Jacquie's Journal

Canine Capers

We took Charlie on her first visit to a dog park this afternoon.  She had a whale of a time playing with the other dogs.  First she made friends with a beagle and then a couple of labradors.  One dog was being a little aggressive to her, but the dog's brother came and chased the other dog away, and sounded just like he was telling her off.  They raced around for ages and got really muddy.  She had to be wrapped in a blanket so she could sit on my lap for the journey home.  We all had to get changed when we got back, and Charlie had to be bathed.  We had so much fun we are thinking we will go again tomorrow!

Creative Memories

Last night I went next door to a Creative Memories party.  Creative Memories sell photograph albums and scrap booking paraphernalia - stickers and cutters and stuff.  I kind of like the idea of the "preserving memories and spending time with the grandchildren (if I ever get any) looking at photos of their parents when they were young" aspect.  I know I enjoyed it when I was little with my Grandparents.

BUT

a) I will never find the time to do it

b) All our good pictures are on the computer.  They need backing up, but apart from that they are safe from being lost, stolen, or damaged by acid, lignin (what is lignin anyway?), and sticky fingers.

c) I love the idea of journals but I cannot write in them - I have loads of them and I am afraid of spoiling them - that is why I have a computer and a blog. 

d) Most of the time when we go anywhere we forget to take photos anyway.

e) I do not like the whole page decoration thing - Wedding? Yep got a set of stickers for that; Birthday? Yep got a set of stickers for that, Hallowe'en? You'll be wanting these stickers then - it just seems so impersonal. 

We do have lots of photos in a shoe box that need sorting out and our Wedding album is falling apart and it would be nice to do something with that, but for me this is not the answer. 

I would rather knit.  I have a couple of inches to go before the V-neck shaping on Gary's sweater. and then as I said I will have to work out the decreases to match my row gauge.

Our yarn from Patternworks.com arrived yesterday.  Mine was OK - can't go wrong with off-white - but Lucy's which is called "Sapphire" and is a nice shade of blue on the screen, has turned out to be a rather violent shade of purple, so that will have to go back.  I will have to photograph it and display it here to see if what we got really does show the same as the colour on their shade card on the screen.

I will have to knuckle down and decide on the design for my TKGA LII vest over the next few days.  A couple of ideas have been going through my head - but that is the trouble, it is a COUPLE of ideas and I have to pick one and stick to it!

USA Today Su Doku at last have a new feature that allows you to annotate boxes with possible values!  Saves the need to print it.

Statistics

I have a statistics service that keeps track of how many hits my blog gets and also where my visitors are from - don't worry, I can't find out exactly who or where you are!  So far I have had visitors from USA, UK, Canada, Malaysia, and Denmark - it is really exciting.  Thank you, everyone, for visiting my blog.

Fun with Gary, Jacquie, and Edward

Today we went to see "Fun with Dick and Jane" (at the very cinema complex that refused to show Brokeback Mountain).  It was fun.  I think Jim carrey has got much better lately - he's not on my crush list though.  And there were some good LOL moments. 

It reminded me a little of how we were all laid off once.  One day I came into work and checked my email and there was a long one from the CEO that started off with wishing everyone a Happy New Year and saying what a great year it was going to be, blah, blah, blah.  About halfway down the second page it was talking about finances and how all there was left was what they had laid aside to pay the severance that they had promised everyone should the occasion arise, and how they were going to pay us that money now and how from 5.00pm the day before we were no longer employed.  Part of the shock for me was that I was part time and had left at 3.00pm the day before and of course everyone else had received the email just after I left, but no one, not even my boss, had bothered to call and tell me.  That all happened due to greedy people bleeding the company dry too.

One of the previews was for RV coming out in the summer starring Robin Williams and the woman who plays Cheryl in Curb Your Enthusiasm that stars Larry David who wrote "Seinfeld".  It looks like it epitomises everything I loathe about RVs and why I will never, ever go anywhere in one.  I am not sure if I even want to see it and have my worst fears confirmed. 

One movie i do want to see that has only just been released here is Nanny McPhee.  Edward didn't want to see it - guess he thinks its too young for him now that he is 12, otherwise we would have seen it today. 

Edward is Home!

Edward is home, somewhat cold and wet and smelling of camp fire smoke, but they had a good time.  Camping and not being able to get warm and dry is one of my personal nightmares, I can't imagine anything worse - apart from being cold and wet on a roller coaster.

They didn't win the sledge race, but they did pretty well on their second go round once they understood the course.

A Small Victory

I finally got an answer from Barnes and Noble about business meetings being held in their cafes.  It took three emails - they claimed not to have received the first one, and the third one was to nag them about not answering the second one.  I also spoke to the district manager on the phone.  Anyway the upshot is that company policy does not allow big meetings in their cafes.  In particular they don't allow the tables to be pushed together for big meetings.  They said they couldn't guarantee that it would always be quiet as there may be children who get out of hand, or a big family group being loud.  I don't mind that, for some reason that seems different - perhaps because it is a social gathering rather than a business one.   Anyway apparently they spoke to the people in question and explained that they couldn't have meetings that involved more than one table.  We will have to go there next Friday and see what happens.

I have finished the back of Gary's sweater and have started the front.  There will be a bit of calculation to do for the neck shaping because I am using sport weight instead of fingering and I although I am getting the same stitch gauge, there are fewer rows per inch than the pattern calls for.

I have signed up for the Knitting Olympics.  I have decided my project will be my Level II vest.  I have agonised over it too long and now is the time to finally get it done.

Went to a new Indian Restaurant tonight - guess I won't be losing any weight again this week- sigh!  It is quite good.  We went to their lunch buffet last week and were quite impressed with that too.

