Knitting Overload....Again.

My brain is on knitting overload again.  I'm knitting a lot.  While I'm knitting, I'm thinking a lot about knitting.  And thinking about knitting a lot of things.  What I'm going to knit next, with what yarn.  What things that I'm going to knit that I can teach in a class.  How much time I have to knit.  How much time I don't have to knit and how I can change that to more time to knit.

Remember that post where I said I loved the Knitter's Pride Karbonz needles and I was going to go out and buy more?  I did and I now have a second sock going:

...which I worked on when I visited my family in Connecticut this weekend and got up early:

Can you even see that???

I will say it again.  I. LOVE. THESE. NEEDLES.  The tips are pointy but not too pointy that they hurt the tips of your fingers.  The join to the rest of the needle is smooth and the rest of the needle is made of I'm-not-sure-what but it  is smooth but not slippery.  A nice combination of needle attributes.  You should get some.  If you knit.  Ooh, and I think I'm going to try a new kind of heel on these socks.  But, I'll tell you about that when i get to them...

I also bought them in a larger size so I could start the Treads tipless gloves:

...and I still love them.  However, I didn't love the yarn for this project.   To clarify, I love the yarn.  Just not for this project.  Aslan Trends Royal Alpaca is 100% alpaca.  But it was a little too dark and too fuzzy.  Too dark to see the braid and linen stitch pattern, and too fuzzy for the same reason.  I also thought it would be difficult when it came time to do the tips - lots of picking up of stitches in a small area.  So I switched to Cascade 220 and it looks much better.  See?:

Cascade 220 on the right. (ok, the light could have been
better...)

And now I'm cruising along, having just finished the thumb gusset:

Better light.  That happens in the daytime.

Look at this cool sideways stitch:

It is a braid and involves all kinds of acrobatics with the needles.  But, it's worth the effort because it's pretty.

And I finally finished my Cozy wrap, AND blocked it:

Blocking.  Yes, I know it's uneven, but it won't be worn
so you can see the whole thing like that and know
it's uneven....see pics below...

It turned out to be about 80 inches long and 22 inches wide.  A really nice size for wearing it like the model above.

I also finally got some good pictures (on a foam head) of my Mystic Spiral Hat:

I've got to get one of these.  So handy for pictures, and blocking too.  And then I started another one:

I'm sure you were wondering about the garden.....  Tomatoes galore.  And an eggplant.

Still no books to tell you about, but hopefully soon.  Loving the one I'm reading and I also started listening to another good one.  I mostly listen in the car, and now I'm trying to think of reasons to get in the car! Never mind that I can just listen with earphones on my phone, but for some reason that never happens in the house, what with The Food Channel and HGTV and all.

Knitting. It's a Sickness.

Knitting.  It's a sickness.  It really can't be helped.  Here is some proof:

1) I bought these double pointed needles recently:

They are a new-to-me needle, metal tipped.  I finally remembered I had them, and tried them today. I. LOVE. THEM.   I already have many many many sets of double pointed needles.  And three other sets of size 1.  But tomorrow, I'm going to buy another set of size 1 of this type so I can knit both socks of the pair at one time. And I'll probably get some in other sizes even though I already have those other sizes.

I just can't help it.

2) And I'm also thinking of getting the interchangeable set of circular needles in this brand.
Guess how many sets of interchangeable needles I already have?:

Three. Plus a whole lot of individual circular needles in all the various sizes an interchangeable set (or three) has.  But......

I can't help it.

3) Spinning is a sickness too.  I bought some roving to take to my spinning bee.

But, then this was there too, so I bought it:

I just couldn't help it.

4) I have a lot of yarn:

There is more in the blue squares.  And on a shelf to
the left....and the right.

But The Spinning Room recently had a sale:

I just couldn't help it.

5) I have several projects started, in progress, not finished yet:

This is not all of them...

But I'm going to cast on for this one instead:

Ravelry.com pattern picture

...probably tonight after I re-do the bind off of my Cozy wrap which I finished last night but the bind off was too tight and which I will show you in the next post (or the one after that) after I block it.

