Before The Next Teardrop Falls

Just a quick post. Yesterday one of the great ones passed. Baldemar Huerta, better known as Freddy Fender, died. I was lucky enough to hear him perform live one time, last year. He was a legend, and will be greatly missed.

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If all you know of his music is Wasted Days and Wasted Nights, pick up his La Musica de Baldemar Huerta. It’s one of the classics.

Adios, muchacho.

Birthday Update, Knitting Update

First of all, thank you, everybody, for the great birthday wishes! The day was great, even though I had to go to work. I got chocolate cake twice, so not much to complain about, really. We had dinner at the neighbors’ house, and the birthday girl got to wear a crown.

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At least they didn’t insist on 50 candles. That’s my own crown by the way. Every girl needs one.

As part of my birthday present we drove up to the big city to the Tractor Tavern Tuesday night for a little music. We heard Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez, and they were fabulous. Those of you not familiar with either might recognize Chip Taylor as the guy who wrote “Angel of the Morning”, way back when. One of the highlights of the evening was that Merrilee Rush, who made that song a hit in the 60’s, did a duet with him on the song. She lives in the Seattle area, and dropped in to listen, and he invited her up on stage. Very cool.

On the knitting front, I have way too many projects going, and really need to finish something. At last count, there were two shawls, two sweaters, and 1 pair of socks, all in various stages of completion.  This much unfinished-ness doesn’t sit well with me. I’m quite happy having the yarn and patterns for 900 projects in the stash, but once they’re started, I’m happiest with three. So I’ve been working away at that orange Pippa sweater.

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It’s more copper colored, and less marinara sauce colored than that photo would lead you to believe. I think it’s the yellow background that throws it off. I have the sleeves done, and that’s the back, and I’ve started on one of the front pieces. I modified the shoulders to do short row finishing, as I despise stairstep finished shoulders. They are nearly impossible to seam neatly.

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I was going to show a few pictures and add an explanation of how to do this, but others have already done so, and better. I used Nancie Wiseman’s Knitters Book of Finishing Techniques, and nonaKnits has a great post on the subject. It turned out pretty well, I think. I had to do a little juggling so I wasn’t wrapping stitches in the middle of those twisted columns, but once I figured out that I could shift the wrapped stitch one way or the other 1 or 2 stitches, I was off and running. I even wrote down where I did the wraps on the back so I can match them on the front.

Now if I just can keep track of where I wrote it down.

It’s cocktail hour, and I’m off. Have a good evening, everybody!

They Say It’s Your Birthday…

Just had to announce publicly. It’s today, I’m 50 years old. Who knows where the time went?

One of my favorite aging stories is when my mom was in her late 70’s. She had severe Parkinsons disease by then and could barely string two words together, and we weren’t always too sure she was with us in the conversation. My sister and I had taken her shopping (her favorite activity, right up to the end!), and stopped for lunch. We were talking about this and that, and the topic of her age came up. My sister said something about her being seventy-something. My mother got this horrified look on her face, snapped to attention, and said very clearly, “NO, not THAT old!”.

My biggest disappointment today? Nobody patted me on the head yesterday and said, “Oh, don’t bother coming in to work tomorrow, just stay home and have a lovely day.”

I guess if that’s all I have to complain about, I’m a lucky woman.

NO, not THAT old, indeed.

Yeah, we’re gonna have a good time.

Ten Songs, Ten Bloggers

Two posts in one day. What’s this world coming to?

Damn, this one was a hard one. I got tagged by Wendy for this, and it’s been sitting in my email “to-do” folder while I was thinking. I’m still thinking.

My music taste generally would be described as psychotic by most of my friends and neighbors. I prefer the term “eclectic”. So these songs are by no means representative of my entire playlist. I’m just going to randomly pick ten songs out of my ITunes list that I’ve listened to recently and hope it gives you an idea.

1. Blue Railroad Train, by Jorma Kaukonen. The album is Blue Country Heart. You know the guy, I know you do. Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna. His solo albums are great acoustic blues.

