Yes, officer, there was knitting involved.

Um, yarn. Yes, still got that.

I have had a small knitting crush on the Nutkin pattern for some time. I like the movement, the big bold pseudo-cables. However, I didn't like some of the characteristics, like a tendency towards biasing. That one was easy to fix, just flip the chart for half of the sock.


I really like how each not-a-cable folds up when unblocked, but that's not the usual wearable state of socks, unfortunately. (Maybe I should make socks that are way too big so that they purposefully fold up?)

The other thing I do not like? THE HOLES.
Most of the YOs seem to vanish into the top of the cable, except the very first one of the pattern, which is very, very obvious, once stretched.

I can fix that too, I changed all those yarnovers to make 1s. I had to fiddle with them a little to make them look right, and they're not quite as pretty in unblocked form as the YO version, but again, I'm not going to be wearing them unblocked. My feet == very effective foot blockers.


Except another problem. This sock is Too Small.


Ugh, REALLY too small. Nice stretching, really attractive.

I ripped out (again) and cast on a total of 8 more stitches, about an inch more width around the leg. Except I kept the hemmed cast on, which was flaring out like crazy but fit nicely once on the leg. You cannot even tell I've added all those stitches it flares so much. Fortunately this is a dead-easy pattern to which to add stitches. I just make those "cables" 1 stitch longer, and each purl trough 1 stitch wider.


I don't know if this qualifies as 'just right', but *I* think it looks better.
But then I just had to get creative and make an eye-of-partridge heel, because of course I don't have enough to do. And then I made a dutch heel because the heel flap was way too wide and vanilla heel-flap heels was far too big. Now I just have the Ordeal of the Toe to overcome.

The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy (yeah, I succumbed. It's pretty.) in Gothic Rose.

The funniest thing? Now that I habitually break the <2.0 mm sock needle barrier, this sock, where I'm using US 1/2.5 mm needles, is going REALLY QUICKLY.

Healthy Veggeez just for Jez

Luminous bell peppers

Mountains of peaches

Luscious berries (sadly this picture is a month and a half old now and the blueberries have petered out.

A little vegetable/fruit still life with my farmer's market purchases from a few weeks ago.

I should say something profound here about Nutrition, but really these just all taste(d) so damn good. Feel free to picture Chairman Kaga from Iron Chef biting right into a raw bell pepper right now.

Monterey Aquarium

I keep forgetting that the California version is only spelled with one 'r.' What kind of spelling freak does that make me?

We did go to the Monterey aquarium, along with 3 other billion people that Friday, although I did muscle my way to the front of some of the exhibits because I was feeling camera happy that day. Too bad I only managed 1 picture at the wedding. I was too busy getting a raging sunburn, I guess.

Anemones. What you can't see from my crappy picture is all the little flat fish hiding in the sand with only their eyes poking out. I love that they come in all these different colors (the anemones. The fish come only in 1 color: sand.)


I could just sit and watch the jellyfish all day.

The display said that this particular variety was actually doing quite well in their natural habitat (the Mediterranean) and reproducing out of control in some Spanish lagoon. Yes - not a color distortion, their bottom parts really are blue.

The seabirds mostly come to them as injured rescues and get too used to people to be released back to the wild. I think these ones were studiously trying to ignore the oggling crowd.
K and I were probably far too interested in the wave-making machine making fake waves for the bird's little beach.

The sardines just keep swimming round and round and round and round and round. There were a few punk sardines wandering off on the sidelines, being sullen and refusing to swim with the crowd. The ever-rotating sardines (the tank is just a cylinder, maybe 6 feet in diameter?) are kind of mesmerizing but K the Love Monkey finally tore me away.

I have an almost uncontrollable urge to knit mittens. Stranded ones, because it can't ever be simple, can it? Like suddenly my life will be complete if only I could Knit Some Mittens NOW.

L is for Less Depressing Things

• Reed's Extra Ginger Brew ginger beer. 17 g of fresh ginger, oh yeah.
  
