Da beeps

Older daughter is on vacation at the beach off the coast of Texas and e-mailed me this photo of Elizabeth. She captioned it: Elizabeth isn't sure she likes da beeps. Older daughter claims to be taking the week off from using electronic gadgets (although she did send out this photo), but if she is true to her word, I can steal this photo and use it on MY blog!

I think the problem is that Elizabeth would rather be at Knittergran's.

Knittergran has m&ms...

and knows how to use them.

Knitting vs Kitten

Knitting: 0

Kitten: 12,000,000

I may have to give up knitting until Baxter grows up a bit. Or just knit at the shop on Knit Night.

If I try to knit when Baxter is asleep, he somehow senses that I am seated, and any lap that exists must be sprawled on.

If I try to knit when Baxter is awake, well, I just don't. I've learned the hard way. Not only is the yarn's movement too, too exciting to ignore, but apparently the needles and whatever is on them is an enemy to be attacked.

It's a good thing he's cute.....and that I'm a sucker for cute.....

(photo from Google photos)

IQ Test

Recently the author of Hyperbole and a Half wrote about using an online IQ test for her dog, which she worried might be retarded. (Sadly, it turns out that he is.)

I have just come up with an IQ test for both kitten and human:

Hypothesis: A human is smarter than a kitten.

Procedure: Conduct the Chase the Red Laser Dot test many, many, many times.

Results: Knittergran (test human) gives up way, way sooner than does Baxter (four-month old test kitten).

Conclusion: Knittergran is smarter than Baxter.

Therefore: Humans are smarter than kittens.

(And no, I wasn't chasing the dot; Baxter was. Thanks for asking.)

The Skirt

is finished. Done. Completed.

Whew......

wow...

Available on Etsy

I hope whoever made this had a knitting machine. I can't imagine making them to order---or even making the first one!

Aunt Lois, is that you? Uncle Jimmy?

No, not THAT light. I hope.


The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and brighter, but I mean the tunnel that is my skirt.

I finished and bound off the bottom tier at Thursday's knit night and then picked up the 205 stitches for the top AND last tier. The pattern for this ruffle is quick and easy and there is a chance that I might have it finished by this Thursday's knit night. YAY!!!

Then I can stop whining about this project and enjoy having it finished. Finally!!!

Baxter

These are the toys I bought for Baxter to play with:


These are the things he plays with:

carpet fringe

leaf debris

paper bags

sticks

throw rugs

and this is the one thing I bought that he DOES play with.

He has killed it many, many times.

I should vacuum more to get the dust, leaf debris and small sticks off the floors, but then Baxter would be bored!

Baxter

He arrived yesterday.

Isn't he cuuuuuute????

Whew...

I am capable of finishing something!!! This is the sweater I started last week for Elizabeth, and I finished two days ago. Now it has been blocked and as soon as I add a button and loop, I can put it away for Elizabeth's birthday. It is wool...perhaps not the best choice for a little Texas girl, but I love the yarn (Rowan felted tweed) and I love the color.

It is the Rita sweater from Noro Kids by Jane Ellison.

AND I was able to repair the damage from the dropped stitches on the Sasha Skirt. I cast off that tier, and I am now finishing the bottom of the skirt. Four more rows. Then I will pick up 205 stitches for the top tier. I see a light at the end of the tunnel!

And I don't think it's another train coming at me!

Just Walk Away

This happened last night. I was happily, really, really happily, binding off the next to the top ruffle on the never-ending-skirt project. I was using one end of a size 6 circular needle along with a size 7 needle so that my cast-off would be loose. After I had finished about 3/4 of the cast-off I looked at the end of the knitting and discovered that the other end had come off of the needle.

How the...? What...? Why...?

I have no idea how this happened, but I have about 14 inches of the mess above to sort out - two rows, at least, of yarn-overs, pssos, knitting and purling and ....

I picked up what I could, in some cases just guessing where the yarn-overs might be.

Walk away, Knittergran, just walk away.

And that's what I did.

It's So Fluffy!!!!!

But it's not a unicorn.

I'm pretty sure it's a raccoon, and it has made a home in the soffit over our deck.

I'd prefer a unicorn.

A Break

I'm taking a break from knitting the skirt. I swear that I just keep knitting and knitting and never seem to make any progress. I have no idea how SallyKnit finished hers so long ago and I'm still struggling. (She's a faster knitter, perhaps?)

The LYS has this sweater on display and I love it. So I'm making it for Elizabeth's second birthday in October.
But I'm not using Noro; I have problems with Noro. The yarn breaks on me. Where there are changes in the strand and one is tied to another, the staff at Noro seems to make no effort to match up the colors, and I end up with an abrupt color change. I love the colors but not the yarns. Instead, I am using Rowan felted tweed, which I love knitting with. It's a beautiful raspberry color, which doesn't show up well in the photo, but it really is pretty!

