A wedding and a funeral

I’m still here, but my priorities got changed for me over the last couple of weeks. I can’t even remember if I’ve gotten any knitting done since the last post — did I mention I finished a Doctor Who Scarf, all but for the fringe? — because real life sort of took over.

My brother got engaged, and I knitted his fiancée a pair of Bronte’s Mitts fingerless mittens in alpaca for her birthday. So I guess I did finish something! They arrived on her Actual Birthday and she likes them.

Bronte Mitts for Lydia

Then school started — all four kids on the bus at the same time. I waited twenty minutes, then dashed off to the coffee shop to celebrate with the other local moms I hadn’t seen all summer.

Then it was the second day of school. It wasn’t memorable until midnight, when we got a call to tell us there was a tragedy and school was cancelled for Friday. There were no details, and I spend the night tossing, turning, and sporadically searching the internet to figure out what had happened. It was 10:30 the next day when I discovered that our principal’s only son had been killed in a car accident after their car was struck by a suspected drunk driver. Treyton was a classmate of my middle boy — they were just six years old. It took me hours before I could compose myself to tell my children what had happened. It was a long and angry weekend for me, with my husband away and my kids grieving and venting at their completely different developmental stages.

On Monday we had a little family cookout, and on Tuesday it was time for school again. (“How was school today, Jack?” “Treyton’s dead.” “Yep.”)

On Wednesday school was cancelled for Treyton’s funeral. And although his mother made a passionate and moving 19-minute eulogy that would make anyone set their drink down and call a cab, I won’t embed it here. I heard it live, but it’s very hard to listen to. If you want to find it for yourself — particularly if you’re struggling with the issue of drunk driving or other bad choices at your house — go to www.todaystmj4.com for “Raw video: Treyton Kilar’s Eulogy.” I don’t know how long it will be available. If you know me via Facebook you can find it on my wall.

On Thursday I was taking my youngest son into town with me and he asked, “Mom, when is my next school day?” He goes on M-W-F and had already missed an F, an M, and a W.

On Friday we were sort of back to normal, but now it was time for the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival (Hi, Lael!) and the final details for UNWIND, the Saturday night social event I’ve been coordinating for a few years now. I didn’t have any money to blow at the festival, so I was safe there. (I still have fiber from the last three years to spin up, anyway.) And the party seemed to go well — 113 guests, about 50 door prizes, and everyone got home safely. We’re doing it again next year and we’ll have more details soon. (The planning for next year went off like a shot when I delegated the venue and catering decisions to my friend Bonnie.)

Today was another normal old school day, but since the husband is away on a business trip through Thursday, there’s a lot more on my shoulders and I wish there were more time to knit. I’m working on a prayer shawl for Treyton’s mother, but the progress on it is somewhat unusual. I started a different prayer shawl pattern, but abandoned it after 1 row. This pattern was on the top of a stack of patterns I had printed out last April when my former father-in-law died, but I had never used it. I frogged the other project, cast on for the new pattern, and got a quick start. But now it seems I am called to knit only a few rows on it every day. The universe has made it clear that this is to be a methodical and meditative project.

I haven’t made the other two hats for the kids, but I did start a toque for myself as designed by my friend Dale-Harriet. I used up all the yarn she gave me and it won’t take long to finish it. I just have to wait until the next time we cross paths so I can get more Cascade, and I don’t know when that will be.

I’ll miss the next Late Night Knitting at the Sow’s Ear because the aforementioned middle son will be the ring bearer in a wedding that takes place this Saturday (the rehearsal is Friday night and we’re going to need it, trust me). We bought him a tuxedo for this, and he’s looking forward to it, but occasionally he does panic and freak out at stuff, so I’m a little tense as we get closer to it. I wonder how much weight I can lose in a week, just in case I need to go strolling down the aisle myself, hand in hand with a six-year-old.

That’s enough and I’m tired. I’m going to do some simple knitting and get some rest. Most of today, I’ve felt as if I was on the verge of some sort of episode, and I’m sure you can understand why.

