cowboys and whiskey and scarves

I'm going to go ahead and end my blogging hiatus. It didn't last long. I like blogging. I don't know when Brax will be back, so you will all just have to be content with me for now. I'm feeling kind of like a douche because a lot has been happening around here and I have no photos of any of it. We'll start with this weekend, when the Rodeo came to town.

On Wednesday evening, I got a call from my friend Mason (remember Mason?), who is on tour with his band. Mason is one of my favorites and I never see him because he lives roughly 3000 miles away from the Heart of it All. So he says to me, he says, "we don't have a show for Saturday night, how 'bout we book something in Columbus on the fly?" And I said, "You're crazy, let's make some calls!"

And so we made it happen, and I ended up housing a van load of Stetson hats.

Can we talk for a minute about these cowboys? They rolled into town, spent a wild night, and were gone before dawn the next morning, like a bunch of black hat desperadoes. Like thieves in the night. Incredibly polite thieves in the night. I mean it...you wouldn't believe the multitude of hat tips and thank yous I got from these boys. It was as if they thought going to a great show, drinking beer, hosting the party, and being surrounded by a herd of cool men was really a pain for me and not, in fact, my ideal night. That's kind of a list of my favorite things. I just wanted to pinch all their cheeks.

Anyway, if you haven't listened to them you should check them out (you can do this both on myspace and on itunes), and if they're hitting your city at all on their tour you really oughta go. Brent Amaker and the Rodeo is now part of the mandate for drunk knitters, like Pabst and Baby Alpaca Chunky and a relaxed attitude towards dropped stitches.

So after our hangovers cleared, which took a long time, Brax and I decided we'd go ahead and hit karaoke Monday, where darling Karaoke Pat and the crowd of regulars are so remarkably supportive of my new penchant for Whitney Houston ballads. And so I am hungover again today.

Knitting news:


Rainy Day Scarf. The pattern is free on Ravelry. It's good. It's easy, but if you want to knit it drunk you ABSOLUTELY need a row counter. Trust me. I learned this the hard way.

I also got some black Manos.

This is also going to become a scarf. I'm on a handspun scarf kick. Nobody is more shocked than I am about this.

OK, there is more to tell, but I have to leave for work in six minutes and yes, I'm sitting here in my underwear, so more later.

Luv,
Bruce

BRB

Hey, we'll be back in a minute. We're busy and can't blog very much right now. Give us a week or two. Thanks for staying with us!

fall is knittin' season

Brax,
So I'm about to knit something out of this Llamajama that I got at MDSW. What will I do?!! This morning when I woke up I thought, hey, I think I've got like 900 yards of that stuff! That was a huge hank! It was at least 800 yards, I'll make a shrug, I will. But then I got out the yarn and found that it was only 274 yards. Chuh. Then I realized that it really made no sense at all for it to be NINE HUNDRED YARDS and I'm completely insane.

It looks like that. I've got limited experience with hand dyes and variegates because, generally speaking, they're not my style. I like solids. I'm not a fussy person, I'm a clean-lines person. I've always appreciated the beauty of multicolored yarns, though, and now I'm thinking I might like to wear some. So anyway, I don't know what to make. What would you make with 274 yards of hand dyed worsted wool? Do not say My-so-called-scarf because I don't wanna. It's too obvious, you see. (I'm dying to make a crazy-ass tam with a GIANT pom-pom on top, but I don't think I want it to be pink. I think this tam I have in my head will be quite crazy enough in neutral colors.) Anyway, you guys think it over and let me know what you think I should make.

On another note, I've officially gone batshit nuts for fall! FALL! Here's my chrysanthemums. Thriving! They need to be put in the ground. They are too big for these pots.


I went sort of nuts at the farmers market, as usual, and got a boatload of gourds and tiny pumpkins and stuff. They're all over the house. I went nuts with squash, also as usual. I've got three butternuts, and one of those funny blue ones, and I already cooked an acorn and a carnival. Tuesday night I made pumpkin bread! Delicious.

Here are some pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch. It was pretty great. For one thing, we drove 30 minutes east and were suddenly smack in the middle of McCain country.


Woah....time for us insular urban liberals to freak out! We are used to being the undisputed majority in our neck of the woods. It's good for us to be reminded that everybody doesn't agree with us.

Anyway, we picked some pumpkins.

and we carved them!

Yes, you do see a meticulously carved Obama logo pumpkin. My husband is pretty funny.

-Bruce