Finished Object Dance

Not much knitting happened yesterday, except for sockage in spare moments. Instead we went to the MFA where we saw the Ansel Adams exhibit.

I'm starting to realize just how much my local school district did not teach art appreciation when I was growing up. I'm slowly over time figuring things out, but it would be nice to have a basic sense of what I'm seeing when I'm reading things about form and balance and composition. Then again, I never really played with crayons, so I'm convinced I can't draw.

Some of the images in the exhibit were ones he had printed more than once. There was a quote from Adams about how the negative was a composer's score and each print was a performance of the piece. Himself and I had a bit of a discussion over lunch (when we were interupted by someone who wanted to know where could she purchase the last year's Knit-Out T shirt I was wearing). He doesn't quite agree with the statement, and I'm trying to figure out how much the artist "wastes" to get the image he wants. We're not seeing the thousands of other negatives that are rumored to be behind each successful image. We're also not hearing the thought process of what's happening in the artist's head back when he was hiking with Yosemite with a big set up and only a dozen or so plates to work with. What do you decide to take a picture of?

We're going to the Degas at Harvard today - me for the second, he for the first time.

Quick post from the first weekend of vacation. We're around and about doing things that need to be done after a summer away and figuring out how we want to spend the rest of the week. Given the amount of rain in the forecast, there may not be many of the WalkBoston book hikes as I had hoped.

The Forest Path Stole has been picked up again! and put down! and picked up! First there was the bit of a tangle -- how can something that has been left untouched in a box for 7 weeks get a tangle in the yarn from the ball it to the project? Who says miracles don't occur? This morning I finished the left side triangle, ready to pickup and start tier 20. Pickup happened down the border side rather than the hypotenuse. At least its only 20 stitches to rip back.

Today we're headed to my folks for my Dad's birthday. Small family party, chance to catch up. FPS for the car, socks for inside.

He's a smart man. When they announced the first flight would be an hour late, knowing the original plan had about an 1 1/2 hour between connecting flights, he went back out through security to make arrangements at the ticket counter for a backup reservation on the later flight out of London. Which he needed, and many other people needed, too, by the time they got to Heathrow. They got to stand in line when they got there.

Unfortunately, his luggage isn't as quick-acting as he is.

He's a toasted image of his usual self, having landed in Boston on his timeclock at about 4 a.m. Travelling companions within the aircraft were a contingent of Catholic youth, coming home from that big gathering with the Pope last week. By his account, these representatives of their faith need to be send back for remedial work on comportment in confined spaces and notions of Christian Charity towards those attempting sleep. He had at least had warning of BA's catering difficulties (no special meals available as of earlier this week), so he'd a chance to get his own vegetarian meal.

I didn't work on the sock, instead the BPL had the new Monica Ferris mystery, Embroidered Truths, wherein the victim is Goddy's partner John. My assessment - if you're already following the series, keep up, but don't go get this one on its own merits.

The knitting of the FMB is done and there are just a few yards of yellow left (whew!). To give you an idea of the size, that table is one of the little fold-up ones CVS started having this summer. I used Lamb's Pride Worsted and size 8s. Pre-felting gauge is 17 sts. over 4 inches. I did the 6-rows between decreases modification.

I'm not sure when I'm going to get around to felting it, so that might be awhile. In some ways I'm thinking I should felt it along with the kitten, which should be done sometime next week at the rate I'm going. In other ways I remind myself the kitten is partially composed of a fuzz yarn and do I really want to risk little bits of black getting embedded in this thing?

For the airport tonight, I have plenty of sock to work on, so that shouldn't be a problem. Keeping me in my spot waiting for Himself to emerge from Customs, will. The moment will not be blogged on this site.

Next few days are up in the air for logistics. Twelve, Twelve, Twelve more hours to go-oh-oh.

Yes, Himself will be back soon. Not that I'm looking forward to this or anything. Seven weeks can be a long time, though I've been waiting for some of my reserve books from the BPL for longer than he's been away, to put it in perspective.

In other happy news, Philips has returned a DVD player to this house and it seems to enjoy playing Muppets. Whereas the prior DVD player was playing sound and a solid blue screen before tech support said to ship it in.

