It is not all test knitting and snowflakes around here. Sometimes I do other stuff. Here’s what I did last week during my business trip (the bulk of it was done on the flight home); finally got around to blocking it this morning.
The pattern is Nymphalidea, and it’s knit with KnitPicks Chroma fingering. I love working with this yarn because it’s super soft, and it’s got the long color changes that are perfect for projects like this.
But yes, yes, you all come here for the snowflakes. So here’s todays.
It’s been a really long day and what with getting up early to go walking in the morning, and then work, followed almost immediately by long rehearsal, I am completely wiped out.
Do you know what is a really great way to relax and unwind after an extremely long and exhausting day?
Chasing the goddamn cat through the neighborhood at 10pm, that’s what. Do I even need to add that at 10pm, it’s dark out there. Very, very dark. And the aforementioned goddamn cat (Sherman, in case you hadn’t already guessed) is grey and blends easily into shadows.
Gah.
(Yes, I caught him. Little brat.)
Anyway. Here is today’s snowflake. It’s the best one yet, so far. Or maybe I’m just too tired to care.
Yesterday morning started far too early, what with getting up to meet my coworker in the hotel lobby so that we could go for a walk and try to churn through a couple thousand steps as a way to kick off the day. As predicted, the amount of coffee then required to make it through the day was very, very high. At the airport last night I got in another couple thousand steps, due to the fact that, having lots of time to spare, I decided to walk the very long hall between terminals instead of taking the shuttle, and also due to the insanity that was the security line. That’s an hour and a half I won’t ever get back. But hey, kudos to whoever coordinates the security checkpoint lines at the Atlanta airport – it had the feel of a Disney ride. You weave around for a bit and then you turn a corner and just when you think you might finally be getting close to the end, nope, there’s another forty five minutes of slowly zigzagging along.
And then I didn’t get home until around 11pm, by which point I was in no mental state to try to muddle through crochet directions, which is why there was no entry from yesterday, nor was there a snowflake. As penance, I ended up doing what would have been yesterday’s snowflake twice. The first time the center ring was much too loose, resulting in a sad, pathetic thing that did not look remotely snowflake-like. Technically I suppose I could have just passed it off anyway, (because if snowflake #2 is any indication, clearly my standards for these things are extremely low). Luckily the second time worked out much better.
I suppose I ought to note that I am actually doing the snowflakes in the order in which they appear in the book. So when I say this is snowflake #4, it actually was made using the pattern for snowflake #4. You know, in case anyone is reading this and is so inspired by my wobbly little sad excuses for snowflakes that they decide to rush right out and buy the book and play along.
As for snowflake #5, once I did #4 the second time, #5 was a piece of cake. It might not be obvious at first glance, but there are only a few very minor differences in the pattern between these two.
I rather like these two. Or at least, I like the fact that all the directions made sense and more importantly, they both turned out closer to what is pictured in the book than any of the previous ones have so far.
Here is today’s snowflake. Clearly it is obvious I am still struggling with the whole concept of crochet. It wasn’t until halfway through that I realized I was doing slip stitch instead of single crochet and there is a disturbing little lump where the whole thing joins in a circle and ends. But hey, what do you expect for someone working with what is basically thick thread, who also has to fight off a Rupert who is SURE that what I need more than anything is him to flop right onto the book where the pattern is, or else try to eat the string.
I thought maybe pinning it out might make things better but….ha. Clearly not. Ah well. They say no two snowflakes are alike, so surely among all the pretty ones there also have to be the rejects too.
December 31st is Richard’s birthday, and sometimes we will try to schedule a party or go do a thing, but here is where I freely admit that my very favorite way to usher in a New Year is at home in my pajamas, curled up on the couch with cats and a laptop and some ice cream, and luckily that is exactly what we did. Okay, technically we only made it to 11pm before we both gave up and went to bed, but 11pm in California means it’s midnight (or past) many other places so whee, that counts.
2015 was a pretty good year, overall. A lot happened, but here are some highlights. I did my very first 10K, which came complete with Nutella sandwiches and cake at all the rest stations, so if one is going to do a 10K, that’s really the best way to go on. I attended an amazing knitting retreat in Monterey with a good friend and learned some really awesome things about knitting sweaters (primarily – why it is I have never managed to knit a single sweater that actually fits me). For the third time in my life I submitted a knitted lace piece to a Fair (this year it was the California State Fair) and for the third time it won an award and was on display for everyone to see. My sisters and I took our annual Sisters Only weekend, this year going to San Diego, where, due to sleep deprivation and extreme giddiness, we ended up with a rather odd looking blue balloon cat we dubbed Caesar E. Purshing, who became our mascot for the entire trip. Richard and I went to WorldCon up in Spokane, where the smoke from the massive forest fires made things a little interesting, but where I also got to see Robert Silverberg and George R. R. Martin sit on a stage and talk about whatever they wanted, and it was a wonderful time.
