By now everyone knows that the Fall Knitty is up. I am particularly interested in Josephine as an everyday sweater (my shoulders get cold before the rest of me) and these:

Bubbies!

They are going out to the Farm tonight to try on neckwear.

My cousin just had a new baby and Great Gran sent a knit hat and booties from her stockpile. I had to come up with something else. Luckily Knitty (and Vanessa) saved the day. There are three of them because the new baby has a couple of sisters. I am trying to decide if I should pick which girl gets wich bear or if I should just let them duke out the color selection in the Fine Tradition of sisters every where.

Because of the Bubbies, and because I left my knitting at Great Gran’s for 48 hours, I am only half-way through the first Elspeth sleeve. I’ll have two sleeves for you the next time I blog. Mom’s conference is next weekend so she’ll have time to crochet for me soon. Not that I’ll be able to wear Elspeth before next Spring. My End of Season projects never get finished on time. Serves me right for trying to squeeze them in like that.

The yarn that was on hold (due to Disrupted Mail Service) from Lorien has arrived! Brown Sheep Company‘s Lamb’s Pride Superwash (worsted) in Sable.

That’s Lady Bird in the window.

The little bit of color variation within the yarn gives it a depth and movement that is pleasing. This batch destined to be a cardigan for Michael. He insists that it be completed by November so that he can take it to a conference in Boulder, CO. I think I can manage that even though I have to make a cabled hat and scarf ensemble for the Silent Auction at the Friends of the Library Shin-Dig in October. The making of the hat and scarf is no problem, it’s just that I have to design it – unless somebody knows of someone who would be willing to lend me their pattern if it benefits the Library. Know what? I WILL design them myself! And then I will put the patterns on the internet for everyone who needs a Fund Raiser Scarf. Unless of course someone has already done that…I will google before I begin.

One of the benefits of disrupted mail service is that Jean (the Alpaca Lady) had to hang on to my Lamb’s Pride for so long that she started to add things to the box! One of the delicious treats was this:

It’s alpaca! She wrote me which kind it was but I seem to have deleted the email and can’t remember. I’m thinking about making some socks. Maybe a sweater made from the yummy stuff.

Jean also sent me some Little Lehigh (from Kraemer Yarns). Which I also like – and it’s machine washable. I’d show you a picture but it seems to have dissappeared. I’m sure I’ll find it when I find my scissors. The cats have gotten the blue handled ones too.

In other news, Lucy has lost her bottom teeth and Angus has asked to go out 97 times today. When we get outside, he just wants to stand around.

The other side of Elspeth’s front is finished.

I’m not really obsessed with the place mats. It just looks that way.

I had made good progress with one sleeve when I consulted the picture in the book. It seems that the Rowan folks made their decreases right on the edge instead of with a one stitch selvage. Theirs looks better. So I pulled out the sleeve and started over. Now I am wondering if I should pull out the body sections to the armholes and work the decreases on the edges. *sigh* I think I will finish a sleeve and seam a tiny bit of the shoulder to see how it looks and then go from there. Of course, all of this could have been prevented if I had just looked at the stupid picture. But no. Emily had to make a copy of the pattern instead of lugging that massive Rowan magazine around. Except for boring y’all, there isn’t any sort of Time Crunch on this project – Mom doesn’t have time to put the crochet edgings on until October. Essentially, I could work on Elspeth forever. If anybody’s wondering, Calmer is a great yarn for anyone who is prone to re-do. It has proven incredibly sturdy and I haven’t noticed any ill effects.

I’ve still got plenty of time before M’s cardigan yarn gets here – mail service was suspended because of the lack of power and substantial amount of water in the sorting facility in Mobile. Jean has been holding on to it for me.

Oh! Oh! I have to say that Knitting on the Edge is a wooooonderful book! I finally got it from the library and I think I think I am going to change up the band and cuffs of Empire Dreams with lacey yummy embellishment somethings. My plain little sweater may not end up all that plain.

There’s no knitting in this entry.

We got our lights back last night. Tree on the line (it seems to be our Hurricane Destiny). I am impressed that we got ours back so quickly, since we were an individual outage and we don’t have lots of crews working. For obvious reasons. And yes, there are the usual gasoline issues.

We lost some trees.

But whatever. I’ve got a house to attach my electricity to.

I’ve also got a whole lot of shock and dismay and outrage about the situation in Louisiana which looks to me like it derives from Poor Planning, one of the greater sins in my worldview. Poor Planning all the way from “Let’s Build a City on a Flood Plain without consulting Holland!” to “Well, y’all just start walking and hope for the best.” I could go on, I’ve got lots to say about the situation. But I won’t. And someone needs to shoot the looters. And shoot whoever is shooting at the people evacuating (what possible good could that do?!). Two days of deplorable conditions (and rest assured: conditions are atrocious) is no excuse for acting like terrorists. Situations like this are a call for Americans to rise to the occasion with dignity and with a respect for the inherent dignity of others. We need to see the best in people not the worst. It’s not the natural part of this disaster that is the most horrifying.

If you want to help – and I sincerely hope you do:

• Red Cross Disaster Services
• Noah’s Wish
• Southern Baptist Convention Diasaster Relief
• The Salvation Army
• The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Disaster Response
• Red Cross Gulf Coast Blood Services
• Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund
• This is FEMA‘s master list of legitimate charities with links. Don’t be duped by solicitous emails.

And there are a bunch of sites that are offering coverage of the situation. WKRG is one of our local stations out of Mobile. They’ve got streaming video if you’re interested.

Check (and report) rumors at Snopes.