KFYS Sock Club

As financial considerations have made it necessary for me to drop from the Rockin' Sock Club as well as to cancel any yarn I've had on back order, I have created my own sock club for this year:

Knit From Your Stash Sock Club

Anyone can join in! All you do is create your own "sock kits" from your stash of yarn and patterns. Every two months you pull out a kit and start in on a new pair of socks (presuming you have the other stuff finished). Voila! Six pairs of cool socks knitted by the end of the year!

Yes, I really wish I could be part of the RSC this year because you get cool yarn that's only for the sock club members, but that's just not going to happen this time.

I'm setting up a separate blog for the KFYS Club. If you want to be a member of it, let me know and I'll figure out how to add you in. (N.B., if you have an "old" Blogspot account you won't be able to participate. However, it's free to create a Blogspot account, so it doesn't cost you anything if you want to join in.)

It never rains, but it tsunamis. . .

Friday, 23 February. We learn that the mortgage we renegotiated last November does NOT include setting aside funds for the escrow account or homeowner's insurance. We have to come up with 3 months back-payment on the homeowner's insurance (or lose it) that day. We have to come up with half of the property taxes by the end of March.

Monday, 26 February. We learn that we will be paying a lot in taxes for last year. "A lot" meaning we could probably buy a whole new furnace unit again.

Tuesday 27 February. We learn that CompUSA is closing in a couple of months, so Ed will be losing his job there. I also learn (although it's a small thing by comparison) that I'll most likely be having a hysterectomy sometime in the next 12 months.

We're on the phone with the financial advisor and the tax guy, so the money stuff will work out. Also, I've got my momma praying rosaries so fervently that I'll bet God thinks she's standin' right next to Him and shoutin' in his ears. However, if I appear to be wavering as I walk around today, it's because I'm rather shot through with holes at the moment.

Notice to Rockin' Sock Club Friends

Due to some financial surprises (i.e., we really got walloped on paying income tax this year), I've had to withdraw from the Rockin' Sock Club for this year. So, I will lose my privileges to the Rockin' Sock Club site, which means I won't be able to post there or connect as easily with all of you.

I have web sites / blog addresses for some of you, so I hope you'll be able to post your progress and share your successes there. Do stop back and keep in touch if you can. This will be the Year of Knitting from Stash for me, but I'm hoping to be able to be back for the RSC next year!

Hugs and happy knitting to all of you!

Ed's Socks Started

I finished the Henpecked socks later in the afternoon, so I got a good start on the socks of my DH.

Henpecked Socks Done

I really like how the colors pooled on this skein.

Snow at Our House

The snow was thick, but we were fortunate not to have ice underneath it. Clearing it was relatively easy.

A look up our street.

A Few Updates. . .

1. Meeting lots of fun people through the Blue Moon Rockin' Sock Club! I'm going to have to budget to participate in next year's club, but it will totally be worth it! I mean, I haven't even started (the first package is due this week) and I'm in love with it!

2. "Henpecked" socks coming along well. I've turned the heel on the second sock and I've got 4 rows done on the gusset. I'm hoping to get that one cranked out by the end of the Academy Awards program tonight.

3. Order from the aforementioned (and linked) Blue Moon arrived yesterday. I have the "In the Navy" skein wound and ready to start when the "Henpecked" socks are done. I haven't wound the "Watermelon Tourmaline" yet -- I'm having too much fun just looking at it.

4. The DK weight "Golden Apricot" arrived in yesterday's mail. At first I thought it was a tiny skein, but that was just because they'd sucked all of the air out of the package prior to mailing. It wound into a nice "cake" of yarn. I'll have to put it aside for later as I anticipate being inundated by StR sock knitting.

5. I put a few more rows onto the "Downpour" scarf, but I've set it aside in favor of doing some other things.

6. Sadly, I've only just started on the second half of the front of the sweater for Trish. I have the held stitches transferred to a needle and the first row has been knit.

