It Was a Lovely Day

Until the motorcycle cop pulled me over for speeding.

The ticket I'm not arguing. I was speeding; that's the risk you run. But do they have to be such complete dicks?

First he yells at me because I pulled over to the side of the road rather than pulling into the driveway of the funeral home (bets on whether I'd have been resisting arrest if I'd done it the other way?). Then he scrutinizes my car, obviously desperate to ding me for as much as possible - he checked all my lights, which, thankfully, worked. He ran my license. Then he gave me another ticket for not being insured because I'd put the expired insurance card in my wallet and filed the new one, apparently. That one I can get rid of by paying an administrative fee and mailing proof of insurance. He was positively gleeful when he wrote it out, though.

So, yeah. A ticket and higher insurance rates isn't enough to ruin your day; you have to sit there and play nice with some sadistic, power-hungry fuckwit who wants to prove just how much control he has.

Off to Portland

With Jessica to see Ann and Kay.

Vaguely Sequiturial

See, Adam's been playing with this slinky, and I was trying to remember the slinky song, and then it all went downhill.

Calling All Yarn Hoarders

Time to put the power of the internet to work!

I'm making the Psychedelic Squares Afghan in Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, which means I need tiny bits of fifty bajillion colors. If you have any Cotton Fleece remnants sitting around that you don't know what to do with, leave me a comment and we'll figure something out.

For Erika

What sort of trackback voodoo are you working over there, woman? My site traffic just went through the roof! Not that anyone comments... Sniff, sniff. Don't mind me, I'll just sit here in the dark...

To all the new visitors, welcome! Take off your coats, stay a while. I really am about to update this thing in a big way (just as soon as I can find a toddler-free moment), but in the meantime, we here at Zeitgeist have several years worth of archives for your reading pleasure.

Public Service Announcement

If you have a cold and already can't breathe, watching Hotel Rwanda is a really, really bad idea.

Really, I Do Finish Things

The Steppe Sweater is done. I'd been putting off weaving in the ends because, hello, have you seen the Avalanche yarn? We're talking two stitches to the inch, here, people! I wasn't even sure it would fit through my darning needle. But the other night I sat myself down and did it. (Netflix helped - movie review to come when I finish processing it.)


Pattern: Steppe Sweater
Yarn: Dulaan Avalanche yarn from Ryan
Needles: US 10 KnitPicks Options
Notes: I found it really difficult to pick up stitches and work decreases with yarn this chunky. I had planned to do more striping in the sleeves, but found that having a color change round anywhere near a decrease round was too much to deal with. That said, it's a great pattern and a very quick knit, if not exactly portable. I got guage on my swatch with the tens, but the sweater came out a bit smaller than it ought to have. No matter; it will fit someone. I think the pattern could easily be adapted to a worsted weight yarn for a nice ski sweater, particularly if you added toggle buttons and loops at the neck opening.

The ladybug hat and its companion are done, and have been mailed off to Isabella. I hope she's not too big to wear the newborn cap already.

Two hats, all done

Newborn hat

Corrugated ribbing takes a very long time

Pattern: Fiber Trends Lovable Ladybug Hat; Seat-of-My-Pants-Different-Every-Time Baby Hat
Yarn: Classic Yarns' Cashsoft DK
Needles: US 5 KnitPicks Options; US 4 bamboo DPNs
Notes: I didn't love this pattern. I thought it used the hard way every single time when there were far simpler solutions. If I'd read it more carefully before I started, I could have made adjustments, but I was too eager to get started. Lesson learned, maybe. I also didn't love the yarn (I know, bitch, bitch, bitch, huh?) - it was very soft, but I think the microfiber dried my hands out if I knit with it for too long.

The Almanac baby sweater is all done but the seaming, and then it will be button-sewing time.

