Typically...

Here I am, to wish you a Happy New Year, but belatedly. I am the World's Most Practiced Procrastinator. You should feel honored that I'm only one day late!

My "New Year's Resolutions" are already down the tubes, at least partially. I think I've succeeded in one, though. I did cast on for my first project of 2008, a headband. I say I "think", because I'm still not sure if I'm going to continue with these needles, or go up another size.

Another resolution is to get more needlework finished. I am happy to report, though, that the MS 3 (Swan Lake) stole is off the needles, complete, and beautiful. I'm not attaching a pic, though, as it still needs to be blocked, which isn't going to happen til next month, because...

Mostly things are delayed because last week DS informed me that we will be moving at the end of this month. The "new" house will, I think, be more comfortable and useable than this one is, as the rooms are larger (as they would almost have to be - my present bedroom is CROWDED with just a twin bed and a chest of drawers in it!) This house is all wood, and the new one is brick, another big plus. It has a very pretty front porch that is just screaming for hanging plants. It also has a very wide coping on top of the brick, lots of space for pots, with a central column for a "feature" pot and plant. It also has a FIREPLACE!!! and a butler's pantry! It's only a few blocks away from this one, but closer to bus routes and the grocery store and a Lowe's (heaven help me!). In the meantime, there is much sorting, organizing, and packing to do, leaving little time for knitting, stitching, or blogging.

Another big plus for the new year is that my meds once again seem to be balanced out, so I can actually make plans of a sort. Nice change, that. The past couple of months have been a real see-saw. The results of the MRI, by the way, are quite interesting, in a macabre sort of way. I do NOT have a tumor in my brain, as we thought might be the case (symptoms seemed to favor it, so we still have a mystery there), AND, I seem to have somehow acquired what appears to be a chunk of metal in my left frontal lobe. As the only serious injury I have sustained to my head could in no way account for this, the explanation I favor is that aliens have somehow inserted some sort of peculiar device, for unknown purposes. Stay tuned...

I thought I would start off the new year by introducing y'all to the members of my family. We'll start with the most junior member. This is Da Punk.

The picture is very soft (read lousy) focus, but I chose to use it anyway because it's illustrative of the reason she has her name. It started as Pumpkin, for the color of her eyes (even more orange than in the pic), was almost immediately shortened to Pumpk, and as her personality developed, Da Punk.

I rescued her when she was a small kitten from a group of young teen boys who were torturing her. She is still, 18 months later, only somewhat socialized and won't allow DS to even come close to her, let alone touch her. She doesn't know what she's missing, as DS is a highly skilled cat-petter. She seems to like me, though, as she sleeps curled up with me at night, and lives mostly in my bedroom. She loves for me to pet her, as long as I only use one hand at a time. Both hands, especially if they are on either side of her, freaks her, and she will not tolerate being held for more than a few seconds. Getting her to the vet is a leather gloves exercise, requiring much patience. Fortunately, it doesn't need to be done often!

I'm only going to do one a day of these intros, as they will all be longish.

Happy Birthday, Oklahoma!

On this day, one hundred years ago, Oklahoma became a state. I suspect that Native Americans, particularly the Cherokee and Osage, will not be celebrating. I can't really blame them, as it put paid to their very last hopes of a land of their own, as promised to them by our less-than-faithful-to-its-word government. The Cherokee were moved there, after being robbed of their lands in the East in Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Georgia, by President Andrew Jackson (who really had a serious thing about "Indians", and today would be rotting in prison for committing "hate crimes" against them), which made the indigenous Osage less than happy. Oddly, for such "savage barbarians", they managed to settle the differences between them without maiming and killing each other. Would that we 'eurotrash' could follow their example...

It's a lovely place, Oklahoma, from the forested rolling hills of the eastern half to the miles and miles of miles and miles of prairie of the western half. The weather does tend to get a bit extreme, however - there's a reason why the National Severe Storms Laboratory is located in the center of the state.

My father moved our family to Tulsa when the state was two years shy of its fiftieth birthday, and I more or less grew up there, went to college there (Yay, SOONERS!), met my now-ex husband there, and so many other milestones. It's been years since I've even been there, but I still get homesick.

A Visit to the Opthalmologist

In Which the News Ranges From Bad to Fantastic.

Bad is that it's not my imagination, I am going blind. Under different circumstances, this would totally freak me out, as visually oriented as I am, but...

Good is that the problem is an easy fix! Yes, I do have cataracts, but things have changed a lot lately in cataract surgery. No longer do they remove the cornea and lens, and you're bandaged up for next to forever, you never really get good vision back, and you have to wear those ugly half-spherical glasses. According to the very nice doctor I visited this morning, he'll be able to do the procedure in his office, with no general anesthesia, it'll take about 10 minutes of actual surgery per eye, bandages for maybe 2 days, complete healing in a month, AND...

Fantastic is that since what he's doing is replacing the lens (through a teeny tiny incision at the edge of the cornea), the lens can correct my life-long near-sightedness, and I will never have to wear glasses to see more than 18" past my nose again!!! I may need reading glasses, but that's a bridge we'll cross when we get there.

Good also is that other than the cataracts, the eyes look good, nice healthy nerves and retinas and such. This is a real relief, let me tell you.

