Hydrangeas and an Air Horn

Lacecap Hydrangea:

I don't remember the names of any of my hydrangeas and the little tags that came with them are long gone. But a hydrangea by any name would be as lovely.

I LOVE them!

Also, while watching coverage of the terrible tornadoes last night in Missouri, I thought that maybe it would be a good idea for anyone in the path of natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding) to have on hand an air horn. I would hate to be buried under layers of a building turned to rubble and not be able to shout loudly enough to be found. An air horn would take care of that. I used to have one that I bought for my daughters to carry in their cars, but they both thought I was crazy and never took it. So it's somewhere in the house, I think. I should find it and put it in the cubby that we think of as our tornado shelter.

Otherwise, I'll have to get another, and I don't remember where they are sold.

But Not Yesterday

Apocalypse not.

Whew, says Baxter.

Apocalypse Now?

That's what I've been hearing. My older daughter says that it's supposed to happen at 6 pm local time everywhere...a sort of rolling rapture.

I hope I'm still here tomorrow, as I forgot to sign up for post-rapture petcare and Baxter loves to eat.

I think I'm safe. I'll be here.

Summit Shawl

Finished, now blocking. It is shorter than I like, but I unintentionally made it one column wider, and that is the reason. I didn't discover that I had miscounted until the shawl was well under way, and I wasn't about to rip it out. It will have to do.

It looks complicated, but it's not. It is just very time consuming because of all of the back and forth knitting and purling on small numbers of stitches. Turning and turning the work.

And now on to something completely different: One of my peonies. I LOVE peonies!

Dumb Luck

I have just finished the Summit Shawl. That tiny ball of yarn above is all I have left and, boy howdy, am I lucky. I never once weighed the yarn or the shawl to see how much I had used by this point or that point, so I had no idea how long to keep on knitting. AND I had never actually read ALL of the directions (dumb, lazy luck) to know that I had to finish on a left-curving section in order for the bind off instructions to work. I just kept on going and suddenly noticed that there wasn't a whole lot of yarn left. But I had just worked a left-curving section. So I was golden. Whew.

I'd rather be lucky than smart? Not really, but I'll accept it here.

Now, (past exonerative tense here, since I will admit no blame) mistakes were made. But I can fix/hide them, so once I have done that, and tied off the ends, and blocked it, this shawl is over. Thank doG.

Why, I Oughta.....

What rights or recourse do I have with a business I pay nothing to? No contract. No money.

No recourse, you say?

Well, never mind then. But Blogger deleted yesterday's post ( although not just mine, SO THEY SAY) and some of you might have missed this.

And you might have missed the 20 or 30 two comments about the video. So it's back.

As an apology for the icky video, here are some pictures of flowers in my garden:

My clematis.

Water Lily.

Water Lily in the pond. We put it in about a month ago on the recommendation of a pond supply business. The large leaves will help obscure the fish (if there are any left) so that the visiting heron won't have such an easy time picking them off.

I love having flowers in my own back yard!


Update: Well, those tricky folks at Blogger. Now they have re-posted yesterday's post, but not the 20 or 30 two comments. C'mon guys!!!

So Wrong It's Right?

No, that's not it. It's not right.

If this is wrong, I don't want to be right?

Nope, that's not it.

Uh, it's just plain WRONG! In so many ways. But I watched it anyway.

Now I'll share it with you.



You're welcome.

(With thanks to Rants from Mommyland)

Good News/Bad News

The good news: My Claudia Handpainted Yarn, Ocean Depth color, is finally here and I can knit the Hip in Hemp skirt.

The bad news: My Claudia Handpainted Yarn, Ocean Depth color, is finally here and I can knit the Hip in Hemp skirt. (I don't understand the pattern yet.)

Isn't it pretty??? I know that I'll figure it out once I get the stitches on the needles.

!!!!!!!

What the heck is this and what is it doing in my house!!! It is almost three inches in length.

Does it bite??? Is it dangerous???

Well, not any more. I vacuumed him up. I hope that serves as a warning.

These Boots Were Made for

ME!!!

I'm just back from Austin and visiting my four grandchildren (and their parents). I had a great time. They are all fun and...quite often, quite unintentionally...funny. We all had a good time until the very last few minutes there. We were just about set to leave for the airport when grandson (age 4) ran and then fell, hitting his chin on the coffee table CORNER. Ouch.

