The Land of Wool and Honey

Ten on Tuesday

This week's Ten on Tuesday topic is Ten Favorite Smells....

1.  Hyacinth.  They remind me of spring, Easter and my birthday.   

2.  A traditional Italian dinner bubbling in my grandma's kitchen: porketta, ravioli, gnocchi, lasagna, pizelle... My grandmother's maiden name is Furno and yes, my great grandfather made wine in his basement.  Throughout my childhood, we spent lots of time visiting my grandmother's hometown--the smell of simmering tomato sauce is the quickest way back there.  You can read a great article about Iron Mountain's delicious legacy here.   

3.  Laundry.  Most specifically, walking through a chilly neighborhood at night and smelling fabric softener coming through the dryer vent. 

4. Sweet Petula Fig Leaf soap.  This scent is so incredible that I admit to spending an extra ten minutes in the shower every time I'm lucky enough have a bar of it in the house. 

5. Pipe tobacco.  One of my uncles used to smoke a pipe and it reminds me of more good times spent with my family.  (See #2.)

6.  Gap Earth.  A short-lived scent from their bath and body line, this is all I have left.  I am savoring it because a 4 oz. bottle is going for $250 on eBay.  It reminds me of college, most specifically the fall of 2001 and the night my parents dropped me off in front of Champion for the first time.  One of the best years of my life.  (Love you guys!)     

 

7.  Bacon frying.  Family [mom's side] + rustic lakeside cottages + knotty pine = wonderful summer memories.  (But of course, you've heard me wax poetic about bacon before.)

8. Pine needles.  They either remind me of wild blueberry picking with my grandma on Lake Margrethe or Christmas at my parents'.  Happy, happy.

9.  Old Spice.  My favorite husband uses Old Spice deodorant and body wash.  Love. 

10.  Skunks.  Technically, I'm not crazy about that nasty nostril burn, but I'm in love what it signifies--the end of hibernation.  You can imagine my delight when I caught my first pungent whiff this morning on my way to work.  Spring!  It's coming!

 Thanks again for a great topic, Carole!

Ten on Tuesday

This week's Ten on Tuesday brought to you by the letter P. 

P for Procrastination.

10 Things on My To-Do List

1.  Get knittin'.  In the past four days, I've added five projects to my Christmas knitting list.  As you do.

This is a shawl I started during our 12-hour power outage on Sunday afternoon.  Blech.   The yarn = beautiful.  The pattern = boring.  Riiiiiiip.

2.  Get spinnin'.  Yup.  Two people are getting handspun this year.  Unfortunately for me, I haven't even predrafted the fiber.

3.  My dad's present.  I know I said I was going to get him chocolate this year, but I think I should get him something that will last longer than 20 minutes.  That seems fair.

4.  Baking.  I'm having a few friends over this weekend for a Bake-A-Thon, complete with souped-up eggnog.  I feel, what with this wintry weather and all, that I'd like to introduce two new cookie recipes to the family collection this year.  Because that's totally doable.

5.  Wrapping.  Haven't.  Even.  Started.  (I'll save that for the afternoon of December 24th, I think.  Squeeze it in between closing the shop at 2 and Mass at 4.)

6.  Put together a few last minute displays at the shop.  This one is almost in the bag.  Observe:

A huge restock of shawl pins in five different styles, three wood finishes each--$8.95.  Call me at (231) 228-2800--these days, Prioritymail is my middle name.

More keychain sock blockers!  Plus:

Even cuter and brand new--mitten keychains!  More stocking stuffer ideas?  Eucalan, sheepy greeting cards, wine bottle hat kits, Leland Blue stitch markers, Malabrigo Sock....and tons more at the shop!

7.  Start Finish knitting and writing the pattern for my very last of the 12 Knits of Christmas 2010.  Whee!

8.  Decorate my tree.  Curt put the lights on yesterday, but it's time to hang up the ornaments.

9.  Decide whether or not to have a casual Christmas party.  Because I live in the same town I grew up in, lots of my friends from high school come home for Christmas.  We usually toddle down to Art's for a beer or seven, but since Christmas falls on a weekend, I have this sneaking suspicion that many of them will have to get back on a plane on Sunday.  Hence, no Tavern Time.  I'm thinking about havingmy people over to our teeny little house for a toddy on Saturday evening, after familial obligations.  We'll see.

10.  Find the best Christmas gift(s) for the best husband I know.  This one's not too hard, but it's the most important.  I've got a few ideas in the hopper, but it's the execution that gets me every time. 

Those are all the details and photos I can divulge--I think I've got a few lurkers out there just waiting for me to spill it all.   

