STAY-CATION all I ever wanted ...

I need a vacation from my vacation. I know all of you are rolling your eyes, and I know I would be calling my self a BI-OTCH right now, but I could use a week to just hang around my house and do a lot of nothing.

I even had an extra day in theory to 'do nothing,' but I had to do a week's worth of laundry and deal with insurance companies refusing to pay for my teeth cleanings. And, of course, I had to organize, tone and post photos from the trip. If I didn't have that extra day, lord only knows when that would get down.

Having some sympathy for me yet? I didn't think so. So as long as you still hate me, let me show you some pictures of my trip.















So now some knitting. Normally, I would have spared you the vacation photos and start with the knitting, but I needed them to explain why the following are photos of the High Neck Cable sweater and not the Feather and Fan sweater that I dubbed the 'Telegraph Cove' Sweater.




It was COLD. I know many of you are experiencing record heat, and again, the amount of sympathy you can extend to me is zilch. But I'm just trying to say I had no desire to pick up a holey, hemp sweater. I needed warmth. The kind you can get from wool. Specifically Manos Silk Blend. Or at least gore tech, which I failed to bring. The space in the luggage I should have packed a jacket I packed a bathing suit.

I hope this news brings a little smugness to your hearts. And soon I have faith, this will bring our relationship to a stronger place.

Things up my sleeve

It wasn't easy taking a photo of my progress, mainly because this sweater is knitted with the bodice in (more or less) one piece and then the rest is added on afterwords. So it ends up looking like a messed-up scarf or tubular blob. Which I guess is what it is right now. So just image the progress is going well.

In other news ...

Remember when this blog was about me trying to knit every swatch from "A Treasury of Knitting Patterns?" Yeah, I know. Which is why I decided when the Olympics start up in Beijing, I'm going to start some swatches. I know all about the Knitting Olympics, and this really is about the fact that I'll be parked in front of the television for 16 days and 16 swatches seems like a goal that I can accomplish. Who knows, maybe it will lead to me actually finishing my goal of swatching the whole book.

Also, I haven't done any spinning in ages. So during my vacation next week, I'm packing Victoria and some fluff along. There isn't a phone or television where we are staying, and I'm pretty sure that means there is no internet access as well. Because of this fact, I feel like I'm going to be bored out of my mind and so I'm also packing the laptop loaded with DVD rentals and have plans to work on my website. (of course, I can't actually upload anything because we will be in the middle of nowhere.)

I realize that I will be on 'vacation' but I really am lost without access to the Scrabbulous, or getting the answers to the New York Times crossword puzzle when I get stuck. I don't even remember life without Facebook. TV and phone I can take or leave, but I need the Internets (yep, both of them.)

And of course, I'll be taking my dog. Here's a photo of Lilly, in the interest of equal time for cute pet photos.

It's been so long ...

... since I posted and I don't have a good excuse. Just life.

I got sick and didn't seem to get better for two weeks. I think A.K. and I just kept exchanging germs so the bacteria sacked out and well, two weeks went by in a haze of cold medicine and tissue paper.

Our garden has taken off. This bowl of lettuce became a lovely goat cheese and pear salad with lemon tarragon dressing.


and these lovely little strawberries, coupled with a pint of store-bought ones turned in to a great strawberry sauce to top off a brownie sundae.


Other than that, I apparently didn't do any dishes ...



and I took a bunch of photos of my kitty.


I've made some progress on the Telegraph Cove sweater, but I want to reshoot the photos because they turned out awful. I need to make a hell of a lot more progress on it, since the sweater is named after the place A.K. and I are going to vacation THIS WEEKEND!

I swear, I need an extra week off from work just to prepare for my week off.