Annie Knits

Sweaters That Are and Sweaters That Are Yet to Come... And a Scarf

Here is Remsen, finished and seamed and worn a few times.  I kind of love it and would have modeled it today if I hadn't just ridden to the local farmer's market and back.  I have bike-helmet-head. 

It's flattering and fun to wear.  The weight loss I've accomplished has made a difference in the fit, I'm sorry to say, but not a terrible one.  I'll still wear it.  

We finally got the yarn and the pattern in at the shop and it's generated some interest.  I practice full disclosure:  the pattern is good, the yarn is fiddly to knit with, the end result is worth it.  Oh, and I'll help you put the darned thing together if you so desire.

Next on the needles has been a 4 year old-sized sweater using the numbers from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns.  I'm using five colors of odd ball sock solids that I had kicking around -- someone didn't want them for her sock blanket.

Here is the body of the sweater, up to the arm pits.  I've also got half a sleeve done.  The stripe sequence is counted using the Fibonacci Series of numbers (that's a Wikipedia link if you're not sure what the Fibonacci Series of numbers is.)  I saw a Fibonacci sweater years ago and I've always wanted to to one.  It appeals to the geeky find-hidden-meanings deconstructionist in me.  I do think that the spacing and sequence are appealing.

I also think that the sweater at this stage resembles the 4 year old for which it's intended, probably most 4 year olds actually.  

Darling but a lot of ends to weave in.

We took Dear Daughter to college last weekend and, so far, she's having a great time.  She's playing her trumpet in the pep band today during the school's first football game.  She told me that she's going to fake interest in the game if she has to.  Atta girl!  I got most of the knitting on this Hitchhiker scarf  (Ravelry link) done during the car ride to and from dropping her off.  It's Dyeabolical Bling sock yarn in the We're All Mad Here colorway.  It's really striking, I have to say.  Just as eye-searing and fun in person.  It's too bad that the bling doesn't show up in photography.

Next up?  This yarn jumped to the front of the queue somehow this week... in front the other yarn and pattern book I actually bought several weeks ago with an eye to holiday knitting.  Dangit.  

It's enough of Rachel's Carnivale colorway to do another sock yarn sweater.  I will decide which one soon.  Because I'm jonesing to knit with this stuff, you know?  

Another Week in Pictures

We spent last weekend at Dear Daughter's college orientation weekend.  Benedictine College is a lovely place in Atchison, Kansas on the bluffs overlooking the Missouri River (the hills and Crutchie are not a good mix... more on that later).  She stayed in the dormitory while Hubster, Dear Son and I went off to explore St. Joseph.  Before we left her to her devices, we got to sit in on a sample lecture -- it was the medieval-literature guy's Holy Grail lecture -- and, boo hoo, I want to go back to college and study medieval literature!  

There was a bar-b-que and a dance and a movie in the quad.  Her class of 400 and some is the largest freshman class in their history.  The teachers and administrators we met were excellent and enthusiastic.  The key?  The president said it best in a presentation to the parents the first morning.  Benedictine has chosen to be a Catholic, liberal arts, residential college.  They focus on those so-called pillars without shame or compunction.  And while I didn't think I cared particularly about the religious nature of the place, to have them focus on it rather than take a kind of wishy washy only if you search it out approach like the other places we visited makes this place feel purposeful and right-minded.  And the liberal arts focus means that they focus on giving kids that kind of approach to life -- you learn about something and then make a decision about it.  And you're not ashamed of knowing the history of an idea and how it's viewed by others.  I like it.

The Sunday morning after we got back, this guy came for the morning while his parent's provided music for the 7:30 a.m. mass.  

We made and ate pancakes, chatted about other foods that are sticky, played the vuvuzela, played with cars, played with Transformers, played the guitar, moved all the dry dog food into the water bowl (ok, that was a lack of supervision on my part and it happens with Leo too...), ate ice cream (ok, not ice cream but frozen bananas and frozen strawberries whizzed up in my Vitamix blender which I love in an unreasonable fashion -- it's fun to get away with something once in awhile other than moving all the dog food into the water bowl of course), took pictures, read the beach book, woke up Dear Son, and played fetch with Monte.  

It was a busy morning.  There is a reason Mother Nature makes it hard for nearly-49-year-olds to acquire 2-year-olds on a full-time basis.  

What with driving all over the Midwest and all, I got a lot of stitching done on my Celery Cardigan.  I love the colors (pretty true in this picture except that you can't see the sparkly bits in the yarn) and there is not too much overt pooling.  And it fits beautifully through the arms and down the back.

