Tea & Sympathy

I think my old allergy to milk is coming back. This makes me sad because it means I shall no longer be able to indulge in lattes or ice cream. We'll see how it goes after three weeks of abstaining from dairy.

In the meantime, I am indulging in lots and lots of tea:

Tea is lovely. It is soothing and calming and good for you. I like the ritual of it, too. Berryblossom White is my current favorite, but you can't go wrong with traditional green or Earl Grey.

This week's sympathy goes to Mrs. Silda Spitzer, who is doing the ol' stand-by-your-man pose this week. Despite how badly I feel for her, I really wish she would just kick Eliot where it counts. She is a Harvard-educated lawyer who gave up her career for him to go into politics. If I were her, I would do more than just kick. I would maybe rip his heart right out of his ribcage and throw it on the ground and stomp on it until I diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiied...

But on to prettier things. I crocheted up something fairly rapidly for Project Spectrum, which I decided to join last week. I think it'll be good inspiration and may get me to explore colors that I normally ignore. The first phase, "Fire," puts me right in my, um, element.

It's Flourish by Kim Hargreaves. It was originally on her website, but the pattern is now available in Heartfelt. It says four skeins of Kidsilk Haze. Ha. I have to dip into a fifth. But of course, when it comes to scarves, I don't swatch or care much about gauge, so it serves me right. I've finished it, but was debating about the beading. Clearly, the beading won. I'll post photos of me wearing it as soon as I'm done with the sparkly work.

I also bought two more pattern books:

The one in the background is "Summer Breeze," which features Rowan's Bamboo Soft and Luxury Cotton DK. I am in love with this little thing:

The gray book is the new Studio 8, which focuses on Rowan's tweeds.

This little number would be supercute over a dark cowlneck and jeans.

Aside from knitting, I'm doing pretty well with my goals for the year. I read 1.5 books in January and then read 2.5 books and a screenplay in February:

John Douglas is pretty much a big part of my life right now. He started up the criminal profiling unit at the FBI in the '70s and these books are really not for the faint of heart. Sometimes I just want to cry reading about these cases. But if one wants to write about murderers, one must attempt to understand the circumstances surrounding them. I'm well into another Douglas book and thinking of starting a nice, normal fiction book to take my mind off of psychopaths.