i've been working on laLAaalaaa all the live long day...

look! I finally finished the February Lady sweater. (February 17 2009-December 22 2009, with many breaks!)

i can't keep a consistent update schedule.

my life seems to have changed a lot since i started a blog. I have always been busy, but the sort of busy I am now just doesn't mesh well with writing about it. the major reason for this, of course, is my change in job.

i rarely design costumes at this point--partially the economy and partially burn out--and i have been teaching more and more. I started with 2 classes. this quarter i teach 3, and next quarter i will teach 4. really, i just don't feel right talking about my teaching job in a public forum. i love teaching my subjects, and most of the time my students are pretty great. i don't need to talk about the exceptions to that rule!

i don't know if this means i will close down shop or not.

(pssst... look Tractor Sweater for Collin. christmas present--i can do intarsia! sorta.)

the blog isn't hurting anything sitting here, and maybe i will come back when i feel like writing more about my knitting. i have been doing more knitting than writing about it, but overall i am making less progress on projects (time!) i also have taken on a host of new or revived hobbies.

i am trying to maintain my sewing and increase my reading, cooking, documentary watching, and picture taking. i have also taken up crossword puzzles (because i am historically bad at them) and invested a new level of interest in fitness activities. you will notice many of my other activities involve being stationary. i do not want to be a round cat lady knitting on her couch when i am in my late thirties.

i don't know if i will try to garden in pots again this year. if i do i think it will only be tomato plants in some 5 gallon buckets. i need to keep it simple.

here is a project i can share! i made an online portfolio.

and if i am being a blog slacker, you can always look at my yarn antics on ravelry.

stranded colorwork oh, my!

a musical interlude

it's log, it's log!
it's big!
it's heavy!
it's wood!
it's log, it's log!
it's better than bad, it's GOOD!

Thank you Ren and Stimpy.

And thank you to my aunt who wrote to me on day and told be that on an official date she picked out, thus blog became a log.

What can i say? I have been busy.

There is work. There is holiday knitting (29 gifts done, 1 to go). There is charity crafting. (21 preemie hats--go me!) rW and I hosted his mother for Thanksgiving, and hat was also a lot of work.

Since I last wrote I have also designed two shows, visited Ohio, made applesauce and canned it, made tomato sauce and canned it (with the help of rW!), put up a Christmas tree, and blessedly reconnected with my friend penguingirl.

I also made this, which was a lot of fun-but-time-consuming work.

This is the best thing ever...

"oooohhhhh no! i have a pumpkin head! Dad, why are you laughing!?"

crack

updating. i can do it.
after my garden was attacked by deer, i have had little desire to write about it. i can't write bout most of my knitting because it is stealth, and rW has been busy with a show, so we have not gone out and taken pictures of our shenanigans.

but!
rW did take me to his show and rewarded my willingness to drive to Frederick with a gelati at Rita's, mexican food, and a trip to a yarn shop. we also hit an antique store that had some mid century and bought a magazine rack.

i think Mad Men is making affordable mid century hard to find. the rack was a sweet deal.

however!
we came home to leaking ceiling that just got worse and worse. this was supposed to be repaired while we were on vacation. clearly i am now irritated. i already hated our kitchen. this does nothing to help.

my pots and pans are all out of the cupboard. everything from the counter top is stacked on our dining table. i have piles of smelly damp towels everywhere, and these little insects have invaded us. boo!

failing to have created good news to report, i will share some older pictures. i finally sorted and uploaded the pictures we took on vacation and when we picked blackberries and peaches. rW has a radical hair change from one album to the next!

Vacation July 2009

blackberries and peaches 2009

baaaaack!

rW and i came home on monday night, and i have been busy busy ever since. garden is still alive i knit in ohio. i made banana jam, and i have a new project....

an etsy shop!
i am selling vintage, antique, and handmade items. i don't have any up yet, but soon i will list some jams.



i wish i still had use of my desktop computer. it had photoshop and i could make myself a nice banner for my shop. boo.

bzzzz! bzzzZZzzZz!

i have been busy bee. right now i am in ohio visiting with my cousin and her family. (arrived wednesday night) next stop, my parents' place for a bit. then rW arrives and we spend the 4th of july all together.

this means that excluding the backlog, no new garden news, and there will be none until i return to the east coast. i am knitting on the road, but some of my projects are secret projects! news on the knitting front later.

