Some Progress

Gettin' er done--
Finished Andrea's dark green Ultra Alpaca scarf, with a cable up either side and double leaf lace in the center. Soaked it in Eucalan, and it is nice and soft and blocked well. Almost done with the other scarf, of fuzzy stuff. Now I feel like I should make a hat and mits to go with the scarf. Cate's little red dress is about half, I had it nearly done and ripped the whole thing out and re-knit, I was not happy with it. I think it's some better now. Still working on an afghan for us in free moments, and I started a dark green vest for moi that I think will be really nice if I ever get it done; the IRIS design from Knitty. It has a 54-row lace design on the bottom that you have to sort of follow on faith that it will turn out OK, which is fun.
Post election cramps--
Yes, I was happy how it turned out, even here in NC. Now I'm still glued to the news hoping that even a fraction of the promises can be realized; that he does not collapse under the burden of ever-increasing crises; and that the Secret Service can keep him alive. The comments and rants in blogs, even mainstream stuff like MSNBC and CNN, are often vicious and hate-filled. 48% of the country seems not only unhappy, but enraged. It's scary.
Yarn therapy--
Behold, my local Olde Yarne Shoppe doth have an annual sale. I did partake in great measure, yea unto the detriment of ye banke balance.
I got there about a half hour into the three day sale, and there were at least twenty ladies scouting the bags, kits, and piles of yarn. The Noro shelves were already showing signs of serious feeding frenzy, and there were a few testy conflicts over who grabbed what first. I went in to get ONE skein of Ultra Alpaca and maybe one of Baby Cashmerino. I came out with those, plus seven balls of Kureyon in luscious, heart-stopping colors, and a bag of silk merino blend in a glorious kettle-dyed claret shade, enough for a whole sweater. I resisted, by the skin of my teeth, at least three other bags. Whew.

Election Day

Finally! I've been immersed in this campaign, complete with bumper stickers, yard signs, and some hours spent calling and otherwise assisting the candidate of my choice. I actually voted almost two weeks ago, when Early Voting started, in case I got run over by a bus and didn't get the chance to do it. Not that it would be easy to get run over by a bus or any other form of public transit in Greensboro, since this is a car city. Phil decided to wait for today, since he likes the excitement of voting on The Day. I'll be up into the wee hours tonight, mainlining CNN and the internet until I know whether my guy won or lost. It's a tradition-- the very first election I can remember following was for Eisenhower's second term. I even had an "I Like Ike" button. No idea what it was all about, but I remember lying on the bed in my brother's room listening to the radio report the vote, and getting to stay up late.
Jack is way better, his hip does not bother him at all; the vet was pleased. I'm glad he did not need to be bound into his leg-sling for very long; he had a really hard time dealing with life's necessities because he kept falling over. We would try to assist him in peeing or pooping, which only ruined his concentration--- 'Thank you for petting me, but NOT NOW.' He finally managed by leaning up against the chain link fence around the dog forest. He is on anti-inflammatory drugs and joint supplements and doing fine.
My granddaughter was terminally cute dressed as a stalk of broccoli for Halloween-- as you can see here.
I'm about 2/3 done with Andrea's green cable-and lace-scarf. It has rather a few errors, which hopefully won't show since it's dark green, and as a scarf will be sort of bunched up anyway. Cate's dress is half-way, and I'm just hoping it will fit. Still need to cast on a hat for Phil. In January, I'm going to concentrate on knitting for ME. Selfish female that I am.
Tax season is starting too, which means I need to get in some serious study time so I can get certified, since I'm instructing this year as well as preparing returns (through the wonderful AARP TaxAide program.)

If it's not one dog, it's another

Ah, life was chugging along so smoothly. We should have known something would happen. Jack dislocated his hip this morning in a really awful way. When we let the dogs out for business purposes, they generally propel themselves off the deck onto the grass at top speed so they can race around the dog forest looking for intruder squirrels. It rained during the night, and Jack must have slipped on take-off, and he fell with a thud and an unholy screech. We got him into the vet's as soon as they opened-- thankfully they're open Saturday mornings-- and the verdict was dislocated hip, torn ligaments, and the complication of both hips being arthritic (the dogs are almost ten.) So he is on crate rest for a few days, with his leg in a sort of sling, and after that strict confinement and no exertion for several weeks. If he manages to heal, he'll be OK as long as he never jumps, runs, or falls again. If it won't heal, we're looking at hip surgery. Either way, he is now a geriatric dog who will get regular joint supplements and pain meds. Just yesterday, he was running freely in the yard and trotting off on daily long walks.
Rosie isn't sure what to make of it.

Lorna's Afghan

I finished my friend's little boy's Christmasy hat (basic green & red striped toboggan), the vest is done, the round cape-ish sort of thing is almost done, sooooo--- gotta start something else! When I was in Seattle I picked up two skeins of Lorna's Laces painted worsted, and I had a hank of Cascase 220 Navy. I thought long and hard and decided that heavily variegated yarns just aren't going to look cool on my ample body, and I do really need to make a new afghan or three for the livingroom and den [we crank the heat down in winter.] And Lorna will make a lovely afghan. I worked out something in Old Shale, and we'll see how it looks; you can absolutely count on my having bunged up the math at some point so I'll have to fudge an increase or decrease, but it's an afghan, it's huge, no one will notice (I say that a lot.)

I'm also finishing a few strange objects that were, I guess, learning projects-- like this heap of brown stuff, which is actually a nice piece of lacework but a very strange shape. I dug out the ball of Silk Garden I had stuffed in the back of my stash (see post about hating Noro below) and I'm trying to stir them together. I promise a photo, no matter how weird, when done.

Phil has a house project this week, so I'll be baking & making soup to keep him fueled. Chicken chili, I think, and tortellini soup another night, and a date-nut cake of some sort-- Fall is in the air.

The Moon of Tiny Acorns

You know how some cultures have a Moon of Frost or a Hunter's Moon? We are currently ending the Moon of Tiny Sharp Acorns That Hurt Your Feet and entering the Moon of Bombardment. This has to do with the dozen or so huge oak trees in the back yard and the fact that they sort of loom over the house and deck. If you sit out there quietly minding your own business, so the squirrels lose their anxiety about humans, you can gradually hear an ascending cascade of plink, plop, bonk, poing, etc as acorn caps, chewed hulls, and reject acorns hit the roof, gutters, deck, and one's own person. The red oak nuts come first, which are small and sharp, meaning that we have to start wearing slippers to go get the mail or let the dogs out. Later on the bombardment-- large white oak acorns-- starts and you can lie awake at night listening to them hit the roof [BONK] and roll down [rattlerattlerattle] into the gutters [poinngg]. This is sort of soothing, actually, at about 3:00AM.
In November, of course, we have the Buried-Up-to-Your-Neck-in-Leaves Moon.
At Monday Morning Knit, we all agreed we were knitting more than ever during the presidential campaign to keep our cool and avoid having to pay too much attention to political ads. The whole thing has gotten so strident, that in combination with the approach of fall and the dire financial news, I expect yarn sales to hit a new high. I know knitting helps my blood pressure, and I need it now! The timeless nature of it helps, as long as the realization that I am at least making something useful, even if I cannot do anything to control the winds of politics and the economy.
Perhaps we should advocate knitting at political rallies. Did you see the shot of Barack Obama holding a knitter's sock-in-progress on the Yarn Harlot's blog? Just great.

Grandbaby Fix

So typical, I don't blog for three weeks and then twice in one day. I resolve to Be A Better Person, OK? Just back from a week in Seattle with daughter, son-in-law, and Cate-- world's most stupendous baby (as all grandchildren are.) Can't really call her a baby anymore, at 15 months she is running around and has about a 20 word vocabulary. All birds are ducks, all four legged creatures are pup-pups, and all plants are flowers ("fows".) It beats me how she can categorize stuff so well. She extrapolates from ducks in a lake to sparrows in the yard and crows flying overhead, and somehow knows they all go together. Hey, I'm impressed.

The weather was glorious, mountains visible all week -- Rainier, Baker, and the Olympics. We took the ferry to Bainbridge one day and visited an LYS, where I succumbed to two skeins of Lorna's Laces worsted. They had Malabrigo, they had cashmere, they had... a very well heeled clientele, I think. Capped off the week with a visit to Vivace, the very best coffee in the land, where I got two pounds of beans to smuggle back in my suitcase.

Knitted all the way there and back on a lace scarf and a stash eating cape, which just goes around and around and around, so it's excellent for the plane. We'll be back, hopefully, in December.

My first night back home I watched the VP debate for a few minutes, then I couldn't take it any longer [I was expecting Sarah to start popping her gum any minute] so I read the debate transcript on CNN, which is really a good way to go as you get to digest what is being said.

Phil's back from DC today, and we're making meatloaf and apple crisp for supper since it is blessedly cool at last.

Finito!

I have actually finished a garment that is NOT a hat or scarf and that fits, and is wearable, and has gotten a few compliments! The mitered vest, with a few mods--- instead of knitting in a buttonhole, I sewed on a loop after it was done; I made the collar a bit shorter, and the vest itself a bit shorter, than the pattern. Because of the "open" nature of the yarn, I also crocheted a stabilizing line along the collar-to-body join and around the armholes, to prevent too much stretching. When I soaked it, I squished most of the water out with towels and then threw it into the dryer by itself, on low, to see if it would felt just a wee bit. In hindsight that was a horrible gamble, but... It came out just right, the drying made the fabric just a little firmer and denser, and stronger, without really shrinking it. On the downside, it also bloomed like crazy, which makes me look like a fuzzy bear wearing it. As soon as I had the button on, I wore it to the LYS on the pretext of buying yarn, to show it off. There are always a number of ladies knitting and hanging out there, and the response was totally gratifying; what was the yarn, what was the pattern, etc. etc.

Now I'm finishing up a capelet based on Paris Loop in a group of yarns (stash-eater), and a hat for a friend's little boy, and I still have those fingerless gloves for Andrea to do. The wonderfulness of knitting, that you never, ever run out of projects!