Another Unintentional Post!

I have so many things that I should be doing right now, but I thought "I'll just get on the computer for a few minutes." and now, a few hours later, I'm trying to get away from it. So, I found some interesting stuff, and thought I'd tell you about it.

In the meantime, I've been doing some knitting with the size 7 Addi lace circular needles I bought in  both 16 and 24 inch lengths. I love them! I don't have the interchangeables, just the regular ones, but they're great. The points are so nice to knit with!

But I needed a size 8 for something, so, wanting to keep using that same point, I pulled out a pair of Bryspun circulars in that size, and I've fallen back in love with them, too! Now I want to buy some more of them! They're a bit less slippery than the Addis, and sometimes that's good.

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The Yarn Harlot has invented a new word--Camnesia. Camnesia is when you bring along your camera, but get so engrossed with what's happening that you forget to take any pictures.

The last time she invented a word (Kinneared--to take a photo of someone surreptitiously without holding the camera to your face) she was interviewed by Graham Norton and Greg Kinnear over the phone on the Graham Norton Show. I hope I've remembered the details of that correctly. She invented that particular word on the day I met her. You know, this is a photographic term, too.

Just thought you might want to keep up to date on these things.

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The other day on my blog I said:

The Christmas projects proceed apace, and I can't show you most of them, only the ones for people who don't read my blog, so that's going to be boring. Sorry!

In case you don't read the comments, I got one from my granddaughter on this particular post. It says:

Grandma, I don't read your blog... You can show pictures of my Christmas gift... I promise not to look!!  ;)

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And if you want another laugh, check out the current post at the Panopticon!

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I'll leave you with a terrific photo of Robin, taken while he and Holly were in New Orleans. I love this!

Hope you're having a fabulous weekend, and have a great week, too, while I'm not writing because I'm trying to catch up on all the things I should have done today!

Hello! I'm Still Here!

I know I said I'd be knitting Christmas projects and wouldn't be blogging much, but I did intend to write more than this!

With the air conditioner off, I had the windows open, and have collected an enormous amount of allergens that have floated through the window, and attacked my nose, sinuses, eyes, and almost every other part of me with a vengeance!

I have a list of symptoms that is both enormous and disgusting, so I won't even tell you about them.

I visited the doctor yesterday and then went for my regular trip to WalMart, which was truly ghastly for someone who feels the way I do at the moment. And I got rained on almost all day, and discovered that I didn't have the bus schedule in my knitting bag, so I waited almost an hour for the bus home.

The doctor changed my medicine, and gave me some samples so that I didn't have to go to the drug store immediately. Anyway, the new regime is either going to make me feel a lot better, or much worse. The last thing that he thought was going to be a miracle should have been called allergy in a bottle! It had the same effect on me in one minute as three or four weeks of ragweed exposure!

So, I'm going to do some housework, brace myself, and try the medicine.

You'll either hear from me tomorrow, saying how great I feel, or you won't hear anything for a week.

The Christmas projects proceed apace, and I can't show you most of them, only the ones for people who don't read my blog, so that's going to be boring. Sorry!

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There's a new Medium, Supernatural, Sanctuary and is Stargate Universe new tonight or did I miss it the other night? I'm confused, which is not difficult, given the way I feel. I recorded the stuff that was on last night, and still haven't seen most of it!

Have a fabulous weekend, and feel free to leave a comment and tell me about the amazing knitting projects you're making for others this Christmas. After all, the people you're knitting for don't read my blog, do they? Unlike my friends and relatives, who check the blog to see what they're getting for Christmas!

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!