Hey, look at that–the fronts are the same lengths as the back.

Do you know what that means?

They’re ready to join together so that I can continue knitting this in one piece. I’ll be very happy indeed to be able to knit the rest using only one strand of yarn at a time, with no dangling needles to get in the way.

I just have to figure out how many stitches to cast on for the sides. As you know, my Celtic Dreams was too large–which is why I ended up ripping it out not that long ago. What I’m trying to remember … back from 2006 … is, how much did the blocking on the wooly board stretch the sweater in the first place? Because I seem to remember it fit better before that? There’s no question that the wooly board stretched it … which, of course was the point, but I won’t be doing that again!

Hey, you DO know that today is Rachel’s publication day, right? The day her brand-new book, How to Knit a Love Song comes out? What are you waiting for? Go get it! I’ve ordered mine!

• Tags: Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Front to Back // 1 Comment »

Okay, I need an opinion.

Here, as you know, is the center cable on the back of my Aran.

Now, my thought was to take this same exact cable and split it in half where the two front halves meet.

But I’m not sure if I like the way it looks. I don’t hate it, but I don’t know that I love it, either.

What do you think?

I don’t really want to tear out everything, but I COULD drop down these 8 stitches and knit up a different cable at the front edges, but certainly, now is the time to decide.

• Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Opinion, Please? // 11 Comments »

Here’s the progress on my sweater. I’ve got the back done down to the armholes (8.5″), and just started the two fronts. And, yes, I know. It looks like it’s one, big piece, but in fact, those are two, separate fronts. They just meet in the middle on the needle. The fronts look like they’re a lot wider than the back, too, which I’m a little concerned with. I mean, there are a couple more stitches solely because of the selvedge for the button bands … but of course, once the button bands are added, the fronts will be wider still …

So, anyway. I’ll give this some thought before I knit any further, in case I want to do something different  for the two, center-most cables for the front.

I’ve been unusually quiet this week, which I blame on the Olympics. I’ve spent way too much time tweeting about them while watching instead of, well, doing anything else. It’s remarkably fun, tweeting live while watching something that millions of other people are watching at the exact same time.

Chappy doesn’t mind–just as long as I’m where he can keep his eye on me.

• Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Aran Progress // 4 Comments »

Well, I’m trying to come up with cables for my aran cardigan, and I think these are the ones that I’m going to use. I’m going to use the same top-down, saddle construction that I used for the original Celtic Dreams (and, in fact, am using the exact same saddles), but these cables instead, with some spacing added in between. Hopefully it will actually fit this time…

And, you’ve got to love cameras and computers that make playing with cables this way possible. Now, I just need to see how it looks in real life.

Otherwise? Quiet weekend, after Friday’s excitement. Unlike the people a little further south, we got practically NO snow, to Chappy’s chagrin. There was about 1/2″ (if that) on Saturday morning, and that was IT.

Mom and Dad went to a surprise 70th birthday party last night, though, and had a great time, while Chappy and I had the house to ourselves for hours. That’s the first time that’s happened since we moved in! There had been one afternoon in November, a week or two after we moved, but I spent that unpacking and moving books. Otherwise, I haven’t had the house to myself for more than a few hours at a time at most, and that’s never been at night before, so that was nice. I adore my parents, but it’s a treat to be alone in the house once in a while.

Chappy, of course, disagrees. He says we’re ALL supposed to be home, with him, at all times, and wonders why the world isn’t set up in such a way as to make that possible.

Thanks to the magic of Twitter, I just saw this photo. The caption is “Blizzard + Ingenuity = Win” which pretty much covers it. Brilliant and funny … especially for Superbowl weekend! (Thankfully for them, it looks like a basement door.)

• Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Cables // 1 Comment »

Okay, everything’s done except the buttons. Mom and I actually know which ones we prefer. (Well, it’s ultimately my choice, of course, but she’s HERE and has great taste, so naturally I ask for her opinion, too.) It’s not the best picture (there were close ups the other day), but… the top one is wood, the middle one is like a little, brass sand dollar, and the bottom is the same button that I used on my orange sweater.

Which reminds me, I need to sew the buttons back onto that sweater, too, now that I’ve finished its new button bands, too.

Sadly, though, right now I’m “knitless” because I don’t have anything on the needles, because I still don’t have a pattern for my yarn unravelled from my Celtic Dreams. I’d like to do the FLAK pattern, but am at a complete stand-still because I don’t know where to start. Not because the pattern is unclear, because it’s not, but because, without having the least idea what my gauge is going to be … because my knitting is always absurdly loose … I can’t even figure out how many cables I might or might not need. So I don’t even know where to start with a swatch … And the swatch I tried in just moss switch? As I relaxed while knitting, the gauge loosened even on that.

In other words, short of casting on 80-100 stitches and randomly picking a bunch of variously-sized cables to make a HUGE swatch, I just don’t know what to do. How can you pick out cables when you have NO idea even what size cables you need? Or how the cables will affect the gauge compared to the background stitch?

Especially when you notoriously have NO patience for making swatches. I mean, I do make them for every project I start–you know that I do–but they never actually end up the same size as the finished sweater. (Really, never.) Even if I picked a handful of cables and wasted yarn swatching each and every one of them … I don’t trust that they would actually match the math I need. (You know, that’s why my Celtic Dreams came out so much wider at the bottom … the gauge changed as I knit.)

Sigh. I know, I’m just whining and should settle down and do the math and make the stupid swatches … but that holds as much appeal as, well, my mind is blank. But something dreadfully dull, tedious, and ultimately pointless. Really, feel free to just ignore me. I just miss knitting… (grin)

I DO have a half-finished sock in my purse, but … blah. As many different sock patterns I have, as many sock BOOKS, I always knit plain-jane stockinette socks, and that gets dull. So, why not knit new socks? Well, one, I’d need to carry the pattern around, and my purse just isn’t that big. But also, two, I would have to re-do the math for every pattern. My freakily loose gauge and narrow feet mean that my standard socks are only 44 stitches around–and on a size-one needle, nonetheless. Those needles are so narrow, knitting for more than an hour makes my fingers ache.

Sigh.

I SUPPOSE I could start some other project while I’m trying to figure out what to do with my lovely, reclaimed Black Water Abbey yarn, but … that’s what I want to work on, darn it!

You know what I really want to do with it? If I could figure out how? Re-do the Celtic Dreams, but as a cardigan this time. Except, since it came out so large last time–with my using the smallest size instructions, and a size THREE needle with my Aran yarn–I can’t figure out how to make it smaller and still be the Celtic Dreams, you know? I’d have to leave out cables, which would throw off the symmetry, or buffer each cable with only 1 purl stitch instead of 2, but that would crowed them too close, I think…

Sigh.

See? This is the problem with being a monogamous knitter…

• Tags: Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Sigh // 5 Comments »

I was starting to think the button band was going to take forever.

I started the sweater back in December, and the button band-slash-collar took me about a week. Insane, right?

Now I just need to pick a button. These are just a few of the ones in my button collection. Some, you’ve seen before. And yes, I actually do have a favorite from these.

