MarQ1

Until vacation.

More new stuff:

I have got to start writing down what I buy online and what I think I’m going to do with it. For instance…

Upper left: we all know what this is for. The pattern looks simple enough, but I’ll be swapping out that middle letter soon enough, I’m sure. Got this at Woodland Woolworks.

Upper right: Rowan 4-ply Soft in Military and Espresso. Given the colors, I know I bought this for something for me. I don’t know why or for what, other than I like to get my money’s worth for shipping. J suggests socks, and he’s probably right.

If I ordered an espresso that color, though, I’d take it back. Also Woodland Woolworks.

Lower right: This is going to be a small Xmas present, something lace. Kaaland Yarns Expressions 100g 100% kid mohair in Mulberries. From Knit Happens, in last week’s sale. I also got some Lantern Moon #1 dpn’s. I checked the gauge, since Dan had some QA problems with his, and they’re fine. I’m hoping they hold sock yarn better than steel. They look awfully fragile though and clumsy is second nature to me.

Lower left: this is also from Woodland Woolworks and is Grignasco merinosilk lace-weight, purchased for practicing lace; that I know. What I didn’t know was that was labeled, and online appeared to be, Soft Coral really is Piggy Bank Pig Pink. Not a hint of orange at all. Do I know anyone who wears PINK lace? Or would?

Is PINK lace too dainty for a whippet? Just asking.

Blogger’s dictionary recognizes neither “purling” nor “mohair”. How shortsighted.

They aren’t perfect, but we have socks.

Or rather J has socks, as soon as I weave in the loose ends. I did ask J if he wanted the stripes to match and he said no. They don’t. The next pair will.

One reason these took so long was my miserable continental purling. I’ve been working on the technique and the next pair shouldn’t be so bad, nor will the entire leg be k2p2 rib.
This arrived Friday:

Guess what this is for? (answer)
Do I think I can do that? No. At least not yet, but I’ve bought the yarn nonetheless.
Mom likes it and since Mom never asks for anything for herself, I will try. I am going to practice on a few other things first. Notice also I’ve bought extra.
Many thanks to Tricky pointing out the sale at Knit Happens, where I got the KidSilk Haze and this:

Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Camouflage.

These will be socks for me. I love this yarn. I want more. I should have ordered more the moment I opened the package. Fool.
Switching gears, today’s bike ride was a tad easier with caffeine. I hit Fort Greene, Crown Heights, the east side of Prospect Park (whatever that neighborhood is), down Bedford Ave to Ave T (passing through Midwood at some point), back through Dyker Heights (which are relatively flat and not very high) and Sunset Park to 2nd Ave and back home. A good hour & forty minutes, most of it pedaled. There are some blocks where pedaling is pointless, for example 59th St from 4th to 3rd, where one merely hopes ones brakes will hold.

Good news: my love handles are shrinking ever so slowly. Bad news: my thighs are getting thicker, so I still can’t wear the skinny jeans comfortably.

I leave you with this, a desperate cry for more storage:

Now that we’ve jumped into summer full-blast, I made a serious effort to get out early on the bike yesterday. The high was predicted to be around 95F (35C). Back in Texas when I was a lot younger, this would have been no problem. Now I can afford air-conditioning and don’t have to get used to the heat and I’m older and have a better sense of my mortality.

I was true to my plan. Got up, made coffee, slathered sunscreen on my exposed skin, read a bit of the paper while the sunscreen was absorbed, got all my gear together and on, carried the bike downstairs and set off.

Notice that I didn’t drink any of the coffee. Nor did I drink any coffee when I returned. Hot coffee isn’t the first thing on your mind when you’re dripping with sweat and your legs are exhausted from the climb from sea-level to Prospect Park.

I had a caffeine headache from 2pm on yesterday. I went bed at 11 (on a weekend!) with the same headache. Only this morning, less than an hour ago, did I realize I had no coffee yesterday.

The coffee has cooled enough to be drunk. It has been and it’s time to slather on.

More later.

I was on call this weekend. The data was supposed to come in at 6am Saturday. It would take a few hours to process, some would call me and then I would go to the office, a ten-minute walk, to check it and catch up on a project that runs on the second-most excruciatingly slow software package. That would be most of my Saturday.

No call came. Ten o’clock this morning, still no call. I went to the office anyway to work on the other thing. I knit the ribbing on the sock during the many times I had to wait for the sock. No A/C BTW.

Turns out the data did not arrive until 7pm. And since no one else has to go to the office for this particular operation, no one thought to call and say, “We’re running late.” AARGH.

Next time this falls on a weekend, somebody’s going to e-mail or call me with regular status updates.

No biking this weekend. What with sitting around waiting for the phone to ring.

I did get around to reading Augusten Burroughs’ Running with Scissors. It was late when I picked it up, after midnight, but I wasn’t sleepy and felt like reading. I couldn’t put it down. It was almost 3am before I forced myself. It’s supposed to be a memoir, but it’s more of a well-written train wreck. I finished it this evening. I’ll save his Dry for vacation.

Still working on the other half of the pair. Haven’t even tried to make the stripes match.

Twenty-two days until vacation. Don’t think I’m not counting down.

Never do anything until you have to. Not quite a motivating principle, I’d guess; more of a way of life.

I finished this on Thursday:

I could have easily finished it on Wednesday, but didn’t. It sat there all evening waiting for me to finish that last bit of black at the crown, which you cant see in this shot.

I also could have taken shots of it on Thursday since that black bit took little or no time.

But I didn’t.

Here’s a shot of the hat being worn.

While the hat is for J, this is not J, who probably would not pose with the hat. C’est moi.

Hat III is Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino in alternating rows of purple and black, knit on a #2 Addi Turbo and #2 Addi dpn’s.

BTW, I started out caring about the jag where I switched colors, but decided I preferred the look of the jag to the alternatives.

The weather is not appropriate for such nice hats, so that will go into the closet until late fall.

Despite the heat, the weekend was great for biking. An hour and three quarters yesterday, just under that today. My ankles, calves, knees, and thigh muscles are beat. And I made three trips out into the heat to shop after that. Still didn’t cook. Too muggy.

And, for you doubters, now that the dpn’s are free, I’ve started the other sock.