Knitting 40 shades of green

November 30: yet more on baby sweaters

Well, I will go with popular opinion and use the Celtic knot buttons on the yellow haiku.  I was swayed by the argument of ease of buttoning on squirmy children and maybe I will decorate a plain sweater with the whimsical buttons without function.

I was distracted from seaming the green trellis which I will get to this weekend (and then need to decide on buttons -- maybe I should purchase more Celtic knots?).  I have a baby shower in 9 days and I hadn't figured on having to knit for this baby.  I cast on for a Baby Kimono from the Mason Dixon knitting book.  I am more than half done with only a few hours of knitting although I worry if a baby wrist will fit through a cuff made from a 4" sleeve.  I am knitting with some variegated cotton that I bought on my early forays into e-bay -- I got a huge lot at a great price but it is a questionable yarn as far as my likes and sensibilities.  If this works out I may make a slew of these to use up the bounty.

I left my photo cable at work yesterday (and had training in Richmond today) so I will post a picture in the morning.

November 29: What not to do

My friend Bill the traveling salesman and I were discussing the lack of interest that a knitting blog had for him and he suggested some features based on our conversations and his interests.

What to Drink when it's not Guinness -- this feature would introduce a different drink every so often and then involve extensive research to find out which local establishments served the best version of said drink (we may have come up with this idea the evening that I introduced him to mojitos at Cafe Salsa)

• What Not to Do -- this feature would chronicle what not to do to on a date as based on my experiences on dates.  A place to tell the stories like the guy whose "mother" called 15 times in 25 minutes and he didn't bother to turn off the ringer and would answer as many times as he let it ring.  I mentioned this idea for a blog feature to a guy I dated a few times who then tracked down the blog and was worried after each date that he would show up in an amusing story of a date gone bad.  Too bad that, as our dates might have made good stories but I would never be purposely cruel (I wonder if he still reads here?). Keep in mind that any personal culpability for a bad date would be downplayed for the sake of a good story and my use of hyperbole can be liberal (the above example excluded).
• Hmmm, there was another one but after a few mojitos and a few months, apparently I have forgotten it.

It is the second category which has me writing tonight -- adventures in dating.  I always say that I want a guy to have a plan, to invite you to do something rather than invite you to plan what will be done.  Make a plan, extend an invitation and realize that I have veto power.  If it is just the plan that is bad, I can come back with a counter offer*.

Well, I had dinner tonight with a guy.  I wouldn't call it a date but if you asked him, he might have a different perspective.  Not that I have given him any reason to, other than going to dinner once in a while (5 or 6 times in the past year).  He wanted to take me out for my birthmonth before the month was up.  We tacked down an evening that wasn't ideal since it was late night but was as good as my schedule was going to allow.  He (knowing that I like a guy to have a plan) said he would think about it and get back to me.  Well, today he asked what time I wanted him to pick me up -- no information on where we were going, no details at all other than that he wanted to pick me up rather than meet him.  So we were going to go out to dinner and it was to be a surprise.  Well, I now know the reason he wanted to drive me -- the "plan" was to drive 30 miles to a chain restaurant which I found to be pretty mediocre.  I live in a town with great restaurants -- most of them independent and he choose a chain that wasn't even that special.  It wasn't a special occasion place, it wasn't something unusual.  You think maybe it had to be kept secret to avoid the Veto power?  To think I left late night early for that.  And my meal was much too salty. 

Moral:  When making a "plan" remember that you need to keep the veto power intact.  When planning a surprise make it fantastic and worth the loss of the power to veto.

*I dated a guy for most of my twenties who was generally a pretty great guy.  However, on more then one occasion he would say he wanted to take me out to dinner and he wanted me to choose the restaurant, but it wasn't that easy.  I would choose and he would have some reason that we shouldn't go there on this occasion.  I would suggest again and get another veto.  Maybe we would even go through a third veto.  But, no, he wasn't going to choose, it should be my decision.  Finally I got smart, I would have him give me a list 5 places and then I would choose.  Worked like a charm.

November 28: Is it December yet?*

So I was sitting at Panera (yes, again, but not the same one I was at yesterday.  I know that I spend an inordinate amount of time there but they are pleasant, they let us sit there and knit for hours without buying much, the food isn't bad and it isn't full of things competing for my attention like laundry and the piles of stuff that should be cleaned up.) and a young employee walked up to me to ask about my knitting. 

She wanted to know how long it took me to learn and was it different from crochet.  It seems that her aunt crocheted but she wasn't sure of the word (I think if I am not mistaken knitting and crochet use the same word in Spanish).  She asked questions about what I was working on and how I learned and whether knitting or crochet was harder.  I commented that I thought knitting had better pattern support for things one might actually want to wear.  (That same aunt had made her a dress which she said was beautiful but sits in the closet -- I am assuming it is not the kind of thing that a high school girl would wear in this area and the aunt was back in Mexico and wouldn't know).  I then said that I had learned to knit from a book when I was close to her age.  Her response was "So you have been doing this for a long time, you have a lot of experience." 

Now I know that I have probably been knitting since before she was born but there is nothing like having a teenager tell you that you are old.  But she was OK, she was genuinely interested, very polite and she even gave me a free cookie later (although that might have been because Isel got her so flustered on the cash register when she ordered a salad and sandwich she couldn't face it again).

**I will be glad when nablopomo is over and I can go back to posting three or four times a week when I actually have something to say.  If you haven't weighed in on the button conundrum be sure and leave a comment in yesterday's post.  While the Celtic knots seem to be winning out, I may save them for the Trellis sweater that I will be seaming this week and go with the second place choice.

