Yarn Harvest

Oh look!  The yarn is ripe!  80 little mini skeins hanging up to dry.

Roll 'em up, roll 'em up and put 'em in a pan...
They will keep well, and may be used at any time,
in whatever recipe you desire.

Another (Very Hot Day) Dawns

Temperatures here in Cozyville: 106 in the shade at 1 pm.  Yesterday afternoon around 5, Hubby took set little digital (non 'bulb')thermometer on a wood surface in full sun.  When it hit 128.5 he grabbed it and stuck it in the carpenter pocket on his scrubs.  That pocket is really for your cell phone, but clearly it does in a pinch when you need to hide a dire thermometer.  (All temps are Farenheit.) 

To celebrate the Fourth, DD, Senior DGD and I crunched through the park in search of snowcones.  It was 106 in the shade at 1 pm. The mist tent was emitting warm vapor.  People were standing in it anyway, just for the psychological boost I think, because it didn't do much otherwise.  We chose the snowcone vendor who was situated so people in line waited in the shade.  He was a very, very popular man. 

(The other popular booth was the free-bottle-of-water-please-rehydrate-yourself-before-we-have-to-dial-911 station.)

We pondered over the flavor selection at the snowconery.   We got a red one called Tiger's Blood, and a clear looking one called a White Russian, that tasted like coconut.

A couple snowcones would be nice today, but oddly, there don't seem to be any around.  (What?  Nobody wants to set up a vendors' concession somewhere in the sun to sell ice?  Where is the entreprenurial spirit?)

The Harry Potter finale opens tonight in selected locations.  Cozyville is not one.  Cozyville, which is located 3 miles east of the Jumping Off Spot of the Universe, has no theaters.  (Laughing about the Jumping Off Spot, are you?  Best you stop.  There used to be a sign there but it got pushed into the void.  If you don't watch yourself, you'll fall the heck over the edge.  You won't be laughing then.)  This additionally means the odds of Alan Rickman showing up here to watch the movie with us are pretty low.  Crap.

This is all for today.  Hubby put the little digital thermometer back into the cabinet.  We tied a kitchen mitt on a string to the door that faces the west.  No freakin' wonder the handle is hot.

Le Sigh

Well, I'm officially sad.  Nobody missed me when I was gone.  Nope.  Not. A. One. 

And the drain gizmo on my bathtub is busted.  It's stuck in the 'closed' position and won't drain.  At all.  Seriously closed.  It didn't hold the water in the tub this well when I WANTED it to.  I did get all the water bailed out.  But it was a job.

On the 'to the good' side, my hubby is getting slowly but steadily stronger.  He has a long path ahead of him.  Doc said it takes a full year to recover from this surgery.  Wowser.  But he's moving along well.  Soon the difficult thing will be keeping him from overdoing.

And now, I'm going to go sulk for a while.  I'm not going out to eat worms.  It would mess up my plan to consider being a vegetarian.  But sulking sounds like fun.  Nobody missed me.  Nobody.  This is so sad. 

Well.  I suppose this means I can say really wild'n'crazy things here as nobody is looking.  You won't know what you've missed.  Mwwwahhh-ha-ha-ha.

Coming up for Air

Oh, look!
Something is crawling up from behind that rock!
What it are?

It is I!  I am posting! 

Did we miss me?

(Oh, please say you have missed me.  It will make me feel so loved.)

And this is it for now.  I shall surely return to write more in the nearish future.

Eatin' in the Coziverse (Subtitle: Cinco de Mayo Part Uno)

Food in the Coziverse often revolves around tortillas.
This is logical, because tortillas are round.
Here, we have a corn tortilla. 

It's cold and lonely.

It wants to become stacked enchiladas con huevos.

So the first thing we need to do is find it 3 more tortilla friends.

Before we proceed further, we will open a can of red enchilada sauce.  Our personal fave is Hatch, but Old El Paso does nicely.  Pour the sauce into a lidded bowl you can store in the fridge, cuz unless you're making 3 or 4 stacks, you won't be using it all.  We're just making 1 stack today, so we'll need to refrigerate the leftover sauce.

Next, get the 4 corn tortillas stacked nicely and and wrap them loosely in a paper towel - which is laid upon a nukable plate - and nuke them for about 10 to 15 seconds on high.  And quickly remove them from the micro and open the towel to let the steam escape.

Next step:  find a grody old beat up pan, because you'll be taking photos and want the world to know you have this well loved old pan.  Ladle a bit of sauce on both sides of the tortilla.

And put some shredded cheese on it - a couple tablespoons will do.

And repeat with the rest of the tortillas.