Oh, and my Chuck contest? I’m working on picking the winner, and was all set to go, but my printer won’t print out the list of entrants. I don’t really want to write them all out just to be able to pick the winner. I could just assign a number to each one and use a random number generator, but where’s the fun in that? Though, honestly, that’s probably what I’m going to do. Just not right this minute.

Right now? Back to work on my book. I’ve got all my plot holes plugged. I drew an Excel sheet with a row for each character, a column for each day and plotted out everything I had happening, and made sure that, character-for-character, I wasn’t missing anything (too) obvious. Because I knew I was missing some things, and was afraid of dropping others … or of things happening too soon/too late … it was easier at this point just to plot the whole thing out. (“Oh, okay, I need a scene that explains why the reporter knows what Adam wrote in his school essay.” “What if his classmates gave him a gift that proved that he had friends and really was happy in that school? Then, how do I make sure the lawyers know about it?” Stuff like that.)

Then I went back and moved some chapters around and added a few so that the holes weren’t so ankle-twisting for the readers.

So, I’m kind of calling it Second Draft now, and it clocks in at 93,696 words.

Next step–reading through the whole thing again, this time watching for continuity errors, grammar-and-spelling type things, and filling in some of the details for some of the newer chapters that are, at the moment, mostly dialogue. I love writing dialogue, but sometimes forget to have my characters DOING things while they’re talking!

• Tags: Finished Knitting, General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Finally! // 4 Comments »

(And, no, I’m sorry, I really could not think of a better title.)

My Redhook is almost done–I’m working on the button band and collar–one, long piece of knitting. Right now, it looks rather bag-like, all gathered up around the front edge, as I go back and forth on the short rows that shape the collar. Incidentally, I used the flash when I took this picture, so you can see all the different shades of color in the yarn–really such pretty colors.

Going forward, I still haven’t picked a pattern for my Aran cardigan. I’ve got the yarn ready, though. See?

I finally got a drying rack so that I could hang my yarn to dry. Not only did I wash the yarn I reclaimed from my Celtic Dreams, but I finally got around to washing the rest of the cormo from Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm. (It was my share or Cormo from MVFF which doesn’t really exist anymore, of course, even though Susan now has her Juniper Moon Fiber Farm.)

The rack is interesting, actually. It’s designed to balance over a bathtub, but since the tub in my shower has one of those fiberglass, sculptured walls, it doesn’t have a ledge on the inside wall. So, I’m drying in my parents’ bathroom–particularly handy, in fact, since they don’t use their bathtub–they both use the shower stall instead. And, actually, I balanced it on the edge of the counter instead of the tub because it was easier to reach that way (grin).

The bad part, of course, is that the light in there is entirely artificial since there’s no window, so the light was pretty bad for pictures.

It was otherwise a pretty standard Sunday. Laundry. Baking. Cleaning. Writing. Reading. And about the reading? You want a shock? Including three knitting books that I’ve read for reviews, and the book I’m just finishing now? I’ve read six books this month. SIX! How is that possible?

Well, it’s possible because I’ve put myself on a fiction diet. I have a fiction addiction, you see, and NEED stories and characters and plots to keep my head happy. It’s one of the reasons I read so much. The problem right now, though, is that I’m trying to work on MY book, and if I scratch that fiction-itch by reading other people’s books, it’s too easy to avoid my own. So, for now, I’m only letting myself read non-fiction. And my book, of course, which is coming along.

Chappy’s been quiet today. He’s been reluctant to run up the stairs, and a little more clingy than usual. I’m not worried about him, exactly, but I hate when he’s not himself.

• Tags: Knitting/Spinning, Reading • Permalink:Random Stuff // 3 Comments »

It seems to me that I haven’t shown you a picture of my sweater in a while. I’ve got the two fronts done. (They’re wider than they look, they just curl a lot from the stockinette stitch.) Now I’ve just got the back to finish. Then, two cap sleeves and the button bands.

Chappy is keeping tabs on things for me. You know how he likes to supervise.

Some random stuff for you:

I can’t get this song out of my head, In-Flight Safety’s “Model Homes.” Wistful lyrics, lovely music.

How cool are these? “Grid-It” covered with interwoven elastic straps for storing, well, anything you might usually stash in your purse or briefcase … thumb drives, phones, headphones … all the little things that get lost in corners.

You DID know that Stephanie lit the Knit Signal, didn’t you? To raise money for those poor people in Haiti?

And … if you have a few more dollars to spare?

My best friend–you’ve heard me talk about Dawn lots of times is working on her Masters Thesis Film at the American Film Institute. Like most films, though, it requires money, and to be able to make it, she needs to prove to AFI that they’ll meet the budget. So … Can you help her out? All donors get listed in the credits of the film, and donations are tax-deductible.

The film is called “Big Ol’ Crouton” and the website is right here.

Here’s what she has to say:

Dear Friends,

I’m still working on fundraising. We need to get to $30,000 by next Friday (Jan 22) in order for AFI to allow us to do this film. We are halfway there. And so I am now offering:

The Dawn Green/Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Weekend “TWO FOR ONE” Film Fundraising Special!

Anyone who donates $50 or more to our film starting today (1/14) through Jan 18 (Dawn’s birthday) will receive TWO DVDs of our film and TWO HOURS of professional Italian Lessons with Dawn. Hours are transferable, so feel free to give them away as a gift to a friend! Go to www.croutonthefilm.com to donate now!

Times are tough right now. And as you know, when things get tough the arts get cut. AFI has had to cut back on the monetary assistance they give to us, and it’s more difficult than ever for AFI students to raise the money they need to make their films. I know that it might be a really bad time for you, too. I get it. I’ve been there myself. I want you to know that anything you have to contribute is truly appreciated. And even if you can’t give a monetary contribution at this time, your words of support truly mean everything to me. If you are on Facebook, become a fan of our page “Big Ol’Crouton”. Or give me call or drop me a line!

Regardless, please check out our website (http://www.croutonthefilm.com) for details on our film. If you are able to give money, you can donate either by check or credit card. Your contribution is tax deductible. Also, your company might offer matching funds (ask me about this, I have a list of companies).

All the best, Dawn

–  Dawn Green Producer, “Big Ol’ Crouton”

I know, there are other, more urgent demands on your money right now–especially the urgent need down in Haiti. Making a film may seem unimportant. But, still … How could I help but ask? At the very least, could you help spread the word?

• Tags: Friends, General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Progress Report // 2 Comments »

There’s one fewer sweater in my wardrobe now.

First, I started by unweaving the ends … or at least the ones at, well, the ends. The end of the body, the ends of the sleeves, the seams at the underarms, and so on. I figured I’d come across more in the middle of the sweater where I switched skeins, but at least this was a good start.

Then I came upstairs with my niece and took down my skeiner (I so love my skeiner) and we started tearing out the body and the sleeves. Since I was the one who knitted the sweater, I knew how the structure worked, and that helped figure out where to start.

The pile of crinkly, curly yarn grew rapidly. (And, yes, I do love the way yarn curls when it’s been knit and then unravelled. But then, I’m a fan of curly fibers like hair…) Thank you for your help, Tiffany!

