Bonnee's Dream

Bad Blogger, Bad Blogger!

2010-01-07T09:24:00.003-05:00

Yes, it's a whole new year and I think I posted about 5 times last year. I was good for a while and then just languished and didn't care much. I had a bit of a problem right after my last posting. I took a minor fall at work and injured my wrist. Don't even ask because I can't remember what it was, but I basically overstretched the tendon in my right wrist. (A common injury for skiers, from what they told me.) I reported it to my boss and we let it lie for almost a month when the pain became unbearable. So I did 6 weeks of therapy and, even though it's far from perfect, I'm better enough that most of life is back to normal.
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The holidays were wonderful. My brother came to visit from North Carolina with his girlfriend and her daughter. Sweet girls! Course, Brandi is 15 and her Mama is a bit terrified by that mouthy thing all 15-year-old girls experience. So it's possible that Brandi might come up and spend the summer with us. Since I've "been there, done that", she didn't even raise a single hair at the nape of my neck. And Dee is excited about the whole idea. She's never been a big sister and here's her chance to understand Shelby's position.
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Frankly, I'm thinking it's a great way to get back some of the slave labor I've lost... LOL!
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On the Needles:
Too many projects. I have the Wool Peddler's Shawl in the Dream In Color colorway of Musk Melon. It's gorgeous! I have about 5 more pattern rows to go on the lower edge and then 5 rows of garter and I can wash and block. It will make a spectacular spring shawl. I knit it on a size 7 needle, so it's very lacy and light and airy. Not exactly a winter shawl, especially since our winter has been downright frozen.
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Up until Christmas, I was able to use my trusty old basketweave shawl in alpaca instead of a coat. But wind chills are -0 at night now, so that's not an option anymore. And if the alpaca won't keep me warm, no way a fingering weight shawl knit on a size 7 needle will do the trick.
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I did manage to finish three sets of fingerless mitts for Christmas with the wrist injury. But I have another one in progress and one more to go. No sweaters so far, though I have yarn to make 2 of them.
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Master Knitter Level I:
The big news is that I finally did it. I signed up for the Master Knitter certification program. I bought my binder and yesterday went to my LYS and bought some gorgeous Cascade 220 for my swatches. I laughed when I got home. The yarn is a very pretty peach in color and, without realizing it, my binder is color coordinated... LOL!
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I'm hoping to blog about the program as I make my way through the swatches and questions, etc. There's a group on Ravelry and a whole discussion board on The Knitters Guild Assoc (www.tkga.com), but you never know if someone would like to read along.
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I'm extremely lucky in that I have a Master Knitter in my spinning group. She served for many years on the judging committee for the program, so she's offered to look over my swatches before I send them to the committee for judging. Who could ask for better than that? My goal for 2010 is to complete Level I and also possibly Level II. If I knit two swatches a week, that will be the easy part. The questions will require more time because I'd like to sound like I know what I'm talking about and that's the real point of the certification... LOL!
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So stay tuned while I build my binder and hope to become a Master Knitter! 2010 is going to be exciting and wonderful! I can feel it in my bones.

Four Months? Yikes!!!

2009-10-31T20:29:00.003-04:00

Not that anyone really follows my blog, but I can't believe it's been four months since I posted anything. Well.... all I can say is that life got in the way.

I was reading my last post and all my plans, etc for my summer. Well, for the most part, the knitting needles did languish in the corner. I pulled them out periodically. Mostly, I did finish the socks... well, okay. I finished one pair. The other pair has one sock completed and the other waiting for me to begin. Other than that, I did toss them across the room and they sort of sat there most of the summer.

I never did pack up the dining room. Shelby brought a whole bunch of stuff home from college and all her boxes (5 of them) sat stacked in that room all summer. Three of them are still there. I think she's waiting to need her winter clothes before she takes them with her.

The good news is that I actually did get some projects finally off my list. I scraped, primed and painted the garage doors. That took almost a whole week because of all the rain. Then I gave up trying to do anything outside and finally got into our bedroom. I started with the ceiling. Pretty durned gross when you need two coats of white so the ceiling looks white... LOL! Then I cleaned and sanded that dark paneling we call "walls" and then primed and painted that a lovely shade of pale lavendar. Scraped, primed and painted the window and then hung new hardware and curtains. It's amazing how changing the color can totally brighten a room from a dark dungeon to an actual place of rest and relaxation.

Not much to report with the yard other than the morning glories absolutely loved our rainy, cool weather. Every time I tried to get outside, it would rain some more. I finally gave up. Poor yard has been ignored for two years (last year, I had the surgery whic prevented a lot of hard physical labor) and it shows. Next year will be hell to get it back into shape, but that's at the top of my list.

As for spinning? I spun up the BFL and knit another Barbara Walker's top down raglans. I submitted that into the Durham Fair and took a third place with it. It's soft and very comfortable to wear, but there are some inconsistencies in the spinning that I can see so I can understand why it certainly didn't take a first. I was thrilled to get a third place.

I did submit a lot of stuff to Durham and most of it placed very well. The only disappointment was this one, my red Dale of Norway. It placed second after a Philosopher's Wool kit. I know the PW kits because I've knit two of them myself. As for complexity? Sorry, but Dale of Norway is much more complex. So this one was a total disappointment for me.

But what can I say? I know I deserved a first for this sweater, so in my mind, I see a blue ribbon attached to it... LOL!

Good news is that I was contacted by a long lost forty-second cousin (I'm only kidding! I have no idea how far removed we are, but we're related back to common grandparents about 4 generations ago) from my Dad's side of the family. We never knew much about his father other that I've been able to learn in the past couple of years from his half-brother. Well, I'm now finding out that there's a whole slew of relatives I didn't even know existed. This has been exciting with pictures and stories and all kinds of stuff. I might just have to find a way to make it to Cornwall one of these days to see the old family church. Wow, what a concept!

I'm back to work and both girls are living on campus now that Dee is a freshman. Oh boy, I never thought about what it would mean to lose all that slave labor. No one to leave a list of chores for anymore. I've been trying to adjust so I can get everything done, but it hasn't been working too well. So I keep trying different things. Eventually, something will work and I'll be able to keep up.

Oh... spinning. Let me just say that it wasn't Rambouillet. It's Romuldale. And very neppy. I've managed to spin up a whole bunch of it. I think I've got 3 or 4 skeins at this point. But it's annoying me. I can't get an even consistency in my singles and that really annoys me. So I'm going to finish up the two spools that I've got running, ply those off and then switch to something else for a while. I have some beautiful rovings that I bought from Lisa Souza at Stitches East and I'm dying to dig into those. One is a straight BFL and the other is a merino/silk mix. Both in shades of blues and greens. Really, really pretty. And it'll be nice to have something smooth under my fingers for a change.

And I treated myself while at Stitches East. I bought a few skeins of Dream In Color (colorway musk melon). Gorgeous stuff! That's going to be a Wool Peddler's Shawl for me. I also bought a whole bag of Araucania for another top down sweater. Colorway has some brown, blue and even olive green. It might end up looking kind of camouflage, but that's okay. I got a shawl pin (it's about time and, yes I used it within days). No hand carders, though. Darn. I'll have to get those online. But the big score and real luxury item was I bought a whole ounce of quivet. Now I have a reason to spin that yak/merino mix as a prelude to attempting my hand at quivet.

Best news of all is that Interweave signed a contract with HArtford, so Stitches East will be in Hartford for at least another two years. A reason to tuck away some stash money for next year. If I start now, I might have enough to spend and spend some more next year...

LOL!

Rain, more rain and free posting...

2009-06-20T09:05:00.002-04:00

Let's begin with the easy stuff. I'd heard from a couple people that you can no longer comment on blogspot unless you have an account. I don't like that. I don't expect people to join blogspot in order to drop comments, but I would surely love to hear some feedback on what little adventures I discuss over here.

So I toss out the question that, if anyone knows a site where I can keep this running dialogue and people could actually post without having to join and it's free, drop me a note. My email is bonneewolf@yahoo.com I'd be more than happy to change servers as I have no ties here. I'd have no trouble starting over as I can't think of anything I've posted that would cause world chaos if lost to the annals of time.

We actually had one small glimmer of hope this week. I checked the weathercast on Wednesday and they said some rain on Thursday (buckets, actually), maybe some rain on Friday and then an overcast weekend, but the precipitation would stop. In fact, they promised it would stop for all of next week. I can't explain how excited I became when I read that because the simple thought of two days in a row with actual sun was more than my little peabrain could comprehend. By Thursday morning, however, they'd changed their minds once again. Rain all weekend. Rain all this coming week.

Again.

/sigh/

In the Garden

The only things flourishing in all this precipitation is the hostas, grasses and my morning glories are doing suprisingly well. I thought they'd need sun in order to find a direction to grow, but they're 6"-8" above the ground and reaching for the fence. Everything else seems to be rotting before it can actuall bloom. I have a mountain laurel that's a beautiful fuscia color. Very pretty. Very small. In fact, this poor plant has survived some seriously hardship. I actually bought it two years ago and, for some strange reason, never got it planted. I think it got tucked in behind the garage with the pile of castoffs and forgotten. But I found it last year in its tiny little gallon container and planted it anyway. Late, of course, because last year was when I got my late start because of the surgery. So I don't think it got into the ground until about August. But I figured, what the heck. If it's survived winter in that tiny little container, it just might come back. Well, last year, it looked half dead. I thought it was a goner for sure.

And, in fact, it wasn't until about three weeks ago that it actually showed life. But then a few leaves appeared and some buds began to build. Wow! What a survivor! So I was looking forward to the fabulous color that I'd remembered and the rain this year basically took that excitement away. The blooms opened and it was gorgeous in all its spindly glory for all of two days before the blooms rotted and fell off...

/bigger sigh/

If we don't get some sun soon, I have a feeling that the only thing that will do well this year is my mulch. Mark did get me two yards. That's a good start. I know it's going to take me another 2-4 yards to finish what I plan on accomplishing this year.

On The Needles/Wheel

I really have to do both at once because there's very little on the needles that isn't languishing until I go back to work. Whenever I get the itch to knit, I pull out the two pairs of socks that I'd begun months ago. I knit a couple rows and then I just want to toss it across the room. I spend so much time knitting when I'm working that the last thing I want to see during the summer months when I'm off is needles and yarn.

Don't get me wrong. I have tons of yarn. I have a whole basketful of just my handspun, let alone all the various commercial yarn I've bought throughout the knitting season. But I just can't stand the thought of picking up needles right now.

Oh, wait, I do have to update. I did find the perfect "yarn" to finish Dee's Mitered Tank with. While at my spinning group last week, I sorted through their Dale of Norway patterns, tucked a few into a corner for safekeeping and then went back the next day. I didn't want to make Lauren actually work and take care of money when the evening is meant for company and support. So I went back the next day and scoured her store for the perfect finishing yarn. I found it. From Great Adirondack. Don't ask specifics because I didn't keep the ball band once I'd gotten it wound on the ball winder. But it's a cotton/silk blend with all kinds of little sparklies. I started to pick up the stitches around the neck (if you check the pattern from Interweave Mag, it's a three row pattern around the neck and armholes). Yuck! It looked really terrible. My first thought was that I'd made a terrible mistake and the yarn wasn't going to work. Then I tried a single crochet row around the edges. I doubled the yarn by pulling from inside and outside the ball and it worked. I just have to finish it by washing and blocking, but she tried it on briefly and it really looks lovely.

Okay, so she's a teenaged girl and the pattern really minimizes your chest. I don't know why, but it does. She'd much rather that it would work more like a push-up bra and create some fantastic cleavage, but I think she's willing to forego that effect since it ain't gonna happen... /g/

Oh the wheel.... I'm almost at the end of the Alpaca. It's coming along beautifully and I can't wait to reach the end. Not that I want alpaca to end because it's a dream to spin, but I have so much fiber awaiting my attention. I have that Rambouillet as well as the BFL and some merino in silver grey and some gorgeous garnet that I think is either Corriedale or BFL. I can't remember which, but the color is spectacular. A picture would never do it justice because it looks almost black, it's such a dark wine color. And then there are strands here and there that are the color of a rich burgundy wine that peek out amongst all that almost black color. I have no idea what i can use it for except that it simply had to come home with me the weekend I took Mom up to Torrington to Ginger's store (The Sheep Gathering) to pick up her loom.

De-Clutter Project

Youngest daughter is graduating this week. Her school runs an all-night thing they call Project Graduation. Some people have ongoing projects like their crafts. My project this summer is to de-clutter my dining room so I can take over a corner and finally organize all of my yarn and fiber into one area of my house. I did a walk through the other day and found I have yarn and/or fiber stashed in every single room except my daughters' bedroom. Yes, even the kitchen has a skein of yarn. Why? I haven't a clue how it got there, but there it was nonetheless, looking at me with longing for a project to belong to.

What this all means is I no longer have a clue of what I have, what I need or one tiny inkling of how many needles I truly own. They're everywhere. Yes, I know about the two sets of socks that are languishing in my bedroom next to the Pi Are Squared Shawl that I wonder if I'll ever get around to completing. (I need one more skein of alpaca for this project and, so far, I haven't been able to find that one skein. Since it's knit in natural colors, I know I'll find it one day, I just haven't lived that day yet... /wry g/) I have that EZ sweater with all its various skeins of yarn in my dining room. The Mitered Tank is waiting to be washed. (Being cotton, I just need a day that I'm doing laundry and I'm going to toss that into the wash along with some t-shirts.) The Silk Hobo Bag was washed yesterday and is out on the deck railing, attempting to dry. (Be careful, some sun is peeking through the clouds. I might have to get excited if I think about it... LOL!) Don't forget that huge bin of sale yarn that I'd bought a year ago. I hate to admit it, but our guinea pig cage sits atop the bin so Kip can enjoy fresh air and sunshine. He lives in our living room right at our front window. Once the heat sets in, we'll have to move him away from the sun because guinea pigs don't like hot weather, but I figure he really enjoys the cool fresh air from the window until we reach that day. Considering they're only supposed to live 5-7 years and we've already determined that he's got to be at least 7, if not 8, my goal is to keep him as comfortable as possible.

But I'm meandering as usual. I don't have any plans to de-stash. But I certainly have plans to de-clutter and organize. If I can manage to organize the room and keep the dining room set, kewl. If that has to go to make room for the craft, then I'll have to deal with that also. Decisions, decisions.

Today, my plan is to pack up stuff from the hutch. There are items that I didn't buy, never would have bought, but kept because they were gifts. I'm going to set those aside because youngest daughter has said that she'd be more than happy to run a tag sale. She can keep any money she makes. I just want to get rid of excess stuff. Other items, however, will be packed for storage. We have a storage unit for our Dear Aunt's stuff. I can store my stuff with hers until I can finally get that room done the way I want. I might have room at that time. I don't have room now. Silver can be packed away since I almost never use it. But I need room for my fiber and my wheels. 2.3 lbs of Rambouillet needs space. And priorities must be made. And, unless the DH is willing to give up his office (like that is ever gonna happen /g/), I need room for fiber and yarn.

Yup, I can do this.

Hopefully, next week, I'll have a picture of youngest daughter in her Mitered Tank. I have until Wednesday to get it washed and ready for wear. I can do that. Especially since I'm pretty sure she'd be much happier if I had clean underwear for her graduation, so laundry will have to be worked into the schedule prior to Wednesday...

LOL!

More Silly Pics...

2009-06-12T14:12:00.005-04:00

It was prom night for my baby, Dee. She's kinda hard to miss since she's the only one who's formal. OTOH, I'm getting to like the idea of being silly. So this is me, Dee, my youngeset, Shelby, the oldest and the DH, Mark. Yup, you finally have to suffer by seeing the whole crew.

I definitely would have liked a better background, but it was raining like the devil outside and we would have ruined Dee's hair, so here's my unfinished kitchen. Blech! One of these days, it'll be a room I actually like, but that will come in time.

In the meantime, Dee loved the idea that she's wearing flats and is taller than her older sister. I'm seeing that she's dangerously close to also being taller than me. Hmm... is this where I pounce on her in her sleep and vow to keep her tiny and small and defenseless? LOL!

Now, there's no way I can have a picture of one baby without including the other. This is my Lacy. If I'm in the house, she's never further than about five feet from wherever I am. And she's highly jealous of anyone who gets hugs unless she's included.

So, yes, as soon as the crew broke up, she jumped in to get her turn at hugs from Mom. Needless to say, she's one baby that I indulge.

Here's the one that's at least semi-serious. At least I tried. Problem is I have to stop tucking my chin in close. See those double chins hanging under my smile? Oh boy. Definitely need to rethink how I pose when pix are being taken.

But Dee looked gorgeous, as my daughters both are without trying. Isn't it scary when you can give birth to two girls who don't need make-up in order to not terrify small children and animals? Me? I try not to terrify those who know me and they don't even have to work at it.

Look out world. Remember that Daddy doesn't own the guns. Mom does... LOL!

Lastly, here's one for the records: This one was taken on Easter Sunday. Dee doctored it up with the frame and the words, but the picture is me, my Mom, Dee, Aunt Lois and my mother-in-law. (Yes, you can see why there was always the chance that my daughters would be taller than me. Course, then poor Shelby took after my Mom who's still not the shortest in my family. No, we're not going there except our women are small of stature but gigantic in heart.)

In the Garden

I started some chives, lemon basil and dill by seed and those are now in my little triangle garden. I did move my established chive plants to that bed also as they were really becoming crowded out by the hostas in what is now my mountain laurel bed. I think that one is pretty much established and done, so I moved my herbs to this other garden right outside my back door. I set the triangular corners with geraniums, celosa and each has a new guinea impatiens. It will be really nice once all the seedlings mature. I filled in the blank spaces with tiny alyssum that I also started from seed.

I'm beginning to dig out around the base of the pool. The hostas really filled in since last year, but I want to keep that area clean and neat. So I'm going to dig it out and bury it in mulch. The hostas will come through whether I want them to or not, so that's not an issue. I just want to keep the spaces in-between clear until the plants really mature. I'm also hoping to work my way right under the pool deck and bury that in mulch so it looks neat and clean.

Our in front, it's rather amusing. My strawberries 'n' cream grasses are taller right now than two of my purple smoke trees. The third three really shot up last year, so that one is okay. Right now, the grasses are shooting up seed heads, so I hope to get sun long enough to go out and trim the seed heads back. That will encourage more root growth and my goal has always been for the grasses to surround the base of the trees. A couple more years with the two shorter trees and everything will fill exactly the way I'd envisioned it.

There's a lot of clean-up that needs to be done out front, but the plants themselves are doing wonderful with all the (damn!!!!!!) rain. I have my cages in place for the purple cone flowers so they continue to stand tall. Last year, I got the cages late and the plants had already started to droop with the weight of the flowers. I got them early this year.

The yarrow that I'd started last year from seed really took off. I'm SO pleased with that. It filled the bottom of the bed and is soft and feathery and I'm sure, once it blooms, will add some gorgeous red color to all the feathery greenery. I also have some sweet william to add to some of the spaces that still exist. The diamond grasses are lovely and truly catch the early morning light and shine like diamonds. So that bed, though still a work in progress, is coming along and shaping into the natural garden that I'd hoped to have. I just need to bury everything in tons of mulch to keep down the weeds. (Course, it has to stop raining long enough to get the mulch and then put it in place... sigh!)

On The Needles

I just finished a beautiful pair of socks in greens and purples. The timing is perfect because I'm gifting a friend on Wednesday and I'm going to enclose her gift inside the socks. My gift is the idea that she can remember and cherish the support and friendship enclosed in those socks every time she puts them on. Kind of like a prayer shawl for feet. And it represents such a large part of my life that, hopefully, it will remind her of me. After all, I am a knitter and a spinner. Yarn is my secondary life and I'm gifting that to now become part of her life also.

Tonight my spinning group meets over at Country Yarns. I'm hoping to find the right beads so I can finally finish the Mitered Tank (Vogue Spring/Summer 2009) for Dee for her graduation. I did finish knitting the Vacation Skirt (Creative Knitting March 2009). I just need to make the belt and get some pony beads to add decoration to the ends of the belt.

I'm making this short because I just made myself a bowl of chili. Yummy!!!!!

Have a terrific week and I certainly hope that the sun finds us soon or we'll all start turning green from mold... LOL!

Thanksgiving in May?!?!?

2009-05-23T07:45:00.003-04:00

On the needles, In the garden and On the wheel

IOW, I'm hoping to actually cover an agenda today rather than my usual blathering about whatever pops into my mind.

On The Needles

Remember the Mitered Tank for Dee? I found some really cute glass beads to work into the neckline, but I sort of ran into a problem. While waiting to find just the right thing, I started the Vacation Skirt in Blackberry. So I now have a project on the needles I need to finish the tank... Oops... /g/ Course, that one is easy. Just finish the skirt and then I can move back and finish the tank. All of this before her graduation on the 24th. Er... not tomorrow, but the 24th of June. So I have a month to get this done.

Shouldn't be a problem except I normally don't knit much at all once I'm out of work. Summer is my spinning time. So I have to actively remind myself to get the project out of the bag and keep knitting away. The skirt is coming along nicely. I have about 35 rows to go in order to finish it, so it shouldn't be a problem.

And I will publicly admit that I've officially snoozed a project until Fall. That sweater I made using the Fibonucci sequence? Well, I still hadn't put the thing together yet. Then, yesterday, I was packing up the sweaters and bringing out the shorts, so I took the body and sleeves and stuffed them into the bag for storage. I did make a mental note to remind myself that I'm going to have to put it together once I bring it back out in the Fall. (Course, knowing me, I'll forget entirely until it comes out of the bag and then I'll laugh and finally get it done. In the meantime, though, it can nap. After all, it's been napping for about 3 months already. What's another 3 months? I know, the height of laziness on my part... LOL!)

I did keep my EZ sweater out for the summer in case I get an itch to knit. I promise it won't last long once the heat of summer arrives, but I like to keep something out in case the itch shows up. Usually it only takes a dose of Zyrtec and one evening of trying to knit wool in 90 degree heat and the itch runs for the hills. But I'll keep it handy anyway.

In The Garden

Not much yet. Three weeks ago, I'd started my little seeds in their little greenhouses. Well, 90% of them took root and they're flourishing quite well. I have a couple herbs, some marigolds, celosia, sweet william and a whole bunch of morning glories. Frankly, I'd thought my clematis was dead, so I figured I could get morning glories to climb the fence between the yard and the driveway. Course, cleaning up the bed yesterday, I found the clematis' are doing just fine. They're just going to take a few more years to really get used to the fence. But I planted a whole bunch of morning glories anyway. So first plants are in the ground.

And the yarrow that I'd started from seed last year? A whole soft cloud of it in my front bed. It's really going to be lovely once it blooms.

On The Wheel

I do have two hanks of lovely natural BFL. It's still on the bobbins and I have to skein that on my kniddy knoddy. Maybe this afternoon if it really does decide to rain. In the meantime, I started some merino in Wild Orchids that I'd bought from Stone Barn Fibers. I do have to predraft it out because it's become quite matted. No fault of Cathi. I've had it hanging around and stuffed tightly into a ziploc bag for the last year or two. So predrafting is a must with this, but I hope to have that spun up by the end of the week.

Summer is my spinning time. I have lots and lots of fiber lined up. Some natural colors and some dyed. Some is BFL (I still have another 2 lbs to go on that.) I have a pound of alpaca with one bobbin of singles done, just waiting for a second bobbin so I can ply that. I bought a couple lbs of Rambouillet at the CT Sheep & Wool last month in a beautiful natural grey. I'm thinking that might make another beautiful EZ-type sweater with the BFL, but we'll have to see how the colors spin up. I like the thought of doing colorwork in my own handspun from natural colors, but it depends how the colors look together. I have another pound of steel grey merino that had come into Country Yarns and the woman who'd ordered it really didn't like it. She thought it would be a softer grey and it's not. But it's a beautiful fiber and I'm thinking it would make a wonderful pair of first socks for the Hubby.

And there's more also. I just can't remember it all, so I have LOTS to spin this summer. But I have to work my way through all of this before I can try The Sheep Shed for their bargain bags of wool. I've heard so much about them and I figure I can ask my spinning group if they'd like to invest in a bag and we can divide it. If not, then I'll do it anyway and have enough fiber to spin for the next 5 years... LOL!

Those are the basic updates of what's been going on. Oh, wait!

Bacon Update!!

Bacon and Waffle now live together in the big cage. Shortly after my last post, we put them together to see how they were acclimating to each other and, the next thing we knew, they were cuddled together in their shirt. I have to tell you about Bacon's little trick on the wheel. They have a running wheel to keep them in shape, specially designed so their tails don't get caught in any spokes. It's all solid except for little holes along one side so they can get in and out. Well, Bacon runs along the wheel to get it moving and then she grabs the sides of one of the holes and spins all the way around with the wheel, kind of like doing a loop-the-loop. It's really cute. She'll run along, grab and loop, then start over again.

Now... what the heck is with the title to the blog?

Yup, Thanksgiving in May. I love summer because I can invite tons of people over. Why? Because my deck is larger than any room in my house. So all the summer picnics tend to happen here. I love it. This is my entertaining time of the year. The only problem that happens is... well, my family doesn't like macaroni or potato salad. All my guests love my salads, so I always make them, but my family doesn't like them. So all leftovers are inevitably eaten for days on end afterward by me and every bit of them end up expanding my butt.

So I had a thought... You see, I got a turkey on sale. It's been in my freezer for about two months. Time to cook it. And every November, these same poor people get stuffed into my little dining room. So I thought why not do Thanksgiving in May? My bird is defrosted and brining in my bathroom. I'm going to stuff it and cook it tomorrow with mountains of smashed potatoes and rivers of gravy. I'll make a mess of corn and bake a berry pie and see if I can talk Dee into another wonderful coffee cake for dessert. And we'll have Thanksgiving dinner out on the deck where we can won't be cramped for a change.

It will be a small party with about a dozen people, but our deck is big enough to handle that and more. Today will be unwrapping all the furniture and hosing everything down. I have to shop for the potatoes and bake the pie. Then tomorrow will be leisurely with the bird in the oven and potatoes mashing in the mixer.

My flower beds aren't ready for visitors yet, but it's still early in the year. I don't like planting before Memorial Day anyway. I did get started to get the morning glories in so they can really take off, but the rest will come in the future weeks. One bed at a time. One project at a time.

I do love summer and it's almost here.

New Baby in the house!

2009-05-03T08:20:00.008-04:00

The kind of babies that show up in my house are not the kind that show up in most... LOL!

Pocket Pets were up at Hubbard Park last week for the big daffodil festival. It was in the 90's, sunny and a perfect day for working in the yard. So Shelby and I got in the Jeep (darn, still has the hardtop) and actually found a parking place on a sidestreet about 100 yds from the entrance to the park. By the time we actually found the display for Pocket Pets, it was half a mile and I was sweating, but it was worth it.

We showed them all the correspondence from when we lost our dear Pancake last year and they were sympathetic and wonderful. What does all this mean?

Pictures, of course!!!

Her name is Bacon and she's our newest addition. Now, before you think she's quite big, you can check the Pocket Pets website and see other little babies. The towel that she's moving across is a hand towel, not a big one. If I pick her up, she can literally wrap her entire body around my thumb.

I do wish I could have gotten a picture of them together so you could see the difference in size, but they were still cautious of each other. Bacon is a true little sugar bear. She stands right up on her hind feet and will swat at you with her paws, crabbing the whole time. Course, I just talk slow and even and tell her that I know it's all a big show and she's nothing more than a tiny, little scared baby. She hasn't tried to bite at all, which I think is a good sign. Waffle, our big girl? The first time I picked her up, she fought like a tiger, biting every bit of skin she could get between her teeth.

Speaking of Waffle, we have a picture of her also. This is her inside in her little dining room. I have no idea how this picture was achieved and without being fuzzy. (Most of the pictures came out quite fuzzy...) The nice thing is you can see just how big and dark her eyes are and you can also see her "hands". Yup, just like us, she's got 4 fingers and a thumb. She'll grab a bit of glider chow in her hand and gnaw away at it. Then, look down at her back paws. The thumb is really offset because she spends most of her life hanging upside down like a sloth. Only, she's no sloth. she's quick and loves to jump about the cage.

I can't wait until work is done for the summer so I can finally have time to bring her out of the cage and let her explore more of the house. She's very curious and can't wait to come out. Let's face it, she's bored with her cage. But I still get nervous about the cats, so I don't want anything happening at a time we can't supervise.

Last night was a break-through with the girls. I'd noticed yesterday morning that, while I was in cleaning out dinner debris from the night before from Bacon's cage, that she started crabbing. Making quite a fuss and Waffle popped out from her nest and hung onto the cage beside Bacon to make clicking and chirping noises, almost as if to reassure her that we humans are okay. So, after Dee came home from work and we'd finished dinner, she took Bacon from her little traveling cage and put her in with Waffle in the bigger cage.

They spent the next two hours just playing with each other. Bacon is still discovering how to get into the wheel, but she's learning how to run on it. The only funny thing is that, once in a while, Waffle would pop in and show her how it's done. This never went well with Pancake either. You've got one glider running and the other tends to slip and slide around the wheel. Well, once, Bacon was sort of peeking out from one of the holes, hanging onto the sides of the opening, and Waffle takes off. Think of hanging onto a Ferris wheel and suddenly it turns all the way around. She's straddling this hole and whirling around. Needless to say, she chirped in alarm and Waffle stopped to see what was going on and you could swear poor little Bacon's knees were wobbling as she decided to sit out this ride... LOL!

So, new baby in the house!

Other good news: After a bit over 4 months, I'm finally done with the dentist. His work is complete. At least for now. Very strange to look in my mouth and see all kinds of white instead of lots of metal. So 4 crowns and 14 fillings (mostly replacing old cracked fillings), I'm finally done. I don't have to go back for 6 months. Whew! I wondered if this day would ever come... LOL!

Insurance companies. Yup, we've passed the first year anniversary of Shelby's accident and they're still negotiating. I made my position clear. They've made offers and I've rejected both. So the ball is back in their court and I'll be out of work soon. I have all summer to file in small claims court if they don't get moving. I'll have lots of time to finally get this monkey off my back and get Shelby the compensation she deserves. She's given me permission to settle affairs for her so she can concentrate on her studies. And that's working well. She's should make Dean's List again (even with Organic Chemistry Pt Deux) and she was inducted into the Beta Beta Beta Society for the Study of Biological Sciences. IOW, she was recognized for her interest and study in the area of biology. Only 20 students from the university were chosen and she's just ending her second year of study. Pretty good to get this kind of nomination before your senior year.

And Dee finally came into her own. She's worked really hard this year to bring her grades up and she made High Honors on her latest report card! Woohoo! I'm so proud of her and that means we'll have to take her to dinner at a restaurant of her choice.

Speaking of Dee, I have knitting news. I'm almost done with the Mitered Tank from the spring/summer 2009 of Vogue Knitting. It's a Norah Gaughan design and will look fabulous on Dee. It looks pretty skanky right now because it's not finished or blocked or anything. I'm knitting it in KnitPicks' Cotlin. It's knit from the hem up, with mitered corners on the flare below the waist. Then you rib at the waist and then increase for the bust. It's actually coming along very nice and will look great on her. The color is Island Coral and will complement the red highlights in her hair as well as her tan. Next, I'm hoping to knit up the Vacation Skirt pattern from Amy Polcyn in the March issue of Creative Knitting. This will also be in Cotlin, but in a dark purple called Blackberry. Very casual, but I think the drape of the hem of the Mitered Tank above it will create a very chic silhouette on her figure.

Last week was the CT Sheep & Wool Festival. I was going to update the blog then because, of course, I bought stuff, but it's been hectic and I never got the chance to sit down and blog. Golding had a booth and I bought myself a Golding spindle. One of the ring spindles. Yes, one of his least expensive, but I did give it a spin once I got home. Oh my goodness!!! What sheer joy!! I might have to begin doing some spindling just for the awesome joy of feeling that spindle working.

And, yes, I bought more fiber. I got a great deal on some Rambouillet. 2.3 lbs for $34.00. It's a beautiful natural grey so it's mixed light and dark fibers. Not a solid color. I'm going to see if it goes well with some gorgeous dark merino I'd picked up a month ago. Between the lb of merino and 2.3 of Rambouillet, I could have enough for a new top-down raglan from Barbara Walker's book. (Yes, part of my brain is thinking Aran again, but let's not even travel that road... LOL) Or maybe I can blend that with the natural creamy Corriedale I'm currently working on and I could do a colorwork of cream and grey. I'll have to see where that leads.

But I have lots and lots of gorgeous wool to spin this summer and that's the point. I don't want to have to buy. I want to have fiber lined up and ready to go once I'm out of work so I have no excuse for not sitting down at my wheel after dinner each night.

The other reason for a delay in posting is we moved Aunt Lois into a retirement community. One that has a memory unit so the staff can remind her to do things like shower and eat. That happened last Friday, so it's been almost 10 days. I wanted to give her time to adjust to her new surroundings and we're planning on visiting her on Tuesday. I won't go into details other than she wasn't amenable to a move, so we sort of did it all while I took her out for the morning then I used an excuse to get her in the door to show her her new apt. It was heartwrenching to do this, but it was necessary. And she's adapted beautifully. She's getting along with everyone and the staff has assured me that she's the darling of everyone who works there. They adore her now that she's come out of her shell and adapted to the new experience.

So that's taken a lot of time because it'll be up to me to get her old apartment packed up and ready for storage. I still have to sort through all the paperwork that was squirreled away in every corner and drawer of her apartment. That job is going to take weeks, if not months. But she's safe now and the care she's getting is everything she couldn't do for herself anymore.

Final news is that I have 7 days of work left. Five days of classes/finals/move out and then two days of graduations and I'm off for the summer. I've got most of my yard prepared for the summer. I seeded 4 trays of seeds in preparation for Memorial Day weekend. Lots of color and lots of variety. Yup, I can't believe how much I've gotten done, but it's all one step at a time. I have tons of work over at the doctor's office, but I'll have more time for that also once the job at the university is over. Then I can also start on my house, my yard and finalizing Aunt Lois's settling into her new apartment. Lots of work yet to do, but I have lots of plans for this summer. I won't have a lot of money to spend, but that's okay. Most of my plans won't take much.

Thank you and--Woohoo--pictures...

2009-04-18T09:46:00.011-04:00

First and foremost, I wanted to thank Jan for her understanding comment. Yes, the last couple weeks have been both a Godsend and also a trainwreck. After handing off all the phone calls to dear Hubby, he realized just how much our dearest Aunt has been failing in her memory, so he gave me full permission to run with whatever ideas I had. We are in an extremely lucky position because Mark already has durable power of attorney and our dear Aunt has enough income to pick a place that looks more like a hotel than a nursing home. I won't go into a lot of details but it looks like we could possibly move her this coming week.

And, yes, it's been one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life. But things are moving at lightning speed and I don't want to stop now. It's something that needs doing if only to give our dear Aunt a warm and welcoming place where we know she's being taken care of and I know she'll enjoy once she gets used to it. I hate the thought that she's become so isolated because she's living alone in an apartment complex where everyone works. Now she'll be in a place with people who care and will make sure she's eating. (Yes, I swear she forgets to eat. Not that she's doing it deliberately, but she just forgets that she hasn't eaten.) She'll have new people to meet and get to know. She'll have people who don't care that she often repeats the same story in the same conversation. She'll have the security and safety of a place that's truly lovely and welcoming.

So things are in motion and we could possibly be moving her this coming Thursday. My bosses will have a heart attack because this is a critical time at the job where overtime is practically mandatory, but family comes first and always has. I'm sorry about the timing, but dear Aunt is more important than a couple extra hours of overtime.~

So... to pictures. Don't laugh, but my wonderful friend, Sylvia, wanted a picture of me wearing my new red Albertville Dale of Norway. I had just come home from my spinning group last Friday and I was chatting with youngest daughter and her boyfriend and she pulled out her camera. Sorry, but I couldn't resist. If you know me at all, I'm almost never downright silly, so I grabbed the opportunity and ran with it. This is me in my third to last (?) creation. I look a little pregnant (at least, to me I certainly look that way... LOL), but the sweater fits nicely and you can just see the variegation in the red kettle-dyed wool. Both the red and the creamy white are Araucania Nature's Wool. The other two colors are tangelo and chestnut in Knit Pick's Telemark sport weight yarn. The color combination worked beautifully and I certainly can't complain. This might just have to be my entry in the Durham Fair this coming September. That is, unless I come up with something better, but I'm not sure how I can top this one.

Here's the next sweater. I still have to put it together, but I'd needed yarn quickly, so I stopped at Michael's and purchased some Patons. This is just a basic drop shoulder, but the pattern is based off the Fibonucci sequence. The pattern itself is simple. 4 stitches: knit 2 together, yarn over, knit 1. Repeat as needed... /wry g/ But you can see the progression of how the simple stockinette grows between the pattern rows. 1 row. 2 rows (1+1). 3 rows (1 + 2). 5 rows (2 + 3). 8 rows (3 + 5). 13 rows (5 + 8) and so on.

To finish the neck, I'm going to try a basic boatneck. Crochet the stitches around the armholes and then cut them open. Do a 3-needle bind off for the shoulders and then sew in the sleeves. Then, depending on how "finished" the neck looks, I might do a simple single crochet around the neckline. To keep the neck from dipping low across the back, I did add two shortrows between the future shoulder seams. Just so it won't dip low. I don't mind that the front of the neck will go straight across my neck, but I don't want the back dipping. But this is something I won't know if it works until it's all done and put together. So I'll have to bring this one back later with a picture of me wearing it to see if it actually works.

So how we move to the next sweater that I'd begun. Not sure I'll get this one done before summer, but I'll keep it as a work in progress. For my birthday, Mom had bought me EZ's The Opinionated Knitter, which is full of all of her old newsletters. I took charts from her 2nd and 3rd newsletters and I'm mixing them up and trying to see how many I can incorporate into one sweater without repeating myself. As you can see, I'm trying to vary the patterns in terms of width as well as height. I'm even trying to vary them as to swirly, like the sideways s's and geometric with harder edges. So far, I'm really, really pleased with this sweater. All knit in Knit Pick's Wool of the Andes yarn in colors Bare and Jalapeno on a size 7 needle (4.5 mm). I made copies of the pages with the graphs and I'm highlighting as I go. This is not only to mark where I am (in case I have to put it down), but so I remember which ones I've used and which ones are waiting to be used.

