Goofy Stuff – Page 11 – The Knitting Doctor

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

To Do

From Ladylungdoc, at purl this!

Life’s to do list – I’ve bolded those I’ve gotten around to:

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink

02. Swam with wild dolphins

03. Climbed a mountain

04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive

05. Been inside the Great Pyramid

06. Held a tarantula

07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone

08. Said ‘I love you’ and meant it

09. Hugged a tree

10. Bungee jumped

11. Visited Paris

12. Watched a lightning storm at sea

13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise

14. Seen the Northern Lights

15. Gone to a huge sports game

16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa

17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables

18. Touched an iceberg

19. Slept under the stars

20. Changed a baby’s diaper

21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon

22. Watched a meteor shower

23. Gotten drunk on champagne

24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope

26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment

27. Had a food fight

28. Bet on a winning horse

29. Asked out a stranger

30. Had a snowball fight

31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can

32. Held a lamb

33. Seen a total eclipse

34. Ridden a roller coaster

35. Hit a home run

36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking

37. Adopted an accent for an entire day

38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment

39. Had two hard drives for your computer

40. Visited all 10 provinces

41. Taken care of someone who was drunk

42. Had amazing friends

43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country

44. Watched wild whales

45. Stolen a sign

46. Backpacked in Europe

47. Taken a road-trip

48. Gone rock climbing

49. Midnight walk on the beach

50. Gone sky diving

51. Visited Ireland

52. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love

53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them

54. Visited Japan

55. Milked a cow

56. Alphabetized your cds

57. Pretended to be a superhero

58. Sung karaoke

59. Lounged around in bed all day

60. Posed nude in front of strangers

61. Gone scuba diving

62. Kissed in the rain

63. Played in the mud

64. Played in the rain

65. Gone to a drive-in theater

66. Visited the Great Wall of China

67. Started a business

68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken

69. Toured ancient sites

70. Taken a martial arts class

71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight

72. Gotten married

73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party

75. Gotten divorced

76. Gone without food for 5 days

77. Made cookies from scratch

78. Won first prize in a costume contest

79. Ridden a gondola in Venice

80. Gotten a tattoo

81. Rafted the Snake River

82. Been on television news programs as an "expert"

83. Got flowers for no reason

84. Performed on stage

85. Been to Las Vegas

86. Recorded music

87. Eaten shark

88. Had a one-night stand

89. Gone to Thailand

90. Bought a house

91. Been in a combat zone

92. Buried one of your parents

93. Been on a cruise ship

94. Spoken more than one language fluently

95. Performed in Rocky Horror.

96. Raised children.
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour

98. Created and named your own constellation of stars

99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country

100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over

101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge

102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking

103. Had plastic surgery

104. Survived an illness that you shouldn’t have survived

105. Wrote articles for a large publication

106. Lost over 100 pounds

107. Held someone while they were having a flashback

108. Piloted an airplane

109. Petted a stingray

110. Broken someone’s heart

111. Helped an animal give birth

112. Won money on a T.V. game show

113. Broken a bone

114. Gone on an African photo safari

115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced

116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol

117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild

118. Ridden a horse

119. Had major surgery

120. Had a snake as a pet

121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon

122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours

123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states

124. Visited all 7 continents

125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days

126. Eaten kangaroo meat

127. Eaten sushi

128. Had your picture in the newspaper

129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about

130. Gone back to school

131. Parasailed

132. Petted a cockroach

133. Eaten fried green tomatoes

134. Read The Iliad – and the Odyssey

135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read

136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

137. Skipped all your school reunions

138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language

139. Been elected to public office

140. Written your own computer language

141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream

142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care

143. Built your own PC from parts

144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you

145. Had a booth at a street fair

146: Dyed your hair

147: Been a DJ

148: Shaved your head

149: Caused a car accident
150: Saved someone’s life

Saturday Sky

Sandy is on a mission to make Saturdays more entertaining around blog-land. Go check out her blog for the “rules”.

Here’s my Saturday sky:

And here’s my happy Saturday dog, playing the “hose” game:

Have a happy Saturday!

I’m Bored To Death By These Socks

That’s my latest favorite picture of Riley. The box sits by our front door, and Alan the UPS man leaves packages there if we’re not home when he comes around. He also carries Costco dog bones in his truck, which explains why Riley just loves him. She hears his truck about 3 blocks away, and goes bonkers until we open the door. Then she gallops out of the house and gets in the truck with him.

