Hugs an' Kisses

This, my friends, is justification to learn how to cable without a cable needle. I came, I cabled, I conquered.

For those of you who stop by just to see what the sky looked like in my neck of the woods on Saturday, here it is. The moon was lovely.

Saturday Sky - 20 January

Saturday's sky from the parking lot, courtesy of my early evening grocery run.

Saturday Sky - a few days late

Yes, I know it's Monday. Day late and a dollar short, this week. This lovely sky courtesy of a local park on Sunday. We went out for a picnic and some roller blading/scootering/walking. I was doing the walking, though it was more of a two steps, stop and encourage the boys on their new scooters, two more steps sort of walk.



We're all down with the creeping crud this week. I'm ready for it to be gone now, please.

Through the haze of my cold, I decided that it would be a good idea to take advantage of the warm weather and our lack of appointments (due to said colds) by doing my first dyeing on some cotton/lycra yarn I've had lying about for a while. Said yarn is now a tangled mess in my kitchen; half in a ball and half on the back of a chair. Maybe I should have waited for my head to clear first. I'll let you know how it goes.

Saturday Sky - 6 January

The weather felt like spring today.

Did the first bit of my 100 miles by April 1. 1.5 miles down, 98.5 miles to go.

Happy Saturday, all.

Branching Out

Remember the lowly scarf that tripped me up in December? I belted it out in record time, and had it blocked and wrapped in time for Christmas (whew!) Of course, it was at the expense of finishing another gift. C'est la vie.

This gift made me smile while I knit - so much the better for knitting it twice, I guess. Mom taught me to knit when I was quite young. She knits, increases and decreases with the best of them, and can cable to her heart's content. She shies away from lace and colorwork, though, so I made her something she'd never make for herself.

Here's the end of the beastie before and after blocking:


Here's a truer representation of the color, though it's more of a royal purple than this:


The lovely lady in the photo below is my Mom. I haven't taken the time to explain a blog, let alone a knitting blog, to her yet. I should do that. In the meantime, isn't she gorgeous in her new scarf?



Details for my "what did I do last year" self:

Started:	12 December
Finished:	23 December
Pattern:	Branching Out by Susan Lawrence
Yarn:	Debbie Bliss Cathay (50% cotton, 35% viscose, 15% silk). Color 12012, 2 skeins (100m / 50g per skein). Lovely, soft yarn.
Needles:	Clover bamboo, size 8
Notes:	This was a great beginning lace pattern; I'd knit it again. Dimensions pre-blocking: 47" x 5.25". After blocking: 51" x 6". I might have gotten more out of it with blocking wires - the yarn could take more stretch, but my cotton thread and sewing pins weren't up to it.

Saturday Sky - 30 December

Yet another lovely Saturday - this one in central Ohio.

I hope your transition into the new year finds you surrounded with family and friends. I've been visiting with family for much of December, and am a wee bit discombobulated. Yes, I finished the scarf. More on that when I find time. :)

Happy New Year, my friends.

I'm Quirky

Lynn has tagged me with the 'How Weird Are You?' meme. Thanks, dear, for coaxing me to display my weirdnessess for all to see.

It goes like this... “THE RULES:Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”

As I have always walked a bit outside of the mainstream, I long ago decided that I'm quirky, not weird. YMMV.

1. I'd rather spend quality time with my computer than watch network TV.

2. Unless what's on is something Whedonesque.

3. I was quite shy as a child, to the point of physical pain when thrust into social situations like school. I was also surrounded by adults who seemed to think desensitizing me was the answer. Ah, well. At least I know not to do it to my son. Lingering remnants of this: I hate to talk on the phone, unless the person I'm talking to is chatty. I'm perfectly willing to hold up my end of the conversation if the other person will do most of the heavy lifting.

4. Since I was very young, I have a tendency to lose words while I'm talking. Not the same word each time, and in no discernable pattern. I'll be talking along, and a perfectly normal word (e.g. "road") will drop from my vocabulary. I can drive on it, point to it, look at it, but cannot find the stinkin' word for it. I've become adept at talking around it.