Thanks, Carole, for the inspiration!

 

Ten on Tuesday

For as much as I love shopping brick-and-mortar stores, I love, love LOVE shopping online.  It's like magic.  I press a few keys, wait a few excruciating days and stuff--glorious stuff--shows up on my doorstep.  Thanks again to Carole, the mastermind behind Ten on Tuesday: the topic this week is 10 Favorite Places  for Online Shopping.

1.  Etsy.  Um, is there anyplace else to shop?  I can't really remember what life was like before this magical marketplace.  Almost everything I need/want/desire, I purchase here if I can A.) think about it ahead of time or B.) afford it.  I found the shop's logo designer, my web designer, my lip balm purveyor and suppliers for all kinds of packaging here.  When it's not Fiber Festival Season, I buy 98.9% of my spinning fiber here.  I'm constantly trolling Etsy for the newest and best gift ideas--it's wonderful.  What have I bought recently?  Baker's twine, solid perfume and a set of matryoshka that is currently my most prized possession.  Seriously.

2.  eBay.  Yeah, you're right--it is kind of the devil, but when you're looking for wooden serving utensils (I was), children's wooden hangers (I am) or gigantic lots of vintage mother-of-pearl buttons (I always will be), it's the place to go.

3.  Vendors.  Tons of my vendors have websites with wholesale login options, especially convenient for those of us are too busy with customers to do office work during normal hours (that's a good thing!).  Also, I find it to be awfully convenient to order patterns while I'm wide awake in the middle of the night.  You'd be  surprised at how easily you can rationalize practically any purchase at 3:45 a.m.  ("Four hundred dollars worth of patterns from this brand new vendor?  Why not?")

4.  Amazon.  Again, I know.  It's kind of sacrilege.  I always try to buy my books and music first from my local bookstore.  But if it's a new knitting book that's just hit the press or music that I just. Have. To. Buy.  you can't go wrong with this place.  (Often, wholesale prices aren't much better!)  Recent purchases?  The soundtrack for Friday Night Lights and Simon Sinek's amazing book.

5.  USPS.  If you've got to ship, you might as well buy your postage online.  (Again, at 3:45 a.m.)  Plus, you can place an order for, say, 200 Medium Priority Flat Rate boxes, and they'll deliver them to your local post office, free of charge.  Sa-weet!

6.  J. Crew.  Everything they do, I love.  Nobody does swimwear better.  Nobody returns swimwear 6 times in a row better, either.  One day, I'll wear nothing but J. Crew cashmere.  One day.

7.  Ravelry, stash for trade or sell.  One man's trash and all that.  And yes, I have begged someone to sell me theirBrideflight Studios roving.  I'll admit it.

8.  Vosges Chocolate.  My heaven would have an everlasting supply of Naga truffles at the foot of my bed--thanks for asking!  I'm planning on surprising my dad with this for Christmas.  I think he'll go ape. 

9.  The Loopy Ewe.  Sure, I sell yarn, but I can't possibly sell it all.  Sheri and her elves are crazy fast, super friendly and they always include a little gift and handwritten note.  I may or may not have a package currently in transit.  (A Thanksgiving weekend treat to myself, naturally.)

10.  Sweet Petula.  The scents that Cory concocts are nothing short of olfactory art.  I almost always have a bar of Olive Oil soap in the shower and a travel candle burning in the kitchen.  I've given her soaps for weddings, birthdays and holidays and I don't plan to stop any time soon.  Exquisite.

Between online shopping excursions, however, I knit:

More on the freakishly large Christmas stockings later.  I've got shopping to do.

Ten on Tuesday

While Carole's Ten on Tuesday topic is "10 Dream Vacations", I thought well, sure, there are hundreds of amazing places I'd like to go (um, hi Prague!), but I'd rather think about the ten things that make any vacation--even a short weekend away--completely dreamy.

1.  Fresh air and exercise.  Leisurely biking (say around a small, flat island), tennis, swimming laps and diving in an Olympic-sized pool.....these are all things I don't do at home.  I mean to play tennis more often (with lots of community nets nearby), but I don't even own a bike anymore.  And why swim in chlorine when you've got the Big Water at your fingertips?   

2.   Eating.  You know, to justify the exercise.  I love discovering each destination's specialty--lobsters in Maine, pizza in Chicago, bagels in NYC.  Sure, I've eaten beignets before, but I could totally be talked into taking a trip to New Orleans for the sole purpose of finding out whether these really are the best.       

