Flutter, flutter, flutter

As I was walking to work Friday morning, I started thinking to mysef that I was going to have to start work on knitting a blue tank top. I mean, I didn't have any blue summer-weight shirts and I really should...

...and then I remembered Gigi. Oops! I figured this was a sign I should get working on her again, so I laid Hippo aside and did some stockinette. She's coming along, but I don't like the sleeves. they're a little drapy. I think I may just keep going and then graft the armpit a little tighter. Maybe Hol can give me some advice next week. As of right know I'm going to keep knitting around and around. After all, the only workout I'm getting these days is this exercise in futility.

Saturday morning I headed off to Knit Happens for the booksigning of Wendy's new book. Apparently she's already turned the corner on printing number 3 and is heading towards 4 in a fury. I couldn't be happier for her success. This has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I was dubbed an FOW yesterday. Do we get membership cards? Discounts at KH? These are the important things that I need to know. Not that bragging rights isn't enough, mind you. I still don't feel I'm quite worthy of FOW status. Perhaps AOW is more my speed. I'm in apprenticeship to an FOW...

Last night was a rather disappointing tie v. FC Dallas; that one point allowed KC to re-take over first in the east. With rain sweeping through N. Alabama, there's no 'Dega news to report. Slow sports weekend all around.

The best news of the weekend is that Brian got back from Iraq on Thursday. B isn't anyone particularly special in my life - aside from a debilitating day in Sacramento - but I'm just glad to have him home safe. I met up with him and a few other people last night after the game for drinks. My fears about him attempting to break me again proved to be unfounded as it took him a couple of minutes to realize I was even at the bar. I suppose the emergency tonsilectomy he was performing on Tipper rightfully took all of his attention. Regardless, he's going to go take care of some business, head back to California briefly then plans to be back in D.C. permanently in June.

Stick, you're going to have to come up for the welcome home party. I'm not going through that alone.

Such is the life and times of a social butterfly - well, at least, the last weekend in April.

Tink is a four-letter word

I have unknit the heel shaping of freakin' freakin' Hippo more times than I can conveniently count. I have to run a lifelline as soon as I get it stabiliized, but it's driving me bonkers. Although, I have to say I tried it on at work today and it felt like buttah. The next headache will surely be when I realize I don't have quite enough yarn to finish the second one. The question then becomes, would I rather frog the entire sock and take some length off the leg or spend $20 on another skein of CTH? That debate will have to wait for another day.

Here we have Hippo nestled with CIC's second place prize from Tuesday's trivia night (check out M's blog for details and sample questions). Patrick definitely loves us - that's really all I have to say on the matter. If only the tshirt weren't for Tanqueray. *shudder* Gin and I had a falling out in 1990 and I've never looked back.

I took a page out of Holly's book and moseyed on over to my neighborhood Borders on my way home from work today, and this is what I turned up - Wendy's book! It's there on the left next to a couple of books by Debbie something or another. I'll be heading over to KH for the book-signing on Saturday afternoon.

The countdown to Maryland Sheep and Wool is on. A bunch of folks are going to caravan up, but they're leaving pretty early and I don't think my ride will want to hit the road at that hour. I'm afraid they know something we don't know though. At the very least, hopefully they'll leave us some Cormo - if only so I can fondle some and see what's so great about it.

I think it's time to shelve Hippo for a while and work on Gigi. I need to do a little more so I can see if I have to frog her, too.

For you, Yvonne

I can't take full responsibility for the contents - I do live with 3 other people:

Ooooooo United!

Happy birthday, pop! Okay, now that that's out of the way...

Went on my first DC United roadtrip since MLS Cup 04 today. Headed up the Turnpike to the Meadowlands for the 2nd of 4 DC/Scum meetings. The weather was a miserable 50ish degrees and rainy. The Barra, La Norte and the SEs took up 3 busloads in the rain and we weren't disappointed. We took the lead right before the half and never looked back - the 4-1 victory helped us warm up on the way home.

There was one other thing that made the trip, the pending cold and the loss of a full day of knitting worthwhile:

Yes, that would be Jaime Moreno's jersey. Yes, I did have to fight off several people for it. Yes, I probablly only got it b/c Brian let go (thank you Brian). After 10 years, this is my first ever, game-worn jersey.

