Today's the Day

Or maybe it's more accurate to say tonight's the night. Tom and about six other crazy runners will take off from Harper's Ferry at 7:00 this evening and run to Georgetown in DC. The crew (which outnumbers the runners) will be waiting for them at various aid stations throughout the night. After my yoga class this morning, I need to make chicken soup (about the only thing runners can stomach after running a very long distance), boiled salty potatoes, and oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. At some time, I'll need to work in a nap. We stayed up way too late last night (and most nights this week, to be honest) to watch...

Ratatouille
You absolutely must go see this movie! It's excellent. The animation is beautiful, the story is cute, and...well, it's just a good movie. I left the theatre feeling delighted. I'd see it again in a heartbeat, which is high praise coming from me, given that I'm not a movie fan.

Knitting News
I managed to squeeze in a couple of rounds on the simple stockinette sock while waiting participate in the annual event that most of us have grown to know and love hate: The Annual Squishing of the Boobs. For the last several years, I've gone to a breast imaging center, which was tastefully decorated and very comfortable. Plus there were no men in sight. This year, in the interest of not taking more time away from work than necessary, I went to the imaging center near work. The reception desk was a teeny office down a narrow hallway. The waiting room was poorly lighted and was shared by a number of different doctors, which meant I was probably sitting with a bunch of sick people. And there were men going through the same door to get to the same reception office. When they were finally ready for me, not only did they instruct me to bring my valuables, but also my clothes. If I had known that I'd be hauling my bra around for everyone (including men) to see, I would have brought a bag to stash it in. The woman who was doing the boob squishing was very nice but even so, next year I'll go back to the breast imaging center.

Yarn Shop News
Due to a number of circumstances that I cannot control (ridiculously high rents and my husband's business unit being put up for sale), the bricks-and-mortar yarn shop is on indefinite hold. I'm contemplating an online shop and selling some of the hard-to-find yarns (like Sea Silk) as well as yarn that is produced (or at least dyed) locally. So, to my small base of loyal readers, I ask:

• What yarns do you have a hard time finding?


• What other things do you buy from an online yarn shop?


• What things do you wish online shops would carry?

That's it for now. If I'm coherent tomorrow, I'll report on the Mule Run. There's going to be a lot of waiting and I'll be either knitting or napping. Maybe I'll finish the second sock. Or at least the foot.

Have a great Saturday!

Sneaking One In

Since Emma religiously wakes me up every day around 5:00 a.m., I thought I'd take this morning to sneak in a rare weekday blog post. Yeah, I know. I could be knitting. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow.

The weekend ended on a pleasant note. We fixed a delicious dinner for Leigh and, as usual, we overdid it a bit. Everything was fairly simple to make, but there was a lot. We started out with a chilled soup made with canteloupe, honeydew, cucumbers, sweet onions, jalapenos, mint, and cilantro. It was very tasty and very refreshing. The soup was followed by a salad of twice-grilled peppers with fresh mozzarella and caper-basil vinaigrette. For the main course, I grilled chicken cutlets that had been marinated in olive oil, lemon juice (with a few shallots thrown in for good measure). I topped the chicken with an arugula and tomato salad, with a side of orzo with peas and herbs. And is any dinner complete without dessert? Of course not! We had a summer berry shortcake (Leigh made the shortcake). Try this if you want to take your strawberry shortcake to another level:

Wash and prepare the berries (I cut the strawberries in quarters, vertically). Put a small handful of fresh mint leaves in a cup with about a tablespoon of sugar. Using a muddle or a wooden spoon, work the sugar and the mint together until the mint is all ground up (it will take you several minutes). Add the sugar mixture to the berries, along with the zest of one lemon. You might want to add more sugar to the berries, depending on how sweet they are and how much juice you want. You can also add a little bit of lemon juice if you'd like. Let the berries sit for at least 30 minutes. Serve on a warm shortcake, with fresh unsweetened whipped cream.

There are few things better than enjoying dinner on the deck with good friends (or family). We sat and talked much later than we should have. Tom and I didn't get to bed until 11:30. That's late, given that we're usually in bed before 9:30!

And speaking of going to bed early, that's something we won't be doing this weekend. Saturday is the first (annual?) Mule Run. It's a semi-organized 62-mile run, starting in Harper's Ferry Saturday evening and ending in Georgetown sometime Sunday morning. I'm not running; I'd probably be dead after five miles. Enquiring minds want to know. Can middle-aged people still pull an all-nighter? The last time I stayed up all night was 12 years ago, in Spain. It will be an...um...interesting run. It should be fun, if your definition of fun is staying up all night and being eaten by mosquitos!

You can bet that my knitting is going to go along.

A Simple Twist of Fate

Yesterday turned out to be a lot of fun, despite the nagging migraine that developed in the morning. Yoga class was fantastic and I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my former neighbors in it. My muscles are pleasantly sore, which never happens when I'm practicing on my own.

The trip to the farmers market was also full of surprises. By the time I arrived (after yoga class), they were sold out of a lot of items. I saw the same former neighbor who is in my yoga class. And then I bumped into my running partner, Lorrie, who I haven't seen in what seems like forever. We've been thinking about each other a lot but never pick up the phone to call (she works nights, I work days). We set a running date for Thursday. It will be good to catch up with her.

Then it was on to the housewarming. As I suspected, I knew only one other person there. He brought his wife and kids and we made small chitchat. Then Steve let it drop that Pam had a loom. Hey, I have a loom, too! Well, that just started the conversation flowing. She also has a spinning wheel. She doesn't knit, though, but that's perfectly okay. It was such an unexpected and nice surprise to meet someone who shares the same esoteric hobbies as I do. I hope we keep in touch.

Knitting News
I made a little bit of progress on the second Simple Stockinette sock. The toe is actually looking toe-like.



I don't think I'll have much time to work on it today. Said former neighbor is allegedly coming over around noon to finally see the kitchen renovations (it's only been three and half years) and I have cleaning and laundry and menu planning to do. That also means that I won't have any spinning time, either, or time to continue working on entering the stash in Ravelry. I started entering the WIPs, though, since it doesn't require taking new pictures. And I might start entering the FOs for the same reason. This Ravelry project is taking my organizational skills (random at best) to new heights.

Emma doesn't care so much about Ravelry. She says "I've got me some bugs to catch!"

It's the Weekend!

The week is finally finished and I'm plunging into the weekend. Today promises to be busy. I have my first yoga class this morning, followed (or maybe preceded) by a trip to the farmers market. Then I visit Cathy who will put scissors to hair for a much-needed hair cut. After that, a trip to the supermarket to pick up a dessert for a friend's housewarming party this afternoon. Then it's back home again to relax and have dinner on the deck. Maybe we'll even pop open a bottle of bubbly because...well, because we can.

Tomorrow will be almost as busy. The weekly partial housecleaning, followed by another trip to the supermarket, and fixing dinner. We invited Leigh over for dinner, so expectations (both hers and ours) for a yummy dinner will be high. I'm thinking that it might be nice to start with a chilled soup, maybe cucumber. I'll have to see what veggies are in at the farmers market. I'll leave the grilling to Tom (although I'm quite proficient on the grill) and focus on dessert. How do Boston Cream Cupcakes sound?