Today is the day I have, for the past few years, posted a cheerful little tale, complete with pictures, for how we’ll be meeting our doom. Two years ago we were overrun with Daleks. Last year we were zapped by a shrink ray and trapped by the cats in a butterfly jar. This year – eh. I just couldn’t come up with anything, although admittedly I was pondering exactly how to work in a Meyer lemon tree taking over the world (our Meyer lemon tree is certainly trying its best). So instead I’ll point you to the end of October, when I posted about spiders. Lots and lots and lots of spiders. Because spiders trump Meyer lemons any day.
The last couple days have been busy – the house stuffed with family, presents exchanged, movies watched, far too many cookies consumed. At one point a majority of us had all downloaded a fun little game called Monument Valley to our various phones and tablets and were all playing it, with my niece going from person to person, helping us out when we got stuck. My brother-in-law got a theremin for Christmas and I was SO hoping that one of the cats would show some interest, because reasons, but alas, not a single cat even blinked an eye. Bah.
Last year I found some Christmas Crackers at the 50% off sales so everyone had one of those at Christmas dinner. Each one had a tiny little penguin that you wind up, so the dinner table was full of little penguins whirring around. By chance my brother-in-law discovered that if you angle the penguin just right, it’ll just go around and around a bowl until its spring runs down, at which point every single one of us (11 tiny penguins in all) wound up our penguins and had them racing around the bowl in a tiny penguin conga line and possibly there was a lot of very hysterical laughing going on. Possibly.
We also took part in our yearly tradition of dragging out various instruments (ability to play them, in tune or otherwise, not required) and worked our way through a series of Christmas carols. By the time we got to the last one in the book things weren’t so bad, but the first few – well, let’s just say that we’re a long way from Carnegie Hall and leave it at that.
My mom and my sisters and I all got up too early the day after Christmas to take part in the usual combat shopping (which isn’t so much combat anymore, but it’s still fun). This year we went to Pier One first, which turned out to be a good choice because we all found some really cute stuff, and then we went to Target, and then we introduced my mom and my little sister to the warm, gooey bliss that is Senorita Bread, before continuing on.
This morning I dropped my little sister and her family back off at the airport and hugged them goodbye. The house is empty now – the cats all creeping back out to investigate now that all the strangers are gone, and we’ve got a timer going off every 45 minutes, at which point either Richard or I goes downstairs to swap over a load of laundry from the slowly dwindling mountain. Later this evening we’ll head off to meet some friends for sushi, at which point we’ll have to be social again, but for now, we’re primarily just enjoying not having to speak at all. Holidays are fun and I loved having my family here, but now it’s time for these two introverts to recharge in preparation for reentry into the real world of work and chores and all fingers crossed, cats who aren’t trying to charge out the door at every possible moment.
*****
This is why I was soooo hoping one of the cats would have fun with the theremin. Sigh.
This morning things got really, really exciting. Sherman, who I have noted before is a very good escape artist, managed to slip outside and unlike every other time, he disappeared. Completely. To the point where we were all traipsing around the neighborhood, calling him (although why we thought that would do any good I haven’t a clue because he’s a *cat*) and peering into backyards and knocking on doors. By the fifteen minute mark I was starting to panic. Most of the rest of the family was due to arrive soon and there were some things that *had* to be done before they got there, so Richard left to go run the necessary errands while the rest of us tried to figure out where the heck a small grey brat of a cat would go to lurk. But then Richard came back home, far too quickly to have finished the errands, and sure enough, it was because he was delivering a not-at-all-sorry-for-what-he-did Sherman, who he caught an entire BLOCK away and had to drag out from under a car by his tail. Gah!
January’s high priority – figuring out a way to screen in the front porch in order to create a cat-proof airlock.
Anyway. Thankfully it was only fifteen minutes of panic instead of a lot longer. Once everyone else arrived, we divided up into teams and then, making VERY DAMN SURE that a certain fuzzbutt was nowhere near the door, we headed off to do the Urban Adventure Quest for downtown Sacramento.
This is something my sisters and I did when we were in San Diego this summer, and we had a lot of fun with it, so when I discovered they had one for Sacramento I thought hey, that’d be neat to do with the whole family. We did it in two teams 10 people was just going to be too many to try to corral, whereas five was a more manageable group, and this way there was also the tiny element of competition. We traipsed around the grounds of the Capital building (and found some stuff I didn’t know was there, so yay for learning new things about my own town) and then meandered down K Street mall, and for the first time I actually got a really good look at the in-construction new arena, and the quest ended in Old Sacramento. By the time we got to the end, we were pondering that it would have been a better idea to leave a car in Old Sac because it was a 2 1/2 mile trek back to where we’d parked, but hey, at least we all got our exercise in today, to make up for all the cookies we’ll be inhaling over the next few days.
Back to the house, we all collapsed for a bit, and then my little sister made massive quantities of royal icing and we all sat around the dining table and built gingerbread houses. Well, everyone else built gingerbread houses, but my niece and I built a gingerbread Tardis, which turned out surprisingly awesome.