I finished one kitten back leg, have one to go, then I get to move on to other undone and uncataloged portions of its anatomy. The FMB has one and a half handles (out of four) completed, and I'm doing the "do I have enough of this color left to finish?" squirm.

In other news I'm coming to realize that if that co-worker's wife is due to have their third child "around Labor Day," I'd best be getting started on the Pineapple Hat (Fiber Trends CH-15 - sorry, no direct links on the Fiber Trends site) I intend to make for the child.

And the Forest Path Stole is probably ready to be picked up again, having rested quietly since the 4th of July holiday. I wonder if it wants to go to the October 14th BCMS concert?

Forgive me if I'm a little distracted and humming.
9:30 - Forty, Forty Forty-five hours to go-oh-oh. I wanna be...

I went to the Degas at Harvard exhibit this afternoon, spent only about 10 minutes in line getting in. When I got there just at 1 p.m. there was a fellow sheparding the line, passing out museum maps and answering questions. They're letting in 70 people per hour which was not a crowd in this gallery - stark contrast with the Museum of Fine Art's sense of the capacity of the Gund Gallery. Some folks were choosing to get tickets for later in the afternoon and going off to other bits of Harvard first.

The exhibit is in the first floor of the Sackler, the space is divided into 3 "rooms" within the space, and all the pieces are things already part of the Harvard collection (or on loan to the collection, not just for the exhibit). There are spots in the Fogg where they have notes up that the piece normally there is in the exhibit in the Sackler. Some of them are finished pieces, a fair number are studies for other works or drafts. What got me was that the artist signed everything, which seems to be a difference between visual artists and knitters. Are you operating thinking your swatches going to be worth money to collectors some day? He was.
I got in for free as a Cambridge library card holder, versus $7.50 admission for average joe. I can see it being worth that, particularly to a real fan. I've never really studied visual arts, so my appreciation is something I've picked up as I've gone along. It was interesting to see how he "swatched," especially all the bather studies they had collected in the back. Looked at in succession, you can see him doing the visual artist equivalent of twisting the cable the other way, or trying a different needle size, or wool vs. alpaca blend, to see how the basic idea changes in its permutations.

The kitten has its front legs and I'm now starting one of the back legs. Given my seaming skills, this is going to be an interesting animal to sew up. There are spots where they have you drop the novelty (fuzzy) yarn and use a second strand of wool held with the first, and I've been using a gray tweed. This kitten will be interesting when it felts.

I made a lot more progress on the French Market Bag, once I figured out my color sequence to use up scraps. So far, I'm out of red, I'm about to run out of purple (yes, there are two different purples, the bottom one is more blue) and from there I will probably continue the green (way too much left to be able to use that up) and make the top part solid yellow.
I had someone tell me yesterday I could sell these and make money. Aside from it being not my pattern and you just don't sell work from a pattern you haven't originated, I didn't ask her how much she'd be willing to pay.... So I can't tell you how much less than the cost of materials, let alone time, that price would be.

And in a side note, I've switched counter services, so the numbers are restarting. I'm curious to know how many people are coming by and how they find me. I'll let you know how it works.

I took a couple evenings mostly away from the knitting to enjoy the newest addition to Simon Brett's Fethering Mystery series -- Witness at the Wedding. Eh, he's a fun read, though I prefer Mrs. Pargeter as a character over Carole and Jude and any of the three of them over Charles Parris.

In the meantime, now that I've read the kitten instructions both forward and backwards, I'm ready to pick up the front legs and continue. Turns out I was confusing what some of the markers were for. Now they make sense, and I just need to get on with it.

How much of life can be summarized by just needing to get on with it?

The FMB is making progress, but it must be summer time. FMBs made during the winter using Lamb's Pride Worsted seem to fly by. In summer I'm noticing how every round does, indeed, have 200 stitches in it, don't they, which is pretty close to an average 40" around sweater. At least the bag does not have sleeves to be done later.

I don't have Quadrophenia in my CD collection, or I'm sure A Quick One would be set on repeat.

To be filed in the category of Life's Surprize Discounts, Harvard Art Museums have free admission for anyone with a Cambridge library card. And given that admission to Degas at Harvard is $7.50, that's money that could be in the yarn budget. I've had a Boston library card ever since I had 2 pieces of mail with the a Massachusetts address on them, but in close to 10 years of living in Our Fair City, I've never felt need for a Cambridge card, given their limited weekend hours. As a bonus, it will allow me to take out materials in Lexington.

