March 16, 2007
Extreme Eating
You realize your life could stand a major infusion of excitement when the most thrilling thing you do all day is put your hand in your drawer of soup cans, pull out a can and put it in your knapsack for lunch—without looking! So, until noon, you have no idea what you’re going to eat that day! Hoo boy! Have I got your adrenaline junkie right here, baybee, yeah!
Oy.
In the truly more exciting part of my life, the llama/alpaca Chocolate Sauce yarn is rapidly metamorphosing into a wonderful, slightly fuzzy, Guernsey-type hat, using, as I mentioned, the pattern included in the Winter 2006 Spin-Off article by Carol Huebscher Rhoades. The pictures I’ve taken so far have turned out majorly lame-o...
...which is a shame since this is one of the most satisfying things I’ve knit in, like, ferever. The pattern itself is relatively skeletal so you have to dust off your gray matter to fill in the gaps and even do a little knitterly experimenting, yet the design itself is easy, a mix of simple cables and embossed diamonds. And the yarn? Wunderbar. Not too soft or limp, not too rough, a lovely, rich, many-layered café au lait color and with just the right amount of bloom. Yum. Good job, TMK! When did you say Big Boy would be ready? Oh, yeah. It’s spring. Never mind.
Sweet Caroline, TMK is not much of a tutorial/teaching/training kinda gal—which we learned when she tried to teach me something on the Mac and kept, instead, grabbing the mouse out of my hand in a quite unteacherly fashion—so I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for instructions on how to build a trellis/tuteur. However, I did find a couple of good online patterns for you that might be helpful. Have a look-see:
Apropos of nothing, if there are any Northwest birdwatchers out there—help! Every morning I’ve been hearing a bird call that I don’t recognize. Haven’t been able to find the bird, although not for a lack of trying, and it’s starting to make me late for work. Seriously. I’ve wasted more time than I’d like to admit standing in my yard, car keys in one hand, can of Mystery Soup in the other, squinting up through the trees. The song is one longish, burry, trilled, medium-pitched note. No changes in pitch or tone, just the one note, maybe a couple of seconds long in duration. Sounds almost like a person whistling. Which it isn’t. Unless there’s some sick bastard out there who’s trying to send me to the loony bin. So, any guesses? (Update: My new Best Friend Forever, LurkerCathy, has solved the mystery. It's a varied thrush. As I mentioned in the comments, somehow I was woefully unable to put two and two together. I had seen a varied thrush, two, in fact, in my yard for the first time in years, then a couple of days later I started to hear the mystery call...and yet was never able to close that new bird/new call gap in my brain. D'oh. Sadly, I suspect they have shown up in my yard because all the trees in a large lot across the street from me were cut down during the winter. I have a feeling that the thrushes are in my yard because they lost their home.)
Dulaan Knit-In at Janine’s on Saturday! Oddly, my brain keeps envisioning an ecletic, surreal mix of leprechauns, Mongolians and American women, all knitting and all eating chocolate tofu pie. Back in the real world, I've gleaned from the comments chez Janine that there may be Dulaaners in attendance that I haven’t met before, which is always spiffalicious. I am so looking forward to this. Now where is my Dulaan t-shirt?
Posted by Ryan at March 16, 2007 11:28 AMBut! TMK has taught me the basics of spinning! on a WHEEL! It's just that I don't get it...she taught me real good though!
Posted by: Rebecca on March 16, 2007 12:35 PMThe hat is beautiful as is the yarn. I might have to order that issue. Thanks for posting the pyramid trellis patterns. I have one in my garden, want more, but it cost quite a bit. Building it myself might be fun. I saw a nifty one in a magazine with a cool birdhouse on the top.
It is very funny picturing you pausing with a soup can, trying to spot the mystery bird. Good luck identifying it!
Might I recommend putting the question of the bird call to my favorite bird blogger http://www.birdchick.com/blog.html
She's very fun and helpful and you must check out her Disapproving Rabbits page.
She might be from my home state of MN but I'll bet she'd have an educated guess.
Tina
Posted by: Tina on March 16, 2007 01:27 PMHi there! I'm a regular reader of yours who also lives in the great (and sometimes very soggy) PNW.
I usually don't post comments to blogs but your question about the bird call did it. I get a wide variety of birds at my bird feeders in Sultan and what you described sounds like it might be a Varied Thrush. I'm going to send you the link for Cornell U's bird site via email (hope that's OK) since I can't seem to get the URL to work by placing it here in the comments and then copying it to a browser. It has sound links for various birds so if the Varied Thrush's call doesn't match what you heard, you'll be able to work through the whole site to see what does fill the bill (and yes, that's a b-a-d pun). Enjoy!
And thanks for the fab blog!
Cathy
Posted by: Cathy on March 16, 2007 01:34 PMCathy, you may just be my newest most favorite lurker. You may have hit the nose right on the head.
Watch this; watch me not put two and two together: The new birdcall started right around the time I discovered two varied thrushes in my yard. New bird, unknown call. Did I put two and two together? Uh, no.
So thank you. Off to check my email!
Posted by: Ryan on March 16, 2007 02:01 PMBut, but... what kind of soup was it?
Posted by: Anne on March 16, 2007 06:43 PMAnne: I've been informed that the soup flavor was...
wait for it...Italian Meatball with Pasta!
Ryan tells me she shrieked with astonishment and delight when she pulled it out of her knapsack.
Posted by: The Mysterious K on March 16, 2007 08:01 PMPie.
There is going to be tofu pie.
My employers are going to PAY BIGTIME for their thwarting of my travel plans.
There will be much pain. I will film as much of it as possible. (as an aside, there is at least a 60-70% chance that the woman who is causing most of my angst is on the firing line ... hee!)
Posted by: Rabbitch on March 17, 2007 07:51 AMI heard a woodpecker this morning! (Easy to identify, they're pounding on the tree) so can Spring be far behind? Well...it IS Wisconsin, where we say "If you don't like the weather--wait a minute!" Figures. I'm nearly done with the beautiful muffler for my cherished Kind and Friendly Dentist. Well, we HAVE had snow in May...
Posted by: Dale-Harriet in WI on March 17, 2007 08:04 AMThanks for the point-in-the-right-direction. I'll have a look, but I have to say I'm a LEEEETLE disappointed, because I KNOW that TMK's tuteur is much better than anything I could find on the (disdainful sniff) INTERNET!
Posted by: Sweet Caroline on March 19, 2007 06:22 AM