March 28, 2014
clump-free, knotty, and colored
posted by soe 1:05 am
Three beautiful things from my past week:
1. Rudi has been okayed to bear full weight on his bad leg. This has given him more freedom of motion and more confidence in trying new maneuvers. This evening he cleaned the cat boxes before I got home.
2. The cables on my current sock are the most complex I’ve ever done, but form a really cool Celtic knot. Not only that, but I, realizing I’d miscrossed several cables a couple rows later, was able to drop the relevant stitches down, reorient the stitches to the right side of the fabric, and fix the wonky section without having to rip back to the mistake. I feel like a pro.
3. I haven’t painted my nails since the Christmas polish wore off. I’ve been meaning to for ages, but couldn’t find the time to sit with hands still long enough for even my quick-dry polish to set. Saturday morning, while Rudi was out, I followed up a few household chores with a painting session. I forget that the extra time does really make that much of a difference in my mood and that other people like to see the colors I’ve picked, too. (This time, they’re electric blue, salmon, lime green, mauve, and terracotta.)
How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?
March 25, 2014
errandonnee 2014
posted by soe 10:59 pm
Remember when I did the Coffeeneuring challenge last year? Well, Mary at Chasing Mailboxes also hosts a winter biking challenge focused on encouraging participants to run errands via bicycle. The Errandonnee ran for two weeks and required completing 12 errands from a minimum of seven (of 11 categories). You also needed to rack up at least 30 miles in the process and document the process with photos.
Because Rudi is out of commission and couldn’t participate this year, I decided to take part on behalf of the Burrow. However, my bike is living in the office parking garage at the moment, since it crowds the space Rudi needs for crutches, which meant I needed to use Bikeshare to complete my quest. It was fine, but definitely meant I had to think about the process more than I would have with my own bike.
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March 21, 2014
snow day, weekend of friends, and daffodils
posted by soe 2:10 am
Three beautiful things from the past week:
1. The last snowstorm of the winter arrives earlier and steadier than expected and lasts longer than expected, giving us one more snow day for the year after dropping eight inches on the neighborhood. (I love how you can tell that the government is shut down by the lack of morning traffic sounds.) I sleep in, shovel, drop Rudi off at a doctor’s appointment, shop while he’s there, and spend the rest of the night frantically knitting on my socks for the first round of Sock Madness.
2. Sam and Alexis are down visiting other Conn friends and have some free time, so we head to Annapolis on Saturday for lunch on the wharf and ice cream in the sun and lounging in the grass at the State House and veggie sushi with Grover.
And then on Sunday, Susan and Phillip invite us over for dinner with them and the kids. Holden has been learning about pizza in school and is a pro at making them while wearing his personalized apron. Caroline narrates the various ingredients being added.
3. Every year at this time, Trader Joe’s sells daffodils for very little, and I get to have a shock of yellow atop my fridge:
How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?
March 20, 2014
first fo of 2014: ravellenic games cowl
posted by soe 2:18 am
Now that I’ve finished my second knit object of 2014, I thought it was probably time to share with you my first:
This is the Y Not Cowl, which I knit as a last-minute Ravellenic Games contender last month when I realized that the fingering-weight-sweater-while-Rudi-was-sick-project was probably a little ambitious for a two-week period:
The yarn is the ultra-soft Fibre Company Tundra in Snowdrift, which had been sent to me with the pattern, by Colleen earlier in the month. I knit the pattern on US 11 needles, using the modifications Colleen suggested on the pattern (ribbing on both ends, rather than just one, and fewer pattern repeats).
As you can see here, I finished up before the Olympic cauldron was extinguished:
However, I forgot about the time difference and neglected to read the instructions carefully, so the cowl is not a medal winner.
But when you’ve had a winter like we’ve had, we take the wins we can get, and winning the First FO of 2014 is a pretty awesome award if you ask me, particularly when it’s an accessory that’s so versatile at this time of year:
March 14, 2014
cuppa, let there be light, and later
posted by soe 1:46 am
Three beautiful things from the week past:
1. New pj pants. They’re spring green with a tea cup print.
2. A new lamp for next to Rudi’s chair (where I’m currently stationed while Rudi is recuperating on the couch). It makes the living room so much brighter.
3. Daylight savings time means it is lighter later. Several times I leave work this week before the sun sets, and several times this week there have been gorgeous sunsets.
How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?
March 7, 2014
texture, films, and flowers
posted by soe 1:10 am
Three beautiful things from the past week:
1. A blanket of snow lies on the slope alongside the escalator down to the metro station, softening the terraced surface into pleats.
2. Rudi and I saw both Frozen and The Wind Rises last weekend in our effort to fairly judge among the animated Oscar nominees. Both films were enjoyable, if very different, and the latter was especially moving as it is a biopic period piece set in Japan in the early 20th century. (If you aren’t a fan of reading your films, there is a dubbed version made with a decidedly Anglo cast, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, among others. I can’t speak to it, but it’s filled with big names, so I assume it would be well-acted, if very white.)
3.
Outside, I see the first croci of the season and snowdrops in the snow. On the indoor plants, I have new buds on my blooming orchid and fresh blossoms on my African violet.