Gang, thanks again for the mojo for Donna.
She sends her thanks, too (she's left comments on the last 2 previous posts for y'all).
Great job, too...'cuz apparently things are in motion!
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the years I have written about some of my very kooky neighbors and the things they put up their yards (obstructing-view tents or trampolines, anyone?!).

But I have another neighbor that I've never told you about before. Across the street and two houses down.

Yup. That's right.
That's an observatory.
IN my neighbors backyard!

Last night MyFavoriteKid and I were invited over to take a look at Jupiter.




How cool is THAT?!
I got lucky this time. Much better deal. ;-)

wee little friend

Many many many MANY thanks for all your well wishes yesterday/today. Good job, peeps!!

As for me today? I'm beat. Still sick. Still feeling run down.
Instead of whining, I offer you cuteness.

Oh, how I loooooove MyFavoriteKid's orthodontist!
You bring in your Halloween candy...

...and he trades it for "orthobucks".

That was 6 pounds of candy, guys (and that wasn't even all of it)...and MyFK got $30 Orthobucks (he also earns them by being on time for appointment and not breaking appliances and whatnot). MyFK saves up the bucks to purchase things from their little store. Stuff like giftcards for iTunes or video games, for example.

I'm thrilled that MyFK isn't going to be digging in to that much candy of course, but I'm really tickled that he let it go because I was starting to pick over his stash myself! Gah!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok, onto the next thing:

Ladies and gentleman! Today I recieved a special request from my friend Donna (of the Chaos). She has asked for some good vibes to be sent her way, and not just from me. She asked me to post it to my blog.

Now, quite frankly, I'm not even sure who's out there reading this blog anymore...but if y'all are out there, and if you've been coming here for any amount of time, then you know how I feel about "The Mojo".

I don't care whatcha call it. Sending good vibes, visualizing, setting intentions, prayer, positive thinking, chanting, voodoo...whatever. They are all paths to the same point in my mind. And if any of you out there practice some version of this? Well, this is a request to roll up yer sleeves and move some energy around.

Donna has asked for me to "mojo-ize" (tm) (hahahaha) two things. I'm gonna toss in a third thing she aint even askin' for (directly), but let's address her stated requests first.

The first thing she's working on is improving the school situation for her teenage son. He is one very smart (and very cool) kid. The current school situation is not serving him well at all. The classes and the classroom support he needs no longer exist. There are also safety issues (incidents included) in getting him too and from the school. I'll keep it general, but let's just say it's been scary. Scary enough for Donna to ask for you all to help, and scary enough for me to do it. Donna is being a true MamaBear, and she is "on it" and doing all the legwork. She and her son have done all of the beuracratic hoop jumping required to get him into a better situation, but as of today (they just interviewed at the new school), they are now in the waiting game phase while their request is being decided upon.
Mojo-ize!

The second thing she nees help with is an employment situation. She'd been let go from her job earlier in the year, and is now working with someone very close to her to help them start up a new company. Problem there? The new company is stuck in it's beuracratic bullshit, as well....and if licenses don't get approved and things don't get rubber stamped pretty quickly, the new company is not going to make it. Donna seems more worried about the company and it's founder than her position, but I vote we do mojo for both.
Mojo-ize!

I guess really we could all just keep it sort of global. Just imagine everything getting approved. There. That oughta do it.

Okay, and now the third request. From me. She has not asked for help on this one, but she's not really the type to ask for things for herself. Donna's a knitter who is not knitting!!! Her wrist is hurting. I can't remember what caused it (sorry, Donna)...but she did make a couple of humungous Tunisian Crochet comforters recently (out of acrylic yarn), and well....maybe that didn't help much LOL. Whatever caused it, I dunno...but all fiberistas need their creative outlet, especially in trying times. I vote we visualize Donna knitting, pain free.
Mojo-ize!
(you sick of that yet??)


Anyhow. You can do this little favor in just a snap of your fingers, and you can do it quiet-like, or you can leave a note here, or on her blog if you want...or not. Just vibe it!! And thank you so much for chipping in. Thank you thank you. She's good peeps, and she's a bit overdue in the receiving of goodness department.
Besides, when you send it out, all comes back anyhow, ya' know? ;-)

a lil' weekend overview

This past weekend my friend TheBon of CatharticInk & Hubby rolled into town for a little visit. Friday night TheMostImportantGuy and I met with them in San Francisco to see this dude.


Great fun.
It was a bit epic getting to and from the show, however. Up until this morning, one of the primary bridges in and out of San Francisco had been closed due to damage (6-7 days of commuter hell, basically).

The next morning, we regrouped at my house for a day of lounging and visiting and lots of noshing. I don't know how I managed to not get one single picture of us folk (actually, I do know how....I've been sick since the middle of last week, and I was tired from the show and busy cooking)...but I mean, I even had the camera out for crying out loud! Look! I managed to snap a pic of the bread TheBon+Hubby had brought back for us from their visit to Boudin Bakery.


