I went to a local knitting group on Monday night. It just started two weeks ago and it was fun! It’s at the caf in the Borders bookstore in Nashua, NH from around 7:00 PM till closing. If you’re in the area and interested, please drop In! It was the brainchild of Kat :).
Of course I brought Meadow Flowers with me and proved - again - to myself what I should have already known. I have never been able to walk and chew gum at the same time so I don’t know what ever gave me the idea that I could knit and talk at the same time. Coordination has never been my strong suit so current progress on the shawl is being measured backwards. But I am not daunted :) No pair of sticks and hunk of string is going to boss me around!
Bella is coming along. I expect to cast on the first sleeve this afternoon. Right now, the two fronts look like they’re about 4” wide as the sides have rolled in. I confess I’m a bit concerned as to how to prevent the rolling when the sweater is complete as there is no button band and the fronts aren’t edged - at least they’re not in the pattern. As I’m using acrylic yarn, blocking probably isn’t going to work. Any hints?
Of course Tuesday was replete with the usual running around and I was tired all day to boot. Ever want to lay down in the middle of Wal-Mart and take a nap? Oh - and the best part was when I got all my groceries and assorted ephemera to the checkout, got everything rung up and then pulled out my debit card only to have the !@#$%^&* machine tell me I was not a recognized card-holder. It later proved to be simply a glitch in my bank’s network. Unfortunately, because I only had a dollar and change in my wallet, I had to leave everything much to my humiliation and the cashier’s annoyance.
We saw several Chipping Sparrows on the porch roof under the feeder. They’re smaller that our house sparrow regulars and really, really cute! Like juncos, they prefer to eat off the ground rather than from a feeder. Now that we know they’re there, we’ll throw a handful of seed on to the roof so they can eat comfortably.
I have been so enjoying the return of the birds this spring - especially the bird song. I surfed around a bit this morning, trying to identify a call I’ve hearing over the last few days - two high, measured tones followed by four, faster, lower tones. I haven’t discovered who’s singing this song yet - but I will.
A few years ago, when we went out and walked every morning, we often heard a two tone call. You know Nelson? The little thug on the Simpsons who laughs: HA-ha? It sounded just like that. I took me days to track down who was doing it because of a fundamental mis-understanding. Birds have songs, right? They also have calls which may sound very different. If I’m understanding things correctly, a call is a “Here’s food!” or “Bad-guy alert!” kind of thing rather than an “I’m available for mating” announcement. Very few sites which post audio files include calls - just song.
It turned out to be the call of a black-capped chickadee - our state bird - which I always think of now, as the Nelson bird.
Thank you all for your funny and kind comments on the Doggie Bag. It was no more than a fortunate confluence of circumstances. I had started a small project with the idea of knitting a square and then picking up edges and continuing in the round. It was intended as practice in picking up stitches and circular knitting. Into the middle of this, dropped Marcy’s hilarious post and…
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Found you! Yay! I’ll add you to my blogroll in case I lose the slip of paper. ;-)
Hiya Kat! Thanks :)
I have been wondering what that two-noted bird song was! I bet that is what I am hearing. I love birds also and am also excited when I first hear that morning chatter each spring. I read somewhere, but am not sure if it’s true or not, that in the morning, birds tend to kind of “take turns” chattering, robins first, then another one, etc, a kind of song hierarchy. It does kind of seem to hold true when I listen. Have you ever heard of that?
Hi Laura :) I hadn’t heard of that, but it makes sense - it sounds that way to me too. We live in the city and I continue to be surprised (and thankful) at how many birds are undaunted by urban sprawl and how many songs I get ot hear :)
