Hats Off!

Last night we had our very first night time spinning group meeting and all I can say is, Hats Off!  Literally!

Hat #1 with companion brownie

Hats 2 and 3, no brownie included

Hat #4  keeping it real

I am always so encouraged and inspired from these meetings, and I spent most of today in la-la land, dreaming of making hats and trying to decide what kind of yarn looks best with what kind of hat.  So many choices and so few hours in the day to knit.  I could actually sleep less to get more knitting time in, right?

Tonight I'm heading to a bon-fire and chili supper at my friends' house.  She actually came to my house last night, even though I know she had a million things to do today to get ready for her  get-together tonight.  What a gal!!   She's the one who brought all these hats and inspiration to our meeting last night.  She makes hats for all the kids and grandkids every year!  What a goal!  I'm working on Christmas stocking right now for my family, and while  I don't actually have any grandchildren of my own yet, someday soon I'm sure I'll be knitting  some fuzzy hats for little critters too!

I'm super tired today and it took all I had to get on the treadmill.  There just doesn't seem to be enough coffee to wake me up today.  I remember having a day like this a few years ago. Just could not pull it together.

  Its so hard for me to give in to being tired.  Its probably just my body fighting off some kind of bug, and I should take it easy. That would be better for me. And I did sort of  take it easy today, but not by anybody else' standards.  Anyway, I woke up both yesterday and today and went straight to the computer to read on the computer version of my Kindle.  Even though I have a night light to use with my real Kindle, I hate to use it to read in bed. I always feel guilty, like I'm keeping everybody up. (Just who are all these people?  I don't really know...) Anyway I've already had a little 10 minute cat nap today and I'm ready for another one now.   Hope I make it through the party tonight without yawning too much.  I am really getting old, dangit. Just don't call me Grandma.  Not yet.

Don't bring me down!

Mums from some plants I bought years ago

This world is full of people who know what they're doing. I am not one of them.  Frankly I think I could read, listen, study, observe and never feel like I know very much about any given subject.  Well, except for one, maybe.  And its not about anything I do, but something I know. I know God loves me.  I am absolutely sure of that.  Sometimes I have moods and opinions about lots of negative things, and just as often I have moods and opinions about very positive things.  The most important one is God's love.  It truly keeps me going, day in and day out.

Baby radishes from the patio

I read a tweet that I re-posted:
 The orphan mentality causes you to approach life victimized by what you haven't received instead of grateful for what you have received.

Today for instance has been a beautiful day.  Absolutely lovely; warm temps and a slight breeze.  I know the rain is coming, but for the great weather, I am thankful.  You might live in the desert - give thanks you've avoided the monsoons.  You might live in the coldest climate of all - give thanks you avoided the desert.  Glass half full/half empty, you know.

Give me another hand!

I have some golden yarn that's a bit sticky and I'm making these dee-lightful gloves out if it.  I could complain that they're sticky, but rather, I choose to say that they'll repel water when it snows!  See? What good fortune I have!

We ran out of cookies in the cookie jar by the sink.  Instead of complaining, I just got out the cookbook and made some peanut butter cookies.  Who can complain about fresh baked cookies?  I had to do some housekeeping today and I chose to give thanks that I have a house to clean.  Shelter is a blessing, and electricity to run the vacuum with is another blessing!  I could be sweeping a dirt floor.  I've been in houses with dirt floors, and believe me, I am BLESSED to have carpets to vacuum.

Another blessing is a messy garage full of wool that needs to be spun.  I have no problem being thankful for that!  I've been spinning this gray wool and will probably ply it soon.  I've already got a hank of 2 ply and 3 ply.

Shades of Gray

The wool roving came in a large ball and it could use a little attention, since its sticking to itself.  Maybe a few minutes unwinding the ball and making it into a fluffy pile of roving!

Spun bobbins full of gray wool

Drive

The other day I brought my spinning wheel downstairs to spin when I realized the drive band on my wheel had broken.

Sad spinning wheel

The drive bands nowadays are often made of plastic.  In order to make a plastic drive band fit your wheel and to be able to get it onto the wheel is way more tricky than you would be interested in hearing about.  I will say, though, that the last time I did it, I burnt my fingers melting hot plastic.  Hot melted plastic on human skin is less fun than you can imagine.  Oh em gee.

leftover drive bands

The winner!

Now I'm using an old fashioned string tied in a knot.  That's all.

Replacement!

Most people mistake the drive band for the yarn and the yarn for the drive band.  I  know I did.  There are lots of strings and things on a spinning wheel, with lots of funny names.

Happy Day spinning wheel!

