The Christmas Eve Post

I have some cool friends.  I mean, how many people would immortalize my family in Matryoshka???  Right down to actual clothing that we wear, and though you cannot see it in this particular picture, my silver nose ring.  Super.

Thank you so much, Kippy.    

Day 20 Nano Count and other stuff I've been doing in November

I had 43,336, according to Pages.  Then I used the NaNo word count validator, which tells me that I have 43,118.  Sigh.  Computers are fickle things.  

Anyway, the writing is going well, except for the sore wrists.  I expect to top 45,000 before the end of today.  

Highlights of this November:

—For the first time in memory, I have written at least one-thousand words every day for nineteen days straight.  

—I had a personal best 6,000 word day on Saturday, beating a previous best of something around 5,000.

—I had a personal best weekday of 4,000 words on Tuesday in response to a challenge from my NaNoWriMo Municipal Liason, beating a previous weekday best of something less than 3,000. 

 —I baked a bazillion (48) rolls for a teacher appreciation luncheon, and resisted the temptation to eat a bunch of them by making the self-promise that I would make more for us.  Which I did today.  Yummmmmmy.  Light as a Dream Hot Rolls from Shirley Corriher’s Cookwise.  Fussy but completely awesome.  

—I started cleaning out stuff.  I gave away all of my homemade cloth diapers (I know that no one around here has used them for a great long while, but I invested a lot of my life in the creation and cleaning of those things and what they wrapped around.  Not easy letting them go.).  Yesterday, I challenged the kids to choose ten things to set free this year.  So far they have come up with four, but they are biggies, including furniture.  Yay for less stuff!  As an added bonus, we have freecycled all of these items and and made a couple of new friends.  Good stuff. 

—We are headed to spend Thanksgiving with family next week.  It’ll be about twice as many people as normal, and I’m expecting both a greater degree of joy and a greater degree of tension.  I’m hoping that this increase in all things will be accompanied by an increase in adult beverages.  

—Our grapefruit tree is blessing us with a bazillion grapefruits.  Which we will carry with us like modern-day Johnny Grapefruit-seeds to give to anyone who will take them.  We hope, when juiced, that they will be able to commingle with some of the aforementioned spirits.  

—There has also been singing by my beautiful children (We’ve moved from patriotic Veteran’s Day songs to festive Christmas songs), as well as a surprising amount of reading from unexpected quarters (i.e. Sonar X3), flu shots, fabric dying, an altogether pathetic amount of knitting considering how close Christmas is,  and a little bit of coloring within the lines (by me).   

I’m having a blast.  I hope you are too.  

MS4 Swatch, Beads Revisited, and K'nex Swift

It’s a lovely rainy afternoon here, so of course, I’m knitting.  

Here is a photo of my MS4 swatch on US size 4 needles.  KnitPicks Gloss Lace Yarn in Celery, with assorted beads.  I’m not thrilled with the stitch definition, so I’m going to re-swatch with US size 2 needles and whatever the new favorite color of beads turns out to be.  Lemme know what you like.

I wasn’t sure where to put the beads for best effect in the pattern, so I just scattered some around.  To the far left is a handful of (juicy) Cranberry beads, then a few Green, then the Yellow (which are totally lost in the lace, and is now out of contention) and then an inch bead-free.  To the right of the swatch is a length of yarn with a few other bead color choices strung on it.  At the top is Blue-Green, which looks blue on the yarn.  Then Orange, Purple, Pink, and Glossy Coral.  We are all liking the Purple and the Orange.  

A smidge bigger.  

Below is the beginning of the Lace Ribbon Scarf from Spring Knitty.  I know this one wasn’t in the plan released earlier this summer, but that just goes to show I’m not very good at sticking to my directives.  I can’t recall what the yarn is and can’t find the ball band.  It is the remainder of the yarn I used on last year’s Mystery Stole.  

And here in this final picture for today, is the result of our collaborative creativity the past few rainy afternoons.  Because I need very little incentive to break out the K’nex and I found this page and this page, which employ K’nex and Tinker Toys to create inexpensive swifts and ball winders for knitters who are either cheap (like me) or only occasionally need to wind a hank into a ball (also like me).  This is the Yarn Swift Sonar X5 and I put together.  We modified liberally.  If anyone would like step-by-step instructions, let me know.  

The ball winder is still in the prototype stage.  Sonar X8 will get back to you on it.  

And yes, yes YES! I finished all three of the Stealth projects I had slated to knit during the Olympics.  They make a funny little set and I will photograph them to share later.  

Now back to the Deployment Socks.  

Walk the Walk

I love my brother.  I want you to love him too. 

PJ, circa 1983

(Dude, I could have shown them the Butt-Crack picture).  

He’s come a long way since that little cowboy.  I’ve taught him everything I could, starting from very early on.  Here I am reading a little Hunter S. Thompson to him and the fam back in the day.

Eglentyne, PJ, Sister-Ours, and the Da, circa. 1980

Seriously, I’m proud of him.  He’s a creative thinker and he’s full of love and humor.  

Go here and read about this crazy thing he is doing.  Then, stop thinking it’s crazy, and do what you can to help him along in his quest.  We all have something that we love and are passionate about.   Explore his cause.  Send him a note.  Buy some of his stuff.  Make a donation.  Meet him in Chicago.  Whatever works for you.    

Love, Eglentyne (Pan Eglentina)

P.S. The chimps and the bonobos will thank you someday.  

P.P.S.  When you’re finished feeling the love, go here and  chuckle at the absurdity.  

P.P.P.S.R.C.Q.  I have totally stolen several rhetorical moves from my brother in this post.  I told you I loved him.