Could this be the one?

We looked at five houses on Saturday. Saw three, took a break at the main city park in Beaver Dam, then saw two more. Of course the last house was the one we really liked.  The others had the space, but just not enough ready-to-move-into rooms in the right proportions. Not every child is going to have their own room, but we need to find the house with not only a nice master bedroom (our current one was previously used as a guestroom/playroom for a 4 year old), but a bedroom big enough for three boys who will be pretty darn big when fully grown, plus an adequate room for our diva daughter.  Of course, Beaver Dam is still pretty far from the Wonder Job — about as far away as we’re willing to live, unless we happen to find a $50 sheep farm somewhere. So we’re still looking, mostly in closer locations. But we’ll take another look at this one, and we’re bringing some more jaundiced eyes to help us look at it critically.

In the car I did two repeats on the Irish Hiking Scarf, and spotted a cabling error a long ways back that I am not going to try to fix. But I figured out how I did it — the dpn turned over while I was knitting the other stitches, so when I knitted off the dpn those stitches were in the wrong order. It still makes a cable, but only a knitter will notice that those three stitches don’t “flow” across the others. So I decided that when I slip those stitches in the future, I’ll make sure the text on the needle is right-reading. That way I can check to see I don’t flip it again.

I also worked on the Gryffindor beret on the way up and back. Yes, I decided since I had done two thin-stripe beanies and one wide-stripe beanie it was only fair to try the girly beret. Only problem is, I started running out of yarn. Plymouth doesn’t seem to make the gold color any more, but I had enough of that for this project and was running out of the burgundy! But this morning I found the burgundy-and-pink hat I made to experiment with dpns, and JC helped me frog it this morning to harvest the yarn. He’s happy (and now realizes knitting can be for boys), and I can now finish the beret.

We didn’t get to stop at a yarn store on the way there or back, which is a real bummer because the store in Columbus should be excellent. To make up for it, Mr. Beth stopped at Herrschners on the way home and let me run in “for eight seconds.” I came out with Hufflepuff colors of Plymouth Encore worsted, plus a size 1 circ to start a sweater for myself. He actually chided me for violating the Knit From Your Stash rules, but I would argue that since it’s for a continuing charity project and not for myself, it’s okay. (Note to husband: I do NOT have seven exemptions this year. I have been on probation since January 1 so I have been extra careful.) That means he’s paying attention, ladies. He also wants me to knit an afghan for him.

But I did look — in vain — for the purple sale yarn. I would have bought it, too.

Friday night (Saturday?) I got one column of T-shirt panels sewn up with their sashing, but the other nights were a bust. So I will try again tonight.

Oh yeah — I added a few more blogs to the Blogroll. (I didn’t take anything away.) And thanks, everyone, for the comments on the stitch markers! You know, of course, that you’re encouraging me to make more. God help me if I find any sheep charms to hang from the bottom; I won’t be able to keep from cranking them out then. I don’t wear jewelry, so…..

Stitch markers

Before we go househunting this morning…here is Ann’s terrific picture of the stitch markers I made for my Hogwarts Sock Swap pal. I don’t know what kind of camera she has, but it looks very similar to the ones Mr. Beth used to check out for magazine photography. She picked up detail you might not be able to see if you held the markers in your hand.

I used leftover wire from my wirework class (two years ago), 6mm jump rings, and these neat beads and charms from The Blue Bead. While I had all the tools and supplies out, I fixed my rosary, too. (No picture. I forgot to ask Ann, and the kids were running around poking at everything.)

Also, thanks to Stephanie for recommending my blog as part of another blog’s contest. (I’m sorry Steph didn’t win.) Not that I need to expand my blogroll, but the contest was a neat idea. I have to think of something fun to celebrate my 100th post (this is number 97, for whoever’s counting).

Wish us luck as we take four kids through several houses today!

Lots of potential

Didn’t you always hate seeing that on your report card? As in, you had some but you weren’t currently working up to it? Welcome to knitting. It will give you flashbacks like that all the freaking time.

Like, why can’t you finish a garter-stitch scarf? Makes a fine effort and then does not follow through. B-.

And, make the second baby sock already and then a pair of adult socks so you are not giving your Hogwarts Sock Swap Pal the first socks you ever knitted in your life. Truly, she is a nice person and deserves better. Fails to plan ahead for complex tasks. C.

