Category: Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Golightly

Above all, Neal.  This picture is from our honeymoon at Mohonk Mountain House.  In the three months since our wedding, we’ve realized that our weekend away was the most relaxed either of us has been in a long time.  Perhaps ever! 

N is for news.  I was thrilled last night when I read the 25th anniversary issue of Vogue Knitting to find my girly mentioned in one of the interviews!

N is also for neat-o bandito, which is what I think about these super special socks.  My girlie Cookie made them for me from yarn I got from Scout way back when she first opened Scout’s Swag!  The colorway is "Go Lobos!" and I couldn’t resist it, being a Lobos fan and all.  The fit on these socks is great, and I’m waiting for the weather to cool down so I can wear them.  Shouldn’t Cookie’s middle name be Dolly? 

N is for needlework.  When I was a child, I read all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and wanted to make things myself.  My Gram was handy with needlework, but not much of a teacher, so my dad took on my sewing lessons.  He’d been in the Air Force and had learned to sew while he served.  He would help me to make little dolls and little dresses for the dolls.  My mom later taught me to crochet hairpin lace, which seems to be having a resurgence.  I did embroidery (which Sublime Stitches has made me revisit with glee), I did cross stitch (which I avoid), and when I was 19, I learned to crochet doilies.  I taught myself to quilt in my early 20s, and I taught myself to knit in my late 20s.  Last year I tried my hand at crewel work.  Needles, it would seem, rock my world. 

Now I’ve got to write.  I’m in the Pens and Needles group on Ravelry, and we’re having a little mini writing marathon: NaHaNoWriHaMo.  It makes sense, really.  Later I’ll create a post in which I’ll cram in O,P,Q, and R.  Won’t that be nice?

Maddie.  I took this right after I adopted my little mutt.  She totally changed my life.  For the first week, I was stressed like I have seldom been.  I wanted to send her back.  Then she barked at some stranger guy who was talking to me, and I realized that my little darling was trying to protect me, and we bonded.  Early in our relationship, I wouldn’t let her sleep in my bed, but then we had a fierce, frightening hail storm, and I didn’t have the heart to send her out of the bed.  Once I accepted that I needed to shift my life to a dog-owner schedule, I started to get more sleep and to keep saner hours and got much healthier.  Now I can’t imagine not having her!

Madrid, the little former mining town in New Mexico that I like.  I named Maddie after it, then found out that was where her first adopted mom found her!

Making stuff.  I love to do that. 

MB, my oldest sister and bestest friend.

Marinara sauce.  One of my favorite things to make and to eat.

Mustaches.  They creep me out.  I don’t like facial hair on men, unless it’s a tiny, bleached soul patch a la Kenneth Branagh in Hamlet.

Macaroni and cheese.  Here’s my favorite recipe, but I add a little truffle oil per one of my favorite restaurants, Umami in Croton, NY.

Maureen, my other sister.   She’s had a rough time of things, but is putting up a good battle against her damn cancer. 

MFA, the degree I will have by next spring.

May.  The merry month in which I was married. 

Madeleines.  While I don’t have Proust’s feelings for them, I do quite like them.

Mercutio, who has one of my favorite of Shakespeare’s speeches.

Mom.  Here she is at Balloon Fiesta in 2005.  She’s a lady with adventure in her heart, and I’m grateful that she passed on that spirit to me.

Lavender, one of my favorite flowers.  I enjoy the smell of it, and one of my favorite cookie recipe is for lavender cookies.  A few blocks from my old home, there was a lovely lavender farm.

Lilacs are another of my favorite flowers, but I much prefer the white ones to any other.  I think they smell best.  Growing up, we had a huge white lilac tree outside of our kitchen.  During May, the fragrance was outrageous.

L is for laughter.

L is for life.

L is for love.

kayaking with my lovey.  I used this picture as my laptop wallpaper when I was in New Mexico. 

K is also, of course, for knitting. 

K is for Kafka who maddens me even as he delights me.

K is for Kosinski who frightens me even as he inspires me.

K is for kale, which my ex and I ate nearly every night for a month during a time we were poor, nearly starving artists.  I’ve only recently been able to eat it again.

K is for kiva fireplaces.  I had two in my NM condo.  Not only were they charming, but they also really threw off heat on those cold high desert nights.

  K is for kitchen.  I loved the kitchens I had in New Mexico, and I’m hoping that we’ll renovate our Connecticut kitchen soon.  It really needs it.  No kidding.

I is for imagination.  I use mine a lot, and not just when I’m writing. 

I is for Imagine.  Don’t you wish John Lennon was still around?  What would he have done?

