Meet Blanca

Meet Blanca.



Blanca is a small wig head. Actually, she's an extra-small, which makes hats look silly on her. (An excellent hat sizing chart is located here. The size you get when you measure your skull is not on the same numbering scale that hatters use. And hat sizes in the US don't match sizes in the UK, which don't match sizes in France.)



But she cost less than $5, and hats look better on her than flat on my keyboard (my usual photography studio), so she'll stick around. (I wondered if the dogs would be frightened by her. They just came over to sniff her, then walked off. I suppose I should be glad they didn't want to play with her.)



The hat is knitted in Classic Elite Yarns Liberty Wool (brocade colorway) using Barbara Benson's Cross Stitch Mock Cable Hat pattern (free on Ravelry). (Barbara writes elegantly readable patterns: all the info you need, sensibly presented, with some nice extra features in her PDFs.) The hat fits my medium-sized head just fine and would be comfortable on a larger head as well.



I also knitted some more on the BSJ: rows 38-57 (about 50% through the sweater).

But I missed blogging last night: a freelance job arrived about 7:30. I worked on it from 8 to after midnight, then got up at 6:30 to give it another pass. I'm expecting another freelance job today (different client), about noon.

Exciting Braves game last night in San Diego. Braves down 7-2 at the end of the 8th inning. They worked back to 7-6 in the top of the 9th (and that's how it ended). Lots of Braves fans at the game, and they got their money's worth in long balls: Heyward hit two, and El Oso Blanco pinch-hit a 3-run homer.

Yesterday morning, I got errands done: bought Blanca, shopped at Costco (probiotics and other stuff), went to Sam's vet (for his soloxine), went grocery shopping (more turkey necks), picked up Sam's gabapentin at Walgreen's. I came home, unpacked the groceries, and took a nap. I've been watching the Golf Channel's coverage of the U.S. Open, which doesn't even start until Thursday. The course (at Merion) received more than 5 inches of rain from Friday through Monday. The volunteers have done a remarkable job getting the water off the course, but there's all kinds of debate about how this very short course--with skinny fairways, limited lines of sight, multilevel greens, and gallons of unwanted water--is going to play.

See here for the story of the most famous photo in golf history--taken 63 years ago yesterday at the 18th hole at Merion. There's a plaque--smack in the middle of the 18th fairway--commemorating this shot.

A quiet Wednesday

I finished the baby blanket this morning, then washed and dried it. (Acrylic yarn, and it'll get machine washed and dried its entire life, so might as well start now.) The final size was 35" x 33" because it draws up vertically. I should have gone longer, but I thought it would stretch on its own. (And it will if it's stored hanging up rather than laid flat.) But it's plenty large enough.



My next planned projects were 1--finishing the toy pink elephant I started over the weekend, and 2--starting another baby blanket. Instead, I immediately started on a Baby Surprise Jacket to match the baby blanket. (So much for planning.) The BSJ now becomes my most urgent project because I need it finished (including buttons and seams) by June 23. I don't need the elephant until the first Saturday in July, and the baby getting the second blanket isn't due until September. (I'm still debating which pattern to make for that blanket.)



Saturday is World Wide Knit in Public Day, so I need a fairly mindless project I can work on while I chat with other knitters at Lovin' Knit Studio on Saturday afternoon (1-3pm; bring a lawn chair--and a project). If I get this BSJ to the right point, it'll fit the bill. I'm using yarn leftover from the blue baby blanket. (And if you see knitters--or crocheters--stitching in public on Saturday, now you know why.)

While I knitted today, I watched Ciaran Hinds in Persuasion. Then I watched the Braves game. (Julio Teheran got 7 and 2/3 innings through a no-hitter. Braves beat the Pirates 5-0.) Now I'm watching Season Four of Doctor Who on DVD. This is my favorite season of Ten's stories. Catherine Tate was wonderful, and she got such great stories. (But lots of tearful ones.)



I think I'm going to watch some Firefly on Netflix tonight. I never watched it when it was on the air (I don't watch many TV series), but I have lots of friends who love it. I can watch and knit. (A BSJ is all garter stitch, with occasional decreases and increases.)

Trivia:
1--It's thundering nicely outside. Sam's sound asleep. Silver just got startled awake, but she'll go back to sleep. She's fine with the thunder as long as she's touching me.
2--Good, solid poop from the dogs. (I'm tracking this because I'm about to try raw turkey necks on them--as soon as I go shopping. I had trouble years ago with Sam and Jacey. But Jacey is gone and Sam is now on a maintenance dose of metronidazole, so we'll see if the dogs can handle the necks and thereby improve their teeth.)
3--Haven't redone the nails yet.

Not Catching Up

I'm not going to try to catch up on this blog. That would be silly. I'm going to try to jump back into blogging and pretend I haven't posted just 4 times in the last 18 months. I'm also going to start blogging absolute trivia. Trying to wait until I have something momentous to say is why I've posted just 4 times in the last 18 months.



Want to see some adorable greyhound puppies? Check out the live feed here. (The feed is live for two or three hours at a time, three times a day. Sign up on U-stream and officially "follow" the feed to get an email notice of when the feed is live.)

The mom is Carlee. On May 4 she arrived at a southern California greyhound rescue looking a wee bit pudgy. On May 31, she had five boys and one girl, delivered by c-section. At this point, the puppies are too young to do anything but nurse and sleep. (The white with black pup nurses like a fiend, falls asleep exhausted, then heads right back to the milk bar.) The puppies are cute, but they inspire no desire in me to adopt a puppy. At my house, mealtime lasts only moments, sleeping lasts hours, and that's the way I like it.

No freelance work today. I have some fill-in stuff I can do later, but today I took advantage of the quiet to get some knitting done. The baby blanket is nearly finished. When I finish the blanket, I'm either making a blue bunny (from the Craftsy pattern) or making a blue BSJ with the leftover yarn. It's been quite a while since I made a BSJ (finished my most recent one in January 2012). I worked on the baby blanket while watching Pride and Prejudice on my laptop and watching (muted) the Braves-Pirates game tonight. (Braves 5, Pirates 4 in 10 innings.) At present, the blanket is 36" x 31"; I'm aiming for approximately 36" x 36". I'm also aiming to not be knitting on this thing for the rest of my life.

(Wondering why the photo is at the top of this blog post? It's there so it will show on blog thumbnails that appear elsewhere--such as Ravelry.)

The dogs are well. Silver hates being on a diet, but she's really not starving to death. (Thank goodness she doesn't have her own blog to contradict me.) She's been eating too much of the food in Sam's dish. Sam is wobbly, but still able to get around on his own and is eating well. Lots of panting in the heat until he gets settled in front of the box fan.

Trivial notes (even more trivial than the above):
1--Nice weather. Not too hot.
2--Advantage Multi on both dogs today. Should be soaked into Silver's coat and invisible by Saturday.
3--Solid poop from both dogs ('cause you know you were dying to know).
4--I don't like this pale gold nail polish, but I'll change it another day.

Going to watch the second DVD of P&P again and stay up late knitting...