an ent knits

eye candy friday: lehnen

Toward the end of Fiber Night last night, this cutie came up to sit next to me.

 

Lehnen, aside from normal cat-cuteness, has incredibly fuzzy toes.  So adorable! 

eye candy friday

In lieu of new pictures of different summer flora, here's a very happy Mel.  I could use some of that peace, myself. 

Happy weekend, everyone.

two non-fibery pictures

Where I was last night:

That is, I was sitting behind the camera, watching the Rosebuds from the bar, because I am lazy, my knee was bothering me, and my earplugs were losing their effectiveness.  Still, it was a very good show.  The Rosebuds are awesome.  (The first band, the Greyhounds, were okay; the second band, the Bowerbirds, sounded like it was quite good for an opening band but still not extremely exciting.)  The venue, Johnny Brenda's, was a new one for me; except for the fact that it's kind of far away, it would be my new favorite--it was clean (including the restroom), lit well enough that one could see that it was clean, there was a good selection of beer, the decor was great, the temperature was adequately regulated....  Next time, I will explore the balcony.  Last night, though, well, part of the reason we sat at the bar so long was so I could drink my beer and my water and still have hands free for knitting.   I started something that I think will become a Dulaan something, but I probably won't take a picture of it until it's decided what it wants to be.

And this morning:

 

Mel likes looking out the window.  I have to agree with him that the best weather is that which is conducive to open windows...at least, when I don't also want to have a fan pointed at me in a pale echo of an air conditioner. 

eye candy friday

Mel, staring intently at the catnip mouse that Sarah gave him.  I love his expression in this picture.

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March is turning into a month of concerts for me, beginning last night with Anonymous 4.  I was thrilled to hear (on Monday, I think) that not only were they performing in Philly, but they were singing on campus (convenient!).  So I went, and they were excellent (as expected).  They sang some songs from American Angels, and some that I think are from their newest album, Gloryland--a mix of shape-note tunes and other American folk music.  I am now eagerly anticipating the shape-note sing on Sunday.  (Even more eagerly than I had been, that is.) 

The other fun thing about last night was that, after the concert, I headed off to a new and different craft night, hosted by one of my labmates.  Although there were about three of us knitting, there were also people drawing, painting, and doing other non-yarn things.  It was odd, being in that kind of minority at a craft night.  Fun, though, and I'm really close to having super-exciting knitting news.  With any luck, it (perhaps along with the swatch I mentioned last week) will be photo-ready for Monday.

eye candy friday

Today's eye candy is a picture of Mel from quite a while ago.  It's a decent representation of how I'm feeling right now...  Work is crazy, and though it's good to be busy, I could use a bit more sleep. 

Fiberly activity this week has been limited to a couple of rows on the Diamond Fantasy Shawl, which is nearly at the end of the seventh repeat.  The directions say to use six repeats for the scarf and ten for the shawl; has anyone tried using seven, eight, or nine?  I'm not sure I really want it to be as big as the full shawl...

two thursdays

Two Thursdays ago was Fiber Night at Anj's. She was showing us all of the fiber and yarn she had acquired on her vacation...we ooohed and aaahed...and fondled most of it...but Lehnen was not interested in sharing the giant bag of alpaca:

Last Thursday was a Harry & the Potters/Draco & the Malfoys/Hungarian Horntails concert in a church basement downtown. Being me, I wasn't about to just stand there through the whole thing without any knitting. Unfortunately, I didn't have any good concert knitting handy, since the current Dulaan hat is in the middle of the decreases (requires counting and wouldn't've lasted long enough anyway). So I decided to start a new sock with the Spirit Trail sock yarn I bought at Maryland. I started balling the yarn at lunch, finished balling it while standing in line to get in (for maybe 45 minutes), and then cast on and started knitting during the next bit of waiting and the beginning of the show.

At the end of the evening, I had this:

I am really, really proud of how well this came out. It's sooo much better than the last time I tried to start a toe-up sock at a show--I think some of it is the yarn, which is less splitty, some of it is the fact that this was a concert where I couldn't see the stage anyway, rather than a movie, and some of it is just practice. Still. Very proud.

one local summer, part 2

I did it! Just barely within the week, but I did cook an actual meal with actual local ingredients. This week's even looks like an actual meal instead of just two things I'm eating at the same time...

This is local kale, eggplant, and zucchini, sautéed with local onion and garlic (one sign of "actual meal" for me, as opposed to "please let there be food" is using "real" onion and garlic instead of dried), not-local cider vinegar, basil, salt, pepper, and cumin, and the same supply of dried parsley as last time (from the CSA to which my parents belong). And they're mixed into local egg noodles. (Oh, yeah--the olive oil is also really not local.) Not pictured is the local beer (Victory's Golden Monkey) that was a splendid accompaniment to cooking and dinner. Yum. (Bonus local meal: lunch on Saturday was two ears of local corn. Mmmm, fresh sweet corn.)

