Confit

A French word meaning “we will sell you three tablespoons of runny jam and charge you Neiman Marcus prices for it.” Central Market imports it from The French Farm. And like a silly sheep, I buy it. I have enjoyed their blueberry, just finished the black cherry, and I have a bottle of fig-and-walnut in the fridge. I redeem myself by saving the bottles. I will refill them with homemade preserves or lemon curd at Christmastime. I think I will be making gift baskets for the sisters I visit teach.

I finally, finally placed my KnitPicks order. Bookgrump thought she had included my needle tips with her order, but my bit must be wandering around in cyberspace somewhere. In 5 to 14 working days, I should have the tools I need[le] to knit either the Sunrise Circle Jacket or one of the crop cardis from KnitSimple. I think I will be ready for some worsted at that point.

So, I have been thinking. [I know, I know, always a dangerous proposition where Ms. Ravelled is concerned.] I loved knitting Juno Regina in the KnitPicks Gloss Lace in aqua. I loved knitting Adamas in the same yarn in teal. I am loving the scarf I am knitting for Secondborn, also in the teal. And I still have seven untouched skeins plus nearly a full ball of that teal remaining, of the ten skeins which I originally purchased to knit a long, lacy, floaty confection of a swing jacket or tunic or something.

I still love the yarn. I love the color. And I am rethinking my original idea of an entire monochromatic sweater in this teal. So what I am thinking, is this. Over the next few months, I’ll pick up a few skeins of this and a few skeins of that, and several more in various accent colors, and I’ll whip up a Fair Isle symphony wherein teal is the melody and all the other colors harmonize and improvise and warble obbligato’s and descants until Kaffe Fassett and Alice Starmore and Fiona Ellis and Elizabeth Zimmerman duke it out as to which of them is my greater inspiration.

KF: I saw her first! Have you seen that great knitted bathrobe of a coat she made when her girls were little? With the scripture knitted into the hem of it? Fassett Light, every blessed inch of it! And then there is that needlepoint pillow of mine she adapted, the one she calls “The Nun I Am Living Like.”
AS: Aye, but one my books is worth more than all of yours together on eBay! And some of your books aren’t even listed on Ravelry yet!
FE: Alice, dear, have you noticed that while she has owned several of your books for the past decade or two, she hasn’t actually knitted anything out of them? Whereas, she knitted my Celtic Icon hoodie for LittleBit.
EZ: Kaffe, you may have informed her color sense, and Alice, you may have inspired the four tabards she knitted for her girls before LittleBit was a gleam in anyone’s eye, and Fiona, you may have gotten her twisting stitches again, but the lot of you are a few ants short of a picnic. Who do you think taught her to be a thinking knitter?
KF, AS, FE, [mumbling abashedly]: We will not speak ill of the dead. Particularly when she is right.

I emptied six boxes yesterday in the search for the Serpentine mitts, and took the boxes out to the recycling bin. And wrapped Willow’s present for last night’s dinner. Worth every minute of digging to see the look of delight on her face when she put them on!

I also found several finished objects, now safely stowed, and a size 5 cheapie plastic circ, and have picked out my next mending project. And wrapped and mailed my sister’s birthday present a full two weeks before her birthday. And baked a batch of lemon squares which are now [or were] over at Fourthborn’s new place, along with my storage bin of Renaissance costumes minus my dragon [but not the base to fasten it to my shoulder the next time that I feel the urge to have a dragon perched on my shoulder].

I even managed a nice long soak in the tub. And thought about a bowl of hot six-grain cereal with real maple syrup on it but ate my leftover chicken-fried steak instead.

I also took my teal pants over to Coldwater Creek, where they were holding a teal suede swing jacket for me. The teal suede jacket that I tried on after dinner with Trainman on Friday night. The one I have been trying to try on for at least two months, at another CC shop near the bookstore where we hold Knit Night every other week. That suede jacket, which is now 25% off but still not cheap enough for me to whip out my debit card. I will take my chances on there being one in that size at their online outlet at 70% off in a few weeks, and if not, oh well. It’s not as if teal is under-represented in my closet, right?

I got so much accomplished yesterday that for awhile I was looking around nervously for Elijah and his golden chariot to sweep down out of the heavens and whisk me away to the great yarn shop in the sky. I have healthy snacks to take to work with me, though I did forget to pick up a gallon of milk or something conventional to fix for the missionaries for dinner tonight. But I have enough bits and bobs in the fridge, the freezer, and the pantry to feed us.

My front door is now red. It has two to three coats and is almost ready for its close-up. Pictures later this week.

The knitters among you are wondering impatiently, what did I work on at dinner last night? I grabbed my 00’s and my 000’s and the yarn for Eleanora, and I swatched. I have enough knitted on the 00’s that I can measure for gauge, and I am about halfway there on the 000’s, and then I suppose I ought to try my 0’s, but I don’t think I am going to be lucky enough to get to use them for the body of the sock. These are knitted cuff-down, so once I get to the heel I may go with the smaller needle for the sole, as I did on Anastasia.

Time to grab those last two leeks and make a tart for dinner tonight.