Quick Update

This post will be quick, dashed off before I get ready for work. The trip was great--there was a variety of weather (ranging from distinctly autumnal to broiling hot), lots of interesting things to do, plenty of knitting (I love Clapotis and Monkey!), and a great ultra marathon. I even met a knitter in the wild!

Ultra
Tom finished the 50-mile distance in 10:46:00, 16 minutes off his JFK 50 time. He was disappointed (he wanted to beat his JFK time) but the first and last 16 miles were very hilly. Add to that an elevation significantly above the 400 feet here and the heat. I think he did really well. Marcia completed her first 50K race in 7:25:00. Out of the running club's three 100-mile contenders, only Diane finished, completing the distance in 25:02:00. Phil decided to drop just after mile 50; Mike made it to about mile 60, but decided to drop because of extreme nausea.

After Tom finished, he swore that he'd never, ever run 100 miles. However, he's now looking for his next 50-mile and 100K race and is starting to contemplate running the 100-mile. I think the 100-milers inspired him.

Knitting
Lots of knitting was accomplished. I finished four repeats on the Monkey socks before deciding that I might not be able to get them on my feet. I started the second sock on larger needles, so we'll see how that goes. However, I don't like the way the colors are arranging themselves. On the smaller needles, the colors striped nicely. On the larger needles, the colors are pooling, so one half the sock will be one color and the other half another color.

Clapotis is a great knit. Easy enough to memorize, but with enough stuff going on to keep it interesting. I finished the increase rows and one repeat of the straight rows. The Brooks Farm Duet is a dream to knit...so soft and smooth. I'm using Addi Turbos, but the yarn would work well on bamboo; it's slippery enough to easily slide off the needles.

South Dakota
South Dakota is gorgeous. I was very impressed with how friendly everyone was. Even teenagers on skateboards (known around here for being churlish and rude) said "hi" as they careened past. We need to make another trip and explore more. Depending on what winters are like, this state might be high on the list for our next move. The only drawback is the lack of yarn shops (but that could an opportunity for my own shop) and the lack of vegetables, at least served in restaurants. The restaurants we went to were heavy on beef and potatoes. By the time Friday rolled around, I was craving fresh vegetables.

Okay, I'm running out of time. Once again, not as quick a post as I intended. Full details and pictures to follow this weekend.

Happy knitting!

Behold!

Another finished object, hot off the needles!


Specs:
Yarn: Plymouth Sockotta Sock Yarn, color 6
Pattern: Wendy's Generic Toe-Up Sock
Needles: 2.0mm DPNs
Gauge: 10 spi

Sockotta is a nice yarn with which to knit, even in hot and humid weather, despite its cotton content. This was my first time using Wendy's toe-up pattern, which I found to be clearly written and easy to follow. The socks fit fairly well, although it's clear that I need to play around a little bit with sizing. I think slightly fewer stitches would improve the fit (I sort of winged the stitch count, based on Wendy's gauge of 8 spi versus my 10 spi)(actually doing the math would be nice...duh). I also need to tweak the heel width and length. I ended up with these little ears which suggests that the heel is either too wide or the foot too long. I used EZ's sewn-cast off which creates a nice stretchy cuff. Unfortunately, I neglected to see her admonition of "not advisable for ribbing." Oh, well...we'll just have see how it holds up in the wearing. All in all, this pair of socks was an easy comforting knit, with the short row toe and heel providing a touch of challenge.

And speaking of short row toes and heels, there are at least two methods: the wrap method and the YO method. I've tried both and I found that the wrap method was easier for me to master. The YO method produced less than stellar results, often leaving huge gaps in the side of the heel. I highly recommend test driving both methods (using worsted-weight yarn) before attempting either on a sock. For the wrap method, here are a few tips that will improve your odds of creating a nice toe or heel:

• Sit in a place where there are no distractions when you first attempt either method; you will need to pay close attention to the counting


• Wrap loosely to better see the wraps when picking them up later


• Do slip-wrap-slip-turn instead of slip-wrap-turn-slip to lessen the chance that you knit or purl the stitch you just wrapped

After you get the hang of it, it's easier than you would have ever thought. Now, go forth bravely and knit using short rows!

South Dakota, Here We Come!
In just a few short days, we head out to South Dakota and a vague sort of panic is setting in. I can't decide on a sock project. After actually reading the patterns for what I thought were the top contenders, I scratched them all because they all incorporated cables as a design element. I suspect that those patterns are best reserved for the privacy of my own home and quick access to the Internet in case I break yet another 2.0mm needle (the Brittanys are getting a little bendy and it's just a matter of time).

So what to do? I'm considering doing what any self-respecting knitter would do and probably will sort of design my own. Of course, that means I'm under considerable pressure to find a stitch pattern I like for the yarn I've chosen, of which Tofutsies is a top contender:



I'm leaning towards the pink. Opinions? Does anyone have a favorite pattern for Tofutsies yarn?

