Bumps and Loops

I've been reading with interest Stephanie McPhee's blog showing the beaucoup inches of snow they've been getting in Canada and talking about how many minutes you can stay outside without dying! Well, it's not like that in Virginia. Here's what's going on:

I have finally gotten a good start on John's hat. Since he's a Florida boy, I don't suppose he'll get much use out of it this year, but you never know. At least he'll have it for next year.

I think this is the fifth of these hats I've made. I have plans for at least three more. By the time I'm done, I should have memorized the charts.

I have figured out a way to get the charts onto my iPod Touch so I can carry knitting patterns around with me all the time. I also can get them onto my Palm PDA. How's that for redundancy?

Anyway, here's the hat in progress:

We had intended to go to Staunton last Monday, but got waylaid by a number of things. I think the best bet for Staunton is to just go when the mood hits us and partake of whatever festivities may be available on that day. I have, twice, told Joe I was coming to his shop and then not showed up. Not good. So, I shall "surprise" him one day.

We have toyed with getting another bird, but never seem to do it. I think it would be fun to have another pet, but am not sure another bird will fit the bill. I crave a "cuddly" pet and that sounds like a cat or dog. The problem is that we can't have a "cuddly" pet in the condo. That means the pet would have to live in the house in Virginia with Jim and have to be boarded when we were both in Florida. I wonder if my son would keep a cat or dog for a few days when we were in Florida. I shall ask him, but I suspect he would prefer to not do that. I'm not sure I'd want to do that, either.

I'm rather lethargic today. I feel fine, but am happy to just sit here on my duff doing nothing. I managed to do the usual Monday morning routines, but can't even get interested in knitting. Maybe I need to go out and run (well, walk) around the block a few times. Actually, that sounds like a good idea.

I'm knitting a lace shawl (Flickering Flame) with some egyptian cotton yarn in a bright red and gold multicolor that Jim picked out in Blacksburg. I'm not a great lace knitter, by a long shot, but I think the color of the yarn will more than offset the fact that lace patterns tend to be a bit more obscure when variegated yarn is used.

Jim and I have been having a lot of fun, lately. It seems we are on the same page again. We were pulling in opposite directions for awhile.

An Observations: Some people who were my "friends" have not corresponded with me since I changed my mind about things at the end of January. This confuses me, especially since this decision has absolutely no bearing or affect on them. I'm the same person I was before, I just have made what I believe to be a better and more honorable decision. It's also one that is turning out to be a very good one. Ah, well. Perhaps they are just busy.

I've purchased some nice new yarns, most of them on a recent trip to Blacksburg, VA to Mosaic. The next yarn shop I'm going to will be Uncommon Threads in Palm Harbor, FL.

Here's some nice Koigu Painter's Pallete yarn that is scheduled to become a Charlotte's Web Shawl, similar to this one.

This is two balls of Heirloom Knitting in the UK's 100% merino lace weight yarn in emerald green that will become a nice lace scarf. Don't let the tiny balls fool you; there's a LOT of yardage in here. almost 800 of 'em.


This is 100% cashmere heavy lace weight yarn from Colourmart in the UK. It comes oiled for use in commercial knitting machines and, as such, is very "hard" and skinny. After it is washed in hot (yes, HOT) water with a nice detergent, it "blooms" into incredibly soft and fluffy yarn that is very lightweight and warm. I'm not sure exactly what this will become, but it will be special. It could be a lacy shawl or a scarf and mittens or ...




The yarn above is Knit One Purl Two's nice stretchy sock yarn. It's destined to become, surprise!, SOCKS!

And, finally, this yarn is Schaefer Yarn's Andrea 100% cultivated silk hand painted lace weight yarn.
It was bought at Mosaic.

Jim picked out both the yarn for the Flicker and Flame shawl in the post above (the bright variegated) and the Andrea silk yarn. He picks out the most beautiful (and most expensive) yarns I get. He's far more generous to me than I am.