Fiberrific

I wasn’t planning to write a post tonight, but I’m overdue, and besides, everyone is asleep. I might as well strike while the kids are sleeping. Who knows when one of them will have a nightmare and come running down the stairs? (I never know; without my glasses I can’t read the bedside clock. My daughter swears I lift the covers for her without even waking up.)

After the Marquette scarf got done and the first sock of the pair got done, not much knitting has been taking place. I started plugging away again on the Season 16 Doctor Who Scarf, but I haven’t cast on for the second sock yet. I was going to do that tonight, but then this German wine kind of got in the way of doing a good job of it. (Then I was going to watch two episodes of Torchwood, then one episode of Torchwood, but then it took forever to get caught up on Ravelry, so here I am.)

I did, however, cast on for a new project. That’s not as terrible as it sounds. It’s really something I promised as a Christmas present, so actually it’s about time I cast on for it. It’s a simple scarf, but I considered several stitch patterns before I found something I liked. And once I did, I loved it. I think I may have finally found a scarf that knits itself. I’m using the Baby Cable Ribbing pattern from the first Barbara Walker book. It’s an easily memorized four-row pattern that you could knit in the dark if you had to. I started the scarf two days ago, haven’t put in much time on it really, and it’s fairly galloping along. I don’t think it hurts that the yarn is 100 percent Merino either.

So. I have the Scarf, the Second Sock, and the New Scarf all going right now. (As soon as I get the Second Sock going, that is.) There’s another pair of socks lined up one the Retro Rib pair are done, but I promise that as soon as one of the Scarves is done I will start working on a WIP.

And you can vote on which one it is! Shall it be:

Tyrone, the striped bottom-up sweater stuck at the raglan decreases? Since October 2007?

The Irish Hiking Scarf in cursèd yarn from Mystical Creations? Three skeins (at least) to go!

The Gullwing Lace stole in silk yarn I bought for myself last Mother’s Day?

Or, the Denim Sweater I started in November for NaKnitSweMo and didn’t even finish the crew neck? I might have enough yarn for the whole sweater, but I’m not sure.

Every vote counts. Each commenter can cast as many as ten votes — all for one project, or split them up however you like. Clearly, my own inclinations toward the next project cannot be trusted.

———

In other news, I have registered for a spinning retreat being taught by Judith MacKenzie McCuin. Naturally, I am preparing for this by spinning up fiber that I am dealing with by the seat of my pants. This works fine for the Wookie fiber, which I would love to spin up and ply so I can clear off all my bobbins, but a few nights ago I decided to card and spin up some huacaya alpaca fiber samples. I got the majority of it spun, but then something happened with the take-up and the twist was just not getting into the fiber to make it strong enough to be singles. After a half dozen tries at dragging it back through the orifice to try to draft more fiber on it, I decided to leave it alone and finish when I was calmer. So now, I just hope to finish the huacaya, and prep and spin the suri samples, and possibly do the rest of the current bag of Wookie-wool before it’s time to hoist Maggie into the van and head to Columbus (Wisc.) for the retreat.

Is anything else going on? Well, Leah went home on Top Chef. About time. I am really getting to enjoy Fabio’s screen time, and Stefan’s skills.

Doctor Who is done airing the 4th season for the American audience, and true to form, they absolutely sliced and diced the season finale so they could promote Ashes To Ashes. Which even the Brits didn’t like. So if you watched the finale last weekend and wondered what all the fuss was about, ask me and I’ll give you links to where you can see what aired in the UK.

But Torchwood is coming back on soon, so I’m trying to catching up by watching Season 2 on Netflix. Trying and not succeeding tonight. Maybe tomorrow….

Prepacking

The last several days have been a whirlwind as we prepare for a just-longer-than-a-week road trip covering several states and generations of relatives. The hard prep work is now almost done: I think I have finalized my trip knitting.

Now, I just have to discover whether or not I have a week’s worth of respectable clothes. That can wait till tomorrow, I think.

In case I don’t have Internet access next week (The horror! The horror!), those of you on Ravelry can check out my notebook and see Actual Project Pictures and Actual Stash Pictures. Flickr proved a lot easier to finagle than WordPress image uploading was a few months ago, so I haven’t made the time to try again. Yet. Someday…..

