I don't know if anyone saw the post about the survey, but I took it down because two people who tried it could not get in. I don't want to waste your time. poo. this is something I and the inst. tech. guy have been trying to get to work since Thanksgiving.

stupid computers.

Joining the doggy party

This morning, Not Martha posted about the prevalence of sock dogs as a craft item right now. Apparently Is-Martha published instructions in her "Kids" magazine. Also, Anna has been offering them as gifts to people who help pay for the medical care her ferret, Hugo has and is requiring.

I used to make all manner of sock toys when I was a kid. I think I even once made a sock anteater. But these instructions make me want to get out my needle and thread, and go off in search of interesting socks (I always used almost-worn-out or worn-out white athletic socks for my projects when I was a kid - I would not have thought of buying NEW socks for such a thing, nor would my mom probably have bought new socks for me to use for such a thing. But now I am a grown-up, and I can run off to the mall and buy interesting socks to cut up and make into critters. I may even try to recreate my longlost sock anteater.) For me, it's all about the making - that's the fun part. A lot of my past critter projects sit on shelves, sort of neglected, now that they're done.

I (heart) knitting lace.

I've been working away on my mom's first pair of gift socks - Judy Sumner's "Feather and Fan" pattern from Socks^3, Wildfoote in the "Geranium" color - they are flying along. I'm up to the heel of the first one.

I forget how rapidly lace goes for me. And how cool it looks. I'm inspired to dig out my pattern libraries and design some lace socks for me. I have an idea - I won't go into more detail about it here because if it works out, it might just be hip enough to try submitting to Knitty. (well, not for the upcoming issue, poot. Maybe for the summer issue. It's a May-themed design though...)

I've also been working on the Trinity Stitch shawl in the superstitious belief that getting it done will make spring come faster.

The Friday Five!

1. As a child, who was your favorite superhero/heroine? Why?

I didn't really have one. I guess Wonder Woman, because she was, well, a woman, and all the other superheroes were guys. And she had a good costume.

I also liked SuperGrover but I wouldn't have liked to have been like him, he was a screw-up.

I liked Underdog too.

2. What was one thing you always wanted as a child but never got?

Hmmm....I guess I'd have to say one of those big Playmobil sets. I also never seemed to have enough Lego bricks.

3. What's the furthest from home you've been?

I've been to Hawaii a couple of times - as I was living in (either) Ohio or Michigan at the times I went, that's pretty far.
I'll never again do the ten-hours-on-a-plane-in-coach if I can help it. I was ready to freak after being confined for that long.

4. What's one thing you've always wanted to learn but haven't yet?

There are so many things. I would like to learn to spin wool, to weave with a real floor loom, to play the recorder or the violin, to speak Irish Gaelic or German, to do entrelac knitting....

5. What are your plans for the weekend?

This afternoon, I'm going to go do some necessary shopping (I have to use Clinique makeup and I'm almost out of foundation), also I think I'm going to go out for dinner. Saturday the campus environmental club I am nominally a faculty sponsor for is going hiking. Sunday is church, and I'm going to try to spend some time relaxing.

Update: Carodan Farms just called me - my package hadn't gone out because a piece of information they needed, I hadn't given.
D'oh. Well, at least I don't have to worry about why that's not here yet.

the lady on the phone had a wonderful Tidewater Virginia accent. She sounded a little like Dinah Shore.

Mail weirdness?

Rob from ThreadBear emailed me the other day to be sure my package had reached me - he said he had had some complaints about the mails being slow.

Now I'm realizing, a couple things I ordered a while back haven't come. And no magazines have shown up in my mailbox recently (usually the last week of the month starts the magazine blizzard). All the mail I've got since the yarn I ordered from ThreadBear (which came Friday) is either bills or junk mail. I hope there isn't some kind of mail "slow-down" in the works (to protest who-knows-what) or that I have had some of my mail stolen.

if I don't see that box from Carodan Farm by the end of next week, I'm e-mailing them. This is starting to worry me - something my mom says she sent me has also possibly gone astray.

as someone who lives alone, the mail is very important to me. One of my tangible links with the world. I hope it's not gone wonky.

Has anyone else noticed mail problems lately?

I guess I never mentioned that the first of my several yarn orders arrived Friday - Lorna's Laces sportweight in the color "Hawaii" from ThreadBear. There was a nice note from Rob in with it; he is somewhat familiar with the place where I teach, having applied for a job here himself a few years back.

