WIP Wednesday

The carpet man came and it wasn't as bad as I was dreading. Except they smacked into both my bird cages with the new carpet padding. Didn't even apologize for it.  I put the birds down in the hallway where they would have no business going (the carpet people) and made myself scarce by going next door to the manager for the quarters he promised me.  I knew it would keep me out for a bit as he likes to talk. They didn't clean the carpet as I thought they would, so I'm going to spray my Woolite carpet cleaner on it today.  Tomorrow D will get J to help him put my antique secretary back in place. Then all will be normal in the desert, until the next surprise happens.  I do hope it's not me again.

The birds are put back in the proper place and everyone is settling down for the most part.  Emily can see the old cage from where they are at, for now.  She has attacked the bars in that corner of the cage, like she is trying to get back to her old home.  The very congenial Mr. Bird is happy where he is.  He does seem to miss his buddy Huey, but I think he's happier with Emily.  Huey often liked to bully Mr. Bird and push him over on his back and make Mr. Bird squawk.  I think it's funny that the aggressive birds chose to pair up with the more docile mates.  I guess opposites attract in the bird world.

From Knitting Kitties

Ladybird is checking out the nesting box. I wonder if Huey is trying to encourage her to try again. The birds, they are a work in progress.

I finished two small projects this past week. One was the shawl and the other I'm going to wait until Friday to post about.

Over the summer I spun some alpaca fiber I had dyed to sell a couple years ago. I made it into a nice 2 ply lace weight. It was disappointing the color really washed out and became muted when I set the twist. No clue on the yardage, I was to lazy to measure it. Yesterday,  I attempted to start a simple feather and fan pattern stole. Apparently the part of my brain where reading comprehension happens had shorted out and that person who whispers warnings and advice went into a short coma. (I really wish they would give me the winning numbers to the Powerball.)

From Knitting Kitties

From Knitting Kitties

I couldn't find the stitch pattern book that had the feather and fan stitch pattern. It's either in a box buried or in a box back in NY. My luck it's back in NY, but we won't go there on that one. I did a search on the mighty Ravelry and found this pattern. It says a multiple of 18 plus 6, check. So 18 x 2 = 36, 36 x 2 = 72 + 6 = 78. Cast on with waste yarn, work the first 2 rows, then the pattern row, but I have 6 sts too many. I recount 78, I do my math 78. WTH why do I have 6 sts extra. After five times of ripping and recasting, yes, five. I'm stubborn and maybe a touch insane. At midnight, that person wakes up out of the coma and says hey, read that pattern again, more carefully. I think that may have been when they rewired that impaired part of my brain.

Well, the pattern row, K3, *(K2 tog) 3 times, (yo, K1) 6 times, (K2 tog) 3 times, rep from * to last 3 sts K3.
 I was doing (k2 tog) 3 times, (yo, K1) 6 times, (k2 tog) 3 times then instead of another (k2 tog) 3 times for a total of 6, I was going ahead to (yo, K1) 6 times.
So it was, (k2 tog) 3 times, (yo, k1) 6 times all the way across. Gah! Did you understand that, the mess up I did? I hope so cause I'm not repeating it. So I stayed up and fixed it and on my 6th try I got it right. I did this just for your amusement and entertainment, the staying up until the wee hours part.

From Knitting Kitties

Back when I was in my mid 20's I had a friend that just turned 40. They were into jogging. One day they did twice their normal distance. I said, "You must have felt that when you woke up the next day."

They said, "It's the strangest thing, ever since I turned 40, I don't feel it the next day. It hits me hard the day after that."

Sunday I walked up to Target to get a few things. It's 2.5 miles round trip. I know this because when D came home he said it wasn't that far, so I Google mapped it. I was quite proud I made the trip without the aid of my cane. Yesterday, was Tuesday and I wrote the first 2 paragraphs of this post, intending it to be a different post. That was as far as I got and then it hit me, hard. My muscles, sciatica, low back, high neck all of it, revolted against any further movement.

I'm headed back up to Target, right after I hit publish, for cat food. I think I should write my Friday post on Thursday night, just in case.

When I was at Target on Sunday, I saw this really cute knit cable dress in my Granddaughter's size. It was fingering weight cotton.  The white one had a gold lame thread and the black was just plain cotton yarn. At $16.99, I don't think I could get the yarn and make it for cheaper. I came home and searched the website, but it's not listed. So, I'm going to take my camera with me and try to get a picture. I don't have a cell phone camera. I just hope they don't hassle me about it.

For more WIP Wednesday madness go to Tami's Amis blog, she has a Mr. Linky.  Oh and be sure to tell her Happy Birthday.  The birthday cake on her Ravatar told on her today.