Medicare says one must wait until a certain degree of impairment of vision has occurred before they will pay for the cataract surgery, and I'm not there yet. In the meantime, the doctor has changed my glasses prescription, which is going to represent a significant improvement, and we'll re-evaluate in six months.

Now I can quit boring you with medical crap for a while! Aren't you glad?

On the knitting front, MS3, Part deux has progressed to row 266, and inches closer to the end with every day I can work on it.

I started K3P3 ribbing on the practice sock about 1" or so above the turning of the heel, and there's now about 1.5" of ribbing completed. I originally wound the hank of yarn into two balls, one somewhat smaller than the other, and I still have quite a bit left on the smaller ball, so I'm doing good on yarn, too! I figure I'll rib to the point where my calf really starts swelling out, or the small ball is gone, whichever comes first. That way I KNOW I'll have enough yarn to knit the Second Sock.

As there has been no embroidery done, there's nothing to report there.

Before I go, I really MUST mention the weather. Sorry about that, but the past two days have been totally gorgeous, highs in the upper 70's, lows in the low 50's, with severe clear skies, blue as can be, and not a hint of a whisper of a wisp of a cloud. Autumn really IS here! I've thrown open the windows and turned off the A/C, and switched to the cool weather blankets on my bed. Joy!!!

I Am A Knitter!

A real Knitter, with a capital "K"! It happened this way...

I have been working on the 'practice sock' and tonight got to the turning of the heel. As the wrestling match with the beast proceeded, my language went from calm to beseeching to threatening to downright profane, on the last row when I discovered that I had managed to drop 4 stitches from one of the two needles on the instep side of the sock, while trying to pick up the 'fill the gap stitch' on the last wrapped stitch. After I succeeded in getting that 'gap stitch' made, and all the dropped stitches picked up (one of them had run down 5 rows), the language became completely triumphant.

At this point, my dear son, sitting in his chair, beside mine, and trying to watch the sports portion of the 11 o'clock news, and having absolutely no idea of the utterly cosmic connotations of the question, asked me:

"Do you enjoy talking to your sock?"

Hey, Karma! Listen up!

Many, many moons past, about 384 of them, give or take a few, I decided that I wanted a piano, that I needed a piano, and that someday, somehow, I was going to have a piano. I firmly believed that I WOULD get this piano, though I had no idea how, but I was pretty sure that buying it at normal prices wasn't going to be the way, as money and I have only a nodding acquaintance, at best. It took you, karma, almost eight years from that day, but I was in my favorite book store one day (this was before one bought books at Barnes & Noble [who was publishing textbooks then] or Amazon [which wasn't even a gleam in anybody's eye yet]), one owned and operated by real people. I'm told that there are still a few of these dinosaurs around, but I haven't seen one in a looooong time. But that's another post, and I digress.

So I was in the bookstore, and Holly, the proprietor, asked me if I knew anybody that could use a piano, as she no longer needed hers, due to her last piano playing chick having left the nest, and she needed the space. I said "yes" immediately, of course, and asked her how much she wanted for it. "Just come and get it and move it away" was her response, so I motivated a bunch of strong backs, and I had my piano. Ya did good, karma, and I've been grateful.

OK, I now have another need, karma, and I'm putting you on notice that I firmly believe that somehow, in some fashion, you will bring me a kneeling, ramped mini-van, with swiveling front seats, and hand controls. It would be nice were it to come equipped with a good trailer hitch, and a nice small RV-type trailer, as well, but I'll cut you some slack on that. I don't want to be greedy, after all. I would prefer not to wait eight years for this, but I will if I must.

You've laid a lot of bad on me the last few years, karma, along with some good, but I think I'm about due for some really big good. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Most respectfully,

Paging King Canute

I'd show you a picture of today's northeaster, but you already know what a windy, overcast, soggy day looks like - and besides, I didn't take any. This one is, as usual, producing quite a bit of beach erosion, and on tonight's news was a story about some people whose homes are in danger of becoming history, as the sand dunes on which they are built have mostly disappeared into the great maw of the Atlantic. The people are demanding that Something Be Done. All I can think of is "Dumbasses, don't build on sand dunes!" You'd think that something this basic would be obvious, but... they want to live on the shore, so reality must give way, and natural processes must cease operation.

Sorry, people, but Not Gonna Happen. We've spent over a billion dollars in the First Coast area in the past 10 years on beach replenishment, and it just washes out to sea again. Go build someplace a bit more stable, ok? Like in Nebraska?

I Feel Obligated -

though not very enthusiastic - about updating this here blog. Can you tell that all those diaries I faithfully started on January 1 each year back when I was young didn't make it through March?

On the needlework front - I am presently ready to knit row 220 of the MS3 second half - it creeps along, but it is advancing! I have also finally frogged the "practice" sock, with all those bulky cables on the instep, let the yarn relax for a few days, and am now about 3" past the lifeline I set in, seems like years ago now, at the point where I finally got the short rows toe done right. After knitting all those yards and miles of the Zephyr, the SuperStrong sock feels like the old Red Heart Wool - stiff and scratchy and rather similar to bridge cable in size. It's not, actually, of course, but the subjective difference between the two is mighty!

