Cattywampus

How traffic affects the space/time continuum

Someone is putting up interesting graffiti in my neighborhood.  It's the first time I've seen positive affirmation graffiti, pretty fun, I think.

This one below is by far my favorite though.  It's a little hard to read, it says "Make today a striped sweater day!"

Duke is finally his old self again.  He says "There is no such thing as too many pillows."

My Ravelympics poll disappeared from my blog.  I'm not sure how or why, it didn't max out or anything, but the Henley Perfected and the Layered Skater's Top were neck & neck, so I will have to choose between the two of them.

I am fairly fried right now.  We were going up to my home town in upstate NY yesterday to visit my grandmother in her new digs, see my mother and stepfather briefly, then drive down to my BFF's house to visit her, another college friend I haven't seen since our wedding.

It's a 3 and a half hour drive to where my grandmother is, then an hour to the next stop, then about 3 hours home the next day, it's a lot, but it seems reasonable, doesn't it?  It took us 6 hours to get to the first stop.  6 hours.  Because of this.  We didn't know why at the time, just that it really sucked.  A lot.  And the people we were visiting had to rearrange their plans numerous times through the day as we called with updates.

However, we did make it and the visits were all good.  Check that off as mission accomplished!  It  was great to see my grandmother's new place & hang with her and the rest of the fam for a while.  It was wonderful to see my two best friends from college and catch up.  The children are adorable (too hectic a visit for me to even remember to take any pictures!) and the dogs were good, if harried.  By this morning Pixie was even going up to the kids for some attention - of course running away when they tried to touch her - baby steps. 

The dogs are both crashed now, finally sleeping off the car rides, the chaos and the attention.  We are both exhausted.  We spent 11 hours in the car (because the 3 hour drive home took 4 hours today b/c of construction traffic) in 2 days. 

When one expects to spend 11 hours in a car in two days, it sucks.  When one expects to spend 7.5 hours in the car and instead spends 11 hours in the car - it sucks hard.  And harder.  And it makes one seriously consider getting one of those GPS dohickies with real time traffic.  Seriously.

The good thing about being in the car for 11 hours is that there is knitting to show for it.  Not as much as there should be - me being too annoyed and frustrated that our visiting time was being eaten up minute by minute to concentrate enough to knit for bits and pieces of the trip - but definitely some things to show.  Tomorrow.

One of these things is not like the other

For real?  I mean really.

This is my Aleita Shell, which is almost done.  I stopped just short of done b/c I am worried that the armhole length is too long, so I left the top unfinished to make it easier to rip out & take a few rows off if need be.  It's also inside out, which is really neither here nor there, I just didn't think to turn it right side out before I dunked it in the water. 

In general, I'm really happy with it at this point.  The yarn is lovely to work with, soft & shiny - it's Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo.

I KNOW these are all the same dye lot.  There is no question about it at all.  I can only hope that they will dry to be the same color once again.  If not, I can only be glad that the spot in question is at the bottom and while I will not relish the idea of cutting the bottom off, ripping out the stitches, and knitting down in a matchier skein, I prefer that than it being one of the skeins in the middle. 

Fingers crossed, maybe it will dry normal.  If I don't have to redo the shoulders OR the bottom, I should have an FO pic for you soon. 

It is blocking on my new blocking board - I picked these up at target, I think it came in a pack that will make a 4'x6' grid, so hopefully it will even be large enough to block a circular shawl.  And they break up and slide right under a chair - an easy hiding solution - a must for city living!

The dogs and I just got caught in one of those sideways torrential downpours on the way back from the vet.  They were dripping.  I was dripping.  My shoes are squishing.  I had an umbrella, how is my hair soaking wet?  And do people NOT realize they are drenching you when they drive through large puddles on city streets?  These are the kind of questions I may never get answered.

Duke had to get IV fluids put in under his skin b/c he was dehydrated (he had lost two lbs since last friday - that's 10% of his body weight).  He is off food & water overnight and I have doggie drugs to give him instead of the kaopectate.  The vet thinks that should do it.  I certainly hope it does.