Every time she goes by that box, she gives it a sniff, then looks at us as if to say, “just open it, I’m sure there’s a bone in there.” Of course, every time I go by that box, I open the lid, just to make sure that somebody didn’t leave me any yarn when I wasn’t looking. At least I don’t go out and jump in the UPS truck when he drives up.

Here’s what I’m knitting today.

I just need those socks to be done, now. I’m sick of two-color sock knitting, enough so that I’d consider getting rid of a few toes on one foot so they’d fit. I have about 15-20 pattern rows left, then the toe decreases, then I will be done with them. To make matters worse, I know that I won’t be able to wear them until fall, since they are way too heavy for summer socks. I have been so tempted to cast on for a different pair, but I know myself too well. If I do, these will be relegated to the “never finished” pile. I don’t actually have a “never finished” pile, and I don’t want to start now. So I might line up about ten hours of Law & Order or JAG reruns, and knit all night to finish them. JAG makes especially good knitting television. All the plots are the same, so you don’t really miss anything if you are paying attention to the knitting.

The next picture shows my latest knitting related purchase.

This is probably an example of why I shouldn’t be allowed to have an internet connection and a credit card at the same time. Susan mentioned this tape on her blog a few weeks ago, and of course, I had to have it. I really did not need to buy it in every color, and in all three widths, but there you have it. There is enough highlighter tape to highlight chart rows for the rest of my life right there. I bought it here, if you are interested. Though I’m not sure they have any left. Here’s an action shot:

I’m off to finish those socks.

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For those of you who comment, I added “comment verification” to the blog. I hate this, as it’s a pain in the ass, but I’ve gotten a bunch of spam comments lately. So blame “cellphone Sam” and others like him for this.

11 Days

11 days since my last post, that is. That has to be some kind of record. Let me explain. (No, there is too much. Let me sum up.*)

I’ve been on vacation in lovely North Dakota, visiting my sister. This year was her 40th high school reunion, and I came along for moral support. We’ve had so much fun here that I just haven’t had time to even think about blogging. Actually, her computer is a bit slow, so I haven’t had the patience to download pictures and do the whole blog post thing until this morning. I have been knitting this week, however.

I brought two projects with me, the orange Pippa cardigan, and Langsjal Johonnu. Most of the week we spent in Fargo, where she lives, and I alternated between the two projects. I can work on the stole when I have relative peace and quiet and can pay attention, and the cardigan is for the rest of the time. I packed both for the road trip to Edgeley, the little town that we grew up in. Of course I managed to sit on the bag that the cardigan was in, and snapped one of my ebony (sob) circular needles within about ten minutes of getting there. Let me just say that Edgeley doesn’t have a good yarn shop so I could replace it. Then I got stuck while knitting the stole, at the section where you change from knitting the border to knitting the middle part. For some reason I couldn’t make the numbers work out. The lace pattern is charted, and the horizontal repeat isn’t marked on the chart, so I had to figure out which stitches were the borders, and which stitches repeated nine hundred times across the width of the shawl. I finally figured this out yesterday morning (in a sober moment) and I’m off to the races. It looks like a mess of wadded up lace at the moment, so no pictures of the progress for now. That will have to wait until I’m home and can pin it out on the blocking mat for a proper photo.

Here is one photo however. This one was taken before I figured out the numbers on the chart.

Perhaps the bourbon had something to do with my counting difficulties. I’m not willing to concede that just yet.

In case you think that North Dakota has no cultural activities, check out this link. Make sure you look through the gallery of photos.

* Inigo Montoya, Princess Bride

Seven Things

Tagged by Ladybean:

Seven things to do before I die…
Learn to speak and read French, so I can read Les Miserables in the original.
Learn to play the fiddle
Sail across the ocean (any ocean)
Knit Sharon Miller’s Wedding Ring Shawl
Spend a whole lot more time with my sweetiepie
Retire (really, I love my job, though ;-))
Write a novel

Seven things I cannot do…***
Become Queen (despite what I’ve led my family to believe)
Run a marathon
Sing an opera
Speak Russian
Read Icelandic
Climb Mt. Everest
See worth a damn without my glasses/contacts

Seven things that attract me to my man…
His hilarious sense of humor
He gets my jokes
He’s the cutest guy ever
He is just a sweetheart
Ahem, there are at least two or three that I can’t mention on a family blog
He makes a mean martini, and knows how I like my bourbon

Seven books that I love…
Lord of the Rings
Les Miserables
The Lymond Chronicles, by Dorothy Dunnett
Angle of Repose, by Wallace Stegner (actually, anything else by Wallace Stegner)
Time Will Darken It, by William Maxwell
Principles of Knitting, by June Hiatt
Gravity’s Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon

This list actually could be about twenty pages long!

