Le Weekend Home
First of all, thank you all for the suggestions! As I was home alone and needed to keep to small portions, I did tiny versions of several of the suggestions given: butternut squash was NOMFUL and pretty cheap since I used it in three different meals and the amount I got pre-chopped was like... $2.00; cake recipe was nomful! Chocolate cake recipe was nomful. Other recipes will be used when family is home and they WILL TRY IT, DAMMIT.
Used the GC that I got from my step-brother for Christmas/Birthday to get Dragon Age: Awakening which I am enjoying VERY VERY much if only for the shiny new skills and the spiffy new armors. I imported my Warden, since poor Liir is just one of my favorite characters for playing through in that game. My poor wee little elf mage ^_^
Watched the new Who and am ABSOLUTELY THRILLED with Matt Smith's Eleven. Thrilled and tickled pink and love and squee. I was capslocking a full half hour after I watched it the first time and then had a brief five minute capslock period after the second. No, no, really, I liked the whole thing. If you didn't, that's your business. But I liked it. Watched it twice, thought about it, looked for fridge logic... STILL LIKED IT. Companion and all ^_^. Especially companion! Also discovered that old iPod cord works to connect iPhone to TV so yay don't have to buy a new one.
Discovered new way to make microwave coffee cup cakes. YAY for pudding and honey.
Made steak into deliciousness tonight with a lovely salt rub etc. Quite pleased with the results since it was very cheap meat initially but it all turned out all right. Actually only ate about half of it and wrapped the rest for the fridge.
Hopping back, went to go see Joco and Paul and Storm on Friday and they were BRILLIANT. Loved it. Terrible service for the food but loved the experience. AND AND AND the one thing I was craving at the concert (... dear Highline Ballroom, whatever you served me was NOT 'cod fritter' by any definition; this is a cod fritter, goddammit and PS: marzipan is not almond meal mushed with stuff and baked into annihilation) was what my grandpa randomly made for me on Saturday, so I NOMMED omg. NOOOMMED.
Watched all of Pumpkin Scissors (which was good even if the anime stopped just when the Real Plot starts, dammi!) and then pulled out Martian Successor Nadesico which apparently mephron has not really seen which I declared a TRAVESTY and will be correcting soon enough.
But my SPAZZIEST spaz achievement goes to my yarn work. Recently, honestly, I haven't had a knitting urge... I've been spinning yarn, using some roving I bought to try and some roving I was given as a present by a dear friend (*waves to mephron*). The first try, using some old wool that I'd bought ages ago, came out... all right. Pretty thick and thin, a little over spun at parts. Second try came out thick and thin as well, though less so. I was happier with that yarn. Third try, however... *points below the cut*
One, the lovely roving provided by the abovementioned wonderful person. It's Wensleydale, a longwool sheep, dyed in this lovely deep purple silver black color that makes me think of a summer storm. I really like it, especially since it has such a lovely sheen.
Two, my spinning apparatus: a top-whirl drop spindle. Because spinning wheels are ESPENSIVE, yo. Also, this, I can put down and pick up mid chatting with friends onna internets or watching a movie or whatever; I don't have to devote my time JUST to spinning so it's nice.
Three, yarn goes on le niddy noddy, which I found all nice and finished and tiny and perfect for me (each wrap around is a yard, so I can measure stuff that way!) on eBay for about 11 bucks.
Four, I pull the yarn off and put it into a ball type thing for knitting, or rather, swatching to see how well I'd done with knitting. I discovered that I'd overtwisted it a little in parts, but I figured out how to fix that somewhat and kept a mental note for the future.
Five, I knit it. Just stockinette, mostly to see how regular I'd managed to get it. I grabbed my Hiya Hiya set, so it was done on a pair of eights. My WPI gauge said that the yarn came out at around 11 WPI, so it was between bulky and aran, closer to aran. It felt/looked just a little bigger than Malabrigo 'worsted' to me for the most part. BUT LOOK AT THAT. THAT IS HOMESPUN, baby. Single, yeah, but HOMESPUN! And lookit how regular that is! I'm so pleased that I'm getting to the point where I don't suck at this!
...and yes, it's just a swatch. I didn't have enough to do much of anything (it's about eight yards worth of wool, since I'm doing small selections mostly to make sure that I learn a little with each portion of the wool.
I have some fiber coming up from Leigh Ann, and then I managed to nab some on sale. I'm trying to try different fibers, so cherry_chiicake's are BFL and Romney wool, whereas the stuff I'm getting from the sale are baby camel, Grey Suffolk (yay British Sheep!), and a merino/yak 50/50 blend. Possibly just to say that I've got yak in my house. POSSIBLY.
