Cute Kid in a Dulaan Hat

So, I was going to stretch out the knitting of this hat since I can't work on anything too complicated right now because of the whole moving thing. I was going to watch the American Idol results show I had taped and then go to bed at 10pm. But then one of my favourite movies came on TV and I had to stay up to my favourite scene - the funeral scene from "Four Weddings and a Funeral" when the W. H. Auden poem is recited. So, the cool stripe hat magically got finished last night:



The model was actually in a posing kind of mood - although she wanted me to take a picture of her with her french fry hanging out of her mouth. I declined. Here's a side view:



The cool stripes did get smooshed a bit when it came time for the decreases, but I kept them to a quick (over 8 rows from start to finish) decrease - so it kind of looks like there is an aqua berry on top of the hat.

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Word of the Day 9:
salmagundi

1674, from Fr. salmigondis, originally "seasoned salt meats" (cf. Fr. salmis "salted meats"), from M.Fr. salmigondin, coined by Rabelais, of uncertain origin, but probably related to salomene "hodgepodge of meats or fish cooked in wine," (early 14c.), from O.Fr. salemine.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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It's funny - some days it is harder to find a good word that I don't know the meaning of. I usually start on Dictionary.com and do a free-flow association with a theme in mind. Today's theme was 'mixed feelings', and somehow I lucked into a word meaning 'mixed salted meats.' See? You never know where you'll go!

The reason for the mixed feelings? There was a freaking lake in the backyard of my new house today! Granted, we had about 3 inches of rain in less than 12 hours last night - but I had gone out yesterday afternoon and bought a 10 foot section of corrugated pipe and an adaptor to connect to my drain pipe in a valiant (and pretty damn smart, I thought) attempt to divert the water away from the corner of the basement with the known water issue. For those of you who don't live in Delaware, this is not a shocking thing - We are near the ocean and two large rivers - the ground is pretty damp here. I didn't know what a sump pump or french drain was until we started looking at houses. So, at lunch today I stopped by my new house (how I love saying that!) to drop off some stuff. I was standing in front of the kitchen window pulling stuff out of bags and I looked out the window and saw a FREAKIN' LAKE! I dropped what I was doing, ran downstairs to the basement, half expecting to see a few inches of water in the basement... and all there was was a small trickle from the known corner, moving straight to the drain. I turned on the dehumidifer and went outside to investigate. My new piping system apparently worked because that corner of the yard was dry. The water is at the back of the yard - it doesn't start until about 15 feet away from the back of the house. I checked out the neighbour's yards and saw similar pools, to lesser degrees. I frantically called my father-in-law, and he assured me this had to to with the fact the ground was frozen and the water had nowhere to go. Willow and I went back to the house after work and saw the lake had receded quite a bit - so keep your fingers crossed that we have a few dry days, okay?

The good thing that happened today? Willow was accepted into the Kindergarten program we were trying to get her into. Yay! One less thing to worry about!

Random Stripage

Isn't this cool?



This is the same TLC Essentials 'Surf and Turf' yarn I made Willow's Calorimetry out of a week or two ago. I love how I have the thick aqua stripe going up around the hat. Right now I am just trucking along in a 2X2 rib, and I am a little afraid to start the decreases at the crown because I know it will mess up my snazzy stripes.

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Word of the Day 8:
recreant
Pronunciation[rek-ree-uhnt]
-adjective
1. cowardly or craven.
2. unfaithful, disloyal, or traitorous.

-noun
3. a coward.
4. an apostate, traitor, or renegade.

[Origin: 1300-50; ME <>
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We Are Homeowners! Yay Us!

The house is all ours! We had settlement this afternoon, and after signing my name a gazillion and a half times, we were handed the keys to our first home. Now comes the monster rounds of packing and moving... not my favourite things to do, but I can't wait to be in the new place!

Those of you with young children will be surprised that I didn't know the meaning of this word until today:

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Word of the Day 7:

otitis media n.
Inflammation of the middle ear, occurring commonly in children as a result of infection and often causing pain and temporary hearing loss.

[New Latin : otitis + Latin media, feminine of medius, middle.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Willow has been a bit snotty for a few days now, and after I left for work this morning Willow complained to Andrew that her ear hurt. This was the first I had heard of it - so he gave her a decongestant and some Motrin. Flash forward a few hours, and we are in the law offices waiting to sign our names to a zillion documents and my cell phone rings. It is Willow's teacher saying Willow is crying and saying her ears hurt whenever she moves. My in-laws thankfully went to pick her up and my father-in-law diagnosed her with a mild ear infection. Willow certainly didn't think it was mild!

But as I mentioned above, I didn't know what this word was until today. Willow is nearly 5 years old and this is her first experience with an ear infection. Um, lucky me?

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I've decided to host a contest concerning all these new blogs that I have been viewing each day - I haven't ironed out all the details yet, but I will let you know when I do. Suffice to say, those of you new people who have found me because I have visited your blog, it may be worth your while to check in periodically. I have finished 60 of my planned 100 blog visits...

Almost There

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Word of the Day 6:
ambuscade
n. An ambush.

tr.v. ambuscaded, ambuscading, ambuscades
To attack suddenly and without warning from a concealed
place; ambush.

