JenLa

I’m putting off our host move because I have a feeling it’s going to be hard and I’m a wimp. Instead I’ve been knitting and trying to chill from the aforementioned dramas, some of which seem to be settling. Certainly the coyote hasn’t been back (yet) and all llamas have remained contained by their fence. Aside from the knitting, here’s what else I’ve been up to. Or, skip my terribly interesting life and scroll down to the FO pic. See if I care.

I followed Evilsciencechick’s link on how to boost your WiFi signal and while I was there I found this link on how to clean up your iTunes library. Am I the only person who hates iTunes, by the way? I’m not about to get into a mac vs. windows argument, here, but I think that many features of the iTunes program could be better.

For the first time ever, I got a message asking for permission to use one of my flickr photos. Who knew there were still honest people out there? This person wanted to use one of the goat photos on her site designed for autistic children. Permission granted, natch.

Over there in the side bar —> I’ve started a page called “blog tips” in which I have put a sort of tutorial on adding and linking buttons on your site. After having many emails asking me about it, it occurred to me that it might be helpful to always have the information available. Feedback and suggestions for other tips are welcome and appreciated.

My long lost nephew (He’s 14, I haven’t seen him since he was 1) has been found via MySpace. Due to the circumstances surrounding the reasons he has disappeared from our lives, contact is not currently an option, but it’s nice to see him and know that he is alive and well. While it makes us happy, we aren’t going to use his profile to bring drama into his life. I know there are many who would. The internet is a weird place. Even though we are simply taking our only opportunity to participate in his life, isn’t it a little creepy that we can “watch” him? And I can’t decide if this is a wonderful thing or if it is only going to make it all the more painful.

I’m trying to find a cheap horse trailer. I found one on craigslist, and after emailing the owner asking if he still had it and more info I got a reply that said “yes i still have the trailer” without even a signature. I emailed back to ask about the condition, etc., explaining that I was very far from him and wanted more info before driving out, but that was a week ago and still no response. Very frustrating. I have 3 more goats waiting for me to pick them up but without a trailer I can’t do so. One of them is a large peach colored cashmere.

So here’s the 5th Finished Object of 2007:

Specs: [completed 01/29/07]
Pattern: “Milly Mop” by Kim Hargreaves from the book “The Ultimate Knitter’s Guide”
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran God, I love this yarn. I’m a cashmerinHo!
Needles: Addi Turbo US size 3
Mods/Notes: I was nowhere near gauge for this sweater and since the only thing this book lacks is schematics, I drew up my own and redid all the math for my gauge. This is the second time I’ve made this sweater; last time it was in a soft muted pink linen yarn for a newborn [this was before the blog]. I used stash yarn, except that I ran out and had to order more in a different dyelot. Surprisingly, the dyelots matched perfectly. On one sleeve, the two lots are alternated each row and the lace border and seed stitch button band are knitted in the second dyelot. I got lucky, huh? Thanks to Pacalaga for double checking my math!

I started yet another spinning project. I told you this thing where I have 13 bobbins was going to lead to trouble. Here’s the singles I began from that purple roving I showed you the other day:

Wait, that’s not all! I also started a sock. I don’t feel myself without a sock in the works.

The beginning of the ubiquitous “Bayerische Socks“. I’m using SWTC’s Tofutsies yarn. The one that’s wool/cotton and chitin. Chitin being made from shrimp and crab shells [and allegedly having antibacterial and/or anti-inflammatory properties]. NOT loving this yarn. I’m told that this sock pattern really uses a lot of yarn and I had made a decision to NOT knit them from the toe up but to follow the pattern [I know!] so I wanted to divide the ball in half to be sure I didn’t run out of yarn. The inside of my ball of yarn was so tangled it took me two hours to get it untangled and wound. WHY? Why can’t yarn manufacturers leave the center pull strand securely attached to the label to make it easier on us? I will never understand why we are forced to struggle like this. Beyond that issue, which made me so mad I was shouting at the poor dog, the yarn is pretty splitty. On size US 0, this can really get on your nerves. I love this pattern enough to not give up yet, though. Seems like I’m out of my red rut and back into my pink rut. I don’t care what any of you say, I love pink.

Pacalaga and I wonder if people with shellfish allergies would be affected by this yarn. She has a relative that can’t even walk barefoot on sand without a reaction. Any opinions, hearsay or urban legends to impart?

