sweater molecules, or:

sweater molecules

Originally uploaded by Xao_T

“I have a million little balls of handspun”

I need to do some end-of-winter projects with all of these weenie little yarn balls. I stuck them onto these trees to amuse myself, but the fact that they’re begging to be knitted is pretty evident. *sigh*

Snow Day!!!

Yes!!

I woke up at 3AM, because the plow was going by, and again at 6AM, and made my phone call to work and knocked around in my pjs until noonish. Then, we suited up, waxed the skis for the first time in 2 years (last year I had my bilateral mastectomy, and wasn’t allowed to ski), and went out there, and did lovely & grueling cross-country skiing. Am I worried that I’m gonna have a lymphedema problem later today? YES. And how. But it felt great to be out there, falling on my ass in the backyard.

We’re totally crappy skiers, and this is mostly due to the once-yearly snowfalls that began the year we bought skis. Basically, we used to have wall-to-wall snow from January to March, and now we get snow once a season, maybe twice. Thanks, global warming. I think the timing is pretty ironic, considering the ski purchase, but hey—the bright side is, our skis and boots and poles are lasting FOREVER.

Temporary visual shake-up!

I’m restyling the blog, but haven’t settled on a look yet, so expect a lot of things to change, visually.  That’s all for now: I’ve got an annoying bladder infection & am pretty beat, so no long post tonight.

My talented friend

Jackie is a damnhellassgoddess

Originally uploaded by Xao_T

Jackie sent me this amazing shirt, with her new Rebel1in8 logo on…I am blown away by how utterly perfect it is.

You’ve left me speechless, J!!

Wrapping up the week

It’s been a buuuuuusy week! Damn! I can’t believe it’s over already, because it seemed to go on forever, and then snap! it was done. Work’s in high gear, and it’s kind of taking over things presently.

I’m halfway through one of the knitting projects, with another one still on the needles, and I’m insane enough to contemplate a third! Yes, a third, like: cast it on now, and have three piles of yarniness on the coffee table. I’m NUTS.

In other news, as the weeks wind on towards the one year anniversary of the de-boobing operation, I’m seeing more changes in the surgical area. My chest continues to hollow out, and I can see ribs that only people who’ve had mastectomies can see, since everyone else’s are covered by tissue & fat. I wonder, sometimes, what people think, but honestly…I’m trying to forge a path here for some of us to just be fabulous, without boobs (if we want to), so I realize that knowing what other people think might just be discouraging. I still kick around several ideas about tattoos over the area where my breasts were, and I know I’ve got to give the lymphedema a long time to *not* flare up before that’s a reasonable option. Stupid lymphedema!!

It’s late…I have to crash out, or lose too much of the morning to sleep. Goodnight, world!

wiki’d sweater

wicked sweater

Originally uploaded by Xao_T

I finally finished a Wicked! This sweater pattern’s been haunting me for almost 2 years. I tried it in two different cotton yarns, and frogged it both times, and then had a conversation with a very experienced knitter about cotton, and she gave me the idea that maybe the pattern wasn’t to blame, but my fiber choice. She was right!
This is done in Cascade 220, and it fits a little loosely on me, but the shaping keeps it from looking floppy. I like oversized vesty things and this works perfectly. In the pic, I’m wearing it over a black cashmere turtleneck & it looked pretty good! A nice, transitional piece for late winter into spring, and then into fall again.

In other news, I’ve been making various salad dressings with Vegenaise, and I can’t say enough about this shit. It’s awesome. It tastes just like mayo! I heart Vegenaise. Oh, and pineapple. I’ve had about half a pineapple this afternoon. Something about detoxing myself from the effects of the Horrible Cold: I wanted cole slaw, pineapple, and a big handful of dried cherries. Must be needing some nutrients, so I went with it.

I also made the evilest daikon radish pickles on the face of the Earth. They’re so salty, gingery, and vinegary that your hair stands on end, but you want more of them anyway. I think my fingers will be swollen tomorrow, they’re THAT salty. Evil!

It was a good weekend.

