Just a few photos today

Some of the goldfish in our pond. the black/silver one & the really yellow-y gold one are the only actual koi that we have; all the others are just feeder fish that grew up.


Halitosis, the queen of our castle.



One of my current WIPs, ruffled wristwarmers to go with my new hat. I used stitch dictionaries to find both the ruffle & the eyelet pattern, converted them to be knit in the round, and added a bit of ribbing at the top. I will be posting instructions on my Ravelry project page.



Frumplestiltskin stretching with her paws on my let. She's not supposed to do that of course, but it made a cute picture. Obviously we have not yet found either her owner or a new home.



Our amaryllis is in bloom! An extreme close-up of one of the blossoms.

Bound to happen sooner or later

The unthinkable has happened. Yes, I actually made a recipe from the Gilligan's Island cookbook that was not good. I know, I know, hard to believe, but the "Giant Gilligan Burger" was icky. I think the basic premise is good--a big burger-shaped meatloaf with a cream cheese filling--however it is not well-executed. If I make it again, I'll leave out the mustard & horseradish, replace it with ketchup and a little milk (to thin the cream cheese), and top it with some sort of sauce so it doesn't dry out so much in the baking. Oh, and reduce the salt in the meat also.

Last night's dinner (pasta topped with Ginger's Sweet Red Pepper Sauce) was OK. The "sauce" is not the least bit sauce-like. It's a good start, but next time I will either add a can of diced tomatoes so it has more liquid, or mix it in with a jar of sauce, or add zucchini & yellow squash and serve it as a side dish.

Still trying to find a home for the stray dog, whom we have NOT given the name "Frumplestiltskin." We just call her that, or Frumple, sometimes. But we haven't named her because we Are. Not. Keeping. Her.

Fish!

Another new recipe last night, this time for Simple Salmon. It really was an easy recipe, and surprisingly good since normally I don't like salmon. I am trying to be open-minded about cooking, though, and thought I'd give it a try. Mind you, when I put "2 salmon fillets" on the shopping list, I didn't expect Ralph to come home with a 3-pound side of salmon. Thank goodness for the internet, where I learned how to turn that hunk-o-fish into proper fillets.

Started a pair of wristwarmers last night to go with the new hat. I found a "bell" edging which I used to make a ruffle at the bottom to go along with the pleats on the hat, then I'm going to use a diamond brocade chart for the main part. I really wanted something lacier but haven't found anything quite right in my stitch dictionaries. Oh, wait, I just remembered one I haven't looked through yet.

Just a couple pictures of my new hat

I love my new hat, but when I look at these pictures all I can think is, "OMFSM, I do look like Lizard!" Except the nose. She's got a cute li'l nose and mine looks like it belongs on Bob Hope.

Oh, now THAT'S cooking!

OK, so technically it's baking which as I've said before I'm pretty good at. Today I learned how to make baklava. It's amazingly easy, and very tasty when it's still warm from the oven. I was going to cook Chicken Dijon Gilliana for dinner tonight, but Ralph bought some shrimp & scallops which he's going to grill up. I'm still in charge of the side dish, though, and I'm thinking Mayflower Cauliflower Casserole, which is basically cauliflower baked in a Swiss cheese sauce. Should be simple enough.

I am almost done with my hat! The only thing left to do is to sew the hatband onto it. I know it will only take a couple minutes to do, however I don't care for sewing & after sewing the hatband, then the bow, then the bow onto the hatband, well I'm sewn out for the evening. It took a lot less yarn than I anticipated; I thought I'd use 3 skeins (~450 yards) and I ended up using only half that amount. So that means I still have 3-1/2 skeins left to make some matching accessories. I'm thinking some lacy wristwarmers might be just the ticket.

Still have an extra dog

It's Day 9 of Trying To Find the Dog's Owner. We went to Animal Control today & had her scanned for a microchip; no dice. It was a longshot at best--I can't imagine that someone who doesn't put a tag on a dog would go to the bother of having the chip put in--but we had to at least try. We entered her photo & info in the Lost & Found book while we were there.

Had a couple nibbles at least. We had a call from a woman who said she'd found the dog earlier & had been taking care of her. The dog had gotten away from her but she said she'd like to have her back. In the hour it took me to get home & call to make arrangements, her fiance had talked her out of it. Grrrr! Ralph talked to some kids who said the dog was theirs, and then backpedaled quickly on it. He told them to have their mom call, which she did. It's not their dog, however she might be interested in taking her as they are looking to get a dog. This was still early on when we thought there was a real chance of finding the owner, so Ralph told her to call back next weekend. Now, of course, we're wishing we'd given her the dog right off. I sure hope she calls again.

Bathed all four of the critters today. The bathroom is SOAKED and there isn't a drop of hot water left for Ralph & me to take our showers. The extra dog had so many fleas that I got Hali & Sadie completely bathed & Zoe halfway done before Ralph had finished washing that little pup. We Frontlined them, too, which should help.

Ordered pizza for dinner tonight. I feel too grubby to cook and in any case about the only thing we have ready to cook is fish. I don't feel like having fish for dinner. And that's about it for today I'm afraid.

No no no no no no no

Ralph confessed today that he wants to keep the dog, even though we both know that we absolutely cannot. Gah! With any luck, we'll either get a call from the owners, and if not I've got a co-worker who thinks his daughter might take her. Third option is another co-worker knows of a no-kill shelter that she's willing to take her to.

