cordeliaknits

Monday morning thoughts

I'm still in love with Tosh Worsted, and just started another shawlette in this color way, called Cherry.  It's a bit more pink than I expected it to be, but it's beautiful and soft and squishy, so I'm not complaining.

Yesterday afternoon we went to a dog park on the bay and I knit while Les played with the naughty dogs.  I spent most of the time working on my Fjord shawlette, because Friday night I ran out of yarn with just a few inches of edging to go.

This picture is pre-frogging.  I had to rip out all the edging, down to the garter stitch triangle, and re-knit the edging, doing several fewer rows of the birds-eye lace.

Thankfully, this yarn is a pleasure to knit with, and I didn't mind too much having to knit it all over again.  (The third picture is my progress yesterday after ripping in the morning.)

Our weekend was filled with laundry and cleaning and knitting, and went by too quickly, as usual.  Last night Les grilled chicken, which was tasty, and then we grilled a marinated tri-tip thing from Trader Joe's to have for lunches...  Unfortunately, we forgot it on the grill and it cooked for about an hour longer than it should have!! 

Tonight we have an art evening planned with one of Leslie's church friends.  I'm not sure what I'll work on, but I'd like to do some painting and collage, since I haven't done that in a while.

<< Whoa, I think we just had a tiny earthquake! >>

I'll leave you with a picture of Les and the very naughty dogs.  Let's hope we all have a great Monday!

vacay knitting

Much of my time in Wisconsin was spent soaking up the beauty of the trees and the landscape.  I never get tired of sitting and knitting under a tree.  Do you?

I brought along several knitting projects, which was a good thing, because I got a lot done, and had plenty to choose from, though the variety wasn't exactly extensive.

I'm working on three different triangular "shawlettes" with another one in the queue!  I just can't get enough of these mini shawls that look so good wrapped around my neck.  Shawlettes are the new cowls, at least for me!

The first one is done with two balls of Noro Silk Garden Sock, alternating every two rows in garter stitch.  The color combinations are totally a surprise as you knit, so even though the knitting is simple, the color changes make it an addictive knit.  (the pattern I'm using is available for free right here!)

The next one is a version of a Shetland triangle done in Madelinetosh Tosh Worsted, in the Fjord color way.  This is one of my new favorite yarns.  SO soft, gorgeous colors, such a pleasure to knit with!

The project bags are also some new favorite possessions, made by my friend Mel, who can make some for you too!  Here is a link to her Etsy Shop, so you can order your own bag.  She has some lovely bags posted right now, or you have the option of choosing custom fabric from her big collection! 

(I'm lucky--because she lives on the other side of my block, I just bring her the fabric I want a bag made out of, which is great, because I am picky about my accessories, and I have more fabric than I have time to sew up myself!)

Family Camp

We are home from a whirlwind trip to Wisconsin and Minnesota over the holiday weekend.  We started with three days of singing, knitting, chatting and KP duty at Family Camp, and then had about a day and a half to enjoy Minneapolis before we came back to California.

ALthough Les was sick with a bad cold for the first few days of the trip, we had a good time overall, and she got to meet many many members of my family, and experience Danish American culture at it's best.

Les fell in love with northwestern Wisconsin, (I have always been in love with it!), and we did lots of fantasizing about moving there and raising alpacas--or something similarly fiber-related!

The weather was great, for the most part, and it was great for me to see many friends and relatives for the fist time in two years, and to introduce them to Les!  Much knitting was done, and much yarn was purchased.  Hopefully we will get unpacked tonight and I can take more pictures of all of that.  Now, however, it's time to get ready for work!

Dykes on Bikes 2009

Yesterday we rode with the Dykes on Bikes in the San Francisco Pride Parade.  I wore this lacy tank top that I knit from AlchemyWabi-Sabi (66% silk, 34% wool) on size 15 needles in a pattern I improvised.

I wanted to have a knitted aspect to my outfit, and at first I had big plans for something a lot more flamboyant.  However, time get away from me, and I only managed to finish the tank top. 

This yarn is really lovely.  It's soft and slightly shiny, and I'm considering frogging the tank soon so I can knit with it again!  I'm thinking it would make a really lovely wrap or shawl...but perhaps I will wear it a few more times before I rip it out.

