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Last night, we had one of our best sunsets yet. I was in the car driving to Diana‘s to help paint, and Kevin was in the car driving home from work, and we both thought it was stunning (especially the reflection off of Rainier! Wow!). Neither of us had the means to take a photo, though. Tonight’s sunset wasn’t spectacular, but it was still quite pretty. This is the view from a few houses up our street. Lake Washington and the Olympic Mountains. You can’t see it here, but my favourite part was watching all of the lights glittering on the hills across the lake. Washington is a beautiful state.

 

I think I’m about as enchanted with Mt. St. Helens as everyone else is the vicinity, and so I’ve been dutifully checking the VolcanoCam every day. I’m not as bad as the guys who set up with their lounge chairs and coolers of beer to watch the mountain through binoculars, but, as I said, I check.

This morning I actually woke up early (7:05 — wow!), and so I got to my morning internet rounds a bit before usual. When, what should appear, but THIS:

 

My first reaction was, “It’s exploding! And I’m the first to know!!” Reason kicked in a few seconds later when I realized that all the clouds outside were that color, too. It’s called “sunrise.” 😛

Today was just a beautiful and crisp fall day, so I took a late afternoon jaunt over to Queen Anne to see what Nancy’s Sewing Basket had to offer. I was looking for a button and some ribbon for my new needle case, black grommets for my felted bag, and possibly material for curtains. No dice on the grommets or curtains (there was some gorgeous blue fabric, but it cost $10.70 a yard… oof, no thanks.), but I found awesome buttons, and passable ivory ribbon, so I’m a happy camper.

First of all, the needle case button: irridescent green and blue loveliness.

It works wonderfully with my hard-to-match fabric:

Just “ooooh”.

And then, while I was looking, I came across these great blue stars… Some say tacky, I say Beautiful. 🙂

The pacific northwest has very large and determined spiders. They seem to come in waves, where I’ll see 4 or 5 huge spiders indoors over the course of a day, followed by a month of peace. Meanwhile, this guy has set up shop in the pine tree right next to our front door… I know that he isn’t technically doing any harm there, but I get goosebumps walking by him.

The sympathy shot:


 

I take full responsibility for what happened in the seventh inning… everyone in the Angels dugout looked so *sad* and I started to think that it would be sporting if they at least got a few more runs in before losing. Within the inning, Myers and Timlin loaded the bases, walked one guy home, and then Guerrero hit a grand slam and the 6-1 lead was gone. Luckily the Sox overcame my misplaced sympathy for the Angels and finished strong. Good job, guys. I promise to focus from here on in.

I had to take a break from Rogue (I can’t work on that when I’m concentrating on something else or my hood increases go all awry). Since I had a bunch of cascade left over from my booga bag (pictures to come as soon as I find black grommets and can put the thing together), I figured I would make a few felted potholders. I already have a small blue&black collection, but people were coming over for the debate and it got me motivated. I didn’t get them trimmed in time for the evening, but they’ll be ready and waiting for the next time:

 

Instead of brushing up on my C++ or prepping for job interviews, I’ve been knitting. Oops. 😛

Here’s rogue so far, with the side cables a row and a half away from completion and the markers in place for the beginning of the neck cables:

I know everyone else has said it before, but it’s so fun to watch the cables grow! I found the repeat on rows 33-38 of Chart A incredibly confusing, but I’m past it now, and it all looks great. Here’s a little zoom on the side cables:

Now, I have to be perfectly honest and mention that I still want Dean for president. I just haven’t been a huge Kerry fan. However, the guy is growing on me, and I thought that he was utterly eloquent, interesting, and impressive at the first debate tonight. I think the last hour and a half marked my transition from Anyone-But-Bush to pro-Kerry. Bush, as usual, was difficult to listen to. I try to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he just comes off as such an inept person, and I disagree so strongly with his policies and his rationales. Moreover, he’s just factually incorrect so much of the time. Difficult to listen to.

Anyway, congrats to Kerry for a job well done.

