Knitting Under Pressure

Let me start by saying that I was NEVER into basketball before Matt. Ever. Well, maybe the NCAA Final Four. But the Lakers? Used to hate them like 90% of the basketball world. Not to mention that supporting ANY L.A. team makes me feel like I am cheating on my San Francisco loyalties.

Alas, I found myself deeply engaged in the last quarter of the Lakers-Nuggets game last night, right along side Matt all the while you guessed it, rooting for the Lakers. Yelling at the TV. My heart rate might have even gone up.

In fact, I found myself knitting just a wee bit tighter on the piece of Laurent that I was working on and had to RIIIIIP that part out at the end of the game. No kidding - I wasn't about to make the same mistake I did when I got my tattoo.



Even the untrained eye can spot the four rows on the back of my A-Line Jacket I knitting while this was going on. At least it kept me from puking, so i'd say it's an even trade off.

5.19.09

The roses in our front yard are all blooming this week:



You have no idea how excited this makes me. Those of you who have been reading for awhile already know that I tend to kill almost everything I plant. Seriously. Roses are some of the most resilient plants out there, but I've still been holding my breath.

Speaking of pretty things, I've fallen in love Heidi Kirrmaier's (username PiPiBird) designs over on Ravelry. Buttercup went straight to the top, which I am planning to knit with these mods in Knit Picks CotLin from the stash. Since after the great yarn cleanup of 2009, I am testing the very limit of my self-control by vowing to knit from what I have until I'm down to only one giant Tupperware full (I'm currently at two and a half - yikes!)

Instead, all my yarn yearnings are hitting my Wish List over at yarn.com (hint hint for the holidays dad, since I now know you read this!).

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Before closing, I feel a need to vent that I am totally pissed that I can't make it to the Giant's game on Monday, July 27th. Unfortunately, I just don't have the time off, but they are giving away these:



via Craft Magazine

He'd have such a nice home with the other boys in my office.

How to Waste a Sunday

Have you ever had one of those Sundays where you bounce out of bed, cook yourself a great breakfast than happily tackle a giant list of to-do items and end the day feeling all productive and stuff?

Yesterday was not one of those days.

After a fantastic dinner of Stuffed Mushrooms, Chicken Cordon Blue, and good wine on Saturday night:



M & I feel asleep early and got a great night's sleep. He was up bright and early to head down to LA Lakers game, and with the house to myself all day I had all sorts of big plans: Clean out the pantry, sew some napkins, plant some herbs, knit for a bit.

Instead, at 8:30am I sat down with my cup of coffee & the back of my dad's vest, flipped on the TV, and got caught up in a marathon of Dr. G: Medical Examiner. The only time I got up was to pour more coffee, and to swap my knitting to the Pintuck-T when I finished the vest. The next thing I knew, it was 1pm and I was still in my PJ's and starving for something to eat.

After some leftover Cordon Blue, I was back on the couch with another marathon of Life After People. Before I knew it, it was 5pm and I FINALLY changed out of my nightgown to head over to my sister's house for dinner.



Not bad, considering this was only about 2 inches in when I started. I'm fairly certain that knitting 200 yards of linen yarn in one sitting did a number on my wrists, but thus is life.

So yes, it was a day of sloth. But it was just what I needed to get on track for this week.

One for Pops

I was at my weekly lunch my dad today, recapping the week of our beloved SF Giants. We were discussing which big ending was better this week: Pablo vs. the Nationals, or Winn vs. the Dodgers. Personally, a game inning hit over the Dodgers is pretty hard to beat. Anyhow, he said I should post Pablo's walk-off homerun on the old blog. How do you say no to that?



PABLO
RANDY

5.14.09

We're enjoying our two weeks of Spring here in Fres-yes. By Sunday it's going to be 103, so we have to enjoy the backyard while it's still relatively cool and everything hasn't shriveled up and died.

Had a nice little outdoor dinner party last night, which was the perfect excuse to heat up some of my grandma's awesome marinara sauce.





Of course, I don't have 4 hours to make the homemade gnocchi like she does, but the Trader Joe's version worked just fine. With a salad and bread, nothing too complicated.

And red wine, of course! This wine we were drinking is still from our wedding. Yup, 15 months ago! I don't think I ever talked about it on here but we (and by we, I mean Matt) built a fridge that could dispense wine from a tap so that we could buy wine in bulk, put it in soda kegs, and be able to avoid the 1/2 drank bottles going to waste. Plus, anything that wasn't finished (oh, about 20 gallons worth!) could live in our backyard and we could enjoy it for months to come. We're finally onto the last soda keg!

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I ripped out a few projects that just weren't going to make it, and started another one (that's me - the forever-casting on-er).



Pintuck T, in some Louet Linen from the stash. I just finished the short-row shaping on the bottom (which is genius, btw).

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I also got a new haircut, which I love.



I've come a long way from cutting my own hair in my little studio apartment back in the grad school days!

Preview: Noro Shawl

I overslept this morning, so this coming to you live from the U. on my lunch hour date with a PJ's Chicken Burrito.

I bound off the Noro Shawlette last night:



It still needs to be blocked, but like the saying goes, "I'm Loving It!"



