Well, it's pretty, that's for sure.

I took a commission from a friend a month ago, to make an infinity scarf. It is taking a blue forever, for reasons I've whined about before.

I love Rex, I really do.

Anyway, I bethought myself to finally take a picture of it. I screwed up the night-time knitting project (the one I keep in my bedroom to knit on before I go to bed) and will need the assistance of my knitting group to repair it. So this project, herewith called "Water Melons", has been promoted from knit night knitting to bed time knitting. I'll work on both of them, alternating, until one of them is finished. Or I'll go crazy and eat my own yarn, one or the other.

Here is a picture of Water Melons:

The stitch pattern is called "melons", and I found it in my favorite yarn porn book evar: Victorian Lace Today, by Jane Sowerby.

And I just about fainted when I looked up that link. The book is now under $10 cash American. I won't tell you what I paid when it was brand new, but I'll tell you what, just looking at the pictures is worth every penny.

Anyway, the yarn is Crystal Palace Yarns Panda Pearl in the color "Blue Lagoon" -- hence, Water Melons.

Hey, I've been getting more and more tired lately, all my wit and humor burned off well before I get home, and all that's left over is the burnt out husk of a woman who used to be absolutely clever on this blog. Cut me some slack on the stupid puns, ok?

I probably need more protein. And maybe some exercise. And to be not dehydrated (why oh why can I not keep myself in the habit of drinking water? Yes, I know it's bland -- I mean, duh, it's water -- but you'd think I would remember how tired and headachey and miserable I get when I don't drink it and just...do my duty to myself, you know?)

Anyway, Rex is looking a bit sheepish. He knows I've outed him for his luxury yarn fetish.

You'd think it would be a point of common ground between us, wouldn't you? If only he'd leave my stash alone, it probably would.

I am so losing my destashing game again this year....

I stopped to pick up my layaway silk yarn and this wanted to come home with me:

You can't tell from this picture, but that's some silk, merino, nylon and a silver strand all spun up together. Sparkles, my kryptonite.

I think it's going to be wanting beads, too. I'm so pathetically easy, you know?

At least Rex is keeping my chair warm:

That's some pretty yarn there. May I chew on it? No? Ok, then. Whatevs.

Aughnonononononono!

So, I was working on a Giftmas present for Nieceling. I got a yarn I thought was going to work, finished up two days ago, popped it in the washer (it said it was machine washable yarn) and....

It pilled up!!!

I am so verklempt right now. It was adorable and now it's just...just...fuzzy.

I will have to promise her to make one out of good yarn. Sturdy yarn.

I'm off to KnitPicks now, because say what you will about their policies, they have some sturdy as hell acrylics that are soft, durable and do not pill. 

Here is Rex, to cheer me up:

Come to my pillow fort, we can snuggle

Nobody comes here anymore, so....

I guess it's safe to post this here:

It's a glimpse of patterns to come. Just the colors, no detail work yet. I'll be posting the pattern shortly after Christmas (if only because I won't be getting a good overall photo until Christmas day.) The prototype is a gift for someone (shh, don't tell), and will be getting pulled out of a bag and (hopefully) worn for the first time that day. I hope she likes it.


It's really simple, and nothing anyone with a half an ounce of knitting experience couldn't reverse-engineer, but eh. Feels good to be getting my toes into the design waters again. If nothing else, it gives me an extra push to finish it -- so I can write it down and get it ready.

I'm such a weenie, that I should need an extra push to finish up a pattern. I don't like deadline knitting, but there's really no point in resisting it -- it's not like anyone forced me to knit this, I chose to do it. I get so frustrated with myself sometimes!

I have help in the knitting:

Nice picture, eh? I caught him in mid-scritch. Found it adorable, to be honest. Long curly whiskers, little floofy toes....

A total affront to my dignity, that last picture. What if I had been grooming?!?!?

I have other help, too, but of the "giant canine version of a yarn moth" sort. So I don't knit in front of my downstairs tv anymore. Someone might eat my yarn.

Hey. How you doin'?

 

Done(ish)!

I finished (mostly) a thing yesterday:

He's gone into the washing machine for a whirl.

And when he comes out, I will stuff him and fit some washable bells and sew him up. Then he gets to fly off to the UK while I stay here and labor in the salt mines.

Which is totally fine, I mean I did just get promoted to the top of the quarry and all...

And here's a gratuitous picture of Rex:

On the general principle that a cute dog picture never goes amiss.