I do realize, however, after spending a fair amount of time this afternoon frogging rows of the lace, that had I used the Noro, mistakes wouldn't have been so obvious as they are in this yarn, and I could have CHEATED and faked the fixes!!!

Elizabeth will just have to be happy with a perfect sweater.......

It is knitting up really quickly and I may even have it finished by the end of the weekend!

Babyland

While everyone was here, my younger daughter and two of my granddaughters made it to Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia. It is in the middle of NOwhere.

Remind you of anyplace you saw on television in the 80s?

It is a 70,000 square foot hospital where Cabbage Patch dolls are born.

I think 69,500 square feet are devoted to the gift shop...really!

But there are deliveries, and we were there for one.

Here is the doctor, showing us the sonogram:

Once the Cabbage has reached ten cabbage leaves dilated and has had her easyotomy, the baby arrives.

(Don't blame me; these are not my jokes.)

This event is pure magic to the kids. Here is Lily holding the newborn and she was just thrilled to hold him. (The doctor said he was a boy.)

The limited edition babies are in the $200.00 range, but the folks at Babyland are smart. Because practically the whole place is a gift shop, there are dolls...ooops...I mean babies at every price point, and fortunately, the coveted newborn is not for sale immediately after birth. He has to have his APGAR score determined, you know.

So Lily and Elizabeth each brought home a baby - one who laughs when her stomach is squeezed for Lily (Lily's mom was thrilled), and a preemie for little Elizabeth.

The Thrill of Victory

All of the houseguests have left. It was wonderful to have everyone here.

One houseguest had a birthday. Guess how old?!

Ella climbed at Nationals.

Lily and Elizabeth went to Babyland.

Campbell, well, Campbell just plain had fun.

The kids were great! No whining. No temper tantrums. Their mother claims that they do these things at home, but I don't know that I believe her.

Their mother says that there is no reason for tantrums, crying or whining when every single whim, wish and desire is met.

Yesssssss!

Knittergran Rocks!!!

If I Buy It

They will come.

Tomorrow seven house guests will arrive. (two daughters, one son-in-law, four grandchildren)

Friday four more arrive. (sister, niece, her two children)

Am I CRAZY???

Not yet.

Progress?

This may look like progress but it doesn't feel like progress.

I've been knitting, purling, ssk-ing, psso-ing, inc-ing, dec-ing and all the other 'ings there are, but I feel as if I'm working on the same round over and over and over and.....

I ran out of yarn for the bottom ruffle and had to order more. The yarn has arrived, but I'm waiting until I finish the whole skirt (if that should EVER happen) before I knit the bottom in order to make sure the skirt is the correct length. Too short - that I could fix...just add more. Too long - run screaming from the house.

I almost ran out of yarn for the next ruffle up, but just made it, I hope. The bottom of that ruffle has to hide the top of the bottom ruffle.

The ruffle I am working on now just goes nowhere. I swear that it doesn't get any longer, no matter how much time I work on it. I'm almost out of yarn from the first skein, and that yarn must be going somewhere, but I don't see it. The second skein better get somewhere...

Really, it had better get somewhere. I am both bored and annoyed by this project, and it's getting more and more difficult to look forward to the end result. I started a second project to break up the boredom and it's pretty and a nice break. It's on size 2 needles (Signature needles with the stiletto point and so far I've managed not to stick them in my ears)knit with sock yarn and it's a scarf, so it will be a long-term project. A very long-term project. But it just needs to be finished by cold weather in LA, so I'm OK.

But the skirt??? Sweet Mother of Purl, let it end!!! Please, just let it END!!!

Warning!

Well, OK. Hadn't thought to do that, but ..OK.

What She Said

Proves that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Sorry, H.

Lifting My Head Up Off The Table

long enough to tell you why it was on the table. But this is whining, so be forewarned.

I went to the bank. No problems.

I went to the grocery store. Tried to buy plain yogurt. There used to be such a thing. There may still be but I couldn't find it amidst the FOUR MILLION containers of yogurt flavored of everything else that isn't yogurt (banana yogurt-blechhh...).

Settled for vanilla yogurt. It's going into a recipe so no harm done, I hope.

I did NOT go through the check-it-and-bag-it-yourself aisle. I will not go into what happens to me when I end up in a fight with that fresh hell.