The other project, by unanimous vote, is the Clapotis shawl, by Kate Gilbert. I think one of the reasons I want to knit this is because it feels so French and if I feel French, then (using my questionable twisted logic) I'll grow a couple of inches, lose several pounds, sport high cheekbones, and have lovely thick, shiny, swingy hair. Right?

Today's activities will involve cleaning, laundry, and frantic swatching to make sure that I take the correct tools for my projects. There aren't many yarn shops where we're going to be and I think I'd be hard-pressed to convince Tom to make an emergency side trip to a yarn shop 50 to 100 miles away!

I provide full details when I return. In the meantime, have a great week and happy knitting!

Almost All Local

I can't say that I consciously planned it that way, but the majority of my Julia dinner on Sunday was almost all local. Here's the menu:

Canapes with a mushroom fondue au Gruyere
Poulet Poele a l'Estragon (casserole-roasted chicken with tarragon)
Concombres au Beurre (baked cucumbers)
Gratin Dauphinois (scalloped potatoes)
Salade Verte (green salad)
Clafouti aux Myrtilles (blueberry "flan")

The chicken, tarragon, cucumbers, blueberries, and salad tomatoes were local. Unfortunately, the potatoes, milk, cheese, flour, bread, and mushrooms were not. But still, the main ingredients were local. Every little bit helps!

I started cooking around 12:30 on Sunday, about 30 minutes behind schedule. I prepared the "order of battle" (a phrase the Julia is fond of using and one that I find amusing), working backwards from serving time (7:30) to determine when the various dishes needed to be in the ovens and working back from that, when I could start prepping them. Despite a late start, everything went as planned. I even had time to clean up as I went (anyone who has watched me cook a multi-dish meal knows that the kitchen tends to look like a war zone when I'm done). In fact, the meal was ready a little early, which was surprising. The last minute preparation for the chicken (carving and sauce preparation) did leave the kitchen looking like it had exploded, but that's okay.

And how was the food? Well, given that I tend towards flavorful ethnic cuisines (Indian, Thai, Mexican), I thought the dishes were a bit on the bland side. However, the canapes and cucumbers met with rave reviews. The chicken was a bit dry, despite being baked in a casserole. Since it was a free-range chicken, it was more lean than the grocery store variety and I think I overcooked it (the meat had drawn away from the leg bones). The sauce wasn't as thick as I would have liked it to be, but it was very good. And the clafouti was excellent. It's not like a Mexican flan, which is essentially an egg custard. The clafouti is more like a pancake batter that bakes into a thick cake which lacks the crumb of a traditional cake.

To continue on with the Julia theme, I made Potage Parmentier for dinner last night. That would be potato and leek soup. It was tasty, but much thinner than I was expecting; we tend to make our soups thick. It's very easy to make...just take water, sliced leeks, chopped potatoes, and salt, and simmer them until everything is tender. Pass through a food mill or mash with a fork, add a little bit of cream or butter and serve.

So, that's my Julia experience. Time-consuming, tasty, and possibly worth the time. I'm going to have to work on refining my execution of the recipes.

Knitting Progress
The Simple Stockinette sock is coming right along and I've got about an inch and a half before starting the cuff. See?



I predict I'll have another FO by week's end. Yippee! Of course, that leaves me with a little bit of a problem. What do I knit next? I need your help, especially since this project is going to be a travel project (we're headed to South Dakota next week for the Lean Horse Ultramarathon). Therefore, the project must be relatively simple, but engaging, and portable. Your choices are:

• Clapotis, using Brooks Farm Duet:



• The latest Rockin' Sock Club offering, using Firebird:



• The Flip-Flop dress from the Summer issue of Knitters, using this:



• The Shingle Creek Trail socks (from Wooly Wonka Fibers in this:

Come to think of it, maybe I should take two projects, a sock for the plane and something else for other knitting. Heaven forbid that I get bored knitting just one project!

I'll post the results of your votes this weekend.

Scorchin'

The heat this week has been unbelievable. The temperature on the deck (in the shade, mind you) on Wednesday was 102F (38C). Bleh. And, of course, the office was frigid. Even though 71F doesn't sound cold, it is, especially when sitting under the A/C vents and dressed for hot summer weather. There was even a man in the office wearing a light fall jacket! You know that something's wrong when a man wears an outdoor jacket indoors in the summertime. Fortunately, the weather has cooled somewhat this weekend, but the temperatures are expected to climb by mid-week. Bleh.

Not much has been happening on the knitting front. I managed to get a fair amount knitted on the simple stockinette sock while at the doctor's today. I thought I had a 1:30 appointment, but the confirmation call said 11:30, and that's when I showed up. Guess what? My appointment really was at 11:00. The receptionist was having a rather confusing day on Friday. However, the doctor saw me as soon as he was able. Nonetheless, I got a good 90 minutes of knitting in. I'm hoping to have another FO soon.