When you've sauced and layered the tortillas, find the nearest oven, which has been preheated to 350, and bake your nicely stacked enchilada about 10 minutes.

If you're a good blogger, you've cleaned the oven first.


While the enchilada bakes, you'll fry an egg or two.  Sunny side up is the favored method.

It is rumored that the yoke cools the heat of the chili.

Here is a second photo of the skillet.  It's a nice skillet.  See?  Nicer than the baking pan.   

Purty, huh.

So now, remove the enchilada from the oven and plate it nicely.

Try not to get sauce all over so Gordon Ramsey doesn't show up and cuss at you.

Slip the fried egg(s) atop the stack of enchildas.

And there you are.   Nom.  Let's eat.

Hold your breath - it's a pattern!!!

You know how some bloggers just pop off free patterns here, there and straight down the middle?  Well, grab the edge of your seat because it's about to happen here.   It's an amazingly cool super easy faux cable, done without a cable needle. 

What you're getting here is the Baby Cable stitch pattern, which is worked over a multipule of 8 stitches.  You will be plugging this into your favorite basic knitting pattern for whatever - hat, socks, scarf, dishcloth... 

Baby Cable pattern:

Round 1: Baby Cable 3 times, purl 2

Round 2: K 6, p 2

Round 3: K 2, Baby Cable, K 2, p 2

Round 4: K 6, p 2

To work the Baby Cable Stitch:  Knit 2 Together, but do not remove from left hand needle. Insert the right needle between the 2 stitches and knit the first stitch again. Slip both stitches from the needle.

And there you are.  It's that easy.

Starting a Forethought Heel

Looky - something that vaguely resemblesl a how-to.  It's about a heel technique that involves no short rows and looks amazing in self-patterning yarns.  It's a Forethought Heel, and it makes a nice bull's eye looking sock heel.  The Pepto pink waste yarn represents the forethought setup.  This is the Rice Crispy Snack Bar of heels.  Looks like you slaved for hours...but it's soooo simple.

You just knit along until you reach the point where you wish to start the heel.  Knit half of the stitches using a string of waste yarn.  The bigger the contrast to the color of your sock yarn, the happier you will be later.  In this case, I have a cast on of 48, so I knit 24 sitches.  Now, return to the point where you let go of your working yarn to knit in the waste yarn.  Resume knitting.  (This is what is happening in the photo.)

You can make the heel at any point after you've knit about an inch down from the waste yarn.  I like to do forethought heels fairly soon thereafter, so I can try the sock on to get the foot size correct.  What you do is carefully unzip the waste yarn and gather the resulting stitches on 2 to 4 spare dpns, or a circ.  You'll have - in this case - a count of 24 stitches for the upper edge and 23 for the lower edge.  (You can cheat that missing stitch in easily when you start the decreases, so not to worry about it at all.)  Now make a standard toe.  Yup.  Proceed exactly as if you were knitting the toe for this sock.  Exactly.  Work a decrease at each end of the upper and lower sections every other round until you are at half your original amount.  (In this case, 12)  Then work decreases at each end of both segments until you're at 8 sts per needle.  Graft 'em like you do a toe.  You'll want to tighen up the join area - you may have little holes on either side, a common occurance with an easy fix.

And do I have a photo of the finished heel?  Oh, please.  Why are you even asking?

In Which there is Whining

Unless you want to see a picture of the CD the tech gave me after my MRI, I got nothin' to show from my visit to the imaging center. 

Hammy has been unusally evil, and Doc sent it - and me, of course - off for an MRI.  If it develops that there is nothing highly evil going on, the next step is time with a TENs unit and massage.  I'm kind of excited about that.  Pain relief and massage.  Please!  Yes!  I want!

Otherwise....  The Unknown.  Do not like.  Do not want.  Am scared of.

And meanwhile, the hamstring is sooooooo tender and painful.  Gentle stretches hurt.  And day to day stuff is killer. 

Pushing the vac or sweeping is very uncomfy making.  When something drops on the floor, there it is.  I say to it, "Be at peace, annoying little widgit.  No one will molest you.  You may lay on the floor until I see if the kid down the road feels like coming over and picking you up."  The dropped widgit tends to just lay there and say nothing.

I can sew, but not for very long at a time.  Pushing the foot pedal results in a mild hamstring stretch.  Apparently living results in a mild hamstring stretch.

My little pal Gershwin

keeps me company and makes soothing little crooning sounds.  That's nice.  And my DH, the lovely, lovely man, drives me places, picks up stuff off the floor, and says Comforting Things.  (He can't vacuum, he has 2 bum knees.  Apparently we were not home when the guy from the Extended Warrantee Office came around.  We didn't get one.  It was a bad move.)