Somewhere around dusk MyFavoriteKid readied himself to go over to his buddy's and partake in a little trick-o-treatin':


Kinda creeps me out, really. Not sure if it shows up well here, but the red-eye reduction didn't work, so it's even freakier.

Sunday was breakfast before TheBon+Hubby headed back home, and then I was off to Part 2 of a weaving class that I took at A Verb For Keeping Warm.


We had warped the looms to produce a fabric long enough to be a scarf, but because I was so sick during the week, I failed to complete my homework for second class where we learned how to finish it all off. So instead of a scarf, I have a swatch. Or maybe I'll cut it in half and add some bias tape to make a couple of coasters LOL. I enjoyed the weaving, but I don't own a loom. Yet.

After the class, TheMIG and I headed back over to the city again (still the long route, due to the bridge closure) to see an electronic industrial band we really dig called Skinny Puppy (<--I wouldn't click through on that unless you are a bit of a freak, like me). Just look at the creepy dark photo I took instead.

Super great show. Except at one point I ventured out of my wheelchair and onto my crutches to get a closer look, and immediately proceeded to slip in a puddle of spilled cocktails, giving myself a nice black-purple-green kneecap. Yay, me. I sat back in the gimp section with an ice pack staring at this guy's head for the rest of the night.

Kinda Dr.Seuss-ish, don't you think?


K, so...that was my weekend. Friends, fun, food, tissues and cough drops, more fun, traffic inconveniences, fiber, injuries....nice and well rounded, no?

Now, how was your weekend?

feast or famine

All or nothing.
When it rains it pours.
Last year I did Blog 365.
This year has been quite scant.
And every year (except the first year), since I have been keeping a blog, I have participated in National Blog Posting Month...


...more affectionately known as NaBloPoMo (which was originally a November "thang", but now it looks like they do it year round with themes and whatnot).

This year will be no exception.

Get ready, 'cuz here I come...

behind, but for a good reason

There are posts coming, I swear....but last week got a little chaotic (what else is new), and then there was no internet access for me this past weekend, because I was on a retreat with these two fabulous ladies:

Nancy Bush & Sally Melville

It was not at all a restful retreat. It was cram-packed with fun and knitting and new techniques and new friends and and and....and I'm exhausted.

But I now know how to make a proper nupp ;-)

*sound of crickets chirping*

When the only comments you get on your blog are Japanese spam, it's a pretty good sign that you are long overdue for a post.

a bouquet from T.Joe's that I couldn't resist buying for myself

I haven't been compelled to write because basically I have been "Happy About NOTHING" (even a ten-buck bouquet couldn't fix it)...and I get sick of hearing myself kvetch.

To be honest, my life is pretty damn great, and I do recognize that fact on a daily basis. I am grateful for many many many things, and I am also present enough to see several of life's daily little miracles.

But in between the shining moments of gratitude and presence??
DUDES! I am SO bogged down in the mire!!!
Ugh.



I've got a couple of posts percolating. Hope to be back shortly. Rather than longly ;-)

the last time I did this....

...was when I had two legs.






I was pleased to find out that the local bowling alley has a ramp at one end of the lanes and that they allow wheelchairs. Good news for me, because I'd been trying to imagine bowling on crutches, and I just couldn't see it happening without my ending up flat on my ass (my balance is fantastic, but my right arm is also a bit jacked up from the car accident).

I tried blowing from a seated position in the wheelchair, but felt like I was swinging out too far to clear the wheel and getting a curve on the ball that I couldn't seem to compensate for. I'm certain with practice that it can be done, but since I have one working leg, I decided to try it standing up. I'd roll up to the line, stand up, and pivot the wheelchair facing away from me at a 90-degree angle. Basically my left hip was between the two handles meant for someone to be able to push me (except I rarely get pushed---I used those to hang my purse! LOL). In this configuration I was able to hold onto the handle of the chair with my left hand, and still be able to lean my hip to the left a bit where the soft fabric back of the chair was, and then off she goes!

