I've felt really low energy and resentful about almost everything since May, to the point where nothing much was getting done, other than what has to get done.  The 3 weeks of excessive heat before mid-July was a major cause, especially when we usually don't have that much heat all summer.  Smoky air from the fires around us activated my usually-controlled allergies which made breathing a real luxury.  The smoke also makes my eyes burn, and at the request of health agency officials we've also taken our exercise down a couple of notches.  

The past week and weekend were much cooler, weather-wise, and I amazed myself.  I accomplished things.  I worked on my to-do list (it's long, and unfinished still), I made food, I knitted.  It was wonderful. Cooler weather also means that the roses are blooming and the blooms aren't crisp within hours of opening.

First, the food.  I harvested mostly tomatoes this week, and there are a lot of them.  I gave up on the currant tomatoes about 1/2 way, but they'll get picked soon.

Clockwise, from the Panhandle:  Roma, Green Grape, Garden Peach, Donatella (just above Garden Peach) and Black Krim.  The Currant tomatoes are in the separate basket.  I'm getting this many tomatoes (some different varieties) every day!

We went to the Farmer's Market, to round out the veggies for the week, and bought some beautiful peaches, brussels sprouts, onions, lettuce and okra.  I took our purchases home, and started prepping for the week. 

I made coleslaw, sauerkraut salad and carrot-raisin-pineapple salad.  I made muffins for breakfast and cupcakes and chocolate zucchini cake for desserts.  I made fresh vegetable soup - sort of a minestrone without the pasta and beans - from the less than stellar vegetables bought at the previous  Farmer's Market.

It's wonderful.  All we have to do for dinner is cook the meat or meat-substitute, choose a salad or 2, and perhaps cook another veggie.  If it's hot, we're good to go with the grill.

Next, the to-do list.  Mine is long and involved and sometimes more of a wish list than a to-do list.

1. I finished the laundry, including the blanket and comforter which are now packed up until Autumn.
2. The ironing is done.  Complete.  Finis.  This is the first time since before Christmas 2006 that the ironing board has not been resident in the front room.  I also used the wonderful ironing board cover purchased at Stitches West, and it is as good as advertised.  (25 shirts, 8 pants, 6 skirts, 3 jackets!)
   
3. Bags of clothes and things for St. Vincent de Paul are now there, not in my front room.
4. The dining room table has been cleared off, the front dining room table has been cleared, and the great dining room table move will commence shortly.  I switched tables in March for Passover dinner.

The knitting continues.  I finished the first sock of a pair:

Monkey sock; yarn is OnLine Holiday, I think.  The second sock has been cast on and the first pattern repeat is complete.

There is other knitting.  I have a couple of "stealth" projects that are almost complete, and progress is being made on the projects started earlier this summer.  Of course, startitis continues, and a couple more projects have been started.  That's a good thing! 

2.  The garden continues to produce like mad, and now the tomatoes are joining the parade.  I've been getting tomatoes on the vine at the grocery, and they're good.  I had forgotten how good a tomato grown in your own yard, still warm from the sun and perfectly ripe tastes.  It's almost a different fruit entirely!

3.  Knitting continues, and so does startitis.  I'm enjoying it, and will forge on with the projects that hold my interest, if all of them don't.  No real downside, as all the yarn is from stash so far.  

4.  Finishing continues too.  Latest finished item is a pair - two, count 'em - of socks.  Nice to have new socks when Autumn finally arrives and brings cool nights and mornings.

The yarn is Ditto, in shades of warm browns and a bit of dark red, size 1 Crystal Palace bamboo needles, standard 3 x 1 rib.  The cuff is 8 inches long, the foot about 9 inches long, and there's lot of yarn left in each skein.

5.  A rant:  What has happened to Knitter's Magazine?  Why so many designs by the Knitter's Design Team?  Aren't other designers submitting good designs to them?  The last couple of issues have reminded me of the awful "created by loving hands at home" that so many crafts suffered from in the 60s and 70s, and not the artistic handcrafted look that's been the highlight of the past 15 or so years.

There's 1 design in the summer issue that I'm interested in knitting as is and perhaps a couple I might modify a bit (the Deborah Newton plaid sweater is fine, but should be longer and perhaps have long sleeves; ditto the Kahlo inspired sweater - it's quite cheerful but needs real sleeves) and that's the afghan knit of sock yarn.  I might even make that from stash if I have enough coordinating yarn, otherwise I see an order from KnitPicks, Herscher's, Webs or Elann in my future.

6.  Our air quality is just awful.  The photo on July 4 was the last time the sky was clear and blue; since then, the weather patterns have shifted and the smoke plume from fires north of us is keeping the sky gray and dull.  We've had spare the air warnings all week - 6 days this summer so far, and last summer we had only 2 all summer - and my allergies are majorly tweaked.

