Miss me?

Yeah, me too. Work blah blah, holidays bleh bleh. I have, as usual, somewhat overcommitted myself to projects - though, in my defense, I have actually accomplished quite a bit on some of them. Just...not as much as I'd maybe hoped.

But still, there's a lot of (if not quite enough) knitting happening, a few things going on in the kitchen and the craft room, and still more time than I would normally have to handle at least part of the over-planning. Most importantly, I think I'm more truly inspired than I have been in the past.

I can, alas, share little of this inspiration now. Yes, I know you've heard that several hundred times from several dozen other bloggers, but such is the nature of surprise, yes?

So, while I'm stuck for things that will prove my relative industriousness, I *can* share a few bits and pieces that are giving me a completely non-chemical holiday buzz.

- I feel like cooking again. Yay! Starting with my Best Batch of Pumpkin Bread Ever in October, I have been About the Kitchen Stuff lately. I'm making my award-winning (well, at least among Bryan's Crew) Chili Masala for the department party on Wednesday, and probably starting on the baked goods tomorrow too. (So, Central Houston SnBers: yes, there will be home-baked goodness coming your way in the next two weeks.) I also talked to my mom today about cooking for Christmas Eve, which is when she'll have The Big Dinner for several out-of-town visitors.

- I just spent the weekend with my lovely BFF, her neato husband, and Thomas The Coolest Two-Year-Old Ever again, this time on their turf. Thomas has thoroughly learned my name and used it rather often, which I love. I took pictures, but they weren't so great.

- Bryan and I were shopping in Target last week when I came across the method holiday display. Now, we're regular users of various method products - it's one of the few lines that has fragranced home products that are pleasant, useful, and tolerable by overly-sensitive me. (We have pink grapefruit and lavender items in use in different rooms.)

A quick sniff of the three holiday fragrances, and I'd found a new household love: peppermint vanilla hand wash. People, I can't even tell you how giddy this stuff makes me. It's lightly-scented happy in a pretty bottle, it's cheap, and it's useful. You should get some, or at least try it, and maybe try the frosted cranberry and spiced pear stuff too.

- Finally, something that actually looks like Christmas, right here in a post. From me. (Hey, you never know.) This is from the Central Texas Mini-Tour II, which Bryan and I undertook on Thanksgiving weekend. That Friday, there was unbelievable barbecue in Lockhart, and a stroll through Bastrop's Riverwalk, which was scattered with lovely little displays like this:



Christmas lights are officially my favorite part of the holiday, to be sure. But really, the best part - warning: mush ahead - was strolling along with my honey on a cool, breezy evening, enjoying each other's company. It wasn't a stunning show, no one sprung out any priceless gifts or fancy dinners, and we were thoroughly dressed to chill. But I still think that night will sit in my Best Things Ever mental scrapbook for a long time to come.

...And so to bed. Remind me to tell y'all about my trip to Twisted Yarns this past Friday. :)

The people are demanding.

Seriously...you people are noodges! Fine, then. It's a post with photos, now with added best-friend goodness.


This is Catherine, my best friend and former roommate. She's wearing her birthday present: a feather-and-fan scarf (one repeat with a two-stitch garter border) in Lion Brand Suede, Seacrest Print, about 1 2/3 balls. Not measured, but it's approximately 62" x 5 1/2". This turned out very plush and silky, and she loved it. Caety lives in Fort Worth, where she'll actually have a use for the thing.

This photo was taken outside of Yia Yia Mary's Greek Restaurant in SW Houston. Notice that this means Caety was visiting me! We visited the Renaissance Festival yesterday, then had lunch with my folks today. Caety brought along Scott, who my mom got pictures of but I didn't, and...


Thomas, the coolest two-year-old ever in the history of two-year-olds. My mom brought him a little stuffed Blue (of Blue's Clues), who posed with him, and a double-decker Matchbox bus, for which Blue became a stopping wall. In this photo (he was wiggly today, so I did not actually capture the bus), Thomas is making the bus go "zoom" across the table.


Here, he's hanging out in my mom's lap, eating a lemon. Already a culinary adventurer, Thomas had also enjoyed hummus, pita, olives, and a little chicken souvlaki and french fries.