I unravelled all the way back to the two saddles. I’m leaving those intact for two reasons. Well, three. One is that, unless I end up really needing it, it doesn’t seem like I’d get enough yardage out of the two shoulders to be worth the effort. Two is purely sentimental. And Three is that … since I don’t yet know what pattern I’ll be using for the cardigan, or if I’ll be making it up or following someone else’s, it’s possible I could use the saddles again.

I’m left with a pile of skeins of widely varying sizes … along with the sixth skein that I barely touched when I made this sweater in the first place.

Next, I need to:

1. Wash and block the yarn to get the kinks out. The trick is figuring out where I can dry them since I don’t have the handy extra rack in my shower anymore, and nothing like a clothesline (even assuming the yarn wouldn’t immediately freeze out there).

2. Come up with a pattern for the yarn. Norah Gaugin’s Tweedy Aran Cardigan looks nice. And I’d love to figure out a way to turn the Celtic Dreams into a cardigan … then (allowing for the gauge/size thing) I could still use that gorgeous cable up the center back, but just turn it into a cardi instead. For that matter, I’ve got an assortment of books telling me how to design my own Aran sweater. (Janet Szabo’s is particularly brilliant.) I could just plug my own cables into the basic shape and go from there … The problem with that is that I just don’t know that I have the mental creative energy for that right now. The Truffle Cardigan looks intriguing, too. Knitting, yes, but creative pattern design/assembly? I’d rather that creative energy went toward my book. So, please, I still need pattern recommendations. And yes, “A Fine Fleece” has some good ones, but I don’t seem to love any of them.

3. Finish my Redhook, because it would just be WRONG to drop it and move on to this sweater. Especially since it’s coming along so well. I split the body into its fronts and back last night and got one of the fronts done. That leaves one front, and the back, plus the little cap sleeves to go (plus the button bands).

4. Finish performing a little cosmetic surgery on the cardigan I made with my Briar Rose Yarn last winter. As much as I love most of it, I’ve had two quibbles all along. One was that, when I sewed the hem, I folded it under and tacked it down to the inside of the sweater … except, I was just a row or so too low, so that the hem has always flared outward, just a tiny bit. It’s an easy fix–just unsewing that hem, and then rehemming, but I’ve been putting it off. The other fix? The button bands. I had decided that I liked the way the top half curled outward, like a built-in collar, so I only put the button band on the bottom half … except I’ve never been happy with the way that looked. Kind of unfinished. So today I took off the two button bands and will knit brand-new ones, that go all the way to the collar. Much better, I think.

I do love that curly brown look.

Oh, and Dad? Happy birthday!

• Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:One Fewer // 9 Comments »

So … am I crazy?

Do you remember my Celtic Dreams sweater? I finished it in June 2006.

I said at the time, “There are just two things that aren’t perfect. One, my gauge loosened as I worked the body, so the lower half of the body is wider than the top–just ever so slightly tent-like. Not as flattering as I’d like (as if I didn’t have enough trouble with my waistline). And, two, the sleeves are somehow just a tiny bit too short. Usually, if anything, sleeves end up too long for me but I actually followed the pattern and made them the length called for, and they’re about half an inch above my wrist bone.”

In reality, the sleeves are well more than a half inch above the wrist. This makes it very handy for checking the time, or washing my hands, but they’re not really supposed to be 3/4-length sleeves. Much as I love 3/4 or bracelet-length sleeves (and I do, they’re my favorites since I’m forever pushing my sleeves out of the way), these sleeves don’t look like they’re meant to be that length. Which, in fact, they’re not.

And then, the size. It’s a boxy sweater, I know, and Arans aren’t really known for the sweater shaping, but … it’s really kind of, well, big. It’s at least a foot bigger around than I am, really more. I can hold the waistline out and look like one of those weight-loss ads, where a newly slim person stands inside their old “fat pants.”

(I took this picture discreetly at work, sitting at my desk, so it’s not the best. I folded over the excess fabric and kind of hoped for the best.)

So, this has me wondering …

I love the yarn, it’s gorgeous. I adore the golden-brown color which is not only wonderfully autumnal, but goes great with my hair (grin). (Not to mention that it matches Chappy’s eyes.) But, as it is, it’s tied up in a sweater, albeit a beautiful sweater, that doesn’t fit well at all and therefore only gets out of the closet one or two times a year.

The yarn deserves better than that, don’t you think?

The idea, therefore, that’s teasing in my head is … What if I frog the entire sweater, reclaim the yarn, and knit a new, better-fitting sweater? I even have another skein of the Black Water Abbey yarn that was barely touched when I made this one, giving plenty of leeway so far as gauge goes.

And then, I HAVE been kind of itching after knitting cables, lately. Lots of them, but I don’t have a yarn at hand that is screaming “Use me!” This would certainly solve that problem.

Of course, I don’t have a pattern in mind, which would help the decision process. I wear cardigans a LOT more than pullovers, so that would be ideal, but … I did mention I want lots of cables. One of the things that drew me to the Celtic Dreams in the first place were all those varied panels of cables.

The first question, then, is

What do you think? Crazy? Or thrifty and not-crazy?

This certainly would be a first for me. I’ve never frogged a completed sweater to reclaim the yarn. I know the concept, but have never actually DONE it. Luckily, as that goes, this sweater is as close to seamless as never mind, so that part at least is pretty easy. It started as two saddles for the shoulder and then the front and back were picked up from there, knit down to the underarm, then joined and the rest of the body knit. The sleeves were picked up on the body and knit down in one piece … so, there are woven-in ends, but no seams in the way (except under the arms).

The second question?

Does anyone know a good, Aran-ish Cardigan pattern that would work?

I haven’t browsed through any pattern books yet because this re-use-the-yarn idea only just occurred to me while sitting at my desk this morning. But, still … suggestions never hurt, huh?

• Tags: Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Call Me Crazy // 14 Comments »

It’s only been about 10 years, but look! A finally-finished first draft of a book. My book. (Well, my second, anyway.)

I honestly don’t remember how long it’s taken me to get this far. I know I was working on this when Katy died in 2001, but was I working on it when I got her in 1999? I’m pretty sure I was, but don’t have any proof.

Except … according to my reading list, I read J. Winocour’s “Story of the Titanic” in February 1998, and Stephen Cox’s “Titanic Story” in October 1999, and since reading is one of my favorite forms of research, that seems a good sign.  Not to mention that there is a sudden rush of “how to get your book published” books in 1998, and since I started this one after I finished my first one, 1998-1999 sounds about right.

So … ten years.

This isn’t saying that the book is DONE, mind you. Oh, no. Lots of work to be done! This is just the first draft, but considering I was stymied for something like 6 years with a 1912-era legal dilemma that I couldn’t find an answer to, getting the story all the way through to the end … no matter how rough and bumpy it might be along the way … is a huge accomplishment.

As of right now, it’s 82,714 words, 289 pages long. Phew!

Next up? Reading it through and figuring out what I need to do to make it perfect, then I can try to get IT published, too. Because it’s not enough fun getting rejection letters for one manuscript, it’ll be twice as much fun with two (grin). The first change? The address on the first page. That’s kind of changed since I started this.

I’m making knitting progress, too. Here’s my Redhook, coming along nicely. It’s about ten inches long at this point. This is the entire sweater, here–fronts and back all together, so the rows are longish, but progress is being made.