And I'll  probably cast on  this which I was obsessing about recently but I have to find beads for:

Ravelry.com pattern picture

I just can't help it.

See?  A sickness.  I CAN'T HELP IT.

How to Cut Up a Watermelon

I. love. Love. LOVE. WATERMELON.  I was cutting up a watermelon the other day and remembered that someone once commented to me that the way I do it seemed so fast and easy.  And me, always thinking about things to put on the blog, and always seeming to do something food related, thought I could show you how I do it.   If you have no interest in knowing something like this, you could read why I don't have anything else to blog about - because that might be interesting - and then skip the rest and wait for a more exciting post.

So, I didn't have anything else to blog about today, since:
a) I'm STILL working on my Cozy wrap.  I'm almost done.  I decided I would stop at the end of the skein I'm working on, since it is getting pretty long (57" as of last night).  So hopefully there will be a good knitting post soon...
b) I haven't finished any books to tell you about.  I am reading a really really good one though...
c) I haven't cooked anything exciting.  Just the Kale, Quinoa and Avocado salad again.  And it's yummy again.
d) Nothing exciting is happening in the garden.  Things are just growing.
e) No drag racing to tell you about.  AND I'm missing a drag racing event this Saturday (Buick Day at Lebanon Valley Dragway) in order to participate in the Spinning Bee at the Altamont Fair.  Which leads me to....
f) I haven't been practicing my spinning for the Spinning Bee so I can't show you that.

On to WATERMELON...
I can't remember when or how I learned this method.  I used to cut watermelon into triangles, then cut it off the rind and cut it into pieces.  Or just leave it in triangles and eat it that way.  Cutting it into pieces is better, I think, and more portable to put into a container.

First, get your watermelon into a wedge piece:

Buy it that way or cut it up that way.
Then, run your knife along the rind, all around the edges of the wedge:

I did it with a steak knife which is a little bit flexible and that helps with the curvey parts.  At this point, if you did it right and if you really wanted to, you could take the whole chunk out of the rind and cut it up.  But, I leave it there because it makes it easier later. (see way below...)

Then, on one side of the wedge, make 3 or 4 horizontal cuts, all the way down to the rind:

Make more cuts if you want smaller pieces.
Then, turn the wedge around and do it to the other side:

No, I didn't use two knives.  I'm trying to make a point.

Next, cut into the wedge vertically, making several cuts long the length of the wedge:

See the little grid pattern happening?

That's it!  Now you can pick up the whole wedge, and let all the pieces fall into a bowl. Perhaps your new antique Fire King mixing bowl.

THAT's why you leave it in the rind to cut it.

Empty rind:

Pretty clean, but you could spend a little time getting some more of the melon out if you want to.  I don't have the patience.

Yummy watermelon filling my new antique Fire King mixing bowl:

The other day, by accident, I got a seeded watermelon.  It was really really really hard to cut it up the way I described because there were so many seeds.  At least a million.  They were getting in the way of the knife.  I really dislike eating seeded watermelon.  Again, mostly because of my impatience.  It takes 10 years to eat one piece because you have to get all the seeds out.

How about a picture of my Watermelon Slice Socks since I'm talking about watermelon and since I entered them to be judge in the Altamont fair?:

Ok, so I didn't realize I had such a terrible picture.  There are black beads knitted into the pink part to represent seeds.  You can click on the link up there to see the official pattern picture.  If they win a prize I'll post a better picture...

Next post:  Something a little more exciting.  Hopefully.  Don't know what yet.

Another Little Trip

We went to Vermont for an overnight trip this weekend.  As many of you know, we used to live there and we love it.  The trip there is so pretty...

I think that's Killngton....

I knitted on my Cozy wrap on the way there, but I won't bore you with a picture that looks exactly the same as the last one I posted.  It's just getting longer is all.

 

We have our things that we like to do. 

