Birthday Week

I found this fun meme on Marigold's blog while I was looking at her Hogwarts swap socks. She's making Ravenclaw socks out of Koigu! Maybe they're for me?

1. Go to Wikipedia and enter your birthday without the year:
May 3

2. List 3 events that occurred that day:

• 1960 - The Anne Frank House opened in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. On my way back home after 9 weeks in England I arrived in Amsterdam for my charter flight home with about $40 and no credit cards. I thought I had a place to stay for the weekend, but the people had gone out of town. I had to find a hotel room cheap. I walked for blocks looking for a room. After paying for the room I had enough money to take the canal trip to see Anne Frank's house and a shuttle to the airport, but not much extra. I had a wheel of Jarlsburg cheese that I had bought at Harrod's to take home, and I bought some tomato juice and a book to read. I ate nothing but that cheese for the whole weekend so I could visit the Anne Frank house. It was a powerful experience for me and I recommend it to anyone who visits Amsterdam. I missed the Rijksmuseum with the Rembrandts, Vermeers and Van Goghs to see the house. I have never been able to stomach Jarlsburg cheese from that day to this (over 30 years).
  
• 1916 - Easter Rising leaders are executed in Dublin. There is a wonderful movie about this event available on DVD, but the name escapes me right now.
  
• 1937 - Gone with the Wind, a novel by Margaret Mitchell, wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. When I was 15, I was reading this book (not for the first time) in my bed after midnight. I was reading about the Klan attack where Scarlett's husband was killed. My dad came upstairs to see why I was crying. All I could say was "Frank died". He was reassured and left me alone. This is the father who read the encyclopedia when he was growing up because that was all he had to read. One of my favorite books.
  

3. List 2 important birthdays.

• 1919 - Pete Seeger, American singer, composer & peace activist
  
• 1898 - Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1978)

4. List 1 death:

1152 - Matilda of Boulogne, Queen of England (b. 1105) Empress of Germany, mother of Henry II, second husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and grandmother of Richard the Lionheart and King John.

5. List one holiday or observance:

• World Press Freedom Day. What a great day to commemorate
  

Sunday Seven: A Baker's Dozen

Seven Things I'm thankful for this week:

1. Spring Sundays
   
2. Strong coffee
3. Free time to knit
   
4. Clean sheets
5. Costa Rica vacations
   
6. Family pot lucks
   
7. Fresh orange juice
   

Hooray it's Finally Friday

Let's have a feast!

Appetizer
How fast can you type?
I have passed a typing test at 45 words a minute but only because I have a photographic memory. I refused to take typing in school because I wasn't going to be a secretary. Many term papers (and blog entries) later, I sometimes regret my decision.
Soup
What is your favorite online game?
mahjong

Salad
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 as highest), how intelligent do you think you are?
7

Main Course
Name three of your best teachers from your school years.
Mrs. (SuDee) Guichard, who took us to see the King Tut exhibit when I was in 3rd grade. I decided to become an Egyptologist right then and there.
Mr. Chavez, my civics teacher at Tamalpais High School (celebrating its 100th birthday next year.)
Joyce Gross, who taught me how to make quilts, appreciate their graphic presence and research their history.

Dessert
What are your plans for this upcoming weekend?
Postponed Easter brunch with family, knitting, gardening, shopping and cleaning

Four Pairs Down, 48 More to Knit

I finished my 4th pair for the month of April. Only 48 more to go for the 52 pair plunge challenge. The socks are based on the Horcrux pattern by Susan Pierce Lawrence, but I made major alterations to it. No pictures yet because these socks are for my Hogwarts swap pal. The original pattern, knitted in worsted weight yarn, is available on Susan's blog. A fingering weight version is available to members of the Six Sock KAL Yahoo group. Anyone can join this group. It's a great group of socknitters who knit original sock patterns bimonthly.

I started this pair last Sunday and finished them today. One week from start to finish! That might be a new record for me. In order to keep up with the 52 pair plunge, I'm trying to cast on for sock two as soon as I finish sock one and keep knitting. Usually I start a new sock project when I finish sock one and come back to sock two after working on a few different designs. This helps to alleviate the boredom factor and makes the pattern fresh again.

I also finished another sock this week and made some beaded stitch markers. I got a multicolored bag of silver lined seed beads, and my DD makes macrame beaded necklaces, so she had some larger beads to add to the mix. She pressed some white mother of pearl beads on me, which I used to make a rainbow set. Each marker uses a pearl bead and two beads of a rainbow color. I think they are my favorite, but I've always been a sucker for rainbow colors. I'm using the turqouise beaded marker on my new sock project. I also got some oval Czech glass beads to use for my Hogwarts sock swap partner, so I made some Gryffindor and some Slytherin markers. Some of the Czech beads were purple with red, green and pink swirls, so I added pink or red seed beads to them. I think I made about 25 sets of 5 markers, and I have lots more beads to make new designs. I'll post pictures when I figure out how to use the camera. I haven't done my laundry yet and I need a pair of pants to wear to work tomorrow, so I'm off to fill the washer.

