Reading is Fundamental

Anybody remember the commercials for RIF?

I read to Bean's class. They all file in and sit down and a couple of the kids from last year's class are really happy to see me. C and K are girls in the class and M is a boy.

C: Hi Miss Liz!!!!
Me: Hi, C.
C: (Pointing at small boy rolling around on the carpet) That's M. He's BAD!
Me: You know, C, it's not very nice to say things like that about our friends.
K: (very earnestly) Oh, but he is bad! He really is.
Six other kids from the class join the chorus of how M is Bad.
Me: Oooookay, then. Well, how about we read this story!

Afterwards I laughed 'til I cried. Maybe you had to be there, but they were all so serious. Later, one of them told me all about how M is so bad and his apple is always on the trunk and never in the tree. "He's going to get A LETTER to his parents!"

One of the other moms had helped out earlier in the day. C sits at Bean's table (which is nice because they were buddies in Pre-K) along with two boys. M is one of the boys. So the mom is telling me how everyone knows M is going to get in trouble for something so Bean just took over cleaning up the table and organized everyone and shepherded M through the process. Cracks me up. My little organizer.

Oh What A Night

Last night was plain weird.

The three of us went to our favorite sushi bar last night in celebration of our anniversary. Dinner was superb, as usual and Bean ate her weight in grilled chicken meatballs.

We used to always split a small cold sake and a beer between us. It ends up being about 4oz of sake and 6 oz of beer, so we're not talking about anything near what I would call overindulgence. However, about a year ago, I decided to stop drinking sake because it was giving me strange dreams. Last night, I indulged. And paid for it.

Oh, I fell blissfully asleep. The bliss didn't last though, because then I started having nightmares. The horse that someone made me keep in the refrigerator was bad enough, but then we bought a very expensive house that was furnished. In the nightmare, I was very pleased to find a complete collections of linens of all sorts for every holiday under the sun.

I say nightmare because I am not a holiday towel sort of person. I do have a small collection of seasonal items that I use to decorate the front porch, and I think I have a plate with a Santa on it somewhere, but that's about it. People kept making me decorate things and it was driving me crazy.

And then I couldn't figure out how we were going to pay for the house now that we'd bought it and why we would buy a house that put Bean in a bedroom on a different floor and at the opposite end of the house from us. And I just wanted to go back to my house and now the horse was a Great Dane and then I was very thankful to wake up.

Phew!

I think I'll go back to white wine.

Happy Anniversary

Anyone remember the Flintstones?

Nine years today. I didn't scan any photos, but that day was the first day we had rain in over three months. The priest told us that there is an Italian proverb that states that rain on your wedding day means no tears in your marriage. I wouldn't say we've had no tears, but we've had precious few.

Bean is happy that Daddy is finally home. I am happy that I didn't get mad last night when she woke up 7 times. Once to ask if she could use our bathroom instead of hers. Ahem.

Now, can anyone tell me why I was fool enough to schedule my annual on the same day as my anniversary?

It never rains

Well, really it does. Today is a huge gullywasher - nothing like trying to get your child to school when it's raining so hard you can't see the road. Our little creek at the end of the block has overflowed it's banks as usual. Hopefully, the rain will stop in a bit and I can get a picture of the floodplain. It's pretty amazing.

Fairy tales

Bean has been writing a story. She's doing all of the writing herself, including the spelling.

One of today's pages had a picture of a plane with people looking out of the windows and underneath she wrote:

U plane flu n the eyr

(A plane flew in the air.)

I was pretty impressed that she got everything phonetically correct (remember the Texas accent, y'all - "A" is pronounced "Uh", "air" is "ay-er", etc.).

Art class starts tomorrow and she cannot wait. I'm hoping for some sun, so that I can take some pictures of her artwork. It's pretty fun stuff!

An inglorious start

I took many, many stash pictures today in order to import them into Flickr and then into Ravelry. Because I was avoiding every single other freaking thing I'm really supposed to be doing (and I bought yarn, too!).

And then I deleted the pictures from the camera rather than downloading them to the computer. I redid some of the work but the rest can wait.

Poo!

