Water, Water, Everywhere But Here

On Friday, we were notified by a County employee that our sewers were going to be relined this week. Monday (yesterday), to be specific. In order to perform this feat, our water would have to be turned off for 8 to 12 hours. If we were to flush a toilet, sewage could back up into our house. Plus, even if we didn't run any water at all, the house would still smell of the relining stuff. Yay! Well, yesterday also happened to be one of those random "teacher work days," so the kids would be home all day. So I planned to have the kids out of the house all day. We went to the bagel store for breakfast, then we went off to the mall, where we did a little shopping, had lunch, and saw a movie. ("Nim's Island." It was ok. Jodie Foster has serious old lady hands.) When we returned home at around 4:30, the guys were still working, so I pulled up and asked how much longer they'd be. "Oh, until around 7," they said. Great. So we went home, where it really did reek like nail polish remover, planning to go out to dinner. Five minutes later, the doorbell rang. It was one of the workmen. "Your half of the street isn't being done until tomorrow, you know." What? The woman specifically told me Monday! So, we had water all day, but today we don't. Quick change of dinner plans in light of circumstances. At least today I'm home alone, and I can handle waterlessness. BUT, and this is a big BUT, the work didn't finish last night until TEN O'CLOCK. That's a big hassle. The boys can live without their bath, but what about getting ready for bed? I can't really bring them down to the library in their jammies to get ready for bed. Also as a result*, there's been very little knitting:

You can see that I haven't made too much more progress, doily-wise. Of course, there are almost 300 stitches per round at this point. So, to distract you from the lack of knitting content on this here "knitting" blog, I'm going to give you some pretty pictures:

The last happy place I showcased was Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and the spectacular Grand Teton Range. Continuing our mountain theme, we have this past summer's vacation to Yosemite. Above we have the pair of Jr.'s at the point looking out over the Yosemite valley. The mountain in the foreground is Half-Dome, named because, clearly, it looks like a dome sheared in half. Below is a picture of a family of deer we encountered on our hike through the giant redwood grove. There looked to be two female adults and two babies. We were ever so quiet when we saw them and they trotted about in front of us as if they had no fear.

Below is a shot of the granite steps going up the Mist Trail. I love mountains, and I love to hike, but I have a slight case of vertigo, and these steps were a killer. They go on and on and on and on, and in many places are extremely steep and narrow. I can't imagine climbing these when the falls are in full force and the mist makes the granite slippery.
Here's Sr. Jr. when we got up to the plateau for the first set of the falls:

Here we are on top of Sentinel Dome:

This is an actual mountain top. There's no more up from there. The views are spectacular. The aforementioned vertigo means that I get very nervous on top of things from which I can fall a long way. I didn't include a funny picture of me sitting down on a rock in the middle of the dome, clearly trying to stay away from any edges.

This picture was taken the first day we went up to see Half Dome. There were forest fires in different places in Yosemite, and the wind was blowing the smoke in our direction.

I have many, many more pictures, but we all now how boring those never-ending vacation stories can be.

This year we're breaking with tradition and renting a house in Hilton Head to do the beach thing. I'm not really a beach person, but I'll bring my knitting and some books to keep me occupied.

Hopefully by Thursday or Friday, I'll have some actual knitting progress to talk about.

* Also distracting me from my knitting is that time-sucking soap opera on Ravelry known as the "MCY thread." Who knew the knitting world could produce such shenanigans?

Drive-By Posting

Too little time here. Weekends at this time of year are for baseball and other such activities. We managed to get half a game in yesterday before getting poured on. Today was the "opening ceremony." It was grey, drizzly, and COLD, after several warm days. Here's Sr. Jr. at the opening day festivities. I said, "Smile!" and he said, "I am smiling."

Jr. Jr. tried tickling him. It didn't work.

In my last post, I showed you a picture of my Mystery Lace swatch, blocking. Here's what it looked like five minutes after I finished that post:

I imagine the the pins couldn't have been too comfortable.

I continue to work on the Annette doily. I'm almost at the midway point in the row count, but obviously, since the rows get bigger and bigger, there's a lot more than half the knitting left to be done. This is a lot of fun to knit. Kippi of the comments mentioned that she had gotten some of the recommended cotton yarn to knit hers, and wondered why cotton would be the appropriate choice. Now that I've come further along in the knitting, I can see that cotton would have more body that the silk and alpaca lace yarn that I'm using. My yarn is great for drapey shawls, but you want a doily to be a little stiffer. I think I might get some cotton yarn to do any future doilies. Here's a picture of where I am now:

Here's a close up:

Please note that this was just pinned out quickly for photographic purposes. It will look a lot bettern when it's blocked correctly.

Tomorrow, the County is relining the sewers on our street. This means that we will not be allowed to use our water for 8 to 12 hours, starting at 8:30 am. As luck would have it, tomorrow is also a Teacher Work Day, which means the kids are out of school. Having no water with the kids at home is bad enough, but we're also not allowed to flush the toilets! Doing so could cause sewage backup in the house. So, I need to vacate my house tomorrow, and figure out what to do with the kids for 8 to 12 hours. Nothing's open at 8:30 in the morning, either. Bleah. It's already shaping up to be a crappy week.

Is it Back?

My mojo stumbled back last night, bloodied, bruised, and very weary. It's clearly not back at full strength yet. I've put it to bed with a nice cup of tea, and hope that it will feel all better in the morning. In the meantime, I finished my "Will Spring Never Come?" socks:

These are made with Duet Skinny sock yarn, purchased from the always wonderful people at The Loopy Ewe. I used size 0 needles and whimsically added the ruffle at the top. When I had the top ribbing as long as I wanted it, I changed to the solid heel/toe yarn and knit one round. On the next round, I k1f&B into each stitch, then knit 3 rounds even, then bound off. I think they're cute :) I liked the yarn a lot, and was tempted during the last Loopy sneak peak to buy some more.

