Now Norma Knits

Speaking of Magic 28....(A Contest)

Waaaaaah!  I'm so sad about this turn of events re Dulaan.  If you take a look at my Gallery of Finished Items for 2007, I'd guess 95% of them were for Dulaan.  Shee-it.  But anyway, onward and upward.  We will find ourselves a bunch of good outlets for our charitable knitting, RIGHT?  I won't settle for less.  Nosireebob. I know of Afghans for Afghans and CIC, for starters.  Cookie and I were frantically emailing back and forth yesterday afternoon, and she found Warm Woolies, which looks very promising.   And there always seems to be no shortage of knit drives to serve more local needs in the winter, as well.  Bring 'em ON! (Let us know if you know of some, too.)  [Meanwhile, do what Ryan is doing and make a date with some Red Scarf yarn.] 

So, about that Magic 28 contest, then:

Marianne (Everyone wish Marianne good luck with her move...) has donated some g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s stitch markers she made as prizes.  What say we have a little Magic 28 contest, then, eh?  Are you up for knitting some little socks, or even just having good intentions? 

Send me an email by Friday evening, August 3, at midnight EST at norma[dot]knits[at]gmail[dot]com, with the subject line "Magic 28 stitch markers," and tell me how many Magic 28 socks you hope and intend to knit in 2007.  (even if it's zero, that's fair game, too)

That's all you have to do.  It'd be nice if you also join our ring and knit some Magic 28 socks to warm some cold feet, but I'll leave it to you whether or not to do so.  How easy am I?  There are three sets of high-quality, very pretty stitch markers to give away.  Wanna see 'em? 

Go ahead, email:  Make my day!

Look, I finished the orange pair.  Aren't you proud?

So cute. 

Yesterday I had a much-needed day at home to work on transcripts.  Well, a big transcript did indeed get done (almost 200 pp.), but a fair bit of relaxing and knitting got done too.

Lunch looked like this:

Zucchini picked in the garden that morning, sauteed in walnut oil with fresh dill, salt and pepper, served on a slice of Ezekiel toast with melted Jarlsburg.  Holy cow, but that was good.

Back In Action?

Well, that remains to be seen.  But I'm here tonight.  One day at a time, ya know.

I do worry that I'm getting a bit repetitive with the gardening recaps after all these years of blogging, but today was indeed a gardening day.  It started out with great promise, but sort of fizzled out at midday when it became very dark and cold.  So dark and cold it drove me inside.  I'm not usually so wimpy, and I could have used the dark-and-cold dreariness to maybe go buy some plants and stuff, but...I don't know...one loses one's enthusiasm for the planting when it is no longer warm and inviting out there. It became so much like dusk, and threatened to rain (but didn't), that I forgot until it was truly dusk to go take some photos that I wanted to share with you.  Funny how it turned out that I actually rather like how the flash photos turned out.  The strange weather of late seems to have been welcome to many of the plants -- they are huge and healthy and lush.  Many oversized buds are "this close" to opening.  Sadly, the weeds are as lush and plentiful as the flowers.

 

Dinner came from the garden:  An asparagus-Jarlsburg quiche with brown rice crust, with a fresh spinach salad. 

LONG OVERDUE MAGIC 28 SOCKS NEWS:

I keep forgetting to show you these beautiful Magic 28 socks knitted by

Elaine (aka Beebs) from Maine.  She says that along the way, she perfected Kitchener grafting, short-row heels and even knitted a toe-up pair. But the very best part is that, with the exception of the bright yellow, every other bit of yarn came from her stash. Most of these socks will go to the Dulaan Project and CIC, and some of the lighter-weight ones will stay closer to home in Maine. She's still knitting, and is well on her way to completing her goal of 28 pairs. It took me so long to post this that she probably has already done it. Well done, Beebs!

And these beauties are from Marianne:

I've seen this same photo posted on Ryan's blog, so I know these are going to Dulaan.  Keep on knitting those Magic 28's, everyone!

Speaking of the Dulaan box, I taped mine up this weekend and will be mailing it tomorrow.  It's got 30 items in it -- fewer, I think, than years past, but it includes 11 pairs of socks (each pair counted as one item), a full cardigan sweater for a child, and two vests, as well as the usual hats and neckwarmers and scarves.  It's a heavy box, and I feel pretty good about it. 

AND, you might want to sit down for this news.  I knitted something this weekend.  No, really!  I did!  I was very pleased to find that I had not forgotten how to knit, and even to purl.  Just like a bicycle.  Really.  Have you recovered from your vapors yet? 

With the temporary heat wave we had, I got inspired to drag out the Ribby Shell I started last summer and continue on.  It is ridiculously close to being finished.

It is even more ridiculously close to being out of yarn.  I am very, very concerned that I am not going to have enough.  I made the top of the back shorter than pattern specifications, and that is probably a stupid thing.  I have big, wide shoulders, people.  This is not good.  I am hoping against hope that this silk yarn will do what every other silk knitted garment I've ever had does -- stretch like a motherf*cker. My logic is extremely weak, though, because if I recall correctly, the stretching is widthwise, not lengthwise so much.  I may be screwed.  We shall see. But this yarn is long since discontinued, and even if it weren't, I don't even know the color number anymore.  I may end up ripping the entire thing out and striping it with the dark rust yarn I have of the same brand (Berroco Denim Silk).  Bummer. But whatever.  The important part of the story is.....wait for it......

I've

Been

Knitting!

You Don't Send Me Flowers Anymore

Hey, Magic 28 people!  Don't forget to put the (proper) code up on your sites in order for the ring to function properly.  I can't really figure out the weak links because I don't have the time right now to fiddle with it (*cough*Lucia*cough*).  I'm only picking on Lucia, because I know she can take it with good humor. But she's not alone; there are a few others.  When you try to surf through the ring, you end up doing endless loops of the same few.

Show me the love.  Bring back the magic.  Send me flowers.  Put the friggin' code up!  Or whatever.

Don't make me nag.  You wouldn't like me when I nag.