I’m still alive.  The house is still for sale.  Blah, blah, blah.

The good news is that I’ve been knitting my backside off in between cleaning the house sessions.  I’ll start posting project summaries here PDQ for y’all.

Now back to your scheduled programming…

Ok, the bummer part of living in San Diego is a weather condition referred to as “May Grey,” which then leads into “June Gloom.”  The marine layer moves in, and the sun goes AWOL.  When you’re UV-powered, it can make your life miserable.

So, my activity level reflects this weather.  Not much knitting, and really not much playing with the new camera outside.  I’m now just over halfway done with the Lady Eleanor Stole re-knit.  Sorry for no photos, but it looks pretty similar to my last post about it.  I’ve also finished Clue #2 on the 2008 Mystery Shawl #8 project.  I have posted photos of my progress in Ravelry for those who are curious.

WordPress released a new blog template last month for photoblogging use.  It’s the coolest thing!  The color of the template and width of the layout adapts to the photo posted, so it makes your blog look different with each post.  In fact, it was so cool that I decided to start a second blog just for posting my photos.  If you’re curious, check it out here.

Ok, off to clean the house…sigh

Yes…I really did ask you that question.  Come on–be honest with yourself.  There must be something you’re dying to possess and you’d actually give up your yarn stash savings in order to get it.  There was for me.

Starting six months ago, I vowed not to make any major yarn purchases so I could save up money for my special thing.  There is a ceramic jar in our office that everyone contributes their spare change to in order to keep me stashed with yarn.  (I think DH and Kato have figured out that this makes me a happier person and more easy to live with, so they gladly “pay the toll.”)  I can usually net about $60 on a full jar, which works well with saving up for yarn, but it was slow going for this project.  So, all birthday and Christmas money went into that jar.  Any rebate checks in the mail?  Into the jar.  Basically, any money that “fell from the sky” qualified to be contributed to that jar.  By last week, I was just shy of $590.  I shudder to think of the yarn orgy I could have had with that cash.  Technically I was still short of the goal, but I could see the end in sight, since DH gave me permission to use some of President Bush’s economic stimulus package to make up the difference.  Based on the IRS website, I only had about another 2-3 weeks to go.

Then the Best Buy Rewards program coupons showed up in the mail last week.  A whopping 12% off only good over the weekend.  I know 12% doesn’t sound like much, but when you’re looking at $750 it looks pretty nice.  So, I “borrowed” my Prez money from savings so I could be a smart shopper.

What did I finally buy last Friday?

Yup, the Nikon D60 with the 18-55mm lens and an 8GB SDHC card.  I’ve been using our Canon SD450 to take all of my knitting photos, and I was finding some real limitations with the point-and-shoot.  Also, I’ve had SLR experience in the past and the digital cameras have come down enough in price that I could justify it.

So, not much knitting this last weekend, but lots of pictures!  I think DH was really getting tired of me shooting photos of him while we’d talk, while BBQing, etc.  Shoot, evaluate and delete!  I LOVE THIS CAMERA!  Now there are no excuses for me to be posting crappy photos.

And the yarn jar?  It’s now being used for saving up for a telephoto zoom lens.  Good thing I have enough in my stash to keep me busy for awhile…

As some of you may remember, I was really jonesing to knit the Lady Eleanor Stole from Scarf Style last September.  I even bought one ball of Noro Silk Garden to test swatch it, but in the end I decided it would be more prudent to save the roughly $140 and put it towards fixing Dieter, who was leaking coolant all over our garage floor.

Well, Little Knits had a really killer sale on Silk Garden in November, so I was able to get the yarn and stash it for future use on this stole.  I was finally ready to start this project last month, after finishing the Lizard Ridge Afghan.  I spent a lot of time on Ravelry looking at other Lady E’s, as I remember that even though my test swatch last fall was on gauge with US 10.5 needles (as called out in the pattern), I didn’t like how “open” the piece looked.  It seemed a lot of other knitters felt that way, as quite a few of them used US 8 or 9 instead.  I cast on with US 9 and after 12″ of knitting, I decided that I was happy with the gauge.  It was narrower (obviously), but blocking would get an inch or so back.  And that’s how I went.

So, last night I finished tier 35, the last tier before casting off per the pattern.  I laid the piece on the floor and measured:  54″.  OK, still too short for what I wanted.  It was long enough to finally wrap in front and when I put it over my shoulders and looked in the mirror, I knew.  Much to my disappointment, I knew.  I didn’t like the drape; the gauge was too dense and it didn’t hang on me as I had pictured.  Yup, I should have stuck with the original gauge.  It really kills me to think about frogging this much work, but I firmly believe that first and foremost, I need to be happy with this in the end.

Sigh…I’m going to pour myself a cup of coffee and get my ball winder out.  I’ve got some work to do.

I haven’t had the energy to post the last few days thanks to the Santa Ana blast of heat that we fell victim to this last weekend here in San Diego.  I was going to post about the Lady Eleanor stole, but I just didn’t have it in me to handle Noro Silk Garden, nor brave the heat outside to take photos of it.  I talked to my sis out in Minneapolis on Saturday, and here’s how the conversation went:

SIS:  “I woke up to 3″ of snow on my yard last night and I’m freezing!  Man, when is this winter ever going to end?  I’m sick of it, and it’s April!”

ME:  “Wow, it’s 96 degrees here today, and we’re trying our hardest to not turn on the air.  And it’s only April!”

SIS:  “Can you send 10 or 15 degrees of that my way?”

OK, it was something to that effect (apologies to my sis for the paraphrasing, but I think she’ll agree with the gist of it).  The worst day was Sunday, when our temperature read 101 degrees on the front porch.  Ugh!!

Plus, our house is still on the market (if any of you are keeping track, you can wish me a “happy 11-month anniversary” in about a week).  We had an agent preview the place on Saturday, then another one came by today with a client, so I’ve been cleaning like a madwoman.  Not that the place wasn’t already clean by everyday standards, but going through this—imagine living like you need to be ready for the white glove inspection ALL OF THE TIME.  Yes, I am going on a cleaning strike when this place sells.  The thing that keeps me going is that the potential buyer traffic has picked up over the last 6 weeks or so.  We only need that one…

The good news is that the weather is cooling now, so I should be getting back to Lady E and will post about it very soon.

BTW, we opened a very nice 2004 Del Rio Vineyards Viognier tonight from the cellar.  Very refreshing after a 90 degree day and cleaning!