May 30, 2003
Mutual of Omaha’s Wild (Wink, Wink) Kingdom
A few years ago, K and I were chillin’ in the mother-in-law apartment she lived in at the time when, suddenly, we heard the most God-awful noise coming from outside: screeching, chittering, yowling, thumping, shrieking. We crept outside with a flashlight, sure we would find the dismembered corpse of something strewn all over the yard but, instead, discovered that the commotion came from two raccoons happily and noisily doing The Wild Thing about 20 feet up in a tree. Not being experts in raccoon relations, we assumed everything was going well, until, quite abruptly, the female raccoon fell, indeed, plummeted out of the tree. She landed with a soft thump like an overstuffed pillow and then, without skipping a beat, leapt up, shook herself off, checked her face in her makeup mirror (really) and raced back up the tree to her mysterious masked paramour. You go, bro’!
Knitting Knews – Attack of the Giant Ball of Yarn
I thought I’d share with you a picture of my curiously large ball of yarn. The quarter on the side of the leaf should give you an idea of the size.
This is a skein of hand-painted super-bulky wool yarn in scrumptious southwestern colors which I purchased originally to knit a scarf for K. However, as is the annoying wont of some yarns, it felt wonderfully soft in the store and yet scratchy at home (how do they do that?!). Unfortunately, it was too scratchy, in fact, for K's sensitive skin. (Of course, this is the same person who once had an allergic reaction to acrylic yarn. Hives, the whole works! It's extruded plastic, fer Cripe's sake!)
Since the yarn cost me a wallet-lightening $30, I’m compelled to find a use for it. I'm leaning toward using it to knit a “magic scarf” for myself. As I understand it, to make a "magic scarf," you knit in stockinette stitch until the scarf is only a couple of feet long and cast off. As you cast off (using some kind of unusual cast-off technique I’ll have to research), you drop every other stitch. Then you pull and stretch the scarf until all the cast-off stitches run down to the cast-on edge. Ta-da! A long, loose, lacey scarf! I’ve never knit one of these before but it sounds like so much fun! And it sounds like the type of “instant gratification” project that I, ever the if-it-takes-longer-than-two-weeks-to-knit-I-won't-knit-it knitter, would gravitate toward.
Last weekend the red baby socks finally went to the new mommies. I was rewarded by the sight of one of the mommies returning to the gift bag again and again to pull out the socks to have just one more look. That's why I do this!
Dye Garden Dyegest – Argh!
Now that I have gathered together all of the equipment I will need to mordant my yarn, I can’t find the Henry’s Attic yarn! As soon as I have all the pieces together I need, I’ll do the mordanting, take plenty of pictures, and report to you.
I’m seriously starting to eye the marigolds; they quiver with fear whenever I walk by. They each have about five blossoms on them, and as soon as the middle, original blossom shows even the faintest hint of fading, my garden clippers will be going snicker-snack! If I’m not ready to use them at that exact time, I believe I can freeze the blossoms until I have enough to make a dye bath.
Apropos of Nothing
For reasons that I won't burden you with, I had a mini-meltdown yesterday. But how can a girl go on feeling sorry for herself when this is what is waiting for her at K's?
