fruit favoured weekend

rW and i had another weekend of activity, and i think, good times. we went out to the Butler's Orchard and picked strawberries on saturday morning.

it was lots of fun. right off 270 is this little nook of farmland with berries and flowers and happy people helping city dwellers pick fresh spring treats.

rW and i picked approximately 6 quarts of berries and i turned them into...

• freezer jam (3pts total)
• cooked jam (3 pts total)
• frozen smoothie berries (1/2 pt)
• two meals of dessert (strawberries in Liqueur 43)
  
• a breakfast of delight
• Fragolo (pictured)
  

Fragolo is strawberry liqueur, and rW and i are making some. this is his pet project and the incentive rW has for taking me out to the country, picking berries, and carrying things for me. isn't the color pretty? all natural too.

in addition to the strawberry jams i made, i also cooked up some orange-lemon marmalade, apple jelly, and spiced honey. i have been a canning fiend.

to see pictures of all our fun and games, go here....

Strawberry Picking

garden updates soon! things have been pretty active around here!

because i never meme

i saw this one over at wendyknits and it amused me because like wendy, i was given a name that starts with a letter you hate to get stuck with when playing Scrabble.

Use the first letter of your name to find a word for each of the following:

Your Name - Yvette
Four letter word - yoke
Boy name - Yves
Girl name - Yolanda
Occupation - yeoman*
Color - yellow
Beverage - Yoo-hoo
Something found in a bathroom - yarn, knit into two bathmats
A Place - Yugoslavia, the former
Reason for being late - youthful shenanigans
Food - yogurt.
Something you shout - Yippie!

* i love "yeoman" because it ties back to my name. it has a lot of meanings through time, but my favourite is the archers. yeoman archers were english war archers who used longbows made of yew trees. the continent picked up this technology and the name "Yves" means "archer" from the teutonic for "yew". Yvette is the feminine of "Yves". fun. with arrows!

heeeehheeeehhheehe!

Skelley says Happy Halloween!!!!!

wet but fun saturday

saturday was a very busy day. we will start with the top story.

my super-awesome cousin gave birth to her first child saturday morning. His name is Collin Thomas, and you can see the photos on his very own website (with commentary by his father, a man of eccentric humour.) which i am sure will have frequent updates of cuteness.

the family expansion was happening in cleveland, so here in the mid-atlantic, we had a pretty typical weekend on our hands.

rW and i took a trip out to Mt. Airy, Maryland to pick apples and a pumpkin. it was fun, and we took a bunch of pictures. i even did some knitting on a mitten in the car.

the only hitch in the day was some inclement weather. we got pretty wet, but it was worth it. the pumpkin we found is as perfect as any pumpkin i have ever had. it has one slightly flat side, but someone clearly picked it up off its side and set it upright before it finished ripening and turning orange because it doesn't have too much of a deformed side.

i sort of also wanted to take home one of the fancy bright orange pumpkins that were already picked, but i am happy with our guy. rW will have to name him because i am bad at that sort of thing.

here is an album of our countryside activities....

Pumpkin' and Apple Pickin'

later saturday evening i went to a cocktail party at my friend Jen's apartment. i met her new man (well, new so to speak, they have been friends for a long time, but they started dating this year.) and caught up with a few old friends.

all in all, fun and busy.

three ohio things

this is my new friend. i met him outside my favourite yarn shop where my mum shops. isn't he cute? when i walked to the fence, he came right up to me and said hello while the other alpacas and llamas continued to frolick. i think he believed i was bringing him food, but i will just go on pretending we are pals.



these guys were also outside the yarn shop. they were chasing around a white rooster until i came up to them. i am sure they thought i had corn or some other yumminess.



