kmkat and her kneedles

Proud photo.

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.

How the well-dressed bicycling camper sleeps.

Step 1. Find two sturdy trees at least ten feet apart but no farther than twenty.

Step 2. Suspend the rain fly between the selected trees. Put it as high as you can reach.

Step 3. Retrieve the hammock from your stuff sacks.

 

Step 4. Notice that a fellow camper is recording this for posterity. Untether the front side of the rain fly and flip it out of the way in order to reveal to the blogging world the awesomeness that is your bedsite.

 

Step 5. Attach the hammock support straps to the trees. (Please notice that the rain fly, which has little tension on it, is tied up with thin rope. The hammock, which will have considerable tension, is suspended from much wider straps so as not to damage the support trees.)  

 

Step 6 - 12. Adjust the straps.

 

Step 13. When the hammock is suspended just right, unfurl it from its nylon sheath.

 

Step 14. Announce to the audience that the bedsite is now ready.

 

Step 15. Unzip the access opening in the hammock and demonstrate how to get into it.

 

Step 15a. Remember to remove your shoes.

 

Step 16. Carefully insert body into hammock.

 

Step 17. Admire your completed bedsite.

Bing bang.

• I brought Smokey Bear home from the hospital last night. 
• He was there for seven days.
• All week the lab results had indicated possible problems with his kidney function. (Elevated creatine level, thanks for asking.)
• Yesterday's lab was A-OK, thus the release from confinement.
• Yay!
• He is taking antibiotics for the infection, oxycodone (~Percocet) for the pain, and Valium for the nausea. 
• They all seem to be accomplishing their intended purpose. 
• Yay!
• He has asked for soda crackers and a barf bag a couple times but has not needed the latter.
• Yay!
• Younger Son was back at work Wednesday. 
• He too had the nausea reaction to oxycodone, but only to the first dose.
• Yay!
• I don't want to jinx anything, but it seems that life might just be headed in the right direction again.
• YAY!

Photo is Ser Percival The Energetic, Younger Son's and BFE's dog, *making friends* with the cat in the window.

PSA.

I came across this article today. Given that Younger Son  could have been killed last Friday night when he was [sort-of] T-boned on his bike, the timing seemed apropos.

How Not To Kill A Cyclist.

Update on YS's condition: he was sore all weekend but went to work on Monday, planning to take it easy that day -- no running up and down stairs or moving electronic equipment from one studio to another. But by the end of the day, walking was becoming increasingly painful. He went to emergency room at Hennepin County Medical Center where, after the normal wait of six-plus hours (he was not having a heart attack or in danger of bleeding out, after all), he was seen, x-rayed, assured that he had not fractured anything, and sent home with Percoset. Elder Son and I had been visiting Smokey at the VA hospital that afternoon, so we brought YS some dinner and hung out with him for a couple hours in the ER waiting room before driving back to Wisconsin. 

YS called this morning to update me on the ER visit. He went to work this morning but soon found that the Percocet-induced nausea (he is his father's son, after all) was not gonna go away so he went back home.

Update on Smokey: he called this morning to say he thought he would be released today. I am still waiting for his confirmation and the order to Please come get me please as soon as possible get me out of here I want to come home.

Update on the update: Smokey just called again. The Powers That Be have said, Maybe tomorrow.

Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts and sharing your knowledge. I am so, so grateful to still have a husband and both sons.

Eye candy Friday.

From Younger Son: 

I went to Ikea with my friend last night. All at the same time, we left the store, the rain ended, and the sky became a beautiful mix of colors. He snapped a picture of me silhouetted against the sky.

International Yarn Bombing Day!

So I was having breakfast with #2 Son and BGFE* and they excitedly told me about the yarn they had seen on their way to the diner on their bikes. That reminded me that today was International Yarn Bombing Day. Nothing would do but that I took a detour on my way from the diner to Wisconsin to check out the reported yarn bomb.

It was awesome.

This is a pedestrian bridge over I-35W at 40th Street in Minneapolis. 

View to the south, toward the suburbs:

View to the north, toward downtown:

View overhead:

.

* Best GirlFriend Ever

Let's do some random.

Guess who has his own IMDb page?

#2 Son!

His page may not get any bigger, though. He is no longer the assistant colorist, having been promoted to being the engineer for the firm. Now he is the guy responsible for making sure the million-dollar machines work properly, plus being the all-around computer guy. He loves this, and it suits his talents and temperment better. Win-win.

* * * * *

 Speaking of #2 Son, he and GF participated in the Smooch! project.

