Quickie Post

TL had yesterday off as well as Monday, so yesterday was spent doing "honey do" stuff by both of us.  A quickie for today (maybe a longer one later):

I said the other day that the house-rabbit had pink lips.  For anyone doubting that, photographic proof:

Sigh.  They always look so innocent when they're sleeping....

Later today, more knitting nonsense assuming I have any to blog about, of course.

(Why do I have the horrible feeling that the words "quickie" and "pink lips" can only lead to some truly dreadful search results.  Shudder.)

Wednesday Twofer

We will fight them on the beaches...


My (slow) war on Scotch broom continues.  It's a war of attrition and, I figure, in another 10, maybe 12, years at most I will have won.  ;)  Being an aging product of the 60's, I don't like using herbicides.  Honestly, there's several reasons I don't like using chemical treatments on plants:
1. We have a well.  If it goes on the ground, it's likely to wind up in our water.  Yuck.
2. We live on a lake.  Ditto the yuck to anything winding up in there.
3. We encourage wildlife to make their home here.  They don't need to ingest that junk.

All that being said, I've been using the plant's own nature against it.  Plants, by and large, build up energy to survive the winter, set bloom in the spring and then fruit.  I wait until the plants in outrageous bloom and then...cut it to the ground.  It's used up a large amount of its stored energy surviving winter and then blooming and then I come along and take one of its primary energy sources away--its leaves.  Yes, it'll still obtain some energy from its root system, but this year, instead of cutting down tree branch-sized Scotch broom, I'm cutting down small branch-to-twig-sized plants.  Slowly but surely, I'll win this war or at the least keep it from spreading all over without endangering our health, the health of the lake, the fish in it, the wildlife and whomever decides to fish here.  (Oof.  Fisher-folk.  A post for another day.)

Pooling, flashing (no, not that) and hey!  Bunny pics.


I've come to the conclusion that the Tina and the rest of the folks at Blue Moon Fiber Arts are psychic.  Well, I would if I believed in that sort of thing.  Two years ago at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, I hit up the BMFA booth and scored some Little Bunny Foo-Foo in medium-weight sock yarn.  At the time, we had a small black, lion head house-bun.  This last February, he passed away.  By March, without a house-rabbit to keep us in line, we were going nuts from grief.  A trip to the Tacoma Humane Society brought us a new bun to love and exasperate us.  That bun is an almost perfect match for the LBFF yarn.  Here's the bun:

The Right Worshipful House-Rabbit is dark brown, mocha, cream and (though you can't really see it in this picture) equipped with pink bunny lips.

The yarn looks like this:

Dark brown, mocha, cream and pink.  A perfect bunny match.  And, for some reason, these colors make me very, very happy.  So happy that one of my skeins is currently becoming socks and that leads to the hand-painted sock thing.  Here's the sock in progress (this is from a couple days ago, so it's about twice this size now and I'll be doing the heel flap next):

And here's the other side:

Notice that the colors are pooling (I guess it would be), slowly winding their way around the sock?  Does that sort of thing drive you nuts?  Personally, I kind of like it.  I like that the sock's doing its own thing, much like a certain house-rabbit I know does his own thing.  I've decided that instead of "pooling" or "flashing" that these are "eddies" and I like the idea of the rabbit's colors forming a pink eddy here and a brown eddy there.  I have no clue how the second sock will turn out; it'll probably stripe neatly just to annoy me, but I'll let that one be the way it wants to be, too.  Maybe the next time I use LBFF, I'll get all nutso-controlling on it, but for now, this just seems right.  Does that sort of thing drive you nuts or do you just let it go?

Due to circumstance beyond....

Ugh.  Yesterday's radio silence was caused by weather whiplash.  Hmmm?  Never heard of it?  Around here in Western Washington, the climate is very temperate; wet, but temperate.  We usually aren't hit by serious highs or lows or snowfall, just lots of rain, gray days, fog--you know....comfy.  Our spring (following a tremendously annoying winter ice storm) has been running late.  Days, until recently, had been wet and cool.  Yesterday it felt like full-blown summer hit and by late afternoon, the temp here was 84F (about 29C for anyone using that scale).  Way too warm.  Way.  By the time I'd done errands yesterday, all I wanted to do was crawl into the house and stare at the equally hot bun.