November 27: Button, button

I am not thrilled with how the sleeves are set in but I wasn't going to rip them and knit them again so I just sewed them in one last time. They are a little better, but not much. So I went to my local Hancock fabrics to find buttons, however, I seem to be the most indecisive person ever on this issue. So I will leave it up to you dear readers. Should I go with something whimsical, befitting a wee bairn, or something a bit more sophisticated.

Here are close ups of those last two. Excuse the crappy photography (I took the photos at the local Panera next to Hancock fabrics and the lighting left something to be desired) and leave your opinions on which buttons I should go with in the comments. (That means all of you lurkers, too). Is it dinosaurs, hearts and stars, Celtic knots or those metal swirls?

November 26: Seaming

I have spent the afternoon sewing and ripping out the seams of the same sweater sleeve on Haiku.  I have taken out the cast off and  cast off again looser.  I still don't like how it lays.  Maybe it was my choice for the knitted cast on for the extra stitches, I don't know but I am frustrated.  Maybe I will try one more time but I need to finish the sweater before the baby it is intended for out grows it.

November 25: Prizes

Julie  had a random contest to encourage readers to tell her about their favorite finished object.  She promised the winner some sock yarn and I shared my favorite FO on a lark -- since I wasn't going to win anyway.  But I did and look what was waiting on my doorstep yesterday when I came home from driving "over the river and through the woods". 

Yes, that is lovely Koigu kpppm in color P316  a lovely mix of green, browns and tans.  I think I may make a pair of socks with feather and fan cuffs.
But that is not all, there was also a lovely card of a magnolia flower from Virginia King and a camel tape measure.

It was a lovely surprise to come home to.  Thanks Julie.

November 24: Happy Buy Nothing Day

Here is a great article on this day written 5 years ago -- http://alternet.org/story/11901/.  I especially liked this paragraph:

"If you don't really need the big box's trinkets, find some better more productive use for your shopping dollar. Buy locally produced goods and services that employ your neighbors at living wages while having a minimal impact on the environment. Spend your money this holiday season supporting musicians and artists. Go to clubs. Buy art. Patronize struggling inner-city businesses. Spend money at local restaurants and leave generous tips.

Don't buy an SUV -- instead spend the money to insulate your house. Buy a fuel-efficient hybrid car. Install a solar collector. Buy organic produce at a farmer's market. Visit an independent bookstore and buy a book. Buy used clothes. Have your house painted. Plant a tree. Donate to a Peace Center. Treat yourself to a professional massage or have an acupuncturist tune you up for the winter. You get the idea. Spend your money in a way that it will stimulate the local economy, not aggravate the global economy."

If you have already bought something today the rest of the world celebrates on Saturday.  http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/

November 23: Happy Thanksgiving

I spent many a Thanksgiving of my youth in Northern NJ.  We would go and visit my grandparents and have dinner at my uncle and aunt's house.  They both lived on large half acre lots in old suburban neighborhoods.  There were woods behind all the houses, the kind that you imagine have many creeks to play in.  It was my idea of quintessential 1950's suburbia. 

In late fall when all the leaves are off the trees and there is a steady drizzle or light rain from a  low cloud cover, I think of these neighborhoods and the many Thanksgivings and Christmases we spent in these houses.  It seems that it was often raining during these family get togethers.  The houses were large with formal parlors in addition to a living room/den with a TV.  We would play in the basement and generally try to stay out of the way.  We would hope to sit at the children's table so as not be made to eat scary  gelled salads of tomato aspic and  avacado (although  I think I may have been the only one who didn't like this) by loving relatives.  We would wait forever for the grown-ups  to finish eating so that we could all go into the front parlor  for desert.

The weather brought back these memories today as I drove down to my sister's house for Thanksgiving.  Soggy yards, trees bare of their leaves, dark heavy skies, and then the sun came out just before it set and I was returned to the present.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

November 22: PSA

We interrupt this blog* to bring you a book recommendation.

Several months ago I came across this recommendation for a good read on Adventures in Paradise.  I finally got a hold of the book and I loved it.

Have you ever read something that made you question your day to day actions and your impact on the world.  This book will make you do that . Greg Mortenson is able to take an improbable promise to an impoverished village and overcome doubt, indifference, cultural differences and political realities to create a lasting legacy and then do it again and again.  The CAI does amazing work for education and women in an area of the world that everyone else has forgotten or only sees as a source of future terrorists.

*The Northeaster passing through here today has me holed up and knitting and not feeling like going out to find wireless Internet to download pictures.

November 21: In which I try to distract you from the lack of substance

I took a picture of two baby sweaters all knit up and with minimal seaming done.  There were loose ends everywhere. The shoulders are all seamed but the arms are all waiting to be set in the sweaters.  I was all prepared to blog about them tonight to entertain you for the twenty first day of nablopomo. 

When I arrived home I was glad to find a package on the front porch with which to distract you from the fact that I need another day before I have FOE baby sweaters to present.  A birth month present from Ellen's half pint farm would be just the thing to keep you from realizing that I hadn't finished the sweaters (and to think the same mail brought the announcement of a baby shower and no knitting yet for that baby). 

Well, I went out to dinner with some colleagues from work and after a couple champagne concoctions that the restaurant called "Ingrid Bergman's favorite" delivered by our incredibly young, cute waiter from Russia, I'd realized I would not be able to download any pictures until tomorrow.  So I could talk about the sweaters I haven't quite finished, the yarn I just got in the mail, the belly dancing and dinner I had just experienced, or just generally distract you.   Back tomorrow with pictures.