Friday Meme

Courtesy of a tag from Elspeth.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
I had just moved to DC, was busting my tail at an internship (and hoping it turned into a job, which it did). I was living in an apartment in the 'burbs (bad choice) with no furniture, because I didn't know where I would be in 12 weeks, I had no money and I dreaded having to move somewhere new.

Gas was cheap, and I didn't have to be into work until 4 p.m., so I spent my days exploring Washington and learning my way around. I got lost a lot, but I credit that summer with really knowing my way around the city nowadays. I also ventured into some neighborhoods I probably shouldn't have, but we'll not dwell on that.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today?

1. Gym

2. Call the very nice detective who found my backpack. The North Face backpack that was stolen out of my car in DC in March 2003. He is very keen to know the circumstances (and find the police report) of its disappearance. Methinks this backpack is a bit player in a larger drama. (Side note: so glad I put my name on the backpack tag in permanent ink!)

3. Pimm's cup to celebrate Friday.

4. Finish an expense report.

5. Take the 10-inch stack of papers on my desk and put them in appropriate files.

3. Snacks I enjoy:

1. Anything with wheat flavor. Wheat thins, honey-wheat pretzels, you name it. It's the Kansas in me.

2. Grapes.

3. Chocolate (but not white chocolate, the imposter).
4. Ice cream.

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Pay down debt, travel, and help fund research for a cure for diabetes.

5. Places I have lived:
Topeka, KS
Lawrence, KS
Alexandria, VA
Washington, DC

6. Jobs I have had:

1. Farm-stand checkout girl. (Excellent for learning different types of produce!)
2. Gubernatorial campaign scheduler
3. J.Crew outlet salesgirl. (Awesome, except for the people we continually had to bust for getting busy in the dressing rooms.)
4. Copy editor
5. Metro editor
6. Discussions editor
7. Senior associate (Totally nondescript job title.)
8. Graduate student

7. Bloggers I am tagging who I will enjoy getting to know better:

Molly, Lisa, and Danielle. And you!

Clapotis Est Fini

The Clapotis, it is done. Il est fait. Il est accompli. (I've been feeling French for the last day or so, ever since weather.com had a glitch and told me it was going to be ensoleille today.) So, fini.

Clapotis for Me
Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert
Yarn: Koigu Kersti, 6.5 skeins.
Needles: US 5 Addi Turbos
Finished dimensions: About 80" x 22", lightly blocked.
Modifications: I knit one extra increase section than called for in the pattern.

This is the second Clapotis I've made -- the first one went to Grandma a few years ago. I remember when knitting that one, I felt like it might never end. I had my eyes on the finish line -- wanting to get it done to give it away -- and it seemed to take forever.

But this one? This one I started in mid-March and had no idea when I would finish it -- and I was okay with that. I needed something predictable and mindless to work on in small stretches. There were many nights when I would study until late, and then settle in for 30 minutes of knitting before bed. Those 30-minute stretches added up - when I actually checked in May to see how the Clapotis was growing, it was ready to start the decreases and finish!

This remains a fantastic pattern (thousands of Ravelers can't be wrong!), yielding a very versatile wrap that I know will get a ton of use. The Kersti is soft and the colorways remind me of an impressionist painting -- icy pastels.

In other knitting news, the first Marigold sock is done.

And can I just say, holy cow, this pattern is addictive! It's in the same league of Monkey-addictive. I seriously couldn't stop knitting it -- just one more repeat -- and then last night, I bound off and wove in the ends. Less than one week for a sock, folks - I know that's nowhere near a landspeed record, but it's as quick as I've finished anything around here! Extra credit to Michelle because her Marigolds are what inspired me to give this pattern a second look - thanks!

The yarn -- Claudia's Handpaint in Red Wagon -- seems like it was made for this delightful pattern. Of course, I am a little nervous about how the second skein will perform. Will it give me similar color repeats or decide to pool wildly? Guess I have to cast on tonight and find out.

***

Outside, there are wonderful things happening. The garden continues to thrive. We (really, JT) staked the tomatoes and they seem much happier now. Also, much taller than I would have expected. We may need to get taller stakes.

Looking closer, next to the tomatoes, this morning I was super-excited to see this:

A baby pepper! There are actually about 5 little pepperlets right now, which makes me so excited.

And the robin's eggs have hatched:

There were four eggs. Three of them hatched. Two days ago, there were three little birds. Today there's just this guy. Did his family fly off and leave him? Did his siblings succumb to squirrels? No sign of the mama. I'm worried about this little bird.

