Sunday morning

I love Sunday mornings. Who doesn't? This morning we woke very late (8am is very late for us these days), feeling rested and calm, and I determined to stay in my pyjamas for as long as decently possible. Susan usually makes biscuits on Sunday mornings, it's become a bit of a family tradition, but as we were lying in bed thinking (emphasis here on the thought, the act was several minutes away) about getting up she mentioned some pumpkin scones that she'd seen in a Nigella cookbook a couple of days ago. Of course, we have no pumpkin right now (strangely, the shops are once again devoid of canned pumpkin) and it's an autumnal recipe anyway, but that got me thinking about scones. I haven't made scones for years. Years and years. Probably 15 years. So, I decided that I'd make scones for everyone for breakfast. I dug out my old recipe book and found the recipe that both my mum and grandma used to use (well, my mum still does) and 30 minutes later there were freshly baked scones making the kitchen smell fantastic and transporting me back to my childhood. By the time I got to take pictures, they'd already been predated upon.




As I'm pretty certain that grandma would highly approve of having her recipe shared with whatever small portion of the world deigns to read my blog, here it is:

8oz self raising flour
1oz sugar
2oz butter or margerine (very cold, I actually freeze mine before chopping it into tiny pieces)
pinch of salt
1 egg, whisked with milk to make the overall quantity 1/4 pint
fruit to taste (I used raisins today, but you could add cranberries, cherries, peach, blueberry, candied peel, the list is endless)

Mix all dry ingredients.
Blend in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
Blend in egg/milk mixture with a fork until you have a wet but firm dough
Add fruit, if desired

Some people like to roll their scone dough and cut sweet little rounds. I take the lazy approach and dollop a spoonful onto a greased baking tray, squish it down a little, and hope for the best. This results in rustic, smallish scones.

Bake at 425 F for about 15 minutes. My small toaster oven runs a little hot so mine were done after 13 minutes--I started checking them at 10 minutes and watched like a hawk for the last three. Your oven may vary.

So what else?

Well, I've finished my summer stint in the Writing Center and have a nice break now until the semester starts in about three weeks time. I've got a packed schedule next semester--20 class hours, and 5.5 hours in the Writing Center. But I do have all Thursday away from campus, just have to go in for my fellowship seminar at 5pm. Thursday, I suspect, will be my homework day. I'm hoping to camp out at the local Starbucks and work for hours and hours.

Knit-wise, this week I finished a scarf for Jen's youngest, Lexie, for Christmas. It's nothing grand, just a scrap scarf in shades of purple (her favourite colour). Actually, it's a little narrower than I'd have liked because I ran out of purple scraps but I think it will be fine for a 9/10 year old. Faith (her sister) is getting a similar scarf in orange--I cast on for that last night. I'm still working on the test knit cardigan and making slow progress there. I'm not super-keen on the yarn with this pattern, but I think it will work. And I'm in the middle of the craziest socks ever. I'm knitting them with my own design--although it's hardly a complicated pattern. Cookie A need not panic, I will not be stealing her sock crown anytime soon.

Getting Ahead

I've been attempting to make the most of my class-free summer by getting ahead with birthday and Christmas gifts for people, and so far I haven't done a bad job of it. We've tipped into August and I already have a few things made and stashed away. I've also discovered Pinterest which, if you haven't found out for yourself yet, is probably an even bigger time-suck than facebook. Seriously. I'm addicted and I've spent way too much time browsing other people's boards and the internet in general just looking for fun stuff to pin. Of course, I've also found dozens and dozens of things that I now want to make or do and thus am in a state of constant self-beration (is that even a word?) because I don't have the time.

Anyway, this week I managed to finish a scarf for Susan's birthday. I've been knitting it somewhat surreptitiously at work so that she doesn't see it beforehand. One of the good things about summer in the Writing Center is the quiet, which means plenty of knitting time. I love these scarves--they're made in KnitPicks Chroma Worsted, which I adore. It's beautifully soft which, in my opinion, makes it infinitely more wearable than Noro. I do love Noro but it's so scratchy and that's a huge disincentive for scarves. I chose the New England and Fossil colourways for her scarf which are a little more muted than I expected, but still really pretty.