Totally changing the subject, we've got a local election coming up. There are three candidates, all of whom have first names beginning with J. One also has a last name that begins with J. What really amuses me, though, is one of the candidates is named Jack and one is named Jill. It gets better, though--Jill's last name is Hill. You can't make this stuff up, folks :-)

Good Eats

Lately I have been overcome with the desire to learn how to cook. Oh, I can make a few things such as Welsh Rarebit & Shake-n-Bake pork chops, and I can bake pretty well, but when it comes down to actual cooking I pretty much suck. So I've gone through my cookbooks & bought a couple cooking magazines only to discover that either a) all the recipes use 500 zillion ingredients, b) they use tiny amounts of really expensive seasonings, or c) they sound/taste nasty (NOTE: "dinner on a budget" recipes that call for cheap ingredients will not taste good). I only found ONE recipe that tasted good & had reasonable, easily-obtained ingredients.

Only one, that is, until yesterday, when out of desperation I pulled out a cookbook that Lizard bought me years ago because she thought it was funny: "Mary Ann's Gilligan's Island Cookbook" by Dawn Wells et. al. Thumbing through it, I found several recipes that looked good and did not have an intimidating ingredient list. I went shopping for a few ingredients, and last night made "Skipper's Simple Chicken" which really is more of a home-assembled meal rather than home-cooked. It only has 5 ingredients: chicken, a little oil in which to brown the meat, two kinds of canned soup, and cooked rice. It was sooooooooo good. I served it with peas to round out the meal. Then this morning I made the "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Casserole," a very breakfasty concoction with bacon, hard-boiled eggs, noodles, cheese, and a milk-based sauce. I was a bit leery of this one since I'm not a fan of hard-boiled eggs unless they are smushed into egg salad sammidges, but I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty it was. Tonight I think I'll make "Ginger's Sweet Red Pepper Sauce" (oh, rats, I forgot to buy onions) and serve it on some angel hair pasta.

Today I realized I never got a picture of Hali wearing the legwarmers I made for her (she's got arthritic knees) so I forced them on her this morning (she reeeaaally does not like wearing them) & got a couple shots. Please ignore the fact that the carpet hasn't been vacuumed yet; with four dogs and a cat in the house it's hard to keep up with all the fur.

Whaddya mean, vacation's almost over?

Still haven't found the owner of the stray dog. She is so sweet; I hate to think that we might have to take her to the pound. Unfortunately with three dogs in the household already, we just can't take in another one no matter how small and cute and fluffy.

Finally made it to the Madrona Marsh today. Turns out they are having an Environment Fair in the parking lot of the nature center, so we spent most of our time there. It was rather hot & more people than normal in the preserve which meant not as many birds to see. Not a single frog, either. I did get a rather nice shot of a captive owl, though, if I do say so myself.

Need to do some grocery shopping today, especially if we intend to have dinner tonight. I plan on making Pasta alla Puttanesca (which translates roughly as "whore's pasta"), which is an almost-but-not-quite vegetarian dish made with tomatoes, garlic, Greek olives, and anchovies (thus the not-quite-vegetarian). Actually, if you leave out the anchovies I do believe it would be a vegan meal, not just vegetarian.

Not much else going on. I've completed about 40-some-odd rows on the HP square, and cast on for a new hat. The hat seems so simple after all the intarsia pieces; just stockinette in the round for the most part. It will have a turned, pleated brim & a ribbon hatband with bow when finished though.

Change in plans for the day

Well, looks like we'll be spending at least part of the day trying to find this little girl's owners. She just showed up in our yard this morning, bold as brass. Very friendly pup, and after a few minutes of deep suspicion is getting along well with the other dogs. Even the cat isn't too alarmed by her presence, and she's made no attempt to chase him. Hardly even seems to notice him, really. She's got a collar but no tags so that makes things a little tougher. We've printed some fliers & will have her on a leash with us when we put them up.

Good start to the vacation

It has been a very relaxing past few days. Saturday we just lay about the house like slugs. Sunday we puttered around the house, went to the bookstore & pet shop, and lay about the house like slugs. Monday we got the trailer hitched up, did a bit of housework, and headed on out to Mount Baldy for a short camping trip. Once there we met The Boy, The Girl, and Lizard for dinner at Mt. Baldy Lodge.

The weather was beautiful, if a bit chilly at night. The place where we stayed was practically deserted; I think we saw three people the entire time we were there. This is a *very* dog-friendly campground; you're actually allowed to have the dogs off-leash as long as they are well-behaved. The girls loved being able to run around & climb on the rocks. We spent our time wandering around with the dogs, reading, knitting (for me), playing computer games (for Ralph) and laying about like slugs.


Today, of course, we're back home. Mudgie was *very* glad to see us, alternating between cuddling & scolding us for having dared to go away. Had a shower for the first time since Monday (power issues with the trailer prevented us from turning on the water heater, which is the main reason we didn't stay longer) which felt wonderful!!!! Our basic plans for the day are reading, knitting (for me), computer games (for Ralph) and laying about like slugs. (Are you seeing a trend in our vacation plans yet?)


Tomorrow we will probably head out to the Madrona Marsh. Also thinking of going to the Pirates Dinner Show either tomorrow night or Friday, which is like Medieval Times only with pirates instead of knights.

The purple flower is the one & only blossom on our wisteria, taken on Monday right before we left. It's mostly open now and is starting to have a lovely scent.

I admit it. I caved.