I had so much Fun! I didn't get a very high score, but it wasn't because I'm a gimp now. I sucked as a bowler when I had two legs, so no surprises there ;-)

~~~~~~~~~~
photo credit: TheMostImportantGuy

Ya' know, I wouldn't even bother reading this post. I'd just go back and read each other's comments to the last post. You all are far more entertaining than I am! Thank you ALL for your replies. They were awesome! (special shout out to one of you at the end, though)

While I was pondering what to do about the shawl, I just went ahead and banged out an entirely different project...

Netherfield Mara
Ravelry project page * pattern * amazingly beautiful yarn
started Aug 24, complete Aug 31

....and since I rarely flash my mug here, I'll toss this one in for shits and giggles:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Other fiber-y things I tinkered with while pondering the shawl:

Daily spinning on the wheel in an attempt to achieve sock yarn.

By jove, I think she's got it!
(maybe)
(let's wait until I ply and knit a sample though)


I also started a pair of socks.

This is a "Mystery Knit Along", where only a portion of the pattern is being released weekly during the month of September. Nobody knitting knows what the final product will look like, but we're all knitting it in some form of yellow. The reason I took up this Knit-Along is because the designer, Nancy Bush, is one of the teachers on the retreat I am attending next month. I'm so excited about going I can hardly wait, so I figured a fun way to pass the time would be to knit something she designed.

So far the pattern has been pretty great because I've learned two new techniques...an Estonian Cast-On, and a vikkel braid (that lateral braid right next to the needles there. Total coolness. I love it so much that I might just be tossing random vikkel braids onto every single thing I knit from this day forward).

One other fiber related thing I did this past week (while I was avoiding fixing the shawl), was to fix another project that I've had sitting idle.

Pretty cute sweater, eh? Yah? Well it also had a boo-boo, and it was smack dab in the middle of the back of the sweater. I didn't notice the mistake sooner because I swear to you that you could not see the mistake from the outside. I only saw it when I was trying on the sweater for fit and saw it on the inside of the sweater. Of course, like my other projects, once I saw the mistake, I set it aside until I could work up the gumption to fix it.

*sigh*

For the record, I do know how to drop down and fix a mistake.


I just don't always have a block of time long enough to actually sit down and do it. I even know how to drop down through a mess of lace. I had to do that on the corner section on the border of Desdemona, and that even had lace action every row. I just don't enjoy dropping down along the edge of lace project where all the YO's and dec's line up (that would be a row of holes and angles, for the muggles out there). It's do-able, but it's a big fat drag.

Anyhow, the verdict on the shawl is that I am going to take it off the needles, rip back several rows, get it back on the needles, and resume. I just need an hour with a flat surface and no interuptions to get that done, and I can't seem to find that time.

Ok, I can't seem to MAKE that time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now I don't mean to exclude anyone out there, because as I said, ALL the comments were great, and they ALL made me think and/or were quite supportive of me and my knitting struggles. But I DO need to give a special shout out to Jodi, though.

See, the question at hand was not so much about if I should fix it, or if I could fix it, or even how I should fix it, but it was about how fixing it or not fixing it was overlapping with lessons from my spiritual life. Two conflicting lessons, and lessons that I am only barely muddling my way through.

My spiritual practice is based in Buddhism, by the way....and I spend much time "exercising" on the "path of comapssion".

So Jodi writes:
"....fix it just to spare your friends and loved ones having to endure you pointing out each and every flaw."

I read that and totally cracked up laughing.

So, yah. I am going to fix the shawl. Not for me. But so that I spare y'all from having to listen to me.
One very compassionate act ;-)

so which will it be?

I've written about this before (and so have so many other folks, not just knitters): when we are immersed enough in a hobby, the "hobby lessons" often parallel the "life lessons" that come up in other parts of our worlds.

Well, it took my knitting to point this out to me, but it is becoming clear that at least a couple of my "life lessons" may just be at odds with one another.

Here's an example, At present, I am knitting a shawl.

See? There I was yesterday, a slow Sunday morning spent in North Beach, lavishly knitting over brunch and a cappuccino, when I notice this:


For those of you that don't knit, that arrow points to a place where there should be a lacy little hole. That space is supposed to look like it's neighbors. It does not. Not a huge deal. It certainly does not impact the shawl's wearability. Actually, once the shawl is wrapped around me you'd probably not even see it.

