Hot Projects

One of the fun things about working at New Moon is that they carry a whole line of Amy Butler patterns! I bought these two because I think they will make snazzy knitting bags, and snazzy knitting bags make great gifts for knitters! Not, of course, that I know any knitters who would like a bag with skellies on it. Oh, no. Not at all!

But, you know, just in case...

I haven't done much sewing at all in the last few years, but I'm really anxious to get back into it. I'll be starting with the Mystery Weekend coming up on Friday--I'm hoping that this will help to jump-start my sewing in a way that my class at Asilomar didn't. (Not that it was the class's fault, at all! It was very inspirational, and I will definitely be doing more with that project. It's just that it came at a really bad time for me, in a lot of ways!)


Then there's this project, which has not yet been photographed, although it's already in my Ravelry queue. It's one of my Ravelympics projects. Yeah, might be a good idea to wind that yarn and cast on, eh??

It's the Elvenwood Stole by Brenda Zuk of Needle Beetle. The yarn is Sea Silk in the Woodland colorway, and I really hope that two skeins are enough. Yes, I will read the pattern before I cast on--I did read it before, and it seems to me that it was going to be fine, but my memory isn't as good as I'd like it to be.

(Just checked. I think it's an uh-oh. I'll get back to you on this one! )

Hot Knits, with Wombat

What does one do when it's too hot and sweaty to knit?
Well, if you're me, you try anyway. But there are always distractions.

Distraction #1:

Dillon. With friend.

If you want some chuckles, try explaining to a Norteamericanito what a wombat is. First of all, it sounds like a made-up word.

Secondly, I don't know all the words to "One Woolly Wombat." I don't even know where my copy is!

But the boys thought he was cute. Not quite sure they believed me (It's a big mouse!" ) but they were kind and pretended to.

Deryk thought he was cute, too.
Wombat meets knitting.

Paris scarf, say hello to wombat.

Wombat, say hello to Paris Scarf.`

I wonder if wombats eat Sea Silk? He's certainly giving it the once=over.

The sharp-eyed among you will notice that I have, in fact, found the swift. Yay! I have not, however, found the ball winder. If pressed, I can definitely wind a ball of yarn by hand, with the help of the swift. `````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` There is some wonky formatting on this page, which is directly attributable to this:
large cat butt on keyboard. Seriously, he did something that has made the page all weird. That's why I am posting the wide-body shot. Serves you right, cat! Mess with my blog post...

Wombat is retiring for the night. (The reason Wombat came out of hiding is that the boys don't seem to understand that the small bear is the cat's toy, and therefore highly unsanitary for small boys to huggle.

Wombats, on the other hand, are cuddly!)

Hot 'lympics

After a long hot day, I am finally collapsed watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. I'm too tired (and hot) to knit, so I'm going to shut down the computer and just relax.

I know you've been waiting breathlessly for this announcement!

By the way, the opening day of Dizzy Blonde's Etsy shop was highly successful. I believe she has sold out the first run! Way to go, La!

Hot Tip, Hot Shots

Here's your Hot Tip for the day: tomorrow will be the Grand Opening of La's Dizzy Blonde Yarn Shop on Etsy! (This is Laura, the "La" half of JenLa. The dizzy blonde is her adorable Trixie, who is the most energetic little bundle of blonde fur you could ever find.)


You can get a sneak preview of the colorways on this blog page. Warning: I got a severe craving for every one of these colorways, even the colors I don't normally gravitate to. Laura's base yarn is yummy smushy, too.

And she didn't pay me to say it. In fact, I have to line up with the rest of you at 8:08 am (PDT) tomorrow, 8/8/08. I think that's an auspicious time for the store opening!
It's also my dad's 91st birthday, so here's a happy birthday shoutout to Chick! (My parents have always been Grandpa Chick and Grandma Mickey, or Mick and Chick, to my kids. ) I hope he'll be having a good one, and I really truly wish I could be there to wish him happy birthday in person.

