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warm enough to open a window for the cat

I got up at 5 to feed the cat, but she let me go back to sleep on the sofa. 9:30. She let me sleep until 9:30.

The Little Monster misses J, who has gone to the Crazy State (RI) for his dad’s birthday (81^st). He’s only been gone a day and she’s following me around wanting to be petted. J is usually the object of her affection; I’m her much-scarred playmate. How does she get those claws so sharp so fast?

The ice is melting! The parking lot out back is an icy lake. I think the drains are still plugged with ice.

I have a theory why the two socks came out different sizes. While knitting a third sock, I thought that the twist on the third cake seemed tight. I have finished the leg and I find that it matches the shorter of two existing legs. The two completed socks are the same length more or less, but the foot is longer on one and the leg longer on the other, by five-eighths of an inch or so. I switched the two balls when knitting the second sock and have tighter twisted yarn on opposite ends of the pair. It’s a theory.

If true, the getting a matching foot will be a challenge.

This is the scarf I’ve been working on for J for over a year. It’s now just an end-to-end garter stitch, but it is such a bore. It was garter stitch, knit entirely through the back loop, but that was never going to be finished—not enough stretch in this yarn—and I frogged and started over recently.

detail➥

J doesn’t think I’ll ever finish it; therefore, assuming I can knit on it in morning before he gets up, it will make a nice Valentine’s gift.

Yarn

elsebeth lavold Silky Cashmere, 003 Black, 005 Wine, 004 Rust

Needles

Addi Turbo 5.00mm (US #8), 150cm circ

Pattern

CO a lot, knit back and forth ad nauseum

BTW, I use the wooden spool on the circ cable (lower right) to push the work along the needle.

PS. One of my pet peeves is people who don’t show you what the back of a scarf looks like. It always shows when worn. (I’m guilty too.)

PPS. I’ve updated the reading list.

Back to knitting.

Cold, still ice on the ground, but no more coming down, so far.

We’re back from Dallas and the Little Monster has never been happier. She follows us around the apartment like she’s afraid that we will leave again. She protested when just I went to the grocery.

The newfound love and affection hasn’t prevented her from adding a few more scratches to my hand. Three whole days without a hand to gnaw on. We had a service come in a feed and play with her as well as scoop out the litter-box, but we couldn’t ask them to sacrifice a limb. Only one revenge pee in three and a half days is pretty good though.

Dallas was fine. The trip was surprisingly hassle-free and all legs of the trip were on-time or earlier. The weather was perfect—80° on Thursday, almost as warm on Friday. I even got to knit outside for a while until I started to doze off.

We celebrated Mom’s birthday at Mario & Alberto’s in North Dallas—Tex-Mex, of course. There is certainly better in Dallas, but my sister and niece are not so adventurous. And no waiters were harmed despite their having sung Happy Birthday to my mom. I wouldn’t have dared.

Knitting

I had intended to finish the the second KPPPM sock in Dallas, but I left half the yarn here. I took some cream Austermann Barkarole to knit on the plane, trying to see what I could come up with in the way of a men’s scarf. I fell back on the Tunisian rib since I had neglected to bring a pattern book. It is a bit stiff on a 3mm, and it will take forever to knit the 475m I have in that stitch and I suspect that it will not be long enough if I try. This is one ball, knit out, 100 stitches, 14½”×3½”. That would give me a 5½ ft scarf in 38+ hours of the same stitch over and over.

Reducing the width to 75 stitches would give me the right length, but would not reduce the duration. What I would like is a slightly looser pattern, but not a basic k/p texture pattern. Any suggestions?

I could just move up to a 3.5mm needle.

I realized today that I finished my other sister’s socks without ever taking a picture. Damn.

Miscellany

1. I am too old to be chasing the Little Monster around the apartment.
2. The Half-Priced Books on Northwest Hwy in Dallas is worth the trip to Dallas.
3. Used book stores rarely have good knitting books. An entire book on duplicate stitch? I assume then that we are supposed to will the good ones to friends when we die?
4. Word Problem: The sweet twinkie, Sean, who was our flight attendant on the last leg of our trip (and admired my knitting while saying he had tried it, but didn’t have the patience for it) will be half my age no earlier than ten years from now. How old is he, assuming he is old enough to legally serve alcohol on an airplane?
5. Really, how does one flirt with a flight attendant?
6. Damn. I have to go to work tomorrow.
7. Having joined Ravelry, I realize once again that I can easily spend more time thinking about, reading about and writing about knitting than actually knitting.
8. How did my 16g stainless steel PA accidentally go through the airport metal detector undetected? I am now uncomfortable about what else can get through.

