The Knitting Doctor

Closet Capers

I promised an update on the closet re-do. Here’s what it looked like in October, when the shelves pulled loose from the wall. We finally got it finished this past week, and we’re close to having stuff back in the closets. Here’s what it all looked like.

John doing the prep work.

The temporary closet.

Painting done!

My closet done!

John’s closet done!

And here’s what they look like mostly reloaded. We did a little more decluttering while we were emptying boxes back into the closet.

It’s amazing how much more usable space we have. I even have some empty shelf space. I was able to get some knitting related stuff off the floor of my office and in baskets on the shelves, which in turn makes my office much more usable. It’s a win!

On the knitting front, no photos, but I made a stupid mistake on the Big Pink thing last night while knitting in front of the television. I screwed up a plain knit row of all things, inserting part of a patterned row right at the beginning of what was supposed to be a plain row. Of course I didn’t discover it till I got all the way around to that section again. In trying to fix it, I screwed it up even more, and now I’m tinking back about 600 stitches to get to that section so I can fix it. I think this is my own fault for saying something in the last post like “I only have about 6 rows left”. Please send whiskey, before I stab myself in the heart with a knitting needle out of desperation.

January Wrap-Up

Let’s see how I did with my January goals.

The first was to blog more. How did I do? Twelve posts! In one month! In December of 2010 I did four posts, in all of 2010 I did fifty-four posts. I consider that a success.

How about knitting? Ahem. Remember this post? Here were the knitting goals from January 1st.

Finish the Big Pink Baby Thing.

Finish the pair of socks on the needles, an embarrassingly aged project.

Work on the True Blood Faery sweater. I’d like to finish the bodice section by the end of the month.

Finish the mittens (dog mittens) that have been on the needles since last year, and start the first pair for 2011.

Nada. Zero. I didn’t accomplish any of that. Though I “only” have about 6 rows of Big Pink left, then an interminable I-cord bind off on 60 billion stitches. And I made a bit of progress on the brown socks on the needles.

Brown socks on black needles make for difficult television knitting. As much of my sock knitting is done while wasting time watching television, this isn’t getting very far. And is there any way to photoshop in a decent pedicure? Sorry if that big toe grosses you out. I intended to get a pedicure while we were in Mexico, but I opted for the hour-long massage instead.

Spinning? Equally a flop.

Finish at least two spindle spinning projects that are languishing, a blue/black merino/bamboo blend that just needs plying, and some merino silk that has been on the spindle since last summer.

Again, not a thing finished. I did work on plying the blue stuff, but that’s about it. Not finished.

So, in summary, January 31, Lorette 0. In my defense I worked a lot, had a great vacation, drank a lot of margaritas, and read a few good books*.

Here are the goals for February:

Finish that damn Big Pink Albatross.

Finish plying the blue stuff.

Finish spinning the lilac stuff.

Continue the blogging effort.

That’s a little less ambitious. We’ll see how it goes.

Here are photos of the spinning projects.

That’s a merino/bamboo/sparkle blend, and it’s been on the spindle so long I have no recollection of where it came from. Oops, here’s where the blog comes in handy. The fiber is from Butterfly Girl on Etsy. The bigger spindle is from Bosworth, and I’m doing the plying on that one. After I got my plying ball all wound up, I found another little wad of the fiber and spun it on the other spindle, also from Butterfly Girl.

This is my Cascade Mt. Helens spindle, named Helen, of course. The fiber is merino/silk from Louet. Who the hell knows when I started this. I think I bought this fiber right after I started spinning, so this is another of those embarrassingly ancient projects.

Tomorrow: Remember this? An update later this week on how it’s going!

*By the way, if you’re a reader and on Goodreads, come be my friend. Here’s my profile.

Ten on….

What? I missed it again. Oh well. It will be Ten on Saturday, since I’m hopeless about keeping up with these things. This one is my top ten favorite health and beauty products. I’m not actually sure I have ten, since I’m pretty simple when it comes to these things. Let’s see.

1. Cetaphil liquid soap. If I use anything else on my face (like soap) for more than a few days, my skin starts to fall off. I hate it when it does that.

