Labradorable

Creeping Towards Sanity

I know my grasp of reality is tenuous at best on a fairly regular basis, but lately I think the connection has been more faulty than usual.  I blame the rain.  We're having another rainy day.  I've lost track of them now, though I am very much aware that today is Saturday and it's time for Saturday Sky.  See how grey it is at midday?

I did eventually realize (perhaps after being reminded by somebody) that my last post was posted on a Tuesday but was written as if it were posted on Wednesday.  I had no sooner adjusted to the correct day of the week when I had a phone conversation on Wednesday afternoon with someone who closed the call with, "See you tomorrow!"  I had plans to see her on Friday, so she really threw me and I had a moment of complete and total confusion before I finally, timidly, said, "Isn't today Wednesday?", fully expecting that I was date challenged once more.  Fortunately, she was the one who was confused, so I am in good company and feeling a bit more connected with reality.

You'd think I'd be spending more time knitting because of the rain, and it's been somewhat true.  I've sort of lost enthusiasm for the Celtic Braid Socks.  I'm also now feeling the pain as I see lots of Summer of Socks 2008 participants having finished one or more socks in the one week since summer began. 

Here's where the sock stands today, about halfway done.  I am not knitting on gauge for this sock.  My gauge is off.  That said, I'm not 100% sure of the correct gauge for the sock, as the pattern merely states 28 stitches to 4 inches. . . horizontally, vertically, or both is not specified.  The author of this pattern must be a very, very loose knitter, because she used size 0 needles to get a sock to fit a US 10 1/2 women's shoe size.  I am usually a midrange knitter who usually gets gauge on the recommended needle size, and I have a size 8 1/2 foot, so I am knitting with size 0 needles.  I have been knitting away and the sock does fit on my foot, but when I got to the heel placement for the afterthought heel, the sock was at least an inch too short.  The afterthought heel instructions in the pattern didn't make a lot of sense, and it was after 10:00 at night (and beer had been consumed), so I put the sock into timeout and worked on another UFO for the rest of the night.

Today I got some very, very helpful afterthought heel advice from Karen, so I figured out how I'm going to make the heel work.  I also decided to try the sock on DD.  It's a pretty good fit, just a little too long for her, so this sock is now for her.  It does fit on my foot, and I could have knit more length in the foot before I started the heel, but I was also concerned about how the sock was going to work with my high arches and didn't want to go crazy tweaking the pattern.  I thought about frogging the sock and trying again with size 2 needles, but it looked so good on DD and she was so thrilled about me knitting socks for her that I decided to keep on keeping on and gift it to her.  I feel a little bit crazy about knitting such labor intensive socks for an almost seven year old, but this way I can salvage what I've already knit and look at it as a learning experience. 

I've also been cooking during our rainy weather, but not too much -- let's not get the impression that I like cooking or am good at it.  I ran out during a break in the rain the other day and cut some rhubarb and made sUsAn's Rhubarb Crunch.  It is *so* good.  I highly recommend it.  My kids won't eat it and DH only likes rhubarb a little bit, so there's plenty for me.

I decided not to bake Loco a cake.  We went to the dog bakery to get him a birthday cake, but the owner wasn't there and she's the only one who can decorate cakes.   So, we got him a pupcake for his birthday, as well as an apple pie, cheese cake, and quite a few other delicious treats.  We came home and sang Happy Birthday to Loco.  I think he found it incredibly frustrating to have us all standing around him, crowding him, serenading him off-key with a song he didn't understand.  Dogs, labs especially, aren't really enamored of anything that delays eating, especially anything as pointless (to them) as singing.  Loco stood and looked at us all as though he couldn't believe we were wasting so much time when what he really wanted was to immediately commence the eating of a treat.  I'm glad we didn't put a candle on it as we had planned, because he made several attempts to liberate the pupcake.  This is the only photo I got of him with it -- it was impossible to get it anywhere near him without him attempting to snatch the pupcake out of my hand. 

Once he got the pupcake, he took it into the family room, because it's better to eat something messy on the carpeting versus on a surface that the cleaners (that would be DH and me) can more easily tidy up.  Like most other kids his age, Loco ate the frosting first and then ate the cake.

The second photo shows Loco actually taking the pupcake from me.  Never fear, my fingers were not harmed and there will be no disruption to my knitting.  There should be plenty of knitting going on this evening, but I don't think I will make the knit one sock in one week goal.  I started the Celtic Braid Sock last Saturday evening, but evening is rapidly approaching and I have 70+ rows to knit.  I'm going to get moving on it, but don't expect miracles.

