Oye! With the poodles!

[One of my favorite Gilmore-isms.]

Look what happened!
Just before I left for the dance on Saturday night, there was a second place on the ball of yarn where one strand ended [it wasn’t a break] and another began. So I thought, I'll just mark the five yards that I need for the pointy end, here, and rewind what’s left, over and around it and start at the other end.

I finished the first end while waiting for my order in the restaurant and started knitting away with the rewound ball. Which turned out to be thinner and way over-twisted, and I didn’t have a rubber band with me to wrap around it so I could let it dangle and unwind. Which led to about an hour of increasingly frustrating knitting, between dances. [But I was having so much fun actually dancing, that I managed to not get cranky and embarrass myself. Or anyone else.]

Here’s what the scarf looked like when I woke up Sunday morning. Notice anything about the colors?



Me, too. This is the re-rewound cake, which I ran three times through my ball winder to smooth out the kinks. All the bronze is buried in the center of the cake. Notice how there is very little red on the outer edges. I wonder if they just thought “this looks plausible” and grabbed an unrelated ball to finish out the weight? And I wonder if the other ball, the turquoise or teal one that my generous friend kept for herself, has the same problem?



So, were they thinking, “this is a neat bronze yarn with a little red in it and we’ll just segue into a full-on red yarn and maybe nobody will notice”? This is what it looks like with the other end joined on, the one that was originally on the outside when I came to the second end.



Prettier, in my eyes, but still not really red. And this is the almost-finished scarf. All that remains is to weave in the ends and secure them with silk thread.



I opted not to add a buttonhole, as I plan on burying this turquoise end under the red one and fastening it with a pin.

Turning the other heel
I was midway through turning the heel on the second Stripedy Stocking when I realized that there were four stitches to the left of the decreases on one side, and eight stitches to the right of the decreases on the other side. I realize that I should have documented it with my trusty camera, but I thought that a flash going off in the middle of sacrament meeting might be less than reverent. You’ll just have to envision Sock by Picasso: The Stripedy Years. I tinked back, recounted, and started over. The sock went with me to the fireside in BigD.

Friends old and new
One of my new friends in my ward drove us to the fireside, and I had the pleasure of introducing her to the folks I knew. I got a big old hug from my first LDS friend in Texas, who was widowed shortly before I found out I was pregnant with LittleBit. I got to chat briefly with Saturday night’s dinner companion. And after the fireside, Brother Nice #1 and Brother Nice #2 both came up for handshakes and howdies. It was the longest conversation I’ve had with either of them. I tried to help one of them figure out which of our dinner buddies was his Secret Cupid. He’s got it narrowed down to three definite-maybes.

And it was great fun to slip back and forth between regular conversation and discreet flirting. My initial good impression of these two new guys has only deepened after talking with them last night. One I think is a true innocent, almost completely without guile. I think he could become a very dear and very safe friend. And maybe over time a spark would develop. The other one I think is equally decent and perhaps a bit more complex, and I think there is a bit of spark already.

I’m so glad that I took the time to get my hair cut and my nails done yesterday.

Oh my darlin’, oh my darlin’, oh my darlin’ Mandoline
I think it’s safe to blame this adventure on Cottage Living. My attorney friend and his wife gave me a stack of back issues, and because it’s in the same publishing family as Real Simple, the recipes are dependable. There was one for a potato apple soup, with dried apple crisps for garnish. Said dried apple crisps to be made at home with loving hands, in true Martha fashion. And requiring a mandoline to get them thin enough.

So I went online to price new mandolines. And while I could wait two weeks until the really good paycheck, I didn’t want to pay retail, and I didn’t want to wait two weeks. So I logged onto eBay and did a couple of searches, decided that I would pay no more than half of the average retail, including shipping, and placed my bid.

I was outbid at the last minute, but it doesn’t break my heart. I’ll just keep bidding until I get the one I want at an acceptable price. And I’ll spend the difference on sock yarn. Or books. Or bags of gi-normous potatoes.