Life's a Stitch

I've made myself a promise – no more new projects until major ones are finished – except for a purse project – something portable, light and chartless. This one takes 1200 yards of yarn, but weighs only 90 grams when finished. It's the Free and Easy Pie Wedge Shawl and I'm using Fleece Artist Baby Curls from my stash. Light as a cloud colourful as a rainbow, it reminds me of a story.

A recently circulated, Snopes verified, office e-mail contained a photo of a fire rainbow. "The rarest of all naturally occurring phenomena," it said. Well once upon a time, long ago  (about 1981) and far away (Waubonsie State Park Iowa), there was day in January where the temperature hit 60 degrees (that's15 in Canadian, sort of like the dollar). C and I thought it the perfect opportunity to go camping. It really was the good old days. Arriving at out campsite mid afternoon, we put out a fruit bowl and a bottle of wine and a tape was playing from the car. Judy Collins was singing the Rainbow Connection.The sky was perfectly blue, but just as that song came on, I kid you not, we saw a rainbow hitching a ride on a wisp of cloud. Here we are, 28 years later, living in Canada, and there was an explanation. It was a fire rainbow, not just some figment of our romantic imagination. 

The rest of the story: that night it seemed to get colder and colder. The colder it got, the closer I stayed to the campfire. We heard it went down to 20. Nothing was helping, I just couldn't get warm. The next day after C had dropped me off at home I realized I was sick and took my temperature – 104 degrees.It was one of those bad flus of the early 80's.

The story's not over yet. I was off sick for an entire week. The next Monday at work, I realized my wavy soled shoes (remember Famolare's?) felt wavier. They felt like large choppy waves. It turned out that I had melted the soles of my shoes trying to stay warm at Waubonsie. And that's the end of the story.

Wait, it's not the end. I finished this post with the exception of the picture and put it to bed for the night. I, too, went to sleep, radio on by my bedside, listening to my favourite – CBC Radio One. In my sleep I heard the song, the Rainbow Connection, one I've previously only heard twice on the radio sung by Kermit the Frog and Judy Collins. Was I dreaming? A voice announced this version was by Jane Monheit. How could I dream up a name like that?

The real ending: confirmed by CBC's playlist. It was indeed a new version of the song. I wasn't dreaming, the Rainbow Connection strikes again. What are the chances?

She's a knitter, a foodie, a writer and she loves dogs. No, not me, this one's a famous writer. Kate Jacobs read from her sequel to the Friday Night Knitting Club at the CBC Radio Studio One Book Club:

Amazing! At 35 she's sold over a million copies of her first book, was on the New York Times best seller list and sold the story to Universal Pictures for a movie starring Julia Roberts. Originally from tiny Hope, British Columbia, this is a case of small town girl makes good. She very sweetly credited her grade eight English teacher as her inspiration.

And you know what? I wasn't even a fan of the first book, but meeting her, and hearing her story, although the book is not exactly my style, she won me over. She's a seriously nice person:

Ever have that feeling about a project? This one's been around – started in Toronto, almost finished in Honduras, finally completed at home in Vancouver when I should have been doing the taxes. Avoidance behaviour at its best:

The wrap-up:

A Mitred Square baby blanket variation made from eight skeins of Needful Yarns Cotton Joy (100% cotton) in the Rainbow colourway.Edges are single crocheted twice all around.It's a little wavy on the sides but I don't want to block the sproinginess out of it. Know what I mean?

Thirty plus years in the field of mental health/social services has influenced the way I spend by time off. I love my job, but as much as possible, I leave work at work. My family knows that I don't watch movies with social service-y plots – no addiction, child abuse, depressing themes, no loud family dysfunction thinly veiled as comedy. Examples of my kind of quirky movie include Elizabethtown (thank you, Sandy), the British film Room to Rent and Woody (on Prozac) Allen's Everyone Says I Love You. Contrary to usual practice this weekend we watched Thomas McCarthy's the Visitor. Although immigration issues are the central theme, it includes an uplifting story of friendship.

My other exception was a mild deviation from my New Year's resolution to give up table salt. Three weeks past my cold turkey abandonment of my favourite flavour on earth, it's been unexpectedly easy. I splurged, though, with a salty snack:

How do you eat your Chex Mix? I exhibit my best OCD behaviour, saving the best for last, segregating the wheat Chex until the end.

WARNING: this is a post about a feminine hygiene product. Not the obvious one.