I'm on the board of a local charity organization. One of my duties is to create the newsletter and send it out. It's due today and I have less than zero desire to work on the damn thing. It's not even that big a deal - they are just happy someone is willing to do it! But it's a pain in the ass and I'm undermotivated.

I think I'll work on Red for a while. Nothing like a little procrastination!

Seeing Red

In a good way!


The thing I love about top-down raglans is that they start to look like a sweater very quickly.

I'm nearing the point where I'll start the interminable ribbing. I am lengthening the amount of plain knitting a bit. I want the ribbing to start well under my bustline and I can tell from trying the sweater on that, if I knit that pattern as written, the ribbing will be a bit high. There are so many empire-waisted shirts and dresses these days, that I have become an expert at determining which ones are going to work on me. I want plenty and enough room in the bust, otherwise I end up with a stupid line across my boobs. Not flattering!

So I'll give it a couple more inches and then ribs ahoy!

This weekend is going to be a major push to finish a bunch of things that need small amounts of seaming or pressing or whatever. I have a tendency to let items simmer in the finishing basket for a bit before the final bits and pieces. Bad habit, but it's my own!

Glamour Don't

As an avid Project Runway fan, I was looking forward to Tim Gunn's Guide to Style. Gunn seems like a natural choice for such a show. He's clever and full of constructive criticism. I thought it would be a witty version of What Not to Wear. Maybe even a successful version of the Queer Eye show that featured women (and bombed horribly due to the boring hosts).

It's more like What Not to Watch.

They had a "sneak preview" last night and I was bored pantsless. They pick the same sort of stuck-in-a-rut, dressing 20 years too young people that WNTW picks. They have the victim try on clothes and then critique them just as in WNTW. They go shopping and have plenty of product placement treats. (WNTW) Hair and makeup (WNTW) .

Last night, the big deal was getting a dress from Bill Blass. Bill freakin' Blass? Has Bill Blass been at all big since the 70s? Maybe the 80s?

As for supposed life coach, if I need a life coach, then I'd like someone who maybe had a few years of life experience under his belt rather than some nerd who needs to shave and still uses Clearasil.

Gunn is over his head. He visibly cringes at the wardrobe he's facing and then cringes from making any judgments. There is an art to critique without hurting someone's feelings. Gunn has it on Project Runway, but with a full show resting on his shoulders, he can't keep it going.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

This version is a big improvement!

The shorter color changes combined with a lighter weight yarn are making for a more interesting sock. I'm knitting on size 1 needles. I would have had to go down at least to a zero, if not smaller to get the sock the right size with the Silkie.

Yay for fun socks!

Mangia Mondays

Homeade Pepperoni Pizza


Making your own pizza dough is surprisingly easy, particularly if you have a food processor.

Crust - adapted from Mark Bittman

1 tsp instant or rapid rise yeast or 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
2 1/2 C AP flour (more if needed)
1/2 C cornmeal (Bittman specifies semolina flour, but I never have semolina. However, as a good Southern girl, I have cornmeal which is close enough. The semolina/cornmeal adds some crunch to the crust. If you prefer it sans crunch, just put in 3 C flour.)

1 C water (do NOT pour all of the water in at once - add gradually)
2 T olive oil

Combine all dry ingredients in food processor and whiz until mixed. Add water and olive oil through the feed tube. It's been so humid down here that I have not needed the whole cup of water. The dough should form into a nice ball - not sticky.

Turn it out onto a floured work surface and knead for maybe a minute. Put it into a bowl and coat with olive oil and let it rest for a couple of hours or so. Sometimes, my yeast is a bit off and I find that this recipe produces very little first rise, but I just keep going. The crust tastes good regardless.

Divide the dough into 4 pieces. Knead each for a few minutes and form into a small ball. Cover the balls of dough with a tea towel and let them rest (no more olive oil) for another hour or so.

Roll or pat into a pizza and cook at 500F for about 7-8 minutes. Go light on the toppings - otherwise the 'za will be soggy. 1 pizza should serve one person. The thinner you roll out the dough, the crispier your crust will be.

