March 30, 2005
Why It's Important to Stay on My Good Side
Dear Mr. Commuter, You Sweet, Darling Man, You: If you’re using one hand to hold your cell phone, and the other hand to flip me off for a really, really...really...long time, who or what, exactly, is controlling the steering wheel of your car on this busy, busy, narrow bridge in the middle of the mad afternoon commute? My only consolation is knowing that this flurry of expressive hand signals is merely your Pavlovian response to my horn, which scared the crap out of you after the second time you pulled out in front of me with less than an inch to spare. Think of it as my doing you a favor. You are now actually awake behind the wheel of your car. Try it; you might like it.
Sigh. Mongolia and it’s double-humped camels are starting to sound pretty good right now.
On the home front, no thanks to Mr. MaryB and his Magical Music Salon, The Mysterious K is now the proud owner of this new toy:
She crosses her heart and hopes to die that if she plugs the headphone in, I won’t hear a note, but I am not convinced. I'm also praying I won't be subjected to those horrendous, rubbery, extreme rockin' out facial expressions, you know, the ones that guys make when they're playing air guitar? This has all, however, given me a new mantra: "At least it's not an accordion. At least it's not an accordion. At least it's not an accordion."
Also, TMK offers this photo to those of you who were frustrated with the almost fanatical cleanliness of her desk in Monday's photos. I present Her True Reality in the form of her other desk, the one you couldn’t see in Monday's pictures:
My hand to God, this pile of folders, printouts, paper clips, CDs, notes, Post-its, envelopes, pens and pencils is the norm. But I still say it’s not bad for someone who juggles as many clients and projects as she does on any given day.
Enough about her, let’s talk about me. (Did I say that out loud?) Here are the finished Slicker-Yellow Mittens. I'm not big on how the cables just sort of peter out all flat-like at the end but, other than that (which I know how to fix next time around), these mittens were a pant-load of fun to knit.
On a side note, the Slicker-Yellow Mittens have much personal significance for me. Long-time readers may remember these mittens knit for me by my mother which represented for me my knitting Holy Grail. I never imagined being able to knit a pair of mittens like these, let alone a set of left- and right-handed ones, let alone a cabled pair, let alone a cabled pair coupled with seed stitch! And, now, ta-dah!
And here is my current project, a kids’ vest, based on this pattern. I'm using the same lime green Cascade 220 I used for the Dulaan Coronet. I truly loathe all-garter-stitch fabric—it has bad chi and makes me all twitchy, unlike seed stitch which has good chi and makes me relax just looking at it—but this is an easy pattern which allows for a lot of personal creative touches and which can be churned out easily, assembly-line style.
Oh, and health-wise, my wonderful, caring Dear Readers, feh. Same old, same old only now my dry hacks and coughs are starting to annoy my co-workers. Cough drops and packets of herbal remedies keep mysteriously appearing on my desk.
Funny thing--I just LOVE garter stitch! The universe seeks balance, I guess. Your mittens are works of art indeed. I really like how we are all trying new things for the Dulaan Project! Community knitting in my mind is when each party gets something great out of the experience.
And pay attention to your lungs, my dear. After a certain amount of time the body weakened by viral infections can be maliciously overtaken by bacterial infections (which can be cured by antibiotics). That's why a doctor says to wait--she/he can't do anything about the viral deal (clearly TMK has demonstrated the correct response) but has weapons against the bacterial.
I will not respond to your comments about my intestinal roving (which conjures up pictures of roving intestines, another bacterial response altogether....)
I'm still trying to get rid of the image the phrase "pant load" left me with.
Desk neatness is all relative. TMK's desk is still astoundingly neat in my book. But then, if you saw the Seuss-esque piles on my desk that topple over daily, you would agree. The fact that you can still see the surface of her desk in many places is what makes me envious.
Well it is a good thing that you don't like garter because I'm inordinately fond of it. It is no fun if we are all knitting the same stuff the same way!
Posted by: Laurie on March 30, 2005 12:29 PMFunny thing, Laurie and Janine, my dislike of garter stitch really is a "chi" thing with me. I don't just think it's ugly or lumpy or plain, I'm literally uncomfortable around it. How stupid is that? And, as I said, the opposite is true of seed stitch. I feel better just being near a swatch of seed stitch. I think I need to get out more...
Laurie, in the mood I'm in this morning, the choices were sh__load, butt-load or pant-load, so pant-load it was. ;-) Of course, I'm just trying to recover from the fact that you put photos of *earthworms* on your blog! Don't get me wrong--I like earthworms as much as the next guy. I'm not adverse to picking them up bare-handed if they're in my way when I'm gardening. But *photos,* dear girl?! I had a good laugh.
Janine, that's the thing I'm discovering about the Dulaan project, that the best part is just plowing along from new project to new project without thinking about it too much. I've knit a bunch of different things that I've never knit before and am just quietly and quickly absorbing new techniques and information. Slick!
