UFO no more

(If you did a search on UFOs and think aliens are here - hit your back button, no aliens here - just crazy knitters)

There are many philosophies on unfinished knitting projects (UFOs).
Some people believe they should only knit one thing at a time and even when it gets boring - knit on to the finish.
Some people say as soon as you get bored or don't like it - rip it.
Some have "billions and billions" of projects going because they like to start new things or like to have different projects for all circumstances. Sitting alone - knit something complicated that takes great concentration. Knitting around others - pick something easy that is automatic to work on. Other circumstances equal other knitting projects.

I tend to fall solidly in the "whatever floats your boat" category. Sometimes I'll start multiple projects and end up with way too many things in progress. Sometimes I get very loyal and work only on one projects. This attitude varies with the seasons or moon phases or something I haven't' quite figured out. Then there's the projects like linger. I've been known to let things sit around the house "for a while" until I actually finish it.

Last year I pulled out a cotton vest I started in the 80s. Yes, the 1980s as in 25-30 years ago. I finished the vest and have worn it (and gotten compliments) several times. I also finished a Christmas socking started around the same time. It was donated to a charity for a silent auction.

This year I pulled out a sweater I started in 2003. I wanted a sloppy sweatshirt kind of sweater that I could throw on and bum around in. It's big and bulky and when I decided to finish it I was stunned at what little needed to be done.





This sweater is from the Knitters magazine issue #72 - Fall 2003. It's a Kathy Zimmerman cable sweater called Soft Shoulders. The shoulders are a clever saddle shoulder where the cable that runs up the sleeve then splits and goes on either side on the neck opening. I decided on Woolease because it's a good price, has wool to give it life and can be thrown into the washer without worrying about it. Forest Green Heather is a nice deep color - not at all what the first pictures look like.

Somewhere around Fall 2007 I had the back and half the front finished and pulled it out to knit some more. The front was completed and it was put away for a while.

Last year I pulled it out again and decided to start the sleeves together to be sure they were the same size. More knitting and it was put away. This year I pulled it out again to finish and discovered I had about 4 inches of the saddle shoulders left to knit, the collar, and then sew it all together. That was it. I had let this sweater sit around for over a year with less than 4 hours of work to do.

Yesterday & today I pulled it out one final time.
I knit. I sewed. I finished.
It's everything I wanted - big and sloppy and very sweatshirt like. Something I can throw on to run to the store to a friend's house. It will be well used.

My name is Jill and I'm a computer addict.

Thursday night while on my computer it froze. Nothing worked not even Ctrl-Atl-Del. So I had to do a hard shut down. When I tried to turn it back on I got an error message. After lots of checking memory, recovery checks, etc. I discovered I no longer have an OS partition. ARGH!

Much more checking and moments of sadness and going to the Geek Squad gave me my answer but not the one I wanted. I needed to get a recovery disk from HP. Wouldn't it be nice if they still gave you these disks at time of purchase like the old days. So - I contacted HP and will get the proper disk (I hope) Wednesday. I was looking at way too many days without a computer and I'm on vacation this week so I decided to get my old laptop functional to get me through.

This computer is OK, it gets me on the Internet but the Internet programs are older and I can't update them because it's a work computer and I don't have admin rights. It's great to be able to at least check email and get on Ravelry, etc but I feel like I'm in a hotel with a crummy mattress. You know that feeling where it's just not home, it's not your comfortable mattress you're used to. My fingers automatically go to the place where "enter" should be on my computer and it's the "shift" key. I go to Favorites and my links aren't here. I play a couple games on Facebook and this computer won't open some of them up because the Flash version is too old. How did we get so dependent on computers!?!

So until Wednesday my computer life will feel like it's staying at a slightly older hotel without the latest and greatest but I will be glad it's not "homeless".

I'm not going to try and get any pictures posted with this computer because it's just not made for pictures and "home" computing things.

I LIKE My Doctor!

As you may recall, I had multiple things done to my foot Jan 4th. Surgery that "forced" me to hang out at home for a month. This past month was a return to work but with limited walking and lifting to let the tendon re-attach to my heel and my toes to get back to normal.

