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.

Good Eats

This will be a quick post, since the parents are up visiting for the weekend. Suffice it to say, there will be a lot of eating happening chez Libran.

We had Brunswick stew, kale, and homemade buttermilk biscuits for dinner last night, with chocolate tapioca pudding for dessert. Tonight's dinner will be black bean soup, pork tenderloin with a blackberry-ancho chili sauce, and assorted roasted root vegetables, with flan for dessert.

Tomorrow I'll once again try making tiramisu. I found the right kind of ladyfingers; they are harder than the ones in grocery store. The grocery store ladyfingers are more like sponge cake and tend to fall apart when dipped in coffee. I'll give a full report later.

Knitting News
Not much knitting has transpired this week. I haven't had the will to get up at 5:30 in the morning and that is my prime knitting time. I need to get back to it, though. Mom says the girls are getting tall, so if the sweaters aren't finished soon, Jenna and Christine will be wearing cropped, 3/4 length sleeve sweaters instead of regular sweaters.

I got home yesterday to find a package on the front porch. What could it be? A surprise from my secret pal? Yarn that I forgot that I ordered? No, it was a copy of the Yarn Harlot's new book! I started reading and was not disappointed. It's a good, easy read.

Spring Has Sprung!
Spring has finally arrived. Our backyard is now looking quite green.



The plum blossomed this week and I fear the blossom time is going to be short. Plum blossoms against the morning sky:



Emma swears there's nothing better than a nap in the afternoon sun:



Eagle Cam
Ever wonder what life is like high atop a tree in an eagle's nest? Take a look. You won't be able to see anything at night, however. It gets a bit dark.
Happy knitting!

Images

Yesterday I drove up to Baltimore to meet with some distant cousins to discuss the geneology of the O'Connor branch of the family. It was a very informative meeting, although it got a little disorienting at times because there were a few Henrys, Evas, Catherines, and Edwards. Is that Henry my Uncle Henny or someone else? People kept referring to Aunt Kate, who I call "old grandma" (my great-grandmother). But we solved a few mysteries (who did Charles marry and were there children?) and I was even able to produce photographic evidence to put faces to names.

My family (on both sides, actually) saved everything and one boon of that is that we have a ton of photographs dating from the mid-1800s. I've ended up as the trustee of them. We also had the good fortune that despite all of my grandmother's health problems, her long-term memory was very sharp. Mom sat down with Grandma several years ago and they were able to put names and dates to the sometimes ghostly images.

At the end of the gathering, Linda gave everyone a listing of the family tree in its current state. Names, birth and and death dates, wedding dates...it's all there. We need to keep it current. And we also need to start digging deeper to solve the mystery of which O'Connors left Ireland and when.

As I was looking at this record of our family, it occurred to me that it wasn't anything but a list of statistics. If you look at the dates closely enough, you can conclude that my great-grandmother's life was filled with tragedy, grief, and hardship. But those stories are missing. We're fortunate that our family is relatively long-lived because the eyewitnesses to those early days are still around and we can capture the stories, at least for some of the family. It will be much more difficult (and probably impossible) to get the stories from the branches of the family that left Baltimore.

I drove home in the early evening. A fine mist was falling and as I drove westward, it became foggier and foggier. The bridge over the Potomac at Point of Rocks was shrouded in fog. Geese emerged the from mist, flying low. The image was primitive and one that has occurred countless times over the millennia. I found it both comforting and heart-wrenching. The mist will continue to rise and shroud and soften the landscape and the geese will continue their flight. Soon, though, this beautiful rural landscape will be populated with developments of McMansions and eventually, the geese will leave. And that will truly be a sad time.

Knitting Progress
Not a lot. I slept crooked or perhaps the bad desk chair at work has finally gotten to me as I've been plagued with headaches all this week. I managed to make some progress on Tom's scarf and have starting working the third ball. The lack of loft doesn't seem to have a negative effect, so I'm knitting on and I will finish it! I think I'll have an extra ball, and that just might turn into a pair of fingerless mitts for me.