PS. If you enjoy political cartoons:

http://www.johnkerry.com/features/debate_pdb.html

I bought my first car about a month ago. 🙂 It’s a 2005 Matrix XR, in silver (I wanted light blue, but there weren’t any on the lots. Silver works too.) I bought it because the gas mileage is decent, I like that the seats all fold down, I like the shape, and the price was manageable. So far, I’m reasonably happy. The six-disc changer strains the limits of my coordination while driving, but it’s a fun car.

The major blight on the poor thing has been the dealer plates (bright red “Michael’s Toyota”). Today my REAL Washington plates came in, and I finally got to take those off. The delightful part is the number that I got: 316 SUZ. It’s practically a vanity! I just need to figure out what the 316 stands for. 🙂 311 was my room number at Brown junior and senior year, so almost. Area code 316 is in Kansas, so that doesn’t apply at all. Kevin suggested Genesis 3:16 or Revelation 3:16… obviously I was amused.

The Red Sox played the Yankees this morning… and wow. Friday night’s game was obviously disappointing, Saturday’s didn’t get broadcast in the Seattle area (travesty!!), but today made up for it all. I only wish I was still living in Fenway, to listen to all the car horns beeping in time to “Yankees Suck.” 🙂 Boston rocks.

In other news, Kevin missed his flight back, so he’ll get in late tonight instead of 3 hours ago. 🙁 Bummer.

In an apparent attempt to cheer me up, however, the Hallmark channel is playing the Parent Trap, followed by Pollyanna. I have never seen the full Parent Trap. My mother thought the mother was simpering, the father was browbeaten, and Susan & Sharon were irritating, so I don’t think I ever saw the whole thing. (sidenote: My younger sister’s name is Sharon, and we both used to be blond as could be and have the bowl cut. endless comparisons.) Pollyanna is one of my long-time favourites, so it was fun to see that again.

I’ve been Roguing away, working on the pocket. I keep having to frog it, after not matching up my decreases. Roar. Third time had better be the charm.

Also, has anyone else had trouble with the hem facing? It’s a twisted stockinette stitch, and my understanding was that it shouldn’t curl. However, mine’s rolled up about as tightly as could be. Any ideas how to mitigate this? I really like the way it looks flat, it just won’t stay that way:

This is going to be a long post because I’m finally done!

The sweater is a variation on the Grayson pattern from Berroco’s Connoisseur Collection, vol. 1. I bought both the pattern and the yarn from a store in Providence in February, 2002. I’d decided that I wanted to learn to cable, and so decided to do it with a bang. The pattern was reasonably ugly but the best I could find in any of the pattern books, so I chopped about 8 inches of stockinette off the bottom, changed the sleeves, and didn’t use the contrasting yarn on the hems. The picture from the pattern book should give you an idea of where I started from:

I used Aurora 8 from Karabella because I loved the way it felt. It’s truly a gorgeous yarn to work with, though the sticker shock is still there for me 2.5 years later. I learned a ton while making this sweater:

• Bring a calculator with you to the yarn store. Divide the number of yards in the pattern by the number of yards in the ball, round to the next whole number, add one, then multiply by the price of the yarn. If the cost makes you want to die, find something else.
  

• Cables are actually really easy. Cabling without a cable needle is also really easy.
  

• Decrease at least two stitches in from the edge. (I didn’t do this on the back, and the difference is amazing.)
  

• Get a book. I finally broke down and bought Stitch N Bitch for help with all of the finishing, and I have been glued to the thing since. I never knew what I was missing.
  

• Get a group. Knitting with other people is wonderful.

I think that if I did the sweater again, I’d make two big changes. First, I’d make it narrower. I actually cut (with scissors, eek!) about 8 stitches off of each side of the back, then went and knotted up all the loose ends. Steeking may have been a better choice, but this appears to have worked. If I knit it again, I’d make the side pattern on the front and back only 6 stitches wide instead of 13. Also, in addition to changing the shape of the sleeves (the originals were too poofy), I added a little [p, k1below, p, k1below, p] racing stripe. I didn’t like that the body was so busy and the sleeves were just blank. While I like the way it turned out, I think the stripe should have been wider (and possibly included a cable?). On the whole though, not bad. Not bad a’tall. 🙂