Stormy Weather

Dogs have unique personalities. Our current dog does not like unsettled weather. He makes his dislike known by either attaching himself to my ankle and laying down on my feet if I stop moving, or by crawing into the smallest hidey-hole he can find and settling in for the duration.

Even if the duration never exactly happens, and the storm watches are one country over and never turn into storm warnings.

We've tried to help him get comfy by putting a dog bed in the space under my desk so he can retreat there, but you know ... he's a small dog, and space enough for an adult's legs is a large space. So, he practices burrowing.

In the children's desks.

Lately, he's been trying out both desks each day to see which one he can make the most comfortable. It makes for a messy floor.

I wonder what I'll do today?

Look what arrived in the mail today!

Knit From Your Shelf ... A Call for Updates!

Because I have something to say about my KFYS progress, I would like everyone else to chime in and report too. (It's rather like telling your children to put socks on because you're cold. Or that you're thirsty, what would they like to drink?)

My KFYS isn't quite trotting along at the project-a-month I had envisioned, or even the 'always have a project from the shelf on the needles.' I'm having a hard time keeping projects on the needles, actually. But they're not particularly from my shelf. I say 'not particularly' because I decided to consider At Sea as being from Knitting Ganseys. It's not, really ... but the author/designer is the same, and a friend sent me the book because I was going to be knitting the gansey, so ... it'll do.

Today, I ordered yarn for the Lupine Cardigan from Meg Swansen's Knitting. I'm not sure when I will sneak in the actual knitting, because rumor has it that I'll be getting yarn for a sample sweater in two weeks or so (yay!) and two weeks later have more yarn for more sample kntting (more yay!) and there are some other things in the works ... but I don't have anything NOW and since this unenviable condition may well occur again in the future, I wanted to take what steps I could to remedy the situation. (I thought about begging for a friend's WIPs, but decided against it. And my mom is helping me out by requesting a cozy for her iced tea glass. But that won't take me through 2 weeks of swimming lessons.)

After the cardigan gets knit (7-10 days of serious knitting), I will have just one unused book on my shelf. Any project from there should take about 1 month to finish, and I'm sure I can sneak that in this fall.

Anyone else have an end in sight?

The Lazy Days of Summer

The first blush of post-school busy-ness has faded away, and summer spreads before me like a blank canvas.

Great sentence? But not quite true. The insanity of article to knit and books to edit and databases to design has indeed faded away. The articles ARE knit (or aren't ready to be knit), I'm practically caught up on edits, and I have two nicely working databases. But somehow, the blank canvas part isn't true. Filia and Filius are signed up for swim lessons starting in a week or two, and once those are over Filius has scout camp, followed by VBS for both, followed by a week off and then another camp. But I won't complain. There is plenty of free space in our summer. A 50-minute swim lesson, even if it is two towns away, still doesn't take the entire day. I would like to know how it ended up that I have four doctor's appointments in a 3-week period while Filia has a 4 month period without any. (Orthodontist doesn't count. I don't think we've EVER gone 3 months before without a check-up with someone.)

And dh put the air conditioner in yesterday ... so today, the heat breaks. Just in time for cooler weather, which I appreciate. Summer is a very good thing for crops and long walks, but I miss warming up with hot cocoa and cozily warm blankets.

Strong on pictures, short on words

Let me present the finished At Sea gansey:

And then a closeup, followed by Podrick (in cozy and out), and the project on the needles.

And then I will get back to work!

Catching up on things

Summer is always an opportunity to dive into things wholeheartedly. I like submerging myself in things. I'd say 'immersing', but since I don't come up for air, submerging is probably more accurate.

I've finished the Irish Lace Scarf. Soaking it was an interesting tactile experience. So was knitting it, actually. It felt and looked like I was knitting dust bunnies. I leave it to your imagination how to describe the 'shawl coming out of warm water bath'.

