December 03, 2003
What It's Like to Be Me
Just when I start to doubt my talents, I always do something extraordinary that I know no one else could duplicate. For example, this weekend I managed to bruise myself in my frickin' armpit. How talented is that?! I was scooping food out of Frankie's kibble bag, stood up too fast and jammed the pointed edge of the wire mesh kitchen caddy hanging on the door behind me under my arm. Almost flung kibble the length and breadth of the kitchen but managed at the last second to hang onto scoop and contents. Yup, there's no question about it; I am a talented and graceful girl. And now I am a talented and graceful girl who walks around with her right arm held weirdly away from her body.
(Speaking of flinging kibble, you'll have to ask K about the time I got so mad at her I hurled a bowl of dry cat kibble on the floor. The contents of the bowl exploded and flew dramatically up and out (much to my satisfaction) which meant that, for months to come, we kept discovering pieces of cat kibble in strange places. I think the strangest was in the tiny space behind my telephone table, caught two feet up in a cobweb.)
Knitting Knews
Knitting-wise, my Thanksgiving vacation was a week of extremes. One day, I was laboring away on The World's Largest Sweater using size 13 needles and extra-chunky yarn and the next, for no reason, or perhaps because of said size 13/extra-chunky project, I found myself awash in the urge to knit lace. Here a swatch I knit based on the Barbara Walker's Rose Trellis pattern. I used some DK-weight waste yarn (read, small, miscellaneous, label-less skein; may be pure cashmere but who will ever know) and size 2 needles. A very easy, very beautiful pattern.
Dye Garden Dyegest
For this entry's floral eye candy, a picture of some purple statice from my garden. This is a marvellous annual. It comes in a wonderful range of colors, from an extremely light blush-pink to this bright purple, is tall, blooms for a long time, requires very little care, and occasionally reseeds itself.
I worship you, I really do.
I have not been able in any way at all to envision how you bruised your armpit.
Also, I am veyr impressed by the throwing around of cat food.
What I want to know is -- what the hell had the lovely K done?
And didn't you freak the hell out of the cats?
Posted by: Anne on December 3, 2003 11:42 AMI am worshipped because I am clumsy. All is well in my world (although apparently you want me to relive the horrible, tortuous moment of bruising again, just to explain it more clearly and help you envision it better... I think not, missy.).
Who the heck even REMEMBERS what the lovely K had done the day of the cat food debacle! You're a married woman; you know how these fights are... What matters is that we now have a ridiculous story to tell our friends. Oh, and don't get me started on the day she got mad at me because I squished the new bag of bread out of true square.
And, yes, I freaked the hell out of the cats. Not only that, they were freaked AND hungry. The good news is cats aren't all that particular about whether their food is served in a nice tidy bowl or is flung far and wide. Suffice it to say, we didn't have to do any clean up. We just comforted the cats (my dear, sweet, wonderful furry soulmates, who have now gone to the Great Litter Box in the Sky) and let them loose on the house. As for K and me, we said "kisskiss" and all was well.
Posted by: Ryan on December 3, 2003 12:00 PMRyan, I'd love to try growing statice -- to see it in a state other than already arranged -- have you any idea if that's possible over here in the Virginia zone? Hope your 'pit feels fine, and soon!
Posted by: maggi on December 4, 2003 07:52 AMThe cat food story is a gem...and it's always good to hear that couples who have been together 16 years have those kind of arguments, gives me hope for my own! I did the same thing, but with an empty Corelle bowl. Let me tell you, it may not break easily, but when it does, it explodes into a million tiny shards and is a real pain to clean up...literally. The initial explosion was very satisfying, the cleaning up and finding shards (with bare feet) for weeks to follow was but a grim reminder of how I'd lost my temper. Yours sounds much better.
I really, really like that swatch Ryan! I can see it as a dainty sweater on a little girl, a table runner or placemats, an afghan...it has lots of potential.
Maggi, I'll get the gardening bloodhound, Miss K, to do some research on statice. I think she owns every book on the subject of gardening that was ever published...
Isn't that pattern pretty, Lisa? I've seen quite a few items online knit with it, mainly shawls. Again, it's easy; nothing fancy, just k's, p's, k2tog's, skp's and yo's, if I remember correctly. (You broke a CORELLE bowl? I'm impressed. Maybe I'll buy one to use the next time... :-) )
Posted by: Ryan on December 4, 2003 08:49 AMI love your dye garden photos, Ryan! Purple statice was a favorite of my mother's.
And, if it helps, I slammed my own fingers in the bathroom door the other day :) Not nearly as creative as yours, but we do the best we can!
Posted by: Robbyn on December 4, 2003 10:01 AMMaggi,
I did a little research on Virginia's climate. You guys generally fall in Zones 4-7 of the USDA climate chart, with the southeastern half of the state in Zone 7.
Statice is found under it's latin name Limonium in most plant listings. It is in the plumbago family (in case anyone other than me cares about stuff like that). There are three varieties of statice that should grow in Virginia.
Limonium aureum 'Supernova'. Should grow in most areas of Virginia. Has orange-yellow flowers. Grows to 12" tall.
Limonium belledifolium. Has pale-violet to blue-violet flowers. Grows to 6" tall and is good for rock gardens. Zone 7 only.
Limonium latifolium 'Blue Cloud' or 'Violetta'. Common name is Sea Lavendar. Should grow in most areas of Virginia. Deep lavendar-blue flowers. Grows to 24" tall.
All this information came from the AHS’s A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants by Christopher Brickell and Judith Zuk.
Hope this helps!
Posted by: The Mysterious K on December 4, 2003 02:31 PM