A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Occasionally, or as often as I can find a way to fit it in, knit happens. I finished the other pair of socks I was working on, except for sewing in the ends and writing up the directions. They actually came out pretty nice — more on them later in another post.

So, I bought some Red Heart Heart & Sole with Aloe. It’s a self-stripping yarn. Fiber content is 70% Superwash Wool and 30% Nylon. It feels pretty nice — smooth and easy to knit with. Haven’t had much problem with splitting. But I’m a bit disappointed in that the strips have these blobs of off color mixed in so the entire sock looks like a stripped sock that’s been washed a bazillion times. So, it is going to have that lived in look right from the start. You can see what I mean about the color smears from the photo.

I’m just using the standard sock pattern, nothing fancy. Actually, this is what I do so I don’t need a pattern. Guess I’ve finally made enough socks I don’t use a pattern when I do the plain vanilla ones like this. I’ve been in a bit of a brain fog lately so I needed something to do when I felt really off — something I could focus on that (hopefully) wouldn’t need a lot of concentration and would make me feel like I’d at least done something with my time other than stand around trying to figure out what I was supposed to do now that I found myself standing in this room instead of that one.

Things are looking up. I actually feel my brain rebooting and coming back on line. The pressure dropped and the headache/migraine eased off and I got my Celebrex Rx refilled. The joints still ache, especially the knees and hips but my fingers are fine and my arms and shoulders are lots better. Once it gets back in my system I should be nearly back to normal.

I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire and once the brain is back on line and running nearly optimally, I’ve got to get cracking on them.

I found out what the reddish mystery bird was in my Bird post. Today RefDesk had an article on Birds Shifting North During the Winter. The RefDesk had a picture of the Purple Finch along with a photo and it looks like one of our mystery birds — so I’m calling it a purple finch from now on.

Sometimes, serendipity just bring the answers to the questions of life — the trick is to recognize them.

Okay, this is not a science or geek post so those of you not interested in the art and craft of knitting or fibery goodness can move along. But I knit. I’m working on about six projects now. Yeah, I’m flighty and I knit with the mood. I’m nearly done with some socks I’ve been working on of my own design.  That will be another post later.

But back on topic, I heard about this knitting book a while back, quite a while back actually, and it sounded interesting, but nothing special. Now it’s out in the stores and I hadn’t had a chance to see the book itself. The bookstores near where I live and a bit farther a field are light on the craft sections and finding anything is a bit hit or miss because most jumble the crafts all together and I haven’t figured out their shelving system because it isn’t alphabetical by Author or by Title or any other method I can suss out. And no the craft books aren’t even shelves by topic with all the knitting in one area and the crochet in another and quilting in another and so on — jumbled together. So, I hadn’t seen it when I saw the notice that it was out and that usually means out of sight out of mind.

However, Knitting Daily yesterday had this YouTube video with the author talking about the book. I found it on YouTube so you can have a peek if you don’t get Knitting Daily.

My reaction? Wow. I like all the patterns they showed except one and it would take minimum changes to make it one I did like. So, imagine my surprise when today after shopping we stopped in the book store and they have one copy on the shelves. I actually got to take it down and get a closer look. I just flipped through the pages but I liked all the patterns — that’s got to be a gazillion to one chance. Fact is, once I get to actually sit down and study the book I’d probably find that even though I like the pattern it wouldn’t look good on me. But, really a pattern book that I like everything in is unusual enough.

Now it’s on the top of my Wish List. It will more than likely be the next knitting book that I get. What I like most is that the patterns all look like items that you could wear every day and feel special. And that’s mostly what knitting is about — making things that are special and/or make you feel special but are functional and beautiful. On a quick peek — this seems to be one of those books with a higher percentage of “meeting my criteria” than usual.

Finally, got my act together enough to do a blog post. It’s been a heck of a week starting last Thursday when I appeared to be coming down with a cold. Then came the weather changes and the migraines to put the cherry on top. The last two days I’ve actually felt human again and have started to get caught up on the job stuff, the volunteer stuff and my stuff.

This month’s coffee cup, I’ve had for a while. It’s sort of a girly tea-time cup and saucer but I wasn’t feeling well and I thought why have things if you never use them. I enjoy utility matched with beauty or silly or fun. So, I washed it out and started using it. The words around the edge say “Home is Where Heart Is” and the design is by Mary Englebreit. I love her artwork — it’s so bright, alive, funny, and homey. I usually get a big calendar for the kitchen and a small one for the desk. This year I also got a small one in a folder for my purse (my PDA died a while back and hasn’t been replaced and the blackberry and their ilk don’t really seem to be built for people who wear reading glasses who might not have them on all the time.

I digress. The only problem with this cup is the size — it means multiple trips to the coffee pot (and I only have half a pot each day). Smaller cups also mean they cool faster too. But drinking out of it makes me smile and I love putting it down with a quiet clink into the saucer. So, I’m a happy person this month.

I’m also in my copious amounts of free time — NOT — working on a sock. I’ve had this sort of vision in my head and I’m trying to get it to translate to the knitting. So far I’m on my third try with this sock. The top looks good but when I switch to the ribbing it looks sort of okay but not great — I’m still thinking about what to do with that. It fits okay. At first I thought it would be way to big but it fits nice up the calf.

Unfortunately, the heel is a bit loose. Seems to be okay when I try it on but I won’t really know until I walk in it for a while but I’m debating now on whether to keep going or rip it out to just above the heel flap and decrease some stitches on the first row of the heel flap or narrow down just above it. It’s something I’ll need to decide on soon but after ripping it all out twice already — I can do it again.

Besides, once I get this sock all figured out the second one should be a breeze and then I’ll post the directions here so any of you so inclined can give it a try. Meanwhile, I’ve gotten a couple of knitting books to read but trying to fit them in for reading when I’ve got so many books I need to review this month is going to be a real challenge. I figure if I get all the review books done and written up I can move to one of these new books.

So, far for review in SFRevu, I’ve read The Sharing Knife: Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold. This one ends the Sharing Knife sage and is the fourth in the series. For Gumshoe Review, I’ve read The Book of Old Houses by Sara Graves and A Veiled Deception by Annette Blair. These will be in the February issues of the zines. I’ve started Oolong Dead by Laura Childs (also for Gumshoe). At least as far as the reading goes this month, I’m having a lot of fun.

Well, I’m off to finish a chapter, have a hot chocolate, and get to sleep. Hopefully, I’ll have a dream where I figure out what to do about my sock. I’m open to suggestions — not necessarily to follow the suggestion — but to take it/them under advisement.

Today is November 14th, and it’s my birthday. Not a great event in the scheme of things but it is a time when I usually reflect on what I’ve done over the past year and think about what I plan to do in the coming year. To me birthdays are more like new beginnings than New Years Eve.

Looking over the past year, I’ve done a lot. The acupuncture has helped in reducing my pain so that I can function almost normally. I still have trouble concentrating at time and I certainly couldn’t do a standard nine to five in an office. I need breaks, lots of them and working from home fits that bill admirably. The problem of working at home is motivation. I’ve tried various methods of staying on track and keep refining and tweaking and hopefully will get even more focused and efficient over the coming year.

I’ve fallen behind on the NaNoWriMo word count. Don’t know if I can make up the difference by the end of the month. However, I have learned that if I push myself I can keep from fiddling with what I’ve already written. I hope to push through on this book even if I don’t make the end of the month word count. It’s been a good experience so far and I may do it again next year.

I’ve a lot to be thankful for. I’ve made some great friends over the past several years. One of my failings is in not expressing just how much people mean to me and how precious they are. My goal is to be much better at keeping in touch and following up with friends and family.

I’ve got unfinished projects all over the house: three pairs of socks, two sweaters, three spinning projects. I’ve somehow got to manage to schedule time for these. Lately, I’ve been working on one of the pairs of socks while watching movies. I did manage to start these socks on circular needles knitting both socks at the same time. I’m feeling pretty chuffed about that. When I’m done I’ll be done with that pair at least. But I still have a ways to go to get to the heel (toe up by the way).

So another year older, maybe wiser, maybe not — but working on acquiring knowledge — knowledge of myself, the world (its people and cultures), and just about everything else that strikes my fancy.