TMK, I *told* you someone would say a desk isn't messy if you can still see the surface...
Posted by: Ryan on March 30, 2005 01:08 PMCan I help it if even my messes are organized? ;-) TMK
Posted by: The Mysterious K on March 30, 2005 01:10 PMTMK: AMATEUR!!! Are you KIDDING me? pshaw. You're not even TRYING.
RYAN: You are the champeen of finding free patterns on the net, I'll tell ya that. What the??? I love that little vest and may have to make one. Dulaan wins again! (wish it were written for bulky, though. I have bulky I want to use up...)
Posted by: Norma on March 30, 2005 02:43 PMNorma, I will not deny it--I am indeed the champeen of finding free patterns on the Net, not out of miserliness, but because I like the challenge of doing the research and because I KNOW what the Web has to offer, making my living, as I do, offa da Web.
Funny thing, though, Ms. Norma. All the time I've been knitting the vest, you have been sitting on my shoulder, reciting your litany about the meaning of true cold, and making me question if a sleeveless vest is worth bothering to knit for a child living in such a frigid place. But I strongly believe the secret to true warmth is layering, layering and more layering so I think this vest, which has a firm, wind-proof fabric, will do just the trick. (On a side note, ever since I read your entry about, again, the true meaning of cold, I gave up on the acrylic stash-busting and started knitting with only wool. See? We're listening, we're paying attention!)
Posted by: Ryan on March 30, 2005 03:00 PMI'm with Laurie. Surface area clear = neat desk.
And... I prefer a nice seed stitch to garter any day :-)
Posted by: melissa on March 30, 2005 03:02 PMI see I'm not the only one who thinks that desk looks pretty tidy. I had to clear three boxes worth of books, papers, knitting and crapola off our dining room table for my partner's kids to visit, just so they'd have a place to eat. Two days later it looked like an avalanche of paper and yarn again.
The best guitar faces, that TMK should practice? Led Zeppelin at Live Aid. My partner imitates them all the time to crack me up; they were 20 years out of date and still thought they were the shit.
Posted by: jodi on March 30, 2005 03:18 PMNice bass, TMK!!! Mr. MaryB will be so happy. Note to Ryan: even though there are earphones, you will still hear the whine of the fingernails on the strings, and the grunting and heavy breathing of the musician. You can turn away from the grimaces, but the sounds are tres annoying. But I'm told they just can't be helped...so just put your head down and keep knitting...
Vest is great, and yes, WOOL RULES!!! I may want to make a vest myself. Hadn't considered it atall, but now, I'm caught by the Dulaan "bug" and think it's just the ticket for my next Dulaan project. Mary B
Posted by: Mary B on March 30, 2005 05:02 PMTMK--have you seen what Lala http://blogsy.smartyboots.net/ got up to at the hardware store?
Posted by: Janine on March 30, 2005 05:41 PMOh, yeah, definitement! Layering is one of the basic tenets of the keeping warm thang. Vests meet the Norma Cold Test, oh yes they do! (even acrylic vests, actually) I was trying to get Cassie to make good on the promise (threat?) she made to design some simple (she said "it just needs to be rectangles") vest thingy for me, but alas, she got busy with fambly coming and knitting her Natrojje thing and .... ;-)
Posted by: Norma on March 30, 2005 06:35 PMThe similarities of TMK to Lala are beginning to pile up, ain't they? Either when we all meet we'll fall into rapturous conversation or we'll sit silently, afraid of implosion....
Posted by: Rachael on March 31, 2005 02:48 AMRachel.. you made me snort, woman.. And snorting by yourself in a cubical (that has a shower door that is frosted for my privacy) scared the natives.
I too worry about meeting Ryan and TMK and either talking on top of each other (in true, south philly, style) or sitting silently and plucking out "gee. isnt' this great" every once in awhile in a high-pitched, strangled voice.
Posted by: anj on March 31, 2005 12:02 PMRachael and Anj, not to fret. People who know me will tell you that as long as I am there, there will be no uncomfortable silences in the conversation. Hell, when I'm *alone* there aren't even any uncomfortable silences, I talk so much.
Posted by: Ryan on March 31, 2005 01:08 PMI swear I posted a comment, but it didn't take. I was going to say that desk looks fanatically clean to me, which reveals more about my housekeeping than I'm entirely comfortable with, but what the heck, it's just the internet.
And, is anyone sending coffee to poor Cuzzin Tom? The cold, well he can deal with that; the all mutton diet - Buddhists are supposed to not have attachment, right, so vegies shouldn't be that important to him. But no decent coffee??!! My heart bleeds.
Posted by: Patti on April 1, 2005 10:29 AMI'm working on the coffee situation. TMK
Posted by: The Mysterious K on April 1, 2005 11:10 AM