Of course, now after standing in the rain and cold for countless hours, I can feel a cold creeping on. I never said I was bright.

It's All About the Booty

Not Ch-booty (although I do love the Ch-booty). Actually, we can discuss the booty for just a minute. The Ch-part of this booty belongs to Chad Knaus, crew chief for Jimmie Johnson, my li'l ol' NASCAR driver. Folks love him, folks hate him - I don't really get involved in the pissing matches, I have better things to do with my life.

Anywho, Pammy is really the one responsible for us choosing Jimmie as our driver. They share a birthday, you see. It's astrology - we really can't battle the solar system on this one.

Anyway, the interest started with Jimmie; the addiction started with Chad. The brains of the operation who - honestly - does push the boundaries a smidge further than NASCAR officials would really care for, but he's good at what he does. And has a fine Levi's-clad backside.

On the other hand, cube booty is what originally lead to that title. In a feeble attempt to make my sock photography interesting, I bring you 'Still life with Hippo and Cube Booty'* The lovely cross stitch, which mysteriously appeared in my office after a week's vacation, as you can see, is graced with flags, fireworks, crosses and hearts. Not that I'm against any of these things - I'm even pro Liberty and Freedom - but this entire cross stitch is just HEINOUS. If anyone wants it, just let me know, I'm more than happy to mail it to you.

Other items in the cube booty bounty include:
- my soccer-playing Tillamook stress cow from Santofer
- my Madrid bear
- a moose (in a sweater with moose on it) that I think also came from Santofer
- my posable doll from the Bahamas
- a scarab (?) carving from my boss's trip to Egypt
- my good luck 3-legged pig from my trip to Martha's Vineyard
- picture of me and my futurebabydaddy Zach (you didn't think Holly was the only one who stalked sports figures, did you?); and
- last and certainly not least, this TERRIFYING teddy bear in a white lace dress with gold lamé wings that, when you squeeze it, says in this very Talkie Tina voice, "I'm your guardian angel. I'm your special friend." I'm terrified of it, but I'm afraid to throw it away because it will somehow come back and attack me in my sleep.

* weirdness in the picture of the cross stitch; I guess the camera picked up all the little grids. It's not too bad once you click on it.

All KALs, all the time

After much struggling with my conscience (not to mention the zipper on my work bag) I decided that Gigi was too big to be my commuter project and invited Hippo back along for the ride. Got a couple of rows done on the Metro this morning. I think that's realy going to be the way to go. I haven't progressed much forther on Hippo - just passed halfway through the second repeat. It is awfully purty though.

I'm the first to acknowledge that I need remedial blog photography lessons. Although spring in DC is lovely, we don't have any pretty tulips or daffodils or even azaleas in our yard. I can just imagine trying to imagine to my neighbors why I'm standing in the middle of their yard with my sock in their flowerbed.

As I mentioned, I'm plugging along on Gigi, as well. According to my calculations, I have 6 rounds to go before I'm done with this portion of the the program. I don't feel like I can try it on until after I have the sleeves done, so that will be a major turning point. Did my mods work or am I stuck frogging two balls of lovely Cascade Sierra. Only time will tell.

I finally got off my butt to sign up for the roadtrip to the Meadowlands this weekend. I think I'm going to end up on a different bus from the gang that I know, so I think I'm going to have to take along some knitting. Hippo would be more convenient but I really want to keep hacking away at Gigi.

Pub quiz update: After briefly holding on to the top spot, Clueless in Clarendon fell to 2nd place tonight. SO close! Damn those Beatles questions!!!

Law & Order: Special Stalkers Unit

Docket number 3711.8

Plaintiff: Poor little old lady
Defendant: Holly

The charge*: stalking, assault, petty larceny

See, Hol and I went to the Caps last home game of the season tonight and at the end, the players gave their game-worn jerseys to select members of the crowd. This cute little old lady got herbabydaddy's jersey, much to Hol's dismay. After whimpering about it for a while, we left the arena to Metro home. When we got off at Pentagon City, the woman with herbabydaddy's jersey was right in front of us.

Have you ever had to physically restrain a friend from mugging a little ol' lady for a sweaty jersey? No? Well, you haven't lived. For the record, the Caps won, 6-4.

