Saturday, March 27, 2010

Wings of a Dream, landed

Here is my beautiful daughter, Katie; I made Wings of a Dream for her.









I love you, my dear!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Another historic event

President Obama signed the Health Care Reform bill into law today. I pray for my country. I pray that this can be turned into a force for good for our citizens, and become something we can be proud of. While there are things I like about the bill, there are also things I do not.

Like:
  • Coverage can't be refused or cancelled because of pre-existing conditions
  • Adult children can be kept on a parent's coverage until age 26
  • No more caps on lifetime coverage
Dislike:
  • Sweetheart deals that were required to "pass" this bill - so much dishonesty
  • No real public option
  • Being forced into buying insurance and it being a budget burden on the average middle class family -- the ones who don't qualify for assistance to purchase a plan and aren't rich enough to just cover the new payment. (This would be me.)
I'm worried about what I heard from a friend yesterday. His wife works for a doctor's office. The doctor has told his staff that in light of this passage he will no longer take any new medicare patients. That's not so new, finding a physician who would still take medicare. What I haven't heard of before is that he is planning on turning his practice into a "club membership" kind of deal. Patients would buy into his "healthcare club" for an annual fee of $1000.00. He would take only 20 to 25 members, and you have to be a member for him to see/treat you. After that, regular insurance and deductibles would apply (unless you're on medicare and then you can't be a club member). While I don't think there's anything illegal about this idea and possible practice, I can't help but think it's still wrong, on many levels.

So while I do believe, quite fervently, that the health care system in this country needs to be revamped, I'm just not really sure that this is the way to do it. So I pray for my country and my leaders, that they will do the right thing for us all.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

A study in orange

These turned out very nice, quite chuffed with them. The yarn shows off the basketweave beautifully.





KnitPicks, Clementine colorway, Risata yarn.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The deed is done

Some people like blocking. Some people are good at it. Some find it relaxing, liberating, even, to take a tangled mass of lace, wet it down, and then stretch it out into the shape you desire, not it, while pinning it into submission. Some are geniuses at it, like Anne Hanson. She is amazing.

I, however, am not one of those people. I do not enjoy blocking a mass of wet lace. Okay, I do like it when it's done, true. But I do not enjoy the doing. le sigh

But it's not finished lace until it's blocked. So, here goes.











I think it will be gorgeous.

Progress

Ends weaved in? Check.
Soaking? In progress.



Looks like some kind of primordial soup, ja?

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Pictures, Yay!

I bet most of you thought my camera was broken, what with the dearth of pictures displaying knitterly goodness lately. Au contraire, mes amis! It's just that I've been neglecting to take photos; after all - I can do that tomorrow!! Right?

Today is tomorrow, and here we go!

The 2 years 56 days long Wings of a Dream.



See how the wings both point in the same direction? Now my daughter won't fly in circles anymore when she wears it! I have plans to weave in the ends tonight, and then soak and block on Tuesday evening. We'll see how that works out.

Bus Socks VII, continued:

Past the heel of #2, so not much more to do.





These socks are intended as a birthday gift. This Fearless Fibers yarn is Merino, Cashmere, and Nylon sock weight in the Sublime colorway. It's very soft and scrumptious to work with. Nothing fancy on this: nice, steady, comforting stockinette. It really shows off the color beautifully, I think.

FINISHED!

I have completed the Wings of a Dream stole (again) for my daughter. Finally. Only the soaking, blocking, and weaving in of ends are yet to be done. No more frogging and reknitting.

Began WoaD: January 17, 2008
Finished WoaD: January 11, 2010, but.......

Began Reknit of Second Wing: February 1, 2010
Finished Reknit of Second Wing: March 14, 2010

Total knitting time on WoaD: 2 years, 56 days.

Monday, March 8, 2010

It's a small world

My express bus #909 and the other express bus #902 had to merge one of their routes because the City of Tulsa is broke, and they want to cut costs. This is not a bad thing, the merging of routes. I don't mind a full bus, it doesn't take a lot of room to knit socks.

The nifty part is it actually turned out that one of the ladies from the #902 route now riding on the #909 saw me knitting and asked if I was on Ravelry, because she is - how cool is that?! So here's a shout out to KnittedZebra! Hey girl - see ya on the bus!