Meet my new best friend

This is Neti, and she is my new best friend these days.



She came into my life on the dark hours of last Monday night. I was suffering from some serious sinus pressure. Yarn Hog has made the extremely helpful comment about her hubby's use of a Water Pik with a special nasal irrigator attachment to get all of the gunk out of his head. I was desperate and so sent Bill to Fred Meyer in search of this glorious thing. He came back with the Water Pik but, sadly, no nasal irrigator attachment was anywhere to be found (I'm going to have to mail-order it, which will not help us with this round of colds but will definitely help with the next). We tried to rig something up, but unfortunately without a good seal around the nostril, sticking a Water Pik up your nose and turning it on is a good way to get yourself soaking wet without having any effect whatsoever on your sinuses.

Neti to the rescue! I'd never heard of a Neti pot until George & Ruth's fight about the storage of his Neti on Six Feet Under. But last year during cold season, I discovered that several of my friends are staunch Neti advocates. I don't know why it took me so long, but I sent Bill back out to the store to get me a Neti pot before my head literally exploded off my neck. Apparently the secret is out, because he had to go to a couple different places to actually find one in stock.

Now, I've been spending ten minutes in the bathroom a couple times a day, sending saltwater in through one nostril and out the other. It took true desperation for me to try something like this, because I hate getting water up my nose more than just about anything. But this doesn't hurt at all - it's amazing! It loosens everything up and dislodges that junk that just won't come out for Kleenex alone. And now, for fear that I've truly disgusted you beyond belief, I'll end with this - when you're plugged beyond belief and all else fails, try a Neti. One caveat - you do need to take a decongestant or something before you use the Neti pot because it won't work if you're completely plugged. There has to be a path for the water to take or it'll just run down the back of your throat (or it won't go anywhere at all). This is where I think the Water Pik and a little pressure behind the stream might work well. I can report back once we've got the needed attachment and plugged sinuses to try it out on...

On a less-gross note, I've found a new little obsession.



I've had this page-a-day Origami calendar sitting around and finally managed to crack it open. Let me tell you, this stuff's addictive! Here's a close-up of some of my little creations:



The calendar is great because it builds from day to day so you develop the skills you need to make more and more complicated things. Each page is on nice origami paper with a colored back, so you use the previous day's page to make the next day's project. It's awesome! I'm still on January, so I've got a lot of folding to do to catch up. I can't wait to see what we get to at the end of the year! I need to find a shelf or something to hold all my little creatures. I can't let Owen anywhere near them or they end up looking like this:



I think that was some sort of bird at one point, but who can tell for sure? That boy is a mangler!

Now I am off to work on my final Pam Allen-selected project, for Holiday Gifts '07. Guess what - it's a pair of socks. What a surprise! Thanks for all of you who made such nice comments about the baby chicken fiasco. I've gotten multiple e-mails from the My Pet Chicken people - they feel so terrible! They are swearing up and down that the next box of chicks will be happy and healthy, but I'm still asking everyone to keep their fingers crossed for us (and the chicks) next Monday & Tuesday when the new shipment is sent out. Let's hope that heater works this time!!!

RIP, baby chicks

It's a sad day at the Chicken Mom household today. Have I told you, I'm doing a series of posts on my chicken raising experiences over at EnviroMom? Well...today we had our first setback. You can get the whole story here. I think I'm going to go comfort myself with a bowl of Froot Loops.

Oh, Ducks!

Woe is me. The Oregon Ducks lost their game today in the NCAA basketball tournament. I don't watch much basketball as a general rule, but I was cheering as loudly as anyone for the Ducks today. They were so close to winning - it was just heartbreaking!

After watching that devastating loss, Sydney and I pulled weeds in the garden and planted peas and mesclun (i.e. fancy salad greens) while Bill took the giant clippers to the enormous butterfly bush in our front yard that is being sacrificed in order to make room for our new Charlotte Peach tree.

I also found a great new blog in the past few days - EnviroMom. It's geared towards families in Portland, but plenty of the things they post about would be relevant anywhere. I'm currently in talks with them about doing a little series on our chickens (who will be arriving in a couple of days - I'm so excited!). I'll be talking about the chickens regardless, it's just a question of where!