Knitting News
There's been precious little knitting this week. I managed to finish the toe on the simple stockinette socks on Wednesday while waiting to have blood drawn, and picked up the stitches from the provisional cast-on yesterday during the weekly knitting group lunch. I really need to practice a crochet chain provisional cast-on. I went to unzip the chain and instead of a quick unzipping, I ended up with a tangled mess. It was painstaking work to pick up a stitch and pull the waste yarn through several stitches. Clearly what I thought was the back of the chain was not. Or else the chain twisted in the making. Most likely it was both.

I continue to enter my stash in Ravelry. This is a good exercise for me. It's reminding me of all the yarn I have. It's also made me realize that I really don't need to buy any more yarn because I'm not knitting what I have. Of course, we know that isn't going to happen. I fall in love so quickly with some designs that I just have to knit them now and I buy the yarn and pattern. Then into the stash box it goes for a little bit quite a lot of aging. If the yarn is so fortunate to make it to the needles, it will likely be discarded for yet another project, which will then be discarded for my latest infatuation. Anyway, I digress. I have some nice yarn and nice projects in mind and henceforth, I pledge to knit from my stash. Yeah, right. You all can stop laughing and pick yourselves up from the floor now.

The latest offering from the Socks That Rock Rockin' Sock Club magically appeared on my doorstep this week. The women at Blue Moon Fiber Arts are incredible. This yarn is lightweight and fiery. The slip stitch pattern looks simple enough and that will probably be my next sock project. What other socks in progress? I don't see any other socks in progress!

Emma's Favorite Foods
Our little cat has very eclectic tastes when it comes to food. This is in contrast to Jezebel, who liked only cat food, canned tuna and salmon, and vanilla ice cream. The list of foods Emma likes continues to grow: lima beans, pine nuts, vanilla ice cream, grilled salmon, grilled rockfish, pork barbecue, terra chips, tortilla chips... We're probably setting a bad precedent because the weirder the food is, the more inclined we are to give her a little taste, just to see if she'll eat it.



Have a wonderful Saturday!

Happy Father's Day

Before I move into my usual bloggy ramblings, I'd like to wish my father a most wonderful Father's Day (don't worry, I've already called and told him that in person). My father is a pretty wonderful man. He managed to raise four kids (me and my three brothers) without injuring or killing us, no matter how tempting that thought might have been (we were very challenging). He taught us to love the outdoors on our annual camping vacations. He coached my brothers in baseball (Dad had a shot at the major leagues himself). He played basketball and softball and was always busy. As kids, I don't think we appreciated everything he did for us. "Not another camping vacation!" (All of our friends would stay at hotels with swimming pools and eat in restaurants.) "Do I have to mow the lawn?" (I was permanently put off lawnmowing when the lawnmower exploded.) "What do you mean, clean my room? No one's going to see it!" And probably my parents' favorite: "He's looking me! Make him stop!"

Dad also has a wonderfully dry sense of humor. When I was in elementary school (or maybe it was junior high school), our dog had a litter of puppies. They were part wire-hair terrier; it's common to dock a terrier's tail. Dad kept saying how we were going to dock the tail of my favorite puppy. I'd get all upset and argue against it. One day, Dad took puppy and hatchet in hand and said he was finally going to dock its tail. I was horrified. As I ran from the garage in tears, I heard a "thunk!" and then "yi yi yi yi yi!" No, my father didn't chop the poor thing's tail off; he was trying to see what kind of reaction he could get out of me. He thought it was pretty funny; I was less amused.

So, Dad...thanks for everything you've done in your job as our father. I think we finally get it. It took us long enough, didn't it?

I love you and wouldn't trade you for all the fathers in the world.

Knitting and Spinning and Ravelry! Oh My!
I started the second of the stockinette socks and have almost completed the toe. Don't be impressed; it's a toe-up pattern.

I also spent some time spinning yesterday while Emma was enjoying the deck and Tom was making dinner. I've spun almost half of the Rambouillet and I might, just might end up with a nice fluffy yarn. That would definitely be a first for me. Of course, the size of the yarn is somewhat all over the place, but overall I think it will be close to the 13 WPI Anne specified.

And I continue to work with Ravelry. I entered my needle inventory and have started to enter my stash. I don't have a large stash by any stretch of the imagination. I'm daunted by the work. Take a picture, upload it to the computer, upload it to Flikr, link it to Ravelry...I need a nap just thinking about it! Jess and her husband Casey have done an amazing job. It is an awesome site.

Excuse me now; I need to continue documenting my stash.

Have a great weekend!

Emma's Big Adventures

Despite all of my good intentions, not a stitch was knit nor any roving spun this weekend. I spent most of yesterday cleaning the house and washing dishes. Yes, you heard me correctly...washing dishes. When I unloaded the dishwasher, I noticed that the dishes felt slick, almost like they were coated with a thin film of oil. And they were. The dishwasher gave up the ghost sometime during the wash cycle (it's not even fours years old yet!). Let me tell you, that discovery put me in quite the foul mood. I detest washing dishes and I particularly detest it when it is unexpected.

To distract you from lack of knitting content, I'll tell you about Emma's adventures.

When the weather is nice and there aren't any mosquitoes, we eat dinner on the deck. We're surrounded by green and love to watch the bats as they come out. When Jezebel was alive, she'd join us on the deck and make the occasional foray into the herb garden. She stayed close to the house and we had no worries about her wandering off. Although when she was young, she did climb the chestnut tree and get onto the roof of the garage, and occasionally meandered into the neighbors yard. But I digress.

We don't feel so confident that Emma will not wander off. Even though she's a very sweet cat, she does have a bit of an attitude. So we've put up all sorts of contraptions to keep her from leaving the deck. Saturday night we found that they don't work.

Emma is a good jumper and is able to leap onto the deck railing with ease. I find this scary because a) the railing is only three inches wide and b) it's about 12 feet off the ground. After she's on the railing, she walks back and forth and back and forth, like a soldier on guard duty.

Tom made a delicious dinner of grilled chicken stuffed with a mixture of goat cheese, grilled poblano and red peppers, and nicoise olives, accompanied by pearl couscous and grilled zucchini. Emma was on guard duty but she was clearly trying to figure out a way to go AWOL. She finally got up enough courage to jump from the railing onto the deck stairs and had access to the whole wide world.

She didn't bolt, but she wasn't as cautious as we had hoped. She explored the stairs, then headed toward the garden (I joined her at this point), then back to the house. She discovered the really cool (for a cat) passageway between our house and the house next door and headed to the front. I headed her off at the pass and attempted to herd her back up the steps. You cannot herd a cat. Tom was finally able to grab her and put her back in the house but she clearly was not finished exploring. We're going to have to beef up our railing security.

Or redo the deck and screen it.

Emma's second big adventure also involved the deck. For several weeks now, I've noticed an pale orange tomcat periodically hanging around the yard. He just kind of wanders through (our yard seems to attract hobo cats). I was in the kitchen Sunday evening putting the final touches on dinner when I heard Tom exclaim "Hey, where'd you come from?" I went out and saw that Emma was all puffed up...hackles raised, bottlebrush tail. She was peering over the edge of the deck and there was that orange tom laying on the roof of my car. He had made the leap from the roof of my car onto the deck, which is no mean feat. He hung out on the car roof for a while (he seems like a rather calm cat) and eventually wandered off. A little later, Emma looked like she was trying to figure out how to jump from the deck to my car. She was probably thinking "Hmmm, if he could get up, I should be able to get down."

