Let’s see, what’s new?

Well, we’ve got some snow outside. Lots of snow.

And icicles! Some truly monster icicles. Chappy’s kind of living in fear of going outside to his bathroom.

Seriously, I am NOT complaining about the snow, though. I’ve said before that I think a person can complain about summer heat or about winter cold, but not about both. (Who wants to be friends with someone who complains about the weather practically year-round? And I’m willing to make exceptions for really extreme weather. “Boy, I usually love the winter, but 20-below for two weeks straight is too much even for me.”)

It is getting tricky to drive around, though, because the piles of snow are so darn big. I think the folks up in tractor trailers are the only ones who can really see around the corners at this point.

I got to see my best friend this weekend, which is always good, even if the reason’s not. Her mother fell in one of the storms two weeks ago and broke her hip, so Dawn came home from California to help out for the first couple weeks she’s home. I’m so glad for all their sakes that it’s not more serious. They put a pin in her hip and she’s doing rehab, but she should have a complete recovery.

Mom and I got to see her on Saturday, too, because there was some kind of mix-up at the car rental place and Dawn was stranded Saturday morning and called to ask if we could give her a ride. Of course! We’ll be there in 10 minutes! (She said later that when her brother suggested calling me for a ride—since he lives about half an hour away—that she said, “But she’s so efficient.” I’m still not sure how that’s a bad thing.)

She mentioned, though, between thanking us for giving her a ride … and, really, her timing was excellent. Mom and I had just gone out to coffee, but hadn’t placed our order yet. Dawn mentioned that she was particularly upset with the car rental place because she had hoped to visit her Mom today. Um, we can go to Chester! So the three of us went into Chester for coffee and then headed over to visit with her Mom, which was actually kind of fun. She’s not in pain and tells great stories and I’ve always liked her, so it was really pretty enjoyable, except for her being stuck in a wheelchair and all.

Sunday, I moved (well, Dad and I) two pieces of furniture in my room and what a difference it makes. I swapped the cedar chest which had been under the window with the table which had been near the door, and suddenly the room feels more open. The table is a little deeper than the cedar chest (10” to be exact), but it can be pushed right against the window sill because it doesn’t have a lid that needs room to open, so it only comes an inch or so further out into the room.

Something about the way the light streams in UNDER the table makes it look roomier. And the cedar chest by the door actually provides something like a seat for when Mom or Dad come by my room. Before, they needed to pick their way past me, around the computer, past the spinning wheel and the computer cables … mostly they lurked near the doorway. It’s just a shame the edges of the (cheap) filing cabinets look so crappy, from where the tape that held them closed when we moved tore off the laminate.

I’m even going to try using the table as a desk, kind of—at least I can spread stuff out a little more when I do things like book reviews. Right now, sitting on the floor in the corner between my red chair and its ottoman, I need to either lean things against the spinning wheel treadles or prop them on the chair and then get a crick in my neck. (Because the computer itself is in my lap.) I’ll need some kind of nice, tall desk lamp, though, because it’s kind of dark over there at night.

Now, about the spinning wheel. I was sitting in my usual place Friday night and glanced, as I often do, at the wheel and … was that a crack?? It IS. My brand new, two-month-old Aura has a crack in the Spinning Head.

I sent an email to Majacraft and (naturally things like this always happen on weekends), they’re sending me a replacement. Isn’t that nice of them? Not only are their wheels stunning and efficient, but their customer service is great.

What else? Chappy got to romp in the snow a little yesterday at the playground up the hill. It’s full of snow (not surprisingly) and he LOVED bounding through it like a puppy. He told me I called it quits way before he was ready, but I had thought we were only going for a walk, not a romp, so he didn’t have his coat on. His fur keeps him plenty warm for walks (if it’s warm enough for us to want to brave the cold, it’s warm enough for him), but the snow gets him WET and so when we play in snow, he usually has his water-resistant fleecy coat on. I didn’t hear him complaining, though.

He did have one of those odd little “events” Sunday. Sometimes it just seems like his back leg locks up and some massaging helps ease it away, but a couple times it’s been very much like a seizure. Yesterday’s was sort of in between—something about his hips was bothering him, but he sat UP instead of lying down, and was very much mentally present (and looking kind of worried). No drool. No shudders. Just “Mommy, I don’t like this!” And—don’t tell him I told you this—he had an accident all over my lap, poor little guy. But in about 5 minutes he was licking his paws and asking what we were doing for lunch, and did we want to go for a walk? (Because yes, it was AFTER this that we romped in the snow.)

As to his blood work issues and the prednisone? We’re almost done! His blood counts have been excellent (knock on wood) and we’re down to half a pill every other day. This involves some extra mental gymnastics for me (“today-not-tomorrow” or “tomorrow-not-today,” and keeping it straight), but he’s worth it. This is the last decrease before he’s DONE, which also hopefully means I’ll be done with the monthly $100 vet visits.

This winter sure is keeping us busy, though. I got to work at 8:00 one morning last week and the parking lot looked like this.

Completely empty except for my car, though luckily one of the other people (who comes in from Pennsylvania) was in, dropped off by her husband, so the doors were open and the alarm was off. (This last bit is important because I don’t have an outside-door key.) Usually there are about 8-10 people when I get there in the morning.

Today, though? In the ice storm? The office was open, but … I got there at 8:00 and NOBODY was there. At all! And it wasn’t until about 8:15 that Gail arrived. She does have a key, but she was nervous about the alarm because it had been so long since she entered the code.

