December 14, 2005
Oh, But My Burden Is Heavy
This blog has become entirely too important to some people. Sure I’m late posting today but I didn’t realize how late until half an hour ago, when I received a phone call from my better equal half demanding, “Where’s the damn blog, poo-poo head?” And to think that 2.5 years ago I hesitated to tell her about the blog at all and now she’s its Biggest Fan and Sometime Contributor. And a bossy boots to, er, boot.
Never mind that at 10am I was in a meeting parsing Web site data and pretending, as the department manager, that I could discourse intelligently about things that are entirely over my head; at 11:25am I was in the Batmobile, its tires squealing as I raced madly to our local Honey Baked Ham store to procure sliced pork product in time for an 11:30am potluck; and between 11:30am and 12:30pm I was face down in a plate of delectable potluck goodies and making small talk with my co-workers, the blog not even the faintest blip on my radar.
But now this poo-poo head has run out of excuses. The entire rest of the company is downstairs doing White Elephant/Kris Kringle/Gift Exchange activities—which I loathe with a Scrooge-like loathing—and I’m up here twiddling my thumbs. So, while my too-full stomach makes curious and unattractive burbling noises, I present a feast for the eyes:
As my long-time readers know, I belong to a group of knitters called the Feral (for Fair Isle) Knitters. At our last meeting a week ago Monday, I swear that each thing the ladies brought out of their knitting bags was more beautiful than the last. Behold:
A brown cabled vest knit by Wendy for her red-haired munchkin Ralph:
A pink sweater knit by my bestest pal June (I think this is for her niece):
Just look at these perfect stitches!
As proof that at least some of us do indeed live up to the group name, two mittens knit by Suzanne using the same pattern but completely different colors. Isn’t it astonishing how different they look?
And the best for last, a sweater being knit by Norma:
This close-up shows the colors pretty accurately although, if anything, the colors are more jewel-toned. Betcha you just want to reach into your monitor and touch, don'tcha? Knew it.
Where’s my project, you ask? I believe I was on Version 6+ of the Neverending Hat so let’s just not go there, ‘kay?
From down the road a skosh, my nephews in San Diego modeling, one reluctantly, one luctantly (?), the fleece hats Big Sister is making for Dulaan:
All the hats, all at once’t!
And, lastly, for a chuckle, a Kooky Kraft (scroll down to page 3 to see someone actually wearing—or having his brains sucked out by—this creation).
If I had a buck for every time I've checked to see if you've posted today....
;-P good to see you...finally.
Posted by: Lisa in Oregon on December 14, 2005 02:36 PMSo it seems you and TMK are in cahoots, Ms. Lisa!
Posted by: Ryan on December 14, 2005 02:40 PMW-e-llll....guess I take my "Long Time Reader" status seriously. ;)
Posted by: Lisa in Oregon on December 14, 2005 02:53 PMShould I be concerned that I checked your blog more than 10 times today waiting for your post? Is that bad?
Posted by: Elaine on December 14, 2005 03:14 PMIf it makes all a' y'all feel better, I do the same for the blogs I read. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.
Posted by: Ryan on December 14, 2005 03:19 PMUmmm....I really can't chastise you. Yes, I was concerned. Cuz, you know, I'm such a timely blogger.
Say, do I count as a "Long Time Reader?" Hehe
Posted by: Stalker Angie on December 14, 2005 03:32 PMlook further into the pages that contain that squid pattern (geez, 600 yards of bulky yarn- the mind boggles!)http://www.strangebuttrewe.com/mongolkiss.htm
that's rather neat-
ah, the holiday potluck- sometimes a source of delight and occasionally an event that just cries out for pepcid/tums/name your poison-
i am now off to search for more knitted creatures of the sea- charlie the tuna, maybe- i am easily amused-
stay happy-
Posted by: barb in texas on December 14, 2005 03:34 PMI think I win the prize for most obsessive refreshing today, because I hit the Refresh button for about the 50th time *while* I was talking to Ryan about why the blog wasn't up yet, and *while* she was telling me that she didn't even have one word written yet! Doh! ;-) TMK
Posted by: The Mysterious K on December 14, 2005 03:42 PMJust finished reading the last 3 weeks' worth. It about killed me to be without my daily blog fix over the course of moving. But now we're in and up and running and I'll be checking every MWF just like always. Oh, and Ryan...keep your peepers open for an email from my friend, Joan. She's a Dulaan peach if ever there was one.
That photo on the bottom reminds me of "Caps for Sale! Caps for Sale!"
Posted by: Norma on December 14, 2005 05:26 PMIt's possible that I compulsively checked a few million times this morning while I was nominally grading papers.
More kooky hats: check out http://www.phobe.com/fsmhat/ .
Melinda
Posted by: Melinda on December 14, 2005 06:21 PMI checked on you many times today but I (being the least computer literate in my family) go thru google. What's refresh?
Posted by: laura on December 14, 2005 08:20 PMLaura, sometimes when you're browsing, you will still see old information on your screen. "Refresh" is how you tell your computer to go and check for the latest information. For example, if you're looking at Mossy Cottage, but you only see Monday's posting, and you want to check whether or not I've posted Wednesday's posting yet, you click on Refresh.
You don't always have to do this because when you exit out of your browser and come back in, it automatically refreshes itself. This is only for times when you've been browing for a while and you're not sure you're looking at the most current information.
On a PC, in Internet Explorer, the refresh icon looks like two green arrows going around in a circle. Or you can press F5. On a Mac...er, TMK? You take it from here.
Posted by: Ryan on December 15, 2005 08:31 AMI'm assuming you saw this slightly Kooky Kraft but in case you didn't I'm posting it for you to look at... http://www.venganza.org/spread/hat.htm
Posted by: CarolineF on December 15, 2005 08:54 AMThe refresh button is very similar in the Mac version of Internet Explorer.
In Firefox (which I use), the refresh button is two circular arrows, also, but they are blue.
In both browsers, the button is in the upper left 3 inches of the browser window.
TMK
Posted by: The Mysterious K on December 15, 2005 09:00 AMI have a friend who worked at a honey baked ham store in college.
Her title was Master Ham Advisor. It was some sort of certification, I believe.
I love that.
Posted by: Christy on December 15, 2005 11:06 AMRyan, you have to understand that if we don't get our daily (or every-other-day-ly) fix of blogs, we resort to rereading the last post or two, and that means that we think of new things to comment on, and that means that you'll know how lame we are when we're posting two or three comments about the same post, spanning a few days...
Hypothetically speaking, of course.
PS - I HATE pink and I covet that pink sweater deeply. And the pink hat you made.
I would LOVE to meet the person who has the time to a) invent the giant squid hat, and then b) knit it - I would like to sign up for life coaching classes from her/him/whatever!
Posted by: joan on December 16, 2005 02:44 PM