Not too many ruffles

I finished the Just Enough Ruffles scarf yesterday morning and, yes, I did add an extra two rows to the ruffle. It was my only real modification to the pattern.

The result? Judge for yourself:

Just Enough Ruffles scarf

I really like it, even in this photo from the crapola cam. The “mood” lighting came courtesy of a tree’s shade on the loveseat on the back porch. The loveseat itself is covered with an off-white, faux fur lap blankie, serving admirably as an impromptu dropcloth (as in the photo of Shane’s Really Long Scarf a few posts ago). The natural light is uneven, I know, but the picture’s pretty true to the scarf’s overall color (at least it is on my monitor), especially the top and non-shady part. Alas, my current photographic limitations do not permit me to show you the truly marvelous way the green parts of the yarn play off the blue to make a delightful fabric. On that, you will have to take my word… or get yourself to your LYS and see it up close and in person.

Please forgive the scarf’s unblocked state here, which is (I hope) the reason that the garter-stitch section along the top of the scarf is flopping over and not laying smoothly. I’m not an accomplished blocker, as most of the things I’ve made have been from acrylic and do not, therefore, require blocking. This baby will, however, benefit from a wet-down and a gentle blocking of its body, although not (obviously) the ruffle. If I get a photo of it post-blocking, I’ll post it soonest for your viewing pleasure.

For the record: that’s 20 FOs for 2008, excluding charity “squares.” Not too shabby!

In the 24 or so hours since finishing the scarf, I have made the first of a pair of fingerless mitts, super-chunky and undemanding. It took only around 75 minutes to knit, so the mate should be done by Monday, knock on wood, even given my training-jail status for tonight at work. I’ll keep you apprised.

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Happy Turkey Day!

I’m about to head out of town for a few days, after working last night (yep, in training jail), but I wanted to wish all my U.S. readers a happy Thanksgiving before I left. So, Happy Thanksgiving! May you spend it exactly as you wish and with exactly the folks you wanted.

By the time I get back online, I expect I’ll have finished the Just Enough Ruffles scarf. I’m on the second-to-last row now, then there’s the cast off. The scarf is only a 44 row pattern (minus said cast off), but the last 5 of them are 600 stitches long.

Yep, you read that right: 600 stitches.

OMG. The two purl rows made my hands hurt and necessitated a slowdown in the pace, but I got through them. And as the pattern in written, it’s all knit on these last rows.

However, that would make the actual ruffle only about an inch wide and I’m thinkin’ I’d like it to be a little wider, so I may add a couple of rows. Yep, it’s in stockinette, so that’s at least one more row of purling 600 stitches. Sigh.

OK, only 598 stitches, ’cause I slip the first stitch and then I knit the last stitch before I turn the thing, so that’s two stitches that I won’t have to purl.

I’ll have to decide really soon, though, as I’m about 30 knitting-minutes away from crunch time.

Should be interesting.

And the yarn is soft and pretty and cooperative and happy-making, and I loves it very muchly.

So, on top of all the life things for which I am grateful, like my health and family and job and friends and financial stability (such as it is), I must add that I am thankful for alpaca yarn.

And, of course, I’m thankful for all of you who read my ramblings and allow me to be as quirky and weird and eccentric as I am, without judgment and with the occasional comment. I appreciate you more than I can say. Merci!

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That new thing I hinted about last post?

It’s in Berroco Ultra Alpaca, color 6285, which is a gorgeous tealy, peacock green or blue. Gorgeous! And the pattern is the Just Enough Ruffles Scarf by Laura Chau (aka cosmicpluto). I’m about 40-percent through with it, I think, and have only been working on it for a coupla days.

The pattern’s available via her Laura’s blog (look for the picture/link in her sidebar) and on Ravelry, but I’m too lazy to look that link up, so you’ll just have to be adventurous and do it yourself.

I’m hoping this pattern turns out to be as easy to finish as it has been so far, ’cause I think I’d like to make at least one more of these as a gift… maybe even for Christmas, but I’m not gonna stress over Christmas knitting this year, so maybe it’ll be a “just because” gift instead. We shall see.

It’s too early to take a decent picture of the work-in-progress, as the crapola cam is flash-free, so I’ll try to get a shot of it later this a.m. and add it to this post.

Toodles, y’all. The scarf beckons and I am powerless to resist it’s alpaca call.

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FO# 19

This morning, I finished knitting Shane’s really long scarf. That’s what I’m calling it, ’cause that’s what it is. It’s for Shane (the BC18’s good friend) and it’s really long. 9.5 feet long, in fact. That wasn’t a target length or anything, just the point at which the third skein of yarn ran out.

Look at the pretty striping pattern this particular dye lot has, a pattern that stayed consistent for all three skeins. I just matched up the final color sequence at the end of the skeins with the same sequence in the next skein and voilà! See:

Shane's really long scarf in the morning sunlight

I did buy a fourth skein, but didn’t use it for this, ’cause I think it’s plenty long enough without it. And I can always find a use for that skein, what with folks hankering for me to make them fingerless gloves, etc. (Right, Sarah?)

Yarn and pattern details are in the FO sidebar, so take a look-see if you are interested in that kind of thing.

I’m sure I’d have finished this two or three days ago if I weren’t dealing with training jail at work, but it still knit up pretty quickly. After all, it’s chunky yarn on big needles and with only 21 stitches to knit/purl and one to slip on each row, so how long could it take, right?

Now, this scarf was not on my to-do list at all, but Shane was hanging out with the BC18 at our house the other afternoon and saw a little ball of this yarn in my bag o’ knitting remnants and left me the sweetest suck-up note to request a scarf. As neither of my boys has requested anything knit by me since the BC12’s black and red mitts ages ago, I was pretty pleased to have a teenage boy ask me to knit for him. And the yarn was/is still available at Michael’s, and very inexpensive, so I jumped right on it.

[Edited to add: Turns out that Saturday was Shane’s birthday, so my timing on this was good, if unplanned. Love it when that happens!]

Next up? Another by-request knit, this time by my MAT’s ex. He wants me to knit a scarf for him to give his sister for Christmas. I picked the pattern and helped him pick the yarn and will be casting it on tonight. Details to follow soon.

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Back in jail

Lord, it’s a shame I don’t know how to play a harmonica, ’cause I am back in training jail. This time, though, I am the trainee and not the trainer.

I began training at fire combat last night, which is the position that handles the radio traffic and unit requests after a fire or ambulance call has been paged out. Sometime next year (probably not before February) I’ll learn the paging side of things, then I’ll get promoted and paid more as a full-fledged fire/rescue dispatcher.

In theory, this shouldn’t be too strenuous a process, since I’ve already been a fire/rescue dispatcher twice and a fire-only dispatcher once,** but that was a l-o-n-g time ago. I took a seven-year hiatus from public-safety communications and have been back for two more years, so it’s been at least 9 years since I did the fire/rescue dispatch thing.

(** The reason? I agency-hopped. At my first agency, we dispatched fire and EMS. After a few years there, I jumped to an agency that did fire only. Then, a year and a half later, I moved back to the first agency and wound up a fire/rescue dispatcher again. And those of you who have read my whole blog – yikes! – may remember that I am once again working for that original agency, but this time it has combined with my second agency.)

So, to stop making a long, boring story much longer and more boring, suffice it to say that I’m relearning the position and no longer able to do leisure activities at work. (Thus, “training jail”.) There are exceptions: when I’m pulled from training to work at calls or teletype (as I’m not in training there), when I work overtime, when I cover hours I swapped with a non-fire/rescue dispatcher, on my break, if my trainer calls in sick and there’s not another trainer to sit with me that shift, on holidays.

Wish me luck in speeding through this training phase, so I can be “sprung” and able to combine my life with my downtime at work. Please? Thank you!

And, seriously, the month before Christmas is probably not the best time to have to curtail my knitting, ’cause I’ve got presents to whip up and stash to bust.

I may just have to whittle down the gift list… or invest in some gift cards or IOUs. (The horror!)

It’s a little daunting, altogether, but kinda exciting, too. Nothing like a little forced change to make you kick it into gear, n’est-ce pas?

Perhaps it’s a good time to take up the harmonica, too, and learn how to wail on it. Of course, I’d have to do that on my breaks also, or the warden might put me on total lockdown. And I don’t even want to think about where I’d have to hide the thing when it came time to search my cell.

It’d give a whole new meaning to “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen….”

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FO# 18

All I can say now is:

1. I just finished it.

2. It’s a Christmas present for Maresa.

3. I sure hope she likes it.

4. I could be bribed (mmmm, yarn!) for details, but they’d have to be given privately, so Santa won’t find out and get mad about it.

5. I’m not expecting any takers on #4.

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Buh-bye!

Maybe it’s a little bit early to be saying ciao, but I can’t resist the impulse to link to this decidedly biased article, mostly ’cause I agree with every syllable.

Besides, (cue the music, and with apologies to Leslie Gore) it’s my blog and I’ll link if I want to, link if I want to, link if I want to. You would link to if it occurred to you!

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Catching up

Hi, everyone! Sorry for the blog silence these last few days. I took the kitties back to Mom’s house and, while there, tested my ability to stay off the ‘nets for a couple of days. To my relief (’cause who wants to be hooked on anything, even a cyber-connection?) I had no problem going computer-free.

OK, it helped that I had a fully loaded iPod, so I still had my music and my podcasts, but I only hit that a couple of times, I swear. And I didn’t inhale.

Anyway, what did I do?

I talked, watched movies with Mom, petted the pusses, did a little laundry, ate Mom’s homemade chicken and rice, went with Mom to the 24-hour Evil Empire to buy new pressure cookers (2 sizes) and argued with the BC12 (who went with me, as there was no school Monday or Tuesday and he stays chez moi on my nights off work) about his entertainment needs. Now, he had his PSP and games, sole use of a plasma TV (for the most part) hooked up to Dish Network and a DVD player, access to Mom’s computer (which he sneered at: “It’s on dial-up, Mom! What am I supposed to do with that?!) and art supplies. I ask you, what more did the child need?

I also slept. I crashed out around 7:20 Monday morning and slept for 12 gorgeous hours. That’s right, 12. Let’s count ’em: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, bathroom break, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, argue with BC12 that I’d get up when I was ready and not when he was “bored,” 11, 12 mostly blissful hours. Aaaaaaahhhhhhh! I woke up with a sore neck and shoulder (’cause I didn’t have the waterbed for my super-snooze), but it was worth it. I’ve been undersleeping this last couple of weeks, so it was nice to catch up some.

Monday evening I colored my “new growth” – my mostly silver new growth – that’s been annoying me for a week. (What’s up with not calling roots by their right name? My hair does not need political correctness, for goodness sake!) After that, I settled in for a lazy “day” of talk, late-night and early-morning TV (go, TNT!), charity-rectangle knitting (2 more!) and general sloth. I never even left the house, folks, and it was wonderful!

After nearly 8 more hours sleep Tuesday, the BC12 and I cleaned up, packed up and loaded up the van. We kissed Mom goodbye and hit the road. I got him back to his dad’s house in time to hit the local B-a-M and buy the boy the next book in a series** he’s enjoying. He’d finished book 2 already and needed a new book for Wednesday at school. Wednesday is DEAR day – Drop Everything And Read – and leisure books are mandatory. It was my pleasure to buy him that and another book, ’cause I love it that he loves to read now!

** It’s a series by Rick Riordan, called “Percy Jackson & The Olympians.” There are four volumes out now, with the last one only in hardback right now. The BC12 really likes it and I’m always glad to find a series that my 12-year-old boy enjoys.

I went to work at the usual time, thanked the gods that folks were not being unusually restless on Veteran’s Day night, and logged onto the computer. Holy crapoly, did I have a load of e-mail and blog stuff to catch up on! It took pretty much all of my free time to wade through the backlog and then it was time to go home. Oh, and I got word that I didn’t have to work Wednesday night, as it was to be my special-event day (which means off) for this quarter. What a nice (if last minute) surprise!

