In the Groove.....

It's been so long since I have felt truly inspired at the torch, I don't even remember the last time. Tonight is the night, I can tell. (So what the aitch eee double-hockey sticks am I doing here??) I should have been able to predict this - I ran into an old school friend today, and made tentative arrangements to meet him and another fellow for karaoke at Sister Jane's bar pub tonight.

Knitting News

Not much, really. Worked some on the second Peacock sock, and knit another couple of mitered squares.

Interesting Encounters

I carried my cuppa coffee to the counter at the service station and the clerk greeted me with an enthusiastic "Hola!" (Please use your imagination to insert the upside down exclamation point at the beginning.) My high school Spanish kicked in and I answered "Hola. Que tal, como esta usted?" (again with the imaginary punctuation, please.) Then Fred (get this) asked me "Donde esta el bano con queso malo?" Yah, he asked me where is the bathroom with the bad cheese.

I'm off to the torch - and by the way, just because I announce I'm inspired, don't expect great things. I'll keep you posted.

Starstruck

I used to think I was cool, not the type to go all giddy just from a little attention from someone famous. Well, I'm here to tell you that I'm not. You know about Wendy and her upcoming contest with L-B, right? A couple of days ago I left a comment asking her if she planned to begin her Inishmore at a minute after midnight on the starting date. Today when I was reading her last two posts, I discovered she answered me in public, in front of God and everybody! And she linked to me!! Am I a doofus for getting happy about that, or what?



I have some Schachenmayr Crazy Cotton (from Elann) that I bought thinking of socks. It's sportweight cotton, and too heavy for socks, though. In considering what else I could knit with it, I remembered coveting the Jamie Blankie by Kay of Mason-Dixon fame. I dug out some natural cotton from my stash, and have started down the path of mitered squareness. I'm already eyeing the colorway, and working out which colors of glass to use for a matching set of beads.

I have a question for all you Grammar Avengers. It has to do with the use of a/an preceding an acronym such as LYS. I never can decide just which way to swing when I'm writing something like that ... the rules tell me to write a LYS because of the "L," but when speaking aloud, I would say "an ell wye ess" - yes? What would you do?

Muse Does Double Duty

My fascination with patterning yarns is spilling over into the glasswork. Check out my latest "matching set."



Pretty nifty, eh? The wool is Lang Yarns Bebe Color 100% superwash wool... snagged from the clearance shelf at Stitches and Scones. I'm using US1.5/2.5mm dpns from Doublepointed.com. The beads are on eBay.

I'm going through a love/hate relationship with these needles. On the plus side, they're made of wood, are 5" long, and come in sets of 5 for a killer price. On the minus, they're, well, not exactly splintering, but they do catch the wool. I've devoted literally hours to sanding and waxing. I got a nice note from customer service when I wrote to them about this offering to replace any of the needles I'm unhappy with. I'm hesitant to part with any of these needles I've worked on so hard as I have a feeling the replacements wouldn't be any better. Ya get what you pay for, right?

Thanks .... But No Thanks

Zak gifted me with a very special Mothers' Day pressie today. I headed out back for my daily sit-and-knit a little later than usual. Okay, this is how oblivious I can be..... I knit for nearly 15 minutes before gazing down toward my feet to see a pile of fluffy gray feathers...... and a bird's head. Yep - just a head. Say it with me: "Euuuuuuuuwwwwwwww!" I must admit I considered taking a pic for the blog, but in the end decided to spare you.



Finished the Lorna's Laces Lakeview sox on Friday. The second sock just lay awaiting the afterthought heel for over a week. I don't know exactly when I became so blase about completing sox, but I didn't even try these on until yesterday for the photo session. You can't really tell in the photograph, but the colors and dye pattern are slightly different. My fault for not checking to be sure I had the same dyelot. I know it's no big deal, really, but you'd think when I decided to invest $18 in wool for a single pair of sox that I'd at least check.



These are the second pair of my summer sox, knit from Cascade Fixation. I can get one pair of footies from one 50g ball, so they're very economical. I sort of went crazy over at Elann with the Sock-It-to-Me, and have a bunch of colors now. Remember the Peacock sock? I've cast on and knit a couple of inches of the second sock.

Hey to my pal Doro!! She's an online friend from way back in my polymer clay days. It's been ages (maybe a couple of years??) since we've spoken... I was reading some of the Harlot's archives (including comments) when I ran across Dorothy, and e-mailed her right away. Good to talk to you again, my friend. I haven't forgotten that I want to send you a box of yarn.

Speaking of the Yarn Harlot, no, I ended up not going up to K'zoo on Friday. I was bummed to miss out, but that's just the way I am. I did order the bookbookbook from Kaleidoscope Yarns, though. (Plus a few balls of wool to keep the book company.)

Instead of travelling to Michigan, I got to babysit for niece Jill. We had fun; she's a pistol! She says "Shake it, baby" and other things. Sister Jane is trying to convince me Jill says "Shake your booty," but I swear I hear boobies... I'm just saying.

Harry Potter and the Klingon Empire

Q: What do Harry Potter, a Klingon Bird of Prey, and my blog have in common?

A: Invisibility, baby!

See, it's not that I haven't written any posts over the last week and a half, it's just that they never actually made it to the computer. What I need to do, it seems, is to develop a cable hookup between my brain and the net. No, better still, make it wireless! Of course, that means most of the time I'd have to walk around with my head covered in aluminum foil to prevent everything from spilling out. Perhaps a nice wool hat with a foil lining would do the job.....

Wednesday I finally got it together and cleaned up the back yard. The horrid ice storm in January left so many branches and sticks on the ground it seemed to take forever to pick them all up... and enough broken still in the trees that every wind brings down more. Anyhow, Jill and I picked up the last of them and I mowed the halfway-to-the-knees-high grass. I just love a newly-mown lawn.

So I sat out back last evening enjoying my short grass and the birdsong, knitting on the current Sock-It-To-Me pair. They're Peacock, and use the Double-Eyelet Rib pattern in 365 Knitting Stitches a Year, June 14th. Oh, and before I forget, thanks to the Harlot for pointing me in the directions to the errata. Jeez, a person could have half the calendar just by printing out the corrected pages!

Ummm, where was I? Oh yeah, the Peacock sock. Here's a pic of the first one:



Also snapped a pic of the complete Sage socks:



Knitted from Elann's Sock It To Me Sage, using US3 / 3.25mm dpns.

Zack the cat is such an enigma. He's not exactly afraid of heights, but does indeed usually find a way to avoid jumping from more than three feet up. So last evening he went into stalking cat mode, and raced up this tree to follow a bird. I couldn't believe how high he climbed - see, here's proof:



Yeah, you'll just have to take my word for it that he's really where the arrow indicates... Here's the real Zack:



I know, gorgeous, isn't he?

I'm still debating this evening's activity. I really really do want to go see the Yarn Harlot in action, but knowing me I'll poop out. It is only a 3 1/2 hour drive (or so), so that's not really the issue. If someone had told me ten years ago that I'd be such a hermit now, I'd have called 'em a big fat liar. I also want to go see Bryony's play.... she's so excited about being on stage at the Paramount!

What's new in glass action..... oh! oh! oh! I can't believe I almost forgot this! I finally made a set of end-beads for the bamboo needles I bought ages ago... Whaddya think?



Better get back to the torch for some more...