OMG

Why on earth would anyone ever think this muppet wig is a good idea? Lion Brand - I'm looking at you.

blog resurrection

Heh heh heh - I typed "res-erection."

Any how I have a lot to say and its about time that I started again.

First of all, for the love of bob, what the hell is this?:


She looks like she killed a rainbow chicken and wrapped it around her neck. She does not look too happy about it.

Lately, I can't help but notice that there are many many fugly  knitting and crochet patterns out and about in the world.   I firmly believe some one needs to resurrect the whole "Go Fug Yourself" meme for needle arts. Its easy pickings. I will try and post them here but I am not particularly witty or up on pop and fashion culture so I probably won't be entertaining. I will probably come off as if I am bitching. A lot.

storm preparedness

It's just a little tropical storm.  And I have all my supplies: yarn, needles, six simultaneous projects, and my new knitting chair. No batteries, candles, bottled water or canned goods, though.  Only one tragedy has befallen us so far  (and by "us" I mean me since Steve is happily watching the weather channel and ESPN).  I find I am about 20 yards short of two of three colors of yarn required to finish the last sleeve of the destash special.  Fortunately, the internet is still working so I was able to place an emergency order with Artfibers for Toto.


And fear not - we have plenty of wine.

holy mackerel

Not only did we catch Spanish mackerel yesterday, but I also have a few finished projects.

The socks are Helix knit in Koigu that Pam picked out a long long time ago.  I finally got them done after a long hiatus.  I am really pleased even though I am almost sure they will be too big for her.  I like the toe-up-two-at-a-time technique.  But I would be kidding myself to think that knitting socks is a fast project compared to, say, knitting a sweater.  There are a shit-ton of little tiny stitches on little tiny needles in each sock.

The baby blanket is for the latest niece. It is knit in Toto from Artfibers.  According to their website (today) Toto is supposed to be a "chunky" weight yarn that can be knit at 15 stitches = 4 inches on size 9 needles.  What I received was a barely worsted weight yarn that I had to knit up with size 7 needles just to get a decent heft fabric. So much for a fast knit baby project.

The pattern was from Purl for a chunky weight cotton yarn. The border is sewn on.  There has got to be  a better way to do this but I tried and could not pickup just one stitch while knitting the border to attach it at the same time.  A better knitter than me has probably got that all worked out.  Anyway, all of that border sewing and fussing around with how many peaks to make for each side of the border was a pain in the ass.

The finished blanket is adorable though so I suppose it was worth it.

yes I have a lot of catching up to do

But I decided to just skip it and start posting.

There has been tons of knitting going on and my Ravelry project page is fairly up to date with a few exceptions like a baby blanket I finished from my queue but don't have a baby to give it to. Yet.

Instead of rehashing right now, I want to post about my very first Wollmeise purchase.  I can't believe I got sucked into the madness.  I think my curiosity and inner competitor got the best of me.  I bought two Kunterbunt We're Different packages of two semisolid skeins in the 100% merino superwash.

I don't know what the colors are called but I really like them. 575 yards per skein means I can make a pair of large socks with a single.  Nice.

I like the green color the best:

I think I will try to trade maroon:

The bags they came in with German translations of English knitting terms are a nice touch:

 The other night I couldn't sleep and found myself awake at the computer at 2 am.  I conveniently remembered that was exactly the time when the Wollmeise shop gets updated (7 hour time difference and the shop updates happen at 8 AM Berlin time).  I think I have four more skeins coming but I may have dreamed it....


Birdwatching has also been happening.  I put up new feeders in New Orleans and Alabama and I hope to have some good feeder pictures soon.  In  the mean time here is a shot of a Great Horned Owl in a nest with two babies.

The shot is pretty bad because, as usual, I did not have my long lens with me.  I am going to go back next weekend to reshoot, if the babies are still there. There is actually another nest near by with two more owlets. They looked a little smaller so maybe I can geta  shot at them. Here are some lovely Cedar Waxwings on a grey day:

birds on the patio

I know it's fall but we seem to have a pair of Carolina wrens nesting in our umbrella. We also have a lone humming birds enjoying the feeder still.

