Something fun..

My new car, I WISH!

See The License Plate? It's a vanity plate! lol. If only!

Two new links in the war on Nature...

Jeremy commented on the last post, and put two links to more information.

They are both at the Red,Green & Blue web page, and may be to articles that he authored:

Stonyfield's Denial

Monsanto Back in Court as Center for Food Safety challenges GMO Alfalfa ruling


 And there it is.  Off to the races, and Good Gad,  we just have to win this one!

While we were sleeping, or otherwise distracted...

Actually, Food and Water Watch.org has been sending emails to sign petitions to members for about a year now but this is from a different source.  If you want to not be shocked or surprised at what the bad news day user's guide calls, "Stealth Regulation", you could subscribe to them HERE.  The thing is that  President Obama can still stop this.  I only hope he has the courage to do it.

This is from an article on the  Fire Dog Lake  site, thanks to a headsup from Mz M.  :

"In a cleverly worded, but profoundly misleading email sent to its customers last week, Whole Foods Market, while proclaiming their support for organics and “seed purity,” gave the green light to USDA bureaucrats to approve the “conditional deregulation” of Monsanto’s genetically engineered, herbicide-resistant alfalfa.  Beyond the regulatory euphemism of “conditional deregulation,” this means that WFM and their colleagues are willing to go along with the massive planting of a chemical and energy-intensive GE perennial crop, alfalfa; guaranteed to spread its mutant genes and seeds across the nation; guaranteed to contaminate the alfalfa fed to organic animals; guaranteed to lead to massive poisoning of farm workers and destruction of the essential soil food web by the toxic herbicide, Roundup; and guaranteed to produce Roundup-resistant superweeds that will require even more deadly herbicides such as 2,4 D to be sprayed on millions of acres of alfalfa across the U.S.  . . .

In exchange for allowing Monsanto’s premeditated pollution of the alfalfa gene pool, WFM wants “compensation.” In exchange for a new assault on farm workers and rural communities (a recent large-scale Swedish study found that spraying Roundup doubles farm workers’ and rural residents’ risk of getting cancer), WFM expects the pro-biotech USDA to begin to regulate rather than cheerlead for Monsanto. In payment for a new broad spectrum attack on the soil’s crucial ability to provide nutrition for food crops and to sequester dangerous greenhouse gases (recent studies show that Roundup devastates essential soil microorganisms that provide plant nutrition and sequester climate-destabilizing greenhouse gases), WFM wants the Biotech Bully of St. Louis to agree to pay “compensation” (i.e. hush money) to farmers ' for any losses related to the contamination of his crop.' ”

A lovely gift, and a Sweet Picture of Wolfie

Yesterday there was a very special event. It was Christmas in January! A sweet and generous friend offered to share some straight needles,many sizes, that came from a friend of hers who had stopped knitting. I put my hand up for them right away! I will share, in turn, the duplicates of these that came to me yesterday with the two DDs who like straight needles,too.

Along with the straights came a teensy bouclé circular. I've been trying to find out what this needle is used for. I've found doll patterns that mention bouclé but it is yarn, which I'm familiar with. I think that I'll try socks on these. They are beautiful little circs. I think I'm in love with them. They could be Christmas tree ornaments they are so shiny, just like tinsel. Thank you so much dear M, if you are reading!

Little Wolfie was just home from the groomer, therefore the Kerchief, and was patiently waiting for his dinner while DH prepared ours.

Wolfie is a joy. He's funny and everything one would expect from a Mutt of Many Colors who has lots of poodle and Shi Tsu in him. He is also an intent little chow hound, from that starving time he lived through.

We love him and are trying to teach him to play more. He was never introduced to toys or even "play stance'. He has played, once, with a toy after lots of coaxing, and he does tear any Kleenex or paper napkin to bits (with a frenzy worthy of a real wolf) that falls to the floor. And one time he played with a paper ball, looking at me expectantly as I wadded up a small piece of paper from my desk, like a cat does.

