Spring has sprung

Monday was such a beautiful day that I took my walk/trot/run/wheeze up to 125th then down along the river and back through Riverside Park. Apparently, the cool weather has kept the pollen down (for the moment), so I am trying to take advantage of the low pollen counts to get out and get this body moving. Thanks to all the knitting I do my hands are very strong, but the rest of me could use some work :)

Here are some pics that you may have seen on Monday of a few highlights along my route...

ready to run in my Team Wilson shirt

 
memorial to the 18th century amiable child along my running route

 
Clearwater sloop on the Hudson - one of the things that makes running along the river awesome

 
cherry blossom graffiti along the Cherry Walk

 
blooming tree along the Cherry Walk

 
violets in Riverside Park

 
stripes cut with a bit of sequined polka dots (putting away laundry happens after the run - there may be a Deckhand mixed in with the store-bought stripes!)

In Memorium: Riley

As those of you who follow me on Twitter or are a friend on Facebook know, my sweet cat Riley died at the end of last month. He was such a sweet boy, patient with the kids, soft as a kitten, and well-behaved around yarn. Every night after the children went to bed, he'd roost behind my head, me on the couch, him on the table. At bedtime he'd curl up next to me, effectively pinning me into one sleeping position. We all miss him. Soon we will bring home a new ball of fur, but we needed a little mourning time.

I realized that I'd avoided blogging the past few weeks, except for the new scarf pattern, because I knew I needed to blog about Riley. I even avoided putting birthday wish list together (something I usually enjoy immensely) or acknowledging this blog's fourth anniversary (I've babbled about knitting for FOUR years?!). Losing my grandmother and Riley in the same month has done a number on me, but it's time to pull myself together (all the way - I've gone part of the way getting the kids back in school and all). So, there will be more blogging, more pictures, and some new patterns coming down the pike. I might even have a contest, so, please, keep reading. And give your pets an extra hug for me.

In Memorium: Kathryn Amelia Wilson

After an amazingly full life of 94 years 356 days, my darling grandmother passed away earlier this month. Since this August 15th was to have been her 95th birthday (a milestone any way you look at it), we planned a celebration for her in Freeport, Illinois - her hometown for all of those years. In addition to the little partay the family planned, I designed a shawl for her - a pi (circular) shawl to be named Perseid Shower in her honor, since her birthday always comes at the end of the annual meteor shower of the same name. It has a variety of leafy and starry motifs that take you out from under the shelter of a tree to a starry, meteor-filled sky.

So, this shawl. I cast on at the beginning of July (once we were up in Maine) and immediately had problems. My second chart was wrong, but I didn't realize this until I completed the second repeat. I got frustrated, put the shawl in timeout, knowing I had lots of time until mid-August, and cast on a sweater (more on that later). Fast-forward a couple of weeks, and I know I need to get this show on the road. The charts are revised, and I'm ready to go. Things go pretty well until just after the last increase, when I discover that I'm off by a stitch at the end of the round. Ack! This is when I have 576 stitches on the needle. Five hundred seventy-six. And the yarn is the super-thin and super-duper sproingy Jade Sapphire Lacy Lamb. And the stitches to be tinked alternate between sl1-k2tog-psso and sl2-k1-p2sso. Impossible. Just maddeningly, frighteningly impossible. If you manage to discern the slipped stitch(es), it might work. But the yarn is so fine and sproingy that you're more likely to have stitches slip off the needles and bounce out of the row below. Suddenly you have runners into some pretty complicated lace.

Did I use lifelines? Of course not, because I'm an idiot. But after tinking back what seemed like hours, leaving a raft of coil-less safety pins in dropped stitches in my wake (and only a small fraction of the stitches tinked), I knew something had to be done. So, I bought a gigantic cone of crochet cotton, laid the poor shawl out, stretching it onto two needles, and wove the thread through the last two increase rounds (the inner round was for "insurance" in case something went horribly wrong again). It didn't take as long as I thought it might, and I started to feel better immediately. I also realized that my plan for which lace pattern to use after the last increase needed to change - this whole thing had been Fate/God/Karma/What-You-Will's way of saying I'd made the wrong decision when waffling over the plan at the 576 stage. OK, OK, I'm listening!

