My Computer's Unplanned Vacation

So my pretty little computer is back from its unplanned vacation. It needed a sojourn to the Sony workshop because some cable that goes to the left touchpad button either broke somehow or was faulty to begin with. It seems to be all better now. And the warranty covered it. They also seemed to have avoided messing up any of my settings, which is also a plus. (Yes, dad, I did back things up before sending it away...)

So, I was able to download the pics of my stuffed foxes I'm working on. It's so much fun!! They're very fuzzy. Not yet cute, because right now it's just bodies and tails. Plus, they're making me learn all kinds of new stuff.

I Return

No, I did not stop knitting. I did not leave the public defenders' office. I did not fall off the face of the earth. The short reason for my long disappearance is that my computer died.

Adagio and Betsy are both great. Betsy is 2 1/2 already, and Adagio's nearly three. I can't believe it! It sure doesn't seem like 2 whole years ago that I could pick up Betsy with one hand! They've both adjusted well to my being Adagio's mommy, and there is no friction in my little family, aside from occasional sibling-esque rivalry. They came with me on Christmas vacation -- Adagio's first ever road trip. They were great in the car (slept the whole way) and no one was car sick. I wasn't worried about Betsy at my mother's house -- she'd been there before. But Adagio was much better than I expected. I thought there might be house-training problems, since Adagio'd never been in a place he couldn't go outside whenever he wanted. No problem --

not one! His only issue was the upstairs hallway. I don't think he'd ever been in an upstairs before, and he seemed to think the floor would drop out somehow and drop him back down to the first floor. Strangely, he handled the stairs themselves better than Betsy did her first time. (She's the more adventurous of the two, by far, and it took her about 3 days before she tried them!) Adagio braved them with only about ten minutes of coaxing, he just didn't like that hallway.

I also haven't been idle with the knitting, either. I knitted everyone striped gloves for Christmas, and I knitted myself a green cable cardigan. I also knitted myself convertible mittens. I don't have pics of everyone's gloves, but here are the convertible mittens and the cardigan.

Now, to figure out my next project. I was thinking maybe felting...

On Liberalism and Knitting

No, there is nothing connecting these topics together, other than I happen to have been thinking about them both a lot lately. Perhaps if I were an English professor, I would be able to come up with something that links these two ideas together. But since I'm not, I won't try.

I've been wondering for a while now, when did the word "liberal" become "bad"? I mean the word "liberal" means open-handed and generous, not literal or strict, according to Merriam-Webster. But all I seem to be hearing about for the past election cycle is how horrible it is to be liberal: how liberals are pro-abortion and even pro-death. Now I've known many, many people in my lifetime who identify themselves as "liberal," politically. But, I know of not one person who thinks abortion is a "good" thing to do. No one recommends everyone have one. And as for "pro-death," isn't it those horrible liberals who oppose the death penalty? Oppose the war in Iraq? Even try to save such things as tree-frogs and spotted owls? All as a result of their dislike of death. It is my opinion that it is myopic, and even mean-spirited to say that anyone is "pro-death," regardless of your opinion of another's view of the death penalty, abortion, or the tree-frog.

Personally, I am opposed to abortion: I believe it to be a sin, immoral, and I believe life begins at conception. However, as I do not run the world (and I have no wish to), I recognize that not everyone will agree with me. Scientists and doctors cannot agree on when life begins! And, as my belief regarding this comes from the Bible, I do not feel that I am in a position to impose my views regarding this upon others. I certainly do not believe it is the place of the government of this country to impose its views on this either, especially not when based primarily on religious philosophy. So, yes, I am anti-abortion and pro-choice. Both.

This country needs liberals. Without liberals, schools could still legally be segregated, the Voting Rights Act would not have been passed, it would be perfectly legal to discriminate against a person because of their race in private establishments, and none but the first ten amendments to the Constitution would be in existence. All were the results of "activism," and flew in the face of strict adherence to the letter of the law, then in existence. However, change for the sake of it is not good in government, either. You can't be changing the Constitution every ten minutes on a whim, and the Court cannot decide to depart from the current law, "just because." It would create the most unstable government in the world!

