I was tagged for this meme by Cindy over at Knit For Joy, who knows I’m a sucker for a good meme.

The Band Meme

You are about to have your own band’s CD cover. Follow these directions to the letter. It’s fun and requires no thought at all. Go to……

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
   The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
   The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
   The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result as a comment in this post. Also, pass it along on your own blog, because it’s more amusing that way.

And there you have mine: that amazing album You Have For Sure by Locally Finite Measure.

I don’t know. I think it sounds definitely alternative. My punk son would be proud.

I’m not going to tag anyone specifically. If you see this and think it’s fun, go for it. Be sure to post your results!

Molly Bag

This is Molly. Alice at Tangle order her for me from Lantern Moon and I picked her up at Thursday Night Knitting.

Isn’t she lovely? The fabric is a raw silk blend. It comes in blue, red or orange. All have the lime green lining.

Really, this is one of the coolest knitting bags I’ve ever had. It’s circular in its basic construction, with a inside large enough to hold a medium-sized project. But the way that the lining is sewn in creates 4 pockets around the outside that are each large enough for a small project, or some notions, or the odd ball of yarn, or… a snack, I guess, or whatever. The main compartment includes a zippered pocket and a larger pocket that could be used for a cell phone or maybe a few needles. It has two adjustable straps that are just the right length. And it’s not leaning on anything. It stands up on its own.

I immediately started stuffing in all of my current carry-around projects. In the pocket on the left, the Salish Sea Socks. In the main compartment, Wings Of A Dream. Hiding in the shadows, you can just see Lenore peeking out of the pocket on the right. The remaining two pockets so far are empty.

I’m in love.

you want me to eat what?

In kitty news, Phoebe is feeling a lot better. She has been on medication since last week, and I can tell it’s having the intended results.

Phoebe has never been sick a day in her 15 years, so giving her pills is interesting. I am an experienced kitty-pill-giver, thanks to Kidd. But, regardless, poking a tiny pill past the sharp teeth of a creature who doesn’t want to swallow said pill and is objecting strenuously with said teeth and a myriad of sharp, spiky claws can be… an adventure.

My vet suggested a wondrous invention called Pill Pockets. These are little goodies that are about the consistency of Play Doh but presumably better flavored. The center is hollow. One simply drops the pill inside, squooshes the end closed and hands it to the designated pet, who, in theory, chomps it down with great relish, never noticing that they’ve been medicated. No mess, no fuss, no angry pets.

The package I bought said chicken on the front. They smelled vaguely meat-like, if not particularly chicken-ish. I dropped a pill in the center and squooshed it closed. I handed it to Phoebe who chomped it down with great relish. This, I thought to myself, is the best thing since sliced bread.

Well… that worked OK for awhile. Then the medication began to work, and Phoebe’s appetite began to diminish. She began to get better at eating the treat from around the pill, and leaving the offending bit on the floor. This is a tiny, tiny little atom of medication about the size of a pin head. How she knows it’s there amongst the vaguely chicken-flavored Play Doh is anybody’s guess. But she does.

Thus began the second stage of the medication cold war.

I will never pretend to understand what goes on in the minds of any of the cats that live with me. Phoebe is willing to let me come near to pet her. As soon as I pick her up, she starts to meow and protest, but she doesn’t fight me. She just wants me to know that she’s not happy. I plop her on the counter in the kitchen, scoop a tiny little pill from the bottle and toss it down her throat (with some protest but, fortunately not drawing blood). I am, as I mentioned before, well versed in the art of getting a cat to swallow something he or she does not want to swallow.

Now, here’s the part I don’t understand.

If I let go of Phoebe at that point, allowing her to “escape,” she will go into hiding, cower in corners and refuse to either speak to me or accept goodies from me the rest of the day. I’m her worst enemy. If, however, I lift her from the counter and place her gently on the floor at my feet, she will wait right there in besotted anticipation while I get a treat out and give it to her. I’m her best friend.

Detente has been reached.

stylin’ babe

Here’s a stylin’ babe! Doesn’t she look like she’s saying ooooo, I have a cooooool hoooody! I can flap my sleeves! 😀

This lovely lass is the recipient of the second Babies ‘n’ Bears Sweater that I made last year. She’s a sweetie pie, eh? Doesn’t she have long hands? I’m seeing a piano in her future. (You go, girl!)