Most of the time intervening between my last post and this one has been occupied with things medical, either psyching up for, actually going to, or recovering from, being poked and pierced and prodded and such. I shan't mention this further except for four things. One is that the usual chemistries and counts all came back as usual - low side of normal, right where I like them, especially the things like cholesterol and blood sugar, so I'm no likelier than I've been to drop dead unexpectedly.

Another is that I got both knees juiced at one go, instead of doing them three weeks apart, and oh, BOY! did it feel good to be able to just stand up, instead of getting leaned forward JUST so, and planting both hands on the arms of the chair in JUST the right position, and levering and leaning in just the right directions to slowly bring the body to the standing position. Even the long-lasting 'caines have worn off now, but the steroids have kicked in, so the knees are relatively painless, and life has been very pleasant the last few days. I can make a fair approximation of actually walking, instead of my usual bent-over hobble. I wish I could have this done every month!

Another is that after blinding me with the otoscope in the EENT part of the physical, Dr. Helen said she was going to refer me to an opthalmologist. Seems she saw some odd things in my eyeballs which, she says, she thinks might be the start of cataracts, or might be something else really whonky. More specific she didn't want to be. JUST what I need! Anyway, that appointment is set for early next month.

The other thing I want to talk about is the MRI, which bears no resemblence whatsoever to what you see on the boob tube on the doctor shows, other than the machinery looks similar. I even brought my camera along, to share this jolly experience with you, but they suggested that I might not want to expose the delicate electronic innards of the camera to the very strong magnetic fields surrounding the MRI equipment. So no pictures. Sorry!

This was a first for me, in more ways than one. When Dr. Helen was putting together the sheaf of prescriptions at the end of the physical, she asked me if I was claustrophobic. I told her that yes, I am, mildly, which was, I thought, an accurate assessment. Not the first time I've been wrong.... So, she prescribed a mild sedative to take just before the MRI. This was not encouraging, but I'm not adverse to a mild buzz.

So when I got home from the stop at the pharmacy, I googled the MRI, to find out as much as I could about it. Very informative, and I'm glad I did it, as the ensuing events would have been much uglier had I not. I did think that the warnings about heat were exaggerated, but that was made up for by the glossing over of the sound effects.

Chronologically: I arrived at 12:45, as instructed, for my 1:00 appointment, and took the sedative as soon as I got there. Spent about 5 minutes filling out the paperwork, and signing all the legal releases they require. Waited for a bit, had a nice conversation with the lady also waiting who was cross-stitching a Xmas ornie. The sedative had just started kicking in when they called me back to the torture chamber/exam room. The techs, who I will say were extremely helpful all the way through, kind, understanding, all that, made a final check of my person for things metallic, which are a biiiiig no-no, and got me set up. This started simply enough, as I had to lay down on a stretchery thing, with a nice cradle for the head. They propped up my knees so I COULD lay flat on my back, and I felt quite comfortable. Then they inserted some rather cheesy foam earplugs, and brought out the head cage, which neatly locks into that cradle I mentioned a couple of sentences back, and holds the head so that it's not impossible to move it, but it's damned difficult. It's not physically uncomfortable by any means, the only thing really noticeable is the cheek pads. I didn't have any real problems dealing with it mentally, either. They explained that the process was going to take about twenty minutes, handed me the panic button and explained how it worked (very encouraging, that), then elevated the stretcher and started inserting it (and me) into that tiny little donut hole, and people, I freaked! I held it together until about 3" of my arms were in that hole, and then I lost it. They very quickly uninserted me, and got me sitting up, and calmed down again. Then they asked me what set me off. I suggested that perhaps a bit more time for the sedative to work would be helpful, and that it was the feeling of the tube pressing in on my shoulders and arms that did me in. They gave the sedative another ten minutes, then suggested we try again. This time, after getting me re-caged and propped, they covered both shoulders, and all the way down my sides, with drapes that did NOT feel like any kind of typical starchy hospital linen I've ever encountered. It was more like sateen than anything else. It's amazing how much it helped, along with being somewhat more gorked. I kept my eyes very carefully and tightly closed, breathed deeply, and thought happy thoughts, while they got me inserted. Once the stretcher stopped moving and I was in position, I found I could relax my arms against the sides of the hole and feel not quite so squeezed, though actually, of course, I was. Think GOOD thoughts, breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold...

Then the machinery started doing its thing. They give you those earplugs for a reason, folks. That thing is NOISY! First it beeps at you, very similar to the back-up alarm on a fork-lift, several times. Then it whirrs for a while. Then it grinds, as though there was a faulty bearing in the guts of the thing somewhere. Then the whole thing starts over again. This cycles a bunch of times. each time adding a couple of beeps to the start of things. Then it beeps again, only this time it keeps ON beeping, and sounds like it's trying to tell the operators that there is some major fault in the machinery and it's going to explode in 30 seconds. About the time I was ready to panic again, the beeping stopped, and the whirring started again, then the grinding, and then it started to CLANK and vibrate. OHMIGOD itISabouttoexplode! Just as I was giving some really serious thought to pushing the panic button, it all stops, and about 10 seconds later I dimly heard the voice of one of the techs. I felt the stretcher moving me OUT of the donut, and heaved a huge sigh of relief.