Technically I am off work this entire week, except that yesterday I had a conference call and some stuff I had to send out, and some updates to do, and this morning I had another conference call and so on, but I made it very clear that after 10am, I was going to be out of reach. I suspect my inbox will be in a mild state of panic by the time I return, but oh well.
I picked up my little sister and her family at the airport this morning, by doing my usual double-loop around the airport, because ever since they put in the new parking garage and reconfigured the parking, I get confused every single time I go there. The signs do not help, as they point to the different terminals, and thus make it seem as if there is different parking for each terminal, when in reality there isn’t and would it kill them to put up a sign saying ALL parking?
Anyway. I am at least smart enough to give myself extra time for the inevitable ‘how do I get to the damn parking garage’ kerfluffle, and was there waiting for them at the bottom of the escalators as they came down to get their luggage. Then we headed home, after making a brief stop to get coffee for my sister (who likes a little blood in her caffeine system).
When we got home, my sister and I (okay, primarily it was her, while I occasionally handed her things and shooed the cats off the kitchen island, where technically they are allowed to be because we gave up years ago when it became clear that allowing them on the island meant they were less likely to then try to get onto the counters, except that they aren’t helpful when one is trying to roll out dough) made several batches of gingerbread while my brother-in-law cut templates out of cardboard and then cut out all the pieces. We also made chocolate crinkles and here is where I have to giggle because when I travel, I make sure to always bring yarn with me, while when she travels, apparently she likes to bring baking paraphernalia with her, like her favorite cookie scoop, and pastry bags and tips, and so on. I did manage to appall my sister (heh) by the fact that I only own one whisk (because most of the time I don’t ever need more than one at a time).
By the time Richard got home from work the house smelled delightfully of gingerbread and chocolate and yummy things. We ate lasagna for dinner stuffed with veggies, and ate cookies for dessert. Everyone camped out in the living room with the cats and various laptops and Kindles and so on and we chatted and laughed and oh, I wish they lived closer so we could do this more often. Sigh.
Last night, as we were working our way through the massive list of Stuff That Has To Be Done, I pulled out a new toy for the cats (well, by ‘new’ I mean I picked it up for half off last year during the after-Christmas sales and only yesterday remembered I had it).
This toy required some minor assembly. I especially love the back of the box, which includes this reminder.
I really want to know what happened that led the marketing department to insist that *that* be included on the outer packaging.
Next I had to assemble the box. It has a scratching pad for the base. You will notice Sherman is testing it out for me.
All assembled – a rare, cat-free shot. I especially like the little chimney at the top, which is large enough to reach a hand down inside to tickle an unsuspecting cat. Not that anyone in this house would do that (whistles innocently, looks around shiftily).
At this point I put it on the floor in the dining room. Two nanoseconds later, Sherman charged into the room and DOVE inside. The little toy that dangles from the front (although shortly before this it got smacked hard enough to flip up to the top) did garner some interest at first, but it’s attached rather loosely so I am figuring that is going to disappear pretty quickly. Mainly, though, Sherman just seemed to like curling up inside and hanging out.
That picture was taken shortly after I put it down on the floor. I figured, okay, he’d play and then the other cats would get a chance to check it out, and eventually, like with every other cardboard thing we give them, we’ll be picking bits of cardboard up off the floor. However, Sherman apparently fell head over heels in love with it, to the point where he actually stayed in there for *hours*. He only left the little house when I headed downstairs to go to bed (he and Ingrid are my constant under-cover bed buddies every night). And this morning, after all the cats followed me back up the stairs once I got up, he went right back into it, and has been camped out in there for the past hour. Clearly this was $5 well spent.
****
Here. I give you a teeny tiny video of Sherman playing in the box, shortly before he decided to just curl up and fall asleep in there. Please note presence of Nutmeg in her squishy heated bed, pointedly ignoring the entire thing.
Yesterday while I was off performing the last concert of the year, Richard was off picking up the packets, and outfits, for the annual Santa Run. I heard about it last year, and we actually did sign up, but then life got busy (as it often does) and we weren’t able to actually do it. So this year I was determined we were going to make it happen.
So we got up this morning, and after gulping down large amounts of coffee, we put on our Santa suits – or rather I put on mine (which was apparently meant to fit someone several feet taller than me – the pants came up nearly to my chin) and Richard simply slapped on the hat and the beard because he was worried he’d end up too hot in the rest. We managed to get there just in the nick of time, and it was nice to see there were just a few other similarly clad people also taking part.
It was quite a lot of fun to walk along the route, surrounded on all sides by people dressed like Santa (or in some cases, like elves or reindeer). People in passing cars were honking and waving, and as we came along the river, there were dozens of people out on boats, also dressed in Santa suits, waving and cheering us on. It was drizzling a bit, but the beauty of wearing a hat and Santa suit is that I couldn’t really feel the rain at all, and by the time we were done it had all but cleared up anyway. It was definitely a lot of fun and I’m really glad this year we were able to take part.
*****
Today I give you a handy recycling tip. Don’t throw out those old projector slides! Just find yourself some kittens and let the fun begin!