The parade was great fun, even though it was already quite hot out by the time we rode at 10:30 AM.  Yes, all the bikes ride together.  About four hundred motorcycles that start off the parade. 

The noise from the pipes is amazing, and it's so cool to see all the joyful people watching us.  I love it, because I get to wave and blow kisses at the crowd, and lots of people wave back and cheer and tell us we are hot : )

After the parade, we had lunch in the Castro and I picked up a skein of yarn for vacation knitting at Imagiknit before we headed home for a long nap!

In my next post, I'll share some more pictures from the morning, including more of these hilarious Red Hat ladies posing with bikers!

Happy Pride!

 Fifteen years ago this weekend, I came out of the closet and attended my first Pride celebration in Minneapolis.  I never could have imagined that fifteen years later I would be riding on a Harley in the San Francisco Pride Parade with the love of my life. 

I had no idea how wonderful it would feel to be in love with a sweet, generous, kind, gorgeous woman, and I am so thankful that the last fifteen years prepared me for the life I live now.

We are about to leave for the city to line up for the parade, and I am excited to share pictures with you later today of the knitted aspect of my outfit!

So, Happy Pride, everybody!  Go out and  celebrate the freedom to love.

Random Friday

• Obsessive knitting on my Silk Garden Log Cabin blanket continues.  For those unfamiliar with this yarn, Noro Silk Garden is 45% silk, 45% mohair, and 10% wool.  It has long color repeats, which means it stripes, but the colors also blend together a bit, and it does have a lot of VM (vegetable matter) in the yarn, as it is not as processed as some other yarns.  This means it's not super soft, but I am finding that the knitted blanket is a lot softer than the yarn feels while I'm knitting it.  I am confident that it will soften a lot more once it's washed and blocked as well.
• Les has to get blood taken for her annual checkup today, so she's fasting until at least 2pm!  She's not happy about this.  She's also getting an eye checkup today so she can get new glasses soon.  We picked out some really great glasses that are made in Denmark, and I can't wait until she gets them!
• I'm working on giving up my coffee addiction, as well as cutting way down on my refined sugar intake.  These two go together, as I need a lot of sugar in my coffee.  So far, I'm doing 'half caf' coffee in the morning and tea the rest of the day, and I'm really getting into tea, which is a lovely side effect of this plan.  At night, I started drinking Sleepytime Extra by Celestial Seasonings, and I don't need to even consider taking a sleeping pill anymore, because it really puts me to sleep!  During the day I drink green tea (when I need a bit of caffeine) and my new favorite, Pomegranate White Tea from Trader Joe's, with lots of honey.  Honey is better than sugar, right?
• I'm getting a haircut tomorrow!!!  This will be the first cut since my trim in December (!) and it's so long, I'm hoping my new stylist can do something really cool with it.  After my hair appointment, we are going to see Nightfliers, a new movie that a friend of ours wrote and directed!
• I forgot to mention that last week we got free tickets to a screening of Away We Go, and we both loved it.  See this movie!!  It was funny and sweet and sad and happy and I can't recommend it enough.

Tired Tuesday

It's not yet 6:00, and I am already in my PJ's with my glass of wine and my slippers on.  I am exhausted!  I was up quite early this morning so I could be at the dentist's by 7am for my FOUR fillings!  Per the dentist's suggestion, I took some anti-anxiety meds before I went, since I was quite nervous about the fillings.  Everything went great, and the hardest part was making myself relax my muscles while I was in the chair!  I had no pain at all, and all four fillings were done in about 45 minutes!

However, those meds I took made me SO tired for the rest of the day!  I could hardly keep my eyes open, especially during nap-time while I was knitting and listening to podcasts.  I actually dozed off for a few minutes, which is crazy for me, since I never take naps unless I am sick, and it usually takes me a long time to fall asleep.

So, that's why I'm ready for bed before I've even cooked dinner.  Perhaps I'll fall asleep on the couch, or maybe I'll get in bed around 8 to read and sleep.  Normally, I wouldn't even consider sleeping so early, but today it may be necessary!