I came home on Friday to a package in the mail. It was the Bee Shawl kit from Wooly Wonka Fibers (click on New Products). The yarn is gorgeous and the pattern...well, the pattern is intimidating. It does look like it's well-written, though. I'm afraid that I'm going to stash this one for a while, although it was very tempting to wind the skein into a ball and knit a gauge swatch. I resisted the urge and resolved to continue to doggedly knit the simple stockinette stitch sock.

The 25th anniversary of Vogue Knitting also showed up recently and I'm finally getting around to reading it. This magazine isn't my favorite; I find it hard to read (dare I say the print is too small?) and there are a ton of advertisements, which makes it difficult to navigate. Plus, I find that I'll probably knit none of the patterns, ever. There are some good articles and I do learn. Plus, if I want to get into the knitting industry eventually, I need to be aware of what's going on. VK is probably one of the best magazines for that (but I digress). Anyway, this issue is full of pithy comment from folks like Kaffe Fasset, Alice Starmore, and Meg Swanson (the old guard). I particularly liked their discussion of how most hand knitting designers are given short shrift by yarn companies, as well as the effects of copyright violations on designers. The magazine also interviews Debbie Stoller, the Yarn Harlot, Shannon Okey, and Vickie Howell (the new guard).

I had some very insightful and profound comments on both articles, but alas, they have slipped through the sieve that is my brain. Of course, cooking dinner and enjoying a glass or two of wine didn't help matters. Sigh...

Julie/Julia
I'm somewhat obsessed with the Julie/Julia project. I found the original blog and have been reading it religiously. My copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking now resides on the kitchen counter, open to recipes that particularly intrigue me. My first Julia recipe was cassoulet, a couple of years ago. You know that it's going to be involved when Julia has notes on "the order of battle." It turned out well, although I could have fed an army with it.

And tomorrow night, I'll make my second Julia dinner. We'll have a simple roast chicken with tarragon, baked cucumbers, gratin au dauphinois, a simple green salad, and a blueberry clafoutis for dessert. I'll make some little mushroom canapes as hors d'oeuvres. Of course, I've never made any of these recipes before. And we're having a couple of friends over for dinner. I read once that you should never make something for dinner guests that you haven't made before. I always break that rule. No one has gone hungry (or died) yet!

Well, I was going to say something pithy here about the Julie/Julia Project and creativity and cooking and originality and knitting, but sieve brain strikes again. I really need to start jotting these random thoughts down when they occur.

I probably won't post tomorrow, too much cleaning and cooking to be done. I'm about halfway through Harry Potter (I resorted to borrowing a copy from a friend), so my regular blog reading will resume as well. Actually, I've been reading your blogs; I just haven't left comments because I'm feeling a definite lack of profundity. Ah well...

Happy knitting and...

Bon appetit!

Accomplishments

One doesn't often associate vacation with getting a lot of things accomplished, unless it's sightseeing or eating. However, the Simonds Family Beach Week offered the perfect venue for getting things done. Without further ado, here's what I did on my summer vacation:

• Swatched for the stealth project (completed on the drive down)
  
  
• Finished the Blue Danube socks (except for weaving in the ends)



• Almost completed the other half of the Too-Many-Choices top



• Helped my mother-in-law with her knitting


• Read three books, none of which was the final Harry Potter book (Tom is taking a very long time to read it)


• Sat on the beach and managed to get a tan despite wearing SPF 30 and sitting underneath an umbrella the entire time


• Practiced yoga a couple of times


• Did a little bit of stealth spinning and still produced crappy yarn


• Ate and drank way too much


• Turned the heel on the second stockinette sock

All in all, it was a good vacation. The family group was smaller this year. The three nephews weren't there and one sister-in-law had to leave early to go to back to work. The youngest niece brought her boyfriend, which was a trip. He's a nice enough young man. Watching them together brought back memories of what it was like to be sixteen and in "love."

One of the books I read was Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously. It was written by a woman who was approaching her 30th birthday and decided to cook all 524 recipes (except variations) in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days. I was so inspired that I pulled out my copy to leaf through as my bedtime reading last night, trying to find something to make for dinner tonight. (Although after stepping on the scale this morning, I quickly nixed that idea. I did more damage than I thought.) While I don't want to cook all of the recipes in the book in one year (brains, sweetbreads, kidneys...no thank you!), I would like to use the book more than I have.

Knitting Progress
While I can claim success on the Blue Danube socks and relative success with the simple stockinette stitch socks, the other knitting is not going well at all.

The swatch? I didn't get gauge and I don't have the next needle size up.

The Too-Many-Choices top? Even though it looks good, it's an unmitigated disaster. I realized (even though I read the instructions several times) that I started the neck shaping in the wrong place, which could account for the fact that the v-neck was way longer than the round neck. However, what makes it a disaster is that when I knit the second half of the top, I spaced the button holes based on the measurements of the first (wrong) half. Yup, it gets ripped back to the first buttonhole. Sigh.

