The day before the travel day

What happened? Is it time to go? Where are my clothes? What am I taking?

Oh yeah.

I thought we were on track with getting ready for a week away from home, when I saw the 2-3 inches of wet snow on the ground this morning. OK kids, now I’m serious about the mittens and the hats and the scarves. And by the way, pick up a snow shovel on your way out. kthxbai.

There are a couple of knitting projects I really should be working on today, but in reality I’ll be doing dishes and laundry and making lists and packing for the kids. So any knitting will probably be just stress-release knitting. I started a little garter stitch scarf for my daughter that’s perfect in that role — filling the Garter Stitch Void where the Doctor Who Scarf used to be. (I’ll probably start another one after Christmas, if there is anything after Christmas.)

We currently have 20 Connor Caps logged in here at Hat Central. Today’s the last day I’ll be receiving mail before the deadline of next Monday. I’m preparing myself hoping for an onslaught of the remaining 180 hats then, when I go to the post office to pick them up.

If you haven’t emailed me for my address before 2pm tomorrow (Tuesday), just contact Sara (Spitfire) at the email she left in the comments, and she’ll get it to you.

And while I’m gone, try a visit over here. Apparently I have a German twin! When I update my blogroll in 2009 I may well make a separate section for Chocolate Sheep sightings around the world. If you see one, please let me know about it!

Yesterday I purchased a 66 qt. plastic bin, 200 feet of clothesline, and 200 wooden clothespins for transporting the hats to school on Hat Day and displaying them between the basketball hoops. Does anyone know if 200 feet of clothesline is going to be enough?

It’s come to my attention that I haven’t posted a picture here of my Doctor Who Scarf, fully fringed. So here’s one!

 

Season 12 Doctor Who Scarf, fringe and all

Connor Caps mailing info

I will be offline during Thanksgiving week, so if you will need my mailing address for a hat, please contact me before Tuesday, November 26. After that time you can PM spitfire if you’re on Ravelry, or you will be out of luck.

Please, when you send a hat/postcard/afghan square, include your name and address in or on the package. I want to give credit, and there are prizes at stake. I want to everyone to be eligible to win.

And if you sent me a hat from Cedar Ridge, California, contact me right away so I know who you are!

Thank you!

Endless petty pace

Everything is going forward. There is so much going on it’s like we did Hands Across America and all decided to walk to Starbucks together. We’ll get there, and all at the same time, but it’s going to take patience and coordination.

I finished almost all of one of the Christmas knits I’m making (including weaving in the ends, thank you). And I started putting the fringe on my Doctor Who Scarf, then realized I should have done it from the other side. Last night I sat on the couch, and undid each fringelet and turned it around. The fringe is 75 percent done now, and will be finished before Friday.

Everywhere I look, I have a project sitting and waiting for me to give it some attention. Yikes! NaKnitSweMo, Christmas knits 1 and 2 and 3, Bamboo socks…. we won’t even mention the Senior WIPs like Tyrone and the cursed IHS and the lace stole I started on Mother’s Day. Nope, won’t mention those at all.

I just got done shuffling my sets around on my Flickr account so I can post pictures of all the Connor Caps as they come in. I have lost track of how many people have asked for the mailing address, and I know quite a few hats are already in the mail.

If you are knitting or crocheting for the Connor Caps project and are not in the Ravelry group, here’s an extra bit of information I don’t remember mentioning here. I have recently found out that Connor collects postcards. If you want to include one with your hat, I will pass it on to my son to hand-deliver to Connor.

We’re also taking six-inch squares to be seamed up into an afghan. They can be knit or crochet squares, and there’s no deadline. I’ll set one eventually, but this is the wrong time of year to be announcing deadlines for anything. It’s too overwhelming.

Yesterday I got to go with my son to another classmate’s birthday party. Most of his class was there, and it was held at a skating rink. Do you remember all your elementary school skating parties? This was great, and they even played some AC/DC, which was what I used to skate to. Skating to the old school funk was really fun. I want to have my son’s birthday party there, too, so I picked up a schedule on the way out. Would you believe that they have an adult skate during my Wednesday morning free time? With free coffee? I am SO there.

