Meme'd!

I read Karen's fun answers to a meme she was tagged with, and at the end I realized [oooofph] I'd been tagged too! Funny, I was already on it, fascinated with what my birthday means and has meant through the ages. So here's the meme:

On Wikipedia, enter your birth month and day only, and it gives you lists of important things that day signifies. Find three events in history, two birthdays, and one holiday celebrated on your birthday.

Mine's January 15, so I already knew a few of them (I get a three-day weekend for my birthday every year since the early 80s!!)

Events:

Jan. 15, 1559--Elizabeth I crowned queen of England

Jan. 15, 1870--a political cartoon for the first time represents the Democratic Party with a donkey (in caption it was referred to as a jackass--hmmmm, wonder if the cartoonist was partisan??!)

Jan. 15, 1919--Great Molasses Flood of Boston

Jan. 15, 1943--Japanese forces driven off Guadalcanal

Jan. 15, 1991--UN deadline for Iraq to remove its troops from Kuwait passes without compliance, signaling the start of Desert Storm

Births:

Jan. 15, 1622, Moliere, French playwright (that's cool--Tartuffe! The Miser! woo-hoo!)

Jan. 15, 1929, Martin L. King, Jr. (know'ed that!)

It was a bonanza really: Aristotle Onassis, Edward Teller, a porn star or two, three WWF wrestlers, the founder of the first SPCA (in Ireland, late 1700s, who’da thunk it?), Jean Bugatti (um people, it's a really cool sports car from past times), Ernest J. Gaines (author of A Lesson Before Dying), Chad Lowe [sound you hear is a raspberry!] and Howie Day (I think he's the singer of that song, "Collide"?).

And the very exciting holiday: Jan. 15 is Korean alphabet day in North Korea (why does that sound like more work for the little children?)

Now, who's getting tagged? It's Bells, Amanda, and Sue. What exciting and interesting things have happened on YOUR birthdays in history?

Well, hello there, UFO!

Where did you come from????

Remember the frenzied knitting of Irish Hiking Scarves last summer? I do, because I had to rip out rows so many times, and finally I was all in. I easily forgot about it almost entirely until I found one of my knitting totes in the closet--with heft--"Hey, what's in here?" Well, dang, that's where those size 9 needles have been hiding! And wow, I was 3/4 done with that scarf!

Since I'm running out of yarn after one more pattern repeat, I am thinking about making it into a small bag with I-cord--tres chic! Classique!

I also went through a bunch of patterns yesterday and settled on what several of you recommended for a replacement pattern to make the baby sweater again--the Mason-Dixon baby kimono. Nearly the same pattern but I can see I'll find it easier, and I can do those cool inside ties and outside ties, and it will stay on the baby! Look for progress on that soon.



Started a black knitted cap with a contrasting shiny/rayonish yarn that gives the effect of the stained glass knit without the complicated (for me) yarn switching. Only I discovered this a.m. that the yarn I've been thinking of as black with the brights in it is actually navy blue. Rule #740 is to always look at yarn in bright light when mixing and matching. You know me, I am forging on ahead anyway.



And I got some earrings and buttons for the felted purse closures that I think will turn out great. Now I have to decide whether to attempt to attach them with superglue, hotmelt glue gun, or soldering. (DH could help me with this last, if it's the surest way to secure them.) I have thought about how to remove the extra bits, the posts and clips from the earrings, but that shouldn't be too hard with my beading tools and elbow grease (or DH again, if need be--he's a sweetie). See the magnetic closure as it shows up on the outside? Well one of these would look just lovely covering it, and I have smaller closures for future bags, thus some of the smaller button/earring options below.



























I frogged a wrap I tried to make in May out of watermelon Kornucopia by Kollage. After ripping out the baby sweater, that didn't hurt a bit!! I did learn to do a simple lace stitch for a stretchy shawl, yo's etc., but in the end it just wasn't looking very nice, so I'm going to use it for something baby oriented, along with this ball of Bamboozle that I rescued from the orphan bin at one of my LYSes. Baby bonnet? Bib? Booties? What is it about babies that everything associated starts with a B? One good thing, both the Bamboozle and the Kornucopia are machine washable, and both are soft. I guess that's two good things!

Working on a Super Secret project that I can't show you, but it's for one of the DDs and is turning out wonderfully. The only not so great thing is it involves striping, and I'm finding that I don't know how to carry the yarn properly so it doesn't "puddle" with the other color at the edges, so I may do some duplicate stitching around those to hide the unsightly stuff. If you can enlighten me, I would love to hear!!

I've been trying to destash on the new wordpress site, which is working out well, considering I've brought the stash down by four large flat rate boxes ;^), but if you're in the market for some super bulky Lopi, several skeins of single-ply seagreen worsted wool, or four balls of a nylon/silk blend yarn, check this out. A whole lot of smallish things that would be great for learners is getting boxed up for Interim House when I return from vacay, and at that point when I see what I have not sold on destash, I'll add it to the stuff I've collected for them, and know it will be happily used.

Lastly, (it seemed I might never get to "lastly"!) though the site is defunct now, there are some hilarious pix and comments on youknitwhat. If you are in need of a good belly laugh, give them a minute of your time. Warning: They are irreverent on lots of levels, so if you have a weak stomach for strong language, you can skip this. ;^)