After I had forgotten my office keys and had to go back home.
Anyway, I bring chocolate almond milk to work, to use as a base for a protein shake. I made my shake, had my breakfast and then thought about a cup of tea. The cup was in the kitchen area, so I figured I'd take the mixer bottle and the milk bottle to the back to wash them. I did that.
I set the milk bottle on the drain pad, and as I did so, I thought, "Hmmmmm. Not very stable." And by the time "stable" came into my head, the glass crashed to the floor.
This is after I'd dropped a stoneware saucer on the floor in the kitchen last night, but at least that didn't break.
Shattered glass. Flew all over the place.
Mind you, I'm on a really strong blood-thinner and I'm by myself in the mornings. I wasn't quite sure how to pick this all up without cutting myself. And I found that our building doesn't have a dustpan. Hmmmm.
Anyway, this is how you spend a little over 1/2 hour picking up glass when you're scared witless of cutting yourself: get the broom, grab a snow shovel (hey - use what you have, right?) and then a couple of fairly large wads of wet paper towels. I swept up everything, even the carpeted area. Then I got the snow shovel to use as a dustpan. For the remaining little teeny bits of glass, I wadded up paper towels and wet them slightly. That enabled them to grip the nearly invisible shards. All of it went into the snow shovel. All of that went into a garbage bag. Which went into another garbage bag. Which all went into the dumpster.
I liked that bottle. It was the perfect size for me to bring to work.
Yep. Full moon on the 8th. It's about time...
Knitting...
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| Baby layette |
Now to get cracking on the blanket. I figure if nothing else, I ship the clothing items to Mommy and I can get the blanket done for Christmas. But it's still early days; I can do it, I think. I'll still alternate with socks, because the cotton can be hard on the hands.
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| Note the adorable buttons! |
Remember, this is a newborn size - I think the neck is a bit small, so that's why I moved the buttons down anyway.
Regardless, this is part of an Ann Norling set that I bought when Sonda closed the shop, and I would easily do again. But not in cotton. The entire set encompasses a hat, blanket, booties and sweater, much like the one I originally started with, but the hat is a "helmet" type, with ties for under the chin. Definitely a go in a superwash wool or wool/acrylic blend. The hat and blanket are in a large basketweave pattern and I think it's a tad clunky - at least for the hat. But it's a baby. Not Vogue.
The link takes you to Jimmy Beans Wool. I thought that there was an individual site, but apparently not. The patterns are really nice. I'm using her ripple pattern for Kid #2's afghan.
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| Eye of Partridge heel in progress |
Still really digging the Lorna's Laces yarn. I'm now questioning, however, whether casting on 72 is a good idea. I mean, my cuff's going to hold up no matter what I do. It's two different ribbing patterns and it's nice and snug. But the leg looks a bit big. Now, this is wool with about 10% nylon, so perhaps it'll shrink a tad, but it will be a good test sock for this yarn.
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| Overview of St. Charles colorway |
So what will I do for my next pair? Someone asked how you pick your socks. I have my yarn in totes, and I think I'll just reach in and grab one. Then I can decide about the pattern. My goal is to try to get 7 pairs done this year, so that I can theoretically have a pair a day.
I'm up to 5 pair, so we're going along well. Note, though, that only 2 of those 5 were done this year. The Robin's Nest MadTosh were done last year. I have 2 Opals that were done this year.
Yesterday, at the Will-Grundy Medical Clinic 5K Blood Run, I was on the registration table. It was FREEZING.
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| Hiking socks |
So of course, I wore stuff I'd made. My knitted hiking socks; my crocheted ruffle scarf (I could have used the heavier one) and Sonda's hand-dyed hat (could've used the heavier one here, too). One of the gals took the hat and examined it, declaring it "almost machine-made" -- not sure if that's a compliment or not, right?
I guess to a non-knitter, if your tension is good, it's "like machine made" - so I'll take it as the compliment I think she was aiming for.
I got home and was still bone-cold. And stiff as a board. I did not, for the record, wear the Birks you see in the picture. I had on thicker shoes! It was a few hours of multiple cups of tea before I felt like I could move without feeling like I was hit by a 2x4. Between the cold temps, the harsh wind, and standing on concrete, it was almost inevitable. The runners, by the way, were fine.
Maybe my next pair SHOULD be the companions to the hiking socks above. I have enough of that purple Cascade 220 (100% Peruvian wool) to add to the lovely sky blue I bought with a plan in mind - making contrasting heels & toes. It's knitted on size 3 DPNs, so it makes a nice sturdy sock. As long as your Hubby doesn't try to felt them in the wash!
On The Way...
We live next to a town which is essentially bisected by a river. That river splits the west side of town from the east side. And crossing over is generally an adventure because the river has a high number of barges shuffling cargo here and there. It's great; the barges carrying goods all over and the tug boats doing their thing. Fascinating to watch. Till you get caught by a bridge. We call it "Bridge Roulette" and some days you can beat the barge. Some days, not so much.
