Finished!

They're finished! And they look pretty good on Dave (sexy legs, baby!) I even ripped back some of the first sock to make the foot a bit longer so it fit better. That was not easy -- the pitch-dark grey/black shade really messes with your eyes. I have to confess, I just don't love making socks. I know the Yarnmonster loves socks. Jenn seems to love socks. The Yarn Harlot loves socks. Even the guru loves socks. Everyone raves about their portability, their speed of knitting and the variety of possibilities there are in socks. But I'm sorry, I'm not hooked yet. I don't totally get the heel thing. And they don't stay up, no matter how small I make them. They just stretch out and slide down. I guess putting in an elastic would help, but I'm not up for more sewing. Maybe when I knit my next pair with the Yarnmonster's Avocado Fever flavor, I'll love them more. But for now, I'm moving on to the Rogue Hoodie (or so I keep saying) and those fall pumpkin hats!

Fall is here and I love the internet!

I have been such a lackadaisical blogger, and for that I am sorry. I can't expect one pic of my niece and an amusing link to hold you all over for long, right? I am still stuck on this 2nd sock, but as you can see, it's almost finished! And then onto the Rogue Hoodie (along with some quick pumpkin hats for the kids in my life).

This lovely picture you see is my artistic attempt to show my knitting progress along with the bounty of fall. The Farmer's Market was hoppin' this weekend, and I got some butternut & spaghetti squash, along with eggplant and some ears from the last harvest of corn for the year. There were gigantic pumpkins, sunflower heads filled with seeds, and apples, apples, apples!

I'm almost finished reading a wonderfully written book called "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. I love his writing and his comments resonate with me. Basically he talks about the different food chains in America -- industrial, organic (both industrial-organic and small-farm organic) and hunter/gatherer. It's really made me think even more about our food and where it comes from, I mean beyond my vegetarianism. I'm doing all this research into where to find raw milk and eggs from pasture-fed hens. And I decided that I wanted to go mushroom hunting, but didn't know how. So -- and this is where the "I Love the Internet" part comes in -- last week I posted a plea for help on a mushroom-hunting message board and someone just invited me on a hunt in South Bend this weekend. I'm so happy, just because it worked out so nicely, and it's all about bringing people together, isn't it? And tonight I'm going to meet my friend Jessica, who I met through blogland.

Thankfully ND beat MSU this weekend while we watched in hurricane conditions. OK, we left in the 3rd quarter when we were losing badly and the winds started howling, we're wimps. But you would have left too if you were sitting on the very top level, soaking wet.

That's Brady up there, who either slept or breast-fed for most of my last visit.

Check this out if you're bored...Gizoogle!

Go HERE and put in your blog's name...thanks Emily!

We...Got...Socked...

Now focus on the socks, not the newspaper story -- yes, yes, Notre Dame got beat, killed, whooped, spanked, destoyed by our rivals this weekend, and it was the most depressing football game I've ever been to in my life -- but come on, we're talking about knitting here, right? And we here in the The Bend would kind of like to forget about the game for a while. So about the socks -- I'm almost done with the leg of the 2nd one. I've noticed a few mistakes, and gone back and fixed some, but then I noticed more...like a purl where there should be a knit, and vv...let me tell you, black is a BITCH to tink and fix, you can't see your mistakes while you're "fixing" them and that leads to more mistakes where there were previously none. I decided that these are really not major errors and David won't notice and/or care, so I trudge onwards.

Very very exciting news -- Heather's book is out! Once I read that fact on her blog, I rushed to the store to buy Not Your Mama's Knitting. I am so proud of her, she did an incredible job penning an entertaining guide to knitting and its many possibilities. And I got a mention in the acknowledgements, which really means a lot to me -- plus Avocado Fever also got a nod in the blogging section -- yee haw! Thanks, Heather -- you are truly a wonderful chick and I wish you great great things in your knitting future -- especially a book tour that would take you to the midwest...

So back to the weekend...despite our humiliating defeat, it was a pretty good couple of days. The guru was in town with her special friend, and even though we didn't knit at all I always love seeing her. The visit was too short, in my opinion.

2 - 0!

