Not obsessed enough

To some, even to me, this truth about myself might be hard to believe. I can sit on my tuchus for hours in front of a computer screen, behind a pair of knitting needles or a book. Sleeping. (Sleeping takes dedication, ladies and gentlemen. I have to woo it with thunderstorms and sundry white noise recordings before it gives me the time of day. Early morning time of day, that is, when the sun is still high over Saudi Arabia and the edge of its light is barely farther away from Kansas than the width of South America.)

Another truth about me, however, makes my most recent failure plausible. I'm forgetful. I forgot, on some day early in March, to snap a photo for my Project 365 obsession. I forgot to do it the next day, too. Then, I think, I remembered. I forget what I took a picture of now, and I forgot to take another one the next day. I forgot again for, like, a week.

I was knitting this instead:



A drop-stitch scarf for a friend who now gets to use the "C" card, as she puts it, for when she wants to be ornery and a lady of leisure and not do something she can perfectly well get off her duff to do. (That's her plan, folks, so please don't write me letters.)

I've said all this to say I probably won't have any other blog posts dedicated to a week's worth of photos. Instead, they'll be solitary, random shots like this one of our Flowering Quince bush:



I had to use a tripod to get a steady shot of that sucker. And then I forgot I had on the super-saturation color mode. Or whatever that mode is called. I forget now.

Project 365, Week 9

Never since 1888, when weather records began in south central Kansas, have we gone longer than ninety days without hitting 60-degrees F. We went 94 days this winter. It was cold--at freezing and below--for a long time this go around. Thursday broke the cold spell. Now that I can hear mourning doves in the back yard, now that I saw a little brown moth driving drunk above the dead grass, now that it's time to clear off the seed starter table in the basement, I should be more than ready for spring.

I'm not.

Cold weather has infested my brain, numbed it for too long, and it is telling me I've been pulled through a knot hole into this burgeoning season. That isn't a complaint against spring. I love spring; it's my second favorite season after fall. My hopes for it have just hibernated longer than usual this year, and now I'm groggy. I get clumsy and surprised easily when I'm groggy.

Now you know.

March 1



Tea with Lemon


March 2



Great American Aran Afghan (GAAA), block 1
I'm knitting 12 cable-intensive blocks from the The Great American Aran Afghan book this year. I hope. This block, designed by Judy Levy, was supposed to be January's block, and finished it early last week. I haven't begun February or March's yet.


March 3




March 4



Lace


March 5



Basketweave
I'm trying colorwork in my knitting for the first time. The Lucy Bag is a plain, felted bag, but I'm adding this swath of basketweave to mine. The glory of this scheme is that any mistake I make in the colorwork will be felted into oblivion.


March 6



Special Breakfast
Saturday is bacon and eggs day.


March 7



Tree Man

Project 365, Week 8

February 21




February 22



First Birthday
Harry turned one this week.  When we weighed him, he was over eleven pounds; BIG boy.


February 23




February 24



To cold to get up
At this angle, the geese look like they're huddled close.  They're actually five or six inches apart on the ice.  This photo was chosen for one of verb [ict]'s daily snaps.


February 25




February 26



Frosty Pods


February 27



Rising Moon
Backlit by the moon, the trees were also lit from the front by the camera's flash.  It was unintentional, but I like the effect.


February 28



Ten Stitch Blanket, pattern by Frankie Brown, is soooo easy. I held two chunky yarns together, knitting them with huge US 15 needles. It is for my husband's stepdad who said he wanted a heavy blanket.

I started and finished this during the 2010 Winter Olympics as part of the Ravelympics fun at Ravlery.com.

Project 365, Week 7

February 15



House Frog
This three-legged, black-dotted, blue frog showed up as trash in our yard several years ago. Up until three years ago it lived on an outside window sill next to the driveway because I just didn't want to throw it away. Unclaimed, it now resides in a glass dish in the house. The books are classics I inherited from my mother. Her dog Boots tore into a few of them.


February 16

 

What Now
Because I'm equal opportunity, here's a photo of the other cat, Rosie, to balance out the photo of Harry last week. This was almost the last one of several I took. She was a bit exasperated with her live-in paparazza.


February 17



Ash Wednesday


February 18

 

Shawl Pin


February 19

 

To Go
This week we have a lamp from Il Vicino restaurant.