The rest of my weekend was tame by comparison. DCU took on the Dynamo and won 2-0 (go team go) and brunch at Joan's was fun and tasty (mmmm, more monkey bread).

As far as knitting goes, I'm about 8 repeats into a 17-repeat section on Gigi. I don't think it really looks any different than the last round of photos, so I'll spare you. My plan is to finish this section of Gigi before I dig up Kitty Pi.

The bad news here at Chateau Garfield is that seem to have a new four-legged friend, and NOT the good variety. I was doing dishes the other day and came across some little mousey droppings. I think he's made a couple of forays into my room and THAT gave me creeps enough to keep me up until 5:00 a.m. the other day.

* No, Holly wasn't really charged with roughing up Granny. Yes, I did have to restrain her through the Pentagon City metro station and the first story of the mall.

Rotate!

Everytime I think of that word as an exclamation, it reminds me of taking volleyball in middle-school gym class.

Anyway, I haven't touched Kitty Pi since Steph left on Sunday. I talked to her last night and apparently she's already DONE with her knitting and tucking in her ends - I think this weekend will be her felting experience. GO STEPH!

For the last three days, I've really been working on my Hippo. Isn't he coming along nicely? I'm halfway through the second repeat on the leg and decided that was a good place to stop. Having frogged him once before, I think I have a better sense of how to handle the YOs, etc.

Today I set Hippo aside, and picked Gigi back up for a couple of rounds. I'm done with the lace section and have moved on to the increases for the bust. The Green Gables KAL isn't set to start until May 1, but a number of us have already cast on so they may push the start date up a week or so. I don't know that it matters too much for me. I'll end up frogging her and starting again so it's not a big deal to me.

I just can't figure a way to make the lace look nice to photograph. I don't think I made any monumental mistakes. Here's a detail of the shoulder:

Last but not least, last night I went to KH for the Mason-Dixon Knitting book launch. I largely went just for the heck of it (and the Yarn Harlot's post intrigued me) and I'm so glad I did. Kay and Ann were lovely and there are a number of patterns in their book that have me intrigued to say the least.

The next four days are all very whirlwindy for me: BBQ and late drinks with Claire and Liz tomorrow; DCU v. ickpoo Houston Saturday and Easter brunch and knitting Sunday. Thank goodness I'm taking tomorrow as a mental health day.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

My patented self-portrait double-chin. Ain't it a beaut? Steph and I were exploring the inner-workings of the fabulous MetroBus system, bouncing our way back into midtown from the zoo last week, on our way to Alexandria.

We did quite a bit of pondering on our level of girliness, or lack thereof. She's way better off than I am. Despite spending ten bucks on new lip goo, I just think that in my mid-thirties, I'm still a tomboy at heart. I'm so much more comfortable in khakis and a tee shirt and a baseball hat than I am in cute shoes and makeup. I need a girly intervention.

And, in another fit of bad bloggerdom, I realized that I didn't take a picture of the groovy thanks-for-letting-me-spend-the-night-at-your-place present she brought me. I've never delved into the whole clog-making world but I may have to give it a go. It's a couple of skeins of Cascade 220 in a snazzy rust color and a couple of skeins of Noro Kureyon. I've bundled it all up safely for later use.

As for active knitting, yesterday I got through the first repeat of the Hippos, did the needle shift as prescribed and started to work my way around. Then I looked down and saw something that no knitter wants to see: a loop. A loop seven rows down. Not attched to anything. I looped a stitch holder through it and patiently tinked back to fix it. Finally got everything back under control around 2 a.m. I lost a full day of knitting but at least I'm back on track.

Igor doesn't want to talk about it.

Tonight a handful of us girls checked out Pub Quiz night at the new neighborhood Irish bar. We didn't do particularly well, but I think we're going to try again. They have Boddington's on tap so I'm happy (fish & chips wasn't very good though).

Alone at last

That definitely isn't to say that I didn't enjoy my 4-day visit with Steph, I really really did. It's actually more a comment on the fact that all three of my roommates are vacationing in California for the next week and there's nothing more precious than alone time when you live with three other people. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not ensconced in my room, I'm just saying it's an option.