I'm going to have to rip back the collar, though, I think.  It's a little lettuce leafy and it isn't supposed to be.  I'll take out a few of the corner increases and re-knit the plackets.  It's more knitting than you think, though.  Those fronts are widened by short rows and each row consists of the stitches all the way up the front, around the neck, and back down the other side.  It's ok, though... what else do I have to do right?  Lot's of time on my keester this summer.

When I'm thru working on Celery, I'll finally be able to finish this puppy.  And it's all about the kindness of strangers here. 

When I lengthened the body earlier this spring, did I think about the fact that I'd run out of yarn for the sleeves in so doing?  Run out of a long-discontinued yarn?  No, I did not.  When it happened, I kicked myself all over the place until I thought to look through people's Ravelry stashes.  Lo and behold, lots of folks have this yarn.  Most of them have only a skein though, and I needed two.  

I found someone who looked like she had two and emailed her asking if she'd like to trade for it.  She'd knit with it already but was willing to rip out what she'd knitted because it was a UFO that she wasn't pleased with and send me the yarn.  And she did!  I sent her some sock yarn in trade.  Gives you a little tear in your eye, doesn't it?  Ah, me.  The kindness of strangers.

Then, of course, I have to make a going-away-to-college afghan.  I have no idea which one yet.  Something with wavy stripes and fringe.  I'll decide this week.

And, there's another baby due in the family later this month -- half-sister's having a girl.  I'll make Cascade I think (Ravelry link).  It's a cardigan with leaves for the button band.  So cute.  

Looks like a lot of knitting, doesn't it?  I'll have time.  My hip-replacement surgery is scheduled for the 5th of July.  Put me in your good thoughts, won't you?  Then, there's the on-your-butt recovery time.  Plenty of time for knitting. 

I Feel Affirmed and Empowered.

This morning's Wall Street Journal article, "The Guilty Secret to Giving the Best Gifts" is an interesting one.  

In it, the author ponders this question: What makes a good gift?  An idea I've often pondered myself. 

Sometimes I give things I like in hopes that the recipient will enjoy them as well.   This works if the recipient is crafty or a foodie or a reader.   Sometimes I give hand-made items -- a gift of myself, so to speak.  This works if the recipient likes hand knits... For our family gift exchange, I have been given a list of very specific items that the recipient would like -- something I don't find particularly satisfying but the giftee always gets exactly what he or she wants this way.  

The author of the article quotes several behavioral economics journal articles (I didn't know there was such a thing) which examine a guilt-centric approach to successful gift-giving.  In a nutshell, the articles discuss the idea that alleviating the guilt of the receiver -- guilt at self indulgence most often -- is the secret of a good gift.  Get 'em something they wouldn't buy themselves.  

He says this can be something extravagant, but more successfully the gift wouldn't be overly expensive, just something the person would decide not to buy him or herself.  Like a funky jacket when the giftee already has several perfectly good coats. Or a decorative item with a specific theme.  Or a particularly useful item, the use for which might be accomplished with something less ... well, specific.  

The author also says that disconnecting the consumption of an item with paying for it is another aspect of a good gift.  You know, the joy of eating expensive chocolate that's been a gift -- gosh this is so good and I really don't have to think about the fact that it costs $6 for four caramels.  Same goes for expensive coffee -- which you know I love.  That's the beauty of a Starbucks gift card, of course.  My $4.65 Venti-peppermint-mocha-non-fat-no-whip tastes a lot better when that window guy can slide a card rather take a $5 bill and give me back pennies and a quarter...

This article speaks to me for this reason:  I sent this link to my husband and this link to my in-laws when they asked what I wanted for Christmas.  

Right on!

A Few Monday Things

So, there are a few things I need to talk to someone about.  You are nominated.

1.  I took dear son to the book store to acquire the new Riordan (The Lightning Thief series author) book last night -- I can't resist it when my kids ask for books.  When he got home with his book and opened it up, out dropped a hall pass from a local high school.  The only way I can imagine that it got in there is if someone bought the book, read it (at school) and returned it to the store.  For shame.  

That just puts my intellectual property panties in a bunch, you know?  You want a new book badly enough to read it?  Then own it.  Pay for it or wait for a copy to come available at the library.  Now, Dear Son's got a second hand book for which we paid full price -- tho I have to admit, whoever bogarted this book did keep it in pristine condition.  Still...

