KarenJoSeattle

Not a lot, but some progress has been made and life could be much worse

This evening I headed out to my newly reorganized hardware store here to look for the foam insulation sheets Robin suggested in the comments for the a previous post to use as a blocking board for my Mountain colors top-down cardigan. Apparently they haven't completely restocked yet and no foam boards could be had.

They did, however, have packages of a smaller size of the foam puzzle mats I use in Seattle, complete with cute edging pieces. These should easily store here and give me a familiar surface for pinning and drying my sweater.

I like these because they break down to a storable size, the pins stick in easily without going through to the floor, the knitted pieces don't slip, and the foam doesn't soak up the moisture so things dry a bit faster on them.

Plus, in a few minutes I am going to go up and do a little workout and nice stretch on that cushy surface since it's too late to want to soak and pin my cardigan tonight.

I did get the sleeves hemmed after I got home from the hardware store. I'm ready to soak and block first thing tomorrow, given that for me first thing starts somewhere around noon.

Today even at noon I'd barely started at all. I just couldn't wake up. My sister's party was over by 9:30, as Sunday counts as a work night for most of the guests, and we had things well enough picked up by ten. I lay down for a moment and woke up enough to go to bed at 12:30.

Then I just couldn't wake up today. I got the decorations down, but I haven't mopped the kitchen. Didn't I just do that yesterday? And I didn't get out to the stores until after 6PM.

Besides the too much food and wine and champagne last night, I think I suffered from having in the house today too little of the good stuff I normally eat. The cupcakes turned out really yummy, and looked fine with the glaze on them. But cupcakes, even vegan gingerbread with cranberry fig relish spread on one, don't have the same effect as my usual heavy on the fruits and vegetables diet. And alcohol gives me hot flashes, though much milder than the ones I got a few months ago.

When I got home from shopping, I had an e-mail from my Seattle house sitter/Garden Guy. If you missed it, Seattle had a day of snow Saturday; unusual at all and a bit more fell than normal in the usual rare snowfall. Then they had a rainstorm that came second in all time since records have been kept - about 130 years, I think. Six billion gallons of rain, according to this report. And it hasn't stopped.

We had a leaky window in our 19th floor unit. According to the response from our concierge, windows leaked all over the building.

Last year I missed the record wind and power outages; this year the record rain. Here in California we had sixty degrees worth of sunshine today. I think I'll go do that workout and contemplate my good fortune.

Rain, Rain

First I caught the ferry over to Bainbridge Island to go to a knitting circle at Churchmouse Yarns and Teas. Yes, that's rain in the photo; over a quarter inch fell today.

I'm happy as things on Bainbridge didn't get watered when we didn't get over there this weekend.

At circle, Karen Alfke helped me figure out stitch counts for the heel on my current sock. I have 90 stitches at 11 spi. Wendy used 64 or 72 stitches at 8 spi in the pattern for the heel I want to knit .

I think we interpolated pretty well. At least our numbers make sense. We'll see as I just started the gusset increases.

That took all of our time, though, so I still didn't get my Mountain Colors cardigan cast on.

Afterward, we got some some ideas formed on the wedding shower I'm giving her. It has a knitting theme. We're excited.

Then this evening I went to the Seattle Knitters Guild meeting. No photos -- an oversight as I had my camera. Ironic, too, since the program topic was on-line knitting communities and tools, including blogging.

Lizabeth talked about KALs and Yahoo groups. Rebecca covered Flicker and Jessica covered Ravelry. Janine,  Megan, Melinda, and Sarah formed a panel on blogs.

I just volunteered to be a reporter for the newsletter so got to introduce myself. I think I'll enjoy working with these women.

Sticky Fingers

Hotter than usual and somewhat humid describes the weather in Seattle for the last couple of days. In the 90s with humidity around 40 to 50%. Tomorrow holds more of the same.

The speed of my knitting suffers in these conditions.

Yesterday I took a ferry over to our place on Bainbridge Island, my version of commuting. I knit on my Pinnate scarf coming and going.

It felt like knitting in mud. My hands started to sweat as soon as I picked up the piece. I made a fair amount of progress, but with lots of effort.

Today when I ran out to catch the elevator down and walk to my Pilates lesson, the elevators didn't respond to my call. Ditto the freight elevator.

I trotted 18 floors down the usually empty utility stairs with several people from the commercial section of my building and a couple of maintenance guys in a big hurry.

Three fire trucks sat at the curb. I'd noticed the sirens stop close by but hadn't bothered to check how close.

Turned out the workmen doing construction on one of the units broke off a fire sprinkler head. That project seemed jinxed from the start, with ongoing problems partly due to the owners' choice of contractors, apparently. Neighbors on that floor have complained loudly and often, even the mild ones. Still, I wouldn't wish this kind of heartbreak on anyone. They were very close to done.

Anyway, instead of walking, I ran uphill a block and grabbed a bus that would get me there on time, so got in more knitting. I've knit more than 3/4 of the yarn for Pinnate.

But I didn't block my socks.

Sproing!

It's Spring today in downtown Seattle. Cherry blossom petals clog the gutters. Even the most stressed of the street maples show signs of green leaves.

When I walked to Pilates at 11:30 this morning the thermometers read 47, though it looked like it should be warmer. Women's apparel ranged from cabled sweaters and jackets to silky T-shirts, strappy sandles, and goosebumps. I wore the sweater and jacket.

At 5 PM it's 59 and glorious outside. We plan to walk to the Ballet's Celebrate Seattle Festival, as we did last night.

Much more damp gloom will hang around here before summer weather arrives sometime after the Fourth of July. For now, we've shared our rain with Southern California, who needs it much more. And the sidewalks are elbow-to-elbow with people grateful that these little previews of summer happen in the Pacific Northwest.

Spousal-Equivalent tried on the sock foot and declared it to fit. I think I need to add a couple ribs to accomodate his high arch. He'll need them in the leg, too.

Also discovered that his heel is taller than the standard 2 inches. He wants another inch and a half of stockinette before I start ribbing all the way around.

I really like this toe-up sock thing.