done yesterday/last night. I am loving the way the colors are unfolding with this yarn. It's a good match for the pattern, I think. Reminds me of watermelon, with a little cantaloupe thrown in for good measure.

Still panicking the entire time about whether I will have enough yarn to finish it and what I will do if I don't. Yeah, that reduces the enjoyment factor slightly, but it's still better than all my other projects which require actual thought. I've cruised around Ravelry to see whether any one is trying to unload any of this yarn (Berroco Love It) in a color that will match, but it looks like only some brown up for sale, which isn't quite the direction I want to go. I am not above just writing to people who have this yarn in their stash and making them an offer, but the due date for this puppy is next Sunday when I attend the baby shower, so that would be tricky. Hi, you know that yarn you have that you have no intention of selling? Can you sell it to me and oh, by the way, can you please ship it overnight, today? Don't imagine that would go over too well. I'm just going to knit away on it as fast as I can and see where things wind up. I have no shortage of yarn in my stash, but as for something that will match this yarn of a similar weight and fiber content, nothing that fits the bill, I don't think. Fingers crossed it won't come to that. With the Colinette Cadenza I used to make the first two of these, I had loads of extra, using the same needle size and the same number of skeins; it just feels different this time for some reason.

What, no knitting?

The astute observers among you may have noticed that there has been very little knitting content on this blog as yet. Well, I'm not styling myself as a knitting blogger, I tell myself, so what does it matter? But showing off and sharing my knitting was one of the things that moved me to get going on this blog, and I do want it to be part of the mix. I mean, even I will get bored of me sounding off about all the crap I'm not buying. And I've got a hell of a lot of yarn to use up. So what gives? Why no knitting posts? I will tell you why. I am stuck.

I did honestly cut my right thumb on Day 3 of the new year, and that sidelined me for a bit, but it's been thoroughly healed for a few days now, so that's no excuse. And I've got a bunch of projects on the needles, so it's not like I don't have any subject matter. But when I say stuck, I mean stuck. All my projects are currently at the point where I need to sit down and sort them out. They all require thought and concentration. I can't just pick up something and mindlessly knit away. So, what does the lazy knitter (me) do in this situation? Start a new project, of course! So I am happy to tell you about my newest knitting project, a baby sweater for my cousin's impending shower. Here's what I've got so far:

I swatched and cast on at last night's Greening Your Home class, and then I just knit away, right past the increase row for the fullness above the cuff, so when we got home, I reknit that part. I'm planning to work more on it today. Oh, and before class I asked our teacher, Jim LaRue, about the frost-protected shallow foundation, and he said that it can be integrated with existing construction and that it is cheaper than the kind of foundation we have in the house now (full basement and crawl space), so that's great news. There was at least one guy there last night who does green re-hab, so next time I need to get some business cards and start talking to people about our addition. In case you were wondering, yes, the irony that we're doing the Compact and talking about adding on to our house is not lost on me.

Oh, and I have to apologize. I told a whopper yesterday. We bought a new refrigerator in 2007. Yipes. It is staggering to me how unconsciously the purchasing of new things has occurred in my life thus far. Staggering.

A post a day keeps the guilt away?

Well, we didn't go see The Golden Compass after all. I had a bit of a headache, The Professor's tummy hurt a little (he's napping now), and we just got part way there, turned around and came home. A trusted source, my dear friend Rachel, told me I didn't miss much so I feel okay about it. We might try again, we might wait for the DVD. It's funny, because I love to see movies on the big screen, but I don't really care for the volume at most movie theaters, so I'm more and more willing to settle for the DVD experience. Esp. now that I can view them widescreen at home. Small, but I prefer the original aspect ratio. My film aficionado geekiness comes out.

