There's An App for That???

This is my daughter. She took this photo with her iPhone (or a friend did) and used the app called Aging Booth to see what she would look like when she is older.

She said she was supposed to look bad in her "before" picture, and really, she is pretty.

But this is what she is supposed to look like when she is older---I don't know how much older, but I think I will not download this app.

So there's an app for this. But why???

(And S, why did you do this?)

The Truth Hurts

A friend recently told me that Martin Clunes, who stars in Doc Martin, has a new project coming out. I told her that I can't see him as anyone other than Doc Martin.

(Have I mentioned that I love that series?)
But just as I can't imagine Martin Clunes playing anyone other than Doc Martin, I also can't see David Suchet as anyone other than Hercule Poirot. He is Hercule Poirot. I don't much like reading the Poirot stories, written by Agatha Christie, but I really enjoy the television series.

I wondered if David Suchet is still alive. Doesn't he look OLD??? Also, I apparently confused the era in the series for the era the series was filmed---which turns out to be surprisingly recently (1989-2010).

So not only is this elderly man still alive, he is a year older than I am.

So now I'm elderly????

Oh dear.

And the Voting Age is?

Texas, you have a lot to answer for.

Oh yeah. And what is Election Day again?

Sewing

Today I had to sew some buttons on a jacket before they completely fell off. I couldn't get the needle through the fabric and had to find a thimble. Turns out I don't have a normal thimble. I only have this one, bought in Mexico. It's silver and turquoise and really pretty and needs polishing. I didn't think about it at first because it is usually with this beauty with her thimble. I named her Woman Wearing Thimble Under Glass. I'm really clever like that.
Here she is not under glass.
Anyway, my decorative thimble worked as it should, and my jacket's buttons are securely re-attached.

But to read a really en-GROSS-ing story about sewing, check out Murr Brewster's post about her sewing adventure.

Blechhhhh......

(Can I cheat or what!!! Two posts in a row linking to someone else's writing.)

Now This

is a Knit Night.

But I think I'll stick with mine.

Happy Turkey Day!

Ooops.

OK. Now---Happy Turkey Day!
(Poor turkey....)

HELP!

All of these girls know how to wear scarves. I'm a knitter. I have the scarves; I don't have a clue. I fumble, I tie knots, I drape, I loop. Nothing comes out right.

Even in summer, with jeans and a t-shirt, a scarf, perfectly styled.These four girls know what they're doing.
Uh, NO.

Honestly, even a guy knows what he's doing.
Wait---is that David Beckham? OK, so maybe it's his stylist who knows what she is doing. I don't have a stylist.

So what's a knitter to do?

While I figure this out....and stop knitting scarves...... if you see someone who isn't Bea Arthur but who looks like this, it might be me.

And if you see someone who is not wearing these shoes but who looks like this, it might be me.
Or someone who is not so thin but who looks like this, it might be me.
So many scarves. So little sense of style.

Lotions and Potions

Or Why I'm Glad That I Don't Have Hemorrhoids

Look at all this stuff!

I am supposed to use all of it to maintain my youthful beauty or to treat a problem.

There's moisturizer, two kinds, one with SPF 15 to ward off any more skin cancers.

Aldara, to treat the skin cancers I already have.

Some stuff from Bobbi Brown to make me appear less old.

Some Retin-A related cream from the dermatologist to exfoliate any cells that might be thinking of becoming skin cancers.

Some 12% acid AmLactin to treat actinic keratoses I inherited from one of my parents. (Thanks for that.)

Some skin-bleaching cream that, if you saw my hands, you'd know I never remember to use. I prefer to think that the brown patches are just patches of permanent tan from my years in Florida. Also? I can't find it.

Korres Guava lip butter.

And Voltaren to treat the swelling remaining from my knee surgery in August.

I'm old. I get confused. What goes where? And while I've heard that models use Preparation H for under-eye swelling, I thinks it's a good thing that I don't have to put that particular lotion in my inventory. Who knows what could happen?

One Brooklyn Tweed Project Finished/Another to Begin

This is the Juneberry Triangle, designed by Jared Flood, and knit from Shelter, Wool Socks color yarn. I thought I would NEVER finish it. It is the most difficult, intricate project I have ever made.
The bobbles don't really show well, but there are bobbles. I guarantee, there ARE bobbles. I won't be making those again any time soon. They aren't difficult; they are, for some reason, annoying. Or I'm too impatient with them.

This is BT's newest yarn, Loft, color Camper. It is made from the same wools and with the same process as Shelter, but it is fingering weight. So I'm off to make another lace project called Pei, designed by Michele Wang, and while it is lace, it is much, much easier lace than the lace in the Juneberry.
I need a break.

The Crazy Cat Lady?

Yarn Bombing Gone

strange...

Seventeen Evergreen - Polarity Song from Lucky Number Music on Vimeo.

