Some people have bad addictions to drugs, food and other unmentionables. Currently, I find myself glued to my computer more than I probably should be. I’m addicted/obsessed with YouTube. Not the crazy home videos but instead music videos by some of my favorite bands. Another thing that’s currently attracting me to the computer is Dr. Blind by Emily Haines, the lead singer of Metric. It’s such a haunting and beautiful song, I just want to listen to it over and over, I had it going through my head all day at work yesterday and while I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep last night. Fortunately for myself and the computer, Emily’s solo album comes out on Tuesday.

This past Monday Bryan and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. We both had to work that day, after work we got dressed up and went out for a nice dinner. I truly can’t believe it’s already been two years since we got married. It was such a wonderful day and it was so wonderful that sometimes it doesn’t feel real. The wonderful thing was so many people came from near and far to celebrate our wedding. At this time two years ago, we were honeymooning in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Canada.

On a different note, this morning I had my hair cut and I feel so great. I’ve been so irritated with the layers that I had put in back in May. So I’m growing those out and the stylist softened the front, so I have really long “bangs” that come down to my chin. Nothing like good hair cut to make you feel like a normal person again.

Today was my day off since I work all weekend and I am hoping to finish my market bag soon. On RoseByAny’s blog she listed her goal dates for finishing certain projects. What a great idea. Here are my wish dates for finishing two of my current projects.

Hobo - October 8 (exactly one year after I re-started it)
After an extra hard lesson in gauge, I have less than 70 rows to go before I finish the body on the second piece. I think it’s safe to say that I’ll be finished with the body within the next week. Once I get going on the sleeve, it took me a day or so to finish it on the first piece. Then I need to block the pieces and sew them together. Fortunately, there are only four easy seams on this sweater. The top of the sleeves and the side/underarm seams.
Go with the Flow socks - October 31
I’ve joined Lolly’s Socktober Fest again this year. I hope to finish these socks and possibly start another pair for myself, which hopefully will go quickly. If I can finish both pairs by the end of October that would just be fabulous. I’m hoping that my obsession with socks from last year comes back.

I can’t believe I forgot this earlier, Marianne, my August Project Spectrum swap pal sent me this cute little fellow for August. He’s so cute and all handmade. I totally loved the creativity of the Project Spectrum swap pals I had. I didn’t experiment with a lot just challenged myself to make cool cards in that month’s colors and I think some of them are my best cards. I wasn’t the best Project Spectrum participant working on projects in that month’s color. Frankly, I had too many projects and I had too many babies to knit for. I guess the Log Cabin Blanket counted for almost every color of the rainbow anyway, so I guess I was working on a project in that month’s colors now that I think about it. March really inspired me to work on the Hobo sweater and now I’m more than 75% finished with the sweater.

Time has really been flying. Thursday night when we went out for Thai, my fortune cookie seemed to know exactly what was going on. Tuesday, I started my new circulation job and Wednesday was my first day at the desk. It’s been a big change from shelving and I love it. I love the interaction with patrons, doing check-in, issuing library cards and everything else that goes with circulation. The first few days were quite tiring, it’s a different tired than I used to feel when I was shelving. Of course, being the overachiever I can be at times, I signed myself for six days straight and today is my first much-needed day off. It’s 11:15am and I’m still in my pajamas.

Besides the new job, it’s been an exciting week. Saturday, I received my Project Spectrum postcard from Amanda in the mail. It was coming from Canada and the post office took it’s sweet time getting it to me. I loved the foamy red leaves sticking out from all sides of the postcard. The outside of the postcard wasn’t purple but inside was a very cute little purple crocheted bag.

The other exciting news this week is that I finished the Log Cabin blanket. I finished knitting it last Sunday on our way up to Madison and then finished sewing in all of the ends Saturday evening about 9pm. Why is 9pm significant? Bryan’s sister woke us up Sunday morning to tell us that our new nephew (her son) was born at 6:24pm on Saturday. I can say that I finished the blanket just after he was born. The blanket is beautiful, if I have to brag a bit. I really love the way the red border turned out. Now I have to knit a little bear to go in the pocket of the blanket.