I do have a couple of projects to almost cross off my list.

The alpaca triangle shawl is done except for edging. I really want to add an edging. I don’t know if this will be in crochet (which I don’t know how to do) or attached I-cord (which I haven’t done yet), but I have about 100g of fingering weight, chocolate-brown (of course), Peruvian alpaca to do it with. I wore the shawl around the house this morning, pinned with a section of fractured vintage knitting needle, with my matching fingerless mitts. It was so cozy — can’t wait till winter!

I am THIS close to finishing my second Hufflepuff mitten. THIS CLOSE. And it occurred to me while I was driving today, that I have been referring to them everywhere as Ravenclaw mittens. Maybe I wish I were a Ravenclaw? I really do know my Hogwarts color coding, honestly. Anyway, I just have to knit the tip of the thumb and weave in the ends.

Meanwhile, I’ve also been swapping yarn literally all over the world to score what I need to start a Doctor Who Scarf for my Ravelympics event. Yes, I understand this makes me a dork among dorks, but I have found my people and they usually think I’m funny. Some days, that’s enough.

I may not be able to post before August 4, but I have two knitting meetups incorporated into the vacation already, plus a trip to Knitters Mercantile (“The Merc”) in Columbus, so I’ll probably be okay. My travel knitting? Socks mostly, plus DH bought me the Nancy Bush Traveling Sock Knitter book I’ve looked at for two years now and never bought for myself. I might take yarn to start one of those patterns, especially the Welsh one.

Stay cool and dry!

What happens at Knit Night….

…stays at Knit Night, of course.

But the short version of last night is that we had a perfect storm of Wisconsin knitbloggers (ElizabethSABLE, Jaaladay, Dale-Harriett, Cathy-Cate, and more), a knitting ‘zine distribution (knitcircus #3), knitting tattoos (thanks Cathy-Cate!), delicious drinks, awesome projects, and a newbie who lent who lent structure to our evening. I wish I’d been wearing a wire so I could provide a transcript, but there was a lot that was Not Safe For Work, Not Safe For Children, or generally Not Suitable For Public Sharing. But all hilarious. If I get the chance to recall some of the evening, I’ll try to. We were a wild and naughty bunch hiding in the back room.

I handed out Ravelry badges and left 20 copies of the Second Sock Worksheet at the Sow’s Ear for distribution to whoever would like to help test them out. I also worked on my alpaca shawl exclusively and didn’t even take the Adipose project out of the bag. (Ironically, DH was at home watching most of the Doctor Who episode that included the Adipose; I still haven’t seen it.)

I’m still catching up with my Doctor Who viewing, but I don’t know how I’ll manage to see any of Series 4 before the finale on August 1. Series three, I should wrap up tomorrow night. Then I have less than a week to clean, plan, and pack for a multistate trip that will include a family reunion, two family mini-get-togethers, as at least two Ravelry meetups. If I can do some online viewing of Series 4, it means I won’t be sleeping. Just like now! But I really want to be aligned with the rest of Who-ville.

No other projects are getting attention now that I’m more than 80 percent done with the alpaca shawl (I’m conveniently ignoring the time it will take to make a crocheted  or I-cord edging, since I don’t know how long it will take). I need to mail at least one FO, and make arrangements to send out items for a swap so I can get the rest of my Doctor Who Scarf yarn. And I could probably finish the rest of my Ravenclaw mitten if I wanted to.

I haven’t even thought about my travel-and-trip knitting. Does anyone have suggestions for what WIPs I should take along? A week after I get back, the Ravelympics begin, and I’ll have a lot of simple knitting on my plate, taking my full attention. Then it will be time to really, really, plan that festival Afterparty.

Yikes, I’d better get busy! I didn’t know I was so far behind…..

Stuck in Stashville

It all started out innocently enough. There I was, on Ravelry (you can probably already see where this is going), and lo and behold some genius has come up with the Ravelympics. It made perfect sense to join Team TARDIS and sign up for the Scarf event.

Yeah, I’ll have no problem knitting a Doctor Who Scarf during the span of the Summer Olympics. I just have to locate the precise colors of discontinued yarn before the Opening Ceremonies, knit a little more than a foot of scarf a day for 17 consecutive days, and cast off before the Closing Ceremonies. No problem at all.

