19 Inches and Counting

I know you can't see the numbers on that white stick in nearly the middle of the picture (leaning against the deck banister). But it has numbers on it and there are about 19 inches on our back patio right now. You can see the chair. Now the 4 inches we had the other day had melted off the back porch, but was still mostly all over the ground still, so there's quite a bit of snow out there. There are huge piles on the sides of our driveway and we still have to shovel the drive even more. This is Virginia, for goodness sake!

Oh, have I mentioned, it's supposed to keep snowing until this evening sometime?! Oh, well, I have plenty of knitting to do, lots of hot chocolate and tea and lots of popcorn.

Stay warm!

Tale of Two Titles

I couldn't decide on "OMG, Actual Knitting Content" or "Enough is Enough Already!" So, rest assured, there is an actual photograph of knitting in this post. First, however, a pretty winter tree picture and the "Enough" title. We got another four inches or so of snow last night. This is in addition to the couple of inches we had the other day. And we're expecting another foot or so this weekend! That's too much snow for Virginia! I am officially sick of snow. Darn groundhog!

So, now for the actual knitting content. I told you I actually had some. This is the back part of the purse. (Click on either picture to "embiggen.")

Yes, the colors look a little washed out, but it's grey here. I promise to try and get a better picture when the purse is finally finished, but you can see it for now. I'm working on the intarsia now and it's not my favorite, that's for sure. Anyway, I hope to have it finished soon.

Lamy Pens

I will show knitting soon. I'm just disenchanted with the whole intarsia thing right now. So, I'll show a few of my pens. As I said the other day, yes, fountain pens are still being made. There are lots to choose from. Lots of styles, lots of colors, and lots of prices. Lamy is a German company that seems to make a pretty good fountain pen for a very fair price. Hence, my owning four - two are "Al-Star" made from aluminum and two are "Safari" made from plastic. Two have fine points and two extra fine (you can also get medium, broad, and italic nibs; I have an italic, or calligraphy, nib on the way). These pens use cartridges or a converter so that you can use bottled ink (which comes in tons of colors!); you can see how much ink you have left in the little ink window.

Yes, I sound like an advertisement for Lamy pens, but I really do like them. Nice pens that write well. The pink one was my very first fountain pen and it has been a slippery slope. (Sort of like that first skein of really nice, alpaca yarn; you just have to have more :-) The pink currently has a beautiful pink color in it called Bouquet D'Antan and the red pen has Midnight Blues ink. (The other two are empty at the moment.) I have more pens and inks, but I wouldn't want to overload you in one post.

Wow, two whole months!

Wow, two whole months of not posting a single thing. That has to be a new record for me. I truly feel guilty for not updating the blog much sometimes, but I have so many competing interests right now, knitting just isn't always there. Maybe I need to expand the blog to include some of my other interests (they are many and varied). Most recently, my interests have included a renewed interest in languages (Latin, Ancient Greek and most recently, I've begun learning Italian; I hope to go to Italy someday), sewing, and pens.

I have been knitting here and there and maybe I'll get a picture of my slow progress on the East Meets West Bag. I've finished the front/back section and have begun the flap and have quickly discovered how much I despise intarsia, so it may take a while. Especially because after all the intarsia, there's the i-cord border, something else I loathe. I'd much rather do a complicated cable pattern than either intarsia or i-cord.

I've always had an interest in languages and have kept up with Latin here and there since college, but I've decided in recent months to study it more seriously as well as try and learn Ancient Greek. Latin, in my opinion, isn't all that difficult. It could be partly all the French I took in high school and college helping out. (I could never speak it very well, but at one time, I could read it pretty well.) I've also just begun studying Italian, and I'm finding it going pretty quickly. Again, that's probably because of all the French and Latin I've done. Now, Ancient Greek is definitely the hardest of the three. Since Italian pretty much descended from Latin, much of the structure and vocabulary are similar, but Greek is a bit different in many ways (aside from the alphabet).

Now, sewing will probably also show up at some point soon on the blog since it is actually fiber related. I do have a lining to do for a previously finished purse as well as the current one whenever I finish it, so that will be posted. Maybe...