So off went daughter and grandson to the ER and off went my son-in-law, two-year old granddaughter and me to the airport. Grandson ended up with three stitches (poor little guy) and I ended up languishing on the runway for an additional 1 1/2 hours because of a groundstop in Atlanta.

But grandson is fine today and thanks to the versed he was given in the hospital, has no memory of the trauma part of the ER visit.

And I am back in Atlanta...sniff...and still waiting for the Claudia Handpaint to show up so that I can knit the second skirt that I need to wear with my new boots.

Yee Haw, y'all!

False Alarm

I was sitting at my computer this morning when I heard the doorbell ring and then a loud knock on the door. I thought: My Claudia Hand-painted yarn for my skirt is here!!! Yay!!! I was in my jammies (Oh, hush. Let she who has not been in her jammies at 11:00 cast the first chocolate croissant----please.) so I didn't go to the door right away.

Someone left this:

It was addressed to my neighbor at 5545. I live here:


(Note the pollen)

So whoever left the package put a question mark on the label, and then left it right below the five-inch high numbers which should have told him he was at the WRONG ADDRESS.

It's not nice to get old knitters all excited about a yarn delivery.....

My Flowers!

I love being able to go out in my yard and pick flowers to bring in!

In another week or so, I will have peonies.

Oh Dear

Stitches South has come and gone, and we went and did some damage, although not as much as we did last year. We arrived at the opening bell, stayed till closing bell, and probably could have stayed longer. But like a moth to a porch light, I was drawn to the Fine Points booth, over and over and over... And now I am making another skirt. This skirt:

Ugly, isn't it?

Yes, it is, but I am not making it out of the yarn called for and am instead using more of the beautiful Claudia Hand-Painted linen yarn that I used for the Sasha Skirt. I don't have it yet; the booth only had two of the six skeins I need, so Claudia herself is dying six skeins for me and shipping it to me. How special am I!!!???

The colors are deep and rich, and change gradually. Claudia was wearing the skirt, so I do know that it won't look at all like this when I am finished with it. I have studied the pattern though, and I haven't a clue what it is talking about. I hope that I will understand it when I start working on it, and also the nice people at Fine Points gave me a written tutorial to help with it.

I have (sort of) sworn to knit nothing else until I finish the Summit Shawl, but that may not be what happens. I can hear the Juneberry Triangle sighing from time to time from the closet where it resides, safely away from Baxter's teeth, but I am starting to feel brave enough to pull it out and try the next chart pattern. And I know I will want to start on the skirt once the yarn arrives.

Mission creep has already begun, however, because I loved the boots that Claudia wore with the skirt.

Now I NEED cowgirl boots!

Huh?

We have phone service through Vonage, and this service includes having e-mails of any voice mails sent to my husband. A friend called me yesterday when I was not home, and left a message about the heron that ate my goldfish.

This is how it was translated into written form:

Hey J, I can't believe that you left that pizza with Karen Eastern goldfish. Why aren't you out there waving a dish rag at them or something or you know better yet. Well Baxter down on to the pond. I need gate make sure it work with him. That's all. Call your boy Gold Fish. I'm sure that guy makes a good living off of you folks was fishing funds in your backyard unprotected. Talk to you later

It's a good thing I was able to listen to the voice mail, instead of just reading what Vonage turned it into.

Isn't Nature Wonderful?

What a treat! A heron in my backyard while I eat breakfast!

Uh....wait. What is he doing at the pond?

He's thirsty? Yeah, that's it. He's thirsty..... Uh. He's hungry? And that flash of gold??? A fish! Aaaacck...

MY fish.....a PET fish....not his breakfast!!!!

Rats.

ouch

said Henrietta (or is it Hermione---I don't remember) as I lifted her up off the counter where she had landed after being brutally shoved off the top of the refrigerator, by? Who else?BAXTER!!!!!

Oh, no.... My world has shifted on its axis. Baxter can apparently get to the top of the refrigerator now. I have to find a new place to keep my purse because he loves chewing on the leather ties that hang from the zippers. Rats....

And I don't remember what I decided to name my poor hen but I do remember a story that goes with the name Hermione. My oldest granddaughter, who loves the Harry Potter series, came into the living room a couple of years ago when there was a promotional piece on TV about the newest movie. Emma Watson, who plays Hermione, was being interviewed. My granddaughter said, "Why is Hermione on TV?"

