My Middle Name is Patience

Weekends Weekdays

    Knitting in Public! Check out her sexy glasses combo (she pointed them out). Darn I didn't go back and see if she was on Ravelry, I was standing in a VERY long line for tickets and getting texted to hurry up and come claim my seat. The ferry was PACKED Saturday before last. I was hoping SF would be deserted due to Bay Bridge being closed but oddly enough, no. It was fun wandering the Ferry Building and the Farmer's Market but it was warmer than I expected. I go to the City for the cold. Well. Among other things.

The rest of the weekend was spent in a haze of knitting and reading. I'm reading Anthony Levi's Cardinal Richelieu: The Making of France and jeepers creepers, he never ran across a name he couldn't mention. Not to mention that France was worse than England when it comes to name changes. Cardinal Richelieu started out as Armand Jean du Plessis. Not a startling name change but it just struck me as.....well, I'd never thought of him having any name other than "Cardinal Richelieu". I'm deep like that.  He was named after his two grandfathers.

The knitting haze was almost finishing the sleeves on Dad's cardigan. Behold! Evidence of how two needles become one and an unknittable moebius strip at that. It's not like I did that once or twice either. Staggering regularity.  (It's hidden a bit by the yarn crossing.) That's the sleeve to Dad's cardigan, it's more baby blue IRL and the wonky brocade stitch will block out.

After a week of 90-100+ weather, it cooled down and RAINED over last weekend. YES! Mom and I went to a dollhouse show sponsored by CHAMPS benefiting Children's Hospital of Oakland (where I had several surgeries as a kid) - the dollhouse show was so much fun. It was like knitters with minatures. Vendors, exhibitors, all immersed in their craft and happy to point out details or explain. And I managed to take ONE picture. Argh. But she's knitting! And he's reading!

I have to go to Monterey for a tax class this week. Don't you feel sorry for me?

  Hez, hopping onto the bench covered by the progress to date on the  Curve of Pursuit. The optical illusion bit threw her off at first but now she's leaping with abandon. Oh! And Purling Oaks sent her catnip in plastic bags that I've rubbed on toys but you know what she does? Roots out the plastic bag and starts playing with it! It's hilarious.

Hez sez "I can't stand to even look at you. You're not done with anyone else's project and you're casting on TWO projects for yourself, you selfish chit."

 

It's Good to be Queen

Well, I'm guessing it's good. So far I haven't realized my life-long goal of ruling over a vast and powerful kingdom but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

In the meantime, it's been good to be me. Matching necklace (above) and (below) from left to right, stitchmarkers, said matching earrings, delicious looking picture of a cinnamon roll - that's why I've been craving cinnamon rolls! (as if I'm not always craving cinnamon rolls.....) from Opal The Akamai Knitter at her shop Opalescent Jewels.

A bag from JessaLu , perfect!  (I've been stuffing my mom's stole into it and then stuffing it in my purse - finally it stops catching in the zipper - I have to say one fabulous thing about Misti Alpaca, that yarn is resilient.)

The latest yarn from the Mean Girl's Yarn Club.........oh wait, I can't show you yet.

Knitting update: more done on my mother's stole. More yarn purchased just in case.

The Undulating Waves Beaded Scarf is now a little more than half done. It turns out I cannot count repeats accurately. I have approximately 5 feet of beads still to knit. I wish I'd measured the beads when I first started it.

More done on Fickleknitter's Market Bag. A lot more would've been done if I could count repeats accurately. (Hmm, I'm sensing a theme).

Zippo was done on Curve of Pursuit, the SIL's gorgeous cable scarf that I will probably be unable to part with, Dizzy Blonde Basic Noir Black shawl or my Dad's cardigan.

My cousin flew into California on business this last week so after he was done with work, one night my Dad took us all out to dinner and since he admitted he'd never really been to SF, the next one we took the Oakland ferry over to the Ferry Building, ate at Mijita (scrumptious) and then wandered up and down the wharf. The seals/sea lions/sea creatures are still there but man, there are a lot of them! They've been given their own little enclave now too. We watched a hilarious performer at Pier 39 - okay he was probably more hokey than out and out hilarious but I like hokey.

We probably should've taken the cable car at Hyde up to Powell but the line was practically back to the sidewalk and I had visions of missing the last ferry boat and wandering Oakland, unable to find Jack London Square in the dark. (Which is unlikely but par for the course for things I worry about).