And look at this little sneak. He stole his grandmother’s slipper … out of her closet … off the shoe rack … and decided to use it as a pillow while he waited for her to come upstairs and play the “Look What I’ve Got” game.

Speaking of coming upstairs, I was sitting here on the computer before and got an email, a tweet, and a direct message from my mom who was allllll the way downstairs, asking for help with her computer. Instead of trying to yell up two flights.

Yay for computers.

So, otherwise? I’ve been working hard on getting my “end of year” posts ready. Those are a lot of work! All those links. You’ll have to wait a couple days to see the one here, but..

Click here for a year’s worth of Knitting Book reviews at Knitting Scholar.

And, some of my favorite posts of the year from Punctuality Rules.

• Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:82,714 Words // 5 Comments »

Here’s the beginning of my sweater … though it looks rather more orange than it should. (The color in this post is pretty accurate.) It’s about 3″ now, but yes … it’s definitely making my hands dry as I knit.

And look–the start of my new sock.

The yarn again. It’s Mountain Colors Bearfoot in “Northern Lights” and is really lovely to work with.

My father nicely took my car to be inspected today. (A bi-annual requirement here in New Jersey.) He drove to the office, took my car, and headed off to the inspection station. Time passed, and more time. Then more time. Hmm … I was starting to worry, when Dad strolled in the door and dropped my keys on my desk. “Did it pass?” “Well, I had to go twice.”

Twice? It turns out, my car failed inspection. Not because of the brakes that are going to need replacing, or the two tires that will be replaced the same time … but because of my windshield wipers. Apparently they were insufficient, despite the fact that they keep my windshield clear without streaks, and anyway, who knew that aging windshield wipers could flunk a car?

So, anyway, my good father … who earned at least one of those loaves of Stollen … drove all the way back to our mechanic, had them replace the wipers, and then drove back to Succasunna to the inspection station to get it reinspected. Wasn’t that good of him?

• Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Redhook // 6 Comments »

Sorry, I have no new pictures to share with you tonight. I’ve been working on my Redhook–it’s only about 2″ long at the moment, and the only real problem I’m having with it is that the yarn is making my hands dry.

Odd, don’t you think? This is the hand-dyed yarn I bought at Rhinebeck, and it smells faintly like vinegar, which is fine. But after a couple of rows (that’s about 200 stitches), my hands feel dry. Could it be whatever kind of dye was used? The vinegar used to set the dye? No idea, but that means that I can only knit on it about half an hour at a time.

I started a new pair of socks, too. As in, right now, I have a toe but not much of anything else. I’m using a skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot in “Northern Lights” color. I haven’t used this yarn before, but am liking it so far. That’s 60% superwash wool, 25% mohair, and 15% nylon–practically the perfect sock yarn.

I’ve also been very caught up in some hubbub in the freelancing world.

I explained the whys behind this question in my blog post at Punctuality Rules yesterday, but my brain is still locked on this question. The gist, though, is that there’s a successful freelancer, James from Men With Pens, who is, in fact, a woman, and just “came out” from behind her pen-name. She started using the pseudonym because she was having so much trouble making ends meet writing under her own name. I find this fascinating, brave, and downright depressing. You’d think we’d be beyond this sort of discrimination in the 21st century. Go read my post,if you like, for the longer version of why I’m asking. And, by all means, go to Copyblogger and read James’ post and the incredibly thoughtful (and generally supportive) comments. Like I said, brave of her, and cheers for her well-deserved success story … yet depressing at the same time.

And, one more thing–if you haven’t contributed to Norma’s baby, the Red Scarf Project, she’s extended the deadline for all those wonderful prizes. What are you waiting for?

• Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink: // Add Comment »

Okay, now my knitting needles are really empty … Well, almost.

I finished the body of my second sock last night–the one that’s been in my purse for months. This means that the only knitting I have at the moment is the need to add the two Afterthought Heels to these socks …I’ve never actually done Afterthought Heels, mind you, but I figured now was as good a time as ever. You have to try new things, right? I just need to decide if I want to do them in the same yarn, or in a contrasting color.

Oh, and figure out exactly where to put them. How DO you judge where to make the cut?

Anyway, after that, I’m done. Nothing to knit.

How scary is that?

I do have this lovely little swatch, though. I knitted it out of the yarn I bought at Rhinebeck in October, and right now it’s sitting on the ledge overlooking the living room, drying so that I can measure it, get an idea of what my gauge is, and then do whatever pattern math is necessary to then knit a Redhook out of it. (And, thanks again Kim for lending me that pattern book.)

It is a gray, wet, dreary day today, though. Freezing rain and apparently there are a LOT of accidents out there … and yet it looks so innocent!

I did something yesterday that I haven’t done in AGES, though. Months. An inconceivable length of time.

I bought some books. Mom and I went to a bookstore where I actually got a chance to browse and buy some new books.

I know, I’m practically giddy … though at the same time I feel a little guilty because, well, I should be spending money on Christmas presents (and rent), not on me, right? But then … did I mention it’s been MONTHS?? Normally I’m twitching with withdrawal after a few weeks without a bookstore fix.

My friend Cindy came over last night, too, to see the new place. She was rather later than she had said. When we first discussed her coming, she said “after 3:00,” when we got more specific, she said “about 4:00,” but she didn’t actually get here until 4:30. Though, of course, I’m glad that she showed up this time at all. (Not like the last time.) We had discussed her picking up supper, but, while she called when she got in the car, that went to voicemail, and she said not to call her back, because she didn’t have her bluetooth headset with her, so that plan went out the window. So I ended up cooking a pasta and vegetable dish with what I could find in the fridge. We had a nice visit, though, and she stayed to watch “Julie and Julia” with Mom and me, which was fun. And, she approved of the new house, which is important–not that she would dare say anything else (grin). Chappy, in particular, was thrilled to see her, and told her many times to be sure to say hello to his best friend for him–nobody gives “I’m so happy to see you!” greetings like Chappy!

• Tags: Friends, General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Empty Needles // 3 Comments »

There she is in all her glory–isn’t she pretty?

And, yes, I went with the leather buttons. I agree that the brass ones looked great, too, but when I laid they om the sweater and stepped back … it felt like they took away from it. And the plastic ones were just too … plastic. (Not to mention that, since I bought them stapled to a piece of cardboard, every single one had a piece of wire threaded through it which I would have had to somehow remove before sewing onto the sweater. That was just too much work.)

I wore it to work today and am happy to report that the sleeves behaved themselves. Long sleeves–especially sweater sleeves–usually knock all my piles of paper over when I’m sorting stuff.

The view from the front isn’t really as good, since it shows way too much of my waistline.

You’ll be glad to know that Chappy approves of the sweater, though!

Now–the weekend is starting a day early for me because tomorrow is the infamous Stollen Day. I’ve got the dough rising on the counter as we speak and Mom and Dad are heading to the movies tomorrow afternoon, where it’s safe.

Come to think of it, I should really be resting.

Do you realize, though? As of this minute, the only knitting project I have is the sock in my purse, that I’ve been working on for months.

Yikes!

I was thinking about the Redhook pattern by Jarod Flood … especially if the yarn I bought at Rhinebeck works, gauge-wise. (It’s also handy that Kim lent me her copy of Made in Brooklyn, which has some really great patterns in it.)

