Odds and ends.

First of all, to those who were curious, the husbeast has been allowed to live. I decided I need him for bug removal and vehicle maintenance and baby sitting. (And maybe, you know, sex, once in a while.) But he has been snarled at, most sternly, and for a long time. I plan to inform his father - for whom this jacket is intended - that he doesn't have to worry about getting it dirty because his son has already TOTALLY GRUNGED IT UP for him.


More importantly, anyone know what brand of knitting needle this is? All the damn photos are blurry (of COURSE), but I think it's possible for you to see that the needle itself is metal (I think aluminum or an alloy, it's never rusted, even in the humidity in Hawaii) and a shiny silver, and the cord is gray plastic, probably nylon. The genius of these needles is that the join comes about an


inch up the 'needle' part, so that the shift from plastic to metal does not coincide with a shift in SHAPE. The plastic continues the metal's shape for about an inch before dropping down to cord thickness and flexibility. This needle's about twenty years old and I'd love to get more of them - due to the cord/needle join, it's so smooth that nothing snags on it except sewing thread. (Okay, I once used sewing thread on size two needles for some lace. I admitted I was insane a couple months back.)

Anyone have any ideas?

In other knitting-needle news, I got an Addi Turbo yesterday (that size one I'd ordered) and there, on the cord, was the SIZE OF THE NEEDLE, neatly, if microscopically, printed in both metric and US sizes. I wonder if it'll wear off, but if not, damn, won't that be handy? Leave it to the Germans to come up with something both technologically clever AND useful.


One other question. HOW DID I GO SO MANY YEARS WITHOUT A BALL WINDER? Great googly-moogly, I freaking love this thing. I wound off all the coned yarn I have for the Blue Shimmer into balls, and was found last night around eight, winding up some sock yarn from a perfectly nice skein, just for the fun of it. (The husbeast laughed at me and agreed, the ball winder was pretty cool.) I gave the leftover cardboard cones to the baby, and she chewed the crap out of them (she's teething again), so everyone was happy.

So I had this box sitting around, ready to mail, and it looked just about the right size...

Anyone want a baby? I can pop her in the overnight express mail on Monday. (KIDDING.)

The Blue Shimmer continues. This photo was taken yesterday morning right after the first increase round. (That would be the increase round that made me go all Norman Bates on it the last time.) I'm up to the second increase round now - chugging right along. I've separated the rounds into quarters, so I can put a fourth of the increases needed into one quarter, and count, and know it's right, and then continue on, so that I'll only ever have to tear back one fourth of the round to fix, instead of getting to the end of 352 stitches and realizing I screwed it up for the third time. (Did that make sense? It's early and I haven't had much caffeine.)

Oh, yeah, and there's a corpse flower blooming over at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. (I'm a Plant Freak. Samurai Knitter is a courtesy title.) There's even a web cam updating people every minute. If you're in the area, check it out. Those things don't flower very often and it may be a once-in-a-lifetime chance (plus they're native to Sumatra, it's not like most of us will ever see them wild). Make sure to wear a gas mask.