Annie Knits

Mine Were Nancy Drew

It's Spring Break chez Annie, and we didn't go to some warmer clime or some snow-covered mountain.  We pretty much kicked it around the house with friends.  We went to the Zoo on what turned out to be the one nice-outside day of the week.  I had to work for a few hours two of the days.  Each kid had a little bit of homework, but not much.  Really?  Just relaxing.  Both kids seemed to need a little recharging after a hard, dark winter.  So I let them.  Recharge that is. 

Daughter is fixated on the Jonas Brothers.  For the uninitiated, they are one of the current Disney stable boy bands.  She collects magazine pictures of them and tapes them to various surfaces in her bedroom.  She visited various bookstores and magazine outlets this week and added some to her collection.  She also did some housework to earn more money to buy magazines.  We call her Cinderella. 

But it's Dear Son who had a magical week.  I bet you'll remember your first too. 

See, he's smitten. 

With a series of books that is.   The books are the Alex Rider series by Brit Anthony Horowitz.  They are about a 14 year-old kid who's parents have (of course) been killed and somehow he's ended up an unlikely and relatively uncooperative but super capable way smarter than the adults around him  spy for MI6.  One of our cousins sent Son the books for Christmas and he finally had the time to really attack them this week.  He read the first two over the course of a few months as he was pretty busy with school and basketball.  But I believe he's read 4 of them this week.  And is into book 7 -- the current last of the series -- as of last night.  Yesterday?  A kind of cold and dreary day here?  He read an entire 200 and some odd page book. 

I don't know about you, but that makes me very nostalgic.  I remember working my way through all of the Little House books.  And when I found out that a neighbor had all of the Nancy Drew books and that I could borrow any of them?  I read 'em all one summer.  I remember the sheer joy of practically skimming the books, just to see what would happen, knowing I had several more piled up and waiting.  And the bitter sweet almost regret at picking up the last book and savoring it.  Don't you?  I also read all of the Stallion books by Walter Farley, and some series by Victoria Holt but I can't remember it or find it online.  I know there are more, but I can't think of them.   

What were your love series?  Maybe yours will jog my memory? 

Did You Ever Just Want To...

