Yankee Lagniappe

Moving -- again!

2008-07-21T22:23:00.001-04:00

Hey everybody --

I've moved my blog over to Wordpress. The new address is:

http://YankeeL.wordpress.com

See you there!

Another meme

2008-05-25T12:03:00.002-04:00

OK, I know I haven't had any "real" posts in a while. Don't remember the last time I posted a photo. Some of that could be because I broke the LCD display on my camera last month. :-(

But here's something. KnelleyBelley tagged me. So here goes.

The rules: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1) What was I doing ten years ago?

Ten years ago, I was busy busy busy… I was a 9^th year senior at LSU, finishing up the second-to-last semester of my undergraduate studies. I was also an administrative assistant for a domestic violence program.

2) Five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:

1. Work on my apartment (I moved about a month ago, and I’m still getting settled in)

2. Return phone calls to my dad and my sister

3. Knit while watching season finales I’ve taped on the VCR (poor man’s Tivo)

4. Answer some e-mail that’s piled up in my inbox

5. Answer some paper mail that’s piled up on my desk (and on my coffee table, and on my kitchen counter, and on the hall table...

3) Snacks I enjoy:

Chex Mix is one of my absolute favorites. I generally prefer crunchy, salty snacks to sweets, but a Caramel Coolatta from Dunkin Donuts would hit the spot right about now.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

Pay off my student loans and credit cards. Give money to family, friends, and selected charities. Invest. Probably buy a house. Travel.

5) Places I have lived:

Mobile, Alabama. Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Hamden, Wallingford, and Middletown, Connecticut.

6) Jobs I have had:

Bookstore clerk. Record store clerk, buyer, and slacker. Olive Garden hostess. Door-to-door political canvasser. Office manager. Administrative assistant, payroll goddess, and later grantwriter for a domestic violence program. Teacher of English as a second language. Waitress. Graduate assistant. SAT tutor. Blog moderator. Intern architect. I could go back through W-2s, but then I’d probably got depressed seeing how little money I’ve made.

7) Peeps I want to know more about:

I think everyone I know has been tagged already. If not, consider yourself tagged now.

Who said that?

2008-05-10T18:50:00.005-04:00

So a really fun meme seems to be making the rounds. I enjoyed writing this post as much as I've enjoyed playing the game on others' blogs.

Here are the rules:

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie (or get them out of your capacious memory).
3. Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.
4. Bold it when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. Looking them up is cheating, please don’t.
6. HAVE FUN!

MOVIE #1

A: How could it take you five minutes to cook your grits when it takes the entire grit-eating world 20 minutes?
B: Um... I'm a fast cook, I guess.
A: [across beside the jury] What? I'm sorry I was over there. Did you just say you were a fast cook? Are we to believe that boiling water soaks into a grit faster in your kitchen than any place on the face of the earth?
B: I don't know.
A: Perhaps the laws of physics cease to exist on your stove. Were these magic grits? Did you buy them from the same guy who sold Jack his beanstalk beans?

MY COUSIN VINNY (Nice going, Melanie M!)

MOVIE #2

I'd be the worst possible Godfather. I'd probably drop her on her head at her christening. I'd forget all her birthdays until she was 18. Then I'd take her out and get her drunk. And, let's face it, quite possibly try and shag her.

ABOUT A BOY (WifeMomKnitter)

MOVIE #3

A: Where are you giants from?
B: We're from New York.
C: All hail the New York Giants!
MADAGASCAR (CostumeChick)

MOVIE #4

A: What was that ruckus?
B: Uh, what ruckus?
A: I was just in my office and I heard a ruckus.
C: Could you describe the ruckus, sir?

THE BREAKFAST CLUB (WifeMomKnitter)

MOVIE #5

A: It's part of a trilogy, a musical trilogy I'm working on in D minor which is the saddest of all keys, I find. People weep instantly when they hear it, and I don't know why.
B: It's very nice.
A: You know, just simple lines intertwining, you know, very much like - I'm really influenced by Mozart and Bach, and it's sort of in between those, really. It's like a Mach piece, really. It's sort of...
B: What do you call this?
A: Well, this piece is called "Lick My Love Pump".
THIS IS SPINAL TAP (also CostumeChick)

MOVIE #6

A: So what's this big news, then?
B: [excited] We've been given our parts in the nativity play. And I'm the lobster.
A: The lobster?
B: Yeah!
A: In the nativity play?
B: [beaming] Yeah, *first* lobster.
A: There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus?
B: Duh.

LOVE, ACTUALLY (WifeMomKnitter)

MOVIE #7

Oh, he's very popular Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads - they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude.
FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF (CostumeChick is on a roll!)

MOVIE #8

Excuse me, sir. Seeing as how the V.P. is such a V.I.P., shouldn't we keep the P.C. on the Q.T.? 'Cause if it leaks to the V.C. he could end up M.I.A., and then we'd all be put out in K.P.

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM (WifeMomKnitter)

MOVIE #9

A: What are these? [holds up a bag with 3 lemons]
B: You asked for lemons. What my baby wants my baby gets.
A: There are 3 lemons. I asked for 12. Baby wanted 12.
THE BREAKUP (KnelleyBelley)

MOVIE #10

A: Well hell, it ain't square one! Ain't nobody gonna pick up three filthy, unshaved hitch-hikers, and one of them a know-it-all that can't keep his trap shut.
B: Pete, the personal rancor reflected in that remark I don't intend to dignify with comment. But I would like to address your general attitude of hopeless negativism. Consider the lilies of the goddamn field or... hell! Take at look at Delmar here as your paradigm of hope.
O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? (CostumeChick rocks!)

6 words

2008-04-06T12:02:00.003-04:00

Well, my friend WifeMomKnitter tagged me for this meme. She'd been tagged by Mad-Knitter, who'd heard about 6 word biographies in a piece on National Public Radio. I'd also heard that piece (and seen an article online), so I thought it was really pretty cool. Anyone who knows me knows that I tend to be a very wordy person, so keeping it at 6 words is a challenge!

