It's Official. I'm Old

You may have noticed that I haven't posted anything for a few days (well, more like a week), and it's because of being sick. I was diagnosed with sinusitis at the emergency room which had affected my inner ears, thus rendering me officially dizzy. Actually, beyond dizzy and into my own, private amusement park ride that I couldn't turn off.

I'm sure there are a lot of people who would respond to that by tilling me I've been dizzy for years, but that's a whole other thing.

I'm still taking the antibiotics, and will be for a while, so the bathroom has become my friend, but I'm starting to get away from some of the awful symptoms I was having. I'm off the meds for dizziness and nausea, and if I sit still and close my eyes, I still feel like the room has been moved to a decent size boat, and is gently moving just a little bit, but it's not rendering me in imminent danger of falling, as it was earlier.

The thing that makes me feel old is that I went out and bought a cane so that when I walked, if I got dizzy, I could stop and have something stable to hold onto. It's got four little feet on the bottom, and can stand on it's own, which is more than could be said for me during most of the last week.

When I saw the doctor on Thursday to check on my progress, there was a woman there with a walker that had a nice, padded seat, so she could sit down and relax if she was dizzy, and it had a compartment (bag) under the seat with space between the seat and bag that allowed her to put her yarn in it and have it feed out through the space while she crocheted. I know this dizziness will be gone soon, and I don't need a walker, but I really envied her that day.

One of the next worst things has been that my mind is just not working. I'm thankful to TiVo because I could record Stargate Universe. I watched the first half of the episode from earlier in the week at least four times so far and each time realized that I still didn't have a clue what was happening. That's probably linked to the fact that within 10 minutes of waking up, I've felt like I was ready for a nap all last week.

I'm guessing it will be about another week before I'm really up to speed as far as blogging goes, so bear with me. I have a lot of stuff that I wanted to do this past week that I need to catch up on.

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I have been working on the cabled mobius hat and stuff to go with it.

I got the yarn for it a while back (last week?) and a copy of Power Cables by Lily Chin, which I thought would help. It's a fabulous book for anyone who wants to knit cables, and especially design cables, but did not really have the information in it that I wanted. I'm still glad I bought it because it has a lot of really neat stuff, and some of it isn't things that I had thought of as cables, but it's wonderful!

After some preliminary trials, I determined that I needed a larger size needle than I originally thought, and sent for a size 9 Addi lace needle from Jimmy Beans Wool, and they got it to me very quickly, and I started swatching in earnest. A needle (or needles) with a good, sharp point is really a necessity for this project.

I did more trials than I usually do, but I haven't done something quite like this before, and considering the brain fog engendered by the combination of sinus infection and meds, I think I did quite well.

Every time I knitted a swatch, I looked at it and saw something I could improve. Then I ripped it out and did it again, but different.

Here's the next-to-the-last trial:

That's a cable needle stuck in the swatch, and my penciled chart under it. The other side looks the same except that you can't see that part of the cable needle.

But that's already been ripped out, and I've eliminated some of the space on either side of the cable, between it and the applied I-cord on the side. It looks better and is more the width I actually wanted it to be. I'll be continuing the new swatch, and it'll be the cuff of the hat.

So, being sick slowed me down, but most of the delays on both versions of the mobius hat and it's accessories has been with getting the supplies and tools to work with.

So, at this point, the hat and cowl are started, and I still have to design a scarf that carries forward the mobius theme. I have ideas going around in my head for that, but so far, I don't think that any of them are actually practical in the real knitting world that involves yarn and needles. I'm also thinking about designing mitts to go with all this, but haven't decided if I will do it. The mitts that are in my head look awfully good, though, so maybe I'll do it.

As far as the plainer mobius hat and cowl are concerned, I've finished knitting them, and have the instructions for the hat mostly written. I haven't gotten back to editing and proofing the directions, and haven't done most of the instructions for the cowl yet. I need more yarn before I can do the scarf (I think--I'll have to check what's left over, but I don't think I haven enough). I'm also trying to decide if I want to write a separate pattern for mitts to go with this, or if I'll recommend that you use the mitts pattern that I've already written and will be converting to PDF.

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In more knitting news, or, more accurately, spinning news, Spin Off Magazine has a free trial offer for their magazine. If you've let your subscription lapse, you can get a free issue. I just got my personal copy in the mail, and it really brightened up being sick. I haven't read the article about spinning paper yet, but it looks interesting.

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Firefly is on The Science Channel again tonight. You can catch The Train Job if you missed it last week, and it's followed by Bushwhacked, which is not a fun episode because it's about the reivers. My brain is still not working, and I can't figure out how to spell that.

I hope you enjoyed the two hour return of The Event last Monday, and it'll be back tomorrow night right after the return of Chuck.

I'm about to fall over asleep at this point, and Firefly is coming on, so that's it for today.

I hope you had a great weekend, and will have a wonderful week coming up!

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men. . .

I had plans for yesterday.

I was going to get a lot done.

And then I woke up yesterday, and the whole thing went down the drain!

I opened my eyes, and the whole room was spinning around.

I've heard people say that, and thought they were just a bit dizzy. I had no idea what the actual reality was like. It was like looking straight ahead, and being spun around. The room actually did seem to spin!

Which prompted some vomiting.

Then I tried to get up and so to the bathroom. I nearly fell down at least three times on the way, and it's not far away.

More vomiting.

You can insert more vomiting between each description hereafter.

I called around to: my doctor (who doesn't have office hours on Saturday), and the medical advice line at the VA Hospital in DC. The later told me to go to an emergency room, but cautioned me not to try to drive myself.

Holly came over and took me to the ER at Potomac Hospital.