• Kick your children right out into the cold?  Because they know that, every school day of their lives, they get up at 6:30 a.m. and we all leave for school at 7:15 a.m.  This time frame does not waver.  It does not change.  It is the same every day.  So why do then, dear readers, do children act perplexed and personally affronted when you start to bellow around 7:20 a.m.?  Why do they whine, "I thought you were waiting for me!"  or  "I didn't know we were ready to leave!" or "Could you just wait a minute, Mom?  I'm busy!"  or "Did someone pack me a lunch?"  Yes, right out to the street, I say.  Right out to the curb.  Growl.
• Spin.  'Cause it's all I ever want to do.  Witness.  (Ignore the time stamps on these pictures -- we inserted a new battery and voila!  Wrong times on everything and no way to fix it.  No way that we want to take the time to learn that is...)This is Adrian's soy silk and wool blend.  You saw it in a bag last time I posted.  I've got about 270 yards of this soft and yummy stuff.  I'm thinking a neck warmer.    Here are singles of my Christmas yak and merino blend and of Rachel's Dance Mistress BFL.  I'm having a blast exploring how different fibers and blends spin up.  Now.  Would someone please post all of this to the NaSpMoMo group on Ravelry.  'Cause I'm definitely spinning my fingers off this month, and loving it.  But I really have not been making time to post new stuff to Ravelry.  The Flicker learning curve is kicking my hiney.
• Knit like the wind!  We are having a knitalong at the shop for the Kauni Cardigan.  Sandy has ordered tons of the Effektgarn (and sold out of tons too) and round about 20 of us are knitting versions of this stranded cardigan.  We're meeting Friday nights to work out the kinks.  See mine hanging in the shop?   It's alongside of Fiona's Icarus.  Gorgeous.  (Rachel took this picture and posted it.  Rachel is a way better blogger than I am.)  Here is my Kauni Cardigan Version 2.0:  Modifications?  Well, colorways for starters.  I'm using colors EV and EM instead of the rainbow.  Um, who needs two of those?  That's not to say that you do not need one.  Also, I've taken 4 stitch tall peeries from the Traditional Fair Isle  Knitting book by Sheila McGregor and I'm dropping them in instead of using the square pattern throughout.  I'm thinking kind of controlled random here -- she's got two entire pages of these little guys and I'll just pick and choose according to my mood.  Maybe, gasp, the sleeves won't even match.  Who knows.  What I kept were the 6 rows of straight knitting between each pattern.  Whew.  I was worried that the colors would read Christmas but they don't so far.  Even if they do... I like Christmas.  Also, I did two inches of 2x2 corrugated ribbing, rather than 1.5 inches of 1x1.  Me likey.
• Knit some more!    I made quite a bit of progress on this twirley scarf out of my handspun while getting 3RD PLACE!! at a trivia night on Saturday.  This is our team's personal best, and we could've won if Bridgett's little one hadn't had a fever.  We tanked on the Pope round and she would have known them all.  Darn kid fevers!  (M is fine now -- I'm not that cold hearted.  She danced down the aisle for kid's liturgy on Sunday... cutest thing ever.  Really.)  I bet Lucia would have been good too.  Darn her living in Connecticut  Massachusetts!
• Move into a hotel where you have a chance at clean and peace and quiet?     This is the current state of my living/dining room.  Yesterday, Mark and the guys (as I am fond of calling them) used a saw and a jack hammer to dig out that channel you see running across the room.  Hmm.  "Dig" is a pleasant sounding word which implies gardening and bucolic, satisfying scraping sounds.  "Dig" is the wrong word for what happened inside my house yesterday.  "Pummel" is wrong too.  "Blast" is a little too quick for yesterday's 3 hour marathon metallic banging, stone-smashing, saw-blade screeching, foundation shaking event.  It was at the very least unpleasant.  The dogs are full of dust as this is an area that is hard to block off as it has the bedrooms and the bathrooms in it.  End date?  March 31st.  But it will be lovely.  Patience.
• Believe in the supernatural.  'Cause here is the picture I took not two seconds before the one above:  Haven't you seen all those Discovery Channel and Sci Fi Channel shows where they prove places are haunted using pictures with orbs just like these?!

Ho Hum

That is what you say on your blog when you're too busy to have any interesting thoughts about which to blog.

Ah me.  The house is cleanish.  The Halloween decorations are on the steps ready to go up and replace the Christmas stuff in the closet.  Laundry's mostly put away.  Dinner's in the crock pot.  Hum drum, I tell you. 

I can't find my camera charging cord, so no pictures.  The Hemlock Ring blanket is nearly 600 stitches around and 6 rows from what I am going to call  finished.  Turns out it's recipient has been checking the blog to see how I'm doing, so I shouldn't post pics of it anyway.  Maybe on Ravelry.  I'll link you to it when I get around to it. 

What's in the crockpot, you ask?  The standard pulled pork.  3 pork tenderloins, 1 bottle of Newman's Own Balsamic Dressing.  10 hours on low.   Yum.

I think I'll throw out some controversial statements, in no particular order, and see if I can get you to bite.  Howzat?

