Le Slouch

The Le Slouch hat is almost finished. I have only one more inch of seed stitch to go before I start decreasing (i.e., I am a bit farther along than the picture indicates). This is my first skein of Malabrigo chunky. After much debate/swatching/investigation I have determined that this is definately chunky yarn. I know, I know, the 4 stitches per inch should have been the most obvious tip off, but I am a scientist, I like to be thorough. The yarn is super soft and squishy-perfect for a slouchy beret. My other projects have been put on the back burner because of beret obsession, but hopefully that will subside tomorrow and I can get back to the Captain hoodie.

Plain Jane socks

The socks that had been frogged, drowned, and rewound are now being made into standard plain jane toe up socks. This time I aim to work a reverse engineered heel flap à la cybersocks. Sorry to have no photos, but really I am only a couple of rows into the big toe, so frankly there is not much to see. I started with 8 stitches on each of 2 needles and increased at each end every row for a total of 24 stitches. I am now moving on to the increase one row do one row flat routine until it fits my toesies.

Happy Anniversary

Today marks the second year of the Captain and I's blissful togetherness. So here's to you my love (imagine a champagne glass salute!). We had such a packed weekend that we haven't quite decided what to do yet. Incidentally the Captain had plans which may/may not work out. I for one had completely forgotten and thus had no plans working or not. Gotta love him!

This weekend was packed as I said. The cavalier broke, so we had to take it to the shop. That was after our lovely before breakfast bike ride to Harner's Restaurant for the best pancakes in town! The ride there is cruel due to lack of breakfast. The ride back is almost worse because your body is tired from the first leg and your stomach is fighting your muscles for blood supply as it wants to make use of the yummy pancakes. Sigh. From there we jumped the car and took it to the shop. A sore pocketbook later, we picked it up and began the massive spring cleaning/cooking/cleaning and waxing of cars. I somehow managed to finish the Watchcap for my dad, cast on Le slouch in Malabrigo chunky and play an inordinate amount of Final Fantasy XII.

Cher Baudelaire

The Baudelaire socks are done! I got to wear them to work today. I really liked the pattern, but was not too jazzed by the heel and toe. They are not bad, just not my style. My heel is narrow, so I think I have to pick a construction that pulls in a little more in that area. They are very comfy though. Specs:
Pattern- Baudelaire by Cookie A (Knitty 2006)
Yarn- Rowan Classic Yarn cashsoft (bit of cashmere on the footsies)
Needles- US size one Clover bamboo

I was at Fringe for their knit night on Tuesday and they were having a 2 for 1 sale. These are the minds behind Dream in Color so I had to take a look. I managed to snag a skein of Malabrigo worseted (on the right) and a skein of DIC (left). I was informed that the DIC was a colorway that was not ultimately sold, so I guess I have a unique skein. As it has no color name or ball band, I am assuming these are sock weight and thus a pair of socks will be made at some point in time.
I also got my Ravelry invite! I signed up, ordered my super cool Beta tester special t-shirt ('I swatched Ravelry'- it cracks me up!). I am slowly adding pictures on there, so hopefully my sorry photography skills will start improving.

Concert weekend

We had so much fun this weekend. Friday we pretty much hung out at the house, but saturday I met Luscious Luka in the city for the Renegade craft fair. Silk screen t-shirts and wacky stationary is really not my thing and the fiber artists were not really representing, but I did get some nice au natural artisanal milk soap. That night the Captain met up with us and we went to go see Ingrid Michaelson at Schubas tavern. I had only heard a few of her songs before, courtesy of the Cast On podcast, but she was really great. I love it when you can go to a concert and hear a wonderfully in tune singer. So many people these days only sound good with severe corrections to the vocals, that it is so refreshing to hear a true voice talent. So far today we have made a major dent in Final Fantasy XII. Sundays are awesome.

Super fun Trip

We had a blast in Belgium. The vacation was realaxing, fun, and we even got a few really nice weather days while we were there. I got to eat my firt mittraiette (sp?), which was about as good as a Wendy's burger (basically french bread, mayo, chopped meat, lettuce, and french fries- yes on the sandwich). I ate steak, fries, tasted a vol au vent, drank great wine and went to a superb birthday party replete with homemade jam and crepes. That's me in front of the Basilisc for the Da Vinci exhibit. I have to say I was a bit dissappointed at the exhibit, but to be fair it had been really hyped to us by the paper and we went with too high expectations. If you just go to learn about his life and see some good works from his contemporaries, though, it will not dissappoint.

Once we got back we had some friends up for a baseball road trip. We saw the Cubs play as well as the Brewers. It was really good to see all of the Long Islanders again. Now it is back to work, which is good- I have more things to scientifically discover :-)