I had this post planned a week ago. Over a week ago. Really. I just got completely slammed with work - the stay up at the computer till 1:30 a.m. kind of work. Every night. Since Labor Day ended.

Oh yeah, Labor Day. We were blessed, after having the crappiest weather ever on my birthday weekend, to have 3 glorious beautiful days in a row. Days like I don’t remember ever having on Labor Day weekend. I took off (right, you’re supposed to commemorate the Labor, not actually do it) and so did my mom (yes, we were both supposed to work that day) and headed to the beach with our knitting. That’s right, knitting. Mine looked like this for much of the weekend.

A wonderful blue sky, no?

My mom forgot her cable needle and she’s not a fan of the needless method of cabling - so a seagull was nice enough to lend her a hand. or a wing.

It was a great weekend, for sure. I’m sad summer’s over. I know, it isn’t till 9/23, but it’s all rainy now. And the beach days are gone for me.

I’ve been cooking some lately. Here’s some Tomato Bread Soup from Bill Telepan and Dimply Plum Cake from Dorie Greenspan. Unfortunately, I left the cake out on the counter covered (because who wants cold coffee cake?) and this morning found it all moldy. There was half a cake left. Bye cake.

The pets have been good - but I think Kennedy may be annoyed that I work so much and he’s taking it out on the dog.

In more knitting news, I’ve picked up my ribby cardi again and did 3/4 of a sleeve on my 3 day weekend. I guess maybe that’ll be my Rhinebeck sweater. Hey, RHINEBECK. That’s coming up really soon, ain’t it.

In final news for today, I’m contemplating this purchase now that beach weekends are over. Should I?

Knitting Stuff, Animal Stuff, Food Stuff | 9 Comments »

Not knitting much, I’ll tell you that. I do a line here and there on my ribby cardi. But I sure don’t need a wool sweater these days. So today I dug out an old started project, the ballet camisole from Magknits. A quick easy knit, right? sure. Provided I can concentrate on more than a line at a time.

So with the baby quilt washed and packed off and given to it’s recipient (finally! and you know, washing it puffed up the stitching and gave depth to the flat colors that wasn’t there before - and I ended up really liking the quilt in the end) I needed a new quilt project - so here’s fabric that is actually going to be a quilt style duvet cover rather than an actual quilt. I started on it the other day.

I really lamed out this weekend - usually memorial day weekend is the first beach weekend for me and this year the weather was really accommodating. But I relished some quiet time and getting things done. I’d been so busy lately that projects were piling up. So aside from one evening of dinner/drinks and a lot of sitting in park time, I holed myself up to sew. I finished a top I’d started literally a year ago. Photos of that soon. And, I started on a skirt that I’d cut weeks ago. I was helped along by watching the entire second series of Life On Mars in one day, and most of Life As We Know It the next. It’s not like me to spend a beautiful weekend indoors so much but I needed this down time.

I watched my little garden grow.

I also cooked. Prune meatballs from Chocolate & Zucchini.

And I prettied up the place a little. Sometimes it’s nice just being home.

Food Stuff, Home stuff, Quilting Stuff | 3 Comments »

I’m really glad I chose to alter Starsky’s sleeves to have the cable pattern instead of plain stockinette. Almost done with sleeve #1 thanks to weekend knitting with friends and a slow couple of days at the Mon/Tues. job. Will she be done with this in 10 days? One never knows. One doubts though.

Baby birds don’t necessarily love a bath the first time so putting them under a running faucet might not be the best introduction. (Don’t worry, he’s fine!)

Both my pairs of folding knitting scissors have disappeared. Really have no idea where they are.

One should not leave their cell phone in a jacket pocket when it’s going to be a warm day the next day. Currently without phone.

There’s nothing like a Tuscan bean soup, even when the weather suddenly becomes too warm for soup.

I’m really liking the new Decemberists album.

It’s a good TV night tonight.

Knitting Stuff, Personal Stuff, Animal Stuff, Food Stuff | 1 Comment »

About a year ago, Sarah mentioned that it would be fun to have a make-your-own-pasta party. A bunch of us agreed, and then you know, it never happened. It got hot out, so who wanted to stay in and cook? It got cold out, so tomatoes weren’t in season. You know, excuses. But the other day, she mentioned it again and invited us to her place for the festivities if I could bring my pasta machine. It hasn’t seen any action in quite a while, so of course I could!

Today I went over there and we, with the help of Sara, Em and Melissa, hand cranked pasta, sipped wine, broke bread, and hell yes, we knit too.

Sarah and Sara make dough.

Cranking and cutting was a team effort.

My pasta rack was AWOL, so the girls separated spaghetti
to rest before boiling. It was almost like untangling sock yarn.

The finished product, delicious.

And Alice has a near completed right front. Yes, I know I put it on the left side.

Knitting Stuff, Food Stuff | 10 Comments »