Mossy Cottage Knits

Say Whut?!

It’s probably not surprising that our American Sign Language lunches frequently disintegrate into something akin to a game of “Telephone,” where one person says something to another person and ditto on down the line, until the last person gets a message that doesn’t even vaguely resemble what was originally said. Yesterday was no exception. At lunch, I mentioned that I will be on vacation next week since Big Sister and Family are coming up from San Diego to visit (woo-hoo!), so we got into some rapid-fire conversatin’ about sightseeing in San Diego. Somewhere along the line, what with the rapidly changing topics, the signing, and the finger-spelling, we completely lost one of the participants. Finally she blurted out, in complete seriousness, “So Shamu lives in the Museum of Art now?” We tried to clarify what we had said but apparently we failed since her next question was, “He lives in a museum of art in Idaho?!!” Lord only knows where she got “Idaho” from, but, after a good laugh all around, we reassured her that, no, Shamu was not in a museum in Idaho, but was still alive and well at SeaWorld in San Diego. Perhaps a peek at the ShamuCam will further reassure her…

Sadly, this week, we learned that our deaf mentor at the lunches is moving to South Dakota, so no more of our weekly get-togethers. We are all terribly disappointed. Speaking for myself, the signing lunches truly added dimension and depth to my job and my life. Sigh. I am bummed.

The Mysterious K signs, too, since her ex- was deaf, and I’m afraid that we use ASL in ways it was never meant to be used. We’ve found that it’s very helpful when your mouth is full, so we can eat and talk without inadvertently spitting little crumbs across the table. It’s also useful when you’re standing at opposite ends of a supermarket aisle and don’t want to yell “WHAT size of tampon did you say you wanted?” And, once, I believe we used it in slightly suspect manner to win a game of Cranium.

Knitting Knews
Since I am between projects, today “Knitting Knews” will be just some disparate odds and ends, sort of the writing equivalent of those small leftover balls of yarn stash.

Vision Quest: Finished the socks at 11pm last night, with two days to spare! TMK has offered to facilitate the transfer of the socks from Here to There so they are now, literally and figuratively, out of my hands.

In retrospect, the doubled yarn on the heels was overkill. In fact, the heels feel disappointingly like stiff leather, but I suspect they’ll soften up with washing, which is the one thing I didn’t have the time to do. Ignore my whining in the last entry—this is indeed a yarn/pattern combo I’d knit again, but perhaps with more time next time so I don’t get all pissy!

Pillow: A couple of entries ago, I mentioned a Celtic pillow design by Dear Reader Janine but couldn’t provide a link at the time. Here, thanks to Two Swans Yarns, which sells a kit for knitting the pillow, is Der Link (it’s a pdf file). The first version of the pillow shown in the pattern is my next project, as I simultaneously continue to whittle away at the Baby Norgi. Send good thoughts as I try to pick out colors at Sheila's Soiree on Sunday!

(An aside to the Seattleites: If any Seattle Dear Readers who live in the Northend are going to go to the Soiree, be aware that there will be major graduation activities going on at the Udub. I say get an early start or go up around the top of the lake. Traffic alert brought to you courtesy of Mossy Cottage Knits.)

Feral Knitters: At Feral Knitters on Monday, we were joined unexpectedly by Betts Lampers, a local knitter and member of the Guild, who designed and knit the Autumn Color Fair Isle Cardigan sweater on the cover of Sweaters from Camp. Betts had The Actual Sweater with her, and I swear my heart actually started to beat faster when I saw it. Dear Reader LindaK was talking to me about things that I’m sure, under other circumstances, would be extremely interesting, but all I could respond with was a distracted “Uh-huh,” as my eyes glommed on to the sweater as it got passed from person to person. Truly, that is the sweater that separates the men from the boys (or, in this case, the women from the girls). Amazing!

As Sheila mentioned in her entry about Ferals, Betts dedicates one entire binder to each sweater she designs which, in a way, is comforting because it shows me that picking the right design and the right color scheme is a mountainous task for everyone!

This Feral meeting was also our farewall party for Janine, complete with a card, a gift certificate and a triple-layer chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and chocolate chip icing. Oh…my…God. I vote that pivotal members of the Ferals group should move to California more often!

Janine, the Baby Norgi and I thank you for all your help these last few months. Good luck with your move and your new life!

Posted by Ryan at June 9, 2004 01:45 PM