Frogging

I'd have photos to share, but I apparently left my camera at Molly's house last night after her Frogging Party (I hope, anyway, as I've unpacked all my stuff and can't find it).

What is frogging, you ask? It's when a knitter decides that a project is juuuuuust not going well, or something's been outgrown and the yarn of which it's made could be put to better use elsewhere, so the knitter unravels it. This is also known as "ripping" which also can sound like "ribbit" and hence, frogging.

Remember: knitters also abbreviate "Knit Along" as "KAL" - we are a mystical bunch.

In any case, Molly (one of the Wednesday knitting group) invited us all to her home for a potluck and frogging party. Chandra drove Jeannie, Veronica, Tammy, and myself up and we stayed till around 11PM. Lotsa good food, laughter, and many reclaimed cakes of yarn.

Sadly, my Ravelympics Rick socks were one of the frogged items. They were simply too ugly with that peg-leg thing stretching out all the stitches. I'm going to start over adding in another repeat of 12 stitches.

Also finally frogged out my original blue Twisted Hourglass socks as well as my Noro entrelac socks/armwarmers. The yarn cakes are sitting on my grown-up coffee table now, pristine (if a bit wrinkly), in lovely anticipation of what they will become next.

Olympics

The first time I'd moved away from Seattle, we were back in Hawaii the year of the Goodwill Games. Watching the events unfold from the hometown of my heart was emotionally wrenching to me. I loved seeing familiar sights of evergreens, snowy mountains and bright blue water.

This year, I'm on the East Coast and looking at Vancouver during the Olympics. Vancouver is geographically so similar to Seattle that it's always felt like a hometown to me, too.

I am not homesick. Or at least, not as much as I thought I'd be. I'm enjoying the glimpses of places I've been, but not feeling sad over being so far away.

That's good. :)

I thought about going for a drive today, since it was so sunny and pretty out. Instead, I curled up to watch some Olympics (interspersed with murder shows), knitting on my Ravelympics sock. Rick is giving me grief, sadly. As you can see in the photo, one sock appears significantly skinnier than the other. That is the sock for my peg-leg. Adifferent stitch on the right sock, slip-slip-knit, is pulling it in tighter than the left sock.

At some points, I considered ripping both socks out and starting over with an extra pattern repeat to make them wider, but kept knitting anyway. It fits, but the amount of stretching it must do takes away from the cuteness of the pattern.

Anyone know any pirates who need a pair of lovely socks? :)

Ravelympics 2010

I signed up, then backed out, then decided at the last minute to actually give it a go.

Ravelymics is a knitting event on Ravelry in which participants cast on a project during the Opening Ceremonies and complete that project before the end of the Closing Ceremonies. Some of the events are pretty funny take-offs on real Olympic events with names like Hat Halfpipe, Nordic Colorwork Combined and Scarf Super-G.

I am on Team Socksters, in the Sock Hockey event, and will be knitting Rick. This is a Cookie A pattern in which each foot is knit "mirrored" to the other. Hitherto, I have leaned toward patterns that are completely written out with supplemental charting. With Sock Innovation, though, every pattern is only charted.

While it might not be snowy in Vancouver, where the actual Olympics are taking place, Maryland is a wintery wonderland. I've dug out Jane Grey twice this week, and predictions are for more snow next Tuesday. Our office closed Monday, which was funny/sad, as I had spent all that time digging out Jane and actually made it to the office before it was shut for the day. It closed again Wednesday for another snowstorm and then on Thursday because streets were still messed up.

I'm glad I made it to the office yesterday. Candyce and Kevin sent me flowers and a tower of cupcakes for my birthday! Yay! And when I came home last night, there was a box of chocolates from the Wiesmans, whom I haven't seen since leaving San Diego, waiting for me on my doorstep.

After all the turmoil last month, I feel remarkably calm and peaceful now. I have very wonderful old friends and very wonderful new friends. I'm very lucky.

Jane Grey and Snowmaggedon

I believe the unit of measurement is "metric f*ckton." It took an hour to uncover her. I'm warming up with a cuppa tea before going out to shovel the bit of parking lot right in front of her so she can move a bit and then we shall be off to work!

Snowpocalypse 2010

Had to charge up my camera battery, or I'd have had a photo from earlier, before the snow started to stick. Imagine that the air conditioning pump thinger to the right has no snow on it at all until 7PM. I had to brighten this photo up slightly as it was really dark out, since the snow hadn't coated all the trees yet. The orange cast of the street lights is really peculiar.

Midnight. No need to lighten this photo. The wind was really picking up, too. It's mesmerizing to watch the snow falling, then a gust of wind shakes the tree branches, causing accumulated snow to cascade down. Almost like a silent movie, with wind. :)

At 8AM this morning, my dining room window is sprinkled across with snow. Don't know how long I'll be able to take photos through it now! Also observed that the door into the building across from my back patio was covered in snow across its lower third.

When I went out to get a photo of my own building's door snowed under, I ran into our complex's maintenance men already shoveling it out. Since I was already boiling water to make tea, I made enough tea for all of them. They've been out since 6:30AM and will be shoveling and plowing all weekend. They're a nice group of guys. Even though I'd barely run a comb through my hair and had on whatever came to hand, I took my cup of tea on the stairwell with them until they had to go back to work.

I live in a nice place.

Dead!

Received my death socks yesterday afternoon. Aiee!

They are very comfy :)

That means I'm out of Sock Wars, alas. The second pair of socks, which Kate/PadowanKnitter started and I completed, have not yet reached their target in California, but she's dooooomed! And my assassin, the gracious and friendly Amanda/Obi-Wan-Knitobi, hasn't been killed yet, either, even though her assassin already sent death socks to her.

Mittens is sleeping beside me, squeaking through his nose. I think he has a cold, poor kitty.

It's pretty darn cold around here. Started snowing as I drove home from work tonight and it's still coming down. I find it very interesting to live in an area that's prepared for snow. Even little side streets around here are regularly plowed. My apartment complex clears out the parking lots, too, so that's pretty nice. And I have a cute little snow shovel so that I can scoot snow away from Jane Grey if necessary.

Last week was a particularly difficult week for me, for reasons unknown. I took some time off work, knit, read, napped and had angst. On the bright side, I've lost 20 pounds since moving out here. On the other hand, most of it is because I haven't been eating very well. And even though I feel much better and peaceful today, dinner turned out to be a couple of slices of challah with butter. I hope I'm not snowed in tomorrow. I'm almost out of challah!