• The Laurelwood, whose food and drink I hope to be enjoying this evening.
  
  
• All of Portland's Farmer's Markets. This isn't even all of them. I went to the big downtown one this last Saturday hoping to score some roasted chiles - mission achieved! I took my camera so I could take some pictures for Grandma.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Pretty, pretty mittens.
  
  
• The anticipation of this year's Oregon Flock & Fiber Festival
  

I'm sorry though, I still detest buses. Especially those driven by cephalopods.

Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker

I'm sorry I haven't been very sociable. Frances is not out of the cancer woods yet, unfortunately. The biopsy was negative, but there's been some cat oncology studies about mysterious inflammations where they found the lumps pretty much act like and eventually turn into cancer, even when the pathology is all negative. What's most worrisome is 1) she's lost weight since the last vet visit the winter, a whole pound (from 12 pounds). She does get much more exercise in the summer, though, so it could just be seasonal weight loss. And 2) it's about 3.5 centimeters in diameter. Yeah, a big lump.

They think it's a Vaccine-associated sarcoma, which occur occasionally at the sites of vaccinations on cats. From the articles I've reading, the figures are 1 in 1000 to 1 in 10,000. That's per shot, not per cat.

The treatment is euphemistically called "aggressive surgery"; e.g. amputation, if it occurs on a limb. The occurrence of these sarcomas is evidently high enough that the US vet association has made guidelines for where kitties now get their rabies and feline leukemia vaccinations - one in the right hind leg and one in the left. We're just having a hard time trying to decide whether that's appropriate, when none of the actual lab reports have come up with a definitive reading on cancer. On the other hand, it's so BIG. And it is near the vaccination site and she actually did get a lump after a previous vaccination, which eventually receded, but it wasn't nearly so big and it wasn't on the same spot.
The longer we dither the greater chance that if it is some kind of proto-cancer it'll metastasize. After that, there really isn't any treatment.

Bah. The cat is annoyed because she got shaved again for lump measurement, plus all the other ignominious vet things like the taking of the temperature (I think I can understand about being annoyed about that). Otherwise it's a beautiful evening. I think it will involve beer.

Good News on the Frances Front

Well, we may not have Cancer Kitty after all. The biopsy came back negative - no sign of any cancerous growth. The vet is stumped why there might be a large, firm, painless lump on her leg, growing in size, that isn't some kind of tumor. It's definitely not an abscess. The current theory is scar tissue? Either that or some kind of error or weirdness in the biopsy.

So it's either:
1) wait and see
2) surgically remove the whole damn thing and send that all in for another biopsy

Poor kitty. She did manage to get the cone off once (but I was right by) and I let her have a grooming session as long as she didn't lick her hind leg. She was fairly rabid about getting her feet washed. I think she rustles about sometimes at 4 am just to get back at us for making her wear it.

Frances

Frances the cat went to the vet this week because she had a lump on her leg. We're waiting to hear back on the biopsy results, which should come sometime this week. The worst part is that I felt the lump before but successfully argued myself out of taking her, thinking it was just a bone or muscle or something. She hates going to the vet and I hate taking her. But it's gotten bigger.

So I haven't felt much like blogging lately, or doing much of anything.
And I've got a pissed off cat because she's got to wear a cone for 2 weeks until the biopsy incision heals. Fortunately she seems to have forgiven us the vet visit. Or maybe she just wanted some of that salmon we had for dinner (she was successful in cadging a couple bites).

Cal-i-forn-i-a

We're attending a wedding in Monterey. I am really, really hoping it will be low-key because I don't know how well I can handle high strungedness right now. I might just snap and garrote someone with the sock yarn (it's part nylon for extra strength). I'd stop by and say hi but I didn't plan ahead. Also I have never been to that area so I'm looking forward to wandering around the tidepools like the social hermit I am, although K the Love Monkey is coming along as well because I need a beer partner. Well and because he was invited too. We just celebrated our second anniversary this week. Yay us.