I still have to finish the sweater mentioned before that because I might put a boatneck on this sweater also if it works. That hasn't been determined yet. Oh, one note that I'm doing and trying on this sweater. I'm using a total of 220 stitches for the body. The bigger patterns are broken down so they're centered in front and back, with partial patterns that end and begin again at the side seams. But I have a couple patterns that are based off 4 sts. 220 stitches are divisible by 4, but 110 are not. So rather than have a half-pattern at each side edge, I simply carried it all the way around for the full 220. So not all patterns break at the side edge, but others do. That should give an interesting look when finished. I don't see a problem with it so far.

Here's the latest cast on. It's Tank Top #25 from the latest Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2009. They suggest a metallic yarn in fingering weight and then you double the yarn. Uh huh. Metallic isn't exactly in my repetoire and I can't see me wearing metallic more than once a year. So I've opted to use Knit Pick's Comfy Worsted which is a cotton/acrylic blend. The color looks weird to me, but it's sea foam. It's probably my mint green walls that are deadening the color or my monitor is severely off (which I already know, but it's amazing how I can pick colors that go together when they look screwy on my monitor... LOL). Anyway, I'm knitting it on a size 6 needle (4.0 mm). Rather than knitting the front and back separately and then seaming them together, I knit the whole bottom of it in one piece. Can you tell yet that I adore circular knitting? /wry g/

I also shortened the length of the piece because I'm 5'8" in my dreams and, let's face it, those models they use? At least 5'8" if not taller. I'm fairly short waisted and long in the hips. So I knit 6" for the waist shaping at the bottom and then 5" for the bust increases above the waist. Eleven inches might still be a bit long as I hope for this to fall right at the top of my hips. But I'd rather have it be a bit long than way too short. OTOH, their suggestion is for a total of 14" to the beginning of the armhole and I know that's way too long. I'm not only shorter than a model, but I also outweigh your standard stick by at least 30 lbs.

Anyway, I'm now dividing at the side seams. I'll knit the back while leaving the stitches for the front on the cable. Then I'll knit the front and begin to pick up stitches for the neck and armholes. What intrigues me about this pattern is that the straps are created by the armhole facings. You actually cast on stitches and join the front and back by knitting the facing. Then turn it around and knit the neck by picking up those cast on stitches. (Or is it the other way around? Whichever, it doesn't matter. It intrigues me, so I'm doing it.)

This pattern is also a test for me. First is if I can knit to a time frame. I'd like this done by next weekend so I can wear it with my black jacket to the basketball banquet with my daughter. (She manages the girls' team, so let's be the supportive Mom and go with her.) Wouldn't it be a hoot if I can finish this before then? Second is I love the idea that this cotton is machine washable and dryable. It's going to be a nice change from hand washing and blocking all my wool sweaters. Finally, I've made some changes to the original design and I'd like to see if it actually works.

All this because I have more yarn in my bag. I'd like to make the Nora Gaughan tank top from the same Vouge issue for youngest daughter to wear to her high school graduation in June. (That would be design #22) I bought Knit Picks' Cotlin in Island Coral for her. This is a color that will be gorgeous on her now that she's settled on a reddish brown for her hair. I also picked up more Cotlin in Blackberry for a skirt. I'm hoping to also complete the Vacation Skirt pattern from the March issue of Creative Knitting. I think the two would make a lovely combination and Dee is very excited by the idea of wearing a whole outfit that Mom knit for her. Besides, she is one of those teenaged girls who looks like a stick. If she weren't so short, she could definitely be a model. When she stands sideways, she disappears. (Don't worry, I've warned her. I was that way in my teens. I no longer stand sideways for anyone if I can help it... LOL!)

Anyway, this just begs the point of another picture. Yes, have I actually added pictures or what?!? This is my knitting bag. A full-sized bag that I bought over at the university for a mere $24.00. Best investment I ever made. I can carry my current work-in-progress plus I always also carry a ziploc containing my latest pair of socks. Hmm.... didn't get a picture of that, did I? Sorry 'bout that. But I always carry socks in case I'm someplace that the full bag would be awkward. I can just grab my socks and carry those with me. But this bag can carry just about anything. I have my project, magazines for ideas, books, clippers, stitch markers, extra needles and cables, as well as my thermos of coffee for work in the morning and even a small snack if need be. The front pocket has gum and an inhaler if I need it. I can even tuck my iPod and headphones into the inner pocket.

We're talking that I'm ready for any and every knitting emergency out there. Caught in traffic? Not a problem. I not only have current sweater-sized project, but also an emergency sock in case I finish that sweater. Pens, pencils. Paper for notes and a notebook that's woefully behind on updating. I even have a small sandwich ziploc bag of leftover sock skeins in case I need to toss in a lifeline.

And the nice thing is that no one has ever questioned me. I've carried that into the XL Center in Hartford when we went to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra so I could work on a pair of mittens while waiting for the concert to start. (Talk about timing. I cast off the last thumb just as the lights went down.) They simply glance inside the bag, see all my knitting paraphernalia and let me through. Same when I went with beloved daughters last year to Warped Tour down on Long Island. They were combing through everyone's backpacks and bags and saw my knitting, smiled and moved me right along. They didn't see the 4 water bottles at the bottom that I'd stowed for all of us. Never even questioned me, which was a good thing because water was something crazy like $5 a bottle. Yes, there was a water truck way over in a forlorn corner that we could refill our bottles, but I brought them in without question. And even managed to sit for a while and knit on some socks.

Today is a day for raking and trimming. Spring Break was a bust. I wasn't able to get out in the yard at all. So today is the day to rake out the hostas and daylilies as they've begun to sprout. I also have to trim back the grasses so the new shoots can get some daylight and encouragement to peek through. I don't want this year to be like last year. The surgery set me back so far that I wasn't able to get into my yard until late June and, by then, the weeds had taken over. I spent the rest of the summer doing nothing more than damage control.

But not this year. I'm going to get out and get things in order so in another three weeks, I can start full bore on my yard and house. There's three weeks left to the semester and then I'm off for the summer. I won't get a lot of knitting done (other than Dee's top and skirt), but I'll spend the summer spinning as much as possible. Spinning is okay because my hands don't sweat. Knitting, though, is hard because I'm on a sweater kick. The last thing you want in steamy humidity is a sweater in your lap... LOL! Anyway, lots of projects planned for the house. (I'm determined to get my bedroom painted this year as well as that entryway taped, spackled and painted.) Lots of cleaning up in my yard. I just hope I can afford to add some more perennials to my garden out front. It's filling in nicely, but I still have some empty spots that need color.

Have a wonderful and productive week!!! Spring is beginning to sprout and it's time for me to take back control. I wish the same for all of you!

Almost no fooling...

2009-04-05T09:26:00.002-04:00

Oldest daughter called me on April 1st and said that the university newspaper had reported that the school had bought a whole bunch of FEMA trailers and were going to put all the juniors in the trailers up in the Hilltop parking lot. Hmm... how are they going to do that? How will they get electricity? Where will they move the cars?
~
Yes, it was an April Fools' edition. And what am I doing? I'm trying to figure out the logistics... LOL!
~
Somehow I survived the week. Problems with my dearest aunt-in-law are escalating, so that's now moving to a front burner. I'll call Elderly Outreach again starting tomorrow and beg if I have to in order to get some help with that situation. I feel bad for Mark because I've been making him answer the phone... er, most of the time. In the past, I'd intercepted most of the calls and dealt with whatever cropped up. In essence, I was trying to save him from the worst of it. But that wasn't a good idea because now he truly sees what I've been seeing for the past year or so.
~
Just a quick example is that she called last week because she thought she saw sparks and flames when she started her car. (We know now that she hasn't been driving much because her odometer has only logged 400 miles in the last year.) anyway, the battery was dead. So Mark and I went over, he jumpstarted the car and asked if he could take it for a few days to drive it to make sure everything is okay. Yes, everything is fine. I think it's because all of the indicator lights light up when you initially start the car and she doesn't understand and thinks they're sparks and flames jumping out from the dashboard. So Mark drove the car home and this is when we discovered that she's only driven approx 400 miles in a year. That was last Sunday.
~
She called us Friday, worried because her car was gone. She did ask if Mark had taken her car, but she was worried because it was gone. It wasn't in her garage and it wasn't parked in front. And she was out of cigarettes. (Don't even go there because the one thing I do know is that she's never smoked in her bedroom or in bed. For 20 years, she either stands at her kitchen counter or sits at her kitchen table while smoking.) So Mark took her some cigarettes and, yes, he has her car. Then she called yesterday because she's in trouble with the Dept of Motor Vehicles. She'd received a notice that her emissions was expired and they'd taken her car. No, another reason Mark took her car is because he has an appt on Tuesday to take it through emissions for her. They didn't take her car. We did so we could take care of this. Then she called again because she's out of bread. Twice, she called about this one. So he called and asked her if she needed bread, though he'd been to her house the night before. No, that's okay, she could wait because of the terrible storm outside.
~
You have to understand that she was almost hit by lightning as a child, so she's always been terrified. Yes, we'd had some thunder earlier in the evening. I imagine she'd closed all of her blinds so she wouldn't be scared by the lightning and still thought the storm was raging (though, in reality, it was periods of light rain and I only saw one flash of lightning and a few rolls of thunder). So that could wait until today.
~
Well, speaking of our dear Aunt, she just called. She's out of coffee and really cranky because she hasn't had any coffee yet.
~
Poor Mark is in the shower. No, he can't deal with the daily problems. We're going to have to fix this and get some help. So I'll start calling again tomorrow. Six months ago, I was dealing with this by myself and Mark wasn't exactly supportive because he didn't see the extent. Well, it's gotten a LOT worse than it was six months ago, but at least he's going to work with me to get dear Aunt the help she needs.
~
The funny part about this whole thing is that my mother-in-law is actually the perfect person for this type of thing. She really is terrific. When dealing with someone who's not exactly firing with all pistons, my MIL can have the patience of Job. She works with a woman right now who's in the same kind of circumstance that dear Aunt is and my MIL deserves a medal for the way she can gently nudge her patient in the right direction. The problem is that dear Aunt and MIL don't get along. Dear Aunt has the funds to pay MIL to come in a few hours a day and do things like the laundry and shopping and make sure she eats at least one hot meal a day. And MIL would be wonderful at it. But they would be like putting a match and flame too close together.
~
Oh dear. I feel really bad for Mark, but he needed to be driven to the edge before he'll let me see that things are done that need doing.
~
Okay, that all said. I've started my EZ Scandinavian design. I received my yarn from Knit Picks and it's going to work really really well. But I also received the new Vogue Knitting. A couple of their tank top designs are really pretty. I'm actually feeling a new surge of creativity in a different direction. I'm thinking of KP's Cotlin in a few tanks for spring and summer. Two of the designs in their metallic section are wonderful. (I'm thinking the short sleeve with the cowl that's knitted top down. Wow! What a truly gorgeous design.) But no way am I thinking in terms of metallic. I'm thinking cotton or linen or silk or some combination of the three. Simple classic designs with small details that truly set them apart.
~
So I imagine my next purchase will be some Cotlin for one of them. Yes, I even like the new Nora Gaughan design. Done in Cotlin in that new pale salmon color? Wouldn't that be really pretty on a hot summer day once I get working on my summer tan? I'm thinking the 4th of July fireworks over in Hamden. Oh yeah, this would be the perfect tank to wear to an event like that.
~
And I wonder if I have enough time for the capped-sleeved cowl for the basketball banquet next month? I'm not sure I could finish it in time, but that would certainly be lovely in a two-tone natural cotton or cotlin over a plain pair of black pants.
~
Okay, off to shower and make some phone calls. Be ready once Dee wakes up so I can get some pics of all my lovely sweaters out in the bright sunshine. It's either that or I'm going to be tempted to run outside and start my spring clean-up of the yard. I have lots of raking and plants that need their spring cutbacks. Hmm.... choices, choices. Don't you just love a world with choices?
~
Have a wonderful week and I'll be back with pics. (If I'm really talented, I'll get the pics, upload and just edit this post to add them in, but it remains to be seen if I'm actually that knowledgable... LOL!)

Moving on....

2009-03-24T19:21:00.003-04:00

Yes, it's done. I actually cast off the final stitches on the newest Dale of Norway Albertville colorway around the end of February, but then I had do all the finishing work... Sewing the edges before cutting, then picking up for the neck and knitting the neckband, tacking that baby down, then sewing in the sleeves. You know, all that detail work that I SOOOOO try to avoid doing... LOL!

I really do have to take both sweaters outside (the white and the red) so you can get a true sense of the colors, but it's after dark now and I simply couldn't wait any longer. I'd hoped to get this update done this past weekend, but I was busy cleaning instead. Now, yes, normally that's another subject I avoid like the Black Plague, but when a great friend comes over and offers to help, you pick up the cleaning clothes and go to town. What she and I accomplished through teamwork in three hours would have taken me a week.

Anyway, so here's another view. I did get it all put together and then I spent Sunday washing all my sweaters and I tried hanging them on the fence to dry. Needless to say, I didn't get them out there soon enough. They were still damp, so I grabbed the old stackable sweater dryers and laid them out in the basement. Give them a day or two (and keep the durned door closed extra tight so the cats don't think I've spent all that time knitting them a new bed) and...

Whallah!!!

But, of course, that's not the end of it. There's always another picture that can be posted..........

Yes, I do have an upclose and personal of the neck. I do think this one turned out even better than the white one. On the white, I followed the DoN directions and cast off for the neck stitches and then went back later and picked them up for the neckband. But there were some really odd jogs in how they cast off, so there's one place right on the front of the neckband that I was NOT happy about. No, no one else has noticed or they haven't commented, but I'm not happy and I knit for myself, right?

So I did this one different. Similiar to how Philosopher's Wool do their sweaters, I knit the body right on up to the shoulders, casting off nothing for the neck, but I did place markers along the lines where they wanted me to do the casting off. Then, once the body was all knitted and nice right up to the last row, I sewed a seam around those markers for the neckline, picked up stitches outside that machine-sewed seam and knit the neckband, then cut away all excess from inside the seams. I tacked down the neckband stitches without casting off (stitching down "live" stitches) and I'm much happier with how this turned out.

I didn't run out and buy yarn to start Barcelona. Because it was the end of the month and money wasn't exactly flowing (hmmm..... mortgage or yarn? Choices, choices... LOL!), I ran over to Michaels and found Patons 100% wool on sale for $4.00 a 100 gram skein. Ten skeins in the basket and I had an idea that was floating around. Very simple. Very plain. I think I wrote about this in my last post where I was going to try an Aran design and even got about 20 rows into the design, but then frogged the whole thing. I hated it. So I'm doing a very simple pattern based on 3 stitches. k2tog, yo, k1. That's it. That's all there is. But the pattern is based around the Fibbonucci sequence where the plain rows in-between grow in number.

I actually kind of like this one. It's a very quick knit in worsted weight yarn and I'm trying some other new stuff. I think I'm going to try a boatneck as opposed to the typical ribbed and rounded neck. I just finished the body today and cast off the neckline stitches. I'm going to wait to do a 3-needle bindoff on the shoulders until after I've sewn the seams for cutting the armholes. Then I'll do a 3-needle bindoff and see if the neckline works. I did add a few shortrows along the back of the sweater because I hate to see a boatneck that rides low along the shoulders in the back. I don't want it really high in front, but I don't want it riding low in back either. So I'm hoping that adding shortrows near the end and just in the middle where I cast off for the neck should help shape along that neck curve.

Also, at that point, I'll be able to see if I want to add something besides a simple cast off edge. If it looks too unfinished, I might just add a single crochet along the neck for stability, but I won't know until I get to that point.

For my birthday, Mom bought me a copy of Meg Swanson's "A Gathering of Lace" and EZ's "The Opinionated Knitter". It's this second book that I'm going to use for my next sweater. I ordered a whole bunch of yarn today from KnitPicks. Wool of the Andes, worsted weight. 7 skeins of Bare and 14 skeins of Jalapeno. I'm going to take her ideas from her second newsletter and do a colorwork, but somewhat simple design. I figure use the Bare for the background and just play with a whole variety of stitch patterns from EZ's 2nd and 3rd newsletters. Two or three rows of plain stockinette in Bare between each pattern and that's it. Try to vary the size of the designs from tall to short, wide to narrow, small to large. See how many I can incorporate into one garment should be a challenge in itself. The ribbing will be done in Bare, but I'm going to do a two-color cast-on so the actual edge will be in the Jalapeno, which will tie the ribbing into the rest of the sweater.

I have no clue what I'll do for the neck yet. I'll figure that out when I get there... LOL!

Let's see.... in other areas of my life... I'm still talking with insurance companies. Lots of rhetoric which I think will mean we'll get screwed in the end. (Gee, there's a surprise! /g/) As I've already said, I've begun the spring housecleaning and getting things in order. I still have some other issues on my plate that I haven't been able to clear yet (a very dear aunt-in-law who's suffering dementia and the dental work continues, though that should be done in another two appointments... yeah!!!!) and, of course, the two jobs. But I just keep knitting and I keep working my way through things as they come up. Some days I feel like I'm making lists to remember which list of "to do things" are more important, but at least the lists are beginning to get smaller as I'm actually able to cross stuff off.

I still have my anti-anxiety medication, but I'm now finding that I have good days and bad days. On the good days, I only need to take the meds a few times. On the bad days, I need it like clockwork. But the good days are happening more often and that's what's important. The other thing I did was cut my dosage in half again. The original dosage was 1 mg. That made me nervous, so I cut that in half right from the get-go and only took 0.5 mg. Now I can cut those pills in half and do well with 0.25 mg at a time. The prescription was designed for a 30-day supply. I'm already at 50 days and doing well. Getting low, but I still have at least another 5 days or so before I have to worry about running out.

Course, the whole purpose of this is to simply deal with all those things that have been on my plate. Like any normal human being, I'd much rather run off into the sunset and forget responsibility for things like insurance companies and elderly services. Unfortunately, I'm not made that way. I wish I could be like some people and simply ignore the things I don't want to deal with, hoping they'll disappear if I just don't look. But I wasn't raised that way and it's simply not in my nature. Hence the panic attacks. So, the only way to make the panic disappear is to deal with the nasties. One day at a time. One step at a time. I time it so phone calls are made after I've taken my meds and can deal with whatever crops up without needing to step outside and scream like a raving lunatic.... /wry g/
~

But, rather than scare the bejesus out of the poor students who have to catch the bus near my booth, I knit like a maniac instead. I'm on the last sleeve of my third sweater since the beginning of the year and two of those were DoN patterns. It's almost funny but Mom and I were sniping at each other at work the other night. She admitted that she's jealous sometimes because I get 8 hours a day for 32 weeks every year to do nothing but knit. Me? I'm jealous of the fact that she only has one job and her hours are her own. She can be as flexible as she wants while I'm stuck in a booth, trapped in my little glass and aluminum cage. I never imagined that someone would be jealous of the fact that I sit and knit all day. But I'm sure she's not alone. OTOH, just remember that unless you've been stuck in that cage for three years, it's not quite all it's cracked up to be. Yes, 3 sweaters in 3 months. I'll definitely have sweaters to show for it. And I certainly think I'll have no problem finishing another one (or two) before I'm off for the summer. But it's another thing when you have tons of other things you've got waiting for you once you step outside again.

As Atticus Finch said in "To Kill A Mockingbird" (yes, read my profile, it's one of my all-time fave movies).... You never really know a man until you've stepped into his shoes and walked around a while. I never, in my wildest imaginings, figured someone could be jealous of my life. If that ain't a pisser, I don't know what is...

LOL!

Keep your fingers crossed for sunny days this weekend. Dee has promised to help me get full sun pics of my sweaters. And, if I keep my little fingers flying, I just might have the latest off the needles by then also. I can pretty much guarantee it won't be washed and blocked, but it just might be done.

Oh, and before I forget, please, please, if you're looking for some wonderful soothing music for your ears... Please download Marc Enfroy's Unbounded from iTunes. David Reidy had played a tune or two of his on his Sticks & String podcast and I downloaded the whole thing. Wow!!!! His piece called On To Forever is simply one of the prettiest instrumentals I've ever heard in my life. Every track is like listening to nirvana, but that one is simply heavenly. Definitely support his music. I'm hoping for a new album soon.

Seriously, I'm saying tata. I'll try to be back this weekend.

Red Albertville Almost Completed

2009-03-08T10:39:00.002-04:00

Let's start with the close-up of the big pattern. I think it really came out well. I knew in my heart that the tangelo would work with the red, but I'm not that thrilled with the "brown". Knitpicks doesn't offer as much color variety in their Telemark yarn as they do in their Palette line, so I didn't have much choice in the brown. This one is called "chestnut", but the orange and red make it look a bit more grey than I'd have liked. I'd wanted a rich, deep, chocolately brown. This one is more of an ash brown. But, what the heck.... It worked overall.

The important point was not to destroy the beautiful variation in the kettle-dye of the red and that worked beautifully. Now, here's the photo of the body with the sleeves kind of set in place, though I haven't finished the project yet. Mom wants to watch me actually steek this thing, so it's a matter of us getting together for me to be able to finish it.

Also, note that the body sort of bows at the solid middle. This is where there were no colors being carried in the background, but that should smooth out once I get the thing finished and blocked. Another note, which is really hard to see is there are markers along the neckline.

Unlike the last sweater where I followed the directions from Dale and cast off stitches for the neckline in both the front and back, I just knit this sucker all the way to the top. I put in stitch markers where I want the neck to be, but I'm going to steek this also. I knit the body all the way to the top. (Follow me here with the line of thinking... /g/) I began and ended rows over at one of the side seams, so I purled the last row across the front half of the first shoulder, I cast off the stitches for the neck (making sure that I had the same number of stitches for each shoulder and both the front and back neck), then I purled across the entire second shoulder, cast off the stitches for the back neck and then purled across the back half of the first shoulder side. Follow that one? Okay, then I simply did a 3-needle bind-off across the first shoulder, broke the yarn and then did a 3-needle bind-off on the second shoulder.

Sewing the steek seams will be a little trying right up at those closed shoulder seams, but it's doable. But, before I put the sewing machine away, I'll baste a quick contrasting color along where I want to place the neckband. Then I'll sew my two seams long that line, pick up my stitches for the neckband, knit those, cast off and then cut out all the excess material inside the machine sewed seams. Sew down the neck facing over that cutaway seam so it's nice and tidy and then I'll cut open the steeks for the sleeves, sew them in, sew down the facings and I'll be ready to wash and block.

Easy as pie. Very simple to do. Now, the reason that I purl the last row up at the shoulders is because it adds to the 3-needle bind-off "design" element. You get the purl bumps on the last row on each side of the seam and then the bumps from the seam itself. I prefer this rather than leaving just the seam. Then it sort of stands out as a singular feature rather than blending over a couple rows. I like the 3-needle bind-off because it adds stability for the one seam that will really carry the weight of the sweater. Think of it. A drop-shoulder sweater really hangs from the shoulder seams. Yes, I could graft and Kitchener the seam for a seamless look, but you've got all the weight on that one area. So the 3-needle bind-off adds a bit of strength to take the wear and tear of several years of the sweater weight hanging on those two seams.

And I have to admit that this one worked up REALLY quickly. I cast on for the ribbing on Feb 4th and cast off the last sleeve on Feb 27th. First is because I'd just worked this pattern, so I was a lot more familiar with the graphs and how the whole thing came together. Second is testament to just how much time I have at my job to knit. I probably still have well over 100 hours invested, but that's how little I have to do at my actual job. Everyone on campus calls my post "the country club", but I tell them to come try and deal with the boredom. If I weren't a knitter, I swear I would have quit three years ago when they first moved me there. Either that or I'd do all my sleeping while at work and spend a lot more time at home cleaning... LOL!

Other news is that Mama Bear is ready to come out of hibernation. I accomplished two very important tasks this week. I filed our tax return. A job I always dread because every year we seem to get back less and less. In fact, this year, when I saw that our return was less than half of what we'd gotten last year, I made a trip over to H&R Block to see if they could find out why. Maybe I forgot something? Well, at the end of the tax session, they had even less than I did for a return. So I thanked them profusely for their time and filed my own return rather than lose yet another $1000. The lady figures I must have added something that shouldn't be there, but I think it's more that I probably forgot to give her some number that I'd added to my own return. Either way, I could pay them $187 to file a return for a $389 rebate or I could file my own return for $23 and get a $1289 rebate. Hmm.... choices, choices... NOT! /g/

The other thing I accomplished was to get the final letter off to insurance companies. Geez... will this accident stuff never end? I responded with what I feel is a fair offer to both. I received a phone call the other day regarding the first letter I sent. I tried to call back, but it looks like we're going to play phone tag. I'll try again tomorrow and see what happens.

I think I've said before that I did try to hire an attorney to handle this part for us, but would you believe that I couldn't get an attorney to return my phone call? So I finally just up and handled it myself. I'm not a lawyer. I have no legal expertise at all. But I do have a working brain with brain cells that actually function. I'm willing to talk. I might even be willing to negotiate. But only to a degree. My daughter is still having visual problems and Mama Bear is going to protect the interest of her oldest young'un.

Okay, that's said. I have a new sweater on the needles. I'm sort of making this up as I go. I found some 100% Patons wool on sale at Michaels. (We need to save wherever possible because Hubby is being furloughed at work and we're currently losing approximately $600 a month in income. Yes, I should be forgetting about buying yarn, but knitting is my sanity so it's most definitely not considered a luxury or entertainment item in our budget. It's as necessary as oil for heat... LOL!) Anyway, I swatched for gauge and I'm doing a very basic pullover using the Fibbonucci (sp?) sequence. I knit 3" of ribbing, then knit one row stockinette, then inserted a basic pattern of *k2tog, yo, k1*. Then I knit 2 rows of st st, pattern row. 3 (1 + 2) rows of st st, pattern row. 5 (2 + 3) rows of st st, pattern row. 8 (3 + 5) rows of st st, pattern row. See how the sequence adds? You keep increasing the number by adding together the last two numbers so the pattern rows will grow further and further apart.

I knit one sleeve first because I wanted to get an idea of how wide it was. Yes, another drop-shouldered sweater where I'll steek both the neck and sleeves like I've done with the DoN patterns. But, and here's where it gets tricky, I've kept the pattern rows all the way around the sweater. But I don't want to sew in a sleeve onto a section with a pattern "hole". So, once I reach the point where the sleeves will join, I'm going to keep 3-4 stitches on each side of the side seam in plain st st. IOW, suspend the pattern for those stitches where I'll later cut open for the steeks. This way, I have a nice smooth line at the sleeve openings when I later sew in the sleeves. I won't know about the neck opening until I get that far, but I'd also prefer not to have to pick up neck stitches through this patterned row, but I'll see when I get that far.

I sure hope all of this is making sense or I might as well be talking to myself. Course, I do that a lot anyway, so no one should be surprised.

This week I'm off. Spring Break for the kids at college. I'm going away for a few days to a gorgeous inn in Northwest CT. Mom is treating me for my birthday and I'm going to bring my wheel. I have 3 lbs of BFL to make into yarn for another sweater, so I have tons of spinning to do. Think of it. A canopied bed. A fireplace in the sitting area where I can sit and spin by the hour. A DVD player so we can bring lots of old movies to sit and enjoy. Two days of no chores, no expectations, no schedule. Just relaxation, old movies and my wheel. I haven't done this in... well, like forever. I think the last time I took time just to sit and relax was our first trip to Indiana in 1996. It was Sunday morning and I looked at the DH and said, "I'll be back". I took the car, drove to a local McDonald's and had breakfast alone. I sat there for almost an hour and a half and just worked on my laptop. (I wrote a quick story that later netted me $800. A very nice boon... LOL!)

Today is laundry, making a list of what I need to pack and, hopefully, get the alpaca off my bobbin so I can take the BFL with me when I leave on Tuesday. I'm not sure I'll actually get it off the bobbin, because I need a second bobbin spun up to ply it with. But at least get this one spun up so I can leave with a fresh new bobbin to spin with.

Have a wonderful week!! Drop me a note either here or over at bonneewolf@yahoo.com I still wonder if people actually read this. Probably not many because I'm SO bad at adding pictures to explain what I'm talking about in my knitting. Maybe I'll add that to my list of "to do" this year... Be better at pictures. It's a goal and goals are good things to keep us aspiring to be better people.

Almost Done!

2009-02-08T09:32:00.005-05:00

Yup, I'm almost done with my Albertville Olympic sweater. 98% of the knitting is done. The body and the sleeves. I spent yesterday with the pieces and did my machine sewing along my side seams so I could cut them open and insert my sleeves. Both sleeves have been sewn in and one of the facings was tacked down. Today's project is to tack down the facing on the other sleeve and then pick up the stitches for the neckband. Once that's knit and sewn down, then I can wash and block the sweater and it'll be ready for wearing.~

I'm really pleased with how well this sweater turned out. I always knew the colors would work. I just never expected it to work so well.... And I really apologize because you can't tell from this picture just how well they do work. (Refer to pics from last post.) Once the whole process is done and the sweater has been washed and blocked, I'll take it outside on a sunny day and do my hang-it-on-the-fence thing so you can really see how the colors blend.~

Maybe I'll even model it so we can find out how well it fits. I think it will all be fine, but you never know until all the work is done and you actually try to fit lumpy body into gorgeous sweater.~

Anyway, the reason I'm posting so close to the end is because I wanted everyone to see how much I like this sweater. Enough that I've already begun my next. It's easy enough to carry the knitting to work, but that's not a place where I can do the finishing things like steeking and sewing. For economical reasons that I'll get into a bit later, I decided to make this pattern again.~

As you can see, the base pattern is the same. But I'm changing the emphasis of the colors and I'm going to make a few other adjustments. Last spring while perusing my favorite local yarn store, I'd found some Araucania Nature Wool on a "discontinued" table. 6 skeins of this gorgeous kettle-dyed red (see the variation in the color?) and 2 skeins of a beautiful creamy white that would go with everything and anything. So I bought it all. 8 skeins for half price. Can't beat that. But what to do? I really didn't have enough to make a whole sweater... Well, I'm sure I could if I don't mind having a loose knit. But I like a fairly firm fabric. I live in Connecticut. We don't do mild winters where loose knitting is an option.~

So I held on, knowing that something would come along. And I fell in love with the Albertville Olympic pattern from above. So I thought, what if the red became the base color? You'd see that variation from the kettle-dyed process and now I'd just have to add accents. Well, the creamy white will be the main contrasting color (obviously). The red hints towards a brick red, not a bluish red. So I chose tangelo and chestnut from KnitPicks' Telemark, which is the yarn I used to knit the first Albertville sweater. It's very close in weight. A slight difference, but workable. So the color change will go from red being the main, to the orange to the brown in the center of the design, back to orange and back to red.~

The other thing I'm going to do to highlight this beautiful variation is eliminate the X's and O's from the center of the body and sleeves. What Dale calls their "main pattern" for the center section. This sweater will have that big pattern at the bottom, again at the top and then the border at the top of the shoulders and sleeves. No pattern connecting top to bottom. Just 5" or 6" of straight stockinette to showcase the beauty of the red variation. Again, it's something in my head. I'm pretty sure it will work. But you never know until you've got the whole thing done.~

If you look back at the first sweater, you'll see that the border at the top of the body and sleeves used red as a base. The pattern wanted me to repeat the light blue as a base for that border pattern, but there were two reasons I opted out. First is that the light blue was a heathered yarn. And the weight really varied from the rest of the Telemark yarns I'd bought. If you look closely at the first pattern at the bottom of the sweater, you can see that it pulls in slightly. Like an idiot, I wasn't paying attention as much as I should. I'm hoping I can block that out, at least enough so it's not as noticeable. So I didn't want the thickness to be a factor while knitting around the shoulders. Second is I didn't want to overwhelm the sweater with so much darn blue. I've got dark blue as the main contrast and then light blue in the center of the patterns. Let's not go for overkill. So I opted instead to use red in the border.~

I didn't know if it would work until I was done. And I think it worked perfectly. Just what I wanted and imagined.~

The reason I mention this is because I'm not sure I won't change out the borders on this new sweater also. If I follow the pattern, they should be chestnut background with cream making the X and O pattern. I might opt to use the orange. It depends. I certainly don't want orange to overwhelm because it's not a color I wear often. I want the sweater to be thought of as mainly red. The touches of orange bring out the brick undertone of the red and then the chestnut brown grounds the whole scheme into the earth tones. So this is all good. I want to keep that. But I'll see how I decide to do the border once I get there. I'll look at the overall design and choose the two colors that will bring the whole sweater together. I think the red did that in the rainbow-hued first sweater. We'll see what happens with the second one.~

Okay, economics. I'll be using a lot of stash this year. Not that I've ever had much. I have a lot of loose skeins here and there. Not a lot of any one particular color. But the point is that Mark is being furloughed for a week this month. Yes, he can collect unemployment for that week, but $300 doesn't even cover half of what he makes per week. After 30 years with a company, this news really bites. So I've signed up for overtime at my job to try and cover what we'll lose in his paycheck.~

The bad news is that this might not be the end of Mark's company cutting back. Some of the other divisions have cut salaries as much as 25%. That's something we definitely cannot afford. Course, it's not like we'll have a choice in the matter, but he's already had another job offer if this comes down the pike. He can make the same money doing something he really enjoys if the company comes along and tells him they're cutting his salary. So I've already told him that, if this comes to pass, he should "retire" from his job. Take his guaranteed pension, tell them to take their paycut and jam it, and go to work for this other guy. I'll pick up the rest of the benefits. I already cover our medical, so it's just adding dental and eye benefits. I can do that. I'll also look at what they offer for life insurance.~

But, before that happens, I have to see if we can refinance our mortgage while the salaries are good. Interest rates are at an all-time low and, regardless of the decline in house costs, we still have equity in our home. Even if we lost 20% of the value of our home (possibly upwards of 25%), we still have about $70K equity in the house. So I could refinance and get some bills paid down in preparation of what might happen in the future.~

In the meantime, I ordered Don Aslett's book like I said I was going to. That gives me a plan of action for this year. I still have fiber to spin and a few more sweaters to knit. Oh... remember I mentioned economics as the reason for using the Araucania? I'd already bought that yarn, so I can't add the $40 cost of that yarn. It was already in my stash. How much did I spend on new yarn to be able to knit my new red sweater? All of $16. Well.... okay, so I spoiled myself. Let's say $27 because I had it sent 3-day priority. And it's a good thing I did. I'd finished my last sleeve on the white and I'd cast on for the ribbing on the red. I was literally at the point of adding the first new color (orange) and wondering how I was going to make it through work without knitting to keep me occupied when the box arrived. Whew!!!! Talk about the nick of time for sanity.~

I'll have to plan my next sweater much better so I don't have to pay the extra for shipping. I still think I'm going to knit the Barcelona sweater (unless Dale releases their new olympic design for 2010... I've seen the pics and it's gorgeous!). I know this sounds like a terrible indulgence on my part, but there's more to the economics than initially believed. First is that I'd culled my sweater drawer and I have very few sweaters to wear. Second is that I prefer to invest in good sweaters. No cheap bargain basement that'll last a year and then they start to fall apart. So I'm going to pay a good $40-$60 for a sweater anyway. So why not purchase the yarn for the same price and knit my own? They'll certainly last many more years because they're good wool sweaters and, Lord knows, I'll wear them because I wouldn't knit something I don't love already. Lastly is that it keeps me sane at my job. People don't believe that I really and truly knit probably 35-38 hours per week at my job. I have very few interruptions and there's no way I could sit all day and do nothing. Knitting keeps me sane. It gives me something to look forward to when I arrive at the job in the morning. Without it, I'd dread the lost hours, thinking of everything I could be doing if I were anywhere else.~

I just regret that I can't frequent my local yarn stores for my yarn. I can't afford it. I wish I could. But when I can get my yarn for about $2.50 a skein at KnitPicks as opposed to $8-$10 per skein at an LYS, I have to save where I can.~

If anyone has other suggestions on how to be economical in these times without losing our knitting, I'd certainly love to hear about it.

WIP and lots of pics!

2009-01-17T18:50:00.007-05:00

Let's start with pics. Two of them. This first pic is how far I've gotten since 1/6 when my yarn arrived. The pattern is from Dale of Norway and it's OL-92 Albertville. I imagine that's DoN shorthand for the Olympic design they created for the Winter Olympics in Albertville.

I bought this pattern at a closeout sale about 15 years ago when a local store was moving. (It was located in an arts center that decided one day to close up shop and simply told everyone they had to go. Nice, huh?) Anyway, everything on sale and I saw this pattern and instantly drooled.

It's kind of hard to see the progression of colors, but the main is white and the main contrast is a dark blue without being navy. I thought navy would look too much like black and I didn't want the contrast to be too stark. Anyway, within this pattern, the progression begins with yellow, to red to purple and finally the center band is a light heathered blue. The funny part is that I have another pic that's high contrast because of the flash on the camera, but then the white and dark blue look really weird.

See what I mean? Wouldn't even know it's the same sweater unless I told you... LOL!

This one, though, does show the progression of colors nicely. But the other pics are more accurate to the actual look.

Anyway, so that's new. Lord knows, it's only one third done.I'm actually ready to begin the matching pattern band to this that will cross the chest before I start the neck decreases, etc.

Then I have both sleeves to knit. Those should go quickly, which is why I began with the body of the sweater. I know it's fun to see the pattern come together much quicker on the sleeves, but I figure those should fly on the needles and the longest work is the body, so do that first.

Okay, on another front, I'm also trying to catalogue some of the spinning. I have a pic of what I've been doing with that. Way back in Oct or so, I'd bought a whole bunch of fiber from Crown Mountain Farms. Some of it became Christmas presents. But I had this one left over:

This one is called Born To Be Wild. Kind of everything and anything. No real rhyme or reason. Just a whole bunch of colors and very pretty. So I've been spinning up the singles and this is one of the bobbins. I took this pic right before I began to ply my first bobbin of it. I finished the bobbin this morning and skeined it on my niddy noddy just before I came into the office for this upload.

IOW, more pics to come for my next update.

I went back to work this week, so I have tons of time to knit. Well... once the kiddies get settled back into their apartments and classes begin, I should have tons of time to knit. The nice thing is that I got my living room back at home. While oldest daughter was home on the semester break, she kind of took over my living room and used that more as her bedroom, so I didn't have a lot of time to spin. I'm hoping to knit at work and spin after dinner at home.

Also, youngest daughter got her acceptance letter from Quinnipiac. She's WAY excited over that. So I'm already trying to think ahead towards next fall when both girls are living on campus and I have to add back all those chores I've been able to palm off on the girls... LOL! I'll have all summer to work out some kind of schedule, but I think if I come home, cook dinner and take maybe a half hour to dust one night, vacuum another, etc, then nothing should become overwhelmingly full of yuck and I can still have time to knit and spin. Course, I have MONTHS to work out the small details.

