I Resemble That Remark!

Today on Savage Chickens there is a cartoon that is meant to be about cats. We knitters know better.

Knitting and Makeup Converge

Temptalia has a preview of an upcoming collection from MAC and I couldn't help but notice something special about the eye shadows. They're "knitted."

So is the powder!

Where Have I Been?

Sorry for the sudden absence. A few things have been keeping me away. The first is my new computer set-up. I now have my computer set up above my new treadmill for a walking desk. Unfortunately I don't have a proper rest for the keyboard and mouse and it makes using the computer, for the moment, extremely annoying.
Next up is gorgeous weather and spending a lot of time out of the house walking.
Another big reason is that we spent a good chunk of the long weekend cleaning out our basement and garages. We completely filled an entire construction dumpster and we've really only just scratched the surface. There is still so much to sort, decontaminate and organize.
Lastly, I've been knitting a lot. I just finished my first CustomFit sweater and I'm in love! More on that later though.

Experiment in Automation

I'm trying out IFTTT (If This Then That). The idea is that it allows you to link up various online profiles and wifi-enabled devices and run simple scripts (they call them "recipes"). So I've set one up that allows me to automatically post an Instagram photo to my blog if I use a particular tag. My internet life is fairly separate. I post things to Instagram which I sometimes share on Facebook and Twitter. I post to Facebook. I post to Twitter. I post to my blog. I'm all over the place! I don't want to endless duplicate posts from one media stream to another but there's only so much time in the day, right? There are also recipes for my Fitbit. I now get a text message at 10:30 pm if I haven't hit my step goal for the day. I don't think I'll be using the recipe that sends a text message to go get coffee when you don't get enough sleep though.

Hopefully this cyber-integration will allow me to post more often. Hope you like it.

Favorite Zoo Moment of the Day

Mountain Goat creeping on canoodling River Otters.

Knitting on TV

I was staying up way too late last weekend watching Prime Suspect (season 2). A moment passed that I simply had to capture to share with you.

I hope none of you feel this way about your knitting.

Gone Walk(in')about

Last week Thursday sneaked right by me. It was, after all, disguised as a holiday so it felt more like a Sunday. But looking back I see I haven't updated much at all lately so I thought I'd take a moment to fill things in a bit.

I haven't been knitting that much. I have been working slowly on a new version of this sweater in some O-Wool Balance I bought a few years ago in a stash sale. It makes my hands sore to knit with it (cotton always does) and I was crawling my way through the knitting. On Monday I finished the second sleeve and was ready to join them to the body when it occurred to me that sleeves seemed awfully small. I measured everything and, yes, the sleeves are too small. Plus the body is too big! It's a total loss. I have to tear it all out. Three weeks or so of knitting down the tubes.

What I have been doing a heck of a lot of is walking. I got myself a Fitbit Flex and it has really been motivating me to get moving. And I don't mean 10,000 steps a day. I have been a woman possessed. I've been averaging over 15,000 steps a day. We're having a really amazing summer in Seattle and I have been heading out the door and walking as much as possible.

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you might have noticed a lot of photos and videos taken at the Woodland Park Zoo. At this point I don't have a gym membership. But I do have a zoo membership and the zoo just happens to be an easy walk from my house and situated between my home and work. On a non-work day I walk there and spend time walking around. On work days I drive there, walk for an hour then head to work. The zoo has had an amazing baby boom recently. I have been loving checking in almost-daily on the lion cubs (there are four), jaguar cubs (three) and sloth bear cubs (two). Plus the new Asian small-clawed otters just had a little of four pups. They're not on view yet but I can't wait to see them. Their parents are so, so, so, so, soooooo cute I may die when I see the little babies.

I'm leaving for Knitting Camp next week. I can't believe it's already here. I need to start a new project to bring with me though I won't have a new sweater for Show and Tell.

Narwhals Rock

I got one of these cushions today at the Fremont Sunday Market. I think they sum things up pretty nicely.

Am I on Candid Camera?

