Shortz vs. Dowd

A week ago I spent my entire day taking mass transit from New Jersey, where I'd been for my grandfather's funeral (sure, he played professional basketball in the 1950s, I already knew that, old news... but he went on to work at the Pabst brewery? where they make PBR?! no way!), to Maine with the Crafto-Dad. When we were in Port Authority in New York, with our respective overstuffed backpacks that could take out a couple of strangers with a swift or inadvertent pivot to either side, I commented that it was like we were on the Amazing Race. Sort of.

Lesson learned about myself from that day: my particular brand of intelligence does not lend itself well to crossword puzzles. I know a lot of words, but once I've thought of an answer, it's tough for me to think of other possibilities. Also, I'm impatient, have a short attention span, and am not competitive enough with myself to really care whether I leave half the squares blank. I tried to waste away some of the travel hours by crossword puzzling, but I lasted maybe half an hour and went back to the knitting.

Anyway. The whole week has been lackluster and lethargic, which goes perfectly with (or might be caused by) the weather lately. Enough with the rain every day! There's been just enough rain each day to make the whole city, and particularly my house, feel musty and stuffy and just ick. Also enough rain, maddeningly timed for the end of the work day, to keep me from mowing the lawn, or weeding the garden, or planting the two potted peonies next to the porch (alliteration is my friend, oh yes it is). I think it's supposed to be precipitation-free tomorrow, when I've got a thousand things scheduled, and then not again until Wednesday.

On a more positive note, the Buttony sweater is coming along well. I'm quite a ways past the point where I connected the torso at the base of the armholes (it's a raglan, knit from top down), and about to where the waist shaping will transition from decreasing to increasing. So I have to knit the rest of the torso until it's long enough, then do the sleeves, for which I'll need to reacquaint myself with the magic loop technique.

Also: go read Maureen Dowd's latest column. I heart her. Which means that she wins (sorry, Will Shortz).

Here I Am

Oh, what a neglectful blogger I've been. T'sk, t'sk at myself.

I finished knitting that sleeveless top, Blush, in bamboo yarn. It's soft and cute... and clings to every imperfection of my torso. If I get my tookus in gear and actually go to the gym regularly ever again, it'll probably be one of my favorite shirts. Partially because I might lose a couple pounds. Partially because I might get less squishy in the torso region. Partially because when I'm active I'm less likely to give a flying fig whether my torso looks the way (other people think) it "should."

Anyway, here it is on a hanger:



I'm also working dutifully on Buttony, the pink variegated cotton cardigan I posted about previously. I tried to find something else to cast on so I could procrastinate, I really did, but I couldn't find anything in the stash that lent itself to a new project appropriate for summer. (I've got a bunch of fine gauge wool lined up for Thermal from Knitty, as well as some dk weight wool that's destined for this cardigan I found on Ravelry that intrigues me, but they're both longsleeved and, ya know, wool.) The Giant Tupperware Bin of Stash Yarn was only offering up a bulky mohair that was given to me and a bunch of skeins of bulky white cotton ribbon yarn (whyyyy did I buy that stuff?), and since I've been on this kick lately where I don't like any patterns at a gauge larger than 5 stitches per inch, I'm stuck with Buttony for a while longer.

Oh, also: Attic Renovation 2008 is thoroughly, officially, 100% complete. Pictures in a photoset here, but here's one representative shot:

Yay!

When I weeded and watered the vegetable garden last night, I discovered that there are flowers on the pea plants already! !!!! YAY! Whoooooooo! Happy dance!

Ahem.

I got a lot done yesterday (and over the past few days), in preparation for having a few lawyer girl friends over for a garden cookout tonight. The lawn is mowed. The front porch is repainted. The living room is de-cluttered. The Curtains of Doom are DONE. I also invested in a chimney charcoal starter for the grill: a metal cylinder thing with a compartment for charcoal over a compartment for newspaper... you ignite the newspaper, it heats and lights the charcoal, and voila, no need for lighter fluid! Tonight will be its debut, so I'm hoping my efforts at grilling/hosting don't crash and burn. (Heh. Thank you! I'm here all week!)

Hmm. This reminds me. Must make sure to locate matches when I get home. Necessary element in the whole grilling endeavor...

Blast!

... as in "confound it!" No explosions around here, thankfully.

So I'm sitting here, and I have this sudden but very accute realization that I reallllly reallllly want to bake a batch of my grandmother's Best Ever Homemade Bread (my name for it. she was far too humble to've called it that.) in the near future. But. I'm at work. And then after I get out of work, I won't have enough time to bake bread before I go out dancing (squee!), and the weekend is out because it's supposed to be the first hot and humid stretch of weather for the season. Ain't no way I'm turning the oven on if it's 85 degrees out.

Sigh. No fresh-baked, empty-calorie, white-bread goodness drool-inducing awesomeness for me.

Dancin' Fool*

One of my oldest and dearest friends, The Big Noodle (that's right. she's got some spunk, yo. you'd love her. :)), made it her goal a few years back to go out dancing every week for a year. Even if she didn't think she felt like it. Even if she didn't have anyone to go with. I don't know for sure whether she hit every single week, but I do know I've heard her say that it was the best year of her life (up to that point, at least), so in that respect she was successful.

I'm not ambitious enough to make the same pledge for myself, but I do love me some dancing, and I've got The Big Noodle to thank for it. I did, after all, tag along on some of those weekly adventures in the Year of Dancing, and I learned how to have FUN on a dance floor, with or without alcohol, and to stop caring so much what a bunch of strangers might think of my sense of rhythm.

So while I've not committed myself to my own Year of Dancing, I was pleased to look at my calendar just now and realize that the past three weekends have involved varying amounts, but at least a little bit, of busting a move. Annnnd, I get to go rock out with some friends tonight, too. Four weeks in a row: it's the Month of Dancing. And it rules.


*Referring to myself there, not The Big Noodle. She can call herself a fool if she wants to, but that's up to her. :)

The Last Two Weeks: A Photo Journal

Let's break up all this text of late with some pictures, eh?



Knitting-wise, I finished Lilian (in the orange) and started Blush (in the blue). I impatiently wanted to be done with Lilian, so I knit the top portion a tad bit too short. It fits in the sense that I can wear it (arms fit through the holes, etc.), but it doesn't look very good. I'm going to try blocking it to see if that helps, but since it's acrylic yarn it may not accomplish much. The bamboo blend I'm using for Blush, however, is fantastic. Sport-weight yarn on size 3 needles = boring stockinette, but pretty stockinette.

And I have gardening pictures, too!



In the container, that's butternut squash. I'm not sure if the container's big enough, but we'll see. And the two rows of peas I planted pre-frost are taking off, thankfully. Probably my favorite from-the-garden vegetable, so they'd better keep doing well.

Hmm. Based on this post, I look like quite possibly the most boring person on the planet. Knitting, gardending, knitting, gardening. Don't worry, I went to a party and danced my heart out over the weekend; I just don't have any pictures to post in the photo journal. But there was dancing. And I now know that I love the song "Spitfire" by Prodigy. Love.