• Moon Sand, while a wonderful time filler for sick kids, ought to be put on some recall list.  It's just too messy.  Or it should come with a warning. 
• I hate mice.   In general and specifically the one that has found a place to live under my corner kitchen counter.  I think I will hate even more though a dead mouse on a trap.  Which by the way is a very effective dog catcher -- the sticky thing has caught Monte twice.  He is not the sharpest crayon in the box.  Cutest, but not sharpest. 
• Dressing up like the Jamaican Bobsledders or Tiger Woods or even Al Sharpton for Halloween is not "donning blackface" as my local paper called it no fewer than 9 times in a recent article.  Painting your face black with a white O for lips and singing like a black minstrel is "donning blackface".  The first bit is inflammatory and misleading and simply historically incorrect -- using the term under those circumstances smudges it's sharply and deeply offensive nature.  Which I think might be just the exact opposite effect from the one the esteemed editorial department was expecting.
• Helping people learn to knit is super rewarding.  It's my absolute favorite thing to do.  Except that I do it so much that I've been missing the Wednesday Night Knittsters at Knitorious pretty consistently.  Which is a bummer.  I miss my peeps. 
• Meeting random people who then tell me that they read my blog is disconcerting.  Which is counterintuitive.  I publish this thing so that people will read it right?  Then why do I get a pit in my stomach when unexpected people do?  It actually has had a dampening effect on my writing.  No, silly, not soggy writing, less writing.  And no, I'm not talking about you.
• Spinning is a fascinating, compulsive, time sucking black hole of a hobby.  I've got about 800 yards of fall colored 2-ply yarn and about a 3rd of the roving yet to spin.  What do you think, Deborah, can I get a ribwarmer out of that?  (You should see Deborah's Ribwarmer... simply smashing.)  And some singles of Dyeabolical superwash. Rachel will know the colorway.  To ply or not to ply.
• I'm raw feeding my dogs -- at least partially.  And Big Dog's allergies are disappearing.  Even with no hard freezes yet.  But raw feeding is yucky.  You need one of these and lots of soapy water to mop the floor around the food bowls after each meal.  At least I no longer have a toddler around the house. 
• A funny thing to do is to take the Thanksgiving turkey carcasses and make a stock out of them (I feel so virtuous -- I always say I'm going to do this and never quite get around to it) and store some of it in what is usually the lemonade pitcher.  I didn't quite have the heart to let Dear Son actually pour a glass and take a swig of it, but nearly.   'Cause that would have been hilarious.  I have a dark side.
• I got a sinking feeling in my stomach when the Irish Composer said, during a recent practice, "Next year, when you do this, blah blah blah..."  Next year?  God, don't talk to me again about Irish Gaelic anything until July, 'k?  I didn't even hear what she said after "next year".   Love, love, love this challenging thing I'm doing, but I'm bonkers tired of it right now.  I wake up with "Taw esagawn ina lee, es kuhloo sa wanshayre twee" running around in my head.  Oh, pipe down, that's the phonetic pronunciation.  I don't even have the keys on my keyboard to write what it really looks like...
• 5th grade math is way over my head.  Or at least it's way too fiddly for me -- and I really don't have the patience for it between 4 and 6 in the evening.  All those factors and long division.  Yeeeuuuccckkk!

Well.  That's enough of that.  The paper should be here by now and I'm off to get jerked around by their editorial staff once again.  It'll be fun.  Promise.

So, It's Unanimous Then?

Rabelry is great -- for the yarn and pattern and knitting tools.  The forums?  Not so much.  At least not right now.  Thanks, peeps.  Love you!

And enough of the crabby stuff.  What follows is a list of a few of the things that currently make me happy.  In no particular order.

Karamichelle, fellow Knitorious Knit Night Knitster, made me this bag.  I heart it.  Actually, I shamelessly begged her to make me one out of this fabric and she graciously and for her own safety obliged.  I'm nagging her to make me an Ann Butler bag.  (hey... I'll buy the fabric and pattern!) Wish me luck.

It's about 10" by 10.5" -- perfect for carrying around the Monkey Socks in progress.

My Louet S90.  This is the wheel I bought slightly used after I finished my spinning class.  I didn't get any documentation on the thing and I think it folds up and I totally do not care.  I love it and I'm spinning the finest singles on it I've ever been able to spin (in my long and illustrous 4 week spinning career **grin**).

