Knitting

I'm on a roll! Tonight I picked up one of my projects that was going to be a purse and decided it would make a better hat. Inspiration struck, and I decided to sew my star paillettes to the sash. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to keep it or give it away; maybe I'll give it to a certain cute, scandalously witty, eerily precocious five-year-old girl I know. I realize it might be a little floppy on her, but I think it will fit okay. :)

I haven't been knitting all that much lately, but last night I finally finished my Windy City Scarf from Stitch'n'Bitch while watching the excellent Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I have some of the yarn left over and intend to make a hat to match the scarf, hopefully in time to wear this winter. Why do I get so inspired to be crafty at such inappropriate times as the end-of-semester crunch? Anyway, here are pictures. Obviously, I've still got some yarn ends to work in (I hate doing that!).

Last night, I made a lot of headway on that purse I blogged about a while back. I did the following while indulging my latest addiction: season 2 of Alias on DVD. I can watch four episodes in one night. :)

Today marks the 56th day since the last time I donated blood, so at 1:00 I'm scheduled to donate again. I don't know if I've written here before about why it's important to me to donate blood as often as they'll let me. As long as I can remember, my mom used to give every 56 days, but in November 1999 she got diagnosed with breast cancer and went through chemotherapy and radiation. She hasn't been eligible to donate blood since then; she's now on Tamoxifen and, while she'll be eligible again in a couple of years or so, she hasn't been able to donate in a long time, and I know she would if she could. So I wanted to do it in her stead (not that I'll stop when she's eligible again! Only 5% of the people who are eligible to donate do it, so I'll continue). I'm going to eat a huge lunch of pork tenderloin, black beans, and jasmine rice beforehand. I weighed myself this morning to make sure I was still meeting the weight requirement -- 110 lbs. -- and I was, but barely. I've experienced a weird sea change in my body and metabolism after losing all that weight in the summer; now, it seems, I have to try to keep from losing weight. My goal now is not to go below 110. One last thought on blood donation before I move on to go-go boots: Last time I gave blood, they timed it, and I filled up the bag in six minutes. I'm both fascinated and disturbed by this fact. I even opened up my calculator and figured out how many ounces per minute it was.

Via feministe comes Go-Go-Boots.com, a fabulous tribute to go-go boots. It's got a great image gallery, and I've chosen this one as my desktop wallpaper.

Because you were probably wondering what it is I do when I piddle around the apartment.

Cooking: Lately I've been into steaming vegetables; usually I sauté them, but then I remembered I have a steaming basket and thought, oh yeah, there's another way to cook vegetables. Last night I steamed spinach and cherry tomatoes, then doused them with some balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Yum. Then tonight I steamed some broccoli to accompany my pork chops. Also, I've discovered that a banana covered in provençal fig jam is a delicious snack; I think I'll have one while I watch The Apprentice.

Knitting: I'm working on five projects right now, including a baby blanket in primary colors, a cushion in hot pink acrylic/wool blend yarn, K2 P2 rib, an forest green oven mitt which I'll be felting, a red and orange merino wool Windy City scarf with matching hat, and a purse I'm quite excited about. I was trying to figure out what to do with that ballet yarn, and then the other day I was going through my sock drawer getting rid of those threadbare-at-the-heels socks. Remember those trenchcoat-length cardigan sweaters that were in style a few years ago? The sash from one of those was in the drawer, and I was going to throw it away but thought, wait, I could probably use this thing in a knitting project. I think it looks nice with the ballet yarn:

So it's going to be the purse strap.

Any ideas on what I can do with this yarn? It's all merino wool except the two skeins on the right, which are ballet yarn. I've earmarked the red merino wool (I have more of it than what's pictured here) for a scarf and hat set...for myself! I never knit anything for myself, but that's all about to change. This isn't my whole stash of yarn, by the way; I have much more. :) Right now, I'm working on three projects: a baby blanket, the red hat/scarf set, and my first-ever felting project, a big oven mitt, made out of forest green wool yarn.

I don't think it will fit the world's biggest head, so I'm offering this hat to others who might want it, who have medium or small heads:

What I'm working on:

It's another prototype for a hat I'm making for my friend D.--Michelle got the first one, since I deemed it too feminine for him (but great for a woman, as evidenced by Michelle's picture). This one, too, is up for grabs if anyone wants it; I'm just doing it to get the hang of reducing in rib stitch. I want to use this pattern for the real hat.

A couple of days ago, I finished the hat I was knitting for a friend of mine. I had intended to do the whole thing in seed stitch, but it was taking up too much yarn, so I decided to switch to stockinette. The result: