Moving, moving, moving

First the move to Typepad, now a new domain. Cottage46 Knitter can now be found in both places: cottage46.typepad.com and/or www.cottage46.com. Come on over!

Who knew you could move a cottage?

Cottage46 Knitter has moved here. Please come on over. There's an FO to see...

The Roza's are done. Pattern: Roza's socks by Grumperina from the Spring 2007 IK Yarn: Lorna's Laces in Black Purl Needles: KnitPicks Size US0 Comments: I probably should have added a few stitches. They're very snug which I prefer, but I'm thinking they may not wear well. The pattern was very enjoyable to knit; interesting but not distracting if one is watching a 70s Show marathon. The red Norwegian hat is blocking. Now I have to find my little pompom-making thingy. The moose sweater has been totally neglected. Hard to work on a Dale sweater when it's 80 degrees. But I know we'll pay for it in April, so I'll have more moose knitting time before summer. I have cast on another pair of socks in this: It's Lorna's Laces Happy Valley. I have some Socks That Rock that I really want to get to, but this just is so springy! They're going to be toe-up, all stockinette with a picot cuff. I have a little toe nub started, but I'm too lazy to photograph it. Later this week I'll have a whole foot to show. More crocuses! ETA: I added the ticker because my weight seems to have drifted upward over the winter. Not to mention the stress-induced eating of the last couple of months. Must get back down to walking weight!

Hats! And Knitting Camp!

I finished and mailed off the pirate hat. Here it is pre-blocking. And here it is, still pre-blocking, but on the recipients head. She wanted it to wear for a ski trip, so it shipped out unblocked. She was less than pleased that her dad insisted on photographing her the minute it arrived. Imagine how happy she'll be to see it on the Internet! She did like the hat though, so I'm a happy knitter. The sock recipients called and LOVE the Bruins and Red Sox socks. (I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy with this knitting for others stuff.) They promised pictures this week. I'll be interested to see how the baby socks fit. I started a hat from the Charlene Schurch book. Also a gift! I know; I can't believe all the gift knitting either. Should be done this weekend and it will be blocked before mailing. While I was taking pictures of the hat, I noticed I had an audience. These are my girls: From l to r: Flicki, Graystar and Kiki. Flicki is Kiki's daughter, Kiki was a stray that we started feeding during the winter a few years ago and somehow she ended up sleeping on my chest every night. And Graystar was unceremoniously tossed out of a car on a county road and left for VK to find. She was tiny, bloody and had a broken leg, but you'd never know it now. I thought I'd better post a picture of the boy-cat and I had to go back to 2003 to find a picture of Madison. Bad kitty mommy. If you're keeping track, that's 4 cats and 3 (unpictured) dogs. It's almost like we're trying to compensate for not having any kids, isn't it? At last spring has arrived (sorta) in northern Indiana. The first crocuses: I registered for my LYS's IWannaKnit Camp in June! This will be my first knitapalooza-type event and I'm quite excited. I'll be taking classes from St. Joan Schrouder and Natalie Wilson. Now I have to stop procrastinating and get a book review done for a talk I'm giving Friday. Oh wait, this is Wednesday. I still have all day tomorrow!

I try so hard...

to post once a week. *sigh* But I so often fail. There has been knitting going on at Cottage46, but there has also been copious amounts of coughing, sniffling, and nose-blowing. It's been fun. My birthday was Saturday (hello 39!) and I slept and coughed my way through it. VK brought me a bouquet of spring flowers and a chocolate cake, so all was not misery. I have made a wee bit o' progress on the Moose sweater: I also cast on for a pair of Grumperina's Roza's Socks from the latest Interweave Knits. I'm using Lorna's Laces in the Black Purl colorway. I did a pair of socks in this yarn once before and it pooled wickedly and the socks turned out way too big. But I loved the yarn and the colorway, so I tried again. Much better this time. And I finished the 2nd pair of Boston Bruin socks and a pair of baby Red Sox socks. I don't know if these will fit the specific baby, or any baby for that matter, but I do think they are sorta cute.

Moose, swans, geese, and skulls

I'm finally posting a picture of the Dale of Norway moose sweater that I'm knitting for VK. VK is a hunter and has been hunting with a compound bow. He has been thinking about getting a more traditional longbow and he ordered one yesterday. He's excited about it and I'm happy to see him excited. This is my progress so far: Wow! Those needles must be flyin'! What is that? About 3 inches? Wow. Here's what I spent part of the weekend on instead of working on the sweater. Oh, yeah! We call 'em pirates, baby. I've been loving this pattern, but I don't really wear hats. Luckily we have a friend whose 13-year-old daughter thinks it's cool. I'm just thrilled to dig something that a 13-year-old digs. And just because everybody else has some, I had to get some too. Socks that Rock! Must finish 4th Boston Bruin sock, and then STR. Hmmm.... what pattern shall I knit with it? There's a creek a couple miles from our house that we go over on our way to town. "Town" has a grocery store, fire station, a post office, a bank, a gas station, a pizza place, a fish place/tavern, 3 barber shops, a feed mill, and, get this: the Horseshoe Palace. I. Shit. You. Not. VK was quite privileged one time to be asked to throw a few shoes even though he's not a member. Yes, one must be a member of the Horseshoe Palace. You don't want the hoi polloi getting into the Horseshoe Palace. VK went along with it because he didn't think the fellas were the type you say no to. There's also a large tree on the main drag with ropes and pulleys rigged up to hang deer and whatever other animal one might want to butcher. In the fall, we drive by to see if the meat tree is blooming. There used to be a video store that had no windows but enough cigarette smoke to kill a person on contact. It's closed now, but we don't care because we were blackballed from it after a late return incident. Anyway, the creek has had 3 swans on it lately. We're assuming they are the same from last year, but who knows. And about a bazilion geese.

Stage 3 - but not as bad as it sounds

Today was our oncology appointment to learn the results of VK's bone marrow biopsy and PET scan. The bone marrow is clean, his bloodwork is all normal, and besides the 4-5 cm abdominal mass that we already knew about, he only has TWO lymph nodes that are involved! The staging is based on the fact that he has involvement above and below his diaphragm. At this point, she is recommending watch and wait. We'll do another PET scan in 3 months to see if changes are happening really slowly or just sorta slowly. If there is change, chemo could start then. But if there isn't change, PET scans would be done every 6 months. Apparently with a slow-growing cancer, they prefer to wait until there are symptoms before putting someone through chemo. So far we think all the illness he's had has been an ulcer and he's taking meds for that. He is having some pain in his side and we'll see the oncologist in 3 weeks just to assess whether that is going away with a stricter diet (probably ulcer-related). We are extremely encouraged. We're aware that things could head south at any time and indolent lymphoma can become aggressive in the future, but VK's life expectancy looks pretty good at the moment. I can't thank everyone enough for the support and prayers, especially Rebekah and everyone contributing to the Blanket of Hope. Clearly it is an accurately named project! Onward to actual knitting content! I just finished a pair of Boston Bruins socks for a friend of VK's. I made him a pair of Boston Red Sox socks a couple months ago and totally forgot to get a picture of them before I sent them off. They were pretty cool too. Pattern: my own, toe-up with a short row heel, 2x2 ribbing on the cuff, and EZ's sewn bind off Yarn: Cascade 220 (love the speed of worsted wt socks) Needles: Knit Picks options, size 5 Comments: Perfect waiting room knitting. I'm going to make another pair for the friend's brother. (And I thought I was a selfish knitter.) I'll get back to VK's moose sweater this weekend. The wretched medical index is done! I had to stay up until 2 a.m. Monday morning to get it done by the deadline which has made the rest of the week a little foggy. I won a prize in SAM2 a few months ago and haven't had the camera to blog it. Isn't it cool? The colors in the picture are pretty much dead on. It's Chewy Spaghetti, 100% merino, in the Blaze colorway. Can't wait to knit it up. Thanks, Chrissy! I ordered my first Socks that Rock yarn last weekend. I must see what the fuss is about! I have one Endpaper Mitt almost done for my mom. I'm down to the bind off and the thumb. I'm using Brown Sheep Wildfoote sock yarn in pink and black. It's a quick knit. I bet if I could focus on something for more than 5 minutes, the other one would be done too.

Just a little update; no appreciable knitting content

We got somewhat encouraging news at the oncologist Monday. VK's cancer is B cell follicular lymphoma. It's a slow growing cancer that usually responds well to chemo. He has a bone marrow biopsy Friday and a PET scan on Monday to determine the stage of the cancer. Then we'll meet with the doctor next Thursday to get the results and talk about how to proceed. So here's to praying for Stage 1! It was very sobering to sit in the waiting room (for an hour and 45 minutes!) and see all the people fighting cancer. There was a young couple with 2 little boys. We weren't sure which one of them has cancer, but we sure felt for them. All 4 of them are too young to have cancer. Well, who isn't? I can't thank everyone enough for the support you've given to us. I always tell VK how awesome the knit blog community is, the Dulaan project, the Harlot's Doctors w/o Borders collection, Wendy's Heifer Project collection, all the other charity efforts. I think he understood what I was saying before, but now he really gets it. I'm falling a bit behind on replying to emails and comments. I'm hoping to get caught up today or tomorrow. We've had an auditor at the library which leaves me little spare time there and at home I'm working on an index for a medical board test prep book. As an aside, medical test prep books are a b*tch to index for a history major. I spend a lot of time googling terms and acronyms. And it's incredibly dense material. Where I might normally have 5-8 entries per page for a textbook, this is more like 25-30 entries per page. My data entry muscles are getting a workout. There's been just a wee bit of knitting progress. Still on the ribbing for the moose sweater and I've almost finished the first Boston Bruin sock for a friend of VK's in Boston. Pictures will return to the blog soon. We're picking up the camera Friday after the bone marrow biopsy.

The blanket of hope

It's really easy when something bad happens, like a cancer diagnosis for instance, to feel very alone and like you are the only people who are facing this type of situation. But thanks to wonderful bloggy friends like Rebekah that feeling doesn't last long. Rebekah and her husband, Nick, have faced more than their share of health trials lately so I know she understands only too well how overwhelmed we're feeling at the moment. So what does she do? She springs into action and creates this: Not just the button! But a blanket project for my Kevie made of squares from knitters who know the comfort that a handknit can provide. What a good woman. If you're interested, click on the button for details. We're still in waiting mode. Our oncology appointment is Monday, but as of today the doctor had not received the results from Mayo Clinic yet. I sincerely hope the appointment on Monday doesn't get postponed. We've been in touch with the American Cancer Society, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Wonderful organizations that seem to be staffed with extraordinarily caring people. We've been a bit worried about VK's less-than-stellar health insurance. "What if they deny coverage?" "What if they cancel him?" "What if the hospital then denies treatment?" (All sorts of probably irrational thoughts go through one's head.) VK was relaying all these fears to a patient advocate from the Lance Armstrong Foundation today and then she said some very precious words, "We're not going to let that happen." Deep sigh of relief and one less thing to obsess about. On the knitting front, I started VK's moose sweater. (Pictures next week; we still haven't picked up the camera yet.) I'm still on the ribbing. Usually 1x1 ribbing drives me nuts, but it's oddly comforting now. And I have 1 Endpaper mitt done for my mom. I want her to try it on before I start the 2nd one. I don't know if she'll like the long cuffs. She and my dad are in Florida but she'll be back next week. Looking forward to burying my head in her neck. And thank you to everyone who is keeping us in their thoughts or praying for us. We feel it.

Test results

After almost 2 weeks of excruciating waiting, we received the results of VK's biopsy. I can't believe that I'm typing this, but my husband has cancer. Some kind of lymphoma. There were cells that the local pathologists couldn't identify, so a tissue sample has been sent to Mayo Clinic for analysis. That should be here next week and then we have our first appointment with the oncologist on Feb. 12. I'm scared and numb at the same time. I don't know what else to say. I'm going to put Ingeborg on hold for the time being. I tracked down a copy of Dale of Norway #100 at Velona Needlecrafts and I'm going to make VK the moose sweater. I've been knitting for 3 1/2 years and haven't completed a sweater for him. I started FLAK for him but haven't finished it. So the moose sweater it is, with prayers for healing and strength in every stitch. I'm a knitter. It's what we do.

A couple of FOs for 2007 & the Dale KAL

Well, the camera still isn't back for reasons that are, quite frankly, unclear. Anyway, I borrowed the library camera for the weekend to show you the following knitting progress. Pattern: Green Gable Yarn: Knit Picks Shine sport Modifications: I made the neckline a little narrower and the sleeves a little longer. I'm quite frightened by the white pallor of my mid-winter arms. Yuck. But the sweater fits and I love it and I may knit it again and again. These are VK's Mountain Colors Bearfoot socks. They are toe-up with Wendy's short row heel and a 2x2 ribbed cuff. VK is completely unperturbed by the fact that the cuffs are not the same length. This is why I love him. After much fanfare and hoopla I cast on for Ingeborg. I started with the sleeves, thinking I'd ease my way into it, until I realized that I haven't the foggiest idea how to increase in pattern. I decided to leave that for another day when I had more functioning brain cells. So what you see here is the body about half a dozen rows into the pattern. So far it's going quite well. VK and I are having a very tense weekend as we wait for results for a needle biopsy that he had Thursday of an abdominal mass. He's been sick since the first of the year with what we now think is an ulcer. In the process of diagnosing the ulcer, a CT scan picked up a golf ball size mass. Could be nothing, could be something bad. The waiting truly sucks. Today we have many, many geese on Pretty Lake. This is the first time this winter that we've had any geese hanging around. I love it.

Camera news and FOs that FIT!

Good news on the camera: it only needs a $12 new battery! Hallelujah. So the camera is on its way home. When it gets here I'll be able to take pictures of the 2 projects I finished over the weekend (Green Gable and the alpaca vest). And get this: they both fit. I know. It's a miracle. I ended up gifting the much-too-large Spring Forward to a friend that I work with. That way I'll get to see it on a regular basis. She's already worn it to work but I wasn't at the library that day. I was pretty sure I'd ruin it if I tried to shrink it. I might have been able to cut and sew it to size, but the construction was all in one piece and I thought that was probably beyond my feeble sewing skills. Before I gave it to her I took it to my LYS for a what-did-I-do-wrong session. My gauge is OK on the moss stitch filler. LeeAnn suggested that I shouldn't have done the size I did in the first place (duh), and that probably the cables didn't pull in as tightly as the designer's. She also pointed out that saddle shoulders may not be the best design for me since I don't have particularly broad shoulders. So lessons learned. Moving on. I'm ready to cast on Saturday for Ingeborg. (Jan. 20 is cast on day for the Dale KAL.) I finally got gauge after going up 3 needles sizes. Tense? Me? Why do you ask? Hopefully I won't have to spend most of the weekend indexing. I have a job that was supposed to be done today, but the publisher decided it was 16 pages too long and sent it back to the author to cut. So I'm on hold for that. The indexing jobs have been trickling in steadily. It's all about networking, baby. I sent out about a bazillion emails and info packets, but the jobs are coming from recommendations from other indexers. The extra money comes in really handy! I was eyeing a copy of the Scottish Collection on ebay (oh, how I want that book) but I absolutely draw the line somewhere below the $441 that it sold for regardless of extra income.

I'm in knitting hell

Spring Forward is done! Unfortunately only the sleeves fit me. *Hangs head in shame.* I'm wearing it to work today and I've spent most of the day trying to keep said sweater on my body. OK, people, what to do? I haven't blocked it yet because I fear it will only grow. "Well, Sonya, what did your swatch do when you washed it?" *Insert blank look here.* I did swatch for gauge and the moss stitch panels are at the called for gauge. I chose a size that would give about 5" of ease, but it turned out with more than double that. It's 80% cotton and cotton shrinks, right? Shall I block with really warm water and see what happens? I already have a potential recipient in mind should that not work. Did I mention that the sleeves are the EXACT right length?

Year-end pictureless post

Well, the camera that was acting weird has stopped acting at all. We've sent it off for diagnosis, but the guy at the camera shop was not optimistic. Unfortunately, it was a gift from a family member who believes the more expensive, the better, especially if she can remind you of how much she spent on you for years in the future. So it's not like it's a $150 point and click which I could justify replacing with very little rationalization. *sigh* So in spite of a fairly productive couple of weeks, I got nothin' to show. I've been working on the neglected Spring Forward sweater a lot lately. I had nothing but really small gauge projects going and I started to feel a little carpel tunnel-y. Spring Forward is on #8s so it's been a relief to my wrists. I'm starting to think I may be able to get it finished before the Jan. 20 cast on day for the Dale of Norway KAL. Meanwhile, various mitten and sock projects are gathering dust. I did a swatch for Ingeborg. I ended up going up 2 needle sizes and am still 1/2 a stitch per inch over gauge. I have enough yarn so I'm thinking I'll knit the next size up at my gauge. My swatch is still on the needles, so I may go up one more needle size and see what the fabric is like. VK and I had a quiet Christmas. My brother was in town for Thanksgiving so we did our family Christmas then. We did spend Christmas Eve eve at my parents' house. VK and I arrived early, brought all the fixings and prepared the feast for them. I got to help my dad feed the cows. This consists of opening and closing the pasture gates while he drives the tractor through and fills the feed bunks. My dad recently bought a tractor from my grandpa that they bought new in 1954. He's quite pleased to be driving the same tractor he first used when he was 14 years old. Thrift and frugality are quite valued amongst my people. New Year's Eve is usually pretty quiet here too. VK seldom makes it to midnight, so I will probably rock in the new year with my knitting and a diet Mountain Dew. Woooohooo!

I think I have startitis

And I definitely have an FO. And it's........ cashmere. I can't believe I own a cashmere anything. Now I understand why tv characters say "Hey! That's cashmere!" when a borrowed sweater is ruined by the zany neighbor. I knit it up in a week because I so loved touching it. And here's a creative modeled shot in the bathroom mirror to illustrate length, etc. Details: The pattern is from a Plymouth card with 3 lace-ish scarves on it. The yarn is a Chinese cashmere whose ball band I cannot lay my hands on at the moment, 2 hanks. Size 7 needles. I cast on a pair of socks for VK in Mountain Colors Bearfoot, Indian Corn colorway. The colors are more muted than the picture. I forgot to photograph the Boston Red Sox socks that I made for VK's friend before I sent them off. Hopefully I'll get this pair done for my December Sock-A-Month 2 socks. This is one afternoon's progress, so it's possible. But then again, VK has size 13EEEE feet and I have numerous projects to spread my attention to. (BTW, please enjoy the creative nature of these pics. You know, laying on the back of my lazyboy with artificial lighting. yum.) This is the cuff of Beth Brown-Reinsel's Nordic mittens that were in Interweave Knits a couple years ago. It's my first corrugated ribbing. It's a little lumpy in places but I think it will work out. It did serve to remind me how much I hate purling in continental. I haven't figured a good way to tension the yarn. It keeps getting too loose and then I have to rewind around various fingers. The way I tension with the right hand that creates lovely, even little stitches just does not work when purling with the left hand. Tonight I'll start on the patterned section. I'm going to TRY to hold off casting on for Ingeborg until the Dale of No. America KAL official cast on date of January 20. I will most emphatically be swatching before then. Yes, swatching! Me! This morning Kiki tried to wreak havoc on my knitting as I was trying to get these creative shots. This is how she looks immediately having said knitting taken away from her. Not a pretty picture. Thanks to everyone who left such wonderful comments about the mittens of the previous post. Ya make a gal feel pretty good.

An FO that I actually wear!

I finished the Norwegian mittens. Love. them. Here they are with the coat that made me ditch the navy/while yarn for black/white yarn. Notice how the mitten goes into the sleeve to avoid the dreaded wind up the sleeve syndrome. And the close-ups: There's a mistake on the left mitten. Can you spot it? The details as I can remember them since I'm at work (on my lunch break, of course). Pattern: Nordasno mitten kit from Nordic Fiber Arts Yarn: Peer Gynt (substituted for Strikkegarn that came in the kit. VK's getting a pair with that yarn.) Needles: US 3 & 4, Addi Turbos Started: Oct. 23-ish, 2006 Finished: Nov. 30, 2006 Comments: I'm glad I did them in Peer Gynt. It's much softer to knit with than the Strikkegarn. After my 2 pair of Norwegian stockings (anyone seeing a theme here?), these are my 3rd stranded project and I think I'm getting the hang of it. My stitches are more even than on the stockings, although I still have some loose floats from where I go around the corner as I'm magic looping. I declare myself ready for Ingeborg. Look out steeks, here I come! I'll have to wait a few days to start the sweater. I just got an intense, 1-week turnaround indexing project that will occupy me until the end of next week. My only Christmas knitting this year is a pair of Boston Red Socks for a friend of VK's. I did them toe-up and used Wendy's short row heel for the first time. Me likey. I'll be able to finish them up at knitting group on Friday. (Indexing projects do not interfere with attending knitting group.)

I'm sooo hungry!

There is knitting progress at Cottage 46, but the camera isn't cooperating so it's unphotographed progress. The alpaca vest is almost done. I think it's too long though. It seems to be taking me awhile to understand that if one is knitting a garment, one can actually try it on as one knits for a perfect fit. I mean it's a stockinette vest, for Pete's sake. Not a hard pattern to modify, especially for something as simple as LENGTH. Duh. That does bring up a question I have. For the hem I did a provisional cast on, knit a few rows, did a purl ridge and am instructed to fold at the purl ridge and "tack down" the live stitches. How does one do this? I've googled and found many people mentioning this tacking down, but no one discussing how to tack down. I restarted the Fair Isle mitten in a smaller size. The first one is done, thumb and all. There was decided wonkiness when picking up the thumb stitches from the waste yarn. But the wonkiness is on the inside of the thumb joint, so I don't think anyone will ever know. The second one is at 75%. I may finish it today. My yarn should be arriving next week for Ingeborg and Beth Brown-Reinsel's Nordic mittens (scroll down about 5 pictures). Perfect timing for Stranded: The Colorwork Challenge. This is cool because it was yummyyarn's fantastic Norwegian knit-along that turned me on to stranded knitting. Look at that, 4 links in one paragraph! Anyway, those will be my KAL projects, but I have to crank out a pair of Boston Red Sox socks for a friend of VK's for Christmas. I'm using Knit Picks Telemark, so they should knit up pretty quickly. Ok, why, you may ask, is Sonya so hungry. Today is colonoscopy day. Ug. I have ulcerative colitis, so these are a fairly regular ordeal. So yesterday was clear liquid diet day which is a lot like not eating. Today is no food or drink until after the procedure which isn't until 1:30. So I'm distracting myself as best I can from the hunger. I just started reading The Time Traveler's Wife. I'm on a public library listserv that has a thread at the end of every year with everyone's favorite reads for the year. It's always really interesting to read what other librarians are reading. So that's my distraction for the morning, and I'll be listening to knitting podcasts during the procedure. It's all about distraction, baby.

Alpaca is like buttah

I'm enjoying knitting this stockinette alpaca vest more than I can say. It's astonishingly soft and I love the varigatedness of the color. My LYS got mill end cones of alpaca for a great price. I've tried to hold myself to one cone, but I'm heading in tomorrow for another one. I can do this because I have an indexing job! I helped another indexer meet a deadline last month and she gave my name to an editor. Hence, I can afford more alpaca. The giant mitten debacle is fading from my mind. There's been a bit of progress on the smaller size. It's been at this stage for a couple weeks because I can't tear myself away from the alpaca vest. And apropos of nothing, here I am in the library bathroom mirror, modeling no hand knits whatsoever. In library news, we've been suffering a series of robberies. First it was money from the staff snack jar; then they took money our of our locking file cabinet. (My asst. had the key in her middle desk drawer, labeled "safe". *sigh*) So I bought a real safe, combo lock, 200 lbs. And damned if they didn't steal the whole friggin' safe this week. We're a library. Not a lot of cash here. So they've stolen maybe a few hundred dollars, but I'm spending thousands rekeying and putting in a security system. And I bought a new safe and I hid it. Luckily alpaca sooths me or I think my head might explode. BTW, yay Democrats! I did not allow myself to dare be hopeful before the election. I was actually filled with trepidation on election day. "What if there's all this build up and Democrats don't end up doing well?" Can you imagine the arrogance from the White House then?!? I was so relieved when the returns started coming in. Of course all the Republicans* who represent my district were re-elected, but I've lived here long enough to know that's inevitable. * I have no problem with moderate Republicans/conservatives although I'm pretty liberal. Andrew Sullivan is one of my favorite commentators, even if I don't always agree with him. But the Republicans that tend to get elected here are not what I would describe as moderate. At all.

Nothing like a good meme!

1. FIRST NAME? Sonya 2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? No. My dad heard the name when he lived in Indonesia. 3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? I'm not sure. 4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? Occasionally, but usually not. 5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? Turkey 6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Oh definitely. I'm way fun. 7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? No, but I wish I did. 8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes 9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Only in theory. 10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Cheerios! 11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Yes. 12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? I know I am. 13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Mint chip. 14. SHOE SIZE? 7 15. RED OR PINK? Definitely red. 16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My burning desire to avoid confrontation. 17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My grandma. 18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? No. . 19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Gray sweats, slightly ratty blue t-shirt, white socks. 20. LAST THING YOU ATE? Oatmeal. 21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? AC/DC 22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Periwinkle. 23. FAVORITE SMELL? Coffee

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? VK.

25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Kindness.

26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON you stole THIS from? Hmmm... I don't remember from where I stole it.

27. FAVORITE DRINK? diet Mountain Dew.

28. FAVORITE SPORT? Baseball

29. EYE COLOR? Brown 30. HAT SIZE? No clue. 31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Not since my eyeballs dried out. 32. FAVORITE FOOD? Any potato dish 33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy endings. 35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Spring and fall. 36. HUGS OR KISSES? Hugs 37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Chocolate cake with white frosting. 38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? I copied. 39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? 40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? Just finished Faith Club (great book), just started A Mighty Heart by Mariane Pearl. WHAT’S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? No mousepad, just a touchpad. 42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? Well, college football was on the TV, but I wasn't really watching. 43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Wind through the trees 44. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES? Stones. 45. THE FURTHEST YOU’VE BEEN FROM HOME? Phoenix 46. WHAT’S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? Hmmmm... I can sing the 50 states in alphabetical order. 47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? LaGrange, Indiana WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? No one; I just brazenly stole it.

Mittens!

When last we met (3 weeks ago!), Sonya was concerned about her navy blue mittens clashing with her black coat. This is so important in light of the world going to hell in a handbasket all around us, but anyway... I went ahead and picked up some black and white Peer Gynt; I'll save the navy and white for a pair for VK. Perhaps someday soon, I'll knit something that isn't monochromatic. Here's the first, sans thumb. Unfortunately, when I line my thumb up with the eventual thumb hole, there is about 2 inches of mitten that extends beyond the tips of my fingers. Damn. I haven't had the heart to frog it yet, but I've cast on for the next size down. I may have enough yarn that I won't need the yarn from giganto mitten. I picked up a lovely spool of alpaca at the LYS Friday. The camera is still being weird, but I think you get an idea of the color. It's actually darker, but the picture shows the tweediness. It was 1400 yards for under $40! Did I mention that it's alpaca? So soft. I'm going to make the basic black vest from Folk Vests. Simple stockinette, but it will highlight the yarn. Hopefully I'll be posting more regularly. I just finished an indexing project, so I'll have time to knit until the next one comes along. I'm in that mode where many, many projects are swirling around in my head and I want to knit them all. It must be fall!

An FO and retail therapy

I have a new pair of socks! I finished Knittin' Mom Chrissy's Karen socks, as I call 'em. Our camera is acting a little strange, so some of the following pictures are a little weird. Unfortunately, I can't blame the camera for the profound whiteness of my legs. Should've cropped better. Pattern: Karen's Sugar-Free Diabetes Walk Socks Yarn: Louet Gems Opal Needle: US#3 addi turbos Cast on: Sept. 17 Finished: Oct. 1 Comments: Great sock pattern. Easily memorized, and I think cables make for a nice, snug sock. Opal knits up quickly and is soft and wonderful. Now for the new yarn, baby. Our first yarn today is from ... Walmart. Whenever VK has to use the restroom at Walmart, I check out the yarn. Usually I'm non-plused. But I've always thought Caron's Simply Soft is, well, soft. And these colors caught my eye. Perfect I think for Dulaan knitting. I've mentioned before that I get migraines. For several years they seemed to be under control, but this year they have made a wicked comeback. I seem to be getting them more often and they are more intense. What does this have to do with yarn purchases? Well, buying yarn makes me feel better. And when I go to Fort Wayne to see the doctor, I have an excuse to stop by Cass Street Depot. I don't shop there very often as I have my regular LYS less than 2 miles from home. But they carry some different (mostly expensive) yarns and always have cute projects knitted up. Cass St. is housed in an old train depot which is kinda cool. I picked up this lovely hank of Mountain Colors Bearfoot to make some socks for VK. It's not blurry in real life, but the colors are perfect for fall. I think the colorway is Indian Corn. How appropriate. And here is my first Koigu!! I stood in front the display like I used to stand in front of the candy rack when I was a kid. (I was the kid who would stand there for a long time calculating how to get the most candy for my money. I also had to spend every penny. Saving has always been a challenge.) In spite of the fabulous sock yarn, I think I'm going to cast on for my Nordic Fiber Arts mittens next. They're going to be navy blue and white. I just ordered a new winter coat that is black (clearance sale, don't ya know). How will a black coat and blue mittens work?

