Cozy

I've been having some problems storing my MP3 player in my purse--the headphone wires always get tangled up, the player is so small it gets lost at the bottom and when I retrieve it, stray bits of popcorn are statically attached to the player (thanks to Fiona, the popcorn fiend, it seems like there is popcorn everywhere. I found some in my bed the other day which did not please me one bit.)

So I made it a little cozy:
I used some red wool felt, two snaps and a small amount of the miles of bias tape that I made with my cool bias tape maker (and after I made, I had no idea what to do with it).
And now I just have to pick the popcorn off of the felt...

Knitting virtue rewarded

I was very virtuous and used yarn that I salvaged from a sweater I knit back in the early 90s (think dated geometric triangles and stripes...) to make this sweater vest:
The photo is a bit warped due to the angle I took the photo, but essentially it is a long knit tube. I didn't use a pattern, just cast on circular needles and added a little 1x1 ribbing up either side of the rib cages to give it a little flex and not to have to worry about shaping.

I made it to address the fashion conundrum that I've had of late. I've had a revulsion for confinement around my waist area my whole life so I love reasonably low-rise jeans (not the butt-crack showing super low-rise pants, but the normalish low-rise jeans). I've essentially been wearing low rise jeans all my life; before they made them for women, I bought men's jeans which are naturally lower in the rise department.

But while the fashion industry has been dropping the waistband of women's jeans, they haven't been lengthening the hems of shirts. If I was a different demographic I probably wouldn't mind showing off my midrif now and again. But this style is not kind for a) the unemaciated or b) pretty much anyone who has had a kid and doesn't have a personal trainer or c) anyone who doesn't like a draft of cold air wafting around their middle.

Thus the vest. It is long, designed to cover that gap between shirt bottom and jean top, to keep my tummy to myself and to stop the damn draft.

Since I was so virtuous using old yarn and no pattern for the vest, I figured I deserved a treat. So yesterday I went to Flying Sheep and bought this pattern:
And then went on-line and bought this yarn with which to make the above sweater:
This wasn't my first choice of pattern--I really want to make the Paton's Urban Aran sweater:
from the Street Smart booklet:
But everyone is out of the pattern and are waiting for reprints. When I eventually get my greedy hands on the pattern, I plan to make it a zipper cardigan like the beautiful one seen at brooklyntweed, though in charcoal gray.

Cue evil cackling

I got my kids to eat eggplant last night! Hahahahahahaha!

Of course, I didn't call it eggplant. I called it "cutlets". And no, it was not the healthiest preparation possible--it was breaded eggplant slices that were then baked in the oven. And no, I didn't actually make them, I took them out of the Trader Joe's box and heated them up. But still, EGGPLANT!

I cut each circle into quarters so they looked a little less vegetal and Ian ate at least a slice and a half. He also ate cheese ravioli with tomato sauce, and turkey meatballs and dried peas. My god, that is almost a normal meal! (The dried peas are still a little weird.)

I'm going to get more of these "cutlets" and see if I can use them like lasagna noodles to layer with ricotta and sauce and mozzarella.