Madison, Wisconsin

I love this town.  The past 48 hours have exemplified everything I love about Madison.  Friday night, Husband and I went out for dinner at Monty's Blue Plate.  Monty's is a great choice for vegetarians and vegans, but still offering solid diner foods.  I had the Sheldon, a vegetarian Reuben.  It was delicious and we had great conversation.  We were not even slightly rushed, but the food was a bit delayed, so they comped Husband's meal.  Totally unnecessary, but definitely indicative of their commitment to customer service. 

After dinner, we headed down to State Street to split a pitcher of Spotted Cow at the Union Terrace.  It was a beautiful evening, the crowd was great and the views were spectacular, as always.  The crowd was light which meant we had no trouble getting a table.  We were down there for a few hours, continuing our great conversation and the view, and the weather.

Once we finished our pitcher, we went for a stroll up and down State Street.  State Street/downtown is my favorite part of Madison.  There's generally street performers,  eclectic stores, tons of people. There's amazing people watching.

We headed home and got up early to go enjoy the farmers' market.  The Dane County Farmers' Market is fantastic.  Tons of vendors, tons of people,  more street performers and fantastic shopping.  In the summer, I love to go to the market, pick up something amazing and base a meal around it.  It's hard to go wrong. Anyone heading to our Farmers' Market would do well to pick up a loaf of Spicy Hot Cheese Bread.  There's only one way to proceed with this.  You tear off pieces of it and eat it as you walk around, shopping.

We walked down State with our bread and headed to Collectivo to pick up one of the finest lattes downtown.

After the farmers' market,  I headed to Oregon for a fantastic Italian Soda and a walk with my bestie.  Any time the universe seems wrong, touching base with Sara will surely screw my head on straight.  We had a lovely walk, a fantastic talk and I headed home to rest up for BratFest and Everclear.  I had a Field Roast sausage and an ear of corn before we headed to the mainstage to watch Everclear.  I'm not a huge fan of Everclear, but I did enjoy seeing them play.  They started with my favorite three songs, so I was pretty much set to leave once that was over. The kid was not impressed.

Now, this morning, I'm relaxing, enjoying coffee and thinking of starting my day.  I've been knitting this morning, starting accidental hat v. 2.0.  I'm still struggling with my knitting mojo, but a hat I have to pay attention to might be just the ticket.  Once I have some extra colors on the hat, I will post some progress pictures.

Brat Fest

Madison, WI has  a LOT of festivals. I freaking love festivals.  Last weekend, it was Fitchburg Days.  This weekend it's BratFest.  We're often out of town for this one, but this weekend, we're sticking close to home so I'm watching the lineups on the free stages quite a bit.

I predict we will get to BratFest at least twice this weekend.   Tonight, we're heading down because George Clinton is playing.  YAY for funk.

Tomorrow night, we're going to go see Everclear hit the main stage.  I'll probably have some knitting with me, but it might just be  along for the ride.

Controversial statement.  Queensryche is also playing down there, but I'm thinking I will ignore them, because they really only have one good song.  I'm not sure why  I will tolerate that from Everclear but not for Queensryche.

What can I say? I'm unpredictable.

Is it weird for a vegetarian to be excited to go to a bratwurst festival?

In A Rut

Lately, I haven't been knitting much of anything.  A few rows here and there on a pair of socks. 

I've been drinking coffee.  You know this because I'm still alive and going without coffee might actually kill me.

I've started knitting this for a friend that's due in about 4 months.  I hope to be able to send it off to her by end of June.

After that. drastic measures will be taken to get my knitting mojo back.  Money will be spent.  Visits to yarn stores will take place.  Somehow I will get myself back.

Chris Cornell

In 1992, I was a high school senior.  I was trying to find my place in the world, but really kind of failing.  I had some great friends, but all wasn't particularly well at home.  I struggled with depression (and still do) and dreamed about going somewhere else.  Anywhere else.  I felt out of place in small town Iowa.  Still do.  When people ask me when I'm coming home, I always wince.  For the portion of my life that I've had a choice, I've largely chosen to live elsewhere.

Especially for the golden high school years, my life had it's own soundtrack. Freshman year, I was all Guns N' Roses and Skid Row all the time.  I got harder, grittier- listening to Slayer and Megadeth, Anthrax and whatever else was on Headbangers Ball and weirdly even New Kids On the Block.   Pearl Jam hit big and my eyes opened on Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mother Love Bone and Faith No More.  Temple of the Dog.  Blind Melon. These bands didn't have the same sound.  Not even a little.  What they had was their finger on the pulse of my generation.

A key feature of my 1991-1992 soundtrack was Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger.    Especially "Outshined"

Its lyrics put into eloquence that which I still struggle to express.