It's a miracle

I have knitting progress to show! I cast on Sunday for these: This is the cuff of Karen's Sugar-Free Diabetes Walk Socks, designed by Chrissy Gardiner of Knittin' Mom fame. Karen is a diabetic and is walking to raise money for research. Karen was one of my first bloggy pals and I've come to think of her as a dear friend. My family is also affected by diabetes; my mom and dad are both diabetic as was one of my grandpas. My dad is the only one who is insulin-dependent. His pancreas was removed during a really wicked bout with pancreatitis a couple of years ago. Anyway, it's a great sock pattern, the proceeds go toward Karen's walk-a-thon and diabetes research; so go buy it! I'm knitting it with Gems Opal which I love, and it's knitting up quickly which I also love. After I took the picture yesterday, I got the heel flap, heel turn and gusset pickup done. In retail therapy news, I'm proud to say I got a heck of deal this weekend. Here's a pile of Lana Grossa Cool Wool, a merino that is normally $7.75 a ball. Guess how much these ball were? $1.00 a ball!!!!!!!!!!! I can't tell you how much I love a clearance sale. No idea what I'll knit it into, but that really isn't the point, is it? Mindnumbingly slow progress continues on Spring Foward and Green Gable. I think my reading jag is coming to an end as the fall knitting season commences. Woot!

Hey, I'm posting!

I don't even want to look and see when I posted last... Oh, my goodness, August 14th! Bad knit blogger. No progress on Spring Forward; mindless stockinette progress on Green Gable that isn't blog-worthy. But I do have an FO to report: It's the Cherry Tree Hill (African greys colorway) that I won from the Sock-A-Month 1. The pattern is the Oak Rib from Knitting Vintage Socks. I again made the heel flap to long so the heel is pretty loose. When will I learn? Just because a pattern says the heel flap should be 32 rows doesn't mean I have to do it! Duh, Sonya. I'm not sure how long they took because I haven't been very good at jotting that stuff down lately, but about a month. Size 2 needles. In more exciting news, this arrived yesterday: Oh, yes, it's a beautiful little handmade bag to carry one's portable sock projects (sock project already peaking out the top). The talented (and sweet) Karen had a little bloggy contest a while back and I won! The extra goodies, including some Cascade Fixation which I had read about but never seen, and the bag totally turned around what had been a very sub-par day. Thanks, Karen! The sock in progress is a pattern from Knitting on the Road in Brown Sheep Wildfoote. I can't remember which pattern, but that's ok because I marked with a post it and I'm still working on the ribbing. Just in case anyone is aghast at my blogging at work, I had to jump up about a dozen times during my lunch to wait on patrons so this just evens things up a bit. I actually like helping patrons (most of the time), just not so much with my mouth full.

I've got bupkis...

...to report on the knitting front. A little progress on Spring Forward, haven't touched the Cherry Tree Hill socks, and I've made a bit of progress on Green (blue) Gable by working on it during the commute. Lest you think we are progressive and have public transportation here in the hinterlands, let me assure you, we don't. But VK and I commute together and I'm the designated drop off-ee, so I usually don't drive. I miss driving. *sigh* I went to the knit gathering at my LYS on Friday. While we were knitting, LeeAnn's new part-time employee came in. As she was about to be introduced, I realized that it's a woman that I went to jr. high and high school with and also worked with at the teeny tiny grocery store during high school. Haven't seen her in literally 20 years. You'd think this sort of thing would happen fairly regularly since I do live in the same county I grew up in, but I really almost never see anyone I went to school with. (I consider this a good thing, LYS employee notwithstanding.) We caught up and talked about how we both blew off our 20 year reunion. I haven't been to one since the 5-year; she ventured to the 15-year and said all the same cliques survived. Turns out she lives about 3-4 miles from us and we've never run into each other. Go figure. I made some calls to publishers to try to get on their lists of freelance indexers. I have a professional and fairly responsibility-laiden job, but this was stressful. Well, for about the first 10 calls it was. After that I got the hang of it. I've never had a job where I had to market myself. Market the library, no problem. So like any good librarian, I checked out a book about it. ;o) If anyone out there knows about these things, could you take a look at my website and give me some constructive criticism? Would you hire this woman?: Cottage46 Indexing

More poorly lit pictures!

Thanks to an impromptu 3-day weekend last week, I completed the 2nd Spring Forward sleeve. Since it's a cardigan, I'm now going back and forth across 330 stitches for the body of the sweater. This takes a bit of time so it seems like progress has slowed way down. I think I'll have it done for wearing sometime in the fall. I hope. Once again, sorry for the poor picture quality. Mosquitoes. I cast on for Green Gable, I guess that would be Blue Gable, in Knit Picks Shine Sport. I've finished the lace panel, but am still increasing. No sock progress to report. No mitten cast on to report. I've been caught up in reading lately. Before there was knitting, there was reading. Voracious reading. Right now I'm reading The Last Week by Marcus Borg. It's about the final week of Jesus' life. Borg is one of my favorite writers. I also got around to registering a domain name for my indexing business and getting a website put up. I'm planning to start making some calls to publishers later this week. I'm excited about the prospect of some extra money, but less excited about time taken out of my knitting life. But with library funding the way it is right now, it's not like I can expect a raise there any time soon. Have a great week!

Mosquitoes suck, both literally and figuratively

I have some atrocious picture for you! Well, poorly lit anyway. I cannot go outside to take pictures. Is it the heat, you ask? Well, it's hot and humid, but really it's wicked mosquitoes. We've had more than our share of rain lately and the mosquito population has exploded. The flailing that I do while out with the dogs is probably pretty funny to watch, and the swear words I'm forced to use are the ones I save for only the most awful situations. VK went out earlier to shoot his bow (deer season approaches) and used bug spray on his arms and legs. Unfortunately that didn't stop the wretched little bastards from attacking his head. When I looked out I could see 6 of 'em on one side of his face. Needless to say, he's back in the house now where we will remain for the rest of the weekend. Our neighbor camped out in her yard last night with her niece and nephew. We should probably check and make sure they survived the night and that their bodies weren't sucked dry during the night. I doubt her Hello Kitty tent is mosquito-proof. Anyway, I changed patterns for the Cherry Tree Hill that pooling unacceptably last week. I'm doing the Oak Ribbed socks from Knitting Vintage Socks. They were a little poolish on #1 needles so I changed to #2 and I like the effect I'm getting. I'll start the heel flap this weekend. I finished sleeve no. 1 on Spring Forward last night. I knitting it flat and seamed it. I discovered on FLAK that I really don't like doing cables in the round. I prefer it to be very clear whether I'm on the right side or wrong side especially for the moss stitch section. There will be plenty of knitting time this weekend so I'll get a good part of the 2nd sleeve done. I placed my first order from Nordic Fiber Arts last week. I'm using navy blue for the background and white for the pattern color. I may cast on this weekend. I think I'll probably need some help understanding the chart for the thumb gore. I've been studying the technical section in Folk Mittens, but I still don't get it. Luckily the LYS is only 2 miles away! If you usually read the blog on bloglines, pop over to the blog and check out my fabulous new banner and button courtesy of Karen and her Graphics of a (mostly) Self-Taught Blogger. I love the sheep! Thanks, Karen! Stay cool, people!

I'm over summer. Let's move on.

I really like May and June. July and August, not so much. Bring on autumn, please. Picovoli is done as evidenced by this slightly blurry picture. Still needs to be blocked and maybe steamed to get the picots to lay down. I tried it on and the flaring picots combined with my chubby upper arms made me look like a linebacker. I think it will look much better when I lose 15 lbs., but then so will everything else in my wardrobe. I really enjoyed knitting it. Perfect mindless summer knitting. I'm thinking of doing another summer sweater (maybe Green Gable) in Shine since I can't deal with wool this time of year. I started a pair of Garter rib socks with the Cherry Tree Hill that I won last week. I apologize for another blurry picture. I tried to take pictures quickly so as not to melt in the heat. What can I say? I'm a heat wuss. Not to mention that I have to find a portion of the yard that the dogs haven't... well, used. Anyway, I love the colors of this yarn, but I just realized that I'm not wild about how it's pooling. I think I'll frog, and change the needle size and stitch count and see what happens. Isn't that the great thing about knitting? I haven't gotten back to the Flower Basket Shawl. I think I'm going to use the lace weight alpaca that I originally bought for FBS for Icarus. The beginning of the pattern is pretty straightforward which will give me a chance to get used to the teeny tiny yarn before I get to the more lacey chart. Hope everybody's keeping cool!

It's a red tomato day!

VK and I have been trying to grow tomatoes for about a decade. We've experienced bad soil, wet soil, too much shade, inferior plants, and a neighbor who sprayed Roundup on the plants. I'm not kidding. But this year is different, baby. This year, we have made a tomato: And, there are even more tomatoes on the plants that haven't turned red yet. It's a miracle. The only thing that could make the day better is yarn. And lo' and behold, a yarn prize arrived! My first knit bloggy prize ever! From the incomparable Knittin' Mom and the Sock of the Month KAL. I'm sure everyone who reads this blog probably already reads Chrissy's. But if you don't, check her out. She's a designer whose career is taking off, she has really cute kids, and still has time to manage a KAL with many, many knitters. I really appreciate the time and effort that goes into running a KAL. Thanks, Chrissy! I'm off to look for sock pattern inspiriation. I think you know what yarn I'm knitting up next.

4th of July and a yarn outing

Sorry it's been so long since I lasted posted. I've been busy! Normally, our social life is pretty quiet. We're pretty happy puttering around the cottage. But we've become friends with a couple from Dallas who bought the cottage 3 doors down last summer. We took them out for dinner at a lake tavern Friday evening that has great fried fish. Then we gave them the penny tour of the gladiola fields near my parents' house. Acres and acres of gorgeous blooming gladiolas. (Which I should have photographed! Dang.) And then Saturday, the men went to the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend and I tagged along for a yarn expedition. I spent the morning at the Sit & Knit, fondling the yarn and meeting some new knitters. I wanted to look for some fingering weight yarn for the Flower Basket shawl. I didn't find any fingering, but I did buy some DK weight alpaca/cotton blend. It's very soft and more of a lavender than the photo shows. That bit sticking out of the top is the first 7 rows of the FBS. It's going to have to be frogged because by row 7, my stitch count is already off. *sigh* Picovoli is progressing well. Circular stockinette is a welcome change at the moment. I've been using the opportunity to work on evening out my gauge between English and Continental knitting. There are a few ridges where I changed from one to the other, but I think it will block out. And may I just say that KnitPicks' Shine is like buttah. I love the stuff. And my love for the KP needles grows. There is nothing about knitting with them that bugs me. This is a knitting needle first for me. I'm going to need to order more pieces for the set soon. We spent the 4th of July at home. We sat outside most of the day. I knit: We watched the boat parade. There was a cookout and bingo at the conservation clubhouse but we didn't make it to that. The gigantic house behind the boat parade used to be a public resort with a huge slide that went into the lake. Our litigious society meant the end of the slide a few years ago, and the house is now a private residence. VK has fond memories of rowing over there with his grandpa while they fished. Little VK would swim to shore and buy a couple of Pokagon red pops (cool defunct local beverage) and then swim back to the boat. I'm looking forward to the lake quieting down again. The nightly fireworks until 11:30 or 12:00 are starting to PISS. ME. OFF. Not everyone is on vacation, people! Some of us need to sleep and cannot do so with a quaking, terrified golden retriever on her chest. Just sayin'.

Second verse, same as the first.. only bigger

As you can see, I'm a very small person. And my dear VK is a rather large person. But the !@#$%* 2nd pair of Norwegian stockings are done. Not blocked. No ends woven in. But done. Onward! The Knitpicks needles arrived! I tried to take closeups of the joins, but I couldn't get the camera to focus. The joins are smooth, no craters for yarn to fall into. The points are wonderfully sharp. I switched my Spring Forward from Addis to these and was immediately making little happy noises about the pointiness. I think my gauge may tighten up a bit where I switched. The KP needles have more of a definite ridge where the taper ends and the size 8 fullness begins. Does that make sense? If you look at the needles above, it is obvious where the taper to the point begins. Whereas with Addis, it's more of a gentle slope. Anyway, for the size 8s I'm using with Spring Forward, I was conscious of pushing the yarn over that spot. It probably will not be noticeable with smaller size needles. The cords, as mentioned in many other reviews, have no memory at all. I took them out of the package and they flopped out to practically straight. Love that. I do wish that the needles had the size engraved on them. I think I'll get a small needle sizer to keep in the package. There are enough pockets to put each size in its own pocket. I may put the sizes on the pocket with a Sharpie. And I'm sure I'll pick up more needles and cords in the future. I wonder if KP will come out with a 40" cord. If so, I wonder how the join would hold up under magic loop conditions. I have a full set of Addis in 40", so I may just continue using them for magic loopin'. I started Picovoli last night. It's my first picot edging. I knit an extra row before beginning the increases and knit the hem in rather than sewing later. Hopefully that won't goof anything up later. For me, it's always the construction that I'm unsure about. I don't sew, so I really don't know much about garment construction. In reading the Ingeborg pattern, it's not the colorwork that intimidates me. It's understanding how all the pieces work together. I picked up a Peer Gynt pattern book at my LYS yesterday. Oh, how I love the Norwegian style patterns. I dinked around a bit with the Flower Basket Shawl cast on. Oh my... who knew lace weight yarn was so dang tiny! I found Knitting Interrupted's FBS notes. She recommends that a new lace knitter not attempt it in lace weight yarn. I had already decided that last night during a little fit of rage. So I'm on the prowl for a fingering weight yarn for it. Any suggestions? And finally, a Saturday sky shot. Have a great weekend!

