Hour Ten, plus a Contest

It’s not really the eleventh hour yet for this move…. since Mr. Beth is still sleeping, and all his grand plans for getting enough boxes to get everything packed can’t be put into action yet. But I don’t know when I’ll have another chance to post. So…..

I actually knit on the IHS last night. I’ve been trying to do one repeat a night, no matter what. It takes me between 40 minutes and an hour to do those eight rows, depending on what distractions I have. (See, I told you I was slow.) But I got it done, and I’m not sure I have enough yarn from the first skein to do a full repeat. So I’m very nearly half done with the scarf, except for blocking.

I love the pattern, and I love the yarn Mr. Beth picked out. It has little bits of color, but shows the cables very well. I think it’s going to look outstanding after it’s blocked. The only thing I wish I had done was to knit a couple rows of garter stitch before I started the actual pattern. I started this project a long time ago, and I think my cast-on edge looks rough. It’s a little too late to do it now! But if I make another one (and I likely will, since I’ve now memorized the pattern) that is how I will modify it.

Maybe I will host a contest!

Have you ever knit a pattern multiple times without changing it in some way? Tell us this wonder pattern! Or, tell us about your favorite pattern and how you have changed it so much every time that you think your name should be on the copyright notice. Be creative and you could win a prize: how about yarn or fiber from the WI Sheep & Wool Festival?

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Movewise, today’s goal is to pack the upstairs and move all those boxes (and five beds, don’t ask) downstairs so I can thoroughly clean the upstairs rooms. Also to bring the basement items up and store them in the garage. That way when our helpers come tomorrow to load the big truck, nobody will have to go up and down stairs. Aren’t we considerate? No such luck for the unloading crew on Sunday, I’m afraid, but at least we already know where everything is going to go.

I also have to take care of change of address, ordering new checks, and transferring all utilities to the new place. Ha!

I wonder who will be entertaining the children while Mr. Beth and I take care of all these necessary things? Oh, that’s right, they will amuse themselves. Without running in the house, opening the packed boxes, climbing on the packed boxes, coloring on the walls, fingerpainting on the windows, pulling the tape out of their favorite videotapes, poking each other, stealing each other’s favorite toys, drinking from each other’s cups, or looking at each other wrong. Not that they have ever done any of those things in their sweet angelic lives.

Good golly, I can’t even type that with a straight face.

Maybe this is the last post until after the move, maybe I will be able to sneak another in sometime. Regardless, I’m looking forward to hearing about your favorite (un)altered knitting pattern. If you’ve never commented before, this would be a great time to start!

Maggie May

Meet Maggie. I just brought Maggie home this afternoon and haven’t even put foot to treadle yet.

Isn’t she beautiful? She is an Ashford Traditional, and we’re still doing a bit of research to figure out exactly how old she is. Younger than I am, that much is certain. Kate came with her, and they’re quite a striking pair.

I don’t yet know how to spin, even on a spindle, so this acquisition is kind of hard to explain. I suppose if you’ve known me for a lonnnnnng time, it might look sort of inevitable.

For example, on my last visit to my grandmother, she said, “You like old stuff, don’t you?” and handed me my great-grandfather’s Mining Supervisory certificate, still in the original thick cardboard mailing tube sent to him in September 1929. They had to use a hifalutin’ FOUR cent stamp, can you believe it? Old stuff. Yup. Been in that tube for almost 80 years and now it’s mine.

When you consider the handknitting and the handquilting and the genealogy, a spinning wheel is pretty much in context. (Did I mention my all-too-brief volunteer work at a working 1880s farm, in costume and all?) Both sides of my family are riddled with cabinetmakers, woodworkers, and folks who made things themselves. The Macintosh excepted, my technological sensibilities lie most likely between Luddite and Mennonite. And if I’m going to raise sheep and alpacas for their fleeces, I’d better learn how to spin it up.

So. See you at the Wisconsin Sheep & Wool Festival in a couple of weeks. I’ll be coming in from just 20 minutes away from my rented country farmhouse, and I’ll be looking for fiber.

Mom, the ceiling fell down!

So, about 24 hours after using my knitting needles to make drain holes in the entryway ceiling, my kids ran into my bedroom and announced that the ceiling had fallen down.