They are kind of out of focus here, but yum.  Recognize the Rhinebeck Roving?  Oh yeah.  And this wheel came with a swift attached -- see it folded down on the back?  I will be able to measure the yardage of my spinning with this -- as opposed to an umbrella swift which constantly changes circumference. 

One bobbin mostly full, one to fill, one to ply, and one for Dear Daughter...

 

How about a wheel naming contest?  There'll be sock yarn in it for the name I like best... Leave your suggestion in the comments.

And here is the Rebuilding Greensburg Afghan I volunteered to piece.  Sandy and Rachel at the shop helped me crochet the squares together, and now I just have to run a crochet border around the outside to even it up.  It is ... interesting.  Actually it is very soft and it is the mish mash one would expect from an afghan pieced together from squares knitted by knitters from all the world, apparently.  There is a lot of love in these afghans.  I'll send it back to Laura tomorrow.

And I did find the coolest Halloween decorations ever.  No, Mindy, sorry.  I'm not sharing!

Aren't they silly?  We had our annual Halloween party this weekend.  Here is a picture of the cast of characters.

We have, from left to right:  Bast (Cat Goddess from Egypt?), a Strawberry (see the straws?), a fairy princess, Mother Nature, a witch, a ballerina-princess-butterfly-pirate, a sleepy person, a hoodlum, and two hoodlums with masks.

And right in the middle of the party, I had to leave to pick up Dear Daughter's date for her school's Fall Ball.  Second verse, same as the first.  Only with a pink sweater as the weather has cooled down some.

Yes, this time I was in on the whole thing.  On the way to the restaurant (South City Diner for you St. Louisans)  from his house, Date Boy regaled us with the stories of the deaths of each of the dictators of the Axis powers during World War II.   Daughter told him it was all so interesting.  I maintained a straight face and kept quiet.  They ate at the Diner, I picked them up and took them to the dance, they danced, and I took them home.  He leaned over, patted her on the shoulder, and told her it was nice to see her again and went inside.  And that was that.  I'm getting killed with cuteness over here.  Just killed.   Now, she's grounded because of a lack of truthfullness about having turned in back assignments in word-processing class, but it was sure fun while it lasted.

And finally, lucky for me!  Dear son Trick-or-Treated twice this weekend (if you hate it when people verb nouns, then ... well ... sorry).  Today he is a school.

His bag full of candy is home with me.  I will watch it very carefully...

Good Morning, All!

If you're here because you followed a link via the kerfuffle over at the St. Louis Forum in Ravelry, welcome!  Get a cup of coffee and stay awhile.  I said what I meant over there.  We forget, I think, when we are online and alone in our jammies, that we are discussing real people who get up in the morning and want to run a top notch business.  I've been guilty of just that amnesia several times and I've been called on it too.  Really, people, civility please.  Yes you have the right to talk about a bad experience, but with that right comes a responsibility.  Help make it right. Talk to management.   We are a relatively small knitting community here in St. Louis, even though we'd like to think we're all that and a box of chocolates.

Enough about that!  On to the important stuff.  The Date.

And now that I've said the D word, you are to cock your head slightly, maintain a deadpan look, blink your eyes medium fast, and say, "Motheerrr.  We are friends."  You can cross your arms for emphasis if you like.  And to that I say, "Yes and that's just the way your father likes it.... Friends."

They had so much fun.  They ate together at a restaurant, they danced ("Only to the fast songs!  Gosh!") and it was loud.  She got home at 11:15 and Dad was waiting at the door.  There was a kind of "Aw shucks" kicking the dirt "Goodbye" and a "See you next weekend" because they are going to the Fall Ball at her school this weekend.  At least I'll get to be here to hover over them for this one.  Ask Bridgett if my hovering 800 miles away was a pleasant experience... ***grin***  Turns out Dad is perfectly capable of getting Dear Daughter off to a Homecoming dance -- makeup, hair, dress, jewelry, flowers and all.  Especially when he has help from the local salon.  Thanks, Nina!