2.  There is a local hullabaloo brewing concerning Dear Daughter's high school.  The Sisters of the Most Precious Blood of O'Fallon MO founded her school 127 some odd years ago in this neighborhood and have run a school for girls there ever since.  Now, with out any novices for several years with a median age in the 70's, their numbers are dwindling.  They are looking for a viable way to keep the school and their commitment to our city alive while their order fades into the past.  And I'm thankful for that.  

They are running a capital campaign the first phase of which provides an endowment for future scholarships for girls in need and renovation for the current main building, built in 1957.  That phase is for like 7 million dollars, of which we've raised like 1.5 million.   The second phase calls for razing a 127 year old building and replacing it with a more useful facility.  These gals have used their best practice and decided that this is a course they'd like to pursue in the future.  Neighborhood nay-sayers have come out against the project, specifically the plan to raze this 127 year old building.  In a nutshell, I say that no building is worth losing the education of even one girl.  

I'm angry at their attempts to stick a spoke in this effort to keep this school here in our neighborhood.  The naysayers, to my knowledge, don't have and have never had children attend this school.  And they'd be the first in line to bitch and moan if the property were to become blighted in the end because the sisters ran out of money to run the school at all...

3.  Finally, the Wall Street Journal today ran an article about Walmart and Target and their toy pricing for the holidays.  Apparently, Target had been able to undercut Walmart's prices on some toys, so Walmart has reduced prices to just beneath Target's to induce Holiday shoppers to come to Walmart for these deals, and perhaps shop for other things as well.  

All I have to say is that $1.44 on a Recording Studio Barbie is not nearly enough savings to induce me to change from Target to Walmart. Not even in the ball park.  I have a Walmart prejudice.  So sue me.  

Two FO's today.  No pictures because it gets dark just after lunchtime now and the light was terrible.  One is a cowl which I cast on for on Wednesday.  One was a scarf I started a year ago and it just needed ends woven in.  I'm putting both in my win column, no matter the knitting time frame.

How Do You Get a Hankie to Dance?

Oh, you know the answer to that one...

Plus, I'm talking about silk hankies, not the other kind.  For the uninitiated, silk hankies are square shaped pure silk that you spin -- dyed or undyed.  These came yesterday, Wooliebullie on etsy is my source.  They are the exact colors outside my window, so they must be spun.

I watched a YouTube video of a guy making these.  He takes a silk worm cocoon, soaks it, and ploomps the worm out like an olive pit -- gross.  Then he takes the cocoon and stretches it out over a square frame, just 4 nails really, and after 10 or so, voila.  A silk hankie.  

See the layers?  You tease each hankie from the stack ... 

and you end up with a diaphanous square of very sticky silk.  Well, not sticky precisely, but with dry hands?Each filament grabs you and the things are devilish hard to put down!

Next, you poke a hole in the center of the hankie, and pull the thing into an oval.  Keep pulling.  Pull some more.

After some more pulling and then some drafting, you end up with this.  A long oval of drafted silk.  This drafted piece will spin up to be about the size of crochet thread.  Very thin.  Silk compacts as you spin it.

What will I do with it?  Heck, I don't know.  It would be nice plyed with some soft wool or just alone knit into something lacy.  

This is process spinning, not intentional spinning...

Oh, ok.  You put a little boogie in it.

Forget the Last Post, Will You?

That merino/firestar is still sitting exactly where I photographed it.  I can't face deciding what it should be.

See?  It's on the new table right between the new chairs for Hubster's man cave that arrived last week.  He's happy.

As an aside, if you want nice chairs and custom upholstery, I recommend Bassett Furniture.  It's where I got my living room furniture too.  Wears well, made well, tons of choices, comfortable, reasonable prices.  On the other hand, if you want good customer service and intelligent sales people, avoid Bassett Furniture.  That tube behind the chairs is fabric that the sales person swore I needed for arm covers because none of their furniture ever comes with them.  All of my furniture has come with them.  Whatever.  I argued with her for awhile and then got the fabric.  I wanted arm covers and I figured that between my crafty friends I could find someone who could fashion them.  See the arm covers?  The ones that came with the chairs?  Now I'm going to have to fight with Bassett to take back the superfluous fabric.  You would think that if you sold the chairs, you would make it your business to know what comes with them.  Well, I would make it my business, anyway.

Last time, my order and my service were so crazy I got a 10 percent discount/refund on the whole thing from their central office... I was satisfied with that and the comfort and quality had me back through their doors, but you gotta be smart and detail oriented to shop there... Just sayin'.  Would I go back?  Absolutely.  Just with a notebook and well caffeinated.  