1. Birds on the patio, 2. Birds on the patio, 3. Birds on the patio, 4. Birds on the patio, 5. Birds on the Patio, 6. Birds on the patio, 7. Birds on the patio, 8. Birds on the Patio, 9. Birds on the Patio, 10. Birds on the Patio, 11. Birds on the Patio, 12. Birds on the patio

I love my camera (Nikon D90).  

oh snap!

We went fishing on Saturday and caught our limit of snapper.  We went out on the Misty:

Captain Gary practically guaranteed that I would catch snapper.  He didn't lie. Once we had our fill of snapper he got us some trigger fish. Here's our final haul:

Meanwhile, there has been actual knitting going on.  I am 75% done with my February Lady Sweater knit with my first purchase form Sundara.  The pattern calls for Sundara worsted merino and, by golly, it went on sale (because they are no longer making this version of it).  

 

 

This pattern has languished in my queue for too long so I was more than happy for the excuse to buy some Sundara yarn and see what it is all about.  I am pleased with the quality.  It's soft and only a tiny bit splitty.  There are no unexpected knots in the middle of it (so far) and the color is richly variegated.  My knitting, however, is a mess but I have decided to adapt and continue on.  So what if I had about 20 extra stitches on the needles when I started the lace part!  I will just increase less!  Also I am now an expert at tinking back down a stitch to pick up a missed yarn over.

Next blog post I will expose my hoarding for all the world to see.

five years ago

This turned out to be a spot on accurate prediction:

 000
WWUS74 KLIX 281550
NPWLIX

URGENT — WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28, 2005

...DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED...

.HURRICANE KATRINA...A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED
STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969.

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT
LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL
FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY
DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.
PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD
FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE
BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME
WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A
FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH
AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES
AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE
ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE
WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN
AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING
INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY
THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW
CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE
KILLED.

AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEAR
HURRICANE FORCE...OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE...ARE
CERTAIN WITHIN THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS.

ONCE TROPICAL STORM AND HURRICANE FORCE WINDS ONSET...DO NOT VENTURE
OUTSIDE!

stupid pool

Construction is going very slow.  It makes one question the wisdom of installing a pool during the summer. Actually it makes one wonder why this wasn't done about a month ago.  When it was supposed to be done.

The outdoor kitchen has plumbing but that's about it.

The tiles that edge the pool are gorgeous. Chad (WAS Design) pretty much picked them out. He's the man with the vision.















Here's the last sleeve of my Derby shrug sitting on top of the tiles.  They are more blue than in this picture. The glaze has a lot of variation and a touch of gold and brown.

I finished something

 
This should have been quicker and easier.  But my knitting mojo is all over the place lately.  Still needs buttons.  I started this because I am on a quest to use up stash and I have a load of this Vanna's choice left over from making the Cartman pillow.  I didn't really enjoy it then and no amount of thrifty destashing is going to make me enjoy working with this yarn this time.  I believe this very cute pattern deserved much better quality yarn. ("Willie", by the way)

No amount of blocking is going to cure the tension problems I had when changing color but I think that using something more elastic like wool or wool blend would have been more forgiving.

I tried to weave as I went.  I wrapped my colors as described in my Vogue Knitting reference. Yet is still came out lumpy and holey.  The color changes are ridiculous.  I tangled my yarn even though there were at most four bobbins during a few rows.  Usually there were only two or three.

Despite the problems I had, I may try to do this again.  I like the one piece construction and it is really fast and cute. Unfortunately I am almost embarrassed to give it to Preston to wear.  I may have to make him something else.

The rest of my notes about this sweater are on Ravelery.

knitting mojo, where are you?

