Waitin' and hopin'

It's funny how sometimes when I sit and think about what I'm going to write in my blog I hear Garrison Keillor's "It was a quiet week in Lake Wobegon" going through my head. For the most part it was one of those weeks. What's that? An inauguration? Oh yes, there was that. I watched the inauguration on CSPAN, avoiding the talking heads commentary (I heard plenty of that on NPR on the way to work Tuesday). And in many ways I'm pleased so far with what has been done since then. I hope it's the beginning of good things. We certainly can use some encouragement.

For the most part this week I worked on the commissions. Part of the commission involved swatching for a Christmas stocking. The yarn I picked out was excellect yarn but it was too thin for a single knitting and too thick for double strand knitting, so I had to go hunting for something else. Today I participated in the PDX Knitbloggers Seattle to Portland Yarn Crawl where a group of knitters from Seattle took the train down and hit yarn stores in downtown Portland. I was able to find the yarn I needed for the stocking and spent time working on the dickey in black, which fortune provided me in my stash a second ball of the same yarn in the exact same dyelot. I had to redo the collar due to the bind off on the front and back were too inelastic, but I should have it done by the end of the evening.

Your Comments

Thank you all who have written in comments. I know I get a lot of readers but not many commenters, so it's a treat to have your feedback. Thank you too for the comments on the Miami Stripes yarn. I haven't worked on more of it but I will soon enough. On the Faireycized pictures, I've forwarded the original photos they're based on for work on them to make images that won't violate the agreement. I'm looking forward to seeing the results. Thanks too for noticing the new blog banner. I redid the template so that I can take advantage of Blogger's new layout system and popped a favorite pic in there. It's a photo I took of some swatching I did on the way to Vermont last year. Putty colored airline tray tables are such nice backdrops for still life photos of knitting.

And for those who enjoyed Buster's playing in the snow, one last pic until the next flurry.

Your comments

The Coriolis socks attracted a lot of attention. JoVE, I found that the patterns worked well for mindless knitting. The increase point is like a blip on the radar screen; the rest is plain ole stockinette. The instructions may appear a little daunting, but if you get your magic numbers, plug them in, and follow along, you should do fine. Really!

Jennie, the sock in progress is being made of STR mediumweight "Fire On The Mountain". It's wonderfully squishy. You must have it. Or you will suffer great pining that only a pilgrimage to Scappoose will succor.

And for those of you who think I'm kidding, I've turned the heel and am working on the cuff. You'd think I was Wendy or something.

Cold Spring

The cold that has lingered here has crept into my bones this morning. A good time to curl up in a sweater and work on the NY Times crossword. My knee is cranky from the drive and spinning later on, so we'll keep it warm.

Ted and Barbara want to know what my haul is from the Fiber Faire. Along with the handspindle, niddy, nostie, and Dicentra fiber I took home the Columbia. The unwashed fiber was lovely to look at but not for me. I would have had it processed. But the Columbia will be mine to play with. I may try spinning from the lock. I have some spun singles waiting to be plied that I can play with on my new spindle.

The pot's boiling. Time for my morning tea.

She's doing wheelies in the hall!

First off, I want to thank everyone with their messages of condolences regarding Joe. They are greatly appreciated. I won't be able to attend the memorial service, but I was able to leave a message on the online memorial book for him. There are good things on the Net.

Friday is the first concert day of the weekend (Confluence will have 3: Portland, Salem, and Corvallis). At the performance, I'll be radiating more than the usual charm. I'm scheduled for a bone scan of my legs (especially my right) to see what's going on. Since a misstep I took in December that jammed my leg, the knee has been getting steadily worse and indicating that it's not the usual arthritis. I'll have the bone scan, then go to the surgeon Wednesday (it was the best they could do on short notice). In the meantime, I'm using a wheelchair at the office and getting plenty of exercise pumping my upper body to push me as fast as I can on carpeted floors. It probably was a good idea of their not giving me an electric scooter.

In knitting news, the socks are finished. The camera was cooperative and represented the colors more accurately this time around. The ribbing was more enjoyable thanks to the color changes. I think if these were in a solid I'd be doing anything to avoid having to do that much ribbing. So Witt, good pick of yarn!

So what's next on the needles? I do have a few WIPs I need to finish up as well as some sock yarn from StitchJones. I think for the concert weekend some time spent with something nice will be good, like the Rose of England cloth languishing in the UFO basket, with a Kureyon striped brioche scarf for those mindless moments.

Your comments

I'm a bad blogger. Two people have said I've made their day and given me an award for it, and I haven't acknowledged them. So I want to thank Sharon and Shelly for their generosity. I also want to thank Joan S. for your kind comments yesterday. It's good to know that even though I get few comments I do have readers. Thank you everyone who has commented.

Emerald, thanks for trying out the patch toe. I'm glad you like it. Yes, you're welcome to link to it. May you and yours stay out of harm's way as you do your duty.

