Showing posts with label meme. Show all posts
Showing posts with label meme. Show all posts

Sunday, March 23, 2008

You call this Spring?

First, Yvonne tagged me for a meme, so I’ll get that out of the way:
1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 (or more) pages (All Creatures Great and Small/All Things Bright and Beautiful 2 volumes in 1 by James Herriot. I actually had a wide variety to pick from, but this was at the top of the pile.)

2. Open the book to page 12 and find the 5th sentence: That man over there, bent double and slashing away at the air with one hand – he was castrating a colt in the standing position.

3. Post the next 3 sentences: And the one with his arm out at full stretch, his fingers working busily at nothing – almost certainly foaling a mare; probably correcting a carpal flexion. And doing it effortlessly too. Veterinary surgery was a childishly simple matter in a warm bar with a few drinks inside you

[Note: Thank God that last sentence was included. These are the first two of a four-book series that I can’t recommend highly enough for anyone who ever likes animals. The BBC series based on the books is fantastic too.]

4. Then tag 4 people. No thanks. I’ll pass on this part, but feel free to do it if you want.

Onward!

So on Thursday (remember, the equinox was Thursday! You’d never know!), I headed up to the Lake with mom and aunt Suz. We took care of the primary reason for the trip first


And we picked up our quilts at Quilted Memories (that's a 716 area code if you're in the area. No website, sadly). Also bought some fabric (duh). No pics of either of those. I’ll post quilt pics once I can get the binding on. I hate binding. Almost as much as I hate making labels. I need to find some good transfer paper so I can make labels with my computer. Any suggestions?

So after we picked up our quilts and some fabric, we headed over to the cottage.

The following is usually a big field on the main road into our community


Gee, I wonder why we had a major mosquito problem up here when I was a kid? When things aren’t frozen, there’s a pump that helps this water get out of this field and into the Lake, which “solves” the mosquito problem.


Yeah. It’s most certainly still winter on the shores of Lake Erie.


You’ve seen this vantage point before, many times, but I’d never seen it like this!

The Lake is still frozen. Yes, frozen. I wanted to go out and tromp around a little bit, but if I wanted to do that, I should have gone up a month or two ago when I could be a little more confident that the ice is thick. So I stayed up on the neighbors seawall and took my pictures from there.



That ridge there? It’s the one closest to the bottom of the picture? With the small animal tracks in the snow leading up to it? That’s the boulder that’s in almost all of my sunset pictures.


That’s looking east from our little vantage point. You can kind of see the “ice volcanos” that formed when the lake was starting to freeze. Oh, and those ridges? Probably 20-30 yards into the lake from the shoreline.

We then did a little driving around the community and stopped between our community (the Point) and the neighboring community (the Bay). RT jumped out of the car and got his picture taken with the frozen Bay and Dunkirk in the background. (Again, that would all be water in the background if everything wasn't still frozen)


After dinner at the country club, we went over to The White Inn, (sorry SJ! They have typos!) where we stayed the night


No, we can’t stay at the cottage in the middle of winter. It’s not winterized. That means no insulation, no heat (well, baseboard heat, but that’s not particularly effective vs. 30-degree temps!) and no plumbing. We drain all of the plumbing so it doesn’t freeze.

On Friday morning, RT wanted a photo-op with the White Inn in downtown Fredonia, then we hit the road southward. We stopped at the Grove City outlets (who knew that Good Friday was a major shopping day? That place was crowded!) then home.

Now, I have a second sock to cast off, then bed. Yap at you later!

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Meme This!

OK, so I know I promised a recap of my quilt shop trip from Saturday. I came home with two kits:


The above fat quarter stack is for this. The quilt was designed by the owner of the shop where I purchased the stack and pattern, which is nice.

Here’s the other kit. I really like The Quilt Company. Just wish it wasn’t so damn far away from my house.

I stopped at Bloomin' Yarns today after an oil change for the ‘ol car, and Michelle asked me a question that I was going to pontificate on (If all your WiPs were magically finished, what chunk of stash would be first in line to be knitted up?), but then Turtlegirl tagged me. And since she NEVER does memes and never EVER tags people even when she DOES do them ... Ah well, I guess I’ll play along!

1. What’s your favorite sock yarn? (please note that the word “yarn” is singular. Just pick one. I know it’s hard.)

I want to start by stating that I don’t feel like an experienced enough sock knitter to really take a hack at this question. If I could even get through half of the sock yarn stash I’m currently marinating, I would be much better able to answer. But if I had to answer this question right now, and apparently I do, I’d either say Koigu (but I won't b/c that's boring since everyone loves Koigu) or Yarn Nerd 900mHz (now available at The Loopy Ewe, on the next sneak-up), simply ‘cause my two favorite FOs were made of those two yarns.

2. What’s your favorite type and brand of sock needle?

Brand is KnitPicks. I’m a very tight knitter and wooden DPNs in sock sizes scare me. I was a hardcore DPN girl until I started tackling the Cat Bordhi patterns, and now I’m not sure I’ll ever quit with two circs.

3. Do you knit your socks toe up, cuff down or sideways?

I love the theory of toe-up, but am having trouble making the foot the right length with that method. I’m best at top-down, as those are the socks I’ve made that fit the best. But I really want to be a toe-up kid.

4. Do you knit both socks at once or just one at a time?

One at a time is all I can handle, thanks.

5. What’s your favorite toe and why?

My big toe, because it's so important for your balance. Just ask Jack Lambert or Rocky Bleier.

6. Favorite heel?

Flap, since all of my short-row heels seem to have been swiss cheese-type disasters.

7. Do you prefer plain or patterned socks?

I hate lace and lacy patterns (sorry), so if it’s just a stitch pattern, sign me up. If it’s a lace pattern with holes? Why would I want to wear a pair of socks with holes? I'm probably the only knitter in America with a grudge against the lowly YO

8. Who do you knit the most socks for?

Since the Hubster rejects any yarn that is not solid-colored (BO-RING!) and has huge ski feet to boot, MOI! I give away the bulk of my quilting, but keep almost all of my knitting.

And when I say "rejects non-solid yarn" I mean that he said no to a skein of brown Smooshy because it was multiple shades of brown. Ugh.

9. Do you darn your socks? If not, what do you do with them?

Didn't you all hear me darning at Dove I and II? DARN SOCKS!!!

10. Do you only wear handknit socks?

Not by a long shot. Better question would be "Do you EVER wear handknit socks?" In fact, I have yet to wear any of my handknit socks out of the house. Not sure why. I guess I’m afraid they they might, ya know, wear. Or pill or get yucky in some other manner. I know it's insane.

It's the same reason why I adore brand-new sweatshirts and refuse to wash them until they've been spilled on or are truly getting grungy. Brand new is awesome. Really worn and old is perfect. I'm not such a big fan of the in-between.

And I'll never go exclusively to handknit socks, because I can't picture myself wearing handknits to the gym.

You are now learning a little too much about my psyche, so I'll stop.

Bonus Question: What pattern, if any, is your basic “I-just-need-a-pair-of-socks” sock pattern based on? Do you keep it written down or memorized?

Probably Yarn Harlot top-down from Knitting Rules. And no, I don’t have it memorized.

And yeah, I’m tagging people. SJ and Yvonne, you’re it!