It was all pretty exciting and plum wore her out.



Mystery Solved
My secret pal enlightened me about the miniature knitting needles. They are actually bamboo seaming pins. Very nice! If I ever finish the Sweaters of Despair, I will definitely use them.

Happy knitting!

Where Did the Day Go?

Good grief! It's already 6:30. This day has literally flown by!

But first things first. A big thank you to my Secret Pal for sending me these lovely goodies:



A skein of Lana Grossa Meilenweit sock yarn, a hank of Blue Sky Dyed Cotton (organic, of course), and a lovely book by Deborah Krasner called Heirloom Skills and Country Pastimes (the illustrations are gorgeous). My pal also included a beautiful card with a photograph by Francis Twomey, as well as a mystery gift. When I first opened the package, I thought it included some knitting needles. Indeed, they do look like miniature needles but there are 10 of them and they are bit short to be knitting with. I'm thinking they are some sort of closure. Secret Pal, can you help me out here? How are the little bamboo needles supposed to be used?

The gift arrived on Wednesday. Please accept my apologies for not posting sooner. And thank you so much; you've been a great pal!

So where did the day go? I have no idea. Emma wanted to be fed about 4:45, so I got up before 6:00 this morning, fed her, and made Tom his pre-run coffee. I did some yogurt yoga this morning, then checked email. I was thrilled to see an invitation from frecklegirl to join Ravelry. Then it was off to the local coffeeshop to meet the running club (they ran, I didn't). That was followed by a quick trip to the farmers market. Tom decided to rid the refrigerator of some science projects and I decided it needed a thorough scrubbing. The next time I looked, it was 2:30. Sheesh! I don't feel like I accomplished anything that I had planned to do.

Knitting
I did, however, finish the first Sockotta sock last night:



It fits rather well, although the heel is a bit long. I used Wendy's Generic Toe-up Sock pattern, which uses both a short-row toe and heel. The toe fits fine, but I think I don't need to keep as many stitches "live" on the heel. Nonetheless, it's going to be a comfortable sock. Maybe I'll cast on the second sock tonight. Or maybe I'll start the second of the Blue Danube socks. I'm beginning to find that I've got a lot of single socks laying around.

Sweaters? What sweaters? There are no sweaters here. Move along now...



Emma is trying to figure out an escape route.

We're becoming more confident that she won't escape. If she ran away, she wouldn't get vanilla ice cream every night.

And yes, she is a spoiled little kitty.

Now excuse me, please. It's cocktail hour and I hear a fine Negroni calling my name.

Releasing My Inner Artist

Today is a grey, rainy day, perfect for staying inside doing chores, reading, or watching a movie. Or, of course, knitting and spinning. After a delicious brunch with my in-laws at our favorite restaurant and a quick trip to Earth and Fire with my brother-in-law (who's a potter), I headed west to visit a couple of studios on the Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour. In addition to painting, woodworking, sculpture, and ceramics, there were a couple of fiber artists on the tour. So of course, I had to go!

First up was the Blue Ridge Spinners and Weavers Guild. I've known about the existence of this guild for a while, but haven't been able to find them. I was quite excited to see them on the tour, so hoofed it down to Round Hill to talk to them about joining. And guess who was there? Maureen, the Barefoot Spinner! And yes, she does spin barefoot. She had some yarn for sale and very pretty yarns they were, too. She didn't have any roving, having been cleaned out at Maryland Sheep and Wool. The next guild meeting is at the end of August and I plan to be there (assuming I can take some time off work; they meet during the day).

The next stop was Solitude, known for their delicious garlic and fine hand-spun and hand-dyed yarns. Gretchen was just beginning to dye some yarn, so I hung around to watch the process. We talked a bit about color, the different types of dyes (synthetic versus natural), and the fact that there is no such thing as a bad color. She encouraged me to get some paints and play around with creating color. I would love to create my own hand-dyed yarn, but am so afraid I'll create a monstrosity in color. I have a color block like I have a math block.

You know how people always talk about the "inner child?" I'm not sure about my inner child, but there's an artist dwelling within and she wants out. This artistic bent has manifested itself in several ways: music, quilting, spinning, weaving, knitting. The problem (if it could be called that) is that I never had any arts training as a child. When it was time to play a instrument in elementary school, I was passed over (I really wanted to play the triangle). I was in chorus in junior high school, but never did get the hang of reading music. I tried the violin briefly, but was the oldest kid in the Salzedo class and never could get the instrument sound like anything but a cat that was being tortured. I finally settled on the harp in my late 20s, played for about 10 years and became good enough to play at a few weddings. But reading music was never easy. I played half by ear and half by reading.

I never, ever took art in school, either. My drawing seems to be stuck at an elementary school level and color theory? I have no confidence whatsoever in my ability to put together colors. But as Gretchen said, it's practice and observation. It's also about being open to what happens during the dyeing process and not having an outcome fixed in your mind.

So perhaps in the coming months, I'll get some inexpensive KnitPicks yarn and try my hand at dyeing. Stay tuned!

Inspiration

My friend Leigh has been raving about the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. So much so that she wanted me to read it and come to her book club meeting that night. Well, the book club thing didn't happen and when I looked for it in the library, the wait list was about 20 deep. It is, after all, a New York Times bestseller.

So last week I asked Leigh if I could borrow it. She reluctantly agreed. I dove into the book that night and am finding it hard to stop reading. I think it's because I can identify with the author's experiences, from the gut-wrenching heartbreak to the spiritual quest. I found the account of her stay at an Ashram in India to be particularly intriguing. And that has inspired me to start practicing yoga and meditation again. The desire has been there; the motivation hasn't.

Tom had to get up at 4:30 this morning to prepare for a 23-mile run, which started at 5:30. Since he was up early, I figured there was no better time to start practicing yoga. I unearthed my yoga paraphernalia and actually did some yoga. It was pretty bad. I wasn't focused and my body was unbelievably stiff and creaky. Even Child's Pose was painful. I will persevere, however, and practice a little bit every day and look for a good yoga class.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I looked at my "fitness" horoscope for June and read this:

The 1st, it's all about balance when it comes to your workout. Yep, you want to work on standing on one leg. You want to bring on your foot to your thigh. You want to try (slowly and carefully!) to lift your hands and bring them together in front of your heart. You want to keep breathing. You might even want to try a headstand when you're done with the standing postures. Even if you don't do any yoga, look for balance in whatever it is you are doing.

Mostly I take horoscopes with a grain of salt. Sometimes, however, they are so right on that I wonder if the ancients knew more than we give them credit for.

Knitting and Spinning
I didn't accomplish much in the way of knitting this week...maybe only a couple of rounds on the simple stockinette sock. I did do a little bit of spinning, only to find out that my yarn is getting thinner and thinner and is bordering on lace weight now. Oops. I'll have to fix that.

