You know, I’d have more time to blog if I didn’t spend my Thursday evenings roped to a chair at Tangle Knitting Studios in Lake Oswego and required to work on at least one project while being force-fed wine.

Well… maybe not that much force was actually required… and I did go there with three unfinished projects in my tote bag. Four unfinished projects, actually, when you consider that the tote itself still doesn’t have a lining in it, and thus qualifies as an unfinished object.

(Alice, Zen, Kalani — you need to get a web site up!)

The end result: I have finished the beaded bag! I have about 12″ completed on Tilt! I’m about to start work on the fingerless gloves for #1 Son! I’ve made some small progress on Clapotis #2! And, last but not least, the mystery project is due to be delivered to its recipient on Sunday, and all will be revealed after that! I also plan this weekend to (finally) get the lining in the funky felted tote bag. I’ll pics up of everything soon.

#1 Son’s classes were canceled today due to a power outage at PCC, so we “did lunch.” For the second day in a row I ate at Thai Delicious on Main in Tigard. Right now one of the lunch specials is a pumpkin curry that is, simply, to die for. Anyone within striking distance should get over there and give it a try.

I really love pumpkin and I don’t understand why we in this country don’t seem to see them as good for anything but pie and jack-o-lanterns. I actually love almost all winter squash. OK… I love almost all autumn-type foods, including winter squash. Hearty soup. Stew. Yum!

Saturday afternoon I visited the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival and had a wonderful time watching all of the demos, petting tons of yarn and fiber, ooo-ing over the exhibits and chatting with all of the animals. There was an angora bunny that bore an incredible resemblance to a white tribble that I really wanted to bring home to use for a foot warmer. But I restrained myself, knowing that it would probably bring out the worst in the fur kids. (Phoebe jealously guards “her” bed.”) I also restrained myself while wandering through the vendor’s area. I didn’t buy anything. The problem was I wanted to buy everything, and I just couldn’t narrow it down. And toward the end of the afternoon, I started feeling sort of blah.

By Saturday evening, I was feeling more than blah. I was feeling sick.

Fortunately, between the time I got home from OFFF and the time I collapsed, I managed to concoct a large veggie stew from tomatoes, winter squash, lima beans, green beans, onion, garlic, carrots, bell peppers, celery, broccoli, corn, miscellaneous herbs and spices, elbow macaroni, and probably a few other things that were lurking in the veggie bin that I can’t remember right now. So I had a nutritious meal available any time that required no more effort than ladling out a bowl’s worth and nuking it in the microwave.

And I learned another pleasure inherent in having a two-driver family. #1 Son could run up to the vet’s on Sunday to pick up cat food and I didn’t have to budge from the semi-prone position that was about all I could manage at the time.

I haven’t read any blogs. I obviously haven’t blogged myself. I did a bit of knitting, but not a lot. I haven’t gotten the latest FO’s added to the gallery. I haven’t progressed any in Myst V. Blech. I hate being sick.

School started for #1 Son this week. He informed me in a quite dignified manner that there was no need for me to wake him up in the morning. “I’ve got it covered, mom,” he said. And he has it covered. I haven’t had to wake him up at all. And that’s such a pleasant departure from “the old days” when I could barely pry him from his bed in time to get to school. What a world of difference the summer has made.

Yeah… so I’m playing Myst V… don’t bug me. The Myst franchise are the only games I really like. That and the Doom franchise. Strange bedfellows, I know, but there you have it.

I’ve also completed part of the beaded bag for the class I’m taking at Tangle. And I’ve started my next sweater with Noro Silk Garden in a really yummy color. I’ll try to get pics up later.

I might head over to the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival today, although I realize the dangers of doing so given the state of my stash piggy-bank (see above reference to Silk Garden).

And I made a small change to Owen Winkler’s Countdown plugin for Wordpress. Countdown does the “present future” list of upcoming events in the right-hand sidebar. I’ve added “daily” logic so that an event that spans multiple days, like the Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival or Banned Books Week will show up every day until it’s finished.

And I do work full time. Really!

So I haven’t only been playing Myst.

Tonight is the season opener of Lost. I’m reasonably excited by that.

Today a package was delivered to my door. It contains a brand new, shiny copy of Myst V: End Of Ages. I’m reasonably excited by that, too.

OK… Lost will obviously win the fight for my attention. But why did they have to both land on the same day?

Just to prove that I’ve not been idle, here’s a new finished object to show off. This is a large-sized “buttonhole bag“.

It was knit with two strands of chunky wool yarn on size 15 needles. I’m not overly fond of fun fur and eyelash, but I thought a little bit would add a fun funkyness to the whole rather retro color scheme.

The top pic is pre-felting and the bottom is the finished product. (Click on either pic for the larger sized version.) I felted it in my front-loader (YEA!), and I’m glad to know that I can actually do that successfully. I could have felted it harder and lost all stitch definition, but as you can see from the bottom pic it’s hard enough to stand on its own.

I encouraged the top to roll because I liked that look. I still need to add a lining. The finished bag is large enough (about 17″ at the widest) to make a nice-sized project bag so I want the lining to include a few little pockets to hold sundries..

In other news, the grapes are ripening and I’ve picked several pounds to give away to friends. I managed to save almost all the harvest this year from the furry little black-masked bandits that have robbed me the last two summers. I grow the variety Himrod, and have two vines on an arbor over my back patio against the south side of the house. Because I’m on the north side of the hill, the growing season in my yard starts late and is slightly shorter than the valley floor. Himrod is an early variety, but I don’t usually have ripe grapes until the end of September. This year the abundant sun and warm weather helped them ripen about a week early. The good news is that the harvest usually extends for several weeks, so hopefully I will have enough time to deal with the crop.

My grapes grow under my usual gardening philosophy of benign neglect. The grapes get nothing: No water or fertilizer, no spraying. Nothing. I whack them back a couple of times a year to keep them from taking over the yard and tearing the house apart and I harvest the crop when it’s ripe. That’s it. The two vines, each the size of small trees, reward me yearly with bountiful crops of some of the best grapes I’ve ever eaten.