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Stash Sunday – Three Irish Girls Beachtown Mini Skeins

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I have a lot of Three Irish Girls in my Stash.  It’s not surprising, because The Yarn Spot is one of its carriers, but I was collecting it even before I moved to Maryland.  Let’s just be frank: Sharon knows her stuff.

These Beachtown Mini Skeins go with a normal Skein of Beachtown I have.  I dunno if I’ll be using them together, but the colors are pretty typical of my palette.

Do you find yourself trending back to a particular color combination, or set of colors?  Most people do, but I’m not sure if everyone does.

Anyway, the Deets:

Yarn weight

Fingering / 4 ply (14 wpi)
Amount stashed

2 skeins = 860.0 yards (786.4 m)
Purchased at

The Yarn Spot in Wheaton, Maryland
Dye lot

Colorway

Beach Town Mini Skeins

Train Trips and Stitching

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I’m working on another design that’s under contract, which
is why I haven’t been posting many progress photos recently… gotta keep it
under wraps. 
Riding on the train is prime knit and crochet time for
me.  It’s partly because there’s few
distractions.  It’s partly because
something about the movement of the train. 
And it is partly because I can turn on the music, look down at the work,
and get into the zen mode.
On the way down I’ve finished the sleeve to the contracted
project, worked a little on a vest that was hibernating and I’ve dug back out,
and also worked on another square for the log cabin blanket of alternative
techniques.
Basically, I’ve been using the log cabin blanket to work out
some different ideas.  And stashbust.
I’m starting to brainstorm for the final shawl of the four
shawls I’ll be releasing in the next year. 
We’re going toward the winter one. 
I have to balance my desire to just drape a blanket over my shoulders in
the winter with something that is wearable and flattering.  We’ll see what comes out.
What have you been working on lately?

Six Week Saga

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It’s no secret that I’m not the best cook.  I’m not the worst, but if given my druthers, I’d let Michael do all the cooking, and I’d (mostly) happily do the dishes.  I’m prone to intuitive jumps in logic sometimes, which serves me well in knit or crochet… no so much in cooking.  That’s how you get meatballs that are no longer meatballs and turkeyloaf you can pour out of a pan.  (My philosophy for a long time with cooking was if I didn’t understand a step, I’d just skip it.  Hey, as long as it was cooked, it really didn’t matter how it got there, right?  Right?)

But the next six weeks Michael is going to be in in intense summer courses, which means Monday through Thursday I am responsible for the cooking, even on nights I get home late… because Michael will be getting home later.  *wince*  So before this week Michael and I sat down to brainstorm meals we could freeze, prepare before-time, and have ready to go.  That way I’m not tempted to take shortcuts that won’t work or make a mistake because I’m tired.

So… anyone have any good freezer-ready meals, or things that we can do and prep beforehand?  Anything would be good.

Air Plants

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Okay, brief little weirdness.  I like growing strange things.  Right now, I’m trying to propagate lichen with my tree, and I’ve been known to grow a mean batch of mushrooms.  Chances are, if I like a plant, it’s got an 80% chance of being a type of bromeliad.  That’s just how I roll.

Lately though, I’ve been wanting to grow some air plants, also known as tillandsia (which are actually a type of bromeliad).  They absorb their nutrients through the AIR, which is really cool.  They don’t really need their roots as anything other than the means to hold onto wherever they grow.  Heck, this is one step better than hydroponics!   These things don’t even need DIRT.

THESE

Which means you can do what I really want to do, which is to get some of

… and then get some of

THESE

Glue them together with water insoluble glue.  And then stick them on my magnetic closet doors.

How cool would that be?

Travel, Alone/Lonely, Random Bits, Driving a Manual!

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Michael is traveling for work.  Sometime around my senior year of college I realized I really wasn’t a person that did well living alone.  Now, this is not to say I dislike having alone time.  Being the oldest of four children, I used to beg my mother for some time to play when I did not have to share.  But I always knew I could go back and play with my siblings, or someone.  When I went off to camp I shared a cabin with 7 other girls, and there was always someone to play with.  When I moved to college I had room mates.

That is, until my senior year, when I got a single.  Michael, who I had been dating for a year and a half at the time, was away at sea, and I for various reasons was not as proximal to my friends as I was used to. (Is proximal a word?  If not, I’m pulling a Shakespeare).  I loved being able to set up my room however I wanted for about a week and a half.  Then I kinda just fell apart.  Without a room-mate there really wasn’t anyone to say “maybe you should go to bed” or “maybe you should eat.”  There was no social pressure to shower regularly.  I went to classes because I was a rule follower and because there was social pressure to go to class, but for a semester I was terribly lonely.  It was awful, and it was about then that I realized I really wasn’t happy living alone.  It also took a while for me to develop coping mechanisms to be able to live alone, which involved numerous alarms to remind me to eat, sleep and wake up.

I was so happy when Michael, and many of my other friends the grade below me, finally came back from abroad.  My second semester went much better, especially because Michael practically lived in my room more than his.

Which basically means that when Michael travels, I wander around the apartment looking rather lost.  It helped before we moved that I had a room mate that would basically take me under her wing while he was gone, but now I just sit home alone, and well, it’s kinda sad.  Normally the second or third day I’ll remember how to live alone, but there’s always an adjustment period.

