Waiting

For the snow to leave. I passed this guy as I left the neighborhood for the first time since the snow came. The roads were iffy, some places wet, some slushy, and some solid ice.

But the grocery store is about two miles away, and I was desperate to get out of the house, and to get some junk food. My left eye is oozing green goo (you're welcome) so I probably shouldn't have gone anyplace, but I really, really wanted some new food.

I did find what was described as an all butter chocolate croissant. Score! And I would have bought some chocolate milk, but they were all out of anything but a few quarts of 2% white milk. I bought some Chex Mix---yay---and just to be healthy, some fruit.

But I've already eaten the croissant and some Chex Mix.

The fruit can wait.

BAXTER!!!!!

NO!!!!!!Too late....

#$%^&*(_)+

Shovelling Snow in the South

With a garden spade. It's all we have.

Why shovel? To eliminate as much snow as possible from the driveway before it melts a bit and then refreezes. Ice is worse than snow...but then, the roads won't be plowed anyway, so I doubt we are going anywhere any time soon!

Snowed in in Atlanta

Four inches at least.

According to the news, the ice is next. Lots of knitting time ahead!

Vicks

When I was growing up, my family was first Catholic, and then Presbyterian. The one faith that remained constant, however, was the belief that Vicks could cure anything and everything. My husband's family believed in Pepto Bismol, and what that didn't cure, horse liniment could. To each his own.

But I have had ---I swear---a disease for about a week and I am.tired.of.it... I am not a patient person. So when I remembered a tip a friend had given me about Vicks, I thought about my family's faith in it, and decided that I had nothing to lose. Here's how it goes:

Spread Vicks all over the soles of the feet. Cover with cotton socks. Go to bed.

Thursday and Friday nights, that's what I did. I am no better. Perhaps the method relies on the placebo effect and I am just not a strong enough believer.

I do have very soft skin, though.

Mean, Mean Knittergran

Two of my grandchildren received these cute little hamsters for Christmas. I had never seen them before, and I thought: Wouldn't Baxter LOVE one of these?!"

So today, off I went to Target and I bought one. I couldn't remember what they are called and asked a salesperson for the little fake hamsters that move and make noise.

She asked: For a boy or a girl?

For my spayed kitten, I replied.

Ooooh. A cat will L.O.V.E. it, she said.

Back at home, I put it on the floor, turned it on and waited for Baxter to attack it.

Baxter ran, really, really fast. Into another room. He peeked out and kept an eye on it but would not get near it until it stopped.

Then he tossed it down the stairs to the basement.

I figured that this meant he now L.O.V.E.D. it and turned it back on.

He ran. Really, really fast.

So, the price of one Kung Zhu at Target: $9.02

Watching Baxter run and hide: Priceless!

What I Will Take to My Grave

No, not any secrets; I don't know any secrets.

Just three things:

I will take my knitting. It's more than one thing, especially when I consider my stash, but I consider it a category, so it's one thing.

My Ipod, because who can live (although, now that I think about it, that's kind of irrelevant)without music?

And my Kindle. I love, love, love my Kindle. Since it arrived for my birthday in September, I've read twenty-four books!!! And even though I consider myself a capital R Reader, that is a lot of books in a few months. I've read new (old) authors: P.G. Wodehouse; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (but I always figure out his Sherlock Holmes mysteries before the end/no fun there); Agatha Christie ( I NEVER figure out who done it before the end, either with Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot); PD James; Anne Perry (who, along with a friend, killed the friend's mother by beating her to death with rocks, for no apparent reason. She did some time somewhere, and is now on the loose, writing murder mysteries [write what you know?]); Charles Todd (who, even though the books are published as his, collaborates with his mother in writing them); and Alexander McCall Smith.

And new (new) authors: Emma Donoghue (Room: A Novel....ick. I never like children-in-peril stories); Henning Mankell (Wallander); Scott Spencer (Man in the Woods---liked it; kept thinking about it after I read it); and Timothy Egan (The Big Burn---about the establishment of the National Forest system. Surprise, surprise. The people in power at the time---no, not the government, the magnates, oil, rail, lumber, land--- wanted the land to remain free so they could grab it. The government managed to set aside millions of acres for the park system. Can you imagine the businesses that would have sprung up along the rim of the Grand Canyon? Dew Drop Inn perhaps?); John Grisham (The Confession); and Chris Cleave (Little Bee: A Novel).

I admit that a part of the appeal of the Kindle is the immediate-gratification factor. I hear someone recommend a book or an author, and it's MINE!!! Just that fast. It's also easy to carry, so it goes everywhere with me, in my purse.