On the knitting front, I have been obsessed with a log cabin blanket I started on Friday.  Even though I have several other projects in the works, and several have deadlines, I got a bee in my bonnet on Friday to knit a blanket using all the Noro Silk Garden I've been collecting for the past few years and have never used.  I am so attracted to the colors and look of Silk Garden, but it seems like every project I have in mind when I buy a ball or two doesn't work out, and I have ended up with a sizable stash of several different colorways.

 I don't know how big this will end up, and as it gets bigger, the colored squares will take more than one ball, so the color changes may get even more interesting.  Hopefully it will become a good throw size, as right now it's not even big enough to be a lap blanket.

Although I've read and loved them for years, I never really understood the Mason Dixon ladies' love for log cabin knitting until now.  The garter stitch is quite meditative, and it's so much fun to watch it grow that Les has to tear me away from it when it's time to go to bed, or get ready for work, or pretty much anything else that needs to get done.  She even had to force me to sit and blog for you instead of knitting!

But, now it's time to make dinner so I can knit until I fall asleep!

Drama

We've had some drama at work this week.  Baby O fell off the couch on Sunday night and Monday morning we found out she had broken her arm!  This was a shock, since she is a very active lady and loves to climb, so she falls fairly often--from higher things than the couch, and onto harder surfaces than the carpeted floor--but she apparently just landed in a weird way this time.

Tuesday morning she got a cast, which is heavy and awkward, and she's still trying to figure out how to maintain her balance, play and eat with it on.  The cast is not waterproof, or pretty, and she gets annoyed with it, so she picks at it.  Because of all these factors, I decided she needed a cast cover.

I found this great yarn at Michael's.  It's by Bernat and is a bamboo acrylic blend.  It's shiny and soft like a silk yarn, and was quite inexpensive!  I just guessed how many stitches to cast on and made a ribbed tube.  When I thought it was long enough, I tried it on over the cast, figured out where to put the thumb hole, and was done by 10:30 am yesterday! 

Baby O seems to like the cast cover.  When her mother came home for lunch, she held her arm up proudly to show it off, and she's not picking at the cast as much.  Also, it's pink and soft and pretty, and it goes with most of her (very pink) wardrobe.

Thankfully, she's still in good spirits most of the time.  Occasionally it seems like she has some aches in her arm, because there are periods where she gets whiny and just wants to be danced around the room (her favorite way to be comforted by me when she's not sleepy), but the pain is definitely better now that she has the cast on and can't move her arm in bad ways.

For her part, Baby M doesn't seem to notice the cast, and is just happy to have her best friend back so they can play together, make messes, read stories and sing songs!

In love with leftovers

Is it possible to be in love with leftovers? Because I am.
Last night I did some experimenting and made the BEST supper! Now I'm enjoying it again for lunch. Here's what I did:

One big can of diced tomatoes and one package of trader joe's steamed lentils, combined on stove with four diced and sauteed cloves of garlic (in a bit of olive oil).
Simmer for a while, then add salt and pepper, a bit of cayenne and (this is the key) several leaves from each of the herbs in my tiny herb garden! I used sage, tarragon, rosemary, and thyme. Simmer a few minutes and it's ready!

Serve with Parmesan polenta and prepare to fall in love!

nice teeth

Yesterday morning I went to the dentist.  This may not sound like a big deal to you, but I have not been to the dentist in a really really long time.  We're talking over a decade, people!

Please don't judge me.  I've been in school for seven years, without dental insurance for longer than that, and as with anything hard, the longer it's been, the harder and scarier it is to go.  But, I finally did it, and I chose a dental office here in San Leandro called Nice Teeth!

Their name turned out to be spot-on, because everyone was so nice, and so non-judgmental, and so gentle, that I am actually not dreading going back today for my cleaning!  Yesterday was my consultation.  I have nine cavities, which may sound like a lot to you, but I was actually pretty pleased with the number, since I had fears that it could be much worse.  The best news was that none of the cavities are too awful, and so I don't need anything more drastic than fillings!

We are going to start filling them in in order of severity, and hopefully I will have a totally healthy mouth by the new year!  This is exciting and a big relief!  I'm turning over a new leaf, and I'm taking care of my teeth.  One less thing to feel guilty and anxious about!