2. Shenandoah, by Dave Alvin, from his Public Domain album. I love everything that man sings, but this is one my favorite albums of his.

3. OK, I can pick two by the same artist. From Dave’s album Interstate City, the track Jubilee Train/Do Re Mi/Promised Land.

4. Let’s shift gears. Memories Are Made of This, by Dean Martin. Very corny, I know. That’s me. This music comes on, I want to go make myself a martini.

5. Jessica, by the Allman Brothers. This one makes me want to get in the car and drive. Or Blue Sky. Or Statesboro Blues. Anything from their live albums will do (don’t get me started on which one’s the best. Who cares?).

6. Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, by you-know-who.

7. Beethoven’s 7th symphony. My favorite version is from Leonard Bernstein’s Final Concert album. This one just makes me happy.

8. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, by the Andrews Sisters. Really. It’s impossible not to tap your toes while this one is on.

9. Smoking Panetelas on the Blue Mediterranean Sea, by the Aqua Velvets. Gotta have some surf guitar, and this is very seductive surf music. And I love the title.

10. Last but not least, what’s a playlist without the Greatest Honky Tonk Singer Of All Time? We’re talking Vern here, Vern Gosdin. Set ‘Em Up Joe gets played around here a lot, especially when the bourbon comes out.

11. OK, it’s my blog, I can do 11 if I want. I realized there is no bluegrass in that list. That lapse is not tolerated around here. Hmmmm, how to pick just one? OK, from Jerry Garcia, the best bluegrass picker and singer there is/was. That Grateful Dead thing was just a side gig. I’m giving you a three-fer. Shady Grove, from the album of the same name he did with David Grisman. Arabia, from an album entitled David Grisman & Jerry Garcia. It’s an incredible over-16-minute jam. And really, last but not least, Teddy Bear Picnic, from the album Not For Kids Only. I had to include that one for Sweetpea.

12. Really, just one more, just because I love the movie it came from, and it just came up on the random ITunes playlist. Belleville Rendez-Vouz, from the movie Triplets of Belleville. If you like animated movies, go rent it. It’s in French, but it doesn’t matter, because there is little dialogue.

The list goes on and on.

OK, to tag ten bloggers. These are again just randomly selected from some of you, just because I want to hear what you listen to.

1. PJ

2. Kris

3. Theresa

4. Deb

5. Lynda

6. Jane

7. Laurie

8. Dorothy

9. Vera

10. Lee Ann

Consider yourself tagged. No go read my other post from today. I wouldn’t want you to miss it just because I got carried away and did two.

The Dog Ate My Blogpost

I have an even better excuse than that one for not posting.

First of all, I didn’t die, or get abducted by aliens, or anything like that. It was worse.

I got a new computer. An IMac, to be exact. I’ve spent the last 2 weeks with my butt in front of the computer, getting everything set up just the way I want it. In the process, I’ve become a Mac evangelist. Mic****ft s*cks, is all I have to say. You pull this thing out of the box, and after that first shock of how astoundingly beautiful it is, and where all the other cables and parts went, you put the thing on the desk, take the ONE cable that hooks to the back and to the wall outlet, plug it in, and you’re off.

One might assume that I haven’t been doing much knitting while I was playing with my new toy. You’d be right. I do have a new sock project to show you, but you’ll have to wait a paragraph or two.

I did pull my head out of the computer long enough to invite friends over for dinner this weekend. I’m lucky enough to live close to a number of knitters, one of whom is Kris. She and her husband, Dana, and their daughter, Anna Grace, and another couple (non-knitters, sorry to say) all came over for an evening of fun and food, and wine, of course. A good time was had by all. One of the best parts? Kris brought a non-traditional but very welcome “hostess gift”. Here it is:

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This one shows the color of the yarn better.

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How cool is that? Kris can come to my house for dinner anytime.

I also have done a bit of shopping, though that was actually before the computer came. I just had to figure out how to get photos on this thing to post it. This is from KnitPicks. Kris made me buy the chart holder thing, and I couldn’t just order that. Here’s the loot.