My needles are coming!

I've been stalking the order status page at KnitPicks. My needles left Columbus Monday, they left Detroit last night at 11:03. Detroit is less than 150 miles from me and the projected delivery date is SATURDAY. I'm pretty sure if I check 75 times a day, they'll get here sooner. At least that's the theory I'm operating on. VK's 2nd stocking is about 5 inches from being done. I'll finish it tonight no matter how. long. it. takes. I think you know what I mean. A 5-day vacation starts in 7.5 hours. I'm pretty sure if I keep watching the clock, it will go faster. At least that's the theory I'm operating on.

Picture-less post. Ug.

I'm making serious progress on VK's Norwegian stockings. There is something to be said for project monogamy. Although I intend to abandon project monogamy as soon as they are done. No photo because they look a lot like the ones I already finished, only with fewer mistakes. After googling nearly every lace pattern in blogland, I finally settled on Fiber Trends Flower Basket shawl. My totally wonderful LYS owner brought the pattern home with her and I picked it up at her house while I was out on a walk. Is that service, or what? I'm going to pop into the store today to wind my lace yarn. I have a ball winder, but no swift. I usually use my knees as a swift (which VK says is hilarious to watch), but I ain't winding 900 yards of laceweight from my knees. I ordered a set of Knit Picks new needles! (I just sold Starmore's Sweaters for Men on ebay. The money was going to go into the Michigan Fiber Festival yarnapalooza fund, but this is a good tradeoff. I just sent out an invoice for some indexing, so that will definitely go toward yarnapalooza.) They (the needles) look wonderful and the reviews I've read so far are positive. They are, however, backordered for a week or two. This is not something I deal with well especially when it comes to knitting stuff. When I was checking out reviews of the needles, I read that someone smart knitter out there uses a bait bag thingy to store circular needles. For the low, low price of $5.99, I couldn't resist. I don't have a good storage system and I lose track of needles all the time. So that's my retail therapy for the week. I swatched for Picovoli this week, so that and the shawl will be OTN next week. I think it's a good combination of concentration levels to work on at the same time. Ok, just so we're not totally without photos, here's one of my favorite-cat-in-the-whole-world, Kiki. It was taken before she moved inside (she was a stray) and she looks a bit less wild now. And less skinny. This cat loves me like no other cat ever has.

Really warm stockings on a 90 degree day

I'm not sure what to say about these stockings except that I love them. The design is so cool, Nancy Bush is such a genius, the wool is so soft, and well... again, I love them. Would you like to see some pictures? Pattern: Norwegian stockings from Folk Knits Yarn: Peer Gynt Needle: US#3 addi turbos Cast on: May 26 Finished: June 9 Comments: As I've mentioned before, these were a really good first Fair Isle project. I'd already done socks, so the sock construction wasn't an issue. I've always enjoyed watching a pattern appear with cables, but I think it's even more dramatic with FI. I noticed after I started on them that other knitters had done them in Dale Baby Ull which is more of fingering weight and Peer Gynt is more of a DK. (Or something like that. The whole yarn weight names is still a little nebulous for me. ) Anyway, I kinda wish I'd have done them in a finer gauge just because they are REALLY warm. I learned that I have to stretch the stitches at the end and middle of each round (for magic loop) to keep the floats from puckering. The first 5-6 inches of the first sock has a line of 3 stitches that looks like 1 stitch because the floats are too tight. It did work itself out a bit in the blocking. There are still some uneven stitches, but it definitely got better as I went along. I'm doing a pair for VK on US#6 needles and the sizing seems to be working. It's killin' me to do the same project again with all the things I want to knit, but it does assuage my guilt a bit since his FLAK is gathering dust in the bottom of my knitting bag. And it's moving along quickly on bigger needles and, well, I do have pattern memorized by now. I spent the afternoon knitting by the lake. It was a great day. This little guy hung out with me for a bit.

Never let it be said that I don't support my LYS

First things first, the Norwegian stockings are almost done. I'm ready to start the toe decreases on the 2nd sock, so they should be done tonight. Love. These. Socks. Also. Love. Fair. Isle. I spent a couple hours at my LYS this afternoon to pick up some more Peer Gynt for VK's Norwegian stockings. (Yes, I'm doing an identical pair in a larger gauge for VK. I'm that kind of a woman.) The last time I was there I was ranting about all the lace in blogland, how I'm not interested in doing lace, blah, blah, blah. That was like 2 weeks ago. Today I touched this: You'll notice that this picture was not taken in the yarn shop. It's in my yard. This means that I purchased it. With the intention of, you know, knitting something lacy. This can be laid completely at the feet of Knitty D and the City and their lace knitting talk. I'm really enjoying their podcast, by the way. Less introspective than Cast On, but a lot like hanging out with friends. The kind of friends you can be gross with if the occassion should arise. The yarn is Alpaca with a Twist's Fino, baby alpaca and silk. I can't stop touching it. So if you can recommend a good first lace project/shawl, let me know. I'm eyeing Icarus from the current IK but I need to look around a bit. I also picked up some Interlacements Tiny Toes in Turkish Carpet. Such amazing colors. Would it have killed me to move the ugly brown leaf before taking this picture though? Oh, I did manage to remember the Peer Gynt, but its black and whiteness could not be photographed with all the colors. I did work on the Spring Foward cardigan a bit last weekend and have started on the front. Not enough progress to be blog-worthy though. Have a great weekend, everybody!

Norwegian Stocking progress

I'm loving the Fair Isle! Can you spot the glaring error? (Hint: XOXOXO) I'll do it on the other one and wha-la: it's a design feature.

I'm saaaaailing!

Do you remember in What About Bob? when Bob is strapped to the mast of sailboat, joyously shouting, "I'm saaaaailing"? Well, I'm Faaaaair Isleing!! There is definite uneven-ness, but it's going much more smoothly than I anticipated. This was going to be the 1st great outdoor weekend of the summer, full of kayaking, hammock lounging, etc. But it's really humid and my sinuses and allergies are in full revolt. So it's the great indoor weekend at cottage46. Guess I'll have to knit. ;o)

Ahhhhh... the great American long weekend

Love the 4-day weekend! Most of the time I love like my job, but I got to attend 2 meetings last week meant to educate us about just how bad our financial situation is going to get. Property taxes are highly unpopular in Indiana right now, and property taxes are the main source of revenue for local government, libraries, and schools. So as the legislators try to respond to the property tax furor with tax credits and cuts, there's nothing replacing the lost revenue. My library budget is cut to bone now and there's potential for more substantial cuts coming. In order to sleep at night, I have to tell myself that our community will get the library they pay for and I can only do what I have the budget for. When services get cut, they'll have to call their state legislator and complain. Anyway... that is why I'm so loving this long weekend. I finished the Rib & Cables socks. Pattern: Rib & Cables socks by Nancy Bush, from Interweave Knits, Fall 2005 Yarn: Brown Sheep Wildfoote in Vinca Minor Needles: Addi Turbo US2 Cast on: May 3, 2006 Finished: May 25, 2006 Comments: Nice, easy pattern. The heel is a little droopy; I should have made the heel flap a little shorter. The decreases for the toe are done with p3tog to make a little chevron pattern. I could have lived without that. By the time I finished an evening of p3tog I was in what VK calls my "Pissy Sally" mood. But like childbirth, all is soon forgotten. I'm now entering my Fair Isle phase. Here is the extent of my FI experience: So clearly I'm well-prepared. I cast on for the Norwegian stockings and I made it through the ribbing with no problems. I've done the first row of FI patterning without incident. And no, I'm not being paid by Dell for product placement, I was just too lazy to go outside for the picture. The fiber festival last weekend was very spinning-oriented. Lots of roving. There was some handspun yarn, but overall a little disappointing. There's a huge fiber festival in Michigan (Michigan Fiber Festival) coming in August. I'm already saving my pennies. I did buy this lovely basket and 2 hanks of alpaca that is deliciously soft, but I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. Gratuitous daisy picture: Have a great weekend!

Yarn Focus Challenge: Blown.

I. Have. No. Self. Control. Hmm... black, white, a bit o' red... Could this be yarn for this? Why, yes it is! I'm going to do the Norwegian socks from Folk Socks. This will make 4 projects on the needles, 3 of which are not simple. Interestingly, the "simple" project (Rib & Cable socks) is the one I'm currently stuck on. I'm ready for the heel flap and am having issues with translating the pattern to magic loop. Just need some time to concentrate and figure it out, but that's not what I expect from a sock pattern. That's supposed to be the mindless project. The Spring Forward cardigan has grown a few inches. And, at long last, may I present the finished Must Have cardigan: A word about the top button. I love the round silver buttons, but they are too small for the buttonholes. My issue is should I try to find a similar silver button that is larger? Or use the square buttons? Here's a close-up. And here's the back: The details: Pattern: Must Have cardigan from Paton's Street Smarts leaflet Cast on: Sept or Oct 2005 Finished: May 8, 2006 Yarn: Cascade 220 #8911 Grape Jelly. I've never taken a picture that accurately shows the color. Here's a picture of the yarn from the web. It's much closer to grape jelly than the hot pink that it appears in pics. Needles: Addi Turbo US7 Comments: This is my second sweater, but the first that's wearable. I loved the pattern. The cable patterns were easy to memorize and it was just a fun knit. The only change I made was to add some stitches to moss stitch panels to account for boobal real estate. I'll do a modeled shot once I get the button thing figured out. We saw this family of swans today. Sorry for the swan butt. It was quite a lovely family portrait until Mom or Dad swan decided to dive.

Spring Forward!

Ok, the title may be Spring Forward, but the weather is more like winter. Seriously, it's raining and 40 degrees. Ugh. But in spite of the dreary, I cast on for the Spring Forward cardigan from Twists and Turns. I'm enjoying a 4-day weekend (just because I want to) so I should make some serious progress. I also cast on a pair of Rib and Cable socks from Nancy Bush (Interweave Fall 05). Sorry for the blurry picture. Sadly, it was the best of several attempts. The Must Have cardigan is done except for sewing on the buttons. Woohoo! Finished just in time to put it away for the summer. FO post next week if the sun ever comes out again. I think my cable phase may be waning because I just bought these: OK, yes, the middle one is all cables, but the other two are mostly colorwork. Like these: And the amazing Ingeborg: I've been following Bowerbird Knits Ingeborg progress. Oh yes, I feel a color phase coming on. The one tiny little problem is that my only Fair Isle experience is one tiny little swatch. Almost a potholder, but not quite. So I'm thinking I'll try one of the wonderful mitten kits from Nordic Fiber Arts. I've been enjoying all the blog posts about the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Well, next weekend we have the Salomon Farm Fiber Arts Celebration in Fort Wayne. I think this will be the 3rd year for it, but I wasn't able to go the first two years. But I'm definitely going this year. Unfortunately I've already used my May free-to-buy-yarn day . So I'll try to maintain focus, but who knows. There's always patterns and knitting needles to buy!

I'm here! I'm here!

Long time, no post. Long time, no knitting progress. The Must Have cardigan pieces are blocking and will be sewn up this weekend. I've vowed not to milk that poor sweater for any more blog pictures until it's an FO. But I did finish the Jaywalkers. Of course since it rained that last 2 days there was water seeping into my socks as I stood there. The daughter of friends of ours once said to me, "How do you stay so white?" Now I know what she meant. The details: Pattern: Jaywalker Yarn: Lorna's Laces Blue Jeans Needle: Size 1 Cast on: hmmm... sometime at the beginning of April Cast off: May 1, one day late to be my April socks for the Sock of the Month club (dang) Comments: I have a fairly sizeable hole at one heel corner and not at the other corners. I'm not sure what happened, but there were dropped stitches and such after I picked up the gusset stitches. I like my socks snug, so this is a good pattern for me. And Lorna's Laces rocks. Randomness: VK has been turkey hunting, but hasn't gotten one yet. Yarn is on the way from Webs for the Spring Forward Cardigan along with 2 Dale of Norway pattern books. That was my April free day for the Yarn Focus Challenge. I think I'll use my May free day to pick up some yarn this weekend at my LYS for a summer sweater. I'm casting on tonight for a pair of socks in Wildfoote. Still deciding on the pattern. Either one of the ribbed patterns from Knitting Vintage Socks or an Interweave pattern. We picked up some flowers but haven't planted anything yet. The nights are still pretty cold.

Those fabulous Japanese knitting books

I've been making serious progress on Must Have's sleeves. I'm thinking I'll be able to block the pieces this week and knit the button band. Since I'd like this marathon project to actually be wearable in public, I think I'll make an appointment with my LYS owner to babysit me while I sew in the sleeves. The only other sweater I've sewn up has some decided wonkiness in the sleeve seaming. These are the 3 Japanese knitting books that I got from YesAsia. The one on the left has the fabulous Am Kamin sweater. The other two are from the list of recommended books when you look at the first one. It's very interesting where they throw in a little English here and there. Not a single bit of English on any of the patterns though. I've printed a bunch of the how to knit from Japanese patterns links from the Cross in Translation KAL site. I'm still a knitter who relies on a pattern a lot for the garment construction kinds of details, so I don't know when I'll knit any of these. But I like practically every sweater in all three books, so I know I'll get a lot of use out of them eventually. Here's a sampling. It's interesting that none of the finished sweaters are modeled by people. I kinda like it, less distracting. April in Indiana so far has been unseasonably warm and sunny. Our 10 miles on Saturday mornings in the state park have been glorious. It takes some getting used to in the spring when people start camping in the park. Believe me, in the dead of winter, we have the place all to ourselves. Our forsythia is in bloom. And we (VK) planted some more hyacinth this year. They smell so good! And finally, here's our resident blue heron. Actually, there could be 50 blue herons living at Pretty Lake, but I only ever see one at a time, so I assume it's the same one, year after year. He/she is very cool to watch.

