Petunia rambles on and on….

of things I am stupid about is ever lengthening.  Some of the things on the list don’t bother me.   I mean, I know nothing, nada, about astrophysicists or what they do, or where they do it, or what sort of clothing is appropriate for them to wear to work.  (and I don’t care, really)  I can’t perform open-heart surgery on anyone, again because of my lack of knowledge – and that doesn’t bother me either.

I don’t have a problem with saying, “I don’t know squat about that.”  With as much practice as I’ve had over the years, well, I admit, I get better at admitting my dumb-factor every day.

Still, there are some things, some issues, where my lack of knowledge, training, or sometimes, just good sense, really aggravates me.

So, without further ado, I must, here, publicly admit, once again, that I am a dummy, and also publicly say that the Etsy Shop Knitjewelry is great to deal with.  I ordered a “knitting bracelet” from Tricia, who makes and sells all sorts of goodies at this site.  I picked out one that is green (my birthstone is Emerald for May) and it has a wee pendant of a dolphin hanging on it.  Well, my oldest son is a dolphin freak, the team, the animals, he goes overboard.  Green.  Dolphin.  Oh, it called out to me, and of course, I answered.   Tricia prompted sent it out, it is lovely, well-made, and exactly as described.

Isn’t it beautiful?

And I’ve gone back to her site countless times, and I’ll be damned if I can figure out how to leave the Positive feedback that she deserves.  I’ve read other feedbacks, and found a picture of my item, with the proper transaction date.  And I’m not exactly a computer illiterate, and this is really bugging me.   If anyone knows  Tricia, tell her I’m dumb, sorry, and happy with my purchase.

Trees and plants are starting to bloom and lots of pretty flowering trees are showing their stuff.

But the one in my front yard is still just sticks.  And one weird bird that shows up now and again and keeps eyeing the dog.

Maybe it’ll look better next week.

Knitting Stuff

I think the pattern for the front and back of Pop’s gansey-like sweater is ready to go.  Or at least, I’m ready to get started on it!   At some points in the designing work, I had the Excel cells very small, in order to get all of them on my monitor screen at once, so that I could check for symmetry and balance of the individual patterns that make up the overall design.  But that was way too small for me or anyone else to work from.   I was able to enlarge it so that it would take 4 sheets of standard printer paper to print it out.  To start with, I’m just using the bottom two, taped together.  (They won’t stand up to the handling that ‘ll be done while I knit all the stitches, but it’ll be simple and cheap to print out more copies!)  I did color the vertical center stitch yellow on the chart, to help me keep my place.  And a highlighter will mark my progress up the rows;  I’ll be slowly coloring them in.

I’ve completed the 2×2 ribbing, done the needed increases, and got the first row of the pattern done, counted correctly!  I used LOTS of little ring markers, to indicate the left and right sides, and all the stitch pattern changes across.  Hopefully, this will keep my knitting on track until the pattern becomes more obvious.   The 2 purl stitches between where the cables will be are barely distinguishable now but will become very obvious in just a few rows.  I’ll be able to lose a lot of these markers soon.

It’s KnitPicks Swish DK in color Nutmeg, and I’m using an Addi Turbo circ, US Size 5.  I’ll switch over to US Size 6 to get gauge on the next row. 

Right now, the rings slow me down as much as the pattern does!   Should get easier soon.

My son sent me this link today:

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/15845851/detail.html?taf=bal

It tells of a vehicle accident on a bridge that he goes over almost every day commuting to work.  The car was hit by a tractor-trailer ON THE BRIDGE, and then it burst into flames.  A narrow bridge.  My son knows I am terrified of heights, do not like bridges, do not like riding over bridges, do not like driving over bridges, and now, I don’t like the idea of him driving over bridges, either.

There are several ways of driving from my house to his, a trip that takes about an hour and 15 minutes.  He frequently tells me, “Mom, don’t ever come up from Chesapeake City and go over the canal bridge there.  You’ll freak at the top.”   He’s right, and a most concerned son.

The response I sent back to him was as follows:

Is it possible to die from shitting yourself so very much in a VERY short period of time that you turn yourself inside out and then suffocate  That would be me, the blue one.