In my old blog, I did a post about the parts of a drum carder that have downright dirty names.  The new Spin Off magazine has an article that definitely made my husband raise his eyebrows!  Ah, the good old days.  They named the parts  of these contraptions when nothing had a double meaning.  Now everything has a double meaning.

Like the (B)drive band.  Today drive means to move your car and band means a group of guitar players and singers.  (F)Mother of all  sounds like you're cussing in traffic.  (A)Fly wheel sounds like a cool car.  And of course who can forget (J)footman, (K)orifice, orifice hook, (E) maiden and (G)tension knob?  Holy Cow!

A-One and A-Two

Golden Gloves

Knitting these little golden gloves has been a breeze, and I'm learning a new way to knit gloves.  Without a long explanation, I'll let the pictures speak for me.  The fingers will be sewn up later.

Thumb is on the side so its reversible!

After recognizing that I was in over my head with any cable work that required a new skill, I succumbed to just knitting plain gloves.

Third finger

I think I will try a few flat swatches to learn the Celtic knot technique with straight needles, and then try to master it knitting in the round.  (Just so you know, flat knitting and round knitting are very different and would require lots of adjustments to the pattern.  Not going there anytime soon!!)

River birch outside the back door

I had a great time last weekend with my family.  My daughter's husband had passed the bar on Friday and we were ready to celebrate! We had a blast playing games (Clue and Catchphrase), shopping (my daughter nearly bought a dog!), eating lots and lots and even went to church together on Sunday morning. We watched some home movies and laughed till our sides hurt. I do not complain about dirty dishes and loads of laundry.  They are signs of life and for that I am very thankful!

Ripped Off

I looked at the weather report for today and noticed an alert for my parents' city, which I have bookmarked on my weather page.  The alert was for rip currents.  You see, they live on the coast.
I am landlocked in beautiful, hilly Tennessee.  No danger here, as the breeze is minimal and the sun is shining with a high around 80 degrees.  Funny how things like rip tides are front and center for some folks but not for others. 

Last night I had my own rip tide.  I ripped out for the second time the Butterscotch glove. Wiggly yarn piled on the floor where I pulled out all the stitches and then had to rewind the ball of yarn.  I'm a learnin'!
The Celtic knot was not going to happen for the Knotty Glove pattern no matter how hard I tried, so I gave up on it and ripped it out.

Celtic twist - RIP

Then I tried a vintage glove pattern yesterday but found that it would probably fit Tina Fey's hands on the cover of Bossypants.  Way too big!
So I ripped it out, again.  Again.  Then I started a 1x1 rib with a lot less stitches and got a much more delicate looking glove.  At least it looks that way so far. 

Vintage glove pattern

Sometimes you have to do things several times before you get it right.  Lots of books are out there on failure and its necessity before finding success.  That's okay.  I'm a learnin'!  I'll get it right eventually.

First glove with thumb stitches marked off

This weekend  was primarily a family time for me.  My son and his wife took us on a little sightseeing trip Friday and we happened upon a strange little shop of horrors after our meat & three lunch.  It was an antique shop that seemed to focus on the macabre and morbid.  Strange items that gave us all the creeps.  So we moved on to the ice cream shop down the way.  Apparently its owned by the parents of the guy who runs the Bates Motel Antique-O-Rama.  The older man and his wife who served up the hot fudge sundaes had a strange demeanor, that I could not quite put my finger on.  After we all got in the car, we got out our cell phones and started Googling the places we'd visited and the little town.  Bingo.  Confirmation that the willies we felt were probably justified.  I'll just say that the ghost tours in this little town on Halloween weekend will probably deserve a  segment on Ghost Hunters!

Antique spinning wheel and swift

Twist But No Shout

Some things are best saved for quiet moments of solitude; moments when you can concentrate and analyze your problem clearly. 
Tonight I reached that point in these Butterscotch Gloves where the ribbing turns into beautiful intertwined cables.  A Celtic knot, sort of. 

blurry cell phone photo

A normal cable is not a problem, but this cable pattern is 1)a bit of a challenge. Not too much, just a little.  But add to that 2)the fact that the cable needle I'm using is made of carved wood and 3)it is too large in diameter for the project I'm working on.  The difficulty level is now upped by a notch!

pattern on my laptop; clearly not helping

 4)Because I'm unfamiliar with the pattern, and I don't knit from charts, but rather from line by line instructions, I've got the pattern zoomed in on my laptop. I'm trying to figure out how to knit this dad-gum thing using hieroglyphic symbols. (FYI, football coaches just use X's and O's.)   Oh, and by the way 5)the TV is on and its kinda loud. 
I don't know what I was thinking.  This is like trying to do your taxes on your cell phone with a text message.  Not gonna work. 
"Give it up!" I can hear someone saying in a faraway voice. 
Put the needles down and  slowly walk away with your hands in the air. 
Okay I give.  I will try again tomorrow. I'll find a quiet space where I can think clearly. Someplace quiet.
But I just remembered, we're going sightseeing tomorrow.  Maybe I'll have to work on it while I'm texting and driving.  What was that, officer?

