flittingbutterfly

Happy New Year!!!

2008-01-05T12:44:00.000-08:00

I wish for all a wonderful, healthy and happy 2008.

Rosane.

How may I help you?

2007-08-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

Life

I just got off the phone with a customer rep for a major office solutions company, local store. Their name rhymes with Bimbo’s. I called the main 800 number to get a quote for a printing job I need to do and the very polite, cheery operator told me she would have to transfer me to a local store, because prices vary depending on location. Fair enough. I gave her my zip code and within a few seconds, someone picked up the line. She sounded as if she had just awoken. Hey, I’m not a morning person, so I can understand that. However, things went down from there. I explained what I needed to know and she told me to hold, that she was going to transfer me to someone. She didn’t wait for my answer. Ok, I waited. After a bit, a different woman’s voice came on the line, yelled something I didn’t understand, something about my calling the store and hung up. Huh? I called the 800 number again and said they hung up on me, could I please be connected again? The very nice operator said certainly. The same initial sleepy voice picked up. I told her what had just happened. In a moment of clarity, she said, “Oh, that’s ‘cause you was playing music. Loud. We couldn’t ‘nnerstand what you was saying.” These were her words. I told her politely, but firmly that I was not playing any music. “Oh, I don’t know. We couldn’t ‘nnerstand you.” Okay. I wasn’t playing music on the phone, but even if I had been, this is how you deal with your potential clients????? Yell at them and hang up on them???

I have noticed a decline in service in the Long Island region, lately. There has always been the random rude customer rep. In their defense, it is not easy to work with the public. I’ve done it and I feel for every person behind a counter or telephone. However, I am not talking about rude customers, or people asking for extra services. I am talking about your everyday, run of the mill and expected service, requested in a polite, non-condescending way. It was 8 minutes and 40 seconds before I actually got a quote from the sleepy voice. She asked me if I wanted her to put in the order. I told her no. She sounded surprised. I should’ve told her that their combined lack of customer support made up my mind for me. Even if they offered me 50% off, I would still not accept it. But I didn’t. I was too shocked. Why did that shock me? Because I still expect to be treated as I treat people. The whole call lasted 8:59 seconds. It took two calls and over 9 minutes to find out I don’t want to do business with Bimbo’s. At least, not this branch.

Knitting

Here are a couple of pictures of the socks I've knitted since mid-winter. When classes are on, I have very little time for knitting. Most were done in the summer.

The pattern, I got when I bought the first Regia something or other (in the picture below) from The Yarn Shop at Geneva. I have adapted it to suit the different yarns. The Tofutsies sock is my own pattern and the Regia 4fadig is the Poseidon Socks (adapted).

The yarns are, from left to right, Regia something or other, Sockotta, Trekking XXL, Merino 4ply "Orchid" and Regia Cotton, I think. The colors are not accurate in this pic...

... pretty true colors in this shot...

Here the yarns are merino cashmere sock yarn - "Orange Blossoms", Tofutsies, Regia 4fadig, Wildfoote. Again, the colors are not true here...

... but they are here.

Current sock on the needles - I Love Ganseys, from the yahoo group six_socks_knitalong . The yarn is Jawoll.

And a close up of the orange...

Yarn Waves

2007-08-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

Life

My husband often talks about ideas as being waves, currents that flow along one brain to the next. He is usually met with a skeptical look from me, not so much because I disagree with what he is saying, but because it is he who is saying it. The thought could be, my what a blue sky we have today! The look would be pretty much the same. This is what almost 19 years of marriage will do to a person, if separation isn’t involved at some point.

If there are currents of ideas that circulate the creative world, then there might also be currents of disasters circulating above us, picking and choosing those of us unfortunate enough to call any attention to ourselves, for instance, ABM. Of course these waves would not be called by their simple names, they have acronyms. So, ABM stands for Appliances Breakage Movement. Maybe there is a wave of appliances breakage flowing around. It passes by my house. It sees that I haven’t cleaned the refrigerator in a month and … baaam ... my frigde breaks. Not just a light bulb burning, but a full power down event. It must’ve not been that important, the wave probably thought. We’ll fix that. Or unfix, as the case might be.

