I’m going to hit you in the head

Today’s post title has nothing to do with anything, except that I have an exceedingly charming 3.5 year old son who has been making this statement to me with such regularity that I don’t even duck any more.

Jack the Wonder Twin has been three and a half for about a decade. I look at his older brother, who does seem to age, or at least move from grade to grade, to remind myself that three will become four, four will eventually become five, and at some unknown point all the years will pass by in a flash and I will be sitting in my rocking chair wondering where the time went, and missing all those carefree days….

….being threatened with assault five or six times a day.

We really are trying to reach the “gentle Jack” part of his personality, but to be honest, it’s really a hit-or-miss proposition. I have already apologized to the preschool teacher for next year, but promised her that Tom will be worth the wait.

Anyway.

CHRISTMAS!!!

It was Christmas Day before I realized that I had, without realizing it, knit scarves for my father, my son, my husband, and my brother. Wowzers. K2TOG, eh? I also knit for my brother’s puppy, who I didn’t get to meet, but my brother seemed to be really impressed, so that was cool too.

Father-scarf: Acrylic (Red Heart from stash), One-Row Harlot pattern, grey with three narrow scarlet stripes at each end. (Go Bucks!) Note to Others: Harlot’s pattern is not reversible when you add stripes. Leave an end unwoven before you make the second set of stripes so you remember which side of the scarf is the front. I touched it before I headed home and was told, No, you’re not taking it with you.

Son-scarf: Wool (Cascade 220), Ravenclaw House Scarf from Charmed Knits. Got an “oh wow” but he doesn’t seem eager to wear it. He did ask for matching gloves (yes, gloves) and there’s enough yarn left over so why not.

Husband-scarf: Wool (Plymouth Galway Colornep), Irish Hiking Scarf. He loves it and wants a hat.

Brother-scarf: Acrylic (Grey Heather Wool-Ease), my own design. This was the garter-stitch piece with the stockinette columns that spelled out his name in Morse Code. One narrow red stripe at the beginning, two at the end. If he ever loses it, it will be easy to prove that it’s his. Presuming, of course (as he pointed out) that anyone else knows Morse Code.

Now, let’s see… my haul… my dear dear husband surprised me with The Little Box of Sweaters and (without knowing it had been on my Amazon list for two years) Zen and the Art of Knitting. Which isn’t at all the book I thought it would be, but I do enjoy it very much.

And my woodworking dad… built me an umbrella swift out of oak, cherry, and mahogany. It is a beauty and I have it clamped to a bookshelf near my computer so I can just reach out and touch it. Oh my goodness. I thought maybe he would make me a niddy noddy but when I saw this I was in shock.

So. What am I working on now? Well, for an extra present for my husband I cast on for socks for him on Christmas Day. I’m at the point on the foot now where I know I won’t have enough yarn to make it to the toe without breaking into the next skein. Which means I’ll have to find another batch of yarn in the same dyelot to finish. They’re Patons Kroy, the jacquard pattern in tans and blues. Not really his style, but it’s a motivation to me to whip through a pair of socks and soak up some mojo. (Harlot basic sock recipe.)

I also decided to make him a wool hat (last year’s acrylic hat was too big and of course couldn’t hold its shape) and wondered what Knit One, Purl Two would actually look like in the round if you knit it on stitches that weren’t a multiple of three. (I picked 64.) It’s pretty nice so far but I think way too small for him. But it will fit someone!

Oh yeah…while I was visiting my parents I knitted a mitten for Jack, finished the Big Secret Project, and started that sock. While traveling to my parents’ I worked on the Packer Hat and got the Fair Isle lettering done. Now I just have to knit myself out of a corner (more on that in another post) and knit the top of the hat, then pick up stitches for the brim. No prob, Bob.

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Blogiversary Day

Well, this is my official first birthday of my blog. Someone mentioned in the comments that they thought I had been blogging longer than that.

That’s sort of true.

A few years ago, upon being threatened with having to go work at Target, I came up with a Master Plan for working from home. I created an entity called Wisconsin Crafter, which would be an e-mail newsletter covering craft-related news and events across the state. My quilting group signed up, and I was off.

I started with events in Portage County and gradually added more areas. I subscribed to every mailing list I could find, and had signup sheets at a couple of relevant shows. By the time it became nearly unmanageable, I had about 150 people on my mailing list. It was a little challenging, but really fun.

Part of my newsletter was what I called “Beth’s Luddite Blog.” I wrote a few lines almost every day about stuff that was happening, and put it at the end of the newsletter in chronological order. I did an “Editor’s Message” too, which was a little longer; I have posted a couple of them on the blog.