I did go to buy gas at Kroger since it is right in the Kroger parking lot. (Why on earth can't we pay a couple of cents extra for gas and have someone pump it for us, I would like to know.) The machine wouldn't take my Kroger Plus card, so I had to go get the attendant. He came out of his air-conditioned booth and fixed the problem. Then it wouldn't take my debit card, so I had to go get the attendant out of his air-conditioned booth and he fixed that problem. Then it wouldn't take my code for the debit card, so I had to go get the now-kind-of-annoyed attendant. He wouldn't come out of his air-conditioned booth and made me pay at the booth.

How much gas do you want? he asked.

A full tank, I answered.

Nope, pick an amount. $30? $40?

How the h*ll would I know? I picked $30.

I pumped the gas, and as I put the pump back in its holder, I heard a woman's voice. I turned, said Pardon? and she said:

When you drip gas on the ground, it hurts the environment.

I looked at the ground, didn't see any gas, looked up puzzled, and she explained that I had dripped gas and that if I shook the nozzle into the holder, gas would drip back into the holder instead of on the ground.

I'm a good person. (First of all, I wasn't even tempted to deck her.) I recycle. I drive a low-emissions vehicle. I feel bad that the LYS where I shop throws the cardboard boxes in the trash (but not bad enough to offer to recycle the boxes myself and I'm a good enough person to feel guilty that I don't offer to do so). But baby Jeebus, Mary and Joseph, on my worst, huge-carbon footprint day, I don't even register on the scale of the damage currently continuing and continuing and continuing in the Gulf of Mexico (NOT the ocean, newscasters), so give me a break, please.

On the way home, a rock hit the windshield, but didn't break it, and I arrived home to find a box from Knit Picks.

Things are looking up. I hope. Or I'll go back to trying shots of tequila.

Fitflops

These are my new Fitflops. Aren't they gaw-jus???!!! (OK-maybe a bit gaudy)

A couple of knitters had talked about them: how comfortable they are; how they are good for your feet; how they will make your legs and butt look really, really good. (I'm fifty-something, so that particular ship has sailed. Not gonna happen...)

So off I went to buy some. They are really comfortable, but very soft and they kind of bother the foot I have not had surgery on. I live in Chacos and they have saved me surgery on my right foot, so far, and so I worry a bit about what these may do to my foot. But I've read reviews that say they help plantar fasciitis, so I'm willing to try. And since I have lost the receipt that I had intended to save for a return within 30 days if the shoes didn't work out, I guess I HAVE to give them a try.

Older daughter did say that she wanted to try them when she visits this summer, but she may have been humoring me.

Progress

Of sorts.

I'm not going along as quickly as I would have thought on this skirt, but then, I wasn't thinking too clearly when I decided to make this. There is the underskirt and then the various ruffle layers attached to the underskirt. This means I am knitting the skirt twice, and it is 40 inches long. The bottom ruffle is on the right side of the photo and I have run out of yarn. Once I finish the ruffle above, I will try it on again to see if the skirt is long enough or if I will have to order more yarn.

What keeps me going, aside from sheer stubborness and the fact that I do love the finished skirts I have seen, is that Sallyknits is making one too, and she is far, far ahead of me. In fact, based on what she was knitting at last week's knit-night, I'll bet her skirt will be finished by this Thursday's knit-night. It's beautiful and it serves as motivation for me to keep going, even when I am tired of working on it. I spent the weekend frogging nine rows, then knitting four rows, then frogging three rows. I apparently think of the feather and fan pattern as so easy that I don't have to pay proper attention to what I am doing.

Here is my new invention! It is a homemade bobbin to hold the yarn for the bottom ruffle. I'm sure it's just like the bobbins people made before there was plastic, but I did feel like a genius when I came up with the idea. Doesn't take much, does it?

Frogging

No, not hunting these: Ripping out this:

This is miles and miles, well ok, hours and hours, REALLY, of ripping back knitting.

Knitting Lesson # 417 (or thereabouts):

Do not knit while talking with a friend on the phone about why you are NOT in Blowing Rock, NC as you had planned to be because the air conditioning in the car gave up the ghost in Greenville, SC and you turned around and drove back home in the hot, hot car even though the car had just had $103.00 worth of Freon put in it on Monday and was supposed to be just fine and had in fact worked fine for the first hour and a half of the trip and how you didn’t get to go to World Wide Knit in Public Day yesterday like all the other kids because you had to go car-shopping instead because dH wanted you to test drive the cars since you will be the primary driver of said new car and frankly, unless you are buying a turquoise Thunderbird convertible, car shopping is about as exciting as buying a water heater, and you do realize that you are NOT buying a turquoise Thunderbird, so really, all you do care about is that the car is comfortable and has functioning air conditioning and, wow, I am all about stream-of-consciousness today, eat your heart out, uh, what’s her name? - and I have discovered that ripping out purl stitches is easier than ripping out knit stitches and that I need to learn to read my knitting because if I had read my knitting instead of depending on the row counter which I had neglected to click a couple of times because I was on the phone I wouldn’t be spending HOURS ripping out stitches-oh, yeah, eat your heart out Virginia Woolf - and I hope all this ripping out does not cause me to put rocks in my pockets and walk into the nearest river because that would be the red, red Chattahoochee and …..yuck, and then I would miss a nice dinner at Bonefish with the friend I was talking with on the phone when I messed up my knitting and why are there quotation marks in this sign?