My "nephew" is quite the fun kiddo. He's pretty articulate for his age, adorably funny, loves to give hugs, bouncy but well-behaved, completely entertaining. The scarf was Caety's early birthday present (which was actually late...it was supposed to be for her *last* birthday).

Her other present: I'm going to Fort Worth next weekend to visit and babysit so she and Scott can go out, and so I get some more Fun Kid Time. And to drag her to Super Jo-Ann with me. (By the way, will somebody remind me to write Jo-Ann and ask why the hell they don't have any Superstores in the Houston area?)

More knitting content:

My first (and possibly only) Ballband Dishcloth. I like the way it turned out, but I just didn't enjoy the pattern that much...I've never worked with two colors before, which could be part of the problem - my edges looked a bit messy. Perhaps my problem was that it was boring, but not mindless. I don't mind boring if it's mindless; then I can do something else for the fun.

As for interesting and not mindless:


The "fingertip towel" in Sugar 'n' Cream Countryside Ombre; stitch is a fagoting panel from the Reader's Digest Ultimate Sourcebook. Not sure how useful it will actually be - I mostly did this to get a good idea of the rhythm of knitting a lace pattern. But I'm really kind of proud of it - not a mistake to be found in the lace - and I love the angular "S" thing that the ombre did. My next step in practicing lace: sport weight yarn, more complex pattern, larger item.

And, since I cut off the top of her head in the photo above:

A much better photo of my mom, taken in August 2004 at my wedding shower. She had a great time today - Mom is the biggest fan of little kids, and Thomas takes to good people like a duck to water. He and my mom have always been crazy about each other, and I know the visit just made her week.

It made mine too - I really miss living closer to Caety and her family. Not that my family or great Houston friends are chopped liver, mind you! If I could just move the three of them down here, or move all that's good about Houston to DFW...sigh.

Other news briefs:

- Amy gave me a whole bunch of jewelry supplies after I mentioned some of the projects I had planned for holiday gifts. Yay! Thanks, Amy! My newest pointy sticks: a five-piece set of jewelry pliers (I bought those myself).

- Speaking of holiday gifts, I'm now working on them in earnest. One of my 43 Things (of which I don't yet have 43) is "give an item I handmade to each recipient on my holiday list." There will be beads and wire, knitting, baking, and a few other skills involved.

Hey, quit laughing. I actually have a few done already.

- Caety bought a bodice from Unicorn, and I bought a pair of Dream Shoes, both for ren faire garb wear. We've been swearing for about a decade now that we'd go to faire in garb; now it looks like we're taking the steps. Over the years, it's been "time, but no money" or "money, but no time" to buy or sew what we want...plus, I'm still developing my sewing skills. But I do believe, come time for Scarborough next spring, we just might be ready to make good on the threat.

FINALLY (heh!): no complaints allowed on the length of this post - when the people demand photos, they must take the words that go with them! In all seriousness, I'll be working on updating twice a week, with more frequent photos. The joy! The anticipation!

The miles and miles of BS!

Three pointy sticks and old-man laughter

And I am again ashamed to say I have no photos to share yet. It's not that I forget, exactly...it's just that...yeah, I got nothin'.

At any rate, there has been more crafty action going on. I finished the lacy fingertip towel (which The Crochet Dude declared would have to be used on "really small fingertips"...thanks, Drew :) ) at SnB last week, as well as what may be my one and only Ballband Dishcloth ever (looks snazzy, but I just didn't enjoy the pattern that much).

So, some missions accomplished, I've started working on a freeform-knitted spiderweb, full of random increases and YOs and interspersed with elongated knit rows. Yes, I'm happy to report that I got the knack of the double wrap and the proper way to drop it. This will come in terribly handy for Christmas knitting.

This week's third pointy stick...well, I suppose that's a bit inaccurate, as I used chopsticks at dinner last night, and there were a lot of pins involved in my newest endeavor. At any rate, I am proud to report that on Monday evening, having never done such a thing before, I properly wound and loaded bobbins, then threaded my sewing machine - and last night, I used it.

Now, I've had my hands on a machine before, and I'm only sewing straight seams so far. (Well...straight in sort of a Dali-istic way.) But I'm pretty proud of this, as I have largely stayed away from seamstressy pursuits up to now. Unlike knitting, I don't get an immediate sense that I'm just going to love doing it - but it's a useful skill to have, if nothing else, and I'm glad I've taken the first step.