The next phase of everything was the great Wisconsin Crafter website. It had an events calendar, forums, private messaging, photo albums, a real blog, book reviews, and all kinds of other goodies. Somehow it just didn’t take off the way the newsletter had, but it was definitely easier to do than the newsletter (thanks to the hard work put in, mostly gratis, by my IT guy, who has my everlasting gratitude — see below).

Phase Three was blogdom! Now we were on to something. Free, quick, easy, fun, all that good stuff. And WordPress gives you statistics out the wazoo, which is exactly how I like it. That all started a year ago. I left witty comments on other blogs until, voila! I somehow attracted the six loyal readers I have today. Thank you all!

Wisconsin Crafter isn’t dead at all, but the website is being completely redone (cf. IT guy above, still mostly gratis, thankyou thankyou thankyou) to turn it into a more corporate site for the small publishing I plan to do. The first project is big, really big, but I need to just buckle down and get it together during January, then I’ll be all ready to promote it. And I get smaller project ideas all the time, like knitting pattern booklets and coffee table books about quilting. I hope to have a shopping cart there someday, as well as solicitations for manuscripts from outside writers so I can work as an editor and publisher instead of trying to write everything myself.

But that’s just my odd blogging history. If it seems I’ve been doing this for more than a year, there’s a good reason. Maybe as I stagger under self-imposed deadlines next month, I’ll pull a Lynn Johnston (a la For Better or For Worse) and present “vintage” blog entries from time to time. Children were born, knitting was learned, quilts were started and finished. It was a good time.

Thanks for sharing my crafting with me!

Today’s Impossible List: Pack for a weeklong trip, prepare road snacks, clean the house, prepare the knitting for a weeklong trip, take the dog to the kennel, make a fantastic dinner using everything that must be cooked up before we go (pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, and fancy mushrooms and onions?), and go to Knit Night.

And knit and knit and knit and knit….

Merry Christmas!

Wrapping up

It’s that time today — time to wash everything, clean up everything, and bake everything, so that tomorrow we can pack everything and be ready to hit the road in the early morning. Last night I finished the Ravenclaw scarf. I think that’s all the family giftknitting, unless I uncover some long-lost to-do list somewhere. But frankly, I’m not looking very hard for something like that. There are far too many other things to do.

I could have used some knitting this afternoon. I had the brilliant idea that instead of hauling the little ones to the school Christmas concert tonight, I would just take devil child Jack and Tom along with me when I took Colleen in to a dress rehearsal. Of course, what I really needed were EXTRA hands and arms, not fewer.

It was so embarrassing. Jack hollered and howled and said inappropriate things, everyone wiggled all over, nobody lifted a finger to help me. I know the world doesn’t revolve around me and I don’t expect a red carpet under my feet wherever I go. But I was obviously struggling to carry 60 pounds of boys out the door at the end of things, with my purse slipping off my arm and my daughter unable to push the door open. I wish I had a “Mass mentor” to help out with stuff like that. If anything ever happened to Brendan I wouldn’t be able to go to Mass for the next ten years. I’m barely able to attend now.

On the plus side (?), I saw Little Miss do her thing, and all of us who went can stay home and out of everyone’s hair (and sight) during tonight’s Real Thing.

Then we can stuff them all into bed and finish the final presents and wrapping and baking and slicing and bill paying and pre-packing and I don’t know what-all.

Maybe I can get some alpaca sock yarn wound up, too. What do you think of a cuff made from K1, K1b on an odd number of stitches in the round? Would it act like ribbing? Or would it just look pretty as it slid down a calf?

Finishitis outbreak

This house is wholly contaminated with finishitis, so if you’re in need of a little mojo just raise your hand.

Yesterday it was the Red Scarf. Once I figured out who I wanted to give it to, it sped along like a banshee. Now it’s done, washed, blocked (it turned out to be just 50% wool but what the hey, it was curling, it was worth a shot), rolled, and stuffed eased into a container and almost ready for giving. Just needs a tag and a bow.

Today it’s the Ravenclaw Scarf. All knitting is essentially done. I just need to bind off the stitches, knot up all the joins, and sew the ends shut. The pattern calls for fringe on each end, but I don’t think that’s essential for boy Ravenclaws, do you?

In addition, I finished the T-shirt quilt on Friday, and it was shipped out to the recipient today. Picture… eventually.

Now I’m cranking on a Secret Project that I’ve had going for a while. I have six skeins of yarn to go, and just switched from Skein One to Skein Two.

