These are trained and socialized bears who enjoy treats and who tolerate careful brushing during June and July when they are getting down to their summer coats in Vermont.

The yarn is smooth and a little scratchy, in case you were wondering. See the story at SmallTownPapers News Service for details.

[tags]bear yarn, knitting with bear hair, knitting with bear fur[/tags]

• busily setting up shop as a Girl Scout Troop Leader (Brownies, you rock!), and
• untangling this.

 What can I say? I like to untangle things. Necklaces. Yarn. Doesn’t matter. Hand me a mess and I’m happy as a clam. (It’s a sickness, really.) It’s the silkiest, softest royal blue boucle with a glamorous sheen to it, and it came free in a mountainously generous quantity from a blogging friend who just wanted to get the tangled nightmare out of her house. (I suspect it was taunting her, as it is starting to taunt me.)

It was actually *way* less tangled when she tendered it to me, but I’ve been poking around in it for several days now, draping it around my neck and patiently tugging and loosening on the knots. I’ve gradually picked out a few tiny balls of yarn. (I snipped it whenever it looked frayed, so I’m now up to about four blue balls of varying sizes. Heh-heh. Blue balls.)

In retaliation, it sits around and tangles itself up further at night.

It is now starting to piss me off, however; I will not be defeated by a fiber! I am starting to think dreamily about cutting the Gordian knot. But no. This skein is going on the edge of the sofa where I don it like a soft blue mule halter and pick out another inch or two of yarn whenever I watch TV. Mindless, yes. And I think I just may do a dance of victory when I’ve finished with this one!

[Update: Sad news. I was defeated after all. I gave up after hours and hours and hours of trying to untangle this. I was afraid my brain would start to resemble the tangles if I continued.]

In the no-other-news-to-report column, I took a silly little quiz about “What Kind of Yarn Are You?” And this is the thanks I get …

You are Dishcloth Cotton. You are a very hard worker, most at home when you’re at home. You are thrifty and seemingly born to clean. You are considered to be a Plain Jane, but you are too practical to notice.
What kind of yarn are you? … brought to you by Quizilla

Hey … A COTTON DISHCLOTH? C’mon … give a gal some hope!

[tags]untangled, tangled yarn, knitting quiz, knitblog, LoopyKnits.com, Carolyn Bahm[/tags]

I do love getting me a package. I couldn’t wait to tear into this one because I just *knew* what it would contain, and I was right. This was my reward for making one of the two winning logos for Cast On, Cast Off: Jennifer’s Knitting Dojo.

Thanks, Jenifer! As you can see, I got your two skeins of Noro Kochoran (my first-ever) in yesterday’s mail. Scrumptious! I love the smudges of teal, purple and cocoa throughout the light and dark gray yarn, and the little wisps of angora among the silk and wool make the yarn super-cuddly. If I sound like I’m squealing, that is an accurate guess!

I’m following Jenifer’s advice on a simple knitting pattern she provided to show off the yarn. I took a ball of the Noro to Caitlyn’s soccer practice and her game today and knitted inbetween cheers for the Fusions to win (a loss, but they played well). And here are the results so far. I’ve not made such an airy scarf before, but I like how it feels. I had to use size 11 needles instead of the 13s Jenifer recommended because I knit loosely, and I kind of liked dragging out this pair of my grandmother’s needles to make this too. I can already tell this one is going to whip out quickly. I’d forgotten how satisfying it is to make something on uber-large needles.

Cheers, everyone!

[tags]Noro Kochoran, lace knitting, knitblog, LoopyKnits.com, Carolyn Bahm[/tags]

I practically skipped out of the house this morning on my way to the local Tuesday Morning store to be the first in line for 50% discounts on Gefrida yarns. The only folks that beat me there were a handful of retirees, and I don’t begrudge them first place in line anyway. But when I finally popped through the doors and asked where the sale yarn was, they pointed me to the endcap of one aisle in the back of the store. About 25 skeins … weird colors … what, that’s IT?!

Yup.

As you can see, most were unfortunate color choices or low quantities. I did like the denim blue but there weren’t enough to make an ample-size sweater for me, and I’ve got enough scarves and hats to last me a lifetime. I passed.

Doesn’t look much like their ad, does it? (See the yarn photo I snipped from their ad, further down on this page.) I don’t expect fancy displays or the very best color selection when I go to a discount outlet store, really. But it would be nice to have enough of one color to make a garment … or at least a few nice yarn colors. Compare the above reality to the photo from their ad, below. Why would they feature yarn in their flier if they aren’t going to have enough on hand to make it worth the trip to the store? It’s misleading, as I told the sales clerk. (Nicely. I’m not a total jerk.)

So … instead of pouting like an infant, I shopped like an adult and bought a bedspread instead. ;o)

It’s nothing fancy. We’ll be repainting our bedroom in a year or two when we get finished with some of the other rooms, so I didn’t want to invest in something luxe. The only thing I could find to go with the currently way-too-perky pale orange sherbet walls was a white Egyptian cotton coverlet and pillow sham in a neat style (geometric pattern woven into fabric, with no fringe on the edge of the spread, which I hate anyway). Beats the heck out of the hand-me-down pink-and-blue striped bedspread we were using; at least now it looks like we’re trying to live like grownups instead of going with the “scavenged dorm room” decor. ;o)

And besides, it beats the heck out of the peculiar Gefrida yarns they had at Tuesday Morning — especially the chunky black yarn studded with tufts of orange and white. Yech. Hope you all had better luck with the yarn shopping!

[tags]Tuesday Morning store, yarn sale, misleading advertising, Gefrida yarns, knitblog, LoopyKnits.com, Carolyn Bahm[/tags]

I also picked up two skeins of hot pink Regia sock yarn in a wool/polyamide blend for my 6 Sox-Along project (finally), since I can’t find my two skeins of red (lurking somewhere in this house).

And also got another ball of Idena’s Mega ladder yarn; since I modified the width of the simple stole I was knitting, it came out a bit shorter than I wanted. I’m going to try to finish *that* one to wear out tomorrow for a dinner date with hubby.

Photos and decadent yarn fondling later — the dinner bell just rang at my house. ;o)

- Carolyn B.

[tags]Idena Mega, Misti Alpaca, Regia sock yarn, knitblog, LoopyKnits.com, Carolyn Bahm[/tags]

There’s no place like HOME! It was fun to visit San Antonio, but it was so good to get back to my kids, my pooch, and my peeps in general. (The hubby came up for the weekend or he’d have made the peeps list too.) It’s nice to be around people without having to tip them every few seconds. (Teenagers excepted.) Our tour included the Alamo, the Natural Bridge Caverns, the local mercado (market), Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and a visit to a highly rated local Tex-Mex restaurant (wherein I tasted my first dish of baby goat — yum).

And finally we get to the knitting contents of this posting: We of course made a stop at the Yarn Barn. Wow! What a selection! I was in awe just of their knitting needle selection alone, not to mention an entire aisle just of SOCK yarns. I went in and out of this largish shop in a blur due to our other plans for the day (”blur” meaning about 45 minutes when I wanted to stay there for 2-3 hours), but I fully intend to go back for an entire afternoon the next time I’m traveling nearby. The staff was nice and knowledgeable, with one staffer immediately noticing my dropped jaw and asking me if I needed help (I’m sure she was offering retail assistance, not mental health help … pretty sure, anyway). She then walked me toward the back of the shop to see the lovely selection of wool and cotton sock yarns.

You could probably get better prices online, but they seemed comparable to my local shops and it was nice for me, as a relatively novice knitter, to be able to squeeze and stroke the various yarns. I kept putting some skeins up to my face and sighing while my husband just sighed and found a comfortable place to stand with my purse. There were a good 10-12 patrons in there, happily doing needlepoint, crochet, and knitting as other shoppers puttered around. I think I and another gal had the only husbands in tow, though. And only mine was actually in the store. ;o)

As much as I love visiting the local yarn stores back home (I recently dropped the bucks for three projects at two of ‘em), I do so love being “unfaithful” to ‘em on those rare occasions when I’m out of town, too. It’s just nice to see what other knitters have available to them.

You see two future pairs of socks before you, of course. This is Cherry Tree Hill’s fingering-weight merino in Supersock Solids Purple and Supersock Champlain Sunset (such pretty colors they almost sparkle).