That's our record so far, after a much more comfortable game against Penn State on Saturday. I say comfortable because ND was much more in control of this game than the previous GA Tech contest...not because I was more comfortable. Standing for the entire game (4 hours!) created a lot less exhaustion 10 years ago, and we were pooped when we got home, but I'll be damned if I was going to be the only one sitting down in the student section!

Luckily we powered up before the game at sensational tailgaters hosted by A Second Breakfast & her family and my JA friend Brian & his family. I had veggie burgers at the latter and Polish brewski's at the former...a lovely combination.

And I finished one of Dave's socks! I need to make the second one now, and I've already cast on. I think the foot needs to be a little bit longer, and I'll add a bit more grey at the toe...who says they have to be exactly the same?

Babies with knitted things on them

A mostly picture post -- and actually it's only Sam & Annika with knitted things. But Brady and Alek needed some press, too...I made Alek a hat too (colors for both headpieces chosen by Annika at the Michigan Fiber Fest last month), but couldn't get him to pose wearing it. I guess September is too early for wool.








Go Irish! First home game this weekend, plenty o' pics of that to come...

2-Year Tank for a 1-Year Old and Book Tag!

Rebecca's parents sent me this pic of her in her "One Year Old Two Year Tank", created by my very lovely good friend and author Heather. Now if only Sam's parents would send me such a pic...

Shrodinger tagged me for a book poll, and I'm late in answering, but here goes!

R1. One book that changed your life:

I'll have to agree with the Englishwoman in NY -- I'm not sure any book has actually changed my life. But I remember reading some of Emerson's works sophomore year in high school, especially the one about the transparent eyeball (I think it was called simply "Nature"), and that kind of rocked my world view.
2. One book that you've read more than once:
I too don't usually read books more than once, but "Catcher in the Rye" is one that I have been through a few times.
3. One book you'd want on a deserted island:
Either the bible or a really big thick dictionary -- just because these are both big books and have lots of things to think about in them.
4. One book that made you laugh:
"The Hotel New Hampshire" by John Irving
5. One book that made you cry:
I got really upset when the bad guys were trying to separate Lyra and her daemon (Pantalaimon) in Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy.

6. One book that you wish had been written:
"Not Your Mama's Knitting" by Heather Dixon
7. One book you wish had never been written:
Who can answer this one -- to each their own, and what I hate some else might love. But I think Alex Garland could have done a lot better after writing the thoroughly engrossing "The Beach" than to follow up with "The Tesseract"
8. One book you're currently reading:
"Garlic and Sapphires" by Ruth Reichl
9. One book you've been meaning to read:
"A People's History of the United States" -- I started to but couldn't finish it.

This makes me sad...

The Croc Hunter died! And it was such a freak thing, he was snorkelling and startled a big sting ray. I'm sad because I feel like he got a lot of people interested in wildlife and promoted conservation. I feel like this is a big loss. And I feel so sad for his family.

I Made a New Friend! (and part of a sock)

Last night I met Jessica of Clickety-Clack Ewe at Bella Vita, a new, cozy (yet spacious) coffee shop (with a fire place!) Jessica is one cool woman, and she doesn't even know it. I love the blogosphere! The funniest thing she told me was how she learned to spin. When she was growing up, her mom got tired of the grass growing so long in between mowings, so she bought some sheep to keep it short! And when it came time to shear them, Jessica & her siblings fed them rose petals while her mom cut their hair. (Jess, I hope you don't mind me sharing that story but I get so happy when I think about how simple and wonderful it is.) We've got plans to do some kool aid dyeing in the near future.

Also, I got a few inches done on David's sock. And here's a gratuitous cat v. duck picture.

Frogging Things and Just a Few Pics of Eoin

So here's where we're at. I was waiting to post about the weekend because I thought I'd have some nice WIP shots to post. But after casting on for a second Honeymoon Cami (I can finish this before the weather changes, right? Right???) with this wonderfully soft cotton in a natural green color, and after progressing about 3-1/2" on it, including a seed stitch border, I realized that my gauge was all wrong. So I frogged it. And because casting over 200 stitches onto circular needles and then joining them without twisting is a big PITA, I decided to put that one aside for a while and move on to the long-promised socks for David, made with this wool I got from MD S&W (this stuff was so cheap!) I knew checking the gauge on black yarn would not be easy, but OMG it is a big nasty headache-inducing pain! I kind of fudged it, but in a way that was satisfactory to me, and I started on it, and got about 1" along, and then realized I was doing stockinette when I wanted to be doing ribbing. By this time it was about 12:30am and I just ripped it and gave up. So that's what the pic is of -- the green for the Cami, the grey and black for the socks. I'll take it up again tonight.