Me: "We need to cross the horizontal hard surface with cars on it. Hold my hand."
Child: "You mean the ROAD, Mom?"
Me: "Road! That's it! Yes, the road. Hold my hand."

My children are so proud when they fill in for Mommy. What's doubly frustrating is when they fill in the wrong word and I can't think of the right word to correct them. Heh.

5. I still want to be an artist when I grow up. Maybe someday I'll actually take a class.

6. I can't do anything and listen to complex music at the same time. I forget what I'm doing and sit, mesmerized, instead. Now, your everyday radio sort of music is all right... hum along and knit.

You know, I found it extremely difficult to think of stuff about myself. I kept wanting to tell you about my kids instead. Does that mean I don't want to share, or that I'm one of those moms? Hrmmmm.

At any rate, now you know. I'm sure I'll think of something amazing I could have told you instead, you know, right after I hit 'submit'. I'm not going to tag anyone, just as I don't send along email jokes. I enjoy reading them, but I don't want to bother anyone else with them. I'm quirky that way. So, if you'd like to play along, consider yourself tagged and let me know you did. I'd love to hear how quirky you are, too.

Saturday Sky - 16 December

Welcome to the south. 75 degrees and beautiful in northern Florida.

A Frog Says, "Rip-it!"

A Cautionary Tale for New Lace Knitters

This is what an incorrect sl2-k1-p2sso looks like.

This is what a correct sl2-k1-p2sso looks like, after you re-read the directions and discern your mistake. sl2 together. TOGETHER, folks.

This is how long you - okay, I - can knit, thinking “I hope that blocks out…” before re-reading the directions and actually seeing what they say.

This is what the scarf looks like now. Thirteen days. I can make it. Gotta go now.

Saturday Sky - 9 December

Blue as blue can be. It was actually crisp here today - the high was in the high 40's. The kids could have worn their hats, if only their heads were bigger. :)

I'm thinking sport weight yarn and some fair isle... AFTER the holidays, of course. Still knitting on pressies; can't start something new now!

I'd Burn it in Effigy...

...but it would smell too much.

While up in Ohio last month, I was hit with the urge to knit. Anything. NOW. So, when we went into a store for something else and Tweedledee fell in love with some yarn, I agreed to make him a hat.

So what if the yarn is little ugly. And fuzzy. And acrylic. I'm okay with that. I buy the yarn and new needles, and set to work. And lose stictches. It's impossible to tell a knit from a purl in this stuff, let alone find a dropped stitch. The dropped stich mocks me; I know it's there, but it hides. It gloms onto nearby stitches with its fuzzy little fingers, promising to run a bit later when I stop looking for it. Ah, but I KNOW it's there. I won't stop looking until I've frantically pushed and pulled on every part of the hat, trying to get it to run a bit so I can SEE it. Insidious little bugger won't move. Oh well; it's only been 5 inches. I'll fix that stitch. Cackling, I frog the entire thing and start again. Five inches and another lost stitch later, I do it again. And, yes, a third time, albeit without the cackling this time. It is not lost on me at this point that I could have made the hat twice over by now.

So, I proudly claim defeat and knit this instead:

It's too big for him, and it makes me cringe because the cast on is too tight. But, he loves it, and that is what counts.

Started:	21 November 2006
Finished:	2 December 2006
Pattern:	You must be joking.
Yarn:	Lion brand Lion Suede, Color #110 (Denim). Less than a skein.
Needles:	Clover 7" bamboo dpns, size US 8
Notes:	Decreased every row at top to see what a boxier hat top would be like. Don't do that again. Bamboo needles with suede yarn is grippy-yarn-overkill. Didn't need ends to keep stitches from slipping off the needle, but also had to fight with the yarn. Don't do that again, either.

Saturday Sky - 2 December

OK, so technically it's Sunday, but here's a photo I snapped from our car on Saturday afternoon. If you look in the middle of the photo, you'll see what I was trying to capture: a sundog. Here it is a little closer-up:



Hope you all had a lovely day.

Shhhh! He's twacking a meme!

