Mom's Mistake!

Nathan here -- Mom's son
I am posting this because Mom is a tad upset.

She made a MAJOR Oops.

She decided to check on Dad (who was doing some tiling), and did NOT put her knitting in a place that Tucker could not get to it. We all know what happens when a dog finds something to chew on.

You can see the pictures attached, and use it as a lesson to "KEEP ALL CHEWY THINGS AWAY FROM THE DOG!!!!"

There has been discussion that whatever this started out to be, it looks now like a thong that has lost something.

Duluth

We have been up in Duluth, having a wonderful time on the shore. Kim and Nathan reserved a room right on the lakeshore, and we spent the weekend exploring.

We watched two vessels go through the canal. I had to laugh at myself on the first one, it was 1,004 feet long. I had every intention of taking pictures of it as it went through. It was HUGE. After it went by, I realized that the camera was in my hand, and I hadn't taken a single shot. sigh The next one was smaller, and I STILL didn't take photos. It was fun watching the drawbridge go up, it is an arial lift bridge -- the road lifts 138 feet (they announced it) instead of the two parts going up.

Kim and Nathan like to collect sea glass, this was an excellent weekend for that. We came back with an 8 ounce beverage bottle filled pieces of all sizes that we collected this weekend. Yesterday afternoon Kim and Howard (Nathan had to leave to go back to work) went out with the bottle about half filled, with the laughing comment that they were going to fill it. 3 hours later they came back in laughing victoriously, chilled, with a filled bottle. It seems that each time one of them was ready to call it quits, the other was busy. So, they kept going until they filled it.

Today Kim is in orientation for the University of Minnesota Duluth for her grad program. We are at the Barnes and Noble in the mall in Duluth, reading (and obviously on the internet!)

Shoulder Shawl

So, here is the shoulder shawl I did over the weekend. I haven't blocked it yet, but you can see that it is just that, a small shawl that will warm the shoulders, yet the points are long enough to cross in front and tuck in the waistband, securing in place. A shawl pin is great too!

Knitalong Yarn is Here!

I'm heading up a Knitalong starting May 1, The pattern we are going to be doing is Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer's "Elegantly Simply Triangular Shawl". Our blog is here. If you want to join the fun, go here.

My yarn got here today. Isn't it gorgeous! It is Heritage Yarns Black and Grey in a Rainbow World in Cloud 9, a 50/50 cotton/rayon.

On other knitting fronts, I finally finished detangling the cotton/linen yarn with Howard's help. There were times I despaired. It took about an hour an ounce. Considering the fact that I had a pound of it, you can gauge the amount of frustration involved. I just did a gauge swatch, this yarn wants to be knit tightly to look good. I'd thought a size 2, I'm using a 0 with extra tension. If I had a 00, it would be happy.

Over the weekend I knit up a shoulder shawl with a mohair yarn and a ribbon yarn. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow. I think the best color description is bittersweet. Makes me happy looking at it. The yarns were the same color, with the difference you get because of the difference of material.

LIFE, Knitalong

Life has come at us fast the last while.

• Nephew Derek is safely home from Iraq, he called his parents from Maine at 4:30 this morning. Yay!


• Last Monday Kim and Nathan announced that she has been accepted in grad school in Duluth, they are selling their home in the St. Cloud area and moving this spring:


• Normal duties for Howard have kept him going close to 60 hours a week:


• Still strugging with migraine residuals that make everything difficult.

We NEED a vacation!

I'm pleased to announce that I'm going to be knitting the Elegantly Simple Triangular Shawl in Heritage Yarns' Black and White in a Rainbow World (pictures to come soon!) We've started a blog to log our adventures here. I think it is going to be fun. I love the yarn, and have been bugging Margaret to dye this colorway. grin

This should be good vacation knitting, don't you think? We have declared a vacation toward the end of April. We are also going to fly out to California in June to visit Howard's family, hopefully see Derek, and relax by the ocean for a week.

Tangles!

Oh my! I have this lovely yarn. It is a linen/cotton blend. I did my gauge swatch, washed it, and it shrank. I figured it would, and thought, with some cunning that it would be easier to wash the yarn, taming the shrinkage, instead of knitting the vest to find out that my plans for shrinkage were wrong.
I tied the yarn in many places. Obviously not enough. Behold the results of 1/2 hour's work. Impressive, no?For your delectation, I've attached more pleasant images. sigh I will prevail, and will be knitting this up into a vest for my cousin Nancy. It is going to be worth it when done!