3.  Shopping.  Some of my favorite things to shop for (besides yarn--that's a whole other category!) are vintage furniture, local art, specialty food items, expensive candles and luxurious toiletries.  Basically, I'm a sucker for fabulous packaging.

4.  Yarn shopping.  Duh.  I'm always on the prowl for something mindblowing and faraway yarn shops always deliver.  Curt and I are planning our second annual mid-winter reprieve--this time domestic--and I'm doing LYS research before I place my vote.  We're thinking about California (Article Pract, Artfibers, Loop and Leaf), but I'm kinda rooting for Austin (Hill Country Weavers, The Knitting Nest, Sandra Singh.)  Any suggestions?

5.  Flying.  I know, I know--it's a total hassle.  The security, the cancellations, the prices.  But not only is traveling by air still a little thrilling for me (are my country bumpkin roots showing?), but it's the only type of motion I can execute without becoming horribly sick.   And knitting is practically meant for airline travel (see #10).

6.   Sleeping.  Napping, sleeping in late, I can even handle zonking out early while away from home.  I have such a hard time doing it in my own bed that on vacation, I can't seem to get enough zzzs.

 7.  Exotic mixed drinks.  At home, my heart belongs to homebrews.  And the occasional California Cab.  But on vacation?  Sure, I'll try a cucumber martini.  Or a caipitico.  Or a Banana Banshee.  And, of course, they taste better topped with mini umbrellas.  (Curt thinks so, too.)

8.  Long walks that become even longer discussions.  One of my favorite things to do with my best friends is walk for miles and chat about the stuff we like.  Politics, our families, our goals and ideas--there's nothing like a three-hour stroll on the beach to bring two people closer together.  Even if halfway through we'd rather rip each other's heads off.

9.  Privacy.   I live and work in the small Midwestern community I grew up in.  'Nuff said.

10.  Knitting.  Hours and hours of blissful, uninterrupted knitting.  You'd think that because I'm in a yarn shop most of my waking life, I'd be knitting more than anyone else.  It's true--I do spend more little snippets of every day knitting than most people do--while on hold on the phone, when I'm chatting with customers, the last fifteen minutes before I lock the door, but it's the long stretches of knitting I long for.  Away from home for a few days, I get that.  And it's heaven.  I also always start a new project at the beginning of any vacation, which gives the trip an extra little bit of excitement--and it also allows me to leave behind any emotional baggage I may have attached to a project currently on the needles.  (If you don't understand that last part, you're not a knitter.)

And speaking of knitting.....

...another finished project!

Pattern: Urbana from Westknits: Book One by Stephen West

Started: October 29th, 2010.

Finished: November 1st, 2010.

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Luxury Tweed Chunky in #5 Lavender--3 full skeins, and #4 Purple--1/2 skein, for the single crochet edge.

Needles: US 9 Addi Turbos--24" circular.

Size:  Small.  Shop sample for Wool & Honey. 

Modifications: Nope. 

Notes: I am becoming a Stephen West groupie.  Love the shape of every shawl he designs.  Therefore, I am knitting more of them.  (Additional notes Raveled.)

Maybe I'll take this one on my next vacation.  To wear.

Ten on Tuesday

10 Things to Do Before the End of Summer

1.  Get spinning.  

 

I've got two and a half months before a major trunk show at the shop and I've got a mere seven skeins spun.  Somehow, I didn't squeeze nearly the wheel time in that I needed to in August.

2.  Take a bottle of wine down to Good Harbor.  Just three miles away, our favorite Lake Michigan beach spot is also our favorite date spot.

3.  Hang my sheets out on the line a few more times. 

4.  Paint my toenails a really harlot-y red.

5.  Tidy up the construction site. 

 

A new-ish porch, new windows and after this weekend, starting in on new siding.  Related news coming soon. 

6.  Take a jump in the Big Water one last time.

7.  Finish up a few shop samples that have been lingering on the needles a little longer than necessary.  (Let's be honest--it's fall, people!)

8.  Make a few more gallons of sun tea, my constant summertime companion.

9.  Pick up one more sixer of Oberon, my other summertime sidekick.

10.  Hand wash all my wool sweaters, because baby, it's go time.

Thanks again, Carole!

Ten on Tuesday

Back to Ten on Tuesday--thanks, Carole!

10 Things I Wish I Had Known Before I Started College: Advice from Myself to Myself

1. Private school is expensive.  Even though you're paying your own way (heck, eight years after graduation, you're still paying your own way), every time you skip your First Year Seminar, you're basically throwing away 75 bucks.  Ouch.

