i have a problem

the other one has already been cast on. lucky for it, i have a 7 hour plane ride ahead of me tomorrow, which i might walk off of with a new pair of socks...

ALSO. TOMORROW. IS FRIDAY. !!!

sockvember?

last month i was inspired by socktoberfest to revive the knitting of the eunice socks. i was really caught up doing lots of christmas knitting though, and i didn't work on them much until most of that was out of the way. (do not let me fool you- i am not finished with christmas knitting! maybe my subconscious decided was getting a little too comfy with how much progress i made, tempting me to stray from the path to... selfish non-holiday knitting!) whatever happened, i'm hooked on socks. i immediately cast on for another pair after finishing eunice, ignoring the fact that i didn't have anywhere in my possession a skein of sock yarn. the result is what i'm calling Crazy Sock, which is made from sock yarn leftovers from other projects:

i am not sure if i am going to have enough yarn for two socks!!! my plan is to switch the gray and purple on the second sock, because it looks like i might have more purple going into that sock. thanks to our awesome lighting, the colors look a bit more violent in the picture than they are in real life- i weirdly really like them together. the yarns are, respectively, madelinetosh sock in morning dove, socks that rock medium weight in backstabber, and aruacania itata solid (?) in an unknown purpley colorway because i lost the tag. i love all of these yarns!

first pair of socks!

i've been knitting "Eunice" by Cookie A. they have a beautiful cable pattern.


please ignore the crappiness of these pictures- the lighting in my apartment is terrible!


that is all!

feeling hopeful

This post is mainly for the knitters who read this:
Juniper Moon Farm, previously known as Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm, is giving away a weekend at their shepherding camp! they post giveaways all the time, and i don't normally enter them, but shepherding camp sounds like the coolest thing ever! so you should go and enter too! and learn about sheep and goats! here's the link:
http://www.fiberfarm.com/2009/11/shepherding-camp-giveaway-2#comments
also, it is close to december 15, and i'm sure everyone is buried under holiday knitting (i've knit almost everything already, and i still feel buried!) but consider checking out the red scarf project. my good pal chelsea creature does some amazing work with kids who are about to age out of the foster care system, and i think this project is such a cool way to show these kids that there are people out there who believe in them! i think i'll probably only be able to make one scarf by this year's deadline, but i'll have an early start on making some for next year!
http://nownormaknits2.typepad.com/red_scarf_project_2008/
also- i finished the socks! they are amazing. i will post pictures soon, i've just got to run to class!

ps. did i mention i'm coming home on friday?

what i've been doing

last night for restaurant night i made some bread. it looked for a while like it might be a disaster, what with strange ingredients, strange measurements, strange temperature, and wrong equipment, but there was a lot of improvisation and it ended up being just fine! i may or may not have accidentally put 80 grams of yeast in the preferment when i should've put 8, and that yeast may or may not have been osmotolerant, and i may or may not have tried to force the 4+ hour process of baguette fermentation into a 2 hour time block... but it still ended up being great! maybe not quite as crusty as baguettes at home, but i think that has more to do with the steam injection ovens we have there.

i would have rotated the pictures, but technology thwarts me.

i've been doing lots of knitting, but i can't put pictures of most of it up yet, so i'll just show you THE SOCKS that i have been slogging away at for about 6 months. we will ignore the fact that i have knit only one complete sock ever, and continue bravely with the hope that someday i will wear many pairs of knit socks.

you may notice that one sock has progressed much more than the other, and it even has a heel, even though both socks are on the same needle. if you think this situation is confusing, that's because it is. the technology of heel turning on magic loop was too much for me to grasp the other day as i sat knitting these on top of a dryer in the laundry room, and i didn't have any other resources available in the laundry room to help me with my conundrum. so i took one sock off the needle and turned the heel, put it back on, and now i'm working the other heel. we will not go into the many problems these socks have, because the pretty yarn totally covers these things up.
i'm coming home in 8 days YAY! i'll try to hold back from giving you all your christmas presents immediately upon arrival. i hope everyone's having a great november!

goosed

is a silly phrase that my irish pastry instructor says. then i googled "goose" and found this:


this morning i did some successful colorwork knitting, which i'm really excited about. it occasionally looks like an optical illusion, but i think this is something that the recipient will enjoy about it. i also had fun making some sugar in the pastry lab- getting some good practice for the sugar class i'll be taking next tri!
other awesome things are:
- the yankees won the world series!
-apples
-watching bad movies in pajamas while eating cereal out of the box
-phone calls from great friends!

speaking of phone calls, today i got a call from a woman who asked if julia o'brien was there. julia o'brien was my irish great grandmother. probably just a coincidence, but still!
a not so awesome thing is that my boy is sick. if you are in providence, send him some healing vibes! or bagels.
here is a random picture of the mango passionfruit pavlova from the hotel. on it you can see some of the infamous mango slices and the infamous passionfruit coulis.

be a man

i recently watched mulan with my room mate, which is a great movie. it inspired me to conquer a certain smoke detector that had been lurking noisily in my kitchen and put it out of its misery. it is now disembowled on my kitchen table, swift as the coursing river, with all the strength of the great typhoon. mysterious as the dark side of the moon, obv.
(in connection with emmanuel's latest post, we will not go into all the gender stereotyping done by disney movies. that could be several other posts altogether.)
yesterday we served dinner at this sort of mock-restaurant that the school opens on tuesday nights, and i did the pastry side, which was fun. i got to make some spun sugar, which is always an adventure, and spin some sorbet from valencia oranges that i squeezed by hand! this sorbet miraculously set in time for service, thanks to our blast chiller.
in knitting related news, christmas knitting continues to progress! it has come to my attention that many of the gift recipients are reading this now, so i hope that nothing has been spoiled for anyone, and if it has, sorry! you'll still be getting it anyway. i've also been working on and off on this same pair of socks since JUNE. does anyone have any experience trying to turn a heel for top down socks on the magic loop? i ended up getting frustrated and taking each sock off and doing the heels one at a time.
i also want to say a big thank you to everyone sending the hugs! now i'm just a walking pile of hugs, which obviously makes it impossible to have a bad day! you guys are so wonderful.

here is a random picture of a castle in south county galway:


it looks out onto this little inlet:


(you can click on any of the pictures to make them bigger!)