• Tags: Finished Knitting, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:And… Finished! // 8 Comments »

Yep, it’s that time again–time to pick the buttons for my sweater!

These I’ve actually had for years. They are almost exactly the same color as the sweater. They’re reflecting the light oddly in this picture, but trust me, it matches so well, they almost get lost. Which is both a plus and a minus.

These I only photographed because–and again, they’re reflecting the light in a way that makes them look lighter–they are also the perfect color for this sweater. They are just way too big to remotely work.

These could almost work. The color is just right, but they are wafer thin, which makes them less than practical for a sweater. I just don’t think they would hold.

These little brass ones are a surprising possibility. I didn’t expect to like them this much on this particular sweater, but I laid them out and thought, Hmmm…

But, really, these are the ones I’m leaning toward. Little, brown leather buttons with a color that doesn’t quite match, but which compliments it nicely.

See? A second look.

My only real problem?

My little button bin is overflowing. I have to come up with something bigger to store them in.

Anyway, what do YOU think about my button choices? I already have Mom’s vote…

• Tags: Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Bigger Button Bin // 16 Comments »

Yep, this thing is really looking like a sweater now.

The only thing left? Buttonbands and the collar.

Though, I suppose that I really should decide for sure on the buttons I’m going to use before making the button holes, huh?

Otherwise? I found–this morning, AFTER I finished seaming this last night–my Knit Klips. I know, ironic for timing, but at least I found them. They were in my sewing basket. Not the one I use all the time, with basic thread, needles, and scissors, but in my other basket–the bigger one that has the safety pins, zippers, snaps, velcro, all that kind of stuff. The basket I go into about once a year. Except, when I was packing up my closet, I must have just stuck the bag of Klips in there for safe keeping. You know, the special kind of safe keeping that means it’s so safe you can’t find it again.

My big chore today? I think I’ve finally got my desk drawers organized, even though my cheap little filing cabinet drawers are, well, cheap. (As evidenced by the way they came apart when the blue-tape came off.) Oh, and I baked an Oatmeal Applesauce Cake using my leftover cranberry-applesauce. It looks and smells good, can’t wait to taste it.

And, on that note, I’m going to go dig out the buttons I bought a few months ago and see if I can make a decision of some kind.

• Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Looks Like a Sweater // 2 Comments »

Hey, we have pictures!

As in, pictures hanging on the walls. Nice, huh?

No, this isn’t quite ALL the pictures we hung, but  after a while, while walking around with my camera, I noticed this:

And decided it was time to sit down for a while.

It sure was windy last night and this morning–a tree at our old house fell down across the driveway, so Dad called my brother-in-law to ask him to bring down a chain saw tomorrow to get it cleared away before the closing on the house in a couple weeks. Luckily, it wasn’t a BIG tree, but a few more feet of height and it would have damaged the garage doors–and it would have made it really difficult for my parents to get out of the garage, if we were still living there.

Hey, look–two sleeves!

I got a lot of knitting done on them yesterday, because I had extra time to knit yesterday. Why? Because we had our first (non-family) visitor yesterday … Kim! She came over yesterday afternoon and got the first look around our lovely new home, and then we sat down with our knitting and some of the delicious coffee she brought along, and just … knitted. So nice.

Of course, I tried to do something nice, and sent her home with a copy of Pixar’s “Up” for Liam to watch and … last night, realized that what I’d lent her was the CASE for Pixar’s “Up.” The actual DVD was still in the player. Oops! So, this morning, when Mom and I headed out for a cup of coffee (Saturday tradition, you understand), we swung by Kim’s house to drop off the actual DVD–and then Mom got a tour of Kim’s adorable little house. So, this was fun!

The one problem I have right now? The next step for my sweater is to sew the shoulder seams, sew in the sleeves, and sew up their seams. Except … my Knit Klips seem to have disappeared. You know, those little orange clips that are so handy for holding your knit pieces together while you sew them up? I know exactly where they WERE. As a rule, I know where my things are. I put them away when I’m done with them, so I know where to find them later on. But the move, of course, screwed that up a bit, and while I can find the pin cushion and such that the Knit Klips were right next to? The clips themselves have disappeared.

Darn. I LIKED those things.

• Tags: Family, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Wall Art // 1 Comment »

Well, except for the fact that Mom’s been wiped out by a cold, and I haven’t gotten any writing done, it’s almost felt like a normal weekend. Of course, Mom’s not usually sick. She’s slept away most of the weekend–which is good for her, but highly unusual–and I really DO have a lot of writing I should be doing, but … I think my brain is still in the “nesting” kind of stage. All I seem to want to do is housework, puttering kinds of things.

Like spinning. I mentioned that I’ve been getting a lot of spinning done. Of these three skeins, just wound off their bobbins last night, one was finished in the old house, one had one of its two plies finished in the old house, but the other three bobbins of singles and the plying of two of them all happened here, just in the last three weeks. The two newest skeins are both Cormo from the Juniper Moon Fiber Farm (formerly Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm) share that arrived in September. And, that bobbin of finished, but not-yet-skeined yarn I brought with me? I finished it in August.

So, when I tell you I’ve gotten a lot of spinning done in the last three weeks–along with moving, unpacking, setting things up, and heading back to work? You have to believe me.

(This also explains why I’m not getting any writing done.)

It’s true, it seems a little under-plied, but I’m not really worrying about that. What I AM wondering about is how I’m going to wash it to set the twist. The sink in my bathroom is smaller than my old one and doesn’t actually plug to fill up. Or, it WILL fill, technically, but it’s not a tight seal, so it starts draining just as quickly–so soaking is not an option. The kitchen sink might work, though I’d have to dig out the plug that came with that and see if THAT was a tight fit. (We keep a mesh drain-saver in the kitchen sink that catches odds and ends like oatmeal and stray pieces of pasta when you wash things, and almost never plug it to fill it. The bathtub could be an option, maybe, except that I had to take ITS plug out completely because (1) it wouldn’t release to let the water drain without unscrewing it and removing it and (2) it’s a large, bulbous plug that didn’t let the hair-catcher I always have in my shower do its job … and catching my long hair (and Chappy’s fur) from going down the drain is very important.

I’ve started my next batch of yarn, too, though I can already tell it’s going to be a bear to photograph properly. Why? Because it’s really a dark brown. This is Sheep Shed Corriedale that I got at Rhinebeck in 2008. I figured the dark brown was about as far as I could get from the white Cormo, huh?

I baked, too. I’ve had a yearning for, well, an old birthday cake. For years, whenever I didn’t want to bake a Grandma Cake for my birthday, we’d get one from the Three Crown Bakery. They did fabulous cakes–everyone said so–and my favorite was white cake, lemon filling, and buttercream frosting. (Their buttercream was great–not too sweet, not to plain, just really yummy.) They retired and closed several years ago, but every year around my birthday, I start thinking about that cake. The fact that the “lemon souffle” hand cream I use at night smells not just lemony but sweet and lemony doesn’t help.

So, I tried making my own variation.

Well, it looks pretty, I suppose.