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm a "wannabe" knitter, one who dreams more about beautiful handknit items instead of actually knitting them. I think the list of UFOs stands as a testament to that. Perhaps it's the fear of failure with the finished garment. What if I finish it and I don't like it? Or it doesn't fit? Or it shrinks? Or I can't figure out a technique? If I don't finish it, then the beautiful handknit garment can continue to live, unchallenged, in my mind.

Does anyone else struggle with this?

Nothing

Even though I have nothing in particular to blog about today, I thought I would, given that I seem to be blogging only on the weekend. Fortunately, we didn't get anymore snow yesterday, but it remained cold and windy. A prodigious amount of sunshine has melted most of the snow as well. So maybe, just maybe, the second half of the month will see us cruising into Spring.

The snow and cold weather hasn't daunted the birds. They are very active and very vocal, especially the starlings. Even though I find these birds to be rather despicable, they have amazing vocalizations. They like to perch on the chimney and their calls echo down into the fireplace in the mornings when I've got a fire going. Emma finds that to be very interesting and a bit disconcerting.

Our little town is blessed with a very fine Italian store, Galletta's. Yesterday they had a wine tasting, so Tom and I met our friend Leigh there. The wines were imported by Michael R. Downey Selections, Inc. and they were very good. I knew Mike a long time ago. Sadly, he died from lung cancer a couple of years ago. It's good to know that his children have taken over and grown the business. Galletta's also had a variety of their food selections out for tasting as well. I'm not a big fan of cold cuts, but they have a porchetta with rosemary that was heavenly. Their tiramisu is to die for. The cheeses are excellent. Yum!

After the tasting, we walked over to our favorite watering hole for a pint of Guinness to select St. Patrick's Day. Strangely enough, we were the only ones drinking Guinness. Everyone else was drinking wine or spirits. I rarely drink beer; it tends to fill me up and suppress my appetite (although there are times when my appetite could stand to be suppressed), so by the time we finished, I wasn't so hungry for dinner.

Last night's dinner was a brown rice pilaf with carmelized onions and toasted pine nuts, steamed broccoli with lemon, and a pan-roasted fillet of rockfish. It was late by the time we ate, so I had just a small portion. Emma was very interested in my dinner, particularly the rice and the fish. Of course, we don't feed her anything but her cat food (and a little bit of vanilla ice cream for dessert). But she still manages to eat some people food.

Like pine nuts.

I woke up around 2:00 this morning, to the sound of Emma bathing. But something didn't sound quite right. She wasn't bathing, she was playing with a balled-up piece of paper. No, that doesn't sound right either. It sounds too...wet. I rolled out of bed to see what it was she had. Imagine my surprise to see that she had the baggie of pine nuts that I had left on the counter last night. One side was chewed away and there were only a couple of pine nuts left. We found some of the others ground up on the kitchen floor this morning. We're learning that we can't leave any food out because Emma will try to eat it. I was surprised that she got the pine nuts because they were in a sealed bag. That cat has one sensitive nose!

Knitting News
I actually managed to get some knitting in this morning and got to the point where I can start working the front of the Christine sweater. Woo hoo! But, I might have to rip back two rows. The pattern calls for knitting 21 cm. and I actually knit 21.5 cm. I need to measure again and decide if that half a centimeter is going to hurt me.

Have you visited Anne's blog lately? She has posted pictures of the sock she's been designing and the colorways intended for it. They're very nice. I can't decide which I like better: River or Sagebrush and Cedars. You can see all of her fine wares at Wooly Wonka Fibers.

There's Nothing Like a Warm Radiator

Sucker Punch

This week has been full of contrasts. The weather progressively warmed up, reaching close to 80 degrees by mid-week. Once again it was so nice to not have to wear a coat. The crocuses are still blooming and they are now joined by the daffodils. Yes, Spring is here at last! So what if there's a little bit lot of rain in the forecast for the end of the week?