7. We have about 7" of snow on our deck, all of it heavy and fluffy. We are fortunate in that we didn't have ice underneath it all as our friends in other states had to contend with.

More Cards

MPG Estimates Change

We didn't do to badly with this. You can check out your vehicle's estimated Miles Per Gallon a this site.

The Aunt Jenny Award

Background
Aunt Jenny is one of my dad's sisters. She is a very kind, sweet person in so many ways. In fact, she and my mom were friends before my mom met my dad. Aunt Jenny was mom's matron of honor back in 1945. She's a powerful force, still alive (in her early 90s) and only a few years ago could still be found doing work around her home (such as scraping the paint off the garage in preparation for painting it).

But every now and then she will open her mouth and say the rudest, most tactless things!

Example 1:
It's June 1996. We're all gathering together on the eve of my youngest sister's wedding. My beautiful sister Mary — who even today in her 50s could wear a bikini and still get wolf whistles; who looks great even if she's dirty and rumpled from cleaning the garage; who is fun to be around because she has such a pleasant attitude — my beautiful sister Mary opened the front door to welcome Aunt Jenny and was greeted by this aunt with, "Oh, Mary! You always used to look so pretty and dress so nice!" Believe me, Aunt Jenny had a smile on her face when she said this. I'm sure she meant something like, "Don't you look wonderful, just as I always remember!" but it certainly didn't come out that way.

Example 2:
It's August 1997. We're at my nephew David's wedding. Aunt Jenny (his great-aunt) has come for the wedding and she's sitting with all of us in the front part of the church prior to the ceremony starting. She's looking around at the bridesmaids, the bride's mother, and the bride herself. Most people would remark on how happy everyone seemed to be and how lovely everyone looked, etc. Aunt Jenny observed, "I've never seen so many fat people at a wedding in all my life!"

So, every now and then, someone in our family wins the "Aunt Jenny Award." Last night the (un)lucky recipient was my mother-in-law, Anne. We (me, my husband, and Anne) were in the car and going to dinner (for Anne's 85th birthday). Anne was in the back seat; Ed and I were in front; I was driving. I mention our relative positions because you have to understand that there was no way she could have presumed that her son was NOT in the vehicle with us. Nonetheless, she began talking as though he wasn't there. She said, "Remember when he was exercising a lot? It was when he went through all that trouble. He looked so good. I was so proud of him. Well, that didn't last!"

I looked over at my husband and we shared a smirk. My retort was, "I don't know what you mean — I think he's magnificent!"

You have to understand: My MIL will go on about nearly anything and it won't make a lot of sense. For example, she saw a sign for the Sylvan Learning Center and that triggered her telling us a story of a nun who didn't have a proper teaching degree who was hired to tutor a young woman with a learning disability. This was about 60 years ago. My MIL was going on and on about how private tutoring doesn't help because the student becomes dependent upon the tutor and will regress once the tutor is gone. She has no basis for that opinion other than this one instance, so of course she back-pedaled when I said I knew people who'd brought their daughter to one of these centers and their daughter learned many skills that helped her after she was done with the program.

Well, if she wants to keep up the various and sundry dramas of her life, I think she deserves an award. :)

Note to Self . . .

(Ah, the lovely things you can find on the web!)

Gee, I forgot to mention . . .

These two skeins are on their way from Blue Moon. Left is "In the Navy;" Right is "Watermelon Tourmaline."

Why I Shouldn't Have Free Time

OK, I've been roaming the Internet in search of yarn. I found these from links on the Knitty site advertiser's page. These are from Ewe Need Yarn:


This is Great Adirondack "Caribou" in the Trillium colorway.

Rosewood

This is Great Adirondack "Soxie" in the Rosewood colorway.

...and Beads

I got these beads from Earthfaire:

Plum Loco

And this is Great Adirondack "Soxie" in the Plumloco colorway.

