Still Life with Dachshund

After 2 botched attempts, the third time was the charm for my string bag (via magknits) (and some mods I read about on the craftster boards). I ended up casting on 45, knitting the lace repeats 14 times, then instead of binding off and seaming the sides, I cast off some stitches and worked the handle. I then worked the handle on the other side, then seamed up the sides last night. It does stretch quite a bit when there's actual weight inside of it, but I figure that I can toss it into the wash when needed - I used Lion Cotton, in a natural ecru color. My attempts to get a nice photo were diverted by a fruit sniffing dachshund. Here's the photo evidence:


Whatcha got in there, huh? I smell.... bananas!?...mango?!....


Ooh, it's out on the table I can get it!


sniffsniffsniffsniffsniffsniffsniffsniffsniffsniff


nudge nudge little mango...


any minute now that mango is mine!

This cheered me up following a horrendous end of the day rudeness of students who told me yea yea I'll get rid of the cookie then shove it in their mouth and don't you tell me now woman. And my allergies have kicked up. I am not a happy camper.

Eye rolling headaches

I can't wait for the end of school. I'm trying to see if I can get at least two personal days off in the next two - three weeks. I've got a headache from rolling my eyes at the things the kids say and do so much. Actually right now I think the headache is from hunger, but it is almost lunchtime.

I finished my Market bag last night, so I'll post photos / details on that later.

I finished reading The Namesake - really enjoyed it and look forward to seeing the movie version. I started reading The Wonder Spot with a whole lot of deja vu - I felt like I read the book before, but I think it may have just been the first chapter as a preview in a different book.

Yesterday was kinda a stinky day, but reading Lost Season 3 recap made me giggle. Last night's episode kept us up talking, and even this morning it was the first thing we talked about.

How did I not know about Knitwhits before? The hats are too cute!!

Movie night

Last night Dan and I went out for dinner (hibachi yum!) and then out to a movie - impromptu date night! We went to see Disturbia - creepy yes, but almost funny as we were at a 7:40 showing and there was a whole lot of pre- / teenage girls in the audience screaming / screeching just to scream / screech.

The best part though was when we were standing in line to buy the tickets. There was a couple behind us, and they were looking up at the board of movies / showtimes. The woman said to the man, "Oh, 28 weeks later - that's the sequel to the Sandra Bullock movie where she was in rehab - it was really well done."

Um, right. We were hoping that they would buy tickets for that, but they didn't.

I spent most of yesterday catching up on podcasts (I started listening to Material Mama - going to find more sewing related things... might as well work up on my sewing machine when I've got the time coming this summer.) and working on the string bag - finally figured out my goof on the pattern. So after 3 starts I've finally got it and I'm maybe 3/4 of the way done with the bag portion. It's going quickly, so good on that.

Mango (and info for Heide!)

On a whim at the local farm store (and so much more! I bought a mango. On sale, even. I have eaten mango before but never bought and fought with one myself. Even though it's a little fussy to cut apart (I think I shoulda just used a better knife) I'm hooked. Sooooooo good! How did I not know this before? Yum, it's like better than candy!

Heide - I can't find your email! And I can't get to your blog! I am so curious to know about what you think of those gDiapers! I'm thinking that we'll do a mix of disposable and maybe those... still too early to worry about though. I picked up the Flat Earth crisps and the Kiwi magazine at the Branford stop-n-shop! If you've got any other good local baby tips or things you wish you knew about before please let me know! Currently you're my only local source on that sort of info!

This post is full of random content

I got an early birthday (June 20) present today - a new ipod! 80Gb / video baby! Wow - now I need many more video podcasts! Suggestions? Are there knitting videos for the ipods yet? I had a lot of fun moving through the music library - all I want to do is sort through my cds too!

I've started the Saturday Market Bag from magknits using Lion Cotton. I think I messed up somewhere - the 4th row repeat didn't make sense to me - p3? I could p2 and then drop the yo... I had to rip out the first attempt as I misread p2 to be purl 2 together for some odd reason.