Okay, here's a couple of hot shots of our hotshot boys, in case you were starting to think this was going to be all-Audrey-all-the-time. Just because I'm with her 3 days a week, doesn't mean I love her "best" or "more." She's just my favoritest youngest granddaughter, that's all.

And Nate is my favorite youngest grandson, and with those dimples and big brown eyes and happy disposition, how could he not be?

Then, of course, there's my favoritest Grandcarrot. He's turned into a very handsome and good-natured little boy, which of course we knew he would be, but it's always nice to be able to say "I told you so." He is a good big brother, doesn't get upset if he has to wait his turn cause the baby needs something.

Okay, off the Memere soapbox now. I'm going to go hit "refresh" on Laura's Etsy shop, just in case she goes "live" a little early. Well, at least, after I dig out the swift and ball winder. Olympics start tomorrow, and the Ravelympics kick off at 5 am PDT.

No, I will NOT be up and casting on then. Sorry! I need my beauty sleep!

PS: the photos of the two boys are D4's. I snitched them cause they are so cute!

Hot n' Tired

A little summer sky to share today, with a taste of the clouds we've been seeing.

Last night at quilting was pretty busy, so much so in fact that I didn't even have time to get out the camera. Which was a shame, because there were some great projects in p rogress. Hopefully they'll come back next week and I can take some pics!

Today was a mixture of frustration and good things. The bad thing was that, as I was heading out the door to get my lab work done, I stopped to look for my orders. Good thing.


They were nowhere to be found! I've looked all over, and nope, no sign of them. Tomorrow I'll look again, and if they are still missing, I'll call and ask the dr's office to write them out for me again.

Then I went to PT. Again, it's rather frustrating that the ankle is healing so slowly and that it still gives me a lot of trouble when I stand or walk on it. It even swells up when I sit in a chair--and it's not always convenient to sit with my leg wayyyy up there!

At least, today was a knitting day. It was fun to see some friends and get a little knitting time in!

Just a day left till the Olympics start. I have joined the Ravelympics to give me an extra incentive to wrestle some of my WIPs into shape. That way, I can move on to new projects!

This tub o' yarn is one of my finds from all the upheavals. It's Paton's Look At Me, in two colorways--10 balls of each. I am thinking that they would make nice little sweaters--but then, I seem to have a number of cute little sweaters under way!

I guess this means that I need to finish taking inventory before I succumb to t he lure of more new yarn. However, the enabler is at it again! Let's just say, I already want at least one of everything she's got there. And Lotus Yarns' Melanie is dyeing again, and... and...

Would someone please help me wrangle ET and take away her credit cards? At least till all the boxes are emptied and all the yarn is inventoried and accounted for?

Thank you!

Hot Find

Going through some of the boxes in the back room has been very educational. This little sweater turned up in a box of sweaters, but it was the only hand-made one in the group.

It's a cream-colored fisherman-style cardigan with a zipper--which I put in all by hand, thank you very much--from a pattern which was in a Better Homes & Gardens magazine. I remember working on this while sitting in the pediatrician's waiting room. Among other places!

You probably can't tell, but in addition to a thousand or so bobbles, it's also got a LOT of double seed stitch. In fact, the entire hood is double seed.

I'm going to pass it along to D3 for the Grandcarrot. I think it's nicely unisex and hopefully the zipper will hold up. If it doesn't, well, they have much nicer zippers out there, and it would certainly be easy enough to replace it! (It's a metal zipper, and the color has worn off which is why it looks a little grey in the picture. In real life it's not so noticeable.)

And, it's acrylic, so it will wash and dry very easily. It's just come out of the washer and dryer!


Gratuitious cute baby shot. She has been a busy little bee lately. Loves her toys. Mamma put the toy basket in front of the DVR to try to keep her away from the dangerous stuff--well, she's really the danger!--and it's worked. In this photo, she'd gotten the liner out of the basket as well as all the toys. Bad memere put the liner back in (with a double bowknot for a few extra seconds of security) and most of the toys, which she promptly took out. Again.

