another blog post on the price of gas

Or petrol.
Truckers from all over the nation have converged on DC to protest the spiraling cost of gas, and are blazing a path down highway 395, which runs three floors below my office.

This morning I spent $42 to fill up my little car - the kind of price I was used to paying in Ireland. I can't imagine having to fill it up everyday, out of my own pocket, just to do my job.

Desktop nightmare!

Here's a scary sight, from my desk yesterday:Not only is that the nastiest soup in the world, there's a (gasp) empty plastic water bottle in the background! Been a lot of discussion on plastic bottles lately. From The Onion, to knitting bloggers and NPR. Forgive me for being a little fatalistic, but before I go throwing the baby out with the bath water (and also the blue plastic bath, I guess), I'd like to hear a few facts. That's why I was so annoyed with the quality of the interview given by Dr. Michael Shelby, head of the research study that led to this scare, to All Things Considered April 16th last. So much so, that I even sent in a listener comment:

Date : 4/17/2008 1:58:13 PM

I was disappointed in the interview with Dr. Shelby on the safety of Bisphenol A.

The news that everyday items like plastic bottle and baby food containers could be a cause of cancer, early puberty etc. is a headline grabber, but this piece only increased my confusion.

Dr. Shelby may have been the brains behind the study, but needs to learn the importance of risk communication. He provided no useful information on the applicability of the findings from the study, and seemed to be unsure even as to their significance to the average consumer. The obvious question "should I throw away my baby formula?" seemed to stump him - what did he imagine National Public Radio listeners (i.e. members of the *public*) would want to know?

All I learned from this study was that I now have one more thing to worry about. Maybe...

They didn't play it the next day, but they played others in the same vein. Then yesterday I got this response from Kate at NPR:

Dear Denise,

Thank you for contacting NPR's All Things Considered. We regret if our programming has not met your expectations. We strive to offer the highest quality of news and information available. Listener feedback helps us to accomplish this goal. We welcome praise, as well as criticism, and your thoughts will be taken into consideration.

Thank you for listening to All Things Considered, and for your continued support of public broadcasting. For the latest news and information, visit NPR.org. Sincerely, etc.

I realize it's a form letter - but I certainly didn't mean to imply that it was their programming that didn't meet my expectations - And I'm still unsure what to do about all the plastic in my life...

Let's go smell the roses. And pansies.

Grumperina socks coming along slowly but surely. Great colours aren't they? Finally a sock pattern that is interesting to do and let's a pattern show thru a variegated colourway - yay!

The saga continues

Cast off the first sleeve of the purple cardi! Very excited. Took many pictures as proof of knitting awesomeness. Thought shaping looked weird, but eh whatever.

It wasn't till this morning I realized I forgot entirely to do the shaping at the top of the sleeve. In my giddiness at having knit the required 21.25 inches - which coincided exactly with the end of a pattern repeat - I cast off, took pictures, and patted self on back...Just as well no-one's waiting on this sweater.

getting on with it

After some words of encouragement from the talented ladies in Sip n Knit I am persevering with the purple cardi. Feels like I've been working on this forever but actually only since Feb 10th. Am now half way up the first sleeve: both fronts and back, done.

And of course, I started another pair of socks. I planned to make Brother Amos, Brenda Dayne's pattern that she was talking about in the podcasts I was listening to - have almost caught up with Cast On. Then when I downloaded it...I saw the pattern requires Magic Loop - something I don't care to learn as I am very happy with my dpns thank you. Anyone know if there's a dpn version of this pattern? Or maybe I should learn - any converts out there who've adopted Magic Loop and can't imagine going back?

So instead - Jaywalker by Grumperina. I was a bit grumpy myself on the Metro last nite going through the first few rounds of the pattern. Made no sense, not at all intuitive...I was going straight home to see where the pattern errata were I mean honestly how irresponsible to post a pattern with mistakes in it...
Then I realized I'd cast on 2 stitches too few. Whoops.
So it's now coming on nicely. But at 76 stitches around, slowly. Using KnitPicks Dancing in a wonderful citrusy colourway. This yarn is now discontinued so Lord knows how long it's been hanging out in the stash...
Pictures coming - probably :)

Socky

More socks

Finished these Wednesday at Sip n Knit - loved the Panera location also.

Lynn entertained us with her stories, including her curt dismissal of one J. Ashcroft, and we all got to ooooh and ahh at Deb's wonderful CPH! I believe it inspired Harrison to scoot off home and finish hers, so am looking forward to seeing that modelled next week :)

I went home and made DH try them on straight away - success!
And just so you don't think those are my hairy legs:

How do you know your handbag is too heavy?

When you pop it on the passenger seat and the fasten seatbelt light comes on.
I must stop carrying around every last thing I could possibly need to entertain myself: i-pod, crosswords, knitting (of course), book, coupons, wallet, camera, blackberry, assorted make-up, two different hand sanitizers (I am a microbiologist, after all), cell phone, newspaper - and that's just my purse. I also have an overflow bag, ostensibly my 'briefcase' but I don't think it would know a brief if one came up and shook it by the hand. Still - I've been ignoring my weight-training of late so you take it where you can get it...

