Now Norma Knits

Just When I Thought I Had Nothing To Blog

I've had a lot on my mind lately.  A lot of good and some not so good. In any event, I've been very busy, and I thank Mr. Jefferies for having learned that when I'm focused on something, he needs to be patient and quiet and let me work. I am not even sure how that happened -- it just suddenly clicked this week, after I remarked to David that he's nothing like Vincent, who would sit quietly near my feet for hours on end when I was doing something.  The little stinker heard me, apparently, and took it to heart.  I have been doing lots of reading and studying and some online testing activities and some steno practice this week, and he's been just a perfect little sweetheart. Yesterday after I had been focused on the computer for a while, I got up to go to the bathroom, and this is what I saw in my steno case.

Wouldn't Ally just die if I opened up my case this morning and out popped Mr. Jefferies?

Abyss

And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. 
Friedrich Nietzsche 

I'm not trying to be deep or mysterious.  I just truly don't feel the bloggy love tonight, and can't seem to write anything.  Well, unless you count that. 

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I wrote that, set the post to publish, and then took Mr. J. out for his nighttime pee.  Directly in front of the door we almost tripped over this:

A while back, people got me nervous about toads making dogs sick.  I still don't know if that is true, but I didn't want to take any chances, what with Mr. J. being so small and this guy being quite large.  I picked him up and put him in the foliage nearby, but he was not having it.   He came right back and tried to get in the door.

He was quite persistent.

He's nowhere near the shelter I built for a toad, but all summer long I've been waiting for my prince a toad to arrive, and maybe he's here.  I didn't kiss him, though, so we may never know what could have been.

(Maybe Not-So-)Random Wednesday

1. It got hot all of a sudden.  I need time to work up to this, damnit.

2. Berroco has a new pattern booklet out, a collection for men by Norah Gaughan.  I am not sure how this got my attention -- maybe via a Google link in my email account or something -- but the number one hit is Kaleidoscope Yarn Shop, my local yarn shop.  So I stopped in the other day to have a look-see.  

I only bought it for the pictures.  For example:

   

I did not realize there was a connection between bullets #1 and #2 until now.  Yes, it did indeed get hot all of a sudden.  Nahhhhh, I don't think there was any cause and effect.

In addition to some great manly sweater patterns, which are always in short supply, it also has some nice-looking unisex scarf patterns:

3.  What else?  I don't know.  I'm too hot to think.  

Terrier Tuesday, The Sleepy Edition

Yo People,

I believe in two things: Play hard, sleep hard.  I go from zero to 100 in one second flat, I stay at 100 for what A.Alpha says is TOO LONG, and then I go from 100 to zero in half a second.

My favorite place to sleep is completely under the covers, spooned up in the curve of A.Alpha's back. She just flat-out refused to photograph that. Prude. 

My second favorite place is on her pillow, curled up against her neck. She took a photo of that, but then got all defensive about her double chin and wouldn't let me post it.  Next, you've seen me there before: her lap.

I'm also rather fond of being in the crook of her elbow:

I find her shoulder works nicely, too, and something about those gmail chats is insanely soporific:

And on the bed:

And, um....

You know what?  I have lots of favorite places to sleep.

I also just sit around chillin' sometimes.  

Like near her feet in the grass:

One of my new favorite places is near the doors with the big glass, so I can see everything that's going on outside.

Am I cute or WHUT?  

Love,

Mr. Jefferies

The Schizophrenic Garden

It's late July.  There are far fewer tomatoes in my garden than usual, though more plants than usual, and not one ripe or even close to ripe.  The zucchini (aka "summer squash") have only just started to produce.  The yellow summer squash have yet to give up even one fruit, and I don't have even one bean yet. 

And yet?  I have a mature winter squash.  More than one, actually.  That, my folks, is just effed up.  

I picked this one maybe a bit too early because I had to rescue the Seckel pear tree from it.  It was really weighing it down, so we'll be eating it soon, and I'll let you know how it is.  I'm betting delicious.  It was grown directly in the compost bin, and there has been so much rain, it should be great. 

In order to "save" the plum tree, I have removed those olive-like green things that were hanging on it and not maturing.  They are a summer fruit, and if they were going to do anything, they'd have done it by now.  So I took them off so that the tree can gain strength before the winter.  Maybe next year.  Grumble.

But I'm certainly not complaining about punch-bowl-size pickings of blueberries:

 This is what was left of yesterday's picking after three gigantic servings were eaten and a quart was given to my neighbor.

Yum.