Seven things I say…
Trust me, I’m a doctor
Common sense isn’t all that common
I’d buy a case of that
I can’t think of four more

Seven movies I’ve loved…
Princess Bride
Lord of the Rings, all of them
Philadelphia Story (Yum, Jimmy Stewart at his sexiest best)
Paint Your Wagon (how can you not love a movie in which both Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood sing?)
Last of the Mohicans (Daniel Day-Lewis at his sexiest best)
To Have And Have Not (Say, was you ever bit by a dead bee?)
Triplets of Belleville (one of the best movies I’ve ever seen)

Seven ladies I’m gonna tag…
Not a one. I think everybody else has done this. If you haven’t, and want it, consider yourself tagged.

***Yet. I was raised to believe that there is nothing that I can’t do, so take these with a grain of salt.

And I’ll add one more category, as an afterthought.

Seven favorite Google search strings that brought people to my blog…
Getting stitches from a doctor
Knitting related tattoos
Knitting bandages for lepers
Full body sock (huh?)
Rotted sill (I’m not making these up)
Lace blocking wires welding
Last but not least, my favorite, “knitting doctor”. It just gives me a giggle that people actually search for me by name.

Amazing Lace!

Challenge #1,

Or, A Very Long Post

I have indeed joined the hordes of laceknitters that have signed up for the Amazing Lace summer knitalong. After a great deal of dithering and mind-changing, I’ve chosen my trusty teammate for the summer. It was a difficult choice, as I have a multitude of lace patterns on my to-do list, and it finally came down to two:

Frost Flowers & Leaves, from A Gathering of Lace, compiled by Meg Swansen, for which I have the yarn and pattern, and have wanted to knit ever since I first saw the book.

Langsjal Johonnu, from Three Cornered & Long Shawls, by Sigridur Halldorsdottir.

I was leaning towards the former, as I wasn’t sure that I wanted to have to be able to spell Langsjal Johonnu for the next several months. Then my husband, ever helpful, made a somewhat disparaging remark about collecting patterns written in foreign languages which I don’t speak or read, when there are plenty of fine patterns written in English, which I do read, more or less.

That settled it. The gauntlet was thrown down. Langsjal Johonnu it is. I’ve collected all the parts of my team, and present them to you here.

The yarn is genuine Icelandic laceweight wool, purchased here (color number 9808). It’s actually somewhere between laceweight and fingering weight, and is not a sissy yarn. It is substantial, hearty wool, made to get you through those long Icelandic winters in style. The color is a little more purple than shown in that picture. And yes, I have already cast on and started. Once I got past row 3 (don’t you dare laugh, it’s harder than it looks), I am zooming right along.

The pattern book is also purchased from Schoolhouse Press (scroll down the page a bit). It has a number of lovely shawls and stoles, and though it’s a bit spendy, I probably will do more than one out of this at some point.

Next up, we have my “Learn Icelandic” kit.

Just kidding. The pattern book does come with a translation. Though it worries me a bit that the original book, in Icelandic, has 78 pages, and the English version only has 16 pages. There might be a few things lost in the translation.

The stole on the cover of the translation booklet is the chosen team member, Langsjal Johonnu (I just love that name). Here’s a better look.

I also just love this woman. She models all the pieces in the book, and has exactly that same “don’t screw with me” expression on her face in every photo. That’s the other reason I chose this one over the FF&L. She means business.

Here are some of the other teammates, gathered together to help out.

There is the photocopy of the pattern, my gadget bag, and my trusty Denise needles, which are honored to be chosen for the lace race. I have a little notebook and pencil to keep track of stuff, and my reading glasses, which I’ll surely need. Actually I may take this one to the copy place and blow it up a bit bigger. Those Icelanders must have good eyes.

I use a music stand to keep my pattern where I can see it. I have a large magnet board that has a permanent home here, and a smaller 8 by 10 version that slides right into the plastic page protector with the pattern page. The Ipod is loaded up with Icelandic music for the occasion. The second picture is my trusty clicker counter, to keep track of rows. I also ordered one of these to hold my magnet board:

because you just can’t have too many gadgets.

Because I’m optimistic that I will eventually finish this, my blocking gear is ready.