Marblehead Lighthouse is about 15-20 minutes form my parents house and about 5 minutes from my fav yarn shop. i cruised by but i didn't take the tour because i was on a schedule. i have never been up inside the tower--someday.

blargh!

there is something seriously screwed about the pattern from which i am knitting my father's sweater. it was smooth sailing until i hit the final 25% of the knitting. then the pattern numbers stopped matching up in the book, and all sorts of chaos ensued.

the collar was in the wrong place, and then the backs of my sleeves and the back of the body suddenly became too long well before they should have been "done". i think i need a break from oddly constructed sweaters that are made all in one piece.

when you have to rip back, you have to rip back a lot.

let's look at a few things that were not headache.

froggy
designed by Lion Brand

crocheted in Berroco Touche (3/4 of a skein of green tea and scraps of bleach, 50% cotton, 50% rayon) with a tahki cotton classic embellishments with a size H hook.

started and finished: august 4, 2008.

this guy is super goofy. he takes very little skill to create, and he is a very fast way to get the crochet fix. he has other friends from the same set on the lion website, and i plan to give him some company. i may gift the frog and his future friends as a whole menagerie or parse them out to people over time. we shall see, but i am pretty sure he will not be mine forever.


piggy
designed by Lion Brand

crocheted in Mission Falls 1824 cotton (3/4 of a skein of #408 Foxglove 100% cotton)and mystery pink stash cotton and tahki cotton classic embellishments with a size H hook.

started and finished: august 5, 2008.

the pig was designed as a buddy to the frog, but i did a lot of modifications to the pattern to make him cuter (in my opinion). he has a real snout and a tail in my version. he also looks more like pig and less like a ball.... his body instructions are actually identical to the frog.

now you can see how much i modified him.

whew.
i feel better now. i think i may have it in me to put the stitches back on the needle and then... suck it up and deal.

beet dis... RAK!

i joined the Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) group on ravelry. in the group forum you post a wish list and other people post a wish list and if you can fulfill a wish, you do. they can be knitting related and non.

my non knitting related wish was for people to send me beet recipes, which they have!

i told rW about this and he sent me a RAK as well. sort of.

too much. (part II)

see that fine pair of preppy bags*? yeah, i only own one of those. the other sitting next to it belong to my #1 girl... my cousin. she drove out thursday for a very last minute visit.

it was great!
while this visit was the exact opposite of my mum's in terms of amount of stuff smooshed into 2.5 days, it was just as enjoyable. highlights...

i took jess to Plato's Diner in College Park. she declared their ravioli The Best Ever.

we shopped. well, window shopped. very little buying was done. we just looked at baby stuff at buybuy Baby and Ikea and hit The Container Store as well. there was some buying at Ikea. jess thought it was pretty amusing that she (the pregnant lady who doesn't even really like wine) was buying wine racks.

i bought an underwear drying hanger thingy that looks like a green octopus. it is absurd, but i love it.

speaking of absurd things you love, we had a nice visit with our aunt, uncle, and cousin. we even bought along rW to be judged by them. (ha.) there was dinner and conversation. and wine. we took a trip to the "art gallery" to see our little cousin's photos from her art show, and rW got to look at a box of old 45s my uncle had in the basement.

speaking of rW, he took jess and i out for italian on saturday night. he and i don't usually have pasta so we sort of had to hunt to find a place. we ended up at Ottelo's in dupont. i think the whole Ottelo's experience need its own highlights section.

• through a series a judgement errors, we ended up in dupont on the day of the Pride Parade. this would have been fine, and maybe a little fun, if i had not been confused about the location of the restaurant. we had to cross the parade twice because of my 'oops'.
• our aunt called in the middle of our wandering and confusion and left a message saying she hoped we did ot get caught in the parade. thanks, AUnt C. but at least jess can go home saying she saw drag queens, lesbian hot-rodders, and the gay square dancers.
  
• by the time we got to Ottelo's, it had started to rain and we were sort of soaked. it took us some time to recover, and the wait staff seemed too anxious to make us order 3 minutes after we waked in the door dripping.
• my arugula and radicchio salad was the best ever.
• did i mention the attentive wait staff? they were super friendly and great, but i found them edging on annoying. we had 2 waiters, the host, the water server, and a runner from the kitchen all after us. and they were making me feel self-conscious and high maintenance because they would bring me things i didn't ask for like i was acting like a princess to get them. at the same time, they were teasing me! i am not a fan of being teased by people i don't know.
• all that being said, the food was good and they were super nice, so i would probably go back. i think i would just not wear a dress and hope more frumpiness would help.

finally, i am excited jess got to come out now because i wanted to see the little baby bump. she didn't look pregnant the last time i saw her, so this was sort of cool. i should get to see her one more time before the big arrival day. it seems silly, and i know she is having a baby, but seeing the change makes it sink in more.

oh, yes. and reminds me that there is a lot of knitting to be done! the knitting updates won't be as frequent because some of this baby goodness is going to be a surprise.

which reminds me, i have finished the knitting on 2 store models. now i just need to sew them up. yay!