Day Twenty-Seven
saturday. in which we alternate.

it rains. no wait! the sun shines! i am sure the garden is glad for the latter, but the former is doing it no good. the soil in my containers has not been 100% dry since... oh... maybe Day 3.

to make matter worse, rW and i planned to pick sweet cherries today, and the weather is making that impossible. this is very disappointing because the cherries are only on the tree for a bout week, so you have to get them while they are hot!

aide from the rain, i caged my cucumber plants last night. cukes an get very viney and grow all over the place. i am training mine to grow up! we'll see how the little tendrils of vine do latching on to the cage.

Day Twenty-Eight
sunday. in which we finally have sun.

finally, no rain. just sun, and cage news!

cucumbers grow quickly, and mine have taken to the cages right away. little vine tendrils quickly lashed themselves to the cage structure and curled on tight. i hope the plant take well to this. the lowest layer of leaves has turned to a yellow color, which is a bad sign in my book. same this happened to my melons' leaves, however, and they are hanging in okay.

Day Twenty-Nine
monday. glamour shots

i decided you needed some glamour shots of peppers. i have some forming on the jalapeno, and some impressive ones on the Early Big Bell.

i am excited about the EBB because they are supposed to get HUGE! (8" peppers!) i have high hopes that one of the later rounds of peppers from the plant will be enough to allow me to make red pepper spread. yum yum.

right now the peppers are smallish (2" range) and still green. they are supposed to turn red when they are mature and ready to be picked.

rW speculates that it will be shortly after we return from the trip. i think it will be longer. maybe i am a pessimist, but this whole gardening thing has been a very slow row to hoe.

Day Thirty
tuesday. vines are funny.

the vines n the cucumber plants are scrambling to be the #1 vine on the cage. they are very funny because they lash together in clumps, and some of them are "strangling" the plant as they tie branches of it down to the cage.

they grow so quickly, inches over a span of a few hours--i wish i could watch them and see it happen!

Day Thirty One.
wednesday. RIP.

drat.
i lost a pepper in progress.

i was looking at the jalapeno, and he seemed funny. one of the connector branches was getting a bit yellow. i reached to see the pepper better and it fell off in my hand. and he is still tiny. boo.

he he was in his glory before the drop... (pepper in the background.)

deer, oh, deer!

Day Five
in which in rains. and rains. and i boo-hoo.

remember that haircut?

apparently i should have saved the abundant clippings because when they are spread about a garden, they repel deer. i never knew that, and boy do i wish i did now.

the deer chomped the top off of one of my tomato plants. Early Girl will be rather delayed if she comes back at all.

my garden is located adjacent a wooded area where rW and i like to watch the deer. well, they came out of hiding, and the empire had to strike back. thank goodness for the internet because there are many recipes for organic deer repellent from which to pick your poison. or rather your stink....

that is the goal. make something stinky the deer won't like. since i threw away all those inches of beautiful red deer hating hair clippings, i improvised a recipe based on what i have on hand based on a few available on the site above.

Deer Repellent
4 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
1/4 cup hot sauce
1 egg
3 cups cold water

process in a blender or food processor. pour into a spray bottle and apply to plant leaves and all over garden containers.

now i need to buy rW a new indoor plant mister because i stole his spray bottle for this adventure. he deserves better mister anyway.

speaking of rw.... he planted his herbs!

cilantro, rosemary, basil, spearmint, and oregano.

in other garden news, the peppers are very happy. all 5 pepper plants have what appears to be the start of little buds. yay! also, my honey dew has finally taken his prozac and lifted himself off the couch to play with the other melons. all of my melon vines seem to be recovering from the pounding the thunderstorm rain gave them. i have some leaf damage here and there but they are shrugging it off fairly well. pumpkin is extremely happy!

