The Dilettante's Dilemma

A Snowy Aftermath

2011-01-14T09:44:00.004-05:00

Wow, yesterday I totally forgot to blog. My brain must have finally succumbed to the cold and it went into hibernation.

FOR TODAY - January 14, 2011

Outside my window...

The parking lot is pretty clear although the backyard still looks lovely and untouched. It's 27 degrees but supposed to go up to 41 and I imagine it will all melt and just be a memory soon.

I am thinking...

I wish I could stay in again today but I suppose one does have to venture out eventually.

I am thankful for...

Not losing power during this week and not having to take my dad to the surgeon for his checkup yesterday. When I called to cancel the appointment, they told me they only had one patient show up so far.

From the kitchen...

Last night I made peanut butter cookie brownies. Or, at least, that's what I'm calling them. Not bad. Possibly would have been better with a little vanilla ice cream on top but it's just too cold to think about that.

I am wearing...

Jammies with my oversized wool sweater that I've been living in all week. It zips up so it's easy to whip on and off...particularly when the hot flashes kick in.

I am creating...

I've been flying on my new shawl. Up to 213 stitches and only about 2 dozen more rows to go. Of course, those rows will eventually grow to 261 stitches long so it's not really that close to finished as it sounds.

I am going...

To get the car de-iced and head over to my dad's to go grocery shopping. That will be my first time out all week.

I am reading...

World War Z - it's slow going but that's only because I'm not making the time to read. I'd rather be reading blogs and knitting or watching Bones and knitting. I'm only reading before I go to sleep which means I'm lucky if I get 3 or 4 pages in each day.

I am hoping...

I don't run into any icy patches today. Trying to think ahead of time if there are any bridges or shady areas on my route.

I am hearing...

Cars going up and down the street fairly normally today. Not much excitement. Only one accident on the hill this week which really surprises me.

Around the house...

This afternoon, I think I'll vacuum and tidy up.

One of my favorite things...

I bought a new knitting pattern from Etsy and can't wait to try it out. She is Penelope, the Empathetic Monster and I think I'll make one for everyone I know if the pattern isn't too difficult.

I have never…

Watched The Simpsons...or Family Guy...or Big Bang Theory.

A few plans for the rest of the week:

Finish up this shawl and pick up Caitlin's yarn to make her a new slouch hat.

From my picture journal...

The Icy Aftermath

2011-01-11T14:39:00.004-05:00

FOR TODAY - January 11, 2011...or 1/11/11

Outside my window...
The snow and ice has pretty much turned to ice and slush. It's only 32 degrees, though, so you have to wonder how much of it will really melt.

I am thinking...
There are people out there driving around who need to get somewhere and I feel sorry for them. But there are also total idiots who are driving like maniacs and doing doughnuts in front of my house. They should just end up in a ditch so they don't endanger anyone else.

I am thankful for...
Electricity and gas, food and drink, Internet, cable...and lots of yarn! I don't need to drive in that mess and boy am I glad!

From the kitchen...
I'm thinking something simple like noodles and tomatoes for today. And hot chocolate.

I am wearing...
Oh, lord, I'm still in my jammies. That needs to be rectified soon.

I am creating...
Playing with yarns for the new shawl. The pattern is called Faraway and So Close but I'm calling it Faraway and Snow Close in honor of our weather right now. Tried to work on it last night whilst watching Star Wars but I didn't have good light and I think I missed a yarn-over. I'm one stitch short.

I am going...
To upload the rest of the photos of the craziness that is snow in Atlanta.

I am reading...
Just getting into World War Z. I like the style of writing but I just don't set aside enough time to read. This business of reading before I go to sleep just isn't getting me anywhere.

I am hoping...
Nobody I know needs to leave the house while it's so nasty out there.

I am hearing...
Crunching of tires outside and the neighbor kids sounding like they are demolishing their bedroom. Living in a condo does really suck sometimes.

Around the house...
It is freaking cold! Downstairs you need about 3 pairs of socks to stay warm. Upstairs is not much better.

One of my favorite things...
Oatmeal with raisins and a little applesauce for sweetener. I do like starting a winter day off with that and a cup of coffee.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
Staying off the roads as much as possible, getting some knitting done, updating the calendars to reflect the performances we have for the next few months.

From my picture journal...

the truck that nearly took down the brick wall after doing doughnuts in the road.

Needle Contest

2011-01-11T02:38:00.002-05:00

I have a ton of blogs that I read or peruse daily and came across a contest for some very cool dpn's on this blog, GardenLynn's

Needless to say, I entered the contest because I do love the shorter length needles for sock knitting.

If you're a knitter, why not pop over and take a chance on some lovely Knit Picks needles?

Winter Wonderland

2011-01-10T10:58:00.004-05:00

FOR TODAY
Outside my window...

There is snow...glorious snow!

I am thinking...

I may get dressed in many layers and go outside to make a snowman on top of the car.

I am thankful for...

The power still being on. Tonight may be a different matter altogether, though.

I am wearing...

Still in my pajamas with warm socks that I knitted a few years ago. I may get dressed...then again, I may not.

I am creating...

Designing a new shawl. Yesterday, I assembled the possible yarns for the project. Finished the Doctor Who scarf last night so must get something else on the needles quickly.

I am going...

NOWHERE! Absolutely nowhere today.

I am reading...

Just started World War Z last night.

I am hoping...

The neighborhood kids don't saunter down into our parking lot and wreck the snow.

I am hearing...

An occasional car attempt to go up the hill...then slide back down. A few have made it all the way up but, interestingly, the police car chose to turn around and head back instead of attempting the upper part of the hill. People, that's why it's named Highpoint!

Around the house...

There's a new decoration - the Doctor Who scarf is framing the poster of David Tennant. :-)

One of my favorite things...

The way the snow looked this morning before anyone had walked through the parking lot.

A few plans for the rest of the week:

Dad has a doctor's appointment on Thursday to see the surgeon. I imagine things will have thawed out by then.

From my picture journal...

Saturday Mayhem

2011-01-08T23:20:00.005-05:00

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...

It's 25 degrees but feels like 11 at 11:30pm. It's a clear night and things are peaceful. Snow is predicted for tomorrow and Monday.

I am thinking...

I didn't blog this morning since it was one of those "hit the floor with both feet running" kind of days and it wasn't conducive to sitting down and composing anything. But, just getting back into the habit of some sort of blog/journal daily is something I like and during the day I make mental notes that I should mention certain things. I'm going to keep a small notebook with me for jotting down these ideas.

I am thankful for...

My new glasses. I had a chip in the right lens and, since the glasses were still under the one-year warranty, I was getting a new lens. When I went to the ophthalmologist's office, not only did they replace the chipped lens, but they replaced both of them. They explained that the lab doesn't make just one when the lenses have the photogrey (or whatever they call it these days) treatment because they may not darken the same. So, I was getting two new lenses. And, better yet, they just decided to give me a new set of frames because why put brand-new lenses in old frames? Well, the frames were also less than a year old and only had a little wear in one place where the finish seemed to be rubbing off. But now I have an entirely new pair of glasses and that's awesome. And it's why I've been seeing this doctor for over 20 years.

I am wearing...

It's jammie time, so I'm back in mine, trying to stay warm as the temperature drops.

I am creating...

Getting very close to finished on the Doctor Who scarf. I'm up to 82 percent done! Caitlin texted me today about making her another slouch hat if she buys some yarn. That will be the third one for her this winter. I'm glad she likes them and would love to see her get me some orders for a few.

I am going...

Well, at this time of night, nowhere. But earlier today was another story entirely. When I tried to turn on the desktop computer, it refused to load correctly which began a long tale of calling Geek Squad, taking my computer to them, watching it load perfectly when it got there, *headdesk*, coming home and having it do the same damn thing again, calling them, exploring the possibility that it was the monitor, going back to Best Buy to price monitors, discussing the problem with the guy on the sales floor who really didn't think that could be the problem based on what it had been doing, coming back home and trying to start said computer again, finally getting to Safe Mode and Eureka! somehow managing to get it to load correctly. Whew! I am afraid to turn it off when I go to bed but "tomorrow is another day."

I am reading...

Finished Harry Potter Deathly Hallows and will be starting World War Z tonight. (which reminds me of the incident at Borders in which someone insisted that they were looking for Henry "V" and not Henry "the Fifth".)

I am hoping...

Firstly, that the computer loads correctly in the morning and secondly, that the winter weather we will be getting doesn't include any ice because that usually means we lose power.

I am hearing...

The heater running. Which I hope it continues to do for the next few days as we watch the pretty white stuff fall from the sky. :-)

One of my favorite things...

Having bread, milk, coffee, the essentials that one must have in the fridge and pantry when awaiting snow in the South.

A few plans for the rest of the week:

If it doesn't snow until tomorrow evening, we'll be doing our regular Chili's mid-day meal and then probably relaxing as we wait for the first snowflakes to make their appearance.

From my picture journal...

Giuli in her footie pajamas. That's one way to keep warm if it snows!

Relax...NOW!!

2011-01-07T18:00:00.004-05:00

FOR TODAY
Outside my window...

I just heard something go clank as it was dropped out of the neighbor's car onto the pavement. Better a clank than a thud or the screaming and arguing that we often hear. Today was overcast and unbelievably windy. We are supposedly under a winter storm watch, according to one source, but Intellicast just says it's 53 and overcast.

I am thinking...

And contemplating taking my knitting and heading to Borders. That would mean I have to sort of socialize, which I ordinarily enjoy but I'm feeling a bit reclusive so...maybe...maybe not.

I am thankful for...

Games that can be played in zen mode so I can slow down, breathe, and relax. The past month and a half have been stressful but I try to play that down and then I just internalize the stress. I alternate between games in which I can kill mass quantities of zombies and those in which I'm constantly beating myself up for not getting a high score. Must...slow...down.

From the kitchen...

Not much happening there. Must retrain myself to cook by taking baby steps.

I am wearing...

Red shirt with my jeans because this came across Facebook this morning:

IT'S RED FRIDAY- Remember our troops today and always! By wearing RED on Friday, we are making it known, we support those in the armed forces for their service and sacrifice. We will not forget them! Please join us in wearing RED on your profile today.

I am creating...

Remember that Doctor Who scarf? Nearly halfway finished on it. Small sense of accomplishment there.

(yes, I realize the font changed mysteriously but I'm not going to worry about it and neither should you...really...let it go...count to ten...relax)

I am going...

I already went to 3 grocery stores with Dad earlier and a quickie drive-through Arby's. I take him grocery shopping twice a week - you know, he gets out more than I do on a normal basis.

I am reading...

Yes! I am down to the last 50 pages of Deathly Hallows! I will finish this today, come hell or high water.

I am hoping...

Borders has a copy of World War Z because I just heard it recommended on a podcast and it sounds quite intriguing.

I am hearing...

Actually, I just finished listening to a new podcast, A Good Story is Hard to Find. The book they discussed was The Reapers are the Angels. Very interesting and thought-provoking discussion. I'll add this to my never-ending list of podcasts and look forward to their next episode in which they are going to switch from a book to a movie...Serenity. :-)

Around the house...

Things are too quiet.

One of my favorite things...

Clementines! I still have some left from Christmas...but don't tell the kids or they would scoff them up. :-D

A few plans for the rest of the week:

Tomorrow, I would like to spend the day sewing. We shall see how that works.

From my picture journal...

Christmas day and the kids found the Clementines!

Thursday's Musings

2011-01-06T12:28:00.003-05:00

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...

It's 32degrees with scattered clouds. Someone's smoking outside and, even with the best of my efforts to roll towels up and smoosh them onto the windowsills to fill in any cracks, I can still smell smoke. sigh.

I am thinking...

It's nice to wake up without a headache. I've been plagued with them for several days and will be talking to my neuro about this when I take my dad to see him later this month.

I am thankful for...

See above note about the headache. ;-)

From the kitchen...

I believe I'll do something creative with the yellow squash and zucchini. Haven't decided quite what to do yet, though.

I am wearing...

A long-sleeved Nutcracker tee from GBT, yoga pants, and socks (because today I learned that going without the socks is just ridiculous.)

I am creating...

The Doctor Who scarf is about one-third of the way finished! Last night, I watched 4 or 5 episodes of Bones (can't remember which, sorry) and just knitted away. It's growing so fast that I can't get the whole scarf in the photo for my Ravelry update.

I am going...

To pick up my glasses because my replacement lens is ready. I'm glad it was still under warranty and I get a free lens.

I am reading...

Still slowly trudging along with the last 150 pages of Harry Potter 7. If I wouldn't fall asleep so easily, I'd get more accomplished. I remember the days when I could read for hours before I fell asleep.

I am hoping...

to find some fun pens at Hobby Lobby. After a recommendation on Facebook yesterday, I must go exploring there. Some yarn may jump into my buggy, too, but I'll try to be good.

I am hearing...

Trying to listen to some knitting podcasts. Stitch It wouldn't download and now I'm trying for Yarns From the Plain. Just tried Marc Gunn's Irish and Celtic Music podcast and Google Chrome seems to be having problems finding libsyn. Great.

Around the house...

Today will be laundry and vacuuming...and checking to see if all the Christmas decorations are down.

One of my favorite things...

Dad's car has heated seats. I am getting very spoiled this winter!

A few plans for the rest of the week:

Continue getting up early and work on going to bed at a decent time. This is actually working out well, as long as I stay away from those late-night sessions of Undead Nightmare. Get the girls' pajama pants cut out and have a sewing session on Saturday.

From my picture journal...

Looking back at the parking situation at its greatest level of annoyance. This was the night the neighbors had a party and we lost count of how many cars came and went and proceeded to completely block in everyone else who lived in the building. Oh yeah, those were the days.

Daily Thoughts

2011-01-05T10:58:00.003-05:00

From one of the many blogs I read, The Simple Woman, here is my first attempt at a daily journal.

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...

Earlier, I woke up to the sound of hammering somewhere across the way, behind the wooded area. 45 degrees and overcast.

I am thinking...

My feet are cold and I should go find some warm socks but I'm too lazy.

I am thankful for...

My dad's recovery after his operation and his eyesight getting better so he can work his daily crossword puzzles.

From the kitchen...

This year, I am going to be more productive and actually get back to cooking.

I am wearing...

My Shakespeare Tavern tee shirt and some yoga pants. But no socks. And I am cold. Silly me.

I am creating...

A 14th Season Doctor Who scarf because I have been a fan too long not to have made one.

I am going...

Nowhere today if I can help it.

I am reading...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows...still...because I only pick it up right before I go to sleep and it's taking forever. But it's the third or fourth read-through, so that's okay. I know how it ends.

I am hoping...

That I hear soon about the data entry job I'm needing desperately.

I am hearing...

The ticking of the clock and the occasional car driving down the street. It's peaceful.

Around the house...

It is very quiet. The coffee is on and there is a lovely aroma in the kitchen.

One of my favorite things...

I bought a new book last night on Rob's recommendation - The Affinity Bridge by George Mann

A few plans for the rest of the week:

Make good progress on the Doctor Who scarf, get back in the swing of school again with Giuli (lesson plans!), take a couple of boxes of books over to Dad's for storage, evaluate the knitting works in progress and make a schedule for the sewing and knitting that needs to be done.

From my picture journal:

Creative Every Day Challenge

2011-01-02T13:06:00.003-05:00

Amongst the bazillion blogs I read (or skim) I occasionally stumble upon a little gem or spark that grabs my attention long enough to delve in more deeply. (That whole dilettante's dilemma thing I alluded to in the title of my blog, remember?) Here's a creativity challenge that I've just signed up for. Sounds pretty cool - let's see how I progress through the year with it.

Now, I need to keep up my Ravelry projects and my poor, neglected Shelfari list. I think that's about all I can handle for now.

So, what do I knit on consignment?

2010-12-07T18:18:00.005-05:00

This will be a quick post but, hopefully, I will be able to get a couple of photos up of some of the items I've been knitting on consignment. With Christmas coming up, it's important to get your orders in soon. Email me for prices and other questions. Also, if you hop over to wombatknitter on Ravelry, you can see lots more. :-)

Fingerless Gloves and Slouch Hats

Another Quick Note

2010-10-06T01:06:00.001-04:00

Check out the Forcecast.net for October 5. They have reprinted an essay Paul wrote!

Check out this contest for Malabrigo goodness!

2010-10-05T14:59:00.003-04:00

Just a quickie post here (yes, I'll eventually finish the Dragon*Con postings) because I found out about a few contests after watching the Knitgirllls latest video blog.

First of all, here's a contest with several ways to enter. There are 3 skeins of Malabrigo sock yarn up for grabs, so head over to RainloverKnits to check out the action.

Second, another contest of yarn-y goodness at Laugh.Love.Knit. Leave a comment to enter.

I'm heading over there to enter both of them. See you there!

Dragon*Con 2010, Part One

2010-09-14T14:35:00.012-04:00

After a long hiatus, why not return with something spectacular like Dragon*Con? So, here goes.

I'll start with the pre-con week. What do I usually do right before con? Certainly, it's not anything as mundane as laundry and packing. Nope, it's costume time. And my girls descended on my abode early in the week with their scathingly brilliant ideas, fabric, glue guns, and accessories. We were back in the pre-con sewing frenzy.

Now, this costuming brainstorm devised by Caitlin and Mary also needed to be kept secret until the Sunday of D*C so I had to post enigmatic status reports on Facebook and keep photos to a minimum. So, I took these:

Altogether, I think sewing took 3 days but the results were spectacular. The girls worked their magic with their hats and accessories whilst I concentrated on their bloomers. I ended up making Mary's twice because I really didn't like the results of the first try. So, after a trip to Joann's for more fabric and trim, a complete reworking of the pattern (I ended up redrafting one from her measurements instead of trying to alter Caitlin's pattern) and more late-night stitching, I was finally pleased with the results. Best of all, they fit!

Of course, no trip to D*C can be planned without Grampa's help in the snack department so he brought about 3 bags full of crackers, granola bars, and other pretty healthful foods. (Okay, we won't count the Pop-tarts.) Mary and I were planning on a Friday and Sunday excursion whilst Paul was only going to be able to join us on Sunday due to work scheduling. Caitlin would try to get there on Friday night but definitely be there for Sunday evening. That was our plan and we actually did pretty well sticking to it.

End of pre-con phase. Note to self, getting to sleep around 4am is not usually a good idea when the alarm is set to go off at 8am. Just sayin' . . .

Who turned out the lights?

2010-04-25T03:25:00.004-04:00

I'm posting around 3:30am after a couple of power outages just because I am wide awake and decided a short post is better than no post at all.

Around 1am we decided to watch some Doctor Who because we're just on a roll like that. Friday night we watched The Deadly Assassin (Tom Baker) and we began The Talons of Weng Chiang after a short power outage shortly before 12:45. Now, mind you, at this point there was no severe weather. Earlier we had lots of thunder, lightning, heavy rain, and even tornado watches. But things were rather peaceful when things went black. Throwing caution to the wind, we settled in for some Who-viewing.

Unfortunately, we had only watched part one when the power left us again. Interesting timing, too, because it was at the exact break in the programming. Right after the giant rat made its appearance.

I had the laptop on so there was some light in the living room but with the Internet gone, all I had to do was playing Spider Solitaire for a bit. With about 30 minutes battery time left, I decided to give up and track down the candles, forgetting one of Murphy's Laws which says that as soon as you get the candles lit the lights will come back on. sigh. Of course.

So, I think I'll knit for a while before I turn in. I'm pretty excited about my knitting - I've learned a new technique. Since I'm in a shawl mood and can look forward to long rows of purling on the wrong side (eek!) I tracked down some instructions for Portuguese-style knitting which has much smaller movements, particularly when purling. After about 30 minutes of practice, I've pretty well got it down so I'm good to go on the shawl. I'm no speed demon but I do like having another method to turn to when the project calls for it.

I'll put pictures of the work in progress tomorrow.

2010-04-16T12:54:00.014-04:00

Remember those commercials that boasted "Milk - It does a body good"?

Well, what you probably never realized was that, while Milk was out front getting all the glory and sending innocent lactose intolerant bystanders into spasms of pain often rivalling natural childbirth, Toto was trying to get our attention, barking at that mysterious curtain. Who or what was lurking there, you ask? Why, it's the red-headed stepchild of health. The one you don't want to pay attention to for very long because you're just too busy. It's poor, maligned Sleep.

Come here, Sleep. Introduce yourself. No? Oh, well. Sleep is often difficult to control. Right now, it's being Shy. You know what that is - we used to call it Bashful and it was sort of cute, like the dwarf. Of course, now it's quite serious and poor Bashful drags this baggage around everywhere it goes. Baggage with labels stuck on it. You know the ones - they all say rude things about an inability to socialize and people often try to stick them on homeschoolers. But I digress.

So, let's get back to Sleep. Oh, how often I wish it was that easy. Sometimes Sleep plays hide and seek, often finding such good hiding places that you can't find it for days. It can be quite elusive. Just when you think you've found it - Poof! - barely beyond your grasp. You can picture it behind that curtain, tugging desperately whilst Toto keeps yanking in to opposite direction. Some nights, the game goes on for hours, until one of the other participant finally gives up the ghost, leaving the other alone, gloating.

But, that's just when Sleep doesn't want to be found. What about those nights when Sleep really wants to do its job but we're too busy or absorbed in Something Important to pay attention to that stupid, damned Toto, yapping all the time, always wanting attention, dragging us kicking and screaming to see some dusty old curtain. Sure, we know what's back there. It's just Sleep. Sleep thinks it's got so much control with all those wheels to turn and ropes to pull. Yeah, sure. Great and Powerful. We know better than that. Get back behind the curtain where you belong.

If you were all that important, somebody would have made a commercial about you...like Milk.

Hmph, Sleep. How important could it be, anyway? Surely, we can get along with little doses of it. We have to show it who's boss. I mean, come on. Some nights you just have to beat your high score on Bejeweled - or finish that book - or knit a few more rows - or even all of the above. Besides, whoever heard of "Sleep - It does a body good"?

