New And Improved Except When It's Not

I've got another item for you in the "Holy Cow, I Just Don't Believe It" category. Remember back when I used to claim to be a spinner? You know how I'd sometimes whirl some wool around and then proudly present it to the world? Those were good times...

However, during this School Year Of Never -Ending Angst, spinning was another one of those things that seemed to fall by the wayside. These things happen. At least the spinning wasn't lonely. There were lots of other activities I used to enjoy hanging out on the wayside, wondering how they got there.

With the advent of summer vacation, I decided that it was time to revisit some of those pleasures past. If nothing else, I'd make some room around here. Fluffy woollies take up more space than spun yarn, right? Spinning is sort of like housecleaning if you do it correctly. There was no reason to not do it. It was time for some new, self-rewarding behaviors.

And so, without further ado, I give you....

Yarn!!!!

Actually, I finished this last week. But the rain made the drying process a bit tricky. Frankly, I doubted if this stuff would ever finish blocking. Then I sort of forgot to post about it because it had been hanging over the top of the bedroom door for so long that it just didn't register with me until today.

I don't claim that this is my best work, but I do feel comfortable in saying that it is a triumph. Even if it is lumpy and bumpy, it represents a fight to the finish. (not that it is finished...I still have oodles of this fleece left) The merino came to me in a gi-normous box from the ever-generous Cathy and has given me hours of both pleasure and frustration. It was not a fleece that jumped out of the box and onto the wheel. It needed work. The fact that I've been fiddling with it off and on for two years should be a good indicator of that, now that I think of it. But it was a labor of love and even when I knew that I should consider sending it out to be processed by someone else, I just couldn't do it. I wanted to be the one to tame it.

In the end, I probably could have done a better job with the prep, but I don't mind a rustic yarn. I think that this batch will work nicely for some mittens when the time comes to knit it up. I'll wear them gratefully and think warmly of Cathy every time I go out to clean snow off the car.

While I happily fondled my new and perfect-in-my-eyes yarn, the Absurdly Gi-normous Kitty continued working on his Arched Nap Technique. He's gotten quite good at it.

This nap brought to you by the letter C.

I guess it's good that he has a hobby. I've got the spinning/knitting thing going on and he really should have something to call his own.

But I fail to see how this can be comfortable...

I can haz chiropractor?

SA

Keeping The Sofa Anchored

The second "Bripple" sock continues a-pace and has achieved a mighty five inches of cuff as of this afternoon. I credit this feat to a well-timed airing of a Deadliest Catch marathon and the love I have for sitting in the comfort of my home while manly types brave the elements. What can I say? I am hopelessly addicted to this show and have been glued to the screen for the better part of two days now.

I like to think that my moral support is helpful to the crab fisherman, even months after the fact. I'm certain that they know I've been sacrificing things like daylight and fresh air so that I can knit and watch them stand out in the cold. They probably would all just give up if I weren't keeping the home fires burning the way I do here. Then what would you do the next time you wanted to make a bisque?

Me 'n my sock are a vital part of the crab industry these days...

I also think I've done a fairly good job of keeping the sofa stabilized. With the combined weight of me, the sock, a cat or two and a steady supply of desserts left over from yesterday's cookout, I don't think my couch will be in any danger of floating off. I also try to keep everything arranged so as to provide ballast. Frankly, I believe I run the tightest ship in the sofa fleet.

Not to be outdone in, the Absurdly Gi-normous Kitty also worked on his anchoring skills. He moved from place to place for most of the day and did an impressive job of keeping stuff from shifting with the waves.

Sometimes he helped me keep the couch in port.

Other times he made certain that The Big Cookie Bed was secure.

He was really quite inspiring. I hope that the crabbers remember to include the AGK in their thankful thoughts and don't just credit me with making the '09 season. He may be a greenhorn, but he performed masterfully!