and outside the garden...
today i was called to jury duty. actually i was called on may 11th and rescheduled. i am very glad i did because i was #92 and on may 11th they called 240 people. today they called just 70. now they can't bug me for two whole years!

i also knitted for the first time in about three weeks. just a few rounds on a sleeve while i waited for trader joe's to open this morning. i hope i can get back into the swing of the needles!

stormy weather

rW cut my hair for me on saturday.

yep.
a real honest to goodness haircut. we're talking between 6 and 8 inches depending on the layer your measure.

i tricked him into it.

see, i got him mentally prepared to trim the ends off my hair. i then read up on a layered 'do and walked him through it. about a third of the way through the layering, he had the revelation that he was giving me a real haircut.

turns out he isn't at all bad at cutting hair! and he didn't seem too worried doing the layers. i just kept telling him i could always cut it off short if it turned out poorly. which it did not. i wore the new cut out saturday night to my opening and lots of people commented on it including two of my friends who work with hair and they were pleasantly surprised.

this whole post makes it sound like rW is not good at new things, which is totally untrue. his previous haircutting experience can mostly be summed up in the buzzing of one's hair to less than an inch. round of applause!


now.
the garden.

Day Two
sunday. research day.
in the spirit of leaping before looking, i planted and then did my research. i didn't do too badly in my plant selection, containers, or the actual planting. the only thing i did not realize is how much space tomato plants actually need. i didn't really give them enough--time to replant.

rW and i needed a few things from ikea and they usually have good garden shop items so i looked for pots when we went there and settled on an improvised solution. rW bought for me three FNISS wastepaper baskets and punched drainage holes in the bottom. perfect!

also moved my the gardening spirit, he got for himself several small glazed pots and the seeds to grow herbs on our kitchen window. he has not planted yet, but i will report the progress when he does.

finally, after getting new containers and soil to fill them, i decided to pick up a few more inexpensive experiment plants to fill the spots the missing tomatoes would leave in my planter boxes. i came away with a jalapeño pepper, a honeydew melon, and a cantaloupe.

i know that these vine plants sound crazy, but i hope that because they are restricted to a certain amount f space in the boxes, they won't go crazy and give me 18 watermelons and 22 pumpkins. you know... like these things do when left to their own devices.

Day Three
monday. memorial day.
planting: part 2

rW and i had a day trip planned so i scurried out early to transplant the tomatoes and get the other new friends into the planters. all went well and rW gave everyone an initial watering before we left.

while out all day, it rained. yay! i checked everyone when we got back and the soil was nicely damp. i was thinking i would have to water the tomatoes a second time, but the rain took care of it for me.

the tomatoes seem to have accepted the transplant without complaint and the jalapeño and cantaloupe perked up right away. honeydew was still looking cranky about 12 ours after planting.

of the plants i put to soil on saturday, the poblano pepper and the watermelon are showing the most change. both are perky and the watermelon leaf stems are noticeably longer.

i also sowed some arugula seeds in a dish inside. i read that salad plants are good for indoor gardening and arugula tastes better when grown in cool conditions. we shall see if window light and A/C are the right conditions. another experiment!

Day Four
today. tuesday. rainy day.

after checking on everyone last night, we had a thunderstorm!
it was loud enough that it woke both rW and myself. i was worried about my plants big time. it was really coming down and i was afraid all of my soil would wash away or my planters would be upset by the winds.

none of this came to pass, but i had bad dreams all night about huge weeds attacking my plants and other surreal garden destroying nonsense.

i ran out first thing and check on the planters even though it was still raining. everyone is intact, and the watering bucket i left out yesterday has collected several new inches of water. only two other changes... leaves everywhere!

i had to scoop fallen tree leaves out of the planters and watering bucket, but at least it is not giant psycho weeds. also, my vine plants looked bruised. i am afraid the force of the downpour bruised my melon plants. the pumpkin seems happier (and bigger!) after the rain. i hope the melons don't die. honeydew does not look happy at all.

a new chapter

i have been hard at work teaching the next generation and opening one hell of a show. Crazyface opens tonight, so i started a new project today.

i have a container garden.

right out back under our bedroom window.
it is an experiment.

i come from a family of gardeners. my parents grow tomatos, peppers and asparagus. my dad's mum had an amazing tomato patch for years. my mom's mum grew everything imaginable. from rhubarb to carrots and broccoli to melons, grandma grew it. when i was little my parents humoured me and let me plant a little hill of corn. that was some of the best corn i ever tasted.

i plan to track my progress here and see what comes of this new adventure.

today i spent $65 and this is what i got....