The normal healing time is 4 weeks no weight bearing and 4 weeks with an air cast. Then up to 4 months more of getting your foot back to normal as far as walking without a limp, incision scars healed without "shrinking" to cause toes to be malformed, etc.

Well, yesterday was my latest check up with Dr Cute Eyes. Did I mention he has the greatest eyes. I'm an eye person. Anyway -

Two weeks into this whole thing he was so impressed with my healing powers that he lessened the no weight bearing by a week and let me try walking a very little bit after week 3. My check up a month ago he declared I was healing "spooky fast" and I could try a loose shoe the beginning of this week instead of waiting for normal time period.

Yesterday he looked at my foot and chuckled that I was healing "wicked good". Doesn't know what I'm doing to make this go so fast but - keep it up and if I figure out what I did I should bottle it. You have to love a doctor that calls you spooky fast (in a good way) and wicked good!

I've been wearing an old loose Velcro strap sandal this week with a major limp and soreness but - no more air cast and that's just fine with me. My heel is healing!


How about a quick game of where's Bert. We haven't played that for a while.
I came home earlier this week and was greeted by Chief but no Bert. I called him, Nada.
After searching his usual hiding places I noticed something wrong in the living room....

Guess he wanted to take a nap with Sam the Ram.

Ensign Ricky & Magazine Reviews

Some days I feel like Ensign Ricky - Some days I feel like Mr. Spock.
The way things are being managed at work this month is highly illogical (it's end of the work year craziness) and I know it will get better and I know I'm not going anywhere but my sanity may be expendable. Time will tell.

To deal with the month from "you know where" I decided to treat myself to a few new knitting magazines. Some people drink. Some people take drugs. I do knitting.

Interweave Press has come out with a new magazine without a date on it so I'm thinking it's a one time special issue. Maybe it will be popular enough to do once a year.


Knitting Traditions
As the cover says there are socks, socks and more socks but not the usual we see today. These socks are Turkish knitting stockings (cover pic), Bulgarian stockings, Ellis Island socks, socks two at once knit inside each other and more.

There's baby patterns from the past, knit figures from Peru around the time of Christ, gloves from the 1600s and 1800s, shawls from cultures big into lace, the Wild Apple Bohus sweater, and so much more.

When I first got the email blast from Interweave saying this was coming out I got excited. I like tradition. I like knowing how things we have today came into being. This magazine is a bit pricey ($15) but for me it's well worth it.


The Knitter
This is one of my regular magazine purchases. It's glossy paper makes the pictures stand out and make it something worth keeping. The patterns are some new - some from other sources. This works for me because some of the patterns in past issues are ones I was interested on but didn't want to buy the entire book they came from.

This month (issue 14) just came out for America as we're usually a month behind the UK in these magazines. The main focus is Designs for men but as you can see from the cover the patterns can be guys or gals. Kaffee Fassett has a vest sweater combination called Rochester which is done in his usual colorful manner. A few of the sweaters take cables in new directions. One sweater has the normal columns of cables but then takes another set of cables and cross hatches the entire sweater. The combination of the two cables group mingling with each other creates an interesting optical illusion.

For me this magazine is a good resource item. I read, look, enjoy and add it to the library I've created knowing I'll be pulling them out for years to come to get inspiration.


Simply Knitting - issue 63
I like this magazine. It's another UK magazine and for me, it's my "everyday lady" magazine. It doesn't think it's better than the rest, it's just for everyone to enjoy. Each month Alan Dart has a knit toy. This month is a pair of french doll (Pierrot & Pierrette). There's socks, quick knit gifts, sweaters, yarn reviews. Unfortunately because we get it a month late there are Valentine ideas that will have to wait until next year to try.

Every month there is a gift included with the magazine. I look forward to these gifts and have made great use out of many of them. Over the past few years I gotten diaries for the new year, a cute sheep measuring tape, a small project sack that goes with me often, wooden shawl pins and much more. This month should have been another tape measure but for some reason when I went in to get the magazine there was no plastic bag around any of them. No free gift even though the first page says there should be one. I hope this doesn't mean America is going to miss out on the gifts. That would make me sad.

