staycation day three

this was the first "real" day - the first day i was supposed to be at work but wasn't. i started by emptying all of the detritus from my closet (making, i fear, one crucial mistake - i put a ton of yarn away in storage, and i think i accidentally packed up the rest of the yarn for the leafghan in that bundle), packing away winter clothes, and sorting out potential garage sale items (including small balls of yarn and some old knitting needles!). then with all the additional closet space, i put away my suitcases and miscellaneous other items from the bedroom, and started going through our storage room for more garage sale fodder. it's all a big game of dominoes; once the storage room is sorted, then the jjunk that was in the dining room can be sorted or got rid of!

then after dinner we had a mini neighbour knit night, and that's when i discovered that i seem to have misplaced 4 balls of yarn needed for the leafghan. sigh.

staycation day two

day two was mother's day! so, i took it easy. the bambino made breakfast all by himself (well, he made the toast), we played, ate cake, went for a stroll, and i hit the halfway mark on the leafghan and picked up the stitches for the second half while watching some awesome old science fiction flicks (them! and robinson crusoe on mars. they don't make them like that any more). why have i never knit lace before? it is so much less difficult than i expected (i hesitate to call it easy because that seems like asking for trouble). and looked at patterns for the qiviut. so far travelling woman is leading the pack.

staycation day one

i've booked a week off work to de-stress and get the house a bit sorted. it's begun not terribly auspiciously; yesterday a toothache sent me to the dentist and resulted in an extraction (i got there at three-thirty and didn't leave until 6 o'clock!) complete with pain-killers and a mush-diet. so, i was not in a great mood when the painter arrived to finish the dining room. but it is so lovely now! photos don't capture the colour perfectly, but it is a lovley mauve-ish grey:



as opposed to voice-of-fire:



while the painting was happening, i rolled all of the lovely skeins cathryn sent me into balls, guesstimating the yardage on each as i went.



still searching for the perfect pattern for the qiviut! (i think it's around 280 yards of 16 wpi)



and just for fun i baked a cake: chocolate-peanutbutter-banana.

photos!

a quick drive-by post of some photos i didn't provide earlier!

first the dutch baby



with caramelised apples




and a few "before" pictures that don't quite capture the hideous brilliance of our voice-of-fire-themed dining room

busy busy busy

no photos today as i've misplaced both my mobile and my card reader! how? well, we cleared everything out of the dining room to repaint! it was previously an absolutely mind-boggling and eye-crossing concoction of red, yellow, and blue, which made my brain vibrate if i looked at it for too long. now it is pristine (although i think it needs another coat, and there's the trim, too). anyway, everything from the dining room (including tg's computer lab of doom) had to be shifted out, and now the house is an utter disaster. but not for long.

aside from that madness, it was a lovely weekend - saturday's financier turned out delish, the dutch baby (which is actually just a giant yorkshire pud if you think about it) was yum (topped with caramel-sautéed apples!), i did a bit more gardening, and made bbq ribs and potato salad with asparagus for dinner. now, after all the exertion, dust, and paint fumes, i am not quite able to breathe, but other than that all is peachy.

aniticipation

the financier is out of the oven, cooling - and i'm about to leave for dinner without even a taste! le sigh.



also made a big batch of lemon-lentil soup and bbq sauce today. i wish every day was a weekend!

le afghan

le afghan? or leaf ghan? either way, i've started my afghan (finally!) using spring leaves - a rectangular re-write of the much-coveted gail aka nightsongs. conveniently, i've done one pattern repeat out of one skein of lett-lopi, so i have a pretty good idea of how big it will be and how to get the most out of my yarn. whee!





other plans for this weekend: baking this (using up all of the egg whites left over from making ice cream), clearing out the dining room for the painters, and making one of these for sunday brunch!