In between days
This week between Christmas and New Years is one of my favorite. Life seems slower, it is ok not to get caught up on everything on your to do list, you can spend the day reading or knitting.
Me? I sucessfully relocated my armholes on my corset, using an after thought pocket technique to pick up the stitches where I wanted the new armholes to be. I carefully undid the I cord bind off from the old armholes and then grafted the pieces together. Right now, I’m blocking the living daylights out of it, and will model it once I get the buttons on.
Rather than exchange gifts, Dave and I took each other out last night. We dropped the kids of with my parents, walked across the Boston Common to the Lowe’s Theatre for a late matinee of Casanova (not nearly as good as Brokeback Mountain - a movie I am still thinking about) followed by dinner at Petite Robert Bistro. This was an exceptional experience. The menu may appear a bit pricy to a non sprawlopolis resident (that beltway from Portsmouth, NH to Washington, DC where you can’t get a good dinner out for two for under $150) but for Boston, this is a great value for the best French food I’ve eaten outside of Paris. A trio of pates, a healthy salad with blu cheese, scallops for me, venison for DH, and crepes for dessert. Yummy.
And in book notes, one of the nicest things about marrying into DH’s family is that they are book people. DH and his family always gives me the best books for Christmas. This year was not exception.
Now on my bookshelf:
Now that my needles are empty and my yarn stash minimized, I’m thinking about a trip to Circles in JP to ring in the new year with some new fiber. What is on your must knit list for 2006?
turning my luck around
Rising up from my corset disaster, I cast on for some easy, selfless knitting, hoping to put some positive knitting energy into my hands, heart and home. DH has an aunt who was clearly the black sheep of her family. She has been wonderful to my children, and serendipitously, was my best friends’s boyfriend’s housemate in rural vermont. Small world, no? In addition to a few small items, I cast on for a scarf from yarn I received as a thank you present for hosting the GSRP. This was a lovely handpainted wool/silk/mohair mix and was just calling out for a luxurious scarf. I cast on 20 stitches, knit till it was almost gone, then bound off, not before dropping four strategically placed stitches all the way down (this actually took longer than knitting, as I forgot how much mohair likes to stick.) Attach some fringe and voila, the perfect gift for a very kind woman.
Next, I cleaned out my box of unclaimed knitted items, a small black cashmere neck warmer with fur trim, a child sized racer back vest, a pair of fingerless gloves and a really big felted hat. I decluttered the stash of a few odd skeins that were causing more guilt than pleasure and off the package went to our local Tea Shop, which serves as a donation center for Erin’s Afghan project. While I was there, I also treated myself to a new fancy tea cup, complete with strainer and cover and some tea. (A reward, for getting straight A’s this semester in school.)
All of this was after a refresher spinning class at the Iron Horse Farm. I took a lesson from Debbie last year, spun off and on until I started school again in the fall and then stopped spinning. In the mean time, I seemed to have forgotten what I was doing and how to play with the tension. Debbie got me back in the saddle (or in the spin of things … ha ha ha) and I have a lovely bobbin to show for it.
The knitting goddess must have been smiling on me, because last night I attacked my corset with a new plan and have one amazing new sleeve, located just in the right place. Tonight, DH will document my attemtp to match a second sleeve and I will hopefully have blog fodder tomorrow.
Oddly Proportioned?
I finally cast off my corset last night, while catching up on the new Showtime series, Sleeper Cell. I quickly stripped off my clothes, standing in my living room in just a bra and jeans. I put my arms through the holes and could not believe my eyes. My armholes are located about 4 inches too far forward, so now the bust is way too tight and there is enough room for two of me in the back. I checked, double checked and tripple checked my instructions and there doesn’t seem to be an error there. I checked with my husband, and he doesn’t seem to think I am oddly proportioned. What am I to do?
I am thinking I pretend this is a fair isle and go for my first steeking experience. cutting horizontally rather than vertically, then graft the previous armholes togther. I will not rip this back, the yarn just (knitpicks andean silk) will not obey, and as I don’t know anyone with boobs on their back and not their front, I can’t regift it. Stay tuned for late breaking news.
Boobs
If you aren’t loving your current bra, or need to update your collection, Bitch, Ph.D. has a great post about getting the right bra. I can heartily endorse her claim that Wacol is the best bra on the market at that price point. I love my Wacol bras and dream about the day I can add a few more to my collection. And, by the way, I am awful to mine — wash, dry, hot cycle — really awful (my loving DH actually rescuses them from the laundry pile, puts them in a special lingere bag and pulls them out after a few minutes in the dryer). They are no worse for it. (not that I’m saying buy a $50.00 bra and proceed to destroy it, but if you do, by accident, send it through the hot cycle, the bra will survive.)
Meanwhile …
If you were one of the readers curious about the women’s studies discussion thread I started sometime back in the fall, you might be interested in checking out Meanwhile. This is my final project for my Online Research class. It deals with conversations about academic feminism in the past five years. The most interesting question that I found was, does gender still matter as a primary mode of inquiry? Lots of interesting debates on that one.
All my projects will be done tomorrow, then I get to return to three weeks of vacation! The comment section of this blog will be fixed, the yarn collecting dust bunnies will be aired out, and I may even put away the pile of clothes sitting on the end of the bed.
And, just because I feel like shouting it from the roof tops, yesterday, I hit the 60 pound mark! Thats right, I’ve lost 60 pounds in a year (and I’m still fat, but ok with that). Today I will celebrate with a long walk through the woods.