Friday, August 7, 2009

Flirting With Disaster

ETA: Apparently, google seems to think I'm some kind of computer robot querying thousands of websites. One minute I'm checking out your websites and the next, I'm banned. The last spot I visited was the Rainey Sisters where I tried to view a photo link. Your knitting nurse is being held hostage by google and cannot visit any blogger websites which I find ludicrous. Of course, getting help from google is simply impossible. Like a dog chasing its tail, each help or contact button I press for google sends me back to the original site. It sucks. Sigh.... If you have any savvy in this area, can you please enlighten me? I know CPR, indeed, I know advanced life support. I can ease pain in the most distraught of people. I understand medicalese like you can't believe, but unless it's point and click and rather idiot proof, I'm at a loss with this high falutin' internet thing. Please advise. If all else fails, send Bill Clinton...

Sincerely,

Rudee


As a small child with long, dark tresses, I innocently went to bed one night and awoke to some creature biting the hell out of my neck. It was a wasp, and those nasty things sting more than once. Since that time, I've been deathly afraid of stinging insects. I recall the fright from having that thing tangled in my hair and stinging me repeatedly. I can still see the dead wasp from that night more than 4 decades ago. In my mind's eye, it's the size of a pterodactyl.


About two weeks ago, I began to pay attention to the hive of activity going on behind my favorite spot on my front porch. Whatever had been flying up the pillar on my porch began to outgrow their lodgings. There was always a flurry of activity around that spot whenever I went out to water the plants. When I'd sit in the swing, none of them bothered me, but the watering drove them nuts. I haven't been able to wash the porch in 2 weeks either and the spiders were beginning to take over what the winged insects hadn't. Since I thought the flying insects were bees, I didn't want to disrupt them-bees are in enough trouble. But... when nature began to take over the porch, I paid notice.


Last Thursday, I finally called the rental management company and asked them to send a professional exterminator out to fix this problem. After about a week, Bill the Bug Killer came by to take care of business-that's him behind the swing. I thought it was a bit over the top when he donned the bee keeper hat and gloves, but when he began to spray up that pillar, the WASPS began to buzz his head as though they were insane. For several hours after he left, the flying critters were trying their damndest to get back into the pillar he'd sprayed, powdered and plugged up. Bill says they'll give up and go elsewhere after a couple of days. He also said there were likely hundreds of them living in there in their nasty little tunnels. Busy little buggers.


So, I've pondered enough, done the math, brewed enough coffee and cast on for the tank top. As you can see, I'm not much of a sketch artist, and the arms on this sketch seem ginormous, but I think you get the general idea. I'm shooting for a V neck tank with a pretzel type cable called Flirtation (from Vogue Stitchionary, Volume 2, Cables, p. 55) going right up the middle. I'm only showing arms on the sketch because I think I want to knit a peek-a-boo cap sleeve onto this. What do you think? Cap sleeve showing bare shoulders or no? I think I'm going to call this piece, Flirt.

Disclaimer: I snapped the photo of Bill from INSIDE the house which is why you can't see much. Once bit, twice shy...

26 comments:

Unknown said...

One vote here for the cap sleeves. I love those and think they look very flirty.
I think wasps are good for something, but since I can't think of what, let's consider that an urban myth. They're wicked beasts.
PS. Kudos to you for not spilling coffee on your design. No can do in this house:>)

SkippyMom said...

I am so in love with the yarn/color, can I buy it from you? Please? Or do you have enough to make an extra one?

Hee...I just think it is going to be lovely.

Jane said...

I don't like wasps but find their nest amazing structurs. This looks just as nice on the needles

Winifred said...

That is a lovely colour. I like cap sleeves too.

Wasps, nasty little blighters. We had a nest once apparently. When we had our new central heating boiler installed in the garage the plumber found it. Luckily nothing was in it.

My fear is of earwigs. I had long hair too and one morning when I got up and was brushing it I found a huge earwig in it. I screamed blue murder and my Nanna nearly had a heart attack poor soul. She already had a weak heart.

Hope those wasps don't come back again. Like you I like bees they do have a function in life! I like their honey even better.

Stephanie V said...

Hmm..caps or not? I think I vote for caps just because you called it Flirt. Definitely, you need something a bit more flippy if you call it that.
Love the pretzel cable. That'll be a nice design element. It's going to be so pretty. BTW, love the new header photo.
We have (had?) bees in our crawlspace. A. crept down with the spray can - in the dark, with a flashlight decoy - and they seem to have moved. Wasps eat bugs in the garden but that's not a good reason to nurture them, is it?

Anonymous said...

Oh that's an awful memory Rudee! Wasps are mean insects. Glad you got the exterminator out there. I like the yarn for your new projects.

Brenda said...

So you are designing things now...to add to your already wide range of talents. Very nice. I think it will be really pretty.
Having been stung before I understand your fear.
I have the same issues with google. My computer is dying and I can not use it without getting really frustrated with the slowness of it so I have abandoned blogging. I will only visit occasionally on another computer for awhile.

