Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

Been knitting a Santa hat the last couple of days. Chunky yarn and an easy pattern (1×1 ribbing for the brim, and all knit stitch for the body), so it’s been knitting up quickly. Unfortunately the pattern underestimated how much yarn I’d need, so I’ll have to run down to Dupont to get another skein of the red for the body so I can finish it. Might get three more (2 red, 1 off-white) and then I’d have the option to knit a second one if I got the bug.

We got our photos done for the Xmas cards this morning. Then home for a brief rest and off to see Wicked, Part 1. It was really, really good. They went back to the book to flesh out some more of the stories, and it felt like a movie, and not like a stage show that was badly adapted to moving pictures (like so many movie musicals do).

More work on the shawl I started back in October. Hoek, from West Knits, in the discontinued Legacy color way from Neighborhood Fiber Co. out of Baltimore (stash pic here). First time back to see the guys in the DC Men’s Knitting Group since before I dislocated the knee last year. Made good progress on it, both before I left, and at the local yarn shop where we met.

I think I’ve broken my yarn pull-ball winder. I suspect it’s fallen out of the closet one too many times and knocked something out of whack because last night the second ball of yarn in a row just thoroughly fucked up and did not wind correctly. Thankfully this time I managed to ‘wind’ it completely so I was able to then convert it to a regular round yarn ball without any tangles, but I’m definitely not a fan of those.

Finished the husband’s fingerless gloves last night, wound up fresh yarn, and cast on my first shawl. The shawl had an interesting garter tab cast on that had you knit up several rows, then turn the work to pick up stitches on the edge, then turn again to pick up along the cast-on edge (so it stretches out/bends the original few rows). I’m at the point in my knitting where I like to switch back and forth between “let’s learn something new” (the brioche hat, this new shawl) and “let’s do something easy” (the fingerless gloves).

Oh, and I finished the latest Wooble amigurumi this week, JoJo the Bunny. He’s so fat. LOL Next up is a fox, and hopefully I’ll get better at more consistent stitches with the practice.

In the meantime I turned 52 last week. I was thinking about that and about my work anniversary and realized that come December 1st this year I will have worked for half my life as a Federal employee. And don’t think for a moment that I won’t pull that out in meetings. LOL

I have never had such a hard time with a skein of yarn. Tried to wind it up into a pull ball and the damned stuff just would not stay in shape. There was much cursing and screaming involved because it fell and got completely tangled up. Ended up having to sit at the table to untangle it all and wind it into a traditional round ball of yarn, because that was the only way I could get it all to stay together. Gorgeous stuff, but what a pain in the ass. And there’s another skein I’ll have to roll up later, as I don’t think one skein will make both the fingerless gloves I’m going to make out of this mess. What a royal pain in the ass.

Finished the endless scarf yesterday, but not without some screaming. With 2-3 rows left to go I dropped a stitch and it quickly dropped down 6-7 rows as I was trying to stop it (I needed to turn the work to grab it properly). No one else was home, so I let myself scream in frustration. Managed to finally grab it and crochet-hook it back into place, along with much swearing. Bound it off, weaved in the remaining ends, and done.

Today I’m starting a short scarf, but one with a new-to-me i-cord cast on, and with a more detailed pattern that will involve more counting of rows. And bigger needles (US6/4mm, versus the US4/3.5mm on the endless scarf).

That’s about what I estimate I have left to go on the endless brioche scarf. I can definitely say I have brioche stitch down now, at 60 inches/152 cm or so of scarf done. About 2.5″ left to go and I can bind it off, weave in ends, and enjoy the softness of it all.

Did I mention it hit almost 100F/37C here today? Perfect scarf knitting weather. Ha.

Knocked out about 2 hours of knitting this evening while watching Atlas on Netflix. Not a bad movie, fun premise, good background noise for knitting. The lumos & lumos neck lamp I grabbed last year was a great investment for couch & TV knitting. Would definitely recommend it. If you do decide to order one, in my experiences buying from them (more than once; picked up some for my nieces) they always offered a light at 50% off after I checked out the original order, so if you’re looking to get more than one keep that in mind. And there are always coupons, so never pay the full list price.

Have been dealing with some shoulder/arm issues related to posture/positioning while gaming, knitting, and computing. Strengthening stuff has helped a lot with that. And since I’m finally getting back to being able to jump rope on the knee I dislocated last year adding the strengthening has been a natural progression. Making sure I move more often while doing those activities has also been key.

Work is going. I’ve used this relatively quiet pre-holiday week to clear out some longstanding projects. Haircuts over the weekend, and visiting with one of the husband’s new coworkers and his family. Then probably being a lump. And maybe, just maybe, finishing this scarf.

The last two weeks or so I’ve been on a ‘straightening up’ kick. Not consistently, and not every day, but I’ve gone into a couple of ‘okay, it’s time to fix this area’ moods. I’m pleased with the results, for the most part, but there’s always more to do. The problem with having hobbies and enjoying collecting things is finding ways to store and display said things without driving yourself crazy. Today I put some things I needed more readily accessible in better places, moved a table out of my office, found a set of crochet hooks I’d forgotten I’d bought and put them with the other needles, hooks, and notions, and made a mess of my work desk.