7.  It's hot.  Saturday and Sunday were in the mid-90s, but the nights cooled off and the fans cooled the house at night.  Monday it was 100*, Tuesday 102* and today it was 98*. At night the temperature drops to about 67*, much warmer than the average 55* or so.  The house is only cooling to about 74* each night, and that's with our double thick walls and extra ceiling insulation.   This is the third week of hot weather we've had since May, and I'm really getting tired of it. 

Aside from the spare the air days (on which we're asked not to drive and not to use charcoal in the barbie) we've also been flex alerted.  That means power use is near the maximum, and black-outs and brown-outs are possible.

8.  I'm grumpy - can you tell?  The heat, the allergies, the smoke...I'm so ready for the rainy season to arrive!  Last night after the sun set, I trimmed one geranium that had grown to gargantuan proportions.  It took less than 15 minutes and I was soaked with sweat.  Not my idea of fun.  The flowers are suffering, the cats are miserable in the afternoon, and I'm not sleeping well.   

9.  Good news:  there's a new fast food dining emporium in town, and it's good.  It deserves a better introduction than this grumpiness, so I'll post about it later in the week. 

And Dez, I have Plantation Cotton in deep coral that I'd be willing to trade for handspun.  Plantation Cotton does come up on eBay fairly often, and if the colors and quantities are right, it eventually arrives in my mail box.

Now for the Sock WIPs:

  I resisted the lure of the Monkey sock for as long as possible, but am really enjoying this pattern.  It's  not intuitive for me yet, but I can knit it without making errors while listening to music and even conversing a bit.  The yarn may not show the pattern off as well as it might, but I like it.

Standard sock - 2 x 2 rib for 12 rows, 3 x 1 rib until it's 6 or 7 inches long...the yarn is lovely, and I'll post a better photo soon.   This sock did docent duty with me, and is now much longer.

For the record, this is peach with dashes of coral and slate blue.  It's in the early stages of sockdom, and I don't yet know if the leg will be anything other than ribbing of some sort.  We'll see.

At the bottom there are Wildfoote Jaywalkers (2nd sock started) and Ditto standard ribbed socks (2nd sock almost to the heel).  The rest were started in a couple of sock-starting-frenzies:  there are 2 Socks That Rock (Red River Canyon and something else), some Opal handpaint (yes, it's the same colorway I traded to Fillyjonk a couple of years ago - I've  now bought this colorway 3 times so I must wants socks from it), Crystal Palace Maizy in Indian Corn, Opal Rosehips (I don't remember the German name), eBay hand-dye from (I think) Twinkletoes in Coffee, and something else in red, purple, orange and pink stripes.

The special added bonus to this review?  Now I know where 2 of my precious 3 8" metal circular needles have been hiding!  (No, I don't know who makes them or anything; I bought them at an estate sale inside a Denise needle set.)

I'm pretty much a weather wimp.  Temps between 50 and 68 make me happy, anything under 35 or over 75 makes me miserable and always has.  This would be wretched, except that tomorrow's high should be around 68.  Spring will be back and life will be good.

We went for a short bike ride this morning - about 4 miles round trip - just to "downtown" Niles for breakfast.  It was getting warm even then, but riding my new Townie bike was fun!  So was wearing my Fast Florida Footies, knit of Cascade Fixation, with my clear sneakers (bought several years ago at Payless)!

  I have a few colors of Crystal Palace Yarns "Maizy", a corn fiber and lycra yarn that I may use to knit more footies.  They're so practical and fun for summer wear.

* Lest you think I'm a whiner (which I may indeed be, where weather is concerned) the average summer high temperature in this part of the San Francisco East Bay is 78*.  We do get a week of so of really hot weather (high 90s and more) every year, but generally the SF fog keeps us cool.  Air conditioners and  refrigerated air are found in businesses, new homes and some homes that have been remodeled.  Not ours.

Joan and I bought sock yarn at Stitches West* and she thought she might knit socks for her husband.  I mentioned that Mr. Ken has not liked the socks I knitted for him, and prefers his cotton athletic socks.  That's when I remembered some of the other contents of the bag in the closet. 

  Ignore the purple Opal Magic socks - those were given to my mother-in-law and she loves them.   Focus instead on the Lorna's Laces Jeans socks, and the gray tweed Wildfoote Tomcat socks.

I made both pair for Mr.  Ken and he tried each pair on, thanked me and then suggested I wear them instead.  While Joan and I were talking I dug out the socks and suggested that Will might try these before she spent the time to knit him socks.

Will tried the Tomcat socks on, pronounced them perfect, and took both pair!