Another example could be the VUAT, Vehicular Usage Adjustment Trend. Sure, we all love our cars. They take us to where we want to be (except if you have to use the LIE at rush hour, but that’s another post). We, in turn, take care of our cars. We have scheduled maintenance meetings, we clean our cars, wax them, fuss over them, or not. Some of us check the fluid levels regularly and that’s enough. Filters? Must be self changing. Preventive checking? Huh? Belts? See filters. That’s when VUAT touches land and hits the unsuspecting motorist. But it has class. It is more subtle and cunning than ABM. At least, that’s been my experience. Instead of leaving you dead in the water with a, yes, dead automobile, it makes it so that the next time you’re at the gas station filling up, they run out of gas while you’re doing it. They don’t tell you when you’re handing them your money to pay for the gas you’ll be pumping that they are running low, so it might be wise to get just a little to get you home. No. They let you give them a whole lot of money, as if you’re going to fill your tank. Then, the gas runs out. You know all the gunk on the bottom of their tank? It is now inside YOUR tank, so that every time you start up your car, you have to pump so much gas or the car will die. Then, if it dies, you have to wait at least 5 minutes for the sediment to settle so you can start the car again. Do you wonder how I know the number of minutes necessary for a start up? Because the first time this happened it took me half an hour to get the d$%^* car on again, because I kept trying to start it and just made it worse every time.

Anyway, that VUAT is really cunning. It sometimes works in conjunction with other waves, like FUMAD. I forget what the first two letters stand for in FUMAD, but MAD is definitely Modern Automobile Design. Did you know that some fuel filters are actually located inside the fuel tank, and are considered a non-serviceable part? What? Oh, that must mean that it is self-changing (see above paragraph).

It seems that lots of people around the blogosphere are having tough times now. I mostly lurk around blogs and have read quite a few accounts of things gone awry. I haven’t written about mine, but I’ll tell you, I’ve had quite a few this Summer. My only hope is that if any of the above is true, then I sure hope there are also good waves, waves of marshmallow, chocolate pudding, brand new puppies and kittens and butterflies hanging around somewhere. Oh yeah, and silk yarn waves too. They sure ain’t here, but somewhere. Maybe there’s a GW (Good Wave, fer cryin’ out loud) flying around my place sometime and it sees that I just saved two snails* from being stepped on, in the middle of the path, by moving them over to my hydrangea for a snack. Maybe the GW will be all, oh, I must rain showers of goodness in the form of piles of money, or a hiatus from *anything* breaking down, or yeah, silk yarn skeins, on this wonderful person. Wouldn’t that be cool? I’d sure blog about it.

Meanwhile, I’ll continue to try and look on the bright side of things, at the risk of being cliché. I do have a lot of things to be grateful for. I know that. I’ll continue trying to dwell on them. Sometimes, it’s harder to do than others. But how great will it be when I come home to find everything that was broken, fixed, everything that was in disarray, ordered, things that hurt, not hurting anymore, my husband in a good mood – for the whole night – and yeah, piles of silk yarn on the back stoop?

*I will revisit the snails story next time.

Knitting

Here is one of the current projects on my needles. It is a snood, wimple, hood, whatever, knitted out of a yummy alpaca yarn from a local breader, Jennifer Clements. The pattern is from here.

Aaaand, a little bit closer:

LOLCATS?1??!!!

2007-08-06T13:09:00.001-07:00

As seen on Miss Libby , via Rabbitch :

Your Score: Lion Warning Cat

72% Affectionate, 68% Excitable, 40% Hungry

You are the good Samaritan of the lolcat world. Protecting others from danger by shouting observations and guidance in cases of imminent threat, you believe in the well-being of everyone.

To see all possible results, checka dis.

Link: The Which Lolcat Are You? Test written by GumOtaku on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Quarterly Update

2007-07-27T06:27:00.000-07:00

I've been knitting socks since about January or February. We went upstate and ended up driving around Geneva, NY. There is a very nice yarn store there, of which I was not aware, called Yarn Shop of Geneva. Of course I stopped in. It was the day before we were coming back home (Long Island). It was cold. I was feelling a little blue, so I bought some sock yarn and a set of dpns. Started the sock right away and have been knitting socks off and on ever since.