• 3 plastic 23 quart containers (long window box style).
• 2 bags (32 qt each) of Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Potting Mix
• 1 bottle Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Plant Food Concentrate
• 2 yellow marigolds
• 2 orange marigolds
• 2 red/orange combination marigolds
• 2 red bell peppers
• 1 green bell pepper (for rW!)
• 1 poblano pepper
• 1 "early girl" tomato
• 1 "husky cherry" tomato
• 1 "mr. stripey" tomato
• 1 watermelon
• 1 jack'o'lantern

not bad for $65, right?

on the optimistic side, here is my maximum goal (hoped for yield) for my little container garden....

• 1 watermelon
• 1 pumpkin
• 4 red peppers
• 1 green pepper
• 1 poblano pepper
• 20 cherry tomatoes
• 5-7 big tomatos

i anticipate there will be losses, however. i expect to lose at minimum one pepper plant and one tomato plant. everyone keep their fingers crossed for Mr. Stripey! he is my heirloom tomato plant and i really want him to make it.

now.
we must have a moment of true confession.
i have done very little research before starting this project. i know. i am terrible. but plan to research as i go along and treat this as an experiment. so here's the report....

Day One
i came home from the store and set up the pots, filled them, and planted my new friends according to the directions on the tags. it was early evening, so i went ahead and mixed up the plant food and watered everyone. and away we go!

piles

today i found this post i forgot i started on... um... monday... 4/27


i have not been blogging lately because i simply have had no time for it. i am creating neither content or posts to contain it because the new job has been pretty intense. i was hired very shortly before the new quarter began, so i have been developing my classes week to week.

summer quarter will be better because i will have a quarter under my belt, and i have 3 extra weeks to refine the 2nd go round.

i plan to be very non-specific about my new job because i had to sign my name to 8,000 sheets of paper and i am pretty sure one of them frowned upon blogging.

our apartment looks like a war zone. piles and piles of stuff. first, we have piles of grading.

then we have the other major culprit for the lack of knitting.... piles of sewing. for shows. i have a big one coming up, and the only way to tackle it is to buy, borrow, and build.... a lot. the sewing has been simple and enjoyable. i am just not looking forward to all the finishing and hemming.

in addition to the pile of cut out garments on the left, this photo also features the model tote bag i stitched along with my students. it is my new favourite purse.

yesterday was hot and beautiful.


...and that is where it ended. i am relatively certain i was going to tell everyone about the day i had sunday when it was very hot.

rW and i went to Lake Artemesia and walked around the lake for awhile. i think we would have stayed much longer if we had brought some water along. never the less, it was fun and beautiful. we saw a turtle sunning himself on a log. he looked great--what a life! stretched out, eyes closed, leaning into the sun.

ahh!

and
one more picture for you....


i call this a "pattern piece tumbleweed". this final pile is what happens when you leave you pattern pieces poorly weighted on a surface overnight and neglect to close the window.

i am so s--m--r--t.

at last!

i got the official letter today. now i can shout it out for all to hear!

guess who is returning to the head of the class?

college students.
first quarter college students.
wish me luck on that one!

still life with crochet hook

i have been crocheting.
i know! she's kicking it old school! it has been very fun, and i think i need to crochet myself some slippers.

several things...

my mum broke her wrist. please send positive thoughts/prayers/whatever in her direction so she can get back to work and back to her own knitting quickly! (hey. at least i put work before knitting there.)

this weekend rW and i started to watch Mad Men on dvd and i am rewatching with him Six Feet Under, which i adore.

clipping coupons has become very addictive, and i have two new favourite related things... Redplum and Restaurant.com. the former is good for coupons as well as free offers, tips, and suggestions. the later is better for folks in a high population density area for best selection.

okay.
i have a confession.
i have been reading.
reading instead of updating. i have kept the crafting, but because i have been reading i have had less blogging time. there. i confessed.

and now i will say there will be few updates again for a bit because i tech a show at the end of the week.

several things

okay okay.
enough prodding. i've had things to do, folks. they are many. let's review.