It's a nice combination of colors - I think it will probably stripe or spiral when knit up, because it is dyed in "chunks" like the socknitters rainbow yarns rather than as smaller pieces (like the other Lorna's yarn I've used - the colorway called "Clay"). This yarn is quite bold: purple, deep bluegreen, blue, and white. The bluegreen is for the ocean, and the white and blue are for the sky with clouds (or maybe the white is the whitecaps on the ocean). The purple is all the "exotic" birds and flowers in Hawaii (the ecologist in me has to put "exotic" into quotation marks; an exotic species, ecologically speaking, is one that doesn't belong where it is - it is introduced - as opposed to a native species, which is supposed to be there. Although actually, many of the really showy flowers in Hawaii ARE ecological exotics).

And since it's again grey and drab where I am:
Tour the Hawaii Tropical Botanic Garden
Actual botanical information on native Hawaiian species
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (an awesome national park; I've been there twice)

Thanks to Not Martha,, I've found the Yum! foods site. Dining Hall Deee-lights made me laugh out loud and remember my college dorm food days:

Coming down to breakfast first and feeling around in the new cereal boxes to snag the prizes.

Making horrible concoctions with the soft-serve ice cream.

Avoiding the "vegetarian jumbalaya" which was my school's version of the "it's time to clear out the leftovers" meal.

Doing the "dancing raisins" bit with a glass of clear pop and a handful of raisins....

I don't remember that I and my friends tried to cook much. Except for the sad Sunday-evening meals of ramen or cold cereal (my dormitory served ONE meal on Sundays, and it took place while I was at church...).

Worked some last night on the Trinity Stitch Shawl (picture here (warning: popup ads)). I've learned how to "read" the pattern developing in the shawl so now I don't have to worry if I need to set it down in the middle of a pattern row.

I'm about 1/3 done with the knitting of the body by my estimate. I'm still worrying about the edging - I don't have that much experience with lace edgings and with attaching them. I don't want to knit the whole edging and then sew it on, but the directions don't exactly provide for knitting it on using the "live stitch" method.

I guess I'll have to hit the lace-knitting books for this one.

Other than that, I've been feeling inexplicably tired and "down" again. I think it's weather related - whenever we get a big change in the weather (it was in the 30s yesterday and is supposed to hit 70 today, and it's awfully humid) it zaps me.

Need graph paper?

Go here. As the site author says: "You just used your last sheet of graph paper, and you have plenty more work to do!" And it's free- but you can make a donation to help the site author if you want.

(This was a Godsend for me today - I realized my 1 pm class will need graph paper, and lots of it, and I only have maybe 50 sheets left. And I can't very well yell at my students for making graphs on filler paper if I don't have graph paper to give them).

By my reckoning, I've been blogging for a year as of today.

Happy birthday, little blog.

In knitting news, I finished the green Opal 2002 socks last night. I used a Round Toe, which is my new favorite toe style - it fits well, looks good, and doesn't involve the Kitchener stitch, which although I can do it, always looks a bit imperfect for me.

for the round toe, you start with a number of stitches divisible by 8. The first row, you knit 6, k2 tog all around. Then you knit six rows plain. Then you knit 5, k2tog all around, then knit five rows plain. You keep up in that pattern - reducing the number of stitches between decreases by one, and the number of plain rows by one, until you have knit 1, k2tog all around, followed by one plain row. Then you knit 2 together all around, break off the yarn, and pull it through the remaining stitches.

I started on the Feather and Fan socks for my mother's birthday. I am using Wildfoote in "Geranium". It's still too early to really see how the lace looks in such a dark/intense color.

Another thing I am doing, I am planning on starting to follow along with the Lectionary schedule of reading the Bible - it appeals more to me to read the passages other Christians are reading, on the same day with them, then to dip in randomly. I found a few sites listing Lectionary schedules, the one most useful to me was here. It looks like it's more of an Episcopalian thing than any other denominations. Incidentally, the schedule is for the current year - "Year B". (there is a three-year rotation).

Happy Bobby Burns' Day!

(today, Jan. 25, is the birthday of Scots poet Robert Burns. Here is another site about Robert Burns.)

don't forget the haggis!

The Friday Five:

1. What is one thing you don't like about your body?

I have a little potbelly. It's the single thing that bugs me the most. It seems to be resistant to sit-ups and to exercise in general.
Oh well, Botticelli's Venus looks like she had one too.

2. What are two things you love about your body?

I am physically strong. I can hike 10+ miles in a day if necessary. I can carry 40 pound bags of soil without too much difficulty.
I also think, on my very best days, that I bear a faint resemblance (about the face at least) to Botticelli's Venus.

3. What are three things you want to change about your home?

I would like to have a real pantry. I would like to get rid of the mice or squirrels or whatever that hangs out in my attic. I'd like to replace the white ceramic tile in the kitchen with something that doesn't look dirty two minutes after you scrub it.