I make it a point to get a skein of sock yarn when I go somewhere new, or even somewhere old. It's a nice souvenir, affordable, memorable and fun. I now have Skaneateles socks (Yarn Bin), a couple of Geneva socks, Philadelphia socks (Rosie's Yarn Cellar), and Long Island socks (Granny's Yarns, The Knitting Corner, I forget). Who knows how long the sock kick will last? I ought to have lots of Long Island socks, if it continues...

Spring is finally here!!!

2007-04-20T12:48:00.000-07:00

Yay.

The weather is so gorgeous today, I need to celebrate with a flower picture.

Rosane.

2007-04-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

Due to some extra financial commitments, I have been trying very hard not to indulge in serious yarn additions to the household lately. I've slipped a couple of times. Once was with a friend, who was destashing. How can I not help a friend in need (of space)? So I bought a shopping bag full of cones of yarn, about 5 different yarns, extremely resonably priced. I rationalized. The mystery shawl 6 is being knitted out of one of those cones. See, I'm knitting from the stash...

Then, someone wrote on their blog (I think it was Cara, don't recall) about a purchase they had made from a seller in Australia, The Knittery. Naturally, I went to look at their site and WOW! fell in love with their colors. Yes, I bought some. Received the yarns in about 5 or 6 days, which amazed me no end. Very nice service. Gorgeous yarn. Here they are.

This is the most delicious, happiest, smiley-est color combination (and so soft).
2 skeins of merino cashmere sock yarn - "Orange Blossoms" - pretty accurate color.

1 skein of Merino 4ply "Orchid" - the color on this one disappointed me a little. It is very beautiful, don't get me wrong. But I expected it to be more muted from the picture on their web site. I'm still happy though.

2 skeins of silk merino 2ply "Lakeside Flora" - the green on this is a little warmer, a little yellower, in real life.

1 skein of merino 4ply "Passionfruit" - pretty accurate color.

1 skein of merino 4ply "Earth" - this is a lot greener in real life (darkish green)

Now, for the time to knit!

Time for Blooming Orchids

2007-04-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

There are some new blooms here in my office, to wit:

phalenopsis brother sophia 'pine ridge #1' (06/30/06) - natural light

phalenopsis brother sophia 'pine ridge #1' (06/30/06) - Photoshop light

This one looked like buds a few days ago:

phalenopsis melody (08/08/05-07/05/06)

Now:

phalenopsis melody (08/08/05-07/05/06)

Nobby's Amy, then:

phal. nobby's amy
1216-mp-0311 blush/yellow/white lip
01/31/2005

Now:

None of these are aromatic. The only one with a fragrance is the one I posted on February 6, 2007. Unfortunately, I don't have its tag, so don't know its name.

One Paper Done = New Knitting

2007-04-01T08:51:00.000-07:00

I finished one of the papers I owe for school. Of course, I started a new knitting project: the mystery shawl 6. Every Saturday (I think for 5 weeks), there is a new clue - a new part of the chart to be worked is revealed. I am using a cone of Harrisville Shetland Wool, in a kind of dirty teal color and size 6 needles.

These pictures show the result of clue 1. Yesterday, we received clue 2.

Till next time,

Rosane.

How was your weekend?

2007-03-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

As an introduction to this post, let me clarify that both my husband and I are going for masters degrees. He works full time on one job, and 3/4s time on a second job, on the weekends. I work full time on one job only. I owe 3 long papers and 1 short one. He owes a few too.

Because of my obsession with doing well in school, I’ve learnt that I cannot knit while the semester is on. Every time I’ve attempted to do so has resulted in disaster. For example, I knit a whole shawl and neglect to work on a paper, or do the required reading for the week. Whatever.

Last Wednesday was the spinning group meeting. Should I go? Could I go? There is a short paper due on Friday for the Dewey class and I haven’t started writing it yet. Well, I’ll stay late on Thursday and handle it. I missed the February meeting due to a paper deadline (which I met, by the way, yay) and decided that no way was I missing March. Also, I was looking forward to meeting a famous blogger who joined the group. (It turned out she was sick and couldn't go. There's always April.) So I went, had a great time and filled my head with all kinds of fibery ideas from seeing other people's work and talking to everyone.

