Knit One, Zoo Too

I have started this post about 4 times now, but for some reason, I keep tripping over my words. I don't think my brain is functioning today. It is managing the basic needs, like breathing, but trying to form actual thoughts is a challenge!

It has been a slow week around here. I am currently between kid shows at the theatre, so I have had way too much time on my hands. I have managed to be productive though. I have been on a spring cleaning rage. I have finally cleaned out the "junk room" in an effort to maybe some day have a craft room. There have been many many trips to the Salvation Army and I think the garbage men probably hate me, but I am pleased to say that there is actually a floor in there now! There is still a great deal I want to accomplish in there, but I'm really pleased with the progress so far. There is something mentally cleansing about getting rid of clutter. I thought about taking before and after pictures, but really, the before picture would have been embarassing!

On Wednesday, we had a freak snow "storm" here in Maryland. It was rediculous - they canceled schools. It was barely a dusting! And both of my main stage shows got canceled. Faced with the prospect of yet another day at home, I called S. and begged him to get me out of the house. We decided that a trip to the zoo in the snow might be fun. Actually, I decided and somehow managed to convince S.

The last time I was at the zoo, back in warmer days, I got in a conversation with a volunteer at the panda pavillion. She told me that the best time to come see the pandas was when it was snowing. She said they were at there most active during a snow storm, rolling down the hill, playing in the snow and having a good time. I used this information in my efforts to persuade S.



Active? Playing in the snow? How about... Panda with a hangover?


Don't bother Mommy, she has a headache.

I guess we missed the "playing in the snow" part. This panda was in a coma! The other two pandas weren't much better. They were both awake, but indoors and stuffing their faces with bamboo.

Despite the dead pandas, we had a good time. We pretty much had to the zoo to ourselves. There weren't a lot of animals out in the snow. But we wandered around and saw the animals that were hiding inside.

I had grand plans of taking a picture of my monkey sock in front of the monkeys, but we couldn't find any monkeys! We found the gorillas and they had macaques but we couldn't find any chimps or just plain old monkeys. Perhaps they were hiding somewhere to stay out of the snow, but we didn't even find empty cages.

So, the monkey sock had a photo shoot a few days later, minus an actual monkey and you will notice, minus the snow. (It's already gone.)




I was doing these magic loop- two at the same time, but I ended up switching to dpns. The stitches had to be rearranged for doing the heel so as to center the pattern and I just never put it back on the circulars. So, one sock is finished and the other needs a heel, foot and toe.



I also switched needle sizes when I started the heel. I started the socks on US2 circs and switched to US1 dpns. The leg of the sock was seeming a little too big. Switching down a size was definitely a good idea. It fits great.

So, here's a question.... I got myself a subscription to Vogue Knitting back in January. When I ordered it, I requested that they start the subscription with the spring issue, since I already owned the winter issue. And of course, two days ago, I got the winter issue in the mail. Has anyone had this happen to them and had any luck complaining about it? I'm not even sure who I should contact. If anyone wants a copy of the Winter VK, just let me know... I have two now!

Getting Better All the Time

Wow! Thank you all so much for all the supportive and kind words! It really was a sucky week, and I'm really glad it is over! My show opened on Thursday and all the lights worked despite the munchy mousies! Management called in an exterminator who had this unpleasant solution:



Now every night when I go into the light booth, I am completely terrified of what I might find. um... EW! I have had many kind offers from people offering to loan me their cats. Personally, I would MUCH rather have a fluffy kitty hanging out in the booth waiting to bite the heads off the dread mousies than to have to worry about these peanut butter laden spring traps. Yucky.

My windshield wipers are still non-functioning which is most inconvenient. First the mechanic said the part would bein on Tuesday, then it was Wednesday, then it was Friday and then it was next week. At which point I asked for money back. (They made me pay for the parts up front.) I was also completely irritated about the complete lack of customer service. The guy NEVER called when he said he would. I can appreciate that it isn't really their fault if the part doesn't come in on time, but really, they could take two seconds to call and tell me that. If you tell me you will call me Wednesday morning, and I don't hear from you by 3 p.m. I will call and yell at you. Asses.

So, hopefully Monday morning, I will start calling around to see if I can find someone else to fix it. For much less money. I hate car trouble.

My lack of functioning windshield wipers was especially problematic today due to this:

But I am not complaining! I LOVE snow! This was a good snow too. Really fluffy and fun. And slightly unexpected. They were predicting sleet and ice. I wish I could say "instead, we got fluffy snow" but really it's more like "first, we got fluffy snow." The freezing rain and sleet are falling on top of the snow and I'm sure it's going to be another big icy mess.