I was NOT going to start any new HP squares until I finished the backs for the ones I've already done. Of course I caved, and started Fred & George last night. It's not at a point where they are even vaguely recognizable yet (I'm on row 15 out of 111) but here's what it looked like right before I cast on. Since I'm on vacation this week I should be able to get a lot done. I've also got a new hat pattern to try out when this one gets too mind-boggling & needs to rest, so to speak.

I've got a loaf of lemon bread baking in the oven. Mmmmmm--starting to smell really good in here!

Graph Jam

I totally want to post this in the kitchen at work:


see more Funny Graphs

Posting time

Hedwig is done! Well, off the needles anyway. I still need to block it, make the back piece, buy the pillow form, and put the whole thing together. The little stack of yarn next to the piece is the 400 snippets from weaving in the ends. Yes, 400. I counted them. However, I have since learned a way to "float" the yarns so you can cheat a little & cross over several stitches without having dangly strands going across so that will, I think, make the next piece have less bobbins/ends to weave in. I'm going to make the backs to the finished pieces before starting a new Potter square, though.

Ralph's eye is doing better. Oh, what's wrong with his eye you ask? And well you may. On Saturday he was working on the pond, bent over, and a reed went right into his eye. Scratched his cornea which was rather painful for a few days. The doctor gave him some antibiotic ointment & he's feeling fine now.

Lizard has a temp position starting up soon, hooray! It's at a place where she has worked before (and liked very much) and is supposed to last three months. The last time she worked there it was supposed to be for three months and ended up lasting over a year, so I've got my fingers crossed for her.

Why, yes, I *am* a dolt. Thank you for noticing.

So I stayed up late (for me) last night reading a ghost story/murder mystery. Ralph had gone to bed early; the house was dark except for the one light on next to me. The house was making the normal creaks and groans that every house makes when it cools off at night. Did I mention it was a ghost story? Yeah, you see what's coming, don't you? I managed to spook myself so badly that I didn't want to turn out the light & go to bed. I finally plucked up my courage, turned out the light, patted the dog for comfort & successfully navigated my way across the living room without getting waylaid by Hatchet Jack. Ralph's coat, although hanging in a suspicious manner on the back of the hallway door, failed in its attempt to slay me as I walked past. Of course, once I was safe in bed I felt like a right fool. Needless to say, though, it was a very good ghost story!

I'm 3/4 of the way done with the latest Harry Potter square, and I think it's quite recognizable now. Mind you, I think it looks better in the photo than it does in real life (I feel that way about all three HP squares, actually), probably because the stitches look smaller & the detail shows up more.

Ralph has been having problems with the computer. He's managed to fix it partially; that is to say, it works on my sign-on but not on his. Windows will pull up, then after a few seconds will switch back to the sign-in screen. Very strange.

Looking forward to my upcoming vacation time. We're planning to spend a couple days camping at Mt. Baldy. No other concrete plans, just some vague ideas of maybe going to Knott's Berry Farm (I have a half-price coupon) one day, and perhaps visiting the Madrona Marsh. With all the rain we've had lately, I'm sure there will be lots of frogs.

Create Your Own Title

I've had one person correctly guess who is on the new square, based on the photo in today's post. I've come a bit further since this shot was taken & I think it's getting to be obvious. I'll have to take another photo soon.

My work went on a field trip Thursday to visit a few of our communities. It was a lot of fun. We walked the models at two different locations, did a frame walk at one & walked a completed production home at the other. Lunch was provided--cheeseburgers, hot dogs, green salad, potato salad, chips, cookies, soda & water. The meat was cooked on a grill and everything that I had tasted wonderful. We had some extra time, so we detoured to one of our brand-new land deals & had a bit of a drive-through.

One of the best parts of the day was all the time we spent on the bus, because I was able to knit the whole time. I decided to start on the backing for the McGonagall pillow since that's plain stockinette & I didn't have to focus on it. I got literally half of it done: 55 rows out of 110. As you can imagine I was quite pleased about it. I did three more rows yesterday before work. Last night I remembered that I did McGonagall on size 5 needles, not size 7, and the backing is going to be way too big. Sigh. After sleeping on the possibilities, I have decided to go ahead & finish it. I've got a couple Christmas motifs I can use to make a different front piece and I'll have a nice new holiday pillow.

No big plans for the weekend, except going to see "Alice in Wonderland" at some point.

On to the next

McGonagall is almost done. She's off the needles, however there are still a half-dozen ends to weave in plus she needs blocking. I also managed to skip a row somewhere along the line. I think it might be in the right eye, as that looks a little wonky to me. I'm not 100% happy with the finished project, however I *did* do her as a practice piece so I'm not too worried about it. If I do make Prof. McGonagall again, I will know what to do to make it better.

I've also cast on for the next Harry Potter square. The photo is at 4 rows completed plus a bottom border, with 17 (!!!) bobbins in use. Can you guess who it is yet? :-) I managed two more rows this morning (it's taking me about 20 minutes to do one row, yikes!), was able to remove two bobbins but had to add three more. Sigh.

Ravelympics: The Final Day

Ah, the last day of the Ravelympics. I can't believe how quickly it's gone by! Inspired by CheaPet's lovely dishcloths on her blog (hookandwool.blogspot.com), I decided to do a couple dishcloths for my final entry. I wanted something with an easily-memorized pattern so that I could take the project with me without dragging a big ol' book along, and while in the shower came up with these two illusion-knit patterns. They are amazingly easy--if you can knit and purl, you can make these. I'll write out the instructions at the bottom of this post. In theory I *could* squeeze in one more quick-and-easy project, but I'm content with the six & think I will work on McGonagall today. I really do want to get her finished up.