So just pet my head and tell me nice things.

And.....drum roll please...the socks

Here we go!  The yarns and the patterns are united and the Spring into Socks Club begins.

 

 

 

Spring into Socks Overachiever Sock Club

Here it is! My sock of the month club...for 18 months.  There are socks for me and socks for DH.

So there they all are, ready to be paired with their patterns and um...socked away.  For future reference.  Most of them are ready to go.

Oh, look.  One is trying to escape...

Spring Into Socks

Ha!  I named my personalized use-the-stash sock club.  I named it Spring into Socks.  Um, cuz, you know, it's spring. 

(Wow, I originally typed Sock of the Moth Club.)

We could still have snow, but it looks springy.  I saw people in shorts today at Walmart.  (Is that not the official sign of spring?)  And the poor foolish apricots are blooming.  They have no brakes apparently.  It warms up, they bloom; it snows, there are no apricots.  This is a frequently repeated theme, so apparently apricots have short memories.  Which is fine.  So do I.   I forgot I was supposed to be writing about socks.

Now I named the sock club, I've been rounding up yarns and patterns.  DH pointed out that I'd rounded up only girly yarns, so tomorrow I'll dive back into the stash after some manly yarns. 
 

Meanwhile, here is a daffy-dill:

Sock of the Month

Since it's now nearly the middle of March, it might be time to take the plunge and make my DIY Yarn Harlot style Sock of the Month kit.  Dig in the stash, set up the yarn and patterns for a full year of sockies and proceed.  This was my plan for late December. 
I didn't so much as look at patterns.  Now it's mid March.

Tomorrow.  Seriously.  Tomorrow will be the day I pick out the yarn and the patterns.  Really.  It will be. 

I need to have a yarnpal.  You know, someone else who knits and would hold me accountable.  Sadly, I do not have a yarnpal.  Well, not one who lives near enough to dope slap me when they ask about the sock of the month progress and I reply, "Huh?  Opps."

But tomorrow.  Really.  With pictures, too.

Mothra!

I just came across this photo while digging around in the CozyVault.  I'd forgotten about that moth and the size of it.  I wish there was something in the framing of the photo that conveyed the size of this beast.

It was huge. About the size of the palm of my hand.  And sure, I have small hands, but even so, that's a very large moth.

Check out the markings on its back, where it looks like it has a face.  See the bluish  'eyes'?  Does that help against preditors?

What the heck kind of preditor could eat this thing?  A hawk, maybe?  Would a hawk be scared of little fake eyeballs?  Why?  I refuse to believe it's protection against some other kind of bug because I don't want to know about  bugs that would be big enough to eat this thing.  (I don't care where you saw the palmetto bug, okay?  I refuse to hear anything about palmetto bugs.  Thank you.)

So anyway, I saw this thing and shot a snap of it - and ran home at top speed and threw myself over my stash to protect it. 

Because Mothra is still out there.  I couldn't bring myself to smash it.

Some days you just need coffee

Have you ever noticed that some days just require a little extra jump-start? 

Sometimes it's a morning thing. Getting up and emerging from the nice comfy bed is akin to exiting the bear cave after a full winter of hibernation.  Sometimes we just have brain fail.

The brain says something to the effect of, "Don't call us.  We'll call you."

Coffee is needed.

It's the drug of choice among Clan Cozy.  Admitted.  Up front.  We do caffine. 

Early training sessions are good.

Any Nest in a Storm

The birds were not at home for the blizzard of '11. They're probably still in Yucatan, living the vida loca, which is good for them. I don't think they'd enjoy the sub-zero windchills, especially with no leaves to block the blasts even a little bit.

To my thinking, days like this are meant for staying indoors doing crafty stuff.  More on this to follow.  Meanwhile, I need to spend some time thinking about those birds, hanging out in Cozumel having mojitos and not freezing their little beaks off. 

Meanwhile, my sweety and I went out to celebrate Valentine's Day and discovered this lovely frozen fountain beside the restaurant. 

Time to Make Some Plans

It's half-past January, and I haven't made a single plan towards...well...anything.  It's all been about getting over the vile mocus that had me in its grip for nearly a month.  That and dealing with therapy for my poor, sad hammy.  It has a tear that I can't mend via knitting.
But here it is, coming up on a quarter to February, and I have done so little creative that I'm starting to wonder who this person is who seems to have moved in and stayed.  The draggy, tired one that limps and coughs until Bad Things Happen.  (Don't ask.  You really don't want to know.)

But I'm planning now.  See the nice clean notebook and the newly knitted pencil?  Time to foodle.  (Which means...???)