I really love DSL

VK and I have joined the 21st century and now have DSL at home. I resisted for a long time because I sit in front of a high speed connection all day long. But how much knit blog reading and posting can you really get away with at work? Anyway, loading the following progress pictures was so fast! Knitting progress is being accomplished 2-3 rows at a time. I'm updating a periodical index which is taking up some knitting time. And I'm just in a bit of a funk. Don't know why but it seems to be going around. I feel like I'm beating my head against a wall a work. We are trying to get approval from our county council to tear down a house that the library owns and put in a much-needed parking lot. We have saved 2/3 of the cost of the project and are not requesting a rate increase to get it done. But still they balk. The tax amount involved is $4 per $100,000 of property value. So a homeowner with a $200,000 house would pay $8. Ouch. And in the rural midwest, the average home value is well under $200,000. Grrrr. It's just hard to take when we've been very fiscally conservative, and still we get skeptism. It's not like I'm asking for money to take the staff to Key West. Must Have's sleeves have grown a few inches. I'm cautiously optimistic that it may be done by fall. And because I didn't want to get booted from the sock knitting community, I started a pair of Jaywalkers. This is my 3rd or 4th attempt. The first yarn (Cherry Tree Hill) didn't seem to work with the pattern. So I tried Lorna's Laces. Once I actually read the pattern correctly and started doing the double decrease correctly, they look great. Makes me wonder if the problem before was the yarn or the knitter. I'm guessing the latter. The weather has been great lately. Very springy with many flowers blooming in the yard. We need to reseed our yard this weekend. We have 3 labradors that tear through the yard like maniacs killing grass left and right. A few years ago we only had 1 lab and the yard looked like it was out of House and Garden. Now it looks like something from the Dust Bowl with the few surviving tufts of grass here and there. I don't know if I reported this or not, but our awful, retched, infuriating neighbors sold their cottage! Joy! The couple that bought it are realtors who bought it for an investment. They're going to fix it up to sell or rent. They've been very nice and best of all, respectful of their neighbors. The first time we spoke with them, they commented that they couldn't understand why the Lenny's (the bad neighbors) sold it after only owning for about 3 years. VK piped up, "Oh, I can tell you why they sold." And we filled them in on some of what went on with them. After the closing, they told us that they understood why we had disliked the Lennys. Apparently, the Lennys took all the antique light fixtures and switch plates out of the cottage. Well, I'm off to fix something yummy for supper. Today is VK's birthday! If you are so inclined, he'd really love a birthday greeting. He is a sweet, sweet man and I just love him. Happy birthday, Smoot!

Focus, Sonya. Focus.

I joined Rebekah's Yarn Focus Challenge. Basically a yarn diet with one free day a month. I can do that. I have yarn ordered for Spring Foward Cardigan that should be in soon, so that will be my April free day. Other than that, I can knit for a long time out of stash. I don't have a huge stash, but if I were one of the people on earth who live on less than $2 a day, I'd think it was obscene. I've been making slow progress on knitting projects. I added progress bars to the sidebar to taunt me. Javascript is so cool. You know, if someone else writes it and all. The Japanese knitting books that I ordered from YesAsia arrived last week. I'll get some pictures posted one of these days. Suffice it to say that the designs are just stunning. I don't know if I'll ever be able to actually knit any of them, but just looking at them is enough. I was home with a migraine today and now I just feel groggy. It was a beautiful sunny day today in Indiana. Unfortunately, it was so sunny that when I took the dogs out I had to stand there with my eyes closed and my hands over my face. I'm just assuming the dogs did their business. It's been vet time for the dogs. Lucy and Zoey have been in for their checkups, and Shane goes later this week. Lucy was so hyper that it took 5 vet techs to get a blood sample. The vet suggested that we give her a sedative next year. Zoey does a passive resistance thing that requires VK to carry her 80-pound butt into the vet's office. Our dogs are totally unsocialized. We'll see how Shane does. He's still a puppy, but he is the strongest dog I've ever known. Here's a picture of Shane's dad, Corky: Yikes! Now that's a muscular dog.

I finally finished a pair of socks!

After joining 3, count 'em 3, sock knit alongs, I have been curiously sockless. But no more! Behold: I was deeply fearful of being spotted while taking these pictures because, frankly, I looked like an idiot. "Why is that woman laying on her deck taking a picture of her feet?" The details Pattern: Dublin Bay from Mossy Cottage Knits Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shephard sock yarn in the Black Purl colorway (My first experience with LL; love it!) Needles: Size 1 Addi Turbos (both socks at once) Date Started: 2/22/06 Date Finished: 3/25/06 Notes: The heel and cuff are a little loose. Honestly, how long would it take to do a little gauge swatch? Why don't I do it? The pattern suggested a 2.5" heel flap which I should have reduced a bit. I did decrease the number of stitches on the foot and it fits well. A nice, simple lace pattern for a sock where the yarn is the featured attraction. I was giddy over the weekend about having bangs again so I had VK take this pic. (Little did I know that Kiki was shooting death rays at him.) I've been trying to grow out my bangs, because if not now, when? But by about mid-nose they were driving me nuts, and I realized I really look better with bangs. So an emergency visit to Liz, hair dresser to most of the library staff, and all is well again. Of course, I felt compelled to justify/rationalize my bangs to Liz: "Ok, I just need a thin fringe. This is not a total retreat." She didn't seem too disappointed, but she had been really excited when I started growing them out. What is it with hair people and bangs? What is it with me rambling on for a whole paragraph about bangs? *sheesh* I've cast on for a pair of Jaywalkers in Lorna's Laces blue jeans colorway. If the KOTR KAL votes for Denmark, I definitely want to do those too. Knitting may get squeezed in the next few months. I'm going to do some active marketing to pick up some indexing jobs. With God as my witness (and you guys too) I will pay off my credit cards by the end of the year. A few indexing jobs would go a long way to making that happen. So if you know any authors who need their book indexed, send them my way. I also have done periodical indexing. I've started reading "No God but God" by Reza Aslan. His premise is that what's happening within Islam now is similar to the Reformation in that it was a struggle between those who wanted to reform and modernize and those who turned to fundamentalism to deal with a changing society. He points out that the Reformation was a century long, bloody struggle. I've just started the book, but I've read other stuff by Aslan and he is quite interesting.

I'm still here

I wish I could say I've been really busy, but not so much. Just slow knitting progress and nothing particularly interesting to post. There is a bit of sock progress: I'd forgotten how truly satisfying sock knitting is. Hypnotic, easy on the hands, able to be completed in less than 6 months. I like how the colors are knitting up on the heel flap and the gusset. I may buy this colorway again someday (Black Purl) and knit up a different pattern. There is a wee (and I do mean wee) bit of progress on the FLAK sleeve. OK, very little progress, but you can at least see that the shaping is happening. Gigantic sleeve getting smaller. I'm having trouble staying with this one and I think it may be the Elann Peruvian Highland that I'm using. It just seems a little... hmmm... cheapish. Kinda thin, splits-a-lot kinda cheapish. But it comes in an astonishing array of colors and it is, well, cheap. Safe to say that VK won't be wearing this baby this season. Hey, here's some good news: This is from Newsweek of all places. But such a relief! When I see skinny young girls whose jeans make them look fat, I just want to shake them. Granted, the skin-tight Jordache of my youth were embarrassing too, but at least they didn't create the dreaded muffin top. I have been trying to awake from my winter sluggishness. In the spring, summer, and fall I walk a lot and kayak. I was walking 40-50 miles a week before winter set in. Usually I walk through the winter too, but this year I just couldn't get it done. I've still been walking on the weekends, but not consistently. And x-country skiing this year was a total bust. Only 2 ski-able snow fall way back in early December. So this week, I've been walking at the lake after work. I prefer mornings, but it's not quite light enough. And since Indiana is switching to Daylight Savings Time this year, it won't be light early enough even in the summer. Thanks, Gov. Daniels. (I won't get started on Indiana politics, but suffice it to say that Mitch will most likely be a one-term governor.) Anyway, walking in the evenings does give me a chance to let all the library crap rattling around in my head go. I have 2 staff members who have a major personality conflict, and it's driving the rest of us nuts. I've even contracted with a mediator to try to sort it out. I should have gotten a counseling and mediation degree instead of those worthless history degrees. Would have been much more beneficial.

My knitting spot

Lynda tagged me for a show your knitting spot meme. Our house is pretty small, so this is my everything spot: knitting, reading, watching tv, etc. The advantage of a small house is that everything you need can be within arms reach. There is a really messy bookshelf and knitting stuff pile just out of camera range. Handy, but to messy to photograph. On the small house issue, I remind myself that there are people in Manhattan who make way more money than we do who would think Cottage 46 is quite huge. ;o) This chair doubles as Zoey's spot during weekdays. I've made a bit of progress on the Lorna's Laces socks. I'm not wild about how the colors are landing, but I don't know if a different pattern would help or not. FLAK's sleeve is growing at a snail's pace in spite of many knitting hours going into it. It will be quite a while before I do another sweater for a large guy on size 5 needles. Just sayin'. Here's the sleeve detail. I'm using the Addi Naturas that have that wicked dip at the join. No problems with it at all now. I was knitting flat with them earlier and this is circular; could be the difference? I rejoined Crafter's Choice a couple weeks ago. (I usually leave after my membership is fulfilled and then rejoin when they get some more interesting knitting books.) I spent the weekend perusing these: There wasn't anything in the Vintage Knits that immediately tripped my trigger. I may donate it to the library. I love these 2 sweaters from The Pleasures of Knitting: Fiona Ellis' Inspired Cable Knits is wonderful! She writes about her design process which is interesting. The patterns are really lovely. My favorite, although without the i-cord, tie thingy: Friday was my birthday so I ordered myself 3 Japanese knitting books from YesAsia.com. One of them has the fabulous Crossed in Translation KAL sweater. The other 2 look cabley but didn't have a lot of sample pics. I'll post reviews when they arrive. VK is springing for my Spring Forward yarn, so it's a pretty knitty birthday. Have a great week!

Knitters field trip

We really need to do this again in a few months when my yard isn't so dismal looking. To the east Sunday morning: From the top of the hill at the back of our property: Just waiting: Well, this is a hopeful sign! But, then there is frost on the swing. (VK made this swing for me. It's my favorite place to sit in the summer.) This is the view from our yard across the road. I think you can tell from the road that we are in the hinterlands. One of the last roads in the county to be plowed.

Back to FLAK

I'm back to working on FLAK, although a wee bit behind the group. I have a few more inches to go on the front before I can pick up for the sleeves. I'm going to add some cables on either side of the braid down the sleeves, but I'm still pondering which ones. The sleeves will be pretty wide, so I might add a couple cables to cut down on the amount of moss stitch filler I have to do. I've been working on the Lorna's Laces Dublin Bay socks and Must Have's sleeves, but progress is too boring to photograph. But VK did get some nice "critters at the lake" shots. Don't we all feel like this some days? And the cutest critter of them all, Princess Zoey. I've been telling Karen about some of our more interesting library patrons. Like the woman who wears her tiara with mini skirts and cowboy boots. Last week she was faux strumming her guitar and singing by the fireplace. Or the elderly man yesterday who was asking questions at the circulation desk about the female menstrual cycle. He's writing a book about an organ grinder who's monkey freaks out around women on their period. I am not making this up. Libraries are open to everyone, people can hang out here all day without having to buy anything. Often we attract people who are desperately lonely and/or slightly strange, in addition to the families, the students, the recreational readers, the genealogists, etc. The Feel Good Librarian blog has wonderful stories about how libraries and librarians help people. It often chokes me up. I just started reading A Woman in Berlin: 8 Weeks in the Conquered City. It's the diary of a German journalist in Berlin during the Soviet takeover and occupation in 1945. Really astonishing reading. Sometimes I think it's a wonder anyone survived World War II. Well, on that happy note, have a great day, everybody!

The real story

My husband (who shall be called VK on the blog until a better name comes to me; VK being his initials) has urged me to come clean on the demise of my Olympic dream. While the sleeves were too small and had to be frogged, a larger issue loomed over my Olympic knitting. You see, ladies and gentleman, I am guilty of doping. {hangs head in shame} When my required Knitting Olympic blood tests came back, it was revealed that my blood contained high doses of caffiene and chocolate. And while the use of these substances is encouraged, the levels of these 2 chemicals in my body were off the charts. Judges feared for my blood pressure and the fit of my jeans. So there you have it. The real truth. Since the Olympic pressure is off, I cast on some of my Christmas gift Lorna's Laces for a pair of Dublin Bay socks (pattern from Ryan at Mossy Cottage Knits). The colorway is Black Purl and I am loving this yarn! I'm doing 2-at-a-time on magic loop, cuff down. I've done 2-at-a-time, toe-up, but getting these cuff-downs cast on was almost more than my addled mind could handle. I finally found a great tutorial on getting it done here. I don't know Kenny in Houston, but he saved me from tears the other night. Thank you, Kenny. After many days at the library doing annual reports, I'm settling down today to read reviews. This is my favorite part of my job. Various staff members are responsible for selecting materials for different collections in the library. My area is adult nonfiction. Most of what I read for pleasure is nonfiction, and I thoroughly enjoy reading reviews and writing up order cards and deciding what to spend my meager allotment on. In spite of my deep and abiding love for technology, I still write order cards by hand. That way I can shuffle them around as I decide what to order. I just haven't found a techie way to do it that works the same way. Anyway, here is my home away from home: Sadly, this represents a pretty tidy day in my office. Usually the stacks are higher. And I skillfully cropped out the pile of inventory scanner flotsam on the floor. Tonight we venture to the great city of Toledo (well, the airport) to pick up my mom on her return from sunny Florida. Currently it's 28 degrees here. Ha! The tops of her feet are sunburned from playing shuffleboard in sandals. She's not sure how she'll be able to put on shoes and socks. Well, you better figure it out, Mom, because baby it is cold outside! Have a great weekend!

An Olympic dream ends

I've been making excellent Olympic knitting progress on Must Have's sleeves. For a brief shining moment, it looked like a medal was possible. Then I measured the sleeves. I had thought they seemed a little small, but I had pressed on. Sometimes I put forward motion ahead of, well, reality. So I consider what I'm about to show you a moment of personal growth. Yes, fellow knitters, I frogged. I gave up Olympic gold for a wearable sweater. On the up side, the cables are lining up much better with the ribbing on this attempt. That's something. Whenever I see actual Olympians stumble, I think either, "Oh, they're young. They'll be back at the Olympics." or "Oh, they're kinda old. This was probably their last chance." In my case, at 37, I'm a relative babe in the woods knitting-wise. So, with God as my witness, I will compete in future Knitting Olympics! BTW, did you see that Time had a blurb about our little event? So cool. So the pressure being off, I took a 4 hour nap this afternoon. I've been majorly behind on sleep this week (got up at 2 am Monday to take Mom to the airport, big storm Thursday night which included 3 utility trucks trimming trees at the end of our driveway in the middle of the night). So, I'm well rested and an evening of actual Olympic coverage stretches out before me. And since I napped I can stay up for Grey's Anatomy. Yippee! All in all, not a total disaster of a day. P.S. The color of Must Have seems to change everytime I photograph it. The actual color is purple, like the progress pic in the previous post. I've never seen yarn that changes so completly depending on the lighting.

Olympic Update

I may be the Bode Miller of Olympic Knitting. After the project changing debacle of last weekend, there has been tinking, dropped stitches and frogging. This is the extent of my Olympic progress: A couple of lousy inches. I had to frog both sleeves (or one of them twice, I'm not sure) back to the ribbing because of dropped (and unnoticed) stitches. But, like Bode, I still have time to pull something off. I've added the slick little Olympic timer (available from Anny) to motivate me. I'm already thinking about next projects. I'm thinking the Spring Forward cardigan from Twists and Turns might be a possibility. I'm also debating about Fulmar from Aran Knitting. And I have fallen horribly behind on sock knitting. Must. Win. Lottery. Quit. Job. Knit. More. BTW, for those of you viewing on IE, sorry about the sidebar sliding to the bottom of the page. I use Firefox so I never know when it's moved again. I must have added something to the sidebar that's too wide or something. I'll try to figure it out this weekend.

Olympic Update

It was a stressful weekend at Cottage46. My mom flew to Orlando today and I spent the weekend stressing about potential lake effect snow, plane crashes, Mom getting on the wrong plane and ending up elsewhere, etc. I'm usually a pretty laid back person, but I was anxiety-ridden over this. Normally, mom is with dad, so there is nothing for the daughter to worry about. But my dad has been in Florida since the end of December (Mr. Retired doesn't do winter anymore), while Mom stayed in the frigid north working. Don't tell the folks, but I hate this arrangement. We are not a family of flyers. The last time my mom flew was her senior year in high school when she was an exchange student in Sweden. I have NEVER flown commercially. We're drivers. We drove to Phoenix one year for Christmas. From northeast Indiana. With a 17-year-old and a 13-year-old who, quite frankly, could not stand each other. Anyway, Mom is safely in Orlando, Dad has her, and I can breath again. On the Olympic knitting front: I have a dramatic photo of me casting on for the Many Buttoned Vest. (Of course it's at home still in the camera.) But over the weekend, I just wasn't getting into the vest. It's on size 9 needles which I thought would be good for a deadline project. But I'm kinda used to small needles and these just seemed huge and uncomfortable. And I'm not sure the yarn is right. It's Galway which I like, but the color is a light violet and I think this project needs something darker. All weekend I kept hearing a tiny squeeky voice calling my name. "Sonya! Sooooonya!" Finally I dug to the bottom of my knitting bag and there was the Must Have cardigan! Poor neglected thing. So Sunday evening I abandoned the vest and cast on for Must Have's sleeves. So the new Olympic project is to finish the cardigan which still needs 2 sleeves, the button band and the finishing. An Olympic challenge indeed for a knitter with one unwearable sweater under her belt. DH is very concerned that this will mean disqualification as this may be our family's only chance at Olympic gold. I pointed out that the Knitting IOC Harlot is a pretty laid back chick and probably everything would be OK.

FLAK back done & Level 1 swatches worked on

The FLAK back is done. And by done, I mean it's to the length of the armhole depth. "Done" being a relative term in an installment project. I really like how Janet is pacing this knit along. I'm doing a sweater for a big guy on number 5 needles and I still have time between installments to work on other stuff. I like that. By other stuff, I mean other knitting stuff. Please don't be concerned that I'm actually doing housework or anything. This weekend I dragged out my Master's program level 1 swatches. (Thank you for the inspiration, Chrissy.) Here are some of them blocking. Some I've already finished and blocked. Once these are dry, I'll evaluate them all and decide which ones need to be reknit. As evidenced by this picture, I'm a chronic long tail leaver. A terrible waste of yarn but whatcha gonna do? If anyone is in the market, I have a few knitting books on ebay at the moment. (Seller name: sophie1920) My knitting tastes have changed a wee bit from when I started knitting. And some books I enjoyed looking through, but don't really have any patterns that I must knit. As soon as I get around to it, I'm going to list the collection of 14" straight needles that I bought on ebay when I first started knitting. (It's a wonder I continued knitting after wrestling with those things.) But I did take a kinda pretty picture of them:

Addi Naturas

Chris asked about the join on the Addi Naturas. There's just a little dip between the metal and the wood. Thanks to the miracle of the macro setting on the camera, here's a pic: Other than that little dip, I really love these needles. I wonder if the dip could be filled in or smoothed out with clear nail polish. I may try that this weekend. Thoughts? Is anyone enjoying the Cast On podcast by Brenda Dayne as much as I am? I just love it. Her voice is perfect, her knitting stories are great, and she has fabulous taste in music. I shared the Boob Fairy song from a couple weeks ago with co-workers today. One response: Who knew there was such funny stuff in knitting podcasts. Another: Who knew there were knitting podcasts?

Hey, long time, no post

Last week was just busy. We received word of a budget cut for the library's 2006 budget. We had a big cut last year and I'm frankly running out of things to cut. I also have to do an annual report every year that is due Feb. 1. Every year it is due Feb. 1. And every year, I wait until about Jan. 25 to do it. Not really sure why that is. So off it went this morning and I have time to blog a little. First of all, we need a new roof. It rained quite a bit this weekend and if the need wasn't clear before, it is now. Luckily our cottage is pretty small so it won't break the bank. So we're going shingle shopping tonight. Whoopee! I've been plugging away on my FLAK back. I've been going back and forth between addi turbos and addi naturas and just can't get in a groove. The naturas have sharp points (which I like), but they also have a crater, I mean groove, at the join. I've gone back to the turbos but I wish they were a little pointier. I haven't measured how deep the armholes should be yet, but I think I have a couple more inches to go. I've worked a bit on the Must Have cardi (my true love). This is the 2nd front panel. Once it's done, I only have the sleeves to go. I worked on this at my knitting group last week and everyone was tres impressed. I have to share something about my knitting group... they are easily impressed (in a good way). It's a pretty large group with a wide variety of skills and experience. There's one woman who can knit like some people can play piano by ear. No pattern necessary and she's super prolific. Others are pretty new, scarf knitters, and then there's everything in between. Now I'm a fairly new knitter (2.5 years) and I caught on to it pretty quickly. I do well with spatial kinds of things, in fact my high school aptitude test suggested I should be an auto mechanic. (Thank you, Lakeland HS.) But anyway, when I knit on Must Have or similar projects without the pattern right in front of me, this group absolutely fawns over me. This is very sweet but it also kinda freaks me out. And I never should have mentioned that I'm working on level 1 of the master knitter program. "This is Sonya, she's a master knitter." "No, no. I'm just working on level 1. I'll probably never get to level 3." *sigh* Anyway, it just makes me a little self-conscious, like I'm claiming to be a superfly (is this a valid adjective anymore?) knitter, when really, not so much. Like I made a mistake on the braid of my FLAK and didn't fix it. (It's on the back. Who's gonna notice?) On a totally different topic, does anyone listen to Dave Ramsey? I read his Total Money Makeover about a year ago and got all inspired to get out of debt. Well, that didn't last long. So now it's a year later and we're still in debt. So I've been listening to his radio show online to try to get it in gear and stay in gear. Honestly, I have some credit card debt that's been with me longer than DH and we've been together over 11 years. Just ridiculous. So this is my new mission: pay off credit cards. So I'll be knitting from the stash for awhile people. Wish me luck.

That Harlot sure knows how to start something. I will be participating in the Knitting Olympics in the cabled vest competition. The amusement that DH is getting out of this knows no bounds. He's wishing there were other knit bloggers in the area so we could have our own opening ceremonies. He especially loves that performance enhancing substances are not only allowed, but encouraged. I'm going to knit the Many Buttoned Vest from Folk Knits. I think I can do this in 16 days. I got gauge on #9 needles so it ought to move along pretty quickly. I better get to looking for some buttons though. Here I am training (notice the look of profound concentration): I debated long and hard about what color to get when I ordered this walking/skiing outfit. My first inclination is always navy blue. I'm a navy blue, fade-into-the-background-whenever-possible kinda gal. But I'm in a purple phase, so... Now I realize that I look like a giant Good 'N Plenty. In other knitting news, I finished the FLAK saddles. And I've had time to work on the neglected Must Have cardi. I also cast on for Jaywalkers with the Cherry Tree Hill yarn from Christmas. I'm only a couple of rows into the pattern stitch, but I'm not sure this yarn and pattern are going to work together. I'll give another inch or two.

I've been tagged! I've been tagged!

It's my first. *blush* Thank you, Karen. 4 jobs you have had in your life cashier at McDonald's (the hardest I ever worked for the least money) accounting clerk for a duck farm and processing plant (oh, the stories from that place!) librarian book indexer 4 movies you could watch over and over Love Actually Bull Durham She's Having a Baby The Big Chill 4 places you have lived Mom & Dad's numerous tiny apartments, although I fondly remember the first one my very own little trailer, that I loved in spite of its trailer-ness Cottage46, Pretty Lake, Indiana 4 TV shows you love to watch Gray's Anatomy any Law & Order ER (especially now that Luca and Abby are mating) Sex & the City 4 places you have been on vacation Phoenix Washington, DC Cincinnati Canada (too young to remember where exactly in Canada) 4 websites you visit daily gmail bloglines cnn new york times 4 of your favorite foods any form of potato brocolli dark chocolate Santa Fe Chicken salad at Applebee's 4 places you would rather be right now home in my knitting chair NYC Mom & Dad's house Europe 4 bloggers you are tagging Oh, my... I've never had to tag before. Let's see... How about Chris, Jen, Tori, and Rebekah.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love knitting?

I really do love knitting. I love the process, the product, the planning, the yarn fondling, all of it. For some reason it took me forever to knit this swatch, but I'm quite pleased with the final product. I bought some Addi Naturas and switched to those in mid-swatch from Addi Turbos. Strangely, things moved a lot more quickly after that. I think it's because the Naturas have a pointier point. I do like the Naturas, but if you knit too tightly, the yarn seems to get momentarily caught in the groove at the join. Anyway this is my FLAK swatch. The center panel is a staghorn (in honor of "the hunter") flanked by an XOX cable. I goofed up the XOX cable at the top (which was the bottom when I knitted it), but I think I've got it now. I also forgot one of the staghorn crosses at the bottom. I think I had to fix a mis-crossed cable on that row and then forgot the cross that was supposed to be there. I swear I will fix such things on the actual sweater. The side cable is the same as Janet designed except the wave cable got turned into a rope cable. Rope cables are so simple but I love the way they look. I finished my Whitbys from Knitting on the Road last night. Love 'em! These are the first socks I've done with any pattern beyond that created by self-striping yarn. I'm wearing them now and I'm never taking them off. I have much housework to do, but I really want to stay in my big ole chair and knit. Does anyone else think that working 5 days and having 2 days off is just un-balanced? Wouldn't a 4 on-3 off thing be better for everyone? Saturday was always cleaning day when I was a kid. But after working all week, I seldom feel like doing anything on Saturday. Which leaves Sunday to clean, but it's Sunday. Day of rest and all that. So quite often, very little gets done on the cleaning front. *sigh* Well, I gotta go start on my FLAK saddles.

Way slow knitting

For some reason, knitting has been excruciatingly slow lately. I've been working on my FLAK swatch. I'm on version 2.0 now. I substituted a staghorn cable that DH picked out for the horseshoe cables and put an XOX cable on either side. Pics in the next day or two (I hope). I almost have my 2nd Whitby sock done too. And I'm working on yet another hat for DH. Same pattern over and over in different colors. Mmmmm, fun. But he really appreciates the knitting so I shouldn't complain. Since the yucky neighbor put his house up for sale next door, we've been watching with great interest as a parade of people look at the property. Kevin (DH does have a name!) ain't afraid to go on recon missions to check out the potential neighbors. He's been taking out the garbage and/or the dogs and "casually" striking up conversations. The most serious lookers so far are a retirement-age couple from Fort Wayne (about an hour away). The man looks a lot like Joe Paterno and seems nice enough. The wife is... shall we say... less friendly. We'll see what happens. I'm ordering a couple hundred dollars worth of fast-growing screen trees tomorrow. On the plus side, we have new neighbors a couple doors down that are turning out to be good friends. They live in Dallas and are just here in the summer and at Christmas. We spent an evening playing Cranium with them and had a ball. We did discover that DH and I suck at anything that requires creativity, but are quite good at trivia questions. Go figure.

Sad & angry

Two things on the news tonight made me sad and furious at the same time. My husband and I have long ranted about the attitude toward the Midwest and South held by the media elite, pop culture, and many others who live near an ocean. We aren't stupid, we don't date relatives, we didn't all grow up on farms, we do get college degrees in relative proportion to the rest of the country. But there's an inferiority complex. When West Wing bases an entire episode on the screwy time zones in Indiana and the apparent difficulty in finding adequate transportation, well, you know. Inferiority complex. There was a clip from the View on the local news. Apparently a "New York real estate mogul" has decreed that Shipshewana, Indiana, is one of the top 5 towns to live in if you want to lose weight. Shipshewana is a small town in northern Indiana in the same county I happen to live in and grew up in (I did leave for a while. See: inferiority complex). The county has a large population of Amish and Mennonites. I'm Mennonite, which is not the same as Amish and the vast majority of Mennonites do not dress plain or drive buggies. Shipshewana has become a tourist mecca in recent years. "Hey, let's go buy antiques and stare at the Amish." (Usually pronounced with a long "a".) Anyway, "New York real estate mogul" explained that Shipshewana is a great place to live to lose weight because everyone there is Amish and they don't get fat. I don't know where to begin refuting that bit of bullshit. Not everyone in Shipshewana is Amish and I've seen some sizeable Amish bodies. But then the talented crew of the view had to throw in things like "Well, yeah, they eat nothing but oats," and "We might as well move to the moon." I suppose if I didn't have a Hoosier complex this wouldn't bother me, but it's a cumulative effect. I would just appreciate it if people like "New York real estate mogul" would not spout off about things about which they know absolutely. nothing. I just can't stop thinking about the thing that made me sad. A woman in West Virginia who just lost a family member in that awful mine accident said, through tears, "We may be dumb, but we love our families." Let me repeat that. "We may be dumb, but we love our families." That's just about one of the saddest things I've ever heard. Because I know exactly where she's coming from. The national media is watching, so she feels compelled to acknowledge what she thinks they are thinking. In the midst of deepest grief, the unfair, unearned stereotype that West Virginians have been tagged with is there. Patty Loveless's masterpiece of an album, Mountain Soul, has a song about her coal mining roots. "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" is a haunting song about the struggles of mining families and the constant fear of just such an accident. If you're so inclined, go over to iTunes and give it a listen. And give a thought to those grieving families when you turn out the lights tonight. Lights that may very well be powered by the coal they are dragging out of those mines.