We had a very nice visit with Dad yesterday. Took a leisurely tour of the four models at our Stanton community, and I'm surprised at how different our three tastes are. Ralph likes a kitchen that is open to the living room, whereas I prefer at least a short wall separating the two rooms so if I'm making dinner for company, they aren't staring at the dirty pots & pans. Dad likes a large living room & smaller master bedroom; Ralph wants a big master bedroom. I hate having the master walk-in closet being in the bathroom; neither Dad nor Ralph minded it at all.

We lucked out on the weather, too. It rained pretty hard off & on all day, but never when we were actually outside. We'd go into a model, look out the window & see pouring rain, then when we were ready to go to the next one, the weather was clear again. It wasn't too cold, either; a bit chilly, yes, although definitely tolerable without a coat.

For lunch we went to Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner restaurant & we all ate fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and creamy chicken noodle soup. Ralph had boysenberry pie as his first course & Dad took a slice home. I skipped pie since we all had big chocolate cupcakes from the model tour. The meals were big enough for us to take home leftovers for dinner.



So back to the dishcloths. You may be wondering how illusion knitting works. The principle is really quite simple. The patterns are a combination of stockinette & garter stitch. The stockinette lies flat whereas the garter is raised. When you look at the piece from an angle, the garter blocks your view of the stockinette and the pattern is visible. All odd-numbered rows are plain knit stitches, the even-numbered are a combination of knit & purl to give you the garter sections. Whatever you do on the even-numbered rows for color A, you do the opposite for color B. So if color A is knit 4, purl 7, knit 12 you would purl 4, knit 7, purl 12 on color B. And that's all there is to it.

OK, on to the patterns. You'll need worsted weight yarn in two contrasting colors & appropriately-sized needles. I used Plymouth Encore Worsted with US7 needles. You can make these larger or smaller by changing the width of the stripes & casting on appropriately. The vertical stripes are 8 stitches across, the diagonal ones are 4.

VERTICAL STRIPES DISHCLOTH (approx 6-3/4" square)
Color A: Forest green
Color B: Sand

Using Color B, cast on 32 stitches.
Row 1, Color A: Knit
Row 2, Color A: (K8, P8) twice
Row 3, Color B: Knit
Row 4, Color B: (P8, K8) twice

Repeat rows 1-4 until dishcloth is roughly square, ending with a Row 2. Bind off in Color B. Block if desired.

DIAGONAL STRIPES DISHCLOTH (approx. 7-1/4" square; this pattern is easier than it looks in the instructions--trust me on this one. Basically you are moving the stripes over by one stitch every time you switch back to Color A.)
Color A: Sand
Color B: Deep mauve

Using Color B, cast on 36 stitches.
Row 1, Color A: Knit
Row 2, Color A: K4, (P4, K4) to end
Row 3, Color B: Knit
Row 4, Color B: P4, (K4, P4) to end
Row 5, Color A: Knit
Row 6, Color A: P1, (K4, P4) to last 3 stitches, K3
Row 7, Color B: Knit
Row 8, Color B: K1, (P4, K4) to last 3 stitches, P3
(OK, I think you know to alternate colors & knit the odd rows at this point, so I'm going to skip them)
Row 10, Color A: P2, (K4, P4) to last 2 stitches, K2
Row 12, Color B: K2, (P4, K4) to last 2 stitches, P2
Row 14, Color A: P3, (K4, P4) to last stitch, K1
Row 16, Color B: K3, (P4, K4) to last stitch, K1
Row 18, Color A: As row 4
Row 20, Color B: As row 2
Row 22, Color A: As row 8
Row 24, Color B: As row 6
Row 26, Color A: As row 12
Row 28, Color B: As row 10
Row 30, Color A: As row 16
Row 32, Color B: As row 14

Repeat rows 1-32 until roughly square, ending with an even-numbered row in Color A. Bind off in Color B. Block if desired.

Ravelympics are winding down

We're coming to the end of the Ravelympics; tomorrow is the last day. I can't decide whether I should stop now with five finished projects under my belt (including the trio of catnip bunnies in today's photo), or try to squeeze in one more. I know that if I work at it I can make a pair of wristwarmers in a weekend, but if I don't get them done due to oh, you know, having a life. . . well, I'd be quite disappointed in myself.

I was able to save the Crazyfoot yarn, woo hoo! It only took 2-1/2 hours to untangle all of it, and it was completely undamaged. I did wash it, and was a bit dismayed by how much it bled. Not surprised by that, mind you; any red-based yarn is likely to bleed the first few times you wash it, in my experience. But the water was roughly the color of cinnamon tea after the wash.

It's raining like crazy this morning. Figures--our new community in Stanton is having their grand opening today. Ralph, Dad & I are going to check it out around 11:30 and then have lunch together. Hopefully it won't be pouring quite so hard when we go.

Bad dog! Bad, bad dog!

Sigh. This is what happens when an unsupervised dog finds an unsupervised skein of yarn. Yes, that is indeed my gorgeous former-skein of Crazyfoot. It doesn't appear to actually be damaged, and I *think* I can untangle it. . .

In other news, I'm almost done with the scarf for the Ravelympics, and in a flash of irrationality have decided to do yet another project. I'm making some cat toys for the pet event. I will consider the event complete when I have three of them done, although they are so quick & easy that I might make more. I finished one already, and am ready to stuff the second. I'll post a pic when I've got the three done.

And the crowd are going wild!