I leave you with the Doner Kebab of Doom. Really, doesn't it look evil? It was perched on that tray, a single tv tray with nothing else on it or around it, on the sidewalk in downtown Portland. Everyone was avoiding it, like it had an aura.
If you get too close it may eat your fingers.

Ridiculousness

I'm really not a gadge person but this whole camera-in-a-phone is an endless source of amusement. These 2 I snapped around town.


Someone really likes The Godfather


The name of the company is "Graybar" but someone stole part of the sign. I couldn't stop giggling every time I walked by. Why yes, I am 5.


I took part of my sandwich home from dinner the other night and look what K did to it.


I think today may be raspberry currant jam day.

K is for Koi

e.g. Overgrown goldfish. But they're sure pretty, the big moochers.


K is also for Keladry of Mindelan, the heroine of a set of novels that I like quite a lot. I just reread them again lately and remembered all over again just how much I enjoy them. Yes, they're fantasy (don't cringe, I can see the Harry Potter on your shelves) -- A 10-year old girl who wants to become a knight and is the first to be allowed to do so.

I just love so much how girls get to *do* things in these books. And it does that without demeaning any other things girls want to do. If you miss the lack of Harry Potters I wholeheartedly suggest these; they're by Tamora Pierce. The first one is named First Test. I think Ms. Pierce is a fantastic storyteller. She's written many other books but these ones are my favorites; I don't know why but I just get wrapped up in the story and characters.


Oh sure, flick your tail at me, you debutante.

I'm not very good at this "consistency" thing

At least not on multiple tasks at once. bah.

Last Friday morning on my way to work I saw that the big civic square was full of people and... big piles of sand. I stopped by after work and found that there'd been a big sand sculpture contest that day. It was pretty neat walking around all the sculptures.

The sponsoring org was a kids charity so everything generally had a kid theme.
One of my favorites, a food pyramid. Hehehehe.


And this is the monster under the bed


A space exploration scene with an unfortunately shaped rocket ship.


Space alien!


OK, time to go figure out dinner. sigh.

Screw this "real" thing

I am the tiniest bit tipsy so I thought I'd preface this rant (sigh. And it is a rant. K the love monkey feels I need to be more even-tempered. He does not say so but I know he thinks it. I know by the look on his face when I get going) (also this means I am easily distracted, if it's not readily apparent by now) with that information for your entertainment.

So tired of this "real" thing. You're not a "real" X if you don't do Y. Who suddenly stood up and designated you the Arbiter of All That is Perfection in Craftiness? I encountered this years ago at a quilting show, when someone I don't care to associate with anymore declared anyone who didn't handstitch their appliqué was not a "real" quilter. Screw that. It's all about mastering the methods that you choose to employ. It doesn't matter how you do so -- many techniques aren't even comparable. Making some kind of value judgment of people's worth based on their technique is ridiculous. I think that the care and craftsmanship that went into an object is to be honored.

Dammit. I'm out of adjectives. I'm tired and I still don't have a lot of free time. I'm whiny and jealous of my own husband who got to bike to work today and I haven't been able to be on a bike for weeks. I wish I were a better person. I'm supposed to have come up with something for dinner (any ideas?). This weekend I was so obsessed, with just resting and not going anywhere or doing anything I knit almost an entire sock. On 2 mm needles (too small for me, it's for my SIL. 64 st ain't big enough for my clodstompers at that size. I'm getting a jump on Christmas). I have barely read blogs for weeks. I feel awful about not keeping up. Also, I cannot seem to stop wanting to buy yarn online, and I seem to have some kind of orange fascination that will. not. stop.

Bah. At least it is SUMMER. I don't care if it's 95, I'll enjoy it anyway.

Look, beer & a wedding (not mine, a friends') on a very warm summer night. Hoorah!