They tested everything they could think of, including stroke, and decided that I have a cold or something (which I've noticed for the past two weeks or so), and sinusitus, and decided that it was probably causing the vertigo I had. They gave me some medicine while I was there for vertigo and nausea, and I left with a handful of prescriptions for vertigo, nausea, an antibiotic (for the killer post nasal drip I've had, which may have contributed to the problem) and, just for fun, Vallium!

It seems to be working. I don't feel OK, but I feel SO much better than yesterday.

But you can forget about anything useful I planned to do yesterday.

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As I mentioned before, The Science Channel will be showing the whole Firefly series, starting at 9 tonight (here--check you local listings). My digital TV guide, and the schedule put up by The Science Channel don't agree. They will be showing the first, two-part episode, Serenity. After that, my digital TV guide says they'll be rerunning those two episodes. The Science Channel guide says they'll be running the first two episodes followed by the third episode, The Train Job, followed by a rerun of the first half of Serenity. Huh?

If they're going to run The Train Job, why not run the next episode, which is Bushwacked? Anyway, if you have a DVR or TiVo, you should record both of them.

I have my TV on The Science Channel, and they've already started running it, so I have to go.

Have a great weekend!

Happy Groundhog Day!

Once again, that time of year has rolled around again.

Yes, folks, it's Groundhog Day!

Opinions seem to be divided about whether the groundhog saw his shadow in my area. When I first woke up, it was overcast here, so it would have been impossible to see a shadow. But then it cleared up and it's been sunny all day.

In Pennsylvania, they have happier news. Punxutawney Phil did not see his shadow, so it's (theoretically) going to be an easy balance of Winter. Let's hope he's right. We got enough snow last year where I live for the next five years, so we deserve it.

In Atlanta, their local groundhog agrees with Phil, so it's probably going to be an early Spring both North and South of here.

For those of you who want to celebrate it with a movie, one of the Encore channels is playing Groundhog Day all day to day, over and over and over again, kind of like in the movie.

In old Gaelic folklore, it's also St. Brigid's Day, also known as Candlemas and Imbolc, which may have been a precursor to Groundhog Day.

 Are you completely bored with this yet?

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I've been knitting like a crazy person on some Christmas presents for some people I won't see until next week. Unfortunately, that means that I can't show you pictures and spoil the surprise.

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In other TV news, the second of the two Human Target episodes that we missed a couple of weeks ago will be on tonight! The first of the two was repeated on Monday along with a new Chuck. If you have a TiVo and don't want to miss Human Target, I suggest that you program a season pass for it. Fox seems to be persecuting it the way it did Firefly!

And although NBC said they were going to show a new Castle on Monday, they didn't and instead showed a rerun. Shame on you, NBC!

Back on the subject of tonight, there will be a rerun of Supernatural, and it will be on at the same time as Human Target, natch! You didn't think that as much as the networks seem to hate Wednesday, that they'd conveniently put the good things on a different times, did you?

Speaking of TV, if you live in the Northern Virginia area and you'd like to get a TiVo HD, leave a comment. I have one for sale for a limited time for a low, low price and a 5 month contract for service (it won't work without the service). More details are available to commenters. I won't bore you with them here.

I'm still having lots of problems with internet, so there still won't be a lot of posts until I can get that ironed out. Sorry, but it's such a fight to get something up.

Have a fabulous week, and I wish no more snow to all the people who have already gotten too much!

Quiet Sunday

Not much is going on around here other than I seem to have gotten off the tracks with my knitting. I was going to finish the last little bit of Christmas knitting, but the blue, self-patterning Comfort yarn from Mary Maxim that I got last month was calling me, and I rationalized it all by saying to myself that I could knit just one sock to get an idea of what it would look like so I'd have a better idea of how to design the vest I bought the yarn for.

Sort of a useful swatch.

Well, I finished the sock, but then one sock isn't much good unless you're Dobby. So, I thought I'd just knit a second sock and then get back to finishing my Christmas knitting.

I'm now on the third one.

This has got to stop!

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The only exciting thing that's been happening is that my phone has started to make loud beeping noises in my ear when I'm using it at random times.

At first, I thought that I just hadn't charged the battery in the handset enough. It's a cordless phone.

But it seems to be charging OK. The other night I was talking to Holly, and it started beeping loudly, and I told her it was beeping and I couldn't talk on it. I hung up, and she called me back because she couldn't hear me once it started beeping, so she didn't know why we got disconnected. She couldn't hear the beeping, but couldn't hear me, either. Anyway, it worked fine then. So, it's obviously not the battery.

The current favorite theory is that it seems to be happening around the time that Comcast sends out the signal to turn off their DVRs. The phone is plugged in to the internet connection from Comcast via a T-Mobile router that I bought for that purpose. If you have a T-Mobile cell phone and a broadband internet connection, you can get a router from them (mine cost $40) with a SIM card and plug it into your internet connection, then plug your landline phone into it and get unlimited service to anywhere in the US for $10 per month.

The router also gives you WiFi.

This is a really good deal for T-Mobile and the customer. My cell phone will work from a wifi connection, and since I use it at home most of the time, I've been using about 40 of my 600 minutes per month. Especially since I use the landline instead of the cell most of the time when I'm at home.

So, I can call my friend in California and talk for an hour whenever I want,  and it doesn't cost anything extra. So, T-Mobile gets $10 extra per month, I use fewer minutes on my cell, and T-Mobile actually has to do less for their money.

But, once again, Comcast is probably messing up a good thing.

I'm so sick of them.

One of the things I really hated about them was that they send out a signal between 1 and 1:30 am to turn off your DVR. Doesn't matter if you just checked to see what was on, changed the channel, whatever, it just tries to turn  off your DVR. It blanks out the picture of whatever you were watching, turns off the sound, and says "Your DVR is powering off, now. Press any button to stop it from doing that."

I hate Comcast!

