Knit From Your Shelf - A Success!

I'd like to declare that the 2009 Knit From Your Shelf campaign was a success. A small one, 'tis true - not many knitters (in fact, only one that I know of) are brave strange enough to attempt to work from their current pattern stash in such a fashion. But in the face of overwhelming opposition, I aimed high and have finished using my last book. (I'm not counting the booklet I received last week, nor the Haapsalu Sall. Books in foreign languages and items received after October 1st don't count.)

To celebrate, I cast on for a pair of mittens, using patterns from a Lithuanian mitten book. The next day, I finished the pair.

And then I cast on for Lilleput. 250 grams of sock yarn worked in garter stitch will take a while, but it's so CUUUUUTE! Filius is desirous of having a new gansey that fits him (barring that, he'd accept the Sandwater Jumper. It fits him nicely.) And I've a test knit in the works, and a twined hat, and ...

Speaking of niceties, our corn stove is still delighting us daily. Here's a photo of our grain delivery. The auger (the long white thing, for those of you not savvy with mechanized agriculture) is swinging into position. Not to pour the corn into our house (though that would be a neat trick. Insulation AND fuel!) but rather heading another 120 degrees or so counterclockwise over the house (from which the photo is taken) and garage (lower right corner) to our storage bin. Our first fill-up (and we figure on only one or two a year) was quite the event. Neighbors came out to watch. It's more fun than watching paint dry.

But paint dries really fast when you put it in front of a corn stove. So do socks, mittens, and stoles. It's a blocking tool!

We're halfway through the second term of school. SOS Spanish I is a great improvement over SOS Secondary Spanish. One tenth the mistakes, ten times the teaching, and there are a few games to practice spelling and vocabulary. Although one could wish that capitalization and punctuation didn't count in the spelling. It's tricky to remember that 'hoy es' is supposed to be 'Hoy es..' Filius is greatly enjoying the SOS Civil War elective, and wants to get all their history courses. SOS makes for an interesting change from the AO Year 8 Lite reading list!

Youth Group is starting the Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. Yay! I love it when my children are reading good books outside of school. And I just happen to have this as an audiobook.

I had several pictures of me in the sweater ... but something went terribly wrong between the model and the digitized version.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

ps - I'm accepting ideas for next year's theme. What should 2010 be the year of?

Can it be November?

It can't be November. For one thing, the house is too warm. We frugally keep our thermostat around 65 in the cooler months (and 50 in the warmer months) and it's closer to 70 in here. So it can't be November.

Unless, perhaps, we have a new heating system that isn't connected to a thermostat?

It's true! Finally, the corn is getting harvested (a month late, thanks to a wet and damp fall) and yesterday saw a truck pull into our driveway to deliver 100 bushes of corn. After 5 false starts and an hour or two of wondering if the pile of kernels being dropped in by the augur were going to extinguish the burning kernels (like happened the first 5 times), we got the corn happily burning yesterday evening and it's been burning ever since. Not all of the corn, of course ... just the kernels in the firepot. If you have 100 bushes of corn burning at once, it's called a problem, not a stove. Today wasn't that cold, but the stove has the ENTIRE house at a comfortable temperature on the lowest possible setting. Ah, it's just too much fun.

We're in our second term of school now and are hitting the doldrums. Tomorrow is a very partial day because of grocery shopping (a truck from Michigan is pulling up to our front door with almost 500 pounds of groceries on it at 10:30 AM) and volunteering with Operation Christmas Child at 11:00 in a town 25 miles from our front door. We shall SCAMPER! The next day is non-existent as far as school goes because of a doctor's appointment way up yonder. But it's been ages since we were at a used bookstore, so that almost counts as school -- does it not? Next week has Thanksgiving, so it's another partial week. Partial weeks give me a scattered feeling. However, we are making progress, reading a lot, writing a bit, and many opportunities are being laid out for growing in knowledge.

Knitting is booming. Really and truly booming. I'm not sure if I like it. No, pick your collective jaws up off the floor. I know I like knitting. I'm just not sure if I like it becoming a cottage industry in this household, at this time. Especially a cottage industry that takes up a score or two of hours a week, a few weeks a month.

