Knitting Cybrarian

quick one on color names

The names of knitting yarns and colors could make a for a fascinating study.  For example, there are the yarns Oh My! and Touch Me.  There are colors such as Juniper and Ice House.

But this color name takes the cake.  Sludge.

What were the Rowan folks thinking?  Thankfully this is now a discontinued yarn.

When it's not the week you thought it was

The last few weeks have just beat the stuffin' out of me.  Friday I was asked if I remembered certain things and I just couldn't.  Really.  That's how crazy things have been.

I had hoped this coming week would be quieter.  I had forgotten that with the dedication of our new nave at church that we'd have more choir rehearsals-- and since I missed last Wednesday's rehearsal (because of work commitments), I missed the news about the additional rehearsals.  Not that I mind, but I'm pretty tired and would have liked a few additional evenings at home with the hubster.

This weekend was pretty nice, though.  I didn't work at the yarn store, so Joel and I did exciting things like go to the community recycling center ($5 to recycle the old all in one machine!), checked out Macy's (that's taken over the Jones Store), bought a crock pot, went to Target to pick up a few items, and we went to the grocery store.   Sunday morning I got up very early to fix cinnamon rolls (the first rising happened in the fridge), and I got a pot roast started in the crock pot.  Went to church.  Came home and got some housecleaning done before I had to be at church again at 5pm for choir rehearsal.

In between I knit.  I worked on the Vintage Velvet Scarf some, and since I had cast on for a Mobius scarf from A Treasury of Magical Knitting, I worked on that some too.  I have too many projects cast on, but it's keeping me relatively sane for now.  Feel like 10.5 needles?  Work on the Velvet Scarf (which is in the home stretch).  Needing to feel like a Zen master?  Work on the Mobius.  Needing to feel charitable?  Work on the pink shawl for my young friend's friend. 

And I'd better feel like clothing my hubster's feet -- have socks cast on and haven't made much progress on them. 

The weather has gotten cooler, thank goodness, and the amount of daylight is less each day.  We're really enjoying the respite from the 100+ degree days.  Unfortunately this also means that really cold weather is on the way, and with the high prices of energy, we'll be keeping the house fairly cool.  I've got to finish Joel's gansey sweater (only sleeves left!), and get some sweaters knit for ME too!

about that "rising in the fridge" bit

Mosker asked in the comments about the "second rising in the fridge" for bread dough.

It's pretty neat, although I'd not tried it before.  I recently read a couple of bread recipes that referred to an option of letting the dough rise in the fridge overnight.  Earlier this week, I tried it -- except I made the dough in the morning, put it in the fridge and tried to let it warm up enough to make fresh bread for dinner.  It does take a while to warm up, but it had risen while I was at work.  I liked the texture and the convenience of not having to worry about leaving the bread dough out to rise and it over rising. 

More resources on this:

• Baking911
• from New Mexico State U

Busy...

Yes, I've been busy.  But aside from work, I've been doing some fun things.  For example, I've discovered the joys of letting bread dough rise in the refrigerator.  I had to stay home yesterday (had digital phone installed from the local cable company, hope that works out!).  I made dough, let it rise, and then made it into cinnamon rolls for this morning.  Put the rolls in the fridge for the second rising and then baked them this morning.  See?

And I've been knitting a sample for the store.  I'm teaching the Velvety Cable Scarf again from Scarf Style.  However, Muench seems to be behind on their production of the Touch Me Yarn.  I'm making this sample out of Uruguay Chunky Alpaca from the Queensland Collection.  No felting needed at the end.  It's looking very nice, if I say so myself (and so does everyone else who's seen it!).

Mornings

It's 6:40am.  I've not taken a shower yet, BUT I've:

• printed handouts for my 11am class
• answered e-mails from students and my choir director
• sent e-mails to Faculty Senate, senate officers
• converted Studio newsletter final draft to pdf and sent to Studio manager and other employees
• sent e-mails to faculty regarding number of students in classes I'm teaching later this week
• checked a university's website on Resource Centered Management and asked them questions about their process
• drank 1 cup of coffee (so far)
• read favorite comics online
• read favorite blogs that have been updated in the past 8 hours

Time to take a shower and get going, right?

I'm in love...

New neighbor

Yesterday morning Joel and I met our new neighbor.

He's got brown eyes, brownish black hair and is a vegetarian.  He's pretty quiet, and he likes snatching the weeds from our lawn!

He's a little skittish, probably because he's new to the neighborhood and there are new and different sounds.

Oh, and he moved in under our shed. 

Our new neighbor is a groundhog!

But is it the BEST route?

Mosker and I go to the same allergist.  He's a wonderful doc and realizes the relationship between a human felled by allergies and his/her pets is a much stronger one than the one between that human and their allergist.  In other words, his partner in the practice told me to get rid of my cat and I dumped him.  This allergist told Mosker that while her allergies would be better without her cats, he realized that patients would rather dump their doctor than their pets.  Mosker related that story to me and I was hooked.  A sensible doctor.

Okay, so Mosker and I've been doing the allergy shot routine for a while now.  We're finally down to one set of shots a month.  Sometimes we'd run into each other at the allergist, and today I decided to go midday for shots.  Mosker declined a ride, saying she was going at the end of the day.  But would I update her on road repair and construction?

I called Mosker a couple of times and when I'd report "don't take 55th over to State Line because there's construction at Ward Parkway," she was incredulous. 

"I would never consider taking that route.  Never." 

Okay.  That happened a few times in the course of this trip.  So tonight Mosker e-mails me with her perfect route and how it was devoid of detours, road construction and orange pylons.

My response?

Hmm.  Glad that worked for you.  Of course, you totally miss the detour on the way back that I took today.  You went home; I came back to work. I took College east to Mission, took Mission south [uh, really NORTH] to 83rd St.  Took 83rd east to State Line, took State Line north, drove through Culver's and got a sundae to reward my itching arms, then went back north on State Line to 59th...

hehehe....

I think my mom or dad said it best:  the longest way home is the sweetest.  Of course, they were referring to coming home from dates, but still!

Stars

This morning I walked out on the deck with my first cuppa joe of the day.  I looked up.  And was reminded of why we live out here and tolerate a 35-40 minute commute one way to work.  The sky was clear because of low humidity and strewn with stars. 

I've been so chained to my computer lately (both evenings and mornings) that I had not ventured out on the deck and taken the time to actually look up.  I was amazed.  I had almost forgotten the wonder of the stars.  When I was a child, I would look at the stars, and like the protagonist of Sagan's Contact, wondered what other lives existed in the great out there.  I would shiver at the idea that there would be other sentient beings out there, living their lives just like we were.

I'll have to take more time to look at the stars and "wonder what (or who) you are."

Furry One update

Poor Mathis has his leg troubles, and Portia has her ear troubles.  I wrote in July about Portia having a bacterial infection AND a yeast infection in her right ear.

Well, it's back.  So we're giving her a quartered pill a day for a month and different drops (refrigerated ones) twice a day for a week.  How would you like having cold drops put in YOUR ear twice a day?

If this doesn't work, I'm pulling out the Monistat, per Mom's suggestion.