yarn, ike, ninja cats, and other mutterings

Yes, Sue, it's been 10 days, but I've had bits and pieces in here since the 17th...just haven't had time to compose the post.

So. Yarn, news, stuff, Ike! Yikes.

Let's get the yarn out of the way - now, I didn't buy all of this at once. Some was from Weaving Department, the rest from Hancock Fabrics:

• 1 50g ball Trendsetter Yarns "Aura Antique" (100% nylon) in colorway #3001 Animal Print (green, brown, dark antique gold, antique silver, glitter)
• 1 50g ball Trendsetter Yarns "Aura" (100% nylon) in colorway #7503 Plum (dark hot pink)
• 1 100g ball Noro "Kureyon Sock" (70% wool, 30% nylon) in colorway #S180 Wine (purples, cherry, aqua, orange)
• 3 50g balls Crystal Palace "Tingle" (100% polyester) in #A3127 Black/White Tweed (greys/white/blue)
• 1 50g ball Needful Yarns "Piccadilly" (54% nylon, 24% acrylic, 20% mohair, 2% lurex) in colorway #350 (white/black/gold, silver glitter)
• 2 50g balls Berroco "Crystal FX" (100% nylon) in #4710 Mica (silver and glitter)
• 2 50g balls Berroco "Crystal FX" (100% nylon) in #4706 Carbon (deep midnight blue and glitter)
• 1 100g skein Reynolds Yarn "Blizzard" superbulky (65% alpaca, 35% acrylic) in colorway #673 Camel (beige). Was used for the Small Cabled Purse designed by Susan.
• 1 3.5oz skein Premier Yarns "Angel Self Shading" (100% acrylic) in colorway #63-207 Baby Daisy (white, green, yellow twist)
• 1 3.5oz skein Premier Yarns "Angel Self Shading" (100% acrylic) in colorway #63-205 Blue River (teal, white, sky blue, aqua twist)
• 1 3.5oz skein Premier Yarns "Angel Self Shading" (100% acrylic) in colorway #63-202 Pink Dream (pink, white twist)
• 1 3.5oz skein Premier Yarns "Angel Self Shading" (100% acrylic) in colorway #63-201 Peach Candy (peach, purple, pink, white twist)
• 1 4oz skein Lion Brand "Baby Soft" (60% acrylic, 40% nylon) in colorway #217 Candy Print (white with pink, green, and yellow flecks)
• 2 50g skeins Lion Brand "Moonlight Mohair" (57% acrylic, 28% mohair, 9% cotton, 6% polyester metallic) in colorway Arctic Circle (white, grey, black, silver metallic)

The Baby Dream is already in use - as BSJ #5. Sigh. I don't know what's wrong with me...these little sweaters are addictive. Looks like Jen may be getting more than 1 baby sweater!

Weaving Dept had their Back-To-School Sale (ergo, me buying yarn) and I made the Small Cabled Purse out of the skein of Blizzard during the sale.

Finally, in Opal news, Nancy called the distributor to make sure that WB wasn't making them delay the HP yarn. The verdict? Opal is shipping the HP yarns as scheduled. Nancy told me she'd call me as soon as they were in! W00t! Can't wait!

A viral vid off YouTube this week:

Ninja Cat!

Mwhaa!

Pluto and I had an adventure this week. Okay, he had an adventure, and I was a wreck. Sunday night, Plu started acting as if he'd hurt something, not getting up when called, levering himself off the floor and gingerly sitting. First, I figured he was - well, not pottying. Nope. Everything that was going in was coming out as usual. The lethargy lasted all day Monday and into Tuesday. By lunchtime on Tuesday, I was very worried, and so made an appointment to see the vet early the next morning. So. We visit! Decided on x-ray to make sure he didn't break/fracture anything. Guess who had a bad reaction to the anesthetic? Sigh.

I missed the whole day on Wednesday, they didn't find anything, and he's back to normal. Meh.

The Cardinals aren't going to the playoffs, and color me shocked. They were officially eliminated during the 7th inning of tonight's game against the Diamondbacks (gasp, we won). The last 4 weeks have been abysmal, so I'm not the least bit surprised. Ah, well, there's next year.

At least the baseball guys aren't doing as badly as the football guys. i'm not sure the Rams are actually a pro team. We're 0-3 and let's go for 0-16! W00t! Bleh. It's so bad that Bulger has been benched - Green will start this weekend. We'll have to see how it goes.