These singles, Heirloom colorway, Hello Yarn, knew exactly what they wanted to be.  Looks like an heirloom tomato colored amoeba right now, but it will be a lovely Citron shawl some time soon... I'm on the 544 stitch ruching row right now and I want to throw it across the room, but soon...  Actually?  it looks wonky to me because the singles, at least early on, were so active that they slant this way and that.  Blocked up, they might calm down.  Also, the roving looked randomly colored as it came out of the bag, but as you can see, there was a pattern dyed in.  Adrian's genius or serendipity.  Genius I think.  

Distraction time.  Here is what the sun is doing to a tree outside my kitchen window right now.

Gorgeous.  So I ran outside in my jammies (what the heck, I've already driven kids to school in them) and flip flops and took this picture.

Rachel... seriously.  These colors.  Yarn or roving, I don't care which, but like 2 pounds of it please...  (yes, ok, when you're finished with the roving I have you working on today... I can be patient and as flexible as the next guy).

And then I talked to three neighbors who walked by with their dogs.  And then I took this picture.

I love my skeleton flamingos and the mums I found this year are killer.  

What was I talking about?

Shameless Promotion.

And it's not even self promotion!  

We all deal with internet sellers.  And we all wonder, as we finalize those PayPal payments, if we will have satisfactory retail experiences.  And we've all had less than satisfactory retail experiences...

No dissatisfaction chez Annie this weekend.  It's five star all the way, baby!

First.  Remove your hats and hold them over your hearts while we have a moment of silence.

 

My beloved Moo Card holder is dead.  It spent 4 long years rattling around in the bottom of various purses and it's finally given up the ghost.  

As it uttered its death rattles last week, I went in search of a new one.  Actually, I wanted the same one or one like it.  I knew I'd bought it on Etsy and when I did a search for Moo Card holders, up popped my holder.  Splatgirl Creates is still making them, along with other cute stuff.  I ordered a new card holder on Wednesday night.  It came in the mail today, Saturday.

 

Now my happy cards have a new home.  

 

Yay me!

Also on Wednesday night, I decided to bite the bullet and order a drum carder, rather than carding my stuff on my friends' carders all the time.  I contacted Ron at Fancy Kitty and hit the PayPal button at like 10 on Wednesday night. 

Dogone if that thing didn't arrive at my doorstep at 7 p.m. on Friday night!  I kid you not.  I am thrilled and flabergasted at the same time.  Excellent customer service.  Of course Rachel and Kim both said I'd get it that quick, but I couldn't believe it. 

Pictures later.  I haven't had time to card anything yet and I don't have all the accoutrements (hand carder for cleaning, bamboo mat for unrolling) yet.  I don't know if I can wait, though...

So.  If you need a Moo Card holder (you know you do...) or a drum carder (not exactly an impulse purchase, actually -- but something to think about) I've got you covered.

I Knew There Was a Reason!

Regular readers know that I've keep at this pink baby sweater.  Even though there was no girl baby in my future, so everyone in the know said.  It's a boy in there, they said.  Yet, I kept at this crazy pink thing.  Oh, sure, I finished two other baby sweaters, neither being particularly gender specific,  but this pink one kept tugging at my knitting attention.  

Now it's nearly complete -- perhaps 2 hours of work will finish it -- and guess what happens?!

 

(I love the yoke of this sweater.)

 

New Niece was born Sunday noonish.  You can't see it in this picture, but she's got a shock of red hair and her pictures today look just like her mother.  This one?  Not so much.  

Petal pink is lovely on red heads, don't you think?

P.S. -- Saturday, Hubster drove me up to visit the Bethel World Sheep and Wool Festival.  There were acquisitions.  Perhaps I bought a couple of pounds of creamy white soft (I know!!) Shetland wool.  Oh and maybe a couple of pounds of Blue Faced Leicester that's creamy gray and soft.  Oh and it's likely that I purchased a pound of llama/silk blend -- the llamas' names are on it.  

 

Um. Yeah.  That wool and alpaca fills up a couch.  Sheesh.
 
 

 

And Pigs are Flying...

Husband handed me an editorial piece from the Wall Street Journal this morning.  He said he was sure it would fire my propensity to rant, but he was also sure it was something in which I'd be interested.  As he's on his way out the door to teach Dear Daughter to start the car and drive it in a parking lot, I'd say it's his weekend for living dangerously.