So, yes, this country needs conservatives, as well, to hold back and say, "Look! This is the Constitution, and this is why these things were put in there in the first place! This is what our country was founded upon." But keeping things the way they always have been, just because "this is the way it's always been" is a danger as well. Nothing makes me more angry about office procedure than the following conversation: "Why do we do this in this way?" "Because it's the way we've always done it." "But wouldn't it be more efficient to do it this other way?" "Sure." "Then, why can't we do it that way, instead?" "Because we've always done it this way." We need both parties in government. Liberal and conservative. We need the liberals trying to move forward and change things all the time, and conservatives trying to hold things the way they are. This way, we never get too far ahead too fast, but yet when change is needed, it can be done.

End of sermon: Now the knitting! These are my July and September socks!

Here's a better view of the green ones, so you can see the pattern, hopefully.

Now, I'm all excited about my winter project: a fisherman's sweater. Cozy and cabley. I got a really light caramel color brown for it. (I only paid around $25 for the yarn!) And, it's the kind of pattern that lets you figure out measurements and shaping and stuff for yourself! I'm thrilled.

Randomness

I'm in a somewhat meloncholy mood -- Billie Holiday's on the stereo. I'm trying not to sing along, as Betsy seems to get confused when I sing.

I'm mainly avoiding household chores. Fortunately, one of said chores is not attending to the swamp cooler again. It seems to be doing its best, in spite of it being around 100 outside for the past few days. My cooler seems to be keeping the house in the 80-85 degree range, which is standard for the things, I'm told. I'm still working on my lacy scarf, but it may actually come to an end at some point. I'm around 2/3 done. I'm eager to get it finished, so that I can start my July socks. They're fantastic! There's self-striping yarn in various shades of blue and white, and the pattern is a sea-shell type of lace.

Betsy is doing great. She turned a year old sometime in early- or mid- July. She is a good buddy to have around for cheering a person up! She's getting much less spastic now that she's approaching dog-hood and leaving puppy-hood. Although I think she will always love a good play. She would play with me twenty-four hours a day if possible! But she is becoming less insistant upon this, and will resign herself to the fact that this is not possible more quickly these days. Currently, she is chewing her new toy under my chair. It had been a while since she's had a new toy, and this one seems quite exciting. It looks kind of like a bright red octopus: fringy at the bottom, and hard-ish on top to facilitate chewing. And it squeaks and bounces. And, it's not stuffed, so we can avoid the de-stuffing - there's a rubber ball type thing in the top. Her favorite games are still fetch and tug. (She'll chase anything tennis-ball sized or smaller.) She's also getting the hang of wrestling without using claws or teeth. She's also a fairly old-fashioned dog: The toy that has managed to keep her attention for the entire time I've had her is Nylabones! I guess they're a classic for a reason.

On Spring and Things

I really have nothing substantive to report, but I'm in a really good mood. Maybe it's because of spring being nearly here. My socks of the every-other-month club yarn arrived, just when I had completely given up on them, and it is so pretty. And the pattern is pretty, too, but apparently very shiny. I am unable to get a picture of the pattern, and instead end up with a big glare. But it's a kind of zig-zaggy lace-type thing. I think the official name for the pattern is something like wandering vines, or ivy, or something. Whatever it's called, it looks very fun. I'll have to cast it on tonight.

I also got an email from my violin teacher that she wants me to play in a chamber group this summer. (To have performances where people have to buy tickets and everything!) I have been kind of in doldrums with orchestra lately, as we haven't played any "real" music since last summer. (I don't consider snippets of great orchestral works with silly words added to be real music.) This chamber music thing should be a blast. I know my violin teacher will pick good stuff to play.

I've also been watching chick flicks. Though not actual chick-flicks, my sister tells me, because none of them star Hugh Grant. More like Much Ado About Nothing and Pride and Prejudice. I think it must be my sister's fault anyway, as she's the one getting married, and getting me into this mood. It's fun and non-think-y, anyway. Just the thing for spring.

Betsy's doing splendid. She loves the warm weather, and we've been taking many more walks than we did when it was cold. I've got her on one of those no-pull harness things to try to convince her that we'll get there eventually, she doesn't need to pull me along like a horse-and-cart. She's in her class now for the Canine Good Citizen test, so she might one day get to have a title! Although I'm not sure whether the AKC gives official titles to mutts. It really doesn't make that big a difference to me, and I'm sure she could not care less. She just likes class. She made another friend, by the way. A highly peppy and playful 3-year-old Golden Retriever named Reggie. They get on great!