Today's a tad bit cooler and I yanked all the yankable windows and sliding doors open to cool the house down early this morning.  Things are much comfier around here and I was feeling a little smug.  All I wanted to get done today was a quick run out for something I'd forgotten at the store, get some big pot and pan type items cleaned up, trim up the greenery alongside the driveway and get started on some long-promised socks for TL.  Run to store?  Check.  Greenery trimmed for the sake of our psychotic mail-lady?  (A long story for another day.)  Check.  Pots and pans done?  Check.  All that done and I thought, while it's still a little overcast, I'd do the geeky thing and play an hour or so's worth of Skyrim.  Not check.  Seriously anti-check.  It turns out when the beloved (and now much-cursed) house-rabbit was doing his impression of the Terrible Two's and jumped up on top of the PS3 this morning, in the approximately 2.5 seconds he was up there, he nipped the cable that connects the thing to the TV.  Audio is just fine, he just decided to do a little pruning on the video side.  ?#)#Y@**!!!  I'd go get another cable, but there's a chance TL can fix it (just like he had to fix the charging cable for my Mac when little Bunny Foo-$*@& took that one out).  Our rabbit is charming, sweet, very personable and has a deep, deep, ingrained dislike of anything electronic.  His mission in life is to kill them all, one cable at a time.  Before anyone can interject that that applies to all rodents and lagomorphs--it doesn't.  Our much beloved and lamented previous house-rabbit wouldn't touch any cords, cables or whathaveyou had you dipped them in pineapple juice and sprinkled them with raisins; he had no interest in them whatsoever.  This guy?  In spite of things being rabbit-proofed, he'll do what he did this morning--jump onto the second shelf of a TV stand, into about a 5" high gap on top of the PS3 just to get a shot at a cable.

Last bad thing (although it all turned out in the end): I couldn't find any sock yarn suitable for TL in spite of knowing I've purchased any number of "manly colored" skeins.  Not a one.  Tore all the stash out of the closet and nada.  I finally went into the basement bins in desperation and came up with a skein of Classic Elite Alpaca Sox in charcoal gray.  Soft, so he'll like them.  Charcoal gray, so he won't look at them sideways.  Next pair?  He gets fuchsia, I swear it.

Tomorrow: pictures of the havoc-creating rabbit, tales of the great rabbit game known as "Stick" (and I'm hopeful that there'll be pictures of that as well) and (finally) talking about painted sock yarns.  I hope.  Unless, you know, I'm out buying a PS3 cable or something.

Happy Mother's Day and an Explanation

Happy Mother's Day to anyone who a) happens to read this and b) happens to be a Mom.  It's a tough, (mostly) thankless job and I really wish we'd show our appreciation more than a card a some flowers once a year.  My Mom died in 2000 and not a week goes by that I don't think of her, cook like she did or say a phrase of hers, so she's still with me.

The explanation: mainly, it's an explanation of the "Bunday" part of the blog's name.  We have a house-rabbit.  A lovely, somewhat insane, crazy-making, delightful and infuriating house-rabbit.  Every day is Bunday around here, so it only made sense that he wound up in the blog as well.  Tomorrow, in addition to the absolutely riveting subject of pooling, flashing and self-striping of hand painted sock yarn, I'll show you a picture of the little rapscallion and how he relates to knitting.  Luckily (so far), the relationship doesn't involve him chewing on my knitting, but that's only because I haven't yet relaxed my vigilance and the quick storage of all yarnly things out of his reach when he hits the couch.  I'm sure that state won't last forever.  Sigh.

LYS Sales May Cause Dancing

Today was sale day at my LYS.  TLOML and I got there about 20 minutes before the doors opened and there was already a line.  Luckily, a few of the folks in front of us were there for fabric since it was also on sale.  TL (for short) wandered up the street to the hardware store; not so much for testosterone reasons--he just hates waiting in lines.  I was armed with a sock in progress, so meh, who cares?