Ta ta.

Cold, light snow

This the third day in a row with some snow and it’s not melting. Last night’s snow was light and fine, but wet enough to stick to anything. Any everything was cold enough to hold on to it.

Knitting Content

The finished Tunisian rib socks

Yarn

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Flames (#146)

Needles

Crystal Palace Bamboo 2.25mm dpn’s (US #1)

Pattern

my own, for better or worse; Dutch heel and round toe (modified) from Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks; Tunisian rib from Barbara Walker’s A Treasury of Knitting Patterns, p.159.

This is the first time I’ve used a Dutch heel in stockinette. It seems too wide and too long. In case you are wondering about the proportions, these are for my sister, who has short feet and high arches. We’ll see how these do.

Detail of the Tunisian rib, which has become my favorite rib stitch.

☃

History

Going through the old photos I never posted I found this from April 2007.

Yarn

elsebeth lavold Silky Wool, color 15 Pumpkin

Needles

Addi Turbo 3.50mm, 40cm circ; Inox straights in the same size

Pattern

my own, again, using two lace patterns from Barbara Walker’s second Treasury and a variant of my own.

Still snowing.

Winterish, and dark outside. Finally not sweaty.

Resisting

I keep picking up Jane Sowerby’s Victorian Lace Today. I’m so tempted. I’m resisting; it is only a month and a half until the Χ–thing and there is no way I’m finishing a shawl in six weeks. I’m down to one or two conference calls a week and staff meetings are down to a minimum.

Work, though, is why I have nothing to show. Unless you are interested in SQL scripts and funds transfer pricing analyses. I do have a lovely cap plodding along in a Tunisian rib with cables in a smaller sort of gauge. Lots of knitting with very little progress. And a Manos de Uruguay Cotton Stria scarf at work for those conference calls I’m not having. Nothing significant enough for photos.

I now have a laptop for work. Which I carry home every night in case I should finally come down with a cold or the flu and be compelled to stay home. I haven’t yet, but I check my e-mail and end up wasting time at home that I could be wasting at work.

Question

If you are knitting a hat with cables and ribbing, is it better to decrease into the rib or the cable?

Still cool, but warming slightly.

Fat Yarn

I look at chunky or even aran yarn—and sometimes even worsted—and think what could possibly do with that? Besides a hat. That I wouldn’t wear. Large yarns making my head look smaller.

I do have some nice thick yarns, several skeins of Malabrigo Merino, in fact, but I look at them and think ‘scarf’, in fact, brioche scarf—which I’ve done. Twice.

I could do a different brioche.

The Downstairs Neighbor is Still a Pig

The other night he banged on his ceiling to complain about the sound of my chair as I rolled away from my desk before shutting down and going to bed. Really, mice make more noise than we do.

I Googled him. Apparently his wife is more successful than he is.

I’m on VACATION.

I cannot remember when I last felt this relaxed. Not that a sane person would call me relaxed.

I’m on vacation for only a week; and at the end of the week I turn 49. My joy is not unmitigated.

Spring. Finally. Maybe.

Five weeks after the false hope of March, it finally warmed up enough to get out on my bike and flap my love-handles in the wind. I work a loose shirt to protect the innocent. This was a marvelously perfect day for biking. Not too cool, not too warm. Steady, but not too insistent breeze. Light traffic.

Today will probably be the best day Brooklyn will have all year. Everybody was out. People on bikes—some cute guys, too— everywhere. McCarran Park, between Greenpoint and Williamsburgh, was packed, as were the sidewalk tables at the restaurant on Smith St.

Feather & Fan Update

I’m ⁷/₈ through round 165. This sounds like a lot, but that’s only 72% of the total stitches. Only twenty-five more rounds, mostly plain knitting until I get to the crocheted cast-off, which will be the end of me.

I finished a scarf, too, since we last met. I’ll take pictures eventually.

Confession

Sometimes blogging seems like Work. Some days at Work are 90% e-mail.

