I have PROJECTS!

Since finishing Queen Susan, I've been drifting from small project to small project.  While the weather was warm, there was lots of biking and so the small projects took a few days to get done.  Now the weather is cold, and the small projects are taking me less time to do than to decide on.  Remember, I generally work from a stash of leftovers or hand-me-downs, so picking a project isn't as easy as walking into a store, pointing at something, and buying the necessary materials. 

It gets annoying, never knowing where one's next project is coming from.  On Saturday, I got to the whiney point.  (And settled on making Rikke out of some second-hand yarn which came from Wisconsin.  Hi, friend in Wisconsin!)  I also decided to make another pair of fine-gauge mittens.  And on Sunday, I dropped a note to another knitter to ask if a) she had any knitting that had my name on it, and b) had she seen any gorgeous motifs that would normally take up a whole afghan, which I could use for my mittens?  (Remember ... if it's 20" across in a worsted gauge, it's 5" across in my tiny gauge.  Or if it's 2" across in real life, it's less than a half-inch in my little world.  I could put a hornbook on one of my mittens. Maybe.)

Her reply to my e-mail started a deluge!  I am now happily settled with

1. A Christmas project for my son.  The last skein I needed to get started had been backordered since September.  It came in Monday.
2. Motifs for a mitten pattern (13.5 spi, not 20 ... but still fun!)
3. An article to write
4. A sweater to turn into multiple sizes and write a publishable pattern for (and knit a New and Improved version)
5. Ideas for my second pair of fine-gauge mittens.  

And, never one to let grass grow under my feet, I have written to some yarn companies to ask about samples for 4 and 5.

Ahhhh.  It's good to have knitting.

On the 'this could be a disaster' front, I'm skipping a swatch for #1.  Yes, it's Fair Isle and requires close gradation of yarn colors, and yes I did change yarn companies and every single color -- but there is simply NOT another gray that I can use to shade one spot more, and the other colors will work (I may even drop some, as they're so close I can't tell the 4 apart in the project).  I already know my gauge... we'll see if the project gets relegated to swatch status at some point.  I hope not!  

Now, if I can just get my Kindle to behave without too many problems.  Yesterday, the text-to-speech developed a personality quirk in which the use of the 'pause' button actually meant 'no more text-to-speech until you restart the Kindle.'  That got fixed by a hard reset, which also depopulates the entire thing.  It's doable.  Now the 'go to' application is not working, which means if I'm reading a book that is a compilation of 70 books which are each 300-400 pages long, and I'm in the 275th book, the only way to get to my location (which I wrote down - 324211) is to go One Page At A Time.  It's worth another phone call.  Because I have LOTS Of knitting that will require good books to listen to. 

And I want to know if Harry and Bertie ever found the Golden Sands of the Incas so Harry could get wealthy and marry the gorgeous Miss Prendergast, who had a crotchety guardian. 

Wordless Wednesday

Cycling through September ...

Most of the interesting things happening in my life lately involve a bicycle.  Or at least, those are the ones that pop into my mind first. 

I *did* bike 24 miles to mom's and back two weeks ago. And lived!  I've been biking 3-4x/week, usually 10-15 miles per outing.  Not wanting to be a wuss, I kept waiting for my seat to feel more comfortable, but it didn't, and at the encouragement of one of the ladies from Knit Night, I took myself and my bike to the bike shop.  (Have I mentioned the bike shop door is about 8 feet from the yarn shop door?  It's handy).  I came home from the shop with a reasonably priced new seat, chain lube, a lubed chain, and the knowledge of how to remove my front tire.  The things they've invented since 1970!  (That's my other bike of reference.  Quick release wheels did not exist on bikes in 1970. At least not on my dad's bike.)  I know it can take a while to get used to a new seat, but I'm an optimist so Filius and I set off on a 16 mile ride after we got home and had a great time.  It was the first time we'd traveled that 'block', and I certainly got a workout.  New seat = new trunk muscles in play. 

