Biting off more than I can chew...

A few days ago, xobscura from the knitty coffeeshop brought up ArtSoMoFo. ArtSoMoFo is something of a spin-off on the concept of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, during which a bunch of crazy souls will exploit the power of deadlines and peer pressure to try and pen a complete novel during November. Yikes. Anyone who was privy to the trite afterschool-special-y attempts at fiction I wrote during freshman English knows that I have no business trying to write a novel.

ArtSoMoFo is a little different. It stands for Art Something MoFo (I try to keep it PG around here) and takes place during October this year. The premise is simple - to create art every day during the month of October. Again, kind of high pressure. But since I do believe that everyone could use a bit more creativity in their lives, I thought I might rise to the challenge, albeit with a very loose interpretation of the word "Art."

I chose not to join the official ArtSoMoFo party. This is more of an ArtSoMoPo (ArtSoMoFo Poseur) endeavor, just in case I get two weeks in and the only thing I have made is toast.

Anyhow, this is how the month is going so far:

Day One (10/1/06)
I tried to make art in the kitchen, to limited success. A roasted chicken and vegetable experiment went terribly awry since I didn't have an onion. It really needed an onion. It didn't help that one of the vegetables I used was butternut squash. Tasty, but it had pretty much melted into baby food before any of the other vegetables were done. This was also the first time I had tried to peel a butternut squash prior to cooking it. I wouldn't have minded the mushy squash nearly as much if peeling it hadn't been such a chore.

Oh well. I had a bit more luck making bread. (So I went on a bit of a starch binge...) I used the baguette recipe in The Garden of Vegan, using 1/3 part whole wheat flour and 2/3 all purpose. Without the support of a loaf pan, the bread was kind of dense. In the future I might use a loaf pan or use a bit less wheat flour to try and get a better rise. It still tasted very good (and made excellent toast). Here it is fresh out of the oven and brushed with a little bit of butter (thereby ruining its vegan properties and rendering it delicious).

Day Two (10/2/06)
Since I was already staying up too late to watch Studio 60, I figured I would finish up my first pair of Fetching fingerless gloves from knitty. I am still pretty new at knitting in the round, having only made coffee cozies before, and I haven't made cables in a couple of years, so I didn't want to buy new yarn for these. So I used some dark green Wool Ease that I had on hand. I knew going in that this yarn wouldn't really show off the cabling, but I was okay with that for my first pair.

I also wasn't totally sure how I felt about fingerless gloves as my fingertips are frequently the cold part. But so far, I am quite liking them for walking Maddie on cool evenings. My thumbs are free to operate her retractable leash and I have much needed dexterity for any necessary cleanup. Now that I told you that, aren't you glad I didn't use super special yarn?

I'm still quite taken with the cabling and ribbing on this pattern. I have visions of making a pair of Fetching mittens and a hat using the Rowan Calmer I left over from my Branching Out. I'm not really ready to make up my own patterns yet, but if anybody finds a 4x1 ribbed hat or mitten pattern that I could splice together with Fetching, I'd love to see it.


Day 3 (10/3/06)
Well, so far today I have made a blog post and some toast. But it's early yet.