Did you know there is a Roller Skating Association and a National Museum of Roller Skating? I didn’t, but I do now. Thank you Wikipedia!

By the way, I had a good weigh-in last night. You two pounds? Bye-bye and bye-bye. You are not welcome here. Hit the road!

Hats and gifts and stuff

Connor Caps total: 1

But I have it on good authority that caps will start arriving soon, a few from France, some from Canada, and others from the States. The Connor Caps group on Ravelry now has members representing sixteen states and three other countries. WOW.

Connor himself has started chemo and radiation therapy, and after a rough start on the first day he was actually back at school on Wednesday, showing off his radiation mask for Show and Tell.

I nearly poked holes in my fingertips while making the beret, so I did shift to another project for the time being — an Everlasting Bagstopper from Amy Singer at Knitty. I can’t say enough about how cool this pattern is. It’s free, it’s fast, there’s almost no purling, it looks great, and did I mention there’s almost no purling? The only drawback right now is I’ll have to buy one more ball of Sugar & Cream yarn to finish it. Well boo freaking hoo, if that’s the worst thing happening right now. I’m sure I’ll be making whole batches of them.

 

In very slow progress

The NaKnitSweMo sweater is still sitting there where I left it, begging me to finish the crew neck. Obviously I won’t have a sweater by the end of the month. But I’m not beating myself up because there’s so much other stuff going on. The sweater thing was really a vanity project, and I’ll be happy whenever it’s done. Meanwhile, Christmas gets a day closer every day. I’m trying to panic quietly.

And I haven’t put the fringe on the Who Scarf, either. That must be done before Thanksgiving. Just have to start and keep going, I guess. (Shout out to Dale-Harriett, who is finishing the knitting and weaving portion of Scarfness, and sidling up to the fringe as well. But it’s a quiet shout out, since she’s working on NaWriNoMo and keeping pace. I’d link, but I don’t want to disturb her.)

The “diet” resolve is holding steady so far. I don’t know why things are different this time. Maybe I finally set a goal that was low enough — do everything I can to lose one pound a week. This morning I woke up and I was craving to hop on the Nordic Track and exercise. (Maybe there was a little bit of craving for listening to Cast On as well, but it doesn’t matter to me if it’s working.) I’ve been drinking less alcohol, less soda, more water, having fewer snacks, and eating better portions of better food. Weigh-ins are on Sunday nights and I am not checking in the interim. But I feel better already.

To wrap up, I have started and frogged the brown Merino giftknit scarf three or four times now. I need some pattern suggestions for something quick and warm and soft. I don’t want to repeat using these patterns for this person: One-Row Handspun Scarf, Mistake Rib Stitch, or Garter stitch. I would also be so slow at any kind of overall ribbing that I’m dubious about that, too. Any thoughts?

Thanks for your prayers for Connor and your hats for the schoolkids, if you’re making them. If you need the mailing address, just say so in the comments and I’ll email you back with it. And if you’re on Ravelry, do join the group!

P.S. Top Chef returns and it’s off to a soul-crushing start! Why oh why do they allow competitors who are still in culinary school? That’s just cruel.

Finishing and starting

I finished my first Connor Cap — a beret for my daughter. What do you think?

Great, now I can’t remember how to insert the picture. I hope the day gets better than this.

Whew. How come every time free software gets updated it gets harder to use?

Anyway.

If one hat is done it’s time to cast on for the next. At the Connor Caps group on Ravelry I’ve been getting to see people’s finished hats, and we have group members representing twelve states and three countries, but since I have only seen the one hat that came off my very own needles I’m unjustifiably paranoid that we won’t get enough hats. Knitch has a copy of the flyer, as does The Sow’s Ear (I think), and I’ve been emailing them out to folks who are going to get their knitting groups in on the deal.

But I suspect I won’t see much in the way of other people’s hats until after we get back from our travels at Thanksgiving. That will certainly build suspense into the project. Will we have five? Will we have five hundred?

I’d better ignore the worries and get started on Hat Two.

There’s plenty of other things to do — finish the stocking, complete some other Secret Holiday Knitting, and do something, anything, even a couple of stitches on my NaKniSweMo project. It’s so off the radar it’s not funny.

