a southern gal in the north

Since this gift has been received by the giftee, I can show it.

Fetching Gauntlets from Knitty

with hat of my own design based on the cables in Fetching.

EXTRA 100% Australian merino wool  (made in Italy!) Filtes S.A.S.  Color 2141 (its a deep forest/pine green – no yellow at all).

you know that achy-drippy nose-cough-stuffy head feeling?

yes that’s me – and its been a humdinger of a week with news of the disappointing sort:

1.  the car that the local mechanic said is great and is in my price range?  the seller is so NOT in a hurry to sell that after not calling him back for a week, she said to call back at the beginning of february.

so that means another three weeks carless AND i should start looking all over again – royal pain when you have to borrow a car to look at a car and ebay listings in my price range all seem to be hours away (well, at least 1 hour usually).

2.  one of the two remaining working cordless handsets is dying (and this model is NOT made any more , i had to search all over to find replacement handsets last summer)

so that means buying new cordless phones for my land-line. 

3.  the upstairs neighbor is pregnant and their bedroom is directly over my music room.

i dont even want to think what this means for my piano practicing/playing

that last one is the icing on the cake…

what to do?

i am going to eat a big bowl of chicken noodle soup

and then drink as much of a honey-ginger-lemon drink to soothe the throat and open those sinuses 

and watch mindless tv (well, after NEWSHOUR and WASH WEEK IN REVIEW)

and use my neti pot

and take the strongest antihestimine i have to knock me out to sleep all night 

and hopefully i can face it all tomorrow.

[where is Rhett when you need him?  sigh]

you know that achy-drippy nose-cough-stuffy head feeling?

yes that’s me – and its been a humdinger of a week with news of the disappointing sort:

1.  the car that the local mechanic said is great and is in my price range?  the seller is so NOT in a hurry to sell that after not calling him back for a week, she said to call back at the beginning of february.

so that means another three weeks carless AND i should start looking all over again – royal pain when you have to borrow a car to look at a car and ebay listings in my price range all seem to be hours away (well, at least 1 hour usually).

2.  one of the two remaining working cordless handsets is dying (and this model is NOT made any more , i had to search all over to find replacement handsets last summer)

so that means buying new cordless phones for my land-line. 

3.  the upstairs neighbor is pregnant and their bedroom is directly over my music room.

i dont even want to think what this means for my piano practicing/playing

that last one is the icing on the cake…

what to do?

i am going to eat a big bowl of chicken noodle soup

and then drink as much of a honey-ginger-lemon drink to soothe the throat and open those sinuses 

and watch mindless tv (well, after NEWSHOUR and WASH WEEK IN REVIEW)

and use my neti pot

and take the strongest antihestimine i have to knock me out to sleep all night 

and hopefully i can face it all tomorrow.

[where is Rhett when you need him?  sigh]

So now I have three nephews – one will be five in a week (yikes) and the other will be three in a week (double yikes) and the third -well, he will be four weeks old next week!

And I am being slowly converted to the … throw it in the machine to wash and dry lifestyle.  I made a gorgeous baby blanket out of Lambs Pride for the newest nephew.  Here’s my sister holding it up – this was the Sunday Dec 17th,  Mr. L wasn’t due til the 8th of January – however in just six days he decided to make his appearance – so fast that they barely made it to the hospital – he was born in the elevator! 

I guess he decided that since there were all these great presents for him, he needed to make his appearance.  Oh and did i mention three hours of labor start to finish!  yeah you can cry now too.

Here’s the rest of the loot from the gals.

So I was in the bedroom the other week and asked why she wasn’t using the really warm blanket – it was one of the few cold nights we have had this winter – and she said – well it was too much trouble to wash it by hand and babies basically wet everything at this stage.

duh.  silly me.

So yesterday I ordered these.  (Joann is having a HUGE sale on them… go find out!)

 Lion Brand Yarn-Wool-Ease Ranch Red

Lion Brand Yarn-Wool-Ease Denim

Wool-ease is a 4-ply worsted-weight yarn that is so beloved by knitters and crocheters that it inspired an entire family of yarns. Wool-Ease is appreciated for its versatility and value. It has the feel, warmth and softness of wool and the easy care of acrylic. It's extensive color range makes it easy to design with and perfect for every project from socks to afghans. We will try to match dyelots, but dyelots are not guaranteed

Care: Machine Wash and Dry

    * Solids/Heathers/Twists/Sprinkles: 3 ounces (85 grams) 197 yards
    * 4"=18 stitches on size 8 needles. Suggested crochet hook: J10.

OK so now I will rip out the lovely aran I had made for Mr W (the 3 yo) and re knit it in the Red – or maybe I will make it into a purse – all I have done is the body but I had already steeked the sleeve openings – so … not sure what to do with it.  But CLEARLY it will be not be worn if I continue with it.

Now as for the TOTEM JACKET – That only has the sleeves left and the ICORD edging – I am going to finish that anyway.  Too  much work on that one at this point.

Oh and I ordered some Patons Classic Wool in Blue Storm for MY Aran sweater.  (remember?  the Welcome Back sweater by Kathy Zimmerman – its in an older post).  I worked on what was going to be the back  but after doing the first pattern repeat of the largest pattern (its the center celtic braid) I realized its about 2 inches narrower – I had already restarted on smaller needles but was still getting a larger gauge so I had figured the small size knit on 6 needles with the Classic Wool would give me the right size – but no. 

