Today, Valentines Day, is Lucy’s official birthday. All we know is that she was born in February 2001, so we designated a birthday about halfway through the month: February 14. The day seemed appropriate.

Lucy got prezzies, of course.

Um, that would be a catnip mouse knitted from Lornas Laces Angel. In the Black Watch colorway.

The King of All Remote Controls gave her this extremely cute mouse.

Lucy has enjoyed carrying it around — it’s small enough to fit nicely in her mouth.

And her Auntie L-B and her boyfriend Lucky sent her this adorable catnip sheep:

(P.S. to Lucky: Lucy says yes, of course she’ll be your Valentine!)

A couple of you asked if Lucy “talks” while on bird patrol. Surprisingly, no, not too much. She’s the first cat I’ve ever know who does not always chatter at the sight of a bird.

She also races to the window and stares outside if she hears an airplane or helicopter going overhead. I sometimes wonder if she things they are just really big birds.

Courtesy of the KOARC

Here’s a map of the power outages in Northern Virginia on Sunday. Extensive, no?

I think I’m lucky that my electricity was restored as quickly as it was.

I’m Ready for my Close-up, Mr. DeMille

In the “Is My Head Ever Gonna Get Swelled” department, thank you so much for all the great comments about Rose. She cleans up good, considering the nightmare that is her damned yarn.

No modelling shots — sorry. But a couple of close-ups.

The neck.

The sleeve cuff.

There was a question about how long it took me to knit — I consulted my archives and found that I started it on January 16. So a bit less than a month.

Whazzup?

What’s next? I started something using these yarns:

Can you guess what it is? Phyl, you can’t guess cuz you already know!

I Caved

I decided to upgrade my phone and ordered this:

Seeing the Razr that belongs to someone up close and personal last Friday pushed me over the edge. I can only hope it gets here soon. I need to buy a purse and shoes to match. Heh.

Happy Valentines Day!

. . . is worth a thousand ^$*@&(# words.

Meanwhile, Lucy is on bird patrol.

We did indeed get snow.

Not as much in my immediate area as some parts of the Washington metro area, but enough, apparently, to make a tree fall on a main power line (according to my condo building engineer) so I was without electricity for a good chunk of today.

This upset Lucy, who could not settle down.

But the power came back on a couple of hours ago, and Lucy is now napping.

I’m coming down the home stretch on Rose’s second sleeve:

Despite the twistiness of the yarn, the knitted fabric (including a swatch I washed and blocked) is not biasing. Go figure, eh?

A couple of you left comments or emailed me to tell me about ongoing problems Louet has with their over-twisted yarn, and that they had changed mills because of this. The two colors I have were made in different countries: Great Britain and South Africa. And you know what? Equally twisty. Weird.

The only thing I had not tried was untwisting the yarn using a spinning wheel, as some of you suggested. Good idea, but as I’d knitted most of the sweater with the yarn “as-is,” I figured it was too late to switch. So on I knit.

This:

Plus this:

Plus this:

Plus this:

Should we actually get the total snow accumulation the weather people are bleating about, I’m ready!!

I’ve been keeping something from you.

I’ve been knitting on Rose for a while now, see? I’ve got the body done, and I’m purty near done with the first sleeve.

But there’s something I haven’t mentioned: I hate this yarn. Hate it, hate it, hate it.

(Did I mention I hate it?)

The yarn is Louet Sales Gems Pearl merino fingering. It knits up beautifully into an extremely pleasing fabric. So why do I hate it?

Because of this:

What you see pictured there is this @*$#&% yarn twisting on itself. It does this constantly. Con-stant-ly. And always right up near the needle, making it extraordinarily difficult to wrap yarn around needle.

I started out knitting directly from the cone (I bought the yarn on 1/2 pound cones) and it was immediately twist-o-rama. So I wound some of the yarn off the cone into a ball on my ball-winder. Twist-o-rama. So I skeined some of the yarn on my swift. When I held up the skein, no twisting. Cool, I thought. It just wants to be skeined before winding it into a ball. I wound it into a ball. Twist-o-rama.

I’m starting to get peeved, here.

I skeined some of the frigging yarn, washed it, and hung it to dry. Wound it into a ball. Twist-o-rama-lama-ding-dong.

Can you see why it’s taking me so long to knit Rose with this stupid yarn? I have many many times resisted the temptation to throw it against the wall, on the floor, or on the tracks in the path of a train. I have thought evil thoughts about it. I have wept in despair. I have hatred and loathing in my heart. I have one stinking sleeve and one stinking neckband left to knit, then this whole horrible experience will be over.

Okay. I feel better now.