I might have to buy another copy of Don Aslett's Is There Life After Housework? I think that's the book I'd used years ago when the girls were small. He literally gives you a plan on how to stay ahead of your house so you never even need stuff like spring and fall housecleaning. I'd created charts so I had about 5 or 6 things every day that took about 5-10 mins and my house was always "company ready". It was things like pick up and put away, wash dishes, go through the mail so it doesn't stack and do the 2-min swish 'n' swipe on the sink and toilet. Those were daily items. Then there were weekly things like Tues and Fri were vacuuming days. Mon and Thur were laundry. Wed was wash the floor day. A quick mop every week and it never gets grimy, you know? Then there were monthly chores. Say the 3rd of every month, you'd sweep the front and back steps. Some chores took longer, maybe 15-30 mins and others were 2 mins tops. There were also some quarterly things like hose down the sidewalk or hose down your screens.

Seriously, it was great. And because the monthly were never more than 15-20 chores, you had the end of the month without anything extra. I did this routine for several years and my house always looked great.

Then I went to work... Yikes! And the girls became teens... Bigger Yikes!!!! But now they'll be leaving us during the school year, so it's time to get back to my schedule.

Anyway... this is all my meandering and blathering.

See Maggie? Pics and the sweater is coming along beautifully. I'm really pleased with this. My next one will be another Dale of Norway... er, maybe. There is someone on Ravelry who's made it. It's called Barcelona and there's a picture of it. I'm either going to knit that, also in KnitPicks Telemark yarn. Or I'd like to knit the Windows pattern from the Philosopher's Wool book, Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified. I bought the book when I bought their kit last year. I'd love to buy more of their yarn, but I can knit the sweater in Knitpick's Wool of the Andes for about half the price. And with so many bills hanging over our heads this year (gee... can everyone sympathize with that one? /g/), I need to save where I can. They don't give exact totals in terms of how many yardages of yarn you'll need, but I think I can make a good guesstimate on it since I've already knit two of their sweaters.

Besides, I always buy extra. I have at least one extra skein of each color for my DoN. If I have enough left over, think a pair of mittens to match. Or a scarf. Or a hat. Or maybe all of the above... LOL! It's not like yarn will ever go to waste in my house... /wry g/
~

Yes, I'm adding those weird characters in between my paragraphs again. The pics will break up the text, but without a pic to do so, the paragraphs just run on and on. One big long sentence. So without that little squiggly, it's like the programming doesn't recognize that I'd really like a blank line between my paragraphs.

Let's see... any other news? The Xanax is a wonderful thing. There were a couple days that I needed to take half a pill in the morning and then again at night, but mostly I find one a day keeps the panic at bay. The funny part is that I also recognized that this has been happening since last summer. I think a culmination of lots and lots of things, from losing my Dad two years ago and never really getting over it right up to the accident and the hysterectomy being two short weeks apart. Course, it didn't help that I got the quarterly statement for my 401k and I lost almost $2,000, let alone everything I'd added to it this past quarter. If that won't scare the heck out of you... /wry g/ So, like I said, 2008 was a real pisser.

2009 might not be any better, but I'm doing everything I can to make it so. Every day when I wake up, I make up my mind that it's up to me to choose my attitude. I can smile and look forward to what today will bring or I can frown and wait for doom and gloom to drop all over me. This year, my goal is to choose a bright and happy face every morning. Smile at both the people I know and those I don't because they might surprise me and smile back.

The news is always so depressing (though, c'mon, folks, the flight crew on that plane that landed in the Hudson River was great!!!!), so my goal is to fight that kind of negative attitude. People who bring cheer to others receive cheer in return. How about we all make a vow to be a little more cheery? Smile more. Laugh more. If I can bring happiness to those around me, I betcha what little I have left in my 401k that some of that happiness will rub back on me.

Let's get organized. Let's choose to be happy instead of sad and depressed. Let's bring some of that happiness to those who really need it because, no matter how bad things might look from where I'm standing, I still realize that there are others who are far worse off than me. Let me try to bring some happiness to them. And, most of all, let's get knitting and spinning!

I'm certainly happy to see 2008 leave. But I definitely look forward to what 2009 will bring!

New Year, New Dreams, New Goals!

2009-01-01T07:45:00.002-05:00

Thank you, LDVenus, for both the warning and the words of encouragement. And I really appreciate the warning. My second job is working for a private practice psychiatrist. I do all of her computer work--insurance and patient billings, letters, appeals, all that sort of stuff. She's away on vacation right now and I plan to ask her when she comes back if the Xanax is a bad thing. Part of her practice deals with addiction to drugs, so this is not foreign to her at all. Trust me, I would never go that route.

The good news for me is that I visited a friend. She's probably my best friend in the world and we discussed my situation. She's also like the two of us in that she also had a hysterectomy, but she got through the next six months without any hormone help. She, like you, assured me that my anxiety is simply "life in general" right now.

All my life I've been a strong, independent woman. Everyone around me looks to me for strength and assurance when they feel overwhelmed. I'm a doer. I make things happen. I don't wait for solutions to crop up. I make them happen. Well, for the first time, I'm a bit overwhelmed myself. I'm not sure what to do next. Never been a problem before. I could always devise a solution and then, like I said, make it happen. Right now, I'm not sure which direction to take.

As she said to me, that's not a failing on my part. It's simply that I'm vulnerable right now. And that's okay. It's okay to admit it. And it's okay to feel it also.

No, the medication can never be used as a replacement or a crutch. I don't "do" crutches. It's not in my nature. But, for a short time period, if it helps me deal with my vulnerability, then that's okay also. Yes, I'll talk to the doctor. As a patient or an employee, it doesn't matter, but I'll talk with her next week and we'll work out the best course for me.

Actually, I admitted to her already that it was her notes on a patient that made me cut the medication in half. She has a number of patients that she sees for (I think the technical DSM reference) is "generalized anxiety", so she often prescribes Xanax. She'll prescribe the dosage that I cut mine down to rather than a full mg. And I was worried that taking what the dentist had prescribed would be too much and put me to sleep. I didn't want that. I just wanted enough to "take the edge off", as stated in my last post. It worked. Course, the patients at the office take this dosage sometimes 3 or 4 times a day. (I admit that I did forget how often their dosing regimen was, but I do know it was 3 or 4.) I just wanted once a day. So I was comfortable with that.

Thank you again for your kind words. Trust me, addiction is not an option. There have been drug problems in my family history as well as a long line of alcoholics, which is the reason I don't drink. I might tipple once or twice a year, such as my homecooked egg nog (the cooked kind, not the raw mix) which had 1/2 cup of amaretto added to the 6 cups of egg nog. Yum, Yum! From The Joy of Cooking. I made their cooked egg nog and added about 3 drops of vanilla and 1/2 cup of amaretto and I've been sipping over the days. This recipe is definitely going to be added to my Christmas menu on a permanent basis! LOL!

But the point is, I know my family history and I won't go there. In fact, I was going to delete that post entirely except a response did show up and I wanted to address it. Leave my "bumps and bruises" out on the internet for anyone to read. I can admit that I'm having a hard time right now. But I also wanted to assure anyone reading that I know the dangers of addiction and that's not an option.

I'm ready for my annual winter hibernation. Leave the rest of the world at the door. Watch everyone else endure the -10 wind chill temps we have today. Admit to my girls that I need a bit of help right now. Lean on the hubby a bit more and stop trying to solve everyone's problems single-handedly.

And in the meantime? I'm going to go order that yarn. I've been itching to start another colorwork sweater since I finished my brother's sweater last February and I haven't done it yet. Yup, I need a sweater to give my attention to and that will definitely help. In fact, I might break down and order yarn for two sweaters. Spending money is never a way to solve a problem, but the promise of two beautiful colorwork sweaters that I've been drooling over for almost two years will help. I may not be able to solve all the issues on my plate right now, but knitting those two sweaters will give me a tremendous boost of confidence and a sense of accomplishment that's sorely needed right now.

Happy New Year to everyone!

MIA and Instant Menopause

2008-12-27T21:02:00.004-05:00

I put up a pic. That's the one of Pancake, our tiny, itty bitty sugar glider. And the reason I haven't been around in like... oh, forever is we lost her. All of a sudden one night, she was seriously and, it turns out, gravely ill. We did everything we could through the night (including a jaunt through about half the state to find an eye dropper on a Sunday night at midnight) and then finally got her to a vet in Connecticut who dealt with sugar gliders. They did the best they could, but she was simply too tiny. She should have been about four or five months old by this point and she only weighed 22 grams. To people like me who haven't a clue how to convert to metrics, take 22 paper clips and hold them in your palm. That's how tiny she was. Luckily, Shelby thought to bring Waffle along for the ride as Waffle was easily twice the size of Pancake and the vet determined that Pancake had some kind of congenital problem. If she'd been left at the breeding warehouse or, God forbid, in the wild, she wouldn't have survived long enough to be adopted. Her mom would have thrown her out of the family.

In essence, the vet assured us that we did better than good. We gave Pancake more time than she would have received anywhere else.

Didn't help, though. We still mourn her. She was definitely sweet in temperament and a charming little girl. Waffle? I still think Waffle barks for Pancake at night. Maybe by now, it's become a habit, but she was definitely confused for a few days.

Other bad news? How about a $7000 loan to fix my teeth? I did find a dentist who works with my fear of the dentist. He's doing a terrific job. And he's assured me that I'll be set, with a bit of care, for the next 20 years. And, yes, insurance is involved and that's all above and beyond the $7K that I have to pay out of pocket. But the work is in progress and Xanax is a beautiful thing... LOL!

Last bad announcement (as though this year hasn't been chock full of them as it is) is... er, remember my daughter's accident way back in April? She was cleared by the police of ANY liability in that accident since the other idiot driver tried to turn left in front of Shelby with only about 50 ft. of road between them. Anyway, a passenger from the other driver's car has a lawyer. They've sent a demand notice to my insurance company for $300,000. That just so happens to be the maximum limit of my policy coverage. I guess it would be way too much effort to actually work and get money from the person who's to blame for the accident. So they want to sue us instead.

No, I haven't told my husband about this one. I'm still waiting to hear back from a lawyer friend of mine on how to proceed. I'm just reporting the facts here. The reason I'm not telling my husband is because he landed in the hospital for three days. We won't go into that one except to say that he's got some respiratory problems that he's dealing with and he doesn't need the additional stress this knowledge would cause. We're not being sued personally... at least yet. Until then, I'm hoping we can simply make this go away somehow. I've informed my insurance company that I refuse to settle. I know this girl was seriously injured, but my daughter was not to blame for the accident, so she'll have to pay her medical bills by suing the party who was responsible.

So, to recap this year:
--My daugher was involved in a serious car accident where two kids in the other car were critically injured.
--I had a hyterectomy. Not elective surgery, but necessary nonetheless. Instant menopause. Oh boy... that's been fun.
--My poor beagle/bassett mix, Copper, died due to congestive heart failure.
--We adopted two sugar gliders, Pancake and Waffle, and then lost Pancake to some kind of congenital defect that no one could have foreseen.
--Mark spent three days in the hospital for what the doctors were sure had to be something heart related only to find out it was a pulmonary problem. We're still waiting for final determination and full treatment.
--We're being sued for the accident.

I stopped at the cemetary two weeks ago. It was time to take the winter pillow and clean up the site. Can't let my father, grandparents or great-grandparents start looking untidy or neglected. But I also had a chat with Dad while I was there. I realize that it's been a year and a half and I definitely felt his presence up until about a year ago. I also know that it had clearly been 40+ years since he'd had time with his dear Mom and his Dad. So he had this past year to catch up on news with them. I'm also sure it was a surprise for him to find his little sister, Patsy, up in heaven. So I'm sure they had some catching up to do. But I reminded him that it was time to come back and be the guardian angel for our family. We need his strength and his ever watchful eye for all those bad things that have been happening.

I apologize to the rest of America because I certainly didn't ask him to clear up the economy. I try to be civic-minded and remember my neighbors and do good work for my community, but there's no way I'm going to ask Dad to stretch his guardian wings over people he never even knew. Just us. Just his immediate family, thank you.

Besides, I'm so proud of Mom. In ten months, she's lost 50 lbs. If Dad didn't come back soon, he won't recognize her when she gets to heaven. He's got to stick close to help her achieve her goal and to keep checking in to see how she's changing in appearance.

The good recap for 2008? After all, you never get bad without good. Shelby and Dee are doing wonderfully. Shelby took Organic Chemistry, the bane of just about every science major out there, and managed to pull off a B+. Absolutely amazing! Dee is doing wonderful in her classes and she's received acceptance letters as well as scholarship offers from every single school she applied to with the exception of Quinnipiac, her top school. Not that they haven't accepted her or offered some kind of scholarship. She just hasn't heard from them yet. She checks the mail every day and our collective fingers are crossed. She wants to major in psychology and I hope she gets everything she wants. Shelby is a tough act to follow, but I've always believed in my heart that Dee, in her own way, is just as brilliant and can achieve just as many amazing things with her life. The toughest person to convince of that is her. It's almost impossible when she feels like she lives in Shelby's shadow. I've never believed she did. She's her own person and she'll make her own way. Now, for the first time, I think she's honestly believing it herself and I'm proud of her.

Second good thing is I adopted a new spinning wheel. It kind of came to me under an omen that I was supposed to purchase her. A few years back, I had a credit card to Bonton. Then Macy's bought out Bonton and I was sent a new credit card with their name. Well, to be honest, I just cut it up and forgot about it. Then, this year, I received a letter in the mail to cut up the Macy's card and was given a CitiBank card to use instead.

Well, at the time, I was already looking into getting a castle-style wheel with higher ratios and a blessed double treadle. The last yarn I plied on my little Prelude? I thought my leg was going to fall off because I simply couldn't treadle fast enough to get the job done quickly. That's when I started looking.

And, bingo!, a new credit card shows up. I'd already had a bit over $100 saved towards the purchase of a new wheel. So I sat on it. And I thought about it. I talked it over with Mom who told me to go for it. And I thought some more. Then I broke down and ordered it. I'm still saving money and anything I save goes toward that bill, but now I have a double treadle Minstrel with faster ratios and can be set up with Scotch tension.

I was torn between the Minstrel and the Sonata, which is the travelling wheel. But the Minstrel has more ratios available and I can set it for either double drive or Scotch tension. Having learned on the Prelude, I like the versatility of the Scotch tension. It operates separately from the drive band. I like that. Call me crazy, but it works.

And I've been spinning up a storm. On the little Prelude, it would take me a week to spin up 4 oz of fiber. If I spin more tomorrow, I'll have 4+ oz spun into singles and I literally began this new fiber just yesterday. Even better is the smaller flywheel allows me to ply my singles in a couple hours instead of taking the whole day.

I'm SO beyond enjoying my new Minstrel. And now that I have an "extra" wheel. (Geez.... I couldn't even imagine spinning, let alone owning two wheels. Can you believe it? LOL) I'm teaching Mom to spin. Since it's all her fault that I started with the Prelude (and if you look back, she technically owns it since she bought it for me for Christmas two year ago), I figure it's only fair that I share my love of spinning with her.

So that kind of leads me to a whole new and, hopefully, a much more fun topic...

WISHES and HOPES for 2009:
I hate calling them resolutions because they're more like ideas of things that I hope to accomplish. Things I'd like to do if life would get out of the way. Things I pray and wish I have the time to do. This past year I wanted to make my two Nordic designs and another colorway sweater besides. I didn't get them done. I wanted to work on two lace shawls as future wedding shawls for my daughters. I have yet to complete my Pi Are Squared EZ shawl.... er, oops. So, that said, I have my wishlist on KnitPicks for the first of the colorwork sweaters. All I need to do is click the "buy" and "complete order" button. Whether it's tonight or tomorrow, I'm doing to order that yarn and make my sweater. That will be the first of, hopefully, many.

When I ordered my wheel, Copper Moose had a good deal on 3 lbs of BFL in natural creamy off-white. It's beautiful fiber and will spin like butter. I'm hoping to turn that into skein after skein of gorgeous creamy 2-ply yarn. From that, I have a book on Fair Isle and Aran Designs. I want to put together my own Aran design and knit that sweater.

Oh, I did knit my Barbara Walker top-down raglan. I had enough of an autumn variegated colorway from that bin that I picked up last spring. It's not perfect, but it's really nice. And it surely came in handy during the snowstorm. Mother Winter dropped about 10-12" of snow on us last week and I slid that sweater over my head and stayed nice and warm while shoveling and snowblowing (Mark swears I broke the snowblower, but I'm kinda skeptical on that one). It was wonderful. I was toasty and warm and spent about two hours outside in driving winds and playing with the dog before I was done.

I'd like to knit some more top down sweaters. I just love the whole concept of knitting a sweater in just about one piece. Gee... can I consider it one piece if I spit-spliced all the ends? LOL! I just love her concept of why knit all these various pieces and then basically sew them together? If you want to sew it, then carve it out of material and sew all you want. If you're knitting, though, why not keep it all in one piece? After all, the beauty of knitting is the way the end fabric drapes and moves with the body. So why cut it into pieces and add seams that will inhibit the whole drape effect?

Okay, two last things and then I'll end yet another tome. The first is another plan. Mom bought me a binder. I can get those sleeves for pages and make almost a scrapbook of what I'm doing. Especially when it comes to using handspun fiber, I can take pictures of the fiber and keep a tiny piece. I can take a foot of the final yarn that I'm using. I can take a copy of the pattern and another picture of the final product and incorporate all of that into a sleeve. Date the top of the pattern with when I began the work and when I completed the project. A complete notebook/scrapbook of what I do in 2009. I like that idea.

I've kept a notebook with notes and adjustments. Listing the yarn, but not including actual pieces. And, let's face it, it's nice to know that I knit the Pembrokeshire Pathways socks in Koigu whatever # they call it, but isn't it a better reference to keep the actual ballband and a piece of yarn to go with the pictures? Yes, I think this is a great idea.

Now, I have a question. I think there are about 6 people who read my blog. I never get comments, so it's hard to tell if I even have 6. But I have a question for the ladies out there who might be able to offer solace/advice/encouragement for someone who's now charting that broad unknown territory called menopause. I'm 48. Younger than some, but not so far out of range that it's not unusual. What's unusual is that I was put under anesthetic with female parts and hormones and I woke up 3.5 hours later without either.

That was the easy part. The doctor prescribed an estrogen patch to get me over the rough times I was certainly going to face. Not the hormone cocktail, but straight estrogen that doesn't have the cancer scares of the cocktail. Well, I had the flu just after Thanksgiving and forgot to change my patch. By the time I remembered, it was 10 days later. Now, to be honest, I hadn't been feeling the best for a couple months. And I wondered if maybe my body really didn't want to go this route. So I stopped the patch about a month ago.

I can't say I get hot flashes because I don't get the red face and sweat dripping down my skull and the back of my neck. I don't wake up in a pool with night sweats. I do get periods when I'm warm, but totally manageable.

So what's the question? The one thing I do seem to get are almost anxiety attacks. I'll be going along in my day and all of a sudden my heart starts racing and I feel like I'm going to jump out of my skin. I've had allergy attacks in the past where the heart is racing, the blood pressure is up through the roof, tightness in the chest. But these are different. I'm not having trouble breathing, but my chest feels tight nonetheless. Another taut rubber band between my shoulder blades. If I don't catch it early, I'll literally pace the floor. And I feel like I either want to throw up or cry until my heart breaks out through my chest (you know the scenes from the Alien movies, right? LOL).

Luckily, to help with my anxiety with the dentist, he gave me a prescription for Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug. He prescribed 1 mg as needed, but I break them in half to "take the edge off". And, additionally lucky, I have 40 pills which means I have 80 doses. Now, I'm not about to abuse these suckers. When I feel the panic start to come, I take half a pill and I'm fine.

Is there anyone else who's had this happen? In the past month, before I started using my "dentist" pills to help offset this, the episodes were bad enough that I landed in the ER three times. (Oh, wow, while typing, I'm now having one of those short, tropical warm waves. Never enough to actually sweat, but enough to notice that a wave of warmth is washing down over me. Yeah, I know, shut up and consider yourself lucky, stupid! /g/) Anyway, the point is that I'm using the Xanax to offset those episodes when they start. As soon as I start to feel a little restless and "antsy", for lack of better words, I get my bottle and take half a pill.

So, my usual short story made long, this isn't something I've read about when I look up menopause. Am I weird? Am I the only one who's got this offshoot reaction to a total lack of hormones?

This is one time where I could use either some comments or some emails.

Now, last note, I feel bad that I can't list a whole ton of great things about why I've loved this year. So far, it's been a real pisser. But I do pray and hope that next years' recap will be the opposite. The conservative part of me says to wait and see. The ever hopeful part of me can't wait to find out.

So, for 2008, I hope we've finally reached the bottom of this damn barrel. The last couple of years haven't been easy. But I'm still here. I'm still hopeful. I still have dreams that things turn around and get easier. Financially, it's not easy, but we're lucky in that both Mark and I still have jobs. His employer downsized 20% of their workforce and Mark wasn't part of it. I feel sorry for those who found themselves without a job (Merry Friggin' Christmas, folks /sigh/) and my employer has instituted a hiring freeze until they can determine what will happen with tuitions, enrollment and the effect of the stock market on their endowments. Because of the accident, I now have a truck payment I wasn't prepared for. Insurance has increased because of the added insurance on a new car as well as Dee now being on our policy and, let's face it, accidents, regardless of fault, always increase your policies. So that's a huge chunk of change we now have that we didn't have a year ago. The payments on my dental work hurt, but you do what you've got to do. If I don't do the work, I could end up paying double because several teeth are in the processing of cracking. And, of course, the economy in general is in the tank.

But we can pay our bills. There isn't much left over and Christmas was slim. But we have our health and our family is strong. I love my husband and my girls and everyone else in my family. Our bonds are stronger than ever. I continue to knit and spin for sanity (and use Xanax very judiciously when stress overwhelms).

My hopes for next year? More sweaters. Finish my shawl and start another. Have lots to show at the Durham Fair in September. And I'm definitely going to attend the CT Sheep & Wool show in April. Golding is planning on being there and I'd love to sit at one of his wheels if one is available and I'd like to purchase one of his drop spindles. I certainly can't afford a Golding wheel, but wouldn't it be sweet to own a spindle? Just to be able to say I own a Golding. Maybe design a crazy pair of leg warmers.

I love to wear exercise pants. But I have that space between the top of my socks and the end of my stretch pants. Leg warmers fill that gap. I made a big chunky pair yesterday and my feet are toasty warm. Yup, I've missed that old 80's fashion and I'm going to do my best to reintroduce it to the younger girls at the college. Boots aren't an option on a lot of days because I kick off my shoes when I spin, so I wear clogs almost exclusively. Hence, cold feet while spinning. But today I wore leg warmers and never once did my feet get cold.

2009 is definitely a great year to reintroduce leg warmers... /wry g/

I hope your Christmas was everything you wanted it to be. Mine was wonderful. A warm house, good food and great company is always welcome. Let's hope 2009 will be equally wonderful for each and every one of us!

Where did the time go?

2008-10-26T10:10:00.004-04:00

Let's start with the fun stuff. Here's a pic. It's a bit fuzzy and I apologize for that, but I couldn't get another because the flash was working and scared the he%% out of her. Her name is Pancake and she's the adventurous one of our pair of sugar gliders. I do believe she's the runt of her litter as she's about half the size of her adopted sister, Waffle. OTOH, just look at those eyes. The biggest, blackest and brightest eyes I've ever seen on a cute little critter.

She's our "fun" one. Waffle still "crabs" at us, but she's slowly coming around. She still doesn't like to be picked up, whereas you can see that Pancake is having no trouble with that. Pancake likes to wander your shoulders, then climb onto the ear pieces of your glasses and then perch on top of your head. Probably because it puts a couple of feet between her and the dog. Lacy wants SO much to meet them and lick them (no, not eat them. I know her expressions and she just wants to make friends.) But Lacy's sheer size and the fact that she tends to be a bit high strung makes them nervous as all heck.

Let's see... why have I been missing in action for the last three weeks? Honestly, I haven't got a clue. I feel like I have SO much to do and not enough time, but I think back and try to remember anything I've accomplished in that three weeks and can't think of a thing. Other than swilling tons of coffee and being addicted to talk radio (yes, I lied! I'm listening to the talking heads! yikes!), I can't think of anything I've done...

Well, okay, a few things. I did finish the yarn for Dee. Somehow I'll turn this into something amazing for Christmas. I'm not sure what yet. Maybe the Moebius or some other kind of "smoke ring". Maybe a pair of mittens. Maybe a hat. I really like that "fuzzy toque" from the latest Interweave Knits, so maybe I can add some kind of fuzzy-type yarn in purple and that might do it. I haven't decided yet.

But I do like the yarn. I spun it a bit heavier than the Buffalo Soldier because that was bordering on lace weight and really too fine. This yarn has a bit more substance to it, so the end fabric will have more body to it.

I was going to take some pictures of the fall colors and load them here, but fall sort of breezed right past us before I could take note. The leaves were green one week, in full color the next and then we had a couple of hard frosts this past week. That brought out the fall foliage in full splendor, but then we had a huge windstorm last night. I mean HUGE. I swear it sounded like a hurricane was blowing through. And now all the foliage is on the ground. I really don't want to take pictures of the ground. It's not the same as capturing that color while it's still on the trees.

Good news is that our new boiler is in the basement. That happened last week. Yes, $5000 later, but we should be able to save huge amounts on our fuel consumption this winter. Already, I'm noticing that our house feels MUCH warmer and yet the boiler works about one-third as hard as that old ancient curmudgeon. Oh, and to add to that good news is I called around and was able to get my tank topped off for a bit under $500. $2.87/gal for fuel. I jumped on it before OPEC could shut down their production to drive the prices back up.

Yes, God forbid they only make $4mil in profits instead of their usual $30mil profit margin per quarter... /sigh/ Geez.... we can't survive with our ski resort in the middle of the desert if gas is less than $3/gallon or fuel oil is less than $4/gallon... Greedy b*st*rtds, aren't they?

Bad news in the last week is I finally went to the dentist and I have a LOT of work that needs doing. Yeah, I'll have to take out a second mortgage to pay for it, but I should be set for the next 20 years or so once it's done. I think I can do this. I just have to get online and see if I can get the financing. Yup, another bill to pay for the next five years... Yikes!

Now, of course, I have to talk politics. You know it. I know it. I mean, someone has to do it. I made the mistake of checking out Mollywobbles this morning before coming in to update my own blog. I've been reading Aiden's blog for a long time, but he's really gotten my gander up. Sorry, Aiden, but you sort of pushed my button with this comment: "I can assure you a) that he isn't a terrorist, but rather a 64 year old professor, a devoted expert in the education of urban, high-risk children..." [posted on or about 10/4] Yes, he's talking about Bill Ayers. This is the man who was quoted the day after 9/11 as stating that he wished he and his Weather Underground buddies had done more bombing. If he was devoted to children, he wouldn't have made a spectacle of himself in an article, standing on the American flag, entitled, "Guilty as Hell, Free as a Bird, Isn't America Great?"

Does Obama consider him a close and personal friend? Probably not. But I can't believe he isn't aware of his political leanings if Obama could blurb his book either. See, there are two things that people have to consider. First, if Obama blurbed the book without reading it, then I have to question Obama's judgement. Why would you give your name and position as an endorsement for someone you don't know? As a politician, all you have is your name and your position as a recommendation for people to vote for you. So that name and position must be protected from those who could later use it against you. It also scares me that Obama could later be signing documents upon the recommendation of others without reading. Sorry, but I'd like the President of the United States to read stuff before he signs it. I know that's asking a lot, but there you have it. If he's reading without signing, we could very well end up owned by Russia. That brings me to the second point. If Obama read the book before he endorsed it, then he certainly can't be telling the truth when he says that he hasn't got a clue that Ayers was a leader in the Weathermen and now openly admits to bombing his own country. And Obama endorsed it anyway.

Now, let's discuss Biden and his remarks last weekend. Don't try to disclaim them because I heard the sound bites. In the week prior, both candidates were briefed by the National Security Council on what's happening internationally. This makes sense. One of them is going to be President and they should be aware of what's happening in the world. They should be part of the "in crowd" as to what they could be facing when they take office. Then Biden goes off to Seattle and San Francisco and he says that if this administration takes office, mark his words, there will be an international crisis within six months. And they will need the support of the communities that support them to keep everyone calm because the decision that administration makes will not immediately be seen as the correct response.

Yeah, I'm paraphrasing because I don't have the sound bite right here on my computer. But he clearly said "this administration", not the new administration. Before anyone else analyzed his statement, I heard that he was referring to Obama particularly. Not that the international community would test any new administration, but that they would feel the need to test Obama. Because Biden did go on to say that they would learn he has a spine of steel. Not for nothing, but we already know that McCain does. Taking on McCain would have been like taking on Ronald Reagan. And, let's face it, as soon as Reagan won the election, Iran released the hostages. They'd been held in captivity for almost three years, but the terrorists knew that Reagan wasn't going to let the situation slide. Reagan would have bombed them, if necessary, in order to stop their nonsense. Jimmy Carter was still trying that "negotiation" thing. Hmm... sound like two new candidates running for office? Sorry, but I see Obama as dead set against force of any kind and trying to negotiate his way out of an international situation.

Especially when you read the last of Biden's statement. That we, as the American public, wouldn't understand or necessarily agree with his resolution to this international crisis. Biden did go on to say that he could easily give 4 or 5 scenarios...

Yikes! Sorry, but Biden sounded to me like someone who's been told a great, big juicy little secret and can't keep it to himself. He knows something that he's dying to reveal to the rest of us, but his position demands silence. Why? Because Obama spent the next two days trying to smooth it over with platitudes and generalities. He never denied or negated what Biden said. He simply stated that of course it was possible the international community is always trying to test any new candidate.

Sorry, Barry, but that's not what Biden said. Nor is it true, either. Why did we have the longest run of peace and prosperity under Reagan? Because the international community knew he wouldn't take any nonsense from them. He wasn't a President who offered the other cheek if slapped. He would have slapped back and then followed it with a punch.

Let's move on. Let's discuss how Obama has been adament that his comment to poor "Joe the Plumber" is exactly what he meant for his economic package. He hasn't said that his comment was misconstrued. He hasn't said that it was taken out of context. He's maintained that "spread the wealth" is exactly what he meant to say. The fact that the people who own the businesses are already paying 40% of the taxes in this country is meaningless to him. (Check the facts. The top 10% pay 40% of the taxes in this country. The bottom 40% of taxpayers pay nothing.) Obama wants to increase the taxes for the top 40% and give rebate checks to those in the bottom 40%. So the people at the top should, in effect, just send a welfare check to those at the bottom.

Sorry, but the people at the bottom aren't going to take those checks and create new jobs. But the side effect of this economic principle means that the people at the top will not only no longer create jobs, but they'll have to cut jobs in order to send those rebate checks. So unemployment is going to raise even more. This is Obama's way of stimulating our economy? I don't see how that can be done. It will financially strap the very people who hire. They can't hire anymore. Jobs go out the window. So now, instead of creating jobs, people will have to subside on that $5000 check they get back.

Call me crazy, but I'd rather see tax breaks in business to create new jobs worth $20,000 rather than instituting new taxes to offer a $5,000 rebate. I may be nuts, but I think it's easier to pay rent and utilities with $20,000 than $5,000. I must be weird.

One last thing because I simply can't ignore this one. They've run out of ammo against Sarah Palin. They're now discussing her wardrobe. $150,000 for a new wardrobe so she can look the part of a VP candidate. Think back, people. Do you honestly think the Democratic Party turned Hillary around for a mere $150,000? I'd love to see the figures on that one. And do you know why I think they needed to spend the $150,000? Because I betcha that Sarah's wardrobe consisted of parkas and LL Bean. Sure, she was a governor. But I'll bet my remaining salary that Sarah didn't have a designer wardrobe to begin with. So they spent some money to boost her wardrobe. I'd love to know how much Obama's suits cost. He and Michelle were ordering caviar and lobster before the final debate. I can guarantee he wouldn't be caught dead in a $200 suit. How much you want to bet his suits costs $3K each?

Little tidbit. Hillary brought 3 pantsuits to the convention so she'd have a choice when she gave her speech. They checked the 3 against the background so she'd look "just right" when she spoke on TV. 3 pantsuits = $18,000. For one speech. And the Dems are complaining about an entire wardrobe and makeover for $150,000? And all those clothes will be given to charity once the dust settles. How much do you want to bet that Hillary's pantsuits are still in her wardrobe? And I don't hear of Michelle donating her wardrobe to charity. Or eating a burger from the hotel menu.

Obama says let's stick to the issues and stop with the character attacks. Yet it's his people who did a background check on "Joe the Plumber" and came up with the bill for Sarah's wardrobe. Sorry, but his reaction to "Joe the Plumber" has been reprehensible and this man wants to be president. An average middle-class guy goes to a rally and asks an innocent question and Obama turns him into a punchline. Obama's people did a full background check on "Joe". Can you believe that one? Poor guy asks a question and now he's being ripped apart by Obama and Biden. He's the punchline with jokes like "Do you know of any plumber who makes $250,000?" Maybe not, but that wasn't the question. Joe asked about the economic policy if he manages to buy the business he works for. And, yes, hundreds of thousands of small businesses (the very people -- the sole proprietorships -- that you want to increase taxes on) make $250,000 per year. I ought to know because I work for one. But that's okay. According to Obama, Joe doesn't get to enjoy the fruits of his labor. He's worked 20 years so he can be in a position to purchase this company. Now he doesn't get to enjoy it. He has to take all that extra money he's earned and give it to the very people he employs so they can buy him out. So, in essence, the very people he employs will make more money at the end of the year than he does.

It destroys the very fabric of free enterprise and incentive. Why make more? You'll only pay more, so don't bother. I mean, $1 trillion needs to be financed by someone. I don't want to finance it. So don't bother working for more.

'Nuff said. Aiden says he's got a handful of readers. I think he actually has more readers than I do. So no one is listening. Why do I bother? According to the polls, I'm talking to the wind anyway. Regardless of what I read in the paper on Friday. The pollsters explained how they skew the numbers to report what they want to report. And, yes, the media is definitely on the Obama bandwagon. So I'm the one who's banging my head against the wall. Why should I argue and fight when everyone says that I'm fighting a losing battle.

Probably because I hope people come to their senses and read between the lines of rhetoric. I pray that you all vote your conscience. And I hope and pray that I'm not singing the song of "I told you so" a year from now...

Entries, Gliders and more Politics

2008-10-05T11:50:00.004-04:00

Let's start with the fun stuff. Durham Fair was last weekend. I won ribbons on all my entries. Fiber Entries: I took first place with my socks. The yarn was a bit uneven in tension, but it was really fine handspun and I think that's why I won. Most of the other handspun was worsted weight or bulkier. I tend to spin more of a fingering or maybe DK/sport. My handspun skein of Buffalo Soldier took third place. The judge commented that there were too many "weights". I think she meant that it wasn't consistent enough. Considering I've only been spinning on a consistent basis for about 4 months, I'm ecstatic. No, I'm not even in my tension or even in my thickness, but that will come with time.

I did spend the weekend spinning for demonstration. I'll write more about that next week (as time is limited today) but that was a LOT of fun and I met a LOT of people. I also tried to spin a bit thicker since this yarn will be used for a Christmas moebius. I don't need fine fingering for that. (Not if I want to get all the fiber spun and the yarn knitted up before the holidays... Yikes! /g/)

At the Fair, they had a display of Sugar Gliders (http://www.sugargliderinfo.org). My daughters and I fell in love, so we brought two babies home. Their names are Pancake and Waffle. Pancake is adapting to her new home quite well. Waffle is more of a challenge, but considering she's just more fearful gives us more incentive to work with her on a regular basis. We've only had them for a week, but I think they're doing okay. Pancake has crawled into my daughter's hand twice now. Waffle isn't ready for that, but I think she'll be just fine. She's just more hesitant and will take longer. A tougher nut to crack, but I've been known to crack nuts in my time... LOL!

Of course, this puts me behind. Every spare moment, I'm trying to spend with the gliders. I know they recognize my voice because they peek out in the morning when I go in to remove the extras from the cage. And they're quite calm when I do so, but we're not at the point of picking up and holding in my bare hand. I tried that with Waffle and it was a disaster for the poor thing. She freaked and nipped the heck out of me. I tried to calm her down, but she was having none of it. So we slowed down to a crawl and I'm slowly getting her used to me. She'll come out in the morning, but she's not ready to explore. She sits in her corner, quietly as long as I don't try to approach her with my hand. So I use that for now.

Today, she's been in her bonding pouch for the last four hours tucked inside my bathrobe. I do have a bunch of stuff to do, but that's okay. Shelby has agreed to take her once she's done with her shower. At that time, I can get the laundry started and get some cleaning done. (My furballs have rolled into the size of goats, so some vacuuming is sorely needed.) We also need a few things at the store. I'm going to try and take the baby with me. Tuck her inside my shirt and just come along for the ride.

Lastly, have you been paying attention? I see so many blogs out there for people who are supporting Obama. At least of the people who's blogs I normally like to read. No one seems to be openly vocal for McCain and Palin except for me. I know I promised not to talk politics, but someone has to do it, don't they? /g/

Because the debates don't start until 9PM and I'm normally crashing for the night by about 9:30, I do tend to pick them up late. I got the Presidential debate on my iPod by downloading from Cooper Anderson. I was able to tape the Vice Presidential debate and watched it Friday night (with both babies in a pouch around my neck, please note ). I think the thing that disturbs me the most is Rush Limbaugh was the only one who caught the quick comment by Biden that I caught. When talking about the economic mess, he said that the Federal Manager (whoever that will be and PLEASE tell me that it won't be Chris Dodd) not only has the ability to adjust the mortgage interest rate on those purchased mortgages (less money back into the taxpayer pocket), but they will also have the ability to adjust the principal loan amount. A very quick mention. But this was also reiterated by Sean Hannity Friday afternoon (when I get his talk radio show) and that fact was built into the bill that Congress passed. So... in essence, those people who bought houses they couldn't possibly afford will now not only have a lower payment because their interest rate can be adjusted, but their principal can also be lowered?!?

I'm skeptical and downright disheartened by this whole mess. If those mortgage holders now get to pay back less than what they borrowed (losing interest as well as principal), that means that I'm the one who'll now be paying their loan. So it's not bad enough that I'm struggling to pay my own mortgage, but I'm now going to lose that "investment package" by paying their loan for them.