Yay Stitch & Pitch

Okay, how much fun was that? I had a perfect evening at the ballpark with the fellow knitterly types. The weather was perfect! The knitting was delightful! The seats were great! I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Erin and I took the Metro to the ballpark. Here's the entrance approaching.

I've been to the park several times before -- JT and I share some season tickets with friends -- but when I go with him, I actually have to pay attention to the game. This time, it was more like a knitting night - with baseball as a backdrop. Not that I'm complaining at all! It was fantastic, and the company was spectacular.

Erin with Holly and Michelle. (Maybe if I link to them, they will update. Cough cough.) Just to the other side of us: Paula plus Amy and Maia, whose blogs I don't know but who were awesome.

We totally lucked out because we had seats in the front row of the section, meaning that my sock got an unobstructed view of the field.

That's a blurry Marigold Sock, which I cast on the night before in a panic when I realized I had nothing appropriate to knit at the game. (My only current languishing WIP is the second Drunken Bee, which requires way too much concentration.) Judging by the length of the sock, this photo was taken sometime in the 3rd or 4th inning. How do I know? Because this is what I got home with:

Okay, slight confession - I did turn the heel once I got home, but the length was all from the 14-inning game. We even left at the end of the 13th inning. Hooray for baseball knitting! (The yarn is Claudia's Handpaint in Red Wagon, and I'm sort of in love with this colorway.)

Also spotted:

Jody! (With Erin and me in this pic). Jody had the ability to spot me from 10 rows up, and I'm so glad she did! All in all, a really fantastic night.

The rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful. I had a ton of schoolwork to do, so that consumed most of my time.

JT, meanwhile, was working on his own little project:

Teaching Sam to play Frisbee. The puppy's pretty good at it, surprisingly. Much better now than 2 months ago, when he didn't have enough teeth to catch the thing and hold it. He catches about every third or fourth toss in the air. There's just one problem....

When Sam has the Frisbee, he doesn't really want to give it back.

Signs of Life

Even though I've had my nose in a book for much of the summer (thank you, reading-intense summer session), I'm trying to make time every day to be outside and be aware of the changes happening around me. Ever since I started walking to work a few months ago, I feel much more attuned to the small changes in my little world.

I've tried to be even more conscientious about noticing the changes in my own yard, too. It's great fun because we have a ton of things planted. JT and I realized that we effectively have six different "zones" where things are planted -- a little bit of overkill, maybe, but we're excited to see our long-held vision for this yard slowly transform from idea to reality. After a couple of good thunderstorms, some hot days and then some cool nights, I've really noticed the growth in some parts of the garden. Like this hydrangea.

I planted three hydrangea plants in the fall, but so far this is the only one to bloom. One of these days I'll post a wide shot. They're each about 3 feet apart, and less than a foot tall. In my imagination, I see a dense hydrangea hedge against the house. I hope reality catches up to my imagination in another year or two.

The vegetable garden now features 3-foot tall tomato plants that are thisclose to needing to be staked.

And if you look really closely at one of the tomato plants on the end? Squee! I made a tomato!

There are some other small sprouts on some of the other plants, too. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they are all delicious and don't get eaten by critters before it's my turn.

Elsewhere in the yard, JT pointed out a nest to me the other day.

Those eggs are the most gorgeous shade of Tiffany blue I've ever seen. I can't wait until there are cute little birds though! (And I'm glad they built a proper nest in a tree this year, unlike some other nesting habits we've dealt with in years past.)

Sam was uninterested.

It almost makes me sad how much he looks like a dog now, and not just a puppy. He's growing so fast! Puppy training is helping, though. He's turning into a great companion.

Finally, the knitting -- almost done with the February Baby Sweater.

It just needs the last inch of garter stitch on the bottom, and then off to find buttons! The sleeves are now the same size -- a fairly easy detour, all things considered.

Dang

So here I am, trying to cruise along on the February Baby Sweater, at least as best I can. Elizabeth Zimmerman is a genius, sure, but her brain and my brain do not operate on the same frequencies.

Something that should be so simple leads me to read and reread the pattern... and still, this:

See that? See how there are two sleeves? Yeah, I'm pretty sure the one on the right should be the same width as the one on the left. Which means ripping back and making it two repeats wider. Sigh.

Too Darn Hot

So on Sunday night, I went to the grocery store at 7 p.m. The thermometer in the car read 100 degrees. At 7 p.m. It's about now every year where I recommit to not living in the Deep South.

I generally dislike really hot weather, though I will allow that there's something kind of natural and fundamental about sweating outside in the heat. Sunday afternoon we took the puppy on a short hike at Huntley Meadows, and then did yardwork for a couple of hours. Man, was I sweaty. One big sweat-mess, with a lovely potpourri of dirt and bug spray all over my skin. And it felt kind of good - especially the refreshing shower afterwards.