Here's my best effort so far:
So much behind; so much ahead.

I could elaborate, but I think that would defeat the purpose.

Now, being lazy, I tag whoever's reading and hasn't been tagged yet. ;-)

A little shift toward the kitchen

2008-04-06T10:29:00.004-04:00

Well, my friend Laura over at The Spiced Life (a very impressive cooking blog that I've referred to before as "food porn") tagged me (actually tagged whoever) for this meme. I figured I'd give it a shot, although I haven't taken much time to cook lately. :-\

Kitchen Meme

What three kitchen items do you use the most often?
Microwave, Fridge, and a good set of knives (you can tell by the first 2 that I don't spend as much "quality time" in the kitchen as Laura does.

What kitchen gadget do you wish you had?
A good food processor. I have a little Black & Decker one that chops pretty nicely, but I lost the slicing wheel years ago.

What kitchen gadget do you never use/wish you hadn't spent the money for?
Since I have a small kitchen with very limited space, I keep my kitchen arsenal lean and mean -- no room for one-trick ponies. I did have a bread machine that my mom had picked up at a tag sale, but I gave it away because I hardly ever used it. Besides, kneading your own bread dough is very therapeutic!

What is your favorite cookbook? (Link if you can!)
Unlike Laura, I don't have a huge cookbook collection. If I need an asparagus recipe, I usually head to the internet. I do have a couple of tried-and-true favorites: The Joy of Cooking is certainly a staple. I also have a great book called How Cooking Works -- lots of good info about the chemistry of cooking (dumbed down for those of us who had to drop college chemistry because it was too damn hard), plus practical knowledge, like substitution suggestions. Last I heard, it was out of print.

Who is your cooking inspiration?
Senia, who first taught me how to cook (at the age of 7 or 8), my parents, who allowed me into the kitchen (and entrusted me with use of everything in it) as soon as I could reach the counter, and my Aunt Helen, who first taught me how to bake bread.

What are three recipes that you use all the time?
1. A good chicken and black bean chilaquiles recipe from Cooking Light (although I've tweaked it significantly)
2. A recipe for honey whole wheat challah that once appeared in the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate. I haven't made it in a long time, but it makes a wonderful all-around wheat bread.
3. My mom's recipe for M&M cookies -- even though I don't have a tremendous sweet-tooth, these are the best. Loaded with brown sugar and butter -- makes me want to get out the mixer right now!

Can you share a cooking secret?
It's more of a philosophy than a secret per se -- if you can read and follow directions, you can cook (and with practice, you can learn to tweak recipes and improve upon them with your own knowledge and experience). Don't be discouraged by the occasional kitchen disaster -- I doubt that even the most accomplished chefs hit it out of the park 100% of the time.

What is your greatest cleaning secret?
Trying to get someone else to do the cleaning. ;-)
No, really -- if you have a pan with really stubborn baked on crud, try soaking it in hot water and baking soda. My mom found this out a few years ago and shared it with me.

What is your favorite thing to clean?
I'm not sure the word "favorite" belongs in that question. That would imply that I like to clean.

What is your least favorite thing to clean?
The kitchen floor -- not a fan of mopping.

What is your most embarrassing housekeeping moment?
I'm not sure if there's a particular moment, but I know my place is a pigsty right now (it was a busy week). So I guess I'd better wrap this up and go tidy up!

Who do you tag to do this next?
I'm issuing a blanket tag to any readers who do any cooking. :-)

Alphabet Soup

2008-03-17T12:49:00.002-04:00

Here is what you do. Use the 1st letter of your middle name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real places, names,things…nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person you took this from had the same 1st initial.
You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

1. Middle name letter: C
2. Famous artist/band/musician: Crosby Stills Nash (& sometimes Young)
3. 4-letter word: Although I can think of a couple of other 4-letter word that begin with "C," I'm gonna go with "crap."
4. U.S state: Kah-lee-FOR-nee-yah
5. Boy name: Christopher
6. Girl name: Catherine
7. Animal: Cat
8. Something in the kitchen: Cake pans (mmmmm....cake.....)
9. Reason for being late? Cuckoo clock is broken?
10. Body Part? Cranium
11. Drink? Cabernet (but not $27/glass Cabernet -- that'd just be SILLY)
12. Something you shout: Crappity Crap Crap!
13. Something you eat? Cookies
14. A movie you've seen? Casablanca

I tag Knelley, passimenterie, and The Spiced Life (a good cooking blog if you're into food porn)

Travelling Riverside Blues

2008-01-13T09:02:00.000-05:00

Well, I'd told WifeMomKnitter that I was going to make that the title of my next post. I'd been wondering aloud what the title of that song was after I'd heard it on the radio. I've never considered myself a Led Zeppelin "fan," but I did catch myself doing a little sing/dancealong behind the wheel of my car. Very cool guitar riff. Kinda dirty lyrics -- Robert Plant, you a damn pervert.
Led Zeppelin - Travelling Riverside Blues

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End of 2007, Beginning of 2008

2007-12-28T20:40:00.000-05:00

Well, so much to blog about. Some photos to share (both of completed projects and the family Christmas celebration). And a few knitting resolutions for 2008.

First, a photo of one of the mittens I made to go with Baby Helen's pink coat and hat:

Mad props to whoever understands why the mitten is perched on a beer bottle (sorry, Thursday night S&B folks are ineligible).

And here's a photo of Helen modeling the full hat and mittens ensemble. As you can see, it was hard to get her to be still!

We had a nice Christmas. Matthew is smiling a lot, and Helen is in perpetual motion. I will post some photos later -- I'm waiting for my sisters to send me their online albums.

So last night, we were talking about knitting resolutions for the new year. But first, a few things I accomplished in 2007 (not necessarily in order):
1. I learned how to use DPNS -- I have since knitted several hats, a pair of mittens, and a pair of baby booties.
2. I made my first knitting festival trip this year -- several of us attended the NY Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck. So much fun!
3. I tried several new patterns this year. Overall, I was open to more challenges -- probably because I know if I get stuck, I can get help from my S&B friends!
4. I finally got on Ravelry. Now I see what all the commotion was about.
There may be more accomplishments, but these are the ones that stick out in my mind right now.