My cunning plan was for it to match her "Dodgy Yellow Jacket" yet still be versatile enough for other outfits. I think it works. Next plan for her birthday is to overhaul and repair the aforementioned "Dodgy Yellow Jacket" which, after about ten years of abuse, is falling apart at the seams. Literally. The cuffs are frayed (don't know that I can do a lot about that on a corduroy jacket), the lining is falling out and frayed, the collar is half fallen off, and it's missing several buttons. I'm going to do what I can to at least repair the lining and the collar, and make the frayed edges not quite so tattered. Oh, and new buttons. If I can at least make it look 30% better than it does now, she'll be very happy. She adores that jacket and I adore seeing her in it.

The final part of the birthday plan is a new ring to replace the one she lost earlier in the summer. It was the ring that matches mine, that she first bought almost five years ago when we'd only met once and were busy denying the fact that we were falling for each other. Because nothing says "I'm not going to fall for you" like a ring engraved with the Hebrew for " I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine". Right. Anyway, one Sunday morning during her traditional Sunday-morning-biscuit-making, the ring went missing. Luckily, I know where she bought it from originally and I know her ring size. I should easily be able to get a replacement.

When the ring is acquired, I'm going to procure (not quite sure where from yet) a large dress box and line it with LOTS of tissue paper. Then, the jacket and scarf will be properly displayed together in the box. The ring, however, will be tied to a ribbon and put in one of the jacket pockets. I'll put a gift tag on the other end of the ribbon with directions to "pull" so that when she pulls the ribbon out, the ring will appear. Sweet, huh? Are your teeth hurting yet?

Enough of that nonsense.

I've also been busy making bracelets for Steph and Heather for Christmas. Michaels had a great 50% off deal on some specific beads (I can't remember the name of the brand now) so I bought a couple of 7" strands, added a few simple crystal beads to pad out, and made a couple of really simple bracelets. Each one cost about $5.50, which I'm really happy with. I wish now that I'd bought more beads, although they're still relatively affordable at full price.

Steph's bracelet will go with the blue and tan flower scarf I made for her:





...whilst Heather's will match the scarf I made for her:






I'm pretty happy with the results.

In other news, the test cardigan that I'm knitting is coming along, albeit not as quickly as I'd like. I've been distracted, as you can see, by shiny, pretty things. And I made myself some crazy socks.


Yes, they're ridiculous, but I love them.

Right now, I have *counts* six items that I'm actively working on dotted around the house and car.

1. Test cardigan
2. Scrap sock yarn blanket
3. Scrap cotton yarn dispenser for plastic bags
4. Crazy Felici rainbow lace socks
5. Scrap scarf in purple for Lexie's Christmas present
6. Gift stash dishcloths

I justify this by telling myself that all these projects serve different purposes in my life. The test cardigan is a commitment I made to Stephanie. The sock yarn blanket is an ongoing project to use up yarn that would otherwise be wasted. Same with the plastic bag dispenser. The rainbow socks are to stop me getting bored with the endless rows of stocking stitch in the test cardigan. The scarf is so that I stay on top of Christmas gifts. And the dishcloths are my in-car knitting to replenish the stash of gift dishcloths. See, all perfectly justified. I'm not sure that Susan agrees.

There's more to say, about sunflowers and people visiting from England, but I'll leave that for another day.

The Great Mushroom Safari

We went hiking today. It wasn't my idea of course--Becs had a bee in her bonnet about going to Natural Bridge and when a teenager suggests anything other than sloth and lethargy it's wise to take the aforementioned teenager up on that suggestion. So, off we went. It was hot, but thankfully nowhere near as hot as it has been and, even better, the sun stayed nicely out of the way. Even with those blessings in place I still managed to puff and pant my way into resembling a sweaty radish.

We saw some cool things though, including lots of fungi of various types, none of which I could identify. And what the heck are these weird looking things?


They look like odd jelly plants. I'm almost afraid to google to find out what they are.

It's been three years since we were last there and I'd forgotten how much I love Natural Bridge. I'd also forgotten how steep it is to get to the bridge, and I'd conveniently ignored just how out of shape I am these days. Seriously out of shape. Susan and the girls just breezed up the inclines, I stopped on the pretext of taking photographs at least once every three minutes. But with a combination of rest stops and water I eventually made it to the top, poured myself through the aptly named Fat Man's Squeeze and collapsed in a heap on the top of the bridge. As you can see, I was indeed a hot, sweaty mess. Susan, on the other hand, barely broke into a ladylike glow.