Blocking

With a little help from Baxter, again. He waded around in the bathtub while the shawl soaked and then tried to roll around on the wet shawl as I stretched it out. I evicted him from the room.

This is---FINALLY---the Juneberry Triangle, designed by Jared Flood, and made from his Shelter Yarn, wool socks color. He wrote an entire blog post about how the yarn is spun and all I understand is that is is a process that keeps the yarn very light. This shawl is light as air even though it's worsted weight wool. It is the most complicated knitting I have ever done; it had five...count them...FIVE charts. And no safety rows---like purl all wrong side rows. Nope. Every row had a pattern. But I do think it's pretty and even though there are probably mistakes in it, and maybe a zig where there should be a zag, I think I love it.

I'll know more when it's dry and I can actually put it on.

I had better love it....

Serendipity

Again.

This time with mawatas. We bought them months and months ago to make silk mittens with. The Yarn Harlot had written about doing this, and we figured, with no good reason, that if she could do it, so could we.

Using this silk as yarn involves pulling these unbelievably thin mawatas, or silk hankies, out and sort of twisting the fiber a bit until the thickness is right for the intended project.

Isn't it pretty?

L and Sallyknit, while we were all in Asheville for SAFF this weekend, tried to turn one of the hankies into yarn. They succeeded, but only in getting what could more accurately be described as thread. They also tried to knit what they pulled into the ribbing for mittens, but that was not successful either. The mittens would have been very teeny-tiny.

On our way home from Asheville, we somehow turned off the road onto the wrong exit road, and ended up sort of ....not lost really...but sort of dislocated. Suddenly Sallyknit yelled, and I do mean yelled, "Yarn!" We stopped on a dime and this is what we saw:
A beautiful yarn shop in Hendersonville, NC. Not only is the shop as perfect inside as it is outside, the owner is a specialist in dyeing fibers, and especially SILK fiber!!! We mentioned our failure with our silk hankies, and she took us to the back of her shop where she was knitting a scarf from a hankie she had dyed herself. The scarf was beautiful.

The owner gave us a little demonstration on pulling silk from the hankie---and no kidding---we can do this! We decided to make scarves instead of mittens---we don't much wear mittens in Georgia, but a silk scarf? We can wear that all year long.

Serendipity. It's a wonderful thing!

Spinners

Color

Uh oh.

Ooops. Shopping already.

We have arrived. Now off to see EVERYTHING (but not to buy anything...)

BLOCKING HELP

That I didn't want or need.

Hmmm....What's this???

(Daughter's sweater soaking)
Testing the water:

All four feet in:
And now out:
And yes, there I was again, taking pictures instead of reinforcing what NO means. But I was so surprised that he would get in the bathtub and the two inches of water in it that I ran for the camera. He was in and out several times, but when he started walking on the sweater, and then, even worse, chewing on one of the long strands of yarn I will use to sew a side seam, I took him out and banished him from the room.

I have never soaked and blocked pieces before sewing an item together before, but in a recent post by the Yarn Harlot she mentioned that she was doing that, and if it works for her, maybe it's a good idea. The sleeves were so curled on the edges that sewing them up would have been difficult. I'll see how this works, once all that heavy wool dries.

Baxter---bad boy!

Baxter's favorite toys are pipe cleaners. Yesterday, I pulled my address book out of this cabinet and was going to put it back in a few minutes. I had left the door open and Baxter apparently smelled the pipe cleaner supply in there. I saw him on the counter, so I closed the door. When I wasn't looking, Baxter got up on the counter to investigate.He was able to open the door and he grabbed the package and pulled it out.
The rest went onto the floor.
Does he look the least bit guilty?
Hah! He doesn't know what guilt is.

Now I'll have to put a child-proof latch on this cabinet door, just as I had to do with the cabinet where we keep the bread.

Bad kitty!

(And yes, I was taking pictures instead of pulling him off the counter, but I had already pulled him off several times. He was relentless. I pulled out my camera.)

Two Sleeves!!!

Two knit at one time on one needle:
This is what I'm aiming for, except in green, of course.

and minus the flashes from my camera.

Front and Back

Finished!!!

Yay!!! Now all I have to do is:
knit two sleeves, which I am doing at the same time on the same needles with two balls of yarn, even though using two balls of yarn at once DRIVES ME CRAZY because they get all twisted up but I don't want Second Sleeve Syndrome because that's worse than Second Sock Syndrome because sweater sleeves are bigger than socks. And then pick up a few thousand stitches around the neck and sleeves to knit a six-inch ribbed collar.
I learned a couple of things making the front and back:

1. Give up sitting in my favorite rocking chair to knit and instead knit at a table where I can have all three pieces of paper in front of me at one time because I have to keep referring from one to the other because the pattern is so %^&* complicated.

2. Use several counters and don't get them mixed up. EVER.

3. How to knit the following types of cables and twists: claw, diamond, large rope, V, plaited and small rope. Yee hah. (Actually, that was sort of fun, once I stopped staring like a deer in the headlights at the instructions.)