As a kid, both my grandmothers dictated to us what they would be called. In regards to my grandmother on my father’s side, I distinctly remember my mom telling me never to call her “gramma”. She wanted to go by Grandmother. So that’s how it was, she was Grandmother Wilson, and my mom’s mom was Gramma Seiler. They were both wonderful women, as different from each other as night is from day. And I remember them both with much fondness. They are truly missed.

More recently, when my brothers started spawning, my mother insisted that my nephews call her “Grammy-Mammy”. Yeesh! Now, if that isn’t bad enough, she often refers to herself in the third person as such, especially around the boys…and she uses this gawdawful tone of voice that makes nails down a chalkboard sound like a symphony orchestra. It’s hideous. But what’s even worse, is those same 4 syllables drawn out in a long-high-pitched whine of a wheedling, manipulative 6-year-old, or those same 4 syllables screamed at the top of an active, vocal 4-year-old’s lungs as he goes racing through the house with scissors in his hands (I wish, ok, maybe not).

I now realize she does this to make sure Grammy Mammy is permanently etched into their brains. Unfortunately, it’s now permanently etched into ALL of our brains. If I EVER refer to myself as either Grammy or Mammy or, wool forbid, dare to put the two together, Jennifer has permission to shoot me with that shotgun she’s got resting across her lap.

Now I know all of you have been waiting there with baited…bated breath for the results of last week’s contest. Let me first say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of your entries for the Not The Gramma Contest! Here are a few of my favorites:
Nana and Nan - always a kinder, gentler gramma alternative, but wanted something a little more different
Nona and Noni - Since I’m half Italian, it would have been very appropriate.
Ita - As this particular branch of the Martos clan is Argentinian/Puerto Rican, Ita would have been short for Abuelita, which I’m sure will be what she will call her other 2 grammas, who are of the appropriate new-grandmother age. Me? Not so much
LaLa and NaLa - Both from Lion King, one is song #9 from “Rhythm of the Pridelands” (awesome, BTW), and the other’s a main character.
Lamah - This one sent me into fits of giggles. And duh! Why didn’t I think of that one. So witty! (maybe that’s why?) But, what happens when they go to South America for vacation and she sees that a Llama doesn’t look anything like her Lamah? She’ll either want to take one home because she loves her Lamah so much, or it’ll send her into years of therapy. Wha?
Babooska and Bubbi - Knowing my luck the child would shorten those to Boobie. I can just see it now, “And this is my Boobie!”
Gummy - Another one I can just see getting corrupted to something not so flattering, like Gumby.
Cha-Ching - just made me snarf coffee out of my nose. Jen can call me that from now on if she so desires. Funny, that.

But the one I’m going with is Oma. I absolutely LOVE it. Leave it to a couple of Aussies to come up with something so perfect. It’s close enough to sound kinda like Grandma without sounding much like Grandma. And bonus! It’s also the name of a secondary character on one of my all-time Favorite Shows, Oma Desala, an ascended being of infinite wisdom and infinite compassion. If that’s not a grandma, I don’t know what is!

Since 3 of you came up with Oma, Peeve, Elspeth and Lynn I decided to put everyone’s name into a hat, and the winner of the skank of Wineaux sock yarn is Jen. But not to go unrewarded, I want to send the Oma ladies a little something. Could all 4 of you please Email Me your snail mail addresses? (skimmers, pay no attention to the content behind the jump … )

I wish I’d made that up, but Tarashen is the one who told me about the Drama Llama.

There are many little vignettes of drama preparing to take stage in my life. Nothing so big as what I’ve been through in the recent past, but annoyances both big and small. The domain thing, the tech support thing, the fact that my SnB yahoo group went off line for a few days, the death of my beloved wireless router. I have been worrying about a couple of my friends because of things they’re going through. I have resentment about some other unnecessary drama which doesn’t affect me directly but pains me nonetheless for bringing gloom on an otherwise bright spot in my life. Most of it is easily overcome, just irritating. One of them has the potential to cause ongoing and absurd strife unless someone steps in with a solution. It’s still in act one, there may yet be more to talk about. That is all the metaphorical drama llama. Unfortunately, there is apparently a real, live drama llama.