Funny, but I don't see Congress running to help me pay MY mortgage. Almost makes me want to stop paying mine and see if they'll grandfather me into their package... /g/

Not that I would do that. After all, I'm one of those few people who did what Sarah Palin told us we have to start doing. I haven't borrowed more than I can afford. Yes, I have credit card bills, but I'm paying them. I've refinanced my mortgage to my advantage, but I'm paying it. I'm not standing around with my hand out to Congress. I'm doing whatever it is I have to do to pay for those things I need and want. And, I'm sorry, America, but we're a bunch of spoiled brats. We want what we want and when we want it and to hell with being able to afford it. And, now that we've overextended ourselves and put this economic strain on our economy, we're crying in our beer and waiting for the gov't to bail us out.

Not for nothing, but the Dems are trying to lay this blame at Bush's feet. Oh, the White House forced the de-regulation and put us in this mess. Sorry, folks, it was our Dem-lead Congress that passed the de-regulations, not the White House. This mess began back with the Clinton Administration. A Dem in office. And it was pursued and escalated in the past two years once the Dems took control of Congress. You might want to point the finger at the Rep president, but he can only do so much when he's got a Dem Congress with their collective feet firmly planted in the ground. And the bottom line is, regardless of regulations or de-regulations, we did this to ourselves. The banks didn't have to sign the papers. People who didn't read the contracts they signed overextended themselves to the point of bankruptcy. It's the fault of everyone who signed those contracts.

And the bottom line is that NONE of that matters. We're in the mess. Who's to blame for it isn't worth the time I'm taking to point it out.

It's about time we stop pointing fingers and try to FIX the problem. If you're going to lower the interest rates for them, then you'd better lower the interest rates for me. Free up some of my hard-earned money so I can put it back into stablizing the economy. If you're going to cut their principal, then cut mine. I'm paying my mortgage. Lower my principal and I can refinance back to what I've got and take that money back into the economy with jobs. I still have a few improvements I need to make on my rickety house. Free up my money so I can hire a contractor to finish what needs finishing. That's spreading the wealth and I'll be happy to do it.

Unfortunately, what's going to happen if the Dems get the votes next month is they'll raise taxes to pay for this mess they created and my money will be tighter than a piano wire. It's going to stifle me by strapping every last dollar I've got and I won't have anything to keep the economy running.

Sorry, but I think we ought to take this "rescue package" and see it for what it is. It's a loss leader. It's money we'll never get back unless we take that same principle and apply it to the people who actually ARE paying their bills.

And the only ticket that can apply that logic is McCain and Palin.

C'mon. I know you want to respond. With 30 days left before we enter the polls and let our voices be heard, it's time for some honest and soul-baring debate. Since no one else is taking on the Dems, I'll be more than happy to be the guinea pig. I have one of those adorable little creatures, so I have some experience. I'm open to debate. I dare ya... LOL!

Photo'd 'n' dropped off...

2008-09-20T12:57:00.009-04:00

Yup, I did it. I found the camera and took some pics. And I've dropped off 3 of my 5 entries. It's been a crazy week with lots to do and lots of places to go. But I was determined to memorialize this moment before I dragged off my entries to the Fair. So I got the camera and hope the pics are okay. First off, here's my Wool Peddler's Shawl.

I knit this for Mark's aunt last Christmas and it really did turn out lovely. I knit it out of KnitPicks' Wool of the Andes in hollyberry, I believe. The pattern comes from Cheryl Oberle's book Folk Shawls. Truly a joy to knit and a project that I won't mind knitting again. The upper triangle is all garter stitch and then the pattern begins about halfway through. Here's a pic of the details of the pattern...

It's a very easy pattern, easy to memorize and easy to keep track of where you are. Very nice, indeed.

So that's my first entry.

I also entered that very first sweater I steeked. This was a Philosopher's Wool kit that I'd bought last fall. It's their Color Your Own kit in the colorway Fire with Yellow. Those creamy bands are yellow. But this was really fun to make. I think I knit this sweater in about five weeks.

I had enough fun with this one that I did buy their book with all their patterns and I'm dying to purchase the yarn and knit another in their Windows pattern.

Anyway, next and last in the hand knitting categories is a pair of socks. This is Brenda Dayne's pattern called Pembrokeshire Pathways. I forget where I got the pattern (Knitty.com?), but you can always get a link from her www.cast-on.com website. The pattern looks really complicated and it's beautiful once made, but it's actually quite simple over four rows. Really, nothing to it with a simple two-stitch cable. I knit these in Koigu PPM, I believe it's colorway 101.

Next are two entries for our Fiber Dept.

First up is a pair of plain st st socks in my own two-ply yarn spun from fiber I'd gotten from Cathi at www.stonebarnfibers.com. A gorgeous 100% merino fiber dyed in various shades of blue, hence the name Blueberries N Cream. I ended up with about 480 yds of 2-ply just in this one hank (which was wound into a center pull ball on my trusty ball winder). I still have another skein of about 300 yds of 2-ply. I'm thinking I might just have to knit up a matching pair of mittens... /wry g/

Here's my last entry. Some simply 2-ply handspun of 100% merino from Crown Mountain Farms in their colorway called Buffalo Soldier. It's an interesting mix of yellow, orange, brown and a touch of army green. I guess that's where the soldier part comes from... LOL!

I was able to spin up two skeins of yarn from 8 oz and I have a grand total of something like 680 yds of 2-ply. Yeah, I think I'm definitely fine enough for the sock yarn I wanted to spin. Too bad I don't need more socks right now... LOL!

Anyway, those are the entries. I have my fingers crossed that I can earn some ribbons and maybe some prize money so I can go buy more yarn and/or fiber. Not that I need any. I have tons right now. But more is never a problem. I have more projects planned for the next year than I probably have time to make them... /wry g/

I have to pass along an amusing story. A friend of mine had a "Quick Cuisine" party last night. She asked me and I said, sure, why not? She did explain that this is a kind of party where you put together food to take home. Two nights a week, Dee is stuck not only cooking dinner, but everything that goes with it (planning, preparing, cleaning, etc). So I'm thinking this would be nice for those nights that I'm working late and won't be home. I could plan the meals and she just has to pop them in the oven.

So I drive down to Clinton last night and I'm in Linda's driveway and the house is dark and her car is gone. I knock on the door. Nothing. I try her cell. No answer. So I called Dee and asked if she knew Linda's daughter's cell. I explain I'm in the driveway and no one's home and I'm hoping everything is okay.

Long story made short (too late!), Heather comes over from next door where she's babysitting. No, the party isn't at the house. It's at the business. This is not a home party. So she gives me directions and I find my way. I actually was getting worried when I'm sitting at a traffic light, look up and there's a sign attached to the side of the building "Quick Cuisine" with an arrow pointing me right to the front door.

It's a kewl idea. You go in and you can either purchase ready-made dinners or you can compile your own. There are various stations with all the ingredients and you simply follow the directions, put everything together in either ziploc bags or aluminum trays and take home for cooking. I bought six meals and several desserts for about $120. Not bad. I spend more than that at the grocery store on a weekly basis.

So I'm planning on doing this once a month. Get 8 or 10 meals to toss in the freezer. Either they can be used on the nights I work the second job or if we need something fast and easy. (Though some meals are even better... They're made to toss in a crockpot! Woohoo!) No planning. All the prep is done. You just cook it up and eat.

I like that idea. And the best part is that they change the menu every month so you don't end up with comments like, "Mom is working so it must be chili night..." followed with a big sigh.

Tomorrow I drop off my fiber, getting back to the Durham Fair. I'm going to ask about parking. I really hate the thought of having to park offsite and take my wheel on a schoolbus. My little Prelude is very portable, but she's not a traveling wheel. (Hence my new itch to own a Kromski Sonata. She's a double drive and she's built to travel. Even comes with a bag for that purpose. Kewl or what? I just have to save the $500+ she costs.../sigh/) Anyway, I'm hoping I can park closer since I plan to come up and spin with the ladies. I've even committed myself to showing up all three days.

One last thing. Even though I've already posted " 'nuff said", I simply have to make one more comment on our election. I read the paper. Always a mistake for me. A woman from my town wrote in to our regional paper that she couldn't believe McCain thought he'd get the Hillary voters just because Sarah is female. The audacity of McCain to think women would fall for that ploy!

Actually, and this is why I have to rant a bit, I can't believe this woman would honestly believe that's the whole reason he choose Palin. The writer is the one who's terribly short-sighted and totally naive if she honestly believes that I'm going to vote one way or another because a candidate is female. Course, it just begs the question if she was going to vote for Hillary based on the fact that she has ovaries, doesn't it? /wry g/ Is someone that honest-to-God stupid? I would never base my choice for candidate based on race, creed, religion, color or any of those other insignificant details. I do my best to do my homework and make an informed choice. Who are they? What kind of experience and past history do they bring to the job? What have they actually accomplished (repeat-not promised, but accomplished) in their term(s) in office? What do they hope to accomplish? And, most important, how do they plan to accomplish it? I don't want to hear "pie in the sky" promises that are just as easily broken as they are made. I want to hear an honest, workable plan. If you only stick to a couple issues, that's more realistic than promising everything, including a cure for cancer. That's impossible and we should all know that. But a few choice and key issues and tell me what I want to hear and you've got my vote.

McCain is the man. No, he did not endorse this ad. He doesn't even know I exist. I doubt he really cares (other than the fact that I'm a voter). So, take it for what it's worth. As I said last time, you know where I stand. Have you done your own homework and made your choice? Whatever else happens, this election will be historic and I bet it's going to be one of the most public and down-to-the-wire in history. I'll be watching... Will you?

Have a wonderful week! It's looking to be spectacular (especially considering I'm taking a vacation day on Friday so I can go meet some new spinning friends).

Camera MIA and politics... Yikes!

2008-09-14T08:36:00.003-04:00

If anyone knows where the camera is hiding, I'd certainly appreciate being let in on the secret... /sigh/ Taking pictures was never the problem. I knew how to do that. You point and shoot. But I'd finally learned not only how to download the pics to the computer, but also how to place them exactly where I wanted them and now I can't find the damn thing.

Life is never easy, is it? LOL!

Yesterday I had to finalize my entries for the Durham Fair. (Yes, this is the reason I wanted to take pics. Let's memorialize this moment kind of thing.) I'm still entering my Philosopher's Wool sweater. That's a given. I'll take it out of the winter clothes storage this week and freshen it up. Next is that pair of Koigu socks where I knit the Pembrokeshire Pathways pattern. They really did turn out lovely. Then I have to call Aunt Lois today and see if I can stop over during the week and borrow her Wool Peddlers Shawl. I was really proud of that one. That's it for handknitting. Sad, isn't it? They do offer a LOT of categories, but I tend to knit a LOT of socks and I can only enter one. Sidenote: Would you believe they only offer one category for socks? Sorry, but there should be 3 categories -- plain socks, patterned socks and colorwork socks. Funny because the Fiber Dept has all three categories, but not the Needlework Dept.

Anyway, let's move over to the Fiber Dept for my two entries there. A plain pair of socks in that lovely Blueberries N Cream that I got from Gypsy Girl. They did come out nice, though I do have to admit that my stitches are so darned even that the small inconsistencies in the spinning really do stand out. Course, that just makes me want to get better with my spinning. Second entry is I finally finished my 2-ply hanks of Buffalo Soldier from Crown Mountain Farms. They turned out much lovelier than I'd thought. Yesterday, I finished plying the second hank and then I washed and whacked and hung them in the bathtub to dry.

My friend Linda stopped over yesterday and said that I should make everyone mittens this year. Everyone she knows wants mittens, so I should do that for Christmas. Now I'm torn. I was going to knit Moebius' for everyone from handspun. Now she has me thinking about mittens. Course, I was also going to look for some patterns on "smoke rings". Basically, they're a cowl that's fairly lacey with a pretty pattern. If I get some nice smoke ring patterns, maybe I could take the handspun that's left and knit mittens to match. Hmm... that's an idea. And maybe I could translate the smoke ring pattern to match on the back of the hand. It's another idea to toss around while I keep spinning. I only have another 5 lbs or so to spin before I have to decide... /g/

Let's see... what else is new?

Oh! I finally started a sweater from Barbara Walker's book, "Knitting From The Top". Remember I bought that huge bin of yarn from CT Wool last spring? Well, I figure, I have the whole school year to work my way through the bin. Why not start with chapter one of the book and simply work my way through each one? Lord knows, I have enough yarn to make a number of sweaters. And my wardrobe is woefully sweater deficient. Why? Because I hate buying sweaters when I can knit them myself. These will work up a lot quicker than those gorgeous Dale of Norway patterns I'm hoarding. So let's start with some neck down sweaters and then, maybe around Christmas, when I'm looking for something with more of a challenge, I can cast on for a Dale of Norway. That will also be around the time when I plan to cast on for one of those future wedding shawls for my daughters.

I have to do something other than socks for a while. I counted at the beginning of summer when I stopped wearing socks. I have something like 25-30 pairs of socks. I don't need more right now. Yes, I will probably cast on a few pair for the Hubby just because. But I surely don't need more right now until I can wear out a few pairs.

On other news fronts... Not much to report. I have a wedding to attend the first weekend in Oct. And, now here's a shock, but I'm going to buy a dress. AT least, that's my plan. I haven't bought a dress in probably 10 years. I figure it's about time I finally got into the 21st century and bought something good. After all, I have this wedding, the hockey and basketball banquets at the end of the year and the service awards dinner at Mark's job. There's 4 occasions to wear it. And won't it be nice to play like I'm grown-up and wear pantyhose and heels? It's a thought. I'm actually kind of excited about it. So I'm going to take youngest daughter with me. (You know the girl... the one who's effectively hidden the camera and is still playing dead in her room... /g/) She's got a good eye for fashion. Me? I'm the worst. If there was a way to wear jeans and not humiliate the groom, I'd probably do it. So, rather than humiliate him, I'm going to try my best to look like a proper wedding guest.... LOL!

Oh, speaking of humiliation. I try NEVER to discuss politics. Really, I do try. Unless someone asks my opinion, I figure you'll vote the way you want and I'll vote the way I want. There's a good reason for a curtain on that machine and let's leave it at that...

BUT (you could see that one coming, couldn't you? /g/) one of the blogs I do read is Mollywobbles by Aiden in Chicago. He called Sarah Palin the worst "effing" mother in the world for humiliating her daughter by accepting the VP nomination from John McCain when her daughter is 5 months pregnant. He thinks it's reprehensible to parade her daughter around while she's unmarried and pregnant. I was going to put a comment on his post, but I didn't. I really don't want to get into a huge political discussion, but my question to Aiden is this...

Why does Aiden assume that Sarah's daughter is humiliated? First off, she is engaged. Okay, so they haven't married yet, but they are engaged. Second, who are we to assume that they didn't plan to have children right away anyway? Just because you wouldn't want your teenager to become a parent at an early age doesn't mean that that isn't what she wants. Maybe she's a girl who grew up with the hope to marry early and have a whole passel of kids. Just because society no longer wants that for their female offspring doesn't mean that said offspring doesn't want that for themselves.

I knew a lady years ago through a bowling league. When she and her two best friends were in high school, their goal was to get married, buy houses near each other and have tons of kids. They all got married shortly after high school, bought the houses near enough that all their kids attended school together and went on to produce, collectively, 29 children. Yes, 29 children. Claire had 11. Her two friends had 13 and 5 respectively. And they were all happy. Two divorced. One remarried. But they were all happy with their lives.

So.... humiliation? Who are we as public outsiders and observers to assume that anyone was humiliated? That's the "talking heads" making assumptions about what is in another person's mind. And this is the reason why I don't listen to the talking heads. They sit around and "analyze". Let's face it, they guess. They hear a speech, extract one single line and then construct entire articles about their assumption of what was meant by that one single line.

No thank you. I will never determine the way I vote based on something that someone other than the candidate themselves have said. The media has turned this election into the circus it is. Forget their analyses and conjectures. Don't let them tell you how to vote. Do your own homework and listen to the candidates yourself and make your own opinion and then vote your conscience.

Now, just to set the record straight, I'm voting for McCain and Palin. I voted for McCain in the 2000 primaries. The only way he would have lost my vote is if he'd lost his mind and taken Lieberman as a running mate. Instead, he solidified my vote with his choice of Palin. There. I've said it. I've always been a Republican, but I won't say that I've always voted my party. Sorry, I'm not a party girl. I'm an issues girl. And McCain has the answers I wanted to hear.

That's me. And that's my rant on politics. Now go make up your own mind.

Back in the saddle...

2008-08-30T09:16:00.003-04:00

The madness is now settling down. The kids are moved in and I'm back at work. Shelby moved into her dorm on Tues, Aug 19th. A day earlier than everyone else because otherwise I would have had to take Wed, Aug 20th off in order to move her in. So, the boss got permission to move her in early to free me up to start my job.

That was a lost day. We moved most of her stuff in and then it was the obligatory trips to BJ's for bulk stuff and then Ikea for extra kitchen stuff. Because Shelby loves to cook, she offered to outfit the kitchen. (She also had stuff from last year, so we had a good start already.) Still, a couple hundred bucks later, we had her stuff in the suite.

Next day, I was at work to move in the next crop of transfer students into my complex. Work the other job that night. Back at the Village on Thurs and Fri with overtime being worked on campus at the end of the day. Worked Sat and Sun for the rest of the move-in. My knees and hips do NOT (is there a way to underline that word 5 times?) like me standing in a parking lot for 10 hours at a clip. Work on Mon, other job afterwards. Work on Tues and Wed, with overtime after hours to help out with doing decals for the commuter students.

Thursday was a half day because it was Dee's 17th birthday. Happy Birthday to Dee! Happy Birthday to Dee!! No, I won't sing the rest because my voice is kinda shot.

Yesterday was my first "normal" day since the madness began. And, yet, it was a day of a few pitfalls and prats. It began early. I was checking email and went into the kitchen to refill my coffee for that frantic first few cups before I have to trot off to work. I'd just refilled and the cat jumped up on the counter to get my attention. Yes, I'd forgotten to refill the water dish with fresh, cool water. Bad Mommy! So I patted Phoenix on the head and assured him that I'd take care of him. So I refill the water dish and go to grab him... Let me break real quick because Phoenix is a hoot. If you run the tap, he'll just plant himself and drink from the faucet. I have no clue where he picked up this habit, but you've got to watch him. Leave a faucet running and he'll just block access while he sips away... /sigh/..... Okay, back to yesterday morning. I go to grab him and catch the top of my freshly filled coffee cup. Coffee everywhere!

Course, he just sits there and wonders why his feet are now wet. So I have to toss him down and mop up everything in sight. Lovely way to start the day.

Then it's off to work. Things are going well. I'm currently working on finishing the plain socks in Winter Wonderland while also working on the Pembrokeshire Pathways socks. To keep interest high (and keep boredom from setting in), I usually work on one colorway for a while, then switch to the other for a bit. Back and forth. This way I'm never working on any given project long enough to get bored with it. I also try to stagger my projects so I'm working on the first sock of one set while finishing the second sock of another. This way, every time I finish a "set", I have a new colorway or pattern to look forward to. This method keeps my interest for those long stretches of time that I have every day for knitting.

Anyway, so I'd started with the pattern. It takes a bit longer because it's a bit more involved, so I tend to spend a little more time with that. In the meantime, I also listen to podcasts and books in audio. I'd finally gotten over to Heather Ordover's CraftLit podcast and I have a LOT of catching up on the books. So I'm listening away to Tristan & Isolde (yes, I started in the middle and let's not even bring up the trouble I've had with my iPod lately) and paying attention because this was my first time listening to the final chapters when I decide to switch over to the Winter Wonderland socks. I can pay more attention to the podcast because this is straight stockinette stitch and I can practically knit these socks in my sleep. So I look quickly and figure I've got to turn the heel, so I put my hands on autopilot and direct my attention to the podcast.

So I spend the next few hours listening to chapters of books and switching between the two socks. It's about 2:30 in the afternoon when I look down and the ball of Winter Wonderland is looking mighty small. I'm only halfway down the instep and foot and panic begins to set in. I'm going to run out of yarn before I can finish the toes on this sock. This has never happened with Gypsy Girl yarn. Ever. And I'm thinking I might have to write and complain to Cathi....

Then I turn the sock to work on the other side (I knit all my socks in Magic Loop) and notice that it's looking VERY long...

I really should have saved it for a picture. Or even taken a picture with my phone.

I'd turned TWO heels. Thinking back, I'd just reached the end of the foot the day before. It was time to begin the decreases for the toes and I'd set it aside. I really hate beginning a decrease and then having to stop. The day before, I knew I didn't have enough time to finish the toe decreases, so I'd set it aside and made a mental "note" to just finish the toes the next morning and the sock would be done.

So much for "notes", right? Instead of doing the quick 20 rows of decreases and a Kitchener, done with the project by 10AM, I'd turned a second heel and spent half a day knitting a new 40 unnecessary rows....

/wry g/

Like I said, I really should have taken a picture of this thing with two heels. Luckily, it was early enough before the end of my shift that I simply frogged the whole thing back, added my toe decreases and was done with the sock in short order.

Needless to say, when I got home last night, I tucked away anything with needles and spent time with my wheel.

The other thing I did last night besides spin was to go to the Durham Fair website and begin the process of committing myself to what I'm going to enter. I picked out three categories--Fiber, HandKnitting and Sewing. In the Fiber Category, I'm going to enter some 2-ply handspun and a pair of knitted socks from 2-ply handspun. That's all I have to enter for Fiber. Maybe next year I can try a 3-ply as well as a 2-ply, but I'm not brave enough yet for that. I'll also need a Lazy Kate because my wheel itself has 2 posts built in to hold bobbins for plying, but I'll need 3 posts to do a 3-ply. Anyway.... In the HandKnitting category, I'm going to enter my PW sweater in a colorwork pullover, a plain sock, a patterned sock and I'm going to enter Dee's fingerless mitts (the ones that are purple, pink and white) in the Miscellaneous category. I have to check with my MIL to see the state of her shawl that I made her last year. If it's in good shape and she hasn't felted it, I'd like to enter that one in the shawl category. But I haven't committed to that one yet as I have to check. Finally, I have a bunny that I made _years_ ago that I'm going to enter in the Sewing category of Handcrafted Toy. I did enter another bunny years ago and won a first place ribbon, but this one has been adorning my shelves without a ribbon to call its own. So I'm going to dust her off and enter her so she feels special like her buddy.

I won't win enough points to earn the Hall of Fame in any way. Someone who enters Sewing stuff always gets that because you can sew a LOT more stuff than you can either knit or crochet. I always wanted to win a Hall of Fame (they display all your stuff separately from everyone else), but knitters and crocheters don't have a chance... /sigh/ Six articles won't get you into the Hall of Fame area.

Let's see if there's anything else in the past couple weeks. I wanted to mow today. The grass is almost knee high because I haven't been home to mow, but it's misting/raining. Too much to be a mist, too light to be rain. So, would that be rist? Or would it be main? /g/ That's okay, though. I have lots of laundry and housecleaning to do. When you only come home to flop for 10 days, things tend to back up and stall. And I have a cake to bake for Dee's official "party" tomorrow. We're taking her to Red Lobster so she and I can pig out on snow crab and then we'll come back here for cake and coffee. That's when I can check with my MIL about her shawl. I might have to wash and block it for the Fair, but that's okay. My mom has tons of floor space. Can't do it in my house because the boys would take one look and exclaim "CATBED!!!!!" White cats on a burgundy shawl. Not a good mix.

Okay, time to hop in the shower and then get on the cleaning gloves and work my way around the house. Start with the bathroom and end up at the radiator in the living room. It's amazing the accumulation of dust that can gather in the crannies of a radiator, isn't it? I've never been vigilant, but with oil prices going through the roof, I have to be better about "clean" heat so the boiler doesn't have to work so hard.

Have a wonderful week!!!! I'll gather items for pics for next week. I should have the Pembrokeshire Pathways socks done by then and they truly have turned out gorgeous. So gorgeous that I actually want to knit more patterns in the future. What a concept. After four or five years, I now want to knit patterns. Heck, I'm even thinking of an Aran sweater. I must be way too tired if thoughts like this are cropping up... LOL!

Completed... Wow!

2008-08-12T08:32:00.003-04:00

I'm now done with 4 projects. It's hard to believe how they all finished around the same time, but lots of pics to take. YD actually got up before I finished updating this post, so I grabbed the camera and shot away. Well, okay, she shot the pics, but I have pics to show!

It takes so little to make me happy, doesn't it? Almost downright pathetic... LOL!

So, what have I done? I've finished 3 pairs of socks that were begun way back when. I've got my last pair of Plymouth Happy Feet all set and ready to wear.

I also finished another lovely pair in Stone Barn Fibers' Spring Fling. Geez, this yarn is simply divine to work with. Seriously, though, if you're a sock knitter and you haven't tried Cathi's yarn, you should. You're depriving yourself if you don't. She uses the same "blanks" as Koigu, but you get more yardage and enough to finish a healthy-sized sock. As soon as I get back to work, I'm placing another order because I'm running low and she's got some new colorways that are itching to be added to my stash... /wry g/

Anyway, last pair is done in Cherry Tree Hill's limited edition of Cherry Blossom. Nice yarn, nice variation on color, but the yarn is thicker and loftier than their normal "blanks". In fact, the socks are a bit big for me. So I'm going to pass these over to a friend of mine. I'd promised her a pair of socks this summer and this will be the pair.

She'd bought a skein of Farmhouse Yarns Fannie's Fingering.... Hmm, I think the colorway is Secret Garden. It's greens and pinks. Either way, I'd told Linda that I would knit her a pair of socks from it, but the CTH actually cost me more... Yikes! That's okay. Linda is a great friend. I've begun teaching her to knit because she absolutely LOVES handknit socks, but progress is slow and she's not ready yet for socks. She's not really a crafts type person. Long story, but she's one of the few friends I have who I'd consider knitting for rather than teaching her to knit her own. I'm not sure she'll ever complete a project, so I don't mind tossing in a project every once in a while. Anyway, I'm going to give her the CTH socks and I know she'll love them.

Lastly, I finished the Stone Barn Fibers' Blueberries n Cream fiber. I really think this yarn is fine enough for socks. I have 600+ yds of it, so I kinda hate to limit the knitting to socks, but my goal was to spin my own yarn to knit socks and this one fits the bill. So I'm now knitting like crazy so I can make a pair of socks for the Durham Fair. I can enter the other yarns into the fiber category for handspun, but this yarn definitely needs to be knit into something.

So I have several projects now dedicated for the Durham Fair. I have to check the categories, but I want to submit my Philosopher's Wool sweater into the sweater category. I want to submit handspun into the fiber category (I'm currently working on Crown Mountain Farms' Buffalo Soldier). A pair of socks in my Blueberries n Cream into the handspun/handknit category. Then I want to knit up that Secret Garden into a plain vanilla pair of socks. And I should be ashamed of myself for not thinking sooner, but I ran out yesterday and got a couple skeins of Koigu in a multi-hued pink/lavendar for a pair that I want to knit in Brenda Dayne's pattern called Pembrokeshire Pathways. I'd begun it in a variegated, but the colors hid the pattern and the pattern is really pretty. These socks have to be knit in a fairly plain color so the pattern will really shine.
~
It's funny because I've looked at the pattern since it came out. It looks so durned hard and intricate. It's not. It's labeled for intermediate knitters, but it's really only a 4 row pattern. Yes, there's a 4-stitch cable. Big deal. And then there are some yarnovers and k2tog in the 3-st band. Seriously, not a big deal. But oh, so pretty.

So I have one sock to finish in Stone Barn Fibers' Winter Wonderland (yup, one lone sock for a pic) and then I can cast on for the Pembrokeshire Pathways. Lastly, I have to see if the girls know where their fingerless mitts are. I did knit those in the last year after the fair had finished, so they should be eligible for this year's fair. Actually this yarn would have been spectacular for the Pembrokeshire Pathways pattern, but I've already finished the first sock and I hate to even think of frogging the whole thing just to add a pattern. Maybe sometime in the future I can order more yarn and do a second pair in the pattern. I really do think this is one of the few with splashes of color that won't detract from a pattern, especially a pattern that looks as complicated as Brenda's.

Course, who knows? New patterns might come to my attention. Wouldn't it be funny to just order lots and lots of this yarn and make all different patterns from the same yarn? Oh boy, my brain is starting to fry... /wry g/

Oh, I have to tell the most wonderful news! Cathi at www.stonebarnfibers.com created a whole new color just for my Mom. Mom was saying that she'd like to see more yellow. After all, it was spring and you can't help but think of daffodils and jonquils and crocus. So Cathi created Buttercup for my Mom. A beautiful hued yellow. I have to get over and order some.... but then, I already admitted that, didn't I? There are some lovely patterns that have come out recently that I'd like to try, but you really need either a plain color or tonal yarns so the patterns really shine. I've done a few socks combining very simple patterns with variegated yarns, but you either lose the pattern in the colors or the colors in the pattern. Usually, it's the first.

Besides, I have that textured argyle that I still have to finish. I think it would look gorgeous in Cathi's new hued color called Miss Mary. Let the texture speak for itself. What's more is that the texture would really shine in Cathi's yarn because the yarn is very shiny, which relates to highlighting the individual stitches very well in the completed project. (If only I could afford to make an entire sweater out of Cathi's yarn... Wouldn't that be heavenly?) I think her yarn would show better in a textured pattern than, say, Crown Mountain Farms Bearfoot yarn, which has mohair and is a lot softer in texture.

Can you tell I'm fumbling through what I'm trying to say? LOL! But some yarns are better for stitch definition than others. Not that the yarn is hard. It's not. It's just so smooth that it gives a better definition of the individual stitches than other yarns. Lorna's Laces is another example. Even though it's wool, it knits up similar to cotton. Very defined stitches. That would work well in a textured pattern like Cathi's at Stone Barn Fibers. Yes, even Blue Moon Fibers' Socks That Rock (STR) is good for stitch definition. Then others, like Sheepaints, Fannie's Farmhouse and Bearfoot give a softer appearance and wouldn't work well for stitch definition. Heck, my own handspun is too soft in appearance.

Oh well, I'm beginning to ramble and, as usual, I haven't taken my shower to start my day. We have pictures to pick out for YD's yearbook in about two hours, so I s'pose I should get moving. Today is a day to catch up on bills and get more spinning in. I have a couple pounds of roving to spin up so I can do my Christmas projects and, though it might only be August, Christmas will be here before we know it. (Yes, this is me nudging not only you, but me! LOL!)

Mosh Pits and Dragsters

2008-08-02T21:33:00.003-04:00

No pics yet because DD hasn't cleared the memory card out of the camera. But I have pics to take of several ongoing projects. Maybe I can get to that tomorrow.

In the meantime, let's start with Mosh Pits. Last weekend, I went to my first all-day concert in probably 25 years. My girls wanted to go to the Warped Tour and they were at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island last Saturday. I did make them wait until we knew that the weather was going to work with us. (I went to one concert in the rain and never again! /g/) Well, the weather looked good, so we ordered the tickets and took off for a 2-hour drive each way.

Traffic worked well and we arrived shortly before 11AM. We parked, crawled into the crowd and made our way in. Think of this. Six stages set up in various areas of a huge parking lot. Probably 40+ bands, all playing at staggered times, but each stage having some band playing at all times. Lots of tents with promotion stuff. Tents with other stuff (like sun lotion for $8 a tube). You don't know how much money I spent that day, but overall, it wasn't bad.

And I was honored that my girls invited me. Okay, okay, let's be honest. I was invited by younger daughter because her boyfriend couldn't go unless I did the driving. But I have to say that older daughter invited me (and offered to pay for my ticket) because she thought I'd enjoy it. She was right. It was just as hot and sticky, but fun, as the concerts I'd attended when I was a teen. And my girls are old enough that I didn't have to worry about riding herd on them all day. There were parents there with 10- and 12-year-olds. Course, I wouldn't consider it when my girls were that age, but I'm considered a very restrictive parent. Go figure. I'm a strict PITA and my girls invite me... /shrugging/ Maybe parents should be reading my blog and taking notes... LOL!

Well, the day went well until the very end. Poor Shelby. Her favorite band, Anberlin, was hitting the stage at 6:40PM (yes, it was a long day), so they'd worked their way into the crowd during the band prior to Anberlin. They did manage to get right upfront, against the barrier that kept the crowd back from the stage. ABout three songs into the set and disaster struck. Some guy was launched up for a session of crowd surfing (if you don't get some of these terms, drop me a note and I'll be happy to explain) and landed right on her. Smacked her face down into the barrier. There went the nose again.

I was standing at the other side of the stage. Yup, I knew they were up front and that little warming light was flashing in my head because I'd seen the mosh pits and the crowd surfing all day. Next thing I know, their friend Joe comes from behind the stage and tells me one of the girls is hurt. I run around and find Shelby covered in blood. All I can think is Not Again!!!!!
Yes, this is the same daughter that had the accident three months ago.

A day later and once the bruising really came out, I don't think she broke the nose again. I think it simply got smushed against the barrier. She had bruises on her cheeks, a couple small cuts to the nose itself and a healthy fat lip that showed the clear line where the metal barrier hit.

She's fine now. Worse part for her is that the band did not have a good night. She'd waited all day since this was her favorite band and they played lousy in her opinion. Everyone else was okay with their performance, but she was greatly disappointed. And to end up bloodied in the midst of it certainly didn't help.

The other bad news is that the concert ended up very expensive. Earlier, she'd gotten caught up in a mosh pit at another band's concert and lost her brand-new prescription sunglasses. We did our best to find them, but they were nowhere to be found. And it cost her $200 to replace them... Yikes! Poor kid just can't catch a break this year.

Last night was the drag races. We go to Night of Fire at Lebanon Valley racetrack every year. They bring in jet cars and a good friend of ours races. Kind of an annual outing. It was a gorgeous day. I even got some excellent video of the jet cars that younger daughter uploaded to youtube. Great smoke and fire and this year I wore my ear protection.

But the best part and the reason I have to get younger daughter to free up space on her camera is because I finally took the time to teach myself to spindle. I grabbed some old fiber and tossed it into a ziploc with the drop spindle I'd bought at the Connecticut Sheep & Wool Festival back in April. I've been meaning to sit down and simply Do it!, but I always found some excuse why I couldn't. Well, I had time. I took the blanket up to the grandstand to "mark out our seats" and simply made myself sit until I got the hang of it.

After spinning with a wheel for almost two years, it wasn't hard. A few tricks, but I already had a basic understanding of draft and twist. It was simply putting it together and just doing it. I had about two hours or so during the time trials to play and I took full advantage. In fact, I was having so much fun that I'd pull it out later when there was a break in the action during the actual races. And I got some of the strangest looks possible. People trying to figure out what the heck I was doing, but no one had the guts to outright ask me. I could have explained, but I liked being this weird lady doing something beyond comprehension. It kept them watching as I'd set the spindle to spinning and then pinch out the fiber and let the twist run into it. Pinch some more, draft more, pinch and draft, pinch and draft. Then wind it up as the spindle lost steam and start again. It's not even, nor is it pretty, but it's hand spun on a drop spindle. So now I have to refine my language. I have my spinning and I have my spindling. I kind of like that idea. And I might just have to take some to work with me when I'm back at the university. I may not have room in my booth for a wheel, but if I can drop spindle in a crowded granstand at a racetrack, I can surely spindle in my booth... LOL!

I'll see if I can get back tomorrow with some pics. I did finish that first bobbin of Blueberries & Cream and I'm about halfway done with the second bobbin. Then that can be plied, washed and whacked. And I think I'm just going to reach into my big box of fiber to see what comes out next. I have no idea what it'll be, but it sure is fun to have a choice and I can't wait to see what I'll be spinning next....

Pics, plants and yarn

2008-07-19T10:17:00.010-04:00

Let's start with the garden. Yup, that's me sitting on the boulder in the middle of my garden. This is the garden I dug out with a hawser axe last year. Each foot of sod painfully hacked with the axe and the sod tossed.

I'd just finished weeding the top half (the bottom is still painfully green in places). That big bush to my left is our forsythia. I have some shaping to do to keep it from encroaching on the rest of the garden. The little purplish growths are my purple smoke trees. They're very happy, but they're slow growing, so it'll take quite a few years for them to bush out. Surrounding them are the strawberries 'n' cream grasses. I'd just topped the grasses to encourage root growth because I'd divided them a few weeks back. Below the forsythia are six diamond grasses that will top out around 4' tall and spread about 3' in diameter. They won't bloom this year, but when they do, it's a very feathery bloom that catches the morning dew and sparkles in the early light. Hence the name - diamond grass. Just to my right are black-eyed susans with blue balloon flowers next to them. Behind them are supposed to be my Alaskan shasta daisies, but they're not looking too good this year. (Read last post and my usual problem with bare root plants... /sigh/) In front of them and barely visible are about 20 red yarrow (Achillea) plants. I grew those from seed and I'm watering every other day. They're tiny and feathery right now, but if they survive the winter, they should be brilliant next year. Lastly, behind me, those fluffy little things are my wonderful lavendar plants. 21 in all and they'll be great erosion control on the steepest part of the hill. They'll fill in to create a blanket of lavendar. I love watering them because their scent is just too sweet. You don't even need to crush the leaves. Just stick your nose in the plant and you can smell that gorgeous scent.

Anyway, there it is in all its sad glory. I still have to re-edge the border. The grass is trying to encroach as you can see all the way around. And it's gotten a bit late to mulch. All the weeds have definitely established themselves this year. I knew a late start was going to put me behind the eight-ball, but I've played catch up before. This year will be about damage control with my garden. Next year, though, early attack and I'll get it back on track.

Next topic is I have actual yarn!!!!!

This was my first yarn in months. It's a marled red w/ a maple variegated. The red is 100% merino. The maple is a blend of merino/tencel. The sun wasn't on the deck yet, so the picture isn't as bright as I'd like, but I'm thrilled. I have about 400 yds of handspun goodness of this one. I'm thinking my mother-in-law for Christmas. Like me, she has a thing about red. She wears lots of it, so it should work well with her wardrobe.

This yarn is maybe sportweight or DK. I haven't checked the wpi yet, but when I get to knitting it into a Moebius for my MIL, that will be one of the first things I check. I'll probably end up with a size 8 or 10 needle as I want the Moebius to drape. But the whole point of this is the first actual yarn is ready to go.

Now, for the next yarn.....

Isn't this one just lovely? Another marled yarn. The green is a merino/tencel blend. The yellow is also a variegated, though. It has small bands of green and red that ran through the roving so it adds a blush of color every now and again.

Add to that the fact that my spinning has gotten finer, I'm really pleased with this. Youngest daughter thinks I ought to use this to enter in the Durham Fair in the fall. I do take her opinion because she's a sometimes knitter, so she's worked with yarn before. She thinks it's good enough to stand against commercial. I think she's optimistic on that one... LOL!

