Lorette

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.

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.

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.

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

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:

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.

And Sam, at the end of the day.

Whew, that’s over with for another year.

Here are the socks, done:

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

Saturday Sky, and Finished Project Redux

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.

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

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.

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:

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.

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

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:

And after:

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.

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:

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.

Here’s the stuff I bought:

More lace yarn, like I need more lace yarn.

Mountain Colors Bearfoot, like I need more sock yarn.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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:

And my Buddhas on the needles:

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.

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

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.

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?

The Blog Vacation…

…Is Now Over.

What can I say? I just forgot to blog. I checked out the date today, thinking I had just posted, oh, maybe a week ago, and it’s been three flipping weeks. And I don’t even have all that much knitting to show for it.

In categories:

Trips:

I promised the “going home” photos from the bluegrass festival a month ago. I’m only posting these because they have knitting content, and this is, in fact, a knitting blog.

Those two photos are from Cape Horn, along the Columbia River. This is of Lewis & Clark fame, for those of you a little rusty on your explorer history. If you haven’t read it, find Undaunted Courage, by Stephen Ambrose, and learn all about their journey. It’s one of my all-time favorite books. I keep buying it, then ~~forcing it on~~ giving it away to people to read.

Home Remodeling:

The stucco/wood rot/deck rebuilding project is officially done. John is sorting through the multitudes of photos that we took, and when he gets them organized, I’ll post a link to the Photo Show that he’s doing, rather than boring everyone to tears here with them. We hung the huge set of wind chimes back up this week, and that marked the official end of the project. Here are two photos for you:

The neighbors all came over to properly launch the new deck, complete with several bottles of champagne.

Visiting Relatives:

We joke around here that there are two seasons in western Washington; the rainy one, and visiting relatives. John’s sister Ena and her daughter Molly were here for a week earlier this month. We actually enjoy having family and friends visit, as it gives us a chance to be tourists as well. We have lived here for six years, and had not visited the Mount St. Helens area previously. We spent the week eating and drinking, hanging out by the lake, and did a little foray down the road to see the volcano.

First, here’s “dogs on the deck”.

I don’t remember if I posted Rae’s picture before. She’s our neighbors’ Corgi, a little over a year old. She clearly thinks that’s her toy lamb. Riley just as clearly thinks it’s hers.

That gives you an idea of the weather here that week. It didn’t stop Ena from checking out the hammock.

Eating and drinking:

Waiting for the ferry (day trip to Vashon Island). Doesn’t everybody knit while in line for the ferry?

Volcano visiting:

That’s Ena and Molly.

It did occur to me that we might qualify for the Darwin Awards by standing within shouting distance of an active volcano. Hey, we’d have gotten great pictures of the blast.

In the category of Packing My Lunch:

I got a new bento box to carry my lunch to work in. It’s from Laptop Lunches, and is the cutest lunchbox I’ve ever seen:

In the Knitting Projects category, there are no photos. My projects look pretty much like they did a post or so back, plus a few rows. I’m working on it, OK?

In the Uh-Oh category, a co-worker pointed this out the other day. This is Birch, which I evidently caught on something sharp.

I caught the wayward loops with a safety pin, and will sit down to fix this once I’ve stopped howling.

Here’s another category for you. Showing You Yarn Finds That You Might Have Missed Otherwise:

Smiley’s has Cotton Ease on sale, and there might be some left, though clearly I tried to eliminate that possibility.

Last but not least, in the Weight Watchers category:

That little car isn’t moving very fast, but it’s at least headed in the right direction!

More Bluegrass

Here are a few more pictures from our bluegrass excursion last weekend. The Columbia river area is just spectacular, and Stevenson is a fun little town. Saturday before the banjo fun started, we stopped at a local watering hole for a little lunch and some fine Columbia Valley wine. Of course, I took my knitting. I was the only knitter at the bar that day.

After lunch, I continued on with the sock. A woman at the next table was fascinated by the sight of all those needles. I might have converted a new knitter.

Lest you think that I have lost my touch, the coffee was after lunch, so I could stay awake until after midnight. I did have wine with lunch.

After lunch, we joined the festival at Skamania Lodge. The afternoon concert was on the lawn behind the lodge.

Here was the view from the stage:

One lucky couple had planned an outdoor wedding here on Saturday, not realizing that there was a bluegrass festival going on. Apparently they didn’t want banjo music during the ceremony, so the festival organizers were nice enough to stop the music for half an hour so they could get hitched. There they are in the distance.