Imagining several new projects before the old one have freed up the needles? Unable to stick to plans, daydreams instead of applying self to present task. D.

And taking nine months to make a T-shirt quilt is bound to get some extra commentary. Needlessly procrastinates. Afraid of success. Perpetuates self-deating fantasies. See me after class for conference.

Yes, I know and believe there are no Knitting Police. (If EZ said so and the Harlot says say, there is no reason to dispute it.) However, there’s always that inner Superego, critic, Editor, or deejay from radio station KFKD (thank you Anne Lamott) to tell you you’re doing the wrong thing, you’re doing the right thing the wrong way, you’re doing too much, you’re not doing enough and why do you bother doing this anyway?

Well, strange as it sounds, I am doing this because I love it. Sometimes love is a struggle. (Ask me how I know.) And with knitting, there’s always the frog pond, your knitting friends, and the LYS to help you undo, reset, and redo when necessary. The rest of life is a whole lot messier than this. (Ask me how I know.)

So, in the interest of looking at the carrot rather than fearing the whip, here are this weekend’s goals and some glimpses of future projects:

* Kitchener up the Moebius. Just do it.
* Cast on for the second baby sock. It’s the quickest pair you’ll ever make. The first one was perfect, so you have nothing to worry about.
* Keep plugging on the Charmed Knits hats. They’re quick, easy, and going to charity. Besides, when the book comes out you’ll want to make all the other patterns.
* Make a square for the Virginia Tech project. You won’t regret it. And since you have a cousin going to VT this fall, consider making her something comforting.
* Start a project for yourself. I know, how about socks?
* Keep working the repeats for the Irish Hiking Scarf. Mr. Beth’s birthday is in July and Christmas is in December. You’re bound to finish it before one of those dates, and you know he will like it.

Now relax and start knitting something. It’s all good.

Oh…by the way…yes, we did surpass Comment Two Hundred. However, I want to put together a little gift basket for that person, and I haven’t had a chance to do that yet. I’m currently lurking on her blog trying to get a sense of what she likes. Oh, and it’s someone for whom I already have a mailing address. So I can shop and send, and she’ll be surprised, and she can do the reveal on her blog. Need any more clues?

And my One Hundredth Post is coming up rapidly. Maybe I should try to have everything off the needles to celebrate, so I can cast on for fresh projects. Any ideas? Oh wait….

Caution: Blog crossing

Well, it was bound to happen eventually, and now you will get two sets of photos out of it: the charming Ann K. visited me last night. We flashed stash, compared swap and sale yarn, talked about current and future projects and all kind of stuff, and then we took pictures!

Here is a picture I took, of Ann taking a picture of two of my kids:

She will surely have more pictures up at her blog, including pictures of us together (thanks, DH Bob!) but not including pictures of Colleen’s “knitting” demonstration. She also took the first good pictures of the stitch markers I made for the Hogwarts Sock Swap and will be e-mailing them to me. I can’t wait to show them off!

After she and Bob left and the kidlets were tucked into bed, I got to work on the T-shirt quilt, ironing fabric and cutting who knows how many strips (nod to Brian Regan’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich routine here). I took pictures of that, but it was very boring and hard to see where the cutting lines were. So instead, I took a picture of this, the quilt block that was missing from the layout the other day. The sweatshirt piece is just pinned into place here.

Then I put all that stuff away for the night. Tonight I will need to run the sewing machine and start putting it all together, and I don’t want to do it in the kitchen right next to where Tom is sleeping. Why did I move the dining room table back into the kitchen again? Dain bramage.

So then I popped in some Remington Steele (one episode and a featurette) and finished this:

I accidentally knit seven rows of gold instead of six, so increased each color section by one row, remembering how JC liked the taller hat last time. I cast on for another one almost immediately. While Ann was here I found, gadzooks, still more leftover Gryffindor colors, so I guess I will be cranking out these hats for a while. I may never get to buy Hufflepuff yarn!

By the way… if you want an improve kind of ball winder… one of those size 50 plastic needles (QuikStix?) makes a fair one if you already have one lying around. Leave a tail and start wrapping around, and in a while, presto, a centerpull ball of yarn. Be careful how you slide it off the big needle, though. It was easily remedied, but mine got a little tangled.