2. Olive oil skin moisturizer. My skin is so dry it’s ridiculous. In the summer I wear a sunscreen over this.

3. Sweet Libertine eye shadows. Seriously, I have about a million different shades. Go get some, they’re fun.

4. Whatever shampoo is on sale at Costco. Really, I think it all comes out of the same vat at some factory in Oklahoma. I also use whatever conditioner is on sale. I actually only wash my hair about twice a week (my hair is as dry as the rest of my skin) so it takes a long time for me to use up a bottle. I tend to collect the little bottles of conditioner at hotels and use them in the shower.

5. Everything Balm. This stuff is awesome for hands and anything else that’s dry. I even buy their wood balm for my spinning wheel and spindles.

6. Rosebud Salve. I always have a tin of this with me.

7. Water. Drink plenty of it, it’s the best skin care product ever.

8. Sunscreen. I don’t worry about it for work days, since I’m inside all day, but any other time I have it on. When I’m out in the sun for more than 15 minutes, I wear the strongest SPF I can find in the closet.

9. Lots of fruits and veggies (in my tummy, not on my face!). This along with all the water does more good than all that other stuff. I can’t ever remember to take vitamins, so eating them is a must.

10. Red lipstick. It’s about the only color I wear. One of my favorite memories of my mom was watching her put on red lipstick. It was the only color she ever wore as well. My latest favorite is Chanel Coco in Gabrielle. It’s expensive, it’s red, it stays on.

There. Next time I’ll try to hit it on a Tuesday, but don’t hold your breath.

Friday Funnies

Today’s Friday Funnies are brought to you by my webstats thingie. These aren’t necessarily the most common search strings that get people here, but they are the funniest I’ve found recently. Here they are, in no particular order.

1. Knitting istake on mitten ( I’m assuming that was supposed to be “mistake”)

2. Betty Crocker knitting (I was once the B.C Family Leader of Tomorrow, after all)

3. Handsome soldier (Huh? Oh yeah, here’s mine)

4. Family Leader of Tomorrow Betty Crocker (again!?)

5. Sauerkraut spindle. (This one just baffles me. I’m not really sure at all what they were looking for.)

6. Drooling dog tricks cookie. (Right. I have no clue either.)

7. Knitting While Drunk. (I’m not sure whether to be embarrassed or proud.)

8. Shawl of commiseration. (I couldn’t find this pattern on Ravelry, but there really should be one.)

9. How many stitches are in a 1000 meter spindle. (That’s one very long spindle, honey.)

10. Knit a human nose.

11. Bizarra knit blog.

12. I’ve disappeared. (I can’t even imagine what they were really looking for.)

13. Reading a tape measure for a dumbass.

14. Pee blog knit. (Some days I don’t even get that much done.)

15. Knitting mistake forgot some rows. (Yup, I’ve been there.)

And last but certainly not least:

16. Insane asylum knitting.

I hope I’m never committed to an asylum, but if so, I’m definitely taking the knitting with me.

Home Again, Home Again

And here’s what it looks like in western Washington this morning.

A little different than the last several photos, eh?

It’s actually good to be home. At least I have today off and don’t have to go back to work until tomorrow. That gives me time to get all the sand out of my clothes and get back on a normal sleep schedule. We got home late last night and really didn’t do much except greet the pets and collapse into bed.

Lewey had a little accident while we were gone. We have a house sitter that lives here while we’re gone. She emailed us that Lewey had gone off on a mad dash to chase Willie one day, catching his toenail in the process and ripping it mostly off. He bled all over the place, and she rushed him to our vet, where he proceeded to bleed all over their office as well. He also bit Nancy, our house sitter, in the process of the rescue and scooping up to the vet, though that wasn’t too serious. He ended up with a general anesthetic and surgery to remove what was left of the nail, and is now in a bandage and a fancy plastic protective splint. He’s limping around, and not his usual perky self. He’s on antibiotics and pain meds, and needs to be carried up and down the stairs and out to do his “business”.

He gets the bandage off tomorrow. He also has a “cone of shame” to wear when we’re not around to keep an eye on him. Willie of course is swishing around like the King of Siam, pretty pleased with himself.

I’m off to empty the suitcases, not my favorite part of a vacation!