Progress Report

I feel a need for a progress report on Dianne's vest. Here are the fronts. As per request, the fronts are disimilar. Very.

And here is the back. As far as it has progressed. All of the colors of the front are used on it. But, as you can see, it doesn't resemble the front in the least. The front is an example of the gauge swatch having nothing to do with actuality. I knit the swatch. And added the nice solid border at the bottom edge to make up the difference in size. Knit along for a while, finally measured it against the other pieces and it was HUGE. I had two choices... frog back the entire piece, or cast off and decide that the back could be cut to fit (a la machine knits. sigh) As you can see, that was the decision. I like the pattern stitch on the back, I think the whole vest would have looked good this way, but I don't think Dianne would have been happy.

My thought is to make 2 stitch i-cord of each color, braid them together (yes, 4 color braids) and have them for the edgings. Except for the bottom, which will be left plain.

Back from migraine depths

I'm back from the depths of migraines -- 9 days of them. Finally had to have an IV to stop them. Not sure what set them off this time, but I will say I'm delighted to be able to feel better!

Aural hallucinations are, um, interesting, I could SEE the sounds around me during those 9 days. As it was cold, the furnace was running. Remember in the first part of Fantasia where the orchestra plays music and colors flash? Think of that happening in your head all the time for ordinary sounds. The furnace running was dusty brown, rust, and an occasional red rumble.

No knitting was done during that time. Friends and family know that is my gauge of health. If I can't knit -- I'm sick.

Yesterday was the first day I actually felt as if I could knit again. YAY!

Pictures coming soon of the parts of the vest I do have completed.

subtle differences

it is really odd to have five colors provided in a kit by a company, and then try to do something totally different with them than the company wanted. My friend Dianne sent the kit to me to make a vest for her (fair exchange of work, she wove 2 blankets) and I've been nibbling away at it. The problem, as I see it, is that the colors don't play well together. I can get four of the five to play together, but the fifth refuses. How did the company manage it? Shadow Vest There is a pink in there that doesn't play well with the other colors when it isn't tightly controlled by the teal, but in the context of the shadow knitting, it does very well. The problem is, I'm not doing Shadow knitting!

Dianne requested that this vest be, um, unusual. Both fronts were to be of different colors and stitch patterns, and not to resemble the back. No horizontal patterns.

The two fronts are done. I'll try to get pictures up. The back has been subject of much internal debate and swatching. Do I do a solid color? Do I incorporate all 5 colors? (That pink still didn't play will.) Do I do the 4 colors? 3? 2? Horizonal pattern? Vertical? Tweed stitch? Ya know, if I'd completed any one of the ones I'd started, the vest could have been mailed already! I think I finally have the right one, and it is on the way.

Wheezing along

I am still struggling with low oxygen levels. So, while I intend to post and tell you all about the things I'm doing, in reality, I'm not doing much. I did have a brief burst with spinning. That lasted a day and a half. Since then, it is back to struggling. sorry

Spinning thoughts

I had someone come up for a beginning lesson on spinning Saturday. She had a great time, I think. We sat and spun for 2 hours, and she is coming back this Saturday. I was surprised that I didn't have very many spindles on hand, so I sent her home with my David Reed Smith Judi. Stephanie picked it up fast, she went from lumpy bumpy to smooth very quickly.

I LOVE my Woolie Winder! I didn't think it would make that much of a difference in my spinning. I had heard on the lists that it would, but thought, "yeah, right." After I sold the loom, I bought one, but never sat down to try it out. In sorting out fibers to teach Stephanie, I found some Lincoln roving. I thought it was too coarse for a beginner, but it might make some good socks... So, I prepared that roving, and spun up a Louet bobbin in what will be sportweight yarn in one afternoon. No changing the hooks, no interruption in spinning, just go and go!

Well, one afghan, one sweater off in the mail. No pictures, test knitting for someone.

The creeping crud hit here and has lingered. I'm on the way back, though, and that is good. Three weeks is too long to deal with a cold! Prednisone is wonderful stuff. Blech, but the results are great!

Gift Certificates

I was graced with gift certificates to Webs (from Serena) and to the yarn store near Kim and Nathan for my birthday. I feel like a miser. I greedily go to the web pages and pore over them, deciding what I will get, them deciding to come back another time. Each time, I choose something different, with great glee. I'm having so much FUN, choosing! I know I will eventually make a choice, and will be delighted with that choice, just as I made a choice at Halcyon with Serena's Christmas gift certificate. That went on a pound of cotton/linen yarn and one of the Elsbeth Lavold books.