Has it really been that long since I posted?

2010-04-15T15:04:00.004-04:00

Just a quickie note because I am determined to begin posting again for this blog. I am trying to figure out how to add some Ravelry info, but that involves the dreaded C-word (code) and I would love to add the progress bars that I'm supposed to be able to add, too. If I am successful with that, I will do Numfar's Dance of Joy. So, please stay tuned.

And now for something completely different

2009-10-24T18:29:00.003-04:00

So, I was just trying to rest and the phone rang. In an effort to reach across the bed to the bookcase to get the phone, I pulled whatever muscle in my arm has been giving me so much grief lately and the pain that shot through me was about debilitating. I screamed (yes, thank goodness I was the only one in the house) and it brought me to tears for a couple of minutes. I wish I had something stronger than ibuprofen for the pain, but if it gets worse, I think I'm just going to head to the hospital down the road a couple of miles and tough it out in the emergency room.

This will definitely put a kink in my reading plans for the rest of the day because I just don't know how I will be feeling. I am going to just do what I can and then blog about it either later tonight or tomorrow. I don't think I'm up to doing the hourly posts. It really hurts to use the mouse on the computer - pulls up in that muscle in my upper arm. I may have to retire from the computer for awhile to see if I get some relief. Also, am heading for the cold pack again.

I will attempt to read the Joan Aiken book, various chapters of Bill Bryson, and start on the new Terry Pratchett. And, should I end up heading to the emergency room, you know I'll have a couple of books with me.

See y'all later!

Nap time

2009-10-24T17:16:00.002-04:00

Okay, getting up early on a Saturday has finally caught up with me so, after reading the first chapter of Mr. Bryson, I am going to get some shuteye and I shall return. I have decided to alternate between his book and Joan Aiken's Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

More later ...

Yes, I took a lunch break

2009-10-24T15:42:00.003-04:00

Still being a healthy wombat reader today, I had a bean burrito and some brown rice. Whist eating, I perused some of the other blogs and tried to avoid comparing how much I've read against some of the seasoned readathon participants. I updated my Shelfari books and will probably take the next 15 minutes of this hour to meander through my TBR pile to see what else I want to attack today. I know the new Terry Pratchett is calling to me but I think I may go with another shorter one before I dive into it.

Until then, Bill Bryson and his humour will certainly keep me amused.

BTW, I just love reading everyone's comments. Yea for the cheerleaders!

1pm to 2pm - On to a new book

2009-10-24T15:03:00.002-04:00

So, I finished The Bell Jar - 60 pages.

And now for something less depressing - Bill Bryson! Notes From a Small Island. :-)

Amazingly, I've only read 210 pages today. Feels like a lot more,though.

I hope everyone is having a great time with the Read-a-thon. I can't wait to read everyone's blogs to see how things went.

A Decision

2009-10-24T14:33:00.003-04:00

Well, in the shower I did make a decision about the next book. One of my favourite authors is Bill Bryson and I happen to have several of his books and I really don't remember which ones I've read. So, I'm going to read Notes From A Small Island. It may be a re-read but that's okay. I'm sure I'll like it.

Now to finish the last 20 pages of The Bell Jar. Esther has been in the asylum and, having never read this, I don't know what's going to happen next. She just had shock treatment.

Noon to 1pm

2009-10-24T13:07:00.003-04:00

Had to take a break to eat something so I fixed something quick - cheese toast - yum!

Back to the book and I'm up to page 184. Esther's in suicide mode now.

I plan to finish the book and then take a break for a shower and actually getting dressed -what a concept. :-) While showering I can contemplate which of my TBR collection I will choose next.

11am to Noon - Getting better

2009-10-24T12:05:00.002-04:00

Okay, I probably read for about 50 minutes and accomplished 57 pages. Things are going more smoothly. Except that my arm is beginning to ache. This is a probably I've had for a few months, necessitating visits to my chiropractor and something I'm doing now - ice packs. So, I'll be popping the ice pack on for 15 minutes and off for 45 whilst reading today.

The Bell Jar has moved from Esther's New York adventures to her sliding into depression back home. It actually is a fast read and I only have a tad over a hundred pages to go.

Now that's I've drunk two cups of coffee, I need to actually make time for "pit stops" and I'm going to have to take the book with me because I don't want to put it down! :-D

Hour Two and I am now moving away from the computer

2009-10-24T11:14:00.002-04:00

Yes, it is my compulsion to peruse Facebook that is just eating my time. So, I am now pushing the computer away from me and avoiding it until I post again at noon. Period. End of statement.

I have only read another 30 pages of The Bell Jar because I kept wandering over to see what was happpening on Mafia and Vampire Wars. Not because the book isn't interesting but because I am totally having "ooh, shiny" moments.

Look for a much better wrap-up at noon. Really.

And thanks to the cheerleaders! Y'all rock!

Hour One and a Slow Start

2009-10-24T10:35:00.002-04:00

Well, this multi-tasking is going to have to stop because I am languishing in The Bell Jar with no end in sight. Bad reader, no cookie. I have been doing all my normal facebook noodling around and that shall come to a screaching halt now.

Minutes read in first hour - 40
Pages read - 30

I'll be back reading shortly after flogging myself and promising to do better during the next hour.

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon 2009

2009-10-24T09:03:00.003-04:00

Okay, I'm going to attempt the Read-a-Thon for the first time today. Unfortunately, there are a few other things I will be attempting to do simultaneously so we'll see how that works. Multitasking, thy name is Patti.

So, for starters, I'm having coffee with Sylvia Plath. I thought I would begin with something short and, having never read The Bell Jar, this seemed a likely candidate.

I shall report in later with regular updates.

And, yes, for my knitting friends, I am also doing a bit of knitting whilst reading. How can I not? The knitting project is a cropped hoodie cardigan for Caitlin that I am adapting from a Knitty pattern. I'll add a link later because Sylvia is beckoning.

To all the Read-a-thon participants - Good Luck and happy reading!

Hour One – 9 - 10 am

Time spent reading this hour:
Pages read this hour:
What book(s):
Thoughts:
_________________________
Total time spent reading: 0:00
Total # of pages read: 0
Total # of books finished: 0
Total # of books read but not finished: 0

What I've Been Up To Lately

2009-05-29T15:33:00.003-04:00

Congratulations on being the creator of a new
Evil Plan (tm)!

Your objective is simple: World Domination.

Your motive is a little bit more complex: Sadistic pleasure

Stage One
To begin your plan, you must first traumatize a wealthy heiress. This will cause the world to sense a grave disturbance in the force, overwhelmed by your arrival. Who is this evil genius? Where did she come from? And why does she look so good in wizard's robes?

Stage Two
Next, you must vaporize the United Nations. This will all be done from a underground secret headquarters of DOOM, a mysterious place of unrivaled dark glory. Upon seeing this, the world will spontaneously combust, as countless hordes of ninjas hasten to do your every bidding.

Stage Three
Finally, you must send forth your needlessly big weather machine, bringing about horrors beyond man's comprehension. Your name shall become synonymous with fuzzy bunnies, and no man will ever again dare interrupt your sentences. Everyone will bow before your cunning intelligence, and the world will have no choice but to worship the ground you walk on.

It's a Purl Man Public Service Announcement

2009-04-25T17:07:00.001-04:00

Just a quick post here with a shameless plug for one of the podcast hosts of a show I listen to regularly. Guido of It's a Purl, Man is hosting an after party for people attending Maryland Sheep and Wool. It's a mixer/cocktail party and he is trying to get the word out as quickly as possible since the party is coming up on May 2. So, if you're lucky enough to be going to MS&W, please consider hanging out with Guido and a bunch of fibre fanatics. Here's the website to check it out. He needs a headcount by Monday, so jump on it NOW!

Now here is a dedicated crocheter...

2009-04-08T01:00:00.003-04:00

I couldn't resist posting this after reading it on the Mason-Dixon blog a couple of minutes ago.

Life in Italy

I wonder what she was working on and how much she finished whilst waiting for rescue.

How gullible do "they" think we are?

2009-04-07T21:38:00.003-04:00

Every once in a while something will just hit me as totally ridiculous and today I'm going to share this with y'all.

Picture this - a gooey, sugary cheese danish in its clear plastic wrapper. The icing on it oozes sweetness that practically threatens to burst through the wrapping and attach itself directly to your thighs. It screams hyperglycemia as it tempts you in Alice in Wonderland Eat Me fashion. Do you honestly need to read anything on the packaging to know what this confection is going to do to your body?

Well, apparently, the distributors of said sugar overload feel that they need to taunt you in some way that actually makes you think it's okay to eat the killer danish. Yep, just in case you needed that little extra twist of the arm, here it is...0 grams transfat. Wow! If I hadn't known that, I might have reached for an apple or banana. But, hey, if there's no transfat, I'll bet it's good for me!

facepalm

This is why the general public buys things that aren't good for them but is deluded into thinking that it's okay.

This particular cheese danish has the following (because I read the nutrition label - and I use the term loosely): 390 calories - 140 of them from fat; 56 carbs; 16g fat. And those are just the highlights.

Hmm...a little research will tell you that even on an 1800 calorie diet, you've just about consumed most of one meal with this little gem. If you're actually dieting, you've definitely shot an entire meal in one fell swoop.

Carbs - did you know that the RDA is 130 grams a day? And this one product has about half of that - oooh, that's healthful.

Now about those fats. Boy am I glad there are no transfats in said danish. Why? Because there are 16grams of fat still there; 140 calories of fat are still lurking somewhere. Using the example of an average 1800 calorie diet, the recommended grams of fat each day that you should be consuming is somewhere between 20% and 35% - from 40 to 70 grams of fat. Do you really want to use up somewhere between 23 to 40% of your allowable fats for the day in about a half dozen bites of sugary sweetness, all the while deluding yourself by repeating the mantra "it has no transfats; it has no transfats; ad infinitum"???

Sorry, folks, but I'm from the old school where you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. If it's bad for you, accept it and either take the plunge or pass on by. But, for heaven's sake, don't let the marketing people try to make idiots of us by touting their plaudits of no trans fats whilst sending us into glucose hell.

I read way too many blogs...

2009-04-06T21:58:00.005-04:00

...and I often want to share lots of them with you, dear unsuspecting reader, but I don't for fear I will overwhelm you with the sheer numbers of what I deem "must read" posts.

I will make an exception for this one because it is about bunnies and, other than poor Anya in Buffy, most people are suckers for cute, soft, cuddly bunnies. This, unfortunately, translates into parents' impulse purchases of the little critters for their irresponsible children who get bored with them after a fairly short period of changing cages and supplying fresh food and water.

Seriously, folks, what do you expect from a couple of generations of youngsters raised by a children's program which geared its attention-span length to that of a television commercial? (Nope, I didn't make that up. I researched this well-known tv show when it launched on PBS back in the early 70's. Segments were produced to replicate commercials because they appealed to children's short attention spans.) Is it any wonder that we are now dealing with those same tots who are all grown-up (cough) and still can't sit still long enough to read a book because they are easily distracted by...ooh, shiny!

But I digress. And I publicly apologize for ever making fun of Mr. Rogers. I remember weeks they would stage an opera/operetta over a period of five episodes! Five episodes? Without chopping things up into 60-second segments? Say it isn't so...okay, stop me now before I go off on another tangent.

Anyway...back to the bunnies. I just read this post at the blog, HoundsGood - Chronicles of a Virtual Volunteer. Thank goodness it has a happy ending for Sweet. Considering my background in guinea pig rescueland, I can tell you that not all endings are so lovely.

So, before you or your friends even think about getting a darling little furbaby for a child's pet, (and I know the temptation is great with Easter right around the corner) please a)read that blog post; b)read it AGAIN and c)if you decide you really, really need a rabbit for a pet, check out the House Rabbit Society nearest you.

That was also my public service announcement for the month. Unless some other blog smacks me upside the head with something else I absolutely have to share.

Oh, yeah, I am still knitting on the toe-up socks and, much to my chagrin, the first one is finished but it doesn't have much stretch to it so it is snug...too snug. grrr... This may lead to some frogging.

Just a simple note

2009-03-31T14:14:00.007-04:00

I just read that Andy Hallett passed away today. He was only 33. I think Andy was the very first person I saw at Dragon*Con. I went along with Paul, not knowing who Andy was or anything about Buffy back in those days. He was on a panel with James Leary and they were both quite hysterical. I believe I'll watch a few episodes of Angel in his memory.

Bad Blogger, No Cookie...

2009-03-26T23:29:00.004-04:00

In spite of the lack of posts for the past couple of weeks, I have been a little productive in my knitting. So, here are some pictures...

Last night, I started a new pair of socks for moi! I wanted to play around with a toe-up pattern using a figure-8 cast on, which I love, love, love! I don't think I will ever be able to go back to a provisional cast on. I am using some Plymouth Enclore DK Weight yarn that I got at Smiley's a few years ago. It's a wool/acrylic blend. I really like the little bit of purple that is in the colourway. I may at some point order some more of this yarn and get a coordinating solid to do contrasting toes and heels. Oh, yeah, since I started this design whilst watching Jurassic Park, I guess I'll have to call these my Jurassic socks.

These are the fingerless gloves that were supposed to be finished for Giuli's birthday but missed by a couple of weeks. I did have one finished on time, though! The colour and yarn are the same as the slouch hat that I made for her for Christmas. Of course, the weather is about past the time for wearing hats and gloves but I think they will fit her for some time to come so she should get a decent amount of wearing out of them.

And here is Heather's birthday present in its finished state. Hooray! It turned out to be about 5' x 6' so I think it will make a decent-sized bed cover or sofa throw. The colour patterning is my secret recipe which means I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you.

On a more somber note, today Dan Coats passed away at age 61. He was half of the duo England Dan and John Ford Coley (that would be back in the dark ages of the 70's for you youngsters out there). I happen to have their cd and am listening to it now. Oh, lordy, talk about some memories. Whew!

Returning you to your regularly scheduled programming now as I return to my sock knitting and, hopefully, more frequent posting.

Not your regularly scheduled programming

2009-03-04T17:38:00.008-05:00

I have a request from my eldest daughter to please direct the masses who read my blog (cough, cough) to her website for a poll. So, please head over to Everything's Just Smooty and check it out. It's just one question and, if you remember the 80's I think you can answer the question.

And, just because that's way too short for a post, here's something I finished.

This is the finished Ribbons of Hope scarf that I made for The Unique Sheep. I really love this pattern, the yarn is to die for (or dye for), and neither of the girls wanted me to send it back to the shop! But it is now on its way to its new home.

Mr. Tumnus, Are You Out There?

2009-03-02T10:55:00.004-05:00

I stray from my regularly scheduled topic of the day to post one more snow photo. And for a little bit of a wrap-up of yesterday's wonder of nature spoiled by idiots...but with hilarious results.

Those of you who are familiar with the street I live on will understand. And those who don't - well, let's just say that they don't call it "High Point" for nothing. I live on the slope, perhaps midway up to the "point" and I have a lovely view of what often seems like the first hill on any decent-sized roller coaster. And last night, as the sun was setting, guess what happened? All that lovely snow with all that wet, wet road beneath began to turn to...hehehe...ice! Oh yeah. As you can tell from yesterday's pictures, I am at the "T" intersection with another road, which does create a nice place to turn around and rethink the situation...or a place to slide backwards when you can't quite make it up the hill...or slide sideways into...or, hell, why not do all three? Yes, for about an hour I had a ring-side seat at no charge to watch crazy people try to negoitiate our hill. It would have been a perfect location for a web cam. I called my dad and narrated about ten minutes of the wackiness. And then he told me about his '38 Buick and how he did a 360 in it once when it started to ice back in RI.

Unfortunately, the temperatures weren't really cold enough to freeze the hill and, eventually, the slushiness did enable people to travel again but not before we had a fun time calling our friends and relatives to share the wackiness. The one car that resembled Austin Powers trying to park - yep, that was definitely a favourite.

To top things off, however, I was up at 5 am (yes, I had gone to bed around 2 but my sinus infection was about to do me in. My entire cheekbone felt like someone had taken a blow torch to it and I was literally taking every medicine I could find to get some relief. I was not a happy camper) and I decided to sit in the office/studio to read for a while in hopes that the many Tylenols would finally kick in and allow me to sleep again. I heard this weird crunching sound outside and thought that either we had some huge-ass squirrels wandering around out there or...oh yeah, my next-door neighbor was scraping the snow and ice off the car. Now, what's wrong with this picture? The fact that our entire parking lot was now icy slush and not just slushy slush? Yes, that would be it. And that my driveway goes uphill in order to get to the street? If I could figure out that just scraping the snow off your car was not going to result in an ability to drive wherever you wanted, why did my neighbor not come to the same conclusion?

So, I sat and drank my orange juice and read my book and listened to the sound of hacking at the ice for about ten minutes and then some really weird crunching sounds and then...spinning tires. Yep, lots of spinning tires. This scenario may have only been funny to me, as I was sitting bundled up inside my semi-warm house (don't get me started on the stupid heater) but I think even my youngest child could have figured out that this was an exercise in futility. But, once again, it made for free entertainment for about a half hour and, after being miserable with my damned sinuses and a lot of groaning and whining about that, the drugs apparently began to kick in a bit and I looked back outside right before I retired for the morning and, yep, the car was back in its parking place. You have to wonder what is going through some people's minds some days...

So, today I'm supposed to blog about my reading but that part of the post is actually quite short. I finished The Road and can say that I don't think I'll go see the movie. Even if they did leave in all the parts where the main character (played by Viggo Mortensen) has to get naked. A post-apocolyptic world is not my idea of entertainment. Not at the price of tickets these days, anyway. It was not an easy read not just due to the content but also the writing style. See, I'm happy when dialogue has quotation marks and contractions have apostrophes. So, for me, it was a bit of a challenge. I actually had to reread some passages because the lack of punctuation did not make things clear enough. As for the content, it was very moving. The story was very well done but please don't attempt this book if you're not on some strong anti-depressants, okay?

I have added Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson to this weeks' reading and I'm hoping to finish up at least two non-fiction books and this one by week's end.

And now, off to find more Tylenol. The doctor can't see me until tomorrow. Grr...You can probably hear the gnashing of teeth all the way wherever you are. This is going to be a very interesting night tonight - let's see if I can avoid a trip to the ER.

Quickie Post - We Have SNOW!

2009-03-01T15:02:00.004-05:00

Around 1pm, this was the scene.

Not very much accumulation.

2pm and it's actually starting to look as though we might have something to play in.

3pm and I'm thinking there is a possibility for some snow hobbits.

The prediction is for 2 to 4 inches of accumulation. This is fairly unusual - the flakes are just huge and it's really been consistent for at least 3 hours now.

I'm Not Dead Yet...Yeah, Right...

2009-02-28T14:36:00.004-05:00

I am only writing this entry because I have a fierce sense of competition. I have been spurred on to get at least a few words down for posterity because my Smooty daughter has also posted. And, since she's sick and so am I, I figured that I can somehow muster up the energy to slap some words down here if she can. We'll see how that works out.

For the past few days, I've been dealing with conjunctivitis in my right eye, aka. the dreaded pink-eye. It starts out miserable when I first wake up, of course, and I head straight for the nice warm washcloth of awesomeness so I can actually get said eye open. Then, on and off again throughout the day it goes from nothing noticeable to watering eye to scratchy eye to just plain annoyance because it's doing something it shouldn't be doing. Argh. I have taken the new moniker of Pirate Wombat when I have the washcloth over one eye and muttering "T-yarr" (Heather, fix the spelling on that for me, please? And you may chastise me if Connor copyrighted his word.)

For this most part, this is a cold. A stupid, annoying-as-hell cold. It has not gone into my lungs but I have an equally stupid cough that, in turn, makes my lower back hurt whenever it decides to provoke me. I have worked my way through a couple of boxes of tissues and all the chicken noodle soup in the house. Last night, Ded brought me more soup and methinks my Dad, aka the Food Fairy, will be stopping by this afternoon with lots of reinforcements (tissues, Nyquil, soups, and hopefully the magic alchemy of cold-zapping awesomeness...and if that didn't make sense, it's the foggy brain...sorry)

Today I wanted to go to the handspinners' guild meeting that a friend told me about. Scratch that. Next week there is a sewing expo that my dad told me about which, for the sake of my fledgling quilt business, I really need to attend. If this is just a normal, pain in the ass cold I should be better by then.

On Saturdays, I was hoping for a Grab Bag of sorts category so I guess this post fits. As a quickie wrap-up, I finished the pink Ribbons of Hope scarf and really want to get one of the girls to pose with it so I can then send it on to its rightful home. As soon as I'm not contagious, I can do that but if I don't get well soon, I'll just have to take pics of it sans model.

I haven't finished any of the books I started last week but hope to at least finish The Road today.

I'm working again on Heather's blanket whilst watching Season 5 of Stargate SG1 and/or various and sundry other sci fi offerings. I'm also making a Tribble and some fingerless gloves for Giuli since her birthday is next week.

And I think today I shall vacuum...

and take several naps...

and ingest mass quantities of Vitamin C.

"The web of life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together."

2009-02-25T10:48:00.013-05:00

I had planned to share five websites/blogs/podcasts on Wednesdays but I'm not sure how that's going to work today. You see, yesterday I woke up feeling like I had been run over by a truck, perhaps a large semi loaded with evil germs of doomy-doom. I spent the day wrapped in a knitted shawl, swilling down chamomile tea and ingesting vast quantities of Vitamin C.

Today, however, is a wee bit more of a challenge. I woke up with conjunctivitis in my right eye. Oh, fun. At least it's a good thing I wasn't planning on going out in public anytime soon. Combine that with four hours of sleep and, yeah, this may be a short entry. We shall see.

Since this is my first post in my newly-reorganized Wonderful Web-day category, I think I will just share the really big time-sucks on the Internet.

1. Google Reader

Recently, I experienced large quantities of frustration (indicated by much gnashing of teeth and muttered cursing) because my RSS feeds were not updating. A couple of my Plurk buddies recommended Google Reader and I can say that my annoyances have been put aside (probably replaced by new ones, but that's another blog topic) and I am happily promoting the awesomeness that is Google Reader (cue angelic choir).