The problem, however, is that even though you might not know the mistake is there, I know that the mistake is there.

Oooo, let me pause for a footnote.
Maybe this is a good time for me to mention that this exact same knitting error occurred on another shawl I started back in spring, and that poor dear hasn't seen the light of day since I realized it.


But let's forget about that, and get back to the current shawl.


Ok, so I notice the mistake. Now comes the point where I try to decide what I am going to do about it.

* I could leave the mistake there. This would tie into the "life lesson" I have been working on since childhood that has to do with issues surrounding perfectionism in allllllllll it's various forms. Some favorite versions are pushing myself to ridiculousness to be perfect, believing that I even have to and can be perfect, not attempting something for fear I will not do it perfectly, feeling like a complete failure for coming close, but not perfect...blah blah blah. To be honest with you, at age 42, I've worked most of this out of myself by now. Not so much with my knitting though, it seems....and now wouldn't this wee little mistake that nobody will ever see, would this not be a good exercise for me? Might this not be a good time for me to "practice letting go" of the need to be perfect? Perhaps.

But then there is the other option, of course:

* I could fix it. This would tie into the "life lesson" I seem to be working on right now which is that if I see something that needs to be done, the "right action" would be to do it. It's got something to do with "follow through". For example, if I recognize I am thirsty, I should drink (I wrote about this at lenght, and damn if I can find the post). If Ellie asks me for a hat, I should knit it. If I know the mistake in my shawl will always catch my eye, and it is in my power to fix it (which it is--it will just be a pain in the arse for an hour or so), then the right action IS to fix it. No?

See?
DILEMMA.
Do I practice letting go? Do I practice right action and fix it? Or is it maybe that the right action is to not do things that feed my drive to be a perfectionist? Ha!

I'm sooooo open to opinions on this one people, so have it.


I can tell you that I DID cast-on for a new shawl today though....
hahahahahaha
Some patterns never die.

ellie

It's high time I start introducing y'all to more of the cast of characters that comprise my life.

I interact with a whooole lot of folks as part of my volunteer work. I belong to an organization called LITA (Love is the Answer). They match you up with a buddy in the hospital who does not get visitors, and then you see that person weekly for some one-on-one time. My first buddy was when I was in my early 20's. I visited her for a couple of years, and then she passed away. After that, I took one very long break from the commitment, but more recently I have been matched up with James (whom I have written about before, and will write about again very soon).

But really, the visits have not been all that one-on-one. I have been coming and going from the hospital to see James for close to three years now, and I have gotten to know many other residents. I always stop and chat with three or four of them for a few minutes on the way out. My time with them has such a profound effect on my thinking and feeling, I can no longer leave them off the blog and still be able to try and explain what's going on in my head or heart. They are an integral part!

Today I'll introduce you to one, and over the next several weeks I will sprinkle in a few more here and there, including the other convalescent gig I do, which is a knitting group. That one is a hoot.

Ok, so here we go.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sadly, I am going to be starting this process with someone that is no longer with us.

November 2008

This is (was) Elinor. Pardon me if I get the tenses wrong throughout this description, but I just found out about her passing this week, and it still has not quite settled in yet.

This woman was a kick in the pants. Definitely one tough cookie. Kind of a no-bullshit, "I grew up in the midwest and almost froze to death during the depression" sort of gal. I dont know how many kids she had, but she definitely had a couple of sons in their mid to late 60's that would come to visit her at lunchtimes, right around the same time of day that I would be visiting James. We'd all sit around and talk and tell stories. I always loved listening to their accents. There was also a granddaughter that would come from time to time, not much older than myself, and she was a knitter.

I think that Ellie was in her late 90's. She was very hard of hearing, blind in one eye and pretty close to that in the other. When I first met her she'd put her hand out near my legs and feel around to make sure that I was "that one legged chick". We eventually got familiar enough that she recognized my voice more quickly, I think. Mentally, she was sharp as a tack. She would always ask me about MyFavoriteKid, and if I had told her I was going to do something interesting during the next week, she'd always follow up to ask me how it went. She was a straight shooter. I would not call her a complainer, but let me tell you, she called it like she saw it....especially when it came to the hospital staff and how they handled her.

