Various and Sundry

I've been helping a friend with her new knitting skills this year and she gave me these for Christmas... black for me, white for Peanut.

Cool, eh?


I'm playing around with MacGourmet, a new (to me) program that organizes your recipes like iTunes does your music and iPhoto does your pictures. This is good and bad; I am trying to organize my home and my life, step by step, and it's helping, yet I could spent hours importing and playing around with this new toy! I've decided to start small and just import the recipes I have in my Epicurious recipe box and then slowly add things as time goes on. You can try it out before you buy it, goody goody.

Speaking of recipes, I just tried out this Tomato and Sausage Risotto (from Martha Stewart via Ring Around the Rosies) for dinner tonight. (Picture from Martha's site.) Mama mia! I love one-skillet meals that are healthy, delish, and pretty all at once. Ding! Ding!

Dumb knitting question of the day:

Does a yarn have approximately the same gauge if it is knit in st st as it would if it were knit in a Fair Isle pattern? I guess that depends on how tightly or loosely one knits Fair Isle, is that correct? I have yet to try colorwork with knitting, but I've fallen in love with the shape of a Fair Isle sweater pattern and want to knit it in a solid color. I have a feeling that my question is a little too lame to even ask. Just remember that I'm running on about 2/3 brainpower... the other 1/3 was lost when I got pregnant. D'oh.

An End and a Beginning

As 2006 comes to an end, I have a half full/half empty perspective on the year. I mean, how can you possibly feel grumpy about not getting to your knitting (and home organization goals, etc.) when you have this little face to look at each and every day?

Peanut turned six months old on Christmas Day. She started rolling over about two weeks ago, from her back to her tummy. Today she rolled back all by herself! Yay! She's now eating fruits and veg, too! Peas, pears, sweet potatoes, carrots, yeah baby. And she's clapping her hands! Oh, and she giggles -- no, truly cracks up -- when she sees and tries to interact with our Lennon kitty cat. So if I think of this year in relation to her life, it has been amazingly productive. A year ago, you could barely tell I was pregnant, and now we have this brand new human being with a sparkling personality and a killer smile. What more could you ask for?

I have to remind myself of that once in a while when I feel a bit overwhelmed with it all. And when the new knitting magazines come to my mailbox. And when I see all the beautiful things you all are knitting! :)

Jemima is sitting here, ready to be blocked. I did knit the two sleeves for my Excellent jacket during my two weeks off. That's something to be excited about. So 2007 will feature at least those two finished projects! Yay!

Happy New Year, everyone. Try to remind yourselves, once in a while, of what makes your glasses "half full".

Merry Merry!

Testing

Am tinkering with the new beta.blogger and giving the ole place a facelift. Am having trouble getting Haloscan commenting/trackback re-installed. In the meantime, comments will be turned off... hope to be done soon, and have knitting and sweet baby photos to share!

Edited to add... Thanks to this guy, my comments problems are solved. If you're running the new beta.blogger (aka beta.blocker to some who are having many problems...), go see his post for help.

Yadda Yadda Yadda

This was taken a few weeks ago. hee hee.




I cast off Jemima last night and hope to get her washed and blocked today. Peanut has a fever this weekend, so we're spending a lot of time cuddled up together relaxing. Poor little butterbean.

Oh! I've seen several inspiring Central Park Hoodies on the internets lately. My most local yarn shop doesn't carry Knitscene. So. Lame. Anybody want to sell their copy to me so I can make one, too?