This was the weekend of the babies, a friend from my knitting group gave birth to a baby girl on Friday and a former co-worker’s wife had a little boy on Saturday about five minutes after Bryan’s sister’s son was born. With the Log Cabin blanket finished, I have to focus as much as I can on the project for the friend in the knitting group that the whole group has been working on. It’s going to be beautiful.

Our trip to Madison last weekend was very nice. It’s the first time I’ve ever been there and I was really impressed. We found some really great restaurants and having three lakes in the metro area are really nice. Who knows we may end up living there after school. I met with someone at the library school and realized I probably won’t apply there. It’s been a while since I was in school and I don’t have former professor’s recommendations in a file to use, plus they are for fields completely different from library work and they would be more than 10 years old. How I was as an undergrad definitely doesn’t reflect my abilities or my drive to do well now.

For Mrs. Tomato news: Mrs. Tomato’s baby tomatoes seem to be disappearing. One or two I think disappeared when the lawn mowing service moved the tomato pot but that doesn’t explain the five smaller plum-sized green tomatoes that have just been completely disappearing. At first, I thought one or two might have been broken off by creatures but little backyard creatures can’t reach three feet from the ground and break the stems off. Unless, the squirrels have suddenly become smart and are breaking the stems. So I guess we’re finished with tomatoes for the summer. It was good while it lasted but I was hoping that a lot of the recent smaller ones would have grown up to be big tomatoes, too. Mrs. Tomato tried to give us about 10 tomatoes but obviously it wasn’t meant to be for us to get more than three.

Sunday was a very exciting day around our house, we picked the first baby tomato from Mrs. Tomato. Last night, we picked the second tomato. All of her babies are coming along quite well. I can’t believe how many baby tomatoes she has on her right now. In all, she has 10 babies, two of which have been picked. Now we have two of the babies ripening on the kitchen window sill. The first one will be ripe enough to eat tomorrow. I can’t believe that with some watering and love, I can grow tomatoes. A few weeks ago, the wind knocked over the tomato pot and I was heartbroken when I noticed that the oldest tomato’s branch was broken, but not completely broken off. I took some rags and made a sling for the branch hoping that it wouldn’t hurt the tomato and I was so proud to see the tomato survive and be the first one to turn red. A few weeks ago when a few of the leaves at the bottom started to turn yellowish-brown, I was worried but was reassured by several people that their tomato plants do that, too. (The bottom photo was taken just before the first tomato was picked. This was the first baby tomato that appeared on the vine in mid-June.)
update July 27, 2006 - We ate the first baby tomato last night on our pizza and it was scrumptious. I see tomato, red pepper and basil sandwiches in our future today to eat the second and third (I picked it this morning) tomatoes.

The log cabin blanket is nearly finished. On Sunday, I finished the last stripe and started on the border. By Sunday night, I had finished the first edge of the border and had started the second edge of the border. I’m knitting the border as they describe it in Mason-Dixon Knitting, where you pick up one edge of stitches and knit them increasing on the right-side rows to make a “picture frame” effect. The first border edge looks really great and I know that the rest of it will look great too. I’m waiting until it’s all finished before I take another photo.

This past weekend was a quiet one, I got a lot of knitting done and some reading. Yesterday, I finished yet another book called The Minister’s Daughter by Julie Hearn. This book is another Young Adult novel and is about two girls in England in the mid-1600s, one who is a “healer” and the other is a minister’s daughter who accuses the “healer” girl of being a witch. It was a really fascinating book and I had a hard time putting it down when I first started reading it on Thursday. It also sparked my interest once again about the Salem Witch Trials, I was so fascinated by them when I was in junior high and high school. Several years ago, I saw a program called Secrets of the Dead II — Witches Curse on PBS about how a lot of the hallucinations of the people who accused others of being witches were actually caused by eating fungus-infested rye. One thing that the author of The Minister’s Daughter observed is that a lot of the women who accused others of being witches were minister’s daughters themselves. Very interesting.

update July 27, 2006 - I most likely won’t hear about the job until at the earliest tomorrow.