There might be some swatching in my future as well. You know, just to see how the yarn behaves and if I can get gauge. But I cannot, must not, cast on for a new project. Must...finish...the...Sweaters of Despair...first...

Secret Pal
I packaged up my secret pal's goodies this week and mailed them off to her, a bit late as usual. I have a block against mailing things. My own secret pal said that my package would arrive this week as well! It hasn't arrived yet, so my anticipation and excitement are growing. I can't wait to see what goodies she sent this month!

Emma
As I was laying in bed this morning, meditating on getting up and practicing yoga, Emma jumped on the bed and laid down beside me. She stretched to her full length and very gently took my nose between her two front paws and held it. She usually strokes my face (or my nose) with a paw, but she's never held my nose before. She's a very funny cat. She also "helped" me practice yoga this morning, most notably by sitting on my yoga book. It will be interesting to see how her "yoga" practice develops.

Still Too Short

The weekend, that is. Although come to think about it, I'm a bit on the short side myself, just barely 5'2" (5'1.75", to be exact). For the most part, I'm pretty happy being short, except when it comes to retrieving items from the top shelves of the kitchen cabinets. Fortunately, I have a tall husband who comes in handy (a chair also works well).

Here I am, with a three-day weekend, and not all that much to show for it. I got half the house cleaned on Saturday (and spun), and did menu planning and grocery shopping yesterday. Today is going to be spent cooking an Indian dinner.

I love Indian cuisine and I love cooking it. It's very, very time consuming and I don't do it often. I tend to being a stickler for authenticity, and that leads me to make everything myself. That includes the panir cheese and the various breads. Making cheese sounds difficult, but it isn't. You simply bring a large quantity of milk to boil, add a bit of acid (usually lemon juice), and stir until the milk curdles. You then scoop out the curds, wrap them in cheesecloth, give them a brief rinse, and drain under a weight. Et voila! You've got cheese!

Anyway, tonight's menu is:

Meetha Kesari Bhat (Sweet Saffron Rice with Currents and Pistachios)
Khara Moong Dal (Golden Mung Dal Soup)
Masala Barbatti Sabji (Spiced Green Beans)
Baigan Panir Tarkari (Eggplant and Bell Pepper Stew with Fried Panir Cheese)
Seb Kachamber (Apple Salad)
Palak Raita (Chopped Spinach in Smooth Yogurt)
Chapati (Griddle Baked Bread)
Bengali Bhat Payasa (Rich Rice Pudding)

The pudding is done and is chilling. I'll start the soup next, since that can be reheated. I'm not going to make the panir or chapati; the Indian grocery had pre-made and I'm going to try those products. Then I'll do the prep work for the other dishes. The house is going to be redolent with spices. Yum, YUM!

More About Emma
Emma is getting more and more comfortable being on the deck. Her favorite pastime is to leap onto the deck railing (which is quite far off the ground) and walk back and forth. This is also a potential escape route for her and we've set up various blockades to prevent her from getting off the deck.

For some reason, Emma actually petitioned to go outside yesterday evening. Tom set up the barricades and let her on the deck. The deck is partially covered, which means that we can go outside in inclement weather and have a chance of remaining relatively dry. Well, it just happened to be raining when Emma went out. She wandered around the covered part and all was good. Then she spied a bird in the tree. She leapt onto the railing (still under shelter) and ran towards the tree. The look on her face when she realized it was raining was priceless! She beat a hasty retreat back under the roof, nearly falling off the deck in the process. It was her first experience with rain and she did not like it one little bit!

In Memory of Our Fallen Soldiers
Since this is Memorial Day, it would be remiss of me to not mention the thousands of men and women who have died serving our country. I was watching the Memorial Day concert at the Mall on PBS last night and the stories of the soldiers, both living and dead, moved me to tears.

This war in which we are currently entangled is difficult and troubling. I'm afraid that no matter what our will or our military strength is, we are fighting a losing battle. And that makes the deaths and injuries of our servicemen and women that much more poignant. I had to leave the room to sob when they read the letters of a mother to her dead son. The young man was exactly the same age as my nephew.

Our President has said that we can expect much more violence in the months to come, as they ramp up the "surge." More deaths, of Iraqis, Americans, and other coalition members, both civilian and military, are totally unacceptable to me. War is heinous under any circumstances and a preemptive war is particularly heinous. Our involvement in Iraq has created a situation that is much more precarious than when Saddam Hussein was in power. Despite the hard work and good intentions of our servicemen and women, the situation continues to deteriorate. We need to bring our soldiers home.

Take the time today to hold the war dead and their families in your heart and pray for lasting peace.

Namaste.

Saturdays Are For...

Spinning! Believe it or not, after all my Saturday chores were complete, and Tom was comfortably installed in front of the TV to watch Babel, I repaired to my fiber room to start spinning up the Rambouillet from the Wooly Wonka Exotic Fibers Club. Fortunately, I had an empty bobbin although you'd think with all the spinning I haven't been doing, that empty bobbins would abound. I spin like knit. I have a lot of stuff going on and making progress on none of it.

I approached the wheel with excitement, mixed with trepidation. Would the seat adjustment work? Could I spin to "spec?" I've always just spun, never really paying attention to wraps per inch (wpi). In this case, in order to make the project, I needed to spin a yarn that would end up being about 13 wpi, two-ply. I figured out the singles needed to be spun at about 26 wpi in order to create a 13 wpi two-ply yarn. Most of you are saying "No duh!" All that I can say is that I've got a math block and I just tend to wing it. I'm getting much better though. By the time I'm 100, I should have this math thing licked!

Anyway, I commenced spinning and found that treadling was easy and smooth. I could treadle slowly and not have the wheel stop at the top of the revolution. The seat adjustment worked! I periodically checked the wpi and was getting close to what I needed. The Rambouillet is nice to work with. I found that I needed to split the roving in half and in half again in order to create and maintain a nice drafting triangle. I think the first bobbin is turning out rather well:



I can't wait to get back to the wheel to spin some more!

Knitting Progress
I made a little progress this week on the stockinette sock, although most of the progress was made during the Weekend of the Car Woes. In a previous post, I mentioned that I turned the heel with very little drama. However, the heel is looking decidedly cockeyed and my fear is that the sock will twist on my foot. But I'm ignoring that little fact and plowing ahead anyway. If I have to frog it after it's done, I will. If I don't, it's a bonus. Like Buddha, I'm trying to not be attached to the outcome:



The sock just is.



I wish I had the same attitude towards the Sweaters of Frustration, which I should rename to the Sweaters of Despair. I've lost my love for them. The going is slow. Making bobbles and cabling in the same row is agonizing. I've got about three inches to go on the back of the Jenna sweater and just can't bring myself to knit on it. As for the Christine sweater, I'm afraid that I've done the neck front decreases wrong. The pattern calls for decreasing every third row. So does that mean I decrease on rows 3, 6, 9, 12 or do I decrease on rows 3, 5, 7, 9? Should the decreases be done on right side rows or can they be done on right and wrong side rows? Just the thought of it makes me want to whimper and curl up into a tight little ball. Clearly, I've bitten off more that I can chew with these sweaters.

