So I’ve been spending plenty of time online … as usual, way too much; it just hasn’t been on this blog. Not even other blogs that much. I’ve been kind of skimming things but that’s about it. Mostly I’ve been hanging out with my 365 Days Project on flickr. Admittedly, I’ve missed some days in the project here and there (mostly when my old camera broke and I was waiting for a new one), and I took a brief hiatus when we were dealing with Peto’s cancer (wouldn’t it have been nice to document that in some artistic way, but let’s face it, I was just dealing with keeping myself fed and walking back and forth between the hospital and home), but I still haven’t quit yet which is really saying something. Today is day 58, I think. Honestly, taking a picture of yourself every day is harder than it sounds. At least for me. Remembering to do it is hard, and on a lot of days it gets left to 2 seconds before bedtime when I think, “CRAP I forgot, but oh I’m so tired, oh here we go…” and take a picture of myself falling into bed or something not at all artistic like that. But I suppose that in and of itself is a reflection of my life sometimes. I’ve noticed that tends to happen on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I have class. (I know, I know, the schedule of a graduate student sounds so luxurious – trust me. It’s not.) Here’s a couple of my favorites from the project so far:



Why yes, I do post pictures of myself playing videogames in my pajamas on the internet. And you know, it doesn’t really bother me. Anyway, this is clearly from the moment we started playing the new MarioKart for Wii. HOLY CRAP is it fun!!! I think I’m going to go do a couple quick runs after I’m done writing…

New haircut, in sunlight.

I’ve been trying to eat healthier as of late, maybe lose a few pounds before our wedding. I know I know, bride wants to lose weight, bla bla bla, but I came back from Yemen sick in September and when I got healthy I put the weight back on, and then it just kept coming. I’m not pleased.

In knitting news, there’s not a whole lot I can blog about right now! I knit up some cargos from my dear dear friend Jenny’s little son Dylan (soooo cute) in record time, and didn’t manage to take a picture of them before I gave them to him at his first birthday party! Man, that was a fun pattern though, and I put the most finishing effort into it that I’ve ever put into a knitting project, I think. Lots of ends, there were hems involved, and even and elastic waistband!!! The yarn was frogged from the first sweater I ever made (I know, I have no soul), which was an ugly old rowan pattern (and after tooling around on ravelry I can’t find it anywhere, so I guess I was the only one stupid enough to knit this hideous sweater) and that pricey rowan yarn just made much better cargo pants for a baby than it did sweater for me. I did, however, notice this apricot jacket from Rebecca all over the rowan all seasons cotton pages, and HOW. CUTE! I want it, and I may just have enough yarn left to knit that sucker too. Yeah, all I have to do is get a hold of a 4 year old German magazine. No problem.

Besides those pants I’ve knit a present that has yet to be blocked and given to its recipient, a present for a baby that may have been outgrown by now, and a few more stitches on the raspy sweater I started last November. Pretty aimless stuff. I’ve got more gift knitting planned, hopefully I’ll finish it up quickly and put up some pictures!

First off, sorry for the silence – I still don’t have a computer. The end of the quarter, which was rapidly approaching when I sent the computer away, is now HERE and I have three papers to write and zero computers on which a write them. I dropped the computer off with Fed-Ex, and then the day it arrived at HP I got a mysterious phone call from someone with a superthick Indian accent, which I couldn’t understand. I eventually learned that the reason they were calling was to tell me that I would possibly not get my computer back until June 12th, due to a “massive backup” in their service department. That is to say, they couldn’t even look at my computer for a couple of weeks, although fixing it would take a couple of hours. I got in touch with the email support people (the only way to accomplish anything with HP tech support, I have learned) and demanded to know what they could do for me in kind of a snottier manner than I normally would. I had been told over email that “you will get your computer back in 3-5 days” – those exact, unambiguous words. Not “we estimate” “it should” or anything else that could give them a way out. Anyway, I pointed this out, and next thing I knew I had an email that my computer was being returned via FedEx next day air. I have no idea if they actually repaired it or not, that’s the only thing. And I won’t find out until it gets here on Tuesday (ugh, long weekend). So right now I’m blogging from the Beckotron, as we call Becki’s computer.

Enough complaining, because it is time to celebrate – I have finished two knitting projects in two days! I’ll probably post about the other one later today. The thing is, it’s a hat, and I just can’t model a hat right now. I’m looking reallllll dirty.

Here is the one that doesn’t involve me being in the pictures:



That’s a pinwheel baby blanket, for Ross and Andrea’s future baby, Freedom Liberty America. (just kidding. The baby’s due on 7/4.)