That was Wednesday, August 4th, and I spent that Knit Night ripping back to the lifeline and putting the stitches back on the needle. And I have to say I'm pretty proud of my lifeline weaving - I managed to weave all the stitches in the correct row (it helps that it was the increase row: yo, k1 all the way around). I started the new lace plan on those stitches and persevered, knowing I had a car ride from Maine to NYC to put a big dent in the last section before the border and then a few more days for border knitting before blocking needed to happen; I knew such fine yarn would block in a matter of hours.


Unfortunately, that Friday was a flurry of phone calls and messages about my grandmother. She was short of breath and taken to the emergency room. She was admitted to the hospital with fluid in her lungs. They had eased that situation and she was resting, then sleeping, then restless. And, suddenly, she was gone.

Honestly, we were all surprised. She had pulled through many things before; she was a tiny lady by the end of her days (under five feet, though she was half a foot taller in the prime of life - eat your yogurt and take your calcium, ladies), suffering through fractured vertebrae due to osteoporosis, but she was so strong, such a force to be reckoned with that I think we thought she would always conquer whatever health problems arose.

She was gone, and we had to get back from Maine to New York and then out to Northwest Illinois to say goodbye. I worked some more on the shawl on the drive back to New York, thinking I would give it to my aunt or just hold onto it. But the wind had gone out of my sails. It sat in my bag on the plane, and in the car, and on our annual family trip to Wisconsin. It's sitting in there, still. I'll take it out at some point, but it's going to be a while, I think.

There's more going on knitting-wise, and I promise to blog about that "real soon now". In the meantime, if you still have your grandparents in your life, give them a call or stop by if you're lucky enough to live close.

Three out of four generations of Wilson women (Christmas 2009)

What I'm working on

This lovely Swan's Island Organic Fingering weight yarn has been waiting patiently in the stash since the end of the summer for me to come up with the right project. And I think I've come up with it! This is a shaped pullover in King Charles Brocade. I'm working it from the bottom up and have just gotten to the armscye, so now I'm going to do the sleeves. I was trying to cast on provisionally for the sleeves, but then I remembered the last time I knit the sleeves from the shoulder down. I found it really annoying to have the whole sweater OTN. Plus, I'm not yet sure how I am going to work out the pattern where the sleeves meet the body. Now I'll have more time to figure it out.

I am in love with the yarn! Knitting this on US3s is just a pleasure, and I kind of don't want it to end. But when it does, I have plenty more projects to keep me busy. Don't look at my queue, it's ridiculous and doesn't even include most of the free patterns I highlighted last month -- those are mostly still "faves"! Hopefully, when I'm done, this will be as pretty as it is in my mind. If it is, I'll write up the pattern.

In "professional" news someone else got the University job I interviewed for last month. It would have been a good job near home and the kids' schools, upstairs from the Starbucks, and the rest of the big kids' tuitions would have been covered (talk about a benefit!), but they went with someone else (their loss, as my family and friends keep reminding me). However, it looks like I may start some freelance work for my former boss/mentor. She's pretty amazing, and it will be great to work with her again. So, that's probably going to keep me busy, which is what I need!

Please don't call it a "snood"

Check out this article in the WSJ about "snoods" or what normal people call a cowl or circular scarf, and hip people call an infinity or eternity scarf. We already have something in the world called a snood, folks, and it is meant to corral all your long, beautiful hair in a sort of netted bag. Think '40s beauties or Scarlett O'Hara working at the hospital in Atlanta. Fashion marketeers seem to view "snood" as some sort of brilliant, Brit-inflected mash-up of scarf and hood. Now, I'm no genius, but wouldn't that be a "scood"? Grumble grumble.