The gansey is moving along nicely. I hit a small snag when I started the sleeve with a star pattern, then realized it should be a tree. Rather than frog 16 rows, I decided to do a bit of minor surgery. Another knitter in the family, who shall remain nameless, accidentally deleted the 'before' photo, but here's a picture of the corrections mid-stream. Star on the left needle, tree on the right needle! The swap took me just over a half-hour, and that sleeve is now done. I hope to start and finish the second sleeve this week.

But this morning, I finished some mittens for Terri Shea's upcoming book.....

And yesterday, I began using the new database I've constructed (using OO Base) for Classical Writing accounting/invoicing/royalties stuff. I had two hurdle to surmount. One involved my own stupidity (bad figures give bad data ... fortunately, the bad figure was only in a note to myself, not to a customer!), but the cause of the other problem is still beyond me. How can an automatically incremented record ID produce duplicate numbers?

Now, to go see if I can finish editing Chapter 3 of Herodotus. And then make sure the answer key has answers that pertain to the contents of the chapter. Fun!!!

On the Way Home from Church

Happily Surrounded by Yarn

Have you ever had one of those days where you finished a project and wondered what you were going to work on next?  I have, and I really like to know what I'll be doing next.

Lately, I don't even have to wonder.  On Monday, I worked on four projects.  Yesterday, I worked on three projects. Filia also worked on one of them for me, and got it into proper shape for next Tuesday's knitting class (allowing me to work on another project.  Maybe, just maybe, she'll grow up to be my Twin in the Closet?  Just think of everything I could get done with a Real Twin!  But no, then she wouldn't get her socks done.  And she did finish one yesterday -- and didn't have yarn for the second with her, which is why I threw my sock to her.) 

The At Sea gansey is coming along beautifully.  I've one 'tree' motif to knit, and then I can start in on the back.  After the back comes the neck, and then the sleeves, and then ... it'll be done.   The lace scarf is about half-done, and the traveling socks?  Well, those are traveling, and don't count.

When I'm not knitting, I'm wandering through Open Office Base tutorials, dreaming of a nice and tidy way to keep all the records I need for my Customer Service, Editor, and Accounting hats.  I have much to learn, but it's nice to take a summer and see what I can figure out. 

There's other things on my to-do list, but these are the ones that give me the most delight. (Bringing order to the chaos of an unformatted book comes close, though.) 

What are YOU doing this summer that delights you?

And the winner is ...

Eileen! Congratulations, Eileen. I've contacted you via your blog, and will get the yarn off to you when I know what to put on the address label.

I've made progress on 3 of my 4 projects this week. One class sock is two tail weaves away from completion, the gansey is less than an inch from the top of the armhole gusset, and the scarf is one orthodontist appointment (braces removal) further along.
We're wrapping up our school year, and the summer is stretching ahead of us. It's not exactly vacant, though. There are SO many things to learn. I could learn SQL and database design (spending lots of time to make bookkeeping take a little less time), or I could potter about in the yard, or I could practice harp lots, or I could completely declutter the house, or ... so many possibilities. I also need to at least pretend to plan out the high school years for my kiddos. What Spanish curriculum do I want to use for Filia? What will I do for Latin 3 for Filius? And then there's history and literature ... eeek! The reading of it isn't a problem, but the discussing thereof is another matter entirely. Now that things are getting 'transcriptable', I find myself staring at the large gap between my own high school history class (sit through class, do homework involving copying down sentences from the book, take multiple choice open book tests) and the possibilities inherent in homeschooling. My tendency is to expect a doctoral dissertation from a 9th grader, I fear. Maybe Filius could read some of Suetonius in Latin and write an original paper on it...

Thank goodness Math is easy. Singapore NEM 3b and 4a, and we're set!

What Happened?

I am a monogamous knitter. Those who know me know I have one, perhaps two, projects on the needles at a time. A project to work on at home, and if it's not portable, a project for traveling.

Tuesday night the realization struck me that I had not two, nor even three, but FOUR projects on the needles. How did that happen?

Let me explain. No, that would take too long. Let me sum up.