I said that I made that sweater last year, and then I realized last year was only a little over a week ago. What happened to 2007? I can’t believe it went so fast. Time flies like an arrow.

(Fruit flies like a banana.)

Sorry about that. Just couldn’t resist.

I have heard from #1 Son. Phone calls have not been attempted, but email, it turns out, is possible between Brazil and Portland. He is having a wonderful time. The food is great. The weather is wonderful. The people are beautiful and friendly. He’s having the time of his life. Yesterday he forgot to put sunscreen on his feet and ankles before lounging around on the beach all day. Ouch.

I so wish I were with him. Think of it. Sunshine. Warm weather. There is none of that, here. Here it is winter. Cold and drizzly and gloomy. In Brazil it’s summer.

Having your mom tag along on your punk band’s tour would probably be limiting, though.

raven wing progress

This is proof that I have been knitting, although I don’t seem to have been blogging about it lately. I’m about 1/2 finished with the first wing of the Wings Of A Dream shawl.

Like all lace, it looks a bit wonky and weird until it’s blocked — sort of The Great Black Glob-ish. But when I stretch it out, I’m happy. It’s going to be really pretty, I think, when it’s finished.

It’s really hard to capture the true color of this yarn. Sometimes it’s black. And sometimes it’s blue. And sometimes there are hints of turquoise. If you pop up the biggy size picture, you’ll see glints of bluish color. Silk has such a pretty sheen, too, doesn’t it? I loves me some silk, gentle reader.

Now I’m starting to worry that I won’t have enough yarn. I should have enough. I planned to have enough. But it’s a little hard for me to judge how much I have left vs. how much I’m going to need to finish this wing and knit the other wing. If it turns out that I don’t have enough, all I can do is order another skein and keep my fingers crossed that the color is reasonably similar to what I already have. But I’m double-stranding, so that should help. Maybe. One more thing to worry about.

This post feels disjointed to me. I went back to work today (yesterday, now) after two whole weeks off. I’m still in shock. No doubt I’ll acclimate all too soon.

a car in its place

In the scheme of things, this is a very minor annoyance. But one of my neighbors always parks The Truck in front of my house.

On my block, street parking space is at a premium. There isn’t room in front of most houses for more than one car. In front of my house to the left of the driveway, there’s room for 1-1/2 cars. That’s it. To the right, there isn’t enough room between my driveway and my neighbors driveway to comfortably fit a car. You can put a car there, but only if it hangs over into one of the driveways. So that’s where we put garbage and recycling on collection day.

Most people have more than one car and park them in their driveways. Although all of the garages are advertised as double car, in reality the house on the corner is the only garage that’s really big enough for two cars considering that most people, like this intrepid reporter, also use the garage for storage space. I like to park my car in the garage. It slots in nicely right in the middle, with stuff to either side. So parking another car in the driveway makes it impossible to get my car out.

When #1 Son lived at home, he parked in the garage when I wasn’t home and didn’t catch him at it, and parked in front of the house otherwise. When he moved out, The Truck took over.

I have no idea which neighbor owns The Truck, because I have never seen anyone actually drive it. Sometimes it is gone. Mostly it is there. It’s usually only a minor annoyance because visitors – and I don’t have that many – can park in my driveway.

It has, over the months, attained the status of capitalization. It’s not just some old truck. It’s The Truck. I sort of wish The Truck were a slightly more upscale vehicle (we’re talking old and well used, here). But it does give my house the appearance of being lived in when I’m away. So when I see it in front of my house, I sigh and go on.

Now #1 Son is out of town for 5 weeks and his car is living at my house. I insisted it live at my house because there have been issues with his car when he leaves it elsewhere — minor things like it being towed necessitating Mom bailing it out. Since my name is still on the title, it lives with me, now, when he is not using it.

The question, of course, has been… where to put it.

Not the driveway, because then I can’t get my car out without moving his.

Not in front of my house, because The Truck is there.

Not elsewhere on the street, because all the places on the block are taken.

Aarrrgggghhhhh

In the end, he parked it in the tiny space between the driveways, with its rear poking out into my driveway. I’m sure it annoyed my neighbors, because it meant they had to move their garbage/recycling. (Sorry about that, neighbors!) But there just wasn’t anywhere else to put it. So there it was.

#1 Son left Monday. And the game began. I watched for The Truck to disappear. Even it it was only briefly. Just long enough to move #1 Son’s car back a bit to the other side of the driveway. Just a few minutes.

