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chanson en crochet

Voila! C'est fini. This was a super speedy way to get back in the groove. The pattern is Chanson en Crochet from IK (excerpted from "Wrap Style") and the yarn was Cascade Eco+ (leftover from this) on a J hook.

I started on August 6th, finished crochet by the 9th, and had it washed and blocked and buttoned by the 11th. Can't beat that with a stick.

The finished project is really cute and barely elbow length on an adult, well me anyway. I think it will work nicely for a little girl. Maybe even as a "skirt" over some leggings...

back in the saddle again

ahhh. my absolute disinterest in all things yarn has finally abated. since the warm weather struck in may, i've had no desire to knit, crochet, sew, whatever. suddenly, however, i'm mad for it. ordered a bit of yarn from knitpicks. should be in this week.

in the meantime, here's chanson en crochet, from interweave. so far it's a zippy little crochet. I'm already on the 9th row of 22, using cascade eco and a size j hook.

think this will be a giftee for cealinn...

heavens to betsy!

vogue knitting has 10 cover patterns available for free download!

have a tasty champagne thursday!

Ok. So this is a teensy bit fussy. Well, maybe more than a "teensy bit". All right. Fine. It's silly with fussines, but totally worth it.

Do try the Crab Towers with Avocado and Gazpacho Salsas from Cook's Illustrated: Restaurant Favorites at Home. It took about an hour to prepare (chop, chop, chop) and the leftovers were still quite yummy the next day. We enjoyed the delightful towers with orange slices (as recommended), tomato rubbed toast points, and Siverwing NV Brut, a lovely Australian sparkling wine.

A fortuitous mistake lead to my only deviation from the recipe. I mistakenly added the mayo to the whole batch of vinaigrette which had included all of the lemon zest on hand. Oops. As I had 16 oz of lump crab (go Costco!), the extra dressing came in handy. Anyway, I still needed vinaigrette for the frisee, so I mixed up another batch and substituted orange zest for the lemon. Yum!

100!

hey! this is my 100th post... here's my 100th photoblog photo.

cheers!

the solution...

nikon's solution to this riddle...buy our new software. Swell.

riddle me this.

i just realized that the exif data was no longer appearing on my photoblog. briefly, exif data is information about the camera settings (iso, aperature, shutter speed, ect.) that is embedded in the image file. scrolling back through my images, it became apparent the the exif stopped when i started shooting raw instead of jpeg. fyi, jpeg is a standard image compression format, which reduces the file size of the uncompressed, or raw, files.

hmph.

first thing: my nikon view won't open the d80's nefs (nikon's proprietary raw file).

after a few experiments, it appears that opening the nef in photoshop removes the exif data from the image. k. so, if i transfer the raw files through picture project (the very basic nikon software that came with the camera), the exif data is intact, but photoshop sees the file as being "edited in other software" and doesn't show the handy dandy raw adjustments dialog box .

wtf? is that supposed to happen?

anyway, i have a question in to nikon support. if anyone knows how to get around this, your help will be greatly appreciated.

women's work is never done.

Wait a minute! Yes it is. Check out this cool Next Generation clubhouse/swingset that my sister and I built last week. (Kelly is peeking out from behind the swings) We built the model 5007 tower and swing arm and added the 10' slide. The kits included pre-drilled treated cedar components that weighed a ton. There was some pilot drilling needed, but most was pre-measured and ready to go. It took us less than 3 days to get this thing up and running. Using a drill to drive in the screws is mandatory. It seems very sturdy and should last quite a long time.

We didn't do it all ourselves. We had some great help! Aydan was a champ. He helped drive the fencing screws and measured the wood (to be sure we were using the correct pieces). Cealinn and Colm were terrific assistants too. Cealinn stacked similar pieces of wood in handy piles and Colm handed us screws and bolts.

A nice way to spend my summer vacation. Good times were had by all...

roar

I whipped this little guy up on the plane to visit the family. It's grrr from summer 2007 knitty. The yarn is crayon in orange from knitpicks.com.

A quick fun knit that makes bath time a whole lot more fun.