MarQ1

Literally.

Clear and excruciatingly cold. My sympathies to the folks in Minneapolis, Chicago and Columbus and everywhere in between.

Binge Organizing

I’m tagging my swatches by yarn, needle size and type, and date. I was probably inspired by my newly organized notions and needles drawer.

We also installed new shelves in the bedroom closet, discarded unneeded furniture, took a few boxes to the basement, consolidated tools into a storage box under my desk and laid out plans to reorganize the office.

And I want to get a new stove.

Assault & Battery

Last Wednesday around 5:45 am, I was lying on the sofa reading the Times when I heard an beeping sound. Beep, beep, beep, pause. Beep, beep, beep, pause. First I thought it was a truck outside, but ruled that out when it continued for more than ten minutes. Then I thought our next-door neighbor was having trouble waking up, but dropped that hypothesis after a half hour of beep, beep, beep, pause, etc. The sound was definitely in the building and it wasn’t in our apartment, so i stepped into the stairway. It was coming from our upstairs neighbor’s apartment—our upstairs neighbor who had left the day before for Florida for a month.

Apparently she shut her electricity off for the month, but neglected to consider that her CO alarm would have a battery back-up that would eventually died down and cause the alarm to beep warningly. And annoyingly.

The alarm counts to three, but where I am on F&F, I need to count to 22. I can’t nap on the sofa for the beeping and napping would be good for my head cold. The battery is now weak enough that it stops for hours while the battery gathers its reserves, but inevitably when I think the alarm is done, it starts up again. I don’t hear it now, but that’s no promise.

J can’t hear the beeping in the apartment. Lucky.

Am I the only one who is annoyed by the sound that dimmer switches make?

The bulbs in our canned lights in the kitchen hum in an irritating way when they are about to burn out. J claims to not hear them. Anybody else notice this?

Cold, cold cold, and getting colder; cloudly earlier.

Cold: the Other Kind

Just the usual winter cold. I left work early and stayed home Friday, but spent most of the day on the phone with conference calls. We called it a working-from-home day instead of a sick day.

Socks Complete

I finished the second pair of socks in Gem Opal. They are thick, but not too much so, and should be warm. They aren’t quite dress socks though. Weaving the end I was surprised how even the stitches came out after washing, Knitting on the subway occasionally results in odd loose stitch, but it evened out nicely.

I’ve swatched for dress socks in Schaffer Yarn’s Anne on #00 (1.75mm) and #000 (1.5mm) dpn’s. The smaller gauge looks good, but there is no way I can knit with those on the subway. I’m doubtful about the #00’s. I got 8¼ st/in and 9½ st/in respectively, seated in a stationary chair.

Feather & Fan Update

I have passed the 60% mark, and am approaching the end of round 151. Forty-nine to go.

And now for the odd body part.