Her mother said, "Her name is Emma Watson. She is an actress and she PLAYS Hermione in the movies."

After considering this for a moment, my granddaughter said, "Wow. They found someone who looks just like Hermione."

Amazing, how it works out that way.

Sisyphus is I

I feel as if this Summit Shawl should be called the Sisyphus shawl instead. I knit and knit, and the ball of yarn never seems any smaller.

I received the "half" dollar in a stack of ones that I was handed as change somewhere in the Florida Keys. Nice. I think that since it is more than half, if only by a little, I can exchange it at a bank for a whole dollar bill. I just keep forgetting to take it to the bank. So here it is, showing how much yarn remains. I would swear that it is the same amount I started with.

In a couple of weeks, Stitches South comes to Atlanta, and I will be there for the third time. Last year I ended up with yarn for the Satan Skirt. And last year SallyKnits ended up with 1800 yards of raw silk to make the Summit Shawl; after the show closed, I decided that I wanted to make one too and ordered the yarn from Tess Designer Yarns. I love the yarn. I hope that I will love the shawl, if it is ever finished. And I will bee-line to the Tess Designer Yarns booth this year. But if I even mention the words: Oooh, pretty colors. Maybe I'll make another Summit Shawl, I hope my friends will shout: Step away from the raw silk!

OK? Sally, Lucille, Anna and Deanna??? Promise?

Cheating is Good

Do you see a mistake? Of course you don't. I fixed it. (Now be nice and stop looking!)

At Thursday night's knit night I made a mistake, a terrible mistake, on my Summit Shawl. I can't begin to explain it because even an experienced knitter, unless she is currently working on the same project, wouldn't understand what I was talking about. I started tinking, and kept on tinking, stitch by stitch, because I couldn't find a place to start knitting from again as a result of all the intentionally dropped stitches. Other knitters advised me to STOP and put the knitting away for another time.

Wise advice.

This morning I decided that since there is a logic to how the shawl is knit, there must be a logic to how it comes apart, and I would find that logic and fix the mistake. I never found the logic. After a while, I gave up and cheated instead, creating a yarn over where I needed one and knitting two stitches together where I needed one stitch rather than the two I had. It worked!!! Now I am knitting away, being very careful.

I blame my mistake on either:

a. knitting while talking
b. knitting after having had a Mojito with dinner.

Maybe both?

Anyway, to atone for my mistake, I decided I should follow the pattern's advice and learn how to knit backwards. This video (scroll to the bottom of the page) was a great help. Knitting backwards is easy. Just not yet. It does work and I can do it, but the longest stretch of stitches that can be done with this technique is 12 stitches long in parts, 11 in other parts, and 6 in most parts. There is just not a long enough section for me to become proficient on. I now know what a beginning knitter must feel like---clumsy. It takes me longer to knit backwards on those sections than it does to just turn the knitting around and purl. So I'll stick with purling on this project and save the backwards knitting for another time.

My Afternoon with Leonard

As a teenager, I enjoyed ironing. Not loved it, but, really, kind of enjoyed it. As an adult, not so much. Not at all. I couldn't figure out why this was so until today. Of course, I haven't spent much---any---time trying to figure it out, since I have pretty much successfully learned how to avoid most ironing: put whatever needs ironing in an out-of-the-way closet and forget that I own it.

The ladies at Rants from MommyLand are looking for music to put on their new iPod playlist and I wanted to add my two cents. I thought: These ladies are young. I bet they've never heard of Leonard Cohen, so why not pass him along? I'm olderish, and I hadn't heard of him till a year or so ago.

So while I was ironing, I took my laptop into the room and played Leonard Cohen's music in order to decide which piece I should recommend. I was having a lovely, relaxing time ironing, and suddenly I remembered that when I was young, I ironed with music on.

Bingo! That's the secret! Today I was even disappointed when I realized that I was running out of things to iron---I KNOW! That is SICK! But now I can't decide on a recommendation: Tower of Song, I'm Your Man, Dance Me to the End of Love, A Thousand Kisses Deep, So Long Marianne?

I'll just have to listen some more, ironing or no ironing.

Progress?

It sure doesn't feel like it.

I keep knitting and knitting and knitting, and while that IS the point of knitting, I would think I should have made more progress than just these 18 inches.

So I will keep knitting and knitting and.........................................some day I will have a Summit Shawl.