All's Well That Ends Well

Back in Shakespeare's day the part of the lady was played by boys. Women were not allowed to act until Gwyneth Paltrow decided she wanted to act because she fell in love with Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love - 1998). But that's another story.

Today in our production of Romeo and Juliet the part of Juliet will be played by none other than Bert.

All good actors have their own dresser. Bert is no different. Chief works endless grooming Bert in preparation for the part.
And grooms - and grooms.


Finally Bert's prep is completed by Chief and Bert is ready for his close up.

The crowd anxiously awaits the beginning of the play and they are especially looking forward to the balcony scene.

"Romeo, Romeo, where are you, Chief?" - Bert

"Oh how embarrassing! I can't believe I blew my line!" - Bert

Well - it looks like Bert won't be pursuing the acting career much longer. This Comedy of Errors is over and it appears to have been Much Ado about Nothing. Measure for Measure this may have been a poor Winter's Tale but I'll end here - As you Like it.

Morgan's Hat

First some quick business -
1. I've been getting comments in Japanese that when I translate them are obviously not anything having to do with the blog. So I turned on the comment moderator for a while till the Japanese comments quit showing up.
2. No. I don't read Japanese. I used an online translator.

One thing that happens on Ravelry is amazing. We all join some forums (or a lot of forums) and end up making friendships with people from all over that we would never meet in a million years. I hang out in the She-Knits Podcast forum where we have daily Small Talk and a core group of us have developed a very tight bond. Many of us have met in person. Many have brought their friendships to personal emails and trading yarn & gifts. Most important, when someone in the group has a need we're all there for that person. This group kept me sane while recovering from the foot surgery last month.

Little side bar - today was my first day of work and my foot is pooped! I walked a bit more than I should have and need to be more careful the next few days while getting back to "normal".

Back to the group - one of the ladies in the group has a cute little daughter who has been dealing with problems requiring brain surgery way too frequently in her young life. She's headed for more surgery and will need to keep her head (incision site) covered while it heals so some of us from the group are making hats for Morgan.

I finished my hat tonight. It's made out of some KnitPicks Shine I had from last year when we made a group afghan. It's a nice soft cotton yarn so I hope it feels good on Morgan little head.
I only wish the camera colors were a little closer to the real colors. The main color is called Bachelor Button.

Her Mom says she's not too girlie and likes socks froma web site that had some funky graphic designs so I hope the combination of just a little lace and some some graphics will make her happy.

Cat in the Cube

This isn't a very exciting post but I was so amused at what happened Sunday I had to take some pictures and post about it.

Saturday I went out to dinner with a couple friends and - boy, did it feel good to get out into the real world again! Afterward I went over to the store to get some cat food and saw some cloth cubes on sale. I've always wanted to try them out for yarn storage so I got one thinking if it works I'll get some more.

Sunday, I pulled out the cube, made it and set it on the floor while I got some yarn to fill it with. When I turned around I found the cube had been repurposed.

If I stand in this box do I look more handsome? - Chief

I waited a little while thinking Chief would get tired of it and I could fill it with yarn. Chief left the cube about 20 minutes later after just sitting there staring into space (what an exciting life he leads).

Next commercial I got up a bit too late to fill it and had to wait again.

I don't see what is so exciting about this but if Chief likes it- it must be good cause my big brother is very smart and very handsome and I must do everything he does cause I'm the little brother and I love my big brother and he's just so cool... - Bert

Well - wait a bit more.
Back to Chief who decided to take a one hour nap in the cube. Then Bert decided - time to play.

I don't plan on attacking Chief. Really I don't. - Bert

Bert seemed happy enough. Chief would hide in the cube until Bert's paw would sneak over the edge and then he'd strike. This game went on for almost an hour.

Just gotta get myself into the right position, then I'll bounce! - Bert

Do you REALLY think I'm not watching you little boy!? - Chief

Who knew buying a $5 cloth cube would entertain the boys for 3 hours straight! Maybe they need to repackage them and sell the cubes to twice as much money as a designer cat toy.