Knitting

I love to knit. If you read here, you probably figured that out already. But I also love jigsaw puzzles. And... in my humble opinion, there is no finer manufacturer of them than Springbok. I was browsing their site and I thought I'd share some of my favorites -- many of which are knitting-themed!

I've noted that Wists is down -- I don't know why or for how long. If it's permanent, I'll remove the footer from the blog. *sigh*

Fancy that. I'm going to write a post, on a knitting blog, about actual knitting. No way!

I finished the shawl I'm planning on wearing at Marcey's wedding -- in just 62 days! Wanna see it?

	This is the yarn: Yarntopia Treasures 10/2 Tencel in "Moccasin" colorway.
	Here it is, wound into a center-pull ball. I like to use a coin (when I remember) to give a sense of "scale" to the weight of the yarn. This one is "laceweight".
	This is the general pattern of the shawl. It called for the borders to be beaded, as well, but that would have called for another $15 worth of beads -- and made it much heavier. I'm glad I only beaded the squares.
	A close-up of the beads. These are clear Czech glass 6/0 copper-lined seed beads, purchases from Beadaholique.
	This isn't the finished product -- that's much longer -- but from this, you get the idea.

Overall, the pattern wasn't difficult, just tedious. I didn't find it to be an easily memorizable pattern (and I'll memorize 12-row repeats of lace edging!). The repetition was boring though. I'm used to doing large lace charts that, once you've finished them, you move on to another large chart and so on. This one however, you do the chart again and again. And again. Ad nauseum. I stopped at about half way on the 14th repeat, so 13.5 repeats. Any more and it would have been just too huge.

I've got another teddy bear on the needles, but no pictures up until the recipient has it as she reads here. *grin* I've also got a semi-scary project on the needles. I'm trying to make lace stockings. Eek. Stay tuned to see how that goes.

First, before I forget: Sam is home safe and sound. Once again, the amazing people of our neighborhood came to the rescue. I messaged the woman who handles our neighborhood "mailing list" and she sent the message out early Wednesday morning. By about 5pm, we hadn't heard anything, so we printed off a poster and were in the car to go to Kinko's, when my phone rang. A neighbor's kids said there was a "weasel" in their yard and she remembered the email she'd just read. It was a long shot, but she called us.

Their dog had scared Sam behind some large sheds and other things. We got to him and I finally coaxed him out far enough to scruff and drag out. One of the children was kind enough to bring him a small cup of water. It was so sweet watching him hold this cup steady as Sam drank and drank and drank from it. They were all very excited to have been part of this rescue. I'm very thankful for them. I don't know if they might stop by here, but if they do: You guys are a gift and a blessing -- you took a really crappy day and gave it a bright spot we really, really needed. Thank you.

Pain. If it's not the pain in my heart from losing Horatio, it's the pain in my "sacroilliac joint". Monday's injection seems so far away right now -- and yet, it also seems really scary. I'm going to be on an x-ray table and they will use a dye contrast to make sure the needle is in the right place. Once it is, they will inject some anesthetic/numbing "stuff" (like my technical medical terms?) and some cortisone/steroid. I may be in some increased pain for a little while after -- oh fun! -- and then hopefully things will improve. It looks like I'll have a journal/log to fill in and take back to my doctor at my next visit, to reference how much better things are (or not).

In the meantime, I'm trying to do the exercises the physical therapist gave me to do, but it sure feels like things are hurting more and more. Is it because of the exercises? I'm trying not to think of that and just keep doing them.

Where's all the money going? Does it seem to you like there's just never enough money to go around any more? Of course, in my case, it could be the almost-constant stream of co-pays for doctors and physical therapy and such. I've got great healthcare insurance through Randy's work, but these co-pays are just nickel-and-diming us to death! I'm pretty sure that my physical therapy after the car accident had no co-pay...and now it's up to $15 a visit.

Knitting. sigh Did you just sigh with me? Hehehe. I swear, sitting down with a complex lace pattern and an audiobook is my sanctuary and my sanity right now. I'd really like to squirrel away a little money to hit the thrift shops and find an easy chair and ottoman or footstool to put in my bedroom. I need a cozy corner to curl up in, when the rest of the house is just too much for me to deal with. I want a light coming over the chair from behind and a little table beside me to put my drink on. I want a little "arm rest table" for my pattern to lay on, in a read-able position. A foot-rest for my feet and a spot for my yarn to sit quietly while I knit. Oh, and a place to plug in my iPod, if it needs juice while I'm listening.

