(My apologies, dear readers -- no photos today. The camera actually resides at Miss K's house and sometimes (a) having an interesting subject to photograph and (b) getting myself to her house (c) at least a day before I post to the blog sometimes doesn't all work out...
Also, I will be on vacation again next week. I'll trytrytry to post.)
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Yesterday morning, I had to drop my car off for service. Because I arrived at the shop early, I just dropped my car keys into the drop-box they make available. Then I got to thinking, wouldn’t it be great if you could do the same thing for a mammogram? Just slip your boobs through a special round hole in a drop box, leave them there for the day, and pick them up when the mammogram is over. If you’re lucky, maybe they will even have been vacuumed, shampooed and waxed before you pick them up. (Although I’m not too sure about the waxing. I have visions of myself chasing a slippery boob around my bathroom. It would be kind of like trying to pick up that last pea on your plate.)
Knitting Knews
The pressure! The pressure! Saturday night, we’re having A Last Pre-Labor Hurrah with the parents-to-be of the baby for whom I knit the Oat Couture sweater. It now behooves me to get the sweater fixed and blocked by then. Love the pressure; hate the pressure.
However, it does appear that I have officially gone over to The Dark Side. I have already purchased another baby sweater pattern to knit, a cable-and-rib raglan cardigan. The pattern is written for Sirdar Chunky but I'm using Plymouth Encore Worsted Weight in a wonderful bright egg-yolk yellow that literally makes me smile whenever I take it out of my knitting bag. Mind you, I don’t have a baby lined up for the sweater yet, but I'm not too concerned. Knowing the human penchant for putting Tab A into Slot B, I'm pretty sure some bun will start baking in some oven somewhere before I'm done.
Hmmm, even as I'm writing this, I'm wondering about using a worsted weight as a substitute for a "chunky." The LYS said it would substitute just fine but... Drat. That means I have to do a gauge swatch. Double drat.
Dyeing Dyegest
My next Adventure in The Land of Natural Dyeing involved using foxglove leaves. Online, I had found a mention of foxglove as a possible source of green dye. Eureka! So I went through the whole routine, gathering the leaves, soaking them, simmering them, straining the dyebath, adding the wet skein of yarn to the dyebath, and simmering again. But, nary a drop of green. I did get a color which I would describe as one slice of banana blended in a quart of vanilla ice cream, a super-super-light lemon chiffon. I'll post a picture as soon as possible.
Worsted subbing for chunky????? That's er... unusual. Worsted generally knits at 5 stitches per inch; Aran at 4.5 spi, and bulky/chunky at 4 and less. I don't know Sirdar Chunky personally, but Plymouth Encore isn't all that fat. I'd be raising an eyebrow, lady. If you want to get the right gauge you may be producing a bulletproof fabric, not exactly a baby's idea of a good time.
Ever bringing good news,
Sheila
Pooh. My LYS said to use any yarn that gets (read, said on the little label on the yarn shelf) 4.5 stitches to the inch. The little label on the shelf under the Encore said just that so I thought, "aha!" But now I'm having second thoughts, and all the more so now that someone who Actually Knows What Their Doing is raising an elegantly-shaped but skeptical eyebrow...
Well, I've only knit only about an inch of one side of the sweater, so No Big.
Posted by: Ryan on June 27, 2003 11:34 AMi love the post about the slippery boob.....it was laugh out loud hilarious!
Posted by: blu on June 27, 2003 03:32 PMThink of how many more people would schedule a colonoscopy if you could just drop off your rectum and didn't actually have to be there. What a concept, you may have just saved countless lives!
Posted by: JUSTIN on June 28, 2003 08:40 AMBlu and Justin, you have no idea how big a sigh of relief came out of me when I read your comments. I was a mite nervous about the "boob" entry, being, believe it or not, a prude. But the concept made ME laugh out loud in the mechanic's waiting room, so I thought surely my blog readers, who collectively seem to have a wonderful sense of humor, would appreciate it and take it in manner in which it was intended. I was right! Woo-hoo!
Posted by: Ryan on June 30, 2003 06:21 PMLOL, I can't stop myself from the visual impact of a boob slipping around on the bathroom floor. Definitely no waxing for me :)
Posted by: Maus on July 2, 2003 05:28 PMAlright, no more vacation for you, Mzzz Ryan........I am suffering from "lack of blog", how about "blogpenia?"
Posted by: Lisa on July 5, 2003 07:41 AM