It turns out that we should have been nervous because, she hit the wrong button while entering her code so that, somehow, we sent a distress signal to the police department. Not just the “alarm is going off” alert, but an actual alert as if we were being robbed. Oops! I don’t know how we managed that but we felt absolutely terrible! Thankfully the three officers who arrived were very nice and forgiving, but … talk about embarrassing.

By 9:30 this morning, there were three of us at the office (there’s usually a full complement of about 35 by then). Around 10:00 there were four. And that was it. At noon, Gail went home and our part-time person showed up, holding the number at four. This was kind of ridiculous, I thought. Essentially nobody came to work today, but I was there, doing other people’s work because I was caught up with my own, so I decided that I’d come home for lunch and take the rest of the afternoon off. Reasonable, don’t you think?

This way, I got to watch Chappy barking as the icicles fell.

I also sat at the table in the window this afternoon, which worked very nicely. It’s a little drafty by the window, but my cute little handspun lap blanket worked wonderfully. It might get awfully hot in the summer, though, but I’ll deal with that when I get there, right?

And, lastly in this very long post—current knitting.

Here are the fronts of my Celtic Dreams cardigan, with that center cable broken in half.

This is what the back looks like, as a reminder.

Man, I love these cables!

One last look at the icicles before I go.

Tags: Chappy, Knitting/Spinning, Weather by --Deb
4 Comments »

I felt like a terrible mother this morning. We had a string of nasty thunderstorms roll through last night, which was bad enough, but just before I was about to leave for work, the sky got darker and the boomers started again. I finished getting ready for work and headed downstairs a few minutes early to find Chappy huddled under the kitchen table, where his grandparents were finishing breakfast.

And Chappy only goes under the kitchen table when (1) there’s food, or (2) there are extreme storms.

So, as a good mother, I sat down on the floor and he came and sat in my lap (also something he usually only does when frightened), and I petted him for 5-10 minutes and then … “I’m sorry, honey, but I have to go to work.” I nudged him off my lap, stood up, picked up my purse …

Glancing back was a mistake.

He followed me all the way to the door, with this disbelieving look on his face. “You’re leaving me? NOW?”

I felt just terrible. And, when I took one last look before closing the door? He was back under the table.

Poor puppy!

(And, for the record, when I went home at lunch? He kind of ignored me, but his aunt and cousin were visiting so I prefer to believe that was because he was so happy to see them, rather than upset with me.)

So, remember when I switched over from Typepad to WordPress? In many ways, the transfer was wonderful–all the posts, all the comments, moved seamlessly from one platform to the other. There were just two, big problems. All the internal links that pointed to other, previous posts still pointed to Typepad (annoying), and all the PHOTOS linked to Typepad.

That left me with two choices–I could keep the Typepad blog alive until I got all my pictures loaded up on Flickr and relinked in every single one of the posts from three years worth of knit-blogging. Or, I could just cancel the Typepad blog and sacrifice all the pictures.

Yeah, I thought option #2 was pretty dire, too, especially for a blog that’s so much about the pictures. For a while, I diligently plowed through the archives, uploading old pictures to Flickr and relinking them. I started back at the very beginning, January 2005, and worked my way forward, but just before the two year mark, I faltered. And I didn’t move past December 2006 for, well, about a year. And I’ve been paying Typepad $5 a month ever since.

Ironically, that’s more than I was paying when I was USING their service, because then I paid annually and got a lower rate. I never thought it would take me longer than six months to get all my photos and hyperlinks transferred to WordPress. I just didn’t factor in the drudge factor. But, now, I really can’t afford to be wasting $60 a year for nothing, and so I’ve been working hard to make these transfers. I’m up to April 2007 now, so that’s 8 more months of posts, and I’m done. (And, well, you’ll all just have to deal with the fact that those pictures don’t “embiggen” any more. They simply are what they are–but at least they’re still there.)

It’s just unfortunate that it’s so darn time-consuming. There are so many other things I could be doing with my time! But, still … since I started concentrating on this, I’ve gotten through four months of posts in just over a week. If I’m lucky, I should be done by Independence Day, which seems kind of fitting.

The good part of all this is looking back at my archives. Remembering knit projects that are long past, seeing how small kids and puppies I know were then. Remembering when I met various friends for the first time. Very handy, really.

But in the meantime, if you don’t hear from me as frequently as usual, that’ll be why!

(Oh, and the picture at the top of the post? From April 2007, but oddly appropriate for today’s post!)

Tags: Chappy, Weather by --Deb
3 Comments »

Well, we had some excitement last night … an earthquake! A 3.0 on the Richter Scale which, sure, makes it small by world standards, but BIG by New Jersey standards. Especially since the epicenter was only about a mile away, right here, in my very own hometown. The house shook. The noise was huge. Chappy woke up barking from a sound sleep.

It happened at about 10:35, and it took almost an hour before it was officially declared an earthquake. Thank heaven for Twitter, where I found other people wondering the same thing I was. “Was that an earthquake? Or an explosion?”

I even made a couple new Twitter friends, including Hilary who also writes and blogs about power-selling on eBay. Who knew? Maybe we can get together for coffee or something one of these days.

Anyway, so it turns out that I didn’t get anything accomplished last night except for some knitting. No writing–which makes me very naughty indeed.

On the other hand, I’m working on my sweater again. I’ve got my afghan done through the first chart and am giving it a short break while I get some inches on my sweater.

