So You Want Some Knitting Content?

Okay, okay, I reviewed my posts over the last month and noticed that for a knitting blog, there has been relatively little talk of knitting. I have been knitting. I have "second everything" syndrome. It's not just for socks anymore.

I'm still working on this:

Not a great picture, but it's 6 a.m. I haven't had enough caffeine yet. I finished the collar and button band. As it is 2x2 rib it's gonna take some serious blocking, but I really like the short row "collar" around the neck. The sleeve is taking forever. I keep trying it on and it doesn't seem to get any longer so I magic loop some more and try it on again. How am I going to stand a second sleeve? I'm using my new Knit Picks options needle set I received for my birthday from the boys and I really like it.

Of course there is Christmas knitting. One mary jane ballet slipper for my niece. I am using Galway and a Fiber Trends pattern. But now I have to make another one. They are quick though.

I've also been finishing something for Kaye, my Handmade Gift Swap partner. I have to get stuff in the mail to her today, but I can show you what I sent after she receives it. Kaye, I'm warning you right now there is more gift stuff than handmade in the package. I've been a slow knitter lately.

So there it is. My knitting. I'm still doing it but with work and Thanksgiving and my house conspiring to make me nuts, I haven't been all that prolific with the FOs lately.

The Appliance Dead Pool (or The Great Appliance Conspiracy of 2006)

Some well known facts about your household appliances:

1. Household appliances speak to each other in a buzzy, mechanical language that has yet to be translated by humans.
2. Through this method of communication they coordinate their own deaths.
3. When one appliance dies, two more are sure to follow.
4. They know when you have a little extra cash on hand that you'd like to spend on something fun like a vacation or some cashmere. (This is why we all have a yarn stash)
5. Your furnace will only die on an extremely cold day.
6. Refridgerators only die when they are full, never when they contain only condiments, two beers, and a fuzzy square of cheese.
7. Your car is in on the whole conspiracy too.

Our last home was more than 50 years old. In the 10 years we lived there we replaced the stove, refridgerator, built-in microwave, washer, water heater, water softner, and furnace. We always had an appliance dead pool going, betting on which appliances were going to die next.

Our current home is only 7 years old. We replaced the stove and dishwasher just because we wanted to. Buying appliances because you want to, not because you have to, is a beautiful thing. We figured our days of the appliance dead pool were over. We have a practically new house! What could go wrong?! Our general appliance complacency has come back to bite us in the behind this last couple of weeks.

Three weeks ago the friendly folks at Sears called to say that our dishwasher warranty was due to expire, would we like to renew for three years at the low, low price of $149? My husband, who hates service plans and extended warranties, said no. He thinks these plans are "selling to people's fear of bad things happening to them." As I've spent my entire adult life in the insurance business, I'm not sure how I feel about his philosophy, but marriage is all about compromise, right?

Anyway, last week the dishwasher (triggered by my husband's refusal) died. Three years old. Stainless steel inside and out. Wonderfully quiet. Dead. Of course in dying it leaked water between our laminate wood floor and the crap ass vinyl floor underneath the laminate. Now we have to hire a floor guy to come out and replace the warped boards. Our friendly Sears repairman (now billing full price) arrived and diagnosed the problem, a blown motor. He replaced the motor and $350 later, we have a working dishwasher.

This morning my husband got out of the shower and declared we were once again living under an appliance curse. The hot water heater was on the fritz. His blue lips should have been proof enough, but I had to run downstairs to see for myself. Praying that there was no leak as we have the same laminate hardwood all over the basement, I checked it out. No leak but no pilot light either. I had a huge meeting today with a company I'm trying to sell our consulting services to. Of course. I ended up throwing on sweats, putting my toiletries in my backpack, grabbing my suit and going to the office to shower.

Luckily our water heater is on our utility company service plan that we pay for every month. The water heater was not a total loss and a couple of parts later (and no bill thankfully) we are back to indoor plumbing.

Please see #3 above. We are living on borrowed time. The temperature has dropped 30 degrees in the last twenty-four hours. Smart money in the dead pool has the furnace.

"My First Sweater"

3 or 4 years ago, when I first started knitting, I took a class at Amazing Threads called My First Sweater. It was a drop shoulder, stockinette stitch sweater with a very simple garter stitch neck. As is my usual M.O. I knitted like a fiend on it, outpaced the rest of the class and stopped going to class before the end. I missed the important final class on how to sew the damn thing together. It has sat in my stash, in pieces, ever since. I think it's Cascade 220. It's a beautiful chocolate brown (I would never recommend doing your first sweater in anything this dark, it's too hard to read your stitches).