Okay, finally the new external disk drive arrived.  Thankfully, it got here before everything blew up.  When it arrived I had only 1 GB of space left — everything was sooooo slow I was growing moss on my mouse.  But, once I got it plugged in and moved all the photos and electronic books to the external, I had 21 GB free and things were moving much faster (except for the expected slow down because I have some virus checking done every time I open files.  So, I’m happier and now I should be back on track with the blog and photos.

This months coffee cup is a Starbucks Blue Mug.  It was in all the Starbucks this summer but seems to be pretty thin on the ground when I was in Starbucks shops during the last few weeks.  I checked their website and they have a brown mug but not this blue one.  Luckily, I picked this one up this summer and saved it for September.  It’s perfect for hot chocolate, tea, coffee, or any warm drink.  I love the heft and feel of it.  The slight curve to the lip is really nice.  It’s very reminiscent of the old white mugs you used to get in diner — not that there’s that many old diners around anymore.  It has modern lines but with the comfortable feel and psychological comfort of the old diner mugs.  Also, it’s big enough so I don’t have to make repeated trips to the coffee machine when I’m working and holds heat fairly well — as well as any uninsulated cup anyway.  I like it.

Next, I said I was going to post a picture of my organized pantry area.  Last time I posted a picture, the shelves were nearly empty and everything was piled on my living room floor.  Well, now it’s all back in the pantry area including a lot of stuff that didn’t fit before.  Having the baskets helped because you can pile/load more into them than you can when lining things up on the shelves.  I also put things in the baskets by type so all the mixes, sweeteners, baking stuff, etc. are in one basket, all the soup and soup related stuff is in another, one is all spices, and another (on the floor) is all drinks, whether powder or bottle.  So now the hallway is navigable when going back to do the wash or to the bathroom, which is around the corner and out of sight (and is currently another new project but stalled as I try to figure out just how far I want to go with it — at first I thought just paint but now…I’m thinking, and that’s always dangerous.)

I’m thinking a curtain over the pantry might help disguise it and make the hallway (visible to anyone from the living room, the kitchen, and the dining room) look nicer.  But then you have to move it out of the way every time you want something there, and the number of times that would get done could make for a very dirty curtain very quickly unless it was a dark color and that would make the area too dark.  What do you think?

I’d decided to learn to knit socks on circulars so I could knit both socks at the same time.  I got a couple of books out of the library and looked online for some tutorials and finally cast on some yarn and started a pair of winter socks for wearing around the house when it gets cold instead of shoes.  Well, truthfully, I hardly ever wear shoes in the house anyway, but in winter my feet get cold, so nice warm socks are a must.

Anyway, it said in most sources to use a 40 inch needle, so that’s what I used, but I’m thinking of switching for a 60 inch if I don’t get the hang of moving the socks about when I change sides pretty soon.  Maybe just putting a marker between the edges so it’s easier to find when the circular gets sucked into the sock and I don’t have an end loop left when I finish the second sock before I turn to come back on the other side.  Otherwise, it’s not so hard once you get used to it.  The fact that I’m making both socks at the same time is wonderful, especially since I don’t have a pattern and these are sort of ad hoc — so now I can do the same thing to both socks without having to remember way back to when I did it on the first one (so far the whole note taking thing isn’t working out too well).

Once I finish increasing to the even knitting for the foot, I plan to do a tighter knit on the sole of the foot — I’m thinking knit on one row and knit 1, slip 1 on the other row — sort of what you do for the heel flap but for the entire bottom of the foot.  Hey, it’s worth a try to see how it comes out.  What I love about knitting is the wonderful way you always can have do overs when something goes wrong.

Speaking of things that need a do-over, the following is a political rant (I’m still upset) so move along if you’re avoiding such rants …. Really, I’m Democrat with extreme Liberal tendencies, so bail now if you offend easily.