After I realized the error of my ways, I decided to see if the v-neck on the first half would work out as written. I ripped back to 3.5 inches about the armhole bind-off and started decreasing. The pattern instructs you to decrease until there are 11 16 stitches left (that was another mistake), then knit following the stitch pattern until you are 6.5" about the armhole bind-off. At that point, you can start the should shaping. I was more than 6.5 inches above the bind-off after I completed the decreases (and my row gauge is pretty close). So it's back to the Basket of Unfinished Objects drawing board again. Here's a picture of the stitch detail to distract you from the pain of having to frog almost an entire half of a sweater:



And here's the stitch detail from the Blue Danube socks:



I don't think I'll get much knitting in today. I discovered an infestation of Indian meal moths in the corner cabinet in the kitchen. The suspected source of infestation is the bird seed. Fortunately, the moths don't eat fabric or wool so the stash is safe. However, getting rid of insects was not my idea of how to spend the afternoon.

Happy knitting!

PS: If I don't visit your blog, it's because I suspect that you are reading or have read the final Harry Potter book and that you will talk about the ending. I don't want to know.

Bear Meets Cat

As promised, I present to you a guest blogger, albeit a day late. That's better than being a dollar short, eh? So without further ado, I turn the blog over to Keith (who is, alas, neither blogger nor knitter).

This occurred... in our front yard.

I had spotted the bear in our back yard and went to get the camera. By the time I got back to the rear deck, he was nowhere to be seen. Thinking maybe he had wandered out front, I opened the front door and found him on the front porch.

He did not care for this up close and personal meeting and scooted off the porch. Then he discovered one of our two cats (NoName), who had been sitting on the swing but, seeing the bear, had opted to attempt invisiblity under the swing.

Young Mr. Bear decided to see who was under there, and rather hesitantly tried putting his paw under the swing.





By then, both Barbara and I were on the front porch, and all of this seemed too much for Mr. Bear who decided to beat a hasty retreat.



Keith lives about an hour west of where I live and lives on a mountain. It's not unusual for all manner of wildlife to be found on his property. Last year (or maybe year before last), they would occasionally see a mother bear with two cubs wander through. Keith thinks that this bear is one of cubs. Rumor has it that a bobcat has also been spotted on the mountain. Fortunately, Keith and Barbara (and their cats) have not had an up-close and personal meeting with it.

It's Beachin', Baby!
Today's the day we head down to the beach. The house sitters are all lined up and the supply of cat food has been replenished. All that's left to do is to pack and leave. Tom is out on a 20+ mile run and I've got yoga class in a couple of hours. We'll be getting a late start, in the hopes that we'll miss most of the traffic.

One of the more important tasks is to decide what and how many projects to take. Definitely a sock or two, an unfinished project, maybe a new project, and some spinning. Do you think I'm overpacking?

Happy knitting!

Tag! I'm It!

Fat Chick Crafts tagged me a couple of weeks ago with the Five Thing meme. So, without further ado, here goes.

INSTRUCTIONS: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so:

1. BitterSweet


2. Ren Knits


3. left-handed knitting in a world of right-handers


4. Fat Chick Crafts


5. The Knitting Libran

Next, select five people to tag:

1. Anybody who wants to be tagged


2. Anybody who wants to be tagged


3. Anybody who wants to be tagged


4. Anybody who wants to be tagged


5. Anybody who wants to be tagged

(Sorry, I'm not good at tagging)

What were you doing ten years ago?
Let's see. Ten years ago I was a newlywed (one and half years), was in my ninth year at a company that was great (but couldn't move into management no matter how hard I tried), and owned three houses (mine, his, and ours; I don't recommend it). We had had our beloved Jezebel for four months; she was the cat that turned around Tom's opinions of cats. I was driving a old Nissan Sentra station wagon.

What were you doing one year ago?
I was getting used to a new job and learning how to work within the consulting industry. We celebrated our 10th anniversary in Costa Rica in February. We probably did some other stuff that I can't remember. Go check the blog archives!

Five snacks you enjoy:

1. Chocolate


2. Fruit


3. Cupcakes


4. Popcorn


5. Potato chips

Five songs that you know all the lyrics to:
That's hard. If I had to recite them (trust me, you don't want me to sing them!) cold, I'd have to say there aren't any. However, let me put on a CD and I could probably sing along with any songs of these artists:

1. Simon and Garfunkel


2. Steeleye Span


3. Loreena McKennit


4. Blackeye Peas


5. Richard Thompson

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:

1. Invest


2. Take care of my parents


3. Help the remaining nieces and nephews get through college


4. Travel


5. Do good works

Five bad habits:

1. Continuing to eat after I'm full


2. Not exercising as much as I should


3. Letting Tom do all the home repairs, bill paying, and yard work


4. Being disorganized


5. Being a packrat

Five things you like doing:

1. Yoga


2. Knitting and spinning


3. Cooking


4. Running


5. Camping and hiking

Five things you would never wear again:

1. Makeup on a daily basis


2. Spike heels


3. Clothes from the 70s (shudder)


4. Polyester


5. A bikini

Five favorite toys:

1. Laptop


2. Yarn and needles


3. Spinning wheel


4. Kitchen gadgets


5. My bicycle (if I ever ride again)

So there you have it. Five things to distract you from the lack of knitting photos. I have made progress on the Blue Danube sock and am currently knitting the heel gussets. However, at least one stitch liberated itself from the needles and the gusset stitch count doesn't match. So I have to figure out what happened and hopefully I won't need to rip back to far.