I left my f-ing knitting bag in Alabama last weekend and I had a nightmare about it last night.  I am going to see if I can trick Steve into driving there to fetch it.  I can't go because I have a shit-ton of work to do.  This includes cleaning the entire house since I fired the cleaning lady a couple of months ago (she was really not worth the money or the effort to keep from strangling her).  So now I am behind at work-work and house-work as evidenced by the cat hair tumble weeds rolling through the house.It was almost a waste of time to go to AL because we can't get the boat out and you can't go swimming.  No oil in the yard - yet.  We went down to the beach one day and, despite the heroic cleaning effort by the beach cleaners and an armada of skimmers and boom, found tar balls in the sand.

I have been taking pictures of the pool building progress but that has gotten pretty boring because there is not much progress.  The only good thing to come out of the mid-summer construction project was tickets to the Jimmy Buffett show in Gulf Shores, AL.  Our contractor seemed to have no end of spare tickets which were tough to come by. Jimmy did a fine job and he seemed to really enjoy playing a gig back in Alabama.  It was hot and the bathrooms were far away from the stage which set up the precariously imbalanced high beer consumption low bathroom ratio.  You can imagine how that went over with Steve, a man with a tiny bladder and dislike of large crowds. I had a great time, however.

My knitting ambitions have really taken a nose-dive and production has screeched to a halt. Simple projects are slow and full of mistakes.  But mostly, I am disappointed in the final outcome of my last few projects and I am not sure what I am doing wrong.  I want to elevate my knitting to a level where I can handle a cabled sweater or lace shawl with confidence but lately I really have my doubts.  I need a knitting-win. 

The cats really could care less about my knitting problems.  They are obviously having trouble getting comfortable: 

dose of cats

Knitting is decidedly slow so let's look at the cats:

Bath time over.

We are putting in a pool so let's have a look at before and after the big giant pit:

The before shot is after they removed all of the decking and the steps from the back of the house as well as all of the trees. That took about two days.  The pile of sand is for remediation of the water line erosion.  But that's another project.

Putting in a pool is a surprisingly slow process and requires that the contractor not work too quickly or too frequently.  Less than two days a week judging from the pace of it.  I am sure the snail-like pace is for our own good.  However, in light of the fast approaching oil, I want the pool done so we can at least go swimming when we go to our beach house. And in case anyone is interested - and we all should because it's a national tragedy - the NY Times has excellent coverage of the oil spill. It seems like they have an insider involved in the BP's inept efforts to stop the spill.  They scooped CNN and the Times Picayune on the fact that the top kill effort failed by at least 4 hours.

I am blocking the pin wheel blanket for step-grandkid #3 but it's not done yet.  Here is Reggie sneaking a quick nap on it while I was not looking:

Busted!

size 11 is normal

I am getting sick of shoes. I used to love them and now I despise them. I absolutely must wear a size eleven. It's not a choice, it's a necessity. I am willing to spend a fistful of money in any store that regularly carries nice stylish shoes in my size. I want to walk in, try them on and walk out with a pair or two. No, I don't want to order them. Sheesh. I have some painful problems with my feet and I wear two different sizes so the try-on step is a must.

Speaking of things that make me sick and  are two different sizes - here is my shrug disaster. The pity is I don't quite know what went wrong. I carefully did the math for my wildly off-gauge gauge, charted the new rows and stitches and started knitting. For the first time ever, I am off in the length of the right compared to the left. That is an a-typical mistake for me. I make A LOT of mistakes, just not usually that one. I carefully counted rows and decreases and increases and still this:

I wasn't really thrilled with the gauge anyway so I may frog and start all over with a smaller needle. Now I have to run out to the store and buy a shrug to wear at the Derby because my arms are too fat to fly solo. Sheesh.

not as stupid as I thought

When I first saw this sign outside of the Jefferson Parish office building I thought "gee what a ridiculous sign." I mean, even the TSA has realized that knitting needles pose no threat of bodily harm. Or at least they are not any more dangerous that some one carrying a pen or pencil onto a plane. And here we have the geniuses that run Jefferson Parish, LA all intimidated by addi turbos. I was even a bit disappointed when I read the sign because I was thinking that maybe I could get a little knitting done while waiting for my simple repair building permit I need for our tiny little lab renovation at work.

