Wednesday, August 31, 2011

You give me fever

To say it's been busy here is a bit of an understatement. You might've heard about the surprise earthquake. And perhaps the visit from our good friend Irene. I'm hoping we can make it through the week without any other unexpected guests.

(And I just want to clear up a misconception--there's been a lot of Internet mockery of East Coast-ers for panicking about what was ultimately a mild earthquake. So I'd just like you to keep a couple of things in mind:
1. I'd say 95% of the people who experienced last week's earthquake had never experienced an earthquake before in their entire lives--so it wasn't "Oh praise Jesus, an earthquake!!"; it was "Oh, dear God, WHAT IS THAT?"
2. If you've never experienced an earthquake before, live in an area that rarely experiences earthquakes, and that area happens to be Washington, D.C., when the building starts rattling and the lights start swinging, you don't think earthquake. You think terrorism. Bombs. Buildings collapsing. That's enough to panic anyone.
3. Our infrastructure wasn't designed to withstand earthquakes; even a relatively mild tremor could've caused significant damage, though, thankfully, it appears that wasn't the case.
4. Imagine how Los Angeles would react if it found itself unexpectedly buried under 3 feet of snow.)


In the wake of those disasters, I seem to have come down with some kind of fever.

It's . . .


Hexapuff Fever!


IMG_4360


It's taken the knitting-verse by storm, and I'm afraid I've caught it.

In case you're living snugly under a rock and are unaware, Hexapuffs are the tiny hexagons of knitty goodness that comprise the Beekeeper's Quilt. This thing is bound to take me years to complete, but the individual puffs are portable and can be made with scrap yarn, so it's an easy project to add to over time.

The hexagons could not be easier to knit, but I keep doing the most absurd things to mess them up. Once I managed to do the 3-needle bind off without binding off--I just the stitches together and then stared blankly at my needles wondering why I still had live stitches.

Another time I knit the puff and bound off without stuffing it.

What can I say, over-complicating easy knitting is my thing. Apparently.


STOMA COVER DRIVE UPDATE:

Today is the last day of the stoma cover drive--I'll share the last batch of covers and announce prize winners later this week!

Mom has been thrilled to receive these covers--she's still quite unhappy with her appearance after the surgery (she's very swollen and also, you know, has a hole in her neck), so she wouldn't permit me to take any pictures of her parading around in her new neck wardrobe, but rest assured, she's overjoyed with your gifts!


4 comments :

Clumsy Knitter said...

Oh no! You succumbed to hexapuff fever!!! I swear I'm the last holdout on the planet, but only because I want to get a few things off the needles first. I totally intend to jump on board any day now. :)

Minding My Own Stitches said...

Glad to hear your Mom is enjoying the stoma covers. And I can completely understand that she won't sit for portraits. She's still got lots of healing to do!

I've been looking at the beekeeper quilt as well. It'd be nice to do a Hexapuff-along. I think I'd enjoy making a few (and I've certainly got the sock yarn scraps to do it) but I can't imagine making and assembling a whole quilt.

But the journey starts with just one hexapuff so maybe I should dig in!

Unknown said...

Another thing the West coast doesn't realize, a quake east of the Rockies has a much larger area of impact. That's why your quake was felt in Mich, In, and OH, to name a few states far from the epicenter. Quakes west of the Rockies, while they tend to be larger in "shake", tend to be localized in scope. And as you mentioned, the east coast has not been built to withstand quakes, although I am sure later building codes have strengthened the structures.

crookedknits said...

We NYers are getting the same about Irene you guys are getting for the earthquake (and probably Irene too) from FL. Cousin tells me they're laughing their tush's off at us. But no our areas weren't built to withstand that either and people's homes are floating down rivers. Just because NYC came out ok doesn't mean the rest of the state did. Also, I can't wait for them to get snow again to laugh at their freakouts.

I love the quilt! It's in my queue while I continue to save up leftovers :o)

Glad to hear your mom's doing ok!