1) Test if we still have a fear of heights by checking out the Quechee Gorge:



We do.  Both of us.  This is as close to the edge as I can get, and I'm on my own because Paul can't even get this far.  My legs get weak the moment I start walking on the bridge.  And I can't even walk to the middle of the bridge.  When cars go by, the whole bridge bounces up and down and I'm always certain it will fall down.  But it really is gorgeous isn't it?  And we are wondering how we will survive visiting the Grand Canyon, because we both really want to go there.

2) We also like to go to the Quechee Antiques Village/Flea Market.  Here is our haul:

Paul has an eye toward decorating the new garage and I, of course, am focused on food... that cast iron pan is from the 1940's.

3) We also drive up to Bradford to see our old house:

 ....and the gorgeous views we had:

4) And of course there was the food.  We went to the Salt Hill Pub in Lebabon, NH for a beer and pub food:

Shepherd-like pie and open-faced meatloaf sandwich.  Mmmmmmm.

And a great breakfast at the 4 Aces Diner, also in NH (West Lebanon):

A magic 8 ball on every table - remember those?

... and then lunch at White Cottage (great onion rings) in Woodstock on the way home.

A very quick day and a half trip but it was fun as always!  Now I'm off to practice for the Spinning Bee competition at the Altamont Fair this weekend.  Riveting stuff coming up on the blog, I tell you.

Got Buick?

Here's where we were this past weekend:

 11 Hour drive to Ohio!  Whoopee!  Lots of knitting time....
I worked on my Oak Trail hat.  What is wrong with this picture?:

That there is my new ball of yarn, joined to the tail at the beginning of my hat, rather than the end of the yarn where I need to keep knitting.  Yup, I (again) wet spliced the new ball to the wrong end of yarn.  So annoying.  Got that fixed up and finished the hat:

 ....all except for the little sewing up part where that piece of yarn is sticking out.  And the blocking. Cute, don't you think?

Then we got to Ohio:

That's Paul's friend Rob's car in front of us.

....and we had several hours to go, so I worked on my Cozy wrap:

 ...and saw this at a gas station stop:

We were sorry to have missed that festival.

....and ate these at another stop:

Mmmmmmmm.

I make cookies for every racing trip.  Before Rob and his dad, Ray, even say hello to me when we meet up with them, they ask, "Did you bring the cookies????"

We finally got there and made a run to JEGS (car guys' equivalent of a yarn shop), then had a whole day of racing on Friday:

....except for Paul's friend Rob who blew up his motor on his second run.  Booooooooo.  Paul got some good runs in, as well as changed out his carburetor and got some better (meaning faster) runs in with that.

Then it was Saturday!  The main competition day!.....

....which was cancelled.

So we went home.  On the way home we saw this:

A huge golf ball.

And I kept knitting on my Cozy wrap until I ran out of yarn.  Ran out of what I had with me, not the yarn in general.  I know you are breathing a sigh of relief for me. 

So, I worked on my Citron shawl.

...until it got so dark I couldn't see.  Can you see this?:

Neither could I.  I was knitting only by feel for the last 50 stitches or so because I was trying to get the last increase row done.  The one in which I now have 600 plus stitches on my needle and now I have to knit 11 rows and then I'll be done! ....in about another year.

In the meantime, at one of our stops, I got one of my latest obsession:

Dulce de Leche Caramel shake. Mmmmm.

 



And since we were home a whole day early, I picked this from the garden:

Mmmmmm..... tomato sandwiches.

And also, since we were home a day early, we got back in the car and went for a drive to Sharon Springs to see the new Beekman 1802 Mercantile:

 Of course, I had to get a couple of things:

We haven't tried them yet, but I'll let you know when we do.

Then we made our way to Cooperstown for our favorite pizza:



 And THEN, as if the weekend couldn't get any busier.... I got  some spinning done, so I may actually have a skein of yarn to enter into the Altamont Fair by the August 9 deadline.

Resting, relaxing, waiting to be plied:

 Hopefully, plying will be done tomorrow so the yarn can then take a bath and have time to dry.

Ooh, and ALSO, since I had some time in Ohio, I read and finished The Lion's Game by Nelson Demille.  Great book.  Exciting, suspenseful, and funny.  Love his books.  That was a quick review.