While that description wasn’t entirely accurate — it was just a 12×24 inch or so chunk of the wettest part — it was certainly a Sign Of Things To Come. And it made me all the more grateful when I got a return call from the insurance-agency-recommended cleanup place.

They showed up at 1pm, and by 4pm the ceiling had been torn down, all insulation removed, rotted boards detected, the roof securely covered with a tarp, everything hauled out, and the carpet steam cleaned. It probably won’t all be fixed before we leave, but at least the beginning of the fix is here, and further damage has been thwarted. The entryway is a small space (6 by 8 feet or so), and the leaks didn’t affect the rest of the house. All things considered, it’s about the smallest terrible thing that could have happened, and the room was completely emptied before the ceiling collapsed.

I lost a lot of ground in packing, but finished the first section of Tyrone. You can see the progress shot on the Backyardiknits blog, here. Now to start the sleeves.

By the way, I seem to have plenty of image storage space over at the other blog, so I will cross-post whenever I put new pictures up there. 

This morning I had my first mammogram. The technician said that some women complained about the pain and said it was worse than childbirth. I have to wonder about what kind of birthing experiences they had. Even if you had to do it annually I think the temporary discomfort is nothing compared to chemo or radiation. So ladies? Git ‘er done.

Today’s surprise will be posted this afternoon or evening, with a picture, so keep stopping by.

Tuesdays are for enemas

I promise not to get into the details… but today’s errands are filled with paperwork and last-minute fixes as well as an actual enema.

Yesterday we discovered that the ceiling of the front entryway has been taking on water. It had been stained but we really didn’t notice it. Until yesterday, when I noticed the floor was wet and the ceiling was dripping. I used a German wooden knitting needle to poke holes in the ceiling to drain off the bulk of the water into a tub formerly used to hold Colleen’s toys. Today I’m off to the insurance agent’s to see if we’re covered. It rained all weekend, so I suspect lots of folks are having the same problem.

I also need to drop off paperwork at the real estate office. And finally I really do have to pick up a pediatric enema kit. Poor Tom, doc says he’s full of $#!%.

Knitwise, I just did the first round of the second orange stripe of Tyrone. I have a feeling that once I measure the work, I’ll be surprised at how close I am to needing to start on the sleeves. It all seems too small for Jack. At this point I’m just trusting the pattern. At any rate it doesn’t seem like it would be too hard to make the next sweater.  JC says, “Mom, you’re a very good knitter, and that’s what really counts.” (I have him completely conned. I think he just wants the next sweater.)

I haven’t picked up the Irish Hiking Scarf since Friday night. Maybe I’ll try to work in a repeat a night so it keeps moving along. I finally got an invite to join the IHS KAL, but it’s been so long since I started a Google account I’ll probably have to start another one so I can participate.

Tommy was up several times in the night, so right now he’s not sure if he wants breakfast or an 8:30am nap. I’m trying to stuff in as many calories as I can before he gives up.

Pictures later… and my big surprise tomorrow!

Aprés-fest

Pardon me as we dry out from Irish Fest. Friday night was perfect (although tempered somewhat by the fact that there was no wool, yarn, or knitting except for mine — I’m working on it), but Saturday it slowly started to rain and never really let up all evening. Sunday it was raining hard all day and we opted not to take the kids there, especially since most of them had already developed a cough.

I managed to miss both Molly Bee and the freckle contest at the same time, which made Saturday pretty frustrating. But JC recovered from his disappointment — eventually — and I’ll cross paths with Molly again, hopefully soon.

The big deal on Saturday, though, was the curragh regatta hosted by the Milwaukee club. After a slow start under cool and drizzling conditions, they won some races. They won the last official race, the one-woman race, which forced a three-way tie between the leading teams. Then they proceeded to win the row-off by picking another one-woman race. Milwaukee’s team used the same rower twice in a row, while the other teams picked fresh rowers. Kristin prevailed — she is an awesome tough woman — and basically won the regatta for us.

This video is from the Pittsburgh regatta but it’s still excellent.

Mr. Beth is still recovering from the beating he took in the boat during his two races. Skin is missing from all over his hands, and the rest of his body is covered with bruises. I can’t think of anything I can knit that would help with this, but I’m trying. (Mr. Beth gently suggests that I finish the Irish Hiking Scarf.)

