Thursday, May 31, 2007
Ah, if only these were truly finished. I used an eye of the partridge heel instead of following the pattern for the first sock, then decided while knitting the second sock that I should have just used the pattern as written afterall (much prettier), and also while I was at it with all the inconsistent knitting, I went ahead and made the foot longer. If I were to keep these myself I would consider these done and call it a day, but I don't think my Sockapoolza pal would appreciate my mismatched/lazy aesthetics...
Duck and I are still here in Rhode Island until this evening. Kitty and her crew left yesterday. Man I just hate to be the last to leave.
Newport, RI
Filed Under: Socks | Sockapalooza | Twisted Flower | Travel
Sunday, May 27, 2007
We are in the midst of our 2nd Annual Memorial Day Getaway with Kitty and her fiance. (This trip has been planned much more in advance than our plans to sell our house, if that gives any indication to how well Duck and I ready ourselves for major life events...) Last year we were in Ogunquit, Maine. This year we are in another seaside town of Jamestown, Rhode Island, just adjacent to Newport.
We have been eating seafood and making cocktails, of course.
A "Jamestown"
Look how pretty this drink is! Kitty has made an old-fashioned of sorts, which comprises of: fresh mashed cherries, sugar, a splash of orange juice, a dash of bitters, and bourbon over ice. We have dubbed this drink "The Jamestown" in honor of our week here.
Meanwhile, I made this...
A Pink Mojito
It's a pink mojito, the pink courtesy also of two mashed cherries. There is no cherry flavor per se, so they're there for color really. Pretty, no?
I have finished my glass and now must refill.
How I love the summer. Cheers to you all!
Filed Under: Life | Cocktails
Monday, May 21, 2007
Actually I don't think our offer was so much gratefully accepted as it was begrudgingly accepted. It was rather an interesting / worthy-of-a-case-study-for-burgeoning-real-estate-agents / wouldn't-really-recommend-it-to-others kind of transaction which I might talk about later but won't now because at the end of the day WHO THE !@#& CARES THEY TOOK OUR OFFER.
** Insert maniacal screaming here **
Some choice descriptions from the MLS entry regarding this property that make my eyes dilate, hyperventilate, and gestate (ok not quite but needed a third word to complete the cycle) as they read them:
Under Agreement! They agree! With us!
South End! It's in the US National Register of Historic Places!
1890 Rowhouse! Owning not just a home, but a little piece of history!
Fireplace! I smell the roasting chestnuts!
Roof deck! PRIVATE! ALL OURS! NO SHARING! CITY VIEWS!
Everyone's invited for martinis on the roof!
** We now take a short break to run around in circles **
Meanwhile, on the other side of the pendulum, the inspection on our house came back and the basement passed the radon test! Hooray, House, for passing! Whatever that was about!
Maybe now I can finally get a decent night's worth of sleep...On second thought, sleep? I'm too excited to sleep!!
Thanks all for sending your good vibes. Thank you thank you thank you! xoxoxoxoxoxo to all!
TEE HEE HEE HEE HEE HEEEEEEEE!
Filed Under: Life
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Tulips | Boston Public Garden
Lilacs, my favorite flower, which I only encountered during my first May in New England, up in rural Connecticut. There are no lilacs in the South where I grew up. It was love at first smell. | Backyard
Wisteria, my other favorite flower, which grow as wild and thick as the kudzu in the South: up pine trees, around telephone poles, dripping from cables. Up here in the North, the wisteria behave in a more more civilized manner. | South End
Our house (in a color of not our choosing, fyi) for sale.
As it turns out, a house with a yard and picket fence is just not our thing. So, we're trading it for a shoebox with no parking in the middle of the city. And we can't wait.
After a lot of painting and prepping and touch-ups over the last month and a half, our house officially went on the market last week. We had an Open House on Saturday, 4 offers by Tuesday, an acceptance on Wednesday, followed by the inspection on Thursday.
Meanwhile, I'm one good swipe away from gouging my own eyes out as we wait for our offer on a condo - our DREAM HOUSE in the city! - to be accepted. I can't talk much about what this place is like because I'm afraid...to talk too much...would mean getting hopes up...better safe to be a glass half-empty kind of girl right now...that's the only way I can deal with the stress...
If you have good vibes to give, I'll take good vibes in any form you wish to send them: a coin tossed into a fountain, a warm thought, or body of a freshly decapitated animal. Anything will do.
Dude what a week it's been.
EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
Filed Under: House Stuff | Life
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Sockapalooza 4 is barely underway and I've already revealed myself to my sock pal.
I left a comment on her blog, signed with an alias, left the url and email fields blank (blank! I tell you I left them blank!), hit publish...and voila. There's my blog url for all to see.
!@#$!? cookies.
That was an amateur move. I feel like I'm not wearing any pants.
Goddamnit. Hi Sock Pal. Hi.
Filed Under: Sockapalooza
Friday, May 11, 2007
Pattern: Meida's Socks from IK's Favorite Socks. Pattern by Nancy Bush.
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Poppy, just under one skein
Needles: US size 1 Phew. I got a pair of socks with barely a skein of Poppy at my disposal. I actually decreased the stitch count by 2 for each pattern repeat, resulting in a pair of very small socks. They're too small for me (you can't see in this photo, but when I wear these the heel of the sock is practically at the soles of my feet), but just right for a certain diminutive mother whose feet are the size of a pixie's. I sent these off in the beginning of the week, and she's already received them, just in time for Mother's Day.
E-mail from her this morning: You are something, the gift is so marvelous, can't believe you have so much patient! Heh heh. So much patient.
And so much pink! Socks and spring are marvelous!
Dutch tulips from the garden
Flowering apple trees, Boston Public Garden
Pink blossom overload, Boston Public Garden
Meida's Socks, for Mom
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Life | Socks | Meida's
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Now I like Christmas probably as much as you do, but let's get one thing straight: Christmas is not the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Spring is. Spring. Especially when you've had to slog through five, six months of cold, detestable winter that make your fingers swell indoors, spring tastes that much better when it finally arrives.
I'm so happy that spring's green is here that I'm going to overload this page with a gazillion pictures.
Golden Creeping Jenny
Glamour shot of BFL yarn custom-dyed for me by Scout
Unfurling peonies. Soon they will become this.
The season's first batch of mojitos.
More sock love.
I love you Spring.
Filed Under: Life | Yarn Stash
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
All I need to do to finish Tate's sweater and get it - and Charlie - in the mail before Tate turns 30 is to do the miniscule amount of seaming necessary and to sew the collar to the front.
Peekaboo
I just keep putting it off!
Filed Under: General Knitting | Vestee
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Everyone, be proud of my unsocial, ungathery self, for I have done the previously unthinkable and joined a knit-along. Sockapalooza 4, everybody, Sockapalooza 4 and I are BFF's!! In fact I was so excited to get my pal's information last night that I immediately casted on and finished a sock!
Tada! Isn't it a beauty???
OK not really. I mean the part about having started the sock last night. It is definitely, without question, very beautiful, so much so that I will buy for my lovely little sock a little sparkly tiara and build her a little runway so that she may sashay her pretty self around the house for all to admire. You can thank CookieA for this brilliant pattern, called the Twisted Flower Sock.
I started it several weeks ago and have been knitting it very off and on. Through the first round of pattern I had a sneaking suspicion that it was going to be too big for me. I kept chugging along though, one because the pattern is, well, so drop-dead gorgeous, and so fun to do, and second, I was hoping that perhaps I would be assigned to someone who might specifically mention liking
- sock yarns with that tight beady twist (as Cherry Tree Hill Supersock has)
- solid colored yarns (this one's in Burgundy)
- and had a slightly bigger foot than me, maybe half an inch or so longer and wider...
If all applied I would be able to just go ahead and knit this for my pal.
And wouldn't you know it: Check, check, and check on all three counts!
I didn't follow the pattern through to the heel, fearing it would too loose.
But I might very well change my mind. It is only May (May!?!) afterall...
*****
So speaking of swaps, I'd like to take this final opportunity to thank everyone who participated in the Knitterly Letter Swap. I hope everyone enjoyed writing and receiving their letters. I did. There was a period where I had a letter waiting for me in the mailbox for 4 consecutive days. It was better than Christmas! I owe several replies...Anyway, there were a few snafus with lost letters, returned letters, etc. and I tried my best to follow up with people, but of course it's impossible to police and to make sure every letter gets to where it needs to go. Last week I paired up all letterless folks who contacted me with a "savior," and they sent their letters out to you almost immediately (thank you saviors! and those who volunteered but didn't get used). So I really hope all of you who joined have received at least one letter, and that you've got your letter-writing juices flowing enough to continue writing more!
Filed Under: Letter-writing | Socks | Sockapalooza | Twisted Flower
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