Waltzing Knitilda

Baby elephant... elefante bebe

So I finished a book proposal this week.  Whew.  I've been working on it the last couple of years. Yes you read that right. Years. 

I feel like I've given birth to a baby elephant.  The gestation period was about the same.

It's a knitting book. With a lot of research. And patterns.

It's going out this week. I don't want to jinx it so I won't say more about it.

But what a huge relief.

Al fin, termine' mi propuesta para un libro. Sobre tejer/hacer calceta.  Otra vez con este monio de no tener una manera fija de decir tejer con dos agujas.

No importa. Siento como si di luz a un elefante.  Tomo' casi lo mismo tiempo preparando este. 

Hice muchas investigaciones. Hay patrones. Pero no quiero decir mas porque no quiero invitar el mal ojo a este proyecto.  Estoy muy contenta, contentisima, que termine ya. Un peso se me ha quitado.

And in other news.... here's what happened to the Easter egg dyeing experiment.

Y en otras noticias, aqui estan los resultados del experimento de ten~ir con tinta de huevos de Pascuas.

There they are.

Both clumps.  It's been kind of dark around here the last few days so I had to take this with a flash. 

Aqui estan las dos.  Ha sido bastante oscuro y nublado afuera, asi' que disculpame por tener que tomar estas fotos con "flash."  Lucen mejor en luz natural.

They're better looking in natural light.

I'm pleased.

The green part of the spectrum though really didn't take.

A mi' me gusta como salio, aun que los verdes no quedaron bien.  Alguien me dijo que debia poner sal en el agua para fijar los colores.  Al principio pense que nada mas que necesitaba vinagre, pero ahora creo que ella tuvia razon.  La proxima vez voy a poner sal en el agua final.

Someone told me I should have put salt in the bath to rinse, which I didn't do.  I'll try that the next time.  She said it fixes the color.  I thought only the vinegar was necessary but I think she was right.

Here's the clump that had more reds in it.

Aqui se ve el que tiene mas de rojo.

And here's the one that had more yellow and blues and supposed to be greens.

I was really surprised that the yellow actually showed up.  I'm so used to the Koolaid lemonade being so pale that I didn't expect to see the yellow on this brownish wool.

Y aqui se ve el otro con amarillo, azul y donde iba el verde que no quedo fijo.

Quede' asombrada que el amarillo si' quedo.  Tengo tanta experiencia con el sabor limonada del Koolaid, que es muy flojo, que pense' que esta iba a quedar lo mismo.  Y ademas con esta lana del color de tierra pense' que no iba a ver el amarillo.

Asi' que la proxima vez, con sal.

DH is in France this week packing up our stuff. So weird.  Appropriately we're having typically Breton weather here.  Damp. Cool. Grey.

But everything else? Green. So that's where the color went.

Mi esposo esta' en Francia esta semana empaquetando nuestras cosas.  Tan extran~o es pensar que esta etapa termino'. 

El tiempo aqui? Como de Bretan~a.  Humedo. Fresco. Y gris.

El resto de la ciudad? Verde.  Ya encontre' adonde fue ese color.

Blog of the week and the reading

Woooo hooooo.  I'm Blog of the Week over at Black Purl ezine.  Heee.  I really like this zine.  Lots and lots of interesting articles.  Well written, all that.

Here.

What fun.

And last week we had another KnitLit reading over at Knitty City.  It was really really fun. 

An appreciative crowd turned up, and Christine Lavin was a riot. 

She sang her What Was I Thinking song, with the Dick Cheney ending.  On the right she's reading her story about learning to knit at 50 and how she has knitting circles before her concerts and her James Taylor infused sweater.

They were all a riot.  Cathy Cooper, Jenny, Kay, and Naomi. 

Naomi has these knit condom amulets that are very cool.  For the over-50 set. To increase AIDS/HIV awareness. What a great idea. Here she is explaining her NYC apartment and composting and red worm installation. I think she unintentionally almost traumatized one of the listeners, who revealed her worm phobia after the readings were done. That's me on the right, wondering if I could be like her when I get a bit older.

Jenny's graduating from her MFA in fiction program this month.  Go Jenny.  I love her knitting infidelity story in KL3, as well as her KL2 story. She's on the right, and Kay's on the left.

Kay said she was exhausted, but she looked and sounded great.  And such bouncy hair. Impersonating Ann meeting herself for the first time. Despite Kay's repeated assertions that she and Ann are freaky internet twins, she didn't do Ann's soft Tennessee drawl. It was a riot.

Cathy looked wonderful and read her Pound of Love story that never fails to touch me. There she is with Lisa Daehlin-- resident opera singer-knit designer -- looking over.

And of course Linda Roghaar exuded warmth and a new beautifully blue sweater.  It was great to see them and hear them all again.  Here she is kvelling on Naomi.

Linda is starting up a short story knitlit series, which I think is a great idea.  Where you have short stories read to you while you knit, then you talk about it.  Like a reading club but without homework she says.  Makes me want to do it too over here. 

I wasn't nervous like I was the last time about reading the short story, "You Owe Me" that is in KL3.  I did the Inspector Clouseau cheap trick again and once again it brought laughs, proving that when all else fails you can sound like Peter Sellers and get a laugh.

These pix are courtesy of Gail Siegel from Knitty City.  And Gail has the world's best knitting store resident pet.  The absolute cutest friendliest dog.  She says he's a cockadachsadoodle.  I say they should make more of them.

So a big thanks to Pearl, Gail and Phyllis over at KC.