4. What are four books you want to read this year?

Annals of the Former World (John McPhee, geology of the US), Great Expectations (Dickens, and I'm embarrassed to say I never read it), more poetry, and maybe start in on the hugacious Rememberance of Things Past (by Proust).

5. What are five promises you have kept to yourself?

1. I will work for a little while every day (or almost every day) on my quilt.
2. I will submit a grant proposal this year
3. I will not feel guilty about buying healthy food that might be a little more expensive because it has some "convenience" feature
4. I will obtain all of the Northcott's "State Flowers" fabrics
5. I will exercise at least 3 times a week.

Joining in another meme:


What's your Inner European?
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Sent there by Wendy

So I'm a Bavarian? Okay, that sort of makes sense.

I worked a little on the quilt and a little on the sweater last night. I need to finish something.

I'm also thinking about pulling out the long-stalled "Trinity Stitch Shawl" and working on it again. After all....spring is coming. (I think).

(This banner said 27* F/ -3* C as of 1:20 pm CST on 23 Jan.)
Which is why I'm glad I have my "Country Socks" from Folk Socks on today (wearing them for the first time). For as much as I griped about knitting sportweight on 1's, for as much as I whined "but they fit so tightly" when I tried them on, I must now admit:

Nancy Bush knows her stuff.

(well, not like that wasn't *obvious* before, but she also knows warm socks).

My feet are warm. I think the tighter fit actually is more insulating. And good old Socka 6-fach, knit to a tight gauge, keeps the drafts out.

(and yeah, I know. 27* really isn't that cold, but when you live in Oklahoma, it is.)

Oog. Did I say the back of winter had been broken? We're in for what locals call a "blue Norther", the temperature NOW is colder than when I left the house at 7 am, and the sky is that flat white-gray that I think must be the color of unbeing, if unbeing had a color.

In happier news, I'm up to the armholes (such as they are) on the back of the Lightning-Bolt Family sweater!

And today, I'm rewriting my milkweed research proposal! I found somewhere to submit it to!

And I'll nag you yet again: bookswap is still ongoing. If you just want one of the massmarket paperbacks (the unstarred books), just send me your address and I'll send it on out - no swap needed unless you really want to offer me something.

I'm going to edit the bookswap as books get spoken for. Four are gone so far. Again, e-mail me if you see something you want.

I picked away at things on my day off yesterday, didn't do much of any one thing. Outlined a research proposal. Quilted some on the quilt (it's moving faster). Got through most of "chart 1" on the Huron Mountain socks. I also did the backroom clearing-up and began some stacking of fabrics on the cleared-out shelves. Right now, I'm stacking by "project" - fabrics that have a destiny to be a particular quilt. I find I have four or five quilts in the planning stage.

I also went outside - it was a warmer day than it had been in a while - and looked at my garden. I saw a few daffodil leaves poking up. Then I kicked aside some more dead leaves. Then I dropped down on my hands and knees, and shoveling leaves back behind me with my hands (think of how a dog digs), began looking harder. There are lots more daffodils, also the veriest beginnings of tulip leaves and even hyacinths.

I think the back of winter has been broken, at least here. Then, whistling some old Charles Trenet tune, I went out to my backyard and dug up another 6 square feet of sod - which will now become garden.

Book-swap!
So, I started doing some back-room-reorganization and book sorting. I found a number of books that I either (a) have read once and don't need to keep to read again (b) bought really cheaply used but have decided I won't read or (c) to my embarrassment, I find I have duplicates of.

So I am going to offer them either free or as swap to you, my loyal blog-readers (if there still are any loyal blog-readers of my blog).

Here are the rules: if you want one of more of the books, e-mail me. Link is on the left, remove the NOSPAM letters.
The books I have starred (*) are ones that I bought new and are either hardcover or trade paper and so were more expensive. I would like something in return for these books - it can be a fat quarter or two of quilting fabric, or something you made, or something that is a typical product/souvenir of where you live...be creative. Make me an offer.

If you want more than two of the mass-market paperbacks, I'd prefer being offered something in return (if you just want one and don't mind waiting for slow-post, I don't need a swap).

If the book is going "overseas" (relative to the US), I'd prefer a swap for the greater effort/cost in mailing.

I reserve the right to send these "bound printed matter" which is the cheapest but potentially slowest mode of shipping. If one of these turns out to be a book you need for a class and want it right now, let me know and we can negotiate.

Remember, starred books = nicer condition. None of the unstarred books are missing pages but they may have spine wear, etc.