Golden Apricot Yarn

Um, did I mention this lovely DK weight yarn in Golden Apricot? It's from Handpainted Yarn.

Of course, none of this is my fault. I blame it on a society that constantly enables my knitting habit. Really. It's true.

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Real Beauty

OK, here's the brain-bleach to help cleanse us of yesterday's image. This is a publicity photo from Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty. This is what I want to be: Normal-Beautiful.

One step at a time, I'll get there.

OK, Now I've Done It

I've made a commitment. I've put my weight loss ticker on my blog. It's real.

Geez, I hate this! But, I saw a show on TLC this weekend about four morbidly obese people. (Although, not the people in the photo -- that I found on the web and added my face to as a warning. Well, maybe I look a little like the one on the far right.) OMG!!! I don't want to be like this!

So, here we go again. I'm keeping track at My Calorie Counter. It's a nice site, and free! Better than the Weight Watchers one I'd tried earlier.

Calories In < Calories Out = Smaller Judith

Give me strength!

Project Updates

With apologies to those of you on dial-up, this is a photo-heavy day of postings. First a quilt project and then all of the knitting. You will not be surprised to hear that my house is a pig sty, but it's the only way I can concentrate on all of the projects (which are essential to my sanity).

Jane Austen Quilt

I had to photograph this just so I'd remember the layout sequence. There is an overall pattern at work here, but it will be harder to see when I put it together on the diagonal. And the spaces in between will be a light, creamy yellow with tiny light blue dots (not the blue as shown here). I laid it out on our bed. This thing will be king-sized for certain!

Do Not Adjust Your Set

This is Trish's sweater. I'm liking the way the colors pool on the body of it, but I admit that I'm losing steam on this project. I have to do the other half of the front, then the sleeves and the V-neck finishing. I need to get off my derriére and do this. Now.

Another Prism Project

I've coveted this yarn since I-Don't-Know-When. I'm knitting a scarf for starters, but I might try some free-form knitting and turn it into a funky wall hanging. I don't know. Anything can happen, and that's what I love about it!

The Hermione T-Shirt

As you can see, this is coming along. I've made a few decreases at the sides to accommodate a bit of shaping for the waist and also because I'm a bit narrower at the top than at the belly and hips. This will be knit in Hermione up until the top when I'll add in the solid turquoise stripes again.

A Downpour That Rocks

This is a lacy scarf knit with StR "Downpour" in the pattern called "A World Lit Only by Fire." I'm not too far along, but it's coming out beautifully. The "Downpour" colorway is a little darker than I anticipated, but it's gorgeous!

Henpecked Socks That Rock

I have one sock done and the second one started. These are in Socks That Rock heavyweight on US 4.0. I used a 3x3 rib on the leg and then changed to plain stockinette for the rest of the foot. My husband doesn't care for this colorway, but he loves the weight and feel of the yarn. I've ordered StR "In the Navy" and "Elektra" from Lisa Souza in her merino heavyweight (a heavy worsted) to knit two pairs of socks for him (he wants "blue, just blue"). Um...maybe I'll get them done by Christmas 2008.

Gauge Disaster Caught Early

This is the start of a pullover shell that I'm designing for myself. I swatched. I have witnesses that I swatched. I measured. I have witnesses that I measured. I had other knitters check the measurement. It was 24 sts over 4", which should have meant I cast on 72 sts to get 12" across. Where it went wrong, I don't know, but at least I caught it early on.

Email Still Not Working

My email account is hosted by Google. I haven't received a message -- not even spam -- since noon (CST) on Thursday, 15 February 2007. I don't know what's wrong, but I'm getting mega-steamed. I've contacted them through their feeble reporting page but I've had absolutely no confirmation at all that they've received my reports. And I'm not the only one with this problem.

Coming Up for Air

It has been a crazy-busy week. Even with a day off on Friday, I've been overwhelmed with activities. Then today I came home from a 9:00 a.m. appointment and I just fell asleep until 5:00 p.m.! Nothing like a little exhaustion, eh?