Some of you may also be interested in better weighing down your own furniture. Since a few people expressed an interest in the cornbread recipe I mentioned yesterday, I will share this delicious strategy for being a better anchor. Cornbread preferences seem to be one of those things that is truly regional and what people consider to be "right" will differ from place to place. Up here in the north, I find that most prefer a sweeter version. This one is sweet. Very sweet. In fact, to call it "bread" might be a bit presumptuous. It is probably more along the lines of "cake." But it is what I like and seemed to go over well with my family yesterday so make of it what you will:

SWEET CORN BREAD

(Printed from COOKS.COM)

1 c. cornmeal
2 c. flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. sugar
3/4 c. melted butter
4 eggs, separated
1 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
Combine egg yolks, milk, vanilla and melted butter. Stir into dry ingredients. In another bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Fold into batter. Bake in 13 x 9 inch greased pan at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Do not overbake.

Since I was making Itty Bitty Cornbread Bites, I adjusted the cooking time to accommodate the mini muffin pan. I found that between 10 and 11 minutes was just about right. The muffins were tender and just barely golden. I think that, no matter what your sweetness preference, we can all agree that there is nothing worse than overbaked cornbread.

I hope that this is helpful to those who would bake the bread of corn. I must leave you now as the DC marathon has entered into the '09 opilio season and I think that the boys need my support if we are going to have fresh crab in the stores this year. It is a sacrifice on my part, but it must be done. I shall return to being a couch anchor and stitching on that sock. It is tireless work, but I do it for the good of the crab fleet.

Yes. I know. They already finished fishing. Leave me alone. I like my fantasy...

SA

Celebrating Freely!

It is the fourth of July and here in my corner of this big, blue marble it is also The Fourth Of July. It is the day we Americans celebrate our Independence. It is a solemn and awe-inspiring thing and we honor it as the day requires.

Essentially, we blow stuff up, hang around flaming grills and garb ourselves in vivid tones of red, white and blue. We are a sophisticated lot, here.

I celebrated Independence Day in the standard manner, being as I am no different than my fellow citizens. I am certain that this sort of thing was going on all over this great land today. First, I cast on for a second Broadripple sock and let out a rousing cry of,

"Brrrrrrrrripple!!!"

(I just can't for the life of me call that pattern by its correct name...)

For those of you keeping track, this means that I finished the first one already. You may now take a moment to recover from the shock since I can't imagine anyone not overwhelmed by this sudden bout of finishing.

Next, I began to prepare myself for an afternoon of fun and patriotic festivities at Mommy and Daddy Sheep's house. Of course, I couldn't go empty-handed and this year I got it into my head that I needed to bring cornbread. With the recent acquisition of a mini muffin pan, it seemed only logical that I should bring Itty-Bitty Cornbread Bites. (I just made that up...it's not a real thing.)

The first batch was horrible. I happen to like a sweeter cornbread and what I ended up with was a savory version. Gah! Batch #2 was much more to my liking. They were itty. They were bitty. They were sweet. They were perfectly cooked through. Just what I was looking for!

Quarter for scale, not consumption.

I packed up my Itty-Bitties and made it to the folk's house in good time. Of course we were joined by Baby Brother Sheep and Sister-in-law Sheep. They brought, not only additional nibbles, but a great niece Sheep as well. (Baby Brother Sheep's marriage brought a whole new generation into the flock, you see...) Lastly, we invited Aunt and Uncle Sheep. This was necessary so that they could make up for their decision to skip the Memorial Day cookout in favor of their son's wedding. That's all fine and dandy, but there was no one to bring the lemon squares and I felt I was owed.

They are good lemon squares. Really good. I like them. A lot. I have been "mentioning" their absence at the family cook-out for over a month now and can only imagine the relief my parents are feeling at my having been stuffed with lemon desserts. I suppose I might have been a little overly dramatic about the whole thing...

I even managed to knit a few rounds in between scarfing down vast quantities of barbecued ribs, cornbread, and lemon squares. I may need to rinse out the sock before I wear it, but that is the price you pay for independence.

Even better, we got to sit out on the deck in the actual, honest-to-goodness sunshine for a whole hour before the rains started to fall again! Frankly, I can't imagine a better way to spend the holiday.

Now it is time to kick back on the couch at home, digest the meal and decide which leftovers to have for dinner. It is also almost time to start dealing with a certain Absurdly Gi-normous Kitty who doesn't much like thunderstorms and fireworks. Since both will be happening tonight, I suspect that I may need to sacrifice a bit of my personal freedom in order to comfort a large mass of orange fur that will no doubt be attached to my leg. I probably won't be able to move from the couch for a while.

