AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

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.

Sometimes you cannot sleep

So, instead of knitting or cleaning or making more ice cream, I will leave you with our celebration of Weird Al Yankovic's new album, Mandatory Fun.

Poor guy, born to such a Tacky family!

Sunday is National Ice Cream Day, and this year it is definitely a celebration of David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop. You would think I had made all of the flavors already, but no. This year is the year I finally make the avocado and olive oil ice creams!

Finishing sweaters

I finished a second item in the beginning of June. Q needs replacement sweaters, because either they are shrinking or he is growing (I know which one it is) and the ones I made for him no longer fit his frame.

This one is the Offset Wraplan. I striped this with a random white yarn and all of the non-fingering yellow yarns I had in my stash. I mean it, there are at least two and more likely three different yellow yarns in there. A great stashbusting project.

Of course, the sweater doesn't fit him now. It is 12 month sized, and he has a few more months to go before I expect to be putting it on him on a regular basis.

One sweater down, and I still have the sweater I started at Squam left to go (also a 12 month sweater, but it is being knit on the 18 month plan). Not too bad for our little boy!

In June, I also made a couple of cakes. One of which didn't go quite so well. I tried to make the plum kuchen from Smitten Kitchen with cherries, but I didn't get the beautiful rise I got when I made it the first time. I will have to try again, because I love that cake.

I also made in June the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake that Smitten Kitchen has on her site from the Sky High cookbook. I loved making that cake so much that I borrowed the cookbook from the library and hope to try another recipe or two from there!

Of course, now it is July, and soon it will be National Ice Cream Day. I have a staycation where I will hopefully make a ton of ice cream, knit a bunch on a shawl for Camp Loopy, and read a book. A most vacation-y of stay at home vacations.

Getting back in the swing of things

People never tell you when you have kids that your thoughts of having a schedule mostly go out the window.

There are lots of things they don't tell you, and because every family is different sometimes it is because they didn't know either. Only in the past month or two as Q has gotten more interested in play (crawling and cruising) have I gotten back in the swing of knitting.

I had this idea that I would be able to make 14 things in 2014, and it is true. I might be able to do that. As long as they are small.

Small like these.

These leggings are just simple tubes with some ribbing made out of yarn that I bought for a shrug (the three color one from Loop-D-Loop). They need a bit of elastic to hold them up, but otherwise they work.

Now, I need to figure out what other things I've finished so far this year, and see if I can get all the way to 14 items!

[10 Tuesday] Bands!

This picture has nothing to do with today's 10 for Tuesday topic. I just love my little boy.

So, this week's 10 for Tuesday is 10 Bands or Individuals you've seen in concert.

1. It's hard to beat this one for awesomeness. When I was in college, someone was selling an extra ticket and I got to see Pink Floyd at Foxboro Stadium (when it was still called Foxboro). I was 12th row center stage. My ticket was under $50, and someone I knew had a ticket for later in the series and was in nosebleed seats. It was awesome.

2. I've seen Rush in concert in Providence. This was one of those situations where I had an internet friend who liked many of the same things I did. So, we would get together and play too many games of Mortal Kombat and go to concerts like Rush. That was nosebleed seats for me.

3. Weird Al. In Lowell. Any concert where it is aOK to get up, sing along, and dance your fool heart out is wonderful!

4. Marillion at the Somerville Theater. This is one of those weird situations where you've listened to the music but have no idea what the musicians look like. I almost left after the opening act, because I didn't know it was the opening act. Whoops! I did stick around, and got to listen to many wonderful songs.

5. Lollapalooza 1996. Once again a group of friend went to Lollapalooza, and I got to go too. The only groups I really knew at this were Metallica and Soundgarden. On the day we went, I also listened to Ben Folds Five and Psychotica. It was super hot, and I was sort of gothed out in a black body suit with fishnet mesh shoulders. Needless to say, I got a fishnet mesh sunburn that faded out and lasted all summer long.