We also visited our new [rental] house on Friday and saw one of the local Catholic schools and totally fell in love with it. It may turn out to not be the most convenient for us to use, but since that convenience depends on other factors, we’ll have to wait and see. I have a feeling we may not know which school we’re using until the first day of school.

Knitwise I cast on again for the BSJ but will have to check around to see where to put the stitch markers before I actually start knitting. There’s only so many times you want to cast on 160 stitches.

I did three or four repeats on the Irish Hiking Scarf during the driving and the sitting around in the curragh tent. I also knitted on Tyrone and I’m almost halfway done with the second blue stripe. Since I’m working from the bottom up, I’ll just knit the same amount of rows in each color change when I work on each sleeve. When I get to the joining row it ought to all link up. The Cascade knits up great, too. I hope it comes in Packer green and gold, because I’d like to use it for the bucket hat I’ve been asked to make.

We’re moving this weekend, so it’s time to start packing things up. AND…I will have a surprise for you on Wednesday. Picture included!

P.S. Complain to the right people and you get attention: look here. By the way, are there any other “My Boys” fans out there? I like this show for its good writing and good ensemble. I don’t think it’s a “girl” show any more than it’s a “sports” show even if it’s narrated by a female sportswriter. In fact, we started watching because Jim Gaffigan was in it. To me it feels like “Scrubs” about relationships.

Panicking, I mean packing

Doctor’s appointment? Check. Tommy’s OK and gaining weight again.

Kennel? Check.

Last-minute grocery shopping? Check, plus the fall issue of Interweave Knits. Though, the 8 year old called me on it — “What knitting project did you finish?” I told him I didn’t have time to look at it today anyway.

Now: pack the bags, wash the dishes, bake the cookies, put away the extra clothes, clean the house for the showing, and I think that’s it. Oh yeah, put the kids in the van.

Last night: rewound a skein of BSJ wool, but didn’t cast on. Realized this morning I should have cast on. Worked on a wee tiny giftknit. Knitted on Tyrone. Watched the last Doctor Who with Christopher Eccleston. Maybe it was because Tom was awake and crying then and I couldn’t hear every word, but I was left disappointed and sort of forlorn. So I popped in the next Remington Steele episode, which turned out to have curious and strong parallels to a time in my life I don’t really want to rehash. (Lots of good eye candy, though. I even rewatched a scene. Whew!)

I had to sit quietly and finish the wee giftknit to get myself to where I could sleep. Life is curious.

Back to our regularly scheduled panic. Where is a HHGTTG when you need one?

Irish Fest free promo: Get in free on Sunday by going to the Mass and bringing a canned good donation. After Mass (including singing by the Irish Fest Mass Choir [name may be mangled, sorry], of which my MIL is a member) you are free to go to the rest of Irish Fest. Have a Harp. Buy a harp. Dance to harp music.

Have a good ol’ Irish time and I’ll see you by the curraghs. Bring your knitting. (I was going to write “represent!” in Irish Gaelic but upon a cursory inspection of the Gaelic tongue, I will leave that to the scholars.)

Setting things right

Now I feel like I’m on the right track with projects again.

Tyrone: Cast on to the new needles (in a flash of good karma, the brand of needle I chose happened to be 50 percent off in an unadvertised sale) and I’m on the third row of ribbing. The Cascade is really nice to work with, but since I’m still in a section of yarn that’s been used for two gauge swatches and rewound, it’s a little splitty. I’ll bet the un-knitted section is just fine, and the color is grand.

BSJ: I frogged what I had, re-skeined onto the table legs from the cake, tied up the skein, and gave both skeins a lavender baby shampoo bath, rinse, and spin in the washing machine. (By the way, why is there agitation in the “soak” cycle? I nearly had a stroke as I rushed to turn off the washing machine.) The skeins hung up overnight to fully dry, but they’re still a bit damp. I want them to be perfectly dry before I wind them up. And start again.

Irish Hiking Scarf: Ready to pop into the Racing Knitting bag for work on the weekend.

I also have acquired a sort of commission piece, in which I’m going to try to knit a replacement for a Packer fan’s long-lost favorite hat. It’s going to involve searching for the right yarn, finding or creating a workable pattern, and stranded colorwork. I hope I can get it done before the end of the season. Look for updates as I work on solving this puzzle.