READING UPDATE: So far in August, I'm still reading Ring of Fire (I'm on the last short story by Eric Flint, The Wallenstein Gambit) but I've been seized with the idea that I MUST research the 30 years war so that I'll actually get the alt history bit so I'm also reading The Thirty Years War  by Geoffrey Parker and dragging around Moral Relativism by Steven Lukes because at least that fits in my purse. I am on roughly page 8 on both of those.

 

Hez sez: "I am undercover, you maroon. I know it's the last day of your [*coughing fit*]XX-ies but you'd think you could at least keep my hideout on the down low."

Little of this, little of that

San Francisco in the dawn's early light....or 9:30am. Close enough. I went into the City via BART Saturday to meet up with Bev and Jewel, finally! and get in a yarn crawl. The yarn crawl ended up being ImagiKnit - which alone was a crawl in itself. I think we were there for three hours and never noticed the time. I found some yummy J Knit  and Jewel picked up what I think was some Cascade Heritage Sock Yarn for herself and as a gift while Bev stayed strong and bought only for others. Bev's sister in law Karin came with but i can't remember what she bought! We talked shop  - it's so much fun to for a chance chat with a fellow tax preparer. After we wore out ImagiKnit, we walked a block or two over to Dolores Street Cafe (yum) for some much needed late lunch then Jewel dropped me back off at BART, because typically when I'm out having fun, my head sabotages me. Okay, possibly it was also from staying up half the night most of the week finishing off books and then working like a fiend. But for some reason, I like the first theory.

I also finally made it to the Farmer's Market at the SF Ferry Building! It's only been there for ages. The Oakland Ferry doesn't go directly to it until noonish and for some weird reason (I commuted on BART for something like 15 years) I was leery of BART. But BART worked beautifully, I barely waited for a train either way, maybe because it was 9am and 60 degrees on Saturday morning rather than noon and 102 degrees on a Sunday afternoon? the Embarcadero station is only a block away. Some of the more crowded shops inside the Ferry Building have booths outside, Acme Breads, Cowgirl Creamery. (Farmer's Market SF Ferry Building)

(My backyard garden. Darn, I forgot to take a picture of the Mystery Vegetable Tree.)

In knitting news, I'm still knitting Mom's Stole, the SIL's cable scarf, Dad's Cardigan, my beaded scarf and the Curve of Pursuit. I'm making no discernible progress on any of them.

There is nothing on TV. Well, Law & Order Criminal Intent and In Plain Sight on Sunday, The Closer on Monday, Warehouse 13 tonight, Leverage on Wednesday, Burn Notice on Thursday, Eureka and Mental - both on at 9pm on Fridays, argh........see? Practically nothing.

The NCIS repeat about Vance's past is on tonight. Don't miss it.

Look what I got for my birthday!  Early, I admit. I just couldn't wait, especially since I crunched the numbers and can't get to Sock Summit. (Airfare tripled. That eats into my stash enhancement which is probably not a bad thing but geez). From Opalescent Jewels.  The necklace itself is gorgous but the clasp! For once, I can get it on and off all by myself.

I finished The Age of Reason Begins, 1633, The Solitude of Prime Numbers and A Taint in the Blood ( Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak) and then spent a couple of listless days trying to figure out what to read next. It's not that I have nothing to read, it's that I have so much I want to read! The short stories, Ring of Fire (which should be read between 1632 and 1633, btw), the next to last (so far) Kate Shugak book, A Deeper Sleep? Mike Carey's Dead Men's Boots? Moral Relativism by Stephen Lukas?  Any suggestions?

I ended up stacking them all next to me and knitting on the Curve of Pursuit while watching a press conference on CNN. Robert Gibbs is loosening up.

Hez sez "Why would anyone eat vegetables when there are tasty loafers like these around?"

Cowell Smokestack, July Book Round Up, Pt Reyes Seashore

The Cowell Smokestack is no more. I'll never be able to find my house from Mt Diablo again.

The demoliton, beginning, middle and end. Whoops, no end picture. Between not having my camera and the iPhone scrambling the pictures (why does it do that? Why? It's really annoying). (Hey! I found my camera cord! Yippee!)  

The end will come. I promise.

Hmm. Oh, the June book update. Is it really already July? I've got to start writing these as I finish the books.