I highly recommend the purchase of a pizza stone and a peel. You find lots of discussion about just getting an unglazed quarry tile from Home Despot for your pizza stone, but I found a perfectly great pizza stone for $10 at Target (my Home Despot only had glazed tiles). I did go to Williams-Sonoma for my peel, but it was only $14 and it gets quite alot of use.

Put some cornmeal down on your peel (this works much better than flour), put the rolled out pizza dough top, and add toppings. Be sure to give the peel a short jerk to make sure your pizza will slide into the oven easily. At 500F, you don't want to be messing with a pizza that folds up. If the pizza does not slide easily, take a bench scraper or metal spatula and wiggle it under the pizza until the pizza comes up. If you have not enough cornmeal or too many toppings, the pizza will stick.

This is a really fun dinner for children, as they can help assemble their own pizza.

Wrap leftover uncooked pizza dough in plastic and refridgerate and it will keep for three or four days. Let it come to room temp before cooking.

I have frozen this dough with mixed results. Frankly, it's so easy that I'd rather just make it fresh.

Monkey See, Monkey Ew

One ugly Monkey about to be frogged. First, I've decided that I really loathe this colorway. I haven't been too thrilled with the colors from the Rockin' Sock Club this year - lots of muddy greens (2 out of four skeins so far have been muddy greens).

I love the Monkey pattern, but this yarn is doing nothing for the pattern and the pattern is making a yarn I'm not super fond of to begin with into something I really don't like very much at all.

I was on the fence about re-upping for the sock club this year and now I think I will not do it next year. I like the concept, but I think I need a sock club that's tailored a bit more to my personal preferences. Next year I will introduce the Dalai Mama Sock Club which will order whatever the heck sock yarn I feel like getting for myself ;>


Moving on to the next shot: bright colors with lots of short repeats! The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock. I have no clue as to the colorway.

Let's hope this is a better fit!

Something New

I have long wanted to knit Wendy Bernard's Something Red. I bought the Blue Sky cotton at kpixie and yesterday decided to cast on. This completely violates my intentions of finishing two or three items before casting on anything new, but most of my UFOs involve some sort of lace and I'm more in a stockinette mood. Y'all know how I love my stockinette.


The color is called tomato, but it's really more of a brick red. This will be the perfect fall sweater for Texas. I can wear it with a tank top once it starts to cool down (approximate Fall Start Date is October 31st. Halloween is always either the first really cold day or it's sweltering and all the kids are boiling over in their costumes.

I also cast on for the first Car Pool Sock. Any bets as to how many socks I can knit this year while waiting in the Car Pool line? (The duration is from now until the first week of June.) The average car pool wait is currently 20 minutes - afternoon only. I hit the sweet spot for morning drop-off and it takes about three minutes.

A monkey in STR Silkie. The color is Walking on the Wild Tide. Right now, it's particular to the Blue Moon sock club, but it should be available to everyone next year. I'm going to complete the ribbing and try to get in one pattern repeat this morning before consigning it to the car.

Becky is largely complete. I love how the cabled neckline continues all around the back of the neck.

I still have to weave in the ends; my most hated task.

For blocking, I am going to cheat. I'm taking the sweater to the cleaner's and letting them do it. My experience with blocking Cathay is that it looks better after being dry cleaned.

I had big plans for Getting Shit Done this afternoon. At about 10.45, I received a call from Bean's school. The power has been out all day, so they canceled classes.

Instead of errands, I am starting some Monkey socks. I need carpool knitting.

Cableiscious!

I love the cable detail on Becky. It's a very simple cable, but really pops against the plainness of the rest of the shell.




I had a Moment of Duh last night upon realizing that, if I seam after the fact, I'll lose the edge stitch on each side, so it won't look the same as the established double cable section.

I decided to knit two extra repeats of the cable pattern before dividing for the neckline. That should give me a crucial inch and a half. I don't mind a deep vee, but there's a deep vee and then there's the Grand Canyon.

Inching along

Becky is inching along. I'm at the waist on the front now. I have another couple of inches or so and then I get to start the cable neckline.