*for the record, there is nothing wrong with owning a preppy bag. i will say the preppier navy and green belongs to jess and the cream one is mine--a gift from jess at her wedding rehearsal dinner.

fancy that

last night rW and i went to a fancy dinner the non-profit he works for threw to honor people with lots of money who give it away to save old stuff. i sound flip--it was pretty cool. and the work these folks do it swell too.

highlights of the evening...

1. i got to wear the vintage late 50s cocktail dress i wore to helen hayes 2 years ago. i love that dress and it is memorable, so i can't wear it to HH again soon. this was a good excuse.

2. rW in a tux = fancy!

3. dessert buffet. hells yeah berries diplomat. let's hear it for lemon mousse!

4. big bibles. we were at the Library of Congress, and the Gutenberg Bible and the Giant Bible of Mainz were in cases on either side of one of the bars set up for the party. i read about them and then got to use a cool interactive screen thing to look at the details of the Mainz. it was pretty awesome. the screen is sort of like a huge iphone screen. you can zoom in and drag the pictures around in a similar fashion.

5. sad sob story. i can really work one, and it got us vegetarian dishes for the main course. (boo hoo. i can't eat your soup course. or anything else on the menu. woe is me.) and it is a good thing too because i was pretty sad to see everyone else's amazing vegetables and delicious potato and eggplant galette floating is extraordinarily rare beef juices.

bleah.
we had mushrooms stuffed with mushrooms. sounds redundant, but it was great.

and now for something funny....



speaking of knitting, i am working on a 26 inch long 2 stitch i-cord. gah. thrilling.

too much. too much. much too much.

this past weekend my mother came for a visit. it was a long and crazy weekend. we went to two knits shops (where she got yarn for 2 sweaters and 2 pairs of socks), drank martinis, visited with my aunt's family, drank mojitos, visited with one of my college roommates, drank coffee, saw two plays in one day, delighted in avocados, spent 1h, 45m at the MVA, had the worst waiter ever, and she met my boyfriend.

it was pretty awesome.

in addition she finished a baby blanket and i finished my sweater, although the sweater and i have not fully made peace. it is currently too big, and after it finishes drying from the good blocking i gave it today, it will probably undergo surgery.

if it cannot be saved, i may give it away to a knitting girlfriend it looks better on or give it to my little cousin. she has more athletic build than me, and it would probably look fantastic on her.

i suppose my third option is eating cream puffs until i fill it out or saving it in case i ever have a baby. ha.

razzle dazzle them

i got home the other night and there was a package slip in my mailbox. the
jerk subcontractor who delivers my mail on behalf of the USPS never leaves packages. (that is in no way relevant to the story. i just like to complain about it) so i go to the post office yesterday and pick it up. and i discover i have two packages. two packages in one day!

this is the highlight of my week folks.

so i open the known entity and i received all 20 yards of gold chainette fringe that i ordered. huzzah. (i also bought approximately 75 yards of sparkly metallic red plastic beads today. my life is so glamourous. these items are what the title of the post refer to. any guess what show i am designing?)

and the second box was my latest skein of the month!

it contained a skein of Fiesta yarn's Swoon, a set of sheep magnets (with fence!), and pattern i already own. but that okay because i can give it to friend. magnets may go to a friend as well. cute, but i have my fair share of magnets in my life. spread the love.

speaking of love.... i just want to rub this yarn on my face. it is super delightful. Swoon is 55% extra fine merino wool and 45% silk. it knits to 4.5 stitches to the inch on a size US 8 needle. my skein is hand painted in color #20121 "poppies".


