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| WHOO! 02/04/2012 06:48 PM |
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I finally finished my seemingly-cursed-from-the-start colorwork fingerless gloves!
I did finally have to give up on attempting to do the colorwork two-handed. Holding both yarns in my right hand was much happier. MUCH. Because of the issues I had with them (not just tension issues, I had major issues casting on for two at once knitting and I also ended up breaking a pair of needles on this project and the first replacement arrived in the mail broken, too), I wasn't really feeling the love before I blocked them. The stitches were uneven, they were kind of stiff and felt restrictive. But blocking them helped a bit with the uneven stitches and turned the yarn soft and supple so they are tons more comfy. I'm still not one hundred percent thrilled with the yarn - the colorful yarn is super fuzzy so it looks like the dye bled a little (though it didn't because that look goes away if I brush the fuzz around) and the quality of the knitting could be better but hey, it was a learning project so I'm not too upset with it. But at least after doing this I feel confident enough that I can successfully knit a colorwork hat that I want to make. It has llamas on it! (If you want to read way too much information on the issues I had with these gloves, check out the notes on my Ravelry project. Oh the drama!) Next up: gloves for Dan! (They are his birthday present. Which kinda sucks for him cause today is his birthday and I'm hoping to cast on for them tonight... though it might be tomorrow.)  |
| Sweet & Sour of Awesomeness 02/02/2012 08:10 PM |
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I've been in a condiment mood lately. This past week, I've made corn- and gluten-free versions of recipes for yellow mustard and ketchup. Both of these turned out pretty fantastically. So I thought I'd try my hand at something more challenging. Dan and I had a ton and a half of trouble finding a me-safe sweet and sour sauce. The one we found was pretty freaking awesome. But recently, the grocery store stopped carrying it. And even more recently, we ran out of the last bit of our jar of it. But the jar did have an ingredient list on it, which wasn't that long, so I thought maybe I could use that as a jumping off point to try and figure out how to make a version of it. That's what I did tonight.
See? So simple! So I stir-fried up some onions, pork cubes and pineapple then, when it was all cooked, I dumped in the entire sauce recipe. It was perfect! Now I want to make more of it to bottle and stick in the fridge because it's really good on veggie patties, too. (According to Dan, it's also good on a spoon.)  |
| What Season Is It? 02/01/2012 04:34 PM |
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I just had to turn on the air conditioning in the house. It's 80° in here. Yes, 80°. What month is this? Because I'm feeling a little confused.  |
| Rekindling the Romance 01/31/2012 03:06 PM |
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My car is back! I got the call that it was all fixed and washed and ready to be picked up so I took my little caped crusader (aka the Rental Avenger) down to the repair place to get my car. It looks so nice - shiny and clean and all in one undented piece! On my drive home, I realized something. I have been taking my car for granted. Lately, Dan and I have thrown around the idea of replacing my car with something more grocery-getter appropriate. Cause my car? Can be easily defeated by a good Costco trip without even trying. (There's nothing like driving home with a 12-pack of toilet paper in the passenger seat.) So we had started talking about maybe thinking about possibly getting me a new car before this one is toast. Driving home, I realized that it's a silly thought. The Avenger? That had a good trunk. And even a back seat that people with legs could sit in! It was very grocery-getter appropriate. But while it was nice, my car is fantastic. Sure, it doesn't have the auxiliary jack or the seat heater (or a large trunk or a roomy backseat). But getting in it is like tucking myself into a comfy leather cocoon (instead of rattling around in the plastic and dashboarded vastness that is the Avenger). And driving my car? Pure joy. It turns so nicely and feels solid, but not heavy or hard to control. (After some discussion with Dan, we figured the Avenger might have a bit too helpful power steering assist or something - it turns easily and responsively but turning the wheel is so light and easy, it kinda feels like it's not connected to anything.) Maybe it is because my car sits a good foot lower than the Avenger (gotta love that low center of gravity). Or maybe it is because my car is just awesome. So yeah, it's 14 years old. And per the collision repair guy, it's probably going to turn dull pink some time in the future. (In '98 apparently Lexus didn't use a clear coat for the paint and since we never wax it, apparently that means it will fade and turn into one of those primer-looking cars, but in red (or pink).) And yeah, bits of the coating on the inside around the radio are flaking off in a few places. And there are a couple of holes in the leather (one due to high heels - oops). And okay, maybe the Top Gear guys think driving a Lexus is like sitting in a bucket of warm wallpaper paste. Well, apparently I like warm wallpaper paste, cause the drive home today reminded me how much I love my car. I'm sure one day, my car and I will go our separate ways. Someday it will go to that big parking lot in the sky and I'll have to find a fun-driving replacement. But until then, I'm going to do my best to drive the wheels off. And maybe wax it.  |
