One of the things I love about Ravelry is the forum. It isn't just the knitting, it is the discussions that occur in some of the groups I belong to. For instance, I really like to read through the discussion board for the "This is what a feminist knits like" group or the "Puck This!" group. Another favorite is "Knit. Hook. Cook." where someone posted a link to CookThink.

You know when you are really are in the mood for something with mushrooms, or something "gooey" or maybe just something European but you really aren't sure what you should make that would satisfy your craving? With this website you enter the ingredient, dish, cuisine, and/or mood and the website will pull up recipes that match your criteria. The recipes I've seen so far look pretty good, I think I will have to try some out.

A post that should containt a lot of links but doesn't

While I am thinking about it I am going to actually update. Work has been super crazy and not much fun lately, so I come home and knit. I knit about 5 different projects and I teach myself new things and do whatever I can to enjoy the time that I do own. The learning hasn't been limited to knitting either. (Details on knitting below) Netflix has a great inventory of documentaries, many of the available for instant viewing. This weekend it was a documentary on Emma Goldman (who I found out is buried in Chicago!) We also watched one about the Weathermen. I guess we were kind of revolutionary. The weekend before I fed my artistic side. See the little creamer I painted? I've wanted to do that pottery painting for a long time, and I'm glad I did. Since I moved to Illinois I really haven't painted. It is sort of the set-up I have in this apartment, the light carpet is a factor, and then there has been the knitting which receives most of my creative energy. When we move maybe I will fix that.

Speaking of moving, there has been much watching of HGTV. Along with that I must admit there has been a lot of dreaming about future homes. When we go back to Ohio we will rent at first, but buying a house is definitely a goal we would like to accomplish within a few years. I want a yard.

Earlier I alluded to learning some new knitting things. I am still intermittently working on Quant, which is my first entrelac project. In the past few episodes of Craftlit Heather has talked about New Pathways for Sock Knitters by Cat Borhdi. The book has patterns, but it is more about new ways to construct socks. For the most part I am a lot more interested in trying new sock techniques, deciding if I like them, and if I do integrating them into my "perfect sock" pattern inside my head than following a specific pattern for a pair of socks. For one thing, socks are often my portable and "mindless" project so I prefer something simple that I don't need to refer to a pattern for. Another thing is that I like the creativity of pulling something together myself with what I know about sock construction and the help of a stitch dictionary.

Cat has two "practice"socks to knit first, and then she says you should be able to jump in anywhere. I am very anxious to jump into a couple new constructions, but I am being good and knitting the practice socks first with scrap yarn. As you can see in practice sock #1 above I ran out of scrap yarn #1. That was not a planned "design element." I just started practice sock #2 last night. I think I will continue on with it now.

Laugh of the Day

Mark found this link on Fark. Who doesn't enjoy making fun of lame infomercials?

Enter the busy season

I had trouble getting to sleep last night, and I figured out it was because I was anxious about work. There is a certain procedure we can only do so much of a year, and after we hit that threshold, every request for that procedure gets rejected with an explanation and the investor is told they can resubmit the request after January 1 of the next year. We reached this threshold in early March last year.

You can probably figure out where this leaves me on January 2 (being that Jan 1 is a holiday after all.)

I am super busy at work, which beats having nothing to do, but it still makes me a little crazy.

The strange thing is that my way of coping with the crushing weight of my inbox is apparently to cast on a ton of projects and plan meals to cook for the next month. You would sort of think that being busy all day at work would make me want to come home and either do nothing or only do the most simple projects. It doesn't work that way I guess. Maybe I just really want creative worthwhile things to do after 8 hours of data entry type work. Or it could just be that with the "fresh start" of the New Year I think it is the perfect time to get startitis.

New year, new projects

It is sort of fun reading other blogs today and seeing what goals everyone is setting.

I have a few vague ones for 2008, but I've never been much for setting New Year's resolutions. I also have this strange fear that if I write down a list of things to do I will never actually do any of them because I will fear restricted and rebel. I'm weird like that.

As for new in the sweater drama I wrote about last night, I think I may have found my solution. I will just ditch the contrasting color completely. I have 7 skeins of yarn, and the size I am knitting and the next up calls for 7 skeins of yarn, so I am hoping that I will still be all right with yardage. I cast on for a sleeve and so far I like the look with the solid color.

I am also gearing up to cast on for my next lace shawl. The Victorian Lace Today group is doing a KAL with a couple options, two of them being for shawls I want to knit. I haven't completely decided which one I am going to cast on, but right now I am leaning towards the Myrtle Leaf shawl in the Blackberry Ridge laceweight I got for my birthday last year. Anyway, it is decision time for me.


::Edit::

There is one New Year's resolution I will make: I want to ultilize my Ravlery Queue more. I think it could really help me organize upcoming projects. For the last six months I've been using it to add patterns that I would like to knit so that I don't use them. Now I want to take it to the next level and assign yarns and an order to my knitting to-do list.