Excessive delay ensued

Heavens, ducks!  I haven't posted since New Year's Eve.  You'll all be pleased to know I still "walk" the Earth (but only if I have to!), and I'm still knitting.  Gotta knit for sanity now; my country 'tis of thee continues on its shambling course to the gates of Hell.  More on that in a bit, let me fill you in on activities at Chez Plaid.  After the New Year (I think it was on the 6th, so still within the 12 days of Christmas), Plaidman & I went to All Star Medical and bought a power chair.  We decided to go with the chair rather than the scooter, so I can use it in the house.  We had it almost a month, used it to go to the zoo and go shopping, when the right motor stopped working.  So, back to the dealer we go.  They took it in the shop in back, and tried to find the problem without success.  The decision was made to send the entire motor back to the manufacturer.  In the meantime, we have a loaner chair of the same model.  Earlier this week we went back to the zoo, having seen only half of it at our last visit.  It was a gloriously sunny and mild day.  Have you ever seen rhinos romp like dogs at play?  We did!  I believe they were as thrilled by the sunny day as we were.  Who knew rhinos could be cute?

What I wanted for Valentine's Day included the obligatory heart-shaped box of chocolates, but mainly was some relief in communicating with the Plaidman.  He's my sweetie, and I have to yell at him to be understood because he's so deaf.  I don't like yelling at him, anymore than he likes being yelled at; DiscoDame doesn't help when she starts yelling at him too.  So, he actually called a hearing center & got an appointment for next week!  I'm looking forward to having conversation with him in conversational tones, without our "Canadian" sign language.  I wish I could explain that to you, but I think you'd have had to be there when Disco invented it.

What I got, besides a lovely card & chocolates, was further proof of the future of this great nation being carried away in Satan's handbasket.  Part of the reason I haven't posted lately was that the event at the Portland, FL, school just about tore out my heart.  I know I can't show you how badly this hurt me; I haven't the words for that.  I can tell you that a long time ago Plaidman and I buried our own firstborn child, and that pain will be part of me until I die.  To see so many other Moms & Dads having to go through that has moved me from grief to anger.  To see the survivors speaking about their terror and pain of loss, as children, just drives me to the angriest tears.  How can anyone troll these children, calling them "actors" with prepared speeches--these are young humans with actual brains and passions moving them to decry our government's lack of decency.  Someone else pointed out that thoughts & prayers from someone who neither thinks nor prays, are less than useless.  So many of our representatives owe their allegiance not to their constituents, but to the gun lobby's deep pockets.  Plaidman remembers protesting the bombings in SE Asia, folks chanting,
"Hey Hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today"
and he suggested we use it now, only change "LBJ" to "NRA".  I think we must protest and resist the NRA's control of our Congressional representatives.  So, I need to find a way for this wheelchair bound old hippie to get out there and support our kids' efforts to make the changes we need to see.  Oh boy--here's where my head is at: When I think of protests, I hear Joan Baez singing "Joe Hill" in my mind.  That may not be the most useful thing I've got in my brain, but if it gets me going I'll take it.  One hopeful note in the news today:  Texas had an extremely high early voting turnout, partly because of Democratic efforts to get out the vote.  That's probably something I could do, working on getting folks to GO VOTE or GET REGISTERED.

Gosh, I haven't even talked about my knitting.  I found some patterns for Swiffer or Clorox mop covers, that can be washed/dried & reused.  Well, I happen to have a crapton of kitchen cotton laying around, and thought Sis might like to have some of these.  One pattern was really simple, just a seed stitch rectangle with stockinette borders that tuck into the slots on the back of the mop head.  It works, but was really not that interesting or fun to knit.  Then I tried one based on the Ball Band Dishcloth pattern, and that is so much fun to knit (even in cotton!) that I went a bit crazy and made four of them very quickly.  Two will go to Sis, but I'm keeping (& using) the other two.

  I've finally worked in the ends on the pink headband (Blue Leaf Lace Headband on Ravelry), and put a button on that one too.  I'll send both headbands down south, along with hedgehog toys for the girls.  I feel that the pink headband needs a steam blocking first.  I guess I could do that pretty quickly.

I did start a cap, Exeter on Ravelry, but as the yarn description in the pattern was misleading as to weight, I had to rip it and redo the math for it.  I'm working on the crown decreases.  Here it sits in my yarn bowl, which was a present from me to me.

And if you look carefully you'll see Sis' birthday present to me: a gorgeous shopper tote from Dooney & Bourke (gasp!).  Here's a pic of it alone, carried by Disco.

Disco also modelled my finally finished capelet, a Drops design I knit in Cascade Roslyn tweed.

Missing the "old country"...

Much better, but I really thought it would be a lot longer.  It is nicely warm as a layering piece, and a gorgeous color.

