Weeeee! Look what came in the mail from Knit Picks last night:
That’s the Andean Silk and it’s destined to become a Clapotis. It’ll be a couple of weeks at least before I can get to it, but I’ll keep you posted on whether I fail or succeed. I loved that colorway the second I saw it on Kary’s (sheep at the beach) blog. Now the pressure’s on. Here’s hoping the color wheel and book help me with my color problems. I’m color deficient. My dad is completely color blind. I have the hardest times with colors that are similar. You know the little numbers in the dots color test? I flunk it every time except for the green and red.
Speaking of the Clapotis… I just found out how to say it this weekend from Erica (knittin mama). It’s much more elegant than the Clap-OTIS that was spewing out of my mouth. Probably why I haven’t been inclined to knit it yet. Who wants to knit something with such an ugly name?…. “oooh… that’s so pretty! What are you knitting?” “Why it’s the Clap-OTIS” “Oh…. okay.” You see what I mean? lol. French is the one language that I’ve never been able to even fake while reading it. Not that I knew it was a French word. What? You mean I should have gotten that from the very obvious description in the pattern?! Ya. I know. Welcome to my world. I don’t do obvious. I swear I gave up a little piece of my brain with the birth of each of my four boys. Either that or I’m going senile already. Can that happen at 42? I sometimes wonder. It’s scary.
I’d say that I need to “brush up” on my French before our trip to visit Nilda (Waltzing Natilda) in Brittany next month but there’s nothing to “brush up” on. I’ll leave the par-le-vou to Nilda and her hubster. They could kick us out of the country the way I butcher their language.
So, I got to meet up with Kathleen (Knits Well With Others) and Erica (knittin mama) this weekend. We had a BBQ at Kathleen’s just north of Nürnberg on Sunday. It was a lot of fun. Very international. Kathleen had friends from every country on the globe there it seemed. We brought a taco dip (YUM!), hot dogs with American condiments and the ingredients for S’mores. About five minutes after Erica left, Kathleen and I realized that we didn’t take any pictures! Bad…. BAD bloggers. It seems that Erica caught a most flattering shot (snort) of Kathleen and I chatting. It’s posted on her blog for all the world to see. Sneaky, sneaky, Erica! 😉 A good time was had by all. Can’t wait to do it again girls!
Luckily we had great weather that day which is more than I can say about the weather we’ve had since then or are supposed to have for the next week. Cold and wet. I checked the weather in Garmisch (where we’ll be next week) the other day…. SNOW!!! And Monica was worried about the place we’re staying having a pool. Sure. That’s great if you’re a penguin!
I can’t believe my SIL and crew will be here in a little more than 48 hours! I’m out-of-my-mind excited! They are in London right now, but will be heading for Paris and Normandy today. They landed in London on Tuesday morning. Dan calls the hotel that night (they were taking a nap before dinner), takes on his best British accent and this is how it went (Hotel name and room #’s have been changed to protect the innocent) :
Dan: Yes… um… ‘alo mum. Is this room 654?
Monica: No… it’s room 635 (great! My SIL is giving her room number out over the phone! That makes me feel secure about their safety. She “claims” she was just half asleep. lol).
Dan: Yes… well…I’m sorry ’bout that mum. This is the front desk. We’re ‘avin a wee get together down here for our new guests and we’d like you and your family to join us.
Monica:……….silence……… Now????
Dan and I were about to pee our pants we were laughing so hard. It’s the only reason she figured out it was her brother. Monica, Monica, Monica. Who loves ya baby?
So then he calls his mother to let her know that Monica, Peter and the boys arrived in London and are fine. Same British accent:
Dan: ‘alo mum. This is the Grand Hotel in London. We do the service of letting family members know when their loved ones have arrived safely at the hotel ‘ere in London. Monica, Peter and the boys are up taking a wee nap right now tuckered out by their travels. We’ll make sure to take right good care of them for you.
MIL: What a wonderful service!! Thank you so much for letting me know.
OH MI GAWD!! LOL! Please, God… don’t let my children be so gullible. What makes this funnier is that Dan does this every single time he calls home except it’s usually in Spanish… posing as an old woman looking for charity. My MIL falls for it every time. Scary.
Have you all seen this baby set? It’s adorable and the pattern is free from Opal. You can find it on the PT yarns site.
I’m 3/4 finished spinning the Kool Aid wool. I want to finish it today or I never will. I’m one of those spinners that has to be able to finish the entire process of one skein of yarn in one sitting. I spin the singles, wind it off on the ball winder and then ply from a center pull ball. I hate having little bits of singles left over and I hate having to try to get my ply twist right when the singles have been sitting on the bobbin and have set. As I ply I check the twish of each legnth by letting it hang before I let it wind onto the bobbin. Probably takes me twice as long. I really wish I could be more carefree about it but I guess I’ll always be a little anal about my spinning.