She can amuse herself for an hour or more, though, just checking out the possibilities of all her toys. She also loves books--they are delicious!

Hot Fur

Since it's been too warm and humid to do much of anything today, other than PT and a few hours of Missy A, I'm sharing some of the cuter cat photos I took recently.

First, Simon on the dresser. The mirror is reflecting some of the boxes in the closet (guest room, which is where I'm still sleeping) which are mostly Christmas decorations and framed artwork. We haven't put any of the art back on the walls yet--just enjoying the bare-bones look of plain walls, plain dark woodwork, bare windows. I think I've been reading too many of the Craftsman/A&C style magazines!

However, it is a very attractive look, and I'm finding that this house really does fit that era. Well, it should, since that's when it was built, duh, just call me Mrs. Obvious!

Anyway, the cats have been hanging out and trying to keep cool along with the humans.
Hi-Hi has found that the less energy you expend, the cooler and more comfortable you can stay.

After all, he has quite a job just carting around all that fur, not to mention keeping it well-groomed and in peak condition. He does do an admirable job!

So that's today's dispatch. Hot and humid, high allergy day, cute cat pics to distract from the lack of knitting (or other substantive) content. I did manage to get a couple of rows done on the Sweet Pea sweater, but it looks substantially the same as it did the last time. If I can manage a little mojo during Nashville Star tonight, I should be able to get the sleeves done and maybe even start sewing it up. It's going to be relatively quick to finish: pick up stitches around the front and the neck, knit 4 rows of yellow and 4 rows of pink, bind off.

At least that's the plan!

Hot Pink!

Cheating on the title? I don't think so! Here's my crape myrtle, in full bloom, and this is one HOT pink blossom!

Today was my friend G's birthday, and she's been so busy lately that she had forgotten all about it till I called her last Tuesday to check on her after the earthquake! So we made plans to get together for her birthday, and today was the day. I took her up to the new quilt shop, since I knew she'd not been there and would probably not drive up there on her own. This has become a bit of a tradition with us anyway: I take her shopping on her birthday, let her pick out something she loves, and that's her present.

Then we went to dinner at one of her favorite places, Avanti Cafe in Pasadena. A quick stop by the ol' homestead so she could catch up on the renovations, and that was that! A good day out, fun and celebration.

For your edification, here's our new baby:

Isn't it cute?

And D4 left the "quick start" operating instructions attached, so I don't mess it up!

It is sitting on the runner that matches the dining room rug. I love the new rugs! And funny thing, they look soooo much better freshly vacuumed!

Tonight is the finale of Design Star, which is one of my favorite shows, and I'm going to miss it when it's gone. One of the things I love about the show is that, unlike most reality competition shows, the people on this one are genuinely nice. Case in point: last week, the two finalists had to re-do three rooms each for families that had suffered a lot of damage from Katrina, and were still struggling with empty houses. The two designers got help from the previous two who'd been sent home; when Matt got to pick first, he chose the woman, because he felt his "competition" would benefit from the skills of the carpenter guy! Now really, how great is that? Would have been so easy for him to sabotage her by choosing the carpenter first! No matter who wins, I think they are both winners in my book!

Hot Suction

No picture of it yet, but I'll try to get one soon, of our newest pet. Yes, we did a little shopping today, and as is usual with D4 and I, we went out to buy one thing and came home with something quite different.

I'll 'splain. We've been needing a new vacuum cleaner, since the two we have are on their last sucky breaths. One keeps burning out belts, which is annoying as well as smelly; the other has lost most of its oomph. We had been looking at, and planning to buy, a canister vac since they seem to be pretty powerful and easy to maneuver. Especially now that we have so much bare floor, a versatile and efficient vac seemed to be the answer.

So we went. We looked at canisters. We tested out canisters. I've been particularly fond of the Dyson canister--it's a homely little beast, but a friend has one and I was impressed by how quickly and easily it cleaned up broken glass. Well, it's heavy. As in, very very heavy. All of the canisters were.

