Uncle Leona's Day Camp

Where there's a will, there's a lot of sawdust

I'm closing in on the end of the La Boheme gloves, so it's almost time to start up on my New Mexico travel project, which is going to be the Sea Silk shawl. The pattern, however, is written assuming you're either using a circular or swing needles. Why? The technique used is to knit two right side rows in a row, then two wrong sides, using two skeins. This allows the yarn's colors to shine, and keeps pooling to a minimum.

Anywho, I didn't want to use a circular, because sliding stitches back and forth would be a pain. So, I started looking for swing needles. Ironically, I was at the shop that originates those things when I was in Nova Scotia a couple of summers ago. I went to that site, but I didn't want to necessarily pay $10 for shipping for a pair of needles.

Cheap. Yep, that's my mantra.

So, after also striking out on eBay with the shop that I got the Sea Silk from, I found the needles at Ram Wools. Placed the order and began to wait patiently. Until I got the phone call today that the needles were out of stock and not expected for at least 2-3 weeks.

Not good when my flight heads out on Thursday next week.

So, what does one do when one wants swing needles and has far too many tools for the average woman? One makes swing needles. All it took was a 3/16" length of wood doweling, a pencil sharpener, a wood file, coarse and fine sandpaper, a couple of wood beads, my vise, and my cordless drill. The biggest issue was taking the doweling diameter from essentially a size 8 to the size 6 I needed. But, after an hour and a half of filing and sanding, the thing fit through the size 6 hole in my handy Susan Bates needle size thingy. I drilled open the holes to the beads a little bit to fit them snugly on the needles, and presto!

Swing needles just like the pros!

I may just drill a few more beads. Even though they're fitting nice and tight now, I'm foreseeing one or two of them winding up taking out a flight attendant as she passes out the pretzels.

Adding some color to an otherwise white world

Thanks to all who sent along their condolences about our lovely weather. I have managed to get out of the house this week, so that's a good thing. Rumor has it that there may be a thaw this week.

I'll believe it when I see it. This crap may not melt away completely until July.

To top it all off, my back has been acting up the past two evenings. I'm hoping it's just a small muscle revolt from the snow clearing escapades, but after my little bout with the kidney boulder, I'm getting a bit nervous. If it's the stone, it had better get out of Dodge before March 1. I refuse to be in pain on vacation.

And the Vicodin would not go well with margaritas.

So, I'm doping up on ibuprofen and waiting. Now, I'm sensing a twinge in my left side. Better keep my eyes peeled for some gravel in the toidy.

OK, enough about my health issues. I did finish up Afghanistash:

I was toying with the idea of a crocheted border, but I think it would take away from the total chaotic effect of the pattern. The afghan is nice and warm, and matches absolutely nothing. And I still have enough stash to whip up about two more. No, that's not going to happen. It is a cool way to get rid of worsted (and almost worsted) weight yarn, though. I highly recommend it.

So, what's next? Initially, I thought about starting this:

But, I decided to continue the "non-sweater" mode and do these instead:

It's the Fiesta Gloves pattern, available here. It's done with one skein of La Boheme, which I conveniently had in Ikealand. Seeing as I'm going to the Fiesta Outlet Store in New Mexico mere hours after I land in Albuquerque (my golf buddy is taking me there after he picks me up at the airport), I thought I'd do these gloves in order to show them off there.

Maybe I can get a discount.

Welcome to Ohio

Before two and a half hours of agony:

After two and a half hours of agony:

There were drifts of close to four feet in my driveway this morning after yesterday's little gift from Mother Fudgin' Nature. The snow blower performed about as well as can be expected, considering it isn't supposed to be attacking anything deeper than...well...eight inches. The shovel had to be brought out to take care of what the city left at the end of my driveway.

After breaking through that wall, I know how the folks in East Berlin felt.

Anyhow, I am now hunkered down in my nice warm house. Care to come in? You just have to use the walkway.

To top it all off, I have cramps. If you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go find my Vicodin.

And there's eight more hours scheduled of this

So far, about eight new inches on the ground with drifts much higher than that. They're saying the wind's going to kick into gear tonight. I guess 25 MPH gusts aren't enough right now.

But, it's supposed to be above freezing a week from tomorrow.

For the first time in a month.

I hate winter.

Weird week...

First of all, it never fails to amaze me that when the schools decide it is too cold for children to leave the house, parents decide it's plenty warm to truck them into the doctor's office. I've never seen so many bundled up kids with nothing more than a cold than this week. PSA to parents: if the kids seem OK with their runny nose, they probably are. Pass them some Kleenex and chicken soup; they'll be fine.

