So, I Promised You Pictures

A week or so ago I entered a contest at Romancing the Yarn. (It was a really challenging contest...you had to send an e-mail with the word TWO in the subject line. Hee...my favorite kind of contest. If only winning the Mega-Millions was that easy.)

Anyway, here's my haul.


The yarn is so pretty...very autumnal colors. And I got a book. Now, I think this would qualify as a romance novel...and that's a genre I usually don't do. But on a quick glance through the pages it looks well-written. Her next book, Casting Spells, is about a knitter, though...and knit shop owner...who also, judging from the chapter put in this book as a teaser, has supernatural powers and lives in a town of mostly supernatural creatures. That sounds like fun.

We stopped at Borders this evening to pick up a card and a wee giftie for Barry and I bought myself a present, too.


With all the just-engaged, newly wed and new parents in my office now, I felt I could justify the purchase of this book...besides, I love the Otto the Owl pattern. I may just have to make one of those for me.

And just for fun...another pretty day lily.


Rachel called and she's sick...she's muddling along, quaffing water and snarfling aspirin, but she feels crummy. And I know she's all grown up, but I hate to think of her sick and alone. My baby! (Ahem...sorry, toots.)

Is It Saturday Yet?

I woke up this morning and could hardly drag myself out of bed. It has been very busy at work for me for the past two weeks or so, with late hours and a trip to DC yesterday, and I was fine while the work was all going on. But the event we had been working on was over yesterday (and went very well, thank goodness) and now I just want to collapse.

I am so tired that I didn't even post last night that I had won a blog contest and the prize had arrived. Tonight I will try to get pictures taken and posted. As an appetite whetter for all you knitters, let me just say "Trekking XXL."

Reading A Day Late and A Dollar Short today made me realize that perhaps I have given the mistaken impression that I am shilling for Working Assets. Not because this blog was mentioned at all (I doubt that Evan's Mom even knows about this blog), but because she mentioned those sorts of posts and it made me think. So here's a flat 0ut statement. I received no remuneration from Working Assets in relation to my earlier posts. Unless you count the pretty blue cell phone, but that's available to anyone who signs up with them.

Current Reading

While we were in Fredericksburg over July 4th, I finished Michael Connelly's The Last Coyote. Good ole Harry Bosch. So depressed, so angry. I love Connelly's mysteries. In fact, while we were down in Fred we went to Borders and I picked up another Bosch mystery to read - City of Bones. Haven't started that one. But if you haven't tried Connelly yet, and you like your mysteries noir, he's worth a look.

After that, I read Beth Gutcheon's Five Fortunes. I read the whole thing, sort of hating it the whole time. It's about a group of women, with various problems, who meet during a week at a fancy spa. It follows them through the year up to the next spa get-away. They are all relatively privileged, they all have great successes during the year. It was painless and a quick read -- just sort of stupid. Gutcheon has done better.

Now I'm having great fun with Philip Reeves' Larklight: A Rousing Tale of Dauntless Pluck in the Farthest Reaches of Space. A delightful romp for kids. Set in an alternate universe, during Victorian times, when Newton's discoveries led to space exploration in the 1700's. I loved Reeves' Mortal Engines series, which was for older readers, a tiny bit better than this, I think, but it's still fun. I'll be getting the sequel, which is called Starcross: A Stirring Adventure of Spies, Time Travel and Curious Hats. (I love the subtitles.)

Hey, AT&T! Want To Hear About Good Customer Service?

Y'all may have noticed that my little rant got a comment from Mark Hollis, of Working Assets/Credo Mobile. (Which had my jaw dropping to my knees. I asked if he got to work every morning and entered "AT&T + unhappiness" into Google and checked out all the hits.) Mr. Pointy Sticks and I have been Working Assets customers for 13 years for our long distance...though now, with not many relatives left living out of state, we don't give them much each month. And they've occasionally sent me offers to buy out my contract if I sign up with their cell phone service, but I've always thought that we wouldn't qualify because Rachel and I are both on the same account but have different contract dates and such.

Well, I got a nice call from Scott this evening. (He was calling from Nova Scotia...one of my favorite places...and with his charming "oot" and "aboot," he probably could have sold me the Brooklyn Bridge.) And I am now a Working Assets cellular customer and my daughter will be following soon and, I'd be willing to bet, Mr. Pointy Sticks might not be far behind. (One of the things Scott said, "You've been a Working Assets customer for thirteen years. And that means something to us." Okay, some of that is salesmanship...but he sold me.) I'll pay off AT&T's contract, fax Working Assets the bill and they'll credit my account with the amount I paid, up to $200.

I have what seems like a pretty similar (pretty basic...we're not real high tech types) plan for less money per month. I'm getting a pretty blue phone (a Katana...with a camera!)(and you know it's all about the pretty colors with me). They seem much more flexible. I will have a two year contract but if I want to change some aspect of that contract, I can call or go on the website at any time and make the change.