Regions of Germany by Dieter Bose (L) 2005. I picked up this book as a direct result of reading 1632 by Eric Flint - I know nothing about the 17th Century and less about the German provinces.

Margaret Pole: Loyalty, Lineage and Leadership by Hazel Pierce (B) 2003 273p. A girl can only go so long before returning to the 16th Century and England.  Margaret Pole, a woman who had more right to the crown than Henry VIII did, whose brother was executed when Catherine of Aragon came from Spain to marry Arthur, still formed a great and lasting friendship with Catherine, was a loyal friend and godmother to Mary, Henry & Catherine's daughter (and not say, Mary Tudor, Henry's sister that my gorgeous Alice Starmore sweater was inspired by), a landowner and power in her own right (due to the death of her husband, a marriage that for all intents and purposes seemed to be quite happy). If she hadn't tangled w/Henry VIII over property rights - 15 years worth! She might not have made herself quite so disagreeable in his eyes and ultimately sent to the Tower and executed as a dowager of 67. Maybe. Henry VIII strikes me as easy to offend, especially when you have something he wants.

Dissolution by CJ Sansom (HB) (M) 2004, 400p I've had this on my TBR shelves since 2004 (hence the hardback bit) but I was disappointed. Matthew Shardlake isn't as smart as he thinks he is and despite all his own flaws and circumstances, only too willing to believe the mores of his times.

Mallory's Oracle by Carol O'Connell (L)(M) 1994 286p My new favorite heroine, Kathy Mallory is rescued from the streets at the age of ten (she says eleven) by Louis Markowitz, New York City cop. His wife immediately falls in love with the child and they raise her as their own. But Mallory (as she insists everyone, including Louis, call her the day she becomes a policewoman) has been badly emotionally damaged as a child. (Not physically, of course. She's the requisite angelic blonde with amazing computer skills and physical prowress.) The series follows her as we discover what happened to her as a child (not in this book) and how she gradually grows a soul. (Website has spoilers.)

Paradise by A L Kennedy (L)(N) 2004 286p. Wow, what a wallop. Amy of Knit Think (whoops, wrong reviewer! Sorry! [name deleted] Ex Libris had posted a review and I had to read it, if only because of the quote she cited.  We follow Hannah, an unrepentant drunk. Her justification, her story, is both mesmerizing and flat out horrifying. Why she searches for oblivion, how she deals with the day to day reality of frequent blackouts - her view that reality is a story that she tells herself, oh, it has to be read to be understood. But that said, I feel that I was given a tour, an apalling but thorough tour, through the mind of an alcoholic.

Breakup by Dana Stabenow (M) 1997 242p. Back into the arms of Kate Shugak. It took me a bit to process the death in the previous outing but it was handled well. Breakup, aka, Spring, a time of new beginnings in Alaska, or maybe more of the same amplified. Kate has more on her plate than usual, what with two bear encounters in the first few pages, a plane crash and a body turning up in the thaw a scant three miles from her homestead.

The Man Who Cast Two Shadow by Carol O'Connell (L)(M) 1996 336p. Mallory on the hunt for the killer of a woman at first thought to be Mallory herself. The act that set the murder into motion would have never occurred to me so the murder was a mystery until the denoument. Don't fall in love with Nose, the cat.

Killing Critics Carol O'Connell (L)(M) 1997 400p. Oooh, I thought that Nose was heartbreaking (albeit thankfully ambiguous). The murder victim and the eventual........well, not the killer. The killer was awful but the eventual discovery of the...accomplice, I suppose, was heartrending.

Jumper by Stephen Gould (L))(SF) 1992 352p. I've got to pick up the DVD, I have a feeling I'll like Hayden Christiansen better as Davy Rice than Stephen Gould's Davy came across in my imagination. A wee bit too weepy and clingy but it's not as if the boy doesn't have good reason. And oh, how I wish I had his ability.

The Stars Are My Destination by Alfred Bester (L)(SF) 1956 197p. I didn't love this one as much as I thought I would either but it sure was a wild entertaining yet thought provoking ride.

The Uncrowned King: The Sensation Rise of William Randolph Hearst (L)(B) 2009 466p. Provincial mouse that I am, I expected this to take place in San Francisco and San Simeon. It appears the boy had a life before and after the Examiner - one as a newspaper editor to be reckoned with in New York with his recently purchased Journal. He went up against such luminaries as Joseph Pulitzer and Charles Anderson Dana. I learned that I knew nothing about yellow journalism or the Spanish American War. I didn't even realize the Spanish American War was over Cuba. Gah.