Adventures in Baking

I've had a hankering for clafoutis (a yummy, custardy fruit tart) lately -- a very strong hankering, made worse by the fact that the only place I've ever gotten pre-fabricated clafoutis (Trader Joe's) is not only a good half hour drive away by highway, but also doesn't carry the same products all the time. So getting clafoutis up there is a crap shoot -- with no guarantee of a sweet, pastry and fruit payoff at the end.

Too many times of rolling snake-eyes on the clafoutis table inspired me to find a decent recipe for it so I could take control over my own cravings.

I found this recipe over at Orangette: Clafoutis. It's an adaptation of a New York Daily News version of the recipe which I further adapted by adding a pinch of dried, powdered ginger and two hefty shakes of cinnamon to the batter and a light dusting of sugar on top of the plums as they lay in the dish, waiting for assault with spicy batter. My plums were slightly under-ripe (two of the three, anyway), and I intended the sugar dusting to help mitigate the sour bite of the fruit -- which may or may not have worked as intended. I'll not admit either way. The ginger gives the plums an additional bite, the cinnamon a hint of burning sweet, and the custard turned out creamy, sweet and luscious.

It's easily the simplest version I've found in my extensive searches, and as far as I'm concerned, it's the only version I need. Typically, the first time I make a recipe, it takes me slightly longer to put it together (because I'm getting used to the process). If that holds true for this one, I will bend space-time the next time I make this clafoutis, because it only took five minutes to put the batter together. Any shorter prep time, and it will be baking in the oven before I finish whipping the eggs. The plums took a good five minutes to chop, and I imagine that process will continue to be time consuming. Although if I get riper plums, it might get shorter -- the less ripe plums let go of their pits very unwilling, bless.

Soo....ten minutes? Maybe? from dry ingredients to sitting on my ass, waiting for it to come out of the oven. In my oven, it took slightly longer than the 50 minute baking time (I gave it 51), and waiting half an hour to eat it was painful.

I can't argue the product, though:

I ate nearly half of it. And that's after my dinner. Blob, but it's awesome. I may have to make it with cherries next time, as is traditional.

Full stomach aside, there is knitting news.

I'm making a toy for a friend's new baby. It's going to be a jellyfish-inspired stuffed toy with jingles inside.

It's knit from in a flat piece that gets folded over and sewn up and stuffed. I got lucky when my yarn striped in such a way that the colors on each side of the body match (mostly -- the front and back ruffles are two different colors). I've been doing the tentacles in a mix-and-match stitch patterns. There's a seed stitch, a garter and a stockinette so far. I may try a slip stitch or a simple check for the remaining two. Or I may just do another garter and another seed.


The intended recipient is new here, he won't know about the wide variety of stitch patterns available to the average knitter until well after he's chewed holes in his jellyfish.

And to close, a cute picture of Rex:

who is currently acting like a wild animal in an attempt to get sent back to the orphanage.


He's lucky he's cute.

Knitting, Interrupted.

But at least he's warm and wiggly.

 That's my baby brother, Rex. We got him from a rescue group. If you look very closely, and I do advise it, because he's adorable, you can see that his fur is a bit thin in spots.

You can see it a bit better in that photo, around his eyes and on his muzzle. He had the mange, but we don't talk about that, or use the "mangy cur" epithet. He's very sensitive.

But I have been working on my Mr. Rogers sweater, now officially dubbed "Feed The Fish" (because Mr. Rogers had fish at one point and somebody wrote a letter asking about them, and that's just about painfully adorable in and of itself, but also because I got started while my brother was out of the country and I was, actually, feeding his fish), mostly while at work or relaxing with my Yoda. I'm afraid to test himself out on my yarn. He's bad enough about ducks.

So, to prove knitting happened, I took a picture.

 But...why, why, why has my camera washed out the color to that nauseating hot pink? The yarn is not pink. It is red. A very pretty dark cherry red, to be precise. Here's a better exemplar:

I'm not sure I could keep going if it was that hot pink color. It's eye-searing enough in bright red!

Cute Yoda story to end my post: I went to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier last night as a reward for not throwing a fit in a shoe store (long story, maybe one day I'll tell it). It was excellent, but the shaky-handi-cam produced headache and nausea as it usually does (grrrr, what happened to make steady-cam so down market?) I came home, snorgled Rex (because puppy smell is curative -- don't knock it, it worked a little bit), took my shower and turned in. Yoda could tell I had a massive headache, because he came over and gave me a Yoda-sage on the back of my neck, and patted on my face and hair with his paws while mewing gently. Then when we woke up this morning, he dug me out of the blankets to rub his face on mine.

Such a sweet boy!