I've made many sweaters since then, but without fail I've used a three-needle bind off to finish the shoulders. I've sewn the shoulders of My First Sweater three times and each time has looked worse than the last. Finally this weekend in a burst of "I'm gonna put that damn sweater together once and for all!" I did what would have been unthinkable at one time. I undid the bound off shoulders and did a three-needle bind off. The mere thought of such an action would have put me into a cold sweat two years ago. I'm not saying it was without trepidation, but I'm feelin' pretty knitterly right about now my friends.

After being rolled into a ball, in a drawer for three years or more, I have to re-block the whole thing before I sew the sleeves and seam it, but I think My First Sweater will actually be worn soon.

In other news, remember back to August when I started fair isle hats for the nieces and nephews? Well I ran out of steam on those, only the boys are getting fair isle hats, the girls are getting felted ballerina slippers. They will probably like them better anyway. On Thanksgiving night, my five year old godson nephew Ben asked me to follow him to his room. He has perhaps the biggest eyes of any child ever and I have no defenses against them. He has also lost all four front teeth, two on the bottom, two on the top, resulting in a very endearing lisp. He looks at me with his big eyes and lisps, "Auntie Kate what I really, really want for Christmas is something (imagine this pronounced thomthing and he's lookin' at me with the eyes) you knit for me. Thomthing warm for winter like a hat or mittens. That's what I really, really want."

I ask you, does this kid have my number or what?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day. I love Thanksgiving. We always have a big family dinner with sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws and outlaws. My sister and cousin take turns hosting. I've been out of the rotation for years because my house was too small to have 25 or 30 people for dinner. When we moved, I laid low but eventually my sister and cousin looked around my house and said, "why aren't you taking a turn?" So at some point I was put on the rotation.

I'm very thankful today that I don't have to cook. My sister and her husband, both wonderful cooks, are hosting dinner. Last year my sister decided that she wanted to spend the day with her in-laws as it wasn't fair to her husband that they always spend the holiday with her family. My cousin hosted an "orphans" Thanksgiving with friends, and my brother had to work. So I hosted my parents and in-laws here. Much like my approach to socks (I don't knit socks), I just don't cook. It's not that I can't cook, I just don't. So last year was my second attempt at turkey.

My first attempt was two years ago and a royal pain when my sister and my cousin's husband arrived and decided "She's doing it all wrong". They took over the kitchen and in between criticizing my appliances (brand new and stainless! what's not to like?) my cookware, and my skills, managed to save the family from my incompetence. I was driven to a corner clutching a bottle of wine and muttering curse words under my breath. Happy Holidays!

First let me say as a germ-a-phobe and semi-food-phobe, turkey scares the crap out of me. Every year at this time the morning news shows and food t.v. talk about how dangerous undercooked turkey can be. And the stuffing!! Forget about actually stuffing the stuffing in the bird, it should be cooked in a clean room offsite, as far away from the salmonella-carrying turkey as humanly possible. This slows my turkey cooking down considerably as, armed with Clorox clean-ups, I follow myself around disinfecting as I go. My bird might end up dry, but no one is getting food poisoning on my watch! Up to my elbows in a sink full of cool water, I wrestled a not totally thawed turkey into submission. Nearly in tears as I tried to remove the handy packet of organs and neck from the wrong side of the turkey. Yes, indeed I was trying to pull them out the little turkey ass.

In the end last year, my complete lack of knowledge regarding turkey anatomy aside, the dinner was a success. It was only a half hour off schedule. I only had to make aproximately three thousand calls to MFF (acting as my personal turkey hotline) and only drank three glasses of wine while cooking. Everyone had a swell time and no one was stricken with food borne illness.

Did I mention that this year one of the many things I'm thankful for is that I'm not cooking dinner?

P.S. a family gathering like this, involving wine, can only result in some great Roger Clinton stories and pictures for the blog next week!

Today's Home Ec

No knitting progress to report because I am crocheting. Yep, I promised my son, the blanket hoarder, a chocolate brown afghan for his room. So I'm crocheting a quickie. It's done with three strands of Jiffy held together. I know it's acrylic that you can buy at a craft store, but for afghans washable is best.

