Now Norma Knits

An Ode To Misshapen Carrots

Oh, carrots.

Each year I plant you. 

And nurture you.

And love you.

And hope.

And each year you stab me in the chest.

I treat you nice, like all my other garden children. 

But you are my nasty child.

I wait and wait for your sprouts to emerge.

(Because you are hateful.)

(And selfish.)

(You sneaky little shit.)

And I water you and care for you. And your green tops look so pretty.

And then, when you are the right size, I thin you out so that you have ample room to grow. 

And your green tops look frondy and luscious,

and make soft, loving promises.

You fill up the bed and smell so sweet.

You whisper, "I love you, too, Sweetie. Don't worry. I'm right here, growing for you. You'll be so happy, I promise."

All the while, you are cavorting with the bad boys on motorcycles. 

 

Twerking in that soil, you grotesque little hussy.

WHY you gotta be spiteful that way?!

You distorted beast!

That is ... I can't even.

Twisted.

And distorted.

And sick beyond belief.

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Each year I believe you.

And each year you say:

"SUCKAHHHHHH!"

..........

So....

maybe...

next year,

then?

 

Just A Few Photos Of A Dog In His New Sweater

 

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The Model:  The Incomparable Mr. Jefferies

The Pattern:  Style Hounds Handknits "Hounds Tooth," Size Small

The Yarn: I could swear the yarn I bought with my kit is alpaca, but on the website it seems to only offer Merino, so maybe it's Merino. It is awfully warm and soft, and it is a three-strand yarn, almost like a ribbon yarn. I think it is alpaca, because it is less sproingy than Merino. I bought the kit at the New York Sheep & Wool Festival a few years back. Actually, I already had the charcoal grey yarn, leftover from a different kit I bought from Style Hounds even MORE years back. I just bought the blue-green yarn and the buttons to make this houndstooth sweater. I've still got lots left! Maybe another sweater in reverse colors to this one, or maybe some matching dog-walking mitts, are going to come out of it. I'm not sure yet. 

I knit. Who knew?

 

All Done But The Runway Modeling

Mr. Jefferies happily modeled it, and gave it his approval, but I want to wait for better lighting to take the modeling photos. Just be careful when you come to see the pictures of this thing on him.

You could very well get a toothache. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Not Much To Show For My Efforts

After my day of work finished, I had about two hours free to knit. So I was going gangbusters. And then I realized I had made another mistake. So I ripped out all that good knitting and started over. And then I did all that again. 

See the pattern I have going on here?

Lots of knitting.

Not much knitting.

If you catch my drift. 

 

At least I have a pretty yarn bowl to look at.

(It's from Yellow Dog Farm. They have an etsy shop here.)

Someone's Gonna Have A Dapper New Jacket

Hey! Look at this! It's knitting! Not only is it knitting, but it's colorwork! And it's luxurious alpaca yarn.

And it's growing! Don't worry about that wonky-looking bit in the middle of the first row of houndstooth -- that is just the opening for Sir Jefferies' harness hook.

However: You will be pleased to know that some things never change. 

e.g., during my knitting and blogging hiatus, though I can now run a 5K and lift a lot more weight than I used to be able to, and drink green smoothies and caption medical classes faster than a speeding bullet, apparently my ability to count to four has not improved.

So yes, do worry about the third row of houndstooths that, because I got off course, look more like spiders than houndstooths. Look at that photo again, in case you didn't catch it the first time.

Riiiiip.  

First, though, I have to get prepared and ready to go to caption UVM's Convocation which is late this afternoon. 

But isn't it going to be a great new addition to Mr. Jefferies' wardrobe?

 

Raise Your Hand If You Remember Saturday Sky!

Here's my entry for Saturday Sky this week.

She Who Is Not A Runner somehow managed to run her first 5K this morning.

I thought I had done really well, too, until I looked at the list of 60- and 70-somethings that came in before I did.

Still, fairly respectable for a first outing at age 54. 

My goal was to run, not walk, and to not hurt or tear or break anything. 

I succeeded, and I'll take that.

The group I trained with and ran with - the Artemis Fitness RoadRunners - made all the difference. Only a few of them are pictured here. Some dropped out of the group and others couldn't make it to the race today.