I'll be heading to the exhibit tomorrow.

The night before Harry Potter was sold, I started a kitten(219X) from FiberTrends. And put it down during that weekend and now I think I'm ready to pick up at the legs, but I'm not sure. Who's the one who teaches in the conquering UFOs class to leave yourself notes? Who didn't because she didn't think it necessary?

I came across this this past weekend, but it wasn't the time/mood to start it again (hence the FMB). We'll see tonight if I can have the mental energy and courage to figure this out.

The pattern is fairly straightforward, so that's not a problem. One of my issues with picking it back up again is that I can't get all the directions to match what I've already done. I may just be missing somthing.

Ready for the adventure?

Sunday I started a French Market Bag from Knitty. I use the handle variation described here. I did three already this Spring, and just felt ready for it from a project for the mood standpoint, and general utility. They may even be Xmas presents. In my experience, they come out about the size of the standard plastic grocery two-handled bag, but weigh a bit more. When I do it, I use a full skein of a dark color for the bottom through the increases, and then, times that I've used whole skeins, a bit more than 1/2 - 3/4 of a skein of two colors on the top, striped randomly.

In any case, what surprizes me is how many questions I get about these bags when I bring them to a knitting group setting. I can understand people being enthused about something they take a shine to, but think about what you're asking folks. Do I have Ultimate Answer Person tattooed on my forehead? If I give you a reference to go look something up, please go look it up. If I suggest you try your idea for yourself because I haven't done it, and therefore I can't tell you how it will turn out, please go try it for yourself. Intelligent discussion, fine. Tell me about what you've done already. But at 8:45 at night my tolerance for speculating based on my experience so you don't have to try your idea is very low. I don't mind people asking for information they will use, but my sense is that these folks are just wasting my time and being annoying.

The worst was the week after I had had a bag there because I used it to carry books from the Library, and an occasional attendee was hearing about the week before, she demanded to know why I hadn't brought it that week so she could see. I am overwhelmed by the sense of entitlement some folks have. Yes, we have a responsibility to share knowledge. But there's a limit.

Enough rant. Above is what I've done so far. The colors are a grab bag off the shelf, just playing to see what might go together.

Here's the shelf (note, not all is Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride, which is what I've been using for the bags). We'll see how it turns out. This is going to be a soothing project, which I could use now. It's not high art. If you want to do one, please go figure your permutations out for yourself. I did and it wasn't difficult. Trust me.

Having found whatever town he's in today to have fewer sightseeing attractions than first supposed, Himself has found a workstation to upgrade his (formerly) text-only blog posts with photographs. They're worth a revisit.

In this post, he asks for help identifying the pictured quadrupeds. My guess is sheep (though I'm willing to be told they're goats, given that I'm not that intimately familiar with the fine characteristics of either), females, shorn sometime in recent memory, and that they're not merinos given that their skin isn't wrinkled. Though to help with the identification I would say the picture could have a higher ratio of animals' surface to grass background......

Anyone with a more informed guess?

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% Yankee

30% General American English

10% Upper Midwestern

5% Dixie

0% Midwestern

When we last left off yesterday morning, I didn't have much to show of the kettle bag, due to the gauge problems of the night before.

I'm going to estimate actual knitting took between 3-4 hours, done in short bursts. Skill set: being able to pick up stitches along an edge and being able to follow a pattern by knowing how many rows you've done. That last seems pretty obvious to me, but then again I was surprized earlier this year by a co-worker who was equally surprized I would count rows to know I was matching my second sock to the first, rather than just knitting so many inches. This pattern has you increase and decrease at regular intervals, so knowing that you've done so many rows since your last increase/decrease is a skill I'll list. If you need help reading your knitting, let me know.

