Knit frenzy, part 3

Finally, we have some wool yarn from Reynolds that I bought to make a baby blanket and hat and sweater. But I don't have a baby to give it to, so I am not sure why I bought this.



These are skeins of Misti Alpaca that I bought to make a scarf from The Little Box of Scarves. It is very soft.



Finally, I bought this mohair to make a scarf, but I imagine when I am done it will weigh about 0.5 ounces, and immediately scrunch up into a thin line of yarn. Probably better to make it and then just admire it rather than trying to wear it.

If you see anything you like, maybe when it is done I will give it to you!

Knit frenzy, part 2

These are skeins of Koigu I bought to make myself a scarf. I think the pattern is from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.


This is Blus Sky 100% Organic Cotton that I bought to make scarves from One Skein.



This is some wool I bought to make myself a scarf from a pattern I found on the internet. The woman at the shop said it is better than Manos de Uruguay.


This is some cheap yarn I bought to make place mats until my husband asked if making white place mats was a good idea.....


This is a skein of chenille I bought to make a washcloth, but I forgot to ask for the free washcloth pattern that came along with the yarn, so I guess I will just have to wing it.

But wait, there is more.

knit frenzy

I went on a real yarn buying binge recently, inspired by two books. One is called One Skein, and the other is Mason Dixon Knitting. They both have Knit-alongs, here, and here, which I have joined, although I have not posted anything yet.

I decided I needed to catalog my yarn as to intended project, since I already have a lot of yarn at home that I have forgotten what I was going to make with them......


This Berocco Suede I bought to make the Sprial rib bag in OS.



This Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Superchunky I bought to make a crocheted cravat from OS.



This Lamb's Pride Bulky is for felted bowls and felted boxes from OS and MDK, respecively. I really like the idea of knitting/crocheting non-wearables, the first knitting/crochet book I would write would be called The Knitted and Crocheted Object, and it would focus on everything EXCEPT sweaters.


I bought this Fantasy Naturale to make a baby blanket. I am not sure which baby I intended to give it to....



I bought this Aplaca Boucle to make myself a scarf. What a boring color, what was I thinking?

Strange craft find

Blogs can be addicting, especially when everyone has links to fifty blogs they like. I mostly surf craft blogs. Today, at a blog I can't remember, I found a link to this. Are these for real? At first I thought so, then I thought, those are too nice, this has to be a hoax. I still don't know.

All I know is that I want to try it. Maybe.

New Digs

I got my new office! I am teaching this fall, once again, but this timeI said I would not do it unless my office was closer to the research lab where I work. So, here I am, in the basement. This is my new desk, with my computer. Looks pretty nameless and personality free!

The building is getting old, and there is evidence of past flooding, as below. I hope these is not too much asbestos or other toxins from a building built during WWI!


The person who had this office before me taught for many years in our department, and had quite a reputation for teaching. He cleaned out most of the office, but what interests me is what was left behind. He was quite a fan of the West, as these stickers demonstrate. I have never been to any Alaska State Parks, and feel a bit odd advertising for them on my filing cabinet.


He was also quite a fan of dogs. He always had two or three labs..... and you can tell that from looking at the office chairs, covered in dog hair. A closeup is below. I brought my own chair.



But he left a nice Lab calendar. This month's entry says: "Labrador Retrievers are big, beautiful, and all personality. They are also friendly and loving, courageous and proud, tenacious and athletic. And most of all, they are faithful." Hmmm. maybe that is why there are so many Labs, they have good PR.


Since he had taught for so long, he had accumulated many science-related things. Here is a small fraction of the books he left behind. Biology Today from 1972. The Mitochondrion from 1964. I doubt I will be using those in class. If I had time it would be interesting to browse through the books, seeing what was current in 1964.

And there are other, smaller artifacts of past lives. A set of beautiful blocks for printing images, from a box labeled "Zinc cuts for lab manual." I imagine this is what people used for replicating images a LONG TIME AGO. I am old enough to remember mimeographs, but not this.


A box labeled" Condensor fur Dunkelfeld", which is a condenser for a drak field microscope. What I like about this is the beautiful box, it is leather-covered wood, and lined with satin and velvet. They don't make 'em like that anymore.


I am sure I will have more fun seeing what was left behind, when I am not looking out my window. I have quite the worm's eye view.

Maisie Dobbs

Maisie Dobbs

Reading other people's book lists can be a tough slog. I have not been doing too well lately with my blogstalker book list, but I think that would happen anytime you follow someone else's choices.

The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. Very well written, very slow moving. The story of Nick, an American in London in the 80's. Nick lives with a wealthy Tory family in Margaret Thatcher's England. I read about 150 pages when I realized that Nick's story just didn't grab me all that much. I am too old to read books when I am not excited about them. Critics loved it.

Amy and Isabelle by Elisabeth Strout. A contrast to the above book, Isabelle and her daughter Amy are working class women in Maine sometime in the recent past. Their lives are not exciting, but maybe I just didn't read far enough to discover a plot in this book. Time to move on after 75 pages.

Maisie Dobbs by Jaqueline Winspear. This one I did finish. Not well received critically, but a popular success. Maisie is a woman in 1929 London. She is from the "lower" classes, but by her natural intelligence and pluckiness and the help of some upper class mentors who recognize her great potential, she is able to go to Cambridge and then start her own private investigation company. Sound cliched? It is. I think the author just read "Upstairs, Downstairs" one too many times. It felt also like she was writing directly for the BBC, hoping that "Mystery" or some other BBC program would pick up on Maisie's story, which I admit, would make a great miniseries, kind of like "Upstairs, Downstairs" meets Nancy Drew. That is a winning combination. There were just too many cheeky working class people, rich yet discerning upper class people, etc for it to feel original. And everyone LOVES Maisie and does her all sorts of favors that move the plot along but which are pretty unrealistic. I would watch the TV series, though, it would have great 1920's clothes and old cars and people drinking tea and talking in British accents.......