[French embuscade (from Old French embuschier, to ambush)
and Old Italian imboscata (from feminine past participle of
imboscare, to ambush), both from Frankish *boscu, bush,
woods.]

am'bus·cad'er n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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This wasn't quite what I was looking for when I was searching for a new word today. I was looking for a synonym for 'acceptance' or 'resolute' as these are both things I am feeling or am at the moment. The settlement on our new house is tomorrow. Wish us luck!

Another Dulaan Hat Finished

I always need to have a brain-less project to take with me to SnB - I just can't read a pattern and be sociable at the same time. I have read some people's blogs where wine is involved in their SnBs... and I know I definitely wouldn't be able to drink, knit conscientiously, and be sociable all at the same time. So, I cast on for this Dulaan hat last week:



The yarn is Paton's something in 'High Intensity' - odd that I should remember the name of the colour but not of the yarn. Here's a top view:



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Word of the Day 5:
chapfallen [chop-faw-luhn, chap-]
–adjective
dispirited; chagrined; dejected.

[Origin: 1590–1600; chap3 + fallen]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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Why this word? I was looking up for a synonym for 'frustrated.' My child's eating habits drive me bonkers. Don't get me wrong - she loves to eat... but takes absolutely forever to do it! We only have so much time when we get home. Most days I am lucky if we get home around 5pm, and she is usually in bed by 7:30 - 8pm. I hate the fact that I get angry and am trying to rush her along so she can finish her dinner, have a bath, do homework, get a story, and then get to bed all before 8pm.

This makes sense to me!

You Are Chinese Food

Exotic yet ordinary. People think they've had enough of you, but they're back for more in an hour.

What Kind of Food Are You?

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cachinnate

Pronunciation[kak-uh-neyt]

–verb (used without object), -nat·ed, -nat·ing. to laugh loudly or immoderately.

[Origin: 1815–25; <>

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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I love finding words that I have never heard of before!

I know I promised a better picture of the baby sweater, but the truth of it is we have had craptacular weather today so I wasn't able to take a good picture in natural light. It started snowing sometime around 1:30pm and has been coming down steadily since then. The weatherman is predicting 4 - 6 inches of snow by tomorrow morning.

Incidentally - my favourite Chinese food is Sesame Chicken - and I've got to have an eggroll. I'm also partial to Cashew Chicken. I don't like seafood in Chinese food, though - unless they are deep-fried prawns. How about you?

Finished Earlier Than Expected...

This baby sweater was to be my finished object for March, but then Andrew and I started watching "V for Vendetta" last night and I really got into it and before long the sweater was finished! This isn't the best picture as it is nearly 10pm and I am in a not-well lit apartment - however, I will endeavor to take a better picture tomorrow in natural light.



The pattern is Daisy from Knitty but I made some changes to the structure. I absolutely detest having to sew pieces together afterward, so I knit the sleeves to the point of the raglan shaping, joined them to the main body, and continued to knit in the round with the raglan shaping. I think it makes for a much neater work... and I have only 5 stitches under each arm to sew up when finished. The yarn is one of the new fair-isle Plymouth Encore skeins, and I really could have got away with one skein for the entire sweater (I made the smallest size), but it was easier to have two skeins so I could work on the sleeves without cutting the yarn from the body. There is enough yarn leftover to probably make a matching hat and booties.

Now here is the delicate thing... the yarn smells a bit. I noticed it when I brought it home - but the yarn store said they had just received it from their supplier, and I live in a no pets non-smoking house. The smell - well, it reminds me a bit of burned hair or wet dog. It's fainter now that I have washed the sweater, and I don't know if at this point if I am just being sensitive about it or not. Before I washed the sweater, my mother-in-law said it reminded her of wet wool - and Encore does have a smidge (about 25%) of wool in it. I asked Willow if she smelled anything and she said it smelled like sunshine (oo-kay...) Does anyone know of anyway I can de-smell the sweater before I finally give it to Teri?

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Word of the Day 4:
plicate
Pronunciation -[adj. plahy-keyt, -kit; v. plahy-keyt]
–adjective
1.
Also, pli·cat·ed. folded like a fan; pleated. –verb (used with object)
2.
Surgery. to perform plication on.

[Origin: 1690–1700; < size="1">
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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I found this word when I was looking for a synonym for 'knit.' It isn't exact, but I liked it anyway. I assume that the word 'complicate' is connected to this as well.

Seas of Boxes With No Shore In Sight

Ever have days when you just feel hebetudinous?

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Word of the Day 3:
hebetude
Pronunciation [heb-i-tood, -tyood]
-noun
the state of being dull; lethargy.

Related forms : hebetudinous [adjective]
[Origin: 1615-25; <>

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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It looks like I am building a fortress from Boise paper boxes in my living room. I get these boxes free from work and they are nice because they are sturdy and you can only put so much into them so they can't get too heavy. But I am sick to death of looking at them! Green is normally one of my favourite colours and that Tudor green on the boxes is starting to make my stomach clench.

I'm coasting along in my experiment of commenting in 5 new blogs every day to see what kind of response I get from people. The segues that take you from blog to blog are very interesting - Pagan Knitters to Midwest Knitters to Queer Knitters to SAHM knitters to Sexy Knitters to Bad Ass Knitters. I have been primarily using the webrings to find new places. I have been keeping track of all the blogs I have been frequenting and I will post the list of 100 when I am done for everyone to see.