It's a good thing knitter's tend to have "project amnesia." If they didn't, I doubt any good, heavy utilitarian triangular shawls would ever be knit.

I started my Patagonia cotton knit shawl a couple of weeks ago. It's a fairly bulky thick and thin yarn and I'm knitting it up into a plain garter stitch triangle. At first, it seemed like I was flying. Then I remembered the rows are getting LONGER! and LONGER! I've gone through three of my five balls of yarn and am dreading the last two.

I really, really want this shawl to grab to wear with jeans to go out to the mailbox and things like that. I hate to put on a jacket just to grab the mail.

I'll keep knitting away on this thing and I'll love it when it's done. Then I'll say I'll never, ever do another shawl like that. And I won't. For at least six months.

Now, what was I talking about?

They say chocolate is an aphrodisiac. See below:

He is. He was gone for about a week. Two days ago, there he was, demanding his nice smelly wet food. Naturally, we had just put all his stuff out for the trash man so we wouldn't have to look at it!

I ran out and retrieved what I could and fed him. I'm glad I didn't give his food to the local shelter, as I had planned.

I had forgotten he's a male cat and is not neutered. I hate that, but he's not really my cat and I don't know what to do about it. As I said, he may be out wooing the girls in the neighborhood. The timing is about right, isn't it, for spring kittens? Like I said, if I find out there are mini-Jaspers out there, I'm having one, at least. I may have two. I think it's easier to raise kittens if there are other cats/kittens around. They entertain each other. As nice as this cat is, even though he is terrified of people, a kitten of his should have a disposition of gold.

I apologize for not letting you know about the return of Jasper. Some of you sent me condolences and were very nice. I was just so excited and relieved, I forgot.

Go, Jasper, Go!

So, here it is. Valentine's Day. This is a wonderful day for me. After months of frustrating and sad and, potentially, damaging issues that had to be dealt with, today is a day for romance, fun and love. I feel as though all the tunnels I/we have been through are finally at an end. There's no way to describe how good that feels.

Today, I had valentines from Jim and John and, even, Skittles. AND, Jasper graced our door with his presence. I think, maybe, there will be mini-Jaspers in the neighborhood in six weeks, or so. If there are, I'm going to have at least one of them. I really wish I felt I could take Jasper and get him neutered.

Tonight, Jim and I are going to Macado's for dinner. They're having a special Valentine's menu. We love Macado's. You get some really nice food for reasonable prices and it's just plain fun.

The light is always so much brighter after coming out of the dark.

In a previous post, I mentioned how excited I was about going to Staunton to On the Lamb and to Mrs. Rowe's for food. I was, then, hoping to even stop by Mosaic in Blacksburg. I like to make the most of my time in Virginia. There are a couple of yarn shops home in St. Petersburg, but they just don't measure up to the Virginia shops.

We only made the Blacksburg part of the trip today. I think I was in a funk about Jasper the Cat. All morning and early afternoon, I just didn't want to go anywhere at all. Finally, Jim roused me and we went off to Blacksburg. First, we stopped and looked at birds in the Christiansburg pet store. We have thought about getting another bird, maybe an African Grey parrot. We looked, but just can't make up our minds if we want another birdie life to deal with.

We then made a quick swing round to Mosaic to see if it was still open. It was - with only 10 minutes to spare. FinishingLady was nice enough to help me pick out yarn for a Charlotte's Web shawl and Jim picked out some 100% silk cobweb lace yarn for me, as well. I'll post photos of them tomorrow and provide links that will show you the pattern.

We went to dinner at The Boston Beanery in Blacksburg. This restaurant started in Morgantown, WV and is patterned after New England Pubs. Nice place, that Boston Beanery. We'll go back there.

I'm sorry I didn't make it to see Joe in Staunton. I'll get there, though. He's such a nice man and the shop is so cute. I wish I had felt better today.

I hope Jasper is just out somewhere visiting someone, or maybe someone accidentally locked him in their garage. I don't think, so. Jasper was way to smart to get stuck somewhere. I really, really miss him.

