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Had a great birthday yesterday...very low key.
The goodies started with renewing my driver's license. It took all of 10 minutes at the DMV to get it done...what a deal!
Steve came in Wednesday night and took me to a local poetry reading and then we met up with friends at The Globe, a great Athens spot, for drinks and dinner. Very nice!
Steve got me this:
Great stuff!
I also got a new friend who you'll be meeting tomorrow. I think he'll be a nice addition to the blog!
Got my package yesterday--it's like starting my birthday celebration early!
This package traveled all the way from Germany, lovingly wrapped and knit by the lovely Rachel at Have You Any Wool. In the package?
German sock yarn (be still my heart!)! Tasty Chocolates! A shot glass (pass the vodka!)! And the socks....oh, the socks!
The Chutes and Ladders pattern from the 6 Sox Knitalong, done in a merino/cashmere blend in simply elegant grey. I'm in love! Thank you, Rachel, for these perfect socks! They fit great and will be worn an awful lot this winter!
That single word...THE word...was our undoing in Sunday's Spirited Spelloff Spectacle, a local spelling bee to fundraise for the Athens Literacy Council.
My team, The Basement Spellers, came in third.
We had a great time and I even got a bit of knitting done. Want proof?
I have to say, it was exhausting. We made it through 13 rounds...the 14th brought THAT WORD and undid all of our hopes of being champions. We were beaten by a group of reference librarians, so I don't feel so bad.
And the word? Here's a definition.
The House is currently considering regulating political speech in the blogosphere. From MSNBC:
WASHINGTON - Political bloggers who offer diverse views on Republicans and Democrats, war and peace argued on Thursday that they should be free of government regulation.The notion was echoed by some members of the government agency trying to write rules covering the Internet's reach in political campaigns.
Amid the explosion of political activity on the Internet, a federal court has instructed the six-member Federal Election Commission to draw up regulations that would extend the nation's campaign finance and spending limits to the Web.
You can find the testimony from the Hearing before the Committee on House Administration on their website.
This is how it begins, how regulation of speech acts start. Fax, email, write, call. Let your congresspersons know how you feel.
A couple of economists are chatting about economic literacy at the Wall Street Journal. I've read a bit--it's interesting, but I think I'll need the power of garter stitch squares to keep the monkey in my mind occupied while I soak in their words of wisdom.
So, if you're interested in the topic at hand, check out Knowledge Deficit.
I really want a pair of cowboy boots--how did they know?
| You Are Western Boots |
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I finished my Sockpal2za socks last night.
Specs:
Pattern: Retro Ribs (IK Winter 2004)
Yarn: Lorna's Laces in Nearly Navy
I had a lot of fun knitting them and can't wait to wrap them up and send them on their way to parts colder than GA!
I used an Addi Natura for these (size 1, 40") and fell in love--really swooning on that Natura. Precious bamboo with that fab Addi cable...what's not to love? Loathe to part with them so soon, I cast on my latest sock yarn acquision, Opal in the Ladybug colorway from the Rainforest series. Loving them.
Socks are just good.
Thanks Janice for the link!
My sweetie is a knitting machine. Check out his FIRST SWEATER EVER:
It's the KBTH Honey Bearan, a pattern from their archives (which I can't seem to find right now in the vast world of the web). He did a marvelous job. You should all tell him so.
I wish I'd taken pics of his fabulous finishing. Truly something to behold.
Thanks to Chappysmom for reminding me of how much I love Despair, Inc. I really hate those motivational posters that they spoof...these folks really know how to get the corporate snark on.
In knitting news, I'm furiously plugging away at my sockpal socks. Just turned the heel on sock #2 and should be dropping them in the mail Wednesday morning!
On Sunday I began a new lace project: the Forest Path Stole from Summer 2003 IK. We've got a little Sunday afternoon knitalong going at the LYS, and while I don't think this is going to be a breezy knit, it'll be lots of fun with friends around.
California was lovely. Palo Alto was lovely. I'm feeling the essence of lovely still in the afterglow. That's all there is to say about that today.
I caught the premiere of Made in the USA last night. GREAT show! I'm really pulling for the Quad Zipper--that thing is freakin' awesome.
I don't have a whole lot to say, so I've been quiet. I really wish someone would just address the nation and pray.
I went to a poetry reading tonight--great KIP opportunity, but I didn't really have the "right kind" of project to work on. While listening, I came up with three opening lines. Maybe they'll be poems someday...when they grow up.
In no particular order:
I am
knitting
socks
Next:
I don't have to be sexy for you
And finally:
Knitting makes me invisible
That about does it.
On Friday at 5-o-dark-something a.m. I'm getting on a plane to Palo Alto. I'm headed to a Carnegie Institute something or other about grad school. I'll try to keep up with my blog reading and perhaps make a post or two. Of course, I'll be knitting.
On Wednesday, my class discussed a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, "Aftermath":
WHEN the summer fields are mown,
When the birds are fledged and flown,
And the dry leaves strew the path;
With the falling of the snow,
With the cawing of the crow,
Once again the fields we mow
And gather in the aftermath.
Not the sweet, new grass with flowers
Is this harvesting of ours;
Not the upland clover bloom;
But the rowan mixed with weeds,
Tangled tufts from marsh and meads,
Where the poppy drops its seeds
In the silence and the gloom.
The word "aftermath", the subject of most of our class discussion, is generally used to describe what happens after a major, usually disasterous, event. The poem is concerned with the more concrete and literal definition of the word: the second growth after the first summer harvest of hay.
I've been thinking of that quite a bit, of that second growth. The Gulf Coast area, so hard hit that rebuilding seems distant, will repair and rebuild. But that rebuilding, like the aftermath in the poem, will always carry with it a sense of the destruction of this harvest.
On a side note, I was amazed at how well Longfellow's poems at this site mirrored the situation. Good poet, that Longfellow.
Last night Steve took me to a Braves game. We lost, but it was a good way to get my mind off of things, even for a little while. While at the stadium, I knit a bit on my Sockapal2za socks. I'm doing IK's Retro Ribs in Lorna's Laces. I'm ashamed to say where I am on them. I'm taking a trip next weekend, and I anticipate much knitting time. Let's just leave it at that.
I'm also working on designing patterns for classes I have coming up at Main Street. I'm working up an entrelac class and a shrug class and I'm really enjoying working on the projects for them both.
Thanks Margene and Susan for organizing this effort.