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I’ve wanted that electronic row counter ever since I saw it. I know I said that I love my little cheap tally counters from the office supply store. I lied. I really love this one better. It appeals to my enthusiasm for new gadgets.

Here’s the chart holder. The magnets are just not pink. I have no idea why the photo came out that way. So if the only reason that you are clicking over to Knitpicks to buy this is for the pink magnets, forget it. They’re sort of lavendar, but not Pepto pink.

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And what’s in that little green bag? Why, my current sock project, of course.

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Isn’t that just the pinkest pink you’ve ever seen? That yarn really is that pink. It’s called Hot Flash, and is  Socks That Rock from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. It’s not listed on the website, but if you email Tina, she might have some. You never know. That’s how I got mine. I think I told her some sob story about how I’m menopausal and might cry if I didn’t get some of this, and she took pity on me and sent it. I’m not above grovelling for yarn.

I promised Project Specs on that last pair of socks that I did. I’ll get it done, really. I’ll post it in the Finished Projects section when I get a minute. It’s a basic top down sock, 64 stitches, STR in Rainforest Jasper, for me. There you go.

Next post will be the “Ten songs, ten bloggers” meme that’s going around. I got tagged by Wendy. I’m just having a bit of trouble picking only ten of each. I’m working on it.

STR Socks!

I didn’t record the final details of this one on my blog. This is Socks That Rock sock yarn, the lightweight version, I believe. It’s the color Rainforest Jasper from the Sock club, though I used my own pattern. 68 stitches on size 1 needles, picot hem, heel flap and gusset. What’s not to like?
I finished these in September 2006, for me.

Ahoy, Mateys!

Just so y’all are ready for the day:

International Talk Like A Pirate Day

And my favorite part, the videos that teach you just what to say:

Avast, Me Hearties

And for a quick list you can print out and hide in your pocket:

British Pirate Speak

Don’t get caught sounding like a landlubber.

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Edited to add, direct from that other Knitting Pirate, Celia, otherwise known as Mad Bess Kidd. We’re apparently long lost sisters:

My pirate name is:
Captain Morgan Kidd

Even though there’s no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you’re the one in charge. Even though you’re not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate.    Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Bess and Morgan, long lost piratical sisters. I always was the bossy one.

One More Finished Project

But first, it’s that time of the year again. We all packed up and went to the Puyallup Fair yesterday. We didn’t lug the camera along, as we had enough to hang on to already, but did take a few photos with our camera phones. (Did you realize that it takes about six pairs of hands to manage two small children at a fair?)

We looked at more kinds of rabbits than I knew existed, rode rides (some of us), ate Elephant Ears (no, I didn’t even bother to calculate WW points for those), looked at the crafts, and watched the Mutton Busting contest. I didn’t get pictures of that one, but none of us could quite figure out why you would put a three-year old child on a terrified sheep, wearing flip-flops, no less. It was funny, but in a disturbing, watching a car wreck sort of way. Here are a few photos of the rest of the day.

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For some reason, I didn’t take any pictures of the knitted items in the craft pavilion, but this crocheted doll caught my eye. I’ve blocked out the names of the winner to protect the innocent, but note that this thing won a blue ribbon. I don’t mean to offend anyone here, but WTF? I’m sure that there is some little girl somewhere who would like this on her nightstand, but this would just give me nightmares. Kris, you and I are so entering the fair next year. Surely we can beat this.

The kids rode the kiddie rides. Those of you who have been with me for awhile might remember this one from last year that George and I dared to ride.

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We rode the one on the right, the Turbo Force. That was last year. We just chickened out this year. The only scarier ride is that slingshot thing on the left, and there is not enough yarn in the world that could induce me to strapping myself into that thing. Maybe next year.

Here’s Alicia and Penelope. I’m not sure either one of them realized what they were standing in front of, but John, being the guy that he is, couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a good photo.