Yesterday I started test knitting a little nothing for Anne in Sundara Fingering in Burnt Cranberry - from the last seasons club.  It doesn't look like much yet, but I have high hopes for it!

Still organizing

You know how after you move you there is an adjustment period when you realize that THIS doesn't go THERE, it goes THERE but there's already something else THERE and you have to move that and you use the garage or the back porch or the foyer as a holding area while you figure out where everything goes?

Well.  Living in a condo in the city triples that adjustment period b/c there is no holding area, so you put stuff away and it is ever so tempting to leave it in the not so perfect arrangement just because moving it involves moving SO VERY MANY THINGS. 

Yesterday we just went through the one long term storage area we have and rearranged things to take some really, really long term storage things to keep in my mother's house (thank you very much for generous people with attics and garages!), put some of the shorter term storage in OUR long term storage area, and made the closet in the den a functional closet with guest linens and filing and suitcases and normal things that should be in closets and not sitting out somewhere.

It's very good, but of course in the process I dug out a bunch of stuff to go through & figure out if it stays, goes to good will, or just gets thrown out.

I found this.

This is the second quilt I ever made.  A sampler.  I will most likely NEVER make a sampler quilt again, but I learned SO MUCH from making it.  I finished the top 3 years ago before the chaos started, had plans to make it our guest bed cover but then the chaos happened and now it's now and I'm just finding it again.  I'm not going to leave it in a drawer, I'm going to take the silly thing to get quilted and use it as our guest coverlet.  Three years - crazy.

I also found this.  I had to use the flash to take this pic b/c it's SO FREAKING DREARY here, and the colors are way off - that drab green color is actually a lovely pale blue/green that matches quite nicely.

I made this on a whim on three day weekend a few years ago...I am not partial to it, and the little girls in my life already have quilts from me, so I think I'm going to find a charity that takes quilt tops to finish & donate it. 

It amazes me how I could finish these tops and then just let them sit for so long...it's amazing how far down the rabbit hole one can go after a few years like we had.  I feel like my creativity is really just coming back to the surface.

DH's cousin is expecting a baby boy in September, and I took the day on friday and made this.

The little characters are winnie the pooh.  It is AMAZING how fast a quilt can come together when you have a sewing machine that really works.  It's just FANTABULOUS!!!

Now I just need to pick up a blue border fabric to finish it off.  This might be the first baby quilt I will manage to get to the mother BEFORE the baby is born.  That would be something 'eh?

We braved the crowds last night in Olde City and went out on the town, stopped a few places for a drink and then headed to our dinner destination - cafe spice.  It was a series of unfortunate events.  First the waiter offered us a booth and then seemed confused when they were all full, then I sat down on a chair that was so wet my jeans took 30 minutes to dry, then dh used the restroom and the sink splashed him so violently he looked like he was trying to enter a wet tshirt contest, and after all that it had been 10 minutes with no one even coming to take our drink order...so we left.  We went to Pizzacato, which was lacking in effective airconditioning, but the waiter was attentive and the food was delicious.  Including the chocolate cannoli for dessert.  YUM.

The rain started at the same time as the fireworks, but we stood out and watched them anyway, they were pretty spectacular. 

Then the dog had issues again last night.  At 4:00 a.m. I was up dealing with it and at 6:00 a.m. I was outside with him...it's been 4 days on a diet of minimeals of rice and cottage cheese.  He seems fine now, but if this continues into tonight I will need to call the vet to try to get him something first thing in the morning.  I'll have to figure out some way to be home with him for part of the day, he won't make it 9 hours...SUCH a high maintenance little dog.  Updated to add:  we just went & got him some kaopectate, hopefully that will help.

Pixie doesn't understand what his problem is.  Pixie is also crazy.
   

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July everybody - if you're in the US, I hope you are having a grand day off with grilling and swimming and fireworks and all the other things that seem necessary on the 4th. 

