SnB

This evening I hosted my first Stitch and Bitch knitting group since I moved from Portland. I was a bit leary about hosting for several reasons: 1. It involves providing dinner and drink for everyone. The number of members in this SnB is about 15, but usually about half of them show up. 2. Our call box is not hooked up, so anyone who wants to come over has to either call me from their cell phone or else wait for someone else coming or going to let them in. 3. The Yoshimi factor.

Fortunately, I was able to feed everyone by not really cooking anything from scratch. I bought some frozen lasagnas (veggie and turkey) and heated it up in the oven. I used prewashed/packaged baby spinach, cherry tomatoes (don't have to cut anything), feta cheese, walnuts, and dried cranberries, blueberries, and raisins to make a salad. Slice up a baguette. Done. I had a stash of disposable plates and flatware leftover from Yoshi's birthday party so I didn't even have to do dishes. So easy.

Tom had Yoshimi duty tonight and successfully kept her attention away from me for the most part so I was able to enjoy the company of my friends without having a demanding toddler vying for attention. I think Tom fell asleep in Yoshimi's room and is still there as we speak, er, type.

This was a most productive SnB for me. Not only did I not have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, but I got a good amount of knitting done. I am currently working making Yoshi a sweater using her favorite color yarn. I'll tell her to blog about it when I finish. While I'd love to make a more complicated knitted work, it takes too much time/effort/energy/attention that I'm not willing to put into it. Still, the innate urge to knit is forever in my mind and hands. So I have to do something that is easy, but not too boring. A children's sweater is perfect because it's interesting, but faster to knit up than an adult sweater. I just hope Yoshimi will wear it instead of just look at it.

I really need to quick gratification of completing something once I start, but am not really willing to use a chunky yarn because I'm not too fond of the way it looks. I did, however, make a beautiful ribbed scarf for my friend Jami that I wouldn't mind having for myself. I carried three yarns--a beige microfiber, white angora, and off-white wool. The result was bulky without being heavy, and the monochromatic scheme with varying textures really added a nice dimension to it. I really do need a new scarf. Maybe something similar would be nice.