Now, right around the time this photo was taken (last November), Ellie was complaining about how cold it was in there, and dang-nav-it, what she needed was a hat. She wanted to me to knit it, and she wanted a beanie, but not too tight, and she wanted it to be blue, light blue, so it complimented her eyes (and I think most of her wardrobe).

Guys.

*sigh*

I never. knit. the hat.

The day she had asked me for it, I came home right away and found some yarn that was the right color, and then I realized it was wool, and that she would definitely need something that could be tossed into the hospital laundry. It took me weeks (it may even have been months) to get my arse into a shop that carried that sort of thing...and even then, even after I had the yarn, I still did not knit the hat.

A HAT, people.
(for those of you non-knitters out there, my skill level should have me banging out a hat in a day or two...this is not rocket science)

this is the yarn I had purchased, intending to do some fair-isle sort of thing

Then came our early spring her in Northern California, where we had temps in the upper 90's in what was it, March?? ....and well...it was no longer cold, which was another perfect excuse, and I just never knit it.

About a week ago, I got to thinking that fall was coming around again, and I had the yarn, and still no hat, and I had this guilt hanging over me, and dang-nav-it...I should knit the hat. And that is when it occurred to me that I hadn't seen Ellie in a few weeks.

Now, this is not entirely unusual. Sometimes a resident will have a spell where they take their lunches in their rooms, in bed...like after a fall, or a bout of...well...whatever....any number of things. So I went down to her room to say hi, and guess what?!

She's gone. She passed away about a month ago. Passed pretty quietly, with no trip to the "hospital-hospital". She just left.

And with no hat.

It really hit me hard, in a small part because this "not following through" theme has been cropping up all over the place lately, but mostly because....well....I'm just flat out going to miss her.

timing is everything

today's pickin's

MyFavoriteKid and I started "practicing" getting up at the asscrack of dawn today, since school starts on Wednesday. As I result, I have gotten a whole lotta stuff done today, but my "timing is off". It's now late (well, not very late if this were last week, but now that it's this week and I need to be up a couple of hours earlier?? It's LATE.)

So I'm going to bed.

Enjoy the tomatoes.
We did ;-)

give her an inch, she'll take a mile

I can't even count how many time I heard my parents say that about me when I was a kid.

Some things never change, I guess. I take a couple of days off away from the blog (at that point it was mostly due to travel and internet access), but then I get home and I can't get back on the horse.

Not for lack of content, to be sure.

The truth of it is that a whole bunch of stuff has happened worth writing about, but it is all charged with heavy emotion. Now, I have no issue getting all "emo" on the blog here (sing it with me!: we've done it before, and we'll do it again) but it does require some extra effort for me to translate matters of the heart into the words of my mind (I like to call the distance between those two points "the longest 18 inches").

So what happens then is the same old pattern. I feel like I need to "catch my blog up" on recent events, but my deeeeeep emooootional f-f-f-feeeeeelings need to be translated into words, and so I do that, and in my head I have the general gist of a blogpost....and then pretty much just as I sit down to type....the next big "emo catastophe" strikes, and I'm stuck in processing-mode again, not to mention behind.

What is making this even worse is that the events that have been happening in the last couple of weeks, are pointing to the fact that I have f-f-f-failed to follow through on things, and so the associated f-f-f-feeeeeelings smack of total inadequacy.

Follow?

Yah, if not, here's another cute photo of one Riley on Vacation:



Not as cute as yesterday's of course, because this one was taken when he was being left in the RV alone for a few....forget the fact that he has food and treats and a dog bed and toys....oh no, he wants OUT.

Anyhow.
The general gist is that on the logistical side, things are proving to be quite busy these last couple of weeks of summer (losing my wallet in the middle of this has not helped)...and on the emo side, I've had a close friend just out of the hospital, I've lost two of my convalescent home folks to the big home in the sky, it's the 10 year anniversary of losing my mentor, I'm getting older, people around me are getting older, and I've sort of become a crabby old hermit lady that doesn't like people so much.

Wait. Here's another cute pic.



See?
That is so much easier.

snaps on saturday

not taken today, but while we were on vacation in the van a couple of weekends ago....

Riley on Vacation

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A real post tomorrow. This is just my attempt at getting back in the groove ;-)