But I'm very happy with the end product. I'd completed the bulk of the red a few weeks ago and just wanted a change, so I'd switched to the yellow. But once I got the yellow spun and plied, I wanted to get them both done. So I quickly spun up the small balance of the red, plied it and then got out my trusty niddy noddy. Skeined them up, washed with a squirt of shampoo, rinsed and then (here's the part I really enjoyed), whacked the heck out of them against the deck railing. Then I hung the skeins from the braces on my canopy to dry overnight. Luckily, the yarn balanced out beautifully and I was able to coil them up and take pics.

I'm now spinning up some gorgeous Blueberries N Cream roving from http://www.stonebarnfibers.com/ Again, I have 6 oz of this gorgeous stuff and I'm going to spin, ply and then make it into a Moebius for older daughter. Who knows? If I can get it fine enough, I might be able to turn it into a pair of mittens, but that might be ambitious yet for me.

But, either way, I'm going to save a bit of the fiber in case I want to enter this one into the Durham Fair in their fiber category. They have fiber categories as well as categories for articles made from handspun.

And, boy, have things changed since I last entered the Durham Fair. I remember winning a blue ribbon for a sweater years ago and the prize was the ribbon and $10. Now they're paying upwards of $35 for first prize. Yeah, I've been out of the loop... LOL! Regardless of whether I have anything to enter in the Fair, my goal is to take a vacation day from work on Friday and see if I can join their little "spin in" demonstration in the fiber barn. That would be a LOT of fun.

Okay, off for more spinning... er, if I can keep the fiber from sticking to me more than it sticks to itself with all this heat and humidity we've had lately. All I want to do is crawl in my AC'd bedroom and watch old DVDs. Unfortunately, too much work to do before I can afford myself that pleasure. (Course, if I could fit my wheel into my bedroom, I'd have more success justifying my time in the AC... LOL!)

Have a wonderful week and now that I've figured out how to take the pics, upload them to the computer and actually put them where I want them on the page, I can update more often. I definitely need to add a pic of my yarn drying on my deck and hanging on the frame of the canopy. What's worse is that I actually liked the way it looked. the DH? He looked at me and asked when he can expect to come home and find a sheep grazing behind the garage... /wink/

Misting nonsense

2008-06-29T10:17:00.002-04:00

All week long, they've been threatening me with rain every day. Heavy downpours and thunder and lightning and even a possibility of hail. Uh huh. The best I get is maybe a light mist that barely dampens the ground. My plants are upset. I'm upset. If it's going to rain, could you please do it right?

IOW, I still have to water my poor little plants. The ones I'm worried about most are some Alaskan Shasta daisies that I'd ordered. I'd hoped for little 3" pots, but I got two bags with bare root plants.

I'm good with plants. I can make a lot of things grow that shouldn't grow. But I'm death on bare root plants. I've never been able to figure out if I water too much or not enough. I just know that they hate me. So I have 6 little tiny rounded areas in my big garden out front that are supposed to house some bare root Alaskan Shastas and, so far, they look pretty damn dismal. No top to speak of and I can't tell if the roots are alive because I'd have to dig them up and shock them again. Only time will tell.... /sigh/

I did collect my seedlings from Mom last Sunday. I'm hoping to get the yarrow (Achillea) into the ground today. A cute little bed of feathery stuff down near the front of the big bed out in front. The color is supposed to be brilliant red. We'll see. Right now, each plant is one feathery tiny shaft of potential. The others that are simply too cute is I started geraniums from seed. They're adorable and tiny. I know they're just waiting to take off once I get them in the ground. But they're so darned cute that I've decided to plant from seeds again next year. LOTS of them... /g/

Oh, speaking of geraniums, I did finally get to the cemetary. Thursday, I think. I couldn't stand the guilt anymore. Now, I know that Dad totally understands that I was late this year due to the surgery, but that's besides the point. There are several stones in the area that people come and tend and do take very good care to show that they love and remember and honor their loved ones. And I hadn't been to the cemetary yet. It's like I couldn't care less anymore and that wasn't true.

Normally, I never care what other people think. Trust me on this. My family will be happy to attest to that fact. But this is one place where I do care. I didn't know my great-grandparents all that well and... er, let's just say I wasn't their favorite great-grandchild and the feeling was reciprocated because their favoritism was so blatant that it was hard to ignore. But I loved my grandparents and adored my father. So it matters that I plant and maintain the small plot at the family stone. Anyway, I had my last post-surgical follow-up on Thursday morning (I've been cleared for all active duty... YEAH!) and I loaded the back of my Jeep with all the tools and plants I needed. It took me a while to dig out the weeds, but I dug it out and planted geraniums and I have some cousins of petunias -- I forget what they're called. I also brought a hose so I and others could water our little areas. I hope no one steals the hose like they did a couple years ago.

The last two beds to weed and plant are the two by my front door. Being at the top of a hill, they're usually the last to get done because, let's face it, no one can really see them. They're tucked behind my huge garden on the hill so you can't see them from the street and our front porch is too small to really sit on unless you're taking a quick break or waiting for someone to come over. Mark and I would really love to have a larger front porch, but we have a lot more work to do inside the house before we can even think of tackling that project.

Anyway, so two last areas and then I'm down to sheer maintenance on the yard. Oh, and the purchase and spreading of a couple yards of mulch, but that's a given. I'm hoping to get to that today as well as vacuuming the pool. The water is crystal clear and the chemical balance is right. I just need to vacuum the damn pine fluff off the bottom. Have I mentioned before that I truly hate my neighbor's pine trees? Yeah, probably.

The good news is that I've been a spinning demon. I finished that first bobbin of bright red and plied it with a variegated "maple" that I'd had sitting around. Yes, I bought the red to ply with a yellow variegated fiber named "daffodil", but I had a feeling the maple and red would look wonderful together. So I tried and it worked.

So, in the past week, I kept to my plan and did get spinning time every day and I spun up a whole bobbin of red and another bobbin of the maple. Now, I'm in the midst of plying those two together.

And, yes, practice is certainly helping. My singles are much finer and much more even. I think I might have gotten a bit too much twist in some areas of the maple, but I'm hoping that setting the twist (as well as the inevitable whacking) will smooth that out. I'm going to wait to set the twist until all the skeins are created and then do it all at once.

Next I'm going to work on the daffodil because I have a lovely green variegated that will look lovely with that. Then I can finally get to the gorgeous merinos that I'd ordered from Stone Barn Fibers. Blueberries & Cream, Wild Orchids and a third in Arcade Treasures. Those will be absolutely lovely to work with and make wonderful Christmas Moebius' for the women in my life. Light and fluffy and warm as freshly-made toast.

And it also gives me a chance to catch up on my podcasts. I'm SO woefully behind on those. It's easy when I'm working because I'm sitting in my booth with nowhere to go and nothing to do but knit. But when I'm working in the yard, I usually just toss music on the radio, so I'm far behind on my spinning and knitting podcasts. But my spinning is a good time to plug in the earset and listen while I zone to the thrum of my wheel.

One more quick update for those who might be interested. I received a phone call from my insurance company. A lawyer has requested a statement from them that I don't (yup, you read that right... _do not_) have an umbrella policy. Right after the accident, we were sent a letter to inform us that one of the passengers in the other car had retained council. I agree it was a good idea since the driver at fault (who is NOT my daughter) was painfully underinsured. Yes, I believe they're going to have to sue in order to collect enough money just to cover the medical expenses this poor girl has accrued.

But the bad part in this is everyone seems to forget that my daughter was also a victim. She had no fault in this accident other than being in the wrong place when the other driver decided to turn left in front of her. Yes, I carry more insurance. But that's not my fault. My daughter was just as much a victim as this girl who landed in rehab long enough that she attended her prom almost a month later in a wheelchair. I'm sorry the other family was underinsured, but why visit that on us?

God forbid they file against us, I can only hope that a jury recognizes the fact that my insurance rates shouldn't be increased because the other family didn't carry enough to cover costs.

Oh well. This is Connecticut, a no-fault state, which means they can try to collect from us. They have two years to file. We have 22 months to go before we're safe from persec... er, prosecution. Lovely thought, isn't it? My fingers are crossed.

In the meantime, a lovely day outside. I'm going to go pull some weeds and vacuum my pool. Then I'm going to take my wheel out on the deck and catch up on some podcasts. That's a plan I can enjoy. I hope you enjoy your week!

I am a spinner...

2008-06-22T08:57:00.002-04:00

At least, that's what I'm trying to tell myself... er, again. My poor wheel. She's been pretty well ignored for the last couple months. Covered in dust and pining in the corner for some oil and usage.

Well, this past Friday, youngest daughter dragged out the frame for the canopy from the basement. We took out the shell, shook it out, hosed it down and laid it on the driveway to dry. Then we put the shell on the frame and I immediately went in and saved my poor little wheel from her abandoned corner. I dusted her off, every cranny with love and affection, and brought her outside to enjoy the fresh air with the rest of us.

Okay, so youngest daughter looked at me with a horrified glance. After all, the neighbors could sit and watch me spin. Was I really going to indulge my little hobby where everyone could see me? Yup, get over it, girl. I am a spinner.

And I have a TON... well, okay, let's be realistic. A half-TON of fiber that's waiting to be spun and plied. Yes, ladies, I hate to admit it, but my fiber was so lonely in it's box that it began cloning and reproducing when I wasn't looking. I know I had a couple of pounds sitting there, but I think it doubled in weight while I was off ignoring it.

So I've got my work cut out for me. Lots of fiber to spin and ply. Lots of yarn to make. And then what to do with it? Well, I always knit something for my Mom and my mother-in-law and my aunt-in-law for Christmas. What if I spend my summer making up the yarn and then knit it into various Moebius' for all of them? And I have enough fiber that I can also make yarn and then knit Moebius' for both my girls also. I have a lovely "Blueberries 'N' Cream" fiber that I know oldest daughter will like a lot. And I have another bunch of fiber in a colorway called "Orchid Petals" that younger daughter will simply love. Both fibers are from Stone Barn Fibers and hand-dyed by Cathi, a true master at mixing her colors.

I'm thinking that might be an excellent plan. Yes, I was also planning on working on wedding shawls for the daughters for use someday, but I'm sure I'll want something that's different and simple when I need a break from lacework. Not only hand-knit, but hand-spun, would be excellent for this Christmas, don't you think?

I'm still trying to get my singles fine and even enough to spin my own sock yarn and I'm getting close. Very close. But I'm not quite there yet. I'm down to about a sport weight in my plied yarn. That's pretty good, but not good enough yet to knit socks with. So I'll keep practicing this summer and make Moebius' out of the final products.

Lord knows, I have enough fiber to achieve that goal.

Let's see.... what else? The yard is taking shape. I have seven out of ten beds weeded and pretty well planted. (I think I've claimed more flower beds in my yard, but I did a quick recount and there's only ten of them.) I do promise some pics of the beds. Some are quite small. But one is HUGE. I already plan to take a pic of that one with me sitting on the boulder in the center. That will give some perspective to just how huge. This is the one that I spent last summer digging out by hand. Approximately 6 days a week, 6 hours a day and it took me just about 6 weeks to get that thing dug out and properly mulched. Believe it or not, we used about 2.5 yds of mulch to bury it once I'd dug it out. I had some of the plants last year, I added a few more this year and I have a LOT more to add, but I want to do it slowly so it doesn't appear haphazard.

The plants I've been sticking in the ground are small. I can't afford to buy well-established plants, so I start with younglings and hope they grow up to fill in. It'll probably take another year or so to finish planting the area and at least 3-4 years for it to mature. But once it's all done, it should be fairly maintenance free. A bit of weeding. A new topping of much. Sit and enjoy.

BTW, all three of my purple smoke trees survived the winter. That was my biggest fear. The trees were SO young when I planted them and one is stuck in very heavy soil. So I worried that the heavy soil and winter chill might kill it. But they've all survived and doing well. It'll be another 5 years before they really come into their glory, but they'll be beautiful once they really grow up. I trimmed the new growth at the bottom this week to enourage top growth. (The grasses surrounding them are topping out and a couple of the grasses were taller than the trees... /g/)

But a note on the grasses. I planted "Strawberries & Cream" grasses around the base of each tree. A ring of 5 grasses. Well, life can be strange at times. I lost 3 of the 5 at each tree. So I only had two grasses that survived. Needless to say, it looked quite strange. So I contacted the nursery I'd gotten the grasses from but they're not even carrying those grasses this year. Yes, I could divide them, but I didn't want to divide one into two and the other into three. But I lucked out. Last weekend, I found a local nusery that had them. I bought three new grasses. Then, after I'd trimmed the new growth at the base of the trees, I divided the established grasses into two and planted the new one. So each tree now has 5 grasses around the base.

I was really worried that I'd have to move the grasses and start over, but now I don't have to. These grasses should fill in to create a full ring around the base of the tree and give a lovely contrast to the dark purple of the leaves. Give them all a few more years to mature and I'll find out if my plan will really work... LOL!

Anyway, off to the shower and then Mom's house to collect my seedlings. Both girls are at work until mid-afternoon and Mark is still away at his "boys' weekend". He won't be home until later. I hope I have time to get the plants before the rain comes in. It's supposed to downpour today. I really don't mind. We've had showers every evening this week. Nice sunny days and rain at night. I won't complain. It means I don't have to go out and water... LOL!

Have a wonderful week and drop me a comment.

No More soup... Yes!!!

2008-06-14T08:04:00.002-04:00

Thank goodness that heat wave is gone. I hope it stalls out over the Atlantic and stays there all summer. If I believe my trusty weatherbug, our heat index hit about 106 on Monday. Tuesday was weird because it felt cooler only because the cold front was coming. You could actually feel little breaths now and then during the day until all hell broke loose Tuesday night.

The rest of the week has been in the 80's. Yeah, yeah, I know some people feel a HUGE difference between 82 and 89. I say "Pffft!" Anything in the 80's is good for me... /g/

So what have I done? I actually finished a pair of socks. Oh, a couple months ago, I'd bought some of Gypsy Girl's newest colorway Spring Fling and started the pair looooooong before I was out of work. I only had about 36 rows to the end of the second sock. During my recovery period, I was supposed to finish those, finish the pair of Happy Feet also OTN and knit my friend Linda a pair in Fannie's Farmhouse. Hmm.... remember my last post where I said I did nothing but sit and zone out on the boob tube? (Yes, I've just dated myself because my girls haven't a clue what the boob tube is... /g/) Okay, I finally finished that pair of socks. Next will be to work on Happy Feet.

But I'm happy with myself because my fingers were itching to pick up the needles. That's a good thing, right? /g/ That was Wednesday night after our heat wave made a beeline for Europe.

I'd love to tell you about Tuesday except I don't remember much of it. I think it was one of those days where I woke up with great intentions and promptly forget each and every one once my feet actually hit the floor.

So Wednesday was better. I bought some plants. This will force me to start that dreaded weeding. But I bought anyway.

Thursday was a work day. Things are piling in the office faster than I can process them. The monthly bills were in the mail on Monday, so the phone calls began on Tuesday. "What do you mean you charge us if we don't show up?" It's in the contract, dear. The one you signed. I even made the print bold so you can't miss it. Oh, that's right. You'd actually have to read it before you signed... /sigh/ "Why are you charging me and not my insurance company?!?!?" Because you didn't give us any insurance to bill, dearest. I really do try my best, but I'm sadly not telepathic. I have no idea if you have insurance unless you give us your card so we can -- here's a concept -- make a copy of your card so we know who to bill and where to send it.

My favorites are the people who've been sent to collection because they refuse to fork over the money they owe. We send bills every month. No payment. We stamp the bill with a big red stamp that says "Past Due". No payment. We hand write on the bill "If you don't send us money, we'll be forced to send you to collection." Yes, we actually sit down and hand write this on the bill, showing that we really try to keep that personal touch with our patients. No stamps. No computer message. A real honest-to-goodness handwritten message. What's the usual result? No payment. We finally send them to our collection agency who sends yet another letter that states they have 10 days to send something or this will be put on their credit report as a bad debt. Ten days comes and goes. The agency sends notification to the credit bureaus.

That's when the phone calls begin. You've had months of hints, threats, action and warnings. Nada. Suddenly now we get irate phone calls of "How dare you!!!!"

/sigh/

I shouldn't tell this story, but I do have a good one. We had a patient who was a 20-year-old girl. She ran up a bill that was over $600. Finally, the doctor told her she needed some kind of payment or she couldn't see her anymore. The girl left. So we went through our routine of hint, threat, yadda, yadda. The doctor asked me to call. Now, I work this job part-time. Heck, not even part-time. I only work 10-12 hours per week. It's a solo practice, so it's not like billing is a huge thing. Couple hours a week, but she pays me well to keep the paperwork flowing. Anyway, at the time, I worked on Sundays because I was also working my full-time job. So it's Sunday morning and it was around 11AM when I pick up the phone to call this girl. Someone answers the phone and I tell them who I am. They don't cover the receiver, but I can hear LOTS of noise in the background. Frankly, between you and me, it sounded like she was in the middle of Sunday dinner with her family (and it was quite an extended family from the chatter). Then another voice comes on the line and asks who I am. I repeat my name and I'm calling from the office of so-and-so. Again, it's obvious to me that the phone is moved away from the person's ear as this person repeats to someone who I am. What do I hear in the background? A third voice saying, "I don't want to talk to her!" And they hang up... /bigger sigh/

So I call back and no one answers. I get the voicemail (this is obviously a cell phone with caller ID so they can ignore me), so I left a message stating that we needed to discuss some kind of payment plan or I'd have no choice but to send her into collection.

The very next week we get notification that our bill is being listed in the parents' bankruptcy. So very not kewl. So I wrote a letter to the attorney representing the parents as well as a copy to the bankruptcy court stating that this bill was not the responsibility of the parents as it belongs to their daughter who is of legal age to make her own messes and have to clean them up. Take note here, folks. Big trouble ensued. Trying to claim someone else's bills in your bankruptcy is attempting to perpetrate a fraud on the court. They don't have the ability to discharge debts accrued by someone else. And claiming it as yours is illegal because of the fraud issue. The parents got into big trouble and the girl still ended up in collection.

For what it's worth, don't be a deadbeat. I have great admiration for another patient who used to come to our office. She ran up a bill of well over $1,500. They started paying us $25 a month. As they paid down other bills, it went up to $30 a month, then $35 and they currently pay us $40 a month. Each and every month, their check arrives and their bill is now down to a bit less than $500. It's been a long, slow journey, but I can't send them to collection. They don't pay much, but they pay every single month. I'm sorry, but I see a lot of deadbeats in my job, but I admire this couple for recognizing the fact that they ran up this bill and they're doing their best to pay it off.

Oh, the stories I could tell, but I won't. That wasn't my intention. I was simply relaying that Thursday was a pain. Computer work is fun. I shuffle lots of paper, my biggest interaction is with my keyboard and I get to sit in an air-conditioned office for part of the day. But then there are the phone calls....

Anyway, moving onto Friday, I took care of some appts, paid a couple bills since Fri was payday. Then I did some weeding in the yard, though I wonder why my liatris is drooping on one side. I thought it was just dry, so I watered on Thurs. But it's almost kind of smooshed on one side. I'm wondering if Copper sat on it while it was developing. It's that kind of smoosh. I'm hoping the plant bounces back. When you first walk into the side yard, it looks okay and then you see it from the side. The whole back half is smooshed. Considering it's in the center of a triangular garden, this could be a problem. But we'll see...

Then about 2PM, I drove oldest daughter and her friend to the beach. We only spent about 2 hrs there, but it was nice. The water was cold, but not unbearable. I splashed sea water up on my legs and my arms. Time to start the summer tan. I'm already 5 weeks behind.

Today is a day of yardwork. I should be cleaning my filthy house, but I can't bear the thought of another day inside these walls. I've been pretty well housebound for the last 5 weeks... Argh!!!! I need sunshine and fresh air. I need dirt under my nails and allergens clogging my nose.

Yes, the pine trees are throwing off pollen like crazy. I started early this week with one Zyrtec a day. Ha! After 3 nights of waking at 3AM because I was so stuffed I couldn't breathe, I took an additional Zyrtec last night and was able to sleep through. Another week or two and I'll be past the tree pollen. Then I should be fine until fall.

And, if I get yardwork done early, maybe I can sit at my little Prelude and finally begin my summer spinning. I have a couple lbs of fiber to spin up and I haven't even begun to work on that. So that's the plan.

I hope your day is just as productive as I hope mine to be. And I promise to be better about updating. I think I have 3 relatives who read this and my Mom loves to tell me that she learns more about my life reading this blog than she does through our phone conversations. I haven't figured out why. It's just one of those mysteries that we'll have to live with...

LOL!

Almost MIA... Oops!

2008-06-09T08:34:00.002-04:00

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last updated. But some big stuff happened during that time period. As I mentioned to my friends, the last month has been like the worst country song has taken over the direction of my life... /g/

First, my oldest daughter was involved in a very serious accident. Now, quickly, she's okay. A young driver tried to turn... oh, about 50 feet in front of my daughter. I guess she was really surprised that there wasn't enough road. My daughter was NOT surprised when the headlights suddenly veered in front of her. Six teenagers all sent to the hospital. Luckily, four of the kids were basically treated and released. Two of the teens weren't so lucky, but I've heard that they're on the road to recovery. It might take a while, but they should recover. Both cars were totalled. Yes, my daughter's Blazer was totalled, which should tell you how bad this accident was. But my daughter was lucky. A cut on her eyelid (seven stitches and the scar is hidden in the fold of her eye) and a broken nose.

But that was our first adventure. I won't elaborate any more details because I know some lawsuits are going to come from this accident for various reasons and I don't want to give ammunition to anyone.

Okay, two weeks later, I finished with work at the university and had my surgery. Ladies, let me give you a piece of advice. DON'T wait to have a fibroid removed if the doctor says they can take it out. The operation took over three hours and the durned alien baby had grown to 12cm (they tell me that's about 6") in diameter. Now, I don't think the size was the problem except that there wasn't enough room, so it sort of smushed everything in its path. Recovery is slow, but it's coming along. And I have the 6" scar to prove it... /wry g/

I'm almost four weeks later and feeling very good. In fact, I took my EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) this past weekend and I'm pretty sure I passed. Okay, I know I passed, but I still like the card to prove it... /g/ If you don't know what an EMT is, real quick, it's the basic certification needed to work on an ambulance. I think I've mentioned it before, but I volunteered for seven years on an ambulance, both as a driver and a technician. I still use my training very occasionally in my job in security, which is why I was in for a refresher (which is the technical term for re-certification). Since I'm the only person on site over at that off-campus dormitory, the EMT certification comes in handy. I can do a quick evaluation and assessment if one of the kids gets hurt or sick.

Anyway, moving on. I had the surgery on Wednesday. They released me to come home on Friday. The DH was and still is absolutely wonderful, but remember that one of our trucks is trashed. I get home and notice that my older dog, Copper, is breathing hard and I'm worried. So I call my Mom and ask her to come over. Hmm... Copper is definitely not right. Shelby had taken Copper to see the vet on the day of my surgery, but in my drug-infested sense of perception, I haven't got a clue what she told me. So Mom agrees that Copper needs to see the vet again. Mom and Shelby take her to the emergency vet hospital.

Skip to the end of the story... Copper is suffering from congestive heart failure. Yes, we had to put her down. Shelby called me to advise her what to do and I lost it. I had a complete emotional meltdown. I think I scared everyone because I never meltdown. I try to cut myself some slack on this. I was 3 days post-surgical, I was loopy on percocet and I hadn't started the hormone patch the doc had given me. Yup, I lost it.

In fact, I hope Shelby doesn't hold it against me. I was a little panicked when we got the call, but once I saw her and saw how bright and shiny her eyes were, I knew she'd be okay. I was calm and collected at the accident (yes, we arrived on scene before the fire dept had taken her out of the vehicle because the other vehicle was SO badly damaged that they had to cut the roof off to get the kids out). I'd been at a lot of accidents in my time with the ambulance and, let's face it, I'm her mom, so I knew she was okay. Oh, the funny story is that I knew her nose was broken. My husband denied it. Shelby denied it. The doctor denied it. They did a CT scan. Her nose was broken. Ha! I'm her mom! If anyone would know her daughter's face, it would be me...

Anyway, that's my sad country song. My daughter's okay, but we lost the truck. I lost the fibroid (thank you!), my uterus and my ovaries, but I'm recovering nicely. And I lost my dog, but I know we were able to give her three wonderful years at the end of her life. But we still have the house and my Hubby has been terrific.

Today, our heat index is supposed to be something like 103 degrees. In fact, my youngest daughter just called. They're letting school out early because of it. Oh boy. Last week, we were lucky to get in the 70's. Now we're definitely hitting mid-90's with a heat index of 100+. So I'd better get my shower done and keep putting water in the pool. Normally, our pool would be open by now, but I always help Hubby get the cover off and I haven't been able to do it. The bad part of the surgery. I can't lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk. Heck, I have a cat who weighs more than a gallon of milk... LOL!

Oh, the good news is that I mowed a little section of the lawn yesterday. Yes, I felt so normal doing that. I'm hoping to pull a few weeds today while working on my summer tan. I worked really hard last year getting my yard in shape. I'm not about to let it go to hell now. I might not be planting a lot of stuff, but I'm certainly going to search and destroy any weeds that try to invade. I haven't done any knitting or spinning to speak of, but I think that will be remedied soon. I had projects all lined up for my recovery period, but all I've done is sit and watch TV. Isn't it funny how that works? You finally have time to read and knit all you want and, instead, you sit and lament how you can't be out in the yard weeding and planting... /wry g/

But now that I'm feeling better, my fingers are beginning to itch for projects. It's about time, right?

Take it easy. Drinks lots if you're in the soup (hot and humid) like me. Enjoy the week and I'll try to have more fibery and knittery stuff next time I update.

OH, stupid!!!!!! Here's the best news of all! Listen carefully to Cast On in September. Brenda Dayne actually asked me if she could include a piece I'd written about why I began spinning. Isn't that just the BEST?!?!? I'm flattered. I'm honored. I'm totally wowed and humbled that she'd like something I wrote.

Time for a shower, folks. When you can begin to smell yourself, that certainly is NOT a good thing. Weird how I shower first thing so I can go out in the yard and work up a sweat. But whoever said I was normal?

Take care!!!

Did you see smoke?

2008-04-13T08:27:00.003-04:00

You should have seen smoke in the distance. Smelled the odor of wood burning a bit over the hill. Yes, I had an actual thought. Several things happened this week. I've been relistening to the old podcasts for "Cast On" w/ Brenda Dayne. Her easy style of podcasting is just SO relaxing to listen to, so I'm downloading all the old episodes and giving all the series' a second listen. Well, I'm up to the series on the Muses and the episode on memories and history and all that. She had a guest essayist who wrote about knitting her own bridal veil and knitting a future memory.
~~~~~
2X4 between the eyes for me. You see, I've also been lurking on the "EZ as Pi" group over on yahoo and Elizabeth Lovick designed an Orkney lace Pi shawl. She just finished hers and she has a pic of it hanging on her clothesline and it's beyond gorgeous. Absolutely lovely! That picture sort of flittered through my mind as I was listening to this guest essay and... Bingo! I know I've said that I adore lace, but I really see no purpose since I like my shawls warm. I'm not a lacey kind of gal. Lacey confections of loveliness are something to be admired, but not something that I'd really wear. So why would I knit them?
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How about to create a piece of future history? I have two daughters who are 16 & 18. Someday, I hope they'll marry and want kids and all that. Why wait until they make the announcement to plan a wedding project? Why can't I knit a lace wedding shawl now for each of them? I could knit them now. Wash and block. Carefully pack them away in a ziploc bag with their name and then have them ready should the day come when they want to marry.
~~~~~
After all, I've pretty much decided that, unless the bosses force me out of my current position and reassign me to a new post, I'm staying. I'm ensconced in my booth and I'm quite happy to remain there for however many years I decide to stay at my job. How more lucky could I ever expect to be? How many knitters could fall into a job where they can spend probably 30 of every 40 hours knitting? Stay where I am and simply plan large projects for each year. This year, I'd wanted to knit Christmas presents and I'd planned the two Philosopher's Wool sweaters. All projects accomplished as well as some extra Christmas gifts thrown in because I hd the extra time. Both sweaters knit also. Now I'm working on more socks and that Pi Are Squared shawl.
~~~~~
Anyway, so next year, I could get a couple cones of laceweight yarn and work on future heirlooms for my daughters.
~~~~~
Oh, speaking of yarns. Claudia Handpaint in Bearded Iris are done. Lovely yarn and lovely colors. I just turned the heel last night on the Colinette Jitterbug in Monet. This is the second sock, so I expect those to be on the feet this week. (Can't test how warm they are unless I wear them, right? /g/) And I started a new pair in Fannie's Fingering from Farmhouse Yarns. Now, Farmhouse Yarns is the one who started the store where I bought all those yarns in the bin sale. She sells mostly her own yarns. In fact, a great deal of the yarn is made from her own sheep. (At least, this is my understanding of how things have progressed for Carol Martin.) She used to sell her yarns from her home, but she's done well enough that she now has an official shop. I have to say that it's well worth the trip to see her shop. The yarns aren't cheap, but then she's located in East Haddam. Not exactly a poor part of the state. Taxes are low, but I'm sure rents are sky high and the housing market is unattainable for someone like me. Anyway, it's called CT Yarn and Wool (www.yarnandwool.com). Well worth the visit. Displays are wonderful and the colors in their hand-dyed are simply amazing.
~~~~~
But I'm blathering. Fannie's Fingering in Zinnia, which is various shades of yellow with some orange and peach. Really gorgeous stuff to work with. Lovely, lovely. A real pleasure on the hands and the end fabric is lightweight, but I imagine it will be warm also because it's 100% wool.
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In the meantime, I have to sit down and clean my wheel in preparation for spinning. That will be my project while recuperating next month. As soon as I can sit comfortably, I'll be at my wheel while working through my library of DVDs. I got some beautiful fibers from Cathi at Stone Barn Fibers (www.stonebarnfibers.com) I got 6 oz each in her colorways of Blueberries & Cream, Orchids and also Arcade Treasures. Okay, I also got more sock yarn in Cranberry Bog, Spring Fling and Winter Wonderland. Oooo.... damn, Cathi's sense of color is beyond amazing. Gorgeous stuff and I can't wait to work with ALL of it... /g/
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Anyway, I do have quite a stash of fiber and my plan is to spin it all this summer so I can plan on projects next fall. In between the large projects of the two future wedding shawls, I'd like to see if I can finally spin my own sock yarn. If I can't get it that fine, then I'm hoping for a couple moebius' for the women I know--Mom, mother-in-law, aunt-in-law and a wonderful excellent friend, Linda. Christmas goodness in yarn that I spun myself. Yup, that's the plan.
~~~~~
What was really nice this past week was spending the day with Hubby. Remember I wrote how we had to get a new entertainment center for his mother? Damn thing was solid oak. Weighed a TON. But we managed to wrangle it onto the trailer and then get it over to her house. It was real interesting to finagle it into her small apartment. Now, anyone else would consider this a huge room, but you have to understand my mother-in-law. She collects everything that comes within five feet of her. She stuffs every nook and cranny (as well as every available open space) with more junk that she considers "treasures". You can't take a step in any direction anywhere in her apartment without tripping over something. More crap than a dairy farm... /sigh/
~~~~~
Anyway, got the picture? We had to maneuver the old entertainment center out. That was interesting enough. Then had to maneuver the new one in. Yeah, took us well over an hour because, for every step, we had to move three things.
~~~~~
But we got that done. And then the DH had to pick up a car in Higganum and transport it over to Southington. Sure, I took the ride with him. It was really nice to spend about four hours, just the two of us. Nothing special. No big and meaningful conversations. Just spending time with each other without anyone else.
~~~~~
Am I getting old if I can simply appreciate spending time with the Hubby? Quite possible and that's okay with me.

Attach head to shoulders...

2008-04-06T10:37:00.002-04:00

Yes, someday I'll attach head to shoulders before I start typing. Surgery is May 14th, not May 7th. But we won't dwell on that. First because I really get annoyed by people who have no other conversation skills beyond their health. That's a personal and individual thing, so let's keep it personal and not inflict it on others. Second, yes, it makes me nervous. I've been exceedingly healthy for the majority of my life and this is major surgery. While I'm napping, they're going to cut a big hole, remove some parts that used to be quite handy and then sew me up. I'll be sore, I'll be cranky and please feel sorry for my poor husband. The girls can notes for someday, but my poor husband. I'll go to sleep with some fading hormones and wake up without them. I have no interest in HRT, so this poor man will live in lack-of-hormone-hell until I adjust.
~~~~~
Nuff said about that issue.
~~~~~
Widdershins. This pattern still bothers me. So I have some wonderful Plymouth Happy Feet yarn that I'm going to play with. I have some ideas on how to adjust Widdershins so I actually like it. I'm just not going to use expensive hand-dyed yarn while I'm playing. Happy Feet runs about $6/skein (2 needed for a pair of socks), so I don't mind playing with that. OTOH, I also won't make the second sock before I put them on feet. I'll try first and if that one doesn't work, make more adjustments on the second until I get it right.
~~~~~
In the meantime, I've pulled out some of the oddball skeins from my big stash steal and I'm making a slant-pocket bag. I think that's one of the new felting patterns over on Knitty.com. It's a fairly mindless pattern, but I really like it. So I'm making the first and see if I like the size so I can make others as Christmas presents for this year's holiday. (Geez, Louise! It's only April and I'm already beginning to think on Christmas, for Christmas' sake!!! Well, if I don't think on it now, I'll surely be in trouble come September... /g/)
~~~~~
If the size felts down to a good size -- yeah, how do you explain that one other than... not too big, not too small... LOL! Anyway, if I like the size of the final bag, I'm going to make one adjustment to it. I'd like to extend the top of the bag so it folds over. Maybe add an I-cord frog or something so you can close it, but keep the slanted pockets and be able to fold the top of the back panel over the front. I'll also have to test the length of the strap. Most straps are too long for me. I'm short at only 5'3". Not tiny, by any means, but I like a bag to hang about waist-length. Not down at my hip and not short enough that I can't tuck the strap over my shoulder comfortably without the bulk of the bag under my elbow. Most straps tend to hang the bag down around my hip and I don't feel comfortable because I can't tuck my elbow against it. Remember, I'm a safety girl and I always worry that someone is rumaging in my bag whenever I'm forced to enter a mall. So I like to tuck it against me with my elbow, which is at my waist.
~~~~~
What else? I have the Claudia Hand-paint in Bearded Iris on the needles. Very lovely yarn to work with. And I had no trouble with running short. 70 rows on the cuff and my usual 55 rows between the heel gusset and the toe decreases. (Yes, I resorted back to my usual cuff down construction until I can get Widdershins to my satisfaction.) I also cast on my first pair of Colinette Jitterbug in Monet. Wonderful, lovely yarn to work with. It's a bit heavier than the Claudia, so now I understand why Brenda Dayne ran short the time she worked with it. As usual, skeins are sold in weight, not yardage. These skeins only have about 180 yards in them because it's a bit heavier gauge, though I'm still knitting with my trusty 2.25mm Options circular in a Magic Loop. Stitch definition is wonderful in Colinette because of the heavier yarn and the colors really do remind me of lilypads in a pond with those splashes of color for the flowers.
~~~~~
The Pi Are Squared Shawl continues a few rows at a time. It's now remaining at home for night knitting because it's large enough to be a bit of a pain to carry with me. That and the alpaca does have a tendency to shed a bit, which can be annoying at work. A navy blue uniform makes shedding yarn a real pain because I'm constantly having to lick my palm and roll the hair into little tufts to remove every few hours. So that's going to stay at home and be my at-home project.
~~~~~
I'm not sure yet if the bag project is too large to carry around. It does squish down quite small and I'm past the halfway point on the pockets so that should work up quickly. Then I have the strap to knit and I can put the whole thing together before felting it all. It's kind of a mishmash of colors because I began with a yarn that was mostly a moss green with some flecks of orange and mauve. Then I switched to a variegated mauve with no green whatsoever. (This, though, is the section that the pockets will attach to so it will mostly frame and peek from behind the pocket.) The pocket is a wonderful bright purple and mauve and pink with touches of green and yellow. Very cheery and bright and I really love the way these colors are working up for the pocket. Then I'll take the remains of the variegated mauve and, if needed, any leftover bright whimsy to knit up the strap. It's kind of patchwork, but that's okay. The felting should make the color changes a bit less obvious and, even if it doesn't, I don't mind. Even though it sounds like a strange mixture, it seems to work.
~~~~~
This coming week is nothing special that I can think of. Just work on both jobs and an uneventful weekend. Nothing planned yet, but I'm sure my family will have lots of ideas for what I should do with all that extra time that we know I have no clue how to fill... LOL! Today is shower, laundry, change bed and catch up on LOTS of programs that I've previously recorded.
~~~~~
I'm SO spoiled. Two years ago, Mark bought me a DVD recorder for Christmas. So I have the ability to record all the programs that I'm not home for. Yes, I have a secret obsession for "People's Court", "Judge Judy" and "Dancing with the Stars". I feel like the first two help me keep sharp and honed mentally. Testing what little I know of legal proceedings (which amazingly helps a great deal with my 2nd job doing accounting... especially for the bums who wrack up huge bills and think they can't be held responsible for it) and I've watched "DwtS" since the first season. Having been an ice dancer in a very young and very long ago life, it's interesting to see how the stars grow as dancers as well as how the professionals interpret the stories behind the various dances. (Yes, in the Paso Doble, she is not the bull and him the matador. She is his cape and she is his instrument used to entice the bull that cannot be seen. And do you know why she turns her head away from her partner in the Tango? Because the men were usually just into town from the plains and quite sweaty. It has nothing to do with whether she wants him or not. He's paid his money for his dance -- and other various possibilities for the night /g/ --she will deliver what he's paid for. OTOH, she doesn't have to smell his sweat in the meantime... LOL!)
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"Judge Judy", though. Read her books. Ladies, you're really missing out if you don't. Her advice is timeless and her experiences in her life as well as her experience in the family courts is invaluable. You're never too young or too old to learn something new and something eye-popping.
~~~~~
Before I blather on about whatever next pops into my head. New task for today. Mother-in-law nagging husband to pick up and put together a new entertainment center. She has the patience of a mayfly, so I'm going to help out. That way I can treat myself to catching up on recorded programs.
~~~~~
Have a wonderful week!