Now, I understand that a lot of the argument for something like the Eat Local Challenge or One Local Summer is to point out how much food really is available locally, and how great fresh produce is. But this struggle I'm having, to produce an overlap between things I want to cook and things I can cook with all local ingredients, is making me really appreciate the fact that we have a global economy. I can buy rice and bananas and papaya and all sorts of things that simply don't grow in Pennsylvania. I mean, I love buying really fresh produce at the farmers' market and the co-op, and the local tofu is great, and I love the seasonality of my excitement over different crops. (I am soooo looking forward to the start of apple season. I love me some ginger golds.) But refrigeration and shipping, along with all of the communication technology I use, are really important to me. I am spoiled, but I'm okay with that as long as I appreciate it.

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I also have a quick question for my fellow spinners with cats. Do any of you find that your cats knead your roving into beds? Is there anything I can do about it other than hiding it all? I mean, I'm all for Mel using my roving as a pillow as long as it's safely in a plastic bag--that's actually adorable, and I may get a picture for you at some point--but I can't help but worry that he's going to spoil the fiber prep if I give him too many more chances to knead my roving.

if all of summer were like this

...I could get to like summer. It was sooooo nice last night to open all of my windows and not lament the lack of air conditioning. It's much nicer to have fresh air that doesn't feel like it's just escaped from a sauna...

And it meant that I could take pictures of my fresh yarn in front of an open window.

(Boogie merino in sunflower, 1 ounce, about 160 yards)

Mel was particularly pleased by the open windows (bird sounds, louder! new smells!), and not at all pleased when I asked for his attention.

And, unrelated to the weather, I've made a bit more progress on the diamond fantasy shawl:

This whole spinning and then knitting with my handspun thing is great. Just great.

what happens when I'm really tired

I come home, exhausted (a little before 8pm). I find the simplest possible thing to eat for dinner, or something at least really close to that. I maybe perk up a little or maybe just feel even guiltier than before about the beyond-lamentable state of my apartment, so I start cleaning things.

And then I give in to the urge I've had since morning to bake something. Specifically, a bar cookie version of the carob-peanut butter-banana cookies that I like so much. My thought was that if I made bar cookies it'd be faster than making lots of separate cookies. Uh huh. The spreading of the cookie dough into the pan was certainly faster, but the baking, instead of 7 or 8 minutes, took the better part of an hour. Plus the time it took to let it cool, cut it into 30 (large) rectangles, and discover that they weren't really finished baking. So here it is, just past two a.m., and I'm still awake. I am going to need soooo much coffee to function tomorrow.

I will leave you with a picture that represents how I'm feeling right now:

Friday evening randomness

1. I presented a poster (of my labwork) for the first time this week. It was stressful, somewhat awkward, and exciting.

2. This has really been my ideal kind of Friday night: some minor socializing (a happy hour for a friend who's been given permission to write his dissertation), maybe some errands (grocery shopping at Trader Joe's, including sushi for dinner), and hanging around my apartment with a book, my computer, and Mel. The rain and wet-street traffic noises are excellent bonuses.

3. I slid down a few steps of my staircase on Wednesday morning, on my way to take out the recycling and fetch my laundry. Ow. (Still.)

4. What's wrong with this picture?

If you answered, "Oh, no! A broken Lantern Moon dpn!" you get a [virtual] silver star. (Or red or green, if you like those better.) My plan is to see if I can sand down that end and refinish it somehow.

If you answered, "Oh, no! The heel was supposed to be black onyx, not amber!" you get a [virtual] gold star. I'll be ripping back the heel flap as soon as I locate the black onyx yarn. And I was so hoping to finish these soon... Oh. Wait. I know where the black onyx yarn is now. It's in the cuff of sock two. Hmm...

5. Hey, look! I'm knitting something with my handspun and I'm planning to keep it!

I really wouldn't call this color "pine", although I do like it. It's too close to "seafoam green" to be "pine" to me. I might allow for "blue spruce", though, if a tree name were desired.

Oh. You wanted to know what it's going to be? A wristwarmer. I'm thinking I'll be able to get one wristwarmer out of an ounce of roving, so I'll use two colors of the corriedale from my Boogie sampler. They should be done just in time for air-conditioning season.

6. Maryland Sheep and Wool is in two weeks! Two weeks from now, I'll be camped at a state park near the festival! Whee! (I hope I'm not still sore from the steps.)

7. I've already basically planned out my Maryland budget. I want a couple more bobbins for Amy, a couple of skeins of Socks that Rock or something similar, in good almost-solids, and some fiber. I need to figure out how much to get for a potential sweater.

8. I'm going to be moving (my apartment, not my blog, and only a few blocks) in June. And I have a medium-sized presentation in the end of June. So if I'm unusually scarce in the next several weeks, figure I'm either working or packing or cleaning.

9. Mel did the whole screen thing again this morning. There was a squirrel on the cables (I don't know what kind...) that run along/just outside of the back of my building, such that the squirrel was only about six inches away from the highest point Mel could reach. The squirrel, clearly familiar with windows, was pretty nonchalant, if a bit chittery. Mel, on the other hand, was very, very excited and frustrated.