And now I'm off to blow my nose for a couple more hours without having any effect on my actual ability to breathe. It's amazing how much gunk the human head can produce! My little EnviroMom tip - those cheap Gerber diapers that you can get a Target (not the tri-fold ones, the other ones that are like a big dustcloth) make awesome handkerchiefs. Most of the nice white tissue you get in the store is made from virgin forest. Same with toilet paper. Yes, they cut down virgin forest to make tp! I can wash a few diapers or wipe with a little bit less-cushy recycled tp so that my kids can have clean air and virgin forest left when they're grown up. Who knew someone could get all fired up about toilet paper?

Ugh...

What a week I've had. I'm sick yet again. The kids have been sick all week (again). I've been working on the project from hell, which I just can't seem to get right no matter what I do - probably because it's on a ridiculously tight timeline and it seems like when I have to knit something really fast, it somehow knows and refuses to cooperate. I've been in tears several times this week, and I've thought about throwing in the towel on this whole design thing more than a little bit seriously... The good thing is that it made me reevaluate why I'm designing, and what I really want to focus on. I've decided to look on the bright side of this project I'm working on and hope that it will help me reach some of my business goals. I need to stop getting so overwhelmed and thinking that I have to do every single thing that finds its way to me...

We also had a hailstorm on Tuesday, the day my mother-in-law was going to come over and start helping me clear out the slope of our front yard and the strip between the sidewalk and the street. Can you see the hail pelting down on my poor flowers?



They were supposed to go in on Tuesday, but they're still sitting out there (half of them blown over). My goal now is to get them in before they're dead! I have killed more nursery plants out of sheer neglect than I care to think about...

The highlight of my week was this afternoon, when I finally managed to take 5 minutes to open the box that had arrived on my doorstep at the beginning of the week. Sad that it takes me so long to open yarn, huh? Look what was in it:



That's a whole box of Margene yarn, dyed by Mama-E (who just started dying lace yarn, which is as gorgeous as the rest of her stuff) and inspired by Margene over at Zeneedle. Isn't it purty? You can get it only from me, over at the shop. She also threw in a dozen Gardiner Yarn Work skeins, inspired by my retro website colors.



I pulled out this one poor little skein for pictures. Do you think the rest are feeling neglected, or are they happy to be covered with Margene?

I also got some happy news from my friend Brittney. She is a big American Idol fan and we have great fun discussing each week's episodes amidst the rest of our non-Idol-loving friends (they just roll their eyes at us). Well...she signed up on the waiting list to attend a taping about a year ago, and just got the call today that her number is up. She and her sister are dropping everything and flying down there on Monday night to try to get into the taping on Tuesday (she didn't actually get tickets - just vouchers allowing them to stand in line). I am going to be so excited watching next Tuesday, scanning the crowd for B! If she has as great a time as I think she will, I'm totally signing Bill and I up - maybe we'll get in sometime next season. Now we have to think up the perfect little blurb for her sign to hold up during our boy Blake's performance...any suggestions?

IF I AM YOUR SOCKRET PAL, DO NOT READ THIS POST!!!

This means you, Jody! I will be posting a picture of one of your finished socks, so unless you don't like to be surprised, quit reading now.

But first, just so we don't have a situation where a spoiler is unavoidable, I'm going to try to fill up enough space so that the rest of you will have to scroll down to see any Sockret sock pictures...

I went yarn shopping last night. I need more yarn like I need a root canal (although since I haven't been to the dentist in way too long, I shouldn't say that...), but I had a couple of $25 coupons from the Yarn Garden that I felt the need to use. Here is what I ended up with:



A pinky-pink skein of Tofutsies (I am totally in love with this yarn after getting it from my Sockret Pal), some Louet Euroflax which I'm going to use to make a Passport Pouch since the original was given away, and some amazing Alchemy bamboo. I also picked up a gallon of Malabrigo, which is one of my new favorite yarns (it is SO soft - it's like knitting with a chinchilla). I'm planning a sweater with this one - in all my free time.

I also got yet another tape measure. I go through like one a month - I swear I'm going to clean the house someday and find a stash of 50 of them somewhere. But right now I can't find a single one (not even under the couch), and a girl's gotta have a tape measure! I keep saying I'm going to have one that's designated never to leave my knitting notions bag, but the boy now knows how to open zippers so unless I keep it permanently on a high shelf, that rule's shot to heck.