So I was trying to set up a swap for some of the yarn I needed, with a Ravelrer who recently finished her scarf and had leftovers of everything, when I had a brilliant idea. Since I needed to update my Rav stash listing anyway, I’d just take pictures of everything tonight and PM her tomorrow with a list of what she could pick from.

Ha!

I just now took 39 pictures of yarn and projects in progress (okay, one was completed), and I have three plastic bins of yarn I haven’t even opened up yet. Then there’s getting the pictures from the camera to the computer, annotating them, getting them to Flickr, getting them into Ravelry, and making sure all the stats match up. Then marking appropriate listings with swap/sell.

I have a feeling it’s going to take a little bit longer than my initial estimate of, oh, tomorrow.

But I do have some very nice things in the stash now. If only I could knit faster!

Current projects:

• Triangle garter stitch shawl, Classic Elite alpaca Inca Print in browns, more than 50 percent done. So you’ll recognize me at WI Sheep and Wool.
• Panda Cotton socks, both socks poised on the brink of heel flaps.
• Heelflap scarf, mystery pastel acrylic, stalled because it’s terribly boring. I joined on the next skein, which is super saver size, and looks absolutely endless. Funny though, while I was at the thrift store a few weeks ago I found a small ball of the exact same yarn for 10 cents. Of course, I bought it. Who else would need it?
• Gull wing lace stole, Plymouth Shire Silk, stalled for six weeks. Remind me before I start again that I finished the first row of the 4 row repeat.
• Hufflepuff Mittens from Charmed Knits, was going great until I had to frog the second thumb back. Then I remembered, I had the same problem with the first mitten.
• IHS from doomed yarn, still stalled. Lots of other items due first. See what a lack of a deadline for a personal item can do to you? I did wind up the rest of the yarn into centerpull balls, though. Yay me!
• Tyrone is still stalled too. That one needs an intervention.

I’m also making an Adipose for the legend-in-Doctor-Who-knitting-circles Mazzmatazz. So are 100 other Ravelry knitters. I want to get that done and sent in ASAP after this weekend.

However, I did finish a couple of items. A zigzag scarf for Mazzmatazz, a secret project, and a batch of 4 inch squares for a Doctor Who afghan to be auctioned off for charity. I sent those out this morning (along with Molly Bee’s and Crafty Peach’s) so that case is closed.

Huh. All these early morning storms have me wiped out. Couldn’t have anything to do with getting up already being up at 4am to watch Doctor Who, or wrestling three little kids 5 and under by myself this weekend (due to a curragh regatta in Columbus OH, thanks for asking), or this teensy glass of wine sitting next to the computer.

Let’s hope red wine goes well with Torchwood.

Breaking News!

Actually, I have lots of breaking news.

Number One. I met a deadline! Knitted three preemie caps and sent them off before the deadline. (I know!) This is part of the Knitters Cherish Life project, which grew out of a Ravelry group’s musings for a positive pro-life project. What did we do before Ravelry? I don’t remember.

Number Two. We had a blizzard last night, but it didn’t bring us any snow. If it did, that snow just kept going and is in Michigan by now. We just have bitter cold, frozen side streets, and no school.

Number Three. I cast on for a second sock. (I know!) Poor hubby has been so anxious for his second jacquard sock he has actually bought me more sock yarn in the interim between Sock One and Sock Two. Sock yarn for a different sock, that is. He picked up two skeins of Crystal Palace Panda cotton/bamboo (in Sable, and soft! soft!), and a set of Crystal Palace bamboo dpn’s. I have almost an inch of ribbed cuff so far.

Number Four. A fiberrific solution to the sagging U.S. economy, as reported here. Enjoy!

I’m pretty happy with my knitting right now. My list of FO’s for 2008 is longer than my list of things that need to be finished from 2007, plus things like un-knitted mittens for myself and Big Tom. There are a couple of hats sitting in the Think Tank, to be sure, but they’ll come out soon, I’m sure of it.

Stay warm — knit faster!

Missed me!