I was in such a good mood today that I went by the pet store and saw the cutest little 8 week-old Corgi, and was reminded that Betsy would love a buddy in a little while. But I'm certainly not going to pay $600, and Betsy's not quite ready yet: she's a little over 8 months old. (For you dog people out there, no, I don't know which kind of Corgi: it was the kind with a little tail stub.) I think I'll wait until Betsy does not want to eat everything anymore. When she's over a year, I'll start hitting the pound again. But she definitely should have a buddy of her very own. One that is allowed in my house, and isn't told to "go home" when I come back from work. I'll probably get another puppy, to ease the fitting-in process. Besides, she loves puppies. When there's a puppy at PetCo (where class is) she whines and whines, and wants to make friends.

The only really entertaining work news is that I got another competency guy. I've had this one before. Last time, he was a butterfly and Jesus Christ. (I'm not sure how the two mesh, but there you go.) This time, he needs his bail lowered because he is Medieval. An angel told him he wasn't very evil, just Medieval. He wanted to know why the judge couldn't set him bail commensurate with being only Medieval. (I suggested privately to the judge afterward that he set 3 chickens and a sheep for bail, which would have worked out fine, since he can post that. Ten percent would be like a part of a chicken, right?) Also, two of my competency guys are now cell mates. The good news is that they keep each other company, and both get along with each other, and neither are subjected to the mean-ness of the other inmates. The bad news (for me, anyway) is that they have a phone in the cell with unlimited legal calls, so they pass the phone back and forth to take turns talking to me indefinitely. Both are somewhat paranoid and need constant reassurance, and one has extremely poor memory as a result of traumatic brain injury. You would not believe how circular a conversation can be with these two guys! Especially when the guy not on the phone with me keeps shouting reminders for the other one to tell me stuff that he already told me. I still like them, though. They're a whole lot better clients than some of my "normal" ones!

Snow Day, Take Forty-Four

Well, not really forty-four, but that's what it seems like. You know, I never thought I'd get tired of having spontaneous days off work. But even I have to admit, this is getting old. You get all in gear to go to work in the morning, have planned the courts you need to be at, and the office work you're going to do, and suddenly you can't. Unless, that is, you feel like playing bumper cars with people who have no clue how to operate a vehicle in the snow. And then, you spend the rest of the week trying to catch up!

I compensated this morning by joining a "sock-of-the-month" club. Well, actually the sock of the every-other-month club, since I know I can't knit a pair every month! We'll see how it goes. (You can cancel any time.)

I believe I have now given up on trying to guess Betsy's ancestry. I even watched the Eukenuba National Championship dog show to try to figure it out. (And also because I like to watch dog shows.) She's still got mosly the coloring of a Rottweiler (her head's turning black again, like it started out), but she's much fluffier than either a Rott or German Shepherd. Her outer hair's coarse like a Rott, but a little curly, and she's got a double coat. So, she's pretty much her very own breed. I did figure out one thing from the dog show: The next door dog, Adagio, is almost certainly a Flat-Coated Retriever. Betsy's much more of a cold-weather dog than I would have thought. Her latest thing is flopping down in the snow, and then eating all the snow in reach, and then picking a new spot to lie down.

Super Sunday

Happy Super Sunday to everyone! For those of you who do not know, I am a football person. I've watched football on t.v. for almost as long as I can remember, not really caring who won at all. When I was in elementary school, I pulled for the team with pretty uniforms, and in middle school I pulled for the team with the cutest quarterback. (Joe Montana was still playing then, so I rooted for the 49ers.) I tend not to make a big deal about the Superbowl, because "my" team never is in it. But today, I have wings in the crock pot and friends on the way.

Also, it's snowing again, so I'm content to knit my throw, (see below), watch football, possibly with a fire in the fireplace, and stay inside. If it turns out to be too much of a blow-out, we can always switch to the puppy bowl. Betsy will love it. Below, she is watching animal planet.

Snow Day, Take Two

And it's snowing again! Usually, we only get one good snow fall a year, with a couple of additional dustings. On our last snow day, we had six inches by the time it was through, and that was unusual enough. But today, it looks like we're going to have that much again. There are about three inches on the ground now, and it's overcast, which means here that there will probably be more. There does seem to be a temporary lull in the snowfall now, though. Maybe I will be able to make it in to the office this afternoon. It's fairly strange: I was kind of looking forward to going in today. I don't have hearings scheduled (they were cancelled anyway) so I was going to do some trial prep and write some suppression motions that have been waiting for weeks for me to get to. I even put some stuff in the crock pot to be ready when I got home! But alas, the best laid plans of mice and men do something or other, and since all the schools and courts and everything else are closed, I know there will be no plowing of the roads. Thus, here I sit.