What Do They Sell?

The Echo Park Time Travel Mart.

Younger daughter sent me this photo from LA, and I don't have a clue what they sell, unless they mean this literally, and that could be. Only in LA perhaps, but it could be. After all, someone out there sells spells!

I'll let you know what they sell when she lets me know.

If the squirrels don't get to it,

looks like the raccoon will.

This Friend of Mine -

-let's call her Kathy - protested when she called me today that she does NOT make some wonderful, delicious, exotic, and different meal every night. I don't live near her, but I talk to her almost daily, and we talk about what we're doing. I'm usually knitting; she is usually cooking. Even when her husband is not home for dinner, Kathy makes something wonderful for herself.

Who cooks just for herself?

She mentioned that her husband was not going to be home tonight for dinner and I asked her what she was going to have for dinner - all by herself. Baked salmon with mango salsa (which she made herself. Of course).

I rest my case.

Let's Have Mexican!!!

I have a friend – let’s call her Kathy (that’s her name) - and she loves, loves, loves to cook. Me? Not so much. I see making dinner night after night after night as supremely b.o.r.i.n.g. She sees it as an opportunity to try something new and different. Every night! I think that is a good attitude to take towards something you have to do anyway, but I can only very occasionally manage it. Like once or twice a year. Cooking for guests is an entirely different thing. It can either be intimidating or fun depending on what I choose to try to make. But the day after day stuff? Bleaahhhhh.

Yesterday, however, was one of the days I decided to emulate my friend. I picked out recipes from the Pioneer Woman's cooking blog: tequila lime chicken, Mexican rice, pico de gallo, and homemade tortillas.

[Oh, let’s just kill the impulse to cook in one meal, let’s do. ]

Step one: the grocery store. No problem. I found everything I needed.

Step two: mix the ingredients for the tequila lime marinade. Uh, no tequila. Good thing I decided to marinate the chicken overnight. Liquor stores aren’t open in Georgia on Sundays. Why? I have no idea. Probably the legislature protecting us from ourselves: getting blotto drunk six days a week is enough, perhaps.

Step three: dH volunteers to go to the liquor store and get tequila. What kind? he asks. I have no idea. When I was in Mexico with my friends the first year, they sent me into the store to buy some -I asked what kind? Just not rotgut! they shouted. So that was my answer to dH.

Step four: Since dH bought better tequila than I probably would have, I decided that it must be good enough to drink a shot of. I see people on The Good Wife do that, so I tried it.

Whooooo---eee!….probably won’t do that again…

Step five: Mix the ingredients for the marinade, put the chicken in it, and put it all in the refrigerator. Done.

Now today:

Step one: make the pico de gallo. EASY! So easy and so good that I don’t think I will ever get store-bought again. (But the fumes from the cut-open jalapeno? Yikes!)

Step two: make the dough for the tortillas. Easy! Except for the stick form of Crisco which expired in:


Oooops!

Fortunately I had a recently-purchased can of Crisco (I hate measuring that - dry method? submerged in water method?) so I used that and the dough sat covered by a towel for an hour; then the dough was broken up into ping pong sized balls and sat another hour in a towel-covered bowl. There is no yeast in the dough, so I have no idea what it’s doing in the bowl. Siesta time? Conspiring against the cook?

Is there a collective noun for tortillas? If there is, whatever it is, I have it. FUN! The trick is to roll out the dough so thin that you can see the counter top through the tortilla (black counter tops rock!) and then to cook them for just 20-30 seconds on each side with the heat just right. And that’s pretty easy to figure out after you end up with the first one either burnt or pale but cooked through. In the time that it took to cook one, I could roll out the next one. Honestly, I don’t think they taste any different from store-bought wheat tortillas, and there’s not a round one in the bunch (maybe that’s the collective noun?), but it was still FUN to make them.

Dinner:



Results: delicious.
Prep. time: two days
Cleanup time: don't ask

Tomorrow night: takeout.

Measure How Many Times? Then Cut Once?

Is puddling still in vogue???

Is this considered puddling???

OOOOOOOOOPS!

Seems Fair to Me

Don't Bet Against a Squirrel

It took him about a week, but he's figured out how to get the top open.