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Note that Penelope is having a very good time. So did Sam:

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So did I. After enjoying the crowds, and the junk food, and the legions of screaming children, John and I needed a respite, and found the wine garden:

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The people at the wine tasting booth said that the Fair organizers couldn’t ignore the fact that wine is a big agricultural crop in Washington, so had to include it in the fun.

I conned George into holding the sock for a picture. I finally figured out how the Harlot gets away with this one. You stuff the sock into their hands, jump back and shoot before they know what hit them.

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And Sam, at the end of the day.

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Whew, that’s over with for another year.

Here are the socks, done:

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I’ll post Project Specs next time. I’m off to cast on the next pair.

Saturday Sky, and Finished Project Redux

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The sun has slowly started to appear since I took that one, but clearly, fall has arrived. There’s a nice chill in the air, getting down into the 40’s at night, fine sleeping weather. It makes me want to break out all that fine wool and start knitting sweaters.

I was able to get a better picture of the completed Forest Canopy shawl yesterday. One benefit of the ridiculous amount of money we spent fixing our wood rot problems is that I have a great glass deck wall to model shawls. You have no idea how much better that makes me feel about the whole project.

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And as promised, I started a new one, from the same pattern.

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Those of you paying attention might note that the yarn is not Knitpicks Alpaca in Vineyard that I posted about last time. I had this Zephyr left over from another project, and there is a little more than 2 oz. of it, probably 700 yards or so. I thought the color suited the name of the shawl, so there you have it. I’ll use the alpaca for something else. (A third one, perhaps?)

I started this on the Knitpicks Options needles, but had a heck of a time with the wool silk blend slipsliding away from me, so switched to my favorite needles of all time, Holz & Stein ebonies (3.25 mm, for future reference). I bought some of these previously via a friend who lives in Germany, but the shop that used to carry them doesn’t anymore. Fortunately I found the motherlode of Holz & Stein, and after several emails back and forth with a lovely woman named Ursula, this arrived yesterday.

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These are simply the most decadent needles I’ve ever used. Here is their website, though it acts a bit squirrelly if you use Firefox as your browser. Email Ursula, and these could belong to you, too. They are not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but just perfect. The tips aren’t as sharp as the Options, but the join is lovely, and the ebony divine. Any of you spouses out there that are looking for a gift that will make your knitter-spouse swoon, this might be it.

I especially love that Ursula put this in the package:

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It’s a cute little ebony pencil with Holz & Stein stamped on it, and a tape measure wrapped up to look like a sweet. How sweet!

The grandkids are here this weekend, so who knows how much actual knitting will get done. I’ll show you two last pictures of the day. First is Willie, as you don’t get to see many pictures of him here. Now that the weather is cooler, he’s hanging out in the house more. Yesterday was a fine day for a cat to enjoy a patch of sunshine.

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And here’s John explaining the finer points of opening a bottle of wine to one of his grandsons:

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Don’t worry, he didn’t get to drink any of it with his cinnamon grahams. Have a good weekend!

Finished Project!

First of all, many thanks to all of you who gave me moral support regarding my hearing thing. The good news is that it’s nearly back to normal. I still have a tiny bit of deficit in the very low frequency tones, but not so much as to be noticable without an audiologist telling me that. The ringing in my ear is gone, and I’ll be off the steroids as of tomorrow. So all is well. I still have to get an MRI, just as a precaution, but it’s not scheduled for another week, and I don’t expect any surprises there. I still cry at weird moments, thanks to the prednisone, and am having bizarre dreams, but I’m having to take fewer drugs to counteract the side effects of the original drugs, so that’s a good thing. I hate polypharmacy.

The one really swell side effect of prednisone? Though it’s made me terribly nauseated, so I can’t eat much, I haven’t lost an ounce, in fact I have gained weight. Son of a bitch, is all I have to say about that. This is all making me really sympathetic to the complaints of my patients when they whine about drug side effects. Count me in on the side of whining.

Now, on to the knitting. I finished the Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl last night in the wee hours, and it’s on the blocking board. Here are photos. The Ipod is for scale.

Before the big stretch:

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And after:

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Sorry it looks a little technicolor. Next time I’ll grab mats of the same color.