It took several days for me to get all of my blogs transferred over (adding new ones along the way, of course) but now I can immediately see not only which blogs have unread posts but also how many new posts there are. Pretty cool. I also like the home page that gives me a sampling of the latest updates.

So, if you have too many blogs to keep up with, you might want to give Google Reader a try.

2. Ravelry

Pretty much, if you are a knitter or crocheter, you know about this site. Ravelry describes itself as "...a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools, and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration." Other than the nails-on-the-chalkboard grammar of "where my stitches at?" I'm pretty impressed with what this site has accomplished. Unfortunately, once you start perusing everything possible, you will find that you need to hop in your TARDIS to get back those couple of hours that just slipped by.

I like to use Ravelry as a pattern resource and I do occasionally post on the forums. However, in my few short months of hanging out there, I have seen the potential for total immersion in the online community and I have tried to not let myself get sucked into that. One of my favourite parts is being able to check out what other knitters are saying about any particular pattern and peruse their pictures of those projects. It can be a great organizational tool and, of course, a neat place to meet lots and lots of knitters and designers.

You can find me at Ravelry as wombatknitter. In order to become a member, you need to request an invitation. As of this posting, there are 297,578 registered users. If you sign up now, though, you should receive your invitation in about five days.

3- Plurk and why it's not just another silly time-suck.

If you spend your days on the computer, you might enjoy a little contact with the outside world. The nice thing about Plurk is that you can make connections with other like-minded people and you can stay in your pajamas with no makeup on, if you choose. I jumped on the Plurk bandwagon back in November and now have 125 "friends" there. The overwhelming majority of them are knitters and I have actually made contacts there that are proving to be helful in by knitting/designing ventures. I'll keep y'all posted on that - it looks like I have a yarn store interested in carrying one of my designs.

You can find me on Plurk as WombatofDOOM.

4 - Facebook

Okay, you knew I had to throw in my worst offender in the black hole that is "where the frack did my day go?" What can I say other than...yep, it's fun. It can help you stay in touch with people even more easily than sending email and occasionally you might even be informed of some event that you really want to attend. But mostly, you'll probably just play games. And that's okay, too...as long as you remember to eat and sleep once in a while.

So, I'm thinking next week we'll explore some of the odds bodkins sites I enjoy. You know the ones. Stuff like this...Craftastrophe!

"What do you read, my lord?" "Words, words, words."

2009-02-23T23:55:00.009-05:00

If it's Tuesday, this must be This Week in Bookland.

The observant reader will note I have minimized the size of my Shelfari bookshelf. This is not because I am reading any less or that the Big Damn Stack o'Books has shrunk. Fear not! I just decided to do a little blog revamping and this is one of my experiments. I am allowing myself only six books to post per week on the shelf: two fiction, three non-fiction, and one read-aloud. Restricting my choices is actually quite difficult but I'm hoping the streamlined look will help the page load more quickly.

Read Aloud
Giuli and I are still working on Inkheart. It is hard to make the time for this book, not because we aren't interested, but because she and I seem to both want to knit whilst someone reads to us. Perhaps we should enlist Mary as a Designated Reader so we can get moving along at a quicker pace. Giuli can't wait until we finally meet Capricorn as she already visualizes him as Andy Sirkis although we have yet to see the movie.

Fiction
I am still trudging through The Lies of Locke Lamora. I say "trudging" only due to my reserving this book for my bedtime reading. Some nights I actually crash after a page or two, so I feel as though I will never finish this 719-page tome. In all fairness, I should probably set aside a better time for more conscious reading.

I'm "fixin' to" read The Road by Cormac McCarthy this week. Weighing in at 287 pages with an awful lot of white space per page, I'm predicting it will move quickly. This book was reviewed on one of the dozen or so book blogs that I read - bad blogger that I am, however, I forgot to note which one. But, now that I have a more organized method to my blogging madness, I hope to be much better about this in the future.

Non-fiction
Ah, non-fiction! I allow myself three books in this category because I usually don't have to follow a plotline or remember characters so I can spread my interests around a bit more liberally.

First, I'm about halfway through The Magician's Book. This is a collection of essays by critic Laura Miller, who appears to have a love/hate relationship with C. S. Lewis and his Chronicles of Narnia. While I don't always agree with her viewpoints, I am definitely learning a good deal more about Lewis' life, particularly his childhood. I have another similar volume lurking on my to-read list which I will divulge next week so stay tuned.

Alan Watts is not often easy for me to grasp, but I am still amazed that the tiny book, The Wisdom of Insecurity, is taking me so long to finish. I am, however, over halfway along and occasionally a little light bulb goes off in my head when something actually "clicks". One of those moments occured recently when I read this passage:

"Can you, at the same time, read this sentence and think about yourself reading it? You will find that, to think about yourself reading it, you must for a brief second stop reading. The first experience is reading. The second experience is the thought, 'I am reading.' Can you find any thinker, who is thinking the thought, 'I am reading?' In other words, when present experience is the thought, 'I am reading,' can you think about yourself thinking this thought?

Once again, you must stop thinking just, 'I am reading.' You pass to a third experience, which is the thought, 'I am thinking that I am reading.' Do not let the rapidity with which these thoughts can change deceive you into the feeling that you think them all at once."

The lightbulb turned on and I proceeded to tell Paul that I couldn't ever really say "I'm reading" because I wouldn't actually be reading as I said it so I would just be saying that I was reading but that would not be true because...well...nevermind.

The third book of non-fiction is Book by Book by Michael Dirda. In his Preface, Dirda explains his time as a book reviewer and columnist for the Washington Post Book World.

"During these past three decades the Post has kindly allowed me to write about nearly any sort of book that caught my fancy, and my fancy can be quite promiscuous -- ancient classics one week, science fiction and fantasy the next."

What bookworm wouldn't love a job like that? And, since I definitely fall into that category, this book struck my fancy when I read the back cover blurb, which states "...the wit, wisdom, and enchantment of the written word informs and enriches nearly every aspect of life, from education and work to love and death." With a Who's Who reaching from Charles Addams to Stefan Zweig, Dirda shares what he has learned about life from his reading. I recently began compiling a never-ending list of classic books I want to read, and I am sure I will find many titles to add whilst devouring this little gem.

One more thing, I nearly forgot that today I began listening to Pride and Prejudice on the Craftlit podcast. The A&E version from 1995 with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle is a favourite of mine but I have never read the book. So, I shall be knitting along to Jane Austen whenever I can.

That wraps up this week's reading. Please don't forget to leave your comments! And check back in on Wednesday for another topic in my revamped weekly lineup.

To Knit, Perchance to Quilt...The Ribbons of Hope Scarf

2009-02-23T02:21:00.007-05:00

Remember on Saturday when I posted a picture of that gorgeous scarf and I was just flying along with its progress? Yeah, well, today is a whole different story. Not that there is anything wrong with the pattern or the yarn; it's just my perfectionist tendencies and how I deal with them.

So, the story begins on Saturday. Giuli and I had knitted for a while during the day (she's working on a lovely lavender washcloth with her own design which I shall post as soon as she finishes. About a week ago, I taught her how to make yarn-overs and knit-two-togethers to get eyelets and the girl's design genes have kicked in big time.) She was looking for a change in venue late in the afternoon, so we headed out to run a few errands with plans to end up at Borders, our regular knitting hang-out.

I digress for a moment to share one of my delights...

For the past six years or more, I have used Noxzema cleansing cream exclusively as a facial cleaner. It smells great and takes off makeup better than anything else I've tried. So, when Giuli and I were at Target to pick up a couple of jars, I found that they also make an exfoliating cleanser. It comes in a 6-ounce tube and, thank goodness, it still has that great Noxzema scent. Serendipitously, Target only had one of the 14-ounce jars left of the regular cream, so I figured I give the new kid on the block a try. The early results are in and the exfoliating cleanser gets a thumbs up! Yet another reason why I don't believe in buying the fancy-named expensive products. I do love my Noxzema (even though I often get those bizarre visuals of Wesley Snipes in To Wong Fu Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar...but let's not go there right now.)

Back to the knitting...

I completed about three pattern repeats on Saturday, including a small amount at Borders whilst perusing the newest knitting magazines. Several of my friends complimented me on the project and I was happy to brag about how much I love this yarn and the pattern. Unfortunately, a small disaster was lurking - waiting for me to perform a more careful examination of my work after I got home.

You see, this pattern involves wrapping the yarn around the needle four times for every one stitch on the right side of the scarf on the fifth and eleventh row of the patterning. Then, on the sixth and twelfth rows, not only do you magically change those wraps into long dropped stitches, but you also cross four stitches over four others and then knit them in this totally different order which results in (what else?) a crossed stitch. This is not really difficult; however, you must be really, really careful not to accidentally mess up the order of said crossed stitches or it will show up on the back of your work...usually a day or so after you've actually produced what I have now dubbed the "star-crossed" stitch. (Only because I'm a big Shakespeare geek and Romeo and Juliet was recently being performed down at the Shakespeare Tavern, thus the term is fresh in my mind.)

So, yeah, in the newly-bright light of my studio (a bulb blew out in my ceiling fan light when I got home after the Borders visit and I actually replaced it in a timely manner) I decided to closely inspect the 180 rows of the awesome scarf of awesomeness. (Cue the Psycho music here.) EEK! I had not just one, not even two, but three (count them) three star-crossed stitches - the first one being back around repeat number seven or so! No, you wouldn't have seen them from a galloping horse or (going back to my ballet wardrobe mom days) from the audience. But I saw them. I knew they were there. They taunted me. ("Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt like elderberries!"...okay, perhaps a slight exaggeration.)

I decided to sleep on it...no, not the scarf. sigh.

Three hours later, I was up again. My perfectionism won out. There was no way I was going to make something for someone and knowingly let a mistake get by. The beautiful scarf once again became a beautiful ball of yarn.

Am I bitter about having to frog my work? No, not really. Do I consider the hours I put into it a waste of time? Again, no. I have found a few helpful methods that are paying off now that I'm reknitting. The first time, I had to try three different sets of needles before I found ones that are most suitable to the yarn. I thought I was being careful with my crossed stitches but found that careful wasn't enough - extra careful is enough. And I have discovered that I need to switch from my normal Continental style to English for one row of the patterning in order to accomplish that extra care.

So far, the results are stunning. I do love the way this yarn feels and it's such an exquisite pattern that I may have to incorporate this stitch into another project which Giuli suggested (No! Not a blanket, Giuli. Think smaller...much smaller.)

So, on my next knitting post I shall have photos of the finished scarf and I will share my tips on the three things that I have utilized in order to turn this project into a Dilettante's Delight.

Ribbons of Hope Progress

2009-02-21T15:11:00.004-05:00

This is just a quickie post. I received the most gorgeous silk yarn on Thursday and am working on the pattern, Ribbons of Hope, from The Unique Sheep. Last night I put in a goodly amount of work whilst watching all my favourite sci-fi shows so I thought I would put up a photo of the progress I've made.

For the math geeks out there (stand up and be proud!) I will share with you that I am 36% finished (yes, I figured rows per inch, number of inches needed, number of pattern repeats, all kinds of fun stuff). The colour may not be exact because I took the pic late at night and had to use a flash. Sorry about that.

I do love the pattern stitch but I can tell you that there are two rows out of the 12-row repeat that have numerous wraps around the needle and that particular movement is causing a bit of achiness in my right wrist. I had to quit last night after a few hours, put some Pain-a-trate on my wrist and took some ibuprofen. I think a good overnight rest has helped and I'm raring to go today.

Under Construction Due to Overactive Organizational Tendencies

2009-02-19T05:37:00.002-05:00

For the past few days, I've been listening to lots of podcasts, many of which have a set pattern of the topics they hit on each episode. I've found that I really like this because I know that at a certain point in the show Dr. Gemma will get to her Blather, Meghan will tell us one of her Favourite Things, or David will let us know what's at The Bottom of the Knitting Bag. (And these are just a sample of the podcasts I listen to.) Knitting podcasts will have the obligatory What's On My Needles, but I like the variety of the shows that veer off into something unique.

So, how does this relate to my blog? I've been considering a daily blog with a different topic for each day - since my interests are so scattered, smothered, chunked, diced, topped, capped (ask my kids for the correct order and I'm sure they'll get it - and let me know what I left out). I really think I can come up with at least five regular topics and a wild card so that's what I'll be working on for a couple of days. I'll be back to my regularly scheduled blogging as soon as I go all obsessive-compulsive and litter my desk with an obscene amount of notes, analyzing to my heart's content and, of course, using lots of geeky math skills. (okay, maybe not, but there's still hope)

Here's my obligatory crafting and reading update:

After finishing my slouch hat and Michael's fingerless gloves, I started a pair of fingerless gloves for Giuli in the same mint green as her slouch hat and a pair of baby socks. There's a small baby explosion amongst our friends and I'm experimenting with some toe-up socks as gifts. I'm taking part in the Knitting Purls Toe-Up Sock Knitalong that began on the 17th and hope to make all 3 pair of the baby socks plus a pair of socks for moi during the KAL.

Readingwise, I'm about halfway finished with The Magician's Book, about one hundred pages into Inkheart with Giuli, and barely making a dent in The Lies of Locke Lamora. I have two books on loan, The Well and the Shallows and The Road, so I have to set aside time for them pretty soon.

So, I'll see y'all soon with a revamped schedule of things to come!

US Government Says "Let the Book Burning Commence!"

2009-02-13T04:03:00.005-05:00

If you own an original copy of this book, hide it now!

I wasn't prepared to blog right now - after all, it is 4am and I was thinking more along the lines of something resembling a nice warm bed and, who knows, maybe sleep? But, as fate would have it, I just had to read a few more blogposts and, holy cow, take a look at this! A number of y'all know that I have been a children's book collector since way back and my favourites to get my hands on are books from the 1960's and earlier. Well, I don't know how I missed this atrocity but I am absolutely appalled that all the really good books for children are now hazardous to their health...or at least according to the government, that is.

I don't think I could possibly sum up the situation better than the poster of the indicated blog when he said:

"Whatever the future of new media may hold, ours will be a poorer world if we begin to lose (or “sequester” from children) the millions of books published before our own era. They serve as a path into history, literature, and imagination for kids everywhere. They link the generations by enabling parents to pass on the stories and discoveries in which they delighted as children. Their illustrations open up worlds far removed from what kids are likely to see on the video or TV screen. Could we really be on the verge of losing all of this? And if this is what government protection of our kids means, shouldn’t we be thinking instead about protecting our kids from the government?"

Thank you, Walter Olsen, and I do believe I need to add his blog, Overlawyered, to my never-ending reading list.

Also, I would like to thank Chris, author of the book-a-rama blog, for her post which drew my attention to this stupid, stupid law.

What's next, people? Are the book Nazis going to go from house to house, searching to see if we have "dangerous" books on our shelves? After all, I'm sure there are some fanatics out there who would certainly want to protect all those at-risk children from their irresponsible parents who refuse to see the potential health threat lurking in the deep, dark recesses of our bookcases. Sounds ludicrous to you? Of course it does, if you're a rational-minded person. But we shall see...

Personally, I'm wondering if it's time to start the old dumpster-diving routine at the libraries again.

Brain Overload

2009-02-12T01:57:00.007-05:00

Is it possible to be unable to blog because you have too many things to blog about? After this past week, I'm thinking the answer is an unequivocal "YES" and therein lies my problem. I have a little notebook in which I began jotting down various and sundry things that I wanted to blog about and so far it looks something like this: Follow the bouncing ball, puns, Ten Percent Won't Pay the Rent, bathroom shelves, visual reminder board. And that doesn't even include the book list or the WIP list.

So, this is my attempt to at least catch up with my reading list, which I think will be the shortest entry of those above.

In the reading aloud category, Giuli and I are enjoying Inkheart. I already read it but I felt I needed to review the first and second books in order to finally read Inkdeath, which has been on my "to read" list for a few months now. We finished Heidi a week or so ago, which has been an ongoing project for way too long.

For non-fiction, I have so many books scattered around the house that I could read something different in every single room, including the hallway in the bookcase across from the washer and dryer. I have two books in the master bathroom (because who among us does not stash books in the bathroom, I ask you?): The New Feminine Brain (because I want to know what was wrong with the old one, of course) and Mindful Knitting. In the guest bathroom (aka the kids' bathroom) are Pickpockets, Beggars, and Ratcatchers and The Wisdom of Insecurity. Amazingly, in the downstairs half-bath, I only have magazines...which shows you that I don't often use that bathroom. Non-fiction I am actually reading before I drop off at night - The Magician's Book, which Paul just finished reading last week. I am sure I will reread the Narnia series after finishing it, too, just as Paul is doing. I'm thinking of using that as my read-aloud series after we finish the Inkheart books.

Fiction - I finished the Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume One, which was actually two books in one volume. I read the first part a couple of months ago and decided I was in the mood for juvenile fiction so went back to it. I'd like to read more by Diana Wynne Jones - of course, the next book in this series was not in stock at Borders the other night. She also wrote Howl's Moving Castle which I'm sure is familiar to many of y'all. I also finished Coraline, which was delightful in a way that I think only Neil Gaiman can provide. Now I am reading The Lies of Locke Lamora, which was recommended by Heather. And my classic book that I put down for a while but will get back into shortly is Don Quixote.

Dare I mention that I have a small collection of books on my desk which I can grab at a moment's notice when the urge strikes? The obligatory Little Oxford English Dictionary and the Visual Quick Tips Microsoft Office 2003 are pretty standard fare on a computer desk, right? Others that might not seem so expected are: The Well and the Shallows, Instant English Literature, Green Clean, The Importance of Living, Once Upon a Galaxy, Shakespeare - The Invention of the Human, The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, and last but not least, Mason*Dixon Knitting. I have not listed the authors here because all these books are on my Shelfari up at the top of my blog.

So, in typing all this up I have realized something that you may have picked up on, too. I think I have a greater attention span when it comes to non-fiction than fiction. I need the continuity of story, which is difficult to do if you are immersed in too many fantasy worlds. Also, when it comes to fiction, I absolutely feel the need to finish the damned thing if I get very far into it. I can't think of any books offhand that I have had to abandon completely, although there are several that I had to start 2 or 3 times before I was in the right mindset to be able to delve into them. Amazingly, Outlander was one of those books. I do have an excuse for the first attempt, though. A friend gave me a copy when I was in the hospital back in '95 when I had Guillain-Barre. I think my attention span was just not up to the task and even Jamie and Claire could not hold my attention. Granted, I didn't get that far into the book before I gave it up. I have no excuse for the second attempt but, as they say, third time's a charm and that time totally sucked me in. Even though I haven't read all the books in the series yet, I'm still excited to see yet another Outlander title coming out soon!

So, how about some feedback from the peanut gallery on this one? What type of reader are you? Scattered and smothered like Waffle House hashbrowns? Perhaps you have a favourite genre? Any books you wanted to throw across the room? (Anxiously awaiting Paul's input on that one) Or what tome do you constantly come back to, rather like a comfort book?

I didn't really pare down my blog topic list because, in looking at my notebook, I see that I have managed to completely avoid every item there. *facepalm*

Oh yes, I am 80 percent finished with my slouch hat! Hooray! I hope to post pictures tomorrow when I finish.

Happy Reading!

OMG I did say I thought this would be a short post. Colour me embarrassed.

Applause for Stephen King, Please

2009-02-05T08:10:00.003-05:00

At last year's Dragon*Con I was tickled to hear author Peter David say that he would love to have a book on the NY Times bestseller list like Stephenie Meyer's sappy vampire series but "I can't write that badly" - which drew applause from the audience of published and aspiring writers alike.

Now, Stephen King minces no words as he also slams Meyer. I particularly love the quote:

"The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn." (Wow, does King really use the word "darn"??? I don't remember ever reading it in his many novels.)

I love that! Yes, there are those of us out there who would just as soon use the books as paperweights or flower presses. In fact, when this latest installment came out, Amazon had a huge outpouring of negative reviews.

I don't know about y'all, but I'm looking forward to the full interview of King in the March 6-8 issue of USA WEEKEND.

The Bloggers' Silent Poetry Reading

2009-02-02T20:07:00.002-05:00

WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading

WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2009

WHERE: Your blog

WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day

HOW: Select a poem you like - by a favorite poet or one of your own - to post February 2nd.

RSVP: If you plan to publish, feel free to leave a comment and link on this post. Last year when the call went out there was more poetry in cyberspace than we could keep track of. So, link to whoever you hear about this from and a mighty web of poetry will be spun.

Feel free to pass this invitation on to any and all bloggers.

Thank you, Reya, for beginning what is now an annual event.

And now, one of my favourites:

Alfred Noyes (1880-1958)

The Highwayman

PART ONE

I

THE wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding—
Riding—riding—
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

II

He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

III

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,
And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

IV

And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked
Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;
His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,
But he loved the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's red-lipped daughter,
Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—

V

"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."

VI

He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,
But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,
(Oh, sweet, black waves in the moonlight!)
Then he tugged at his rein in the moonliglt, and galloped away to the West.

PART TWO

I

He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon;
And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon,
When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor,
A red-coat troop came marching—
Marching—marching—
King George's men came matching, up to the old inn-door.

II

They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,
But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;
Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side!
There was death at every window;
And hell at one dark window;
For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.

III

They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest;
They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast!
"Now, keep good watch!" and they kissed her.
She heard the dead man say—
Look for me by moonlight;
Watch for me by moonlight;
I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!

IV

She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!
She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood!
They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,
Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,
Cold, on the stroke of midnight,
The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!

V

The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the rest!
Up, she stood up to attention, with the barrel beneath her breast,
She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;
For the road lay bare in the moonlight;
Blank and bare in the moonlight;
And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain .

VI

Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clear;
Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear?
Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
The highwayman came riding,
Riding, riding!
The red-coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still!

VII

Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!
Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,
Then her finger moved in the moonlight,
Her musket shattered the moonlight,
Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her death.

