SHARK!!!

My older daughter, Heather, told me this morning that she and her husband are going this weekend to the beach in Corpus Christi, Texas. When she mentioned the trip to a friend, the friend protested, "There are sharks in the Gulf!"

Well, yes there are; it's where they live. Heather told her friend that being at a salt water beach is where she is happiest, and I agree, although in my case, the beach is tied with a Har-Tru tennis court. I don't have access to either one since I moved from Florida.  sigh.

Heather said that she had read that more people are killed each year by being fallen on by a cow than by being attacked by a shark. We laughed. I said I didn't know anyone fallen on by a cow, so a shark attack was even less likely.

Ooops.  I realized after the conversation that I DID know someone who was attacked by a shark and who had a really mangled wrist to prove it. I was at the hair salon, having my hair returned to its God-intended color (strawberry blonde in case you wondered), when the woman who sat down next to me had her wrist all bandaged up. The shampoo girl asked what had happened.

The woman explained that she had been on Cumberland Island, and after she and her daughter had run the circumference of the island, they lay down in very shallow water, held themselves up by putting their hands down on the sand, and kicked just to cool off after the run. Suddenly the woman's hand was in a shark's mouth.

A fast boat ride to the mainland later, the woman met her husband at the hospital. She showed us photos of her wrist and arm. When I told her that I was surprised that she had thought to take photos, she told me that she hadn't, that she was in shock at that point, and that her husband had taken them. 

Of course he had. What is wrong with men? When I broke my wrist, was covered in mud from the swamp I fell in, and was wrapped in a sheet to protect the furniture in the ER, my husband took a photo. I deleted it when I discovered it. Ugh.

Anyway, the woman's wrist and arm were put back together, and I'm sure she is fine by now. But the shampoo girl asked, "Are you sure it wasn't a whale?"

In two feet of water???  C'mon.


Anyway, Heather, here is a chart to keep in mind:

Shark's view from below the surface

Just don't go surfing, ok?

And I guess don't stand next to any cattle?


(I suppose she read the cow/shark statistic on the internet, so it must be true, right? Seems unlikely though.)

Just Back

From Austin, Texas, where I went to celebrate second grand-daughter's 13th birthday.  My daughter now has TWO teenaged daughters!!! (Good luck, H.)

I went from this gorgeous weather:

back to Georgia, where it is now snowing. It's pretty, but it won't last.

We took Feebee to a dog park where she had the best time running and playing with other dogs her size, but what is a mystery is how dogs determine who is the leader. A dog that looked like a German Shorthaired Pointer, but with a long tail, arrived, and ALL of the dogs immediately followed it, chasing and running all over the park. Not fighting, just playing. I guess it was the alpha dog, but who decided that?

My 15-year old granddaughter, who must climb all.the.things found a tree to occupy herself in:

And the day before, when we drove through the LBJ Ranch, I found Air Force One-Half! No joke. That's what the sign said. There is a runway on the ranch, but it can only accommodate small planes, hence the tiny Air Force One-Half:

I peeked inside through plexiglass doors, and it is really small! It can maybe hold eight passengers.

We didn't have time to go through the house the day we were there, but we did drive around the ranch, which is still a working ranch, with cattle wandering loose on the land.  

We didn't have enough time because we were on our way back from Comfort, Texas, a cute, cute, cute town with lots to see, including shops in buildings from the 1800s. The prettiest yarn/needlepoint/cross-stitch/weaving/felting shop EVAR is there, in what appears to be an old Victorian style building, with large rooms and high ceilings. We spent way too much time there, of course, and even, imagine this, found yarn to buy. 

This is yarn in a bundle for this project, the Magic Three Yarn Scarf and Wrap:

I had more photos from the trip, but I can't find them. My 15-year old granddaughter helped me "organize" my photos by putting them in Google photos, so that I would have room on my iPad for games my 7-year old granddaughter wanted to download. Now I can't find the photos!!!

Not to worry. The next time I see her, I'm sure she will find them for me in a matter of minutes.

Frogged

Spring Bouquet/Lijuan Jing/Jojoland Crown 100% Cashmere

sniff...sniff...sniff....

