Saturday, April 30, 2016

Sorry, Chewy

As some of you know, we have been dealing, and are continuing to deal, with some very serious issues in our family.  Since this is a "public" space, and I am not the only person involved, I won't go into exactly what is happening, for the sake of privacy.  But blogging is likely to be sporadic for a bit.

Still, I have promised monthly reviews of products from Chewy.com, so, here we go for April:

This is Nature's Miracle Just for Cats Odor and Stain Remover.  For the very, very most part, my cats don't abandon their litter boxes.  But there have been accidents, and I wanted to see what this would do.  It is formulated for both floor and carpet, and I tried it on both.  It did a bang-up job of removing some spots on the kitchen floor: there was no sign of the "misses" when I was done.  On carpet, it worked very well on odor, but not so much the stain.  Fortunately, I'm talking about only a small spot on my hallway carpet, so the stain isn't that visible to others.  Out of 4 possibles (floor stain, floor odor, carpet stain, carpet odor), Nature's Miracle did quite well on 3.

Next was
Blue Buffalo Wilderness Chicken dog food.  The packaging is the same as the rolls of sausage I've never in my life been able to successfully and neatly open, so I was a wee bit intimidated.  But it opened easily, and sliced well, and, as soon as its odor got into the house, cats came running.  Lily, especially, could not get enough.  Rupert, depending on his attitude of the day, sometimes wolfed (no packaging pun intended there) down pieces, other times refused them immediately.  Overall, then, as food for my dog, I don't think it would work.  As a treat for him, yes.  And for the cats, definitely.

Each month, Chewy.com allows me to choose pet products to try and then review.  I put the products to real life tests, and then provide descriptions of those experiences here.  There is no monetary exchange whatsoever.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Color Prompt

Your next Blankapalooza square should be
THE COLOR OF YOUR BIRTHSTONE:

Friday, April 22, 2016

"Aaaaarrgghh," or "Ack," or Whatever Comic Strip Characters are Saying These Days

The wrap I've been test-knitting was claimed as a bed by one of the cats overnight.  (Rupert is in the clear, because he doesn't take the time to claw and tangle and wreck stitches like a cat.)

  The guilty feline made herself quite a little nest of what was becoming, very quickly, this:
The Piret Scarf, by my friend Kelli Slack.  Although I can't be sure, the yarn in this photo looks very much like the yarn I am/was using.  It vary subtly shades from grey through pewter to a silver, and they all sort of glisten, due to the tencel in the yarn.  I was enjoying making this, as there are written instructions --- I'm hopeless with charts.

I did that thing where you start unravelling very carefully, thinking, "Maybe I can save this," then move into, "I should be able to pick it up somewhere in here," to just all-out ripping.  And, maybe cursing.  There may have been cursing.

Thankfully, I have both an easy hat and a favorite cardigan on the needles, so  I can make progress with something.  But I'm going back to the Piret.  Don't doubt that for a second.  I'll just have to tighten up security a little.


Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Ten on Tuesday

This ToT is right in my wheelhouse, and looking at my friends' lists has been so much fun!  We've been asked to list ten of the albums we can listen to start to finish.  No skipping songs allowed.

1.  Main Course --- Bee Gees
My be-all and end-all album.

2.  Go For Broke --- Ian Matthews
I had never heard of him, but read a review of this album in Rolling Stone, and wanted to give it a chance.  I've gotten everything he's made since.

3.  Keeper of the Flame --- Delbert McClinton
Ah, Delbert.  You couln't have gotten any closer to perfection.

4.  Here at Last, Bee Gees Live
'Cause it's the Bee Gees.  And they're live.

5.  Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town --- Emmylou Harris
Some of her best vocal work on some genius lyrics.

6.  Graceland --- Paul Simon
The beats are good, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo a wonder, but the words to the songs are absolutely remarkable.

7.  A Wild and Crazy Guy --- Steve Martin
Still funny.  One of the best nights of my life was seeing him in person on this tour.

8.  Prisoner in Disguise --- Linda Ronstadt
If I could have anyone's singing voice, it would be hers.  And it does magic things on this record.

9.  EB 84 --- Everly Brothers
Speaking of voices. . .  I could put "The First in Line" on infinite replay.

10.  Backless --- Eric Clapton
It was hard to know which Clapton album to go with.  I almost went with No Reason to Cry, but this is better beginning to end.

Monday, April 18, 2016

Answering to Kathy

1. What's the most you would pay for a skein of sock yarn? 
Twenty dollars.  I like socks knit out of baby yarn just as well, and it is so much cheaper and longer-wearing.

2. What part of a pattern intimidates you? 
Any pattern that is charted only, I go right past.  Can't do the chart thing, which is peculiar, considering all those years I did counted cross-stitch from charts. . .

3. What is the most delicious thing you have eaten lately?
A Granny Smith apple with honey peanut butter.

4. If you had the grave misfortune of being in a fire, would you grab your stash or your FO's?
FOs.  They all have stories.  Things in the stash haven't happened yet.

5. What is a big compromise in one of your relationships?
(sshhhhh you can tell us!) 
Whenever my best friend, Lisa, and I go somewhere, whoever drives gives up the right to choose music to the passenger.

6. Do you bathe your pets?
Only Rupert.

7. Have you ever been bitten by your pet?
Yes.  A horror story. I had to surrender him to Animal Control, and lost sensation in my hand for 7+ months.

8. How do you deal with pooling colors?
Let them pool;  that's never bothered me.

9. Have you knit a Christmas or Holiday gift for 2016?
Nope.  Wedding gifts, though.

10. Do you enjoy Monday Memes?
You bet!

Sunday, April 17, 2016

What Dave Said

David Letterman used to say that he "wouldn't give [his] problems to a monkey on a rock."



The things going on in my life right now would have me knocking that monkey off that flippin' rock so fast, he wouldn't know what hit him.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Current Events

Big day in Athens.  It's G-Day (Spring scrimmage game), and Rosanne Cash is playing in town tonight, to which I have tickets.  As a matter of fact, the starting time for her show was moved, in order for the crush of football traffic to get gone.  (She's playing in a music hall on campus.)  Worth the wait.

Friday, April 15, 2016

Knitters, Start Your Needles

And the color of yarn you should use is one that
MATCHES YOUR MOOD TODAY.

If you don't have your own idea about what to work, this website can help.  Remember mood rings?
https://www.bestmoodrings.com/blog/mood-ring-color-chart-meanings

I, personally, am somewhere between orange and peridot green, according to that page.

This might help, too:



Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Q and A

Know who's a great-looking guy?  Mark Harmon.

The three colors of Lorna's Laces I found?  "Aqua," "Dusk," and "Sage."  I don't see the latter two on the website.  "Dusk" is a grey denim blue.  "Sage" is a silver green.

Did I tell you I'm test-knitting a shawl for a designer friend?  I'm not sure how "secret" things are supposed to be, but I'll wait a while to let you in on it.  I wound the yarn today --- it's tencel, which I've never knit with before, so it's an adventure all the way around.

Know who's a great-looking guy?  Nicolaj Coster-Waldau.
 Good-ness --- look at that forearm and hand.

Are all of you clear of the weird/unpleasant/dangerous weather now?  We've gotten a little rain tonight, after forecasts that called for significant rain Monday and yesterday.

Camille, you wanted to see the gnomes?
Left to right, you have Gnadine, Gnora and Gneville.

And my Harry's Hundred hat?
(Note Rupert's lower half to the left there.)  I really liked this yarn --- Paton's Kroy Sock --- and there is enough left to make a gnome!



Sunday, April 10, 2016

Like Finding Money in Your Pocket

I keep my cotton yarn in a wicker laundry basket.  When I was making all those dog toys, it was easier to have everything handy.  I dove into the basket this weekend to start on a wedding gift of dishcloths, towels, oven mitts, etc., and in the basket was (other than all the cotton):
3 baby hats --- which will be going to  Pine Ridge,
1 baby bib, which will also be heading that way,
3 of my little gnomes --- coincidentally, I've been wanting to make some more of them lately,
3 skeins of Lorna's Laces, obviously bought to make a tri-colored . . . something.

Oh, and there was also a pencil.

It made me feel accomplished, seeing things that I had made some amount of time ago.  Something I finished more recently --- yesterday, to be exact --- is the hat for Harry's Hundred I showed here the other day.  Another scarf will probably be next.  Or socks.  There are rumblings inside my Knitting Mind that are definitely pro-sock.