1. go see Roundheads and Peakheads. running through March 15th at the Atlas Center, it was produced by Catalyst Theatre Company. buy tickets here.

2. Constellation Theatre Company, a theatre i am proud to be an Associate Artist of is being awarded the James Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company at the 2009 Helen Hayes Awards. okay. so i didn't actually do anything when this announcement came out. jump and down and stuff... but i had to share.

3. deer are awesome and have natural camouflage.

Looking Out My Back Door

4. i have decided i really need to sew through some of my fabric stash--especially the things i have already cut out to make for myself. see my sewing here.

5. i read The Friday Night Knitting Club. not as good as i had hoped. only it sort of was because my expectation was to not really like it as much as "i should". still i read it because customers are always coming into the shop and telling me "oh! you would LOVE it!". yeah. because i knit i will automatically like chick lit about a knitter? um. actually, you don't know very much about what i like beyond knitting, so it is hard to say i will like a certain book. yeah. so it didn't change my life. and the totally unrealistic portrayal of opening and running a yarn shop was a bit trying.

6. i have become a selfish garment knitter. my needles have focused primarily on vests and sweaters for me, and so far i am loving what i have made. all. for. me. muwahahaha.

7. okay. so i may have knit rW another hat and scarf.

8. owls are neat.

9. my mother sent me an awesome red hat for valentine's day.

10. on the homefront, rW and i went out the friday of valentine's and had a yummy dinner. then we saw my show on saturday. i gave him a neat-o tie and he gave me an excellent back massage to combat the serious neck and shoulder tension that my work and hobbies create.

11. rW's record collection (see right) has helped return my love of taking pictures. the geometric shelves make a great backdrop for my fabric creations.

12. i have been trying some new recipes and adapting a few old favourites to be vegetarian. pumpkin bread. i couldn't find my version of my mom's recipe so i may have tried Betty's.

not bad.

13. best text message i have ever received: "Whenever i take Collin's socks off he has lots of fuzz between his toes. I always tell him we re going to send it to Aunt Yvette so you can make a sweater."


14. and a great knitting-related email.... "OMG, another tempting cablelicious project to tempt me! I sometimes wish I were an Indian god with multiple arms."

and that is life for now. i have a lot of knitting i should post. i realize that 2009 has been a very lax year for me actually updating the knitting content. i am still producing, it just isn' t making it to a blog near you.

i will try to be better.

a bad sign

i was thinking to myself yesterday as i washed my hair...

"hm... when did i last shower?"

scrub. scrub.

"sunday. no, no... wait... saturday night. no. saturday. morning. 8am. uuuuuggghhhh...."


it is going to be a long week.

my academy award

i am not an actor, but if we still had radio plays, i may well could be! i am a master actor when it comes to dealing with people on the phone.

today i managed to cancel a Comcast account in less than 10 minutes AND renegotiate the interest rate on my credit card (i got them to knock off 11.25%!)

i am not sure which i am more proud of. the credit card scoundrels were raising my rates for simply existing during the peak of Free Credit Frenzy. and with Comcast (who will claw you back into their clutches any way possible) i just lied to them. or acted. i acted like i was leaving the country for a few years.

the white lie to escape unwanted services was a technique i developed a few years ago when my former roommate KT was unable to discontinue her AOL account (talk about clawing!). after three attempts by KT, one that resulted in tears, i decided to take her account details and pretend to be her.

i am much meaner that KT when i need to be.

aol: this is so-and-so, how can i help you today?
me: i want to cancel my account.
aol: i am sorry to hear that, what can i do to keep you as a customer?
me: nothing.
aol: well, surely, there must--
me: no. nothing. i am entering hospice care and my doctors have told me to settle my final affairs.
aol: (long silence) well, i am sorry to hear that. may i have your account number please?

