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.

A Sad Day

RIP Hoover, my knitting kitty 2001-2009

Boxing Day 2009

Well, as you can see, Ralph looooooved the spider I made for him :-)

Christmas was a very good day. I like all the gifts I got, including the "it's not a Christmas gift" Lizard gave me: stitch markers with little pictures of Jeff Goldblum on them. I don't know if I'll be able to get a good picture since my camera is not so hot with focusing on small items but I'll give it a try later on when the sun is out. I think Ralph liked everything he got, too, including the spider although he will never admit to that.



Had a very nice time visiting at The Kids' place. Lots of chatting, good food, good company, and AT even kept his new hat on long enough for Lizard & me to get a few pictures of him wearing it.

Yay! It's Christmas!

Merry Christmas!! Woke up with a song from a musical version of "A Christmas Carol" stuck in my head: "Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, bah, humbug, who cares? Candy canes and cuddle bunnies, fluffy teddy bears. Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, bah, humbug I say! Christmas is just a day, like any other daaaaaaaay!" Of course, that is exactly the opposite of how I feel about it all.



Can't wait until Ralph gets up & sees his stocking. Yes, that's it in the pictures. See, he's a bit of an arachnophobe, with the black widow spider being the worst enemy of all. So of course I just had to knit one for him & use it to top his stocking. In addition to clinging to the top, it's also holding a couple of the gifts that didn't quite fit inside. Heh, heh, heh!!



Got some holiday baking done yesterday. Made two batches of cookies & a jelly roll. The jelly roll is not a pretty sight--the cake decided to cleave itself unto the pan until death did them part--but I managed to patch it up well enough. It's only Ralph & I who will be eating it so it's not a big deal that it is less-than-picture-perfect. It tastes good, too. The cookies are to take over to The Kids' place today.

Only 4:20 in the morning. I am sooooo ready to start Christmas. Wake up Ralph, wake up! I guess I could see what's in my stocking, however I think it will be more fun to wait for him & open ours together. Guess I'll surf the web while I sipsipsip my coffee (running joke between me & my sister there, should she happen to read this) & then do some knitting until he gets up.

Speaking of knitting, I'm working on a scarf & pair of wristwarmers. I started the scarf first, decided I wanted some wristwarmers to match, and am knitting those from the other end of the ball of yarn (hooray for center-pull balls!), then will finish the scarf when those are done. That way I don't have to worry about using so much yarn in the scarf that there isn't enough for the wristwarmers. I'm using Jitterbug in October Afternoon, which has about 3 shades of dark orange and a bit of green in it. Not sure what it will look like after blocking; my fingers turn orange after a few rounds/row so I know it will bleed like a head wound when it gets wet. I'm planning on putting some vinegar in the water to help set the dye.

Good dogs, my butt!

What has gotten into my dogs lately? Two weeks ago, I caught Sadie sleeping on the couch. A few nights ago, I caught Hali sleeping on the couch. Last night, I caught Hali in the act of jumping onto the couch. And as you can see from the photo, Zoe has decided that the basket of formerly-clean laundry makes a good dog bed. And here I thought we had good girls. Please pardon the poor quality of the photo; the lens was dirty, and of course the battery died after I took the shot so I couldn't get a better one after cleaning the lens.

Still finishing up Christmas knitting. You would think, since I started two weeks before last Christmas, that I would be done by now. Guess I shouldn't have spent so much time making octopi, even if they are fun. I finished K's mittens, and AM was my Santa's Helper & gave them to her yesterday. AM said that K's face just lit up. I'm really glad I decided to make them. I also made a little hat for my great-nephew A; it's a mini version of the ogre hat I made before. Now I am working on one last gift & am halfway done with it. Then maybe I can finally finish my sweater that I started in the spring.

I got all of Ralph's gifts wrapped today, and his stocking is stuffed & ready. I sort of overdid it on the stocking stuffers, and had to wrap some of them instead as not everything would fit. Still have some things to wrap for other folks, but I got burned out today doing his so they will have to wait.

Tomorrow we plan to finally get a tree. We had a really good artificial one, but sadly it has given up the ghost so it's time for a new one.

Mittens, fish, and a parade

Merry 12 days before Christmas! I am nearly done with the gift-knitting. Working on the penultimate project now: a pair of mittens for K, a homeless woman who lives under the stairs at work. She leaves her little area very early in the morning with all her things packed up in a big backpack, and I thought a pair of mittens would keep her hands warm on a cold day/night, but be small enough to fit in the backpack without adding a lot of weight in warmer weather. They are rather large, as I figured she could still wear them if they were too big but not if they were too small.