After I took the BC12 to school, I took my stash of charity rectangles to my LYS, only to discover the store doesn’t open until 2 p.m. on Wednesdays, so I took a chance and left them on the door stoop. I figure that they’ll wind up where they’re supposed to, in the larger sense. Whether that was inside the store, to be sewn into blankets, or appropriated by a needy person before the store opened, well, that was out of my hands. I released them to the universe, so to speak, and felt lighter and freer for it.

How many rectangles? Take a look:

Look at all those things!

Yes, the crapola cam took that fabulous picture. OK, OK, I took that fabulous picture using the crapola cam. (Damn, y’all, won’t you let me get away with anything?) Of course, it was early and the light was dim and Jupiter wasn’t aligned with Mars, so, um, it’s really quite respectable when you look at it that way.

Moving on.

I slept a little during the afternoon, then went to have dinner with my MAT and her fiancé, hit the B-a-M again (and finished two more chapters in that J.D. Robb), then went to see “Rachel Getting Married” at the cinema. Ohmygoodness, what a good movie! Amazing performances, a moving story, fabulous directing, a great script! Totally Oscar-worthy. If you haven’t seen it, go. Take a sister or girlfriend or gay male friend or, if he’s evolved and in touch with his feminine side, a lover.

Or do what I did: go alone. Yep, alone. I was, in fact, the only person in the theater for that showing. Now, I admit I wouldn’t want to sit alone in a theater in the middle of the night to watch a horror movie, ’cause I’d be jumping at shadows or imagined/real/ambient noises in the darkened space, but this type of movie doesn’t waken my inner paranoiac, so it was cool. (Actually, I don’t watch horror movies at all, but that’s a whole other story, which we won’t go into now.)

Then I came home, did more laundry, channel-surfed, reveled in some feather-and-fan magic (my first time!) in a new project that’s fated to become a Christmas present for a friend (who may occasionally read this blog, so I won’t divulge more now), and logged on my Mac to do some damage control on the e-mail-accumulation front and, yep, write this L-O-N-G post.

Now, dawn is coming, Angel is on the TV (go, TNT!) and, in about 2 hours, I’ll take the BC12 to school. And I’ll be, like the song says, “back to life, back to reality.”

Doesn’t suck, now does it? Nope, not even a little bit.

Have a good Thursday, y’all.

[Edited to add: Drumroll, please! I have this very morning completed book #100 for the year. (Yes, this year.) Feel free to visit the appropriate sidebar for my review of it and of most of the others, too, if you’d like. But don’t forget that golden oldie: opinions are like assholes, to which I like to add, some are just shittier than others. Happy reading!]

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All in a day’s work

Yesterday evening (my morning), I got up early. It was 6 p.m. and I’d only slept about 5 good hours, but I’d agreed to go in 4 hours early at work (due to staffing shortages, which are the eternal bane of emergency communications centers nationwide). That meant I showed up at 7 p.m. and not 11 p.m. and, thank the gods, it was not a busy evening. I worked phones, answering 9-1-1 and non-emergency lines, so I appreciated the light call load. We did have one fatal accident in the county, a 16-year-old girl, which is always a crying shame, but I didn’t take the call and wasn’t directly involved in processing it.

After 6 hours on phones, I took my one-hour break, during which I retreated to the breakroom/kitchen and watched Stewart and Colbert when they were re-run at 1 a.m., laughing my ass off at their antics, as usual. After my break, I worked phones for another hour, then moved to the sheriff’s office teletype position, where (again) it was not busy, so I was able to read stuff online and play solitaire and chitchat with my co-workers. Nice, relaxed, no pressure, no idiocy. Like I said: nice.

At 7 a.m., I headed home, where I spent about 45 minutes prodding/arguing with/threatening the BC12 to get him to move his keister (or is it “kiester”?) so I could take him to school early, giving us time to pick up some Chick-Fil-A breakfast goodies (well, breakfast for him) en route. (No, that’s not all I did. I also scooped out both cat pans, put more minutes on the BC18’s cell phone and petted the kitties.)

