Wine and Needles

You know you work at a college with a major Ag. department when you are a few minutes late to work because you get stuck behind a trailer hauling cows down the major campus road.

Anyone who just started reading this blog in the last couple monthes may think that I do absolutely nothing except sit around, knit, and drink wine all day, as evidenced by the number of FO's I have been cranking out lately. While this would be my Eden, I assure you I still have a job, still clean my house, still shower, and still manage to make it out in public on a regular basis.

You guessed it, more FOs:
Tweedy Vest, from KnitScene.




I took these this morning as I was getting ready meaning you guessed it, this is another wear-in-public FO! (Please don't look too closely at my water syringe for the wisdom teeth post-op.)

More Details:
Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed in Jewel [swoon!!!!!!!!!!] EXACTLY 6 balls
Size 7+8 Needles
Mods: None. However, since I neglected to wash my gauge swatch I was unaware that this would grow so much upon blocking. In a perfect world, I would take about 1 1/2 inches off the width and 1 inch off the legnth. Also, the collar droops in the front but I plan to remedy that with some sewn-in elastic. I may also do this along the bottom edge to help it keep shape.

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FO #2 - Boyfriend Alpaca Sofa Socks

I actually finished these about 2 weeks ago, and Matt wears the heck out of them. I call them sofa socks because I'm still not sure if they have ever touched the ground. These are usually worn when sprawled across the couch, glass of wine in hand, watching Discovery Channel. He loves them. This makes me super happy.

Deats:
Basic, Top-Down Socks w/ Slip-Stitch Heel.
2 balls blue, and about 2.5 balls grey - Andean Treasure from Knit Picks
Size 5 + 7 dpns
Mods: No patten, so no mods. Ribbing done in size 5s, and I decreased 4 stitches total as I moved down the leg. I really should have written the pattern down since he's already asking for another pair.

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SO of course, I needed another sweater project. I figure I can crank out 2 more sweaters before this season ends.

First Up: It's called the Zippered Jacket from Vogue Knitting awhile back but I am calling it Fres*o State Tweed. This will be perfect the Men's B-Ball Bracket Buster in Febuary.

Patons Shetland Tweed, in bright-a*s red.

And since it is knit on size 10 needles, I'm optomistic this will fly. I'm almost done with the left front and I started it last night at 10pm.

I have a story I have been meaning to tell you all for awhile. I've recently started sharing things about this blog with Matt, and during the course of one of these conversations, the following interaction took place:

M: So I'm convinced that you've taken me down with you in this knitting obcession.
D: Oh yeah? [trying to concentrate on counting stitches]
M: The other day when I was at Barnes & Noble, I overheard the tail end of a conversation between two ladies, with one of them saying "...no we don't have that but we do have Mason-Dixon" and I immediately knew they were talking about knitting books.
D: I love you!

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I finished my first piece of commissioned knitting, a made-up-as-I-went-along cardigan from two colors of Tahki Cotton Classic [pardon the crappy camera-phone quality]:


I knit this from the bottom up, joining two sleeve tubes and then knitting the yoke back and forth. I also knit the button band on as I went along, twisting the colors as I got to them to bind the pieces together. I liked this method because it saved me some seaming and it created a clean line on the inside of the garment.


I thought up a cute little name to put on the tag, since "wine and needles" just didn't seem right. This might be the start of fun side job!

Hourglass Pullover, In Action


Bell Sleeves & Almond Champagne (at Cellartracker.com - fabulous for you other wine-O's out there)

Hemmed-sleeve action and a ohmygodi'mpostingasupercloseupontheweb photo

Full-legnth view of fit and finishing. (My apologies that all you fiber-fiends who have to look at that mess of yarn)

Details
Hourglass Pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Blue Sky Organic Cotton ~ 5 balls Natural, 1 ball Nut
Size 9 needles
Modifications: None, except for the two-tone hems. I had to knit the smallest size (33 inch bust) to make up for the gauge difference. To give you an idea, it came out loose-fitting on my 38 inch bust.

I liked this yarn, besides the fact that it sheds like hell. I'll definitely use it again - I'm thinking I may give the Karabella Pullover another try in the Bone colorway.

On the FO: Love it, Love it, LOVE IT. The fit is flattering, but very forgiving as well. I've been on a roll here, first with Lady E. and now this pullover. It's been a good year!

Coming to you LIVE from the new blogger, minus 4 wisdom teeth. The surgery went better-than-expected; I haven't had and any major pain or swelling, and I was eating solid food 2 days later. I've been super-spoiled because I haven't even THOUGHT about work since last Thursday, when I had my surgery. This is the last of my 5-day mini-vacation; Today we are off for MLK observance. SOOO... I've been organizing my recipes and cutting out articles from my InStyle magazines that date back to 2003 (I figured it was about time to recycle them).

