Now with more widgets!

Random facts:

I’ve added a Twitter feed to the sidebar, up at the top. Now that I’m on WordPress, Ravelry, Twitter, and Facebook I’ve started gluing some of them together.

I’ve finished watching Torchwood: Children of Earth. Pass the coffee and the tissues, please.

I have a long trip to plan for this week involving two three knitter meetups, several Midwestern states, and retrieving my firstborn from Ohio. Then it’s right into Irish Fest Summer School, where I’m enrolled in Intermediate Aran Knitting. (My first knitting class!) The next weekend is Irish Fest itself, where I hope to meet even more knitters. So I don’t know how many posts I’ll be able to do this week.

But. The important thing today is not my knitting. If you could do just one thing today, please say a prayer for Felipe Massa, a Formula 1 driver who was badly injured in a freak accident during qualifying session for last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. He sustained a skull fracture and a concussion. He had emergency surgery and is now in an induced coma for the next few days. He is just 28 years old, and his wife is expecting their first child in November. Brain injuries are so scary and tricky — look up Cristiano da Matta and Richard Hammond if you need any evidence from the car/racing community. But please, just say a prayer.

Running out of yarn

Sorry, I guess I should have asked you to sit down first. I didn’t mean that the world was running out of yarn, or even that I was running out of yarn. But I got eversoclose to finishing a project last night and probably don’t have enough yarn to make it through the bind off. Which I’ve already started.

I do have some long tails on the project from where I had to join the new skein of yarn. I’m not sure that will be enough to make it, but it won’t hurt.

At any rate, it isn’t a terrible crisis, as I plan to make at least one more of these. And I’m developing a Clever Plan to tweak the pattern ever so slightly so that two skeins of the main color will be enough to make another scarf and finish off this one. The contrast color? I have sufficient. (Famous last words, I know, but I can even prove it with math.)

Sigh.

In non knitting related news, yesterday I took all the kids to a funeral mass for a school dad who passed away last week (on the evening of the last day of school, actually) from brain cancer. Ironically, or maybe hopefully, I don’t know, Connor was one of the kids who sang along in a little choir up front.

The dad was 31 years old and leaves behind three little boys for his young widow to take care of. The oldest will be in second grade this fall. There’s a tuition fund started for them at a local bank, and both parents were from local families, but still this is devastating. I spent most of yesterday just being numb about it, and I’m still not sure what I can do to make anything better. I don’t know the family at all, but at a school as small as ours (about 20 kids per grade through 8th grade) I’ll know them eventually — our kids might be dovetailed in ages.

Knitwise, I have the sideways scarf to finish up, as I described earlier. And I’m also working on a 12 inch miter square for Shawn4Equality’s square drive. I’m almost at the halfway point but can’t remember which decrease is better, a k2tog or an ssk. Please, someone let me know which end of the row I should do a k2tog on to make it come out right. (I don’t like my ssk’s.)

I want to get going on a bunch more knitting (can you believe there are three active scarves on the needles after I finish the sideways one? crazy) but we’re hosting a cookout/open-house thang on Father’s Day and apparently the house needs a little attention.

And next Friday it’s my birthday, and I’d kind of like to cast on a little nice thing for myself that I can finish by then. Any suggestions? Geeky projects welcome.

Not enough hours in the day

I feel like I have to sprint to get this post in tonight, so I’ll have at least two posts for May. (I’m still feeling guilty about having no posts in April.) Last year at this time I was probably posting 2-3 times a week. Nowadays — well, I guess I’m doing more Mom work.

Yes, there’s Ravelry, too. I recently passed 5000 posts there. That’s nothing compared to some people. (They know who they are.) But it is a lot compared to many. I have started two groups, and am a moderator on one other group, and if I don’t check in at least a few times a day the backlog starts to build up.

Anyway. Everyone here is reasonably healthy (last night’s needless ER trip with Jack notwithstanding) and the knitting is slowly proceeding.