When I left for work on Friday, it was raining. Then the rain started to splat on the windshield. The wet stuff kept up all day. A friend in Front Royal reported that it was snowing like mad there. At 3:30, Tom called me at work to tell me that I might want to leave, since it was sleeting heavily. By 5:00, our backyard looked like this:



After all was said and done, we got about three inches of sleet and snow. Our backyard is once again a winter wonderland. Technically it's still winter, I guess, but I'm finally ready for warmer weather.

Knitting Progress
None. Seriously. I might have knit two rows on the Christine sweater this week. I've been truly slug-like. In addition to continuing my non-exercise program, I've also neglected my 5:30 a.m. knitting sessions. Even though I'm enjoying what I'm knitting (mostly), I get overwhelmed when I think about how much more I have to knit on each of the projects. And then there's the finishing, which when I think about it makes me want to crawl into a hole, whimpering at the potential mind-numbingness of it all. The sweaters are knit with fingering (maybe sport weight at best) cotton. That's pretty fine and makes for a lot of sewing up.

In order to keep from being overwhelmed (which isn't working so well), I'm setting little goals. Knit four rows; knit an entire color band; knit another inch. Don't think about all of the other unfinished projects laying around that are beginning to clamor to be finished. Don't think about all of the yummy yarn in the stash, which is also making itself heard. Add to that the techniques that I want to learn. Where's a Libran to start?

Here's the current state of the Christine sweater:



And here is the state of our daffodils:





Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Spring Forward!

Spring is on its way in! The weather is getting warmer; I actually went out yesterday without having to put on a coat, scarf, gloves, and hat. In fact, I didn't wear any outwear! That was quite refreshing. Leaving the house goes a lot faster when you don't have layer on clothes.

The birds also know that winter is almost over. For the last couple of weeks, the birdsong in the morning has changed from the winter calls to actual song. The birds are beginning to stake out their territories and it won't be too much longer before we have birds starting to make their nests around the yard.

The bulbs are coming up, as well. They actually started coming up in January and were stopped in their tracks when the weather finally (thankfully) turned cold. Last week I noticed that the crocuses were blooming...little bits of color in an otherwise brown bed. The daffodils are beginning to bud as well.

And since the weather was fine, Tom persuaded Emma to make her first foray onto the deck. She was very, very cautious, keeping her belly close to the ground. I missed her maiden journey because I was helping a friend move. Emma didn't go out today because we were over at our friend's new house during the warmest part of the day. As the days get warmer, Emma will go out more. Hopefully she'll stay on the deck or in the back garden. The county animal shelter microchips all of the animals that come in for adoption, so if she wanders and gets picked up by Animal Control or someone else, we'll get her back quickly. We need to get her used to wearing a collar, though.

Knitting News
There's not much to report. I'm resisting the siren call of the Socks That Rock yarn. I've completed two repeats of the Fair Isle bands on the Christine sweater. I finally frogged Tom's original scarf and skeined the yarn. When I soaked it to get the kinks out, it lost a lot of the original loft. I'm a bit worried about that, but what's a girl to do? If worse comes to worse, one half of the scarf will be at a slightly different gauge. And maybe the new yarn will flatten out to match the original yarn after I wash and block it. At the very least, I'll learn something new. Hopefully I won't be learning that I messed up yet again.

The knitting group at work is still meeting and mostly everyone is showing up if they are in the office that day. It feels so good to sit and knit with other people. The conversation sort of meanders around in the way that conversation does with knitting groups. Anne is knitting an intarsia sweater for her nephew and she's done a wonderful job. Stephanie is working a sweater. Laura is just getting back to knitting and is using up all of her old yarn trying out different techniques; her next projects will be a sleeveless shell for her daughter and a little coat for a young niece. Jackie decided she didn't like knitting a scarf and is working on a little purse made out of one of yarns that looks and feels like suede. My knitting group projects will be Tom's scarf and then various unfinished sock projects. Everyone's work is very good.