Project Specifications:

Yarn: Mountain Colors Weavers Wool quarters, color Sagebrush. I used all but a few yards of the skein, though I possibly could have squeezed one more pattern repeat out of it.
Pattern: Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl, by Susan Pierce Lawrence. This is just one of my favorite patterns. It looks all fancy and complicated, but is easy-peasy. The pattern repeat is just 8 rows, half of which are purled on the wrong side, so it’s easy to memorize after a couple of repeats. It’s also very easy to tell immediately if you’ve gotten off a stitch.
Started: September 1, 2006
Finished: September 14, 2006. I’d have finished it sooner if I was not such an easily distracted person. And I’m the slowest knitter in the west.
Needles: Knitpicks Options circular, size 4mm.
For: ?? This one is going in the gift pile, I can’t say for whom just yet.
What I learned: Lace can be fun and easy. I knew about the fun part, but easy? That was a new one. I also learned a bit about the construction of lace shawls.
I liked this one so much that I’m going to knit another one, this time in lace weight. Susan has a picture up from yesterday of one that she knit in Knitpicks Shadow. What do you know? I just happen to have one skein of that in the stash! Here it is, in a lovely red wine color.

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This one might have to be for me. I’m off to wind up yarn.

Can You Hear Me Now?

Actually, that should be, “can I hear you now?” More on the title as the post grows. First, I have had just the wildest week on earth.

I got to meet Dorothy again. She came and stayed at my house last Saturday and Sunday, so we could knit together and go to Seattle to hear the Harlot. Saturday we invited all our bleeding-heart-liberal-neighbor-friends over to meet Dorothy and impress her with their liberal jokes (I’m not sure it worked, but she was very gracious and put up with them nicely.) Actually the real reason that I invited them over was to prove to them that y’all aren’t really just my little imaginary friends. I’m not sure they believed previously.

Dorothy brought along several of her completed lace projects so I could drool on them. Now I truly have something to aspire to. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of them, but go to her blog and check back through her archives and photos. She does absolutely amazing stuff with needles and yarn.

Sunday we got up early to get to church before we headed off to the city. My mom always claimed that it was more or less acceptable to party on Saturday night, as long as you got your butt out of bed and went to church the next morning. My first clue that something was amiss was that I could hear Dorothy singing in my left ear (lovely voice, by the way), but I couldn’t hear myself sing. I just figured it was the allergy season, didn’t think too much of it, and we went on home after church. We collected Kris for the trip to Seattle, then went on a little yarn-shopping expedition. Here are my partners in crime at Weaving Works:

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Note Kris clutching that yarn like I was going to steal it from her. I couldn’t have, I had my own hands full. We also went to Acorn Street yarn shop, and did a bit more shopping. Here’s D & K perusing the sidewalk sale. Sad to say, it was mostly really sparkly bizarre novelty yarn. They did have very nice stuff inside, though.

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Here’s the stuff I bought:

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More lace yarn, like I need more lace yarn.

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Mountain Colors Bearfoot, like I need more sock yarn.

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This, I needed. I still am on a mission to do knee highs, and found the pattern that I just need to make. This yarn is just the softest stuff on earth. Here’s a picture of the pattern, not the greatest, but you get the idea. It’s from Socks, Socks, Socks.

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I might decide that those are a little ambitious, but what the heck.

After we cleaned out the yarn stores, we headed to Bothell to hear Stephanie. She was a total hoot, as usual, though my right ear was driving me crazy and I was starting to get a terrible ringing noise, along with progressively worse hearing.

Here’s Stephanie at the book signing table:

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She was very gracious, and took a picture of me with her sock. I am so honored, and if I died now, I would be a happy woman, let me tell you.