A wee bit chilly here this weekend;  snuggling became fashionable again:

Thursday, April 7, 2016

*Face Palm*

I've started another hat for Harry's Hundred, using sock yarn.  Casting on, and working the very first rows, this caught my eye:
STOP one color, START the next.  Usually the colors sort of flow into one another, right?  Nope --- "We're tired of the navy.  Start another color immediately."

And might I say (this could easily have gone in yesterday's post) that ribbing with sock yarn on #3 needles is incredibly boring.  It was 2 x 2;  1 x 1 would have had me snapping the needles in half.  In fact, I didn't even make the ribbing as deep as it was supposed to be, because it was getting very trying.

This is my life.  I have been in this house for five straight days, because there has been no energy or reason to go out.
Today, I dragged myself to the shower, put on make-up (!) and headed out before there was time to think twice about it.  And my car wouldn't start.  

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Don't You Just Hate That?

. . .Nearing completion of a project with a yarn that I am thoroughly enjoying, but I have no idea what it is.  It was bought at a LYS now out of business, and wound by them, but there are no labels in the wound skeins.  Don't people always put the labels in the wound skeins?  I want more and more of this yarn, but have no idea what it is!

. . .Was so stressed out by the oncoming season finale of "The Walking Dead" last week that I had to take extra anxiety medicine Sunday night.  Then they (the writers and producers) completely and totally LET.  ME.  DOWN.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan didn't let me down.  He was perfect.  But, writers and producers, really?






Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Every Week I Do This

I'm glad Kathy provides Monday memes.  This week's 
Ten on Tuesday was going to be a difficult task for me.


*Do you Listen to  or watch any Knit Podcasts?
No.  The only podcasts I've listened to are "Nightvale" and Ice T's "Final Level."

*Do you purchase pattern books now that you have Ravelry?
Not too many, but not because of Ravelry.  If I find a book that has enough pretty patterns to justify its price, I'll buy it. 

*Do you have a photo of yourself knitting? 
Several, actually.  My favorite shows me sitting in my Daddy's chair.

*Do you have a photo of a relative who has passed knitting or crocheting? 
It seems like there's one of my Grandma knitting, but I couldn't lay my hands on it right now.

*What is your favorite two color combination?
Black and gold.

*Have you ever had an injury that prevented you from knitting?
Sadly, yes.  My dog Finn attacked me last year, causing loss of sensation in my right hand.

*Do you know a man who loves to knit?
Not personally, no.

*Have you ever been asked to knit something for pay?
Yes, mainly baby things and hats.

*Have you knit with Quivet?
Yes.  I believe it was a blend of quivet and silk, maybe?  Or cashmere.  It was glorious, and impossibly out of my price range.

*Do you play the lottery and would you giveaway
yarns if you won?
I'm not a lottery player.  If I played and won, yarn would be behind a beach house on my Spending Priorities List.

And Your Next Blankapalooza Prompt Is. . .

Oh my goodness, I didn't publish this after I put it together.  SO sorry.


THE COLOR YOUR FAVORITE SONG BRINGS TO MIND


(Personally, this color is easy for me to think about, but may prove difficult to find amid my yarn.)

Happy Palooza-ing!

Saturday, April 2, 2016

My Go Bag

Before I had children, I carried purses.  Then came years of carrying diaper bags, and I just put any of my necessities in with the babies'.  That led to becoming accustomed to not carrying anything but my billfold and my keys.

When Briton's cat got sick, and I was making fairly regular nursing trips to his house, I put together a tote bag with knitting, a book to read --- things to pass the time.  It's a "Knit Happy" bag, which was very graciously given to me by Kathy:

In it are my knitting for this:
The 4-Way Vest from Patternfish, 

and this book:

There's a bottle of water, and I usually throw in a cold can of Dr Pepper.  My iPod, paper, pen, lip stick/balm, napkins, hand cream, something for headaches, and my phone and billfold if necessary.

What's in your Go Bag?

48

If you've ever rented a movie on Amazon Prime, you know you have 48 hours in which to watch it.  (By the way, why do we "watch"...