Mostly pictures

Traffic yesterday was just stupid. That just needed to be said. Stupid people on the road when I was going to work last night, and evil construction that condensed four lanes to one over the span of about a mile. I got bored with sitting in traffic, so I got out the sweater. Did 100+ stitches while not moving. Took an additional 20 minutes to get home. Yuck. At least Zuzu was happy to see me. She was showing off her lovely kitteh belleh yesterday. Can you see where the fur is shorter, where it hasn't grown back completely after her surgery? We love our kitty.

Zuzu's lovely kitteh belleh

And can't resist this one, taken as she tired of her supermodel status and sat up:

Kitty in motion

Somehow made it to work early today. Have gotten a decent bit done on the sweater, so it is longer than it appears below. It's 25-30 rows longer now. 53.33% done, according to my estimate. Soon I'll figure out the actual number of stitches and have more accurate calculations.

Fibonacci stripe sweater

Here's Zach's hat, because I'm sure everyone wants to see the evil yarn. Did I mention that? Well, I have decided that I do not like Vanna's taste in yarn. (Vanna's choice yarn is quite painful to knit with, IMHO.) I do like the stripey pattern, though.

Zach's hat

And in the exciting news category, we present Zelda!!! Elin from Norway created a beautiful zebra hat, which was too large for her head. So Zelda was felted, and became too warm for Elin to wear. After a trip across the ocean, Zelda now lives with me. How lovely! I almost (but not quite) want the weather to cool off again so I can wear her. Elin is right - Zelda inspires song!

The beauty that is Zelda - Thanks, Elin!

What else? Deer have been eating my tulips. Mike tells me we have at least one snake under the deck. (I'd rather have a snake than mice.) Got a phone call and did another row on the sweater - 53.67%. Decided that my dad will have some Happy Birthday Cinnamon Rolls tomorrow. Why? Because I want to make more. I think there are also leftover cupcakes, so there will be lots of sweets for the diabetics. Plus I have some caramel corn leftover from Easter, and he has a craving, so I'll bring that along, too. Will probably make some chocolate chip cookie pies, as we may stop by a potluck tomorrow evening so the blue cabled hat can be delivered to its new owner.

Anyway, I should get back to the sweater. Must have lots done so my mom is impressed, and inspired to get back to her cabled scarf.

Lazy Sunday

Remembered one of the things that I've wanted to post but had forgotten. Gretchen sent me a note the other day to tell me that a Greek friend of ours had contacted her via Facebook. When I think of Lambros, I think of a beautiful spring day (Memorial Day weekend?) when we were bored and wanted to leave Athens. Lambros had a car. A white Ford Escort if I remember correctly. The three of us piled into the car, and Lambros started driving. Drove south with no real destination in mind, and ended up in Kentucky. Visited the Hillbilly Flea Market (we had to - who can pass up a place like that?), bought a few knickknacks. Still have one of the funky triangular silvered bowls that I bought, as well as the Easter Island head vases. Turned around, started back home. Again, such a beautiful day. Not sure who started it, but we stuck our feet out of the window. Three people in the car, and at one point there were five feet sticking out of the various car windows. Which is when we passed a state trooper. Of course we get pulled over. Trooper comes over to the window, spits, and starts drawling about seeing "elbows and assholes sticking out everywhere." As there's no real law against what we were doing, he can't give us a ticket. He continued lecturing, and told us that when we get tired, we should stop and stretch. He returned to his car for the obligatory paperwork, so we exited ours, and started picking wildflowers. Ahhhhh, the memories.

Today is very much a catch-up day at home. Mike is finishing the taxes (apparently we weren't completely done before, but we will be today), it's laundry day as well as grocery day (home by 10am - yay), and I should probably straighten up the kitchen a bit.