Besides that it's been a mellow few days around here, despite the fact that it has been FREEZING. Literally. It's been dropping to the mid-teens at night! Matt's poor brother works for a citrus packing house and has probably only slept about 8 hours total the last few nights. I prefer my PJ's and the Manresa Legwarmers (which work fab under Uggs, by the way). We did wander down to the Zoo on Sunday, which was fun, and I found me and my sister's forgotten brick at the entrance to the wild bird exhibit:

The only other time we made it out all weekend was to go join some friends for dinner, wine, and some good old-fashioned drinking games.

He's so dramatic. It was a total accident!
I brought some knitting (Tweedy Vest) and debuted the Hourglass Sweater. I was still on my drugs and a little bit out of it, so I didn't realize that during round 1 of our game one of the Yorkie dogs my friend was dog-sitting stole a ball of yarn from my lap and a giant, mess of a tangle ensued.

Silkroad Tweed is a b*tch to untangle. And those are still the only photos of the Hourglass sweater that exist. Also, millions of thanks to my kick-a*s boyfriend who untangled most of this for me.
I'm now working on a commissioned piece for a co-worker and a secret project. I finished up Matt's big-a*s alpaca socks about 10 minutes ago, and should have photos tomorrow. Till then... I'm off to finish being lazy.

Viva and the front of the Tweedy Vest. For some reason, I can't get my camera to focus on this piece - the ribbing always blurs together. I did the front first because I had to order an extra ball to finish this since this was not the original pattern for the yarn... and just in case there are dye-lot issues, I rather they be in the back.

The goal is to knit up the yarn I have by Thursday AM because that's when I'll get legally drugged up while the doctor extracts the wisdom from my mouth. The post-op recovery couch time will be a tempting time to knit and since I don't trust myself to do anything but straight st st - this is out of the running. No yarn = no ability to work on the vest. Hopefully I'll be able to get the sleeve of Aline finished - seriously, it is only like 3 hours away from total completion but I am so bored with it, I'm hoping the drugs will make it less painful.

In other news, I scored this AWESOME vintage Sunset cookbook from eBay. Ignoring the fact that almost every recipe starts with "1 stick butter" or "1/2 cup vegetable oil", this thing is awesome. There is a recipe on how to cook a whole chicken in clay, which you can then break at the table and triumphantly lift out your bird to the amusement of your guests.

It made me want to quit my job and spend all day cooking up fabulous meals for TNB & I, and dreaming up dinner parties that would knock the socks off all the neighbors. Oh who am I kidding. I wish I could do that anyway.

I suck at New Years resolutions. I'll freely admit, I have very little will-power (case in point, new WIP alert added to the 6+ current projects). What I suck at even MORE is dieting. I love good food and wine way to much to give thought to eliminating it.

However, in the last couple months I have become somewhat self-concious of my body. This is a new thing in my world; I've never minded a couple extra pounds and a softness to my belly - in fact I loved it! That's what a woman should look like! But it seems that as of late, my jeans are getting tighter and tighter and I have started to intentionally wear very loose clothing. I don't like this. But I am fundalmentally against dieting. What's a girl to do?

So I set a New Years Resolution. No, it's not "Lose 10 pounds" or "Excerise every day". My goal is to wear a swimsuit on my family vacation this July and not be self-concious of it. Hell, for extra kicks, I'll go one step further and say "and publish a photo of myself in the said bathing suit on this website". This is an ambigious resolution because I can either 1) accept the way nature is running it's course or 2) get my butt in high gear and do something.

So yesterday, I came home, and before popping the wine cork or picking up the knitting, I did 45 minutes of Tae Bo and 20 minutes of yoga. I loved it. I then cooked one of my favorite, super healthy recipes and ate it while stretching on the ground... WITH my coveted glass of wine. I felt happy, content, and not deprived at all. There may be hope for me yet!

1/4 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. lime juice
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon (or more depending on your heat preference) Chili powder
1/2 teaspoon (or more depending on your heat preference) Red Pepper Flakes
4 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 lb frozen, uncooked shrimp
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 cup salad mix (recommended: one with arugula in it)
3 radishes
1 carrot
about 15 cherry tomatos

Combine the first 8 items (through the olive oil) in a medium bowl, mix to blend. Reserve about 2 T. marinade in a small jar or bowl.

Defrost and peel shrimp, add to bowl of marinade. Mix to cover, and marinate about 15 minutes room temp. or up to 1 hour in the fridge.

Add about 1/2 c. marinade from shrimp to a small sauce pan (big enough to fit all shrimp in one layer). Bring to boil.

Add shrimp in one layer and cook through (they are done in the photo above). They will be white-ish in color and have curled up tightly. Drain excess liquid from pan (it's ok if a little remains).

Shred carrot, chop radishes, and 1/2 tomatos before adding to salad greens. Add rice wine vinegar to reserved marinade and blend. Pour over salad and toss.

Top salad with shrimp. Enjoy with a glass of Sav. Blanc.

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Finally I leave you with Viva... a representative view of a night at our house

"I find that doing yoga poses over a stack of housing magazines helps bring calmness to the soul"

"I call this one the 'Show Horse'"

She really sits like this in my lap. No cats were harmed in the creation of this photograph.

Off to drink my low-sodium V8.....