Discovery
For the last several months, I've driven past a new grocery, East West Grocery, advertising Asian and Middle Eastern items. I've never stopped to go in. So yesterday, after running some errands, Tom and I decided to stop by. I'm glad we did because it's an Indian grocery. Yippee! Now I don't have to go way out of my way to stock up on Indian spices, dals, rice, and other yummy things. The owner is very nice and we bought quite a few things. I'm inspired to cook an Indian meal and will probably do that tomorrow. Yum!

Emma
Emma is unlike any other cat I've had. She is a furry alarm clock, waking up promptly between 4:30 and 5:00 every morning. She jumps on the bed and strokes my face with her paw. She has very soft, velvety paws. It's endearing and would be even more so if she waited later in the morning. But she wants to be fed and she doesn't like to wait. I've been trying to not react to her and it seems to help. She still tries to get me out of bed, but is much less insistent.

We've started letting her go out on the deck, but haven't allowed her to go into the yard. We're still afraid that her mother's feral instincts will take over and she'll wander off. She loves being outside, catching flies and watching the birds and squirrels.

Emma also loves being inside, watching the birds and squirrels from her perch in the window. It's also her favorite place to sleep:



She can keep an eye on things and it's amazing how quickly she goes from sleeping to attack mode if a fly buzzes past her. She's somewhat of a watch cat as well. She growls when visitors come into the driveway!

Two more days off. Most of the chores are done...there will be grocery shopping and cooking and maybe a little bit of cleaning and laundry. And there will most certainly be spinning and perhaps a little knitting as well.

Enjoy the day!

A Relaxing Weekend (Hopefully)

Last weekend was definitely not relaxing. We arranged for a tow truck to meet us at Union Station on Sunday morning and tow Daniel's car back to our house.

Cost of a tow from Union Station to Leesburg? $207.00
Not having to worry about Daniel breaking down? Priceless

I drove Daniel and his girlfriend back to Poquoson Sunday afternoon and spent the night with my parents. It was good to see them again, even though it was a really quick trip. We had dinner at Captain Chuck-a-Muck's and Mom and I both got the crab cake. It was a pretty good crab cake; a little on the gummy side, but a nice taste. Dad got the fried oysters. There was a lot of food for the price; we all walked away stuffed! I did not however, drink the Jamaican Jet Fuel. I'll save that for another day.

I drove back Monday (and picked up the most delicious strawberries on the way) and the rest of the week was spent at work. I managed to get a little knitting in while watching the Food Network with Tom. The first simple stockinette sock is growing and should soon be done. That's about all I feel like knitting--simple stockinette socks. Unfortunately, the nieces are not going to stop growing and if I don't get my act together real soon, the Sweaters of Frustration will fit only their baby dolls. Or their baby brother. Given that these sweaters are a bit on the girly side, I don't think my brother would appreciate the gift.

Weekend Plans
We gave up traveling on Memorial Day weekend a while ago. There are just too many people on the road. So this long weekend will be spent working around the house. That includes a trip to the local farmers market, housecleaning, and with any luck, knitting and (gasp!) spinning.

My recent attempts at spinning have been frustrating and somewhat physically painful. For the life of me I could not treadle slowly without the wheel stopping at the top of each revolution. A couple of weeks ago, I solved the problem by using a lower seat. Standard chair seats are 18 inches high. Spinning stools are about 17 inches high. My new seat (my old adjustable harp bench) is 16 inches high. Given that I'm short, that should be just about perfect! I'm anxious to try it out. Since Tom is running 19 hilly miles tomorrow, I'll spin while he's in recovery mode.

What's that you say? What do I mean by harp bench? I used to play the Celtic harp and for a brief period, was learning to play the pedal harp. Unfortunately, I couldn't take my harps with me when I moved to Paris (France) and my musical career (such that it was) came to a screeching halt. Maybe one day I'll pick it up again. I still have my small harp; I sold my pedal harp to a promising young student. I hope it still has a good home. It was such a beautiful, sweet harp.

Crisis Management

(Warning! Long post ahead!)

Back in my college days, I drove cars that could be called somewhat unreliable. There was the Opel I loved, but it had a nasty habit of shearing points, causing the car to stop going (I got pretty good at diagnosing the problem and changing the points). There was the car whose u-joint decided to give out on the beltway during rush hour. I did not react well to car problems, especially car problems (or weather problems) that stranded me where I did not want to be.

Apparently, that aspect of me hasn't changed much in 25 years.

My cell phone rang late Thursday morning (it never rings). It was my nephew, saying that his car was broken down in DC (he was on his way to a Nationals game). With a little help from a coworker and Google maps, we found out where he was and he managed to get the car to the stadium without it blowing up (or so we thought).

While he was enjoying the baseball game, I searched the internet for auto repair shops in the vicinity. RKF Stadium is in Northeast DC and it's not exactly a great neighborhood, although it's improved over the last several years. I found one shop, about a mile from the stadium and gave them a call. They couldn't look at the car immediately, but they could look at it on Friday. I said we'd try something else.

Daniel called after the game to let me know that it seemed like the car was fine and that he was leaving the stadium. Five minutes later, he called again. The car was overheating and losing coolant again. This time he was close to Union Station and was going to park it. It was clear to me that there was no way the car was going to make it 43 miles in rush hour traffic. I called the mechanic back and said I'd take him up on his offer to fix the car on Friday and by the way, could he recommend a towing company?

I called the towing company, arranged for them to meet Daniel at Union Station, and made sure that Daniel had enough cash to pay for the tow and that R. (the mechanic) was going to be there when W. (the tow truck operator) would arrive with the car. Daniel and Madeline would take the Metro from Union Station to Vienna, and I would whisk them away to Leesburg. We finally arrived home sometime after 8:00 PM. I also alerted my boss that I might not be at work on Friday, since I would have to help Daniel deal with the car.

So, Friday dawns. After a suitable length of time passes and I don't hear from R., I called him. I was very relieved to find out that it was a bad thermostat and coolant sensor. That's an easy fix and relatively inexpensive. He estimated the car would be finished around 2:00 at the latest. Excellent! Daniel and Madeline decided they wanted to go into DC and visit the museums, and I alerted work that I'd be in around 1:00 (might as well go in since I had to drive past the office to get to the Metro). We were well on the way to having this crisis resolved.

I was way too optimistic.

I didn't hear from R. and finally called him to get a status check. He estimated the car would be finished between 3:30 and 4:30; he had to order a thermostat. Fine, no problem. That's a common occurrence.

I had a 4:00 meeting which ran until about 5:30. I called R. again to get a status check. He couldn't install the thermostat because the thermostat housing was damaged. He would wire the fan so that it would come on when the car was started and run continuously to help keep the engine cool. He also said that he thought the head gasket was damaged. The car would now be ready around 6:00 (at the height of rush hour).

The uneasy feeling that had been growing since my first call with R. exploded into full anxiety. If I were a nail-biter, I'd have chewed my fingers to the bone. I called Daniel and told him how to get to the shop and I continued fretting.

After Daniel arrives at the shop, I settle the bill with R. and Daniel and Madeline are on the road. Less than 10 minutes after Daniel leaves the shop, he calls and says his car is overheating again. As soon as I hang up with Daniel, his father calls and says that Daniel is broken down and in a very bad area. I told him not to worry, that I'd handle it.

