Something about a Saturday & Snow

The goal on today's outing was to spread the such as it is what there is news about the Stitch N Pitch event to the gathering what is the San Diego Knit together.

I even managed to get a not terribly late start to the day but alas and alack, there was no knit together to be found just empty lawn, the odd sunbather and the usual pockets of homeless persons.

In a continuing theme of San Diego never seems to do anything on the date, today the signs went up about this year's Saint Patrick's day parade and mini-festival.

Seems on a day when togas and daggers should be the theme, instead there will be shamrocks and shillelaghs.

I've been feeling more than a bit guilty over shelving the mittens, hats and cold weather projects for my Cleve-burg clan while I was preoccupied with pin cushions.

Having come back to them recently, I've also been concerned that by the time they get finished and into the mail they will be mothballed until next Autumn/Winter. Apparently this is a needless worry as this morning's email included a lovely photo of the "small amount" (read just under a foot) of snow that fell in Stow, Ohio over night.

Unfortunate names & random thoughts

Seen on a fire extinguisher -- Anita Fire. The full name of the biz is Anita Fire Hose Company of Lemon Grove.

The Paton's Decor hat stitch pattern has stopped with the kicking my bum stage and moved on to the not long enough, not long enough, oops phase. It's in ribbing and, having made the decision to not increase out as far as I might have done so it looks a bit long.

What's really weird about this hat is that PWSKB (People Who Should Know Better) aka knitters, have been asking the stupidest questions about it. Knit items stretch. If they are narrower than the desired finished size you make them longer than you might otherwise do so that they end up the right size.

I've actually had knitters ask me if the intended recipient has an oddly shaped (long and narrow head) -- weird.

The sibling Universal Yarn Classic Worsted Tapestry is also starting to take shape and for this one I am using the Tassel Stitch pattern I fell for so long ago. I've increased this one out to 24 stitches on a side to accommodate the 6 stitch pattern motif.

Ides minus 11 or should that be XI?

Priority mail and tracking/delivery tracking tells me that the pin cushions arrived at the Piecework offices in Loveland yesterday around 1pm.

I hope that my if you can't be early be fabulous, or presentation counts, gave someone there a smile.

Meet heather, she has a drinking problem. Yup, she sucks down water like you wouldn't believe.

She's been living in my kitchen window with the blue glass and glow in the dark devil duckie for about a week.

Big risk on my part to bring a live plant into my home -- especially one that shares my name. Once upon a time I had a green thumb. That was a long time ago so I'm pretty much risking killing myself with this little shrub but so far she seems to be happy even if she does drink a lot.

It's March and the ides are approaching. The ides mark the two year mark for the blog let's hope heather survives to see that date.

Also marking an anniversary on the ides is a little yahoo email group that I've kept under wraps for five years. It's decloaking on the 15th.

On a related note, the first Urban Grind pick up game of knitting took place in April of 2003 and last week, it came back to life after a period of hibernation. There were three of us and with a bit of luck that number will grow or at least remain stable.

As long as I live nearby, even if I no longer have the luxury of working at home on Thursdays, I'll keep Urban Grind on my monthly calendar for low commitment group knitting in public.

Whistlestop knitting and the walk over and back were great.

Although there was a bit of a miscommunication about whether we were meeting here or there, I finally managed to connect up with my pal Brent who had foolishly but wonderfully stretched his budget to buy me these great goodies.

The first is a fab-o woven chenille throw. What Brent didn't know is that i not only know of Churchill Weavers but I have a connection to Berea, Kentucky.

The throw is still living in the so not me box that Brent packed it up in. It's a gorgeous thing and would not last well around Kali. I love them both but can see how they really must be kept apart.

The second is this great gecko who is quite literally hanging out with some of my other decorative reptiles.

Marching right along and here's to hats

Yesterday was both Saint David's day and also the deadline to get the pin cushions postmarked and on their way to Piecework.

After confirming that my local post office drew a short straw and was open 'til 4pm on a Saturday, I spent the morning and early afternoon writing up the entry information.

In writing up the list of materials for the cake & chair, I found that I actually did have a spare hank of the Needle Necessities Rachel Overdyed Ribbon -- hmmm, didn't really have to punt with the Rainbow Gallery Frosty Rays -- oh well.

Since I was dealing with deadlines, my printer decided to play hide and seek with the print queue. This printer is directly linked to theWindoze machine and that's both a problem and a solution to another problem.

The solution side is being able to print at all until I get a new print server or figure out why the current one goes into intermittent error mode. The problem side is that it is connected to the Windoze machine and the driver and print queue are annoyingly slow and/or flaky.

The apartment search for a shipping box was a two out of three bears experience -- too big, too small and not a one just right.

By the time I got back from box shopping, it was nearly 3pm and the day had gone depressingly dreary. I was glad that I'd sprung for daffodils to lighten the mood. My apartment, aka the vampire friendly zone, was so dark I needed open drapes and lights on just to pack things up -- pish.

The package was accepted into the tender mercies of the United States Postal Service at 3:33 pm Pacific time with an estimated delivery time of Tuesday.

Having sorted that, I went on a somewhat abbreviated walkabout with my latest project which is a return to the hats mode.

I had promised hats and mittens for the Cleve-burg crowd sometime back and I'd made some progress on the projects before the pin cushion obsession kicked in.

I've been very fond of knitted stitch patterns with a smocking element to them ever since I saw an article in Threads by Lynne Vogel in 1991. The article was reprinted in Colorful Knitwear Design if you're interested.

What I'm doing now is, in technique, more like the Tassel Pattern Stitch from Goldberg's New Knitting Dictionary or Smocking Stitch from the old Harmony Knitting Guides.

Like those patterns, I'm pulling a length/loop of yarn pulled from between two unworked stitches to essentially wrap those stitches. Unlike those patterns, I'm working it in the context of a diagonal ribbing.

What's been kicking my bum in working this is the oops of going through one of the stitches rather than between. This mistake is a subtle but not easily corrected mistake -- pish.

I'm a little concerned that the Paton's Decor I'm doing this up in is going to look ratty/pill-y before it's time with all the frogging and reknit my short attention span fingers have kept insisting on making this mistake over and over again.

It also seems to pooling/puddling a bit on one side and I'm trying to decide whether that's a live with it or rip it and rethink.