Three Syllables

Adam's latest words:

Quesadilla ('dilla)
Dinosaur (DYE-d-sowah*)

* That's one syllable, half a syllable, and a syllable and a half.
1 + .5 + 1.5 = 3

Sock Yarn That Rocks

Ever since I got the email from Blue Moon, I've been waiting on pins and needles for my sock club kit to arrive. This is my first year in the sock club, and I may be a bit over-eager, given that I have no idea when I'll have time to actually knit the socks.

Nonetheless, I did a little happy dance when I came home on Friday and found this on the porch:

Look! Sock yarn button! Sock yarn sticker! Sock yarn!

The colorway is Monsoon, and it captures the rainy season here in the PAcific Northwest perfectly. Everything is grey skies and evergreen trees (not that we'd have it any other way).


And looky! A tiny skein of emergency sock yarn (keys not included):


It's probably worth noting here that Matt looked up from his catnap while I was tearing into my package and said, "More yarn?" It's even possible that he conveyed, in those two words, an opinion about the size of my stash and my ability to ever finish knitting it. I did try to explain that it's sock yarn, and besides, it's an exclusive colorway unavailable to the rest of the world until next year, and besides, look, it came with stuff!

He was unmoved.

Muggle.

It Followed Me Home, Can I Keep It?

I hadn't planned to buy any Shetland wool:



Nor had I planned to buy a box of angora:


But what I really hadn't planned to do was buy an unprocessed Corriedale fleece:



I had so thoroughly not planned for it that I had to ask Jessica whether it was a good one; I'd never even done any research on choosing a fleece. I couldn't help it: I fell in love with the way the locks change from black to tan, and the way it smells sort of sheepy an citrusy at the same time.

I've been slowly washing locks here and there, experimenting with different ways to prepare them. I'll probably pick up a few different options for combing/carding while I'm at Woodland Woolworks this weekend. I suppose I should check out what these things cost before I commit to buying an array of them.

I was explaining to Matt last night the problem of having to lift the locks out of the water every time I need to change it, and how I was worried about felting them with too much handling, and he was able to design a fairly simple lift-out screen insert for the utility sink over dinner. He promised to help me build it; I hope he realizes that by "help,: I actually meant "you go into the garage where the tools live and bring me back an object of great use and beauty."

Fleece, Finally

Two weekends ago, I went with Jessica to a fleece sale on Whidbey Island. She, being a far more conscientious blogger than I, has already written about it, but here, finally, is my version.

The sale was held in a tiny house, which was overflowing with fiber and those who love it. I was afraid to move to fast, for fear of knocking an entire sheep over. (Those of you who know me in person can attest to the fact that I'm pretty justified in this.)

I didn't get too many shots of the sale itself, and I've decided to spare you my study of The Back of Someone's Head.

A mountain of fluff

The blanket that sold me on the angora

My utter lack of will power in the face of all this is the subject of another post, so let us now leave the tiny Room of Fluff and slosh through the rain to the Barn of Cuteness:


The poor sheepies are cold because I have purchased all of their wool

D'awww

More awww


The cute, it burns!

Mermaid

My little mermaid had her photo shoot in the lilac tree over the weekend:


This is a two-ply Colonial wool, dyed by Ruby's Daughter, in her Bluesy Purple colorway. I had the same problem with this yarn that I had with Carnevale; there are sections that barely seem plied at all, where the singles seem to just lay next to one another, but I have to ply it that loose to get them to balance. I assume I'm just not putting enough twist into the singles to start with.

I was also forced to admit that my bobbins are nowhere near four ounces. Mermaid is actually two skeins, because I filled my first bobbin to the point where my wheel refused to turn anymore, and still had about a third again left over. Yet another good reason to pick up a plying bobbin/flyer unit this weekend.

Simple Things: A Good Shabbos

Simple Things: A Riot of Color

In Praise of the Savory Breakfast Pastry

While I love a chocolate croissant as much as the next person, I'd like to put in a good word for the often-overlooked savory pastry. It provides a much-needed morning pick-me-up without the attendant sugar crash. Why do so few coffee shops stock them?

An Apology to Smarch

Reports from our Annie in the field suggest that this snow thing may not be as bad as previously indicated.