All things considered

Yesterday could not have been a more beautiful day.  Okay, maybe the day before was nice, and today might be just as nice as well.  But yesterday sure was terrific.  The skies were clear, the humidity low, temps in a perfect range, and just enough breeze to make you want to find reasons to stay outside.  By late afternoon, I had to take my lawn chair, knitting and a bottle of water outside for a taste of the perfect day.

Lovely day

It's a shame that vacations get all the credit when sometimes the most glorious times can be had in our own back yard.  Lord help me not take for granted the very things I've prayed so hard for in previous days and years!

Bath mats lounging in the breeze

The Knotty Gloves are just being birthed by these little Inox needles (size 3, since you asked).  The 2x2 ribbing should last for 6 cm or just under 2 1/2 inches.

The wool is a blend of two tones I dyed and carded and spun.  I have to remember to pat myself on the back when I knit with my very own homespun yarn.  I think I'll call the color Butterscotch.

Today is the 2nd Tuesday of the month and time for my virtual ladies meeting.  We get together and talk.  We don't worry if our shoes look good with the rest of our outfit.  We don't worry if the car needed to be washed or if our teeth got brushed since the last cup of coffee.  This idea deserves a Nobel Prize.
I read a blog post the other day by a lady  who said some controversial but timely things about women getting together.  Women already feel inferior when we enter a building to meet with another woman.
We worry about our weight, our hair, and our latest tweet.  Too much of our lives are spent focusing on what we should or should not have been doing.  Sometimes women just like to talk, period.  We like to connect and feel accepted.  Maybe men don't, but we sure do.  At least I do.  I don't necessarily like the telephone, but I do like face to face conversations, 'cause this helps me to interpret your reactions toward me.

  I really  don't like when the person I'm talking to glances around or moves their body to let me know they have to keep moving and talk to some more people. Please don't stop to talk to me if you don't intend to listen after you ask me how I'm doing. Thanks but no thanks.

 
Today our ladies meeting focuses on just us and nothing else.  There's no preparing a lesson.  There's no covered dish to bring.  There's no fee to be paid or spiel to listen to.  It's just about us being us.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Warped Minds

The whole world of weaving has always intimidated me.  Just the idea of warping the loom; all those pegs on the warping board, keeping everything from getting tangled, I just can't feel relaxed when I think about it.  And this is supposed to be a hobby, something I do for fun.  The last thing I need is more stress!

Direct warp video and unsuspecting loom

Ah...but then I heard about direct warping and thought, "That's got my name written all over it!" Not the warped part, but the ability to skip the huge task of looping yards of thread onto the warping board only to take it off and try to put it all on the loom without getting tangled up.

I read about the idea of direct warping a while ago and found this video which makes it look a heck of a lot easier than it actually is.  But its still better than the old way of using a warping board.
So today, I got some brown cotton thread, pulled up a chair and went to town warping my loom.

Peg with loops - ready for battle

winding on the beater bar

Un-tangled

Rigid heddle loom action figure, otherwise known as a shuttle

There were some near catastrophic moments today, I won't lie!  But I am old enough to stay calm and not panic, no matter how bad it looks. Tangled threads, loops that went nowhere.
Surely there had to be a way to fix it! And there was. :-)

Stabilizing threads holding down the fort

So, drama over, I've got some stay-put threads in place waiting for the rest of the gang to show up.

Tonight we have a guest staying in the house, all the way from my hometown.  It's my niece! Her college group will be playing at a nearby church tomorrow morning, so she stopped by for the night while they're in town.  She's catching us up on all the news from "back home"'; conversations about kids whose parents I knew and grew up with.  Parents that I have stories about, and parents whose kids think their parents never, ever got in trouble. Funny how the years do nothing to stop you from remembering bullies, snobs and cliques.  I am plenty old enough to forget the past, but I still have vivid memories of being taunted, teased and humiliated by kids who thought they were just being funny.  And they probably were funny.  For a minute.  But in my warped mind, those awful little rhymes and remarks are still as fresh as a fifth graders number two pencil.