It wasn't over yet, though. Now we have to do it WITH the contrast media, which involves shooting gandolinium (sounds like something that belongs in a nuclear reactor, doesn't it? But not radioactive, they assure me.) into the elbow vein. In it goes, and back into the donut hole. Breathe in, hold, breathe out, hold...HAPPY thoughts, with eyes shut! This session is, mercifully, shorter, but the body did betray, in that I started twitching! Mildly at first, the feet, lower legs, then it got worse and worse, and finally it was all the way up into my hands and arms, and more like the end stage of shivers, just before the body quits entirely trying to warm itself, and shuts down to conserve what little energy remains.

It was a nip and tuck race, folks, but the machine won, as a split second before I hit the panic button, and I did, the exam ended. The techs dug me out, and exclaimed repeatedly that they didn't know how I had done it, but somehow, with all the twitching, I managed to keep my head and neck completely still, and they had a perfectly beautiful set of pictures.

I didn't ask them what they had pictures OF. Didn't want to listen to their hemming and hawing about how the doctors would have to read them, etc.

So how was YOUR day?

My apologies for the somewhat more than two week's absence - just haven't had much of anything to say, outside of "When is this **^&^%$^$^&%*(O)*( rain going to STOP???" It finally has, and today was filled with sunshine! Remember back on the 17th of September I was talking about it was raining? It's BEEN raining, with one short day's respite, ever since! My backyard rain gauge filled and was emptied and refilled, etc. until I finally quit bothering, at 16", several days ago. It has been WET, people! Local creeks and rivers are expected to crest just below flood stage day after tomorrow, though there has been much localized and "urban" flooding. Getting out of my neighborhood via car has been interesting, as we're on a low ridge above the Big river valley, which is to the east and north of us, and has been flooded, off and on, for days at a time. We have to go about two miles west, then north, then east for several miles before we can turn south again to get across the river to DS's work.

My shoulder is improving, and in the last few days I've been able to do some knitting. Stitching returned several days before that, and I have an entire cupboard shelf once again filled with clean coffee mugs! MS3 has now progressed to row 136 of the second side. I've almost reached the point of the first chevron. I may actually get the thing finished before Christmas, o frabjous day!

The Historic Countries Sampler is advancing slowly, but is looking pretty decent. The pic below shows the progress I had made up to about a week ago, and since then, I have finished the barely started floral motif on the upper left, and made a good start on the 18th century couple under them. I'll try and remember to get a picture again tomorrow.

Sharp eyes will notice there's an error in that floral motif. The leftmost 'lollipop' somehow acquired an extra stitch in the stem. Yes, I frogged and restitched it to remove the extra one.



I also noticed, looking at the picture and comparing it to the real object, that I have an error in the first half of the MS3! However, I have no intention whatsoever of frogging and reknitting it! The guy on horseback speeding by isn't going to notice it, and I bet y'all haven't either. *I* didn't, until just last week!

Whilst dear friends are in a tizzy getting ready for Rhinebeck (and Oh, how I wish I were with them!), I'm going to try to get my Ravelry stuff together. I've been aboard for almost a month, now, and have barely started. Shame on me!

AND - I ordered a pair of the Harmony tips from KnitPicks - and am eagerly awaiting their arrival. Everyone who has gotten them so far that I've been reading is madly in love with them, and I can hardly wait to play! Mine are in US 7, for the Mystery Arterial Blood project. I don't normally knit with anything that large.

I also ordered a set of their nickel-plated DPNs, in 2.25mm. I finally found a pattern I like for the Sherbet FlockSock yarn I've been drooling over. It's funny, because I had something VERY similar to this pattern about half-way charted and written down, having given up finding it already done, when I ran across this pattern, and it's even a freebie! I'll post more about this project later, along with a pic of the scrumptious yarn.

Ummm.... Misc? Orts? Olio? Smorgasbord?

After reading that, you should have gathered that I don't really have anything major to show or tell.

There will be no pictures of progress or completion of needleworks for a while - not long, though. I managed to screw up my left shoulder, and it's rendered useless for a time. I can't lift my arm more than from hanging to about table/desk height. I tried knitting yesterday, and made it through a mere four rows before I had to quit. Even holding the needle stationary, and doing all the work with the right needle (and YOU try doing a psso that way!) was more than I could handle. I can't even wash dishes! Thank heaven I have the dishwasher for backup, even though I hate putting my good pots n pans in it, and my flatware says specifically NOT to.

I did not drown on Monday, nor yesterday. In fact, yesterday, while the rain was pretty steady, wasn't the overwhelming mess that Monday was. This nor'easter has been bringing these narrow, long bands of rain across the area. Monday, the airport registered 1/3" of rain for the same twelve hour period that dumped over EIGHT inches on my head, some 20 miles south of said airport. I live on a bit of a slope, and it was amusing to sit here in my office/studio and watch everything that wasn't tied down further up the street come racing past on the breast of the flow of water. It pretty well stayed in the street, though, and didn't even get close to the house. I have the cleanest gutters you ever saw! Tuesday brought little spits and spats of drops from time to time, but hardly noticeable here, though 20 miles south of here had my Monday. Yesterday was just a soggy mess - alternating between heavy and light rain, and the monsoon levels were further south yet. Today the sun is shining, and the whole world is 15 to 20 degrees cooler, and sparkley clean! The five day forecast shows temps remaining in the upper 70's, maybe making it to 81 at the max. Every year, usually a few days after the Equinox, we have a big nasty storm that breaks the summer heat, and ushers in the heavenly fall that starts the paradisiacal half of the year, and it would seem that it just arrived a bit early this year. Hooray! 'Course, there's still another month and a half of whirley season to go...