KT was shocked and maybe a little appalled, but it worked. and on one level it was also sort of fun. i understand AOL reps have a job to do, but i custmers also need a little respect.

i FOUND it!

my purl beret disappeared very shortly after i made it last january. i found it! i found it!

i put it away where it belonged, but it didn't stay there. when i pulled something else out of the hat box, it must have fallen behind. when i moved the entire box that lives up on a high shelf, i found it!

this organizing thing is really working out well for me!

goodbye fall, hello 300!

guess what folks? this blog has officially reached 300 posts! thanks for hanging in there with me through work, play, knitting floods, and work related droughts. onward, 300 ho!

this week it has officially become cold in the greater DC metro area. it has been hanging out in the 30s more than the 50s (surprisingly low for this month) it was fitting to take down the fall bittersweet wreath and haul out the christmas tree.

i'm glad i knit.

speaking of knitting, i have been doing more of that then blogging. the most notable accomplishment on the knitting front is the completion of Collin's christening shawl. it rocks. it is done. the knit-on edging made me near suicidal.

(not really. sort of knitterly suicidal. not the real kind.)

i still owe a post on all the hats i have been turning out, and i plan to do one of all the glamour shots of the shawl. i hope to get together a photo album of the trip rW and i took to ohio for thanksgiving.

promises, promises!

lest you feel abandoned.

i have abandoned no one!
i have just been busy with a new show, meetings for winter projects, and the store. , yes... and the election! it was, dare i say, fun. i was reading a lot of commentary and listening to bipartisan speculation about the forthcoming administration. it has been pretty interesting, not to mention historic.

i have also been knitting some gifts and finishing up projects that were languishing at 50%. i have a current favorite... mittens!

here are four projects for your enjoyment.


Yellow Harvest Mittens
designed by Mari Muinonen
published in Vogue Knitting, Fall 2008

knit in 1 skein Manos del Urguay 100% Wool (color X "topaz") purchased at K+S=B, on size US 6 and 7 DPNS.

started: september 11, 2008.
finished: november 3, 2008.

these were a lot of fun, and they look great. i blocked them after this picture was taken, and they are awesome.

charts were good. bobbles are fun to knit (who knew!) and i have only one complaint. the pattern tells you to work the decrease area in stockinette but if you want continuity on the mitten, you need to be using reverse stockinette. i followed the directions exactly and realized when i was done and had blocked them that i should have been a rebel and changed the pattern.

live and learn, but i still love them. this is a project for me obviously.


Super Mittens
designed by Margrit Lohrer
published in Weekend Kitting

knit in 1 skein Malabrigo Chunky (color 98 "Tuareg", 100% merino wool) purchased at Now and Then, on size US 10 DPNS.

started: october 29, 2008.
finished: october 30, 2008.

these are a gift. i want to keep them. not really. i don't wear much blue, but they are super squishy and soft and this yarn was a delight to knit. this project continues to reinforce my love for the book Weekend Knitting

i was given the book last year for christmas, and i have made 6 projects from it so far. two of those were sweaters. not bad considering how ADD i get about patterns.

i made a hat to go with the mittens. i will share it later in the week.


Baby Mittens
designed by Kaitlyn Wong
published at Sassy Stitches

knit in half a skein of Artful Yarns Serenade (color 6211 "Against All Odds" 70% pima cotton, 30% angora) purchased at K+S=B on size US 5 DPNs.

started: october 24, 2008.
finished october 26, 2008.

i knit these for Collin. i started them when my cousin told me she was headed to the hospital because i needed something else to focus on... a movie was not cutting it. i finished them the day after he was born and they went off in a little birthday gift package with a hat. more on that later.

i modified the pattern to use heavier yarn. the designer calls for fingering weight doubled. i used a "worsted" that i consider especially light.