VIII

He turned; he spurred to the West; he did not know who stood
Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!
Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew grey to hear
How Bess, the landlord's daughter,
The landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.

IX

Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!
Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.

* * * * * *

X

And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees,
When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
A highwayman comes riding—
Riding—riding—
A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.

XI

Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard;
He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred;
He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord's daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The above poem can be found in print, for example, in:
Noyes, Alfred. Collected Poems. New York: Frederick A.
Stokes Company, 1913.
A recording of the poem being sung can be found on:

McKennitt, Loreena. The Book of Secrets [CD]. Burbank, CA:
Warner Bros. Records Inc., 1997.

Conflicting Ground Hog Reports - Who Do You Trust?

2009-02-02T08:04:00.004-05:00

Happy Wombat Day! Oh drat, it's that other furry animal, isn't it? Sigh.

Anyway, Punky Phil has predicted six more weeks of winter but our good old reliable General Beauregard Lee had something to say about that. Since the General lives a couple of miles down the street from me, I'm going to go with his prediction. Springtime weather, come on down!

And in the meantime, I'll just hang in there until October 22 for the real Wombat Day.

My desk area totally rocks

2009-02-01T23:12:00.007-05:00

I finally got in the photography mood today, so here are pics of my dad's carpentry creativity that I blogged about recently. Yes, that is some wild and wacky pipe cleaner art created by Giuli that is hanging on the wall and on the computer tower, with the exception of the pet mouse in the exercise wheel which Mary made for me. As you can see, I now have about double the space for storing the necessities of life: pens, pencils, oddball knitting needles, scissors, tissues, notepads, sticky notes, my business cards, knitting pattern-a-day calendar, and about 8 or 10 of the latest books I'm reading or using for reference. And, of course, the ball winder.

This shot gives you a closer view of the right-hand section of the L-shaped bookshelf. I am so pleased with this new arrangement. Everything is at hand and, since the desk is a wooden door sitting on two file cabinets, you know that those file cabinets are full of things I need to keep handy also (like the Sims2 and Lara Croft gaming guides, software, magazines that aren't organized elsewhere...oh, right, and even files.)

So, for those of you who are jealous because your daddy isn't as handy as mine, I feel your pain. ;-) But, in the meantime, I'll just enjoy my nifty desk space and you can picture me here the next time you see me Plurking or hanging out on Facebook.

Oh yeah, for those of y'all who are Alan Rickman fans, don't you just love that desktop picture?

I think Jimmy Hoffa may have been hiding in my dryer...

2009-02-01T00:14:00.005-05:00

...and thereby lies a cautionary tale.

Last night I began a crazed cleaning, reorganizing binge. Don't ask me where I got the energy because I have no clue. The Java Monster drink is still in the fridge so that didn't do it. Apparently the neat fairy smacked me upside the head when I wasn't looking and it worked. For starters, I popped into the local Publix last night and bought a large box of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda, a two-quart jug of white vinegar, and a few bars of castile soap. This is to go along with the book I had just purchased at Borders, Green Clean by Linda Mason Hunter and Mikki Halpin. Armed with my natural cleaning supplies, I was ready to clean something...anything.

Of course, I went home, putzed around in the kitchen and rearranged a few things, then promptly got on the computer for a while, watched Battlestar Galactica, and went back to the computer to goof around on Facebook. Yep, I really got cleaning. I did, however, do a load of laundry and have started using my dryer balls. I can't tell if they are softening anything but there's no static so the jury is still out on that one.

Now, those of y'all who really know me can attest to the fact that I just get this urge to move furniture at, say, midnight or thereabouts. Yep, that's the night owl in me. The nocturnal wombat nature just emerges without warning. And, aha! I'm going to attack the kitchen! I'm talking really attacking it this time.

The kitchen now has real honest-to-goodness counter space. Everything is gone on the main countertop that separates the dining room from the actual cooking area. I moved the microwave into the corner, sitting kitty-corner and facing the cooking space and there is a small bowl for the bananas out. That's it. The box of vitamins is neatly in the cabinet under the silverware drawer. The breadmaker is under another cabinet. The two irons and the blender are in another cabinet. Everything is still neat in the cabinets - I didn't overload them - and I can see into the dining room now. Awesome. But, that's not all...(we'll send you a second set of Ginsu knives...no...wait...sorry about that) I also cleared off the other counter because I moved the microwave from that area. Now I only have two ceramic jars which hold tea bags and Sweet & Low, and the electric tea kettle. The pseudo-butcher block countertops are all scrubbed and pretty and the kitchen looks twice as large.

That was a pretty good accomplishment and I decided to let things go at that...for a while. Then, at about 3am, I got another burst of energy. I headed back to the dining room and started rearranging things. I moved two bookcases and the table. Once again, another room that looks so much larger than it did before. I'll take some pictures tomorrow and put them up. There are still a few boxes in the dining room but I will just have to attack them little by little and toss what I can, then probably store stuff over at Dad's if I really need to keep anything.
Well, tomorrow is another day - right, Scarlett? So, tomorrow being today (hope you followed that logic) I wasn't finished with my wacky cleaning extravaganza. I vacuumed the area where Heather's piggers had been living while they visited and moved all the crates with my knitting books back in here. That made me happy for a while and I finished the fingerless gloves I was working on just to accomplish one more thing. But that still wasn't enough for one day.

Aha! Let's check out the dryer. I had a sneaky suspicion that, although I am very good about cleaning out the lint filter, some of the more persistent lint may have fallen down below into no-man's-land. So, I thought I would just get the vacuum and attach the hose thingee (yes, that's the technical term) and have at it. So, yep, there was some lint...and there was some more lint...and then I got the flashlight. Holy crap! There was enough lint down there in the bowels under the dryer to make a small wombat! I plurked to my buddies that, for all I knew, Jimmy Hoffa could have been hiding down there. I must have spent about a half hour wiggling the vacuum hose down there and sucking up gobs of lint. It was disgusting. And I am just appalled that I never even knew that crap accumulated like that.

So, now I want everybody to run (don't walk) to your dryer, remove the lint filter, take a flashlight and check out what's lurking under there. That really has to be a fire hazard so I'm not kidding - please go check it out.

Now, some knitting content. I finished a pair of fingerless gloves that a friend had ordered so I can take them to him tomorrow and happily get paid! These gloves were really taking on an albatross factor in that I had to knit the left one three times. Yes, I had issues with the patterning so I took it apart. Then I was nearly finished and about to bind off the thumb when I discovered I had two right gloves. I had followed my lovely pattern in my steno book and I simply copied what I had done on the first glove - therefore ending up with the thumb in the same place. Duh! So, I took it apart again. Third time's a charm and, yes, I did finish it today after giving it an overnight break. Interestingly, I'll note here that the two photos of the gloves were taken with and without flash just for comparison's sake. The shot taken with natural light coming in from the window is not as true to the colour as the other shot with the flash. Shoots my theory all to hell because I figured I needed to get some nice sunlight to get decent colour. Oh well. I need to just leave the techie photo stuff to Steve.

I still have Heather's blanket in the works and one glove is finished for Michael but I have to head back to Joann's to get another skein of Woolease in order to make the second one. I haven't finished the chemo cap slouch hat I was designing because I needed to let the design sort of ferment whilst I thought about whether I liked it or not. I've decided I'm going to take the last few inches out and rework them because I changed the patterning and, although the pattern is very pretty and all cable-y, it doesn't really go with the first part of the hat so I'm probably going to make an entire hat with that pattern next. It just isn't making me happy for this one. Frankly, it looks like I took two different patterns and put them together. Which is what I did. Bad knitter - no cookie.

However, I really couldn't resist the idea of actually casting on something for me. I mean, I've knitted slouch hats for Caitlin, Mary, and Giuli this winter and I wanted one, too. I bought some lovely wool on sale a couple of weeks ago in a deep purple and a dark medium blue but I've been putting off starting a new project until I finished my orders for those fingerless gloves. So, after determining that Jimmy Hoffa was not hiding in my dryer, I wound the purple yarn, decided it was too dark to really show off the patterning in the hat, then wound the blue yarn, and just finished casting on for this project. Which brings me to something else I want to share my my knitting buds...

I have previously said how much I really love the Gretel pattern by Ysolda but I just have to rave about the fact that she has tutorials on her site, too. The cast-on for her hat is a tubular cast-on and, if you're like me and a visual learner, reading somebody's directions is not always enough to understand what's the what. However, the video on Ysolda's site is superb. And I noticed this evening that she has a tutorial on jogless stripes which looks pretty easy to follow. I didn't realize that these are also described as helix stripes. I've made a hat with several different colours using the helix stripe method and it's very cool. I'm thinking about just following Ysolda's tutorial and making the little bear hat that she has pictured so Mr. Teddy Bear can trade out his Jayne hat that's way too big for him.

OMG, that reminds me of something I saw late last night on Lime & Violet's Daily Chum. It's a Cylon Centurian hat! I am pretty sure I'm going to have to make several of these for Dragon*Con. Or, perhaps a Star Wars Stormtrooper knit hat by the same designer.

For those of y'all who are just geeking out over the knitted sci-fi stuff, check out this site - Geek Crafts. I leave you with that. Go - embrace the geekiness!

And, just so you can see the "library" area in the studio, here's another photo. Note that the two blue crates are schoolbooks but the rest is all knitting related. The fat notebooks are, of course, full of knitting and crocheting patterns. And the fishing tackle box - knitting supplies.

By the Way...

2009-01-31T03:08:00.003-05:00

...have you noticed that I now have a daily quote in my right-hand column? I have been playing around with the order of things for you to play clicky-clicky with, too. You'll find a few more podcasts and blogs that I can't live without, so why not give them a try?

Steno Pads and Why I Love Them

2009-01-30T11:29:00.007-05:00

How many of y'all actually use a steno pad for its original purpose? Show of hands, please. Ah-ha. As I thought...I can count the number of you on one hand. Okay, put your hands down. For the unenlightened, here is your mini-lesson for today.

Back in the dark ages, also known as BPC (Before Personal Computers) there was this method of note-taking called "shorthand" and those of us who aspired to become secretaries (now known as administrative assistants) dutifully took classes in said shorthand because a)Out in the business world, your boss would dictate letters not into a machine of any form but...get this...to *you*! Gasp; b)It makes taking lecture notes much easier and faster (as long as you can transcribe what you wrote in a note-taking frenzy; c)You could write notes to your friends during classtime (did I say that? my bad) and anyone who didn't take shorthand couldn't decipher what you wrote should said note fall into the wrong hands.

Anyway, shorthand is a collection of nifty little symbols which stand for letters, sounds, words, or even phrases and, once you master the basics, it's pretty cool. Here's a little bit o'trivia - if you ever see a shorthand textbook and note the authors' names, you will see Gregg and Leslie. In fact, the books are usually entitled Gregg Shorthand. Well, my teacher in highschool was an ancient little old lady, Mrs. White, whose claim to fame was that Mr. Leslie was her teacher. (That and she used to sing Bye, Bye, Blackbird whilst illustrating some of the shorthand symbols on the blackboard, but let's not go there.)

Okay, back to the whole steno pad topic. Upon observation, you will note that a steno pad has a red line that runs down the center of each page giving you two columns. Why? Here's where the shorthand origins come into play. In the left-hand column, you feverishly write all your nifty little squiggles, all the while hoping that you don't forget the symbol for something crucial and making up a bizarre new version. The right-hand column sits there, pristine and lonely until you find the time to (insert dramatic prairie dog music here) transcribe your notes. Painstakingly, you analyze all those little squiggles and write out in longhand what you think they mean right there in the column next door. It's best to do this whilst the dictation is fresh in your mind because, honestly, if you wait a few days, you are seriously going to wonder what the hell you were thinking when you made something up that looks like gibberish.

Okie doke, now that you've had your mini-lesson on the original purpose of the steno pad (and, yes, there will be a pop-quiz next week) let me enlighten you as to a few of the many uses I have found in my post-shorthand classes world.

Phone messages - I developed this method whilst working at an engineering firm where I handled a great deal of the phone calls. At the start of the workday, I would note the day and date at the top of a clean page. Then incoming calls were noted this way: Left-hand column was for the incoming info: time of call, caller, company, reason for call. Skip a few lines and draw a line where the next message will begin. As time allows, do all the research for processing the first message and write down the notes in the right-hand column. When you call the person back, if that's the end of the issue, take a highlighter (not a marker) and draw a diagonal line through the left-hand column. This shows that you acted on the call but you can still read all your notes. If you want to be really creative, you can use a different colour highlighter for the company name so you can look up the info fairly easily if you have to go back and find it. On the cover of the steno pad, in bold fat marker, write the dates that the phone messages begin and end. Don't use the back side of the pages. Just end at the last page, date the book, and file it away.

To Do List - This is pretty much a no-brainer but I like to use both columns in a similar way to the phone messages. In the left column, I will note things that need to be done and in the right column I'll make any comments needed. I draw a line under the listing, such as: groceries - list everything - then draw a line; drug store - pick up rx - draw a line; Target - look for such-and-such - draw a line. I can look at my page and see that I need to go to three different places, not just one long list of things to do. Then, when I finish something entirely, I draw a diagonal line through it. If I don't get all the items at the grocery store, I can either highlight what's left or write it in the right-hand column. But I don't cross it off the list yet. I can easily see that I never did get that stupid shower curtain liner that I've been looking for. For those of us who need a little reinforcement that we actually do accomplish something every once in a while, it's satisfying to see all those things marked off...finally.

Oh, yes, here's something important that I must mention. When I choose a steno pad, I make sure I get one that has a very sturdy back cover. Why? Because I rubberband the pages out of the way when I am finished with them. A flimsy cover just won't hold the rubberband - it will try to bend and that's a royal pain. This way, you can close the pad and not lose your place. Sticky notes are fine on each page for little notes but don't rely on them to stick out to the side and remain intact when you shove your pad into a tote bag or briefcase. Yep, this is really high tech, folks. Steno pads and rubberbands - what will she think of next?

Okay, now to the knitting part of the steno pad adventure.

Knitting notes - When I design a pattern, I can write out directions as I go along in the (say it after me) left-hand column. (Good. You're catching on quickly) If I want to make comments, changes, any kind of notations - they go in the right column.

Knitting two of anything - This works for socks, gloves, mittens. As you keep track of rows knitted on the first of the pair, make all your notes in the left column. Then, when you make the second one, you note everything directly across from it, in the right column. IMPORTANT NOTE! When you are making a right and left handed anything and you need to differentiate for, let's say, the thumb placement, for heaven's sake please make a note of this somewhere in that right column or you will (voice of experience here) end up making two right gloves, mitts, whatevers. Trust me on this. I'm just sayin'.

Okay, that's enough for starters. I'd love to hear from y'all if you try out ye olde steno pad and come up with your own uses. There are all sorts of ostentatious organizers on the market and you can spend the big bucks trying to be cool with your leather-covered can't-live-without-it impress-the-higher-ups look-at-me...okay, you get the picture. But if you want to save some money and still be efficient, then why not?

I just came across a blog with a very cool post about creative use of a steno pad. Check this out.

Oh yeah, here's another little tip. Take a suitably sized envelope and tape it to the inside back cover of your steno pad. You can stick receipts, stamps, all kinds of little things there. Even index cards...ooooh, can I blog about them next?

Balls...

2009-01-28T15:26:00.005-05:00

For those of you who are Dr. Horrible fans, the above title will be quite familiar. And, for those who have no clue, Dr. Horrible is another one of those projects that just emerged fully-formed from the head of Joss Whedon and has now claimed a place in the annals of history. It's rather like the "what I did on my summer vacation" essay that we all had to write in school. But, in Joss's case, it was "what I did during the writers' strike" and couldn't just take up knitting. Check it out - Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and, when you get to the song where Captain Hammer sings about everyone being special in "their" own way, you can change it to "his" own way - as I do. ;-)

Anyway, back to the actual purpose of today's post. Balls. Well, these are made of wool, felted, and are supposed to help keep your laundry soft and free of static. You could buy them here (I'm sorry but do these just look like some strange kind of sex toy? Sorry, I digress) but one of the comments said they were noisy. Yeah, what's worse than noisy balls? Okay, I tried to research "Fluff Balls" but there seems to be some issue with the website so I'll leave y'all to Google that on your own later when the site issues are resolved.

I must say that one of the most entertaining things about doing research on these balls is reading the comments that people leave. I found that the balls are ribbed, noisey (sic), the cloths (sic) or close (sic) still stick together, you don't have to use softner (sic) anymore, and my favourite was the one where the husband said that he bought the spiky rubber blue balls and now his wife is happier.

I'll stop there on the comments.

Anyway, I am making dryer balls out of wool that I have gleaned from a couple of thrift store wool sweaters. Interestingly, I'm having to set my washer on hot/cold and I think this is the first time I've done that in the past 5 years. I'm sure my washer is wondering what's going on - "Hot water, hmmm..., that's new." So, this is my first green project of the year and I'll report back when they are finished and I'll add my comments/review - hopefully with gooder (sic) gramer(sic) and speeling(sic). BTW, who invented the (sic)? I think I'll have to research that next.

Balls...

My Latest Dilemma

2009-01-26T20:04:00.006-05:00

I realized that I really haven't addressed the whole "dilemma" situation that this blog is supposed to deal with. Hmmm...Yes, I actually do have one that I would like to begin working on. This dilemma pertains to the use of natural ingredients in the attempt to stop putting so many toxic substances into our environment.

What prompted my interest in this subject? Well, let's just say I have a healthy curiosity in how someone could possibly develop a fatal lung disease while avoiding the things we normally associate with unhealthy habits, particularly smoking or even being around second-hand smoke. So, let's see where my quest is leading me.

First off, a couple of years ago, I began switching over to non-toxic everything I could get my hands on. I found a great company that carries items for cleaning, bathing, makeup, vitamins, medicines, etc. I love the products and I use them religiously. The only problem...it's getting expensive for me. I won't name the company here because I really like them and I don't want to give you the wrong impression. It's not that their items are expensive but that I simply can't afford them right now. If anyone wants to contact me directly, I will be glad to share the info with you. I actually signed up with them to be a distributor but, you know what? I'm just not a salesperson. I would love to see more people using this stuff but I just can't make a living doing it.

So, today while I was listening to a knitting podcast (Stitch-It) I was also developing an increasing interest in making my own cleaning products. Meghan, who is the podcaster, had recently made her own laundry soap. Sounded pretty easy and certainly cheaper than what I use. I began researching on the Net and found a lot of helpful sites with recipes which, of course, led to hunting down natural shampoo, drain cleaner, fabric softener, etc. You know how you start at website A and end up at website Z in about 30 minutes? Yep, that was me.

Well, here is what I'm going to do. My dilemma is that I am now in the information overload phase and I need to narrow things down. I also feel the calling to share this info with as many people as possible. So, as I discover really good sites and directions for useful products that are not expensive , I will post the info here. And please share your experiences with me so I can glean even more wisdom from this neverending thirst for knowledge.

Just to tie things back in with my original interest in this healthful environment quest, this is the question I often pose. If a person who doesn't smoke and isn't around second-hand smoke can develop a fatal lung disease, what factors may have contributed to the problem? I know that this is a person who didn't get out of the house much. So, let's think about the fact that fresh air is minimal. Okay. Then what is in the house? Toxic cleaners, for starters. Also, consider that she burned candles a lot. And I do mean a lot! And used those air fresheners in aerosol cans...a lot. Starting to get a possible bigger picture? All of this gunking up the air and no real chance to get away from it to clean out one's lungs. Did this do damage or not? We probably won't ever know, but I don't think it would hurt to see how I can do my part to avoid the situation.

So, probably tomorrow I shall begin adding to the usual topics of family, knitting, quilting, reading, and whatever catches my interest. Don't get me wrong - I'm not a rabid health nut or tree hugger. I'm just trying to learn more and, you know me, I'm all about education outside the confines of an institution. Develop an interest and delve deeply, then share the results with others. Don't proselytize. Don't try to convert people who are obviously unreceptive. And don't beat people over the head with information just because you think it's good for them. Unless you really get off on that and then, hey, knock yourself out. ;-)

Until next time, just to let you know: Knitting projects - more fingerless gloves and a blanket for Heather; Books - Finished the Carolyn Hart book and back to the Diana Wynne Jones (both books are noted above in my Shelfari book shelf). I also picked up Don Quixote again because I want to intersperse more classical lit in with my casual reading. And my latest culture experience: we attended a play yesterday at Gainesville College. Finding Hamlet was the Senior Thesis project of one of Heather's theatre cohorts (Will Bradley) at Gainesville College. (Oh yeah, Heather just happened to be the lighting designer. Her able-bodied assistant was Michael. Nepotism works.) I found it thought-provoking and now I want to go back and reread Harold Bloom's book, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. I guess I shall just add that to the neverending big damn stack o'books on the side of the bed...and in every other room of the house.

A Helpful Hint from Knitting Land

2009-01-20T02:27:00.004-05:00

I was just sitting here, plugging away at the latest in the blanket series for my kids, and I realized that I simply can't rely on reading patterns from the book and ticking or clicking off rows in order to keep on track. I try to take that shortcut but I always end up knitting two or three rows and then backtracking one when I find I have an extra stitch or two at the end. When you're working on a small project, it's not a big deal. Blankets, on the other hand, or shawls (even worse) are not pleasant to have to frog or tink. So, I'm going to pass on one of those little gems that I read quite a number of years ago in hopes that it will save someone else a bit of frustration, too.

One of the reference books on my knitting shelves is Knitting in Plain English by Maggie Righetti. I stumbled upon Maggie's book after meeting her at a writer's group and have recommended it nearly as much as any Elizabeth Zimmermann classic. Her instructions are very clear and she teaches you to think about what you are doing as opposed to the blind pattern following that normally results after years and years of doing just that. One of my favourite things that she pointed out was that people's bodies just happen to be cylindrical (torso, arms) so why do we knit flat and then sew up the seams when we can knit circular???? Yeah, duh. Also, she taught me to really look at the poses of the models in books and magazines to see if they are standing awkwardly...possibly hiding some fitting issue with the garment??