We had a wonderful, beautiful weekend that got everyone ready for summer. I'm busily obsessing about the garden. We planted two columnar apple trees (which is this really funky variety that stays really small, and the apples grow right from the trunk instead of on branches - freaky!) and a peach that's supposed to do well in the rainy NW. We'll see! My friend Chris is a master gardener and she thought I was insane to try to grow a peach tree here, but I like to experiment, so we'll see what happens.

We're also getting ready to become chicken central. Awhile back I posted about getting an Eglu, but that idea was nixed by the hubby who wants us to build our own coop. I am always skeptical about any project that requires us to build something, but fortunately my chicken-owning friend Brittney and her hubby are also coop-building this spring. We're going to have a couple of coop-building days which are scheduled on the calendar, so I'm totally looking forward to it now. Brittney's the kind of person who gets things done, so I'm confident that coops will actually happen (where I would NOT be at all confident if we were being left to our own devices).

The chickens are arriving next week, and I can not wait. I ordered us an Amerucana (these are the Easter Egg chickens that lay blue-green eggs), a Barred Plymouth Rock (the kind of chickens my grandma had when I was a kid), and a Rhode Island Red. I really wanted to get a Silkie Bantam, but they're only available straight-run (as in, non-sexed), and with my luck I'd end up with a rooster and have to make dinner out of it! I'd rather stick to eggs, thank you very much!

Our Owen is all boy, but he loves stomping around the house in his sister's tap shoes. Bill keeps asking me if we need to worry...



I think our little Gregory Hines is quite cute! And really, we're just joking - we'd be just as happy with a tap-dancing, dress-wearing, musical-singing Owen as we would a football-playing, frat-joining, strip-club-hopping one. Okay, I'd actually much prefer the first one! My theory, though, is that he only likes them because he can make such a racket. He's way too young to be having gender identity issues!

Okay, I think we're down far enough that I can show you some socks. Here it is - a Pomatomus sock made out of Mama-E's C*eye*ber Fiber in the Faded Glory colorway. Isn't it pretty?



Here's a close-up of the stitch pattern:



Love the pattern, love the yarn, can't wait to finish the other one and get them in the mail so poor Jody doesn't think I totally flaked out on her! I would like to have them for myself, but fortunately Jody's feet are a tad bit bigger so they don't fit me anyway. That makes it much easier to send them off!

Calling all Portlanders who love yarn!

The shop hop registration is finally open! Although unless you join the guild, you be put on the waiting list until any remaining seats open to the general public on the 22nd. We're about half full right now, and the 22nd isn't too far away, so there's a great chance that there will be seats left if you sign up ASAP.

Go to the Shop Hop blog for complete details. We just secured our goodie bags (as in, the actual bags) and you won't believe what we're getting! I would go on the shop hop just for the bag alone, not to mention the huge discounts and loads of fun.

If this has you at all intrigued, and you can be in Portland on April 21st, and you love yarn, go read the blog. I went as a non-TKG member last yearn and had such a great time, I'm now on the board!

Happy St. Urho's Day!

I grew up in Northern Minnesota with two full-blooded Finnish grandfathers (along with a slew of Finnish great-aunts, great-uncles and cousins), which meant wearing purple on St. Urho's Day. I must confess, I'm not wearing purple right now, but I am knitting my ridiculously purple Lacy Cabled Scoop:



I've been getting tons of comments on the color of this yarn. I really love it, and next year I will be totally ready for March 16th! Sisu!

Wha?

Okay, I was all set to do my quarterly political rant today (you know I just can't resist getting that out of my system every few months or so), since it's the 5-year anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. However, I got sidetracked when I learned that Eunny Jang was just named editor of Interweave Knits! Of course, the designer lists are all abuzz because Eunny's like 12 (no, really, she's 23 - but still!) and sort of a newbie in the industry. When I first read the announcement, I couldn't quite process it. And I'll be sad not to hear Pam Allen's lovely accent over the phone when she accepts another of my designs (yes, I know this has only happened twice, but hey - dream big, right?). But wow! I am insane with jealousy but self-aware enough to realize that editorship of Knits is probably never in my future (and I'm fine with that). It will be so interesting to see where she takes the magazine.

