Knitnut.net. Watch my life unravel...
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Posted by zoom! on April 19, 2006, at 9:18 pm |
I didn’t succumb to Single Sock Syndrome! As soon as I finished the first sock, I cast on the second – and I persevered through every teeny tiny microscopic stitch until I ended up with a pair of socks!
 Check ’em out! I used the Sockology pattern (which contains some dubious translation from German, resulting in some questionable interpretation on the part of the puzzled knitter) and Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Fun yarn (45% cotton, 42% wool, 13% Polyamide) in colour 506. I like them. I’m not convinced they’re worth all the hours I put into them (there are 10.5 rows to the inch – that’s 630 stitches for every inch of sock, and when you add together all the inches in the leg and the foot and double it because of that issue of having two feet, that’s about 20,000 stitches!) . But I do like them, and they’re pretty comfortable. They better last longer than those $2.99 socks at Zeller’s, that’s all I can say.
Posted by zoom! on April 17, 2006, at 11:54 am |
It’s about 11 degrees Celsius – or about 52 Farenheit. From my balcony I can see one woman in a parka with the hood up, and another woman in a tube top, shorts and flip-flops. Are their body thermostats really that radically different? Me, I’m wearing jeans, a t-shirt and a sweater. I’m comfortable. (My body thermostat tends to be set a little low…I’m usually colder than most people, both indoors and out.)
I don’t understand people who whip off their clothes at the first sign of spring…isn’t one of the most pleasurable things about spring that you can finally be warm? Why would you want to strip down and still be cold when you could finally be comfortably warm?
Then there’s the office. I’ve talked to a lot of office workers, and it seems the temperature is never quite right. According to the building maintenance guy, he figures he’s got it right when half the staff is complaining it’s too cold, and the other half is complaining it’s too hot. But regardless, if you dress for the outdoor weather, you’re going to be uncomfortable in the office. Once they turn the A/C on, you’ll only be comfortable if you walk to work naked and then put your parka on when you get there.
Speaking of comfortable weather, it occurs to me that those of us who live up here in the north spend a lot of money trying to be comfortable. We have to pay for heat AND air conditioning (well, I don’t do the A/C thing, but most people do), and we have to have clothes that cover the entire spectrum from minus 40 to plus 40. We also have to store all those clothes in all the off-seasons, and storage space isn’t cheap either. I wonder if Arizonians are as closet-space-conscious as we are when they evaluate prospective homes? (I wonder too, if they ever talk about the weather. Here in Ottawa, we talk about the weather all the time, probably because there’s so MUCH of it.)
Posted by zoom! on April 16, 2006, at 12:17 pm |
Ahh, a leisurely long weekend…and a 24-item to-do list. Wanna see it?
- Put shelves up
- Roast turkey
- Have James & Tara over for dinner
- Go grocery shopping
- Make turkey soup
- Unpack cameras
- Unpack dags
- Hang some pictures
- Do my 2004 taxes
- Do web work for client
- Do flash charts for work
- Run
- Plant seeds: chives, thyme, flowering cabbage and morning glories
- Plant avocado
- Call Stuart
- Email Mike
- Email Sherrie
- Blog
- Pay bills
- Knit to heel of sock
- Call Rebecca
- Call Jane
- Call Mom
- Email Henry
So…I put the shelves up, roasted the turkey, did the grocery shopping, had James & Tara over for dinner, made a turkey soup, unpacked the cameras and dags, hung some pictures, did the work for the client, went for a run, planted the seeds and the avocado, wrote to Mike, and called Jane and Mom. I did a few other things that weren’t on the list too, like cleaning the kitchen after all that cooking. I tried to do the flash charts but discovered I don’t have a registered version of the software at home. I also tried to do my 2004 taxes but it turns out you can’t use the simple form – which is the only form I have – if you made a political contribution. But I got the paperwork organized, which was a significant contribution to the goal.
Impressive list, right? Right. So why do I feel guilty about the undone items on the list? Even more intriguing: why do I feel guilty about feeling guilty about the undone items on the list?
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: Motivated by a desire to alleviate those niggly guilt feelings, I caught up on emails and phone calls, paid the bills, hung some more pictures, knit past the heel of the sock, and blogged. Now instead of feeling guilty about the undone things, I’m feeling a little guilty about how much money I’ve spent in the last little while. I had to take a deep breath before I pushed the button that pays off my Mastercard. But most of it was moving-related expenses and demented-dog vet bills. New furniture is moving-related, right?
Posted by zoom! on April 12, 2006, at 10:16 pm |
I just wrote a brilliant post, and then just as I was about to publish it, my software crashed and burned and my post exploded into nothingness. Just like that. Gone forever.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t brilliant. But it had potential.
Posted by zoom! on April 9, 2006, at 9:30 am |
I love my neighbourhood, where Lebreton Flats, Little Italy and Chinatown meet. It’s a densely-populated working-class neighbourhood on the fringe of downtown Ottawa. The housing is a healthy mix of subsidized rentals, market rentals, non-profit rentals, co-operatives, and privately owned homes. Next door to me is the community garden, where apartment-dwellers can lay claim to a little plot of earth and create their own vegetables, herbs and flowers. Across the road is the dog park, where all the dog people chat while their canine friends run around off-leash and do doggy things like wrestle, chase squirrels, and take turns peeing on the picnic table. The kids here tend to be fairly innovative, since their parents generally can’t afford to spoil them. They play the way we used to play – outside, using their imaginations and whatever else is handy.