I was single-mommin it most of last week so blogging was out of the question. One 3.5 year old (human) and 2 middle aged (dogs) require quite a lot of fetching, carrying and toileting. I'm almost to the heel of my second Opal Tucan sock(knitting on train only), hopefully will be ready for the hike that's been postponed a week.



Got a great download from Knitting Daily this week. Although - I may be relegated to knitting socks and scarves forever after what's been transpiring with the purple cardi...ahhhhh, more details when I can face it... ;)



And - in case you weren't one of the hundred or so people I e-mailed these pictures to - Happy Spring!


Pictures taken in SC, by Jodie Lee

lovely stuff

Got some lovely knit gifts this week - a book I've been wanting to read for ages, from my lovely friend Celine, who I haven't seen for 2 years and miss lots, and got myRavelry May Day International swap gift all the way from East London, thanks Estieknits :)
Yay! Gorgeous yarn in my very favourite colourways, some organic black chocolate mmmm and a notebook for knitting notes - much better than the backs-of-receipts I generally rely on :)
Finished one of the hiking socks. It looks real skinny but fits me pretty well - Himself is not here so I measured the foot against one in his sock drawer...And here's my little girl...

Back on the wagon

Here's the most recent pair of socks!

These are for Mr. Needle-dee. He's off hiking in 10 days, so I'm making hiking socks. Size 3 needles, CO 48, 2x2 ribbing for the cuff and 3x1 ribbing for the rest. Socks knit up real quick on such nice big needles :)

Love these colours - this is the Opal toucan yarn.

I love NPR

Usually I listen to an audiobook in the car - I do up to an hour driving on the days I have to commute so I can knock out quite a few books that are difficult reads this way. Today I didn't have anything that I particularly wanted to listen to so I turned on NPR. Love NPR.

This morning they interviewed John Banville, a Booker-prize winning literary author who recently published The Silver Swan, a truly excellent crime noir novel, under the pseudonym Benjamin Black. Fascinating to hear the author's voice reading his work.

Then this evening, they gave an update on the Amazon.com writing contest I was a semi-finalist in. I was weeded out months ago, and today it was announced that Fresh Kills came out as winner. I just pre-purchased - I know it'll be excellent - the competition was stiff after all ;)

Finally - another airing of a story that makes me cringe every time. Today it was announced that Gene Weingarten won a Pulitzer Prize for Pearls before Breakfast, his feature in the Washington Post describing what happened when he convinced world-class violinist Joshua Bell to play beautiful music in a Metrorail station to gauge commuters' reaction. From all I've read on the experiment since both Bell and Weingarten were somewhat surprised by the lack of recognition of the pearls by us swine. Yes, I was one of the 1,070 people who scurried past. In fact - you can see me on the accompanying video of the whole experiment: I was wearing the same jacket I had on today. I remember the day in question: I noticed the violinist because he wasn't standing where the buskers usually stand...and that's about all I noticed. I usually walk up the escalators and always have my ipod on. What can I say?
Oink...

Hmm

So, I was very excited about my new socks...but after wearing them all day yesterday I couldn't wait to get them off. Too too warm. And itchy. I'm not allergic - it's just not cold enough for handknit socks in springtime Washington DC. But, constant readers will recall that I've fairly been stashing the sock yarn...so like I said
Hmm.

I think I remember seeing a pattern for a mitre-square blanket, made with sock yarn leftovers, this might be the way to go :(

Another pair of socks

Finished!

Picture of my gaily clad feet.
Yarn: Schaefer Anne
Needles: Size 0 Bamboo
Pattern: Cable Rib - Interweave Knits Favorite Socks.

10 days from winding to wearing - not bad eh :)

Stitch n Pitch!

Way back last century when I met the young lad who would one day become Mr. Needle-dee, I was a most-unamericanised Irish lass. One of his passions was baseball, about which I knew 2 things. 1. Babe Ruth 2. the phrase 'home run'. That's it. And as far as I knew babe ruth was some kind of cheerleader. When we started dating in the US* one of the first places we went was to Veteran's Stadium in Philadelphia to see the Phillies** play the St. Louis Cardinals***.
Anyhoo, the home team won, and my love affair with the game began. Also my rather one-sided love affair with certain players, but mostly just with the fun of it all, outside on a summer's day, all the stats, the stories, the $7 beers...

And now, two of my great loves are together at last - Stitch n Pitch!
The closest games are:
Nationals June 20 ****
Orioles July 19
Phillies August 5 *****

I'm also posting this on the Ravelry board - but who's up for for it??

*I met him in Ireland, long story
** A pretty shockin team at the time, but they won that game
***This was 1996. Why yes, I do still have the ticket stub
**** in the snazzy new stadium
*****2 days before my birthday :)

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

Planning to go along on the Sunday. This year minus DS and plus comfy shoes. And plus big shopping bag :)

Anyone want to meet up?