Vacation Eating

We are winding down our week at the river. It's been lovely. However with a rental comes a lot of cooking. Definitely more than I do normally. We aren't home for 3 meals a day and dinner is via take out or eat out once a week with my schedule.

We also are cooking for The Kids lovely guests. Good boys, good eaters and good behavior influences (both have siblings).

Also my Dad came up and we had a great canoe trip and some tasty meals - surf & turf!

Now Auntie A. is visiting with Mabel dog and another wave of summer tastes are playing up.

Here are some samples:

Butterflied, grilled roaster chicken

Raspberry chocolate chip muffins

Fresh snack plate 

Grilled asparagus

Grilled Korean style short ribs 

Knitting is happening, but a lot of cooking too.

At the river

Summertime and the livin' is easy...

Off to a good start. The Russian River is allowing us some fun and relaxation. 

The Kid got up at 6:52 to make his friends eggs. (Man friend helped out slicing the back bacon)

Everyday is a trip in the canoe, a wade through the water. There have been and will be day guests. There have been and will be treats cooked in a strange kitchen.

Marshmallow and raspberry brownies.

So far I am a monogamous knitter. Just working the double breasted Henry baby sweater.

I always pack too much knitting for vacations, but who knows, maybe I'll get a chance to cast on something new.

Big Brown and a little Bulky

No, this is not some of my trademark self deprecating humor, it's my finished cardigan.

I fixed the edging and it worked out well.

The hood is a cute touch and functional.

However, I still don't like the garter stitch upper body. It adds a bulk and block to my upper body I do not need.

Also the yarn is too dark for the gentle lace. That said, I'd knit it again 😜. In gray without the garter. Maybe this winter?

I'm in the country --river side this week, so hopefully between cooking for everyone there will be some knitting and more posts. Jesse is probably sad for me out in the knitting universe since it appears I've left my kindle at home ... More knitting!

Something bright

I want you to know I finished the neon purple toddler sweater. I'm pleased with how it turned out for the most part. I just hope it's as functional as I imagine it to be.

The design is an open cardi, meaning there is not much body in the front paneling. It's mainly just the ribbed stitch edge. Obviously you can modify this if you'd prefer a more covered look. As you knit the increases before separating for sleeves, just add increases by the sleeve markers. I imagine this design will be good for little people who are busy in activities like finger painting or water and sand table splashing or baking cookies. There will be less fabric to swing down in one's little and exploratory way.

Now I just need to get it to the kid. My timing has been kinda poopy lately.

Other bright things in the Ellen universe? Remember I told you May was kinda busy? It's also been really full of bright moments. A great afternoon with my Dad and the boys watching basketball eating Thai food. Mother's Day with my stepmother and my sister and nephew. Family luncheon with my husband's family at their Godfather's house. He sets an amazing table and has the most beautiful roses. A tasting menu dinner with an old family friend we've been trying to see since January -- and The Kid who showed his city living palette is on point. In a blazer no less. :)

Mother and son cinema days are becoming a regular thing and we were lucky enough to go with Mrs. Canada and her son last week.  I finally had drinks with an old co-worker and it was so nice. She seems really happy and serves as a good reminder of the possibility of a good life outside the agency ;)

Lots of good times.

We've also had a bout of stomach sickness in the apartment along with a few other unexpected life issues, but look! Behold all the brightness!

More knit to come...

May is moving along

I was hoping to get another post in last week, but it was not meant to be. May is becoming a rather scheduled month. I am tempted to list out the things that I've done and I'm doing to prove my point but really snoozeville, right? Let's just say all household members have both fun things as well as obligatory health, work and school things on the agenda. Not that unique, but "for reals" stuff that limits both knitting and baking time.

Drat.

However I did manage to get the blocked Traverse cowl off to my friend Mrs. Canada. It was a quick exchange since she was double-parked picking up a kid from the apartment. She was gracious enough to send me a picture. I think she looks great in it. I'm really happy I followed my instincts and doubled up on the pattern.

Because I'm properly obsessed with knitting, I have made sure to put some stitches into something somewhere.

Lately it has been The Littlest L's cardigan. It's a new pattern for me. The Kiddy Vertebrae

I just bound off the body. I didn't go down 2 needle sizes for the ribbing just 1 since I'm having some Uncommon Ground flashbacks and I seem to be a tighter knitter than I realized. Looking at the tension, I really could've gone either way, but it neatly finished off the first skein and that was gratifying.

I haven't really made any sock progress, simply because I'm trying to crank out this sweater so I can move on to the next small person knit.

Eye on the prize people.

How'd that happen?

A good friend of mine in high school used to use that phrase for when stupid actions equaled stupid obvious results. I'd like to say it was only in observing other people in our high school society, but that would be a big fat lie. It was mostly observing others, and occasionally ourselves.

