A New War to Fight

Since I have gone rather berserk on this knitting thing of late (I'm presently on row 185, Clue 3 of the MS3, with Clue 4 released this morning, sigh...), I have noticed a huge new problem in my life, one that requires action both swift and thorough. There is a need to commit warfare, in fact. The enemy is insidious - having been around, if not particularly noticeable, throughout my long span living in Florida, approaching 30 years now, but has now revealed his true colors. He comes in many sizes, from teeny things less than a quarter-inch long, up to huge, the size of hummingbirds! The latter, thank heaven, stay outdoors! By now, if you're any sort of fiber junkie at all, you know that I'm talking about ...

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MOTHS!

Hitherto, they have not been of any great concern, another part of life as she is lived in the Sunshine State, where a BBQ Christmas dinner on the patio is not uncommon, and bugs of every possible description abound. They were most bothersome as they clustered about the lights beside the outer doors, as they are wont to do, and one must wend through a cloud of them to get into and out of the house after dark. There is also a frequent progress of fur babies through these same portals. "Bug" lights are of no use, so moths in the house are commonplace, if annoying in front of the TV and flying around light fixtures. When one is sufficiently annoyed, one swats, and that's that.

Now, however, there has become Stash - small as yet, granted, but certain to grow, as there is more on order, and more on the list behind that, ad infinitum. And I have become *aware* of moths in an entirely new way. Moths and wool do NOT mix, not no how, not no way! All the wool presently resides in zip-lock bags, inside a drawer inside a chiffarobe, where moths don't seem to congregate. The one "working" bag, the one containing the MS3 stole, is opened frequently, as unless I'm actively knitting, the stole goes into the bag, for protection against 6 cats, spilled beverages, and fallout from meteorites crashing into the street in front of the house. And, of course, the moths. This bag also contains, besides the stole, the charts, the row counter, the ball of perle cotton for lifelines, and the container of pearls, a large-ish loosely woven bag, filled with fresh-dried French lavender. I am told that lavender, among other herbs, repels moths, or, more accurately, causes the wool to fail to attract them, since the moths track on scents emitted by the wool (and you thought "wool fumes" was a joke!), and the lavender covers them up. Even if it doesn't, it smells pretty.


And Now For Something Completely Different

Happy Man On the Moon day, y'all!

Water Under the Bridge

Oh, my! have I been remiss in my blogging! I do apologise, and offer the following lengthy post, divided into segments, as atonement.


July 2/3


This is Chart A of Clue I of the Mystery Stole 3 completed. The sharper-eyed among you may have noticed that it's on a different needle than the previous pic. I had bought a brand-new pair of 14" Inox #4s for this project, eagerly awaited their arrival in the mail, and cast on with them immediately. By the time I got to the point of where the previous picture of progress was taken, I had fallen completely in hatred. They were horrible! They were sticky and unpredictably grabby, and I was constantly wrestling with the stitches. A very nice lady on the KnitList was destashing, and offered a bunch of old needles for sale for a reasonable price, so I bought them. Among them was a pair of 10" Brittany birch #4s, to which I immediately switched the stole. Wow! The Brittanys are smooth, yet grippy, and bent in exactly the same places my own hands would bend them. I like them as much as I hate the Inox. The stole is proceeding much more easily now.


July 4


Of all the words written regarding 'the nation's birthday' this year, I found the Tsarina's celebration of her grandfather's birthday to be the most meaningful. Russia is a poorer nation today because so many people like her family left there. The USA is a far richer nation because so many of them, and so many like them from everywhere in the world, chose to come here. Happy Birthday to the melting pot!


July 5


Here is Chart A of the stole completed, once again. It doesn't look much different from the previous picture, does it? It is, though. In fact, it's a completely different piece of fabric! What happened was, a cat decided the knitting was an extremely dangerous and fierce dragon. In the process of bravely attacking and killing this threat to domestic harmony, the knitting was destroyed past any hope of salvage. That'll teach me not to Put Things Away. In a way, I'm rather more pleased than not. I never did like the way the bottom point looked on version the first, and I fought it and fought it and fought it, every stitch of the way. Version the second has been much better behaved, and knitted up about three times faster than the first. I actually got ALL of this done in one (rather lengthy, I admit) sitting! Don't the pearls look pretty? They probably are too large, but I don't care. I like them!


July 6-10


I've done it to myself again. I follow links in blog posts. I find out all sorts of fascinating things that way, and end up in some strange places, when the links have links and so ad infinitum. (The 'net is quite possibly the greatest invention since the printing press, IMHO.) In this particular case, I saw a picture, and fell madly in love with the subject. I posted on both the KnitList and the MS3 list (which grew from just over 4,000 to 6,910 people after the Harlot blogged about it! USA Today interviewed Melanie yesterday.) trying to find more information about it. No immediate answers, but a LOT of people expressed interest in knowing the answers when I got them. The result is I am now a List Mom! The picture on the home page is the one that started it all. As of this morning, 384 people seem to share my passion. I wish this blog had as many readers!


July 11


And this brings us up to date. In between e-mails, and ListMom chores, I have been knitting, and Clue 1, all 100 rows of it, is finished! Here it is:



It's only finger-patted into shape, of course, and will look much, much better when blocked out properly. I took this photo at 2:30 this morning. I somehow believe that I will end up adding the "slow bee" button to the blog, though. I'm still way behind, unless I can complete all 50 rows of Clue 2 before Friday morning, when Clue 3 is released, anyway. Care to estimate the odds of that actually happening?

God, I feel old tonight.

Back when I was a young teenager, I had two idols, one of whom was Bubbles. I was even introduced to Bubbles once, which impressed me enormously, then and now. Today, my world, and yours, is a worse place, because today Bubbles died.

Rest in joy, Beverly Sills, as you lived.