Vegetarian?

I think it's time for me to go vegetarian. It's something I've been contemplating for a long, long time, but I just don't know if I have the willpower. My guilt over eating meat is getting stronger, and the environmental and health benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle are extremely appealing to me. Since Mark doesn't eat meat it will be easier, but I don't know about the boys. Eh, not like I usually eat the same stuff I give them anyway.
The problem is, I don't really like many vegetables. And no way in hell I'm going vegan. I admire those who can and do that, but my cheese and butter and eggs are staying on the menu, even if the role of bacon will now be played by a tofu substitute. And I do like tofu. I like many legumes as well as fruits and almost all grains that I've tried. So once I finish off the meat that's in the apartment, I don't intend to buy any more. I'm sure I'll occasionally slip and I don't intend to become obsessive about reading labels, but I feel like this is something I need to do for myself, for the environment, and for the animals. We'll see how it goes.

Haircut... and makeup... and Baby Blanket Pattern

I had my hair cut. To most people, that wouldn't be a big deal, but it had been at least 7 years since I had had it done. About 20" were cut off and will be donated to Locks of Love.
That is a lot of hair to so abruptly be gone from the back of my head. Somehow it has changed more than just my appearance. My outlook seems to have changed, too, and all for the better. I feel more competent, more like I did when I was younger. It's a nice change, and so much cooler in the summer. You can't know if you've never had really long hair what a difference it is. I can now wear sleeveless tops or dresses without having to worry about my hair getting caught in my armpits. I don't have to dread the wind or worry about hair getting caught in the car door. I use far less shampoo and conditioner and my hair dries within a few hours instead of the 16 or so it used to take. It looks great with just a brush through it after I get out of bed. It's in a chin length bob parted on the left. Really, I love it.
And donating this huge ponytail just makes me love it all the more. I have no doubt some little girl will be thrilled to have my hair on her head after locks of Love work their magic.

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Let's see, we've covered hair, so let's make this even girlier and move on to makeup now.

Have you heard about e.l.f. cosmetics? I got this for $15. Yes, all of this. And I had a code so that shipping was free. Most of their stuff is just a buck. Admittedly the sizes are a little small, but if you wear makeup as rarely as I do, then that is a good thing. And for a dollar, how can you go wrong?
So here's the picture of everything... (will be added asap... having problems with the uploader)
(And will have the baby blanket pics and pattern uploaded later, too.)







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Easy Mitered Corner Baby Blanket

click here for PDF

Not the most exciting thing to knit, but I do like the way it looks. The only part I didn’t like about this was the finishing. Ugh. Soooo many ends to weave in and I suck at that. And the seams are far bulkier than I would like, but as long as the recipients don’t mind. After all, it is a nice warm, handmade baby blanket for someone I will likely never meet. If anyone is interested and doesn’t feel like figuring it out, here’s the so simple pattern I used:

CO 99 stitches in MC (red in my case) place markers on either side of center stitch.
Row 1: sl 1 purlwise, k46, k2 tog, k1, k2tog, k47
Row 2: sl1 purlwise, k45, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, k2tog, k46
continue alternating rows of decreasing on either side of center stitch and decrease and yarn over on either side of decrease. You can use any number of rows you want for color changes, of course. So my bf would be a little involved (since it is for his coworker, after all) I had him decide that part for me. Mine went like this:
12 rows red
6 rows cream
12 rows red
6 rows cream

10 rows red
6 rows cream

10 rows red
6 rows cream
8 rows red
4 rows cream
8 rows red
4 rows cream

finish up with red

Make 4 of these then sew them all together and weave in those damned ends. (grrr.)

Mother's Day Scarf

Ooookay. Well, kids, it's been a while but I am back now and better than I've been in a long ass time. Not sure I'll be posting frequently, but I am finally beginning to take some charge of my life and it feels great!

Now for some knitting.
Ooh, and a couple free and easy patterns, too!

First is the mother's day 2008 scarf. I had improvised a lacy hat that I wore at Christmas and my mom fell in love with it. Here's a picture, although it doesn't show the lace pattern (and I use the word loosely) very well if at all:


So she loved it and I gave it to her. It is very soft and the yarn is yummy feeling. I had 2 skeins left of it so I decided she needed a matching scarf. This, unlike the hat, I had a pattern for. Or at least a lace stitch from some book.

Mother's Day Scarf 2008:

download PDF here

The pictures just don’t capture the real beauty of this piece. Sometimes the yarn and stitch just
go together so perfectly that the result is stunning.
I think this scarf is a good example of that. It’s
lacy, but still has substance and a bit of sparkle.
I honestly think it’s one of the loveliest things I’ve made. I hope my mom agrees when I am able to give it to her. I got the stitch from one of my stitch dictionaries, but I can’t recall which one. It’s shockingly easy, only a 4 row repeat and
nothing trickier than k4 tog tbl. I used 2 skeins,
starting a 2nd piece with the 2nd skein and
joining them in the middle so that the lace wouldn’t be reversed on one side and the gracefully arced ends would be symmetrical.

CO 17
row 1: sl1 purlwise, k1tbl, k13, k1tbl, p1
row 2: sl1 knitwise, p1tbl, p13, p1tbl, k1
row 3: sl1 purlwise, k1tbl, k4tog (yo, k1) X5, yo,
k4tog tbl, k1tbl, p1
row 4: same as row 2

repeat these 4 rows until piece is half of desired length (or as I did, until you run out of yarn in one skein), put stitches on holder, make another one and join them in the middle. I have no advice on how best to join them since I am atrocious at that sort of thing, but obviously the less noticeable the join, the better.