6. Dream Theater and Blink Crotch. Dream Theater was at the Bank of America Pavillion and had two opening bands. One of those bands involved the lead singer standing with his legs straddling the blinking light from the drum kit. The opening bands were mostly forgettable (the other opening band had a lead singer who looked kind of like Bruce Banner).

7. Distant Worlds. Chocobo music and other Final Fantasy music. It was pretty awesome!

8. Carmen in Concert. One of my friends was in the chorus for this, so I saw it when the MIT group put it on a gazillion years ago.

9. Tiffany. I saw this with one of my friends at the Fleet Center (or whatever they were calling it at the time.. you know, where the Bruins play). It was shortly after I had knee surgery, so I was either just off crutches or was still on crutches with an air cast thingie. I was afraid that if I fell down that I would roll all the way down to the bottom. Splat!

Beyond that, I have been part of a lot of musical theater and now choirs (UU Church of Lexington right now). So, I have done concerts. The most recent one was this past weekend at the local farmer's market, where we sang to support Faith Feeds. 

Singing with the church is awesome, because they do Music Sundays. Music was always one of my favorite things about church from when I went when I was a little kid, so being part of such a musical congregation is wonderful! This past Sunday we sang Kokomo and the Famine Song in addition to the more traditional spirituals and hymns.

If you add musicals I've seen, the list gets a lot longer. I've seen Les Mis, Into the Woods, Miss Saigon, Moving Out, and a few others. I've also seen a few plays and operas on the Boston Common. But frankly, I haven't seen a concert since seeing Dream Theater a few years ago. It's just not something I do on a regular basis.

[10 Tuesday] Donut-topia

I've been trying to find a replacement for Donut King (goodness I loved that place). Doughnuts don't appear to be as big a thing here as they were in New England. On the other hand, it is a lot easier to find a milk shake here. Go figure.

This week's 10 for Tuesday is 10 things you did this weekend.

1. The first thing was driving practice.

2. The second thing was going to North Lime for doughnuts. I didn't get one this time around, because the special wasn't something I was interested in (see doughnut with a dinosaur shaped chicken nugget). Instead I had a peanut butter mocha. It is one of the better coffee drinks I've had, so it certainly isn't like I was deprived. And driving practice is much easier if you are going somewhere you want to go.

3. Gaming. I got to trip things and have it work. Fixing my character to make him more playable was totally worth it.

4. Walking the dog. There was a lot of walking in general.

5. Going to a Parent's meet up. We walked around the arboretum, which was pretty nice. We didn't see the huge leaves that were around the hospital, so we still don't know which plants those are.

6. Got my nails and toes done. The place was pretty nice, and there were massaging chairs.

7. Bruised my back... too much massaging chair.

8. Watched a video about sectioning an orange, and then sectioned a few less than stellar oranges. Huzzah!

9. Got a smidge of knitting in. Want to finish the sweater this week (before camp loopy starts), so I need to move from a smidge of knitting to a whack of knitting. 

10. Cleaned the kitchen. There is still more kitchen to clean, but the floor is washed and one counter is completely clean. Hopefully I will have enough time to make the strawberry summer cake from Smitten Kitchen.

Bonus! 11. My husband put together a list of all of the perishable fruits and veggies, so I could more easily make sure they all got used during the course of the week. Last night that meant using the salad greens and all of the oranges. This morning, it meant making sure that an apple went into my lunch box. It is so much easier to eat healthily if you know what you have!

Sheep! Wool!

click images for bigger

Last weekend was the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival. As part of my ongoing driving practice, we went to the festival via North & Lime. The drive was uneventful, and we got to the festival early. After going through the vendor section, we made our way through the animal tents and saw all of the sheep, goats, llamas and alpacas. We saw some angora rabbits, though most of those were in the vendor area, usually next to one of the people spinning away.

I don't know if Q is going to like this enough to go annually, but it was cheap family fun ($3/adult). He got to go into the "Hug a Sheep" pen and pet the very tolerant sheep, and came away with a tiny fistful of crimped fibers. The only thing that could have made it even better is if North & Lime had a vendor truck there. 