2 posts in one day; that's new

I forgot to mention the knitty moment I had with DH this morning. We're on vacation this week, but DH had to go to Fort Wayne today for a work thing. He called me on his way down and asked if I knew a Betty from Georgia. Sonya: Betty from Georgia? No, I don't know any Bettys from Georgia. Why? DH: Oh, well, I just passed a car with a Georgia vanity plate that said Betty. Sonya: Why would I know this person? DH: She was knitting. Don't you people all know each other? Sonya: She must not have a blog.

Sonya is a bad blogger

Oh, I've been a bad blogger; over a week since I posted. But I have used the time constructively to get some knitting done. The Christmas yarn arrived and I've been fondling it ever since. I guess I could've cropped out more of my yoga mat, but you get the idea. I think the Cherry Hill will be turned into a pair of Jaywalkers. No immediate plans for the rest beyond the fondling. I'm working on a hat for DH in Stanford colors. I made matching hats for my dad and brother for Christmas, and DH requested one too. (I was thinking "Christmas colors" until DH pointed out the Stanford thing. Both his degrees are from there; I'm a state school kinda gal.) Unfortunately I'm out of the red. My LYS has a Soups On gathering on Fridays that I plan to hit this week since I'm on vacation. I love the communal parts of knitting. There are fewer opportunities after a certain age to hang out with other women. I finished the back of the Must Have and started on the front. I thought about doing the right and left front at the same time, but figured I'd get way too confused on the shaping. I cast on for the Whitby for the Knitting on the Road KAL with the much rationalized Louet Gems. Wonderfully soft yarn. Hope everyone had a good Christmas. We had a great time with my parents on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas day home together. Yesterday we walked 10 miles in the state park, finishing DH's 2500 miles for the year. It's a huge accomplishment and I'm very proud of him. I gave him an engraved iPod nano to mark the occassion. He has such discipline. He has walked through all kinds of weather and with various and sundry minor injuries. We're both very glad that the goal is accomplished!

Headache gone! Christmas yarn ordered!

Ok, I'm making that kitty purring noise and the yarn hasn't even arrived yet. Behold! My Christmas stash enhancement courtesy of a certain wonderful husband. These are my first Cherry Tree Hill and Lorna's Laces so I'm quite excited. It all came from Yarnbow's ebay store. She has some good stuff. And she shipped priority so I should have it this week. On the headache front, evidently I'm not the female Peter Pan because my doctor thinks I've entered... perimenopause. *deep sigh* Many thanks to Janet Szabo for mentioning estrogen dominance on her blog. Apparently when a woman reaches a certain age, the old ovaries cease producing progesterone. Various and sundry maladies (most of which I have) ensue when estrogen is allowed to run wild without the balancing effects of progesterone. Luckily, the cure is as simple as smearing some progesterone-containing cream on twice a day. Again, *deep sigh.* I'm 37 but I'm often told I look a lot younger. Evidently that is irrelevant to my ovaries.

My Christmas Elf name

Christmas Elf Name My Christmas Elf Name is Get your Christmas Elf Name at JokesUnlimited.com

Probably because of an overdose of painkillers, Bouncy Floppy-Feet just strikes me funny. I have had a 3-day migraine. Sick. Of. It. So far this morning, no headache. But I'm moving slowly and avoiding sudden moves so as not to reawaken the ugly beast. I spent all of yesterday laying on my left side (because you always lay on the side that hurts) and watching a Waltons marathon on the DVR. On the upside, DH announced last night that part of my Christmas present will be a large amount of stash enhancement! I love that guy. So now begins the thinking, the planning, the looking online, the perusing pattern books, etc. How best to utilize this windfall? Sweater yarn? Luxurious sock yarn? Enough for 2 vests? I'm overwhelmed with the choices. But in a good way.

Got a little snow and a little yarn

We got our first significant snow last Thursday. The picnic table and swing are looking pretty forlorn under 7-8" of snow. The dogs could not be happier. Zoey frolicked in the snow too, but she's way too delicate to romp with these two. Kiki, Flicki, Graystar and Madison watched from the window. I can't be sure, but I think there was some feline eye-rolling at the doggie antics. DH and I went cross country skiing Saturday and Sunday. There are photos, but they are trapped in the camera phone for want of an appropriate usb cable. Every muscle fiber in my body is now sore. Hopefully we'll keep the snow so we can ski during our Christmas vacations. And since 10 miles of skiing is equal to (or more than equal to) walking 10 miles, DH is a mere 100 miles from his 2500 miles for the year goal! The much-rationalized Gems Opal arrived this morning. It's way yummy and well worth the angst. It's for the Knitting on the Road KAL. I finished Mom's Christmas socks this weekend, so I shall cast on for these tonight. There's been progress (of the unphotographed variety) on the Must Have cardi. Finished the back, started the left front. I considered doing the fronts together, but I'm pretty sure the shaping would have confused me beyond recovery. I love Laura's defense of throwing buttons. So much in fact that I took 2 of them. My mom learned to knit continental in Sweden as an exchange student. So when she watches me knit she wrinkles up her nose and says, "How can you stand to knit like that?" Clearly, I did not learn to knit from my mom. Throwers unite!

I love it when yarn comes in the mail

My Elann Peruvian Highland for the Aran list FLAK KAL arrived today. Yay! Ok, the purple, excuse me, Aubergine, is the FLAK yarn. There are 30, count 'em 30, skeins. That's 3270 yards. DH is quite tall so I wanted to have plenty. And now he thinks a hat that incorporates the same cable patterns would be nice. Bless his heart, he is so excited. This will be the first sweater that I've knit for him and he's already asking when it will be done. He's even interested in watching the "swatching" that will go on this weekend. Just to show you what a fab husband-of-a-knitter he is: when I was telling him about the recent Louet sock yarn rationalization he said, "Well, a girl needs yarn enablers." What a guy. The red alpaca (color Oxblood. Isn't that a little graphic?) is for my Sharfik. It's yummy soft. I've been told I have boring taste in yarn. I guess I do. I like plain old smooth mono-color wool. I just ordered some nubby, bumpy Naturally Colourworks for my mom to finish a scarf. (She bought some locally and then needed more. I am her Internet shopping proxy.) All I could think looking at it was how glad I wasn't going to be knitting with it. I have some Tahki Donegal tweed that was going to be a hat for DH. Eeeewww. Hated it. Beautiful yarn; I just couldn't stand touching it. On a less whiny note, this is my new purse. DH is getting it for me for Christmas. It came from ebay; I paid too much; enough said. But isn't it cool?

Rationalization and the Internet

I'm in bed, in my pjs, laptop on my lap. And i just ordered 2 exquisite skeins of Louet Gems yarn for my Whitby's (in sandalwood). (oh, how I love the internet.) Thanks to Marguerite, Lynda, and Laura for assisting with the rationalization. I can't think of rationalization without thinking about Jeff Goldblum's character in The Big Chill. Jeff Goldblum (Michael): I don't know anyone who could get through the day without two or three juicy rationalizations. They're more important than sex. Tom Berenger (Sam Weber): Ah, come on. Nothing's more important than sex. Jeff Goldblum (Michael): Oh yeah? Ever gone a week without a rationalization? I don't think I've gone a full day with one! (I'm also loving google for saving from having to try to remember exactly how that quote went and then having to type it.) I'm going to measure DH today and get yarn ordered for the FLAK KAL. I'll order plenty to save myself later anguish. I like the color so using leftovers will be easy.

Irish Hiking Scarf done and gifted

I finished the IHS just in time to give it to a fellow library director in our gift exchange. My library is in a consortium with about 16 other libraries in northeast Indiana. We apply for grants together, collaborate on projects, and just generally support each other. Funding for public libraries is always a struggle and this group makes that struggle bit easier. We have a Christmas lunch every year at a wonderful little B&B, beautifully decorated for the season, fabulous food, great company. Of course I have pictures of none of this because I'm not used to thinking of things in terms of how it will be presented on the blog yet. Wouldn't a picture of the scarf worn by the recipient be lovely? Why, yes, it would. But instead we have a garish picture of it clashing with the carpet in my office. A picture of the lovely B&B would be nice. Or the group of talented, smart, capable, creative library directors. **sigh** But with the scarf done, my attention can return to Must-Have. Oh, how I love this pattern. and yarn. I had hoped to have it done by 1/1 to I could turn my undivided attention to the Aran FLAK KAL. As I am only about 15" up the back, I don't think that's gonna happen. I'm doing the FLAK for DH in Peruvian Highland wool from Elann. Without any prompting whatsoever, he picked aubergine, a great shade of purple. Oh, yes, my purple knitting streak continues. I also need to order some yarn for the Knitting on the Road KAL. I love this pattern (Whitby). I'm debating about how much to spend on yarn. I think the Louet Gems that it calls for looks seriously yummy. But as the descendant of a long line of frugal (seriously frugal) Midwestern farmers, can I justify over $20 (+ shipping) for a pair of socks without hurting myself? I may settle for Patons Classic Wool. I realize the price difference would probably be about $10 which in the scheme of things, isn't much. Then I see a flash of my grandparent, parents, various aunts and uncles shaking their frugal heads at my frivolousness. Holy crap! How's that for naval-gazing? Maybe some conversations with myself should remain in my head.

My first meme

Well, since keohinani has tagged the whole world, may I present my first meme. Not as painful as I anticipated. BTW, go vote at the You Know You Knit Too Much contest. Very funny stuff! TEN random things you might not know about me. 1. I'm trying to grow out my bangs. 2. I love selecting nonfiction books for the library. 3. I have a master's in history (20th century diplomatic) 4. I'm almost always cold. 5. I drink too much diet caffiene-free Mt. Dew. 6. I write book and periodical indexes on the side. 7. I've been told I thrive on tedium. 8. I can walk 10 miles without batting an eyelash. 9. I can also spend an entire weekend in my Lazyboy, getting up only to retrieve food and use the bathroom. 10. I have student loan debt up the wazoo. NINE places I’ve visited Well, this is just going to be sad. I don't get around much. 1. Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky (I have made it to all the contiguous states.) 2. Canada 3. Texas 4. New Mexico 5. Arizona 6. Washington, DC 7. Maryland 8. Virginia 9. sailing on Lake Michigan in a tall ship (top 5 coolest things I've ever done) EIGHT ways to win my heart 1: cook for me 2. give me electronic gadgets 3. buy me yarn (duh) 4. ask me if I've recently lost weight 5. show me your library card 6. let me control the remote 7. carry the groceries in 8. clean something so I won't have to SEVEN things I want to do before I die 1: learn to play violin 2. live in Manhattan 3. live in Montana 4. complete the TKGA master knitter program 5. get a law degree or PhD 6. adopt a daughter from China 7. win the lottery, making most of the previous things possible SIX things I’m afraid of 1: dying, my family, my pets, me 2. being unemployed 3. fire, specifically home or library 4. going blind 5. being old and alone and having regrets 6. those people who march around with signs that say "God hates [fill in the blank]." FIVE things I don't like 1: arrogance 2. incompetence 3. humid weather 4. interpersonal conflict 5. dog poop FOUR ways to turn me off 1: be my co-worker and tell me excruciatingly personal details about your life 2. BO of any kind 3. be rude to cashiers, wait staff, salespeople, librarians 4. be a know-it-all THREE Things I do everyday 1: feed the animals 2. read knit blogs 3. clean my glasses TWO things that make me happy 1: long stretches of uninterrupted time to do as I please 2. ice cream ONE thing on my mind right now 1: I need a snack.

Knitting inertia

After a 4-day weekend, I got surprisingly little knitting done. I spent the weekend feeling ambivalent about the Irish Hiking Scarf. I don't love the yarn (Encore) and couldn't decide whether to use it for the library director gift exchange or not. So I worked on the mind-numbing 1x1 ribbing on Mom's socks. Egads. I hate 1x1 ribbing. But I did practice knitting continental which is way faster but not comfortable yet. Last night I decided the IHS would be fine for the gift exchange and I did make some (excruciatingly slow) progress. I'll knit until I run out of time or yarn. My LYS had extended hours, food and a sale over the weekend. I picked up a ball winder which I've been coveting and 4 skeins of Lamb's Pride for mittens and hats. To liven up this boring post, here's a couple of swans that have been on the lake.

Happy Thanksgiving, but

I'd like members of the mainstream media, both local and national, to acknowledge something. The fact that roads and airports are busy in the days immediately before and after Thanksgiving Is. Not. News. This also applies to Christmas. People travel on major holidays. They do it every year. Hence, not news. Please. The world is going to hell in a handbasket so I'm sure you can find something else to fill the first 10 minutes of your 22 minutes broadcast. Now all you knitters have a safe and happy Thanksgiving, full of love and yarn.

Must Have marches on

Whew! Ok, I've calmed down a bit since my last ecstatic post. May I just say that the residents of Cottage46 are profoundly looking forward to having new neighbors. The listing is very moderately priced compared to other lake property in the area, so we have every hope that it will sell by spring. Hallelujah! Oh, yeah... knitting. Progress is progressing on the Must Have Cardigan. I love this pattern. Easy to memorize, just enough pattern to keep things interesting, not so much to be a pain. And a close-up: My, what a sunny day we had Sunday. The yarn is really more purple than pink. Cascade 220: love it, love it, love it. Here's the hat I finished to match DH's mittens. It's Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride. Took me a while to get used to the yarn. Most of what I use is more tightly spun, less fuzzy stuff. But now I want some Lamb's Pride mittens of my very own. Note the cool swirly decrease pattern on the top. I know this is a simple thing, but I'm quite fascinated by it. I forgot to look up the link to the pattern, but if anyone wants it, let me know. And, finally, our last animal, Shane. (If anyone lost count, it's 3 dogs, 4 cats.) Shane will be a year old next month. That "thing" in his mouth used to be a rubber ball. Now it's just a deflated, filthy piece of rubber. But he loves it. We're hoping the little guy mellows out soon because he's just a wee bit nuts. But he makes the cutest little piggy noise when you pet him. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Joy! Joy! Joy!