Now, on the weekends, that’s when I usually do my studying and writing. During the week, it becomes too hectic. I usually get home after 10 pm. By that time, I’m good for maybe a page or two, and usually fall asleep on the book. This past weekend was no different. I settled in for a long writing session… and… all of a sudden… I was spinning. There was fiber attenuation, petting, spinning, plying, unplying (it is precious fiber) and more spinning.

Oh, wait. I should be writing. Yeah, let me write a little more.

What makes you happy?

2007-02-06T07:27:00.000-08:00

Very often, when everything is going well and I should be doing a Gene Kelly routine, I feel sad and troubled. Then I start to think and always end up asking myself what the hell is wrong with me. I mostly don’t find the answer. This afternoon, I’m sitting in my office and one of the orchids is in bloom. It is beautiful, not showy like some. Its beauty is quieter, in an up close way. This orchid is aromatic.

As I sit here, typing, the aroma hits me every once in a while. It smells like an expensive perfume, not at all sweet, but clean, cheerful, slightly intoxicating and always surprising. This makes me unconditionally happy.

Rosane.

Current Project #1

2007-01-26T13:08:00.000-08:00

I have too many on-going projects.
So many, well, that I don't know how many.
Because I lost count a long time ago, and didn't stop starting new projects.

Above, is the current sock I'm knitting.

Rosane.

2007-01-22T08:37:00.000-08:00

As seen in Yorkshiresoul...

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Milady the Right Reverend Flittingbutterfly the Mad of Bumpstead under Carpet
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

All my troubles seemed so far away…until I reached the city.

2007-01-18T10:28:00.000-08:00

That would be NYC. I was coming down to Long Island yesterday, from upstate NY, more specifically, from the Finger Lakes area. My husband and I were up there for a couple of days. It was very relaxing. We didn’t argue, didn’t bicker with each other, nor with the world. I forgot when making plans for the trip that my spinning group meeting was yesterday. I was supposed to present the program on silk cap dying. So, we decided to come home Wed morning, instead of the planned time, so I could still make the meeting. I had this all planned in my head. I was going to lecture/demonstrate for about 10 minutes, building on the December color program given by Val (master dyer, among other things), and then ask people to come try their hand at it. We had 3 tables set up, and could have about 18 people at a time. The February program will be on how to spin the caps the people dyed in January.

We left at around 10:30, Wednesday morning from upstate. The trip was fine; we were moving right along. When I hit the Bronx, I’m telling you, we came to a halt. Now, I’ve lived on Long Island for the past, oh, 20 years. I know there is traffic in the city. I know. But it was Wednesday, at around 4 pm. The traffic was supposed to start at 5ish, I thought. I lost 2 hours on a stretch that probably would normally take me 15-20 minutes to traverse. By the time I hit Nassau County, and flew to my house (in Suffolk County) to get the supplies for the meeting, I was changing colors, from shades of purple, to reds, to white. As in white hot with anger. Relaxation, schmaxation. I was back to what I left, babeeee.

When I arrived at the group meeting, there was a full house: good for the program, bad for a late presenter, who just wanted to exterminate half of the population between the Bronx and Suffolk. I forgot to bring a key piece of equipment, the hotplate Val had lent me. I made arrangements. Carol went to her house nearby to get hers. In the end, everyone got to try dying. Some people had more than one go at it. I think everyone had a good time. But I completely forgot the little planned lecture and explanation session I was going to give. It was very lucky that at the very moment I urged everyone to come to the tables and start dying already, that Val started talking about *how* to go about it. Yeah. Good one.

I also forgot my camera. Ann, very graciously, offered to take pictures. Thank you, Ann. These will show up at the group's January newsletter, which I publish, along with Carol.

I was exhausted, a bit unglued, but I had a great time anyway. Thank you everyone who helped me set up and clean up. I hope everybody had a fun time.

