Let's Sing a Song of Six

How many is six????

Taken from Graham Watson's website. Go have a look, he's got some amazing stuff over there!

What's This?

Why, that's my boy winning Stage 15 yesterday. He pulled on the yellow jersey (his 61st!) at the end of this stage. Today, it's the uphill time trial. I'm listening right now.

I do have to say how sorry I am for Thomas Voeckler. The guy has worn the maillot jaune for the last 10 days. He's been a lot of fun to watch. I'm going out on a limb here to say that we'll be seeing a lot of him in the years to come. He's made his mark this year, but he has a lot of years left. Allez Thomas!!




Also, I want to extend sympathy to everyone who was hoping Tyler Hamilton would win the Tour this year. It was a sad moment on Saturday when OLN showed him riding up the row of team cars and waving to each one. I couldn't believe he was abandoning. He finished the Tour fourth last year (one place off the podium) with a broken collarbone. Now, that's worth repeating - he finished fourth with a broken bone!! Here's a picture of his back after the race on Saturday:



Now, it may look like just a couple of bruises, but read his entry on his website to find out what was really going on. He took a big fall in Stage 6 and landed on his lower back. Basically, he had no power in those muscles and with no power in your lower back, you can't climb the mountains. I have no doubt that he'll be back next year. Heal well Ty, we'll see you next year!

Ya think?!??

You are the Hermit card. The Hermit has chosen a
solitary spiritual path. He shines light on his
inner self and, by this means, gains wisdom.
The Hermit's home is the natural world and it
is by being in tune with that world that he
learns the laws of nature and learn how they
operate within himself. His path is a lonely
one as he lives in silence and has for
companionship only his own internal rhythms.
But those crossing his path are touched by his
light and wisdom. Though often alone, he
manages nevertheless to instruct those who meet
him and guides those who chose to follow him on
a path towards enlightenment. Image from The Aleister Crowley tarot deck.


Which Tarot Card Are You?
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What? This is a knitting blog???

So, yes, I've been knitting. Here's the most recently completed project.



This is the scarf made from Fonty Velourine (54% cotton/46% viscose). I picked up a ball of this yarn just because I loved the color. I knew it would worm, doesn't all chenille worm? Nope, not this. It's lovely and cushy and feels great next to my neck. I went back and bought 2 more balls (lucky girl - they were 10% off!) to get a decent sized scarf. My sister claimed it. I think it's a Pavlovian response that when she sees me knitting something, she automatically asks, "Who's it for?" Since I just wanted to knit this, I didn't care who got it. She asked first, she gets it. My mother was not amused - she needs to be a little quicker on the draw.

Here's what else I've been playing with:



It's pretty much a swatch. I want to make a bag with this:



but I'm not sure what sort of pattern to do. I want a bag that's approximately 4" wide and I want one of those big silver handle thingies that the Bag Lady sells, but beyond that I'm lost. So I started a swatch with some left over perl cotton that was already strung with beads. The bottom section is 5 beads with 3 stitches in between the bead sections. The middle section is 5 beads with 5 stitches between the bead sections. The top is 1 bead, 3 stitches staggered to the left every other row. I'm actually having fun just swatching for this. However, these yellow beads were purchased for Tour de France knitting and I don't even have them strung yet.


What? What's the update on the Tour? How kind of you to ask. My boy is 9' 35" behind the leader (who is the way cute Frenchman Thomas Voeckler, see?...)



There's been pretty much no change in the overall standings of the race for about 5 days now. They rode their first mountain stage today in the Massif Central region of France. Tomorrow they head down toward the Pyrenees. All the main contenders (Jan Ullrich, Tyler Hamilton, Levi Leipheimer, and of course, Lance) are within a couple of minutes of each other. This should begin shaking out very soon.

Knitting and TdF updates on the same day...will wonders never cease?

Let me hear you say it...

*

Maillot jaune...maillot jaune...maillot jaune (for the uninitiated, that means yellow jersey). The Posties pulled it off yesterday and beat all the other teams to finish the team time trial on top. Yeah, Lance will be giving the jersey to someone else within the next couple of days, but the mountains are coming.

(*Graham Watson photo from LAF - Lance's official website)

PS - Sheryl? Your 15 minutes of TdF fame are OVER. Please crawl back under your off-key singing, bad music writing rock now.

I hope you're watching...

The early stages of the Tour de France have been very exciting. At my house, we're all TdF all the time. I've been listening to the live coverage at work and then comparing notes with Hub as we watch later in the evening. OLN's coverage has been superb. Although I will take exception to the ugly American image the Cutters have been giving us. They're doing "color" commentary on the 5:00-7:00 show and they suck out loud. They've been harrassing people and generally giving us all a bad name.

Today is team time trial day so send up good thoughts for the Blue Train.

In other news, I received an advance copy of this:



I read it in one afternoon. I wanted to finish it before the Tour started and it was a very quick read. The story was okay (boy meets girl, confronts personal crisis, realizes how much girl means to him, triumphs over personal crisis). The surrounding story was fabulous! The writer was involved in cycling at some point in his life and gives a real sense of the politics, the comaraderie, and the feel of the peleton. The race scenes are very exciting and even Hub finished it in under 8 hours. If someone happens to have a copy or you can get a used copy or you're a TdF freak (like us) - go ahead and read it.