Friday, January 25, 2008

Unexpected gift

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Friday the mail man brought a package for me, and I recognized my mom's handwriting on the label. Mom and Dad are in Hawaii right now, and she had been emailing me about a lace scarf she was knitting. I kept asking to see progress pictures, but she didn't have the right cable to hook her camera to the computer. Imagine my surprise when I opened the package and found the scarf with a nice note inside thanking me for taking care of things at the house while they are gone! Isn't it beautiful?

It's knit from a yummy alpaca/silk blend. It'll be perfect for wearing in my office if I get cold (I do that a lot, you may have noticed!) I want to block it, because right now it kind of pulls back together and you can't see the pretty lace so well. I've never blocked lace before, though, so I'm not sure what I'm doing. I guess I'll have to use pins. Wires look like the way to go, but I don't have wires, so....

Oh, and my mom sent me the pattern in case you're interested:

Lacey Scarf

Size 6 needles. (7 sts/inch)

Cast On 38 sts.
Row 1 - Knit (this is the right side)
Row 2 - Purl.
Row 3 - K1, (*K2tog.) 3 times, (yo, K1) 6 times, (K2tog.) 3 times;
Repeat from * to last stitch, K1.
Row 4 - Purl.

Repeat Rows 1-4 until length required. Bind Off.

JiffNotes
Wish my mom could have sent some Hawaii sunshine with the scarf...

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Blogsicle

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It's too cold to blog.

You see, the computer is on the ground floor, and the thermostat is on the second floor. This may not sound that bad, but the computer is next to the garage in a room which, some day, shall be worthy of its official Lottloft designation: The Craft Cabana. For now, it's more like Interest Icebox. The garage door has no threshold, so cold air wafts in uninhibited, rendering the downstairs an arctic tundra. If you leave the door to the CC open, then the entire downstairs (CC and stairwell) are cold. If you keep the door to the CC closed, the CC itself is chilly and the stairwell is a reasonable facsimile of standing outside. My last post? Yeah, my fingers were stiff after finishing. So the choice: cold or colder? I choose to stay upstairs, where I can keep an eye on the thermometer I have stuck in the vent and continually complain about how the heat pump is not performing optimally.

The past few days it has been getting down to 17 or 19 F at night (about -8 C). In the daytime, it's around freezing. I mean, the point at which water freezes. For me personally, "freezing" usually means anything below about 60 F (15 C). Last Wednesday, it snowed. It was beautiful. Michael and I did not leave work soon enough to beat the traffic rush. Everyone in Atlanta leaves work at the same time as soon as they see flakes falling. If you haven't left by the time the front crosses the border into Georgia, you're screwed. Anyway, instead of languishing in traffic, we went to dinner. We had a lovely meal and a lovely view of the fluffy white flakes falling through the window, despite one of the servers snickering when we asked for a table by the window. "It's no big deal," I heard him snort as we went past. Well, actually, it is. It's gorgeous, it's fun to catch snowflakes on your tongue, and it makes you slow down a bit. If you're from somewhere where snow does not feel special when it happens, then I feel a little sorry for you. Because it's not special, but also because that probably means you're somewhere where it is freezing a lot of the time (by anyone's definition of the word).

Saturday, it snowed again. It was very cold again. On the way to my niece's wedding shower, I saw a penguin on the side of the road instead of the standard road-kill. Michael said it was another animal covered in snow, but I know what I saw. It was a fabulous trip, because my niece lives up in North Bumble (i.e., almost to Tennessee), and the shower was in a house with huge picture windows overlooking the woods. With the birds flitting in and out of the bird feeder in front of a vast panorama of snow-covered trees and white ground, it was...you know...nearly like a picture print by Currier & Ives. I got a great picture of my niece, my sister and me in front of the scene. We ran out onto the covered porch briefly to get the shot...this was only possible because I was encased in boots and a warm sweater.

I'd like to show you that beautiful picture. I'd also like to show you the one of our deck with snow falling on it. Or the pictures of Michael and I wallpapering our bedroom. In fact, I have the rest of the pictures from the Disney trip sorted, and I'm ready to finally finish the saga in one fell swoop. But, you know...those pictures are all on the computer. And, of course...

It's too cold to blog.