I came home Sunday night to discover Bakka was gone. It was dark and very cold (17 F, so all you northerners know I’m being serious) and extremely windy and I was late when I went out to feed. Only one llama greeted me. I called the other one but he didn’t come. They’re hard to see in the dark with their coloring, but he’s a glutton and never misses a meal. Next I notice a dark form running back and forth along the downhill fence. On the wrong side of said fence. It was the escapee and he wasn’t happy. He was forced to consort with cows, the indignity! I got a rope and went over in the dark with some food to catch him. He was more than willing to come home, instanter-like. The fence was completely intact and the neighbor didn’t even know he was over there. He must have jumped. Possibly he was chasing coyotes because we’ve had a few in that pasture stalking my animals in the last couple days. I’m very lucky he jumped that way and not into the road or into my back pasture which is open in several places. I went outside numerous times throughout the night to make sure he was still there. And he is, acting as if nothing happened. Ouashita seems disappointed that Bakka is back. He decided that in light of recent circumstances HE was the llama now. He was rude to Bakka at feeding time this morning and has decided he’s no longer putting up with Bakka’s domineering. Maybe it all turned out for the best, Ouashita needed a self esteem boost. I shall sit vigil with a rifle this evening to see if this meddlesome coyote is going to continue to be a nuisance, and if he can be blamed for this event at all.

I’m not really in favor of shooting animals, but at least one has been witnessed stalking my pasture [a neighbor stopped friday night to inform me and to try and help me kill it; it ran away in time]. Several have been seen running through the neighborhood in broad daylight. The local hunters won’t go into the woods any more because they are afraid their dogs will be killed, so numerous are the packs of coyotes. They wake us up in the middle of the night with their howling in our yards. All this is fine until it’s a choice between the coyote and my livestock. It’s a sad situation. The coyotes have been driven from their natural habitat by development and are forced into this behavior. They have no natural predators here and also have stray chickens from all the chicken farms to eat which unnaturally inflates their population. I wish the DNR would do something to restore balance so I don’t have to sit and wait to kill them, but it’s not realistic.

In an attempt to divert myself from this deteriorating case of the mondays, I am supposed to be putting up polls and such for you to vote on my UFO Ressurection projects. During the last week of each month, I am supposed to select the following month’s focus and let you decide its fate. During FObruary [hey if other people can make these things up, so can I.] I intend to work on my Dale Sweater, design 13803 called “Norma”. I need to rename that sweater so I can type about it without sending you to Now Norma Knits. Not that I don’t want you to visit her, but for clarity’s sake. You can see finished pictures of it here and you can see my progress on it on my page, project #3.

So here’s your poll.

Vote. Because La says you should get a say. And then tell me what to rename the sweater in the comments. And just because you’re knitting from your stash and knitting in a spectrum, and such doesn’t mean you can’t participate in FObruary. You know you need to finish something, so what’s it gonna be?

…Wallpaper that is:

Yeah, I’m a geek.

I wanted to get a picture of Loop because this morning her eyes turned green. She’s not a little blue-eyed baby any more, now she’s got lovely glowing pale green eyes that you can see from far away. Alas, she refuses to have them photographed. Instead, you get this:

Not quite the same, is it?

I dyed it myself. It’s merino superwash and who knows what I’ll do with it, but there ya go.

I would love to go on. And on and on, too. But yesterday our domain expired without warning [again], our stupid shitty host was very little help and our hosting plan is due to expire any second. Our host tells me that they “don’t understand why the service isn’t re-billing when they can see that it’s due to expire.” They’re “watching” it. I feel so comforted. So if the blog disappears, you’ll know why. We’re going to move it to a new and better host, and in a perfect world you’ll never see the evidence. In an imperfect world, we might be blogless for a few days. Who knows? I’ll tell you who DOESN’T know: tech support at surpASS hosting. Dreamhost, here we come. So between getting the blog back online, getting Red Scarves ready to ship and drinking the panic away, I’m going to claim fried today.

PHG this weekend! And next weekend I’m attending a Superbowl of Spinning. I’d link you to the host, but I’m not sure it’s that public a thing. And yes, I will still be celebrating Super International Pajama Day. Spinning, knitting, drinking, eating and pajamas. The only thing different from my normal lazy weekend day is that I’ll be at someone else’s house. Which also probably means less drunk.