And in brief knitting news, Mr. Jefferies and his squeaky pig toy would like to announce that the back of the Lush Cardigan is done.

A Long-Overdue Modeling Session For Cookie and Kristen

(Click on the pictures to make them bigger.)

Longtime readers will remember the story, but for the casual reader or the new visitor to this blog, when my friend Kristen spent a year in Moscow doing research for her dissertation, she needed warm hands and I sent her some thrummed mittens that I knit.  She sent me, among other things, this lovely orange Russian yarn.  It is cobweb-weight wool, the kind that is used to knit the famous Orenburg shawls.  Kristen has long since been back to the U.S. now, back in Pittsburgh where first she procrastinated on (but not really), and then she recently obtained, her Ph.D.  

I bought the pattern for the Faux Russian Stole (in the book A Gathering of Lace) years ago at a sheep & wool festival in Upstate New York, but I am just not much of a lace knitter, and it sat undone for years.  So finally this spring I called upon our ever-energetic, ever-talented and giving curmudgeon Cookie in California, who knitted this gorgeous shawl for me in practically no time flat -- and she held the super-skinny yarn TRIPLED in order to do it. 

This blog has brought me no end of wondrously warm friendship stories. I met both of these friends through the blog. Wait, did I say "met"?  Though Cookie has done many, many lovely things for me and we have a very close relationship, we still have not yet met in person.  But now I have this sunshiny orange token of warmth from around the globe.  

I am a rich, rich woman indeed.

Thank you, Cookie and Kristen! 

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Acquisitions

The other day I was headed to get my car washed and discovered that the Ben Franklin Habitat (ha, Franklin Habit-at, haha) store was plastered in "going out of business" signs.  You know I absolutely need nothing from a Ben Franklin type of a store, even if it's hugely on sale, and in fact I've been working hard to unload crap at the Goodwill, but of course curiosity got the better of me.  Because I don't read the papers much, I never know what's going on around me -- it's better that way, trust me -- so I have no idea how long this has been going on, but probably not too long, because though there were some completely empty aisles (I suspect certain departments such as the fabric was job-lotted out somewhere), there was still a lot of stuff left, and the discounts were only 20% off for 99% of it, with a sign that said 40% off books, but there weren't enough left to even bother looking.  And it was not hugely busy, either, just FYI.

Anyhoo, I was tempted to pick up some Cascade 220 superwash in various reds, (they had quite a few) and had some in my hands, but decided that at 20% off, they weren't worth it and put them back. I've always felt 220 Superwash is overpriced, (though it is a nice superwash, I'm just not that big a superwash girl)  and even at 20% off... well, meh.  Instead, I bought regular Cascade 220 in a great brick heather kind of a color.  

Great color, less expensive than the superwash, and though it's not machine washable and maybe a teeny tad less soft, still it'll be nicer and more fun to knit, I think.  Of course it's destined to be another Red Scarf, but that heathery color is going to be so fab I might want to keep it myself.  I am so bad like that.

When Diane H. was visiting a couple months ago, we shopped in Montpelier, and I fell in love with the shop model of this:

This picture does NOTHING for this wrap, I'll tell you.  The shop model is done narrower, with only two buttons, and in a tan color that is 

♪ a-MAZE ♪-innnnng!! ♫.  

 And the yarn is so soft and elegant and drapey, I'm tellin' ya - it's gorgeous!  I tried it on and it looked tres chic and elegant, but I decided I wanted to make it a bit longer (also the narrow version) and omit the buttons, wearing it with a black shawl pin that I also bought at the time.  I had to order the yarn, and it arrived just in time for my birthday (what luck!), and also just in time for the arrival of this stunning wooden shawl stick from My Margene.

I can't wait to wear this.  But of course I'll have to knit it first. Not sure when that will occur, but every time I walk by the yarn, I yearn to knit it, so that's got to be a good sign. The pattern, by the way, can be purchased here.

When I was in Utah last spring, you may remember I bought this wonderful turquoise necklace.  I've been searching ever since for the right earrings to go with, and I was almost ready to give up.  I couldn't find the right disk-shaped pieces of turquoise, the right casual feel, in any turquoise earrings.  Then one night I decided to see what I could find on Etsy.

Hot damn. The color is not quite the same, but they wear very well together.  The only thing that would make these better is if they had matching, but not too matchy, little pieces of those red coral chips dangling off of them.  

I luv these so much I'm hardly even annoyed at all by the liberal use of the twee word "luv" in all of the seller's notes and stuff.

