Annie Knits

Mmphhh!

Help.  I'm buried.  Under spinning, knitting, and rehab stuff.

It's fun and enervating and crazy.  Oh, and it was Holy Week last week, in case you missed it...

First up, one of my favorite details upstairs.  We found a tile treatment on Pinterest and duplicated it in the upstairs bath.  Dark aqua around the perimeter; aqua, putty, and white confetti drifting into all white as we got towards the middle.  It makes 1x1 tile something special.  The tile guy hadn't done it before, and he has photographed and sold the idea to two other customers... ; )  I should get a cut.

Tile and windows are done in the great room, and today there are 4 painters up and down puttying and then painting trim.

Progress continues apace.

There's a cute little shower in there.

These look big to me, but hubster says that when it's all painted to match, it'll look more balanced.

I've been spinning more than I've been knitting.

This yarn is 16 ounces of fingering weight yarn, spun from two different Hello Yarn club colorways:  the July '11 BFL/Silk blend called Night Gathers and the April '11 Targhee top called Sprout.  It is lovely.  The silk gave the yarn just a little sheen here and there and the blue/green/taupe/hot chartreuse color blending makes me pretty darned happy.  It'll be some kind of drape front cardigan... I thought perhaps Dahlia since it'll stripe nicely and that'd be nice in the medallion on the back of that sweater.  Who knows?

Also just off the wheel is this Dyeabolical club color called Sid Fishcious.  Named for her goldfish.  A quick, easy spin that netted me 8 ounces of fingering.  Plenty for socks.

Next up?  More Hello Yarn, in the new club colorway, a merino/bamboo 50/50 blend called Villain.  I have an older one to blend it with so I'll have enough for another sweater.  Also, this Blood Orange BFL/Firestar somehow followed me home after I yarn-monkeyed for Rachel (that's an Etsy link) yesterday.  Happens to me all the time.

I'm knitting another Vitamin D sweater, although I may change where the drapes hit my hips in the front.  I love the increases the designer used in this sweater.  And this yarn needed to be something sunny.

Don't you agree?  Yes, I'm taking quite a bit of ribbing as I knit this crazy neon thing (thanks to Rachel for dyeing the yarn for me even though she thought I was nuts).  And I have to hurry up and finish it as this color will only be au courant for like the next 15 minutes.  Surprisingly, I can actually wear this neonyyellowgreen close to my face -- I'm pinkish, not yellowish, so it works.  Makes me look tan in fact.  Probably I am tanning when I'm near this sweater.  I should likely wear sunblock.

Behind my sweater is a cute little vest I knit quickly for my neice -- it's a Noro cotton tape.  Forget the name of the yarn or the colorway.  I have a yellow zipper to sew into it and then I'll mail it off -- she can wear it this fall.

Otherwise, it's all paint colors and fabric and tile.  So fun, actually.  I'll try and keep you current in future.

 

Two on Tuesday: Two Ways to Deal With the Cold

Actually, I've willfully misinterpreted Carole's topic for today which is ten ways to deal with a cold.  I refuse to mention colds as there is such nastiness swirling around here and I've taken such measures to avoid it that I've got disinfectant hand cream coming out of my pores.  

Tonight I'll blog about how I deal with the cold, as in there is a huge cold front coming and it's going to get cold.  That cold.  I bet you can guess the nature of the contents of my post...

I may have blogged about the Christmas present Hubster got me last year -- 250 grams of Quiviut fiber.  I also may have blogged about spinning it into a light fingering weight 2-ply yarn.  I can't remember.

As the cold approached this fall, I thought I should finish the gloves I started out of this hand spun goodness last spring.  It didn't take long.  These suckers are soft and warm and decadent.  And they only weight 80 grams.  As such, my pair is in the works.  

I used Ann Budd's Handy Book of Patterns.  These gloves were knit on size 2 needles and I knit the man's large size.  Hubster likes them.

Also in the WIP finishing category is my Inspira cowl  (that's a Ravelry link).  

General Patton modeling knit wear again.  I know that the photo seems yellow, but the colors of the cowl read pretty true in this photo.  The yarn is a hand spun Spunky Eclectic colorway -- can't remember which one, but I spun it to maintain the long color repeats.  

I modified the pattern in that I decreased to give it some shoulder shaping.  I knit it on size 9 needles. 