February 20

 

Giant Slalom-ghan Progress
This is a blanket I'm knitting for my husband's stepdad.  I'm using the Olympics' Closing Ceremonies as my deadline, and my inspiration for doing so has been the Ravelry.com Winter Ravelympics.  The pattern is the very simple Ten Stitch Blanket by Frankie Brown.

Project 365, Week 6

I have unraveled the red sweater I mentioned last week. Not only was the sleeve still too big when I re-knit it, but the body could have accommodated three rings and a few high fliers. The gauge swatch LIED to me. Most unforgivable.

So, I took this opportunity to enter the sweater's grand frogging* into the Aerial Unwind event in Ravelry.com's Winter 2010 Ravelympics. As my reward for finishing, the Ravelry Olympic Committee bestowed me with this badge:

Which now makes me a

*"Frogging" is another term for unraveling in knitting or taking apart a seam in sewing.  You rip it, rip it, rippit, rippit, ribbit...

And now back to our weekly photos...

February 8



Fudgy Brownie
A Simple & Delicious magazine recipe. The light layer is a peanut butter pudding frosting.


February 9



Snow Peels


February 10



Rockwell Library Courtyard
Chosen for Verb [ICT]'s daily snap.


February 11



Cafe Flower
Another cafe lampshade shot. This time, Panera.


February 12




Reflection in a Denny's
More eatery lamps.


February 13



A song sung during my church's "Fat Saturday" service. The balloons are table decor for the Cajun meal we shared. This is easy irony, I know, but a girl's gotta get her daily 365 photo from somewhere.


February 14



Gratuitous Cuteness
A little something precious for Valentine's Day. I hope yours was a lovely one.

Project 365, Week 5...et al

So, I've been posting mostly pictures and precious few words on this here blog. Probably the world could do with fewer words, but I'm not here right now to have that debate. Right now, I would like to share with you why I have been letting photo entries express my thousands of words.

I've been working on a sweater.



It's for me. The first sleeve is too long, even at 14" already. So, I'm ripping back to take another run at it, decreasing more rapidly next time. I'm thinking that for each photo I've posted lately, it's worth a thousand stitches.

And now on to this weeks' batch of 365 shots. (By the way, thanks to all who have been encouraging my efforts in person and online.)

February 1



The snow melting off my neighbor's awning reminded me of Mr. Snuffleupagus's eyelashes.


February 2




February 3



Hello
Our neighbors' Labrador


February 4



Sign of Life
Detail of one of our flowering quince bushes. This cluster is the largest one I found and is probably smaller than a penny...no larger than a nickel, anyway.


February 5



CHILL
The store window of my favorite yarn shop.


February 6




February 7



Alpaca Sea Sponges
This set of fingerless gloves is another project I started after the first of the year. The thumb gusset photo from week one was the first glove in progress. When they were done, the open fingers reminded me of...well, you read the caption title. See for yourself.

Project 365, Week 4

January 24



Leftover Chili


January 25



Northern Light


January 26



Minced Words


January 27



Sunset at New Market Square


January 28



Diner Tea


January 29



snow + knot hole = snot hole
(Sorry. The runny-nose-inspired title doesn't quite match the photo's subject, just my attitude at the time.)


January 30



Scarves in the Snow
(Since I began knitting, especially knitting lace, I've seen lace patterns in odd places. Such as my driveway.)


January 31



The Firkin Bull
(Mirror mirror on the wall... The Firkin and Bull is a local pub-like establishment.)

Project 365, Week 3

January 17



I inherited handmade, vintage linens from my mother and grandma. This is a detail from a table scarf.


January 18



Mead's Corner is a great local coffee house. Cinnamon adds a zip to their hot chocolate, like static electricity, before the chocolate takes over and does its job. The picture is one of the lampshades there.


January 19



Sunflowers and Self Portrait. I'm the one behind the camera. By the way, this is my quilt content for the week (month...year...in recent memory); the wall quilt was foundation paper pieced as well as hand-pieced and hand-quilted for a guild challenge. Almost ten years ago, when I had artsy-schmartsy quilty ambition.


January 20



The leaves in the birdbath finally thawed out.

January 21




January 22




January 23