I finished another hat, the “ziggity slouch” pattern from Stephen West in Hazel Knits Ruby Love yarn. Like the last hat of his I did the yarn count for my gauge was off, so I had to cut the last repeat in half in order to have enough yarn to finish it. Nevertheless I like how it came out, and I’m looking forward to wearing it this winter. I was going to queue up another hat of his with a green yarn, but then he announced a new e-book of ‘small shawls‘, and the first one was the same Dustland pattern that I was going to use for the hat, so instead I’m going to do a small scarf/shawl instead. It’s going to use the same start for the blanket kit I have from him (an i-cord cast on) in miniature (3 versus 303) which I’m looking forward to trying.

Despite getting that set up, once I ran some errands I got sucked back into re-playing the Darksiders series of video games, because the studio teased a new game this week. I finished the first two games, but not the last two, so I thought I’d play through them all. I just finished Assassins Creed Mirage, making it a good time to plough into something familiar and fun.

Installed an AquaPurr water fountain for the cats in the little bathroom off my office. It’s the faucet they would beg me to turn on at various times, so now they can do it themselves. It took some wrangling to find the right size adaptor, but the owner of the company was very helpful via text and email and I got it all sorted. They like it, but I’m not sure they quite get that they can do in and use it any time without me needing to be there; I usually have to encourage them to get up on the counter and approach so the sensor turns the water on for them.

Started another hat for Metro knitting, and have actually done some of it on the Metro, but more of it at home. I’m going to work up some knitted dishcloths for the Metro now because I need a couple gifts for my PT shop. When I stopped going for my knee it was kind of abrupt and I didn’t feel like I got to give them a good thank you and goodbye. I went back this week to address some shoulder tendonitis (probably brought about by “aggressive knitting”, at least that’s the story I’m going with, from working with speed on the brioche hat) and I thought it would be fun to gift a couple dishcloths since being able to knit without pain is a big part of why I’m going. I’m only doing one more appointment with the PT in three weeks before I go back to see the orthopedist for a follow up a week or two after that, but that will be plenty of time to whip up a couple fancy looking dishcloths. I’ve done a couple here for myself and I use them regularly, both as dishcloths and to pick up hot lids when I don’t feel like reaching for something heavier. I’ve got plenty of cotton yarn in a couple different colors at the moment, so I don’t even have to go get any more supplies. Perfect.

We did, in fact, settle on “silent migraines” as the cause of the incidents I had from early December of last year through mid-February of this year. None of the blinding pain, but some of the side effects that mimicked stroke symptoms (dizziness, numbness). The two ocular migraines clinched it, since there was no damage present on any of the imaging we did of my brain. Bodies are such fun.

Did not make it through to interviews for the Deputy slot this go round, and after they failed the search for other reasons I chose not to re-apply when they re-issued the announcement. I think they’re at the interview stage, but I’m also not participating in that process (staff frequently helps out with resume review and/or interviewing candidates, and other attorneys are doing so). At this point I’m going to hunker down in my nice little mostly apolitical agency and see what November-January brings. Depending on which way that goes I may decide to look elsewhere or I may just settle down and decide that they pay me well enough and I can focus on other things rather than worry about supervising again.

The knee is better, but still not to running stability. I’m slowly increasing walking speed, but it still has stability issues at times when I turn corners or the like. I’ve used a set of ropeless jump ropes a few times to test the boundaries of how much I can bounce on my feet. That, in conjunction with biking and walking, is my exercise these days.

Took a knitting class on basic two-color brioche knitting and finished a hat this past week, in record time for me (a week!). Pictures over on Flickr, as well as some of the long fingering weight single-color (at-a-time) brioche scarf I’ve been working on since (checks Ravelry) February of last year. I’m on the last color block of four for the scarf, so almost done. I have another scarf on the needles for Metro knitting, and a hat and a blanket in the immediate next queue. I took a crochet class back in March to get some hands-on help and learn some of the basic steps there, but I haven’t done anything past the first project yet. Will probably try and whip out some dishcloths first.

I checked my work phone this morning, mainly to look at scheduling, and ended up taking care of two “emergencies” that people were hopping about this morning, then promptly dumped it on the charger to ignore it once more. They can have my time when I’m back on the clock Wednesday. I did end up having to reschedule a doctor’s appointment because the original one is on the day they chose for out office holiday party while I was out on break. No biggie, thankfully. Still need to find out when my current 90 day full-time-remote status dies (next week, I think). I think I’m capable of commuting in now, but I’ll make sure to take the crutch with me for it.

Ortho at the end of the week. Vet for the cats tomorrow. So I’ll be working Wednesday and Thursday, but off the rest of the week, added to the week off last week. Has been a nice break. Knee is progressing still, but definitely not back to normal. I’m able to bike on a stationary trainer now, so that’s becoming my default cardio. The new Garmin GPS watch I bought in August for running works well with the bike accessories, so at least that wasn’t a total waste.

Desperately behind on comics. Like dozens of issues behind at this point. Even reading 4-5 a day I’m still falling behind because of the backlog. Clearly we have a comics problem.

On the third color of my four-color brioche scarf, finally. Just in time to get more yarn for a blanket the husband asked for (which I’m glad I grabbed, because the plum base he wanted is not showing as available any more on the site).

Xmas is all up, and we’re the envy of our street (which apparently got me added to a group text that I hadn’t been on before). Added some strings going from the roof to the group floor, framing the house and windows (lines from the balcony edge straight down to the top of the garage/front door), and some blinking rainbow candy canes for the front walk. And a manual timer to turn them on at 4:30pm and off at 7:30am, roughly around dusk and dawn.