OK, enough of that. This week finished up on quite the odd note. On Friday, the warmest day of the week (19 degrees), my garage door froze up. Just a little disconcerting at 8:55 AM when one needs to be at the office at 9 (I live two miles from the office; I'm not that much of a morning slug). Thanks to brute force, I made it by 9:05. My garage door boys, who are top notch, came out yesterday to fix it, and I'm only out $65 (I was full well expecting them to install a new motor...that's why I'm the doc, and they're the door pros). Not that I needed to spend any more money, of course...thanks to moronitude on my part, I didn't realize that my loan for my new windows went until '08 (I thought it was until '06). I had already spent that $162.02 on new parts for the computer...

Live and learn. It's the blonde in me that has been known to emerge from time-to-time.

So, yes, the computer. It's almost three years old, so it was in need of some spiffing up. I got it some memory, a new DVD-RW drive, and a new video card. It's also now running Windows Vista, which works pretty slickly, even if it doesn't like my ancient scanner. The computer made it through its surgery pretty well. The surgeon, on the other hand (literally)...

I have decided that it would be a brilliant idea to file a class action suit against the numbnut who invented those sealed plastic packaging dealios that electronics and small toys are starting to come in. While attacking the memory package with a pair of scissors, I slipped. What you see there is the puncture wound four days later in my left thumb. I figure the scissor tip went in about 1/8". Still hurts, but at least the bleeding has stopped (thanks to the wear and tear on my hands during the day, the cut stayed nice and clean, but it didn't close up until this weekend, when I gave up washing my hands 40 times a day). Didn't keep me from playing with this, though:

I got me a Wii. It is one very sweet gaming system. For anyone out there not near a 12-year-old, the Wii comes with a wireless controller that you can move around on screen to do stuff. To explain, the system came with a sports game; by swinging the controller certain ways, you can hit a tennis ball, bowl, hit a golf ball, box, or swing a bat. Other games are out there where you do different stuff, but right now I'm channeling my inner Navratilova.

My arm hurts.

So, I took a day off yesterday and worked a bit on Afghanistash while software was downloading on the computer:

It's starting to hit the home stretch, and no, I will not need more yarn. It is a nice project to work on in the winter, though. Keeps my tootsies warm.

Speaking of tootsies, did anyone else see the new sock yarn from Southwest Trading called "Tofutsies?" It's a combo of superwash wool, soy and CHITIN! You know, the stuff in crab and shrimp shells that makes them crunch. I saw it online; hopefully one of the LYS's will get a few balls for fondling purposes. I mean, I already have the Sea Silk; I now need sea creatures.

Someone thinks I'm nuts:

New Mexico is looking really good right about now

See that little number to the left? That's the present temperature, and it's still going down. I'm listening to the meteorologist on TV at the moment announce that tomorrow's high will be a balmy 9 degrees. I guess it could be worse. Thanks to the lake, we're a bit warmer. Akron's forecasted high tomorrow is 7.

This is insane. We weren't wearing any coats at Christmas, and now we need the super-thermalized-bat-skivvies just to go out and get the mail.

That's my favorite "bat" anything from the old TV series. I keep the term handy for situations just like what we're dealing with now. I have only one thing to say about this weather we're dealing with now, where a temperature above freezing isn't expected for another week and a half:

Global warming my ass.

OK, enough bitching. I did get something in the mail over the weekend that brings to mind thoughts of water in a non-solid state:

It's two skeins of Handmaiden Yarns Sea Silk, which is made from silk and a product called Sea Cell, which is a viscose/seaweed blend, that I got off of eBay from a vendor in Maine called Tidal Brook Yarns, which carries a ton of Handmaiden and Fleece Artist beauties from Nova Scotia. Thanks to the Sea Cell, the stuff doesn't repel me like regular ol' silk, which I really despise. It will wind up being a wrap that I probably won't wear, but when has that fact ever stopped me? It's a process thing.

I did finish a project over the weekend while I stayed warm:

I started these on my trip out to San Francisco. It took me a while to get back to them, but my hands needed a break from sweater/afghan needles. Yes, they are that bright. It's so people can find me when I fall into a snowdrift and only my legs are sticking out. Like radar. I also started up another pair today:

As you can see, I'm continuing my tribute to warm weather places with bamboo yarn. OK, so it's a blend with wool--I live in Ohio; I still must remain reasonable. This is an interesting fiber so far. Very light and shiny, but not as "plastic" as 100% bamboo yarn. I'll be interested to see how it washes.

Here's an update on Afghanistash:

Those big squares are slow going--each one takes me two hours at least, and, as some of you already know, I'm a fast knitter. Ticks me off. I think I'll get another one started before bed tonight (the socks were the mindless Super Bowl knitting for the evening).

Oh, and for those keeping score, it's now 1 degree outside. God, I hate winter.