Life's a Stitch

Two steps forward one step back

Apologies for the delay, I'm still here, buried under grant writing deadlines. Working in the non-profit world of severe funding cuts, my job has degenerated to filling out forms - funding applications and their subsequent accountability forms. It's not as fun as it used to be. The good part? The people I work with makes it worth it. 

And I'm back from a quick trip to Edmonton to share in the excitement of a first house purchase by my daughter and her husband. We were joined by my other daughter who had just finished all her last exam for the coursework part of her Master's in Medical Physics. A lot of joy packed into that weekend. 

Two steps forward? Thanks to a cortisone shot in the wrist, I'm knitting a bit again. And of course, two recent finished projects count as forward movement. Here's one, the crocheted scarf:

Pattern: Scarlet Evening Shawl, written in Russian by Julia Michanka. It comes with an excellent chart and photos, so Russian is not a prereq. 

Yarn: Zauberball Crazy, Tropical Fish colourway, 1 skein.

Modifications: Completed 4.5 levels of squares, reserving 20 gms of yarn for the added shamrock fringe. 

Thoughts: Quick and easy enough, a perfect 450 yard sock weight project. It comes out to nearly an equilateral triangle, not my favourite shape for a shawl, but I made it small enough that folded over a bit along the top, and wrapped around the neck, it gives the look I want. Will definitely do this one again.

Two steps backwards. Does this pain you?

Before and after:

Really, it doesn't hurt me too much. I wasn't wearing the sweater as the cabled trim was too heavy and it hung all wrong. Plus I hated the seam where the trim met, right smack in the middle of the back edge. What pains me is this:

All those little teensy balls as the result of indiscriminant scissor snipping. Oops, that wasn't a seam stitch. And why is it that you end up with one less skein than you started with? The seaming couldn't have taken that much. All's well, I found the discontinued Tahki New Tweed on e-bay and it's a Mr. Greenjeans in progress. I guess that would be a Mr. Oatmealjeans.

Accomplishments

I did it. After many years of good intentions I am officially Diet Coke and caffeine free. Both cold turkey. My method? Remember that bout of food borne illness? As long as I wasn't consuming anything, good or bad, it was an opportunity to quit some vices and not notice the withdrawal symptoms. This was a BIG step for me. For many years Diet Coke was my breakfast drink of choice. And lunch. And dinner...

As a person who used to work in addictions I know that something has to be substituted for the offending chemicals. Nothing drastic as newfound religion or a career change for me. My substitutes are club soda, an occasional diet ginger ale, and a morning decaf espresso. I should note in all honesty, a perfectly reasonable amount of red wine is still in my repertoire of vices.

My other accomplishment was blocking two projects in one weekend:

More on those projects later. Unrelated question: Has anyone tried Great Valley Ancient Grain medly from Costco? I bought some last night and realized the back label with cooking instructions is missing. Does anyone know how to cook them -  as in the water to grain ratio? Great Valley has no website.

Springtime in the rainforest

Next time they predict a La Nina year, if I'm still living in the in the rainforest I'm running the other way. There was way too much rain for my brain. When the clouds lifted from the sky and the fog from my head, there was still snow on the Lions.

The cherry trees started to bloom:

And the magnolias popped:

My favourite harbinger of springtime is the song of the Varied Thrush. Make sure you click on the "listen" button. Thrushes are here all year round, but when the cloud lifts from the sky their police whistle call multiplies.

 

Crazy ball

Meet the Zauberball. Translates to Crazy Ball and the colour translation is Tropical Fish. To complicate matters, this particular style is called Crazy Zauberball, meaning Crazy Crazy Ball. It fits:

I had always wanted to try the Zauberball, but couldn't justify the going price. Blogless Masha and I lucked into two balls in the sale bin at Hellen's in Mount Vernon, WA. It reminds me of Kauni yarn, only much softer. This ball is magically turning into a crocheted scarfy/kerchief version of the Scarlet Evening Shawl. Don't let the Russian writing scare you, the diagram and photos are easy to follow.

I am appropriately crazy about this yarn - very high in the just one more row factor.