I was getting a little bit frustrated with the knitting a few days ago, then I realized that I simply am dealing with a bunch of larger projects all jostling for my time. In addition, three of them are completely in garter stitch, which frankly isn’t very compelling to look forward to. They’ll be immensely rewarding after they’re done.

Two of the other projects are stalled sock projects. One of them (Retro Rib) is boring, and the other (Noro) is frustrating. Yes, there’s a difference!

So I’ve been spending most of my time with turning two skeins of vintage yarn into a lacy summer scarf. I may be the only person on the planet making a scarf out of DuPont Radiance acrylic. Hooray for individualism!

No spinning yet — I got the new parts for my wheel but I still need to sand, stain, and put the hooks on the new multi-speed flyer. I don’t know when that’s going to happen since I’m not in a rush about it. Right now the knitting is more important.

The Yarn-a-Latte group is well started and already has some regulars in place (shout out to Bonnie AKA Jeeplady). It’s really nice to have a Tuesday night knit that’s close by, and it’s made the last couple of Sowless Fridays easier to bear.

Knitwise, what have I finished? Well, I got a cell phone for Mother’s Day and promptly abandoned every other project to make two cell phone cozies. Out of alpaca and a friend’s handspun, thankyouverymuch. It’s hard to beat an alpaca cell phone cozy for luxury! And they are Doctor Who-themed to boot. I’m trying to figure out a cozy design for each Doctor. Starting with Ten. But I have picked up some yarn to make one for Nine (I hope).

In the television-watching department, both Chuck and Castle got renewed. And there was much rejoicing! If you haven’t watched these shows there’s plenty of time to catch up. They are both worth it. And they both feature actors from Firefly — Adam Baldwin (Jayne) and Nathan Fillion (Captain Mal) respectively. Dollhouse, with Alan Tudyk (Wash), also got renewed — I haven’t seen it but will start catching up. Unfortunately, The Sarah Connor Chronicles with Summer Glau (River Tam) was cancelled after this season. But since a friend’s viewing of that show got me directly into Firefly, I am mourning the loss of it even though I didn’t watch.

What do we watch? I don’t think I watch a lot of television (again, compared to some), but chronologically it includes Ladies’ No. 1 Detective Agency, Chuck, Castle, Top Gear, My Boys, Better Off Ted, The Office, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, Saturday Night Live, and Doctor Who/Torchwood/Sarah Jane Adventures when I can get them. Top Chef and Next Food Network TV Star when they’re “in season.” Flight of the Conchords. Anything by Anthony Bourdain when I can catch it.

When I see it all written out like that, I realize it’s more TV than I have ever regularly watched. I don’t know why. Are shows getting better? I’m not sure about that, but they are getting quirkier. I’m also watching lots of Netflix stuff, so I don’t know how I have so much time for TV. I can tell you that ever since we got the DVR we’ve been snagging more shows that we liked, just because it was easier to do so.

Remember, just after the dinosaurs were wiped off the face of the earth, when we’d put in a tape to catch a show, and we’d watch it days later? Or, actually, never get around to watching it at all? Well, when you get a message on your DVR screen that says “83 percent full” you start watching your shows to free up the space. I mean, you just have to. Otherwise you can’t record any more stuff!

When I’m not watching all this television, I’m exercising and catching up on some podcasts. I’m years to months behind on all of them, but I’m plugging away.

Back to the knitting!

Help a knitter out

I can’t wait to show you how close I got to finishing a pair of socks in about three days.

This close!

Anybody out there who can send me 12 yards of Universal Deluxe Chunky Tweed in 06 Nottingham is officially my new best friend. My poor spiral rib socks are in hibernation until I can find a scrap of this yarn. Because I am not paying seven-something dollars for a full skein of it, plus four-something for shipping, when I only need 10 percent.

Oh, and God bless my eldest child, who suggested I unravel a little off the cuff so I could cut if off, graft it on to four-foot tail, and thereby make it to the toe. I hated the moment where I had to tell him it just doesn’t work that way. And I can’t even frog them to save an inch, because then they won’t fit. That first sock is a perfect snug fit to my foot.

