hand eye crafts

So how many of you were also up at 4:30 AM watching "Citizen Kane"? I didn't think so. 

Thanks to  Araignee  for reaching out and letting me know that she, too, is a circulars-flipper.  It really is all about comfort.  People whom I've taught to knit usually ask me how to hold the needles, and I always told them hold them so you're comfortable.  My maternal grandmother held each needle as if it were writing with a pencil.  That would never work for me. Meanwhile,  Jeni's Ice Cream  has just released a new set of five flavors, called Punk Stargonaut.  Naturally, I already have some, and this may be my favorite:   Yes, the name.  Yes, the color is wonderful.  There's just enough pucker tartness to make it delectable.  The poor, undernourished, wholly neglected puppy in the back there put his sad eyes into high gear and did get a taste.

One video.

My current cross-stitch project, using one needle: As you can see, I'm following in my Twinster's needletracks by stitching a bird in a branch.  The bird's plumage is the only bright color, so I'm doing the muteds and the neutrals first.

When you knit on circulars, is the right side of your work on the inside or the outside of your needles?  Mine is always on the inside. I'm not sure what that means, if anything, but there you go.

 Today would be my mother's 95th birthday.  As with all things numerical at this point in my life, this is hard to believe.  It's difficult to imagine what she'd be like at 95.  She was so very frail already when she died, I have a bit of an idea what she'd look like, but what would her personality be?  She was sort of ironclad as it was, so there might not have been much of a change. I often commented how people might look at my brown-eyed children (especially dark-haired Hannah) and wonder what they were doing with a blue-eyed mother.  Mama would say, "What about black-haired, brown-eyed me toting around blonde, blue-eyed you ?"

Can you believe I have begun an actual novel?  A real-life non-non-fiction book.  Did any of you have "1" in the over/under?  (Wisely, Twinster refused to enter that particular fray.)   And yet, even with a novel, I do not stray far. I've read two other Lincoln novels: Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (which I found surprisingly entertaining) and Lincoln in the Bardo (which was fully enthralling.)  The pollen has begun to fall here. There's a sweet, sticky, sickly smell with it that has yet to arrive, but it's early yet.  The pollen doesn't bother me except for the offense to my aesthetics.  I never even thought about, or experienced it, until we moved to Georgia.  None of the other places I've lived have this many pine trees, I suppose.  To all of you who do suffer, obviously do not come to see me, and I hope you make it through the season okay.