Yeah, this about sums it up

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Word of the Day 2:
corybantic
cor·y·ban·tic [kawr-uh-ban-tik, kor-] -adjective
1. frenzied; agitated; unrestrained.
2. (initial capital letter ) Also, Cor·y·ban·tian [kawr-uh-ban-tin, -tahyn, kor-] of or pertaining to a Corybant (Greek Mythology: A priest of the Phrygian goddess Cybele whose rites were celebrated with music and ecstatic dances.) .

[Origin: 1635-45; Corybant -> Corybant + -ic ]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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Less than a week until our settlement day. I am frazzled. I think I need a spa day. Honey, we haven't had Valentine's Day yet...

Lenten Resolution Kick-off

I love words.

I love to read.

I love using unusual words and foisting them on unsuspecting people. One of my co-workers loved the word 'imbibe' after I used it a few weeks ago that she went around the entire day using it instead of the word 'drink.' My Mom has long maintained that she thinks Sesame Street taught me how to read, because she didn't do it (although she is an amazingly prolific reader herself) and I was reading by the time I was 3 years old. Do you remember the V.C. Andrews "Flowers in the Attic" series? I read them in the third grade. My reading habits now spread through many genres from ancient poetry to alternative history, and I will admit to an unhealthy propensity toward paranormal romance. I especially love books in series because they give you plenty of time to immerse yourself in characters; the downside of this is there really is a distinct sense of loss when the series inevitably concludes.

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, coming up with a new word every day will not be a hardship for me. I found today's word in a Jeopardy question calendar my manager gave me for Christmas:

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Word of the Day 1:
theophobia
Part of Speech: n
Definition: a fear of God
Etymology: Greek theos 'god'

Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6)Copyright © 2003-2006 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC
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What struck me about this word is that it really isn't a synonym for the idiom 'fear of God.' You wouldn't say, "My father put the theophobia into me when I was young." It is a condition - to have a fear of God. Interestingly enough - I couldn't find what should be the technical opposite ('theophilia' - love of God) in any of the dictionaries I looked in.

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Back to knitting... I am about 50% finished my Daisy sweater for my friend Teri who will be having a baby girl in a few short months. And since I always need a mindless project around, there is another hat on the needles. Pictures to come soon!

February's Significant Object (Don't Look, Lisa!)

Yeah... Totoro wanted to get in on the action...

Here is February's Significant Finished Object (Not a Hat!) © :



This is a baby blanket I crocheted for my friend Lisa, who will be having a little boy in May. The whole blanket is crocheted in moss stitch out of Plymouth Encore. I used 6 skeins altogether, and had about 2 - 3 yards leftover for Willow to play with. The striping was created completely by the yarn with no effort on my part (just the way I like it!) I will be putting it in the mail this week, Lisa (you didn't look, did you?!!?)

Here's a close up of the blanket and the lovely cake of sock yarn that came in the mail today from Jen from 144 Inches of I-Cord for confessing I had it bad for John Taylor from Duran Duran and Jason Patric when I was a teenager:



Totoro just couldn't leave the sock yarn alone! It is Opal Sock Yarn and the colour is called "Happy Knitting!" - How apropos!

Tomorrow is Mardi Gras / Fat Tuesday / Pancake Tuesday, so I know what we will be having for dinner. Lent starts the next day, and some of you might remember what I did last year for Lent. I loved doing that, and wanted to think of something similar for this year - but the truth of it is with moving and all I know I won't have the time to dedicate to that sort of resolution. So, I am going to learn a word a day instead. My degree is in linguistics and I love etymology so this isn't really any hardship.

Edited to add: Woo-hoo! I forgot to say this qualifies as a Project Spectrum Finished Object! Yay me!

See What Happens When You Try...

...to take pictures of finished objects by yourself after midnight?

Here you are, Dad - your birthday hat:



Dad's hat is knit from Malabrigo in Rojo Vivo and I still have about a third of a skein leftover (and the leftover goes into my Dulaan hat pile stash). Dad requested this wool without even knowing what it was - I had brought bags of leftovers with me up to Canada for our Christmas vacation last year and when Dad said he wanted his hat knit "from that really soft stuff," I knew exactly which one he meant. I *love* knitting with Malabrigo - it's so smooth and not tight and the colours are beautiful.

Now, as the title points out, there are some inherent problems with taking pictures of yourself after midnight... as you can see from the above picture, I look like death warmed over (appropriate since I was having my own personal CSI catch-up marathon while finishing the hat). Also, since I have to prop the camera up to take the picture on a timer, there is no one to tell you if you are actually in the viewfinder or not:



Actually, I like that picture above - it did catch how the colour spirals around just like I was attempting to do. After that attempt, I appropriated one of Willow's balls and put the hat on it to try and catch the colour swirl:



I'm in the picture in this next one, but it turned out rather dark:



And the most embarrassing of all, the "I accidentally clicked the picture button without setting up the timer first" picture that gives you an un-needed close up of my lately ungroomed eyebrows...

Ah well. You can't win them all. Dad, the hat will be in the mail this week. Happy Much Belated Birthday!

The Wonder That Is Ikea

Oh my, we had fun today!