JiffNotes
Brrrrrr...

...and don't Google Map "North Bumble"...that's not a real place.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Oughta be in pictures

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Saw this on Terri's blog. How cool!! I picked pix that were illustrative of the answers, but that's not necessary.

Answer the questions and type your answer into Google images search. Post a photo from the FIRST results page. (this can be tough!!)

Age you will be on your next birthday?


Place you would like to visit?


One of your favorite places?


Your favorite object?


Your favorite food?


Your favorite animal?


Your favorite color?


Name of a past pet?


Where you live?


First grade teacher’s last name?


Middle name?


A bad habit of yours?


Favorite flower?


Favorite Holiday?


JiffNotes
Looks a lot like Heather...

Friday, January 18, 2008

What jury duty is good for

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Aparently, finishing about half a foot of a sock.

I didn't get selected for a jury, by the way. I didn't even get put on a panel of potential jurors, and my county has a "One Day, One Trial" policy, so I didn't have to go back the next day. The only kind of sad thing was that I missed the first day in my company's brand-new offices (jury duty was Dec. 10...why, yes, I am behind! And, yes, I did just graft the toe.). Oh, well. Everyone was just as confused the second day in the office!!

JiffNotes
Civic duty = sock

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Search Check

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Here's an update on what random visitors to my blog have been looking for lately:
  • needlepoint pattern geek

    Dude, no idea what you were looking for, but while searching I found this: Top 10 Geekiest Yarn Creations. OMG! Scroll bar scarf! Space Invaders socks! Which will I make first??

  • Knit Bracelets

    Yeah, I know, I've looked for them, too. The only decent ones I've seen (that aren't wire knitted) are at knitty here and here.

  • determinism versus Harry potter and the deathly hallows

    Whoah, nellie. I'm no philosopher. We have a lot more fun than that.

  • fly by the seat of your pants example

    I get this one rather a lot because of this post. And that's not a great example; it was just a catchy title. Here's what you want: phrases.org.uk

  • yarn "shop hop" atlanta...and variants

    The shop hop is a distant memory now, but the stash lives on.

  • the golden flower movie, needle work

    This is amazing, since this search hit from me just mentioning in passing that we watched the movie.

  • game ceiling animal fruit arcade play elevator (blob OR slime) -snes -nes -flash -"play free" -tire -nail

    Dude. I have no idea what you were searching for, but I'd really like to.

  • berrocco+patterns

    Really, now. What are you doing using a search engine? Their site has a TON!

  • the bourne {identity, supremacy, ultimatum} cliff notes...and variants

    This kind of fascinates me. Because, now that I've read Identity and Supremacy and am starting Ultimatum, I can tell you that the plots of the books are wildly different than the movie plots. Identity starts with Bourne being hauled into a fishing boat, and he does go to a bank in Switzerland, but from there the plot takes off in a different direction. Sure, there is a Marie St. Jacques (although her character is completely different) and a Conklin and Abbott, but, for instance, Conklin survives the book! No Nikki at all, which is kind of why I started reading the books. I was fascinated by her enigmatic, "You really don't remember, do you?" in the Ultimatum movie.

  • misti alpaca scarf pattern

    This really is the best scarf pattern ever. It's easy, fast, and creates a pretty, soft, very warm scarf from only one skein of yarn.

  • bumper cars whiffle ball and

    trigger mechanism dunk booth
    Whirly Ball!!!!

  • "the magic that is heather"

    *blush* OK, who was it?? 'Fess up!!

  • passions unbridled by morality and religion...and variants

    I get a lot of these. Here's the more complete quote.

  • i make one b on my report card and my parents get mad

    I feel you, dog. (Sorry...AI starts tonight. I can't help it.) I went through something similar, although just on my dad's end.

  • i hate earthlink

    I do, too.

  • nice looking legs...and variants

    I get this a lot, too, all because of one "cleverly" named post. I'm just surprised so many people click on it....

  • how you gain 5 star in gamertag

    You play on XBox Live. You make some people "preferred gamers". And you're not such a jerk that everyone "avoids" you.



Also, Julia asked a while ago where I got a sweater I had on at church. It's from LaRedoute.

JiffNotes
Julia, the sweater is from LaRedoute.

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