I got up feeling so down
I got off being sold out
I've kept the movie rolling
But the story's getting old now, oh yeah
I just looked in the mirror
And things aren't looking so good
I'm looking California and feeling Minnesota, oh yeah

So now you know, who gets mystified
So now you know, who gets mystified

Show me the power child
I'd like to say
That I'm down on my knees today
Yeah, it gives me butterflies, gives me away
Till I'm up on my feet again
Yeah I'm feeling
Oh, I'm feeling outshined, outshined, outshined, outshined

Oh yeah
Yeah
Someone let the dogs out
They'll show where the truth is
The grass is always greener
Where the dogs are shitting, oh yeah
I'm feeling that I'm sober
Even though I'm drinking
I can't get any lower
Still I feel I'm sinking

I'm sure Chris Cornell didn't mean to speak to the depression of full force teen angst that I still haven't outgrown.  But he did.  

The world lost Chris Cornell on Wednesday night.  My heart goes out to his family and friends.    The world won't be able to measure the impact Chris had on music.  I can't express the impact his voice had on my youth. 

I just want to curl up on the couch, listen to Soundgarden and watch Singles and cry.   But I've got to adult, so I'm just going to be little bit heartbroken for a while.  RIP, Chris.  

Color Affection

I'm happy to report I finished the eternal bind off and color affection is finished.  I'll take it outside for photographs later.

I'm so glad to have that thing behind me.

<3

Mother's Day

I had a pretty good Mother's Day overall.  Husband and son made me breakfast and gave me some fun gifts.

I had just mentioned that I had a shortage of t-shirts for working from home.  So they got me a Calcifer t-shirt and a My Neighbor Totoro t-shirt plus a couple of pins and an umbrella.

I spent a fairly large portion of the day knitting.  I made good progress on the dreaded Color Affection.  I finished the knitting and am now redefining interminable during the bind off.  I bet I have 4 hours left to go.  BLAH.

I made some time to run out and pick up a Thug Kitchen cookbook.  I'm pretty excited about that.  While I was out, I got some coffee to run through my french press and picked up a flat white.  Hmmmm, flat white.  What could be better.

I don't have any agenda or thought of knitting today.  I have yoga tonight.

Saturday

As Saturdays go, yesterday was a pretty busy one.  I started with a lovely walk with my bestie, Sara and my dog, the always classic Conner. 

We went a few miles and really turned my head around in a good way.  I think I was needing a walk and talk followed by a really amazing coffee.  I think it helped Sara, too but generally, typically of me, I feel like it was all about me.  I'm a super anxious person and anxiety is a narcissistic asshole.  Maybe some day I will fix this.

After my walk and talk and coffee, I headed home to go to soccer with the boys.  I spent some time knitting on the sidelines.  I got a few rows done on a pair of socks.  I'm doing two-at-a-time toe up. The sock pattern is just my vanilla make it up as you go pattern.

 It's really prettier in person. So is my knee.

After that, we headed to Sujeo and had some really delicious bibimbap. 

 We got home in time for a short nap (who am I kidding, I went to bed, lay around thinking my weird thoughts.) before heading out to an Escape Room.  We had a good group and I had some fun doing the escape room but honestly, it freaked me out  more than a little.  Anxiety. 

Then I head to the next town and had some drinks and a fire with Sara and a few other friends.  Something about sitting on the deck with a fire made me feel a little outside of myself not in a great way. 

Friday Night

So, at the end of a long week, I look forward to the weekend.  For whatever reason, I've crammed Saturday completely full, but Sunday's looking pretty loose.

Friday night, I made a plated meal- Whole wheat pizza with Mushrooms, Arugla and Ricotta and after dinner, I got out the Color Affection and knit like 4 rows on it.  That doesn't seem like much but at this point it's approximately 2 Million stitches across.  I mean I exaggerate for effect but it's interminable.  I've got about 3/4 of an inch to go.  I don't really think I'm stretching things when I say that it will probably take me at least 4 hours to do the bind off.  I'm looking forward to getting that off and actually posting a picture of the thing.  I'm not sure I'm sold on the colors, but they really do exist in my wardrobe so it should be usable at least.

Today should be jam packed with fun.  I'm going to start off with a walk with my bestie followed by my son's soccer game.  Then we are all headed to an escape room.  After the escape room, I'm going for cocktails and a fire at a friend's house.

This escape room, I'm actually a little worried about it because I'm a super anxious person and the thought of needing to solve puzzles (which I am complete garbage at) to leave a place is making me a little panicky and I don't even have to go there for like 8 hours.

Oh, Emily

I'm a decent cook.  Sometimes, when I'm making a Plated meal, I feel like a fancy cook.  When I feel like a fancy cook, I like to have a glass of wine while I'm working.

The thing is, I'm not a fancy person.  I'm the kind of person that will keep working on wine until I'm past tipsy.  So that's what I did last night.

I did spin a little, but in no way was the product of my spinning my best yarn.  I recognized this and stopped spinning at about 20 yards.  what I was producing was usable and passable, but not even.
Art Yarn.  I'm not trying to make art yarn over here. 

I also knit for a minute on my never ending color affection.  I was dumb to decide to do a second one.  It's soooo much garter stitch.  I have about an inch of edging left to go and then an eternal bind off.  I should stop being a baby and just do it, but really, who are we kidding, I'd totally rather whine about it.