On to 2008, and some KNITTING RESOLUTIONS for the new year:
1. I am finally going to knit some socks. I have a couple of skeins of sock yarn, including my LSU purple and gold sock yarn. Geaux Tigers!
2. I'm going to learn cabling this year.
3. I'm going to learn Kitchener Stitch this year (actually, it'll probably be this weekend!)
4. Even though projects for my niece and nephew keep getting added to my Ravelry queue, I'm still going to do one or two projects for myself.
5. I'd like to learn Magic Loop this year.
Again, there are probably items I'm forgetting, but maybe I'll add to this later.

Knitters out there -- any knitting resolutions for 2008? I tag CostumeChick, Anphoe, KnelleyBelley, WifeMomKnitter, MadKnitter, and passimenterie. :-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2007-12-22T22:41:00.000-05:00

I wanted to share this video but the best I could do is a link -- please click to view.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Hats!

2007-12-09T21:37:00.000-05:00

It was a great weekend. I'm hanging in there with the personal stuff, and my cold is finally on the wane. That's good, because my IQ seems to be inversely proportional to the amount of goo in my head.

My sister had asked me to knit Baby Helen a hat to go with her pink winter coat. So I did, and my sister was appreciative, as always. What I didn't expect was this: reportedly, Helen wore the hat around the house most of the weekend. Apparently she is really into it!

The toy she's pushing, a "Fisher Price Musical Activity Walker," was also a gift from her doting aunt. ;-)

In other hat news, I finished one of the Santa hats. I'm making one for Helen and one for Matthew. Since Helen's daycare is having a "Santa Hat" day next week, I pushed forward and finished hers Friday night. And since I don't yet have a photo of her wearing it, I'll have to be content with a stand-in model:

Also, I'm finally on Ravelry! If anyone's looking, my ID is YankeeLagniappe. It's going to take me a while to get photos uploaded and lists made, but as of today, I'm off to a good start!

Forgiveness and Waffles

2007-12-01T17:30:00.000-05:00

A curious title, you say? Very few will know what it means, but I promised them that would be the title of my next blog post. To those of you, THANK YOU -- I am so lucky to have you as friends.

It has been a while since I've posted, and it took getting TAGGED for a meme by Wife, "Mom," Knitter to drag my lazy patootie back into the blogosphere. So without further ado:

1. What are your favorite things to knit?
Things for my niece and nephew. Baby stuff goes very quickly, and I enjoy thinking about the babies as I knit. Also, their mommies (my sisters) are very appreciative!

2. What yarn/fiber do you like most?
I am trying to broaden my yarn horizons, but there have been a couple of yarns that have gotten my attention recently. I knitted a hat for myself our of Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk -- it's so warm and soft. And I've knitted a couple of items for my nephew with Bernat Cotton-Tots (100% cotton). It doesn't have much elasticity (terribly for tying up a pompom), but it feels really good and I like their colorways.

3. What needles do you tend to use (i.e. type/material)?
Metal circulars. Although all my DPNs are bamboo. I've only recently learned to use DPNs, and somehow the bamboo makes me feel less worried that the stitches will go flying off the other end of the needle.

4. Do you tend to knit more in one specific part of the year than others?
No.

5. What style of knitting do you use?
English, although at the time I learned, I didn't know there was more than one style.

6. Do you consider yourself a “fast” knitter?
No, although I'm not as slow and clumsy as I used to be.

7. Who is your favorite knitting author(s)?
I don't really have any yet -- I haven't developed a book addiction. I did meet the Yarn Harlot at Rhinebeck (my friends were stalking her) and she was very nice. So I guess she's my favorite. :-)

8. What is your favorite by said author(s)?
So now I guess I'll have to go get some of her books...

9. How long ago did you learn to knit?
Summer of 2003. I had just finished grad school and was visiting my Aunt Helen. She taught me the basic knit stitch.

10. How do you knit small in-the-round objects? (i.e. double points, 2 circulars, or the magic loop)
DPNs, which I've only recently learned to use. I would love to learn the other 2 methods at some point.

11. What is the most useful technique you’ve learned so far?
The same thing WifeMomKnitter said -- knit both sleeves (or cardigan front panels) at once. I too learned this at S&B. Not only are my sleeves uniform, but I've never had "second sleeve" syndrome.

12. Do you prefer to knit fine gauge items, mid-range gauge items, or large gauge items, or do you like it all?
I think I'm most comfortable with mid-range gauge item.

13. How do you like to knit your sweaters?
Back, front, sleeves, I guess. I'm not sure it ever occurred to me to deviate from the pattern so boldly as to knit the front, then the back!

14.) Who do wish to tag?
Anyone who hasn't been tagged yet, I guess! :-)

I Killz U in Ur Sleep

2007-11-11T13:14:00.001-05:00

Yep. That's right. Cat wearing a sweater. Boy, was she pissed.
Here's the thing: She's 17 years old. Geriatric Kitty. Is on several medications and seems to be cold a lot lately. So I thought, maybe she needs a sweater.

There's a reason cats typically don't wear sweaters. They can't groom themselves very easily if they're half-shrouded in wool or acrylic. But Kitty hasn't been in the habit of grooming herself in her old age -- every few days I have to brush out her fur myself to keep it from getting all matted. So figuring that obstruction to grooming wasn't an issue, I found this "dog" sweater at Tuesday Morning for $5.

But I guess there's another reason cats don't wear sweaters. Dignity. She's figured out how to wriggle out of it fairly quickly. Or maybe it's the storebought acrylic sweater itself -- maybe she's a fiber snob and she's waiting for me to knit her something out of Alpaca Silk.

Speaking of knitting, I've made some progress on that, too. Here's Baby Helen's Christmas stocking, which I finished in 8 days (once I got started, I had a hard time stopping!)

