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What am I loving this week? I love…
- My cat loving to cuddle when we nap
- Playing in my yarn stash
- The Container Store
- Reading a good book
- Homemade chicken soup
- Watching a great movie
- New toys from Knit Picks
What are you loving this week?
Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks
On Ravelry I belong to a group called “ABC-Along.” The goal is every two weeks to post a picture that relates to the letter of the alphabet for that period. And I’m behind. Shocking, I know. Over the next few days I’ll be catching up, so be sure to check back!
Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks
…Cyn came through her surgery with no problems. The surgery started about 2 hours late, but she was done in a little over an hour, then a few hours in recovery/post-op and we were home by about 8:00 p.m. She’s doing really well, with some pain, but nothing too horrible. She says it hurt more when she put her back out last Christmas.
Yesterday morning we got up at about 8:30 and she was all gung-ho to go see the Alpacas! (1 hour away) or Mt. St. Helens! (2 1/2 hours away) Let’s go! On my recommendation we waited a while to see how she felt after being up for a bit. By 9:30 she was back in bed for a little more rest, and we stayed in and watched movies all day. LOL. A fun day, though, since everything we watched at least one of us had already seen and really enjoyed.
Today, though, we ARE venturing out to see the Alpacas. Pictures and stories tomorrow. Dang they’re cute. LOLOL.
Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks
Wow. Hadn’t realized it has been quite this long since my last blog post! Sorry about that. LOL. Let’s see…what’s been happening? Well, I have some major MAJOR repairs to make to my house. I’ll be in construction for a long, long time. I might even bore you with it periodically. LOL.
I’ve started on Miriam Felton’s Icarus shawl (Ravel it!). I love it. I’m really enjoying knitting this. And I finally found the yarn I wanted in the color I wanted. I love Mim’s gray version (as seen on the cover of Best of Interweave Knits), but the story of Icarus, to me, calls for a fiery, hot, burning color. And I think this Malabrigo Lace is the perfect color. I wish it was in a smoother yarn like Zephyr, but this works for me. (As always, click for big)
I finished my Anthracite Shawl, but no FO pics as of yet. I’ve been busy with the whole house repair thing. Soon, hopefully. I just need a large space, some decent light, and 5 minutes. LOL.
I spent some time last week with a friend of mine from Chicago. Katie’s actually now my friend from Iowa, but she’ll always be Katie From Chicago to me. LOLOL. We managed to do quite a bit considering she was staying in Anaheim and we only had two days. I’ll have more on that (including photos and BHN) later in the week.
Until then, I hope everyone’s staying safe and cool this holiday weekend!
Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks
There was a story on my CNN homepage yesterday that was unbelievable. It seems a grandfather went hunting in the woods of Texas with his son and grandson. The grandson was walking ahead of Granddad when the trigger OF HIS AK-47 caught on a branch and he accidentally shot and killed his grandson. His 14-year-old, high-school freshman, football-playing grandson was pronounced dead at the scene.
But here’s what I want to know: what the HELL were they hunting where someone needed to take along an AK-47?!?!?!?!?! Were they hunting T-Rexes? Alien robots? Zombies during an Apocalypse? I’m guessing not. I’m guessing it was some asshat with too little brains and too great a need for more firepower. And now he has to live with the fact that his choice cost his grandson his life.
How tragic.
Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks
I’ve been sitting here trying to find something to post about. I could post about my knitting, but, really, there’s been nothing new. Just more progress on the same old things.
So I thought about posting about the political debate going on today. The DNC Rules Committee is debating what to do about Michigan’s and Florida’s delegates, and, if they count, how to split them. But, really, I am so completely done with “Primary Season” that I just don’t have the energy. I’d say that I can’t wait for the primaries to be over (the last one is next Tuesday) but, really…does anyone expect there to be a clear Dem Candidate on Tuesday night? Because I don’t. I think this is going to go all the way to the DNC and it’s going to be an ugly battle.
From there I thought about gas prices. I was going to post about how 2 1/2 years ago I paid $25 to put 12 gallons in my car. And this week, it’s over $50. Gas here in my part of Los Angeles is $4.35 a gallon for self-serve regular. No, that’s not a typo. $4.35. A gallon.
Frankly, I’m tired, annoyed, and mildly depressed. So to cheer me up, I’m going to do Love Saturday.
Here are things I’m loving this week.
- Nicolas Cage and the National Treasure movies.
- Knitting.
- With Silk Garden.
- A job I love.
- Co-workers I enjoy.
- Jerry Springer and Maury Povich.
- Audiobooks.
- A good tri-tip sandwich.
- A warm cat curled up on my lap.
- A weekend nap.
What are you loving this week?
Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks
As the three of you those of you who read this blog know, my mother, aunt, and cousin are all quilters. Some of my closest friends are quilters, and I’m an honorary member of a quilting group my mother has belonged to since I was a teenager. I tried it and it was okay. But quilting never fired my imagination or soothed my soul the way knitting does. Knitting not only gives me something beautiful as an end product, but the process itself fits seamlessly into my life. This August will be three years since I started knitting, and I don’t quite remember what I used to do before it.
