A photo-rich post today.

First of all, here's a photo of the loot from my SP. The green stayed pretty true to real life.


This one is the French Market Bag (Knitty, back issues) for my sister. See the little red dot towards the bottom? A stitch marker that I knitted in on accident.


My baby frogged my baby sock. Before I even had a chance to have coffee this morning, I saw one needle out and a big tangled mess. I had kind of liked how it was knitting up too - not bad for cheezy old red heart acrylic. They get such a bad rap in blogland. I had just gotten to the part with the heel, too. I'll probably start them again after I finish something.


And this, my friends, is half a baby blanket. I started desecnding today. I was at a 32-36" side. Hey, it's stretchy, so I decided what the hey and started descending.

Thanks SP!

I got a package today! I got.....a bag of chocolates, scissors on a beaded key chain, a sock kit! Jade green, very pretty (& soft and fuzzy), a lily note pad. Tres cool! Will post phootos soon, wanted to get the official thank you out there. :^) I don't feel like getting out the camera, and I'm supposed to be paying bills anyway.

However, I will post a delightful photo of weeds from New York. Can you believe that these were just growing by the side of the road near my grandparent's house?
pretty yellow flowers

Back from the Empire State

Sadly, I didn't pick up a souvenir for my SP. We barely made it to the plane. The four of us were picked for extra screening, and we were already running late. I may be paranoid, and, admittedly, I only got married a few months before September 11, 2001, so I don't have a control group experience of post-9/11 travel with my maiden name, but I do believe that my last name gives me a predisposition toward extra screening. I've been selected twice out of maybe 5 times (10 potential screenings) that I've traveled, my MIL has been selected the only time that she flew, and my step-son has never been selected until this trip (who has a much more pronouncable last name, but flies at least as often as I). I suspect, that like the Vietnam war draft, this is not so random. I may or may not be implying that it's "culturally" or "racially" biased, but I'm just saying I should be so lucky with the lottery. I told my husband that it's not too late to change our last names to my maiden name. Ours is a typical Vietnamese last name, my maiden name was a good, solid French Canadian one - both difficult to pronounce correctly, but the French Canadian was less mangled. I think in 20 years we'll find out something interesting about the random screening process.

So, I got some knitting done. I'm almost ready for the descent for the garter-stitch blanket. I'm at a point where I can start descending any time, but I'm just not ready to commit yet. I started the handles for the FMB. Got 1 1/2 done, ready to graft together. Showed the before and after (mine) to my sister, and she thinks it's cool. Oh, and I got three grocery bags full of cool stuff from my Grandma's stash - lots of yarn (I only took the soft stuff and didn't feel bad about it), some very pretty scarves and hankies, 3 size 10 knitting needles, one random DPN (not one set, one needle - figured I had a bunch of others from her, so I might have the rest of the set already), 2 other pair of straights (sizes 6 and 8?), an apron or two, and some patterns (sewing and knitting).

It was a really nice trip. I decided that I love driving through the countryside of upstate New York. Where do people from Orlando go on vacation? Upstate New York. How's that for funny.

Leaving on a jet plane...

I'll be back next week. We're going to visit my grandparents & the rest of the family. For the life of me, I couldn't find any pictures of upstate New York that suited my memory of the place.
I've got the garter stitch blanket and the FMB packed. I wish I had a cute little sock all cast on and ready to go. The babysock didn't seem like appropriate carry-on knitting - the ball of yarn is gargantuan, the needles are metal, I have a 2 1/2 year old (combined with DPN sounds ill fated).

Packing my two favorite projects gave me an opportunity to work on one of the sweaters tonight. I was pleased to see that I had 9" done on the back (out of 15) before I started. I don't like the needles I'm using. They're basic straights, but they seem so long and dangerous, plus heavy and lopsided. I think I'm going to go through my heirloom needles and see if we've got any shorter ones of the same gauge.

See you guys soon.

My first sock pose

The babysock does a little telecommuting. She had no idea how to get the code to build (either), but didn't mind keeping me company.

Fascinated by technology

All I'm trying to do is check my work email on a Sunday afternoon, so that either (a) there are no surprises Monday or (b) I can clean out all of the build notifications from my mailbox. Do you see that La-la is standing on the dog to look at the laptop? She is a mouse magnet too - she finds every mousing surface and moves that puppy around, so that you're logging in to a completely different domain (not one that I have credentials for), and it's a whole situation.
Can you believe this girl?

Does everyone get this kind of help when you're trying to check your email on a Sunday afternoon?

2 Felted Slippers done!

We've got two slippers done! I hope they felt quite a bit since they fit my feet now, but should fit my 2 1/2 year old's when they're done. Darn. I hope the yarn felts at all, since I didn't do a sample.