So, what have I been up to in knitting? Sandwater is growing nicely - I have one partial sleeve and a bit of neck left to do. The gauge is decent enough that, when I tried it on with one sleeve and two steeks, I decided it's for me. I have a bag of yarn for a test knit tucked under my knitting chair. Several squares have been added to my sock yarn blanket. I've got a Watch Cap on the needles, using a chart from a Lithuanian mitten book that called my name Very Loudly from Vilnius. (Oh, and the Dale of Norway Commemorative Collection 8501 booklet has gone OOP. Somehow, I found two of them.) I just sent off a design and a design proposal, and Filius has a long list of items he would find very handy in his life. Lengthened sweaters, socks, dickeys, and mittenssockssweatershats for various friends of his.

Blogger is not being photo-friendly today. Otherwise, you'd have PICTURES!

Sheer Sandwater Bliss

At long last -- well, all of two months' last, at least -- I have begun the final project from this year's Knit From Your Shelf Trek. The yarn has been sitting under my chair, waiting for my knitting queue to empty, and at long last...

It emptied.

Almost. I still have one buttonhole band to knit, but the buttons are getting shipped from CA today, so I obviously can't do anything with that.

And I don't want to work on a leftover blanket for two days straight.

And I just *had* to start a traveling project, but that doesn't count as a project to work on while I'm at home.

So yesterday, I cast on 312 stitches and began knitting. It'll be a rather large gauge swatch if I've miscalculated my needle size.

And this is our Fall Break week. A break week, a new sweater on the needles, and a corn stove. What more could one want? (Corn, actually. The fields are too wet unto the harvest. Dry out, ye!)

Catching up on October

Much knitting has been going on (of course. What else do I do? And it's not summer any more.) Several things have been knit on the QT, but enough other things have been knit to make a decent post.

First, we have Ze Mittens. They go with the hat from my last post, and I can definitely see myself making more of these sets. A fun knit, easy pattern, warm results ... what more could one want?

Then we have the finished Lithuanian sweater. It looks best on the one person in the family who would never wear it. I love the yarn, and have a few skeins left over. Hmmm. Maybe I should make some mittens from it! (Although superwash wool isn't as warm as the unsuperwash varieties, perhaps global warming will make superwash mittens preferable? Maybe?)











There are also 5 pieces of a sweater sitting on the floor in front of our corn stove (running on wood pellets at the moment. Come on, weather, dry out so the farmers can get into the fields to harvest the corn so the elevator can sell us some!) They're dry now (the pieces, that is, not the corn) and I will be sewing them up and working a collar and button bands one of these October days. After I finish another QT project.

When I'm between projects or need something travelable, I pull out the modular sock thing. It's modular, made from sock yarn, and has (in less than two weeks of existence) been destined to be first a cushion cover (nope, too stretchy), then a blanket (nope, too ambitious and large), and for the past week has been a scarf. See, if I call it a scarf, I can make it 1x6 feet, and then slowly start expanding the 1 foot until it's a blanket! Right?

Lastly, there's Canis. Canis likes curling up and sleeping. He doesn't like it when anyone bumps him or moves him while he's engaged in this vital activity. So, one would think he would pick a quiet, out-of-the-way location.


Nope. He picks a lap. The lap formerly containing a book, which was being read aloud from.

Filia is hoping our next dog is a Shih Tzu. They're better lap dogs than crochety terriers.

Takin' Care of Business

School has started. Three weeks into our first term, all is going well. My hare and tortoise are unequally yoked, perhaps to the benefit of both. We're reading good books, have played happily with subtending arcs and circles, and are beginning to plumb the shallows of set theory. Parsing verbs is becoming par for the course.

Our new pastor is here, and is settling in. The Monday night discussion of the Inferno has begun. My summer Bible Study has finished. And yarn and directions for knitting projects seems to be falling into my lap all at once.