It makes me even more excited that I'm going to be meeting her on the Sea Socks cruise next month. I'm going to be able to deduct that trip as a business expense pretty soon, there will be so much networking going on! If there's any 23-year-old who can handle Knits, it's Eunny.

As for the war, well...I'm going to spend some time today praying for the families of everyone affected by that disgrace of a debacle. I think about this a lot, but today especially - what a different world we'd be living in if Al Gore had taken the election in 2000. The Iraq war never would've happened, and so many US servicemen & women (and Iraqi civilians) would still be alive and with their families. Yes, Saddam would probably still be in power, but it's hard to believe the Iraqi people are better off today. As one Iraqi citizen I heard interviewed explained, "Back then we had one Saddam. Today we have one hundred." So many dollars and lives wasted on this war (and when I say wasted, I do NOT at all discount the sacrifices of our troops, who are doing their jobs as best they can - particularly the National Guard troops who never signed up to fight a civil war in another country). It's a disgrace to this country and seriously calls into question our position in the world as the moral authority. I don't think that the current government, with scandal after scandal, can be called a moral authority on anything. They should be ashamed of themselves for representing themselves as the "moral" party and then behaving like criminals after countless people voted for them, expecting them to run this country with dignity and a higher moral standard. Hah!

Okay, I'm done. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest! I need a chocolate chip cookie.

Oh, yeah...

I forgot to mention in that looooong previous post that Bill now has a blog! Go check him out at Little Billy Running to hear all about running, running, and more running. Good going, honey bunny!

Good Stuff & Cool Cast-On Trick!

Scroll down for my "long-tail cast-on without running out of tail" tutorial, but first some shameless commercialism - I've got some fabulous new yarn in the shop, thanks to Khris over at Chewy Spaghetti! Here is a little yarn p*rn for your viewing pleasure. We have Steely:



And Budding:



And Brawny:



Is that not a little something for everyone? Khris calls this yarn sport-weight, but I'd consider it worsted and it gets gauge perfectly for Karen's Sugar-Free Socks as well as the latest addition to the GYW pattern line, Hubby's First Socks (A Unisex Sock Pattern)!



These are Bill's famous Christmas socks, knit in worsted-weight Artyarns Supermerino so that I could handle that 12"-long foot! If there are any other ladies out there with a size-15-footed man, this is the sock pattern for you! I couldn't imagine making him fingering-weight socks, although I may try some sport-weight at some point (but don't hold me to it, honey!). The pattern is sized for women's M through men's L. The sock kit should work for anyone not knitting for a giant... Here's a close-up of the stitch pattern:



There will be some more very nice new stuff going up in the shop in the next week or so (assuming I can get my act together to photograph everything, which is a big assumption), including brand-new exclusive colorways from Mama-E, based on a couple of your favorite bloggers! I just heard from a little birdie that the box is in the mail, and I can't wait to get my hands on the new yarn. My office is truly a sock yarn lover's dream these days!

Never run out of tail again!
And now for the tutorial. Don't you hate it when you're casting on for a sweater or some other knitted object that requires a gazillion stitches, and you run out of tail for your long-tail cast-on with about 50 stitches left to go? I learned a wonderful trick for avoiding this during one of my Joan Shrouder classes last summer, and it has saved me from this fate several times (I use this every time I need to cast on more than 100 stitches). It also avoids the problem of overcompensating and ending up with ten feet of extra yarn left over when you're done casting on.

This is such a common-sense kind of thing that I've been assuming that everyone knows it already. But I brought it up at my knitting group a few weeks ago and the ladies all went crazy when I showed them how to do it. So here's how to do this magical thing, for anyone out there who hasn't learned it yet.

First, get two balls of the yarn you're using to cast on with (you can also use two ends of the same ball if this is easier). Hold the two strands together and make a slip knot about 6" from the end (or however long you like to leave your ends to weave in).



Here I am, casting on for my Lacy Cabled Scoop! I finally did it! Now, you just pretend one of those two strands is your long tail, and start casting on!