I’m still in a snit over the political candidates for both parties.   This country can’t afford another term with a Republican in charge.  Especially, a Republican whose economic and foreign policies are nearly indistinguishable from the guy who got us into the mess we’re in in the first place.  And especially not with a Republican with a totally unqualified Veep who, based on her answers to the simplest of questions, just confirms my suspicions of her inability to do the job.  Heck, I’m more qualified than her and no one asked me to be Vice President.  I saw a YouTube video for an ad for Michael Palin for President — unfortunately he can’t run because he’s British, but they make a good case in a tongue and cheek way that he’d still be better.

I just want to vote FOR a president at some point in my life instead of voting against the lesser evil.  I’ve heard some people plan to vote Republican just because they figure if the country hits bottom people might finally wake up but just think of all the people who have to suffer first.  Why not try to do your best to help your country.   Look what fear has done to us over the last 8 years.  This just has to stop.  We need our Constitution and our Bill of Rights restored.  We need the checks and balances that our founding fathers put in place in the beginning of this nation restored so that we can move forward into the future and not backward into darkness.

[Hyperion here:] And it would be nice to have a V.P. that was capable of understanding elementary school level science.

It’s been a busy month and we’re quickly approaching the end; and that means getting the publications up and ready to go live on September 1st. “What publications,” you ask?  Why SFRevu and Gumshoe Review.

Time usually seems to compress near the end of the month, but it seems like I had even less time than usual this month.  Well, I did go to the World Science Fiction Convention in Denver.  We drove and that add an extra 5 days to the trip.   We had a heck of a great time and brought the laptops and wireless card.  Then coming home to over a weeks worth of snail mail — that took up a lot of time.  Then there was the server crash that our ISP had.  Followed by a loss of data from our database of reviews and books when we found — or discovered accidentally — a bug in the interface software to the database (not our homegrown interface but another package) .  That meant contacting reviewers and others and checking shelves to make sure we recovered everything that we lost from that three days between the restored backup and the day we got them restored.  Whee — that was so much fun.

But it did make me think that somehow the month shrunk when I wasn’t looking.  Luckily, other than a few days of feeling like a wet noodle (and about as aware of my surrounding) this has been a productive month. Just think what I could have done if I’d really had all the days rather than only about half of them to devote to what I was supposed to do.  We will get the zines up on time and there’s going to be some great content but I can’t help thinking I could have done more.  Three days left and about ten days of work to do in them and one of those three days has been commandeered for another  purpose — which will be lots of fun but will take away from being able to tick items off my To Do list.

I keep wondering how other people budget time.  Do you get stressed out when  life and planning come up against chaos and the unexpected?  Does opting for fun in the face of a towering mountain of work seem like a cop out or a self-destructive impulse to failure?  I mean I could have turned down the fun but you can’t live for work alone now can you?

Life goes on and I had an acupuncture appointment today.  So, you see, I’m all set for stress and the push to the finish line of getting the zines up on the 1st.  And before you ask, I did finish the socks I was working on, I’ll get a picture up next month and I’ve got to start another pair of socks as soon as I figure out the number of stitches to fit on my feet versus the number needed for the pattern I want to use (more on that later too).

The last week has been a bit of a strain.  Not that anything really awful has happened.  There’s been the usual stress of gearing up for the publication of all the zines on September 1st.  Just the usual stuff of pinging all the reviewers and seeing where we stand.  Not to bad except I realized that the questions for the author interview for one of the zines never got sent — will do that tomorrow but it may be too late.

Then there was  a major code update.  Somehow, it shouldn’t have happened, but the update lost us a chunk of data from the database. Then the host servers crashed the next morning so it took longer than usual for the restore.  Then when the restore was in place, well all the work of at least two days was gone and had to be redone.  I think, as of today, that most of that has been recovered and put back in place.

Don’t you just love how computers make our lives so much more organized, in touch with others, and streamlined and then if there’s a glitch… Well, nothing can even come close to screwing up like a computer and its bits and bytes.  But now that we’re back to where we were several days ago — things are looking pretty good.

Meanwhile, while all the computer problems and stressors were going on there was the usual household stuff to do.  I’m trying to get things a bit more organized — boxed, labeled, gathered for tossing or giving away, or storing.  I’ve been pulling out the books that we don’t want to keep in our personal library and making a pile to put on Amazon for sale.  I need the bookshelf space for the book we have acquired lately and want to keep or haven’t read yet.  You’d think with all the books I review, Hyperion reviews, and that we read (from the library), that we’d never buy books.  You’d think that, but you’d be wrong.  We buy lots of books — mostly for research, reference, or just because they look like fun and the library doesn’t have it.

