Sockie sockie

Just some socks, hanging out, shooting the breeze...

That's me modeling Punkin's STR (Rose Quartz) in Crosshatch Lace with my own handpainted Scolls sock resting comfortably, while Punkin's DD was doing her own thing...

Kids...

Down by the sea

So glad it's Friday. It's been a rough week in these parts. Work has been the same kinda crazy, but this week has been bookended by sad events. Last week one of the members of the 2nd Vermont passed away. Jim and I went to the funeral in Chatham last Saturday. His health had not been good as long as we knew him, so while his death didn't come as a huge surprise, it was still terribly sad. As he wished, Art was buried in his Civil War uniform, and had pallbearers in uniform as well.

Then this week was the real shocker. Alan, a friend of mine from back in high school unexpectedly passed away. He had a horrible accident last week, was sent home from the hospital earlier this week, and then had to be readmitted and his heart stopped. They couldn't bring him back. He was only 47. The bunch of us from high school who used to hang out together have a Yahoo! Group that we use to communicate and this has hit everyone really hard. Lots of e-mails--grief, memories, reaching out to each other. I'm pretty sure that Alan's the first one of our group to pass. So horribly sad...

As I was riding the train home today I decided I needed to do something to try and clear my head. It was such a beautiful day, and it looked like it would be a gorgeous sunset, so after I got off the train, I headed out to the beach.





This was just what I needed tonight.
May Art and Alan rest in peace...

Tink-a-little, Knit-a-lot

Hey--I'm actually making some progress here!


I love the way that the color is interacting with the stitch pattern! Since the colors remind me of a mountain stream, I wanted something that would compliment the look of water.

I think this really does look like moving water!

By the way, the little bits of pinky red that you see--those are my lifelines. I'm putting them in where the pattern changes from k2tog to ssk. Those first rows after the change seem to be the hardest to keep straight. Overall, though, I'm finding it easier to keep track of.

In other knitting news, look what was waiting for me at home tonight...

Maybe look a little closer...

Woo-hoo! A Sock Club Shipment!! Really unexpected this time around--the way it's supposed to be!!! After the ordeal of the last two shipments, I was really beginning to wonder if these would ever be a surprise, or just a continuous nightmare of shipping delays and tiptoeing through the blogsphere to avoid sock spoilage. I saw a couple of postings on the Rockin' Sock Blog, but nothing that would raise my expectations.

And about this month's shipment? I really love it, and that's all I'm going to say. I'm not going to spoil it for anyone else. You can look here and here if you want to see, but I'm not posting anything in a blog post until all the shipments are out there.

But Punkin will see it this weekend. She'll probably try to covet it, I bet. Ain't happening.

Of course, she could just place another order with BMFA...

What a difference a little daylight makes

I'm only about 8 rows into the pattern, but I love how it looks. I also still can't get over the diagonal striping of the colors in the cuff!




And the best part about the yarn--I've got the formula for the dyes that I used, so I can replicate this! (And to answer Carole's question (from many weeks ago) as to how I applied the yarn--we used stencil brushes and pressed the dye into the yarn.)

...must knit more rows...

Knit-a-little, Tink-a-lot

I've been working on a new pair of socks using my handpainted yarn from Charlene Schurch's class at Webs last month. Punkin helped me pick out the pattern from More Sensational Knitted Socks. (Only fitting, since Charlene taught me how to handpaint, don't you think?)

Not much to see, huh? Well, if it hadn't been for all of the tinking (like, a quarter of it) there'd be more here. (My fault. It's lace. I'm new to lace. I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have...) I actually wound up tinking it back to the cuff after I took this picture, but this time I put a lifeline in and I think I'm going to put them in periodically throughout the leg until I get the hang of this lace thing.

Anyway, this is Scrolls (8-stitch pattern, balanced). I'll get a better picture of it in daylight and post soon. I promise.

Saturday Sky

It's been a while since I've posted any of these. These were taken this afternoon while driving from Chatham, New York, to Jacksonville, Vermont.

It's good to be back home in Vermont!

