Man it's amazing how stuff stacks up when you don't blog. I have no idea where the week went but it's Thursday and that's never a bad thing.

Guess what? I joined yet another knit along, I know it's a disease, I need help...but who can resist when it's Socktoberfest:

...and I even have a finished sock to show for a preview:
Love, love, love this sock. I have already cast on for the second. However in honor of the Warm Hands knit along I decided to start Ian's mitten. The pattern which I mentioned is in Knitting Nature was also in Interweave Fall issue. It's the Target Wave Mittens. I just about finished one but the shaping is not shaping up well:


I'm going to rip back on the thumb and eliminate about 4 rows. My stitch gauge was dead on but I'm suspecting the row gauge was off, 'cause you know I didn't check.

I thought you might like to see Gyrid as well. I haven't picked it up this week. I was too caught up in the sock on Saturday, housework on Sunday and then the mitten had my attention. Still she's coming along nicely (although it's hard to see the cables in this shot):



Finally we all know it's the new season that means more obsessing on Veronica Mars. The show returns next week and follows the Gilmore Girls on the new network. They updated the opening credits for the new season. I loved it so much I just had to share:


Off to a school trip with Avery today. Oh yay, wrangling a bunch of sixth graders is so my idea of fun...

I got nothing to show today. Which is pretty sad considering everyone's favorite harlot mistakenly linked to little ole me today (she was referring to another Nancy, I'm not sure who but I wasn't at Knitty City, we had run into each other much earlier at the Knit Out). Of course she correctly linked to Chante but she called her Caron. I think the press tour is taking it's toll.

After this Summer's Amazing Lace debacle and the sudden end of the alphabet on "O" for the ABC Along one would think that I would have given up on knit alongs all together. Yet somehow I still answer their siren song.

First up because I have such amazing success with lace shawls (just ask Charlotte, yeah all 30 rows of her) I joined Bronxie in the Swallowtail Knitalong:



I saw this shawl and I really wanted to make it with the Kidsilk Haze I've been hording from the Lion and the Lamb closing sale. I just received my Knitpicks needles so if I manage to complete the charted section of Gyrid (I have about 20 rows left) then I think I will cast on for it this weekend.

I also joined Carol for the Warm Hands knitalong this year.



This one may work out though. I had already planned on making Ian the mittens in Knitting Nature book. I have the yarn I got from Iceland and the yarn my One Skein pal sent me. I love making mittens and Ian loves to wear them. Sounds like I might actually finish this one.

I think I'll end with a bit of randomness:

This kit was given to some of the presenters at the Emmys this year.Click on the Bella Blue Goes Hollywood Banner at the top. Don't we all need some leopard print needles?

I love this story. Talk about women using their power to effect change. You do what you got to grrls...

I love Marjane Satrapi's books. Especially Embroderies. They are making a movie of the first one Persepolis check out the stills Sony put up. Naturally the first one is my favorite.

Aah Friday, it's about time...have a great weekend everyone.

Aye, me thought you all should know today is "Talk Like a Pirate Day" Gar, Where can I find a bottle o'rum?

I contemplated writing my entire post and then putting it in the Pirate Talk Translator but since I kind of like people to read my posts I refrained. My friend Andrew gets thanks for letting me know about it being such an important day. I'm afraid to ask how he knew. From my admittedly poor knowledge of pirates I do believe they appreciate a good striped sock. Here's where I am on mine:

hey that's a halfway decent camera phone shot...coooolll;)

No, they are not stupid Katy. I'm kind of in love with them. My other friend Leslie (not the one they are being made for) who is something of a knitter herself was checking them out at Avery's soccer game on Saturday and wondering if she could make a pair. She asked me how difficult the color changes were. I looked at her quite seriously and said, "not difficult at all" then I pulled out the ball and showed her how the stripes were worked into the yarn. She told me to get her what she needs so she can make her own. Yup, lots of love out there for these socks.

When I'm not working on the socks I'm reading. For some reason I'm on a huge reading binge. There's nothing wrong with it, it just seriously cuts into the knitting time. I did go to the Knit Out Sunday and I had a good time but Maribel got all the shots so go see her, ok? It was really freakin' hot a bit warm so we didn't stay that long and the Knit Out is never as much fun as it should be to begin with. Although Avery got to meet Stephanie so he was happy.

My cousin sent me this link the other day. It's hysterical but damn the food is really made well. Reminds me of those hats made by certain bloggers awhile back.

For those of you who need a little help in how to be a pirate for Talk Like a Pirate Day, here's some help from Ian's favorite show.

Ahoy, happy Wednesday. We're halfway thar, shiver me timbers!

Added later: Ok who caught the fact that when I wrote this I thought it was Wednesday? It's only Tuesday. Damn...