I also restarted the doily, this time using off-white Alpaca Fino with a Twist yarn (one of my favorites for lace) and size 1 needles (Knitpicks Harmony wooden needles, to be exact). Instead of casting on 6 stitches as the pattern directs, I cast on 12, which gives me the six petals seen in the book:

Looks much better, doesn't it? This pattern, more than anything else, is responsible for the slight return of my mojo. It's a lot of fun to knit. (At the end, you thread the tail from the cast-on through the center stitches to pull that hole closed.)

I also joined a Mystery Lace knitalong. I've never done one of these before, because I'm pretty picky about what I like and don't like in lace knitting (as in everything else). But it's free, the yarn was cheap, and if I don't like it, I don't have to keep going. You can find the KAL in Yahoogroups under "MysteryLace." There's also a Ravelry group going. I'm using Lane Borgosesia Cashwool in the Pearl color, which is a very light grey:

It's billed as a springy shawl, in a stole shape. The swatch motif is leafy. I'm not sure I love it, but I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt for now.

Knitter's Magazine, Spring '08

My issue arrived yesterday. To be blunt, what a fat bag o'crap that was. What a long way down this magazine has fallen. When I reorganized our study not too long ago, I took the opportunity to look through some of the really old Knitter's that I have. They used to have such beautiful designs, even sweaters knit in the round and steeked! Now, it's all brightly colored yuck. (Not that I'm opposed to bright colors, but not like this.)

A while back, I commented on how the editor's of Knitter's have a place on their site where readers can vote on which sweater makes it onto the cover of the next issue. I noted that it often seemed to be the case that the sweater that got the most votes didn't make the cover. This continues to be true. This sweater:

did not get the most votes. Shocking! And what's more, the sweater that did get the most votes didn't even make it into this issue. Maybe they're holding it for the summer issue, but still. To make matters even worse, the cover sweater is actually in two pieces. That little asymetrical cape thing comes off to reveal that the sweater underneath is actually STRAPLESS! Because yes, strapless knits are what we all crave. Who the hell would wear such a thing? Other than its inherent fug, you'd spend all day holding the damn thing up! Most of the offerings in this issue were of this ilk.

I've held onto my subscription for sentimental reasons, mostly, and because there's occasionally a decent technical article and an interesting Perry Klass column. After this, I can honestly say that I will not be renewing.

A Finished Object, A Started Object, Fun and Sadness

The Flutter Sleeve cardigan is done!

Here's the back view (no comments about my ass, please!):

Here are the specs: Flutter Sleeve Cardigan, Spring '08. I used the called-for Classic Elite Classic Silk, in the moss colorway. I used the needles called for in the pattern, except for the ribbing section in the middle, where I used US 4s instead of US 3s. I started out knitting the small size for my hips and midsection, but added about an inch and a half for my bust. I didn't block it too carefully, because my gauge swatch (after washing) was spot-on. I just pat it into shape. Now that I've sewed on the buttons and tried it on, I may try to block a little bit more ease into it. That, or lose the 5 pounds I've put on in the last couple of weeks. I like the sweater. I usually spend my summers in shorts and tee shirts, but this will be nice to have for going out to dinner.

I also started the doily I've been threatening to knit. It's "Annette" from "Knitted Lace," by Sonja Esbensen and Anna Rasmussen. (I got these a while back from Lacis.) Here's what I've knit so far, not really blocked, obviously. Please note that I've followed the pattern exactly:

Here's the picture of the doily in the book:

Can anyone spot the apparent discrepancy in the pattern? I'm having fun knitting with it. It's hard to put it down because I want to see each new row and motif unfold. Life, unfortunately, does not allow for that. I am wondering whether I'll need to rip it out and redo it to fix the seeming discrepancy, or whether it will work out the way it is, and I'm just an idiot.

As I mentioned, Monday was the school field trip to go see "Horton Hears a Who." 120 first graders and 70 or so parents trooped off in the cold rain to the metro station. We got there at about 10:00, which is still the tail end of rush hour here in the DC area. As a result, when we all packed onto the train, it was so full of bleary-eyed commuters that there were no seats left. As we hustled the kids in and got them to hold onto the poles and the seat backs, I could see that a lot of the passengers were wondering if they were going to be in for a ride that was just too noisy for their pre-caffeinated states. As soon as the train started moving, all 120 kids, in unison, said, "Whoooaaaa!" The passengers all laughed and smiled. We only rode for one stop, but I like to think we brightened a yucky Monday morning for a bunch of people.

So, on to the sadness. What do you say when a young woman in her early forties dies, leaving behind 3 children under 13? K. had been undergoing treatment for breast cancer since September, and seemed to be doing really well. I just saw her several weeks ago, and we had a lovely conversation about middle school, about life, about finding the inner strength in one's family. Even with the treatments, which can be really physically grueling, she still showed up for almost every PTA meeting and every meeting we had on school boundary changes. Apparently, she went into the hospital with shortness of breath, and eventually they diagnosed a blood clot in her lungs. Blood clots are, unfortunately, a potential side effect of chemo and radiation, as my father-in-law's doctors warned him. Her daughter is in Sr. Jr.'s grade, and they were in class together several years ago. Her youngest son is a year older than Jr. Jr., but was on the first t-ball team that Mr. T coached. When Jr. Jr. came home with the news, his eyes were wide, and I could see he was fighting off tears. I could see that he was really thinking about the fact that bad things happen, not just to mythical people "out there," but to people we know and love. It seemed to really hit him that the people he loves aren't immune from harm.

I think we take it for granted these days that breast cancer is treatable, especially if caught early. What we fail to remember is that the treatment itself is dangerous.