Andrew and I went off to Ikea this afternoon to get some ideas of what do with all the space we will have in our new home. Specifically, while large on room space, the bedrooms are skimpy on closet space - so we needed to look into armoires and wardrobes. I say 'and' because Andrew seems to think I am speaking French when I say 'armoire', and his Dad said he thinks they are actually different things. In any case, we will be needing more closet space in the new place. The first happy surprise was that we ran into my friend Asami, her husband Gara, and their cute-as-a-bug son Ray. This was a neat coincidence - both of us in the same (huge) place at the same time on the same day in a town that is not where either of us live.

We only came home with $15 worth of tools and some small stuff for Willow - but with lots of ideas. I want to get a bookcase or shelving unit to put all my knitting supplies and wool in to keep them in somewhat neat and orderly condition. We had a good look at the dishes and kitchen supplies as well - I know we will need new dishes (as one broke so we are down to 3 dinner plates). My Mom has one of those hanging do-hickies in her kitchen to hold all her pots and pans and I would like to get one of those, too.

And the next to best part (after the ideas, of course!)... I got to knit all the way to and back from Conshohocken and am about 30 minutes away from finishing my Dad's birthday hat. Um, yeah... Dad's birthday was at the beginning of January...

I Now Know What A Children's Hospital Emergency Room...

...Looks like at 3:30 in the morning... Funnily enough, pretty empty.

Willow has croup. She woke us up a little after midnight with sounds that sort of sounded like coughing/choking. I won't get into the body fluids part of it all, but suffice to say there were some. She couldn't breathe back in after coughing and was getting frantic so we whisked her down to A. I. DuPont Children's Hospital, which incidentally is the closest hospital to us anyway. She had a fever and the triage nurse diagnosed her right away as having croup. They gave her some tylenol and pedialyte popsicles, and we had to wait until nearly 4am to see one of the doctors. I understand the point of triage and children more sick and/or injured than Willow were coming in... but we were bloody exhausted by the time we got out of there. The doctor gave her a steroid dose and sent us home with instructions on how to deal with croup. It's interesting - if she is having a coughing episode, they said the best immediate thing to do is change her environment - either take outside into the cold air or put her in a steamy shower. So, we are dealing on less than 4 hours of sleep today - that kid better damn well go down for a nap.

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I am going to conduct an experiment. I have been a little disappointed in the number of comments of late - thank you so much for those of you who leave comments - I must say I wonder sometimes what compels people to comment. I know I don't have (and am not attempting to recruit) some of the numbers that other more popular blogs have, but it's bewildering sometimes. I will write something I feel comment-worthy and no one leaves a comment - and then I write something fleeting and flippant and ten people feel the need to say something. I put in a site meter a few weeks back (you can click on the link on the lower right side of this page) and I was really surprised at the numbers of people who read my blog and where they come from. On the flip side, I know even though there are about 50 blogs that I track and read, there are only about 10 that I comment on regularly. So, what I propose to do is surf a bit more (yeah, my husband is going to love that) and leave comments on at least five people's blogs everday. Let me clarify - five people who I have never commented on before. Maybe I will find some fun new blogs to read... and maybe a new reader or two of my own.

Not Quite What We Were Expecting

The last few weeks I have read many people's blogs - oddly enough, many of them in New Mexico, where they have been having many snow days... Well, we had an ice day yesterday. It had started to snow in the afternoon of February 13th - but it was that fluttery fly-away powdery stuff and many people I work with assumed that was the worst of it. Like always, the weatherman had over-estimated the system. I did bring my computer home from work, just in case.

Valentine's Day morning I work up to an odd dinging/pinging sound. After I came to, I realized it was ice hitting the windows. Not just sleet - but mini hail balls of ice. The top half of my bedroom window had about a half-inch of ice on it and it was like looking out of bathroom window glass. At 6:30am Andrew went out to try and clear off our cars and I hooked up my computer to the broadband (thank you!) and started to work. After about an hour Andrew came back in, having broken the teeth off all of our ice scrapers and breaking one of my taillights in an attempt to break off the ice... The roads were just too dangerous to drive on so Willow and Andrew had an ice day and I plugged away on my reports at the dining room table. I didn't go out all that day - Andrew and I decided we had to postpone Valentine's Day until the weather is a bit more amiable. The system had cleared through by this morning, so I took my computer outside to show you a bit of what had happened the day before.

This is a tree in our back courtyard:



A close-up of the poor frozen pine cones:



And an icy rhododendron in my in-laws' front yard:



I had to get to the office - but I saw many neat things along the way that I would have loved to take pictures of. With the sun coming up in the morning everything looked as if it were gilded in gold.

I will have a finished object soon - and keeping with my New Year's resolution of one significant project a month, it is not just a hat ;)

Soundtrack of my Life

I found this over at Trillian's blog and thought this was something I could run with:

Directions: If your life was a movie, what would the soundtrack be?

1. Open your mp3 library
2. Put it on shuffle.
3. Press Play.
4. For every question, type the song that's playing.
5. When you go to a new question, press the Next button.
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool.
7. Don't skip songs.

