Snake Surly

Movin' on up

Woohoo! I got the site moved!

From now on, this blog will live at

http://www.katechrist.com/snakesurly/

I haven't worked on the katechrist.com part at all yet, but the blog part is there. It's still being tweaked, but it's there.

dudes!

I'm totally moving all this hooey.

www.katechrist.com doesn't point to my Website at the moment, so if you want to go there, you'll have to do it the old-fashioned way: http://www.serv.net/~katya/

All of this stuff is going to be hosted by LivingDot. It's just too ridiculous to have serv.net, Yahoo! domains and Typepad. Aiiiieee! I am HOPEFUL that my blog will be located at katechrist.com/snakesurly, but I haven't gotten that far.

Why I Didn't Get Much Knitting Done Today

Well, first I didn't get up until 12:30, (I had woken up earlier, but I was having an interesting dream, so I fell back asleep) but that's hardly relevant.

I spent half the day (okay, that's been about three hours) looking for my other ball of yarn for Backyard Leaves. I KNEW I'd bought five balls, but I could only account for four, and it's nearly time for me to need that fifth ball. I eventually found it in the small chest in the living room, where I normally just keep video games.

This frantic search made me realize two things: I need a better yarn storage system, and I need to speak to the maids about NOT MOVING MY YARN.

Aren't my Disneyland stitch markers cute, though?

fallin' on my head

Dude, it's raining. WTF?

I have NOTHING against rain (okay, that's not true, I will clariify that shortly). I moved to Seattle after I finished high school partly because it's damp and soggy there. I prefer colder weather. I like to wear sweaters. And the longer it rains here in the fairly unscenic East Bay (Pig Latin for "Beast"), the longer the hills stay green and pretty.

But, DUDE, it's California in the middle of freakin' May, otherwise known as summer! It should be sunny most of the time. How am I supposed to go to the gym and swim and lay around on the deck chairs if it's RAINING?

Two days ago it was so hot out that I had to wear sandals and a sun hat. Yesterday it was somewhat overcast and muggy. Today it's completely overcast, drizzling (which is normally the kind of rain I like (Seattle-style), instead of the normal yucky California rain that falls in big drops and gets on my neck WHICH I HATE.) and icky sticky humid. It's 78 degrees in the house, and I'm about to go turn the AC on. MAKE UP YOUR MIND, STUPID WEATHER! Is it spring or is it summer? Or are we back to winter'?

This makes the baby Jeebus cry.

p.s. I bought some yarn yesterday. It's great. I'm too crabby to knit it right now.

a post by any other name

Chelsea insists that it's Flower Picture Week, and who the heck am I to argue?

This is Evelyn (as in Crabtree and), one of my David Austins. I love all of my roses, but this is my favorite. The crappy photo   doesn't do its luminous color justice, and you certainly can't smell it. This is the best-smelling rose in the whole world. Every time I stick my nose into one of them, I'm blown away by how rich and sweet and fruity the fragrance is.

In which I leave the house

TWO nights in a row, even.

Last night I went out to meet some knitters. It was pretty nerve-wracking, but I figured if Laurie could do it, so could I. There were only two people (they were very nice) besides me at this weekly meeting, and I just could not stop blabbering on and on. Was I supposed to let them sit and knit in peace? It seemed so odd. Maybe I'll look for another group that has lots and lots of people in it so I can fade into the background.

Tonight was our first rehearsal for Miracle Worker. Troy was at rehearsal for his other play, so I was in charge. I knew what I needed to be doing, and I was only blocking three actors, but I still felt like a goofball. I'm not a very good explainer. There was lots of pointing and strange looks.

My shattered nerves need soothing.

The sun's over the yardarm, isn't it?

Is there some pill that I can take which will enable me to decipher IK patterns?

Turn heel: (yeah, yeah)
Row 1: Sl 1, p 16, p2tog, p1, turn (check)
Row 2: Sl 1, k5, ssk, k1, turn (check check)
Row 3: Sl 1, p6, p2tog, p1, turn (your average helper monkey could do this)

Cont in this manner, working 1 more st before dec each row until all of the sts have been worked - 18 sts rem.

WTF? Continue in what manner? Am I supposed to start again at Row 1 and p17, then go to Row 2 and k6, etc? After Row 3 above, the next row should be knit, not purled. I don't understand.

This has annoyed me so much that I've thrown it to the floor and started the second half of Backyard Leaves. Jeez, it's a relief to be working with sproingy yarn, big needles and a pattern I understand. It's Miller Tanqueray time.

stupid economizing!

I always buy too much milk, so this time I got a quart instead of a half gallon (or whatever that size is).

I just mistook my quart of nonfat milk for my pint of half&half. My poor, sweet innocent coffee.

In Which We Do Not Buy a Car (or Knit)

Yesterday after lunch, Rob and I were driving around Palo Alto halfheartedly looking at houses. (We do this all the time. It's cheap entertainment.) Then Rob said "Let's go get a new car."

I *love* Rob's car. It's a 2002 Audi A4, in a delicious deep red color. It has nice leather seats and is comfy and beautiful. Alas, we like it so much that we've put 60,000 miles on it. It's also started making some very odd noises when going up steep hills.

Anyway, we went over to Carlsen Audi and looked at the new Golf A3. We took it for a spin, even. Rob was very impressed with its zippiness. I liked it a lot, but it looks kinda like a Golf. NOT THAT I HAVE ANYTHING AGAINST GOLFS. Golves? Alas, we were not able to find a new Audi that was an automatic (chump) AND had the new fancy navigation thingy. So we slummed it over to the Audi dealership on Stevens Creek.

Oy. This guy really, really, really, really, really (how many 'reallys'?) wanted to sell us a car. We were sort of just exploring our options, but we wound up being trapped there for two hours. Trapped! They had our car keys! Towards the end, I almost shrieked, "We'll buy the car! Just let us out!" but we stayed strong and just kept trying to explain that we weren't in love with the particular car they were trying to make us buy. Oy.

We had to go to La Fiesta afterwards and have a pitcher of margaritas to soothe our shattered nerves.

And that's why I didn't get any knitting done yesterday.

read twice, knit once

I've only been knitting for six months. Still, I have clearly not learned this important lesson: When deciphering and embarking on a new part of a knitting pattern, do it BEFORE you've had your coffee.

Case in point: Boring-Ass Retro Rib Socks. I've only ever made one sock with a turned heel. All my completed pairs of socks have been with a super-easy-put-'em-in-later peasant heel. So WHY, why, why, why, WHY didn't I examine the heel instructions closely before I plunged in (while my coffee was still brewing, no less)? In my haste (and over-confidence), I neglected a line of instruction. "Turn work". Sigh.

I'm knitting my heel flap inside-out. The slipped purl side is on the outside, and the nice stockinette side is inside. It immediately felt weird, but I thought, "No, just trust the pattern." I knitted a few rows, looked at it, scratched my head, drank some coffee, and then looked at the pattern again. "Turn work".

Only I didn't say "fudge".

I do have to say "Curse you, Interweave Knits and your artsy-fartsy narrow depth of field photography. Could your photographer have used a slightly smaller aperture thus letting me see the detail on the toes AND the heels?" But I really only have myself to blame.