Get out the straightjacket

Because I am clearly insane. I decided, just last week, that I wanted to attempt a wedding knit. Well no, I take that back. I'd been thinking about a wedding knit for a while now. In fact, way back, before we were even engaged, I thought about knitting a wedding shawl to keep for whenever the time would come (wishful thinking at that point). I even bought some aahmazing Malabrigo lace yarn, and started a shawl. When it didn't seem as though a wedding was eminent, I went on to knit other projects. Then, as life happens sometimes, this whole wedding thing came as a surprise, and a quickly approaching one at that. I didn't give the shawl much thought, dismissing it as an impossibility- after all, I had been knitting gift after gift and didn't have time to consider knitting a shawl under such a time constraint.

Halekulani (AKA: Insanity in Ivory)

But then, a little over a week ago, I found myself with nothing on the needles, the earmarked skeins of Malabrigo lace sitting in my knitting basket, and a desire to knit something special to commemorate our wedding. I decided to browse Ravelry for ideas. And Ravelry, kick ass as it is, led me to Evelyn Clark's Swallowtail Shawl. You know the one. I noticed that people had knit this shawl in a short amount of time (so I knew it *could* be done).

That said, with the wedding on September 28th, that gives me only a little over a month. And given how redonkulously long it took me to knit my Icarus Shawl, this month-long deadline seems like certifiable crazy talk. I asked Dis and Margaux to tell me that I was crazy, but instead they encouraged me like good friends do, and so I'm giving it a go. I won't kill myself if I don't finish it in time, I'll just knit along and see what happens. It's not like I have anything else going on right now! :p

Who does this??

Pura vida!

Hot springs at Arenal Paraiso. Ahhh....

I just returned from my belated honeymoon-postbar trip to Costa Rica and it was fun, fun, fun! The country is lush during rainy season. K planned our trip beautifully - from the mountains to the beach, back to the mountains, then a last stop on the coast again. The highlights of our trip: lots of hiking, unpaved roads (thank goodness for 4WD!), beautiful beaches, ziplining/tarzan swing, waterfall rappelling, outrigger paddling, snorkeling (among other things, we saw a shark, sting rays, mating turtles and a couple of blowfishes), dipping in the hot spring pools in the rain, volcano eruption sightings, and last but not least, highway robbery (had to pay a cop $150 for four tickets - (i) passing in a no-pass zone (ii) speeding (iii) failing to stop and (iv) evading an officer.) I fought the law, but the law won... And luckily for me, I got food poisoning on the very last day we were there - K and I think it was the jugo de guanabana con leche drink that I had. Ironically, this was my all-time fave drink in Costa Rica (can I just add how much I enjoyed Coca Cola Light there? Much tastier than Diet Coke here in the States...)

The view from our room at Hotel Sugar Beach

Zip-lining in Monteverde

Canyoning or waterfall rappelling (yup, that's me)

Our view from our room in Manuel Antonio.
K and I spent an entire day reading and doing sudoku puzzles on this balcony.
How can anyone NOT want to be lazy here?

The scariest thing we did: waterfall rappelling. At the mid-point of a 100+ foot waterfall, I had so much water pounding into my face that I seriously thought I was going to die. A split second after the occurrence of such a thought, I firmly told myself that I was the only person to save myself and I needed to climb down the waterfall! Second scariest: the tarzan swing (not pictured above.) During our ziplining tour, we climbed up a series of ladders, hooked ourselves onto a rope and were pushed off a platform, swinging Tarzan-style. I couldn't stop screaming.

Culinary thoughts: If any of you decide to stay in Monteverde, I highly recommend Sofia, a "Latin-fusion" restaurant. Kanji and I had probably one of the best steaks there - the grilled tenderloin. Its sister restaurant located nearby, La Chimera, serves delicious tapas and drinks, notably the passion fruit caipirinha. If you visit Manuel Antonio, do not eat at Coconuts - the worst sushi we ever had in our lives, although a particular sushi spot here in San Diego may compete for that position.