It's weird for me to not go somewhere due to snow. Where I come from a few inches of the white stuff isn't unusual, and we carry on. Places don't usually close unless there are at least 8 inches on the ground, or an ice storm. But in places like that, they actually plow the roads as the snow falls, rather than waiting until the next day like they seem to do here. Thus, again, here I sit.

At least Betsy's enjoying herself. She's curled up under my desk chewing a Nylabone sleepily after playing with the snow for the past 2 1/2 hours. I believe she was trying to eat all the snow in the yard. Her buddy's inside still, so she made do by herself. She's quite good at entertaining herself, so she chased snowflakes, dug holes in the snow, unearthed ice chunks to eat, and for some reason started snorting snow up her nose. On purpose! But now, she's nearly asleep after the excitement.

(Betsy in repose below. It's rare, so I figured I'd best capture it!)

So now, I just have to think of something to do with myself all day. (It's snowing very hard now, so I don't think I'll be able to make it to work, or anywhere else, for that matter.) I actually cleaned house last weekend, and I don't need to do laundry. I don't even have any knitting to occupy me. I finished my last project: My first experiment with "stranded" knitting. Not stranded like on a deserted island, stranded like with different strands of yarn. I do have a lace scarf that I'm about half finished with, but Betsy stole it and I need to fix it. Fortunately, I rescued it before it was demolished, but I will need to pick out a fair number of rows due to dropped stitches. That's just too picky for me right now. What I really want is the yarn and needles for my next project to arrive. I order online a lot, because the yarn selection around town is quite limited, especially if you're doing a big project. I'm going to make this throw in a dark reddish brown color. Ten balls of a gorgeous alpaca blend. Super bulky! (Translation: thick and fluffy and very soft yarn)

I seem to have written a lot, so I think I'll go make oatmeal for breakfast.

My Week in a Nutshell (More or Less)

Things have been quite busy here, so I've been unable to blog about them. We had our orchestra concert last night. It actually didn't go as badly as I thought it would. And that Puccini mass is really quite pretty. It made me wish our conductor was a little more experience, and more able to give cues as to dynamics and such, rather than just the beat. I was a little miffed that the program didn't say I was the "section leader," but I'm sure my ego can take it!

Work has been quite strange. I seem to have my caseload pretty under control (for once). We now have fifteen licensed attorneys and I only have about seventy-five active cases. That's fewer than I can remember ever having. I still am quite busy, though. I've got three mentees now, in addition to random other people coming into my office and asking me questions. One of my mentees is getting her first felony cases, so of course she has all kinds of questions since she is no longer dealing with only dwi's and domestic violence cases. Another of my mentees seems to have two hours worth of questions every day. The strange thing is that most of her questions are repeats. So I'm not sure if she really needs help or if she just wants to chat. Because if she really needs that much help, she has the shortest attention span of anyone I know. But if she just wants to talk to me about the same cases into eternity, I really am not that interested, and have work I could be doing on my own cases. The third, I haven't figured out yet. She's actually not my mentee, she's my boss'. I don't think he realizes that even though she did graduate from an ivy-league college and practiced civil law for 2 years, it doesn't mean she understands criminal defense in New Mexico. He gave her felony cases right off the bat (a bad idea, in my opinion), and seems to expect her to know how to handle them without assistance. So, I go over all her cases with her and tell her what to expect, etc. But it is quite time consuming!

Another strangeness is that my boss seems to hold me responsible for whatever everyone else does. For example, an attorney (not my mentee) forgot to do something on one of her cases. She told the client about it, and appealed the case based on ineffective assistance. Apparently someone at the da's office did not like this, complained to their boss, who then complained to my boss. My boss then yells at me for about 20 minutes. How I came to be involved in this at all, I don't know. The gist of the conversation was that he didn't believe the attorney should have appealed (why not, I don't know) and that this makes our office look bad. I asked, "to whom," and he said to the da's! Who cares if our office looks bad to the da's? The attorney did nothing unethical or even wrong, and if the da's don't want us to appeal cases, that's their problem. And again, how is it me that he's yelling at?

Betsy's doing well. We went to the vets again for more shots, and she's up to 18 pounds now. She gained 5 pounds in 4 weeks, and is much bigger. Probably 1/3 taller and 2/3 longer than she was when I got her.

Potty-training is still improving. She goes 4 days to a week without accidents! Her genealogical makeup is still quite the mystery. My bf thinks she is part monkey, which I think might be right. She's got a prehensile tail and a knack for mischief. She's also quite the acrobat. She's a great jumper and escape artist. (I noticed this when she stole a hair-tie off the coffee table and then escaped when I went to retrieve it.) She can move! And sometimes she just runs around because it's fun. And then it's bed time...

I will really miss her when I have to go for annual training next week. (No puppies allowed at the hotel.) I was going to board her at the vets, but this shot was only the first bordatella vaccine, and she needs the second one before they'll take her. So she'll be staying with my secretary and her herd of cocker spaniels in the country. She'll like it. The secretary breeds cockers and so knows how to deal with puppies. She's going to fence Betsy away from the cockers during the day, because she's worried the cockers will pick on her. I think Betsy can hold her own with a cocker spaniel!

Oh, and I finished my tandem socks. I just need to re-bind them off because I bound off too tight.

Tandem-Socks and Sweater-Parts

I've been meaning to start my "tandem-socks" for quite some time. See, a while back, my knitting buddies (Y and MD) and I all decided we would knit a pair. (Tandem-socks in tandem, as it were...) According to the instructions, you knit both socks of a pair simultaneously on two circular needles, from the toe up. As I'd already done individual socks on two circulars, I figured two socks would be exactly the same. The only difference would be the toe-up factor. So the three of us dutifully bought our sock yarn and our two circular sock needles. And then we waited. Both MD and Y had other projects they wanted to finish, so I started my lace scarf while waiting for them, having yet to finish the sleeves of a green cable sweater. I vowed that I would in no way have more than two projects going at one time, as this would likely lead to an ever-increasing number of partially finished projects. So, a couple weeks ago, I finished the sleeves of my cable sweater, stitched the shoulder seams, and did the neck. It's now drying in preparation for seaming together and weaving in the ends.

When I finished my sleeves, I decided to look at the tandem socks again and dive in! Y was done with her project, and MD couldn't really get enthused about the Aran sweater she's started (it's still getting over 90 degrees pretty much every day here ) or about ripping out this really cool looking camisole. (It's always depressing to rip stuff out.) Her camisole problem was that while the yarn was gorgeous and the pattern was gorgeous, the two didn't really work together well. (She called it her chain-mail camisole because the yarn knit together quite tightly, while the pattern was light and airy.)

Anyway, while looking at the instructions for the tandem-socks, I became quite alarmed. I just couldn't picture how to start the things! For those of you who knit, you know that you usually have instructions like: Row 1: this stitch, that stitch, do this and that; Row two: do these other things, you now have X stitches; etc. Or you have a chart that grids out the various stitches or colors in a stitch-by-stitch, row-by-row fashion. Never have I seen directions like these! They were written in paragraphs! It began with this long explanation of the concept, then it would tell you what you were actually supposed to do. There were poorly illustrated pictures of needles with stitches on them, that I could not make heads or tails of. (And I'm fairly good at figuring stuff out.) Finally, I just guessed.

It's actually pretty cool how they work. Instead of doing a "provisional" cast on thing with short rows (as is usual when you start at the toe of the sock) you simply pick up stitches along the cast-on row by holding the knitting upside-down! Very unique! And at knitting night yesterday, I helped Y figure it out, so the two of us have begun... (MD couldn't make knitting night.) Now, I'm all excited about my tandem-socks. It's just so cool! And my wool is quite pretty. (As well as machine-washable!) While at the moment, they seem to look more like the ears of a kitten than anything else, I am confident that they shall form ...SOCKS!

Of Lace and Symphonies

I am trying my hand (or hands, actually) at a couple of new things this summer. I am knitting lace and going to orchestra. The community college has a little orchestra. It even has 4 or 5 french horns and several sundry woodwinds! I haven't seen a clarinet yet, but there's an oboe, a flute, a trumpet, 2 or 3 trombones, and a bassoon. But sorry, Daddy, the bassoonist is quite young. Very good for being all of 15, but he gets nervous, and chokes. I think he has it in him, though! (They drafted high-school kids to fill out some of the lack in that department for the summer...) It's really quite fun. I do miss playing, especially with people.

