Annie Knits

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?

Knitting First, Beach Second

Not.

Ok.  Now that that's out of my system.

I finished the knitting on the Celery Cardigan in the car on the way down here.  Well, ostensibly.  The sweater fits just the way I want it too.  It's light enough for air-conditioning and it's a little bilgy (which doesn't show up in pictures, but is fun and subtle in person).  I love the way the dye-job acted.  

Ignore the wrinkles.  They're there because I stuffed it into a bag when I finished.  This is why.

I knit the increases at the mandarin-ish collar incorrectly.  There are too many of them so the collar is floppy where it should be flat.  Harumph.  The pattern was clear enough, I just jumped to the conclusion that I should do the corner increases every time I came to them on a right side row.  Not so much.  I could put decorative buttons on the flaps and call them lapels.  Or I could rip out all of those short row increases I'm clutching and re-do this puppy so it's right.  Probably I'll choose door number two.  I've got 16 hours in the car coming up -- plenty of time for re-knitting.  Harumph again.

But don't you love the yarn?  

Here are some of my other beach house pastimes.  One at which I am terrible, in spite of my English degree, the other of which I'm flying through.

The baby cardigan is the Cascade cardigan.  Easy, cute, a little bit of pattern drama, but I figured it out.  The button holes are located at the tips of each leaf stem, see them?  I've got cute flower shaped dyed shell buttons.  Several inches of sleeve, collar and button placket and I'm done.  This baby is due June 25th.  I'll finish the cardigan today and ship it.  

Husband is relaxing.  Finally.  

Boys have eaten oysters again.  And not even under duress.  Aren't they handsome?

I've been riding my bicycle every day -- hurts some but is good for me, I think.  I've seen 5 alligators, one of which was a baby, and lots of deer.  The kids went dolphin watching with Dear Godson's folks.  I'm sure there's more, but I have to go to the beach.  It's calling.  Can you hear it?

I guess I'm pretty relaxed too... ; )

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. 

A Warm Weather Aside

This vacation video is keeping me warm...  Hope we don't get the ice they say we'll get.  I've got my French Toast ingredients just in case.

 

13 year old white boys, a baby, and a beach front dinner -- what more could you want?

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.
 
 

 

Catching up

We spent the weekend out and about.   My in-laws take us on a day trip for my birthday every year.  Thank goodness we pushed it back from early August (gawd, it was hot) to now.  What a lovely day we had in Hannibal, Missouri, touring the Mark Twain boyhood home.

 

Here we are on the Mark Twain tour boat that chugs up and down the Mississippi to the north and then to the south of Hannibal.  On it were a Becky Thatcher and a Tom Sawer look alike.  Becky's dad (their handler) said that playing the pair (there are 8 pairs of 13 to 14-year-olds) is a huge honor for which locals try out and write elaborate essays.  They travel to the state fair and even out of state in the case of special Mark Twain events.  His daughter is slated to go to somewhere on the east coast for some celebration or another this fall.  I didn't take their picture -- Son thought it would be demeaning, seeing as how he's a 13-year-old and all and wouldn't be caught dead in ripped, paint spattered jeans and a straw hat.  Just goes to show.

 

He is humoring me in this picture.  Can'tcha tell?  

The stone house next to the boyhood home is a WPA project built as a visitor's center in the '30s to save wear and tear on the home itself.  A destination consulting firm (hmmm....wonder which one) revamped the interface about 5 years ago and now there are landings built in the space between the two and you peek in through doors and windows.  There are Mark Twain statues in each room and quotes in which he's remembering his childhood.  Which of course is what the visit to this town is all about -- his boyhood.  It's a poignant piece and makes you think of visiting the house you grew up in.  

 

Clopper the horse doesn't cotton to city kids...

 

Well.  Old Blood 'n Guts here is behind the yarn for scale.  This is most of what I've spun since returning on August 3rd from our vacation.  Well, almost.  I've knit some of the Louet into a pair of mittens.  And the Spunky Eclectic into a baby sweater.  4, 420 yards by my reckoning.  Just over 2.5 miles.  Remember they're all at least 2 ply, and one is 3 ply so double that for the amount of singles.  I love compiling accomplishments.  

During all of this spinning, I listened to The Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, both by Steig Larsson; Frederica and The Reluctant Widow and The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer; and watched all 5 episodes of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park (a weird '90s BBC production, but good).  

 
The mate to this mitten is at the shop as an example of both what one can do with handspun yarn and how this roving might spin up since it's so crazy looking in the bag.  I like it better inside out -- reverse stockinette -- so I'm keeping it that way.  So there.

Oh, and my Dr.s have tried to kill me ... again ... I'm wearing a heart monitor for 2 days to make sure that the medicine that my pulmonologist  and it's interaction with my existing meds (which I told her I take and wondered aloud whether it would be a problem because it's made my heart race in the past to which she replied that of course I have to take it because I have ASTHMA which I have no symptoms for most of the time but for which she insists on treating me which I get because I don't want to have a fatal asthma attack after all) haven't caused a permanent heart arrhythmia.  Time to switch pulmonologists...

I'd rather talk about yarn.
 

Ten on Tuesday: Ten Things to Bring on Vacation

This'll teach me to monkey around with topics... I've kind of done this one, but I'll do it again.  With pictures.

1. First and foremost?  Your camera.  And make sure that others in your party know how to use the thing.  And make sure that you have at least a 2 gig chip.  At least.
   (On the Aircraft Carrier Yorktown... and we did not ask them to pose.  I swear.)
2. Multiple knitting projects.  Two for the car (socks -- I need something mindless for the car because I like to supervise the driving ... he loves it when I supervise the driving...), one for the beach (crochet blanket -- only 2 squares finished because I like to look around when I'm on the beach, not concentrate on something with which I'm unfamiliar), several to chose from of an evening ( nothing accomplished on this front at all due to major Scrabble competition and trash talking). 
3. Which brings me to games.  Bring games.  We took Scrabble, Mancala, Imagine If, and cards.  The games are actually a ruse to get the kids out of the TV after dinner routine they have at home.  It works.  
4. Friends for your kids to play with.  'Nuff said.  
   