I miss having a cat - period. I don't want to deal with a kitten because of Skittles the Bird. I also don't know where I'll be five or ten years down the road. I wonder what would happen if I considered adopting or fostering older cats who would, otherwise, never have another home. It's hard when they go, but there's also the great satisfaction of making a pretty little creature's last weeks, months or years happy. I'll ponder this and talk to Jim about it.

Some of you remember Jasper the Cat from my previous blog The Silly Stitcher.

Well, he's missing and I am saddened and worried. He hasn't been here for the past two days. He has always come to visit, if for no other reason than to eat his beloved wet cat food, and he has been completely missing.

I'm trying not to let it bother me too much. I knew when he started coming around that he was old and, often, sick with a cold. I didn't think he'd be around too much longer and was just happy to give him a warm place to sleep and lots of yummy food. I am very resentful of whoever it was that made this poor cat such a timid and frightened thing. They have no idea what they missed.

It's still a sad thing, though. As much as I tried, I became very attached to him. Maybe he'll be back. Maybe he won't. All I can do is be glad he had a little bit better life for awhile.

Sometimes being in this area of Virginia is like living in a fantasy world. Marion is a small town, set right ON a mountain. It's hard to find a level lot in this town. It's small with, basically, one 8 block main street, 3 grocery stores, 6 gas stations, no department stores, a Wal-Mart, 2 realtors, and one of the most magnificent refurbished theaters in the country.

It was once the home of a conservative college for Lutheran women. Today, the building houses the Blue Ridge Job Corps.

Tonight, on the way to Wal-Mart, we drove the "back" way, which goes past the house where we lived in 1998-2001. Nearby, there is a large tract of land that has been partially cleared. At one time, there had been plans to create a housing development on the site, but the economy changed and the program was dropped.

Realize that this is IN town. This isn't out in the country in farmland. We turned the corner off of Prater Lane and there, just about 40 feet from the road was a large herd of whitetail deer. There must have been 12 - 15 deer grazing and playing. They were actually romping. What a site.

Now, I love Florida. BUT -- This was a special Appalachian Mountain treat.

Actually, the area is filled with them. We have raccoons, armadillos, hawks, eagles, rabbits, deer, many different songbirds, mice, snakes, flocks of ducks and geese around the corner. On any day, you might see wild turkeys or fox. This is, truly, a nature lover's paradise.

I'm lucky to be able to be in two areas where the natural beauty is so profound.

I am lucky! I may be going to Staunton, VA, this weekend. Not only is it a pretty ride, there are two fabulous destinations at the end: On the Lamb Yarns in downtown Staunton and Mrs. Rowe's Restaurant near the Interstate.

I'm looking for some nice, bright yarn for a scarf or shawl. While Joe at On the Lamb doesn't stock a huge inventory, he has the greatest things imaginable. I bought my first Malabrigo from him and he got me addicted! Shame. I wrote and asked him if he had any emerald green yarn and he wrote back with all kinds of tempting things. I will have to set my $$$ limits ahead of time.

We'll also be visiting Mrs. Rowe's Restaurant for lunch. I suppose I should also "bank" my calories for that, too. Then, after the On the Lamb visit, we'll stop back there and pick up some of her frozen entrees for later. We'll take our "Mrs. Rowe's" frozen food bag with us.

I might also get to stop in Blacksburg and visit Mosaic, my other favorite yarn shop in Virginia.

Such wealth!

If anyone is interested, here is the cage that gave such fits. It didn't help that I found out just how "duh!" I can be.

Remember the "Bird Cage Mania" entry? Do you? Do you remember how upset I was by the fact the stand didn't fit the cage?

Well, well, well. I got to thinking today, "Why do those two sections of the frame have so many extra holes? Hmmmmmmm. I wonder? Could it be? Oh, no."

Sure enough, I went down to the basement and took a gander. Yep. If you just take the two shelf support frames off and turn them 90° the stand becomes 15¨ x 15¨.