Rhythm

Short 'n' sweet:
* The weekend was nice, but too short
* Physical Therapist on Monday did something good and I feel a bunch better today than I have for a while. Thank you all.
* work continues. I yearn to be useful but I'm still trying to figure out how to use everything.
* There's more to life than socks, I keep repeating to myself

Darth Socks

*Note: not "the" darth socks, just Darth Socks. Dum-dum-dum-duhduhDUM, duhduhDUM (that's supposed to be the Imperial March) They are BLACK. This is part of the Love Monkey Sock Project: 4 skeins of black uni-color Opal to be turned into socks. Every time I thought of them I was reminded of the old Brunching Shuttlecocks cartoon, More Darths. My favorite is Darth Billy. Or maybe Darth Elbow. Now you know just how weird I am.

Here's the Death Star flyby view:

It's just a boring old cuff-down sock pattern with a knit-purl stitch pattern.

Also, black yarn: not that bad. I had heard the horror stories, but even though I knit most of these last February it really wasn't hard to see. Then again, they are only a knit-purl pattern: no cables, no decreases or increases except as the sock pattern specifies.

I was just going to post some random pictures from the trip in June to Japanese garden trip because they're pretty and I got nothing interesting, but I see I snuck in some socks. Sorry about that.
Shadow of the bamboo. Sounds like a kung-fu movie, doesn't it?
Interference patterns in a fountain
Moon and Sun

That mama mallard had something like 10 ducklings following her around. I think she must've been designated babysitter for the day.

J is for Justifications

Lame ones, that is.

I've been eaten up by my first week of work. I go in early and come home at night exhausted. I'd forgotten what this kind of dedicated brain-stuffing does to me. Also this week is the week my back decided to turn traitor again, and while it's not so bad that I can't hobble to work, it slows me down, and I'm even more loopy when I give up and take the meds. I haven't read blogs in a week, let alone answer email, so I apologize for the lack of responses. Hopefully I'll be less braindead after the 3-day weekend.

Yes yes, I've got an appointment with yet another physical therapist on monday. I should go back to sports med doc from last time and ask him WTF. But he's just a 40-minute drive away and I haven't felt up to explaining everything again, let alone trying to unfold myself out of the car after 40 minutes in 1 position.

Aren't I a whiner. It's a talent, I tell you. I definitely seem to practice frequently. Bah.

Here's a real J:
mmm, jam

The berries have started in earnest (strawberries are the harbinger, but we've made it into rasp/blue season. A few more weeks for blackberries) and I'm unabashedly stuffing my face with berries. Every summer at some point I get overambitious and buy a half flat to make jam. Making your own canned jam is easy-peasy: you can add whatever you like and you don't have to pressure cook it, just boil it awhile. There's no danger of botulism, because fruit is too acid for that particular bacteria to survive. I learned from my Mom but any of those little packets of pectin have a insert that explains how to do it.

Making jam makes me feel like a domestic goddess -- look at me, I PRODUCE MY OWN FOOD! (well, sorta. Don't destroy my dream). Also, it's like self-patterning sock yarn, people are usually impressed: "you make jam! Wow, you must be Mr/Ms Perfect Home." Ha. I wish.

Anyway, happy 4th everyone! It's raining here (per tradition. It's a pacific NW thing), but that's OK because I've gotten a couple weeks of warmth and sunshine and this summer rain just means I don't have to water all the damn plants. I wish you all a happy day full of tasty food, pretty yarn, good company (or blessed solitude should you so desire), and pain-free movement, wherever you are.

P.S. Heidi, you are officially TAGGED for that meme from the last post.

Carmen's Meme

Carmen tagged me with a meme, and because she's such a frickin' awesome person, I'm actually going to do it.

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
Oh gosh. Finishing up my undergrad degree. I don't even remember what classes I was taking then, I just wanted to be DONE.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today
make copies of keys
put all the sock yarn in 1 place
work out afghan squares
bake strawberry-rhubarb pie
absorb sunshine

My socks, they are LOUD. This is prior to ripping after a lot of messing around.