My sweetie was nice enough to go get us some wine.

The festival moved to the county fairgrounds for the evening show.

Not a bad view there, either. Country Current, the Navy bluegrass band, played in the early evening.

After the show I played groupie and got my picture taken with the banjo man, Keith Arneson. Yes, banjo players can have groupies.

I had my picture taken with another festival favorite at one of the food stands.

One of my favorite things about this festival was the cookie people. They came around every evening with trays of warm homemade cookies, giving them away to the crowd.

There were a few knitters at the festival, but I didn’t get very good pictures of them. I also had two different women come up to me Saturday night to ask “Is that Rogue that you’re wearing?”. I love knitters.

Next post, the trip home, with (gasp) a project update.

Saturday Sky

Or,

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

First, the Ugly. As the ticker shows, the Volkswagon went in reverse this week. I got all rebellious on the point-tracking system this week. “Points?? I don’t need to count no stinking points!” And it showed on the scale. I think part of the gain was a major hormonal fluid-shift-salt-binge attack. All I can say is that it’s just not fair to have hot flashes and PMS at the same time. The Good news is that I went to that meeting even knowing I’d probably gained, sat through the meeting, and came away knowing what I need to do to fix it. We’ll see what happens next week.

The Good? We’re at a bluegrass festival this weekend. The same folks that do Wintergrass do a summer festival in Stevenson, WA, called Adventure Bluegrass. Stevenson is located on the southern border of Washington, on the Columbia Gorge. If you want to know what heaven looks like, drive along the Gorge from I-5 east. The river is spectacular, the mountains are lovely, and it is a perfect setting for a weekend of fine bluegrass, including my favorite bluegrass band, the US Navy Band, Country Current. We arrived yesterday, and the first evening of bluegrass was as fine as it gets. Early in the evening it was sunny and warm, then it got cool as the sun went down. Cool enough, in fact, for me to wear Rogue. Yes, an Aran weight wool cabled sweater with a hood. In late July. That’s the beauty of the weather here; it can be shorts-and-sandals hot during the day, and wool-sweater cold at night.

Our cabin is right on the Gorge, and here is my Saturday Sky:

One really Good thing about bluegrass festivals is all the free knitting time. I finished the first STR Rainforest Jasper sock last night, and started the second.

I only saw one other knitter last night, though she wasn’t actually knitting. She had a t-shirt on that said “Knitters Have Balls”. Let me tell you, I was tempted to hit her upside the head with my knitting bag when I ran into her by herself in the bathroom, just so I could steal that shirt. She better not show up anywhere unaccompanied today.

The Bad? A big old Douglas fir had to be taken out of our back yard this past week. I’ll post some pictures later when I’ve had a chance to sort through the ten thousand photos we took to document its demise, but I’ll leave you with a couple of Good pictures. Doug and Zeb are our new “foresters”, and they were in my backyard all day, which is not necessarily a Bad thing.

Yes, they really are that cute.

I hear the call of the banjos, so I’m off!

Saturday Sky

It’s time for Saturday Sky pictures again. But first, it’s weigh-in day. A drum roll, please.

1.6 pounds this week. This was a difficult week. Last week was all excitement and fun. This week was all about realizing that this is a long project; even longer than knitting a complex lace shawl. 6-8 months long, if I keep up the current rate of weight loss. I tend to have a short attention span, and when I get bored with something, it happens fast. So it was hard to stay on the plan this week. But I did, mostly, and the little red Volkswagon (same car that I drive in real life) moved ahead a respectable distance.

On to that Saturday Sky.

It is supposed to hit the 90’s here today, which is awfully hot for this part of the country. For once, I’m glad to see clouds and a bit of gray sky on a weekend. Yesterday it was in the 80’s and sunny, and the house got very warm. We don’t have air conditioning here, as we really don’t have that many days a year where we would appreciate it. Our bedroom is on the top level of our house, and gets a bit warm at times. Our other bedrooms are in the lower level, and cooler, but only have beds with footboards. At 5’10”, I just can’t sleep in them, as they are too short. So last night, I slept here for part of the night.