Nostepinne Zone

Monday night we watched the Dallas Cowboys play a terrible game that they actually won.  It was humiliating I'm sure for the Redskins who seemed to be playing pretty well, to lose to a team who couldn't have played much worse. And it seemed that Tony Romo was the only factor that kept the team ahead at all.  That and many field goals.  Maybe the credit should go to the kicker, since that accounts for the majority of the points scored all night.

I am sure that the team of newcomers were taken to task over their sophomoric performance.  There is just something to be said for skill and experience.  You could tell Tony was looking around for some skilled players all night and was caught off guard lots of times when the only ones around were the ones he would have to coach through the remainder of the game.  But at least they won - you gotta give them that!

During the game I was completing the crimson stocking and it turned out beautifully.  Here it is pressed and ready to be lined.

I have managed to get a couple of pics from the yard.  This tree was planted less than 10 years ago and it is as tall as the house now. 

The petunias are leftover from the summer - wave petunias never let me down.

And this wasp is mesmerized by theses pink buds.

Finally this little plant comes up every year like a weed (I'm sure it is) but I let it go all summer so that I can see the awesome flowers.

While I don't have access to my community garden plot anymore, I did plant these radishes - not much to look at yet, but hopefully there'll be something for my salads soon!

I mentioned in my last post about carding and sticky wool.  Here's another little tool that is very old school and low tech. Its called a nostepinne.  It sounds like "No Spin" if that helps!

This tool is used to make a center pull ball so that when you're knitting, your ball doesn't roll all over the floor seducing and beguiling your cat.  The stick is made of wood and is similar to a small baseball bat, just in case you need to knock someone in the head!

Sticky Situations

Several times in the last week I have taken a little break and retreated to the garage for a little wool-carding.  This time of year is the absolute best time for carding because I can open the garage door to keep from inhaling so much wool and dust, and enjoy the stable temperatures.

I have quite of bit of sticky wool that I have washed countless times and still have not gotten out all the lanolin.  At first it seems quaint, that lovely fresh-from-the-farm smell, faint but still hanging around.  You pick, you card, you re-card, and take it to the wheel to spin, and it's still downright gummy. I think it would work well at this point for flannel graphs in a preschooler's Sunday School lesson.

I worked hard to complete this batch, dyed last year and looking super attractive until I touched it.  I truly hope it comes out soft and clean when I wash the plied yarn (again!) next week. To knit something with this could be dangerous.  Picture a cool looking scarf that swings when I wrap it around my neck, and grabs the sunglasses off unsuspecting bystanders! I will have to be selective with my project if this stuff doesn't come clean.....

We had a little adventure this week, and not the kind I'm a fan of.  On Thursday my dad collapsed from an abdominal aortic aneurysm.  That's the second dad in our family to have one of these AAA events in the last six months.  Cancel my subscription!  Wow.  Talk about life hitting you in the gut.  I love my dad dearly, and I'm well aware that he's a bit past middle age, but this kind of thing is no fun at all.  My dear mom called me, clearly trying to keep it together long enough to give me the information she herself was having a hard time processing.  The whole scenario is the stuff that nightmares are made of.  People don't need this kind of stress in their lives, and I feel sorry for ER nurses and doctors.
Mom said the hospital had to get a courier to bring a stent from a nearby city, but he took forever getting to the hospital because of rush hour traffic.  Five units of blood and almost ten hours later the leaking/rupturing artery was repaired and dad was in the clear.  The chances of his survival was about one in ten.  I believe in prayer, period.  THAT's what saved him.

Somethings fishy and I don't mean sushi!

I am way down the line with my crimson stocking.  When I laid it on the chair for a progress photo, I realized how much it looked like a fish washed up on the beach!  How icky is that?  I hope it doesn't smell.

I also recognized something else.  I made it plenty long enough to hold lots of candy, Starbucks cards and knitting gadgets.  *Hint, hint!  Yes, I think  this one will be my stocking  for Christmas this year.

I love Christmas and I always kick off the season by watching Home Alone.   I am fully into the Fall weather right now though, as evidenced by my very large Autumn wreath on the front door.  If you're in the neighborhood and notice it, honk your horn when you drive by!  I'll try to run to the door and wave back. :-)

The Ravelry group for glove knitters has brought up the idea of a Fall glove knit-a-long or KAL for short.  They're calling it a GAL (glove-a-long) which I think is adorable!  Not that gentlemen knitters aren't welcome, but you know, leave it to the ladies to get creative with a name.

I really like the Knotty glove pattern and am trying to decide if I want to make them gray or pink.  Why pink, you ask?  Why not?