Tomorrow (if all goes well), there will be a special guest blogger.

Now it's off to play with Ravelry! Ciao!

Oddities

Sometimes you're just going with the flow, minding your own business, when you start noticing how odd life can really be. As I was driving to work sitting in traffic one day this week, I glanced in the rear-view mirror and was startled to see the woman in the car behind me flossing her teeth! Then there was the message left on our answering machine this week:

Hey, I hope I've got the right number. I'm trying to reach Father Tom Simonds. Tom, if this is the right number, it's W---- calling. I didn't know whether your cell phone was working today or not. I just wanted to touch base with you about getting together and doing some shooting tonight. Give me a call whenever you can. If this is the right number, I hope you guys are well. Talk to you later.

My husband thought it was pretty funny that someone was asking a priest to go shooting. It certainly isn't something you'd expect from a man of the cloth.

But the most fascinating thing that I observed one evening was a banana and what appeared to be a bowl of cereal, balanced on the bumper of an SUV. I was entranced by it, particularly since the car was traveling at highway speeds. I followed the vehicle in town; the breakfast items even stayed put through turns.

What's the strangest thing you've noticed?

This weekend promises to be busy and will probably afford little time for knitting. I have to do the usual house chores today, along with some cooking. We've got the running club progressive run dinner this evening and we're one of the stops. I have no idea what we're going make. I'm opting for a chilled soup of melon and cucumber with crispy prosciutto. Tom thinks that's too fancy. I think it's delicious and could care less about fancy. I also want to make a spice cake for the main event afterwards.

Tomorrow we're going up to see my mother-in-law. She's having the garage painted and wants Tom to pressure wash it beforehand. There's a yarn shop in her city, Woolwinders, and I'm hoping to get a chance to visit it. However, it would be poor form to leave Tom to do the pressure washing and immerse myself in wonderful yearn yarn (why do I always type "yearn" for "yarn?"). I don't need more yarn. In the evening we're going to Wolf Trap to see Lucinda Williams, preceded by a picnic on the lawn (which means we have to make something). The last time we went to Wolf Trap was to see the original Nosferatu, with live orchestra. That was before we got married so I'd say that it was about 13 years ago. Far too long!

Knitting and Spinning Progress
I continue to make zero progress on the Rambouillet. I have been making progress on the Blue Danube socks, although there's a fair amount of ripping going on. Apparently, I can't count to either three or five. I lost one of the DPNs, and am forced to knit with four needles. I much prefer five. And since it's been more than a year since I completed the first sock, I'm getting a way different gauge. The first sock leg is looser than what I'm currently knitting. I was hoping these socks would be suitable for a gift, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe the first sock will shrink up some after a nice bath. The yarn is a merino/silk blend, and perhaps the silk is causing it to not bounce back after numerous tryings-on.

In one week, however, there will be plenty of time for knitting and possibly some spindling. We'll be heading down to the Outer Banks for the annual Simonds family beach week. The trip is about six hours and then a whole week of sitting on the beach, with plenty of knitting time in the mornings and evenings. I need to figure out what projects to take. Maybe I'll take a new project, an old project (perhaps the Too-Many-Choices Top, since it's a gift for one of my sisters-in-law), and a sock project. I'll also take the drop spindle and the Batt from Hell and try to perfect my drop spinning.

Happy knitting!

Wooly Wonka Goodness

Oh joy! The second installment from the Wooly Wonka Exotic Fibers Club arrived yesterday. The selected fiber is Cormo. It's very, very nice.



I'm once again afraid my spinning skills (or lack thereof) will not be able to do this wonderfully fluffy fiber justice. And I'm definitely afraid that they won't be able to justice to this:



Yes, it's another ball of white fluffy stuff. But it's a blend of 80% Cormo and 20% angora rabbit. Talk about lucsious! The Cormo is wonderful, but just a wee bit of angora takes it from wonderful to sublime. I nearly swooned when I touched it.

Thanks, Anne!

Progress
On the knitting front, very little. I knit a few rounds on the simple stockinette sock when I found myself waiting for the tool rental guy to get back from lunch. On the spinning front, none. The Rambouillet is exactly where I left it several weeks ago.