Like a hole in my head

I needed to cast on for something else. But I'm trying the baby socks example from Socks Socks Socks. I have about 7 rows of the cuff done. Do any of you watch the doodlebops? I feel like Moe and the rope (But it's so velvety!) For the uninitiated (e.g. those without toddlers), I believe it's a Canadian import. It's a trio - DeeDee, Rooney, and Moe. Moe is the drummer, and before they leave the pad, a velvet rope drops from the ceiling, and he just can't resist it. He always pulls the rope (Don't pull the rope!) and gets drenched with water. They play it on Disney here at 7:30 am - prime Cheerios time for us. Hey. I like it better than the Wiggles, which is what used to be on in that slot.

I finally worked up the gumption to go back to the two felting projects, and I started the 2nd ball of yarn for the garter stitch blankie.

Gotta go take care of some responsibilities before DH gets out of the shower, and then go knit me some.

take care.

Starting to feel more human

La-la and I are feeling better, and that's good.

Things are moving along with the garter stitch blankey. I'm almost through with the first ball of wool, 2nd is wound up with the two colors wound together and waiting. The rows are long enough that there's not enough time to knit a row between home and Tijuana Flats my LTS (Local Taco Stand). The sides are measuring about 2 feet, at last measure, so we're on track for using 3 (double strand) balls of yarn. I have 4, so this is good.

Everything else is holding steady. The FMB is for my sister, and her birthday is this week, and I still haven't gotten the gumption to start the handles. Sometimes, starting is the hardest part. Same with the felted slippers - still where they were last weekend, about half way done with the foot-body of the second foot. So, at least 3/4 of the way done.

I took the monkey to the library today and got Socks Socks Socks. I'm hoping to cast something on, and I'm leaning towards the anklets. Or the plane-jane ribbed socks. I had wanted to do Wendy's toe-up pattern, but maybe for my next ones. It's a little daunting. I wish my LUBS (local used book store) had a delightful selection of knitting books. They're conveniently located next to my LTS, they have a wooden train set that La-la enjoys, and had most of the books on the monkey's summer reading books, for well under $5 a pop (plus we have some used-book credit, which gets us a discount). So, the knitting selection is the only mark I have against them.

I am going to go snooze while the baby is snoozing, cause I am plum tuckered out.

Still moving along...

That kid of mine is a trooper. La-la has been doing stuff that, by themselves, are attributable to just being 2 1/2. Falling asleep on the way home from school (hey! It's a long day. Maybe she didn't nap?) Being super grouchy (umm. 2 and a half). Runny nose ( not outside the realm of possiblity). This weekend she finally said that her ear hurt, but I couldn't get her to narrow it down to one, so I wasn't sure what to think (her answers are not always reliable. She told me that daddy paid the lady at Disney, and we inadvertantly shoplifted a plush Pluto and big lollipop near Space Mountain. Of course I explained away the lack of the conspicuous shopping bag. When DH and the boys finished the ride, he said, "Oh, you bought those for her?" A few minutes later, we did) Took her to happy hour at the pediatrician today. Both ears are infected. Never entered my mind that could be the thing. Glad I took her today. Boy would I have felt like a more crappy mother, had I waited.

So, that La-la gave me what she has, and I've been feeling addled and slimy since Sunday. That's another supporting statement for her being a trooper - this sinus business knocked me on my fanny, but La just keeps on trucking.

Today I had the epiphany that it's good to have something brainless on the needles at all times. That garter-stitch-baby-blanket is the perfect project for days like today, where remembering to do the YO after the second stitch is a challenge. Also, it's an excellent stash buster, and good car knitting. I've resolved to always have one on the needles.

The FMB is ready for the handles. The handles are "defined" - the bind-offs are done, so there are only the four active sections on the circ. One thing that I learned from last time was during the row before the bind-offs, to go ahead and count and mark the places where each of the sections begin and end. Very handy.

Oh, yeah. I remeber what else.

Feeder Bands!

We've been getting rain on and off all weekend, and the weather has been reminiscent of underarms. People have been doing a lot of hurricane preparedness shopping this weekend here - we were some of them. No sales tax on hurricane supplies. It was nice to see that stores were stocking up on supplies and that people were buying them ahead. I think they should have extended the sales tax amnesty to spam, tuna, and Chef-boy-ardee, although maybe they're exempt anyway because they're food. Dunno. They were pretty hard hit at the grocery store.

I tell you what, I was sure glad we had the camp stove last summer, for the three hurricanes we had. That is my "must-have" hurricane supply recommendation. You know, on top of having potable water, and a radio with batteries.