Before I close, I wanted to mention a swap that I've signed up for, my first swap in a long time.  You have to be a Dogs on Thursday person.  DoT will be celebrating its one year anniversary next month.  I can't believe it's only been one year.  I've met so many wonderful bloggers through DoT.  As for the swap, I couldn't resist after seeing the photo of Elise with her ears flapping in the wind -- so cute!
 

First Day of Summer 2008

There's 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it.

So the annual problem for our generation is finding a good way to spend it.

Okay, I'm a little beyond going back to school in the fall, but I've got the same enthusiasm for Summer 2008 that's in this song, which is Today's Going to Be a Great Day by Bowling for Soup, aka the Phineas and Ferb opening song.

Summer of Socks started today and I was not one of those knitters who got up early just to cast on some socks.  I did get up and print out the sock pattern I'm going to use first and I will be casting on later today.  But, first, some unfinished sock business.  The Dahlia socks are done.  They have been done for a while actually, but I needed to wait for a nice day to photograph them.

And here they are, out in the sun today.  Plus, I shaved my legs just for you, dear readers. I know how much some of you appreciate that!

The wonky sock is on the left in the photo, but it is pretty hard to tell that the pattern on its leg is off a tad.  I wish you could see how beautiful the pattern is (when not wonky), but for some reason it just doesn't show that well in photos, even in broad daylight.

For those of you who haven't been following along with my trials with these socks, they are the Dahlia socks from the 2007 Sundara Petals Collection.  The pattern is Dahlia and the yarn is Dahlia.  Both were limited edition, available to sock club members only, so if you like them, you are either going to have to persuade Sundara to reissue them or find a Petals Collection member who is willing to sell or trade.  There's a Sundara group on Ravelry where you might meet with some luck. 

I really love Sundara sock yarn, though I'm not as obsessed as some other people out there.  If I get enough socks knit in Summer of Socks 2008, you'll be seeing more Sundara yarn, for sure.

I think that the pattern shows up a bit better in this photo, and I cleverly hid the wonky leg part by crossing my feet.  Unfortunately, it's really, really hot today, so the socks went on for the photos and came right off again.  I will have to pack them away for the fall.

When I went looking through my sock yarn stash today to plan out my Summer of Socks 2008 knitting, I was really surprised by how many skeins of yarn I have that are in the red/pink/burgundy range.  The last two pairs of socks that I've knit have been in that range, plus I finished the Titania's Revenge socks, which also fell into that color range.  I'm mystified by this, as I am really not into red.  I look washed out in red and own almost no clothing that is red, but I am apparently much more open minded about my feet.  That said, I'm not knitting red socks for a while.  Summer of Socks 2008 is going to start out with some neutral colored socks, and I might throw in some green/blue socks, too.  Notice how I'm being very optimistic about knitting many pairs of socks this summer.

I have also perused my sock needle inventory and found that I am going to need more sock needles.  I've been looking online for needles, but haven't found anything too exciting.  I like knitting socks on dpns, and I like sets of needles with five needles.  I do love Brittanys, though I tend to break the smaller sizes too easily.  Does anyone have any recommendations on dpns that they love for sock knitting?  What about needles you've been really unhappy with for sock knitting? I'd love to hear your opinions!

I've got my Saturday Sky photo up today, too.  I'm feeling so organized today -- I am starting Summer of Socks, I've got the sky photo up, and I have the new code for the Knitting Blogs ring up on my sidebar.  For those of you who don't know, the Knitting Blogs ring is coming off of Ring Surf due to lots of issues.  If you haven't received an e-mail giving you info on how to switch over to the new ring (It's really easy, I did it today before consuming any caffeine.  It took mere minutes and went right the first time.), then you should e-mail the ring moms Nancy and Risa at knittingring@gmail.com.  I've got a to-do list as long as my arm (and I have abnormally long arms), but at least I've gotten something done today.

I went to see the Sex and the City movie this week and I was so happy to be back in the company of the ladies.  Yeah, they did kind of wrap some stuff up a little too neatly, moviestyle, but, all in all, it was 2.5+ hours of my life that were well spent.  We went to a matinee and grabbed an early lunch first.  When we told the waitress that we needed to be out of the restaurant in time for the movie, she told us that the night that the movie premiered, the whole restaurant was full of women drinking cosmopolitans.  I've yet to drink a cosmo, but I know I will some day...maybe in January 2009.  In the meantime, here's a SATC blogthing:

You Are Most Like Samantha!

