Annie Knits

Ok. That Was Fun.

And luckily, my friend Deborah had the forethought to bring a freakin' camera!  As opposed to me.

And I don't think she'll mind that I stole her pictures from her FaceBook album to post here.  At least I hope not.

Here we are on the way into Game 6 of the World Series here in St. Louis.  As I'm sure you can guess, the atmosphere at this point was a little crazy, but mostly subdued.  It hurt a little to hope they'd win.

By the end of the 7th, the temperature was hovering at 42 degrees.  Knitters represent!  Again I was lucky to have included Deborah in this outing -- she had an extra pair of fingerless gloves (possum no less -- that stuff is warm) and she let me wear them.  Why I didn't bring my own pair is something I can't explain.  Deborah wore her lighter-than-air-Cardinals-red angora kerchief.  I wore my Malabrigo reverse-engineered-from-Elf-the-movie hat.  Perfect.

The 14-year-olds we brought with us were a little shakey under the pressure after Hamilton's 2-run homer in the 10th.  Gawd, what a nail-biter.

And the rest is history.  No body left the stadium until the team was off the field.  So. Much. Fun!

Geezers

Since my hip replacement, I'm feeling my age.  I'll turn 50 next summer, and not only has the AARP found me and begun mailing me enticements to join via snail- and email, but somehow the Scooter Store and several assisted living facilities have decided I need their services as well.  It's enough to make my hair turn gray!  Hah.  David's Design Salon and I have that covered, so to speak.  Thank goodness for Shades EQ.

Hubster is older than I am, though, and will blaze the path for me this winter.  And that is as it should be.  

When we saw an ad that Paul Simon will stop here in St. Louis on his next tour, we jumped at the chance for a date night featuring our favorite mid-town restaurant and this concert.  I've bought fun boots for the occasion, even.  Two days ago, the Wall Street Journal featured the tour (that's a link to the WSJ article).  Mr. Simon is garnering a new set of fans with this tour -- he's 70 this year.  

When the $%^& did that happen?!  The last time I watched Scarborough Fair on Youtube, the guy was 28!  Jeez.  And if he's 70, how far behind can I be?

On the bright side, I always have something to contribute when I find my self in the company of an older crowd (which is more often than it used to be it seems).  I think it makes folks feel superior when they're my parents' age and can ask me how I'm fairing with my hip.  Even though I'm doing just great and when I get asked how it's feeling, I say it isn't because it isn't (feeling, that is... most days I just forget I had the replacement done), it still makes them feel the tiniest bit superior to inquire after my health.  I'm fine with that -- it's good karma.  I hope there's a nearly 50-year-old around to feel superior about when I'm 70.  Heck, 80 for that matter.  Which, all of a sudden, doesn't seem quite that preposterous.

Also a positive is that when you're a geezer, you get to sit in the geezer seats at the baseball game. And they're some pretty damn good seats, let me just say that, in spite of the fact that we were surrounded by gray hair and trophy wives.  The guy sitting next to us had on a World Series ring the size of a golf ball and it turns out that he was a personal assistant to Lou Brock.  How cool is that?!

 We made the 14-year-olds we took with us sit in the nosebleed seats behind the first base foul pole on the 300 level and we took the 12th row seats behind the alphabet rows behind 3rd base.  Whatever that means.  (What it means is that Brother-in-Law had a grab at 4 slingshot t-shirts, one of which practically hit him in the numbers for Pete's sake, and didn't catch a one.)

And, at nearly 50, lusting after Yadier Molina - who had a spectacular game last night and was responsible for 3 of our 7 runs (this is a better link than the last one, I think, and goes to the Cardinals website) - is considered quaint.  In fact, Hubster will even make sure I'm paying attention when he comes up to bat.  I yelled myself hoarse.  Gosh, is that catcher cute!  

I was only disappointed that our rally towels didn't have the Rally Squirrel on them.  

It's the Little Things

And my life is full of little things right now.  Little things distract me.    

One of the things I always ask my knitting students is whether they think they are a "forest" person or a "trees" person.  Whether they like to have the whole picture in front of them, to get a sense of where they are going with a project or whether they like to know the steps involved, the details, and work (and think) in that order.  

I'm mostly a forest person.  Details are fine and everything, but I won't remember or understand the reason for the details if I can't apply them to the project as a whole.  

This applies to more than just knitting too, by the way.  Like, for instance, car buying.  Hubster and I have agreed that I should get a smaller vehicle.  We've even agreed on said vehicle -- an Audi Q5.  

As far as I'm concerned, you don't want to know what all those numbers are that go into the price of the car.  It's like sausage, you don't want to know what goes into it, you just want to appreciate the outcome.  The end numbers this guy quoted were fine -- but he got there with some pretty shady roundaboutation, to which Hubster objected.  He wants to deal with "someone with a shred of integrity."  I guess I'll be walking to work then, 'cause I've yet to buy a car from someone I didn't want to kill at the end of the transaction.

Anywhoo -- this past weekend, Rachel and I went to Joy's house in the country to spin and spend a lovely day. Lots of good food and fiber people.

Rachel's trying her hand at batts -- the above 3-ply is the result of three of her 1 (and a little) ounce batts.  It's a lovely melted Neapolitan ice cream color.  It makes me happy.  I think, though, that I'll have to hand it over either just like it is or knit up as a sample.  

I'd say that I prefer the yarn I achieve if I ply it up using either a traditional or a Navajo three-ply construction.  Once the yarn is knit up?  Like in my Vitamin D?  It doesn't matter so much... but if I'm going to sit around and admire the stuff, a 3-ply is prettier.

Now that's just stupid.

This two ply yarn was born because I wanted to start spinning for another sweater and these plies were hogging up all my bobbins.  It's one ply of Corgi Hill Farm BFL/silk and one ply of a moorit Shetland wool.  Seriously.  And it's killer.  The hand and weight of the yarn is just right.  It'll be nubby and there's no way I could reproduce it, but I have to make something great out of it because it's so soft.  

Yes, I used soft and Shetland in the same paragraph.  The moorit tones down the primary colors of the BFL/silk.  It was dyed in a gradient progression too -- before that was even popular.  I win.

Ok, non yarnies... stop nodding off.  I can tell when you do that.

The trees that have color in my yard so far have the same kind of color.  Red and green.  Here is one of the Oak Leaf Hydrangea bushes.  Beautiful reds and even deep pinks.

And here is the dogwood tree.  Just a hint of red.  

I tweeted this morning that I felt like I was in a snow globe what with the leaves drifting down outside the window.  It's still warm here, but it'll be time for wool wearing soon.  

Yay me again.

Yadier Molina Wins Baseball

I love Yadi.  Husband is aware of my fascination.  It's ok with him.

Yadier Molina Rocket to Second.

That's all.

edited to add:  I sure can't get that link to point to the clip showing his spectacular throw to 2nd in the bottom of 6th.  You have to scroll over to it -- something about throwing Utley out.  Whatever.

Drive-by FO and Weekend Post

I keep thinking I'll have time to post.  I haven't.  Here's a quickie.  Details later!

Download Memo

The MP3 is of Dear Daughter's Pep band this weekend!

Here is my finished Vitamin D.  Hand spun!  Details and harumphs yet to come.