I hope I will like it by then.

Tuscan Pot Roast

It's 11:00 AM and dinner---Tuscan Pot Roast--- is ready, sort of. Once it is all put together, it requires no work for the 8 hours it cooks. My b-i-l and nephew are coming at some point this evening for dinner and this will be ready any time after 6:00. All it needs is crusty French bread and a salad. I don't know where I found the recipe so that I can give credit where credit is due, but I'll share it anyway:

Hands on time: 30 minutes/total time: 4 ½ or 8 ½ hours, makes 6-8 servings
Egg noodles on the side will soak up the delicious gravy.

1/3 cup olive oil
1 2 ½ to 3 pound bottom round pot roast
2 large onions, quartered
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced (2 cups)
2 large carrots, thinly sliced (2 cups)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 cup dry red wine
1 ½-ounce package dried mushrooms (such as Portobello)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 28-ounce can whole plum tomatoes, chopped, liquid reserved


Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and brown the roast on all sides. Transfer the roast to a 4-to 6-quart slow cooker. To the fat remaining in the skillet, add the onions, celery, carrots, and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 10 minutes. Add the tomato paste and stir to coat the vegetables; transfer to the cooker. Pour the wine into the skillet and scrape up any browned bits; add the contents of the skillet to the cooker, along with the mushrooms, salt, oregano, and tomatoes (plus 2 cups of their liquid). Cook 8 hours on low heat, or 4 hours on high heat.

PS: And a glass of wine. Don't forget a glass of wine!

Today

is older daughter and son-in-law's 14th wedding anniversary! They were married outdoors in Austin, Texas, on a perfect, beautiful spring day.

Happy Anniversary H & B. And many, many more!

Rowan

I needed a quick, immediate-gratification project, and this Marley hat fit the bill. It is from Susan B. Anderson's Itty Bitty Hat book, and I love it. I made it for a baby boy to be born in April; I started work on it at this past Thursday's knit night and finished it yesterday. Immediate indeed!

I'm still working on the Summit Shawl and the Juneberry Triangle, but I've gotten bored by the first and still a bit intimidated by the second. Someone (perhaps the shop owner?) had left this new Rowan book out on the table we knitters gather around, and I fell in love. There are 20 projects in the book and I love, oh, ALL of them! That's a lot of knitting, so I will have to narrow down my ambition a little...a lot.

I LOVE this!

And this!

And this!

Where to begin???

They're baaaaack....

According to this map, the hummingbirds are on their way back north and have reached Atlanta and beyond. I haven't seen any yet, but I just put out the feeder, so maybe.....

My Granddaughter, the Reader

AGAIN????? REALLY?????

Rats. I only turned away for...oh...maybe one or two minutes. And Baxter took advantage of it.

I am making progress on the Summit Shawl, even though it doesn't feel like it. But this yarn is beautiful 100% raw silk from Tess Designer Yarns,

about 1800 yards of previously un-knotted yarn.

And now, as a bonus, what is left coming from the shawl is slimy. Ick.

WWJD?

Part two (seen at a MacDonald's drive-through)

(part one here)

I just knew it. He favors Jags.

Wow! Lucky Me!!!

My associate has helped me to send your first payment of US$7,500
to you as instructed by Mr.James Gordon Brown the British prime
minister after the last G20 meeting that was held on December 27th 2010
in London, making you one of the beneficaries. Here is the
information below:

MONEY TRANSFER CONTROL NUMBER: 1499256767
SENDER NAME: Scott
Last name: Britten
AMOUNT: US$7,500

You can track your payment online at our website www.westernunion.com
for confirmation purpose.

I told him to keep sending you US$7,500 twice a week until the FULL
payment of (US $360,000.00 Dollars) is completed within 6 (six) Months.
For track, send your

Full Names via Email to:
Mr Garry Moore
E-mail: westernofix@yahoo.co.uk


Unlike the sender, I realize that Mr. Brown is no longer Prime Minister, but I'm sure this is still official. Right?