Made more cinnamon rolls yesterday. And cakewaffles. Good stuff. Jennifer came over for breakfast; even though she couldn't go to Knitter's Fantasy with us, she wanted to visit with the girls a bit. Tanya, Patti, Elizabeth, Megan and I all drove to Youngstown and wandered around the Yarn Market. Ran into Jeanne there - she was wearing a gorgeous sweater she made. (Hers is longer than the one pictured - and much prettier, in my mind. The images on the website don't impress me, but Jeanne's did.)

Saturday's cinnamon rolls, pre-frosting

And of course the question is, "What did you buy at the Yarn Market?" Bought some TOFUtsies in green and white, some Aussi sock in Oak Moss (green), Wildfoote in Desert Grass, Trekking in a blue-green variegate, and some really neat laceweight - Habu with metals. I bought some copper bamboo, and stainless steel wool. I really liked the sample swatch they had knitted up in the stainless steel silk (but liked the color of the wool better), as it held its shape. It was a simple garter stitch piece, but would stretch to be either a long, narrow piece or a short, wide piece. You could flare the ends or sides to make it wavy. Very neat.

Habu yarn - copper bamboo and stainless steel wool

I am far too easily distracted. Started this post three loads of laundry ago. It is now snowing. Please make it go away. Drama llamas are running rampant all over Rav. I really need to stop following links to the melodrama. It's not worth the time or concern.

Oh, took a picture of our finches yesterday. Wish Mike's dad had email so he could see it - he's the one that made the feeder that my nephew calls "Florida Yard Art." It's made from a garage sale ice bucket and serving platter, plus some wire screen. He makes them with teapots and other vessels, but I like mine the best.

Zuzu's appetizers

Our kitty has been snuggled with Mike all day, snoozing on his lap. I should get back to the knitting. Or curl up with a good book.

No Rice for the Zuzu

Post title: Was portioning rice into tupperware for freezing, and some fell on the floor. Zuzu dashed over to investigate, because it could be food (we were in the kitchen, after all). She sniffed the rice, but decided that it wasn't edible. No rice for the Zuzu.

She has been a naughty kitty lately, and has taken to waking me at 3am. She curls up on my chest, purrs, and paws my chin. Ohhhh, see how nice this snuggling is? We should go downstairs and snuggle more, after you give me breakfast, of course. Yeah. No go. She did that for two nights in a row. We set her feeder to give her some kibble at 2am, and that seems to help. She would have let me sleep in until probably 5 this morning, but I think I'm now conditioned to wake up at 4:30, so even if she doesn't wake me, I wake myself.

Speaking of the kitty, she has been birdwatching lately. Apparently it is a great season to have bird feeders, because the migratory birds are back, but their food is still somewhat scarce. We've had lots of finches, but Zuzu's attention is really drawn by the cardinals. (I think it's because they look more like a meal, rather than the finch-snacks. Not that it matters, because she stays indoors, and her only wild food consists of insects. But a kitty can dream, right?) We have a pair, and they may be looking to nest on the beams of our deck's roof.

Really need to get the She and Him CD. I have been singing various songs of theirs for the past few weeks. Would be great car music, so I could sing along without being overhead. (I think the woman in the office next to mine is a bit annoyed at hearing my voice. She works Saturdays for the quiet.)

So I was going to post Sunday, but got swept up in a kitchen frenzy. Baked bread, cinnamon rolls, red pepper cornbread, and spinach-artichoke dip. Is that all? Feels like there was more. Cinnamon rolls were lovely. I will have to make them again. Challah bread and red pepper cornbread are favorites from Still Life with Menu by Mollie Katzen. Good stuff.

cinnamon rolls pre-icing

challah bread

Mike had a few friends over to play games, and while they made a mess of the basement, I made a mess of the kitchen. I think they were happy for all of the food, though.

What should I have been doing rather than baking? Working on the SAAZ newsletter, finishing those last two pairs of clogs (though I did get one pair felted), making more baby gifts (I'd forgotten how many I need to make, and have gotten sidetracked), and doing laundry. Now nearly done with the first of the last pair of clogs, aside from my clogs-of-many-colors. Have started thinking about them, and what fun they could be.