For you, dating is the ultimate sport You're into guys with power, looks, or a lot of money. You rather have a great two weeks than a great forever. But even you fall victim to love from time to time. :-) Romantic prediction: You'll find love in the next few months... But you'll be the last one to realize it.

Which Sex and the City Vixen Are You?

 

Are you surprised?  I was.  Somehow, I just don't see Samantha getting all excited about Summer of Socks 2008, but stranger things have happened.

 

Hope today kicks of a great summer for those of you in the northern hemisphere, and winter for you knitters in the southern!

Happy Day!

If you live in California, you can get married today, no matter what sex you and your future spouse are.  I was really excited when I found out about the legalization of gay marriage in California because I figured that lots of people would legally tie the knot on the first day they could (and they are doing just that), because it's also my birthday.  So now 17th June is a special, happy day for lots of people.  If you live in Massachusetts, specifically Suffolk County, it's also Bunker Hill Day, so you might not have school or work.  In any case, the day commemorates the Battle of Bunker Hill, and I think we can all get behind that, too.

I haven't been absent from blogland recently due to birthday festivities.  Last week I spent over 20 hours volunteering at my daughter's dance recital.  Taking photos during the recital and rehearsals was prohibited, so I don't have any shots of her actually dancing.  I do have the studio photos they took of the dancers a month ago in their costumes, but I think that these photos, taken just before I escorted the class backstage for their performance in the final recital of the season, are much more fun and show some of their personalities.

DD is second from the right in all of the photos.  She has been totally burnt out about dance class for the past two months and didn't want to take classes next year, which was fine with me.  However, after the final recital, she decided that she would like to take ballet, just ballet next year.  (She took ballet, jazz, and tap this year in one combo class.)  Since that time, she's decided she'd like to do ballet, jazz, tap, and hip hop next year.  I don't know whether she wants to actually dance or whether she liked the costumes the other dance classes had at the recital.  Either way, it's been a lot of fun with the dance stuff lately, and there's been precious little time for knitting.

I do have knitting to present, though, and it's knitting that has been finished for quite a while.  The photos were taken indoors because, once again, it started to rain when I finally had the time to go out and take photos.  Even though the flash was on, I think that the color is a very accurate representation.  This is Socks That Rock Lightweight in Jasper.

Loco isn't too excited about these socks and I have to say I'm with him on that one.  Part of the problem is that they took too damn long to knit.  I ran out of yarn.  This is a Cookie A pattern from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.  It's called Titania's Revenge and came with STR Lightweight in a colorway of the same name.  I gave the yarn to Nancy, and knit the pattern in a semisolid color because I thought it would show off the lace and mock cable patterns better.  And I think it does, it just didn't work so well when I ran out of yarn with only one toe to go and couldn't find any more Jasper STR in any weight anywhere. 

So, last summer, these socks went into UFO status, awaiting a decision on how to resolve the yarn availability issue.  Lo and behold, this spring I was checking out the BMFA site and found that they had a new batch of Jasper dyed and for sale.  I hopped on that train right away.  You can see that the sock on the left (in the photo on the left) has a slightly different colored toe.  The deepest, darkest shade is an exact match for the Jasper the rest of the socks were knit in, but this new skein has some much lighter areas.  It's not incredibly noticeable, as you can see from the photo above, plus I don't wear socks with sandals, so the only people who see the slightly different colored toe will be people who see me in my socks, which is very few people indeed. 

I will knit the rest of the Jasper yarn into another pair of socks.  I still love the color.  I do not think I will knit this pattern again.  I think it was fun to knit and it makes for a really interesting and different looking sock, but the fit isn't incredibly comfortable for me.

As far as what's on the needles now, it's that same old silk shrug that I've been knitting.  I'm in the homestretch.  I do have more knitting time now that the recital is over, and I'm motivated to finish it by 21st June so that I can commence Summer of Socks knitting with a clean conscience.  I'm thinking I might ditch TypePad with a clean conscience, too.  For some reason, since the change to the new system, my updates rarely get picked up by Bloglines and my blog no longer displays correctly despite the fact that I haven't changed the format at all.  But that's all for another day.  Today I'm bound and determined to have a good one, and so far it has been a lovely day.  You have a good one, too.

