I am nearly done with my bulletproof socks. They were not as much fun to knit as I expected. Worsted weight yarn on US#2 needles = hard work. The socks will last forever but I'm not sure they are worth the effort. I think the second pair will be knit on US#4s.
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We think winter may be over. It hasn't snowed for over two weeks. (Hope I didn't jinx us with that statement.) Ice went out of the lake two weeks ago. We haven't had the heat on since Tuesday or Wednesday. Temp has been well over 70˚ for several days. I have opted for capris instead of long jeans. Our winter down comforters are just too warm for comfortable sleeping.
Let the summer begin!
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I ran out of coffee a couple days ago. Oh, the horror!
Happily, I had put in an order for my favorite -- a 3-pound bag of Alakef French Roast -- at the coffee kiosk in my tiny town. Younger Son picked it up for me on his way here today so I am currently enjoying a perfectly marvelous homemade quad latte.
Too hard to see the screens against the light of the window:
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Earlier today the dogs told me another dog was running around outside. They barked until they could bark no mo--, er, the other dog ran away.
A bit later I looked up from my screen -- this was before I put up the light-blocking board -- and saw this:
See that black furry blob? That's Hannibal. Although he is completely comfortable with our two dogs, he is not so brave with others. Probably for the best; some dogs like to kill cats.
When I checked later, the *dead* bunny was gone. I can only surmise that what I had suspected basesd on the lack of blood was true. Bunny had played dead until the dogs lost interest; then s/he scooted away... with a hair-raising and cautionary tale (heh -- see what I did there (x2)?) to tell his/her grandchildren.
That's my minivan under the blanket of snow. It does pretty well in the snow, but this was too deep for it. The car in the foreground -- Smokey's 4WD Subaru, aka Sue Baru -- charged right up the unplowed driveway hill.
We let the dogs out for a run in the fresh powder. No videos of them romping, though. Here they are after they had worn themselves out.
But wait -- what's that small thing at the right?
I guess if you are a dog, and your owners let you have a free run in the snow, and a poor unsuspecting bunny wanders by... it's curtains for the bunny.
Let's start out with a bit of slothfulness. Sloths are slothful.
Trivia question of the day: for what delightful cartoon show on Nickelodeon did Mark Mothersbaugh compose music? (Answer buried in the linked Wikipedia article.) (I loved that show.)
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I am feeling better today, having spent most of the last two days in bed and/or sleeping. Having an iPad makes lying in bed much less boring; just another wonder of the connected age.
On the hip situation, I am now confronted with this decision:
Have the surgery in 2-3 weeks and probably not be able to work this tax season. Although I would be recovered enough to return to work by early March, it is really, really difficult to jump into the middle of tax season. The annual learning curve is just too steep.
Work this tax season and have the surgery ASAP after April 15. A cortisone shot this week and another in early March would ensure relatively pain-free mobility, and working would give a pleasant boost to the checking account.
What would you do and why? Discuss.
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The nurse that I talked to on the nurse line on Sunday ordered me to get a functioning fever thermometer. She wanted to know my temperature and I had to tell her our thermometer was not working properly. I bought that thermometer, an electronic one, last summer so that Elder Son and I could tell if Smokey had a serious infection or just a superficial one. Darned thing insists that everyone's temperature is in the range of 92.4˚F -- 94.2˚F. What with all the kerffluffle during Smokey's recovery, I no longer have the receipt. Damned Wal-Mart. Clearly, it's all their fault.
Yesterday Smokey went on a major errand-running and shopping trip to the Twin Cities. One of his tasks was to purchase a new thermometer. He reports that the traditional glass ones, which I had ordered him to procure, are apparently no longer available. WTF?
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And now for a bit of fun knitting.
Yarn: Colorado Yarns Durango, 50/47/3 wool/acrylic/viscose, worsted weight (perhaps discontinued?), ecru and brown. Pattern: I used Ann Budd's basic mitten pattern from A Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns* for the thumb gusset and did the mittens in 3x1 rib. Recipient's hand is same length as mine but slightly more substantial. Ribbing makes the fit more forgiving. Needles: Addi Turbo US#7; #6 for contrasting end row and bindoff.
These are for an acquaintance who has a coffee kiosk on the highway in my teeny tiny town. Although she claims it is warm inside her 6'x8' building, she has to keep opening the window to take orders and hand out coffee and make change. I suspect that her hands might welcome these during January. I don't know her well, but I do know her well enough to know she deserves these. (She has the best coffee EVAH!)
A side benefit of making these is that I finally figured out what stash yarn -- the ecru Durango -- to use for a pair of long fingerless gloves for myself. I want them for when I am reading in bed; my hands and forearms get cold, and it is annoying to have to keep pulling my pajama sleeves down when I'm wearing regular fingerless gloves. Yeah, it's a real bitch, I tell ya...
* Do you have this book? If not, why not? It is a great resource when you want to make a basic [thing] and just need a little help on the shaping or the cast-on or something. Or, you can follow it blindly; no shame in that.
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Last night I was on the Twitterer. I found it humorously ironic that the most plentiful tweets in my feed were, 1, Chuck Todd (NBC news) live-tweeting the Notre Dame-Alabama game, and b, Amanda Palmer and her followers tweeting about kindness and selflove and how to stop the bullying.
Maybe we should introduce Chuck and Amanda and let them educate each other. Or, really, let Amanda educate Chuck. (Nothing against Chuck Todd. He is one smart dude. But, srsly, which is a more important topic?)
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Speaking of the Twitters, did you watch the season premier of Downton Abbey? Of course you did; we all did. Want to relive it through the eyes of a highly jaded but clever sheep? This guy preserved Dolores Van Hoofen's live-tweet of the premier. What a hoot baaaaah!