Of course, I call it an infinity scarf. Or just Infinite.

Anyway, the weekend was not great, chez Purly. Penelope picked up some bug and (Warning: mildly gross Mom oversharing ahead) had diarrhea all weekend, with special added vomiting all day Saturday. Now, normally, with three kids I end up doing a fair amount of laundry, but this weekend it was all laundry, all the time. And then we have the dead computer (battery, hopefully). Luckily, Nick is busy grading papers, so I can borrow his computer for a mo'. But all my pics and the half-written pattern for a little vest/camisole thing (how do you decide when something is one or the other?) are trapped on the dead laptop. A replacement battery has been ordered (my 'top is almost five years old, so no popping down to the Apple Store, unfortunately), so I hope to be back up and running in a few days. Until then I'll be knitting hats and mittens for the kids' school Holiday Fair next month.

And the cherry on top is that my darling, ever-shrinking grandmother is in the hospital. Her bones are crumbling, and she's in a lot of pain. She is a smart, tough lady, and if she says she can't take it, it must be bad. I just wish there was something I could do for her.

The Job Search

So, I'm looking for a job, most likely outside the house, that pays money. Not too much to ask, but, you know, it takes time to find the right thing, both from my perspective and that of an employer. I check various job sites that focus on book publishing, since that's my area of expertise (mediabistro, Creative Hotlist, Publishers Marketplace), I've got my searches set up on Indeed, and I continue to expand my "network" on LinkedIn. It takes time, and it's not the most fun I've ever had, but every once in a while something good comes along, or at least something plausible. And then there are the clunkers: responsibilities include "creative ideation" - at least they've stopped mentioning that we should "think outside the box" (when was English replaced by Business-speak?); my Indeed search on "knit" that mostly comes up with nannies wanted for close-knit families or the frightening-to-a-handknitter "cut and sew knits". Something will happen, eventually, and I appreciate you, my Purly cheering section, for all your supportive comments and pleasant distractions.

And today it's better that I only have mommy employment, as Penelope is home with a fever (she's going to daycare two days a week now, which gives me time to search for a job and gives us a leg up on care for her when I do go back to work). Never consciously think how great it is that she finally sleeps through the night! Inevitably she will wake up with a fever and need a lot of Mommy in the middle of the night. I'm going to do some more searching while she's sleeping and work on the garter-stitch center of a Stonington Shawl - knitknitknit is about all I can handle today.

Long Time No See!

It's been an eventful month-plus around these parts, so blogging fell by the wayside. Penelope came in under weight at her four-month check-up in December, so we were on a rigorous, eat-around-the-clock schedule to get her (and my milk makers) back on track. As a result she gained nine ounces in a week, which was very good. Since then we travelled to Chicago for the holidays, spending time with Nick's parents in their lovely apartment downtown (not far from Loopy Yarns - more on them later), plus a few days with my folks. Before we left the Windy City Nick had come down with a cold, Isobel's cough returned, and Penelope get her first real cold, which, of course, turned into an ear infection. This charming bug made her refuse to eat on one side due to pressure on the ear, which messed with my newly increased supply. Super fun. But we're all back on track now, and hopefully she'll be chunked up enough at tomorrow's weigh-in to start on solids. She seems ready, is interested in what we're eating, sits in her high chair with us at meals, and is cutting her first tooth.

On the knitting front I decided to do a lot of stash diving and knit up presents for almost everyone on the list:
-Hemlock Blanket for my parents in Cascade Eco-Wool - I want to knit one of these for me!
-Hats for Nick's parents and sister - tam for Louise in some yummy Magenta Madeline Tosh Sock Yarn, a slouchier beret for Alexa in BMFA's Monsoon Socks That Rock, and a ribbed watch cap for John in Malabrigo's Paris Night Merino Worsted (almost finished!)
-Gifted Mittens (that Kate Gilbert is genius - love this pattern!) and a pair of Fetchings (that Cheryl Niamath is no slouch, either) for Karen and her family - Blizzard for Bill, Encore Worsted for the kids (washable!), and some prized Debbie Bliss Cashmerino for the Fetchings
-Leg warmers for Isobel in the 1824 wool that refuses to become a sweater for her
-Knitted chain mail for Stephen in Encore