There is a difference with spending my own money and someone's gift money. I want the gift money "spent" to be something I will look at later and remember "that is from ...!" While I'm knitting with it, or wearing it, or reading it, I want to be reminded of that person. This isn't for an item that is to be used a few times and then dismissed. This is for the things that stay with me. hmmm... No WONDER I have such a time spending them!

But, there is a joy in it as well. Because the gift certificates also tell me that they know me well enough to know what I want. Kim and Nathan also gave me Yarn Harlot's first book and a yarn bracelet. Instead of hanging the bracelet from my wrist, it is hanging from the lamp in my knitting nest in the living room. The yarn pulls beautifully that way, no tangles. Do they know me, or what? LOL

The Party

This is the whole family when we presented Howard with a new stole during the service. From left to right is Kim, Nathan, Howard, Serena and me.


Some of the ladies made a quilt for us, they wanted a picture of the two of us wrapped in it.


Here is the whole family "wrapped" in the quilt.

The whole celebration was so wonderful for us. It was a gift from the congregation, affirming Howard and his choice of careers. I think it was good for the rest of us as well, as we have been there WITH him through his 30 years of ministry. It really doesn't SEEM like 30 years!

Whew!

Sorry about that!

Well, I've worked out on the Gazelle for 3 days now, decided that my birthday was the best day to start -- it is the start of a new year, and it was a gift I could give myself. So far each day I've managed to go about .3 of a mile further in the same amount of time than the previous day. Right now I'm staying at a half hour.

On the knitting front, I seem to be on hold. Waiting for a big project to get here. Yarn that was supposedly mailed the middle of January for helmet liners hasn't showed up either. So, I'm plotting and planning projects. Two vests are in the wings.

We are having a party next weekend to celebrate Howard's ordination anniversary! Serena is flying in, Kim and Nathan are picking her up at the airport and driving down. They are very much a part of this too, as his job affected them too! I think we should put on music and DANCE!

Oh for Pete's Sakes!

A different Gauge swatch today. Different Yarn. Different project. The yarn biases. Badly. Instead of a rectangle, I have a parallelogram. sigh I'm not sure what 1400 yards of biasing rayon/cotton yarn would be good for. Suggestions? I do NOT want it to become the vest it had originally been planned.

Rats!

I just did a gauge swatch. And was knitting along happily, when the yarn broke on a stitch the row below. Fixed that, (shoddy repair, hey it is a swatch!) and three rows later it happened again. Once is an accident... twice it seems we have problems. The yarn had stood up to being unwound from a skein and onto the ballwinder. I couldn't feel a difference as I knit it. And it is a pattern where I don't have to look, so was planning to use it as one of those glorious "I'm reading while I'm doing this!" knits. Now I don't know what I'm going to do.

Don't really want to frog 3 rows every so often. Luckily the yarn is hairy, so when a stitch gives way, it is going to stay there until repairs can be affected. But it also means that the yarn surrounding an affected stitch is going to be, um, tender and could go too. Which means I'm going to have to at least go back until the affected stitches are off the needles.

If it were my yarn, I'd probably toss it now. It isn't. I'm awaiting a decision. Blech. Yes, I know there is an error on my edging too. I was

my microwave clock won't work with me

My microwave's clock doesn't communicate with me. I don't know why it is. I can program the VCR. Every other clock in the house and I get along. But the one on the microwave and I speak two different languages. Unfortunately, we also have frequent power outages, which means that it needs to be reset frequently. When that happens, it clears, and it stays clear until Howard gets home.

The other night, in the middle of the football games, I was in the middle of a prednisone induced frenzy to bake cookies. I don't know if you have ever been on predinsone for any reason, but suddenly a hyper urge comes over you to do something that seems perfectly reasonable. As in, starting to bake cookies at 8 at night. Not just to mix them, but to bake the entire double batch! Anyway, Howard set the microwave timer for one tray of cookies, and I used the portable timer for the other. The problem came in when he became involved in the game. Suddenly, the microwave timer was no longer available, and there went the timing on that batch of cookies. So, as I was baking, I thought how ridiculous that I can stand there with him talking me through setting the timer on the stupid thing. We can clear it, AND I CAN'T DO IT AGAIN 20 MINUTES LATER! I manage to start the microwave instead. The book for the machine is long gone.

