Happy spring!

The evil plum trees have put on their alluring frills. I have a love/hate relationship with them stemming from childhood. For those of you not familiar with these, they are ornamental plum trees that most of the year are covered with nice red leaves. In the spring they bloom with pretty pink flowers. But those blossoms are merely a ruse for they turn into nasty tasting plums that drop and sprout into trees. A number of them are in my lawn, rooted there so firmly it will take a rototiller to rip them out. I have found that if I don't fertilize the lawn and am careful with pruning I keep the plum production down to a dozen a year. If it weren't for the expense of going through a city permit system to cut them down then replace them with other trees, I would have taken them out years ago. But we have come to a truce. They don't bear plums; I let them live.

Why this animosity toward a tree? If you have lived with a tree that bore fruit, edible or non-edible, you would understand. But for those of you who have not I highly recommend that unless you train them on a trellis you not get one at all. Fruit trees attract bugs and birds and leave an awful mess that attract even more bugs like yellow jackets and hornets. Where I grew up, my grandmother gave my mom and dad an ornamental plum tree that under my mom's TLC became a giant 30 footer. All of us kids had the job of cleaning up the plums that fell during the summer off the patio and driveway so that they wouldn't sprout in the yard. By the time it was my turn, the production was increasing to the point of a deluge. It was one year that we had a bumper crop of plums (Mom had had the tree pruned the previous year) that I lodged a protest to management. I would clear off the patio and wash the juice down, then work on the driveway. By the time the driveway was done, the patio looked like it hadn't been touched. I was never so happy as the day I watched that tree be taken out of the back yard.

Some day I'll be rid of those damn trees.

Knitting

The Sirdal is complete!

I'll have to rework the bottom hem because it keeps curling up. That's an easy fix compared to reknitting a section. A little judicious gathering while retacking the edge will undo that curl. Of course it's over 60 degrees F today. Barf.

Another one done for the Knitting from Stash pile!

The body is complete

It's going to be a good day

I knew when I brushed my hair this morning and the naturally curly locks just fell into place instead of tweaking hither and yon that it was going to be a good day.

A fellow lister sent this link and it got me thinking. There's the myth of the boyfriend sweater (you know, where you never knit your boyfriend a sweater because after you do he'll break up with you), but I wonder if this would apply to guys knitting a sweater for their girlfriend. I don't think it's reciprocal because women love getting gifts from their lovers (at least this has been my experience). If my boyfriend/girlfriend knitted me a sweater, I would love it all the more because of the time spent on knitting the thing. But then, what if the sweater was a color I didn't like? What if it itched? What if it fit poorly? Tell me what you think.

Unlike plain stockinette sweaters or ones with one design element in them, the Sirdal has several so you can see progress clearly and revel in it. It's kind of like a huge self-striping sock, only you put in the colors. I was very pleased to reach this point last night, measure it, and find that it is right on in its measurement.

In Stitches

I finally warded off Penelope from my Sirdal and reached the upper body patterning. No more lice! I was more active this week so didn't make as much progress as the previous week, but I'm glad to get to this point in the pattern. Today will be a day of knitting, sipping tea, and listening to Cast-On episodes.

Update: The Sirdal has passed a milestone. It's large enough for a cat to sneak a nap on.

Happy Birthday Oregon

On this day in 1859, the Oregon territory became the state of Oregon. By then some of my relatives had been settled in Oregon for almost 15 years. Oregon City was the destination of many settlers before heading up the Willamette to settle in the valley or down the Willamette toward Fort Vancouver. My siblings were school age during the centennial; it will be interesting to see what we do for the sesquicentennial in 2009. I better get my spinning skills up to snuff in case I want to reenact a pioneer woman like my great-great grandmother.

I'm so close to starting the Sirdal chest pattern. I'm at that point in the sweater where I think I'm making great progress but the tape measure says it's still only 12 1/2" long. What, is Penelope lurking in the closet and undoing my rows while I sleep? At least I know I'm not allergic to wool. Monday I woke to my hands so puffy I could hardly use them. I narrowed the culprit to a dusty copy of "The Book Of Lists" and after a thorough cleaning and cortisone ointment applications my hands returned slowly to normal. I lost a day to knitting but at least it wasn't so severe that I needed to visit the ER.

This and this arrived in the mail, courtesy of a gift card from a promotion. Some anime films are either extraordinarily violent or cutesy. "Akira" is intelligent and well-executed. And I simply fell in love with the adventure of "Master & Commander" enough to want a copy of my own. Heave to, me hearties!

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you. Now the jewelry commercials (especially those extraordinarily annoying Jared ones) can cease and we can return to our regularly scheduled dreck.

Knitting progress

I don't have many spoons to use today so I'm posting knitting pix to give you an idea of how far I am on current projects. I'm halfway through the lice portion of the Sirdal and less than halfway done with the table runner. I'm also doing this through Picasa and am not liking how it hiccups while trying to write the post. It could be Blogger. It could be my computer. Whatever it is, it's irritating. I'll be working on a workaround for this.

10 days done

There's not much knitting going on besides the Sirdal (a little over six inches to go before I start on the upper pattern section of the body). I got the measurements for the socks I'm going to make so I'll dig in Charlene Schurch's "Sensational Knitted Socks" for a good pattern for a man's pair. I may go in my Barbara Walker to find a nice rib. There are other sites on the Web I could browse, like MenKnit.net and MenWhoKnit, who can give me ideas of what would be appropriate for men's socks. I don't want them to be dull but I don't want them too foofy looking either.