Finally, I couldn't resist sharing a Rhinebeck post with you. While there are tons and tons out there, Kilted David has written what has to be my favorite, including a Harlot reference and some lovely descriptions of New York's turning leaves and of eating at the CIA...

...not to mention one passage that made me laugh so hard I couldn't breathe. If you don't already read David's blog, or know him personally (color me jealous!), I highly recommend it - there are frequent photos of Himself knitting and wearing Utilikilts (often at the same time). He's also funny as hell and really great with a camera.

The next few days promise to be hellaciously busy outside of work, but I'll photograph the spiderweb (if not the sewing) and try to show it to you in the next post. I might include the other FOs as well...scary!

...fortunately, unlike my current projects...

I swear that my long posting absences are not a pattern. Really! My previous post summed up most every weekday for the last four weeks, up to last Friday. As I told my S'n'Buddies (yipe, I'm making *myself* cringe) two weeks ago (which was when Bryan insisted I go to regain a measure of sanity...and yes, it worked), the Really Big-Ass Trade Show took a whole hell of a lot out of me, and out of a lot of other people, too.

Fortunately, the RBATS was this week - is, in fact, closing up shop right now. Monday still had some loose ends, but the last three days at work have been been filled with:

- Bloglines
- Yahoo! Groups
- Television Without Pity
- Cute Overload
- Watching the entire episode of Heroes that I missed on Monday

...and very little work or angst to interrupt it. I was actually given half of Tuesday off on comp time (which, you know, doesn't really exist and all) and inadvertently spent it with my mom, which still worked out OK - partially because I finally picked up a couple of boxes of kitchen toys from my wedding registry.

From my wedding. Which was TWO YEARS AGO on Monday. Procrastinate? Me?

On the other side of that, Bryan picked out Pappas Bros. Steakhouse as a venue for the eating of Wedding-Commemorative Meat. As I so often get verbal smackdowns for making people hungry with my food descriptions...and as I'm not into drooling on my keyboard at the moment...suffice it to say that he had ribeye, I had lamb, and a good time was had by all. Certainly worth missing Heroes, hee.

As for the rest, my brief evenings and coveted weekends have been devoted to doing Anything But Working, Much Less Thinking About Work, and involved much semi-dressed, husband-couch-cats-knitting time, with a little shopping thrown in. I picked up the Reader's Digest Ultimate Sourcebook on stitch patterns...

...and employed it to create an AFO in the last two weeks. I'd say "look, here it is," but...yeah, I generally suck, even when I have too much time on my hands. As a preview, it's my first almost-complete lace pattern project, employing a fagoting panel with a four-row repeat. OK, so I wussed and it just happens to be a hand towel...on 8s...in Sugar 'n' Cream. But it's really pretty, I promise! I'll finish it tonight and post pictures soonish.

I enjoyed working the pattern quite a bit - not too fiddly and gave me a chance to get accustomed to the rhythm of lace. I'll certainly need more practice, but it's given me a chance to get my sea legs while not overtaxing my already overtaxed brain.

Otherwise in the works? Gifts - one of which is for someone who's now a confirmed reader, whose birthday is exactly 150 days after mine, who put up with sharing space with me for a looooong time, and who's bringing her fantastic TallKid, TallHusband, and TallSelf to my neck of the woods in just over two weeks.

So no, I'm not telling. :D

This weekend, there will be knitting, sewing (!), and - oh yes - the first baking of the autumn season. After much ugly rain and a couple of days of early-summer temps, Houston is also benefiting from one of its five Gorgeous Weather Days a year: 70F, sunny and clear. It's all I can do not to make little happy noises every time I walk out the door.

Since I'm all out of "all I can do" after the last month, I've at least tried to keep my voice down as I sigh contentedly in the breeze.

It's good to be back.

Spinners on a dirty minivan with an Ernie doll hanging from the rearview mirror

If you have been up since 6:30 am, and are in the car going home at 7:40 pm, and have not been home before this, and barely had time to eat lunch, and laughing at the aforementioned
minivan has been the best thing in your day so far...well, it sucks.

If, however, you walk in the door to your adorable husband waiting on the couch with Chinese takeout and an episode of Star Trek: TNG on the TV, in waiting for the season premiere of Veronica Mars...your day just got a whole lot better.