Last Post…

From Vallarta, that is. We head back home on a flight this evening, so this morning we have the sad duty of packing up to leave. We’ll be back though. John ran into a guy from the US at the pool that’s been coming here every year for 20 years. I can definitely see why. Though Mexican tourism has gotten hit really hard by all the bad press surrounding gangs and violence, Vallarta seems protected from that. The only downside we found here were the guys selling timeshares. They’re pretty easy to spot, and they generally leave you alone if you say “no, gracias” and keep walking. I’d give the vacation 5 stars.

Here are a last few photos. Yesterday we just hung out here. We went for a long walk on the beach, had lunch at the restaurant by the pool, then just goofed off by the pool all day. The day before yesterday, we went back into town. There’s a bus system here that goes more or less from one end of town to the other. As best I can tell, the buses have no detectable shock absorber system, but they only cost 6 pesos per person (about 50 cents). Here we are at the bus stop trying to find the right change.

Here’s the entrance to the restaurant where we had lunch, Barcelona Tapas. That row of windows at the very top is the restaurant.

And that’s the view from the restaurant.

Those are the three very nice guys who were responsible for our lunch.

Still having a bad vacation, as you can see.

Last but certainly not least, our last sunset last night. I’m off to pack!

Still Here…

On vacation, that is. We did a mid-week arrival and departure, so we don’t leave PV until Wednesday. So you’ll have to put up with more photos of crappy weather for a couple more days.

Saturday we did a whale watching cruise. We saw a lot of whales as well as some dolphins and manta rays. There are no photos of the rays, since they are under water. Here are the dolphins at play.

The whales were harder to photograph. We saw a bunch of them throughout the day, but by the time you see them and get the camera pointed in the right direction, this is mostly what you end up with.

Here’s a little better one.

They are really pretty magnificent animals. A couple times they surfaced right next to our little boat. We were on a small rubber Zodiac craft, which has its pros and cons. The pros are that it’s fast and maneuverable, so we got a lot farther out from shore than we would have in a bigger more comfortable boat. Being a tiny little rubber raft, those whales looked pretty gigantic. The cons are that there was no room to move, so we were stuck sitting on one seat for the whole nearly five hours. And no bathroom facilities. That was definitely a con. It was well worth it, though.

Here’s a photo of where we are staying:

There have been lots of opportunities to walk on the beach.

There has been some progress on the Big Pink Thing.

Now with White!

Last but not least, another in a long line of margaritas.

We’re off to visit the downtown again today. I’m looking forward to a little shopping and a little lunch. Maybe even another of those margaritas!

Fun In The Sun!

Today was just another crappy day in PV! Today we took the city bus downtown to browse around a bit. We walked along the oceanfront boardwalk, the Malecon, and then downtown a bit. I’m not posting all the photos that we took, since John will do a Picasa photo show at some point. Here were a few highlights.

Sand sculptures. This one tickled Sweet Pea to no end.

There are numerous bronze sculptures along the way. Some of them are also chairs.

I don’t know who these guys were supposed to be, but they seemed friendly.

Now this guy knows how to get a girl’s attention. That’s Neptune, trying to win over Nereid with sock yarn. Whatta guy!

And a yarn store, sort of.

More margaritas, this time with mango!

A loom in a shop! Really, the yarn and weaving were completely accidental!

Enough for now. It’s past time for sunset and a cocktail. Tomorrow we go whale watching!

PV!

I already don’t want to go home. We got here yesterday afternoon, and I’ve fallen in love with the place. I’m not so in love with all the hucksters selling time shares on every corner, but now that we know how to recognize them, we’re good. The trick is to not engage with them. Smile, say “ola” if you must, but don’t break your stride. Trust me, they can outtalk you. They can even outtalk John, which is saying something.

Now for the fun part, the photos.

Here’s taking off and landing.

First margaritas:

First sunset:

Full moon over the marina:

John’s first mojito:

Knitting beside the pool! Big Pink, now with White!

Feet in the Pacific:

Baby turtles! In season, they hatch these and release them into the ocean at sunset every day. We’re about at the end of turtle hatching season, but they let thirty of them go tonight. Only about 10% make it. We named this one Toto, and we’re pretty sure he’s enjoying a swim right now.

More turtle photos:

Run for it, Toto!

And another crappy sunset.