5. A baby to keep dinner time interesting.  We taught this baby to beat box.  His dad has an hilarious video of the boys and the baby gettin' down.  I hope he'll share.  
6.  On a beach vacation, be sure to bring ear drops.  We spent so much time in the water getting hit in the side of the head by mondo waves that each of us got at least one twinge of an ear infection -- thank good ness for neomycin.  
7.  Several good books.  I got through three Heyer books this time.  The girls worked on Pride and Prejudice for school and the boys worked on True Grit and Peak respectively -- school reading as well.  Husband read about Cornelius Vanderbilt.  Whatever.
8. Open eyes... I know this sounds silly, but we saw so much wild life and scenery that we don't get to see at home just because we were looking.  Dolphins, snapping shrimp, crabs, jelly fish, even a bob cat with her kitten hunting crabs in the dunes.  For me, the differences from home are some of what makes a vacation interesting.  
9. A sense of humor.  Gawd, did we laugh on this vacation.  The boys are especially funny.  Here they are playing butler and "rich guy" while we visited the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina.  Half the time, we'd turn around and one of them would have dropped to the ground laughing at the other one.  Then, we made the mistake of teaching them the Shaving Cream song.  Imagine that one at the top of their lungs in an ice cream shop at Antler Hill Villiage.  I have to admit, I laughed instead of telling them to hush... 
10.  The willingness to slow down.  We took the time to visit several local attractions while we travelled -- The Biltmore Estate, Patriot's Point and Sumter in Charleston.  I think the kids learned something and had fun imagining themselves in these historic places.  So -- beach fun and learning a little about the history of the area.  Not too bad, huh?
     

The. Best. Birthday.

We're home now, but I had the best birthday while we were still on vacation.  

I got a bunch of birthday dolphins -- they swam by us all morning long while we played in the water.  Click to see how close one of them came to us!  Husband/photographer is good...

 

I got a birthday kiss.  Dear Godson loves my beach.

  

I got birthday poo -- well, it's fudge shaped like poo.  Exactly what a set of 13 year olds should have gotten me, don't you think?  Gross and chocolate.  Perfect.

 

I got a birthday dinner.
 

I got a chocolate birthday cake, made for me by the 17 year olds.  Yum.

 

Really.  Turning fourtymumble doesn't look so bad, now does it?

 

Ten on Tuesday: Ten Things to do instead of Watching Television

Oh, well.  If you're not talking about watching Dexter or True Blood or Top Chef, then we can talk...

1. Read a book.  Duh...   Georgette Heyer right now, of course.  I suppose you're getting tired of hearing me wax poetic about her stuff.  The question is, have you picked up one of her books yet so I have someone with which to talk about them?
2. Card wool.  I hope Kim wasn't too mad that I left on vacation with her carder sitting in my breezeway.  Kim, you can get it any time -- I just have to let the dog sitter know you're coming.  Anyway, I've just about spun all the corriedale we carded and I'll want to card more.  
3. Do science experiments with the boys.  We've gotten these bags that are a vial of vinegar inside of a packet of baking soda.  When you crack the vial, the bag explodes.  We're trying to duplicate them... with varied results.
4. Bake a cake.  
5. Ride your bike.
6. Play Scrabble.
7. Take a nap.
8. Do housework... I know, that's a copout, but it needed to be said.  Heck, it need's doing.  I listen to books while I do housework.  
9. Go visiting or have visitors.
10. Have a drink and sit on the porch and chat.  That works more for adults than kids.  It's a habit husband and I have adopted lately and it's almost like having a date night, except you can have more than one or two because you don't have to drive home.  

Well, the kids are up.  Time to ride bikes to the Nature Center and check on the baby alligators and the giant bunny.

We're Wearing Them Down

Oh, I suppose it's not a battle, ... But if it was a battle, Husband and I would be winning.  

The kids are sleeping later and later each day.  When husband and I offer bike rides or romps on the beach, we are increasingly met with blank stares and groans.  We caught two of them watching the Weather Channel yesterday.  They weren't drooling, but the looks on their faces were pretty blank.

Oh, they can muster the energy to bake a cake.  And a darned good chocolate cake too!

I know, it looks wonky, but cake pans are surprisingly hard to find in vacation towns.  It tastes fabulous.  We had it and peel and eat shrimp for breakfast yesterday.  Ugh.  Some us of just had cake.

Husband and I wanted to ride to the marshland look out tower but we couldn't marshal any troops so we went alone.  

This is the view from the three story tower.  That's the Kiawah River way off in the distance.  Below us is tidal marsh land.  There were snowy egrets and frogs galore.  But the place sounded like a giant bowl of Rice Crispies right after your pour the milk over them.  Turns out that the mud is inhabited by snapping shrimp.  I'd never heard of such a thing... The sound is hilarious.  Husband and I laughed and laughed.  (The sound is at the beginning of the video -- the rest is actually pretty cool too but a little scientific.  Watch the whole thing though, because there is crab carnage at the end... fits in with the war theme of this post.)

We rode home, about 6 miles total in the noonday sun, to find the kids just exactly as we'd left them.  Husband and I put on our suits and went boogie boarding. 

My evil plan for family domination is working.  

P.S. -- I've accomplished not one single stitch of knitting or crochet.  Not a bit, this whole week.  I've read two books, but no needlework.  For shame.