lolajl: May 2006 Archives

End at toe with 80 stitches, divide in half to 40 stitches front and back, decrease to 12 stitches before kitchenering off.

Sorry about having been away for a bit from the blog . . . I simply haven't really been in the mood to post due to being preoccupied by certain matters, especially job hunting, which continues to be as frustrating as ever. It's so annoying to get email and phone calls telling me that they "saw my resume, and want to talk to me, so give me a call". And when I call via relay service, yep, I get the answering machine. And I can't just say okay, well, I called, so give me a call since I don't have a tty (I use internet relay) and a majority of people don't know how to use the relay service, or don't want to bother going through the trouble of using it. And I'd like not to tip it off that I have a disability and thus give them a subtle excuse not to seriously consider me (even though this is of course against the law); I just want them to look at the work that I've done for the 10 years that I was with the company, okay? (That, in and of itself, should state quite clearly that I was able to work just fine with my co-workers despite not being able to hear, and I'm a stable worker.) Please, when you get in touch with me, could I have "we want to talk to you . . . come in for an interview"? That'd make my day. Okay . . . thus endeth the Rant of the Day.

A while ago I ordered an emergency sock kit from Too Much Wool and it arrived last week. I love the fabric! Just what I wanted; now I need to trick it out with needles and other functional tchotchkes. Now I'm looking forward to how she figures out the circular needle kit (hint, hint). I've joined the Summer of Socks that Zarzuela is hosting. I need to make more socks so that I have a nice variety to choose from during the cold season, and these are easy and quick to knit up anywhere. Plus, I have plenty of sock yarn, enough for maybe fifty socks. No, I don't think I'll make that much - I'm not SuperWoman! I just need to lick the Second Sock Syndrome.

Now that it's summer, it's back to gardening. Here's me mucking around in the garden. I'm getting ambitious this year - I'll be growing a lot of vegetables of different varieties, such as tomatoes (I was able to find a very nice Fourth of July at a local nursery), cucumbers, and so forth. I'm even growing from seeds and these are doing quite well. I'll give the first batch of seeds a few more days to grow, and then transplant these.

I'm making a few changes to the garden in terms of perennials. I've had a hard time deciding what to get based on the amount of light. Finally, I've decided that in the corner that gets shade much of the day once the morning sun moves around, I'm going to have hostas and other plants that love the shade. I do have a flower that I got planted there, but I've forgotten the name just now and need to go back outside to look at the label. I moved the rosemary bush I was trying to grow over to a new spot by the clematis last fall and I think it's going to be much happy there. I got a hardy passionflower and planted it between the rose bush and the clematis. And, I have a non-invasive honeysuckle waiting to be transplanted as soon as the ground gets tilled in the front right corner. Oh, and the anemic pine trees are going to be buh-bye as soon as we get in touch with the city hall. These trees are in the common area, but simply have never grown well despite the 10 years that these have been in that spot. I'll have to take a picture when I get a chance, you'll see what I mean.

Here's a really nice picture of the rosebush and clematis. Yes, I didn't do anything special with the rosebush. I come from the "survival of the fittest" school and just let it duke out. We're going to need to do a bit of pruning so that I can get the rosebush to actually climb on the fence. It's those darn thorns that are getting in the way.

Now, I leave you with this lovely close-up of one of the roses (oh, how I wish you could smell the fragrant scent!) . . .

Lolly asked about my loot from the festival. Well, here's what I got this year - I didn't buy as much as usual. I bought copies of Wild Fiber magazines, and Janet Szabo's new book on Aran design.

Walking through the barns, these jewel-colored batts caught my attention, and I just had to have these. These come from Lincoln cross sheep, and come from Barneswallow Farms. In the middle you'll see a Celtic knot diz from VIP Fibers, Inc. - it is black lip mother of pearl. I've put it in my wood box where I keep my fiber art knickknacks so I don't lose it - I have another diz and I don't remember where it is now.

See those two skeins? The one on the left is from Ellen's Half Pint Farm and is 50% wool/50% tencel. I fell in love with this, and I had to have a skein so I could make myself a pair of socks to see if I can wear these next to my skin. And the on on the right is Tregellys hand-dyed yarn, 3-ply and 55% mohair/45% wool. Unfortunately, there's no gauge on this one (and not on the Ellen skein either). But it looks to be sportsweight or DK; I'm also planning to make a pair of sock from this. This will be worn with my commercial socks and it should be perfect for cold weather - I usually wear Birkies during the winter.

I would have had skeins from Blue Moon here if I had remembered to get to The Fold first thing; oh, well.

It's unbelievable how there are so many people are here, especcially with the nice sunny, mild weather. As expected, there were popular items that sold out quickly, such as Blue Moon Arts Socks That Rock yarn. I met up with Genia, who told me that Toni had bought in 400 skeins and sold out in half hour. Of course, I'd forgotten all about this vendor. I had to take back my woolee winder for my Jensen wheel, but he'll get it fixed and send back to me. Gotta go - we're almost at end of line for food!

Just a quick post, as B and I are off to Smithsonian to tour the museum that is slated to close in September for 2 years of renovation. But I just wanetd to show y'all a pic of the vest which is almost finished . . . as you can see, it still needs to be blocked. Just in time for MDSWF, at least. (Shut up, Bruce . . . it'll be ready for "next" Pascha!)

Except that it's pretty chilly this morning. Somebody forgot to close the two windows that are open on this floor and downstairs, so when I regained full consciousness I pretty cold even though i'd managed to steal B's heat. Of course, he enjoyed the coolness. Men ...

I've finally managed to finish the i-cord. Near the end, I ran out of the blue yarn. I tried to stretch it out by taking some of the extra yardage from the loose ends and wet-grafting these on. I could have kept on doing this to make it stretch out even longer, but I got tired of wet-grafting (or, putting the yarn in my mouth to wetten it, then rubbing it together . . . yuck). Fortunately, I had a ball of the navy yarn that I'd bought for my first attempt. Yes, the color is slightly different when you examine it under the OTT light, but nobody is really going to notice it. And I'm going to be making another version of this, in any case; for that one I will be sure to get enough yarn for all colors.

We had a great weekend - a friend of mine from the past, K, came up to visit for the weekend as she had a special event to go to and needed an escort, so she asked our friend G to be her escort. Saturday was cookout time at G's place and I made two different kind of leg of lamb dishes. One was cooked in the oven for about 6 hours at 250 degrees, resting on a bed of onion and bay leaves, water and brandy; the lamb itself was rubbed with a blend of olive oil, garlic, rosemary (fresh from my garden), some salt and pepper). The other leg (boneless) was cooked at a high temperature, having been slathered with a blend of dijon mustard, olive oil, rosemary, oregano, and summer savory along with some salt and pepper. Yummy . . . I just love lamb!

And then yesterday we went over to my sister's home for this baby sign class. it was really interesting . . . Judi Rockhill, a professional sign language interpreter, set up her own business called Signing Family to teach parents how to sign to their children as a way to reduce tantrums and frustrations. She finds that it works really well (of course, deaf families have known this all along). Some of you have probably heard about the "baby sign" craze, where you make up signs to use with babies. However, these signs may not always be the same signs that deaf people.

Her philosophy is to actually use signs that deaf people use, so that babies learn something useful that will serve them well in the future should they encounter their deaf peers, and grown-ups (especially since this area has one of the largest population of deaf people). I can't recommend her enough and encourage you all to check her out, not only to teach your babies, but also if you are the leader of a Girl Scout troop, or homeschooling children, or whatever.