AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

Beautiful Stripes!

For Camp Loopy project 3, we needed to knit 800 yards minimum using our favorite colors. As much as I joke about black, the "color of my soul," I love blue. In the past few years I've become more of a fan of bright colors. When I saw Stripes Gone Crazy, I knew I wanted to make this project.

Less than one month later (I blocked it yesterday), I have a new cardigan with beautiful stripes that has a wonderfully soft hand. This was a super wonderful project. The short rows kept it fast and eliminated the boredom factor.

I did make one major mistake. I should have done the stripes on the other sleeves. I had already done about 10 narrow stripes when I realized I was knitting the left sleeve with the right sleeve pattern.

The sweater is nice thin layer that is perfect for an office or any other place with air conditioning.

I completely want to make another one. Maybe with the dark color being the main color. I don't think I've ever made a full-size sweater twice, so the idea of making this one twice on size 4 needles in sock yarn is a bit crazy.

Unrelated to the sweater, I cannot believe that it is only a single month until Q is a year old! I will be in classes for an entire month at that point, but I know I want to make cake and ice cream for his first birthday. I am learning more about time management than I thought I would ever know. It's all about speeding through those necessary things in the day, so I can spend more time on the homework and with my family.

Now that my last project for Camp Loopy is done, it is time for me to go through my stash and to pick quick projects I can do around my homework. The writing class has a large time commitment, and the programming class looks like it will ramp up to a similar level of work.

 

Choosing an IDE and other first week of class things

I'm sitting in Q's nursery room, about 5 feet from his crib as he falls asleep. I'm back early from my first CS class, because we went over chapter 1, course objectives, basic programming information, and the syllabus. It wasn't a surprise that we got out early. The first chapter focuses in part on the ubiquitous "Hello, World!" program that I can write in at least a couple of different programming languages, including the C++ that the course is taught in.

The sounds of Q's quiet breathing and the sound of the washing machine are soothing as I contemplate installing a second IDE on my school laptop (yes, I bought a laptop for school, a 5-year old Macbook Air doesn't meet the course requirements). I mean, it is free, and it is Microsoft, so it will be good to be familiar with it. I will probably download it on Saturday during naptime.

So, writing, a video introduction, an IDE and finishing a sweater all before Monday. Sounds like a wonderful weekend to me!

Time management (for parents?)

Time management is for everybody. Intellectually I know that, but now that I am a parent I feel like I have to be even more careful to get things done when the opportunities present themselves. When I first met Abby Glassenberg that was one of the themes of her blog: using the time while she naps and being efficient and on the ball in the time available. The interstices between when I am needed by our little boy are opportunities to get everything else done. It is time for me to study, because I'm going back to school. However, in the past few days before classes start, it is time for me to cook, clean, and knit.

Or bake.

I've had Booze cakes : confections spiked with spirits, wine, and beer out for most of the past two months. I keep renewing the book, because I hadn't found the time to actually try any of the recipes.

The book is more than a few years old at this point, but the recipes are still good (better than the recipes in Once a Month Cooking. The library copy is from the early 90s and the recipes show their 1970s and 1980s roots). However, there are a few flaws with the recipe I tried.

Pumpkin Martini Cakes. Sounds delicious.

The recipe comes out well, a moist cake with a tender crumb. However, the recipe lists a number of servings without giving you an idea of how many pans you will need or their size. Twelve servings. Individual cake pans or mini muffin pans. 

Well, I can tell you that I made 12 full size cupcakes and filled a 6-cavity regular donut pan with the batter from a single recipe batch. 

With the cake recipe comes a spiked maple glaze and a spiked cream cheese frosting. Last night's dessert was a donut drizzled with glaze and then filled in the center with a tiny scoop of frosting. Delicious!

This is what I did when I had an afternoon off while Q was at day care. While Chris was handling bedtime, I was a whirlwind in the kitchen, cleaning up after dinner and making both the glaze and the frosting, as well as walking the dog. Before Q was born, I might have made dinner clean up, a dog walk and a small amount of cooking take all evening, but now it is imperative to be efficient, so I can maximize my time to relax or my time to study. There is time to do everything, though maybe not everyday, as long as some careful time management is employed.