UPDATE:
Just a few moments after I posted this post I got a Fox News bulletin about the bombings in London. I immediately called the hotel but Monica and Peter had checked out at 9am… just a few moments after the first blast. Because I’ve been to London a few times I could map out where the tube stops were, the hotel and Waterloo (where they’d be headed for the train to Paris). I was pretty sure they’d take a taxi and they’d just miss everything. It was a scary few hours but we just got a call from Peter and they are in Lille, France and fine. He’d gotten my cell phone message and called wondering what the problem was. They were just minutes ahead of everything but had no idea what had happened. I was telling them on the phone and they were relaying it to other passengers. Luckily, I found out they were okay just about the time that our families in Texas were waking up so I could tell them before they saw the news. I want to thank those of you that emailed your prayers. My heart and prayers go out to all of those effected by the tragedy in London. I think I need a shot of tequila now.
I can’t believe you bought the magic loop booklet. Once you get going you’ll have one of those V8 moments where you slap your forehead and wonder why you didn’t come up with this on your own 😉
I’ll be watching for dyeing photos – I love to watch what you come up with!
Look at all the goodies you got in the mail! I’ve thought about getting a color wheel myself. Let me know if it helps. What a relief to hear that your family is safe.
SO glad your family is safe!
I took the class that color book is from and she demystifies the process
WONDERFULLY.
All Blessings…have a great visit!
I’m so glad to hear that your family is safe and sound. It’s so scary not knowing in those first moments.
I’m so happy your family is safe.
Glad all is ok, hope they get to you safe and sound.
It’s a sad day. Good to hear your family is safe.
LOVE that pile of good/stash stuff!
Glad to know your folks are OK. Unless you are in the affected area, you wouldn’t know anything had happened. The woman in the corner shop was telling off her daughter because she was home early from school. The daughter was telling her: but all these bombs have gone off in cental London. Her mother wouldn’t believe her until I confirmed it was true.
I am so glad to hear that your family is safe. I have no family or friends in London but the whole situation scares me just the same. That penguin video is very funny!
I am so glad to hear that your family is safe. I have no family or friends in London but the whole situation scares me just the same. That penguin video is very funny!
I am so glad to hear that your family is well. We will also be praying for those in London! Please keep us posted. I learned more from you than I did from watching CNN!!!
I’m glad your family is ok. Your dyeing looks so enticing I’m thinking about binging when my color empowered SIL is here for our beach trip. I went to the Dharma site on vat dyeing, and I’m assuming that you put the wet yarn in the crock pot, add dye and water to cover the yarn then cook for ? how many hours? low? High? do you use soda ash? Why doesn’t your yarn felt like Benne’s did? Everything we’ve seen has been gorgeous. Daryl
I’m glad your family is ok. Your dyeing looks so enticing I’m thinking about binging when my color empowered SIL is here for our beach trip. I went to the Dharma site on vat dyeing, and I’m assuming that you put the wet yarn in the crock pot, add dye and water to cover the yarn then cook for ? how many hours? low? High? do you use soda ash? Why doesn’t your yarn felt like Benne’s did? Everything we’ve seen has been gorgeous. Daryl
I am glad your family is well. Aldgate was Kevin’s tube stop when we lived in London…
Yowza – that was major icky news today – so glad your family was already on the way to France!!
I read the prank phone calls to Dave and we laughed out loud!! Too funny 🙂
Good luck with the dyEing and knitting the ClaPpY! (Thanks for the kudos too!) Hugs to all in London – they have my prayers!
Eurostar scares me to no end. Like those long tunnels in the Alps, if something goes bad, there’s no possible way out. Glad that your family was destined for other things.
When you go to Brittany, can you do me a HUGE favor? The cows in Brittany are the cutest cows in the world. They have black patches and spots over their eyes, like dogs. Can you take a photo? 😉
So relieved to hear that everyone is safe. I hoep you are off having a lot of fun already.
You are going to *love* the Magic Loop directions. I got it last fall and have never looked back, except maybe to say, why didn’t I think of that? Can’t wait to see what you create with it.
Enjoy your family time!
Thanks for the great links in your post. It was fun, felt like a kid playing one of those click the object games.
Li
It is so nice not to have to remember to post at SP on your blog! I am glad that your family is safe and sound! I hope you have a wonderful visit with them! I also can’t wait to see how the dying turns out!