Oy!

Well, we're back. A bit battered around the edges (despite the luxurious plane accomodations), having entered/experienced 34 houses in two days (including interacting with one estate agent who later referred to us as "that nice Aussie couple !???), but with a short list, neighborhoods and schools considered, and an offer made. Now we just wait and see what happens with that, but it looks like the ludicrously fast-moving corporate moving machine is cranking along.

I did very little knitting while we were gone - half a sock foot done on the flight over before I had to fall asleep, a bit during the week, and nothing on the way home, since Heathrow is notorious for not allowing knitting needles on the planes. I decided that, although I received several very good suggestions about how to get my needles onto the plane (ehem, Heathermione I'm talking about you), it was the better part of valor not to piss off the British version of TSA if I want them to let me back in to the country.

Since I have no knitting to share, I will give you a brief tour of BA's first class and business class cabins, plus the wee bit of sightseeing I did in town on Wednesday morning. There will be craft goodness later in the week, but it's not mine - it's my Mother's (I put her to work while I was gone). So sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight.

Ironman settling in for the arduous journey across the pond

My personal entertainment system, and

seat controls. Please note glass of vino and cashew/macademia nut snack. We hadn't taken off yet. And yes, I did feel like the world's biggest tool taking pictures of this stuff. However, I did not let that slow me down too much. As you can see...

...because I took pictures of the bathroom. Sad, isn't it?

On the way back we had to "settle" for business class, but the trauma was mitigated by the fact that we were on the upper deck of the plane. You know, one of these planes.

The view from the top floor.

Instead of facing the same direction as on the outbound flight, we were forced to face each other, a situation that had my lovely husband playing with the privacy screen for more time then was strictly necessary. I watched 3.75 movies on the way home and read my latest airport book. Sadly no knitting, otherwise I would have a finished pair of Science Geek socks.

Time to continue my battle against jet lag, so I'm off. More crafty stuff on Wednesday. Ta ta!

Delayed Fiber Friday: Night Sky

Fiber: Superwash BFL, colorway "Night Sky", Hello Yarn Fiber Club, December 2009
Spun/plied: 10:1, ST folding Lendrum
Yardage/wpi: 245 yds, 2 ply, 9-10 wpi (bulky weight).
Comments: Devil and I sorted through my fiber stash last week to finish taking some pictures for Ravelry, and I actually opened the bag and touched this stuff. It was so soft that I started spinning it that night.

I've found recently that my motivation to do much pre-spin prep has been non-existent. So I split each 4 oz piece of top in half and spun straight from the end. I wanted a lighter yarn (poofy-er that is) then I usually get spinning worsted, so I made a conscious effort to not smooth too much with my front hand. I spun one half from each of the two 4 oz lots I had on to separate bobbins in the hopes that the colors would line up pretty well with a minimum of barberpole.

I only had to splice a couple of times on the second skein, so I'm pretty pleased with it. There's some barberpole, but only with complementary colors, which is what I was looking for.

So now I have three of X spinning projects done that I need to complete before April. I think I'll be getting back to the wheel in a serious way as soon as we get back from London!

Happy Birthday Charles!

I am busting out of my thrice-weekly posting schedule (had anyone noticed that?) to wish Mr. Charles Darwin a very happy bicentennial birthday. As one of the parents of modern biological thought, he is a hero of mine (although I have yet to read either The Voyage of the Beagle or On the Origin of Species - must work those in to the list by the end of the year). And I am amused that my current sock project is somewhat applicable.

I guess these would be even more appropriate for Dr. Mendel's birthday, but his bicentennial isn't until July 20, 2022. By which time these damn socks had better be done!

On the docket tomorrow: yet another Fiber Friday post. 8 oz of superwash BFL spun up in three evenings makes for a happy Porpoise.

Alliejay is not the only one with hat issues

A few weeks ago, one of my knitnight buddies finished a hat* on a Thursday evening a few weeks back and tried it on. She has now learned how terrible an experience that can be, since the reaction was "That looks like a foreskin." (Nice girls we are, really. Come join us!)