Having lost a week to the "Plump Up Penelope" campaign, I still have to knit or finish:
-that hat for John (I do love Malabrigo - that merino is as soft as cashmere!)
-Teddy Bears for my niece and nephew (fiddly finishing work)
-Cabled Footies from One Skein for my grandmother using up some more of that 1824 Wool
-some lovely item for my lovely sister in a prized skein of wool from Romney Ridge Farm - no idea yet, and she leaves for Germany tomorrow to start a PhD on Afghanistan, so this will probably be a longer-term project


Notice anything? Nothing on that list for Nick or Penelope. Luckily, they are two very understanding people. Nick is going to get a hat at some point, and Penelope might, too. Waiting in the wings is my second sock and a huge queue on Ravelry, plus some new yarn from Loopy Yarns (half-price Louet Merino Gems Worsted - enough for a sweater, two skeins of Malabrigo sock yarn for a light cardi, and a tote bag designed by Franklin!)




Apologies for the lack of FO pictures, but I was in such a sleep-deprived haze for the last few weeks that I gave folks their presents without documenting them. I'll see if I can rectify that at some point!

Belated Thankful

I am so blessed. This year I am thankful for

-my husband
-my beautiful children (may they some day sleep through the night)
-my family (old, new, and ex)
-living in New York City (finally!)
-knitting
-blogging (and all my bloggy friends)
-ravelry
-my sister leaving Afghanistan
-President Obama
-JetBlue (TV on airplanes is the best thing to happen to family travel ... ever!) and the new T5

I know there is more to be thankful for, but that's all I've got today.

Brrr

It's finally gotten chilly here in New York. We even had wet, windy weather yesterday, which called for woolen items on all extremities. (including wrapping an alpaca silk blanket around the sleeping-baby-in-a-sling (no way was I going to take her out of the sling, thus waking her up, to get her into a warmer individual get-up - we've had a rough few days here with the little one) to take Isobel to school. And poor Isobel has a cold (the oozy kind with a goopy cough), though she seems in good spirits most of the time.

Not a lot of knitting around here, which, of course, doesn't help my mood. In doing the multitudes of laundry lately, I get to spend time *near* my stash (it's in a bookcase across from the washer/dryer) but no time with it, though I hear various skeins calling out. I am about two thirds of the way up the front of my niece's Aran sweater, and once that's done I can get cracking on some birthday (Isobel) and Christmas (everyone else) knitting. The second sock has turned into subway knitting reserved for Thursday evenings when I go to my writing class.

Oh, in an "only in New York" moment, Isobel was scouted by a talent agency assistant Sunday on the subway, though the young woman said she usually works with five and ups, so we have a little time.

W Day

On a lovely Friday afternoon in October in New York, we pledged our troth publicly, making official our long-standing private intentions. The bride wore blue and carried a peacefully sleeping babe. The groom wore grey and translated the reading from The Odyssey himself. Our ring bearer and flower girl also served as the paparazzi. And our dear friend performed the ceremony with grace and emotion, while our other dear friend (her husband) recorded the events in still and moving pictures and witnessed the marriage. Their son was the third paparazzo. The small ceremony was followed by champagne, red velvet cake, and sushi.

Icarus seemed the proper choice of covering, as I'd started to knit it when Nick and I reconnected. Plus, the color, incidentally, was just right for the dress.

Many thanks to everyone for their well wishes in the last post.

First Time*

The first time I knit a sock I didn't realize it was such a big deal for people. I decided to make a birthday stocking (like a Christmas stocking) for Isobel, so just a really big sock in worsted weight yarn: shocking pink Malabrigo to be exact. So soft and shockingly pink. I followed the pattern I had for normal socks (the great Family Socks from Yankee Knitter), using bigger yarn and needles but the same stitch counts for the sake of my sanity.