We’re off to dinner, then a walk on the beach with that full moon. Hasta manana!

Nothing To See Here…

Angie, move along. I’m just not posting any baby-knitting related photos. If you need something to do while you’re waiting for me to finish it, go here. My husband sent me this link, it’s a terrific time-waster. It also might be a little politically or socially incorrect at times, so I’m not going to take any responsibility for any of you who might be easily offended.

The Big Pink Thing that I can’t show photos of is coming along. It’s huge at this point. I have 512 stitches on the needles, and 20 rows left, then the bind off. Not only that, the rows increase in length from here on out. Terrific. Next time any one of you guys has a baby, you’re getting a gift card to Babies-R-Us.

Since I can’t show photos of what I’m knitting, you all get food. Here’s the sauerkraut in action. The second time around, we had it with pork chops and noodles. I soaked the kraut in water after rinsing well, and it was much less salty this time.

And here’s my breakfast today. I know you all are sitting on the edge of your chairs wondering what I have for breakfast. When I’m working, it’s two hard boiled eggs and a thing of yogurt. I can pack it up and take it with me, eating it later when I actually get to work. I am not a morning person (there’s a news flash for those of you in my family), so I have trouble eating anything until I’ve been up awhile. I’m not really a fully-functional human until about 10 AM, and some would argue not even then. My husband, a confirmed morning person, learned a long time ago not to shake me awake at 7 AM asking “honey, honey, it’s a beautiful day, do you want to get up and go do something??” Honey, honey, shake me again, you might lose an arm.

Ahem. Right. Breakfast. Here’s what I had.

This was actually yesterday, but you get the idea. Tea, in one of my favorite teapots, and toast with Nutella spread. Where has this stuff been all my life? This is actually a fancy-schmancy gourmet version that we got at the Pike’s Place market, but it’s the same thing. Costco now has Nutella in huge jars, so I should be set for awhile.

We’re off on another adventure soon. We are going to Puerto Vallarta tomorrow for a week, and since our flight leaves at some ungodly hour of the morning (see note above about me not being a morning person), my sweetiepie got us a hotel room close to the airport for tonight. Of course I have all the knitting lined up, and I do know where my sunglasses* are, but other than that I haven’t even started packing. I better get a move on. We’re taking the Mac Air, of course, so I might get to post while I’m there. I plan on doing very little except hanging out by the pool and knitting Big Pink.

Adios for now!

*I find it amusing that sunglass sales in the Pacific Northwest are actually rather high, considering how rarely the sun shines here. My theory is that we lose them during the long rainy stretches, so we buy a lot more than say, Floridians.

Lewey!

No knitting today. I’m still doing pink pink pink. Angie, if you’re trolling around here thinking you’re going to see something, think again. I’m not showing nothin’ till it’s done.

So you get dog pictures. Lewey got a toy for Christmas from John’s sister Ena. I neglected to get a photo of it when it was in one piece, and now it’s too late. It had a very tough nylon canvas shell, hard as a rock. Indestructible, the tag said.

There, that’s done!

We’re off to do our least favorite part of the holiday season: putting the decorations away.

Bah, humbug, I say.

Year Of The Blog

I hear by declare this the Year Of The Blog. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ravelry, but one of its major impacts has been a sharp decline in knit/fiber bloggers and blog posts. I can’t imagine the Internet without Ravelry, BUT. There are some big advantages of active, creative bloggers writing regularly. Having a relatively close group of blog friends is a little like having a small wine party or tea party in your living room, sharing knitting or spinning. Ravelry is more like a huge convention center full of knitters and spinners, all jumbled up and bumping into each other. I have also noted that forum threads tend to degenerate into nasty name-calling much more frequently than you’d ever see on a blog. Most of the Ravelers are very polite, friendly people, mind you, but even the most innocent sounding threads can take a nose-dive to drama in zero-to-sixty seconds flat. Sometimes I can see it coming, sometimes not. It’s a little like watching a car wreck.

Ahem. Anyway. I’m not about to give up Ravelry. But this is the year I’m going to try to blog more, and to try to comment more. There you have it. I don’t promise to blog every day, but I’m going to try to show up here more often.

A couple posts ago I promised you photos of knitting-related acquisitions, and a peek at what I got for Christmas. Here you go.