I played violin from the time I was nine until I graduated college. I used to be fairly decent. Not a virtuoso, by any means, but decent. And it's fun to teach some of my second-violinist cohorts some tricks. (e.g., fingerings and how to mark half-steps and other handy music marks so you don't get lost in endless whole notes, etc.) Some people wanted me to play first (primarily N, who got me into this in the first place), but there are at least twice as many firsts as seconds, and the herd of high-school girls that made up the rest of the firsts seemed to be adverse to switching parts. Even if some of them do play with their mutes on all the time! (for reasons passing understanding). I don't mind. I played second in college and sang either alto or tenor in high school. Contrary to what N says, second isn't really more boring than first, you just have to listen more... With most "real" music, you usually get just as much "tune-time" as the firsts do, it's just lower. (And therefore easier to make it sound really good!) Besides, as seconds, you're more involved with everyone else, rather than just waiting until you can play the pretty tune... Anyway, it's fun, and makes me all nostalgic. And we are playing one piece of "real" music. Overture to Barber of Seville. Always fun. We're doing the quintessential summer orchestra thing a week from Friday: a concert in the park. (how original!) Of course, I'm not sure who will show up, since it's July in the desert. It's either a hundred degrees outside, or there are thunderstorms (with high winds) in the evening. Good planning guys!

My other new summer thing is attempting to knit lace. Lace has heretofore intimidated me. I'm not sure why. Possibly the complex looking charts it seems to require or maybe the very fine yarn. However, about 2 months ago, I saw this gorgeous-looking picture on the internet of a scarf and tam (with pattern, and recommended yarn) which lured me in. And who am I, if not up for a challenge? So I dutifully purchased the pattern and yarn suggested (only $5 for a skein of baby alpaca lace-weight yarn! And the scarf only requires one skein!) and I sallied forth! When the yarn came, I was intimidated again. It was about the thickness of thread. But... so far, so good!!

I seem to be doing ok. There are diamond-y things at the sides, and the North Star in the middle. I will be able to pull out the yarn-overs (the holes that make the design) when I block it to make them more obvious. But you can see the pattern!!! (There's a single point at the top that I haven't got to yet -- it's symmetrical with the bottom.)

So, see, I do something besides work!!

Two!

Two brightly-colored, springy, fluffy, made-all-by-myself socks! (Ha, ha, ha.)




Granted, the second sock took a lot longer than the first. But I was doing other things than fueling my newly-found knitting obsession. Going on vacation, having many trials, having my family over, trying to remember how to play violin, etc. But somehow, work seems so much more meaningful when there are other things going on in my life. I'm not sure why that is, exactly. But it seems that whenever I can think of nothing besides my clients, cases, and judges; nothing is very fun. Maybe it's about stepping back. Maybe because I now am doing other things that I enjoy, I can step back from my clients and their problems and see them more in perspective. Not to say I no longer care about my clients and their problems: in fact I seem to care about them more. But I no longer live and die by whether they are in or out of jail or whether I lose their trials. So I guess now that I'm doing some things that make just me happy, I can expend more emotional energy on their problems. I have the emotional energy to expend. Does this make sense?



Oh, and part of this feel-good-about-work thing is about a strange encounter I had the other day: I was at the Wal-Mart and this lady comes up to me. She looked vaguely familiar, but for the life of me, I couldn't fathom where I knew her from. It turns out that she was on the jury panel I had for two of my trials last month. Inexplicably, I had two trials, a week apart with the same panel. (That is, the big group of people from whom the twelve jurors are chosen. Here, they use four 60-person panels that serve for a given month.) Anyway, this lady explains that she was on that particular panel, she served on one jury, but not the other. She tells me that she really enjoyed me, that she liked me, and wished me good luck. (It wasn't until several hours later that I was actually able to figure out which juror she was, and remembered that I really liked her too! The State struck her in the second trial.) It just gave me pause to think that Jane Citizen would make the effort to compliment me in that fashion. And it seemed extra-strange that she would do so after being on the first jury, which convicted my guy within 15 minutes! (That part didn't surprise me at all, although I did figure I would have more of a chance if she ended up being the foreman. She wasn't.) I mean it struck me as an amazing thing that a juror on a DWI case (a HUGE social issue here) would walk up to the guilty guy's lawyer in the Wal-Mart and compliment me like that. It kinda gave me warm fuzzies...



Anyway, I seem to be rambling a bit, so I'll stop. I'm waiting for the pics of the socks to upload. There seem to be "blogger connectivity" issues...

One!

One brightly-colored, springy, fluffy, made-all-by-myself sock! (Ha, ha, ha.)