This week was busy, as we had knitting group on Monday. Abuelo's is a pretty decent Mexican restaurant - and if you ask when you're being seated, they will bring you a vegetarian menu. Gotta love a place that will do that. Plus, I've found most Mexican places in the area to be very bland. Mike finally got the point that I didn't care for one place when I told him that it tasted like Taco Bell. Why spend $7 when I could have the same experience for $2? Anyway, brought him takeout from Abuelo's, and once he understood that yes, the food was his and was not my lunch, he enjoyed it. We will go back.

Finally did the SAAZ newsletter Tuesday, day of the meeting. Oops. Hey, life happens. It didn't really take long to throw everything together, as there weren't all that many contributions. Left out a few small things, but didn't want to search for pictures or clip art to fill the rest of the page.

Baked cupcakes Wednesday. Four dozen. Vanilla with vanilla buttercream frosting, and vegan chocolate mocha with mocha frosting. Surprisingly, I think I like the vanilla ones better than the chocolate. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a chocoholic, but for some reason I'm finding the vanilla ones really tasty.

Bobmas Eve cupcakes

Thursday was Bobmas Eve. If you have to ask, you won't understand. Just over a dozen of us met at Bob Evans for a celebration of Ravelry. It was a lot of fun - matching faces to Ravelry user names. General consensus is that we'll have to have another, sometime soon. Perhaps at a place that serves alcohol. (What can I say, we like to have margaritas/beer while we knit!) Cupcakes were appreciated, but I still went home with two dozen. Left most of them for coworkers this morning, and brought a few for the guy who is covering for me tomorrow.

Mike drove to Columbus this afternoon to drop off beer for the NHC. He kegged beer on Tuesday, and several turned out quite well. Hopefully he'll do well in competition, although you never know who your judges will be. (They even let me judge one year, and after watching Mike torment himself over his returned score sheets, I will never do that again. I don't want to have my name on something that can cause such misery.) Anyway, it is out of his hands now - beer has been delivered, and he is home.

I'm at work now, and it's finally turned into a quiet night. Had to do a lot of running around at first, then had to talk someone through accessing their email account for the first time, oh, and then needed to change a projector bulb. Fun stuff. Finished "Collapse" while waiting for the slowest computer in the world to boot up and open Outlook so I could print the schedule.

Tomorrow is Knitter's Fantasy, in Youngstown. So we are having the traditional turnpike-route departure, and gathering at my house for breakfast before hitting the road. Cakewaffles and cinnamon rolls, probably. Vicky gave me some Vietnamese cinnamon, and it was fabulous in Sunday's cinnamon rolls, so will try it again with the new recipe.

Another News Item: It is the end of an era. I received a new card from Discover, and they changed my account number. I have been able to recite that number for years. Really. I have had the card since college, and always used it for phone orders (really mostly just donating to public radio stations - I'd feel the need to call while in the car, and didn't want to fumble with my wallet, so I'd use the number I knew.). Anyway, I tried to use it online today, and it was declined - they deactivated it! New one is now activated and working, but now I have another number to learn.

Not sure if there's anything else I should share. Oh, made another afghan square last night and shipped it out this morning. Some of the squares may have been lost, so mine is an extra. I just wish I had extra time to include some goodies in the package!

Oh! Chocolate Skittles! Found some in the store here at work, and bought two bags to share tomorrow. They frighten me somewhat, although probably not as much as the ones I saw on their website - Ice Cream Skittles. (Was craving chocolate last week, and didn't bring any baked goodies, so I checked out the candy rack in the shop.) Was amazed by the variety of M&Ms, too. No longer is are M&Ms just plain or peanut - there are dark chocolate ones, wild cherry and raspberry packets. I tried the dark chocolate, but wasn't really all that impressed. Will stay away from the wild cherry and raspberry ones - they are scary. Oh well. On that note, it's back to busy-ness!

After a long day

Yesterday was my birthday. With the party to celebrate the fact that my birthday was on a Saturday and that I didn't have to work.