My clever plan for getting what I wanted paid off.  Contrary to what TL might tell you, there were no wall-sized charts of the store with color-coded push pins involved.  I may (may, I say) have made a small sketch in a notebook, but if asked, I'm denying everything.  In any case, I got what I wanted.

Sock yarn (Cascade Yarns Heritage 150 Paints):

TL's comment?  "They're a little bright...."  But I do have him almost convinced that the second one from the left is almost camouflage colors and therefore, suitable for a deserving husband.  There's 492 yards/450 meters per skein so a pair of socks each, easy.

I also scored some lace-weight:

This is just gorgeous, gorgeous stuff.  It's "scrumptious lace" (their choice for lower case, not mine.  I'd spell it, "SCRUMPTIOUS Lace".) by Fyberspates, distributed by Lantern Moon from whom so many good things flow.  45% silk, 55% merino and softsoftsoftsoft.  1000m/1093yds per skein.  I picked up two of the dark blue in case I wanted to do a huuuuuge shawl at some point.  Mainly, I just want to hold it and pet it and carry it with me everywhere.

I grabbed three books as well, but they'll wait for another day when I've had more of a chance to look at them.  And, as I told TL, "See, honey?  Planning paid off."  When I went back for just one more look at the sock and lace-weight yarns?  All gone.

Randomninity

Random Things:


Firstly, I can be almost out of gallon-sized freezer bags for weeks.  I can write myself Post-It note reminders, put it on my shopping lists and mentally repeat the mantra of, "Freezerbagsfreezerbagsfreezerbags" as often as I like and I still won't remember the bloody things.  I can curse myself viciously every time I need one and don't have them.  I did, however, remember to buy them this week and that led to a discovery of epic proportions: if there is a yarn sale coming up this weekend at your LYS and you store your yarn in freezer bags, well...  You'll remember to buy freezer bags.

Second thing of randomness: why do all the Mother's Day cards for step-moms this year gush so very badly?  "You're like a Mom to me!"  "Mom of my heart!"  "You cured cancer, the common cold and are a shining beacon of an example to me in every facet of my life!"  Okay, so those are made up and I may be guilty of a bit of hyperbole, but not by much.  TLOML (The Love of my Life--aka my husband) has a step-mom.  She's an okay person, but he was an adult and out of the house for a few years before his Dad married her.  She's never been like a Mom--his own Mom is alive and well and still doing Mom duty, thankyouverymuch.  I was totally unable to find anything but a very general Mother's Day card for her that was at least somewhat applicable to their relationship.  What about people who have yucky step-moms and yet feel the need to acknowledge them on the day?  Can't they pop out a few, "Hey!  Happy Mom's Day!" cards for those whose step-moms didn't win a Nobel Peace Prize?

Third thing of randomninity: when will scientists do some genome research we can all get behind like isolating the gene responsible for interuppteritis?  Not to be sexist (and, from what I've been led to believe, female children are as likely to be interrupters as male children), but in my life anyway, males seem to be the leading possessors of that gene.  In the shower?  Up to my elbows in filthy dishwater?  Getting to take a nap?  BRRRRRRRINNNNGGGG!  TLOML is on the phone.  It's never for anything important like, "I forgot something/have just been in a car wreck/am sitting in the ER" (which I am ever-so-grateful for), but just wanting to chat a bit.  The other interrupter is the house-rabbit: Be reading?  Researching something online?  Knitting?  "Hey!  Pet me!!!  Look!!!!  I'm being cute!!!!!!"  I laugh until I fall over every time I read that bit of knitting "wisdom" that says, "Never, ever, under any circumstances, stop mid-row."  It's really a very good thing that the knitting goblins haven't eaten me yet due to setting my knitting down.

Fourth thing of great randomhood: Am I the only one that goes to the LYS a few days before the sale to scope out where things are and start making a battle plan?  Something like, "Oh, yeah!  That sock yarn?  That'll be mine first.  Then, I run for that pretty blue lace-weight and then a surgical strike on the books.  I bet I can be outta there in 15 minutes or so.  Would it be totally wrong to trip someone who looks like they might be going for the same yarn?  Hmmmm....."

Expect pictures.  Also for the next post: socks and the odd things painted yarns do.  Do you fight it or just let the sock be what it wants?