We had a great time at the fitness challenge on Thursday! The people at the Field House (who are running our Biggest Loser contest and fitness challenges) set up an obstacle course within the confines of the indoor soccer field. The course was on the perimeter of that field, and we had an added challenge from what they'd told us previously about it: They made these wooden "skis" with 2 wide boards and had four ropes on each. We had to use these to walk together (I called it "elephant walking") from one obstacle to the next. What a fun challenge that was! You know how we tend to swing our arms counter to how we walk; with this you had to lift up your arms with the same side that was stepping. Thank goodness my trainer has had me do a number of exercises where it was the same side lifting the weight as the leg that was raised!

So, here's how the course went:

1. Your team is on the "skis" at the starting line. You walk as a team about 10 feet to the first challenge, which is the transfer relay.

2. Two team members participated in the transfer relay. No, we couldn't transport the entire container (which was a large plastic garbage bin, the kind you set out on the curb on garbage day), we had to transport the contents of the container, which were 8 bowling pins and 2 light bowling balls. It took on average three round trips to transfer the stuff.

3. When the transfer challenge was completed by two team members, the team had to get back to the "skis" (remember, they're at the starting point of the first challenge) and elephant walk up and around a curve to the next challenge (about 25 ft, I think).

4. The two team members who didn't do the transfer relay did this next challenge, which was the football throw. They had a kind of A-frame that suspended a tire (one line at the top and one on the side to kind of steady it). One person threw the footballs and the other person shagged the strays. Trish and I did this one. She got hers through fairly quickly (and just by luck, we all agree, because it kind of twirled around inside the hole before falling through. Mine took a bit longer. We learned that each person had 2 minutes for this part. I'm sure I took about 1.5 minutes.

5. OK, back on the "skis" and walking around a short curve to the balance beam.

6. There were no weights to carry across the beam (as they'd told us previously). We had only ourselves, but two people had to carry the "skis," so Bill and I each carried a "ski." The beam was a 4 x 4 suspended on cinder blocks. I admit that I forgot everything I'd practiced and was thinking only of getting across, so I made rather a hash of it, but I got across while carrying that "ski" overhead.

7. When all of us were off the balance beam, we had to drop and crawl under a tarp. There were two cinder blocks with beams crosswise and a tarp over the top of that. I could do it at a low crawl (we had to watch that we didn't hit our heads on the cross beams). One person had to take a 2 x 4 and two of us had to bring the "skis" along.

8. When all of us were out from under the tarp, we had to walk or run through the nine tires. Again, Bill and I transported the "skis" overhead (so the ropes hang down and don't trip you up).

9. After the tires, we had to get on the skis again and elephant walk to the water hazard.

10. The water thing was easy: Little wading pools with about an inch of water in them. We had to put at least one foot in the water. But Bill and I were carrying the skis as we did it.

11. After the water thing, we put the skis down and elephant walked through a serpentine path to the end, about 25 ft again.


Our team did it all in 9 minutes, 14 seconds! We were so thrilled! Other teams were having trouble with the group walking. Still others would do really well at the first challenge but fall far behind on the football throwing part.

Two teams were on the course at one time, but we were really competing against the clock. Other teams, of course, had faster times, but we didn't care -- it was fun!

Then on Friday morning I had a workout at 8:00 a.m. with a different trainer (mine was out of town) so I told him to have me do the exercises he normally does with his clients just to give me a change of pace. It was a lot of fun! It was some of the same things I've done with my trainer, but usually with a slightly different twist.

After the workout I went home (Ed had come along and done his 60 minutes of cardio while I did my workout). Ed showered and I got laundry together. Then we had to leave for an appointment with the pastor at my church.

When we finished talking with the pastor, I went in to work at the stationery shop. I needed to come in early because we were backed up on the printing. So, I worked until 6:00 p.m., then we went home and vegged out for the rest of the evening. I was in bed by 10:00 p.m.