I did consider my that I should take my iPhone, but really, who would want to hear from me, and what would I say anyway?

What have you been doing?

Me? says I, oh, nothing much....reading, knitting, listening to my music....I could use a light though...

OK---four things.

I Am Too Busy to Think...

This:

Plus this:
Equals this:

And no, it's not fixable. Electric teakettles melt on a gas flame.

No tea for me.

Weirdness

Isn't this a sweet little puppy???

Younger daughter received him? her? as a consolation prize at a White Elephant Gift party last weekend. The gift she first received was an Ipad cover with Mickey Mouse on it. She doesn't have an Ipad, and that made the cover the worst gift at the party; as a result, the host awarded yD this puppy.

Rumor had it that this was a taxidermied puppy. Gaaaagggg...

But it's not.

It's a store-bought puppy, and when there is the proper battery in it, the abdomen rises and falls as if the puppy is breathing, AND, as a bonus, the battery will keep puppy breathing for a glorious and creepy five years.

So it's not as bad as the taxidermied puppy would have been, but close................

Weird...

Two Days/One Sock

Another Sweater

Yes, I did say no more doll sweaters, but apparently, I was mistaken.

My sister told me a couple of weeks ago that her granddaughter has an American Girl Doll and SallyKnits had just made a sweater for her granddaughter's AG doll, so it was a perfect storm.

This is the result. It is a Classic Elite pattern, free on their website, and there is also a pattern to make a matching sweater for the doll's owner. I used less than one skein of Classic Elite Yarns Fresco (60% wool, 30% baby alpaca, 10% angora---very soft---lucky doll!).

Winter in the ?South?

That's ice, more than we've ever had before, on our little pond.

Poor fishies.....


And snow!!!! Look at all the snow!!!!

But I exaggerate.

That is not from-the-sky snow. It is from-my-neighbor's snow-maker snow. When it stays below freezing for an extended time, he makes snow for the kids to play in. I can always tell when the kids are home from school from all the racketing of their sliding down the hill on whatever they can find. They have a blast, and I love watching them.

From the window of my warm house.

A Flash Mob --- of the Professional Variety

The Opera Company of Philadelphia held a surprise performance of Hallelujah Chorus at Macy's (the former Wanamaker's), where the largest operational organ in the United States is still in use. Choir members were scattered amongst the shoppers at Macy's.

What a treat for the shoppers who were there!

It's Too Cold to Type so...

Dear Santa,

We need to chat.

Last year, if you will recall, I asked for a turquoise Thunderbird convertible.

I did not get one.

SO, you owe me, big boy. You owe me big time. I went to Cirque du Soleil last night, and now I know what I want this year:

A huge trampoline (climbing wall optional) and a younger body....40 years or so younger.

I'm counting on you.

Sincerely,
Knittergran

Baxter: 2/ Lamps: 0

So now he has a reservation to be boarded at the vet's while we are gone at Christmas, instead of staying in his home and being taken care of by his nice neighbor lady.

Think about THAT, Baxter!

Obsessed I Am

Is that the title of a Dr. Seuss book?

Maybe not.

But if I WERE obsessed, which I am not, how could anyone blame me?

Look at this yarn (Malabrigo Rasta Arco Lily). The colors are gorgeous!!! And this is what the yarn becomes---even more gorgeous!!!This is the sixth---and possibly final---cowl.

Yes, I have made six, but only two are for me. The rest are gifts.

*******************************************

And for inquiring minds, the final installment of Baxter vs Miss Babs:

The yarn has reappeared. DH found it Thursday night while I was at Knit Night. He said it wasn't a pretty sight, and I have taken his word on this.

So, Baxter: 1/Miss Babs: 0. Whew.

Four Cowls, Five Cowls

This fourth cowl is made from yarns I bought several years ago, the oldest from SAFF three years ago. The skein had only 94 yards on it, and I couldn't figure out what to use it for. Then I bought a mohair boucle yarn and decided to use that with it, along with some Kidsilk Aura in a camel color.

A close up of the three yarns knit together:

And with the fourth cowl is the fifth cowl (from Malabrigo Rasta, Indiecita colorway):

I may be obsessed....

The Yarn Spoke!

I finally made something out of the yarn (Pagewood Farm Hand Dyed Yarn, Willow Creek, in greens) I bought in LA many, many months ago. It was supposed to have been a scarf, but I learned the hard way - on size 2 needles no less - that there was only enough yarn for a very small scarf.

But the yarn finally told me what it really wanted to be: Autumn Leaves Fingerless Mitts designed by Abbie Tilden (available on Ravelry). See the leaf?