In Seattle on north Aurora there is an exceedingly dive-y strip mall with one of the few Rite Aids in the city. I venture there occasionally during the kids' weekend music lessons to pick up makeup on the cheap. Next door to it is a Grocery Outlet. If you've ever shopped at one you already know, sometimes they have really good stuff. You just never know what you might find and the prices are really good. The first aisle of the store has personal care items, as I walked on these gave way to makeup. Like good makeup. L'Oreal, Revlon, Maybelline, Burt's Bees, Physician's Formula. Good stuff at really cheap prices. There was loads of it. I followed the aisle further and further murmuring to myself in wonder at all this incredibly inexpensive makeup. When I got to end of the makeup I stopped and looked down at my feet. There on the the bottom shelf were two boxes of YARN*. I immediately swung around to see if I was on Candid Camera.

And this, of course, reminds me of Noah.



* Sadly, not the good stuff.

Random Thoughts on a Sunday

1. Last night, while talking with Wes, I went to give him the thumbs up for something I can't recall now. When I extended my thumb something inside slipped or popped or somehow got askew and I yelped in pain. I woke up on and off all night from the discomfort. Today still very sore. I haven't been able to knit and I am sad.
2. I decided to get a little cooking done. I started a big pot of cioppino by chopping a large onion. I probably should not have worn mascara on my lower lashes today.
   
3. While the cioppino was simmering I also made a puree of broccoli and cauliflower and some salmon onigiri (just cooked salmon and rice for the kids). They were looking really great until I dropped the mold on them. These two still look cute.
   
4. I thought I was beginning to develop a really mean looking bruise on my injured hand until I realized that I had swatched some dark blue eye shadow while walking through Nordstrom earlier today.
5. I am still obsessed with makeup. This week I got some Maybelline Eye Studio Gel Eyeliner. It's very easy to apply, unlike liquid liner which I really struggle with, and it stays put all day. No sliding down my face or fading through the day. I also really like these Dream Mousse blush and bronzers. They are a fluffy cream-to-powder formula that is pretty much fool-proof to apply. They give a subtle sheen of color with the tiniest bit of sparkle. Ulta has them on clearance for $3.50 so I have three colors now.
6. My Carnaby skirt is about 65% done. It's killing me not being able to work on it today.

Good Even-ing

I've been pretty obsessed with makeup lately. I realized yesterday that today's Halloween party at Younger Son's school (that I never dress up for) would be a great opportunity to go insane with makeup. And I have. This is my take on a vampire queen look inspired by Pixiwoo.



I don't know if it's scary to you but it made my kids scream when they saw me!

ETA: I made my hair a little crazier and added an appropriate necklace.



This is fun!

One of Those Bulletted Lists

• Life feels a bit stressful right now.
  


• I'm trying not to start too many new projects so I don't feel overwhelmed.


• I knit my younger son his annual red raglan sweater in seven days in bulky yarn. That felt really good.


• I went to Portland for Oregon Flock and Fiber but never made it to the fair.


• I did do a lot of tax-free shopping.


• I've become obsessed with makeup for some unknown reason and watch Pixiwoo and Lisa Eldridge videos all the time. Maybe I just like their accents.


• I finished the first Uptown Boot Sock last night that I started in February.


• I'm thinking of knitting these slippers in some handspun as a quick diversion.


• Marnie MacLean is coming from Portland for a Twist Collective trunk show at the Seattle Knitters Guild tomorrow. It's free and open to all.

Right?

This is a completely normal amount of tape measures to own, right?

Tome for the Holidays

For Hanukkah Wes and I got one another terrific books. I received The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Fifth Edition, Completely Updated and Expanded. It is a massive encyclopedia of people involved in all aspect of film. It's not a cover-to-cover read but a pick-up-at-random-flip-to-a-page kind of deal. Opening it for the first time sent me back to my childhood when I would peruse the encyclopedia. Yes, I was a nerd. What of it?

I got Wes 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective. It's an abridged look at 4o years of Doonesbury. It's titanic. It weighs ten pounds.