Death Masks by Jim Butcher (L)(SF) 2003 378p. Harry Dresden! I knew I hadn't read Jim Butcher's last Harry book, Turn Coat, but I didn't realize I was missing three in the middle. This time out, Harry is facing a duel with a Count in the White Court, looking for the missing Shroud of Turin and tangling with various folks on both sides of Good Guy/Bad Guy.

Stone Angel by Carol O'Connell (L)(M) 1998 400p.  Mallory finally confronts the demons of her childhood and we find out what happened.

The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugresic (L)(N) 2005 257p. Any book that starts with a poem from Marina Tsestaeva starts out on the right foot. It's an uncompromising look at Tanja Lucic, an emigre from the former Yugoslavic states, who has landed a teaching postition, and her students and their "new" life in Holland. Bleak, sure, but the author has an eye for phrasing and description.

I'm sure you'll all be happy to know, California, land of sunshine and movie stars, is broke and will be issuing IOU's.

I'd like to throw out every last legislator, Republican and Democrat alike.

Dudes, it's not your party, it's your STATE.

We're stuck with an extra 3 billion dollars of debt, thanks to the missed budget deadline.

I love that the special election, when we told them to find the money someplace other than police and firefighters, the elderly and the children, they read as "Oh, the voters don't want to decide" and not "Morons, some things have to be spent".

I mean, of course, other than their nifty car allowances and per diems.

Oooh, this just in. State parks can revert back to Federal holdings if the state doesn't keep them open so Angel Island and the top of Mt Diablo will stay parks. Hurray for the Feds!

(pictures: Cowell Smokestack from the top of Cowell Road, the view from the deck of the Pt Reyes Lodge, Pt Reyes beach, the trail to the Whale Watch at Pt Reyes Lighthouse, Point Reyes Lighthouse. Do you see that walkway down to it? THIRTY STORIES. Darn. It's not open on Tuesdays. It was Tuesday.)

(also pictured: the Trellis Lace washcloth and what Adrie calls my Fair Isle Finger Cot. See? Knitting. That's the stole, the stole that appears to be 50 inches wide. How long does that need to be to be a rectangle when it grows up?)

Hez says "This mouse looks tough but he sure is lazy. Is he a California legislator?"

Baths and the Beach

Hezekiah got a bath last Thursday!  She seemed somewhat distraught about the whole process.   Luckily, she didn't roll around in the dirt after I left for work, she settled for glaring at me balefully from the nice hot cement walkway.

By the time I came home, she was dry, clean and sassy. She might not have enjoyed the process but she loves the outcome.

I'm attempting project monogamy on the advice of Cookie and so only took Mom's stole to the beach.

There is no discernible progress.

I might have cast on too many stitches and it'll be a ginormous stole. Good thing I found more skeins.

I did KIP quite a bit. On the beach. At the lodge. By the Bay. More at the lodge. There was a really sweet garden in the back and there must've been five hummingbirds there at all times, along with chickadees, finches and.....y'know. Birds. Chirpy cute birds.

This may be the only photgraphic evidence of my two day trip to the Point Reyes Seashore. There's no cell phone reception there (at least not for my iPhone - AT&T) so consequently, I kept leaving it behind (and also let it die). I did bring the camera but I still can't find the camera cord. Bah.

The beach was wonderful. Deserted and cool.

Oh, here's a handy beach tip. If your sunscreen says it expired in 11/07, it probably won't work. My face, feet and shoulders are fried. Luckily it's not a bikini kind of beach (not that you'd catch me in a bikini these days) so my rolled up jeans and tank top meant that I could still sit and lay down. Very important on vacation.

We drove up the Tomales Bay to eat at The Marshall Store in Marshall. Well, we actually drove up the coast and ran across The Marshall Store, which was a stroke of luck. They had the best oysters and fish tacos and cheese........if they hadn't been closed Tuesdays, we'd've gone back to slurp oysters on their bar overlooking the bay.

(Picture cadged from their site.)