Childhood

Childhood is done!  Unlike the last sweater I knit for DS, this one was received with open arms.  He loves it and wants to wear it every day.  He was more than happy to pose for a photo for me in it, but refused to do so outside.  I made the largest size for him and it does fit, though if I were doing it all over again, I'd add an inch or two to the body.  I did have enough yarn left over to do that.

I think that the two colors of Mission Falls 1824 Cotton look lovely together.  (I used Jade and Indigo.)  They also look quite nice with DS's blue eyes.  Take a closer look at the beautiful buttons:

Aren't those buttons just gorgeous?  They are handpainted wood buttons gifted to my by the lovely Emma, way back during Secret Pal 2.  I earmarked them for this project and, finally, I got them on this cardi.  DS is just delighted with the buttons, too, and will point them out to anyone within earshot.

All in all, I have to say that this wasn't a bad knit and I would do it again if I had a small person to knit this for.  DS is off the height charts for a four year old and the largest size just fits him.  I'd love to knit something similar in a larger size for him in the future.  I think that some of the Rowan and Debbie Bliss children's books have some hooded sweaters in them, so that might be a possibility.  One more photo of Childhood:

Perhaps one of these days I will get this little boy to pose for me outside. . .

I bought the Indigo yarn for this sweater at Webs, via mail order.  Last weekend, I went to Webs, though I did not take one photo of the entire visit.  Last time I was at Webs, they were on Kellogg Avenue in Amherst, not at the current gigantic place in Northampton, where they've been since 1992.  There's a big sale going on now, but I was with a nonknitter (who actually enjoyed wandering around the store, though reminded me that I promised we could go to Northampton Brewery as soon as we left Webs), so I had a list and I stuck to it instead of wandering about petting yarn willy nilly.  I must proudly confess that I did not buy myself anything at Webs.  That should merit me some sort of reward -- when was the last time I set foot in a LYS and did not buy anything?  I would have bought yarn, but they didn't have the color DD wanted for a sweater I'm going to knit for her.  And the only yarn that I petted was some lovely Jade Sapphire cashmere.  I made my nonknitting friend pet it, too, but I was the only one who seemed to be excited about it.  I would have bought some, too, but all I could think of to knit with it was socks, and that seemed so decadent.  I know, that seems to be my thing.  I love decadence!  Looks like I might be due for another road trip to Webs or some internet shopping. . .

Where's Loco?

He almost blends into the sand, doesn't he?  We took Loco for his first solo trip to the beach the other day.  We were supposed to go last week, but the nice weather didn't coincide with our schedules.  He enjoyed the beach, but he did not swim.  He did, however, get his feet wet:

I swear, I have the only labrador retriever on the planet who doesn't like to swim.  Still, he enjoyed running on the beach, to an extent.  He decided on his own that he'd had enough of the sand and he ran up the stairs to the sidewalk that borders the sand and walked along there.  He had a good time, if only because it was something different.

I had a good time, too.  I knit My So-Called Scarf in the car on the way there because my current project is a bit too complicated to knit on the go.  Here it is:

That's the back of the Debbie Bliss Pure Silk Lace Shrug.  That piece, and one of the front pieces, are done now.  I need to figure out how to block them, and there aren't any suggestions in the pattern book or on the yarn label.  This is 100% silk yarn, and the pattern is lace and cables.  I'm of the mind that steam blocking would be a disaster, so I'm thinking wet blocking would be the answer.  However, I'm worried I might be missing something.  Does anyone have any suggestions or words of advice?  Thank you!

I have some advice on working with this silk yarn.  At the left, you can see what the lovely center-pull ball that I wound looks like after I've been knitting a bit.  Sometimes, I was spending more time untangling yarn to knit than actually knitting.  That got my wheels turning, and I decided to knit the next ball from the outside in.  Voila!  No time wasted untangling yarn.  So, even though the point of using the ball winder is to have a center-pull ball, sometimes it just makes sense to knit the yarn up from the outside.  And I also have to relay a tip from Cookie on winding slippery yarn on your ball winder -- she puts a knot in the end of slippery yarn so that it will hold tight when she starts cranking.  I never would have thought of that on my own.