I'm now working on her cousin Matthew's stocking, which is the same (except the name at the top, obviously). Started at the top and have already worked my way to the top of Santa's head. Kitty sits next to me as I knit -- I think she prefers to keep warm by snuggling with a nice warm human.

Friday Slacker Video

2007-11-02T11:23:00.000-04:00

This is too funny.

The History of LOLCats - Watch more free videos

Rhinebeck!

2007-10-23T21:27:00.000-04:00

Well, it took a couple of days, but here's my Rhinebeck post. I notice everyone else I went with has already posted (hangs head in shame)...

I had a great time with Mad Knitter, Knelley Belley, Costume Chick, and WifeMomKnitter. We got an early start from New Haven. I told Knelley it made me think of Robin Williams in "Good Morning Vietnam": "It's 0-600. What's the O for? O my GOD, it's early!" But the drive was gorgeous, the company was great, and time flew by pretty quickly.

We were all overwhelmed by everything Rhinebeck had to offer. Vendor after vendor after vendor. Yarn, other knitting goodies, and lots of roving. For those of you who don't know what roving is, it's the soft wool (or other fiber) used to spin yarn. It comes natural or dyed, and looks like cotton candy. I currently have no interest in taking up spinning, but I did enjoy "petting" the big, fluffy piles of roving. More than once, I considered jumping into a big pile of roving like one might jump into a big pile of autumn leaves. But I didn't want to have to explain myself to other "guests" of the Dutchess County Jail ("What're ya in for?" "Oh, I stirred up some trouble at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival...")

It wasn't until after lunch that I finally risked opening the floodgates by -- gasp -- buying something. My first purchase was a ball of Opal sock yarn. Costume Chick said it's a good yarn for a first pair of socks. And it's self-striping! I look forward to trying it out soon, now that I've finally learned to use DPNs (again, I have Costume Chick to thank for that).

Then I bought a little alpaca fridge magnet. It just made me smile. I'm waiting for Oscar to notice it on the fridge ("WTF???")

I also bought a skein of silk yarn. It felt so good. It was a little pricey, so I only bought one skein -- I plan to use it for a lace scarf:

And for someone who has never knit socks, I sure did buy a lot of sock yarn. When I found some purple and gold sock yarn, I figured I had to knit a pair of LSU game day socks. Geaux Tigers!

And I'd thought it would be nice to find some knit finger puppets to take to Helen and Matthew. In the last building we went through, I found these:

One more thing I wanted to show -- we saw a very cool Border Collie sheep herding competition. I thought it was very cool, because my sister has a Border Collie. I wasn't able to get very good photos because the sheep were so far away and the dogs moved so fast. But one of my co-workers has a Far Side calendar, and this was Saturday's page:

:-)

Long Time No See...

2007-10-13T21:38:00.000-04:00

Wow, it really HAS been a while since my last post. So what's been happening since late August?

Well, my beautiful new nephew arrived on September 10th. Matthew Stewart weighed in at a healthy 9 lbs., 6 oz. Matthew, his mom, and his dad are all doing really well. Even Truman the Border Collie is handling the new family dynamic fairly well -- can you spot him in the first photo?

And I finished Matthew's blanket and managed to get it to him before he was a month old:

And lest you think that I'm neglecting my precious niece, here's a photo of her at a gathering of Guatemalan adoptees and their families (Helen's the pumpkin):

Not a whole lot else going on this weekend, except that something's got my allergies going crazy. Sneezy, sneezy, sneezy.

LOVE it!

2007-08-25T21:52:00.000-04:00

LOVE this pattern. LOVE this yarn.

I'm working on the blanket for my nephew, who is due in about a week. Went to pick out the yarn Thursday -- it was nice to have Jen along to help, because it's so hard for me to shop for yarn! Part of it is my lack of experience/expertise at it. Part of it is the trouble I have making up my mind. And when I finally make up my mind, there never seems to be enough in one dye lot for the project. Aaargh. That's what happened when I was picking out some nice blue cotton yarn. About 30 skeins, but in about 15 different dye lots. THEN I spotted this yarn. Beautiful white, yellow, green, and blue. Bernat Cotton-Tots. I'm working with one strand of the variegated, plus one strand of white. It's very soft, and I like the way it feels as I'm working with it.

Now onto the pattern. It's from a book called Leisure Arts Quick Knit Baby Afghans, which I picked up a few years ago for $4.50. I have gotten more use out of that book. 7 blankets in 4 different patterns, I think. This pattern, called "Whisper Soft," is more challenging than the others, but CostumeChick urged me to go for it. I'm so glad I did!

OK, so here are some photos:

As you can see, I have a long way to go, but it is going fairly quickly.

So you might be wondering why I'm waiting until the 11th hour to start this project. After finishing Baby Helen's cardigan, I knitted a quick blanket (from that same book) for a friend whose due date was 4 weeks before my sister's. So I finally finished that:

TGIF (Thank God it Fits)!

2007-08-03T14:10:00.001-04:00

Well, the sweater arrived at my sister's house yesterday. My sister wrote that not only does the sweater fit, but that there's room to grow -- what a relief!

She knew I was going to S&B last night and would love a photo to show, so she e-mailed me one. So for those of you that didn't get this photo shoved in your faces last night, here it is:

Transitions

2007-07-24T23:07:00.000-04:00

Well, a couple of transitions this past week:

* Baby Helen has started walking!

* And I have finally finished her sweater!

I'm going to send the sweater to Atlanta this week, but I'm almost afraid to let it out of my sight and entrust it to UPS, FedEx, or the postal service. But I want Baby Helen to be able to wear it before she outgrows it! I will ask her mommy to take photos of her modeling the sweater with one of her pretty little dresses.