SO YEAH. Weekend home alone was kind of lonely but not BAD and there was good food and there was spinning and productivity and I bought a new shampoo and conditioner today and I'll be trying it during my shower tonight BWEE!
So, uh, HAPPY EASTER!
Used the GC that I got from my step-brother for Christmas/Birthday to get Dragon Age: Awakening which I am enjoying VERY VERY much if only for the shiny new skills and the spiffy new armors. I imported my Warden, since poor Liir is just one of my favorite characters for playing through in that game. My poor wee little elf mage ^_^
Watched the new Who and am ABSOLUTELY THRILLED with Matt Smith's Eleven. Thrilled and tickled pink and love and squee. I was capslocking a full half hour after I watched it the first time and then had a brief five minute capslock period after the second. No, no, really, I liked the whole thing. If you didn't, that's your business. But I liked it. Watched it twice, thought about it, looked for fridge logic... STILL LIKED IT. Companion and all ^_^. Especially companion! Also discovered that old iPod cord works to connect iPhone to TV so yay don't have to buy a new one.
Discovered new way to make microwave coffee cup cakes. YAY for pudding and honey.
Made steak into deliciousness tonight with a lovely salt rub etc. Quite pleased with the results since it was very cheap meat initially but it all turned out all right. Actually only ate about half of it and wrapped the rest for the fridge.
Hopping back, went to go see Joco and Paul and Storm on Friday and they were BRILLIANT. Loved it. Terrible service for the food but loved the experience. AND AND AND the one thing I was craving at the concert (... dear Highline Ballroom, whatever you served me was NOT 'cod fritter' by any definition; this is a cod fritter, goddammit and PS: marzipan is not almond meal mushed with stuff and baked into annihilation) was what my grandpa randomly made for me on Saturday, so I NOMMED omg. NOOOMMED.
Watched all of Pumpkin Scissors (which was good even if the anime stopped just when the Real Plot starts, dammi!) and then pulled out Martian Successor Nadesico which apparently mephron has not really seen which I declared a TRAVESTY and will be correcting soon enough.
But my SPAZZIEST spaz achievement goes to my yarn work. Recently, honestly, I haven't had a knitting urge... I've been spinning yarn, using some roving I bought to try and some roving I was given as a present by a dear friend (*waves to mephron*). The first try, using some old wool that I'd bought ages ago, came out... all right. Pretty thick and thin, a little over spun at parts. Second try came out thick and thin as well, though less so. I was happier with that yarn. Third try, however... *points below the cut*
One, the lovely roving provided by the abovementioned wonderful person. It's Wensleydale, a longwool sheep, dyed in this lovely deep purple silver black color that makes me think of a summer storm. I really like it, especially since it has such a lovely sheen.
Two, my spinning apparatus: a top-whirl drop spindle. Because spinning wheels are ESPENSIVE, yo. Also, this, I can put down and pick up mid chatting with friends onna internets or watching a movie or whatever; I don't have to devote my time JUST to spinning so it's nice.
Three, yarn goes on le niddy noddy, which I found all nice and finished and tiny and perfect for me (each wrap around is a yard, so I can measure stuff that way!) on eBay for about 11 bucks.
Four, I pull the yarn off and put it into a ball type thing for knitting, or rather, swatching to see how well I'd done with knitting. I discovered that I'd overtwisted it a little in parts, but I figured out how to fix that somewhat and kept a mental note for the future.
Five, I knit it. Just stockinette, mostly to see how regular I'd managed to get it. I grabbed my Hiya Hiya set, so it was done on a pair of eights. My WPI gauge said that the yarn came out at around 11 WPI, so it was between bulky and aran, closer to aran. It felt/looked just a little bigger than Malabrigo 'worsted' to me for the most part. BUT LOOK AT THAT. THAT IS HOMESPUN, baby. Single, yeah, but HOMESPUN! And lookit how regular that is! I'm so pleased that I'm getting to the point where I don't suck at this!
...and yes, it's just a swatch. I didn't have enough to do much of anything (it's about eight yards worth of wool, since I'm doing small selections mostly to make sure that I learn a little with each portion of the wool.
I have some fiber coming up from Leigh Ann, and then I managed to nab some on sale. I'm trying to try different fibers, so cherry_chiicake's are BFL and Romney wool, whereas the stuff I'm getting from the sale are baby camel, Grey Suffolk (yay British Sheep!), and a merino/yak 50/50 blend. Possibly just to say that I've got yak in my house. POSSIBLY.
SO YEAH. Weekend home alone was kind of lonely but not BAD and there was good food and there was spinning and productivity and I bought a new shampoo and conditioner today and I'll be trying it during my shower tonight BWEE!
So, uh, HAPPY EASTER!