You were perfectly fine . . .

Fabulous!

Presenting: Debardeur de Giotto!

Just finished last night (well, except for the ceremonial weaving in of the ends). I know it's hard to tell from the picture, but this top is SO CUTE. It looks great on, and I'm so pleased that my giotto has a home at last. I made it from this pattern on the Phildar website, which was written for their Aviso cotton/acrylic blend.

There is one adjustment I'll make if I do another of these in Giotto or another ribbon-type yarn. The ribbing doesn't really pull in as much as I'd expected, or once it is stretched, it tends to lay almost as flat as the stockinette unless you kind of coax it back into ribbing-ness. I don't know if that makes sense, but can't think how else to describe it. I think next time I will go down a couple more needle sizes for the ribbing and see if that helps.

Now back to the pink lace knitting for my nana. I also made her a couple of other presents this week:

A frame card and a bracelet. Well the bracelet was already "made"--I just added a cut-up picture of K and stamped "Nana" on 4 of the 5 links, then coated it all with Diamond Glaze. I love Diamond Glaze.

And last but not least, a picture of my husband and daughter, with their matching cell phones and cell phone clips (his by Motorola, hers by Barbie).

Have a great weekend!

PS--I got something fantastic yesterday for my secret pal. I hope she likes it!

just in case . . .

My sister-in-law Tiffany Wallace is planning to do the 60-mile 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk in San Diego October 1-3, in honor of a very close family friend who lost her battle with breast cancer a little over 3 years ago. Time is getting short and she needs another $1000 to reach her goal.

This will be her 3rd year doing this walk. I did it with her last year, and it was an experience I will never forget--both because of how difficult it was (IT WAS!!) and because of how moving it became, as people pulled together to get through it, and as the many many members of the volunteer Crew gave all of us who walked so much of themselves, their time, their love and care. It truly blew me away, and continues to give me chills to this day (including as I type this).

One man on the transportation safety crew was a big, sinewy motorcycle guy who had lost his wife Dawn to breast cancer, and carried a picture of her on the back of his crew badge; he kept each one of us safe, and talked us across one more street when we didn't have any more "juice" to go on.

Another man we called "pretty woman guy" drove the route in his pickup playing "Pretty Woman" and lots of other fun peppy music and encouraging us each step of the way--at the closing ceremony he met us wearing a hot pink wig and boa and was still keeping us laughing and keeping us going those last few steps to see our families and friends at last.

And several members of the San Jose police department bicycle division escorted us the entire way, riding at least three times as many miles as we walked, making sure everyone was ok, hydrated, and of course, encouraged. One in particular has a special place in my heart because in the last mile on the last day, I was one of the last walkers still on the course. I was struggling up a hill in Golden Gate Park, and had just heard that if we didn't make it to the finish area in the next few minutes, we'd be "swept"--picked up in the vans and given a ride to the closing ceremony. I sure as hell didn't come that far to get a damned ride! So I was (literally) cussing and spitting my way to the top of that hill. I must have looked truly frightening: angry, red-faced from exertion, and cussing like a sailor. One police officer on his bicycle pulled up next to me, looked me in the eye to make sure I was alright, and then said "Don't worry, I won't let them pick you up. Go on and finish--you can do it." And he was as good as his word. I finished, walking through hundreds of other walkers who had finished minutes or hours earlier, who lined the final few yards into the finish area. I high-fived as many of them as I could reach, and unabashedly cried my eyes out. I was so fucking proud of myself, I could hardly stand it. I still love that police officer.

So anyway, if you want to help Tiffany do this walk again, or if you just want to give to help find a cure for breast cancer, please go to her 3-Day page or to www.the3day.org.

Thanks very much for listening.

what's your dream job?

I used to be able to answer this question. But lately, as I'm actually looking for a job, I can't. Isn't that odd?

So I've made a list of some of the things that are (and are not) important to me in a job. Here goes:

1. I want to be within 30 minutes of my home. For more than a decade, I have commuted approx 1.5 hours each way to and from a job in downtown San Francisco. Enough already.

