Light at the End of the Tunnel

Hello,

Another quarter gone by and semi-good news from my company. No more 25% time (and pay) reduction, but 10% pay reduction across the board! Could be worse … could be worse. Whether this is temporary or permanent we don’t yet know – they will decide quarter-to-quarter. So we’re looking at it as a 15% pay increase compared to last quarter :-)

I haven’t seen the new Star Trek movie yet, but I’m reading the reviews which are mostly positive. One of the more entertaining ones is here: – this review covers an aspect that never occurred to me: Twinks and Bears. After reading it my husband declared that now he can never look at Star Trek the same way again! Ach – and don’t make an extra effort to watch Angels and Demons – it’s pretty mediocre. If I hadn’t read the book, I would have had trouble following the “plot” which has some major holes in it, anyway. The da Vinci Code was much better. But you do get to see some of Rome’s art treasures!

During the last few weeks I ran into Borders and/or Barnes and Noble every few days so I would not miss the next issue of The Knitter – it’s a UK knitting magazine NOT aimed at the beginner, unlike the majority of other knit mags – I love it. Instead of just showing you some glam photos, they actually have photos of details! Unfortunately, you cannot subscribe to it here in the US, the link only gets you to a page where you can sign up to receive updates about the magazine.

A short while ago I received a pattern update for the Rosebud Neckwarmer designed by Grace Mcewen ... you can also find it on Ravelry. Very nice. It now includes charts, which is a huge Plus in my book. I hate reading written row-by-row instructions, because I have to *read* them … a chart, on the other hand … I can just *look* at it and see where I am (or should be). That’s the same reason I like analog clocks better than digital ones – I look at an analog clock and can *see* what time it is … a digital clock I have to first read, then translate what I read to the actual time. Anyway …

My next larger project after the Funnelneck sweater will be from the latest PieceWork magazine (May/June 2009): Olga’s Indiski (Indian) Shawl to Knit by Galina Khmeleva. This shawl was originally designed by the late Olga Fedorova, Galina’s mentor, and expert Orenburg Shawl knitter, and modified a bit by Galina. I’m thinking of knitting the original pattern also shown in the magazine, to fill the large “empty” squares. I had a Russian colleague translate the writing in this picture, but it didn't contain any interesting info.

Regarding the Funnelneck Sweater: I’m working on the bottom band right know, about 2 inches done, which seems sufficient … the pattern calls for 3 inches, but I’ll try it on and see how it looks with 2. So I am finally seeing the light at the end of the knit-reknit tunnel for this sweater.

The feral rooster is gone now. Poor fellow – he was just being a rooster. But the neighbors became more and more annoyed with him, and since he and his girlfriend spent a lot of time in our yard, we had the best opportunity of catching him. There is a slim chance that he might find a new home on a farm somewhere, but it’s not likely. Sigh. It’s too bad that there are not enough no-kill shelters like Best Friends. After a few days of extreme caution towards humans, the chicken is her old self again and happily scratches around in the neighborhood yards – I’m really surprised she is still alive. She’s been around for several years now.

Take care!

Taxing Times

Hi there,

This is a salt-and-pepper-shaker set I bought a few years ago, because it's just so adorably cute. I was reminded of it when Fleegle mentioned in her blog that she is planning to knit a frog prince.

So, after many hints from my DH, which during the last weeks became more and more pushy, and since I have a few days off work this week (mandatory time reduction at my company) I finally ran out of excuses for not doing our tax return. Today is paper gathering, and bank statement printing and sorting day. Ugh.

The only consolation is that the days are becoming really nice. Right now our little lilac bush is blooming:

And the jasmine as well:

Last weekend I did quite a bit of knitting and I must have hunched up my right shoulder worse than usual, because it is quite painful right now. But I did get the center back panel and one side of the back of my Funnelneck Sweater done:

I’m considering re-working the front, because I just don’t like the large holes resulting from the picked-up stitches:

Funnelneck Sweater - front - big the holes from

picking up the stitches for the side panels.

If I re-work it, I’ll use a better edge stitch. (Usually, I follow the pattern at first, then I end up changing it - after a lengthy internal debate about whether it's "worth" it). I really like the construction of this sweater, and since the front and back are knit in three pieces each, it seems to progress very fast (of course it would be a lot faster if I didn't change my mind). It doesn’t even bother me to re-do pieces I don't like, because it seems less work.

Some more swatches of the Rosebud Neckwarmer:

Alpaca with silk – I thought this would look better, so I’m not going to use this.

Plain alpaca again, but with 3 rosebuds across to give it more width.

This stretches the stitches at the bottom of the two rosebuds, so I might add a few extra stitches there to relieve some of the tension. It will have to wait a bit though, since I really want to finish the Funnelneck sweater first.

And finally a picture of just how scared the feral chickens in this neighborhood are of our cat(s):

They kept walking and clucking in the back of the cat, until he finally looked at them disgustedly and strolled off - in a very dignified manner, of course! Most likely, the rooster will not be around much longer, he is rather noisy. And since they hang around our yard a lot (no dogs!) we have the best chance of catching him. We'll see.

Till next time!