Although they still send out the signal, now that I have a TiVo, the box ignores that signal. But I think it may be affecting the phone. I don't know for sure that this is what is happening, but I'm still really disgusted with Comcast (as usual)!

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Speaking of TV things that I'm really disgusted with, Fox did another one this week.

I was really looking forward to watching two back-to-back episodes of Human Target on Wednesday. It was so much fun last week! So, at 8 pm, I sit down to watch, and there's a stupid sitcom on! I check the electronic TV guide, and it says two hours of Human Target. I stick with it for a while and finally find out that they bumped those two hours to televise the memorial service for the victims of the shooting in Tucson.

Don't get me wrong. I would have wanted to watch it if I'd known it was on. I did watch it, and sat and cried for a while.

The thing I object to is that they didn't let me know what was happening.

And then they televised the first of the two Human Target episodes on Friday night, but didn't tell anyone. I didn't find out until it was over and I'd missed it.

If you don't let people know your schedule, it's all useless. There were probably thousands of people who wanted to watch the memorial service and didn't because they didn't know it was on.

Ditto, Human Target.

Get your act together, Fox! You have had some great shows on, but you manage to kill them! Notably, Firefly.

I hate it when TV networks change their schedule 15 minutes before something is due to air! Especially since that's too late to change the electronic TV guide (not the mention the printed one), so nobody knows what's happening. You could at least make an announcement on air at the beginning of the change!

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I hope you've been having a good weekend and I wish you the best week possible!

Busy Saturday

I've been busy making Christmas presents!

I'm getting to the end of the yarn I have on hand, and projects keep shifting under my feet. I started one project for me, and as I was knitting it, I looked carefully, and the project was saying "I belong to Malaia." Just whispering it quietly, but I couldn't ignore it.

I ordered several things, and there was one I was hoping would arrive yesterday, but it didn't. That was the one with the Bernat Mosaic yarn (color swatch below), the Addi lace needle, and some sparkly, furry yarn for Christmas stockings.

I was originally thinking of the Mosaic yarn for a Christmas present, but then it occurred to me that it would make perfect accessories for the Celtic sweater I still haven't finished knitting, and would go well with my jean jacket, too, so I'm going to do a hat, mitts, and something to go around my neck with it. That's another project that's changed ownership! I haven't really made up my mind exactly what, but I'm suddenly in love with self-striping or self-patterning yarn, and think that they would look great in patchwork!

The Addi lace needle is one I want to use to finish my Celtic sweater. So I really wanted it ASAP! The weather is getting just right for a sweater like that. I'd like to get the stuff for me done now so that I can use them right away and get on with the Christmas projects. But they're coming UPS, and I'm not sure if UPS delivers on Saturday or on Columbus Day, so there may not be a chance of actually getting all this until Tuesday. I keep checking outside my door in case the UPS person knocks and I don't hear it!

In the meantime, an order I placed the day after the one I described above was delivered by UPS yesterday! There's only one thing in this order: a bag of 10 balls of overstock self-patterning yarn.

They sent me an email full of self-patterning yarns, and I took one look at the swatch of this light worsted weight yarn knitted up, and it said "I belong to Jeff." My brother, Jeff, that is. I can safely write about it here because Jeff has severe dyslexia, and avoids reading whenever possible.

I wanted to make a hood, watch cap and mitts for him, and I'm picturing it knit in different directions in random patchwork style. And while I was writing that sentence, it suddenly occurred to me that it would look good with a few solid patches in there, too. Maybe the solid patches could be in seed stitch or something. This may generate a new pattern to sell!

I'm planning on knitting it in one piece by picking up stitches from previous patches (so it'll be in one piece), and I want to get a solid chocolate color yarn to do a whip stitch over the joins when it's done so it will look like it was hand sewn together. It should turn out looking very handmade.

I bought some tan yarn to use as trim on another project, and happened to set the bag of yarn down next to it, and it is a perfect mid-tone match for this yarn, so I'll probably use that. There's enough yarn in the bag that I can probably make a set of two hoods, hats and mitts with some left over, and if I mix in a solid color, it might stretch to three. One set for Jeff, one set for another Christmas present, and one set to sell.

Anyway, I got the whole bag of ten balls for $25 plus shipping! A good deal, even if it will leave me broke for the rest of the month!

If you want a custom project knitted to give for Christmas, now would be the time to request it (while I'm broke, and more willing to do almost anything for money).

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There's not much on TV for science fiction fen this weekend. I'm glad I have my DVD player hooked up, and I wish I had all my DVDs back from Holly.

I have had my TiVo record two episodes of House because it was listed as Human Target. The second time was last night, so I checked it out on the internet. Fox dragged it's feet about deciding to pick up Human Target, decided they did want to pick it up (I understand it got great ratings--I certainly enjoyed it), scheduled it for their Fall season, and then said to the people who create it something like "What, we ordered 13 episodes of it last week! You haven't filmed it yet?" So, thanks to the gross incompetence of Fox, it won't be on until later in November (the 17th), not the early October date that they scheduled. At least this was only gross negligence, not deliberate murder, like they did with Firefly and Dollhouse!

Speaking of Dollhouse, Syfy will be rerunning the second season soon. I'll keep you updated, or you can check your local listings.

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Holly is going to her knitting retreat next weekend. There is a contest on for all returning knitters to create a knit-in-the-round cowl starting with some yarn that they supplied.

She hasn't started yet.

She described to me how she wants to knit it, and I described to her how to chart the pattern for it. She's known about this since last year, and got more yarn for it at the Sheep and Wool Festival, but hadn't done anything as of last week. So, last Saturday, I sat down and charted the pattern for her the way she described it. She has to come up with the actual pattern herself, but I think it's OK if she uses a chart that she didn't write. People use stitch pattern dictionaries to design things all the time, and the design still belongs to them.