Today, our plan was to bike to the next town south of us for dessert after lunch.  Except my rear tire was totally flat.  We reinflated it, biked around the town block, and wondered if we could make the trip (12 miles) if we brought along an air pump.  Wisdom prevailed, and we decided against it.  Then inquisitiveness came to the fore, and we managed to remove the tire from the bike, the tread and tube from the rim, find the leak, patch it (yay, Roho patch kits!), reassemble everything and ... head off for dessert.  And order two hand-thrown cups. 

God has perfect timing.  Yesterday, I learned what I needed to know to be able to fix my bike today. 

Today is also applesauce canning day.  Eleven quarts are cooling, and another 4 are about to jump into the water bath.  I think I'll make some apple leather next.  And then pie filling.  And somewhere in there, pumpkin pie filling.  A neighbor dropped off some of the bounty of her squash bed, which survived the bugs.  My squash bed did not survive.

Knitwise, I've been slacking.  My big project is going to be a Christmas vest for Patrick, but the yarn's not in yet.  I cast on for a scarf, to use up some oooold Jaggerspun yarn from the Weaver's Place, but ran out.  Fortunately, the yarn still exists, so I ordered more.  But it's not here yet.  I did knit up Wingspan in leftover sock yarn, finished a test knit, finished the Bavarian Socks, and knit up some socks for Filius.  Nothing is on the needles now, though.  I may just work on Molly's Fault after I get the applesauce cleaned up in the kitchen. 

Homeschooling is quiet these days.  Filia has 16 credit via dual enrollment, so I assist in getting her to college and home from college, and that's about it.  Filius is plugging away at his subjects, including Statistics.  We switched from Coursera's Intro to Stats to Udacity's Stats 101, and are much pleased with the switch.  Better feedback, more introductory  (less deep end), and easier to grasp. Little by little, we'll progress through the year!

School's Up!

School has been in session for just over a week -- Grannis Academy follows the Bethany Lutheran College calendar, whenever feasible.  Things have fallen and are falling into place.  Filia is enjoying her 16 credit load, and Filius and I are settling into a routine of sorts.  Statistics (Coursera) and Pre-Calc and Physics, oh my! 

State Fair results came out on the 23rd, and I was delighted to see that both Abigail and I won blue ribbons in our categories.  Yippee!

Knitting.  I'm working on a test knit now, so no pictures. Three and a half of the four socks I was working on in my last post are finished, and the last half should be finished in a week or so, once I clear the test knit from my deck.  I'm also plotting and planning for a Christmas vest for Filius.  Plotting and planning is fun!

Cycling!  I decided to return my sloooow bike and see what I could fine.  As divine providence had it, my 'search and learn' mission resulted in finding a used bike for half the cost of the new one I had my eye on (and which was almost in my price range).  I am the happy owner of a Specialized Crossroads of unknown age.  Everything about it is lovely -- but I do miss the comfort seat on the other bike.  My biking distances have increased greatly, and Filius has to work to keep up with me sometimes.  (I would have to work to keep up with him on the hills, but I ignore him and just toodle on up at my own pace.)

Last Monday (the 27th) I dropped Abigail off for orientation at Bethany, then Filius and I rode to my mom's house, had ice cream and pie at the Dam Store, then rode back to the car ... 16 miles.  Then on Labor Day, we took two bike paths to trek through 4 parks (including Minneopa State Park) and ended up at my mom's house again. Tonight, to facilitate getting to youth group, we're biking up to my mom's yet again.  It's 12 miles from here -- and if I'm feeling ambitious, I'll bike home.  If I'm not feeling ambitious, I'll stay there until youth group is finished and the family vehicle can give me a ride home.  I've plotted out the mileage for some of the treks around town.  The 'block' NW of town is 13.4 miles, NE of town is 17.8; SE is 9.3 miles, and SW is 16.7 miles.  Now, that's using paved roads.  Most of the distances could be cut down a bit if we took dirt roads - but I don't like biking on dirt roads.  And the SW block isn't shortenable, unless we invent our own trail and ford the river. 