Start date: 2/13. Completion date: 2/21. US 7 needles, Plymouth Encore Worsted in deep brown, light brown, brownstone, white, and dark mauve. Ladies and gents, I present to you: HERMIONE GRAINGER

She's growing fast

By the time I get one picture posted, it's already outdated, LOL! Here's Hermione where I left off last night: 66 rows. She is currently at 77 rows & now has a nose. I'm hoping to have this project off the needles by the end of the weekend, although we're going out Sunday afternoon (tickets to see The Trocks, woo hoo!) so I can't guarantee it will happen.

another quick post

And another Ravelympics project completed; my WIPs-Dancing entry, the orangutan, is finished a mere 2-1/2 years from when I started it. It feels very strange to know that he's not sitting in the stash of yarns, fibers, and patterns waiting to be worked on.

In other news, the books I won from Chea Pet arrived yesterday, hooray! One is "Home Knits" by Suss Cousins, and the other is "Felt" by Robyn Steel-Stickland. I've thumbed through them both several times already, and am getting some project ideas from them. I haven't done much felting before--just a couple little cat toys which have long since disappeared--but I feel rather inspired by the book.

Hermione update: I have more than 60 rows done. She's got complete eyes now, and I'm about mid-way down the cheek. Updated photo pending.

Very brief post

Just wanted to post a quick Ravelry update. I am almost halfway done with Hermione; the photo is at 50 rows & I've done 4 more this morning. That leaves 57 to go. I got a little bit done on the orangutan--the paw pad & thumb are completed & sewn together; two fingers ready to be sewn on, and one more finger ready to be seamed. I've also done about 4" on the scarf. Gotta go get ready for work now.

Oh, yes, now that makes sense

This jpeg is the "medal" I received for completing an object for the Skele-gurumi event in the Ravelympics. Of course, everyone who completes an event gets one, but what the heck.

It looks like I won't be having as much knitting time as I anticipated. Between non-knitting tasks (such as posting on my blog, ha ha) & giving my hands a break, I've barely gotten anything done on Hermione. I'm only 21 rows in. Plus I still have my orangutan to finish. So with knitting time at a premium & doubts about whether I'll have enough time to finish both items, of course I did the only logical thing: I cast on another project to enter into the Ravelympics. Well, it makes sense really. Hermione is too much of a tight-focus project to take along when I go out, and the orangutan has so many little fiddly bits plus a pattern book that he takes up a lot of space, therefore I needed a mindless-knitting project for waiting in line, etc. I'm making a Trellis Lace scarf with the Glacier Teal Twizzle I had left from another project. It fits in my purse & is such an easy pattern that I don't need to carry a pattern book with me.



Ralph & I went to see "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" today. It was all right; our age group is obviously not the target audience, however I enjoyed it. The story line had a few plot holes in it, which I suspect are probably due to cutting the story down from the original book. Just might read the book to find out. After the movie I *finally* got my hair cut; it was looking way too shaggy.

And that's about it, really. Going to go back to knitting soon as I'd like to get a few more rows done on Hermione.

What the cussword was NBC *thinking*????

I am so completely & utterly disgusted with NBC that I could spit. We're in the same time zone as Vancouver, so why did NBC wait until NINE O'CLOCK to start showing the opening ceremonies? Instead we were "treated" to three hours of mini-biographies of a few athletes, most of which went along the lines of "So-and-so began (insert sport here) at the age of 5." You know, I would expect an Olympic athlete to have started up in his/her sport around that age; now, if they'd only been skiing or whatever for three years--that would be newsworthy. This was alternated with repeated slow-motion replays of the tragic & fatal luge accident. Absolutely NO reason for that.

As for the Ravelympics--my my my! I spent a long time last night (over 3 hours) chatting online w/fellow Ravelers all jumping with excitement waiting for the start. The posts were flying so fast & thick that for a while I would finish one page, click to the next, and there would be two more pages added to the end of the line. Whew! It was a lot of fun though.

And after weeks of anticipation, I finally got to cast on for Hermione last night! In fact, I got to cast on for Hermione eight times last night! Yes, you read that right--eight times, which incidentally equals the number of times I frogged her last night (boy, that sounds dirty, LOL!) Five times were for messed up cast-on (ran out of tail before getting all 80 stitches on, or ending up with a 15" tail). Twice was for actual errors in the knitting, and once was because I realized the colors I had chosen were NOT going to work. I ended up setting her aside & casting on for my Skele-gurumi project, which I finished up this morning:



Isn't he cute? I didn't do the head quite right--it's off center, which made my seam off-center as well--but I think it gives him a certain charm. He's actually entered in two events, the Skele-gurumi and the Holiday Ski Jump since he's going to be a Christmas gift. He's also the FIRST completed project for Team Knitted Toys, thankyewverymuch.

After I finished the hammerhead shark, Ralph & I headed out to the yarn store to buy yet another batch of yarn for Hermione since the color scheme just wasn't working. We also went to the bookstore where I picked up three paperbacks. Once home again & after a quick lunch, I cast on for Hermione for the ninth and tenth times. I had given it a lot of thought last night, and have flipped the chart so I'm working from the top of the head down instead of from the neck up. This meant I only had to deal with six bobbins in the first couple rows, as opposed to the fourteen (!!) that the "proper" first row uses. I also managed to reverse the direction of the rows so she's going to be facing left instead of right, which is not a big deal IMHO. I've worked 11 rows so far and am really liking the color scheme. The original chart calls for white, light grey, dark grey, black, and mauve. I've replaced the greys and black with a greyish tan, light brown, and dark brown.