I love being helpful. And although in some areas of life I have no difficulty saying 'no', I'm a sucker for knitting things. And helpfulness collided with a design I am working on (despite the fact that I am *not* a designer), plus a traveling knitting project and a class sample ... well, there are four things on the needles. The 16x8" lace swatch on a spare set of needles doesn't count. My daughter is going to finish that (after she finishes her socks and sweater), or else it will get frogged. Except Frog Tree Alpaca doesn't frog well, so it may just quietly disappear. Or get bound off. What does one do with Unloved Swatches, anyways? Or even Loved Swatches?
You, spinning wheel, with the half-spun bobbin. Shush.

The Bohus mittens, at least, are finished. They were a slightly finicky knit (the palm sides are beige and unpatterned, and the mittens are worked in the round with no spare strands on the palm side), but knit up surprisingly quickly. The yarn came out of my stash and was acquired from four states - CA, OR, MN and MD - and three generations of my own family plus a friend. Does that make these interstate multigenerational mittens?

A Monday morning blog giveaway!

Aren't these pretty? And "these" happen to be Spud & Chloe, a lovely worsted yarn in superwash wool and cotton from Blue Sky Alpacas. (Don't ask me where the alpacas are in this. I think maybe they watch.) ((Spud and Chloe also comes in a fingering weight and a bulky weight. But these are worsted weight, aka 'Sweater'.)

If you'd like the yarn, leave a comment by Friday, May 22nd. I will use my handy-dandy, much-beloved HP11c to generate a random number, multiply it by the number of commenters, and that person will be the winner!

Yarn!!!

When I'm making a pointed attempt not to knit (an unusual event, but necessitated by being between projects and not having the yarn for the next project yet), SOMETHING has to be going on. Reading books is one way to pass the time, or cleaning, or decluttering, or organizing ...

but if one is just back from Shepherd's Harvest and has roving, the obvious thing to do is SPIN!

Yesterday, I spun. I think the yarn is heading for a lace shawl. A Knitted Veil is in the running, but I'm not sure if it will work with the variation in color, or if I'll have enough.

Today, I will knit. (Dances in glee) Three boxes came in the mail today -- one with books, one with cassette tapes about books, and one with yarn.

Yippee!

Back from Shepherd's Harvest

What is Shepherd's Harvest, you ask? It's a sheep and wool festival! And what do you get at sheep and wool festivals? Wool fumes!

But before I show you the wool fumes that came home with me, let me show you how far we live from Shepherd's Harvest. (I should have taken a 'before' picture ... it would have showed one ball of yarn and two needles.)

Yup. About that far - minus one meal eaten in the car, plus reading the mail we picked up on our way out of town. And some time just watching the road go by. (I probably spent some of that time knitting ... my hands may have forgotten to tell me they were occupying themselves)

I was a good girl this year. (I usually am. Some people tell me I'm disciplined and have self-restraint.) I didn't have anything particular in mind to buy -- unlike last year, where my quest was to find White Laceweight Yarn for the Sanquhar Gloves. The quest ended with an order to KnitPicks. Laceweight just isn't a good seller, apparently. I can't really complain, as a skein here and a skein there last me a good long whlie.

So this year, knowing that I have OODLES of knitting just waiting to descend on me, I didn't want to overload myself with projects. And yes, a yarn purchase means a yarn project. Stash is for leftovers. And since I have plenty of yarn to play with - I could probably knit mittens for 2-3 months out of my stash (with no guarantees as to authentic colors for ethnic patterns) - I knew I didn't need to buy yarn. Really. So that left me with buying roving. Like I bought last year. But of course, roving must be spun before it's knit, and that takes time, so I don't need a LOT of roving. Just enough for a project or two.

And I didn't get the merino/silk blend in a dark charcoal. Ahhhh... that was gorgeous.


No, I got another ball of roving that called my name. See this? It says Shetland on it. And I like Shetland. Shetland Lace, Shetland/Fair Isle patterns, Shetland sheepies, Shetland weather.... all good. I get a bit sea sick, so if I lived there I like to think I could knit all winter and listen to improving lectures. One has to dream, right?




So, this called me. To show you just how LOUDLY it called, here's a bit of the ball draped over my arm. Yes, I was wearing that. (And yes, that's the shawl I spun and knit last year).

Spinning doesn't count as knitting, so when my knitting projects begin to arrive, it won't count as a project on the needles. Isn't that clever of me? (Nods head) I thought so. I rather like it.


In the meantime, I have a dishcloth to finish, and the second of these. Green Meadow Mittens, from Poems in Color. (A Knit from Your Shelf project!). It's not near as fiddly as I thought it would be, but I would much rather knit a sweater than a cardigan or mitten. The palm side is plain, and the colors are Not Carried.

Yikes.

Wordless Wednesday

Only 24,682 stitches left! The shawl is moving along nicely, and I hope to get the edging started today. I can squeeze in two hours of knitting today so I can get to the edging, right?

Yes. Two hours of knitting on a quiet Saturday (the weather is cooperating ... outside work is not calling on this cold, threatening-to-drizzle day) is easily done.

The Latin curriculum we use is Henle. I've seen several, and tried a few of them out on my guinea pigs. I used Latina Christiana and Henle to teach myself Latin (not that I'm proficient, or fluent, you understand), and used the same with my children. We tried Oerberg's Lingua Latina, which is a wonderful book, but becomes a terrible teaching tool in my hands. I am not an inductive teacher, and I do not have inductive children. We all love Familia Romana, though, and highly recommend it for reading. Wheelock's was just too scattered for me after Henle's very sequential presentation of grammar. But it's a good book too. For next year, I should probably join the LatinStudy list and find something fun to translate with a group. I don't know that we'll go on to Henle 3. To do it well will, I think, require less grammar instruction and more discussion of speeches. Talk of discussion makes me run for my knitting and find a cozy corner to sit and listen.

Hmm. What shall I knit after the shawl, if my other knitting doesn't materialize?

April Update

April is here. My blog has not been here.

And I don't have any pictures to show you.

It's called a Shawl. A circular lace in tiny yarn, better known as the Shetland Tea Shawl. It's been on my list to make since I first laid eyes on A Gathering of Lace, and I decided I was going to make it. I should have it finished in a month or so, if other knitting doesn't pop up and bump the STS to the back burner. Other knitting is supposed to pop up .. so don't hold your breath for finished pictures. If my estimates are right, I have 75,600 stitches left.

School is starting to wind down. We've finished Diogenes: Maxim, are working on the review exercises in math, and are close to the end of Logic and Science. Latin ... well, there's always more Latin to learn. Results of the NLE Level 2 show that my Latin Scholars are Magna Cum Laude, which delights my teacher's heart.

Spring is actually springing. The grass is green, the trees are budding, and Filius got in a strawberry bed. He's looking forward to ripe strawberries later this season. I'm looking forward to them too. Fresh asparagus is on my list of delicacies as well, but not his. Yet. I'm not sure if I should tell him how good it is.

Earlier this month a semi pulled up in front of our house with an order of grains, cereals, dried fruit, and nuts. Mmmmm! I have discovered how to make almond milk -- an excellent substitute for milk in creamy soups. Filia loves the almond pulp left over, so there's no waste whatsoever. We all love dried Bing cherries, and fresh ground whole wheat beats store-bought flour any day. We're overflowing in so many good things!!!

And that's it for April.

March Update

Where did the month go? It hasn't disappeared into the black hole that is Facebook, nor did it vanish into Ravelry. I must have done something, then.

That's right! I knit. I knit (let me go check Ravelry) the Meadow Flowers Shawl. I knit my wee little Minimitts. I finished knitting the Maikell Stole. And I did some test knitting.

Aren't the minimitts cute? I thought about calling them Double Knit Miniature Christmas Tree Ornament Mittens, but no project should have a title longer than the item is big, so I shrunk the title.

This month has definitely not been a home month. I'm leading a Bible Study on Habakkuk, teaching some young girls to knit another day, and have just started teaching an adult Beginning Knitting class. My, was that fun! We've two weeks left in that, and I am excited to see what my students will be doing by then. As this is the first time I've ever taught a beginning class, I'm also putting together handouts and such-like.

Another first happened today. I put in an order with Country Life Natural Foods, and will be a truck stop on their route. Wow! Me -- a truck stop. I get a warm fuzzy feeling just thinking about it. The order was definitely necessary ... I ground the last wheat berries today.

Taxes happened this month, too. That gobbled up a day (and wiped out a cartridge of ink ... I still need to print out some forms, and then copy them. Why does Minnesota need the entire Federal return?)

School is slithering along slowly. Filius took a Lego Design class over the school spring break, and enjoyed it. We're ready to begin the last writing project in Diogenes: Maxim, in the last chapter of NEM 3A, trotting along nicely in Henle (oh, the NLE happened in March as well), and it seems like Traditional Logic and Apologia will never end. Why is it that the subject I enjoy the most happen in the morning? Hmmm. I wonder.

One of the last things we do in the morning is read. The Story of the Greeks is what I've been reading lately. While I read, Filia works on her home exercise plan, and Filius groans about sit ups, push ups, and the like. He's actually made serious improvement in the sit up arena, but getting the proper form for a push up is proving tough. Stretching is also a, well, stretch for him. Sit on the floor with your feet straight out? Yee-Owch! It doesn't help that Filia is as flexible as a wet noodle. She can sit on the floor, legs straight in front of her, and her nose reaches mid-shin when she bends over.

After a sufficient amount of torture, Filius likes to curl up on the couch. Canis also likes to curl up on the couch. Especially on a blanket on the couch. Unfortunately, he also has a bit of an attitude when it comes to Filius (or Vir, for that matter.) He gets rather upset when his 'cushion' moves and will snap at any exposed flesh. Filius would rather vacate the premises than lose his nose (even if I promise to protect him), so he has been practicing the art of Escaping While Keeping the Blanket. I'm not sure how he does it, but it's worked the past three days.

One of these days, spring will spring, and we won't need blankets to stay warm. Until then ... we thank God for blankets, and hot cocoa, and tea

That's right! I got my first order from the Republic of Tea this month. Mmmm, I like their Republic Chai, and the cinnamony Rooibos tea. A pot a day keeps the allergies away!

Tax copies await. Whee.

Photos, anyone?

I have been informed that my blogs posts have been a bit technical lately, so this one is going to be as untechnical as I can make it. Pictures are very non-technical.

First, we have a picture.
Then we have another picture. This arrived in the mail today. It's a little more pink than it looks.

And lastly, socks.

There! Nice and non-technical.

Shhhh... knitting is happening

Knitting is happening, but nothing too spectacular. There's test knits that I really shouldn't be blogging about, stockings that I have no photos of, and lace shawls that are going to take quite some time to knit.

The stockings - Teri Shea's from Piecework - are done. They came out large, as I suspected, but they're not too bad with the extra 4 decreases I snuck in between the calf and the ankle. And they are warm! Cold legs in bed? Pop these stockings on, given them an extra tug up, and your tootsies will stay nice and toasty.

After the stockings came the Maikell Shawl. My sample swatch came out a bit small, but I didn't have any intention of working a 2/28 laceweight (fine laceweight, at that) on anything much larger than a US 3 needles, so I planned for an extra repeat widthwise, and to knit until it 'looked long enough.' Turns out I might have been able to get away with a size 4 needle, but at 6 repeats in I've about 18" of shawl (stretched) done. 12 repeats, as called for in the pattern, will simply not suffice. And that is going to throw off the entire border.

Sniff. I'm going to have to wing it. See, in a traditional Estonian shawl, the border is worked in two pieces. Two, because the knitters used 10" straight needles. And they worked the border by casting on a few hundred stitches, working 10 rows or so in a pretty lace pattern, casting off, and then SEWING the cast on to the center of the shawl. Since the needles were just 10" long, there wasn't enough room to knit the border in one piece. So, two sides of the shawl would have one border sewn on, and the other two would get another, identical border.

Planned insanity. But they did quite nicely at it. And if I were getting gauge, I probably would too. Seams are overrated as regards difficulty and finickiness.

But to add one multiple in width and oh, 8 repeats in length? And then add in the fudge factor of X border stitches to Y shawl stitches? No. I may change my mind in about 14 more repeats of the pattern, but at the present, it seems good to me to study the fudge factor in the book, stare at my shawl, and then in a good light and with a modern circular needle, pick up a few hundred stitches. No, make that several hundred stitches. I think the book mentions over 300 ... and that's for half, and with less rows than I'm going to make. THEN I can count those several hundred stitches and figure out my Secondary Fudge Factor, which will ensure that the lace motifs come out even.

But that won't be for another month or so. Lace isn't usually a fast knit, and nupps aren't for the speed knitter either. This has both. (Of course. Who would work a nupp without lace?) I'm hoping to have enough yarn (and the good news, Rachel, is that I found another nice fat ball of it upstairs. Yay!) but if not? Well, I can always do it borderless. That would be a pity, designwise, but I wouldn't be distressed not to knit the border rows.

Since the shawl isn't particularly traveling knitting, I made a pair of legwarmers for Filia. And since there was leftover yarn, and I didn't want to put it into my stash, I knit a tube of 2x2 rib until there was about 6" left, then turned the two into two half mitts. How? Bind off both ends of the tube in a contrasting sock yarn, then find the middle of the tube, turn THAT into two new ends, and bind those off with the contrasting sock yarn as well. Voila! Ankle/wrist/handwarmers to coordinate perfectly with the legwarmers!

No pictures of those either.

My mom is really enjoying our Sample Skeins Subscription from Elann. Every month they mail us (me) FIVE SKEINS of yarns that they will be selling at nifty prices throughout the next month. With those five skeins (about 10 yds in length), we can sample, doodle, pet, etc, the yarns before they go on sale. And with the color card included, we can see what the actual colors are! I've been a good girl and haven't ordered any this year, but mom is keeping up her end of the economy and has been picking one a month. She's doing good, too. The January Yarn is already knit up and being worn in a shawl. I'm not sure what she plans to do with her February yarn.

And one of these months, I'll probably see something I 'need' to get. But with cobwebby laceweight, one doesn't need to purchase yarn all that often. Speaking of cobwebby ... one of Colourmart's latest offerings came in at over 15,000 yards/lb. Teensy!!! (For comparison, that's over 1600 yds/50g) Colourmart could be dangerous. Fortunately, they have free shipping, so I don't 'need' to order all sorts of things 'while I'm ordering.' That's how I escaped with just one cone of yarn in my order to them last week.

It'll be traveling knitting, and I need a traveling project.

Really.

Doesn't everyone knit lace shawls in mohair for traveling projects?

Oh.

Report!

How *is* everyone doing with their 2008 Knit From Your Shelf Goals?

I finished a project from my shelf - the Nachaq.

I did not get another project started :( so I have flunked the 'Always Have a Project From Your Shelf On Your Needles' portion of the year. I'm not too concerned, however, since I am diving into the world of test knitting and have decided that juggling test knits, travel knits, and Shelf knits is unreasonable. Especially when my travel knits are Norwegian Patterened Stockings. They're not my typical travel knit, but they work. I have great plans for finding a quiet lighted corner at the church Super Bowl party and getting much knit.

I also added a book to my shelf - Poems in Color. If this keeps up -add a book, use a book -I will not 'clear' my shelf of unused books.

Next on the agenda is the Maikell shawl from Estonian Lace. I started a swatch and got nice pointy needles to work it on. I hope to get going on it more in early February.

Today we're experiencing a January Thaw. It was warm enough to go for a decent walk (2 miles) with the dog (who hasn't been out, except to go out, since what, October?) and the front walk is actually drying out in places. Hooray for Filius, who has kept it faithfully shoveled!