It's Sunday Night Already?

Geez, this weekend has FLOWN. I hate having just a 2-day weekend.

Here's what I've been up to...

Friday Night
Bought a new set of tires, had them installed, had my car aligned, and had the oil changed. All within an hour and a half! With the new tires and alignment, my car is no longer so scary to drive.

I didn't think I would have it in me Friday night, but I continued with my one-repeat-section-a-night plan.

Saturday
My Saturday morning was full of some craftiness, yoga, mopping, and going to the post office. Since I was determined to squeeze so much into my morning, I was a bit late to the Cupid's Tea that Michelle from knitting hosted.

Yay for chocolate fountains! And vintage Valentine cards, industrial glue guns, and general crafting fun. I made two cards when I wasn't dipping things under the flowing chocolate.

Once again, I managed another repeat section on my Duster....I was definitely losing steam at this point.

I also went to Whole Foods and lost my shit over the bulk foods section and grapes. I felt so bad buying the grapes because I know they are shipped from Chile and have a huge carbon footprint, but I haven't bought grapes in over two months! I lost my willpower last night.

I really plan on sticking to Local Harvest from now on because, apparently, I can't handle myself around gas-guzzling temptations. However, I'm proud to report this is my third week without buying bananas. Instead, I either eat granola made by the folks at Black Bear Bakery (our local anarchist bakery collective), or I make enough steel-cut oatmeal for the week and warm it up in the morning.

Sunday
I spent a large part of my morning (trying) to make newspaper pots for tomato seedlings.

I started with trying to make round pots and quickly became disgruntled by the messy bottoms. After some research online, I found my solution: origami boxes.

This is a good tutorial. But American potmakers beware...the tutorial uses an Asian newspaper, the pages of which are more squarish than American newspapers. If you follow the directions using an unmodified American newspaper, you won't be able to make the box.

I played around with some options for a square piece of paper. First I tried half of a newspaper page, but that was WAY too small. Next, I used a page from a Sauce magazine....still too small. Then I did this to the newspaper to get a bigger square:


I cut around the edges of the folded part to get a square. This was the winning method!

Here is the progression of newspaper pot making:


I was using the wine bottle to make the round pots (no, I wasn't hitting the bottle at 10:00 am!).

This photo illustrates how a little bit bigger beginning square affects the size of the finished box:


I'm going to stick with the size on the far right. The boxes are far easier than trying to form the newspaper into a round pot bottom. Also, the square shape will make it easier to arrange the containers on a tray.

After figuring out the boxes, I exercised and then made a chicken tajine for lunch:


I used this recipe in Sauce with a few modifications. Instead of two pounds of chicken, I used one pound each of chicken and potatoes. I also added bulgar towards the end of the cooking time so that I didn't have to cook some sort of grain separately. This dish smelled so awesome while it was cooking! I generally like the taste, but I'm disappointed that it isn't more olive-y (guess I could add more olives next time). Also, I used purple potatoes because I thought they would make a pretty contrast to the green olives; however, the turmeric turned everything a light orange-y color.

After lunch, I met up with the Sunday knitters at Hartford. Since there was a music performance that started around 4:30, a few of us continued knitting at one of the other knitter's house. A great house on Utah, to boot!

Once I returned home, I only had to knit one more row on my Duster, and then I was ready to bind off the skirt. FINALLY!!

Since one of my readers posted concerns about the Duster looking too small in a previous post, I'm including some pictures here.

Here I am trying to show on one side how the skirt will open up when I block it:


You might think that the top part looks a bit skimpy, but don't worry. There will be five inches of ribbing added all around when I do the collar. The sleeves will be attached after I do the collar.

Here's a side view (I'm pulling on the skirt a little bit).


I'm quite pleased with the fit, and I can't wait to finish it entirely. I hope to block it at the beginning of next week.

Have a good night and a great Monday!