Leftover honey mustard pork loin & green bean casserole for dinner tonight. Don't be impressed by my cooking skills--the pork came pre-seasoned. All I had to do was open the package, put the meat in a pan, and toss it into the hot oven for 45 minutes.

Ravelympics 2010 starts today!

Less than 12 hours until the Ravelympics begin. I was hoping to have the McGonagall square finished before the opening ceremonies, but with 37 rows left to complete at an average of 4 rows an hour I just don't see that happening. Still, it was intended only for practice and I can always finish it in March. I can hardly wait to cast on for Hermione! I think I'll use a larger needle size, though. The US5s I'm using on McGonagall are a wee bit too small, I think.

I haven't decided for sure what I'm going to make with my new Crazyfoot yarn. It's too pretty for socks--I want the project to be seen--and I don't want to make yet another pair of wristwarmers. I was thinking maybe a small beaded bag, if I can find a nice pattern. I do have one pattern on hand, however the first step is to string 600 beads onto the yarn. Yikes! That's just a bit much.

Took the day off work today. I thought Ralph had the day off, too, but alas he's got Monday off. Sigh. Oh, well, it's an opportunity to get some errands done such as getting a haircut, picking up the dog's meds, stuff like that.



Exciting (to me) things are happening at work, too. We've completed two land purchases, one of which already has the models built on it. One is in Stanton with a total of 36 lots (this is the one with the models), the other is in Rancho Etiwanda with 79 lots. Our Grand Opening for the Stanton complex is in two weeks, although there was a "soft" opening last Saturday. I can't remember the last time we actually bought land--maybe 4 years ago? And there's more--we have a new hire in our office! Yes, a genuine new hire, not a transfer from another office/department. Very, very exciting indeed.

Well, that's about it for now. Expect nothing but knitting news for the next 17 days as the Ravelympics progress :-)

It's my lucky day!

Three wonderful things about today: My Crazyfoot yarn arrived, I'm halfway done with the McGonagall square, and I won a knitting book on CheaPet's blog giveaway!!!

Revving up for the Ravelympics

Wow! Less than a week to go until the Ravelympics. I bought the rest of the yarn I needed yesterday, including enough to work on a practice piece for the intarsia event. As you can see, I'm doing the Professor McGonagall chart. The practice piece has turned out to be an even better idea than I thought it would; I've already learned some things that will make my "real" piece go more smoothly. For example, you can never have too many bobbins made up in advance; weave in the ends frequently so they don't tangle with the bobbins; and even if one color takes up a very large area, use a bobbin rather than the full skein.

I also learned that a pattern holder with place marker is vital for these charts. The craft store I went to didn't have any so we improvised. We bought a magnetic dry-erase board and a magnetic place-bar. Unfortunately I didn't like the place-bar at all; it was too short, plus it magnifies which makes it hard to focus on the prior row to make sure everything is lining up properly. Luckily, though, we former Faire Folk are a creative lot. I used the place-bar to hold the pattern to the page, cut a strip off the plastic packaging it had been in, and used the two magnets that came with the board to hold the strip on the pattern, thus marking the row quite well. This morning Ralph took a red Sharpie & ran it along the edge of the strip, making it even easier to track the row.



Had kind of an interesting thought at work the other day. I was wearing one of my Utilikilts, which are actually designed for men, and one of Ralph's shirts since we needed to do laundry. About halfway through the day, I realized that *technically* I was cross-dressing. :-) It amused me very much--and also the co-workers to whom I pointed it out.

Gosh. I always think I'm going to have a lot to write about, and of course I can never remember anything interesting when I'm here at the computer. Oh, well, guess I'll start another load of laundry & get back to knitting.

Countdown to Ravelympics: 13 days!

I am soooo looking forward to the upcoming Ravelympics. I'm planning on entering three events: WIPs-Dancing (completing a project which you have not worked on for at least 3 months); Skele-gurumi (toys & amigurumi) and Nordic Colorwork Combined (any sort of colorwork, intarsia, & fair isle). Today's picture is the chart I'm going to use for my colorwork piece. For the WIPs, I'm intending to finally finish that poor orangutan that I started more than two years ago, and then for my toy I'll be making a small hammerhead shark. The colorwork is going to take a long time so I don't think I'll be able to enter any other events.

Today I went yarn shopping for the colorwork piece. There are actually about 20 different Harry Potter charts, so in addition to the Hermione for the Ravelympics I was also looking for yarns for Snape, Fred & George, and Hedwig. Such frustration! Please note that every chart uses black, white, & two shades of grey (I'm choosing not to use the greys on Hermione, going with brown & tan instead). I wasn't too fussy about the background colors. Anyway, the first place I went to only had one brand of yarn that was suitable. The only white available in that brand had sparkles in it. Sparkles, I tell you! I'm doing Harry Potter intarsia, not Twilight for pity's sake. Also, they didn't really have any colors that I liked for the backgrounds.

The second shop I went to had two brands that I was willing to use. In fact, one of them was the brand I preferred to use for the project. In the preferred brand, they only had one shade of grey and no black at all. The other brand had black, but only in bulky & I need worsted. They did have two shades of grey, but no white. The clerk suggested another brand, but it was much more expensive than the brand I wanted ($9 for 100 yards, compared to $6.25 for 200 yards). I explained to the clerk assisting me that I didn't want to, nor was I going to, pay that much. Back to the preferred brand I went.

