I'm alive

I promise. This summer, like last summer, I'm not likely to be around here often. I just have too much other stuff going on, like triple rehearsals and lessons two days apart and concerts and working in the box office. If you like, you can catch up with me over on Flickr (screen name: doubleGknits) where I've started a "Summer in Pictures" photo set which is meant to document my summer in one picture a day. Who knows how often I will be able to upload, but it should be interesting anyway. I haven't knit a stitch in the two and a half weeks I've been here, but I'm ok with that. Book recommendations, however, are always welcome.

Pudding Night

If you have ever had the good fortune to be in Ithaca on a weekend, and then were able to make it to the Farmer's Market, and had the patience to stand in line at the Macrobiotic stall when they serve tapioca pudding with fruit on top, well, you're one lucky person. I love, love, love their tapioca pudding - thick and chewy and flecked with vanilla bean. I've been wanting to try and replicate their recipe for a while. I can't say that I've made it, but this recipe was an excellent place to start last night. I was drawn to it because it had real vanilla bean in it, and I've been trying a lot of her recipes lately (I also made this one last night). I think the original has some coconut milk in it, though. Next time. It's a little bit time consuming - you've got to stir it constantly - but so, so worth it. Read a book, contemplate life, listen to The Greencards latest CD, whathaveyou. Just make it. You won't be sorry.

Definition

Can I call this a FO if there's only one?

Pattern: Toast by Leslie Friend
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Worsted, leftovers in stash
Needles: US 6 dpns
Time Elapsed: about 1.5 hours

I'm in prep mode for Aspen, and, as is not unusual when I start increasing my practice, my right arm hurts. Clarinetists balance the whole weight of the instrument (about 3 pounds) on the end of their thumb, and this stress combined with the kind of speed and technique that I am currently practicing, means that we often have troubles with our right arms. I always liked the styling on Toast, but didn't see myself knitting it because what was the point without the whole hand? Well, I've found out. Ballerinas use leg warmers, I use (an) armwarmer(s). Luckily, Sarah is coming to town this weekend (she's on her way right now!) which gives me an excellent excuse to rest and recover. I need to be 100% next week, since I will be not only doing my normal prep, but also playing in a Conducting Symposium here at the college which will provide me with a little cash (!) but will require 6 hours of playing a day for three days. Toast is just the thing for a tender arm.

I am planning on knitting the mate, but I probably should not be knitting just now....

Big Accomplishment

Do you have any idea how long Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley has been sitting on my bookshelf? Long enough for the edges of the pages to start yellowing, that's how long. I've been meaning to read it, really I have, especially since I've tried twice before, crapping out in approximately the same place both times, and that just seems like a challenge to me. The thing is, weighing in at just under 900 pages, the thing is not light reading in the literal sense of the word, even in paperpack, and not readily portable. It's physically uncomfortable to read, not unlike some of the later Harry Potters (in hardcover, if you please) but not nearly so addictive.

I did make it. It took me two weeks, which for me is an eon in reading time. I read fast, people, and I'm not used to dedicating so much time to something not for a class. I'm really glad I did finally make it. The book was very good - well conceived and well written. There are few dangling ends and remarkable connections are made across many pages and years. I found, however, that it really wasn't my thing. I had a hard time connecting to any of the characters. I just didn't like any of them. It was hard for me to invest myself in the outcome because I didn't identify with any of them. This the King Arthur legend told from the point of view of the women in the story, and while it is very interesting to see the inner workings of the women of the time, I find that a huge and complicated story like this, told only from one side, is a half-told story.

Still, I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to add a little weightlifting to their reading.

Did you notice what I'm wearing?
Pattern: Prairie Tunic by Veronik Avery from Interweave Spring 2006
Yarn: Frog Tree Pima Silk in color 820
Needles: US 3
Mods: Did a little gauge magic to make the yarn work - knit 36.5" size for an approximately 38-39" bust. Shortened the vents on the side from 6" to 2.5" and did not start the A-line decreases until after the vents. Also, I decided to forgo the racer-style back for a regular tank-style back and used ribbon instead of yarn cord for the straps.

Sorry the color is washed out in this picture, but you can see how I did the back. I knit to the armpits, did about 1.5" of the initial short-row armhole shaping specified in the pattern, and then continued on in stockinette, decreasing each end every row for about 3/4-1". Then I added four rows of garter stitch to the middle portion (the patterned bit plus six stitches on either side), decreasing every row at the armholes and the beginning and end of the garter section. Bound off the middle part, leaving three garter stitches on each end and worked the two tabs separately, decreasing every other row until 8 stitches were left, and following the directions for the tab extensions as for the front.