It actually didn't turn out too badly, for a first attempt. (I had a couple of visible errors while getting used to dealing with the two circular needles, and I had never "grafted" before. By the time I got the hang of that, I was nearly done with it.) I was so proud of it, I had to wear it around the office today, even though it doesn't have a match yet. (No court today.) I finished it while listening to a client's rantings. Incidentally, they were the same rantings he had yesterday, and the day before, and the day before... My sock is surprisingly comfy, too. I was concerned that it might feel scratchy or lumpy or something. But it really doesn't. When I got it home, I washed it, and blocked it, and it's drying in the picture.

My knitting buddies have decided to all knit what I've been calling "tandem socks." You knit both socks of a pair simultaneously on two circular needles. The directions looked complicated, but after having knit one sock on two circular needles, and spending a great deal of time trying to figure out how it works by myself before learning that there is a very good book on this subject, I think I understand how the two socks are supposed to work. So, we will be all knitting tandem-socks in tandem.

I still haven't figured out which yarn I want to use from my pair of "tandem socks," though. There's this really pretty self-striping yarn I found on the internet that's treated with herbal oils. (Softens hands while you do knitting, apparently.) They say it won't feel greasy, but I'm not sure I trust it without touching it. I also am not sure how I feel about spending 18 bucks on one ball of yarn! (I did comparison shop, too, and that's the cheapest I found it for.) Additionally, I still have one more sock to do of my pair, and I'm almost finished with another sweater I started, and I bought a ball of this gorgeous yarn to do a pretty lacy scarf which will probably be a Christmas present for someone (I'm not sure who yet, so quit guessing, you guys!)

My Forray into the World of Socks

So, it seems to be spring now, and I'm growing bored of knitting big, poufy sweaters. So, I thought I would try my hand at socks! I like to wear them, so I figured I would see if it was fun to knit them. So far, so good!

A Good Week

Well, it's been a while since I've posted, but I didn't really have that much to say before. Now I do! Wednesday, I finished my second knitting project! It's a bag to hold my knitting. (Yes, those are knitting needles at the top.)

I should have probably done that before, because it was getting annoying to carry around my sweater in a big gym bag. But that's done and I can now move on to something more exciting. I finished the bag in about a week, mainly because I was in a hurry to move on to something else. It was incredibly boring rectangles. And this Cousins woman cannot even manage to measure rectangles accurately. (7 1/2 + 7 1/2 + 11 does not equal 32). In any case, I am going to the knitting store today to get yarn to start something more fun. Something with cables, probably, and a pattern by someone besides Suss Cousins!

In other exciting news, I won my trial on Thursday! It may not seem exciting, since it was just a drug possession, but as it's been since September 11 that I've won a trial, it was exciting to me. I felt kind of out of practice, to tell the truth. That was the first trial I'd had since mid-December, and that trial was quite boring. My guy's defense in that case was he wasn't that drunk (never mind the .22 breath score). My Thursday trial was the strangest drug trial I've ever seen. To begin with, the State didn't have their drugs. The drugs were at the independent laboratory where we had sent them for re-testing, and the judge inexplicably wouldn't continue the trial. It was the prosecutor's first ever drug trial, so she had a hard time laying the foundation for the drug test results without the actual drugs. In other words, she kept forgetting that you have to show that the things the lab tested were the same things the cops had seized from my client's car. She had to re-call both cops to the stand after she had already excused them. Additionally, the cops' testimony was quite confusing, as they had searched numerous bags and boxes in my client's car, pursuant to a search warrant, and couldn't keep straight exactly what items came out of what containers. They mixed up what they had taken from where when they were packaging their evidence initially. This turned out to be important, as my client testified on the stand that three of the bags (it turns out the three bags containing paraphernalia and the stuff that tested positive for meth) were a friend's. My client was keeping the friend's stuff in her car because the friend was moving out of her boyfriend's place and didn't have anywhere to keep her stuff. All in all, a very good result, but a very convoluted trial!

And now, I will celebrate my happy week by buying more knitting supplies!

My Accomplishment

Well, I am all stitched and weaved-in, and lo and behold! My sweater looks more or less as it should!

As compared with:

There seem to be a few bobbles here and there, but it is able to be worn in public! Not bad for a first effort, if I do say so myself. Well, a first effort in 23 years or so. It's so much fun to start something and actually be able to finish it! And since I have two skeins of yarn left, I think I may do a matching scarf or something. I realize it's a little backward to do a sweater as a first project and then a scarf after, but that's just sort of what happened. Yay, me!

The Moment of Truth...