Then we saw the Electrolux vacs. Very cute, very functional. Very red. Tested out one or two of those. The saleslady suggested we look at the little Dyson ball vac... lightweight, efficient, not a lot of bells and whistles but oh my, lots of power. So that's the one that came home with us.

It's already vacuumed most of the downstairs. D4 is loving using it, and I think I'll have no problem with it either. So, cat hair? Dust bunnies? Dust elephants? No worries!

Hot Times!

The NaBloPoMo theme for August is "hot" and I have decided to take on the challenge: a post a day, with a "hot" topic! In fact, just to make it more fun (in a twisted sort of way, my specialty!) I'm going to use the word "hot" in every title.

The irony to this, of course, is that I really dislike heat, and don't do well in the summer! I have to admit that this summer, so far, we've had a few hot days--as well as an earthquake--but (here I'm cursing myself and the state, sorry folks!) it hasn't been too bad.

Now watch: record-breaking heat will be the new order of the day!

Here's one of my favorite hot topics, though: Miss A, who has found a new "toy." Yes, like her cousin Garrett, she just loves Memere's knitting bag.

It's a perfect toy for her, really. It's big but not heavy, it's full of really interesting items that she can't get at, there's nothing she can hurt herself on...

and it has a delicious zipper pull!
Who knew baby girls love to gnaw on zipper pulls?
This has kept her amused for a long time. She's really learned to focus on things, and she seems to be very curious about everything in her world. Mommy's hair, and Memere's glasses, and zipper pulls and green Birkies.

Oh, and an occasional toy.

Lest you think this is just a baby blog today, I would like to call your attention to the contents of that bag. Yes, it's the Sweet Pea Sweater, and thanks to the fascinating qualities of the zipper pull, I've been able to knit while keeping an eye on her. The sleeves are coming right along, and as soon as they're done I'll be able to sew the sweater together.

I'm also planning to participate in this year's Summer Ravelympics games--you can see a couple of my "team badges" over on the sidebar. I've joined five teams, but three of the projects are WIPs Wrestling, which will have a double goal as it will help with my Mission Possible 2008 goals as well.

Bet you thought I'd forgotten all about those, huh? What with the distractions of house renovations, babysitting, fun and games at the ER... Well, not all the items on my list are within easy grasp, but I'm still hopeful that eventually the Organization Fairy will sprinkle her magic pixie dust on things and I'll actually be able to find my book on getting organized. Then I'll be dangerous!

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's Friday night and time for my What Not To Wear fix. I heard there's a particularly juicy Clintonist smackdown on a fugly handknit tonight!

Summertime...

...and the livin' is lazy. Case in point:


Certain inhabitants of this house seem to think that if it's summer, they get to lay around and look cute.

Well, I guess that's par for the course. That is their job, right?

The house continues to come together, although very slowly it seems. Funny how hard it is to unload boxes when you can't stand up!

The ankle holds grudges. It will let me do certain things, and then slam me down. Sample dialogue when I got home last night: "Okay, I carried you around during class tonight. I didn't complain much. So hear me now! ROWRRR!"


However, thanks to a visit from the Vegas branch of the family, a little furniture moving and rug-laying happened and now we have these new fur-catchers down.

I had to edit the pictures a bit, so you wouldn't see the stacks on the tables. We are using them, after all!

The new coffee table (which is actually a storage bench) fits right in with the furniture and the style we're trying to achieve, and the dining room rug also carries the "oak tree" theme.

See the oak leaves and acorns there?? As soon as I can be a little more ambulatory, and the table gets cleared off, I hope to have some good pictures of the full "effect" with the table, the light fixtures, and the French doors.

That's it for now. The furboys haven't been cooperating with the camera--they've spent a lot of time sleeping, and I don't do much either since it's hard to do anything without standing up!

Quilts n' such

There has been progress on the quilting front--just not by me!

Here's Christine with the center of her baby quilt, for her grandson-to-be:
Dad's a surfer, and the images are of some of the more well-known surfing beaches in SoCal and beyond. The Attic Windows setting is a little tricky for a first quilt, but Christine is up to the challenge!