I started felting by hand in a double sink and then realized at the time it was 88 degrees with 58% RH in that un-air conditioned part of the house and gave it up. Later, after the cooling storms had come through, I popped a sopping wet future-bag in the dryer with two sopping wet towels, set them for a long, hottest setting cycle, checking about every twenty-thirty minutes, resopping them once about 2/3rds through. Heat and mechanical action felt wool with wetness helping alot. (Have we seen felted patches on sweaters from where the purse strap rubs? There is such a thing as dry action felting, but it takes alot longer.) I think felting took about an hour and a quarter. Remember to empty the lint trap for mohair whenever you stop the dryer to check progress. There wasn't as much lint this time as there has been with other projects with the same yarn.

Note the reduction in size between the before/after pictures. I didn't have the ruler handy for the after, but if you count the slats of the table, before it takes up 5 slats of the table top to bottom and after it takes up only 3.

When it comes out of the dryer, it should still be wet. I've set it in a place where it can dry peacefully, and since I want it to be a 3-D when it's done, I've made sure the bottom is resting flat and the sides are puffed out, so when it is a purse it will be ready to hold items. The fabric isn't rigid (still very damp 12+ hours later), but this is the time when you can influence how you want it to be when dry. It almost feels like it's a vase. Be prepared that whatever surface you put it on for drying will absorb water from it. It's okay to pick it up and move it to a new surface, but be careful to maintain the shaping.

A note on color -- At first I was putting the difference in color in the photos between before/after to the difference in light yesterday/today. There is no sun up today. Then I remembered that in the 15 minutes I tried felting in the sink before giving it up as an insane choice in the heat, there had been some pink exhaust in the hot and cold water. So here's another picure with the drying bag and some of the leftover skein. There's been some change, but I'll make a case for lighting change and still damp object to account for the difference.

In all, a project you could easily knit in either an evening (or two depending on how long your evening time is) or a weekend day, about an hour - hour and a quarter in the dryer, and then allow at least a day or two for the object to fully dry (this is when you can influence shape). It took part of two skeins of Wonderful Wool from Steadfast Fibers (the pattern calls for either bulky wool or two stands of worsted worked together). This will be a shop model for Mind's Eye Yarns and it should be there for display next weekend. Lucy? I hope you didn't give me the handles for this bag already because I'm not finding them here . . . . I'll keep looking.

This is what I started last Sunday, and I finished it yesterday afternoon, ends sewn in and everything. Usually I have a pile of things that are "finished", but not finished, so I consider that I'm doing well to get this ready-to-give finished.

I had thought I would be spending this summer on socks, for orphans and Himself, but not so much after all. I do have one sock going that I started Friday for subway knitting. The sweaters are using up stash, will clothe cold children somewhere in the world, and that's what matters. I may be ready to move on.

I tried moving on to the Kettle Bag last night, the one that will be a shop model for Mind's Eye. It's an easy pattern and since I always knit to a looser gauge than the pattern companies, and it said 2.5 st./inch on size 13s, I started with 11s that I already have and went to town. A couple hours later, having gotten it to its widest point, I realized it seemed smaller than it should, if it were going to felt up and still be handbag sized, since it was just fitting around a 16". Out with the calculator, and it should have been 28" around. Out with the ruler, and I was at about 3 or 3 and small fraction st/inch. Hmmmm, while I'm glad to know there are designers out there who knit as loosely as I do, clearly it was time to frog this thing and find another needle. Her note says that exact gauge doesn't really matter for felting, but I know that if you're going to felt a something, it has to be bigger before felting than you want the finished object to be.

I've started it again this morning on some 15s (since I don't seem to have 13s about) and consequently there is not nearly as much progress to show as there would have been if all had gone well last night. So tomorrow there should be pictures of unfelted bag to show.

Things are doing better since seeing Par on Friday and now that I've been trying the stretching for a couple weeks we have some specific goals to work on after seeing what I can't do. I hadn't realized how tight I was getting, but I'm never going to get into a Motown backup group if I can't do the arm straight-out, palm away from face, fingers standing up straight, traditional traffic-cop stop pose, am I? (singing ability aside) It apparently relates to flexors in the elbow that control the fingers. They haven't hurt, so I wasn't aware that they were not doing their job.
I've been intrigued by All the President's Men on audiobook. For me, Watergate was the summer that cartoons went away, and recognizing that we were Republicans, and Republicans were bad people, and were we bad people? Given that the book was written not long after, I'm coming across many things that are just so different today. Given how they describe things, there was a faith in government and leaders then that we just don't have today. It seems to be a very different attitude toward the world in general, and one's place in it. Hard to describe.

