Some things I've seen in Orlando

Aside from all the (other) drivers who are *CLEARLY* tourists, I saw this stretch Hummer on my way to the hotel yesterday.



I went to Carmela's for dinner tonight. It was established in Brooklyn, NY, so it's not Orlando-local, but it was pretty tasty brick oven pizza. As I was getting ready to leave, I happened to look at the seat next to me and saw this.



Look carefully. How long do you think the girl in short jean shorts had to sit there to get the impression of her butt to stay in the vinyl?? Spooky.

And if that wasn't strange/creepy enough, I saw this at the local Walgreen's:



That would be a whole rack full of real gator heads. The tags on them said they're the by-product of the alligator farming industry. I'm not sure if that's farming for meat or the skin. Either way, would you really want one of these in your house??

Sorry, no cat picture this time, since I'm not home to take pictures of them. Maybe John will send me one later.

Not much progress

John decided against having surgery on his hand. The doctor said he'd still have full functionality if he just went with the cast. John's not a hand model and doesn't care if his fist is a little crooked.

I haven't done much crafty stuff this week. I helped the girls at quilt night make small project bags like my red one. While they were working on those, I did this:



That's 136 2-1/2" squares and 88 2.5" x 6.5" strips of neutral fabrics, plus a few random strips of dark fabric for the Sister's Choice class I'll be taking next month when Bonnie Hunter is in town. I need 288 of each size of the neutrals, plus 576 2.5" squares of purple, and assorted strips of dark and mediums/lights for the 9-patch centers.

I'm flying to Orlando tomorrow for some work-related training. I will be starting a new sock for the plane ride, since my preferred sock project is on metal needles. I'm afraid the TSA folks will take them, even though knitting needles are allowed, per their web site. I have the new sock cast on, but not joined. I'll do that tonight before I get packed.

Hopefully, I'll be able to share some progress while I'm gone. I'm going to try to go to a sit & knit on Tuesday.

Requisite (if a bit blurry) cat picture:


"Mama, we're too cute for you to leave us!"

It just keeps getting better.....

So much for the second half of 2009 being an improvement over the first half. I was at the grocery store yesterday just before 6, and John called and said he needed to go to the ER. I left my half-full grocery cart with a store employee and rushed home. He broke the 5th metacarpal (ie, the bone in his hand under his pinky finger), though he swears it was self-defense. Apparently, the table provoked him. :) He has an appt with my orthopedic group to decide if he needs to have a pin put in it. Sigh....

On the plus side, I got some work done on my socks while we were at the ER.



I'm sure I'll get more done later this week if he has to have surgery.

I had a request to see my "Harry Potter scar". Since I aim to please, here you go:



I waited till it wasn't scabby anymore, it's a bit blurry, and the flash kind of disguises the top part of the scar. You're welcome. :) The redness on the left of my foot is a rash I got from a bandage I put on it.

I finished the binding on that baby quilt today. Here's the finished product:



The back is a piece of fleece from my stash that's almost exactly the same color as the binding. What are the odds?

A friend of mine made this cute little drawstring bag for me.



Her DH has been chronically ill, so she spends a lot of time in waiting rooms, too. She gave me the pattern for it, too. We've decided if it was knit a bit shorter, it would make a really cute baby hat.

In other news, guess who sneaked into the bathroom and got locked in while I was at work all day on Friday?


"Sorry about the 'present' in the bathtub, Mama...."

I had just told my friend L. *that day* that I've locked cats in the bathroom before and they had never pottied in there. I wasn't mad at him or anything. I'm the one who locked him in. I was just glad he picked the tub over the throw rugs.

Well, it's a start

I went to see the surgeon today for a follow-up on my foot. I'm allowed to take the boot off and walk around in normal shoes (or barefoot) starting with an hour a day, then steadily increasing the time. I go back in a month and by then I should be completely out of the boot. As my friend K suggested, I'll probably at least take the boot to Orlando with me at the end of the month, just in case I need it. I should probably wear it in case I have a lot of walking to do around the airports.

I spent my first bootless hour in my sewing room putting the binding on the front of a baby quilt. I didn't get a picture of it yet. I'll do that when it's done.

I do have pictures of the progress on a couple of my other projects. I have about 3-1/2" done on the Mermaid sock:



I *really* like this pattern. It's really easy and it looks cool.

I also finished the gusset decreases on the 2-socks-at-a-time.



I tried one of them on and it fits, which is good. I should have them done in the next week or so, depending on how my thumb feels after hand-stitching the binding on that quilt. I like doing that part, and it kind of sucks that my arthritis flares up worst when I do it. :(

I worked on that charcoal scarf that I never take pictures of. I finished one ball of yarn, and John decided the ball band would make a nice crown for Princess EmmaCat.