By the time I left the permits and code enforcement office I was glad I had heeded the sign's warning and did not bring my needles in with me. I would have stabbed the asshole in permits.

I had to share

Sometimes you are given a gift that must be shared with others.  I give you the gift of insane recipes from the 1970's. Candyboots (I have not investigated this site fully yet so I don't know his or her's story) discovered a treasure trove of old Weight Watchers recipe cards from the golden era of culinary arts.  I hurt myself laughing.  Enjoy.

by popular demand - 78% more cats

So friggin' cute.

Yesterday was uber-geek day.  First, I went birding at Big Lagoon State Park and then headed to Pensacola for some yarn shopping at Yarnside Gathering. 

I have been to Yarnside before. Its about 35 minutes from our house on Ono.  The gal who runs it is extremely nice and helpful.  I have one gripe though that may sound weird.  The lighting is terrible.  They have overhead harsh fluorescent lights that do nothing for the yarn.   The colors and textures are all gray blue and flat.  I know its probably rented space but I am sure the landlord wouldn't mind an upgrade of the light fixtures. Even an addition of some halogen spots along with the fluorescents might help.   My other very minor complaint is they did not have any silk yarn.  None.  In a  yarn store in Florida.  In the Spring.  Yes, I know it's expensive stuff but its a very sale-able fiber for customers who live and knit in such a hot climate. At least for me, it is. But it's not right for me to make a fuss over it since I am not a regular customer.

Anyhow, I bought some Classic Elite Premiere to knit a shrug to wear with my Kentucky Derby dress.  I wanted silk, but found this since they didn't have any.  It's nice and soft and a bit shiny. It is made of tencel and cotton.

It looks like mathematical gymnastics will be required to get my shrug pattern down from a gauge of 24 sts x 34 rows in dk yarn, as written, to my worsted gauge of 20 sts x 24 rows.  The stitch gauge is a piece of cake but the row gauge is a big pain in the ass.


Big Lagoon Park is awesome. Even though spring break is supposedly going on almost no one was there.  They views are amazing, the beach is white sand, and the trails are extremely easy and likely good for birds. I didn't have much luck for the same reasons as yesterday and it was about 1030 in the morning.

Here is my list of new ones for the weekend:

Fish crow
Eastern blue bird
Clapper rail
Blue winged teal
Osprey (eating a fish)
Tufted titmouse
Black capped chickadee
Pileated woodpecker
White crowned sparrow
Ruby crowned Kinglet

I finished out the day by cruising over to Pirate's Cove and Shucker's at the Wharf for drinks.  Steve's got the boat humming along so summer is already looking good.  All of the dogs are back at the Cove.  Whoever made a stink with the health department must have died or something because at least a half dozen dogs were relaxing on the deck while the band was playing and they have taken the doggy gates down.  Perfect. I love drinking with dogs.

birds and a recipe

So I grew a lot of dill.  And here is a recipe I came up with to use a very small fraction of the tremendous volume of dill taking over my garden:

Mango Arugula Salad with Lemon Dill dressing ( fancy title for easy but freaky good food)
Serves 3-4

2 cups arugula (baby or whatever you like, add more if you want)
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1/2 cup cucumber, seeds and skin removed,  diced
Ripe mango - the yellow creamy kind (not the green kind), diced

Dressing:
Juice of one juicy lemon
at least 2 very large Tablespoons of fresh dill (I used about 3 Tbs), finely chopped
Really good olive oil
Generous sea salt and pepper (tsp each)

Whisk together the dressing toss with the salad. Serve. Yum.

In addition to making fabulous salad, I went bird watching at Fort Morgan, AL and Daphine Island using the Alabama Coastal Birding Trail for my guide. I have done this route before and this time of year it should be full of birds. The weather is such (excellent, winds from the south) that the birds are not stopping.

Here is my bird list in the order I spotted them.  If I saw a species at an earlier location I did not note it at later spot.  (For example cardinals, mocking birds, and blue jays were every where. No need to keep writing them down.)

Entrance to Fort:
Swaison's warbler
Brown thrasher
Peregrine falcon
American oyster catcher (fishing pier)
Northern gannet (beach)
Laughing gull (everywhere)
Mocking bird
Brown pelicans
Cardinals
Common loon
Snowy egret
Cattle egret
Brown headed cow birds
Eastern king bird
Blue jays

Next I took the ferry to Dauphin Island and started looking around Fort Gaines and Pelican Point:
Herring gull
Rudy turnstone
Royal terns
Scissor tail flycatcher (!, note that this supposedly rare species has been seen by me twice, once at Ft. Morgans in the fall and now again at Ft Gaines in the spring. humph. )
Yellow-rumped warbler

Next I went to the Shell mounds:
Yellow bellied sapsucker
Red bellied woodpecker
Northern water thrush
Hooded warbler
Black and white warbler
White-throated sparrow
Lincoln sparrow (going out on a limb with this one)
Common grackle
Carolin wrens
Great blue herons (nesting)
White eyed vireo
Chimney swifts


At the Airport:
Mottled duck (looking lonely)
Reddiish egret (fabulously good looking but I had not time to get my camera)
Willet
Redwing black bird
Song sparrow (definite)

Lastly, I found the Goat trees:
Yellow vireo
Cedar wax wings
Northern parula
Red eyed vireo

Also noted in several spots:
Double crested cormorants
Morning doves
Eurasian collared doves

About 44 species, give or take.  Considering it was a crappy bird day (few warblers during migration), not too shabby considering I was by myself. If the weather keeps up being fabulous I will have to go back to knitting. 

Lastly, I would like to note that I miss my cats.  They are home in New Orleans while we are here in Alabama and the fact that I miss them  acutely is making Steve think I lost my mind. Which I probably have.

another badly made sock

I am using the pattern Sell Your Sole Socks By Heather Clitheroe to practice sock making.  I bought this wild yarn and decided to modify her recipe by adding ribbing - knit 3 p1 ribbing.  I thought this would be simple because the pattern calls for a 48 stitch cast-on which is easily divided by four.  Ummm right.  As you can see, that's great for the leg but once you finish turning  the heel and resume the top of the foot you wind up missing a purl stitch in between the the top of the foot and the decreases.  Since it took me a gazillion trys to cast on and joint this stupid ugly sock I could not bear to rip again.  I am really just using the experience to learn something and, clearly, experience has taught me a lesson.  Nothing is as easy as it seems.

 

 

On a more positive note,  I mastered the magic loop technique or at least my version of it. And my ability to make a jogless join is slightly improved. Ever so slightly.

Lastly, I semi-successfully grafted the toe shut with the Kitchener stitch.  I have serious problems with the tension and the beginning and ending stitches of the graft.  But its my best result so far.  I carefully (and painfully) read the article in the latest Interweave knits "Demystifying Kitchener Stitch" by TECHknitter and actually understood it.  The article made me dizzy at first but once I started on the sock it came together for me.  I really appreciate the approach of the explanation of the grafting technique.  If you understand the mechanics of what you are trying to accomplish then you can logically go about the technique and reason yourself through it.  I had been blindly following instructions up to this point and not really understanding why I was doing each step.  Now I get it - sort of.

 

 

I am now going to knit the second sock with all of the lessons learned on the first one.  I have a feeling the pair will never see the light of day.

My mods to the pattern - one inch of k1p1 ribbing at top, 6 in leg before starting the heel flap including the one inch k1p1 ribbing.  Leg pattern is k3p1 ribbing, Started the toe decreases at 8 inches of foot length (which might not be quite long enough for my gigantic feet.)

Completely unrelated note about life.  I went to see Eric Clapton last night.  I had forgotten how excellent that guy is.  Monkey boy even enjoyed it and he is not a fan per se.  The only real problem was that EC is starting to look like Willie Nelson.  Now don't get me wrong, I love Willie but the look is not so good on Clapton.  I was distracted from the music because I kept wanting to shave him. And get him a hair cut. 

Look at the love happening this morning while I was grafting my to shut:

The were all in bed with me during my struggles with the Kitchener stitch.