Shivery Knits

Random Friday

1. I've been catching rides with a friend this summer.* Before we leave in the morning, I have a little extra time to inspect the garden. This week, I especially enjoyed watching this rose bloom.

 

 

 

 

* Extra Bonus: I also get to knit in the car!

2. Last night I saw a preview showing of Julie and Julia. Not only is it a really enjoyable movie, there is (a fraction of a minute of) knitting in it.

3. As a scientist, this article makes me really sad:

Almost a third of ordinary Americans say human beings have existed in their current form since the beginning of time, a view held by only 2 percent of the scientists. Only about half of the public agrees that people are behind climate change, and 11 percent does not believe there is any warming at all.

I feel like science education in America has utterly failed if scientists are this unable to communicate with the American public.

[Somewhat related: I also recently read this profile of James Hansen, a climatologist. He's a scientist I respect, and I recommend the article... although it further convinces me that we are really in trouble because of global warming.]

 

4. I finally blocked the Muir shawl I've been working on for months.

 

I knit the middle of this shawl twice after finding an error that had caused a frame shift hundreds of rows back. There were no pictures. There was a lot of swearing.

Now that this is done and nicer than I ever thought it would be, I can almost talk about it without using an expletive. But let's not push it...

 

Muir Shawl (for Carmen)
Yarn: Araucania Itata Solid, Color 2009 (2 Skeins)
Needles: Addi Lace US 6
Pattern: Muir from Knitty
Size: Only 10 pattern repeats, but blocked to about 5 1/2 feet long.

Happily

We celebrated our wedding anniversary this week. I got some beautiful yarn:

There's a lot of it:

Which was made even more exciting by the other half of the gift:

The fact that I got this for my anniversary is just one more reason I'm happily married.

Hope you have something wonderful to celebrate, too.

Perfection

Sometimes having nowhere to go is the best of all.

Garden Tour

The sock-of-the-moment and I went out for a garden tour between rain showers this morning.

We agreed the basil was looking very nice but a little weeding was imminent:

The cherry tomatoes are already huge:

We took a peak at the green tomatoes:

And the baby zucchini:

Out front:

Bathing

This cardinal has decided that our sprinkler is his own private bath:

He sings the whole time he is bathing, too. Makes me smile every time.

Beginning to End

Starting:

and a new job...

Slogging:

Finishing:

Finally!

Postcards from Off the Grid

Back soon with some knitting.

In the meantime, here's something really lovely to listen to:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/03/05/midday2/

Refocusing

Now that I am not studying most waking hours, I am finding time to do all the things I have been putting off for much too long.

Like starting new socks:

I didn't have a single plain stockinette sock on the needles. The horror.

And reading. For fun.

I do love me some books with plots and character development.

And going to the movies. I'm normally not a big fan of movies, but I can wholeheartedly recommend Up!

And just plain wasting time.

In fact, I think I'll go abduct some more sheep.

Random Wednesday

1. I'm trying to write a paper. I find the topic boring. It's been a long time since I had to write a paper about something I considered boring. Turns out (unsurprisingly), I still don't like it.

2. It's hot here. Like record-breaking hot. It was freezing (literally) last weekend - Who broke the thermostat?

3. I watched the first season of Heroes over the past couple of weeks. I was mostly enjoying it (and ignoring all the really bad Genetics references) until the last couple episodes... when they spouted out some of the worst, most inaccurate Immunology I've ever heard on TV. It is now dead to me. I'm sticking to Dexter.

4. We have lots of really cool flowers in our yard right now.

That last one is a Dodecatheon meadia (also known as a Shooting Star).  I love that it sounds like a Dodecahedron.

I know, I know, I'm a geek.

5. Even though it's hot, I decided I needed to try out my new nostepinne on some wool. (I'm not sure why wool when it's 90+ degrees... these things don't make sense.)

Although this toy is definitely my favorite find at Shepherd's Harvest this year, it's not nearly as awesome as seeing all the great people there.

6. I am totally converted to the hand knit dishcloth. I tried to use a store bought one the other day and I couldn't do it anymore. I'm blaming it all on CoffeeYarn; she provided the gateway drugs dishcloths.

Learning to Do Stuff Good

After an unfortunate experience last Fall...

I learned to count more carefully.

It was clearly worth the effort.

And much more productive than acting on my homicidal desires.