I have an interview on Thursday for the circulation position that I mentioned in my last post. I’m so nervous that I’m starting to drive myself a little crazy with the possible questions they could ask and the questions that I need to ask them. Now I know I’m as qualified as any person applying for this position, heck I even typed 55 words per minute (wpm) on the typing test when they only require 25 wpm, I’ve worked in the library for seven months, including special projects for the circ manager and I really want this job but I feel like I’m going to screw up the interview somehow and be disappointed in the end. It’s not the end of the world if I don’t get this job, but I haven’t wanted something this much for quite a while. (I think I might even want this job more than I wanted to get into school, which was pretty darn much.) So I ask you once again (hey, it worked in December) cross your fingers and needles for me on Thursday. It could be a long wait to hear about the job though because the circ manager is on vacation next week, so I might not hear until she gets back. Wish me luck.

I have just made myself a promise, you are all my witnesses. I promise, I will NOT, I repeat will not start any more ball-band washcloths until the log cabin blanket is finished, at least there are no more baby showers to attend. I have 3.1 stripes left to go and then I just need to do a little border around the edge. For the border, I’m going to just knit two and a half garter ridges around the edge of the blanket in red. It will be beautiful but my idea of knitting an i-cord around the edge is no longer. I don’t want to deal with knitted on i-cord and I think the few garter ridges will be easier, plus I have half a gazillion ends to sew in. This baby is due any day and I want to get it out the door the day or so after he’s born. (Still trying to be artsy with the photo just so it doesn’t get too boring, for those of you wanting the progress photo here it is (click on the image to see the larger photo). See, I have made a little bit of progress since June 17.)

Speaking of babies, the bibs were once again a hit at the shower. The mom is a new knitter and I think she really appreciated getting hand-knit gifts. I did manage to finish the third bib Saturday morning, I even bought and sewed the button on that morning.

My other project that I’ve been working on is putting together a big project that our knitting group has been working on. I’m in charge of crocheting the pieces together and then knitting a border around the edge. Saturday, I decided that I was going to make it my goal for the week to get four of the 13 pieces together by the end of this week. I had four pieces together last night! That’s all I can say until it’s finished and ready to go.

I haven’t even touched the sleeveless sweater since I last mentioned it, I’ve been too obsessed with baby bibs, washcloths and the log cabin blanket. I also haven’t done any spinning in over a week and I don’t remember the last time I knitted on the pair of socks I’m working on.

Yesterday morning, I got up and made peach bread. We bought a big bag of peaches at the farmer’s market and some of the peaches need to be eaten quickly or they’ll go bad. So I tried a bit of an experiment. I took a blueberry muffin recipe, changed the fruit to peaches and the muffins to bread. It worked out quite well and was delicious, except I didn’t bake it long enough and the very middle of the bread wasn’t cooked, which we didn’t find out until this morning after we’d eaten a few slices of bread. This morning, I thought, let’s just pop it back in the oven for another 20 minutes and it will be great. Nope, didn’t work. So we’re just going to eat the top of the bread that’s cooked all the way through. Fortunately, I didn’t use eggs in the bread, I used applesauce instead so we don’t have to worry about the undercooked eggs. I will try again later this week. It’s been so hot that to do anything in the kitchen, such as baking, needs to be done before 9am. This isn’t a bread I wanted to make in the bread maker, just because I didn’t know how to make it all work in the bread maker. The last loaf of bread that I made in the bread maker this past weekend was a french bread and it was really good.

Finally, an update on Mrs. Tomato. She and her baby tomatoes are doing fine. There are several little new tomatoes making appearances. I’m anxiously awaiting the day when I see one of the larger tomatoes turn red.

Goodness, where has June gone? It seems just the other day it was June first and now it’s June 29 with July first right around the corner. At the end of each month, I tend to think, what have I done this month?

Before I forget, Bryan thanks you for the birthday well-wishes. It was quite a birthday. With some birthday money, he’s anxiously awaiting his big gift of a keyboard that hooks up to the computer so he can compose his own music.