Right now I’m trying to be exclusive to Logan’s Blanket. Just startin’ the third stripe now, boss. It’s not long enough to straighten out for a proper photo yet.

I also have a karma job to work on — someone on Ravelry finished a baby blanket with “a million ends” and I said “send it to me.” And she decided to! So I have a million ends of someone else’s project to weave in. She’s even paying the postage for me to ship it back to her. What a brave and trusting soul! I don’t know if she decided to go for it after she saw the project details on my 10′10″ Doctor Who scarf and its million ends, but it doesn’t matter.

I say I’m going to be exclusive on Logan’s Blanket, but there’s still a wedding anniversary coming up and some Noro sock yarn that’s been marinating in the stash for waaaaaaay too long. A quick search of the Ravelry database tells you most people use Noro sock yarn for non-sock projects, and with good reason, but socks it shall be. Huh.

I just checked my Flickr account and apparently I’ve never even taken a picture of that skein. Is it because I don’t want the wool thieves to know I have Noro in the house? I took two different pictures of the Trekking XXL Zitron, for goodness’ sake.

Oh crap. Don’t tell the wool thieves! Now they’ll know I have Trekking.

My Lenten Lifestyle change is going well. From Wednesday until about ten minutes ago I had drunk nothing but water or tea. Ten minutes ago I decided to save an opened bottle of Merlot from becoming expensive cheap vinegar. Now I think I’d go rescue a little more. Wheresh that baby blanket.

Giving up

Okay, okay, I think I get the message. You want me to finish Tyrone.

Right?

That’s fine with me. I even have a Ravfriend in Alaska that promised over a year ago to help me through the decreases. (I’ll be in touch, Birgie.)

Here’s what is currently on the needles and has to come off first.

Number One. Retro Rib Sock #2. I’ve done the cuff and the first pattern repeat on the leg. Just 16 more repeats to churn through before the heel flap. And all that that entails. Since it was my January Sock Club selection and it’s almost March, I’m starting to feel a bit of pressure. We don’t want my gauge to change, do we?

Number Two. Spiral Rib Sock #2. Snuck this one in on you, didn’t I? I started this one last Friday at Knit Night, severely modifying poor Garry Aney’s perfectly fine spiral rib pattern in bulky yarn. If I hadn’t bought self-shredding bamboo dpns to make it with, I would have finished the first sock even sooner than Sunday morning. It’s too bad they won’t fit my husband as I had intended (it was going to be an anniversary present — who knew there was a wool anniversary?!) but they will fit me. And my feet are cold.

Number Three. Norm’s Scarf. This was supposed to be a Christmas present. And it’s really sailing along right now. It’s super easy (every time I say that I have to go back two rows, but so far you can’t tell) and I’m sure it’s more than half done. Norm’s a great guy and deserves this scarf while it’s still cold outside. (If it doesn’t get done until spring, I’ll make his wife a matching scarf in baby blue. You heard it here first.)

Number Four. This is the super important one, more important than either of the socks. It’s a blanket for Logan, Connor’s little brother. The deadline is Easter, and I started it last night. Cast on 171 stitches and knit three rows of the Ann Norling “Baby Blocks Baby Blanket” pattern. It shouldn’t look very babyish in dark blue and bright red!

Number Five. Doctor Who Scarf, Season 16. But it’s just listed here for the sake of the order. If it had to come off the needles before I worked on anything else, it just wouldn’t be fair.

I thought about becoming a monogamous knitter on Logan’s blanket for Lent… but next I thought my brain would explode. We don’t want that because then we would never get the socks done, would we?

So.

Lent, for me, is going to be an attempt at 40 healthy days. Healthier eating, more exercise, better attitude, the whole thing. Take time for myself, be nice to others, the whole bit.

I should really kick it off by mailing out my swap packages tomorrow. Brandy in Texas, the lace kit came in and I’ll send you some goodies, too. Cate in Florida, I didn’t forget your spindle. Claire, I just need to find the right size box for the newspapers. And my secret Rav swap downstream partner — I’ll prep the package today. Jules, I owe you a bunch of goodies but don’t have enough yet. You’re an angel!