Okay, so on to Maggie's tip that has saved my sanity many times. If your pattern stitch involves anything more difficult than, say, stockinette stitch or straight garter stitch until the cows come home, make your own copy of the instructions. And, by that, I mean this: using a different index card for each row, copy the pattern's instruction out, word for word (or, in my case, use your own shorthand for the method if you prefer to use a different way to describe knitting in the front and back of a stitch, or some such). That's right...a different card for each row and NO CHEATING! I like to find the index cards that are spiral bound so I know I won't get them out of order. Or, I'll use a small notebook that's close to index card size. I note on the first page the name of the pattern stitch and, underneath that, "Row 1". Then, on each subsequent page, I write "Row 2", "Row 3", etc. The only time I fudge on this is when I have plain knit or purl rows. Then I might add that notation (in large printing, so I don't miss it) on the lower half of the card with the previous row at the top. It's also not a bad idea to highlight the actual row number.

So, when you're knitting a lacy shawl pattern with a 24-row repeat, the only instructions that are staring you in the face are the ones for the row you are knitting. Period. When you finish that row, flip to the next card and proceed. I also keep a pad and pencil to mark off the rows, of course, or use my handy little sheep counter (no, not for counting sheep - it's just shaped like a sheep.)

Anyway, after taking out 114 stitches per row about 3 times on this blanket (and I'm only on about row 15 or 16) I realized I was trying to just look at the chart and hope I didn't screw up. Bad knitter - no cookie. So, out came the little notebook and now I'm back on track. Of course, charts are often confusing anyway so writing out the instructions often makes following them much less of a challenge. And don't ever hesitate to verbalize those confusing parts - who cares what people think if you're mumbling to yourself, "Oh, Bee, Oh, Ess Ess Kay, Knit 5" over and over. If it keeps you from making one less booboo, let the folks around you think you're speaking in tongues. If you really want to have some fun, find some tune that your directions fit and sing them to yourself. Now you're really cooking. ;-)

Knitathon 2009 Results

2009-01-19T07:38:00.004-05:00

Just a quick little post here about the 2009 Knitathon. Our statistician, Fran (who has been with us since the first Knitathon), released the final figures today for last Sunday's tribute to Lorraine at Knitting4Children. Drumroll, please...

The Total Number of Knitathon Participants - 36 members
Total Number of Hours Worked on Items - 226.5 hours (Average - 6.5 hours per
participant)

This resulted in a grand total of 137 items knitted for charity in that one day - an average of 4 items per participant. Not a bad way to start off our year. A huge thank you to everyone who helped out!

Time for a Career Change?

2009-01-17T15:35:00.004-05:00

Have you heard about the Best Job In The World? If you missed out on the announcement, check it out here. The job description reads: Tourism Queensland is seeking applicants for the best job in the world! The role of Island Caretaker is a six-month contract, based on luxurious Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef. It’s a live-in position with flexible working hours and key responsibilities include exploring the islands of the Great Barrier Reef to discover what the area has to offer. You’ll be required to report back on your adventures to Tourism Queensland headquarters in Brisbane (and the rest of the world) via weekly blogs, photo diary, video updates and ongoing media interviews. On offer is a unique opportunity to help promote the wondrous Islands of the Great Barrier Reef.

Huh. Interesting, eh? Upon further reading, I found that a few of the duties are to feed the fish, clean the pool, and collect the mail. Well, that gives 3 of the kids something to do. I would imagine Michael could clean the pool, Mary could feed the fish, and Giuli can collect the mail. So far, so good.

Here are the qualifications:
- Excellent interpersonal communication skills (Yeah, I think I inherited that quality from my dad)

- Good written and verbal English skills (Do we even need to go into my dream of being the Gordon Ramsay of grammar??)

- An adventurous attitude (Can we say Uptown in Charlotte NC because I "thought" I could remember where things were since I had lived there about 20 years before?)

- Willingness to try new things (Obviously, since I don't like doing any one thing for too long lest I get bored.)

- A passion for the outdoors (crap...wombats do prefer their burrows)

- Good swimming skills and enthusiasm for snorkelling and/or diving (I would gladly learn to snorkel)

- Ability to engage with others (See previous note about the genetic thing I got from the Italian side of my family)

- At least one year’s relevant experience (Hey - I can make anything relevant if I have to.)

Okie doke - it's 39 degrees outside and I'm bundled up in flannel and wool - yeah, I'm ready to apply. Who wouldn't?

Happy Early Birthday, Heather!

2009-01-15T09:57:00.009-05:00

Since we are going to celebrate Heather's birthday tonight with dinner at Provino's, I thought I would go ahead and dedicate today's post to her...especially since I have to go to the ophthalmologist later today and probably won't be able to see the monitor clearly to post anything this afternoon. However, I'm not going to talk about birthday stuff today because I still need to try to catch up with the Christmas season. So, here goes...

Heather moved into a new apartment recently so she wanted some practical things for Christmas. I was able to oblige with a Revereware tea kettle and my dad added to the practical side of things with a bread knife, cheese grater, and a couple of travel mugs. It's always fun to start accumulating the necessities of life when you have a new place and I find great enjoyment in knowing that some of the things I don't really use much anymore (especially since Heather got me a darling teapot for Christmas last year) can be recycled to other family members. It seems to be a trend with us and I'm sure Giuli is going to end up with way more things than she will ever need if we keep this up.

In one of her more cryptic text messages before Christmas, Heather asked each of the family members to choose one of the following: cow, pig, or duck. Ded chose duck and I chose pig, having no idea what this said about our personalities or what ramifications our answers might have. Well, I don't have a close-up of the results but if you look very closely in the next picture, you will see our take on the Llama, Llama, Duck song as Ded and Giuli show us their ducks...ducks that shoot out laser lights and quack loudly...and Heather and Mary model their llama hats.

I received a Christmas cd by the Rat Pack (which I promptly told Heather to rewrap and give to Grampa - noted earlier in this blog - because I knew he'd love it), so I am awaiting my replacement copy and Ded and I are anxiously looking forward to Burn After Reading, which Heather had to order for us. The nice thing about this is that my Christmas season lasts even longer since I still have presents on the way.

Ded gave Heather a copy of The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang, a book he and I each own, also. I had already knit some goodies for her (note she is wearing the fingerless gloves) which makes it a little bare under the tree, but she has been happily warmer at work pre-Christmas than she would have been if I had insisted she wait for her handmades. Actually, I ended up making hats for Caitlin, Mary, and Giuli and gifting them before the holiday, too, so we really had a sparse amount of wrapped gifts.

Now, lest you think that we are boring and practical (heaven forbid) I shall note that my dad also gave Heather a copy of Bioshock for her Xbox. The thought of him negotiating EB Games just really amused us as he has absolutely no experience with anything to do with gaming. But he ended up with the right game and the right platform - Go, Dad!

This last picture is of Heather and Caitlin choosing their favourite scarves from a great collection that Giuli fingerknit for them. Once I showed my youngest how easy fingerknitting was, she couldn't stop doing it. I don't know how many she ended up making but, suffice it to say, she had lots of fun and her sisters reaped the benefits of her creativity. And, believe me, this family is nothing if it's not creative.

On the reading front, I'm tearing through the lastest Artemis Fowl, The Time Paradox, which I didn't even realize had been released in 2008. Ded gave it to me a couple of days ago as an early Valentine's Day present - a complete surprise. I'm about a third of the way through and so far, so good. On the knitting front, I have been working on a design of my own for a cabled chemo slouch hat and am nearly finished. It just dawned on me that I may not be able to finish it today since my eyes will be dilated - drat. I also need to take pictures of the ginormous blanket I made for Caitlin so I have something to post tomorrow for the continuing saga of Christmas 2008.

And, one more thing (I am feeling very Columbo-ish), I want to thank my buddy, KnittingDragon, who Plurked yesterday about a really cool knitting podcast he was listening to. (He also has a podcast, Sweaters for Dragons, and I'll have to talk about it in a future post.) I wandered over to CogKNITive--A Knitting + Psychology Podcast and promptly listened to 18 episodes until the wee hours of this morning. I guess you could say I'm enjoying it. Indeed, I am thoroughly enjoying it. The podcasts are only about 20 minutes long and are divided into four parts: the obligatory "what's on the needles/hook"; a "strategy for life" (great advice for dealing with our everyday issues like making lists, how to apologize, sleep on it, etc.); "something I really like" (in which Dr. Gemma, the author of the podcast, shares knitting as well as non-knitting favourites); and "blather", in which she shares with us her work experiences as a psychologist at a prison. Gemma is funny, entertaining, informative, and touching. You really don't have to be a knitter to appreciate this podcast so check it out. Remember the Reading Rainbow catch-phrase? Don't take my word for it...

Just a Quickie Note

2009-01-14T03:34:00.003-05:00

For those of y'all out there who are Eddie Izzard fans, I wanted to share this. Just another reason why I really like the guy.

Still Catching Up

2009-01-14T01:46:00.006-05:00

I always seem to let too many days go by without blogging and then I have to wrack my poor little brain to try to remember (cue Fantasticks music) what in the world has happened. Ah well, here goes...in no particular order.

Sunday was the annual Knitathon for Knitting4Children. I ended up knitting for about 8 hours at various and sundry times of the wee hours of the morning and early afternoon. I thought I would pull the 9-midnight shift but actually crashed around 10pm for a change. Thank goodness I knew there were other people signed up for those time slots. I started working on a design of my own for a chemo cap that is in the slouch hat style that I made for my girls. This is in a children's size and I'm really having fun with all the cabling. It's a very organic process, I'm finding. I really have to use my math geekiness to figure out how to increase evenly and keep the cabling neat and orderly. So far, I haven't had to frog very often but it really is taking quite a while to finish. Of course, I have to write down every single thing I'm doing or I'll be quite lost when I try to duplicate the pattern, so that's adding to the total design time. When I finish, I will probably post the pattern (after I get several other people to test knit it for me) to the K4C patterns so our other members can use it as well. I've already decided to name the pattern "Lorraine" after our K4C founder.

Yesterday, my dad came over with the latest of his carpentry projects. I promise to take pictures and put them up tomorrow...really. After finishing up the sewing nook, I thought I'd take him upstairs to my computer desk to ask his opinion about adding some type of shelves running along the back and one side of the desk. I needed the monitor raised up, so I stop hunching over all the time and, if we added an L-shaped unit, I could move a few things up on the shelves and have room underneath, too. As always, Dad had a vision of how to make this and he brought over newly-painted shelves that are about six inches high and I have lots more room on my desk. It is awesome!

As it is about 2am and I'm trying to get back on some sort of a schedule I will end this with a teaser of tomorrow's attractions...Caitlin's finished blanket, more Christmas pictures, the computer shelves, and the chemo cap.

Oh yes. The kids were here today for school and, seeing as how Captain Jack and Commodore Norrington were happily frolicking in their clean cages, Mary mentioned "The Guinea Pig Song" something I had totally forgotten about. I leave you with that unforgettable classic...

Verb Conjugation 101

2009-01-11T12:04:00.003-05:00

As a service to all of us who really enjoy using the English language properly, I am providing a link to the conjugation of the increasing-abused verb "to sneak". Ah yes, the abuse this poor word has taken is just criminal. Therefore, I would like to sneak in this little grammar lesson so the next time you are tempted to tell the world that you "snuck" (cringe) into your local yarn store for a little SEX (stash enhancement expedition), you will properly express yourself.

Yes, friends, I have sneaked into many places in my life but I have never "snuck" into any.

On most days, I will restrain myself from smacking anyone who misuses this poor verb. However, if I'm in my "Gordon Ramsay of Grammar" mood...watch out!!!

Knitting4Children Knitathon 2009

2009-01-08T09:48:00.003-05:00

I am taking a short break from the 2008 Christmas postings for a word from one of my charity knitting organizations. Today I will be working on a schedule for the annual Knitathon that Knitting4Children, which is a group on Yahoo that I've been working with for at least nine years, holds in honour of its founder. The following description of the Knitathon is from Becky Carter, who is the head of the group...

"Knitting 4 Children was started in 1999 by Lorraine Kretzmer, a talented knitter
and new grandma. In 2000 she was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. As her
illness progressed, I had the honor of taking over the list. In early 2001, in
an effort to help us deal with Lorraine's declining health, we decided to have a
Knitathon in her honor. Our plans were to have someone from our list knitting at
all times during a 24 hour period to let her know we were thinking of her. We
chose Sunday, January 7, 2001 as the day.

As I often say, truth is stranger than fiction. At shortly after 1:00 pm on
January 7, while surrounded by her real life family, Lorraine passed away. Her
cyber family at Knitting4Children, knitted in her honor while she passed from
this life. Every year since we have designated a day to hold a Knitathon in her
honor.

On this day members sign up for a time slot and we make sure we have someone
knitting for charity for every minute of a 24 hour period. Patti, who
homeschools her children, has moderated this event and used it as a geography
lesson for her kids. It is a great bonding experience for us as a group, and a
special way to honor our founder. It is also interesting to see where everyone
is knitting!"

It is hard to believe that we have been doing this since 2001. I remember having the kids stick pins into the maps on the kitchen wall to show the locations of our members who, by now, I can pretty well remember from year to year. Gee, and that only took maybe 6 or 7 years to get into my tiny brain. Okay, that does exclude Margaret from Adelaide, Australia, who I never forget. We also have a member in New Zealand. The challenge of having members all over the globe is that I get to figure out what time they are knitting here on the East Coast when they are halfway across the globe. It is actually lots of fun to plan this out and it keeps my geographic and mathematical skills sharp. Whenever possible, I get the kidlets to help with the time zones and, of course, it counts as schooltime.

So, now I shall begin the scheduling and also contemplate what I would like to work on for Sunday's Knitathon. My donations stay local - usually going to Birthright. But that's the nice thing about our organization. You can either donate to the charities that we support as a group, or you can donate locally. As long as you are knitting for some sort of children's charity, you get to count your items toward our yearly totals. One suggestion has been made to do chemo caps in Lorraine's honour and that sounds like a good plan to me. I will probably scope out the need for them at the children's hospitals nearby. Lord knows I have the stash to make them!

So, this year my charity knitting will pretty much be centered on the K4C projects and Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation. I'll be posting pictures of the completed projects, possibly once monthly in order to keep me motivated. Please take a look at the websites for these two groups if you would like to become involved in knitting or crocheting for these worthy causes.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...otherwise known as the Dilettante's Dilemma.

Anybody Can Create a Painting

2009-01-08T02:44:00.000-05:00

Click here to create your own painting.

Christmas with Darth Stevious

2009-01-06T09:46:00.013-05:00

In the ongoing Christmas saga, our next character is eldest son, Steve, aka Stovie, aka Darth Stevious, orginator of "smooty" and "blurf" (and countless other wacky things like purple monkey dishwasher).

If you aren't familiar with Steve's ongoing, neverending project, please check out the website for The Saga Museum, particularly the blog postings in which you will be able to get a better idea of his part in this two-volume set which will no doubt make him rich and famous so he can support his mom in the manner she would like to become accustomed. Or, at least possibly attract George Lucas' attention and he'll invite us all to Skywalker Ranch. Yeah, right.

Steve is not usually difficult to buy for...especially when I end up in the right place at the right time and Gustave Dore is staring me smack in the face. Yes, right before Christmas, Ded and I were at Barnes & Noble and he found a gorgeous hardback Dore collection...which, amazingly, Steve didn't have. I became a Dore collector after Steve introduced me to him quite a number of years ago but I've only been able to find oversized paperback editions of such titles as Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the Bible Illustrations, and a couple others. Lately, however, we have run across these lovely editions at B&N at a reasonable price. I would provide a link here to show said book, but I can't find this particular volume online...go figure.

Anyway, Steve had hinted in his usual subtle way that I would be receiving an Otter for Christmas. Knowing that I am a Muppet fan and that I was trying to complete my Christmas DVD collection, one day he texted me to inquire if I had added Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas to my set. I hadn't been able to locate it at that point but he was lucky enough to stumble upon it! He texted me back that he foresaw an otter in my future and I should stock up on fish. Hooray!

Being a Hitchcock fan, Steve was also looking to complete a dvd collection of his own. Although I do take off points on the cool-o-meter for him preferring Vertigo over Rear Window, I picked up a copy of Vertigo for him at Borders. I had set out to find something good in the Doctor Who section, but Borders didn't have anything he didn't already own.

Interestingly, in my mom's extensive video collection (which we have been paring down and donating a lot to St. Vincent's Second Time Around store) I found a copy of Vertigo which Steve had apparently overlooked. So, just to be a smart-aleck, I wrapped the video and gave it to Steve for Christmas. I told him the DVD was too expensive and...well...sorry about that. Thus the confused look on his face when he opened the present. Yes, I gave him the real present, too.
.
While we are on the subject of video tapes, I shall pull in Heather for a cameo appearance in this blog (although her post is coming up tomorrow). Steve won the award for the heaviest present when he gave Heather a huge basket full of Doctor Who tapes that he had collected since lord only knows when. Since he's been upgrading to dvd whenever the BBC decides to release another of the classic episodes, he is in the process of purging his extensive collection and now Heather has a whole lot of Who-viewing ahead of her.

I do apologize for the lack of knitting content here but I promise it will pick up again. I am currently working on a blanket for Caitlin and I shall post pictures as soon as it is finished. I'm probably over halfway there so give me a couple more days...then I get to start on Heather's!

Still Christmas Blogging - D.O.D.

2009-01-05T07:26:00.010-05:00

So, I've been thinking about how to do the Christmas retrospect and I'm going to do things in a totally non-linear fashion...just to see if I can. The perfectionist in me will insist on some type of order so I'll try to post each day this week with a theme of the day. Today's theme is D.O.D. - otherwise known as Dear Old Dad.

My dad is 86 years young. The man still works a couple of days a week at the golf driving range owned by friends. And I'm not talking about working inside and selling golf clubs or anything non-physical. Nope. He maintains all the equipment...you know, the ball pickers, the lawn mowers...that kind of stuff. And he builds things. An innate carpenter, he can design and build stuff that will still be around long after the Terminators take over.

Now, the problem with my dad and gifts is that he doesn't need anything. Not that he buys everything he sees (that would be my mom and why she was difficult to buy for) but he doesn't want a lot. Each year he gives me his list of which crossword puzzle books he wants (the hard ones, of course, which he does in ink) and I pick them up at Borders. Sometimes that's all I can think of for him but this year was totally an exception. And boy was it grand.

It's been quite a number of months ago but Dad taped several shows on Italy that he was watching on The Travel Channel. He raved about them and I wanted to see them, too. Unfortunately, I didn't have a video player. So, he bought me one - it plays dvd and video. Okay, well, we tried that with a tv of my mom's that we brought over here. hmm...can't hook that sucker up because mom's tv was too old. So...dad bought me a new tv. Now I'm not talking about a huge ol' flat screen fancypants deal. Just a nice tv for the studio/office/guinea pig room. Well, I watched a couple of these Italy shows and thought, this is cool. I like this guy (and, yes, you may smack me here because I can't think of his name and I can't find out until later today) and, gee, I wonder what else he's done on Italy...oh, look! He has a book! Quickly, I ordered it from Borders.

Now, that was still back in the fall and I had to save this as a surprise for Christmas. And, more importantly, not forget where I hid it. So, I was good and hid all my Christmas presents in one place (family members will remember that my mom used to lose presents that she hid and forgot about). So, on Christmas Day, I actually surprised my dad and he loves this book! He is going to loan it to me when he finishes reading it - can't wait.

In another Grampa coup, I passed along some info to Steve and Heather which I gleaned one day when Dad and I were chatting about movies. Two of his favourites (and mine, also) are The Great Escape and The Sting. I made a mental note of this whilst we talked and told my kids that they should hunt down the dvd's of each. I found The Great Escape at Circuit City when they were going out of business right before Christmas, so I offered it to Steve as a Grampa gift since he hadn't come up with anything else. Then, I told Heather about The Sting - she couldn't find it in the stores so she ordered it and brilliantly printed out a copy of the cover and gave it to dad on Christmas with the date that she should be receiving it in the mail.

Then, totally on her own, Caitlin came up with a great gift, too. Granted, she had to do a last-minute shopping spree but it turned out to be fruitful. She found a wooden tray (sorry, I forgot to take pics) which had slots in it for four photos she then filled with pictures of the grandkids. Dad loved it. I asked Caitlin how long it took for her to find a tray that had those particular pictures in it and she told me the lady at Walgreens was getting pretty impatient with her but she just had to find the one that had her sibs. It became a bit of a running joke which I passed along to Dad.

When I talked to Dad the other day, he told me this was the best Christmas. He was thrilled with his presents. Somehow, it all came together - finally! Finding gifts for my dad isn't easy but this time...it was a very good year.

Addendum - I totally forgot. The picture above is Dad with a cd that Heather made for me - Christmas with the Rat Pack. When I saw it, I knew Dad would love it so I asked Heather if she would rewrap it and give it to him for Christmas then she can made another one for me later. Again, this turned out great and he enjoys listening to it.

I absolutely had to add this. Just took this quiz and I'm thrilled to see what turned up. Side note to Wendy - lookie!!!!

You Are a Ragdoll Cat

You are extremely cute and cuddly. You are downright adorable.

Your personality matches your exterior. You are very laid back and sweet.

You don't really like the outdoors. You prefer to stay inside where it's cozy.

Luckily, you are the perfect houseguest. You are polite and obedient.

What Breed of Cat Are You?

Time Travel Backwards with Me...

2009-01-03T03:58:00.005-05:00

...as I attempt to summarize the holidays. Let's start with New Year's Eve, since it's the freshest in my memory bank.

Ded and I wanted to go to a movie for NYE and decided to kill two birds with one stone by taking Michael with us and going to see Valkyrie. Thus, Michael gets to count it as history class. We drove out to Mall o'Georgia (with me working on Caitlin's blanket in the car on the way) and ate at our regular haunt, The Farmer's Basket. This is one place that we can actually fill up the bottomless pit known as my son without breaking the bank. And it's meat and veggies, not fast food.