Oh–and how great was it that Chuck was back last night! I admit that I did NOT wear my 3D glasses while watching the episode–they made knitting too difficult. But I did pull it up on Hulu before and, while sitting in front of the computer, I have to say, the 3D effect was very cool. It’s just a shame that the glasses make everything so darn DARK.

Have you noticed? I really love this show…

Tags: General, Weather by --Deb
12 Comments »

Ooh! A box! A (relatively) BIG box!

And … look at that. It’s full of YARN!

30 skeins of Bollicine Victor in color “Gold.” (We won’t mention the fact that Dad thought it was orange.)

I’ve been knitting, too. I started my sweater with my pretty Briar Rose yarn. Here’s the very beginning of my top-down sweater. I’m doing the top in reverse-stockinette, just because, just to be a little different.

And, oh yes. Dr. Horrible. I absolutely had to get the DVD, and oh, my, it had me in stitches tonight. First, there’s Joss Whedon’s 42-minute original, musical video-blog with Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillon, and Felicia Day with incredibly good songs that I’ve actually been humming on and off since July. But then, there are the EXTRAS. There are behind-the-scenes videos telling the story which are entertaining. But even better? You know how DVDs like to have commentary? Where you watch the whole thing but instead of hearing the original audio track, you hear the director and/or actors talking about what it was like making it?

Well, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog? They went one step better. The commentary is SUNG. They get the entire cast (before and behind the camera) together and sing all original songs “about” making Dr. Horrible. It’s hilarious. (Not to mention more great music.) And, there’s more! After this swept the internet last summer, there were lots of people who made faux-application videos to get into the “Evil League of Evil” and they put a bunch of those on the DVD, too, and they were pretty great, too. And at the end, there’s a list of “Dishonorable Mention” which runs down the complete list, going faster with the names getting smaller all the time …

It just completely had me in stitches. I mean, literally. Not only did I have a stitch in my side from laughing so hard, but when I got up to turn off the DVD … because, somehow, the STOP button on the remote would NOT work (don’t ask me how they did that, but what an Evil trick to keep people watching) … but when I got up, my yarn and my knitting wrapped around my ankle and almost tripped me. In. Stitches.

Wow. They so need to do a sequel to this.

We had a miserable weather day today. Can you say “ice?” The driveway was a slick sheet of ice this morning–I had to crunch my way up the lawn to safely get the newspaper. It was JUST over freezing, though, so the roads–which had been salted/sanded–weren’t bad. I saw the after-effects of an accident, though. Or, I thought I did. On this little secondary road over the hill from here, there was a tow truck maneuvering itself straight across the road, with two police cars with their lights flashing, and a person looking down, over the edge of a hill. I’m GUESSING there was a car down there (or why would they need the tow truck?). I didn’t have any trouble, myself, until I got to work, where our parking lot–also a hill–was ALSO a sheet of ice. I started to pull into my regular spot and slid sideways down the slope, coming to a stop about 3 feet from a co-worker’s car … So, that part was fun.

And then it rained. All day. Forever. Rain. Rain. Lots of rain. It was just a beautiful day. (cough)

But, did I mention that I got YARN in the mail??

Tags: Knitting/Spinning, Weather by --Deb
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Well, we’re guessing that this is some kind of marketing scheme…

But we could be wrong, I suppose. All we really know is that this box of fudge from Mrs. Fields arrived today with a note: “Hey– just wanted to wish you a Happy Holiday season, and to tell you this: YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHIN’ YET. Many surprises on the way.”

What do you think? A marketing ploy? Or some, nice friend trying to give my Dad a smile?

I get to work on my sweater again tomorrow because–yay!–I finished the hat I was working on. This is for a gift for our mail carrier–the one who stops her truck so she can say hello to Chappy whenever she sees us out walking. The one who always stops to chat when she can. The one who went out of her way to make sure I got my Little Gem on my birthday two years ago. I made her a pair of “Fetching” mitts last year, and a couple of weeks ago, she stopped to say to Chappy on our walk on a cold day, and commented on Dad’s hat, saying she wanted one. Well, I didn’t think that she would have looked right in a “Tychus,” so I made her this instead. Cute, huh?

Okay, a couple more links.

You remember those cinnamon buns that I mentioned on Tuesday? Apparently I’m not the only one to think so! Not only  have I  been having email conversations about them, I’m seeing links for them all over the place.

Not only that, Susan also linked to these–Ice Wreaths. How beautiful is that! And so simple, too … as long as you live somewhere cold.

Have you heard about Trikkes? Both parents were talking about these … not a cycle that you pedal, not a scooter that you push, not a Segue that does everything for you … but kind of a combination of all three–environmentally friendly AND good exercise. And portable. Who knew? (Though, since I don’t see how you could walk your dog while using one, well…)

And … mmm. This sounds like the tastiest Vanilla ever. Have I ever told you how much I like vanilla? I read about it in this post about some really delicious-sounding cookies. It’s making me hungry.

It is nasty weather out there tonight. We’re getting some serious rain and the temperature is hovering around freezing and it’s expected to be icy in the morning. I don’t mind snow, but ice is awful. But … so strange! We’ve got rain here in New Jersey while Houston, Galveston, New Orlenas … places that are serious Deep South territory … got inches of SNOW today. That’s just backwards!