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Today is the twelfth fourteenth day of Christmas so I unplugged the lights on the tree. I'd really like to make a tree cover out of a sheet and just store the whole thing somewhere out of sight until next December. But I will probably just let it sit in the *conservatory* until Christmas. Like I have done for X years.
Once the kids leave home all tradition and semblance of civilization go right out the window.
I went to MN Knitters' Days, a weekend knitting retreat, for the first time this year. The teacher was Lucy Neatby, who obligingly posed for this photo...
I knit A LOT but had darned little to show for it. Double knitting is awesome but extremely slow when one is first starting. Let's just say that I am now very proficient at tinking DKing.
My DK swatch (in fingering weight yarn), front and back:
After I got home I cast on another DK project, this time in worsted weight, to reinforce what I learned. I'm getting a lot faster.
I plan to felt it and use it as a trivel when it's done. In other words, if I screw it up the errors may not show (much).
The site of the retreat, as I mentioned before, is gorgeous. This was the view from the window of our classroom looking out over the Mississippi. The foreground is MN, the hills in the distance are WI.
The weather was beautiful -- chilly nights, warmish days, lots of sunshine. We had the opportunity to visit a nearby alpaca farm. (Technically it was a working dairy farm, but the wife had 17 alpaca.)
This is Eleanor The Diva Alpaca. She posed beautifully for us. Really, she did!
Kris, whom I know from the Knit Night Orphans, was taking photos with her iPad. The alpaca followed her around, very curious about what she was doing.
Kris found that when she held up the iPad to actually take the photo, however, the alpaca were rather less interested in her, probably because they couldn't see her face. Kind of like that peek-a-boo stage of infant development, where, when the baby cannot see a thing any more, it no longer exists. So, if you are wondering, the mind of an alpaca is equivalent to that of a 3- or 6-month old infant. (Sorry, don't remember my child development specifics.)
The cows were interested in what was going on, too.
This lady Holstein licked my fist. I didn't give her a chance at my fingers.
The alpaca lady sends the fleeces to a mill to be spun into yarn, which she then dyes. She had a display of her wares in her house for us to admire.
A little bit of it came home with me, two skeins of laceweight in a gorgeous teal.
Thanks to Kris for this photo, showing Lucy in all her colorful glory.
And thanks to soxanne for letting me in on this retreat and being my roomie. Go check out her blog post -- gorgeous photos, less blather.
I haven't posted much about our newest dog, Misha. She was a rescue dog that we adopted last December. She and 19 other dogs had been saved from being put down at a shelter in Ohio by some folks in Wisconsin who found foster homes for them. Smokey found her on Petfinders a year ago when she was placed in a foster home about 100 miles from here.
This is the photo that Smokey fell in love with. Misha, then known as Keesha, is the one in front.
She had spent the first six months of her life in a cage and never properly socialized. We couldn't touch her for the first 4 or 5 month we had her, but eventually she came around and is now a playful, happy, affectionate dog.
She is a chewer, however, when she gets bored. You may remember some of these:
Clockwise from upper left: tv remote; yarn that should have been out of reach... but wasn't; carved wooden box that my grandparents brought me from Norway when I was about 9 (sob); random power adaptor; row counter; lint roller.
Apparently I didn't take a photo of the chewed up cell phone . Or all the gnawed-upon shoes. Or the corner of the comforter. Or... well, you get the idea.
We have learned not to leave shoes on the floor. And she has gotten somewhat less inclined to chew, although there are always a few bits of ripped envelopes or food wrappers stolen from the trash scattered across the carpet.
This morning, however, took the cake. We have no idea where she found this. But she chewed at least a tablespoon of the pest control substance off the end of the bar.
She spent the rest of the day napping, dashing about, wagging her tail, asking for tummy rubs, and generally acting like the happy, healthy dog she is.
Note: I found this post in my draft folder, waiting for a picture of the socks. Finally took one.
At the beginning of the summer I came upon a pattern that begged to be made in profusion and sold for benefit of the local humane society, on whose board I sit.
Doggie poo bag dispensers.
Pattern here. Great fun to make and a good use of leftover sock yarn. I made 29, gave one to Matthew and Alex for Ser Percival The Energetic, and we sold...one at the county fair booth. I have hopes for better results at the September dog walk, an annual fund-raiser for the shelter.
Last winter I made myself a Noro hat that I like so well I made a scarf to match. My old Noro scarf was dark, which was fine with my old red coat but too dull with my current dark brown one. This scarf is a bit livelier.
The hat and scarf are gone now. A few days ago I got an email asking for something for a silent auction fundraiser for a local candidate whom I support. Not much time to knit right now, so the hat and scarf set went to a good cause. Now I'm wondering if I should recreate them or if I should move on to another scarf and hat for which I have half the yarn I need.
I made a pair of socks.
Please ignore the funny-looking ears on the toes.
Yarn: Online Supersocke Nepal found on eBay. Pattern: Wendy's Generic Toe-Up Socks. Needles: Addi US#0 (feet) and US#1 (legs).
And earlier this month I made baby hats for The Purple Project (or whatever it is called).
Knit Picks Andean Silk (discontinued) in hyacinth;
Knit Picks Swish DK in clematis heather (color discontinued);
ditto.
Still have two different socks OTN, frogged the cowl and need to cast on a different (easier) one for Alex. And that is what I have been knitting. (I wrote this on September 3. Alex picked out an easier pattern and it is nearly done. Photos soon.)
Matthew was quite proud of the depth of field he got in this photo taken with his phone. Subject is a daggar moth caterpillar, which is not nearly as intriguing in moth form.