My Movie:

1. Opening credits: Girl Next Door – Saving Jane
2. Waking up: Funky Blues – Charlie Parker
3. First day of school: Eleanor Rigby – the Beatles
4. Fight song: Into the Fire – Sarah McLachlan
5. Breaking up: Baby – Iggy Pop
6. Happiness: Blown Away – the Pixies
7. Life's okay: Supernova – Liz Phair
8. Mental breakdown: Why Should I Love You – Kate Bush
9. Driving: Lightning Crashes - Live
10. Flashback: I’ll Do The Driving – Fountains of Wayne
11. Getting back together: How Strong Do You Think I Am – Alexz Johnson
12. Wedding song: Hooked on Polkas – Weird Al Yankovic
13. Birth of first child: I Can Hear You – They Might Be Giants
14. Final battle scene: Jimmy Neutron Theme Song – Bowling for Soup
15. Death scene: King of the Mountain – Midnight Oil
16. Funeral song: Love is a Battlefield – Pat Benatar
17. End credits: Mystify - INXS

I did have to fudge mine a little bit because we have audiobook files on our list as well, and it didn't feel quite right when Chapter Something or Other from a Shelby Foote book came up - so I just skipped it until a song came up. And I will admit that a full third of these songs were Andrew's additions to the music library and I am not familiar with them at all...

Knitty Secret Pal 8 Package!

Look what arrived for me yesterday!



From New Mexico, no less... that through me off :) Enclosed were 3 skeins of Big Mexiko socks yarn (thank you - quick sock satisfaction here I come!), a blue striped vinyl box (which I will be taking to work to put all my various post-it pads in), a bag of white chocolate Hugs (yum!), a Chibi needle set (I've always wanted one of those), some size 7 bamboo dpns (no doubt for those socks!), some on-th-needle stitch counters, and a Bunny sticker set for Willow. I'm saving the stickers for this afternoon for her to play with as we pack - thank you for thinking of her, too! The funny thing about the stitch counters is that I almost bought some yesterday but then reconsidered it because I was in dire need of a nap. Thank you, SP!

Look, Mom! My bed was made!

Why Is It That...

...for someone who doesn't care to knit with cotton because it hurts my hands I have managed to accumulate 25 balls of kitchen cotton. Yes, I can count - there are less than 25 here - but I found more after I took this picture. Know any good washcloth patterns? Please pass them on - I like ones that are reversible and no intarsia involved...



Why was I going through my yarn? Well, the dreaded packing has begun. I have three 18-gallon tubs of wool, a smaller tote-able tub of wool, and an ottoman with storage within... with, um, more yarn. Andrew, to his credit, did not say a single word when I started hauling this out of the closet of mystery. My husband is a saint. Mom, there is another box of yarn coming your way.

In the midst of all of this I did manager to finish two small things for Willow. One is a chullo-hat pattern with a hole in the back for her ponytail. I didn't use a pattern for this - just sort of made it up as I went along. The yarn is Malabrigo Chunky stuff I bought at Handpainted Yarn last year some time. I think the colourway is Paris Night, but don't quote me on it.



My original thought was to just make a normal toque-type hat for her, but when that part of that hat was done and she tried it on, I realized it was much too short on her head, so I added the ear flaps. I simply marked on either side of her head with stitch markers how wide the ear flaps needed to be to cover her ears and then some, then did single crochet rows until I ran out of yarn. It has a very rustic look to it - I am thinking of adding a crocheted edging in a different colour just to make the front and back a bit deeper on her head.



This lucky girl also scored herself a Calorimetry this week:



She admired mine greatly and wanted to claim it like she did the Nippertail hat but I put my foot down. After she and I had a screaming match at each other last night (me hormonally charged, she nap-less), I put her to bed and started knitting her the Calorimetry. It's a little snug on her - I think I am going to re-position the button to give it a bit more ease. Willow's Calorimetry is knit from TLC Essentials in the Surf N Turf colourway. I love how the aqua and browns move together here, and there is still plenty left on the skein, so I will undoubtedly get a Dulaan hat or two out of the remaining yarn. To size this down I only cast on 80 stitches on size 6 needles, and did 10 repeats of row 5 and 12 repeats of row 7. I may fudge this a bit and add an inch or two on each end as an afterthought to extend the band if Willow complains about it being too tight.

Yeah... the model was more interested in watching Charlie and Lola...

Levity, Third Floor

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Monday, Monday, can't trust that day

Monday, Monday, can't trust that day
Monday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way
Oh Monday mornin' you gave me no warnin' of what was to be
~ Mamas and the Papas

Yesterday started out well enough. Yes, Andrew and I argued about whose turn it was to take Willow to school and it was so frakin' freezing outside that my tires went thunk-thunk-thunk for the first few hundred yards on the road. It didn't seem like a bad day.

I arrived at work and Andrew called to say Willow's school bag had been in my car, not his, so I would need to drop it off at her school sometime that morning. My morning meetings finished around 10am and I left to bring Willow her bag. I returned to the office about 10 minutes later, and while I was taking off my coat, my co-worker Ruth told me that our entire group had been pulled into a meeting to let them know our previous manager had died of cancer the night before.

We knew Esther had been sick - in fact, she had been out of the office since last spring recuperating - but it was still a shock. Esther had hired me into my present group back in 2003 - I started out as a temp employee. She was a champion for those she saw promise in, and before long she convinced me to apply for a permanent (and higher level) position within the group. Esther was a character - she was a lady. In the nearly 4 years I knew her, I do not believe I ever saw her without make-up on - especially red lipstick. She never wanted anyone to see her looking casual; I remember a photo had been taken of her at a team-building event wearing sneakers and she stole the picture and ripped it up so no one could see her wear sneakers. She unabashedly told people that she had a big fancy kitchen and yet had never turned the oven on. I asked her once what her husband thought about that - her response was that he knew what he was getting into when he married her. People referred to her as "The Queen" and she liked that.

