Potatoes in the Mist

Knitting bloggers shake me out of my rut with ideas for new things to make -- but they also send me straight to the yarn store ;) Fortunately, I'm learning how to economize. Cascade, at $7 for 220 yards of pure wool, is an especially good deal. That's probably enough for two hats. Here are the three skeins I bought: One of the skeins is for a gift. The raspberry yarn and the green ball are wool, while the blue skein is cotton. A little girl spun my yarn in the store and chided her mother, "You're going to have to learn to spin sometime. Do you think I'll be living with you forever?"

So today I got to meet Roxanne and her husband, R. Roxanne was instantly likable -- relaxed and mellow with a soothing presence. We all had brunch at Good in the Village. There was no wait, a rarity. I guess everyone cleared out for the Fourth of July weekend. Roxanne got the batido of the day, which was supposed to be banana pineapple, but it was pink! However, it looked and tasted yummy (I am told). They were on top of their game with the pancakes, too. I checked out the French toast a nearby patron got -- thick slices of bread with cream cheese spread inside, sprinkled with banana slices. I fear it would be too heavy, but it's nice to ogle. Afterward D went for a bike ride and the three of us continued on to Purl , New York's best yarn store (in my opinion, anyway). I love reveling in the colors and textures. I had a gift certificate to burn, and Roxanne picked up some sock yarn. Here's the adorable dishcloth Roxanne gave me: And the yarn I bought: I'm glad they cam...

So last night we went to Dumont and the Rainer bookstore with DG. It was fabulous to see Rainer, as always. He abandoned some other girl to come over to me. (I know, it's unseemly to be happy about that...but I am. I like being his favorite :) And when I left, he cried. Just once, but it was really heartbreaking. I patted him some more and promised him I'd come back. And then he calmed down. We shared 2 desserts at the resto...apple crumble and chocolate chip cookie. Surprisingly, I preferred the cookie. I usually like the fruit-based desserts, but it was just not sweet enough. I have a quantity of yarn that I intended to use for a sweater, but I ended up using other yarn. So now I'm making hats and other accessories to use it up. I've done two hats with it so far. Hats are probably my favorite thing to knit. Simple, but they can embellished. And they don't take too long. One more thing. I had mentioned librarything.com before. Well, it's this fun (and incredib...

I've been fighting with some kind of cold/flu-ish thing. It's gotten better since a couple of days ago, when I wrapped myself up in a blanket for two hours due to the chills coursing through my body. Of course, neurotic as I am, a checklist of possible ailments is running through my head: Bacterial meningitis? Probably not, since I'm still around. Bronchitis? Maybe. Had that in 2nd grade and freshman year of college. Strep throat? Maybe. Once I took a writing course where a girl mentioned in her piece, "She was a hypochondriac who hated going to the doctor...what an unfortunate combination of neuroses." That's me. In more cheerful news: My sweater yarn is coming from the Canadians next week. You may have been wondering, "What is the derivation of 'The Bronx'? The other boroughs don't get a definite article." Well, I can tell you. Apparently, when the Dutch settled in New York, there was a family called the Broncks. They had an active soc...