Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Knitting?? Me??

I wish I could tell you that I have completed the socks but I can't. One sock is well into the foot section and I've repaired the heel on sock number two and started the gussets. Basically, the socks are going along fine but nothing worthy of pictures.


My husband has been in Oregon for the last three weeks helping his mother so this past weekend I drove up to see all the work they'd done and to bring him home. The drive up was beautiful and I am kicking myself for not stopping and taking pictures. (Which is my standard sentiment when I get home from this trip....)

While he was away, I got a wild hair and decided to organize my stash. I drug out all of my yarn....which was not even remotely organized. Then I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and invested in some storage containers. I sorted through everything, set some yarn aside to donate to the Senior Citizen's Center near my house, untangled some tangled balls (with help from Tegan), and organized it by type and/or weight. (Nothing terribly scientific but a system that works for me.)

I didn't realize how much yarn I had until I got it all out to organize. It sure is nice to have some semblance of order to it.

In the midst of the organizing, I got a package in the mail containing some yarn I'd ordered from the incomparable Susie. The lovely Irises.

50/50 Superwash Merino/Tencel. This yarn is lovely and soft and absolutely exactly what I would expect from Susie. So pretty!

On an Unrelated Note

I realize that spiders have nothing to do with knitting but I've got spider pictures, nonetheless. Every time I get out of my car, I see these spiderwebs on the boat trailer parked in my driveway. One day, I saw the spider that had apparently built this web.

Before I moved to California, I had never seen a black widow spider. And before I took these pictures, I had never seen a black widow spider this big. (Even though it has been nearly two weeks since I took these pictures, it wasn't until yesterday that I finally mustered up the courage to kill this spider. While I can manage to tolerate one spider, one black widow spider inevitably leads to baby spiders. I can't possibly keep an eye on a whole slew of baby spiders.)
I am freaked out by black widows so these pictures are a little fuzzy and there is no point of reference but you should know, the body of this spider - not including legs - was larger than a quarter...I am not exaggerating. For those of you who have wondered how to identify a black widow spider, here's the best way to know: the red hourglass on the spider's stomach.



Have a wonderful Fourth of July!!


Today's Quote:

"Be able to recognize the dangerous snakes, spiders, insects, and plants that live in your area of the country." - Marilyn vos Savant

7 comments:

RC said...

a Black Widow???!!! aaaiiieeeeee!

(the yarn re-org looks good! come do mine next please)

RobynR said...

Bigger than a quarter?? Egads woman. You got a heck of a lot closer to her venomous self than I would have. Ick ick ick!

Kim said...

I hate spiders and bigger than a quarter? How did you kill it? a shoe, wadded up newspaper, sledge hammer?

Great stash organization. I've been seriously contemplating doing mine.

Cathy said...

GOOD LORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HATE spiders! We have Brown Recluse here and I've seen them that big, and I'm with you, I HATE killing them when they are that big!

The stash reorganization looks great - I did that last year, but it is now getting back to the "messy" stage, must re-do! Great job!

Dorothy said...

Well, there go the plans for a someday trip to California. EEEEUUUUWWWW! and EEEEKK! I don't mind spiders normally and have seen some big ones mostly harmless dock spiders, but black widows are beyond scary and a lot creepy.

Love the yarn and your new organization though.

meg said...

You are much braver than I- if I saw a black widow that big, I'd still be running & squealing like a little girl :P

Laura said...

Oooookay... I've scanned and searched and looked and cannot see anywhere that you publicly tell exactly HOW you killed the ginormous poisonous nasty SPIDER!! PLEASE do tell! :D