For those of you curious about how I'm doing with the tablet mouse, it's working out very well. I haven't yet used it for drawing purposes, but for working with Knit Visualizer it was so much less taxing than using a standard mouse. Working out the chart for the Norwegian sweater for the Ethnic Knitting KAL was a piece of cake.

My good friend Witt asked me if I would knit a pair of socks for him as his hands won't knit tiny gauge. He has a new pair of clogs and wants socks to show off. For him I'd knit him a Kaffe Fassett sweater, he's such a sweetheart. So I'm knitting a pair in Noro Sock yarn colorway 150. It's a little stiff but it's softening as I'm working it. The color changings make up for the stiffness of the yarn. OOOhhh! Blue!

For those of you wondering if I've been affected by the snow, I haven't but some of my siblings have. Spokane had their 4th snowiest January on record (up to 28 inches on the ground) and Klamath Falls needs shovels. The little kid in me wants snow but the adult in me is thankful that we don't have ice. And hearing from other places in the country we're pretty much in the banana belt this winter. So no complaints here.

Just another blustery day in River City

We had a little storm come through, one of those fed by subtropical moisture that comes north and whips us about. It was a strong one that generated hurricane force winds at the coast and threatened to be nasty further inland. It turned out that once it hit the coast mountains the winds cut down quite a bit so we didn't get as much damage in the valley as was expected. But the coast is flooded with trees down and roads closed. One tree in particular, an ancient Sitka spruce that was a landmark for travelers going to the beach, was finally felled. I've been trying to get a hold of my relatives on the coast but the phone lines are still down. I'm hoping they didn't sustain much damage or get flooded out.
Confluence's concert is next weekend in Salem (Saturday) and Corvallis (Sunday). We ran through our music last night and it sounds good. There are a few rough spots but if the chorus is like any other it will pull itself together at the last minute. We're hoping that the weather is cooperative. As for the West Linn Community Chorus, the commute there and other things convinced me that it wouldn't be a good fit, so my Thursday eveningswill still be open.
The knitting needles are going great guns. Item number four is just about ready for felting and number five is getting churned out. I have been taking pictures of the FO's to post after the holidays because some of my readers will be recipients. Of course I could post pictures of all of them and make them guess which one they're going to get, but that wouldn't be nice, right?

Thanks for visiting!

I took a peek at my StatCounter residing at the bottom of the page and lo and behold I've had over 10,000 visitors to my blog. Not many comments but then I'm not a comments whore. I'm glad you've come by to see what's going on. Thank you!

And now: your letters

Thank you everyone for your positive response on the socks. M-H writes "Er, Duffy, I don't think that age has anything to do with the brightness of your socks! I wear bright coloured socks all the time, and I'm quite a bit older than you." You're right. It's not age. I figured out what it is about the multi-dyed sock yarns that I don't like and it's the striping that the yarns do. (I have short wide feet and chunky ankles) When broken up with a different yarn, though, they give an appearance that I like.

As for a pattern, I'm working on that. The trick is that with a motif like this it's not easy to set it up for different foot sizes. I thought that working the motif twice would be the right size for my foot before starting the heel but I found that not to be the case. I also have to figure out what I need to do for my high instep and the leg. So I'll be looking at different motifs so that the pattern can be written up for several foot sizes.

Your comments

I wanted to get in a quick post to answer a couple of comments made on my hot flashes and my hair. It's going to be quick because I and my friend Reid are going to a live broadcast of "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" tonight, complete with my fave Roy Blount Jr and guest Gert Boyle of Columbia Sportswear.

Jan asked: Can you get Edy's juice bars where you are? That's my recommendation for getting through menopause--lime or lemon. Eat them or put one on the back of your neck (the latter is a little messy, but what the hell...) I think they come under the name Breyer's and yes they are yummy. However the carb load would be too much for the amount of heat I'm generating. We're talking 68 degrees F is too hot for me some days. But I've heard there are scarves out there with coolant inserts that you can drape or tie around your neck. I've seen something of the sort on fellow hot flashers (the menopausal kind--shut up).

Cynical Gal Who Knits commented that I look great. Thanks. That haircut was in 2002, a growout of when I had my head shaved for a benefit (I got 200 bucks out of corporate for the Oregon Food Bank). I know; I should have posted a current picture, but I was feeling too sweaty and gross to post one. I was blonde for a couple of years but went back to reddish-brown after my scalp went on strike against the bleaching. A shame really. Anyhoo, my hair's 4 inches long and has a natural soft curl that's colored medium-blah brown and silver-gray. I don't have enough gray to leave it uncolored and I don't like the brown, so I tint it. I just did it last night in this color and in the natural light it looks great. In the bathroom at the office it looks so fake. But it's not tri-colored: blah-brown and gray roots with faded red-brown tips.

Thanks for stopping by, kidlets! Family reunion this weekend!