FO: Oatmeal for Henry

I'm so excited to get this wrapped up and shipped out, but I couldn't let it go without first sharing it here. I had originally only planned on the sweater, but there was some leftover yarn, so I just *had* to knit a little something extra. I certainly hope little Henry will be able to use at least one if not both of these, come this winter in Massachusetts. I certainly had fun knitting them for him!

Oatmeal - the sweater
Pattern: Get Ziggy by annypurls
Yarn: Vermont Organic Fiber Company O-Wool Classic (100% certified organic merino wool) in 7100 (Oatmeal) - less than 2 skeins
Needles: US6 and US8

I really enjoyed knitting this sweater. I'd definitely recommend this one for a baby in your life. The pattern was well-written, and it so quick to knit. Seaming took me a while, but then again, I am a slow seamer, so take that with a grain of salt. This was my first time working with O-Wool, and I loved it. I will definitely use it again.

With some of the leftover yarn, I decided to knit a little something to go along with the sweater. I couldn't easily approximate just how much yarn there was leftover - would it be enough for booties? Perhaps, but not seemingly. A hat? Maybe. But I decided on a little (and I mean little) pair of mittens. I mean, baby mittens - how cute!

Oatmeal - the mittens
Pattern: Mittens (Ravelry link) from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms by Louisa Harding
Yarn: Vermont Organic Fiber Company O-Wool Classic (100% certified organic merino wool) in 7100 (Oatmeal) - way less than 1 skein
Needles: US4 and US6

Not much to say about these besides the fact that they are super duper cute.

...and on a final note, speaking of babies, Julia's little guy seems almost as eager to join us as we are to meet him! J, I'm thinking about you (and the puppy pads - thanks, M). ;) Just give me the word and I'm there!

Pieces and Meal

Well, Oatmeal is practically an FO. I finished seaming over the weekend- no small feat. While I am still not a "yay, I love seaming" type of gal, I must admit this was probably the best seaming job I've done thus far. That isn't to say it's phenomenal, but - let's put it this way - it doesn't totally suck. Which, in the end, is all I can really ask of myself at this point. The assembled Oatmeal had a bath yesterday and is now blocking. I had some leftover yarn, so I decided to really milk this East Coast baby thing and knit a pair of mittens to go with it.

Only four pieces, but man was there a lot of seaming.

I cooked another ginormous batch of veggies yesterday. (Note to self: we really need to acquire an outdoor grill. It was f-ing hot in the house yesterday from all the cooking.) Lest you assume that I am a vegetarian, don't believe the hype. I ate a smorgasboard of delish food (chicken, beef, veggie, and shrimp kabobs, and mashed potato bar, among other such deliciousness) on Saturday night at my friend's birthday party. I just felt really good last week, toning it down and sticking with mostly veggies and grains that I thought I'd try for another week. Thanks, not only to that one stop at Real Food Daily over a week ago that jump-started me, but also to Alice Waters (another long-time source of culinary inspiration) and my Chez Panisse Vegetables cookbook for some of this week's ideas. Again, I have no delusions that I will keep this up, but why not ride the wave for as long as it will take me?

Lentils and rice, sauteed broccoli, sugar snap peas, and baby bok choy, roasted eggplant, zucchini, crookneck squash, mushrooms, and red onions, braised swiss chard.

I totally forgot about the asparagus and cauliflower, so I think I will roast some of that tonight to add to the mix, along with some corn on the cob. Yum! I love cooking up a big batch of food on Sunday that will last me for days- I heart leftovers!

The following has nothing to do with anything, except it looked so cute just lying in the middle of the bed, that I had to take its picture. This smushy, much licked and slobbered on, mangled, soggy, and much loved thing is Dakota's bear. He has other toys, but aside from playing catch outside, he only likes (LOVES) this one. He's very cute with, too. He holds it in his front paws and licks it, chews on it a little, but not enough to do any severe damage (although, the bear lost his stitched-on mouth long ago).

I bought a back-up bear, in anticipation of when this one dies, but so far so good! He takes a lickin' (literally) and keeps on tickin'!