If you have somehow missed it, go now to the Yarn Harlot's tale of her adventures in the Big Easy. Some good writing there.

And finally, take Two Lumps.

Who's Kidding Who?

The Weather people, in all their wisdom, declared that there was a 40% chance of rain last night and today. Ha ha ha!

Shortly before midnight last night, I took out the trash and recycles to the curb, in readiness for the early morning (6:30 AM) pickups. Shortly afterward, it commenced to rain. It has been doing so with short breaks ever since, it now being 1PM Monday afternoon. The weather radar shows a band of bright red bordered by yellow not quite 20 miles thick, but a couple of hundred miles long, stretching east to west, moving east, and right over the heart of Jax. Looks like the projected nor'easter is developing well, lol!

Right around noon, the trash haulers finally arrived, and collected an extremely sodden mass of paper and cardboard, which didn't even go into the recycle truck; they just pitched everything, trash and recycles, into the landfill truck. At least it no longer decorates my curb - there are just the empties out there now, and there they will stay until this rain stops! I really wonder, though, why I bothered separating out the recycles, and sorting the recycles into paper, plastic, and glass. I can understand trashing the paper, but surely a bit of rainwater doesn't obviate the recyclability of plastic and glass!

So what did I do this weekend besides watch a lot of football and golf? Well, I spent a lot of time frogging and cussing at MS3, before putting it away until another, more propitious, day. I frogged and restitched on the Historic Country mystery sampler - and didn't quite finish the first motif, but I do love, love, love stitching on linen with the Dinky Dyes silk. Even if three of the four colors in this motif ARE variegated, and therefore must be done one stitch at a time, it's still a pleasure!



And I swatched away with the Tupelo Gold - and got 8.5 sts & 9 rows/inch on relaxed stockinette with 3.75mm needles. Close enough!

Oh, My Achin' Hand

Here is the (almost) before picture of the Wooly Wonka Fibers 100% merino laceweight, in the Tupelo Gold colorway. There's 1400 yds of it there, between the skein and the ball. I *almost* remembered to take the before picture - which is why the ball is still so small - that's the point at which I *did* remember.



And here, many, *many* tiresome hours of hand winding later, is the completely wound yarn, all 1400 yds of it. I really did try to get it all onto one ball, but the thing became so unwieldy that I couldn't manage it properly. And OH, does my hand hurt! So, there are two balls, and I will undoubtedly have to join yarn at some point during the knitting of Bee Field. Ratz!



A ball winder is looming larger and larger on my wish list. Thank you, whatever drug company manufactured my generic ibuprofen.

Belated Progress Reports

I know, it's not tomorrow. In fact, it's two days after tomorrow. I've really been meaning to join the Procrastinator's Club, but...

I confess I haven't been doing a great deal of stitching, being otherwise occupied with MS3, of which I am now on row 100 of Part Deux. It is going considerably faster, though, as I am not spending *nearly* the same amount of time frogging and tinking as I did the first time through. I'm getting good at 'reading' my knitting!

Back to the point - item the first, the hardanger piece. I have finished the Kloster blocks, and have only one pair of the satin stitch 'ships' to complete. Then it's time to switch to the #8 pearl, for the eyelets and the buttonhole border.
Here it is, without the annoying moire effect:



The "White Musings" band sampler. The first band is star stitch, done in all three fibers. The upright cross is in #8 Perle cotton, the wide saltire cross is 2 strands of DMC cotton floss, and the narrow saltire is fuzzy looking because it's fuzzy thread - Rainbow gallery 'Whisper', to be precise. All are white, and the fabric is 32 ct. Amsterdam Blue Lugana. The second band is the booooring three-sided "Two sided Italian" stitch, in the DMC cotton. It strikes me as being a great deal of unnecessary fussiness to do something that is indistinguishable from ordinary cross-stitch with backstitching on three sides. The band is completed with a second row of the same stitch done under the gaps in the first row. Very dull. The bands get better, though. Here it is:



I'd show you the Historic Countries start, but...

I should have paid more attention to the chart, as I made an incorrect assumption regarding the motif I started on, a grouping of three styleized flowers on one stem, with leaves. I assumed that the three flowers were identical, and that each flower was symmetrical. Wrong. So I frogged the whole mess, and once again have a blank piece of fabric. I would have worked on it today, but...

