the roar of the crowd, part II

Posted on annePosted in book reviews/events, lace/shawls, Uncategorized

did you hear it? i did.
you know—the sound of a zillion (give or take) needles clattering to the ground, as the knit community rose with a collective roar when claudia announced she is going for a 30K goal?
cuz, hey, there’s time. and there are knitters.

i could hardly keep up with the emails coming in thursday in response to the bar being set higher. so many people contributing and re-contributing. if you want to know more about why they are telling me, read about it here. and if you haven’t grazed over the prize pool lately, you should revisit—there are lots of very fine additions.

the knitspot reader total now stands at $6764. that accounts for over one-third of the total. not that i am responsible—no-o-o-ho-ho-ho. uh, that honor would be yours.
i’m just sayin’; a lot of generous people read this blog.

one thing that stands out as i read emails containing news of contributions is that many, MANY people know someone who has MS, or are struggling with it themselves.
and i know that in addition to monetary contributions, the power of all of us together to send them good karma is great. scary-great in fact.
so i’m hoping that once in a while, throughout the months ahead, you’ll take a moment to stop and send that vibe out.

WHAT a day. the atmosphere in our little home office today was tense with concentration as we both barreled through a mountain of work; you could hear nothing but breathing and key-tapping all day.
(ok, there were a few muttered curses now and then, and the occasional sigh of disbelief when a page was turned and another rat’s nest of markups was revealed).

fridays are always rough. we get slammed with work that everyone has been scrambling to get off their desks before the weekend. we just finished for the day and ate some dinner (it’s about 11pm).

but it feels good to be in nice shape for taking some time off tomorrow. sunday is another story, but tomorrow, i’m gonna get up early, do some cooking, and then spend the remainder of the day spinning. i don’t even have to water

it’s been pouring all evening and the garden is getting a good soaking. i do have to get out and pick some greens for the pot, but that shouldn’t take long.

wednesday in classes i worked on the golf sock and got past the heel and gusset

it’s shaping up to tbe a fairly elegant sock. understated, like all golf clothing . . .

and this next i know is going to make some of you squeal with delight

the big bees are emerging from the swarm. while i was working on this last night i realized that i am going to have to do a bee tutorial. it is a motif that defies charting conventions. the written instructions are fairly clear, but it would be fun and informative to have a really great illustrated tutorial.

and you know how david loves to take pictures of me.
(hmm, i might have to do something drastic about the earth under my fingernails though . . .)

speaking of digging in the dirt, i might have killed the bright lights swiss chard, or most of it . . . .

(here it is 3 days ago, looking all perky and cute—trust me, it doesn’t look this happy now)

i’m not really sure what went wrong. yesterday morning, i decided it was time to thin the greens, which are all at least 3 inches high (bigger than in this picture). i did both types of chard, moving the ones i culled to another new row, to see if they’d grow when transplanted. the green erbette chard seems to be taking to all this activity just fine.

but the colored chard—eh. the leaves are all wilted an floppy. the main stems seem strong, so i’m hoping they will bounce back, but i have serious doubts. the germination on these was a little disappointing to begin with—nothing even close to the thick rows of erbette, salad, and mustard greens.

luckily, i have another half-a-pack of seeds. i can try again. and i don’t even have to rip out.

28 thoughts on “the roar of the crowd, part II”

  1. Happy on the fundraising, sad on the wee baby chards, hooray for all the little ice cream cones and BZZZZZZZZ!!!

  2. Your bee shawl is looking divine – I can’t wait to make one of those!
    Congrats on all your fundraising for Claudia’s ride – that ‘s fantastic! I’ve been away for only a week, and you tow have raised the roof! woo hoo! You rock.

  4. Oh that bee shawl is going to be beautiful. I love the color. I have yet to do a shawl. I want to, but my mind hasn’t let me settle on one yet. Maybe next month. Happy knitting!

  7. I love those bees! They look so neat! I think this is another pattern of yours that I’m going to want to buy. 😀

  8. I think I know what you mean about that stitch pattern. I think I’ve played with that one (or something similar) before.

    The chard though.. not really sure. Maybe the combination of being thinned (some shock to the roots) and the soaking rain? Some of my house plants require no watering after thinning and transplanting because of shock.. so who knows?

  10. I have to say, I’m all stoked to try out that bee shawl, and I’m not usually a triangular shawl kind of girl 😛 I’ll have to find appropriately colored yarn… oh, the horror, increasing the stash? How ever will I accomplish that ^_^

  12. It looks like you do a whole bunch o’ yarnovers (double yarnovers?) in consecutive rows, drop them, and then scoop your needle underneath them from front to back to catch them all with the working yarn. Hmmm. Something like that, anyway. Yeah, I can see how that would be the dickens to chart!

    Understated golf clothing? hee hee hee! 😉

  13. Hey Anne! I gave to Claudia’s Ride when she upped the goal (had donated yarn to both of your efforts, but had not opened my pocketbook yet. The push to the top gave me just the incentive I needed.) Since you say you love the MS stories (hate the disease / love the afflicted) I’ll tell you mine.

    My eldest son Michael is engaged to a perfectly lovely girl. She is a young woman of uncommon character and integrity, and I am thrilled to be adding her to our family.

    Ashley’s mother has MS. She also has five (count ’em) FIVE children, two under the age of six. Ashley is the eldest. I believe that working through the challenges of MS with her mom has played a large role in the formation of her character. Ashley is one of the strongest, most capable, and giving people I know. And her mom is a great lady also. I look forward to getting to know her family better.

    So I have taken up this cause (in my own small way) in honor of Ashley and in thanksgiving for her presence in my son’s life.

    Blessings be upon you as they are upon me!

  16. I LOVE the golf socks. My DH is a golfer (or at least he tries to be a golfer) and I support his habit. Can’t wait for the pattern to be ready for sale.

  17. Love the big bees coming out of the swarm. That is just simply breathtaking.

    Good Luck on the second go round with the chard.

  18. Being able to try again without having to rip out… that sounds great! Really, you have a way with words, forming images that really catch my mind. I love it when it happens, and when I read you it happens quite often! Thanks, Anne, for this little pleasure.

  20. OK, happy happy on the beez! and happy wonderful about the MS $, and oh so sad about the chard… though chard is trong, and it could make a serious come back…

  21. The bee shawl is looking -delightfully- complicated! I’m so looking forward to the pattern as I love a challenge.

  22. I don’t know why I’m amazed at the giving hearts of knitters. Maybe I’m arrogant to think I’m the only one who gives, or maybe I’m modest in thinking that my little contribution won’t make a dent or a difference. So many times it turns out that I’m wrong and right on both counts. Yay for that!

  25. OH, please send me some of your rain! I can’t even get enough growth to have something to thin. I usually just eat the baby greens I’ve thinned, I’ve never been courageous enough [read: energetic enough] to try a transplanting. You’re really working me into a frenzy with all these pictures of the bees!

  26. we had a good soaking on Saturday – my lettuce is really taking off! hopefully the chard will hang in there – they don’t seem like they’d be sensitive plants!

    the bees look really neat! all those yarn overs gathered together?

  27. Golf clothing? Understated? Take a look at some of the duds being sported on this weekend’s US Open from Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburgh, PA. Some of these guys are anything but understated. You can catch the game on your local NBC station. I know I’ll be watching.

  28. Hi Anne!
    The bee shawl is coming along swimmingly. I finally got around to donating to Claudia’s MS ride. Additionally, I need your address so I can send you a little package. Email it to me and I will have a happy surprise out to you soon. I hope you are having a wonderful day!

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