Esther did not have children of her own, but she loved and indulged other people's children, especially little girls - especially my daughter. Courtesy of Esther, my daughter had clothes from Bloomingdales and Neiman Marcus before I had ever even stepped into one of these stores! Willow has since grown out of these fancy togs, but still one of her favourite stuffed animals is a soft yellow duck that she lovingly calls "Esther Duck."

Willow still asks about Esther, even though Esther hasn't been in my group since 2005, so I felt I had to tell her that Esther had passed away. I hadn't reacted until that moment. It seemed a little unreal at work, perhaps because I had been informed by one person rather than hearing it as a part of a group. With Willow's first question, "What is cancer?" I broke down. Esther is the first person Willow has known who has died and I don't know how real it is to her.

I was a wreck for the rest of the night. Andrew came home early and I spent the rest of the night weepy and pensive in turns. I thought about how I didn't mail her Christmas card to her house - I left it in her office mail, assuming that someone would come pick up her stuff. No one did and the card is still in that pile of mail.

I stayed up after Andrew and Willow had gone to bed, trying to numb myself with television. My Mom called to inform me that Death wasn't finished today. One of my second cousins and his girlfriend had been killed in a car accident that morning. They were crossing at a crosswalk, walked in front of a stopped bus and a car in the next lane ran them down. They were killed instantly.

Monday, Monday, can't trust that day

Jo is a lemming (another Calorimetry)

I couldn't help myself. After seeing so many beautiful Calorimetries (I'm assuming that must be the plural) on other blogs such as Cristi's, Bezzie's, and CooknKnit's, I knew I had to become a lemming and make one of my own.

Wait a second! That article says lemmings do not all throw themselves off cliffs... way to ruin my entire metaphor, Wikipedia.

Anyway - here is my Calorimetry:



I knit it from a skein of Berroco's Foliage in Japanese Maple I bought up in Duncan, BC over Christmas. As you can see, the colour is redder than the shade card leads you to believe. The pattern was a very quick knit - I started about 8:30pm last night and was finished after lunch today. The button is courtesy of my mother-in-law's tin of buttons. I had to go down to size 6 needles to get gauge, but other than that, everything was knit as per the pattern.

I had intended to wait until tomorrow when I was a bit more gussied up for the picture - but I was so happy with how it turned out that I had Andrew take a picture of me wearing it... unbrushed, napped-in hair and all:



Maybe I will have him take a better picture tomorrow for posterity...

Second Annual Brigid in Cyberspace Poetry Reading

Today is the Second Annual Brigid in Cyberspace Poetry Reading, so I bring you a poem by the man who inspired the title of this blog, Irving Layton:

How Poems Get Written

Like
a memory
torn
at the shoulders,
my darling
wears
the chemise
I gave her -
a wedding gift.

At night
I tap out
my poems
on her hip bone.

When
she can't
sleep
either
we write
the poem
together.

Something about me being a horse's ass

You Are a Centaur

In general, you are a very cautious and reserved person. However, you are also warm hearted, and you enjoy helping others in practical ways. You are a great teacher, and you are really good at helping people get their lives in order. You are very intuitive, and you go with your gut. You make good decisions easily.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

Pre-Superbowl Purchases and Pissy Things

I don't watch football. And frankly, after getting disgusting things thrown at me from cars when we lived in Boulder because I was inadverantly and unknowingly wearing Nebraska's colours during game weekend, I don't *care* about football. However, I am willing to make allowances. I went up to my LYS this afternoon to get a 16 inch size 7 circular, and apparently they were having a Pre-Superbowl Sale... and I came home with these two bundles.

8 Skeins Plymouth Oh My - a very soft bouclé in a forest/army green colour:



7 Skeins NY Yarns Gypsy - I did make sure that all of these had the same dye lot number, but there seems to be a lot of variation in the colours - mostly red with a little pink, a little mauve, and a little orange:



I have about 650 yards of each yarn, and right now I am planning sleeveless hoodies out of both for Willow. As for prices, let's just say that both were about 60% off their regular prices :)

Bezzie had a meme with a twist on her blog today and I really think I can sink my teeth into this one~

Sixth Things That Piss Me Off

1) School Offices that won't let me enroll my daughter in full-day kindergarten because our settlement day for our new house is the same day as the kindergarten lottery.

Piggy-backed onto that...

2) The fact that most of the schools in our area have only one full-day kindergarten classroom and that parents have to jockey into position to get their child into it!

3) This disgusting salt that is all over the roads and cars here. We've had a scant one inch of snow in the last 4 weeks and there is so much salt on the ground that you would have thought we were coming out of the grips of a blizzard.

4) That I don't have enough hours in the day to read all the books I want, knit all the patterns I want, play with Willow, keep a clean house, cook nutritious meals, exercise, be a good wife (and trust me, that is the role that suffers), and be a breadwinner... and get maybe 6 hours of sleep in a night. I am always tired.

5) That the older I get the bushier my hair seems to be. Styling products be damned, it seems I always have frizzy hair now.

6) Finding a really cool book in a bookstore, only to discover that the book is the second in a series and the first book is out-of-print.

Project Spectrum Jumpstart!

