Musings on This and That

Not a lot of new knitting to show. I finished the orange socks. I took them to Unwind on Friday for help with Kitchenering, but the clerk is a newish (though very talented) knitter and hasn't done any socks or Kitchener stitch. So I sat down and kept doing those toes over again until I got them nearly right, at least right enough to stop. The socks left here a little while ago, on their way to San Francisco via Priority Mail. I attached a good length of the sock yarn and a darning needle to each pair, for future darning and repair.

I nearly finished the other side of the EZ Ribwarmer; there's no picture since it looks just like the first side. But it was a great item to knit Saturday afternoon while watching Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet in 'Sense and Sensibility' (1995 version) via TiVo. Hugh Grant spends the entire movie with his shoulders hunched up and held stiffly. I wonder if it was the way the coat fitted him? Not his best role, IMO. The nasty step-sister-in-law is played perfectly by Harriet Walter, who was so wonderful playing Lord Peter Wimsey's great love, Harriet Vane, in the 1987 BBC-TV versions of the Dorothy Sayers mysteries, 'Strong Poison', 'Have His Carcase' and 'Gaudy Night'. The big link is to the boxed set at Amazon.

This and That
Sweater stones work -
I got big handfuls off my Highland Triangle Shawl - but the rotten-egg/sulfur smell, ick! This is a reminder that the 'stone' is volcanic, pumice to be exact.

Online shopping math -
On Thursday, I decided to order a couple of the new needles from KnitPicks, who have upped their free shipping amount to $45. Found myself adding to the basket, nearly $25 worth, to save $3.79 shipping. Sanity caught up to me and I'm paying the shipping but only ordered the $18+ I really wanted.

BTW, they are discounting their KIP totes as separate items, but the set is still $49. Huh??

The needles arrived today, and I'm happy with them, but they won't replace either my beloved bamboo circs or my Denise Interchangeable Set. The 16in sock-sized needles are particularly nice, in that the tips are shorter than the interchangeable tips, and fit more comfortably into the smaller circle. I also bought the smallest KIP tote; hard to resist at $10, though it is singularly underwhelming. It's a small fabric/vinyl handbag, rather frumpy in design, but a good size for small projects. I'm thinking with it being a zip-top tote, it will be better for holding my "emergency" knitting in the car than my present open-top tote. And the material of the tote is dirt-resistant, another good thing for car totes.

Skacel Addi Lace Needles
Unwind had some of these in stock on Friday, so I picked up one, though they only had the 32in length. Lovely needles, and they are not as slippery as the regular Addi Turbos. I haven't really worked with it, but I'll report when I have. Price is quite ouchy - $16.50.

Reading
Most of the weekend was spent deep in a newish trilogy from Nora Roberts, called the Circle Trilogy. This one starts in Ireland but then jumps to a mythical land called Geall, where an army of vampires must be defeated on behalf of all the worlds. Lots of Nora's usual great characters and rather steamy sex. But a nice plot line, assuming you can believe in vampires and sorcery.

Wendy Johnson (Wendy Knits!) explained how she manages to read and knit at the same time. Not too surprisingly, she knits mostly by touch. Well, *that's* a few more years of knitting in the future for me, and perhaps for most people. I've been wondering how she and others manage the two at once.

OK, back to some knitting interspersed with some long-deferred bookkeeping. Ugh! The bookkeeping, not the knitting, of course!