But, my lemon curd didn’t cooperate and came out tough and tasting over-cooked. (Which is to say, not burned, but like it was thinking about scorching when I took it off the stove. And its rubbery texture simply highlights that.) The frosting recipe I tried is okay, I suppose,  but like almost every buttercream recipe I’ve ever tried, it tastes SWEET. Not just “sweet,” but screamingly, eat-your-teeth, diabetic coma kind of sweet.

So, it’s a disappointment. And it doesn’t help that I can’t think of a single bakery around here that I would go to try one of their cakes. The Viking Bakery in Denville makes great cookies and breads, but I’ve never been a fan of their cakes. I don’t know of any other bakeries in reasonable driving distance that would give me a cake close to the one I crave every November … but this wasn’t it. In fact, if it weren’t so wasteful (and if Dad weren’t enjoying this one), I’d be tempted to just throw this away, it’s so far off from what I want it to be.

On the plus side, these loaves of bread certainly look promising!

Okay–got to go check on the pot roast and think about what to do about potatoes for supper … and hope that Mom’s feeling well enough to come down for it. She was really dizzy this morning and I ended up bringing her breakfast in bed, something I don’t know if I’ve ever done before. I even let her use the bed tray that I use as a computer desk so she wouldn’t spill her coffee. (Yes, orange juice would have been more nutritious, but the two sips of o.j. she had yesterday afternoon bothered her sensitive stomach, so … if coffee and toast was what she wanted, I wasn’t going to argue!)

• Tags: Baking, General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Feels Like Normal // 7 Comments »

I took the day off from work today, obstensibly so I could relax with the house to myself for a while.

Well, I DID enjoy having the house to Chappy and me, but, um relaxing? Not so much.

However … remember the picture I showed you on Sunday? Of the downstairs that looked like progress simply wasn’t being made?

Well, after my “relaxing” day off, it looks like this:

It’s amazing what a difference just getting the floor cleared and the rug unrolled made!

I got my books organized, too. I know, it doesn’t really look like it, but they ARE. I alternated the horizontal/vertical thing to make them look a little more interesting, and kept to single-files where I could. They’re still not catalogued (Heaven knows when that will happen), and the alphabetization over in the fiction section isn’t perfect, but … they’re more organized than they were! Those 5 under-the-bed boxes, though? I have nowhere to put them. They’re filled with YA books that I grew up with and used to be under the table in our home office, but that’s not an option anymore, soooo….

Of course, the OTHER thing I really wanted/needed to do didn’t work out. I bought a wireless print server so that we could try to consolidate our printers… especially now that I’m two whole flights above them and really could use a printer that I could, you know, print from.

So, the printer we want this on is attached to Dad’s computer. Okay. He’s away at the moment, so I booted it up … he’s right. It takes a good 10-15 minutes for the thing to boot up. But, okay, I occupied myself by moving books around. Started the print server install … and around step 6, the mouse locked up. The keyboard would work, but I couldn’t use the mouse or move forward. Grr.

I didn’t really want to sit through rebooting it AGAIN, so … I tried his second computer. (The one I got him for his birthday in January that he still hasn’t completely switched over to yet.) At least it boots up quickly. I transferred the printer cable to it so I could install the printer’s driver … that bombed out. Apparently that printer is not one of the ones supported by Windows Vista. Uh-oh.

But, wait! Mom’s computer! I’ll install the printer on hers–it’s Windows XP, it should be fine. And it was. I installed the printer, and then ran through the set-up for the wireless print server, and clicked the “install on computer” button on the Linksys setup screen … and, nothing. The setup screen completely disappeared, as if I’d closed the program. Tried reloading it, clicked “Start,” clicked “Install on computer” and … poof.

So … still no wireless print server. Which means that I still don’t have a printer. And I’ve also just discovered that Dad’s slightly elderly, laser, color printer that we can’t afford to replace won’t work on his newer computer. (I wonder if it would if the wireless server was working correctly? I have no idea.)

Still … Chappy’s enjoying having the rug to lie on, and he says he enjoyed having me home, even if I didn’t sit down to relax with him at all until about 3:00.

When Mom got home from Patty’s, she almost fell over when she went downstairs, she couldn’t believe her eyes! I had left a few things for her to do–like emptying out the last couple things in this hat box (yes, it used to have a hat in it), that Chappy thoughtfully pointed out to her. She did, and then said, “I guess this is garbage then…”

Which was all Chappy needed to hear, because he immediately pounced on it. Not BEFORE, mind you, just after she said she didn’t want it anymore.

Which is good, because as soon as he caught it, he started to chew on it.

Apparently it tasted very, very good.

I’ve got the DVDs and VHS tapes by the TV organized, too. Dad was funny the other day when he saw me unpacking the tapes. “Do we still have the machines to run those?” Um, yes, Dad we DO have a VCR. Three in fact. I don’t care how wonderful those DVR things are … we don’t have one, and there’s no other way to record something on a channel different than the cable box!

I’ve even been getting some spinning done. In fact, I’ve gotten more spinning done in the last week than I have in the last few months! I finished the bobbin I’d barely started, have done one more complete one, and started a third. Granted, each bobbin only has about 2 oz on it, but still … it’s been months since I spent so much time with my spinning wheel.

• Tags: Chappy, Family, General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Looks Like Progress // 6 Comments »

I hope you’re impressed that, even with all this moving craziness, I’ve still gotten some knitting done. Here are the cuffs of my two sleeves. Like the body of the sweater, they start with a horizontal cable (9″ long) and then stitches are picked up along the edges for the lower ribbing, and then for the actual sleeve. I finished the lower ribbing on one of them tonight, and picked up the stitches for the second one.

Usually, of course, I do my sweater sleeves at the same time, but I’ve got enough chaos around lately, I don’t want to deal with the two skeins of yarn that continually tangle thing, so I’ll be doing these on their own. Just … why not start with both of them at the same place, right?

Speaking of chaos … here’s my room. Now, for one, I can’t quite decide what to call this. My office? My fiber room? My sitting room? So, basically, I’ve got my bedroom, where I sleep and get dressed, and “my room,” where I do everything else. I’ve finally got my computer in here–it’s been plugged in next to my bed for the last week, but this is the room where it will live, so –at least it’s here. That’s what accounts for all those unsightly electric cables under the pretty cedar chest under the window.

The pillow on the cedar chest was made by my sister as a birthday present, because the colors in the fabric reminded her of me … looking around the room, I’d say that’s a yes, wouldn’t you? I hate the pile of stuff in the corner, though. (Well, I hate piles of stuff in general.) And I’m second-thinking the table RIGHT in front of the door when you come in … except that, once you’re in the room, it works there. If/when I ever sit at that secretary desk, it will give me a nice work area … it’s just kind of an obstacle to coming into the room.

Everything is in there, and all the major stuff has a place … the first, crucial step toward organization … but there’s just such a lot of it! I absolutely hate clutter–you know this–so the fact that it is, in fact, cluttered is kind of driving me nuts.

Well, not quite yet. I’m still in the “work in progress, don’t panic” state of mind as I work on getting things put away, but … if I don’t find room for everything to BE away, well … Let’s not talk about that, shall we?

And, it won’t make you jealous if I tell you that cedar chest is full of yarn, will it?

This is one of Chappy’s favorite spots–in the hallway between my two rooms. Here, he can keep an eye on me wherever I am (including the bathroom, which is just behind him)–as well as the hallway down to his grandparents’ bedroom.

The good news is that, after his sad, pathetic, woeful morning of howling and whimpering yesterday when his Mom headed off to work, today he was quiet and more his usual self. Because, yes, when I left for work yesterday, he took it very, very badly. I called twice and each time Dad just held up the phone so I could hear the “Wooooooooooooe, Wooooooooooe” in the background. Poor thing! (Well, both of them–Chappy for being miserable and Dad for having to listen to Chappy being miserable.)

You want to know what’s really exciting?

Look! Spinning! I actually sat down in front of my spinning wheel and spun up some of this luscious Cormo. The most spinning I’ve done in weeks. Woohoo!

Anyway, we’re all working hard on settling in. We’ve actually cooked meals, and everything. I clocked my commute today–going in (going through Indian Lake to work around the traffic on Rt 46 at rush hour), it’s 3.7 miles, coming home the more direct route, it’s almost exactly 2.5. That’s about 3 miles less driving a day than I was doing two weeks ago, when my commute was almost exactly 4 miles no matter what route I took. No complaints, there! Though we need to get the remaining stuff out of the garage so we can get our cars in there. (Finding room for my wooden rocking chair is surprisingly challenging.)

I can’t take a picture of it because my camera’s in the other room and anyway, he looks so disgruntled when I take his picture–like that one above–but right now, Chappy is curled up asleep in my green and pink afghan. I know, they’re not my usual colors, but it’s the afghan my grandmother made me twenty-something years ago and which is serving as a nest for Chappy until I can find him a decent pillow for in here. (Assuming I can find the floor space for it.) He looks so cozy, and is dreaming about something … I hate to disturb him to go say goodnight to his Grandpa!

Oh, and for the record? His bathroom habits seem to be settling in. You don’t really need more detail than that, do you?

• Tags: Chappy, Family, General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:I Hope You’re Impressed // 5 Comments »

I promised you pictures of the yarn I bought yesterday.

Three skeins of “Calypso” yarn in the “Saturn” color by Creatively Dyed Yarns. (I blame Kim for this because she showed me the skeins in her bag and made me want some of my own. I bought more than one skein because I wanted to do something other than socks … so, this will either grow into a lace shawl of some kind, or (if I can find a suitable pattern) a lightweight sweater, which I think I would simply adore.

Also three skeins of this yarn from the Spinning Mill in Melville, New York (who does not appear to have a website I could find). I had tried to buy some of their yarn last year, but she didn’t take credit cards. (No website, no credit cards, how quaint!) I made a point of looking for her yesterday and got this beautiful stuff. (To give you an idea how nice? Everyone who saw it asked if it was Briar Rose yarn.) Unfortunately, it’s  not the color I wanted last year–another woman beat me to it by about 15 seconds, darn it. That shade was close to this, but with more green … but, still, this is lovely.

Now, I told you the other day about the man from the used bookstore, who took away 6 boxes of the books I laboriously weeded out from my library? But that there were still a lot more left?

Since Dad, Mike, and Tyler moved the desk out of Mom’s office yesterday–it’s now standing on its side in the living room, trying to trick us into walking into it face first as we round the corner from the stairs–that opened up that floorspace. So, to get a better idea of what books I would still HAVE, I moved all the ‘get rid of’ books to the floor.

What? Doesn’t look like that big a pile? How about some different perspective?

That entire pile is books. There are (I think) 9 paper boxes full of them (that’s the smaller-size paper boxes, that hold 5 reams of paper), and then each of those boxes is piled with books up to the window sills.

No, I didn’t count them, but there are a LOT of them! And now I need to figure out what to do with them … preferably something that does not involve my having to pack and carry them somewhere (since the point of weeding them out in the first place was to avoid moving with them so we wouldn’t have to go to the effort of carrying them ourselves).

How many books did I weed out?

I’m not actually sure, but you can see that these cases–which had been overflowing on every shelf–now have huge swaths of empty space AND that includes books that I took out of my bedroom closet.

The two shelves on the other side of the table are even more dramatic–the case on the right which is currently sporting some horizontally-stacked books–is now my entire general fiction (trade and paperback size) collection. I emptied out the shelves from the left case so that, when the movers come to pack up the books a few days before we move, I’ll know that all the books on the right are fiction. (The books on the left are mostly writing books and essays, and will go upstairs.)

That’s actually the other thing I have to figure out now … what goes WHERE. Not just furniture and such, but which/how many bookcases will I have upstairs in my room, and which (the rest of them) will be downstairs? I know that, upstairs, bare minimum, I want writing references, knitting/craft books, and my photo albums. Cookbooks will be in the living room, right next to the kitchen. Everything else will be downstairs. But … if possible, I want a bookcase next to my bed, like I have now, with some of my favorites on it–I’m just not sure how that space will work.

But, also, we need to figure out the arrangement for the bookcases downstairs–we’ve got a long wall we can put them on, but between Mom and me, we’ve got something like nine short bookcases and four tall ones (plus two wooden shelving units) … and some melamine cubbies, too. Since we’re consolidating and we don’t have to worry about not blocking windows, it would be easier to get rid of some of the short ones and substitute more of the tall ones … except, then we’d have to BUY more tall ones, and that’s not really an option. So, I’m mentally running floorplans in my head to figure out how things could look or will look or should look, while still finding room for all those short bookcases which are (mentally) eating up wall space at a frightening rate. (It helps, though, that they’re all white; it does not help that they’re different heights.)

Anyway, this has been my day–moving books from here to there, trying to arrange things so that, when packed, I can find stuff later.

The joy of trying to bring my database of books up to date at the end of this–of somehow eliminating all the books I’ve gotten rid of while keeping the ones I still have in an excel sheet that’s over 3000 lines long is going to be … fun. Well, no, actually, I’m shaking in my boots at the thought of the amount of work that’s going to be! But, well, that’s not something I need to worry about for months, right?

Want another look at the discard pile? I told Mom that I’m trying to build her a new desk to replace the one they moved out of the room yesterday.

And, honestly, I don’t know what we’re going to do with all of these …

• Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning, Reading • Permalink:Wait, How Many? // 10 Comments »

I wouldn’t want you to think I’m not keeping busy.

My sweater is coming along, which can only be a good thing. I just finished my first skein of yarn tonight. As a pre-emptive thing, I put all the rest of the yarn for this sweater in my knitting bag, just to make sure that none of it gets misplaced during the packing/moving process. Even if it’s not yet wound into balls, at least I know where it is! (And, really, I think I’m going to wind it all into balls now, while I know for sure where my ball-winder is.)

Because that’s one of the other things I’m doing–getting ready to move. We got mover estimates this week, picked a company (through friends of my sister’s), and our moving date is set at November 2nd. They’ll be moving the furniture, the books, and whatever other boxes we’ve got for them … in fact, they’re going to come a couple days ahead of time and PACK MY BOOKS FOR ME. I need to get everything organized so that they can be labelled appropriately so they end up in the right place, but I have to admit, not having to pack thousands of books is a relief.