I said some very bad words after we hung up.

I called Daniel and got their position, looking it up on Mapquest (at the same time IMing with Tom, who said he'd get them to a police or fire station). We decided to get the car back to Union Station and park it in the garage. I called his father back and assured him Daniel was okay and that the neighborhoods in that area often look way worse than they were. Then Daniel calls; he's safe at Union Station and was getting on the Metro.

We arrive in Leesburg at 9:00 PM. Fortunately, Tom had margaritas and pizza and salad waiting for us. I was so knotted up inside and still fretting. How are we going to get the car back to Leesburg? How are Daniel and Madeline going to get home? What do I do about the repair bill, since R. didn't fix the car at all?

I'm still knotted up inside. We're going to have the car towed from Union Station on Sunday. Tom was going to do his usual long run and let me drive to DC and deal with the almost final chapter by myself. No way! I hate driving in DC and at this point, I never want to set foot inside that city again. Tom relented rather quickly, sensing that I was rather vehement about not doing it by myself. We'll have the car towed back to Leesburg and my brother will come pick it up at some point. I'll take Daniel and Madeline back home Sunday afternoon, taking the opportunity to visit my parents at the same time.

And all will be well.

Comfort Knitting
During this drama, there was knitting. There had to be. I knit on my simple stockinette sock. I turned the heel without too much drama. I'm thinking the leg will be a bit boring and am tempted by feather and fan. But it's too hard. I just want to knit around and around and around; a mantra of knit, knit, knit, knit...



May the remainder of your weekend be free of car troubles, fretting, and drama.

Weekends Are Too Short

I wish weekends were longer and the workweek shorter. Our weekend was quite nice. My friend Val came out on Saturday and we went to the farmers market and bought some yummy fresh local dairy products, baked goods, salsa, and asparagus, then wandered around the downtown area, ostensibly to check out Mrs. Tate's Bake Shop and Tea Room. What we actually were trying to do was create a calorie deficit so we didn't feel quite so guilty eating coconut cupcakes for before lunch.

Later in the afternoon, Tom and I went up to his sister's place to celebrate Mother's Day a little early. His brother was up from North Carolina, too. Linda and Nikki fixed a delicious dinner: Chicken Oscar, Caesar salad, tomato and fresh mozzarella, bruschetta with olive oil and Parmesan, and cake for dessert. It was good to see Steve and my mother-in-law again and it was really good to see Linda's family. Even though we don't live all that far away from them, it seems like we rarely see them, given school and sports schedules and such.

On Sunday, I got up and (are you ready for this?) ran six miles! And I lived to tell the tale. It wasn't too bad; my knee behaved and didn't hurt. I had done a couple of two-mile runs during the week, just to make sure that I remembered how to run. Seriously, it's been a long time since I last ran.

After the usual post-run snack at a local coffee shop, Tom and I visited some nurseries to buy some ferns for the deck and to see what else was available. Our yard is in serious need of some major landscape work. We got some ideas. The trick is going to be remembering what we decided, since we didn't write anything down.

Of course, I called my mother to wish her a happy Mother's Day. My brothers feted her with dinners and cards. All she got from me was a phone call. I'm terrible about sending cards on holidays and such. I start out with good intentions, even buying cards in advance and putting reminders in my calendar. But I never send them. So I've stopped trying. I'll call instead.

The rest of Sunday was spent trying to eradicate the plaster dust from part of the house. This effort involved vacuuming and washing the floors and took up most of the afternoon. I swear the absolute best way to wash floors is not with any of these new-fangled gadgets but the old-fashioned way, down on your hands and knees, with rags for washing, rinsing, and drying. The problem is that it also takes a long time. And that's why I rarely wash my floors.

Knitting News
I have a confession to make. I started a new sock, using the Sockotta that my secret pal sent me. I know, I know. I haven't finished the Sweaters of Despair (although I did knit a couple of agonizingly slow rows on the Jenna sweater) and I still have to knit the other Spirit Trail sock. But I've been feeling that I need something plain and simple to knit and what better project than a stockinette stitch sock?

This turned out to be a good move. I was feeling a bit queasy most of yesterday and didn't want to do much of anything last night besides watch cooking shows (nothing appealed, imagine that) and knit. But I didn't feel well enough to tackle the Sweaters of Despair. There's a lot of comfort in simply knitting around and around and around and around...

Today brought more of the same...queasiness most of the day. I decided not to go to work and managed to knit a couple of rounds. In the afternoon, I started to feel somewhat better and organized my fiber room again. It had accumulated all the stuff from the back bedroom and was a bit quite a disaster area. It's now much neater and feels less claustrophobic. Of course, some of the stuff went back into the back bedroom; my nephew and his girlfriend are visiting later in the week and I didn't want them tripping over bed frames and closet doors.

Yesterday's surprise was the first delivery of the Wooly Wonka Exotic Fibers Club. Anne sent about four ounces of beautiful grey Rambouillet. She included notes about the breed and fleece, as well as spinning tips and a pattern for a neck gaiter. I was beginning to feel a bit intimidated about this club, but Anne recommends using a short draw worsted spinning technique. This is good, because that's about all I know how to do!

Whew! This post turned out to be much longer than I expected. And it's getting close to dinner, although I still don't have much of an appetite. Hopefully, all the queasiness will be gone by tomorrow and I can get back to my regularly scheduled activities.

Have a great week!

Yes, Virginia, There is Knitting

This last month or so has produced precious little in the way of knitting. The girl's sweaters are progressing oh so slowly, and it will be a miracle if I finish them before my nieces start producing grand-nieces and nephews (for the record, my nieces are four and five). This gives you some idea of just how slow I'm moving on the sweaters.

Tom's Divine scarf is finished, just in time for nice, warm weather.



I'm mostly pleased with the way it turned out, but I incorporated an extra stitch that sort of bothers me. However, I'm not going to rip it out. The ends need to woven in and the scarf blocked, but I'm considering it finished (for the most part).

I also finished one Spirit Trail sock.



Again, I'm mostly pleased with the way it turned out, but it has a couple of issues. The pattern is not centered on the instep and the sock doesn't fit as snugly as I would like it to. I was thinkingif I removed the "extra" stitches if the pattern would magically center on the instep and improve the fit. I think there's going to be some additional swatching in my future.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm not really a knitter. If I were a real knitter, I'd have many more finished objects. I'm a wannabe knitter (and spinner). I buy yarn, patterns, and have all these grandiose schemes for designing my own sweaters and socks, but when it comes right down to it, I just can't seem to execute. I start projects, then cast them aside for the thrill of starting something new, which then is cast aside to start something else. Perhaps I suffer from a knitterly form of ADD.

And then there's this: I waste time (that's a big surprise, eh, Mom?). And I'm lazy. I can always find ways to stretch out a task, not because I want to prolong it, but because I get distracted. If I'm straightening a room, I'll pick up a book and and hour later, find myself still flipping through the pages. It's enough to drive a professional organizer crazy!

What I ought to do is set aside a little time every day to knit and spin. When the time is up, the time is up, and I move to the next task. I don't have a lot of hope for that actually happening, but I'll report back on my progress.