Ignore the slip knot and the two tails coming from it, and cast on with your endless tail. Once you're done casting on all your stitches (don't count the slip knot as a stitch because you'll be pulling it out), cut the strand that's over your thumb, leaving enough to weave in.



Sorry about the blurry picture - I'd already put my big lights away to keep the children from climbing on them, and the flash picture turned out even worse. You now have a couple extra ends to weave in, but in exchange you got the perfect length of yarn for your long tail and you also get to pull your slip knot out and so won't have any knots in your cast-on edge. I know some people can long-tail without starting with a slip-knot, but I am not one of those knitting ninjas.

On the mend...
We are all in recovery here at Chez Knittin' Mom. I've still got a little bit of a cough, but nowhere near as bad as it was a couple days ago. This was truly the cold of the century! The main remaining symptom is a totally plugged-up head. Normally I can't stand our television above 12 on the volume scale, but last night I had it up over 20 and still couldn't hear it very well. I'm also suffering from some serious vertigo off and on, which is incredibly annoying (and nausea-inducing), but I no longer hope that my cocktail of pharmaceutical and homeopathic meds will somehow combine to put me into a coma and end my suffering...

I've managed to get some serious knitting done, despite my symptoms. The Classic Elite scarf is done and ready for blocking, and I've got the first few inches done on my Lacy Cabled Scoop (you can see those pics over at the KAL blog as soon as I can get over there to post them). I just found out that I'm going to have to drop everything for a few days to get a Sock Madness-type super-secret design project done, but that will be something that I can't work on in public (truly, this is TOP SECRET national-security type stuff), so I'll have to work on either the LCS or my Sockret Pal socks at the Guild meeting tomorrow night.

Time for some food - I'm finding that a large Chai is not enough to get me through the entire morning!

Ugh.

Just to give you some idea of how horrible this weekend was for me, I'll list all of the chemicals that were running through my bloodstream at one point yesterday in the off chance that some combination might give me a little bit of relief:

Homeopathic:
Oscillococcinum
Umcka Cold Care
Boiron Cold Calm
saline nasal spray

Hard stuff:
Advil
Robitussin
Sudafed
Afrin nasal spray

Come to think of it, five of those eight things are currently coursing through my system. I am feeling a tad bit better this morning (other than the fact that I nearly coughed up a lung when I first got up), but good grief! This is the worst cold I've had in a looooong time. I usually stay away from anything with pseudoephadrine in it (i.e. Sudafed) because it can keep me awake for days. I took it while pregnant with Owen and was up literally for over 48 hours straight. I didn't think I was ever going to sleep again. Fortunately, it isn't having that effect this time. I'm a little more hyper than usual, but I got a good six-seven hours of sleep last night.

Yesterday, in a sweaty, feverish state of hyperactivity, I took a bunch of photographs of some good new stuff that's going up in the shop, hopefully later today (if the small children cooperate). I also finally cast on for my Lacy Cabled Scoop and finished the ribbing and the first rep. I'll let you know when I get my pics posted on the KAL site. I'd like to say I'm making good progress on my poor Sockret Pal's socks, but Owen managed to break two of my size 2 dpns in a single day, so I've got to get to the store before I can get any further on those. I'm past the heel and heading down the foot, so I'm really hoping I can get them done by the end of the month.

While you're waiting anxiously for the unveiling of the fabulous new yarn that will be available from GYW, go cheer Katrina on in her Sock Madness quest. She's pretty confident she made it past the first round, but now the real fun begins. Go, Big K!

It's 5 am - why am I here?

I'm sick. I'm coughing like Typhoid Mary and have been up since 2:30. I had to come downstairs to avoid waking everyone up, and here I am still. I should probably try to get some sleep since the cough medicine seems to have kicked in, but I figure now I'll go upstairs, lie down, and it will wear off and I'll have to come back down again anyway.