Seemed kind of like no big deal. Why were some people so obsessed with knitting socks? And why were others so flummoxed by "turning the heel"? I guess I turned the heel. I mean, the thing had a place for a heel. Well, if you were a giant anyway.

It's kind of like cooking. Why are people so impressed with a home-cooked meal. If you follow the recipe (and don't lose your head), you should come up with a reasonable facsimile of dinner. But people are so impressed when you follow directions. Does no one else follow directions? I'm the only one, aren't I. Being the good girl isn't always easy, but I do end up with a tasty dinner. And socks with heels.

There are heel-less socks, though, called bed socks. Just a tube with a closed toe. They don't fit well in shoes but are cosy for bed or padding around the house.

I haven't knit any of those yet, though I'm finally (three years later) making a pair of socks for myself. The yarn is a gorgeous colorway from Madeline Tosh called Twilight, with shocking pink (again with that color), navy, and brown and green in between: the pink of sunset-tinged clouds, the blue of the night sky, and the dusky shade of the trees as the light fades.

These will be special socks just for me, unlike the socks I made for Peter. He was in rehab, and it seemed like the right thing to do, make him a pair of socks. I even followed the old wives' tale and knit a strand of my hair and one of Isobel's into the socks. It's supposed to bind the recipient to you. (Should have noticed the other one about knitting socks for your boyfriend: he'll walk out, but he was my husband.) So, it seemed like the right thing to do, since he was going to come back home. No one had asked me if I wanted him to. The good girl would, of course. Funny how that didn't work out. Making that pair for him. Does he still have them? Does it matter?

The pair for me are knit differently, toe-up to use as much of the gorgeous yarn as possible and with a short row heel to avoid picking up stitches, which I tend to do badly. His were just a lesson in construction, and I've learned a lot since then.

*I've just started a memoir writing class, and one of the exercises we did was to write about something we did for the first time. This was my essay. The photo is of the start of my second sock. I used Judy's Magic Cast-On, which I learned knitting up the Amy March Slippers around Mother's Day. It creates a toe that fits my pointy feet very nicely. And I used a short-row heel gleaned from various places online, including Wendy's Generic Toe-Up Sock.

A moment in knitting/parenting

The kids just came and asked me for yarn and needles.

They're almost four and five-and-a-half, so they're not knitting yet. But soon!

The Big D

Divorce, that is. Nick's divorce is finally final! We can get hitched! We're still processing the fact that we are both finally free to be together, but once we get a plan together, I'll let you know what it is. Something down at City Hall with a family celebration in the Windy City at Christmastime, so my sister can be there (she's still in Afghanistan but leaving her job there at the end of October to travel some).

There are also quite a few FOs to share, but I need to snap pics, and it was too rainy for that this weekend. I prefer shooting with natural light. So, this week stay tuned for a pair of gloves, a BSJ and BSBs (Baby Surprise Booties), a beret, a February Lady Sweater (hopefully with buttons), and probably another beret (Christmas presents).

Gotta go. Pen is waking up from another nap.

Offline

Having spilled water on my laptop, I'm offline for a little while with only occasional access to the interwebs on Nick's laptop (he has actual work to do on it). I have FOs to tell you about and holiday knitting plans to share, but it will have to wait a little.

Happy Birthday to me!

Another year has passed. And wasn't this one a doozy!?! Life is crazy and amazing.I just hope this next year is slightly calmer but no less wonderful. Thanks for being part of the ride.