More bat poop and graduations

2008-03-29T08:58:00.003-04:00

I hate Widdershins. There, I said it. I didn't frog that first heel and try decreasing instead of increasing. I actually figured out that I was wrong and you really should be increasing toward the heel because when you knit top-down, you decrease as you're turning. So, in essence, if you're working in reverse, you should be increasing as you turn.
~~~~~
Yes, she did get that right. Unfortunately, I screwed up big time because it decreased the number of stitches for my gusset, which shortened the foot of my sock. I know, I know. I should have been measuring with my trusty tape measure as I went along. I would have seen that the sock was running short. But I didn't.
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I know with complete accuracy that, when working a cuff-down sock, I turn my heel, decrease for my gusset and then I knit 55 rows before I decrease for my toes. Doesn't matter what the yarn is as long as it's knit on my trusty 2.25mm needles. My gauge is almost perfect regardless of what yarn I'm working with and any variation in yarn thickness is so minimal that it's negligible.
~~~~~
So I knit my trust 55 rows, did my gusset, made a few adjustments for the heel but I turned that and knit about 80 rows up the cuff and cast off. What's the problem? Short foot. I need another 10 rows in my foot measurement to match the socks I make cuff down.
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Big sigh....
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So I have a pair of absolutely gorgeous Great Adirondack socks that are now useless to me and anyone in my family because I have the smallest feet.
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Argh!!! Oh, and to add insult to injury? I've finally figured out what my problem is lately. I have dry skin. We're talking alligator skin. You could make a very fashionable pair of shoes out of my skin if I came in another color besides "pink" or "nude" or whatever you want to call "pale"... LOL! And I've been itching like crazy. My arms. My legs. (It's real tricky to try and scratch your inner thighs at work when you work in a bubble booth... /grin/) I have patches of itch on my belly, etc. It finally dawned on me this week that we'd changed our laundry detergent. I can't use major brands because they add perfumes and softeners and all kinds of additives. Generic brands tend to work for me because they keep the price down by sticking to soap and that's about it. So I think that's what my problem is.
~~~~~
It's gotten so bad in the last week that I'm waking myself at night, feeling like one big allergic hive. I was blaming it on the dry air that seems to have huddled over Connecticut. Everyone around us for the last month or so gets all kinds of rain and snow. We get the clouds and the clouds try to drop precipitation, but it's evaporated into the atmosphere before it can hit the ground. That's how dry it is. Weird to think that it's raining at 20,000 ft but not a drop is hitting the ground, but there you have it. Anyway, I thought the dry atmosphere was affecting my skin, but now I'm thinking it's the new laundry detergent.
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So oldest daughter picked me up some generic stuff last night. Today I'm going to wash the whole wardrobe and see if that helps.
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Quick update... surgery is set for May 7th. The only day of work I'll miss is the big graduation. Classes end the week prior and then I'll be able to work the law school graduation on Sunday. It pushes back the date I wanted by two weeks, but that's okay. It's still early enough not to totally erase my summer, and late enough that I won't have to use all my accrued sick time. That's a good thing because I figure you can always use sick time. God forbid someone in the family got really sick and I needed to take care of them. The job allows me to accrue up to 6 months of sick time and my goal is to do just that. Vacation time doesn't carry over from year to year, so save sick time whenever possible and let that build up.
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Anyway, this is all good. The only day I'll miss of work is the 10-hour, 12,000 person party. Hmm... while it's nice to be able to be there on graduation day for those kids I've seen come through the university, it's not always one of the easiest days to work. Kids moving out is the worst because half the kids don't pack before their rides come to pick them up. Kids moving in runs about equal because the freshmen parents never quite figure out when it's time to move on so we have room to move more kids in. Third to those two is the big graduation just because of the sheer numbers.
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These are the three events where I get used to being called a "b*!(%" on a regular basis.
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Now, I doubt I have more than 10 people who actually read my blog, but can I make a request to those few who do? If you have kids in college or friends who have kids in college, can you please understand the reality of what's about to happen? It's about 6 weeks or less until the big move-outs all over the country. Can you try to understand that it really is not our goal to make this as difficult as possible for you or us? We have approximately 3 days to move out about 4000 students from approximately seven areas where we can park cars.
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Ship your child some boxes and bags. Tell them to have their stuff as packed and ready as possible. (Yes, I had a freshman one year who carried his chair downstairs and proceeded to sit in it to work on his tan while his parents packed his room. I told him to get his @ss upstairs and move his stuff or I'd have him hauled away on the hook of a tow truck... /g/) Yes, trust me, I know your child will have 43 friends that they still have to say goodbye to, so please move your car to another spot to wait for them to track down said friends. We need every inch of parking we can get our hands on, so please don't take this moment to stand in line at the bookstore to return books or have that last lunch. You and I both know that your kid waited until the last moment, hoping that you'd do all their packing for them. Don't let them get away with it. Get back in your car and go to lunch. Tell them to call you when they're packed and ready to load. Then please do it as quickly as possible. I have 200 people waiting for your parking spot.
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Graduation Day? I know it's a HUGE moment. Unfortunately, it's a huge moment for every one of our 1500 graduates and their families. That's why there are 12,000 people squished onto the quad. I know that you paid $200,000 (give or take) for that "forever photo". Trust me. I've been doing this for five years. But also understand that every other parent is feeling exactly like you and they paid the same amount of money. We have a system set up and, if everyone does what they're supposed to, it works for everyone involved and you'll have those "forever photos". But there's always that one (generally at least a dozen) who feel they're above and beyond everyone else. To us, every single one of our graduates and their respective family members are special. Smile and be polite. You're there for that one moment. We're doing our best to accomodate 1500 of those moments and juggling 12,000 people in order to make sure each of those moments are captured on film.
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Okay, 'nuff said.
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Laundry today. And more laundry. Oh, and grocery shopping. Oh boy. What fun...

I have a stash and a realization...

2008-03-23T09:03:00.002-04:00

Lots of things happened in the last couple of weeks. First, I have to tell y'all about a sale. (Yes, that's read as SALE!!!!) Connecticut Yarn and Wool in East Haddam. I got the email on Friday morning that they were getting rid of their old fall and winter stock because of the arrival of the new spring stock.
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Fill a 30-gal bin for $300. Now, yes, $300 is a lot of money. But I'm facing surgery. (Yes, I picked a date. I have to call on Tuesday, but I'm shooting for April 23rd for some very strange reasons... /wry g/) So I'm going to be sitting on the couch for a couple weeks in recovery mode. That means time for knitting next year's Christmas projects as well as finally breaking the seal on all those DVDs I've bought last year and haven't had time to watch.
~~~~~
So I picked up my friend Linda and we descended on CT Yarn & Wool. Now, they always have a "remainder" room where you can get bargains. I can choose from that room and they had bin after bin on the porch. All kinds of colorways. Practically everything is hand-dyed. Yes, most of it is worsted weight and spun singles (think felting). I loaded up. At first, I was very careful to match things, but I lost that ability soon after. I dug into every bin so I could check everything. I unloaded some baskets so I could see what was on the bottom. (Yes, I was careful to put everything back so I didn't make a total mess of the place. /g/)
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I picked up 14 skeins of this gorgeous silk/cotton/wool blend. I looked it up on the Internet later. $20 a skein. That's $280 right there and that was a small portion of what I'd stuffed in my bin. Then I found an absolute treasure. A cotton/rayon blend that they call "I'm Allergic to Wool". It's soft and cushie. A wonderful thick n thin that would make some gorgeous sweaters (and scarves and even another shawl). It runs $30 a skein and I've got about 50 skeins of this stuff. Okay, some of the skeins are pretty short, but others were full and fat. That alone is about $1500 worth of yarn.
~~~~~
Oh yeah, I easily stuffed at least $2000 worth of yarn into this bin. Believe it or not, the woman working at the shop suggested that we untwist the skeins and lay them flat. Worked well. We got more into the bin. Course, it really helped that when I thought the bin was pretty full, Linda looked at me and said, "Oh, no, we can fit more" and she sat in the bin... /wry g/
~~~~~
Okay, so I'm going to be laid up. Basically, I talked with the doctor and we agreed that the fibroid needs to go. It's a good size. We also agree that I'm at that age that the plumbing serves no purpose either, so she's going to remove the whole shebang. It's simply a matter of picking a date. Lots of things to consider and not that simple. I'll be laid up for approximately 6 weeks before returning to normal. And since I do a LOT of yardwork in the summer, I don't want to wait too long or we can just forget summer entirely and that's not an option. After all the work I did last year, there's no way I'm going to let my yard go to hell. Another thing to consider is I really can't do without the paycheck. So I looked and I have just shy of 3 weeks sick time accrued. Back up from my last week of work and that means April 23rd. I should be cleared for regular life by the first week in June and, since I never plant much before Memorial Day (danger of frost any time before that and don't let anyone tell you otherwise), the timing would work well.
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And this all leads back to my shopping spree. I imagine I'll spend a mimimun of two weeks laying on the couch. Okay, maybe the first couple days I won't feel much like knitting (is that possible?!? /g/), but then I'll have lots of time and lots of boredom to fill. Hence, knitting. Now, all these yarns are in fall colorways. If I start Christmas presents now, all those colorways will be back in vogue by the time I give them away. Sure, it'll be weird to be knitting with oranges and yellows and browns (autumn leaves) in April and May when I'd rather be working with yellows and purples (think crocus). But I'll also have a huge jump on Christmas knitting. Purses and clogs for everyone! LOL!
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Now I can finally move the the update seciton... Let's see. I finished the Diamonte socks. Okay, I call them "Cat Yak". The yarn is lovely. The pattern is lovely. Put the two together and it's definitely something the cat yakked up. I don't like it and they would NOT be a favorite pair of socks. But Younger Daughter likes them. So they now belong to her.
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Pi Are Sqaured Shawl is coming along. About 3 more rows and I can move to section four, which will double the number of stitches. I think I'll be up to about 1000 sts or so. Yup, a long-term project. Another one to keep handy when I get tired of extremely big knitting for felting.
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I just turned the heel for the Widdershins sock last night. I got the increases for the gusset okay. That was fine. But I followed the directions for the heel and it was way off. Not the direction, mind you. I was way off. So I frogged back and did it again. Hmm... definitely something skewed here. I frogged it again. Then I sat down with my trusty pencil and worked out the math from an entirely new direction and it clicked. I turned the heel and I'm now working my way up the heel flap. Again, I looked at her directions and they didn't work for me, so I didn't even try. I read through about three times and got the overall concept, worked up my own math and it's working beautifully.
~~~~~
Okay, how to explain my math (for someone who doesn't understand her concept of math)? I put a stitch marker at the center of the heel. Now, you have to remember that you're coming toe up, so you've got to begin with the largest part of the heel first. So, as you work the short rows, you'll be decreasing the number of sts that you work with, rather than increasing like you do with a normal short row heel.
~~~~~
Wow, it just dawned on me what's wrong with the directions. She makes stitches as you add your short rows. You make a stitch before you wrap and turn to create the short rows. No wonder the heel looked weird when I was looking at it this morning. I haven't tried it on yet, but I think I'm going to have to frog again and decrease, rather than increase in the short rows. Hmm... have to check that out.
~~~~~
But anyway, I started with working 8 sts out from the center before the "m1, k1, w&t". Then I'd work 8 sts in the other direction from the center marker on the purl row. Then I'd work 6 sts from the center marker on the knit row, come back to center and work 6 sts on the other side of the stitch marker. Back and forth in decreasing numbers from the marker as I worked closer to the heel itself.
~~~~~
Bingo! Heel is turned. Now you have to work up the gusset and decrease all those stitches you'd added to make the gusset.
~~~~~
Again, it's really easy if you simply think of working a set number of stitches to each side of the center marker on the heel.
~~~~~
IOW, I like 60 sts overall and I work Magic Loop. So my heel should ultimately end up with 30 sts on that needle. At the beginning, I didn't count, but let's say I have 50 sts, so I want to decrease 20 to get back to 30. As I knit each row back and forth, I only have to remember to knit 15 to each side of the center marker. Then I ssk on my knit rows (pulling one stitch in from the gusset and decreasing on each row). As I purl back, I don't have to remember anything except to purl 15 on the other side of the marker and my last stitch is p2tog, again, pulling one guset stitch in and decreasing). I go back and forth in this manner, almost like working a short row heel, until I have no more to decrease at the end of the needle and then I can begin knitting all the way around again.
~~~~~
Hmm.... now I'm really curious if that heel turn is wrong. Well, not wrong for her or anyone who loves it, but I wonder if it's wrong for me. I think, rather than w&t, I should also be doing an ssk and a p2tog on the heel. It should be pulling in towards the end of the heel, not getting wider and adding more stitches.
~~~~~
Oh dear. I've already frogged it 3 times. Now, I not only have to frog it again, but also about 20 rows of heel flap.
~~~~~
Bat poop... /sigh/

As Promised...

2008-03-01T11:32:00.000-05:00

I'll Be Back...

2008-03-01T07:01:00.002-05:00

Let me say upfront that I'll be back later today to post pics of the sweater that's finally in my brother's possession. Yup, it's finished. It was washed and blocked (more on that later because it took me four days!!!! Yikes!!!!) and sent off via overnight mail, which of course took two days to get to him. It turned out even better than I thought it would.
~~~~~
Okay, here's the deal and I'll get to more knitting later. I actually finished it right on schedule. It was Feb 16th when I finished the last stitch. I took all day Sunday and steeked and sewed and did all those little finishing touches. 10PM when I ran downstairs to stick it in the sink so I could wash and block. A quick squirt of dishwashing detergent and this was a BIG sweater, so I didn't have a lot of room left in the sink for water. The sweater soaked up every last drip of liquid. So I did the best I could without having to resort to filling the bathtub and then I went into the basement and stuck it in the washer for a quick rinse, drain and spin. It rinsed. It drained. But I couldn't get the damn thing to spin. Yeah, yeah, a real slow spin, but that's not going to get the 42 lbs of water out of the sweater.
~~~~~
So I restarted the cycle again. It rinsed. It drained. But it wouldn't spin at a high speed. We're now getting upwards of 11PM and I get up at 5AM. So I grab a towel (or two), lift the 40 lb sweater out of the washer, roll it up and stomp on it a few times. Then I take it over to my handy drying rack and pull, yank and mold it into the shape I want. Yup, looks gorgeous.
~~~~~
I check on it Tuesday after work. Wednesday after work. Finally, I gave up and gave it the weekend to finish drying. I'm guessing that my basement isn't as warm as I thought it was and I can't put it anywhere else or the cats would have a nice white layer of fur all over the thing. Sunday night. YES!!!! It's dry. It's lovely. And tomorrow is my brother's birthday.
~~~~~
So I call him the next morning, sing him "Happy Birthday" and tell him that if Mom doesn't see this after work before I pop it in the mail, she'll die of disappointment. He says that's fine, he understands and it's okay to show it to her tonight and pop it in the mail on the next day.
~~~~~
That's what I did. He finally got the sweater on Feb 28th. He's thrilled. He hasn't mentioned if it fits, but he did say that he's going to wear it all weekend because he's also got a cold spell down South. Rather than turning up his heat, he'll just live in the sweater all weekend.
~~~~~
Now, during the last couple weeks while I've been waiting for that sweater to dry, I made socks and mittens. Remember those Thick Woodsman's Socks that I made for the Hubby? Well, I made him another pair and used reverse stockinette under the footbed. He doesn't like the first pair because the purl nubs under his feet are like wearing those Adidas sandals with the torture devices they call "foot massagers". Yeah, like walking on nails. So I reversed the purl nubs on the next pair. He says they're definitely more comfortable, but he can still feel the lines for the st st. So I'm making LOTS of mittens out of the yarn I'd bought for more socks. I'm going to have to break down and make him socks out of fingering weight.
~~~~~
But I also did a couple other things this week that I found are really neat little mental tricks. I'd started a pair of Jaywalkers in Lisa Souza's "Joseph's Coat" colorway. Now, those are on a size 1 needle (2.25mm) and I make the mittens on a size 8 (4.0mm?). So I'd work 10 rows on a sock and then 10 rows on a mitten. Go back and do another 10 rows on a sock, then another 10 rows on a mitten. Wow, time flew! In the past two weeks, I've finished the Jaywalkers and make about 3 or 4 pairs of mittens as well as finishing the socks for the DH.
~~~~~
Because I was never very long on any given project, they both kept my interest and I never got bored. Okay, after two weeks of nothing but mittens and socks, there was an overall boredom, but never on the individual projects. If anything, I felt this driving need to cast on even more projects... /g/
~~~~~
So I pulled out my Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Around and I've been dying to make a Pi Are Squared shawl. I find myself wearing my shawls more and more. I do love them, but there's one thing that annoys me. This is just a personal opinion, but why do shawls have to be lace?!?!?! I live in the North. It's cold here. I don't want a shawl that has holes to let that cold air infiltrate. I like my shawls solid and warm! /g/
~~~~~
So yesterday, as soon as I got out of work, I buzzed off to my LYS and found the last two skeins of that wonderful Peruvian Tweed. It's 100% alpaca in all natural fleece. There's a light, medium and dark colorway. Each skein is plied with several different natural fleece colors to get that tweed effect. I'd used the dark colorway (think dark almost black, dark chocolate and a thin strand of med caramel) to make a basketweave stole which is my favorite and most often worn. So I picked up a skein of the light colorway, which has two plies of almost white/creamy and a very light, almost white caramel. I also picked up a skein of the medium colorway which has a thin ply of the natural cream, the light caramel and then a rich golden caramel is the heaviest strand. Hmm... really gorgeous and very "neutral" so I'll be able to wear this with anything.
~~~~~
Came home and pulled out the nearest Addi Turbo (I think it's a size 5 or 6... Does it matter? /g/) and cast on 20 sts to begin a Pi Are Squared. To keep it interesting, I looked over the instructions and there are 5 sections. So the first section is in the light tweed and I knit that in stockinette stitch. Then I did the increases for section 2 and changed to the medium tweed and knit that in garter stitch. Changed back to the light tweed for section 3 and have reverted back to stockinette stitch. Looking really pretty and this is where I left off, so I'll keep that pattern going. I should end in the light color in st st, so I think I'll do the "traditional" sawtooth border in the medium color in garter. But I can check again when I get that far.
~~~~~
While at the store, I found some Claudia Handpainted in the colorway Irises. What can I say? I have this driving need to keep my stash well stocked for socks... /g/ We'll ignore the point that I have enough yarn to make at least another half dozen pair of socks already.
~~~~~
The other great deal that I stumbled into was some Araucania Nature Wool. They had a table of mark downs and this was calling my name. I already have 5 or 6 red sweaters, but this was a different red. This is color 25 RO 12-0400. A gentle variation that goes from a med brick red down to a deep, rich brick. All my other reds tend to have a cool undertone, not a warm one. This is warm. And what can I say? I like red! /g/ It's 100% wool, 4 ply, and 242 yds per skein. There were 6 skeins and they were chanting, "Take me home! I'm yours!" LOL!
~~~~~
I've been watching and rewatching the Meg Swanson DVD called Cardigan Details so I didn't screw up my steeking and I could really use a couple new cardigans. Most of my sweaters are pullovers but there are times you want a nice cardigan. And I really like the simple design she adds to the top of the sweater. So I grabbed those 6 skeins and, lo and behold, there were 2 skeins of Nature Wool in a soft creamy white, color 01. It will be a perfect addition to the red. A sharp bright white would be too stark against the soft brick of the red, but that creamy off-white will be perfect. And they were marked down from $7.50 a skein to $5.50. Hmm... a Meg Swanson EPS cardigan in 100% wool for $44.00?
~~~~~
Uh, yeah. Duh! I'm SO there and it just naturally found its way into my arms... /g/
~~~~~
Oh, before I forget! New trick!
~~~~~
I'm now knitting the Diamonte sock pattern from Knitty.com in Araucania sock yarn. I'm knitting them top down instead of toe up, but that's besides the point. I wanted to mention something that I discovered yesterday while knitting along (and dreaming of yarn stores when I left work /g/). To do the increases, the designer uses the M1 and says to pick up the strand between stitches in the row below. Pick it up with your left needle from front to back and then knit through the back loop to twist the stitch and make it virtually invisible. Hmm... great idea except it's really hard work (at least for me) to get the right needle into the back of the stitch once I've picked it up with the left needle. I don't knit all that tight, but I tend to split the yarn with my right needle regardless of how careful I am when trying to wedge it between the stitch and the p-u.
~~~~~
So what I do is pick up the yarn with my right needle from the back to the front. And then I simply have to slide my left needle into the front of the loop. Because the yarn is on the front of the needle and the stitch is right in front of me, I can slide the left needle between the yarn that's picked up and the first stitch on the right needle much easier. It still has the same effect in twisting the stitch and, yes, it really is virtually invisible, but it's easier to pick up with the right needle and then insert the left needle.
~~~~~
Does that make sense? If not, let me know. But try it. Especially if you're a tight knitter. I think you'll find this is much easier for you.
~~~~~
Okay, enough talking. Time to get daughter up for her dentist appointment. I have a few errands I have to do while out, but then it's picture time when I get back. My goals today are to upload pics of projects, clean bathroom, do my taxes and then back to my Pi Are Squared shawl. Yeah, I think that's enough for today. A little bit of work and then lots of fun!

Dragons be here...or should I say alien babies?

2008-02-10T08:16:00.001-05:00

First, thanks to everyone who left comments on my sweater pics. It's so wonderful to know that people actually stop by. I've been trying to wrangle youngest daughter for pics of the sweater for my brother, but it's like trying to capture the wind. She's a teenager. I'm not. That means we live on totally different schedules. She's still on the phone at midnight and I'm up at the crack of dawn. (I have no idea what time I'll be done, so let's just say that my computer clock says it's 8:21AM and I just put my last load of laundry in the dryer. I was up a bit after 5AM.) My daughter? I think she's breathing, but I don't want to check. It gets ugly if you disturb her "before her time". She's like a fine wine. Too early and you get grape juice. Too late and you get vinegar. I guess that means there's never a good time to wake her...
~~
If her presence floats through before I'm done typing, I'll see if I can get a pic. But she's like smoke in the breeze. Here now and gone before you can even blink.
~~
Oh well....
~~
So what are the dragons? Be warned anyone of the male persuasion. I'm gonna talk about female stuff for a few minutes, so you might want to make like my daughter and disappear until the next post... /g/
~~
I do listen to Lime & Violet. Yes, they're a secret obsession. Definitely gets me some very strange looks from the students as they pass my security booth and hear wild cackling and lots of giggling. And, yes, I follow the Boob Rock discussion. I'm curious. What can I say? I'm female and Violet is going through every woman's fear of discovering the Boob Rock. But I'll trade her Boob Rock for the Perimenopausal Basketball...
~~
About two years ago, my gyn found a fibroid tumor on my ovary. No big deal. Not unusual for women who are staring down menopause. Yes, I'm a bit on the young side, but is there really a young side? I mean, c'mon, is there an age when menopause starts? I've heard everything from 45 - 60, so let's just say there are no hard and fast rules as to when this stage is supposed to start or (God forbid) how long it'll take. I hear through the grapevine that my ex-sister-in-law is deep in the throes of menopause and she's two years younger than me. So I wasn't surprised for the doc to say, "gee, honey, you're on the edge"...
~~
Let's be real. I've been on the edge ever since giving birth, right? /g/
~~
So anyway, I've been living with the tumor ever since. It actually took me a whole year to get up the nerve to ask the doc just how big this tumor was. She tells me it's the size of a grapefruit. Hmm... come to think of it, maybe THAT explains my obsession with fruit. (If you've followed, as I paint my rooms, my Hubby says I have a fruit theme going on in the house. My hallways are lemon colored. My living room is the color of a honeydew melon. And I've threatened to do my dining room in a strawberry.... LOL!)
~~
Okay, back to grapefruit. Fine. I can live with it since she assures me that this sucker will start shrinking once I hit the official menopause. This was last year.
~~
Fast forward to this year. I go for my annual and she discovers the damn thing is getting bigger. Rather than shrinking like the nice little PITA it is, it's growing. Again, maybe this explains another strange recent obsession. I've been watching Alien and Aliens (yup, parts I and II) with strange fascination lately.
~~
You know the scene from part II where she's dreaming in the hospital and wakes to have an alien almost burst from her bellybutton? Well, this past week, my alien baby was trying to scoop me out from the inside with a very dull spoon. Argh!!!! Very weird because it was certainly centered right below my bellybutton. Pain sharp and dull at the same time. Luckily, it was just one day. Period from hell. And, of course, that was the day that my boss at work felt it necessary to flex his non-existent muscles. He gave me a letter of suspension for reasons I won't go into. Let's just say he threw a tantrum and, like any good two-year-old, I really wanted to spank him. I could, but I won't. I'm a better person than he is. Let him have his tantrum and maybe he'll leave me alone for a while.
~~
Back to alien baby... I have an appointment with the doc next month. We'll "discuss our options then". Hmm. I have a feeling they'll want to remove this baby before it explodes on its own. That's okay with me. Think I can get them to remove the ovaries while she's in there? What do you think of the chance that I can get a tummy tuck tossed in for my trouble? /g/
~~
Course, I have to tell the joke of this whole new episode. She sent me for an ultrasound. I'm watching the screen while the technician is moving the thingie around. Yup, there's my left ovary. Tiny little peanut on the screen. Pretty little spot. Yup, that's it. Looking good and she turns on the sound to show that it has good blood movement. (Why? I don't know, but they feel this is important.) Then she moves the thingie over to the right side. This large mass fills the screen, looking like I've sprouted a new brain in the wrong place. Yup, alien baby. Big mass that even I can see with no training whatsoever.
~~
So I say something to the effect of, gee, it's no wonder all those ab crunches weren't flattening anything. She kind of laughs and says that they'd have to remove my intestines for my belly to be flat. Again.... Hmm.
~~
So Violet? I'll trade your Boob Rock for my Alien Baby.
~~
And now I'll apologize for such a crass and rude comment. I've gotten it off my chest.... er, well, not the correct anatomical location, but you get the drift. I just had to say it. I don't mean it and I wouldn't trade with her. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. I'm not worried. My doc is tops in her field and I trust her judgement. If she says remove it, we'll remove it. I just wanted the opportunity to kvetch for a minute and sorry you had to listen. Now that I've had my moment of panic, I'm not worried at all. I've been lucky in that I've always been healthy and never had to worry about anything. I'm not worried now. If my doc was worried and wanted me back in the office immediately, then I'd be worried. But she's waiting until next month and that means this is not a problem.
~~
So now I'll get back to knitting on my brother's sweater. The sleeves are done and, in about 7 rows, I'll be at the midway point on the body. If I knit my little fingers to the bone this week at work, I'm hoping to finish this thing and be able to steek and sew and wash and block and my goal is to get it in the mail to him by 2/20.
~~
If you want to send prayers, pray that I can get the sweater done. In the meantime, I love having the excuse for not holding in my stomach every time I stand up. I have a reason it sticks out more than I'd like. The bad thing is that I might look heavier than I'd like, but you would too if you were about to give birth. At least I don't look as pregnant as I feel...
~~
/g/

I did it!!!!

2008-01-26T09:42:00.001-05:00

I did it! I sewed and cut and put all the pieces together blending a variety of techniques, and above is the finished product. I actually finished the knitting itself on Friday night, Jan 18th and took Saturday to sew and cut and piece together. Then I had to work on Sunday and couldn't wait to get home so I could toss it into the sink, spin out the excess and block it to dry so I could wear it Monday night when I went to the other job.

The nice thing is that I was going to call youngest daughter on my drive home so she could take pics, but I didn't have to. When I walked in the door, she immediately asked me if this was my newly steeked sweater and went for her camera. I can't blame her for the delay this week. She was great. She took the pics and uploaded them to the computer as soon as she got home from school on Tuesday. I was the one who dropped the ball on this one.

I've been a bit sick with a cold. A bit of stuffiness in the head, but I've got the voice of a 12-year-old boy who's in the throes of his voice changing. We're on day 9 now and getting better, but it's still a bit froggy. Anyway, I spent non-working hours this week in bed.

But back to the sweater!!! I've learned a LOT! Mostly, I will never be scared to steek again. Yup, I made a big fuss over not a lot. But I think I'll take a few more precautions on the new sweater I've started. I only gave myself one extra stitch for steeking on my own sweater. Not that this is a big deal. I know how to sew and sewing down the edges before cutting wasn't a big deal. But I'm dying to try Meg Swanson's crocheted steek on the new sweater and I need a minimum of 3 steeking sts for that.

Also, remember my question about the weaving in and out of the ends and how I was going to cut that one side in the steek? Well, on the new sweater, I'm not as worried about making those ends as long. After all, they only have to hold until I steek, so what's the big deal? I not only cut the side that had the weaving in and out, but also the other side that had no weaving whatsoever, so I tossed that question out of my mind entirely. I was going to cut the side with no weaving, so why was I worried about the side that had the extra yarn woven in? Yea, I know. A duh moment...

Second, remember all the calculations I was sweating over on this sweater? For the most part, they all worked perfectly. The sleeves themselves are a bit tight on my forearms. Not enough to keep my from wearing my sweater (I wore it to last night's hockey game and I was nice and warm!!!), but enough that I'll increase right after the cuff next time. I didn't add any immediate increases on my sweater, so I don't need a lot of additional, but I will add a few to loosen that up. In fact, I've already changed that calculation on my brother's sweater. (Pics in next post to show what I've done and how I'm recalculating that one.)

Second learning curve is that the sweater is a bit shorter than I'd like. Yup, I can compensate for that through blocking. Not a problem. But I'll recalculate length better on this new (and all future) sweaters. Add 10% or 20% to be lost in initial wash and the fact that I really hate pulling and yanking on wet sweaters. I like to wash and simply toss it down to dry without having to worry about what shape to give it. Luckily, this sweater (again) isn't too short so I won't wear it. It's just a bit shorter than I'd initially wanted, but add another 3 or 4 inches to length next time.

OTOH, I do believe that if I'd gone with the original dimensions suggested on the Pbilosopher's Wool pattern, I'd have ended up with a sweater that was big enough to tuck one of my kids inside it with me. So I'm glad I recalculated in the long run.

And the nice part is that I have enough leftover yellow yarn from my own PW kit that I can add single rows of yellow into my brother's sweater. I'm making him the Timber-Framed, also in the Fire colorway. His kit wasn't offered with the "Fire with Yellow" and I really like the zing of adding a bit of yellow to the fire. So what I'm doing is playing with the background color changes in his sweater. The timbers themselves are black. It's the background that changes every so often. I have 5 colors to work with so I'm doing bands of 6 rows, 5 rows, 4 rows, etc right down to 1 row and that's where I'm adding single rows of the leftover yellow from my kit. After I reach the yellow band, I repeat the colors in reverse (2 rows, 3 rows, 4 rows, etc). I keep the colors the same that I did in descending order, but once I reach back to the 6 rows, I change up the color sequence. So it goes: 6-5-4-3-2-1--2-3-4-5-6-5-etc. The only color that will remain constant is the single row will always be yellow. The others will vary so I can use the colors at the same rate. So the colors I use in band 2 and 3 rows will become 4, 5 or 6 in the next.

I surely hope that's all making sense.... LOL!

Anyway, it looked kinda weird at first, but the more I get into the sleeve, it's really coming together and looking nice. I liked the suggestion of using dice to determine how many rows of color I used, but I also don't want to be TOO random in what I'm doing. So I could either vary the colors or I could vary the number of rows. I'm choosing to vary the colors so I have a static number of rows to the overall pattern.... Er, not that anyone is going to look at Tom's sweater and see what I did or even notice that there's a rhyme and a reason to how everything comes together. But I like some sense of symmetry or it'll drive me nuts. It's my way of making things much harder than they have to be....

Deadline for this new sweater is Feb 25th. That's Tom's birthday and this is going to be a big one. He turns 50 this year and I need his gift to be something special. He tends to take things like a new decade very hard. I can guarantee that this one will bother him. Hence, a sweater made by his baby sister. I'm just hoping I can get it done in time. I've determined that at least 4 hours every day at work will give me a minimum of 20 hours a week. I have another 4 weeks to finish this thing and get it to him. I figure, if I'm really cruising on the sweater and enjoying the process, I'll work more than 4 hours, but if I make sure to get at least the 4 hours 5 days a week, I should make good progress.

Other projects OTN are socks in Happy Feet. Gorgeous, gorgeous yarn. I almost gave up because I'd tried about 3 or 4 different patterns, trying to do justice to this colorway. I forget the colorway. Don't ask. I'm too lazy to go look for the ballband. It's got olive green and navy and burgundy and a fantastic peach. Anyway, I almost gave up after frogging for the 3rd or 4th time. Regardless of what pattern I did, none of them looked right. So I finally just did 10 rows of ribbing and the rest of the sock is straight stockinette. Bingo! This is a yarn that needs to shine without any frills. So this is also in my bag at work for those times when I've had enough sweater and need some "mindless" knitting for a change.

Also OTN.... er, not technically, though, because the first is completed, is another pair of socks for the DH. I'm doing another pair of the Woodman's Thick Socks in Knit Picks' Shamrock, which is a heavy worsted weight yarn, but I'm putting reverse st st under his foot. He likes the socks I gave him for Christmas, but the purl nubs under the ball of his foot annoy and actually begin to hurt after a while. So the second pair look weird because the purl nubs are on the outside and under the foot, but they'll be much more comfortable to wear. First sock is done and the fit is good if he'd stop trying to stuff his toes outside the front.

After years and years of tube socks, he tends to pull the sock really tight against his toe so he can yank it up his calf and practically to his knee. He's trying to do this with his handknit socks and I keep telling him to stop. The sock should fit comfortably and not squish his toes. He's just not used to it yet. The funny thing is that he always wears holes in the toes of his socks and can't figure out why I don't. Er... honey? Because I don't try to squish my toes to the point where they'd be outside the sock....

I have faith that I can retrain him.

Let me see... anything else? I did up a quick pair of mittens for my Mom. She has a really nice brown Aran sweater coat and I got some of the KP Shamrock in a rust color. So I knitted her a pair of mittens that compliment her coat. Considering winter finally decided to appear here in the Northeast, I figured she'd like them. She does.

I think that's it for now. I have TONS of laundry to get through today before tonight's hockey game. We got WHOMPED by Niagara last night so tonight should be... er, interesting. I hope we have different referees. When the penalty judge is skating ahead of the players down the ice, that doesn't bode well for anyone. And, not for nothing, but one call was beyond abyssmal. A Niagara player had Marshall by the shoulders, holding him, and after the whistle was called (because their goalie put his shoulders under the net and knocked it loose deliberately so the ref would wave off the goal), the guy throws Marshall to the ice. Yes, Marshall gets up and the two start a scuffle. But the ref calls two penalites on Marshall and not the Niagara player!!! Scuse me?!?!

Just bad calls. Bad reffing. So I expect tonight to be a grudge match that isn't gonna be pretty.

Ready to Steek...

2008-01-19T10:12:00.001-05:00

Yup, you read that right. I'm ready to steek my sweater. I went back to work on Thursday, which means I now have eight hours a day of practically uninterrupted knitting. I was just past the beginning of the place where I figured the sleeve holes would be when I went back. Thursday passed and Friday was yesterday and I'm ready to steek. I've got everything knitted up to the shoulders.

I added one purl stitch at the side seam for the sleeve steeks (this is what PW tells you to do) and then measured carefully about three times for how wide that needs to be. Measured again because I wanted to repeat the first pattern band at the top of the shoulders and it all worked out beautifully. I did add two more rows of plain black knit at the top of the sleeves (hey, I can always roll back the cuff on my sleeve if it's too long) and CO the sleeves with a purl st (a la Meg Swanson on her Cardigan Details DVD).

I divided the top of the body into three sections, putting each section onto a lifeline. This way, I can grab each side section after cutting the steek and knit those together (I think I'll join those a la MS also with a 3-needle bind off). The actual steek stitch on each side is on a pin marker, ready for scissors. And the middle third of the top is ready for the neck band. I have those on lifelines for now, but the back will blend right into the neckband and the front has been pinned so I can also cut that away once I sew the steek seam and pick up the stitches to complete the neckband. I'm going to use another EZ & MS suggestion and tack down the neckband using "live" stitches to keep the stretchiness rather than cast off the stitches before tacking down.

I do have to attend a women's basketball game this afternoon, so I better get to work if I want to get this done today. I really want to check the sweater for size, etc before I CO for my brother's sweater. Course, if push comes to shove, I can try it on with all the lifelines intact. I really want to get the yarn for his sweater all balled up and ready to go because I have to work tomorrow and would kill myself if I had to face a whole day without something on my needles.

Er.... not that this is a problem. I have a hat on the needles (Midwinter Warmers from KnitPicks) and two pairs of socks also on the needles. But, but, but.... I don't want to work on those.... (she says in her best whiny voice)... I want to work on sweaters!

LOL!

Wish me best of luck as I head for the finish line. Rather than being all discombombulated and worried and tearing my hair out, I'm actually excited to do this. Watching the DVDs of Meg Swanson and Elizabeth Zimmerman and reading their books has given me confidence from their nonchalance that I'd never achieve on my own. If this works as beautifully as they indicate, I have a strange feeling that I'm about to take up residence in SweaterLand.

I only have two feet and I already have a dozen or more pairs of socks. But I don't have any sweaters (er... yet! /g/) that I've made myself. I have a lot of sweater knitting to catch up to my feet. Just think! I could match my sweaters to the colors in my socks. Would that be a hoot or what? I doubt that will happen, but I'm finding that I absolutely adore knitting colorwork and what better way to utilize 8 hours a day than treating myself to some interesting patterns and colors and being able to wear the finished product?

The part of knitting sweaters that I always hated was the shaping around the sleeves and shoulders and the putting together. Steeking will solve that. I'll no longer hate any part of a sweater and the putting together should go together so fast that it'll take no time at all. And I have fairly wide shoulders for my frame, so a dropped shoulder actually looks great on me. Many problems solved if I can get my @ss in gear.

Shower, sewing machine, finishing touches. Yup, I'm ready, excited and anxious.

Stay tuned. If daughter doesn't take pics of the finished product, she'll cease to breathe...

LOL!

Ravelry, etc.

2008-01-12T10:11:00.000-05:00

I got my invite and I'm now over on Ravelry. My name is -- here's a real surprise -- bonneewolf. And I've gotten sucked into the discussions on the message boards over there. Emailing and looking for projects so I'm not spending enough time doing my own projects or updating over here.