Yesterday I finished the last of the fish hats. I've got the whole school of them here in this photo (the dark blue/purple striped one is the one I just finished). Well, not quite the whole school; I left out the ones I made for Ralph and myself, and of course I couldn't include the one I sent to Cheapet in Oklahoma earlier this year. I need to get a box to pack them up & ship them out. Hope they are well-received.



Before moving on with the next topic, I need to sort of explain the layout of the streets around here. We're on Maine; to the south of us is Barnett, to the north is Hill, and behind us (to the east) is Daisy. In the section behind us, Daisy is a two-way street, but when it hits Hill it splits into two one-way streets with a wide stretch of grass dividing it. This section of one-way streets is the City's "Christmas Tree Lane," and every year the City puts up decorations in the grassy area (I'll get some pictures later today) and many of the residents put up some amazing light displays.

So last night was the annual Christmas parade. It starts at the intersection of Daisy & Barnett, goes up the east side of the one-way section, back down the west section, turns onto Hill then comes down our street, ending at the intersection of Maine & Barnett. I went for a walk last night to looky-loo the lights, and as luck would have it the parade started just as I was nearing the intersection of Daisy & Barnett. I went back up Daisy a ways to find a place to sit that wasn't too wet. This is only the second time I've seen the whole parade in the eight years we've lived here (it's only been coming down our street for the past two years; it used to end at Hill). It's sort of a dorky parade--poorly spaced, with some groups too close together followed by long waits for the next group to come up--but I enjoyed myself waving madly at the people in the fancy cars & fire trucks as they went by.

I especially liked two things about the parade. The first was this really cool police car. It was the normal-for-California black and white, except where the paint colors met it was painted in flames so there were black flames extending from the front of the car into the white section, and white flames extending from the middle of the car into the back black section. Really awesome. My other favorite was a group of cheerleaders. They were quite good, very enthusiastic & energetic, but what I really liked about it was that they had girls of different ages & sizes, not just skinny teenagers. The youngest was probably about seven or eight, the oldest I'd guess to be about sixteen. One of the girls in the front was about, oh I'd say thirteen or so, definitely on the heavy side, and IMHO the best performer in the group (which is probably why she was at the front). This girl could *move.*

Once the whole parade had passed by (ending, of course, with Santa Claus & his reindeer atop a fire engine) I walked back home only to discover that SOMEbody had locked the door. Did I have my keys? Nooooooo, of course not. I rang the bell but no reply. So I sat outside for a bit & re-watched the beginning of the parade as it started to make its way past our house. Ralph eventually came out (he'd been in the jacuzzi in the backyard) and let me in. Luckily it wasn't too cold out or he'd have been in big trouble :-)

Today's exciting plans include grocery shopping, maybe a little Christmas shopping, wrapping some gifts, and yay laundry.

12/09/09

Today was a good day at work. First off was our quarterly meeting, which was actually a lot of fun. It was E's birthday, and first Mr. Boss Man's Boss made him sing "Happy Birthday" by himself, then we all sang it to him. Awards were given & guess who won Admin Associate of the Quarter? Why, yes, it was indeed I. I thought for sure it was going to be Ms. Boss Woman, up until the word "sarcastic" was used in the description of the winner. Funny, a lot of people looked at me at that point. . . anyway, I got a very nice plaque and a hundred dollars, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Speaking of sneezing, there was also a health fair at work. There were about a dozen companies there including a dental office (free toothbrush!), a doctor's office (free band-aids!), and a bloodmobile. There was also a representative from Sam's Club; not really health related, but they are offering a membership discount to our company right now and today was a good day for him to come out since all the field people were there for the division meeting. He was giving out cookies, which I skipped because Ralph bought Entenmann's donuts last night & I knew I'd want one after dinner.

It's a good thing that work was a pleasant day, because my knitting SUCKED. I'm making a hermit crab, and one part of the instructions says to purl one row that I was positive should have been knit. So, silly me, I knit that row. I'm now at a point where it's obvious why it was purled, and now I either have to live with it not looking right, or pull out the picked-up stitches, cast-off, and incorrect row. I'll probably do the latter, as I had major problems kitchenering (grafting) the picked-up stitches. I kept getting off count, plus I cut the yarn too short & had to do a Russian join which is great for knitting but terrible for grafting. I might just chuck the whole piece & start over on it; it's only 22 rows plus the picked up stitches so that's not so bad.

