Thanksgiving in May?!?!?

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!

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

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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.

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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?

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Pictures, of course!!!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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So, new baby in the house!

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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...

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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/

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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.

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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.)

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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.

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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!)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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...

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?
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Yes, it was an April Fools' edition. And what am I doing? I'm trying to figure out the logistics... LOL!
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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.
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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.
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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....

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...

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Whallah!!!

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

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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...

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LOL!

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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

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!)

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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!

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.