Incommunicados

Skip and I have not had reliable Internet access, hence, my lack of online presence. It has been frustrating, however we have soldiered on. We hope to get our ‘issue’ resolved in a day or two, otherwise, we’ll be spending some time each day at a local fast food joint that has free Wifi or the public library and my blog posts will be fewer and farther between.

I’ve been flitting from one project to another. The baby blanket is about 85% done.
I hope to finish, and block it and hopefully get it sent off to the expectant parents. Due to the possibility of complications (mama has Lupus), baby boy Seberras will make his appearance on March 16.

My Dogwood Blossom cardigan kit in the blue colourway from KnitPicks arrived last week. I’m hoping to get started on it sometime soon. The pattern has one start by knitting the sleeves.

I’ve been working on the lace cuff-down sock I’ve been knitting for a German Ravelry friend. I’m using the Midwinter colourway of the new KnitPicks Chroma fingering yarn. Is a lovely grey/blue/purple yarn with wide bands of colour. On the sock, each band is about 3cm before the gradual transition to the next colour. I also ordered 3 balls of the Prism colourway for the Lightning Shawl but I’m not sure I want to use it after all. I may select another colour.

I have cast on and ripped out a couple of neck warmers using a lovely, squishy baby alpaca worsted weight yarn but have to modify the stitch count to get the right gauge.

In between knitting projects, I did most of the stitching on a Christmas ornament - it’s from the 2004 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue.
I erroneously added an extra stitch horizontally which has thrown off the stitch count for the red zigzag border so I have to spend some time re-designing a border. I used 32 count linen fabric. The words are stitched over 1 thread and the back-stitching was over two threads. The beads of the notes were done with little black beads which fortuitously I had in my bead stash - dating back to my avid cross-stitching days (before I became a knitting addict in 2006). I also should have corrected the placement of the flats as the pattern has them placed incorrectly.

I have a few more Christmas ornaments on my to-do list. I have several that need finishing so will be browsing some cross-stitchers’ blogs to get some finishing ideas. Then will do a bunch in one ‘swell foop’. I don’t have a real eye for colours or design and really do rely on what other people have done for ideas on how to finish things. I’ll do the “O Holy Night” one from the 2005 JCS Ornament issue and finish it like the “Silent Night” one so they are a matched set. Here is starrynight's (on Flickr) version.
Since learning Hardanger and getting back to stitching again, I have taken another look at my Christmas ornament issues that date back to 1995. Seeing so many beautiful projects at my embroidery guild has inspired me to get back at stitching at least on a part-time basis. I’ve got about 15 ornaments on my to-do list. Every once and a while I like doing one, if only for the feeling of completing a project in fairly short order.

I had a big crisis two nights ago with my new little netbook. I went to turn it on and the battery was ‘deader than a mackerel’ as Skip would say. I plugged it in to charge it up and left it for a couple of hours. When I came back to it, not only was it still dead and wouldn’t turn on, the ‘charging’ light wasn’t even lit. I got that sinking feeling in my stomach. Even Skip felt sick. He knew I was particularly distressed when he saw me put my face in my hands. Evidently I looked pathetic. Then I got a bright idea and looked in the case that I have all my cords in and realized I had been using THE WRONG CHARGING CORD!!!! I plugged the right one in and HUZZAH the little charging light went on and I was able to turn on the netbook. Phew! Crisis averted.

We enjoyed SuperBowl XLV last night. I wasn't watching as intently as Skip was but I did really like the halftime show. On some pre-game show there was some debate as to why the Black Eyed Peas was selected and one commentator categorized their music as tunes people exercise to. That is SO true! I've done several of their tunes in my Zumba classes. It would also appeal to the under 50 demographic by their youth and yet persons over 50 who haven't been living under rocks these past few years would certainly recognize one or two of their songs. It was VERY cool to see Slash and also to hear a couple of the cover tunes they did ("I Had The Time of My Life"). All in all, it was an excellent halftime show IMHO. I didn't have a strong preference as to who should win but I was very happy for the Packers that in spite of a couple of slips, some luck and a good offence they held onto their lead.