Pattern: the pinwheel blanket on knitlist
Yarn: organic colorgrown cotton from this seller on ebay – this stuff is GREAT. It’s cheap, the service is fast, the yarn comes on a ginormous cone (this blanket barely made a dent in it), and did I mention it’s cheap?
Needles: Denises, US5 of various lengths



My only issue with the pattern is probably more of an issue with myself. Since you start at the middle and work your way outwards, the further and further you get along, the slower and slower it goes. I got bored. Thank GOD this was only a blanket for a baby. I’m sure if I’d been using a chunkier yarn on bigger needles this wouldn’t have been as much of a problem.



As you can see, I had to block the bejesus out of this sucker!

ETA: Subject heading courtesy of Peto, who sneakily wrote that while I was in the bathroom. Then I forgot to change it back. And now that is the subject.

Progress on my pinwheel baby blanket is coming along nicely, so I won’t bore my readers (both of you – ha ha) with pictures of rumpled up beige cotton. Now that the blanket is out of the closet I think I’ll keep it under wraps until the final blocking/cuddling shots. There won’t be a baby in those, fyi – this baby isn’t due until July 4th. They’re going to name it FREEDOM AMERICA for sure.

Unrelated to the baby blanket, this morning I made some DELICIOUS food. Egg cups from 101cookbooks!!! This is one of my favorite food blogs/sites. I actually just ordered her new cookbook for my mom for her birthday, and now I’m jealous of Mom. For the egg cups, I used the small size of flour tortillas (nice and fresh and soft from my local Mexican market), sauteed an onion and some garlic cumin, paprika, chili flakes, and salt (as she calls for), then added some black beans just to warm them. I shaped the tortillas into cups in the muffin tin, added a spoonful of onions/beans to each one, cracked an egg for every cup, and sprinkled with chihuahua cheese. I baked mine for about 20 minutes because I have this need for eggs to be SUPER DONE in order to eat them (I can handle runny yolks sometimes, but only if I’m in control of the egg preparation – this is slightly irrational and I’m not going to try to justify it, so just roll with it, people.) They came out as perfect little cups, with the edges of the tortillas just beginning to toast! GOD was it delicious and hearty. I even sauteed up some more onions/garlic/spices/beans to make more egg cups in the toaster oven during the week. I’m so excited to eat hearty satisfying breakfasts! Screw cereal!!!! OH, and I added some fresh avocado on top, too. Tomatoes would have been good, but I didn’t have any.

We took a couple pictures of my egg cup, but let me say – it’s hard to take a picture of an egg covered in melted chihuahua cheese and have it look as delicious in the photograph as it does in real life. Also, I kind of just suck at taking pictures of food. I think I’ll stick to knitting for now.

Here’s a pic of how ()*#$ excited I am to EAT my egg cup! This photograph in no way demonstrates the beauty and deliciousness of the egg cup!!!



Finally, a notice for all faithful readers – I might be away from the blog for a week or so. My computer (a mere 4 months old) has a serious LCD problem and has to be sent away, as it is still under warranty. I’ll have access to email and everything, and I probably won’t exert the effort to blog from public computers in the library while my baby is away…

Yes, those are booties! For Baby Curry, who is on his way AS I TYPE. I’ve gotta get these suckers in the MAIL!

I use some of the leftover Sock Candy from the socks of my previous post, with the same Addi US1s. I started out using this pattern (WARNING: PDF!) by Cat Bordhi as a guide, but when I got to the heel I got confused about the directions, which I’m sure are fine and all, but I didn’t want to spend more than 2 seconds thinking about it, so I just did my own thing. I did some short-rows, closed ‘em up, did some decreases, and called it a babyheel. You’ll see I didn’t put as many rings on the top of the booty/sock as she did. Anyway, the pattern is fun and easy, and seems like a great way to deal with leftover sock yarn! Oh, I might add, this was the ONLY pattern I could find for baby booties/socks that involved sock yarn and wasn’t super girly looking. Girly booties are cute and all … for baby girls. Baby Curry is a BOY. I tried this pattern (PDF YET AGAIN! – it’s Interweave’s free “better than bootie baby socks” pattern) at first, and although the booties aren’t too too feminine, I cast on and knit the first few rows and the thing was just HUGE. It seemed like a more appropriate size for a 2 year old, not an INFANT for God’s sake. I mean, it was on sock yarn, and was 44 stitches around. I hope to God Jenny doesn’t have to give birth to a baby that big!!!!

Now that I’m through griping about the free Interweave pattern, here’s another adorable booty shot, of a precious little heel:



I can’t wait for it to have a little baby foot in it!!!!

And in OTHER baby news (I seem to have an inordinate number of pregnant friends at the moment – something I’ve never experienced!) – I just got some fancy organic cotton to make a blanket for another baby-to-be:



I cast on last night for this pinwheel blanket, using US7s. Hopefully I can get this sucker done in time for the shower!