OK, as doctoral theses go, this guy has a cool one - he has postulated the way a meme spreads on the 'net. He wishes all of us to participate by spreading this little nugget around the blogosphere in a way that he can track. I'm not one for pleading or cajoling, but do consider participating. I remember being a grad student, and the more data the better! Besides, he has a sense of humor:

"...a script I've written will track this meme (via Technorati) across the internet in 10 minute intervals. It will record the number of links to this post, register their authority and create a database the very size of which will cause my poor processor to fall tumbling, in flames, down a steep cliff. (So be it. We all must makes sacrifices in the name of science.)"

Heh. Go forth and help. His plea and instructions are here.

(For anyone who cares, I found this meme through Mamacate's blog.)

Saturday Sky a day early

A gorgeous day at Manatee Springs in Florida. 72 degrees in both the air and the water. We walked out along the boardwalk, and spied the manatees out where the spring flows into the Suwannee River. Lovely!

Saturday Sky - 11 November

We drove from Ohio back to North Carolina today. We saw a lot of this in the mountains. As we were coming through Virginia, the sun broke through and we were treated to sunbeams filtering down over the blue ridges. Sadly, the best views are from the tops of the ridges. For some reason, they don't make rest stops on the ridgetops. :)

Boy Meets Snake

Although his brother asked for a quick mouse, Tweedle-doh* opted for a snake knit from itty-bitty cotton yarn. He loved that I was making it, made all the appropriate noises when presented with said snake, and then promptly forgot it exists. I'm trying to decide whether the weeks of it being on the needles (and the accompanying excitement that Mommy was making something just for HIM) is enough to make me want to do it again with the Next Big Thing.

* Yes, my twins call themselves Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-doh (pronounced with a Homer Simpsonesque d'oh!) Don't ask. It's really rather endearing, in a twisted sort of way.

Started:	2006
Finished:	2 November 2006
Pattern:	None.
Yarn:	Ball band MIA. 100% cotton, one skein. Red pearl cotton for the tongue, crocheted.
Needles:	Old pink aluminums.
Notes:	The decreases twisted on his head; not quite sure how that happened. I'll need to test a bit if I ever do it again. 4mm amythest beads for the eyes. The body is stuffed with polyester fiberfill - stuffed as I knit; the only way to go with a snake!

Saturday Sky - 4 November

There was a gorgeous full moon out tonight. Sadly, those photos didn't turn out well. So, I bring you this bit of pink loveliness from the other side of the sky. Sometimes it pays to turn around.

Sock Wars Status

Happy Halloween!

Current sock wars status: 525 dead, 64 dying, 133 living, 40 AWOL, and 10 of unknown status.

It tickles me that there are at least 64 pairs of handknit socks being delivered around the world as I type this. Yes, I get entirely too much enjoyment out of this. What can I say? I'm easily amused.

Sock Wars - Round Two

Saturday: Finished socks. Weighed socks. Went on research binge to figure out how to send socks to Norway with reasonable efficiency and without breaking the bank.

I ended up using Global Priority Mail from the post office. Huge envelope, flat rate fee of $8.50, and no hassle. I probably could have mailed it for less by weight, but the free Tyvek envelope looked like it could really take a beating without tearing up. Let's hope!

Today: Mailed socks, went to wild Halloween party full of kids, followed by piano lessons for one of my guys. Need to make dinner.

Tonight: Imminent collapse.

Started:	19 October 2006
Finished:	28 October 2006
Pattern:	Yarn Monkey's International Sock of DOOM
Yarn:	Ball band MIA. 100% mercerized cotton, in a dark bluish green. One ball per sock, with a bit left over on each.
Needles:	Old pink aluminums, size US 5
Notes:	This stuff is like knitting with string - no sproing at all. I hope the ribbing is enough to keep everything conforming to my victim's feet. I received half of a sock from Julie in CA - she'd turned the heel - and finished the pair for MagFly in Norway.

Sunday Sky - 29 Oct

Sorry for missing Saturday with my sky. I hope today's sky makes up for it.