 On the way home we stopped and had a picnic lunch at Samuel P Taylor Park. There was a visiting group of maybe fifteen 7 to 9 year olds that were wading in the river and tracking a water snake's progress. (Alas, it was a snake in the water and not a figment of their fervid imagination which meant there was no way on God's green earth I was going to take my shoes and socks off and wade in the water myself.)

Some of my blood tests came back. Other than having iron levels that are fluctuating from low to practically zilch, I seem to be okay.  I had an ultrasound yesterday that the tech pronounced good. (inner organs, not pregnant! As if. )  I've got two more tests to go so cross your fingers for me.

Wow. Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson both dead today? 

Insert Not Too Clever Title Here. Thanks for the Tip, Typepad. Gah.

  Button choices for the V pointed charmer, currently sporting buttons from [gasp] Joanne's Fabrics. I know, I know. I'm a button snob.

And because it's been a long long time:

TV: Not that' I've been awake the last week to watch much or understand any of it - was it just me or did Lost, *The Dollhouse or Battlestar Galactica make no sense whatsoever? This week the TV is going off at 10pm. Stupid Daylight "Saving" Time.

*The Dollhouse makes no sense to to me under the best of circumstances. I've grasped the concept, it's the relationships/point that eludes me.

Tonight (Sunday March 15) Kings has its two hour debut at 8pm. I'm really looking forward to this one.

Monday: 24. Finally, no one on the show that I have to flip the channel the second they appear, although the FBI couple are starting to work my nerves.

Tuesday: NCIS, of course.

(The structure is the new Walnut Creek LIbrary. Eventually) Wednesday: Life and Lost. Why are they both on at the same time? Life wins, Lost is better when they repeat it with that scroll catch up at the bottom.  I love that scroll catch up bar. (What's that actually called?)

Thursday: Bones at 8pm and then heaven help me, Gray's Anatomy at 9pm. I hate myself but there you are. Plus it looks like Izzy is actually dying! Dying! Be still my heart.

Friday. Oh, Friday. Friday is a very sad, sad day. So. Sad. Battlestar Galactica is repeating their Monday (the 16th) special at 7pm and then the very final two hour season FINALE episode at 9pm. (I think they're airing last Friday night's ep beforehand which is very very nice because I have no idea what was going on. Thank you Daylight "Saving" Time. Everyone! Run up your heating and electric bills in the morning and DO NOT SHOP in the evening. 

Somewhere in there is also endless hours of Senate/House/Congressional Hearings that I'm finding endlessly fascinating and Being Erica, a CBC show but airing in the US on  Soapnet. Fun premise. Her shrink sends her back in time to work out her issues.

There's been knitting but not much progress. I finally took Mary Tudor's sleeves off the two circs and onto dpn's thus decreasing the time it took me to knit one row from 30 minutes down to ten. I still can't believe it took me thirty minutes to knit one row of a sleeve. Practically at the cuff. Mind you, I'm a whole five more rows since last photographed but considering I'm working day and night and still actually reading some blogs (in the most haphazard manner EVER), not half bad.

Brigitte sent this darling thing to Hezekiah.

Hez sez "I know it's not a real mouse but it is fun to carry around and torment. Never in front of a camera though! The Oath of the Hunter, y'know" (which is very annoying, let me tell you - The Blog Photographer).

Progress

   This is why one should decrease stitches on sleeves.   Hez sez "Daylight Saving Time is an evil vicious plot. Also during tax season, I am not fed treats often enough. Where do I file a complaint?"

Quizzes and Babbling

Found at Knitting in the Shadows:

Yoda A venerated sage with vast power and knowledge, you gently guide forces around you while serving as a champion of the light. Judge me by my size, do you? And well you should not - for my ally is the Force. And a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us, and binds us. Luminescent beings are we, not this crude matter! You must feel the Force around you, everywhere. Yoda is a is a character in the Star Wars universe. More Yoda information is available at the Star Wars Databank.

Feather and Fan Shawl no longer. Frogged and is starting life over as the Lacy kerchief Scarf.
(Ravelry link. Otherwise found in Interweave Knits Summer 2005 or Holiday 2006. Since it's for me, it's started life very slowly. I have startitis. It had to be done.

I'd actually forgotten about shawl totally though, I found it while tossing my stash for some short circs.

Holiday gift knitting continues VERY, VERY slowly. Nothing like giving myself a deadline to kill all interest in knitting something.