I didn’t make it to the nearby alpaca farm as I had hoped, but I managed to wear Texas-size blisters on my little toes by the end of the day, just the same. Those pinky toes were curled up little balls of screaming meat — and I was still happy, just the same. Caverns! Yarn! Historical site! Exciting new foods! Weird stuff at Ripley’s! Coolness! I’m struggling with my two-color stranding for my newest sock project, however. It kept me occupied during my downtime between events at my work division’s annual meeting. Busy knitting and then frogging, that is. I have no trouble at all holding one color yarn in the left hand and one in the right and knitting away. It feels very nifty and I think I’d like to knit an entire sweater like this. It’s definitely addictive. The problem is figuring out what to do about the color jogs. Either I’m not following the directions well or I need to find better references online. The only free advice I could find online about color jogs was in the Swirt pattern online at MagKnits; it’s Tip #1 on that page. But when I follow their brief directions, the main color intrudes on the row of secondary colors. I feel certain I’m missing something …

There’s also a “dealing with jogs” tip on this KeyWay.net page but it doesn’t seem helpful either, for my socks. (If anyone has some good online tutorials — especially with vidclips — I’d appreciate a comment with the info. Thanks! I’ve spent a bit much on my stash lately and am trying to avoid purchasing a book especially about Fair Isle knitting — at least for now.)

In the meantime, I’m anxiously awaiting tomorrow’s revelation about the new sock pattern for the August project of the Six Sox Knitalong that I recently joined. All we know so far is that it’s supposed to look best in a solid color, not even anything tweedy, and we need 100 grams of sockweight yarn. I’m reserving the new purple merino for this project and will begin looking for another cute sock pattern to try the spiffy colors of the Champlain on. (I saw a sock pattern that looked almost modular recently with little “scales” of different color streaks … I’m probably not describing this well … and have been desperately looking for that link ever since, darn it.)

Okay, that’s probably enough about my weekend! — Carolyn B.

[tags]San Antonio, Texas knitting, sock knitting, Yarn Barn, Cherry Tree Hill yarn, travel knitting, knitblog, LoopyKnits.com, Carolyn Bahm/tags]

But never fear. I’ve got yarn to entertain me too. I got to play with some new Debbie Bliss Cashmerino on the plane, and let me say that this woman was aptly named. Her yarns really ARE bliss! This is the softest stuff. I’m following a pattern for some relatively simple two-color stranding (my first foray into such) to make some cool socks for myself. Already, I’m entranced with the pettability of this yarn!

I’m also deeply in love with my newest toy, er — make that my newest NECESSITY, a TOOL, really — a new laptop for the first time in several years. It’s a 17-inch HP Pavilion zd8000 series. It’s hefty and more of a desktop replacement than an actual “portable” notebook, but it’s oh-so-me. Now if I were a rich woman, I’d also have one of those 2-pound ultraportables too, but I’m more than simply content with this baby. It’s so nice to have a laptop that no one has had before me … which belongs to me and not my company … and which has the latest operating system and no buggy problems. Heck, I didn’t really have much to say here today but I came a’blogging just to have an excuse to play. ;o)

So what’s San Antonio like, you might be asking? I’ll give you the quick answer. Not a clue, people. I came straight from the airport to a blessedly chilly hotel room which I’ve only left for a quick lunch. Now I’m resting for a while before we have our 5 p.m. general session and the 6 p.m. supper. Some fools, er, more energetic folks are already out shopping on the Riverwalk (a shop-lined canal next to our hotel). Not my idea of a good time, though!!! I dropped enough cash on the computer and some new duds for the trip, and it’s just too bloomin’ hot to go anyway right now anyway.

I think I must be going through some serious periomenopause, because I’m starting to experience some real sweating issues with even the lightest exertion. And if I get to a certain temperature, I have a hellacious long time cooling down. It’s dripping down my face, down the back of my neck, pouring down my cleavage, etc. My hair is wet everywhere but right on top of my head (an attractive look, don’t you think) — I look like I just came in from mowing the yard, I swear. I started sweating at home this morning when I was doing the last of my packing, and I don’t think I really stopped until I got in my hotel room (with the brief exception of some cool air on the jet). But all is well now. One thing you’ve gotta love about company-paid hotel stays: rooms that have their own thermostats.

