It's my party.

The heat has made me feel lazy all day. I've been sitting in front of the window, got the ceiling fans turned up, windows wide open all 'round, reading. Can't even work up enough starch to pick up some knitting, which is a shame 'coz I've been wanting to make something(s) for a friend & her new baby boy. He has the tiniest itsy little feets, just crying out for some hand-knit booties! And I'd like to give her a shawl, something she can wear or wrap about Baby when she carries him to church. For some reason, folks around here seem to wrap church-going babies in shawls. I guess the shawls are prettier than "regular" baby blankies? Part of the "dress for church" thing, wrapping some lacy froth around the babe. It'll have to be something that can be knit fairly quickly; I need to check my collected patterns for something more or less lacy without being slower than Christmas. I am not a speedy knitter. Usually, I don't mind taking forever to see a product; I think I'm a bit of a process knitter. But when it's for a baby, it needs to get finished before it gets outgrown. I have a ton of "baby" yarns, all acrylic unfortunately, but pretty. Too pretty for a boy? Well, I won't use acrylic for the booties, just the shawl. And that will make room in the storage bin for some of ny newer purchases. A very little room, unless I make a huge shawl. OK, what's simple & lacy? Feather & fan I can do almost in my sleep, but it's not particularly fast. And I'd like something a bit more open looking. So, what will I be working on on 6/14/08?
In the Into Each Life A Little Rain category of news, there will be no trip to Texas in our foreseeable future. I had no sooner booked & paid for airline tickets, then the Plaidman brings home the proverbial pink slip. I will be working all the OT I can tolerate for the next unspecifed length of time. This will undoubtedly leave me cranky all week, and I'm so glad I'm not one of the people I live with. On the plus side, when my vacation week rolls around, I know I'll have plenty of time for knitting. Or crocheting, or pretty much whatever else amuses me. I figure I'm being paid to have a good time, and by the goddess, I'll have it! And there's the little matter of being THE breadwinner of the household. I have a tee shirt that sums it up: You can agree with me, or you can be WRONG.

Progress--two steps up, one back

I have an avatar on Ravelry now. Finally figured it out; my resident web-designer & techie helped a little. I've also added a pic in my complete profile. The profile pic, the Ravelry avatar, and the pic behind the blog header are all from the same trip to Chicago. Now if I can just figure out what the problem is with putting pics in posts....
WWKIP is just around the corner! June 14 is the date. I'm going to break with my "tradition" and pass on Watertown this year, in favor of staying a little closer to home. But as there's an artisan festival in Centennial Park on the same day, I figure I can kill two birds. I'm still working on the first Moc Croc sock, but I think I can finish it before then. I'd like to working on the second sock by then. I have been considering frogging the feather & fan shawl back -- waaaay back -- to even out the break between one skein & another. It wasn't super noticeable with the first 3 skeins, only the 4th; but it's really awful. I thought I'd frog back half way through the 3rd skein (!!!!) and start alternating sets of rows between the 3rd & 4th skeins. I can't express how thrilled I am with this prospect, it ranks right up there with a root canal for sheer thrills. Every time I've had to rip part of this shawl, it winds up spending months in the frog pond. I. WANT. TO. WEAR. MY. SHAWL. I need to get a grip & just do it. Deep breaths, people.

Folderol

It just took me twenty minutes to sign in on my blog. The 'puter gnomes hate me. But hey, I had a terrific Mother's Day! The Plaidman gave me the Boye (I love their points!) circular needlemaster, with sizes 3-15 & three cables. DiscoDame remembered me admiring a pack of sock needles, and got that plus a knitting magazine (did you know you can list your mags on Ravelry? That'll be a chore! I may only have two or three dozen...), and a big sticker about Moms. Also, we went out & ate steak! And chocolate, mustn't forget the choco on Mom's Day. I spoke with Betty on the phone, then handed it to the Plaidman. They were still jawing while we put in our drink orders.
Tomorrow, the DiscoDame turns 25! A whole quarter century ago her "Dameness" came into the world. What a long strange trip it's been.... and that's just my view; she seems to think she'll always be under 30.
I haven't heard anything from my Dad about visiting again. I guess I should write to him & let him know we're staying closer to home for the vacay. It was awfully nice of him to offer his digs, but we just can't go the airfare. The Plaidman's employer has cut operations back to 4 days a week; this is actually quite common for this business--they always seem to have at least one slack time every year. I just hope their salesforce gets it together & gets 'em some work. Thank goodness my employer's not cutting back. In fact, if the mayor & police dept. here get their way, we may have more work coming in. The mayor wants to give the police their own DNA lab; one of our doctors already heads the medical examiner's office & for sure a DNA lab would be in his purview.
Well, since we're celebrating tomorrow, we have to get all our chores done today, and that's the end of this story.