Every time I went to the front of the house, I looked out the window. Was it there? Yes. Every time I left, I looked. Every time I returned, I looked. It was there. I began to think it was a permanent fixture. I started looking out only half-heartedly, knowing that The.Truck.Would.Be.There.

Late last night I looked outside. The scene looked different. The.Truck.Was.Gone!

The picture is the scene now. #1 Son’s car is parked in front of my house. Ahhhhhh… sigh of relief. And there it can sit because I’m not driving it. It looks about like his room inside — toxic waste dump.

I have not heard from #1 Son yet. But I’m sure he’s OK and got to Brazil safely. If not, I’d surely hear from the State Department or someone, right?

finished steering wheel cozy

And here we have the first finished object of 2008.

And what is it? I hear you ask, gentle reader.

This, my friends, is a steering wheel cozy.

As soon as I saw this pattern in the Son Of Stitch ‘n Bitch book while I was doing a little knitting at Tangle, I knew that I needed to knit one because this was simply an accessory that my car needed badly. A cabled steering wheel cozy. Think how nice that will feel to my cold hands on a dreary winter’s day.

Berroco Suede? I queried Alice.

Let’s see what I have back in the back Alice replied. Come with me.

And there in the bin, right on top, were the perfect colors. So what was I to do? I had to knit one. It was fate.

cozy steering wheel

This did take a bit longer to knit than I thought it would. For one thing, steering wheels have a deceptively long perimeter. And the Suede was just not the most pleasant stuff to knit with at the rather small gauge the pattern called for. I had to take frequent breaks to rest my hands.

I can see why the pattern called for this yarn, though. Once stitched onto the wheel, it’s not going anywhere. There’s no movement at all when turning the wheel. I think that a wool yarn would not have been as sticky and would have stretched more as time went on, leading to rather unpleasant consequences should the cozy slip while the driver was, say, trying to turn a corner.

Imagine trying to explain that to a judge. I’m sorry, your honor, I guess I should have cabled tighter.

Be sure to check out the new Finished Objects Gallery 2008. I’m using a new Dreamweaver extension to build it, and I think it’s pretty cool.

The Particulars:

• Yarn: Berroco Suede (100% nylon / 50g, 111m per skein); one skein of 3725, Tonto, two skeins I think are 3735, Clint (no ball band on these, so I am guessing). I had tons — tons — left over.
• Needles: Knit Picks Options, US#6, on a 24″ cable
• Steering Wheel Cozy from Son Of Stitch ‘n Bitch by Debbie Stoller. Pattern was knit as written without modification.
• Techniques used: Intarsia, with the cable in Tonto and the borders to each side in Clint.

new on the needles

It’s that time of the year again. Time to look back. Time to gaze forward in anticipation. Let’s look ahead, first, and welcome 2008.

I did not remain sock monogamous to Lenore. I cast on the toes of the Salish Sea Socks, the December Rockin’ Sock Club pattern. The colorway is called Bella Coola / Nuxalk. It’s a Cat Bordhi pattern. The colors are my blog colors, and Cat gave me a nice little shout-out in the pattern notes. So what was I to do but cast them on?

But, I hear you ask gentle reader, what is that other unfinished strip of stripy cabled goodness sharing the picture with the Salish toes?

That was something I was hoping would be the last finished object of 2007. Didn’t make it. It will be the first finished object of 2008, though. I will tell you more later. For now, I will only say that the pattern comes from this book, and as soon as I saw it I knew that I had to knit it. When Tangle had the right yarn, the deal was sealed.

More later.

Also looking ahead: #1 Son left yesterday for a 5-week trip to Brazil. Yeah. South America. I was not allowed to go to the airport, because Moms are so lame at airports and stuff, you know. But he called me from the airport to let me know he was there. And he called me again to let me know they were ready to board. And he called me again to let me know that their flight to Chicago had been delayed. And he called again to let me know that they had landed, finally, in Chicago but missed the connection to Sao Paulo, and now had to stand in a really long line. And then he sent a text message to say that they had tickets on a flight leaving today. And then he sent a text message to say Happy New Year and that he was at a party with Chicago friends. I have not heard yet today. He has promised to call occasionally and maybe send an email now and again. Five weeks is a long time. Brazil is very far away.

