Everything Changes

Cliche. Not a first for me.

I was thinking - I really want a different look and I've been considering a name change. Something more knitting-appropriate. I'm beginning to think of that name up there as a placeholder for something else.

Elmore-Pisgah Rocks

Hey y'all, I just got a call from a woman at Elmore-Pisgah, the makers of Peaches and Cream. I placed an order this morning online for about 20 balls of various colors, and had requested that they try shipping with the USPS if it might save a couple bucks. The woman, whose name I was silly enough to forget, wanted to clear up that it would cost the same and be safer to stick with their standard UPS shipping. Cool, fine by me.

Now here's the part I'm really impressed about: I got the call only an hour or so after I placed my order, and when they called my order was already ready to ship. I have a UPS number for tracking as we speak. Not only are they fast, honest, and nice, they're FAST, HONEST, and really friggin' NICE. And they have the leg up considerably when it comes to their HUGE color selection. I'm definitely going to stick with them. Added bonus: they sell all their colors in 1lb cones. Sweet.

For anyone nearby or on their way through via I-40, E-P has a retail outlet at their mill about three miles off the highway and twenty-ish miles from Asheville. Needless to say, the next time we visit the in-laws, we'll be making a trip to the mountains.

Post-publish addition: Can I just say, WOOHOO! Ann and Kay are coming to one of my LYS's, Abundant Yarn & Dyeworks, on March 28th. *shivers like chihuahua in excitement*

Cure for the Froggin' Blues

I think as of last posting 'bout knitting, I had frogged the kilt hose twice. If I failed to mention it, I also frogged what I am beginning to think of as the blue/green monster once before getting a thrid of the way down the leg. B/G monster is a straight ribbed cuff and stockinette leg - so how hard can it be? Well, gauge is suddenly wreaking havoc with my sock projects! I thought I'd gotten all measured up for B/G Monster, but then things went south and the leg looked more like pants than socks. And NOT skinny pants. (Okay, that's just a random link, but how funny!) Silly me, I still didn't remeasure the gauge b/4 frogging, so the thing, as you may be able to discern from the photo, is still a little large. To compensate and prevent baggy ankle, I reduced a bit b/4 the heel.



To cure my utter disgust with my current sock projects, I started a ball band washrag, compliments of the ladies at Mason-Dixon Knitting. Their book is hysterical and fantastic, BTW. It is a predictably quick knit, especially because I only had one color on hand. I'm thinking a few of these with a special soap or something will be a nice Mother's Day gift.

In Matters Unrelated to Knitting

By now, those who want to know have heard about the letter sent today by PETA to one Albert A. Gore, Jr. concerning his "meat addiction" and his lack of true environmental zeal.

Whoa, boy.

I should be up-front in admitting that PETA isn't an organization I have a lot of interest in. I am completely on board with halting animal testing. The zoo creeps me out no end. Cruel and unusual treatment of any living creature makes my stomach turn. However, I am not a vegan. Not even close. I tend not to buy meat from massive agro-business, preferring the flavor and practices in raising free-range and organic meats. But I still eat meat and will probably always do so. Now I'm on the record.

One of the basic things you learn in environmental biology, which I studied for two years before realizing I was more interested in English literature, is how the food chain works. Producers, things like grasses and trees, take in sunlight to make food. Primary consumers, or herbivores, eat the grasses and trees for sustenance. Humans can subsist at this level, although our evolution has enable us to be omnivores. Secondary consumers, like omnivores and carnivores, eat the things that eat the plants. Tertiary consumers, which I think are generally carnivores, are just that much further away from the primary source of Earth's energy, the sun. Now, when you look at how food is digested and used up as energy, you see that lots of it just dissipates back into the atmosphere as heat. So the further up the food chain you go, the more energy it takes to fuel your life. Story of the humans, I'd say.

I'm sure that domesticating animals furthers this contribution to heat and waste energy, and that is probably exactly what the University of Chicago study says. My husband's take on PETA ridiculous letter, by the way, is to stop domesticating and just revert back to hunter-gatherer traditions. I can just see him out there with a knife between his teeth, stalking the wild and woolly Holstein cow. But let's get real for a minute. Economies depend on the domestication of livestock. Are we just going to kill all those animals we won't be eating anymore? Sterilize them? I don't think that's what PETA had in mind. And you can bet I'm not going to be sharing my apartment with a dozen chickens any time soon.

What is truly silly about the whole thing, in my opinion, is that PETA is publicly attacking Al Gore. The man is a hero and an intellectual, and though he is not perfect (who wants to be?) he has done way more for raising awareness about environmental issues than PETA has. I think PETA is just going for publicity, which makes them very, VERY republican-esque. I guess that's what you have to resort to when you're a fringe group.