the land of very little wi-fi

I missed posting yesterday because having an internet connection was entirely out of the question. No cell phone signal, either...although I did manage to send and receive a text message, but that was only if I was standing on the magic spot with my head turned at a specific angle and the wind was blowing right ;-)

We are (sort of) out in the sticks.

I have photos to share, but I don't trust this internet connection to fast enough to get them here for you (we're at a coffee shop). The general gist of our trip so far is that we took all day to cover maybe 2 hours of driving, making all sorts of odd stops along the way, following whatever pulled us. We found a little mom-n-pop RV park that was way out of the way (hence no signal), down in a canyon. That had wild turkeys. And quail. And jack rabbits. And some sort of crazy albino looking deer. Oh, and the cows. Let us not forget the cows. The ones that creeped me out with all their scary loud moo-ing the middle of the night!

Anyhow, we are right now in a little town called Willits, CA....and today we're going to continue north and drive through the redwoods. And look for Big Foot.
hahahaha

bzzzzt!

I am busy like a bee today getting the house in order and the van in order to take a little road trip.

Here's a pic of Riley and Gaara "helping" knit while I was in bed this morning, before I became bee-like.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the way, I have spent a little bit of time on Facebook and I am such a dork that I'm not really getting the flow over there. Working on it, though. I'm gonna ask TheMostImportantGuy to give me a little tour or something. Sorry for the delay if you are waiting for me over there, though.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

my comments to your comments are always back in that day's comments ;-)

knitted chairs

I'm kinda in love with this so much that it makes me want to cover everything that bugs me in knitting....



More info about the project, plus the pattern, found here.
And if you are on Ravelry, you definitely need to click here to see what other folks have done with it because some of them are very cool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My knitting is going a little slow.

I am working on a sweater that is simple enough that it would normally be a very quick knit, if I weren't taking it on and off the needles all the time to check fit (I fret about these things, and this is why I rarely knit sweaters).

I have a sock in progress that is feeling lonely and rejected.

And I have a new shawl in progress that is not ;-)

it was good

Forwarded to me by KarenTheDancingLurker, it just made me so happy :-)



Other things that made me happy today:
* getting to sleep in a little bit
* no mommy-duty
* someone else making breakfast (dining out)
* love-y time with TheMostImportantGuy
* going to the mattress store to purchase a different (and more correct, let us hope) foundation to insert into my platform bed and support my mattress (first road test tonight)
* watching the final day of Le Tour de France. I might not have spun every day as part of Le Tour de Fleece, but I watched every. single. stage. of the tour. I had so much fun and found myself on the edge of my seat, literally, on several occasions. Not to mention total my total enjoyment of getting to fly over the French countryside in HD. Woot!
* cast on for a new shawl

snaps on saturday

little robot guy
(he lives in the den/guest room)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news....

Nine. Days. Oooo yah, baby!

Love MyFavoriteKid, but he's off with his dad for Nine. Whole. Days.

Excuse me, while I go finish my glass o' champagne ;-)

from beginning to end

Took me awhile, but I finally did it.
My second project using my own handspun.








Ravelry Links: handspun / project

Fiber: from A Verb For Keeping Warm (fiber club, April--The Candle's Nimble Flame, 100% Corriedale; spun as a single, then plied with a white BFL single)

Method: Over the fold

Spindle: Golding Midnight Sky spindle for singles; Golding lazy kate and Tsunami spindle for plying.

Resulting Yarn: 7.2 oz total wt, approx 350 yds, 13 wpi plied (sport)

Pattern: One Row Handspun Scarf, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Needles: US 9's (the green vintage straights)

Resulting Project: 5" wide, 67" long (unblocked and w/o fringe)

What I learned:
Lots.
~~~ Mostly about twist. I could have put less into the singles I think, and the resulting yarn would have been a bit more lofty. I definitely could have put less twist into the plying, and in the future I will probably try to use a spindle with a heavier whorl for that (I think. This is only my beginner's brain doing some guesswork. It will be a fun experiment, though.)

~~~ I thought the resulting yarn was going to be too inconsistent (thick/thin) for a simple pattern. That it would show up as looking sloppy. In actuality, I think that it makes the simple pattern way more interesting. In fact, I think my scarf has more character than some of the scarves I have seen in this same pattern that were done with commercial yarn (yay for handspun!).

