Da Bomb

So on Sunday, Tamara came over to make "Lush" style bath bombs with me. We were inspired by 1) Tamara's recent visit to Lush at Macy's and 2) Glampyre's blog where she talked about making bath bombs herself. So Tamara brought a ginormous bag of baking soda which she bought at Sam's and I picked up some citric acid, almond oil, and grapefruit essential oil and we made some pale pink "bombs." My youngest tried one out on Sunday night and it worked great, fizzed like mad and smelled like pink grapefruit. Next time I'm going to order the citric acid from here, where it costs $2.25 per pound vs. $10 per pound at Whole Foods. If you want to make some yourself, we found instructions here, here, and here.

In other news, I finished my Chevron scarf on Sunday night, although it practically took an intervention to get me to stop (it was 76" long, but I still had more yarn!) I will post pictures after it's blocked and dried.

Also, true to my name (Sisyphus) I unraveled my Bluebell Boatneck sweater (and I was halfway through the ribbing!) because I tried it on and the neck was off my shoulders. This is extremely weird as I measured all over and I got gauge exactly (18 sts. and 24 rows=4 inches) and then I measured my neckline and concluded 24" would be ideal, which leads to casting on 24*(18/4) = 108 stitches, which is exactly how many I cast on, but my neckline was 34" wide! So I don't get it, but I think I'm going to try again with smaller needles for the 4 initial garter ridge rows

Hallowig

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Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/68299643@N00/

Why did I knit a blue wig? Who knows? Daughter #1 might wear it for Halloween, it was fun and fast and what else are you going to do with a skein of blue acrylic?

I just got back from NYC last night, by the skin of my teeth. Typical LaGuardia, they cancelled 200 flights, it was pure luck that they didn't cancel mine; otherwise I would have been #70 on the standby list as usual.

Travel isn't nearly as much fun at my new job as it was at my old one, mostly because I don't get to travel with Rian anymore. He and I have the same basic travel sensibilities: 1) Be organized and efficient, have all your materials ready, itineraries printed, and mapquests so you know where you're going, 2) Be willing to travel to the ends of the earth for a good meal, our best was Chez Panisse, 3) If you're stuck at the airport with time to kill, a ginormous cocktail is the way to go.

Snake socks

Adrienne in knitting group pointed out to me that these socks look like snakes and she's right! I knit most of this in the Dallas airport, waiting 3 hours for a flight, I estimate this sock took me 6 hours altogether. I messed up the kitchener of course, but Adrienne straightened it out for me. I'm halfway done with the second.

Has anyone noticed all the very cool knitwear featured in magazines this fall? I pulled some extra bulky knit items out of W but can't find them, here's a sweater that was in Town & Country: