Not All, But More From Sunday

So, when I mentioned on Sunday night that I'd been out all day, and put up one picture of a flower, I bet no one thought, "Wow, she took a picture," right? More like, "Wow, how many more pictures did she take? And will we see them all?" And the answer is, a lot, and most! Many of them are of flowers, since we were in Shelburne Falls and walked over the Bridge of Flowers, but there were a few others that I'll lead with.

Such as, a possible winner for the category of Theoretically Dubious Tourist Attraction: Glacial Potholes. No, really.

Yup. You can read more about them on the sign at the corner.

Or the sign overlooking.

They're actually quite pretty, in a peaceful, rocks sort of way. It's right off the main drag; I'm not sure I would have chosen to go way out of my way to see it, but I wasn't sorry to spend a few minutes there on a beautiful day.

Best of all, don't miss this sign:

Happily for my peace of mind, there was no "sudden release of water" while we were there.

On the way down that street, a woman came along with the tiniest little dog, which was so happy to have its picture taken, it couldn't stay still..

But I got a slightly better shot for giving you an idea of size.

I asked the woman how much the dog weighed, and she said three pounds. Apparently they were told it would get up to ten, but the vet said no, that's it.

I bought a book off the dollar rack outside the bookstore.

It was published in 1891. Check out the end papers!

A dollar. What a world. Fun reading ahead!

Now, what with the bike to be ridden and the cat requesting attention again, I'd best stop here. More on this later!

Hockey Time!

Can you believe it's hockey time again? The Bruins are playing their first preseason game tonight, up in Montreal. It isn't on TV (well, except on the NHL Network, which I don't get), but it's on the radio, and I've been enjoying it. Jarome Iginla with the first of the season, the first of two power-play goals for the Bruins in the first! Pretty wild.

Meanwhile, my favorite Bruin, Patrice Bergeron, is going to be keeping a diary for ESPN.com this season, yay! He's so amazing. It's even fitting that his first entry is titled "Nobody's Perfect" because he's modest on top of everything else. Take a gander at this, about the end of last season:

I don’t think I would have played had there been a Game 7. I don’t think the doctors would have let me. Because my lung was collapsed 30 percent, I don’t think I would have been able to play.

Yeah, not "I wouldn't have been able to play," but "I don't think they would have let me." With a collapsed lung. And "a separated shoulder, broken rib, torn rib cartilage". Yikes, man.

He ends the piece with this gem:

Hopefully there are many more years ahead of me.

I hope so, too! He's been a Bruins for 10 years, but he's only 28, so he could keep going for some time, thank heavens.

In non-Bruins hockey news, there was a story earlier this month that caught my attention. It's a fact of life that people make mistakes; I hate making them myself, and try hard not to, but they happen, and I do think that how you handle them is almost more important than not making them (a laudable goal, but not one easy to attain). So a good example of this came up in the hockey world, when the Nashville Predators, who are often referred to as the Preds, sent out a letter to season ticket holders that concluded, "Go, Perds!"

Embarrassing? Sure. But they handled it with humor and, in my opinion, turned the story into a positive. Well done, Nashville.

Now, Iginla just scored again, and I'm off to concentrate on the rest of the game. I truly believe the score in a preseason game is meaningless ... but I'm still really enjoying listening. Go Bruins!

Quick, Tired, Happy

I was out all day, in western Mass with friends, and I'm tired and there's dinner to clean up from and the bike to ride, and I haven't even looked at the newspaper today. But I just wanted to say, it was a very good day, and I hope yours was too.

Knitting Updates Galore, and a non-knit video at the end

Time to update the state of the knitting around here! Don't you think? Yes, me too. Away we go.

The purse sock is not much farther along, but I will show it to you anyway. Because I can.

The bike sock is making more noticeable progress, and yes, I am proud of that. Stupid hateful bike riding is producing this pretty:

Not exactly much to look at, perhaps, but it feels soft and lovely, and will be a good option to have in the drawer for the days which require a less flashy foot.

So there's that. I've finished one thing, a piece of random knitting for a little yarn-bombing project my knitting friends and I are doing. I can't wait to get pictures of it in place, but here it is Before. For now, you'll have to imagine it wrapped around a tree trunk.

This is Bernat Scandia yarn that my mother got for me last year at the charity place she volunteers. A whole bag of skeins and balls, and I discovered as I was knitting that at least in that ball, it was not all one piece. Whoops! Totally not a problem in this project (I didn't even work the ends of the knots in, because the wrong side will be against a tree trunk), but it wouldn't have been a welcome surprise if I had been knitting something else. Now I know. The yarn is thick-and-thin, cream colored with blue and green and teal parts. Turned out nice, eh?

And I made a quick catnip mouse, so though you've seen them before, here's another.

Did I ever show you the finished wedding present blanket? I know I showed it almost done, but here it is done and drying, last weekend.

Looking at the picture, I see it looks as though there are holes at the bottoms of the X parts. They're shadows, for the record.

Finally, the shawl I'm making for my aunt is moving along nicely. The way the pattern works, you do the set-up bit, then repeat chart A twice (or more, if you want), then do chart B. Here it is after one go at chart A.

I'm quite pleased with how it's going. Once I got over my early self-inflicted problems, the pattern has moved well, and I like how it's looking.

The yarn also feels nice, which is pleasant to work with.

And that is your knitting update, all the news that's fit to print.

In closing, let me say that this video (via a friend on Facebook, from here) broke through a bad mood and made me smile very much today. I highly recommend it.

Various Tidbits

As the season turns, summer edging away and fall creeping nearer, we've been getting cooler nights and days when it feels warm in the sun but decidedly chilly in the shade. The first leaves are turning, some apples are ready for picking, and I recently had cider for the first time this year. That said, what is up with the weather this week? It had been getting quite chilly (the breeze coming in the window Sunday night was really cold), but the forecast highs for the week, when I checked Monday morning, were basically 70, 80, 90, 80, 70. Weird, right?

I don't know that it actually hit 80 Tuesday; I didn't go out at lunch because it was pouring, but at 4:30 it was no more than 75. Wednesday was definitely warmer, and humid! Lord, so humid. I ate lunch outside and the warmth was so nice, but the humid was hard to breathe through. (In discussing North Carolina's summer weather with a friend recently, I was asked if one could bicycle in it, and I said sure, if you like to bike with a wet wool blanket over your face.) Today wasn't quite that warm, but still, maybe 85, warm and humid. Yet tomorrow it's supposed to hit 70 and rain. Ugh.

*****
I was at least half-planning to go up to Wilmington on Saturday and watch some of the Bruins training camp, but I found out that they're having it in Boston instead*, and now I'm not sure. By simple mileage, Boston is closer, but for ease of getting there, I find Wilmington easier. Of course, Ristuccia is always freezing, and there's the fun of seeing them in the real arena, but... I don't know. Probably not. (Particularly since my fellow Bruins maniac can't go.)
*Oh, they're in Wilmington, all right. On Monday. Thanks.

*****
My mother reports that the weather guy on grandma's local-cable-news station breathlessly announced the possibility of penny-sized hail, maybe even dime-sized.

For the sake of any non-US readers, I will point out that our dimes are slightly smaller than pennies. Bigger in value, sure, but as a unit of relative size? Not so much.

*****
I was in the ladies room today when two women walked in talking. One had apparently just told the other that she had no shame, for the other said quite cheerfully, "I have absolutely no shame." And then she added, "It makes the day more interesting."

Which left me wondering whether it was having no shame that makes the day more interesting, or something else that they were talking about. I'll never know, of course, but what do you think?

*****
Fuck, now someone ELSE I like at work is leaving. That makes my three favorite people there, leaving over the course of three months. I have to find another job!

Am I over-generalizing about the younger generation, or do you think it's true that when they get a job, instead of thinking (as I would), "Oh good, now I'm set," they instead think, "Well, let's try this, and if it's not right, move on in six months or a year"?

A Gray Day, Literally and Figuratively

You know, I was just looking forward to paying off the last of that big vet bill, and then I foolishly took my car into the shop for a tire two tires two tires and rear brakes two tires, rear brakes, and wipers, and it turns out that the struts are leaking, too, and the shocks are rusty, and even if I put off that last one, we're still looking at almost $2000. Ow, damn it! This is not what I want to be spending my money on. This is not fun. Being a grown-up sucks, so much more frequently than I ever thought it would.

I had to run a couple of errands after picking the car up, and at Target I got some therapeutic ice cream, because, damn, man. Damn.

That makes me smile a little. Even more, this snow leopard cub.

How does he look so serious and so adorable at the same time?

Let Me Quick Point You Places

My goodness, but going to the chiropractor and to stitch and bitch and coming home in time to watch the new Bruins show on NESN* doesn't leave a lot of time to bike before it's get-ready-for-bed-time (which Carlos thinks it should be now), does it?
*I'll write more on that tomorrow, but the TL:DR is that I enjoyed seeing Behind the B.

So! Where can I send you? Serious or amusing?

If you're in the mood for serious, by which I mean Deep and Fascinating, I would point you toward the racial segregation maps reported by Wired magazine, which I read about recently on Boing Boing. The lines where one race is found more than another seem so random sometimes! I could spend a lot of time wandering around these maps and wondering why.

Amusing? Well, have you seen this Evian commercial?

It certainly amuses ME!

...Only Two Days of Weekend?

I'm not entirely sure where today went. I spent part of it at a potluck, and I did sleep late (blissfully), but there are still a bunch of hours not accounted for. I made scalloped potatoes and ham; did a bunch of dishes; put away yesterday's laundry on the drying rack; um, there's more than that, though, right?

And now I'm looking at 8, Sunday night, time to face the grown-up work week again already.

Sigh. You can imagine how I feel about that.

More Secret Knitting Revealed!

Although I don't think of them as quite as much of an achievement as Octavian was (because, come on, knit squid), there are some other knitting projects that, having been given, can now shed their blog-silence and be revealed. And, oddly enough, one is also a sea creature!

Which is due to the fact that, once I had knit Octavian, it crossed my mind that there might be knit manatee patterns out there, and it turns out, there are several! More for crochet than knitting, for some reason, but I took this one and was perfectly happy with it. Well, not perfectly, but close enough to count. I mean, look at the face!

The best full-body picture I have is before the eyes went on.

Really, what could be better for the birthday of a manatee-loving friend? Not much.

If you're wondering about the orange thing on its face, that's a stitch marker. I had one in to mark the start of the round (if you remember, a while back, I showed you the start of a little bit of a something: that was his nose), and someone commented that it looked like he had a nose ring in. I decided that I agreed, and also that I thought it would appeal to the recipient, so it stayed.

The other gift, amazingly enough, has no oceanic connection at all. For my friend's birthday, I made her some bright, cheery fingerless mitts, with the yarn I had left from making a hat last year. It's soft and squishy and should be nicely warm while leaving fingers free to do things.

Including pose awkwardly, it would seem. Forgive my photography.

Now, Carlos is calling me, and I have things to do before bed. I'll try to be back tomorrow!

Knit Update before Decamping to the Couch

Well, the entire work day was not in vain. No, I didn't have any actual work to do (the size of this calm period bodes ill for the size of the storm, when it arrives), but I seem to have set up my own variant on casual Friday, which involves knitting at my desk when there's no work to do. More than half the office "works from home" on Fridays, and the atmosphere in the office is very low-key. If I have nothing to do, who is bothered by my yarn? No one. Obviously, it goes away when there's work. But until then, I'm making some progress, and I'm happy.
Today I got from just before here:

To here:

As you can see, the second try with the purse sock is working well. First off, I switched needles to a pale wood, which is much easier to see this yarn against than the Knitpicks Harmony needles I was using (that I love so). These are even more blunt, which is trying during the K2tog or SSK parts, but the visibility is worth it*. (They're also more flexible, and of course that's much better than breaking, but feeling them bend in my hand is a little unnerving.) The short-row toe went well, I think, and the pattern is aptly named Dead Simple, since 75% of the foot stitches (and half of the leg, once I'm there) is plain knit. The pattern section is easy to learn and easy to tell when I've gone wrong. In other words, perfect!
*Though it may be time for me to give up my love of wood/bamboo needles in sock sizes, and find some really pointy metal sock needles. I like the non-slickness of the natural material, but even I have my limits.

You can't really see the pattern well in this yarn (there are yarnovers on either side of the lines you can see, so when it's stretched out there's a bit of a lace element), but that's the way it is with yarn this colorful: nothing will show that well, that isn't the point of such yarn (and it does mean that if I mess up the patterning, even I may not be able to tell). This gives me a bit of pattern to keep me entertained, without being at all difficult or annoying to do. Perfect.

Now if you'll excuse me, my cramps and I are headed to the couch, with serious evening plans involving the iPad, knitting, possibly a movie or a book, some ice cream, and hopefully, Carlos. It's a tough life.

Ugh, Change

I learned today that my closest friend at work is leaving. Doesn't change suck? I am so not a fan.

I really appreciated the way she told me, though, suggesting a Starbucks run so I could hear it from her. She even bought me the drink, which was awfully nice.

I'll take her to lunch before she leaves. And we'll keep in e-mail touch. But it isn't the same. I am, sincerely, happy for her. But I'm feeling very sorry for myself at the same time.

Sigh. So! I started making lists of things to do in preparation for a job search, as I've been thinking of and quasi meaning to for a while (without actually getting much done). I also did some window shopping to cheer myself up (it was a very slow day at work--the sixth Very Slow Day in a row, in fact, verging on a new record), and think I will have to get myself this business card, since it is too perfect, don't you think? My contact info goes on the other side.

I also ordered a going-away card for her, which I will be warning her not to open in the office, since it's this:

(It's available here.)
Hey, it could be worse, I decided this one was a step too far for me:

I also am getting her a couple of magnets to commemorate our running office jokes. Specifically, corgis:

(Get your own here!)

And bacon:

Particularly perfect for a scientist, eh? (Here.)

They make me feel a little better. But not a lot.

Some Little Bits

Words that came out of my mouth: "I was not expecting that ferret." (In pictures of a knitting pattern)
 
*****
I got another so-and-so is following you on Etsy notice. What is up with that, honestly?

*****
I get daily e-mails via the Oxford University Press that have the "tip of the day" from Garner's Modern American Usage (yes, I am that much of a word-nerd, didn't you know?), and in addition to the tips they give word- or writing-related quotes. I liked this one a lot:

Quotation of the Day: "People who can't spell look bad because, as we can correctly assume, that is probably not the only thing they can't do. Besides, bad spelling is obviously a sign of not reading much, for anyone who reads would have seen the misspelled words written correctly thousands of times." S. Morris Engel, Fallacies and Pitfalls of Language: The Language Trap 18 (1994).

Not just word nerd, I suppose, but word snob. I am, though.

*****

I think it's knitting time.

What do you do, when you need to step away from reality briefly?

A Warp in the Space-Time Continuum

I came to the computer to report on a knitting problem, and I really honestly wasn't cross about it, it's fine and I have a plan and while I'm here I'll just copy the new pattern I want to use out of the book -- and the printer about had kittens, first claiming that it had a mysterious error and must be turned off and on, then doing that again, and then taking forever in the "I'm 'copying' now (when really all I'm doing is making random whirring and clicking noises)' phase before claiming that it had NO paper even though I put paper in literally yesterday, and it turned out that when it said NO paper what it MEANT was paper JAM instead. I turned it off and back on and went away to cool off while it woke up for the fourth time. (Yes, I had to cool off while it warmed up. No wonder we don't get along.)

Then I came back, to start writing this, and when I had typed "I came to the computer to report on a knitting problem, and I really hon" I looked up to see that the screen had only " really hon" because Blogger hiccuped or something, and you should feel the stress in my shoulders from all this. I mean, okay, first world problems, but still, annoying. Clearly something folded over itself in the space-time continuum and things got trapped. Yup. That's my theory.

OK, so the problem! I was knitting on the new purse sock before the chiropractor tonight, and felt uneasily that it might not be big enough. Once home, I took it out and compared it to the bike sock, and then to a finished sock, and decided no, it might almost-kinda-sorta fit, but not properly, and why not do it right? And since I was only this far in:

I ripped it. I'm not sorry I started it when I did, but now I can try a toe-up pattern the way I was thinking of anyway. I pulled Wendy Johnson's Socks from the Toe Up off the shelf, and picked the Dead Simple Lace Socks pattern. And now I'm going off to try casting that on, because tomorrow after work I have to take the car in for an oil change, and I can't do that without knitting, now can I?

P.S. Wish me luck with copying this pattern. If the printer doesn't want to, it may get thrown through the (closed) window after all.

Of Knit and Music

As I mentioned yesterday, I had to sit down with the shawl and decide how to handle where I'd gone wrong. I started to move forward before realizing that I had made another mistake, which, though small, was enough to turn the tide and make me bow to the inevitable: undo the mistake part and start chart A over. The tinking wasn't fun, but once I got moving again, everything has been smooth (knock wood), and I like the pattern and how it's knitting up. I don't have any pictures, but they will be forthcoming. At stitch and bitch tonight, I got past where I had been, so it's like the last week in the life of the shawl never happened. Moving on.

I have to get all my ducks in a row tonight to be ready for cold, harsh reality to go to work in the morning, so let me leave you with this bit of musical fun. As the write-up on Boing Boing said, "This performance from the Five Pennies may be one of the greatest ever recorded. The fun that these two incredible talents are having is without compare."



I finished watching the clip and went to the library website to request the movie. Have you seen it? Is it good?

(If you're not in the mood for the music, or it's not your thing, no harm in that. Have some animals on trampolines.



Made me laugh!)

NOT the End of the Weekend!

It is a fine feeling to approach Sunday evening relaxed, instead of depressed about the imminent end of the weekend. My brother says that in all his experiences over the years with different work schedules, he found four work days and a three-day weekend was the best, and I believe it. I've spent some time Getting Things Done, and some Doing Nothing Much, with the help of my loyal assistant.

He's a master relaxer, this one.

It is too bad that the weather hasn't been better this weekend, though. Friday evening was lovely: I ate out with friends on a restaurant patio, and we were so happy with the weather (and the restaurant, La Casa de Pedro in Watertown--the coconut flan was divine).

There was also a giant sunflower.

Because why not? Since then, though, it's been cloudy, and rain and thunderstorms, with the accompanying 150% humidity. Yuck. Still, inside is air conditioning as needed, and a floor fan when more is needed (say, when biking), and it works out.

There has been both knitting and photography of same. We have finished socks, and socks in progress. Bike socks pair one:

And the start of pair number two:

You can see why this yarn wants to be knit directly under a good light. It's going fine, and providing a lot of motivation for me.

In the realm of purse socks, the pair completed on Friday:

And, in completely coincidental (not at all) timing, the pair that was started on Friday:

Bright, right? Looking back, I've been using some quieter tones in recent pairs, and I thought it was time for a brighter pair (particularly with the dark gray of the bike socks). This is a skein that my brother gave me; it's from Pigeonroof Studios, in the "colourway" electric rose. I'll say!

 

 

That should knock any end-of-summer doldrums right on their ass, I imagine. In other next-purse-socks news, I am thinking of (gasp) choosing a different pattern. I know! I love the Skyp pattern! And I still do, but the pair on the bike is the tenth pair in a row ... and I think it's time for a break. I'm feeling like trying a toe-up sock again, since it's been a while. Maybe I'll just compromise and use the Skyp stitch in a toe-up pattern! I'm doing these in Skyp, since I didn't have time to figure out a toe-up start before dinner on Friday, but next time. Anyone have a pattern recommendation?

The thought also crossed my mind that, now that I am competent at knitting socks, it's probably time to try making them on a circular needle, a technique I have hitherto avoided while I mastered it the other way*. Which means buying one! Perhaps I will pick one up at Rhinebeck. Or borrow one from a friend to try--that might make more sense.
*There are actually more than two ways, but you know what I mean.

Finally, I have to sit down and consider the aunt shawl tonight or tomorrow, since I messed up and need to decide if it warrants repair. ​I worked on it at knitting Wednesday night, but I had some struggles with the section I was starting. It was only on Thursday that I realized why--and incidentally, what's with the next-day realizations related to this thing? Perhaps I should start calling it the next-day shawl. Anyway! My "genius" idea after Monday night's mistake, to just go ahead and drop the yarn-overs when I came to them? It failed to account for the fact that two of those YOs were in the first row, meaning that when I dropped the four YOs in the second, I left my stitch count off by two. So that's at least part of why I was confused. I think I'll go look at that now. Or maybe I'll have dinner first. Who knows?

His Lordship Says: Step Away from the Distraction Box

I'm happy to say that the reason I missed posting yesterday is NOT because I had a headache. Isn't that nice? In fact, I was out knitting and didn't get home until 9, at which time I made the (unusually mature) decision to ride the bike instead of blogging. Who would ever have predicted that? But I want this pair of socks to take much less time (by which I mean fewer months, since the number of hours will be the same) than the first pair of bike socks did.

There was also some serious Carlos time last night and tonight, since his lordship is not all that amused when I stay out late (or when I go out at all, if it comes down to it). He would prefer his time be spent like this, with many attendants to his many itches. Unfortunately for him, that doesn't happen; we come closer when my mother visits, but otherwise, he suffers through life with a single lackey. Poor boy.

Is that sarcasm? Are you trying to be funny?

Because if you are, I will give you the Ears of Annoyance you so richly deserve.

Time for the Big Reveal! Secret Knitting Unveiled!

I kept blog silence when I first saw a certain knitting pattern, because I knew at once I wanted to make it for my brother, who has been known to read the blog. I didn't specify what pattern I was buying yarn for when I wrote about going up to Coveted Yarn in the spring, for instance, since I wanted it to be a surprise.

However, by late May, it was killing me not to tell you how I loved writing "start squid" on my to-do list! And on the fourth of July, I really wanted to put on Facebook, "Watching the concert and fireworks, knitting a squid. As one does." And at some point, I made a note that, "It's hard not to get the yarn caught in the tentacles."

Yes, I knit a squid for my brother for his birthday. I started it before my trip to Florida, and worked on the "pouch" part on the plane: first half flying down, second half flying back.

Then it was time to move on to the legs (make 8).

Join together, start up the head, and pause to knit together with the pouch.

Finish the head, and viola! Meet Octavian.

To unveil him fully:

Isn't he awesome? If I do say so myself. He lives in the pouch; then when you pull him out, the pouch goes up into the head as "stuffing". Such a clever pattern! Just amazing how some people think of things. I'm just tickled by how he came out, and as my brother also likes him (he e-mailed a picture of himself with Octavian on his head, so, yeah), that is what we call a win, all around.

*****
In current knitting news, I was working on my aunt's shawl at stitch and bitch last night, and accidentally went one repeat farther than I meant to in the set-up section. As I saw it, I had two options:

• Tink back through the two rows. Easy to do, but at over 300 stitches, not really what I think of as fun, per se.
• Keep going and make the set-up section a bit larger. Not something I have a problem with at the concept level, but the math! In order to not screw up my stitch count for the next section ... let's see, the repeats in the next section are of 14 stitches ... and each set-up repeat adds 6 stitches ... wait ... that doesn't add up...

So I put it aside to consider, and worked on a sock instead. Only today did a third option occur to me: keep going, but instead of knitting the yarn-overs when I get to them, as I usually would, drop them instead. This will mean I added two rows of plain stockinette between the set-up and chart A, but I think that will look just fine, and it's by far the easiest solution. Hooray for seeing door number three.

Now, I did in fact cast on the next bike sock last night, on the bike, and I'd better get going if it's going to get its innings tonight.

Sockiness!

I​ wanted to take that all-the-socks picture ​yesterday to take advantage of the rare state known as "all the socks are clean," but I did it knowing that it was only going to be the status quo for a moment in time. The purse sock is more than halfway down the foot of the second sock, so it won't be much longer*, but the bike sock? Finished it last night, thank you, all but the kitchener (which I choose not to do on the bike; even I have limits, but I did it tonight). It took months, but at last, I have a completed pair of "these were knit completely on the bike" socks: yay! Pictures, of course, to come; we're heading into the time of year when I do the majority of my photography on the weekends, for light reasons, though of course tonight, it's for "I just got home from stitch and bitch" reasons. ​
*And I'm already thinking about which yarn comes next.​ I'm not exactly embarrassed at how many choices I have, but, well... ​

And after all, that may only be 20 hours over 10 months, which isn't so terribly much to brag about, but it's 20 hours I'd rather have been doing almost anything else, so points to me. And I have the next yarn ready to cast on tonight, so if you'll excuse me? ​I have to get on the bike.