This has never happened to me before…

2007-01-18T08:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning, I was frying some eggs for breakfast, for my husband and me. We took Tuesday and Wednesday off work, and went upstate. It was like a mini-vacation. We are very particular about what foods we like, and how they are prepared. We don’t always agree with each other. However, we agree on eggs: either over medium, or sunny side up, with the bottom very crispy. They have to be fried in butter, at low temperature. By the time the bottom is done, the yolk is almost all cooked. It’s really good. Anyway, yesterday morning, I was checking on the doneness of the eggs, when one exploded on my face. I’m not kidding. The white of it exploded. I had egg white on my shoulder, on the inside of my glasses, on the counter, everywhere. Everything was okay, so I laughed it off as my stupidity for a) getting my face that close to the pan, and b) not making a slit on the egg whites so no hot air pockets would form.

Cut to yesterday, night. I’ll write about yesterday day in a second post. Wait, don’t pass out. Two posts in a day, from flittingbutterfly? It could happen.

I was sitting in bed, ready to have a snack before knitting a few rows on my current sock and falling asleep on it, as usual. I opened a bottle of orange Gato*ade (love it), and … take a guess… it exploded on my face! I had drink all over my face, hands, and shirt. Hellooooooo. Am I totally annoying food that it has to get back at me?

Rhinebeck Report

2006-10-23T09:09:00.000-07:00

Every year, it's the same schpeel. Paul, my husband and usually sweet man, wants to go, so I am thrilled with that and drive up instead of taking the bus my spinning group rents. The ride there is absolute h*ll. We bicker, we argue, we become hungry, old grizzly bears (not the cuddly kind). We get there at noon, not nine. Ten minutes after we get out of the car, life couldn't be rosier. I'm not kidding. This has happened at least four times.

People

The first person I recognized there was Stephanie. I felt like a stalker. As she stood on line to get, I think, a coffee, I watched her. My thoughts were running in all different directions, composing what was to come out of my mouth. I wanted to congratulate her on her wedding and on the wedding shawl, which she was wearing. It is gorgeous! I wanted to talk about her bookS. I wanted to sound really cool, because even though I’m a lurker, I do have a blog. And if I get myself together, and post regularly, maybe she’d get to know me by my writing. I wanted to take a picture with her. Fat chance. Remember, this was within the first 10 minutes of having arrived at the fair. Life had definite streaks of rose, but for all I knew, that could’ve been faint, dried blood stains from the ride. When I focused attention to where she had been standing for, oh, 5 minutes, she wasn’t there. Whaaa? She can’t go away. I haven’t said hello yet. I spotted her at the end of the booth, probably trying to escape, so she could go shopping. Meanwhile, my husband is futzing with the camera, deleting old pictures. The disk was full. It was full the whole ride up there. Now was when he started deleting pictures. In all fairness to him, I didn’t expect to see someone I recognized right away. So, I walk up to Stephanie, introduce myself, say some inane thing about her not being able to have a moment’s peace in the festival because of people like me, and then, all I could say was that I loved her. Even though you don’t know me, I really love you, Stephanie. Oh. My. Goodness. Shoot. Me. Now. Please. I turned around and walked away to my camera-futzing husband. He said I should’ve waited until he was done, so he could take a picture of us. I said never mind.

The other person I wanted to say hello to was Marilyn. I spotted her with her Joy by the concession stands, around 3 pm. I recognized Lars and Ted, and I think Carol, but didn’t fess up to them. I did say hello to Mar. It is funny how people you read regularly develop a voice in your head (oh, stop it). Mar sounds differently from Mar-voice-in-my-head. So does Stephanie, by the way. They both sound better in person. Maybe I’m no good at voices. Anyway, it was great meeting the Knitting Curmudgeon. She was so nice. We talked about spinning and she told me to comment more. Will do.

I saw Claudia walking by a couple of times. I didn’t say anything to her because 1) she has no idea of who I am (I lurk and haven’t commented at all), and 2) because it was right after meeting Stephanie. I wasn’t sure yet of how my thoughts were going to make my mouth behave.

Met numerous people from my spinning guild. Sadly, I had set up a meeting with a friend, Melissa, whom I did not see at all. The meeting was at 11:30. I arrived at about noon. It was mobbed, forget about finding her. I also didn't see Ann. Were you there?

