A whole week of no meat

Today marks the first week of not eating meat. I almost slipped up when I was making something for the boys and without thinking nearly made some for myself, too, but I caught it in time and avoided it. It's been easier than I thought it would be so far and I feel really good about it.

Progress on the top I'm knitting is going well, but unfortunately I don't like the waistband I made, so back to the drawing board on that bit. The bottom of it is really turning out quite well, though.

M is a little sad (although he won't let on) that the boys and their mom are moving further away and we won't be able to afford to see them as often. As guilty as it makes me feel to say this, I won't mind only seeing them once a month. They'll be an hour and a half away instead of the half hour or so that they are now. They will be closer to their maternal grandparents, so that will be nice for them, but I know M will miss them a lot.

What about the things that go bump during the day? Just curious why they don't seem as troublesome to anyone. Aren't they probably the same things that go bump during the night?

teeth of gelignite

What a good day we had! If we hadn't had the boys today I doubt we'd have bothered with going out, but it turned out great! This morning we went downtown to a car show...





Of course it was already uncomfortably hot, but even I found the cars interesting. M and the boys loved it. After spending about half an hour there we headed a block west to watch the parade go by. It wasn't much, but the boys still enjoyed it.









































After that it was back home to cool off for a few hours and, as always, feed the boys. It seems like there's no time for much else except feeding times when we have them. They behaved so very well, though, that we decided to go out to the fireworks show tonight. A wonderful time was had by all. (My camera doesn't do sound with the video, but here are a couple of 30 second AVI clips of the fireworks. The rest, if anyone is interested, can be found here.) The park the fireworks display was held in was enormous and although there were more cars than I could even begin to make an accurate estimate of, we weren't crowded at all. There had been a light shower in the early evening which had brought the temperature down nicely. We brought a blanket and some snacks and settled ourselves in the middle of a soccer goal. We had a good unobstructed view of the whole thing. For a change, a really good time was had by all. Even parking was stress free since there was a complimentary shuttle taking us from the lot we parked in across the highway to the field itself. Tomorrow there is an ice cream tasting that we'll probably be going to, so quite the busy weekend for us.

Random update

It's my third meat free day and I have to say that so far I am loving it! This long holiday weekend may be a little tricky since we have the boys (and for an extra day . Ugh.) and we'll be doing Fourth of July activities which will almost inevitably include barbecue. Eh, I'm not going to fret about it. I know it's too soon to be sure, but I think I can feel a difference. My digestion seems to be having fewer issues, so we'll see what happens.

I'm knitting a summer top. I had an idea in my head, drew a couple of sketches, and then went online to see if I could find something similar. Is it still my design if I take disparate elements from several different patterns, change them substantially but still use them as inspiration, and combine them in a totally new way? I think maybe it is. I'm using the patterns as help in construction instead of as actual patterns, so I think I'm okay here. It's not like anyone will be able to look at my finished piece and say that it looks awfully similar to another one. I'm really looking forward to finishing this one and having my first real wearable that I've designed and knitted. Hopefully my notes will be good enough to make a real pattern from. Pictures as soon as there's something to show.

I planted some herb seeds a week or so ago and they are beginning to sprout. :)

I really don't want to have the boys tonight (or at all) but M says how much he wants to spend time with them... then when they are here no one wants to spend any time actually doing anything together. What's the point of them being here if they are just going to stay in their room on their computers the whole time?

Bad cramps today. Ouchie. I slept on the couch last night with the heating pad and will probably go curl back up with it as soon as I am finished here.

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.