And now that I’m thinking about it, I think I only have four projects on the needles right now — the Secret Knitting Project, one acrylic mitten (waiting for me to learn mirrored increases for the thumb gusset), the Packer hat, and Tyrone. I’m not making any predictions, mind you, but it sure would be nice to get each project over the little hump that it’s on, and have everything off the needles by the end of the year.

That still leaves me with three quilts to finish, though, so maybe I’ll need to come up with another plan.

For the new year: Mr. Beth has proclaimed that I am not permitted to cast on for anything that does not start with S-O-C. Loopholes, anyone?

Three sides live

Yesterday we had a snow day. It was the kind of day that (apparently) makes kids think that whenever there is snow on the ground, there won’t be school. It didn’t look bad at all in the morning, but when the Eldest came running back to the house, we began to think something was up.

“Mom! Dad! This guy in a purple car said there’s no school today!”

After telling him not to trust everything told to him by guys in purple cars, we turned on the TV and the radio and eventually heard that school would indeed be closed. This isn’t as simple as you think. The school told us that cancellation news would be on the Madison radio and TV stations (no call letters given), and if we lived in Jefferson “proper,” I’m sure that’s how we would have found out. But our phone exchange and cable package are actually tied to the Milwaukee area, so it did take a while for the news to come across.

We’ll become better parents eventually. I swear, someday we will.

Meanwhile, with everyone at home (except for Dad, who hoped in vain that he would get a snow day) we watched as the snow started to fall, then changed to freezing rain, then switched back to snow and piled on. At about 3pm it all stopped, and I got out the snowthrower to help our landlords with our driveway. They even rescued our mail from the mailbox, which had been knocked from its perch earlier by the snowplow.

Knitwise it wasn’t a good day for catching up. I’m chugging away on a Secret Project of a new type to me, the kind where the stitches increase and increase and increase until, whammo!, you’re done. I’m not up to Whammo yet. And since I have several more skeins to add before I get to Whammo, I’m pretty sure it won’t be a Secret Christmas Project.

Something happened on Ravelry a couple of days ago that I thought was pretty funny. Some knitters were kicking around the idea of an Elizabeth Zimmermann KAL with her Knitter’s Almanac, and I mentioned that I was going to be pretty busy in January (writing a book and all), but if someone gave me a copy of the Almanac for Christmas, I’d jump in when I could. A knitter replied that she had two copies and would gladly swap one for something.

She lives in Devon. England. I live a few hours from Pittsville (WI), home of Schoolhouse Press. I wonder how many miles this book will have on it before it comes “home”?

I also checked out her blog. Note that we have the same spinning wheel except for the finish (mine is more like honey). Ain’t Ravelry fun?

But here’s the Really Big News: Last night I finished the third side of the T-shirt quilt. In order to make it easier on my back, I kept the quilt folded up except for the part of the binding I was sewing down. It brought the work closer to me and, apparently most importantly, I couldn’t see how much further I had to go until I was almost done. At that point, I had five inches to go, and couldn’t not finish.

One side left, vacuum gently, press the binding edges down, pack and mail.

Piece of cake.

And did anyone catch the Anthony Bourdain Holiday Special the other night? It was a riot, especially if you’re the kind of person who thinks The Ref is a good Christmas movie. If you can’t catch this On Demand, or in a rerun, I’m so sorry. It was extremely snarky and rude, and very very funny.

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Halfway around

Three cheers please, last night I made it across the second edge of the T-shirt quilt. So, the top and bottom have their bindings sewn down (with some fudge room at the corners where I’m not sure how the final finishing will go). SO, I have to pin down the other two sides and keep cranking, then it’s back to Christmas knitting full time as soon as I get that quilt in the mailstream.

Next month I am putting knitting on hiatus (except for mittens) while I put together an even more important and long-delayed project. However, since I’m one of those poor unfortunates whose soul feels she can cross it off the list as soon as she’s talked about it, I don’t dare talk about it. When it’s done I will be promoting it heavily, so don’t worry, I won’t let it pass you by.

So, hmm, what else is there to talk about? This week has, so far, been about tragic losses. Not mine, but people I am just one link away from in the Kevin Bacon game. A beloved pet, a newborn baby, a classmate from high school. Love and pain are being all mashed together, and that’s not even counting the tragedies I’ve been finding out about on blogs.

I don’t have any answers. I just wish I could knit faster, and I wish that knitting faster could heal the world.

Upcoming dates

Tonight: The All-Night Knit Night, or whatever they’re really calling it; you would have to check the store’s calendar here, at the Sow’s Ear. I have already been out on the roads today (long story; let’s just say I had a lot to atone for, and I did all my atoning this morning), and while I think I will stick to the bigger thoroughfares, I’m still planning to go. With knitting, a DVD, pajamas, a beverage, a book to return, and goodness knows what else. I think there will be more than one bag.