Hoping that everyone in Arlene's path isn't suffering too much damage and is able to stay dry.

BTW, the NOAA's National Hurricane Center is my favorite hurricane tracking site.

Sunday-Sunday-Sunday

Some knitting progress to report. Only an inch to go before the handles on the FMB! Got the sole and half the foot done on the second felted slipper for La-la.

That's the good news. The bad news is that I went to pick out what yarn the monkey could choose from for a hat, and was completely overwhelmed by how much yarn I had. It's a nice variety of yarn, but they all have intentions attached to it, and when you start going through it, saying "and this is for this, and this is for that", it gets too big. I contemplated throwing another thing on the needles (but what? so many choices!), then realized that then I'd have an overhwelming number of projects on the needles, and I'd never get any of them done. So I worked on the FMB for a while, and started to feel better.

I got picked up by the knitting blogs webring. The hit counter is going non-linear. It's crazy. Although, it's fascinating to check the site stats - referring pages. The ones from Google are particularly fascinating.

Oh, I got something else off of my desk too. I had three scarves (one was originally intended for the Red Scarf project, but I didn't feel good enough about the scarf). I finally wove in the ends (easier than I had imagined - there were only about 2 1/2 ends per scarf), and boxed them up for Dulaan. Hooray! The box was too big so I included a couple of hand-me-down sweatshirts from the monkey. I hope that was OK. If not, I suppose that they'll end up at a local charity in Arizona, so that's OK too.

Backtracking more, the monkey and I went to Michael's and got secret ingredients for my next secret pal gift. It's an adventure, and I wish I felt free to speak about it now.

SP5 - HOORAY!

My first SP5 parcel came today!

We got no other mail, other than my package! Go me! It's your birthday! My SP has very nice taste. Scroll down to the next message, and we'll go over just how nice her taste is.

Thank you SP!

Here we have the contents of the package all laid out. There's a very cute little tote bag. A nice knitting related note. Mary Engelbrect (sp?) sticky notes (I have a soft spot for her). Spearmint scented pedicure set, including little toe separator gizzies. A silk pouch with *da-ta-da* beaded stitch markers in lovely blues and greens! I'm going to closely inspect how these were put together because I'm thinking of making something related for a certain someone who shall not be named. And, last but not least, a delightful fringey yarn in the colors of a peacock tail. So many of my favorite colors all mixed up together! Very lovely. Not sure what it will be, but it will be pretty! Thank you very much, SP!

An SP5 gift!

Oh, and by the way, my tea came yesterday too! It smells divine and the little tins are so darn cute! I'm a little stymied on the ratio of how much tea to use for a coffee cup of hot tea, though. Also, I'm considering a crazy experiment with the gourmet tea and my Mr. Iced Tea maker this weekend.

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world...

Those who count in binary, and those who don't. OK. Maybe there are 11 kinds of people in the world - those who count in binary, those who don't, and those who make ascii status bars because they don't want to mess with that newfangled flash stuff. However, maybe really there are only two kinds of people because the people who use the ascii counters are probably either people who count in binary or those who don't. It's not mutually exclusive, you know. Either way, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition. Now to fix the spacing between the table-fields.

Anyways, I'm just darn pleased with my binary progress bars.

Fewer moving parts. Works good, lasts a long time, as they say. :^)

I cast on the second felted ballet slipper for La-la. I really want there to be an easier way to knit and "read the computer" - I hate having to let go of the knitting to work the mouse. Why isn't IE psychic yet? Hmm? Largest software company in the world, isn't it?

How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb?

Dude. It's a hardware problem.

Slow but steady, right?

Well, the side of the garter stitch blankey for Quatro is 19" long. I did some math earlier, made some projections, and it looks like it might be close to a square when it's done. We seem to be close to being on target for a 1-1-radical 2 triangle (half square). Luck, not skill. With my "wing it" technique, these blankets usually turn out more rhomboid than square. Who knew that trig would be useful someday? And the pythagorean theorem.

The FSU-FMB needs two more inches of the side color before we're ready for handles. By my calculations, that's about 15 more rows. Or 3000 stitches? (15x200. 30 + two zeroes, right? I'm concerned that I'm having order of magnitude issues. Or sloppy multiplication. Whatever. There's no calculator button on this keyboard, and I'm too lazy to use the mouse to get to it. Pathetic, I know.) So, the upshot is - the end is within sight on this, and the midway is within sight on the other.

Those poor sweaters. I measured one of them recently, and was suprised at how long the back is, but I don't remember what it was. So it's between, hmm, 6 and 15 inches. The one that I have at work, I haven't picked up in quite some time. Plus, I think all of my rulers are at home. I was surprised by the stash of 6 and 12 inch rulers I had in my nightstand.