A Tom Bihn knitting bag! I’m so excited. I’ve wanted one of these forever. I actually bought this for myself with a little Christmas bonus I had. Note Big Pink peeking out. Here’s another look:

Big Pink removed so I don’t give anything away. This has lots of space, is sturdy, and you can customize it with a bunch of little bags that clip to the inside.

And why do you suppose I was shopping on the Tom Bihn website in the first place? Because this is what my sweetie pie got me for Christmas:

It’s a Mac Air! Oh my. I adore this. But I needed a case for it. Ergo Tom Bihn.

It’s perfect. It’s his Ristretto bag, and has a nice padded compartment for the laptop, and plenty of pockets and space for other stuff. I could even stuff a sock in progress in here for travel.

And just so I can show that I really do knit, here’s the dog mittens I mentioned in the prior post. In case you all forgot, I started these eons ago, dragged them out this fall, decided they were too small, and ripped half a mitten out. Here’s where I am.

I’m about half done with the first mitten (again). Just because I always get asked, the pattern is Dog Mittens, by Jorid Linvik. Here’s a Ravelry link, and here’s her pattern shop link.

So, there I go, making New Year’s Resolutions that I said I wasn’t going to do. What plans do you have for your blog this year?

New Year Fiber Resolutions

I hope your NYE was swell and fabulous! Ours certainly was. We had a little pre-dinner cocktail party in the lobby of the Westin Seattle while we were all (10 of us) waiting for our rooms. While we were there, we tried to scope out the best possible party to crash after dinner. The hotel lobby was jam packed with people coming and going, many with cases of booze, platters of delicious looking things, and coolers full of who-knows-what. It seems that this place is a happening joint on NYE. We are probably 8 blocks or so south of the Space Needle, and we all had high-floor rooms facing the Needle, important for the fireworks that took place later.

After we got settled into our rooms, we went across the street to the Icon Grill restaurant for a lovely dinner. The place was bustling, and nicely decorated for the holidays, adding to the festive spirit. After dinner, being the old farts wild partiers that we all are, we went back to our respective rooms with plans for naps and to meet at about 11PM for the fireworks show. The latter was pretty spectacular. At exactly midnight, the Space Needle lit up like a Roman candle for eight minutes, accompanied by an enthusiastic musical show. We had little food nibbles that everybody brought, along with a variety of sparkling beverages. We all managed to stay up and talk for another hour, then gave it up and called it done for the old year.

This morning we’re having breakfast up the street, then back home to get those black eyed peas done for luck.

Here are some photos from the evening:

Now for those resolutions. I’m terrible at NY resolutions. They don’t usually last a month around here. So I’m not doing any craft resolutions, except one. I’m going to try to do a new set of fiber-yarn goals at the beginning of each month. I did sign up for the 11 mittens in 2011 challenge on Ravelry, but I have no real illusions that this will last. My goals for January? Here they are:

Finish at least two spindle spinning projects that are languishing, a blue/black merino/bamboo blend that just needs plying, and some merino silk that has been on the spindle since last summer.

Finish the Big Pink Baby Thing.

Finish the pair of socks on the needles, an embarrassingly aged project.

Work on the True Blood Faery sweater. I’d like to finish the bodice section by the end of the month.

Finish the mittens (dog mittens) that have been on the needles since last year, and start the first pair for 2011.

There you go. Have a great weekend!

Happy New Year!

So, what’s everybody doing tonight? John and I actually have plans to celebrate! Well, I guess we usually celebrate, if you can call staying home and trying to stay awake till midnight celebrating. 😉

I just realized this is actually the first year since we’ve been married that we’re actually going out for NYE. (16 years, if anybody wants to know.) We have friends with an apartment in the Big City (Seattle!), and we’re joining them for the evening. Dinner out, then rooms at a hotel with a view of the Space Needle and the fireworks. I’m hoping we don’t embarrass ourselves and fall asleep before the champagne gets opened.

For those of you who are on the edges of your seats over the sauerkraut saga, we did survive. It was a little saltier than I’d like. I just rinsed it in a colander this time. Next time, I think I’ll actually soak it in a big kettle of fresh water for a bit. It was pretty good though. Here’s what it looked like.