Oh, right.  And something else went on this weekend.  In case you live under a rock. 

I got to go to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival at Rhinebeck again this year.  Yay, me.  Loved it.  Bridgett and I stayed in Saugerties which is a little north of the festival as we fly into Albany.  Great restaurants each night!  But first things first.

We sit down in the St. Louis Airport to wait for our flight out of town on Friday and we look over and this gal is knitting a Norwegian mitten.  Really.  Of all the gin joints!  It's Marji, of Fiber Arts Afloat here with Bridgett!  She getting ready to teach a class on these beauties at Kirkwood Knittery (oops -- sorry about that!).   Good start to our weekend, no?

Saturday morning, we arrived bright and early and joined the mob at Briar Rose where I got the yarn I've been coveting, and sure enough, it was gone by afternoon.  Grandma's Blessing in a brown with olive hits and a barn red with rust hits.  Gorgeous stuff.  Yay me again.   Oh, and buttons to put on whatever I make.  (scroll down for the picture) You read that right.  Purely stash enhancement ... with colorwork in mind, though.  Then we ran into Ruth and Lucia and WoolyBabe, but alas, we didn't get to spend much time with them as we were all intent on shopping.

We hit the blogger round up and ran into Kelly and these lovely ladies whom I hope someone can identify... I'm bad with names and notetaking.

Carole ran out of beer.   And she was sad.   But I was glad to finally meet her!

I chatted with Joe and Thaddeus, Marilyn, Norma, Dani, Carla, Zarzuela ... and who else?

I got Bingo. 

 

I got some yarn and roving....

My sweater got to meet Stephanie's sweater.

It was really too hot to wear it, but also... none of the pictures of me in it make me happy.  The arms are just too long.  I have to rip them back.  Maybe next week.  Ah me.  (My hair was having a lovely moment, wasn't it?!)  I also had my "All your yarn are belong to us" shirt with me, wore it on the plane on Friday ... I guess I could have worn that  too ... how sycophantic of me.

Yes.  It was a just right weekend.  And we are home now, safe and sound.  And the house was cleaner when I got home than it was when I left it. 

You can't ask for more than that in this world, I don't think. 

Bethel Mo World Sheep and Fiber Arts Festival

Bridgett and I decided to take our girls for the day to Bethel, MO.  It's about a 3 hour drive north and west from here -- an hour west of Hannibal of Mark Twain fame.  In Bethel, an 1800's German settlement, there is apparently a Sheep and Fiber fair each year during Labor Day weekend.  Who knew?!

There were plenty of sheep in attendance.

Here, M, Bridgett's nearly 3 year old daughter, chats one up.  Next to this guy, there were several empty  pens.  "Where's this sheep?  And where's this sheep," she asked.

I looked around, and saw that organizers were queuing the lambs up for a lamb show and I told M so.  She turned, looked up at me , and while swooshing her bottom hula like, she asked, "Do they dance in the show?" 

The good old boy farmers alongside the empty pens got a guffaw out of that.  So did I.

Right after the lamb show was the Mutton Busting. 

In case you can't tell what this picture is all about, let me clarify.  On the back of that sheep is a 7ish year old boy, hanging on for dear life.  Hanging on to that sheep.  What you can't see is that he's wearing a bicycle helmet and a water skiing vest (rib protection?) .  Within seconds, the sheep swerves and throws him off.  Yeesh.  Look to the upper right.  See the next little tyke in line, all helmeted up?

While M and I watched the sheep riding/ Mutton Busting, Bridgett, her other daughter S and my Dear Daughter spent time with these lovely folks... learning to spin with a drop spindle.

So much fun -- Daughter got a kit with roving, a CD spindle, and a lesson from the very patient Allena.  Much drop spindling ensued. 

While we watched the herding demonstration?  (Saturday sky for Sandy -- it was a lovely, bright, 80 degree  day.)

Daughter used her drop spindle.