So, today, she finally decided to start swatching to test the chart I drew, and maybe later in the day, actually start the cowl.

The yarn they gave her was a skein of navy blue wool in a worsted weight (she had her choice of colors), and she's bought some other med/light blue and off white beaded yarns to go with it. I'm excited! I can't wait to see it actually done!

All I can say is she'd better take pictures!

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Most of the things I have to knit are not things that you can knit and watch TV. They're things that require almost complete attention (that's why I've been putting them off), so this weekend is a good time to do them. I'll be spending the rest of the weekend in front of TV watching things that I've seen at least a dozen times (so I can follow them while I pay attention to my knitting) and doing all the stuff that I haven't done because it requires too much attention. You may not hear as much from me as usual for a while.

But I wish you an even better weekend than I'll be having!

TGIF!

I've had a week full of getting up early or earlier than usual, and I just want some sleep!

For all you knitters out there, here's a collection of great patterns to make Christmas gifts. These are, for the most part, smaller projects that have lots of WOW appeal. If you don't see what you like, click on one anyway because each project has photos of other projects below it that are good ideas. One of the links is messed up, but if you click random other links, you'll find it below the featured pattern.

If you dig a few layers under all the links they provide, you'll find the Cinchy Hat, which I think would look great in a solid color, too.

Oh, and there are other pattern links on the side. I like this page so much that I'm putting a link to it in the sidebar.

There are only 35 days until Christmas!

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For any of you that live in the LA area, there's a Serenity and Firefly convention this weekend! There will be stars from the show! Enjoy! I envy you!

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I went to the Comcast meeting yesterday. It was basically to sell stuff to the people here. The representative didn't know anything about TiVo for use with Comcast.

She said I had to call and talk to a representative over the phone. I did exactly that, and found out that if I trade in my Scientific Atlanta DVR for the newest Cisco model, I'll get a more reliable box, and a hard drive that's several times larger! Since the box is free, I'm leaning toward that option at the moment.

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The usual (mostly) Friday night line up is on tonight. We have a new Ghost Whisperer and Medium on CBS, new Sanctuary and Stargate Universe on SyFy, and new White Collar and Monk on USA. That should keep your DVR busy!

Have a great Friday night and a wonderful weekend!

Welcome to the Sauna!

It's gotten over 70 degrees both yesterday and today, and that means that even with all the windows open as far as I can open them, it's about 90 degrees in here since the people who run the apartment building have the heat turned on. I have my thermostat turned down to freezing, but that doesn't slow it down at all. I think I've turned it up past freezing in the winter about twice since I've been here. And that was when we had weather that didn't get above about 13 degrees for a high for an extended time period. Usually, all I have to do to warm the place up in extreme weather is to shut the windows.

So, don't expect a lot of blogging until it cools off a bit.

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Here's an update on what's been happening around here.

Holly and I decided to save on some of Bud K's shipping fees and place a combined order for both of us. Holly and I both have an interest in edged weapons, both as tools and as art objects. Some of the edged weapons I have used to be useful for SCA, but Holly collects them. I, for one, could not resist a sock knife that has a braided cable pattern for a hilt and has a blue stone set in it. It's beautiful. We're each getting one, in fact.

See why, as an artist, I like it?

But here's the really big news!

Holly and Robin are going to New Orleans for Halloween!

Holly called me from work last night to gloat that a week from then, she'd be in New Orleans. I envy her the opportunity! It sounds like so much fun! I've already told her I want pictures!

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I have news about Dollhouse. Lots of news, and it's all conflicting. Apparently, according to Fox, they have decided to show the entire season, all 13 episodes, and they have cancelled it, and Friday's episode will be the last. Which is par for the course for Fox. I have no idea how it's possible for them to do both of these things, but then they managed to kill one of the best TV shows I've ever seen, namely, Firefly.

When they originally decided to pick up Dollhouse, Firefly and Joss Whedon fans immediately started a campaign to get Fox to not cancel Dollhouse. After murdering Firefly, Fox was bewildered that the fans might think that they'd managed to destroy Dollhouse, too. Gee, I can't imagine why.

I don't know if you've been watching Castle or not, but there are some little nuggets for SF fen scattered here and there. There's a recent episode where he says something to the effect of "I'm going to buy a space ship and call it Serenity." But for next Monday's Halloween episode, there will be references to Bufffy the Vampire Slayer (specifically the episodes that Nathan Fillion was in) and to Firefly, specifically, he'll be wearing his "Captain Tightpants" outfit as a Halloween costume. Fans of the captain should not miss it! It looks like it'll be a lot of campy fun! I can't wait!

There's a game of some kind on TV tonight, so I'm finally going to get to see an episode of Grey's Anatomy, for the first time this season because Fringe won't be on.

I don't know why all the networks have put anything worth watching on Thursday and Friday nights. They probably didn't have room for Heroes and Eastwick on Thursday and Friday due to the jam-up of all the good shows then. Those are currently the only good shows, along with Legend of the Seeker that are regularly scheduled shows on TV, other than reruns of Torchwood.

Eastwick, by the way is the only show currently on television that gets me to yell out "No!" at the TV because the episode is over! I'm hooked!

So, tonight, you can enjoy Flash Forward, The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and The Mentalist. Tomorrow, we have Ghost Whisperer, Medium and (of course) Dollhouse!

Enjoy!

I feel like I'm cooking from the inside out, so I'm going to go and either lie down or maybe take a cold shower. I hate this every Spring and Fall!

And here's something funny for you, just because I can!

Crazy Aunt Purl, this one's for you!

I hope you're not overheating, and that you have a great evening!

