Tuna, Twisted Cables and Tuesday

Well into the twisted cable neck warmer, which is wide enough to require 3 buttons.  I’m using an odd ball of the Premier Yarn Deborah Norville Serenity yarn.  I think they’ve discontinued this color, “Dark Forest” which I think is a mistake, and this is my last ball of it.  SIGH!  It was left over from the hat, cowl and scarf I made for my cousin-in-law SP in NM.  I think I will get it finished in time for the auction at mom’s sekret klub tomorrow, but if I don’t, I may keep it for myself.  Time will tell.  You can see why I got a whole big package of those little stitch markers.  I’ve put a marker at every place I have to do something different, i.e., in between each of the three twisted cables and the four in-between strips, and the two side borders — a total of 8 markers for just 26 stitches.  The markers are tactile as well as visual.  I can feel when I’m coming to one and know I need to pay attention because I’m about to need to do something different. The pattern is easy to memorize.  Twisted cables have a 4 row repeat — with three rows in between each crossing row. (The braided cables have an 8 row repeat since braided cables require a left cross alternating with a right cross.)

In the meantime, I’m multitasking:  Eating (I’m having tuna salad on crackers again this morning for brunch and it’s just nummers.), blogging, and knitting.  One of those times when two monitors comes in handy.  I have the blog up on the right-hand monitor and the knitting pattern and Winamp up on the left-hand one.

My mom’s coming over at about 1 o’clock to get the stuff for the auction, which means I’ll have to get up and go sweep the leaves off the porch here directly.  As mentioned, the wind likes to leave a nice pile of them on the front porch right in front of the door. I’ve been putting it off because I washed my hair this morning and it’s not completely dry yet.  You’d think with 54% humidity, it would dry faster, but I guess not. I packaged the neck warmers all up nicely for her with the paper band off the yarn (which has the care instructions), tucked inside a folded copy of the pattern, slipped in underneath the neatly folded and buttoned article, and all inside a 1/2-gallon plastic baggie. Very spiff and professional looking.

I posted a small stone on my River of Stones blog just now, and got two likes and picked up two followers within 20 minutes.  I may have to start writing more small stones.  Make that six likes.

When I went out to sweep the porch just now (“porch” needs a “u” in it, don’t you think?  Must do.  I keep trying to put one in. . .) the mail lady was by on her pointy rounds and thanked me again for the cowl and hat.  She didn’t want to wear it with her uniform as it would get messed up, but I told her wear it.  If it got messed up, I’d do her another.  After all, there’s nothing a knitter likes better than a good excuse to knit something . . .  although I’ve got a bit of a backlog at present:  A cowl to finish, and another cowl and hat to knit, followed by three large shawls.

When I get to the shawls, I’m going to have to take the cordless drill to my reader’s table.  I adjust it to the correct height, but then it slowly but surely succumbs to gravity.  I tried glue, and I tried mummifying it in clear packing tape.  No soap.  I can see now, I’m going to have to get the cordless drill out and put a couple of deck screws into that sucker. (Yes, I am a toolbelt diva.)  That will need to happen before I can settle down to multitasking in front of the TV — binge watching and knitting, with a lap robe and a kitty on the ottoman beside my feet.  (Fortunately, it’s a largish ottoman, because fat(cat)boy . . .)  Not to mention a carafe of hot tea.  Oh, and speaking of toolbelt divas, I bet I get a piece of glass cut to fit the opening of that durn fireplace.  The damper is firmly closed, but there is still this draft, which is caused, I think, by the metal damper getting cold, transferring that cold to the air next to it, which then, being cold, sinks down and rolls out the fireplace opening — rather like having the fireplace slowly exhaling cold air on you.  Having a ceiling fan in there to mix the air would help, but that’s not likely to happen any time soon since it would probably entail somebody getting up into the attic to wire it and putting in a wall switch.

I can see that the only way I am going to be able to access YouTube on the big TV is to get an android tablet.  I can get to YouTube through the Suddenlink TIVO setup, but I have no way to search for stuff.  I have a feeling the only way I’ll be able to search out those BBC history shows I love is to access YouTube directly through the TV’s WiFi setup, and to do that, I need either a smart phone or a tablet which has a keyboard feature. I’ve already got one picked out.  With cover.  And film screen protector.