Thinking about what else I have going.  I have a pretty thing that's lost its way.  A pair of socks.  A ponchette.  A few other things I'd prefer not to think about.  That tank top.

I need to start the baby sweater.  The friend that's having the baby is at about 20 weeks now so it's really time.  So I might need to make a trip to the yarn store.  OH DARN. 

Weekend goals include

• picking up some decent coffee
• spin at least one hour every day
• knit at least one hour every day
• take a picture of my actual work for this blog.  The messiness of my living room has been preventing this.

Morning Coffee

On a normal day, I drink between 5-6 cups of coffee.  I'm sure that has nothing to do with my persistent insomnia. 

My good buddy insomnia has been around since before I developed a taste for coffee, but I'm sure that it doesn't help me sleep overall.

For the past several weeks, I've been sitting at about 5 hours of sleep.  In an effort to add an hour or two of sleep to my day, I've scaled back.  I'm now at about 2 cups of drip coffee per day.  Oh coffee, how I miss you.

I'm wondering if my willingness to drink only 2 cups of coffee has anything to do with the following changes.

1. Husband picked out the coffee- which means he went for a standby at Costco, vs. one of my more preferred blends.
2. I recently switched from milk in my coffee to coconut milk.- I'm trying to consume less dairy.

I think I need to get myself to my favorite local coffee shop, True  and get some proper coffee, ground for the french press.  Because if I'm going to ruin my day by drinking only 2 cups of coffee, I want those two cups to be freaking delicious.

I'm going to have to stew on if I want to continue with the coconut milk in my coffee.  I think if the underlying coffee was better, I'd find some more happiness with the coconut milk.

As for knitting.  I didn't even TOUCH yarn yesterday.  I have like 8 works in progress, but to be really honest ALL of them are boring to me.  I need something that will light my hands on fire.  Or I could grow up a little and realize that I don't have to be like wildly excited about everything I'm working on.  But COME ON MAN, can't I just be excited about one thing at this time?

Or maybe I should just let my WIPs stew and focus on spinning up some of my roving.  I've got a good chunk of combed top wool in both red and white, a big bag of fawn colored alpaca and some yak blend, all of which are dying to be spun.  I need to finish the combed top and then  Navajo ply it and then find some reason to knit it.  When I bought that combed top, my thought was to make my husband a Badger hat.  So maybe I will.

I think as a general rule, I need to set a day that I spin so I'm always spinning something. And so that I'm improving my skills.

I also need to really work on some Craftsy classes that I picked up a few weeks ago, including a class lead by the delightful Lucy Neatby.  I saw Lucy speak at a Madison Knitter's Guild meeting and I have SUCH a knitter's crush on her.  And most especially on her skill.  Because

LOOK AT THIS

She's a freaking genius.

And this:

I don't even want to say I want to be Lucy when I grow up because I don't think I have the chops.  I'd settle for being good enough to knit that blanket up there.  Someday.

*photos are lifted from Lucy Neatby's site for the pure fangirl nature of my affection for her*

Spinning a thread of a dream of a life.

I've thought about starting this blog for a while.  A long while, actually.  I've had other blogs on other subjects, but the real love of my life is fiber (other than my husband and son, of course.) And coffee.  I've gone several days without any interaction with either and I can tell you 100%, I'm a better person in this world with a good cup of coffee and a nice bit of knitting in my hand.

In my real life, I do insurance things.  I like insurance a lot, but if I close my eyes and imagine what I would like to do when I grow up, it's always the same thing.  A little shop in a kinda little town with a lot of pedestrian traffic.  There, I run a small coffee and yarn shop.  I wouldn't want to sell food, because I'd love a shop cat.  I'd spend my days hopefully creating new fiber addicts.  Introducing people to the basics.  You know- Cast on, knit, purl, the joys of a really delicious flat white.

I'd have a spinning wheel off in the corner.  In my free time, I'd spin up my own yarn, but maybe not for sale.  Truth is, I'm not that good at spinning. Yet.  I've put together several usable yarns, but I've got a lot to learn.

It would be eclectic in there, because I'm a little diverse.  I can see myself singing along to my favorite Pandora station, spinning, pausing to make someone a coffee,  pausing to pet the cat.
Pausing to work retail.

I'd love it to become  third place for knitters.  Because of this, in my mind, there's an ever present crafting corner.  A place where, if we're open, you're welcome to come in, knit, spin, chat. 

So that's what I want to do when I grow up.  I'm almost 43, so I have to start growing up fast.  Before I can even think about starting something like this, I have some work to do.

As an insurance nerd, I put a lot of stock in professional designations.  So I want to earn my master knitter designation. I also want to become a certified knitting and crocheting instructor.  I can crochet a bit, but I'd love to unravel some of the mystique about it all.  And I want to make it easier for people to become fiber addicts.

I need to become proficient in spinning.

I need to take some business classes.

I need to save a LOT of money.

I need to part time somewhere as a barista.

When I close my eyes and think about retirement, that's what it looks like for me.  How could someone grow old while doing what they love?