Kiss My Knits!

…but it finally caught up with us.

A while back, the local power company marked our persimmon tree to be cut down. We stalled them, but today is apparently The Day.

I love this tree. It’s very close to a major road, but there used to be a house where the road is now, and the tree was in that house’s front yard. Our side yard was a smaller road then. That was 30 years ago, but I still remember the way the place looked then, and our colorful neighbors. The man who lived there, a saxophonist who played in his wife’s jazz nightclub, built me a badly designed, garishly colored, well-loved sled. The house and sled were bulldozed, but the tree is a reminder of times gone by.

Deer come out of the woods and eat the fallen persimmons in the winter. Sometimes immigrants come and pick them when they’re ripe, although this is the native American variety of persimmon, not the Asian. And every year until very recently, 97-year-old Mrs. Alexander would gather some to make persimmon jam.

I spoke with the young man apparently in charge of the work and told him about the tree’s history. He listened with a furrowed brow and said that they weren’t planning on cutting very much of it, maybe twelve feet… well, maybe six. He seemed sympathetic, so maybe we’ll only be grazed by the bullet after all.

Me: Emily, if a stranger asks you to get into their car, what do you say?
Daughter: No!
My husband: What if they have candy? Do you get in their car then?
Daughter: No.
Me: What if they have Barbie toys? Do you get in the car?
Daughter: (pause)… Yes.
Hubby and Me: NO!

Well, intellectually I can see the slight humor, but as a parent it’s incredibly alarming. Clearly more work needs to be done.

ETA: On followup review, she’s answered no every time and volunteered “you NEVER do that!” Still more spot quizzes and instructions will be done on followup!

Slept in (yay!), mailed off two hats, helped Mom fix her internet issues. Okay, my husband did that, but I was watching, so I’m claiming it. Showed the blue Tyrathia scarf to Mom, who was gratifyingly impressed. Dad’s seen a picture and he’s pretty wowed too. I’m packaging it up to mail tonight.

Took photos of my beading supplies from my jewelry days as part of a possible trade, then realized I really, really need to sell some of that stuff or trade it or otherwise get use out of it. It’s high quality material. I may occasionally make earrings or some such, but not big pieces anymore.

Discussing Monkey Island and Grim Fandango made me look and see what other games were out there. Apparently the guy who did Grim Fandango did a game called Psychonauts last year. I’m snagging one for PS2 from eBay.

I draped my daughter’s little shoulder scarf over the rocking chair in her room yesterday. When she went to bed, it was still light (long Southern summer days) and so she got it and wore it while she slept. She kept it on, too, because when she staggered out of bed at midnight to go use the bathroom, she took it off, did her thing, then put it back on again to stagger back to bed. It warms my heart.

I’ve bought a 100g skein of Fortissima Colori sock yarn. It’s “disco” yarn, pink striped with a thin strand of tinsel-like silver wound throughout, though the sparkles don’t show up in the pic. I think it’ll make nice socks for my girl.

Tonight, I’m watching one of my favorite movies, L.A. Story and relaxing a bit.

Next up: Dragonrealms-wise, update some references and the weddings rare material list, place some Real Gems. Knitting-wise, hat on the needles for Illinois, then next are New Hampshire, Indiana, and Norway. Skål!

I decided to let the scarf sit overnight on the blocking board, just to be sure it was very dry. Making that decision stopped me from touching it every hour going, “is it dry yet? Is it dry yet?” Truth to tell, it probably dried in about ten hours. At least, that’s when the blocking board started to curve.

Why? Cheap board material? It got wet and bowed? The scarf shrunk from drying and the tension pulled it in? Eh, whatever, it didn’t hurt my scarf, so fine with me.

I put my “peppy” mix on iTunes and started removing the pins, expecting it to pull back in on itself some. It didn’t. At all. This stuff is very inelastic. Fortunately, that’s all to the good with lace. This stuff drapes great. Very elegant.

Pattern:
Fern lace wrap from The Little Box of Scarves (note, check for errata on website. There’s just a minor wording revision on this, but it’s always a good idea.
Needles: US 6
Cast on 39 as opposed to 59 pictured on front of pattern.
The yarn is kind of a mystery yarn. It was bought in St. Louis on sale, and looks like bamboo, although the label says soysilk. It’s not a current label, though. Do I have super-secret prototype yarn?
front
back

I’ll be rolling this and the previous post into one gigantic blocking post in later.

I’m sending this to Tyrathia tomorrow. I showed her the pics and she was extra happy! But today, I’m taking it nonchalantly around to my local yarn stores. “Oh, this old thing?”

Eh, who am I kidding? I’m going to be beaming with pride too hard to act anything but giddy.

Happy dance! Happy happy happy dance!

I’m pleased with the outcome of my daughter’s IEP meeting. We’re all on the same page, and clearly all committed to helping my daughter.

Usual mild headache associated with these meetings, but nothing major. I’m feeling good!

I had hoped to begin blocking Tyrathia’s scarf last night, but realized I still had some prep work to do.
Details on my foray into blocking below cut!

Yesterday and today I took a little extra care with my appearance, wearing non-sneaker shoes and button-down shirts. And yesterday and today I ran into people from my old workplace I haven’t seen in seven years. Quite the coincidence.

I actually bought new clothes last weekend, because I was down (again) to one pair of non-holey pants. The new pants are from Eddie Bauer, and they’re the “Vashon fit.” This cracks me up no end, because when I wear them I think that Vaschon is hugging my hips. They fit great, and I think I’ll go back for another pair at the earliest opportunity.

I’m also pleased to discover that I can still find flattering clothing in non-plus-size shops. Huzzah!

Well, my daughter is playing a Disney Channel internet version of Pitfall and having trouble with the vines/ropes. Time for an old Atari pro like me to step in!

Feeling better! Tyrathia‘s scarf is done (pictured here not bound off) and will go on the blocking board tonight to help it drape even better. And hey, it only took… what? Two years? There’ll be better pics and notes when it’s actually completely done!

Worth the wait?
Time will tell!

Annual meeting with school officials tomorrow morning to discuss my daughter’s IEP (individual educational plan). You may recall that I hate these like the Fox network hates quality TV shows. Here’s hoping I don’t throttle anyone! Wish me luck!

Felled by Stomach Crud.

It’s amazing how quickly I’ve turned from “cockeyed optimist” to “everything in the world sucks.”