Tom is making wonderful progress on the back bedroom. He rented a flat sander (as opposed to a drum sander) from the aforementioned tool rental place and should finish sanding the floor in the back bedroom this afternoon. As usual, he is doing an excellent job. The floor is going to look almost like new when he's done. Then all that's left to do is prime, paint the walls, paint the trim, install crown molding, come up with some sort of closet system et voila, the room is finished! Three down, one to go. At least for the bedrooms. We still have the dining room plaster to restore and the library, although we aren't too sure what to do with that one. The walls are covered with dark paneling so we don't have a clue as to how sound the plaster underneath is. The room is long and narrow, with two windows on the outside wall and pocket doors leading to the front room. That makes it difficult to place the television. We might end up (in several years, mind you; prices have to come down first) getting a flat panel TV; they take up much less space than the traditional TV.

The dishwasher gave up the ghost again and this time turning the breaker off and on didn't fix it. That means doing dishes by hand so it's time to get creative with food that doesn't take a lot of utensils (I'm famous for using every pot, bowl, and spoon in the house when I cook). The stove is also on the fritz; its electronics didn't fare well with all the power flickering that happened earlier this week. Fortunately, the gas bit still works, but the clock, timer, and oven don't. Sigh...

Emma doesn't care; she just wants a comfy place to take a nap.

SSS Abated

In my last post, I confirmed that I have a raging case of startitis as well as accepted that I suffer somewhat from Second Sock Syndrome (SSS). Have no fear; it's not as serious as it sounds and might even be downright positive. You see, I made an astounding discovery this week.

Startitis is a cure for SSS!

I know that you are skeptical. But think about the symptoms of startits (as documented by the Yarn Harlot in her fine book Stephanie Peal-McPhee Casts Off:

• A general and vague discomfort or ennui with knitting already on the needles


• A keen interest in any knitting that isn't on the needles at the moment

Now consider the general symptoms of SSS:

• Finding the second sock less charming than the first


• Using derogatory adjectives to describe the first sock


• Appearing dazed and refusing to admit that there is a sock, despite being surrounded by hundreds of single socks

It's logical that, given enough time and distance from the first sock, instead of casting on an entirely brand-new project, the second sock of any of the unfinished sock projects would make a great new project to cast on. Given that a sock is a relatively quick project, the patient should be able to get most of the sock done before the urge to start a new project strikes or before the sock once again loses its allure.

At least, that's what I found. Behold!



This is the second Blue Danube sock. The simple stockinette sock had lost its charm; I needed something a little more challenging (but not as challenging as the Sweaters of Despair). I needed something new. This second sock fit the bill perfectly. The Texas contingent might recognize this sock as the one that I was attempting to knit at the blogger meet-up at MDSW in 2006. I was so excited and so intimidated by all the awesome knitters that I messed it up royally and had to frog it later. I started it again, only to have the same thing happen. So the poor sock was relegated to the Basket of Unfinished Projects for more than a year.

The slip stitch pattern this pattern uses is wonderful. It's simple enough to memorize, it's easy to knit (assuming that you can count to five), and it looks amazingly complex. And the yarn is a luscious blend of merino and silk. What more could you ask from your knitting?

Emma says "Flies...I need more flies to catch!"



Happy knitting!

I'm So Good

Going through my somewhat small stash and entering it in Ravelry has been a very good exercise. I met up with my old yarn friends, the ones I met long ago in the yarn store, quickly befriended and brought home to meet the other yarn. They've been enjoying each other, having a stash party, without inviting me. Well, maybe they did invite me and maybe I forgot about it because I was busy making more yarn friends.

The upshot of this is that I really have more yarn than I need, although to be fair, the majority of the yarn was acquired with a specific project in mind. In addition, the suspicion that I have a raging case of startitis was confirmed. As I was pondering what to knit this evening, did my mind turn to any one of the myriad projects already on the needles? Oh,noooo...not at all. I was thinking that I would start swatching for a couple of stealth projects. It's clear that I enjoy the process of thinking about knitting and starting a project rather than taking it to completion.

I'm pleased to report, though, that no matter sweetly the yarn sang to me, I ignored its siren song and closed the yarn bins, thus lessening the din somewhat. I've got three unfinished pairs of socks in front of me on my work table (indicative of second sock syndrome) with another two pairs lurking in the Basket of Unfinished Objects.

So here I sit (with a rather large, flat, dead spider underneath the chair, which is creeping me out quite a bit; it's a good thing I didn't meet it when it was alive because then you'd have to scrape me off the ceiling), blogging instead of knitting. I know that once the yarn starts running through my fingers, I'll be hooked. But then again, maybe I'm simply a knitting wannabe.

(PS: The air conditioning at work was still broken, with the temperature in my office staying in the 80s. However, at the end of the day, it was a mere 80.1 degrees, which means that tomorrow the temperatures will be back in the meatlocker range. I have sweater and socks at the ready.)