Knitting group came over, we went to Miss Chickpea's and bought yarn, came back and exchanged gifts and ate cake.

Nine cakes. Just a few more people. Yum. I still haven't sampled everything. To be honest, there is a cake that has not yet been cut.

Here's what the table looked like when we started. (To be honest, we had some of the peanut-buttery-goodness-frozen-dessert-cake before the trip to Miss Chickpea's.)


We have, clockwise from lower right:

1. Plain cheesecake
2. Chocolate cheesecake
3. Peanut-buttery-frozen-goodness
4. Mocha layered cheesecake (complete with chocolate covered espresso beans)
5. Raspberry layer cake with raspberry frosting (pink)
6. Cassata cake (white)
7. Ugly Bundt cake - white with chocolate filling and glaze (ugly because the top stuck in the pan when removed)
   
8. Three-layer chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting
9. Four-layer yellow cake with chocolate sour cream frosting

We ordered pizza for dinner, and the boys ran to get it. (A change, as I am usually the carryout driver.) Patti brought salad with some tasty dressing she made, and we chowed.

Cakes went over mostly well, I think. Megan really liked the cassata cake's frosting, Jessica really liked the raspberry cake, Melita liked the cheesecake(s), and Nick really liked the peanut-buttery-goodness. Not sure what Patti took home, but she filled her tupperware. I still haven't sampled them all. Hope no one was freaked out my my very strong french press coffee.

Oh well. Zuzu was very well-behaved, although I think she did swat at a few people who were trying to pet her. It takes her a while to adjust to people. At some point during the evening she did sit on my lap, which was nice. She is now snuggling on her alpaca blanket.



Oh, I finished Chris's clogs. They were desperately crying out for red hearts on the toe, and now they have them.



Yes, I am rediscovering the joy of posting pictures. Hope you appreciate it.

About 60% done with my sister's blanket. Here, you can see how beautiful Zuzu looks on it.



Because she needs the love.

Oh, and the gifts! Patti brought some tupperware in a cute bag (I told her to bring her own tupperware if she wanted to take leftovers home since I was running low). I get to regift the bag back to her, as she realized that it said "Baby" on the handle. Megan brought some chocolate and some very cute coasters that she'd made from a thrift shop sweater (great idea!), and Jen had somehow found the time in her crazy schedule to make a needle organizer! I am thrilled - the needle shoebox can be retired. :-) I will have to post pictures of that once I get everything organized. Carl brought me a six-pack of mead, too. Mine, not Mike's. Although he will probably drink most of it, as I can only drink mead in small, small doses.

The gift exchange was fun - much yarn and needles were exchanged, as well as a project bag and even cash.

Anyway, I should have more cake, and get back to the knitting. Enjoy some cheesecake!

I am officially old.

This morning, two days before my 34th birthday, I threw my back out. And in a totally wimpy way.

I was baking a cake before work. (Shut up, that's perfectly normal behavior here. Move along.) Made a cassata cake, at least made its parts, and will assemble on Saturday. Started cleaning up, and suddenly my back hurt so much I couldn't move. Muscle spasms or something. Somehow maneuvered myself to the couch after taking some ibuprofen, and didn't move for several hours. (Zuzu helped with this.) Called in sick to work, and my boss recommended a hot shower, as hot as I could stand it. Once Mike woke up and convinced Zuzu to move, I managed to get upstairs and into the shower. (Thanks again to our friend Chris for having the necessary tool to allow us to adjust the scald-guard so that I could take a HOT shower rather than a lukewarm one.)

Why did my back give out? No clue. Maybe too much whisking. Learned that my stand mixer makes beautiful meringues. Never really understood "whisk until stiff peaks form" until today. Hopefully the cake will taste as good as it looks. Anyway, rather than whisk the yolks in the mixer, transfer them to another bowl, clean the mixer bowl and then whisk the whites, I just whisked the yolks by hand. Were they as light and fluffy as they would have been had I used the mixer? No, but we'll live. Cake batter was definitely airy!