Today's picture is kinda crappy--too dark, and there are dirty cups on the table ooops! However, I like it because it shows the two resting styles of my cats. Hoover is all neatly tucked up like the meatloaf he is, while Mudgie is sprawled like a dropped Jell-o mold. What a pair!

And it's a sad thing indeed when one's onliest sister doesn't even read one's blog.

Now we'll see if Lizard is still reading my blog

People at work are really getting into the holiday spirit with decorations appearing every day. VT, I think, has topped us all with this inflatable snowglobe. I've never seen one in a building before, except in stores that are selling them. He said he's had it in his garage for years, and since he can't put it up at his apartment he figured work was the place for it.

Now, to see if Lizard is still reading my blog, I've posted two photos that will be of interest to her. The first is of Mudgie being a monorail cat; she mentioned a while back that she had searched my Flickr account looking for such a photo & was surprised that I didn't have any. The second is of LS's Eeyore Family Christmas, the latest addition to the costumed Eeyores she uses to decorate her cubicle.


It's been a pretty busy morning. I got up at 5:00, and by 5:50 I had ridden the exercise bike for 30 minutes, brewed the coffee, packed lunches, gave Sadie her pill, fed the dogs, cleaned the cat box & taken a shower. I'm ready for a nap, ha ha! Mind you, tomorrow will be busy too as we have to take 4 of our 5 mammals to the vet for vaccinations. The dogs aren't too bad, but since Hoover's last visit resulted in me getting scars I'm not really looking forward to taking him in.




Ralph made a wonderful potato dish last night. He sliced up red potatoes very thin, layered them with onion & butter in a shallow dish, then baked it. After the potatoes were completely cooked, he topped it with shredded cheese & baked it another 20 minutes or so. The bottom was brown & crusty, the onions cooked until they were sweet, and the cheese was just starting to turn brown. Delicious!!

Utilities--what fun

Did utility shut-offs at work. This is when homes have closed & we notify (and by "we" I mean "I") the companies to let them know that we no longer own the homes. It's really getting to be a ridiculous process. Before, I would just send a fax for each community and be done with it. Things have changed, though. For example, at our Beaumont location, the water company insists that we use their form with a separate one filled out for each home rather than one fax with all the info on it. Palm Springs water wants theirs e-mailed, and also to please put the new homeowner's first name on it as well (normally we only put the last). We have three communities that use Southern California Edison, and those have to be done on another fax specifically for SCE, because unless there are at least seven shut-offs on the fax, they won't do it; you have to phone them in. So that means two faxes & an e-mail for Palm Springs, and for Beaumont one fax for SCE, one fax for the gas company, and one fax per home for the water. Oh, well, at least they're done for another week.

Sadie's chewed-up spots are clearing up, so of course now Hali's started. Sigh. We used some of Sadie's spray on it which hopefully will help. We also Frontlined all five animals last night; I was going to say it was a bit early for it, however now that I think about it today is the first of the month; they were early by what--12 hours? If the weather is warm enough we'll bathe all the dogs this weekend with the special shampoo the vet prescribed.

I had two weird dreams last night. One was I was at rehearsal for the Renaissance Faire, and realized I had committed myself to being in Danse Macabre, AND the Washerwomen, AND St. Ives. Most of the dream was trying to work out a schedule where all three would get a decent amount of my time as well as leaving me some free time to see the Faire. The other was I came back from vacation to discover that not only had someone turned my office into a storeroom, but I was now sharing that office/storeroom with Ms. Boss Woman. Luckily she was good at organizing & got it cleared out enough for us to work.

By the way, if anyone has the slightest clue where I put the pipe cleaners, please let me know.

Wow, Blogger really knows me today!

So, usually when I click the "next blog" icon in the toolbar, I end up getting websites that aren't in English, or are basically big advertisements for products in which I have no interest, and the like. I have just spent about an hour clicking on the "next blog" icon, and with one exception, every single blog was related to crafting in some way: knitting, crocheting, felting, scrapbooking, quilting, card-making, even one on soapmaking! Found the blogs of several Ravelry folks. I have been online at least 30 minutes longer than I had planned just because I couldn't believe how many crafty blogs were popping up. Mind you, the one exception was really not up my alley at all--it was a "mommy blog" where all the posts were about her kids and filled with photos of her kids. So not me. . .

Black Friday

So, y'all have any big shopping plans for Black Friday? I'm not one for the crowds, so other than a trip to the yarn shop & picking up a couple things at the grocery store, I'm staying home today. Well, I might go to the bookstore, too. I just don't get the whole rushrushrushcrowdcrowdcrowdgimmegimmegimme mentality that seems to go with the Friday after Thanksgiving.