Guess who I just saw in the idiot neighbor's yard? A realtor! Guess what she was doing? Putting up a FOR SALE sign! Whooo hooooo!!! My heart overflows with happiness. Knitting content and pics later when I come down a little.

Here's Lucy

Still trying to get all the pets introduced. This is Lucy, a yellow lab. She looked more like a lab as a puppy; somewhere along the way her ears stopped growing. Lucy is... well, not smart. She is a very sweet girl though, very eager to please once she finally understands what it is that you want her to do. See, Lucy as a puppy has very proportional ears. Now look at the first photos. Head grew, ears didn't. As you can see, Zoey had some concerns when we introduced Lucy to the household. They're the best of buddies now, mostly because Lucy doesn't mind Zoey's aggressive sniffing. Zoey doesn't like change, but she does like having friends to sniff. One more cat: this is Madison, who is a boy in spite of the name. Madison drools when petted. Eewwwwww. He's the only animal left from when I met DH. He had 2 dogs and I had 2 cats, all of whom have passed away in the past 12 years except Madison. He's old, fat and drooly, but he knew me when. Let's see, is that everyone? No, it's not! There's still another lab that you haven't met. Shane is still a puppy and therefore hard to photograph. I'll try this weekend. I've been working on a little Christmas knitting. The Irish Hiking scarf for a fellow library director. We have a consortium of all the public libraries in a 5-county area and we have lunch at a local bed and breakfast type place every year for Christmas. One of them is going to get a scarf. It's done in Plymouth Encore because I had some left over. I was going to do one for myself, but now I want Grumperina's Sharfik. My other small project is socks for Mom. She picked the yarn at Christmas last year. I may get them done by this Christmas. Dad's heading for Florida, so his sock yarn may just stay in ball form a bit longer. (My dad was very sick last fall and since then he can't stand the cold of northern Indiana winters. Did you know you can die from pancreatitis? He almost did. He was in intensive care for a month. Last fall sucked.) Anyway, here's the socks: They are a toe-up pattern with short row heels, magic loop, 2 at once (to avoid the dreaded 2nd sock sydrome). Gotta get back to work. BTW, if anyone I work with (Kristi, for instance) realizes that this was posted during work hours and, in fact, the knitting photos were taken in my office, please know that I am loading software on TWO computers. And blogging instead of staring at computer screens is really just effective use of time.

My first mittens

These are my very first mittens. Hopefully, I have learned things in knitting them that will make for better mittens in the future. They are in size gigundo because they are for DH. (We're trying to come up with an appropriate blog pseudonym for him, but our general lack of creativity is a hindrance.) The thumbs of the mittens are pointed at the camera so you can't tell how stubby, wonky and weird they are. OK, here's the stubby thumb. Egads! That is just goofy-lookin'. But he loves them and isn't that all that matters? I'm working on a stocking cap in the same yarn. Well, actually I finished the hat since the last photo session. It turned out well, I think. I'll post a pic and a link to the pattern because it's a slick little hat pattern. Since our mild fall is about to turn to crap tomorrow, I wanted to get a picture of these mums before they're done. We have lots of mums, but these are the only ones still blooming for some reason. We were just talking with our neighbors (not the aforementioned idiot neighbor) about how nice fall is at the lake. It is so quiet! Here's some pictures of little Pretty Lake (seriously, that's the name). Please ignore the chainlink fence. It's not pretty, but it keeps the dogs in the yard. Pretty Lake is a small fishing lake, no speedboats or skiing. We have kayaks and the lake is just perfect for kayaking. Here's another of our cats, Graystar. DH found her in the road one morning on the way to go hunting. Some butt-wipe had thrown her out of car evidently. She was really tiny, had a skinned up face, a broken leg and a broken tooth. In spite of her traumatic early life, she is thriving now and is just as sweet as can be. I love this picture! We have a junk room that is kitty cat central. The girls were hanging out one day when I peeked in and saw this. I think I'm gonna make this my wallpaper on my work computer. Makes me chuckle.

Woe is me...

I had an elaborate, picture-filled post planned for today. Where, you say, is it then? Well, the pictures are trapped in my dying flash drive. Since my internet connection at home is an excruciatingly slow dial-up, I upload pics to Flickr from work. *gasp* From work? Yes, from work. But my cheap, ebay purchase flash drive just flickers off and on like some demented red lightning bug and it cannot be recognized by any computer in this library. OK, I didn't try it in EVERY computer but I do have a board meeting to prepare for. Much knitting was accomplished this weekend. In spite of our idiot neighbor. So instead of pictures of major knitting progress and cute cats, you'll get the story of our idiot neighbor. First of all, we live on a small lake. (Oh, there were some very nice lake pics too.) We live there all year round. Most of our immediate neighbors are "summer people." Now we live in a 2-county area with 165 lakes, so lots of people live on lakes year round. Most of them pronounce "summer people" with the same gritted-teeth sneer. Now I must point out, not all summer people are bad. In fact, probably most of them are quite nice, polite human beings. But the stereotype, that happens to fit our idiot neighbor, is of loud, rude, act-like-they-are-entitled, walk-through-your-yard, affected jerks. To wit, in the 3 years our idiot neighbor has lived next door, he has: 1. reached over the fence with pruning sheers and cut one of our maple saplings in half. Yes, this was the very first weekend he moved in. Not an auspicious start. 2. driven through 2 other neighbors yards with a full-size pickup truck and trailer to deposit their kids playhouse in the yard. This was after asking us to call the other (absent) neighbors to seek permission to WALK the playhouse through their yards. So after we vouch for the idiot, he DRIVES through the yards. 3. Private property if for these people evidently unheard of. They have used people's swingsets, piers, and hiked in woods as if the lake were set in a state park. It is not. The number of times they have traipsed through our yard, stomped on our peonies and hung on our tree limbs is uncountable. 4. Puts his lawn furniture in our yard when he mows and has mowed down our mint plants more than once. 5. They are incessantly loud. Sound carries. There are not sound barriers at the previously ignored property lines. Our cottages are about 80 feet back from the lake. They will bellow from deck to pier with entire conversations. She: "Husband, are you about ready for lunch?" He: "What?" She: "Are you ready for lunch?" He: "WHAT?" She: "LUNCH?" He: "Oh, I'll be there in a minute." She: "What?" You get the picture. DH once told him to stop yelling. Idiot replied that since he was in his yard, he could be as loud as he wanted. OK, junior high student, you got us. Well, this weekend the idiot was burning leaves and brush in 20+ mph winds. From where I was standing, there was a tree blocking my view of his leaf and brush pile, but I could see the flames blowing horizontally out from behind the tree. Of course the smoke, ash and EMBERS were not blowing at his house. Oh no, of course not. They were blowing toward other summer homes where no one was home. DH could not let this slide. He arrived home from hunting (in full camo) to let idiot know just how idiotic he is. He assured us that he had everything under control. He had a COFFEE CAN ready to douse the 10-15 foot flames. Well, he must not get told he's an idiot very often because he called the police. They must not have been too concerned because it took them 2 1/2 hours to arrive. They talked to idiot (from the gestures I think they thought burning leaves was a bad idea too) and then they left. This morning we heard on the news of 3 fires started by, you guessed it, burning leaves over the weekend. One of them burned 15 acres of the state park we walk in every weekend. *deep cleansing breath* Well, no knitting content or pictures, but I certainly feel better getting that off my chest. Check out the link the sidebar to the Sexy Knitters Club. Because, after all, aren't we all sexy knitters?

The hunter is hunting...

And I am knitting! Whoo hoo! Not that I wouldn't be knitting anyway, but now I get to watch Sex and the City while I do it. Tis the first day of deer hunting season in Indiana. While DH sits quietly in the woods, I will be making serious progress on the Must Have Cardigan. And maybe Mom's socks (toe up, pics to come); and maybe the Irish Hiking scarf. Oh full day of knitting stretches out before me! Of course, there are dishes that need to be washed, leaves that need to be blown (blowed?), dust bunnies that need to be gathered, etc. But I have the uncanny ability to ignore all of that. As long as there are blogs to read and stitches to knit, does a messy house really matter? I don't think so.

Retroactive knitting

I'm a new blogger, and a slightly less new knitter (little over 2 years). Here's some projects from the period after I progressed past scarves but before the blog. This was my first cable project. I know. What was I thinking!? It's from the Great American Aran Afghan book. My naive thinking was that I would use this book to learn to do cables and eventually have an afghan. Looking at this square now, I think the middle 2 cables look pretty mushy. But I've improved at bit since then. Here's my 2nd square-in-progress: Now those cables are lookin' a little more crispy. The yarn is Plymouth Encore. The Great American Aran squares were all done from the text instructions. I took a class at my LYS, Knitting Today (hi Lea-Ann), to learn how to knit from charts. The squares are from a tote bag pattern from Red Oak Designs. I loved doing the squares, especially the honeycomb, but I don't know if I'll ever stitch them together. Maybe a pillow instead of a totebag. This cute little sweater is the sampler from Knitting Ganseys by Beth Brown Reinsel. Wonderful book. I haven't done a gansey yet, but I no longer fear it. I learned several new techniques doing the sampler and I hope I get a chance to take a class from her someday. She's a great teacher even in print. This is half of Madeleine by Marta. I first saw it on Kris's blog. I love the stitch pattern, but now that I have half of it done, I'm not sure I'll finish. After a certain age, zero or minimal ease in a sweater is not a bonus. It's a summer sweater; now it's fall; I'll just let that one percolate until spring. I have developed a deep and abiding love for KnitPicks Shine though. Finally, here's the beginnings of my Must Have Cardigan in Cascade 220 (which I now love, BTW). The color in the picture is way off. It's more purple. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm going through a purple phase. Shortly after this picture was taken, Must Have was reduced to a pile of yarn puke. I took a picture, but I'm too lazy to download it from the camera, upload it to Flickr, etc. I realized after reading archives from the Must Have knit along blog that I wasn't doing the wrap on the center column of knit stitches. So I unraveled back to the ribbing and I'm actually further along now than in the photo, with properly wrapped stitches. But, again, too lazy for another picture. A gratuitous Zoey picture.

Doggies and Kitties, oh my

Ok, here's an outdoor picture of the vest with a body in it. I'm wearing it to my knitting group today, who have seen it in various states of incompletion over the last year or so. The knitting group meets at the library, conveniently located about 75 feet from my office. It's a pretty large group for a town of 14000 and considering it meets on Tuesday mornings. There's a wide variety of tastes and levels of experience. Now how 'bout those animals? This sweet girl is Zoey. She came into our lives on the coldest day of the winter a few years ago. We spent many an hour shivering in the cold while she ran wildly in the yard. She's a bit more sedate now. Case in point: This is a rare photo of Zoey and Kiki. They're usually a bit more wary of each other. Or I should say Zoey is wary, as in she tries not to make eye contact with Kiki. Kiki was a stray who DH started to feed 2 winters ago. She was really skinny and it was really cold. She had kittens in the spring and then we brought her and one kitten inside. Needless to say, she's a tough kitty. And she doesn't particulary care for anyone but me. Me she loves. This is Flicki, Kiki's daughter. And this is the kitty bed she shredded. This will probably be the only picture you ever see of Flicki. She doesn't do people. In fact, when DH picked her up from the vet after her spaying, he wasn't sure which cat was Flicki because he had seen her so rarely. Believe it or not, these are not all of our animals. More later.

Harsh and acerbic?

You are Shetland Wool. You are a traditional sort who can sometimes be a little on the harsh side. Though you look delicate you are tough as nails and prone to intricacies. Despite your acerbic ways you are widely respected and even revered. What kind of yarn are you? brought to you by Quizilla Ok, yes, I can agree with being the traditional sort. But "a little on the harsh side"? Am I? Hmmm. Anyway, here is the vest from Folk Vests. It's my first large project that turned out well. My first sweater was from Jean Frost's Jackets. Let's just say my finishing skills had not yet developed to an acceptable level. Of course, at this moment, I'm seriously questioning my photography skills. Notice the puppy kennel in the upper right. Lovely. In my defense, it was a rainy, incredibly windy day, so outdoor pics with good light were out of the question. And I really wanted to get some pictures taken because it's really not a knitting blog with knitting pictures, eh? Will do better next time. This was great to knit, the pattern very well-written. There were no huh? moments of trying to decipher the designer's meaning. There are at least 4-5 more patterns in that book that I want to knit.

And here we have a flock of socks. Yes, I love brightly colored, self-patterning socks. But I just purchased 2 Nancy Bush sock books from which I plan to knit exquisite, non-self-striping works of art. Pics to come of the Must Have cardigan, but that will be when I at least get past the ribbing.

The best of intentions

My plan today was to photograph knit projects past and present. Numerous pairs of socks, my first mittens that I just finished, the red vest from Folk Vests (my first large project that can actually be worn in public), my level 1 master knitter swatches, mini-gansey sampler, cabled afghan blocks, etc. Yes, that is what I intended to do. But since I spent 3 1/2 hours blowing leaves this morning, my arms are too shaky to hold the camera. And the sad thing is that in spite of the fact that I burned enough leaves to bury an SUV (no, make that a school bus), you really can't tell from looking at the yard that I did anything. *sigh* But the new leaf blower is very cool and we should have bought one years ago. OK, perhaps a little biographical info: mid-late-30s (depending on where you cut off mid- and late), public library director, knitter for a little over 2 years, 4 cats, 3 dogs, 1 husband. I prefer more traditional knit designs, currently in a cable-intensive phase. I'm planning to cast on for the Must Have Cardigan this weekend. Current small projects include socks for my mom (she picked out the yarn last Christmas; I feel compelled to complete them by this Christmas), and a stocking cap for DH. I also want to get started on a Irish Hiking scarf for myself before winter is upon us. Oh, and I want to actually figure out some of this Blogger stuff so this blog doesn't look quite so... generic.

1st post

Well, well, well... Now I'm a blogger. Ha. I need a way to keep track of my ever-growing list of knitting UFOs, and the knit blogger community is so cool. But will I actually update a blog? We'll see.