First, the Lithuanian Sweater. It's done now, except for a few ends to weave in, but here's the beginnings of it. Lovely Shibui Knits Worsted Yarn. I'm not sure who it's for, but Filia is angling to have her name put into consideration.

Today I cast on for two projects. One is The Project Which Must Not Be Named, but needs to be done in 3 weeks and may well take me at least two solid weeks of knitting. The other project is a cardigan, which will serve as a nice traveling project while TPWMNBN is under way.

Lurking under my knitting chair are two bags of yarn for the Sandwater Jumper.

Lurking in my knitting box is yarn for Rebecca's Mittens, to match Rebecca's Hat.

And lurking next to the corn stove is a boy hoping for a long cold snap. Except today, he's not lurking. He's installing a fence around the grain bin with Vir, in order to fulfill his pledge to aforementioned Vir, who drove Filius to grandma's to pick up a package which arrived there today. Lego Star Wars II. For Computer.

We normally have stuff sent to us, but Amazon said this item couldn't ship to a PO Box. So we deleted the PO Box. And Amazon said our address didn't check out in their postal records. Which is true, since the postal service doesn't deliver to our house. Enter Grandma's address! And some willing free help for Vir.

I wonder if anyone will want to use my computer this afternoon?

Socks, Triinu, and Salsa

STS. Yes, if that acronym sounds familiar, then the title of this post is a reminder. Where Are Those Photos?!?

But of course, I had to cover myself, and get the photos of MY newly blocked scarf up first. Triinu (the mini-Triinu, actually) is blocked. And I have photographic evidence to prove it!


So, that covers the Triinu part of things. The socks were a desperation project. One simply can't not have a traveling project, especially if one plans to sit in the car for 5 hours. So, I snagged what yarn I had enough of to make a pair of socks, packed it, almost forgot my needles (yikes!) and knit. Day 1 saw 2 pair of child's socks knit up in Esprit on size 6 needles, and I got through another 3.5+ socks in the rest of the time. And next week, I'll be getting more sock yarn! I love getting yarny boxes in the mail.

The last project in the Knit from your Shelf 2009 is going to be the Sandwater Jumper in blue, from The Art of Fair Isle Knitting. I'm hoping to order the yarn directly from Jamieson and Smith, except their website doesn't quite have a shopping cart yet. I'm hoping e-mail will work.

And as for the Salsa? If life gives you ripe tomatoes, you make salsa! That's on the docket for the rest of the morning. The hard part is peeling the critters. Then comes adding Mrs. Wages' mix, and it'll be practically done.

It's hot outside

Summer has arrived.

I know it's a paltry summer, since it's just this one day, and the temperature is just tipping 90 degrees. Since when is 90 degrees hot, anyways? We have a tornado watch, which means it's more fun to watch the colors on the weather map change than it is to listen to the corn grow. The breeze (which detracts from the summer swelter) disrupts listening to the corn grow. And the corn is probably in shock (not in the shocks) that it's warm enough to grow, finally.

The start of the traditional US school year is approaching, so I buckled down and plotted out our calendar and books. Foreign language, math, science, and writing are easy choices. Lit and history have not made it onto the formal list of subjects, though. Since Filia is a 9th grader this year, I decided it was time to have something that would really LOOK Lit and History-ish. Enter Ambleside Online Lite Booklists! We read tons of books to begin with -- their list looks intriguing and I think I can stick with it.

I got some luscious yarn for a test knit yesterday, and blocked it this morning. That means I'm back to just one project on the needles, the Triinu scarf. With 9-st nupps (and I've snuck an 11-st nupp in there as well. Gotta love those Addi Lace needles!) I need to come up with a better project for traveling knitting. I don't need the pattern for Triinu, but I do need to look at it. Does the knitter exist who can knit lace without looking?

The little egg on the milkweed leaf that Filius was raising for his Insect merit badge turned black at one end, just like the websites said it would when the larva was ready to hatch. Except then the whole thing turned black, and it's fuzzy on the outside. I think we have mold on a dead egg. Time to go hunt for another egg!