31 January 2008

New Taste Sensations

I present to you: a recipe. For tomato noodle soup.

TOMATO NOODLE SOUP

1. Cook some noodles. I used rigatoni.

2. Cook some tomato soup.

3. Pour (cooked) tomato soup into cup or bowl.

4. Add noodles.

5. Eat with spoon.


Note this beautiful fact: If you only have one saucepan, that's fine. Upon mixing, the soup will reheat the noodles. How wonderful!

14 January 2008

Sh*t! (now with (somewhat deflated) verdict)

This isn't even the gauge gods exacting revenge. This is me being stupid.

IF YOUR NAME IS DANIELLE/BELLA/GEORGE/GREGOROVITCH,

STOP

READING

NOW

I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CONSEQUENCES IF YOU CONTINUE.

...Working on top secret Xmas present for Danielle (who's currently in Japan!) and get this: I inadvertently used two different needles sizes. Here's what happened: I was working on some ribbing on it, and originally planning to do the ribbing on size 7s and then switch to 8s. Apparently, I never switched over. Not realizing this, I went and made another part of it on 8s and now I'm going to connect them.

Should I go through with it? Should I eknitray the eevesslay, or go ahead with the ouldersshay? It's only one needle size. Also, the pieces on the 8s work perfectly now and would have to be resized for size 7s.

Advice is welcome (and needed!).

---

I sent an email out to some friends and received (conflicting) responses. The verdict: RIBBIT. It's frogging time. I figure maybe I'll watch a movie or two tonight and get as much done as I can.

---

(2-13-8)

Ha ha, you guys! I totally never reknit the sleeves. I did a couple of rows on the sevens, and was never really able to tell the difference (in terms of finding the row where I switched over). So I have sleeves and body-shoulders in different gauges. The only problem is now, there are people who keep requesting a pattern for the sweater, and I would have to either include that as a weirdo design element or mentally rework the sleeves and tell people to knit something different from what is shown. I'm not sure how I feel about that second one, though. However, I suppose that's how working out the math for other sizes of the garment would be, wouldn't it?

10 January 2008

A Small Epiphany

The Brothers Karamazov is progressing. It's (obviously) not the happiest thing I've ever read, and I did read a very frustrating part of it this afternoon ("The Grand Inquisitor"). However, I must tell you about the realization I came to Tuesday evening.

For those of you who don't know, B.K. centers around the Karamazov family, which isn't anywhere near a normal, cohesive family, but rather about four guys who are technically related but don't really act like it. The father is perhaps the most obnoxious of them (so far), his name is Fyodor Pavlovich. He is kind of greedy, boisterious, and often 'plays the buffoon'. At this point, I'm convinced he is a buffoon at heart. Anyway, he is described (I think) as being somewhat stout, and I've been imagining him as a short little round man, kind of balding, with piggy little eyes.

As I was watching the coverage of the NH primaries, it dawned on me: fix up Fyodor's teeth and add a toupee, and who do you have?

Tim Russert!

07 January 2008

Quiz!

Hey friends! Here's a nifty quiz you can take to test your skills of observation. Don't worry, it won't take long. There's only one question:

1. What is wrong with the following:
"Short Sleeve Cable Vest"


Answer in the comments!

03 January 2008

New Years Resolutions

Good ones, I promise! None of this I'm-going-to-work-out-x-number-of-times-a-week-and-do-all-sorts-of-
other-things-that-I-never-get-around-to-on-a-weekly-basis shit. They're totally manageable. There's only two of them. I can only remember the first one at the moment.

It is this: I will swatch like a good knitter. TOO MANY TIMES (read: twice) I have been seriously owned by the knitting gods for either not making a swatch (the first time) or making dinky little 3x2 inchers. I am announcing to the world that I have learned (via this thing I'm making for Danielle) that there is a reason we measure our gauge over four inches. The reason? (you ask): to prevent tearing out large portions of ...things...

I'm sure my dear friend Cory, who is embarking on a wicked fair isle sweater for winter term, knits real gauge swatches. I assume this because she manages to knit things that fit. Someday, I will be able to do that, too.

You might think to yourself, "We went through this with that blue tank top. You still knit measly swatches after that. Why should I believe you're going to actually go through with it this time?" ...Umm, I was going to say it only applies to large projects, like certain projects for parental units' birthdays and full-on garments. That doesn't seem convincing enough, though. Oh well. Really. It's going to happen!

Perhaps I'll remember the other resolution later. Come to think of it, it might have been simply to blog on a regular basis. It kind of sucks to look back at the archives and realize there have been month-long (or longer) spans of time I haven't posted. It's really not that difficult. Once a month, I guess is what I'm saying. I don't know how that'll work if I spend the summer studying Russian in St. Petersburg, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

And yes, I used the word 'wicked' three paragraphs ago, and I am from the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. Don't question it, Boston. Quit being elitist.

... Hey Boston, I'm sorry for being hard on you. You're cool. Happy New Year, Boston.

Happy New Year everyone else, too, and to those of you who can read it, с новым годом!