Taking a cue from CostumeChick, here are the stats:

PATTERN: "Cardigan with lace edging," by Debbie Bliss. I found this in a great book at the library -- I think it's called "Bright Knits for Kids" (even though the sweater I knitted was in white, as commissioned by Helen's mommy). The pattern calls for a shawl collar, but I didn't want to detract from the smocking detail on some of Helen's dresses, so I modified the collar & button band, and finished it all off with a single crochet edge (thanks again to CostumeChick, who taught me how to make buttonholes with a backward loop cast-on AND REtaught me how to single crochet!)
NEEDLES: #3 for most of the sweater, #2 for the knitted lace trim that was sewn on later. Don't ask what brand -- it's whatever metal circs I found at JoAnn.
YARN: Svale by Dalegarn of Norway -- 50% cotton, 40% viscose, & 10% silk -- bought at Yarn Garden's 41%-off Super Bowl XLI sale (yes, it's been that long since I bought the yarn).

And what's on the needles now? A blanket for the daughter of my friends Jen and Adam, due to arrive in early August. More photos to come!

Aristocracy!

2007-07-19T11:43:00.000-04:00

I found this on passiminterie (sorry, I can't do linking on Safari), so I decided to try it. Apparently, they let any old riffraff into the aristocratic Establishment these days, because I have a title:

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Entirely Miss Reverend Lady Anne the Ceaseless of Lardle St Earache
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

I find anything calling me "reverend" a little funny.

New Meme -- I never...

2007-07-17T12:44:00.000-04:00

Well, Costumechick tagged me for a meme -- items I've knitted, plan to knit, or have never knitted and don't plan to. It reminds me of that game "I Never," in which people say "I Never...." and then add something like "did it in a moving car" or something crazy like that. Then the people that DID do that are supposed to drink. It's kind of like a cross between a drinking game and Truth or Dare.

But this list is so much more tame, and seeing as how it's the middle of the day, there's no alcohol involved. Snarky comments, however, are in abundance.

BTW, when I say "did it" [in a moving car], I mean knitting, of course! Get your minds out of the gutter!

BOLD indicates things I've done.
ITALICIZED indicates things that I haven't done but intend to do in the future.
Normal text indicates things I've never done and have no plans to do.

Afghan/Blanket (baby sized)
I-cord - if a project calls for it
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire - If I knit myself a hat with metal wire, will it keep out the Government Mind-Probe Rays?
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn - maybe (it might get my allergies going!)
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting - why not?
Participating in a KAL
Sweater - one of them was even a boyfriend sweater!
Drop stitch patterns - all my stitches have been dropped by accident
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn -- mmmmm...bananas...
Domino knitting (modular knitting) - not sure what this is, but it sounds fun
Twisted stitch patterns - again, I think I've already done this by accident
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting - definitely
Knitting with soy yarn (Soy to the World?)
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles - hated it at first, but now that's all I use
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street) - huh?
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments - I tried this, but the result was less than I'd hoped for
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran) - definitely want to try within the next year
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money - although I don't think I'd be prolific enough to be profitable
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dyeing with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting - what on earth is Olympic knitting???
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with DPNs
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit - I would, if asked
Bobbles
Knitting for a living - again, I don't think I'm prolific enough
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking - not sure how to do this, but I'm intrigued
Dyeing yarn
Steeks - maybe, if I knew what the hell a steek was
Knitting art
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting - does yarn barf count?
Short rows - again, I've done these, although not on purpose
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting - no idea what this is
Knitting a gift - oh yeah
Knitting for pets - would give Stitch & Bitch a new meaning, wouldn't it?
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair - Not enough Allegra on the planet to get me through that experience.
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

There are a few more I've thought of:
Knitting on the beach
Thinking about your knitting while you're supposed to be focused on something else
Knitting during a meeting (I don't think I could get away with it)
Knitting a boyfriend/husband sweater
Attending a Stitch & Bitch group
Asking for/receiving knitting-related gifts for bdays, holidays, etc.
Knitting on an airplane
Learning knitting vocabulary in a foreign language (until I learn how to say "purl" in Spanish, I guess I can only knit in garter stitch ;-)
Having a Wall of Yarn
Taking a knitting-related trip (including out-of-state yarn-buying junkets)

So now I tag KnelleyBelley. :-)

Red Spam

2007-07-17T11:52:00.000-04:00

I don’t know how, but some right-wing Louisiana political group has gotten my e-mail address on their mailing list. Their blog is called “Operaton Red November”– I suppose they’re looking to make Louisiana more of a “red state” than it already is (don’t these people know that red is the color of Communism???) Again, I don’t know how they got my e-mail address, but they’ve failed to note two important things: (1) I don’t live in Louisiana anymore (nor am I registered to vote there anymore); (2) Anyone that knows me knows that I am more of a “blue state” kind of gal. So “Red November” is sending me lots of crap about David Vitter and how he doesn’t know any prostitutes (not in the biblical sense, anyway), as if I care. Three e-mails in one week. One was titled, “An Excercise [sic] in Irresponsible Journalism” – I guess that’s supposed to be an indictment of the “liberal media.” So I hit “reply” (to the g-mail address on the e-mail) and wrote the following:
I don't know how you got my e-mail address, but this is the 2nd piece of right-wing propaganda you've sent me today. Take me off of your list. Oh, and there's only 1 c in "exercise." So I guess yours is an Exercise in Irresponsible Spelling.
Ah, good times… You’d think they’d take me off their list, but I got another e-mail today. Unfortunately, their blog (operationrednovember.blogspot.com) isn’t comment-enabled (shocking), but if anyone feels like f***ing with right-wing spammers, the g-mail address is theivhorsemen@gmail.com (as in the Four Horsemen). Don’t forget to run spellcheck before hitting send. ;-)

RSS is awesome (and Really Simple!)

2007-07-06T12:36:00.000-04:00

I'm neither a techie nor a gadget freak, but in the past couple of weeks, I've set up and figured out how to use RSS ("Really Simple Syndication") reader. I'm hooked up on Google Reader. I had set up some news feeds, but today I figured out that I can set up RSS feeds so that I know when other blogs have been updated. So very cool. I've added anphoe, costumechick, mad-knitter, and passiminterie so far. If anyone else (particularly Thursday night S&Bers) have blogs, please leave a link in the comments.