Pens. Ah, my newest addiction. Not just any pens, mind you, but fountain pens. Yes, they do, in fact, still make fountain pens. They even still make lots and lots of fountain pen ink in all sorts of pretty colors. I've been sad about the lack of handwriting instruction in schools these days (along with other things, but we won't go there), so I've found my way into some pretty writing instruments and ink. I've also come across some vintage pens in need of repair. So, of course, I have a repair book on its way. Maybe I'll post some pen-related stuff as well.

I can't imagine why people tell me I have too many hobbies...

More East Meets West

I've actually made a bit of progress on the strap. I'm nearly done with the short row section. I'll be glad of that because my tension still isn't as good as in the round. I think it's okay enough though to work itself mostly out in the blocking process. Only about three more short rows though and I can go back to working in the round.


I'm also hoping to get some sewing done this week. I got a really cool new book on pattern-drafting and I've already drafted a basic skirt pattern. (I hope to review the book after I make a few things out of it, but as of right now, I think it's going to get a glowing review.)

Book Review Friday

It's occurred to me that I may own quite a number of books. They range in subject matter from history, trashy romance, Learning Ancient Greek, Mark Twain, Jane Austen, and more. In that library of books, I also happen to own quite a few crafting books. These books also cover all interests - Temari, sewing, beading, weaving, spinning, and, of course, knitting. I also own a few cookbooks. Anyway, I thought, since knitting is occasionally scarce on the blog due to my number of interests, I thought maybe I'd share some of my other interests (including knitting) by reviewing a book or two from my personal library every week according to my fancy. (A caveat: since I usually preview books from the library or at the bookstore before I buy, most of these reviews will probably be fairly positive.) One week, it may be cookbooks, another may feature sewing, probably whatever books I've been using or looking at the previous week.

This week's book is a new cookbook called Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It's by Jeff Herzberg and Zoe Francois and is a follow up to their Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. Both of these books feature "no-knead" yeast bread. You basically mix the dough, give it an initial rise, then stick it in the fridge. When you want a loaf of bread, you cut off a chunk, shape it, let it rise and bake it. This dough is wetter than the traditional, knead-it bread dough and for some reason (which honestly isn't well-explained, but maybe I'm the only one interested in the actual chemistry of it), that makes it work without kneading. It makes really good bread without a lot of effort. I'm one of those people who has spent time kneading dough out by hand as well as kneading it by heavy-duty mixer. I can't tell the difference in taste except that this is much easier! I've tried the 100% Whole Wheat Bread, Plain and Simple and with Olive Oil. Both were really good. I've also tried the cracker recipe from the whole wheat bread dough. It was a pain rolling the dough thin enough to work, but they were good. (I brushed them with oil and sprinkled a little chili powder on them. Yum.)

I like that there are lots of recipes to choose from. Something I didn't particularly like though is many of the recipes have varying amounts of regular old white flour. Since I make my own bread mostly to make it healthy and better-tasting than store-bought wheat, I'm sort of disappointed to find so many of the recipes do call for white flour because it supposedly produces a lighter bread. Yeah, well, there's a reason I'm making whole wheat bread. Yeah, it's a little denser than white, but it's whole wheat. They say you can substitute whole wheat, but you need to adjust the amount of liquid. I'd hoped they'd have already done that work for me. Anyway, having said that, the whole wheat recipes that I've tried are really good and will probably keep me pretty much in bread for a while. If you make bread, it's worth the purchase price for the whole wheat recipe alone, in my opinion. With the amount of bread I've made, I've already saved the price from not buying wheat bread in the store.

This book also features a few gluten-free recipes, but not having tried them yet, I can't attest to how they taste or bake up. Luckily I don't have to avoid gluten, but having to read labels religiously to avoid a couple of other things (do you know how many items contain sucralose these days!?), I can sympathize a little with having to avoid certain items, but really, wheat is everywhere. If I make one of the gluten-free recipes, I'll certainly post my opinion!

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Hey, Look Over There...

I'll tell why there's no knitting to show in a moment. Meanwhile, there are pictures of fluffy animals taken at the zoo yesterday.


First of all we have a fluffy animal that could bite your head off.

Isn't he cute trying to get his ball out of the water?






These little guys are always so pretty.

So why am I distracting you with no knitting pictures? Because I had to frog some more. The short row section tensioning didn't look right to me, so I frogged. Just the short row section, the rest of the handle, I'm very happy with. You know though, if I'm putting all this effort into a purse, I'm going to be really happy with it, so I'll do a bit more work if need be.