So here’s a bit of a recap (these are mostly things I didn’t blog about before):
My dad turned 65 early in the month and retired a day after his birthday. Although he still had a business trip through the end of the following week, neither he nor my mother seemed to complain too much about having to spend a few days in Savannah, Georgia. Now he has more time than he knows what to do with. I think he’s feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of the projects he has planned and just doesn’t know where to start, with each item on his list, there is its own list.

I’ve worked quite a few hours this month, I worked on the trace list trying to find books that patrons had returned but we couldn’t find in the library, not a good thing, but when I found one it felt like a mini celebration.

T was in town for a few days in the middle of the month for her last on-campus day for library school. She’s a full-fledge Librarian with a capital “L” in August. To think she was just starting the program when we got married, boy, time flies.

One of my big accomplishments for the month was reading four books in four weeks, it may not be a lot for some people but it’s an accomplishment for me. I hope to continue the trend into the rest of the summer. Here are the books I read: Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld, Matilda by Roald Dahl, The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld and Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins. I started The Slightly True Story of Cedar B. Hartley by Martine Murray on Sunday and it’s quite entertaining so far. In recent months, I’ve become very interested in young adult books. They are a fast read but also there is a part of me that would really like to be a young adult librarian.

I also made a slew of cards for birthdays and Father’s Day. Most of them are posted on my cards page.

When I didn’t have my nose in a book, I was knitting. I feel like I haven’t done a lot of knitting and I’m still plugging away on the Log Cabin blanket (see “artsy” photo above). Looking back at previous posts, I realized that I have knit quite a bit and I’ve actually made some progress on the blanket too. My knitting accomplishments have been on some instant gratification projects such as baby bibs and washcloths, for the count, I’m at four washcloths and three baby bibs for the month. Last week, I finished my third of four baby bibs for two baby showers in July and started a washcloth for Bryan’s birthday. In October, I bought some Blue Sky Alpaca’s Organic Cotton yarn to make basic washcloths for us. Then after I knitted the other “Ball Band washcloths” from Mason-Dixon Knitting, Bryan decided that he wanted his washcloth to be in that same pattern. I learned quite early on when the yarn broke while I was casting on that maybe this organic cotton yarn isn’t well suited for washcloths. But did I immediately stop knitting the washcloth, nope, I worked with it a bit more thinking that the yarn breaking was a fluke. As I worked with it more I quickly realized, this yarn is definitely not suited for washcloths. Now I have two beautiful balls of organic cotton yarn that I have no idea what to do with. They each have about 150 yards and I don’t want to add another two balls of yarn to the potential scarf pile. I think the organic cotton is better suited to something delicate that won’t get a lot of agitation.

I’ve also gotten a bit back into spinning, the weather seems to effect my spinning mood more than anything else. When it’s too hot to knit, I certainly don’t feel like spinning, which seems like it should be the opposite. There are days that I feel like I’ve been spinning on the pink “cotton candy” yarn for ages but in reading my previous posts, I realized that it’s only been a few weeks. I’m nearing the end of the “cotton candy” fiber so I can start on it’s mate the bright pink fiber. Or if I’m really feeling adventurous, I’ll cable the Lemondrop yarn that I “replied” a few weeks ago.

It’s been cool in the evenings the last several days and we’ve been enjoying them as much as possible by going for walks and bike rides. Last night, I was tired but the mood to bake bread snagged me. So I baked some focaccia loaves with rosemary and olive oil. We haven’t tried them yet but I’m sure they’ll be very good. Even with it being a bit cooler out, having the oven on at 450° made the kitchen unbearable to be in.

Finally, for those anxiously awaiting news on Mrs. Tomato. Her babies are doing well. I found two teeny new ones yesterday when I went to water her, they are about the size of a green pea. The largest baby tomato is getting to be the size of a plum. We should have tomatoes to eat very soon! Our lettuce plants are still producing enough lettuce for us to have a salad or two each week. It’s so satisfying to pick some lettuce and then eat it in a salad.