He goes to the dog parks around and about with DH, but never plays. He's a real puzzle. Our friend's little Shi Tsu loves to play fetch and everything. And I know poodles play a lot! We'll keep trying to teach him the joy of "play stance" and "fetch".

Don't forget to Dance.. lol

I love old black and whites. I think these gals are sisters. Any guesses about the costumes? This is before Vaudeville. The socks are what attracted most of my attention. Aren't those "Clocks" on the instep? Well, they are "running" anyway.

I'm off to watch a movie called, "Stay", again. We hope to be able to figure out what the HAY is going on in it. Very good flick!

Short rowing on a DROPs pattern...

I am knitting a triangle scarf from DROPS with their yarn and got to the short rows. I think something's missing in this, like perhaps "wrapping" a stitch for short rowing within a garment. I'm sure what they are trying to do is to shape a sort of "cuppy" shape over the shoulders but this pattern really is short on information on these short rows, and I'm wondering if you just go back and forth, leaving gaps in the knitting? Is it just me?

I'm sending out an SOS, for help because the only thing on the web that I could find involved wrapping stitches when doing shaping at shoulders on a flat knit sweater. It didn't seem to apply.

Otherwise life seems to be chugging along. We sold some exercise equipment, and I can actually TOUCH the book case behind the table in the small part of the SR. Progress is small but progress is ongoing. Yay!

We ordered the bull dog clips for making lamp shades. I have used clothes pins for other ones, lately the hanging one in the laundry, but that one is made of cloth. These will be made of a plastic and covered with fancy something or other, if the plastic can be found. I must remember to keep repeating, like a mantra, that this is where the fun in life is - making things that someone is willing to charge you an arm and a leg to do for you, and from China most likely.

Take Action: Tell the EPA to protect kids from toxic pesticides in pet flea collars

I felt that this was a very important thing to promote, as it involves pets and children. There are other ways to protect both from fleas or flea bites.

This link is from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a very hard working and respected Environmental group.


Take Action: Tell the EPA to protect kids from toxic pesticides in pet flea collars

Another Way to Say....

....Perfect Love, which creates Perfect Peace within, so that we may all "love one another"?


I'm quoting a book called, Glimpse After Glimpse by Sogyal Rimpoche:

"The practice of mindfulness unveils and reveals your essential Good Heart, because it dissolves and removes the unkindness and the harm in you.  Only when you have removed the harm in yourself do you become useful to others.  By the practice, by slowly removing the harm in yourself,you allow your true Good Heart, the fundamental goodness and kindness that are your real nature, to shine out and become the warm climate in which your true being flowers. 

This is why I call meditation the true practice of peace, the true practice of nonaggression and nonviolence, and the real and great disarmament."

Using Fran's Ten Minute Rule, I'm knitting away on two sweaters ( the Aran Fisherman's sweater, and the Noro one for DD3), two pairs of socks ( Jane's Hedgerow and the scrap socks), and that triangle scarf.  I feel as though I've forgotten a project!  What could it be?  I can't post pictures from the net book so pictures will have to wait.  I have to apologize to Jane that I'm modifying her pattern to only knit to the instep in pattern with the hedgerows.   

My sister came over yesterday, and DH and I can really see the changes in her since she has reached what is called, "end of dose failure".   It's where the medicines don't work as well anymore.  This has happened so fast that it's pretty scary.  Since my brave little sister worked right to the last possible day she could,  the few years called the "honey moon period" were used up in a hyper stressed position at work.   She used up all her "spoons", so to speak, forever.  She's in tears a lot, and struggling to walk.  It's easy to see that we need to take her to all the places she wants to go to before it's too late for her to enjoy them.   


But something happier happened for us yesterday, too.   We did get to do a little retail therapy for necessities, as we went to Jo Ann's to use coupons to buy a few things we needed.  She got some findings for the earrings she makes for gifts.  I got the knit cotton lycra fabric I need to make some lycra tops.  It's dance fabric, and I feel really lucky to have got it with a 50% off.  They actually HAD the right stuff for me!  And I bought 20 yards of the perfect elastic with another 50% off coupon.  That's my strategy, to look around for things that  I need, and wait until they go OFF sale so I can buy them with a coupon.  I hope Jo Ann's doesn't read my blog and change sale strategies on me. (*.*)  I passed out my extra coupon to a gal coming in the door who had forgotten hers.   We are all sisters on this planet, eh?

A few of the lampshades are starting to go South, so I'm going to make new ones.  It's really not very hard, and when I do this I'll show you how it's done.  Though they aren't the ones going bad, I only have a few that are technically challenging.  But, even those are pretty easy to do.  To be honest, it's fairly easy to make a whole lamp.  Lamps are my favorite pieces of home furnishing.  When we went to Hearst Castle years ago, I saw lamps I would have practically worshiped at.    A Rose Quartz Lamp will live in my memory forever.  It's gorgeous!  There are others, of course, but that's the one that stole all my lamp pheromones.

I'll plug pictures in when I get to the PC..   Have a great Day!

Chet Atkins teaches, or rather tries to teach, how to play guitar.

Of course your fingers hurt! Duh!

But first he plays a beautiful acoustical rendition of "Hawaiian Wedding Song", with accompaniment. Enjoy!

Sock dreaming..

I am obsessed with hand knit socks.

DH caught me looking at a whole clothesline full of hand knit socks on someone's blog the other day.  He was very amused, and I hope that he thinks of this as one of my weird but lovable (tolerable?) little quirks.

Meet, left to right, HIx, Glen Morgan, and Morton

 

Well, I must confess, that blog viewing led me to go to a place that had Yankee Knitter patterns, which I had to go see, of course.  That lead to looking at knitting needles, and from there it was down hill to actually yarn porn diving to find out what was new in medium priced sock yarns.

Then I had to find a good price, but first I had to find good colors, and yada yada yada... you will understand all this IF you are as crazed (or hit with the same brick) as I am about hand knit socks.

These Berroco Sox colors are just in from The Bean.  Yay Beans!

I have to stop kidding myself about buying NO sock yarn, even on a yarn diet.  Additionally, I just can't afford many Indy yarns anymore, though that is where my heart really is!   It's just not possible for me these days. But, there's still lots out there to light up the eyes and give solace on cold winter nights, as I gaze down at my feet with the latest knit pair keeping my toes all toasty and warm.

The goal is to have 7 pairs (or maybe 8) just for me, so that all winter I'll have a clothesline full of bright socks! I'm going to knit up the one Sundara, a gift from a kind friend, and there's some Lorna's lurking around somewhere which was another gift. Those I'll knit in between so that they get knitted up.

And I will not give away any more socks until I have that full clothes line of socks brightening the shade patio, and/or my feet.  Thanks for listening to my obsessions.  I hope that isn't men in white coats that I see in my future.  Maybe it's Bakers?

Flowers! 

From last summer, the sunflowers on sale at the Santa Cruz Farmer's Market.  God, thank you for yellows!  And thank You for sunflowers, too.

A Little Bit of Cuteness

This teensy car has always cheered me up. I want one in the worst way!
Mine would be Yellow and black, and I would make it look like a Bee.

This is International Hugging Day, too. What a fun thing!! Yay!

Penguin Goes Shopping

This Penguin was rescued and re-rehabilitated in a Japanese Village and then refused to leave.  So a family adopted him, and even built him an air conditioned room.  So cute!

A big thank you to Pina, who found this first! 


Penguin Goes Shopping : CoolestOne.Com

Baby Panda...and be sure to watch, Granny Hits Car....

Look out mama panda!



I'm off to the dentist, ugh, but he's a nice gentle dentist, Yay, and I'm wearing the pink and green socks for the first time today, Yay!, anyway, bye for now!  DD3 found this Pandamonium on the web and sent me the link to make me smile.  She knows I've been grouchy...

heehee.. Have a great afternoon.  I'm going to cast on my socks, work fran's ten minute rule on the Aran Sweater, knit more rows on the triangle scarf that got a whole lot trickier with those little short rows, and maybe watch a few movies.

Speaking of movies, have you seen "Entre Nos"?  I love that one.  Just watched it for the third time.  Good stories of beating the odds are out there, and this one is true!  Be sure to read the three updates on the three main characters at the end of the movie.  The American Dream is not dead, it's just not written about as much.  Maybe because it doesn't sell as well?

Bi Centential Memorial at the park

 

Dalia from the Markets of Santa Cruz 2009

 

Out and about

Today we had to take some greenware back to the store, and the little dog went along. Later, it was time for Wolfie's regular park walk so we stopped in at this little park. When I got out of the car to look around, I was hit by this huge wall of sound from a busy freeway that I'd never heard from the vantage point of this once quiet park.

We used to go there after dark, just at twilight, to sit and wait for the owls to come swoop down the hill towards the canyon and the small creek that were there. Owls feathers are built for silent flying, so what you feel is a rush of air and then the bird glides out over one's head and into the glowing sky where it's body is dark against the sky. This experience was very mysterious, perhaps it could be called a spiritual experience, but now has been changed forever by a freeway, ripping through the heart of that beautiful place.

 Here is a real leaf, sporting it's real color, and it was gathered today at the park.  It's adorned with bogus butterflies after being scanned.  We have trees going into Fall color and trees trying to bloom for Spring.  This leaf is from a Fruitless Mulberry.

This is a very old tree. I think it had to be relocated when a freeway went through the heart of this small urban park.

A memorial bench created by the community by hand painting tiles which were then fired in a kiln. I'm not sure if this is from the Montessori School that used to reside on the hill that was destroyed when a freeway was built or not. We donated a pretty nifty fire engine built of wood by DH for our twins who were truly obsessed with fire men and the big trucks. They even had little fireman hats that they wore in Pre-School.

Knitting pits,  Meds whining, and Some little things about the garden.

The new socks will be the odd ball socks. I want to have some fun! This did not stop me from ordering more sock yarn yesterday, and it's on it's way. Berroco 100 gram balls of delicious and unusual sorts of patterns.

I've run out of a major source of herbal anti-inflammatory, and I'm started to be HYPER alert to many things. It will be weeks before I can get any more, so one thing I am watching is how my brain is changing. It isn't easy to stay calm or patient now. Oddly I have more energy though I'm hurting more. This can make me a little bit crabby,too. I can understand why people get desperate when their pain medicine is gone and they have no access to it. Awful!

The roses were finally pruned to face the rest of winter and start them gearing up to bloom in Spring. We only have two now, though I'm still determined to have more of them - Honor, Peace, and Angel Face. I'm ready to garden!

Knitting things

The Blanket strip is done, and I'll send it off on Monday. This really is a project that has an "I love you" knit into every stitch. I'll tell more about it after the end of February when the whole project will be presented.  To jazz it up a bit, I knit one heart at the beginning.

I've grafted the toes into the Paton socks, and the next pair of socks is being thought about rather deeply. I'd like to do Jane's Hedgerows again with the pattern just in the leg. My feet are at that tender age when they object to socks with a pattern on the instep. Alas...

Back in the days of summer when it was too hot to knit, I picked the elastic out of some nice knit pants.  It had shrunk in the dryer the first time the pants had been washed! Elastic isn't supposed to do that, but that's what happens when elastic is not pre-shrunk. As the knit pants were all commercially sewn, of course, that elastic was stitched in to within an inch of it's life with what looks like a draper's machine. I'm sure it was a normal eight thread over-locker but GAD was it a pain to pick out that stuff!

So, this has spawned an organizing frenzy, as I'm getting the sewing room back to normal ASAP because there are sewing projects waiting to be done for summer - pull on seersucker pants and a few tops to justify the existence of the fabric in there - as well as the pattern stash - and probably a few hats, too.

Next to come will be draperies for the house, Yay! So far, the only semi-new ones made were for the back door that takes magnetic rods. Those curtains were left over from an old project in a bedroom, which I then shortened, put on the door, and decorated with two matching bows from Jazzie's groomer. It's sweet and pretty but the wrong color. I like it though because it's sky blue and reminds me of the bay on a calm day.

Here's some flowers!  Dalias from the West Side Farmer's Market in Santa Cruz.  Enjoy!

Spirit of Adventure...

Yesterday all was quiet at the commercial basin. Lovely day in San Diego, and the sky and the sea were magically blue!

A Change is coming that I want no part of...

 "Not very sart are you lefties? Regan did not unin bust, he gav them 48 hours to return to work for an illegal wildcat strike and they refused thus breakingtheir contract.Histry rewrites and lies seem to be normal for you Marxists.And no the tea party is the tea party no "bags" about it but you on the left seem obsessed by using gay slurs, why is that? isn't that discrimitory?Guess you will be thrilled with Brown's lastest solution to the pensin funding problem wipe out prop 13 and increase income tax on everyne making $20,000 a year or more by upwards of 30%."


I was going to comment on this diatribe that was on the post I made about union busting. Unfortunately, it was removed by accident by moi.  It was a lovely example of virgin trolling.   It was so badly composed, wording and spelling, that it makes me weep for our country.  Who the hell is listening to the English teachers?

Oh, I'm a Marxist?  That should be interesting news to my friends and family, seeing as how I'm an animal rights, human rights, Peace advocate.   And, I guess, all Quakers can be accused of being Marxists since we are anti-war and pro-human rights and pro-workers rights?

In my opinion, Unions are the main reason we do NOT have a large and healthy Communist (not to be confused with Marxists who are not your modern Communist) faction here in this country, as they do elsewhere, thank you very much.  McCarthy, that publicity and power seeking fiend, had nothing to do with it!  And, union busting was a pogrom instigated by both Thatcher and Reagan almost simultaneously in England and the United States; you would know this if you had been paying any more attention to History than you do to English profs.


Beyond this, I am not going to post anything about politics on this blog again because I have somewhere in the vicinity of eight regular and Very Dear Readers, (VDR) and still seem to be followed by people who Webcrawl for a single topic heading to spew venom about. 

The events in Tucson proved to me that we have a big problem with "tone" in this country, and a lot of paid hacks around who are being paid to "up the ante" so to speak.   I'm stepping aside to just watch where this all takes us.

So, I'll stick to posting about beautiful things and knitting, or cute little trucks, or the torts, or gardens, by God!  I really know about all that's going on out there in the "Land of the Free"; the VDR's (see above reference) know about it all.  I reckon that as long as WE know that it's out there, no one need read it from me.  You all know how I feel about any given topic without my typing even a single word!

I'm just frakking tired of all the Military/Industrial, Big Pharma, soulless Monsters with money bags of cash, chasing down any crazy or unemployed person to throw dollars at so  these people can then sit around in dark rooms and spew on a radio show, on the internet, or on the nightly News.  

Thus,  my new little button linking to Greenpeace's Video.

Tort Report January

Baby Button stays alive by eating his favorite food, apple. She, is content to wait out the winter eating as little straw as can be done. Every once in awhile we give her a soak, which raises her weight dramatically. It will be many long years before she can survive, like her big brother Lucky, outside with the big torts. I think Lucky was 7 before we let him almost fend for himself in the wilds of our urban lot. I think we will now have a patch of grass, just for the tortoises, when we install the plants of the side yard. There are good semi-native grasses for them to eat in Spring, Summer and Fall, but those grasses have to be contained by some sort of barrier because they will invade the flower beds, which they joyfully and exuberantly have done this winter. Drat!

Half the blanket strip is done, so a few more days I can ship it off. Yesterday we re-arranged furniture, something DH forgot that we didn't do for so long because Jazzie was a little blind and we didn't want him bumping his wee head on anything. Wolfie actually played a little today, with the squirrel that used to belong to Jazz. Wolfie doesn't play that much, not like Jazzie who loved to play. I wonder all the time how this small, sweet dog survived out there in his other life. But, now he is with us, and we adore him.

Recently I watched THIS film, "Bread and Tulips" .  It's a wonderful and beautiful film from Italy.   Brava!

The main character is an un-appreciated housewife who goes on an adventure (happy) when she is left behind at a stop-over on a bus tour of the Adriatic.  This adventure changes her own life and several other lives surrounding hers.   It's a sort of romance love story with humor and a couple of cranky characters in the bargain.  Very lovely, inspiring and fun!

The last of the Amelia Peabody Mysteries was a grand book.  I'm hoping there will be more but a friend suggested another author who has written a series of mysteries that I'll now read, God willing and they Library has them!    I'm avidly reading, All the Devils Are Here, by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera.   I have to read this in the daytime because I want to sleep.  This one doesn't put you to sleep after pleasant 45 minutes of reading.  It's far to exciting!  This is like Secrets of The Temple, by William Greider, long ago, that was about the Fed and how it worked.  Nasty stuff.  hehe  William Greider also wrote, Who Will Tell the People.

The trouble is, every time someone writes an exposé, the worst people figure out how to use the information for their own nefarious purposes.  Y' know?

 

Here's a Hug, from I know not where.  If I did, I'd send them a Hug for such a clever little Wake up.


 

The Beautiful Moon Last Evening.....

What would life on earth be like without the Moon or the Oceans?

Sky Watcher Collage..

The new Storm was coming in last evening. It made a gorgeous sky at the end of a pretty perfect day of busyness.   If you make this photo larger, you will see the little sliver of moon, too. It's faint, but it's there. I love that moon. We are so lucky to have it, that silver orb upon which all life on earth depends for sense and rhythm.

Today it's cloudy, and we might even get more rain. This is phenomenal! I'm trying to concentrate enough to finish the last of the Amelia Peabody books but with the furniture rearranging fun, it's hard to do anything else. I'm excited to be able to be moving some furniture! DH does not understand this concept. Furniture re-arranging is foreign to him. I have no idea why. His ancestral home was always being re-arranged to suit his mother's instincts, as was my mother's house!

Anyway, we are getting more rain, we hope!

I inherited a partially knit Noro Silk garden sweater to knit from one of the DDs, who visited over the New Year's part of the holiday.  It went into the freezer for a bit, in that cycle we all know about of freeze and thaw, freeze again, and then I'll finish the fronts and sleeves.  She has no time or mental energy to do this knitting, and I am more than happy to finish it.  It's really a beauty.  It was mentioned a long time ago in the blog, and IF I can find that page, I'll link it here.  Also new in the WIPs list is a blanket part that is being knit for a blanket being made for a friend who has had a very rough year.  Her Rav friends are getting together to knit her a comfort blanket.  It's a lovely thing to do, and I feel honored to be doing it.

So, there is the knitting report AND the weather report.  The garden is loving all this rain!  The weeds are happy, the tiny migrating/visiting Warblers, Finch, White Headed Sparrows and Chipping Sparrows are happy, as they chow down on the "greens" and bugs so our tiny corner of the ecosystem is operational.   Should this last  be the Garden Report or the Migrant Bird Report?  I can't decide.

Crack down on Unions in the public sector...

This takes some time to view, but I'm putting it here because this will be a very crucial turning point for some of the last good jobs in our country.

When Reagan wanted to start union busting, he picked upon the public sector jobs held by Air Traffic controllers. The so called Middle American should take heed. This is not good for the middle class or working people.

We, the "people" is meaning you, Tea Bag Party, or as you say of yourselves, "We, the People are back and we VOTE!" on the bill board in my city, bought for you by Big Business.  But, I digress. YOU, who thunderously elected your own worst enemies, are going to be the ones who initiate this. Congratulations!

The ones who suffer the most are going to be public sector employees, like firemen, policemen, and teachers, and public transit bus drivers. This will then move, like a horrible Tsunami, through the rest of the economy, just as what Reagan started inevitably overtook and drowned the good paying jobs of Airline Pilots.

Teachers go to school for years to get their required diplomas. They are not the only ones who do this. But, what I'd like to know is how retired people with that sort of education, mandated basically by States or other public agencies who hire them, compare to private sector educators in retirement packets.

Educators in the public sector used to be paid a pittance to teach, and this was clearly an outrage to ask of professionals who needed a master's degree to obtain a Secondary Credential. That is why teachers started a union. Why should janitors look at teachers and expect a pension anywhere near that of a Graduate Degree level pensioner?

Does Steven Greenhouse really believe that school janitors feel entitled to a pension packet that compares to teachers? Most janitors I ever met at the schools I worked at were pretty smart people but they never spent five years or more in college honing their skills.

This is the LINK for National Priorities Project that Michael Zweig was talking about at the end of the commentary.

How to get Identical Twins...

This is how I did it anyway. It's just a little tricky but you have the first sock, after all.

First, find the exact color repeats to cast on with. Then cast on the ribbing for the second sock and work a little way to see that it matches. Some of these things are pretty tricky. This colorway was, with all the little brownish gray stripes in it.

With these two socks, I knit the second sock with the original skein, nearly to the end of the skein, which was just above all the gusset decreases. I did the splice there. I had nightmares that I'd run out somewhere inside the heel or gusset but, happily that didn't happen.

Then I spent a lot of time winding and unwinding the second skein because the repeat for the end of the first skein was not on the outside, of course, unless I wanted to sacrifice a lot of yarn. So, I wound a ball, and found the right sequence just inside the last of the skein. That meant only about two yards will be cut up and given to the birds in Spring time for nesting. Motto from now on is, "look inside the ball first"!

 

Mental Health Aids while knitting Cabled monsters.....

This is how I've kept my sanity while knitting the Manly-Beastly Aran Sweater

This thing has been a lot of fun, really. I'm comfortable with it now that everything is clear to me about what it looks like, as the charts are sort of backwards to me, meaning the white spaces seem more likely to be the purls and not the knits. It's just me.

There are crossing cables in the beginning that I'll just have to call the "Amish" tribute to God. Maybe, just MAYBE, they will be ok after the blocking but at the point where it became apparent that they were back there suffering, it was way too late for me to go back and do much about it. I'm neither that brave, or that much of a masochistic, to have "tinked" back through all those twisting cables. GAH!

Watch out , Arizona! Here it comes!

The Weather Report:

The storm is finally clearing out, after leaving Highway 101 a parking lot for 24 hours after there was  SNOW ( yes the white stuff) on the Grapevine ( a dastardly, notorious hill on the I-5 ) which caused it to be shut down.

Our kids, who were headed home - with probably half of the population of Central and Northern Cal Coasts - were on the road for 13 hours, going an average of 15 miles an hour for most of that time.

But, now it's yours Arizona. I hope that you are ready!

The Knitting Report:

The socks are almost finished, and they match right down to their color stripe DNA. Yay! Thank you OfTroy for the pep talk to convince me to put a little more effort into these. The Gusset made me a little worried because of my not wanting to run out of yarn and therefor possibly having to splice in that little crooked corner of the sock! But all worked out. Picture tomorrow if I can manage to get the second sock up to the toes by then.

Happy New Year to all of you! And this is the Resolution report:

1. Organize my entire Knitting, Craft, Tailoring, and Artistic life. This will be the most challenging of my goals.  (DH laughed out loud about this one. The nerve of that man!)

2. Lose ten more pounds.

3. Don't waste time on the Computer.  Use it well.

4. Finish the Aran Sweater once and for all!

5. Make the garden a peaceful, happy place.

6. Play tennis as often as possible.  (This is Wii Tennis, which, by the way, is an awesome game).  Love it!

Happy New Year!