That's OK. I've got the knitting to keep me occupied and there are plenty of lemon squares left over for sustenance. I should be all set for the remainder of this Independence Day.

I hope that, for those of you who are celebrating the day, it was a lovely one and that you were free to do all the things you love the most. Just don't ask me for any lemon squares.

Some things are just not free no matter what.

SA

Next Up In The Armegeddon Series...

I know, I know. I've done the whole "end of the world is nigh" thing before. Maybe I'm a little bit of a reactionary when it comes to signs of impending doom and whatnot. I could probably use a little more practice with restraint. But this time, I really do think there might be something a-brewin'! Seriously!

I'm not talking about the fact that my county has been alternating all day long between

Just Wanted To Let You Know That There Is A Flash Flood Watch

and

Oh My God, It's A Flood Warning So You'd Better Stand On A Chair For The Next Hour!!!!!

As one who is ever on the alert for something of an Armageddon-y nature, you can only imagine how exhausting this has been. Why, I barely had the strength to make up a batch of Survival Brownies! I powered through, but still...

No, I am talking about the fact that something else of note happened. It is the sort of thing that can only be a portent. Portents are big stuff. You don't just stumble across a portent every day. Well...I do. But that's me. You probably only average a portent or two a week.

This one was a biggie, though. It was the kind of portent that just smacks you right up between the eyes and screams "Go stand on a chair!!!" Or "Eat some brownies before it's too late!!!"

Look:

An actual, honest-to-goodness Finished Object on the Sheepish Annie blog.

Sure, you could say, "Um, Sheepie...that's just a pair of plain ol' socks. They're nice and all. But I doubt that they are the kind of thing that qualifies as a portent." And yet I ask you to stop and think for a minute. When was the last time you saw actual knitting on this blog? How long has it been since you saw actual finished knitting on this blog? You've seen cats. You've seen student projects. You've seen baking. But knitting? Think about it...

Yeah. I thought you'd come around. It's a portent. Or at least an occurrence of note. Who knows what's next? More socks? Dishcloths? Locusts? It could be anything, really. Best to take this seriously.

I'm going to make another batch of brownies...

SA

Lost Energy, Found Mythical Continent

I shall attempt to shake off my Rain Brain and give you something along the lines of "relevant" this evening. With the precipitation continuing to pelt me on the head and the fog seeping in through my ears, I don't have much hope for it. But I'll try...

Here's your Wednesday Night Bullet Post:

*It is raining. Big news, that...

*I expect any minute to hear that the lost city of Atlantis has been raised from the ocean floor and that there are lots of Atlanteans wandering around looking for stuff to do.

*This is all well and good for the Atlanteans. The summer movie lineup looks fairly promising if you haven't been keeping up with films for the last millennium.

*Not so good for those of us who don't want to go to the movies because it means having to face the rain.

*Even the panda-cam was strangely uninspiring today. Look closely:

Panda tuchas.

*And I watched it for hours. Sad...

*I knit a bit today. I am well into the gussets on the Brrrrrripple sock. I'll give it another day and then set it aside so I can finish up the second of The Socks I've Been Knitting Since There Was Snow On The Ground.

*An FO is imminent.

*Mostly I sat on the couch and wondered if the Atlanteans would be impressed with my handknit socks.

The Big, Fluffy Kitty held down the couch cushions by my side. She's good like that.

The Absurdly Gi-normous Kitty was busy watching the birds. Or keeping an eye on the Atlanteans...

*For what it's worth, I didn't stay in for the entire day. I promised that I would go to the farmer's market each and every week for fresh produce.

*We call this event Visiting The Vegetables.

*I do not like vegetables. I like them even less when they are outside in the rain.

*I almost didn't go. But then I did because I promised.

*I scored big.

*Which is saying something considering that I was out with the vegetables.

New potatoes, both white 'n red, carrots, peas, lettuce and sweet basil!

*I may hate veggies, but I do really enjoy fresh peas and new 'taters. Honest!

*And basil is one of my favorite things because you can put it on pizza. You can also drag out the food dehydrator and who doesn't love doing that?

*I'll eat it fresh for as long as I can, though.

*The carrots are pretty good, too. The lettuce I bought because I felt like I should.

*Dinner was tasty tonight and very full of vitamins and minerals.