Mindless public knitting is going gangbusters though.

What my blog name says about me, according to Typealyzer:

ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

Oh absolutely. I'm always at risk of exhausting myself. Avoiding conflicts. Yes, that's exactly right. When I'm not gently guiding the force and serving as a champion of the light.

Speaking of mindless public knitting, I needed a smaller (more discreet) project to knit at a function than the Curve of Pursuit was getting to be (BIG), so I pulled out the Veronica yarn from Dizzy Blonde Studios and started (again) The Basic Black Shawl from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls. This is my approximately 18th thousand attempt at this shawl, for some reason, the yarn is either too thick, too thin, too ......something. Hopefully Veronica is just right. She certainly was just right to fit in my purse and get toted along all day. The picture doesn't do much justice to the pattern but it does display the colors pretty well.

TV has been a vast disappointment to me lately. Now that I know My Own Worst Enemy has been cancelled, I can't bring myself to stay up and watch the last few episodes. On the Sarah Connor Chronicles, Jon Connor continues to be a doofus and evidently no one around him is actually from his own time or human. How bad is it when I just can't wait for the machines to rise and take them all out?

Heroes is confusing. Am I to understand correctly that they intend on bringing more new people in next year?

What's good........well, NCIS, of course. I still like The Mentalist even though the plot leaps were fairly enormous last night. Bones tonight on Fox, Life at 9pm oon NBC and the season finale of Sons of Anarchy tonight (Wednesday 11/26)at 10pm.

24 on Fox sunday - athough doofus that I am, I missed the beginning episode. Luckily, it's showing online. But mostly I've been reading. It's that time of year!

And from The Ravelle'd Sleeve:

Your Hair Should Be White

Classy, stylish, and eloquent. You've got a way about you that floors everyone you meet.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

 

Does this look comfy? It's Hez's new sleeping spot (when she's not suffocating me or rendering me incapable of using my legs).

 

Hez sez, "Phhttt. Happy Thanksgiving! And Happy Thursday to those not granted a day off of feasting (or who've already had it)."

Love and Apples

From Knitting in the Shadows (now that we actually have rain - Yay!. Check out her recent vacation pictures to St. Thomas)

What Your Black Umbrella Says About You

When faced with adversity, you respond with authority. You don't let problems faze you. You are naturally powerful and commanding. People look to you to take charge. You are elegant and classy. You know how to always say and do the right thing. While you stand out, you also fit it. You thrive in a variety of situations. On a rainy day: you carry on as normal - a little bad weather isn't going to get in your way !

The Umbrella Test

Well, far be it from me to contradict any quiz that says I'm elegant and classy but there was no leopard print umbrella to check, which is what I own. I'm far more likely to slap on my safari rain hat anyway. I like to have both hands free.

There's more progress on the sleeve of Mary Tudor than this picture shows but moving (the office) has kind of sapped me. 60 boxes. And the stupid elves haven't shown up to finish the job yet either. Gah.

Having an opposable thumb is not all that it's cracked up to be either. It's either arthritis or I've strained it? Who knows. I can knit, but I can't really play on the computer for long - and not having a computer at work hasn't helped much either. That's where all the lifting stuff happens. 

Hezekiah officially hates the rain. She insisted on going outside on Saturday even though I told her we were moving the office and I wouldn't be home all day and it was POURING. She was drenched and mad as a wet hen by the time I got home.

So today I insisted she stay inside. When I got home she wanted outside via  the garage door,  the sliding glass door to the backyard and the front porch.

Can you believe it? IT WAS RAINING OUTSIDE OF ALL THREE DOORS. The horror.

This is Nerissa, my new niece. Isn't she darling?

Last week, a box  came in the mail from KnitThink.
Inside the box - many many apples (and popcorn, although not nearly as edible).

I can see why people love apples now! They were crunchy! There was this wet stuff - my mother - who is from Michigan and wise and knows these things -  said that it was called "juice". It was a revelation. I still have to think of something wonderful in return.

No wonder people eat an apple a day to keep the doctor away. I wonder what four a day will do?



I've been working on the beaded scarf that The Fairy Godknitter sent me and swatching for the Veronica yarn from Dizzy Blonde Studios. While sorting my UFO's I found my half done sock from Bellamoden's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - I think I've figured out how to fix the heel turn in pattern.  And now I'm wondering how she's doing - I've been so wrapped up in moving and knew that she'd come through her surgery, I haven't gotten any more updates.