Finally, I have a meme, shamelessly stolen, from Stephanie.  As you may have noticed, I've had much more time for reading lately.  I was going through this meme for the fun of it, without thinking I'd post it, when I realized that the next book I'm going to read is on the list.  I think this list is accurate, but I also think that I have read some of these books and forgotten about them, so perhaps I have read more.  And you? 

What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies (have it at home, might read it)
War and Peace
Vanity Fair

The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations

American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West

The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

Seasonal Signs

Spring is still teasing us New Englanders.  Lovely warm weather last week, rainy and now cold this week.  So, there's a little mix of three seasons in this post. . . the winter that hasn't quite left, the spring that hasn't seem to made up its mind to sick around, and the summer whose arrival is already eagerly anticipated.

Winterwise, I'm still knitting My So Called Scarf.  It's slow going, though, because there is little likelihood of anyone wearing it any time soon.  However, you might want to read this post over at Stuff White People Like about scarves.  I wonder if we'll see a rise in men seeking to date knitting white women as a result of that post.  That would be interesting, though, a man looking to date one of us knitters solely to get a scarf.  And there is no superstition or lore about the boyfriend scarf being bad luck in the same way that they boyfriend sweater is.  That's probably because one could always strangle the boyfriend with the scarf, I think.

I tend to think of turkeys as fall animals because of Thanksgiving, but the truth is we see them most of the year, and spring is a great time to see them because they seem to like to come out after the rain.  I found a lone turkey in my backyard this afternoon.  I know she's a bit difficult to see, but she started heading off into the woods as soon as I came outside, so I didn't move too fast when stalking her with my camera. 

The dog was dying to get out and see the turkey, but I managed to keep him in and also not let him get a glimpse of her so he didn't bark and scare her.  Loco has gotten much more vocal since Beast died, and he has taken to howling a couple of times a day.  Strangely, the kids and I are the only ones who have heard him howl.  He never howls when DH is home. 

Another sign of spring in New England:

Town Meeting!  I actually have never been. . . one of the pluses of being married to a man who works nights is that I don't get out much at night because I have to take care of the kids.  Usually, I find that to be a negative, but in this case it is a plus.  If I had my nights free, I'd feel obligated to go to town meeting, and I really don't think I'd enjoy it.  For those of you who aren't in the know about town meeting, which seems to be a very New England thing, but not popular elsewhere, I will explain.  Towns that have town meeting do not have an elected body of officials running the town (but most do have a town manager, who is an employee of the town), so once or twice a year they have town meeting where the people of the town can come and discuss matters of public interest and vote on items in the town warrant.  In my town, those items have mostly been related to expansion of public works projects and zoning.  Town meeting would probably be an excellent place to knit.

I've been knitting in the privacy of my own home, though not much knitting has occurred lately.  I've been really, really busy.  I have no idea how I used to get all these things done *and* work full time, but I'm finding myself just wiped out at the end of the day and in no condition to knit.  That will be rectified this week, I am sure.  I'm at the mindless part of the leg on the second Conwy II sock, so now it's just a slow trip to the point where I can start knitting the heel flap.  For some reason, for me getting to the heel flap of a top down sock is the best part of knitting the sock, because the turning of the heel is literally around the corner.  Guess what else is around the corner?

Yes, it's Summer of Socks!  I didn't do this last year because I was overwhelmed with work crap, but I'm going to be doing it this year.  I might as well, because I know I will be knitting socks this summer anyway and now I can join in on all the fun that everyone else had last summer.  Signups are open now and they close May 15th, so get your butt over there and sign up.  Knitting does not officially commence until June 21st, giving everyone plenty of time to get settled for a project.  I have no idea what I'll be knitting for socks this summer.  I've got so much lovely sock yarn and so many nice patterns to choose from, so I know I'll find my happiness once I marry the right yarn and pattern.

I'm off to knit more Conwy II!  Enjoy your May Day tomorrow!

Dear Lorna

I am writing today to call your attention to a quality control issue.  You know, I had a rough day today.  I took Beast to the hospital to see the oncologist.  After his last chemo treatment, she said to make sure to let her know ASAP if he started to vomit.  He was fine for the first week after the chemo, but the second week was not good, even though his drug regime has not changed.  After a lot of vomiting and constant dry heaving for a week, and several phone talks with the oncologist, it was decided that he needed to come in to the hospital.