| I Need A Cape 01/29/2012 01:21 PM |
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Another quick (and picture-less) update about the semi bumper cars. My car is currently in the shop getting fixed. Mixed news on the cost of the repairs: the damage was surprisingly low, which is good but it is bad because it means no one won the showcase - everyone guessed too high! (The total was $2,385 and change... Dan was the closest at $2,500 but even then, you don't win the showcase if you go over.) Right now I'm in a rental car, a Dodge Avenger. Aside from having a silly little name that makes me want to read comic books, it's not a bad little car. Sure, the road noise is very loud (almost as loud as Dan's Rav and that's uncomfortably loud) and there are a few bits on it that feel cheap (like the mirror covers on the visors and, you know, the fact that the dash is plastic), but it does have some nice features too. I'm particularly fond of the seat heaters. Very enjoyable. The AUX jack for my iPod is nice, too. And happily, it drives nicely - tight turns, responsive steering and just a surprisingly good ride. I, however, will never buy a Dodge so the chance to really play around with one isn't a great benefit or anything. First off, Dan and I tend to go for the Japanese-made cars. But even if we were to consider Dodge, I think this car is made for someone at least a foot taller than I am. You have to reach way way back to open the center console and I have to about turn around in my seat to look in it. Even the cup holders are placed in a location that makes reaching back for them slightly awkward. So yeah, not at all my thing but for a week and a half, it's not bad! (Though I'd really like to be able to keep the seat heaters for longer.) Other than that, still going to the chiro. I'm feeling a lot better than I thought - I'm not really sore much in my back/shoulders anymore. The main issue is just a tense neck which is causing lots of headaches. That's not been fun. Since I've been corn-free the number of headaches (and migraines) I've had has drastically dropped so I'm not used to running this almost constant level of pain. My headache tolerance has really dropped! Anyway, that's the update! Not too exciting but there you go!  |
| Medical Menagerie 01/24/2012 03:38 PM |
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Just a little update. I'm still sore as all get out from the semi incident. It pretty much sucks - super-sore mid-back and a sore neck combine to basically give me a constant headache. Fortunately, it seems like the muscle spasms in my left shoulder have stopped after this weekend, so that's cool. The rest of it is still very much unfun and it makes me whiny. I've been drafting Dan to help me regularly apply the Badger to my back. Additionally, when I was at the chiro on Friday, she gave me some Tiger Balm. I gotta tell you, I'm loving that stuff. It's like a cross between Vicks Vapor-Rub and Icy Hot. The Badger is nice - it has a gingery warmth that isn't overly strong but kind of cuddly - but I'm kind of partial to the Tiger's more in-your-face mentholated tingle. I'm also doing regular chiropractic appointments and getting adjusted, some electrotherapy and delightful acupuncture. I really like acupuncture, by the way. When I first had it months ago, I figured eh, why not, it's not like it is making things worse so sure. But I had to skip acupuncture one appointment and I could really tell a difference. Post-poking, there is a nice looseness and lightness in the area that was punctured. It isn't a permanent thing - more like an extended release pain pill - but I really like how it feels. And if it is doing that, I can't help but think that there may be some longer term help that it provides that isn't as noticeable. So I definitely wanted to do it for this current issue, if we could. And we can, so I did! Dan got to witness it and said he thinks it's a bunch of voodoo. Hehe. While my prior shoulder issue got me six needles per session, looks like this one gets me something slightly closer to twenty. (I forgot to count and Dan just said between ten and twenty, but I'm pretty sure I had 10 just on the shoulders alone and she also did my upper spine and neck.) In more related news, Dan and I are taking my car in this evening to get a damage estimate. (We have a Price Is Right style betting pool on that currently. Feel free to offer your own guesstimate!) Of course, our appointment is in an hour or so and it is raining cats and dogs outside (thankfully not literally). And my trunk doesn't seal anymore. And my CD player is in my trunk. Sigh. No good can come of this.  |
| Semis Suck 01/19/2012 08:32 PM |
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Apparently, some drivers don't think the evening commute is exciting enough. And when that is the case, apparently these drivers decide to add their own brand of excitement to stop-and-go traffic by turning it into a game of bumper cars. And apparently they do this by picking a car and then ramming into them not once, not twice, but three separate times, each time bumping that car down the highway for a bit before stopping, resting, then doing it all again. Which really sucks. But it sucks even more when you are the car they pick to do this to.