Okay, I know Project Spectrum technically doesn't start until later this week, but I couldn't help myself - I went ahead and finished my blue ankle socks:



Particulars:
* 2 skeins Juvel Superwash in the Blues colourway (DK weight)
* Size 3 dpns
* Women's size medium
* Pattern from Ann Budd's multiguage pattern book. To make the ankle socks I just did 10 rows of 1X1 ribbing and then 12 of stockinette before starting the heel flap

I've decided I need to purchase one of those socks forms... I looked in my LYS yesterday and they didn't have one. The trip wasn't a loss - I did make some purchases for my downstream SP; however, I can't post the pics because she has been known to read my blog occasionally... One thing I did buy for myself is two skeins of the new Plymouth Encore fairisle-like yarn in a red/pink/yellow mix to make a baby sweater for my friend Teri, who will be having a little girl in June. The effect is pretty nice so far - I'm knitting Daisy from Knitty but I think I am going to alter the pattern a bit so the raglan is knit together rather than sewn together at the end.

Oh - and I've managed to keep one New Year's resolution - a significant project finished each month!

Friday Night Pizza

When I was in high school I had a couple of the seemingly requisite fast food jobs most kids have - Dairy Queen first (which turned me off soft serve for the longest time!), and then Panagopolous Pizza. This pizza chain has now shortened its name to Panago, I believe, and it only exists in British Columbia. My secret joy? Telling people they couldn't have half toppings of this and half toppings of that. Yes, sometimes I truly do deserve the evil rating from a couple weeks back... It wasn't as if this was my rule - it was a rule of the pizza place - I just took a special joy in *enforcing* it.

So, karma has come back to bite me - I guess I deserve this:



Yes, green peppers on only three-quarters of the pizza. I took a sick day yesterday as I was simply exhausted from me and everyone else in the apartment coughing all night. Willow is the worst - that Mom gene kicks in and I simply cannot sleep because she is sick. So what did I do during my sick day? Set up the bread machine to make a batch of pizza dough. I really love making pizza - this one has chopped up ham, mushrooms, green peppers (on three-quarters of it, anyway), lots of my Dad's garlic, and don't tell Andrew- very finely chopped up pineapple through out. If I'm going to make concessions, it is only going to be to one person at a time!

I didn't have time to go and buy pineapple after work today, so I picked some up in our work cafeteria salad bar. I mentioned to one of my co-workers that I had bought it to put on my pizza, and a bunch of people started saying, "Ugh - pineapple on pizza? Only a Canadian would think of that!" I was not in a good mood to begin with so I snapped back, "It's called a Hawaiian pizza - and the last time I checked, Hawaii was part of the States and therefore American!" I didn't realize my boss was on the other side of the cubicle wall: "Um, Jo - is everything okay?" Grr. Fine.

The pizza was very yummy :) I increase the recipe by 50% because I like having lots of dough for my pizza (don't understand thin crust pizza at all!) I would also normally slice up onions on my mandolin and put those on as well but I was feeling kind of lazy with the chopping and all. And if people want to know about interesting things on pizza when we lived in Japan it was quite popular for people to put asparagus, mayonnaise, and corn on their pizzas (notice I did not say strange or odd because I think there a wonderful variety of pizza around the world).

So, what do you like on your pizza?

Belated Christmas Finished Objects

But not belated on my end! These are Christmas presents I knit for my Mom and Dad and had finished before I went up to see them - but since my parents read my blog nearly every day I wasn't able to post pictures of the presents in progress.

First, a hat for my Mom:



Mom loved purple and hates wool (sacrilege!), so this hat is knit out of a acrylic/polymide boucle blend - it is really soft and scrunchy. Mom, however, is supposed to pull the cap down a bit further :)

And the big present... that I slaved over... that Daddy better appreciate...

Daddy's Hemp-Wool socks knit from stuff I bought from Dzined at the TKCA conference at King of Prussia last July:



The pattern is from the Ann Budd multiple gauge pattern book and was very easy - and one skein gave me enough for a pair of socks with a 2" ball left over in the end (yes, I was getting worried toward the end!) One toe is slightly pointier than the other:



I'm not sure what happened there because I am fairly certain I followed each sock exactly as called for in the pattern - I'm sure the point will mellow out over time.

Now... if only my sister Jaime would send me her pictures so I could show you the rest of the presents I knit for Christmas...

Blogstalking: Current Works in Progress

I apologize in advance for the uninspired picture - I couldn't think of an interesting way to line all of these up... and Willow wanted to help, which caused all sorts of anxiety on my part. So, without further ado - my works in progress:



On the back (L - R):

1. Baby Blanket (crocheted from Bernat Breeze)
2. Man's cabled & ribbed sweater for Andrew (knit from Plymouth Encore)

In the middle (L - R):

3. Ladies helmet hat (similar to the blue one Willow modeled here ) for my mother-in-law. Knit out of TLC something boucle-y.
4. Ankle socks for me (one finished!) knit from Juvel superwash
5. New hat for my Dad (his third) knit from Malabrigo in "Rojo Vivo"
6. Cabled hat knit from Cashmerino

And lastly, in the front:

7. Baby blanket crocheted from Plymouth Encore.

To be absolutely honest, I'm rather surprised there are only 7 projects in my basket... In any case, here are some close-ups of some of the above:



My blue sock! These will be nice and warm - and I love the colour. It's hard to tell from the side, but there is a subtle dark blue swirl that goes around the foot a couple of times.

