Owlet

I've just finished sewing the button eyes on Elizabeth's Kid's Owlet sweater, here on Ravelry, and designed by Kate Davies. It is made from Ella Rae Classic Superwash Chunky heathers yarn and because the yarn is thicker than worsted and the pattern calls for large needles (10, 10 1/2), this sweater took me all of four days to make. I did have problems with gauge though, so I am hoping that it will fit Elizabeth. And I hope that Austin, Texas gets temperatures below 70 degrees so that she has occasion to wear it! Hoping that it gets legitimately cold is too much to ask for this year.

We are having a Florida winter in Atlanta this year---high 30s first thing in the morning, and then highs in the 60s and 70s by mid-morning. It's wonderful!!! But we knitters are bemoaning the lack of sweater/scarf/hat/fingerless mitts-wearing weather.

We always want what we don't have, don't we?

Hope Springs Eternal

in the human heart (or something like that).

I've been working on this Owlet sweater since Thursday evening's knit night, and it's going along really quickly, in spite of the fact that I had to start over six inches into the first attempt after I discovered that I wasn't even close to getting gauge.

It still looks small, but measures out to the specifications, so far. I am counting, as always, on the miracle of blocking to make it just the right size for granddaughter Elizabeth. Otherwise, I'll ask her mother to send it along to someone smaller. I'm not taking it out! Again!

And now, for something completely different, this is an albino alligator I saw last weekend at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. Creepy? Fascinating?

I vote fascinating, but it's a good thing someone put him in the aquarium. He sure could not survive in the wild for long---he's not good at camouflage!

And for inquiring minds---these pictures were taken with my iPhone and when I opened my computer after Friday's class at Apple, there they were, in my computer! It's magic, I tell you, pure and simple magic!

And a little help from the Geniuses at Apple.

Technology----PAH!

I bought a 4S iPhone yesterday and now everything is messed up. I can't get Comcast mail on either my iPhone or my Mac and I don't know why. I can't sync calendars, the music on iTunes for my iPod won't load on the new iPhone and I don't know what the heck I'm doing. The iPhone is linked to iCloud, but I can't link the Mac to iCloud until I get the Mac updated to Lion OS. I can't upgrade to Lion OS until Monday when I have an appointment at the Genius Bar, and I'm hoping to convince a Genius to upgrade it for me since I can't because I tried one too many times with the wrong registration number for the Mac. So all of this technology is causing me to get a gray hair or two....

And Baxter is lying upright on my chest, putting his (wet-ick) paw on my face.

And I don't want to know why his paws are wet.

Today this site is on strike.

My Burley-Q Granddaughter

I made my dancing granddaughter some leg-warmers for Christmas, and also for her practice sessions for the Nutcracker, which she performed in with the Austin City Ballet Company.

I assumed she knew how to wear them.

I was wrong!

Silly girl!!!

(And stop crossing your eyes----do you want them to freeze like that???)

Oh My

Bounce!

There is a BOUNCE feature on my Mac!!! Yahoo!!! I discovered this yesterday while reading instructions on the computer I have owned since JULY. I don't generally bother reading instructions---I've heard that this is a sign of giftedness, and I'm fine with that---but I was desperate.

I've been getting regular e-mails from someone I think is a student from my past in teaching. The e-mails generally offer "great" deals on Viagra. No thanks. But I hadn't been able to figure out how to categorize these e-mails as junk so that I didn't have to bother deleting them.

Read the instructions, I said to myself. And not only did I discover how to get the program to take junk away before I even see it, I discovered that there is this wonderful BOUNCE program that sends the e-mail back to the sender with a note saying that my address is no longer valid.

Bingo! I used BOUNCE on the most recent e-mail from Rick, and my e-mail didn't get bounced back to me. So according to the instructions, from now on, if Rick does send me more e-mails, they will go to the junk file instead of to me. I'll never see them again. Yay!!! And all of the junk e-mails I get from various businesses will now go to the junk file because the instructions told me how to do that as well.

Good for me. Now all I have to do is transfer this new skill---reading instructions---to knitting. Maybe if I do, I won't have so many mistakes that I have to tink back, stitch by stitch.

But Where Do I Buy This?

I have had bob knows what for the past week and dH sent me this photo. It's exactly what I have needed but he sent me no link to a source.

Apparently it's a DIY project.

Books Books Books

What to do about books.

I big, puffy red heart my Kindle. Love, love, love it.
(And I love, love, love Catherine the Great:  Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie)

But I have lots of books...

TV room bookshelves:
Hallway bookshelves:
Living room bookshelves:

There are more in the basement.

And they are bugging me.

I am the opposite of a hoarder. I can't stand to have things around that I don't need or use. I am Goodwill's friend and now that they have opened a center near me, I am a frequent donor. But I don't know what to do about the books.

I was an English major and college was heaven: read books; write about books. What's not to like? And I thought I would never like an e-Reader. Boy howdy, was I wrong.

So I have all this space taken up by books and I'd love to donate the ones I know I will not read again to the library system. But what to do with all of the space......

I may have come up with a solution---yarn storage space!!! Where I can see the yarn!!!

I don't have a huge stash but it may be out-of-hiding-from-Baxter time for my yarn.

Coolest Yarn Shop Ever!

The Grotto:

A Longhorn (sculpture) with daughter and granddaughter:
Blue Horse:
A Fish (in the desert?):
Now this makes sense:
The Rabbit:
Several Alpaca:
Another Alpaca:
AHA! The Shop itself!!!
There is yarn inside, but the outside is just so much fun!

[Bought some cashmere.... :-) ]