Blogline overload

You know what the flip side of blogger's block is? It's Bloglines block. Look at this list of blog postings that I need to get caught up on:

Claudia's Blog (25)
CrazyAuntPurl (30)
Dave Daniels Cabin Cove (32)
january one (34)
knit and tonic (22)
Lolly Knitting Around (27)
Mason-Dixon Knitting (34)
Now Norma Knits (10)
purlingswine (33)
Sandy's Knitting (29)
Too Much Wool (22)
The Tsarina Tsays... (21)
Yarn Harlot (28)

Yikes! That's a whole lot of postings to go through, especially when you realize that some of these posts tend to be on the long side. I feel bad, because these are blogs that I enjoy reading. But it's amazing how things tend to pile up when you don't attend to them regularly.


Anyway, my next step--to whittle away at the list. Catch up with these people that I love to visit online and have missed from my daily life.


No knitting pictures today. I've picked a pattern for my hand painted yarn and have started the cuff. I'm sure I have something in a few days.


For now, I'll leave you with a couple of garden pictures from the yard on Long Island.

Lousy reporters

The cannon situation is still going on, even though legislation was pass and has now been signed by Governor Douglas. Two weeks ago Jim got a call from a reporter for the New York Times. She had heard about the cannon and was working on a article about it. I was cautiously optimistic that this would be a great opportunity to really publisize the story. She conducted a phone interview with Jim and since then we've been waiting to hear when the story would run.

Well, it's in today's paper and I'm so angry and disappointed. She screwed up her facts. Totally. I was so upset this morning that I sent her a two and a half page letter detailing what she got wrong and what the actually facts are, which if she had bothered to spend some time researching and reading she could have figured out for herself. I even provided her with some documentation and she still got it wrong! What the f*ck?!?!?!?!?!?!? The articles that appeared in the Burlington Free Press and Rutland Herald were far superior in terms of accuracy and balance.

I feel awful about this. I expected better coverage. Hell, I expected her to DO.HER.JOB as a reporter. Unbelievable!!!

Throughout this whole ordeal I haven't said much of anything about this to many people at work, and I definitely didn't say anything prior to any of the other articles being published. This one I've been talking about a bit. Not a lot, but enough that now I'm going to have to explain what's wrong with it. And since a lot of people I work with read the Times--and this article appeared on page 26 of the main section of the paper and many people know that about me and Jim and the unit--I'm going to have even more explaining to do.

It sucks feeling like I have to defend myself--and Jim--against the Times. It's so unfair...

- - - - - - -

I really appreciate the support you guys have given me throughout this whole thing. Jess--I think I'm going to have to take you with me to kick some asses! Thank you for all of your kind comments, even though I've sucked at acknowledging them lately. (That's another thing on my mid-year's resolution list. I'm working on it.) Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

I've got a new attitude...

...or at least a new template. I still have to do some clean up in the sidebar, but this one definitely feels much better!

Coming back

I'm coming back to blogland. I'm now done with the other class, although it didn't end well for me. Long story, I'll explain in a few weeks, but I'm OK with it right now. Work has been really crazy busy the last few weeks and we've started working on son-of-the-book-that-shall-remain-nameless. (It's a quarter of the size of the other book, but only half the angst.) It seems like my nasty sinus infection has cleared up, but in it's place I've got a middle ear infection--and 10 more days of antibiotics. Geesh...

Anyway, as a mid-year's resolution (a New Year's Resolution that's six months late) I'm going to start blogging more frequently. I haven't set the goal yet, but I'm thinking at least a minimum of twice a week. Carole is so good about blogging during the work week, and if I could be just half as good as her I'd be thrilled. So there may be some lame posts, but I need to develop the discipline--and to write. And maybe a redesign. (I really need a different look for my blog.) So humor me, please, while I get my sh*t together here.

And now I present... blog pictures!

Here's the Yarn Harlot representing at the Calvin in Northampton. Seriously. She's inside there. I took this picture at 6:39 on May 20th. She was inside there. I was driving by. (Yeah, I know, I was heading south and had to be back on Long Island at a reasonable hour.)

I got the summer plantings taken care of over Memorial Day weekend...

Such a lovely stone wall, isn't it? Props to my beloved. His stone wall is the talk of the Mount Snow region. Seriously. I was with him at his doctor's office last week and somebody who works there came over to us to tell us how much they liked the wall. (What can I say--it's a small town!)

And last but not least, here's some knitting content. Presenting a swatch of my first handpaint!

I'm thrilled with it! I can't wait to bring it over to Punkin's so we can figure out what sock pattern I should use. Of course, I'm open to suggestions from everyone. Please?

And now on to something that's not law related...

Well, that's it for now. I have got to get some sleep. And maybe tomorrow there will be a little more blogging?