Vagaries

You would think that with all of our high-tech gadgetry and engineering knowledge that heating and cooling a building, even a large one, would be reduced to mere child's play. I have yet to work in a building where I'm comfortable both summer and winter. That's held particularly true over the past couple of weeks.

During the last warm spell, part of the floor that I'm on got a little on the toasty side. It wasn't too uncomfortable (for me) but I had the guys called building engineering to cool things off a wee bit. The request was fulfilled and everyone was happy.

Over the next several days, however, the temperature in the building kept dropping. It was pleasant outside and I dressed for the weather, given that we had turned the air conditioning off at home and opened the windows. By the end of the week, I was feeling the need for wool socks, and a scarf and hat at work. So today, I dressed for the office conditions...stockings and shoes, slacks, a turtleneck sleeveless sweater with a cardigan to go over.

As I stepped into the elevator at work, I thought it felt a little warm. It was a warm weekend and the air conditioning is usually turned off during non-working hours, so I didn't worry too much. As I stepped off the elevator on my floor, it became clear that the air conditioning wasn't functioning at peak efficiency. In fact, the air conditioning wasn't functioning at all. The temperature in my office was a tropical 84 degrees. Facilities eventually managed to get the A/C working again and the temperature dropped a couple of degrees. But it never got below 82 all day. By 6:00 this evening, it was up to 85. That does not bode well for tomorrow.

I'm in a quandary about how to dress, although I'm leaning toward a nice cool linen dress with sandals, with a pair of wool socks on the side and maybe a scarf and a fleece jacket. Fingerless gloves would be the icing (no pun intended) on the cake.

Actually, I don't blame the A/C for not working today. It reached 99 degrees in the shade on our deck, so it had to be warmer in the more urban areas. My car thermometer registered 103 on the way home! I think everyone's A/C is working overtime. Just before I started writing this evening, we had several power blips and short brownouts. Hopefully we'll have power overnight; otherwise it's going to be one hot, sticky miserable night. More hot weather is promised for tomorrow and for Wednesday as well. All I can say is thank heaven we aren't out West; it's brutally hot out there.

Break out the Euro Linen and stay cool!

Stash Explosion

Whew! What a weekend! It was productive, but productive with "me" time. I finally got my butt out and ran with the club, which was followed by breakfast at Patrick's house. He competes in triathlons and it turns out that his wife used to be a competitive ski jumper for the US Ski Team and did all those cool aerial tricks. She doesn't compete anymore (one, the weather here is not conducive to it) because her knees and hips are shot.

Yesterday I headed up to Funkstown to Y2Knit for the July 4th (and 4th anniversary) sale. Was I good? Was there stash enhancement? Only my hairdresser knows for sure! Suffice it to say that Susan has some pretty good deals.

While I was browsing the yarn shop, Tom saw You Kill Me. He thoroughly enjoyed it, even though he had to leave Leesburg to see it. After we both returned, we met Leigh at our favorite watering hole. As it turned out, several running club members also showed up. We had a good time trading stories and sharing wine. At the end of the evening, Jerry (the bartender) gave Leigh and I blueberry martinis, fortunately small ones. They were quite tasty, but it put me over the edge. I woke this morning feeling less than stellar. So I took the opportunity to work on...

Ravelry
I started entering my stash last weekend. Or was it the weekend before that? Regardless, my fiber room looked like it suffered an explosion:





It was getting to be a rather annoying, stumbling over the piles of yarn. During the endeavor, I learned that Emma has developed a liking for wool and wool/silk blends. I'd leave the room and when I returned, some of the yarn had mysteriously moved to the floor. The first time it happened, I assumed that I had unknowingly knocked the yarn off the table. But no...it was Emma. She'd jump on the table, pick out particularly nice skein of yarn, and carry it off (just now she chose the Adrienne Vittadini Martina over the Provence cotton). At least she has good taste.

But finally, after working in Ravelry all day, all the stash is entered. The bonus is that the stash is organized. I've got the yarns slated for shawls and socks in one bin and all the other yarns in the other bin, further sorted by weight and fiber content. So it should be a lot easier to find what I need. It doesn't hurt that you can enter the location of the yarn in Ravelry, either, particularly if your stash spans several rooms (mine doesn't; it spans two bins).

After I finish getting the room organized again, I'm going to work on finishing spinning the Rambouillet from the Wooly Wonka Fibers Exotic Fibers Club. I think the next shipment comes this month and I'd like to be prepared to start spinning it without having to buy additional bobbins. I also need to start finishing the many UFOs I've got. My idea of not starting a new project until I finish one old project quickly went by the wayside. Sigh...so much knitting and spinning, so little time...

Secret Pal 10
Secret Pal 10 ended at the end of June. My giftee was Toni, over at Fat Chick Crafts. It was a lot of fun to get to know her and see the amazing work that she does. In addition to knitting, she stitches. And I was horribly mean and gave her a CD drop spindle and a wee bit of roving. Bwahahahaha! Despite hiding it deep in the closet, she started spinning and ended up buying a real spindle and roving the very next day. I'm so mean.