So, while we were eating we noticed that the cleaning people began putting yellow tape around the food court area (suspiciously looking like crime scene tape, hmmm...) and we joked about being stuck inside. Actually, it turned out that the mall was closing at six, which was really strange but it was NYE, so okay. I guess it was a not-so-subtle hint that the stragglers were no longer welcome. We figured we would kill some time since we still had about an hour before the movie started, so we sauntered back outside to visit Barnes and Noble. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I found the doors already locked. They must have closed at six, also! How rude. A trip to the mall without visiting a bookstore just doesn't qualify as a real trip. So...

We went back to the mall area and decided to make sure the theatre was not closing early just to spite us. Fortunately, no problems there so we got our tickets and decided to go on in since by now it was about 30 minutes until showtime. It certainly wasn't as much fun as it would have been to hang out in the bookstore, but at least it wasn't crowded. Basically, we sat there and texted each other until my phone died. And, yes, of course we were sitting right next to each other but still texting. Duh!

The movie was very good and I'll admit that, even though I knew the plan failed and they didn't succeed in assassinating Hitler, I still got caught up in the whole thing and cried at the end. Now I'm going to read the book.

So, it wasn't even ten o'clock yet when we got out of the movie - certainly too early to head home, right? We had decided that we just might wander into another show for a double-feature evening but I had to get myself pulled together first. I was emotionally exhausted after the first movie and there was no way I could just switch gears and be ready for a comedy. So, we sat around for a bit and then decided to catch the 10:25 showing of Yes Man. It was enjoyable and the ironic thing is that Terence Stamp was in both movies.

Oh, yeah. While we were killing time before we saw Valkyrie, we also popped in for a few minutes to see Bolt in 3D. There was a box of 3D glasses at the door, so Michael and I grabbed them and went in. We only watched for maybe 5 minutes, tops, but I don't know if I could handle an entire movie like that. I think my eyes would start bleeding after a while. Of course, we were standing on the side of the theatre in the aisle so maybe it's easier on the eyes if you are looking straight at the screen and not on an angle.

When the second movie ended, it was a few minutes until midnight so that was pretty good timing. We avoided a few drunks on the road and began our journey back to Snellville when Michael and I decided we were hungry so, why end our evening so soon when we could go to Waffle House for a while? Perhaps we can start a new tradition of hash browns on New Year's Eve at the WH. Why not? Unfortunately, since it was pretty cold outside, I decided that two cups of coffee would sufficiently warm me up...yeah...and I didn't sleep that night either. Or that morning...whatever it was. But even with a lack of sleep, it was still a fairly low-key but fun holiday evening.

And on that note, I'll close this morning's post. Hopefully, I'll finish the holiday posting this weekend when I go further back in time to Christmas.

But first, how about a picture of Giuli's new shoes that Santa brought? Aren't they awesome? I think I want some, too!

Everything's Coming Up Roses...

2009-01-02T04:50:00.006-05:00

In honour of the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl, I thought I would lead with a little childhood memory.

When I was a year old, my family moved from Rhode Island to Los Angeles, following my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin who had already emigrated from New England. I lived there until we moved to Atlanta when I was nine years old. Los Angeles may have been a little fuzzy on my timeline but I do remember New Years Day and the Rose Parade. I don't know how many years we did this, but it involved getting up at the pre-butt-crack of dawn in order to get a good spot along the parade route. While I don't really have any memories of the parades, we have lots of slides that my dad took. My one clear memory is sitting in the car with my dad driving in the dark.

However, I am fortunate that my dad has lots of Rose Parade memories and my favourite is this one. One year, after the parade had ended, he and my Uncle Bud came across a sofa - apparently somebody wanted to be really comfortable whilst hanging out for several hours before and during the parade. I mean, what time of morning would you have to get there in order to haul a sofa in? So, of course, Dad and Uncle Bud took pictures of each other on said sofa just to prove that it really did happen.

Anyway, back to our regular programming...

Christmas was great and I have been quite remiss in not posting earlier but I sort of got sucked into the Xbox that Heather brought over to visit. Since we had the guinea pigs and the Xbox, and I didn't want anyone to feel left out, I felt that I needed to bond with all three of our guests. So, I spent many hours on either the computer in the room with the piggies or downstairs with Sam the Xbox, playing GTA4. Considering I finished nearly every bit of Christmas knitting on time (with the exception of Caitlin's blanket) I think I deserved some gratuitous violence. So I ran over a lot of people, crashed a lot of vehicles, drank too much and drove all over Liberty City, and generally blew things up as often as possible. Ah, yes, good clean fun.

(I am going to note here that it is 5am and I am going to make this a several-part post so I can get a little bit of sleep. See y'all later with much, much more.)

Also, FYI, the picture at the beginning of this entry is my crew's version of Llama, Llama, Duck. It may be a litle bit difficult to discern, but the hats do have llamas on them and Paul and Giuli have ducks. I'll explain in the next post...maybe.)

A Christmas Movie Update

2008-12-23T01:22:00.004-05:00

Remember last month when I posted my favourite Christmas movies? Well, I have been amassing a nice collection of them on dvd and here is what I have so far and what I still need to complete what I consider the perfect assortment of Christmas nostalgia.

First, these are the ones I own that I have watched so far:
White Christmas
Miracle on 34th Street (in black/white, hooray!)
Charlie Brown Christmas
Muppet Christmas Carol (twice, so far)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (twice, also - and this is the original one)

I own, but haven't watched:

It's a Wonderful Life
The Hogfather

I already know this is going to be arriving from Santa (aka Darth Stevious):
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas

So that leaves only The Christmas Toy, which is probably going to have to be ordered. Not bad, considering I started the season with only White Christmas, Muppet Christmas Carol, and The Hogfather.

And, for those of you with inquiring minds, Terry Pratchett (the awesome British fantasy writer) wrote The Hogfather and it is, as are all his books, fabulously entertaining, funny in a lovely warped way, and features my favourite character, DEATH (who speaks all in CAPS). If you haven't read anything by him, please run out and buy The Colour of Magic (it's the first in the series) and quickly read it. Then post your review here.

Today's knitting went much better than the previous debacle. I had no problem with the shortie fingerless gloves I'm making for Lynn. One is finished and I'm at the thumb on the second one. I anticipate finishing before I go to bed. Giuli helped me pick out yarn for a couple more projects which must remain hush-hush and I hope to start on them as soon as I finish the gloves. Especially since one is a Christmas gift.

I had fun today with Giuli as we tackled the yarn closet of DOOM over at my dad's house. My mom had a closet that I filled with boxes of yarn from various and sundry stash places around her house. There are, no kidding, hundreds of skeins of yarn - all acrylic - and I'll be making good use of it for charity projects now that I've found Pine Ridge Reservation to donate warm knitted things. Giuli and I actually organized the Red Heart Super Savers, dividing them up pretty much by colour and reboxing them, stacking them in front of the 3 foot high stack of those giant pound skeins of Red Heart. And then there are the boxes of miscellaneous brand yarns that comprise maybe another 6 or 7 boxes, at least. When everything is packed into the closet, which is probably 3 feet deep and 3 feet wide, the boxed and bagged yarn comes up about 5 feet high. Oh yes, and that doesn't include the two boxes of yarn that we took to my house today. When we had it all out on the floor, Giuli wonderered if Grandma has pulled a heist at the local Wally World.

Well, I'm off to knit again so I will leave you with Happy Hannukah wishes this week. I dropped off some Hannukah chocolates at my chiropractor's office today. My dad had bought a bunch of stocking stuffer candy for the kids and he handed us 4 little bags of the foil covered chocolates that look like coins. Upon close inspection, I found that, instead of coin markings stamped on the foil, there were dreidels and menorrahs. So I thought I'd pop over to Captain Chiro's office to share them with him. He was appreciative - tomorrow I have to run back over there and take something to Joanie for Christmas since I don't want to discriminate. :-) Also, I need to have him take care of my achey back, so I'll be killing two birds with one stone.

No pictures today but tomorrow I should have another pair of finished gloves to share.

Houseguests and the Hazards of Knitting

2008-12-21T23:21:00.011-05:00

Disclaimer: Lest anyone get the wrong impression, the houseguests were not the cause of the hazardous knitting episode. I just wanted to show y'all the two little furballs who have been staying with me whilst their mama moves to her new apartment. On the left is Captain Jack (who would not cooperate and the first couple of pictures were just of his butt) and on the right, Commodore Norrington aka The Guinea Pigs of DOOM...at least that's what they are known as while they visit. I love to spoil them by giving them fun food like apples, parsley, cucumbers, and peppers. Some things go over well and others just get the cold shoulder. But there's always the old standby romaine lettuce and carrots should their palates not be tempted by the new menu. At least now Norrington will come and sniff my fingers, which is a major accomplishment on the guinea pig social scale. Jack is a little friendlier and I have even let him watch me read blogs and Plurk whilst sitting in my lap. It's fun to have them visit and, yes, for the cynical people out there, I would still have them over even if Heather didn't bring me the XBox 360 as a perk. So, there!

Onto the knitting front -

Another pair of fingerless gloves heading for Texas will fly out of here Monday evening. A second pair, same colour but a different design, is completed and spoken for. Some denim blue shorties are on the needles and I have to buy yarn for a men's pair which was ordered earlier this evening. Whew!

For some reason, this last pair proved to be a temporary thorn in my side. I messed up the pattern twice so I took out first about 3 inches and then 1 inch. Frustrated, I decided to start over. Okay, I also thought I'd change my knitting method from dpn's to using 2 circular needles. It's not a method I'm unfamiliar with, so I thought I'd see if it was faster than using 4 or 5 dpn's. (For the record, the dpn's I've been using are bamboo and I enjoy working with them. I don't want any dpn's out there to feel that I'm prejudiced against them.)

Okay, so I went through my two pencil pouches full of circulars, sizing everything, trying to find two size 7's for the project. One 16-inch Addi Turbo - great! Then there were a couple others that were various brands and lengths. I grabbed one that was much longer and hoped the length wouldn't annoy me too greatly.

For some reason, I had a bad feeling about this glove. (cue Star Wars music) Something wasn't quite right. Some little voice (my Inner Knitter, most likely) was trying to get my attention but I kept telling IK to shut up. Finally, with six rows to go (I kid you not), I decided to walk across the room and pick up the first glove (previously, I had been too lazy to get up. Laziness cost me dearly.) When I compared glove 1 to glove 2, I discovered that the one on the needles was smaller! WTF? I grabbed the needle gauge and discovered the culprit. One of my circs was a size 6. So, I had knitted the entire palm in stockinette stitch on a smaller needle. And it ended up making a difference which, in my "perfectionista" brain was egregious.

--An aside to the knitting audience: Some knitters, who shall remain nameless, might even consider it truly odious if I dared pass off this flawed garment as first-rate. Therefore, a monumental decision hung over my head or (to use another visual) the glove was like an albatross around my neck.

The way I saw it, I had two options. I could either knit two more gloves - a left one to match Thing One (dpn glove) and a right one to match Thing Two (circ size 6/7 glove). Or, I could frog the one on the needles and start over...again.

My decision? Well, I really didn't care for the size 6 needle because it was long and unwieldy and actually slowed down my knitting, so I didn't relish the thought of spending a couple more hours knitting with it. I opted to frog the nearly-finished glove.

Then, after the yarn had resumed its unknit form, I had a brainstorm. Actually, I call it a Scarlett O'Hara moment. "As God is my witness, I'll never use the wrong size circulars again!" And an idea burst forth (I wish it had emerged fully-formed from my head, but I actually had to mosey downstairs to the sewing nook to implement my devious plan). I would make a slap-dash, quickie circular needle holder that I could hang on the wall and store all my needles by size.

I remembered a refashioning that I had seen somewhere on the Net, using a pair of jeans to make a holder, so I grabbed an old pair that are now too big and have a hole in one knee. They were destined to become a skirt or who-knows-what, anyway. I borrowed about 30 minutes from my knitting self, loaned it to my sewing self, and ended up with this.

It's not visually exciting or aesthetic but we're going for function here, folks. Now I can easily find the right needles without spending about fifteen minutes sizing them all. And, whilst arranging all the needles in their proper slots, I discovered the reason why I ultimately ended up with two different sized needles for the glove fiasco. Lo and behold, I only have one number 7 circular needle. Duh!

(Since this unfortunate incident, Heather graciously picked up another size 7 for me - a 16-inch Balene. We'll see how I like working with this brand as I've only used straights and crochet hooks by them before. Thank you bunches to Heather!)

So, on Sunday evening after our regular Chili's dinner, I camped out in Borders' cafe and made a lovely left glove which is happy warming my hand as I write this (not as I enter it into the computer. I actually wrote this entire blog after I finished said glove and was waiting for Ded to get off work at 10pm)

(Note to Syler: Yes, Sis, I wear each pair for a while to see how they fit and assess if I want to make any future design adjustments. So you could say I "broke in" your gloves. I wore Seguin's too, if you recall. The way I look at it, if I'm not happy with the way they fit, you probably won't be either, so I have to take each pair for a test drive.)

So, that's about it on the knitting front. Elsewhere, I've been playing Sims2 because it runs so well now that there's nothing else installed on the compy. Giuli got the 24-hour flu early in the week, followed a couple of days later by Michael and Mary. Heather moved to a new apartment. And the Lost Boys had a cd release gig last night which I missed because I was having way too much fun knitting, frogging, sewing, and wishing Mary wasn't sick or I would have grabbed her and Giuli and enjoyed an evening of "Heroes and Scoundrels". One last picture here - the other pair of fingerless gloves...aka the ones that didn't drive me over the edge.

;-)

I Won't Be Moving Soon But...

2008-12-20T02:05:00.001-05:00

I thought this was an interesting little quiz.

You Belong in Paris

You enjoy all that life has to offer, and you can appreciate the fine tastes and sites of Paris.

You're the perfect person to wander the streets of Paris aimlessly, enjoying architecture and a crepe.

What European City Do You Belong In?

hmmm...architecture and crepes...somehow I never pictured that part. Now the wandering aimlessly bit - oh yeah.

One Step Forward...

2008-12-16T02:51:00.004-05:00

...and the inevitable two steps back. Today was strange, happy and sad, successful yet unsuccessful.

The sleep cycle continues to be wacky and crazy. Saturday night turned into Sunday morning and I finally went to bed around 9a.m. Sunday night was slightly better as I tumbled into bed around 5 and read for less than a half-hour before my eyes clamped shut. Monday saw me crashing around 10-something and waking up around 2a.m. so I could write this. As I've always said, normalcy is highly overrated. Why I chose the wombat as my mascot is more obvious all the time when we talk about nocturnal cycles.

One of my Plurk buddies, knitting's podcaster extraordinaire, Miss Violet, had some great news she shared with us which had me very, very happy for her. (Official announcement has not been made, so I'm keeping mum on the topic) but that was quickly followed by a phone call from a friend who had bad news. Somebody I knew through Irish dancing buddies suffered a terrible stroke and is on life support. I couldn't bring myself to call for further information, knowing that the gal I needed to talk to was at the hospital at that point in time. It's just too upsetting and I need time to process the information - I mean, this is someone who's probably around my age. Just can't go there right now.

Spent the rest of the afternoon pretty much in escape land (playing the Sims), watching Sarah Connor Chronicles, knitting on my "sister" Syler's fingerless gloves...only to then find that I have somehow managed to knit a very interesting hole in said gloves which necessitates my frogging about three inches when I was at the point where I had about 6 rows to go and I would have been done. But, the perfectionist in me always seems to win out (particularly in my knitting) so I will muster up the strength to frog it...later...after a few more hours sleep and some coffee. One bright note on the gloves, though. I made one pair over the weekend and have one glove finished for Syler. The patterning for hers is somewhat cabled, prompting me to rename them "My Twisted Sister" in her honour. ;-)

Also, on the home front, Heather brought me houseguests on Saturday so now Captain Jack and Commodore Norrington are hanging out with me in the knitting studio/guinea pig guest room. Although the boys are skittish, I think they are getting a bit used to me. I talk to them a lot to try to make them feel welcome and enjoy it when one of them rings his bell (cue Jack ringing bell - good boy). I look forward to a trip to the grocery store to buy them goodies from produce heaven.

BTW, if you haven't checked Ded's newest post, get a cup of coffee and settle in for a nice long magazine-worthy essay here.

The Saga of the Clean Computer

2008-12-13T14:33:00.003-05:00

So, thank goodness for a technically-savvy son who was available at midnight. Unfortunately, my badass virus completely circumnavigated every piece of protection on my compy and said son ended up wiping and reinstalling until 6am. I downloaded onto jump drives all of my photos and anything else I could determine I couldn't live without, which is one reason that the process that began around 12:30 this morning ended up taking so long.

So:

I lost all my old Sims2 games but, the good news is that I'm sure I can go ahead and get the two new add-ons and they will run just fine.

I lost all my subscription feeds for the umpty-bazillion blogs that I read.

I did manage to save my Favorites and upload that just now.

Since I only read my mail online, I didn't lose any email.

I'm still trying to reinstall Adaware which I paid for through Jan. 09 but Avast, Crap Cleaner, and Defraggler are all installed just fine.

I'm sure every day that goes by will bring yet another *face-palm* experience (OMG I lost that!!!) but it could be worse. The computer runs and it only cost me, in $$ terms, a meal at Chili's on Sunday for the techy son. Definitely could have been worse.

A colourful diversion

2008-12-12T16:15:00.002-05:00

Your rainbow is strongly shaded violet and blue.

What is says about you: You are a creative person. You appreciate friends who get along with one another. You are patient and will keep trying to understand something until you've mastered it. You share hobbies with friends and like trying to fit into their routines.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

More Pics of the Sewing Nook

2008-12-12T13:50:00.008-05:00

So, this is the project that started things rolling.
See how nicely the Bernina sets into the opening and see how dad even put carpeting on the drop-in holder so the sewing machine will not jiggle. Also, note how I have the power cords to both sewing machines accessible at all times - no hunting for the proper cord.

Now you can see how the Featherweight sets down into the space after adding the carpeted riser that fits on top of the original holder.

The thread holder is within reach, as is the cute little leather pocket with my nippers and the large rotary cutter.

On the pegboard, I can now store my cutting mats, my other *fabric* scissors (the kids now know that they don't touch the ones on the pegboard or they suffer the lash), all kinds of quilting rulers, etc.

This is still an ongoing project as I'm sure I'll move other things onto the pegboard and rearrange everything a few more times as I get comfy in my surroundings.

Just a couple more pictures to show you the happy sewing machines and the overall picture of the nearly finished nook.

Dad has already put a first coat of shellac on the addition that will go on the right-hand side so I'm thinking that next week we might actually be finished.

Sewing Nook Progress!

2008-12-11T17:57:00.010-05:00

The Artist and His Work

Yes, we thought we were finished but this is turning into the "neverending story" (cue my kids to hum the theme) and we thought of a couple more things to add. However, the nook is at the point that I can actually work here now. Note the additions:

A peg board which dad painted and installed. Today we added some braided elastic strapping (which truly may be as old as I am) to hold the cutting mats in place, a cute little holder for the rulers that have no holes for hanging, and some more hooks for various and sundry items. One of my favourite things is the scissors holder - so handy!

Track lighting! I don't know how I could function without it.

The surge protector is now attached to the wall just above the baseboard. Now I can keep both sewing machines plugged in without playing musical plugs and getting on my knees to reach the outlet.

The thread holder is something dad made years ago for mom to put in her sewing room. We had to make a slight addition to it in order to fit around the phone outlet, which I never use...who has a land line nowadays, anyway?

Interestingly enough, this is what started the entire makeover. I moved out ye olde Singer Golden Touch and Sew and wanted my Bernina to fit into the opening of the desk. (On its own, the sewing machine sits too high for comfort.) So, dad created a piece that sets into the opening, bolting it into place (removing the bottom piece of the desk and the extraneous mechanism that held the foot pedal in place if you wanted to use your knee to work it - does anybody use that option anymore?) I'll have to take a couple of pictures of that because I forgot - sorry. So, the Bernina fits down into place and, if I want to use the Featherweight, I have another piece that goes on top of the first and raises said Featherweight to the correct height. The wooden add-on that fits snugly around the Bernina gives me a smooth surface for large projects like quilts. We attached several pieces of weatherstripping to the bottom so it won't move around at all. :-) I'll take pictures of the inside of the drop-down section and also the Featherweight accommodations tomorrow.

Since I didn't want to have to reach over the top of my sewing machine to get to my scissors, dad also brought me a cool leather pouch to hang up under the thread rack. For convenience, I put my little Fiskars nippers there and my larger Fiskars rotary cutter (not shown in the picture because I hadn't decided what was going to live there when I was playing photographer). The cord that is wrapped around the top of the thread rack is for the lights - the control switch hangs down conveniently alongside the desk now.

Still to come: Dad is going to make another wooden attachment for the righthand side of the desktop so there isn't an open space surrounding the sewing machine. Both of these additions are easily movable so I can reach under to change the bobbin or drop the feed dogs, if necessary. Also, I want something underneath the desk to store the unused footpedal. I figure if there is something hanging on either side of the open area underneath, I can pop in whichever footpedal I'm not using and there won't be so many cords and accoutrements under my feet.

All in all, I am so pleased with the additions. Some days I felt as though we had to take two steps backward every time we took one forward but the end project totally rocks. And, the way my dad builds things, if we ever have a tornado, the place to go is under the sewing machine desk!

Yes, I Have Been Knitting

2008-12-09T23:42:00.020-05:00

Lest anyone think I had just fallen off the face of the earth, this is what I've been up to. The Giuli Slouch Hat is a design of my own which I think turned out pretty nicely. It's a tad smaller than the other two and I found a nice eyelet pattern in one of my Barbara Walker Treasuries to play with. I haven't blocked it yet, but I kind of like the effect that you get the way it is. Giuli called it a mushroom hat so I think it shall remain so.