I thought I'd try fixing it. I like to do that stuff, anyway, and I wanted to be sure I was right about this. My DH tightened the screws down tight so Skitty Bird didn't go falling arse end over teakettle someday (that was before we knew the cage wasn't going to fit). I was holding the pliers around the nut and using a screwdriver to loosen the screw, when the pliers slips. I caught my right index finger in the pliers WITH FORCE and drew a nice, bright, lovely-shade-of-purple blood blister. I will not share what I said. I'm sure you can all imagine!

Well, I got it back together and, sure enough, it's the right size.

Now, I'll just wait for Jim to come home and tighten the screws again and Skitty Bird will be mobile!

Oh, yes - I will NOT ever be taking those crews out again.

I just found out that Stephanie, the Yarn Harlot, won the award for Best Activities Blog in the Canadian Blog Awards 2007! Woo hoo! Woot!

I also found out that Dr. Steph (who did her doctoral dissertation on knitting in the form of Knit Wit), won second.

Furthermore, Knitnut won fourth!

How's that for rounding up the specials? Hip hip hooray for knitters. It just goes to show that the it takes some kind of smarts to be a knitter and even more smarts to be a knitter who blogs and/or writes.

I am so very proud of my adopted clan.

Whhooooooooooooeeeeeeeeeee!

This is a great example of contemporary hillbilly/bluegrass music by a super band out of Morgantown, WV. They've also been nominated for numerous awards.

We saw this group at the "Song of the Mountains" presentation at the historic Lincoln Theater in downtown Marion, VA on Saturday night. These young people are so full of energy and so obviously enjoy performing that their music is addicting. What a great night this was!

If you think you know mountain music, check them out. They may give you a whole new perspective on the timelessness of this great genre. It's the heart and soul of the Appalachian mountains. It's a combination of Celtic, Native American and African American music heritages. See the video below and also check out their website.




Also sharing the bill last Saturday night was Randy Waller and the Country Gentlemen. Randy has carried on the traditions set by his father, Charlie Waller and the Country Gentlemen, in the "good old days" of country/bluegrass music. If you enjoy this kind of music, don't miss checking out this band. The seasoned performance by them was unforgettable.

If you want to see them better, click on the thumbnail image. Visit their website at Randy Waller website


This is Randy and the "New" Country Gentlemen:

And this is Dad with the "Original" Country Gentlemen:

OK. What color do you think Skittles' wife should be? Post a comment to vote.



You can see a bigger picture by clicking on the thumbnail.

We liked the condo cage that Skitty Bird got in Florida so much that we ordered one for Virginia. It's slightly different, in that it doesn't have a playtop. After all, the house is a lot bigger and a lot more dangerous for a tiny little birdie. Our upstairs is open to the basement where there are all kinds of nooks and crannies and we have a gas range AND a fireplace. While Jasper the Cat might enjoy a mini turkey, the prospect evokes thoughts of misery and sorrow in the humans around here.

The stupid cage we bought is 15 x 15 inches square. The stand that came for it is 13.5 x 17 inches. No way is that cage going to fit on that stand. Naturally, we put the whole stand together before we realized the cage wasn't going to fit! What a pain in the neck (and other anatomical areas).

Skitty Bird is very happy in his new digs, though. He is enjoying the renewal of his "flapping privileges."

I had an odd dream the other night. I dreamed that Skitty Bird's cage door was open and he got out to fly around. For some reason, there was a cat in a big bird cage in the living room. As Skitty flapped around, he headed right for the cat cage. The bars in the cat cage were wide enough for Skitty to go right on in. In my dream I was frantically chasing after Skitty. I was most relieved to wake up and realize it was a dream.

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I bought this Patagonia Nature Cotton at Knit 'n Knibble in Tampa, Florida, over a year ago. It just seemed so very soft and pretty. The colors were perfect. I love it!

I held it for a year, trying to decide what it wanted to be. I tried knitting it up in a plain stockinette shell. It got stiff. I tried it as a scarf with just a bit of a pattern and it lacked definition. I put in on the shelf, figuring it would talk to me at some point. It did, recently.