Yesterday, the post person delivered a nice envelope from Wooly Wonka Fibers, which contained 1400 yards of lace-weight 100% merino in the Tupelo Gold colorway (which is mostly spring green, with odd lengths of yellow and aqua in it. Gorgeous stuff! I put it on the swift and plomped down in front of the TV at 1:30 this afternoon. After I wound off the first couple of hundred yards, (by *hand*, I'll have you know, as I don't yet have a winder) it occurred to me that I hadn't taken a picture of it for you, so I took it off the swift, retwisted it into a skein, and took a picture of skein and ball. Then I put it back on the swift, and started back on winding the ball. And I wound, and wound, and wound, and stopped to fix a quick dinner (cube steak sandwich), and wound and wound and wound some more. I gave up part of the way through Letterman (but did catch Viggo the Handsome in his marvy VanDyke and Handlebar!), and still have maybe 200 yds to do. I must say, though, that after this marathon, a measley 400 yds of sock yarn is going to be childs' play. And to think I was dreading it!

I think I'd rather have my teeth drilled sans novocaine.

Fiberlicious Friday on Saturday

OK, I finally got my act together and took some pictures, helped enormously by the generosity of the post office delivery this week. All KINDS of goodies hit my mailbox! In no particular order:

From the magical dye pots of the Yarn Fairy - I almost don't want to show this yet, as the picture doesn't begin to do it justice, and I want to play around with different lighting to see if I can't get it better. The yarn is light worsted weight 100% wool, and we have named the color "Arterial Blood", which it is, even though this picture makes it look pink. Trust me, it's not.



From the shelves of 1-2-3-Stitch, the home of all good things for the cross-stitch maniac, a fat half of Edinburgh linen, color Ivory, 36 ct.



for use with...

and

which are 29 skeins of Dinky-Dyes 6-strand silk. For those of you who count these things, you'll notice there are 30 skeins pictured. The 30th one is on the far right of the second picture, and is a 'limited edition' release to celebrate the 5th birthday of Dinky-Dyes as a commercial enterprise. It won't be used in the project using the other 29, which is the 12 months Historical Countries sampler being published in 'The Gift of Stitching' eMag. Just as a bit of lagniappe, there is a 'companion piece', one per month, which add up to a 12-piece stitcher's chatelaine.

And the final goodie, from the good folk at Amazon -



I've only had time to skim the first quarter of this so far, but it's a fantastic book, I know already. It's in the same genre as those marvelous little volumes once written by English country vicars on the most abtruse of subjects, but in exhaustive and loving detail. Only this one has PICTURES, lots and lots of PRETTY pictures, and even charts and patterns, though they're almost an afterthought. Anything you wanted to know about the knitting of lace in Victorian England is in here, as far as I can tell.

This is now quite long enough, so I'll save the progress reports and pictures for tomorrow.

PS: Revenge is oh, so very sweet! Go Sooners! Oklahoma 44, Miami 13. PHFFFFTH!

Goin' Mo-bile

This afternoon I went to the grocery store and bought bread and cereal. I went all by myself. I know, Big F****** Deal, I can hear you thinking. Well, it IS a big deal, because... I once again have a POWERCHAIR!

The lack thereof was really beginning to wear on me, making me more than somewhat depressed, which is why there has been no blogging. Until you've been there, you have no idea what being dependent on someone else, particularly when that someone else isn't too terribly enthusiastic about giving up what little free time he has in order to fetch and carry for Mom, does to a previously independent spirit. I have been trapped in the house for most of the past month, and am/was going stir-crazy.

This chair, however, is not the chair I've had for the past four years. That one has died - or at least its extremely expensive control "computer" chips have done, or that's what the repair guy thinks is maybe going on. He spent almost three weeks trying to figure it out, and finally confessed that it was beyond him. He felt so bad about it that he's selling me a new (to me, anyway, it's actually used) chair for a ridiculously low price, and he's taking it in small payments with no interest.

I am FREE! Cue the Who in the background...

On the needlework front - I have finished the first half of the symmetrical version of MS3, and am on row 91 of the second iteration of the first four clues. When I finish the second, it gets married to the first with a vertical panel of the doubled border. I will also knit a second one, with the symmetrical wings, which are utterly beautiful, but just can't be joined well with the abstract geometry of the rest of the stole.

I am also eagerly awaiting the delivery of the Tupelo Gold yarn and the pattern for Anne Hansen's "Bee Fields" stole. This is a yummy design, and the yarn is gorgeous. We're doing an informal Knit-Along for this one, on The Lacey Shawl group at Yahoo, and I'm already behind, as it started Monday and I'm still waiting for the yarn and pattern. Not the Other Anne's fault, as I couldn't pay for it until last Friday.

I'm also awaiting the arrival of a serious quantity of a yarn from Jennifer which we have dubbed the "Arterial Blood" yarn, as that is the color we were aiming for. This is for a Secret Project, about which you will learn more in due course.

I've also started the first couple of rows of a band sampler, and am currently working a band of something called "2-sided Italian stitch" which is both extremely boring and somewhat mis-named, as it actually has three stitched sides. There are two bands of this, one over 4 threads and one over 2. The over-4 band is first on the chart, and I just might somehow overlook the second band, I'm already so bored with this stitch, and I'm only about a quarter finished with the first band.

I've gotten more done on the Hardanger piece, as well - but haven't worked on it a great deal as the MS3 stole has been in the forefront.

Tomorrow, with a little bit of luck, there will be pictures.