So what do you do when you're at the top of Natural Bridge? Well, you can admire the scenery...


..or you can get out your knitting. I chose the knitting.


I'm knitting on a test sweater for Sweater Girl Knits and was working on it on the drive over. It seemed perfectly natural to pack it in the backpack and take it with us. At least, it did to me. I did get some odd looks though.

Apparently, around 40 people every year fall from Natural Bridge. That's about two a week for every comfortable hiking week (assuming that season extends from April to October, roughly speaking). That's very believable, judging by the number of hyped-up adolescents leaping around on the precipice. It made me very nervous actually. In fact, I was just a bit grumpy to find so many people up there. There's a skylift that carries the less able (or lazy) people from the forest floor up to the top of the bridge which accounts, I think, for the considerable population that were up there this morning--mostly wearing flip-flops and other inappropriate footwear. I'm torn about that. Certainly, the skylift allows access to people who otherwise would not be physically capable of the mile-long, steep hike, but it also attracts people who simply have no real respect for their surroundings, who don't fully appreciate the danger and who carve their name into the stone and drop litter off the side. Anyway. Grump over.

Post-hike, there's only one other place to go. Miguel's Pizza.


The pizza isn't as good as Susan's homemade pizza but it's incredibly welcome after three hours hiking up and down a mountain. Besides, Miguel's is just such a ramshackle, crazy place that you can't help but love it.

So, with pizza in our bellies (actually, I had a rice bowl instead) and sweat dried on our skin we came home and did the last thing that simply had to be done--took a nap.

Look what I found!

Well, I didn't exactly "find" it but I did unearth it from hiding. I've been making this quilt for probably around 15 years now, maybe longer. I can't recall exactly when I started it, but some of the fabrics in it are at least 30 years old. Every single stitch has been done by hand. All the hexagons were hand cut, sewn onto backing paper and stitched together in rosettes before being made into a complete quilt. I'd started to stitch it to a backing fabric but it wasn't working out and had been "retired to a craft bin in my closet. Anyway, after a weekend in Grundy with Susan's family a couple of weeks ago, and a meeting with Susan's Aunt Patsy who is a fabulous quilter, I've been feeling inspired to think about finishing it properly. So, I pulled it out today, ripped off the backing fabric (which was barely started) and laid it on the bed just to see exactly how much work still needs doing.


It's lying on our queen size bed and as you can see it's definitely long enough. Not wide enough though, it needs at least two (maybe three) more rows of rosettes. I've got some fabric I can use that will make this our quilt--an old cotton shirt of Susan's, a pelmet from Izzy's bedroom linens that she no longer needs, an embroidered tablecloth that is too small for us to use. If I can get the size of the quilt right then I can think about getting it backed. Patsy tells me that I could probably pay for someone to finish it for me, and whilst that is tempting (and may happen) I can't help but feel that it's bottling out a bit and that I should finish it myself. We'll see though, I'm still a long way from that.

It's raining here today, definitely another day for pyjamas and knitting. I've almost finished Hannah's scarf, just got a couple more rows and some beads to stitch on. I hope she'll like it.


Not much else to say at this point in the day. It's one of those days.

Yeah, I'm a Bad Blogger

So it seems that the last time I updated this blog was on Becs' 14th birthday last year. And today is Izzy's 11th birthday. Apparently, I can only get my blog-act together on someone's birthday.

Anyway, today is indeed Izzy's birthday and in honour of that I should post some "before" and "after" pictures. Here we go...

This is my absolute favourite photograph of Izzy. It's the one I'll humiliate her with when she brings her boyfriends/girlfriends/whatevers home. There are others, but this is the best. She was about one when this was taken, and it's the perfect representation of her personality--both then and now.

Anyway, that's her "before" shot, here's the "after"...

Actually, this picture was taken yesterday morning. She had her birthday party on Friday night (more about that later) and one of her friends bought her this ridiculous hat which is, I suspect, destined to become the family birthday hat. Izzy has plans to wear it out to lunch today as it will earn her a free piece of pie at Ramsey's, her chosen birthday lunch spot.