And a portion of what I pay goes to some pretty darned good charitable organizations.

And this time I got equipment insurance.

The only question in my mind now is if the coverage will be good enough, but since we live in a fairly major metropolitan area, I'm thinking we'll be fine.

So, woot! And thank you, Working Assets!

Go...check them out!

The Yarn

I promised you pictures of yarn...pictures of yarn you shall have!

Here's what I got at the Knitter's Cottage.

Some Opal:


The rather gruff Knitter's Cottage owner/worker was knitting up a pair of socks in this and the colors were just so pretty...I couldn't resist. Actually, there was also a really pretty skein with various blues that I think Rachel would have liked. But this one seemed more unusual. Sorry, toots. Besides you want a sweater more than you want a pair of socks, right?

The other yarn I bought was this:


Noro Matsuri. I have some of this already (in fact, I bought it full price the first time I visited the Knitter's Cottage) in a mostly greeny-bluey blend, and I am thinking it might be fun to do a big Noro striped scarf out of it. It was on sale this time, but not a huge sale....about $2 off. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, as my mother would have said.

And, I think I'll be writing more about this, but let me just say that I am very impressed with Working Assets/Credo.

Hold Your Hats, This Is Going To Be A Long One...

First off, I found out this weekend that my across-the-street friend's husband went into the hospital for a minor surgical procedure and they found cancer. Lymphoma... I don't know much, but if you can spare a good thought for Maureen and Barry, I'd appreciate it.
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I think I've mentioned that when I work on my laptop upstairs in the kitchen I am usually joined by Duncan, sitting on the corner of my desk.

He sits and has even started purring when I pat or skritch him. (He's never purred much for me.) He's a sweetie and this end poses no problems what-so-ever.


This end, however is a little more problematic.


Sigh.
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I mentioned that we went to Fredericksburg this weekend. I visited the Knitter's Cottage there and, yes, I came home with some stuff.

I came home with this Alan Dart book.


Not because I love bunny weddings, but I do like Alan Dart's patterns and they are hard to find, I understand. And....

well....

I fell in love with this guy.


The Lucky Chimneysweep. Isn't he adorable? There is also a wedding photographer, complete with knitted camera and knitted bird on stick.

And I got this.


I would love, at some point, to have all her books. I love her designs. The one that really struck me in this book was this one.

They call this shirt Marya.

And I bought this book.


Not because I want to learn how to knit socks two-at-a-time, though you never know when that desire might hit, but because I've read that the patterns in the book are nice and are useable no matter what method of sock-knitting you use. And indeed they are.


This one is called Belle Epoque.

My socks, you ask? Those green ones? Oh...here you go.


"Wait," you say. (Or I like to imagine you do.) "Weren't you farther along than that? Did you (gasp) have to rip back?!"

No sillies....that's the second sock!


It fits pretty nicely, I think.


It has an interesting, new-to-me toe that is worked in the round.


No Kitchenering! (Which seems a little like cheating to me. But it's handy to know this method if I am ever somewhere without Kitchener instructions.)

During this visit to the Knitter's Cottage, I got to talking to the two women there. I don't know if one is the owner...if they are both or neither one the owner... We were chatting about books and yarns and I showed them my socks. One of the women was knitting a sock in the same yarn that I bought...(oh yes, I bought a little yarn. I'll show you that tomorrow. Or later tonight if I get all energetic.) We were having a perfectly friendly ole time.

Then this young woman came in to ask for some help with her knitting. She was very apologetic starting off...."sorry to bother you....maybe you remember me....you helped me start this and I seem to have made a mess...can I pay you to give me some help?" And the owner/worker who started talking to her was exceptionally gruff and short with her. "Let me see what you've done here...you've probably used the wrong cast on! How did you do the cast on? (She grabbed it out of the young woman's hands and examined it.) No, your cast on is okay but this is much too tight. You knit much too tightly...you need to loosen up. Knitting is supposed to be relaxing!! You aren't relaxed enough!" (She actually went on longer than this...I'm condensing.)

And the young woman said, "But this gap keeps getting wider..."

"There's nothing wrong with this. Nothing wrong! Show me how you knit!"

The young woman took the project and started knitting.

"Well, no wonder you knit too tightly! You're knitting right at the tips of the needles. Don't do that!! Move the material back. Knit all the way through. Push those needles all the way through!! You knit all wrong!"

Okay. She didn't actually say the words "You knit all wrong." But man, that was sure the message she was sending. I almost (and now I wish I had) waited on the front porch until the young woman came out to tell her how rude and abrasive I thought the woman in the store was and not to let them get to her. It makes me very grateful for Tracy and Joyce up at The Black Sheep. They would never talk to a customer that way.

It really sort of soured me on the Knitter's Cottage.