Nature at Work

No, you are not lost in cyber-space. I was kicked off internet and phone service for an entire week by the avian vandal shown in the above photos. Can you see what he's done? He ripped the phone wires out of the junction box on the telephone pole in front of our house! It took 3 days for Verizon to respond to our request for a service call (our house is a dead-zone for cell phones, being we live in a valley so that was quite dangerous- no way to reach emergency services, if we needed any. Does Verizon care? Hah!). DH says the sparrow is telling the world what a great job he did. I'm inclined to agree.

My MIL passed away peacefully in her sleep at age 92. The vandalism happened while my husband was sitting shiva, that is, during the 7 day mourning period following a funeral as required by Jewish law. People too far to travel generally telephone to extend condolences.

While my husband was sitting shiva, I had to get the house ready for Passover sans help from DH, who switches the kitchen implements and puts the Passover supplies away the previous year. This year the D's and I (mostly I) did it. Leaving me to do the cooking solo. I cook nearly everything from scratch for Passover. OK, this year I wimped out and bought some cake mixes and prepared foods. And a kind neighbor brought us delicious cauliflower kugel, which is a kind of casserole.

My brother went into the hospital during Passover for fairly risky surgery to reinflate his lung and repair his paralyzed diaphragm. Thank G-d my brother's surgery went smoothly. According to his surgeon, he recovered full lung function, which is a perfect outcome. He told me he was feeling so poorly he did not want to wait for Passover to end before going in for surgery.

Right after Passover, I went down to Baltimore to give a lecture at the University of Maryland Dental School. It felt like being home. I wished I could have stayed longer. I brought back a souvenir to share with you: Natty Boh (the National Bohemian beer symbol) proposing to the Utz (potato chip) girl. You see this billboard next to Penn Station when you walk outside.



Instead of knitting this week, I made some more eye-candy. The turquoise is Sleeping Beauty turquoise from the famous Arizona mine, the center pearl is a really thick nacre coin pearl. I tried to give it an exotic south Asian look by using the vermeil Bali spacer beads.

Closing in on the Perp and Some Sad News

Seriously. All it took was much persistence on my part- many phone calls to my congressman, the police, the DA's office; sending certified letters describing the crime to various folk, including the CEO of Sprint; plus other activities too nerve-wracking to relive.
We have a name, an address, a phone number. An arrest warrant has been issued. I have asked for a firing squad but don't think my wish will be granted. Drat.

Sad news from both sides of the family. It seems my younger brother developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease due to misdiagnosis/mismanagement of pneumonia late last year. COPD is terminal. Would like to get my hands on the MD who handled him. He's now under the care of a competent pulmonologist at the best hospital in LA. If that weren't enough, my 92 year old MIL fell and broke her other hip (having broken 1 last year,less than a year ago). And refused treatment so was left in the ER for days whilst the MDs sought an override from my SIL, who is the only family member empowered to do so. DH is not empowered, nor his brother. SIL gave the override so that MIL could be treated. But MIL still developed a clot in her lung (pulmonary embolus) plus double pneumonia. She' responding to treatment and will be moved to a hospice when she's stable enough to be moved. What's really bothering me is that she mentioned to DH last year wanting to die rather than be treated for a broken hip again. I can't believe none of the 3 siblings is calling for a consult to be sure MIL is getting enough medicine, stimulation in her environment, activities,or whatever.

On the knitting front (you think I've have time for knitting with all this going on?) I am nearly done with the 1st sock, that would be the Baby's Breath sock, for D#1. Did I remember to photograph it when I had the camera out? Of course not.



OK, now feast your eyes on this creation I made for my assistant's mother on the occasion of her 80th birthday. I do have to change the earrings to a non-pierced style;the clips are on order as I write. The lovely center bead set was created by Gina De Stevens of GMD Lampwork. She makes such lovely floral beads (and others too but her floral ones are my favorites).

On the Crisis Gripping the Empire State

Normally I don't make political comments but I had to relate this one from DH on the scandal involving the Governor of New York so soon after a biggie gripped our own Garden State. Both involved governors who put themselves ahead of their sworn duties, to put it mildly. DH thinks there ought to be a game show called "My Governor's Stupider Than Your Governor." No telling who would win at this point, though for having been able to observe what went on in New Jersey, my money's on Spitzer.

I Wuz Robbed!

Seriously, on Friday I discovered that over $1000 was removed from my checking account as an electronic payment to Sprint- and I don't use Sprint. So now I am making like Sherlock Holmes, calling the FBI, my congressperson, and anyone else I can think of (local PD is already starting a report but they may not investigate, being just a small town PD with limited resources). Forget prosecution, I want BLOOD for this (sometimes). Now I'm worried that even though I'm closing my checking account to open a new one, the miscreant can still hack his (Sprint told me the money is going to someone with a male name) way into a new account. Now I'm even more worried that any check I mail might wind up not delivered by USPS by in the hands of such a miscreant, now matter what precautions I take. What a world we live in.