I is for Iceland.  Ever since I flew through there on my way back from England in 1999, I’ve wanted to spend time there.  If all goes well, I’ll have my way next summer.  We’re planning to take our "real" honeymoon trip and go to Iceland, Faroe Islands, Norway, and wherever else we imagine in the next few months.

Hurrah!  Aaron from my SnB completed his first project: a scarf.  He says he’s not going to knit anything else, but we’ll see, we’ll see.

H is for Harry Potter:  I saw the movie today and enjoyed it, and I’m all weepy right now from finishing the final book a few minutes ago.  Don’t take my weepiness as any kind of spoiler.

H is for husband.  I like mine very much, indeed.

H is for hangovers, of which I haven’t had one in years and years and years.  The last one was bad enough to swear off excessive imbibing of alcohol ever again.

H is for Harris Tweed, which I think is quite swank.

H is not for random, which is what I’ve been tonight.

Gifts.  Remember how I was sick on my birthday this year, so it never got celebrated?  I think bad weather cancelled the make up day, and finally, in order to release my disappointment in the lack of festivities, I told Neal that he could buy me running gear so I could attend the Spring Glen Running Clinic that Blog-free Kim is organizing.  I’ve been purchasing the gear on my own, bit by little bit, so Neal needed another gift idea.  One day in the shower (I get all my best ideas near water), I thunk a thought that would work.  I wanted a kitchen garden. 

G, then, is also for Garden.  When I moved in, Neal told me I could have one, but the location he’d determined for it was not to my liking.  This spring, as he re-landscaped our front yard to put in a birm and a meadow (minimizing the lawn extensively), I pointed out a scraggly bit of yard not too far from the kitchen door.  "There," said I, "is where my garden should be."  As the person in our family with no landscape architectural background, I expected my idea to meet resistance, but after a wander about the yard, my location was deemed perfect. 

Then I began to describe my vision.  I wanted a circular shape.  I wanted beds in the shape of wedges that would meet in an interior ring.  I wanted a sculptural bean pole that would look interesting in the snow.  I wanted a gate.  After sketching and much discussion, Neal began to work his magic.  He used geometry and sticks and strings, and we agreed on a hexagon.  It’s so cool to be married to a man who can build the things I dream.

The garden is taking shape.  I’ve planted a few things, but it was a bit late in the season for that.  Next year, though, my garden will be brim full of produce, herbs, and cutting flowers.  I’ll spend time with seed catalogs this winter, and I’m sure I’ll make some sketches as I decide what I want to plant where.

I’ve been reading a few garden blogs, including Pocket Farm, and Bliss.  Next summer there’s bound to be a lot more gardening on my blog.

What are you growing in your garden?

Friends are loads of fun, aren’t they?

I have 3d friends (stole that term from Pippi) that have been around for years, and some new ones, too.  I’m rich in those friends, and I love that women I’ve met through different times in my life like each other, too.  There are my childhood friends, my NY friends, my writing friends, my ABQ SnB girlies, and my bff in the hood.  The boundaries blend, and they all become simply friends.   

I have blog friends, some of whom I’ve met in real life, some whom I look forward to meeting, and some whom, despite the distance, I know I will meet.  Look what came in the mail from Ms. Giving Flower herself.  She brought this across the ocean for me, and when our meetup wasn’t a go, she sent this anyway.

There was a chocolate bar, too, quickly consumed and thoroughly enjoyed.  The yarn is already on the needles and will make a fabu pair of socks for me.  Kimberly chose the colors with care, thinking about my Wedding Shawl as she selected.  If that thoughtfulness doesn’t bespeak a kind friend, what does?

Friends, you sustain me.  Thanks!

Elegance.

E is also for environmentalist, a synonym for Neal.  He’s made me take second looks and have second thoughts about the impact of what I’m doing on our beloved Mother Earth.

E is for Enough with Not Finishing things.  And for encouragement.

Kirsten and I have joined up to make August the month to Get Some Things Finished a.k.a. UFO Knitters Unite.  This is an informal deal, but there is a Flickr group set up if you’d like to get a dose of encouragement for your own finishing up with things.  Here’s a glimpse of what I hope to finish this month, but there are a few items that are gifts for folks who read this blog, so they will remain hidden.

Neal’s Christmas (ahem) 2005 socks.  I have to finish the short row heel on the second sock and knit the cuff. 

I’ve got a perfect Project Spectrum knit to complete this month: Chickami.  The yarn is brown, purple, and orange–could it work out any better?  I’m enjoying this knit as I watch the final season of the Sopranos.

This mysterious thing is Mystery Stole 3.  I’m a Slow Bee, but I’m hoping to catch up with the clues this month.  No need for links here, right?

I’ve also got a Shadow Shawl on the needles, but I really need to concentrate on that to remember what I was doing with it last year.

Let me know if you’re joining us in Eradicating UFOs!