137 Stitches

That is how many stitches I am supposed to have once I have finished Chart B of the Juneberry Triangle Shawl, and I just counted and that is how many I have! Victory is mine. And now I have to take back the words "I will never knit from a chart." As I have been told many times, it really IS easier to read a chart than it is to read stitch-by-stitch instructions. Now I consider myself a chart-knitter and worlds of lace are open to me. And no, this isn't the chart from Juneberry Triangle. I couldn't post that unless I wanted to risk going to prison for copyright violations, and I'm pretty sure that while they might allow yarn in prison, they probably don't allow knitting needles. I think those could be used to shank someone, if shank also means to stab with a needle and not just with a knife. My knowledge of prison argot comes from Law and Order and they haven't specifically covered knitting needles and shanking. This diagram I can post as long as I say it's from Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog, by Kitty Burns Florey. It is an offbeat history of diagramming sentences. And yes, I do own it; and yes, I have read it, cover to cover; and yes, I really enjoyed it. Go ahead and snicker, if you like. The un-diagrammed sentence says, "Whenever a man in the banking profession announced his marriage to a circus pinhead, it was the custom for friends to present him with a bellows and a three-year supply of wax fruit." Just in case you wondered. But back to knitting. I can't show the chart, but I can show the sort-of triangle.

The picture below shows the lifelines or safety lines. I decided early on that I definitely needed them.
In fact, I have learned several things about knitting lace:

Safety lines---use them.

Stitch markers to define repeats---use them!!! If I don't I could be a stitch short for a repeat section and just blithely knit along, unknowingly taking a stitch from the next section. And then from the next, and then from the next, and at the end of the row...%$^&*(

Count stitches, very, very often...especially on a pattern like this one, where the purl rows have pattern in them instead of just being plain old purl rows. (Mean designers)

Really, really pay attention to which direction the pattern needs to be read from. The first time I used a chart, for the Autumn Leaves Fingerless Mitts, the chart was always read from right to left because the gloves were knit on double point needles. This triangle is knit on a long circular needle and so the chart lines are read alternately from right to left, then left to right. It's not fun to take out a row of knitting after I discover that I've just knit an entire row from the wrong direction.

Slip, slip, purl: Whoever thought that stitch up was a sadist.

That might be all I've learned so far.

On to chart C!!!

Gimme Shelter!

said knittergran, and here it is! Older daughter called me from Hill Country Weavers a week or so ago and said, "I'm standing in front of Shelter. Would you like some?" Well, yes, please! And here it is - it arrived in today's mail. Color: wool socks. I love it and it's going to be the Juneberry Triangle by Brooklyn Tweed.

BUT, it arrived just as I had finally conquered the Summit Shawl instructions. Yay! I ripped out what I had done over the weekend and started over. Success!


Now I'm sure that the Shelter yarn and the Tess Designer Yarns Raw Silk will have to battle for my attention. But this should be easy, juggling these two projects, since the Summit Shawl is said by some knitters on Ravelry to be boring, and the Juneberry Triangle has five different charts and looks pretty intimidating to me. So I can switch back and forth, as the spirit moves me, of course.

The Squirt Bottle Has Many Uses

and Tom Hanks shows us how to use it:




It seems to work better on his daughter than mine does with Baxter.

Blind Faith in Knitting Instructions

I'm not too sure I have enough of it.

I'm aiming for this: and so far, I have this:

Every time that the directions say drop next st and allow to unravel back to CO, I panic just a little. Once I have panicked 20 or so times, I'm on to the next sections, where the directions say things like: BO 3 sts purlwise (1 st on right needle), drop next stitch down to yo; place st just worked on crochet hook (What!!!! Crochet???) and chain 2, then return ch st to right needle; p next st on left needle then pass ch st on right needle over st just purled; drop next st and allow to unravel back to yo (panic, panic) AND the directions say that This project is ideal for using (or learning) the technique of knitting back backwards. HUH???

I have no idea if I am on the right track or not, but the stitch count keeps coming out right, so maybe I am. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Fingers crossed, but not while knitting.

What I Am Not Good At

1. All the other things

2. Painting rooms

I am actually OK at painting walls, but my painting walls necessitates painting ceilings and woodwork. Not because the ceilings and woodwork needed painting, but because no matter how hard I try, I get wall paint on them.

Rats.

BAXTER!!!!!

I'm painting the kitchen.

Baxter is NOT helping!!!

Not that it is going all that well anyway. I'm painting the kitchen portion of the kitchen a chocolate brown, which has to go over the yellow that is currently there. Then I mistakenly painted over a section of yellow that is supposed to remain yellow; then I had to re-paint the yellow over the chocolate brown that is going over the yellow.

Hello, Delta?