Now off to get some actual work done. ;-)

Work & Play

2007-07-01T21:39:00.001-04:00

Well, last week had a rough start. We had a big deadline at work, so by Wednesday, I had put in 40 hours. But by Thursday the madness had leveled off somewhat. I was finally able to go to S&B on Thursday, for the first time in 3 weeks. It was so good to see everyone. And to have time to knit!

It was nice out this weekend – had a chance to sit out by the pool and run my errands with the top down. Still a lot of work to do tonight to get ready for the coming week, though. So, along with my resolution to be a more frequent blogger, I leave you with this little bit of sunshine – a photo of the family Glamour Princess:

Making progress...

2007-06-18T12:45:00.000-04:00

I need to get better about putting photos in my blog. Between the move (yes, I know that my habit of blaming everything on the move is tiresome) and having to get my hard drive reformatted (don't ask), I haven't done too good a job on that. But I'm inspired by fellow knitters' blogs, so I am trying to be a more prolific blogger and knitter.

I am making progress on Baby Helen's cardigan -- I finally decided that it was time to make some serious headway. I don't want her to be too big for the sweater by the time I finish it. I've been working a lot (at my actual paying job), so I haven't had as much time to work on it as I'd like. It's like Costumechick says, "Don't you hate it when your job interferes with your knitting?"

The weekend was good -- is it too early to be thinking about next weekend? ;-)

Here is a picture to put in this week's (month's?) post. I don't know the cat (or what the hell he's been eating), but it makes me laugh.

Meme?

2007-05-29T13:34:00.000-04:00

(Changes into hair shirt)
So I have not been a very consistent blogger. I put a lot of things on hold while preparing for the move, surviving the move, and recovering from the move. I haven’t made time to blog again, even after getting called out by Phoebe on her blog and by others at S&B. So I’m back.
(Changes out of hair shirt. Damn, that thing itches.)

Phoebe tagged me for a meme. I had to google “meme” to find out what the hell it meant. It’s tough to keep up with you kids and your crazy lingo! ;-)

It looks to me like a meme is like a Top Ten List of sorts? When I worked in a record store (with CDs, cassettes, and real vinyl LPs), people used to make lists of “Desert Island Discs” – CDs one could not live without if stranded on a desert island. MP3 players have made those disc lists somewhat obsolete, I guess, but now there are essential playlists. So I guess a playlist could be a meme too, right?

According to Phoebe, this meme is supposed to be a list of seven miscellaneous facts about me. OK – here goes:

1) In elementary school, I wanted to change my name, because kids called me “Annie Fanny.” I was also vigilant about not letting grown-ups call me “Annie.” But I never did find a name that was completely impervious to some perversion – nicknames, rhyming, etc. Now I like my name just fine, and on occasion, I’ll even let people call me Annie. Hell, I’ve been called worse.

2) Although I learned how to drive at 15, I didn’t learn to parallel park until around age 25 and didn’t learn how to drive in snow and ice until the tender age of 32. I rock at parallel parking, but if you see me tooling up Route 15 during wintertime, give me lots of room.

3) I’m stealing an item idea from CostumeChick here. My boyfriend Oscar and I have the same birthday. Just a weird coincidence, I guess. Same date, but different years. I’m three years older than Oscar, and he never lets me forget it.

4) Although my graduate degree is in architecture, my undergraduate degree is in psychology. Most people either think it’s a total non sequitur, or they think it makes perfect sense. Psychology was a good, solid, interdisciplinary major (take at least 6 hours of everything, plus psych courses). That said, the most practical classes I’ve ever taken were languages (English, Spanish, French, and a smidgen of ASL), public speaking, and typing.

5) I watch entirely too much TV. My favorite show is Lost, but I’ve also watched House, Grey’s Anatomy, ER, and Desperate Housewives regularly. I often set the VCR (poor man’s tivo) and watch the tapes while I’m knitting or doing some other “multitaskable” thing. That way I don’t feel like such an unproductive couch potato.

6) My occasional ranting against Corporate America is not without hypocrisy. Since moving earlier this month, I’ve been to WalMart about 487 times. Where else can you get hamburger buns and a 50-foot phone cord in the same place?

7) Things I am afraid of: heights, scary movies. Things I’m not afraid of (but not terribly fond of): snakes, spiders.

I don’t think I know 7 bloggers to tag, and the bloggers I know have already been tagged. But there’s my meme. Next post I’ll try to fill you in on what I’ve been up to (hopefully with photos).

Packrats Anonymous

2007-04-04T12:25:00.000-04:00

Moving sucks. There -- I said it. And I don't think there's a soul on earth who will disagree with me.

We're moving at the end of the month, and the move is becoming an all-consuming endeavor. I don't have any knitting photos to post this time, because, with the exception of Stitch & Bitch, I haven't had any time to knit. First it was all about looking for apartments online. Then the weekend after I got the car, we went and physically looked at a bunch of apartments. Now that we've found something and signed the lease, we're doing a LOT of decluttering. Not so easy for me, packrat that I am. But we're moving to a smaller place, and we don't want to keep moving and storing stuff we don't use, need, or want. So we've been going through stuff. Goodwill might want some of it, but some of it has gone straight into the trash. Case in point: the contents of the bathroom -- long-expired over-the-counter meds, half-empty bottles of nail polish I'll never use, and makeup that's probably from the Clinton administration.

It was tough to get started, but once I got going, it felt liberating to get rid of clutter. I suppose in lieu of knitting photos, I could post a photo of the big pile of crap in our dining area, but I think I'd be embarrassed for anyone to see how much useless stuff I've moved from apartment to apartment to apartment over the years.

I've been a very bad blogger lately, but I'll try to do better. You probably thought I didn't have time to blog because I was out tooling around in that convertible. Oh, if only..... (sigh)

SPYDEY!

2007-03-12T22:01:00.000-04:00

OK, so this post is not about knitting either...

Up until Saturday, I drove a 1991 Toyota Corolla sedan. For the first 2 years I lived in Connecticut, the car still had Louisiana plates. So a guy I know called it "The Swamp Thing." Then one day at work I said something about how my car (which runs a lot better than it looks) gets no respect. He replied, "Yeah, it's like the Rodney Dangerfield of cars." So we've called it Rodney for about a year.