It's rustic and thick and bright.  I kind of love it.

So, yeah, knitting is one way to deal with cold weather.  The other way?

You knew that was coming.   

I'll tell you one thing.  The way my CSA deals with the cold weather is to throw winter squash at us!  I have 2 Acorn, one Butternut, one Delicata, and a baking pumpkin.

Tonight I stuffed two kinds of winter squash with cornbread stuffing, because, to be perfectly honest, my family does not love winter squash.  It's ok as a vehicle for something else like stuffing, though. 

Cornbread Stuffed Winter Squash

• 2 winter squash, halved and seeded
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 ribs celery, diced
• 2 large cloves garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 T butter
• 10 leaves fresh sage, chopped
• 2 T Sherry
• 6 stale corn muffins, about 2 cups (you can use bread cubes that you dry a little in the oven instead)
• 1 1/2 c chicken stock

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Sautee onion, celery, and garlic in butter until soft.  Season with salt and pepper and add sherry.  Reduce slightly.  Add sage.
3. Stir muffin crumbs and chicken stock into vegetable mixture.  Let it absorb the liquid some.
4. Spoon the stuffing into the squash cavities, mounding it up carefully.
5. Bake until squash is cooked through, about an hour.  

I served this with buffalo meatloaf that I seasoned with some of the fresh sage and yukon gold potatoes.  Stick to your ribs food, I tell you.  

There is some stuffed squash left.  I'd call that lunch.

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?  

Close Only Counts ...

I know, I know, ...in horse shoes and hand grenades.  And after my recent post (perhaps more aptly named a rant) about getting gauge, I feel the need to 'fess up.  I did not knit a swatch before I started this sweater.  

There.  I've said it.  I measured my knitting after I started the back.  More to the point, I didn't wash the swatch I didn't knit either.  The horror.

My only excuse is that I didn't want to.  I usually get gauge and this tape is pretty stable.  Not good excuses, but they're mine.  Please do as I say, not as I do.

Here is Remsen.  Well, most of Remsen, I'm still working on one of the sleeves, but I couldn't wait to see if I'd gotten it right.  After a good, long soak in warmish water and dish soap, this cotton tape yarn relaxed some.  What it really did was grow width wise, a problem remedied by strong lengthwise pulling. 

So far, so good.  I tried to knit the body an inch or so longer than the pattern called for -- 11 1/2 rather than 10 inches here, check. And the width resolved itself in order stretch to the required length.  22 inches.  Good.

Hmm.  Arm openings are 10 inches rather than 9.  Hope I can ease in this stretchy fabric so that the sleeve fits the opening.  If not, I can do a few more increases on the sleeve.  Or pull back the neck.  We'll see in a few hours.

Here was the tricky part.  These pieces interlock to form the tied front of the sweater.  Those outside edges get folded in half and seamed to themselves and the resulting piece gets sewn to the sides of the back.  It works... as I've said before, I've helped 3 customers put this thing together.  An aside on seaming -- I bought smooth cotton yarn in the same color to seam.  No way I'm seaming with a thick and thin cotton tape.

The marvel is that these things resemble both the measurements on the schematic included in the pattern and each other.  The pattern said to make two, reversing the shaping of the second.  Really?  Can you see all that shaping?  It was not television knitting, I'm telling you.

So.  I'm waiting for the pieces to dry so that I can put them together.  Of course, we got like 17 inches of rain this afternoon, so the drying will take awhile.  I might even be able to finish the other sleeve. 

Another aside.  You wish I had Smellivision.  Dear Son is learning to cook bacon so that he doesn't have to wait for me to get up off the couch and make it for him.  He's got a whole package of thick cut bacon in a jelly roll pan on parchment paper in the oven at 400 for 15 or so minutes.  He's watching it like a hawk.  Dinner's in like an hour and a half -- too long to wait.  So, an entire package of bacon it is.  14-year-olds eat either nothing or everything.  Depending on the day.  Today is an everything day.

This and That

I've got medical stuff.  I've got fiber stuff.  Where to begin?

This is Remsen (that's a Ravelry link).  Well, it's the back of Remsen.  I've just cast on for one of the front pieces.  I'm running counter to my nature here.  Usually, I'm all about the process of things, as you know.  But this highly-textured twist front top?  I tried it on in South Carolina at a knit shop near the beach and had to have the yarn and the pattern.  Had to have it.  