Heh-heh, I’m going to see if it can actually make it to 55 degrees.

[tags]San Antonio, business trip, new computer, Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, travel knitting, periomenopause, sweating, knitblog, LoopyKnits.com, Carolyn Bahm[/tags]

Uh, no. There had to be at least 500-600 people there. (Shh, don’t tell the fire marshall.) Unless I wanted to stab someone (a few tempted me), knitting was clearly out. Man, it was packed! The last time I was jammed in somewhere with that many people dressed in quirky costumes, it was Mardi Gras in New Orleans and I had a drink in each hand and a couple more already in my belly. ;o) Much like Mardi Gras in N’awlins, it was an experience worth having. Once. Next year I plan to quietly order my book for home delivery.

Saturday morning, I jumped up faster than I normally do on the weekend and headed to the Memphis Agricenter’s Intergalactic Bead Show at 10 a.m. with other members of Memphis Stitch ‘N Bitch. Although I didn’t find the Miyuki beads I wanted for my NeedleBeetle stole (*sniffle*), I did enjoy prowling around among the tables. I couldn’t resist buying some cute beaded gifts for my girls.

Caitlyn got a tiny beaded butterfly in blue but she’s also coveting Ginny’s present — a little froggy.

For myself, I indulged in a 24-inch leather cord ($4) and a 34.25-gram lime-green gaspeite stone. Just $12 and already drilled and mounted to hang on the cord. I wore the darlin’ thing home.

Since I’d already enriched the Memphis retail environment enough in the last couple of days (Note to husband: *gulp* Just kidding, honey!), I skipped the lunch out with stitching gal-pals and headed home. (Also had that new HP book to read, doncha know.) Plus, to be *totally* honest, I really suck at my navigation abilities and didn’t trust myself to find the restaurant they were talking about, even though they were giving me directions any bonehead (other than me) could easily follow. (Sorry, ladies — I *hate* to admit how directionally blind I am.) I’ll find out the destination in advance next time so I can do a little pre-lunch visit to MapQuest. And if I’m really ‘fessing up, I was feeling a bit lonely for the dear hubby. I’ve had so many little stretches of “me” time lately with my hobbies and work that I’ve kind of neglected him. It was nice to have a long lunch and run a few errands with him and catch up on all our shelved conversations. ;o)

In actual knitting news, the shawl I’m hoping to take on my San Antonio trip on the 26th is progressing rapidly. It’s just plain stockinette stitch, knit loosely on giant size-15 needles. The only reason I’m not flying through it is that I don’t want to spear the middle of the ladder yarn with each stitch. Also, I’ve found that I need to stop in the middle of a row instead of at the end. When the gauge is this loose, it’s easy to overlook whether the next row is supposed to be knit or purl! Here are some snapshots of progress so far, including a closeup of the knit fabric. Because of how slippery this yarn is, I strongly suspect that I’ll have to tie off the end with either a knot (nah) or a discreet stitch or two or three with black thread (that’s more like it). I’ll add some fringe on the ends, too.

Isn’t it funny how mixing two yarns changes the fabric’s color so much?
This combo is the brainchild of a LYS, Rainbow Yarn and Fibres.

Ain’t it purty. I love the color flecks and the drape.

You can tell a little more from this closeup.

[tags]Harry Potter, Intergalactic Bead Show, ladder yarn, shawl knitting, beading, knitblog, LoopyKnits.com, Carolyn Bahm[/tags]

A friend was chatting over the cubicle wall to me, wanting to know what this whole “blogging” thing is about. I eventually hopped up with the intention of going to the other side to help her get set up on Blogger.com. (Probably not the helpful team spirit my boss wants me to exhibit, but what the hey. It’s Friday.) My feet got tangled in my headphone cord, and — once again losing my work/life balance — I plunged to the floor. First to my knees (MAJOR thud), then kind of slumping onto my butt with a secondary thud, a groan and a couple of choice words.

As co-workers scrambled to my area to see who had dropped a load of bricks or fallen dead in the aisle, they saw me on my ass. And, I’m sure, they thought, “Oh. Just Carolyn again.”

And although I laughed it off while my stinging knees were crying for mama, I was left to wonder, “Why the hell doesn’t something like this ever happen when there ISN’T an audience?”

