(Wild)Flowers-week 55

Among the cement

Growing beauty often finds me

Wonder at the sight









Many more haiku at One Deep Breath

'Nurture' Week 54/50

Sweetness lasting so
hard 2 tell which nutures who
lovely and loving



Happy Birthday One Deep Breath!

I closed my eyes and ran the mouse over the past prompts and Nurture is what was chosen. My DH and Max--aka 'King of the World' have this wonderful, sweet love for each other. Maxie will lie on my husband's shoulder for as long as he can, drooling and purring. Oh so wonderful to observe. It is just love, mutual and beneficial.

"Architecture" - 53

Strength, the hard and tall
Hold on to the Dallas sky
Living blue and old, new


I shot this photo one morning when I was at the Farmer's Market in downtown Dallas. The sky was so crisp and wonderful. Dallas is interesting and contrasted between the old and new. I don't go there as much as Fort Worth. Maybe I am missing opportunities?




Thanks to One Deep Breath

Essential Mac

Absolutely totally cool blog for Mac users.

Salt Lake City

Observation down
town before the morning fray
hurry day, away



One Deep Breath

Nature or Nurture?

OK, YouTube is a great place to spend way too much time.

But, this is a very cool bird--and think of the places it would be grand to put him in to mimic;-)

YouTube

Silly Internet-What Do You Know?

How evil are you?

Knitting List

Another knitting list that's been floating through the knitting groups. Thanks to Civil Bitch for this one

Mark with bold the things you have ever knit, with italics the ones you plan to do sometime, and leave the rest.

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with bananafiber yarn
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffitti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies...)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone elses handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with selfpatterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

Meme

I found this meme on Vivi's blog.

The answers surprised me--I have read more than I thought and have no desire to read others.



italicized - I've read it
Normal - never heard of it
* no desire to read
** on reading pile

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)*
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)*
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)*-saw the movies
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)**
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)**
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)**
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)*
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)**
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)**
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible (I have read some)**
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)*/**
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

My Friend

One of our closest friends works at NASA in Houston. He and his wife spent Easter with us.

His building is next to the one with the gunman and he is OK.

I am not sure I am.

My Nephew

My nephew is a junior at VT.

Fortunately he doesn't have classes on Monday and was asleep when the shootings happened.

Not the college experience I want for him.

Gauge

I have dutifully swatched my knitting and been frustrated because as I changed needle size to reach the correct gauge, my total garment is never right--even when I would check mid-project. This has not been fun.

Starting a new sock pattern, I again checked the gauge...and then for some reason checked one gauge against another--the white Turbo measurer is one stitch off-a bit hard to see in the photo but enough to have screwed up the sock and a baby sweater I made in sock weight yarn. I use(d) the turbo ruler alot because it is small and packs well when I travel.

So, what I learned is do a gauge against the gauge--and use the Susan Bates.

Gone in 60 Seconds

This literally was outside the clients window yesterday.

I heard the noise of the window washer's pulleys and all of a sudden he SWUNG into view, slammed his suction cup on the glass and pulled the squeegee across the window while still rocking back and forth from his rappel from the window above.

In less than 60 seconds, the window was clean and he was gone. Fortunately I had my camera sitting out. It really was cool how he did this with out ever stopping the swinging motion.

Angora Goodness

I call this the 'potato chip' scarf. I guess it reminds me of Pringles.

I made this for my neighbor who takes care of the cats when we are gone--she is so good to them and wont let me pay her so I knit for her. The color is perfect and the ruffling of the scarf will look wonderful on her. A bit feminine.

This was a learning scarf...I hadn't increased as much as this pattern called for: c/o 220, then increases to 440 then to 660. No problem. Then, the second half of the scarf is picking up 220 stitches. Not my strength so I sat at Starbucks with a lot of time and no distractions. First try, 220 dead on. It feels like I am finally understanding knitting and can do it on my own. Confidence is a good thing.

This yarn is sooooo soft and wonderful. I would work with it again...uh...already have more in the stash.

Oh So Good-Stitch and Bee

Traveling as much as I do I haven't been able to connect very well with people in my community. And being an obsessive knitter with the closest LYS being 35 miles away, I have been lonely for other knitters. When I lived in Ohio the LYS was five miles away and I LIVED there (seriously knit therapy happened in that shop) on a regular basis.

Today I happened to be looking up a book on the Barnes and Noble website, trying to search at the local store for a copy of a book.

And, there, in local store events happening tonight was a blurb for the 'Stitch and Bee--bring your kitting at 6:30 PM'. I crossed my fingers, packed my KNITTING and went. And met three awesome women--one who is a SPINNER so after years of reading about this on various blogs I saw it actually being done. She is going to start selling her angora and silk yarn, so stash enhancement will be happening in the future--her colors are vivid and warm. Another woman not only knits but raises chickens for the eggs, and the other two had beautiful projects on the needles. And, they were NICE and welcoming.