That's about it for now. Time to check on the foccacia dough. Tom's going to make chicken parmigiana for dinner. My contribution will be foccacia with carmelized onions and roasted red peppers, fettucine, and some sort of spinach dish. I can't decide between spinach sauteed with olive oil and garlic or spinach with lemon. Hmmm...maybe creamed spinach... Time to consult my Marcella Hazan cookbooks.

Buon appetito! Have a great week!

Secret Pal 10

I joined SP 10 a while back. I just read the rules again and discovered that I should have posted the answers by the end of February. Oops...

So without further ado, here are the questions and my answers.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

I absolutely do not like to knit with acrylic. I find that I like all natural fibers. My most favorite yarn ever was Adrienne Vitadini Martina, which was a combination of merino and silk. Yum!

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

I use the Ashland Sky needle sacks. They're great and actually hold more needles than you'd think.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I've been knitting seriously for the last 4 or 5 years and would consider my skill level to be intermediate. My mother originally taught me when I was about 9, which was a feat because I'm left-handed and she's right-handed. Unfortunately, it didn't stick and many decades went by before I picked up the needles again. My knitting really took off when I learned how to knit Continental.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

I have a wish list on Amazon; you might be able to access it here.

5. What's your favorite scent?

Vanilla, patchouli, or citrus. I tend to be sensitive to most scents. A lot of scents react poorly with my body chemistry, so I rarely wear perfumes. Patchouli is an exception.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

Dark chocolate and the darker the better! I find that ginger and dark chocolate go really well together.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

I spin, but not as much as I'd like. I used to do counted cross stitch and dabbled with crochet for a while. I made a mosaic once and that was a lot of fun. And I'd love to try beading. Oh, and weave. I have a small 4-harness Harrisville loom that's been neglected for decades.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

My music tastes are pretty eclectic. I like most everything from baroque to rap, with the exception of pop country music. I do like bluegrass, however. I suspect my laptop can play MP3s, but have no clue about the stereo.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?

I tend towards blues, greens, and reds. I have colors that aren't my favorites, but try to keep an open mind about them. I keep hoping that working with other colors will improve my color sense.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

Married, no children. One young cat.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

I wear scarves, hats if I can find any that looks good on me, and mittens. I'm not a big poncho fan, but again, I'm willing to change my mind.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

Hmmm...that's hard, since I tend to be a process knitter. Socks are fun and so are mittens and hats. I have a love/hate relationship with sweaters, baby blankets, and scarves.

13. What are you knitting right now?

Far too many things! Two sweaters for my nieces, a scarf for my husband, a shell for my sister-in-law, and a couple pairs of socks for me. See the WIPS section in my sidebar for the complete list (and also for the list of UFOs).

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Absolutely! Those are my favorite kinds of gifts.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

It depends on the project. I find that I rarely knit with straights these days. I knit socks on DPNs. I use metal or wood/bamboo needles depending on the yarn. My favorite needles are Brittany and Addi turbos, although I've heard good things about Lantern Moon and the Knit Picks Options.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

I own both; I don't think I'd be able to survive without them.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?

You don't want to know. Several years old.

18. What is your favorite holiday?

Sad to say, but I don't really have one. I'd say Christmas, if it weren't for the commercialism and the pressure of buying (and receiving) tons of gifts.

19. Is there anything that you collect?

Yarn? Although my stash is relatively small.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

I subscribe to Interweave Knits, Knitters, and Knitty. See my wish list for other books. I'm particularly enamored with Elizabeth Zimmerman and Barbara Walker's stitch dictionaries.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

I recently learned Swedish twined knitting. I want to work on more lace. I seem to be drawn to ethnic knitting.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

I do knit socks. Measurements are roughly 9" long, 9" around the ball of the foot, and 8" right above the ankle.