On the upside, I didn’t tear my jeans. On the downside, I left a couple of layers of skin on the inside of the jeans’ knees. Here’s a picture of the boo-boos. I’m just hoping all evidence of this breezy elegance is gone by the time of my business trip on the 26th. Or will there be green bruises by then … never can tell. Breezy elegance abounds. (Update: As it turns out, the knees were not the worst of it. I had a purple bruise the size of a salad plate on one side of my fanny. And, since I fell with all my weight on just one hip, it was a huge spinal adjustment. Put a kink in my spine that took weeks of chiropractic visits to unsnarl. Whee.)

But enough about my natural grace. A bright spot in the day was my very first purchase of railroad/ladder yarn — it’s so pretty! Normally I prefer to focus on the pattern and use plainer yarn, but I liked the springy, drapey feel of this in the sample wrap that my LYS had on display. Plus, it knits up on size 15s, so it’s uber-quick. You use two strands at once, one of the red/pink Mega and one of the glittery black Dazzle. It may sound gaudy but it works wonderfully together for a subdued glow. I’m going to start it tonight while we’re sitting around a local bookstore tonight at one of the local Harry Potter parties. (Yes. I’m a book nerd TOO.)

And tomorrow, I head to the Intergalactic Bead Festival here in Memphis with other members of Memphis Stitch ‘N Bitch to see what we can see. Maybe I’ll pick up the glass beads for my Seaweed Stole.  FYI: I say “My Seaweed Stole” loosely — I haven’t even bought the pattern yet. It’s just one of those that I know I’ll make someday. So lovely with the zig-zaggy fringe. Completely impractical, but things you love seldom are. Check it out at Needle Beetle and see if you don’t agree. Go on; I’ll wait. (tapping toes) You loved it, didn’t you — I knew you would.

 So many pretty things to make … but so many UFOs to tackle first.

Ciao, folks! – Carolyn

[tags]breezy elegance, fall at work, ladder yarn, seaweed stole, knitblog, LoopyKnits.com, Carolyn Bahm[/tags]

As you’ll see from my notes below, I will *not* make this mistake again; I’m now a dedicated LYS-only yarn purchaser. I was so disappointed in the quality of this yarn! But am still making the socks anyway.

I decided to document my socksy travails with digital camera and this blog because I know it helps me to learn from others’ goofs. What I’ve learned from this has also helped me. Apparently, I’m suffering from undiagnosed ADD — how could I be inattentive so many times?

I’ve named this project the Gaudy Frog Socks for reasons that will soon become apparent as my “learning experiences” progress. Gaudy for the  yarn color. Frog for, eh, what I’ll be doing plenty of. (I have long ago accepted that my daily life is rather Lucy Ball-esque … I never know what the heck is going to happen next, and it’s usually something rather weird.)

It all started at the local Hobby Lobby and Hancock Fabrics stores, neither of which had any solid-color sportweight yarn with any wool contents. Of course. It’s hot enough outside that it feels as if the sun is kissing the surface of the Earth (92 degrees F. on Friday and 99 degrees on Monday, but who’s counting), so they have chosen to believe that their knitters only want acrylics and cottons. So I gave up on the two-color-stranding sock pattern I wanted to make in sportweight from my Betsy Lee McCarthy “Knit Socks!” book (dammit) and decided to just grab some ol’ faithful Magic Stripes.

So I get home and spread out all my gear and began with a set-up photo. And only then did I realize that the alternative pattern I’d chosen in this book called for WORSTED weight yarn. *smacking self in forehead* So I got online with a search for “perfect-fitting socks” because I remembered seeing a sock pattern calculator somewhere online previously. Heh-heh, I was ready for action again.

Only the bare essentials here, other than needles: Pattern onscreen, 1 of my 2 skeins of yarn, and (of course) chocolate.

First, I overcome my fear of the naked skein. I’m always tempted to just grab that oh-so-tempting thread on the outside of the skein; aren’t you? But since I don’t want the yarn to scamper all over the floor while I knit away, I dutifully felt around inside the skein for the “real” beginning of the center-pull skein.

Tickle, tickle.