Mystery novels:
P.D. James: Unnatural Causes
Cecile Lamalle: Prepared for Murder

Humor
Alan Bennett: The Clothes they Stood Up in* (hardback)
P.G. Wodehouse: Big Money

Fantasy:
Brian Jacques: Mattimeo
J.R.R. Tolkein: The Hobbit (I now have a spiffy hardcover and so am giving away my somewhat worn paperback)
Philip Pullman: The Golden Compass
Marion Zimmer Bradley: The Mists of Avalon* (get me quick on this one before I decide I actually need to keep it...)

Novel-novels
Belva Plain: Whispers
Billie Letts: Where the Heart Is*
Barbara Kingsolver: The Bean Trees
Arthur Hailey: Hotel
E. Lynn Harris: Not a Day Goes By

"Other"
Jon Krakauer: Into Thin Air
Maya Angelou: Gather Together in my Name
Sam'l Johnson: Selected Writings
Kendall Hailey: The Day I Became an Autodidact
Xavier Amador and Judith Kiersky: Being Single in a Couple's World* (warning: more aimed at "how to get a mate" than "how to live single")

So, if you want any of these, let me know. If there are unwanted books after, say, another week, I may look into the Bookcrossing thing and see if I can find places to "release" them.

I have today off, in honor of Martin Luther King jr.'s birthday.

I have to admit I have mixed feelings about this - I've heard Coretta Scott King say that her husband wouldn't have wanted his birthday to have been a day off from work/school for so many people, and I'm inclined to agree. Because holidays that become "days off" seem to fast lose their meaning. People sleep in, watch tv, shop - that sort of thing. (I'd rather see an ordinary workday, maybe with a special assembly or something to honor Dr. King). At least I haven't seen any "Martin Luther King day sale!" ads yet. Though I am sure they are coming.

But anyway. I'm taking my day off like a "good American" and am relaxing a bit. I have the Opal 2002 socks nearly done, and I plan to read a few more journal articles for a paper on GIS that I am rewriting whilst I work on it. (it's all stockinette until I come to the round toe, so I can read and knit).

My next sock project is going to be something I found whilst stash-diving. I found two skeins (well, I found one and had to tear the place up to find the other) of Wildfoote in "Geranium" (red with black twist). As I seldom wear red, and my mother frequently does, I thought these might be idea for a pair of lace socks. I'm thinking of doing Judy's "Feather and Fan" lace socks from Socks^3 (and I maintain, because it's Socks, Socks, Socks, it should be "Socks to the third power" not "Socks times 3"). I think I'm going to make either two or three pairs of socks for her birthday in May - I've already planned on a pair of Opal Crocodiles (I bought both green and brown and will see which one I think is best for her when it comes), and then these lace socks, and maybe something else. I'm also going to do some stashdiving in the next few days and see if I can reorganize/find some stuff I had forgotten. I have tons of quilting fabric but none of it is organized, which prevents me from doing more quilting. I really would love to have it stacked by color out on open shelves (my stashroom is a back closet without windows so fading shouldn't be an issue, thought dust might).

What I really need to do is move the books off the shelves in my stashroom and put my stash up on them (but where the books will go, I don't know - I'm out of bookshelves and I should wait another month or so (till the next paycheck) to buy any more "non essentials".

Well, good news and bad news. The good news is I have heat again, and it was a fairly simple fix - a burnt out igniter that needed replacing. The bad news is that it was still $130 even if it was a simple fix.

So I have to be GOOD for a while now and only buy necessities like groceries and medication.

I also realized that when I'm somewhere cold, it's a lot better to keep warm by keeping my "core" warm (I finally put on ski underwear and that made things a lot better) than by trying to put stuff over my extremities (those bulky fingerless gloves I knit? Good for exactly nothing. Can't type in them, can't write in them, can't knit in them, and my fingers are still miserably cold). I also wore the little rollbrimmed hat I made out of Katia "Folk" over the summer and that helped too.

Now I'm debating whether to go over to my office - the day is more than half over already as far as I'm concerned - or whether to stay home and read the journal articles I copied, or whether just to relax today and work tomorrow.

Well, this is one of the drawbacks to owning a house.
I woke up this morning and when my feet hit the floor, I thought, Dang, it's cold. So on my way down the hall to the bathroom, I turned the thermostat up just a wee little bit. Nothing. Turned it up a bit more. Nothing.

I have a gas furnace, so my first reaction was to smell around for gas - couldn't smell any. Then I thought "maybe the stupid gas company shut my gas off, thinking they were shutting someone else's off". So I tried the hot water (I have a gas heater) - plenty of hot water. I checked the circuit breaker for the igniter on the furnace. It looked OK. I switched the furnace off and on. Still nothing.

I debated calling the furnace guy on a Saturday - it's going to be mega-expensive, I know. But it's currently 55* in my house and my hands are so cold I can barely type, let alone knit. Yes, I could spend the day working in my office at school, but then what when I come home.