People, we had a tornado warning this afternoon. Even the Weather Channel folks were shocked. But the tornadoes in southern Wisconsin were still far enough south and east of us that Chateau du Chocolat was never in danger. We got a couple of downpours, but never even any thunder. Tomorrow’s forecast is for rain changing to snow, so you never know. (All our previous snow got melted off after three days with the temps in the fifties, so we are ready to have our snow back and say goodbye to this stinking wall of fog.)

This puts the kibosh on my plans to sneak out to JoAnn’s tomorrow and hunt down alpaca sale yarn. My mother found some at her local store in Ohio and wondered how much she’d need for a sweater. I’m still a little boggled at alpaca yarn being at JoAnn’s to begin with. If you are out and about in the next few days trying to score some, please leave a few skeins at the Watertown store for me.

I have finally made something with a little bit of my long-hoarded alpaca yarn (Classic Elite, Inca Print). Last night I started, and this afternoon I finished, one fingerless mitt. I love it, but I bound off the thumb a little tight, so it takes some work to get it on and off. I think the kids were more in awe of it than Mr. Beth was. It was a super quick knit that I just made up as I went. I started with the pattern from Wendy Knits, adjusted for a different gauge, then did my own thing until I got to the thumb gusset. Once I get some pictures taken, and uploaded, and posted, you can tell me how you think it worked out.

This violated the rule I had made the day before, about finishing a UFO before I cast on for something new. It was actually more of a guideline, really. And as I mentioned before, it was a really quick knit and maybe the UFOs won’t even notice as this project flies by like a limo on Chicago’s Tri-State Tollway.

Spam Post of the Day

This one gets a special award for honesty!

I feel like a void. So it goes. I haven’t gotten much done today. I just don’t have anything to say right now. Not that it matters. Whatever. Come look at the other.

Thursdays are for trips to the hardware store

So when Colleen turned to me last night, said, “Mama, what does this do?” and showed me the stretched-out spring that controls the bobbin tension on Maggie, my spinning plans for last night went out the window.

Instead, I watched a video on spinning (insomniacs take note), watched Top Chef, and wound up the alpaca yarn. Which took a lot less time than the two days it took to tangle and untangle it. It made an extremely tiny but soft ball. I want to make a hat out of it but don’t know the exact design I want to use yet. And I got to see my replacement Lantern Moon needles, sent out because the tips of the first set became discolored. Thank you Iris!

Today I need to get some Maggie supplies from the local hardware store: 30-weight oil, replacement tension springs (hey, maybe I should get more than one), that kind of stuff. Do any more experienced spinners have any suggestions for what I should keep on hand? Because Maggie was (ahem) pre-owned, I don’t have the Ashford maintenance kit. Perhaps I should try to score one of those… but my thrifty cheap side says, the hardware store will have everything you need. They just don’t know it.

I worked on Tyrone last night too. Got those sleeves sorted out. One had 39 stitches and the other had 43. It didn’t end up being as hard to even out as I had imagined. It was one of those things that was a little easier to see once it was all laid out on the [child-free] floor. And it sort of made sense, how to knit the sleeves on, but it was really difficult to do, in a way that makes me wonder if I have horribly fouled things up. It’s nearly impossible to get the needle tips in the right position for knitting. I think I will need to slip a second circ in there to do the raglan decreases. At this point I’m actually looking forward to backing it off onto dpn’s. Really lonnnnnng dpn’s.

Oh yeah, my stitch count doesn’t match up with Ann Budd’s, either. I wonder who’s right?

Almost alpaca

Yesterday I thought it would be a good idea to wind up the alpaca yarn scraps I bought at the fest, and cast on for a hat or something.

Yeah, right.

I was trying to move from skein to ball winder while I was also trying to call to set up a doctor’s appointment for Tom, waiting for a callback, getting a call from my husband, and fend off the Wonder Twins, who had decided that whever I was doing was ever so much more interesting than staying in the TV room and watching, well, TV. They also rather casually announced that the gate was down, something that I confirmed later when Tom crawled into the dining room, too.