Okay, so let's start with projects. Where am I and how far along? Yeah, yeah, pics would help. I am overdue for some pics on the various projects I have planned. But the important thing is that I got my Color Your Own kit from Mom for Christmas. I started it shortly before Christmas (so I had something to work on that day... er, not that I did because we sat around and chatted for hours... ) Anyway, the sleeves are done and I'm almost at the halfway point on the pattern graph of the body. I guess that's about halfway (or a bit more) on the whole sweater. Good progress for someone who doesn't knit as much when she's off from work compared to the hours I've got when I am at work.

Geez.... I surely hope the boss never sees my blog. /wry g/

I have three technical days left before I go back. New students are moving in for orientation over the weekend, so I go back on Thursday. Part of me looks forward to it because I get a lot more knitting done. Part of me hates it because I spend 40 hrs a week sitting in a little aluminum and glass box. But the part of me that looks forward to it is bigger than the part of me that hates it, so I guess that's a good thing... /g/

I also have the Timber Framed kit for my brother's sweater here. It's waiting for me to finish the Color Your Own so I have an idea of what I'm doing. I'll never be comfortable until I get that first steek under my belt, so I'm anticipating and dreading at the same time.

Course, something dawned on me this week. I'm doing all the color changes at one of the side seams. Great for the sleeves since there won't be any steeking involved. But the sweater will involve cutting open the holes to insert the sleeves. This means I'll be cutting right through my color changes. Hmm.... maybe I should write an email to Ann and/or Eugene to ask about this. Should I move my color changes to another part of the sweater? Should I not worry about it and simply keep going? I mean, I weave in the new color before it begins and then weave out the old before I cut it. Now those woven pieces will be meaningless since I'll be cutting them effectively right at the beginning and end of the row. (Does that make sense or did I just type in babble? /g/)

Now, I have other good knitterly stuff. I have a huge order from KnitPicks due sometime this week. Lots of yarn and some EZ DVDs. We're talking over $150 worth of goodness. But I have to make some minor adjustments to the socks I made for Hubby. He likes them, but I need to make some minor fitting stuff for them to be a bit more comfortable. (He doesn't like the purl nubs under his feet, so reverse st st under the foot. And a bit of shaping so they don't sag over his ankles. Minor stuff.) The point is that he likes them!! Woo hoo! I also have some sport wt yarn coming so I can make another pair with smaller needles. (Yup, that negates that purl nub under the foot problem, but I'll work him down slowly.) More of the same heavy worsted wt yarn for more mittens. More needles for Magic Loop... Lots of goodies in this shipment.

And, now, where was it?!? Whitknits.com? They have a sale on Noro yarns. 20% off until, I think, the end of the month. I got a couple skeins for socks and they had a delicious silk lace wt for like $8 for 1100 yds. I've been looking at the box shawl design from Cheryle Oberle's Folk Shawls and I think I could make that one with like 3 skeins. So I ordered.

Yeah, my credit card companies are in love with me. I didn't use them before Christmas, but I've been liberal in the after holiday sale madness... /sigh/

Oh, and I found a terrific buy! Stopped at The Yarn Barn over in Amity and found Happy Feet in the most wonderful colorway for $6 a skein. Kewl! I'm so used to paying double that price for wonderful yarn and now I can get a pair of socks for about $12. Is that kewl or what? Biggest problem was finding the right pattern. I tried Jaywalker. Nope. Wasn't working for me. Tried the Garden Trellis that came out so gorgeous in the Stone Barn Fibers colorway Ice Cream Sundae. Nope. Looked like cat yak. I finally decided to rib the top and simply not bother with any pattern whatsoever. So this is my mindless knitting when I want to get away from the sweater.

I figure, if I get to work on my sweater, I should have the Color Your Own done by the end of the month. Get to work on my brother's and, if I knit my little fingers off, I might actually have it done by his birthday on Feb 25th. I'm not counting on it, but that's my goal.

Then I can finally start my Dale of Norway Albertville '92 Olympic design. I'm going to try that one in KnitPicks' Palette yarns and can do the sweater for about $35 or $40. Yup, I like that pricetag. I doubt I'll finish it before warm weather starts, but I should have a good beginning and be able to pick it back up in the fall and wear it before it gets downright cold. Course, having that done before the end of Sept when the Durham Fair occurs (and I can submit it in the knitting contest) would be fantastic, but we'll see about that. I have 8 months to figure it out... /g/

Other news? I never talk about my health because I've always been very lucky. If you happen to listen to the Lime n Violet podcast, let's just say that I know where the alien baby went. My doc has determined that I'm perimenopausal (think: semi-homicial) and I have a fibriod that isn't shrinking like it's supposed to. We might have to c-section that baby outa there. I'll know more when I go back during the spring break in March. Right now, I'm just uncomfortable and dreaming of new ways to hide the bodies of those I have to sacrifice for the greater good of humanity... LOL!

Now, I have to get to work. Yesterday, I did cleaning. Geez, what was I thinking!?!?!? Washed every dirty dish and utensil in the house. Emptied and washed out the litter box. Laundry. Even washed the outside of my trash can. Yikes! I must've found some crack someplace because I abhor cleaning and organizing and whatever. I've been bribing my kids for years. And, yes, I've figured that once the girls move out, I'll have free money that I can pay someone to do it for me then. But something came over me.... Oh, that's right. Alien baby. Don't let my husband read this or he'll tell me we're not only going to keep it, we're adopting so it can stay...

LOL!

Happy holidays!!!

2007-12-22T06:51:00.000-05:00

Remember I'd reported that I'd doubled a strand of Trekking with some lace wt. merino? Well, the more I worked, the more I really didn't like it. And, if I don't like it, I can assure you that my daughter will hate it. Now, in the meantime, Mom had made a pair of socks for herself in Gypsy Girl's colorway called Lydia. (http://www.stonebarnfibers.com/ to check that out) See those bright pinks and oranges. Very bright and cheery and I took one look and knew younger daughter would LOVE it. But I don't have enough for a whole pair. So I took that Knitpicks lace wt merino in a color called Lost Lake Heather and figured I could do toes and heels in Lydia. So I knit up the first sock. Just the heel and toe in Lydia. Yup, the combination is fabulous... except (isn't there always a "but"? ) without a cuff, this sock looks like it's for the Green Giant. It just looks wrong.

So I knit up a second sock and I added two single rows of Lydia in the cuff and then single rows every ten rows all the way down the sock. Contrasting the flourescent pink and orange against that dark heathered green.... they're beautiful. Now they're something my youngest will love and wear. Course, I have one sock without the stripes and one with. So I had to knit yet another sock to match the striping. I have about 20 rows to go (I'm finally down to the toebox on the last sock) and I'm done. It's taken me so long because I have to work at night and that dark heathered green is a real pain. Dark colors worked at night are not a good thing. Not unless you enjoy the inevitable headache...

Anyway, so, looking at the pic, the ragg-type socks are for Hubby. The cute little blue ones are for oldest daughter (with her preferred short cuff) and the green striped ones are for younger daughter. Last Christmas presents to be made and they're all done (with the last sock to be finished tonight when I get home from work). Whew! Lots of projects and I made it in time to get them all under the tree! Woohoo!!!!

Okay, more news. Mom brought me my kit for my Color Your Own Philosopher's Wool sweater. I was actually kinda surprised by the harshness of the wool itself, but they leave some of the lanolin in the wool. Yes, my hands are loving it, but it does make a rather hard fabric. So I had to swatch, swatch and swatch some more and I washed one of the swatches to see how it would feel after washing. Much softer. There will be better drape also once it's washed. The problem I had was getting my gauge right. They recommended a 3.5 mm (size 8) needle and getting 4.5 sts/inch. Uh huh. Man, they must knit some seriously TIGHT. I'm down to a size 4 needle and still getting at least 5 sts/inch. They also say in their directions that the fabric will "grow" once it's washed for another 2-4 inches. So I'm guesstimating the number of stitches. I started with the sleeve (as they recommended) and I keep trying it on as I go. Keeping it a bit snug so there's room to relax and bloom once it's washed.

I want it to fit nicely. How to explain? Not snug, but not hanging either. I don't like sweaters that are big enough to "flop" when I wear them. This isn't a sweater that I plan to hang to my knees and be worn with leggings. I want to wear a turtleneck under it and it be loose enough not to restrict movement. So I'm going to keep going with the sleeves and then I'll test for gauge in about ten different places before moving over to the body. But, so far, I'm loving it. The colors are muted (not as bright if your monitor shows vivid colors), but the combinations are coming out lovely. Another pic I'll have to load so you can see how it's all working together.

I also received the kit for my brother's sweater and I ordered their book "Fair Isle Simplified" and the directions for steeking are wonderful. They make it sound so simple that I actually can't wait to take a pair of scissors to a sweater for the first time... I'll probably still buy a cheap sweater in a consignment shop somewhere as a practice run, but I'm feeling very confident about the whole thing.

Have a wonderful holiday! Since no one ever leaves comments, I don't even know if anyone reads this short of me, but I wish the very best to everyone who actually stops in. I have a lot of projects lined up for next year and I can't wait to get started. I hope you have your list all ready to go.

Trans-Siberian et al...

2007-12-09T07:34:00.000-05:00

No new picture this week even though I've accomplished LOTS of stuff. Well... more than I'd planned but surely less than I'd hoped...

I finished the socks in Gypsy Girl's Ice Cream Sundae. I did a pattern called Garden Trellis by Gail Dennis and they came out fabulous! (The reason I don't have a pic of those is because they jumped onto my feet for work one day and now they're in the wash. On feet or off, the next time they're free, they're posing. ) I also finished the pair of anklet style athletic socks for oldest daughter. Those also came out wonderful. Because I took a lace wt. yarn and doubled it, they're nice and cushy and should be very warm indeed. Then I got my Knitpicks shipment and proceeded to knit up the Hubby a pair of thick "woodsman's socks" from Elizabeth Zimmerman's book Knitting Around. I'd taken measurements of his feet a couple weeks ago and used those to get these socks started and finished. Wow, what a quick project in Knitpicks' Shamrock yarn. In fact, they knitted up so quickly and I have enough yarn left over that I'm tossing together a pair of mittens for me. More on that later....

Finally, I have a pair started for younger daughter. I took one strand of Trekking XXL and mixed it with a strand of merino lace wt. Funny, but if you saw it, you wouldn't think it would work. It looks really strange because the Trekking is mostly blue... er, sky blue with other colors worked in. I mixed it with a heathered green lace wt. It looks really odd until the striping of the XXL begins to kick in and, somehow, the whole thing is working. Another pic I have to take, but I was the extreme of lazy yesterday.

I never seem to get a day that I can just take off.... No getting dressed. No brushing my teeth. No chores. No expectations. No accomplishments.

So I remedied that and took the day off. I sat at my computer all day and played Bookworm Adventures. Oh boy, that was fun! Talk about testing your vocabulary and how many words can you come up with that use Q, X and J? LOL! Anyway, so I played all day. Then I went upstairs last night and started the mittens.

I was looking around for a pattern and then kinda thunked myself in the head and asked why I needed a pattern? After all the mittens I knitted when the girls were young and the pairs of fingerless mitts I just did not too long ago... Who needs a stinking pattern? You make a tube, you add a gusset for a thumb, knit some more tube and then decrease to finish it. What's so hard? So I started knitting and the first mitten is coming along fine.

The stupid part about all this is that I've been running around all week with cold hands. The temps really plummeted this week and driving has been a pain without any kind of hand covering. I have all this yarn sitting around my house, so why do I have cold hands? Because I've been concentrating on Christmas presents instead of whipping up a pair for myself to avoid the cold hands. Yup, I finally banged my head on the keyboard and knocked some sense into myself. I have two weeks to Christmas and I'm already 1/4 of the way through my last project. Yup, I can take a quick break and solve the cold hand problem before finishing that last project!

Anyway... I mentioned Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Yup, we've got tickets to the show tonight. We're sitting in the section right next to the stage. Can't wait! I've gone to the show the last two years and it's fabulous! Two years ago I took the girls and we sat down in the far corner from the stage. Last year, I added the Hubby to the crowd and we sat about halfway down the arena on the side. This year, we're sitting basically next to the stage. Does that mean next year we'll be on stage with the group? LOL!

All the news groups are predicting some really BAD weather for tonight. Freezing rain and sleet and snow and all kinds of messy stuff. I really, really don't want to blow off almost $300 worth of tickets because of a bit of precipitation, so please keep your fingers crossed for us. I don't want to look at the family and say, "Gee, the Christmas present that never happened..."

Yes, I have the DVD. We could toss it on the TV and watch, but it's not the same. Their concerts aren't even about the music even though the music is fabulous. What better way to generate the goodness of Christmas spirit than a concert with Christmas music? But what makes them so special is the show itself. The lights, the storyline and the special effects. Lights and flames and stars and snow. Trusses that move and lights that flash as fast as they can pick a song... It's an experience, plain and simple. And it's one that will carry you through the rest of the year. Not a concert that you walk out and think it's terrific but you can't remember much after a month or so. It's unlike any concert I've been to and I've been to well over 100 in my life.

I know their concerts are sold out by now, but if you haven't been to a show, get them on your list for next year. Unless you have someone who really HATES pounding drums and electric guitars, drag their butts to the show next year and see how their smile softens from generic "Yeah, yeah, let's be nice to each other" to genuine goodwill towards all men.

Worked a lot this week. Had the usual 40 hrs at the regular post and then worked the 2nd job on Mon and Thurs and added a basketball game on Wed night. Oh.... good news so far. Shelby interviewed to manage the women's basketball team on Thursday and it looks good for her to get the job. This will be terrific on her resume when she really begins to concentrate on her major, which is athletic training. She feels bad about not being able to always play with the pep band at the games, but I told her that team manager will do more for her resume than pep band. Now for the joke. (Isn't there always one? ) As a manager, she'll get a small break on her tuition at the school. This is what they offer for recompense for the time it takes to manage. Only she already has, basically, free tuition through my employee benefit and her scholarship. So when she mentioned that, they said maybe they can work out a deal to pay for some or all of her books. I don't see that happening, but I'll keep my fingers crossed on that one. She's got the free tuition and going to apply to become an RA (resident assistant) which could garner free housing. Now, if they could actually manage to pay for some of her books (which cost us approx $850 this past semester alone), she could practically go to the university for free. Even if they can't do the books (since the bookstore isn't run by the university, I don't see this happening--they're affiliated with, but not owned by), even if they can absorb her lab fees. Those were $200 this last semester and she's got another $250 this upcoming semester.

We'll see. Now to get the younger daughter as ambitious towards her education. She's looking at a college in Florida that offers no housing whatsoever... Yikes! But we still have another year before applications go out.

One more week of work and then I'm off for five weeks. I can't wait! I'd like the chance to get my house in order and do the final preparations for Christmas. Pull out all the presents and see what I have for everyone. Get them all wrapped and pretty and placed under the tree. Shop and cook and clean. And then start knitting sweaters. I have three sweaters planned.

The first two are both by Philosopher's Wool. First I'm going to do their basic Color Your Own for me. This way, if I screw it up, it's on my own project. After all, their designs are meant to be steeked and I've never steeked anything. This should be interesting. Someone on one of the yahoo groups mentioned that she bought a sweater at Salvation Army to try steeking before cutting into her own sweater. I might do that. HAven't decided on that yet until I read the instructions from PW. But, either way, if I screw it up, it'll be on my own sweater and not one I have planned for someone else.

Second sweater will be a combined Christmas/birthday present for my brother, Tom. It's an intermediate design called Timber Framed. I think I can handle that after several pairs of colorwork mitts. And I should have one steeked sweater under my belt by that time also. And both designs are going to be in the Fire colors. Think my family has a thing for red?

Lastly, I'm dying to try a Dale of Norway Olympic design. About 15 years ago, a local yarn shop was going out of business and I stocked up on patterns. I found a gorgeous pattern for the Albertville '92 design that the ski team wore for the Olympics. I've been holding it all these years and figure the PW sweaters can be my beginner steps to finally making this sweater. It'll probably take me until next winter to complete it because it's knitted on size 1 and 3 needles, but that could be my big project for next year. And if you think I'm not going to enter all these things in the Durham Fair next year, you're crazier than me... LOL! Am I stocking up on entries or what?

Well, have a wonderful week. One last week of work with lots of hours, but then I'll get five weeks of rest and relaxation. I've definitely earned some time with Bookwork Adventures this year...

Wow... another pic

2007-11-25T11:25:00.000-05:00

Okay, maybe I should have taken pictures separately but that would require an expertise that's beyond me. I mean, I'd have to figure out how to get two pictures onto the page without squishing them together...

The green one is what I'm now calling the "shawl from hell" and it's finally off the needles. It's the Sarah Blanche shawl from Cheryl Oberle's book "Folk Shawls". Lovely, lovely and probably easy for anyone who doesn't use the tip of their finger to push the needle out from under the stitch.

I gew up knitting "American" or "throwing" my yarn. So when faced with rows that I'd have to do 720 YO's, I fell back into my comfort zone of knitting right-handed. Yes, I had to teach myself continental in order to do the colorwork on the mitts, but I didn't want my hands to fall off with each of those rows. So I threw 720 YO's and then would come back and use my left index finger to push the needle out from those 720 YO's. If you're diabetic, think about pricking yourself 720 times, getting a break for (at most) 6 rows and then doing it all over again. Yup, I can now attest that the Knitpicks Interchangeable needle set in metal has sharp tips...

So the lovely and wonderful shawl from hell is done. I used Knitpicks' Wool of the Andes in Forest Heather and combined it with their Alpaca Cloud in Moss Heather. I wanted to add that little bit of warmth that you'd get from anything alpaca considering there's a lot of holes in this thing.... At first, it was a weird combination and I wasn't sure it would work together, but the more I knitted (you think I was going to frog this thing!?!?! ), it came together and worked into a lovely piece. Now it's done and I hope to never have to repeat that one.

The burgundy is the Wool Peddler's Shawl from same book, same author. Now this was a wonderful treat to work on. Came together in one measly week. Again, done in Wool of the Andes, but I chose Cranberry. I know, I know. Red and it should be bright. But I wasn't sure if it was going to my mother-in-law, who wouldn't have batted an eye at Strawberry or Cherry Blossom, or my aunt-in-law, who's highly conservative. And it's a good thing I chose the Cranberry. I think I'm going to switch presents. The Wool Peddler's Shawl is smaller overall and Aunt Lois is smaller in stature than my MIL. My MIL is not tiny. She's around 5'10" and she's got the frame of a farmer... which works since she grew up on a farm. Good Italian farming stock is she... Now Aunt Lois used to be a lot bigger. Believe me, marrying into this family, I felt like the showcase midget. I was 5'3" and weighed all of 115 lbs. (Don't ask me my weight now or I'll have to hunt you down... )

Anyway, the whole point of this is that Aunt Lois is shrinking fast. She's now even smaller than me. Yes, she's on a race with my Mom as to who will disappear first. Mom started out smaller at around 4'11" when I was married, but she's only lost about an inch in the almost 20 years I've been married. Aunt Lois has to be down about 4" or 5". So she gets the shawl that's smaller and my MIL will get the Sarah Blanche because it's bigger. Logical choice. And, someday, when there's just a pair of shoes walking in my door, covered with a shawl, I'll know who it is by which shawl is draped over the laces.

Last thing to knit for Christmas is Hubby's socks. I started those last night. Man, they're big. This might take a while, but I still have four weeks or so to get them completed.

Then I have to order the Philosopher's Wool kit for my brother. He was up for the holidays and I had Mom take him onto the website to choose which color he'd like. I'm not giving him a choice for pattern. The Timber-Framed will look terrific on him. I just figured he'd choose either Neutrals or Woodland because they're neutral colors and would go with everything under the sun. Nope. He likes Fire. So next payday, I'll order the Timber-Framed in Fire for him. It will be combination Christmas/birthday present because I can pretty much guarantee that I won't have it done by Christmas, but I'm fairly certain I can finish it before the end of February. So, somewhere in that time, he'll get a nice package.

Thanksgiving was lovely. This year, for various reasons, it was just my family -- my Mom, my brother, his two sons and his oldest's girlfriend. Lots of food, good conversation and Christmas tunes in the background. Okay, so let's move on to the amusement. (You think I could get through any holiday without some kind of comedy occurring?!? )

Black Friday. I don't even like venturing outside the house, let alone within 14 miles of a mall. So oldest daughter asks if she can use my car to take herself, her sister and her sister's boyfriend to the mall for shopping. Hey, be my guest. I have a shawl to finish. So off they go. They disappear for hours and I crawl upstairs to work on said shawl and finally get it off the needles while watching some old classics on the DVD. Since this is a day of leftovers, I don't take note when the kids come back and oldest daughter is off and running again. Later that night, I send the dogs on their nightly reconnaisance mission in the yard and Lacey is barking like mad. It's 9:30 or so, so I go to check things out. This isn't your normal neighborhood gossip bark. This is "there's something in the yard and I don't like it" bark. So I'm looking back at the woods, hoping it's not a skunk because I don't want to deal with that this late at night and I see something lying in front of the garage.

Hmm... what is that?!?! It takes me a moment to figure it out. It's my front bumper. I glance around to see what's missing. My truck, that's what. My little Kia Sportage is missing, but my bumper is lying neat and tidy in front of the garage. So I call in the dog, go in to the Hubby and ask if there's something he'd like to tell me. He just smiles and tells me that older daughter had a bit of trouble negotiating the space near a column at the mall.

Long story made short (yeah, I know... too late ), I ask older daughter the next morning after she's parked my truck facing away so you can't see that the whole front is missing--she said her parking job wasn't deliberate and I reply, "uh huh." So I ask her why everyone in the house knows what happened except me. She just smiles sheepishly and says, "Hey, it could have been worse! It could have been my truck!"

Hmm......

I'll keep you posted if I allow her to live long enough to get those mitts....

Another pair of mitts...

2007-11-18T08:20:00.000-05:00

This is the new pair to replace the pair that went MIA. A new design, taking different elements from different graphs in Lizbeth Upitis' book and putting them together. In fact, if you notice anything about them, let me know. If you compare to the original pair that I made (from my post listed on Oct 13th), I think this one moves the colors at a more pleasing gradation. In order, the school's colors are blue, gold and red is a last, not-very-well-known color. I added the white because the teams wear white shirts at home games... er, sometimes. But I thought the white gave balance to the others which can be so strong.

In the first design, I started with the red and blue and gradually worked to white before getting into the blue and yellow main section. IOW, a total turnabout from red/white to blue/yellow. This one changes one element with each design and ends up with the blue as primary "background", so I think it works better.

Anyway, those are done. So I have those, the mitts for youngest daughter and the shawl for my mother-in-law completed. I'm hoping to finish the shawl for Aunt Lois this week.

Then I went out last weekend and bought some Shetland to make Hubby a pair of socks. I took all kinds of measurements of his feet so I can work up a basic design that will fit. (My Mom also wants the measurements because she wants to make a pair of socks for my brother and his feet are almost the same as the DH, just a wee bit smaller - size 10 as opposed to a 10.5 - so I'll pass those over to Mom as soon as I work up the first sock to see if it fits correctly.) Hubby has always told me not to bother making him a pair of socks, but he gets so cold when he's out shoveling or plowing or -- God forbid -- has to do a tow in the middle of the night. This wool is a bit rough, so I'll warn him not to wear them right next to his skin, but they should keep him nice and toasty when he's outside in the elements if he wears them as an oversock.

Course, if I do this, I might let loose a monster. He never wanted to go to a hockey game either. Now I can't leave him home...

I'm going to try to post again tomorrow. I have a sock that I'm working on and it's absolutely delicious. I found a free pattern called Garden Trellis and I'm making it up in Gypsy Girl's Ice Cream Sundae colorway (www.stonebarnfibers.com). This is beyond gorgeous. Another example of perfect yarn with perfect pattern. I did 8 pattern repeats and I'm curious if I'll have enough yarn for the foot. So I ran a lifeline at the end of pattern 7, but we'll see. I'm pretty sure I'll have enough, but you never know.

New Pics...

2007-11-04T06:58:00.000-05:00

Here they are! I'm doing this because I highly doubt that youngest daughter reads my blog. I know my Mom does, but I doubt my kids wonder what I'm up to or what I'm working on. Though the youngest flirts with knitting, she's more interested in the concept of creating and designing things than actually making them...

Anyway, these are the mitts she's getting for Christmas. I took graph #92 (I believe) from Lizbeth Upitis' book on Latvian mittens and adapted it to the fingerless design. I added the thumb gusset in plain purple and then added the braiding at the top of the gusset and the top of the hand for stability. I'd love to say that I'd planned it perfectly to get the braid at the top of the thumb gusset, but it was sheer luck that the bind off row coincided with a plain purple row in the actual hand design.

These still have to be washed and blocked, but I'm going to do all the projects at once on some weekend (probably after Thanksgiving while the rest of the world is doing the mall crawl and I avoid it like the plague ). I plan to cover my bed in towels and pin everything down for an entire day to give them a chance to dry. It helps that I have an overhead fan to keep the air circulating nicely. But I'll close the door (and prop it to keep kitties and dogs from saying "Ooooooo! New bedcover to rub all over!!!!" ).

Let's see if I can drop a second picture down here or if it will rise to the top of the page.... Oh well, it's also at the top of the page, but it's obviously the one on the right. Cherry Tree Hill in Indian Summer done in Jeannie Townsend's Cascading Leaves pattern. I don't think the pattern shows as much as I'd like, but I like the symmetry of Indian Summer and Cascading Leaves... I would never think of purple as an "Indian Summer" color, but the colorway is gorgeous. The bronzes and coppers and browns with the purple were simply too pretty to leave orphaned at the store.

I don't know what it is, but I'm in a "brown" mood lately. Not one of my favorite colors, which is dumb because it really does go with everything, but I've been knitting a lot with brown lately. I tried the magic loop method for the first time and did a headband in an Icelandic design from Dale's 92 Albertville flyer in brown, red, orange and peach with two single lines of sky blue. Came out really nice. Once I get that inside seam put together, that'll be another present for oldest daughter.

I also bought some yarn from Cathi at www.stonebarnfibers.com in her Gypsy Girl colorway of Cattails. Oh, what rich colors!!! My monitor didn't do this colorway justice. Course, I knew it would be better in person than on the computer, so that's why I ordered it and I certainly wasn't disappointed. I can't wait to cast that on.

But first I have to finish more projects. I'm into the second repeat of the pattern on Aunt Lois' dropped garter stitch shawl. It's slow work because there are two dropped stitch rows for every 12 rows of simple garter. All those yarn overs take time. I might end up taking that one to work with me so I can make some noticeable progress. After all, I knitted up my mother-in-law's shawl (the Wool Peddler's Shawl) in one week. I could probably manage this one in a week also, but I haven't carried it with me yet. Maybe this week once I finish the second pair of fingerless mitts.

Would probably be a good idea also. The second pair are for oldest daughter to replace the pair I'd made her that were either lost or stolen. She saw the first pair and I want these to be a surprise. I took several elements from the graphs in Upitis' book and combined them for my own, switching out the colors hopefully in a logical progression. I'm only into the third color change so I don't know yet how the whole project will work yet, but my fingers are crossed. So far, so good.

Let's see what else is new...

I also ordered fiber from Cathi at www.stonebarnfibers.com . Some gorgeous merino in a colorway called Daffodil. I've been trying to spin with merino/tencel and wondering why I was having some trouble. Damn stuff was slippery as all get out. Well.... Duh! It's got tencel in it. So I ordered plain merino to see if I could handle it easier. I was thinking of taking the colorway and plying it with a solid, so I ordered another 4 oz. of her solid color "Spice", thinking the contrast would work nicely. She was out of Spice. So she wrote and asked if I had a second color choice and I asked her to pick one. Her sense of color with her hand-dying is sooooo exquisite that I totally trust her judgement. And she sent me 4 oz. of the most gorgeous Ruby. Wow! I know I received it a week ago, but I haven't been able to touch it. Too much work and other obligations that kept me from being home much in the last ten days. But today is definitely a laundry and spinning day and my fingers are itching already. (I can't forget the laundry, though, or I won't have underwear to wear tomorrow... I bet you'll sleep better tonight knowing this stuff... LOL!)

I also got smart. I received my check for October on the second part-time job and I've decided that some of that money will go towards a "cleaning lady". A friend of mine's daughter is trying to save to buy a nice used car and she hires out for $15/hour. Yes, I did do some cleaning yesterday, but I'd much rather pay someone to do it for me and spend my time spinning, so I've hired her to come over and help clean and organize my mess. Her mom says she's wonderful and I'm more than happy to contribute to her car fund if she's willing to do the stuff I can't stand doing. (Give me a yard and I'll work for hours and hours. Bring me inside and I resent every single moment with a sponge or a broom in my hand... )

Oh, btw, remember I was trying to write for Harlequin for their new Spice Briefs line? Well, they don't like my stuff. So to heck with them. I'm going to investigate more with my knitting and spinning. I'm thinking of going for the Masters Certification with The Knitting Guild of America. I heard an interview with Ann Budd on the Knitpicks podcast and she says that she wouldn't recommend it for everyone because it's very time consuming and very detailed. She actually did get her certification and she said she learned a lot, though she doesn't use a lot of the new techniques with the kind of designing she does.

I was thinking that it might be something I could look for. Lord knows, I have the time at work. Maybe if I can get through some of the projects I have lined up, it might be worth it. Especially if I want to teach knitting. I think I'd make a good teacher. And I'd learn more new techniques and might find a way to incorporate new ones into what I'm already doing. I can already cast on in about six different ways, though I'd like to learn more ways to bind off. I can sew a seam so it's practically invisible (though no sewing at all is even more desirable... ). I can set in a sleeve and pick up stitches. Increase and decrease. Why not get the certification to go with it? It's a thought. I'd love to hear opinions on this.

Okay, off to start more laundry and hop in the shower. Have my "cleaning girl" coming today and have roving in the other room that's tired of being ignored. Have a wonderful week!

No pics this week...

2007-10-28T07:22:00.000-04:00

Because what I've completed is stuff that I can't flash around while youngst daughter is home. Yup, I finished the first of her fingerless mitts and they're simply gorgeous! I took one of the patterns from Lizbeth Upitis' book that doesn't have a picture and did my little adaption into fingerless and this pair really came out spectacular. (I'll try to sneek a pic in about mid-week when she's burrowed in her room with the phone.) Course, I might be able to finish the second mitt tomorrow since it's knitting up really fast, but more projects also OTN so we'll see who screams the loudest for attention when I get to work in the morning.

I also finished the first sock using Jeannie Townsend's Cascading Leaves pattern done in Cherry Tree Hill's colorway called Indian Summer. It satisfies my sense of "order" that I use that pattern with that colorway. And it came out looking really nice. I'm halfway down the cuff on the second sock and that should be done this week if I don't get tangled up in the new shawl.

Yes, I received my latest order from Knitpicks and I started Aunt Lois' shawl last night. Got their Wool of the Andes in Forest Heather and I'm also adding a single strand of Alpaca Cloud in Moss Heather. It's looking terrific together and that will be turned into the Sarah Blanche shawl from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls. I worked for about 3 or 4 hours and only got halfway through the 5th row (which is where I'm putting my first dropped stitch row), so this will be a long process, but it's going to be wonderful.

In the shipment, I simply had to order a ball of Palette in the Golden Heather. Wow, what a gorgeous color. A bit of red to soften and tone down the bright yellow of the normal Palette. I won't be able to use it in the older daughter's mitts, but I'm thinking of a way to use it in Dale pattern that I bought about 15 years ago. Yup, I was digging around downstairs and found a few patterns that I'd bought a LONG time ago when a LYS was going out of business. (No, not from lack of patronage, but because they were closing the complex where they rented space.) They'd put everything on sale and I actually bought more patterns than yarn. Got a wonderful pattern for an Icelandic sweater that I wanted to try my hand at. Considering my fear of colorwork until lately, I'd ignored it. Then I stumbled over it a few weeks ago and now it's calling my name with a vengeance.

Considering this would be my first sweater-sized colorway, I'm intimidated by the thought of actually knitting it up in Dale of Norway yarn (which it was designed for). The cost would be well over $100 and closer to $150. OTOH, I was looking yesterday and I think I could knit it up in Knitpicks Palette yarns for about $50. AND (and this is what has me itching to get moving), I could work that gorgeous Golden Heather into the design. Course, I'm thinking of trying the hat first. Just to see for gauge and suitability and if I can actually do it. If I like what I turn out, I can order the yarn and go for the whole shebang in a full sweater.

And that would give me the opportunity to test my color skills before tackling a Philosophers Wool Timber Framed for my brother for his birthday in Feb. Plus I can test steeking (YIKES!!!! Scissors to knitted fabric?!?!?) before I do something that's going to be a gift.

In the meantime, I have MIL's shawl all done. I'm going to wash and block that one right after Thanksgiving. Yup, I'm a smoker and the last thing I want is the smell of smoke to come tumbling out of the gift wrap before she even sees the shawl. So I'll wait and block that one when I get the Aunt-in-law's shawl done and get them washed (iow, get rid of smell), blocked and wrapped after the turkey holiday and with plenty of time before the Christmas holiday.

Sounds like a plan and the next few months are basically all mapped out on what projects will be one the needles....

OH!!! Before I forget. I got a shipment from Cathi at Stone Barn Fibers. I ordered some hand-painted yarn for socks (what else? ) in the colorways Cattails and Ice Cream Sundae. Hmm... yummy and gorgeous, so I'm sure they'll be on the needles as soon as I can get done with the Cascading Leaves and Textured Argyles. I also ordered some gorgeous merino to try to spin for socks. I ordered 4 oz. of her handpainted merino in Daffodil (which is yellow with streaks of red and green and even a few others) and I'd wanted to try plying that with a solid strand of Spice. Course, this being Oct and I totally forgot that anything orange would be gone in a heartbeat, I wasn't surprised when Cathi wrote to let me know that she was out of spice. Oh well. So I wrote back and said to pick something to go with the Daffodil and surprise me. Lo and behold, she picked this stunning ruby red. Can't wait to get my fingers on that fiber today.

And not only are they gorgeous, but I opened the bag so I could fondle the fiber and the scent that wafted out of the package was simply divine. Clean and sweet. I don't know what she uses to wash her fibers, but it's heavenly. The scent was even in the yarn. Working on the fiber and the yarn is going to be yummy indeed.

Trust me. Get fingers over to www.stonebarnfibers.com and get yourself some sock yarn and some fiber. The computer monitor does NOT do justice for her handpainted fiber and yarn. Her sense of color is exquisite and the yarn is to-die-for. Bouncy and soft and unbelievable. Picking one over another is difficult and there isn't a bad mix in the bunch. Try one skein of yarn and you'll be tearing your hair out to simply order two of each. (Yes, you do need two skeins to make a pair unless you make socks without cuffs.)

A few months ago, my mom had ordered a dozen colors, two skeins of each. I balled them all for her and put each colorway into a qt. ziploc bag. Then put all the bags into one big brown paper bag. She's had more fun simply reaching into the paper bag and taking out whatever ziploc comes to hand. Each one is a new surprise and keeps her knitting happily on new socks. I don't think she's halfway through her stash and is already itching to buy some more because there's so much pleasure in the surprise she has each time she reaches in for a new project.

Yup, I definitely need me one of those big brown paper bags...

Okay, off to do fundraising tallies and get rid of those white roots.... er, not in that order. Do roots first so I can hop in shower and then go play with a calculator for a few hours. Then home for laundry and finally the ability to play with my new fiber while the machines do their thing.

I'll get pics up this week when I can make sure youngest daughter is stashed in her room with phone to ear and distracted from seeing her Christmas present.

Textured Argyle and more...

2007-10-21T07:50:00.001-04:00

Here it is. The infamous Textured Argyle. I haven't had a lot of time to work on it (well, duh, since you still have needles sticking out of it! ) but I'd promised the pics last week. Oops...

I don't know if you can tell in the pic, but the first row of diamonds (with the red twisted with a blue) are purled rows, then the dark red (believe it or not with a green) is stockinette st, then the yellowish diamonds are again purled and so forth. Each section is offset by small one stitch cables. This is how the diamond definition is set up.

I did that to the bottom of the cuff and then simple straight stockinette for the rest of the sock with a short row heel. Let me see if I can get that other pic to upload here also. Woohoo! Yup, I can upload. Now I have to learn how to set them where I want them and I'll be ready to roll. Youngest daughter promised me that she'd help me do that, but she's still in bed. So maybe next time.... Why? Because I'll have more pics to upload.

Why again? New paragraph, that's why... I finished the MIL's Wool Peddler's Shawl. I got my order from Knitpicks last Saturday. I can't tell you how excited I was to come home and find that box sitting on top of my mailbox. So I whipped it open, checked out my yarn and put together my new Options interchangeable set of cables. Put together my size 7 tips on a 24" cable and cast on Saturday night. It's funny because I thought the garter stitch beginning would be SO simple. Well, it took me 3 tries to keep that center increase row both centered and straight. But once I got the hang, yes, it whipped up pretty darned fast.

Now, my MIL is tall. She's 5'10" or thereabouts, so I did add one more row to the lace bottom section. And, boy, that was slow knitting cuz you're working about 300 sts in each row. But I also experimented some and I can now knit "continental" even faster than I can knit my good ole 30-yrs-of-experience American. It took a while to get somewhat easy on the purling, though. That one slowed me down a lot because the first row I tried purling, I got it backwards so all the sts twisted when I went to knit. So I knitted the next row through the back and then regrouped. Took a while, but I figured it out and can now purl in the continental manner a bit faster than molasses...

Anyway, so I got all excited. One shawl down and 9 whole weeks before.... Oh, wait! I have to reveal two other things during the making of this shawl. I've written to Knitpicks because I can't believe it, but my cable pulled right out of the connector. Luckily, I had just knitted my last row and only had to cast off, but I went to turn the work and BOOM! I'm sitting there with my knitting in my lap and my needle in my hand. Thank goodness it was the last row and I didn't have to try to pick up 300+ stitches. So I pushed all the stitches together on the good end and continued to cast off. Whic leads me to another thing I learned.

New paragraph... I don't know about you, but my cast off stitches are never in tension with the rest of my work. They're either too loose or too tight. And the ends never lay flat. They either pull or ripple. Yech! Yeah, yeah, everyone tells you to cast off _loosely_. That never works for me. It's still different than everything else. So I tried something new.

Please note that this will only work if you work this last row on a cable needle and you'll see why. I knit that last row and then moved back to the beginning of same row. IOW, I haven't turned my work at all. I simply move from the left side where my yarn leader is dangling back to the right side where I began that row. Then I simply slipped my first two stitches to the right needle and slipped the first stitch over the second. Slip another stitch from the left needle and pass the "first" slipped stitch over the new one. Etc, etc. Knitting is already done. You're just passing the stitches for the bind off. End result? That edge lay flat and true like never before. Not too loose. Not too tight. Perfectly in sync with every other row I'd knitted.

Seriously, give it a try. You'll be surprised.

Okay, next note. I pulled out the swift and ball winder yesterday and balled up the lace weight merino and alpaca skeins I'd bought for the Aunt-In-Law's shawl. Funny, when you put the balls next to each other, it's not that pretty. But start casting on and the alpaca in Moss Heather adds a really nice subtle contrast to the darker Lost Lake Heather in merino.