I hate this part, because (1) I always feel a bit intrusive, like I’m going to run into some internal parts like a cervix in there (an overactive imagination has served me too well for many years), and (2) I inevitably pull out some critical internal part of the skein OTHER than the start of the yarn and create a big freakin’ tangle. Even when I’m relatively successful, I cringe when I pull out a big wad of what I’ve heard described as “yarn barf.”

Looks more like a little yarn umbilicus and a baby skein, doesn’t it?

This time wasn’t so bad, though. I’ve learned that it seems to work better if I twiddle both fingers around inside the holes at both ends of the skein for a bit until it just feels right, and then I yank. (It was sounding like another cervix hunt there for a second, at least on one of those two ends, until I got to that “yank” part, wasn’t it?)

So I really got started. I tend to knit loosely unless I’m tense, when I knit really tightly, so I’ve learned I really ought to swatch, and for more than just an inch or so. Plus, my only previous experience in sockdom was to laboriously create a lovely sock … that didn’t fit unless I was willing to have a heel-ectomy. So I swatched this time. It was immediately obvious that the size 4 DPNs recommended by the yarn’s belly-band label were too big for my loose knitting. Typical. See all that airiness? I don’t want that in a sock.

Bad swatch! Baaaaaaad swatch!

So I swatched again with size 3s. Still too airy.

Then I tried with size 2s. Or so I thought. It was only after I had completed a 24-stitch by 32-row swatch that I realized I had swatched with a size 2 needle in one hand and a size 3 in the other. At that point, I wanted to just stab the little bamboo sticks into my forehead and call it a day, but I’m nothing if not stubborn and foolish. So I frogged (again) and swatched (again).

The weird thing is that it yielded EXACTLY the same gauge. (Update: Uh, no, it didn’t. Funny how it’s easier to count the stitches in the photos than it was in person!)

Evil Swatch done on one Size 2 and one Size 3 DPNs

Evil Swatch on TWO Size 2 DPNs. Half a stitch difference (which I didn’t notice until I looked at the bloomin’ photos).

When I looked at the two swatches in person, I couldn’t see a difference and wondered if I had erred in thinking I used two different needle sizes the first time, or were the needle sizes so close that it didn’t affect the gauge? Or did I mysteriously compensate for it with my tension, with my telepathic knitter powers? Or do I just measure badly? Turns out after looking at the photos that I can confirm the diagnosis … I measure badly! And I didn’t include the photo here that reveals how I don’t lay the swatch out nice and square and flat. It was diamond-ish and not yet washed and blocked. Shh, don’t tell me; I can only stand so many learning experiences at a time.

But I’ve learned at least one thing from this experience. That I need to pay better attention because most of my mistakes seem to be from inattentiveness. And also that I need to invest in better quality materials if I’m going to spend this kind of time on a project, because I will inevitably be driven nuts by a glitch if I don’t pick it out and start over again.

So, back to the Gaudy Frog Socks. I commenced with the casting on late on Friday night … 96 stitches. Eh, what? That sounds more like an afghan panel. Sheesh. My calves aren’t ginormous, or not that I’ve noticed anyway, but that’s what this cuff-down pattern called for. (These are knee-length socks.) I got the first two inches done before I realized that … oops … the pattern said to knit ONE inch of 2X2 ribbing. Of course, I had read that as “TWO inches of 2X2 ribbing.” Must have been all those 2s elsewhere in the sentence.

The doomed first attempt.

Rather than tink 9 rows of 96 itty-bitty stitches per row, I just sighed and ripped it all out. It’s not a race, right? It’s the process, not the progress, right? Still, that ol’ stab to the forehead maneuver was starting to sound tempting again.

That’ll show you, yarn!

And I manfully began again. One completely mental aside for you here: Did you ever notice on the last stitch of casting on that it looks like a cross if you leave the second needle in there?

A knitter’s cross. Don’t know why I was so struck by this. Perhaps I’m thinking that this project needs more blessings than most!

So far, so good in my latest bout of knitting on this project; they are *very* colorful, which is what I wanted.

Not for the shy to wear.

