Knocked 'Em Dead

I kicked butt last night with my lesson about using Ravelry at the Guild meeting last night.  After a slow start (since the custodian had forgotten to set up the room and bring the laptop for me to use but Becky called him and got things straightened out) my butterflies fled.  It turned out that many of the members were eager to learn how to start up a Ravelry account, how to load all your yarn stash in (I got a few requests to be in my will when they took a gander at the 464 different yarns in my stash--yarns, not skeins--I told them after my daughter, maybe), how to load in needles, hooks and patterns, and finally how to put in projects, in progress and finished.  Then we got to the fun part, how to search for patterns on there both by project (mittens, hats, etc.) and from the other way if they have some yarn they want to find a pattern for.  I have to say that that last one is probably my most favorite trick that Ravelry does.  They were amazed that you can see other people's projects too, take advantage of any notes they make on projects that you're considering, and you can troll the stashes to ask if you can buy some of their yarn if you're running out for a project.  It's a refreshing online place with none of the spitefulness of Facebook and none of the hacker risk of other sites.  Who'd want to steal your yarn?  Anyway, things went well and now I get to be in the audience for the rest of the year.  Whew.

I added a couple repeats on my Fishtail washcloth at work yesterday.  I think it's going to look cool when I'm done with it.  And I added a couple rows on Sudoku Berry #7 after my talk last night.  It occurred to me that I really don't like pink and what color did I choose for my washcloth?  Pink.  I have two pink projects on the needles.  That is so not like me.

Today has been an Investment Cooking day.  This morning I made four meals of Italian Stuffed Shells and after lunch I made two meals of Salsa Chicken with Rice.  They're all down in the freezer getting nice and solid so we can thaw out some yummy goodness on days when it's just too much trouble to cook.  I want to make some Salisbury Steak meals for the freezer too but that might have to wait until next month.  We've got two meals' worth of Chicken-Veggie Meatloaf and one meal of Chicken Meatballs to plop into jarred sauce in the freezer too so I think we're good for a while.  I love doing Investment Cooking and am tempted to fill up the freezer with meals so I'd cook like a crazy woman for a few days or even a week, and then reap the rewards for weeks and weeks.  Maybe someday.


This morning a Mourning Dove and a House Finch came to visit the feeders.  Durwood called me laughing the other day to say that a Mourning Dove flew in to land on the iced-over birdbath too fast and slid right across and off the other side.  He said the bird took off as if it was embarrassed.  Sorry I missed that.









February 19--Bob Krist, DS95-3 See Travel, Page 500.  (hey, that's what it said, I don't make up the names for these photos--well, not often)  The sea slides up the beach, smooths the sand, and drains away.  No pounding waves to break and foam their way up the shore, just a sedate encroachment, water over land for a breath, pause, and then it's gone.  Sandpipers leave their prints as they scurry after the water to catch jumping sand flea snacks.

It's all dreamy and romantic until the sand fleas show up.  Man, the wind has really picked up this afternoon and the sky is a uniform gray.  Blah.  At least it's warm--over 40 degrees.  What a surprise in February.  Oh, my friend Fran gave me this last night.  She saw this picture online, thought of me, and framed it for me.  I love it.  Knitters are so nice.
--Barbara