Uncle Leona's Day Camp

Disappointed once again

Well, the invitations were announced, and once again Elton John has trumped me for a Royal Wedding. Bummer. Probably a good thing, though. I would have never figured out what to get them for a gift. I mean, how many chip 'n' dips do you think they own? Not to mention there's no place around here to buy a decent hat.

Well, the Kraemer top is done:

The only issue with it is that the pattern didn't bother to mention that I was supposed to change needles for the bottom broken ribbing. I guess that was also part my fault because I should have figured there was a change, but I was so hell bent on finishing the thing that I basically said "screw it" when I figured out there was a goof. I could always get inspired and fix it, but I'm not that inclined right now. I have this to think about:

This is the start of the Dixie Lace Pullover, another pattern off of the Patternfish website. It's another seamless dealio, this time from the bottom up. I'm using Louisa Harding's Ianthe yarn, which is a 50/50 cotton/merino blend--nice stuff. Good definition on the lace pattern:

Now I'm at the knit forever part of the program (waist shaping notwithstanding). Mindless. Which pretty much guarantees I'll screw something up. Doesn't help that I'm stuck with a cold that one of the rugrats shared with me. And my Afrin isn't working. Of course, it probably would help if I had stuff that hadn't expired in 2007.

Details, details...

Livin' la vida Leona

Here it is, middle of April, and I have a day off. One would think I'd be out frolicking in the beautiful spring sunshine, either getting my hands dirty in the garden or swearing out on the driving range. I should be sniffling and coughing while waiting for my Claritin to kick in. Life should be good.

This weather sucks. Raining. Again. Windy. Again. Cold. Again. Lather, rinse, repeat. I'm trapped like a rat.

So, I had planned to get Buster fixed today...until the vet called. He just let me know that the little rugrat is running a temperature. He gets a shot of antibiotics, and we try this again in a couple of weeks. I don't think he's really sick. I think he's having sympathy hot flashes.

Oh, yes, there have been flashes. Nothing too terribly dramatic, as long as I keep my alcohol intake within reason. I had one beer too many last week, and I think I sweat out a gallon or two in my bed that night--had to even turn on the AC.

Remember, there is absolutely no need for AC around these parts. Perhaps until August.

Anyhow, this menopause thing hasn't been terrible. I have my post-op appointment in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, things will continue to be reasonable; otherwise, it's hormone time. Personally, I hate taking medicine, so I'll keep my fingers crossed and my beer consumption to a reasonable minimum.

I mentioned the garden. It is presently fenced off and growing a few heads of baby bok choy, several pea plants, and about 3 dozen onions and shallots. So far, they don't seem to mind that Cleveland resembles summer in the Yukon. I would like to get more stuff planted, but there's no point right now. They're ready to go, though...

There's more green on my kitchen table than on my trees.

On the knitting front, of course, are a few things. I finished up the knitting of the purple cardigan:

I think I'll block it today. Not like I can do much of anything else...

I have managed to make a dent in some stash yarn, too. I found a great top down pullover pattern on Patternfish that knit to the right gauge, so I went for it. I think the body has about 4 inches left to go:

I'm using up a Kraemer cotton/acrylic tweed that has been taking up space for years. I have another pattern lined up for more stash yarn that was frogged a couple of years ago; that is probably the next project once the other two are done. We'll see. I have a tendency to change my mind...a lot.

As for the Prism cardigan, it's back in Ikealand for the moment. I managed to score a couple more skeins of the lace yarn, but I'm not sure if the colors are going to jive. I need to wind it up and see if the ball looks like the other balls. If not, I'll need to start things over with a different blend of three skeins. I may need to frog the project, too. That could require a significant amount of wine.

I'll dress lightly for bed that night.

I also found out that I took a vacation week the same time as Stitches Midwest in Chicago! Can't let that coincidence go to waste! I signed up for three classes: the sleeve class with Judy Pascale that I missed in Santa Clara, a rigid heddle weaving class, and a crazy lace class with Myra Wood. Hopefully, Continental will get me to O'Hare on time.

"I'm knitting armholes in the morning...ding, dong, the vaycay is sublime...pass me a cosmo...yep, one more cosmo...but get me to O'Hare on time!"

Sorry, life is a song cue. Anyhow, I was going to drive, but when you factor in $5/gallon gas, it was cheaper to fly. Go figure. Just need to use the creative packing techniques to keep my goodies in one carry-on bag. Shouldn't be too hard...summer requires far few layers of clothing.

Now, I'm going to pick up the cat. Grady was having such a good day so far. Sorry, buddy.