So the furnace guy is coming at noon. I certainly hope he can fix it and that I don't need a whole new furnace (if I do, I may wind up buying and using a space heater for a while. I hate the thought of buying something so big in a panic.) Right now, I have on jeans, heavy wool socks, slippers, a turtleneck, a heavy, heavy wool sweater, and I am thinking about putting on my ski underwear as well.

This is just so wonderful. It made me laugh out loud in sheer childish delight on a Friday morning. (it's a Flash animation of Tom Lehrer's song "The Elements"). I'm gonna have to include the website address with the chemistry homework I give my bio students this semester....


I'm tacking my Friday Five onto my earlier post from this morning because I want to keep the Lehrer song link at the top. You really need to go and see it. You really do.

1. Where do you currently work?

I teach biology, soil science, ecology, and biostatistics at a small regional university in Oklahoma.

2. How many other jobs have you had and where?

This is the first "real" one. I was a TA (teaching assistant) for, like, forever, when I was in graduate school, and I put in one semester at a community college that will remain nameless because it and I had a personality conflict.

3. What do you like best about your job?

The students. (see, I'm still idealistic!). I have some really great students though. And there are always some that surprise you - really quiet people who turn out to have these great senses of humor when they write things, or people who come up with brilliant independent projects....I also like the people I work with. I just generally enjoy teaching.

4. What do you like least about your job?

The meetings. Usually when it's time to have a meeting over something, the only time people can all meet is at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon or some time like that. All of my classes are in the morning (well, except for labs) and I get here at 7 am (I get up at 5), so by 4:30 all I can think about is going home and taking a shower and fixing dinner.

Grading is a close second, but that's only because sometimes I look at student papers and go "I know you know this better than this..."

5. What is your dream job?

Actually, I've pretty much got it.

Which Ultimate Beautiful Woman are You?
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being...naughty (fans of Courage the Cowardly Dog might get that...)

I guess I'm somewhat stressed because my credit card is smokin'*. I've been ordering stuff off the internet again. First, it was some books from Powell's, my favoritest bookstore in the world (I am going to make a pilgrimage to Portland someday just to see the store) and from Daedalus books (well, they had a couple mystery novels I wanted, cheap, and they had Amos and Boris by William Steig, which I needed to have a copy of again after losing my copy somewhere between the ages of 7 and 14.). I've also ordered Decade and Harvest by Mission Falls from Yarn Forward (I didn't get the books for Christmas and I really want them. And now, it's yarn time. I have an order sitting on my coffeetable at home (D'oh, forgot to put it in the mail this morning) for some Lorna's Laces** from a new vendor called ThreadBear, and this morning ordered a mess of stuff from Carodan Farm. (Well, one of those balls of Crocodile will be socks for my mom, so it's not entirely selfish...)

Yes, I'm doing my part to help the economy.

*I mean, spending a lot of money online is a symptom of stress, not necessarily a cause (but it will be if I don't curb it now)

**and did you hear? Lorna Miser sold Lorna's Laces. Here's hoping that the changeover is more seamless and less disappointing than the recent Patternworks sale.

I haven't provided any new science links in a while because honestly, I haven't been updating my lectures lately (bad me) but now I'm getting back to it and here is one: cool geology images from Cornell U.. If you have QuickTime, they have "virtual flyovers" of several glaciers, and there are good pictures of a variety of glacial landforms.

Picked away at different things last night - a few more rows of stitching on the quilt, a few rounds on the Huron Mountain socks, and a few rows on the Lightning Bolt family sweater.

I figured this was a good time for a roll-call of the WIPs (at least those I remember having kicking around):

there are the Huron Mountain socks, maybe 10% done
there are the green Opal socks, about 75% done
there is the Lightning Bolt Family sweater, of auburn colored Emu DK - not much done, I'm not even up to the armholes on the back (now I remember why I don't like doing sweaters in DK or finer wool).
there is the quilt currently in the frame - the pattern is called "Chimney Sweep" and it is made out of the RJR "Folk Art" (in other words, bright primary colors - think 1970s calico like the Hollie Hobby dolls and you've pretty much got it)
there is the Trinity Stitch Shawl, which I haven't looked at lately
there are the Zig Zag colorwork socks from Vogue Socks 1, stalled with the occasional row done since Dec. 2000
there is (somewhere) a hat being crocheted out of the apparently-now-discontinued Woolspun from Lion Brand
I also have two quilt tops done but not marked - one is my "Provence" quilt in the "Crossroads to Jericho" pattern, the other is a quilt incorporating Japanese-style fabric which I will eventually quilt with Sashiko designs.

and I have an "inherited" stole I just need to put together - when a friend of my mom's best friend passed away, she left a bunch of unfinished knitting projects (including some gorgeous sweaters that just need putting together, and my mom is the same size as she was). There was an angora stole in a light brown in there and my mom passed it on to me because she doesn't wear brown much.

