My plants are making progress...

First strawberries of the season. This is a strawberry herb, not a strawberry grown for fruit, but believe when I say that if they berries seem small, they make up for it in flavor. Plus you get leaves for strawberry tea and fruits. I heart multipurpose plants :)
My shawl is to the "boring" phase, as most Ravelers call it, where I'm knitting 42 inches of the same rows. Being that I have the attention span of a gnat lately, I'm enjoying these same two rows because I don't have to check the chart every 7 stitches. Plus, I can both get some knitting done and watch TV. Before, I was only pretending to be able to watch TV while I knot, I really am not that talented. If I knit and don't look, I drop stitches all over the place.
I'm really going to have to put more time in on this if I want to get it done for the October wedding though. I do love the slight variegation in the Purewool.
I'm still giddy over my plumeria. My second plant is budding. It still amazes me that those little nubs turn into this:
I only wish there was a way to share fragrances via blog :)

It's Been Awhile

And I've been busy, as per usual.

Above is the first bloom I've had on any of my plumerias since I purchased them 2 years ago. Plumeria, or frangipanis, as they're called in Oz, are a tropical plant I fell in love with while I was living in Australia. Not only are they gorgeous, but the blooms give off the most heavenly aroma. I used to pick up fallen blooms on my walk home from Uni and put them in a glass bowl of water, where they would fill my bedroom with fragrance. I was afraid Vermont just wasn't warm enough for long enough for them to bloom, but I guess I just had to fertilize. Isn't it just gorgeous?

Since my last post I've done many picture worthy things: kayaking on Lake Champlain, watching a glassblower work and finding an excellent waterfall in Stowe, and having drinks at a waterside restaurant at sunset over the lake. But my camera was not present. Someday it will be, and I'll have some great pictures to share.

I've been living in Vermont for 3 years now, and at some point, I often experience a daily rush of pure gratitude for the constant beauty that surrounds me. My condo abutts a bike path, in which you can take a short walk to a park that overlooks the lake. At least once a week, I drive 15 minutes to another bikepath to go running along the lake. My employer, the University, sits on the highest ground in Burlington, and from many meeting rooms, you get a great view of the lake. And on Tuesdays, I get to run 5Ks on beautiful wooded trails with hundreds of other people of all ages and paces and sizes in the rain and the heat and the mud. I do feel spoiled every once in awhile, when I forget to complain.
And look! My shawl is growing up into a larger almost triangle. (Pretend like you can't see the mysterious whole on the left, that's what I do...) And just in case you though I spent all my time taking care of plants and running instead of knitting; I bake too, when the opportunity presents itself. I made this tiramisu for my sisters birthday, and it was even more delicious then it looks :)
I realize that this post has been a bit ramble-y, but I have little time to accomplish a big to-do list to get ready for the8-10 visitors I will be hosting this weekend for Burlington's Beerfest.
Laundry calls...

So many excuses to not knit and a contest

Ponyknit is having a contest in honor of her blogiversary. Go visit and have a chance to win some yummy yarn. The contest runs until the 11th. Don't forget to say I sent you.

This week I've been in recovery a bit from my NYC weekend. We used our time well. We saw ground zero, and walked along the waterfront near Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, walked through Chinatown, had lunch in Little Italy, and saw Legally Blond on Broadway. Legally Blond was an excellent show: the script, sets, and acting were all spectacular. And the dogs were pretty excellent too. I found out that they were all strays that were rescued and trained, so that's kind of cool.

And then we walked outside after the show and I've become so accustomed to the relative darkness of Burlington, that the billboard lights of Times Square confused me into thinking it was still daylight for a moment....after 10 pm...it was a blond moment after seeing Legally Blond. Appropriate, right?

I haven't done any knitting this week. Instead, I've: ran my 5K trail race, joined the new local kayaking club (because I don't have enough activities, you know?) and went kayaking on Lake Champlain. I haven't been paddling since I was in Australia, and I forgot how great it is to be silently gliding through the water. On a small boat like a kayak, you're so much more connected to the water and your surroundings.

A slightly larger triangle with token kitty interference

Yes, it's been weeks since I've shown my progress...because as you see, it's not been very impressive. I'm about halfway through chart 3 of 8, and there's a lot of non-chart knitting in between. Myha would not stop being all Vanna White when I was trying to get a picture. However, I'm headed to NYC for a girl's weekend, and there might be some time where I should be able to get a few rows in. You know, between Broadway and Chinatown and general drunken debauchery.

Besides knitting, I found a few spare minutes to clean a path to my long neglected spinning wheel. I didn't spin much, as you can see but it was spun more even than I remember being able too, so that's a plus.

I'll leave you with the sight my husband will see all weekend long as he sits at the computer without me to give Miss Myha attention so she'll leave him alone.

Friday Photo

From tonight, a post dinner surprise :)

Might I be in Training to be a WAHM?

I saw this on Ponyknit's Blog, and I could not resist. Plus I have nothing knitterly to share here.

50 As a 1930s wife, I am Average Take the test!

The heat wave broke this week with severe thunderstorms, high wind speeds and tornado warnings. I went to my 5K trail race that night (in between storms) to find it cancelled with large branches fallen all over the place. Because it was hot, and we have been travelling every weekend (just one more weekend in Western MA, woohoo!), my shawl is only a slightly larger triangle, which I probably won't have time to photograph before we leave for MA tonight. I tried knitting a bit before the heat broke, and it was just not happening because despite the yarn being laceweight, it's still wool.


Work has been exhausting me this week. The hours have been long and the Russian Fulbright Scholar has been tagging along. That itself can be exhausting in itself, as he doesn't really speak English and just tends to mess things up. The Fulbright Scholarship is a prestigious award, so the guy must be bright, but lack of language is such a huge barrier.

A few weeks ago we were doing an experiment and I asked him to get me some liquid nitrogen (which is used to freeze things very quickly).
I asked if he understood and he said, "Yes, yes."
He came back in the process of pulling on gloves, with surgical scissors in his hands. I know this might be amusing, but he's been here since last October, and the fact that he can't differentiate between "liquid nitrogen" and "dissect" or "take the blood" (I still don't know exactly what he was trying to do) just kind of makes me want to hit my head against a wall. This is not the first time I've had to train and work with someone whose English was practically non-existent; it's not even the first time I've had to work with a Russian with poor English. I think with every poor language experience, my patience slows starts to ebb more quickly. Maybe I should just try to be more like my new coworker and try to learn Russian and teach them cultural traditions like the pinky swear :)

I'm sure by now, everyone's seen the new Knitty. I must say that I like more of their patterns this issue than last. Because I have sooooo much time to knit. I better work on my 1930s housewife skills...

New Online Knitting Magazines

In case you don't have a large enough pattern queue, it looks like there are a few new online knitting magazines out there.

The one that has patterns and articles accumulating on it now is Knotions It has some old Magknits patterns too. Bonus.

The second one I came across looks very exciting, with a count down and a daily sneak peak. Less than 2 months until we see what the Twist Collective will look like. The sneak peak patterns are pretty promising. Now if I could only learn to knit fast enough to make attempting sweater a worthwhile pursuit :)