And here's something I can't believe I forgot to mention. Last week Ralph entered his first archery tournament. It was all bare bow (no sights or stabilizers allowed) and had several different categories. He entered for longbow, and took first place for most hits in that category (107 hits out of 108 shots). As far as he could tell, the second-highest number of hits was 99 so you can see he did really well for his first tournament ever. He even knows what he did wrong that made him miss that one shot. His friend PmcA took first for most bulls-eyes (9) using a Mongolian horseman's bow.

My sweater is very close to being finished. I only have one sleeve left to do, having completed the first one last night. I tried it on & it fits better than I expected it to. I should have knit it a little bit longer--maybe another inch or two--although of course if it really bothers me I can take out the bind-off, undo the ribbing, and add a couple inches before reknitting the ribbing. I certainly have enough yarn for that, having grossly overestimated the amount I'd need. I had calculated that I would need 11 skeins of the yarn I had picked, bought 13 just to be on the safe side, and at this point have 6-1/2 skeins with which to knit one sleeve. Perhaps when I go to the yarn shop today I'll see if the clerks have any suggestions as to what to make with the leftovers; it was a sale purchase and cannot be returned so I definitely need to make something with it. Too bad it's hand-wash only; I'd make a doggie blanket out of it if it was machine washable, but I'm not going to hand-wash a blanket that's for sure!

As Christmas approaches, I'm taking a moment to point out the link to your left for Heifer International. Instead of just feeding the hungry, this organization provides livestock (such as cows, sheep, goats, rabbits, bees, and even llamas & water buffalo) & training to families in need all over the world so they can break the cycle of poverty and become self-sufficient. They also organize collectives so when the initial donation has grown to where there is surplus produce, the people have a place to sell it. Then there is the "passing of the gift," where the initial recipient gives the first female offspring to another needy family. There are animal gifts to fit every donor's budget, from $20 for a flock of chicks up to $10,000 for an animal ark. I generally donate chicks or bees as they both fit my budget and provide multiple benefits: chicks can be turned loose in the family garden where they eat insects & sprouting weeds, plus their droppings are free fertilizer. As adults, a hen can produce as many as 200 eggs in a year, providing protein for the family & with a flock of hens, surplus to be sold. As for bees, in addition to providing the obvious honey & beeswax, they pollinate local gardens and orchards which can as much as double the crop yield. Anyway, end of public service announcement :-)

Thanksgiving morning

I have finally remembered to take pictures of the spider I knit back in August. I think it came out pretty well, eh?

Have the Thanksgiving feast all planned out. Assembled a pumpkin pie last night, so dessert is already taken care of. I've got a 14 pound turkey, which is a little larger than I wanted but what was available in the store. Have the oysters for the stuffing although I need to get celery, as well as sour cream for the corn casserole. Instant mashed potatoes (yes, I know!) and some gravy packets in case there aren't enough drippings to make gravy. Mmm, mmm!! Way too much food for just the two of us; I'll have to freeze some of the leftovers to avoid wasting it I think.

Been getting a lot of knitting done. Think I'll do some spinning this weekend, though. I've got some purple merino/silk that I started on the travel wheel a month or so ago and really ought to finish it up. I've also got some yellow merino & orange corriedale that I want to blend together, as I don't care much for them separate. However, the yellow will brighten up the orange and I think the blend will be an improvement.

As usual, not much else going on. Hopefully something exciting will happen for me to blog about :-)

Dull weekend ahead

Nothing exciting planned for this weekend. Need to take Sadie to the vet as she is chewing her skin raw. Need to buy cat litter. Hope to get some knitting done. Need to buy food for Thanksgiving. Ralph doesn't know for sure yet if he is working that day or not, but I can serve dinner at 6:30 as easily as our more traditional 3:00 pm holiday meal.

Traffic SUCKED last night, and not in that good way you can charge extra for. Took me almost 2 hours to get home. I was tired, cranky, and headache-y by the time I arrived. Ralph, sweetheart that he is, had dinner just about ready, hooray! It was much appreciated, even if it was only re-heated leftovers.

And that's it for today's exciting blog entry.

Forgot to mention. . .

When one clicks on the "People" tab in Ravelry, part of the page has a "Random Assortment of Favorites." Yesterday, one of the random projects was mine! I was so excited, I didn't want to close the page. Silly, I know. This is the project that came up: the Bigfoot Shawl.