Back to the Harlot’s house to drool over her new sweater in progress!

And comment #200 is….

Still out there. A few more posts and we will have number 200, I’m just sure of it. Hey, if you knew exactly when it was coming up, you would cheat, right? But considering this site has had 2,544 spam posts since December 21 (thank you, Akismet spam filter), I don’t see that making a few legitimate comments would be that difficult.

As Manny says to Ellie, “I don’t want you to be with me because you have to, I want you to be with me because you want to.”

No quilting done last night, so today I need to test the iron. If it works, I need to press the fabric and start cutting sashing strips. I don’t want to think about what happens if my only iron doesn’t work. This is not the week I can just run out and get another one.

Oh, since Melanie asked, is anyone else interested in a step by step guide for making a quilt out of T-shirts? I’m not talking about just sewing T-shirts to each other like they do on Creative Juice (what fun!!!), I’m talking about an honest-to-God quilt that you can send off to college with your kid. I’m trying to develop this as a home business, so I could certainly put together a tutorial for those who can sew a straight line. It doesn’t even have to be perfectly straight, just reasonably so.

I got through the contrasting stripes on the wide-stripe Gryffindor beanie last night and just went ahead and put the whole thing on the dpn’s. I can probably finish it today while the kids are running around at McDonald’s. Oh, did I forget to mention today is an early release day? I’m not sure why. Just have to roll with it.

Now I really do have to go and clean. Miz Ann has been known to bring a digital camera when she goes visiting with her knitting friends.

Keep those comments coming — I really do want to send somebody something!

Processing…

Ha, just a bone to throw to all the geeks out there. Trust me, I should know. And may I present to you, the latest member of the Geek Squad!

Just when I was starting to doubt the whole Founder-of-the-Geek-Squad post, the T-shirt arrived. JC was thrilled beyond words. He said “I can’t believe Robert Stephens would choose me to be a member of the Geek Squad!” Which just goes to show he doesn’t have any idea what a geek is, or how much of one his mother used to be still probably is.

But here is evidence I took the rest of them to the park as well. I felt a little guilty in the morning when I drove by a park and heard the following conversation:

Jack: “Mom, can we go to the park?”
Colleen: “No, we can’t, Jack, it’s too windy.“

So here they are. Everyone got to run and climb and swing. (Except Tom, but he got to drink their lemonade when they weren’t looking.) And I knitted a little.

I worked on the Gryffindor beanie. I wasn’t happy with the sloppy way I had been carrying the colors up the inside, and I decided to frog it back. Then I looked at the needles I had in the project bag and realized I had forgotten to switch to the larger needles anyway. Two reasons to frog. So I pulled everything out until there was one row of gold stitches peeping out above the burgundy ribbing and I thought, Perfect! Can’t miss those stitches. (This turned out to be an Excellent Idea.)

Then I started putting live stitches back on a needle. Got about a dozen on before I saw I was putting then back on the smaller circ again. Took them off and managed to get them on the correct needle this time. I had a feeling they were all twisted, but I just wanted them all to be going the same way. And when I knit them up I realized, yes, they were all twisted and no, it wasn’t going to make any difference at all to anyone but me.

I’m not 100 percent pleased with the way I’m carrying the yarn up now, but I’m doing much better and I won’t have to weave those ends in. So I’m learning something.

After everyone was in bed I trimmed all the T-shirt panels for the quilt. I have one more panel to make, but since I’m machine appliqueing a sweatshirt panel to a background made of the sashing fabric, it’s not shown here (because I haven’t done it yet, that’s why, long story).

Then I proceeded to make the stitch markers for my Hogwarts Sock Swap pal. They came out OK, but then I took four pictures of them that are far too terrible to post. How do you take pictures of small things with fine detail with a digital camera? I guess I haven’t figured that out yet. Maybe I need to take it from across the room, then zoom in later.

Then I looked at my comment count a little closer, and decided to subtract the comments I have made on my own blog. If everyone flurries in some comments we will still have a winner today, so go for it! I will send #200 a little treat.

And oh! The lovely Ann K. will be visiting tomorrow night to sit and knit and chat. So perhaps I should tidy up just a bit.

197

I just noticed that there have been 197 comments on my blog since Day One. The eloquent firefly was the first, who will be the two hundredth?

