I just got back from an amazing week in Kauai.  It really looks like this:

I don’t know where to start.  It was wonderful: warm, calm tropical seas for swimming and snorkeling, reefs teeming with color-changing (!) fish, being there with almost my entire family, being there with JW, seeing my aunt Julie’s gorgeous farm, playing lots of racehorse, cooking, unbelievable scenery, rainbows, geckos, brief but serious rainstorms, shave ice, the list goes on and on.

I think it’s hard to speak well about excellent vacations because when they’re really, really good, they’re pure experience.  Having a great time, when the days are both full and empty, somehow just doesn’t lend itself to any kind of description other than a gush of things that were, like, so awesome.  So instead I’m just going to say this: it was beautiful and wonderful and I absolutely can’t wait to go back there.

I have so much to blog about.  I’ve moved to a new apartment, I’ve been to a fabulous tropical paradise, and I’ve finished a modest knitting project.  All food for posts, yes?  And yet, instead, I’m going to write about something totally unrelated to all of those.  Call it a palate-cleanser, something to get me back in the rhythm.

Inspired by this great picture from The Sartorialist, I am beginning a quest for the perfect fair-isle cardigan pattern.

I mean, isn’t that just the best?  I think it’s technically not a fair-isle (not least because this is a picture from Sweden) since a lot of the pattern rows use more than two colors, but it has a lot of elements that I like.  I like the sharp geometry of the pattern (so much colorwork is just so sweet) and the way it’s repeated in different parts of the sweater (especially the hem-vs-yoke).  Also, unless I’m mistaken, it looks like it only uses three colors, which is cool because once I enter palette territory I get all turned about and angsty.  This is much better.  Now if I could only see the shoulders…

Today is our last day in the current apartment.  We’ve been packing for at least two weeks (I hate packing so much that I need an early start).  Everything is boxed, old furniture has been taken out to the curb, the kitchen has been mercilessly scrubbed, and today we’re spackling and painting.  Tomorrow the movers are coming, and I swear to god if it was going to be even one more day of this madness I would lose. my. mind.

Almost.  Over.  Almost.  Over.

The other day there was this incredibly powerful storm right at dusk; the sky looked many different ways all at once.

And then, toward the end, just for a moment everything was pink.

It rained so hard it was scary; not because I thought it would flood or that we would be struck by lightning, but it was just so much, it was hard not to be scared by it.  But at the same time it was really beautiful.  For most of it, the sky was really yellow, but soft and flat because of the clouds.  I’ve never seen so much water come out of the sky.  And then it went pink, and stopped.  It was wonderful.

Mystery knitting: it’s so… um… mysterious…

Yesterday and today we drove down to Knoxville to visit JW’s family.  Except for graduation, a journey composed entirely of familiar people and places, I hadn’t left New York since I landed in January.  I didn’t even realize that that’d happened until I was looking out the window at Perkins at the interstate.  Holy crap - this place just goes on forever and ever.

I took these two pictures in Virginia, where we stopped for a meal that was less like dinner and more like when Pac Man eats a cherry while zooming around in his maze.  I haven’t seen anything like this in so long - I forgot how wide things can be, how huge the freeways are and how much space there is between everything.

This was this morning, coming into Knoxville, where we were greeted as always by the fabulous Sun Sphere.  It is always much rounder than I remember, and sort of squat.  I love it.

A quality Monday night at home: JW’s playing “Zombies Ate My Neighbors” on Super Nintendo, and I’m blogging about a sock.

I feel it’s important to point out how very, very difficult it is to take a good picture of one’s own foot.  Still, this sock is the first thing I’ve finished in a while, and I’m pretty satisfied with it.  The pattern is Froot Loop from the spring issue of Knitty; I got a healthy start on it during graduation and then did the rest on the subway to and from work every day.  The yarn is Koigu KPM in color #1110, and the excess dye turned my bamboo needles the same color (and my fingertips too!).  I love, love, love the color, and the pattern is great too.  It’s interesting, but easy to memorize; perfect mobile knitting.  My only complaint is not with the pattern or the yarn, but the nature of the beast itself: it is very, annoying to frog this pattern.  Like, super-crazy irritating, which means that there’s a couple of mistakes in there that I can’t get out.  But, other than that, I’m quite happy with this, and can’t wait to finish the second one!