Oh, and I hope you’re proud of me. I only finally got all three of my blogs updated to the current (and same) version of WordPress a couple weeks ago, and now version 2.7 is out. So … I updated all three of them again tonight, so we are current … again! Phew.

Tags: Baking, Finished Knitting, General, Knitting/Spinning, Weather by --Deb
2 Comments »

Okay, I like snow, you know that. And Chappy REALLY likes snow.

But this was just unfair. Snow? In October? Even last year it didn’t start this early. And–that picture? The view out my windshield when I got into my car at lunchtime.

The worst part was that–here, at least–there wasn’t enough to DO anything. No snow for romping. Too wet. Too bone-chilling cold. (32 degrees with wet, windy, snow showers in October feels COLD.) Which means it wasn’t FUN snow. Just miserable, wet snow.

And, northwest of here, they were getting something like 13″ of the stuff. And other places got even more.

I mean, really, it’s not even Halloween. We haven’t even elected the next President yet. It’s way too early for snow!

On the plus side, I wore my Ingenue for the first time.

And I’m making progress on my sweater sleeve. This is my Harvest Cardigan, remember. I had actually started the colorwork part the other night, but my floats were too tight. The beginning and end of the color sections have a 13-stitch float, and it often takes me a few rows to get the “feel” of the stranding, and in this case, it made the sleeve rather, um, snug. So, I tore back the 8 or so rows I’d done of the color work and re-started it again tonight.

You want to know what’s really surprising?

My gauge is actually pretty close. At least, by my standards. In fact, my row-gauge is a little smaller than it should be. That NEVER happens. I’m actually using the instructions for the smallest size on the grounds that my gauge always ends up loose, and both of the other Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool sweaters have ended up dramatically too big, despite my gauge swatches. So, I’m working on the assumption that it’s going to end up bigger, and that my short-ish row gauge will balance out. Or something like that.

In other words, despite what the numbers are telling me, I’m knitting on faith.

Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning, Weather by --Deb
11 Comments »

This picture pretty much encapsulates today for you . . . in the cozy house with Chappy while the rain streams down outside.

Okay, technically, Mom and I went out for coffee this morning, which we usually do on Saturday mornings, but that was, what, an hour? Hour and a half? Away from the house, so it barely counts. (Except for the fact that we split a cinnamon bun–Mara’s makes excellent cinnamon buns and is worth getting a little wet for.)

Otherwise? Well, it will say a lot about my day when I tell you that I’m on my fifth book since this time yesterday. Yesterday, I was finishing up Crystal Dragon by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller–which I finished just before 8:00 last night. Then I went onto The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope (yawn), then Dark Watcher by Lilith Saintcrow (okay), which I finished about 12:30 last night. Then I picked up Standing Still by Kelly Simmons and read the first couple chapters before going to sleep. This book, incidentally, I picked up because Kelly mentioned it on Ravelry, and well, isn’t this what you do for friends and acquaintances when they get their books published? And, well, if she’s on Ravelry, that means she’s a fiber person and therefore an acquaintance. I finished that around 1:00 this afternoon (good), and am now reading Fool’s Errand by Robin Hobb.

And, I can’t help it. I was too tired to do anything constructive like spin or work on the computer, so I just read instead. Reading is easy.

Oh, I also spent about an hour sitting in the living room with Mom and my spinning wheel, which was ideal. She worked on her cross-stitch and I spun, which was soothing and productive and yet gave my eyes a nice rest. May I just say how grateful I am that I’ve improved enough to spin with my eyes closed? In fact, it was so relaxing, I almost fell asleep while spinning, which would have just been too strange–which is when I got up to make some tea instead. I drank that, read a bit, and then figured I should write a post since it’s been a couple days since I wrote a “real” one. The plans for tonight? Supper, and then Mom and I are going to watch The Queen (which neither of us has seen yet).

All in all, a lazy kind of day, but Chappy’s just glad that all of us are home. Even if this heavy rain did mean that he missed out on any chance for a walk today! But . . . lazy is good once in a while, right?

Oh–and for those of you affected, don’t forget to change your clocks ahead tonight for Daylight Savings Time. (Grumble, grumble. I hate losing sleep, and having to get up an hour “early” is not fun, either, which makes this coming Monday one of my least-favorite Mondays of the year.)

Tags: Family, General, Reading, Weather by --Deb
9 Comments »

Okay, blue sky with just a couple inches of new, fresh snow. So, gotta go!

The tricky part, of course, will be explaining to Chappy why I’m leaving without taking him into the backyard to romp, first…. Oh well!

Tags: Sky, Weather by --Deb
2 Comments »

It was pretty and sunny for most of the day, today, but as I drove home, you could see the clouds coming in. I pulled over into the local elementary school’s parking lot to take the picture–you can still see the mound of snow left from plowing the parking lot last week.

Anyway, the weather forecast right now is:

Tonight: Periods of snow. Low around 24. South wind between 8 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total nighttime snow accumulation of 3 to 7 inches possible.

Um, I don’t want to complain, or anything, but, see, Jessica has been trying to have a housewarming/spinning party for a couple of weeks now. It was cancelled two weeks ago because HWJF had the flu and she didn’t want to risk passing it on to the rest of us–which was much appreciated. I think, though, that the problem was that she kept referring to March 1st as her “Snow Date,” and Mother Nature took her seriously. Just, er hopefully not TOO seriously. I’ve got that pretty blue roving on the wheel, and everything . . . and you know how Jessica loves blue!