FO: Baby Surprise

Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman
Yarn: BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight in Firebird (2007 Sock Club)
Needle: US4
Notions: Red Flower Buttons from MJ Trimming
Model: Penelope, born 11 August 2008, 7:07pm

Surprise! Part of the thinness on the ground of posting chez Purly for the last few months has been due to pregnancy. There was a lot going on for us. Luckily, the pregnancy was uneventful, and Penelope's debut to the world was quick and tidy thanks to being induced by my wonderful OB. But our lives have been eventful, which led to us keeping my pregnancy pretty quiet. Plus, the second time around things aren't that different from the first, but you suddenly remember the heartburn and annoyance of sleeping only on your left side all over again. The excitement of pregnancy isn't there and you just want to have your baby.

And now we do. She is a wonderful little one so far, and Isobel just adores her. Stephen is interested, though not as much, and that's pretty much what we expected. Nick is a wonderful father (and deserves a post of his own on that subject). We feel very blessed with our little "Birdie" (she pecks at my shoulder if I'm holding her in the classic burp position and she's still hungry).

We had hoped to announce a marriage here first, but Penelope (and the divorce courts of Massachusetts and New York) had other plans. Soon enough, and this way I won't have to wear a tent at our wedding.

And, of course, knitting up a BSJ was fun as was Isobel's and my adventure to acquire buttons down at MJ Trimming. When I have a chance I'll knit up the other Saartje's Bootie to complete the outfit.

Sold.

Yes, for those of you who have followed the saga, my house has sold. Last Wednesday, in fact, but there have been snarls with distributing the meagre proceeds amongst my ex-relatives and me. Today that finally seems to have been sorted out, so I feel like I can talk about it.

This was, literally, my dream house. I saw a painting of it in Antique Homes Magazine (that's the painting at the top of this post - apologies for the flash) soon after Peter and I started dating (1998). We even drove up to Gloucester and tried to find it one Saturday, but, as I would learn later, it was hidden in plain sight on Grant Circle. From 1998 until 2005 it was my ideal: a big yellow antique house with half an acre of land, stone walls, multiple fireplaces including a beehive oven, and distant water views. What wasn't to love or daydream over.

When we went to see it, I asked the realtor if it had been up for sale earlier and learned that it had. This was it! My actual dream house. It needed lots of work (and still does, though we did all the unglamourous stuff like replacing the almost-hundred-year-old wiring and such) but was within our price range and where we wanted to live.

Anyway, things didn't turn out as planned. I saw a woman on 3rd (or was it Lex? doesn't really matter) yesterday riding a Vespa knockoff, which reminded me that the little cherry on top of my dream house was to open a yarn shop in Gloucester and drive to work on my Vespa.

My life has turned in a different direction, and I feel so blessed with where I am now. Well, with where we are now. Isobel is a happy girl, despite having to say goodbye to her last binky yesterday (she chewed on it like an old man with a stogie and had all but severed it from the base). There have been tears. There have been woeful tales on the telephone: "Grandpa, I had to throw out my binky and I'm sad", and sleep was elusive last night. But she's growing up, though when I told her how proud I was of her being a big girl about saying farewell to the binky, she reminded me that she's not big, that she's three.

I'd have some knitting content if I didn't have to frog everything I start these days. I'm working on some gloves for my Grandmother, but once I started the fingers I realized they were going to be too big, and I don't have the next needle size down in DPNs so have to get to the LYS, and the cowl I want to match my two-needle gloves keeps pooling, which I don't want in this instance, so I have to mess around with cast on numbers and such to get something that will be more variegated.

Moving Forward

We've accepted an offer on the house. Assuming the inspection goes well (we fixed pretty much everything our inspector pointed out when we bought the house, so can't imagine any big problems will come up), we are to close at the end of the month. Yes, this month, which means I will be spending a bit of time up in Gloucester going through things and deciding what to do with them. Isobel and I are headed up there this morning to start working on a game plan and bring back the rest of my cookbooks and her toys and whatnot.

It is a bittersweet moment. The buyer plans to turn the house into a museum, which is good because (hopefully) lots of people will get to see the house and appreciate it's history. But it's also sad because this house had been lived in continuously since 1739. That's the way the cookie crumbles, though.

For you Massachusetts folk, I will give more advance notice for the next visit, which may very well be next week.