The good news is that the current complaint doesn't seem to be in any way related to the cancer.  The bad news is that, in addition to an unknown cause of this problem, Beast has other, new medical issues.  He was admitted to the hospital's CCU.  He's had a huge number of diagnostic procedures performed and his results have been considered by specialists in oncology, radiology, internal medicine, cardiology, and emergency/critical care.  The best case scenario is that he has pneumonia, which would account for all the fluid in his chest.  There is also a possibility that his cancer has spread and he has a tumor in his lungs or on his esophagus.  It's hard to see it because of all the fluid in his chest.  Heart failure has been ruled out.

And what about the vomiting?  The dry heaving that he does all day long and even wakes from a sound sleep to do?  It's not caused by any of the above.  It might be due to laryngeal paralysis.  The test for that costs thousands of dollars and requires he be put under anesthesia.  If he has it, he will have to go under again because the only cure is surgery.  Anesthesia is risky in older animals, and Beast has terminal cancer, so we have decided not to put him through that.  The vet concurs.

As you can imagine, this has been a stressful time, going through this and not knowing exactly what is going on with Beast (shown here lying on the floor in the waiting room today).  It was hard to come home by myself with Beast's leash and collar but not Beast.  It was even harder when my DH got mad at me for not bringing Beast home and for not consulting him before doing that, especially since I called him more than once from the hospital with updates and he never returned my messages.  I didn't bother telling him how big the bill for today was.  I'll save that argument for another day.

Although DH probably doesn't remember, this is also a particularly stressful time of year because we lost our last two pets in late March.  The cat on the back of the chair died of pancreatic cancer and lymphoma in March 2002.  Snuggles, the dog lying on the chair, died in March 2003 of liver cancer. 

When Beat was first diagnosed with cancer, all I wanted was for him to not die in March.  In that we've been successful, but as March tails off, his health appears to be declining quite rapidly.  It's very bad timing.

I have some special plans for April, though.  I was going to start knitting a new pair of socks.  I know I'm not done with DS's cardi yet, but I love sock knitting and it's much, much more portable than that cardi.  So, this evening I set up my winder and swift and prepared to make myself two lovely cakes of Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock yarn.  Now, obviously, I wouldn't be writing this if there wasn't something unusual  about the winding of the yarn.  I mean, people wind yarn every day and it's no big deal.  Hell, some knitters have trained their children to perform this task.

I popped the skein on my swift and then untied it, as is my usual habit.  I find that this minimizes any chance that the yarn will get tangled prior to winding it.  As I started winding, I discovered that my usually foolproof method of avoiding tangles and knots was not 100 percent.  No matter, I took the yarn off the winder, fixed the problem, and set about winding again, only to have this scene repeat itself over and over again.  Now, I'd like to think of myself as fairly intelligent, but I know I was stressed out today and had other things on my mind, so I was willing to accept the blame for this mishap, that is, until I discovered this:

WTF?????  This skein of yarn was twisted and turned all over itself.  I ended up having to wind it by hand, and even doing it that way I ended up having to change the direction in which the swift was traveling in order to follow the direction of the yarn.  So, this is my very long-winded way of saying that this was not a high point in quality control for Lorna's Laces.  I have to wonder how this even happened.  I've never had this occur before with any Lorna's yarns. 

Let's face it, no one likes to wind sock yarn by hand.  (If you do, just keep it to yourself or send me a private e-mail and I will send you my sock yarn stash for your winding pleasure.)  I don't like to do it, that's for damn sure.  That's why I have a winder and swift.  I knit for many years winding skeins into balls using the back of a chair or my knees, but that was when I knit in primarily worsted weight.  One look at sock yarn and I was absolutely convinced in the wisdom of owning a yarn swift and winder.

I did wind the second skein of yarn and had no trouble with it.  But then I got all off balance about the fact that I had a nice yarn cake and a big ball o'yarn.  I want to make two socks that are the same.  I have a deep seated need to knit from two yarn sources that look the same.  I know it's no guarantee that the socks will be the same, but I can't tempt fate.  So I ended up winding my ball o'yarn into a  yarn cake with the winder anyway, for the sake of matchy matchy yarn and socks.  Damn, that yarn has seen more action and been touched more this evening that I am going to be, what with DH still annoyed at me about the dog and all.  It just doesn't seem right, does it?

Thanks for listening, and let's see some better quality control with those skeins of yarn, okay?  Thanks, Lorna, thanks very much.