Some other good things in my neighbourhood:
- The transitway
- The bike paths
- The river
- The Plant Bath – a first-class recreation centre which re-opened two years ago after years of lying dormant
- The great food shops in Chinatown and Little Italy
- A tiny art gallery at Preston and Primrose
- Richard Fitzpatrick’s used book shop just opened at Wellington and Spadina: all the books are half price until Easter Monday
But it’s not a perfect neighbourhood. The Loeb’s grocery store on Booth Street is pretty meagre. It’s better than nothing, I suppose, but the vegetables look like something you would throw out if you found them in your own fridge. And I love good, fresh bread – they never have good, fresh bread. We are also in need of a neighbourhood coffee shop.
I’m going to write to Loeb’s and ask them to improve that store. I wonder who I can lobby for a coffee shop?
Oh, by the way…yesterday I had to go to the grocery store at Bank and Somerset because the Loeb’s here didn’t have half the stuff I needed to make this incredible chili. It was delicious.
BLACK BEAN CHILI WITH BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND SWISS CHARD
Top with chopped fresh cilantro, red onions, and grated cheddar cheese, if you like.
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 1/2 cups chopped onions
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 1/2 cups 1/2-inch pieces peeled butternut squash
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
3 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed, drained
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 14 1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
3 cups (packed) coarsely chopped Swiss chard leaves (from 1 small bunch)
Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic; sauté until tender and golden, about 9 minutes. Add squash; stir 2 minutes. Stir in chili powder and cumin. Stir in beans, broth, and tomatoes with juices; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until squash is tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in chard; simmer until chard is tender but still bright green, about 4 minutes longer. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle chili into bowls and serve.
Makes 4 main-course servings.
Source: www.epicurious.com
Posted by zoom! on April 3, 2006, at 6:55 pm |
Single Sock Syndrome is when you finish knitting the first sock and are so tired of it, you can’t bear to knit its mate right away. “I’ll do it later,” you tell yourself as you toss the single sock into the big bag of single socks.
You know you have Single Sock Synrome when you start envying your diabetic friend whose foot was amputated.
Socks take an inordinate amount of time to knit because the yarn is so thin and the needles are so small and you have two feet. I did the math a couple of days ago, and it makes no sense at all to knit socks: a pair of socks takes approximately $15 worth of yarn and 26 hours of labour. Zeller’s sells socks for $2.99 a pair.
Being a yarnaholic, I didn’t buy just enough yarn to knit one pair of socks. I bought a lot of sock yarn. I couldn’t make up my mind, so I bought all the sock yarn I liked. I now have a choice to make: either I knit a lot of socks or I feel a bit guilty for not knitting a lot of socks.
At any rate: I am close to completing the first sock (I swear, I WILL knit its mate before knitting anything else!) using the Sockology pattern and the Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Fun yarn (45% cotton, 42% wool, 13% Polyamide) in colour 506.
Posted by zoom! on March 28, 2006, at 8:41 pm |
There’s something magical about growing things from seed. It’s almost enough to make you believe the Universe has a master plan. It puts all that critical information in a tiny portable little package that can survive almost anything, and then you just add earth and water and it becomes what it was meant to be.
Have you heard about the evil Monsanto terminator seeds? That’s seriously messing with the order of things.
Anyway, here are my babies – morning glories, cinnamon basil, oregano, coleus, moonflowers, pansies, and clematis. I am totally thrilled with them. Every day I rush home from work to see how much they’ve grown and to turn their containers around. I love how they reach their little arms and faces up to the sunshine.
Posted by zoom! on March 28, 2006, at 7:16 pm |
Today was Layoff Day at work. I wore my lucky underpants and carried my lucky stone in my pocket. Half the staff got laid off – I dodged the bullet again. I’ve watched this organization go from 44 people down to 11 since I started working here. I’ve seen a lot of good people come and go. The one thing all the people who got laid off over the years had in common is they didn’t have Lucky Underpants.
Posted by zoom! on March 25, 2006, at 9:30 pm |
 Okay, let’s face it: they’re not sexy, they’re not cool, they’re not new, they’re not in very good shape, and they’re not even particularly well-fitting or comfortable. But they ARE my Lucky Underpants.
Normally I wouldn’t show you my underpants, but I was surprised this week to discover none of my colleagues have Lucky Underpants. They seemed a little charmed by the idea that I DO have lucky underpants, and they made me describe them in detail.
One thing they were curious about was how these particular underpants got elevated to such a lofty status. It’s simple. You just wait until something very lucky happens in your life, and then you check to see what underpants you’re wearing. Those become your Lucky Underpants. After that, you just wear them whenever you have something important happening where you could use some extra luck. Nine times out of ten, your Lucky Underpants will come through for you.
Then they wanted to know why I don’t wear my Lucky Underpants every day. Well obviously it’s because the luck would get all used up and then they’d just be ordinary underpants.
Then they came up with the ludicrous suggestion that I cut my Lucky Underpants into 14 pieces and give each member of the union a piece. I said no: even solidarity has its limits.
Posted by zoom! on March 24, 2006, at 1:20 pm |
I’m working at home today. Or trying to, at any rate.
The bathtub guy is here, installing a new liner in my tub, so I have to be at home. Tension – and talk – has been running high at the office lately because the layoffs are being announced next Tuesday, so it’s hard to be productive there. My workload is at peak levels these days, but my productivity isn’t. I figured working at home would allow me a full day of high-intensity productivity.
But no. The bathtub guy is making a lot of power-tool noise, which is distracting for me and disturbing for my dog. I wasn’t organized enough to get all the files I needed yesterday, and mistakenly thought I’d be able to find them all remotely through email. I’m just not getting any rubber on the road today.
On the bright side, my laundry is now done and a big batch of turkey soup is coming along nicely. And I’m going to have a bubble bath when the bathtub guy leaves.
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