Dear weather. . .

Dear Weather. It's fall now. There is no reason for it to be 109 degrees today. Please bring cooler temps and nice breezes. Thank you.

As predicted, within a couple days of buying a new collar for Sadie, I found the old one. It was under the keyboard next to my rocking chair. A couple days after that, her new collar also came off. I found it in the same spot. The problem is, her neck is bigger around than her head, so there's no way to get the collar tight enough to stay on without asphyxiating the poor thing.

Yesterday Ralph & I went to an orchid show. Unfortunately I have no pics of it for you today, as I left the camera in the Saturn & Ralph took the Saturn to work. But I did take some, and I'll post when I can. Some of the flowers were really lovely, too. I especially liked some deep purple ones.

I *was* making good progress on the Dark Mark scarf. I measured it today and it was 46" long, only 4" away from starting the second illusion repeat. As I was measuring it, though, I discovered an entire row of garter stitch that should have been stockinette, which meant frogging a full FIVE INCHES OF SCARF. Sigh. Oh, well, I've got until November to finish the pair; five inches really isn't that big a deal. I suppose. . .

Making meatloaf for dinner tonight, and I've got a pork roast thawing in the fridge for tomorrow. The roast is quite large; I'm thinking of cutting it in half, roasting one piece and doing the other up as pulled pork in the slow cooker. That'll give us a bit of variety.

Today I discovered the joy that is Pandora internet radio. I've already created two stations of Christmas music; one is very jazzy/upbeat and the other is more mellow. I love it! While I enjoy my CDs a lot, one does get tired of hearing the same songs over & over again.

Today's photo is one I took of Mudgie to make sure my new camera card was functioning. He's all squinty because of the flash. Kind of gives him a "You are intruding in my domain; please leave the planet" look.

EDIT: Hee hee--I just posted a couple comments on a friend's blog. In the first comment I used the word "unholy," and the security word I had to type to submit the comment was "prays." The second post the security word was "clord" (which I am assuming should be pronounced "see lord").

A couple knitting photos, and a video

Just a few pictures & a short video today. These are the three dishcloths I made from the orange & black yarn purchased at the sale a little over a week ago. The first one is just a plain, mitered square. It's a remarkably simple technique in which one does a double decrease at the center of every other row, resulting in the bent stripes you see here.








Next up is a mosaic pattern, another easy technique with rather impressive results (if I do say so myself). It's done by alternating colors every two rows, and you slip stitches in order to pull the color from one row up into the two above it. The pattern is "Pharoah's Check" and is from the book "Sensational Knitted Socks." I did make the floats a speck too tight, however since I'm just using it to wash my face I'm not too worried about it.









Third up, an illusion knit cloth. This is my least favorite of the three cloths; the pattern IMHO was not well-designed & the illusion isn't as sharp as it ought to be. Normally in illusion knitting, the pattern in row 4 is the opposite of row 2, but this one didn't do that & the picture doesn't show up properly. However, with a little squinting you can tell that it's supposed to be a paw print. It was a free pattern, and again it's just going to be used to wash my face, therefore it doesn't need to be perfect.



Lastly, a short video of one of my WIPs, "Morsmordre!" The pattern is the Dark Mark Illusion Scarf. I'm planning on making two--one for me, one for Ralph--and the goal is to have them finished in time for us to wear them when we see "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1" in November. The video isn't perfect, but it's good enough to show the illusion.

Four-day weekend

At least, it's a four-day weekend for me, as will be the next couple of weekends. I've been dropped back to part-time employment only at my temp job, which I actually rather like. It'll give me a couple days to do housework so Ralph & I can do fun things on the weekend, not to mention I'll be available for interviews on Mondays & Tuesdays should any come along. So how am I spending my weekend? Besides being on the computer, I mean. Well, I spent last night baking fig muffins; six dozen, to be exact, most of which went into the freezer. Today I made pulled pork & have some macaroni & cheese baking in the oven to go with it.

Non-food-wise, I went to the craft store today & bought four skeins of yarn which I'm using to make scarves for Ralph & me to wear when we go to see "Deathly Hallows" when it comes out in November. I've started the first one & have great hopes for it. I picked up a new collar & name tag for Sadie, as she somehow managed to lose hers. It's not like she wanders anywhere, so they've got to be either in the house or the backyard, but I'll be darned if I can find them.



Speaking of knitting, the LYS had a big sale last week. I spent an hour there on Saturday & bought two skeins of silk which I'm going to use to make a shawl. (I would have stayed longer, but had to get to Dad's by noon for a visit & lunch out with the fambly.) I went back on Sunday and bought two skeins of cotton which I've already knit up into three washcloths; I've got enough left to make a coaster, I think. I also got some burnt orange Malabrigo sock yarn, and some cotton/acrylic bouclé that will someday be a striped scarf. Pics of the cloths (and of the Bloody Stupid Johnson hat, I promise!) are pending.



Since I don't have knitting or yarn pictures, here are a few more from weekends past. The top photo is a small waterfall on Mt. Baldy, from the hike we took a few weeks ago. Picture #2 is of the headless emu, only with a visible head this time. And a visible butt, yes, I know. Picture #3 is a display from the LA County Fair showing the process for making wine at home. You might also have noticed that I changed the photo in my blog header. That's a Northern Mockingbird; I took that photo in Ontario CA oh, must have been close to two years ago.

OH! Almost forgot. There's been an ice-cream truck coming through the neighborhood lately, and it's got the most eclectic medley of tunes I have ever heard. Many of them are Christmas carols--"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Jingle Bells," and "Joy to the World," to name a few--but there's also "Little Brown Jug," "Happy Birthday," "My Darling Clementine" and "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Very strange.

A few more pics from the weekend

Thought I'd post a few more photos from the weekend.



Gaaah! It's the Amazing Headless Emu!!! OK, so obviously the head is just hidden, but I do like this photo. Ralph took it. This was part of the Australian Outback exhibit at the LA County Fair.


A rather whimsical entry in the decorated cakes competition. For once I agree with the judges who awarded this a blue ribbon.


A lovely floral display. Click to view large for the full effect; it really is an amazing work of art.


A full-shot of one of the soft-shell turtles we saw at El Dorado Park.


A great egret at El Dorado Park. This was in the park-proper, not in the nature center area. He caught several little fish while we watched.

Mostly pictures today

We had a very busy holiday weekend. Saturday was spent at El Dorado Park with MH2 & PH2: a picnic lunch followed by a mile & a quarter walk through the nature center. Sunday we went to the Greek Festival which was mostly food booths but still fun. Yesterday we were at the LA County Fair for four hours. I am sunburned, achy, and happy. Oh, and I also talked to Neighbor K & Neighbor A for a while last night, and discovered K & I attended the same high school in 1980! I was there for five years, she was there for one.

Now on to the photos!


Mudgie was lying on the arm of the chair & Ralph put the arm-cover over him. He stayed that way for quite some while. Silly cat!


Close-up of a soft-shelled turtle at El Dorado Park. Normally we only see sliders, mostly red-ears but a few yellow bellies too. We've only seen a soft-shell at the park once before, so it was a real treat to see three of them on Saturday--including a juvenile.


Can you believe it? This lovely Raggedy Ann doll only took a white (third-place) ribbon at the fair. I swear I don't know what the judges look for.


Another mystery to me. This wonderful quilt didn't get any ribbons at all! There were two very plain quilts in the same display that both got blues. You can see a bit of one of them at the bottom of the photo, right under the little purse that took second place.


Now this is just sad. I bet this was a perfectly amazing cake before it fell over. The entrant must have been so disappointed.