I Love I Love Gansey

Ta-da!  Here are the finished I Love Gansey socks.  I love these socks and I would most definitely knit them again.  I think they're beautiful and I love the yarn I used.  This is Cabin Cove Mercantile merino/silk in a lovely greenish/grayish shade.  Dave didn't name this color, and I'm not going to try to give it a name.  I think it works perfectly with this pattern, a marriage made in heaven.  I did not make any modifications to the pattern other than to change the heart pattern to a diamond, which I think makes it look more like a gansey.  One of these days, I'm going to have to knit myself a real, authentic gansey.  Maybe Dave will dye me some appropriate weight yarn for that.

Want to see a little more of the sides of the socks?

I'm very pleased indeed.  I'm sorry about the shadows in the photos, but I was going with natural light only so that I could accurately capture the beautiful color of the yarn.

You'll notice that my Netflix list has been changing with far more frequency than usual -- score one for unemployment and the opportunity it has afforded me to spend more time sitting on my ass watching TV.  It's been good for the knitting, at least.  My greatest pleasure so far has been Dexter.  I loved the first book (and intend to read the subsequent ones), and this television series took the book and expanded on it in a way that has continued to enthrall me.  This is easily the best television I've seen in a long time, from the opening credits right through to the end of every episode.

And in honor of the start of the baseball season, here's a bit of something for all you Red Sox fans:

Dude! You're 100% from Massachusetts!

Dude! Me and Sully and Fitzie and Sean are gonna hit Landsdowne tonight after the game, hang out at the Beerworks. I'll pick you up at the Coop at 6.

How Massachusetts are you?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Time to Exhale

This isn't the kind of knitting that sets the world on fire, but it is knitting, and that's a start, so, as Cookie would say, shut up!

This is an afghan square for Debbi.  She's putting together an afghan for relatives who lost their home in the Everett fire last month.  For those who don't know, a tanker truck was speeding on a rotary/roundabout and crashed early in the morning, which was actually a bit lucky, because if it had been a few hours later, there would have been a much nastier scene.  A few people lost their homes, a few dozen cars were torched, and traffic through that area was shut down for a day.  There were no fatalities.  And Debbi is creating a bright spot for some people affected by this event with this afghan.  My square is no particular pattern whatsoever, knit with Knitaly (Lane Borgosesia).  Debbi prefers superwash squares for this project, and I don't own a lot of superwash yarn, but I did have this in the stash.  It is old, from one of the first sweaters I knitted, for a boyfriend.  I ended up kicking him to the curb about a year after knitting the sweater, and it was a good deal.  I love grey yarn.

I knit this square today at Danielle's house.  She had a gathering of local knitters and spinners.  I almost didn't get to go.  When Danielle invited me about a month ago, I told DH that I wanted to go and that I needed him to watch the kids.  He said okay.  I mentioned the event several more times over the month and he never said anything.  Today, when I was trying to get my stuff together to get out of the house at 12:30, I noticed that it was really snowing, and I expressed some concern about driving.  And DH told me that I'd better get going so that I could be back home by 2:00.  WTF?  Well, he forgot all about the party and he was supposed to work.  I was so mad I couldn't speak.  I just looked out at the snow and thought about how 2008 was going to be different, be better, and how that didn't seem to be the case despite my best efforts.  And, lo, a miracle occurred!!  DH thought outside the box and called my parents to babysit.  He drove the kids 20 miles to my parents' house, then drove 50 miles to work (instead of his usual 30) in the snow, so I got to go the party.

So, chalk this up as a good day.  I didn't take any photos at Danielle's, but Lucia and Brittany did, so you can check out their blogs.  They might also know more of who was there. . . I sussed that some of the other knitbloggers present were Ruth, Erin, Mafia, Maryse, Julia, and Alison, but it got to be too complicated to keep track of everyone.  Dog knows I don't have that many brain cells to spare, so I apologize if I forgot anyone.  And I sat all day next to blogless Mary, who spun.  It was kind of cool to watch spinning from so close, but I did not get sucked in, no I did not.  I knitted and enjoyed the company. 