I've done a bit of knitting but not much. It's been really crazy.

Hugs from Me!

Because I really need a laugh today. . .

My husband and I divorced over religious differences. He thought he was God and I didn't.

I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.

Some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.

I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.

Don't take life too seriously; no one gets out alive.

You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me.

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.

I'm not a complete idiot. Some parts are just missing.

Ever get the feeling your stuff strutted off without you?

Out of my mind… Back in five minutes.

NyQuil, the stuffy, sneezy, why-the-heck-is-the-room-spinning Medicine.

God must love stupid people; He made so many.

The gene pool could use a little chlorine.

Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.

Being "over the hill" is much better than being under it!

Wrinkled Was Not One of the Things I Wanted to Be When I Grew up.

Procrastinate Now!

If you mated a Bulldog and a Shitzu would it be called Bullshit?

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.

Stupidity is not a handicap. Park elsewhere!

They call it PMS because Mad Cow Disease was already taken.

He who dies with the most toys is nonetheless DEAD.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory.

Ham and eggs? A day's work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig.

The trouble with life is there's no background music.

The original point and click interface was a Smith & Wesson.

Some people are like Slinkies – Not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.

Slogging Through the Snow

OK, so we get 2" - 4" of snow overnight. The major streets and thoroughfares are snow-packed and it's nearly impossible to see the lanes. It's still snowing. Schools are canceled, but work is still on.

Honestly -- I called the weather line for my full-time job at 4:30 a.m., at 5:00 a.m., at 5:30 a.m., and at 6:00 a.m. No change. In fact, they hadn't even updated it from yesterday (when, at 5:33 a.m., they announced the base was open as usual). So I got myself together and crawled along at half a snail's pace to the office. it took twice as long. I got in the door around 7:20 a.m., only to discover that at 7:10 the announcement was finally made that we wouldn't be opening until 10:00 a.m. (a 2.5 hour delay).

Man, somebody needs to be smacked around big time for that stupid-a$$ decision!

Part of the trouble is that the general or commander or whoever that makes the decision for a delay lives on the base. That's right: He/She doesn't have to travel 15 miles on snowpacked I-80 to get to the office.

On top of that, the dog was up four times through the night. I called the vet with two words: Rhino Tranquilizer. I don't know that they'll go for it, but I understand they're coming up with something a little stronger than the doggie Prozac they'd given us earlier. Oh, I hope something works! I've been awake and crabby since about 3:30 a.m.

Lost Weekend

I had Friday a.m. off from my full-time job to make the rounds of doctors, only to gain at least two more appointments for next week. Oh, joy. I was diagnosed with trochanteric bursitis in my right hip, so I got a hefty injection of cortisone which I'm hoping will have the lovely side effect of clearing up my psoriasis, too. :)

I worked Friday afternoon at the stationery shop, then went to my workout (yes, you can have a decent workout even if you have bursitis), and then I collapsed at home with my wonderful husband. We snuggled up in bed -- well, for a little while since Charka dog decided to wake around 11:00 p.m. to go outside.

When I woke on Saturday morning I was certain it was Sunday, so I was running around trying to get my gym bag put together with my swimming suit and, for later, church clothes. Then I remembered what day it was and calmed down. I spent Saturday morning photographing my socks for Knitty (it's amazing how many interesting people you meet when you're sitting on your coat outdoors with your be-stockinged feet up against a marble wall so you can photograph them), then met Lorna, Mary, and Linda for sit and knit at Borders. Fortunately, I'd been in the Old Market, so I stopped at Délice for some petit fours and chocolate-dipped strawberries. Unfortunately, I had a sinus-migraine brewing so I left at 1:00 p.m. when it got to be too much. So, I put on a heating pad at home and slept the afternoon away. That evening I did a little knitting and did a little bit of laundry.

