Life's a Stitch

I’m a shopper. And one who doesn’t pay full price for anything. So, when I saw these, at 20% off when bought as a set, I was hooked. Finally an interchangeable needle set that meets all my requirements: nickel plated, smooth joins, screw on tips, soft cables, lots of sizes… Slightly more expensive than the Denise set, and way less than the Boye’s. Not that I need more needles, but I couldn’t resist. It’s the new Knitpicks set. Looks very well designed.

The best shopping news ever – Trader Joe’s is coming to Bellingham! Now if they’d take that leap over the border I’d really be excited.

The only place to buy Regal Silk and other good yarn at lower than usual cost? Fabulous Yarn.

What’s better than a bargain? Free. These are this year’s poppies. The purple ones come from a woman in my knitting group. Her mom grew these before she died and she made a habit of distributing seeds each year to people who admired her purple poppies. I’ve continued that tradition. The pink ruffled ones came from a nearby elementary school’s garden.

Thanks to everyone for your comments on the wedding sweater. It made the anguish worth it. There’s nothing like the support of others, knitters and knitters-to-be. Watch out you non-knitters, I have my eye on you.

It’s done, it’s done, the wedding sweater is done! And why does it feel like I knit it twice? Probably because I did. The Lily Chin Grammercy was very frog friendly. The mohair was not, but I didn’t have to take out too much of that. Can’t wait for the bride to see it in real life, but she won’t be home for a week or two.

The "sweater," from White Lies Designs, is more like a full length shrug/bolero in construction, giving it its form fitting appearance. It’s a very pretty look. I changed the lace stitch called for in the original pattern and made the sleeves three quarter length with a ruffled edge. My only complaint is the side seams, which in lace, always look bulky compared to the body fabric. Now bring on that wedding. Maybe not today, it’s going to be in the mid 30’s (high 90’s in F), a rarity in Vancouver. Thank goodness it’s three weeks away.

Dear Amazin’ Gracee, the stubborn, not very smart due to a head injury at three weeks old, rescue Scottie, received her own phone call the other day. We have some overpriced minimal doggie health insurance that gets charged to our Mastercard on a monthly basis. This month our expiry date changed and Grace was the recipient of one of those automated voice messages, which pronounced her name "Amazon Grace." Can’t you picture a huge Amazon scotty? I guess she is bordering on that image as the vet told us the other day, that at 24 lbs, she’s becoming a chubby puppy. Poor Grace going to have to go on a diet with the rest of us.

Speaking of amazing, thanks for the comments on the Amazing Lace photo from my last post. I haven’t been responding to comments as my computer is temporarily out of commission again. So, the truth is, as if you didn’t know, it’s not my car. And they weren’t even my sunglasses; a girl can dream, can’t she? Truthfully I can’t even dream about that kind of stuff, being blessed with some sort of practical gene. Apparently my daughter didn’t get that gene as she spent $150 on those shades. I haven’t spent $150 on all the sun glasses I’ve bought in my life. Just a matter of differing priorities. How about Regal silk for the Amazing Lace as a priority?

What is it that makes a wedding turn intelligent young women momentarily into roiling pots of emotion and practical mothers into snaggle tooth vipers? If I were to choose an actress to play my role as mother of the bride, it would be Shirley MacLaine. I know all the dynamics, so why did I think I was immune? Nobody escapes the clutches of impending marriage emotions. Thank goodness those moments were fleeting ones. Seriously, it’s been a wonderful week with the bride-to-be, wouldn’t have missed a minute of it! 28 sleeps to go until the big day.

Met with my first stumbling block on the Amazing Lace. Consider this:

1. I learned to read charts in my first Fair Isle Class. We were taught to read them right to left.

2. I graduated to Charlotte’s Web where the chart is only pictured to the centre stitch. When you reached it, you knit back the other way, mirroring the first half.

3. I  made the presumption that the Shoalwater Shawl was read the same way. Not. After finishing two sections I realized that I was one stitch off in my lace patterning. The chart looked similar to Charlotte’s Web, but when you hit the middle stitch on this one, you don’t knit back, you repeat the row.

Knit and learn.

Finally, challenge #2 for the Amazing Lace. Pay no attention to my the minivan in the background:

1. Now that we have the dogs figured out, how about those birds at 5:00 am? Perhaps it’s the same flock flying westward to keep up with the sunrise in different time zones.

2. Lucky again – I made a pledge to a family member’s walk for charity won a $50 IKEA gift certificate. It happened to be my yarn fairy Godmother, Valerie. I wanted some silk yarn and voila! She sent me Sari silk right out of the blue (pictured in the photo withsome think and thin she sent as well). I saw a patio table I like at Ikea and poof! She sends me a gift certificate. Thank you, Valerie, hope we get to meet someday. By the way, there’s this diamond pendant at Costco…

3. What ever happened to: Marina (the body is complete unless I get crazy and decide to lengthen it again) and the wedding sweater (almost done, but I’m nervous that it’s looking small).

4. The wedding – T minus 33 days and counting. Help, my house is a MESS, I need to lose the four lbs I gained on the cruise and I hope my mom is reliably on her meds.

5. the Whine du Jour – you know those spam deterring distorted letters you have to type in to post a comment on some blogs. Has any been so distorted and lo-o-o-ng that you give up, but not for lack of trying?

6. Chuck’s heart attack – he didn’t have a near death enough experience (thank God for that) to love life enough to make a total lifestyle change. On the compliance scale I’d rate him a 4 out of 10.