The process of knitting with this tightly chained, thick and thin cotton yarn?  I am not loving it.  It's fiddly and you can't get any rhythm going.  This all-stockinette knit should be quick and mindless, but instead it's arduous.  This, friends, is product knitting all the way.

Here's the thing.  The nubbly fabric?  Killer.  Drape and texture galore.  The pattern support for the yarn?  There are three things in the booklet I'd make and another cute vest in this summer's Interweave Knits.  This top?  Flattering, drapey, different.  I keep conjuring the finished product in my mind's eye to get myself to knit on it.  

The hip replacement recovery is coming along.  You'd think that three and a half weeks at home, sitting around waiting for people to bring me food or visit me would have resulted in quite a bit of fiber related productivity, wouldn't you?  Not so.  Parts of those weeks are a little foggy, I guess, but still.  

On the right, 4 ounces of Dyeabolical Club fiber, merino, Maillot Jaune colorway, about 380 yards.  

In the middle, 8 ounces of Hello Yarn club fiber from May, merino, about 700 yards.

On bobbins at the back, more Hello Yarn club fiber, Prism colorway, Polwarth, still have to ply.

In the front, Corgi Hill Farms alpaca silk, about 2.5 ounces but I lost the other half of the braid so it's not quite done yet.  Foggy, I told you...

There was quite a bit of spinning, but not as much as during the last Tour de Fleece.  I wouldn't say that the hip replacement limited me physically as much as mentally -- vicodin makes for intermittent spinning mojo.

On the wheel right now is the current Spunky Eclectic club fiber, a purple/green/navy Wensleydale.  I'm thinking thick and thin, plied with some Color Mart stuff (cashmere blend?) I have on a cone.  I have 12 ounces.  I might be able to stretch it to a swingy vest.  Any ideas?

I had my first post-operative doctor's appointment yesterday.  I'm doing very well.  No more Crutchie, 4 more weeks of PT, 4 more weeks of hip precautions (can't bend certain ways so I don't pop it out of joint while the muscles and tendons heal to hold it in place).  

The resident spent quite a bit of time explaining that this time period may result in depression as I might feel enough better to want to really get back to my normal routine but that my body is still healing and won't let me and as a result I might have a few days where I feel pretty low.  Husband snorked laughter, and I told this earnest young man that if he substituted crabby for depressed, he'd be right on target.  Whew, crabby it is!

I got so mad trying to bend far enough to put a new drive band on my wheel the other morning that my fussing (ok, not fussing, rhymes with fussing) woke Dear Son (I kid you not... at like 9 a.m.) and he stumbled out of his room bleary eyed to help me.  

"God, Mom, chill.  I'll help, ok?"  

Yes.  Crabby, not depressed.  Boy, that'll encourage you all to visit some more, won't it...  Don't worry.  I'm released to drive too, so I can come to you.  ; )

Giddyap!

Yeah, I'm up on my high horse again.  Mostly knitting content for those who care.

Last week, my Interweave Knits daily email linked to one of their new Interweave Galleries where folks wear the sweaters from the magazine.  Usually, the gals (seemingly from the Interweave offices) wear the one sweater sent in as a sample and you get to see how it fits lots of differently sized women.  Helpful.

This week, the newsletter linked to a set of gallery pictures where staffers had knit the sweater themselves.  They discuss their processes and the modifications they've made.  Also interesting.  

As I read through the comments concerning the Al Fresco Camisole, I started to hyperventilate.  Well, not really, but I wanted too.  Truth is, the story told in the comments has lost it's shock value for me.  

In a nutshell, the gals wanting to make this camisole, the specs of which call for a bamboo blend (red flag, red flag, gauge alert, gauge alert!) swatched and decided that to get the gauge called for in the final product, each had to go up 4 needle sizes.  Four.  As a LYS worker, that's a red flag, too.  Rarely are needle recommendations so far off.  Even Starmore gauge often requires only a 2 or 3 needle size drop.

The next part of the story is predictable.  When each knitter made the thing, it was ginormous.  Like twice the size of the original finished product.  No surprise when you're knitting on needles almost twice the size called for in the pattern.  Neither says specifically that she washed and blocked her swatch.  I'm betting neither did. 