I Think I'm Back, Now

I haven't been feeling really good for a long time, now, but the antibiotics and decongestant I've been taking have been having side effects that have had me feeling worse than usual for the last week or so. But I've just taken the last antibiotic pill, and so I assume that I'll be feeling better soon. At this point, I don't think they have improved the general background low grade sickness, though. I was really hoping they would.

So, anyway, it looks like I should be back to posting almost every day soon.

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Holly is coming home today from her weekend trip. I heard from her last night, and the trip was good and bad. She had severe plane delays on the way out, but did get to Hoagie Man at least once, and planned to go again before she left. This was complicated by the fact that her phone managed to quit working, necessitating a trip to the phone store to get it going again. It quit again soon after being fixed, but then was fiddled into working again. The renfair trip on Saturday seemed to be a success. At least she said that she'd bought a really beautiful ring that I can't wait to see.

She didn't want to hang on the phone for long last night when I talked to her, so I got a sketchy report of Sunday's renfair trip, and it wasn't pretty. There was a lot of rain, and it was chilly, which didn't go at all with her pirate costume, which, you may remember from the last post was a bit skimpy on warmth. Her wool felt tricorn hat may never recover. Heather got fed up with it and left, then promptly had a car accident due (I presume) to the bad weather. I get the impression that although there was a lot to enjoy, the general misery from the weather cut into the merriment.

I wish her a safe trip home!

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I managed to knit the entire ankle, a heel flap, turn the heel, and most of the gusset on the last blue sock for Holly on Saturday while watching Children of Earth again on my DVR from last weekend's BBC in America extravaganza. I've gotten the green yarn wound into balls (actually cakes) and am into the heel flap on the first green sock for her. I've discovered that the green dye on the socks is coming off on my hands, so now I have green marks there. That's the first yarn I've gotten from Knit Picks that's done that. So, now I'll have to wash the green socks before I can give them to her.

I washed Heather's yarn in shampoo and conditioner in hopes of softening it, but with no real improvement. It looks like somebody sold her the first yarn they'd ever spun. It's a singles, which can be OK to knit, if the spinner knows what she's doing. A singles is inherently not a balanced yarn, and will tend to skew. Overcoming this tendency is delicate, and easy to mess up. On top of being a singles, as I said, one skein looks like it was the first thing someone ever spun. It's not even structurally sound. Some of it is thinner than sewing thread and overspun, ready to snap at the slightest tension, and it has slubs, which are spaced far apart and not a relatively even design feature, that are thicker than some of the bulkiest yarn. The other skein is more evenly spun. It has some thick and thin, but is nice, stable, handspun.

Whoever spun it tried to make it act like a balanced yarn by boiling the heck out of it while dying it with logwood, which produced a stunningly beautiful lavender color, and turned some perfectly good wool into something that feels like steel wool. While boiling, they didn't put any tension on it, so there are a lot of kinks that are felted into the wool.

I'm thinking about plying the two skeins in hopes of removing a bit of the bias, which is till there, and making it actually structurally sound before knitting it. I'm having a hard time trying to decide how to handle it because it's really bad. I don't think it would look good in the Hermionie's Hat pattern. Actually, once it's plied, I think it would look good in a very plain hat pattern to show off the slubs and inconsistencies of the yarn. I'm thinking it over while I knit Holly's sock before I do anything. This is turning into trying to make a silk hat out of a sow's ear. Whoever ruined this wool should be ashamed of themselves!

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This week will see the beginning of a number of new shows, so pay close attention to your TV guide, and prepare to be entertained!

Being Human is on daytime BBC in America today! Later on, we'll have the season premiers of Heroes, Castle, and The Big Bang Theory!

Tomorrow is the season finale of Warehouse 13! If you've heard about it but missed the beginning and want to see it (and have a way to record it or have the day off) you can watch the whole, entire first season of Warehouse 13 on SyFy tomorrow, starting early in the day!

On Wednesday, the premier of Eastwick will be happening on ABC. This show looks interesting!

Thursday will see the premier of Flash Forward! I've been seeing the trailers for it, and I'm excited! This premise has a lot of potential. The season premier of The Mentalist will also be on!

Also on Thursday, we'll get to see the second episode of the season of Fringe and the third of Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries. Well, you might get to see The Vampire Diaries. I won't. I can only watch two programs at a time, and I'd rather see the second episode of Bones. The premier of Supernatural was as wonderful as I'd hoped. I have the second episode on the DVR, and I'm saving it up for a special treat!

And on Friday, we have the long-awaited premier of Dollhouse! Of course, there's an episode between the last one aired and the new premier that you won't have seen unless you bought the Dollhouse DVD. I think that's really chintzy of Fox, but then they are the same people who managed to kill Firefly, which is one of the best shows I've seen on TV since Babylon 5.

And, just before Dollhouse on Friday is the season opener of Ghost Whisperer!

Whew! My DVR is going to be really busy this week!

I hope you have a great week, and enjoy all the great shows on TV!

Warehouse 13 Is Coming!

There's a new show coming up soon on SciFi (which will become SyFy [Siffy] on the date of it's premier) which I've heard a little about. It's called Warehouse 13, and it has a lot of potential.

The same channel (with the weird new name) will be bringing Eureka back this summer! I'm very happy about that!

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I intended to post yesterday, but I've been overcome by heat. I talked to the person who runs the building I live in, and she claimed that last night was the first night it didn't freeze here. Whatever the temperature was last nigh, it took the whole night to get it down to 80 degrees in here from the high of 90 yesterday. The outside temperature went up to 80 yesterday.

Today and tomorrow it's supposed to get up to about 95, so I'm expecting temperatures of over 100 in here by later today.

She said it takes a whole day to start the air conditioning, and they've only just turned off the heat. Well, it changed from early Spring to Summer temperatures temperatures over night.