Irish Fest promo: The music is the main attraction for many. Today’s link goes to a band named Enter the Haggis. Seriously, how neat a band name is that? I don’t think I have heard them before, but I plan to listen this year. Personal connection: at our wedding reception, one of the dishes served was chicken breast stuffed with haggis. It got lots of compliments, especially from people who would have been appalled if they’d known what was in it. Did I mention we were married on St. Patrick’s Day? I probably should have.

What else is there? Oh yes, Doctor Who. With only three episodes remaining of the Ninth Doctor’s season, last night I watched two of them, grudgingly leaving the exciting conclusion for tonight. When, I just realized, it will have to wait until after Top Chef.

Will Howie finally get kicked off the show for being sullen, mean, and uncommunicative? Will Hung finally cook tasty food? Will Casey take another dip in the hot tub? The whole world is watching.

Gee your yarn smells terrific!

Whew! I finally got a gauge I liked for the Tyrone sweater — 5 sts/in. Unfortunately (you guessed it) I don’t have the needle length I need to cast on. Size 6 strikes again. So the morning errands today will include a Herrschners run, as well as a quick stop somewhere else to get some nice-smelling gentle soap for wool washing. (I wonder if they still make Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific?)

70s/80s Flashback!!

When you use / Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific / shampoo / boys say Gee, your hair smells terrific / to you

What a great ad campaign, huh? And we each bought a bottle, didn’t we? Tell the truth!

[Edit: you can buy some here! Who would have thought! No, I didn't buy any. I found a bottle of Johnson's baby shampoo with natural lavender and chamomile and thought, "It doesn't get any better than this."]

Back to knitting. After getting gauge for Tyrone without the proper needle, and realizing I didn’t have the soap I wanted to wash the BSJ wool, I went to plan RS and watched the first episode from Season Two of Remington Steele.

Exit Murphy and Bernice, enter Doris Roberts and a new opening. There was no marking anywhere on the DVD indicating that this would be a 90 minute special. Or was it two hours? Everyone was gorgeous, the adventure took place in Acapulco (with some grainy video that must have been file footage from the Acapulco Tourism Board), but the whole plot was terribly complicated and I got tired. (I know, I know.)

Slept through a riotous wind and lightning storm, and here we are.

Today’s Milwaukee Irish Fest link is to the Trinity Irish Dancers. You can’t go to Irish Fest without seeing a performance, a warmup, or just a flood of dresses and ringlets running to their next stage. The first time Colleen saw them she climbed on the picnic table and started dancing along. (Both my oldest think they can do Irish dancing. It’s a hoot and a half.) I don’t even try to dance… but my heart is dancing inside whenever I hear Irish music.

Yeah, show this

Whew! I got a call this morning at 9:30 requesting a showing at 11am. We did it, but man that was a stressor.

To introduce my kids to the country life, we spent the time driving out to the Saint Francis Horse Rescue, where I had intended to be a regular volunteer. Instead, I go out every once in a while and help out. It’s kind of a retirement home for horses who have not been cared for properly. Almost all the horses can be adopted or at least sponsored. There are dozens of volunteers who go out to the farm regularly to clean, feed, brush, ride, and everything else that needs doing.

JC and I groomed one of the horses, put hay in the hay racks in the barn stalls, and swept out one of the aisles. Colleen got to pet a couple of horses after we were done.

Sadly, just the previous day they had to put down Gypsy and another horse, who had colicked. Gypsy was almost thirty years old and a daughter of Secretariat. Yes, that Secretariat. You’d think she would have had a cushy life with proper care, but I’m sorry to say some people collect horses with absolutely no thought as to the care they require. Luckily she was found and got to have a nice easy retirement.

The baby blanket got delivered to the new grandfather (Mr. Beth’s boss) and got a good reception. I’ll make a separate little gift of the washing instructions and the extra yarn (about the size of a golf ball) for any future mending.

I wonder, can I sneak in a picture here?

Haha! It’s not a good representation of the color, but shows it behaving nicely on the blocking surface. And it’s an FO.

I swatched for the Tyrone sweater but didn’t like the 4.5 st/in I got, so I ripped it out and started over on US 6’s. Only after I ripped out every stitch did I think, maybe I could have just inserted the 6 and kept going. Ah well. I think I’ll like the 6’s better.

And I have pretty much decided to frog the BSJ, give the wool a little bath, and start over using this as a guide. Quickie Poll: Would it be all right to just wash the wool in liquid baby soap?

