Coming up soon

Today was a long and rotten day, so I am going to list things I really like.

1) This Cascade 220 I got to make a sweater:



I think I chose the wrong shade of blue, so unless I can decide to stick with one of those two, I'll need to go back and exchange it for a slightly lighter, more robin's-eggsy shade.

2) This pattern, which I started in high school out of a scratchy acrylic, and will now re-make out of said Cascade:



3) This adorable little heart-heart shaped plant I got today:



4) Look how his little branches are reaching up to you!


Cute!

5) This adorable book I am reading:



These Gallimard Folio editions, it was only 3.95$ when I was in Victoria and contains a dozen nice little excerpts from litterature on the subject of "Happiness". I also have the one on "Friendship", and would really like the one on food in litterature.

6) A morning coffee from Bulldog:



I was so sad to realise I'd forgotten my camera this morning and couldn't take a picture of the perfect leaf he drew in my cappucino.


Okay, that's all for now!

Sunday Lunch

This afternoon I wanted to bake a loaf of quickbread, from an old bread cook book I have. The recipe is called Brown Apple bread. It's very simple recipe. No yeast of course, because it's a quick bread. The only really time consuming part was creaming the brown sugar and butter together because I had to use cold butter, and waiting for half a cup of molasses to pour from the carton. Apparently molasses is as slow in June as it is in January! Before I could start cooking, I went to the grocery store for the buttermilk I would need, as well as some other food for the week.

While the bread was baking I fixed a lunch that made me very, very happy:



Pâté on fresh bread, with big chunks of a super-rich double-cream cheese, big pieces of ripe tomato, and salad with blueberries and pear-guava vinaigrette. So satisfying. I shop best when I imagine that I'm either French, or a very healthy hippy as I wander around the store.

The bread took an hour and a half to bake, and then I subjected it to a lengthy photo shoot. The kitchen was no good as the lighting was very blue, so I moved it to my roommate's room where there is a bright, plain corner. After taking the exact same picture of the same object, in the same position, under the same lighting conditions with both our camers, I am convinced of my need for a new one. Mine doesn't let in enough light. Anyway, here is the completed loaf, with a couple of thick slices cut out and a big pad of butter on one of them.



And I did end up unravelling my sock back to the heel flap and making it the proper length, and I'm glad I did. I do want to get these done soon, though, so I know what I'll be working on tonight!

Oh no! I thought I was doing something wrong with the heel flap on these. I've been reading a KAL on Craftster for these socks, and it turns out my suspicions were right, I did make the heel flap way too short! The pattern is just crazy like that. You can see here how it's all silly looking now:



To ignore it and continue on, or rip back and do things properly? Argh decisions!

Sock in progress, or, Returning to Making Things

My granny's birthday is coming up in July. Last year I knitted socks for my mother and aunts, and she was very interested in them. She knits, but has never knit socks. I thought she'd like her own pair, and her favourite colour is purple. So here they are in progress:



The pattern is Hedera from Knitty. Hopefully the lace will become clear once they are being worn (does one block socks?) but this is as it looks right now, stretched out over my fingers:



I haven't knit or sewn or done much of anything in the past few months. Often I would be sitting around feeling that my hands really ought to be doing somthing. It's amazing how much better I have felt since starting these socks. I bought the yarn Monday afternoon and started them as soon as I got home. The next day I was already thinking of more projects I ought to start, feeling creative and lively again. I hadn't felt like that in quite some time.

You know I just love Brenda Ueland. And she always says that creativity is like a tap. The more you turn it, the stronger it comes. And it's so true. Just start something and it keeps flowing!