C in DC

Porom is knitting up very quickly: I’m at the point where I could start the crown shaping, but will probably do another lace repeat or two to make the hat extra slouchy.

I cut my first steek this weekend! I have to admit, I can’t really see the value of such a tedious and stressful process, but I am happy to say I’ve tried it and succeeded. Though I still need to cut steeks for the the other armhole, the back neck, and the deep V neckline in the front, so I’m not in the clear yet!

(In the background is my homework for Optimal Control, which suddenly seemed a million times easier after I was done. I really know how to spend a Saturday night, don’t I?)

My knitting palette is very much in season right now:

The first WIP is the argyle vest I started a few weeks ago. It is coming along nicely!

The second item is the Porom hat from Brooklyn Tweed, which I started yesterday with some Naturally Caron Country I picked up at AC Moore. I love the rusty orange color!

You might recognize the golden yellow yarn from a few months ago. Having lost my motivation for Moroccan Days/Arabian Nights (perhaps too ambitious a project), I did some math and modified the Razor Cami to make it work with the laceweight yarn. Every so often I add a few more rows, and it’s coming along slowly but surely.

My darling kitty went missing about a week ago. His name is Mouse and he loves to eat and climb trees. He’s grey and was wearing a blue collar with a bell.

Mouse was last seen near Backlick Road in Annandale, VA. If you have any information on his whereabouts, please let me know. Thanks!

Happy first day of Autumn! It occurred to me that it’s been a year since I started this blog. I hope everyone has been enjoying it! I know it’s been a little lean on content lately, but I promise I will be updating it soon.

In the meantime, a couple polls…

In which I pull a quote from whatever I’m currently reading.

This one is from The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments by science writer George Johnson. It’s regarding the conclusions derived from Galvani’s electricity experiments on frogs.

The is no ethereal “vital force”. Life is electrochemistry.

In which I pull a quote from whatever I’m currently reading.

I want to squeeze this one in before I return it to the library. Unaccustomed Earth is a collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri, author of The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies. As my mom noted, this author tends to write about the same things; all of her stories involve the children of Bengali immigrants, usually in their 30’s, usually living in Boston, usually having attend Cambridge. Nevertheless, she is good at what she writes. Maybe it’s because my girlfriend is the child of Indian immigrants that I never tire of this narrow genre. This is from the last story in the book.

She remembered breakfasts with him on the roof of the hotel, sitting among small brown birds that hopped at her feet, eating fresh ricotta and mortadella and salami under a glaring blue sky. She had been disconcerted by those salty, fleshy meats so early in the day, yet never able to resist them.

Call me weird (you wouldn’t be the first) but I love the reverse side of stranded colorwork. It reminds me of the way images appear when reflected on a still body of water.

I just finished the waist shaping and am about to start the neckline.

A new feature in which I share a quote from something I’m currently reading. This one’s from The Woman Who Can’t Forget, a memoir about a woman who can automatically recall in detail every day of her life due to a memory condition called hyperthymesia.

If it’s true, though, that the normal memory has a talent for forgetting a host of happenings that we would otherwise find self-limiting or underwhelming, because they hold a mirror up to us about aspects of our lives and ourselves that we don’t like, I do have to say that it would be a good thing for me if my mind had that talent.

I thought I’d share this appetizer because it’s very easy and impressive and it’s perfect for late summer dinner parties. Just slice and roast some eggplant, squash, and zucchini, and layer it with slices of fresh mozzarella and tomato. A rosemary spring holds the whole thing together and makes the whole thing look very festive. In this example I spread homemade pesto in between some of the layers, and piped pesto dots onto the plate. Alternatively, a drizzle of balsamic reduction underneath the vegetable tower gives it a dramatic flair.