How to write the sorry letter for not paying

Yes, we have spam. And until I ran across the link I copied for my title (thanks, Mister  Shakespeare!), this was going to be my best-of (links removed):

Hello
I wish to suggest to visit to you [link]. Subjects of the given [link] search of a casino. Here you can find for yourselves the best and fair casinos. Free-of-charge bonuses and many other things. And simply to look that to a soul it is necessary. Very much I recommend search on pharmaceutics. Solid firms, quality of production.

Okay. Now that we have that out of the way…. there is knitting to discuss. Not a lot, but you know.

I started on the BSJ, I really did. The first thing I discovered was that I didn’t like the yarn I bought. It is fine New Zealand/Aussie yarn imported through a place in New Hampshire I’ve never heard of, but nevertheless, I don’t enjoy knitting with it. It’s stiff and almost crusty, like it’s been on the shelf for ten years waiting for a home. I can’t get gauge with it either. I knitted a swatch on size US 4 needles and only managed 5.5 st/in, shooting for six, but knitted myself some chain mail in the process. No way am I knitting this on 3’s. But I think it will soften up in the wool wash, and it’s a lovely variegated magenta, so I decided to press on.

Then I started knitting, and I know EZ said it would be strange, but it’s already so odd I might rip back and try again. I didn’t mark the stitches she said to mark because I didn’t know if I should mark The Stitch or The Space Before The Stitch, and now I have no idea where those markers would be. I’m not completely sure which row I’m on, either. That’s not a good sign.

To add to that, it was my first time doing a PSSO, and I didn’t know if I was doing that part right, either. Finally I searched YouTube for “knit PSSO” and found a demo that confirmed I was doing it just fine, but still. It looked like I was making bobbles on one end of the thing, and I know that ain’t right.

So there it sits until my head is clear. There my self-designed Dianne hat sits until I can figure out more crown decreases. There my socks sit until the kids are asleep and not distracting me. There sits a lot of yarn.

Today I hauled out my gauge swatch for Tyrone and got about three rows done (two knit, one purl) before I had to put it away again and Watch The Children.

Now, Mr. Beth and his buddies are off to the pub. 75 percent of the kids are asleep. And what am I going to pull out and work on again?

The Irish Hiking Scarf, what else???

Tonight’s shameless plug for the Milwaukee Irish Fest features the Canine exhibit. Within barking distance from the Cultural Village is an exhibit of Irish dog breeds: you know, Irish Wolfhounds, Kerry Blue Terriers,  Irish Terriers, Irish Setters, that sort of thing. They have demos and shows and the dogs are there all weekend, on display, with the owners answering questions. Check the link again later this week: looks like the full schedule isn’t posted yet.

And… what the heck are you people searching for? And how on God’s green earth are you finding this blog when you type in these things?

Search Terms Used To Find This Blog, Part II 

chocolate sheep poo
Oh please. This is not Dirty Jobs, where every other adventure is about poo. Yes, I have mentioned chocolate. I sometimes mention sheep. And yes, I have mentioned poo. But not in a row, people.

Tom Baker
I’m not worthy.

pictures of fly bites on sheep
??? Eww!

deathly things to do
At least I knew there this one came from. But as I haven’t done anything “deathly” in a while, I can’t help you there. [Reminds me of an operating system, lo these many moons ago, in which I was within a help module and typed "help." The system responded, "Can't help with that."] [I may have told this story before. Sorry. I am a geek and I used to be a bigger one.]

things not to do at Hogwarts
Let’s see…. irk Professor Snape? How about asking Hermione, she seems to know all then rules you’re not supposed to break. And when and how you actually should break them.

I hope you both get flies
Again, eww!

sully cake
Okay, two people used this search on the same day. What’s up with that? I actually had to look up Sully because I was thinking it was an X Files reference and I know I’ve never written about that. Then I saw a picture of a grown man in a Sully costume from Monsters, Inc. and thought, oh, right, the fun fur hat. What are the odds of two people having read this blog months ago, and all they remember is a fun fur hat and my son’s birthday cake from March?

Oh, for goodness’ sake.

P.S. to Mr. Beth: I’m very sorry I didn’t tell you I was buying a spinning wheel. I couldn’t remember if I had told you or not, and I thank you for your patience, love, and understanding when you found out about it by reading my blog.