Driving home, I was near to tears because of the relief of meeting these women. The connection with people who share my interests has been missing in my life more than I am willing to examine. Maybe it is time to stay home.

Best of the Best

Blue skies, ten inches of fresh snow.

Sigh. I wish I lived here...not only for the skiing, but for the perfect hand knit sweater environment. Beats Texas all to hell for that reason alone.

Utah.

A Fetching FO

I love these fingerless mittens form Knitty.com and the yarn is wonderful to work with so I have enhanced my stash with another skein in pink. The pattern calls for one skein...not in my knitting world. To finish these I had to buy another so with the next pair I will make the body a little shorter to use just one skein. I also was just hoping the bind off was right...not good at following directions--much better at having someone walk me through it so they are what they are.

They are the same length--the picture makes one look shorter. I finished these in a hotel room and didn't block them.

A big 'thumbs up' on this pattern ;-).

Creation, Redux

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth and populated the Earth with broccoli, cauliflower and spinach, green and yellow and red vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.

Then using God's great gifts, Satan created Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and Krispy Creme Donuts. And Satan said, "You want chocolate with that?"

And Man said, "Yes!" and Woman said, "and as long as you're at it, add some sprinkles." And they gained 10 pounds. And Satan smiled.

And God created the healthful yogurt that Woman might keep the figure that Man found so fair. And Satan brought forth white flour from the wheat, and sugar from the cane and combined them. And Woman went from size 6 to size 14.

So God said, "Try my fresh green salad." And Satan presented Thousand-Island Dressing, buttery croutons and garlic toast on the side. And Man and Woman unfastened their belts following the repast.

God then said, "I have sent you heart healthy vegetables and olive oil in which to cook them." And Satan brought forth deep fried fish and chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter. And Man gained more weight and his cholesterol went through the roof.

God then created a light, fluffy white cake, named it "Angel Food Cake," and said, "It is good." Satan then created chocolate cake and named it "Devil's Food Cake ."

God then brought forth running shoes so that His children might lose those extra pounds. And Satan gave cable TV with a remote control so Man would not have to toil changing the channels. And Man and Woman laughed and cried before the flickering blue light and gained pounds.

Then God brought forth the potato, naturally low in fat and brimming with nutrition. And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy center into chips and deep-fried them. And Man gained pounds.

God then gave lean beef so that Man might consume fewer calories and still satisfy his appetite. And Satan created McDonald's and its 99-cent double cheeseburger. Then said, "You want fries with that?" And Man replied, "Yes! And super size them!" And Satan said, "It is good." And Man went into cardiac arrest.

God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery.

Then Satan created HMOs.


Thanks to S. for sending this on to me. I needed the laugh

Sundance Film Festival 2007

Girl's Weekend. No films--we found out a few years ago that during the film festival is the best time to ski--no one on the slopes.

This year we didn't even ski. Just ate, worked out, ate, shopped, ate, drank, ate. You get the idea, don't you? It was great.

One Down, Too Many To Go

The prayer shawl is done and delivered to our friends who have a need for prayers. I knit hope and love into this thing. And my husband even knit 3 stitches. The love that is in this project better do some good or I will be very pissed off.


The baby sweater is even further along than what you see here--the front is all done and the first sleeve is cast on. There is little about this project I like. It is mindless, which is good.














A lot of knitting gets done on the plane as I fly from one client to another and now I have discovered podcasts...I can knit and listen to knitting. Like the daily double, if you ask me. Searching iTunes turned up a number of podcasts to download about knitting. Surprised me to find that.

Right now I am hooked on: Brenda Dayne and Cast-On.

She can make me laugh out loud and the music is good to great. It's all good, so go give a listen.

Knitting UFO's

I am determined to FINISH things this year. This includes knitting, books, art--all the stuff creates happiness and gets tossed aside for work.

This is a prayer shawl from Knitting into the Mystery. The yarn is Lion Brand Homespun. The shawl was started last summer and got too hot in the Texas heat to have on my lap.









These are almost done. They are the fingerless mittens from the Summer 2006 issue of Knitty.com. Yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran--love, love, love it. The pattern called for one skein but I need more yarn to finish the thumb holes--either that or rip back and make them shorter. I vote for more yarn and ordered another skein off of Ebay tonight.









This is a baby sweater for my grand nephew. The size is for an 18 month old--at least I had the foresight to plan ahead because the kid is already seven months old. Still, I want to get it done before he is in college. Yarn is Marks & Kattens Clown on 3mm needles. This will not be a yarn that I will use again. I don't like the colorway or the feel to it-too much like cotton string. But I do like knitting for my cute grand nephew.




The cat helping in the photo is Emma--our new 'rescue' cat. What a sweetie.