I could also work out. My husband and I got a new digital scale last week and weighed ourselves. I was aghast that I weighed something I have never weighed before without being quite pregnant or very recently pregnant. Um, the baby is two and a half and I’m sitting and eating too much. So, I’m trying to get moving again. This morning on the Nordic Track I decided I could only let myself listen to podcasts while I was actually exercising. And I do love my Brenda Dayne and David Reidy and WhoCast and High Fiber Diet. So.

From last week to this week I lost exactly one pound, and I don’t want to see it again. Bye bye!

Connor starts his chemo/radiation regimen today. Send him strong thoughts!

Casting on for Connor

It’s taken me long enough, but I finally cast on for a Connor Cap today. Actually it will be a beret since that’s the first pattern I could lay my hands on. Unfortunately, it was right after that moment when my two little boys decided there was nothing in the universe they wanted more than to be the only one to sit on my lap.

Jack: “Mom, what does ‘jealous’ mean?”

Considering everything in context, I did my best to hug and cuddle them instead of getting upset about the knitting I wasn’t doing.

Have you started a hat? If you’re scouring your stash for exactly the colors I specified, you can relax because I relaxed. Each of these hats will be unique anyway, so feel free to use your favorite (or most available) blue, gray, and gold. The goal here is a whole bunch of hats in a short time, and from the questions people have been asking me, I think I’ve been inappropriately fussy.

Connor’s still coming to school when he’s able, but he’s spending most of his time in a wheelchair.

I’m thinking about starting a Ravelry group for this project so that people can post their own pictures of their hats and yarns — what do you think? 

Hoping for 200 hats

Thanks to everyone here and on Ravelry who has already responded with prayers and promises of hats for Connor’s classmates. I really appreciate it.

I’ve corresponded with the school principal and she says 200 hats would be more than enough for every student and staff member, so please, if you can do a hat or more than one, they are all welcome.

The school is having a Hat Day on December 5, so if I receive your hats by December 1, we should be good. This day was already scheduled, but it would seem like a really good day to wear coordinating hats if they’re available.

I don’t have any more medical information about Connor to add to the dedicated page today. I wanted to start a hat for him today, but lo and behold I couldn’t find suitable yarn in the stash. (I know, I couldn’t believe it either.) It’s a wool overload in there, till I need wool anyway. But I have a couple of hours to myself tomorrow, and I do know where the reasonably close yarn stores are. So that should take care of that. I can cast on for a wool beanie (or beret, the Charmed Knits berets would be great for the girls) tonight for someone else, since I found some Cascade 220 in all the right colors in the stash.

PRIZES!!!

Speaking of stash. I can offer up some very nice parts of it to a couple of hat contributors. One prize will be for the person who contributes the most hats; another prize will go to a name randomly drawn from all contributors — each person gets one chance regardless of how many hats they send. The actual prizes can be chosen from either sock yarn or worsted weight yarn. I’ll post pictures of eligible yarns soon!

Knitwise, it’s been hard for me to get my head straight on whatever else I’m supposed to be doing. I got some freelance editing done, I finished the Marquette blanket (except for ends), I started one quick Christmas project and made a little progress on another.

In fact I took a WIP to the polls with me, but there wasn’t a line when I went so I didn’t even have time to bring it out. I voted, I hope you did too, and that’s all I’m going to say about it.

Wanted: 18 hats and a miracle

This isn’t good news, but I’m going to try to look at the positive and do what I can. I just read a principal’s letter telling me that one of my oldest son’s classmates, Connor, has been diagnosed with brain cancer. 

I really don’t know much more than this — I know he’s been struggling since a mysterious illness during the summer, and I suppose this explains a lot of the struggle. Apparently this is an extremely rare form of cancer that only 400 people in the world have. I’m going to try to find out more.

I can’t tell you what a great kid Connor is. He hasn’t been able to continue with Scouts since he got sick, and I really miss him at the meetings. He’s one of those nice kids you can just talk to. Last year he gave up candy for Lent, which shows a strength of character I personally lack.

