No heavy thoughts today, I swear (Day 97)

Just lots and lots of yarn pictures. And rain. And a flower. No thinking, I promise. I don't know that I can, to tell the truth.

I have to say, before we begin, that while I am...past the honeymoon stage with the actual work that I do (can you say repetitive, children? Yes, I knew you could. Can you say repetitive, children? Yes, I knew you could....), the people I work with are second to none. We had a party this afternoon, just because it was sunny and warm and beer-thirty. They even--*sniff*--made a burger, special, just for me, so I could eat with them. I know that sounds vaguely stupid, nothing to make a big deal over, but it's amazing how isolating it can be to be the one who can't eat when the group hangs out. It's a huge thing in human behavior, eating together, and for them to go out of their way to include me.... *sniff* Anyway, I contributed some macaroni salad (which got thrown out by the end of the afternoon; sunny and warm, remember?) and Nanaimo Bars, which, as far as I can tell, have Jesus in the middle, because I certainly had a religious experience licking the beaters when making them! Jesus and the Buddha. They tasted sooooooo gooooood. Here's a picture:

Mmmmm. See? Jesus and Buddha are in the creme filling. I ate this one. *urp* Probably not a good idea, but I don't regret it.

Anyway, we had a traumatic weekend this past weekend, lots of rain and bother. For a while, we had lake- and river-front property:


Pardon the blur; it was pissing down (and when I say "pissing down", I am not exaggerating--it was like someone up-ended a huge bucket over the ground and it kept pouring down. For an hour and a half) and I couldn't exactly take my camera outside all naked. The lakeside photo is from the other side of glass, the riverside photo is from inside a ziploc baggie. Gives a rather dream-like quality to the images, though.

So. Yarn. I bought a ton of yarn last month, stocking up like a squirrel hoardes nuts for winter. Although squirrels tend to hoarde because they lose their nuts (heh), and I'm hoarding because I'm in a self-imposed shopping dry spell. But I got some pretty pretties to tide me over, and then some.

For firstly, I am making a Nereides Shawl, only in yarn I can afford, instead of spun silk. Witness:

The colors are there because the thick and thin yarn I found (Moda Dea Cartwheel) has a rather depressing, winter beach theme--dusty denim blues and sandy browns. I wanted some color as well, although I'm sure I'll probably regret that decision. The other yarns are Palette from Knitpicks in purple, red, yellow, salsa heather and...clematis heather. The clematis heather makes it look like water in a summer storm, I'm not sure about the yellow yet, but I think it might work. The rest...eh I'll take it as I knit it. I can tell you right now that it's going to be a warm sumbitch. Thank Jango it's on circulars; I'd break my elbows if I had to work it on straights!

At the same time as I bought all those, I got another ball:

Knitpicks Palette in green. It totally doesn't go with the Moda Dea (way too bright, and not at all complimentary), and I'm not sure what I'll do with a single ball of fingering weight yarn, but I'm sure I'll find something. It's too pretty to regret, really. The incredibly talented Sarah of Parallax Knitting is making a pair of gloves in a cable pattern I deeply, deeply love and admire; maybe her yarn consumption will come in low enough I can use it. Elsewise, I'll just make it into a scarf or something.

Yeah. So, since Palette is uber-cheap (need umlauts!), I sprang for four balls of Verdant Heather at the same time as I was buying for the shawl.

It's very pretty, and I imagine it will be beautiful made up as the Dragon Scales Shawl. I've got more than enough, according to the designer's notes. Or, if not, I'll fake it.

I also got a single ball of Rainforest Heather for the shawl and was actually planning to use it for that purpose, but then I took it outside and actually looked at it:
Isn't that just the single most gorgeous thing you've ever seen? I had to own more. So--literally two days before I had the Big Idea--I ordered four more, so I will have enough to make a large shawl. Can you spot the different dye lots?

I'm not sure I can, but then again, I'm told it won't be obvious until you knit with it and there's a huge stripe across your work. On the third hand, it's already a heather; would it make all that big of a difference?

I won't worry about it overmuch, I guess, until I get to the stage where I knit with it. I wanted it, I bought it, I love it. Full Stop.

As to the flower promised above, Nephew got a digital camera for...well, no reason at all, as far as I can tell. But he's having a ball with it. He's not got quite as good an eye as his sister, but then again, she's older and she got her first camera when she was younger than he is now (and burned through five rolls of film in short order.) He has time to catch up, if he practices hard. So, anyway, he brought it over the other day to show me, and downloaded all his pictures to my computer. Most of them I deleted (primarily because I have no interest in photos of his friends, cars--he went to an auto show--or his father's classic car), but I found this one while going through:



Huh. He's got a sensitive side, after all. Under the little boy smell, the rock-em-sock-em robot imitation and rowdy little baseballer facade, he's really just a ball of mush.

Sweet!