Well, as I have said in the past, revenons a nos moutons..

I have the dial-up for as long as it lasts, and I can probably get someone to help me with the cable modem next week.

It helps to get out and do something else other than beat your head against the brick wall of a problem. One of the other things I did today was prepare twenty (20) pounds of Chinese-style barbecue chicken wings for the local ecumenical VBS. (The dinner tonight - they're doing it this year as a weekend "retreat" and are encouraging whole families to attend, which I think is good - was an International Buffet).

So I got a decent dinner (the person from my church who was in charge of the whole deal encouraged me to stay and eat - and there was more than enough food for everyone). And I got to talk to her for a few minutes - turns out she has cable Internet too, and hers hasn't worked this week. So maybe it's a connectivity problem and maybe not a problem on my end. So I'm not going to worry about it until I can find someone HERE IN TOWN to help me. I'm done with calling the head office in Georgia.

I guess the wings were pretty appreciated as there wasn't too much "homemade" stuff. But if I ever volunteer to prepare 20 pounds of ANYTHING again, I hope the angel on my shoulder whacks me upside the head. (I would not make it as the chief cook and bottle-washer for a large family. And this episode reminds me that though I may dream of a life in the culinary arts, I probably don't have the requisite roll-with-the-punches temperament.)

And I have to say, now that I've had a little time to look at the digital cable, it's pretty choice. (I have "Dr. G., Medical Examiner" on right now. Yeah, I like medical shows, even the kind of morbid ones. I do have to look away at some points but I find the whole medical-examiner thing pretty fascinating). And I get BBC America (I will have to try to find out when they show "The Avengers" and "The Saint" and that sort of good-campy 60s crime/spy shows). And TCM. And IFC. And a channel called "Sleuth" which I assume shows mostly detective shows (they had Magnum, P.I. on when I scrolled past it most recently). And Nicktoons, so I have even more of a shot at a daily Spongebob fix now. And the various Discovery Channels. And Fox Movies, and Lifetime Movies (which I will probably not watch much if it's like the standard Lifetime channel). And a bunch of MTVs, even including one on which they still show videos!

And I get some digital music channels. Only one classical channel but I guess that doesn't surprise me. And there are some decent jazz/standards channels. (If the expected merger of Sirius and XM goes through, once the dust clears, I still might buy a satellite radio receiver.)

And I have been working on stuff while waiting on repair people.

I'm working my way around the outer tier of blocks on the quilt in the frame (I should refer to it by name - in the book I used - a Marsha McCloskey* book - she calls it Chimney Sweep)

(*My mom met Marsha McCloskey at a quilt meeting once. My mom says she's a nice lady.)

So here's the first corner of the quilt. I'm having to kind of reconstruct what I had planned to do as all the markings have worn off over time.



(The big stitches you see are the basting I put in to hold the backing, batting, and top together while I worked. They come out when the whole thing is done. Kind of like sutures on a wound.)

After this, I have the very outermost part - you can see the half-square triangles and the outer border. I decided to save that for last and just work my way around the quilt when it's time to do those.

Also, I am working on a scarf out of some Cascade 220 superwash (purchased in May at Ewe Knit when I was up in Illinois for a visit). I'm using a stitch pattern sometimes called Stansfield #11 (another one of those cryptically-named stitches, like Looe Eddystone and Polperro Laughing Boy. I suppose Stansfield was the name of the original compiler of the stitches, and this was his (her?) 11th pattern shown).

(Upon reflection: the Stansfield series of stitches, could they be named for Leslie Stansfield, a compiler of knitting stitches who, at least in the States, was published by Lark Books? Meaning - it's not a series of stitches named 100 years ago, but actually compiled quite recently?)

It's sort of a basketweave stitch. Lots of purling, but I like the effect it gives.



This is an overall shot and gives a truer picture of the color - it's sort of a heathered color (it's #856, a really lovely heathered blue-green. Sort of a dark turquoise - not really teal, not at all, too blue for that).



And a close-up showing the stitch pattern. The color is not so true on this photo.

Sometimes, it is nice just to knit on a scarf. No shaping, no worrying about what to do next once you've established the stitch-pattern. And in this case, the pattern is simple enough to memorize (and you can see where you are in it, so you don't even need a row counter). For me, knitting scarves is the equivalent of "comfort food" or of reading Golden Age mysteries - something enjoyable and transporting but that doesn't require a lot of personal "stretching." And it's something I need when I've been doing too many things that "scare me." (Like repairing my toilet. cooking 20 pounds of barbecued chicken wings, and trying to set up a router). (Oh, I know the old saw about how you should do something that scares you every day. I think that rule was probably not written by someone who was risk-averse like me. Heck, some days getting up in front of my classes is enough fear for me.)

I have commented before on the large number of blue or green (or blue-green) scarves that I have or have knit for myself. I was re-reading "The Knitting Sutra" again today (while waiting on the cable guy; when I'm really agitated, I can't knit or sew, the only thing I can do is read. And even then, it has to be something I've either read before or that doesn't call for great concentration.) In it, Susan Gordon Lydon writes at one point about how some people believe colors have healing properties. And it makes me wonder about my wanting all that green or blue around my throat, and the fact that having a good healthy voice is important in my career (almost as much as it is to a singer, I think). And even in some extra-career things: to be an elder at church, one must have a sufficiently strong voice to be heard when one prays. And to teach the youth group. And to lead nature hikes places.

And I am kind of prone to throat and respiratory woes: allergies and asthma and it seems that I often pick up every headcold that wafts by.

Of course, the scientific side of me sneers at all this, at colors being able to heal (in any sense other than a placebo). But the more spiritual side of me kind of shrugs, and says, then why so many green or blue scarves?

So maybe there is something to it. I don't know. I do know that I like a few things in my life to remain unexplained mysteries; it's kind of like having a few books left on the shelf you've not read yet. It keeps the possibilities in life; it keeps things interesting.