By the time we got home, the noise in my ear had turned into something very annoying. It sounded a little like I was sitting in the middle of the runways at Seatac. When I woke up Monday, the noise was gone, and so was everything else from my right ear. I couldn’t hear a thing. We got Dorothy off on her journey home, and decided to skip the Bumbershoot festival that we had planned to attend. Being as it was Labor Day, I couldn’t do much about the hearing thing, but did manage to do a little google search for “sudden hearing loss”. Nothing particularly comforting there, but I still wasn’t panicked. Probably the funniest comment that John has made in a long time, however, was to nicely suggest that I “call somebody” and get an appointment Tuesday to check it out. No, I just thought I’d wait until the other one went, too.

Tuesday,  I started my wild work week, made additionally entertaining by the fact that I could only hear out of one ear. I did get an appointment with an ENT specialist late in the day, and after some testing, discovered that it unfortunately was not some simple ear infection, or even better, wax. And that I had rather profound hearing loss. He put me on high dose steroids and an antiviral drug, and sent me back to work, with an appointment on Thursday to retest.

The good news? My hearing is MUCH better. The repeat audiology exam Thursday shows that I have regained quite a bit of function. It’s not even close to back to normal, but I’m extremely encouraged.
The bad news? Steroid side effects. My particularly lovely manifestation has been that I am totally emotionally wrecked. I am normally not a crying woman, but I have been just crying at the drop of a hat. Nurses call me to ask if it’s ok to send somebody down to xray without a nurse? I cry. My boss is nice to me? I cry. You get the idea. Combine that with some very lovely drug-induced wild dreams, and a truly wildly busy work week, and it has just been a weird time. I go back Tuesday for another evaluation, and only have to take these damn drugs for a total of 11 days, so I suppose I’ll live.

Oh, and one thing that really made me cry today. I don’t normally talk about patient-related stuff here, for all sorts of reasons, but I got called for an all-fired emergency consult this morning up to the labor and delivery ward. Without giving up too much confidential info, a young woman was in the middle of labor, pushing, baby about to be born, had a medical issue rather acutely, and they called me upstairs. Everything turned out OK, medical issue got resolved, and mom and baby are perfect. (9 pounds 14 ounces perfect!) I got to see the little guy get born though. That was truly a gift, as I don’t normally have much to do with the OB ward, and haven’t seen a baby born in years. And I was even able to hear his first cry. With both ears.

Slippery Slope

Or,

How Projects Multiply When You’re Not Careful

I am generally most comfortable with a “three project” rule. One generally is a sweater-like project, one is a sock, and the third is something else, a lace shawl, for example. I am a slow knitter anyway, so having a multitude of things in progress makes me a bit nutty, as it seems like I never get anything finished.

In the past few months, though, I have started down that slippery slope of multiple WIPs. First it was that eggplant sweater that got put into timeout. (It’s still there, I plan on working on it this fall.) Now that I’ve found that it isn’t so bad to have two sweaters going at the same time, I am throwing caution to the wind.

Yes, I started a second lace project this morning. I still have that purple Icelandic thing going, and I still love the pattern, and the yarn, and the book. I’ll keep working on that one, too. But I found this on my blog excursions this morning, and couldn’t resist.

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You can get yours here. It uses one skein of Mountain Colors Weaver’s Wool, and I just happened to have about ten different colors of this in the stash, earmarked for socks. This color is Sagebrush, by the way. Susan has come up with an easy lace shawl pattern that is intended to suck in introduce beginning lace knitters to the joys of making intentional holes in their knitting.

Here’s another photo. I haven’t decided if I like this on this size needle or not.

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I might try going down a needle size (this is a size 4.5mm) to see what it looks like. Or maybe not.  Susan thinks that I can finish this in a weekend. We’ll see. That would get the project numbers back towards balance, wouldn’t it?
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I haven’t forgotten that I promised a link to the house remodeling photo show. John finally finished getting the last of the photos sorted and uploaded, and you’ll find it here. I’ll warn you ahead of time, there are about a gazillion photos in there. Have a great holiday weekend!

Pink Panther Dragon Scales Washcloth

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Yarn: Euroflax linen, sportweight, Pink Panther
Pattern: Dragon Scales Washcloth, from Knitters Stash.
Started: ??
Finished: August 29, 2006
Needles: Vintage faux tortoise shell straights, size 3.25mm (labelled Imperial size 10)
For: ?? This might be a gift, or maybe just for me.