Wow, is it really Thursday? I've been meaning to blog all week but somehow I never got around to it. The cable situation is basically the same, except that Verizon did come and take the pole. Cablevision said to call them when the new pole goes up. Now one would think I would be foaming at the mouth at this point. We are approaching two weeks with no cable service but since I'm a take charge kinda gal I got well and truly pissed on Friday, went to Radio Shack on Saturday and fixed the first floor cable my damn self. All it needed was a new wire to replace the old one that tore apart. The techs won't even get close enough to look at it. The first floor was easy since it broke on the input side, meaning the side that goes from the port outside the house to the port that was on the pole. I can't fix the upstairs as easily because it tore on the output side so I would need to run a new wire up the side of the house through the hole in the wall. I'm good, not that good. This means the TV, the phone and the internet are all back up which makes me a bit more patient for the pole to be fixed although no less angry at the insanely long time this is taking.

In addition to restoring cable service I can also knit from a chart:


Who knew? I seem to get the cable charting a bit better than the lace charting. Of course this is a very basic design so a monkey should be able to follow it nonetheless I'm feeling pretty accomplished at this point.

I started a sock to take to Avery's soccer game and to use for train knitting. I don't trust myself to do the chart while traveling so I needed the simplest of the simple. I had some Magic Stripe hanging around that I wanted to make socks for my good friend Leslie with. Leslie lives in San Diego but there is a textbook conference in the Fall that we usually see each other at so I thought now would be a good time to start:


That was yesterday. I'm a little addicted to the striping. This is where I am now:


I love these stupid socks!

Happy Thursday! Yay I actually have the weekend off and I'm going to the Knit Out!

Just a quick post while I'm here at Avery's soccer field. Thank god for the New York Public Library and it's open access wireless! There's a library right at the corner of the park where Avery plays so I decided to bring the laptop with me.

I got my final One Skein Secret Pal package courtesy of Jessi (now properly linked!):




Wow doesn't that scarf look familiar? It's a Branching Out of my very own. How cool is that? The keychain is adorable too, see:



Thanks secret pal, you've spoiled me well:D

Enjoy the weekend everyone...

Let's see, it's Thursday what progress do I have for you,hmm?

Nothing...

...nada...

...zip...

...zero...

...zilch.

I still have a pole laying to the left of my backyard. I still have no cable, no internet and no phone on my main line. I did have some very nice Verizon guys perform a miracle and get my landline working but no one has that number. I only have it for emergencies and the ADT system.

Verizon says a work order was put in for the pole but it is then farmed out to a contractor. They haven't called me back yet on the status of that. I called Cablevision yesterday to see if they could come out and wire me from a different pole but they can't. Although the guy took a ton of pictures and is bringing them to his supervisor to push the urgency of the situation. He thinks we may be able to get wired from the street like apartment buildings are typically done. He says it's actually better because you don't run into these types of problems with that kind of wiring.

I don't mean to seem like a petulant child. Of course one can live without TV and Internet but I pay a lot of money for those services and I don't see why it isn't an urgent matter to get it back up and running. The neighbor on the left still has cable on one floor and the neighbor on the right only one of her tenants is without cable so I guess we're not a high enough number to matter. The fact that this:
is what you see when you look through the broken section of my fence doesn't seem to matter to Verizon either.

I'm so damn tired from work at the moment and then I get home and I totally frustrated by the lack of progress on the pole situation that I can't even relax enough to knit. I haven't even taken Gyrid with me to work. I'm just too drained. Thankfully the boys are both taking to their new schools like ducks to water so when I get home they are happy and excited to share their days with me. Things could be worse and I realize that. It's just so frustrating with something like this since it's nearly completely out of my control. I can rant and rave all I want but it's all still on someone else's schedule.

...ok rant over, thanks for listening...

If a tree falls...

...in your backyard, you're totally screwed.

Thankfully there are no powerlines in the back so we have power but it took a telephone pole with it. Unfortunately the cable lines are also on the telephone pole. So no TV, no internet and no phone, no fun!

I couldn't blog until today since I was off Sunday and Monday. Here's a shot of the yard yesterday morning:



The tree was from a neighbor's yard so she and her family were out there by yesterday afternoon cutting it up. Rinaldo helped too;):



This is what it looked like by Sunday evening:



I really can't say enough how wonderful it is to have good neighbors.

To put this in perspective, it was not a tree that fell. It was just a limb:



We have to wait for the phone company to fix or replace the pole. Then the cable company will come and fix the cable. I'm not holding my breath on that. It will happen but when is the question.

Life goes on of course. Both boys were off to their new schools today. Ian is actually home already, Kindergarten is only half a day for the first two. He says Kindergarten "is fun"!

Happy Tuesday all...