My gifter remained very anonymous for the duration. She finally "decloaked" last week. Her name is Suzanne and you can find her over at My Overstuffed Room. Unfortunately, the last package never arrived. I hope she's able to track it down. I thoroughly enjoyed this Secret Pal exchange.

Have a great week!

The Mules Survived

The inaugural Mule Run was a success! No one died, although a few runners probably wished they could. No one was arrested by the Park Police (the C & O Canal closes at dark); in fact, we didn't even see any Park Police after dark.



Our intrepid band of six runners and their loyal crew (which can be interpreted as Crazy (or Cranky, depending on the runner) Runners, Endless Waiting) converged on Harper's Ferry and the figurative gun went off promptly at 7:00 p.m. With the runners gone, the crew headed into Harper's Ferry proper to get some ice cream. I chased my ice cream with a cheeseburger, knowing that I was going to need fuel for the long evening that stretched in front of us.

Crewing at night is a somewhat surreal experience. The perspective shifts when the sun goes down. The creatures of the night come out and you realize that there is another world, totally different than the one you know. There are bats, owls, deer, raccoons, 'possums, frogs, moths, spiders (shudder)... Then there are the human creatures of the night: the through-hikers, the fishermen, the partiers, the homeless, and crazy runners. I love stepping outside of the boundaries of my world and observing the night world. It's so thrilling to come upon a fox, or hear mysterious splashes (very loud splashes) in the water, or hear owls hooting in the distance. It's a little disconcerting to meet up with other humans and fortunately, those we encountered were harmless.

The crewing routine goes likes this: Get to the aid station location, put out water, food, gatorade, first aid stuff, and chairs. Wait and wait and wait, preferably eating the food. Tend to the runners as they come in, which takes all of about 10 minutes, unless a runner needs a little more care. Tear down the aid station, go to the next location, and do it all over again. There's a lot of waiting. The main crew were amazing. These are guys who regularly run trail ultramarathons (like 100 miles), and win. And not just win by a couple of minutes. They win by hours. They know what it's like to be out there and what the runners need, both physically and psychologically.

The weather for this run was perfect. It was a cool, clear night and there was a full moon, which added a silvery appearance to the landscape. It was so cool that after the sun went down, I had to put on a fleece jacket. The runners, however, kept warm by running.

How did the runners do? We had a 50% drop rate, which is normal for a run of this distance. One runner dropped after 17 miles, another after about 25 or 30 miles, and Tom dropped after 46 miles and needed to be rescued. He left the aid station feeling a bit nauseated but felt that he might be able to make it the 10 miles to the next stopping point. It didn't happen. We got a call saying that Tom couldn't make it the rest of the way and needed to be picked up. The challenge was to figure out where he was on the towpath. Phil (the brains behind this run) and I jumped into the car and headed out. We almost needed a rescue ourselves because barely five minutes into the rescue mission, a deer ran across the road and I missed hitting it by mere inches (that area is filthy with deer). Based on the information that Tom provided, we made a best guess as to which lock he was at and set off on a search. We found him as the sun was coming up. He didn't look bad and after drinking some Coke, was doing much better.

The "winner" finished the 62-mile run in 11:42. We were awed by her performance, as she ran strong the entire way. The others finished about an hour later, maybe a little less. The run ended at Thompson's Boathouse in Georgetown. After we collected the runners, Steve (one of the awesome crew) fried up some hamburgers and we had a picnic in the parking lot. We got some strange looks because it wasn't even 9:00 a.m. yet.



Tom and I got home around 11:30 this morning and promptly fell into bed for a two-hour nap. I'm surprised I'm coherent, although I discovered earlier this morning that I wasn't as coherent as I thought I was. Leigh was going to feed Emma in the morning, so I called her around 8:00 to let her know where the food was. She didn't pick up and I left a message. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I left a message for Leigh on our phone! It didn't register that I dialed our number instead of hers (although I do that all the time) and it didn't register that I was listening to my voice on the answering machine.

Knitting and Spinning
Hahahahahaha! I knit during the night? Nope! So much for finishing the foot of the sock, eh? I did do a little spindling at the first aid station, while it was still light. The quality of the yarn is poor at best.



I did manage to get the spindle to spin a little longer but it still doesn't spin well. I also think part of the problem is with the wool. It's wool batting, not roving and it doesn't draft well. My spinning improved with aggressive pre-drafting, but that's not saying much. Either I've lost my touch with a drop spindle or else I have a bad spindle and wool. I'll keep plugging away at it, but I'm not optimistic.

I'm beginning to fade, which is a signal it's time to move on to a different activity, preferably one that involves eating (but not flies):



Or sleeping:



PS: You can find the recipe for the cookies here. I lied about the peanut butter.

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!