Today things are distinctly un4thish here in Philly.  The fireworks will go on in that 'the show must go on' kind of way, but it's cool and rainy and that certainly doesn't bring out the crowds.  On the other hand, it makes for less crowds at the fireworks if we decide to go.

Our day started at 5 a.m. this morning with a dog having severe digestive track issues.  Poor little Duke - he just can't help being high maintenance.  The vet is closed today, of course, so we force fed him some pepto - I should have taken a picture of THAT - it was really funny, and we are sort of trapped in the house now b/c he needs to go out WAY too often for us to go anywhere for more than an hour or two. 

On the other hand, at least I don't have to take a day off from work to stay home with him...

I have some recent acquisitions to share with you.

I had been looking for just the right yarn to make Tempest and after much debating and flipflopping - thank you oodles to Heather who never fails to give me excellent advice no matter HOW MANY TIMES I ask about the same exact project - I landed on the Fearless Fiber's etsy site and Deb (kind and helpful as can be, as always) talked me through the real life color of a few choices I was debating between and I landed on these.

And if I'm brave enough I'm going to use all those little red buttons for this cardigan, red on grey & grey.  Maybe that makes me a tad boring, but I think it will be lovely.  OH - this is the merino/tencel blend (it's SO SHINY in person) and the colors are thundercloud and gunmetal (top).

I also picked up this while I was there - couldn't resist - her regular superwash sock in abstinence.

And after getting those socks from Jenny in Fleece Artist sock, I decided I needed to have some of my own, so I traded for this

YAY for yarn.  :-D

Doggie Update and ANOTHER fo

Duke is fine, really...he has arthritis in his front leg and his hips, not bad yet, but enough that it's time to start him on gluclosamine for pups and to have a pain killer on hand for those days when he is limping after a long walk.

It's sad to know he's middle aged at the ripe age of 8, but he really is, and of all the thing that we could have found out from the xrays mild arthritis is definitely one of the better options.

He was quite worn out after his ordeal yesterday.

I finished Alhambra - finally.  I did it as a test knit for Anne and then stopped to work on something else with only 2 repeats to go.  Pathetic.  But it's done now!

I love the colors in this.  The yarn is Yarnchef Creme Brulee in Cherry Tree.  LOVE IT.

Now I just have to wait 3 months for it to be cool enough to need a neck scarf.  Sigh.

Good Deeds Done Dirt Cheap?

When we finally moved my mother-in-law's belongings to our house in NC last year we ended up with two random things.  The mover called us about them, we found them and were supposed to fed ex them to the proper owner. 

Life happened, we lost the mover's number and the address to send them to and the next thing we know we're moving said things to philadephia.  I am happy to tell you that FINALLY last weekend I used the info on the outside of one of the packages to track down the proper owner of these things and they are on their way back to her.  She is thrilled to find out that these things haven't disappeared completely and didn't even question why it took us 9 months to contact her.  Realistically it's b/c they were in the storage unit with everything else until we moved and we forgot about them.  I feel bad that it took us so long to do the right thing, but good that we finally did the right thing and were actually able to find the owner.

Duke is at the vet for his xray today and Pixie is a little clingy, but other than that she's up to her normal doggy behaviors.

I finished my Goddaughter's sweater, and just in the nick of time b/c they will be visiting tomorrow - so as long as it fits we will get some FO pics on her then!

I love the buttons.

I detest the seaming.  I really don't see any reason to seam a sweater when it is SO much easier to do it seamless.  I would much rather do the calculations and convert the pattern.  I did, however, improve at the seaming as I went along.  Here's my first seam.

Not so hot.  Here's the next to the last one, it's a little blurry, but I think you can tell it's MUCH better.

My current bus socks are coming along.  I started these over Christmas & they got shoved to the bottom of a box during the move, I unearthed them recently & put them back in the line up.  It's interesting b/c this pattern (Aquaphobia) is supposed to prevent flashing & pooling - at the toe they are going along fine but then when I started increasing for the gusset they got all wonky.  It's all good, I like them, but I hope they go back to the other coloring after I turn the heel.