2.  It may seem like a clever idea at the time, but root beer and vodka don't mix. 

3.  You're not fooling anyone--you don't know jack about the French Revolution.  And no matter how you talk your way around it, you're not making any sense.  Especially not to a Fulbright scholar.

4.  Your ENG 354 instructor?  Genius.  Pay attention.

5.  These professors will be your friends for a long, long time.  You'll eventually call them by their first names--Jesse, Carla, Jack, Jackie, Natalie....don't d*#@ them around.

6.  Four years is so, so short.  In fact, since you'll be graduating early, three years is even shorter.  Enjoy your time here, because you will ache for it later.

7.  Your last semester, which you will spend here, will be the best sixteen weeks of your life.

8.  You'll look back on this experience and realize that you had some pretty fabulous opportunities.  You will have some very intimate experiences with some very famous people.  Enjoy.  (Samuel Hazo will need you to guide him up to the podium--he's rather unsteady on his feet.  Van Jordan will forgive you for forgetting about his afternoon appointment, which is a good thing, because you'd really hate to disappoint someone so gorgeous.  And Kaye Gibbons?  Well, that's going to be a little awkward.) 

9.  Your department advisor is going to die a tragic death a few years after graduation.  You will cry later, both by yourself and when her best friend comes to visit you, and then you will both laugh (until you start crying again) about how many late stories you turned in over the years.  He will assure you that she never harbored any bad feelings, and you will feel relieved.

10.  This place--these people, this knowledge, this experience--is going to rock your face pretty hard.  Get ready.

Ten on Tuesday

Thought I might try out a new writing prompt: participating in a weekly meme, Ten on Tuesday. 

10 Things to Love About Bacon.

1.  It's bacon, man.  Crispy, chewy, salty, full of flavor....what's there not to love? It's downright American. 

2.  Every vegetarian I've ever known has waivered in their convictions at least once because of bacon, myself included.  (I'm off the wagon now--thinking about getting back on--and bacon's my only point of contention.)

3.  99.7% of the time, there's nothing that takes the edge off a wicked hangover quite like a platter of eggs and bacon.  (It doesn't hurt to sip a tall bloody Mary with about two tablespoons of blistering hot sauce, but I'll save that for the 10 Things to Right a Night Gone Wrong.)

4.  Pork fat may not be as bad as we thought.  A friend of mine--and local knitter--is a registered dietician at Munson and claims that lard is actually on the Good List.  It's one of those original fats the human body recognizes and can easily break down, unlike man-made substitutes like margarine and cottonseed oil.  (The way I see it, she's all but saying it's good for you.)   More of lard's praises being sung here, here and here.

5.  Bacon reminds me of vacation.  Because my parents have always believed that bacon is on the Bad List, it was rarely on the menu.  Once a summer, though, we'd rent a little cabin on a little lake and all bets were off, bacon included.  On the teeny cabin cooktop, we'd have bacon and eggs--and bowls of  Cinnamon Toast Crunch, sugar doughnuts, soda pop, caramel corn--all the unhealthy food kids really crave.  When I smell bacon cooking, I think of knotty pine panelling, my grandpa's blue flannel shirt and that squeaky rollaway bed--summer at its best.

6.  I just found this recipe for guacamole (my desert island food) and this variation has bacon in it.  Brilliant.

7.  My favorite confectionary in the world (and trust me, I'm pretty devoted to the Search) consistently lists Mo's Bacon Bar as their best-selling product.  Chocolate + bacon = foodie heaven.  Salty, creamy, sweet and crunchy?  Thank you, Vosges, for covering all your bases.

8.  People love bacon so much that they've devoted entire websites to it, where you can join Bacon-of-the-Month clubs, burn bacon-scented candles, flavor your food with bacon-inspired seasonings, protect yourself from the elements with bacon-flavored lip balm, even apply bandages that look like mini rashers.  To these people, bacon isn't a food--it's a religion.

9.  In college, my friends and I used to play this game every single day we called the Hollywood Game, which is heavily based on the Six Degrees of Separation.  The theory behind it is that every single person in Hollywood can be linked in six steps or fewer--either on-screen or in their personal life--to Kevin Bacon.  The crazy thing is the fact that it always worked.  Every.  Single.  Time.  I imagine there were plenty of ways to squander a private education, but seriously.  Who wants to talk about John Donne when you can talk about John Leguizamo? 

10.  At my house, we take our bacon seriously.  No store-bought, vacuum packed, flavorless mediocrity here--we raise our own pork.  Shively says hello!

 

Thank you to Carole, for creating Ten on Tuesdays.  I'm happy to be a part of it!