Waking up

I am asleep.  I know subconsciously the alarm has given its first battle cry and been rebuffed.  An extra 10 minutes of sleep is definitely anticipated.  My youngest dog Kayla sits at my head straining forward to reach me.  She flicks out her tongue, peppering me with fast light test licks.  There is a long hesitancy between each lick, but the touch itself is the briefest possible.  Almost as if she's testing the waters and doesn't want to go too far too fast.

The licks are pushing under my downturned cheek.  I lift my head slightly, releasing its weight but not yet severing its contact with the pillow.  Kayla uses this opportunity to shove her snout under my cheek and flip it up.  Under a hand this move indicates she wants more petting.  Oh, I was petting her.  I hadn't fully noticed.  I reach my hand back up to her head and she renews her licking at an increased speed.  Too much this early.  It stops momentarily and I peel open my eyes.  Kayla's mouth is fully extended in a tooth-baring yawn, so close to my face I can't quite see her front teeth.  Yes, definitely time to get up.  Those last few minutes of my snooze stolen by the shock of mentally processing my first image of the day.

Timestream

Time keeps passing and passing.  I'm being carried downstream not by my own power.  Thankfully I am safely afloat, worried more about holding on to the flotsam of pending tasks than scurrying around looking for a paddle.    As I swift my way along each day I see others casually tubing in the shallows.  Bumbling along, knowing they'll reach their destination without really caring how long it takes or if they end up weighted down by rocks.  I was a tuber until recently.  Amazing how quickly your attitude shifts once you step into the rapid current and the deeper part of the stream.  At least I'm not getting too drenched yet.

I have several items finished I need to post to Ravelry, but that means getting the photos off my Droid and onto my computer.  Hmm...hadn't thought to try posting directly from the droid, we'll have to see if Ravelry can handle it.  That would save one step at least.  I unravelled my extra big sock and need to try knitting it again.  I also cast on for a Koolhaas hat, which isn't so bad once you get used to the 2-st. cables.  Hmm...I wonder if the twist stitch trick would work for that so I don't have to take stitches off the needles for the cable.  But of course I can't stop knitting on my Clapotis right now.  Thankfully I can knit in meetings and no one is the wiser.  This morning's meeting was so long I also painted my toenails and fingernails.  I'd like to have some photos of things for you to see, but that goes back to having the time to take some and post them.  Soon hopefully!

What did we do without Ravelry?

I have a ball of Zauberball laceweight I got at MDSW that has been calling my name.  Purple, fuscia, orange - so not my normal colors!  It's 800m, which means it's not quite enough to go charging blindly down the lace shawl avenue without careful checking of required yardage.  I've been searching through my favorited shawls, trying to imagine what they'd look like with the long color repeat of the zauberball.  I also searched all projects made with this yarn, and lo and behold one of my top shawl contestants was made in the exact colorway I have!  And it looks terrible!  No offense to the creator, the knitting is lovely, but the color changing just doesn't work for me.  I had been imagining a triangular or semi-circular shawl, and after reviewing all the projects, I know I want something long and rectangular, to stretch the color blocks as far as possible.  Never in a million years would I have chosen this route left to my own devices.  I'm thinking about making a Clapotis.  It fits my shape requirements and I figure 16000 other knitters can't be wrong!  I just checked and it has been made more than any other pattern online - even higher than the baby surprise or Jaywalker socks.  Woah.

Sockonundrum

Dangit!  The purple and green turned out to be too similar in tone (or is it value?) when knit in the Lizard Sock leg pattern.  The chain pattern was totally lost.  So I went to the LYS since I know they have a small selection of Claudia's HandPaints yarn, hoping they would have something contrasting yet complimentary to use.  Actually I wanted 2 skeins of yarn to work with both the purple & green, so I would still have enough for pairs of socks.  ARGH!  I hate the LYS here!  They look like they have a lot, but when you dig in you realize how little selection they have.  Not much that would work at all :(  I finally whipped out my droid and opened Ravelry to scan through the completed projects to see what color combinations worked well.  I ended up with a soft silvery white to pair with the purple - I think it'll be purple lizard on silver background, unless I want to go for the moonlit lizard on a dark purple base.  Hmmm...I like the sound of that.  Or maybe do one of each for a negative effect?  The green was harder to match, knowing how variable the colors of it are.  I finally chose Ink, a dark dark warm color not quite black.  The green will obviously be the lizard.  I'm going to do the purple and silver ones first, and see how I feel when the project is done.

Sizing Note for all you with Lizard Socks in your queue:  The sizing for Europe vs. US doesn't match.  I wear a 40-41 Eur (9.5-10 US).  I decided to go with european sizing since the pattern is German.  I chose the Med. size but when I knit a swatch it wouldn't fit over my heel.  So maybe the US sizing is right (I would have knit a Large if going by US).  But it's worth the time to swatch for this one, since these socks have no stretch to them. 

Sock opinion needed!

I'm ready for yet another pair of socks.  They are going to be 2 color, variegated purple and variegated lime green from Claudia's Handpaint - the photo doesn't do it justice, the colors look really great together.  I have 3 patterns I'm trying to decide between, and need YOUR opinion!  Two of them are fairisle, something I'm happy knitting but have avoided in socks.  I was always concerned about the stretchiness of them, but there are so many stranded sock patterns it must be ok.  The third, Bolts, is fairisle only on top of the foot where the pattern is.  The yarn is carried inside the sock across the pattern area to the beginning of each round and twisted in, just like knitting a circular swatch flat.  If I do the bolts pattern I think I may flip the colors for the 2 socks.  The other 2 patterns will be purple background and green colorwork. Here are the 3 pics, and the Ravelry links with the name:

Meeresrauschen


















Bolts Socks

Lizard Socks












So what do you think?  Bolts was my original intention, but I favorited the other two also, and think they could be really cool.  Plus being fairisle they may not wear out and need darning quite as quickly.  But I really like all 3.  So, please let me know what you think, ask other people nearby which they like.  Also any opinions or tips about fairisle socks are welcome!

My first official trip

In preparation for my travels I splurged on several packing aids for carry-ons -- clothes envelopes, a universal charging amt for all my electronic gadgetry, a bag tether to hold my 2 bags together as one.  I also watched some videos on efficient business trip packing and was excited to try out what I learned.  I was very impressed how well everything fit in my bag, so well in fact that I was able to squish my pillow in too.  I'm so thankful to my chiropractor for recommending the contoured neck pillow to ease my neck/shoulder strain, but equally frustrated because now I can't bear to sleep on anything else.  So not only am I the twat at the airport with a laptop and 2 smartphones, but I'm also the tweed carrying a bed pillow too.  Still, I was really excited how easily everything fit in my bag.  Until I unpacked and really started thinking about the next few days.

Turns out I forgot to pack a few items.  Like shorts, pants, or any casual bottoms except for the capris I was wearing and running shorts.  I also forgot my pajimmyjams (PJs) and handknit wool bed socks.  This simply will not do.  I'm going to designate a pair of bedsocks for travel, and never take them out of my suitcase.  Luckily I found an awesome Lululemon yoga shop and got some new pants.  I had to get the regular length, since the talls were WAY too long for me.  I also got a beautiful purple tank top that I can wear without a bra.  Wow, I was so excited I rushed out of the dressing room to show the girl helping me.

On the flight up there was a 2 year old kid a row ahead of me who screamed nonstop from the moment she sat down until they opened the doors again.  Not cried, but that attention-seeking shriek that rattles the eardrums.  I kept expecting her to fall asleep from the sheer physical effort of yelling that long.  You could feel the tension throughout the cabin, and her mother didn't do anything to shush her.  I made up a story where the girl was on a game show and had to hit a certain unobtainably high frequency and volume in order to win the grand prize, and the continued screams were all attempts at winning.  It suddenly made the ordeal funny an somewhat sad, as she kept trying to hit that note but never succeeded.  At least it took away the frustration I felt towards her and her mother.

One last thing - what the hell is wrong with New Jersey roads?  When you pass signs that read "Left Turn Keep Right", what the hell is an out-of-stater supposed to do?  When all you want is to make a U turn and go back the way you came, why would you possibly think you should be in the rightmost lane instead of the left lane, and how in the name of Christ are you supposed ot get over 3 lanes of traffic at rush hour to make a right hand U turn at a light because YOU CAN'T TURN LEFT AT ANY STOPLIGHT??  There should be warnings about that plastered to the rental cars.  And the poor Garmin telling me it was recalculating was like that scene from Austin Powers:  Evacuation compl...comp...com...evacuation com..com...com...

Thirsty dog

It's been hot enough lately that I've avoided taking the dogs on pedestrian adventures.  That's what we say now - they've learned every other euphemism for walk we can think of.  They were really insistent yesterday about wanting to go out in the middle of the day.  I knew it was broiling, and both of them are black.  I wore my runner's Fuel Belt (water bottle belt), hoping if I gave them water during the walk they wouldn't fall over from heat exhaustion.  Windy refused to drink anything, I know she was scouting for open water to swim in to cool off.  I cupped my hand and squirted water into it to see if Kayla would lap it up (she always refuses to drink from travel bowls).  It worked ok, although was somewhat slimy for me.  After a minute like this I put the bottle to the side of her mouth and squeezed, fully expecting her to back away.  She kept up the lapping motion and no water came out of her mouth.  Cool!  My dog can drink from a squirt bottle.  Next water break I just held the bottle to her mouth and squeezed.  She drank 6 oz. of water straight.  The final time I held the bottle to her face and she turned her head so I could squeeze it into the spot she likes.  Hooray!  Now I just have to remember which bottles are hers, and which are mine during outings.