I was disappointed in the feel of this yarn, though. My last purchase of the gray-blue-purple-white Magic Stripes was a good one; the yarn felt right. But this colorways feels kind of rough in the hand, and it looks like the dye didn’t penetrate very far into the yarn. And there are sloppy little spots of other colors spattered occasionally throughout (a bit of blue on the yellow, etc. — clearly mistakes). And the color is VERY uneven in the lime green and the pink parts of the yarn; it almost looks sprayed on rather than a dye that saturated the yarn. I’m reserving judgment but starting to really frown at this stuff. No more Lion Brand yarns … I should know this by now.

Then again, these socks are going to be so carnivaliciously colorful that I don’t think anyone will notice any minute color irregularities. ;o) I’ll keep reporting progress … if and when it occurs! My only goals for this weekend were to (1) finish painting my younger daughter’s room, (2) knit, (3) blog, (4) eat popsicles until the heat breaks or I run out of popsicles and have to dip into the fudgsicles, and (5) sleep really, really late each day. I might do some laundry over the next few days too, but only if I can’t successfully smother my conscience. I think I can hold that pillow down over its face, don’t you? (Update: I accomplished all goals except #1 and and #3 even made some progress toward #1. I also smothered the laundry urge, unfortunately!)

P.S. Here’s the reason I didn’t post this until Tuesday: I went to use my daughter’s computer on Saturday to download my digital photos, because my USB port is broken and I am trying to wait another three weeks until annual bonus time before I buy a new computer (the repair would require replacing the motherboard on this rickety old laptop). And while she’s gone to her dad’s house for two weeks, I see that she has shut down her computer. And password protected it.

Hmm. Her usual one didn’t work, so I clicked on the hint. It said, “god.” Well, what the hell? She told me just this week that she was beginning to believe she was not a Christian but “an atheist or that other one … whichever one means you believe in a higher power but think organized religion is kind a lot of baloney, and the Bible isn’t necessarily 100-percent true.”

Um, agnostic? She snapped her fingers, “Yeah, that!”

So I tried typing that — along with Jesus, God, ghod, Buddha, Jehovah, Yahweh, Lord, nobody, noone, and even damn (as in goddamn) and a few other word associations that sprang to mind, along with capitalization variations on all of these — but no dice.

So I grabbed my purse and headed out to buy a computer part. I headed to CompUSA, but for some reason found myself parked outside of OfficeMax a little while later. Temporary insanity, I guess. I was thinking of a science fiction story idea the whole time I was driving and just ended up in the wrong place. (I was not born to be a multi-tasker, but my brain keeps trying.) So THEN I go to CompUSA and buy a PCMCIA card with two USB ports. Ha-ha, foiled you, you wretched computer!

I got it home, and installation was a breeze. (Dance, dance, dance!) So … then I couldn’t find the cable that connects my camera to the computer. ARRRGH!!!!! I head to my office, where I assume I must have left it earlier this week, beside my computer. But it wasn’t there. On the way home, I remembered that I had changed purses earlier this week. And there the camera cable was, nestled among the purse grit at the bottom of my big summer straw purse. Grr. If I were not so used to myself, I would be really exasperated by this point.

By then, I was almost afraid to try hooking up the cable to the new USB ports to see if they work. (Insert a breathless pause here.) Okay. I tried. And it doesn’t.

So … now it’s Tuesday, I’m back at work where USB ports work and bosses don’t look over your shoulder even during a late lunchtime. And I’m uploading these photos, baby!

Update on the knitting: I got 10 rows into the increases before I decided I disliked the paired increases I’d used on the calf. So I tinked back to where the increases started and did ‘em again. Much prettier (invisible) the second time around, thanks to one of my reference books’ clear instructions. After 11 rows of straight stockinette, I commenced on the decreases toward the ankle. And now I don’t like them, either. These are “paired” decreases … and apparently you need to leave a stitch or two between them because it just looks gappy between them when you’ve got a left-leaning decrease butting up next to a right-leaning decrease. So I’m tinking out another 10 rows or so (*groan*) tonight. With all this quest for perfection, I’m investing in better yarn next time! ;o)

[tags]Lion Brand, Magic Stripes, sock knitting, sock pattern generator, Gaudy Frog Socks, yarn barf, yarn umbilicus, gauge, swatching, knit tension, knitter’s cross, knitblog, LoopyKnits.com, Carolyn Bahm[/tags]