In Other News

• We’re having a home office installed tomorrow. We had to move everything out of the office in preparation. It seems quite large now, but the living room is cramped.
• A table, two good-quality bookcases, a mirror and a black plastic cylindrical trash-can went out to the curb to make way for the new furniture. All found homes, good ones I hope. The trash can went first—odd, since it was the cheapest thing out there. The last to go was the six-foot bookcase. I was surprised, How often do you find a six-foot, maple-veneer, mahogany-finish bookcase in excellent condition with all the shelves on the street FOR FREE?
• My elder sister turned 50 today. This is not a consolation to me. I did remember to call her. Eventually.
• I warned my younger sister that in the two years after I turn 50 I am unlikely to forget that she is relatively right behind me, so she should be nice to both my older sister and me.
• I have realized that my the vacation I had (vaguely) planned out of the country next year to avoid spending my 50^th with anyone but J will probably not happen. We have a major system conversion due at the end of April next year at work.
• Of the tens of people I saw biking today, I was one of the four oldest. I’m almost certain the other three are gay. And they looked pretty good. I’ve got some work ahead of me.

Still rather cold and getting colder.

What to Cook With

I had disliked my stove for some time. It was white and didn’t match the fridge or the dishwasher. It was hard to clean. The burner grates weren’t flat, so pans would rock back and forth when stirring. Think stirring risotto for twenty minutes straight. The burners would go out instead of going low. It was, like much in this condo, the cheap builders’ model.

I finally got a new one, a Kitchenaid, with more features than I need. The feature I like best is the high-heat burner with the grate insert that reverses to become a wok stand. That is a full-size wok from a Chinese restaurant supply store on the stand. Cheap. Cooking in a wok with enough space to push each cooked ingredient out as it is done and opening enough space in the middle to cook the next is a revelation. I might even cook more stir-fry.

What I really want to cook more of is South Asian and Middle Eastern. What I need to cook more of is vegetables, so I went rooting through Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian. I had the stove; I had the recipe’s. I needed vegetables and spices.

Lots of Spices

While the stove was delivered last weekend and installed on Monday, neither of us had anytime to use it. I did boil water for pasta on Thursday, but that was it. I plotted with my cookbook and tossed all the stale spices into the trash.

Friday, though, I was able to take the day off and I went shopping. I went to Fairway for the bulk of it, but came home without a few things, notably, no red chilis, fresh or dried. Then I hit a few local shops trying to fill in the gaps and to pick up a five-inch cast iron pan for roasting spices. I found enough ingredients to make cucumber raita, Afghan sour cherry chutney, Hyderabadi red lentils and Sri Lankan sweet potatoes with cardamum and chilis. All of these were excellent. The raita was some of the best I’ve ever had and the sweet potatoes were good even leftover and cold.

Saturday, I went out to further fill in the remaining gaps in my grocery list and pick up few things J had added. I hit Dean & Deluca and got sweet smoked paprika and manchego cheese for J, and paid a fortune for Mexican oregano, but bombed out on everything on my South Asian list. Then I got my wok at the restaurant supply at Houston and Lafayette, two blocks away, then walked with the not exactly lightweight wok to First Ave just below Sixth St to a South Asian spice dealer and grocery, which is where I should have gone to begin with. Everything that was on my original list and some extras, all cheaper than anywhere else. The day was perfect for it too.

Have you ever smelled asafoetida? There is a reason it’s hard to find. Noxious and nauseating. I sealed the small jar I bought in a mason jar when I got home. So far it works, but I’m afraid to open the jar.

Saturday was a Chinese-like stir-fry, in honor of the new wok, with a ersatz fresh-ground five-spice powder (no star anise in the house), some chicken breasts and lots of vegetables. Not bad. I love the wok.

I also made tabouleh from scratch for lunches. It has an entirely different texture than what you get in the instant versions or pre-packaged—smoother and less oily.

J broke-in the oven Sunday with Lemon Bars and dinner that evening was Jaffrey’s Red Peppers Stuffed with Herbed Rice in the Persian Style. This was perfectly fine, but I’m now pretty sure tarragon is more appealing in concept than practice. Thyme would be a good substitute.

Knitting

There was some progress on Feather & Fan in the last month, but most of my knitting was done on a lace scarf in Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool on #2’s (Am) during innumerable conference calls to tedious to recall. Between that and typing e-mails, my hands and wrists have been tired.

This has all been rather long-winded, but I’ve spared you the last month of boredom and tedium. Really, you missed nothing.

Anyone care to review 300 pages or so of financial systems business requirements documents for me? I didn’t think so.