On the other hand, the Missouri Tigers are ranked #6 in the country (down from #5 last week) and start conference play this weekend. Go Tigers!!! They're 4-0, and the Mizzou-Nebraska game will be on ESPN on Saturday. Football night!

I took some pics of the local damage caused by the 5 inches of rain we got in 3 hours last Sunday (Sept 14th). It was kind of strange, seeing preparations for the storm. I think the biggest thing were the boom cranes - I see 5 of them on the way to work every day (a pair at Edward Jones in Des Peres, another pair at St. John's Mercy at I-270 and I-64, and a single one at the Edward Jones project at Dorsett) and they were all pointed northeast. It was just really weird!! I put all my lawn furniture into the storage shed and made sure all the windows were closed and locked. When I went to bed at 3AM Sunday morning, the leading edge of the rain was about 20 miles away - but there was absolutely no wind here. It was very strange! I went to bed, and slept thru the whole thing. I woke up a little at 7 AM to the rain hitting the windows in my bedroom - which are under 4 foot deep eaves - and promptly rolled over and went back to sleep. Lindbergh flooded, the 24-hour Walgreens had several feet of water inside, the park across the creek was 4 FEET deep in water. Unbelievable. Locally, three people died; one was killed by a falling tree, and two others were swept away while trying to move their cars. The Pirate Fest was closed for the day due to the parking lot swamp. All in all, we fared a heck of a better than Texas, but Ike really walloped people as far north as Cleveland. Amazing. I took pictures of some of the mud left after the park drained, and you can go look at them here.

Lastly for today - but waay not least - D called to make sure that the tickets for Equus were for Friday because....drum roll...her mom is taking us to see Billy Elliott on Saturday! W00t!! Elton John songs! omg! I am SO looking forward to this trip, I can't tell you.

Now I just have to figure out how to cram 4 days worth of clothes into a 21" rolling carry-on. Yikes.

Cheers!!

hawks, jkr, yarn, and ike

I have a couple meanderings, so here goes.

I've been spotting what I figured out was a red-tailed hawk - perhaps two of them - in Maryland Heights and in Hazelwood. It might be the same one, since I'm not sure what the range usually is for one, and I saw them about 6 miles apart. The first time was on the way to work on the highway on Wednesday of last week - it was perched on the highway sign, and sat about 15-18 inches tall. Those signs are not small, and it didn't dwarf the bird! The second sighting was audible first - I was walking the pooch last Friday, and heard the cry. You know, that sound you hear when you're watching an old Western and they want to make sure you feel like you're watching the frontier or something. Anyway, the cry made me stop - it didn't register at first - and when I turned, the bird was on the peak of the roof over my townhouse. He was gone by the time I came back out with my camera. I saw it again yesterday on the way into work back in Maryland Heights, riding the thermals over the highway.

The red-tailed wasn't the only new bird I've seen lately - heard and saw an owl on Tuesday this week...my Hogwarts letter! Okay, maybe not. The knitters heard and maybe saw an owl (prob the same one) just after the Wednesday Night S&B session at WeavDept.

There was an announcement on Monday that a decision was reached in the JKR/WB vs RDR/SVA trial - JKR/WB won and you can read it here at the Boston Herald website. I'm glad. This means that WB won't go batsh*t over enforcing copyright the way that Paramount did a few years ago to their Star Trek fans. It was also a nice birthday present for Julia. ;)

Yes, I did buy lots of yarrrrnnnnn:

• 1 100g ball Fortissima Socka Mexico Country Color (75% superwash wool, 25% polyamide) in colorway #14 Serengeti (yellow, orange, green, brown, tan, rust, grey, black/white check) which is also here and here.
• 1 100g hank Misty Mountain Farm Blue Ridge Yarn "Jubilee" (100% superwash merino) in #22 Waterfall (deep blue to sky blue, grey). Ravenclaw colors!
• 1 100g ball Zitron "Trekking XXL" (75% superwash 25% polyamide) in colorway #145 (orange tweed). Also pictured here - I'm thinking the Autumn Lace socks for this yarn.
• 1 100g ball Noro "Kureyon Sock" (70% wool, 30% nylon) in colorway #S233 Deep Blues (grey, deep to sky blue). Also here. I found a nice scarf pattern online that used this yarn, so I'm torn. Scarf or socks??
• 1 3oz ball Yarn Bee "Intrigue" (57% polymide, 43% Lurex glitter) in colorway Bisque (bronze) to go with the midnight blue for a Ravenclaw scarf.
• 2 3.5oz balls Yarn Bee "Beguile" (100% acrylic) in colorway Aegean (cream, red, teal, lime).
• 2 3.5oz balls Yarn Bee "Whirligig" (100% acrylic) in colorway Regatta (white, yellow, royal blue, red) for another scarf.
• 1 4oz ball Baby Bee "Sweet Delight Baby" (60% acrylic/40% polymide) in colorway Sweet Mocha (pink, tan, cream, chocolate brown). Think Neopolitan ice cream. For another BSJ.

