Yesterday wasn’t exactly what most people would call an exciting day, but there were three events that I’m sure will change my life for good. They all happened in The Castro (which will forever be my favorite neighborhood in the city, despite my not being a gay man).
1.
Jamie showed me, and I then purchased, the teeniest circular knitting needles I’ve ever seen. I will never (EVER) have to break out a set of porcupine-like double pointed needles to knit a sweater again. Do you know how many sweaters projects I’ve abandoned just because I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sleeves? Never again.
2.
While Sam and I were looking for a place to eat lunch, we walked by Anchor Oyster Bar. I mentioned that after reading a very persuasive article on vegans eating oysters, I’d thought about trying them. His face lit up and he marched us into the restaurant.
I’ve never had oysters before, and aside from some occasional chicken broth, a small piece of fish, and exactly two bites of turkey, I haven’t eaten any animals since becoming a vegetarian eleven years ago. So oysters are sort of a big deal.
A big delicious deal. I had two of the little guys — the first one was on the house since I was an oyster virgin — and they were completely unlike what I expected. They weren’t rubbery or fishy, just flavorful and oh-so-delicate. Though I don’t think I could have much more than two in a single sitting.
3.
For lunch, I had a vegetarian chili cheeseburger at Harvey’s. It was less of a revelation than the oysters, but not by much.
The other night I couldn’t sleep because I was lying in bed running through all the things I have to and want to do. In an attempt to stop freaking out about it, I wrote down everything I could think of in one ginormous list. Damn.
I’ve already done some of it though.
- * make English muffins
- * make a new noteboook
- get our own place & a dog
- start journaling regularly so I can remember the days
- do Aaron’s mobile gallery
- plant around the house
- * March newsletter
- get kitchen knife sharpened
- work with the high school agriculture program
- set a standard recipe template for the farm blog
- Bob’s yarn-spinning lady?
- ask Bob about hops farming
- make peanut butter cookies
- get Aaron to visit
- in_the_store.xml to Blogger?
- organize farm workdays
- harvest/make mustard
- lead a chicken workshop for kids
- make granola bars
- read everything in the world
- work for Carole on the weekends for $$$
- get peppermint oil for delicious baking soda
- brew beer
- finish Chris’s sweater
- make oregano mayonnaise
- make toothpaste
- bake lots of bread
- get bristol board from art store
- clean room
- make Mom a scarf out of that Cashsoft yarn
- get a Klezmer book
- grow hops
- hatch some baby chickens
- website insanity
- learn about having goats & sheep
- get Dave to visit
- get Dad to visit
- * write competition control copy
- learn to sew
- go to Italy for the harvest
- English essays
- draw my favorite rooster
- * print/bind calendar
- greenstringinstitute.org
- organize workshops
- knit Chris some slippers
- sell crafty stuff again
- visit Hidden Villa
- volunteer for Petaluma Bounty
- reorganize the mudroom/tools
- read the most recent “Best American Science Writing” book
- go to Point Reyes
- make Allie a calendar
- * SLEEP. Man, I’m exhausted.
I made vegan palak paneer! And it came out almost completely okay! Used Manjula’s recipe, subbing coconut milk for heavy cream and firm, unpressed tofu for paneer. Couldn’t hardly tell the difference, neither!
I’ve been cooking a lot of horrible food recently, (after a good streak, I had the gall to tell my new boy, “I’m a really good cook.” And BAM, since then everything’s tasted like shit.) so it’s very nice to have finally made something edible.
I thought last night’s cooking mojo would carry over and bless me with good pancakes this morning, but holy crap were they flavorless. They looked so promising, too.
In other news, the Remus jumper is back on track! Again! But really, this time! I ripped it out all the way to before the armholes, set fire to the SIX attempted sleeves, and am going for a seamless sweater ala Elizabeth Zimmermann and her Amazing Percent System! Maybe raglan, maybe seamless hybrid with the fancy yoke — who cares, I don’t have to decide until the sleeves are done.
- Explained to my grandpa what a laptop is.
- Knit another Jayne Cobb hat on the subway while surrounded by half naked men, who I assume were attending the Folsom Street Fair, the “grand daddy of all leather events”.
- Saw Dave the Bassist.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I do so love this city.
I’ve been checking my progress a few times an hour since I hit position 300-and-something yesterday. I am so excited about this website.
As soon as I get my invite, I’m going to queue up my Christmas knitting list that I made the other day. I have 56 (!!!) gifts to make — that’s seven sweaters, seven pairs of mittens, three pairs of socks, five pairs of arm/wrist-warmers, twelve hats, thirteen Christmas stockings, and nine various or undecided other projects. If I wasn’t so close to getting into Ravelry, I swear I’d be making myself a database right now.
I am queen of the raglans these days.
Shannon bought the yarn, I knit the sweater. I think that’s a pretty good deal.
The construction is very similar to the Hogwarts sweater: bottom-up raglan, slightly fitted waist, very nearly seamless. This one has a half-assed sort of boatneck thing going on.
Honestly, I think it’s waaaaaaay to big for her, but she said she wanted it to be the same size as mine.
Next up: long, fitted cardigan (also bottom-up raglan, but this time it ain’t in the round) for my mom. It will be made of the best yarn I can possibly afford.
Well, nearly complete anyway.
I decided that I’d have to be a complete nutter to want to wear a long-sleeved shirt, alpaca sweater, wool scarf, and wool robes in California in July. So I’m stopping short of the robes and will probably still be sweltering, but at least that means the costume will be *done* once I buy a skirt.
The scarf is from everyone’s favorite pattern, you know, the knit.atypically.net PoA one. It’s worked in Cascade 220 — colorway 8993 for navy, and 9445 for the best book!Ravenclaw bronze in the world.
The tie is from wizardties.com and came in a brown paper package with a handwritten note tied on.
The sweater! Oh, the sweater. My mom got me the luscious yarn for Christmas — Classic Elite Inca Alpaca, which is so far outside my normal price range that it makes my head spin. And let me tell you, returning to my old standby, Cascade 220, after spending months working only with this lovely stuff is as disappointing as waking up from an exhilaratingly wonderful dream and realizing that you’re late for work.
But the sweater! Oh, the sweater. It’s a nearly seamless raglan, knit from the bottom up, and is based on no pattern (save the v-neck, which came from The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns). I took measurements from my favorite sweatshirt, did a bunch of math, added a fitted waist, and fudged my numbers like crazy to avoid decreasing 1.614 stitches every 4 rows. Came out alright, though.
Just bought my tickets to head home for the Harry Potter book release — flying outta here Friday (7/20) night and coming back Sunday (7/22) night.
Such a short trip! But I’ve got a crazy amount of stuff to get done before my AmeriCorps term is up at the end of August, so it’s just gotta be this way. Maybe I’ll make it down there for a longer trip in September.
I must remember to put up pictures of my Hogwarts uniform so far. I’ve got the scarf and sweater done, and bought the tie. I think I can rope Becca into helping me make the robes, and then I’ll buy the skirt, shoes, and somehow procure a wand. That seems like a lot of work, now that I think about it…
Anybody out there know a good PHP/Object-Oriented Programming mentor? I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.
The constructor for the Date class (starting on line 107) doesn’t even work.
