Uncle Leona's Day Camp

You can always tell....

It's a lazy Sunday. Never did bother to get out of my pajamas today. Knitting, laundry, X games, and figure skating. Perfect day. I just poured myself a glass of wine. Now, I like me some fancy shmancy stuff here and there, but my frugal...OK, cheap...nature holds me back sometimes. Today, I broke out a bottle of the $9 stuff.

Seemed appropriate for my attire. Worked well with my slippers.

Anyhow, I have found a way to make the cheap stuff taste more fancy. I asked for, and received, a Vinturi aerator for Christmas. For those of you who don't know what it is, it looks like this:

Wine is poured through it, and it magically adds air--the wine has instantly "breathed." Laugh all you want, but it works.

Anyhow, I tried the wine before doing the magic trick. It had an interesting aftertaste. I think it was Pledge. After the Vinturi, it was amazingly good! Only one problem.

My brother and I both suffer from an unusual problem. We blush with lite beer and cheap booze. The Vinturi does not eliminate the Booze Blush. Good thing I'm alone tonight. I look like a total lush.

And no, no photographs were taken. I have my pride.

I am happy to report that the grand plan to empty Ikealand of two vats of yarn has successfully come to fruition!

The variegated stuff has all been knitted up, and the sweater looks pretty cool:

It will be on my body at work tomorrow. Hopefully, I will not be puked on. I hate to admit it, but I'm due for an attack of bodily fluids.

And for those of you out there that are noticing that teal stuff on the lower shelf, I didn't buy that. It was a Christmas gift. It doesn't count in the Great Ikealand Purge. I was going to start knitting it up, but I think I'm going to see if I can find a pattern at Stitches next month. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. I did get started on the Alice Starmore kit that has been languishing on top of Ikealand for about 3 years. Not much to show yet, but it's pretty so far. I think I'm also going to try to get that Fiesta Yarn out of there too--it was frogged from a vest I didn't like. Maybe I'll work on that this evening.

I also have an update on my Aerogarden. In the past two weeks, it has gone bonkers. I already have cooked up some tomato sauce with basil, oregano, and some thyme, and here's what's left (Lorette, you may want to hide your eyes):

Yes, that's an empty pod at the lower left. I pulled out the mint and started up some arugula. The mint is now next to the sink:

Doesn't matter where it goes, mint grows better than any weed. I think I'm going to have to learn to like mojitos. Without cheap rum.

I'm getting antsy

I hate winter. I think that's a very well known fact. I don't ski. I don't skate. I don't do hot toddies. What I do do well this time of year is complain. Right now, it's 17 degrees outside, I haven't seen grass in weeks, and the forecasted highs for the end of the week (after the "warmup" on Tuesday to 36) are somewhere in the low teens.

It's a good thing I knit. Wool is a good thing for us cranky Midwesterners.

I did manage to finish up the blue cabled dealio a couple of weeks ago:

Gorgeous pattern, and the diamond cables down the middle finished up in a good spot at the neckline. All of my worrying about row gauge wound up counting for something. Now I have a batch of beautiful Canadian wool worsted sitting in Ikealand (Mom got me stuff from the Lismore Sheep Farm for Christmas--we were there several years ago, but the staff still remembered us...not sure if that's good or bad). It's going to wind up as a cabled something or other, but it'll have to wait until the next item is done.

The next item is at the neck decreases, though! That Malabrigo yarn that was giving me pooling fits ain't pooling any more. See?

I just went with a simple linen stitch and a really basic pullover pattern, and I think it's going to work. Here's the up close and personal view:

I am loving how this has worked. Still not 100% sure if I'm going to do the linen stitch on the sleeves, too--stockinette may look pretty cool. We'll see. Bottom line is that this thing will be done by Stitches in February, so the "Empty Out Ikealand" project will have been a success.

Yeah, I know. It isn't really empty. Let me live my fantasy.

Grady says hi, by the way.

Things are still going well in Catville. No major bloodshed (except for me). Buster's latest trip to the vet was just one more stroke to his already burgeoning ego. I don't think there was one person in the office that didn't come to visit and pet him. He's a fan favorite. He's also been given a clean bill of health, and the green flag has dropped to get him fixed.

He may not be a fan of that vet much longer.

But he's still photogenic:

I call this one "Still Life with Snow and Furball."

Despite Mother Nature being a cruel, cold bitch, I have tried to remain optimistic that Spring is just around the corner. Last weekend, I ordered hot pepper seeds. They won't be in the garden for months, but who cares? Today, I ordered seeds for the rest of the garden. One of them is another chile pepper:

It's called a Peter Pepper. I plan on bringing them to the office and properly offending people. That has fun written all over it. I like to think of it as keeping things fresh.

I also have plants growing in the kitchen already. Mom got me an AeroGarden for Christmas--I asked for it so I can have fresh herbs in the house. The seeds have been going since Christmas Day:

Left to right, there is cilantro, mint, chives, thyme, basil, oregano, and savory. This thing makes herb gardening easy enough for a pediatrician to do it. Give me about one more week, and I think I'll be chopping up basil on a pizza.

I'm feeling so hydroponic.