Earlier today I watched our president give his speech to the general assembly and he spoke about peace in the middle east for a while.  I appreciate that he did not take the obligatory, politically correct position of siding with the Arabs.  He did, in fact, address the pressure that Jews in the Middle East face on a daily basis.  Good for you, Mr. President.  And while I'm at it, God bless America!  (How's that for being politically incorrect?)

The Long and Short of It

It's hard to believe that I'm already this far along with the crimson stocking.  It's time to put in the afterthought heel thread.  Or......I can make it a long, skinny stocking and keep on enjoying the mindless knitting I've had the last week.

The pattern is completely committed to memory and I hardly have to look at the page to see what's next.  I do keep making the same mistake over and over again, and in exactly the same place.  What's that all about?  You'd think I'd learn, but I guess I haven't paid attention like I should.

It keeps happening at the end of the row where I start to expand the medallion.  I've decided to leave in one of the errors 'cause I already lost a couple of hours frogging the thing, twice!   It gives it character, right?  Okay, maybe not.

Anyway,  I have not even thought about the next stocking, if that's any indication of how much I'm enjoying this little thing.  Every night after dinner I sit down next to it on the couch with a cup of coffee and knit for at least an hour.  Woo hoo!  It's the little things!

I dropped my honey at the airport this morning, before the sun came up.  He's headed to Texas for a few days, but on my way home I saw the most amazing rainbow as the sun was coming up.  It seemed like it was there just for me!  Well, it was, as a matter of fact.  I know it was because my husband and I had just prayed before I dropped him at the curb.  It's good to know Somebody's listening!

And I have spent the majority of the week sorting through stuff in the garage.  I literally am just now putting last years' Christmas decorations back in the attic.  I threw away homeschool papers that would cover my behind in case the law came-a-looking.  Homeschooling is a legal nightmare, I don't care what people say.  So now that both kids are out of school and married and employed, I figure it's safe to toss the evidence.  I also bubble wrapped a set of dishes my grandmother gave me years ago - dishes that I am going to store for a while, since I've painted the dining room lighter and put light colored dishes in the china cabinet, instead of the ruby red ones.

This morning I finally planted some Angelique tulip bulbs for next spring.  They'll have to compete with the passion vines that just keep coming back up. Can't seem to get rid of them.  Either way, the flower bed on the hill will be lovely next year!

Medallion of Honor

I feel like I have redeemed myself a little with this medallion cable pattern.  I'd lost a little self-esteem on that last stocking, feeling like I was in one of those dreams where your feet are like cement; not moving nearly fast enough.  I had not reached any sort of panic yet, but I knew I'd better get back into the swing of things with my knitting or all this stocking momentum would be gone.

The weather is decidedly cooler now, by at least ten degrees, and we had a pretty cool few days at the end of last week.   When the weather is like that, I make an effort to spend time carding in the garage.  If it's too hot out there, or too cold, I can only stay for limited amounts of time.  But Friday the weather was comfortable and I had two goals.  To steam the carpets (high traffic areas) and card some more of the Jacob fleece I got on our last dye day.  I did both.

I had washed the carp* out of the fleece but there was still an awful lot of VM left so, carding outside was a great idea.  And the weather was outstanding!  It probably stayed in the 70s for the entire day.  Just enough breeze to keep the dust moving away from me, too!  I am so proud of what I've accomplished, and I know this will give me one more spinning project to look forward to.  And I still may add some camel down to the batch, if I find the time to card a little more.

I have the greatest of intentions, by the way.   I woke up today thinking of how I was gonna clean out the garage, get rid of stuff and make way for the many boxes that will surely be coming our way  when we   liquidate my father in law's house and possessions.  We intend to store a lot of it.  I expect that some of it will come to roost in our garage and attic, and if that's the case, I will have to clear out the Christmas decorations and most of the empty boxes I keep saving  "just in case I need to mail something."  That's not far away from keeping extra twist ties and washed aluminum foil.  I need to purge not hoard!

There is such a tendency to hang on to things that really have outlived their purpose.  The older I get, the more I tend to hang on to things, and the more I have to make myself toss, toss, toss.  To pine away for things that are over with is useless.  I have been good about giving away baby clothes & blankets, odd bedspreads and old TVs. I have even thrown away boxes of books when we moved.  (Shipping books is expensive by the way.) Last week I threw away CDs and DVDs, and this week I plan to go through my closet, purging the old summer clothes that I never wore.  I've heard that you can safely pitch stuff that you haven't worn in a year.  I know I have things I haven't worn in two years or more.  I have a slew of suits from my old office job that are still in dry cleaning bags in the spare bedroom. Surely somebody needs those houndstooth skirts!!