~~~ I learned that I'm not quite there yet in pulling off a yarn that is suitable for making sock. But that I am very very close.

~~~ I learned that I was able to pull off getting my fiber to do what I wanted it to do in terms of color. I was aiming for long repeats of color and for the colors of the scarf to be "mirrored" from one end to the scarf to the other. I came pleasingly close, but not so close that I lost it's organic/handmade quality. I like :-)

~~~ I also learned (okay, I already knew this, so I guess I was reminded) that long scarves with simple patterns are ridiculously tedious knitting. But good for while you're watching television ;-)

~~~ I learned that I might just like wearing pastels after all.

update-o-rama

For your reading pleasure, tonight I give you follow-ups to previous posts.
In chapters no less ;-)
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Mommy Demerits (aka Let's Leave The Diagnosing To The Professionals)

So, MyFavoriteKid's recent outbreak of poison oak? Wrong!! It aint poison oak at all! It's a HEAT RASH. Not a bad thing, really. Much easier to contend with than poison oak. Except for the fact that the treatment for poison oak is exactly the way you do NOT treat a heat rash.

Let's see. I've been applying topical ointments, MyFK has been taking long warm to hot showers, and I've even gone so far as recommending long sleeves just to keep him from scratching. Heat Rash treatment? Cool water, cool clothing, and no smothering of the pores with ointments.
Lovely.
Well, at least we are on track.
I think MyFK and his buddies had actually spent more time in the hot tub than any of us were aware of that night at the potluck party. Oops.
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Riley Actually DOES Need The Dog Whisperer

So after I posted the dog factoids, a couple of folks commented on Riley needing the Dog Whisperer. Dudes, if you only knew.

I don't think I wrote about this event when it actually took place, but I think it was in April or May.

TheMostImportantGuy and I took Riley to the local dog park one weekend afternoon. While we were there, we were attacked by another dog. It was a female pit bull who I'd seen there before and not had trouble with. TheMIG and I were standing in the middle of the park (having just entered but a few minutes earlier), but the pit came over to say hello and was really getting up under my crutches. Not a good sign.

I'm not sure exactly what happened next, but TheMIG was lightly bitten (no puncture) on the hand (hmmm...a theme?), and myself and Riley were jumped on, pretty hard. The owner came and pulled his dog off, and being that it is an enormous park, we all separated to opposite sides of the park. We watched the pit in the distance playing and whatnot, but then the pit finally spotted us and she came right on over and attacked again. I got some pretty deep bruises scratches on my arm. Meanwhile, the poor dog. Well, Riley just went nutzo trying to protect us. Very protective/agressive, but fearful, with the teeth bared and Cujo sort of growling. We left the park, as this guy clearly was not going to leave himself. As we were exiting, some other regulars checked in with us and told us the pit had attacked someone else earlier, too....and from the parking lot, as we were getting into our car, his dog was at it again attacking someone else!

For the record: I have not a thing against pit bulls. I have been the owner of pit mixes, and I love them. I'm not even against this pitbull. I'd met her before and she seemed like a sweetie, and she might even be a sweetie the next time I see her. Personally, I think she was just having a really bad day. That, and I think the owner is friggin' putz for not getting his dog out of there after her first episode that day.

Anyhow. Dog Whisperer. So my dog Riley? He's not been the same since. Every time I take him to the dog park, he spends all his energy making sure he gets between me and any other dog that wants to come by and just say hello. He doesn't play much with other dogs anymore, and although he will go off sniffing around, he is always looking back to see if there are any dogs near me (and if they are, he dashes back to my side). In other words, he no longer has much fun at the park. It is sad.

So between the dog getting mopey over the SPCA commercials on television, and this dogpark crap, y'all actually had me thumbing through two of the Dog Whisperer Guy's books the other day while I was at the bookstore. I have some ideas I will try to apply ;-)
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Off The Back (A Tour de Fleece/Le Tour Update)

I've been meaning to cop to this for days, but I blew off the Tour de Fleece just after the first week. What a rookie.

We went on our little trip to Monterey. I brought along spinning tools and fiber, but it never made it out of the bag. Fell "off the back," so to speak. Then I got home and tried to get back into the swing of things but "crashed" with an injury to my right arm. It's feeling fine now, but I couldn't even knit for a couple of days there, it hurst so badly.

One really neat aside to this Tour de Fleece business, though. This is the first year for me that I have actually watched every single stage of the actual tour! Even when we were on our mini-vacation, I recorded the day we missed and caught right back up when I got home. I am loving it. I usually only catch a stage or two, but this year I have been committed to it, I have watched every day, and I am having a blast.

So much so, that when the Tour of California comes around next year? I might just follow it around a little bit in my van. Park on the side of the road, have a picnic, and wait for them to whiz by. Whee!
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Alrighty, that caught me up.

As usual, my comments back to your comments are IN the comments. ;-)

some days just require warm & fuzzy

I'm frustrated and cranky, and decided the best thing I could do was make something cute, crafty, and FAST.


This is GnomeGuyThe2nd (the first one here, went to James to cheer up his room at the convalescent hospital).

I'm feeling a Felt-Fest coming on here. Needle felting, wet felting, shrink the knitted item felting....all of it.

this interruption in blogging brought to you by....

....boys who run and play through the roughage.

Have y'all noticed yet that I'm trying to post every day again? Who knows how long this will last, because we all know that I tend to be all or nothing about these things. I mean, I ran straight through with Blog365 last year, and this year it's been quite scant. Heck, I didn't even post at all in June.

Daily posting. *sigh* It can be tough. Especially when I'm whooped.

The past two night I've hostessed sleepovers for MyFavoriteKid and his buddies (that means I was up way too late), and then tonight I had a "business meeting" with my co-dance-teachers. I forgot to post before leaving the house, and the meeting went later, so now here I am, at almost midnight....and this is how you end up with weirdness like this.