Anyway, I get upstairs last night and begin to cast on. Yarn leader is too short for 240 sts. I tear back and cast on again. Yarn leader is too short by about 10 sts. So I tear out and cast on a third time and this thing is looking mighty short. 240 sts or did Cheryle Oberle mean 340? I pull out the book again and look. Yup, 240 sts. Problem is that the yarn is supped to be DK weight and not fingering as I'd read (about 5 times). Actually, I think my problem is that I kept looking at so many different patterns that I forgot what yarn was needed for which project... So here I am with yarn that can't be used for the pattern I want or, if I switch to another pattern, I don't have enough yarn to complete it. I was thinking of switching to the Bird's Nest Shawl, but I only have half the yarn to complete it. I'll figure that one out and keep you posted.

In the meantime, I can start a pair of fingerless mitts to replace the ones that Shelby doesn't have anymore. I don't want to say that she lost them or accuse someone of stealing them. I think it was more a combination of both. She put them down and forgot to grab them and they were gone before she could retrace her steps. Course, as I told her in no uncertain terms, the design is 100% unique. So if she sees someone wearing them, I expect her to run them to ground and tackle them.... LOL!

Now, before I interrupted myself, I was about to say that, as of this Tuesday, we have nine (count them, NINE!!!!) weeks to Christmas. At least three projects in the hopper to be completed prior to then. And I simply have to figure out something for the Hubby. He keeps complaining that his feet get cold, so I want to make him a pair of socks. I have a reason now for him not to be suspicious. My mom wants to make a pair for my brother and, considering he's in North Carolina, it's a bit difficult to measure his foot. But my DH's foot is a bit longer and a bit bigger than my brother's. So if I measure Mark's foot and subtract a quarter inch in length and a half inch in diameter, it should work. And I'll have Mark's measurements also. Maybe that's what I could use that merino and alpaca for. The merino would add memory and "bounce" and the alpaca will add warmth. And the two shades of very subtle green will be nice and conservative compared to my socks in loud parrot and "fire"...

It's a thought.

Have a wonderful week! Nine and counting... Yikes!

Fingerless Mitts

2007-10-13T12:42:00.000-04:00

Before I get into things, let me begin with an apology. I seem to have lost my ability to paragraph correctly, so rather than have all of my paragraphs run into each other like a multi-car wreck, I'm bulletting all the paragraphs to keep them separate. That said....

Let's start with a picture. I finally got one. The main school colors are navy blue and gold, so that's the main part that goes over the hand. That navy "blob" is a thumb gusset. I was going to keep it in pattern, but it was so small a piece, I simply couldn't wrap my head around how to work the math to keep it in pattern. So... blue. Then I was worried about how the end at the fingers would roll back on itself because it's double-stranded, so I just finished it with a braid and then blocked to keep it straight. Funny, I've never owned a set of lace blockers in my life, so I just took the needles that I'd used to knit the mitts and laced them through each side to block it flat. Now, I doubt that would work for a large piece like a shawl, but it worked beautifully for the mitts.

Now, here's the kicker. I gave Shelby the mitts on Wednesday morning because she needed them for last night's Midnight Madness. Well, she's searched high and low and can't find them for the life of her... Argh! I'm sure she feels really bad, but she figures she probably took them out of her messenger bag to grab something and then forgot to put them back. We checked with Lost & Found on campus, but, yup, they're gone. The good news is that, I don't know why, but I'm not mad. I think it's because there were a few things I would have changed once it was all done and I looked at the total overall effect. Now I have a chance to do just that. I'll have to order more yarn to accomplish this goal, but I'm going to do it and make her another pair.

I also have plans to make a pair for youngest daughter. You know the one... she sits by the hour with a phone superglued to her head and IM'ing on the laptop simultaneously. Other than cleaning the litterbox twice a week, she can barely manage to make soup for her Dad on the nights I work, but for some reason I'll make her a pair of mitts. She deserves a smack instead of a present, but I'm WAY too nice for the good of both of us. My one consolation is that I know -- I mean, I KNOW!!!! -- some day she'll have a daughter just like her... Payback's a bitch and she'll get hers... LOL!

Now for the good news. Yarn has arrived for the two shawls I'm making for Christmas. One a lovely rich burgundy called "hollyberry" from Knitpicks for the MIL. This one will become the Wool Peddler's Shawl. The other two yarns are both lace weight, but I'll combine them to make the Sarah Blanche shawl for the aunt-in-law. Two shades of green that will create almost a tweed effect, but one of them is alpaca, so that will add some wonderful warmness that straight merino might not with such a "holey" shawl. I want to do the Sarah Blanche because it's a dropped stitch garter and years ago I made a crocheted "broomstick lace" afghan for Aunt Lois and she loved it. This is almost the same effect, so they will match in a very strange and weird sense.

Oh, and I have to mention. I took the pic from above of the mitts sitting on the stool for my Kromski because the wood is deep and rich and would blend into the dark background so the mitts would really stand out. I did get a complaint from my Mom that the other few pics I'd uploaded were way too busy with background, etc. So I figured just the stool. And I aimed my Ott light at it so the colors would show true (another problem I have in my house). Damn if it didn't work out well.

I have to take a pic of the Textured Argyle sock. I'm almost done with the first and the cuff came out really nice. Hopefully, I can get that today and upload tomorrow. I can place one pic, but I have trouble if I'm uploading more than one. They tend to bunch up. I asked youngest daughter about that and she said, "Oh, you just type in blah, blah, blah, wakka, wakka". huh? I just smiled and said she could stay off the phone long enough to help....

Just Keep Knitting...

2007-10-06T09:39:00.000-04:00

No new projects to report... er, yet. But I'm cranking along on the ones I posted in my last venture. I've completed one of the fingerless mitts for Shelby. Considering she needs them for this coming Saturday night, the second is coming along well and I expect to be done with them by Tuesday. (Okay, really, by Monday, but I need to wash and block, so it'll be Tuesday before I can give them to her.) The Pep Band will be at the Midnight Madness rally at the university, but that's held in the old basketball court so I doubt she'll be cold. OTOH, the hockey team has their first game on Saturday, so I want Shelby to have them handy if she needs them. (It's an exhibition game, but I don't care. Hockey is hockey and I CAN'T wait to have my butt in my season seat... )

The Dimple Shale Lace Scarf is coming along slowly. I figure if I do a couple pattern repeats every day, I might be done by Christmas. But I'm not worried about that one. I'll probably keep it for myself since I have presents lined up for everyone else. (hmmm... a present for one of the girls? Maybe. That's a thought I should probably write down or I'll lose it entirely. )

The Textured Argyle is almost done on the first cuff. I think I have about 4 rows left until I can start the st st for the heel, but I'm also thinking about how to decrease this baby. I'm working the pattern in 72 sts. Let's be real. I normally use 52-56 sts for my socks. I did more on the cuff for this one because I don't want the pattern to stretch around my calf. I want it to lay flat and show the beauty of a pattern I actually figured out for myself. (YES!!!! Finally, right yarn for the pattern!) But I'll have to decrease before I get into the heel or these socks will end up sized for Mark. There's 9 pattern repeats, so, in the last row before I do my usual 5 rows of st st before I start the heel, I'm going to decrease one stitch in each pattern (in the purled sections so it's less noticeable). That will bring me down to 63 sts. I'm thinking of st st the next row and then another 3 or 5 sts decrease to bring the stitch count down to 58 or 60 sts and then work the heel. I haven't decided yet on that one, but I'm leaning more towards 58 sts total. It'll still a bit larger than my usual 52-56 sts, but I'm also using a slightly smaller needle, so I surely don't want it to end up too small.

If I'd had half a brain, I probably would have cast on 64 sts instead of 72 for 8 repeats instead of 9. But the day I cast on for the socks was one of those days where not a coherent thought passed through my mind between the time I woke up and the time I went to sleep. It didn't even dawn on me until about two days ago that I cast on too many sts from the start. I'll try it on once I turn the heel and, if it's really too big, I can always frog. I'm getting used to the sound of frogs singing around my needles...

I'm waiting for the sun to come out so I can get some pictures of what I'm working on. Every time I've done something inside the house, the pics turn out way too dark. So I want to try outside with the natural sunlight and it might help with showing the true colors as well as picking up the light/shadow to show the Textured Argyle and the variation in texture. I learned this one from my wonderfully warm alpaca shawl. It's a three-ply yarn with each ply in a different color (dark, med, light all in the natural animal colors), so I kept the pattern a very simple basketweave of knit and purl. Unfortunately, between the variation in color and the small varitation in texture, I couldn't get a decent picture that showed anything more than a big rectangular blob... The biggest part was probably because I was trying to take the pic inside. Being surrounded by trees, I don't have a lot of natural light streaming in my oversized windows. And being a Cape Cod, I should definitely have more lamps in my rooms... So now I'm going to try photographing outside with natural sunlight and see if that solves my color/texture problems.

Anyway, I'll try to be back tomorrow. I have to post the ideas for the Christmas shawls I'll be making this year. Since the recipients don't spend much time online --one doesn't even own a computer and I can pretty much guarantee that the other doesn't even know I have a blog, let alone read it -- I won't be spoiling any surprises by making this announcement.

Have a wonderful Saturday! I've got my fingers crossed that the sun comes out. I'm almost positive it will make an appearance since there's no hope of rain anytime soon.

Stashes -- Half empty or half full?

2007-09-30T06:54:00.001-04:00

Yup, it's the next weekend and I'm actually back. I want to thank Kenn for the nice note! Two weeks and I'll be in my seat in the arena and my withdrawal will be over. I could definitely use a hockey fix real soon...

OTN are several projects. I have some gorgeous Mega Boot Stretch by Lana Grossa in red that's going to be that textured argyle sock. This is definitely the right yarn for the right pattern. I started the first sock last night and only got the cuff done because the girls had taken my car to the Durham Fair and where is my notebook? Yup, sitting in my backseat. The family teases me that I live out of my car. Now it's truly everyone who knows this...

Also on the needles is a scarf in a simple lacy pattern. Mom had some Knitpicks Shimmer lace weight yarn in denim. She tried several times to make a lace shawl, but she can't stand counting those darn yarn overs. So she gave the yarn to me and I've had it bouncing around for about a year now. I originally started the pattern in single strand, but even with only a size 4 needles, it was too fine. I was thinking along the lines of an Irish Wedding Ring lace where, when you're all done, you can pull the scarf through a wedding ring because the yarn is so fine, but that wasn't going to work with this particular yarn and this particular pattern. So I doubled the stranding and that solved the problem. What's amazing is that it's a variegated yarn with several shades of blue and I happened (this was sheer chance and not design) to begin the skeins at just the right place so the color changes are working together. The colors change at almost the same time. Now, maybe by the time I reach the center of the scarf, they'll be out of synch, but they're working together now and it's coming out very nice.

Let's see... Shelby's fingerless mitts. Started one pattern. yech. Started another. Nope, not that one either. Finally went back to the very first pattern that I'd worked in the Latvian style and mixed up the colors of navy blue, yellow, red and white. Finally got a match. Style is working. Color changes are working right up to the base of the hand. I went from a background of white with the first design in blue and the second in red and then changed to the main part of the mitts in an intricate design of blue and yellow. But the change from red/white to blue/yellow was so sudden, it was jarring. Hmm... how to fix it? Easy. I frogged back all the blue/yellow and began the section with a braid to frame the design. Whew! Easy fix. I'm now at the point where I'm adding the plain blue gusset for the base of the thumb. Yup, it's not Latvian anymore, but I think it's going to be perfect for what I'm doing. I figure enough rows to get the thumb in there and then either one whole pattern or a pattern and a half to reach over the knuckles and a bit onto the fingers and then I'll finish it with another braid, again to define the design. So keep your fingers crossed that the end result matches what I see inside my head.

I think that's everything that's on the needles right now.

Took a vacation day on Friday so I could beat most of the crowds at the Durham Fair. Spent about $200, but I got most of my Christmas shopping done. And even a few birthday presents since my MIL's birthday is this coming Friday and oldest daughter will be 18 before the month is over. The only person I didn't get anything for was my darling hubby... I'm still trying to convince him to let me knit him an Icelandic sweater, but he's been adamant about rolling his eyes at me. No, I can't see him wearing one either, but that's besides the point... LOL!

While at the Durham Fair, I ran into my teacher, Laurie Sanford. She was co-chair for the Fiber Committee (new this year at the fair) and she yelled at me for not submitting something. I hung my head in shame and admitted that I don't get to spin as often as I'd like, but that wasn't an excuse for her. I did tell her, though, that I did look at the entries and was going to enter some of my yarn, but I hadn't gotten around to making that decision until the very day that all the entry forms were due. So I promised that I'd enter next year. A goal. That's what I need. I can enter some of my handknit items as well as some of the fiber I've spun and, maybe if I can get off my duff and actually knit up some of my own yarn, I can enter that as well. So I have some ambitious goals for this coming year.

Which brings me to a subject that I promised I'd discuss. Stash. What are they? How do we keep them from cloning whenever we turn our back?

I used to be really bad about stash control. I had huge 40-gallon Tupperware containers of stash. Worse was that I'd buy yarn simply because I liked it and it would sit there for years without even a project in mind. I don't know if anyone else can say this one, but I honestly had a stash of lavendar wool that I'd bought my first year of working (so we're talking around 1984 or so) because it was a closeout. It sat around with nothing to do and no project in mind for over a decade. I finally turned it into an afghan which I still have. Weighs a ton which is why I don't use it because it weighs enough to keep small children from breathing, but it's still in my house.

That was the yarn that turned me around. I no longer buy a yarn just because it's gorgeous. Frankly, there will always be gorgeous yarn. I'm a pain in that I have to fondle the yarn before buying. I venture into a yarn store and feel my way around the shelves. As I work more and more, I'm finding that I'm even more tactile than enticed by color. If it doesn't feel right, I simply won't work with it.

Oops. I'm meandering again, aren't I? Stash control. I don't buy a yarn if it doesn't speak to me about what it wants to be. If there's no project in mind, then I can't have it. Plain and simple. It could be the loveliest yarn since the Hope Diamond, but if it doesn't have a plan, it doesn't come home. Second is that I only allow myself so much. I usually buy in bulk as opposed to each project on it's own. When I buy, I spent $100+ or could be $200+. But, and here's the kicker, each yarn has a project and I have to complete at least 80% of the projects before I'm allowed to buy more. I might purchase yarn for a shawl or a sweater (I can't WAIT to start doing colorways in sweaters) and then yarn for 5 or 6 pairs of socks. All at once. Big bill. But then I'm not allowed to buy more until I've completed (not started, mind you, but completed) the majority of the projects.

It's hard. Don't get me wrong. I could escape to various yarn stores every weekend and drop $100 a week on yarn. But then when would I finish them? No, the purchase of more yarn is my incentive to complete the projects I've already got. And the quickest way to get more yarn is to complete the projects I've already purchased.

Example -- I have one "project" left from my old stash when I bought the yarn last weekend for the new projects. It's some lovely Lis Souza in Joseph's Coat that I know will be another pair of socks. I haven't decided on a pattern or if I'll even use a pattern for it, but I know this yarn will be socks. And I can make a pair of socks (if I really work at it) in 4-5 days. So it's time to get more yarn. Hence, my trip to Country Yarns and about $120 for new projects.

Last night, I saw a pattern for a dropped stitch shawl. I think this would be wonderful in alpaca for Aunt Lois and my mother-in-law for Christmas. Shouldn't be too time-consuming to make. A couple weeks at best. (The dropped stitch garter shawl from Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle) I made a shawl for Mom last Christmas, so it would be nice to make one this year for the other two ladies in our family. Anyway, if I want to get them made by December, then I have to get to work on the projects I just purchased. See? Incentive if I want to complete the shawls in time to wrap.

I don't see the restrictions of not being able to buy more yarn as a punishment. Rather, it's all in how you view it. I know that my reward for completing projects is the ability to fund new ones. And I knit away, happy and content, because I know that there are always new projects to drool over. And since I can't get to them until I finish the ones I've got, I just keep knitting because that's the only path that will get me back to the store (or Internet site)...

Think of Dorie in Finding Nemo. Her mantra was "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." Well, I've turned that into "Just keep knitting..."

To relate back to the title of this (yet again very LONG) post... is your stash half empty or half full? I don't think of all the wonderful yarns that aren't in my stash. I think of all the ones that will be there once I complete what I've got.

Comments? Any other topic I can cover? Write and let me know if any of this helps.

Setting a record here...

2007-09-23T20:19:00.000-04:00

There definitely be dragons here...

I'm posting twice in one darn weekend. I think a bug's gotten into me somewhere. I can feel it running around, but I'm not sure I want to get rid of it. See... I forgot to include some info in the last post...

First off, I turned the heel (almost wrote hell there and wondering if it might be a mistake or one of those Freudian slips... ) and my directions actually worked. Wasn't sure I'd written them down correctly, but I actually did. That would be a first within itself. I've adapted a lot of recipes and patterns over the years, but I've never written anything down. Or if I did write it down, I usually got it all wrong. Oops...

I tried on the first sock (only because I was dying of curiosity) and it looks dreamy. Fits wonderful and, like I said earlier, I've finally got the right pattern with the right yarn. I'll have to have Dee take a pic for me so I can post it.

Speaking of yarn, I got over to Country Yarns. The sock yarn I was thinking of is called Mega Boot Stetch and it's put out by Lana Grossa. I'm not sure the new yarn I bought will work because it's red and rather bright, but I'm going to give it a shot anyway. I also picked up some gorgeous Andirondack in a color called... er, what is it called? Can't remember except it's primary, rich colors. Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff. Let's see... what else? I bought Cherry Tree Hill in Indian Summer. If the Mega Boot Stretch doesn't work in the Textured Argyle, this definitely will. Another yarn... I think it's another Lana Grossa. Nope, Trekking XXL. I think it's color 100. And one more. A skein of Schaefer Anne (or is it Anne Schaefer?) in color Mojave. Now that's going to be doubled and made into a gorgeous scarf for a Christmas present. I have the two grandmothers and a great-aunt and I think they'll all get scarves this year. I saw some simply devine cashmere/silk that's to die for. At $40.00 a skein, it ought to be to die for, but it's gorgeous. Soft as a puppy's butt and in soft pastels, but really saturated pastel colors. And if I can find the right pattern that will only need one skein, I don't mind the expense. Sorry, but I just can't drop $80 for a scarf. Not this year.

Anyway, I got to the store. Course, I'm driving away from the store and shaking my head at myself. I balk at the cost of purchasing a kit from Philosopher's Wool to make one of the "colour your own" sweaters, but I don't bat an eye at dropping over $100 for socks and scarves... Maybe it's because I can make several projects out of the yarn I bought instead of just one. I dunno...

Last thought before I trek off. I wanted to give an update on the Knitpicks own needles. As I said before, 6" is short for me. I'm used to working with 8" needles. I don't work with my fingers really close to my work. My fingers are fairly straight and I hold back on the needles while knitting. IOW, my fingers aren't real close to the working stitches. I leave room between my fingers and the working part of the needle. So sometimes a 6" needle will catch on my palm. (A real problem when you look down to find that you've effectively shoved your needle right out of your stitches... LOL!) But that's my only complaint. I'm really enjoying the feel of these needles. Even though they're metal, they have a "warm" feel to them. There's just a slight bit of drag that you get with the Addi Turbos. And I don't have a lot of "sweat" in my hands, so loosing my grip is really easy. I haven't had that happen with these needles.

As I said, because I work "back" from the working part of my needles, I put a lot of pressure on them. I tried working with wood and bamboo, but I break those outright. Heck, I bend my Addis. If you could see them. I couldn't roll them across a surface if I tried. I even have to replace them from time to time because they're bent enough to make working awkward.

So... I adore Addis, but I can get Knitpicks own needles for half the cost. And considering needles last me about a year before I've bent them out of shape, it's a terrific investment for me.

My next purchase will be some of their circular needles. I'm thinking of breaking down and buying the kit where you "build" your own circular. I've heard good reports, so it might be worth the investment. I had a kit by Denise years ago, but damn if the yarn didn't hang up on the connectors. And quite badly too. But I've heard that Knitpicks solved whatever the problem was in the connector and they work without hanging up. So it might be time to try if I'm going to try knitting sweaters in the round.

Time to go over and update my iPod. Cast-On has a new episode out and I'm trying other podcasts also. So far I've tried a few others, but I've been spoiled by listening to Brenda Dayne. She's the most professional of the bunch and I enjoy her mix of essays, music and news. Course, I hope I find a few others to help fill the week at work because I'm almost caught up on the backlist of episodes of Cast -On.

Remind me that my next post is going to be about stashes and my own personal thoughts. Stashing and de-stashing always seems to be a point of interest to knitters. Sometimes I stash and sometimes I don't. So let's see if we can discuss this a bit. Whatcha think?

Have a terrific week and write if you get a chance!

Another post so soon?!?

2007-09-22T08:14:00.001-04:00

Yeah, go figure. I don't post for months at a clip and now I'm going to try and post once a week. What's been happening? Lots of stuff in my mind...

I still haven't gotten over to Country Yarns to get the yarn for the Textured Argyle. Sorry, but the only days they're open late were ones that I work late. I was only home early (before about 8PM) one night this week and Wednesday wasn't it. Monday and Friday were work at the second job. Tuesday was the first meeting for NBPOPS (North Branford Parents of Performing Students). I'm Treasurer for them, so it's kinda hard to miss with the explanation that I was off on a yarn hunt. Thursday was the night of the BBQ. QU held a BBQ for all the Season Ticket Holders to come and hear the coaches and pick up their tickets for this year's games. If you run over to the QU site, there's a pic of me and the Hubby talking with Rand. We're way down near the end of the "more photos" page and, yup, there it is for all the world to see. My big butt... Gee, I wasn't feeling exactly slim lately anyway and now I've got proof that I better get that butt back to the gym before it doesn't fit into a single pic...

What was really kewl was that Kenn Venit was worried that I'd missed signing up for the season because his tickets this year encompass the seats I had last year. So I assured him that my old seats were open because I was able to move right down to the first row at the boards.

In fact, I had to inform the ladies of POPS that I'll miss next month's meeting because there's a game that night. Ladies, I would never be remiss in my duties to the organization, but there's a seat with my name on it. And, last year, I missed one game (one single solitary game) and Dan LeFort motioned to the DH, asking where I was... Yup, the boys noticed I wasn't there and they lost to Dartmouth. Everyone assured me it was all my fault because the team knew I wasn't there. A burden I'll never live down, especially now that Mark (the DH) has gotten to love the sport as much as me.

Okay, on to fun stuff. What's on the needles?

Well, I started another Latvian to see if I could knit something to the gauge marked in the book. Size 2 needles and the gauge was right, but boy was it huge! So, in the meantime, I got the yarn from Knitpicks for Shelby's fingerless mitts so she can use them while playing with the Pep Band at the games. Navy blue and gold are the school colors, so I'm using navy and yellow. The third color for the school is red and there's a touch of white in the cuff design. Anyway, I began that project the next day and it's coming along nicely.

Course, do I ever do a pattern the way it's written? Heck no. So I'm adapting this one also. Going to add a small gusset to encompass the thumb, but I'm not going to work that in pattern. That will be in plain navy blue. And then I'm thinking of finishing the piece using the herringbone effect of purling by carrying the yarn on the outside of the piece up near the fingers. It'll give a really nice finished effect to the end and also keep the yarn from curling back on itself up near the fingers. I considered beginning the cuff with the same, but used a scallop instead. Maybe a consideration for future mitts.

Almost done with the double cable socks. Have completed the first sock and it looks very weird when laid on its side because the cables and the ribbing pulls it in tight. So it's all length and no width. But I'm almost done with the cuff on the second sock and about to turn the heel.

So I have no choice but to get out to Country Yarns this weekend and go get that yarn for the textured sock.

I also picked up "Folk Shawls" by Cheryl Oberle. There's some really beautiful designs in there and I thought I could start with the simple variation of a box shawl. I was thinking of taking... oh, hell, what was that math theory? I heard it on Brenda Dayne's Cast-On episode, "Frogging the Proverbial" in a guest spot by Lara Neel, who hosts Math4Knitters. Anyway, I thought it would be really kewl to take that mathematical equation/theory and apply it through the rows on the Box Shawl.

Course, I'm also looking at the Ruana. Would that make the kewlest coat or what? I'm not sure I mentioned it before, but I had this fake fur coat that was absolutely gorgeous. I treated myself almost three years ago with my Christmas bonus and bought this coat on site. Got it half price for $100. Everyone who saw it swore it was real. Anyway, I had to get it cleaned and it said to have it cleaned by fur method, but that was going to cost more than the jacket did to begin with. So I went with regular dry cleaning and the small sections of leather trim simply let go. I mean seams started to fall apart all over the place. So it's time to retire the faux fur jacket and look for something new. I think a ruana worn with just the right wide belt to hold it in place would be perfect. After all, if the yarn is heavy enough, all I'd need is a good sweater under it and I'd be warm as toast. Maybe a nice heathered yarn or a tweed yarn. And if I did it in "stripes" of straight garter stitch and then maybe a pattern of some kind for another stripe, it would be textured as well as tweedy. Hmm... more thoughts.

See? I told you most of the work this week was in my head... LOL!

Anyway, today have to clear out some of the summer plants that are dying with the cool nights. Want to check over at Big Y. They had some nice mums that I might put in for the fall. But I can check while on my way to Country Yarns. Tonight is a stay-at-home night and maybe work more on those fingerless mitts. Tomorrow is laundry and spinning day.

Do I live an exciting life or what?

Colorwork and other wrestling projects...

2007-09-16T07:55:00.000-04:00

Where the heck have I been, you ask? Well, I finally finished digging out the front yard. I found the mother of all rocks buried in my front yard. I spent half the day trying to dig that baby out and even bent the blade on my hawser axe that Mark had bought two days prior. Sorry, babe, but I couldn't find the friggin' crowbar. Finally, Mark came home and I asked him where it was. He sauntered into the house and came right back with it. Uh huh. I definitely would have looked in the house for the crowbar. I can't believe I actually thought it might have been in the garage...

Well, we finally wrestle this thing out of the ground and he asks me why I just don't leave it there. "What if I want to plant a bush?!?" I mean, we're talking dead center of this huge 2000 sq. ft. area. Wouldn't I want to plant something special in the center? After all, I've cleared more square footage in my front yard than I actually have inside my house. It deserves something special, right?

Course, we get this durned thing out and I stand there, looking at it. Nope, forget a damn bush. I take all the other big rocks I've been "planting" around the garden and dump them all in the hole. Then we wrestle the mother rock right back on top of them.

Why? Because I've changed my mind. This rock is going to be my showcase. I'm going to paint the thing white and display the boulder I've dug out of this yard. Surround it with mulch and display it.

And Mark just stands there and laughs. We dug it out only to put it back.

What can I say?

I finished the yard just in time to go back to work. Now, here's the weird thing. I've started listening to a podcast called "Cast On" by Brenda Dayne. And she's inspired me. I want to expand my horizons and try new techniques. I've always been timid. Yup, I'm good at what I do, but I'm always afraid to try new stuff because I'm worried that I won't "get it".

Well, I pulled out my Latvian mitten book and started experimenting. Hey! I can do this stuff. It's not all that hard. Not once you learn a few tricks. Like I checked out the short video on Philosopher's Wool website and learned how to carry those colors without long stranding to get tangled on fingers and toes and all that. Easy stuff. Practicing knitting with both hands. (Yeah, like this stuff was really all that easy!!! )

I've been back at work for 3 or 4 weeks. I'm not sure without looking at a calendar, to be honest. But I've been practicing and knitting and stranding and doing all sorts of stuff that I've never done before. All while listening to the old podcasts of Brenda Dayne who keeps me inspired to try this new stuff. And you want to know the _really_ weird part? I actually look forward to getting into work because then I have time to play and practice. I wake up in the morning, all psyched about getting into my booth and hunkering down for the day with my skeins and needles.

Last year, I got to the point that I dreaded another day at work and how on Earth I was going to fill the time. This year? I can't wait to get there. I'm experimenting at creating my own new designs and colorworks.

I have a book called "Aran and Fair Isle Knitting" and I spent Friday taking a 16 row Aran design and adapting it for use on socks. It was a struggle. The pattern is designed for straight needle knitting. So I figured that I had to rewrite the pattern with the first row going straight across but then having to adapt the even rows because I'd be knitting them not only backwards, but in reverse (where the knit becomes purl, etc). Well, it didn't quite work out that easy. It literally took me the full 8 hours to adapt the pattern, but I finally got all the notes written down. Including notes where I have to move loops from one needle to the next so I can twist them and then later move them back. I'm telling ya... It wasn't easy. But anyway... Then I looked at the durned sock. Right and perfect pattern. Yup, got it. Wrong yarn...

I'm knitting with Lisa Souza's Earth Birth and even though I wouldn't call it a variegated yarn, there's just enough color change that it disrupted the pattern of what I now call a "textured argyle". I call it that because the diamonds are created using baby cables and the diamonds are offset as some are knitted and the others are purled. So it's more of a textured pattern than one done with color. Anyway, just enough color change in the yarn to disrupt the pattern. So I came home, frogged the sock, and I'm now working it in panels of double cables. Ten panels of 4 stitches, offset with 2 sts of purl. Every other panel on the cuff has a double cable. And the pattern is perfect for this yarn.

The Textured Argyle? I'm pretty sure I know what yarn will work. I just forget the name of it. A trip to Country Yarns should solve that since I just made a pair of socks this summer in the yarn. But it's a heathered yarn with a change so subtle that you don't even notice it until you're all done and you can see the gentle and subtle change of color in the finished product. Anyway, I'm hoping to get over there today to get the yarn so I can announce what it is...

Off to do laundry today. Yup, today is my day to hang out, spin, knit and catch up with shows that I haven't gotten to see all week. I have the last 5 shows of "The Closer" that I loaded onto DVD last night and I'd like to watch them again. Course, I can always watch "Tristan + Isolde" again. Found the movie last weekend and absolutely fell in love with the story and the historical clothing. Very rough weaving in the cloth. I would imagine much more accurate to the time period than some of the "fine" examples movie people like to use. In fact, I was distracted the first time I saw the movie, so I had to see it again... I think James Franco is excellent as the tortured Tristan, Sophia Myles does a great job as the regretful Isolde and Rufus Sewell shines as the gentle yet majestic Marke. I think Sewell could be the modern Anthony Hopkins with his fabulous voice and understated performance. The movie didn't necessarily "click" with me the first time I saw it, but the second viewing revealed some truly understated acting that could easily be missed. (And let's not forget Henry Cavill who's too beautiful to live... Masculine. Not feminine at all. But his features are simply beautiful and it's unfair to do that to us ladies who aren't gifted in the least in the physical department... LOL!)

Okay, enough. Time to start the day...

To mark her passing...

2007-07-08T20:24:00.000-04:00

I literally just learned that yesterday morning Kathleen Woodiwiss died after a long battle with cancer. What a true maverick in the romance industry. Hers was one of the first romance books I'd ever read. Up until then, it was mostly stuff like The Black Stallion and Misty of Chincoteague. Yup, lots of stories about animals and stuff like that. Then my mom handed me The Wolf and The Dove. I think I was about 13. I wasn't 100% sure of all the sexual references, but I got most of it. Mom figured it was about time she introduced me to the genre. And the history was incredible. I felt like I was living right alongside her characters. I followed that book quickly with The Flame and the Flower and never quite looked back. I read everything she wrote and even branched out to... yup, I admit it... Rosemary Rogers.

Hey, this was groundbreaking stuff given the time period. Let's face it. Up until then, we had Barbara Cartland, whose history was excellent, but her characters did seem to move from book to book without much change.

To this day, I still have a great love of history and it's because I felt like I could truly live in another time period in her books.

We will all miss her. She introduced and set the new standard for romance and wrote the kind of books I wish I could. The world will be a bit dimmer without her presence.

Wrestling and other such activities...

2007-06-27T07:35:00.000-04:00

Last year, I spent most of my time inside the house. I tried the "summer cottage" look by painting everything that didn't move fast enough. (Yes, I did get the dog a couple times... ) I started with the ceilings, moved down the walls and even painted the floors. Looks nice, though my husband did comment on my "fruit" theme. (My hallway upstairs and down are a soft lemony yellow and the living room is now a soft lime green. Not quite neon, but cool and bright. Everything with crisp white trim. The floors are all -- except for the dining room, which we DON'T discuss -- are painted "pebbled path", so it's a medium dark greyish brown.) Anyway, that was last year.

Which explained why my yard was a mess this year. Can't be working inside the house and outside in the yard at the same time. I've pretty much figured out that time warp thing how kids can grow up while I remain the same, but I haven't figured out how to occupy two spaces at the same time... er, yet. I'm working on it.

Anyway, so I can't afford a lot of perrenials this year, so I got a bunch of annuals from my MIL. The prettiest tall marigolds called "Sweet Cream" which are a nice soft buttery yellow-white. I'm definitely going to remember those babies and suggest that Flo keep them up every year. I got all the beds settled when Mark announced that I simply HAD to do something with that dreadful hill out front. He can't mow it anymore.

So I've spent hours upon hours digging out grass (and discovering every escape hole the chipmunks have dug into the yard). I planted three purple smoke trees. They look like sticks stuck in the ground, but two of them are already settled and happy. They have new leaves. So now they look like two sticks in the ground with tiny, itty bitty leaves. Get further than five feet away and you can't see the leaves. But they seem to be happy and I'm encouraging them to stay that way.

The third isn't as happy. The ground is very dense where it's planted. I would have liked to till some peat moss into the earth before planting, but Mark was off somewhere and I haven't a clue how the rototiller works. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that third three.

Around the base of each tree are five tiny little scraggly tufts of "strawberries and cream" grass. They should mound up to about 4'-5' in diameter and encircle each tree.

My goal is to cover that dreadful hill with various grasses and mounds of stuff like the lavendar I have on order. 21 plants that will hopefully come soon so they have plenty of time to settle and be happy before Fall descends. And the purple blooms will give a nice lighter shade accent to the dark purple leaves on the trees (as well as the feathery tree flowers that garner the name "purple smoke"). Next year, I'll get a whole bunch more grasses. Many kinds in clumps of varying heights and colors for interest. But this year, I've got to dig out the hill and mulch the whole thing down so heavy that it kills anything I miss.

It's a huge project. Figure about 400 square feet or so. But I've done it before. The wilderness always came back and reclaimed the hill, which is why I'm going to dig the whole thing out by hand this time. It's not going to reclaim it this time. I'm going to wrestle it into submission whether it agrees to cooperate or not.

Course, the only good thing about this whole project is that my tan is wonderful. My oldest daughter is the one who claimed every Italian gene in our family. One day in the sun for her is like two weeks worth of work for the rest of us. uh huh. I make her look like the belly of a whale.

Oh, other news is that I've decided today that I'm on strike as far as the girls are concerned. They can't even be bothered to wash a dish. They're much better housekeepers than I am. I admit that. And I asked them to help with the house because, going back to what I said before, I can't be in the yard and cleaning the house at the same time. My youngest's idea of getting up the dust goats of dog and cat hair? She swept down the stairs onto the carpet and left it there. Dragging out the vacuum was too much work...

So I've decided that they can spend the rest of the summer talking to the hand. No money. No favors. No advice. I've tried asking. I've even begged. But I get better response talking to the dogs. In fact, I KNOW the dogs would help if they could figure out how to turn on the vacuum or hold a sponge without a thumb. Yup, I can even see Lacy folding clothes one piece at a time using her nose. But my kids? Forget it. So they can forget me. I'm not going to ask anymore. And I won't be giving one tenth of an inch either.

Gee, can you tell I'm mad?

Updates to come. This should be interesting. I haven't gone on strike for a couple years. It's probably overdue.

Back to writing...

2007-05-25T09:52:00.001-04:00

I'm giving it another shot. A wonderful friend of mine (who writes under the name Sarah McCarty... you really should read her stuff) told me that Harlequin opened a new line called Spice Briefs. Short erotic, romantic interludes. I've already sent them one submission. A short historical I wrote a while back. I wrote this as a short follow-up to a submission I'd sent to Ellora's Cave, who has yet to respond even though I submitted to them over two years ago. I wanted to be able to send something quickly, but, of course, they never responded.

Not good business practice. Oh sure, they acknowledged receiving my submission. But they never got back to me. Trust me, I understand overworked and underpaid, but to never get back at all? Definitely poor business practice.

So I sent off my historical to Harlequin's email address. Now, them I expect to take time to get back to me.

In the meantime, I've got a contemporary done. I sent it off to a friend to read just to check the ending. I'm not sure. Seems a bit contrite and way too neat to me. But if she likes it, I can deal with it. I have several different ways that I can write the end, so that can be adjusted, though the end result is always the same.

Lastly, I'm working on a short paranormal. Not sure they're going to like this one, though. It's not romantic at all. Erotic and need driven is more like it. Lots of lust. Lots of sex driving the whole story. Hard part is that, to stay true to the idea, one of the characters has to die in the end.

The good thing is I want to show them that I can be versatile. They've already got a historical (and I have at least one other idea for another) and then I've got a contemporary and a paranormal in the works. Basically, I can write just about any genre or time frame. Tell me what you need and I'll write to specification. I used to do that way back in the days when I wrote for Penthouse. (Yup, another dirty little secret... ) Had a couple features and quite a few letters. Paid really well, too. It just got old really fast. I wanted to write more than just sex. I like a little story to go with it.

Anyway... what else is new? Graduations are over. At least for the university. Still have my daughter's high school graduation to get through, but that won't be until next month. Prom was last week and both girls looked absolutely gorgeous!

I've started to work on my gardens. One down and eight more to go... See if I can get another done today. My arms are killing me. Had to get out the manual hedge clippers and trim back a few bushes. They were attempting a coup on the whole yard, so I had to nip them back and put them in their place. My arms are screaming at me now. Telling me that they're used to knitting and typing. What's up with this clipping cr@p?!? >

Monday is Memorial Day. Can't believe it's already here. Mark has informed me that he doesn't want a picnic this year. I don't blame him. He wants a quiet simple day at home with no pressure. No jobs. No list of things to do. Frankly, I don't blame him. We'll have a picnic later in June. Invite everyone over ... er, just because. But now just give him a day of rest where he can do what he wants or nothing at all if that's what he wants.

So I'm just going to make pasta with good fresh bread and invite a few (very few) people over to sit on the deck and relax.

Hence the reason to get the yard in shape. So it's off to work...

Have a terrific day!!!