Neener neener!

Dear blog,

I admit, I have nothing useful to say. I don't even have any good knitting to share. Really, I'm blogging just to gloat. What about, you ask? Just this: I'm in Derbyshire! The Jane Austen fan girl part of me has been absolutely giddy for the few days I've been here. Some details to come upon my return and recovery from jetlag.

Cheers!
Meredith

Study Break

Oof, I feel like my brain has turned to meringue. It seems to have retained more structure than mush, but at the same time feels rather insubstantial. As long as I'm not doing homework or something else useful (there's some laundry that needs addressing and the kitchen's got a depressing collection of dirty dishes), I should probably go to bed in an attempt to do something about the insubstantiality. Instead, I'm blogging. Why? Good question. Since I don't know, I'll keep it short.

For Christmas, one of my friends crocheted me a lovely scarf. It's from dark blue Wool-Ease Thick & Quick. It's thick and warm, and I thought the only thing it could possibly need is a matching hat. So I made one!


When I asked my friend what yarn she used, she said she had a whole ball left over and that I was welcome to it. It made the matchy-matchy aspect of the project so much easier.


The hat is An Unoriginal Hat, by Yarn Harlot. I quite liked wearing the hat (it hasn't been cold enough for several weeks), and it was a fast knit from an easy pattern, but I don't think I'll knit another one. The big yarn and the big needles were really tough on my hands. But every now and then, a little pain is worthwhile!*


*I also apply this philosophy to school. It's why I didn't let the Dalek exterminate my homework.

Antithesis

Happy Easter!

I have no knitting that is in any way particularly appropriate to the holiday - no spring items, no pastels, no bunnies, and nothing religious - so I thought I'd go with the antithesis of the ultimate triumph of good over evil and life over death.

Dalek in progress, wishing it had its weapons attached so that it could exterminate* my homework.**

For the record, I graduate in four weeks, assuming I both pass my two classes and survive the next month. I can't wait.

*Actually, I'd really rather it NOT exterminate the homework, since I'd like to be able to turn it in.
**On the other hand, it's an assignment that's sucked up far too much time and quite a bit of my sanity with depressingly little result, so there would be some real satisfaction in seeing it turned to ash.

Apologia

I believe I may owe you an apologia.* I thought my April Fools post was a good one - especially since I really have been into cooking and baking lately. I did not intend, though, to leave it up as the main post for over a week. However, my time has been consumed by such things as earning a living, filing my taxes, trying to graduate, and doing laundry so I could not scare off people by my appearance in public. Blogging, understandably I think, was not at the top of my priorities. In any event, I'm happy to announce the return of my irregularly scheduled knitting blog!

I'd love to tell you what I'm working on right now (I can hardly believe it myself), but I haven't any pictures, and what's more, I haven't the time to take any tonight. How about a somewhat recently finished object instead? Good. In that case I present my Diamond Rain.


This was a case of the pattern being more a guideline than a pattern, since I modified it quite a bit. The pattern's written for a worsted yarn, but I used a DK. So to get a small (in circumference) I roughly followed the instructions for an XL.


I also added quite a bit of length - an extra inch of ribbing and an extra repeat of the diamond motif (which I reworked to be done with three traveling stitches in each cable rather than two). The crochet at the back of the neck and around the armholes did a nice job of stabilizing them, and a good steam blocking made it eminently wearable, don't you think?**


*I learned a new word today! Oh, the things that happen when you read the dictionary.
**For reasons that I doubt will ever be known, even to me, I am nearly as fond of the tilted picture of the dirty mirror as I am of the vest itself. Really, I think it's the tiltedness.

Change of plans

I've decided something. Change should be met with change. My life has had some pretty big changes recently, all beyond my control. So I'm going to compensate with some changes within my control. To start with, I'm changing this blog. Instead of a knitting blog, it's going to be a food blog! I've been thinking about food for a while, so I've already got some great food to show you.

First up: one of my favorite snacks. I love how little effort it takes, and how wonderful it tastes. Of course, as a displaced New Mexican, I'll put green chile on pretty much anything.

Toasted whole grain bagel with cream cheese and roasted green chile.

Next up: something on the other end of the spectrum, both in terms of taste and effort. I'm not generally big into cakes, but this one I love.

German chocolate cake, complete with pecan worshippers on top.

Still in the dessert category, the next item is less rich, but no less round. It has the added benefit of being able to masquerade as healthy food, since the main items are fruit and bread.

Peach cobbler. Simple and delicious.

My last item for the evening is a self-conflicted, but delicious, mixture of the classy and the humble.

Brie and blackberry jam pastries. Pastry dough is actually crescent rolls from a can with delusions of standing.

Hungry?