 I've linked the piece here.

The article is an interview with Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach for America.  Dear Daughter had a TFA teacher for first grade -- this lovely young woman chose to relocate here and still teaches in our parish school.  We had a wonderful experience with her.  I also sing in the choir with a TFA teacher who works in one of our local middle schools.  Top flight.

The article states that this fall, TFA will send 4500 of the "best college graduates" in the country into urban and rural school districts -- 100 of the worst performing of those says the article.  And that is a group culled from 46,000 applicants including 12% of all ivy league graduates.  

Pick your jaw up off the floor and wipe that soda off of your keyboard.  Apparently TFA is quite the feather in a graduate's cap.  

For those who don't know, TFA folks go thru a summer of extensive training and serve a two year stint.  Superintendents hire them like regular teachers once the school district qualifies.  

But does it do any good, you ask?  Apparently so.  A 2008 survey found that high school students in TFA classes 'significantly' outperformed their peers in the classes of more experienced and more conventionally trained (I might add) teachers on state-required-end-of-course exams (don't get me started on those!)

Hmm.  And the teacher's salaries are funded in part by this not for profit organization?  And the TFA teachers receive ongoing support and training (more than one can say for traditional teaching programs)? 

So why does the City of St. Louis have a shortage of teachers at the beginning of each year?  There are 46,000 folks out there who would purportedly like to teach in our urban district or one like it.  

According to the article, one reason is funding, although this has been steadily increasing through the private sector as the program is very successful.  The other?  Wait for it.  I bet I could still find my membership card in my teaching stuff... teacher unions.

I am a 13 year veteran of the classroom and was a member of the union all the way through those years.  I was educated in the traditional fashion -- I have a BS in Secondary Education with an emphasis in English, Speech, and Journalism.  I have all but 3 hours of an MAT in English (my pregnancy with Dear Son was a difficult one.)  I know the insider story.  Even so, I can't imagine not trying every avenue, especially one that's working, to improve our city schools.  To preserve the tenure and jobs of ineffective teachers at this point at the expense of students is unconscionable.   

TFA is not a silver bullet, but it is a beginning.  And it proves, to me at least, that the traditional way of doing things has become so unwieldy that it no longer works.  These fresh faced, enthusiastic, energetic volunteers are what our sagging educational system needs.  Well at least some of what it needs.  God almighty, take 'em up on it fer Pete's sake!

Ahem.

 

Tour de Fleece -- four ounces or thereabouts of Corriedale.  Four bats.  Kim told me I could fit four of the things on a bobbin and she was perfectly correct.  Now, mind you, I don't watch the race -- I listen to Georgette Heyer, but it's all in the honor of, you know.

 
 

A clay pot we purchased last night at the Cahokia Mounds Contemporary Indian Art Show.  It's a Victoria McKinney clay pot called Snake Knots.  The design is based on carvings found on shell fragments found in a mound in Oklahoma.  It's killer.

I need a nap.

Swapity Swap Swap!

Here is the booty from the Mardi Gras Swap I joined -- hosted by of course, the Mistress of Mardi Gras.

 

Tracie from New Orleans sent me a felted beret/cloche with this guy on the front

 

 and these awesome boozy stitch markers.

 

Don't forget beads and coins!  I'm set.  Thanks Tracie and thanks Deborah for organizing...

I sent Tracie's package off today, you'll have to wait to see what I made her.  Until the pair I'm making for myself with the leftover yarn is finished.  And until she receives hers and posts it in our Ravelry group.

The package was a welcome distraction as I've been laid up as of late.  A hip thing.  Deep tissue injury, not bone thank God, or as the singularly most unpleasant health care provider I've had in recent years told me, "I just don't know what this is."  Thanks guy.  He thinks it may be something to do with some large band of ligament and muscle that stretches from butt to knee, but without a direct cause and examination directly after the injury, who knows.  Heck, I don't even know what the injury was.  I'm assuming it was a dog walking incident in November.  Yes, November.  I ignored it, ok?  And played through the pain during the holidays.  Bad idea.  Remember that kids, listen to your body when it tells you that walking is turning into torture.  It's trying to tell you something.

I'm taking meds and the inflammation should abate soon.  So I can walk again.  Right now I'm supposed to limit myself to about an hour a day on my feet.  Not so easy.  Try it.  

On the bright side?  Tons of knitting time.  And streaming Netflix is a blessing.  I'm back to working on the gray sweater.  Oh how I missed her.  I predict that sleeves will be done this weekend.