I finished the first slipper for La-la this weekend. I cast on the second, but about 5 rows in, I couldn't remember which line I was in on the pattern - an increase row or a knit row. Decided that meant I was done knitting for the night. I'm hoping that I finish the second slipper and the FMB at the same time so I can felt them together. I just have a problem with the non-conservation-ness of only felting one thing at a time. It's just contrary to my upbringing. I know that the washer is only filled about one hand high, it just bothers me. No special trips, fill up the washer.

I have a gift nearly ready to go for my SP. I need to write the card and address/tape the box. If you're my SP reciever, and you've found me through superior net-stalking skills, it's a good gift, and I think you'll enjoy it. But I'm not going to spill the beans here.

In other news, we got a letter from Saigon yesterday - to MIL from one of her nieces. I had my coworker read it for us - DH could only recognize words here and there. One of the things in it made my coworker gasp as she was reading through it. The 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon was what made here write, and the niece recollected the story of MIL holding her, ready to bring her with them on the plane, when the niece's brother took her back and she ended up staying in Viet Nam. One small move changing the fate of a girl's life. Knowing the trials and tribulations of my husband's upbringing, I can't help but wonder the pros-and-cons of staying vs. coming here.

I can't imagine the chaos of those times. DH said they left when they were getting all of the Americans out - his dad was US Army, his mom a Vietnamese national. So, the niece was just checking in because they had been having trouble getting in touch with my MIL - MIL moved in with us, and her house has since been sold - which explains why their letters were bouncing. Not sure how this one happened to be forwarded, probably just a quirk of fate. Food for thought, I guess.

A gift already!

I got an email g.c. to Adagio Teas! I see links to them all over the place in blogland. I ordered several samples [spearmint, English breakfast, and Green-Apricot] & teabag papers, since it seems to be loose tea, and I'm not ready to invest in all the gourmet tea accoutrements. Thank You SP!

Oh, and thanks to the canadian bloggers (Y. Harlot, especially) - now I know what a Chesterfield is. I was already familiar with Sofa, Davenport, and Couch. I heard a story on NPR yesterday about Bare Naked Ladies doing music for some Shakespeare thing in the Great White North, and at the end they played "If I Had a Million Dollars" - where they mention that they'd buy you a house....then they'd buy you furniture for your house, citing a chesterfield and an ottoman. I always thought a chesterfield was a kind of chest or perhaps a hutch of some sort. I was pleased to share the info with the monkey.

Speaking of NPR and the monkey...so far, he's spending the summer at a school Extended Day program, at school near my work - which makes his commute much longer. We tend to listen to NPR programming on the way to & from. The conversations that this start are interesting, with the potential to be a little dodgy. One day we discussed - the history of the Euro and the EU, supply & demand economics, investing in currency [I think this was after the Dutch or the French voted down the referendum on the constitution], why we don't have clouds in the winter (Technically, we do have clouds sometimes, but we can go for days at a time without any - right now we've been at the business end of a stationary front for a week. This one stumped me, although I suspect that it's related to weather patterns, the ocean, and air temperature, and barometric pressure), the other stumpers were related to ice skating [the field trip du jour] - how do they make skating rinks and what layer has the paint? We also discussed how children's books are a reflection of their time, citing Dr Suess's The Lorax and Sneeches as specific examples [the monkey's book buddy last year really liked Sneeches]. And this is all in less than half an hour. More difficult questions have been: what does Viagra do and what are prostitutes and brothels.

The doldrums

I'm at the "boring part" of my 4 main projects....so what did I do? Cast on the felted slippers for La-la. I started them off in a delightful bright orange, but then in the morning, I let La pick out what yarn she really wanted, and she picked out this teal green, so I'm doing the sides in the teal. Right now they're looking very Miami Hurricanes. Or pumpkin. Depends on your frame of reference.

I'm about half an index finger in to the side color of the FSU-FMB (Go Noles!)....In the throes of finishing the last one, I forgot how tedious the sides were - which probably only added to the joy of finishing. I don't think I've done more than 5 rows on either of the toddler sweaters (between them, not apiece) this week....and I've gotten only a few rows done on Quatro's blankie - I've gotten to the part where the rows are longish (>= 60 stitches or so - I'm such a wuss-raider).

I only have a couple weeks to get the FMB done, so I'll probably be working on that mostly.

Here's something goofy - every few sentences, I pick up my knitting, knit a few stitches, then curse that you can't knit and type simultaneously. Dang it all! However, I do enjoy reading on the computer while knitting. That has to be quite a sight.