In the happy giddyness of recognizing that Himself will be returning just within the sell-by date of a bottle of milk (last week, it was the due back date of a BPL library book), I'm on a roll of getting things taken care of. Among other things....

I've done my pre-purchase of the Boston KnitOut gear - T-shirt and bag. Given that I'm going to get them anyway, I may as well take advantage of the pre-order discount.

And the sheep (courtesy of Lucy, Wren and Katie) has been named Maizey Ramsie. Only slightly corny, but she's a love.

The first season of the Muppets on DVD is on order. Even though the DVD player is in Philips' hands for repair/exchange. Soon they will meet.

I'm moving right along on the sweater (blue/white Limbo Mexiko)started on Sunday, which is about to start its sleeves.

And the purple/green/orange sweater just needs a neck and ends sewn in. It may not be New England's color aesthetic, but I think it will keep an Afghani orphan warm and comfortable.

And I'm going to trust that BA will have it's issues sorted out within 2 weeks. Or I'm going to have to put "get upset" on my list.

You know there isn't when you go through B&N and see "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft." Do the Wiccans want members who need such a guide?

The orange/green/purple sweater is in it's second sleeve, so there should be a picture soon. It's colorful.

These two shots are the readily available skeins of sock yarn in my stash. There may well be more tucked away, but close enough. I've got a lot.

I wear alot of handknit socks. When you have so many, each pair only gets worn once every week - week and an half, so they don't get much wear. They last a long time (though I am going to have to start thinking replacments this winter after so many season). And I've only had one-of-a-pair go missing, so I've been lucky that way.

And then I found this book at the B&N yesterday. I don't have a stack of discards and strays, yet, but it's good to know when I do that they could live on to new lives. I was going through the book last night. It has the contractory mission of trying to give very specific instructions about how to be creative and spontaneous, but he describes how to cut and shape and attach tubes to tubes. And the Gallery is great.

Par had to reschedule yesterday, therefore no accupuncture/massage on the complaining spots.

So I got out the tapestry needle, put on All the President's Men (on sale on Audible this week for $9.95 and when else would I get to read it?) and got to real finishing. Sewing in ends finishing. Of course, heavy-duty finishing I give to Lucy who will do it (for money), because I'm unhappy with my seaming skills, but not that unhappy that I want to practice them more.

We have the green/purple endo's baby sweater:

And the hot pink Wonderful Wallaby destined for Afghans for Afghans . The next deadline is mid-September in California -- if you're in the Camber - ville area (i.e., Porter/Davis) and want to put yours in the package with Lucy's and mine to save postage, please leave a comment and I'll let you know the date to have it to Mind's Eye.

You may note the lack of garter stitch on the top of the hood. Having made numerous attempts at grafting garter stitch knit side to garter stitch purl side, I flipped the page in the instructions and saw the alternate suggestion of a three-needle bind-off. This produced a channel of stockinette at the very top, but, ya know, it's not the State Fair contest for technical perfection, and it's purely functional. I'm happy with it, and I would give it to a kid I'm associated with to wear, and that's the criteria for a charitable donation, isn't it?

The purple/green/orange thing (see Saturday's post) is still going and is in the middle of its first sleeve. We'll see when it's finished if it, too, meets the above criteria of givable...... But then again, we know I have the color sense of New England Boiled Dinner.

Doesn't stop me from keeping knitting, but I think I need to cut back just a tad. I thought I was in shape for long spells of knitting, but I've have more than the usual occasions lately and I think it's showing.

I'll be seeing Par tonight and see what he finds, but the muscles are tight and protesting, though not acutely painful. It reminds me of the discussion on the KnitList a few months back where people in pain were protesting that their doctor might tell them not to knit and whatever would they do?!?!?! And they didn't want to take the advice of folks saying don't ruin your arms/wrists.

This is not what used to happen where I would feel my wrists "getting full", i.e. carpal tunnel with the whatever going through it swelling. This is the forearms and upper arms protesting all the small movements. Par's done a lot of work on these areas (and upper back and neck) over the years. I wonder how much the stretching he's been having me try in recent weeks is playing into this, making me more sensitive to the discomfort?