Things I bought (pictures of loot as I unload the car, no joke)

There was one thing I wanted to get this year. Skaska had gorgeous laceweight or gossamer, hand dyed skeins of different fiber content. Because I only saw them at the end of the fair last year, I had already blown the budget (oh, stop it), and didn’t buy any. This year, for sure, I was gonna git me some of those purty hand dyed. Well, this was the only thing I didn’t get. I bought some laceweight Icelandic, some Tintagel Farms beauties for four smallish projects, some blue faced Leicester fiber from Abi’s Web, and a few other things… I bought an antique wheel. As we walked around, my husband pointed out a small, dark, old wheel. It is a gossip wheel, with the double flyers, and one pedal. Very pretty.

For all the years I’ve been spinning, about 8 or 9, my wheel has been an Ashford Scholar. I purchased it from a dealer who sold her business years ago, and had this wheel in her attic for years after. It is a castle style wheel, small and very simple. It works fine though, and it’s easy to transport.

On the way out, while looking for Skaska’s booth -- because why would I look at the map thingie they provide at the entrance, or the map and vendors list I printed last week for myself, and both groups of paper were in my back pocket –- Paul pointed out a beautiful wheel on the floor of a booth. It turned out to be a Country Craftsman. The last one the vendor had. We worked out a deal, and it is in my car, baybee! I can’t believe it. Two wheels, totally unplanned for, in my car! I was and am so happy. This is not usual.

Food

Surprisingly, the cheeseburger I had was delicious. The patty didn’t look like the frozen kind you get at most festivals. Don’t know if it is usually like that at Rhinebeck. It was my first burger there. One year there was a booth selling salmon, bacon and lettuce sandwiches. It was fabulous. Haven’t found them again, though.

Ttfn

Let’s see if I keep this up. Pictures will appear soon.

Take care,

Rosane.

Art yarn

2006-09-13T07:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, a non-knitting friend of mine came by my office, and saw my latest yarn purchase. It is a ball of Graceful, color f03605, available from Yarn Place. He commented on how beautiful the yarn is. Then he asked if I was going to work it. I said I was going to knit it. He asked why not just leave it as it is? As soon as I got the yarn, I admired it, and promptly began swatching. Now, the more I look at the yarn, the deeper I get into the spiral of colors blending onto themselves. Maybe I'll buy a second ball for knitting...
The yarn is a lot greener, and less blueish, than appears in these photos.

Lyra mia

2005-10-01T13:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of my Lyra, a design by Herbert Niebling.

The yarn I'm using is Jaegerspun Zephyr, cobalt blue. Rows 1 through 6 were knitted with size 2 double pointed needles. Then I switched to size 3 needles, simply because I didn't have any size 2 circs and I wanted to use two circular needles instead of the dpns. However, these were short circs. So on row 31, I again switched needles, to a size 4.

I am about to start row 71, on size 5 needles. This, I am doing on purpose. Hopefully, I won't have any trouble with the next set of leaves binding during blocking time.

Take care all,

Rosane.

Quiz of the day

2005-09-25T08:10:00.000-07:00

Oh goodie! This one, the Argument Clinic, and the fish slapping dance are my favorite Monty Python skits.

You are the Minister of Silly Walks

What Monty Python Sketch Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Mystery Shawl

2005-08-11T07:40:00.000-07:00

Just finished clue 2b of the mystery shawl. Clue 3 comes out tomorrow. Yea! :)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mysteryshawlalong/

Here are some pictures of the shawl so far, just taken at my office. Forgive the lack of photo professionalism. :)

The yarn I'm using is a mystery acrylic that feels like wool. I got a very big cone of this yarn from a friend of mine, for free. Of course, I couldn't pass it up. I usually don't like acrylic. I took it to my LYS, to show the owner what I've been working on, and she thought it was wool. We did the burn test, and the yarn piece disappered completely.

I am enjoying this mystery knitting. Many thanks to Renee, the list mom, for doing this.

Take care all,

Rosane.

2005-07-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

This is a test with a picture embedded in the text. Is it going to wrap around? Is it going to look like total crap?

We'll see...