I have the long lost sibling of The Foreskin Hat. Allow me to introduce you to The Condom Hat:

Or The Booby Hat. Whichever you prefer.

Oh dear. This is the second iteration of My So-Called Hat, and it's not really going according to plan. I started the seaming, took a look, stopped and said to Ironman, "What does this look like to you?" You can guess the rest.

Riiiiiiiiip. Thankfully not much reworking was required.

Pattern: My So-Called Hat by Becky Herrick
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted, in Bobby Blue, less then one skein
Needles: Initially US 7/4.5 mm, but US 8/5.0 mm were the way to go.
Start/finish: I started the initial incarnation over the Christmas holidays (12/27) and finished with Version 2.1 on 2/9/09. If I had worked on it more devotedly, it would have been much faster (Version 1.0 was done in 2 days if that gives you a better idea of how long this hat could take).
Comments/mods: I may be the only person in the Knit-verse who has not made My So-Called Scarf, so I had lots of fun with the stitch pattern. For Version 2.1 I cast on 134 stitches (2 more then called for in the pattern) so I could work a 1-stitch stockinette selvedge to make for smoother seaming at the end. There was also a mistake in the original pattern that called for working a turning row and then starting with the wrong side pattern row. This would result in a hat that has the right side showing on the brim and the wrong side showing on the rest of the hat. So I started with the right side pattern row and it came out fine.

To de-condomize the top, I ripped back to the second-to-last set of decrease (I think I had ~30 stitches) and worked p2tog all the way across on the wrong side. At that point I had in the neighborhood of the right number of stitches, so I just broke off a long tail of yarn, threaded it through the live stitches, and used the end to mattress stitch the seam.

Voila!

Yikes! The iMac cam is no good for nightime photos. The true color is somewhere in between these two.

So now I have one new warm blue item to wear next week. Manon has a body but no arms. If no one talks to me on Thursday night I might be able to get them done by Saturday, but I suspect I will be knitting sleeves on the plane. Hopefully my fellow first class** passengers won't be too worried about my terrorist tendencies.

* She has now fixed the problem and has a lovely beret. And a new pair of socks!

**I have never flown real first class in my entire life, and I am disturbingly excited about it. Now everyone think happy, buoyant thoughts for oil prices so this move actually comes through, 'kay? Thanks!

I shudder to think of the therapy bills

that will result in my future because of the pictures I am about to show you. But so be it. They are too good not to share.

Wednesday morning, I noticed when Boo woke up that her right eye looked a bit swollen. Sure enough, someone (damn February mosquitos!) had bitten her right at the corner of her eye, and her lower lid was reacting in typical Boo-fashion (welt, welt, welt!). I didn't think much of it until I picked her up at school.

This is how she looked when we picked her up on Wednesday night.

Mosquito: 1, Boo: 0

The next morning it was even worse, Benadryl not withstanding, so we made an appointment with the doctor. One ped visit (complete with every parent's favorite words: Staph infection), and one large bottle of antibiotics later, we had this:

And as of Saturday morning, her eye looked totally normal, if a bit discolored around the edges. Poor thing. Thankfully she didn't seem at all bothered by the fact that her binocular vision had disappeared overnight. Or that she looked kind of freakish. In fact she took great glee in going up to unsuspecting people, sticking a finger in her right eye and shouting "Skeeto!" It worked better while it was still visibly swollen (the cashier in the grocery store yesterday just smiled and nodded).

Thankfully, Boo had some new socks to console her in her time of travail:

Pattern/yarn: the same as Devil's pink girly socks, only using Grumperina's helical stripe technique and two shades of Kool Aid dyed Knit Picks Bare sock yarn, dyed in Fall, 2006.
Needles: US 1/2.25 mm
Gauge: 7 sts/inch
Comments: Socks for the girls are my new love. Fast, sweet, and they use up yarn amounts that are silly for almost anything else. I'm still hoping I'll finish the geeky nerdo genetics socks by the end of the month, but in case I don't I've got February's pair covered.