Monday, December 28, 2009

Merry belated Christmas!

Merry Christmas to me--I got what I asked for: no snow BEFORE Christmas (for business purposes, and that was fantastic). Plus, scraping snow/ice off car windows really is the worst.

Anyhow, the evenings after coming home from work, I busily figured out how to sew using our sewing maching (breaking a couple needles in the process. Note to self: must buy more needles for the machine, just in case...)

But here is what I made:






Monday, December 07, 2009

Hello, December!

Well, it's been eons...and a lot has happened (ha, that tends to happen when time flies by). Anyway, this past Saturday was the open house at Craft Akron, which is a fabulous place--and they will have classes there. There's some I want to take, but I know I'll have to wait until Christmas is over, so I can focus on things like finals week! And Christmas working! You know. That sort of thing.
Anyway, over the past few weeks, I have tried my first beignet in New Orleans. I went to Nola for a convention, which was completely and utterly overwhelming, but it was cool to go there. Seriously, the best part of going to New Orleans is the food...I kid you know. Between the beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde, there was also this great dish at Cochon that was so mouthwateringly delicious, even though the description was pretty boring. (I ordered: ham hock with sweet potatoes, pickled greens & black eyed pea ham broth $18) There was also Cafe Adelaide, where I spent the most I have on food (Sea Salt-Tellicherry Pepper Shrimp & Grits $26.00 roasted garlic-rosemary stone ground grits, lemon croustade and New Orleans BBQ sauce blanc), but had some really fabulous shrimp (with heads on!) on grits. There was also brandy punch and much overeating involved at Cafe Adelaide. Of course, I topped all this off with the beignets at Cafe du Monde, without which no trip to New Orleans would be complete. I made a mess of myself, ending up with powdered sugar on my elbow, my pants, my new bag from the convention, the front of my shirt...but you know that it didn't matter. It was just completely and utterly worth the powdered sugar on everything. I want to go back to New Orleans to eat.
I also started another pair of Monkey socks on the trip to New Orleans. Can I just say that the pattern is so mindless and easy to remember (especially since I am using the no purl monkey pattern). I am now working on the pair.
In addition, I have had this blue and turquoise yarn staring at me for months, so I decided to cast on for another project (as if I don't have enough on my hands, what with the Monkey socks, lovingly dubbed Christoph-Probst-Str. 12 A, in honor of the dormitory I lived in--and had the same colored curtains in my room!)
So I am starting another Owlie Cowl, which is likely to become someone's Christmas gift this year.