Last but not least, I have plenty of refreshments ready. First, a nice selection of fine tea from Adagio:

And just in case, a brand new bottle of the Knitting Doctor house bourbon:

Just in case.

Home Again

And I know what you all REALLY want to know about is the yarn shops in New York City! Never mind all the lovely tourist things to do, and the lovely restaurants, and the excitement of the city. You wanna see YARN!

Cara escorted me on the yarn-shop-crawl to beat all yarn-shop-crawls on Tuesday. It was a total blast to meet her, after reading her blog for so long. If you go to NYC, you have to talk her into showing you around. I used Tuesday as my “free” yarn buying day*, after nearly a month of abstinence. I was pretty good, though, and only bought a few things. No doubt the house project expenses figured into that. I did also get online that morning and buy some yarn for a sweater from Elann. This stuff, if you’re curious.

But, the shopping. Back to the shopping. We went to School Products, Habu, Purl, The Point, and Seaport. I think. Am I missing any, Cara? They are all fabulous. School Products is upstairs in an office building, and has more Karabella yarn than I’ve ever seen in one place, Purl is a beautiful sight to behold, Habu has some of the most creative yarns I’ve ever seen, and the Point has a cafe and yarn in baskets on the walls. Seaport is an office, not just in an office building. It’s a working marketing firm with yarn stuffed in every corner. You’ll be looking at a rack of yarn and some guy is at a computer at a desk behind you, working. It’s probably the most unique yarn shop I’ve ever been in.

Jen from Two Purls, and her charming little son Xavier, joined us, as did Kay from Mason-Dixon Knitting. Kay even autographed my new copy of their book, which I bought for the occasion.

Two stinking yarn shop photos are below. Unfortunately, I’m much better at my day job than I am at photography, and most of the shopping pictures either didn’t turn out or were unflattering. It’s written in the Knitbloggers Code Of Honor that you will not post unflattering pictures of other knitbloggers, especially when they are lovely ladies like the ones I was shopping with. And I completely forgot to whip out the camera at most of the shops. Here’s Cara at Habu:

And here’s Seaport:

Trust me, Jen and Kay were there, I wasn’t imagining it, and we went to all of those places, I didn’t imagine that either. I apparently was drooling too much over the yarn to take pictures.

And here’s what I bought:

From right to left: first is a cone of cotton lace weight tape, from Habu. The color may not show very well in that photo, but it is a pale mint-sea green. I think that will be a shawl. In the middle is a cotton-viscose blend from Garnstudio Yarns, purchased at Seaport. It will be perfect for a scarf, maybe the Branching Out scarf from Knitty. Last but not least is Euroflax linen, for a handtowel, inspired by Kay and Ann’s book. Never mind that I already have a bunch of this in the stash, I didn’t have any in this color, and apparently the mood of the day was green.

Oh, and I bought this, because I couldn’t resist it, and because you can never have too many tape measures.

All in all, a great day! Thanks girls–I couldn’t have imagined doing this any other way!

Next post will be knitting project photos, house project photos, and maybe a few scattered NYC pics. I leave you with a picture of someone who was very glad to see us come home:

*Remember, the Yarn Focus doesn’t prohibit yarn buying; you can buy yarn on one day a month, on a day of your own choosing. The ticker doesn’t need to be reset for that day, only if you succumb and buy yarn on a second day in any month.

At The Zoo

Someone told me
It’s all happening at the zoo
I do believe it
I do believe it’s true…*

Monday we had two of John’s grandkids here for a visit (well, their parents, too), and we took a little trip to our local zoo. The weather wasn’t great, but if you live around here, you know better than to wait around for a sunny day in order to do something fun. We had a lovely time anyway, and it really is all happening at the zoo.

The walrus was showing off:

And here are a series of beluga whale photos. They have an underwater viewing room, and these shots were taken indoors without a flash, through the glass. There is no touching-up involved with these, and some are a bit blurry from the animals’ movement, or with reflection off the glass. There were a couple of busloads of schoolkids at the zoo, and I think they were all the the whale room when I took these.

Just so you don’t think it was all about the whales, here’s a fine fellow napping on a rock, waiting for the sun to come out.

Then the peacock and penguins and owls:

Then there was this guy, who is sadly in need of a trip to the spa.

He’s a muskox, in case you were wondering. The way he was scratching, I’m pretty sure he missed his Frontline treatment this month.

Here’s my favorite picture of the day. These two were a little reluctant to sit here at first, until they were reassured about the glass between them and the tiger.

Tomorrow, some knitting progress, I hope.

*Apologies to Simon & Garfunkel!