At 8:20, we pulled up to the restaurant’s speaker and I moved into Aussie mode, using a really bad Australian accent to order. Sadly, I’d meant to go British with the accent, but somehow slid instead into a near caricature of Aussie. Sigh. Still, it gave the BC12 a laugh or two, which was my purpose in the first place. (I also get off on watching the cashier’s face when she greets me at the window and I answer her with the same accent used to place my order. I’m sure she is thinking, “That’s not how I thought she’d look. Strange. Vaguely disappointing in her ordinariness.”)

The boy was safely deposited at school by 8:40 and I went to a local private laboratory and peed in a cup. Yep, I got tagged for “random” (but mandatory) piss-testing this month, lucky me! I had been drinking Diet Coke and hot tea all night, so the piss part was no problem. I don’t take any drugs or medications (aside from generic benadryl and OTC NSAIDS), so the testing part is no problem. And I do not have a shy bladder, which is a good thing, as I was once (many, many moons ago) in the army (yes, the U.S. Army) for an extended-but-single term of enlistment and my first assignment was to an evac hospital that was never deployed and therefore had lots of “free” time on its hands, so we were frequent targets for the base’s “random” testings. We called it Operation Golden Flow. Lemme tell you, when someone watches you pee once about every other month, you get used to it… or you spend all damned day trying, with all the repeated lowerings and raisings of the pants that implies, until you finally squeeze out the required minimum amount.

The result: this morning I was in and out of the lab in less than 10 minutes.

I rewarded myself with a leisurely trip to the nearest library Books-a-Million, where I plopped myself down and dove into the newest J.D. Robb novel. I read for almost 2 hours – 7 chapters’ worth – before leaving the unsoiled, unspoiled, undamaged book on the table where I’d been sitting. I’d bought a fruit drink and a commemorative copy of the local paper for November 5 when I went into the store, so I felt no guilt about not buying the book.

Go ahead, gimme hell if you must. But I can’t justify spending almost $30 for a book I’ll read only once – enjoying it immensely – but never pick up again. I mean, it’s almost compulsively readable, but it’s not literature or even literary, with its main strength being its plot. And once I finish it, I’ll be completely finished with it and I’ll begin anticipating the next book in the Eve Dallas series. I have the same relationship, if you will, with Janet Evanovich’s books: love reading them, once, then it’s time to move on. (Go, Stephanie Plum!)

Then I came back home, turned on the computer, and voilà! A new post for you.

Now, what did you get me?

Kidding! Totally kidding.

Anyway, it’s sack time once again. I’m not pulling 12 hours tonight, merci aux dieux, but I’m beat. Time to toddle off to my amazing, magical waterbed and sleep 8 beautiful hours! Don’t you wish you were me now?

[Edited to add: In and amongst all that stuff, I knit another charity “square.” See how the total is growing? Note to self: take those things to the yarn store, so they can get stitched into blankies… soon. After all, the cold weather has already arrived, even here in Florida, albeit in fits and starts. Someone is waiting for “my” blankie, so I better get on it, doncha think?]

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Whew! Yay!

No time to write at length right now. Just time enough to heave a gigantic sigh of relief, then do a quick happy dance, then do it all again. And again. And again!

McCain conceded! (whew!)

Obama won! (yay!)

I keep cycling between the two reactions, while working police teletype. I keep hearing all the folks downtown celebrating in the background as the officers key up their radios, wishing I could be down there with them.

This is a triumph of hope over fear and a sure sign of maturity (however new), as the USA grows up a little and starts to deal with the world as it is: changing (not static), including all races (not just whites),  in need of serious solutions (not just hoarding all the resources and and throwing temper tantrums whenever forced to share or care about others).

I’m not saying it very well, I know. My brain and heart are too overloaded right now to be very coherent.

I think I feel a happy dance coming on!

Yay!!!

[Edited to add: Thank you, Jamie Lee Curtis and Rudyard Kipling, for saying it eloquently here.]

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