Newsflash! IHOP is taking over the world! Okay, maybe not. I love xkcd.

Speaking of BSJs, I finished the third one (!!) and started a fourth. Isn't it cute?? My dentist is going to be a grandfather again, so i'm making one for his new grandson. He's due September 24th, which happens to be my nephew's birthday! w00t!

I ran across this very helpful blog post by Kenny. His blog is The Boy Who Knits - Techniques: Baby Surprise Jacket Spreadsheet Revision 2 and that particular post has a wonderful line-by-line reference for the BSJ. Thanks, Kenny!!

I think that's all for me right now - we'll be getting ready to face the remains of Ike tomorrow (5-8 inches of rain. Yay.) and having a sale at the Weaving Department! The sale info is here! Come buy yarn so I won't. :)

Cheers!

ETA: Here's a pic of my Wollmeise. Yum!!!!!!!

wollmeise, fanfic, and equus

Whoops, been a few days here. Look! it's not 1 AM!

Let's see. I got my Wollmeise (!!), worked a lot, slept a little, and edited audio. Yeah, that about sum up my week!

Let's start with the goodies:

• 1 150g hank of Wollmeise "Sock" (100% superwash wool) in colorway Wilder Mohn (poppy red and pinks). The photo does not do it justice - the red is a deep, rich, almost lipstick red (think Elmo!) and I can't wait to knit it. Figuring out the pattern will be the tricky part!

That, dear readers, was the only yarn I've purchased lately. I've been good! (and now that I've said that, I'll probably buy more tomorrow.)

I've been working on the the BSJ for Jen - on the buttonhole band now. She's due in February, so I have lots and lots of time. The Giggles Ombre is BRIGHT! Woof. Lots of orange and green. I think I might put duckie buttons on it. Hmmm.

Gave Tam the Shadows shrug I finished about 2 years ago - finally got around to weaving in all the ends and washing it. The weather was cool for the first time in a long time yesterday, and so it was appropriate!

I've been reading fanfic (surprise!) and ran across one called the After the Flaw Sequence. It's by an guy named Kanedax, and the main list is on his LiveJournal here. I like it - it was on the 61 fic nomination list (!!) for PFW, and I hadn't read it, so I checked it out. It's a fill in for Deathly Hallows between the end of Chapter 36 and the Epilogue. Read it!

Speaking of fic noms - I know that there are like, tons of people who want to review the next Dangerverse book, but please. There are a lot of other stories out there that aren't Dangerverse, and we've already DONE the first story. Can we move on? *sigh*

I also discovered (thank you, Wayne and NotACat) that Yellow Submarine was also on ff.net and SIYE as Here Comes The Sun, and has more parts posted in those two locations than on LJ. Another good one, but contains implied sexual violence.

Equus opened last night on Broadway - this was the preview, official opening is on the 25th - and Leaky had a review posted in the comments of the announcement this morning. I thought it was interesting to read that the on-stage seating is actually 11 FEET above the stage, so as to get out of the actors' line of sight. Very cool. I'm still glad I got orchestra seating, though. One of the guys here at work still wants me to take a vid cam. *rolls eyes* As if.

I finally made myself sit down and edit more of AtE - the next 2.3 chapters are posted. I'm going to attempt to edit Ch 25 pt 2 today, but I'm not sure how far I'll get. It's one of those monster parts (54+ minutes raw) and so that should take a couple of hours. Posted length for AtE is 24:43:09!! I passed the 24 hour mark! W00t!

I need to record Ch 10 of Battle of Wills, too. Chapters 1-8 of that are here, and I'm waiting for Scott to finish editing Ch 9, since we're already reviewing it.

Nothing else going on - D and I have our plane tickets, and I'm now starting to figure out things to pack. We're not checking any bags, but I have liquid meds that I need to take with me, so I'll have to figure out how to re-package and label them. I can't take anything more than 3 fluid oz in carry-on luggage, and the bottle is a 16 oz. Maybe I'll call Walgreens and see what they have to say - it's a prescription, after all.

Back to work...Cheers!