She told me to open the windows (which I've already done). She said that a lot of people complain about the heat, but she visited their apartments, and it's a little warm, but not uncomfortable.

I'm already starting to have a reaction to all the tree and grass pollen, which means that even when the AC comes on, I'll have gotten a good head start on being seriously sick by the end of tree pollen season. And since I've become allergic to grass pollen, even with air conditioning, I won't be able to recover by ragweed season, which will make me even more seriously sick by the end. If I'm lucky, I may be able to recover over the winter.

I plan to submit a list of temperatures and times in my apartment on Monday. I can't deal with it. I have a serious chance at heat exhaustion by the end of the weekend.

Stay cool and have a good weekend!

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Addition:

For a mockumercial for utilikilts (utility kilts) check here. Mockumercials are commercials for products put out by the users of the product, and are usually intended to be funny. If you're a Firefly fan, click on the Serenity option for a take-off on the fruity-oaty bar commercials.

Happy Monday!

Well, in the last 24 hours, my mobius hood has exploded from something that looked just a little longer than it did the day before to starting to look like a real hood!


It doesn't look in the photo like it would fit as well as it does in real life. Well, I did some shaping on the hood, and I still have some doubts about this project. I think it's really turning out nice, so far, though.

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For those of you who don't know, the SciFi Channel has discovered that they can't trademark/register/copyright/whatever the term "SciFi." So they have embarked on a journey to find the perfect new name for their network. They have chosen SyFy as their new name. I read one report that insisted that they chose it because that's how they would spell it in a text message.

First of all, I doubt that they can't trademark it. Blaster, and a lot of other basic SF words were successfully trademarked in the past, which seems really silly to me. Unless someone else has already trademarked it.

Io9 has some really funny articles about this. The first one I saw was named SciFi Channel Changes It's Name to a Typo, and it was just an announcement of the change. The second one, 25 Other Names the SciFi Channel Could Rebrand With was funny. My favorite on the list was "Sci-Fi Except For All That Wrestling Channel," although I also liked "Zzzzzzzzzy-Phy."

Then there was a post called "15 More Alternate Names for the SciFi Channel," which continued the funny theme. One of my favorites from this list was the "I Cant Spel But I Kin Txt Chanel."

Here's what SciFi has to say about the name change in their own words. The theme that keeps repeating is the idea of "a name we can own." There was also a poll on your opinion of the new name in the sidebar. I voted against it, but it seems to be gone now. I can't find it on their site. But when I voted, the score was something like 157 for and over a half million against. I suspect they took it down because they didn't like the general direction in which it was headed.

But they are doing something good tomorrow during the day. They have reruns of Eureka on! On Wednesday, there will be episodes of Tru Calling on their daytime rotation, too.

This weekend, actually Friday evening at nine (here) they're showing Stargate: Ark of Truth for all of you, like me who haven't been able to scrape up the money for the DVD, even though it's not very expensive.

I suspect they're doing that to make it up to us for showing Beowulf last weekend. I didn't think anything or anybody could mess up a fine, classic, Icelandic saga as badly as Grendel, but Beowulf gave it a run for it's money.

NBC will be showing their usual Monday night science fiction shows, Chuck, Heroes, and Medium, and we'll be treated to another episode of Castle at the same time as Medium. The Monday night lineup is currently good for all old Firefly fans because we can get to see both Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin! It's just a shame Castle isn't science fiction (or fantasy).

Well, there's lots to do today, so I'd better get going.

Have a great day!

Happy Craft Month!

March is craft month, as all the advertising sent to me has made perfectly clear. So, do some crafting in celebration, and don't forget to check those sales! Most of the craft stores are having special sales, and this is your chance to cash in on them.

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A brand-new episode of Reaper is back on TV tonight! I like Reaper, and I'm glad it's back, but if I had a choice, there is a long list of programs I'd much rather see back, such as The Dresden Files, The Middleman, Firefly, Blake's 7, Babylon 5, Red Dwarf, Probe, and lots more. Oh, well, we take what we can get.

There will also be a rerun of The Mentalist. I'd like to see some new episodes, but I'm very grateful that they're rerunning them. So many channels are showing a series, and then it disappears. I'd like the chance to watch them again and to catch up on ones that I've missed (such as the entire Middleman series, which Comcast managed to show entirely without closed captioning). Comcast is so inept!

The best thing on tonight will be an episode of The Universe on the History Channel (I think) about alternate universes. I haven't seen an episode of this series that I didn't like, but this is my favorite.

So, check it out and have a fun evening!

Finished Objects 2008 Part Two

Here is a whole collection of things that I made as a set. It includes a hat (you already saw that), a scarf, three mittens and three boot cuffs. The photo only shows one each of the mittens and boot cuffs.

This finished poncho is now up in my Etsy shop.

And, of course, I finished the covers (back and front) plus the inside covers and two labels for the first volume of the Complete Steve Canyon on TV. You can see the inside cover art here.

I made a glow-in-the-dark Christmas stocking for my Harry Potter school house KAL.

The photo here shows some yarn and one mitt that's finished. I actually finished two more to make a complete set, plus two more out of the black yarn to go with John M's hood.

I know this isn't finished, but here's a glimpse of part of the Celtic sweater I've been working on. There are ends to darn in and blocking before I can sew on the buttons, but it's almost done.

And here is the first of the five stockings I'm doing for a commission (front and back views).

While we're on a Christmas theme, here's the Santa hat I made for myself, and which it turns out I like and have been wearing a lot. I made another one just like it in black for Robin (since that's his favorite color).

And here is the almost finished hood for John M. I neglected to take a photo of it when it was done, but I did finish it in time to give it to him on Christmas.


There are probably a bunch of miscellaneous things that I've knitted but neglected to photograph, too.