It's an...unusual...design. When I saw the instructions and photo, I exclaimed "It's a stole with udders!"
yes, it is meant to have 'udders' - I think they are supposed to mimic the tails that would be on one of those nasty little stone-marten boas that were so popular in the 20s and 30s. The stole is all knitted - all I have to do is sew up the "udders" (they were knitted flat and have to be sewn into tubes) and attach the "udder" portions.

I know, I could leave them off. But since E. went to the trouble to knit them, I think I will put them on.* At any rate, the stole is a bit small on me - E. was small and thin with narrow shoulders, and I'm robust. But I think the shawl will work as a "put over my shoulders while I read" sort of thing.

* besides, then I will be the only woman on my block who has a shawl with udders...

I have the ribbing on the first of the Huron socks done, and began the colorwork.

Generally, I don't like colorwork much (hence the pair of Zig Zag socks from Vogue Socks 1 that have been sitting partially finished, since Dec. 2000), but this isn't too bad - just two colors to cope with and a pattern that doesn't change every row.

and I realized that I can wear them with my black slacks and they will look very cool.

and I still love the Lorna's Laces that I picked to do them in. I wish there were a site that had *all* her colors for sale, *all* the time (Carodan Farms has *some* but not all). I'm sure it's a hand-dyed-availability issue, but it's nice to have a full color card to drool over. And really, I don't mind waiting an extra couple weeks for a special colorway.

I wish KnitPicks (one of my favorite new knitting stores) carried more stuff like Lorna's Laces.

I have the heel on the second of the two Opal socks nearly done. These are made from one of the Opal 2002 colors, the grass green with stripes of primary blue, red, and yellow. (It's #521, you can see it here. I bought it from Carodan Farm, one of my new favorite yarn sources) They are coming out almost identical - I was lucky in that I was almost at the same point of the yarn at the end of the first sock as I had been at the beginning. I did an eye-of-partridge stitch heel with the garter stitch edging, turned a French heel, and I did a round to (following the Welsh Socks instructions in Folk Socks - I used 72 sts for the Opal socks, so the pattern was exactly right for it).

I'm making some progress on the quilt, which is comforting. The "I will work for 10 minutes each day" discipline works well - one of the problems I think I was having was that I fooled myself into thinking "I can only work on it when I have a big block of time". Slow and steady wins the race. My fingers are healing up from the accident with the glazier's points, too.

And did you know - Blackberry Ridge now has online ordering! This is the home of the "bug" socks, and the lovely Southwestern Sock collection, and also some great shawls...I haven't ordered online from them yet but I probably will in the future. I do have one pair of the Southwestern socks I made, called Desert Flowers. You can see a picture here, they are number 6. They are purple with pink and green...very pretty, and less annoying to do than most colorwork because they're done in sportweight yarns.

Not much knitting or quilting progress. In the process of putting together a couple picture frames, I found that the pictures were too thick for the little "latch" on the back to hold the back of the frame on. So ok, I figured I'd go out and get some glazier's points and drive them into the back of the frame to hold the back on.

Well, they do the job well, but in the process of putting them in (don't ask how I did this), I managed to prick my left index finger deeply right where I "push" the needle, and managed to drive one of the points under my right index fingernail. (yes, it is as painful as it sounds). So I can knit maybe 2 or 3 rows before I decide "this hurts too much".

TGIF though. I received a generous cash gift from my dad with the instructions that part was to be spent on finding a nice buffet or sideboard for my dining room, so I think tomorrow I am going to go antiquing (around here, good furniture of the vintage I like (1910s through 1940s) is often cheaper, and always better built, than what you find new in furniture stores).

and, here, because I love you, is my own personal recipe for a dredge. I use it on chicken (bone and skin a chicken breast, put it on something unbreakable but capable of being sanitized later, cover with wax paper and beat flat with a hammer, then dampen with milk or soak in buttermilk...) but you could use it on fish as well. Or on tofu.

To each cup of bread crumbs (I use the standard "London" brand bread crumbs in the canister from the grocery, but you could use the fancy nice Japanese ones if you live in a big exciting city where such things are available), add a tablespoon of sesame seeds, a tablespoon of the powdered kind of parmesan cheese (I'm not sure if the fancier grated "real cheese" kind would work), a half teaspoon of Italian seasoning, and mix.

then dredge the milky chicken in it, and pan fry 3 minutes per side in a pan on the stove with about 1/8 inch of peanut oil over medium heat.