Each knitter then comes to the realization that after knitting the thing, it stretched.  A lot.  You think?

Ok, I'm lucky to work in a yarn shop.  I have lots and lots of experience with gauge issues and I get experience with lots of different fibers without having to knit them myself.  

And I'm about to start lobbying for the standard swatch warning to include an admonition ... in ALL CAPS ... to wash your swatch.  Wool grows.  Bamboo and rayon REALLY grow.  Super wash wool REALLY REALLY grows.  

Please, please, please, knit a swatch and wash it the way you are going to wash the sweater.  Really.  

On Ravelry this morning, a Raveler complained about a lovely yarn, Rowan Lima, growing after she'd knit the garment.  She swatched, she said, but didn't say she'd washed her swatch.  I swatched Lima too, and had to drop 2 needle sizes to get it to maintain it's shape after washing it.  It's nearly half alpaca.  And it's a chained yarn.  It's gonna grow. 

I see this in the shop all the time.  Folks want to get started on the project already.  Swatch? Oh, I always get gauge.  Fine, I tell them.  But you can't felt this alpaca to get it to fit later.  In fact, I've never seen felting help a sweater unless it was meant to be totally felted a la boiled wool to begin with.  Felting shrinks a garment lengthwise, but almost not at all width wise.  

"If you want to knit on a sweater for 100 hours," I say,"and have it not fit, that's fine with me.  But the only thing I'll be able to do for you in the end is help you rip it out."  I'm pretty firm about this.  Like I say this in the tone I used with my 9th grade English students during final exams.

Mostly then, customers swatch.  And then they let me take it to the bathroom in the back and rinse it.  Then they are believers.  

I guess the point of this post is that I don't understand how we as a knitting community have not communicated this amongst ourselves sufficiently.  How is it that so many folks end up with items that don't fit?  I've seen the lack of swatch washing affect hats, mittens, scarves, sweaters ... you name it, if it has to fit something, I've seen it go wrong.  And mostly?  The garments are too big and folks want to felt them.  Which, I repeat, never works.  And then?  You can't re knit it so that it fits.  

Part of the problem may be that a little knowledge gives you just enough to hang yourself with.  Inexperienced knitters look at all of the yarn choices listed for projects in Ravelry tabs and think, oh, I'll sub this kitchen cotton for this aran wool and it'll be perfect.  No. It. Will. Not.  

Subbing yarn can be tricky.  I help customers do it all the time, but you have to take fiber and yarn construction and a myriad of other factors under consideration to do it.  If you're downloading a free pattern and doing all the subbing yourself, it can get tricky to just conjure up those intricately shaped pieces of that sweater on your own.  Just saying.

Have I had gauge issues?  You bet.  Have I ripped an entire sweater due to the fact that after washing, it would have fit both hubster and I at the same time?  Absolutely.  I can't face those balls of yarn yet, but I will sometime.  Were these issues due to not washing my swatch?  Yes, indeedy.  

We've all done it.  Walked on the wild side.  Played gauge roulette.  Hoped for the best.  

Another thing I say is, "Do you feel lucky, punk?"  (I really do say this but I used discretion and don't say it to just anyone ... )

Sheesh.  I need a T-Shirt.  

WASH YOUR SWATCH.  

Ok, Prancer, back out to pasture.  I'm through.  ; )

Busy, Busy, Busy

Home again.  Here are a few more pictures of vacation fun, though, just to keep me centered.

My lack of dolphin sightings was a theme on the vacation.  Everyone but gimpy ol' me had seen them by the 2nd week, either on a boat outing or riding bikes on the beach, which I couldn't do.  Too windy.  It's hard enough on the bike paths with just one leg, and that's all I could use to pedal.  To my credit, I got up to 4 miles round trip toward the end of our stay.  I had to go hear the snapping shrimp again and that marsh was a good ways away from the house.  Yay me.  But I digress.

The whining got to Dear Husband, apparently, so he took me on a dolphin cruise.  This pod was feeding at the inlet round back of the island.  They'd push schools of fish up onto the beach and launch themselves onto the sand to eat the stranded fish.  It's a feeding strategy that apparently started here on the Kiawah river, but is now common from Florida to North Carolina -- naturalists think that the Kiawah pods teach their young, the males of which go out into the ocean and disperse when they come of age.  The behavior's been featured on a National Geographic show.  Really cool, but hard to photograph. 