Despite all the futile, go-nowhere knitting, the past weekend was made delightful by a visit from Becca & Eoin. We went to a harvest party at the Round Barn Winery in nearby Baroda. While their wines weren't our favorite -- they were all decent but no real stand-outs -- the party kicked butt, and the winery was set in a rustic green farmland region. There was a live band, food, wine, helicopter rides, grape crushing and a big bouncy castle for kids to play in. Eoin wasn't so crazy about stomping on the grapes -- he wouldn't put his feet down in the barrel -- he loved running up and down the rows of vines, and jumping in the bouncy castle.

We stopped in New Buffalo to play in the water on the way back (and to get ice cream!)

Interloper

So, the students are back on campus! This weekend was Freshman Orientation, and classes started on Tuesday. David & I walked around campus and saw the various "ice breakers" being forced upon the "kids" by their elders. My favorite was a girls' dorm/boys' dorm giant homemade twister board, with about 50 frosh crowded into it. Every couple of minutes the caller would shout out a new color/body part combo, and then spray the players with a hose! It was pretty funny.

Today I decided to go to campus with Dave and dress up as a student -- backpack, jeans, fleece, roll out of the day...Here's where I'm hiding out andshower without drying my hair...hmm, now it seems like I play dress up every working, the LaFortune Student Center. I like to observe these youths in their natural habitat. Or maybe I'd like to be one of them again.

As I'm blogging, I'm thanking every possible deity that digital cameras were not really ready for prime time when I was in college. Can you imagine what kinds of pics would have been posted? I mean, I did some pretty horrendously embarrassing things in my day, not the least of which was puking in my innocent Panamanian roommates shoes and causing her to exclaim, in her sweet little voice, "Oh, Michelle, you are leading me to evil!" At least she wasn't wearing her shoes at the time...But seriously, no one is safe -- future politicians, beware!

Ah, to be a student again...David received an email from a fellow grad student asking if anyone knew where he could buy and ice luge...and another student complained about a 10AM group project meeting on Friday morning, saying, "Dude, don't you guys party???"

Poor Pluto!

The Ballad of Sheep and Goat

I was in fiber heaven on Saturday at the Michigan Fiber Festival. Early in the morning I headed up there alone to do some intensive browsing/shopping before meeting up with David and his bro & family. I really, really controlled my buying impulses...I thought that I'd be worse off without having Jess, the guru or Jenn there to help me exercise spending caution, but now I realize that those 3 are dirty enablers, the lot of them! I received a lot of compliments on the Honeymoon Cami I was wearing (but I have to shorten the straps again, because I think they stretched a little after I washed it), and I got to speak to a lot of spinners. Even though I haven't been practicing that craft much, and can't do much more than spin a bunch of single ply on a drop spindle, I bought a little bit of roving to practice on -- some alpaca (of course), wool and a mohair/wool blend. It was pretty cheap, and is just enough to get my hands dirty with.

I learned a lot about fleece by watching this woman, who was the judge of the wool fleece contest. As she weighed, pinched and fondled the bags of wool entered into the contest, she commented on each category and why the fleece met or did not meet the requirements to get full points. The fleece in this pic looks like a whole sheep lying on the table, but that's just its hair!!!

Here's my stash, small as it is -- maybe the recent Suss sale prevented me from going more insane. The white stuff was some really inexpensive undyed wool that I'm thinking of Kool Aid dying. The roving is in the front (alpaca in the middle), and the pink and green Lamb's Pride was selected by my niece Annika to be made into hats for her and her brother Alek. The festival was really cool, but a lot smaller than Rhinebeck or MD S&W.

There were only a few alpacas and llamas, but rabbits, sheep and goats were plentiful. Alek and Annika really enjoyed looking at the animals, even though the border collie demonstration was kind of a comedy of errors. Imagine a dog being afraid of a sheep! But then later he gets his courage back and chases them into a folding chair, over a barrel and around and under a trailer...you get the picture. Apparently it was just a young dog, but we enjoyed the show in any case, and border collies are really cute.