I'm thrilled that these socks will finally be worn, Will has warm feet, and Joan doesn't have to rush to knit wool socks for Will.  Ken is pleased that someone wanted them.  

And for once, I'm glad I procrastinated! 

*There are still 2 or 3 more Stitches West posts.   I'll try to finish them this week.

All this to herald the one measly Finished Object from October: a pair of socks that were started in June 2006.  They are wonderful and will be worn lots, mostly with jeans and clogs.

It seems I knitted a lot - and I did - but nothing was finished.  This is what happens when you are not monogamous with the knitting.  I have a back, right front and most of the left front done on Sensational Shirttail.  One sleeve is complete on the Debby Bliss Ribbed Sweater.  One Jaywalker sock is done, one Ditto sock is done.

There are 2 sweaters and a top that are knitted and need to be sewn up.  There's a tote to be felted and a rolled brim hat just waiting for an empty washing machine and some time.  

And just for the record, I hate going off Daylight Savings Time.   I like being on BART when the sun rises, and dislike being on BART when the sun sets.  Soon, it will be dark before I leave the office.  San Francisco is far enough north that it's dark before  4:30 in December.  I may change my BART evening arrival station; the one closest to home is used as a  hangout by a number of unsavory types in the evening, and why court a problem?  They're never out in the dark mornings!

I left the office before 11 this morning, and telecommuted the rest of the day.  I'm planning a large multi-year project and need to concentrate. The rest of the folks in my wing are in the final stages of testing a new product, and they are noisy!  Lots of talking over the tops of cubicles and calling someone to "look at this" and such.  I just shut down the laptop and it's 8 pm.  Oh well.  I worked 3 hours longer at home (and much more productively) than I would have in the office.

Sometime before the end of the weekend I have newly started projects, a finished pair of Waving Lace socks, progress on Sensational Shirttail, and a sit 'n' knit session on my patio to show you.  That post will be worth waiting for!

I’ve been at my new job for 4 months, and the front of the building has been obscured by scaffolding all the way to the roof.  Today I almost missed the front door because the scaffolding was removed overnight!  It’s actually quite a lovely building, but I wasn’t the only employee who was surprised.

Fillyjonk and Nanopants Dance have both talked about “stuff” and their feelings about it.  I’m so torn: we have too much stuff, and yet, most of it makes me happy and is used and useful.  We are decluttering – slowly – and find that we don’t miss the items we’ve recycled.  (We’re also very into reuse or recyling when ever possible.  Most of our unwanted stuff is offered free to anyone who can use it.)  Some things we’re keeping would certainly be considered frivolous: Waterford crystal, for example, but we do use the pieces and enjoy using it.  I even enjoy hand washing such beautiful pieces.  It seems there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to the “stuff” issue.

I keep an updated resume posted on a couple of national job boards just because.  One of the questions asked is: Are you willing to relocate?  My response is “no”.  So far this week I’ve gotten feelers from recruiters looking to fill positions in Houston, Baltimore, Chicago and Boston!

Knitting seems to be going slowly right now.  No large projects finished in months, stalled on lots of small projects.  Obviously it’s time to start something new!  (Actually, the 2^nd Waving Lace sock is one repeat from the toe decreases.  The pair was started in 2004, so I’m not setting any speed knitting records here.  And the denim waffle socks knit in yarn traded with Fillyjonk at least 2 years ago is coming along too.  The 2^nd sock leg is about ½ complete.)

Big thanks to everyone who emailed me that the scarf pattern I was thinking of for the Silk Garden yarn was Argosy from Knitty.  You are all absolutely right, that’s the one!

I made it all day today without the cane, so I must be on the mend.  My cloaking device was removed as well, and I became visible to people around me once again.

My officemate has dubbed me a “speed shopper”!  Today I walked just a bit over a mile from the office to Macy’s and back during lunch.  I also managed to find what I was looking for in the store and buy it, in 3 colors.  Total time away from my desk:  62 minutes!  (Confession time:  I never try on in the store because I hate the lighting.  That does make it easier to buy quickly.)

This is the sock I completed knitting over the weekend, and its mate (which has been complete for months) - and yes, I know the toe still needs to be done.  They are relatively boring, 3 x 1 ribbing over 64 stitches, eye of partridge heel largely lost in the colorway, which is an ancient one – quite possibly from my first ever shipment of Opal sometime in 2000.  (There's another sock with them: the first from a yarn called "Ditto" that my local yarn store carries.) 

Although they were rather boring to knit, every time I KIPped on them I got comments and compliments.  The colors are subtle, but just about every color is represented, and I suspect they’ll be worn a lot because they’ll blend so well.