If that isn't endearing I don't know what is...

* * * * *

Why, yes, all the men in my life have beards. Doesn't everyone?

* * * * *

Yesterday was the first day I sat on the deck and knitted. It was glorious.

It was actually a brilliant sunny day, but I waited until the sun went behind a cloud to take a photo. Otherwise my iPod camera would have shown you washed-out sunny areas and blacked-out shade. I was way too lazy and lace-obsessed to go into the house and get a proper camera.

The shawl for GF is no larger than the last time I showed it to you but not for lack of knitting. I have knat the last inch of it at least five times, maybe more. Yesterday, however, for the first time I felt like I was beginning to be able to read my knitting. That column of stitches that runs up through the center of the lace/pine cone motif? It should continue through the solid stockinette and become the center column of the subsequent lace/pine cone motif! Hallelujah and praise jeebus! If it doesn't (as happened on the right-hand half of the shawl) there is something wrong.* When I take my coffee and knitting out to the deck today** I hope to be able to break through the barrier that seems to hover around row 42. 

* * * * *

I finished a scarf and two pairs of socks since I last caught you up on my knitting, but they all remain to be photographed. You will have to wait with bated breath for another post on those.

* * * * *

Smokey got himself a new watch.

Okay, now, all you former hippies: what is that watch face a replica of?

Look familiar?

* * * * *

Did I ever show you this?

. 

* My eternal thanks to the commenter who suggested putting a marker between pattern repeats. That tip is the one that enabled the knit-reading.

** Or not. Today is 60˚ and cloudy. I may be knitting in the porch instead.::le sigh:: It's a tough life...

It's cold. And other items of marginal interest.

The temperature in Minneapolis was, I think, around zero or colder every morning of this, my first week back at work. Thanks, weather gods, for giving me such a memorable welcome.

Note: photo above is Lucy at the lake house, not in Minneapolis. The only difference is that the snow in Minneapolis is dirtier and piled higher.

Just to give you an idea of what sub-zero temperatures are like:

• The inside of one's nose frosts up when one inhales;
• When I get home after work I tend not to get really warm again until I am in bed under a couple comforters (the radiator in the bedroom has been turned off for a couple years and now the handle doesn't turn; I may need to employ Large Tools);
• The digital read-out on my car radio changes v-e-r-y slowly, if at all, when I change radio stations;
• On Thursday morning, the coldest one so far, the driver's window, which I had put down so I could see the outside rear-view mirror, would not go back up. I had to pull up on the button with one hand and pull the window itself with the other. I did NOT want to get onto the freeway with an open window.

Last night I came back home to Wisconsin; temperature on the only outdoor thermometer I saw was -3˚ F. For various reasons I had a lot of trouble warming up once I got home. Three comforters, two pairs of sweats including a hoodie with the hood UP, wool knee socks, a dog, and two cats... and I finally got warm. It was the second set of sweats and the hood that did it.

Today I am still in the sweats and wool socks and perfectly comfortable.

Look what the wind has done to the snow that piles up on the railing outside my office:

That black silhouette is En Esch glaring at me. Why are you messing around with that little box? Why are you not petting me?

* * * * *

I came upon  this video in praise of Minneapolis over at twentytwowords.com. #2 Son says he knows a couple people in the video -- the bicyclist and his girlfriend, of course.

* * * * *

In knitting news, by request I made a headband for #2's GF. She picked out the pattern on Ravelry but asked that it be wider. I recommended Malabrigo worsted for purely selfish reasons -- I had never knit with it -- and she picked out a gorgeous teal color (called "Aguas" at the link). My efforts at widening the pattern were for naught. Take it away, Bubbles!

(Bubbles's head is significantly smaller than Alex's; when the headband is stretched a bit more, as it would be on Alex's head, the seed stitch edging lies down flat. So I tried again, this time with a wider cable and a different edge treatment. Perfect -- 3-1/2 inches wide, just like she asked for! 

 

The cable is one from Barbara Walker. The edge is (on the right side) sl1, p1, k1, p1, k1, (cable panel) k1, p1, k2.

After I finish the cabled section I will pull out the provisional cast on and knit both ends at the same time, tapering them to a point. A button loop at the end of one, a button on the other. I'll give both headbands to her; if she doesn't want the narrower one I'll reclaim the yarn and dream about what to make from it and the rest of the skein.

* * * *

I finished the first hat for Warm Heads, Not Hot Heads last weekend. It can be worn with the brim flipped up or down, depending on the head size of the wearer.