Room Renovations
Remember I mentioned that we decided to finally renovate the back bedroom? The plasterer finished up yesterday. Here are some before pictures:





Now you see them:



Now you don't!



The round copper plate covers a hole in the wall (which is actually a chimney). The two back rooms were most likely heated by coal stoves.

Ahhh...new plaster!







There's still a ton work left to do in this room. While the plaster cures over the next several weeks, Tom will scrape all the baseboards, replace the baseboard on the back wall, and refinish the floor. Then it's time to paint, install a new ceiling fan, and find someone to put in nice shelves in the chimney nook. We'll also need to purchase wardrobes. Ikea has some nice options. And then we can move everything back into that room. That will be good, because it's currently residing in my fiber room and it's almost impossible to move in there.

Happy knitting!

Recap

Well, it's been quite busy chez nous. Three weeks ago, we were in Charlottesville for the Charlottesville Half Marathon where Tom set yet another PR. We ate at some fabulous restaurants (particularly the The Shebeen; if you are in Charlottesville, you simply must give it a try!). I made the annual pilgrimage to The Needle Lady and bought one of Maggie Jackson's books, purely on whim because I just had to have one of the models knit up in Maggi's Linen. Sadly, I needed one more ball than the shop had in stock, so no yarn was purchased. Well, I take that back. Yarn was purchased, but you can't see it because it's for my secret pal.

Last weekend I was up at Kirkridge, cooking for a knitting retreat given by Y2Knit and sponsored by the fine ladies of Modern Yarn (be sure to check out their cool t-shirt designs). Despite being the kitchen pretty much from sunup to sundown, I managed to find some time to knit with the group. Of course, I was so tired from cooking that I had to rip out and start the sock about 80 billion times (it's the process). But the work was fun and I might get some additional catering gigs out of it.

The best part about last weekend? When I returned, Tom had delicious dinner prepared for me. Grilled shrimp escabeche, red cabbage and beet slaw, and a grilled fish with homemade caponata. I've got the best husband!

This weekend is the weekend of the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I spent the day there yesterday and met up with Mia in the morning. It was great to finally meet her in person, after trading blog comments and emails. She's local and there's really no excuse for not having met her sooner. I also met up with Chris, Nanc, P-la (and the Squid), Jen, and Lillian, all from Texas. Well, sort of. Lillian came down from New Jersey, but she used to be in Texas. The Texas contingent graciously allowed me to trail along in their wake. Chris is now a spinner and I was being an enabler, especially when she said that she came to buy fiber (not just yarn). She showed amazing restraint, despite the fact that I kept shoving various bits of fluff in her hands and demanding "Feel this!"

So Chris, did you go back to Shadeyside Farm and get any of the yummy stuff they were selling?

What did I buy? Nothing, at least not for me. I did pick up a thing or two for my secret pal and some non-fiber items for Christmas and other gifts. Am I sick? Am I losing my passion for all things fiber? No, I was just so overwhelmed by the selection (never give a Libran too many choices unless you want to see her paralyzed by indecision) and the crush of the crowds that nothing really appealed. Plus the lighting in the main building was so poor that it was hard to see colors. All yarn vendors should have at least one Ott light so their customers can get a better idea of what the yarn looks like.

There was some confusion as to where the knit bloggers would meet. Once again, we were supposed to meet behind the pavilion, but there's music going on and that's where the muggles set up base camp. The grassy hill behind the main building is still the best spot and that seems to be where everyone migrated.

Pictures? You want pictures? As I was making my way north up Route 15, I realized that I left my camera behind. So no pics for you! Sorry!

As for the rest of the weekend, my time will be spend cleaning. The house is a bit on the filthy side as we're in the middle of some plaster work. Combine plaster dust with the pollen that's been blowing in, and the house is looking quite dusty. Tom is off running a trail marathon this morning, so there's some cooking in my future as well. He's going to be quite hungry this evening and a tasty dinner will be just what the doctor ordered.

Happy knitting!

Briefly

Of course, whenever I mean to post a short entry, I seem to end up going on forever. But this is to let my five loyal readers know that I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. I just haven't had much to say.

Knitting is happening. I finished the first Spirit Trail sock (except for weaving in the ends). The Divine scarf is complete, except for blocking and weaving in the ends. The sweaters...well...I'm slogging along, at a pace slower than the snails. I'm reaching the conclusion that maybe I'm not cut out to knit sweaters, even wee ones. Of course, maybe I should start with easier patterns.

The second installment of Rockin' Sock Club arrived today. And boy, is it gorgeous! And it feels so yummy. The pattern that came along with it is intriguing and it looks like it will be fun to knit. Have I knit up the first pair of socks yet? No. But I'm guaranteed years of knitting enjoyment.

Sigh...

Next month the Wooly Wonka Exotic Fibers Club will start. It sounds like there will be both spinning and knitting involved. I'm beginning to get a little intimidated; I'm afraid my spinning isn't up to par and am thinking that I've bitten off more than I can chew.

I'm off to Kirkridge this weekend to cook for the Y2Knit retreat. I spent the day grocery shopping and all the supplies are laid in. I just hope I remember to pack everything. It would be a very bad thing if I forgot the lasagna.

A full report (at some point) of last weekend and this weekend when I return.

Enjoy the weekend!

Beyond Words

I woke up with a migraine today and given the weather (strong wind, spitting rain, chill temperatures), I decided to stay in bed and work from home in the afternoon.

A little after noon, a friend sent me a message asking me if I had been following what was happening at Virginia Tech. I was horrified. My nephew and Tom's nephew both attend Tech and fortunately, both are not hurt. Daniel had just arrived at Norris Hall when everything was going on and by good fortune, decided to not take his normal bus to campus. If he had been 10 minutes earlier, who knows what might have happened? PJ (Tom's nephew) was in the building next to Norris when the shootings occurred. His next class was in Norris.

Others were not so lucky. 32 people, mostly students, perished today in the worst shooting rampage in U.S. history. It's beyond my ken. Our illustrious president, while professing to be horrified and deeply concerned, said through his publicist that the he believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed. Additionally, the White House said that "certainly, bringing a gun into a school dormitory and shooting … is against the law and something someone should be held accountable for." (Credit: ABC News, Deb Riechmann, http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3045930)

The gunman is dead; he allegedly killed himself. So who do we hold accountable? Certainly not the gun manufacturers; the NRA would raise a stink over that. The president of Virginia Tech for not being prescient enough to know that the gunman didn't leave campus after the initial shootings? The owner of the gun store where the gun was bought? The owner of the gun if gunman borrowed or stole it?

Society, perhaps, for not doing enough to teach children that you can't always get everything you want and how to deal with the disappoints that life so often hands out.

I don't know the answer; perhaps there isn't one. What I do know is that over the last several decades, images on television, in movies, and in video games have become more violent and more graphic. Song lyrics have followed the same trend. We, as a nation, have become desensitized to violence. It's commonplace and perhaps the underlying message is that it's okay to kill to get what you want or to get even.

But it's so wrong.

I've been silently boycotting the entertainment industry for a while now. I don't go to movies if there's so much as a shred of violence in them. I don't listen to commercial radio. I don't watch television (except for the Food Network, PBS, and some shows on the War History Channel). As one person, I'm certainly not influencing Hollywood. And there will never be enough of us to make a difference because too many people are addicted to adrenalin (but that's a discussion for another day).