While we walked?  Drop spindling.  While we ate Lamburgers, BBQ lamb sandwiches, and lamb kabobs?  Drop spindling.  While we shopped the fiber tents?  You guessed it. 

M and the sheep again.  We saw them shear sheep, herd sheep, show sheep, ride sheep, wash sheep,   and butcher sheep (um yuck).   We saw them skirt wool, card wool, spin wool, weave wool, and felt wool.  We shopped the stalls for hanks of wool, spindles, roving, and books.  There were also lots of knitted and woven wool socks, hats, sweaters, wraps, mittens, gloves... Well.  You get the idea.  It was a Sheep and Fiber festival after all.

By the time we got home, daughter spinning all the way, she had this much single ply yarn.

She wrapped the yarn from her full spindle around an afghan crochet hook we had kicking around the back of the van.  Plying is next.

The nice lady who sold me my spindle showed me how...

Neither of us has the whole hang of spinning yet.  But that's not for lack of trying...  The roving is from Dudleyspinner.  Colorway Barrelhaven.   

Daughter's roving is a wool blend.  An alpaca wool blend to be exact.  Guess what that gal tried to sell me in addition to roving...  Yep.  An investment alpaca.   For the complete Alpaca Adventure.    Ahem.

Kauni Cardigan Update

Ahhh.  I'm sitting in a thoroughly de-crappified kitchen -- took me an hour and a half -- and drinking a cup of coffee.  The house is quiet, the sun is shining, the dishwasher is running, the dogs are sleeping.  Whew!  Summer is a lot of work.   

I finally have a whole day where I could stay home if I needed to.  And I do -- alarm repair guy and new gas gauge installation guy are slated to come between ... um ... 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.  Of course they will both come at 2:58 p.m. when I have to go get kids at school and I'll have to reschedule.  That is the way of things, don't you think?

Anyway, the waiting gives me time to talk about Kauni.

The colors here are pretty accurate -- she does kind of glow in the dark right above the middle there.  A factor of letting yellow and bright blue play together.  Serendipitous is the fact that purple and orange and red come out right next to my face and hair... I couldn't have planned it better.  I'm at the point in the pattern where I've casted off (hmm... is it "have cast off"  or "have casted off"?) and done shaping for the front and back necklines -- now I'm waiting to get to 62 cms.  Then it's off to the steeking races.  I'm looking forward to steeking this sweater, actually.  The yarn is stiiiccckkkyyy.  I doubt I really need to do the machine stitching, but I will 'cause the pattern says so.  I don't mess with patterns as a rule until I've knitted them once.  (Which is to say I rarely mess with patterns because I rarely knit something twice.  ***grin***)

Neck steek and shaping. 

And, while I wasn't planning to, I think I have enough yarn left to match up the sleeves.   YA THINK?! Jeez.  This yarn is like a giant bowl of spaghetti.  There never seems to be any less of it!  Some bloggers knitting this sweater have let the sleeves fall where they may and others have made matching sleeves.  I'm on the fence.  The sweater is a quiet riot anyway, why not let the sleeves just be what they will be?  On the other hand, this sweater is a quiet riot.  Matching sleeves might just be the balance it needs.  Here's what I bet I'll do:  knit one and see if matching the other is too much trouble.   

Here's what I wish I had:

• A dressmaker's dummy.  Then I could try this on it.  I think it might be a tad big, even though I'm spot on with gauge.  And I could try Planalto on it too -- you've noticed I haven't posted a finished picture of that sweater, haven't you?  Yeah.  Seaming it makes it seem way too small...  so it's in timeout until I feel better about it or lose 20 lbs.  On the other hand, if I had a dressmaker's dummy that was my size, it might be just the visual encouragement I need to lose the weight.  A good excuse all around for getting one...
• A postal scale.  Then I could weigh the sweater and the leftover yarn and see if we're hitting the 2/3 sweater, 1/3 sleeves yarn estimate.
• A wife who would de-crappify the rest of my house.