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I went to Michaels on the bus yesterday and got to do a lot of walking. Well, it's a lot of walking for me, anyway.

I found some better yarn for the beard and fur on the Christmas stockings, a calendar, and a punch to round corners on paper. Thanks, Malaia and John! But I lost track of time, and left Michaels about the time that I should have been at the bus stop. Since I still had a half mile walk to the bus stop, I didn't make it, and had to wait almost two hours between the two buses (there are far fewer buses on a Saturday). 

This actually turned out to be a good thing because I had time to stop in to Borders and get the Winter issue of Spin Off Magazine.

I left Michaels at 5:30, and got home at about 8:30. 

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I got home and got the news that Malaia had gotten a tattoo. Holly says she has (some of) the words to Amazing Grace tattooed in a spiral around her arm. She also got a rose and a butterfly. She said the rose was for me, and the butterfly was for her mom. I got on Facebook and demanded photos. She wrote back "Photos of what?"

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I hope you all had a chance to see Serenity on the SciFi Channel last night! I love Firefly!

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There is a new post up on the Steve Canyon on DVD blog! Check it out!

I hope you had a great weekend!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Holly!

Today is Holly's birthday, and I missed her phone call this morning. I also missed calling her this morning.

And Sara, I know today's not your birthday, but I know you're already celebrating, so

Happy Birthday, Sara!

There are lots of birthdays this month!

I missed singing Holly the Birthday Dirge this morning. So, for her, and for all of you having birthdays this month, here it is:

THE BIRTHDAY DIRGE

tune: "Volga Boatmen"

Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday!
1. Now you've aged another year
Now you know that Death is near
Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday!

1a. So you've aged another year
Now you know that Death is near

2. Children dying far and near
They say that cancer's caused by bheer

2a. Children dying everywhere
Women crying in despair

3. Death, destruction, and despair
People dying everywhere

3a. Doom and gloom and dark despair
People dying everywhere!

3b. Doom, destruction, and despair
Grief and sorrow fill the air

3c. Doom, destruction, and despair
People dying everywhere

3d. Death and gloom and black despair
People dying everywhere

3e. Pain destruction and despair
People dying everywhere

4. Typhoid, plague and polio
Coffins lined up in a row

5. Now that you're the age you are
Your demise cannot be far

5a. Now you are the age you are
Your demise cannot be far

5b. When you've reached the age you are
Your demise cannot be far

Other Common Verses:

6. Black Death has just struck your town
You yourself feel quite run-down

6a. Pestilence has struck your town
You yourself feel quite run-down

7. Birthdays come but once a year
Marking time as Death draws near

8. Long ago your hair turned grey
Now it's falling out, they say

8a. Soon your hair will all turn grey
Then fall out (or so they say)

The Viking/Barbarian Verses:

9. Burn the castle and storm the keep
Kill the women, but save the sheep

9a. Hear the women wail and weep
Kill them all, but spare the sheep

9b. May the women wail and weep
kill them all, but save the sheep

10. Burn, then rape by firelight
Add _romance_ to life tonight

11. Indigestion's what you get
From the enemies you 'et

12. May the candles on your cake
Burn like cities in your wake.

12a. May the cities in your wake
Burn like candles on your cake,

13. May the children in the street
Be your barbequeing meat

13a. We love children, yes we do
Baked or broiled or in a stew

14. May your deeds with sheep and yaks
Equal those with sword and axe

14a. May your deeds with sword and axe
Equal those with sheep and yaks

15. They stole your sword, your gold, your house
Took your sheep but not your spouse

16. This one lesson you must learn
First you pillage, then you burn

17. While you eat your birthday stew
We will loot the town for you,

The SCA Verses:

18. We brought linen, white as cloud
Now we'll sit and sew your shroud

19. You're a period cook, its true
Ask the beetles in the stew

20. Your servants steal, your wife's untrue
Your children plot to murder you

Other Verses:

21. Fear and gloom and darkness but
No one found out you-know-what

21a. Just be glad the friends you've got
Haven't found out you-know-what

22. I'm a leper, can't you see
Have a birthday kiss from me

23. It's your birthday never fear
You'll be dead this time next year

24. Now another year has passed
Don't look now they're gaining fast!

24a. So far Death you have bypassed
Don't look back, he's gaining fast

25. Now you've lived another year
Age to you is like stale beer

26. Now your jail-bait days are done
Let's go out and have some fun

27. See the wrinkles on your face
Like the pattern of fine lace

28. Were I sitting in your shoes
I'd go out and sing the blues

29. So you're 29 again
Don't tell lies to your good friend

29a. Tho you're turning 29
Age to you is like fine wine

30. You must marry very soon
Baby's due the next full moon

31. When you've reached this age you know
That the mind is first to go

Happy birthday to everyone with a birthday this month!

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For all you Firefly fans, the SciFi Channel will be having Serenity on next Saturday! Check local listings.

Have a great Sunday!

Quick Post! (again)

I was really busy yesterday, and I have lots to do today, so this will be quick.

I finally got the rest of the yarn for the stockings ordered. I tried over the weekend, but the JoAnn Fabrics website was malfunctioning and wouldn't let me actually pay for the order and place it. I had better luck on the phone today. I also got the order for the DP needles for the heel part ordered from Knit Picks.

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I've been darning in ends and finishing a pile of projects that just needed ends woven in but were otherwise finished. Some of those projects will need blocking, too, but I'm saving those up to do in one batch. 

I now have a dedicated box that is collecting finished Christmas presents that are ready to wrap and give. Once I finish all the projects that are almost done, it will be a lot more full.