Okay, so I'm not very good at being courteous when I'm annoyed.

Post of Utter Excitement and Glee

Oh. My. God.

Colors....so many....colors.

Ball band bliss, here I come.

PS I checked out Lily's Sugar n Cream. Not so much on the color selection. But they have an interesting twisty thingy.

Easy Saturday Morn - Again

Indeed, I totally messed up the kilt hose and had to frog that first cuff. Oh well.

Things I've learned so far: cabling has a different gauge than stockinette. Duh. Read the WHOLE pattern, even if you're adapting it, because the designer probably has a clue. Knitting with regular wooly wool like Lamb's Pride will make your fingers bleed if you don't take a break and knit something else. The mohair really doesn't soften it up a bit!

So, now that I've gone back and rechecked the pattern and done some gauge numbers, I think I'm ready to start again. This time, though, I'm writing out my intentions before I start so that I have a clearer picture of where I'm going. I did figure out a neat trick for the cuff, though. If you flip the knitting upside-down and push it inside-out through the needle ring, of course wrapping your yarn around the "next" stitch before flipping, then continue along your merry way (now going the opposite direction as before), you make the cuff perfectly ready to flip over when finished. Sadly, I did cast on a second time and have knitted three rows of ribbing, but the thing is way too big and will be frogged again. I just keep reminding myself that May is still a ways off.

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You know you're reading something different when one of your favorite fantasy authors, in this case Guy Gavriel Kay, completely leaves off writing about previous times in fantastical settings and starts talking about iPods, googling, and Starbucks in his latest work. I've checked Ysabel out from our local library, because I can (and because buying things in hardback doesn't seem wise for a person with full bookshelves and a very small apartment), but I don't think I'll get to finish it before it's due. The first eight pages or so have been good, even for Kay, and I'm sure he'll get back to his typical stuff soon enough.

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Road trip! Heading to Seattle for the weekend. See ya.

No Kitchen Sink - Yet

Yesterday was a nuttilicious day, y'all! A painter came by and redid our counters. Yikes, the smell. Then, I chose to go buy a Toyota Sienna I'd had my eye on, and of course I was late picking up my husband and subsequently late to work. But how cool is my boss - she asked if I'd be better of going back home for the night! Whew.

I've been slowly working away at my kilt hose project, but there isn't a lot of knitting time when my husband isn't home so progress is pretty slow. I'm adapting the pattern to go top-down, so you can see what the cuff looks like so far. That little braid pattern is so simple - BC4 x2, knit 2 rows, k2 FC4 k2, knit 2 rows - but at six stitches per inch on aran weight yarn its a bit tight. Problem is, I think it might be too small and I might have to frog it. Frag. But I won't know until I move into the main part of the calf increases, so I'm going to keep going. At least this isn't a rush job, as AverageJoe's birthday isn't until May.

Yup, AverageJoe is hubby. That's what he calls himself, so I go with it.

In the progress of toilet acclimation, my toddler son has developed an avid interest in flushing. If I go and don't invite him to flush for me, he gets very upset. My poor sweet husband, who very much enjoys his privacy while using the commode, gets the same thing along with a little observer whenever he pees standing up. Personally, I think it's hysterical. This morning, for instance, the little stinker was still mostly asleep in my arms when I had to go, so I took him with me as we've done since he was a few days old, and after I was finished he stayed behind to flush and fill about six more times, all the while with that look of ultra-concentration and barely-awakeness on his face. This little obesession also carries over to the TP, which he unrolls liberally and then loads into the bowl. We haven't had an overflow yet, but several rolls have gone swish bit by bit without proper usage first. Have I mentioned that I think all little kids are nutters, and most especially mine? The thing is, I can see my own proclivities in my child, so maybe he comes by his nutter-ness honestly. Don't mistake that to mean that I spend a lot of time flushing bits of paper down the bowl, mind you.

My mum came to visit last Sunday from Seattle, and with her came several goodies including four more boxes of my books. The reason that these books weren't in my possession in the first place is that when I moved to North Carolina three years ago, I left all my stuff (minus the things I could fit in my '99 Jetta) with my mother. When we came back, we thought we'd sorted it all out. We have three bookshelves, approx. 32" by 70-something, full to beyond capacity with DVDs and books, so there isn't room for much more. But what I find really disturbing about these four boxes showing up unexpectedly is that I didn't realize I was missing any books. And these turned out to be some fairly important ones, like the leather-bound Shakespeare compendium that was a high school graduation gift. Or a copy of Plato's collected works that I used for three or four upper-division courses at university. I could go on, but suffice to say that I can't believe I didn't notice the missing inventory. Am I going soft?

I'm still working to update my links, but so far I haven't had time to start reading any new blogs. If there are any readers at this point (which I doubt, but oh well) feel free to make suggestions.