In the meantime, I've been doing some useful web-surfing. I read all about shin splints and compartment syndrome (and decided that I really DO need to reschedule that doctor's appointment that I missed because of that disastrous incident with the car). I decided that we're getting one of these for our chickens - isn't that the coolest thing ever? And it looks pretty idiot-proof (which we've decided is a must if our little egg-layers are going to survive). I also found this meme over at Karen's blog. Since I seem to have loads of spare time this morning, here it is:

Look at the list of books below:
* Bold the ones you’ve read,
* Italicize the ones you want to read
* Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible (although I will admit, I probably haven't read every single word, cover-to-cover style)
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

There are also several on the list that I've seen in movie form (the Harry Potter movies, White Oleander, The Outsiders, The Bourne Identity, The World According to Garp, Emma & Of Mice & Men, to name a few), but I didn't count them. Is 36 out of 100 a good score? I was happy to see several of my all-time favorites included on this list, like The Good Earth, 100 Years of Solitude and The Power of One. I also have a soft spot for anything by Wally Lamb.

Makes me wish I had more time to read amongst all this knitting!

What the...

Sorry the blog has been quiet lately. Here's the reason:



Right now I'm trying a different tack - I'm sitting in the family room with my laptop. So far so good, other than a few attempts by the Boy to type with his fists (which just happen to be covered with bits of previously-chewed apple - yummy). It doesn't matter how content he appears to be, sitting on the couch watching Go, Diego, Go (his favorite show at the moment) - as soon as I sit down in my office and try to get something done, he trots in and starts screaming at me. It doesn't help that he's been sick this week and extra crabby. He just learned how to ask to nurse ("Mama! Ne-ne!"), so he spends plenty of time screaming at me for that. I'm ready to give him away to the next person who drives by... My mother-in-law is convinced that he's still going to be nursing when he goes off to college (and I'm not totally convinced that he's not).

I'm also trying to whip up a scarf (and in the process have decided I'm not a scarf knitter - too boring) and crank out a pair of socks for my Sockret Pal. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what I'm making her because I've accidentally outed myself and I can't be certain she's not reading this right now.

Okay, Owen is now trying to throw himself across my lap. Aaaaaarrrrrrgh! Oh, good - he's gone back to trying to destroy his trucks.

If a screaming, sick child isn't enough, I also had to put together the latest Tigard Knitting Guild newsletter last weekend, which always takes twice as long as I think it's going to. We're working on the next Shop Hop (which, if you're in the Portland area, is always a blast - stay tuned for details on sign-ups which will be opening on the 15th) and had to get the registration form hammered out over the course of three days. Yikes!

Then, in addition to all the design work that's piling up in my to-swatch queue, I've also got the Lacy Cabled Scoop KAL to try to get moving on. So far, I've got my yarn.



I am going to cast on as soon as I get this scarf done, I swear! It's such a great sweater, I can't wait to have one for myself. I know that sounds so incredibly egotistical, but I'd love it even if I hadn't designed it. So there!

Now I'm off to try to find a sink for our soon-to-be-remodeled kitchen and some asparagus for the garden. I'm also trying to get us ready for our chickens who will be joining us sometime in the next month or so. Organic, free-range eggs, here we come! Not to mention hours of chasing fun for the kids... I love chickens.

Last but not least, the winner of the Japanese Swag contest is Shelley! Let me know which yarn you'd like along with your address.

SP10 Questionnaire

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I'm a bit of a yarn snob - I love bamboo, merino and soft cotton. If it's at all scratchy, I don't want anything to do with it (I hate Lopi!).

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I have a great dpn case, but my circs are all tangled up in a shoebox. So pathetic, I know...

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I've been knitting since age 10 - I learned on a pair of broken plastic needles with some nasty red acrylic yarn from my grandmother. I'd consider myself advanced and adventurous!

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
I do, but it's horribly outdated.

5. What's your favorite scent?
Vanilla, melon, cucumber, pumpkin pie spice.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
I do, but I'm trying to lose a bunch of weight so super-tasty sugar-free treats are at the top of my list right now.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I'm really torn about learning to spin - I'd love to, but I don't need another bad habit! I love lots of different crafty type things, like needle felting, cross-stitch, and just about anything Martha.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

Just about anything but country! I guess you'd call my taste "adult alternative".

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
I honestly like almost any color as long as it's not something that everyone on the planet would think was ugly...

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
Married, 4-year-old daughter Sydney, almost 2-year-old son Owen, bad cat Kika.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Yes to the first three (does anyone wear ponchos anymore?).