In knitting news I'm working away on the Swallowtail Shawl, having taken a break from my brother's sweater, as it's taking a toll on my wrists now that the whole shebang is on one needle. I appreciate seamless garments, but once the sleeves and body are united, it can be heavy, especially when it's for a tall, handsome fellow like my brother. I think my next sweater may be pieced, now that my finishing skills are somewhat improved. I'm considering that Drops sweater jacket that everyone's been knitting - "they" say it's a really quick knit.

I'm also thinking about knitting a Pi Shawl, since I've been re-reading Knitter's Almanac before bed, adding in some lace patterns to make it exciting. I've been combing my Barbara Walkers and have found some likely candidates that meet stitch and row count requirements as well as having purl-back rows. I am finding lace, the structure and balance of it, more and more intriguing.

The Cliffs of Insanity!

I only have ten yards of yarn left for the Slouchy Cardi after casting off the hood. I am nuts. And I still have to seam it up. But I have laceweight (2/8) in the same yarn and colorway, so I can use that for seaming. For those playing along at home, this is 4/8 Jaggerspun Zephyr ("DK" weight according to those good people, more like Light Worsted to my mind). I am thrilled to have completed miles and miles of stockinette because I know (if it fits) that this will be one of those go-to sweaters in my wardrobe. That's the thing, isn't it. We moan about miles of stockinette, but it makes for eminently wearable sweaters.

So, what's next for Purly? I'm glad you asked.

For the needles I'm not quite sure, though I've got a ton of stuff queued up on Ravelry and other ideas in my head.

For real life, we have a real move.

Yes, Isobel and I are moving to Manhattan on 1 November. Which means that the post should be titled "The Skyscrapers of Insanity", no? And it also means that I am leaving the Suburbs of Insanity. Not really, but really. I love my family and friends here in the Midwest, but I've become an East Coast girl and long to get back. Watching the Red Sox kick tuchus is not the same here, you know?

And Riley is going to come live with us, too, as I told Bridget the other day (her Garden Kitty looks a lot like Riley-kins). Spenser has gone back to live with his breeder until she can find him a new home, which is for the best. Now, if we could just find someone to buy the house and get my soon-to-be-ex-husband to get his act together enough to participate in divorce proceedings, we'd be all set. Until then my darling Intended and I will have to wait to make things official.

But it's all for real. Someone pinch me. Yet if I wake up I might have to deal with R.O.U.S.es. Eep. They probably have those in New York.

And, no, I haven't seen The Princess Bride lately. Maybe I should.

ZZZephyr

Keri is saving our collective bacon for MS3 by ordering a cone of Zephyr in Steel for us to share. Thank you, Keri (my enabler)! We both agreed that our original chosen yarns, which were quite similar, were too fine. Zephyr usually clocks in around 30wpi (wraps/inch), and ours were closer to 40. And I think my beads will still work with the new yarn. Unfortunately, I'll be up at the lake for the week, so I'll be a bit behind on the clues, but that will give me time to finish the Icarus I cast on last night with Jennifer's laceweight merino (lovely yarn, BTW). I know, Emily, "Another shawl!?" But this has been on my to-do list for some time, and it's a fairly simple pattern so far. I know the borders will be more complex, which will be fun, too, but sometimes a girl needs something interesting but not too, you know. I also think this is one of the few laceweight shawls that can handle a somewhat variegated yarn, since it has the expanse of stockinette panels. It's beautiful in plain yarn, but you'll be able to judge for yourself shortly. I haven't taken any pictures of my progress yet, as I'm only about fifty rows in, since I just cast on last night.

In the world just keeps getting weirder files, I received an email from the guy I dated through college and on to Boston. He's in the Chicago area visiting his family for the Fourth, and hearing that shimmer of sound from the cicadas made him think back seventeen years, when we were together. He's teaching at Columbia University, has a young son, and is also in the process of a divorce. Life is so strange. It was a nice email, very him, even after all these years.