My son tells me (as I anticipated) that some of the boys in the class are preparing to shave their heads in support of their friend as he starts chemotherapy. I wanted to make Connor a chemo cap in the school colors, but I think I need the help of more and faster knitters to help the whole class.

Please, if you can make a child’s beanie in the school colors, I’d like to have enough for each child in the fourth grade class to wear one. If each cap could have cobalt blue and gray stripes and one gold stripe that would be fantastic. There are 10 boys and 8 girls.

If you don’t have a pattern or a size, I recommend using the House Hat pattern from Charmed Knits by Alison Hansel. Either the small or medium size would work.

If you can knit a hat and get it to me by December 1, God bless you! Please leave a comment and I’ll email you back with mailing information. If I get a blizzard of hats, I’ll let the school distribute them to whoever wants one.

If you can’t knit a hat, please pray for a miracle for Connor. If you’re Catholic, know that the fourth grade class has selected the Venerable Father Samuel Charles Mazzachelli, awaiting elevation to sainthood, as the particular intercessor.

But every prayer counts.

UPDATE: I’ve created a new page here called “Connor Caps.” Information about Connor and the plan to cover the school in coordinating caps will be put there as I have it. Please spread the word — we can’t have too many hats.

We’re going to need capes

Happy Earth Day!

Here’s the setup: Yesterday my kids found a globe in the basement. It was a Christmas present about two years ago, and kept away from the kids until we found a way to set it up so it wouldn’t be broken. But yesterday they found it, and I agreed to let them bring it upstairs. We spent a few minutes finding where Mulan lives, where Mowgli lives, and where Lilo lives, then I let them look at it on their own. Here’s what I overheard:

Colleen (5 years old): “Tomorrow is Earth Day.”
Jack (4 years old): “Earth Day?”
C: “Yeah, you have to think of ways to take care of our planet.”
J: “Could we be supers and clean up the whole world?“
C: “That’s a great idea!”
J: “We’re going to need capes.”

So, congrats to all of you who donned your capes and saved the world today. We’re honoring the earth by turning off lights and televisions that we’re not using.

Oh, and their whole conversation made me think of the things that Sean says over at Antique Mommy. It’s in my blogroll; check it out. It’s one of the parenting-related blogs that snuck in under the knitting radar.

Knitwise, I finished the Packer Hat on Saturday morning. I need to take pictures today so I can send it off in time for the NFL Draft. Will I make another one? Sure, make those checks for $200 out to….

I should call the pattern “learning curve.” If I ever write it up.

Bonus to this project being ended: DH picked up a display head for me. Unfortunately he couldn’t buy a single head; they only came by the dozen. If you’re looking for a display/blocking head for hats, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.

And in other knitting news, last night I turned the heel on the Salt & Pepper socks! So it’s time to pick up those stitches, work the gusset, knit the foot, decrease for the toe, and Kitchener it all up. Easy as pie, and maybe even possible that I can wear them to the Harlot’s Madison event on next Monday Monday Monday!!!

(whew. breathe into paper bag.)

Now, I’m going to try to remember to put tags on this post before I publish it. WordPress moved everything around and now I have to scroll down to see the tags list.

I just knew I was peculiar

I saw this link for “Get your own peculiar aristocratic title” at RevJen’s blog, and I just had to click.

Your Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:

Her Noble Excellency Elizabeth the Festive of Old Tonbridge Wafers

Wow, who would have known it?

This is just a quickie (i.e. the kids are awake and want me to do stuff). I’m getting mired in the book but finding more people to help me. Help is good. Learning to ask for help is even better. When I first conceived this book I wanted to be the one who called every store and typed every letter. Now I am smarter!

I’m still casting on for whole slews of things (none of which, I suspect, were on my List of Things I Shall Knit This Year), though I totally frogged one project and started over, and I had to tink back through several rows of colorwork on the Packer Hat when I saw two stitches from the Fair Isle section that never got picked up. I hated going backwards, but it was The Right Thing To Do. I’m almost ready to shift into forward gear for that one.

And I got the photos from the camera moved to the computer. It’s a little progress. Then I could see that all the pictures were too blurry to use for anything. !@#$%!!!!

More later, after I get Mr. Hyde some more applesauce.