Catch Up

Hola, y'all!

Whirlwinds here at el Rancho Hooker. When last we spoke, we had just returned from the deliriously lovely Napa. The very next day, we were visited upon by my stepdaughter and her mom (yes, you read that right) for six days. Not for nothing, but if that doesn't smack of either some scary reality show or a sitcom, nothing does.

So the Brit and I have been laying low this long weekend, keeping peaceful in our finally reclaimed household, catching a breath and bracing now for the week ahead at work. But it is still a day off, and we are making the most of it.

On our touristing about the isle of Manhattan last weekend, I took the photo above of a stall in the Union Square Market that sells gorgeous yarns, so soft and luscious you want to wrap your damn nekkid body in them. Oh yeah! I just feel bad because in that selfsame stall they sell the slaughtered lambies, too. Yuck. And no, I did not buy any wool or meat.

I'd mentioned once upon a time ago that I'd finished the felicity hat from ravelry, and I'm sure that none of you believed me, but here it is in all its ribbed glory:

Now, the pattern doesn't call for the ribbing, but I truly look like ass with a flat thing on my big head, so the garter ribbing makes this a tad more flattering. Not that I'd post a photo of me in the hat, of course, except maybe from the rear.

And there is progress on the Shipwreck Shawl, in all its beautiful frustration. And it truly isn't the pattern's fault. I have this horrible tendency to end the day sticking or hooking while literally nodding off on the couch. Funny how that's not considered a best practice for successful needlework.

I won't go into detail on the numbers of times I've screwed this up. But I will tell you that keeping markers on the needles delineating the pattern repeats has saved me from having to do much in the way of serious frogging. Seriously.

On to food.

As usual, I'm cooking up a storm. This weekend, despite the steamy weather, I made a huge pot of this chili from one of my favorite blogs, 101 Cookbooks. It is the very best chili in the world. Trust me. From one of the very best food blogs in the world. Again, trust me. Even you carnivores will get seduced by Heidi's recipes. They are amazing.

And since we had the little pomme frite here last weekend, we overloaded on bananas. So I had to make a couple of loaves of banana bread this weekend. I used this Weightwatcher recipe as a base, but pimped it with dried cranberries, cardamom, and walnuts. Holy crap, it's good.

And because the frigging vat of chili, 2 banana breads, and a loaf of rye bread wasn't enough, I made some granola yesterday. I used a Martha Stewart recipe as a base for proportions, but again pimped it with the addition of pepitas, sesame seeds, crushed almonds, dried mango, and dried cranberries.

Can I get an AMEN!But the photo I took of the finished concoction looked like vomit, so I'm just posting this arty shot of the ingredients.

Okay, c'est tout for now!

To ravelry, With Love

So I'm not in the best of places today. Work is stressful and keeping me up at night. There is no end in sight, no light at the end of the tunnel, no spot I can point to in my calendar where I can say, "HERE is where I can breathe a sigh of relief." It's simply not there.

Add to that the worry about friends and family losing their jobs, not just as a result of the economy, but because petty, mean-spirited people decided they didn't like the cut of their jib. The woman who brought me into the company I've worked for the past 18 years was fired last month.

But I cling to my job (which, despite the stress, I actually like) with the full knowledge that my continued employment, like everyone else's, is tenuous at best.

Yarn is my escape. I'm working diligently on the Pi Shawl, and having run out of the crappy yarn I was using, I'm now using something else in a different weight and color, and row 11 in the second lace section is whooping my ass. Big Time. I thought I was past the ripping out stage, but apparently, I'm not. And I despise the stash yarn I picked to continue the shawl. It's just fugly.

With a night cut short by worry about the things I'm not getting done at work, I'm too tired to fight Pi today. I'm marking every pattern repeat, which helps, but I can't deal with it. And I'm shying away from some of the patterns I'm really taken with, simply because Pi has temporarily shattered my knitting resolve.

So, what's a girl to do?

When stranded, as it were, surrounded by UFOs but too stymied to pick up any of them, I like to go shopping in ravelry. I never fail to be inspired by the extraordinary creativity and beautiful designs I find there. One of my favorite things is what I call "ravelry roulette," where I type in some random search filters and see what I get. And omigod, what I get!

If you are like me (and I pray you are not!), I get tons of crochet/knit mags and books that I absolutely pore over. And I am contstantly surprised by the stuff I miss in these publications! But for the eagle-eyed ravelrers, I would miss so many wonderful patterns and ideas, simply because I took them at face value and moved on. I mean, how many times do you see a new shawl or skirt and pass it by simply because the color choice, layout, or model turned you off? But on ravelry, I see these things anew, simply because some bright woman in another place saw potential where I could not.

Like my dad was, I am happiest when surrounded by ideas and potential. And I am sincerely thankful that I have access to the amazing creativity of so many others who help me to see things anew when I cannot.