Street cred

curried tempeh and mango salad

Originally uploaded by Xao_T

Dinner: curried tempeh and mango salad over greens and quinoa. I really recommend Isa Chandra Moskowitz to anyone taking on becoming vegan: her recipes are fantastic.

I’m probably biased, because we were roughly in the same punk scene (Lower East Side) at around the same time, and ‘cuz she’s the host of PostPunk Kitchen. She makes me feel like I’m still a rebel, and not Da Man, even though I am certainly Da Man these days, as I mused over the stock market’s queasy leaps. I don’t think anyone ever thought I’d have a bank account, let alone a 401(k).

In other news, the Horrible Cold is STILL kicking my ass. I wish it would find some other poor soul to torment, I’ve had enough of it. I’m even sick of knitting, after doing hardly anything else for the last 5 days. Blah!

People think I shouldn’t be getting sick, since I’m on the new diet, but I’m finding something very interesting: while I had cancer, I had very mild colds. Whether that was some freaky thing from the radiation, or what, I don’t know. But it wasn’t until the oncologist said,”Goodbye!” that I came down with the worst cold I’ve had in 2 years, at least. Maybe my defenses finally came down, and let me be ordinary, bog-standard sick, now that I’m not Sick anymore. Who knows.

More DIY, less die

The focus of the blog is clearly shifting away from my cancer exploits & I’m okay with that. It’s a welcome development, and I am amazed to think of all the things I’ve yet to do, that have been waiting for me to get better.

As I write this, I’ve got a big gloop of watery indigo “dough” on my head: I’m on Day 2 of my hair-coloring adventure. Yesterday, I did the henna part, that makes it orange-y, and today, I do the dark blue part, that makes it brown-black. It’s still a fascinating process to me, after well over a year of this method. My hair’s longer than ever, and straighter than ever, and much healthier than it was during the years of chemical processes. Yay.

I’ve got an art project brewing, one that is more high-tech than you might be used to, coming from me, but tied in to craft, so please bear with me as I feel my way with this new idea. It’s QR codes. Right now, I I’m knitting a simple one that I made in black & white fair isle colorwork, aided by the wonderful chart generator at microrevolt. When it’s done, you should be able to take a photo of the block with your cellphone, and if your cellphone reads QR codes, you’ll be taken to diynotdie.com: the URL is embedded in the information in the knitting. My next one will be intarsia, and contain a John Baldessari quote, I think.

This isn’t new technology by any means, but it’s caught my attention, and I want to try doing some art-craft stuff that brings technology and craft together. Companies are using this technology for promotions and stuff like that, but I see huge potential to spread code, patterns, poetry, artwork, prose, etc.

In other news, I’m still struggling with my horrible cold, which has invaded my head & chest, despite repeated doses of Thai food, which usually does the trick for me. Hmmm.

More later…noses to blow, hair to de-goo, you know.

yummy dinner

yummy dinner

Originally uploaded by Xao_T

The feasting goes on, in spite of my stomach, which hasn’t felt right since the endoscopy on Monday, but who the hell knows why that is.

I ate a small mountain of baked tofu tonight, and feel all the better for it. I like eating a lot of raw veggies, but there’s something really appealing about food that’s both hot in temperature and spicy-hot at the same time. So, I ate a salad and a heap of cilantro, to get my raw in.

I’m 3 pounds away from my goal weight now, the stomach bug contributing 2 to that total. I don’t even need to hit that particular number, it’s just there as a milepost of sorts, and especially to act as a stopper. I don’t feel well if I get too thin, so if I get under 130-odd, I’ll have to start eating more avocados and salmon.

I’m still not vegan, by the way, and I don’t think I’ll go 100% vegan or raw or vegetarian…I love raw fish sushi waaaaay too much at this point. Especially salmon. I *love* salmon. Love it!

amazing!

I love Ravelry for many reasons, and here’s another one: I was just looking at people’s projects, and then followed a link to a Raveler’s website, and found this amazing site of a performance artist who has to be seen, not described:

http://www.lbufano.com/work.php?page=current

Check it out! Check them both out! Girlistic has a really interesting Winter issue out, which I’m planning to dive into later today.