Unfortunately....

I stole this meme from Helen (get well soon, Helen!). You google the phrase "Unfortunately, {name}," with your name inserted, then post the first 15 hits. I'm giving you 16, because #16 was interesting. And I'm also giving you a bit of commentary on each. None of these Jannas are actually me, so there must be more of us out there than I thought!

Unfortunately, Janna Callan and Jemma Konuralp at British Swimming have informed Barnet Copthall that all links to UptheBeavers, and even mentions of its name, must be removed from the main club’s website. (Oooh! Drama in hit #1 - but, really -- UptheBeavers?)

Unfortunately Janna has been plagued with IT issues and currently is not able to access her telephone. (This is actually the same Janna as in #1.)

Unfortunately, Janna was not one of them. (From the rest of this blog post, I gather that this Janna is a total incompetent.)

Unfortunately Janna hurt her ankle right before the event started... she made the best of the situation by doing press and behind the scenes work for the event. (This one’s a snowboarder!)

Unfortunately Janna, who was at best nervous about diving though willing to try, had a rough go on our first dive. (Another athletic Janna!)

Unfortunately, Janna lost her balance on the last log and failed to snatch the flag. (This one is involved in what appears to be Argentina’s version of Fear Factor.)

Unfortunately, Janna was the lucky winner today. (This is an excerpt from a book called Janna’s Werewolf. I was unaware that I had a werewolf.)

Unfortunately, janna has almost no dancing ability. (This could describe me, but it's not me.)

UNFORTUNATELY, Janna and George and their family stayed behind, but FORTUNATELY, Janna said she would rather keep track of her kids at the park than at the mall. (This is from a very long blog post, with the words “unfortunately” and “fortunately” in every sentence. I didn’t read the whole thing.)

…unfortunately Janna said that she fears her skills aren’t up to doing justice to it. (This Janna’s an insecure artist.)

Unfortunately, Janna was again denied by her clogged ears and had to postpone. (This is the same Janna who was nervous about diving.)

Unfortunately, Janna Goodrich almost completely forgot the help-the-poor talking points in this article (vie Coyote), and revealed her conflicted feelings in her hurt-the-rich efforts. (From a Libertarian blog. Again, not me.)

Unfortunately, Janna was out sick. (And because she was sick, she missed a poetry slam.)

Unfortunately, Janna had never learned to read the old language. (From a Buffy fanfiction site.)

Unfortunately… Janna rolled the eyes. (This is, I think, also from some kind of fanfiction, but most of the page was in Polish, so I’m not sure.)


So there you go -- it appears that many Jannas are athletic, which is definitely not me!

A little bit of knitting

The last few weeks (maybe months) have been overwhelmingly busy at work, and taking up time at home, too, leaving little time for knitting or anything else. Finally, on Friday, I found myself the passenger in a car going to a meeting in Des Moines, 100 miles away, so I pulled out the baby blanket.

The meeting itself provided a bit more knitting time. Unfortunately, just before we were about to leave, for another good 90 minutes of knitting in the car, I managed to break the cable on my Denise needles, right below where it attached to the needle. Luckily, I had another cable the same (long!) length, but it was, of course, at home.

Yesterday morning, I had a little more knitting time, while waiting for my car to get new stabilizer rod links (I don't really know what they are or why they cost $300 to replace, but my car is running better and doesn't creak like it did). Instead of taking the baby blanket, which really is beyond the easily-portable size, I pulled out Hedera, and got a bit past the cuff of the second sock.

So that's about it on the knitting front. As I said, work is really busy, with a new librarian (probably the last one we'll be able to hire for a while) beginning tomorrow and lots of decisions to be made about how to deal with the inevitable budget problems next year. Luckily, one of the busiest times of year, "evaluation season," is over, and that new librarian should be a lot of help to me, once she gets settled in. Hopefully, I'll soon have more knitting time than I've had in the several months.

This 'n' That (because I use "random" way too much!)

I wish I had an FO to show you, but I don't.  There's been a little knitting but not much.