Her party was a huge success. We hired these guys and they brought this:


Best money ever spent on a birthday party. Seriously. Take a pile of 11 year olds, sprinkle with a couple of 14 year olds, insert into video truck and leave for two hours. Patrick, our game coach (who just happens to be the boyfriend of one of my knitting friends, Kate) was an absolute star. He told us post-party that he was pretty sure this was the first ever all-girls party they'd done and that when he realized it was all girls he was a little unsure how it would work out. Becs put that particular concern to rest when she announced that she wanted to play a zombie game. A serious zombie game. Something called "Left for Dead" (I think) was the eventual offering and by the end of the party most of the party-goers had eschewed their "Michael Jackson Experience" (I kid you not) and "Super Mario Bros" in favour of a little zombie apocalypse.





Okay, before I finish my party ramblings I have to show you the cake. It's a long-standing family tradition that I always make the girls' cakes. In fact, I don't think either of them have ever had a shop-bought cake yet. This year, Izzy is seriously into Bone, a series of graphic novels. So, a Bone cake it was. I had some unexpected issues with the fondant that really made me mad. I've been working with fondant for 14 years now and have never had a problem so I'm not sure what went wrong. Anyway, I decided to work with the mess and make it look like some kind of rock, it was sort of in keeping with the Bone theme anyway. Not my best work, but here it is.


Yes, that is a Bone character (apparently it's Fone Bone) made from modelling chocolate at the base of the cake.

Becs made cupcakes all by herself. I made suggestions about the decorations but the work was all hers. She is, apparently, her mother's daughter.



Snakes on logs and sheep. She worked hard.

So, what else? Well, I'm working at the Writing Center over the summer which is great because we need the money. Susan is working really hard to keep us in the manner to which we're not-quite accustomed. In fact, as I fritter away my day with blogging and knitting she's downstairs in the study working on her classes. Did I mention she's wonderful?

I'm waiting for Sallie Mae to put the final approval on my student loan so that I can register for classes next semester. This is causing me no small amount of stress. They've had all the paperwork for over a week now and according to the website, their process is still in exactly the same place. I think a phone call will be in order on Monday morning.

I've been knitting up a storm over the summer, although that will probably slow down now that I'm working again. Currently working on a pair of ridiculous socks inspired by Maggie and the Ferocious Beast. I hate colourwork. I'm not very good at it. And these socks have a short row heel which, while incredibly easy and mindless to knit, is not very good for someone like me with fat feet and ankles. Izzy will probably be the recipient of these because she's probably the only one they'll fit!



I've been working on tons of other stuff too--just cast on a scarf for Hannah's birthday (I know, it's not until December but I'm trying to get organized) and I'll post a picture of that next time I blog or when I can be bothered to find the camera cable and upload the pictures, whichever comes sooner. There's no point me even attempting to upload pictures of the other things I've knitted this summer, I'm knitting at a rate of 2 finished items a week so you'd be looking through pictures forever. If you're really interested, check out my Ravelry projects page.

And on that note, it's time for breakfast.

Thanks, mum, for the 23 chromosomes and the food!

It's Rebecca's birthday today--she's 14. How on earth did that happen? How did that tiny baby (well, not so tiny, she was 8lb 4oz) get to be such a lovely, grown-up young woman? I know, everyone says that when they see their children growing up. It's still scary.


Anyway, Susan bought red velvet cake yesterday (in lieu of doughnuts because the Kroger she went to is the only one in the area that doesn't sell fresh doughnuts) for her birthday breakfast. Lookin' good, Becs, with that birthday bed-head going on!


I love that Sonny Landham has made it into her birthday breakfast photo--see him peeping out from her t-shirt? Wonderful. What I love more is that I got a card from Becs today--part of a tradition that Susan has with her mother. Inside, she wrote "thanks for the 23 chromosomes and all the stuff". Perfect. I am loved.

In other news, I haven't blogged for simply ages but today, because I'm procrastinating horribly (I have a 20 page Gender & Women's Studies research paper due in a week...) I thought I'd blog because it probably wouldn't do to get my knitting out at work. I'm tempted though, especially as I have to get mum's socks finished and in the post so they'll get to her by Christmas. My needles are going as fast as they possibly can--when I'm not at work. So, today, in the spirit of procrastination, I've pootled around on facebook and Ravelry (a lot), shuffled papers on my desk (quite a bit) and felt guilty about the work I'm not doing. That work would be Latin and the aforementioned GWS paper. And I typed up a piece of nonfiction that I started working on yesterday--something that I have absolutely no need to work on--about my dad and his ears. It's called "I Get My Ear Problems From My Dad". It's only a short picce, about 1,000 words, and isn't quite finished yet but I quite like it thus far. But it's not the required GWS paper. I have a feeling that this decision is going to bite me thoroughly on the backside in the next week.

