Step Into My Thimble

Well we’re kind of getting settled in the new house. The best thing to do is make cookies to give it that homey smell, so I made some molasses ones yesterday with a recipe from a 1930s cookbook. They turned out right.

And we had a nice meal the other night, working toward the goal of more organic and local. It consisted of whole wheat pasta, green pepper, zucchini, organic garlic-basil sauce, and organic mozzarella baked in a pan. Kind of the poor man’s lasagna I guess.

On Friday, Rodney’s mom has to have a heart catheter for further exploration after an abnormal heart scan last week. If things go well she’ll only be at the hospital for three hours, but there is a chance she’ll have to go in for a bypass that day. We’re hoping for the best, of course. Times like these are more fodder for the “not having a job” state of life: If needed, I could go over to their house near Detroit and help out. It’s nice to have someone in the family available for times like these. I know I appreciated my mom’s help with packing and moving last week–a lot!

If things do go well, we’ll be visiting the local farmer’s market this Saturday to pick up whatever berries are left. Saturday afternoon is going to be jam day! My mom’s housewarming gift to me is a water-bath canner of my very own, and I’ve been obsessing about this all week. Also, later in the year when I can get them, I plan to make marmalade with blood-oranges. Rodney’s dad is a marmalade junkie, and I am having fun imagining a row of jars all lined up on a sunny shelf, with the light filtering through. Maybe I want to make that more for the beauty than the eating, I don’t know!

As for the house, my dad helped me flush the water heater yesterday, and we also set up a compost pile. We cleaned a lot of weeds and bad things out of the landscaping, and edged the sidewalk. We have much raccoon poo around our house: not good! I’m hoping a chicken-wire enclosure around the compost will be sufficient, but we might have to get a bin.

There are still boxes scattered around (ahem, mostly my craft stuff) but the essentials like the kitchen and bedroom are all unpacked. We had a hard time getting the box springs up the stairs but once the hand railing was removed it went fine. And the new couch and love seat are here–finally, a real living room almost!

For Cathi, here is a picture of my recent Tender Buttons purchase.

And a closeup of the gnome button for those who need more detail. What to do with these? I don’t know yet! I have four of them.

I’m braving the bus system of Kalamazoo today to get a library card and visit the downtown food co-op. Le Metro bus only runs once an hour, but lucky for me a stop is only a block from our house. Chicago it ain’t, but we’ll make do.

This is what I started posting Thursday night, but I got interrupted, and then all the moving happened…

Alas. My house is 97% in boxes at the moment, it’s my last night here, and I spent a great afternoon with Carolyn. I will truly miss you, lady!

I’d like to show pictures of the boxed-up house, or the great stuff I picked up on Downtown Chicago Last Hurrah today, but words are gonna have to do. All the camera cables are packed somewhere where I probably won’t see them for at least a week.

1. Went to the new Loopy Yarns (719 S. State St.) today for a final farewell with Monica and Lynette. I got some very nice multi-toned pink Trendsetter Scoubi Du to make another scarf for someone from work. Way overdue on that since, um, yesterday was my last day.

2. Went to Marshall Field’s flagship store on State and Washington one more time (had to, next year they are going to become Macy’s which is such an affront to the timeless shopping culture of Chicago!!). We visited the MAC Cosmetics counter to finally take advantage of the container recycling program and get a free lipstick. I got Hug Me, a nice creamy buffish rose, good for everyday wear, plus a Plum pencil and a replacement for my dropped-and-smashed Jest eyeshadow. About the only expensive things I buy in life are yarn and cosmetics. Little pleasures. I also picked up a new

The rest of that should read “bedskirt” – because what better time to put one on your bed than when you’re moving the mattress and box springs around?

We also went to Tender Buttons. I love that store. I got corn on the cob, gnome, and man-in-the-moon buttons. For baby knitting!

Anyway…we ended up having to take two rental trucks instead of one, because no one in Chicagoland had the size we had reserved. The packing up went fast, with the only two casualties being a giant welt my sister got on her leg from a bungee cord, and my left thumb, miserably slammed inside the locking mechanism on a truck door. I haven’t tried to knit yet so I’m hoping this doesn’t affect anything. It hurts but it could have been so much worse.

Everything is inside the new house, but we stayed at my parents’ last night. It was just easier. I don’t even know where my toothbrush is right now.

It may be a while before normal order is resumed. But it won’t be as long as it would be if I had a job to go to, so there’s some benefit in being unemployed I guess…

First the knitting F. O. of the day. This is a scarf made with Briar Rose Fibers yarn, a very nice heavy-worsted handpaint. It is for my yoga teacher who I will see for the last time tomorrow night. She is a nice lady and I think these colors will look good on her. Plus they have the rarest of rare combinations in them: there is brown, but there is black, but there is gray, but there is navy, plus all those other colors. You know what that means: she can wear it with just about any winter coat. It’s the Holy Grail of handpainted yarn!!! Jealous? You should be.

Click it for more pictures and info.

And second, I got to hang around with Bonne Marie for a few hours in downtown Oak Park today. This was Downtown Oak Park Final Hurrah Part Two, but I didn’t buy anything except an iced tea.