This photo is kind of fuzzy, but if you look closely, you can see the baby dolphin's dorsal fin just behind his mother's.  He was born in February.  So cute.  My vacation was complete.

There was, of course, shark fishing.  These boys.  No matter how much they are enjoying themselves, they do not smile broadly enough to show their braces...  

Smile, dear daughter...  She's a little more comfortable with the process this year.  ; )

Along with us the second week were Blogless Janet and her family.  Here, her Dear Son is getting pointers from our favorite Kiawah Island naturalist/dolphin spotter/shark fisherman John.  How many scrapbooks do you think that guy's in?  A lot, I bet.

But enough about relaxing.  I've got finished knitting to show off.

Ta Da!  (Many thanks to Photographer Deborah.)  Celery re-worked.  See how the collar lies flat now?  Yay me.  Needs blocking and while I've lost 23 lbs, when I see this picture, I realize I should lose 20 more.  I'll get on that.  Either that or I should crop more selectively...

That aside, did I tell you how much I love this sweater?  The fit is good, the yarn is light, but wool so it'll work through multiple seasons.  One downfall, I guess, is that the color is so distinctive that when I wear it all the freaking time, people will notice.  Let 'em I say.  I love this sweater.  

Too bad I finished it right when the weather is about to turn hot.  Oh, well... I'll have to go to the movies.  Or somewhere where the air conditioning is cold.  Definitely.

Stats: 

Pattern:  Celery, size large

Yarn: Dyeabolical Bling Sparkly Sock, Annie colorway, 3.2 skeins.

Needles:  Size 5 US

And the Cascade baby sweater is done.  It'll be cuter when I actually sew the buttons on.  So, technically not done, I guess.  

This baby's born too, so I'll need to get on the stick.  I should mail it before my surgery.  

Statistics

Pattern:  Cascade, size 1 year

Yarn:  Berroco Vintage, leafy green color, 1.2 skeins

Needles:  size 7

This cutie took just a little more than a skein of yarn and 3 days to knit.  So cute, so fast. 

And finally, a WIP.

Rachel of Dyeabolical is doing sock blanks now.  Except she calls them something else that I can't remember.  (For the uninitiated, a blank is knit fabric that you dye and then unravel to knit something else.  Really.  The joy is in seeing how the dye job knits up in the new article.  Geeky, but fun.)  

She tossed this blank at me last night for a test knit.  I suppose I committed to socks, I can't remember, but by the time I got home, I'd cast on for a long ruffled scarf.  I'm not sure how it happened.  

This blank is knit with two strands, so you knit socks two at a time or you do what I'm doing with a scarf which is alternate rows, 2 with each strand.  Works for me. 

I'm justifying my lack of sock-knitting to myself with the idea that lots of folks knit scarves with sock yarn and Rachel's customers would love to know how this stuff knits up in a long, thin, ruffled, kerchief-shaped scarf.  Who's with me?

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. 

File This One Under ...

It's about damn time!

A)  The City of St. Louis delivered my recycling dumpster this morning.  Yay me.  Now they'll collect garbage once a week, recycling once a week, and yard waste once a week.  I used to pay a local recycling company to collect my recyclables, but when my recycling day (Monday) coincided with so many holidays one year that my collections were reduced by 15% and they basically told me tough toe-nails, I quit paying them to abuse me.  Since then, my recycling has been haphazard, as in when I wanted to schlep it to the city recycling center nearby.  Not any more.  

B) Baby's birthday sweater is nearly finished.  Most of one sleeve to go and then piecing.  Today?  Maybe.  It's his actual birthday after all.  On my monitor, this yarn looks pinkish and I can't seem to get that straightened out.  It's more maroon, or claret.  I have to say that making the push to finish this sweater in this yarn has given me a repetitive stress injury to the tendon in my elbow.  Inflexible yarn plus heavy cabling equals elbow problems.  Good to know.  Ice helps and I'll be just fine.  On the bright side, my chiropractor is enjoying treating what he says is his first "knitting injury".  He's a barrel of monkeys...

Too Dumb to Live!