I'm trying to figure out how to make the neckline a bit more demure. My cleavage is substantially more impressive than the model's. Instead of an expanse of chestbone, you'd get quite the eyeful. I know I can just wear a cami underneath, but it's freaking hot here and I'd rather not if I don't have to. I have decided that I will finish the sweater per the pattern and then decide what to do. I imagine I can just seam the neckline a crucial inch or two to preserve my dignity. The way the neckline is designed, it should be fairly easy to do since there is already a double line of the cable at the base of the vee.

An FO of another sort

I married a "handy" guy. He can install a new light fixture, rewire a lamp, take down wallpaper and mud a wall, etc. He also likes to Build Stuff.

Usually, we end up with some weird project like the beginnings of a solar-powered air conditioner (no, I am not kidding) that never get completed and end up rotting in the side yard.

This time, we ended up with this.

A fort for Bean.

It still needs to be stained and have a roof put on, but it's pretty darn cool. It's 6x6 feet, so there's room for all.

Bean is thrilled. Daddy is The Coolest Ever. I'm thrilled because it's finished and, when big trash comes, the huge pile of wood in my backyard will go away.


The stand of trees are crape myrtles. This is what happens when you don't commit crape murder every year. They don't need to be topped. This tree blooms numerous times throughout the year - delicate lavender blossoms. It's gorgeous.

Poor Dr. Pig though, he now has the Creeping Death Crud that has afflicted the rest of us. On his birthday no less. Happy Birthday anyway, darling!

Trouble

Oh, man, I've spent the last three days uploading stuff to Ravelry. I have all this stuff on my Palm Pilot, but Ravelry is so much more fun. And I haven't even started exploring everyone else's stuff. Additive is the least of it. I've been slogging through my huge pile of WIPs.

I'm currently working on Debbie Bliss's Becky in Cathay. I wonder if they've done a little reworking of Cathay, because this is a new color and it is much less splitty than when I worked with it right after it came out.



I'm also trying to finish the Sea Silk Lace Wings shawl from Alice at Lettuce Knit. It takes one skein of sea silk. My problem is that I keep putting it down to do other things and then it takes me a bit to figure out where the hell I am. It's a super easy pattern, but somehow it gives me brain freeze. After I finish those two, I'm diving back into CeCe.

This has been a very odd year and, while I have started a ton of projects, I don't think I've finished any of them. Several of them are either reworkings of almost-finished items that I decided I loathed. I'm back to the knuckle-down plan I always use when the WIPs get out of hand: finish three and you can start one. Much finish projects!!!

Updating everything

Somehow I managed to delete my blog template and all my links. I do have a copy, but I decided that, since I'm going to have to redo it anyway, I might as well change my template. Hopefully, I'll get that up later this week.

I've been cleaning out, cleaning up, etc. It's amazing how much stuff piles up when you aren't looking. I'm doing pretty well and I even have a pile of yarn that I need to sell. Let's face it, the chances of me knitting with Rowan Kid Classic for wear in Texas is pretty slim.

I've also gotten into the fabulous time-suck that is Ravelry. I received my invitation back in May and still had done nothing other than put in a username and password. I started feeling sort of guilty that they have this enormous waiting list, and yet I can't get my butt in gear to make use of my membership. So, I've been adding stash and needles. Hurricane season means that it's cloudy all the time here - though with very little rain. Hopefully, I'll get some sun this week so that I can photograph stash. I feel kind of weird putting my stash online, because it's really gotten out of control, and now I just feel greedy. I've given away tons of very old stash with the realization that it I haven't knitted anything with it after having it for 15 years, I probably won't ever knit with it.

Mostly, we've just been sick for the last month. It seems like that is all over. I still have a helluva cough, but I took my last antibiotic today so I'm hoping it'll dry up this week.

It's all just in time for Bean to start school. Start the wailing and gnashing of teeth - I have a kindergartener!

Expounding the reazles for sneezles and wheezles

AA Milne would be proud, because I certainly have Phtheezles.

My internist has a new nurse who I haven't met. She asked if I had been around Bean while she was running fever. Heh.

Thank God for antibiotics and cough medicine with codeine. Now, I'm just hoping Dr. Pig doesn't get it.

And hey! The antibiotic can also be used to treat anthrax!

Maybe they knew I'm a knitter?