After the fest we headed up to Saugituck, MI, a really cute town on Lake MI. We went to see Talladega Nights with A Second Breakfast & her special friend, her parents, and our friends, Ruthless and Em. That movie was SO FUNNY and SO BAD!!! At the same time! I couldn't stop laughing, but it was so stupid. I highly recommend it.

Hey, how about them Yankees?!?!

Happy Birthday, Jen-nay!

Today is Jen-nay's 32nd birthday, so if you know her, wish her a happy day! I sure do!

No, this isn't a cow's heart, and I'm still a vegetarian...this is just a little different type of craft. I wanted to tie dye some onesies for all the babies coming into my life, so I went out and bought some RIT dye and other paraphernalia and got right down to it. They're pretty cute, but I need to get some more practice to make the colors more vibrant. I just kind of lost patience and got tired of chasing Kingston off the table so he didn't tie dye himself. The big one in the middle is mine -- I got so much dye on my t-shirt in the onesie-dying process, I decided to just immerse the whole thing.

TOMORROW IS THE MICHIGAN FIBER FEST! I'm so excited, even though I'm going by myself. I've got a short list -- something for the Family Tunic, Hooded Tunic and a sweater for Dave. But that doesn't mean I'll stick to that list only...having a list didn't exert much control over me at MD S&W -- and neither did Jess or the guru, for that matter. I haven't really progressed that far in the art of spinning, so at least that should curtail any mad roving/spinning wheel purchases.

David is coming to meet me there, with his bro & family, so it should be fun. Of course, they are coming to meet me later in the day, so I have enough time to get my fill of fiber. They're mostly coming for the animals.

Speaking of cuteness, Brady's grandmother (Kerry's mom) sent me this adorable pic of him. I think he totally looks like my dad here!

Remedy...

Saturday night in CO we went to see the Black Crowes at Red Rocks Amphitheater. I had always heard incredible reviews of this venue and really wanted to go, and it worked out in an unexpectedly pleasing way that one of Todd's "must-see" concerts this summer was happening last weekend and there were still tickets available. This is the MOST AWESOME place to see a concert, EVER! The setting -- amazing -- the stage was set into some natural red rock formations creating unbelievable acoustics. The weather could not have been more perfect -- great temperature for an outdoor show and then at the end, a warm wind started blowing and whipping around Chris Robinson's hair just making the whole event kind of other worldly. Am I being cheesey? Was I just too buzzed from all the parking lot pre-partying and enjoying it way too much? Maybe, but if Red Rocks was around here, I'd be there. All. The. Time. Of course, upon returning to reality, we found out that Chris and Kate had split...damn! That's why she wasn't at the show...

While out west, David & I also got the chance to go horseback riding at Capitol Peak Outfitters near Aspen. I highly recommend this experience, the view was beautiful and watching David's horse hang back and eat while everyone else was moving forward was hysterical. Here's a shot of him all by his lonesome, at the back of the pack...

And look what I bought for a buck at the wonderful Boulder Farmer's Market! No, not Mango , I'm referring to the 1oz. ball of brown sheep fleece. I bought it to practice with. It was much more nicely rolled up when I bought it, but David thought it would be fun to play with it and pretend it was a bunch of dreadlocks...

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder?

Sorry it's been a while since my last update, did you miss me? David & I were on vacation in Colorado. I love going to Colorado with its open lands so different from what I'm used too, and its big sky. It's just beautiful. And Boulder, where our good friends Todd & Jenni live, offers head-spinning varieties of sustenance for vegetarians. Are there any other veggies out there who kind of freeze up when a restaurant has more than 1 or 2 options for you to choose from? I can't decide, it's a lot of pressure, I'm not used to having choices!!!

Luckily I finished the Honeymoon Cami right before leaving for the west, and it made 2 appearances -- here I am in Aspen, ready to head for some wine. It fits so perfectly, I love it! I'm a little scared to wash it, but I want to wear it to the MI Fiber Fest this weekend so I'm about to plunge it into the sink and pray for no serious mis-shaping/unravelling results. I also have another FO that I can't post a pic of until its recipient sees it (but thanks to Heather for the pattern!)

More pics to come tomorrow!