This one is a little hard to make out, but these are the cables on Andrew's sweater. I've stalled on this one because as I have mentioned before, I'm pretty sure I don't have enough of this dye lot to do the whole sweater... so most likely I will have to get a few balls in the same colour in a different dye lot for the sleeves. I did check the place where I bought the yarn... but seeing as that was 18 months ago, I didn't have high hopes and justifiably so.



And just because it looks so pretty... and only stayed this way for about 10 minutes before she messed it up by doing a headstand on the sofa... Willow's french-braided hair:

Finished Object Update

Remember this sweater?



I knit it last summer for my friend Satomi's baby-to-be. The pattern is Daisy from Knitty and I knit it out of Plymouth Oh My (which is very lovely soft!). Before Christmas Satomi sent me a picture of her daughter Emi wearing this sweater... and I am just sorry it has taken me this long to post the picture! Emi is the cutest little girl!



I had knit the 6 months size and I amglad I did... because Emi was only about 3 months old in this pic! It was a very quick knit and easy to put together.

24 Hours and Three Fights Later

Oh my. Who knew we could have such vociferous fights about paint colour! Andrew apparently hates one of my favourite colours - aqua. He wants our bedroom to be blue - and dark blue at that. I have a problem with this because to me a blue bedroom is so one-dimensional... it's a boy's room. So, I tried to pick some colours that were more on the blue end of aqua rather than on the green end. Somehow I see some more knock-down drag-outs about this before it is all done.



Andrew's Dad told me to avoid the darkest colours on the strip because it will always be darker on your wall than it is on the strip. We have a chair rail in the kitchen (basically the wall has a railing about hip-high all the way around) and I would like to leave the upper part cream as it is now and paint the lower part a dark teal. Or maybe paint the top a pale aqua and have the bottom dark teal. I informed Andrew (much to his pissed-off-ness) that he has less choice in the kitchen because I will be spending the most time in there... (and I may have muttered something about that if he kept on arguing with me the whole house may end up aqua...)



But really - these colours aren't all that far away from each other on the colour spectrum - it is really silly that we are getting so worked up about it all. I tried compromising last night - I think cobalt blue or royal blue and aqua work really nicely together. We wouldn't stripe the walls - but what if we painted the room the lighter colour and use the darker colour for room accents?



The pink in this last one? Ideas for Willow's room. The floors in this house are a gorgeous dark honey oak so I would like to stay in the warmer end of pink so better flow with the warmth of the floor.

And no, we haven't even started talking about the living room yet... I'm thinking lettuce green and aqua.

They Accepted Our Offer!

Keep your fingers crossed, everyone... It's going to be a very busy next few weeks!

Wish Us Luck!

I struggled to find a picture to put in here today, and I ended up choosing one that always makes me smile. This is Willow at two at my parents' house. Kaycha, the cat, won't get anywhere near Willow when Willow is awake, but would snuggle up to her almost every night. I needed a calm picture that makes me happy... Why?



We are putting an offer on a house tomorrow. Our first house. I am so nervous and jumpy and my stomach is tying itself up in knots. I don't see a whole lot of sleep for me tonight. I'm worrying like I do with taxes and government paperwork - that I don't have all my ducks in a row.

Wish us luck - it's a beautiful house - 3 bedroom brick colonial with a large yard less than a half mile from my office and it puts Willow in the feeder pattern for the school we want her to attend in September.

Oh lordy - who said my baby could start kindergarten?

First Finished Objects of the Year

Dear Mom,

These are yours. On one condition...



You throw away two of the threadbare dishcloths in your drawer! The dishcloth on the left was inspired by seeing washcloths on Elizabeth's blog, and it has a great nubby texture on one side. The one on the right I don't have a link to because it was just a two line repeat pattern I found in my Reader's Digest stitch dictionary book (six plain then six moss stitch).

Your dutiful daughter,
Jo

Andrew, pancake chef extraordinaire that he is, received this maple leaf mold for Christmas and he wanted to show off to my family that he did figure out how to use it. This pancake was mine - and you know what was great about it? All the points of the leaf make crisp bits on the pancake and they were so yummy!



Don't you wish you were having pancakes right now?

Oh, I'm at it again

Okay, who has been paying attention? Look at the bar on the right... what's new?

It's time again!

Okay, not quite yet - but soon :) You can find out more details on Lolly's blog. I had so much fun with this last year, even if I didn't manage to come up with one project per month in the allotted colour scheme. Just being involved in the project made me more aware of these colours around me. It was a little thing, really - but it made me happy. The colours for February/March are blue/white/grey... hmmm... I have blue sock yarn, silver-grey yarn for a kid's hat... not much in the way of white, however. I do have a 4 year old, you know!

Have you made any New Year's resolutions? I have tried coming up with some constructive ones - I mean, we all would like to lose weight and be healthier, but I prefer not to sabotage myself by putting those ones into concrete demands. So, here are my three New Year's resolutions:

1. Knit one significant project each month. And no, hats don't count.

2. Keep a more even temper where Willow is concerned. This will be the toughest of the lot. Who knew that at four she would already be arguing with everything I say?

3. Keep my kitchen table clean. I am the worst person for this - I come home, and everything comes out of my hands an onto the kitchen table. I come by this naturally. Ironically, now that I am keeping the kitchen table clean, Willow's play table is all cluttered...

Maybe I need to re-think this...