Nails vs. Cars

Remember how i told you that Paul likes to sneak little phrases into our conversation to let me know that he has read the blog?  Well, after the last post, I've seen a lot of eye rolling and heard a lot of "and that's all I have to say about that", after just about every conversation.  And, he has seriously weighed in about my disappointment with my nail polish from my Soakbox kit.

About that....
I'm disappointed with the nail polish in my Soakbox kit!  Here I was, all excited to bring you a beautiful picture with my "matching" nail polish and fingerless mitts.  Can you see where this is going?  I finished my mitts the other day and soaked them in the Soak woolwash ("Celebration" flavor):

By the way, if you ever wondered why to wash whites and colors separately.....

That's why.

Then laid them out to dry in front of the wood stove so they would dry lickety split:

....which they did.
Then I lotioned my hands with the Soak "Celebration" hand lotion from the Soakbox and painted my nails.  Three coats.  As I was painting the first coat, I was thinking, "This looks kinda bright."  So I put another coat on.  It was still bright but a little darker.  A third coat did not make it much darker.  I ended up with this:

Ok, this picture doesn't show it terribly well, but it's a bright red, not a maroon, like the yarn.  Now, I'm not so disillusioned to think that the colors would match exactly.  But, I have had other nail polish in the past that was a darker, marroon-y red that would match better. (ooh, my very favorite dark red color was an OPI color called Vampire State Building - loved it!) This was just too very bright red.  Bleh.

Here's where Paul weighed in, as he took pictures of my hands:
Paul: "Well, did you use the right base color?...  I don't think I can get both your hands in the picture. Oh wait, there we go."
Me: "What?"
Paul: "You need to use the right base color, like a gray.....  Ok, nope, you won't be able to see the chip in the nail on your left hand."
Me:  "What?"
Paul: quiet...
Me: "There is no base color!  If you use a base, it's clear!  What are you talking about?????"
Paul: "When I painted my car, I used a gray primer and then at least six coats of the Kandy Brandywine color to get it to be the right color."
Me: "I'm not putting six coats of nailpolish on my nails." (that would take ten. years. to dry)
Me: "And there is no base color!"
We moved on.  There was no getting past the whole painting-nails-is-not-the-same-as-painting-a-car-you're-an-engineer-and-that's-why-you-think-that thing.

We figured out that the nail polish bottle looks darker:

And you can usually go by the bottle, I would say.  Although, I'm not a nail polish expert.   Suffice it to say, it wasn't what I envisioned but I'm happy with my mitts nonetheless (oh yeah, did you see my mitts????  I love, Love, LOVE them!!!!).   Ok, now I'm really moving on....

In Other Knitting News:
I had to show you these pictures of Karen, whom I met with several times at The Spinning Room yarn shop to help her with the seaming of her sweater.  She started knitting it a year ago, and put it down during the summer months because it was just too dang hot to work with.  We puzzled over several different ways of putting it together (since the inside collar would be flipped to the outside and same with the button bands when she would wear it unbuttoned); tried different sewing up techniques, undid them, tried them again.  Here she is doing the last bit of sewing up of the neck:

And here she is in her finished sweater!

She was extremely excited to have finished it (except for the buttons! But, she's not like me - I'm sure she'll get them right on there.) and it looked wonderful on her!

And I forgot to show you the quickie mobius cowl I made for a class I'll be teaching at the shop:

This is the Easy Mobius Cowl made with Debbie Bliss Riva, a bulky wool blend yarn.  Nice, soft, wooly yarn that turned out beautifully in this pattern. (It only took me 2 1/2 hours to make this!)

In Book News
I finished Sharp Objects: A Novel by Gillian Flynn.  It's a little hard for me to describe how I liked this book.  The story line of the mystery involved in the book really drew me in (and the author's writing is excellent).  BUT.  The main character in the book, a woman sent to her hometown by her newspaper to cover the story of the deaths of two young girls, made me so uncomfortable.  She has a lot of issues, stemming from a pretty terrible childhood in this hometown, which tend to get her into some trouble.  I felt on edge thinking and anticipating that some of the rather disturbing things she was doing was going to get her into trouble.  (so part of it is that issue I have with suspenseful situations... ) I guess that's another plug for the author's writing style -- I didn't want to put it down....but I had to put it down sometimes because some of it was a little disturbing.  And I think it gave me a bad dream one night when i was reading it right before bed!  Overall I really liked it and would recommend it.  So, Gillian Flynn is 2 for 2 -- off to look up and see if she has any other books...