23. When is your birthday?

October 14

So, there you have it. I think this exchange is going to be fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the One Skein exchange, even though my secret pal's final package was stolen. (Heidi, if you're reading this, I haven't forgotten about you. I've got new yarn so I can recreate the scarf!)

Now, excuse me. I hear a business plan calling me. (And Emma just placed one of her furry mice on my leg. Clearly she's not hearing the call of the business plan!)

In Like a Lion

The weather these last two days has been incredible. The saying for March In like a lion, out like a lamb seems to be true, at least the first part. The wind has been roaring like mad. I went out to lunch yesterday to celebrate a coworker's birthday and could barely close the car door! The wind finally subsided this afternoon, and a look at the weather forecast shows no more wind, but about one to two inches of snow tomorrow. Yep, it's definitely March in northern Virginia!

A Surprise!
When I pulled into the driveway last night, I noticed a package snuggled up against the door, desperately trying to get out of the wind and cold. I let it in, thinking I recognized it, but was disappointed to see that it was addressed to Tom. I thought I knew what it was. I quickly scanned the return address. Yes! I was right! The package was mine! I took it to the kitchen and carefully placed it on the counter, and proceeded to complete a few chores, glancing at it longingly. (I like to prolong the feeling of anticipation.)

Finally, I picked it up and ripped it open and pulled out...



Presenting the first shipment of the 2007 Rockin' Sock Club! I opened the binder and inside was a 10% discount card, a welcome letter, an NSK (Notorious Sock Knitter) bumper sticker, a Rockin' Sock Club pin, a skein of sock yarn as well a little tiny skein of emergency sock yarn in what appears to be the same colorway, and a sock pattern. Woo hoo!

The women at Blue Moon Fibers must be super women. After the little debacle with their bank thinking the sock club was fraudulent and changing banks, the sock club membership jumped to 2000! I was pleased when my membership was activated, but now I feel really bad for making these fine women work around the clock to get 2000 notebooks, swag, and skeins of yarn out the door. It boggles my mind (which is pretty easily boggled at this point). I bow before their tenacity and strength. All hail the women from Blue Moon Fiber Arts!

Needless to say, I've been gazing longingly at the yarn and fondling it every now and then. But, these socks cannot, must not, be cast on until I finish knitting (note I did not say "finish") the Jenna and Christine sweaters!

Productive

It's been a rather productive weekend. I spent yesterday cleaning the downstairs, looking at candidates for the yarn shop, grocery shopping, and cooking dinner for some friends. We had a pork loin roasted with herbs, onions, and apples, accompanied by red cabbage with juniper berries and sweet potatoes. Tom made a spicy black bean soup for starters. The soup was followed by a salad of bitter greens with apples, stilton, and pecans, dressed with a sherry-shallot vinaigrette. To finish off the meal, I served a wheat-free apple cranberry crisp with vanilla ice cream. And of course, there was the usual assortment of fine libations. A good time was had by all!

One of our friends has a wheat or gluten allergy, so I'm always looking for wheat-free recipes, especially desserts. With the crisp, I found that substituting 1/2 cup of white rice flour and 1/2 cup of rolled oats whirled in the food processor makes quite an acceptable substitute for the flour measure. In fact, I actually preferred it. Maybe it's my imagination, but the substitution produces a lighter textured topping. Of course, the substitution wouldn't work if gluten was needed.

And I was truly decadent for lunch today. While Tom was munching popcorn and watching Monster's Ball, I whipped up an omelette aux ciboulettes. Along with a little bit of salad left over from dinner last night, some baguette, a small glass of Chardonnay, and listening to Vivaldi's opera, Orlando, I could almost imagine that I was back in gay Paris.

What? You want to know how the yarn shop search went? It too was very productive. I bought a lamp that was marked down almost 50%! No, seriously, it went well. I got a much better sense of what size space I'd like. There are two potential contenders, but one place is for sale and terribly overpriced. If we bought a shop, I wouldn't have any money for inventory. But maybe this place won't sell and the owners would be willing to rent with an option to buy. I think this space would offer the most options for me and support my vision of the shop becoming a place for the knitting community to gather. The other place I looked at was also nice and definitely affordable. A bonus is the that current tenant's wife runs a little day spa in the back. So my clients could not only buy yarn, but they could also get a facial as well! The downside is that the shop is on a small side street with zero parking. So the search will continue.

Joinings
If you check my sidebar, you'll notice that there are several knit alongs that I joined. I'm notoriously bad at knit alongs, because mostly I never finish anything, despite starting off with good intentions. The most recent along is the Twisted Knitters. I joined in the hopes that I'd force myself to spin more, maybe get a crash course in dyeing, and then knit up the results of my labors. Ha! Other than buying The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook, a drop spindle and some yummy roving (and trying to learn how to spin with a spindle again), I made zero progress, despite having close to six months to do the work.

So, you'd think I'd learn, eh? Nope. I joined the 2007 Rockin' Sock Club. I have no idea what to expect, other than fabulous yarn that gets shipped to me every other month or so. How great is that?! I think I'm actually supposed to knit the socks, but we'll see. I still have three sweaters and scarf to complete.

And if that isn't enough, I also joined Secret Pal 10. Other than the One Skein Secret Pal exchange, I've never been able to find the "official" secret pal information. (Hint: Do a Google search on "Secret Pal 10." Duh. I'm a computer professional; you'd think that I would have thought of that sooner.) I'm looking forward to this exchange. And after my final One Skein gifts that I sent went missing, you can be quite sure that I'm going to send everything insured and with a tracking number and maybe with return receipt requested!

Gauge Matters
I checked the gauge on the Christine sweater this morning. Alas, it's a little off. The pattern calls for 26 stitches over four inches and I'm counting 27. So, there you have it. My niece is a wee slip of a thing and this sweater is supposed to be a whopping 28-3/4 inches across the chest, so with a gauge of 27 stitches, the final chest measurement would be 27.4. (Of course, that's assuming that I'm doing the math correctly and that's a big assumption.)

Despite the evidence that I'm not getting gauge, I'm going to knit blithely on. The knitting goddess may smite me yet.

Emma is also feeling laissez-faire about gauge.

Eureka!

Looky here!



It's the Sweater of Frustration Christine sweater! Here's a closer view:



That's one of the reasons I didn't post over the weekend. I finally unlocked the Secret of the Chart. The edge stitches are for the entire width of the garment. The size parts of the chart are (I think) for the repeats and edge stitches when working the left and right fronts. There are no side seams. My tension isn't the greatest, but it's passable and I think some of the unevenness will block out. I need to knit a few more rows and then I'll check...gauge. At this point, gauge could become the deal breaker because I didn't knit a gauge swatch. And yes, if the gauge is off, I deserve every bit of the pain and agony of starting over yet again.

There was another reason why I didn't post this weekend:



Snow!

It was a total surprise. We were supposed to get maybe an inch of snow, followed by a wintry mix of snow and freezing rain, turning to all freezing rain Sunday night and Monday morning. It started snowing early Sunday morning, stopped for a little freezing rain break, then started snowing hard. It didn't stop until about 1:30. Since we haven't been getting that much snow these past few years, I took the opportunity to walk to a friend's house about a mile from here. The walk there was pretty good. The walk back was great because hardly anyone was out. The normal sounds were muted and you could hear the whisper of snow falling. I do so love me a good snowfall!

And Emma does love her new Cosmic Catnip Alpine Scratcher. That's a little bit of catnip on her head. She particularly loves trying to extricate the mouse that's attached to the inside of the scratcher.