All this book love reminds me of another great book for gift giving, Lane Smith's It's a Book.

Bejeweled

Pendant by Hotcakes Design




Bracelet made by me!

Cowl Craze Continues

I can't stop knitting cowls! They are so fast, so satisfying, so excellent for using up random stash skeins. I finished another one over the weekend. I didn't take a picture yet but I thought you are probably all pretty sick of the endless cowl parade by now. But if you have little time and/or money and need to knit a gift, make a cowl!

In other knitting news I'm still working on Celaeno. I have about 10 rows left but they are heavily beaded. I'm so sick of the beads. While I was at my retreat I started a Faberge Cowl with some ancient stash yarn. I couldn't find the 5/0 beads the pattern called for and thought I could get by with 6/0. After knitting half a round and practically shredding my yarn with every bead placement I pulled it off the needles and tore it out. A few nights ago I ended up on the Earth Faire site and bought a kit for this necklace by Sivia Harding (Sivia was wearing one when she visited the Seattle Knitters Guild earlier this year and we all loved it) and threw some 5/0 beads in my cart too. I may need to take a long break from beads after this.

Also frogged, my green garter yoke sweater. It was ill-conceived and wasn't working. I was in denial. I'm going to start again soon.

This week I also cast on an Ishbel. Check out how many Ishbels have been knit by Ravelers! And did you see that Ravelry has reached 1,000,000 members? It's so amazing.

People Are Still Confused?

I was trying to replicate an alleged Google search and started typing. People seem to be really confused about Lost. Like, really confused.

I'm Skeptical

Over 40 millionn people bought these CDs to learn Bulgarian? I think I'd like to see that data.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

As I walked to get a coffee the other day I passed a sandwich board for a bar by the shop. I was really pleased that they have finally stopped spelling "tacos" with an apostrophe. When I walked back to the shop with my drink I saw the reverse side of the board.



I'm sure they were thinking, "An N goes in there somewhere."

So Much Stuff

I keep blogging things. But only in my mind. So here's just a list of a bunch of stuff I've been wanting to share.

1. The pickles from last week came out really great. We pickled thinly sliced raw beets based on this recipe. We used a jalapeno instead of Thai chiles. They are sweet and really crispy. We've been enjoying them (probably too much) with feta and crackers. Goat cheese would be great too but we had the feta already. The radishes were done based on this recipe. We put radishes, red onion, jalapeno and garlic in together. The white vinegar/water brine has a really potent, nose stinging kick. Not bad but strong. I think I'd like a wine vinegar or cider vinegar next time. We're not eating the garlic because it's still a big chunk of raw garlic but the onions and chiles mellowed a lot.
   


2. Angry Birds is super-addictive. Like really, really addictive. Wes and I were up until nearly 2:30 last playing. Neither of us are terribly proud of this.


3. We went to see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World on Friday. We all loved it. If you like rock, comic books, Michael Cera, and/or video games this is a really fun time at the movies. We liked it so much that we bought the entire set of the books and got the soundtrack.


4. We also went to see Toy Story 3 again. We did it mainly to get out of the heat but, damn, what a great film. I wept uncontrollably for the last 15 minutes again.


5. We hid out at the mall today so I played dress up tried on clothes. I found the perfect Joan Holloway dress.
   
   
   
   Sadly I have nowhere I could ever wear this dress unless I suddenly start working at a law firm or go back in time. It's so hard to find a dress with sleeves that's flattering to a full figure.


6. My kingdom for a shirt that doesn't have jewels, beads or twelve pounds of ruffles on it! The pickings are so slim right now. At least the colors this season are more reasonable. Lots of soft grays and medium blues and none of that coral and screaming teal from last summer. I went into Banana Republic today and it looks like the entire shop was designed by Leanne from season 5 of Project Runway. All of this reminded me of here work in terms of the color palette and the soft ruffles. I think I might try adding some ruffles or rosettes or something to some of my shirts that I've gotten stains on. Better than throwing them out, right?


7. Gosh, it's hot.