I'm working on it, anyway.

I just got back from visiting my family in the motherland (Iowa.)  Husband couldn't come along with us, but my kid came with me this time.  He enjoyed some quality cousin time.  I hung out with my sisters, drank a lot of beer, said "fuck" a lot and threatened to steal puppies. For reals.  Someday my sister is going to be missing Mavis and I will be up here teaching that adorable little shit to high five when the Badgers score.

I brought some knitting along with me but didn't make a ton of progress.  it was mostly along for the ride. My slump is pretty hard core these days.  I worked a bit on the left front of the baby sweater down there, but otherwise hadn't really made any progress.  Also, I suck at pattern reading so I tore out much of what I worked on over there.

When I got home, my textbooks for course from hell #7 (of 9) came in and all of a sudden I am "KNIT ALL THE TIME!"  Procrastination is a powerful tool.  I'd rather do almost anything rather than work on that class.   for example, I cleaned my kitchen.  So in 4 months when I have to test or die.  I'm going to be filled with regret but I will probably have some finished knitting.  Maybe I will have even finished spinning all that alpaca I have on the every so judgemental yarn bookcase.

With procrastination nipping at my heels over the the past few days, I finished the left front of the baby sweater, finished the right front of the baby sweater, started sleeve #1, accused the pattern designer of crack addiction (I'm pretty sure I'm right about that) and finished my 'Oy With The Socks Already.'  I freaking love them.   BFF gave me the yarn for my birthday.  With friends with taste like that, who even cares if you are getting to be as old as hell.  Bonus for fun yarn named for Gilmore Girls. (yarn is Oy, with the Poodles Already)

Check them out.

I also did some spinning.  I had some yak and something blend roving and I finally turned it into a yarn.  It came out ok, but not great.  I'm super impatient with my progress at spinning.  Here's what the singles looked like.

 My second single was a lot less even than the first for no good reason at all.  Sonofabitch.  It's still on the spool, but here's the plied yarn.  It's a usable yarn for sure, but it's got some serious slubs.  I hate slubs.

This morning, husband and I went to the Farmer's Market while the kid was at a sleepover.  While there, I got a giant iced coffee.  I added half and half which feels like such a luxury after months of 2% in my coffee.  Most places, your large iced beverage is about 20 oz.  This one was at least 28 oz. I love coffee shops with legit large drinks. <3  There is no amount of coffee that, in a single serving, would be likely to be considered too large a portion.

After we retrieved the kid, we headed over to the fair to walk around, eat some junk food, watch some shows.   Fun fact about me.  No thrill shows are ok with me.  There was a motorcycle stunt show.  No lie, watching them jump the ramps, I cried like 6 times.  My brain just says 'Oh man, I'm not here to watch someone die!" so yeah, it's a little intense for me.

It's a good day, I'm sun-burnt to a ridiculous extreme, but when am I not if I've been outside more than 5 minutes?

What did you all do with your Saturday?

Weekend wrapup

In celebration of my upcoming birthday, during which I turn old as hell, I went to dinner at BFF Carla's house with BFF Sara.

We had a lovely evening.  Lots of laughter, lots of great food, a couple of beers.  Carla made Rhubarb custard bars.  These were delicious enough that I could probably go ahead and die happy now.  Seriously.  I can't be trusted with a pan of those things EVER.

Sara gave me a lovely birthday gift.  A yarn that combines 2 of my favorite things.  Yarn and Gilmore Girls.  Oy With The Poodles Already.

My knitting mojo has been a bit absent, but damned if i didn't wind and cast on socks right away.  I should have some project photos of this upcoming.

I didn't get into the second color of accidental hat but I DID get the white yarn spun and plied.  The yarn is NOT THAT GREAT actually. But I'm getting better.

This week in my world

This week has been pretty low-key.  I normally work from home, but headed into our office for a farewell lunch with my pals there.  I stopped at Starbucks on the way in and picked up a flat white.  It was ok, but not as good as True's flat white.

I've been working on accidental hat v. 2.0.  I've really got to focus on learning how to Fair Isle, because the knitting looks a little jacked.

I think I would break my knitting rut quicker if I did something that made me look like a secret knitting genius or something.


Goals for the weekend
1) spin all the white wool
2) Navajo ply the white wool
3) get into the second color of the accidental hat.

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*