If I Had It To Do Over Again*.... And Great Hand Jobs

Yesterday I was in the bitchiest mood EVAH until I saw this on Vicki's blog:

And then I at least smiled for a minute through my frown.  

Can you imagine getting all the members of your wedding party to cooperate in this?  Do you think they had to audition?  

For his own protection, Mr. Jefferies went to day care yesterday, because I needed a respite day from the terrierist.  Or he needed a respite day from me.  One or the other. Maybe both. 

Yes, I'm still cranky.

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*I probably still wouldn't have the guts to do this.  But I wish I did.

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My daughter loves to go for the shock factor** and announce that her boyfriend gets lots of hand jobs. For this award-winning ad campaign for AT&T, Ryan is the hand model. Of course, the model's name is not mentioned -- only the artist's. But yeah, those are his hands on the sides of skyscrapers in NYC and on taxis and buses and in magazines all over the place.  They just finished a new series not long ago.  Be on the lookout for some new, very interesting things!

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**The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

All That

...and she knits too.

I was beginning to worry that I was .... uh.... simply swatching here.  But I wet it and let it dry, and its size seems to be on track, with a little more room for blocking larger should I need it.  FINGERS CROSSED.

I love the way the darts are designed in this piece -- makes for less severe side shaping.  I'm going to remember this for future sweaters.  

So a little here and there on both the sweater and the scarf, and I've proved it again: It really does add up.

   

I'm almost finished with the back of the sweater, and about a foot into the scarf.  Loving that Jo Sharp Tweed and that Cashsoft! 

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Bloglines has been forsaking me.  (And some other feedreaders, too) At least one of my three feeds has not been updated since June 16!!  I contacted them, but the response was silence.  It's possible that the problem is Typepad's.  I don't have the energy, nor do I care enough at the moment, to track down the problem. I've had similar issues in my professional and personal life recently, and I'm just fucking tired of making phone calls and writing emails of this type.

However, you all know that for at least a year and a half now, I have blogged every single day, right?  So if you don't see me light up in your feedreader, click it anyway.  More than likely I'll still be here. 

A Garden Update

The artichoke is coming along, though I am still fighting against the aphids, and had to resort to spraying it with pyrethrins.  I've never eaten a fresh artichoke before (true story!) and so I really will have no idea, when I eat mine, how it will compare to others.  

The plums look more like gonads olives than plums.  I'm down to about six on this tree, and they don't seem to be doing anything at all. 

The ferns from the old asparagus bed are now taller than I am!  The addition of the rock phosphate to this bed has given it a whole new lease on life, it appears.  The new bed is showing good growth from about eight of the 30 roots I planted.  I hope more will show up, but I'm starting to grow doubtful.

Peppers are not doing well at all.  There are a few blossoms and a few very small bell peppers, but the leaves look weird, and given the weather we've had this year, I'm not expecting much:

 

Pole beans -- vines look good, but no blossoms yet.  Ergh.

The bush beans are blossomed out, looking good!

The broccoli are still producing the perfect quantity of side shoots to feed us and Mr. Jefferies, who gets a small portion of steamed small-chopped vegetables (also alternately carrots, beets, kale, zucchini, cabbage, asparagus, and blueberries, depending on what's at hand) with his every meal, and he LOVES his veggies. 

Tomatoes.  Well, we've got some, and people who come here and see the garden rave that they are doing way better than theirs are, but they are not nearly as prolific as mine usually are by this time of year, and not even close to beginning to ripen.  Some of the leaves have a fungus of some sort, but thankfully not too bad.

The zucchini plant (I only have one) has started to produce.  We had our first zucchini in a stir-fry the other day.  Summer squash has male blossoms but no fruit.  

Cucumber vines are looking lively and healthy, climbing up a bean tower.  There are a few blossoms and a few embryonic cukes, but they're not doing anything.  I think the problem here is pollination, or the lack thereof. 

Winter squash in the compost bin are doing well, but maybe too well -- they have a stranglehold on the Seckel pear tree next to them, and the cedar hedge behind them.  We might get a few winter squash at the expense of losing some trees.  I might have to rethink this.

The second planting of arugula was delicious in a salad the other day, and half of the stir-fry greens were cut but we never got around to eating them before they were all wilted and ruined.  New lettuce is up and looking fab.  

Mr. Jefferies and I managed to get in an hour hike on the hill behind my house in the heat and humidity and voracious bugs, but as I was taking these garden photos, we were pushed inside by yet another torrential rainstorm.

Sigh.