The result was a tiny ball on the ball winder, snapped from the rest of the skein, a hand-wound ball on the other end of the skein, and a tremendous snarl in the middle. By the end of last night (MST3K: Hercules Against the Moon Men) I had it down to a rather smaller snarl. By the time JC woke up from a nightmare and hung out with me, it was a presumably single snarl.

With the wisdom of the young, he suggested that I set it aside until later. This may have been so I would find him a wool blanket more quickly; I’m not sure. But that’s what I did.

Tell me again why I think “cast on” when I look at a skein? There are so many steps in between, all of them potentially fatal.

No spinning to report, but I think an alpaca leader might be a good idea.

Knitwise, I resumed work on more tiny giftknits. Two more to go and I’ll take a picture and explain. No progress on Tyrone, either, but maybe tonight I will figure out how to get the sleeves evened up and attached to the sweater body.

P.S. I added a new page to the site: an editorial from the August 2005 issue of my now-obsolete e-mail newsletter. This predates my ability to knit. Enjoy the time traveling, and feel free to leave a comment on it.

Sheeped out

Today, after Mass, we went back to the fest again. Yes, again. I ended up taking the three Eldest because they’re not yet capable of watching a Packers game with Daddy in the proper manner. It’s a good thing they at least claim to like sheep and sheepdogs and yarn and spinning wheels.

Once again I did not take many pictures of the place itself, or the vendors. Molly Bee, who darted in and out on Saturday morning without so much as a by-your-leave, scooped up a beautiful spinning wheel and took some pictures, so I refer you to her.

Brandy and I met up again. I swear she must have just known when I would arrive because I was just loading kids into the double stroller and there she was. Thank goodness, too, because when it came time for me to hang with the spinning demo folk and try to inhale some good spinning karma she volunteered to take the Wonder Twins to see the sheepdog trials (“Mom, the dogs were chasing the sheep!”).

Total haul from the weekend:

* three bags “starter” spinning fiber from a local sheep named “Wookie”
* two knitted finger puppets: one black sheep, one cream alpaca to remind me of my herds-to-be
* “leftover” chocolate and cream alpaca yarn
* a rubber stamp depicting my exact spinning wheel
* a free issue of Sheep! magazine
* prize fiber for Michelle at Boulderneigh
* 4.5 ounces of Jacob Sheep roving, which I knew I would kick myself for not buying while I had the chance, so I bought it

Next year… I hope to have a booth there. There. I said it. It’s a formal goal now. And when I can tell you exactly why I will be there and what I will be selling… I promise that I will. If you live in Wisconsin, you will want to buy one. And until I get off my butt and work on that project, I’d better just leave it at that.

By the way, Sheep! magazine looks to be really good. I have worked on magazines, so I think you can trust me on this one. Based on what I have skimmed out of the current issue, I think my future herd will be just fiber animals, and not meat-market lambs. So let me know what you want to have spun up. I’m leaning right now towards Shetlands and/or Jacob sheep. They look like a manageable size, with naturally multicolored fleeces. I also liked the Lincolnshire Longwools, but they were Seriously. Huge. Animals. Might as well just have horses if I’m looking at shearing a 200+ pound animal.

Mass was interesting, too. Last week I ended up taking all four kids to Mass by myself. We sat in the back of the church and it was awful. Nobody smiled, said Hi, or ever offered to help with anything. And obviously I was struggling. But my attitude afterwards was, This is my church and I will keep coming, no matter what.

This weekend we got there late and couldn’t find seats together in the back. The ushers said they could find us a place.

Q: Where is there space for a family of six coming late to Mass?
A: Why, the front row, silly!

The front-of-church people were much more charmed by our little family, the choir was back in session, the organ was in use. Everything was better. And that’s when I remembered the reading from the previous week. It was the one that says, when you get to a special event, don’t seat yourself with the important people so that the host will come in and demote you. Rather, place yourself in a low station so that when the host comes in he will say, Friend, go up higher. Gulp. That’s kid of a scary text when you put it into practice.

Anyway, we made it. I think we’ll go back next week.

Now I’m off to bed. Last night I couldn’t sleep because my mind was busy trying to spin up the Wookie wool. Goodness knows what it will busy itself with tonight.