i would never have bought these colors for myself, but they are very pretty. i think i will go with a scarf as suggested in the package and if it knits up looking sufficiently "me" i'll wear it. otherwise, pay it forward baby. or maybe not. maybe i'll knit something entirely different than i usually do.

i have been on that sort of a jag lately. ever since e sweater betrayed me and i crocheted that baby blanket, i have been crazy about making adorable kid stuff from my stash. everything is cuter in miniature.

anyway!
to get such nice color in this picture i did something typical for me that i think freaks out my neighbors. i stuck part of myself out my window and used the window ledge to support the subject of my photo whilst snapping away. my neighbor across the way saw me and was puzzled. i was singing Blitzkrieg Bop at the time (no, not very loudly) so that could have been it as well.

whistle while you work, folks.

ps- happy leap day!

girl power weekend?

i didn't plan a theme for my weekend, but it sort of worked out that way. we have both a project and an event.

first, the project.

Baby Starghan
designed by Beth Espina-Cole
published on The Diva Crochets
finished size: approx. 43" diameter. if stars really have diameter....

crocheted in Caron Simply Soft Shadows (approx 5-6 skeins of "Fuchsia Flare", 100% acrylic) with a size "I" crochet hook.

started: february 18, 2008.
finished: february 23, 2008.

this was a project devoted to 3 specific purposes it could serve in my life.

1. stash busting. 5.5 skeins of stash yarn down! and now i have a reserve project for the next girly kiddo that comes along.

2. crochet, baby. i had been knitting so much that my hooks were getting rusty. this was a nice way to shake off the rust and re-earn my happy hooker certification.

3. give knitting the finger. you know which finger i am talking about. knitting more than 6 inches of the body of the gathered pullover and then having to tear it back out was a disheartening experience. that sweater is not a fan of me. ever-obedient crochet plucked up my little crafter spirits.

this pattern calls for a DK weight yarn, but yu can do it in anything, really. mine is worsted weight, but i also bet it would look great in a fingering weights handpaint like koigu. on the other extreme, i want to make another one of these blankies in super-chunky yarn so it can be an "on the floor" type of blankie you sit a baby on to play. i think it would look really cute in something like lion's wool-ease thick & quick.

now that i have the blankie done, the sweater is calling to me again, but i am forgoing project monogamy for the time being. i have a mittens and gloves class to teach on tuesday and i am knitting up my sample project. i think it is easier to share how a technique is accomplished when you are working on the project as well. picture after the first mitten is finished.

i went out yesterday and took the metro, so i did get some work done on the gathered pullover. i had to take the metro all the way out to Stadium-Armory so i probably managed an inch of progress.

why did i venture all the out into the depths of southeast DC, you might ask.....

DC Rollergirls.
yes, roller derby. they had a bout at the armory yesterday and my friend Price and i took it in. he had bought the tickets for he and his girlfriend, but she couldn't go at the last minute so he brought me along. it was fun.

it was the kind of fun that makes you want to put on a pair of skates and kick some ass until you remember you lack both free time and health insurance. well.... at least that is how i felt. ha.

it was a double header, but Price could only stay for the first bout. so we saw the DC DemonCats defeat the Secretaries of Hate. he was disappointed because he wanted to see Scare Force One (the current league champs) who are said to be a bunch of tough chicks any way you slice it. they were up against the Cherry Blossom Bombshells.

as you can see, clever naming goes with the territory.... and it extends to the skaters. some of their names are DC related like the teams.... (i.e Demonica Lewinsky and Beltway Betty.) others are clever plays on famous names... (Lois Slain and Camilla the Hun) and still others are just amusing. (Six5onSkates... she really is 6'5" on skates. taaaaall chick. stay out of her way.)

now the questions remains... would i go to another bout? yes, i would. i wouldn't rearrange my schedule for it, but i would go on a non-tech weekend. it was fun. who wouldn't have a good time in a place where you can drink beer while watching girls in small outfits beat the crap out of each other?

i also like a good pun, you know.

lookie!

i almost stepped on this little guy when i came home tonight! isn't he cool! i think he is out because it is unseasonably warm here.

funny how something like a tiny creature can bring simple happiness to life. i moved him off the steps and into the flower bed so he would not get smashed. way too neat to be flat!

knitter's beer cozy

no. not a knitted beer cozy. thank god. and really it is a diet coke cozy in the photo, but you get the point.

fun with center pull yarn balls!

swoon!

so i thought the little skull ring i posted about a few days ago was cool....