Reminder to self: You joined the June XY along at Get Stitchy - make the bowtie.

I picked up a new magazine yesterday, Kiwi - it's about organic living and stuff. There was a great advertising surprise inside from my new favorite snack company, Fruitabu - there was a magnet, coupon for a free box, iron on transfers and stickers! My other new favorite snack are the Impossibly Good Flat Earth veggie crisps (Garlic and Herb) - serving of veggies while I think I'm eating chips? Excellent.

News

Life in the nutmeg nutshell continues on with more news, not just ranting and ravings and knittings (which there will be more of eventually) and dachshunds. I've got good news and not so good news and news that I'm not sure what to do with yet.

First the good: I'm pregnant! I'm 13 weeks, due on Thanksgiving (Nov. 22) - which is more than a little wild, as it is my favorite holiday all year and it also will forever hold a special place in my heart as we were married the day after Thanksgiving (Nov.26) three years ago. I'm feeling quite good - really didn't have too much in the way of morning sickness, I was just really really really tired. I've got my energy back which is good and just have to keep on top of eating / snacking because when I get hungry, I'm hungry NOW. :) Our checkups so far have been positive, everything is looking good. Oh, and we've decided that I'm not going back to the school - I'm going to take a year off, we'll make it work. I think that I'm done with teaching in the school sense - I'm going to be looking when the time comes for either entry-level science lab tech sort of jobs (I started out as a chemistry / environmental person) or a science education / outreach (like working in a science museum) sort of thing.

On a less happy note, my grandfather is on dialysis, but it's not doing much good. The man has all sorts of medical issues right now. My grandmother, who is already stressed out over this recently found out that she has breast cancer (stages 2/3).

The news I'm not sure what to do with is that my father has an atrial flutter which was picked up at his last physical. He goes in for tests and stuff this week (I think) and then following that there are procedures. He doesn't seem overly concerned about it, just annoyed at the fact that now his coffee consumption is now limited to one cup a day. I told him I feel his pain on that one.

We had my folks over last night for mother's day and surprised them by having my brothers and one brother's girlfriend come in from New York - so good - so filling!! Today we've got a local dachshund meet-up and then dinner out with Dan's folks. Where do the weekends go?

Looking for a Book?

I'm trying to sort out my stash and shelves... I've decided that I certainly can part with these books, most are like new / very gently perused from Crafter's Choice book club - leave me a comment (with email please so I can get back to you) if you're interested... trades are cool - sock yarns, cotton yarns (especially Tahki merc. cotton, blue sky cotton / organic...) or whatever.

1. Simple Knits with a Twist
2. Log Cabin Quilts
3. Knitting in No Time
4. Big Book of Knitting
5. Making Vintage Bags
6. Quick and Clever Cross Stitch
7. Travel the World in Cross Stitch
8. Native American Cross Stitch
9. Domino Knitting (japanese)
10. Easy Beaded Knits
11. Easy Beaded Crochet

WEBS!

This was a yarn-y goodness weekend. Betsy was up north, so we decided to do a mini yarn crawl. I haven't bought yarn since the last time she was up in January. We decided to take a trip to WEBS in Northampton - under 2 hours away. Oh my! Why didn't we ever go before? I have no idea!! It was fantastic! I got to see and touch yarns I had only heard about - I sound like a knitfan, huh? Anyway, I was pretty good about my purchases -


There's some Blue Sky Cotton to make a Big Bad Baby Blanket, some Lamb's Pride for making Craft Alien Critters, Lang superwash merino for some possible baby things, Tahki Cotton in a few colors I was missing (I'm thinking maybe a miter square blanket - looking back into the stash, I think I could do that!), Blue Sky Organic Cotton for another Baby Bolero, and some other mercerized cotton for maybe an acorn hat.

It was such a good trip! I'm so antsy to just cast-on for everything right now! Maybe just one new project....