These ladies are awesome.

And getting into the right shoes also: night/day difference! My advice: Don't read stuff online or in a magazine and try to figure out what shoes are right for you. Go and get assessed and fitted at a sports shoe store with staff who know what they are doing. Turns out, I need a highly structured shoe, which is exactly the opposite of what I had been going for all these years. I am sad about the many dollars and the many years of trying to run wasted on the wrong shoes for me -- it is such a personal thing -- and also trying to run without having coaching. 

The coaching was worth its weight in GOLD.

I am so glad I joined this gym (this week was my first anniversary there!) and this little summer running offshoot of the gym. It has been SUCH a positive experience.

I might even run some more -- you never know!

 

When Worlds Collide (Garden Update)

Several readers asked, when I emerged from the mists last week, "How is the garden?" 

And then a potential new reader -- a valued colleague and fellow CART provider and captioner from Florida (welcome Candice, everyone) -- seems to have noticed on Facebook that I might grow a few things. She'd like to try doing that, and asked for pictures and advice. Well, my climate is about as different from Florida's as can be, but still. I can definitely share some pics! (Holy crap! I love Typepad's new photo editing feature that I just discovered this minute!)

So after I finished CARTing my med school classes this morning, I went out to my "supermarket." 

Yeah, I grow a few things.

Yup, the garden is doing just fine this year.

Composting operation shown behind this grow bed full of chard, Romaine, and kale. More on the new addition to my composting operation in a future post. (like that teaser I casually threw in there?)

Tomatoes are taller than I am, again this year. They got off to a slow start because of the cold, wet WET WET spring we had, but they are as tall as trees now, and full of fruit, which has started to ripen faster than we can eat them. Some canning is in order, methinks. In my spare time, ya know.

Blueberries have been very prolific this year.

As have the pears.

I made a little lunctime harvest today, of broccoli, multi-colored carrots, tomatoes, several types of hot pepper, strawberries, basil, Romaine, green beans, zucchini, cucumber.

20 minutes later, the beans were steamed, the lettuce was washed, the tomatoes and cukes and basil and carrots were sliced, a dab of goat's cheese was added. I made a simple vinaigrette of lemon juice, olive oil, and the lavender honey I bought at the lavender farm I visited in Canada a few weeks ago, and I devoured it all.

And by 1:12 p.m., I am about to press "post," and get back to work. 

20 minutes, from farm to plate. Not too bad.

 

Since It's Terrier Tuesday Somewhere In The World....

Well, since now I know you're still out there and all, I don't want to create any unrealistic expectations by writing two blog posts in two days (whaddup wid dat?!), but you do know what they say about developing (or redeveloping) habits, yes? Fill me in, because I don't really know what they say. But it's got to be something about doing it -- whatever the "it" is -- more than a few times in a row. 

So! I forgot to load another cute photo of The Jefferies Man yesterday. I figure I should put it up here before I lose it. I don't mean the metaphorical "losing it," though you know I am still always at risk of that -- but I mean misplacing or deleting the photo by accident. 

It's a little bit oddly exposed -- too dark and yet too washed out all at once -- but still, I think it's a quite adorable pose. Mr. Jefferies, Esquire, so calm and contented in his new sweater.

And since I'm testing the knitting waters and all, and yet trying to limit the amount I do, next up -- well, I'm going to try to get two of my almost-finished sweaters finished. MY sweaters -- as in, sweaters for ME. There are two that are dangerously close to being finished. They DO come with the aforementioned issues, such as, "What needle size was I using?" and "Where did I leave off in the pattern?" As such, they are more daunting than, "Oh yes, just crochet the edging and put on the buttons and we're good."  

So maybe before I do that, I might start to work on this dapper little number:

(Sorry about the glare.)

I bought the kit for this one at Rhinebeck, I think two years ago. Mine is going to be turquoise and charcoal grey Alpaca. Quite fancy! It's probably time I got down to knitting that thing, huh? We won't discuss the sock yarn I bought at my very FIRST trip to Rhinebeck 10 years ago. And the Everest worth of yarn I have bought and not knitted up since. Irrelevant, your Honor!