Lawn chair cushions make a fairly fine mattress for a hammock, by the way. I’m sure, however, that if there was any shred of hope in the neighbors’ minds that I resemble anything other than a total lunatic, that shred is gone. At about 2 AM, Lucy wandered outside. That would be Lucy, the cat who never goes outside, and who is as dumb as a brick about all the dangers of the big outdoors, especially at night. She normally sleeps with me, so I think she was planning on getting in “bed” with me, then got weirded out by the sight of me in the hammock and started racing around the back yard. So I’m out there, in the dark, in my t-shirt and underwear, carrying my pillow and teddy bear (yes, Sweetpea came with me to the back yard; it was too hot for her upstairs,too), running around the patio chasing the damn cat back in the house. Fortunately enough, by that time it had cooled off just a bit, and I retired to the much more comfortable bed upstairs, with what shreds of dignity I had left.

Just as a comparison, here’s my Friday Sky. We had friends over last night, and had drinks out on our deck. This is what the sky looked like at sunset. A bit fuzzy, but it gives you an idea. Which reminds me, I need to find the tripod for my camera. It’s buried under the piles of yarn somewhere, I’m sure.

And a few minutes later:

Have a good weekend, I’m off to the treadmill!

Oh, My

I have more knitting gadgets and loot than anybody I know. I have needles of all sizes and types. I have a collection of straights, both plastic and faux tortoiseshell, every type of double pointed sock needle known to man, and several different brands of circulars in multiple sizes and lengths. I have a set of Denise Interchangeables. So I needed new knitting needles like “a fish needs a bicycle”.

That didn’t stop me. I couldn’t resist it when Knitpicks announced their new Options knitting needle collection. I looked at them for a day or so, then checked around the blogs and noted that several people had received some, and liked them. Off I went, with the credit card number conveniently memorized for occasions such as this. They came in the mail this week.

The verdict? Wow. Here is a photo set that shows them.

The whole mess out of the box. The needle tips come in sizes 3.5mm to 8mm (US 4 to 11). They also sell the smaller sizes 2.5mm to 3.25mm (US 0-3) as plain circulars, in a variety of lengths. You can get cables in varying lengths, and if you want, can just buy the tips separately so you get just the sizes you use most frequently. It comes with end caps so you can use the cables as stitch holders, or use the tips with a cable as a “straight” needle.

The kit comes with a nice zip-up case. You can buy extra pocket folders as well.

Close-up of a needle, and the end caps.

The cables are nice and flexible, and fairly thin, so the stitches slide along nicely. The joins are amazingly smooth. I’ve never seen an interchangeable connection this nice, and it puts most other circulars that I’ve tried to shame. The yarn just glides over the connection with no catch. The little paper-clippy thing is to tighten the tips so they don’t unscrew in the middle of a row.

Here’s a shot of the tips. They are dangerously sharp, sharp enough for the most discriminating lace knitter. The needle on the left is an Aero circular, which is another new favorite of mine (get yours here). The Options tips are just a bit pointier.

Downside? These are as slick as any needle that I’ve tried. I’m a fan of wood and plastic, as they are more flexible in my hands. These are very slippery, and I’m not sure I’d want to try an equally slippery yarn (think slinky rayon or silk) with these. If you like a slick needle, these are your babies. The Aeros aren’t quite as smooth, which could be a good thing, if your yarn wants to slide away from you.

Overall verdict? I love them. They have many advantages over the Denise system, which I also own and love. One big advantage is the ability to buy the needle tips and cables individually. You can get just one set of tips in your favorite size and one set of cables to try them out, without breaking the bank. They come in smaller sizes than the Denise set. I’ve seen the Boye interchangeable set, and though I know many people are fans, that aluminum clinky sound they make just drives me nuts. I don’t like the joins on the Boyes, either. I’ve had my Denise needles come unscrewed in the middle of a row. So far, these look very snugly joined. I’m a happy girl!
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Tomorrow is weigh-in day. I know y’all can’t wait, but you’ll just have to. Thanks again for all the support you’ve given me!

Life Is Not Fair

Just as a brief addition to yesterday’s post, in the category of “life is not fair”:

During the 1st week of my participation in Weight Watchers, in which I faithfully counted points and ate only what I was supposed to, I lost 2.2 pounds. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with that,and if I lose that much every week, I’ll be ecstatic.

Last night at dinner, John asked me quietly, but with a slight smug smirk on his face, “Is it going to piss you off if I tell you how much weight I lost this week?” Of course I said yes, but I had to know anyway.

This would be my husband John, who really doesn’t need to lose weight, and who sort of followed the program but didn’t count points, and ate other crap besides.

He lost 7 freaking pounds.

It’s enough to make me want to go eat donuts.