This photo, by the way, is one I took this on our walk last weekend, when the snow was fresh, just minutes after our ice-covered little maple tree. These are our neighbor’s stairs, but there was something very nifty about the play of shadow…. Couldn’t help myself!

Fellow spinners, did you see Abby’s post about spinning sock yarn?

Okay, got to go finish my book list for the month. Happy Leap Day, everyone!

Tags: Friends, General, Knitting/Spinning, Sky, Weather by --Deb
5 Comments »

So, on Sunday–the first day with sunshine after last Friday’s storm–we took a walk, and as we left the house, saw this. This is our teeny-tiny baby red maple tree, and it sits under the eaves of the house and, as you can see, was just covered in icicles. The timing for our walk was perfect, though, because the sun was at just the right angle to make them really shine.

In fact, see? When we got back from our walk, the sun had moved around the corner of the house, leaving the icicles gleaming rather than sparkling, but still just as pretty.

Sometimes, it really pays to bring your camera on a walk around the block.

Brought to you by:

Tags: Eye-Candy Friday, Weather by --Deb
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No, that’s not me being distracted by a new project. That’s just what it looks like around here.

Here’s the recipe:

First, you have a messy, sleety storm to put down a sheet of ice on anything that wasn’t cleared, salted, or sanded. Allow to rest for two days. Then, have another storm to add an inch or so of snow. Blend rain with sleet and pour over the top. Add massive amounts of wind to polish, and then drop the temperature dramatically to freeze everything solid.

The result is that, while our roads are clear, everything else is completely locked in this slick, smooth, shiny coat of ice. (I drove past a car dealership earlier that looks like it’s not going to be able to move any new models for months . . . literally.) It’s not a deep layer, mind you, but it’s strong and can support a person’s weight without a crack.

It’s really very, very pretty. How often do you get to walk through a world that looks like it’s made from blown glass?

But cold. Did I mention that it’s cold?

There are a couple of new projects in the works, though, but not of the “ooh, shiny!” distraction variety.  The only active knitting project I’ve got going right now (other than the ongoing socks in my purse) is my lace shawl, which is nearing the end. Then, I’m halfway through making a Tudora, which is a nice, quick little knit, and I’m gearing up for my next sweater.

Yes, yes, I know, my Autumn Rose isn’t entirely done since I haven’t finished off her seams, but she’s definitely off the needles, the ends are woven in and that makes her an Alteration project, not a Knitting project any more, so I need a sweater on the needles. And I’ve got the perfect one.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when Silvia posted pictures from the new Phildar book? Well, I fell in love with that cardigan, and Silvia, while an enabler, is a helpful enabler. She bought two copies of the book–thus saving a fair amount of money on the postage from Canada–and is forwarding on my copy. Not only that, but she scanned the pattern and e-mailed it to me so I could get a head start. Can’t complain about that, now, can I?

I’ve got the perfect yarn in my stash, too. At least I hope I do. Eleven skeins of Karabella Aurora 8 in a lovely, dark denim blue. I fully expect my gauge to be different (when is it NOT), but it should be in the ballpark and certainly close enough to be reasonable to tweak the numbers if necessary.

The only question is whether I have enough yardage. Let’s see…Phildar Partner comes 72 yds to a skein, Karabella Aurora 8 comes with 98. The pattern calls for 13 skeins of Parter which is (tap tap tap) 936 yards and I’ve got (tap tap) 1078 yards of Aurora . . . even allowing for (cough) differences of gauge, I think I’m okay, there!

Though . . . drat . . . I just realized that (thanks to Silvia’s scan that I should have looked at more carefully before I picked up the needles) I should have done my gauge swatch with 1×1 rib, not stockinette stitch. Oops!

Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning, Weather by Deb
10 Comments »

It’s been a while since I showed you any sky on Saturday and, in fact, this sky is technically from yesterday. Isn’t it a beautifully cold looking sunrise? I mean, very brr, and with very cold sunrise-y colors, yet . . . pretty just the same.

Like other Decembers, Mom and I went to the local craft show this morning. We even bumped into a co-worker of mine, buying her Secret Santa gift. It’s (cough)possible that I also picked up a Christmas present there, and I did get a pair of earrings for myself.
I feel a little guilty about that since money is so tight, but they were pretty and the designer was such a nice, pleasant woman to talk to, and I did miss the shows I usually go to in September (I was at Liz’s) and October (Rhinebeck weekend, for heaven’s sake), so ultimately, I spent a lot less on craft-show items this autumn than I usually do.

I got bunches of compliments on my Tannenbaum hat, too, which of course I just hated. There was one woman who plaintively asked, “Please tell me you sell these.” One woman who ran a booth of knitted-and-fulled bags called me over from the booth across the aisle with a “Did you make that hat?” and then complimented me on my handknit sweater, too. (I wore Celtic Dreams in lieu of a coat, with my summery-colored shawl for a little extra warmth around my neck while outside..)

Otherwise? It’s been a cold day–it hasn’t gotten above freezing, even with a certain amount of sunshine. It’s going to be messy again tomorrow. The forecast?

Tonight…Snow with sleet developing this evening and continuing overnight…with a chance of freezing rain after midnight. Snow and
sleet accumulation of 1 to 3 inches. Lows in the upper 20s. East winds increasing to 15 to 25 mph. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent. Sunday…Windy with snow showers…accumulating around an inch. Highs in the mid 30s. East winds 20 to 30 mph…with gusts up to 45 mph especially late. Chance of snow near 100 percent.