Edward has gone to Scout winter camp  - just overnight.  It has been snowing all day and the camp is in the montains.  We packed him off in his ski pants and jacket, thermal underwear,  boots, gloves and hat.  They will be sleeping in tents, unless it is really bad and then they will be allowed to sleep in the Scout leader's trailer.  They will be having a sledge race against other troops tomorrow morning.  I hope he is keeping warm!  They took loads of wood for a fire.  They use the drum from an industrial washing machine as a fire pit.  It is just the right size and has the little holes in the sides that lets the air in and the heat out.  They will be home at noon tomorrow.

We had about 4 inches of snow today and my aerobic exercise for the day was shovelling it off the driveway.  We have quite a long steepish driveway so it is really a good idea if it is kept clear.  We do have a snowblower but by the time you have got it started, and walked up and down with it - shovelling is almost as quick.  Lucy and I did it together.  The people across the road have heating under theirs, so I always imagine them looking pityingly at us out of their windows across their beautifully clear driveway!

Just a Quick Post Tonight

Nothing much to say tonight.  Been knitting Gary's sweater and have an inch or so to go to complete the back.  I am using bamboo needles and they so sharp I am getting bruised finger tips.  Someone should invent knitter's thimbles!  Or is it just the peculiar way I knit and it doesn't happen to anyone else.

Lucy has been doing some swatches to decide what to pattern to use on the vest she is going to make next.  The one I like so far is diamonds in alternating st st and reverse st st.  The edges of the diamonds look very crisp and the fabric is nice and flat.  The other contender is a basket weave pattern, so she has learned that st st likes to curl in different directions depending on whether it is a vertical stripe (like rib - curls outwards) or a horizontal stripe (curls inwards) and doesn't look like you hoped it would.

Oh Joy, Oh Bliss!

The yarn for Gary's sweater arrived on Friday and now I have a project I can really get my teeth into.

The "Latte" is quite a bit yellower than this picture, but is still very nice.

Here is a close up of what I have done so far.  It is slightly out of focus, but I think you can just about see the grey shadow vertical stripes forming.

"What has become of your TKGA thing?", you may be wondering.  Well that is still on my mind and needles, but I want to get this done now.  I have had to send for some size 2 double pointed needles to complete the fairisle in the round swatch.  Also I need to get my "chi" up to get through the argyle sock and decide on the design for the vest.  I have ordered some more Nature Spun in "Aran" for the vest, but am no closer to deciding what it will look like.  I have chosen a lovely pattern for the first of the lace swatches.

Those of you with longer memories maybe wondering what has happened to my Autumn Walks coat.  Well, I need to be in the mood for a challenging sewing project to finish that.  Who knows when that will happen!

My Fat Club did not go too well this week. I didn't lose anything, I am lucky I didn't put anything on.  Never mind, will keep going.

Buttonholes

Today I have been doing the buttonhole swatches for my TKGA MHKPII.

In the books there seems to be general dissatisfaction with the way buttonholes turn out.  I was trying to work out what was wrong and see if I could work out how to make it better. 

With vertical buttonholes the problem is you have to cut the yarn and restart it right at the hole thus weakening it.  I thought of a way round it, but I don't want to mislead anyone by saying what I did as the committee might not approve.

I chose the Barbara Walker self reinforcing one row buttonhole as my horizontal option.  This is the one I have always used and I think it is quite neat.

My third choice was the crocheted buttonhole with waste yarn as described by Katarina Buss in the Big Book of Knitting.  The trouble with this one is you end up with nowhere for the last loop to go.  I worked out a way of dealing with this too, but again I will wait for the committee's opinion before sharing it.

The methods I used depend on the buttonhole being knitted on a separate vertically knitted band, so may not always be practical.

Conversation in Barnes and Noble today:

Jacquie:  I'll go and get a magazine to read too then.

Gary: No, why don't we talk.

Jacquie:  Ok....  I thought of a new way of making a buttonhole this morning.

Gary:  Really, how interesting (stifling a yawn)

Jacquie (laughing - really!): I'll go and get a magazine

Gary : OK

Good Progress with TKGA MHKPII

I have made good progress with my TKGA Master HandKnitter Program Level II.  I am still thinking about the vest, but I have completed several of the swatches.  I have completed the cable ones, the pocket one, and the scoop neckline one.  I got bogged down with the seam ones.  It seems that seaming seed stitch is not at all easy to get invisible - nor is rib for that matter.  Maybe I am making it harder than it is.  Anyway TKGA have just started a new special Master's Program page on their site, and they have someone to answer questions on the message board.  There is also the yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/masterknit-usa/ where participants can exchange experiences and advice.

When  I have blocked my swatches, I will post pictures.  I am quite pleased with most of them, but not the seam ones.

I finally got round to ordering yarn for Gary's shadow sweater.  I decided to go for sport weight rather than the fingering called for in the pattern, and I will adjust stitch counts accordingly.  I ordered from http://www.patternworks.com.  It's Nature Spun sport in Charcoal, grey and latte.  I guess I will have to wait a week or so for that to arrive, but that should give me a chance to complete the TKGA swatches.  i think the colours will work well.  They are not very exciting I know, but the shadow pattern should add all the necessary interest.  I tried out the technique yesterday as I said I might and it is quite fascinating.  I won't post a picture of my swatch - a) it went wrong half way through, very embarrassing - how difficult is it to count 10 stitches k, 10 stitches p?, b) it was in hideous colours unless you are a soccer goalie - bright green and yellow.  Gary thought for a moment that they were the colours I was going to use and I could see him struggling to think of something nice to say!  He was very relieved to discover I was just practicing.