But the back of my car is dented and heavily scratched up (from metal on metal, as the nice officer kindly pointed out), the trunk latches but no longer seals, my taillights are both broken and the bumper is no longer aligned. And I'm not sure what (if anything) happens to the inner workings of one's car when a semi shoves it about 200 feet down the highway while the brakes are fully engaged, but I can't imagine it's anything positive. And let me tell you, after being shove-shove-shoved multiple times down the highway by a semi? I'm not feeling too hot either. (My chiro doesn't normally work on Fridays but I've already called her and she's going to see me tomorrow morning for some adjustment, therapy and acupuncture. I've dosed up with Excedrin and am icing my neck/back currently, too.) Ironically, I had just been to the grocery store and picked up some herbal muscle rub.
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| Book One: FINALLY! 01/13/2012 08:29 AM |
  Finally. I have managed to finish Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld by David E. Kaplan and Alec Dubro. I've been working on this freaking book since last September but kept putting it down. Last night, though, I turned the last page (read it even). Go me!Ultimately, this book was pretty interesting but I had issues with it at the beginning. This book is like a big spiral, with the yakuza at the center. Instead of focusing on the yakuza (you know, like the title would suggest) this book circles around and around the topic, gradually getting closer and closer until the very end when the book is actually about the yakuza. Until then, though, it's more a general corruption in Japan. Sure, that corruption ultimately ties back to the yakuza in some way or another and learning about police corruption or corporation payoffs was fairly interesting, but I was really expecting something more detailed about, you know, the yakuza. Ultimately, the book did end up discussing the yakuza, specifically how they've expanded into other parts of the world (though at the same time, I got to learn almost equally about Chinese triads and tongs), but I think this book would be better represented by a title like Those That Deal with the Yakuza or Associates of the Yakuza. Verdict: Three and a half stars for interesting corruption-related information and two stars for only mild yakuza-ness. So I'll call it three stars and move on to the next book.  |
| Frustration 01/12/2012 06:00 PM |
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Just taking a moment to vent. I'm working on a new knitting project, trying to learn how to do colorwork, specifically colorwork with one color yarn in my right hand, one in my left. I knit English style (carrying the working yarn in my right hand) and I want to learn how to knit Continental (yarn in the left) to see if it was any faster/better for me so I figured that this project was a great chance to learn how to do that. It's not working well. I just can't keep even tension on my yarn that is in my left hand. Which is ironic, since when I crochet, I carry the working yarn in my left hand and have to maintain even tension on it. Yet the way I hold yarn for crocheting won't work for me while knitting. It's rather frustrating trying to knit smoothly using my left hand. But that's just issue one. First off, look at this yarn.
No. OMG. Horror. It splits like mad and is so hard to catch the whole strand when knitting into a stitch. Very annoying. And, even worse, the plied cream wool I'm using does the same thing. Not quite to the same extent, but still enough so that it is difficult to knit into. On the positive side, the pattern is nice. At least I'm not dealing with issues there (other than the fact that I tend to skim instead of read the chart, which means I have to backtrack a bit... but really, that's my own fault). Of course, the wonky tension issues I'm having are kind of screwing up the pattern in that the contrasting color stitches are being pulled too tight so they don't pop as much as the natural yarn color. Which means the pattern doesn't show up as nicely as it could.
Sigh. I'm about â of the way through the project. I really hope I get the left hand tension thing straight. Because I have a pattern for a colorwork hat that features alpacas and I really want to not hate colorwork so I can make me an alpaca hat.  |
| Beer Updates 01/08/2012 01:25 PM |
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Last weekend, Dan started brewing his third beer. This one is going to be a pumpkin one, too, but sorghum-based and it will be gluten-free.
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