One thing I've had to resort to with the Addi Naturas I'm using is wearing a leather quilter's thimble. I didn't realize how sharp the points were going to be with all the knitting I'm doing until I started feeling a sharp pain where the point was hitting on my right index finger. Further inspection turned up a hole growing through the callus. Fortunately one of the things from my quilting days is the perfect solution for the problem. I throw with my right hand, so the yarn travels over my index finger between the leather and the blue elastic band.

I had intended to stay home tonight but ventured out after six to go to Stitch n Bitch at Mon Ami for an hour's gab with my fellow local knitters. I had a good time but didn't linger too long as I had driven myself there. The gals were glad to see me and shared their doings, and I had one of the crepes, a ham, brie, and pear concoction in a buckwheat crepe as a dinner treat.

When I settled back in my recliner to ease my aching belly, Maisie decided she wanted my affection. She settled on the right arm of my recliner and my right leg and insisted I give her attention.

Of course the others had to get in on the attention. Buster climbed up atop the recliner where he was safe from Maisie's smacks. Sammy was not so sensible and got away before I could get a picture in.

Home

I'm back home from my surgery and doing very well. I won't know until my post op visit how much my fibroid laden uterus weighed, but my surgeon said it was the same size as a woman who has been pregnant for 20 weeks. I looked it up. It's the size of a canteloupe. Good gravy!! No wonder I was miserable. Hopefully that will help shed a few pounds and give me the energy I need to resume regular exercise.

For now it's do nothing but walk. Don't bend, twist, jerk, lift, wash, dry, turn, boogie, or do the hokey pokey. I can walk. That's it. As long as I can tolerate. The more the better. It will help my insides resume regularity. Damn, I was looking to doing the shimmy shimmy shake once I was out of the hospital, because I feel good in a James Brown kind of way.

I will be able to drive after a week, though. Which means I can get out of the house as long as I can tolerate and visit my LYS's and work on the Sirdal. I finished one sleeve and cast on the body while on Oxycodone. Thank heavens for markers because after 50 stitches I was losing count and the puppy is 313 stitches of cast on. This morning I worked a row while not on narcotics and found I was off one stitch. HAhahahahaaaa!

I learned this morning that Molly Ivins died from breast cancer. I love her acerbic wit and descriptions of the Texas "Lege". I figure she's up in a corner of the Great Beyond sharing good ol' boy stories with Ann Richards, Mickey Leland, and John Henry Faulk. She'll be missed by us liberals. If you haven't experienced her writing, start with her first book, Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? Here's a Lone Star raised to you, Molly. Give 'em hell.

Mudnay

Yesterday I delivered the hat to Don S at choir and he was tickled to death. He said that when I emailed him the teaser picture he couldn't wait to get it. It looks quite good on him, though you'd have to take my word on it as dingerdong me forgot to bring the camera to rehearsal. But it was so warming to see such pleasure on the face of a recipient.

Dale KAL

A fellow knitter on the GLBT knit list mentioned in a post a week ago that she was going to be working on a Dale of Norway sweater as part of a knit-a-long. The idea of being part of a knit-a-long for Dale sweaters appealed to me and as I had yarn stashed away for such a project I was able to jump in with both feet. I didn't realize when I signed up that the word had been out since late November of this and that it would start on January 20th, so I felt like a latecomer to a tour with questions that I'm sure the guide had already answered.

If you're not familiar with Dale of Norway, they're best known as the source of the sweaters for the US and Norwegian Winter Olympic teams. Some knitters are diehard Dale fans and collect the patterns. There are sources for the authentic patches and accessories on the Web to add to your Dale sweater to make it a truly Dale sweater. Of course if you add up the yarn, the buttons, the braid, the patches, and the pattern, you have one expensive sweater. But with judicious shopping you can find the materials and not have to hock your first born child. I was fortunate to score the yarn in the discontinued/overstock room at Woodland Woolworks a couple of years ago. The pattern was up in the air at the time, but I opted for Sirdal as my choice. It has a nice balance of patterns all over it and only requires two colors.

Friday I didn't have my long needles for casting on the body of the sweater so I started with the right sleeve. It starts with a split cuff. With color work. Whoever devised this must have been a troll from the depths of a northern fjord. And is named Hrgundebjarndisigmir. And hasn't had trollish delights for donkey's years. Knit the hem section. Knit the turn row. Now knit from this chart using two yarns back and forth, maintaining gauge and keeping the stitches for both colors even. Oh yeah, and don't forget to put in the buttonholes. They're in the pattern somewhere.

Oh yeah, there they go. Right in the middle of the pattern. Hm. Okay, knit on knit on knit on.

Okay time to knit in the round but not here. You have to do it over here. So you have a flappy thingy for your buttons. Isn't that clever!

Okay so far so good now what do I knit?

Now are you going to use braiding or not?

Um, what do I have to do if I do?

You have to do this.

Oh. But the picture doesn't look like that. It has this chart starting from the braid, not that one. So what do I do if I don't want braid?

You have to do this.

Um, but that's the same only ten rows sooner. And it still doesn't look like the picture.

Bugger it, I'll do it my way

.

The result so far is above. If I want braiding, I have room for it. If not, it still looks fine.