True Confessions

First off, I was looking at old posts, and realized that I've not posted ANY pictures of MS3 since Clue 1! I am sorry - and herewith rectify the situation: instead of a grey blob, which is what I look at every day, I slipped it onto some 14" needles, so I could spread it out; pinned it, after a fashion; and took some lousy pictures. This first one shows the full length of the fabric, though the farther end is hiding in the shadows. You can at least see there is one. The white dots are the pearls.

This second picture is a closer view of the middle, between the two chevrons:

And lastly, the topmost section, the cats' paws/hexagons/daisies, as various knitters of the stole have called them

Now, about those confessions:

Some background.... Firstly, I am a contrarian. It's not something I'm particularly either proud or ashamed of, it just *is*, rather like having green eyes. If 99% of the world likes A, I'm sure to prefer B. Secondly, I am an American/English/"throw" knitter.

So, the knitters of the no-longer-mystery stole are virtually unanimous in hating/being bored to tears with, the 2.5 charts worth of the cats' paws. (what you see in the picture is approximately 1/4 of the total length of them, as the chart is written, before lengthening the stole, about which I am still undecided) I, on the other hand, am enjoying them immensely! There's just enough to them to keep me mentally alert, without requiring the rigid attention to detail that the more complex areas of the design have required. I can knit AND watch football/golf/tennis, without slighting either.

Judging by the various discussion groups and assorted blogs, most knitters seem to hate purling, and find it more difficult than knitting. Not me! The working needle just rocks back and forth when purling, spitting out new stitches like clockwork, instead of having to interrupt the smooth motion in order to stick the needle into the stitch from the left side required in knitting. On the other hand, the reason I am a "throw" knitter rather than a European/Continental/"scoop" knitter is that I cannot, for the life of me, overcome the awkwardness of the purl stitch! I know people do it, but I'm not one of them, alas.

I have abandoned, to all intents and purposes, the cable-patterned Grape Heather socks, at least for the time being. I need to frog them back to the toe, because it occurred to me that given the way my feet swell, the last thing I need is bulky patterning on my instep! I will eventually finish them, using the cable pattern only on the leg.

Instead, I have been swatching some FlockSock yarn in the "orange sherbet" colorway, which looks good enough to eat! This yarn is a lot more fun to knit than the super-sock of the Grape Heather, and it's a lot prettier, as well. It's not much heavier to the eye than the Zephyr, but it's glossy and firmly spun. I should have taken some pictures of the swatching, but, as usual, I forgot. I'm just not used to the insatiable appetite of the blog for visuals! I'll get there, someday.

The Fall National Passtime

As the seasons have once again rolled around to the time when groups of otherwise reasonably sane men spend an inordinate amount of time and effort, not to mention bodily injury, attempting to determine at which end of a meadow an oblate spheroid of leather should rest, I rejoice! I must confess that I actually enjoy the game for its own sake, but the real reason I love the season is that it gives me license to sit in front of the TV, ostensibly watching said games, but in actuality doing needlework, without DS attempting to guilt me for not being June Cleaver, Compleat Housekeeper, he being a feetsball fan himself of Major Proportions. Mind you, he has reason to complain, as I figure that as long as we have clean coffee cups in the morning, my duty is done, and to hell with the dog hair piled in the corners. I do get to it eventually...

Yesterday, I was able to complete the stitching on the second of my designer's models, a more difficult stitch, as there were problems with the chart about which Decisions had to be made. I still need to do the finishing, but it will be ready to go to her on Monday. And forgive me, but...

I'm usually even less given to tooting my own horn than I am to throwing pity parties, but every so often I can't resist. This from my designer, after receiving the first completed model: "I absolutely LOVED your stitching and ... finish. Absolutely beautiful, stunning work." Ego-boo is soooo nice!

Today was a Banner Day, as there was not only football, but a matinee of golf, as well. As a result, I was able to do 30 rows, or 2,970 stitches, of my neglected MS3. That not only recreates everything I had to frog before laying it aside, but another few rows in addition, so I'm ahead of where I was, and a much happier camper! Tomorrow looks to be a repeat. And next week starts the US Open (tennis), which is also great knitting/needlework fodder! Ah, fall!

One of these days, I'll post pictures again, I promise. Right now, I'm either doing things I CAN'T show pictures of (more models from my designer, these in silks!), or they fall into the category of "you've seen one picture of a grey blob, you've seen them all". I really, REALLY wish I was one of these speed demons that can knit an entire sweater in two days, but I'm not.

There is no situation so dire that, by dint of application of the least degree of stupidity, it cannot be made infinitely worse.

Which, lengthy as it is, is the title of this post. Let's take it in chronological order, shall we?