My apologies for a rambling and somewhat disjointed post; I needed to say something.

It Arrived!

Look at what arrived in the mail on Monday!



All sorts of goodies from my secret pal! There's a skein of Sockotta sock yarn, in very spring-ish colors (color 6 for those who have enquiring minds). Since this yarn is a cotton/wool blend, it will be perfect for the warmer months (if they ever arrive...more about that later). There's a ball of Chagall by Jackobsdals, a Swedish yarn. Even though it's named after (I presume) Marc Chagall, the colors remind me of Monet's Waterlilies. It's a mohair/wool/synthetic blend and is quite soft. There's also a ball of Candy FX in the most wonderful shade of blue. I think I've got the perfect color of Softwist to pair it with. To round out the gifts, my secret pal included a book of notepaper, always useful, a box of tea from England, and some Raspberry Tea Cookies. Yum! I'm going to have to find some time this weekend to sit down with a cuppa and cookies!

My secret pal also included a card which had a cute verse on it (I forgot to include in the photo). It said:

Mary had a little lamb...
It's fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere the lambie went,
that girl was sure to go.

She followed it for days and days,
'cuz Mary was no quitter.
"Give me your fleece you crazy lamb!"
"Can you see that I'm a knitter?"

The lamb said, "Wait 'til I'm grown up,
My fleece ain't ready yet...
Just skip on down to the yarn shop, girl...
And see what you can get!"

Thank you, Secret Pal! Your gift made Monday quite enjoyable. By the way, there was an extraneous pen at the bottom of the box. I'll save it and send back to you at the end of the exchange.

There hasn't been much knitting going on. I managed to knit two rows on the Jenna sweater, in between chasing Emma away from the plants in the living room. It never fails that as soon as I sit down to knit, she's doing something she wouldn't ordinarily be doing. I worked on Tom's scarf as well and it should be complete after about four more inches. Who knows? He might get to wear it yet this winter spring.

Perhaps some of the malaise I've been feeling this week is because of the weather. For April, it's been brutally cold (except for a couple of glorious 80-degree days, which I spent inside an office building). When I opened my office on Monday, a blast of cold air hit me. I didn't think anything of it; the office is usually a bit chilly after the weekend. However, it never warmed up. By the end of the day, I was wearing my coat and covered my head with my scarf, hijab-style. The ritual adjusting of the thermostats by Building Maintenance was ineffective. On Tuesday, I was prepared. The same blast of cold air greeted me upon my arrival, so I whipped out my handy-dandy digital thermometer and placed it on my desk. Slowly, ever so slowly, it crept up to 67.1. I called Building Maintenance and this time they sent a guy with a ladder. After poking around in the ceiling a bit, he announced that the heat was off and very kindly turned it back on. By the end of the day, the office was a reasonable 72 degrees. But I still haven't quite thawed out.

And it's not going to get much better. On Monday, the forecast for this weekend was calling for it to be in the mid- to upper-60s. Today, the weekend forecast is for snow. My biggest fear is that we'll skip spring entirely and head straight into August, which often happens in this neck of the woods.

So, what's on the agenda for this week? Probably very little knitting. This weekend, I'll start cooking for the Y2Knit and Modern Yarn Retreat at Kirkridge at the end of the month. Tom is also raring to strip the wallpaper in the back bedroom and demolishing the closets, in preparation for the plasterer. That means that we'll be emptying closets (yikes!) and moving all the furniture out of that room. Heaven knows where it's going to go.

Just thinking about it makes me want to curl up and go to sleep, like Emma. (I was going to include a picture of Emma curled up on the couch, but Blogger is being a bit recalcitrant and is refusing to accept the photo.)

Have a good week and stay warm!

Whew!

That was close! Here it is, almost mid-April and the forecast for last night and today was for two to three inches of snow! Fortunately, there was only a dusting of the white stuff on the roofs this morning. However, it's very windy and there's been a hard freeze warning since Thursday night. It's hard to believe that the temperatures earlier this week were in the 80s.

My parents' visit was very nice. They had a chance to relax and we had a chance to cook some good food. I made tiramisu and it was mostly a success this time. I used the savoiardi which are dry ladyfingers. The recipe was a test recipe from America's Test Kitchen (a couple of months ago they asked for recipe testers, so I volunteered). There are a couple of things I would change, like cutting the recipe in half and reducing the amount of rum used, but overall it was a very good recipe. We had chicken piccata, linguine fini, and spinach with caramelized onions and mascarpone cheese. It was a satisfying dinner, especially after we spent about four hours touring...

...The new Air and Space Museum. They did an excellent job with this museum. The Air and Space Museum in D.C. is very loud , being frequented by active, vocal children. The immensity of the museum (it's a gigantic hangar) dampened the sound of the active, vocal children, which is a nice benefit. The Concorde was on display, as was the space shuttle Enterprise. I would have liked to go inside both, but alas, the interiors of the aircraft were not on display. I was surprised at how the space shuttle looked small and large at the same time, and how fragile it looked.

If you get a chance to go to the new Air and Space Museum, I highly recommend taking in an IMAX film. They show every hour and provide a nice break to looking a hundreds of plane, missiles, airplane engines, airplane guns, airplane landing gear... After about three hours, all the planes started to blur. Yep, it's got wings, one or more engines, and landing gear. It's a plane. Next...

Knitting News
I still don't have much to report. I'm working on one of fronts of the Christine sweater after tinking two rows because I was about two rows over the 21cm length. Decreasing in pattern is proving to be more difficult than I thought. And I have a sinking feeling that I'm decreasing at a faster rate than the pattern calls for, which means I'll need to tink again. I'm supposed to decrease on the third row, then every third row after that. Decrease on row 3, then decrease again on row 6? Or row 5? Does row 3 count as row 1 in "every third row" or does row 4? Can anyone provide insight?

I finally caved and bought the Shingle Creek Trail Socks kit from Wooly Wonka Fibers. Anne sent the package out quickly and it arrived this week. The Sagebrush and Cedars colorway is very pretty with the different shades of blue and green. It will make a very pretty pair of socks. But alas, they won't be knitted for some time, at least not until I finish the Never-Ending Sweaters, of which I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Yarn Shop News
I looked at a building last Saturday that's almost perfect for my vision of my yarn shop. The only problem is that it is too expensive. All the retail space in Leesburg is too expensive, and if it isn't, it has issues, like zero parking, not even street parking. I'm wondering if it's going to be financially feasible to open a shop. Should I start online as a friend recommended? There are a scads of online yarn shops and I'm dubious as to how much business I'd actually get. I'll continue to research and think on it, but I'm beginning to get a little discouraged.

Secret Pal
My secret pal left a message in the comments saying that she mailed my package today! Yippee! I've got something to look forward to this week. I'm in the process of slowly pulling together the package for my secret pal and will indulge in some stash diving to see if I've got some yummy yarn in her favorite colors. I haven't been too successful in finding the yarn I wanted to send her so her first package might be a little sparse, but good.

Well, it's time to go. Emma is insisting that we play a rousing game of Fetch the Mouse.