Sunday I met my friend Richard at the gym for water aerobics (OK, we just walk back and forth in the lanes, but we pump our arms really hard), then got myself dressed and spruced up for church. It was membership Sunday and I joined, which was a nice feeling -- not just of belonging, but of finding a church community that has the same values as I have (inclusiveness, non-discrimination, caring, reaching out, etc.). But, when I returned home, I was really tired again. Ed and I slept until about 7:00 p.m.

So, little was accomplished in terms of getting things done around the house or even getting knitting done, but it was fun and relaxing in so many other ways.

Still slogging away at it!

For a good time . . .

Go Here. You don't even have to know math or anything to get this stuff!

From the I.T. Department . . .

01. When you call us to have your computer moved, be sure to leave it buried under half a ton of postcards, baby pictures, stuffed animals, dried flowers, bowling trophies and children's art. We don't have a life, and we find it deeply moving to catch a fleeting glimpse of yours.

02. Don't write anything down. Ever. We can play back the error messages from here.

03. When an I.T. person says he's coming right over, go for coffee. That way you won't be there when we need your password. It's nothing for us to remember 700 screen saver passwords.

04. When you call the help desk, state what you want, not what's keeping you from getting it. We don't need to know that you can't get into your mail because your computer won't power on at all.

05. When I.T. support sends you an E-Mail with high importance, delete it at once. We're just testing.

06. When an I.T. person is eating lunch at his desk, walk right in and spill your guts right out. We exist only to serve.

07. Send urgent email all in uppercase. The mail server picks it up and flags it as a rush delivery.

08. When the photocopier doesn't work, call computer support. There's electronics in it.

09. When something's wrong with your home PC, dump it on an I.T. person's chair with no name, no phone number and no description of the problem. We love a puzzle.

10. When an I.T. person tells you that computer screens don't have cartridges in them, argue. We love a good argument.

11. When an I.T. person tells you that he'll be there shortly, reply in a scathing tone of voice: "And just how many weeks do you mean by shortly?" That motivates us.

12. When the printer won't print, re-send the job at least 20 times. Print jobs frequently get sucked into black holes.

13. When the printer still won't print after 20 tries, send the job to all 68 printers in the company. One of them is bound to work.

14. Don't learn the proper term for anything technical. We know exactly what you mean by "My thingy blew up".

15. Don't use on-line help. On-line help is for wimps.

Helmet Liners for Soldiers

Here's an important link for knitters who would like to make helmet liners for soldiers. I got this from the Mason Dixon blog. It will be a great use for washable wool in your stash.

What's Good in My Life

I promised a friend I would blog this and then refer to it regularly when I start the downward spiral into frustration and depression. Here goes:

I can knit and I have lots of yarn to knit with. I have enough yarn that I could probably go two years without buying any more. OK, maybe three years, but I don't think I could last that long. :) I also have lots of fun patterns and the ability to work them.

I can sew and I have lots of fabric to sew with. I have enough fabric to keep myself in decent clothing for quite a while (how long does clothing last?) and enough to make a quilt for each of my nine siblings. At the moment I'm working on a quilt with a simple four-patch design. The fabrics are reproductions from the quilt Jane Austen made (and that is on display at her home in England). The fabrics are featured in a lot of places. These are from Keepsake Quilting.

I have a good husband. He's not perfect, but he's perfect for me. He is my balance. He makes it possible for me to be me with all of my silly quirks and foibles and crazy creativity. He cooks. He runs the snow-blower over the driveway when necessary. He makes me laugh. He thinks of me.

I have a great dog. She is the first dog I've ever picked out from a puppy, and I love her to pieces. She is huggable and happy and hilarious.

I have three wonderful cats, and my favorite is the black one, Scratch, who I picked out at the Humane Society 15 years ago this August. He is so cuddly and he accepts me as if I'm just another big cat in the house. His fur is soft and plush. It is comforting to pet him.

I have a comfortable, spacious house.