What I learned: I learned that I hate knitting complex stitch patterns from text. I would much rather knit from a chart. I kept losing my place in the pattern until I sat down and charted it out, which only took a few minutes. I can’t quite figure out why this stitch pattern scallops on one edge and not the other. If this was a big shawl it would irritate me, but it’s just a facecloth.

I liked doing this more than I thought I would. The yarn is just lovely stuff. I’ve made one other linen cloth from this book, and they are wonderful for facecloths. I have enough of the Euroflax linen to make a whole trousseau worth of cloths. I think I’ll go get out the stitch dictionary and get to work.

Finished Project, Of Sorts

I have actually finished something. In looking back through my archives, it has been two months since I actually completed any knitting projects. So, small though it is, I’m posting this, just because it’s my blog and I can.

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I started this eons ago, and finally sat down last night with a Tivo full of JAG reruns, and finished the thing.

Yarn: Euroflax linen, sportweight, Pink Panther
Pattern: Dragon Scales Washcloth, from Knitters Stash.
Started: ??
Finished: August 29, 2006
Needles: Vintage faux tortoise shell straights, size 3.25mm (labelled Imperial size 10)
For: ?? This might be a gift, or maybe just for me.

What I learned: I learned that I hate knitting complex stitch patterns from text. I would much rather knit from a chart. I kept losing my place in the pattern until I sat down and charted it out, which only took a few minutes. I can’t quite figure out why this stitch pattern scallops on one edge and not the other. If this was a big shawl it would irritate me, but it’s just a facecloth.

I have a half a hank of the Pink Panther left (and a billion other hanks of Euroflax in other colors, I can’t resist the stuff), so I will cast on for one of the other patterns in the book before I forget where I put it.

I also made some new stitch markers last night. I have a whole box of beading supplies to make these, and I saw a Buddha stitch marker on someone’s blog recently (don’t remember where, if it’s you, let me know in the comments). I found little Buddha beads online, got them in the mail this week, and went to work last night. Really, these only take a few minutes to make.

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Aren’t those just adorable? How can you not smile when you’re knitting with little fat Buddhas on your needles? Click on that to get the full effect.

I also bought some sheepy stitch markers recently, from Mousie Masala. Go see her, she has lots of good stuff. Here are the sheep:

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And my Buddhas on the needles:

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Click on that picture too, to make it big enough to see the Buddhas, and my little handwritten chart. You can see my fancy-shmancy needles there, too. Every time I show a picture of these, I get at least one comment about them. If you want them, scrounge around Ebay and watch for them. Look for vintage tortoise knitting needles, and you’ll find them. I have a whole vase full of them in various sizes.

Oh, OK, here they are.

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And just in case anybody wants to see another view of what my lake looks like today:

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This house was definitely built with the focus on the lake. We have three levels of deck/patio, and this one is off our master bedroom on the top floor. We call it the “crow’s nest”, and it is our private little retreat that nobody else gets to visit. It’s a great place for martinis in the evening. Which gives me an idea, it’s almost cocktail hour!

Autumn Is Coming

It doesn’t feel like it just yet, at least not in the daytime, but we’ve had to get the lightweight down comforter back on the bed for nighttime. It’s supposed to get down into the 40’s at night later this week. (That would be between 5-10 C for everybody else in the world.)

Here’s a photo to prove that autumn is on the way. I found this in a pile with its relatives at the farmers’ market yesterday.

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Hell, the corn isn’t even ready in full force around here yet.

Here’s another reminder that autumn is on the way. In some countries, it’s already hit. Lene has finished her latest knee socks, and they are a lovely fall shade to match the lovely fall foliage. Check out her post from yesterday for pictures. I have this indescribable urge to knit knee socks all of a sudden.

I did find a website with a tutorial on making knee socks, and getting them to fit. Check out HJS Studio if you are so inclined. So, how many yards of sock yarn would it take to make knee socks? Any guesses?