4. Keep the cable needle in my mouth AT ALL TIMES so that I don't lose it---again---and have to spend five minutes looking for it.

5. Keep the scissors in my mouth AT ALL TIMES---next time, once I find them---so that I don't have to spend however long it is going to take to find them this time.

All in all, a learning experience. I can't wait to get the whole thing finished so I can admire it and then send it off to younger daughter in LA and be done with it.

(And as a bonus, I bought yarn to make myself one too. Can't wait......)

I am Smitten

with a British TV series called Doc Martin. I LOVE it. It takes place in Portwenn, a fictional town along the Cornwall coast in England. The characters are wonderful; the scenery is drop dead gorgeous and I swear that everyone who lives in the tiny REAL town (Port Isaac, Cornwall, United Kingdom) has a view of the ocean. The show has the usual mix of British humor and eccentricities. It is on PBS, but on Hulu, I can watch every one of the episodes of the seasons I missed before I discovered the series.

It's perfect.

More History

Thanks to Ann in NJ, I have found even more history videos. There are millions and millions of them. (well, 53). According to the comments after some of them, they were made by two teachers in Hawaii and they have been used by history teachers all over the country.

So in honor of the approaching Halloween season, I have posted the most gruesome one. (You're welcome.)

If you want to know all sorts of things about history, taught in a decidedly different way, go to You Tube and either learn something or kill a few hours, or both. I can't decide if they are entertainment mainly, or actually good teaching tools.

I report; you decide. Fair and balanced.

Does Anyone

see a mistake here? Of course not; I fixed it! With a lot of help from "Other Sally" (there are two Sallies-one who knits at the shop and one who knits and works at the shop. Those of us who didn't know her last name just shout Other Sally and she knows who we mean) at knit night last night. She had recently had the same problem and I benefited from her experience.
Now I can knit on. DH asked me if I learned anything from fixing the error--- which took almost all of last night's session. Why yes, I did. I learned to NEVER make this mistake again!

Does Anyone

See a mistake here?
I do. One of the cables goes over instead of under. DH says it's on the back of the sweater and no one will notice. But I know it's there and it will bug me. And I suspect younger daughter would notice it too and it will be---if I EVER finish it---her sweater.

But not to worry; I have a theory and a plan. I THINK that I can put the stitches on either side of the eight stitches involved on holders and then just un-knit those eight stitches, and re-knit them correctly. I think it might work.

I will take it with me to knit night tomorrow so that if I lose patience or get really, really upset, someone will stop me from throwing the whole thing across the shop or from ripping the whole thing back.

I hope.

Modern History Class?

I occasionally hear or read about the need for education to make things more interesting/entertaining for kids. Experts say that schools need to use modern technology to get the students' attention because teachers are now competing with all sorts of e-gadgets/social networking, and who knows what else. Of course, since I am a stodgy senior citizen, I can't figure out what is wrong with how I learned things in school---work, sometimes really hard work.

I came across this video about 1066 and the Norman Invasion and the Battle of Hastings (on Ravelry, of all places). Granted, the students will have 1066 embedded in their minds after watching this---but so do I and that was just from reading about it a million years ago.

I guess this is sort of entertaining, in an hypnotic, weird sort of way. But was it intended for the classroom?

It does make me laugh, though.

Hello? 911?

The girls and I refer to these contraptions, fearfully, not affectionately, as Dad's Kervorkian machines. His goal is to reattach the fan to the ceiling in my knitting/tv room and this is the system he has cobbled together to accomplish that. I am always present for these shenanigans because someone has to call 911.

So far, so good, except that the fan won't turn on. The Kervorkian machine has been disassembled, but it looks as if it might have to go up again.

Did I mention how WOBBLY it is??? And that I'm here to call 911?

Also, not one of the three ladders he has available to him will reach the ceiling in the family room, so it looks as if he will have to go off to Lowe's to rent one.

Mission. Creep.

[Update: The fan works and is quiet. One down; one to go.]

Yummmmm.....

Thanks to the Pioneer Woman's website, I have just made what I am sure will be a delicious rhubarb cobbler. When I was at the store yesterday I came across some rhubarb and thought---Aha! Time for cobbler. I love rhubarb; my husband does not. He is out of town and I've made it all for meeee. Not that I would have to fight him for it. I called older daughter to check and see if she thought that a fruit cobbler would be appropriate for a breakfast meal and she said yes. (I know how to stack the deck.) Really, it's fruit; it's carbs; it's sugar; it's protein (one egg); what more do I need but coffee?

My parents grew rhubarb and it just occurred to me that I could do the same, but why deprive farmers of their income, I say. So I'll buy it and cook it and eat it and do my part for the economy.

I'm a saint.

A Blog

Kind of a weird concept, but you knitters and crocheters out there might enjoy this blog. Or something it. It's weird.