You read it right, can't have too many innocuously titled posts in a row, sometimes you need an attention grabber. There is a story behind the title, so here goes. A few years back I was at a conference talking to a woman, a board member of a nationwide health related charity. She was turning 70. When asked what she wanted for her birthday she explained that she had everything she needed in terms of earthly belongings. What she wanted was totally practical – the ability to pee like a man. Well, little did she know.

Keeping this in mind, my equally practical middle child came up with the ultimate sensible Christmas gift for her middle aged mother, who recently has travelled to toilet challenged climes. She offered me the same ability as described above in the form of pink plastic plumbing in a pouch. There are several devises on the market, developed for climbers, kyakers and those engaged in other sanitarily challenging pursuits. Read on only if you want too much  further information. You may already know of such things and are regarding me much the way my son does – as a behind-the-times maternasaurus.

There are several choices including the Shewee, Frechette or the Magic Cone. Selling points include:

• the motto "Stand up and take control"
• disposability vs being dishwasher safe – eewww.
• a "hydration special" including a water bottle (to drink from), the device, plus an extension tube (for use on a boat or when wearing "lots of clothing"). Interesting combination.
• protection against unsanitary rest rooms, wind, snow, rain, uneven ground, insects, thorns and poison ivy.

Next thing you know, a forthcoming Knitty patten will include a Shewee cozy. I warned you.

UPDATE: After further research, my daughter decided upon the Whiz Easy, not listed above. We've been told it is the product of choice due to its flexibilty. I'm not sure about the others, but it was surprisingly easy to use.She also purchased a pack of P-Mates, disposable devices, but I can't attest to their ease of use,

And how do you illustrate such as post? With a distraction. Gracee with bad bedbeard:

I'm having one of those moments. After a night of fever and chills, and making the always difficult decision to call in sick to work (it really torments me to do that) I envisioned a day in bed with chicken noodle soup and knitting. That blasted knitting. I am on the second to last square of my mitred 64 square baby blanket, and damned if I can't pick up the stitches without leaving a hole in the corner. Four times. I might need to heed the warning on this Honduran airport sign, and forget the "kinitting" needles:

Maybe it's time again to step away from the knitting and break out the crochet hook to tackle the likes of Babette. For today anyway.

UPDATE: I couldn't stay away for too long. Did you know that Alan Dart is selling many of his patterns by download for under $5. Oh, at 8cms tall, I must knit these guys' little brother:

In my college years, flying between New York and Michigan, I remember airport vending machines that sold life insurance for the duration of your flight, in case of crash. How comforting is that? I know this is reflective of my age but it does comfort me that I still have a memory.

Do you remember outdoor cigarette machines? The life insurance should have been sold next to those. And Chiclet machines in the NY Subway. They came in little tiny cardboard boxes, that held two, like the Halloween sized ones. I think I just learned something new, at least I don't remember that the name Chiclets was derived from the name for the substance from which which gum was originally made.

When are they going to come up with a Koigu or Addi vending machine?

I've promised vacation knitting. This is the progress I've made on my Rosebud Scarf, with the Franklin yarn I won on Erika's blog, Knitting @ Pantheon Acres. Upon completion, you drop the stitches between the buds a la Clapotis. Scroll down to her August 13th post for pictures of her finished product.

This could be a post about the antics of certain all inclusive resort attendees who took advantage of the unlimited Nicaraguan rum, Honduran moonshine, beer and vino tinto. But since I didn't partake to the extent that warrants a blog post I'll move on to the the creatures of Honduras. Below are a jelly fish, a hermit crab, booby birds and pelicans.

The more exotic turkey vultures and howler monkeys:

Mari brought home her own Honduran creatures who hitched a ride to Canada in her intestinal tract. Poor girl, when asked what she wanted to eat today, replied "pretzels," how could I resist?

Great recipe.

Honduran knitting content soon, I promise.

We're back. Adios Honduras.

Besides missing Vancouver's record setting snowfall, one of the best parts of the trip was the Latin American food which satisfied my genetically Puerto Rican taste buds. Pasteles, plantains, and flan, oh my. Rice, beans, and fresh fish on the beach:

While I do a good job of trying new and different foods while travelling, the English translation of the pasta entree on this menu required a second look (click on it if you can't read it):

Yumm?

Note to David R. Stack: you've requested a copy of my pattern, but I'll need your e-mail address in order to send it. Please leave it in a comment. Currently your comments are connected to your profile which doesn't include contact information. Thank you.