Another Wednesday has come and gone and I am pleased to report that I have not drowned. At least not yet. I make no promises. We are looking at more with the rain for the next few days so anything could happen. At least I ate my veggies. I can cling to a piece of driftwood for days and days with all my new found strength.

Or maybe a nice Atlantean will rescue me. We could go to the movies together and I could teach him to knit...

SA

As I Suspected

It's not just me. I'd figured this was the case, but now I have confirmation. I feel very validated. In case you were unsure of the data, I have done the research and now know that 2 out of 3 knitters interviewed at Chicks With Sticks tonight agree that the weather is making us all stupid and sloth-like. Every third person was either in a coma or too busy wringing out their knitting to answer me when I raised the question.

People who have never napped for more than ten minutes at a time in their entire lives reported losing hours over the last weekend. The rain, which has plagued our little corner of the country for days and weeks at a time, was a topic we tried to avoid but we just kept coming back to it. It is a pervasive and oppressive kind of weather. The only thing you can do is sleep through it whether you want to or not.

And there doesn't seem to be much hope for a dry stretch at this point. Maybe the forecast will change, maybe the sun will forgive us for whatever we have done to deserve this gloomy situation. We can only hope...

Meanwhile, I'm determined to find the silver lining in this never-ending parade of clouds. If I can't have sun, I'll at least have socks. Going to knit night is always a surprising experience for me. With only two sessions of my Summer Of Compensatory Knitting Socialization (S.O.C.K.S) under my belt, I've completed almost a whole sock and this will make for a pair! There may be rain, but it has been good for staying in and knitting. It also doesn't hurt that my feet are so cold and crying out for warm coverings. Saying that in what will soon be the height of summer is just crazy...but it's true. I've been knitting like the wind!

I'd still like to see a little bit of sun, though. I'm worried about all those "third" knitters...

SA

I Wanna Know, Have You Ever Seen The Rain?

OK. I get it. I don't need any more tutorials. I have figured this whole thing out and now the lessons can stop. Seriously.

I can prove it. Listen:

Rain is wet. It falls from the sky. It makes the flowers grow until there is too much and then it drowns them. If you don't close your windows, the rain will come inside and then you have to mop the floor and the cats. The sound of it is lovely for nodding off to sleep, but can also cause rampant peeing. Especially if it is a really hard rain that comes swooshing down the gutters like a waterfall. That is particularly inspiring to the middle aged bladder...

See? The rain can stop now. Weeks of rain is really enough for me to get the point. Any more and I fear I will become stupid and how is that going to help my rain knowledge base? I can already tell that my IQ has dropped a few points. I used to be able to do things like leave the house and interact with others. Now all I can do is sit around and wonder where my will to move went. I also wonder where my size 1 dpns went because I used to have five million of them and now I don't. I only have the one set of metal ones and that is nowhere near the five million wooden ones I had before the rain made me stupid.

On the other hand, sitting at home with no will to leave the couch has its good points. Even though I am now incredibly stupid and have a brain that needs to be periodically wrung out, I still seem to have figured out the secret to finishing knitting projects. Apparently, you have to actually knit. You need to do this for extended periods of time and suddenly...voila! You have made progress!! Within mere days of starting a sock, you are suddenly at the heel flap!

I suppose it also doesn't hurt that I can't find my size 1 dpns and am knitting this on 2s. That could account for some of the forward momentum...

Yes, it is the good ol' Broadripple pattern again. And yes, this also means I am randomly yelling out "Brrrrrripple!!!" every now and again because I simply cannot think of this pattern by its correct name. Bripple is just ever so much more fun to say and even more fun to shout from the couch when you can't really summon up the will to do anything else requiring energy.

Even with my recent insights into knitting greatness, I still think I have had enough with the rain. I don't think it is helping anything any more. The gardens should be in good shape for the foreseeable future and the rest of us could use some color. Not to mention what this is doing to our vitamin D situation. I probably have rickets by now...

When you look at all the data, I think that I am safe in saying that it can stop raining. I have learned all I can about precipitation, knitting and how the bellowing of the word, "Brrrrripple!" affects the average house cat. I'm good. And I can't help but worry about the loss of brain cells. I'd hate for my last intelligent thought to be about Bripple Socks, as much as I love them.

I would like to see some sun now. Please?

SA