I took Friday off work and we headed to the National Zoo. Steph had never been and I hadn't been since new latest round of pandas. Tian Tian put on quite a performance, but we could never get a good view of Tai Shan. Here we have Mei Xiang (Mama) zonked out and Tai Shan doing something very important involving bamboo. Clearly we wouldn't understand.

It rained on and off all day, sometimes torrentially. We made a pretty thorough sweep. We checked out cheetahs (cubs and all), sloth bears, lions, tigers, seals and sea lions, gibbons, bald eagles, elephants, giraffes, and capybaras, to name a few.

After the zoo, we did a round of our friendly neighborhood yarn stores, got the goodies to start our personal Kitty Pi KAL and spent some quality time at Knit n' Nosh. Steph has definite LYS envy. And a little bit of public transportation, although I definitely could've stood to spend a little quality time in a car and out of the rain and wind this weekend.

At least Steph got to see DCU pull out a win despite the wind and rain. She's completely addicted to working on her catbed for Squeaker and Kasey (is it Kasey? Casey? KC? I've never been sure). The bed I'm making for Ms. Charlotte is coming along nicely, though I also finally got back to work on my Hippo socks. I kept twisting the cast on but finally I got to the point where I can start to see the pattern emerge.

So now I'm juggling Kitty Pi, Gigi and the Hippos. Of course it would make more sense to just concentrate on one of them, but that would make far too much sense and is clearly not part of my M.O. Tomorrow will be Hippo Day. I really need to make some progress. I'm getting more and more ashamed of myself as a KAL member and only having just cleared the cuff.

Devo's Got Nothin' on Me

When a problem comes along, you must rip it!
Rip it!
Rip it good!
Duh-nuh-nuh-nu'-nuh!

So, I'm sitting in my office getting ready to head out, and I printed out another copy of the Green Gables pattern to see if there was anyway at all I would be able to knit on it while at the free sneak preview of Lonesome Jim tonight. For some reason, I decided to actually READ the pattern this time around. As usual, nothing good ever comes of that.

What? No increases by my little green stitch marker? Oh, because it's in the middle of the back? Well, um, of course I wouldn't do 28 rounds of knitting putting an increase there - that would be ridiculous!

Um, excuse me, I just have to go check on some paint drying.

Frog...frog...frog...

*sigh*

Before and After

Before...

It's almost 2:00 p.m. EDT. Coverage just started for Martinsville but I have to leave the house in an hour and a half to head to RFK. Conflict at its finest.

Well, truth be told, it isn't MUCH of a conflict. It's the beginning of the 11th season of MLS and a DC United home opener, especially versus the archenemy, does take precedence over any televised race. Now, if it was up against me having tickets for Daytona or Charlotte or something...that's a whole other story.

Yesterday was spent on a whirlwind tour around Alexandria, visiting both S'water and KH. I don't even want to think about adding up the receipt totals. All I can say is I'd better get my refund check SOON! I cast on Green Gable this morning with Cascade Sierra in a blue-grey, and finally sucked up and got the Alpaca/Silk for the Somewhat Cowl, though it's somewhat further down on my list of projects to cast on. I also picked up smaller needles so I could get the Hippo-pomatomus socks on gauge.

I only just confessed this to myself yesterday, but I'm going to have to frog Thorn. All of it. It's just too stretchy. The vneck is just a smidge too stretchy. So since I have to pull it all out, I'm debating whether to make it sleeveless or not. I just don't know if I can bear to look at all that grass green again for a while.

...and After

Wow, we didn't play well at all. Managed to tie it up at 2 in the 2nd half and the game ended in a tie. There were a ton of Scum supporters that came down and good for them. We could get 1000 people to travel for free, too. It was great seeing Steph (and Jeff) today for the game. I don't know if Jeff had a good time or not; Steph is used to that kind of insanity. At the same time she's more than a little bitter about losing the Quakes to Houston. She'll still be around for Chivas next week, so she'll get to pack in a little more soccer into her spring.

Chimmie managed to hold on for third place at Martinsville and regained the point lead. I'll take it.

Still working on GG (henceforth known as Gigi), but I keep having to tink back in the lace section b/c I keep messing something up apparently. Math is hard.