Just a few things

Carrie referenced the BigAlice List of Positives in her comment to my last post.  She said, "Make your own list and tell me you're not grinning by the end."  Carrie, just so you know, despite this beyond-crazy week and our amazingly crappy weather, I'm smiling before I even insert the first bullet in my bulleted list.

Random Things I Like...

• Spring
• Thunderstorms
• The smell of lilacs on a May breeze
• Snow days
• A clean(-ed by someone else) house
• Fresh flowers
• Watching my garden wake up -- especially when the hostas, bleeding heart and bloodroot begin to emerge
• Windfalls
• Leinenkugel's Honey Weiss beer
• Knitting with friends
• Freshly baked cookies
• Rock 'n Roll (loud, on the car radio, rockin' down the highway... with the windows down... I could drive straight through to Texas if the music held out)
• Sun-warmed, just-picked tomatoes
• Rich coffee
• Babies
• Spontaneity
• Laughing 'til I cry
• Full body massages
• Having my hair washed
• Big fat snowflakes, falling thick and soft
• The smell of fresh-sawn lumber
• Chocolate
• Big family gatherings

My brother called from the nosebleed section of the Bradley Center on Wednesday night -- they were up so high and, he said, my SIL was experiencing a bit of vertigo and was so scared that he didn't think she'd move 'til the concert was over, even if she had to go to the bathroom.  I can definitely relate.  I think he called all of us at some point during the day, just to say, "Hey" and "Thanks."  There are certain things he doesn't take for granted anymore, that's for sure.  None of us do.

Though my knitting time has been severely curtailed this week, I plugged along and finished Williamsro last night -- back and forth on circs is not my favorite and definitely not speedy, even if it is doubled-yarn-on-big-needle-stockinette.  So far, I am happy with how it turned out -- I not only picked up fewer stitches for the bottom part, I also made it just a wee bit shorter.

One thing is for sure, my love for the Noro Blossom yarn may even have grown -- I particularly love this color (#4), but I'm itching now to knit the Blossom Vest that I first saw at Julia's.  The itch is such that I even went searching for the stashed Blossom (#8) over the weekend.  When I found it, I remembered that I may not have enough yarn, especially given Julia's noted overage.  I've been meaning to consider mods, possibly incorporating another yarn, but it's occurred to me that it might also make a fantastic Rib Warmer.  I've been wanting to do another since my first, using the pattern from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Workshop, turned out quite, um, smaller (truly a rib-warmer) and quite form-fitting with the shaping (also bringing to mind Glampyre's famous Boob-holder from a couple of years back, except this is definitely less -holder and more -warmer).  Peg has knit all hers the Wool Gatherings/Spun-Out design -- and there are variations.  I don't remember which specs KnittingJones used, but she added an edging that looks great.  I haven't even looked at Zimmermania.

I'll be getting back to my mittens now, but I've made some well-placed orders and don't be surprised if there's some vesticular* action around here soon.

While perusing the bad picture phone photos I'd taken this morning, I discovered these two that were snapped at an antique mall in Madison when I was there a couple of weeks ago for the garden show and a Mack fix.  Imagine my surprise when I came 'round the corner to find this -- I have no idea whether it's an actual "antique," it may or may not have been used as an actual dress form, and it could possibly be someone's art project, but it was fascinating no matter its origins -- made entirely of paper strips, all very deliberately and artistically placed.  I hope you can see some of the details in the photos.

*Inspired by Norma's post today...  vesticular adj : of, relating to, or functioning as a vest

ETA: Oh, things I don't like -- centered, bulleted lists. HOW DO I FIX THAT??? My html fixes thus far have failed...

Comments

[Carla]

the sculpture is interesting. I made one a few years ago by having DH help me. We took rolls and rolls of that brown paper tape that needs to be soaked in water. Once a thin layer was on, adhered to a t-shirt, we carefully cut up the back, took it off, then cleaned it up with more tape to fix the seam that we had cut. I took an old hanger and placed it through the neck opening, then hung it from a hook and chain in my sewing room. Its sole purpose was to be a custom dress form. Worked like a charm until I lost 40lbs. I ended up freecycling it when we moved from Madison (but its not that one ;)
Its a really fun project!

[Carole]

I love your list, honey!

[Angie]

The 'new-and-improved' Williamsro looks absolutely super! 'Course, I loved it before, but this version is even more flattering/attractive. Vest, sweaters, more yarn...Between you and Cara---I'm getting new sweater itch! Argh! I hope you're happy! ;-)

[Angie]

Bravo, what a beautiful sweater. A sweater is such a project. I don't know if I'd have the attention span for one...

[Kathleen]

Williamsboro looks great. and lemme know which dye lot--if you choose the vest...I can check granny's stock.

[margene]

The centered bullets are a IE problem. In Mozilla they are fine. Who knows why.
Do you think you could make that photo of Williamsboro any smaller? ;-) It looks like a fantastic fix.
Peg's Rib Warmers are so wonderful and look great on her. I'm inspired to kmit one again.

[Norma]

Vesticular. Hahahaahahah. Excellent on Williamsro. You look mahvelous, dahling. XO

[Elizabeth]

Can I copy that list over to my blog (except for the beer)?

[Carol]

It looks fabulous! It was fun reading your list too :)

[Carrie]

Freshly sawn lumber! I totally forgot that one. Awesome list, thanks!

[Kathleen]

When I look on the source code, for "li" type is 'disc'. I thought the type might play into the alignment, so I went html googling and found this:

http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/_LI_TYPE.html, where "circle" seems to give a bullet with a left alignment, where yours is "disc" and centered.

The site doesn't recommend the use of 'type' at all! :) But using an example from your source code: 'li type="disc">Full body massages '/li' (where I've replaced most of the open and closed > with a single quote mark), perhaps using 'circle' instead of 'disc' would fix it for you?

I don't know how you set it up on your blog, so I don't know how to tell you to try that change that attribute from disc to circle, but that might work!

[ann]

in the upper right hand corner of your post, click the "edit html" tab. Copy all of that and email it to me and I will have a look.

you realize of course, that I am a computer genius?

[kmkat]

Nice list -- it appears that you and I have exactly the same ideas about clean(ed) houses! And how exactly did I forget about chocolate?

[Oiyi]

I like big family gatherings, too, but we haven't had much of that since my parents divorced 2 years ago.

Oh, double yum on the freshly baked cookies. I always have to try one when they are still warm.

[Christy/ Not Hip]

Nice sweater, very pretty. And just picked tomatoes....my mouth is watering.