Doesn’t that sound just wonderful? Of course, they’re not entirely sure what’s going to happen tomorrow. There are two, big weather systems heading our way and it all depends on when and where they meet, and at what temperature. It’s looking like we’ll be getting more rain than snow, but further north in New England? The forecast is looking pretty nasty.

Still, it would be a good day to knit. Or, even better, spin! I haven’t touched my spinning wheel (except to move it around the room) in a couple of weeks now.

Tags: General, Weather by Deb
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It still was icy when I got up this morning, but mostly, it was restricted to trees, bushes and our driveway, while the roads themselves were clear. Which was great, once I got my car ice-free enough to get out there and drive on them.

Of course, I also took a couple minutes to take some pictures because I knew that the ice would be gone by lunchtime (it was). It’s just a pity the sun wasn’t up just a little farther to have made them brighter.

I even had bonus-photo time because I got stopped at the local train crossing for not one, but two trains, and so amused myself by rolling down the car window and zooming in on ice-covered evergreens along the road . . . although the vibration of the car made focusing on them kind of challenging.

And, speaking of photos, you’ve all got Chappy blushing over here from all those compliments in yesterday’s post!

Our new dishwasher was installed today, and the half that we can use seems just lovely. The run-time is shorter than the Fridgidaire’s and I think that it won’t have the same vibration-through-the-floor that the other one caused. The only problem? Um, it’s missing one of the wheels the top rack rolls on. So until at least Monday when hopefully the part will come, we can’t use the top rack. Off to a good start, huh? (grin)

I’ve got a couple of links for you.

(1) This post about a fabulous customer service letter from Amazon. (I love a company that can respond this way.)

And (2) Some of the reviews of this Bic ballpoint are downright hilarious.

Then, (3) Mom just sent me the link for this YouTube video of a really funny, really talented a cappella group doing their, um, unique take on holiday music. Really fabulous.

Go watch!

Tags: General, Weather by Deb
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What miserable weather today! It started with sleet, turned to snow for about two inches’ worth, then back to sleet and then freezing rain. All afternoon. Just awful.

I took this picture through the living room window of one of our shrubs, just before the light disappeared altogether. Because, naturally, the trees and all were just getting prettily ice-cased as the sun went down.

I believe that most of the precipitation is over for the night, though, which means that that ice layer shouldn’t be much thicker than this, when all is said and done, and so therefore not as threatening to life and (tree) limb as the massive ice storm that swept through the Midwest states this week.

The plus side, though, is that my office closed early today. So at 12:00, I headed carefully home to spend the rest of the afteroon with my favorite little boy.

Luckily, that was before the worst of the ice came along, and the roads were already pretty well sanded by then. The only place I skidded was on a curve on my own street, but since there weren’t any other cars nearby at that moment, and I didn’t come near any trees or mailboxes, that was okay. In fact, I think it’s good to get a chance to practice that whole “steer into a skid” thing once in a while, if you can do so without risking damage. The timing was especially good since, thanks to Dad’s shuttling my car around this morning, it not only had its bi-annual inspection but also its annual oil change this morning. It really would have been a shame to crunch a fender after that, you know?

Still, it was nice to be home for the afternoon. Hopefully the roads will be clear in the morning and we’ll see what kind of storm the potential one for this weekend turns into. At any rate, Chappy was good company this afternoon (even if he was disappointed that this wasn’t “romping” weather), and it WAS nice curling up with the new Spin-Off. (Which, incidentally, explained in the Letters to the Editor section why they had to change from the perfect-bound spine to the stapled one which is harder to see on a shelf. Basically, a cost issue–it was that, or increase the subscription price.)

Otherwise? My tooth still hurts–a nice little throbbing above one of the new crowns I paid dearly for this summer. I tried calling my dentist though . . . he’s on vacation until December 20th. Sigh. But it felt better this afternoon, though it’s sore again now . . . There IS a back-up dentist but if he’s the same one my dentist used last time I had an emergency and he wasn’t there, I don’t think he’d be able to help anyway. So . . . fingers crossed.

Frankly, I’m starting to run out of fingers these days….

Tags: General, Uncategorized, Weather by Deb
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It was a good day for handknits at my office today. Not only did it not go above 30-degrees, but there were snow showers/flurries more or less from 11:00 onward. And, did I mention that there was no heat? One of the building’s heating units more or less fell apart yesterday afternoon, so we had no choice but to turn it off altogether. Which means that, this morning, when we came in and it was 23 degrees outside, it was only 58 degrees inside.

Luckily, those of us who sit up front knew about this ahead of time. We’re in the broken unit’s domain–not to mention near the front door which lets in an awful lot of cold air as everybody gets to work in the morning–and so, it was cold. But we were prepared. I wore my handknit socks with leather boots, my Ribby sweater over a t-shirt, a shawl layered on top and I brought my Fetching fingerless gloves, too, to help keep my hands warm. I mean, sure, the colors didn’t exactly go with the blue/brown of the rest of the outfit, but they’re the only ones I’ve got (so far). My other cold co-worker didn’t have handknits, poor thing, but she layered stockings and socks under her boots, wore a fleece hoodie, and brought a blanket to protect her legs from drafts as the front door opened. (I just sat cross-legged in my chair.)

Tags: General, Uncategorized, Weather by Deb
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So, once again, the problem has been that odd, poofy bulge at the neckline, where the faux-raglan seam was.