I can’t take it back, it’s already out there

And boom, the HOT box will be leaving Stevens Point today. I sent it out via a gift-basket shop, so it will look much cuter and cleverer than I could manage. And guess what, the lady who prepares the gift baskets is a knitter. The non-cyberspace variety, so she’s really tickled at this project. I promised to bring the box over to show her when it gets back to me.

There’s no new knitting to show, but maybe Pierce and I will get to work on something tonight. Oh wait…it’s Quilt Week. Well, I will take pictures of that. Aren’t sashing strips fascinating?

And I would like to issue an open invitation to Central Wisconsin knitters to visit the Portage County Cultural Festival on Saturday, May 5. There is so much going on, and it’s free, and I can’t even start to describe the whole shebang. But follow the link and maybe you’ll see that one of the features is a spinning demonstration by the wonderful people at Mielke’s Fiber Arts in Rudolph, from 10am to 5pm. I do not know them personally, yet, but they are the people I want to take spinning lessons from, and I want to go to the festival so I can watch the demo.

Unfortunately, that very date is one of the rare times that Mr. Beth’s work travel overlaps with my weekends with him, so I will be alone with the four kids all weekend, which makes going to something like this kind of… logistically challenging. So if you’re going or interested in going, maybe we could meet up and you could help me keep my kids in line meet my darling children. I’ll buy you lunch… and believe me, the lunch options at this event are staggeringly diverse, and all good. If you’re interested, just comment and I’ll get back to you.

Oh, and Monica? Thanks for keeping me honest, but I’m allowed to buy sock yarn. However, unless I start making socks with it, I won’t be able to justify it any more.

Phones down

OK…I have eleven people on the circulation list for the HOT (Harlot On Tape) Tour. I am handwriting out all the directions and miscellaneous stuff, and now have a little knitting to do before I will feel ready to put it into the mailstream tomorrow morning.

The Box will start in New York State and make its way south, then west across the country. Everything you need is inside. If you are on the distribution list and you have any questions, just e-mail me.

In other news, we made it through First Communion (I cried, I cried). Here is My Boy all dressed up standing next to his banner.

And for those of you who have been waiting to see Thursday’s sock yarn purchase (you know who you are), here it is.

And today? Well, no actual knitting (and everything I got done on Saturday on the wide-stripe Gryffindor beanie I will probably frog), but since I got 7 ounces of undyed wool from Lauren on Saturday, I went out today to buy a small spatterware kettle for the Kool-Aid dyeing. There was a full-canning-size one at Goodwill for $4, but it had rust patches on the bottom, and I just felt that it was something that was A Bad Idea. So now I have a new one from Target for not much more (although it is smaller), and a heatproof resin pasta server I thought would be good for the process, and 8 packets of Cherry Kool-Aid. Still haven’t tracked down the Black Cherry I wanted, and thinking about switching to Grape. (I want a purple-red variegated color.) I don’t know when I will get to this, since I need to be in Quilt Mode this week, but I’ll definitely take pictures and welcome your hints and suggestions about Kool-Aid dyeing.

Swap completed!

Well, technically, it won’t be for a few days. But since I shipped out some make-up yarn to Stephanie in Maryland this morning after receiving a box full of KnitPicks, I think the cycle is complete. Whew, that was thrilling, wasn’t it? And I was surprised to see the blog hits go up while we were actively trading yarn. Yarn voyeurs, who knew?

I did absolutely no knitting last night…just took the KnitPicks out of the shipping box and counted yardages and compared them to patterns I want to knit up. I’m wary of converting both yarn and needles for someone else’s design, so it might take a while to find the perfect pattern.

More yarn is on the way…undyed, from Rancho Laurena. I went all over town to find the new issue of Spin-Off for their cover story on dyeing with Kool-Aid, only to find out it’s not really about dyeing with Kool-Aid. But Knitty (once again) seems to have already run the perfect tutorial on how do it, so no worries. Except for finding the Kool-Aid. I know where it is, but can you blame me if I don’t want to drag three or four children in with me to get packets of Kool-Aid.

I did sneak out to a “local” yarn store yesterday and get some sock yarn. Pictures later.

Oh yeah, I’m still taking names for the Harlot tape (which has one more KG episode on it as of this morning, hooray). We should ship on Monday, starting with the East Coast. If you still want in, just comment through Sunday night.