(and it still is!)

and then the same jeweler posted The Big Skull Ring. you need to click the picture of the person wearing it to really "get" the scale. they say they make it any size.... i think they don't mean for 5.5, however.

but i can dream.

i can also dream of one day being as awesome as wendy. not only does she have an adorable cat, knits like a genius, and is a good knitwear designer to boot.... now she is freaking making challah! and that makes me want to cry a little.

i have an extreme weakness for challah.
and it makes no sense! i didn't grow up with it. no one in my family makes it (that i can recall) and i honestly cannot say when i first had it, but boy hoo! i was hooked.

i can eat an entire loaf.

by myself.

in one sitting.

and if it has been around for a day or so and gets turned into french toast, hold on to your hat. i will eat the french toast until i am full. and then i will have one more piece. and if it is a small "one more" piece, i might have to go back again. then i feel sick, but i don't mind because it is that freaking good.

chet baker and me

i love skull-a-day.

i hate skull-a-day.

it is a website devoted to one person's year long quest to make a skull image every day. you know, in the name of art. every week they do something called "Braincase" which is a round up of skully things readers have spotted.

braincase always has something i want. like deliriously expensive skull chocolates. or the fantastic ring you see above.

see, i thought i was safe because i won't buy expensive chocolates for myself and the ring only comes in a size 7. (i wear the much smaller 5 1/2) but nooooo.

the metal artists who make that ring have another very cool ring that comes custom sized. and earrings that are no size at all. it is a good thing i don't wear enough earrings to justify it. but the ring. oh the temptation! i cannot be tempted. not the same day i had a serious discussion of my finances. sigh! maybe Santa will bring me some skulls.

i fall in love too easily.

we all need a little support

thank you to all the concerned citizens of the Fall Into Autumn Swap. my pal's address was rescued from the abyss.

and another form of support....

Frederick's of Hollywood and Clothes Off Our Back just had the 4th Annual Lingerie Art Auction. there is an auction of celebrity designed corsets for charity pruposes. check them out here.

they are pretty cool.... for the most part. and some were designed by men. now, i was suspicious that these were (as most this "star" designed) not at all designed by the people who sponsored them. but some make a lot of sense with the celebrity. and then there are one's like what Jeremy Piven and Debra Messing designed.... not only do they look like the stars designed them--they look like they made them too. Jeremy Piven clearly loves a Beadazzler.

no really, go look. Bradly Whitford will surprise you.

v-power

i took this picture at 8:23am last thursday morning on my way to a meeting. i left the theatre at approximately 1:47am that "night", and i know i was not in bed until after 3:00am.


no v-power?! come on, throw a dog a bone!

the friday of my randomness

with my current level of busy, the late week round-up is looking poised to become a new regular addition to the blog. this is what i have to say today... in no particular order...

1. i had the best night last night.
my friend AP and i have been trying to get together for over a month now, and last night we finally made it happen. he took me to Raku in dupont, which i had never been to for reasons that are now mysterious to me. i had sushi. he had noodley goodness. it was good, but i think i like Uni's veg sushi platter a bit better. now.... i have sub points on my great night.

• at raku i had a strange chick staring at me like i was the devil before her very eyes. or my face had gone green. come to find out, AP had dated said gal in like... 2004. she thought we were on a date. ha. psycho.
• we also had coffee and listened to the brass combo that plays in dupont. they were hot last night. i love the way music brings people together. young and old, all shades of the fleshtone rainbow, business suits and clubbing dresses... dancing. it was really cool. when we decided we had seen enough and walked on, AP led me right through the center of it, and it was awesome. you could just feel the energy around you amp up as you entered the fray.
• the weather rocked. i got to wear a sweater and jeans for the first time this season while we were eating outside.

2. i love etsy. i love buying yarn off etsy. i really want to buy some chunky art yarn for a hat, but i refuse to buy it from anyone who styles themself as Moustache Ride Yarns. i draw the line rightthere.