I opted against the twisted yarn straps in the pattern because: 1. I was not using the racer back, and 2. I have broad shoulders and do not possess the ability to go bra-less. I used a 7/8" wide leopard print ribbon for the straps to add some interest and coverage. I'm not normally a leopard print kind of girl, but when I went to the store, this ribbon just jumped out of the rack and into my hands. I'm embracing it.

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday weekend!

From the Outside

I'm one of those people who gets embarrassed when she brings things to the checkout, always thinking that the cashier is wondering what kind of nut buys toilet paper, drain cleaner, fake crab, and a Mother's Day card. The cashier could probably care less. The cashier gets all kinds of weirder combinations coming through daily. The cashier can't tell the difference between a cucumber and a zucchini, so why should the cashier care what you're doing with the fake crab and toilet paper?

I admit, when I went through the checkout today, I had a qualm. In my hands was the latest Knit.1, Rachel Gibson's most recent release (True Love and other Disasters), and Vegan with a Vengeance. I know what it looks like: Crazy, repressed cat lady with a thing for horrible, scratchy sweaters and rabbit food. Ok, crazy, yes. Repressed, very likely. Cats, no. Horrible, scratchy sweaters, no. Rabbit food, depends on your definition. These are the things that I like: beautiful sweaters, stories with glowing, happy endings, and vegetables with little animal-product interference. I hate that I care what the cashier was thinking as he rang up my bill (yes, it was a he. It always is, isn't it, when you're out of tampons?). I really hate it, but there it is. I care what people see when I'm holding a pile of potential crazy. What do you see? What was the most embarrassing pile of purchases you ever made?

In other news, I have been knitting, just not blogging about it. For whatever reason, I'm just not that motivated to finish projects, or when I do finish them to photograph them. Maybe when Sarah gets into town, she'll take some pictures for me... In any case, it is what it is, so bear with me.

The truth is...

I lasted one day on that detox diet. It was only supposed to be two days long. I spent all this time preparing for it, and looking forward to it, and then yesterday when I woke up feeling more nauseous than I can remember feeling in a very long time (like, lying on the couch in a cold sweat and willing myself not to vomit) I decided that this thing wasn't worth it. I don't like dandelion greens or escarole. I like lemon water, but not in the ratio of half a lemon to 8 oz. of water. I hate steamed spinach (though I like chard and kale). In the end, I learned a lot. I thought that what I needed was to go further into myself but what I really needed was outward, not inward. What I needed was yesterday - taking off to Ann Arbor with a friend, getting this little thing on my clarinet fixed that has been driving me crazy all year, going to Zingerman's and buying really good bread and artisanal cheese and pastries, chatting all afternoon, and eating dinner in my apartment of all the things we bought this afternoon. Let me tell you what's not on the detox diet - wheat, dairy, and sugar - but I felt so much better after yesterday than I have in a while now. It's like they said on Radio Lab, laughter is not about what's funny. It's about communicating. I needed to be out, not in. Consider my slate clean.

Thoughts

- Something about the end of the spring semester makes me knit socks each year, and then after the semester is done, all I want to do is read and read and read, preferrably with some fun music on while sitting on my balcony.

- The crab apple tree outside my window, which is my single most favorite thing about this apartment, is full of glorious magenta blooms. I don't care that it makes my allergies act up.

- I'm playing three graduations today, one of which is my own. If that sounds torturous, I'm playing two more tomorrow starting at 8:00 AM.

- I probably wouldn't be walking graduation if I wasn't playing in it. I paid $50 for a new regalia because as a Master's student, you need one with theses silly sleeves that have this piece of fabric that hangs down to your knees and you need a color coded cowl. For music, it's pink on the outside and green and white (school colors) on the inside. Baby pink. I dislike pink, but luckily I'm not a ginger kid like my friend Dan.

- I am ridiculously happy with the photo at the top of this post. I took it this weekend while hiking. It's exactly what I wanted, but I have no idea how I got it.

- My brother is getting married a week from tomorrow. I'm supposed to make a scrapbook page for the secret scrapbook that that maid of honor is putting together. I don't really scrapbook, and what's more I have very few pictures of my brother, his fiancee, or me in any combination. This is probably not a big deal, but it feels like it is.

- I got some sad news this week. What a waste.

- I'm committed to doing the weekend detox from the latest Vegetarian Times. I have a lot of crap I need to get rid of, physically and mentally, and more than that, it sounds like a great opportunity to focus inward and regenerate calm and confidence. Just in time to go stag to my brother's wedding.

- The best thing about the gradutation marathon today is that I bought some brie to make a European Backpacker sandwich - brie and apple on a baguette. Not really healthy, but so good, and if it gets me through the day, well, fat calories well spent.