I see several options:
a - check online for the manual and figure it out that way,
b - buy a second timer and leave the programming to Howard, or
c - admit defeat and forget it. sigh

I remember when the microwave was going to be almost the last machine we needed in the kitchen. We bought one Oklahoma and it came with a hard bound cookbook. There were recipes for candy, breads, meats, vegetables, drinks, everything to eat.

We loved the peanut brittle recipe, stopped making it only because the glass bowls kept breaking when we made it. Yup, the glass shards were considered to be a health hazard for some reason. The sugar got too hot for the plastic containers. But, when it did work, it made great peanut brittle!

There was a recipe for berlins in the cookbook. I think you used the microwave on low to help raise the dough. But you also used the microwave for the custard filling. When Nathan was hospitalized with asthma, croup and pneumonia, Howard made the berlins from that recipe, and Serena helped him fill them. They brought them down to the hospital as a thank you for the staff. The berlins didn't last long! The staff were so great in such a tense situation.

A Profound Sense of Delight

Isn't that one of our rewards, when the recipient writes or calls and says, and I quote,  "The socks are wonderful. Oh, but, now, I am spoiled! How hard is it to learn to knit for my size...? I think I'm going to have to indulge and learn how."

And it is notes like that which encourages me to go back and knit more for her. A grateful recipient does the heart good!

Funny thing last night in knitting group, three people came in all sure they had forgotten what to do with their project. I think they needed the reassurance of a place to be where someone could fix the mistakes, if necessary more than that they had forgotten! Life can be stressful, knitting group is usually full of laughter (with each other, never AT each other) and quiet moments. We try to keep it that way. We are going to go one evening a month and one Saturday morning, both for shorter periods of time, to try to address the fact that we are stretching the attention spans of some of the younger members, as well as making it difficult for other members to attend.

Lighten Up Iowa, the Statewide Healthy Initiative starts soon, Howard and I have already made the commitment, joined our team, and begun again. Last year I shed a lot, I've managed to keep it off and drop off an additional bit on my own. So, here we go! Encourage me! LOL

2007 Calendar already?

I just finished the last pattern for the 2007 Knitting Pattern a Day Calendar. It seems surreal, after all, 2006 just started. But there it is, for Paulette to get her work done, she needs the patterns now. So, I submitted 4 patterns for next year. I think these patterns are much better than my last year's submissions. My digital picture taking skills have hopefully improved! This last one, trying to take a variegated blues and green has just about driven me around the bend! The blues have a tendency to disappear into melange of non-descript stitches, or turn into a shout-out of stitches with a resemblance of an old bruise... you know with that yellowy tendency?

I was so tickled, Nathan proudly presented me with the 2006 calendar! He gets it! That is such a delight. He was a little baffled when I told him that I had 2 patterns in the calendar, and that we'd been searching for the calendar for Serena. But, he was trying to get a present tailored specifically for my tastes! I'm thrilled! Note to self, be sure he knows!

2005 Knitting Review

Each year since I crushed my wrist I keep a running list of what I've knit. A way of seeing in black and white what I have been able to accomplish. In those 11 years, my lists have seen many things, and have reflected many times in my life. But they say the same thing, the months, what I knit, why I may not have knit at the time, and the total output of a category. A mini-history of my life at that time.

For 2005, my totals read:

• Helmet liners   17
  
• Sweater   3
  
• Hat   2
  
• Scarf   5
  
• Dollhouse afghan   2
  
• Dollhouse baby blanket   1
  
• Dollhouse bedspread   1
  
• Dollhouse rug   1
  
• Wrist warmers    10 pairs
  
• Dog carrier   1
  
• Socks  2
  
• mini scarf   1

Not in any specific order, not in order knit. I did put all the dollhouse stuff together. Seemed appropriate. grin

I don't put together a list of what I plan to knit for this year, because it doesn't work. My knit buddy and I have tried for years. I don't stick to it. I have a Dibs on Ribs in mind, but, per usual, I'm changing it severely. Right now, the two of us are planning a mini-knit-a-long, using DK weight yarn, rewriting the pattern to suit our yarn, and either using the magic ball technique, or something else that we haven't decided to suit our whim. Changing yarns every 2-3 rows? That is still simmering.

I also joined a swap on a mini list, (sorry Howard, I couldn't resist) and need to knit up 11 things by the middle of July. I want to start now, so I don't feel frantic later.