Yes, I'm having too much fun on my bike.  I've even learned a new term -- Cyclepath!

Knit, School, Bike?

We're back from family camp, and I'm fairly sure I am *not* ready to dive into school next week.  The march of time does not slow for anyone (except Joshua), so next week Filia will be back to classes at college and I'll be wearing my Mom's Taxi hat while endeavouring not to waste Filius' sophmore year of high school.  I have all sorts of plans.  Scary plans.  Fun scary plans.

The State Fair opens tomorrow.  That means the State Fair will post an online list of ribbons in the knitting category tomorrow.  I think I'll go bookmark that link right now. 

My current projects are socks.  One pair is a plain vanilla sock, something that I can work on in the semi-dark of an auditorium while listening to an excellent speaker.  The other is Nancy Bush's Chalet Socks, from Folk Socks.  Those are NOT things one can work on in the semi-dark.  I've got some test knitting in the works, and will be knitting Filius a vest for Christmas.  We got him a suit recently, and he thinks a vest and a fedora would be the perfect accompaniments.  We can work on the shirt and shoes later, I suppose. 

Since Filius is also working on a fitness merit badge, I've been getting out and about with him in his cardio training.  I bike, he jogs.  We only had one adult bicycle in the house, a nice old Schwinn, and I decided I would get another so that TWO people could go for bike rides at the same time.  I got myself a Schwinn Admiral, and love the nice new shininess of it.  What I'm not so sure about is the rest of the bike.  I need a bike expert!!!  My top speed is 10 mph, and that's in the top gear on the flat with no wind.  It's depressing, entering my distance/time into SparkPeople, since there's no cycling category for that rate.  True, I'm not bent double in an aerodynamic posture ... but really!  The old bike is MUCH easier to pedal, for all that it is at least 40 years old.  Wheel size is about the same, gearing is about the same (5 old, 7 new) ... what's up?  Even if I am that out of shape, that doesn't account for the fact that I could go 6 miles on the old bike in top gear and feel it less in the legs than I do after a few blocks on a middle gear in the new one. 

I'm torn between being seriously miffed and appreciating the extra workout.  Got any advice?

Photos

The shawl was blocked outside so the dogs didn't establish ownership of it and snag something.

Corner on Red Mad

Center on Grass

Sprig on Blue Mat

Shawl, folded. 

Plums

Bunnies

The plums have been abundant this year.  Some days, we got TWO tubs the size of the one in the photo.  Unfortunately, the majority of the fruit are higher than we can pick, so we get them once they've fallen.  And once they've fallen, they tend to be a bit squished.  And if they're squished, they need to be processed IMMEDIATELY or else be tossed.  We've been tossing a lot.  But I did put up 15+ sheets of fruit leather (about 16" square each), 11 quarts of plum halves, 8 jars of plum jam, 6 pints Asian Plum Sauce, 6 pints of Plum Butter, and quite a few have disappeared straight into our tummies or to neighbors.  And a plum crumble. 

I'm still hunting for a good vacation knitting project, alas. It needs to be something I can work on in a darkened auditorium and pay almost no attention to, and I have some fingering weight Brushed Suri that has been languishing in my stash.  But no project seems to blend those two things.  My "I can pay attention" project was going to be Aragorn.  I've had the pattern downloaded for several months, and the yarn was a gift from a friend.  I printed the pattern off -- all 13 pages of it -- and started reading and studying.  It's off-putting.  Who wants to knit a sock that requires assembling a mystery and working together with other people to solve clues?  ARGH!  So I stuck the pages on a shelf and grabbed Folk Socks, then cast on for the Chalet Socks.  But I'm still without a decent traveling project.  I've until tonight to find one.

It's a Bunnyderful Wednesday

Flopsy in the Hostas - 20 feet from the beagle on his tie-out chain

Flopsy in the Oregano - 2 feet from the beagle on his tie-out chain

Filia's latest finished object

I'm sensing a bunny theme here.  This is a test knit

Weavies!  (without bunnies)

One rather sizable SCOBY, also without bunnies.