 

 

 

 

 

Is Anyone Out There? Now Norma Knits Again! (Sort Of. Well, Really It Was A Teeny Bit of Crocheting and Sewing on a Few Buttons, But There Is Knitwear Involved.)

Good hello! to all of you who might still be out there. It's been a long time, and to my amazement, I still remembered the name of my blog hosting company. That's step one. And then I remembered how to log in. I can see that they haven't thrown any big roadblocks up against me knowing how to use it. Thank goodness for that. And I still remember how to upload photos and ... well, I'm not sure if I remember how to write. 

I know that the blogging landscape has changed pretty dramatically with regard to feedreaders and all that jazz (RIP Bloglines and RIP Google Reader, and I don't know what-all else) -- not because I have read even one blog in about 2,000 months, but just because I have picked up the threads of people chattering about that topic in Facebook and maybe a teensy bit in Twitter. Until just one minute ago, I have not logged into Ravelry in months, and I don't know how to link up and synch up all those entities anymore. So I have no idea where this post will go to -- maybe just into a big black hole -- which will be kind of sad, but it might just serve me right a little bit for running off and abandoning you like that.

And what am I doing here, you ask? And why, after all this time?

I am not sure! Maybe it was that, after a long hiatus, I recently reopened my Twitter account, for work reasons. Not long after I jumped back in, Emma sort of threw down ye olde guantlet: "Hey, you and I should start blogging again. It's so old it's new again."  

Maybe it was that. 

Or maybe it's because a couple of nights ago I was looking for something and I stumbled upon a little bit of knitted-up Glastnost Gold Peace Fleece that looked suspiciously like an all-but-completed sweater for Mr. Jefferies. (Who had his fifth birthday since you and I last spoke.)

For the last year-plus, I've been using the fact that I've been so very busy doing lots and lots of CART and captioning -- and when I'm not doing CART and captioning, I'm doing a fair amount of lifting rather heavy things (including my own body) at a great little place I've joined called Artemis Fitness -- as my reasons for not being able to do much (read: any) knitting, so as to save my hands and forearms for the money-making venture o' mine. But when I saw this cute little sweater sitting there with nothing left to do except crochet on the edging and sew on the buttons, and knowing that cooler weather is just around the corner, well, I knew that ignoring that would be a terrible, terrible copout. Especially since Mr. Jefferies' entire wardrobe of sweaters has really seen better days.

That boy loves his sweaters, as you probably already know. He wears them full-time, except we manage to get him to live without one when it is above 75 degrees Fahrenheit or thereabouts. As I was working on this last night, he sat at my feet patiently holding his head in the signature Mr. Jefferies "I'm waiting; hurry up and put on my new sweater" pose.

So anyway, the finishing of this little piece of tweedy goodness didn't even allow me to trot out my other usual excuses when it comes to picking up where I left off on a sweater. Such as: "Oh geez, what needle size was I using?"  "Where in the world did I leave off?"  "Where is the rest of the yarn for this thing?" "WHERE is the pattern?!" even. 

I did have to hunt briefly for a crochet hook. And also for my notions. But strangely enough, I found them. And I even remembered what most things are called, though all I could think of muttering to myself when I was looking for my Chibi:

was, "Where the hell is my little pink penis?!"  

So. We haven't seen each other in a while, but now you know I haven't changed. Not one bit. 

Where was I?

Oh, yes. This:

(Sidebar: The Rosa rugosa rose hips are ASTONISHING this year.)

 

And now, brace yourselves for some extra Yorkie cuteness.

I'm a cute boy, and I'm modeling my new sweater even though it is 80F outside. No problemo, 'coz I love my sweaters.

Hi. I love my new sweater.

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Pattern:  SoHo Cables (It comes in a $$$ kit, but I have knitted so many of these sweaters for Mr. Jefferies over the years, it's paid for itself. I just learned that you can now buy the pattern only, without the expensive yarn and buttons, from the dog rescue site linked there.)

Yarn: Peace Fleece worsted, in Glastnost Gold

Buttons from Jo-Ann Fabric 

(I have not received anything from any of the aforementioned companies. I'm only giving you the info that I know you crave.)

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Your move, Emma.