Like I’ve mentioned before I go through phases where I just don’t want to near the computer for more than five minutes at a time. This summer has been one of those. First it was no A/C, then it was interesting books and now it’s those silly, easy, cute garter stitch projects. But today I’m reviewing some of the blogs that are part of the Midwest Knitters blog ring that I manage and I thought, I’m reading all of these other blogs, I want to post something. So here’s my something.

My fears of ending up with a dud tomato plant went out the window last Thursday when I went out to water Mrs. Tomato. She and Miss Oregano have been having a grand old time hanging out in the sun all day and that day I noticed a teeny tiny baby tomato. The baby tomato was probably about 1/4″ (0.65 cm) in diameter.

I was so excited that when I came in the house I told Bryan, “Mrs. Tomato is expecting.” He laughed and looked at me like I had grown a third head for the moment then I explained that Mrs. Tomato has a baby tomato growing. Now there are four baby tomatoes growing with the largest being about an inch (2.5 cm) in diameter. Mrs. Tomato herself has grown more than six inches in the last two weeks.

Sunday, I finished the second of two dishcloths from leftover yarn from the baby bibs. I also finished and started another color block on the log cabin blanket. It’s coming along slowly but surely and I hope to be finished with it in about two weeks. I’m not going to hold my breath, though. As soon as I’m finished with the second set of baby bibs and my obsession with dishcloths settles down a bit, I’ll be able to finish this blanket. Of course, with this dishcloth obsession, I’m tempted to get out the organic cotton yarn that I bought for Bryan and I last fall and knit us some nice washcloths. So much yarn, so little time.

Somewhere in all of this, I’ve managed to get a little bit of spinning time in. Getting my feel for the merino and tencel again took a bit of time but now it’s moving along a bit. On Guenny, my Ashford Traveller, I don’t spin quite as fast as I did on the Lendrum, but I have fewer problems than I used to. I think I’ve just become a more cautious spinner in both good and bad ways. Part of it is getting used to a new wheel and part of it is paying more attention to the yarn that I’m spinning.

Happy Summer Solstice. May the longest day of the year be wonderful. I always feel like there is something magical about the longest day of the year. It’s sort of sad though, now we’ll be losing a couple minutes of sunlight each day until December 21.

I think every knitter goes through an obsession once in her knitting life, some go through socks, shawls, washcloths and others are obsessed with a particular fiber. This just feels like more than obsession. I mentioned Mason-Dixon Knitting a few weeks ago. Well, my own copy arrived last Tuesday and that’s when the true obsession started. I love this book! Not only am I knitting the log cabin blanket from this book but last Tuesday I started the Mason-Dixon washcloth for a friend who is having a commitment ceremony this weekend. That led to making a washcloth out of the Pinwheel blanket pattern (not in this book) for her partner, which will be packaged with handmade soaps. Last Thursday, I started the first of four baby bibs. Sunday, I finished the first bib and started the second. Thursday, I finished that second bib, started a dishcloth for B and I out of the leftover yarn from the bibs and washcloths and finished it on Friday, only to immediately start another one because I have so much left over yarn. I had no idea I could have so much fun with simple garter stitch patterns. These great little projects are causing me to ignore the other projects that I have - the Hobo sweater, socks, etc. I swear it’s the heat and the fascination with making cute things in garter stitch, all the while thinking why didn’t I think of this before. With summer reading and wanting light-hearted books, I think my summer knitting wants to be “light-hearted” quick projects. There are also three women who are having babies in early August and I’m knitting all of their gifts, so I need quick projects, too.

The interesting thing is I’ve been reading more than knitting although you wouldn’t think so. I finished The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld, which I loved. Now I have to wait another year or two before her next book comes out. Bummer. I can’t recommend Prep enough and now I’m going to be recommending The Man of My Dreams to anyone who loved Prep. I’ve been anxious to start another book but wasn’t that excited about the next one on my list, even though I know it’s a really good book, I wanted something a bit lighter, so I’m trying out two Young Adult books at the moment. When I decide to continue with one, I’ll post it. They each are getting the 50-page trial and after that if I’m not into it, I’ll start something else. A book I really want to read is Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins but all of the copies are out of the library right now.