And I’m not even staying overnight…. and you should hear Dale-Harriet. I swear that woman is about to burst!

Some significant dates are coming up. Little Miss is turning FIVE next weekend. Great Gosh A’Mighty, FIVE. (I will spare you the birth story but it actually was pretty funny.)

And…my first Blogiversary is coming up too, on December 21. That is ever so slightly before I’m outta here for the holidays, so instead of a contest or a giveaway, I’d like to request that if you’ve ever visited this site on a regular basis, please leave a comment to say hi. I look at my blog stat numbers and think “wow” but most of the comments are from the same six or seven people (whom I love dearly, thank you very much). I’d like to get a peek at some of the others, if that’s not asking too much.

Knitwise, I got all those pesky ends woven in the other day, started another mitten in boy colors this time (still acrylic), kept cranking on the (shh!) Ravenclaw scarf, screwed up the Red Scarf (I think I fell asleep while knitting) and actually got the old pictures out of my digital camera and onto my computer. I think Tsarina Lisa will be holding my hand to help me rectify my imageless-blog situation soon. Goodness knows she’s trying her best.

Time to go peek at Ravelry for just a second (yeah right), re-pack my stuff for tonight, and pace around the house in anticipation until my husband kicks me out.

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Getting there

I bound off a project last night. Woo-hoo! Then I started weaving in the ends. Grr this acrylic, it’s never going to felt together like wool. And once I finished one end, I was all excited until I counted the ends on the other end of the scarf. Eleven. Thank you, STRIPES. But I can take care of all that today and it’s one more present completed.

It also means I didn’t work on the quilt. So I *must* get back on the quilt bandwagon tonight and press on, hard.

In the meantime, the kids are shocked (”shocked, I say!”) to discover it’s COLD outside and the WIND is BLOWING. This will be a long and entertaining winter, for sure. I am looking forward to when they finally accept the concept of layering. (”Long sleeves? But Mom, I’ll be wearing a jacket!” “I don’t need gloves, I have pockets!”)

Three of my four children were, indeed, born in Wisconsin. I was one of those “uphill both ways to the bus stop” kids back in rural Ohio and you’d think being raised in Wisconsin would help pass that right on. Apparently, they’ve had it too easy.

But they also have a half day today. So Little Miss gets home as usual around 11:45, then Eldest is dismissed at noon and we’ll see how long his bus takes to get here. Usually about an hour. We’ll see how much I can get done on Secret Projects before they start arriving.

Oh…. did I mention I knitted a pair of mittens this weekend? Everyone was impressed. And now all the boys need pairs, too!

P.S. I just remembered my LYS dream from last night. I was just looking for a pair of straight needles in the most disorganized yarn store ever! I think things were arranged by manufacturer, all far away from each other. There was a deli or something in the middle of the store. The colors of the needles and the yarns were beautiful, but for goodness sake, why have a dream like this??? It was so frustrating! Ever have an LYS dream? “Tell me your dream, and I’ll tell you what it means.”

What killed my blog?

No, it wasn’t the 125 spam I accumulated in the last few days (see interesting one below).

No, it wasn’t my visitors last week.

No, it wasn’t the laundry duties. (Excuse me while I laugh.)

No, it wasn’t Ravelry. But I can see why you might think so.

I think it was… the Christmas knitting.

Some of it is done. Some of it is almost done. Some of it is languishing, almost forgotten, hidden from Certain Peoples’ View (thus explaining why it has been almost forgotten). Some of it is waiting in line to see which project is chosen for this week’s Late Night Knitting at the Sow’s Ear. This is the first scheduled all-night knit but I don’t think I will be staying even close to that long. 11pm is late enough for me!

Maybe the quilt is killing part of it. I’m hand-sewing the binding, and have finished one of the short ends. It’s a squarish quilt, so the short ends aren’t much shorter than the long ends. So while I’m under mental pressure to finish these giftknits and Secret Special Projects and such, ahead of time to allow for shipping in most cases, I also have to remember to crank on this quilt even though it isn’t really enjoyable at this point. At least it’s not difficult. But the only real enjoyment will come with the final stitch. Then I will vacuum the stray hairs off it, pack it lovingly, include a Christmas card, and ship it out.

Then I can get back to the giftknits again…..

And, in the back of my head, a small voice gently whispers, “Socks. Socks. Socks. Socks for you and your husband. Waikiki footies. Chocolate brown Merino socks. Lace socks….”

My mojo is calling, and my phone is busy. It figures.

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