Progress and Not Progress

 Where to begin? So much has been happening, but I haven't had the urge to write about it. 

Let's start with the continuing Christmas knitting. I'm moving along on that long cowl. But I think I should have changed the pattern up and had a continuous K3 border. The stockinette is curling like crazy, as it is wont to do. 

This may work out well with the finished project, because if it curls up into an erzatz tube, and you "cowl" it by wrapping a couple times, it might make it even warmer. Who knows? It might work out. I'm getting to the darker grey now. It's miles and miles and miles of stockinette and so far, it feels nice and squishy. And it doesn't look too "dull." I was worried, from the picture, that it would be too neutral and too boring. But the colors "tweed" in areas and they're soft and pretty. 

I'm trying not to get a bad case of "start-itis" because I have a bunch of things to get accomplished and I don't want to get distracted. 

I still haven't gotten a clue about what to do with the other gradient cake. I have a few months, I think. 

Unless someone announces a baby. Then I'm screwed...

AOC & MTG...

I can't believe we have to say this, but one congress-critter shouldn't stalk and scream at another one... But here we are. #TheFormerGuy removed all semblence of courtesy and manners. MTG is a ginormous maskhole and a Q-conspiracy creep. She verbally harassed AOC in the halls of congress. Read the story here, if you haven't heard about this... 

I mean, I'm almost out of words. This blonde bimbo has been stripped of all her committees. Why is she still in congress? Who's pulling strings? 

With the ouster of Liz Cheney, the party is in deep water. What will they become? And why did they let loose the mastiff? I don't mean to be pejorative toward mastiffs. They're an ancient breed, and used to be ferocious dogs of war. 

Now that Liz is out, she doesn't give two farts about what the Q-conspiracy creeps want to say about her, and three farts less about what #TheFormerGuy has to say. So we have some theories. 

First, she's setting up a splinter party. This may or may not be good, but odds are, it means the Q-creeps will likely not win a national election unless they totally toss voting out the window...which they're pretty much working on right now. 

Second, she's setting up to be the 2024 "common sense candidate." After all the Q-creeps? She looks like the beacon of reason even though she's as conservative as they get. 

Third, she's Darth's daughter. There's no way there's no "long game" here. I'm not sure what it is, but there is one. 

And then on the Twitter, #TheFormerGuy has been quoted as saying that the "entire" Maricopa County database has been deleted. So that stupid 'fraudit' that's being conducted needs to be stopped. Dude needs to be arrested for multiple crimes, including inciting a riot. 

Now would be good. Sooner rather than later. 

The Maternity Ward...

In our bell tower and walkway area at church, there's a maternity ward going on. Two robin's nests and a morning dove, though it seems the dove babies have fledged already. 

The other day, my boss said, "Hey, one of the babies has been flapping his wings; they may be ready to fly." I didn't pay too much attention - I mean, yes, I was happy the birds were growing nicely. There were 2 more little ones in the other nest. 

The next day, we were walking into the church and she said, "Look, I can see them!" and something made me step back quickly as the biggest one flapped his wings, took off and let loose a barrage of bird crap, narrowly missing me - like seriously an inch or two from my shoes. Had I not moved quickly (I call them cat-like reflexes), I'd have been splooted with baby bird crap! BossLady thought this was hysterical. I was not amused. 

We did what we had to do, and then left. She wanted to check to see if The Pooper was back in the nest, and I noticed Mama with a MOUTHFUL of worms, glaring at us. 

She's been good (Mama, I mean); she hasn't dive-bombed us or appeared angry or anything. She's let us walk past the nest without freaking out. But she wanted to just feed the critters! 

I pointed out the very big lunch she had planned and we managed to leave her in relative peace; but I did get this picture. And BossLady is still worried about The Pooper, who didn't appear to be back in the nest. 

The Garden Progresses...

So we survived a snap freeze, and only lost a little bit of basil. One tomato plant looks slightly sketchy, but maybe it'll pull through. We've decided to yank the excess milkweed. I'm hoping that by keeping it to a reasonable amount, we don't get reinfested with those nasty red beetles. 

And I have sweet potatoes in the bag!! The little nub that I cut off the garnet sweet potato has finally poked through the ground. Hubby made the one spud that I had left into "fries" (oven fries, of course) and honestly - I ate the whole thing. They were delicious! (that little pink nubbin is the sweet potato plant - I'm soooooooooo excited!!!)

I'm going to be splitting the lilies of the valley this year; they're absolutely taking over, and I think I lost my white bleeding heart. Maybe I'll find it once I thin the lilies out. I also seem to have lost some hostas. 

For such an innocent-looking flower, those lilies are greedy buggers; they want ALL the flower bed. 

Random Picture...

A classic picot edging on a shawl. I don't know if I'm going to ever do that again.

It takes up a LOT of yarn! But I love the shawl; it's the Close to You shawl, and I do wear it often. 

I see this edge on sock cuffs; I figure it's a waste there. Why have it where you can't see it? 

For what it's worth, I also don't like lace on a sock instep. It's just me - I don't feel like it's comfortable on my feet. 

But I love it on a shawl, a scarf, a sweater, a sock leg...and on a baby blanket in moderation. 

What's your take on lace? 

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The System "Mostly" Works...

With back-to-back-to-back meetings on Friday, I didn't meet with my usual knitting peeps. Instead, I played a rousing game of "let's herd cats" with a diverse group of people who try to share the same mission but appear to now have vastly different views on how to accomplish that mission.

That being said, I was only subbing for the president of this group. Next year, I'm in charge. Thank goodness that this didn't happen while I was president of the other "herd of cats" - the women's group I've belonged to for about 10 - 12 years!! I don't think I could handle it. 

I may have to take up drinking or cussing. 

Essentially, we have a local organization that's faced with a lot of new challenges. Part of it comes from a change at the top of the organization, another part from a bad case of "Founder's Disease," and a final part comes from situations outside of the organization over which we have no control. 

I finally got mad enough to say, "It's this way. Change or die. We can either move forward and grow or we can take the key and toss it in the canal on our way out as we lock the door of this place." Needless to say, I got a sour-faced stink-eye from some of the Founder's Disease folks. 

Tough. In this particular time, moving forward and changing is imperative. Absolutely IMPERATIVE. We just can't sit and "do it the way we've always done it" -- that's the most prominent indicator of a bad case of Founder's Disease. This ailment is always fatal to an organization. Always. Both in the non-profit and for-profit sector. I've seen it happen.

Anyway, after that, I came home, made and drank about 4 cups of tea (not all at once) and just couldn't face anyone because I felt like a wrung-out washcloth. I needed tea, sympathy, my dogs and knitting. Not necessarily in that order. 

So I sat. And worked on this...

Knitting...

Kid #2's afghan is underway!! It was underway a while ago, but I screwed up the lace. (Note to self: STITCH MARKERS!!!) So I had to frog and re-set 249 stitches. Hey, it's an afghan.

Start of the ripple

The pattern is a lovely Ann Norling called Ripple to Knit & Crochet. You can find it at your LYS, or here at Jimmy Bean's - one of my favorite online shops! I'm using Caron's Simply Soft, which I wouldn't normally. But I figure that Kid #2, while he absolutely knows how to care for the nicer yarns, would be ok with the acrylic. The colors are an homage to his university. He picked them and I asked if he wanted great swaths of each or if he wanted tighter stripes. So every 2 pattern repeats, I will switch colors, ending with the grey. Fingers crossed, it'll all work out that way. It's "knit till it's long enough" so it should be fine. And I have scads of this yarn. 

What I like about this is that the pattern gives you size variations from crib size to afghan size. There are 2 styles of each, knit and crochet. The one is soooo similar to what my granny crocheted. One day I'll attempt that, in a baby blanket. 

The other thing is, there's a chart for each one so you can knit with yarn from 4 different gauges (from DK/Sport up to Chunky) and it gives you everything: how much to cast on, how much yardage... And the pattern I'm doing (Style 1 in the knitted version) is really easy to memorize.

Having said that, use stitch markers on the lace bits. Seriously. You don't need a life-line, but when, just say, your crazy-mad, puppy-brained Siberian Husky thinks she's invisible and tries to pull a Ninja move of ever-so-gently removing a grey skein from your bag while you are knitting with that skein, you might get a tad distracted... Stitch markers at least allow you to frog back to the last pattern repeat. 

If I'm not sick of it, I could potentially make a matching pillow. We shall see what's left. 

Yarn & Notebook

If you all recall (and you probably don't - that's ok), on my Ravelry page, I have a jewel-toned afghan that I did in Simply Soft. It's here - see "Baby Afghan" at the bottom. Or just go look for me at Riverknits520 (there's apparently another Riverknits there...) - anyhow, that one was crocheted, and I used the leftovers for some amazing baby hats (also on that project page). 

The yarn is nicely soft, drapes very gently and I just like the way it feels on the needles. I'll go ahead and block this, even though you know acrylic "is what it is" - just so perhaps the points and the y/o sections pop a bit. 

As always, I'm using a project notebook. And an index card, this time. I don't want to have to flip back and forth to check my pattern and row count. And for the life of me - I have 5 katcha-katchas and I can't use them! I keep forgetting where I put them and then when I do use them, I find it cumbersome. A great idea, but obviously not in my knitting wheelhouse. 

Oh - oh!! Handy Knitting Tip!!! I brought this to work today (It's a Saturday. I'm bored.) and I thought I'd forgotten said stitch markers.  Thinking fast, I realized that in our big supply cabinet, we had a small drawer full of rubber bands. Some of them were about the width of a dime, which would work!! Problem solved! And anyway - who can use a dime-width rubber band??? 

So if you have a project you're working on at lunch and you need stitch markers, rubber bands work nicely in a pinch. 

The System...

My system of "a project a day" is working sort of. Since I didn't meet up with the Peeps, I figured I'd just keep plowing away on Kid 2 Afghan. Thursday was technically Afghan day. Friday is Blue Baby Jacket. But I was on a roll. And today is "free choice" so I figured I'd just get a whack of it done, so that at least he sees progress. 

It was supposed to be done for high school graduation. Then he never left home through college. So now, it's "when you buy your house." Which hopefully will be this year or next. He's saving like a mad squirrel and we hope he finds what he wants. 

So while I deviated slightly, it seems to be working in that I can at least get a few hours on each project. And rotating keeps me from getting "Start-itis" and adding to my already-bursting WIP list. 

Random Picture...

Well, this will be a shorter entry, obviously. I was hoping to perhaps get a nice shot of some robins. My assistant came in on Thursday griping about how "at least 8 or 9 robins" decorated his car... So I figured our field next door ought to attract its usual number of the birds. But so far, nothing. And the weather report says that we will get more snow this week. Mother Nature is seriously annoyed with us for screwing with the climate!

Anyway, here's a shot that I particularly like. Mostly because I have a healthy sense of irony.

This was taken on the bus trip my mom and I went on. This one was on my camera, but I actually took one with the Big Camera and I entered it in a contest. Title? 

"Ironic."