Then there is Anne's very patriotic Yellow Brick Road--why, it even has yellow patches in it!


Next up: some crochet!
The baby blanket is for the same potential grandson, but this one has a nice story to it:
the corner squares were crocheted by Christine's mother, who only did the four squares. So Christine made the rest of them.

I wish I could turn the photo so you could see that thoses are cats, done in popcorns!
Very cute!


On the home front, there has been some progress now that the ankle is healing a bit more. We had a visit from Audrey's grandpa, who put up the three light fixtures in the "pink" bathroom and the new one for D4's bedroom.

I love those bathroom fixtures! What we've had prior to this has been some old rusted bare-fluorescent-bulb things that clearly showed their age. And only worked when they felt like it, which was not often. These neatly hide the bulb, and have the added bonus of lighted sides as well. The downside? We can now see, clearly illuminated, the condition of the medicine cabinets. Not so good!
(They are from Restoration Hardware, called Pierce, if you really want to know!)

For D4's room, she looked a long time before picking this one. Not the greatest picture, but it really is a pretty fixture, and looks nice with her new bed.

So, there is some healing of the ankle going on, and the back, while pretty nasty, is (I'm hopeful) going to respond to physical therapy and exercise. I do find that, if I am fairly active, the back feels better but the ankle mutters bad words and swells up and throbs at me. So I'm trying to keep a balance of activities that are going to reconcile these two warring factions of the same body. Gosh, I wish they would learn to get along!

What's Happening?

Not much! There does seem to be some sleeping...

and some computer time, too.

Hey, a boy has to keep up with what's happening out in the world, doesn't he?
Even if he doesn't happen to read English?

There are so few websites that offer content in Cat!

So now you begin to see why posting has been sparse from this corner of the planet. There's not much going on here.

Nothing to see. Just move along!

Resting and recuperation are certainly not all they're cracked up to be. It seems to be a truism that one only appreciates the value of rest when one is tired. If one is inactive, then one doesn't get tired. One does get bored, or at least this one does! What do do?

Well, I've read the newspaper most every day. And then checked it out on the web, just to see if there was anything new happening. I've more or less kept up with the magazines that have been coming in. I've kept on top of the bills, and I've even been out of the house a couple of times to knit and to teach my class. This is good. What's not good is that all of this sitting around has made my sciatica act up, and it's no fun when your back is hurting so that you can't stand up straight. The solution (besides applying ice packs) is to get up and move around. This, of course, makes the ankle hurt, so it's a vicious cycle.
Knitting, ah yes. Still enjoying knitting but, unfortunately, I pay for it with shoulder aches.

But tomorrow is another day. I have decided that, no matter what, it's now been a month since my fall/injury, and it's time to stop playing invalid and go back to living. At least as much as is feasible! There are boxes to empty, and things to put away, and more decisions to be made about things like curtains and rugs and office furniture and all the rest of that good stuff.

I may have mentioned that we had to dispose of 9 of the bookcases because of damage in handling them. There were several other things that were damaged, some so badly that they couldn't be salvaged, some that need repair, and some that we're just going to have to live with scratched and dinged. The bookcases are a major loss since there are so many books here! Even after taking many many boxes of books to the Goodwill (there's a Bookstore/ Donation Center not too far away), there are still big piles of books on tables and floors and on top of filing cabinets. So more bookcases are a necessity. What to replace them with? I'm rather inclined toward replacing them with some like the ones we lost--Ikea white plain ones. D4 is not inclined to go that route. So we're waffling, and I think there will be more shopping in our future. Meanwhile, the books are stacked.
I'll let you know how the new, more active regime works out. The boys have been quite happy with the current plan--if I'm just laying around, they are happy to keep me company. They seem to be adjusting to the "different" house pretty well, and while we humans miss Padua, they don't seem inclined to complain. Thank you to everyone who sent hugs and condolences!