The way she wrote the pattern the increases in sizes is about a 1–1.5 inch section.  So after mulling over night whether to rip back 8 inches already – I think what I am going to do is make the Back with two extra sections – one on each side which will give me almost 4 extra inches – a little too much cause i need about 2–3 but better a little bigger.  And the extra section will be one of three alike and can form a kind of centered side panel for the sweater.

ok have to dash – I’ll do a photo later for the sweater issue. 

The Speech

10 Jan 2007 09:56 pm

The premise of the speech, and of the strategy, is that there is a national democratic government in Baghdad, defending itself against Jihadist attacks. The task, in the president’s mind, is therefore to send more troops to defend such a government. But the reality facing us each day is a starkly different one from the scenario assumed by the president. The government of which Bush speaks, to put it bluntly, does not exist. The reality illumined by the lynching of Saddam is that the Maliki government is a front for Shiite factions and dependent for its future on Shiite death squads. U.S. support for the government is not, therefore, a defense of democracy in a unified country, whatever our intentions. It is putting the lives of American soldiers in defense of the Shiite side in an increasingly brutal civil war.

more at link below

Andrew Sullivan | The Daily Dish: The Speech.

Loads of announcements were made yesterday in Italy concerning the 50th anniversary remembrances of the passing of Arturo Toscanini. The late Maestro will be celebrated for the next twelve months throughout Italy – from Venice to Rome to Milan – via a series of cultural initiatives named, “Viva Toscanini” (Long Live Toscanini!). They will recognize Toscanini not only for his extraordinary musical career, but for his fearless, outspoken position against fascism. Take that, Mussolini!

“Viva Toscanini” is comprised of an international committee, led by Giancarlo Leone of RAI national television (and son of the ex Italian President). Others members of the board are relatives of the Maestro (granddaughter Emanuela di Castelbarco), prominent musical historians, conductors, and superintendents of Italian opera houses.

Opera Chic: Toscanini World Tour: Part II.

Breaking News

Met’s New Lepage Ring Cycle to Feature Voigt’s First Brünnhildes, Heppner & Terfel
January 09, 2007

The Metropolitan Opera’s new Ring cycle, which will be directed by pioneering Canadian theater director Robert Lepage, is to feature American soprano Deborah Voigt singing her first Brünnhildes, tenor Ben Heppner performing the demanding role of Siegfried and Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel as Wotan, the company’s general manager, Peter Gelb, revealed on Friday evening at a New York Times panel discussion.

The 2010-11 season — the second season that Gelb will have planned in its entirety — will present the first opera in Lepage’s Ring cycle; a full performance-cycle of Wagner’s tetralogy is slated for the following, 2011-12, season. The Met’s music director James Levine is scheduled to conduct.

Lepage has said that his Ring will be influenced by a particularly Nordic aesthetic, and will evoke the “dramatic and mythic coast of Iceland, a place where the land shook and spoke back to the early Viking settlers.”

“At a time when global warming and climatic change make us more conscious than ever of the fragility of this lonely planet, the Ring’s romantic power to evoke the conflicting forces between man and the divinities of nature makes more than a lot of sense,” Lepage is quoted as saying in press materials issued by the company. “When you stage these works you are not only staging a new production, you must create a new world that explains the old one.”

The Met’s current Otto Schenk Ring production, which premiered with a performance of Walküre on opening night of the company’s 1986-87 season, will be given one more full revival — as part of the company’s 2008-09 season — before it is formally retired.

More information can be found at The Metropolitan Opera.

Opera News > The Met Opera Guild.

i PROMISE.  But here is a preview:

my christmas present to myself – a new knitting book!

more later  – lots of photos, lots of news including the new Knitting Group’s first meeting (it was amazing!).

Until recently I haven’t really done a lot of DVD watching – except for the ones that I make from taping TCM and MIDSOMER MURDERS, POIROT and SHERLOCK HOLMES – and any Masterpiece Theatre that is good.

But for awhile I have been LONGING for a set of films that were made in the 80s (i think) from the Dorothy Sayers quarto of books on Harriet Vane-Lord Peter Wimsey’s relationship.  Harriet Walter and Edward Petherbridge were PERFECTION in the roles and while each film (of the first three books) could have been MUCH LONGER – the adaptations were fairly good.

I have a secret crush on Lord Peter Wimsey – don’t shoot me.  I discovered Sayers while i was working a gillon jobs – actually three – a day job, an evening job and a weekend job – at law firms as a legal secretary for about a year while I was figuring out my next steps in life.  Part of the job (especially eve and weekend) was to sit around – and as there was pre internet (don’t laugh) I read A LOT of books – murder mysteries to be accurate – I discovered Ngaio Marsh and then Dorothy Sayers and then Margery Allingham (note the pattern here).  And then Donna Leon – and well, then I was heavily into the British/Continental murder mystery scene.

Anyway, I FINALLY broke down and bought the dvds of the BBC adaptations.  And of course the place turned out to be one of those on ebay that don’t live up to their shipping promises – after paying for it on 12–22 they were FINALLY delivered yesterday.

I was going to watch the first one tonight and start on the “Welcome Back, Old Friend” sweater by Kathy Zimmerman for ME  – SINCE MY GIFT KNITTING IS FINALLY DONE!  But it was one of those days where I was playing car pool (for my sister with the new baby) and so around 630 I put my head down on the sofa for a little rest and woke up around 930 !

But I am going to watch a little of it anyway – as a prelude to the first of three good nights of knitting to watch them all.   So Delicious!

and it will take my mind off looking for a car (sigh – anyone have a good mid mileage car for $3000 they want to sell?).

gift knitting photos to come I PROMISE.