Made For Walkin'

In case you were wondering (I know I have been), yes, I do still knit things from time to time, in between automotive and plumbing emergencies.  Although I didn't think I'd pull it off, I managed to finish my first knee socks, while the Knitting Gods weren't looking:
 

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, colorway "Wild Purls".  Get some for yourself here, and tell them Mary sent you.

Did I intend for the little blue tide pools to end up in exactly the same spot on each shin and ankle?  Yes. Yes I did.  That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

I've been car shopping this week.  Kill Me.  I think this is how lifelong pedestrians are made:

Slimeball Used Car Dealer:    "I think you will find that your offer is just plain unrealistic."
Me:                "So the price is not negotiable?"
SUCD:           "I have no idea why you would think that!"
Me:                "Because I just offered you three dollars less than the price on the dayglo sticker."
SUCD:            "Well, you know, times are hard.  We have to do all we can to keep the lights on, here at Slimeball Motors."
Me:                "Yes, I'm sure the loss of my three dollars will cause the Slimeball family irreparable hardship.  Have I mentioned how long it takes a knitter to earn three dollars?"
SUCD:            "Knitter, huh?  So is that a union job, or what?"

Good thing my boots have tough soles.  Walk on, dear knitter.  Walk On.

What I Know About Plumbing

...would scarcely fill a drain trap.  So it was with no small panic that I called a plumber last week after returning home to discover my kitchen floor half an inch deep in water.

And I may have twitched a bit when she arrived, and gently let me know that my kitchen faucet had passed on to that great U-Bend in the Sky.  Then it occurred to me that I never liked that faucet.  It came with the house, and reminded me of the previous owners:  Cheap and Cheerful.

My Plumber (I have a Plumber now.  It makes me feel powerful.) is the lovely and talented Andrea, who loves Scottish Terriers (has one of her very own), and so was immediately approved of by Paisley, who supervised the job.

Andrea not only replaced my kitchen faucet with a sassy new pretty one, she installed a new kitchen sink and garbage disposal.  And with Andrea at my side to support the decision, I elected to disarm the Plumbing Gods by replacing the other three, equally crappy, sink/faucet combos in our house.

And now all things washy at Huff House are not only good as new, they ARE new.  Check out my sparkly new sink!  So much easier to appreciate than my new Catalytic Converter.  I especially like that I got to pick out the sprayer.  You should have seen the plumbing supply guy's face when I asked:  "Will this nozzle spray with enough pressure to rinse the detergent out of sheep fleece?"  I do love Muggles. 

So now, I won't panic when the toilets go (obviously that will be next), because I know I can call Andrea.  And hopefully she will turn directly to me for her next Knitting Emergency, should she ever have one.  One good rescue deserves another, after all.

Keep Calm and Carry On

My new Catalytic Converter is really just the best.  You know, it's not every day that you can be required to spend so much money, and still have no visible evidence of having done it.  Every so often, I go out to the driveway and open the hood of my car.  I try to guess where my new Catalytic Converter is by looking for something that seems less dirt-covered than the rest of the stuff in there.  I can't say that I've located it, but there are definitely finger prints all over the engine compartment which make it look like something must have happened in there recently.  Of course, that forensic analysis could just as well confirm that somebody dropped a contact lens, but I'm choosing optimism.

I've been working on the Crunch Berries Kingscot.  Back done and one sleeve almost there.  And I was feeling fairly smug about that progress, since knitting flat is so rare for me that the pace seems kinda glacial.  Which smugness was of course, the cue for the Universe to Smite me.  Phillip's car is making the most wretched noise (in addition to its prior symphony of other, mildly annoying noises).  I have no idea what it is, of course, only a vague feeling of dread that causes me to top off the charge on Phillip's cell phone every time he puts it down.  I will be retrieving him from the side of the road someplace very soon.  Which necessitates my finding a new car for him, stat.  I throw myself on this grenade because 1.  As hopeless as I am about all things car, Phillip's lack of knowledge is eclipsed only by his stunning disinterest, and 2.  My schedule is much more flexible than his, since I work at home, and he works at, well, work.  So it's on me to score a new set of wheels for the spouse.  What could possibly go wrong?

I put the whole thing out of my mind for a while and worked on this secret project.  Kinda, sassy, no?  I think I dig it.  I may have mentioned (a time or two) that I hate swatching because it doesn't produce anything but a dumb knitted square.  So any time I can, I try to swatch by making something.  It takes more time, but it tells me a lot more, and at the end, it's hopefully something somebody can use.  Stay tuned - all will be revealed in time.  This, too caused me a bit of knitterly satisfaction that I ought to know better than to have.  I came home from the grocery store yesterday to see that my entire kitchen was half an inch under water.  That's right.  In case there was any chance of my striking some sort of karmic balance, the Universe has made its position perfectly clear:  "Get out your checkbook".  It's nice, in a way, knowing exactly what is expected of me.  The plumber will arrive this morning.  Allegedly.

So I shifted gears again, this time returning to my first knee sock.  I was so totally convinced that it would never stay up that I made eyelets to run this cool elastic ribbon through.  Now let it just try to sag.  I had crazy hopes of having a mate for this in time for Sock Camp, which coincides with my birthday this year.  Having not even cast on for sock 2 yet, I don't like my chances much.

Plumber's truck just pulled up.  Gotta go find my checkbook.