have you ever wondered why your life makes no sense?

my latest project (notice how new projects have no relation to the to do list?) is a pair of red fingerless gloves and scarf inspired by amy pond on the current series of doctor who. i'm not being super-accurate here - i'll leave that to the redheads of the world - but i had a skein of wollmeise in a gorgeous red called "herzblut" which was crying for me to start something (and i think only wollmeise can follow qiviut - much as i love my briggs & little, i think it would be a huge letdown). in the "vampires of venice" ep she is wearing a lacy/cable-y scarf with no fringes, in "the pandorica opens" she has a different red scarf - bulky cables - and some plain red fingerless gloves. in some scenes in one episode the scarf looks almost like it follows the tilting tardis pattern, so i thought i would use that pattern as the basis, just to be hugely geeky.

i got glove one done over the weekend, and now that it's finished i know how i'm going to do it differently when i rip it out and start over! the lace is very loose, so my glove isn't fitting as snugly as i'd like. take two coming up.

finito!

tadah!!

well, i still need to do some blocking (we'll see how that goes, i don't think qiviut is famous for it's blockability) but the travelling woman shawl is done! just in time to cause heat stroke this summer.

woe is me

i suppose i should only have done 3 repeats of chart "a" after all, because two rows away from binding off the travelling woman shawl, i have run out of yarn. will have to rip back. boo.

shawlovely

the travelling woman shawl is knitting up vair quickly! i don't know if it is because the pattern is so simple, or because the qiviut is un-put-down-able. a bit of both maybe. i hope there is a knitted shawl category at the fenelon falls fair!

my mods for this pattern: i wanted more lace/less stockinette (partly because i know i'm doomed to run out of yarn), so i started with 9 pattern repeats across instead of 11, and am now halfway through my third repeat of chart "a", hoping to do four before i start chart "b." also, i'm doing my decreases slightly differently; instead of s1 k2tog psso, i'm doing s2tog, s1, k3tog because i find it's more symmetrical.

i don't even want to think about the old to-do list...

to do list:
- hat for baby ellington - done and sent!
- placemats/napkins - done!
- kitchen curtains - done!
- xmas cards!! - done! (although i suppose it's never to early to worry about this year's)
- pullover for h - done!
- wrap cardigan for me - this is so tedious, it might be in permanent hibernation
- xmas other stuff (tree skirt, finish embroidery on stockings, wreath?) - err, i know we had a tree skirt last year, and the wreath is thisclose to finished
- knitting needle roll/project bag - done!
- curtains for living/dining rooms - not started
- squid curling sweater for h - not started
- living room slipcovers - not started
- cottage stuff - curtains, quilt - still working on the fabric

hrm, there are a number of things crossed off, but still more not started. oops.

of course, i've also done a few other things that were never on the list at all. so maybe it all evens out?

mmmm

all i could think about all day long today was cake! cake! cake! more specifically, chocolate cake with whipped cream and strawberries! so the first thing i did when i got home was to make the quickest cake i know how. and then i put the whisk & bowl in the freezer, and sliced up some berries.

not many berries and no whipped cream made it into the photo, they did not last that long!



puddle cake

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup cold water
3/8 cup oil
1 tbs white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla extract

combine dry ingredients in an ungreased 8"x8" pan. mix with a fork.

combine wet ingredients (i usually do it in a 2-cup measuring cup - fill to 1-cup mark with water, then to 1 3/8 with oil, etc.)

pour wet into dry, stir with fork until just combined.

bake at 350F for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

yum. it happens to be vegan, too. and works with rice flour just as well. and as i was typing this up, i thought: i wonder if using balsamic vinegar would be a stroke of brilliance? i sense some experimentation going on...

cast on!

finally cast on my qiviut! i decided on the travelling woman shawl as it needs the right amount of yardage and is pretty too. i'm thinking of making the stockinette section smaller and doing an extra repeat of the lace section - am i crazy or is that a good idea? i'm thinking the yarn will go farter as lace than it will as stockinette. but, i don't want to mess up. hmmm...

taking diy to a whole new level

this is just amazing... steampunk workshop is the latest mega-timesuck website wasting my life, and this telegraph that clacks out rss feeds is possibly the geekiest thing ever built. wow. also, i must thank "von slatt" for introducing me to the aerolux lightbulb. wow.

why

is it so hard to find cute fabric for boys? everything in the shops is either very girly, or violently macho (camo, skulls, and hockey pucks). why oh why?

luckily i did manage to find two nice cotton prints, so the beenster will have some new summer jimjams in short order!