Anyways, back to the knitting ranch...

Well, I dunno if it's obvious how this happened.

But THIS happened. And I was early getting ready for work one morning -- showered, fresh faced and all (not cheery, I'm sorry, I'm not cheery in the morning) and then I picked up my to go knitting.

The Hermione socks. AKA Smart Girl Socks

The night before I had completed turning the heel and picking up half the stitches for the gusset. I was in the middle of knitting the pattern for the top of the foot when I realized I wouldn't have enough stitches to complete the pattern. This meant ... I was "missing" TWO stitches.

I can't figure out where that happened. I mean I can't see a dropped stitch, and I know I ended each needle on the right place for pattern repeats, so I'm thinking maybe I'd just need to rip it out to where I started the heel again. Hmm.

A nice person on Instagram mentioned I might be able to just not decrease 2 in the gusset on one side ... this  still feels lopsided and I don't see how I can get the pattern repeat right.

Ugh, I can't think about it.

So, I picked up this instead :)

Yeah, same pattern, but a different colorway and I'm magic looping instead. The pattern is written specifically for a magic looper. I did cut the cast on down to 60 from 64 since I didn't have a US 1 long enough and am using a US 1.5.

I'm getting a little gun shy as I prepare to make the hell I mean heel. I already had to back out about 12 rows in the pattern due to another mistake I kept perpetuating. I had a weird ribbed pattern on one half of my sock. This time I decided not to question "How'd that happen?" and just fix it.

Lastly I have these scrappy pieces. Leftover Wool-Ease Thick and Quick scraps and stash. I'm attempting a new pieced together blanket/throw. I figure working on pieces is kinda like working on blocks. Perhaps it is not my smartest knitting decision to work with Super Bulky weight yarn in the summer. Ah well, who knows what the weather will bring.

The weekend recap

I really tried to slow my pace a little this weekend. I could feel myself tensing. I was prepping to do MORE and not less. I could feel little bubbles of anxiety that start with phrases like, "I should ..."

And then I got in touch with my sweatpants and said, "Nah."

When I got home from work on Friday, the boys and I went to the local market where they have food stalls and everyone picked out something to eat because I was too tired to cook. Then there was some baseball watching before I fell asleep on my knitting needles, ha!

I did manage some exercise Saturday morning before another Spring season soccer match. There was lunch and tea and board games with pals.

I didn't bake this weekend. I know, crazy right? I'll have you know, the soccer team won anyways. It wasn't pretty, but it wasn't ugly and  ... it was a win, and from all the little Muppet chatter it sounds like it was fun times.

We watched some playoff Warriors basketball. No knitting for that small time frame. Family friends came over for dinner such good company and well, we all need to eat, eh? Just simple eats -- roast chicken, scalloped potatoes and sauteed greens (spinach, kale and arugula) with garlic and bacon. Raspberries, whipped cream and chocolate pastries provided by our friends for dessert. Easy, simple, early with friends.

I knit a bit more before falling asleep in front of Midsommer Mysteries (Things that go bump in the night.) I was SO close to finding out who dunnit! ACK! I will have to scour the internet this evening for some closure  -- hopefully I won't fall asleep, again.

And yes, there appears a theme of me falling asleep early, in the middle of watching something on t.v. or ... well knitting. This wouldn't bother me so much, I have been very tired. However I wake up in the middle of the night almost every hour. If I were a comic book, there would be a question mark over my head.

This would not have been so bad except that I was getting up early to run the Across the Bridge 12k with my pal Alv. He's a really good guy and super fast runner. We met in gym class and have just some how managed to support each other's endeavors in passing. He mentioned he wanted to do a running event and we had been trying to meet up for coffee or brunch and here was an opportunity to do both. 

 It was nice to have a pal to wait in the queues with and chat and ride the shuttle over to the start line. However we run at very different paces and we just planned on meeting at the finish line with no pressure. I'm not very good at running with someone anyways. It makes me self conscious and I need to go at my own pace whatever that may be. The first photo is what the view was at the end.

This run was not my best, not only am I out of running shape (honestly I'm never in running shape, but you know at least I have more training before) but it basically proved to me that my shoes are dead. I had the worst blisters on the inside of my feet ever. I'm sad. I loved those shoes.

Awkward angle ...

But brunch was super tasty and fun. I think we'll try to do it again at some point this year.

I came home and after showering sort of had a pity party with my blisters on my bed. I just felt really tired, and sore and out of shape. I laid there and watched 2 episodes of the new season of Orphan Black. I love this creepy crazy show.

I finally pulled out the yarn and did the button thing for my 4T child sophisticate.

Not fantastic photos.

The Spring knitting mojo is still going ... I hope you found a good pace this weekend as well.