Eggs In Scale

Karen pointed out that many of you may not realize how small Eggs are, so I shot some nekkid photos of them alongside a couple of things most people can easily recognize: two sizes of paperclips, and a dime. Here they are with their latest hats... And here are their (only, at this point) sweaters... So, while they are the smallest things I've ever knitted, smaller even that the little socks I knit and fill with catnip for catty friends, they are the smallest things I think I shall ever knit. To see some incredible knitted things that are would make the dime and paperclips look huge, check out Islandknitter's Knitted Garden and the incredible Bugknit's Nano Knits.

Sashimi and Saki and Eggs, oh, my!

Karen, Eggs and I went out to celebrate my birthday dinner at our favorite Japanese restaurant, Shogun. We gorged on a small order of shrimp and vegetable tempura to start, followed by a large platter of mixed sashimi, followed by a softshell crab (Karen's first) and an order of unagi (smoked eel sushi, also a first for Karen). This was leisurely washed down with several large cups of green tea and several carafes of hot saki.
















Here are Eggs in front of the sashimi platter containing white (albacore), red (ahi) and yellow (yellowtail) tuna, sea bass, and red snapper, along with (my favorite garnishes) mounds of daikon threads and ginger.

Eggs wore their new hats, and also got to show off their some of their sweaters (the blue with the scarf, and the bright light green and purple) to the very nice server.

Everything was great, other than the fact that Karen kept referring to Sist as the "terrorist egg" because of the proclivity of some of that ilk cravenly hiding their identity behind balaclavas.

After dinner (and did I mention lots of saki?), we let Sidney out of the car, where, alas, he had to stay, burrowed under my Sidney blankets, while we ate dinner. He decided it was way too cold to read the news around the parking lot, so he quickly got back into the car, and off we went to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream for us and to take home to Karen's hubby.

Karen's waffle cone was sort of disintegrating while we were still in the store, so the nice fellow who was handling our order gave Karen a cup to put her scoops in should the cone give way before we got home. It did give way, so Karen managed to invert the cone over the cup without running into the center median. Sidney, the lucky boy, got to eat the waffle cone. He then decided that I must not want my waffle cone, either, and so poked his snout repeatedly in my cheek to make it as easy as possible for me to hand over the cone. Which, seeing as how my cone was still filled with Mississippi Mud ice cream, I did not.

When we got to Karen's, I dished out some Truffles in Paradise ice cream for Jim, topped my own cone with a dab (well, I had to make sure TiP tasted good!), and we hung out for a while, 'we' meaning Karen, Jim, Eggs, Sid, Jack the cat, and I. Sid, while waiting for me to get tired of my cone, cleaned up and shredded Karen's cup. Once he at the last inch of my cone, he grabbed his large (faintly obscene) Nylabone Double Action Chew toy, and began teasing me with it, offering it to me, then pulling it out of my hands. We played for a while, watching a movie, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Jack observing us from his place, stretched out in front of the fire.

Karen then drove me home (did I mention lots of saki?) where, still warm from the saki, I eventually went to bed and slept well. Well, until 4 AM when The Thing returned to its place Under The Tub.

Thank you, Karen and Jim and Sidney and Eggs (and Shogun), for a very yummy birthday!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!

It is frickin' cold here. After a week or so of sunny, bright, mild-to-almost warmish days, and nights ranging from brisk to nearly balmy, we are smack in the middle of winter again. A COLD winter. Here, for example, is a photo of the outdoor thermometer, taken this afternoon around 2:30 PM. The window it is on is on the south side of the house:



Here's a temperature/dewpoint chart reflecting the past 24 hours (well, from 7:50 PM last night to tonight). See??? Cold!



There was even snow here in Sonoma County, in one area enough to make a snowman that stuck around.

I don't care what it is in Wisconsin or Maine or British Columbia or anywhere else it is cold. It is supPOSsed to be cold in those places. Not cold like that here. This is coastal California, by gosh, and we just do not do cold here. So, make it go away!

But not until you see Eggs' new hats.

Well, Eggs get cold, too, and so need some warm new hats to get through these COLD days.



Here is Uova in her smart red-and-flecked number. The red is the Cascade 220 I'm using for Sidney's dog sweater. The flecky stuff is...something. Juliette gave me a leftover ball of it that had been knocking around the shop after she finished something, so I've had it in my stash for about a year. To make the hat, I ribbed a 5" long strip, grafted the two ends together, and then picked up stitches and knit them in the round to the top. Uova was happy with the hat, but Sist wanted something offering more coverage.


So, I made her this little chenille balaclava. All they need are some leg warmers (well, and some legs) and they could hit the slopes at Torino and catch some Olympic action.

As for me, I think I'm going to go sink into some flannel and down with a hot cuppa.

Proper Intros, Pillow Talk, and Signs of Things to Come

I thought that, before we go on much farther, you'd like to meet Eggs up close and personal. Taking advantage of their naptime today, I took their pictures. Here is Uova...


















..and here is Sist.


















As you can see, they are beginning to look a bit...aged. They've been living in the den, whose average daily temperature during the winter is in the mid-50s, so they are being quite well preserved, considering they are, er, uhm, raw.

Did you notice that hint of green behind them, in their individual photos? Those are pillows!!! Their Aunt Darry made them each a pillow, very much like the larger iguana pillow she made for Mikey the Cycie. She also made those cute little drawstring bags you see.















Now Eggs will be able to rest in comfort while I plot, er, plan their new finery. I've been busy lately making scarf gifts which have finally been sent off, and so I'm catching up on knitting some more squares for the Sonoma Blanket Project, and a new scarf for myself, having belatedly realize I have no purple scarves.

But, I digress... I am planning on using some of the left over purple scarf yarns to make something for Eggs, but more importantly, I have been thinking about how to use another gift Eggs received, this from Knatolee. Knat, who designs and makes spectacular rugs (my faves being the Albino Axolotl on page 1, and the Fintistic Fishies on page 2), also knits and does other crafty things. She recently drove herself crazy knitting a lace scarf for her mother-in-law, out of a wonderful foresty qiviut (musk ox)/wool/silk blend. Knat sent Eggs the remaining yarn!

So, while working on other projects, I've been giving serious thought about what to make out of this luxurious yarn. A lacy poncho, perhaps? A shawl and hat? Hmmmm......

Oh! Want to see the yarn? Yum....














Here's a close-up for you.

















So much to knit! Only two hands!