About 4 weeks ago, my chair suddenly decided to quit working. I had no idea why, and we took it into the shop for repairs. Shop says $200, give or take a couple. It needs new batteries. So there it sat until last Wednesday, when funds were available. Picked it up, and on Friday, I wended my way to the grocery store, about a mile distant, and a trip I can normally make several times in a day with no problem, and no need to recharge the batteries. About 2/3rds of the way there, the chair started a mild version of the complete non-working that sent it to the shop in the first place. First application of stupidity - I continued on to the store, instead of immediately calling my then-available DS to come and get me. The chair quit working entirely again, in the store, in the middle of the way. I got a very accommodating stock clerk to push me to a wall outlet, thinking that somehow the batteries hadn't been fully charged. After half an hour or so, the chair was working again. I came home, with some problems, but not anything serious. However, I did notice, at the store when the clerk started to push me, when I moved the tab that controls the engagement of the electric brake, making it possible for the chair to free-wheel, that the tab was so hot I could barely touch it. Aha! A symptom! Something in there is overheating, causing it to bind up, effectively stopping the chair in its tracks. Now we come to a major application of that same stupidity. On Saturday, I realized that I didn't have the 5 lb. bag of sugar in the pantry that I thought was there, and therefore a run for sugar for my coffee was vital! Half a block away from the little corner store that's only 5.5 longish blocks away, on the way back, the chair totally locked up. OK, it's a pleasant, if warm, afternoon. I'll just wait for it to cool down, and be on my way. Wrong. With sundown rapidly approaching, I was getting somewhat desperate, as DS was at work, and couldn't possibly get away. The man in front of whose house I was sitting, with whom I'm dimly acquainted, offered assistance. So I left the chair at his house, and he brought me home. The chair goes back to the shop tomorrow. MORE money I don't have.

I sat down Sunday evening with MS3, with the results posted previously. This morning I picked up MS3 again, and knit away happily. No problem, I thought... wrong again. I had finished a row, and was admiring the thing, as I am wont to do, and saw something that looked a bit odd, two rows back from where I was. Seems I had forgotten to do a yo. Knew there had to be something else as well, as the stitch count at the end of the row was correct. There was, a missed decrease, of course, but not at the same spot! I tried laddering down to the yo, which was the first one, and screwed it up royally. Frog. After getting all the stitches back on the needle, I was missing 5! I didn't want to screw with it for another 4.5 hours, so decided to frog all the way back to the lifeline.

Enter the stupidity factor. After setting the lifeline at the end of row 200, and Clue 3, I somehow forgot to do the next one, which I've been doing at the end of the WS row just before the edge beading row - every eight rows, in other words. I was going along so well, though, that I didn't bother with the next TWO either. So from row 227, where I noticed the error, I'm now back to row 201. There is a tiny mote of light in this tunnel, though, as the part from the previous post with which I wasn't happy is history in the frogging.

It is time to put aside the knitting for a couple of days at least.

I'm also having a recurrence of a health problem with which I shan't bore you, and is merely bothersome, as opposed to incapacitating in some way. I wish I could just put my entire life on hold until the planets realign more favorably, or the gods relent, or whatever it takes to get things back on an even keel. Since this isn't possible, I shall retreat into reading, and maybe even get some housework done. Maybe...

At least I've got the sugar to make lemonade from all these lemons.

Some Days You Get the Bear

and some days the bear takes it 6-0, 6-0. Today (yesterday, actually - I just realized it's after midnight) was one of the latter, regrettably. I was working on MS3, of course. I sat down with it, and ticked off 14 rows (7 RS, 7 WS) with nary a problem, smooth as glass, so I was feeling pretty good about things. Then I hit row 219. You'd think a row this simple wouldn't be any sort of problem, wouldn't you? I mean, you have this mindless edge, k1, bead 1, yo, skpsso. How could you screw that up? Then you have 16 measely stitches of the border - maybe a little more complex, but still! Then it's all decrease/yo combos separated by three knits across to the other border and edge. I spent FOUR AND ONE HALF HOURS on this stupid thing! First, I came to the end of the row and only had 98 stitches. No biggie, I dropped a yo, right? Pick it up on the WS as I go. It's a piece of cake. Nope... I tinked, I knitted, I tinked some more, I laddered, I knit, I tinked, over and over and over and over again! I had as few as 97, and as many as 103 stitches at one point or another. You think it's maddening reading about it - you should have been doing it! Or rather, you should be really glad you weren't. I'm still not real happy with the edge - but I've got all the elements in the right places now, even if it doesn't look like it, and I'm hoping that blocking will improve things. I'll try and remember to post a pic of this area tomorrow. I'm too dispirited tonight to mess with it.

All in all, with yesterday's happenings, it hasn't been much of a weekend. But that can wait for a better frame of mind.

I just HAD to share this with y'all - I just now happened to stumble across it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzCs2VwJqTw

A Minor Achievement

I have reached a milestone, of sorts, on MS3. I just finished the row, #210 in Clue 4, that completes the second chevron, and am now ready to embark on the acres and acres of cat's paw or daisies or hexagons or whatever you want to call them. This means I'm only 90 rows behind where I should be for the release of Clue #5 tomorrow morning! In truth, I'm far in advance of where I really expected to be at this point in time, so I feel a certain giddiness. I begin to believe that I will actually finish this thing in a reasonably timely manner! Whee!

I was going to post (and in fact wrote most of) a major rant having to do with the lack of Congressional action regarding the deplorable state of the Federal Highway system, as demonstrated by the collapse of the bridge in Minneapolis, but lost heart. I mean, what's the point? So you're spared - at least this time. I'll just say that, while my heart goes out to those who have injured and lost loved ones, anybody who is surprised that this occurred hasn't been paying attention.