Yesterday at 7 a.m. was a "not so much" day. The bridges are drawbridges. Modern feats of engineering, and of course, when one is out for repair, it screws up the entire traffic flow. As you can see by this dashboard picture, the counterweight is a massive block of concrete.
We're very strict about our bridges, and you'd be insane to try to beat the bridge if the light at the crossbars is already yellow. Which it was yesterday. I had already seen that the Ruby Street bridge was up, so I scooted (in plenty of time, I thought) to Bridge Street. Just as I got to where I thought "Whew," the light turned yellow.
Nope. Not gonna risk it. Luckily, the tug was shoving 2 big barges, and it was moving along at a good clip. It was about 10 or 12 minutes from raising to lowering, which is a good thing.
What bugs me is when they raise it for a sail boat or larger boat where the mast of the boat comes no where NEAR the bottom of the bridge deck!! That's annoying, but that's living in a river town, I guess.
The Garden is Done...
The carrots are in. There were a lot of them. And no, I did not take a picture of what Hubby called "the anatomically correct male carrot." We thought about what to do and came up with freezing most of them. I have a bag of them in the fridge to scrape over salads or add to a soup, but the majority are in the vac-bags for later use. Kid #2 already requested at least 1 bag. He's a big soup-maker and he says "your garden carrots ROCK!" So how can I resist that, right?
We took out everything, and all the paraphernalia is stashed in the shed for next year. Not sure what we'll plant. Tomatoes didn't do much this year, though they were better than last. You know the pickles went gangbusters. The carrots went well, I think. And so did the lettuce, though it seemed to come all at once. Perhaps next year we plant a couple of rows, wait till that's done then do another 2 rows. That might make it easier to deal with.
We will definitely NOT plant pickle cukes next year. But maybe 2 plants of salad cukes would be good. We got 10 bags of carrots for the freezer. I will definitely use this in soup and of course glazed carrots.
The whole ones will be used as roasting carrots. I usually make a roasted medley for Thanksgiving, so these will be perfect with the parsnips, Brussels sprouts and other stuff I usually toss in there.
I have to put a plug in -- if you have never grown your own carrots, you really need to do so. The flavor is amazing.
Actually, it's amazing because they HAVE flavor. Once you grow your own, you'll notice that the bagged ones in the stores taste like... well, nothing. Really.
And for juicing? Apple + carrot juice with a bit of fresh ginger and lemon? Wowza. A treat for the tastebuds.
Mini-Rant...
Hubby saw a post from a high school friend which blamed President Obama for the Ebola virus coming to Texas. I reminded him that it's likely some of those friends are rather close-minded and stupid. He didn't even answer the post, because how do you counter that deeply-rooted idiocy?
Anyway, on the way in to the office today, I briefly listened to the Stephanie Miller show. I love her, but I'm on a "no progressive radio" thing lately.
I'm so appalled at the negative and obviously misleading (and slanderous) commercials by conservatives. They are completely re-writing history and their followers are swallowing this crap hook, line, and sinker.
For example, in Louisiana, Mary Landrieu is running again. She's a pro-gun Democrat. Yet the conservatives there say, "Mary voted for MORE GUN REGULATION." No. She didn't. It's in the Congressional Record, people. Use your internet for more than stalking celebrities. Try using your brain and doing some research before swallowing wholly-made up "facts" shoved at you by politicians who've been bought by special-interest groups.
She actually voted merely for expanded background checks in the wake of the Newtown shooting. But yeppers - the Conservatives are calling her an "anti-gun" politician who's right there with Obama to "come get your guns." (Which, by the way, hasn't actually happened, but who's gonna let a good lie get away?)
And yesterday I was waiting for a movie, so I thought I'd watch Bill Moyers. Check out the full show on his website and listen to how President Obama and Mr. Holder actually did screw us over by not going after the bankers. Just the banks, who can then write off the "fines" as a "cost of doing business."
Made my blood boil. While President Obama has done a lot of good (in spite of what you'll hear on FixedNews(?) Network), he's disappointed a lot of us who consider ourselves liberal progressives.
But he's still better than "Bomb, bomb, bomb" McClain and Poopsie "Moosewoman" Palin.
Random Picture...
This is Tippi yesterday afternoon. I tried to get her first pose, which was with her head flattened between her paws. She can sense when I'm moving, I swear. This was her reaction to my putting the camera on the floor. "Really?" She briefly opened her eyes and then figured that if she shut them, the flash wouldn't disrupt her nap.
She and I attended the Take Back the Night event as visitors to the Will County Children's Advocacy Center where she does some part-time therapy work.
Of course, her personality and furry grey presence captivated people. It always does. Many people asked what she was there for, and how they get involved.
And many more just wanted to pet her. She was charming and she found the one air conditioning vent on "full blast" so she could lay on the floor in comfort.
As long as I know I'm just her driver... all's right in her world.
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