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Socks, socks, socks with the occasional sweater or felted bag thrown in for variety.

13. What are you knitting right now?
My Sockret Pal socks and a scarf for the Classic Elite Fall '07 collection.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Yesyesyes!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Circular Addis are tops with me, with my Knit Picks Options a close second. For my dpns, I prefer Crystal Palace bamboo. Not picky or anything, am I?

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
Yup!

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
Just over a year.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
I love them all, but Christmas is tops in our house.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Simpsons memorabilia.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

The 3rd Vogue Stitchionary, and the new Yarn Harlot book!

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
I know there are, but I can't think of anything specific at the moment.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Circ = 8", length = 9". The vast majority of standard sock patterns fit me.

23. When is your birthday?
8/11

What a day!

Truly, this morning was one where I should've just stayed in bed. Everything started out fine - Sydney was her normal reluctant-to-get-out-of-bed self, but she actually cooperated better than she usually does. We were out the door 10 minutes earlier than usual and she was deposited at school with no problems. Owen and I went home and, other than a horrible dirty diaper of which I will spare you the details, had a pleasant two hours together before it was time to pack him off to my mother-in-law's and head to the doctor to get my sore calves/shins/ankles looked at.

This is when the trouble started.

First, when I arrived at my in-laws' to drop the boy off, nobody was home. Sue has never forgotten a babysitting date before, so I was slightly concerned that she was in a coma on the kitchen floor or something. Their car was gone, so I comforted myself with the idea that she was at the gym and running late or something. I needed to get some gas for the Jetta, so I headed to the station around the corner from them that has B99 Biodiesel (99% - the good stuff).

In Oregon, they have this delightful law that requires you to have your car filled up by gas station attendants. Let me tell you, this has totally spoiled me for living in any other state, particularly when it is cold, windy or raining. I told the guy to fill 'er up, and sat back to wonder where in the heck my in-laws were and whether or not I could manage Owen in the doctor's office (particularly since I hadn't brought any shoes for him, thinking that he was just going to be hanging with Grammy). He came back out and was messing around with the nozzle for awhile. I couldn't see exactly what was going on, but he went into the station and came back out with a rag which he used to wipe off the side of the car. I assumed it must've overflowed a little bit, but then I looked at the pump and it said it has only pumped out .653 gallons.

The guy came over and said something to me in an extremely thick accent, of which I understood only one word - "broke". I asked him if I should go over to the other pump, and he nodded. However, when I turned the car on, the gas gauge went up to F. He brought out my credit card slip with a charge for $21 (normally to fill with B99 it's more like $45), which I just signed and decided not to think too hard about.

I drove back around by Sue's house to see if she was home yet (she was not) and then headed off to the doctor. About four blocks later, the car died. Completely and totally dead. Dead as a doornail. I didn't have my phone (of course - this oughtta learn me), and let me tell you, getting stuck in the middle of the street with no phone and your one-year-old in the back is NOT a good feeling. Fortunately there was a nice man pushing a shopping cart around the neighborhood, rifling throught the recycling bins for deposit bottles & cans, who helped me push the car to the side. Too bad I wasn't in the van - I could've given him a half-dozen cans in payment.

I got Owen out of the car and then headed off to hang out at Sue's place until she got home. I wasn't sure what to do about my doctor's appointment, which was rapidly approaching. I was trudging down the street with my poor little barefoot Owen when a guy (who we refer to as "crazy bathrobe guy" because he's always wandering around the street in his bathrobe) asked me how I was doing. For some reason, I started to tell him. He offered use of his phone, which I politely declined. He insisted, and said he'd bring it out to me so I wouldn't even have to go inside his fence. So I took him up on it. He was quite nice about the whole thing, and I managed to get ahold of Bill who took care of the doctor and headed home to bring me the van.

I'm not sure what's wrong with that stupid car. I have this crazy theory that the problem with the gas pump is that it was actually dispensing regular gasoline instead of biodiesel. The guy pumping was using the correct nozzle, so it would've had to have been a problem inside the pump or with the tank. When I got out of the car after it died, there was a strong gasoline smell. Bill thinks I'm a little nuts, but we'll see after we get it towed to the dealership. I still don't know what's wrong with my shins.