This is the KnitPicks entrelac tote (done in various stash yarns, only 1 of which is KnitPicks) in its unfelted state.  It’s huge!  I love the colors and the entrelac. I’ve tried and tried, and the 10-stitch i-cord just isn’t doing it for me, so I’m going to look for a suede or leather strip, or perhaps handbag handles of some sort, instead.  It does remind me of the bags I bought in Kenya, and those have leather straps.  Of course, first it must be felted, which may not happen for a couple of weeks.

  That's a standard-sized paperback for scale!

Here’s the in-progress back of Sensational Shirttail.  I love this yarn and the pattern, which looks much more difficult than it is.   At least, once the shirttail increases are done, that is!  Those gave me such fits and I couldn’t make the ones in the pattern look decent, much less good, so I used the invisible lifted increases instead, and I’m happy with the results.

New yarn was purchased, and photos of new yarn are coming soon.

So I pulled out a sock, which just happened to be the 2^nd sock in the Waving Lace pattern from Interweave Knits around 3 years ago.  I love this pattern, but it has given me nothing but trouble since day 1.  It took me forever to think the pattern was memorized – all the way through the first sock, and 2 repeats into the second – and then proved me wrong when I had to rip out the second sock 3 times.  It became a frustrating and humbling experience.

Anyway, when I pulled it out, I realized that the copy of the charts for the lace was apparently in my big knitting bag, because it certainly wasn’t in the Ziploc bag in my briefcase. 

Drat! 

I decided to be brave, tempt fate, and do the last 6 rows of the leg from memory.

It worked!  I did it!

My memory finally worked, the leg is now finished, and I started the heel on the ride home!  I’m not going to promise that these socks will be removed from the UFO list in July, but that’s a possibility.  (Now that the pattern is finally memorized, it’s time to use it in something else so it becomes imprinted on my brain. Perhaps gloves, a hat, a cardigan sweater knit in the round and steeked might do?  Maybe another pair of socks?)

Speaking of Knitting From Stash in 2007, this is the most fun ever for me with knitting.  It's oddly freeing to find a new pattern and know that I probably have yarn in stash with which to knit, and trusting myself and my knitting ability to make changes to the pattern, when necessary, to accomodate stash yarn.

My newest project on the needles is my take on Kenobi, from Knit1.  Not having the right alpaca yarn, nor enough of the alpaca yarn I do have, I was inspired to use a well-aged wool which really showcases (I think) the wide variety of knit and purl patterns used.

The yarn is Crystal Palace Carnival, which I love.  (That's good because I have more of it in other colors, and a Ribbing Is No Yoke sweater already knit of it.)  The color, at least on my monitor, is pretty true - a lovely pastel peach which really makes the patterns visible.  I've modified the length - 14.5 inches before the armhole decreases rather than 19 - because I'm short, because I know what length is most flattering on me, and because I have 10 skeins of yarn - 1110 yards.  I'm just getting ready to start the 3rd on the back, so I think I'm doing fine.  The sleeves will also be several inches shorter.  I've ripped this project once, when I had about 4" knit, because it was going to be too big.  It's been reknit in the 2nd size.

Multicolore has been steeked!  I was convinced by Nancy and others at the Tuesday knitters that I'd never be able to wear Multicolore in this climate as a pullover, so it's becoming a cardigan.  I've started the buttonhole band, but will need to rip and redo the button band, picking up fewer stitches.

This is my first steek, and I'm rather marveling at the fact that it works.

Finally, progress is being made (really) on the Waving Lace socks from Interweave Knits, Spring 2004 issue.  I've been working on them since the issue came out, and have had to rip the 2nd sock at least 3 times.  That pile of yarn is what remains of the last great rip out.  I did manage 4 rows without an error on Sunday, so there's hope!

And I have F'd some O's!

These are some of the fingerless mitts I've made.  The red ones are Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals in New England Fall, with a strand of some fingering-ish weight unidentified stash red wool.  The greenish ones (actually yellow) are a strand of yellow fingering Frog Tree alpaca and a strand of  Horstia Tweed. Both pair (and a couple more pair that I gave away) are from Wendy's free pattern.  The camel-y ones are, of course, a variation of Fetching from Knitty .  I didn't like the length or the way the cute edging curled, so I ripped it out and added ribbing.  The yarn is KnitPicks baby alpaca in Harvest Peach.  What a dream to knit - so soft and lush!  All mitt yarn is from stash, and there's more where these came from!

Just a note about our strange and wonderful weather.  Last week it was warm and beautiful - like Spring. It rained buckets yesterday, today it's cloudy and the wind is blowing!  We have gusts up to 40 mph, and that's always a worry: we have an old and large Eucalypus tree that loves to shed branches when the wind blows.  The last branch it shed was almost 10" in diameter; thank goodness it's at the back of the yard and not close to any houses.