Well, Rodney the Swamp Thing has served me well over the years, but it was finally time to look for another car. For several weeks I've browsed used car inventories online. I'd been looking mainly at Honda Civics.

Saturday, for the second weekend in a row, Oscar and I went car shopping. I test-drove a couple of Civics, but I wasn't feeling too enthusiastic. Then we went to another Honda dealership. I was about to test-drive another Civic when Oscar suggested that we go to the Chrysler dealership next door and see if they had any good used Sebring convertibles. I'd rented one a few years ago and it was the coolest rental car ever.

While we were looking at other cars, Oscar spotted a 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder convertible. He and the salesman both suggested that I take a closer look and a test-drive. At first I laughed it off ("Way too much car for me! Now where are the Civics?"), but eventually I did take a closer look. And I started to fall in love with a damn car (and I don't even consider myself a "car person"). As Oscar observed, I had trouble getting excited about the other cars I'd looked at this month, but in the presence of the Spyder, I practically had to wipe the drool from my chin. We test-drove it and it really was a great car.

Well, after a lot of negotiation and a lot of paperwork, I bought the car! I even got them to let me take the car home Saturday afternoon, with the understanding that I'd return Monday to finish the paperwork.

Like I told my family: The practical side of me negotiated a good deal for a 4-year-old car with 44,000 miles, good fuel economy, and a reputation for reliability. And the crazy side of me bought a convertible with a V6.

Saturday night I woke up in a cold sweat thinking, "What have I DONE???" I hadn't bought a car in 16 years and then I run out and buy a convertible? Am I crazy?

But since then, I've gotten more comfortable with my decision. I feel like I got a good deal on a good car. And besides, it's so pretty!

By the way, yesterday's weather was nice, so Oscar and I took the new car out for a drive. We put the top down, but after a few minutes, we pulled over and put the top back up because we were freezing. Oh well -- maybe in a few weeks.

Chinese New Year - Alabama Style!

2007-03-04T22:10:00.000-05:00

Well, I didn't post last weekend because I traveled to Fairhope, Alabama to visit family. An unexpected highlight of the weekend? The Chinese New Year parade put on by a Fairhope-based international adoption agency. Each year, adopted children and their parents parade through the streets of downtown Fairhope (a charming town located on Mobile Bay). Many of the children are adopted from China, but some are adopted from Guatemala, Russia, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, and other countries. Sure, Chinese New Year wasn't last weekend; they usually push back the parade a week or two to accommodate Mardi Gras (or as Yankees call it, Tuesday).

So we went to the parade. Lots of participants and spectators - some local, and some who travel from other states every year to be part of the celebration. Not only did Margaret and Baby Helen "march," but Aunt Helen, Pop (Baby Helen's grandpa), and I (the other doting aunt) all participated as well. Here are some photos:

Margaret and Baby Helen (note the blue & white crepe paper on Helen's "float")

Most of the floats were parent-propelled.

But this one was battery-operated!

Wait a minute - this isn't the Year of the Dog!

Yeah, that's more like it!

There were lots of very cool floats and outfits:

Even the Azalea Trail Maids were there.

Helen seemed a little tired when the day started...

...And this was Helen at the end of the parade.

So it was great fun.

Next time, a knitting post of sorts.

A good weekend

2007-02-18T20:37:00.000-05:00

It wasn't a terribly eventful weekend, but that's all right with me! I have spent most of it knitting furiously, trying to finish my sister's sweater before I see her next weekend. It is coming along -- I have another couple of inches to finish the sleeves (which I plan to do tonight). Then blocking, seaming, and the button band. And then the fringe. Not much time. I did take a bit of time to knit the gauge swatch for Baby Helen's cardigan. Oh, it is so soft!!! I cannot wait to get started on the project. It's a much finer gauge than what I'm used to working -- all knit on #2's and #3's -- until now, the smallest needles I owned were 7's.

I went to Supper Club tonight. The theme was Asian food -- apropos of Chinese New Year. It's the year of the pig, and it was pretty easy for me to live up to that tonight! I took a Thai-style coconut soup. It was the first time I'd made it, but it turned out pretty nicely.

I was going to take a photo of pieces of the sweater on the blocking board, but I think I'll wait and take photos next weekend of my sister actually wearing the sweater (fingers crossed that it will fit!)

Bleah.

2007-02-13T12:21:00.000-05:00

OK -- First let me agree with my friend Costume Chick that the new Blogger is a colossal pain in the ass. I've spent the past 20 minutes (a) trying to log onto my account, and (b) trying to link to Costume Chick's blog (apparently half the HTML capabilities are missing for us Safari users). I am pissed with Blogger and the Help section is of no help whatsoever.

Anyway, I'm posting a little later than usual this week because I've been very sick. It felt like the flu except no fever. Didn't even leave the house Thursday or Friday of last week, and tried to rest during the weekend. But I'm back (even if it's not at 100%).

When I was sick I didn't even have the energy to knit, but I've made good progress on my sister's sweater since the weekend. I finished the front cardigan panels and cast on the sleeves over the weekend. I've knit several inches, but last night I got all tangled up in yarn barf (thanks Val for an excellently descriptive term!) But it's finally unsnarled and hopefully I'll get more done tonight. Down to the wire -- deadline knitting -- I don't know if I like that idea.

I'm at work (on my lunch hour, of course!) so I don't have any good knitting photos to post. So I'll share some others.

Here's a photo I found on the net of a squirrel wearing a sweater. For the sake of all involved I hope the sweater was photoshopped in.

And if that doesn't make you smile, here's a photo of a great Halloween costume for your dog. Never too early to start planning your dog's Halloween costume. But Anne, what if I don't have a dog? Well, it's February. Go get a dog. You've got time.

Success!