I picked out the colors that I need which were in stock, while the clerk puttered around trying to find other brands that would work for those colors that were out of stock. For some reason she kept bringing me totally unsuitable yarns: black in cotton (I'm using a wool/acrylic blend), a pure wool peachy-pink that would have been perfect for Hermione if it hadn't been $10 for 99 yards (um, hello, if I'm not going to pay $9 for 100 yards I'm certainly not paying an extra dollar for one yard less!!) She kept saying, "But you only need it for this little part of the face!" as if that made it less expensive. I finally explained to her that while I had only brought four charts, there are about twenty charts altogether and I was not paying that much for so little. At that point she tried to convince me to switch to another, less expensive brand that was a) 100% acrylic; b) had no black, grey, or white in stock & she wasn't positive it came in grey since it comes in "children's" colors; and c) had no color that wasn't way too bright for the backgrounds. Anyway, long story short (too late!), they are getting another shipment on Thursday and the clerk assures me they will have black & dark grey in the brand I want, which are the only colors I'm missing. I'm tempted, though, to head back to the first shop & see if the black & grey there would be compatible with the yarn I bought at the second one.

It's really odd that I had such troubles at the second shop. I've shopped there before and generally they have just what I'm looking for, and the clerks have never tried to push the "wrong" yarn on me like that. Weird!! I really do believe she was trying to help, and I am not upset with her at all. It was just frustrating when I knew exactly what I wanted, to keep being offered something completely different.

Knitting weekend

Wow, what a great knitting weekend! Saturday a few folks came over--Lizard, her friend L, M from archery, and TS with whom I went to high school--for a knitting day. I hadn't seen TS since we both graduated (mumblemumble) years ago. We met up through Facebook recently. I had posted something about knitting, I don't recall what, and he said he wanted to learn. Of course I immediately offered to teach him.

Anywho, they all came & I made aveglemono soup for lunch with pita chips & some store-bought cookies for dessert. TS did really well, just a bit of trouble with wrapping the yarn in the same direction every time & a little confusion with the first stitch after turning the work which resulted in a few extras on the needle, yet all in all quite a good job for his first time with the needles. He's making a little washcloth for his niece. Lizard finished up a pair of fingerless mitts, M frogged more than she knit on the polar bear she is making, L started a crochet hat, and after I got TS started I turned the heels on a pair of socks.

Yesterday Ralph was gaming with M's husband's D & D group and I got a couple more inches done on the socks. I thought about working on the hermit crab, however the last time I did so (Saturday before guests arrived) I had major troubles picking up the stitches for the claw so I'm giving that one a rest for now. I also thought about starting another earthworm (I made the one in the picture in just a couple hours last week) and then remembered I'm trying to finish up WIPS before starting anything new.



Dinner last night was beef over mashed potatoes. The original recipe was for beef over rice, however we've found it tastes even better with 'taters rather than rice. I made a double batch so there's plenty for tonight, too.

I jinxed it!

Ta da! Photos of the Special Project: a hippo for Mr. Boss Man. He's been pestering me for one for some time. I think at first it was because he didn't think I could do it, and then later because he's a new dad & wants it for his baby girl. Sigh. I hate to think of that adorable hippo getting all slobbered on. I did take pity on him and am only charging him for the yarn, not my time. The pattern is fairly easy, although I did find a few errors in it (such as rounds 5-8, which are plain knit at 18 stitches per round, and it said if you don't like to count rounds you could just knit 360 stitches. Last time I checked, 4 rounds at 18 stitches each gives you 72 stitches, not 360. But then, math has never been my strong point). I might make another one to give as a Christmas gift.

Very wet weather lately. At lunch I said to Mr. Boss Man & BT that in the eight years I've lived in this house, we've never had any problem with flooding in the area. Jinxed! The section of freeway that I take to get home was closed this evening because of, you guessed it, flooding. Luckily I got the traffic report in plenty of time to take an alternate route, and my drive home was quite uneventful. Hope I don't have to cancel my knit group on Saturday because of the rain; another storm is supposed to be coming in.

01/17/10

Would someone kindly explain to our nectarine tree that it is only January, and that spring is two months away? Really, to be in blossom so early in the season is just showing off.

I've had a very good knitting week since last I wrote. I'm trying not to start anything new until I get more WIPs off the needles. I finished the Special Project (pictures to be posted soon) that I was working on. I'm also done with the knitting portion of the Autumn Drop Stitch Scarf; it's currently soaking prior to blocking (along with the matching wristwarmers) and then I need to weave in the ends. Came across a pair of partially-finished cabled socks that I started last summer & set aside because the cables didn't really show up well with the colorful yarn. I frogged those and cast on a new pair. That doesn't count as a new project since it's really just starting over on a WIP. These are just going to be in plain stockinette. The yarn is so vibrant that it really doesn't need a fancy stitch.

Spent huge quantities of money yesterday. Zoe needed her vaccinations; Mudgie needed his vaccinations and his teeth cleaned; and Sadie went back in for yet another follow-up on her skin problems. She goes back again in another week. In three weeks, provided her blood work comes back OK, the vet is *finally* going to put her on steroids. We've been trying to get her to do this since the first time we brought Sadie in; we knew that her skin problems were chronic (she had them when she belonged to Neighbor D) and that this "give her a shot & see if it comes back" treatment was not the way to go.