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png

A) Today's joke:  How many preservationists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?  Ten, one to screw in the new light bulb and nine to admire the old one... WHICH DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE!

There is an internet hoopla into which I've injected my opinion.  Surprise.  The local all-girls high school from which my daughter is soon to graduate (God willing) is gearing up to make some changes.  This institution (along with a few of its buildings) is more than 125 years old and has been educating young South St. Louis women for that long.  It was begun by an order of nuns, several of whom I count as close friends, and is their mission.  Sadly, the order is an aging one, as are many religious orders, and maintaining the school and it's physical plant has begun to be a drain on their resources.

For the last several years, stake holders at the school have spent time developing a plan to keep the school thriving ... or even open.  The plan has two phases.  The first phase is to raise several millions of dollars to fund a tuition endowment (to help low income girls attend and keep the school a viable option for our urban poor) and fund renovations to the 1957 building.  Good.  

The second phase is where the problems lie.  In that plan, the stake holders have explored tearing down one of the older buildings to make room for a performing arts center (music and theater being strengths of the school).  Let the hoopla begin.

A local blogger (whom neighbors are quoting as if he's a journalist with journalistic ethics and a journalist's passing nod to unbiased reporting) got wind of the plans and has blogged about the gloom and doom of the second phase of this plan.  He can't have actually read the whole plan because it's clear that the possible demolition of the venerable 128 year old school building is years off if it even happens.  He blogged about it anyway, though, and he's got local panties in a twist, that's for sure.  Mine included, I suppose.  

I've left comments to both of his posts, which neighbors are referring to as "articles" when they forward the links around, reminding the melee that what they're discussing so urgently and stridently is PHASE TWO of the MULTI MILLION DOLLAR PLAN which is likely at least 8 or 10 years away and could we please discuss whether or not the school WILL STAY OPEN!  

Christ in pancakes, I'm ready to kill someone.

So help me, if this tempest in a teacup impacts one bit the efforts we're making to raise money TO EDUCATE CHILDREN ... well, I don't know what I'll do.  

Anyway, hubster wants me to calm down and stay out of it.  

Hey, at least I didn't leave the preservationist joke in the comments of the blog.  Internet benevolence points to me.

An aside:  Ravelry Rubberneckers?  This post looks and sounds like Ranch Dressing.  I'm officially crazy.

... As Pigs in Mud

Yes, I know.  Monte looks pitiful there curled up in the new snow we are receiving this morning.  But look again.

This is the view I had of this snow dog after I asked if he wanted to come inside.  It's as good as "talk to the hand," don't you think?  He's still sitting right in this spot, watching the snow fall, happy as a ... well, you know.

Me?  

The February Hello Yarn Club fiber arrived Thursday.  It begged to jump on my new spinning wheel, so I obliged it.  After Adrian's recent blog post about fractal spinning and hand spun knitted socks, how could I resist?

4 ounces prepped fractally (is that a word?) and spun up on 2 bobbins ... ready to ply.  I'm getting more and more about the intentional spinning.  I suppose that happens sooner or later.  As much yarn as I've spun for the sheer joy of spinning it, without any project in mind, I've developed a little more of a sense of planning things.  Sometimes it's hard to find that perfect project for 137 yards of precious hand spun and so it just sits and gets stroked which is ok but has become increasingly dissatisfying.

Before the Hello Yarn Club fiber came, on Monday I received my Dyeabolical February club fiber.  Well, received isn't exactly an honest portrayal of events.  I fetched it.  From Rachel's office.  At the beginning of an ice storm.  Hey, it's BFL Silk, okay?   Now it's 534 yards of light dk weight BFL silk in the Chocolate, Cherries, and Wine colorway and destined to become a Baktus or a Lacy Baktus.  This stuff is yummy.  I'm a bit crazy after all... and I have a new spinning wheel and I have deadline knitting.  Can you think of any better reason to spin up hundreds of yards of club fiber yarn?  I can't.

But, back to the topic at hand.

For me?  Snow falling, hand kit socks, an ipod with a new book on it, a heavily cabled baby sweater (Remix again, Tadpoles and Tiddlers book again -- check Ravelry), and banana muffins in the oven.  

For Hubster?  Home, in his office/mancave/den with a new biography and a cup of coffee.

For the kids?  Still asleep, of course.

We're all as happy as pigs in mud.