The fingerless gloves were made for my pseudo-niece in Texas. She likes purples and I had this plum-coloured yarn which I think will pass for a reasonable fascimile of purple in a pinch. Once again, I rambled around through my many knitting books and found a fun pattern stitch to play with. She received her gloves today and, I'm happy to say, she loves them. :-) Now, I'm working on a pair for her mom.

I forgot to take pics of the black pair of gloves I made in a more manly style. Perhaps I can get a shot of them on their new owner and I'll post them. I did just a 2x2 ribbing on the top and the plain stockinette palm. The latest ones I made, which I need to put up in the Etsy shoppe as soon as I figure out how, are pictured here in a gray and creamy ragg colour. I think I found the pattern stitch in a sock pattern book.

Somehow I am thinking this is probably not the picture I'm going to put up on Etsy, although I'm sure Mary would disagree. If you look closely, you can see a smidge of the sewing nook in the background which Dad and I have been working on for the past couple of weeks.

I can't believe how close it is getting to Christmas. You would think that this is a movable holiday the way it always seems to sneak up on us. I have been getting a bit in the Christmas spirit by watching my seasonal DVDs. Ded bought me two the other day to help fill out my collection - yea! He got the original Grinch (which I watched last night) and Miracle on 34th Street (which comes on two DVDs - the second one has the black-and-white version, thank the gods). I'm pacing myself on the movies with two down and four to go. In Borders tonight, I saw the Charlie Brown Christmas DVD and nearly hyperventilated over it. I don't have it and I NEED it. Yes, yes, I do.

Okay, enough of that. Ded and I inherited a hi-def television last week so we played musical tv fun and games. We hauled my big ol' set up to Gainesville for Heather (which she now has to move in about a week when she relocates to her new digs) and Michael inherited her set. I'm still getting used to the screen - it is awesomely clear but just a tad smaller than mine. Playing San Andreas on it is a whole new experience, according to Ded, and I really enjoyed watching the Sarah Connor Chronicles on it last night. But the best was Prince Caspian. OMG It was truly wonderful! We kept commenting on how unbelievably clear the picture was. I'm sure this will eventually get old but for now, it just rocks.

On the school front, I ordered the entire set of the Key To... math series workbooks for Michael and Mary which arrived today. Better than words, I'll let the pictures describe the unspeakable joy of the kids when they saw all this mathematical fun awaiting them.

And then Mary unearthed the catalog that came with the math books...
So I leave you with this final look at all that Algebraic and Geometric fun that looms ahead of us.

Oh, yeah, I'm up to a Level 19 Barbarian in Knit Wars, too.

Who's Surprised?

2008-12-07T13:01:00.001-05:00

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Literature Nerd Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and its eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works. It's okay. I understand.
Science/Math Nerd
Musician
Artistic Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Anime Nerd
Social Nerd
Drama Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Facebook...And You Thought It Was Just a Social Network

2008-12-01T22:00:00.008-05:00

I will admit that I joined Facebook just for fun and because the Jacksonville office had started a group and I wanted to see what they actually looked like. I mean, answering the phone gave me the unique capability of knowing who was calling by identifying the appropriate voice but putting faces with them was impossible. So, having only met about a half dozen of the Jax people, I finally could see who those wacky creatives were.

Another perk was that I actually reconnected with a few of my high school friends (yes, from back in the dark ages when it was still safe to go to school downtown). And I even have a Facebook friend who I went to school with (get this) back in Los Angeles from 1st to 3rd grade.

So, yes, I thought the social aspect of Facebook was lots of fun and I became addicted fairly quickly. When I started my knitting/quilting business I thought that I could benefit from having made lots of friends there - I can post pictures of my finished projects quickly and easily so, voila, instant free advertising! It's all good (as Herbal from Dark Angel would say).

So, the other day, I found someone I had met years ago when Heather was high school age and she apprenticed at the Gateway Mask and Mime Theatre down in Little Five Points. Also, Caitlin did some Irish dancing for them at an Irish Christmas party...I vaguely remember Mummers and singing What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor...weird selective memory. Anyway, who knows how anyone finds people on Facebook but I guess I just started clicking one thing which led to another and bam! there was a familiar face. I found John Jaramillo so I decided to send him an "Add Friend" request. Fortunately, he obliged and here's where the awesome Facebook perk kicks in.

For those of you who knew my mom, the fact that I inherited an entire closet of yarn from her (all acrylic) would not surprise you in the least. Right? And, for those of you who know me (and why would you be reading this if you didn't?) you know that I've been doing charity knitting since I think Caitlin was a baby. Most of my items are baby things and they usually go to Birthright as I've known Terry Weaver, the U.S. National Director, for many, many years. In fact, I have a pretty good-sized stash of things to take them this month. Mom always had a soft spot for the Native Americans and she would donate to every American Indian organization that managed to get her on their mailing list, I think. (BTW, I just visited Wikipedia and will admit that I didn't realize that Native American does not only apply to the American Indians, but also Native Alaskans, Native Hawaiians, and several other groups.) Now, how does this tie in with Facebook and reconnecting with John, you ask? (of course you do; inquiring minds want to know)

Well...knowing John is a performer of Aztec dances and his background is Pueblo Indian Native American (and please go to his website to check him out - he does wander back to the Atlanta area occasionally) I asked him where I could donate knitted goods to benefit a reservation that needed help. John immediately suggested that the neediest reservations were in South Dakota and the Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation would be worth looking into. The description from the website listing numerous charities said: "An online group of volunteers who support the Native American community of Pine Ridge by sewing, knitting, crocheting and donating desperately needed items." I found that they have a Yahoo group which I immediately joined.

Hopefully, you have figured out that Facebook has put me in touch with a charity that will benefit from both my mom's yarn and my knitting skills, and I can donate to them in her memory, thus proving that a silly little social networking site can serve a greater purpose in the grand scheme of things. It was pretty serendipitous that I found all this info so easily and I hope this will inspire some of my readers to remember those who have less than we do (even when the budget is squeezed until it just begs for mercy). I figure that my only cost involved in this project will be my time and postage and I can certainly spare a little of that to help keep somebody warm this winter.

Christmas Movies

2008-11-30T23:41:00.006-05:00

So today I was thinking about my favourite movies that I like to watch during the Christmas season and I thought I would just make a list. Feel free to comment on my choices and leave a list of your favourites, too.

A Charlie Brown Christmas
The Christmas Toy
Hogfather
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
It's a Wonderful Life
Miracle on 34th Street
Muppet Christmas Carol
White Christmas

Another of my faves, which is not available on DVD, is John Denver and The Muppets:A Christmas Together from 1979.

Today, in Borders, the music from Charlie Brown Christmas was playing and I got all nostalgic and wanted to go home and watch every Christmas movie I have. Then I remembered that I still need to buy Charlie Brown, Christmas Toy, Grinch, and Miracle. I'm sure a couple of them are on video in Mom's old collection but I would have to play them on the smaller tv so maybe I'll find them on sale somewhere during the holiday season.

Perhaps I will wax nostalgic about holiday music for my next post and list my favourite cd's for the season. :-)

It is Midnight...Happy December!

Nearly forgot - I finished reading Midnight in the Garden (finally) so Heather can borrow it and now I am reading:

Diana Wynne Jones Volume I in The Chronicles of Chrestomanci
Truman Capote Portraits and Observations
Joe Lee Dante for Beginners
Monica Furlong Zen Effects, The Life of Alan Watts

Also, tonight I bought Valkyrie in anticipation that I will have time to read it before the movie comes out later this month. (Except that just this minute I noticed that, in the fine print on the cover, it says it is an abridgement of the book To The Bitter End so I guess I am going to have to order it and exchange this one. I really despise abridgements. sigh.)

And, just so I don't leave out any obligatory knitting content, I finished a lovely black pair of men's fingerless gloves for a customer (yea! money is good) and a plum pair for a special young lady in Texas. The picture of hers will be up tomorrow because I'm just too tired to take pics tonight.

Terminator Fun

2008-11-29T02:09:00.001-05:00

Check this out!

Happy Turkey Day, Everyone! (Part One of the Blog Catch-up)

2008-11-27T15:39:00.015-05:00

I feel like "bad blogger, no cookie" - too many days have gone by without writing. I shall attempt to recap by moving backwards in time, beginning with last night...being Wednesday, 26 November, and Thanksgiving Eve. How about a couple of pictures from the family dinner at Olive Garden? I'll bet everyone will enjoy these.

The wise people at Olive Garden gave us a table that was set in an area that was sort of like a private room. Although it was open space, it still set us apart from the rest of the area (kind of like a little nook) and, well, that's probably the best for this crazy group. We had a great time, as always, with Steve's YouTube comments being the new inside joke.

Also, his new Iphone did its best to impress us by bringing along Raiders of the Lost Ark. We were distracted but not quite enough to watch the entire movie. The entertainment factor of our troupe can't be compared to even Indy on the Iphone.

Desserts are always a highlight (if we actually leave room for them) and last night was no exception. There was much sharing and eyes bigger than our stomachs, but who could resist such decadence?

Actually, sharing was optional and some of us (cough, cough, Steve) did not partake.
And then, there was Michael...

Ganked from a Tasmanian blog (among the many bazillion blogs I read)

2008-11-21T16:07:00.006-05:00

From the blog, Loz and Dinny: Go to the closest book to you, not necessarily the book you have just read, or your favourite, but the closest. Turn to page 56 and copy out the 5th line, followed by the next 2 to 5 lines.

"At low volume, one can take enormous strides, a mile long and fifty feet high at the peak, or float gently through valleys and over the tops of trees without rush or noise. At high volume and dressed in a space suit, one can soar into outer space or travel easily at three hundred miles an hour at four thousand feet. Needless to say, every such outfit is equipped with a radar device that brings one to a hovering half the moment there is any danger of collision."

From the entry "The Future of Ecstasy" in Cloud-Hidden Whereabouts Unknown by Alan Watts. I just began reading it this afternoon and am about 1/3 of the way through. Amazingly, this book was assigned to us as sophomores in high school and I don't even think I made it past the introduction. I was so burned out on The Secular City by Harvey Cox that I think I just ran screaming into the night when the same teacher assigned another book for us to read for religion class. And, yes, dear reader, this is the only class I failed in high school. And, when one fails religion in a Catholic high school, one has to pay a visit to the principal. So I had to try to explain to Fr. Kelly why I had this big, fat "F" on my report card. I was honest - I told him I didn't have a clue what our teacher was talking about - he was talking to us as though we were college students and that was so far over my head that the air was probably thinner up there. So, a few (cough, cough) years later, and I can appreciate Watts and thank Ded for introducing me to him...even after my earlier traumatization. I would probably, however, run and hide in a dark closet if someone confronted me with a copy of The Secular City. (Note to kids - Don't even THINK about it)

Back to the passage from the book, though, it makes me wish I didn't have to get in the car to take Mary to Loganville this evening.

Currently reading: Alan Watts (noted above), Dante for Beginners, half-way finished with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Another finished hat - yea!

2008-11-20T20:26:00.008-05:00

Well, I just finished the second of the slouch hats and am really loving the pattern but hating working on black yarn. My eyes are so tired and I think I need a miner's hat with the light in the front in order to see what I'm doing. I keep moving from one lamp in the house to another, looking for just the right amount of light. Suffice it to say, I begged Guili to choose a light colour for her hat and, bless her, she chose a mint green. :-)

Pictured above is Mary with the latest Gretel hat. I love the way the patterning decreases are just clicking in my brain now. I can anticipate what the pattern needs to do instead of just being a blind follower. Elizabeth Zimmermann would be proud of me.

Giuli started knitting something for the Squirrel the other day so I'm putting up pictures of her here, also. Today Mary was sewing, Giuli was picking out fabric for a stuffed animal she wants to make, I was knitting...wow! All that artistic talent in just one house. Can you tell we are very right-brained around here?

I'm Not Dead Yet

2008-11-20T00:30:00.005-05:00

I promise to write a real post tomorrow but here's a quickie update.

Sleeping patterns have been miserable. Many days I can't get to sleep before about 5 (even after taking melatonin) and Wednesday morning I was still up around 5:30, finally fell asleep until 7-something, woke up with some weird sinus achiness, took some meds, still couldn't sleep, put the heating pad directly on my sinuses and sat up until after 9, went back to sleep (or so I thought) but tossed and turned instead because my RLS (restless leg syndrome) decided to kick in for about an hour, took yet another melatonin, finally got some sleep! and then got up around 1:30. And I was supposed to meet my dad and Squirrel at Kohls/Northlake to shop at 3. Not gonna happen. So I begged Squirrel to move it to 4pm and I was able to get there, after picking up Mary and Giuli. But...

Hadn't had any coffee yet, so by the time dad got to the mall, I was sorely in need of coffee. He and I went to the food court, I had just some regular coffee (but they only had French Vanilla cream and that's just not what I like for my first cup - I wanted the regular stuff, sigh), then we hiked all the way to the opposite end of the mall, hunting for the elusive cheese plane. Thank goodness I found a picture because I was beginning to think that there was some sort of epidemic and all cheese planes were wiped out. Anyway, no success there, I was yawning my head off again, got back to the girls and finally checked out at Kohls. Mary said she was starving, so dad gave us coupons and money and we went to Quizno's across the street. I got a Mountain Dew and finally woke up. Now this is roughly 7-ish and I had been semi-awake since 1-ish. So, it takes me like 6 hours to feel as though I'm not going to fall flat on my face asleep or walk into walls? Sheesh. The Mountain Dew rush lasted until about 8 o'clock when I got in bed with a good book (Midnight in the Garden) and promptly fell asleep after about 10 minutes. So, here it is, after midnight, and I'm awake again.

Squirrel likes her slouch hat (yea!) and has requested a kitty hat with ears next. She is going to be in Louisiana with the Lost Boys for the next 3 weekends for the Ren Faire there. And the Lost Boys' new cd should be out (please don't jinx this) for Christmas. Squee! Methinks all the kids are now taken care of in the Grampa/Christmas department. I scored a major coup while talking with Dad the other day and gleaned not one, but two, ideas for Christmas DVD's which I passed on to Heather last night.

Speaking of last night, what does it say about a couple who, when one of them is having a personal crisis, the partner decides to give said better half some space, partner number one drives to a bookstore at least 30 minutes away, then several hours later partner number two turns up at the very same bookstore whilst driving around aimlessly. Talk about two minds thinking as one! And yes, this shall remain vague except to the parties directly involved but just know that, once again, all is right with the world. But, talk about your Rod Serling moments! (cue Twilight Zone music)

OMG, speaking of Twilight, I just remembered that Mary was supposed to go to the midnight show, I was supposed to contact the mom of the girls she wanted to go with, and I hope it wasn't tonight because I totally slept through everything. Oops. Bad mommie, no cookie.

Okay, tomorrow I shall have knitting pictures and hopefully not such stream-of-consciousness-type content. And, note to Heather, I hope you enjoyed your leftover lunch today. Yummy. :-)

OMG Quantum of Solace was AWESOME!!

2008-11-17T01:11:00.006-05:00

Okay, wow, we went to see the new James Bond movie tonight and it was fantastic. I am totally up for seeing it again...like tomorrow, maybe. The chase scenes were incredible, Judi Dench got more screen time (and I think she's probably one of the classiest actresses alive) and Daniel Craig...well...yeah. He is now my favourite Bond. I have to say he just seems to BE James Bond. (And it doesn't hurt that he has a cute butt...I'm just sayin') I won't post any spoilers here so I'll just give it a thumbs-up and say that I was exhausted after a couple of those chase scenes. Damn. Stunt coordinators outdid themselves. If you liked the chase scene at the beginning of Casino Royale, you will love this movie.

Let's see, on the knitting front, I'm at least halfway finished with the second slouch hat. I had to take out one row last night because I was off by one stitch and the cabling didn't quite line up. That's one row of 192 stitches. Yep, that's the perfectionist in me. Even though the hat is black and it might not have showed that much, I would have known the booboo was there.

While I was knitting yesterday, I listened to about 8 or 9 podcasts: 4 were LimeNViolet, the others were Diva Knitting, Irie Knits , It's a Purl, Man , Knit Picks Podcast, and Sticks and Strings. I know there were a couple more but my brain is a little fuzzy on which ones. I'll post when I remember. I have to say, LimeNViolet is still my favourite. I have listened to their 2008 episodes from summer through the current one posted yesterday and I've gone back to the beginning (summer of 2006) and listened all the way through January of 2007. I think I like them so much because they are my kind of people - crazy. And I say that in the most sincere and flattering way possible.

Sticks and Strings I could listen to just for the fantastic Australian accent David has. It's a Purl Man (Guido) went to Rhode Island to interview some folks and that was cool just because nobody usually goes to RI for much of anything that I know of. (waves to my RI relatives) Kelly at KnitPicks had some great ideas for gathering your pre-designing info which I just loved. I think I probably gleaned some tidbits from each of these and I'll let y'all know if there are others you might want to check out.

I am starting to get orders for the fingerless gloves, which is cool. Speaking of cool, I wore one of the scarflettes and a pair of the gloves today to go out to eat and then to the movie. Always advertising... ;-) Actually, that's how I got one of my orders so I'm glad the weather has finally turned chilly. I'll have to start getting out of the house more often so I can wear the samples.

I have a few pictures to post but haven't uploaded them yet so I'll do that tomorrow. Giuli has some knitting that I can show off, particularly since I spotlighted Mary's crocheting the other day. Michael has his YouTube stuff - I guess I'll link to it. Okay, that's enough nepotism.

On the reading front, I finished several more of Truman Capote's short stories and now I'm reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. I enjoyed his City of Falling Angels (which Heather read today and loved) and I really don't want to put this one down. Having been to Savannah many times, it's always enjoyable to be able to really picture where things are taking place. And leave it to John Berendt to find the quirkiest residents. He must put out some sort of pheremones that attract...um...unique individuals.

Lastly for tonight (I mean this morning) I found Blade Runner The Final Cut at a good price at Target and decided I had waited long enough and need to own this. Running time is 117 minutes so perhaps I won't watch it right now (2am). And probably after watching it, I'll want to watch all the extras, and then read the book. Rather like "If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to want a glass of milk" etc. Definitely not a project to start in the wee hours of the morning.

Oh, speaking of DVD's, Hell Boy 2 has a lot of great special add-ons and behind the scenes footage. I haven't watched them yet but Ded has and says they are awesome.

So, we leave off where we began - awesome movies. Go watch some...now!

It's Not Really 5AM, Is It?

2008-11-15T05:17:00.009-05:00

I thought I would start on my weekend wrap-up now (it's 5:18am on Saturday) even though I'm sort of feeling sick to my stomach but I surely don't want to get into bed). I've been reading lots of knitting and quilting blogs and I want to start off with one comment - please don't put music on your blogs. I know, I used to have music back when we had a website for our guinea pig rescue and I thought it was oh-so-cute but, here's the rub, if you're listening to anything else (i.e., a podcast, or perhaps your media player) it really can make one crazy. I love to look at the other people's blogs while I'm listening to podcasts but, if there is music, I totally skip it. Just sayin'.

Okie doke, let's see - this week. I will start with Friday and work my way back (if need be). Today, my dad came over and helped get the sewing nook in shape. I used to go to a friend's house to sew and quilt. She had a full basement and we had this awesome studio set up. Well, she called me this week and said that she needed to store some furniture for her mother-in-law in her basement and we were going to have to move some of my stuff out. Actually, we moved all of my stuff out. So, Dad and I are creating a nice little area in a corner of my kitchen for me to sew. (Of course, I just got "spare oom" fixed up just right to be a knitting studio, right? So, now, I have to regroup and figure out where I'm going to sew.)

So, for starters, I had already moved my sewing cabinet downstairs to the kitchen (thank you, son Michael, for help with that) but I really didn't have many of the sewing/quilting accoutrements nearby. Today, Dad installed my thread holder and we made plans for some awesome additions, including cool lighting, which I think we will do next week. He is going to put up a pegboard for my rulers and such and take the track lighting out of my mom's bedroom to reinstall here. (Thank you, Mom. I hope you're looking down on this and approving. Especially since I'm using mass quantities of your quilting fabric.)

I am really looking forward to having a cozy little sewing area. Granted, a lot of the fabric is going to be upstairs and the actual sewing center downstairs, but that's the way it goes. I shall cope. BTW, let me say right here and now that my Dad is totally awesome - I swear, he can make anything. He's 86 and looks like he's in his 60's and probably has more energy than I do. If you don't believe me, just ask the grandkids. The man is amazing.

Knitting is going along well. I started on Caitlin/Squirrel's slouch hat and am about halfway done. It started off much better than Mary's now that I know what I'm doing on the tubular cast-on. But, I'm at the point where there is a lot of cabling so it goes rather slowly. Why, oh why, do my daughters insist on hats in black, I ask you? I am knitting precariously perched under a light at my desk and really can't sit anywhere else because I just flat-out can't see the stitches. Hey, kids, if there are booboos in this, it's y'alls fault because I could totally see what I'm doing if you would just request a lighter colour. sigh.

I think I've got a couple of orders for the fingerless gloves - squee! I am having such fun designing them.

I finished reading Breakfast at Tiffany's in the wee hours of Friday morning. I am, of course, one of those people who is only familiar with the movie and was surprised to see how different the short story is. I was reading one of those Amazon reviews recently where somebody liked the character of Holly Golightly better in the movie. After reading the story, I have to say that, although the movie is different, I love the way Truman Capote fleshed out the character of Holly. He had a wonderful style and you just have to appreciate the way he wrote it on its own merits. I am enjoying his short stories very much - I never read anything of his before but his writing is really quite an art. Much as Flannery O'Connor's is. You can just see them working and reworking every single sentence to make sure it turned out perfectly. I have to wonder what he thought of the movie version - it is quite toned down from the original characters. It's unfortunate that we have taken for granted that the movie version is the "canon" version and that, when reading the author's version, we might say "ooh, I don't like the way he portrayed her as well." For pete's sake, he did it first, people! Remember that his story was adapted to something more suitable for the movie-going audience of that era. Holly was definitely more of a free spirit in the story. Check it out.