Anyway, feeling quite a bit better now, but still sore. Will probably take another hot shower later today.

Have some cream cheese softening for a cheesecake; hope my back will let me bake more today. There are several more cakes on the schedule for Saturday. Oh, and cleaning. We won't talk about that yet, I don't think.

Aside from me getting old, nothing eventful really happened between now and my last post, so this will be a short one. It's probably time for more snuggling with the kitty.

And just like that...it's winter again

I am sitting at home, watching it snow. Wimped out on the museum lecture, as I headed home after work because it was cold and rainy and I didn't feel like camping out somewhere for three hours, plus a friend was supposed to come with me, so we could carpool back up, and the closer I got to home, the worse the weather became. Rain turned to freezing rain to sleet to snow. And snow it stays. The ground is covered, the cars are covered (Mike is brewing, so cars are on the driveway), and the road is covered. I am cold and depressed.

Okay, life is slightly better now. We just had dinner. Breakfast for dinner, to be exact. I am warmer. Mike's watching the Pirates play the Yankees in Florida. (On TV, of course. Do I need to specify something so obvious?)

Anyway, life has been full of bad drivers lately. Last week, after stopping at North End for a drink with Mike after work on Saturday, I was approaching a traffic light. Watched a Lincoln coming from the road to the left stop at the green light, get passed by a pickup, finally decide to make a left turn, and then veer into the left lane, right into oncoming traffic. Luckily the SUV that would have been hit was more observant than the Lincoln driver, and stopped. I think Lincoln decided to turn around after that.

After that, I needed to make a left turn. I used my blinker, and waited for the oncoming traffic to clear. The SUV that was nearly hit by the Lincoln started into the intersection, then stopped. I waited, as the intersection was blocked. Next thing I know, the SUV is making a left turn behind me. No blinker - in which case we could have both made our left turns simultaneously, and with the other clearly in sight. Oh well. The whole episode was clearly a case of "WTF?!?!?!?!"

Trying to keep this week calm. Skipped knitting group this week (Monday) to stay in and watch a movie with Mike. Little did I know that my Thursday dinner would be cancelled, and we'd get snow today, so I'd wimp out on the lecture. I'm sorry to miss it, as the lecturing curator is always entertaining. Last night we went to a Monsters game. A few WTF moments there, too. Most notably the mascot, an eagle. They are the Lake Erie Monsters. Logo is a Nessie-ish aquatic lizard-like creature. The costumed mascot was an eagle. WTF? The hockey team has cheerleaders. WTF? Okay, I gave in and looked at their site. They claim that the eagle is a seagull that has seen the Monster. Best part of that whole bit are the Mullets, who imitate the Hanson brothers while working on the ice. It was 80s night, so the music made me laugh, even though I still find it difficult to tolerate AC/DC. Damn you WEBN!!! Stupid station even bled through the stereo when I was trying to listen to CDs. Yet another reason I no longer live in Cincinnati.

Over halfway done with the blanket. It's just far too easy, although now it's a bit on the bulky side. Brought it to knitting on Tuesday afternoon, and the kids and teachers asked me to work on it, because they didn't quite grasp the concept of HUGE needles and fluffy yarn. A row is about 1/2" of fabric, so it goes quite quickly. Haven't worked on much else other than hats. Finished Matt's hat, with the exception of weaving in the ends. It is in the car, so that won't happen tonight. Started another hat, probably for Brad, because he was the recipient of one of my first hats, and I want to prove that I have advanced since then. Plus he likes blue and wool. I am using the Hat Attack ribbing pattern (p2-k2-p1-k2) to start, and will probably throw in a few cable crosses, but not in the binary pattern.

Haven't frogged/restarted the Fibonacci glove, although I did pop it off the needles so it can be frogged. I've decided that I will make the smaller size, too. Used it as an example to show the HS knitters stockinette stitch. They've mainly been doing garter stitch, but I taught a few how to purl. Not sure that they will remember it when they get back from break, but you never know. Too many projects, too little time. And here I am posting rather than cooking and knitting.