Turning it into a real seam, to take up some of the excess fabric helped, but not enough. It left the back looking fine, but the front still . . . odd.

Which left me with the problem of having to redo the neckband for a third time.

Well, I’ve managed to salvage the neckband. I even had two plans in mind to let me do so.

First, was just to try tightening that seam with my fingers crossed, hoping that it wouldn’t change the way the neckband lay.

(The second, backup plan was going to be to snip the yarn at the cast-on row for the neckband and then unravel just enough–an inch or three–of the row where I picked up the neckband. The plan then would have been to weave in the two, unraveled ends so that they were secure, and to put the now-live stitches on markers to hold them safe while I fixed the actual seam of the body, at which point I would have re-attached those couple of inches of neckband evenly to now-adjusted fabric of the body.)

Luckily, Plan #1 worked.

I measured out a straight-line from neck outward toward shoulder and did another running-stitch seam, and now the neck of the sweater lays flat.

Well, mostly.

Because, here is the current problem . . . now, at the front neckband, I have not just the two layers of fabric that I should have (the sweater and the cut steek), but four layers, because of the seam allowance.

Which means, of course, that the sweater still doesn’t actually lie flat. Just that it now wants to.

Still . . . I saved the neckband, which is a relief.

The current plan is now to (1) finish the neckband. Mine is going to be at least twice as wide as the one in the original pattern, for two reasons. One, because I want to fill in more of the neck of the sweater (which I know Cate can relate to) and two, because I need some extra distance between the edge of the sweater and the visible bulk of the steek/seam.

But, after I finish the neckband and (2) graft together the underarms, I will (3) address the bulky-seam problem. I’m pretty sure that I’m going to be reinforcing those now-real seams with more permanent stitching and then trimming the seam allowance.

The potential problem with this is that all those loose ends may become rather . . . itchy to wear. Especially on my now-sensitive shoulder skin. Because Shetland wool isn’t exactly the softest wool out there to begin with. Of course, I realize that there are already loose ends in there from all the color work, but part of it is a location factor–because, well, again, my right shoulder is still kind of sensitive.

One step at a time, though, right?

Let’s see, we had snow today. About 3″ of very dry, very fluffy snow. Chappy was so excited, he and I went outside to play in it. (Yes, I’m aware that romping in 23-degree … that’s -4 in C … cold may not have been the wisest thing to do with my sensitive state of health, lately, but, well, YOU try telling Chappy that.) Anyway, I brought out his flying squirrel toy (bright orange toys are GOOD in the snow) and we had a good time. I came back in when I was getting tired and popped him in the bathtub just long enough to melt the ice between his paw pads.

In other news? My niece hit a deer with her car yesterday, and while (luckily) she and her car are more or less intact, the deer died and she keeps seeing the poor thing’s face and feeling absolutely terrible about it. And then, this morning, just before I came down to start the waffles, our neighbors across the street called to ask if Dad could take Mr. H. to the hospital–he had a hernia operation last week and woke up this morning with a swollen ankle and was concerned about blood clots (to which he is prone). Luckily so, in fact, because they just called a little while ago, and the hospital found clots in both calves and one in his lungs, so he’s going to be in the hospital for a few days.

Oh, and I did at least get one other thing off my weekend to-do list. I got my Christmas cards written out, addressed, stamped (with the best holiday stamps ever), and ready to go out the door tomorrow morning.

(And, seriously, would it be crazy to buy a bunch more of those stamps? I mean, winter holidays or not, they’re KNITTED, for heaven’s sake.)

Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning, Uncategorized, Weather by Deb
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The song carols about a Winter wonderland, of course, but when you mix the two seasons together … well, it might be confusing, but awfully pretty.

Of course, my favorite picture of the day didn’t involve the juxtaposition of pretty, autumn leaves with fluffy white snow.

No. This was my favorite picture of the day:

My very happy little boy when I let him into the backyard during my lunch break. I stood on the deck and threw snowballs for him to chase. Well, some for him to chase, and some for him to catch. Doesn’t he look cute and happy with the snow on his nose?

It’s just a shame I had to head back to the office, because all that snow is gone now. It’s gray and raining and altogether blah, but . . . it sure was pretty, driving this morning!

Tags: Weather by Deb
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It’s actually a pretty gray day here today, but I’m showing you a Saturday Sky picture from LAST Saturday when we were at Liz’s house. (I can’t believe that’s a week already.) Mostly because it’s a pretty picture (though not quite so stunning as it was in person, with the sun shining through those trees), but also because blue sky is so much more pleasant to look at than gray, don’t you think?

This is going to be a short, quick little post. My sister and her family are coming for a visit today. The primary reason is because we’re going to move some of the furniture around in my Dad’s office. It’s been insanely crowded for the last few months, and while he waded through piles and piles of paper a couple weeks ago so that it’s not as scarily claustrophobic to go in there, still … a different floor-plan will help matters immensely. And when I say “we” are moving the furniture, I mostly mean my brother-in-law, and tall, 14-year old nephew, who I kind of assume will be doing the heavy stuff like moving the filing cabinet. I figure I’ll be helping with the computer cables and such, trying not to sneeze at the dust because, well, it’s been pretty impossible to vacuum in there for months now, though Mom did give it a try this week.

