SP12 Question of the Week #8

What is your favourite supper for a hot summer evening?

Other than ice cream? :)

Well, ok then. A fresh salad with delicious cheese and a vinagrette (like this Goat Cheese, Walnut, and Strawberry Salad) is always awesome, since there is no cooking involved whatsoever!

Good mail, bad blogger

Dear Secret Pal,

You are totally awesome. I have now received 2 packages from you, and both have been fantastic and unique and thoughtful. It took me a while to pick up package #2, since I thought the postal notice was a hold-over from #1, they came so close together, but please don’t stress that they weren’t shipped or recieved!

Your first package was great — I am still touched that you spun some of the yarn, and then used it to hand-weave an awesome shawl/baby blanket. Thank you for giving me both a lovely object, and the gift of your time and creativity. The yarn is beautiful and I have already commissioned the stitch-markers (they’re nice and big, and most of my others are too small for my current project!)

The second and very surprising surprise package is a thing for which many others hold jealous: the Cat Bordhi New Pathways for Sock Knitters book, complete with some lovely sock yarn and needles (in my favourite 2.25mm size, nonetheless)! I have already knit the two “practise” socks (how perfect is it that these come out baby/kid sized?) and my brain has only exploded a few times from the awesomeness of these new “sockitechtures”. I am even getting the hang of the wacky new increase techniques*.

You should know just how much these packages have brightened my days, how grateful I am and how spoilt I feel. I don’t know you (yet) but you certainly have got a handle on my likes! I think you should also know that between the blanket and the sock-yarn, you may have chosen my baby’s “colour scheme” — I love the way purples, pinks, and lime greens go together!

So thank you, Secret Pal. Maybe someday I will find my camera again, and then a week after that will post pictures of your generosity… Until then, I hope my words give a hint of how great you have been to me.

~Em

* Will I trade in my old fave M1R/M1L for RLinc/LLinc? I wonder…

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SP12 Question of the Week #5, 6, & 7

I am so behind on these!

QotW #5:
1) Where is your favorite place to go for vacation/holiday?
2) Where is one place you’d like to go?

1) My most frequent “vacation place” in my adult life has, of all things geeky, been Pennsic War, a very large SCA event held each August. There are some fantastic people there (you make friends from all over) and it;s so busy that you never need be bored (and in fact are much more likely to just get exhausted from all the fun!).
2) I would love to go to Britain or Ireland someday.

QotW #6:
What is your favorite type of project to take along on holiday/vacation?

Socks, of course! Just one skein of yarn, one long needle (I magic loop), somce scizzors and a tapestry needle and you’re set. Perfect for travelling!

QotW #7:
What is(are) your favorite place(s) to knit? and
What supplies (besides yarn & needles) make the setting perfect for knitting?

I love knitting either curled up on my couch — additional supplies include tea, comfy clothes, and something good on the DVD player or a podcast/audiobook — or at one of my 2 LYSs — additional supplies include tea/refershing drinks, treats, and the fabulous company of other knitters! At home I am free to be as relaxed as I want, but out with others I often relax even more :)

Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

If you are a fan of Joss Whedon* (and I’m betting you are) go watch these 13-min videos (Acts I and II) right now. Then you can be as geeked-out happy as I am, and share my pain of waiting all the way until Saturday for the last part.

*Creator/writer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly/Serenity, for those few of you who may live under rocks. Not that I have anything against rock-dwellers, I’ve been renting some property there lately too, but still.

A post that’s not just in my head

I am such a liar. I promise you posts “soon”, and you get nothing. I tease with hints of knitting, spinning, and baby-news. And then… nothing.

I apologize for this. It appears that pregnancy has robbed me of certain faculties.

It’s certainly not like I haven’t been blogging — in my head, at least. I’ve got tonnes of things I want to say, thoughts I’m thinking, images I’ve seen and would love to capture. There’s so much head-blogging I contemplate starting whole new blogs for my myriad topics (knitting, pregnancy/parenting, eco-living)! Then I remember I haven’t even answered this weeks (or last’s?) SP12 question.

So for now, please imagine me saying all sorts of clever things (like I have imagined) about the knitting I’ve started doing again, and spinning, and my fabulous secret pal’s package that arrived last week (Thank you! A Good Mail post will happen eventually!). Imagine I have shared my thoughts about urban homesteading, my husband’s initial foray into self-watering containers, and our ideas about how life should be truly lived. Imagine I’ve told you all the stories about my increasing size, the sensations of feeling my child move and kick within me, my frustrations at my limitations and joys of the experiences.

And just chalk the fact that these posts are imaginary up to this:

21 weeks and growing — now into the second half!

SP12 Question of the Week #3 & 4

Between pregnancy sleepies, work stress, vacation not-stress-but-busy.ness, I’m way behind on blogging! Here are the SP12 QotWs, but I *promise* I’ll post again soon with something knitting or my exciting baby news!

QotW#3:
What would you consider the perfect amount of stash?

The “perfect” amount of stash would be small enough that it fits into its designated containers/organization space, but still contains enough variety that one could decide to work on any given project andhave the yarn on hand. My stash is not perfect, therefore, because I can’t up and knit a sweater even thogh I really want to — I’m always just picking up small skens of sock or lace yarns — and also is kind of spilling, well, everywhere…

QotW #4:
1) What yarn (that you don’t have/haven’t used) would make your stash “complete”?
2) What yarn do you never want to be without?

1) I have never used linen. I feel this is a great lack, and should probably be remedies sooner rather than later.
2) I don’t think I could go very long without some 100%wool (merino, BFL, or the like) sock-weight yarn! Perfect for socks, necessary for colourwork, lovely for lace, adaptable for baby-knits and even some fine sweaters… I would’t want to be without!