Everything

Here it is, Post 300. Long in the making because, well, these benchmark numbers put one under such pressure to perform! Until, finally, it occurs to me it hasn’t been three days since the last post, it’s closer to three weeks and by the time I write the next post there won’t be anyone there to read it anyway.

Emergencies

I have had my share of little panics over the past three days three weeks. Remember that extra little Christmas we had when I found the presents I’d hidden? One of them was a Scout knife, fresh from the factory and twice as sharp. The very next day, said Scout forgetting that putting it on top of his dresser wasn’t exactly removing temptation from his four-year-old brother, we had ourselves a small crisis. I’d tell you all the details, really I would — they were hilarious! — but until some sort of statute of limitations runs out, I’m afraid I’ll have to plead the Fifth lest someone from Children’s Services is reading this and decides I need some time in solitary to reconsider my parenting skills. (Short version: I did not know the knife was on the dresser until we were on our way to the doctor’s office for some skin glue. The reasonable explanations I heard for there being blood everywhere were all lies.) But we did meet a lovely new pediatrician.

That was a Wednesday. The following Monday I went upstairs to wake the same four-year-old boy for school, and was met with a zombie. I carried his limp body down to the couch, where he lay all day, eyes glazed, fever burning, unslaked by orange juice. The doctor’s office had no open time slots, so he didn’t get there until Wednesday, when it was discovered he had an ear infection and a teensy bit of, well, pneumonia.

It’s interesting to tell people that your child has a touch of, well, pneumonia. They look at you as if you’re about to breathe some pneumonia on them as well, while the thought bubble above their head wonders do people still get pneumonia any more?

Some of them do, and I hope they’re almost done with it. Because for a whole week, TV sucked, medicine tasted nasty, I was the most horrible mommy on the earth and deserved to DIE, and school became the Emerald City. But we did meet another nice pediatrician.

Meanwhile, I was adding “I am SO going to Knit Night” to the end of every e-mail I was writing last week. The events of the night were undiminished by the fact that one of my brake lines blew out as I was leaving the Beltline on the way to Verona, and were of course completely out on the hourlong drive back. I could tell they were handling differently — I just didn’t know why. But I brought me home safe. We dropped off the van on Monday, and maybe it will be fixed tomorrow morning. And we did get to reacquaint ourselves with the guys who fix my car.

So.

I finished a Secret Knitting Project I can now call the Old School/New School Scarf. Check it out in 2009 Finished Projects. It’s a tube scarf, with colored stripes transitioning from Marquette Warrior to Marquette Golden Eagles. It’s hideously warm and was completed two days before it absolutely had to be.

I finished my January sock for the Personal Sock Club — check it out in Finished Projects as well. I finished this sock yesterday, so technically it’s a January/February sock, and I don’t care to speculate as to when the second one will be finished. I might cast on for it tonight, just so that doesn’t get delayed any further.

Who’s left? The only other active project I have is a Season 16 Doctor Who Scarf. I’m coming to terms with my other projects not really being Works In Progress, but Hibernating Items I’d Rather Not Think About For A Few More Months. But I really would like to get them all wiped out by the end of 2009.

Thanks for reading my 300th post!

P.S. I did some spinning the other night — yes, Wookie roving. I have a spinning retreat coming up in less than a month and thought I’d blow through the open bag of Wookie wool, have fun plying it, and have all the bobbins free for the retreat.

A first post for 2009

Well, I survived a New Year’s Eve date with my husband. If we had those more than once a year I don’t know how I’d prepare. We had a fun sorta healthy dinner (Mongolian BBQ) and a Cake concert at the Riverside in Milwaukee, and an overnight in a luxurious hotel. He saved up all his points and miles from his business travel last year to get it. I should have done a photo shoot of the room, but I forgot.

