I know (I KNOW) - two posts in one day?!?! What the...?!?!?

When I was in high school - i think it was sophomore year - I was an exchange student to a family who lived outside Lyon, France in a town call Vaux en Velin. I stayed with the Ponceblanc family and their daughter, Nadine, later came to stay with us.

Highlights of my trip (that I still remember 22 years later!):

• visiting the Rolex factory (Madame Ponceblanc knew some high level exec in Switzerland)
• skiing in the Alps
• riding to school in a Porsche (they even gave me a key as a souvenier - I still have it)
• playing with their dogs (a Boxer and a German Sheperd)
• having a napkin placed on my head (some weird French tradition my friends also experienced)
• riding to the top of the Eiffle Tower at night
• having a friend get rubbed against by a dirty frenchman on the metro
• smoking French cigarettes on the plane home (and getting sick - ewww)
• eating LOTS of great french bread (and smuggling some home in a poster tube!!!); and
• listening to some great French music

Mrs Ponceblanc gave me a cassette (cd's weren't available yet) by an artist names Daniel Balavoine - the song I remember most is "Le Blues est Blanc". Still, to this day, I remember the tune and some of the lyrics. The way I remember the story of Daniel was that his young wife had died and it was a tragedy for the French people. The song, again as I remember, is sad, but since I don't remember the interpretation I just recall that I liked it.

About a month ago I dug through my cassette collection (yes, I still have it and am slowly weeding through them downloading the "must haves" from iTunes). Les Blues est Blanc is now playing at work - a quiet Friday and I've decided to research the past for myself - and you, my faithful readers!

Interestingly...I had the story wrong - his wife didn't die...HE DID!!!

Death
In the 80's, Balavoine fell in love with Africa and started using his fame to fund the building of water wells for the Sahel. He participated in his first Paris-Dakar motor rally in 1982. Four years later, on January 14th, 1986, while flying over the rally, Balavoine died, along with Thierry Sabine and three other people, when their helicopter crashed into a dune of Mali.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Balavoine

Well, I suppose that isn't a happy ending to the story at all - but I'm happy to have revisited that time of my life.

Have a great weekend y'all!

kc

Oh, it's Friday, and Momma did a BAD BAD (GREAT) thing...

I FINALLY purchased the interchangable Harmony needle set from Knit Picks. I think all of my chats with Alyssa finally convinced me it was "ok" to give in to their magic...at least I know she'll help me if i have any issues with them...won't you? :o)

I also finished the first Bartholomew sock on the train this morning - I really like it although I haven't tried it on as yet. By the time I finished the toe I realized I wanted to wind the second skein to start the socks on the way home (which I can't because I forgot my 2's). I got most of the way through winding - after restarting a couple times because of tangles. I am now toward the tail end of it and had to throw it in my bag and head to work - bah, humbug! Will tackle the tangles again later tonight.

I have to say, once again, how much I love the yarn coloring and how the first sock turned out - it's lovely!

Have a great weekend everyone!

kc

When your knit "buzz" gets killed by a stranger!

So I'm knitting socks - which are generally not on top of my list of projects. But I had the yarn and I was just going to make a generic St st pair of socks - which I was perfectly ok with.

Then I ran into P&S who both asked "are you using the pattern that came with the yarn" and when i responded "no, i'm just doing st st" they both seemed a little disappointed. So I said what the heck, I didn't get that far, ripping out a couple rows won't kill me, I'll go with the pattern.

To note, this was also my first time doing an adult pair of socks using two circulars, both socks at the same time. So I know i'm not an expert at the process - but once I learn a new technique, heck if i'm not a spitfire and off and running (i.e., the Ocean Toe socks).

So there I go, off on my merry way, knitting the pattern for the socks which is fairly simple and liking that the colorway ISN'T striping like it called for because I didn't like the striping as much as I like the "pattern" my gauge was allowing. Case in point on this - I changed the smiley face on ravelry from the 2nd best to the best about two days ago. I was a happy knitter of socks.

Until today!!! Yesterday I posted some errate/notes I thought happened with the pattern (which is not written for 2 circulars). The one mistake, I K-N-O-W is a mistake. The "note/comment" I made about another section is something I understood - but thought the numbers were off. In fact, I just think that if someone more beginner than me were to make the socks, they might be a little confused by the instructions. Whatever.

This morning I received TWO "comments" from the author of the pattern telling me I was WRONG WRONG WRONG - that I wasn't following instructions. Well, no duh, her instructions WERE wrong. But she won't own up to the errata - or my comment. I wrote back further explaining myself (why, I don't know, I don't know her from Adam) so she could see my point of view. She wanted NOTHING to do with it. She wrote back several lengthy emails telling me about shifting stitches and whatnot - and telling me I did it wrong. Believe you me - I did it right! She INSISTED I moved 6 from one end, and not 3 from each side - Woman, PUH-lease, I know how to KNIT for goodness sake!!! Don't tell me how to shift stitches on 2 circ's - I KNOW how to do it the RIGHT way.

Anyway, I have now downgraded my smiley from the best to middle of the road because this rotten egg ruined the knitting of these socks for me. I only have a couple rows to go on the toe and they'll be done on the commute home this evening. I think I'm most bothered by this woman's INSISTANCE that her pattern could NOT be wrong in any way, shape or form. And that the description of the knitting makes perfect sense. Well, it doesn't.

So that's been my day so far. That and a nosey co-worker...no names (if you want the story, and you know who YOU are, we can discuss later!!!)

Happy happy

how are you?

kc