They will not, I hear, be driving down in this. That’s my niece’s new car. A 2002 Ford Focus that already has 8000 more miles on it than my 2002 Volvo. (Go figure.) They used some of the refunded tuition money to buy her a car so that, once she finds a job, she’ll be able to, well, get to it. Not to mention being able to commute to school next semester. She looks very, very happy, don’t you think? I particularly appreciate the irony that, even though they live in Pennsylvania, they found this car at a dealership five minutes from our house . . . which is why they stopped by yesterday afternoon to show it to Mom. (I, of course, was at work.)

Okay, I’ve got some things to get done before the family arrives, so ….

Tags: General, Weather by Deb
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Chappy wants to know why our town hates him tonight.

It’s the scheduled fireworks night of the annual Fireman’s Carnival, which is one of his least-favorite nights of the year anyway.

And yet, there’s a massive string of severe thunderstorms . . . As in, he’s huddled in a corner right now, listening to the thunder and the rain against the windows.

So, what is our town doing? Is it sensibly postponing the fireworks for a less stormy night?

No, of course, that would be sensible. If you listen to the booming very carefully, you can hear two, distinct types. The thunder, and the rhythmic booms of fireworks.

Which basically means that Chappy is suffering a double dose of his least favorite kind of “weather” phenomena.

(Yes, I know that fireworks aren’t weather . . . and I’m sure he wouldn’t enjoy a flood or tornado, either, but of the weather he knows . . . you understand what I mean.)

Poor little guy…..

Tags: Chappy, General, Weather by Deb
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Well, let’s take a look back at today, shall we?

• First, it really started with the fact that I had trouble getting to sleep last night–highly unusual for me–and so lost precious sleep-time.
• Our power went out over night during a thunderstorm (which I slept through). According to my Mom, the power blinked off and on and off and on several times.
• So, this morning, as as I was waking up, I heard my parents down at their end of the hall, moving around, setting clocks . . . unusual, since while they’re usually awake before me, it’s rare for Mom to be out of bed ahead of me.
• This morning, though, about 45 seconds before my alarm beeped, she came down the hall and tapped on my door. “I thought you might want to get up a few minutes (hah! seconds) early so you can reset your clocks, help Dad with the television….”
• Um, television? The cable-box in their bedroom was being difficult and so, about four minutes after I dragged myself out of bed after too little sleep, I was sitting on the edge of their bed, holding two remotes and trying to figure out what the problem was. For the record, all that needed to be done was an official reboot of the box . . . but it took me about five minutes to figure that out. It might have been a little faster if I had been able to, you know, focus my eyes.
• Even though I got up right on time, I ended up running late anyway. So unfair.
• Did I mention that it was still raining? So my morning basically started lousy, and then continued cloudy and bleary with the whole too-little sleep, too-little light, too-little time thing.
• Fine. I grumbled my way to the office and pulled in next to a police car, because apparently somebody set off the burglar alarm. No big deal, but it was the second false alarm this week. (grumble)
• Worked. Talked briefly to my sister. We commiserated about our sore teeth, because she was at the dentist yesterday morning . . . same dentist as I was, but no, she didn’t knit. (For the record, I don’t knit while he’s actually doing the work, either–just in the “okay, stay closed until this hardens, I’ll be back” parts.)
• Came home at lunch to find Mom urgently on the phone with the sound of a wet-vac in the background . . .
• Yep, the basement was flooded. For the first time in years. Because, of course, we have two sump pumps and serious water-proofing and all that but . . .
• Well. The plumber was at the house last week because the sump pump was somehow pumping its water, not into the yard where it belonged, but in the garage. Which, you know, ultimately isn’t a good thing. So, he fixed that  . . . except . . .
• Except . . . he somehow forgot to, um, secure the pipes down in the basement, so with last night’s storm and all the extra water, when the sump pumped, instead of gushing up the pipe and out of the house, the water was gushing directly into the basement. Oy!
• Luckily, Mom was sitting in the kitchen around lunch and heard the gush and went downstairs to look . . .
• Lots of water. Well, not more than an inch or two, but covering more than half of the basement.
• Did I mention that we have a finished basement? With wall-to-wall carpeting?
• On the plus side, the plumber was at the house in about half an hour after Mom called, and immediately took over the wet-vacuuming from Dad.
• And then the plumbing company sent another truck to really clean.
• The fact that their equipment tripped the circuit breaker at least three times is kind of irrelevant, right?
• As of right now, our basement is more damp than wet. The rug is shampooed with mold-resistant shampoo, and the cement floor in the storage room is clean.
• We’ve got fans going to help move the drying process along, but . . . I’ll say it again. Oy!

On the plus side, the evening has gone better.

• Tonight was my niece’s school play, her very favorite musical of all-time, 42nd Street. Which makes the fact that she was in it, during her senior year, that much better.
• So Mom and Dad headed off for Pennsylania about 4:15. Which works out well, because it hopefully helped Mom stop obsessing about the basement. She is NOT a happy person when there’s something wrong in her house!
• I spent the night building a new blog site for Booking Through Thursday, importing all the old archives, creating a new button–all that kind of thing.
• And then I made some tea and sat with Chappy, a good book, and watched Stranger than Fiction. We saw this in the theater last winter and I thought it was charming. (My parents were bored.) So, I took advantage of having the television to myself, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now, I’m kind of tired, my tooth’s a little sore. (Not terribly, just a little achy.) And I’ve got a fun-filled, fibery day tomorrow with Risa and Kim. So, um . . . g’night!

Tags: General, Weather by Deb
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