Yes, I should be making cakes tonight. Or at least cassata filling. I should have tomorrow evening, though, as well as Friday afternoon/evening. I am such a procrastinator. Haven't even really invited anyone outside of the knitting group to the event. I want to make at least six cakes, but there will only be um, 14? 16? people there. So if you're lucky enough to be one of the few invited, bring your appetite! Maybe I should buy more milk.........

Oh, found out that the makeup weekend for the work I missed is the weekend that I'm supposed to go to Knitter's Fantasy. Don't know if I will have to work or if someone will cover for me.

Zuzu is being a pest tonight. Poor Mike is very annoyed, as she will not leave him alone. Especially when he is trying to do some brewing calculations.

Anyway, I should get this posted, so I can work on something productive. I Will.Not.Ravel for the rest of the evening. Yeah, right. We'll see how long that lasts. Probably not long, as I need to research recipes online, and whenever I'm online, I log on.

Double dinners

We've all been eating a lot lately. Maybe it's the cold weather - we want extra insulation (even though us humans of the household have more than enough already!). Even the slender one of the household is always hungry. In fact, on Sunday, she was *very* hungry. I fed her dinner around 6pm, and she wanted more. She wanted more so much that she started licking the old crusty bits off of her plate. Oh, and I should note that the old crusty bits were underneath a bowl. Yes, our sweet little kitty knocked a bowl off of a plate to get to the nasty, dried food that was underneath.

What could I do? I gave her a second dinner. Kitty had a half can of food on Sunday night.

Last night, our knitting group went to Johnny Mango's. Don't know if most people got lost, but there were supposed to be 12 of us, and only 6 showed up. Ohio City can be a bit confusing, and I got slightly lost as I was approaching from a different direction - I'd been working downtown, and usually get there from further east. I ate far too much. Yummy food, when we finally got it. The waitress that originally took care of us disappeared at some point early in the night. She welcomed the first four of us, brought our drinks, but then she never came back. Finally Patti garnered the attention of another server, and she did a great job for the rest of the evening.

I finished one clog while there, and started another. They're not the happiest of travel projects, as there's lots of counting involved, but I managed. I really need to finish the Clog Project. I should be knitting now, but I have a purring kitty on my lap and my knitting bag is on the other side of the room.

Pink hat is finished; may drop that off today, depending on timeframe. I think I have three people on the hat list - it's good that there are several lectures coming up! There are three in the first three weeks of March. That might translate into three hats - who knows.

Yeah, I'm getting tired again. Woke at 3 due to micturition urges, and luckily Zuzu curled up with me after I returned to bed. I had a hard time falling asleep again, though, and at 4 she was ready for breakfast. She's been on my lap for a good portion of the morning, and is now snuggled under a blanket on my lap. You know, I could really be productive if I actually did things in the morning. Oh well. It's now nearly time to get moving. Awwwwww. Kitty just peeked out from under the blanket, and we had some serious purring going on. I love my little girl.

Ahhh, Clean

Me, that is, not the house. The house is going to wait. If it's lucky, the Halloween decorations will be removed sometime before Christmas.

Just took a shower, so it is once again time to thank our friend Chris, as he just happened to have the tools Mike needed to change the scald-guard setting on our shower. I hate taking lukewarm showers in the winter - give me HOT water. Anyway, thanks Chris. (I would link to him if he had a web presence.)

Zuzu has had lunch, I have had my yearly allotment of latkes, and Mike should be back in the near future. He did his Athens reunion thing this weekend. Hopefully the guys had fun. I feel like a slacker because I did not send any baked goods. Oh well, I had too many late nights last week. Went to bed at 9 yesterday. I was mostly rested when Zuzu woke me at 4. I have no idea how such a little kitty can make so much noise.