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Last night at a potluck dinner TheMostImportantGuy noticed this thing sitting in the livingroom somewhere.


Is it a throw pillow??
Or is it a teddy bear??


TheMIG said it looked like Han Solo ;-)



See?
I'm tired LOL.
I'll try again tomorrow. Maybe a bit earlier in the day ;-)

best i can do after a few glasses o' wine and a plate o'carnitas

Went to an impromptu dinner party tonight (and only 'cuz I got an invite via FaceBook, no less---hahahah).

Folks, if you've asked me to track you down there, please give me a day or two. I haven't quite figured out how to use the damn thing yet (I'm a dork). I get emails about walls and comments and things, and I don't even know what the heck y'all are talking about. I promise. I'll put some time in with it this week and get it all figured out.

Anyhow. Dinner party.

Okay. So this invite came from MyFavoriteKid's former elementary school principal. We've stayed friends over the years, and tonight she invited us over because MyFK's best buddies are down for a visit from up north (the kids are now all back here at my house...because I volunteered -- see how it happens?!).

I wanted to share with y'all a conversation I overheard at the party during the wine/cocktail hour before dinner. This was between ThePrincipal and TheYoungestVisitingKid (he's 9).

TheYoungestVisitingKid: So nowwwwww can we play on your Wii???

ThePrincipal: No. Go outside or something.

TYVK: We already did that.

TP: Well, find something else to do. Play a game together. The adults are listening to music right now.

TYVK: I know! We can play with the sound off!

TP: No. The system wont let you listen to the stereo and have the Wii on at the same time. (might be bullshit LOL)

TYVK: But don't you have an Ipod or something?

TP: We are listenting to music, and you are not playing the Wii. How about you guys play chess.

TYVK: YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HEY!!!! (calling to the other two kids) You guys wanna play chess?!?!?!?!!!!!

TheTwoOtherKids: YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

snaps on saturday

Thought I'd share with you the image on my current NextToThePhoneNotepad:



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My comments to your comments are back in that days comments.

...just in case you were waiting for a reply ;-)

ok, so *now* it is official

I finally broke down today and got myself onto Facebook. There's no point wasting an entire post explaining to you why I have dreaded this more than I am excited by it.

However. After I signed up and clicked on a few friendly faces, I was rewarded with an unexpected perk!

Ladieeeees and Gentlemaaaaaan!!!
It is now official (because Facebook has approved it as being so, and because everything on the internet is true)!!
Facebook told me:

"You are now in a relationship with TheMostImportantGuy."


I cannot begin to tell you how hilarious I find this whole "status" thing. See, after I clicked on TheMIG's happy little photo, TheMIG clicked on something to indicate that we are in a relationship, and then Facebook asked me if it was true, and then I clicked that it was, and then Facebook wrote me back to tell me that IT IS NOW SO. And so now I know we are for reeeeeal!!!!!

Lordy. LOLOL

interesting factoids about the dogdogdog's viewing habits

This is Riley, and he's a rescue dog.

He's lived with us for just over a year now. He was real sick when he got here. He had fleas and ticks and mange and kennel cough. He was underweight and just a wreck. He and a bunch of other dogs at his shelter were about to be put down, but he was saved :-)

Riley watches television.

Riley goes bananas when he sees dogs on the television. Lately this has also extended to the sound of dogs barking on television (even though the dog is not on screen), and there have also been a few incidences of him going apeshit over cartoons of dogs.

Riley barks, runs to the television, does some amazing vertical high jumping, and then runs into the next room (the room behind the wall where the tv is mounted) to see if they are on the other side of the screen. If he's been working on a bone or dog treat, he will sometimes go and relocate it.

Riley also does the barking/jumping for horses. And to much of our dismay, he's also now doing this with just about anything that appears on the screen and has four legs and fur. We can't watch many Nature shows anymore, and to be honest, that bugs me.

Riley does NOT bark when I play the dvd I have of a tropical fishtank. In fact, he sits very quietly, and stares at it. He'll perk up his ears and tilt his head back and forth as the fish swim past. While we were at the Monterey Aquarium this weekend, I bought dvd's of both the Sea Horse and the Jellyfish Exhibits. I'm going to try them out on him this weekend. If he barks at Jellyfish, I might just cry.

But here's the most interesting fact about my dog's tv viewing habits. Even though he goes totally bazerk-o when there is any sort of HINT of dog on television....he will NOT bark at the commercials run by the SPCA. You know, the ones where the show all the pets that are abused, abandoned, locked up....the "we need your contributions" commercials??

When THOSE play? Not a PEEP out of my dog.
In fact, he'll even go sit in the corner and mope until it is over.

home again, home again....

So we're home.
And the DogDogDog is also home (having been sprung from the kennel).
And the cats (who stayed at home, with my mom visiting) are still home and totally pissed.
Oh, yeah. And TheGecko is home, too....he stayed at TheMostImportantGuy's.

We're all present and accounted for.

And I'm feelin' kind tired!

We had a reallllllly bad last night at the fancy hotel, thanks very much to our upstairs neighbors. It was SO bad that I had to lodge a complaint around 10:30pm, not that it resolved anything. There were elephants running around up there until well past midnight, and they were at it again first thing this morning, too. The elephants were making bird calls out the windows at the crack of dawn, too. I am pretty sure it was kids up there. If it was adults, they should be ashamed of themselves. Heck, it was adults with kids they should be ashamed of themselves. I mean, I know we all have different styles of parenting, but.....I've trained and road-tested MyFK in Motel 6's and kid friendly hotels for years now leading up to a pricey boutique-y hotel, and I did that out of respect of my FELLOW GUESTS.

Anyhow. Complaints lodged. The manager was unavailable when I checked out this morning, but is supposed to follow up with me tomorrow. The hotel was amaaaaazing, and the staff was wonnnnnderful, but the people upstairs trumped. it. all. And that is a crying shame. I'd stay there again, but only on the top floor ;-)

During the morning phas of the elephants migrating, I was actually able to ingore it and let it roll off my back. Over another complimentary, on the silver tray, breakfast....delivered while I'm still in my cushy hotel bathrobe, thank you very much. Kinda takes the sting away.
Either that, or I was just brain dead from not getting enough sleep.

I'm off to bed here soon.
See y'all tomorrow.