I also have been known to just eat raw veggies and fruit and yogurt and corn while he is gone.  Which is kinda embarrassing.  But really, I don’t even want to eat my own cooking.

~~~

On a brighter note: I drove to the post office and back in the Manual, and only stalled once, in the parking lot, which practically doesn’t even count.  Didn’t stall out or roll back on any of the hills.  And the other day?  I drove across town for an errand by myself.  Be impressed.  This is hard work, when you learned to drive an automatic.

EDIT:  Just to clarify.  I first learned to drive an automatic.  Now I can drive an automatic AND a manual.

Weekend Ravels

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At our house, we have a grand tradition of Game Nights.  We hold them about once a month, and a select group of individuals are invited to indulge in popcorn and lemonade (in the summer) or tea (in the winter).  A good time is had by all, probably because the house rules dictate you must wear a silly hat.

This month we’ve been lucky enough to host two Game events, which included my birthday and also our yearly Formal (where we make all of our friends dress up fancy and we pretend we’re classy by eating finger foods and drinking wine.  Then we ruin the effect by playing rousing games of catch phrase and telephone pictonary).

If you’ve never tried it, you should.

Silly hats rock.

Stash Sunday – Rock Creek Yarn Silk/Merino DK

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This has been hanging out in my stash for a while.  As in, probably more than a year.  It’s one of the cases of it’s so pretty, I don’t know how I’m going to use it.  The design has to be worthy.  Plus, when I bought it I was intending it to be for myself, and since then, I’ve shrunk.  I probably have enough that I could make a WHOLE DRESS for myself, as long as I did it in lace.  I’ve even swatched it, so it’s not like I have any excuse.

In fact… that’s the other reason I haven’t worked it yet.  I want this to be a piece in my wardrobe for many years to come, and as such, I want it to fit for a long time.  So I’ve been waiting until I shrink just a little bit more.

The Deets, as always:

Yarn weight

DK / 8 ply (11 wpi)
Amount stashed

6 skeins = 1380.0 yards (1261.9 m)
Purchased at

The Yarn Spot in Wheaton, Maryland
Dye lot

Colorway

Intense Violet
Color family

Stored in

Trunk

Precious Little

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I have an infinite fondness for children’s books, and have a
fairly large collection of them that I haul from place to place.  Some of them are mine, some of them I “appropriated”
from my home.  Some of them are gifts and
some of them are children’s books for adults. 
Children’s books I love because when they are done well, there is a
perfect melding of text and illustration that enriches both.
I suppose some people could make this argument for comics,
and while I enjoy comics, I just don’t have the same attachment to them as children’s
books.
I came across one the other day while at the Hyattsville
Library.  Now, the girls and I have a
favorite librarian at the Hyattsville Library. 
We call her Mrs. D for short (Mrs. Danielle).  She’s amazing.  She remembers that Bella loves mysteries and
Vivi loves Maisy and knows my standing rule is I’ll only read 3 character books
per child before we have to pick something else. (character books are books
like the Bernstein Bears, Dora the Explorer, Aurthur, Franklin, etc… basically
books that are perfectly lovely but a bit formulaic, and can get boring for an
adult to read.  I want the girls to
discover things other than mainstream books). 
She’s the one who has recommended children’s books to me that have
stayed on my keeper shelf: Ladybug Girl, anything by Gerald Morris, and several
others.
Yesterday she pointed me to Precious Little, a new children’s
book that has come out.  Precious Little
is up there with some of my other favorite children’s books, that melds art and
story in a way that is just… amazing. 
The illustrations for the book have depth, the allegories and metaphors
are great.  It was a book that after I
finished reading it to the girls (twice) I stayed looking at it myself because
it was just that good.  I’m planning to
buy myself a copy.
Now, I don’t talk and recommend books very often, both
because my tastes tend to run toward a very specific set of genres, and also
because… well, my love of books is very deeply personal in a way that is almost
like telling a room full of strangers my most embarrassing moments.  But this book I think deserves to be talked
about.
So just… go to your local library and check it out for me.
On a side note… do you have a favorite children’s book, or a
book that speaks to the child in you? 
Tell me about it.  I’m always up
to reading new books.

Stash Sunday – Mountain Colors Mountain Goat

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Mountain Colors is a yarn company which which I have a strong and passionate love.  The colors they create are georgous, and when I talk about the company, my passion comes through.  Often, I will walk into a new store, and the first yarn I approach, without even seeing the ball band, will be Mountain Colors.  I was Beyond Thrilled when The Yarn Spot started carrying this yarn, because I love it.  Whoever plans the colorways at Mountain Colors must have the very same color sense as I do, because their colors speak to me in a way I can’t describe.  Other companies I love the colors because they are “OOO, SHINY!”  Mountain Colors I love because the colors say to me, “home.”  They fill the warm place in me that yearns for peace.

Needless to say, I’ve had a fair amount of their yarn over the years, though most of it isn’t documented in Ravelry.

Mountain Goat I love in particular for it’s hand.  It’s solid.

The Deets:

Yarn weight

Worsted / 10 ply (9 wpi)
Amount stashed

3 skeins = 690.0 yards (630.9 m)
Purchased at

Charlotte Yarn in Charlotte, North Carolina
Dye lot

Colorway

Sweet Pea

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