Oh, and I'm a Ravelry star. Well, not quite. I logged in to my account this morning to find a message from "the powers that be" (or at least someone acting on their behalf) asking if they could use a photograph of one of my finished items on the Ravelry page for that pattern. I feel famous, and like someone important said "I like your knitting, Missy, please do more". The pattern in question is Garden Rows by Susan Robicheau and it's my "Salem's Lot" version of these dishcloths that have made it to the pattern page. I'm inordinately happy about this. Simple things, right?


On that note, I should probably at least try to get something productive done with my day *sigh* At least the semester is almost over, I'm totally ready for a break now.

I should be reading Nancy Chodorow

I'm a nerd of the super-organized variety. Every week, I print off a copy of the week's Google calendar and note on it what homework I have to do on each day. This semester, I'm taking five classes in total--two of them are very study-intensive classes (Latin and sentential logic), one of them (feminist history) has a heavy reading load. Because of this, I try to set aside time every day to work on these three classes--for Latin, I usually have a translation (today's was two pages long and took forever), for logic I try to work through a couple of proofs, and for feminist theory I always have a reading to respond to. My feminist theory professor (who is quite famous in the world of feminism) gives us about 6 or 7 readings a week, some longer than others. On Thursday, I got to read 100+ pages of Germaine Greer. Yesterday was Sherryy Ortner. Today, I should be reading Nancy Chodorow.

I am not, however, presently reading Nancy Chodorow. Somewhere between Germaine Greer's comment about a woman not wanting to be told she has a "twat like a horse-collar" (yes, she did say that and goodness knows what kind of people I'll attract to my blog with a quote like that) and Sherry Ortner's dissection of culture and nature, I lost the will to read. When I discovered the 30+ pages of Chodorow, my will was further displaced. This is bad news for a variety of reasons. I still have to do the reading--at some point. I can't do it tomorrow (and likely won't get any homework done tomorrow) because it's Susan's birthday and we're having the clan round for dinner. Before that, there are groceries to be bought. She wants a peach cream pie for her birthday so that has to be made. And because her mum is coming over I have to at least make the house look presentable. Well, I don't have to, but I want to. I'm odd like that. Anyway, this means that I'm going to have a lot to do on Monday, which is going to make me grumpy. Right now, I don't care. I'd rather knit and watch television.

Aside from avoiding homework (that's not strictly true, I did do some Latin and logic) we've had a lovely day. Saturday morning means Starbucks and the Farmers' Market and it was simply a lovely day to be wandering around, even if we didn't buy much. One honeycrisp apple (seriously, those are the best apples ever), two green peppers, and some aged goats cheese was the sum total of our haul. I did take a couple of photos of a rather cool chap who plays his rather cool guitar there every week. I'd been meaning to take the camera down for a while, and finally remembered today.



I can't play the guitar but even I have guitar envy for this piece of musical goodness.


In other news, Izzy went tailgating for the first time today, complete with UK tattoo on her cheek. She got back a short while ago, stuffed with pork, corn, macaroni cheese, and brownies. It's going to take us days to get her back on schedule but at least she had a good time.

And I took Susan shopping for a pasta maker. She's been wanting one for ages and we had some gift vouchers to use up so I dragged her off to that Bed, Bath and Beyond place (I love that place, it's so full of unnecessary nonsense) and bought her one. Now I'm looking forward to the results. Why do you ask if I had an ulterior motive...? Jeoffrey had fun with the box, though. I left it on the table so he tried it for size and found it a little lacking...


Not to be beaten, ten minutes later we discovered this...


Jeoffrey has a poorly eye today--no idea what he's done to it but it's a bit swollen and red. We've been bathing it and he seems otherwise to be fine so we'll wait and see what happens.

Anyway, I'm still avoiding Nancy Chodorow and someone just put "Addams Family Values" on the DVD player so I'm away to knit...I have this to finish...