"Beaded" Cable Mittens
designed by Shirl the Purl
published by Cabin Fever

knit in 2 skeins of Berroco Pure Merino ("kale" 100% superwash merino wool) purchased at K+S=B on size US 4 & 5 DPNS.

started: october 2, 2008.
finished: october 28, 2008.

these are a store model that is part of out holiday 2008 gifts display at the shop. they were fun to knit, and i love the color, but i think the mittens would have looked nicer in a wool that was a bit sticky and didn't have as much smoosh or softness.

i know, sacrilege to exchange looks for softness, but that is how i feel about it.

obviously the pattern is written to be beaded, but i decided to forgo beads because that is a technique many knitters have an artificial fear of trying.... and as a store model, it needs to appeal to the masses.

i also think these could be good for a man in a masculine color, and then the beads are going to be a no-go for most occasions.

looks out for more knitting updates later in the week.

tonight i have pledged to fix my mistakes in the shawl and get back to work on that thing. i really want to take it back to ohio on turkey day... even if i have longer, i feel anxious about it!

yes, maxine, democracy can be boring.

today i stood in line to vote in front of man who brought his daughter with him to see democracy in action. he was very sweet and she was a cute second grader who asked a lot of great questions. when we had been in line for just over an hour she declared voting boring. i told her that democracy can be boring, but we have to vote anyway.

her dad thought that was funny.



two major thoughts about the experience... touch screen voting is strange and it is cool seeing a lot of people you know at the polls. especially because they are excited to participate in our occasionally "boring" democracy.

knitting update: i took a lizard ridge afghan square with me to the polls and i was so excited and weird while in line that i kept having to rip what i knit. i think i did 4 rows in line.

my grandmother can have peace

i made good use of those apples yesterday. this is my first apple pie.

i am not a very good maker of crusts, and this one is my first personal success. rW had some hand in it. he encouraged and helped cut shortening when my arm got tired.

it turned put pretty well.

the filling is made from the Rome apples we picked saturday and one Honeycrisp apple to throw in some textural variety and sweetness. i spiced it with both cinnamon and allspice.

now my grandmother can be a happy woman. it took 90 years to reach this point, but now she has the icing on the metaphorical cake... her wayward granddaughter has made a real pie. crust and all.

knitting content soon, i promise. i have been busy on secret knitting.

a month ago

that was the last time i wrote an update. egads. much has happened.

and unrelated to all of those things which i will detail, is this photo rW took of me. i like it because i am relaxing on the floor betwen the couch and the coffee table--a favourite spot. AND (!!!) because i am wearing the Gathered Pullover i knit for myself.

i opened 3 shows. Busytown (children's musical), Temptation (political satire with costume party!), and The Serpent Woman (fantasy/commedia).

i was sick from september 26th through.... well, probably this past wednesday, but i am still not at 100%. it started with a bad cold that spread into a double ear infection that eventually also became tonsillitis in one (and only one) tonsil.

then i went on antibiotics that made me 500% more sick and didn't cure the ear infection. so i could neither eat nor hear and was still in tech.

now all the shows are open, and my ears are still about 40% clogged, but i am told it can take up to a month for ears to fully clear and webMD says i shouldn't really get too worried unless i still have hearing loss after 3 months.

ridiculous.

i read Breakfast at Tiffany's while i was at the urgent care and on the metro because i was sick enough to not feel like knitting (!!!). i have since recovered enough to report that i have knit....

75% of a christmas gift. 2 mittens, each from a different pair. 20% of a hat. and one whole side of the edging on the christening shawl. i made a mistake on that on day 2 of tech #1 and it has been sitting ever since until i have the time and brain power to tear back and resume.

jess has assured me the bambino will not be baptised until december, but i want to get it done before his arrival as a point of pride.

other items of note for the month:

locked myself out of the apartment. twice.

rW and i have passed the 6 month mark.

i have started to sew for myself again.

my car had to go to the doctor.

i registered to vote in maryland.

i started my christmas shopping.

and i discovered a new bakery.

tomorrow i am having a head shot taken for use on the company website and programs. i am unsure how i feel about this. it means i need to go wash my freshly dyed hair so it will be manageable tomorrow for the hair and make-up gal.

i hope i get to wear my glasses.