It makes very good fried chicken the first night, and if you live alone like me, the leftovers are good, either cut up in a sandwich, or cut up on top of romaine and served with honey-mustard dressing, or, they make superior chicken parmesan if heated up and served with spaghetti and marinara sauce.

I started the Huron Mountain socks from "Knitting on the Road" (these are the ones that are patterned to match the patterning on a loon). I'm using Lorna's Laces in Charcoal and Natural rather than the Wildfoote recommended.

dang, I love Lorna's Laces sockyarn. It is so soft, it feels so good going through my fingers.

otherwise, I'm going through a "tired stretch." This happens to me sometimes when there's a lot of stuff swirling around me - and it seems now that a lot of people and their personal stuff are caught up in a dust-devil of sorts that swirls around me, and doesn't directly involve me, but is there in my mind, sapping my attention. I find myself starting to read lots of different books - that's a sure sign of stress for me, if I keep pulling books off the shelves and starting to read them, I guess in the frantic hope that I'll find one that either has the answer to my frustrations or is engaging enough to take my mind off the junk I'm seeing around me.

it's one of those things that just has to be ridden out.

Another nice present (trying to cheer myself up with happier thoughts): My uncle Bill had copies made of photographs of my great-grandparents (my grandmother's parents) and matted them up and sent a copy to each of the kids in the extended family, along with a gift card for Target to buy the frames we liked.

it was an awesome gift. I don't know a whole lot specifically about my family history, so it was nice - he also included a copy of their marriage notice and my great-grandfather's obituary which I think he found on microfilm somewhere. And he wrote their names on the back of the mats so I will never forget what their names were.

I hope he thinks to continue this practice. I never met great-grandfather Henry or great-grandmother Clara, but it's nice to have their pictures. And it's interesting to look at my great-grandfather - I can see a very strong family resemblance to my dad and even to me.

I bought some sort-of Mission style frames (I have some pseudo-Mission furniture in my house, also the pictures are circa 1918 so I figured it fit the era). I really like having pictures of my relatives (and a few friends) up in my house, it reminds me of where I came from and it reminds me that I'm not alone.

gobsmacked, but not in a good way

I just found something out about a couple people I care about that -well, let's just say it probably won't lead to anything good. I can't really talk more about it. I'm trying to wrap my mind around the new alignment of the situation.

I just don't understand people, you know that? I think the reason I'm still single is that at some point in my life, I saw all my friends in really messy horrible relationships and I just decided that it was to exhausting and frustrating and sad-making to try to build a life with someone, just to see things likely fall apart. That I'm happier by myself than trying to cope with another person. And without giving too much more away, today's new situation just reinforces that.

I'm glad to hear Wendy (the source of the word "gobsmacked") had a good birthday.

What Was Your PastLife?

Oddly, this does not surprise me at all.

I also forgot to mention - the marble magnets (link is to instructions for same) were a hit with everyone I gave them to. My mom's friend Mrs. D. called me up to ask me for directions on how to make them.

Well, I did my first 10-minute (plus) daily stint on working on the quilt. I think this will work much better than waiting until the weekends, and then quilting for hours, getting a sore finger in the process.

more about my vacation:

Christmas was pretty good. My brother and sister-in-law came down from Arlington Heights on Christmas Day (they had planned to come on Christmas Eve, but we had a very heavy sudden snowfall, and they were tired from other traveling). Her brother also came down, since he's not married and their folks are in China right now (teaching English).

I guess people liked what I gave them. My brother said "oh, cool" and started flipping through the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls I gave him, which is pretty high praise from him. My mom laughed when she saw the Fun Fur scarf and said "Oh, I can sing 'Santa Baby' when I wear this scarf" (they had gone to a community musical production where a young woman they knew wore a slinky dress, and, I guess, a boa, and sang "Santa Baby") But she actually wore the scarf out of the house, so I guess she liked it well enough (she's not the kind of person to do things just to make someone else happy).

I got some nice stuff. The biggest present was a 100th anniversary Steiff teddy bear. Because I don't trust the mail *quite* that much, and because I didn't have room in my bag, my folks will bring him down to me on their next visit.

I also got the new Vogue socks book, which I have to say was a bit of a disappointment to me personally - lots of kid and baby socks compared to the number of women's socks, and one of the patterns that I would most want to make (the Koigu socks with the multicolored front and solid back) apparently has an error, because I cannot for the life of me see how you get one segment of the sock one color and the rest another, without carrying the yarn or doing them as flat intarsia (neither of which is mentioned in the instructions). Anyone know if an errata page exists for this book yet?

I also got a really nice set of copper tealight holders - each has a word cut into it, like "Faith" or "Hope" or "Peace" so that when you light a candle in it, the light shines through the word. They're on my mantel right now.