So back to knitting, and now you'll forgive me for not providing a more lovely picture of my lovely lupine socks from the Evelyn Clark pattern. What a fun knit. I really like Sundara Yarn sport merino and hope she finds another source of it soon. I have 1 more skein of it to work, in Shell over Cocoa Butter, yum!, then it's the sock yarn. Speaking of sock yarn, the Fyberspate green BFL yarn came and it is every bit as heavenly as I hoped it would be. Now I have to finish the Baby's Breath socks in Meilenweit for DD#1 before I start another sock. If you want to see the Baby's Breath pattern, visit Jeanie Townsend's blog, Just me Jeanie, link on the left. She has lots of nice sock patterns, some for sale, a lot for free.

And I took lace knitting up again, yes I did, to continue to work on the Hugs and Kisses scarf for DD#2. Who will be playing with the NYC Opera once again later this month, at Lincoln Center. The program will be "Tosca." The week before, she'll be in the pit orchestra of her local HS for their performances of "Caberet." I believe she'll be playing several instruments and trying not to blush when the emcee says "Even zee orchestra is beautiful."

Spring Will Spring and I'll Knit Socks, Part 2

In searching for a new sock pattern, I found out that Evelyn Clark, a designer whose socks I enjoy knitting so much, now has her own website. On which is this pattern called Twining Leaves Socks. This makes the third sock pattern with a leaf motif (of course I had to buy it) that will sit because I cannot find the right green sock yarn to use. Oh sure there's green sock yarn a-plenty out there. But my soul craves a yarn that won't bore me yet will stand up the the demands of a sock. Be variegated enough so I'll knit 2 of them but not too variegated that the pattern will be lost (Lilacs socks I made a while back come to mind). On a whim, I Googled for green handpainted sock yarn and found:



That's hand-painted Fyberspates Blue-Faced Leicester fingering/light sport weight, from Wales, UK no less. You can find it here. Just what I need, another sock yarn addiction.



Say hello to Belle in the foreground (yeah, say hello to Duke too, sulking there in the back). Belle is a baby cockatiel (to be accurate, she's a cinnamon pied pearl cockatiel and we are not entirely sure she's a she-but we're hopeful). We bought her just this Sunday, because DD#1's dear 14 year old cockatiel hen Scooter passed away last week. Fourteen is a respectable age and Scooter led a charmed life, having survived pneumonia twice and another respiratory infection. She'll be missed. Duke though stopped eating and was frantically looking for her. So as not to lose him (he's only about 8 1/2), we went and got Belle. When I say it's a zoo around here, I'm not joking.

If It's (Nearly) Spring, Do I Still Knit Socks?

If the yarn looks like this, of course! This is a special colorway that Sundara Yarn (link on left) is doing in honor of her second anniversary selling on line. It's called Tulip, and it sure reminds me of the Apricot Beauty tulips I have planted around my house.



So what luscious sock will it be? Open to suggestions; the delicate color begs for something with a lace stitch.



And this is the new Beaverslide Dry Good sock yarn which came today. The color is called "Whitetail Fawn" and it feels as good as it looks. Definitely it's meant for gansey socks.

Lupine is moving along; heel is turned and ready for gusset stitches to be picked up. Can't wait to wear them, I will post pictures! It's so good to be knitting again.

Guess who'll be playing at Lincoln Center with the New York City Opera again? Yup, DD#2 has been begged to return to play Tosca with them. Originally she thought she'd have to pass due to a prior musical commitment. But with a change of date on the part of the NYC Opera program, DD#2 is now free to play clarinet #1.

Teaching Knitting at a Non-Knitting Class

No, I didn't finish sock #2 yesterday while at the training session,only because I had to frog back to the beginning- 3 times! Twice because my stitch was wrong, once because a dropped stitch didn't make itself known until the maximum damage was done. *sigh* But I did make it to the heel flap in class. And while I was knitting before class, one of the trainers came by to see what i was doing."Oh I could never do that," she remarked. I am amazed at how many times I hear that exact phrase and I have to wonder why. Because once, everyone knitted. They had to. Sure, not everyone knitted with great attention, say finishing (me) or was a great designer (guilty again). But everyone can manipulate the needles to some extent, pretty much. Then as class was gathering, another woman came and sat near me. She was very intrigued. She had recently learned to knit but never saw circular needles. She also told me she forgot how to cast on, so I showed her the thumb cast-on, being limited to just my in-play ball of sock yarn. And we discussed great knitting books, essential knitting books, and where the good LYS are in our neighboring towns. While I showed her the cast-on she made sketches so she could do it later. She confessed to having a project stashed away because she had dropped stitches on it, yet her son pesters her to complete it, since it's a scarf for him. You can guess what kind of yarn she was using, sold to her at by the LYS,knowing she was just starting out. Yup, highly-textured novelty yarn. Now I have to ask, was the immediate profit on that expensive yarn worth so much more than selling the novice knitter a ball of inexpensive smooth worsted? In the first scenario, the project is now languishing in a closet. In the second, she'd be better able to see her work develop. I hope she takes my advice and buys a ball of smooth worsted-weight yarn and a stitch dictionary, and just makes a few swatches. We need all the new knitters we can create!