I probably would have worn it to work today even in its unblocked state but oh wait, it's supposed to be 90-something degrees.

I've been continuing my yarn-reorg, deleting a bunch of stuff from my Ravelry queue and trying to pair up my exisiting stash with planned projects. But I won't lie, I did purchase a few more things from WEBS this morning for some gifts and commissioned work. Well, a couple balls of Suri Merino might have jumped in there for the textured shawl recipe. What can I say, I love the Noro one so much I was unable to resist the urge to cast on another!

The Great Yarn Re-Org of 2009

Friday night we had our dinner club, with a "Hawaiian" theme. To be honest, I'm usually really good with all the foodie stuff but was short of ideas on what to bring to this one. Since I didn't think the hosts would appreciate a Slow-cooked Hawaiian Kalua Pig in their backyard, I settled for an old favorite with a new twist. I found this recipe for Sake-Soy Guacamole in one of my Sunset magazines. It was by a Hawaiian chef so that counts, right?

I didn't catch a photo of it but I HIGHLY recommend it. It still has all that avocado-yumminess you expect from Guac, but with a smoother, tangier (is that a word?) taste. Served it with Tarro chips, but I think it would have been really yummy with the veggies suggested as well.

Before the dinner, I spent my Friday afternoon organizing, photographing, and Ravelring (I making up words left and right today!) my entire yarn stash.

BEFORE:




AFTER:





Check out the fruits of my labor over here at Ravelry. I also have about 15 projects lined up with yarn I already have, so let's see how far I can make it into the year without buying yarn.

Saturday the spring cleaning continued into our closets. However the effort was somewhat deterred by a phone call from a friend inviting us up to the lake on their boat. How do you say NO to that?



Katy came along and got to try out her new life vest.





Sunday was Mother's Day and we spent some time visiting with M's mom and Grandma, then headed to my mom's house for dinner. I was in charge of dessert, and brought Mimosa Granita, served with Vanilla Ice Cream & Strawberries. Highly recommended, especially if you live somewhere like the Central Valley and it's already 85 degrees at 8pm.

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In other news, I have been getting a mad, mad itch to start sewing again. My sewing machine has been buried in our spare bedroom but it is actually starting to see the light of day thanks to our weekend clean-up. I've been seeing this top popping up all over blogland and I LOVE it - I could see myself wearing it all summer long. I'm hoping I will have a few hours on my hands this week/end to give it a whirl...

5.7.09

Noro Shawl:



Cashmere Claudia:



This is for M's grandma. Those cables are killing my hands, but I know she will really appreciate it. I was trying to get it done by Mother's Day, but last night I had to rip out back to the ribbing and start over (I changed needle size too soon). I WOULD have been 50% done as of this morning, but now I'm back to 25%.

Both of these should be farther along, but I've been feeling like crap all this week. Pretty sure both me and the hubby are getting sick, given the fact that our alarm went off this morning at the usual time and we both agreed we could have used about another 6 hours.

Weekend Eats

Updated 5/11/09 with more photos

This past weekend we were at yet another Giants game at AT&T Park in SF. We were there for an annual outing with my dad's family.



We actually headed up the night before and met some of my sister's friends for dinner at Osha Thai Restaurant, which was BOMB, and some drinks.

The next morning, we took our time walking to the game along the Embarcadero and were finally able to stop at Hidive, a bar we always talk about stopping at but we never do.



We had a round of Bloody Mary's and prayed the rain would stop before first pitch. It did.

Sadly the Giants had a not-so-stellar performance, but we were able to sit in the Club Level for the second half of the game and take in the view.



My dad is 1/2 German, so we decided that this year we would have an an authentic German meal to cap off a day at the ballpark. Schroder's answered the call wonderfully. I'm not going to lie, I was a little hesitant. Most of the German food I am familiar with are the dishes we have at Christmas - German Sausage, Potato Salad, Kuchen, and the liverwurst that my dad special orders and tries to force on us every year.

We started out some Sausage Appetizer Platters, which had a variety of cocktail size Sausages with Kassler Ripchen (Smoked Pork Chops), Potato Pancakes, Herring, Pickles, Head Cheese, Sauerkraut, & Red Cabbage. I really liked the Herring (I might have been the only one at our 1/2 of the table to try it!) and Red Cabbage.

Next up was small plates of German Potato Salad and Cole Slaw, which I devoured. For the main course I had Grilled Salmon with Dill Sauce & boiled potatoes )lots of starches for those Germans!), and I was definitely happy with it. Oh yeah, and then there was the beer.



That's "Bavarian-sized", or 38oz of brew. But alas, this was not the largest beer you could order. Apparently there is something called "The Boot", which is an 80 oz glass in the shape of an actual men's boot. There was a group of kids at the table behind us trying to finish them off, but they finally gave up. THANK GOD, because their random bouts of Karaoke was getting really, really annoying.

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One final foodie-related post from this weekend: Last night we headed to our friends house for Sunday night dinner, and finished off the meal with some 5-Minute Chocolate Cake. Yes really. It had a pretty funky texture - kind of chewy, but hey! It really was cake in 5 minutes! Definitely add some whipped cream.