3) Snacks I enjoy
HHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Just about anything.
But I really like Italian bread with fresh basil, mozzarella, and tomatoes. And berries. Any kind of berries. Oh yes Carmen, and Cheetos, too. I also have this thing for Sunchips. Mmmm, and fresh guacamole and corn chips. I better stop now.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire
Ha, things I wouldn't do. But the top of the list:
buy house and set up my parents so they could retire
send my brother to England as he so wants. Heck, I'll come along too for a couple weeks
Visit Ireland again
Mostly I'd like to give anyone money who needs it and not have to worry about finances.

5) Places I have lived
Seattle, WA
Portland, OR
Pasadena, CA
Albuquerque, NM
Missoula, MT

A regular tour o' the West.

Hi, I like to spiral in different bands.

6) Jobs I have had
I'm kind of boring here.
waitress
shake man (man being the diminutive of "human" here)
library lackey
receptionist (ugh. I hate phones)
filing monkey
break-it person
make-it-work person

I'm not going to name more people but I'd like to find out more about everyone! Yeah, maybe I'm now the last person on the planet to participate in this. Bite me. After you drop me a link to your own answers to these questions.

Lazy

So. Thing #1 was that I did get a new job. (Thing #2, if you didn't see my edit to the post, was my article published in Knitty.) I start next Monday and this week I'm taking as vacation. It's been a long long while since I just had a week of freedom to mess around at home. I do like traveling and vacations, but it's wonderful to just take a week and spend it however damn well I feel like. Call my a hermit or homebody or whatever, but I like my home.

I'm enjoying the sunshine (yes, finally!) and the warm-but-not-hot-weather (highs in the 70s). Monday was errand day. I even biked to the dry cleaners! Yesterday I took a bike ride down the river to a yarn shop in SE Portland after FINALLY mailing some packages. This morning the cat and I are hanging out on the patio in the sunshine, watching the flowers bloom and the crows harass the squirrels. This afternoon I think I'll attempt to bring order to the stash, after vacuuming. (My key to feeling like I'm not the laziest lazy person ever is to get at least 1 tangible chore-like thing done a day. Yesterday was the kitchen.)

Anyway, I haven't been spending a lot of time at the computer, so I'll have to catch up on blogs sometime. Forgive me for slow response times.


The pretty pictures for this post are a skein of hand-dyed yarn I bought yesterday at Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks, whose sock yarn collection is impressive (although can't yet go head-to-head with the fabulous Wall O' Sock Yarn at wonderful Twisted). It's by Happiest Girl! Dyeworks in colorway "Unexpected." I haven't seen this particular dyer's yarn anywhere and I'm in love with this skein. The pictures don't begin to capture the colors - mostly muted greens, blues, and browns, but with the occasional sparkle of turquoise, gold, and electric purple.

I really should have spent some quality time with the image color adjuster for these photos, because they just look disappointing, but that'd cut into my valuable get-a-sunburn time.

It was only self-control and thoughts of all the stash sock yarn waiting patiently for attention that kept me from buying 2 or 3 more skeins in other colorways. I can't wait to see how it knits up.

Life

I should probably apologize for that, but at least I'm likely not the first to do it.
The cherries are Chelan. I got them from the farmer's market this morning and they are SO GOOD.

Stitch patterns

There is probably something horribly wrong with me, if I am drunkenly thumbing through a Barbara Walker stitch pattern library and I see this pattern and think, "she shoulda called that the Vulva pattern because that's exactly what it looks like."

The Vulva pattern: doesn't look like it'd work for the problem sock yarn. Drat.

Sock Disgruntlement

H was going to be for 'hyperbole' but I didn't get my stuff together for that, so I'll just spread some here: I've been working on a BILLION socks lately. Mostly I've just needed something portable and not requiring all that much thought. Socks fit the bill perfectly. And you know what? I look at them now and they are all ugly socks. Ugliness. Some I am just knitting to finish them up (fascination with the abomination, perhaps?) so I don't have to look at them any more. Is stockinette all I can mentally cope with? In wussy, washed out, clashing 80s colors?

I think I've OD'ed on the socks, maybe, because every one I look at I just think "meh." In order to regain some sock mojo I even *finished two pairs* on Sunday night. Yeah, that's how many socks I've been working. To be honest, 1 pair just needed ends woven in and the other needed some ends and a few rows on the toe. Still.

I've got this sock yarn that I really like, it's all happy lemon yellow and lime green (K the love monkey thinks it is the YUCK, but that's ok, because they are for ME ME ME. I have a bunch of black sock yarn lined up for him), but I cannot figure out a pattern that I like for the yarn. I've spent hours trying various things and it just looks horrible. Bah. I've got to steam it because it's all kinked up from the different knitting experiments. STUPID YARN, SPEAK TO ME!

Oh hey, or I could work on the 23 kajillion other projects I'm in the middle of. Instead I'll just whine a lot in print. Or maybe I'll just start another pair of socks.

Easy to please

Ladies and Gentlemen --

We have strawberries (that is if the squirrels don't get them first. GRRRRRR SQUIRRELS).

Proof that I do actually finish things from time to time

Hi everyone, meet Bunny:

Not that Bunny. This one isn't wearing emerald green toenail polish and hanging with nihilists.

Bunny is a present for one of my nieces who just turned 2 a week ago (yes, I am late as ALWAYS)

Pattern: Rabbit from Baby Knits: 20 Handknit designs for babies 0-24 months by Lois Daykin
Needles: 3.25 mm/US 3 wooden DPNs
Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashsoft DK in peach for the body (1.3 balls), Rowan RYC Cashsoft 4 Ply and Cashcotton 4 Ply for the dress (.75 balls of the main color, and some 10-20 yards for every other color)

The pattern calls for everything to be knit flat, but I tried that for a single piece before converting everything possible to in-the-round. It saves seaming time and it's hard to see any different between the seamed piece and the rest of them. All of the increase and decreases are symmetrical, so it's easy to convert: Just switch the decreases to the right side version (e.g. P2tog->SSK) and eliminate the last stitch of every row.


The ears were the trickiest part, since they are in seed stitch, and decreasing while keeping the stitch pattern current is a bit tricky. I ended up with a row of knit stitches down the side of each ear, but it made the ears fold nicely so I call it a feature.

Other things I changed: I matched all the make-one increases because I thought they looked better that way and I'm a tiny bit anal-retentive like that. The pattern just specifies a generic left-leaning make 1.
In addition, I added 4 more seed stitch rows to each foot pad because they weren't long enough to fit nicely on the legs.

For once I hit the gauge spot-on with the recommended needles. You use the same size for both the body and the dress, since the body is knitted tighter so it can be stuffed. I changed the main stranded pattern on the dress from the one given in the book, because I only had 4 colors of 4 ply and I didn't like how it looked. I like mine much better. Hooray for graph paper.

It took me a while to sew up all the little pieces and then sew them to each other. Perhaps I was too aggressive, as I do not want her head ripped off (I fear 2-year-olds). More likely I just do not know the esoteric secrets of knitted stuff animal sewing.

This project also unfortunately reminded me of just how awful I am at embroidery. The nose is a solid mass of satin stitch (if you keep stitching eventually you'll cover all the surface, that's my motto). After a number of a failed tries at getting the backstitched mouth looking even, I surfed around and found chain stitch, my new best friend. It gave me enough control over the stitches that I could its expression look less psychotic and more benevolent. The pattern calls for embroidered whites on the eyes, but it looked horrid and I picked it all out and just went with buttons (VERY WELL SECURED, I ASSURE YOU).

This was my first stuffed toy and my first stranded knitting. I thought it'd be a good learning piece because my niece is not likely to care so much if my strands are a little too tight. Another unfortunate project epiphany: I suck real bad at American-style knitting, even after a few hours of practice. Oh well, I'll keep persisting. I haven't decided yet if I don't like it because I am clumsy at it, or because I just don't like it, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

Why is my bunny orange? Because she eats lots of carrots, of course.

Did I mention H is for HALLELUJAH!

Sunshine!

Cruddy cellphone pictures, but you get the idea. I took them out the window just now. Just look at that cloud layer receding to the east!


High 75, low 50. Yay summer, yay!