2. I want to do the things I'm good at, and not spend 90% of my time trying to get good at the stuff I hate. Here's what I mean: I'm a lawyer. I research like a champ. I can marshal the facts and analyze the statutory authority and case law, compare and evaluate them together, and write you a memo or motion or brief that would make you weep and give me whatever I'm requesting. I'm not being arrogant; this is just my thing.

However (and this is a big "however"), when it comes to thinking on my feet and speaking aloud in public venues (like, for instance, courtrooms), I suck. I just do. Some people are wonderful at this. I envy them deeply. But no matter how hard I try, I always think of my best comebacks and rebuttals in the car on the way home. That's ok in a friend ("he was such a jerk, and I wish I'd said X but I didn't think of it until later!"), but believe me, it's not something you want to hear from your lawyer!! I do better when I can think before I speak, and I don't think fast enough to do that on my feet. It's why I write.

Wouldn't you think there would be another lawyer out there who could be the yin to my yang (or vice versa)--someone who loves to go out there are mix it up, but doesn't want to sit quietly in the office and research and write? Me too. But I haven't found him/her/them yet.

3. I want to wear normal clothes in which I can actually work. You know, like pants and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Flat comfy shoes (no, I don't mean the orthopedic kind--just the kind that don't make your feet scream like the Valkyries--I don't wear nylons and heels unless there's going to be sex involved). Hair out of my face and not coated with hairspray.

I don't want to have to look like Paddy's pet pig or act like a pompous ass to get people's respect. I'm smart and I work hard and I actually give a shit. Shouldn't that be enough?

Well, now you can probably see why I'm unemployed . . . :) You know, I think I'll go knit for a little while. Knitting always makes the world seem a little more manageable. Love that.

where were we?

I've been feeling a little low of late, so there's not as much knitting progress as I'd like, but that's life. Luckily, I was hauled out of my self-pity party yesterday by my secret pal. Every unemployed girl should have a secret pal! She sent this e-card: (go to http://www.hallmark.com/hmk/Website/Shopping/sh_eg_category.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1686688398.1094836056@@@@&BV_EngineID=jadclgjeeihmbedcfchcfhk.0&fromPage=%2fWebsite%2fShopping%2fcatGrps.jsp&hdnCatOID=-102262 and click on this icon for the "Honest Boss Interview")

and this:

Thank you, Secret Pal. I needed that.

I have been doing some knitting--here's my progress:

On the Phildar/Giotto tank:

This pattern is knitting up nicely, if slowly (due to living in anxious fog, not to the knitting itself). If you plan to knit this, DO follow the instruction which tells you to place markers at the beginning of the armhole decreases. I didn't have markers handy when I got to this point and was too lazy to get up and retrieve some, so when I finished the first piece, it was pretty darn hard to tell where the decreases began . . . I had to count rows and mark them afterward. Which is what I get for being lazy. :)

And I started this for my pink-loving Nana:

This is Shaker from Rowan 25, in lovely pink 4-ply Cotton. (It's on the cover of that magazine, in white.) It's great practice for my lace knitting skills, and going nicely so far. Nana lives in Arizona, so she doesn't need a lot of warmth; I thought a cotton lace sweater would be just the thing. (Rowan 25 is pretty old, relatively speaking, for a knitting mag--I think it came out in 1999? I got my copy at the wonderful Knitting Garden, where I have spent all the money I should have been saving in case I ever became, ahem, unemployed.)

One more thing: remember the endless grey stockinette hoodie I made for my sister out of Jo Sharp Desert Garden Aran (a blend of cotton and microfiber)? Apparently it's way too big for her. Leaving aside the terrible family feud this has now started ("do you really think I'm that BIG??"--as if I would put all that work into some elaborate mean practical joke. Well, maybe I would, but I didn't. I wanted to make her something she would like and wear. duh.), do any of you have any ideas about whether we would dare run it through a wash and spin cycle in the washing machine? Maybe pull the zipper out first? Or would that be a disaster?

Can This Sweater Be Saved? (The family can't, so don't worry about that. You would think I'd have learned that by now . . . )

Oh yeah, and one MORE more thing. The new fall Knitty is up and I LOVE it! I want to make at least 5 of the things in it . . . more projects!

Thanks for stopping by. I missed you.