I had to do a matinee this morning, but fortunately they finally caved in and canceled our evening performance. So I came home and took a much needed nap. (I was OUT! ) Now I am watching Harry Potter and the Oscars (flipping channels) and there will be knitting.

I'm still working on Anemoi of course.


This is a mitten in need of some serious blocking! And I have made several mistakes. There's a purl where there should be a knit in the cuff, light green where there should be dark green and as I was taking this picture, I noticed a dropped stitch.

Really, a person should pay attention while she is knitting charts!

I've been kinda of wishing that I had not reversed the colors when I did this. (Eunny's original has the light and dark reversed.) So, now I'm contemplating doing the second mitten with the colors the other way. Who says mittens have to match exactly?

Also, in a moment of boredom, I cast on for Knitty's Monkey.

That's the Briar Rose I got from Carolyn last week. I cast on and ripped out this yarn about 7 times before it finally decided it wanted to be Monkey socks. My picture doesn't really show the stitch pattern, but I kinda like it. And the yarn is just so darn pretty!

There are soooo many things I want to be knitting right now. If I could only figure out how to grow that extra pair of hands....

And this doesn't really help me settle on just one project at a time!



There are so many great patterns in here that I can't wait to knit. I need to start at the beginning of the book and just start knitting! I don't need to do all 25 designs, but there are plenty in here that I covet. I even kinda want to make the Embossed Leaves again.

(PS... this book is cheaper at Overstock.com than at Amazon....)

I'm off to do the snow dance and hope my kid shows get canceled in the morning!

SNOW!!!!



We are having a little storm here in MD. We got about two inches of fluffy white snow this morning which is now being coated in an icy glaze of freezing rain. Last I heard, there could be a quarter inch of ice covering the world by tomorrow. I already did the "bread, milk, and toilet paper" run to the grocery store, so I am happily enjoying my snow day! They've already canceled my matinee show tomorrow, so I get another snow day tomorrow! Yay!

I tried to get a cute "Poodle in the snow" picture, but she was being seriously uncooperative. This is the best I got:



Yes, the black blob in the middle of that picture is the Poodle.

I gave up and took paw print pictures instead.



There has been a lot of knitting going on here in snow land. But first, I want to show you some AMAZING gifts I have received over the past couple of days.

The ever-talented Jolene gave me a belated birthday present the other day.







Aren't they GORGEOUS??? She designed the pattern herself. And the name of the pattern? "Coleen" How cool is that?? I LOVE THEM. Thank you Jolene!!!

Yesterday, I went to the mailbox and discovered a package for me from Chicago. Hmm.... I don't think I know anyone in Chicago! I opened it up and found this:



That's a skein of Blackberry Ridge Mer-Made on the left and a skein of Briar Rose Sweet Freedom on the right. WOW!!!!

There was a note inside that said: "a fellow knitter told me you could use a yarn infusion. Enjoy." It wasn't signed, there was no name on the package. It was a mystery gift!

Well, a few emails later, and I discovered that the "fellow knitter" was Maryse. She was reading a blog and the blogger said that she had some yarn to give away and Maryse suggested she send it to me! So the very generous Carolyn of Girl Reaction sent this fabulous package to me - a complete stranger! Talk about Random Act of Kindness! I am so touched and thrilled! Thank you much to both Maryse and Carolyn for such a great surprise! I have already balled up the Briar Rose and cast on for socks. The colors are so beautiful! Lucky lucky me!

As to my knitting...







Pembrokeshire Pathways Socks
yarn: Knitpicks Palette in Blush
needles: um.... Oddly, I knit one of these magic loop on a size 2 Addi Turbo circ and I knit the other on size 2 DPNs. I didn't even realize I had done this until Lolly mentioned it on my Flickr page. I have no idea why I did this!

Modifications... I did an "eye of the partridge' heel instead of the heel in the pattern. I just love the way it looks. I also had two unintentional modifications. The cuffs on the socks are not the same length. I'm not sure what my problem was but one cuff is two inches and the other is three. Oh well. Also, since I am continually stupid about reading directions, I screwed up arranging the stitches for the instep on one sock, so the pattern gets a little mushy on the sides, but you really have to be looking for mistakes to see it.

Despite my mistakes, these socks make me happy. They are so girly and cute!

I also finished knitting my baby kimono. But I have yet to sew it together. I am terrible at finishing. I tried and it became a big lumpy mess. So I'm hoping that Jolene will take pity on me and give me a hand with the finishing.