After that, Ralph said he wanted to get a DVD player for the bedroom. We used to have one in there, and moved it to the living room after that player got fried. Hadn't realized how often I throw a movie into the player while folding laundry until it wasn't there anymore, and Ralph finds it nice to lie on the bed & watch movies when his back hurts too much to sit comfortably. We found a really cheap one ($30) and of course had to buy several new movies to go with it: Up; Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest; Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer; Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince; Lord of the Rings: Return of the King; and Nine.

Trying to decide what to serve for lunch when my knitting group comes over next week. It would help if I knew how many people are going to be here. So far I've got one "yes" and six "maybes." Maybe I'll just wait to see who shows up, then order pizza accordingly. Might even get it from Buono's; they're a little pricey but soooooo worth it.

Knitting woes again

Well, not really woes. Lots of WIPS but nothing I really want to work on right now. I really need to buckle down & frog an inch of the sweater & re-knit it while alternating skeins to break up the pooling/flashing that the peach color is insisting upon doing, but am just not ready to face ripping out approximately 1,200 stitches while simultaneously keeping track of where the three stitch markers go once everything is back on the needles. Have a Special Project that I won't detail here in case the recipient is amongst The Teeming Millions, but the first pattern I printed for it has errors & I haven't printed up the revised one, plus I'm really not in the mood to start it over. Again. I've got the scarf I've been working on since before Christmas, but that's good, mindless knitting which makes it perfect for the exercise bike. That just leaves the hermit crab, which I find is more construction than knitting: lots of picking up stitches, grafting (the shell had 270 stitches to be grafted together, yikes!), and when all that's done lots of sewing. And of course I hear the siren song of untouched skeins of yarn just begging to be cast onto needles.

Recently finished a really good book, "Dog On It" by Spencer Quinn. Unlike most mystery novels, this one dealt with a missing person rather than a murder. The main characters are Bernie, a PI, and his dog Chet. Chet narrates the books & again, unlike other books with animal narrators, he actually acts like a dog, and thinks the way one might imagine a dog thinks. I enjoyed it so much that I went to the bookstore on Saturday & bought the second one in the series ("Thereby Hangs a Tail"), even though it's only available in hardcover (I almost never buy hardcover). I just couldn't wait 9 or 10 months for the paperback to come out. I could hardly stop reading it, and had it finished by about 10:00 am on Sunday. Now I have a long wait for the next one.

Not much to say

As is often the case, not a lot going on during the week. Just work, really. I do finally have a picture of my finished sweater. I'm pleased with it (the sweater, not necessarily the picture) although there are things that I'll be modifying on the current one. The current one is on hold temporarily; the yarn is pooling/flashing like mad & I'm not sure I like it. So, I'm going to set it aside for a while & then look at it again before deciding if I'm going to frog some of it, and if so how much. I'm thinking about an inch right now, then alternating between two balls of yarn to break up the pooling. However, at over 200 stitches per round & six rounds per inch, I'm not sure I *really* want to frog. In the meantime, I've picked up the hermit crab again--which reminds me, I need to wind the skeins for the shell & underside of the legs before I go to work this morning.

Gosh--I think that's about everything. . . such an exciting life I lead.

Out with the old year, in with the new

And so begins another year. Hard to believe it's been a decade since all the Y2K Bug hoopla. Now I know why Mom always talked about the years going by so quickly.

Busy day for today. Going to buy a plant for Hoover's grave, need to do laundry, need to do grocery shopping, Ralph wants to go to the movies, I want to go to the bookstore, need to go to the yarn shop for pink & grey yarn and a size 7 circular needle. I suspect some of these items will be pushed to tomorrow.

Stayed home New Year's Eve as usual, however we spent New Year's Day at JM & KM's house. Had a really good time seeing old friends & meeting new people. I spent most of the day yakking with Cargo, a girl I met at the party. Food was delicious; turkey, wild rice stuffing, mashed taters & gravy, and KM made latkes, only instead of potato she used butternut squash. Wonderful! Ralph & I of course brought corn casserole. OH! And KM made illusion food sushi. For the Teeming Millions who may not know, illusion food is food created to look like other food. In this case, the "sushi" was really a dessert: angel food cake instead of rice, dried papaya instead of dsalmon, clementine segments instead of shrimp, etc. It really did look like sushi & tasted wonderful.

I started a new sweater on Thursday & was working on it during the party (of course). All of a sudden, I feel a hard THWACK! in my lap. I look around, and notice a tortoiseshell cat hiding under the Christmas tree and staring intently at the circular needle cord. I kept knitting, and sure enough he tentatively reached out and then gave a mighty THWACK! to the cord again. It was really funny to watch. After a while he got braver & sat next to me on the bench, playing with the yarn & needle. When I told KM she was surprised that a) I was brave enough to bring out my knitting in a house that has five cats and b) that the little tortoiseshell came out when so many people were around as he is normally shy.

So, the sweater. I'm using the same basic pattern as I did for my first one, however I'm going to be modifying it quite a bit. I've changed the increases from knit front and back (which makes a little bar across the bottom of the stitch) to a lifted increase, which is smoother. I'll be adding short rows to the bustline, which gives extra length to the front so it won't ride up. I'm also going to shape the waistline a little bit--maybe an inch per side--so that it's not so boxy. Oh, and instead of ribbing I'll use seed stitch. I guess about the only reason I'm using the pattern is to know when to switch from rows to knitting in the round, when to divide for the sleeves, and where to put the sleeve decreases. OK, so that's three reasons. Whatever.

Today's photo: the wonderful, if overly-large, Christmas Story pajama pants Ralph gave me. Best viewed large. As always, ignore things like the sock on the floor & the dog butt going by.