November 10th: Forearms

I took today off of work. Pants and I ran some errands, but were thwarted by long waits at our primary objective - the Department of Licensing. So we still need to update our addresses with them. Le sigh.

One thing we did accomplish was cashing in our coins at the Coinstar machine. We got an Amazon gift certificate with the money. Apparently, there's a promotion right now where if you cash in $40 or more of coins, you can send in for an extra $10 Amazon gift certificate! That's awesome!

While I didn't use today's certificate for knitting related purchases, I do have my eye on a number of knitting books. Knitting in Plain English and The Knitter's Book of Finishing Techniques, notably. I want to get a better technical understanding of this knitting thing. I have a pretty good functional grasp, but feel that a good solid grounding in the technical will improve my finished projects considerablelike.

Catching up on reality shows and watching Brazil has resulted in sleeve growth. My forearms are substantially covered, now. I think there's some more watching of things in the plans for tomorrow, so I am expecting further growth.

I don't have a new photo for today, so here's a photo - taken by webcam - of the view from the 9th floor of the tower at the Catamaran Resort in San Diego. I stayed there overnight a couple of weeks ago when I presented at a conference. The weather is turning downright cold around here, and San Diego was nice and warm, but not too warm.

November 9th: Cookies

Today, I made cookies. I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from this recipe. And I wore my brand new apron, which I mentioned yesterday.

But what fun is wearing a classically styled apron if you don't go full 1950s housewife on it?


I'm even wearing pearls (oops, I wrote purls first) and heels. The heels lasted through about the middle of actually baking the cookies. Then I switched to slippers. :D

The oatmeal in the cookies really bulks out the batter. You get about 40 cookies per batch. Also, this batch and the previous are the first times I've used honest to goodness butter in baking. I was raised on margarine, what can I say? But butter cookies are so rich and decadent.


I'm not 100% with the consistent sizing of cookies either. But as far as I'm concerned, it's not the way they look, but the way they taste.


The last few cookies spread out too much and got kind of caramelized/crispy. Pants didn't care for them, but I like them. When I was done, into the cookie jar go the cookies. And we have, in my opinion, a truly excellent cookie jar.


It's not bigger on the inside, unfortunately.

No knitting yet, but I think I'll stay up a bit and work on my sleeves once this is posted.

November 8th

Today's knitting amounts to about 4 inches of garter and stockinette. Not very interesting photo material. I lazed about. Caught up on some shows in the morning, finished a book and napped midday. And in the afternoon we finished unpacking and picked up in the play room. We still need some furniture in there - there's just one shelf. But it's a start.

I decided to take most of my yarn out of the fabric cubes that the cat destroyed and display it openly. We keep the door closed, so the cat doesn't have access.

This is the sock yarn and books:


Looking at it makes me want to cast on for something. That mini-mochi in front calls to me. And the Fleece Artist and the Zauberball are enticing as well. But first I must complete the projects I have going on - it's for the best. And I fear that's going to take rather a long while at the pace I'm going. But Wednesday is a holiday, and I think I'll take Tuesday off too, depending if anything comes up tomorrow.

November 7th: Still not knitting

Nope, no knitting today either. I got up at 6:15 because I had a meeting at work this morning. On Saturday, yeah. It was done by 10:15 and I reclaimed my sewing machine (which was still at work from the last time I used it) and headed down to the local fabric shop.

You see, I want to make an apron. More appropriately, I want to HAVE an apron. A particular apron. This Apron. (This apron was featured in a post on Cake Wrecks a while ago.) I became obsessed with this apron. A friend tracked down the exact sewing pattern for it and I promptly bought it from eBay.

So I get to the local fabric shop and tell the woman inside that I have this pattern and no idea about anything else.

Have I mentioned that I have never sewn from a pattern in my life? Also, I don't sew much at all in general? Anyway.

The woman at the shop is very helpful. But I have sticker shock. Most of the fabric is $9/yard. Especially the fabric I like. So I back out. I'm pretty sure I'm going to maul the thing, so I'd rather not use $9/yard fabric.

In the afternoon, Pants and I head down to Yakima. We hit up the fabric stores. Fabric costs less, but it's still pretty expensive and I'm not in love with anything exactly. That doesn't prevent me from wandering back and forth for an hour muttering. Eventually, we leave empty handed. We go next door to Goodwill. I find this:


Fabric! For $1.99! Does it look like an old bed sheet? Because that's what it is. But I like it and I feel thrifty all at the same time. And sheepish. I feel a little sheepish about the three fabric stores and hours spent muttering.

Then we go to Target. And darned if I don't find an apron there that's nearly what I wanted, and in a fabric I like to boot. Yeesh.

November 6th: Not so much knitting

I knit, like, three rows on my sleeves today. And that's all the knitting that happened. I unpacked the rest of my yarn and related materials, but this is not about that either.

You see, the husband and I are Nerds. With the capital N. Mister Comfypants recently bought Dune: The Board Game at the local Goodwill. This game, despite being very nerdy, in a beat up box, and 25 years old, had all of its gameplay pieces. And there are a lot of them.


(I would have included one with my knitting in it, but, look! Patrick Stewart!)

Here we are, after starting the game. Reading the rules took nearly an hour. You can see we are playing the game, and yet Mr. Pants needs to consult, NOT ONE, BUT TWO sets of rules to figure out what's going on. It's a complicated game. But, actually, surprisingly, a good game. It captures the intrigue, which is unusual for a movie tie in.

Knitting content tomorrow, I swear.

November 5th: Partial Cuffs

And we have sleeves. Well, cuffs. Half of cuffs, if you want to get into it. But it's a start. I cast them on last night and worked on them at knitting group tonight. You've really got to pay attention to garter in the round! Not as much as you do to twisted rib though. ;)

I really like this two at a time thing. I am thrilled that I won't have to knit a second sleeve, because I'll already have done it. Just got to keep on, steady as she goes.

November 4th: Cat on doily

The moving process is a funny thing sometimes. Furniture goes missing. Books get un-alphabetized. Pets freak out. Business Cat was getting a little alarmed about the whole process. Late one night she hopped up on the no-longer-ours coffee table and, very very carefully, sat herself down on my hand knit doily.



She did it without knocking over that taun-taun too. Previously, the doily had been out of her reach and I don't think she was even aware of it. Cats just have that knack for sitting on the only thing that is different in texture from everything around it.



And she's not been interested in the doily since.