7. Speaking for myself, after one of the family was lamenting that life wasn’t fair, I was thinking if life were fair, I’d probably be a heck of a lot worse off.

This is one of those "someone’s got to think about these things" posts. Sandy recently posted about the dogs in her neighborhood, who seemed to work out a schedule so that one of them was barking at any given time. We live up a mountain and sound carries. Often we’ll hear a dog from further up the mountain and Grace will respond with a woof. The next dog down hears Gracee and starts in. You can hear it for miles each dog passing the message like a canine version of the telephone game. I wonder, I just wonder if that message was carried 3243.9 miles (hey Sandy, that’s how far apart we live), dog-to-dog, to Sandy’s house. Somebody’s got to think about these things.

Here’s Grace taking her turn in the game, this time competing with fire trucks.

Genes are strong little buggers. It’s been interesting with my SIL at my house, seeing the similarities between her, my husband and other family members. Chuck and his sister are both "category eaters". They eat all their veggies, move onto the meat, and then their potatoes. Come to think of it, this trait has been passed on to one of our children. We discussed the eating habits of other family members. There is one who mixes all his food together noting that it all goes to the same place anyhow. And another of my children would rather eat from separate dishes than have his food touch. If the "category" people were knitters I bet they would be one of those who finishes one project before starting another.   

Here is one of my four five six current projects. I’d better post before I remember any more. You can tell where I stand on this subject.

My refrigerator beeps at me when the door is left open too long, the microwave sounds when you set the time but haven’t pressed the start button soon enough, my new  washer and dryer’s ready signal repeats endlessly until you open the door. Give me a break. I’ve just gotten over that stage of life where little ones have needs constantly requiring attention and now my appliances have taken over. It’s not just me whining, I ‘ve overheard Chuck and my SIL growling at the blasted things. Remember when we lived in a beepless world? Another sign of aging, isn’t it?

How to achieve relief from those demands? Substitute them with a demand of a different, more pleasant kind. The idea is to get myself so lost involved in a lace pattern, nothing else will matter. Not the wedding details that are creeping up so quickly, nor the insignificant life annoyances like the incredible beeping kitchen. So, I’ve signed on for the Amazing Lace and I’m supposed to introduce my team:

Charlotte, Kiri, and Koigu were interested in co-competing with me, but the winners were Regal Silk and the Shoalwater Shawl. Koigu a long standing teammate is willing to take a break and sit out this race in my stash drawers. Kiri is my long distance team mate, having visited six countries last summer; this year’s adventure will only cover a bit of North America. And Charlotte, having competed and  finished successfully twice before, may just be ready for retirement. Regal Silk is showing her best colours for the project – Lagoon; a perfect fit for Shoalwater. This really does make sense to knitters. Let’s hear it for the team!

I’ve had a lucky week. First, I was shopping at Sears’ scratch and save sale and scratched $80 off on a pressure washer for Chuck. Better luck than I had in the cruise ship casino where I lost $2.35. I hate to part with my money with nothing to show for it. I am a good winner, however, even if it is only a scratch and save coupon –  yelping appropriately and giving high fives to the sales clerk. After paying we agreed that it  might be a good time for me to buy a lottery ticket. So, I did just that and bought a scratch and win ticket and shared it with the sales clerk. It wasn’t a winner, but it was fun to see him smile. 

This one you’ll especially appreciate. I’ve had a visit from a yarn fairy Godmother. Out of the blue I received an e-mail from my husband’s nephew’s wife, whom I’ve never met. She won a basket of silk yarn at a charity auction, and since she isn’t a knitter, offered to give it to me! Thank you, Valerie.

Make that three times lucky; how about some vacation photos:

1. Flowers in Balboa Park, San Diego 2. Feeling like I’m in a dream aboard the ship 3. San Francisco 4. Knitting bud Marsha, her husband, Dave, and I, in front of our ship 5. How many husbands does it take to wind a skein of Fleece Artist yarn?

We’re back from our wonderful cruise, but I have no pictures as my USB cable is somewhere between here and San Diego.

When the kids returned from camp or a school trip I always asked them what was the  best and worst parts of their trip. Upon our return all three kids asked us the traditional two questions:

The best parts: 1. Climbing up Telegraph Hill in San Francisco and seeing the wild parrots. 2. Seeing multiple pods of humpback whales at sea. 3. A day at Balboa Park in San Diego.

The worst: It took me along time to think of anything  and all I could come up with is the fact that I didn’t feel well for about an hour and a half after getting cold on deck one afternoon. I feel like a spoiled kid!

On the cruise ship there are meetings of Friends of Bill (AA meetings) and Friends of Dorothy (gay friendly social events). I’ve come up with a new group – Friends of Jane. This is the group of latter middle age couples you see doing their laps around the ship or brisk walks in the neighbourhood. I figure many of them are heart attack survivors participating in their cardiac rehab walking programs similar to the one taught to us by our rehab nurse, Jane. Cruise ships seem to attract Friends of Jane, but their dining rooms aren’t particularly Jane friendly. I have four additional pounds to prove it.

No pictures to show for it right now, but between my friend Marsha and I, there was a lot of on board knitting happening. And interesting visits to San Francisco’s Art Fibers and Victoria’s Beehive Wool Shop.

I’m not coping well without e-mail and USB cable. Hopefully we’ll have our computer back on Tuesday, so until then…