In other non-knitting news, my old lady cat, Phoebe, has been diagnosed as hyperthyroid, thus explaining her weight loss and erratically needy behavior that was so odd in a crotchety cat that mostly just wants to be left alone — except at night, when a great deal of lovin’ is appreciated at bedtime. The good news is that it’s a condition that is, actually, curable in a fairly easy way. The bad news is that the condition may be masking chronic renal failure, which is not curable. So Phoebe is on medication to bring her thyroid levels down to normal so her kidneys can be evaluated. In all of her 15 years, Phoebe has never been sick or required medication of any kind. Since she tends to hold a grudge, I was not looking forward to shoving a pill down her throat offering her medication twice a day. But my vet carries this wonderful invention called Pill Pockets. Slip the pill inside the formed treat and smoosh the end closed, and the designated pet chomps it down. Phoebe loves them. So the only issue is keeping Kidd distracted while Phoebe eats her treat. Moo doesn’t count here, because she doesn’t like treats of any kind. She only eats cat food and yarn.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Now, looking back in farewell to 2007:

In January, I decided to buy yarn. And I kept that promise all through the year. So much so that I think in 2008 I will be a bit more restrained. Blue Moon suffered through their well-publicized bank problems. And my sock class was canceled because of snow.

February saw the Snake River Socks released into the wild, unfortunately, it turned out, with several errors. #1 Son borrowed my vacuum. My brain turned up missing in action as I tried to figure out the right number of stitches to go around a sock leg.

The first Rockin’ Sock Club shipment came in March. I resolved to knit socks only with my classes (resolution soon broken). My socks were lost and then found and, it turned out (via contest), may have been running a little underground resistance movement against sock abuse.

April opened with the Magical Moebius Festival in Newport. Knitting and food and yarn and food and Cat Bordhi and food and whales, and I knit a giant moebius (unintentionally) that 11 people fit into. And it was too far to drive 10 miles to my house, but not too far to drive to Eugene or Seattle.

In May I had the plane trip from hell. While I was in Miami, #1 Son called from Toronto to ask if I could move his car in Portland (it was towed). We lost Grandpa Barney. And I learned that I still remember how to execute a perfect slightly imperfect pratfall.

June found me proving my extreme dorkiness whilst meeting The Yarn Harlot. PDX Knit Bloggers were born (can’t believe it’s only been since June). The Clapotis That Never Ends… finally ended.

In July I visited Boston yarn shops (and my cousins). The PDX Knit Bloggers had their first meet-up at Knit Purl. #1 Son reached v1.9. I was both sorted into Ravenclaw and Simpsonized.

August started with a heelish experience. Sockapalooza 4 finished and I was spoiled nicely. Maia arrived for a PDX Yarn Crawl — on my birthday! I still owe the Bo Diddley sock pattern to several people. A gorgeous new Cat Bordhi book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One, was published. My name is on page 22. And I was kept suitably humble by my first autograph requestor who said, I have no idea who you are but apparently you’re famous, so please sign my book.

I had more fun with Judy’s Magic Cast-On in September. I also learned that it’s a good thing to pay attention when one is turning cables. At OFFF I met a Rasta sheep and fell off my yarn diet. Hard.

October started with a very interesting computer rebuild. (lovin’ the new computer now, though) I attended the first ever Floating Knitting Retreat with Cat Bordhi and Lucy Neatby and had a wonderful time. I obtained my first ever MP3 player (knitting videos on my iPod!). We planted a tree for Barney and the Ravens landed.

In November, Tina destashed and knitters everywhere helped out. The rose arch finally gave up the ghost. I made a swift from Tinker Toys. I was thankful for finally finishing The Great Green Glob. Not so thankful when it turned out there was a dropped stitch requiring major post-blocking surgery.

I was sick for a lot of December. But I knit a scarf for #1 Son and started The Wings Of A Dream in Blue Moon Silk Thread. I pondered the future of knitting. I made carrot soup instead of carrot pudding. And I was given the gift of snow on Christmas.

Objects Finished In 2007:

9 pairs of adult-sized socks
2 pairs of baby-sized socks
2 iPod Nano socks
2 moebii of the right size
1 moebius bowl
2 baby sweaters
1 Clapotis
1 lace shawl
1 scarf
1 hat

22 finished objects total

In the queue for 2008 or currently on the needles:

4 lace shawls / wraps
2 sweaters
1 blanket
1 bag
1 hat
1 scarf
2 pairs of socks on the needles
a gazillion pairs of socks rattling around in my brain

Chances of finishing this list by 12/31/2008? We shall see.