My problem is that the activities that I enjoy most don't mesh well with hot weather. Like cooking -- who wants to stand over a hot stove? Or turn the oven on when the AC is already running nonstop? Or knitting: it's hard to think about wool sweaters at a time like this. Or even burrowing under a blanket, which I love to do, is not possible when it's already 75 degrees inside.

This probably won't be my last whine about summer -- after all, it makes walking the mile to work pretty miserable. Though I won't complain about my hair getting lighter and my freckles coming out.

And, I've cast on a new project in cotton. RYC Cashcotton, to be exact. (Cashcotton being the most favored type of cotton in my world.)

That's the February Baby Sweater from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitters Almanac. Destined for one of the many babies arriving this summer to friends. I've wanted to try this pattern for a long time, and I was happy to find stash yarn that was suitable. The pattern is pretty simple, though it does require reading ahead and planning things out. (She doesn't mention the buttonholes until you already should have one in, for example. My sweater will have one less button.)

Of course, the fabulous grownup version by Pamela Wynne has also caught my eye. And at MDSW this year, I saw an amazing version with elbow-length sleeves on a gal who'd made it out of Louet fingering. It was cherry-colored. I can't find it on Ravelry. (Ring any bells, fellow bloggers?)

In any event, that's all the knitting for now. My summer class requires far more time than I'd like to give it, but at least it's interesting. And I've been gardening. How the garden grows:

(Click on through for the detailed photo.)

The tomatoes have small blooms, and the carrots and peppers are starting to show signs of life. The cucumber blooms, though, are spectacular:

Cucumbers soon, I hope!

Finally, a gratuitous picture of a groggy puppy.

Meme

Here I had all sorts of exciting knitting things to share (well, sort of), and then we up and lost power for 30 hours and then the computer had a checkup at Apple (clean bill of health) and now it's Friday afternoon. And all I have for you is a meme, after being so inspired by a bunch of different people, who I thought I remembered and could link to but have forgotten. So if you did this, thanks for the inspiration.

The Rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker).

The Questions (click on through to flickr for the answers):
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

More Weekend, Please

This is a delightful time of year to me. The weather is perfect--warm during the day but cooling off at night. The sun is hanging around longer and longer -- last night I read on the porch until nearly 9. Humidity is creeping up, but it's not unbearable yet. Windows are open, letting in lots of fresh air. The pollen has died down. If only it could be May forever. Yay outside time.

I had two fun events this weekend, both involving being outside and both involving alcohol with lunch. Even the furious thunderstorms on Saturday afternoon didn't deter too much fun! Not when there's a baby shower to be had. I busted out some craftiness and whipped up some freezer-paper onesies:

The baby's gender is uncertain, so I stayed away from flowers or anything that could be construed as gender-specific. Kansas (bottom center) represents the parents' home state, and a turtle to represent their new state (Maryland terrapin). Plus some farm animals because the new mom grew up in a very rural setting. The onesies were well-received and I look forward to seeing the baby in them!

But because babies grow up so fast, I also wanted to clothe the baby in the winter. A little stash-diving and some pattern research yielded this:

Baby Wedge Sweater
Pattern: Bo from Rowan Babies
Yarn: Jaeger Aqua, less than 3 skeins of blue and about a half-skein of brown
Size: 6-12 months (second size)
Needles: US4 for ribbing and US5 for body
Modifications: I modified the neck partly, extending the ribbing all the way up instead of switching to stockinette for a rollneck. Also, the pattern is written for one color, but I wanted to throw in some stripe action. (And blue/brown is a favorite combo of the mom-to-be, so I figured it would be okay for a girl or a boy.)

Other than that, I knit the pattern as written, but in a cotton yarn. (It's written for Rowan Wool Cotton). The mom-to-be is sensitive to some wools, so I wanted to make sure that this would be wearable by baby. Plus, this way it's machine washable and dryable.

On Sunday, after a gathering, we took Sam for a long walk and then puttered outside a bit. He's getting so big (and he's ALL leg). This week marked a couple of new milestones for him. He jumped up onto the couch without help (and then looked startled that he'd actually done it!). He also slept TEN hours on Friday night, not waking up until he heard us at nearly 10. (Thanks puppy!) We've made great strides in fetch, and he now will retrieve the tennis ball and bring it back four or five times before he gets too tired. Evening fetch is a great habit we've gotten into.

Here are some gratuitous Sam pictures.

Laying waste to a box (cheap and easy puppy toys!):

And then, when done, eyeing me warily to make sure he wasn't going to get in trouble: