Tea Cozy!

I think I remember now why large needles and fat yarn exist ... they make for fast projects. This cozy has been on my 'to do' list since January of this year, and I've even had the yarn for it since... since... since August 15th, and it didn't even get on the needles until yesterday.

Then again, starting a project within 12 days of getting yarn for it isn't too bad. That particular yarn order had yarn for 4 projects, one swatch, and two socks in it. Three of the four projects are done, one was attemped and discovered to be UnWorkable, and so demoted to 'swatch yarn', and I'm sreiously thinking about swatching with the remaining yarn today. It'll either be that, or gluing myself to the Sock That Wouldn't Get Worked On so I can get it out of my travelling bag.

Anywho... yesterday afternoon I cast on some bulky yarn onto size 13 needles, and set to work. Before bedtime, I had this!

One unfelted tea cozy in Sky and Bare bulky. For scale, you can see the teapot and the book.

The cozy is a bit big, and in obvious need of felting. So today, I supplied it, and before the breakfast dishes were done, I had a slightly-smaller-than-I-hoped-for tea cozy.

My daughter has asked for one for her first tea pot.

Other things do happen in this household besides knitting. In front of me at this very moment is the New Elementary Mathematics Syllabus D text. I am going to plan out what an insane pace would be (ie, completing it in less than a year) and try to go somewhat slower than that. Editing, laundry, and preparing shopping lists are also on the plan d'jour. Later this week I'll pull together the rest of my school planning, which is admittedly not much. I do so tend towards the 'do the next thing' in school. Very likely, that is why I gravitate to math and Latin. They have a next thing, right there on the next page of the text. But for literature, history, and science, the next thing is not so clear. This year I'm hoping to add science and literature to our official list of things studied ... we shall see how it goes.

This past month, a friend and I have been reading Merchant of Venice. We had some problems with Portia's character once we got to the discussion questions. She was seeing a much more, shall we say earthy?, character in Portia. After some back and forthing, and request for specific quotes, we learned what the problem was. My 1917 text had been ... EDITED ... to remove the earthier parts. Imagine that? Censorship, back in 1917. And of Shakespeare! The scene in question had 20 or so lines removed. Just zapped. With no note or explanation.

I wonder if we'll have that problem with our next read, Pride and Prejudice?

I leave you with a picture of the view late last week out our schoolroom window., looking up 30 ft or so.

Hats! Hats! Hats!

Hats in worsted weight yarn with a simple pattern are wondrously quick to make. I have finished two using KnitPick's Swish Superwash and a serious variation of the Mushroom Cap pattern from Homespun, Handknit. I like how they came out, and the yarn is very nice to work with. Come spring, I'll have an idea how it will stand up to a Minnesota winter. I'm not sure if the hats I made for the boys will last that long ... they're still being enjoyed as summer hats.

This past week, we went to the State Fair. It was supposed to be a State Fair / doctor visit, but when I called from the fairgrounds to double-check our appointment time, I discovered that I had the right day and time, but the wrong month. So we had some extra time at the fair. We skipped the whole parking mess by using a Park and Ride lot -- one the fair had so thoughtfully equipped with accessible busses. My daughter got her Very First (second, third, and fourth) rides on a power lift. She definitely prefers it to scooting up bus steps - not typically ranked among the cleaner surfaces in the world - on her rear. I think it even ranked at the top of her Favorite Fair Experiences. Since we skipped the Kidway, and pretty much went in, explored the Creative Activities building, and meandered out with brief stops at food stands and the DNR Fish pond, it's not too surprising.

The DNR Fish pond is pretty amazing. They have 25 species of Minnesota fish swimming around in a huge outdoor pond, all clearly visible. I learned that sturgeon grow to be twice as old as humans. Can you imagine catching the same sturgeon that your great-great-grandfather caught back in 1870? It's possible. Unless he ate it.

Next to the Creative Activities / Education building, there was a lovely little gazebo / bridge/ pond / stream / horticultural exhibit. The sort of thing I'd love to have in my yard, so long as it was maintenance-free, which of course, it can't possibly be. It was thoroughly explored by my son, lurking among the tall grasses.

My favorite place at the fair is, of course, the Creative Activities building. I should have taken pictures of the entire knitting display so I could look back for inspiration, but I didn't. I did take a picture of my entry into the Handknit, Adult Pullover, Patterned category.
It would have been really something if the model had been wearing the cabled cap I also entered, but it isn't. My Latvian Sampler Mittens also took a first in their category, with my shawl and cap taking second and third, respectively. The quality of entries is excellent at the fair. I think - but am not positive - that the greenish shawl on the table in the photo was in the same category as my shawl. The knitting on that shawl is excellent!

Lady Eleanor has been set aside for the time being, as our weather has started acting like a Minnesota August and it's too hot to have a wool blanket in progress. Stay tuned to see what's going on my needles next!

The Lady Sandra is begun

The Lady Sandra, you ask? What or who is that? She (most definitely a she) is close kin to the Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole from ScarfStyle. As you may guess, she is destined for a person named Sandra. And on Tuesday of last week, we went yarn shopping for The Perfect Yarn for her. It's important to have a perfect yarn when one is thinking of making over 250 little knit rectangles, using a technique that one was fairly certain one would never do again after completing a required swatch. Perfect Yarn goes a long way towards overcoming attachment disorders involving knitting techniques. Without Perfect Yarn, there is no incentive to pick up the project. But with it --- ah, that's another story. So, on the way home from entering some items in the Minnesota State Fair, we stopped at Borealis Yarns. We never made it to the second yarn store in the area. Why bother? We hit the jackpot.

Our next stop was HalfPrice Books, and a good time was had by all there as well. My son found not one, but TWO Asterix books, and spoke on their educational value so convincingly that they were purchased not as comics, but as Historical Fiction. I also received a KnitPicks order in the mail, and promptly cast on for the Brioche Cap with Telemark. Unfortunately, I can't imagine getting the projected gauge for the project with Telemark (at least in blue ... sometimes blue yarns are thicker than any other color in a given style), so when I'd gotten far enough into the pattern to realize it was going to not fit a 1-2 year old, as projected, but someone with a 24" head circumference ... it was quietly frogged. All is not lost, though. I have two samples of Telemark, and every expectation that I will make several things from it in the future.

I also have yarn for my TEA COZY! I was all set to cast on for it on Wednesday, but came up against two problems. First, my ball winder was a dozen miles away and the yarn was in hanks. And second, it called for size 13 dpns. Size 13 British, I have. Size 13 US, I don't. So I set that aside for another day. But at least I have the yarn! And yarn for a pair of merino/silk socks, and yarn to swatch for a cardigan from the latest Interweave Knits, and yarn for another pair of socks, and yarn for some more hats, and and and.

Hats, you know, can be a rewarding thing to make. Worked in worsted, they don't take long. And made for children, they're small. And if you saw some children wearing woolen hats in August, riding their bikes back and forth in the driveway, with an embarassed-looking father watching in perplexity ... that would be the hats I made. One hat stayed on through bathtime, even. Now that's appreciation.

And to leave you with something to appreciate ... I leave you with the beginnings of the Lady Sandra, worked in Noro Silk Garden color 239.

How did it get to be mid-August?

The socks that started off as little bitty wraps on toothpick-sized needles ended up looking like socks made for a pair of stilts. Here they are ... observe what happens when you don't purchase enough of the same dyelot to complete a project!

The next pair of socks OTN will look like two of this picture. The ripple pattern is the Ridged Feather from Sensational Knitted Socks.

I decided to do some gauge checking, since my standard sock pattern threw me for such a loop with the new KP needles. The pink socks, knit on size 2.5 mm needles, have a gauge of 10 spi in stockinette. The other pair has a gauge of 8.5 spi with 3.0 mm needles. My Brittany birch needles are 2.75 mm, and they give me a gauge of 9 something (and that's after wearing and many washes.) Save time, take time to check gauge. Or have a wide variety of feet available to fit whatever size sock comes off the needle.

Many blue ribbons were earned at the County Fair this year. My children got their first blue ribbons. The ferris wheel is an original design, and the poncho is an adaptation of Rosemary's Poncho to a sportweight yarn and a toddler size. I think the only part we didn't adapt was the shaping.

I got a Box of Yarn in the mail yesterday. Since I am suffering slightly from an abundance of sock yarn, I decided to take a short break from that and knit some hats. At a church outing in the evening, I finished off a Packer Hat and a Vikings Hat. And today, I made a Hat for Small Boy with No Football Affiliation Yet.

But socks, despite my current malaise, are quite nifty and neat. I got some sock yarn this last week in a swap. I'm looking forward to working it up, after I make some more non-sock items. Really, what I need is a Home Project. I haven't had one for a while, so socks have been my home AND travelling project. There are a few projects in the works, but nothing that's ready to cast on yet. That may change this week, since we're heading up St. Paul to enter some of my knitting in the State Fair. There are two yarn stores that we've never laid eyes on, right on the way home from the fair. And there's a bookstore along the way too. I wonder -- how long will it take us to get home?

Update

First, the project report on the Moebius: Done. The yarn is Sock Garden Morning Glory from Knitpicks ... I am not sure if they kept the color in their new Memories line. Terry isn't the greatest model in the world, but he did hold still.

I haven't done *much* with the craft room, but I did reorganize the piles of 'stuff' so that I can get in and out of it without fear of breaking a wrist. I can also find my yarn and knitting needles ... very important abilities for a knitter.

And I cast on a sock. Isn't it cute? Doesn't it look as much unlike knitting as you can easily imagine? It's the toe of a sock (Knitpicks Dancing yarn, size 2.75 mm Brittany dpns) after casting on and working one row. I used Bluebell Lace from Sensational Socks for the pattern, and switched to my 2.5 mm KP needles for the lace part. Metal needles aren't the greatest for starting socks, but for lace, they're excellent. The only problem was that my Gauge Changed. Even on the part with Brittany needles. For the past year, I've gotten a gauge of 8 spi with Brittany size 2.75, KnitPicks sock yarn, and stockinette stitch. For this pair, the gauge decided to change to 9 spi. Even On The Part With Brittany Needles. (Always knit a sample swatch. I was warned.)

Fortunately, I was making these socks for a smaller foot than mine, and the smaller gauge makes them excellent for my daughter, or for someone of daintier foot. As I wear an 8 1/2, that's not difficult to find. So, the second sock is on the needle, and moving slowly along.

That's not the plotting part, however. The plotting comes in when dd starts hunting for a halter top pattern to knit. I have no experience with knit halter tops, but all I have to do is look at the pictures in magazines to see some problem areas. We did a good bit of looking, measuring, and contemplating how embarassing certain situations could be. The halter top project has been delayed until KP releases their spring yarns, or later.

But while that was going on, I was covertly noticing all sorts of nifty projects that I had forgotten about, and that would be fun to knit. Two pages in my knitting notebook are now covered with potential projects. Some time in the next week, I will down and order yarn for some of them. I *was* going to get some yarn locally, but couldn't find WoolEase in worsted weight at any of my four stops in town ... so it's off to the web I shall have to go.

Time to go to the county fair, and see how my projects did. And my dcs projects. And not get too hot. Thank goodness the fair is this weekend and not last weekend!

Good things come in small packages

I'm sure you already knew that, however, but what you don't know is what my small packages contained. The first one was unexpected ... I was outside, hanging a small load of laundry (only because it was small, and consisted of three large objects which were easily hangable), and decided to check on our watermelon patch. Would The Watermelon still be present and accounted for? I went searching for it, lifted a leaf, and there it was ...

an unexpected small package. He was polite enough to stay put while I got my camera and took a picture. Later in the day when I was bringing IN the laundry and watering, he was still there. I decided if I were him, I would not want 2 gallons of water dumped on me, so that part of the patch missed the artificial shower.

My second small package came from KnitPicks.

Before I start talking about what was in my box, I would like to take this opportunity to mention what wasn't in my box. Their New Yarns! I am fairly sure that Telemark, Gloss, Shamrock, Essentials Tweed, Wool of the Andes Bulk (and Bulky Handwash), and Swiss Superwash shall find their way into my knitting basket before another year goes by. Perhaps for every projectI knit with new yarns, I should knit one with yarns from my stash? Hmmm ... have to think about that.

My box DID have 5 skeins of sock yarn, enough for 4 pair of socks (combined with stash yarns ... so all those will count as stash projects.) It also had size 1 and size 2 dpns. I do wish KP had stuck with American sizing, but they didn't, so I'll just have to be careful to stick with the same metric size for each project and gauge swatch. I still remember Meg Weglarz's advice from the Northern Lights pullover ... make sure all your size 2 needles are from the same continent, if not the same manufacturer. Mine come from India, America, and Germany. Oops. Thank goodness for needle gauges.

I also got a copy of ScarfStyle. I like it. I already have some people in mind to corner and find out which of several items in there they'd like for Christmas. Maybe I can try the Color scarf with leftover sock yarn, rather than Paternayan? Aaaaah ... it's a good book. It will go right next to WrapStyle on my shelf, once it finds its way there.

The last thing in my box was a sweater stone. I wasn't too sure about this interesting lump of matter, but I had a very pilly sweater, and using a motorized de-piller did nothing, and my husband's razor didn't work. Using a comb and dog-clipping shears worked a bit, but it was tedious and still looked pilly. So ... since I was looking for items to buy in order to get free shipping, I got it.

Here, you see Before and After photos of my son's sweater. As you know, boys are not known for being gentle with sweaters. This one has been around since September of last year, although it hasn't been worn much in the heat we've been having lately. My focus didn't, but you can still see a difference between the 'fuzzy photo of sleeve before 30 second session with sweater stone' and 'fuzzy photo of sleeve after 30 second session with sweater stone'. I can now report that the critter DOES work. As the directions said, there's a fine sandy-type substance left behind, but it does shake out easily.

Unfortunately, I did the de-pilling in a room with a fan, so I couldn't round up ALL the fuzz that came off the sweater, but my broom and I searched to find what we could, and enough turned up for a nice photo. The broom ATE some of the fuzz, unfortunately, but here's what was left ... along with the conquering stone.

If I were bored, I might think of combing this and spinning it up into something for use later, but I'm not bored, so I won't. Elizabeth Zimmerman assures me that most garments only need two or three good depillings ... this makes depilling #3, so perhaps I'm finished? I doubt it.

Denise had a question about Latwrisciopgraphive. I'm afraid I must confess it's a leftover from being a government employee and a military kid. I have a tendency to acronymize all sorts of things that were never meant to be acronymmed. It stands for Latin Writing Science Geography and Fallacy Detective. I'm not sure whre the stray 'p' came from ... probably snuck in their as an aid to pronunciation.

I found a project for my needles yesterday .. another Soft Cables Moebius scarf, made out of Morning Glory sock yarn. It's a stash project with no definite recipient yet, although my daughter has spoken for it. It does contain 3 of her 4 favorite colors.

Next week ... a project report on the Moebius, and word as to whether I've successfully managed to ignore doing anything with and/or in my craft room!

Moooving along

Although I wasn't planning on moving this week, that's exactly what I did on Thursday and Friday. My beautifully organized craft room now looks like - and verily even IS - the picture at left. You see an ironing board, cutting table, sewing table, and various other paraphenalia of the crafty trade. The room is Very Pink, to go with my formerly Very Pink daughter.

My Very Pink daughter now has a Pastel Room. It's even neat, tidy, and organized. (Until this afternoon, when two friends descended upon her for the day, night, and another day. We hope to find a room there again on Tuesday.) And that is where the end of my week went.

But children must sleep sometime, or at least be in bed to rest, and I did manage to finish one mitten, and make a good beginning on the next. And the pink pillowcase lace is waiting for a good pillowcase to land upon, and a bit of blocking. Given the state of the craft room, the fomer might not be available for some time.

I did place that KP order (the broken needle became more of an encumbrance than a challenge), and decided to fill it out with some Dancing (to rescue the orphan 2/3rd skeins I have from making other socks), Parade, and ScarfStyle. I should be finishing off the Sampler Mittens tomorrow, and then will come time to pick a new project. Scarf? Mittens? Lace?

Maybe I'll decide to Find the Craft Room instead?

In my non-knitting life, I'm watching a teensy tiny quarter-sized watermelon grow, waiting for tomatoes to turn even a hint of pink, fighting the never-ending battle against laundry, beginning to think I should be planning for school this fall, and studying Euclid and Greek.

I should probably ponder 'multum, non multa' also. Our 'multum' consists of Math and Latin. Writing has become a priority, and with that I am trying to figure out how to discuss literature. The other subjects we have are Geography and Science, with a bit of Fallacy Detective on the side. I try to keep our day from being Math with a bit of Latwrisciopgraphive stuck in for balance ... but that's the way I lean. Math is such a great subject.

Birds, babies, and beginnings

As promised, I did get outside last Wednesday to pick cherries. I collected a 2 gallon bucket full of cherries, left plenty on the tree for the birds, and discovered that the nest in the tree was occupied. Our best guess is that it's a sparrow nest ... composed of grass, straw, a Freezee wrapper, and miscellaneous recycled paper. With some effort, the cherries turned into 5 dehydrator trays of cherries and 2 quarts of pie filling, plus some miscellaneous syrup.
Here's the Baby Surprise Jacket, all finished. I made a matching hat, which made for a terrible picture, so I won't show you what it looks like. The jacket is definitely destined for a girl, so I only made one set of buttonholes, and went with gender-specific buttons.

Then, to get ready for the fair, I just had to finish off the communion cloth and get the Latvian mittens begun and finished. Virtuously, I decided to work on the communion cloth first. I packed both items for a day out with my mom, and started in on cutting purple fabric, pinning the lace around the outside edge, discovering that I was one repeat short, remembered enough of the pattern to knit another repeat sans directions (I'd left the stitches on the needle, and the yarn connected ... this was not an unexpected development.), and sew the edging on. It even got blocked!

Then tragedy hit. The Latvian mittens call for size 1 needles. I packed size 2 needles. I always use size 2 needles for sock-weight yarn, and for Palette (unless it's a shawl). But the pattern called for 10 stitches per inch, and I only get 9 spi with size 2. So I had No Viable Knitting Project. I was devastated. Briefly.
While Mom doesn't have a yarn stash like I have a yarn stash, she does have a good variety of things for emergencies like this. (Unfortunately, she's never been so insane as to work on size 1 needles, so she didn't have a set to loan me.) I found some 5/2 cotton from Silk City (which I used to make a baby blanket back in 1995) and some size 4 needles, as well as an old Workbasket with lace edgings, and promptly cast on. This lace is destined to be a pillowcase edging. It's about 3 inches wide, and I think I'm already half done. It's certainly going faster than No 10 DMC Cebelia on size 0 needles!

Of course, when I got home, I had to dig out my size 1 needles and get to work on the mitten. I have two sets of size 1 needles. One has four needles, 12" long. Too few needles, too many inches. My other set has 5 needles, 7" long ... but one is cracked. I obviously need to order the KnitPicks Options dpns. What else do I need to order so I can get free shipping? I'll figure something out.

The Latvian Sampler Mitten uses a technique I've never seen (outside of the Harmony Guide) or done before. Fringe. It's made in a rather insane way, involving wrapping the working yarn around your left index finger three times, then pretending those wraps are actually one piece of yarn and using the right needle to manipulate them through the old loop on the left needle. Without snapping the tip off either needle, puncturing your finger, or cutting off circulation for too long. There is a knack to it. Then I discovered that with the turning the work halfway around this way and that, that I'd carried the yarn on the outside of the work ... so all the fringe needed to get retucked on the opposite side of the floats. And then there was braiding. And then ... the nice normal stranding.
Here it is. It's cute. I'm up to the thumb. The mitten pattern doesn't change much from here ...red and blue flecks alternating all the way up to the top. The mitten will be 5" around (if I've got gauge ... I'll measure later. These are samplers, and never need to fit anyone)

Now, if only the temperature was cooler so it felt more like wool-knitting weather!

Checking in

The summer is smoothly slipping past, and lo and behold, I'm not sitting around eating bon-bons. And I'm actually coming up with a 'done' list that shows I'm not sitting at the computer all day reading other people's blogs and new stories.

The sock is done. The shawl is done. The baby surprise jacket is done. The bonnet to match is begun. And I sent in my county fair entry form, and included a pair of Latvian mittens. I haven't begun them yet, however. Guess what I'm making after the bonnet?

My reading is going well. David is done, Merchant of Venice is done, Genesis is perking along nicely. Classical Writing is perking along nicely. Greek ... well, let's just say ithat in 15 minutes after I finish this entry I *will* open the exercise book and do more than just close it and put it back on the shelf.

The harping is behaving itself, as is the garden (I have a teensy weensy green tomato beginning to form! And the watermelon plants are still alive, and flowering!!) Nothing, however, has happened to the quilt, nor to Euclid or school plans. Unless you count getting personalized pencils and graph paper notebooks?

I'd like to take this opportunity to present a plug for our local post office. I think we have the best post office around. If a friend in CA loses half the contents of a parcel that got sliced open by machinery, her post office says "Can't do anything." My post office says "What's the return address?" and starts calling around to find out where the processing facility is for that zip to see if the missing items can be located. If a package is supposed to go from New York to Florida, but doesn't make it to the right person because a teensy part of the address was missing, my post office will start making phone calls to find out where the parcel went. They don't just disappear, you know. And if you're sick at home and are waiting for an important piece of mail, or are home with a sick baby in the middle of winter ... the post office will snag a helpful person coming into the lobby to bring the mail over. And the post office even gets the impossible delivered ... like mail sent to my mom (another town, another zip) at her street address AND town, but my zip code. Or mail to my husband, but sent c/o someone else in another town ... it got to our box without even being cancelled at the other post office, and without having our address written on the envelope.

It's just amazing. We need to have a sign outside of town about our post office.

Pie cherries are getting over-ripe, so the plan is today to try and dehydrate some. The apricots are ripening and starting to drop all over the place. That's the one bad thing about fruit trees ... if you don't pick it just when it wants to be picked (and from however high up it felt like growing - our 4-6 ft apricot bushes are 20+ feet), the fruit falls down and goes smush.

My entrelac swatch has begun a new career as a doll's skirt.

Greek greek greek greek

Progress report

The Faroese shawl is completed. Blocked, even. It does just what I wanted it to do, and so it will be kept. It's the perfect size shawl for summer, doesn't get hot and toasty even in an outdoor service when the ambient temperature is 90 degrees, and short enough that it doesn't get in the way while serving up a potluck for 60. What more could a gal ask for?

David Copperfield has been read, and now I'm wondering why it took me so long to read it. I really liked it. Due to other experiences discussing books starting with the letter 'D' with a friend whose name begins with 'D', however, I'm not going to suggest this for our next book discussion. It was a good book, though, and I plan to read it again ... and even try some more Dickens.

That pretty well covers the fourth letter of the alphabet. On to the fifth letter! Entrelac. For some time, I've had almost 3 skeins of Morning Glory Sock Garden from KnitPicks in my stash. I've toyed with the idea of making entrelac socks out of it, since I don't particularly care for the frenetic stripes that result from stockinette socks with Morning Glory. The only sock pattern I could find on the web, however, didn't appeal to me. So I did what any knitter without a project would do ... I swatched! I usually cast on 60 stitches for a sock, but since this was a Maybe Sock and was going to be inEntrelac, I decided to use 48 stitches and maybe, just maybe, it would fit my daughter. Regardless, I'd see how the colors worked out, and have a good swatch to check gauge on for future endeavours.

The ribbing is the perfect size for my daughter. The entrelac portion is too large for me. And so ... I have an Official Swatch. It looks like it could grow up into a sweater sleeve, or perhaps rompers for a baby. With a solid colored yarn to continue in, I think it would be a super sock calf. Someone, somewhere, has a pattern for socks that are all Entrelac ... gotta find it and check it out from the library, probably.

Entrelac is a good way to use mathematics. "If I need 60 stitches for a sock cuff, but only want 8 inches calf circumference, and each entrelac block of 6 stitches is an inch, although my normal sock gauge is 8 stitches per inch, how do I transition from ribbing to entrelac?" (Answer ... start in Entrelac and hope it fits over the heel?)

Here, you see a picture of what happens when a future architect is on summer vacation. He rearranges his room. This picture was taken from the doorway (or as close as I could get to it.) It's a bit scary.

I think my next knitting project is going to be the sampler mittens from Latvian Mittens. They're not exactly the best project to start while sitting at the doctor's office tomorrow, though, so I'm going to scamper to find a baby blanket pattern in Shine Blush (there's some laying around) and get going on that. Unless something else from the stash calls my name first!

This week ... Merchant of Venice!

What shall I do with my summer?

Now that summer vacation is over, I can get back in the swing of things. What, may you ask, counts for swinging around here?

• Finishing a second Elderberry sock in Wildfoote
  (done, 6/28)
• Work on the remaining 30 rows of the Faroese Shawl
• Read David Copperfield
• Read Merchant of Venice
• Read lots of Genesis and other accompaniments to Precept's Genesis 4 study
  
• Forge valiantly onwards into Greek Verbs (the next chapter is Contract Verbs. I dislike them, since I haven't mastered them. I also dislike any small word that has more meanings than letters.)
• Practice harping away. On a harp.
  
• Garden/housekeep/cook/laundry/pay bills/etc
  
• Classical Writing stuff
• Plan for the upcoming school year
• Other craft stuff (such as finishing A's quilt)
• (starting mid-July) Euclid!

With a to-do list like that, who needs boredom? Certainly not me. I'm sure I've forgotten some things, but hopefully not too many. Learning to bake gluten-free bread should probably be there, as my husband has discovered that he does not get along with wheat gluten. Ever since we married, he thought it was a lactose problem ... and now it's looking like a gluten issue instead. I get to enter a new world of Potato Flour, Xantham Gum, and Arrowroot Powder. Good thing I like rice!

No pictures today. My finished sock looks much like the first finished sock, pictured in last week's blog. Tune back next week to see if I've got evidence of a Finished Faroese Shawl laying around the blog.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

We're back from our summer vacation - a bit early this year for reasons you will see if you last this entire entry - and things are settled enough that I have a few spare minutes to blog about it.

On June 7th, we arose bright and early and drove all the way to Rising Sun, Indiana. The only incident was someone else's motorcycle accident which held us up a half hour or so, but it looked like the rider was not seriously hurt, so that was a good thing. We found a cozy little hotel and its brand new owners and spent a pleasant night there. Dan and Patrick stayed up late watching the Reds on TV, but Abigail and I were up before the sun and got some nifty pictures of the sunrise.

In the morning, we went to Harps on Main where I tried hard not to drool over the lovely harps there. Seeing them first-hand helped me determine that I have fallen in musical love with the Logan Meadows harp. Picture it in cherry, with not much (if any) ornamentation, and that iswhat will be headed my direction several weeks after I stop dreaming about it and get it ordered. I got my harp instruction book two days before we left on vacation, and have been having great fun making my fingers behave.

After the harp store, we went to the Freedom Center in Cincinnati. It was an interesting place, but the films were very much on the loud side (we decided that the crickets must both have amps and be on steroids) and a bit too much in-your-face for some children. I'm still wondering about their usage of 'Enslaved Persons' rather than 'slaves' ... as in 'John Smith kept 200 Enslaved Persons on his property'. I suppose it's more PC. Abigail also got stuck in the revolving doors, and was chided for playing with them (ie, trying to get out.)

We spent the night in Cincinnati, then headed off to Brown County, Ohio. We girls were going to have a quiet night while the guys went to watch a fabulous Reds victory. Plans have a way of not happening. The Reds lost by one run, despite having the bases loaded with no outs in the bottom of the 9th inning. And the quiet night for the girls ended with Dan's aunt heading off to the hospital in an ambulance. She's doing better now -- the hospital found several problems, including sleep apnea and an infection

After that came Dayton. Dan attended his 25th college reunion there, and Patrick decided he never, ever wants to go to a Catholic college. One of the priests Dan knew from his student days was officiating (if that's the right word) at a Reunion Mass, and Dan really wanted to go, so we did ... to a standing room only, overflowing out the doors, 90-minute long, delightful music loudly and joyfully praising God Mass. We were in the very back, standing (except for Abigail .. wheelchairs are handy things to have in standing-room only crowds). Patrick had no book. He could see nothing. He didn't want to see anything. And the music was loud. It was a new low in his list of 'Things I Am Required to Behave Myself Through". And it was 45 minutes longer than we'd thought it would be. The next day, we went to a talk given by one of Dan's friends. It was supposed to be 45 minutes, but ended up being two hours. Patrick had a seat, however, and took as many books as he could conveniently carry across campus. He was a relatively happy camper.

Next (and we're up to Sunday afternoon here, if you're still with me) came visitng some friends we made at a previous Joni and Friends Family Retreat. They have a GORGEOUS log cabin in the woods outside a small town in Ohio. We had a perfectly lovely stay there, and got a good night's sleep, some much-needed down-time, excellent fellowship... the only blot was that our friend's son was rather heartily sick and spent much of our stay camped out on the bathroom floor. This meant he couldn't play foosball and PingPong with Patrick, who to his credit, didn't even ask if that was a possibility.

Then, on Monday, we finally, really and truly, headed off to Family Camp at the Oakwood Inn
We took the scenic route, stopping at Young's Dairy for milkshakes and some animal petting, and got to Syracuse around 4 PM. The short-term missionaries there descended upon us, unpacked our minivan, and by the time we got to our room (5 minutes later) all our luggage was waiting for us. So delightful after several days of 'packing our own.' We had a great time there, left Friday morning, and got home Friday evening.

Since then, I have been working to catch up. I'm actually caught up .. but there's work that was waiting for me before I left, and most of it is still hanging around my desk. I've got Euclid to work on, a Precepts Bible Study to prepare, books to proof, things to knit, a harp to play ... and all those other sorts of things that keep me out of trouble.

But you know, all this so far has been about where I went on my vacation. What did I do? Look and see!

God provides!

This is a harp.

A beautiful harp.

A harp that appeared almost out of nowhere.

It has been loaned to me by a person who, although I knew of their existence vaguely through a prayer chain, I had never met until Monday, when I went to a Memorial Day picnic, which I learned of only Sunday afternoon.

Somehow, introverted little me began talking with another person ... and in the first three sentences we managed to establish that we both know too much about hospitals, and that she had a spare harp.

God is good. God is great. And I can hardly wait for the harp store in California to open so I can order a book or two.

Did you know the doxology can be played on a lever harp by a rank amateur?

What I Am Doing On My Summer Vacation

1. Diagramming sentences
2. Proofing books
3. Knitting
4. Reading
5. Reading Euclid
6. Reading the Declaration of Independence
7. Thinking about the Declaration of Independence, with the aim of gathering 10 coherent ideas about it.
8. Finding out if I really, truly, want a Celtic Harp
9. Training my children
10. Learning Logo in August
11. Gardening
12. Going about my usual other activities
13. Reading Greek
    

Perchance this is why I'm feeling a bit swamped. However, if I approach this list with a FlyLady mentality x 2 -- "You can do anything for 30 minutes at a pop" I'm sure it will all get done quite nicely.

Despite the fact that I feel as if nothing has gotten done recently. If nothing gets finished, I must not be doing anything, right? (Wrong)

I have been knitting, and have finished one pair of socks (the purple multicolored ones) and am just about finished with the first sock of a second pair (made from the near ball). I'm also around row 30 or so of the Faroese Shawl from A Gathering of Lace It's the one on the cover, but in laceweight yarn on size 4 needles rather than a plate of wool on size 11, so it will be a good chunk smaller.

I finished reading a Thomas Jefferson Education, have read Ravi Zacharias' autobiography, and am starting in on a second read of TJ to do some more digesting of it. After that will come another read of Ravi's book, this time with commonplace book in hand, so I can jot down some of the gems hiding in there.

So much to study and learn, so little time!

Did I mention 'planning for the upcoming school year' on my list? That should be there too, I suppose.

What do Hardanger, Rabbits, and Cotton Have in Common?

They're all in my blog this week, that's what!

First, the hardanger. This is a photo of my mom's first attempt at hardanger embroidery. It's a bread cloth, mofidifed from a pattern in a Burda book. All she has to do is mend some blanket stitches at the edge, and it will be finished. Mend, mom, Mend!

Next comes the Rabbits. Here you see an angora .... something. It starts with a g, or so the recipient informs me, but the rest of the word is lost. The tie goes under the chin, the rest of it over the ears and head .... anyone know what it's called?


And last comes the cotton. Here's a cotton doily - my Very First Knit Cotton Doily. (I've knit two lace doily swatches before, for level III of my Master Knitting course. This one is from Marianne Kinzel's First Book of Modern Lace Knitting) I rather like it. It need re-blocking - but at least now I know that 1 tsp cornstarch to 2/3 cups of water does stiffen a doily sufficiently.

My OTN project is a sock. Sock number 2 of a pair, and it's at the heel. I also acquired two skeins of sock yarn today to make two pairs of socks for my mom. And I'm pretty much decided on knitting the Icarus Shawl from the latest Interweave Knits. Gotta have something to do work on while we're travelling to Ohio!

I received my Entrelac swatch back in the mail today ... what a fast turnaround time! Last Monday I sent it off, and this Monday I get it back. Along with a 'Congratulations!' letter. Dum da dee dee dum... I think I'll memorize the letter. I'd be better off memorizing the first letter, with the list of improvements I can work on, however.

I'm reading A Thomas Jefferson Education now. Fascinating book. I've talked my mom into reading it as well so I will have someonewith whom to discuss the ideas therein. There's a list of 'books to read' piling up on the bookmark in it as well -- and all this just at the beginning of our summer break! How fortuitous.

Now, if I can only stick with the reading, and not have things go in one ear and out the other.

The Box Came Back

The Box came back on Wedneday. Not an ordinary box, mind you, but a Priority Mail box from the west coast. It contained a sweater, a hat, eighteen swatches, and enough pattern directions to start a small encylopedia (so long as it was truly very small), and a very nice letter. The bottom line is ... I have a swatch to redo.

Actually, I had a swatch to redo. The New and Improved version is blocking at the moment. The white and tan swatch is the Old and Needs Reworking swatch. The blue threads point out the Awful Parts. The grey and purple swatch is the Improved version. I sat myself down yesterday, book in lap, yarn in basket, needles on table, and proceeded to knit. And experiment (with acrylic, none the less). And after not too much analysis, I discovered that 100% of those blue threads were caused by ssks. No p2togs rated a blue thread. So I addressed myself to improving the ssk.

An ssk is a left-leaning single decrease. It is formed by slipping one stitch knitwise, the another, then knitting them together by either transferring them (without twisting) back onto the left-hand needle and knitting through the back loops, or else not transferring them and inserting the left-hand needle into the loops and knit them together. It's supposed to be a perfect mirror of a k2tog. The problem is, it's easy to stretch a stitch or two out of shape and end up with a cracked mirror - in this case, mis-shapen stitches. The usual solution is to work on the tips of your needles so as not to stretch the stitches.

Working the stitches on the tips of the needles didn't improve the situation. Working the stitches on size 0 needles didn't improve the situation. BUT the alternative left-leaning decrease, the "slip one, knit one, pass slipped stitch over knit stitch" (s1 k1 psso) behaved itself beautifully. And so, a new swatch was born. First in acrylic, then a sample in alpaca/silk leftovers (which did not behave at all), and finally, in plain ol' wool. I also did some experimentation with wrapped stitches and made some improvements in the first and last row of the swatch. It was a lovely learning experience. I'm not sure I will ever love entrelac, but I do plan on making at least one entrelac sock, so I will a) know how to do it, and b) know if I ever want to do it again.

The Moebius is finished. Multiple headbands got finished.

And some lace got started.










In my non-knitting life, I'm studying II Thessalonians, editing, and juggling end-of-the-year school with medical appointments. Next on my 'to read' list is Grace Abounding, John Bunyan's autobiography.