So, progress was made on the sweater started Sunday, but it's not going to rip along at the breakneck speed of the others.

Pictures and progress report on several items tomorrow?

Had a nice visit with the folks yesterday, got alot done on the train, up to the underarm on the new sweater.

I'm definitely having tightness in the knitting muscles, to the point of uncomfortableness, so I'll take this is a warning to not push much forward. I see Par tomorrow, he's been giving me stretches to do, which I have been, sort of, so we'll see what progress gets made. It's probably time to read print books for awhile.

That being said, coming up in the queue is the Kettle Bag, which will be a shop sample for Mind's Eye. Wonderful Wool hot pink. It looks fairly straightforward so we'll see how it goes. If you can, knit in the round, pick up stitches along an edge, decrease and keep track of where you are in a pattern, you can do this. I've been catching up on Knitlist digests over the weekend, and it was interesting to see Kim Salazar discuss felting of swatches, she made many good points.

In other news, the DVD player is going to Louisville for repair/replacement. It's just over 90 days since purchase, so we'll see how they behave.

Since I did so much knitting on Friday, while nothing actually hurt it still felt wise to lay off on Saturday. Mostly.

The surprize of the morning was walking to Arlington and finding MA Ave blocked off in either direction and the Cafe Barada area evacuated. No one was admitting to knowing anthing, including the guy who owns Barada, though a woman stuck in traffic was hollering about the bomb squad. Melissa? Anything through the old-buddy network?

I did the hood for the Wallaby, but last night was not the night to figure out garter stitch grafting, where this was grafting one side of the row to the other side of the row. You'll know what I mean if you've tried to do it, and if you don't know what I mean, see me later.

Lucy came by, and we couldn't get the DVD player to work other than show a blue screen and play sound. Diagnosis with other housemates needs to happen. Some more knitting on the green/purple/orange sweater happened. Black Cherry iced tea was drunk and random TV was watched.

So far, there are two suggested names for the sheep besides Mutton: Polly Ester and Hazel Ramsey. Anyone else? It's a very contented looking sheep.

Today I'm taking the train to visit the folks, so it's time to start a fresh project to have enough easy knitting fodder to fill the travel time.

I have no idea what the Newport Mansions giftstore on the wharf is doing carrying Folkmanis puppets, but there was this sheep in the bin that latched onto my arm and came home with me.

Given that I already have Lambiekins and Lambiepie in the menagerie, I need a name for this sheep. It's a mature-looking sheep, who's been around the pasture abit, who knows what to do when you find the green grass and how else to enjoy this life. So far, all I've come up with is Mutton (actually, for about the first hour I was thinking Sheepish), but I don't think that's its name.
Statistically speaking, odds are this is a ewe rather than a ram, but I haven't really thought that much about gender identity issues yet. So, folks, give me names, please.

And there was knitting yesterday (and I didn't see any lobster incidents), despite the high winds. This was finished on the subway on the way to the bus. Finished, of course, except for all the sewing in ends and putting the care label in......

And this was started on the bus down. You can tell I did a lot of sitting around yesterday, didn't I? Nothing hurts, but I should keep an eye on the wrists. It's an experiment in color, I've had co-workers tell me they like it, but the kicker comes when the subway rider on the way home wanted details. I'm being uncertain if they all play together nicely, but we'll see.

Also keeping me company on the bus, at least until the battery in the Palm ran down, was the audio book about the Ponzi Scheme that happened in Boston. The effect of mass psychology was amazing, and to think it all happened in such a short period of time - December to August. Makes you wonder if you lived in Boston that summer, would you have given this man your money with the promise of 150% return (your deposit and half it more) at the end of 45 days. It worked for the first people in.....

Tonight Lucy is coming over and I'm going to see if I can find this at the local video rental. It will go with the biking theme.

I'm hoping the new moon today will perk me back up. A good night's sleep seems to have helped so far, but it's only 6:30 a.m.

Made more progress on the Wallaby last night at knitting group, just about to start the neck ribbing. Since it doesn't look that different than yesterday, I'll focus on the neck placket that had folks interested in the sweater last night.