Do you think Randy would geek my imaginary easy chair out with speakers right by my ears, so I didn't have to wear headphones? *grin*

Hey look, it's 1:45am. I managed a whole hour and a half past the dosing time for my vicodin. I'm going to celebrate by taking a shower. If I'm hurting then, I'll take it and head to bed.

(I heard that laugh.)

...I just haven't had much to say.

I'm knitting on a variety of projects:

• a shawl I got fed up with a long while back and have finally returned to working on. It's going better this time.
• a pair of socks for Randy in Black Trillium's Heavy Merino Sock -- yum! I'm done with the first sock and working (top-down) on the leg of the second sock.
• I've finally cast-on something for me and by the time it's done, I probably won't need it: a shrug in Lion Brand Homespun. The great room can be quite chilly at times and I'd rather layer.
• a multiple-ditty bag project I'm dreaming up (inventing?) as I go. This one is using leftover sock yarns. So much for that sock yarn blanket I had planned...
• a little something for Valentine's Day. It's done, I just need to get some accessories.grin

I'm still working on my gaming character sheets. At this point, I'm trying to work on two sets at the same time. One is the v3.5e set and the other is a Pathfinder set. Not a whole lot has changed, but the parts that have affect the layouts of a couple of pages. I suspect Wizards might give me a little trouble in Pathfinder. I'm also struggling with creating class-specific pages for classes like Psionics -- classes I've never played. So, I'm talking to my three gaming groups and trying to get feedback on the data that's most critical.

I'd like to work up some spell sheets -- have the entire text of a single spell on the sheet, so the character's prepped spells are readily available. But some spells take so little room that they'd be a wasted of sheet space.

Randy has suggested a sorted list of monsters/creatures by various types. It's easy on the Wizards of the Coast site to do that sort of thing, if you've got their v3.5e Monster's page bookmarked. But what if you want only aquatic creatures? Or only desert creatures? I mean, a wandering monster check can't really give you Dire Sharks (do they exist in d20 SRD?) if you're in the middle of a desert, right? It looks like I'll have to build a database to do it right. Hmm...how do I do that again?

Meanwhile, I'm trying to pick up some JavaScript and PHP to add a Pathfinder template to the RPGProfiler we're using. It's times like this I miss having an office of my own -- less going on around me, less activities to catch my attention and drag me out of my very deep learning curve.

I came across a window cling designed by Jen Delyth of Keltic Designs last week. It's the perfect basis for a circular shawl, so I bought the cling. When I got home, I hunted down a website for her work and promptly sent her a message. Sure, I'd like to do all the work of designing this and turning it into a shawl, but when it's done, I'd really like to be able to sell the finished work. I received her response the other day:

Hmm... Should I still work on a shawl design for this? I'm not sure. I mean, I'm not a professional, so it'll probably take me a year, at least! I've still not completed the design on the shawl for my mom that I promised her. Sigh. Maybe I should finish Mom's shawl first and then work on this new idea?

But, speaking of my own designs, have you seen the little guy down on the right side of the blog lately? As of this writing, there's 39 projects of him and he's in 147 queues. Squee!

Lately, I've been feeling the need to get into something more mentally challenging. I think there's some things in my projects listed above which could fit the bill...I just need to clean my desk and get to it.

I've been meaning to post this all week....

Last Saturday, I went down to Gilbert with some friends to Mesquite Valley Alpaca Farm. We were able to actually go into one of the pens and sit with the alpacas. All 179 pictures are in their own set on my flickr.

Lindsay wants a kiss:

Buzz accepts some food from me:

Rowan looks all Celtic with Janus and another alpaca in the background:

Frank gets close to the alpacas:

Nick feeds an alpaca:

This cria (baby alpaca) is only 3 days old!

We had a blast and learned a lot from Linda, the owner of Mesquite Valley Alpaca Farm. Thanks for having us!

I have too many friends who've had mothers or mothers-in-law who have had too much power and influence in the wedding decisions. I can't stand by and watch in silence any more!!!! I am The Wedding Defender!

My super-power is to make the mother's of brides and grooms cry---it's not their wedding, damn it!!! Beneath my every-day clothing lurks the most awesome matron-of-honor gown, "automagically" appropriate to the wedding I'm about to attend next. With my powers, I cow the mothers whose demands reduce my friends to tears. Instead, I turn those tears back on the mothers, enabling sons and daughters to have the wedding of their dreams and thus ending the vicious cycle of Wedding Stealing!!!

If I had a "signal in the sky" it would be that tradtional image of two bells side-by-side, topped by a ribbon, which sends most females into "wedding frenzy". Shine my symbol in the sky and I'll come running! Mothers of the bride, beware of...

The Wedding Defender!!! (echo: er-er-er-er-er)