Random & Asst Things

A dog who is having his paw soaked in epsom salts because he stepped on a cactus is a very pathetic creature indeed.

Nature will prevail.

Even when you are highly allergic, kittens are still cute when there is glass between you.

I traded some yarn I didn't want anymore for this gorgeously red Ruby Sapphire Sock.

 

Ravelry is the best.

I've been busy.

First of all, thank you all SO much for all your advice on the quilt colors. I did rearrange a few of the colors before I started cutting the pieces out to give each set a little more contrast. I finished the yellow & purple groups today - using my FABU new bernina, sewing on it was a dream.

This is a really easy pattern, first you cut out the pieces of the stacked fabrics.

Then you rearrange them so each block will have one of each fabric in it.

Then you stitch them together.

Then you get your dog to wrinkle them. Maybe that step wasn't in the pattern.

My mom & stepfather came down this weekend to pack up some of my grandmother's things and take them up to NY where she will be moving next weekend, so we drove down there and brought everybody lunch yesterday. It was good to see them, but sad to know my grandmother will be moving further away even if it is the best thing for her. We will be going up to visit mid july, hopefully I will have this quilt finished and ready to take to her when we go.

I have been knitting, very little, but it does add up eventually.

A lot of things have kept me busy this past week, for one thing, I got a new computer - we have gone Mac.

For another, I spent time importing all my music and pictures and rearranging everything and that is a time suck to say the least. And the one last thing, dh was home inbetween his jobs this past week, I am SO glad he got time off to relax, but we kept DOING things instead of staying home and relaxing...hence, very little knitting time.

He starts his new job tomorrow and I hope he LOVES it.

Today I also fixed the Sorelle Lace Pullover.

As you can tell in this picture below, this top is sagging in the back, it stretched horribly, dropping the waistline by about two inches. I took the Harlot's advice and did a crochet chain across the back under the lace to tighten it up and keep it from sagging. It is now uber wearable! I will decide if I should do the same across the front after I wear it once, but I think it will be okay.

I might actually get to wear it this week as the weather is supposed to drop ALL THE WAY DOWN into the 70s. Frigid.

I have been working on my Goddaughter's sweater. I needed some buttons to finish it off, I wasn't near an LYS this weekend, so we stopped off at a big box store...all I could find was a giant bag of buttons.

Luckily there are quite a few matched sets in there, including those adorable orange flowers, which are almost exactly what I was looking for in the first place - serendipitous!

There are also these pretty little red ones, I'm not sure what they will end up on, but a grey mini-cabled cardigan would be SO pretty with red buttons, wouldn't it?

So. I'm trying to finish this sweater...and all the pieces are done, I tried to sew together the shoulder seams, the instructions simply say 'seam shoulders' - so I seamed them to where it looked like they should be seamed...but now it says to pick up 15 stitches on each front and I'll be lucky to get 6 or 7 picked up on each front. This is the first sweater I have made in pieces and am trying to seam together...I gotta tell you, I just spent a really frustrated hour trying to figure it out. Maybe I'm just being picky, but shouldn't it give me SOME clue how many inches or stitches I should seam together for the shoulder seams if it isn't obvious? Am I missing something major?

I would appreciate any helpful advice anybody can give me...I'm completely out of my comfort zone here!!

So much life, so little knitting!

We started the weekend Friday night at a Beer and Cheese Tasting at DiBruno Bros.  No matter how it seems like the small portion of beer they serve you with each cheese isn't very much beer at all, it always adds up.  Especially when you go out afterwards - because really, at 8:00 on a friday evening what else are you going to do?

(isn't she cute?)

It's very yummy, actually, the beer and cheese are wonderful pairings and it brings out flavors you would never imagine were in either.

(this is across the street from our building, no clue what they're doing, but they keep towing all the cars every morning)

After some quality dog time in the park Saturday we went to see KOOZA (Cirque de Soleil) with my dad & stepmom.  It was wonderful, as always.  This is the third one we've seen and it amazes me how they are all equally entertaining but with a completely different feel each time.  Though to be completely honest, I spend most of the time holding my breath b/c I think somebody is going to fall and get hurt, I try to will the performers to stay up with the powers of my mind. I doubt I do much good, but I don't think I could stop if I tried. 