I also picked up some new yarn for socks today.  It’s a stretchy sock yarn in a pretty variegated  purple, yellow, pink, rosy color scheme.  Once I finish the pair I’m making now (just got the toe to do), I’ll start a pair with this yarn and using the circular needle technique to knit two socks at once.  Just need to figure out how I want them to look and find a pattern to use.

I’ve actually managed to spin four of the last eight days.  Not as much as I should but at least I’m keeping my hand (and feet) in.  I’m beginning to feel more comfortable.  I’m trying really hard to over-spin so I don’t lose so much twist when I ply.   I’m still working on using up the green top that I was working on for the Tour de Fleece.  I almost have half a spool full.  Maybe by the end of the month I’ll be plying it and setting the twist for this second skein.  It’s still a lace/sock weight yarn (with 3-ply Navaho plying).

What I have to snap out of is the funk that I seem to be in.  Everyday, it seems like I’m wading waist deep in water.  Everything just seems to take more effort.  I’m not letting it stop me.  I even walked down to the mailbox twice in the last week — I know I should be doing it every day.  But, I’m making a real effort to not give up and that’s got to count for something.  I guess what it counts for is that I keep going and eventually I will find it easier and easier to just keep going.  Maybe I should just buy more spoons, but I’m hoping to “snap out of it”.  So, since I love her work and the puzzle is so bright and cheery — I thought I’d share.  It is available through Amazon (isn’t everything).

Still expect a post only when you see one.  My schedule is a bit uneven just now.

Today was hot — 98 degrees (107 with heat index). Tomorrow is supposed to be hotter. But this evening it was another thunder, lightning, and rain storm. I’m hoping if dries off so we can get some yard work done tomorrow. We were supposed to run errands today but it took 6 hours at the tire place to get a replacement tire and wheel alignment. That blew a day. Paul went alone and I got to stay home and catch up on some of the work I didn’t get done during week because of headaches and missing spoons. Guess what, you can almost see the dining room table again.

But I finished my one of my socks while reading. Did you know if you sit cross-legged and hold the pages open with your big toes, you can read while knitting? Well, you can. So tonight I kitchener stitched the toe and wove in the ends of the sock. I already started the second sock. I really mean to learn to do two socks at once this year but didn’t this time.

The yarn is thicker for warm winter socks. The pattern is my plain vanilla one that’s just from trial and error from making socks using a pattern. I cast on 72 stitches and k2p2 around. Then every 5-6 rows or so I did a cross with the knit stitches. I think if I do this again I’ll stagger the cross and do half off set by 5 rows and see what that looks like. Then a standard heel. I reduced the stitches by a bit when I got to the instep by purling 2 together every other group of purl stitches. Then as I approached the toe area, I did the same again when I hadn’t purled 2 together. Then about an inch from the end I just switched to all knit stitches. All the decreases were at the sides so the toe tappers (rather than every so many stitches for a round toe).

Last night we drove to Virginia for the 1st Friday meeting of WSFA (Washington area Science Fiction Association). Just as we left the driveway and started down the main road, there’s this big field. That’s where we saw these guys…

You can see the ones closest to us. We stopped the car on the edge of the road. I recently got a new camera that’s small enough to carry in my bag and it has a 12x telephoto lens. In the back you can see two other deer that are smaller and in the tall grasses. I love coming up on things like these and we used to always miss them because we didn’t have the camera with us because it was just too big or too awkward to carry. We’d have gotten a better picture, but the battery died in the camera, and in the few seconds it took Paul to fish out the replacement battery he always carries, the deer moved away.

Later on the way home, we saw a fox, two cats, and, I think, a groundhog. We also saw several deer but it was nearly midnight so we didn’t even try for photos we just wanted to get home and sleep.

Getting out to see friends is always nice but getting back home, safe and sound, is even nicer. Hope all of you have a good weekend too.