Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Which one?

Which one of these excerpts represents how I spent this past week?

1) "It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

2) Attach sts of left front to sts at top of sleeve cap using short rows as follows:
Row 1 [WS]: Work in pattern to 1 st before first marker; p2tog, removing marker and replacing it on left needle after p2tog is worked; turn work.
Row 2 [RS]: Work in pattern to end.
Repeat these 2 rows 3 times more.

Next Row [WS]: Work in pattern to 1 st before first marker; p2tog, removing marker; p to next marker, slip marker. Proceed to Row 1 of next section. 5 sts remain for left sleeve cap.

3) 'With a leap that startled Lucy and almost pulled her off her feet, Penny dashed forward the last few yards and began to bark ferociously. The pile seemed to shiver for a moment – and then something small and brown jumped up. Frozen, it stood hissing at them with small dark eyes that glittered and a mouth almost too full of sharp teeth.  Whatever animal it was, it was quite large – Lucy thought it seemed almost Penny’s height – and it seemed to clutching the bundle of rags. Almost as if it was gnawing the collection of greasy rags and tattered clothes . . . Penny’s barking ratcheted up even louder and she lunged to the end of her leash. In the confines of the alley, the sound echoed off the brick pavement and walls and seemed to sound like two or three large dogs.

For a moment, Lucy stared straight into an oddly bare face full of teeth and hate and then the animal – what was it? – turned and dashed halfway down the alley, jumped the low wall and escaped through the backyards down the block.

“Hey, who’s out here?” A voice called from above. “Hello?”'

Okay - the answer is both 2) & 3). Two is a section of the Turn of the Glass cardigan. The section where I went wrong. Yes, I was knitting in church and I got caught up and by the time I got home, I discovered a serious problem. The good thing about this? If you contact the pattern's author, Kathleen Dames, she emails you back with some help!

Three is from my first entry into NaMoWrimo! That's where you write a 50,000 novel in a month. Now, I hit that word count on Sunday but in order to finish my story, I was writing until 1:15 a.m. this morning. It's not the best story - but then, I was only "In it, to Finish It!" Basically, you write, write, write and don't bother to edit because you are forcing yourself to get 50,000 words.

This writing challenge was developed by The Office of Letters and Light and their motto is "Thirty Days and Nights of Literary Abandon." Yes, I am lucky in that Mr. Daisy enjoys cooking the Thanksgiving turkey because I spent most of the holiday weekend writing.

I haven't been writing much since graduate school and it was fun, albeit tiring, month!

Now, it's time to finally catch up with my Christmas movie viewing (I've been saving the ones from the Hallmark Channel since before Thanksgiving!) and my other knitting projects - perhaps a few Christmas presents?



(#1 is, of course, the opening lines of Edward George Bulwer-Lytton's 1830 novel, Paul Clifford. Its distinctive awfulness is what inspired the The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. Their motto is "Where “WWW” means “Wretched Writers Welcome” and I recommend their site!)




Monday, November 28, 2011

A new friend or . . .


a tasty reminder of our trip to New Orleans?

Phil's got some attitude.
“My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.”

This  young pup has come to live at our house, courtesy of my son's third grade teacher. As a Red Swamp Crayfish, he doesn't do much and I'm the one having to clean his tank and feed him. Yet, every day when Youngest Child comes home from school, he runs to say hello to "Phil Falafel."

What I found disturbing was that right in the middle of my Thanksgiving food photos were these:



They almost look like we are raising him until he's big enough for some of this:

garlic crab fries, crawfish etouffee

Laissez les bons temps rouler!







Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year's pies were coconut cream and cherry. Both were delicious.


It made up for having to go out tomorrow to shop.

Yes, I have to exchange yarn at Lila & Claudine's Yarn and Gifts because a daughter someone has decided to start knitting a gift for a person that I was going to make a gift for out of lovely yarn.


So, it's off to exchange it for another color so that I can make this cute pattern for someone else. 
Fun times, out on the roads on Black Friday.

On my needles, I've been doing a bit more knitting on the Turn of the Glass cardigan.


I still love the seed stitch edging!


I've just been fiddling around with this sweater since last spring and I'm really looking forward to being done

Hope your weekend is peaceful and full of delicious things!



Thursday, November 17, 2011

The Full Elvis


So, I'm working away at home. Mr. Daisy comes home for lunch (yes, if his office was any closer, it would be in my living room) and starts making some bacon. He looks at my sad little peanut butter and banana sandwich and says, "That looks like it needs some bacon."  And, surprisingly, it did!


We called it, "The Full Elvis."
It was delicious!

I will just tell myself it was in honor of my blogaversary. Yes, I started writing about knitting six years ago just prior to Thanksgiving. Bit by bit, I've added in spinning, weaving, cooking, sewing, etc., etc. 
Thanks for hanging in there!

I'm not knitting baby sweaters very much anymore but I'll tell you one embarrassing fact: I still have the blue sweater that I was knitting for my daughter. I knit it. Ripped it out. Swatched for another sweater. Tried another pattern. Ripped it out. I'm hoping to finally finish this project before she graduates from college. Keep your fingers crossed.


As for knitting, I'm currently ripping apart an unfortunate-looking hat (it was supposed to be Elizabeth Zimmerman's Snail Hat) to turn it into a Star Tam from Homespun, Handknit.

Long ago, the ripped apart hat was originally some of my own hand-spun yarn.


I think I bought the fiber at a Weavers' Guild Holiday sale but I know I didn't start spinning it until summer 2009. After about two skeins, I got bored. Well, I finally unearthed the rest of the fiber and it turns out, I need a winter hat. It's currently 20 degrees F. outside.

This is why the shoemaker's children have no shoes!

Add this to the fact that I'm doing NaNoWrimo this year and Thanksgiving is next week and I'm really suffering from a lack of sleep!

Back to those sandwiches . . .




Thursday, November 03, 2011

See the pumpkin . . .


eat the pumpkin!

Traditionally, I've made my kids eat a "real meal" prior to going out to make the rounds. This year - vegetable pot pie with cheese biscuit crust - in the shape of pumpkins. Very yummy!

As a former theatre costume shop manager, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays.  This year, I was fighting off a cold all weekend until Youngest Child told me that he wouldn't be able to go trick or treating because I hadn't finished his costume. Well, that made me break out the liquid cold medicine and get stitching.


This looks like a particularly busty knight but it just comes from trying to fit a "Youngest Child" sized costume on a "me" sized dress form.


Sir Knight right before he hit the road


with the rest of the neighborhood gang. 
Zombies, ninjas and angels - oh, my!

It was a beautiful evening for trick or treating so they had a long night of it.

But, what about the knitting,  you say. Knitting? Well . . . maybe tomorrow.