We’ll be moving some of the other stuff ourselves, though. Like, the clothing, the yarn, the craft supplies. The dog. Actually, moving the dog is going to be stressful for the dog, and we’re trying to figure out the logistics of that. Something that will make him feel safe and loved, but hopefully not feeling the need to bark every time someone walks in the house with boxes, or carrying furniture. I said I think he should be one of the first “things” we move–when we’ve been on vacation, he stresses when we start carrying LUGGAGE out to the car. We always put him in the car first thing, now, so he knows that he is absolutely not going to be left behind. I can only imagine what he would do if we started moving out everything in the HOUSE without him. So, he’ll be riding over to the new house pretty early.

Here’s a little mystery. I just glanced over to my boxes of CDs … I put all my CDs in boxes to get them out of my dresser. You’ll be fascinated to know that my cd collection takes four boxes to pack–the kind of boxes you get 5 reams of paper in. (Some of the handiest-sized boxes around. Not too bulky to lift and carry, and even when filled with things like, oh, say, BOOKS, they’re still not too heavy.)

Anyway, I looked and saw this silver thing on the floor. Now, having assembled any number of bookcases from IKEA, I know that this is one of the connectors used for holding pieces of wood together–there’s usually a screw of some kind, and then this sits in the hole and rotates, securing everything in place.

Now, if only I knew what it came from.

Normally, there’s not actually ANYTHING sitting in that spot, but I had pulled out a lot of things from my fiber-closet today and had them scattered about the room. Wool. Yarn. Craft supplies. (In fact, I wish I could remember off-hand who I sold my Lendrum Woolee Winder to, because I just found another bobbin for it.) I planned on weeding out a lot of stuff, but really only got rid of a one garbage-bag full of odds and ends … but what’s left is at least a little better organized.

But … still. Even with wool and boxes strewn about the room, I didn’t have anything just there that would have had one of those connectors…

Let’s see, what else? Mom and I went out for coffee together for the first Saturday in over a month. We kept joking that we weren’t sure we remembered how, where did you go, again? How did it work? Did you sit and drink it? Then we went to Home Depot where I bought a medicine chest to go in my soon-to-be-new bathroom (since I can’t take the ones my current bathroom HAS, darn it). But the man from the leasing company said he was more than happy to take down the mirror on the wall and hang up a medicine chest, which is a relief because I couldn’t quite imagine not having one. (Where do you keep the toothpaste? The Advil? The eye drops?)

So, we bought one … and with the help of a very nice man who was on his way INTO Home Depot (since the “parking lot staff” was no help whatsoever), we got it into the trunk of my car. It just fits, with the seats folded forward. Now I just need to coordinate a meeting with Ed to drop it off at the townhouse for him to install between now and November first.

I’ve also spent a couple hours doing some editing on an ebook, which is remarkably fun. It’s an ebook that a friend wrote for a client, and she hired me to check the spelling and punctuation kind of thing. It’s a pleasure because, while it requires concentration, it doesn’t require creative thought. It’s not something I wrote, so I’m not editing it and thinking about rewrites; I’m just fixing the punctuation. Very handy indeed because it will bring in some extra money (should almost pay for my medicine chest, after taxes), but it’s not as taxing as writing something for myself.

Oh! I just realized what that connector was from. I moved my “editor’s desk” from off one of the boxes of CDs so I could label it, and I rested it just in that spot. I just checked the bottom and, sure enough … that’s where it came from. One mystery solved!

A couple links for you before I go:

• What do you think of these nifty Bale-of-Hay Chair backs?
• You know that favorite TV show of mine, Chuck? The one not due to return until after the Olympics in March? Rumor has it it might be coming back earlier. Like, by the end of October. The idea of it coming back early thrills me to bits, of course, but the fact that its return would be so SOON is worrying because that leaves almost no time to promote it and get people WATCHING.
• Maybe I’ll have a “Watch Chuck’s Season 3 Premiere” contest, huh? And give away yarn to anybody who watches it–and gets other people to watch, too? With bonus points if they’re Nielson families?
• Check out this great subway staircase experiment in Sweden … and be sure to watch the accompanying video. Got to love the Fun Theory!
• Nifty little highly-coordinated music video that Mom sent me.

• Tags: General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Lest You Worry // 4 Comments »

Let’s pause a moment to admire this lovely sweater, shall we?

Here’s the really poor modelled shot–because, well, you can only do so much while holding a camera to your face.

It’s a quick hello and goodbye, because this sweater is (hopefully) on its way to a new home tomorrow. I told you I offered it to our realtor, if she found us a good home, right? Well, if things go the way they should, tomorrow, we should have one. We’ll be handing over a check (well, four, actually) to our new landlord tomorrow afternoon.

About the only glitch likely to happen at this point? I didn’t know until lunchtime today that I would have to give a certified and/or cashier’s check tomorrow. So, I called Fidelity and arranged for a wire transfer, which I was assured would go through today, so that I could go to my local Sovereign branch tomorrow and get my cashier’s check … except … apparently he was wrong. The transfer won’t go through until tomorrow. It’s supposed to be first thing in the morning, and it’s supposed to be instantaneous, but … if the money isn’t in there by, say, lunchtime when I go to get the Cashier’s checks, there’s going to be a problem!

Well, at least the sweater is done. You’ll note I opted for my second-choice buttons. Not because the others weren’t perfect (they were), but because I love them. I had sewn them onto a cardigan I made about 15 years ago and cut them off before I got rid of it. Since this sweater is going to a new home (appropriate, you’ll agree), I decided to keep those other buttons in the family and use these instead.

What else is news?

Forty-six years ago today, my Mom and Dad got married. Thank you, Mom and Dad! I’ve had so much fun with you these past 42 years 11 months, I only regret that I wasn’t here to enjoy the first four years with you, too. (Although, in retrospect, judging from some of the new-parenting stories I’ve heard about you and Patty … like taking her carriage out for a walk without her … coming second (well, technically third) was still probably the wise choice.)

• Tags: Family, Finished Knitting, General, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:Hail and Farewell // 8 Comments »

My sweater is moving along. See? There’s the waistband PLUS the lower part of the sweater.

I did it twice, even. I picked up those 165 stitches last night and knit the first 5 rows, but wasn’t happy with the way it looked–the ribbing was pulling in too much and didn’t look right. You realize, of course, that my gauge is (of course) different than the one in the pattern. Though … it looks like it’s different from the swatch (of course). I may have to take a closer look at it tomorrow when I’m not so tired. If necessary, I’ll redo the lower section again, when I get a better look at the actual gauge. (You know, when I’m not so tired.)

We spent the day up at my sister’s today, because our realtor had an Open House here today. So, Mom, Dad, Chappy and I drove up to Pennsylvania and spent the day there. I even got a look at my nephew’s bunny, Snowshoe. So did Chappy–he stood in Tyler’s doorway, his nose going a mile a minute, and then gave one, little woof, like he was asking, “Did you know there’s a rabbit in there?”

And now he’s tired… it’s been a long, rather confusing day for him! Mom, too, who’s finally getting over her cold, but spent most of the day coughing … though at least her voice is starting to come back.

• Tags: Family, Knitting/Spinning • Permalink:October 4th // 1 Comment »