Part of the recent mood might be attributed to the compulsing over decreases. I do this whenever I have a set point A to point B increases or decreases over many rows -- I keep worring I've lost track and gone too far (which I rarely have). Much counting ensues and even if the count shows I've got at least 3 more inc/dec rounds to go, next round, same thing. It's a subtle thing, but something to recognize.

Something else to think about is the Company Picnic in Newport, RI on Friday, a day with co-workers from Boston and Hartford. I'm wondering if there will be a lobster story. We've had children at the (temporarily unattended) table with the cooked lobster decide that the lobsters "needed to go back to their mommies" and toss them over the railing into Narragansett Bay, and I've seen someone (no longer with the company) bring a small cooler and ask the hotel staff to pack her some lobsters on ice to take home from the buffet.

I'm still thinking about what to bring to knit for the bus ride down, afternoon hanging out on the steps hoping against hope for non-inane conversation, exploring Thames Street in the late afternoon and then the bus ride home. I'll need to pace my wrists.

I've made a little progress on the Wonderful Wallaby, but I'm being distracted by the heat and humidity and the need to do other things, like cook if I'm not going to get takeout, and laundry. And this is the summer of reduction of takeout, so last night was the night to cook.

I tried the chicken tikka recipe again, leaving out the nutmeg and trying a touch of the chili powder. A powerful taste, but I think I could get used to it. It still needs work.

While I was cooking, I was also reading Fork It Over by Alan Richman. He's a food critic and this is a collection of columns from various sources he's written for over the years. Easy going chapters and things to think about, like the disappointment when a restaurant has the three Michelin stars, and because of the name and fame, knows they won't be taken away (Bocuse must go). Melissa, I don't know how hard it is to get over to Queens, but please check out Leo's Latticini in Corona -- they are reported to make a great mozzarella and they have sandwiches. He also refers to it as Mama's and says police and firefighters go there all the time so Andy might know it.

Tonight is knitting group at Mind's Eye, so we know where I'll be, once I get there. At least supper is already made..... cold leftover chicken tikka with peppers. See how that tastes on a hot muggy night.

Last night's meeting ran long, then I needed to call Mom back, etc., etc. The Wallaby is up to the start of the placket, so there may be pictures tomorrow.

When I think about it, the green/purple sweater for the endo's baby did make a lot of progress at the long meeting, so that's something. It's a good way through the increases and should be at the shoulders soon.

If the Red Line decides to run trains through the tunnels and carry passengers.......

First, great thanks to Kerstin of the New England Knits webring for helping me get set up to join the ring. It will be fun to be part of that.

The rest of the weekend was okay. It was strange yesterday to have temps not even 70, but then again, it allowed me to walk to the Arlington Stop & Shop for 2 things -- an hour (slightly +) of exercise and meats to cook for lunches.

I also looked at the Amalgamated Conglomeration of knitting needles that has been increasingly successful at hiding their compatriots and sent all the circular needles home to their respective beds in the 16" and longer than 16" pouches, and all the dps are at least in the box their containers are in, if not in the size-marked containers. You can't have everything in this life.

Minding the store was entertaining. People actually came in, which goes against the stereotype of a knitting store at the end of July. No surprizing questions to tax the mind, but a few nice conversations about what folks were working on. The Wonderful Wallaby made progress, and while nothing hurts, I made sure to be doing other things yesterday, like exercising and tidying. And the pillowghan I finished several years ago really got finished with the ends all sewn in.

And there were presents to myself in the mail Saturday. The artist had a booth at ArtBeat a few weekends back in Somerville with barrettes, though they were out of colors I wear. And I'm a sucker for hair jewelry. So I left a deposit and a request for colors (backed up by an email conversation about what I tend to wear) and these were in the package. The translucent pink is hard to photograph, so trust me it's a delicate pink, with a band of irridescent darker pink in the middle. When I asked her about blogging this with a link to her, the artist says:

my website is due to be updated by the end of August and currently doesn't show ANY of the fabulous stuff I've produce since July of last year! :-(  

She notes the best way to see what she's been doing is to go here.  She also does necklaces, earrings (matching sets).  Go look.  Very pretty colors of glass.

The Wallaby got up to the sleeves joined to the body last night during the Princess Diary, so we're into the decreases and soon will hit the placket.  And the hole in the shelf has been filled with other yarn that needed a place to go.

Now to go find a pink shirt to wear.