This was last night’s improv-dinner. Lately I’ve been experimenting with putting new flavors on top of basic platforms, like beans and rice or a basic stir-fry, and so far the data are very promising. This is the latest manifestation of the process, and I thought you might enjoy it.

I can’t think of any way that this recipe could be simpler. Start by heating up some pungent seasonings, then add rice, beans, vegetables and liquid. A bell pepper goes in at the last second for maximum crispness. This recipe makes enough for a hearty dinner for two (we each got two bean burritos out of it), plus enough leftovers for a couple of lunches.

Ingredients:
1 28-oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 28-oz can chopped tomatoes, drained, juice reserved
1.5 cups white rice
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
0.5 cup frozen corn
1 bell pepper, diced
1 - 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (you can freeze the rest of the can in an ice-cube tray for later)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper
tortillas
for garnish: grated cheese, lime juice, chopped cilantro

hot tip: with the exception of the bell pepper (which doesn’t go in until the very end), I have found that it is wise to get everything prepped before you begin, since it pretty much all goes into the pot at the same time (and if you take too long adding things you’re going to burn the garlic - guess how I found that out).

1. Put chipotle(s) into a blender with roughly 1 cup of water and blend until pepper is completely destroyed. Pour liquid into a large liquid measure along with tomato juice, then add enough water to make a total of 3 cups liquid.

2. In a large pan (I used a Dutch oven, but anything big enough with a lid will work great), heat olive oil over medium-high heat, then add garlic, cumin and coriander. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in rice, tomatoes, corn, and beans. Stir in tomato-chipotle liquid and add bay leaf. Give it a healthy pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper. Cover, turn heat up and bring to a boil. When the liquid is boiling, stir once, clap the lid back on and turn the heat to low. Steam for 15-20 minutes, leaving lid on the whole time, until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed.

3. When the rice is cooked, turn the heat off, lift the lid and stir in diced bell pepper. Squeeze a lime over everything. Serve with warm tortillas, grated cheese, cilantro, and beer.

Look what I did this weekend!

I’m a bachelor!  A crazy, swingin’ bachelor!

Everyone was very proud.  I admit to being rather pleased with myself as well.

Thank you again, so much, to everyone who came and who sent their love and good wishes.  As of now, there is absolutely nothing standing between me and Real Life.  All of my plans are coming to fruition!  Haha!

And in one sense, it is. I just finished the ribbing for the body of my new cardigan, Cables and Os from No Sheep for You. It’s going fine, although I think I want a different needle for the body. I used a Knitpicks nickel-plated circular for the rib, and I loved it - nice and slick, and not so much pointy as sharp. Awesome. Now the bamboo feels way too blunt, which is a problem when one is forever knitting and purling through the back loop with stretchless yarn. But more on that, and the project itself, later on.

No, it turns out that this post is actually about photography; call it, “An Examination of the Results One can Expect when Snapping a Quick Photo in the Morning Before Work.”

You see, I really wanted to be able to post about this today, and show pictures and progress and all the other nice things, so I threw my knitting on the floor (we have four different rug colors to choose from, so it actually makes a great background) and, still en-bathrobed, pulled a quick snip-snap. Bad call, Ripley. Since I couldn’t be troubled by such petty concerns as, say, light, I now have to choose between two disastrously poor photographs.

- OR -

Sigh. The second photo gives the best representation of the actual color of the yarn (pretty, right?), but the flash has made it so shiny and lurid that I hate to put it up with a proud “I made that!” But the first photo, while lacking in the aforementioned grossness, is just too dark. So now I have to wait until I go home and catch some real daylight (an actual possibility now - hello, spring!) before I can write a proper knitting post. Lesson learned.