I also got a sweatshirt that has an Edward Gorey drawing on it and the phrase "There's no such thing as too many books". This has become sort of a family joke - one of the reasons I was so eager to move out of the apartment I had been in was that the manager was complaining that I had "too many books" and it was a fire hazard (for the record, I do not smoke, nor did I ever burn candles in that apartment). I tried to explain that the books would not spontaneously combust until the temperature in the apartment reached 451* F, and by then, there would be far more problems than my books, but the manager kept telling me "I'm not going to evict you but you need to get a storage unit and move some of those books out". Anyway. It was a real irritant and frustration at the time, but now that I own the house, it's just one of those "I guess it takes all kinds" sort of things.

I untrimmed the tree this afternoon and put everything away. I have to say, for those given to the occasional fit of melancholy, the music of Ralph Vaughn Williams (especially "The Lark Ascending") is not the best accompaniment to an activity that may produce said melancholy. At one point, I found myself standing in front of the tree, with an ornament in my hand, wanting to - well, not wanting to cry, but wanting to sit down on the sofa. And not move. For a long time.

I did, however, force myself to finish the task (I left a few winter-but-not-necessarily-Christmas themed decorations up). Undecorating always makes me think of the end of W. H. Auden's Christmas "Oratorio", For the Time Being:

"Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree,
Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes --
Some have got broken -- and carrying them up to the attic.
The holly and mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
And the children got ready for school. There are enough
Left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week --
Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
Stayed up so late, attempted -- quite unsuccessfully --
To love all of our relatives, and in general
Grossly overestimated our power. Once again
As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed
To do more than entertain it as an agreeable
Possibility, once again we have sent Him away,
Begging though to remain His disobedient servant,...."

I don't much like the end of the holidays. And now it's the long slow slog, with only the occasional "civic" holiday (Martin Luther King's birthday) and holidays I don't celebrate (Valentine's day means nothing if you are over 18 and unattached...) with little festive until maybe my birthday at the end of February.

I promised myself that this weekend I will go and see if there are any amaryllis bulbs still for sale, and will get a couple and force them, so I have that to look forward to.

Lake Superior State College publishes an annual list of words and phrases that should be banned from English. This year's list is now up.

I am particularly happy to see that "extreme" as a modifier (I ask you, how can Jell-o be "extreme"?) and the phrase "now more than ever" when used as code for "go out and buy" are on it.

Okay, I'm back. I didn't get nearly as much knitting done as intended - partly because I promptly caught the Norwalk virus when I arrived home (and lost a whole day to being sick, and two to three days to feeling too lousy to do anything). But also partly because I did some sewing.

I made myself the long full dark-brown skirt I had been wanting. (And it probably took less time than trying to find what I wanted in a shop or catalog). And, at the Sewing Studio (a wonderful, wonderful fabric shop in Normal, Il - they carry great fashion fabric as well as quilt fabric) I bought a couple yards of a lovely fancy knit and made myself a Chanel-style jacket for those rare fancy occasions I get invited to (It's a black fabric with red and gold Chinese fans printed on it).

I also made a teddy bear, but maybe more about that later.

I did finish two pairs of socks - the Celtic braid socks I've been working on since Thanksgiving, and a pair of simple bulky-wool "Dumbledore" socks (so named because the character in Harry Potter remarked that one can never have enough good thick wool socks). These socks were made with Novitia Storebror, which is a heavy to bulky worsted. I used size 4 (US) needles. The socks do almost stand up on their own, but they are very warm.

I also began a pair of Opal socks, made from one of the 2002 color collection (the grass-green with bands of blue, red, and yellow).

I worked some on the sweater but again, didn't get too much done.

Christmas itself was good - again, maybe more about that later.

I did make a couple of new year's resolutions. I don't normally do that, but this year I felt in the mood for it:

1. I will not wait until I have a big block of free time to work on my quilt; I will try to quilt on it every day for at least 10 minutes, so it won't languish in the frame for four years like my last one.

2. I am not going to feel guilty about buying the better (more-expensive) brand of paper towels, or about buying "healthy-convenience" foods like the already bagged-up salads. I am much less inclined to want to eat salad if I have to chop it up and de-stem it as well as washing it. And the same is true about orange juice - I'm not going to feel bad about buying the already-mixed-up cartons, because I can never seem to force myself to thaw and mix the frozen kind (and yes, I know the frozen kind holds its nutrients better, but that does me little good if I never get it made).

3. I'm going to try to eat more low-glycemic-index foods. Not that I'm diabetic or anything, it's just I've been doing some reading and they seem a lot healthier. And I do notice I don't get hungry as fast after eating something whole-grain than after eating something refined-grain.