I wanted a nice warm, but not wool, simple shawl that wasn't overly expensive. I wanted it to just grab as I went out the door. I needed something really casual that would go well with jeans.

Of course, I could have knit it up in a simple pattern like the "Prairie Shawl" in Folk Shawls, but even that seemed overdoing it. So, I went back to one of the very first things I ever made: the Florida Shawl. That was made with Noro Silk Garden in garter stitch knit on BIG needles. It's very light and the colors are really wild. I used about six different colorways and had a ball with it. I liked it so much that I'm going to knit a Clapotis using the same idea.

Well, here it is. Cool, huh? It's knitting up extremely quickly and I should be wearing it by the end of next week.

Isn't it interesting how yarn does, indeed, speak to us sometimes? Yep. It sure is!

I am totally hooked on the blog written by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (The Yarn Harlot). I'm hooked to a totally unreasonable length.

Every single morning, this is the first or second or, once in awhile, the third website I visit. It's like an uncontrollable urge and my day seems incomplete if I don't get there almost immediately upon hoisting the MacBook onto my lap. As I sit here writing, I realize this is an addiction. It's defined my Miriam-Webster's online dictionary as a "compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly : persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful". Now, I don't believe the Yarn Harlot is really harmful (although my husband might disagree), but all the other descriptions fit.

This woman is nuts - in a good way - and it's really impossible to read this blog without breaking into laughter, or sometimes tears, at least once.

If you're a knitter, you see yourself in every single post. As skilled as this woman is, she makes the same mistakes we, as more recent addicts, are making every single day. While we sympathize with her, we are also, secretly, pleased to have company in our turmoil.

The fact that she's absolutely adorable helps, too. Every time I see her picture with her pixie-ish smile and unruly, curly hair, I feel good. I feel really good. It's enough to make me question my orientation - if you know what I mean.

Furthermore, my husband is even getting into her blog. Every since she posted about her cat while reclining in her old clawfoot bathtub, feet on the rim, he's been hoping for more. He keeps giving me comments to post on her blog. It's starting to be his favorite blog, too! This is absolutely sick. I mean, the guy enjoys the fact that I like to knit. He's incredibly supportive, even though the house is starting to look at a "House of Tribbles" (if you recognize that reference, you are either a Trekkie or you're showing your age). He'll go into yarn shops with me and make suggestions and he will even go online and buy "surprise" yarn.

However, he does not knit! I tried to teach him. He wanted to learn. He has no patience when it comes to casting on, much less pulling hundreds, even thousands, of loops of string through each other. His eyes glazed over on the second stitch of a long tail cast on. But he reads this blog! Should I be jealous? Should I be insecure? Nah! Stephanie is just too cute for words.

I look at it this way: If he's reading her blog, he's realizing she's crazier than I am, that she has much more yarn, and that her husband survives just fine.

Thanks, Stephanie. I'll be buying every single one of your publications. I may even buy two copies of each one and a few for gifts. After all, if my husband likes your blog so much, think how much all my non-knitting (foolish) friends will enjoy reading your books.

I just can't decide what to make with this yarn. It's a fingering weight and I have four skeins of it. It's Koigu Merino. I'm thinking some kind of lace shawl, but I sure would like some suggestions!



What do you think? Add a comment and let me know. I'm truly flummoxed with regard to this yarn. It's so very pretty that I don't want to crunch it up into tiny little stitches. I don't have enough for a sweater and I don't wear scarves all that much.

Got an idea? Let me know.

A number of things have transpired in my life, lately, to make me want to begin anew in many ways. As a result of this desire, I have started this new blog, beginning today.

The actual content of the blog isn't going to change a great deal from my Silly Stitcher Blog, but it comes with a clean and fresh look.

For any articles prior to today, at least for the time being, please use the link above to go to the Silly Stitcher Blog. There are lots of things there, including a fair amount of knitting information.

Go on the journey with me. It'll be fun. I promise.