July Sparklers

Did I mention that I have a new venue for my Tuesday night quilting classes?

Well, I do. It's here. It's a brand new shop, although not exactly a brand new business--the owners have been selling wonderful fabric and ethnic textiles at quilt shows and online for a few years now. They've found a wonderful space and revamped it completely--what was a dark and atmospheric mystery bookstore is now a light, bright, inviting quilt shop!

So we've been settling in, learning where everything is, checking out all the amazing and delightful fabrics.

It's not just quilts, either--they've got some really wonderful garment teachers on board too. Well, the owners have been very active with a local Wearable Art guild, so I'm expecting to see some interesting ideas coming forth!
Anne was finishing up a Fourth of July wall hanging for the dining room at Westminster Gardens,. which will certainly give the place a little patriotic flair!

These other pictures were taken around the shop, just to give you an idea of what's there and what kind of ambience it has.

Then there was the Fourth itself.

Yummies were the order of the day. I really should have taken more food pictures, but I was sidetracked by the firecracker cupcakes.

Baked in our very own new oven, I might add. D4's first culinary experience with the new stove.

It was slightly hampered by the fact that we are still living with dozens and dozens of boxes.

I will not make any further allusions to the frustration of having to sit and "rest" while looking at the work that needs to be done.


In fact, let's just look at cupcakes for a while.

Yummy. Really.



See? A little blurry,but still tasty, no?


Then there was the swimming pool. Cousins Nate and Garrett cheerfully loaned Cousin Audrey their new swimming pool for the day.

Audrey approved. So did the rest of the crew.

Nate was really trying to get into the spirit of the day, He even wore his hat.

And Garrett had to do a little posing and flirting for Memere and the aunties. He and Dad had matching shirts to get into the spirit of the day.

D5 lives within easy viewing distance of the Fairplex, which was having their annual fireworks show. We had prime viewing space on the front lawn. However, we think that before next year's 4th of July extravaganza, a couple of neighbors are going to find us offering to trim their trees.
Audrey and Nate slept through the fireworks, but Garrett loved them. He was ready for more! Mom says she may have to take him to an Angels game soon, since they have fireworks there!

We had a good celebration, and I hope you did too! Now let's see--I wonder where we can find Bastille Day fireworks?? (True story: I was in Chicago one year for a Bernina convention, and we heard fireworks outside. It was the hotel next door, a Sofitel, celebrating Bastille Day!)

Another Goodbye

Padua

1991--2008

I guess, when your cats live long lives, you really get used to having them around and you start thinking they will live forever. Unfortunately, it eventually comes time to say goodbye.

Padua was one of those scrappy cats who adapted beautifully to family living, but was fiercely protective of his "territory" which included the whole house and yard. He tolerated his feline housemates, loved his Megi, and defended his borders whenever they were breached. He's the cat who tore out the screen in the screen door, because there was another cat in his yard and he wanted to get him! That night, he spend the night in the crawl space under the house and cleared out all the wild critters that had been there, too. Then he came out when I called him, ambled into the house, ate his breakfast and went to sleep.

He was just a little tiny kitten when he was spotted in the parking lot of the San Gabriel Civic Auditiorium, where my kids were working. He came home tucked inside Meg's sweater and settled right in. He was FIV positive, which meant we had to get all of our cats tested; in those days, there wasn't a vaccine for it, although there is now. In practical terms it meant that every so often he'd have to go in for antibiotics--he'd get a really sore mouth--but otherwise he was just as healthy as all the other cats. We decided he had to be part Siamese--he had that Siamese body type, long-legged and lean, and a decidedly Siamese voice.

During the house renovations, he boarded at our vet's, where they were able to give him fluids to keep him hydrated, really quite a blessing since Meg and I are terrible kitty-IV-givers. He was happy to be home, but it was obvious that he needed more care, and so after a couple of days of assessment, the vet agreed that it was time to say goodbye.

I'd like to think that tonight he's curled up on Robert's lap, right next to Tache and GiGi. There's a Padua-sized hole in our hearts tonight.