WIP Wednesday! (as an afterthought)

So...how many WIPs are currently lurking about chez Plaid?  Well, while attempting to corral all the yarn in appropriate containers in my new "craft room" (the guest bedroom aka BIG storage room), I found a dozen small and two large WIPs in various containers.  Most were in opaque totes; I guess if they weren't immediately visible they could linger forever...but now all are in clear plastic ziploc-type bags.  There's a tiny lace sachet, 3 pairs of socks, a lace scarf, a lace shawl, a lace tank top (I'm sensing a pattern here....), a Gramps cardigan (cables instead of lace!), 2 bracelet bags, a pair of cabled armwarmers (Arden pattern), and last mentioned but probably the earliest started: the feather & fan stole (more lace!) in Lorna's Laces.  This is not counting projects that I plan to work several times, such as the old time slippers or fuzzhogs.  It's also not counting the Allotrope cowl or the red capelet that I started last December.   I have seriously been considering frogging the F & F stole for the 2nd time (!!!), and making into a sweater for me.  To that end, I bought some more of the colorway from a Raveler, and some from a commercial source.  I now have a whopping 10 skeins, so should be able to make just about anything!  There will have to be some careful planning, to make sure all the slight variations in the dye lots are evenly spread over the whole item -- I guess I should plan to use 9 skeins because I'll have a lot of ends.  Now, the first time I frogged this thing, I had two whole & one partial skein in it, and washed the yarn to get the kinks out.  I did try to alternate skeins when I began reknitting it, so I'm likely to have a lot of fairly short pieces of yarn.  As this stuff is superwash, it won't wet splice (felt) together.  I think I'll have to use Russian joins.  I wonder if it would be worthwhile to cut up a skein of each dye lot into pieces the length of the shortest bits from the stole (or just random lengths at least that long), and just go ahead & join them?  Or am I overthinking this?  It would likely speed up the knitting if I didn't stop every other row to add in a different skein.   There was a lace sweater pattern on Elann that I really liked, can't recall whether or not it was worsted weight.  I'm a fair hand at cables too, and there are a ton of cabled sweaters out there.  But first & foremost, I must finish the Allotrope cowl.  By golly, I will get it done!  Right  after my nap.....

A shoe dropped

I wish I could say more, but today a very dark cloud that had been hanging over me for several months has finally moved away.  I'm so relieved, and I just know you're happy for me.

I've started a new knitting project!  I admired a young friend's panache with scarves, and offered to knit one for him -- knowing he'd likely wear it appreciatively, which would of course be a big morale boost for me.  Now, being a dude, his color sense is shall we say on the somber side.  BUT I found several pictures of yarns available online, and he looked them over, and picked a nice variegated (mostly brown!) fingering weight.  I ordered two skeins of Knit Picks Stroll hand-painted in their "Pony Ride" colorway, meantime himself & I are putting our heads together for a pattern.  I tried cables, but they completely disappeared against the ground.  Then I showed him two patterns that were basically about texture, and he picked one.  Then came the swatching, and ripping, and more swatching, and ripping, and finally I had something that looked pretty good.  I've knit about 8" of unblocked fabric, which looks like it'll stretch to 12" when blocked.  If you're on Ravelry, you can look for my "Cowboy Morning Surf" based on Jackie ES's Morning Surf. 

I worked in the ends on my Every Way Wrap, but still don't have the buttons in place.  And I've taken some steps to get a "care box" sent off to Texas, for the nieces & Sis. 

One last bit of good news: The Plaidman has a part-time job!  and it's very close to home, only about 1.25 miles away.  He'll still draw his Social Security, and his little pension, but with the additional funds from his job we just might be able to get the Innerwebs at home again.

I found another really good blog to peruse, check out The Bloggess -- but not at work!  Just  sayin', she's often NSFW.  But hysterical. 

Too much & too little

It can stop raining anytime now, ya know! We had standing water in the crawlspace again. I found a slug in the tub last night. I hate slugs. Ever since I stepped on a very large one, bare footed, one early morning back in West Nashville. Talk about gross! I was instantly so sick, that if I'd had breakfast I would have ralphed big time. I couldn't even lift up my foot, I just knew I couldn't look at the mess! The Plaidman had to come to my rescue, and he even wiped off my foot. Now that's love: when he's willing to wipe mushed slug off your foot, he's a keeper.
DiscoDame & I went to the library Saturday midday. I had a plan: upload some pictures to Flickr, then get on Ravelry & add a couple of projects (one finished & one frogged) with some of those pictures, then blog about it all, and maybe check out Facebook. Well, Flickr wouldn't recognize my password -- maybe I changed it? I couldn't remember, so I had to set up a new password, so the folderol with Flickr used up a quarter of the time I had reserved on the computer. Then I realized I hadn't brought the yarn & pattern info with me, to add my projects on Rav, so I kinda had to hunt through my favorites for the pattern info, then a yarn search for the yarn that was used & frogged. I did have a message, and a new friend on Ravelry: Zoom of knitnut.net asked to be my friend! Which is totally cool, as I've been following her blog for quite a while, and I adore Duncan Donut the Fabulous Dogcat. I just glad none of my furfriends are that large! Anyway, with all the folderol of Flickr & searchs, I ran out of time for blogging and never got to Facebook at all. Whew! Too much stuff to get done, and too little computer time to do it all. It's so aggravating that we had to discontinue our Internet access at home. Just can't afford it now! But that may be something we can get back to, as both Plaidman and DiscoDame are supposed to go to the employment center today, to sign up for flood cleanup work. Supposedly, it pays $8 to $10 an hour, which would be a huge help for our finances even if only one of them gets work. It is temporary, but expected to last about six months, so maybe we can get the Purl repaired and catch up on some bills before it gets cold again.
GAH! I have tried to get some pics onto this blog, but the ones I want are not in a format that I can easily apply here.