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Miscellaneous

The day before the day . . .

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Tomorrow is the Big Day −− Stage I of the Tour. Since I’m on the West Coast of the US, if I want to see the race live I’ll have to get up at 5:30 a.m.; otherwise I can watch the replays at various times throughout the day on Versus. My plan is to videotape the live broadcast, because that’s the way I’ve gotten used to doing it in years past. On the weekends it’s no big deal, but during the week when the Big Guy is working he likes to come home in the evening and watch the stage sans commercials. We also enjoy hearing the commentary of Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin; in fact, for me it just wouldn’t be Le Tour without the sound of Phil Liggett’s voice. Of course I’ll also be casting on my Simple Knitted Bodice. I’m going to be using a Size 6 Susan Bates circular needle, since my Size 6 Options circ is broken and I haven’t gotten round to trying to replace it. I did have the brilliant idea today of driving over to Babetta’s (my LYS) in the hopes of finding the right size Addi Turbo needle −− but of course they were closed today . . . and if I’d had the sense to phone ahead I would have known that! It’s not a disaster to have to use the Susan Bates needle, but I’m still going to try […]

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Miscellaneous

I’m a little embarrassed . . .

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. . . but I’m still learning (the hard way, apparently) about blogging and posting information on the internet for all to (hopefully) see. When I first opened this blog I decided my very first post would be a summary of some helpful information on how to save money pumping gas. I’d read these tips in my local newspaper so I took the info at face value and faithfully reproduced it. Now I’ve learned that the source of this information is questionable, as is the usefulness of the so-called “tips.” In fact, this very article has been listed on truthorfiction.com as “fiction.” The web site’s page on this article was last updated in November of 2007, so clearly this story has been drifting through the internet for some time. Whether I have hundreds of people reading my blog or no one at all, I feel it’s my responsibility to post a correction to the previous entry and apologize for not checking my facts further before publishing. I admit it never even crossed my mind to check the veracity of the information — and I’m usually of a more skeptical mind set. All I can say now is, lesson learned!

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Knitting

Little Tofutsies

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As I noted yesterday, the first of the pair is finished. I did have some trouble with the bind-off being too tight. I figured that binding off in my 1×1 ribbing would allow for enough stretch — it didn’t. So I took it out and tried again using the sewn bind-off demonstrated by Silver’s Sock Class. This looked beautiful . […]

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Knitting

Little socks

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No photos at the moment — I’m just writing a quick note about the pair of socks I’m currently working on. I’m making Tofutsies footies as a birthday gift for my sis, and these socks are firsts for me in a few different ways. Up to now I’ve managed to finish a total of three pairs of socks, and all of them were worsted weight and knit from the cuff down. I call them my house socks and I’m crazy about them; but now I’m ready to move on to using actual sock yarn . . . and I’ve got plenty of it stockpiled, including Socks That Rock, Lorna’s Laces, and Opal Handpainted. So now I’m using the Tofutsies yarn that I bought probably a year ago, and I’m knitting footies for her because she hates wearing regular socks. And because I haven’t yet mastered the art of calculating the right number of cast-on stitches for top-down socks, I decided to knit these socks starting with the toe — another first for me. I figured this way I could try the socks on as I go to make sure they fit (our feet are about the same size). I began the first sock on 17 June and bound off at the cuff tonight. I didn’t work exclusively on the sock during the past week, so for me this was a pretty fast knit. My plan is to finish up the […]

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Knitting

Gearing up for the Tour!

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These entries were originally written on 9, 10, and 11 June, 2008: Well, today I signed up for Ravelry’s Tour de France knit-along, and I’m really excited about taking part. I’m going to go for the Yellow Jersey — but it took me quite some time to settle on that, and I still haven’t decided what my project will be. Last month it seemed a brilliant idea to knit Eiffel. I picked out the yarn and began swatching. But then it occurred to me that a project with such an intricate stitch pattern might keep my eyes more on my knitting than on the actual race, and that just doesn’t work for me. I want to watch the race while I knit! So, maybe something a bit simpler, like lots of stockinette, and yet not too simple. And then I had to settle on the jersey — Yellow, Green, or Polka Dot. No big challenges, for the reason mentioned above, so King of the Mountains is out, at least for this year. I’d really like to finish up my project as the race pulls into Paris . . . but knowing me, I’ll end up getting all stressed out and not enjoying the process. So I guess the Sprinter’s jersey will have to wait. Since this IS my very first KAL, I decided I’d take it easy on myself this year and just enjoy being in the peloton. So it’s […]

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Animals

Celebrate the Sun

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The following paragraphs were originally posted on 31 March and 19 May 2008: Spring is arriving little by little, and that means, for one thing, more sunny days for my dogs to enjoy outdoors. Gabby especially is a sun bather; I think that’s a definite characteristic of pit bulls. Every pit bull I’ve been lucky enough to share my life with has shown an absolute genius for locating the most comfortable spot in the yard for lounging and soaking up as much sun as possible. Sometimes it seems the only thing that gets a bull dog through the shivery cold winter is a stubborn hope that the sun will come back, just for her. On cloudy days Gabby will stare at me as if to say, “Well? What did you do with my sunshine?” The first even-slightly-warm day of the year is her opportunity to find her spot and stay there until she’s overheated and panting. And then nothing pleases her more than trudging back inside the house for a nice, long, cold drink of water — and right back out the door to do it all again. 19/5/08: I keep seeing images of the Eiffel Tower today! I’m watching part of Project Runway (third season), and of course I watched part of the Giro d’Italia on Versus yesterday, so I’m very much in mind of the Tour de France coming up oh so soon and the possibility of my […]

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Knitting

Nuthin’ but knittin’

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The following paragraphs were originally posted on 8 March and 18 March 2008 on my old blog — slightly edited here: I visited Babetta’s Yarns for the very first time on 7 March — now I’m wondering why I waited so long! It was only the second time I’d ever stepped inside a true LYS. Several months ago I ventured over to Frog Pond Knits, just before it went out of business, but that was a very different experience. It was my very last chance to go there, and I was hoping for some serious bargains (I bought 4 skeins of Cascade Luna in Boysenberry which are still sitting in my stash). Having read tons of posts on Ravelry about other people’s negative LYS experiences, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect — but I was greeted with a friendly hello as soon as I stepped in the door. I felt completely comfortable browsing through the whole store, and that’s saying a lot, given my social anxiety disorder. The owner (I’m assuming she was the owner) was busy behind the counter, answering the phone, chatting with one or two regular customers, and winding some yarn into balls, but after a while she found time to approach myself and the other browsers and ask if we needed any help. All of us were perfectly content to just walk around drooling at all the beautiful yarns! I went in with the intention […]

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