And Finally
The last holdout:

This tree will not drop it's leaves!  It's been nice to continue seeing the pretty orange-y red-ish colors amidst the black/brown of all the other empty trees (in the background).  There is a tree the same size, 10 feet from this one, that we got at the same time, and it's leaves were gone weeks ago.  I guess this one's trying to hold on to fall.  Meanwhile, it's only 37 degrees here today.

Had. To. Have.

My birthday falls on/near the NYS Sheep and Wool Festival every year.  So, it makes for a nice treat for me to go and buy yarn-y, fiber-y birthday presents!  We went down to Kingston (near Rhinebeck, where the festival is held at the Duchess County Fairgrounds) last Saturday afternoon and stayed overnight.  A simply gorgeous view from our hotel room:

love, Love, LOVE this time of year!

We went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  Never been.  REALLY like the ribs and pulled pork. Our waiter informed us there will be one coming to our area.... Mmmmmm.  Then we went to Shop Rite and got a birthday cake:

Chocolate strawberry short cake.   Mmmmmmmm.   And no, that is not all we ate in case you were wondering.  We are dessert fiends  (I married into, and have hence assumed the tradition of, the Cassidy second dessert --- have a dessert, wait a while, then have another.  Sometimes three.) --- there was a little we couldn't finish.  Can you tell that it really is a small cake?

The next morning we got up early to go to breakfast and then the festival.  Here is the only picture we took there:

Ha!  And that was when we were leaving.  In case this picture doesn't accurately portray --- there were A LOT of people there.  And it was the second day of the festival - there were apparently a lot more there the previous day.  It was a gorgeous day and we had a nice time browsing the vendors and watching the pumpkin chuckin' contest  - area high schools compete to make a trebuche that will throw a pumpkin and other items the farthest.    (Spell check will not tell me how to spell trebuche - it offered Bucharest as an option.  You know what one is, right?  It's a medieval thing with a weight on one end and a slingshot thing on the other.)  At any rate....   we, of course, also ate yummy festival food.  Fried artichokes, wonderfully crispy on the outside but warm and soft on the inside pretzel, and a chocolate/peanut butter cookie bar.  We didn't go overboard this year.  I can't believe I didn't even bring home kettle corn.  It could have been my second dessert for, like, a week.

I did make two purchases.  My first purchase was a total impulse oh-my-gosh-i-have-to-have-this-since-it-is-so-cute purchase:

A Soakbox! (SoakBox Gift Set (Soakbox Celebration - Clark Cable) ) It is a skein of Lorna's Laces sport weight yarn and a fingerless mitt pattern, with matching nail polish (!!), lotion and Soak woolwash.  I just had to have it.  When I tried to add it all up to see if it was worth it ($50), I think it was.  But to be honest I didn't try all that hard to figure it out because i had. to. have. it.  Mine was the Clark Cable box which refers to the mitt pattern.  I actually really liked the pattern in the teal box - there were 5 color sets in all (I think) - and the woman at the booth said that pattern for that was also in the KnitSimple Holiday issue, so that sealed the deal for me.

That's my mitt-in-progress.  The mitts in the magazine are more of a teal - not blue like this picture shows. And the model is wearing the teal nail polish that comes in the kit.  Which is why I didn't get that kit.  Loved the yarn color but not the nail polish.  Blech.  Stay tuned for the picture of me wearing my finished mitts (washed in the wool wash) with my matching nail polish, on my lotioned hands! (You can click up there to be linked to Amazon to buy the set.)

The other thing I bought?...

Fifteen hundred and some odd yards of off-white worsted weight yarn.  To make an aran cardigan - the kind with different cable and other patterns.  Something similar to this:

Something that looks very classic, and will be so warm and cozy.  Now I just have to choose a pattern.  That could take years.

Want another picture of Mandy and Phoebe?

No, it isn't the same picture as before.  They lay this exact way all. the. time.  So cute.  And for something different, here is Mandy enjoying this beautiful, balmy fall day: