Bron's Blog II

Persephone's Pomegranate

I can't see these in the garden:

Without thinking of Hades and Persephone.

It seems I've eaten seeds of the pomegranate for knitters, because I keep coming back to UFOs. (Way to tie my garden in with my knitting, eh?)

Here's my latest resurrected project:

Not sure what you're looking at? That thing in front is a sleeve and the cross of the "T" are the front & back...see?:

It's "Holey Cable!"  by Amy. While I was talking to her about her new design, Sprout, I found myself assuring her (even though I'm sure she'd forgotten I started!) that I'd finish Holey Cable one of these days. Well, the minute I said it, I couldn't get the sweater off my mind so I pulled it out & got back to work.

I really will have this finished sooner rather than later. ;)

I survived the dentist - he's really wonderful. :) I had no pain at all and feel great today. The temp crowns are very comfortable in my mouth too. His assistant obviously knows what she's doing, unlike the other assistant from hell! We've had this dentist for a couple of years & it's the first time I've had any serious work done. Doug loves him (and his mouth has always been a disaster) so we're both relieved & happy to have finally found a dental "home."

I'm off this morning to see my Doctor. I'm trying to get everything done before school starts again. Wish me luck - I'll be talking about sleep & other issues that have been plaguing me for awhile.

Just give me a pill and I'm a happy camper. ::Grin:::

I'll leave you with more garden lilies:

(I waited 4 weeks for those buds to open! I had no idea of the color since the previous owner had planted them.)

My Fuchsia is still going strong:   

And here's a gorgeous sunrise....

Getting Back To Knitting

I know I said I'd be working on Something Pink exclusively after my mat was finished, but I picked up Holey Cable instead and knit another couple of inches. After all, it would be nice if I could have this sweater before the weather gets too warm to wear it:

I'll be making the neckline a bit smaller than Amy shows in her version. But after all, I don't have cool tats to show off so I can go for a little more coverage. ::wink:: At this point, I have one more full cable repeat to do before splitting for the front & back. It's just taking me a looooong time because I have almost 300 stitches on the needles. Sigh.

I did start another dishcloth:

And that's the extent of yesterday's knitting.

We watched a movie this weekend that I'd like to tell everyone to avoid like the plague. You see, back in 1973, a quirky little cult film called "The Wicker Man" was made. Most notable for the scene of Britt Eklund dancing nude around a hotel room, it is near & dear to my heart for all it's 70's Pagan imagery. (I even have a quote from the film on my sidebar.)

However, the remake of "The Wicker Man" with Nicholas Cage is neither quirky nor endearing. It is boring and boorish - just one long shrug. The head of the island is changed from a Patriarch to a Matriarch (how politically correct of them) and the island's main harvest is turned from fruit to honey....just so the protagonist can be near-fatally stung by bees. Twice.

Sheesh. It's just plain stupid. Period.

But it did serve one purpose. I've been meaning to get a DVD replacement for my old VHS copy of the original and now I'm stepping up the search! ::grin:::

Happy Monday!

Yeah, But It's A DRY Heat

Night before last it got down to 7 here but this morning it was 15 when I woke up.

We're having a heat wave!

I've been sipping on my tropical drink & knitting on these:

It's a strange, two-armed octopus! (Diopus? Bipus? Hmmmm...) Now I'm at the real, slogging along part of the knitting. Especially since I cast on ...um....100 stitches on each side instead of the 40 or so suggested in the pattern. I'm using a bulkier yarn & size 10 needles but obviously my gauge blows. Don't worry though - I actually measured stitches/inch before I cast on the extra. Plus, I have oodles & oodles of this yarn. Plenty to make the sweater pretty long - just how I like 'em. ::wink:: After all, that monkey-arm only took two balls of yarn and I have 15!

I also went back to Fountain Lace for awhile:

It's at 16" now so I'm ready to decrease for the armscye. I'd like to have the back done today so I'll be knitting on it first thing this morning. (While I ignore the bathrooms I really, really need to clean.)

The mail came through yesterday! Yay! From UPS I got an order of coffee beans and books from Amazon but the real treasure came from USPS:

Classic Elite's "Patina" in a lovely celery green ("Lichen") from my friend Wendy! Thanks again! I've never used this yarn before (70% cotton/30% silk) and the feel is awesome. I'm thinking this would be great as a lacey shell of some sort. :) I'll have to think on it.

I'm off to shop today too...because although I love my children dearly, almost 3 weeks with all of us cooped up in the same house with all those teenage hormones doing their thing has been...difficult. 'Nuff said! I have a $20.00 gift card to B&N burning a hole in my pocket. I'm thinking I need to buy a knitting book of some sort. I have Knitting Nature and Victorian Lace Today in my Amazon shopping cart - I might see if one of those is in stock at B&N for some instant gratification. :::grin:::

Wish me luck!

The First Random Misfirings Of The New Year

That's the nice thing about a new year - there are a lot of "firsts" to get through!

*** We were supposed to go back to school today, but we're having a snow day and probably (if APS has any sense at all) we'll have one tomorrow too. We haven't had any more snow, but almost all the schools still have snow-packed & iced over parking lots & walk ways. There are only 4 snow removal crews for 490 schools. You do the math. Historically, we don't get enough snow here to warrant  having the trucks come through & clear side streets so most of them are still iced over, making it impossible for buses to run. Honestly, the most intelligent thing to do is bag this week and just start fresh on Monday. We're supposed to be getting another weak snow storm through here Fri/Sat anyway.

*** I'm really tired of snow!

*** We haven't had mail service in 5 days, between the snow and New Year's Day & President Ford's funeral.

*** I'm really, really tired of snow!

*** The boys & I did, however, go out & buy new shoes yesterday. We had to walk over 3" of ice to get into Payless but we got some good stuff. Besides a lovely new pair of brown boots (on sale!) I got a very cool pair of tennies:

Can you see the skulls? Here's a close-up:

Dylan assures me they are mostly Goth & just a little Emo. (For those of you out of the middle school/high school loop, "Emos" are Uber Goths. They are the ones that steal razor blades from pencil sharpeners to cut themselves and like showing off their arms & legs with all the old scars & new threads of blood. And no - I don't make this stuff up.)

Dylan gets along well with both groups (nope - he's not Emo) and got shoes to go with everyone. One pair of "skater" shoes with a thin line of skulls around the lacing and the other pair like mine, but all black (very Goth.) Before you think my entire family is nuts, Colin got a nice, basic pair of athletic shoes with cushy soles 'cause he's starting a semester of PE at school. (Yes - other than a rabid fascination with Blue Oyster Cult, Colin is the "normal" one around here!)

***I cleaned out my knitting basket yesterday because, on principal, I never have UFOS. Here's the stuff I pulled out:

That purple bit in the middle is Knot Ugly Shrug:

I really got quite far with the pattern but I honestly don't know if A. It's going to fit and B. if I'd wear it if it did! So that is getting frogged & going back in my stash to await further developments. :)
The workhorse shawl just isn't working:

It's a garter stitch shawl & it's boring me to tears. Life is too short for boring knits! This will also be frogged & stored.

Fall Cardi, although I love the style, I swear is going to be too small:

I'm not, however, going to frog the back. I'm thinking of making some sort of light, summery cover-up with this yarn and heck - why waste the knitting? This will go back on my shelf as-is to await design inspiration closer to summertime. :)

**** I started this a couple of days ago:

But stopped in dismay when I realized this was another "knit 10 inches and start the armhole shaping" sweater. Can you believe that??? Yes, it's raglan shaping but STILL! I decided to add another 4" then realized I wouldn't have enough yarn to make the sweater if I did that. Since the Berroco Calico was an Elann close-out I can't get any more yarn & I thought I was SOL.

Until I saw Amy's new pattern yesterday. The gauge was right (well - close enough) and I had MORE than enough yarn. So out with the old:

And in with the new:

Even I have to admit I'm really zipping along with this one. I loved Amy's advice regarding using two balls of yarn to do the two sides of the sleeve and carrying the unused yarn up as you do in intarsia. It's really streamlined the knitting process. :) I did make one mistake - the second small cable twist has two extra rows in it. I don't care enough to frog all that to fix it - I'll just do the same on the other sleeve & call it a design element. ;)

I'm at 17" with the sleeve - I'm going to add a couple more before I cast on for the front & back.

***Since there's no such thing as too many pictures, I'll leave you with these...

A lovely Christmas pressie from Nat: Pakucho Cotton in a color I've never seen here in the States:

Those skeins are destined to be some sort of tank top for summer. I can't wait! Thanks so much, Nat!

And because everyone likes a mystery, here are two more skeins of yarn that are in my newly stocked knitting basket....what the heck could they be for? I'll give you a couple of hints: The project isn't for me and I'll be designing it myself. (You'll never guess because I don't think I've mentioned it before on this blog...although you HAVE been treated to pictures of the recipient!! LOL)

Have a wonderful day - snow day or not!