Afterwards we went out for a relaxing dinner at Caribou Cafe, a nice little french bistro sort of place.  DH and I both had 'France's favorite cut of beef' which turned out to be flank steak, we asked.  YUM.

(awww, male bonding time)

Today, we went on a bus adventure (took the 33 on a detour) and did actually make it to the Free Library (anyone who has ever used public transportation will know the sheer panic experienced when a bus you've never been on before makes a turn that wasn't on the little map you were looking at online.  All you can do is hope and pray that you will end up at the place you are  trying to go.)   

There is a Book Festival going on!  I wasn't entirely sure what what to expect, but there were authors and book signings and tshirts for sale and funnel cakes.  Funnel cakes make everything better.

I'm at a little bit of a loss to explain why  Darth Vader was at a book festival, but there he is.

This I get.

There is actually an exhibit at the Rosenbach of some of his illustrations if anybody is interested.

Of course, the whole reason we were there was to see the Yarn Harlot!

She was as funny as expected and DH "didn't hate it" (to quote him), I saw him chuckle quite a few times, I would say he actually enjoyed it.  He totally gets bonus points for going with me.  The whole trip was definitely worth the bus panic.

On the way home the wind picked up and it started raining sideways, we lost a perfectly good umbrella to the unpredictability of city wind.  The planned trip to the grcoery store is going to have to wait until a friendlier environmental experience is possible. 

And now I'm actually going to sit down and knit!  YAY!

Catching up

I had some sort of stomach virus last week and it wiped me out, seriously.  I didn't even knit from Sunday through Saturday.  Today was the first day I picked up the needles again. 

A few things came out of this.  1.  I didn't go to MD Sheep and Wool.  Sigh.  I really wanted to go, but by the time Thursday rolled around it became completely obvious there was no way I would enjoy it, I was way too exhausted and still somewhat ill.  2.  I fit into jeans I haven't been able to wear in 2 years.  I have no idea whether or not they are still in style, but I wore them anyway.  3.  I haven't been able to work on the test knit I'm supposed to be doing for Anne. 

Yesterday we spent a well earned day at home playing Super Smashbros Brawl.  Then we went to Rosie's so I could spend my hard earned yarn money that I had saved to take to MDSW.  After that we walked to Good Dog and had one of the Best Burgers Ever.  mmmmmmm

I got this gorgeous Pear Tree merino - this was a SERIOUS splurge.  Serious.  But I thought it would look so gorgeous as  a traditional gansey.  Okay, maybe not traditional, since it's this color, but traditional style.

In real life it is a beautiful pink, coral, peachy color with such depth...SO pretty.  I have been thinking about it ever since I saw it on the yarn crawl in March.

I also got this Sirdar Baby Bamboo in a pale dusty pink to make the Drawstring Chemise.

The other day I got my last Sundara Seasons shipment - aran silky merino - it's a lovely grey wash over blue, I don't remember the exact name, but it's really gorgeous.  It's more subtle than the picture indicates.

Today we tried to take the car to get inspected but ran into trouble when we couldn't cross Broad Street.   So we just took the car back and went out for brunch instead.

The clouds dissipated and we decided to spend the afternoon at the park with the dogs.  It was LOVELY.  Pixie lost what was left of her winter coat.

Which the local birds thought was grand and they set about lining their nests with her discarded fluff.

It was so funny to watch them come and gather it up in their beaks and fly away, then come back for more.

We saw a wedding party taking pictures - what a lovely day for a wedding!

Mostly we just laid on our blanket and enjoyed the lovely day while the dogs went into stimulus overload, they are both dead to the world right now.

Tonight we are meeting our realtor for dinner and I will gift her the Gust I made, I hope she likes it!!  Later in the week - knitting content - I hope!