That is one snazzy coffee machine. For the amount of money we're spending in that doctors' office, it had better be! This machine will make you any coffee drink you can imagine, from a plain brew to a foamy cappuccino or an espresso. The Emperor and I have been having to travel to Biggish Regional City for medical visits about every five weeks, and we try to find our fun where we can and this machine might be just the ticket. I've watched a few people use it; there are multiple digital screens that offer a myriad of choices to the consumer, and between cups it runs a series of enticing photographs of cups, coffee beans, and the plants that produce them. Next time we have to wait in that office, I'm going to try a cup and see how it tastes.
I have been busy. I usually get out of bed around 5:30 in the morning, and spend an hour or more working on the lecture for the day before getting dressed and out the door. I hit the ground running when I get to campus, and usually don't get home much before supper time. After supper, I spend some time working on the next day's lecture before falling into bed sometime between 10:30 pm and midnight. Then I do it all again the next day. As a result, I haven't had time to do much more than work, let alone blogging, for at least the past six weeks.
One of the reasons that I haven't picked up my knitting much (aside from being bone-tired at night) is that our city does a yearly "spring burnout." The run hyper-chlorinated water through the city pipes to get rid of any organisms that might have taken hold, and for about two weeks it smells like a swimming pool when you turn on the tap. My skin comes alive with itches and gets really dry, and my fingers turn into sandpaper and snag my knitting yarn. So, I've done all of an inch of knitting on the Robin Hood sock, but since the burnout has passed, my hands have almost healed and I'm getting ready to get on the lickin' stick again.
I finished knitting the Felted Messenger Bag a while back and felted it, to mixed results. I was correct in thinking that different colors of the same yarn will felt at different rates, and it's also true that different dye lots of the same color will felt at different rates. So the flap felted really well, but the bag itself still needs quite a bit of felting, and the strap didn't come out well at all. I've set the project aside to think about it a little more. I could cut the constituent parts apart do some additional felting, find a better strap, and make the re-construction part of the design. Huh. That might work.
One of the distractions that I've allowed myself is thinking about knitting something to wear at work. I've found several patterns, some of them allegedly quickly knit, and I've thought about what I would make them with. That's what stops me on so many projects -- I can't settle on a color of yarn to do a project in, or once I do settle and purchase it, I change my mind about whether or not it would look good on me. My current two favorites are Jupiter, which would use a worsted weight "workhorse" yarn, and Seabrook, a flowy vest that calls for a fine, textured, almost-novelty yarn. I've been reading the Ravelry comments on both, and while a lot of people had problems with Seabrook growing, I think I can learn from that and make a version that will work for me. I like wearing tailored, open-front cardigans over my ubiquitous skirt-and-sweater outfits. I've also been eyeballing "Stella," a lace elbow-length cardigan that should be knitted in a cotton or linen DK weight (I'd lengthen the sleeves a bit).
And then there's the craft room. Errrrr... or should I say, grrrrrr? It's still in a shambles from our move almost two years ago, and I'd like to be able not only to find stuff in there and use the space, but to get some closet space in our bedroom cleared out to dedicate to a storm shelter, just in case our neighbor across the street isn't home during a tornado warning. A few weeks ago we traveled to Slightly Far Big City To The West so I could do some research, and while there we visited Ikea with the idea of getting some bookshelves and a 5-drawer dresser for the craft room. However, we weren't going to be able to fit the boxes in our wee car! I'll just have to settle for what I find here in town.
And now it's off to work I go again...
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