(As a silly digression here, I must admit that I started reading Capote for two reasons - first, I really do love Breakfast at Tiffany's and I wanted to see what the original story was like but second, I know that the character of Zero the Hutt (or however you spell it) was based on him and it was sort of kicking around in my brain. Actually, I have this urge to get a copy of Murder by Death and watch it again. Geez, I loved that movie.

So, I think that's enough for right now - still not feeling one hundred percent but really getting too tired to blog coherently. I shall return to finish at a later point this weekend when I can tell you about - Squee! I got my business cards!

2008-11-13T16:32:00.005-05:00

Just to update you on my projects for the week, here are pictures - look, I'm actually finishing things these days. What a difference from years past.

First up, a slouch hat for Mary. As Mary is sick, it is being modeled by Giuli. This is the Gretel pattern by Ysolda Teague. I made it from a wool blend and absolutely love this pattern. I had issues with the cast-on because it was something new and different and, yes, I frogged it several times before it finally sank in. The cable pattern was actually not as hard as I thought it would be, but it does take concentration so this is not a mindless pattern by a long shot. I'm pleased with the result and will be casting on today for another one, this time for Caitlin. Although it is a Christmas present, I am going to give it to her next week so she can wear it when she and The Lost Boys go to Louisiana for the Louisiana Renaissance Festival in Hammond, LA.

Next on the FO list, more shorty fingerless gloves (also being modeled by the lovely Giuli). My own pattern, incorporating a Barbara Walker Shetland Eyelet stitch from my new set of BW Tresuries (cue angel choir here ) and made from a wool blend. And may I add how much fun I am having designing these? Whee! (Also, I was neglectful when first posting about this wonderful book collection, aka the Holy Grail of Knitting, as I should have given a much-deserved plug to Schoolhouse Press. I have bought several things from them over the past few years and they are wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.)

Lest you think that all I do is knit, I finally finished reading Trojan Gold by Elizabeth Peters, started Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote, and am reading aloud Inkheart by Cornelia Funke to Giuli. In the past two weeks, I think I have listened to about two dozen LimeNViolet podcasts, also. I live to multitask. :-)

Where did Giuli go? (And, yes, that is a Jayne hat that Mr. Teddy Bear is wearing in the background.)

Veteran's Day/Remembrance Day

2008-11-11T11:24:00.004-05:00

My family has grown up listening to my dad's tales of navy life during WWII and, I'm sure, thinking that everyone must have had similar wild and wacky experiences. I absolutely love to listen to Dad relive the days when he was a baker on a mine sweeper but today I would like to just take a few minutes to reflect on the much more serious nature of why we owe such a debt of gratitude to those who fought in wars past.

Today was originally dedicated (1938) to the cause of world peace and known as Armistice Day in honour of the veterans of WWI and celebrated on the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended the war. However, in 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law a bill proclaiming a national holiday for Veteran's Day and now we pay tribute to all of our veterans.

In Canada, today is known as Remembrance Day -
Background info courtesy of Wikipedia)

Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote the following on May 3, 1915, after he witnessed the death of his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, the day before. The poem was first published on December 8, that year in Punch magazine. The poppies referred to in the poem grew in profusion in Flanders where war casualties had been buried and thus became a symbol of Remembrance Day.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae

Wombat Squeals of Glee!

2008-11-10T11:27:00.007-05:00

Too bad we don't have audio or you could hear the estatic wombat squeals of glee due to the UPS guy delivering only the best set of knitting books known to man/wombat. Yes, indeed, it is the holy grail of knitting - every pattern in the known world (or close to it) right here in the four-volume Barbara Walker Treasury. This is designer nirvana...wombat paroxyms of bliss...I simply must swatch every one of these patterns...now...I'll be in my bunk.

Almost forgot, yesterday I finally sauntered to the mail box after several days of avoidance and found a lovely, thick and squishy envelope that came from Australia! :-) Yarn samples...and in purple, no less, from Thicket. Of course, I want many skeins of each because they are just yummy!

Mmmm...imagine scrumptious purple yarn and new pattern books. Life doesn't get much better.

Weekend Wrap-Up Parte Due

2008-11-09T13:14:00.018-05:00

And now for the scattered and smothered part of my blog. Things that happened this week that either made me crazy or gave me great delight. I trust you will be able to figure out which is which.

In the "where have all the proofreaders gone?" category:
Seen at Target on Thursday night - a beverage dispenser which I'm guessing was being marketed to redneck moonshiners because, right there on the box in front of the few literate people left in the world, a picture of said object with the word "lightening" emblazoned on it. Mary took a picture with her cell phone because we were in such "shock and awe"...hopefully, I can upload said photo here at a later date. People, people, people - you "lighten" your hair but when there's a storm you could get zapped by "lightning" whilst drinking "white lightning"...sigh.

Even worse, in the same category, I present for your consideration, this full-page ad (sorry it's not clearer) in a quilt magazine that I discovered at Borders later that same night. I guess "lightning" struck twice. This makes my head hurt...but let's just talk about it "tom-morrow", okay?

Switching gears, after I saw the "tom-morrow" atrocity, I needed something to make me smile. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a British magazine with French and Saunders on the cover. Oh glee! It was about 15 minutes until closing (I know this because Ded had just made the announcement) so I had to hurry through the article, shushing all who tried to talk to me at that inopportune moment. Okay, maybe I'm one of the last people to discover this but, much to my delight (and I'm sure hers, too) it turns out that Dawn French is married to Lenny Henry.

Lenny Henry is the comedian who played "Chef" in the Britcom of the same name. If you're never seen the series, run (don't walk) to your nearest DVD supplier and scarf up the boxed set. Picture Gordon Ramsay with a fairly inept kitchen staff and tone down the language a bit and you end up with Lenny Henry's role. The thought of him married to Dawn French makes me giggle.

Next...this week I disovered plurk. After listening to Miss Violet go on and on about it, I had to check out what in the world this plurk thing was. I guess it's sort of like having your facebook status meet instant messaging..but on steroids. It is seriously addicting so, if you don't want to be forever chained to your computer, don't (for the love of all things sacred), I repeat, don't go there. (Yes, dear reader, if you are observant, you will see that I have plurky-type-stuff in my right column. I have gone over to the plurk-side.)

Last, but not least, Mary has caught the Amigurumi bug. Although she was in bed (okay, sofabed) all day yesterday, alternating between severe pain and that feeling-no-pain light-headedness, she managed to crochet a carrot, hamburger with onion, and a mouse AND watch the entire first season of House.

I was not as productive but I did finish two bangle bracelets for Mary (see her mouse check them out here). And, for a final quickie, after much frustration, I discovered a handy way to keep my yarn in check whilst working on Mary's slouch hat. (note the many watchful eyes of the adipose...they let me know if I've dropped a stitch)

That's all for now. Wave goodbye to the cute little adipose.

Weekend Wrap-Up

2008-11-08T17:18:00.005-05:00

Let's see - what's been going on this week?

In the knitting world, I've been in design mode for a few days with mixed results. One of the fingerless gloves turned out very pretty but the lacy patterning on the front made it a looser gauge and now it doesn't fit as snugly as I would like. I was taking a stitch design written for back-and-forth knitting and modifying it to circular, also. Trial and error, but I did get it to work after forgetting to reverse both the type of stitch and the positioning. One without the other just doesn't get it - close, but no cigar. So, back to the drawing board on that one. I also have a possibility of supplying a friend with some items for her online store so I'm working on prototypes on that front.

Last night, I began work on a slouch hat for Mary from a pattern I bought from Ysolda. It has a tubular cast-on, something I've never done before. So, thank godness, Ysolda also has a great instructional video right on her website with directions. Now, normally, that would be enough for me as I'm much better with visuals than trying to make heads or tails out of written directions. The problem, however, was the fact that I was learning something new whilst working with black yarn. Yes, let's make it difficult to see what's going on by choosing the darkest possible yarn and starting at about...oh...two or three in the morning. I think I ripped it out about three times before I finally got it right. Looks great now but geez. I'm just sayin'.

I bought four patterns from Ysolda this week and might actually end up with something for myself from that lot. She has gorgeous items - check them out. The ones I chose, in addition to the Gretel hat, were Leisl, Coraline, and Snow White. There are lots of pictures up on Ravelry for the Snow White and this sweater seems to look nice on every body style so I thought I should give it a try.

Also, I had a 40% off coupon at Borders so I got Custom Knits by Wendy Barnard because top-down sweaters are my favourites and there are lots of designing ideas that I know will come in handy. Another book that just jumped into my hands was Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders by Judith Durant. Books like this are great "jumping-off points" for days when my design brain is in full gear.

I've been alternating my podcast-listening with episodes of Firefly this week as my "something to do while I'm knitting" activity. Because doing just one thing at a time is just not enough. Then there are the times that I am listening, reading knitting blogs, and knitting. Although I can do it all at the same time, it really does slow down my knitting a little bit. And definitely don't try that if you're also attempting a lace pattern. No way.

I'll be taking a knitting break here and return later for parte due.

What Does Your Taste in Art Say About You?

2008-11-08T00:11:00.001-05:00

Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test...

Conscientious, Fulfilled, and Spiritual

24 Renaissance, 13 Islamic, 18 Ukiyo-e, -35 Cubist, -44 Abstract and 22 Impressionist!

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life. Beginning in Italy, and spreading to the rest of Europe by the 16th century, its influence affected literature, philosopy, religion, art, politics, science, and all other aspects of intellectual enquiry. Renaissance artists looked at the human aspect of life in their art. They did not reject religion but tended to look at it in it's purest form to create visions they thought depicted the ideals of religion. Painters of this time had their own style and created works based on morality, religion, and human nature. Many of the paintings depicted what they believed to be the corrupt nature of man.

People that like Renaissance paintings like things that are more challenging. They tend to have a high emotional stability. They also tend to be more concientious then average. They have a basic understanding of human nature and therefore are not easily surprised by anything that people may do. They enjoy life and enjoy living. They are very aware of their own mortality but do not dwell on the end but what they are doing in the present. They enjoy learning, but may tend to be a bit more closed minded to new ideas as they feel that the viewpoint they have has been well researched and considered. These people are more old fashioned and not quite as progressive. They enjoy the finer things in life like comfort, a good meal, and homelife. They tend to be more spiritual or religious by nature. They are open to new aesthetic experiences.

Take What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test at HelloQuizzy

Just a Quickie

2008-11-06T15:27:00.003-05:00

I just got my word of the day email and this just made me LOL so I had to share it.

defenestrate \dee-FEN-uh-strayt\ (transitive verb) - To throw out of a window.

"'And if you can defenestrate you must be able to fenestrate, mustn't you?' she finally said.'Throw yourself back in through a window?'" -- Peter Guttridge, 'No Laughing Matter: A Nick Madrid Mystery'

So how did you spend your election day?

2008-11-04T18:41:00.012-05:00

I thought I would go visit Captain Chiropractor today since it's the beginning of the month and I need a tune-up and realignment. After I called and left a message, I decided I would get a nice hot shower, go vote, and then stop to get my adjustment. Ah, how plans do go awry.

In said nice, hot shower where you think that your muscles are going to say "Aaahhh! Thank you" instead my muscles in my left shoulder said, "AHA! Gotcha!" and I yelled out in pain everytime I moved my left arm. This did not bode well for the rest of the day. After somehow managing to get myself dried, dressed, and caffeinated, Joanie called me from Capt. Chiro's office and said to come on in.

Blessed relief! First the ice treatment, then the fun rolling table, and some bone crunchy crackly goodness. My lower back feels better and the pain in my shoulder is gone with just some residual achiness. I got a stern look when I admitted I'm not drinking as much water as I should but I shall try to do better. I love that Capt. Chiro wants to be a superhero because every time that he is about to crunch down on me, he hums the Superman theme. I have the best doctors in the world. (My neurologist is a roller coaster addict. Does that tell you anything about the kind of specialists I have in my life? Funtime.)

So, then we tooled over to the park to vote. Now, this is the first time I've had to vote at this location and I was a little skeptical when I saw that I had to go to the park. Hmm...do we have voting booths spread out amongst the trees? Should be interesting. I originally had a book and my knitting with me but, after seeing the average-sized amount of cars there, I decided just to take my book with me. All the volunteers there were so nice. I can't believe they get there at 6am and were still happy (punchy?) when I got there after 4:30ish. I ended up having to wait in just one of the lines and I read all of one page in my book (and I read fast). We had touch screens which are pretty cool. I guess I was in there for maybe ten minutes.

Then we went to the other park (the nice park farther down the road a piece) and I knitted by the lake and enjoyed just hanging out with the ducks and geese. Ded walked around a bit since he likes to let the ideas for his writing come together whilst walking but I wanted to sit and knit so I worked on a washcloth that I started earlier at the chiro's office. It started getting cool and I didn't have a jacket on, so we headed out around 6ish.

So, now I'm back home and I plan to knit on the second fingerless glove, probably listen to a LimeNViolet podcast or two, drink water!, and put some pictures on the blog later this evening. That's about it for now.

On a somber note, I found out today that Everything is Not Just Smooty. My daughter posted that "the artistic director of the theatre I used to work at commited suicide yesterday?!?!" I just want to send my condolences to everyone who is affected by this. I don't think I met Robin when I was up there, but I know that this had to come as a shock to all those great folks who worked with him.

UPDATE ---

Fingerless gloves are finished and here are pictures. This style is my own design and made into a shorty glove for people with shorty hands. :-) The top of the glove uses a pattern from The Harmony Guides and the palm is in stockinette stitch. There is about a 3/4 inch ribbing at the top and bottom. I am really pleased with the way they turned out.

I will definitely be making some of these for my Etsy shop and there will be a longer version (aka the director's cut) which will probably come up about an inch further on the fingers and an inch or two up the arm.

Yes, I am available for hand modeling. :-)

One Finished Fingerless Glove!

2008-11-04T02:59:00.003-05:00

Apparently, getting that bad chi out of here did finally make a difference...that and the fact that I changed yarn to something that was more suitable to the project. Duh. I also changed the pattern a bit and will post a picture sometime during the day since it's 3am and I think I'm ready to call it a long but productive day. But, suffice it to say that I am pleased with the result and should be able to make its mate tomorrow (if I just remember that I am now going to be making the right one and the thumb goes on the opposite side for the other one). Perhaps I should wear this one whilst knitting as a constant reminder.

Knitting Woes

2008-11-03T21:42:00.003-05:00

On those days where nothing seems to turn out right with ye olde knitting, when every one row you knit causes you to rip out two in its place, when you see that the stitches you thought were just the right amount to allow for the thumb hole turn out to be too many and you're going to have to rip it again...

...thank goodness you can still find some solace in knowing that...

...you are now a LEVEL 9 BARBARIAN!!!!

Yes, some of us are more easily amused than others.

And now, I shall listen to my Skynext podcast and cast on for some fingerless gloves out of a different weight yarn and try to clear the Studio of all the bad chi left over from the frogging.

BTW, for those Sarah Connor Chronicles fans out there...can you freakin' believe tonight's episode????

Weekend Wrap-up: Parte Due

2008-11-02T14:17:00.014-05:00

So, back again with ye olde weekend wrap-up, entitled "In which I expound on the Dr. Who Debacle" and other not-so-important stuff.

Yes, folks, after months of rumours, David Tennant finally made the dreaded announcement that he will be leaving Dr. Who (and there was much tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth throughout the Who-niverse).

Which brings me to the obvious question - who will be the next Doctor? That is the topic of many forum discussions and I would like to contribute to the debate right here with the obvious, hands-down choice for someone who could really take charge of all the chaos in the Who-niverse. Wait for it...drum roll...cue Terminator music...Gordon Ramsay!

(the rest of this scenario provided by Ded/Dilemma Productions)

Think about it, Dr. Ramsay's Time/Space Nightmares. Davros and the Daleks have soundly been defeated and sequestered somewhere on the spiral arm of galaxy M87 where they are now being rehabilitated in order to fit in with the general population. Of course, their task is to set up and run a successful restaurant that will pass muster when Dr. Ramsay comes to inspect.

Picture the TARDIS appearing in the parking lot which is, of course, nearly empty. Dr. Ramsay observes..."hmmm...good location with the space lanes nearby. Not sure about the name of the place, though. Gastronimate??? Might be sending the wrong f*cking message."

Dr. Ramsay enters the restaurant, daleks bustling around, running into each other, patrons cowering at their tables, wondering if each bite might be their last. The tension is high as Dr. R approaches the maitre d' and is greeted by a surly Davros.

"I am Davros! You will obey me!"

"F*ck me, I don't think so. I'm the Doctor and I'm here to take a look at your establishment. Since there are so few customers here now, I believe I'll seat myself and take a look at your menu."

The Doctor easily finds a vacant table and notices wide aisles, allowing easy access for the Imperial dalek waiters. Unfortunately, this limits the seating capacity drastically. One of the bulky mutants glides to Dr. Ramsay's table, a well-worn menu clutched in its claw. The formerly-white cloth draped over its mechanical arm looks none the worse for wear. The dalek turns quickly toward the Doctor, nearly taking off his head with the menu, and loudly (and electronically) yells, "You will tell me your order now!"

Perusing the menu, the Doctor wonders aloud, "What the f*ck is this shit they are serving? I think I'd better start with the Tarqeq salad and the asteroid-dried Bebhionn rangoon as an appetizer. At least I don't think anybody can f*ck that up."

The waiter glides away, nearly colliding with another dalek-server that is precariously balancing a tray at the end of its specially-modified-for-restaurant-work claw. Glancing around the room, the Doctor wonders just how many patrons actually come in of their free will.

Sounds erupt from the kitchen and Ramsay easily overhears Davros yelling, "You will be punished for this! I am your creator!" There is a crashing of plates, pots, pans, and whatnot and two of the more squeamish customers quickly sneak out the side door.

Time elapses, the Doctor barely makes it through his meal and the scene cuts to the kitchen where he is confronting head chef Davros, who is functioning as maitre d', chief cook, and bottle washer mainly due to the fact that he is the only employee with real arms.

A shouting match begins as the kitchen staff begin to try to escape the confrontation, knocking each other over in the mad dash to the back door and relative freedom.
"You, Davros. What the f*ck were you thinking, putting Akihikotago seeds in the South Synopian BonBon Cherry Chipes? No wonder the locals aren't eating here! And this shit - I wouldn't serve it to the Cult of Skaro!" Pointing to something obviously rotting, Ramsay explodes. "That is not going anywhere except in the f*cking rubbish bin! Are you f*cking blind? Are you trying to poison these patrons?"

Suddenly, it dawns on the Doctor - that is indeed what Davros was intending. He wasn't interested in rehabilitation. No wonder the name of the restaurant is...

"Gastronimate! Gastronimate!" Davros' voice rises above the Doctor's. "I will teach you the power of your words, Doctor. I will destroy you! This is not the end; it is only the beginning! This time we will triumph!"

-------------

I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see where this will go. The BBC is totally missing the boat on this one if they don't run with this idea.

WTF?

2008-11-01T22:19:00.005-04:00

Oh my holy freaking cow! (as I am wont to say on some truly momentous occasions) This blog post was so unbelievable that I had to put a link to it because describing it just will not in any way, shape, or form do justice to it. Please go to the Tacky Weddings site and pray that none of your daughters, sisters, cousins, whatevers will ever want a wedding like this. (bashes head on monitor repeatedly because I, of course, have four girls...all of whom would request that wedding dress just to get a reaction.)

The Dilettante's Dilemma

A Snowy Aftermath

The Icy Aftermath

Needle Contest

Winter Wonderland

Saturday Mayhem

Relax...NOW!!

Thursday's Musings

Daily Thoughts

Creative Every Day Challenge

So, what do I knit on consignment?

Another Quick Note

Check out this contest for Malabrigo goodness!

Dragon*Con 2010, Part One

Who turned out the lights?

Has it really been that long since I posted?

And now for something completely different

Nap time

Yes, I took a lunch break

1pm to 2pm - On to a new book

A Decision

Noon to 1pm

11am to Noon - Getting better

Hour Two and I am now moving away from the computer

Hour One and a Slow Start

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon 2009

What I've Been Up To Lately

It's a Purl Man Public Service Announcement

Now here is a dedicated crocheter...

How gullible do "they" think we are?

I read way too many blogs...

Just a simple note

Bad Blogger, No Cookie...

Not your regularly scheduled programming

Mr. Tumnus, Are You Out There?

Quickie Post - We Have SNOW!

I'm Not Dead Yet...Yeah, Right...

"The web of life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together."

"What do you read, my lord?" "Words, words, words."

To Knit, Perchance to Quilt...The Ribbons of Hope Scarf

Ribbons of Hope Progress

Under Construction Due to Overactive Organizational Tendencies

US Government Says "Let the Book Burning Commence!"

Brain Overload

Applause for Stephen King, Please

The Bloggers' Silent Poetry Reading

Conflicting Ground Hog Reports - Who Do You Trust?

My desk area totally rocks

I think Jimmy Hoffa may have been hiding in my dryer...

By the Way...

Steno Pads and Why I Love Them

Balls...

My Latest Dilemma

A Helpful Hint from Knitting Land

Knitathon 2009 Results

Time for a Career Change?

Happy Early Birthday, Heather!

Just a Quickie Note

Still Catching Up

Verb Conjugation 101

Knitting4Children Knitathon 2009

Anybody Can Create a Painting

Christmas with Darth Stevious

Still Christmas Blogging - D.O.D.

Time Travel Backwards with Me...

Everything's Coming Up Roses...

A Christmas Movie Update

Houseguests and the Hazards of Knitting

I Won't Be Moving Soon But...

One Step Forward...

The Saga of the Clean Computer

A colourful diversion

More Pics of the Sewing Nook

Sewing Nook Progress!

Yes, I Have Been Knitting

Who's Surprised?

Facebook...And You Thought It Was Just a Social Network

Christmas Movies

More Ramblings for Catch-up Posting

Terminator Fun