I used Caron Glimmer yarn in Biscuit and US11 needles. I used circs , but that is just personal preference. And here are the pics:

Next Post: a mitered corner baby blanket made with Lion Brand Homespun.

ETA: Yes, I painted the styrofoam head. Acrylic paints. And it now has a blonde Halloween wig, too (I found it while organizing my craft closet. Pictures of that project will be posted as soon as it's finished. A hint: hanging organizer shelves!)

Good groceries

I'm not normally one to wax rhapsodic about something as prosaic as a grocery store, but after my last little jaunt to my local Market Street, I just have to say how impressed I am. Everyone working there is friendly, which is a nice change from the surly service received elsewhere (I'm looking at you, Kroger...). When we first moved here I tried out all the local grocery stores and decided that Market Street was my favorite, but for the last few months I've been trying to conserve gas and to cut down on my errands meant going to that awful big box retailer of evil. Today I only needed groceries, so no WalMart. I had forgotten how nice Market Street is. All sorts of gourmet and specialty and organic stuff and prices that are, in many cases, even better than WalMart's. Organic milk, for example, is a dollar (or maybe dollar and a half) cheaper... 2 liter Diet Coke is 13 cents less... And not only do they not seem to believe in the current trend of making the customers do most of the work themselves, they do everything at checkout for you, from unloading your basket (does anyone else still do this?) to bagging and placing the bags in the cart to loading your stuff into your car. And I have never had anyone be unpleasant to me there. I could actually not hate grocery shopping in an environment lie that. Oh, and there are always plenty of cashiers... who will come and get you if they are free and they see you waiting. Really, I love the place. Who knew a grocery store could put me in such a good mood? I just hope that their corporate masters aren't evil or I will be very disappointed. All the people I've talked to who work there say it's a great place to work, so maybe it really is a rare example of business being done centered on the customer instead of the bottom line.

Open letter to my big brother

It's my brother's 40th birthday today. He and I haven't been close in a very long time and there are a number of things I'd like to say to him, but, to be honest, I've never had the nerve. I seriously doubt he would ever read this, so I'll write those things here:

Dear B,

Happy birthday, big bro. I know things in the family have been tense and strained and that you feel that you have been unfairly targeted, but that is simply untrue. You haven't been behaving well. It has little direct impact on me, but your actions affect people I love in negative ways and that both hurts and angers me.
You are abusive to your kids. That has to stop or CPS will eventually be called. I understand that you have trouble controlling your temper, but those are your kids. They need you to be the adult and to have some fucking control. I had hoped that you limited your abusive behavior to verbal assaults on the little ones, but I have heard tales of you pushing one of them while telling him that he was the biggest disappointment of your life. Wow. And this is the boy who was molested by a neighbor. Did you not think he had enough issues to deal with? Seriously, how could you treat a child that way and think it was acceptable?
I heard that you threw a fit on Christmas Day because you weren't treated with the deference you felt you deserved. You are so incredibly full of your own sense of self-importance and entitlement that it drives me crazy. Why would you expect everyone to wait to eat until you finally deigned to show up? You know full well that Christmas dinner has never waited on me or on Roger or on anybody else. Do you really think that you are so much more important than everyone else?
(Oh, speaking of Christmases past, what about the year you brought your girlfriend's little daughter to our Christmas Eve family celebration which also included your wife and your own kids? Did you, even for a moment, consider the feelings of anyone other than yourself? You may be the most selfish person I've ever known.)
After the fit you threw because people were hungry, you had heated words with our mother. I have no idea what your problem is with her, but you need to get over it. I love her, but I know she's no saint. You aren't either, though. You told her you didn't know how to be a dad since she split with our own father when we were small. Do you actually believe that we would have been better off if he had been around when we were kids? Every parent must figure out his or her own path; you might want to look at the way you're raising your own children and learn to make them the priorities in your life. It can't be easy, but you made the choice to have kids, so you need to be there for them. Do you want them to hate you when they are your age with as much vitriol as you apparently have toward our mother? And even if she did somehow wrong you, you are a grown man. You are middle fucking aged. Get over it!
You have taken advantage of our grandparents and our mom for so long now that you probably don't even see that you're doing so. It infuriates me to see them constantly kowtowing to you. You do know that at least a portion of that is done out of fear and dread, not out of love, don't you? You act like a child and throw temper tantrums if you don't get your way. You expect our grandfather to take care of you and your kids while giving nothing in return.

A break from the knitting

I'm taking a bit of a break from my knitting, not so much by choice as by necessity. My dear, sweet M. is concerned that I should be able to support myself if he has to go to prison. I am concerned for the same thing. So I am teaching myself (with his assistance) how to program in Java. Within a couple of months I hope to be able to take the J2EE certification exam and get a job.
It's not coming very easy to me, honestly. I am unaccustomed to having problems learning things, so it is very frustrating for me. But I intend to stick with it. I know I am an intelligent woman, so if other people can learn this, so can I.

Here are some more pictures I took of the snow yesterday...

This is crazy. I shot this outside my apartment this afternoon. I love it, don't get me wrong, but I don't recall ever having snow so late in the season, or ever seeing snowflakes this large.