Hewitt

Family
1: a group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one head.
2: a group of persons of common ancestry; a people or group of peoples regarded as deriving from a common stock.
3: a group of people united by certain convictions or a common affiliation.

Friend
1: one attached to another by affection or esteem.
2: one that is not hostile; one that is of the same nation, party, or group
3: one that favors or promotes something (as a charity)
4: a favored companion

Companion
1 : one that accompanies another; also one that keeps company with another
2: one that is closely connected with something similar; one employed to live with and serve another

Pet
1 a : a pampered and usually spoiled child;a person who is treated with unusual kindness or consideration
2 : a domesticated animal kept for pleasure rather than utility

By these definitions, our cat Hewi was friend, family, companion, and pet. This marks the second anniversary of the day (August 9, 2004) that we had to put him to sleep because he had cancer. I still miss him tremendously.

We got Hewi in 1999, preceding our move to Ohio. We also got Chloe, his mother. Hewi was around 4 months when we got him, and immediately because an integral part of our lives with his sparkling personality and antics.

I remember he was fascinated with doing the dishes, and when someone stood at the kitchen sink doing the dishes, he would climb up your legs and back (this was not as painful as it sounded since he would usually jump to a clothed part of your body and since he only weighed a pound) and perch over your shoulder and watch excitedly while you washes the dishes. I never figured out exactly what was so exciting.

He would also fall asleep in the strangest places, I have a picture of him sleeping on top of my husband's sneakers, that could not have been comfortable.

When we moved to Ohio, Hewi became my best friend. Might sound strange, but I did not know anyone there, my husband was at a job in Boston, so Hewi and Chloe (she of the absence of personality) were the only ones I knew. Everyday when I got home from work, Hewi would run to the front door as he heard the key in the lock, then run excitedly to his scratching post to scratch. The post had a bell on the top and it would jingle excitedly as he welcomed me home.

Hewi was a cat who thought he was a dog, I could take him on walks on his leash, he played fetch, and he loved water. He would wait while you took a shower and as soon as the water stopped, he would jump on the shower and try to catch the drops of water falling down the shower curtain. Sometimes I would stop up the drain and fill the tub with a half inch of water, then he would get it and splash around.

He also loved trash cans and sometimes I would come home and find the bathroom trash can overturned and the contents sprawled out. We got trash cans with lids.

He was a shoulder cat. At 19 pounds and two feet long, he could stretch around your neck, with his head and arms hanging on one side and his legs hanging on the other side, like a mink stole. He would stay there, purring like crazy, until I had to remove him because the weight was making my neck hurt.

He had the best expressions. He used his ears to great effect and when something intrigued him, he would rotate the ears forward like little satellite dishes, to hear better before he acted.

He was smart. All I had to do was say his name once, in a certain tone, and he would come running from wherever he was in the house and go to the back door 'cause he knew it meant he was getting to go outside on his leash. He loved going outside so much that if you let him out, he would immediately roll around on the ground, purring in ecstasy.

He loved milk. He knew the sound of the milk jug coming out of the fridge (whatever that was??? I never figured out how he knew that) and would run immediately over and begin meowing frantically, as if it were his only food in days.

We knew something was wrong when he stopped eating. In the space of six weeks he went from normal to terminally ill. We had one last weekend with him after we knew there was no hope. I slept with him on the porch, because Chloe had become aggressive towards him. He was all shaved from the various test they had done and you could tell he was not himself. We spent a lot of time outdoors where he loved being. Then on Monday morning we put him to sleep and then buried him in the back yard.

Oddly, Chloe never seemed to mourn or to miss him, but for days, our dog knew something was wrong with me, since I was crying all the time.

R.I.P. little guy, best pet I ever had. I was so lucky to have you. Thank you for all the joy you brought me.

Kids these days

I just walked past a college-aged girl who was wearing a black t-shirt with the word "botox" written in rhinestones on the chest. WTF?

Is she saying "Sure I am only 22, but I use botox already."

or

"This is what it looks like when you are too young to need to inject poison into your skin."

Or maybe there is a band called Botox, and I am just not hip enough to know.

I don't (hardly) ever wear clothes with any writing on them; my body is not a billboard. But if it were, I would want the message to be clear, not confusing. "Future Hottie" I understand, as well as "College" a la Animal House, but "botox", that just don't make no sense.

A disclaimer

I meant no disrespect in my earlier post to anyone who chooses to spend their money on personal care products. Just because it is a mystery to me, does not mean it is not perfectly valid to others. I am sure those people would come to my house and be mystified as to why I spent so much money on beads, or beading books, or beading magazines, or yarn, or fabric, or dog toys or plants for the garden. To each her own.

Addendum from yesterday

1. Inspired by yesterday's post about women who take care of themselves excessively, I put on some perfume that a friend had given me a few years ago. I instantly regretted it, the perfume is called Vanille, and yes, I smell like baked goods.

2. Watching a bit ot the Today show yesterday while waiting for the bus. The spot was on "what to take for a weekend in the Hamptons/At the Beach/in the Mountains." Does anyone need to be told what clothes to pack for a weekend? Anyway, the top tip was "Don't wear bright colors, you don't want to stand out" followed by "be sure to wear gold jewelry." No wonder people have disdain for fluff like this.