2007-02-04T18:04:00.000-05:00

Well, the photo isn't great, but I got over to the Yarn Garden today for their Super Bowl XLI Sale (41% off of everything!) I was looking for yarn for my niece Helen's cardigan. Not a difficult thing, really -- since my sister had requested white. Going into a yarn store looking for white baby yarn in a fine gauge really helps narrow things down. There was lots of beautiful yarn and I did see some S&B people doing some stash shopping, but I was on a mission. I got 7 skeins of Svale, by Dalegarn of Norway. It's 50% cotton, 40% viscose, and 10% silk and it feels really good. I am looking forward to casting on, but I want to finish my sister's birthday sweater first -- just under three weeks before I head south to see her, my niece, and the rest of the fam.

Well, off to watch the game & some commercials, and to do some power knitting!

I'm too lazy to think up a good title for this one.

2007-01-28T17:10:00.000-05:00

Ah, it's nice to have to time to relax. It also helps to have time to cross items off the to do list, but it's nice to kick back a veg out a little bit.

Yesterday I didn't do too much but I did cook Crunchy Shrimp with Orange Almond Couscous -- it's a favorite around here. I wish we had some leftovers, but we ate it all last night. Good thing Oz is cooking Chicken Parmigiana tonight -- mmmmm!

As far as knitting goes, I've been a little more productive toward the end of the week. I've inserted the pockets on my sister's sweater and have finally found a pattern for my niece's sweater. I was going to post some progress photos, but I'm thinking maybe I want it to be a surprise when I see my sister and niece in a few weeks.

No photos, but a couple of weeks ago, some of us at S&B were talking about funny YouTube videos, so I'll share a few links with ya:

Jame's Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub Party - Eddie Murphy's SNL tribute to the Hardest Working Man in Showbiz.

D*** in a Box - Justin Timberlake and SNL's Andy Samberg sing of a very special holiday gift (NSFW)

Jay Leno's Gap Commercial - Well, I'll let this one speak for itself.

Well, I hope everyone had a great weekend. :-)

Full Weekend!

2007-01-21T21:13:00.000-05:00

Well, there was a lot going on this weekend. It's cliché to say this, but I need another weekend to recover from my weekend!

Yesterday Oscar and I drove over to Rhode Island to meet my dad and his wife, who drove down from Rockport, Massachusetts. It was COLD!!! Apart from lunch, we did a lot of driving around -- down to Point Judith, around Beavertail State Park, and around Newport. The water was very beautiful and the architecture quite grand. I'd been to Newport once before, but it was a couple of years ago. So it was fun and we had a nice chance to visit. I was wiped out when we got home, though.

Then tonight I went to supper club. This month's theme: Under the Tuscan Sun. I took an antipasto bowl -- very easy and very good. Everything else was good, too -- lasagna, white bean and barley soup, bread, chianti, Tuscan quesadillas, and some good homemade biscotti for dessert.

I haven't gotten a lot of knitting done this week, but here are some photos of the sweater I knitted last year, as modeled by my precious niece, Helen. The sweater is still a little big for her (she'll be 8 months old next week), but my sister was kind enough to put it on over her pjs and send me a few photos:

OK, here we go...

2007-01-14T11:00:00.000-05:00

Well, here we are in January 2007. My last attempt at blogging was sometime in October. And at S&B the other night I realized that there are actually people out there who would bother to read my blog, if I ever bothered to update it.

So here it is -- the new blog. Slimmed and trimmed down for 2007 (who doesn't like to drop a little extra weight for the new year?). And I've decided to put up a new post at least every weekend.

Here's some knitting stuff to catch up...

A photo of the three architecturally-inspired "golden section" scarves that I gave each of my bosses for Christmas. It's hard to get the pattern to show up in photos, unfortunately. This is the first time I've designed a pattern, and if I had these scarves to do over again, I would do them very differently. But I'm not doing them over!

Then I worked on a couple of baby blankets for people in Oz's family. This next one is for his nephew, who will be born in March.

And another blanket -- Oz's cousin Erika had a baby girl in late November. Before we knew whether she'd have a boy or a girl, I bought this really pretty variegated yarn (green, yellow, blue) by TLC Baby. The photos don't really do justice -- the color came out really nicely and this is one of my favorite blankets I've ever done. Following are photos of the blanket and a closeup of where the seed stitch border meets the k2tog/yo section of the blanket.

Next week, I'll post photos of the sweater I'm working on for my sister's bday. Alas, it won't be done in time for her bday (1/19), but I hope to have it finished for her before I see her in late February. And if I have time, I'll post something else during the week.

So does this post get me out of the blogger doghouse for this week, at least? ;-)

Tardy Introduction

2006-11-12T14:28:00.000-05:00

So I kind of put the cart before the horse -- I set up this blog right after Oz's brother's wedding so that his relatives in Mexico could see the photos we took. I keep meaning to put other stuff on here, but the blog really hasn't developed much.

One thing? The name (or lack thereof). It was "Anne's Nameless Blog" for several weeks -- dismal. So I came up with a decent name: Yankee Lagniappe.

So what's with the name, Anne? Well, it's reflective of my transnational migration.

LAGNIAPPE (LAN-yap) - a Louisiana word meaning "a little something extra." The word lagniappe is actually derived from the Andean Quechua language - who knew?

YANKEE - In the South, this word (noun or adjective) can be pejorative, but up here, we throw it around quite easily. Besides, there's not really a good noun to describe one who hails from Connecticut (Connecticutter? Connecticutian?) Sometimes the word "Nutmeggers" is used, but that's still a little odd (reasons vary as to why Connecticut is the Nutmeg State in the first place).

So why did I bother to set up a blog? In two words, blog envy. Many of my knitting friends have blogs, and I guess it IS easier to show off my knitting on a blog than to walk around with sweaters and baby blankets saying, "Look! I made this!" Plus, I just finished sorting photo and recipe files on my hard drive, and it would be nice to have a place to share those. So this blog won't contain any pornographic photos (except yarn porn for avid knitters), incendiary political rhetoric (well, not much), or work stuff (too many legal implications, from what I've read in the news).

So enjoy! Laissez les bon temps rouler!