"I am Princess EmmaCat. Fear my glowing eyes!"

Also, Ripley came downstairs to socialize a bit on Sunday.


"I love me some catnip!"

Crappy 4th of July weekend

Remember I said I thought I was coming down with something? I had no idea. My throat has been killing me since Wednesday night. I went to the doctor on Thursday and he gave me a prescription for antibiotics. I've been taking them as prescribed and my throat and head still hurt. So far I've spent my whole 3-day (well 4-day if you count the sick day on Thursday) holiday weekend with my butt planted on the couch.

If it was just an average weekend, it would have been bad enough. But my friends were in from Massachusetts, and I missed the party!! I wanted to go, but my throat was still sore and my head was aching. I ended up going to bed at 9:30. Not that it was all that easy to sleep with the neighbors across the street setting off firecrackers till midnight.

It wasn't a total loss, I guess. I did get some knitting done. The two socks at a time have heel flaps and are waiting to have their heels turned.



And I re-started the Show-off Stranded sock with some KnitPicks Risata yarn in the Woodland Sage colorway.



I think this look much better than the other yarn. You can actually see the pattern! I'm naming them my mermaid socks, since pattern reminds me of scales.

In cat news, Emma's been taking lessons from her brother.



John asked if that was a cat butt or if my throat had gotten a LOT worse. :)

Bound for the frog pond...

Well, I thought this yarn would be good with the Show-off Stranded sock pattern, but I was mistaken.



The stitch pattern doesn't show up at all, so why bother? Also, I tried it on and it's too big. So this will be ripped out. I haven't decided if I'll re-knit the yarn as a plain sock or try the pattern in a different yarn next.

Tonight it will be neither. I think I'm coming down with something and since I have plans for the 4th, I'll probably go to bed early and hope I feel better in the morning.

I have to stay up long enough to get the furniture covers out of the new dryer, which was delivered today. They were covered with cat hair.


"We have no idea how the cat hair got on the furniture....."

Ready for a fresh start

Okay, the first half of 2009 hasn't been stellar. It's been stressful, expensive and painful. A brief re-cap:

- Someone backed into my car and I had to have it fixed
- Blue had a bunch of tests and was in the hospital for a few days
- My dad was in the hospital for two weeks, half that time in ICU
- I had to put a new roof on the garage
- I dropped a knife on my foot and had to have surgery*

The latest -- my dryer died. A couple of years ago I had to have it fixed and it cost less than $100. Not so lucky this time. The motor is shot and it would cost over $400 to replace it. So I went dryer shopping Saturday. Yippee. The new one should arrive on Wednesday. What a pain!

I'm definitely hoping the second half of the year improves....

In happier news, I've been working on my two sock at a time.



This is the basic sock from Knitting Circles around Socks, by Antje Gillingham. I'm almost ready to start the heels. I'm not sure I love the colorway, but they're knitting up pretty quickly in the heavier yarn.

I also started a new sock.



It doesn't look like much, since it's just 1" of 1x1 ribbing. But it will be a Show-off Stranded Sock and that's Patons Stretch Sock yarn in the Mineral colorway. I think it will look good with the stitch pattern. Better than any of the other cotton blend yarn in my stash, which is either self-patterning or stripey. I'm trying not to knit too tightly on these, since the yarn is stretchy and I'd like to keep the stretch in the sock. We'll see. I'm using my Kollage square DPNs and I'm still trying to decide if I like them. They're heavier than the Harmony Wood ones and they yarn itself is kinda floppy. Also, they're an inch longer than the Harmonys (7" vs. 6"). Kollage makes a 5" version, which I'm considering, but they didn't have them in the store when I bought these. I suppose I could ask if they could special order them for me. Maybe some other time, since I have a dryer to pay for.

I put together a quilt top tonight, but didn't take a picture of it. It's a group project for a guy at work. Since I'll be putting the binding on, I'll post a picture when it's done. I'm seriously wondering what I was thinking when I sketched it out on my white board. I really should have had the girls log cabin the strips, or alternate which way they put the strips on so I didn't end up with long strips of color all across the top and bottom. Not to mention that it would have avoided having to match seams. Oh well. It's a gift and it's not horrible. And since the baby is already here (her name is Amelia, it's that pretty?) we'll just have to live with it. I did make the block backgrounds symmetrical by color, at least.

Requisite cat picture:

"We thought we were helping when we fed ourselves breakfast this morning, Mama. I shared my 'Cheerios' with everyone!"

*I took the tape off it on Saturday -- it is indeed a Harry Potter scar. Woohoo!