Rudee said...

Brenda, I am attempting to design. We'll see. If it works out, this should be a simple knit. If not, well it can always be a hat and scarf, maybe mittens too.

It would appear google has set me free. I'm off to work though so not really able to explore this.

clairedulalune said...

Oh nightmare, i hope they go away for good and leave you alone. I love the colour of your yarn, it is exquiste! I can not wait to see flirt!

Anonymous said...

I had problems with Google last night. Took me to 4 a.m. to do today's post. I love the yarn too. I go for the flirty little cap sleeves. One of my hubby's favorite things is to follow the wasps and wipe out there nests. He has all kinds of spray thingies in the garage.
QMM ♥♥♥

Gail said...

I love the yarn!!

I can see why you were leary of sitting in your swing!

debra said...

guess I posted my comment on the wrong post.........oh well.

Renie Burghardt said...

Well, we have all kinds of wasps and bees out here in the boonies, and I'm not bothered by them much. I think city folk get a bit more freaked out about insects than country folk. haha. We learn to live with them, I guess.

Blogger, Facebook and Twitter all have been sluggish for me lately. Maybe it's not their fault. Maybe it's my pc.

Love the design of that sexy looking little top. It will look great with cap sleeves. Or sleeveless, even. Can't wait to see it done and maybe you can model it for us, Rudee.

Happy weekend!

Darci said...

After reading your little note, I was laughing, because I am good with a computer and horrid with medicine. Today I wished you could've been my nurse, I waited 8 hours, and the nurses were so grumpy at everyone.
Anyways I say Cap Sleeves.

Kathleen said...

5 comments:

1. Oh for Pete's sake, why does techie stuff have to be so hard?
2. Ow, ow, ow, ow ow . . .
3. The picture with Bill the Bug Killer was like a magic eye illustration. I never saw him till you pointed him out!
4. Cap sleeves.
5. I LOVE your new banner. Gorgeous composition, color, and match with the name!

J'Ollie Primitives said...

peek-a-boo cap sleeves ~ yes

wasps ~ no thank you. hope they've been thoroughly exterminated. Nasty things.

The Crusty Crone said...

oh oh, looks like your secret life as a scammer/deviant has come home to roost. Bummer. But what's up with Google, anyway?! I bet some clumsy person clicked on the wrong deviant... I mean link. I barely know how to turn on my pc, so I'm of no help, but I hope things get straightened out soon. What's the point of living if you can't visit blogs.

Wasps... determined little creatures! One time I called myself doing much overdue yard work and started raking dead leaves. Wrong thing to do. I was attacked about head and shoulders. I never ran so fast in my life. When I got into the house I had carried a few wasps in with me... tangled in my hair. But I'm still here. I don't know where the wasps are.

Devon said...

Oh, very nice. For a project called flirt, I would gradually increase the number of stitches on the sleve to get a ruffle effect. Beautiful yarn~ I'm sure it will look great!

Wasps scare me... very aggressive beasts! Glad yours are gone.

david mcmahon said...

You know what they say about these situations of mortal danger - a stitch in time!!

Rose said...

Just noticed the sprig of lavendar against the yarn in your header photo; very pretty. Also, read a comment by you about your daughter on someone's blog, and wanted to wish you and her well. When does her new business open?

Cynthia Pittmann said...

I'm trying to remember...something similar happened to me at another blog site. I was writing a long comment about gay bashing and somehow the 'automatic screening' captured my message. And refused to post it. After that I was not able to post comments on that site but it didn't go to all sites. I remember I wrote a note to the location I was referred to but I never went in to check out the result. I just realized through that experience that I couldn't quote text that someone else said...because it is read as your own words-intent is not understood by the computer. I think they said I could comment at that site in six months? I don't think this information helps, Rudee. Sorry that it's happening to you.

I love your yarn, design name and entire attitude about your new piece. And I had a similar experience with wasps in Michigan and Carpenter bees in Tennessee. So difficult! You seem as if you have everything under control! <3

JamaGenie said...

I'm allergic to wasps after being stung repeatedly on both hands by a swarm at the age of 5. I don't remember it, but I'm told I was in the hospital for a couple of days. (Oddly, bee stings don't affect me, except for itching like crazy.) When I saw wasps were trying to build a nest outside the door of my flat, you bet I was on the phone to the manager in a matter of seconds! Apparently most people aren't allergic to them. The attitude was 'so what' until , I informed them they wouldn't enjoy being sued if I got stung because they refused to remove the almost-nest (which they did).

Yes, cap sleeves. ;D

Maria said...

Oh, you poor thing!

Brian Miller said...

google did that to me too this weekend...had to run the virus software and it fixed it right up...hope that helps...

congrats on the POTD mention!

Kathleen said...

Brava, Rudee, on POTD!!!

sandy said...

I had the same problem with blogger, banned me from my own blogs for two days.