....More good stuff later. I have to run off and do some other stuff.

A Blessing

I've discovered that the James Wright poem I'd wanted to add to the blog is copyrighted, but here's a link to it: A Blessing, by James Wright

It turns out it is one of his more popular poems. I'd not known that. I just remember one of my fellow students showing it to me one evening in the Dundee Dell (when it was still on Dodge Street at 50th) after poetry studio. I was in love with it immediately.

Silent Poetry Day - A few days late

I was unaware that Feb. 2nd was a day of blogging poetry, else I'd have posted something. I was looking around for a slender book of poetry by James Wright which has in it a lovely poem called "The Blessing." While I'm looking for that (still), I'll offer this one from my bachelor's thesis:

In Your Northwest Coast Dream

for DGL

The moon is a whale's belly
full of salmon, bobbing on waves
that curl and quail overhead. You wake,
pale as a shell on Shoalwater Bay.
Moss dribbles down the altar
where you hold communion with sand,
cup your hands for a chalice
and pray to be born
again a fish from the womb of creation,
pure as the dolphin's song
swelling under your cellist's bow.
You know the words, shape each one
as delicately as the slender stems
of trillium blooming in constellations
above you.

Only the tail of the moon
remains now slapping the tide, and so
with one step inland you return
to daylight. Where you walk, cloisters of cedar
stand watch, and the familiar face of Rainier
dissolves in the Pacific night. Under cover
of trees, relieved yet of flesh, you wait
one moment longer, warmed
by the steady breath of ferns
for earth to tell you your name.

And now, a few images to go with the poem:

(left) Northwest Coast depiction of salmon.


This is a picture of Shoalwater Bay in Oregon.
I visited the part in Washington state.


Trillium grandiflorum. It grows all over the northwest coast. If you pick them, they grow no more, so they are delicate in that sense. I like the way they look like stars.

Mt. Rainier

Yarn Porn

This just in from Blue Moon! More socks to come! (Well, I might be tempted to knit that thong from the red yarn, but the rest will definitely be socks.) From left: Covellite, Sun Stone, Downpour, and Lover's Leap. I was a little surprised at the intensity of color in Downpour (it looks more muted on the Blue Moon page), but I think it will be beautiful. The Lover's Leap (red) is the heavy weight; the others are medium weight. I was thinking of knitting mittens from the Lover's Leap, but I might knit socks after all. I love red socks.



This (at right) is the result of the gift cards I received at Christmas. Thank you, once again! Two skeins of La Luz silk in Cocoa Bean (it's buttery soft), three skeins of Noro's Hana Silk (2 in red, 1 in green), and two skeins of Misti Alpaca which incorporates the brown, red, and green from the others. I have no idea yet of what I'll knit, but it will be magnificent!



The long-awaited Interlacements Toasty Toes in Las Vegas Brights. I've been having fun already with this skein. It's wound into 2 balls and I've been knitting gauge swatches and trying out patterns, etc. It's similar to Fire on the Mountain from Blue Moon. I think I'll just knit it flat to enjoy all of the colors!

Farewell, Molly Ivins

Molly Ivins
August 30, 1944 — January 31, 2007

The first rule of holes: when you're in one, stop digging.

In Texas, we do not hold high expectations for the [governor's] office; it's mostly been occupied by crooks, dorks and the comatose.

I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn't actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle.

If he gets even more sedate, we will have to water him twice a week. [Molly Ivins about then-President Ronald Reagan]

If ignorance ever goes to $40 a barrel, I want drillin' rights on that man's head. [Molly Ivins on Dick Armey]

Last week, I began a sentence by saying, "If Bush had any imagination ..." and then I hit myself. Silly me.

As they say around the Texas Legislature, if you can't drink their whiskey, screw their women, take their money, and vote against 'em anyway, you don't belong in office.

Good thing we've still got politics in Texas - finest form of free entertainment ever invented.

It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America.