To be clear: I am a tea buyer, and not so much a tea drinker. I have quite the variety of teas in the cupboard, even though I rarely drink the stuff. Maybe I just *want* to be a tea drinker. Anyway, I have decided that I need to clean out the tea cabinet, and the best way to do that is to drink more tea. I emptied the Decaf Honey Chamomile Green Tea today. One box down, lots to go. Anyone want to come over and help me drink tea?

And on the holiday knitting front, well, I have 3.5 pairs of men's clogs ready to felt. I have 6 more pairs (women's) to do before Christmas. And quite a few other pairs in the queue, but at least those have some leeway, as they are not Family Gifts, so the due dates are somewhat movable.

I need some mindless knitting, though. The clogs are fun, and go relatively quickly (maybe faster if I can get into the pin-tensioned groove), but they require thought, to keep track of my stitch count and row. Although I *mostly* know the pattern, I still like to refer to it - and will
definitely need to use it when I switch sizes. There's a lecture at the museum on Friday, and I like to keep my hands busy while my brain focuses on the speaker. Thus, I need mindless knitting. Maybe I will start a plain old stockinette sock, or something with a simple rib pattern, so I can just go round and round and round while I think of other things. And most of the Christmas socks I wanted to make (will I? probably not this year) are more intricate patterns. Oh well. I'm sure I can find some nice sock yarn in the stash for that. That's the problem with becoming more skilled as a knitter - I want to make things that are prettier than plain stockinette. Even scarves are more fun with patterns. Oh, and the room is dark during the lecture, so even if I did an easily memorized pattern, I won't really be able to see what I'm doing. Maybe I'll work on version II of Mike's Toque. Oh! I have baby hats to do! Maybe I could work on those, although I kinda wanted to do something more fun than stockinette. Should I start another sweater? Nah, not until January. I'll come up with something, I guess.

What I will not be making: banananana hammock. Someone on Ravelry pointed it out, and I wanted to share.

Anyway, I should get back to my knitting. And I need to do the SAAZ newsletter. I think I finally have everyone's contributions - it will be a short one. Let's try to do that now, although maybe I will see if Mike will be home before or after I can make and eat more latkes. I think I want more.

Day of the (almost) FO's

Finished the charity socks today.
Took them to Miss Chickpea's and dropped them off, along with a matching hot pink scarf that had been lingering in the scarf bag. Finished Sock #2 first, then frogged the tip of the toe of Sock #1, as I'd made it too pointy. It really wasn't that bad; only three-four rows needed to come out. No charity hat this year, although I will keep the yarn and can work on something after Christmas.

Finished the body of the stripey tote bag, too, plus one strap. Should be able to finish the second strap tonight, as they don't take very long. Needed my size 13 circs for all the clogs I'm making, and as the bag was so nearly done it was easier to finish it than to take the bag off the needles.

Oh, and finished reading "Spook" today, too. Very enjoyable.

What else? Haven't dug out the yarn for my test clogs yet, but probably will tonight. Should also take a picture of the mound o'yarn that will be my November sweater. Hopefully I'll have enough left over to make a hat and maybe mittens.

Upcoming projects:
NaKniSweMo Sweater
Mike's hat
Clogs for Christmas
Eesti Trail Socks (Nancy Bush October Sockdown - need to be finished by Nov. 30)
Baby hats (good friend plus neighbor both expecting winter babies)
Jaywalker Socks (must jump on very cute bandwagon...)
Lots of other socks (even though sock yarn is not stash, it's taking up a lot of space)

Anyway, must finish handle!

Oh, and we had a lovely party yesterday. I made enough food for twice our usual turnout (which is my normal party preparation), and since we kept things small this year I had way more than it was physically possible to eat. Mike and I will have leftovers for a week. Good thing about smaller parties - I actually had the chance to enjoy more than half a pint of beer. Not too much more, but some. Loved the chocolate stout cake. And pirogie casserole. That was probably the hit of the party. Aside from Mike's homebrew. Everyone loved his beer.