And Baxter vs Miss Babs? Because inquiring minds want to know:

Baxter is alive and well and continuing to tear up our home. The Miss Babs yarn has yet to appear in any form. I don't know where it is. (Although I admit that since Baxter seems fine, I'm not looking very hard.)

Bits and Pieces, Odds and Ends

Before yesterday, I had two of these lovely Miss Babs sock yarn samples. Now, I have one. And the label for the second.

Did I make something out of the absent ten yards of sock yarn?

No, I did not. But Baxter, who apparently has very good taste in yarn (he seems to prefer 100% merino), did. He made a snack out of it.

I was re-organizing my yarn stash because it was taking up the entire floor of a closet where I also keep gift-wrapping supplies. I used to keep my stash in baskets out in the open, but Baxter found that easily-accessible stash of yarn too tempting to resist. So into the closet it went.

While I was putting the yarn into a hanging sweater holder, I heard a gagging sound and turned around to find just the tag from one of the samples hanging out of Baxter's mouth. GAAAAKKK!

The previous time Baxter ate yarn, I called the vet and he said that I needed to watch Baxter for signs of depression. In a cat???? How????

He said a depressed cat doesn't play and doesn't eat.

So I have given him several doses of Petromalt, a vegetable oil diet supplement, which is supposed to help the cat either barf (or otherwise extrude---I don't want to know how) hair and (I hope) yarn balls.

In the meantime, he is VERY active, and VERY interested in food. My fingers are crossed...

And now, for knitting-related news of the non-disgusting variety:

I finally finished both of the Flap Happy Hats for my two older granddaughters but I really need to learn to consider the consequences of my decisions. The four-month-or-so project that was my Sasha skirt comes to mind, and now these hats come to mind.

I didn't even put all the pom poms and tassels on these hats that the pattern called for because I got very impatient with all the fiddly bits.

But I did at least make them different: different colors, different numbers of pom poms and tassels. Now the girls will have no reason to argue over which hat is whose.

I can hear their mother laughing already.

A Coven of Cowls? A Covey of Cowls?

One Cowl

Two Cowls Three Cowls

Will there be four???

Probably. They are too much fun to knit and the yarn (Malibrigo Rasta) is too gorgeous to not knit more.

So stay tuned!

Scenes from Los Angeles

I just returned last night from LA where I had a great time visiting younger daughter.
Thank you, S!!!

Here are random scenes from the beautiful Left Coast:

This is taken from an outdoor table at the In and Out Burger joint near the airport. One of the runways was built so close to downtown that the planes fly in scary-movie close to the businesses in the area. Another unusual LA business---for those people so desperate for nicotine that they don't have time to park and shop for it.

Random art:

Scary, those hipsters...

???




The Pacific! We had beautiful weather and so a trip to the beach was perfect.
It's November! And the flowers are blooming!
A beautiful day at the Flea Market.

A very crowded day at the Flea Market.

And as Arnold would say, "I'll be back..."

The Weekend

First of all, older daughter ran in the New York City Marathon. This is her after she finished, and she is holding her medal. YAY hokgardner!!!: This is my nephew and his wife after their beach wedding in Florida. dH and I flew down to attend and it was lovely. Don't they look happy!!!

And I must share this, the cake topper. The bride's favorite toy when she was a child was Legos, so her mother surprised her with this Lego bride and groom. And the cake was layer after layer of cupcakes, four different flavors, with a large cupcake on top.

And now for my learning experience, courtesy of the TSA.

Going through security - for the last THREE of four flights - I have been groped uh, inspected by a TSA agent. Every %^&*() time I go through the whatever-it-is we all have to walk through, the alarms go off.

The first time this happened, about a month or so ago, the TSA agent eventually decided, after getting to know me a little tooooo well, that the cause of the machine's alarm was a garment I was wearing that had....underwire in it.

YUP. Underwire. Very, very dangerous.

I thought that this was just a fluke. A very sensitive machine perhaps.

Then it happened again. Same conclusion.

Then it happend AGAIN. I even told the agent what the cause was. No matter. I must go through the groping enhanced security.

Yesterday, it happened AGAIN. The first agent had me take off my bracelet. I did. And on my second waltz through the machine, I turned just a wee bit sideways, and made it through. No bells. No buzzers. Whew.

Now you might think that I should be a faster learner, and maybe I should be. But silly me. I just think that my underwear, which is worn UNDER my clothing, is my business. No one else's.

But apparently I am wrong. Apparently it is TSA's business.

So to avoid this happening every.freaking.time I fly, I must buy undergarments that will pass the oh-so-stringent TSA standards.

I know I feel so much safer now. How about you???