In Compact news, last night while tidying up the kitchen, the crock pot took a dive off the top of the frig. How much does that suck? The pot part and the crock part survived, the lid part shattered. Like a good little blogger-in-training, I took a picture. Pretty exciting, eh? Hey, I'm new to this blogging, cut me some slack. So now I need to find a crockpot lid replacement. That should be a fun adventure. Part of me wonders if I can't find one whether I'll convert that appliance to a dye pot for yarn. I'm still in the dreaming stages on yarn dyeing, but I take any opportunity I can. There's also the option of just using some other pot lid on the crock pot. Doesn't have to be glass, right? That might be the way we go. Thrift stores are like the lottery: you have to play to win, and hunting for a spare crock pot lid just does not sound like how I want to spend my time.

Also on the living more sustainably front, last night The Professor and I attended the first in a series of lectures on Greening Your Home at the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes, our local wildlife center. Eighty people were there. That was a lot of folks. It was cool to see such an enthusiastic turnout. The parking lot was overflowing. Next week we're hoping to carpool with some other folks. I had hoped the teacher, Jim LaRue, would cover the frost-protected shallow foundation information mentioned in the class blurb, but alas, he did not, and I didn't pipe up with my questions.

Completely unrelated, let me throw in here that I am not very patiently waiting for my friend Dave (Dave, I know you are reading this) to start his blog. We talked about starting blogs together in solidarity, and here I've taken the leap and he's still standing on the side of the pool in his Speedo. I kid! But seriously, Dave, let's go. I am calling you out, my friend.

Okay, I think that's enough randomness for one day. I will say that I tried to formulate a knitting-related post today and could not for the life of me get a decent shot of the fair isle wrap I am making using my web cam. See? I tried, and this shot was my best. Ick. No my living room is not that garish green, and the wrap looks way better than that in person.

I need to rip out and reknit (it's way too snug at the top), and I'm balking, because it involves taking measurements which are tricky to do myself, or figuring out whether I can sort the problem via blocking, which I doubt. The Professor will help me with measuring at least, but it's not his forte, so I haven't even asked for help yet. Oh, how I wish I had a nearby friend who was crafty and helpful. The people I know who could help me are all far far away. Sigh. I'm also still nursing my thumb, which I gashed open last week cleaning the toaster oven tray. I don't know how those knitting bloggers do it. Writing about and photographing knitting is a daunting task. I have newly increased (and it was considerable already) respect for you all.

Oh, and I will close by saying I just had my first almost-lost post-- the power went off on our street for a few seconds. But I only lost like one small edit because of autosaving. Felt like a rite of passage, though. Cool.

Some more substantial updates

Frankly, I think I've got a bit of stage fright. I've told a few people I started this, and y'all might actually be reading it. Gasp. What to tell you about?

The other hitch is that there has been so much going on lately that I don't know where to start. The Professor (my sweetie) was out of town for a few days and I went gangbusters getting stuff done around the house, cleaning out the last of the paper that began accumulating 6 years ago when I moved to Atlanta to be with my mom when she was sick, catching up on laundry, some small doses of sociability, which included some knitting time (working on the charity blanket that I just can't seem to finish) and also watching my cool former cooking teacher, Christina Pirello, on TV thanks to Mary Ann Tivo-ing her appearance for me. It was pretty wacky to watch her using tomatoes and chocolate, which are pretty wide for macrobiotics, but of course it makes sense if she's trying to appeal to a national TV audience and come up with a menu for less than $40.

I'm reading a fantastic book called Write It Down, Make It Happen, by Henriette Anne Klauser, which is completely rocking my world. I've had a few experiences in the past of writing a wish list and magically everything on it coming true, so I know it works. I'm using the technique again now and already having fabulous results. I'm hoping to convince The Professor to use it to get his current NSF grant.

As for our progress on The Compact, I have bought only groceries and some take-out food (trying to wean myself) and one used book (a copy of the Klauser book as the one I'm reading now is the library's). The Professor broke the rules big time on Day 2, but I'll let him tell you about that. He's agreed to write a guest post as penance. There have been a few times already when I've thought, darn, I need a ... fill in the blank, but so far, every problem has been solved with a homemade solution.

I think that's all the updates I've got in me for today. Hope everything is well in your world.