I also ordered the stuff I need to make Christmas cards. Now that I have a working printer, I ordered the card stock, envelopes and some glitter glue. I seriously never thought I'd be putting glitter glue on anything, but the art I'm using for the cards almost screams out for it. I suspect that the little wreath I got for my apartment door will look really smashing with it, too. The glue I ordered is clear with glitter that is also clear, but iridescent. I saw some commercial wreaths that had something similar to this last year, and they were beautiful.

I also plan to make some nifty Christmas ornaments to include with the cards.

Oh, and I ordered a punch to use to make hang tags from for stuff I've knitted. I plan to update my logo, and these should make really neat tags with the logo.

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For knitters/crocheters/craftspeopls/fans of Firefly, Buffy, etc., Joss Whedon gave an interview about crochet, knit, and crafts in general at crochetme.com. You can see a transcript of the interview here. He even discusses Jayne's hat.

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The Librarian trilogy on TNT yesterday was wonderful! If you missed the new one, Curse of the Judas Chalise, it will be on later in the week, along with Leverage, which is the best pilot I've seen in a long while. Check your local listings for Tuesday evening for precise times.

Tuesday evening, the pilot for Leverage will be on again, followed by the second episode. The second one will be on at the same time as Fringe and The Mentalist, but if you want to see all three, Leverage will be repeated later in the evening.

Tonight, we'll be having the usual four new episodes of Lost on SciFi, plus new Chuck, Heroes, and My Own Worst Enemy on NBC.

I need to go and get stuff done!

Have a great evening!

Holy Cow! It's the Renfair!

Holy Cow! The Renfair was fun! Today is the last day, so if you haven't gone, it's too late. You'll have to wait until next year.

Unfortunately, Everett couldn't come along. He just got out of the hospital where they finally determined that he didn't have pneumonia. I'm glad about that, but he's still pretty sick.

Holly said she had a phone call from him yesterday morning. It started with a lot of coughing, followed by "Does that answer your question?"

Holly ordered a custom-made guitar strap for Robin, and tried to get them to commit to making a sheath for her dagger (the one with the heart cut into the blade), but the woman who actually would make it wasn't there.

She bought an incredible mask! If I'd been thinking at all, I would have taken a photo of it while it was in the store, but I was asleep at the switch. It's got a very spooky, long angular face when you see it from one side (as I did when I first looked at it). But if you walk to the other side, there's another face. It's outrageous! I told her that once Robin sees it, she's going to have to fight him for it.

We walked until we didn't want to walk anymore.

They had a showing of something called "MacBeth in 20 Minutes" which was hilarious, Holly said. I missed it.

And we got some JERSEY TOMATOES! I am so happy. I had a tomato sandwich this morning!

Yes, I know I reported that there had been a frost up there, but apparently not. I got an email from Lynn yesterday which said, in part: 

"I need to correct myself. We have not had temps lower than the high 30s one night. Sorry, it's hard to think it's not colder when you haven't turned your heater on yet. Billy hasn't cleaned the heater yet. He's only had all spring and summer to get that chore out of the way. He says "Sometime this week". I even told him about the noise I heard in the house. I listened closely and followed the sounds. I found myself in the basement standing next to the heater when I perked my ears to faintly hear the whispers. "You must gather your husband to perform the yearly cleaning of my innards so you can have heat in your home emitting from other than your stove burners."  

"Obviously, Billy was listening quite keenly till the heater started whispering to me."

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In knitting news, I found some beautiful Red Heart Symphony yarn in my stash that had been earmarked for a couple of ponchos, and started one of them yesterday morning so I would have something to knit on the ride to and from the Renfair, and while I was there. It's a beautiful lavender, and I think the color has been discontinued, which is unfortunate, because it's beautiful!

I didn't want to drag the Celtic sweater (in progress) around with me yesterday. I was at a point where there was some cabling going on, and I lose cable needles around the house all the time. That means that I find them again within a few hours, but if I lose one at the Renfair, it's gone forever.

Last night and earlier today, I did some more on it, and I'm almost at the bottom of the sleeve. It's turning out very nicely! The cables are crossed at the bottom of the cross, and will (later) be continued as I-cord that will be threaded through the row of eyelets. This can be left almost as a surface design to have a sleeve with a belled shape, or pulled tighter to make a bloused sleeve with a ruffle around the bottom. This is going to be so cool!

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Today, I checked my email and there was a special offer from a clothing company. I wanted to buy a nightgown/dress that I had been discussing with Fibermom on my other blog. I tend to buy/make clothes to wear around the house that are comfortable enough to sleep in, but look nice enough that I don't mind stepping out the door or answering it. Clothes that look good and don't really look like nightgowns. Something perfect if I ever get to go to Pennsic again.

Anyway, there's one I had planned to buy so that I would have something pretty to wear at Stitches East in the hotel (I don't actually plant to wear it at Stitches).

Anyway, the place that has it for sale had it on sale, and not only is the price reduced, but they're throwing in express shipping and they're giving me a cabled cotton knit blanket! 

I snapped that one up right away!

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I watched Tomb Raider on TNT earlier today, and I want to get off so I can finish watching Cradle of Life, which is on now. If you're disappointed you missed it, set your VCR or DVR. It's on again late tonight (early tomorrow morning).

I found a ton of really neat stuff on the Joss Whedon website today.

Dollhouse won't be ready in time to be a midseason replacement, so we may have to wait until next Fall. You can find the information here, scroll down the page a bit.

The cutest thing is about to be available. A maquette of Kaylee! She is just so adorable!

And Firefly has added a new word to the dictionary: Browncoat! I don't know how many Firefly fans there are out there, but they sure are vocal and sincere! And now Firefly, like the Yarn Harlot, has added a word to the language.

And I found a photo of James Marsters (Spike from Buffy) wearing a Jayne hat!

I want to get back to Cradle of Life, and finishing the sleeve so I can start the other one.

I hope you had as great a weekend as I did!