Owen & I came out of our ordeal unscathed, and I have to say, thank goodness for all the nutty people wandering around my in-laws' neighborhood! My experience would've been a lot more difficult without their help!

Yesterday, on the other hand, was a great day. Bill and I did a 5-mile race in the morning, and my time was 1:00:04! That is a fantastic time for me - my average was just barely over 12-minute miles. I still get a little thrill thinking about it. I felt like an actual runner! There weren't any walkers passing me this time...

ETA - The in-laws were just fine. They'd gone to Home Depot to buy some plants and got back to find Owen and I sitting on their back patio. Whoopsie!

Do the mash!

This post will be a little bit of a mish-mash, so please bear with me. In fact, I'm having issues figuring out where to start! So I'll start with the first thing on my mind. I met up with my lovely friend Froukje this morning at Mabel's for some coffee and yarn (she is knitting a sample sock for me and ran out of yarn right before the toe - we used that as an excuse to get together for a little knitting and java). I didn't get much knitting done, however, since I had the boy with me and he was running around the shop like a small crazy person.

While we were there, a vaguely familiar-looking woman sat down at the next table. After a minute, she looked over at me and said "have we met? You look familiar." It was Larissa, who I met about a year and a half ago, at Mabel's. Even funnier, Froukje had just sent a bunch of squares in for Larissa's Square-Along and won the prize for the most squares knit. Larissa wrote this funny post about the mysterious Froukje, so how hilarious that the day after I read it, we all end up at Mabel's together?

Anyway, I went over to Larissa's blog, which I read occasionally but not as regularly as I'd like to (as is the case with every single blog on my Bloglines list), and found this post waiting for me there. I'll let you read it for yourself instead of trying to paraphrase, but it's once again about knitters pulling together to help someone deal with a horrendous tragedy. Go see if you'd like to help.

On a totally different subject, I've been thinking about my Japanese yarn, thanks to some e-mails I've gotten from y'all. First, thanks for all the many offers to help me translate the incomprehensible Japanese ball bands! I've got the word for "wool" figured out along with what I think is "mohair", but the rest are still Greek to me. After several of you wrote to tell me that you have friends or relatives who have lived or are living in Japan, I realized that a friend in my knitting group majored in Japanese and lived in Japan for a year after college. Duh! I am going to bring the yarn to our group next Monday and test her retention. She's pregnant, so it's going to be an extra challenge with that shrinking pregnant brain! If she can't figure them out, I'll start looking elsewhere for translation services. The biggest problem is that the ball bands are all in Japanese characters, so I can't exactly put them in an e-mail (unless I scan the bands in). Someone did send a website that lists Japanese knitting terms, but I haven't made it over there yet. I'll see what I can find out and let y'all know.

Also, my SP9 spoilee, Polly from Polliwannablog, said that she was wondering about the prices of the Japanese yarn. I kind of wandered through the week with this vague notion about yen vs dollars, so I didn't even pay any attention. And I wonder why my credit card bills are so frightening! I will try to dig up one of my receipts (although I won't do the math for you - the exchange rate was about 118 yen per dollar). I thought I was going to post the prices now, but the receipts are nowhere to be found, and none of the balls have price tags on them. I think that I remember my Okadaya purchase totalling around 7400 yen, but I could be way off (especially since the first time around, I typed "740" which would be about $7). I am a little bit daft about math sometimes.

So as not to leave you with another completely pictureless post, here are a few of my favorite pictures, taken atop Tokyo Tower (a bright orange Eiffel-tower-looking thing with two different viewing platforms and fabulous views of the city).



These first ones are on the lower level, where they had these crazy windows in the floor that you could look through to see the ground. I could barely stand to put my foot on one, even with the other foot planted firmly on solid floor. Sydney, however, didn't have that problem.



Not afeard of heights, that one! We thought it would be cool to get a picture of our feet standing on the glass. I tried first, but this was the best I could do:



I could NOT bring myself to stand on that glass, even though I knew it was probably prefectly safe. Bill didn't have the same issue:



Although after all the kids piled on with him and started jumping, he decided he didn't want to test the strength limits of the glass and quickly retreated to safety.

Here's Sydney at the tippy top:



Isn't she the cutest?