Before and after

The gory details on the sweater. Here is the before:

 

It was cool to finally get this far in the project. As I sorta thought, you just attach the sleeves 

and start knitting the rest of the shoulder cap along with the top of the torso. 

I think it would have worked if not for the matter of it being entirely too small! 

Here is the after: 

I didn't rip out the sleeves yet - there's a chance they may fit. Probably not really, 

but I guess I'm not ready to totally scrap this sucker. 

Even more nuts, I already cast on to start over!

2011:04

I should probably just get used to the idea of feeling like the year is flying by, hm?

I took this last November (hey, sorry, I live in California! It's crowded for a reason!) when I went to wine country. One of my friends has been a member at a couple of different wineries over the years, and I really love that she opts to pick up her quarterly wine delivery instead of having them mail it. That gets her to recruit friends to go on a day trip - and without that kind of nudge I could go a long time between visits to Napa and Sonoma and those parts.

This flower was at Gundlach Bundschu just outside of downtown Sonoma. They are friendly, gracious, have lovely grounds, and their wine is really tasty. I highly recommend a visit if you're ever in town! If you can go with a member - all the better, as the tastes are free!

EX-WIP Wednesday: Say goodbye to my little friend

Dudes, I have no idea what happened, but the sweater I've been working on for 2 months or so is a goner. Say goodbye, sayonora, arrivederci, we knew ye well. I got the arms long enough and figured out how to attach them to the body, and finally FINALLY tried it on.

Crud-ola, it does not fit.

I'm doubly frustrated because I did a gauge swatch. Then I cast on what should be the right size. And after 15 rows it seemed like it was going to be WAY too big.. so I decided to rip it out and start over, following the directions for the sweater 2 sizes smaller. And guess what? yeah, it's just about 2 sizes too small.

So now I have to rip out and wind 5 or 6 balls of yarn. Then I have to stomp my feet and tear my hair a bit. Then a good long sulk is in order, and only THEN will I consider casting on again. maybe.

Under pressure

I've signed up to learn to scuba dive. Eep! Should be fun, though it was never on my Life List. However, I'm going to Honduras in May to celebrate my friends' wedding, and it turns out that's a prime spot for diving! I've got a good bit of free time now so I'd rather get certified here and be able to just enjoy diving while I'm there.

California's dive certification requires 40 hours of instruction, so the class runs over 6 weeks. It starts mid-April so I will barely squeak in the certification before the trip at the end of May.

I'll certainly let you know how it goes! I've already started practicing breathing only through my mouth - I find it surprisingly hard not to hyperventilate! (I suspect I'm being rather dorky... but I can live with it)

Recipe: Skillet granola

Waffles are grand but admittedly a bit messy. An easier and still delicious-smelling weekend breakfast option is Skillet Granola!

It's very easy and quite flexible:
- melt some butter in a pan
- sprinkle in the oats and toast them a bit
- sprinkle on a little salt, and some flavoring - you can never go wrong with cinnamon!
- add a little liquid sweetener. I use agave nectar; honey or thinned molasses would probably do quite well.
- near the end, if you want, add texture with nuts or wheat germ. I added both this time.

Once it's yummy-smelling and lightly toasted, let it cool off. I like it with plain yogurt.

extra-culturey me!

Well reader, I bought the membership to SFMOMA and spent a very pleasant 3 hours enjoying the exhibit Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera Since 1870. I passed briefly through the (not so great) exhibit on wine and design, and took off. I still want to visit the Eadweard Muybridge exhibit in the next few weeks so we'll see! It was really nice not feeling pressure to maximize my ticket purchase by seeing absolutely everything, that's for sure.

I also went to a magical land called Cheese School - yes indeed, paradise is at hand when such a thing exists! I first heard of Cheese School at least a year ago, but they post classes a few times per year, and all of them sell out. Also, as you might imagine, paradise is not cheap. All in all it took a while for the stars to align. I had to be willing to spend the money (thank you, Mad Money account!) and had to remember to look at their classes while some were available, AND coordinated attending with a couple of friends.

The upshot is I attended a class called Fundamentals of Flavor: How to Taste Cheese. yeah, it was awesome. Our teacher reviewed how to analyze cheese using most of our senses - sight, smell, touch, and taste. We had 12 cheeses to taste, two each of six varieties: fresh cow's milk cheese, young goat cheese, slightly aged sheep cheese, aged Dutch cheese, washed-rind stinky cheese, and blue cheese. We ran well over our 2 hour slot and I could have stayed a lot longer. I am not good at identifying what I am tasting and smelling but oh my - I'm willing to learn!

WIP Wednesday: Two-fer

Still working on the sweater. I've put it down for a moment to whip out a baby hat, since I never did get around to seeing a high school friend who's been pregnant for nine months now. Oops. Well, I'm sure that baby is here and I'll make an effort to go meet it - I'm making the hat a little large to buy myself some time.

But here is where I am with the sweater.  You may recall that I got the torso done as far as it was supposed to go, and now I'm doing the sleeves. Both of 'em at once. Yep, I'm cool like that:

They're knit from the wrist up, and at some point you attach them to the torso and keep going. At some point near the end you go back and sew the sleeve-seam, turning these rectangles into arm-shaped tubes. I'm fuzzy on the details but will be sure to share!

Knitting two at a time is not that hard - you use a different ball of yarn for each piece and have to make sure you don't forget and use it across the whole row! It doesn't save any time of course - it really is six of one, half-dozen of the other - but the efficiency pleases me. Here's a closeup:

Just about 9 inches done and about 5 more to go. I might go a bit longer; we'll see! You're supposed to increase every 8th row and I use that green string to the left of the tape measure to help me track my rows. I learned that trick from some clever knit-bloggers I read, called The Rainey Sisters.