Sunday Seven Dozen

Seven things I'm grateful for this week:

1. Spring Showers overnight (we need the rain)
2. Bead stores online
   
3. Needle nose plyers
4. DD's who have a bead collection to die for
5. Color theory classes
6. Pack rat tendencies
7. Spring sunshine during the day

I spent this morning making beaded stitch markers for knitting. It was a lot of fun and I didn't want to stop but I ran out of head pins.

Thank Goodness it's Friday's Feast

Friday Fun

Appetizer

What is your favorite kind of bread?

Sourdough of any type, most especially Beckman's Three Seed whole wheat variety and the long gone but still lamented late bake sourdough loaves from Lombardi's. When we lived on the East Coast our friends would send us sourdough bread and hard salami from San Francisco for Christmas.

Soup
When was the last time you bought a new pillow?

I found some on sale at Sear's about 18 months ago

Salad
Approximately how many hours per week do you spend surfing the ‘net?

whew! probably 5-6. Surfing doesn't include reading email, posting to my blog, or shopping for stuff, right?

Main Course
What’s the highest you remember your temperature being?

104 degrees, and I was delerious. I still remember the dreams I had then. That was 40 years ago.

Dessert
Fill in the blanks: When I want to have fun, I start knitting a new sock project. (I have no life.)

It's Official! I am a Sock Knitting Fool

I am obsessed with knitting socks right now. Yesterday, instead of finishing my taxes, I started knitting the Horcux socks designed by Susan Pierce Lawrence. These socks were the mystery socks on her blog in March, and didn't have a name. I won't say much more about that because they are for the Hogwarts sock swap and are a secret. I've changed the pattern quite a bit, too. (No more hints for my swap partner to see!)

I may have reached the point of no return. I have a baker's dozen of sock projects on the needles. They are all "first socks". I finished three pairs of second socks this month, which is a good thing. Of course, having free needles and lots of enthusiasm, I started four new sock projects. It's a good thing I have lots of needles. I don't use all of them to knit with, but they're okay for holding projects that are on the back burner. Last year when I counted my SIP's I had 9, and they were mostly second socks. I've finished all of those and more besides, so there is hope for these projects. I'm glad I have company in my obsession.

1. Monkey in the same yarn Cookie used, but in lavenders and blues (Yum Yum) KAL
2. Mona in Navy Sisu (needs really great light to work on it)
3. Waving Lace in Fleece Artist cherry pinks and bronze (maroon colorway)
4. Inside Out in STR Monsoon
5. Hogwarts sock swap striped socks of my own design in Socka, with thanks to Susan (almost finished)
6. Mitered Square socks in Lorna's Laces Lake House and the late lamented Special Blauband
7. Fairisle socks from SKS in self striping Blauband and KP Essentials solid (not mindless)
8. Broad Spiral Rib Socks from More SKS in Vintage Striped Opal (one sock finished)
9. Madtini Socks in varigated Silja (may frog these and use the yarn for something else). My second pair in this pattern from the Sock Madness competition
10. Slip stitch stripes in hot pink Bollicine (may be a UFO) This was a SOTM kit from theknitter.com
11. Blueberry Waffles in Blueberry Fixation, toe up. This is a really old UFO because I hated the needles I was using (old Bryspuns). I've knitted the sock onto my new rosewood sox stix from Lantern Moon and it might get finished before the next millenium. I was so happy to win the sox sticks at Stitches West. A pair of ebony single point needles, a post it note pad and cover and a rubber vase were also in the package. What a great prize!
12. Maze Mosaic socks from SKS in light and dark grey Silja (ran out of yarn and have to frog)
13. Sun and Moon socks in red and grey Regia 6 ply (what was I thinking!) The first sock is actually done but I never started the second sock. The reason being: the color combination doesn't show off the great pattern design, which is unfortunately no longer available. This sock has been a UFO for a number of years. I still remember watching the original Frankenstein with DH while I worked on this sock. I want to make them again in better colors.

I like to work on several pairs at a time so I don't get bored and have two mindless pairs to be my on the go project, but this is ridiculous. To be fair, I have finished 7 pairs already this year, 4 in March and three in April. (In January I was enthralled with entrelac and felting, in February I went to Stitches for 4 days, and also worked on the now finished socks).