And yesterday I produced the first FO of 2009 — the bamboo socks. Okay, so the vast majority of the work was done in 2008, but still. Weaving in is what makes them done. The aforementioned socks will be appearing at The Sow’s Ear in Verona, Wisc., tonight as part of their Victory Tour. Please stop by and pet them!

Today I picked the first yarn I’ll be using in my Personal Sock Club project. This is a Ravelry thing, part of the Stash Knit Down 2009 group. Lots of people have come up with cool ideas for using up their stash, and this is the one that connected with me. To join our super special sock club, you just pick out the sock yarns you already have and the patterns you want to make, put them in plain or fancy bags, and draw one out every month. A $250 value, for free! I will be making the Retro Rib Socks from Interweave’s Favorite Socks book, using Wildfoote Luxury Sock Yarn from Brown Sheep, in the “Forget Me Not” colorway.

I’ve also got Late Night Knitting tonight — and it’s a must-go because DH is poised to start his big business travel season and will be gone on some of the nights. I must strike while the needles are hot, as it were.

A big HELLO to those of you who have discovered my blog and been gracious enough to tell me you like it! I will try to have more posts and more pictures this year, though I need to upgrade my photo storage subscription to make that possible. I hate working with PayPal because I do it so infrequently that I always forget what to do. But for you, I’ll do it.

I think I have a big round number of posts coming up very soon (this is #296). How shall we celebrate Number Three Hundred?

Resolve

At the risk of making at least one of my readers collapse on the floor with laughter (Stephanie G., you may leave right now), it’s that wonderful time of year when I like to make resolutions for how I will change my behaviors and/or attitude in the upcoming year.

Here are some of my targets.

Clutter.
In 2009 I plan to get rid of a lot of crap that’s clogging my house and my mind. This may mean I will actually have to set aside some time to finish old scrapbooks and make new ones. I have boxes of beautiful preschool artwork from each child now. Yes, that includes my “baby” who will turn ten in three months. I think about six months of dedicated time will be all I need. Of course, I’m probably all out of Tape Runner. I wonder if they still make that?

Order.
No, this is not the same thing as Clutter but they are definitely close relatives. In my mind there is a school binder where I keep track of all upcoming deadlines, permission slips, and big homework projects. There’s a bulletin board for Boy Scout and Girl Scout meetings, projects, notices, and upcoming events. There’s a publication plan for my knitting pattern books. The desktops and dresser tops are… empty. Okay, this might take seven months.

Technique.
This applies to knitting, for now. In 2009 I want to learn some different ways to do things. I am cranking out lots of small stuff but I feel like I’m doing some of the steps out of habit. Next year I want to learn at least one new cast-on and one new bind-off, and how to make some items in the opposite direction than I do now. This means toe-up socks, top-down hats, a sideways scarf, and a cuff-to-cuff sweater. That’s one new thing every two months. That seems more doable. No, I’m not planning to learn how to crochet. Maybe in 2010.

Thankfulness.
This concept has been brewing in me for a very long time, maybe even ever since high school, when Count Basie was in town and I wanted to take a friend of mine to see him. The Count passed away not long afterwards, and the realization that I would never get another chance was a shock. This year, I plan to write letters to the people who I’ve admired over the years, at least one every month. This will include some relatives but also some celebrities. Think “Tom Lehrer” rather than “Brad Pitt” and you’ll have a better idea of where I’m coming from. If you want to follow along with me in Thankfulness, please do! Write to your favorite author, or your fourth-grade teacher, or to your Grandpa. These people won’t be around forever, and if a kind letter from you makes them smile, it’s worth whatever time it takes. Once a month, write a little letter or notecard. You don’t even have to make the paper, or the card, yourself. Doable.

Health.
Last year I felt I deserved a chocolate chip cookie when I felt happy. Or hungry. Or angry. Or sad. Or lonely. (See a pattern here?) In 2009 I deserve to be healthy. I deserve to help my body work efficiently. I deserve to have energy, good spirits, and clothes that fit.

Oh yeah — and I plan to blog more often. Balancing Ravelry and WordPress might be hard for me, but I’m lucky I don’t have worse issues.

Happy new year!

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.