Friday, November 25, 2016

Knitting weekend

YES! It's Friday, which means that very soon, we can all pretend there is nothing more important than parking ourselves in a chair and knitting.  Of course for our US friends, it's 'Black Friday' which means you are probably already so parked, and more power to you.


I can probably get away with this only for the one night, because there are a lot of rather important things that exist whether or not it's the weekend, but I am grateful for having that much.  Even though I am guaranteed to lose some of what little there is to food prep because I decided it's the right day for Comfort Soup.

RECIPE FOR COMFORT SOUP
saute chopped onion, celery, and peel-thin strips of carrot in butter
add a litre of chicken stock
add chopped tomato
add a TON of Worcestershire sauce
bring to boil
add pasta stars because some days, it's important to be six years old
boil on low until the pasta stars are soft and yummy
serve in your favourite bowl

Obviously: not a complicated recipe.  But surprisingly delicious!

Tonight I am considering roasting garlic cloves, too, for smearing over toasted whole wheat bread produced by a Montreal bakery and sold in the grocery store downstairs (which has apparently purchased said Montreal bakery, how interesting), but I'm not sure how that will taste.  It may not matter to Pete though, because all he really cares about is that we have garlic cooking on a more regular basis.  One of our neighbours does garlic-related meals often and every time Pete walks past their door he comes home in a half-swoon, with a sad regret that we are not producing a similar aroma where he can enjoy it from a comfortable chair.

yes, it's new yarn! (Vesper, Zoinks, October club, not yet caked.)

Blogger has changed its layout this week and it took me until today to find the list blogs I follow, but once I did, I read Lucy's praise for her Life Planner adventures and considered whether I might benefit from such a thing.  If you're not familiar with this product category, it's basically an agenda, thoughtfully organized to include space for stickers and motivational messages, which helps you to remember things like bills, birthdays, and taking time to work toward your personal dreams.

So I spent about an hour down that particular rabbit hole instead of being responsible or productive.

Things I noticed about the YouTube videos I watched on Life Planners:  the presenters all had beautiful, colourful nail polish on their perfectly shaped fingernails and seem to enjoy bright, cheerful pages.  Also they are younger than me and apparently not renovating a house or juggling three long-term careers plus a temporary, though full-time, interior design hobby.  Would my current life even fit into a Life Planner? 

Things I noticed about the Erin Condren Life Planner shop: the covers are all in designed within one style category, which is Not Mine.  Lucy got a great cover by photographing something herself and paying extra, so it's possible to do one that would be me, but... time/money.

Things I noticed about the insides of various planners: they are very, very busy and section off different areas for you.

Things I learned about myself while researching Life Planners: I am much happier without a schedule anywhere in my day, even on a written page; I want my planning materials to lie flat and stack rather than stick up and out with a coil binding; I feel freer with low-contrast, low-traffic pages that make it easier for me to focus on what needs to be done; I am the sort of person who notices, with relief, that most of what I would record in a bulky Life Planner fits neatly into my cell phone.

Conclusion: my beautiful, disposable-page Fabriano notebooks still work best for me.



Another exciting development here at Hugs: I've discovered that the grocery store downstairs isn't just selling sensible whole wheat bread from the Montreal bakery, but irresponsible chocolate chip/cranberry bread.  I would show you a picture but I ate it.  Anyway: 'chocolate chip and cranberry' says it all, don't you think?


And to go back to today's lead picture, I was quite excited to unwrap this new Zoinks yarn after a trip to my mailbox.  There was a time when I was sad to find a white stripe in my Vesper yarn, but I have come to love the calm contrast it offers brighter colours and now it's quite exciting to find a new colourway that has one.

You know what else I don't have a picture of but appreciate, is the way a handknit sock falls (not on the ground, but like a length of drapery) after it's been worn once. The stitches form a collective decision to hold the basic shape of your ankle and heel and foot, and to retain the softness with which they hugged them to keep you warm.  It's very comforting and pleasant and not at all like when you take off a cotton athletic sock after a long run or something, which is usually just Ew.

And on that pleasant note (ha! I laugh, but you know I'm going to obsess now about capturing the recently-worn handknit sock phenomenon on camera and sharing it with you) I bid you a charming, knitting-filled weekend. I typed 'stitch-filled' at first but I don't want any of your personal fate cues getting that wrong and sending you to Emerg with a nasty cut or something.

Take care of yourself and I'll see you next week!



2 comments:

Laurinda said...

I have an irrational love of planners, but i don't have the right brain functions to make them work :-( However, a much simpler 'lists on my phone'app* & appointments on my calendar approach is cheap & easy.
I have knitting & sewing gifts that I'm looking forward to completing this weekend, & then my christmas making will be done!
Except I've met me, & I'm sure I'll find something I'll 'need' to make before the holiday ;-)

*The app is Cozi, & all of the appointments, lists, etc are share-able

Mary Keenan said...

I spent more time looking at planners on the weekend while hunting for Christmas decorations ;^) They are so alluring! You are SO lucky to have your Christmas stuff done Laurinda... I am trying so hard to loosen the grip of my socks-I-can't-resist so I can write up my fingerless mitts pattern and publish it in time to be useful and I am not making any progress at all.

Will check out Cozi asap, thank you for the tip!