I came home with 3 skeins of yarn all named after female scientists. Two are shockingly neon pink and are named after Marie Curie. It just seemed too appropriate.

[10 Tuesday] Trying new things

Trying new things is a pet peeve of mine. I realized a few years ago that I would say that I didn't like something, and that people around me would say the same thing. Some of these things were things that they (or I) had never tried.

So, I stopped saying I hated something and made an effort to try something at least a couple of times a year. If I really hated something, that would be fine, but I had to at least try it. That attitude led me to trying avocado for the first time in forever, drinking a beer every now and then, and making new foods that I hadn't tried before.

It also led to durian. Obviously it isn't all good. However, trying new things and being open to trying new things has been one of the reasons behind trying baby led weaning with Q. So far it is working fine, and the foods being eaten are fairly varied and currently heavy on the fruits and vegetables.

Most of what I've tried in the past two years has been food related. As a vegetarian, I'm running out of food items to try!

So, in the next year, I'd like to try the following.

1. Go back to school. It is in the works. I am a transfer student for UKy, and will hopefully be registering for classes in July.

2. Train for a half marathon. Now, I've done half marathons before, so this sort of feels like a cop out, but as a new mother I've been finding that carving out the time is a little harder than I was expecting.

3. Make guacamole. I don't love avocado, but I no longer feel like I need to ask for it to not be included at restaurants. I've not used it in anything myself, so this year's ice cream party will include the avocado ice cream from the Perfect Scoop. But I should still try to make guacamole.

4. Complete the DIY project I found via Pinterest. The easy part is done; the DIY part remains.

5. Be kinder. It is far too easy for my lack of sleep to result in telling the dog to stop sniffing things when we go on our walks.

6. Wean myself off of coffee (starting next month; no, don't take it away from me!!!!)?

7. Take a photography class.

8. Improve on my knife skills (chop all the vegetables).

9. Have a functioning garden (this is already going better this year, because I'm getting great spinach production).

10. Use more yarn than I buy.

Some of these are stretch goals (I'm looking at you 7 and 10), but I'm trying to be gentle on myself, my family and our time. A lot of these items impact more than just me and I'm trying to be mindful of that.

Baby led weaning

So I couldn't tell you when I first read about baby-led weaning, but apparently it is a thing. You take your baby, put some food stuffs in front of them, and watch and listen to them experience food. No making purees, or buying tiny jars of strange combinations (pureed ham and peas anybody?), just real food with a bit less salt. 

I don't cook with that much salt over all, so I was definitely ready to use this method. Food is something I care about too much to not give it a try. Q always looks like he is having a ton of fun with his dinners, which are full of fruit (blackberries, blueberries, grapes, etc.), yogurt (plain, full fat), and whatever is on the menu for the night (gnocchi with a creamy pumpkin rosemary sauce, paneer tikka masala).

It is definitely messy. In our smarter moments we don't have Q in a onesie, just a diaper and a bib. In our smartest moments, we put a painter's plastic drop cloth under his high chair. I like the establishment of family dinners as a thing. We eat and watch Q eat and talk about our days and our weekend plans. He doesn't get much food and a lot of it doesn't get swallowed, but he is learning and getting better all the time.

It is making me happy in anticipation of his first dessert-y item on his first birthday.

Knit happens

Yeah. Victor and Q are in the same party. 

As Q gets older, it is getting easier to do knitting in the evening. I recently finished a sweater for him (I sewed on the buttons on Sunday) and baby legwarmers. Of course, I haven't taken any pictures, so the projects are in that limbo while I try to pretend that they aren't done.

Now that those items are done, I have another baby sweater on the needles (the one I started at Squam last year) and a sweater for me that I started over the weekend. It is nice to get stuff done.

Of course, I really should be getting dishes done, or washing laundry, or making healthy dinners. Q is much better about letting me do knitting than he is about letting me do chores. That is because he is awesome!

What? Do you want to do chores? Thought not!