Now, where was I?

My intention was to be updating this more often than every couple weeks (okay Mari?) but life seems to have gotten in the way.

So, what has happened...
Dryer is fixed - laundry is going right now, and no squealing! [Of course, now the dishwasher is acting up...]

Foster Dog has gone to another foster home; hopefully one in which she doesn't have to bark and discipline upstart territorial dogs. Good luck Lena!

Got my Ribby Shell finished in time to wear to Purlescence's birthday party. Great pictures taken by Tony!

Had loads of fun & laughter at a Build-a-bear party with the Purl Girls. See the recap here. This is Booker T. Bear and he is going to live at school for the kids.



Jury duty (on call) is finally over. Apparently, US District Court is now asking for a 2 week commitment, not just the one week that I normally get called for. Life was made even more interesting, as my clerk at school also got called for THE SAME DATE! Actually, we got a little lucky, as neither one of us even had to go in, but I had already postponed mine. Frankly, I was a little disappointed, because I could have used the knitting time! I called the courthouse and was told "of course" to bring in my knitting. In fact, the guy who answered the phone sounded a little surprised that I would even ask.


That time could have been used on this project: started and almost finished a stockinette shrug to wear for our anniversary (17th) dinner last night at Sent Sovi (love you, sweetheart). As of 3:30 yesterday afternoon, I had just joined for the 2nd sleeve, but there was no way to finish it by a 5PM dinner date. Dream in Color's Classy yarn in the color "Good luck jade".


Spent all afternoon at a fencing tournament (foil) today at which The Dork got put in a round robin pool with some really strong fencers. He's not one of them! He and his coach have now decided that foil fencing is not his strength and he'll do better at epee fencing.

Pink dot socks are moving along. I've already turned the heel and am headed up the cuff now. I'm trying to decide if I want to go further up than my usual 3" or so. If I do, I'll have to figure out how to work increases into the waffle stitch pattern.






Started a new crocheted baby blanket for a "Grandma shower" in a couple weeks. The funny part is that the yarn originally came from the new Grandma a couple years ago in a secret pal swap at work!



Oh - and I'm getting a new car (finally)! A Mazda3 sedan should be heading my way within the next 2 weeks...can't wait! My current car has 306,000 miles and is 21 years old. It's been so long since I bought a car and there was lots of research, Internet surfing, test driving & second guessing myself. With any luck, I'll even get it in my preferred color - you guessed it: purple! A great plummy purple called "Phantom Purple Mica". For a while I was going to settle for a Toyota Corolla, which felt a little staid and boring inside, but it had the better gas mileage and trunk space. But my ideal Corolla LE doesn't exist - manual transmission, ABS brakes and side curtain airbags -- at least not in California. The Mazda3 feels more updated and I know I can get the safety features that I want in it. After all, The Dork is almost driving age...be very, very afraid - I've seen how he steers a cart in the supermarket!

Birthday shenanigans

Had a wonderful birthday weekend, spent with "my people" - fiber fiends! Went to TKGA/CGOA and hung out in the marketplace with Sandi and her family. Saw some wonderful yarns and things, but was very frugal in my spending. Some people can't believe that the only yarn I bought was 2 skeins of Pacific Meadows alpaca in periwinkle (for my secret pal at school). But having done the Great Yarn Inventory of 2007, I realized how much I have and that I can't possibly make a very large dent in it before next February and Stitches West.

As my birthday present to myself, I did buy a lovely shawl pin from Gita Maria. It's not pictured on her website, but this one is called "Granite."






On Sunday, I bought myself a yummy chocolate mousse birthday cake from Bijan bakery and took it to Purlescence where I shared it with the Tea & Sympathy crowd as an advance on Nathania's birthday next week & for her Kevin's birthday a few days ago. Kinda celebrated Sandi's birthday, too, even though she wasn't there! She was at the Renaissance Faire, which I need to get back to one of these days...

Actual knitting:

After the Great Sock Fiasco of a few days ago, I chucked everything back in its bag, with the exception of the size 2 needle. That I pulled out of the old sock and started (with the other size 2 - I triple-checked!) on some Claudia Hand Paint fingering weight yarn in Pink Dot for some basic toe-up socks. So far, so good!

I've found that I'm really good at being in denial about my crafting. I'm such a process knitter and crocheter that I've found that I can ignore an issue until it has become glaringly obvious that I'm not going to be happy with the end product. For example, take the Ribby Shell that I've been working on. It was literally within an inch of the front being completed when I realized that I would not be happy with how the ribbing was lining up front & back at the shoulders. I had noticed that with the back that there weren't the same number of ribs on each side, but figured that no one would notice, so I went on with the front. The right front was done, and I wasn't happy about how poorly the ribbing was lining up with the corresponding stitches in the back, but I still ignored it. When I was close to finishing the left front, I finally had to admit to myself that it wasn't going to work there either and I was just not going to be happy with it.

The issue that I ignored was that I can't count to bind off the correct number of stitches on either side of my marked side stitches. When you are supposed to bind off 7 stitches either side of the marked stitch, and you bind off six on one side and 8 on the other, of course the subsequent ribbing that travels up the side of the armholes doesn't match at the top after all the decreases. There are no pictures of the ensuing carnage, but I did reknit the back today, with the correct number of bound off stitches!

However, I really should head to bed - work calls tomorrow!