3. the new knitty is out! this time i am pleased, not disappointed. i want to make the urchin hat. i am also a big fan of the seed stitch hoodie and the lace throw. cover shawl is pretty too. yum yum.

4.hi Swap Pal! you get your own number this fine friday. as you asked about my affiliation with the Catholic University of America (link under 'work' in the side bar) in the comments. i will offer an explanation. i design costumes for the theatre as my "job". CUA hires professionals to design their theatre shows. they hired me last winter, and i will be doing a show for them again this spring. so they land in the work pile. i like to give a little nod to the folks who make sure i have food on the table and yarn on the needles.

5. Swap Pal also commented on my lack of understanding myspace. we share that confusion. maybe i don't get it because it is so loud, disorganized, and usually unattractive in appearance that my brain can't handle it and i overload. it offends my design sensibilities. i also don't like being stalked by people i meet randomly, and that has happened too. boo myspace.

6. my ravelry position. i check it about twice a week. people who check in twice an hour need to get a life. yes, i judge. not really. to each their own.

Found you!

• You signed up on July 29, 2007
• You are #21487 on the list.
• 9009 people are ahead of you in line.
• 11199 people are behind you in line.
• 37% of the list has been invited so far

7. i have started working the gusset on my southwestern socks. and both windy washcloths are done. pictures of sock progress soon.

remember me? soon i will have a friend!

apples and oranges

i have lots of little things that don't really go together. so let's a have fruit salad blog post.

first, the cake.
no, no, no. there won't be a cake on the blog every week, but this one is special like S.'s cake last week. my pal D. at work got it for me because she didn't think i was working last week on my birthday. D. is great. she likes pretty, delicious things (and trying new things) and i think she likes sharing her discoveries as much as eating them. i own a previous act of D.'s generosity--a copy of an out-of-print sock pattern booklet from the 1940s calls "2 Needle Socks". i think this should accurately demonstrate the level of D.'s generosity.

at least it will to knitters.

anyway.
this is a Grande Mariner cake from Stella's Bakery in Rockville, Maryland. it is delicious. you should march out right now and get one.

second.
Rosey Grier's Needlepoint for Men. this is a real book. it came out in 1973. for those of you who, like me, were not walking this earth to know... Rosey was a football player in the 1960s. back when they were the Los Angeles Rams. go have a look-see. it is very amusing. i love books from the 70s. there is something about the "hipness" of them that is quaint.

like calling people "cats".

third.
i forgot to mention that i have a knitting profile running on the Knit + Stitch = Bliss blog. have i not mentioned that i am now running the blog for my LYS (and place of employment)? hm. well, i am. yes, i am a professional blogger now. go see my "Meet the Staff" profile here.

fourth.
i have been getting a lot of traffic to the blog from people googling the actors in my last show. i guess all i have to say about that is... hi, guys! but maybe it is wrong to assume they are googling themselves. i do it from time to time to see if i missed show reviews or the like. and i know at least one actor who proudly would tell anyone who would listen that he had 15 pages of listing in google. and that was 2 years ago, so he is probably up to more now. ha.

fifth.
at a local gift/variety store that sells yarn i saw a knitty.com Branching Out scarf knit in lace weight Malabrigo. i want to make that scarf, so i bought the yarn. now i can't get the eff-ing gauge to look like anything worth knitting. arrrrrgh! this is just random ranting. i'll get over it and knit something else from my Malabrigo

sixth.
Knit Lit is not a very good book. it should be, but i think the stories have all been edited to not really be stories, but rather those types of moments that you stop sharing and say "well, i guess you had to be there".

i think i could also be disappointed because reading about knitting is less fun than doing it. then why are blogs interesting?

and finally.
little to no knitting to report. i've been catching up on other aspects of my life. oh, who am i kidding... my sock is going in fits and starts. i keep eff-ing up the lace pattern by 1. getting cocky. 2. getting distracted. 3. drinking a 2nd beer while knitting.... which i guess is a combination of #1 and #2.

i'm halfway to the heel. maybe i'll have more to report after the weekend.