A big kiss for Betty

Tomorrow's Mother's Day in the US of A. All of us have or have had Moms; none of us would be here otherwise. Let's all give a kind thought to our Moms, and if yours is still in this world, why not give her a call & some love. I will be calling my "other" Mom, my dear mother-in-law Betty. To know her is to love her: she makes my 98 lb daughter look huge, but she's got the heart of a tiger! She got elected to head her nieghborhood association multiple times; I think they were too scared not to! But she's always made me feel like family, right from the first time my sweetheart (aka Plaidman) carried me home to meet his Mom. If I were her to tell her that, she'd give me a sharp look, but she knows it's true. I'm very glad I have her still. She's part of the reason I've worked up my nerve to knit socks: she's been diabetic since her 3rd (of 7!) pregnancy, and still ticks on like the proverbial Timex. I want to make some socks for her, and for my sister-in-law (also diabetic). I think Knitty has an article about the best material for diabetic socks. Anyway, since my own Mom passed on, I find myself calling Betty "Mom" a lot more. I just don't want to be a motherless child.
My Dad invited me, Plaidman, & the DiscoDame to come stay at his house for a week. I'm not sure we're gonna go--the airfare will be about $1000, and Plaidman's employer is a little shaky lately so we might want to tighten the belt a bit. I guess I won't be ordering yarn online for a while. That's ok, I have plenty of yarn, the library's got all kinds of pattern books, and if I get tired of the selection of yarn & books, there's always the kntting blogs online for entertainment.
Go call your Mom!

Love a plan?

I'm not so great without plans, myself. The ideas are around; it's the details that elude. I'll be brief: I want to write more about my visit with the folks in Texas, but I'm about to leave for bit. Got a photo or too, if I can figure out how to get'em to behave. Here's *my* DD modeling the hat for Niece #1:

Well, I have no idea whether that worked or not. (It didn't--gotta get my tech consultant over here). 6/25/08 Techie postscript: gotcha picha, lady. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I flew into Austin on Friday 4/18, meeting Dad at the airport, then on to my sister's house outside Austin. Siesta is part of the afternoon routine there, so Dad laid down for a nap, and I went up to my oldest niece's room to try it myself. But I work all day, and found I just couldn't sleep during daylight. I never did acquire the nap habit. I met the weekday nanny, a very nice lady, and watched my nieces romp on a trampoline out back. Memaw came over; she's fun. After the siesta, Sis came home from her shop, and her Mr. was able to get away from his desk, and we all piled into the large vehicle. That's Sis, her spouse, Pup (aka Dear Dad), me, and the two little nieces. We went out on a mission: acquire dinner & terrorize some waitstaffers. I got an absolutely sweet pic of the girls together, it's my desktop now. This was almost all we did all weekend, with varying members of the troupe stepping in or out. We hit the IHOP with Memaw but without the older niece. I made some progress on the socks, no pics while in TX nor since. I guess it would be nice to see some knitting on a knitting blog.... when I figure out how to make it work.

Home!

I'm back home again, after a much too short visit with my sister & her family, & Dear Old Dad aka "Pup". We ate out a lot, and probably got banned from 3 different restaurants in the Austin area. We are nothing if not loud. Today was a killer; my three-year-old niece finally decided it's ok for her to talk to me. On the day I had to leave...after being in the same house with her since Friday. And since she's only three, and our method of storing long term memory alters around 4, she won't remember me next year. Le sigh. But the older niece did remember me, and was just tickled to get to see "Auntie Ann" again. She had a sleepover scheduled for Saturday, and went out the door wearing a sweater I crocheted for her a couple of years ago (it still fits!), the brand new felted hat I carried down to her, and carrying a teddy bear I made when she was about 3. Girl knows how to warm a knitter's heart, all right: just wear or carry all the handknits or crocheted items that she can! Well, I'm beat. I still have one more day of vacation, so I'll try to get back to this tomorrow.

I'll fly away

I still haven't packed, and now the DH says we're gonna have to be out the door by 5:15 a.m. if he's dropping me at the airport before going to work. I figure I've got 3 hours to pack before dropping into bed at 8 p.m. Pardon me while I scream. %#(&%%$! Whew, that's done. I did the grocery shopping; I don't want the poor dears to starve while I'm out. I spent about 3 hours on Ravelry this morning, got so involved I forgot my coffee. I've checked, the TSA says I can carry my knitting on board, which is good. Looks like my airport time will be about 3 hours, without a computer. I may not be able to post while I'm on the road, so if you're looking for me just be patient -- this is going to be a long weekend. Well, time to pack.