I was told that people didn't recognize me because I never appear on my blog, but I'll give you three hints if you see any photos from the gathering.  First, I spend most of the day sitting on the couch.  Second, I was wearing navy blue (non-handknit) sweater.  Finally, I have a gash in my nose that Loco gave me the other day.  It's getting better.  The swelling is going down and the scab fell off this morning.  I'm hoping it looks much better by tomorrow morning.  Tomorrow I am going out to lunch with a friend.  The last time I saw him, he was looking at my kids' current Christmas photo and he said he thought DD looked a lot like me, but asked where she got the cute nose.   I said it's the same one I had when I was little.  And he said something about what happened to my nose because it looked really different now.  He was teasing, but I guess I got a little sensitive about it because he apologized.  And now, the next time we see each other after that conversation, my nose will look worse.  It could be worse, we could have been talking about some other way in which DD takes after me and I could have injured a much more consequential part of my body.  And we all know that I definitely can't spare any more brain cells!

My tired brain and I are going to fold some laundry and go to bed.  I think 2008 is getting off to a good start.  I'm leaving off with another meme, shamelessly stolen from Nancy, of course.  I'm all out of memes, so this should be the last one for a while, lucky you.

If your life were a soundtrack, what would the music be?

Here’s how it works:
1. open your library (iTunes, winamp, media player, iPod)
2. put it on shuffle
3. press play
4. for every section, type the song that’s playing
5. next section — press the next button
6. don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool

opening credits:
This is England -- The Clash

waking up:
Sole Salvation -- The English Beat

first day at school:
U Got 2 Let the Music -- Cappella

falling in love:
Too Hot -- The Specials

breaking up:
Fortune Teller -- Sugar

prom:
Nagasaki -- Red Stick Ramblers

life’s okay:
Rose Garden Polka -- Brian Marshall & His Tex-Slavic Playboys

mental breakdown:
When She Begins -- Social Distortion

driving:
Entregate -- K-Paz de la Sierra

flashback:
Paddy's Got a Brand New Reel -- Black 47

getting back together:
Another Night -- Real McCoy

wedding:
Get Down Moses -- Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros

birth of child:
Vanidosa -- Cuisillos 

final battle:
Primitive Painters -- Felt

death scene:
Love You More -- Buzzcocks

end credits:
I Want You More -- The Saw Doctors

You're tagged if you want to be...  If you do it, let me know so I make sure I visit and check your version out.

And a warm welcome to 2008!!

Knitters Ahead of the Curve

The other day, the new Anthropologie catalog came in the mail.  As I was looking through it, I saw something that caught my eye and I couldn't quite figure out why.

Something about this sweater just looked so familiar.  And then it hit me, I'd seen it before.

It was in Vogue Knitting, the Holiday 2005 issue.  That was two years ago, and the sweater is just hitting retail stores now.  Amazing!  VK gave it to us way ahead of the curve.

Sometimes I wonder about some of the designs in VK, because they seem like they'd be way out of style by the time I finished knitting them.  But that doesn't apply to this one.  That said, I'm not going to be knitting this sweater because it absolutely would look horrible on me.  It is all wrong for my body type and my skin tone.

I also have to give VK some credit for the way that they styled this sweater.  I think that the way that they are showing the collar is much more flattering than in the Anthropologie catalog.  In the catalog, the collar is rolled and almost looks like a life preserver.  I prefer it looser, more as a cowl neck.

This is a Twinkle design.  I think that there are three ways to get this sweater if you like it.  You could buy it already made from Anthropologie for $228.  If you have the issue of VK, you've got the pattern and only need the yarn (Naturewolle/Muench Yarns Black Forest Wool), which will run you $311.25 to $373.50.  Finally, this does appear in her book Twinkle's Big City Knits, which calls for 17 skeins of in Twinkle Soft Chunky (which has come out since the VK Holiday 2005 issue, and which likely accounts for the slight color difference between the 2005 and 2007 versions).  To knit the sweater (known as the Shopping Tunic in the book) in Twinkle yarn, that will run you $289, not including the cost of the book.  Yup, no matter how you work it out, it will cost you more money to make it yourself.  However, if you knit the tunic in a solid color, word around blogland is that you can get by with only four skeins, which is only $68.  I think it would still look like crap on me, but it's nice to see that this started in a knitting magazine and ended up on the rack, versus the other way round.

I actually have a Twinkle garment almost all done.  It's been sitting around for months waiting for me to crochet the straps.  I could invest less than an hour and have it finished, but I haven't done it.  Seeing this Twinkle design hitting retail, plus seeing more of her designs in catalogs and in editorial pages of magazines has given me Twinkle on the brain, so maybe that will motivate me to put in the miniscule amount of time to finish the project.  Just don't let me start on the Shopping Tunic, please!