Yesterday...

...all my troubles seemed so... well, right in my face, actually.

I've been having a chronic pain flareup - big duh, for anyone who's been reading more than ten minutes - and so have been trying to take it easy. Anything that spins up my nervous system, say, loud noises, crowds, like that, make it worse, so I try to avoid it. Which means no Wolverine, no Star Trek, no Watchmen, damn it.

Which does nothing to explain how I found myself at a children's birthday party for about twenty three-to-five year olds at the House of Bounce. (Bounce houses are a relatively new idea here, where they rent a warehouse and fill it with those air-filled trampoline-type jump castles they used to set up at fairs when we were kids.) I'd loaded up on painkillers first, which was good, 'cause it was pretty much everything that makes me nuts. I did, however, get two pieces of birthday cake. Which can't be discounted.

Among other things, the people who run the place had gotten a case or two (we're talking about a hundred) of inflatable beach balls and thrown them into the place. So while the kids jumped up and down until they collapsed, the adults indulged in an impromptu game of dodge ball. Without the teams. Or rules. Or, uh, win or loose. Okay, we all just threw beach balls at each other. At one point, after pelting the husbeast, I said "We should keep some of these at home; it's way better than throwing dishes" and several of the other moms burst out laughing.

I forgot the camera. I did take some photos with my phone (the technology, it burns me, precious) and if I ever figure out how to get them OFF my phone, I'll post them here.

So, today, I'm sleeping off painkillers AND two slices of birthday cake (I'm on a diet; all that sugar at once made me sick) AND okay, so I broke down and got into one of the jump castles with the Goober for a while. Which is why our fashionista series is on hold for another day. (Up tomorrow: Gabrielle Chanel, cockroach of the fashion world. Wait until tomorrow before you send the hate mail.)

I was planning to end the series with Chanel - she's the one who put knitwear on the map, but you guys are having fun and I'm still feeling like crap, so I'll probably continue it with occasional installments. It'll probably alternate between people relevant to knitters, and cool fashion icons through history (I'm already collecting photos of Poiret and Lanvin clothing.)

Otherwise, there's the usual going on.

I finished up another bobbin of the blue silk/merino and started on the last one.


I've got this much left to spin.

I finally got off my arse and washed the first skein of this stuff, and I was admiring it in the window this morning, and I've gotta say, I think this is the best thing I ever spun.

There are still a few slubs in there (it looks like someone upended a basket of white silk trimmings into the hopper of the carder; I've been picking them out but didn't get them all), but for me, and my experience, and level of skill, it's remarkably even spinning. I'm not one of those who disdains looking machine-made. It's like the first step to be taken, before you start breaking the rules and producing crazy stuff. (And I've got an idea on the crazy stuff...)


The sock continues. Finished the foot and began the gusset increasing (remember, it's toe up), yesterday.

Knitting will likely continue today; it's easier to do while chasing the Goober, than spinning.


Thanks to all of you asking questions about the fashion, and me doing research, I've - for now - ditched the art history and French cuisine and am reading this.

For those of you who've expressed an interest in Japonism and Orientalism and their impact on western clothing, this is the book you want. It's from the Kyoto Costume Institute (the link goes straight to their on-line collection - WOW) and published by Tashcen. (Why the Japanese give a rip - pun intended - about western clothing when they have so much awesome clothing of their own is beyond me. But it's a good book.) This is an old edition; the new edition of the same book is a purple and white dress on a white background, but otherwise the same cover in terms of layout.


Lastly, I got a good photo of the Goober. We got caught out in the rain yesterday, and her hair dried crazy and looks like an afro. That was the idea of the photo. But when I said "Say cheese!" she said "Banana pudding!" and I said "BANANA PUDDING?" and she giggled at her own joke and I snapped the photo.


Sekhmet says "I hate rain. Shut up. I'm trying to nap."