...is near!

Ok, so this is not going to be an exciting post about a hotly-contested, long jury trial and a verdict that takes forever. What it is about is that I finished knitting all my sweater-parts! A back, and a front, and 2 sleeves.

Sleeve #1:

Sleeve #2: (The picture is at a weird angle, but the sleeve looks just like the other one...)

Front and back:
I am currently engaged in the excruciating process of waiting for the various parts to dry after blocking them. Only then will I be able to sew the sleeves to the front and back and see if they fit together properly. Only then will I know for sure whether I will come out with an actual article of clothing able to be worn in public or a fuzzy, oddly-shaped, small type of blanket. I did do all the stuff I'm supposed to: I measured lots, looked at the schematics (which included fewer than optimal details), patted, prodded, matched things up, and more. So I am fairly confident that it will come out right, in spite of the poor directions. In addition to some simple printing errors where measurements are concerned, the schematics were not very detailed and left out some important dimensions. Such as, it says how wide the front and back are supposed to be at the bottom, but not how wide at the widest point. Nevertheless, I, the eternal optimist, am looking forward to having the collar well along this weekend, and I may even get to wear it a couple times before the weather changes to actual spring. In the meantime, I shall patiently (or not so patiently) wait for my parts to dry, and imagine it all fitting together perfectly! Supplemented, of course, by frequent visits to test whether they are any dryer than they were 5 minutes ago.

Irked!

I'm home sick today, and so I thought I would use some of my down time trying to figure out where I went wrong with my knitting. I picked this particular sweater to try because it looks relatively fool-proof, and like I could finish it before the turn of the century. Of course, this only works if the instructions are correct! Not so much... This Suss Cousins person may be hot stuff in Hollywood, but if she spent a little less time name-dropping and a little more time measuring her patterns, this would all be much easier! Granted, I'm pretty new at this, but it stands to reason that if your gauge is correct (4 stitches to an inch, exactly!), then the measurements for the entire thing should be correct. Again, not so much. I just hope it comes out in the wash, as my mother says... Stay tuned!

A Knitting Update

And so, my trip to the yarn shop was a complete success! I got bunches of cuddly blue yarn to make a sweater with. A nice easy one, with minimal complications. Below is my goal, except that it won't be orange:

I got some needles made of bamboo, and lo and behold, they're actually the right size! My mother always used aluminum ones, but they only had bamboo at the store. I think I like the bamboo ones better anyway. They're not so cold and slippery. I tested the gauge (how many stitches to an inch) last night, and I was right on target. That is, after the first couple rows where I was trying to remember how all this works. The only thing I had to ask MD for help with was the beginning part, where you put the stitches on the needles (casting on). She was even impressed at my speed and even-ness! I was so excited that I did 6 rows last night, and I think I'll do more while the Superbowl is on. I think this is going to be fun!

"Won't My Mommy Be So Proud of Me?"

Well, this may come as a shock to those of you who know me, but I'm planning to start knitting. I've never been anyone you could confuse with Martha Stewart. I tend to get impatient with picky crafty things. You know, the little mini-pom-poms that refuse to stay glued together, or needle-point where you have to count everything exactly and put the needle in precisely the right location, and what do you do with needle-point once you're finished with it, anyway? Knitting, though, seems like something I could handle. It's not so precise that you have to think about it that much, and you can do it while other things are going on without losing track of where you are. You see, my mother has always knitted, and she taught me how when I was very small. When my sister and I brought books everywhere with us, our mother brought her knitting. After supper, my sister, sometimes my father and I would be reading our books, my mother would be knitting. Granted, the last thing I recall knitting was a dress for my Barbie-doll. But it had a cable and everything (the little braid-looking things on sweaters). I'm pretty sure I remember how to do the basic stuff.

So, what brought this on, one might ask? Partly the realization that I need a hobby in the worst way. Something that's not just watching t.v. or playing video games. Partly, it's because my friend MD knits, and she's been talking about starting a group thing where a few of us go to a local coffee shop, help each other knit, and talk about anything non-work related. So, I'm on board. It sounds like a nice change of pace from going out to the same bar with the same people all the time, or secluding myself at home to watch the same movies over again.

So, I'm all excited about going to the yarn shop this afternoon with MD to get yarn, needles and a pattern book. (Preferably one that includes basic how-to instructions also, in case I can't remember as much as I think I do.) I'll keep you all posted on the progress, and maybe include a picture if I ever finish my project.