She has this crazy notion that I should be the model for some of her great knitting designs, so we took pictures in the middle of the sunny Sidewalk Sale madness. It is a total honor to do this for someone who has been one of my knitting idols, and a really sweet friend I’m hoping to stay in touch with. I will not give away anything about the latest design, but let’s just say it is great and I can’t wait to knit it. You will want to too. Thanks Bonne Marie!

And third.

I have stewed on the best way to present this topic for a while and I think (today anyway) that simplicity is the way to go. Though, not usually my forte. I’ll just keep it brief. I’ll just say it.

We are having a kid.

This kid is due in April. I think I’ll just leave it at that. But there’s a new post category on the blog: Kid. There will be more later, I’m sure.

And Betty if you’re reading this, keep it under your hat please…

A long time ago there used to be this sort of craft-oriented online forum called Glitter. It has since kind of divided and morphed into Get Crafty and another site I don’t like and therefore won’t link to. On the original, every now and then the topic du jour would be what’s in everybody’s bag. It was fun to see what people were hauling around at any given time.

Today, day one of my last weekend before the move, I did my Downtown Oak Park Final Hurrah Part One, and some good things came back with me in my lovely homemade shoulderbag. Wouldn’t you like to see what they are? These are things that, in part, I will not be able to buy where I’m going (except via mail order), so I did a little stocking up.

From Penzeys Spices, the long-coveted, finally price-reduced big old bottle of double-strength vanilla extract. Oh I have wanted this for a long time, and now that the vanilla cartel has let up a bit, it was sort of affordable. And a big bottle of the Bangkok Seasoning, which is just so great for their noodle recipe I have made time and time again to many raves. And finally some ground Turkish sumac for my friend J.B. because she started a home hummos industry recently. In the mail this week!

From Paper Source, an inspiration of mine ever since I cut school in 12th grade with my old friend Tonya, drove down to Chicago, and discovered the one in River North accidentally. I love their own blank notecards made with lovely colorful printed papers, plus envelopes in bright colors with which to enclose my own homemade notecards now and then. And I couldn’t resist the origami baby bootie kit today. It will be fun for my sister-in-law’s baby shower which it now looks like I’ll be hosting.

From the mostly swell brand new downtown Oak Park Public Library, a couple of DVDs to watch tonight. One recent issue of the New Yorker had a little review of new DVDs and it claimed that “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!” was clever and underrated. This is the kind of thing I can watch when Rodney’s in Kalamazoo (on call for his job all weekend), plus I like Topher Grace ever since that movie he was in with Dennis Quaid. And I think “That ’70s Show” is also a little underrated. To me it’s the “Happy Days” of our time. The second DVD, “P.S.”, happens to include Topher as well. I was looking for “Remains of the Day,” one of my all-time favorites, but it was not on the shelf…the P’s are close to the R’s…so this one got checked out instead. The director also did “Roger Dodger” which Rodney really loves, so maybe it will be good. It has Marcia Gay Harden in it, an actress I would like to see more of.

From Barbara’s Bookstore a copy of “Mamalicious” magazine. The “Bust” happens to show up in my very own mailbox since I’m a subscriber for many years now. That other one, well, Barbara’s has a great collection of independent publications for sale, and after a bunch of browsing that one was the one that decided to come home with me. It’s the first issue (2003-4), but it looks like maybe they never published another one since. I haven’t read it yet; it could be good or bad that it’s defunct. I went in there for a graphic novel but I didn’t find any I wanted to buy.

And my purse. This purse is also homemade by me. I call it the “chard purse” because the cotton lining is the print “Chard” by Kaffe Fassett. It has a “Heidi Original” tag sewn in. Money from this purse purchased the above items (or paid the $1-each rental fee at the library for the DVDs), and also got me a wonderful waffle cone of seasonal specialty chocolate caramel crunch from the right-wing premium dairy* in the middle of downtown.

*The owner ran for Illinois senate in 2004 on the Republican ticket. Of course, Barack Obama kicked his ass. Oh Blue State of Illinois, how I will miss you…

Knitting F.O., and highlights from Downtown Oak Park Final Hurrah Part Two (which may or may not involve Bonne Marie), tomorrow.

I got an ultrasound of my brother’s kid last night.

The wee one, due at the end of January, is a boy. He’ll be named Noah Andrew. Isn’t that nice?

So far, the knitting for this child includes:

• Blue Pinwheel blanket
• Trellis cardigan
• Mountain Colors mittens and hat set
• And possibly Toddler Jacket

That last one, I just love. I want to wear it myself. I may not be ready to part with it, having already been storing it under my bed since 2003. It’s like a toy or something. I never did knit it with a specific kid in mind.

To add to the above, today I ordered a few patterns from the latest Patternworks catalog: cushy animals made from Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille, a layette set, and another sort of layette that calls for that nice organic cotton yarn.

In other news I’m just totally bogged down with moving and wrapping up stuff at my job. But there is a little triumph, for whatever it’s worth: I passed the Certified Archivist exam. I now have the privilege of paying $150 for my actual membership in the academy. Yay me!

And in the shallowness-ish department, Gilmore Girls starts again tonight. What will Luke say?