Back to regular programming

Well, I'm a sitting duck in Sock Wars right now. No one's come forward to kill me and I can't get the dossier for my next target. I have my second weapon at the ready, but I may use it to commit Sock Wars suicide. So I'm just going to leave the war on the back burner and go back to my semi-normal life.
I'm halfway up the hood on Rogue and the back is almost finished on the monkey's anniversary gift. Our anniversary was Tuesday, but he understands. We went out for possibly the worst meal we've ever had. I admit, there were warning signs which we chose to ignore and in my defense, I did suggest that we leave only minutes after we sat down, but we stayed.
Here's how it went down:
We arrived at the restaurant which is a little place on the beach, very lovely view of the sunset and moonrise. We had reservations, but there wasn't anyone at the maitre d' stand when we arrived. Hmmm. We waited there for a while and then the monkey thought we'd better just go in. We had to walk past the kitchen pass thru and I noticed that the only person working in the kitchen looked about twelveteen. Hmmm, that's not good. The guy behind the bar (who looked shockingly like a male prostitute) said, "Reservations? Aw just sit anywhere." Hmmm, that's not good either. We sat down and discovered that the table we'd chosen switched time zones everytime something was removed or placed on it. Hmmm.... After 5 minutes or so, the bartender(?) brought us menus. Another 5 or so minutes later he brought us water. After another 5 minutes he asked if we wanted anything to drink. Oh yeah, I forgot the giant kareoke screen behind the bar and the fact that the music from Flashdance was playing very loudly through the restaurant. At this point I leaned over the table (making it go thumpity thump) and gently suggested to the monkey that we could probably get a table at our favorite restaurant which wasn't far away. He wanted to, "give the place a chance". I wanted to avoid food poisoning.
We were entertained while waiting by one of the servers making out, with the guy who'd been walking up and down the restaurant with a beer bottle, outside for about 10 minutes. Hmmm, I didn't know there was a floor show.
We ordered and the appys were okay, but our main courses left a bit to be desired. For me, I guess they'd run out of artichokes or possibly Opie in the kitchen didn't know the difference between an artichoke and an avocado. Hey, they both start with the letter "A", he was close. I strongly dislike avocado, so that kinda sucked. The monkey's looked okay, but they had managed to make the asparagus chewy. I'm not sure how you do that, but I could barely cut through the stuff.
We were out of there in less an hour and we're the types that like to linger. We have drinks, we talk, we have desert and tea. We couldn't get out of that place fast enough. The coup de grace was the "We're hiring!" on the bottom of the bill. Charming.
As you may have guessed, not a place we'll be frequenting. Next week we're going to pretend it didn't happen and celebrate our anniversary properly at our favorite restaurant, Giraffe. Those of you who live in White Rock will want to avoid Sideshows.


The spindle fetish continues! This time with the help of Angela and all those who met up with her at OFFF. From left to right: tulipwood by Spindlewood; Mongold; a spindle I got off ebay that is of unknown origin; a Dave Larsen plexi. I plan to give them all a good workout tomorrow.


This a crossbreed lamb fleece I got from an Alberta breeder. It is so pretty. I plan on actually processing this sucker myself. Should be interesting. Might comb it. Stay tuned for the inevitable bitching and swearing this will cause! Non-PG fun I'm sure.


This fleece is part of the reason I'm going to start doing more of my own processing. Don't get me wrong, it was done beautifully and for a good price, but I sent it to the processor in March. I got it back yesterday. They never called or emailed me. I had no idea what was going on. I'm very happy to have it back. It's a New Zealand Polwarth and I can't believe how soft it is. I just want to sink into it. I have almost three pounds so I should be able to make a couple of sweaters. Or maybe a big soft shawl. Mmmm, so soft! I wish the blog had touch-o-vision.

How many people does it take to have a war

The remaining assassins from Sock Wars are now discovering some interesting things:
1. People have decided not to play and not told anyone. So there are folks out there receiving socks with absolutely no intention of making any for anyone else.
2. Due to forces of nature beyond anyone's control, not everyone got the mailing info for their victim and some of those victims refused to give it up. A lot of warriors wound up dead too soon 'cause their victims were asshats.
3. An online swap of this scale needs more than one person to run it. Poor Yarnmonkey must be cursing herself for starting this by now. There were upwards of 780 people signed up and with the dropouts and flakes, it's becoming a it of a cluster-you-know-what.
I don't know what will happen with my role in this right now. I've killed my initial target and am in the process of trying to get the dossier for my next victim (this actualy made me want to bang my head against the keyboard last night as the person I was dealing with (see 1) couldn't seem to pull her head out of her butt). I haven't heard a peep from my assassin and I suspect she's also a see 1.
It's been mostly fun. My victim's very nice and is taking her socks of doom to guild tonight.
That Motorhead song "Killed by Death" keeps going 'round in my head, only it's "Killed by Socks"...

Say hallo to my leetle friend

Here is the completed assassination weapon. It leaves tomorrow for it's intended victim. I keep gettting this mental image of sock knitters all over the world not wanting to get their mail. Telling their posties that they won't sign for that package. Game on beetches! Viva la sock wars!

Such a fine line between clever and stupid

And sometimes that line is an eight lane freeway. I love my new niece, but I just had to her get her this:


I know it's awful, but it's awful in that, "OMG what the hell is wrong with that child", funny sort of way. I think my brother and his girlfriend will get a big kick out out it. Not to mention the great pics they'll have to show prospective boyfriends in about 15 years.
"Oh yes, the overbite was quite extreme, but she's managed to grow into it."
Bwahahaha
Yeah, I know I'm evil. It's the mild snicker-behind-your-hand evil though, so that's okay, right?


I've finally started Rogue. I tried to sign up for the Fall Cables KAL, but I guess they don't like me. Lavender is doing hers so I thought I'd join her. I love knitting this thing. I want to work on it all the time. I wake up in the night and want to go knit on it. I've only been working on it for a couple of days and now I just want finish it and wear it. The weather is back to it's normal blecky self around here. Grey, drizzley, cold and damp. So it's perfect for Rogue. I want to wear this puppy now!


Calliope is almost done. Needs a good blocking, but came out fairly well. Should be a good tank for when the sun comes back around this way in another eight months or so. Timing is everything. I, apparently, have sucky timing.

Diary of a Fat Loser

My doctor's a sneaky bastard.
I went for my regular physical last week. Oh joy. At least he moves through it at warp speed, so the embarrassment is kept short. All was within acceptable parameters...or so I thought. He came back in after I was clothed and feeling human again.
This is the gist of the conversation:
Dr: "Your weight is down since your last visit. Are you working on it?"
me: " Off and on."
Dr: "What are you doing?"
me: "Oh you know, trying to eat better, walking the dog. Nothing drastic."
Dr: "Hmmm. I think people are more motivated by goals and deadlines. Don't you?"
me: (ohcrapohcrapohcrap) "uh yeah, sure."
Dr: "So how 'bout you come back in 6 weeks and we'll see if you can lose 5 lbs by then."
me: (you sneaky bastard!) "Uh, okay, I can do that."
Don't get me wrong, I know how lucky I am to have a doctor that takes an active interest in my well-being. I know it's rare these days. But he just slid that right in there. Damn. So I've been working out and eating less and I've taken about 2.5lbs off since last Wednesday. I'm aiming to get 10lbs off by my next appointment, a bit of the, "I'll show you" in me I'm afraid. Yeah, I know, I working on it.
On to knitting stuff. The Mystery Stole is done:


I lost a lot of the color as I don't think the Zephyr had been set properly. It's still a nice color, but it's a lot grayer than it started out.
I also finished the Lavold tank. It fits great and I love the color.


And for those of you who wanted to know what I found in my friend's quilting stash, you can find a version of it here. Tam's was rather impressive and I still think we should have left it in there for her mother to find. Tam would have liked that.

My pals were...

I got my last package with the reveal in it from my SP8 pal today. Her name's Sarah, go check out her blog. Here's what she sent:


-some great Burt's Bees stuff that will help me get my hands back in shape for all the silk I have to spin this fall
-some tea
-a braid of Felicia's BFL (love this color)
-Inspired Cable Knits which has a couple of patterns in it that will go on the todo list
-a cute tape measure 'cause you can never have too many
-and a vintage pattern book with an interesting way of showcasing hats:


Reminds me of the Farside cartoon about the "floating head of death".
But the best thing of all is the lap quilt she made for me! I don't quilt. I had a friend who quilted and when she died, I had to sort through her fabric stash. Scared the bejesus out of me. You guys think the walk-in stash closet is scary, that's nothin'! Of course it also gave me the most amusing way to remember my friend. You would not believe what she had stored in with all that fabric. It ain't PG kids. It's a late night story over a couple of drinks. That way, I get to see the booze shoot out yer nose when I tell ya.
Anyhow, I'm still attracted to fabric (like a crow to shiny things), but I con, er, sweet talk my quilterly friends into making the quilts I want. So this is very, very cool. Thanks so much Sarah! I had a great time, hope you did too.
The pal I was sending to was Kadi. Go say, "hi". She just got back from a couple of weeks in Europe and is starting to post the pics.

How come he gets to go fishing?

So. The monkey's off having (I'm guessing here, 'cause he hasn't called) a great time fishing and I'm having a great relaxing time at home right?
Um, no.
Yesterday was spent doing laundry and errands. I did spend a few hours with a friend which was so nice, but after that, back to work. Today wasn't much different. But today I had help! Yay!
Lynne came over and spent a big part of her day helping me turn these:


Into these:


As Holly says, the pear tree decided it needed to feed the world this year. We made four batches of jam and barely dented the crop.
Lynne decided I shouldn't loll about and brought me these from the farmer's market:


She is evil!
Tomorrow will be spent making grape jelly from those gorgeous wild grapes she brought me.
Now, I was going to leave you with a wonderful pic of the Mystery Stole blocking in the evening sun, but sadly, the zephyr is leeching dye like a sumbitch.


I am sooo not impressed. This is the third rinse and it's just as colorful as the last ones. It will spend tonight having it's dye set once and for all. Good thing I didn't just press it and throw it on. I'd look like a smurf!
PS: big sale at Knitopia starting Wed. Go help Lynne part with some of that yarn. You know you wanna!