I started this Spring Bouquet lace scarf so many years ago that I don't remember how long ago it was. I bought the pattern and yarn at the Old Oaks Ranch and Fiber Arts Center in Wimberley, TX and it is not even in business as a yarn shop any longer. I think I was there pre-Elizabeth, and she is now five years old. So the project has been in limbo for quite a while.

I just pulled it out of its time-out to work on it again.  It is not a difficult pattern, especially when compared to the pattern for Currant, the many-cabled sweater I made for my daughter. When I first worked on this pattern, I was completely confused by the chart and there are now so many mistakes in this that I can't make it work.  I tried.  For ten rows or so. But where there were supposed to be 31 stitches, there were sometimes 30, sometimes 28. Never 31.  I tried adding random yarn overs to make up the count, but that didn't work either and I still wouldn't have 31.  Where did the stitches go?

I have no idea.  

So starting over is the solution, I hope.  I don't consider it giving up; I think of it as correcting mistakes.

Many, many mistakes.  

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.... :-) ]

Isn't this pretty?

Isn't it? Sure, but I'm not too fond of it today.

I bought it a few years ago in Austin, Texas, picturing my grandchildren playing on it. And they did, last week, especially grandson who has never found anything he didn't like jumping off of. We had worried about him here - all the new potential dangers for Danger Ranger. I reassured myself and my daughter by remembering that the nearest ER is only 1.6 miles down the street from my house.

The week went by; no injuries to report; no trips to the ER. Success!

But last night, in the dark, I fell over it. It hadn't gone back to its normal spot in the room, because the coffee table is still out of its place. I can't help lift it - it's some sort of stone slabs on a wrought-iron base and it's really, really heavy. So I came downstairs late at night, fell over the hassock, and to protect my already-injured knee, let my face break the fall. O.U.C.H. I lay on the floor for a minute or so, waiting for blood or the pain of a broken nose. Nope. Just the normal pain caused by FALLING ON YOUR FACE from 5'10".

So no trip to the ER, but I look awful today. Fat lip, odds and ends of cuts, swollen nose. My husband is in Louisiana on business, so he doesn't get to see his vision of beauty.....He returns tomorrow and I hope my face returns to normal by tomorrow also. It's knit-night and I can't miss that!

I have moved the hassock to a safer (for me) location, and I swear I will not walk downstairs in the dark again.

And even though today is not Fragments Friday, which I learned about from Mary Ellen, I am adding a story to this story. The hassock is from Egypt, and I bought it in a specialty import shop/belly-dancing studio in Austin. I knew it wouldn't fit in my luggage so I asked for a bag to carry it on the plane in. I didn't notice until I was in the Austin airport that the bag had a website on it: http://www.wmdproductions.com/. (World Music and Dance Productions-but I didn't want to have to convince security of that) The rest of the writing was in Arabic. And there I was, going through security. I put the bag with the writing-side down and hoped for the best. I made it, but the store really needs to get a different web address.

Maybe I'm the real Danger Ranger ....

Oops...

This past weekend, I went to Austin to visit my wonderful, perfect, gorgeous and funny grandchildren (and their parents). I had a great time just watching and listening to them. Yesterday we stuffed them in the hot car (it was HOT in Austin-over 100 every day, and one day, even 105!!!) to take them to lunch, and then to a new yarn shop in town. It's called Gauge and it's great! Lots of gorgeous yarns to pet and drool over. The woman there was very nice, and didn't even seem to mind 22-month old grandson "admiring" the yarn. I told older daughter that she was to stop me from buying any more yarn, but she must not have been listening, because, oops, I ended up with this:
It's Lorna's Laces hand-dyed Shepherd Sock Yarn (80% superwash wool, 20% nylon) and it is really, really soft and the colors are ...well, you can see the colors. My daughter and I each bought the same colorway, and will make socks out of it. Great minds think alike.

However, I REALLY had not intended to buy yarn, but resistance was futile. One of the best reasons to knit socks is that no matter where you are, if you see a sock yarn you love, you know how much you need. The same is not true of sweaters and other items, so you end up either buying a new pattern in order to buy the yarn, or you leave the yarn in the shop for another knitter. But you can ALWAYS buy sock yarn!

And if you live in Austin, and love this particular colorway in Lorna's Laces, too late---we beat you to it and bought it all. Sorry...