I'd list my October reading list but it's on my computer at work, which is currently dead on my desk.













Tuesday, Novermber 4th - VOTE! If you don't vote - you will eat from the poisoned apple! (Not this one. This one is not poisoned. I checked. The old fashioned way)

Furthermore, if you don't vote, you are barred from either crowing or complaining about the outcome now and for the next four years.  This will be ruthlessly enforced.

Giant Woolly Pillowcase

I've finished the body of Mary Tudor [insert whooping and possiby tears of joy] grafted the shoulders together (to my satisfaction if not perfectly - tinking grafting i.e. the Kitchener stitch is a pain) and as I was looking fondly at it..... I realized I have knit a Giant Fancy Woolly Pillowcase. Seriously. Behold the photographic evidence.

Now I know exactly what Marina is saying when she talks about the front and backs of the sweater charts not matching and why she's so justifiably proud of her seams. Mary Tudor's front and back are pretty matchy thankfully  (which no way am I showing you  now, not only did I semi fudge the shoulder seams but it's completely unblocked. I was just so .......struck by the Giant Woolly Pillowcase appearance that I had to share. Nothing really prepares you for spending a lot of knitting

time and then.......Giant Woolly Pillowcase. Huh.) 

This is the first Alice Starmore sweater I've gotten darn close to actually finishing. Except for, you know, sleeves, collars, buttonbands. Stuff like that. Pfft.

But now I'm supposed to cut the thing? Is that right?  Again.  Huh.

And now for the Quizzes.

From Knitty Banter

Your result for The Best Thing About You Test... Intelligence is your strongest virtue (Ha! I knew it! Well that or my humility)

Intelligence (also called intellect) is an umbrella term used to describe a property of the mind that encompasses many related abilities, such as the capacities to reason, plan, and solve problems. And you? Your brain shines. All 7 virtues are a part of you, but your intelligence runs deepest.

It is likely you're a smarty-pants. And it's likely (but not necessary) that your discipline score is high also. It takes a certain resolve to maintain all those neural thingies.

Intelligent famous people: Einstein, Shakespeare, Da Vinci.

Your raw relative scores follow. 0% is low, and 100% is perfect, nearly impossible. Note that I pitted the virtues against each other, so in some way these are relative scores. It's impossible to score high on all of them, and a low score on one is just relatively low compared to the other virtues.

YOUR VIRTUES

• 40% Compassion
• 67% Intelligence
• 63% Humility
• 44% Honesty
• 25% Discipline
• 29% Courage
• 33% Passion

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Quiz #2  Your results for Reincarnation Placement Exam...

Deep Space Explorer

Hmm... You're a tough one to place. Your answers indicate that you like technology and education. You enjoy intrigue, adventure and chaos. You're fine with hard work and civilization. This all bodes well for an interesting, adventurous life. (Did they not see the part where my ideal work week was 20 hours?)

What makes it difficult, however, is that you don't seem to be much of a 'people person. (Well, maybe, maybe not. That island would have been fine but did they say that I'd have books and yarn? They did not.)

If you were more of a people person, we would have commissioned you aboard the Starship Enterprise.(That could work and I can give your four reasons why. Scotty, Bones, Spock and Trip.) But since you don't care much for the complications of dealing with your fellow man... we have another deep-space mission, more tailored for your tastes... a way for you to enjoy the benefits of high-tech civilization without having to put up with civilization itself. Let's set you up to pursue the solo career of a deep space explorer. You can go ahead and hibernate through the boring parts of your mission, and not worry so much about being a few decades out of touch with your fellows by the time you get home. In fact, you pretty much don't have to deal with people at all, but you can still enjoy a high-flying adventure of a life. Far, far away from the madding crowd, you get to play with your scientific instruments, serve your glorious civilization, and do interesting things with strange discoveries in exotic places.

The career might work out all right. Look what it did for Charlton Heston.

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The quiz seemed a little masculine gender specific.

Hez sez: "It does look like a Giant Fancy Woolly Pillowcase. I told you it made a great napping blanket."

Collective Wisdom desired:

1. The correct spelling of woolly.

2. A non knitter (who has expressed a desire to learn) will be trapped in the wilderness in a cabin in Yosemite. Any ideas for a  good first project?