I'm finally on the fourth color, Azalea, for the baby blanket.  You can just barely see it, down there at the edge.  This is such totally mindless knitting. Since I really like my knitting to entertain me, I'd really like to get this over with!  

I pulled out Stonewall and did another couple pattern repeats and also finished the gusset on the first Bougainvillea sock. And I frogged my barely-begun Woodland Scarf. I like the pattern, and will put it back in my queue, but I think I want to use the yarn (Malabrigo Sock in Stonechat, which is actually considerably darker than that picture shows--my photo of it in Ravelry is closer) for Gust instead. I really need some sort of hand-knit shawl to keep at work for those days when my office is cool. Right now, I have a store bought almost-blanket-like thing, which is really embarrassing for a knitter!  It needs to be dark and not too lacy, so I think this combination of yarn and pattern are perfect. I don't have enough yarn for the large size, but should have enough to make the large width at the petite length. I haven't cast on yet, because, really, it would be embarrassing to have THREE Anne Hanson patterns on the needles at once!

I also got a new bag for my knitting accessories -- a box bag from Caro at Splityarn.

I had looked at this cheery pink bag numerous times, so when she announced that she would be donating 10% of her April Sales to the National Brain Tumor Society in memory of her dad, I decided it was time to purchase it. It's really cute, nice-sized, and very well made. Go buy one! ;-)

Red

Last night, I pulled two current, non-baby-blanket projects out of my bag, and realized that although the yarns are very different content, they're practically the same color.

Here's my first Bougainvillea sock, lying on top of my Stonewall scarf. Not only are they the same color, but they are also both Anne Hanson designs!

Bougainvillea is being knit out of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in cranberry (color 45ns), while Stonewall is knit from A Piece of Vermont Merino/Tencel sock yarn (no longer available, I think) in Long Time Gone. I just love the not-quite-solid, sort of weathered-looking red of both these yarns.

My dinner tonight was also a study in red: Tomatoey Spiced Chickpeas, in a red Fiesta Ware bowl. I strongly recommend the recipe -- quick, yummy, and great as leftovers, too. It's really good over rice, although I forgot to make the rice tonight. (It was prettier with the white rice under it, too.)

If you make the recipe, don't leave out the mint -- it really adds a sort of subtle taste that's not really minty, but really adds to the flavor I think. I did leave out the parsley tonight, because I forgot to buy some. Also, I used diced tomatoes instead of whole ones.

One last red thing, although this one makes me sad. I appear to have broken my little red Nikon Coolpix camera. I'll have my brother look at it this weekend (he's handy for stuff like that), but I'm not hopeful.

Photoless Post of No Real Progress

There hasn't been much time for knitting this week -- work has been incredibly busy, and has spilled over substantially into my free time. Nevertheless, I have managed to work in a little knitting failure.

Remember this? It's Helen's Lace from Lorna's Laces in Blackberry, special ordered from my LYS for the Fountain Pen Shawl (that's a Ravelry link, because I'm lazy). After knitting about 10 rows with the recommended size 6 needles, I knew my gauge was too loose, so I ripped out and started again on size 5s.

Finding the best size 5s took a little work. My KnitPicks are in use and my favorite, pointiest size 5s, from Jenkins Woodworking, that I used for my sister's Honeybee stole, have developed a rough place at the join on one side, making moving the stitches over the join pretty annoying. Plus, they are made of a dark wood, which is problematic with dark yarn. I found a pair of bamboo circs in my stash, and although the cord was sort, they seemed almost pointy enough.

I finished the 20 "Lace Beginning" rows, and got 10 rows into the first repeat of the body. By then, I had done two nupps and discovered that the bamboo needles weren't quite pointy enough for the p5tog (two of the five are yarn-overs, making those stitches really tight). However, a size 1 dpn was very handy in getting the nupp done, and really not too fiddly.

However, I still wasn't crazy about the fabric I was producing, and wondered if I should go down to size 4s. I had pretty much decided that was a crazy idea when I dropped a stitch that went down through a decrease. After pouting and whining to the cats about how hard it would be to fix, I ripped everything out.

Now, off to find size 4 circs....