I was at my favorite LYS a couple weekends ago and I admired a shawl Shannita had made. And when I looked closely I realized my worlds had collided. It was the Anthracite Shawl (Ravel it!) from Knitter’s Magazine. It was a beautiful shawl knit in Noro Silk Garden using a Log Cabin pattern all in garter stitch. So while sitting there at A Mano’s table, I decided I was going to make one. It turns out I had what I thought would be enough yarn at home, but I picked up a couple of extra balls just in case. It’s turning out really lovely, but a bit smaller since I’m using a lighter weight yarn (Silk Garden Lite).
I. Love. This. Pattern. It’s the perfect project when you just want to whip something up. It’s easy to do, fairly portable, and because it’s all garter, simple to just do a couple stitches here and there when you have time. Once I finish this one, I may make one in Silk Garden for something a bit heavier. (Check the comments for the inevitable motherly comment about how much SHE needs one, too!).
So here it is about 2 1/2 skeins in (click for big)…
The color’s off, but I’ll fix that when I take my FO glamour shot. LOL. I’m hoping to finish this in time to wear when I go see “A Chorus Line” downtown in two weeks. I can’t imagine I won’t make it. I’ve been working on it for a week and I’m down to the last three sections. Granted, they’re doozies, but it should be doable.
Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks
Welcome! After fighting with the last fish pond a few too many times, I decided to make the move to the NEW! IMPROVED! Fish pond! This blogging system seems to be much easier than the last one, and that will hopefully make it easier to post more frequently. LOL. I wouldn’t hold your breath, if I were you. Just sayin’.
All my posts have migrated over (I hope!), so come on in, swim around and make yourselves at home! (And be sure to update your links/bookmarks/feeds).
Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks
Happy Birthday to Me!!!!
On Friday at work, my office gave me those beautiful flowers as well as a lovely card. And then the cake debacle. LOLOL I am hideously allergic to nuts. I am “Can’t Eat Them Or I’ll Die” allergic. So the office manager says to me after I’ve blown out my candles that she had the HARDEST TIME finding me something becuase all the cakes at the bakery had nuts! So, she says proudly, I got this lemon meringue tart.
I laugh until I can’t breathe. No one else gets the joke until I say…
I guess this is the wrong time to tell you I’m also allergic to lemon?
Poor thing. LOL But it was pretty damn funny.
After that, my birthday weekend was a bit hectic. On Friday there was a gathering of pals at The Blue Room in Burbank. It was fun, but I knew so few people there and couldn’t drink, since I was driving, that I ended up only swapping Christmas gifts with TJ and then heading home.
Saturday was nuts. I ran around like mad trying to get everything done (and I did!) before my office Christmas Party on Saturday night. Oh, BOY. I’d tell you all about it, but I think everyone else would come after me. Let’s just say a lot of alcohol was consumed and leave it at that.
As you can tell, my attempt at NaBloWriMo was pretty much a failure in a spectacular way. *sigh* Ah, well. It was just something silly to do (or not). My cousin and I are working on projects for the family for Christmas, and we’ve been putting in a LOT of hours. And there will be more yet to come, as I still have work to do. And hopefully her Macs will behave. But 2/3 of the gift have been completed, so now it’s all on me. Yeah, no pressure there.
In the meantime, my poor cousin. She’s been wanting a curly scarf for ages. Remember this one? I cast on back in…um…February?
Well, it seems there’s been an accident. I’m not quite sure how it happened, but I just got Fed. Up. With. This. Pattern. So I give you…Pink Alpaca Ramen…
She’ll still get a curly scarf (eventually), but not this pattern. I’ll have to play with a few to see what I like. In the meantime, here it sits…patiently waiting for me to find a use. Any suggestions?
Off to argue more with Flickr.
Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish with Sticks
But you already knew that. Apparently, however, I’m a bit slow, because I was honestly surprised by these two situations.
First are the Harry Potter Bookscarves out of the Charmed Knits book. This is the same pattern, same yarn, same needles for all bookscarves. I even made the exact same pattern modifications in every single one.
Here are the bottoms all lined up nice and neat on a piece of graph paper…
And here are the tops of those same bookscarves.
WTF????
Next up: Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Surprise Jacket. I started with Cascade 220 Superwash on size 7 needles.
But I decided the fabric was too tight (especially for Los Angeles) and went up two needle sizes to a size 9. The fabric was much more relaxed and more what I was looking for in a sweater. But here’s the catch.
The stitch per inch count was almost exactly the same. I knew you all wouldn’t believe me (heck, I don’t believe me!) so here’s photographic evidence.
Size 7
Size 9
Like I said…A filthy stinking liar.
Lynda the Guppy
aka The Fish With Sticks