Afghans need to be there when you are sick. They need to be dragged up and down the stairs by kids. Dogs and cats lay on afghans. They need to be washable. Really washable. And you need to throw them in the dryer too.

I actually like Jiffy. I like the mohairy look of it and the soft feel. I hate that the skeins are wound by evil trolls who knot up the middle of each skein. I've spent as much time untangling yarn as I have crocheting the damn blanket. If you use Jiffy for anything I recommend doing so with an ample supply of wine and chocolate.

My son is addicted to blankets and afghans. He has a pile of them. He uses them nearly every day. He has one that I crocheted for him 7 or 8 years ago that is an absolute mess but he refuses to give it up. I have fixed it countless times. Now that he is in the eighth grade and has taken the mandatory Family and Consumer Sciences (yes, this is the new politically correct, gender neutral name for good ol' Home Ec) he has taken to re-sewing the afghan himself. He was really going for a spot on the Honor Roll this quarter and at mid-quarter, FCS was standing in his way. So he started working on extra credit projects. He made himself a pair of fleece sleep pants and a plastic canvas thing that resulted in an A+ in the dreaded FCS. You cannot imagine my relief that helping him in FCS has been teaching him how to use a sewing machine as opposed to cooking. Last year FCS was cooking. He brought home muffins that weighed about 4 pounds each and could break a tooth. I am no help in cooking as I don't cook, but ask me to fire up the sewing machine and I'm there baby!

Armed with his A+, there is no way that I am going to be able to convince him that learning to crochet and finishing this afghan would be infinitely more personally satisfying. So I'm stuck untangling Jiffy. Pass the wine.

Thanks

Thank you for all your kind comments, it makes me feel much better about my blog. No new knitting news, nothing earth shattering going on around here, but maybe I can catch up on things in general.

I've been on the road a bit lately. Flying is a whole new experience now what with exploding hair gel. Ever since 9/11 there has been a lot of yelling at airports. Not screaming matches ala Diannah Ross, but general instructions being yelled. I wonder if the reservation agents and TSA people realized all the yelling they'd be doing when they accepted their positions. So in case you haven't flown lately and are getting ready to fly somewhere for the holidays, here is a rundown on the state of the airports. At least as I have found them.

I always fly on an e-ticket and I love being able to check in online. Now that my toiletries are considered a danger, I'm checking my bags. Me and everyone else. The electronic kiosks at Mpls/St. Paul airport have been turned into manned electronic kiosks with check in areas for baggage. When I reached the kiosk area I was greeted by a friendly, yelling Northwest Airlines reservation agent yelling instructions about where to go if you are checking bags versus where to go if you are not. I invaribly end up in line behind two senior citizens flying off to see the grandkids. They can't manage the touchscreen check in and take four times longer than anyone else to complete the transaction.

Bags checked, I stand near the doors and assess the security line situation. Unlike most airports, MSP has 5 or 6 different security lines. So I have to determine which one seems to be moving the fastest. Back in the days that I was flying all the time I had "elite" status with NW resulting in automatic upgrades, so I could get into the first class only security line which usually saved time. There were fewer people in the first class line, plus they were people who traveled often and knew the drill so there was a lot less yelling.

I picked a line and began to run the TSA security gauntlet. The first station is the people who never yell. Mainly because they don't speak any English. They check your boarding pass against your drivers license, look at you and squint, then make an illegible mark on your boarding pass. They will grunt at you to indicate you've passed this first all important security check.

The TSA security gauntlet has a whole new station of zip lock bag ladies. Begin the yelling. Waving zip locks over their heads they shout the instructions that will protect us all from potentially life threatening exploding toiletries and beverages. No more than 3 ounces per jar/tube, all must be contained in zip lock bags (imagine zip lock bags can protect us from exploding toothpaste!) No water, no coffee. If you didn't prepack with zip locks they will provide them to you. Anything over 3 ounces must be disposed of. Of course I am behind a woman wearing aprox $50,000 worth of heavy gold jewelry, dressed in a brightly colored velour track suit and ostrich cowboy boots. She is very unhappy that she will have to throw away Lancome face cream that retails for over $100 a jar. Now she'll look wrinkly as well as dressed badly.

Next comes the actual security line with the TSA agents whose job it is to yell about laptops. The champion laptop yellers are at Chicago's Midway airport. These women can yell long and loud. Laptops must come out of your bag and be placed in a separate bin. Throw your cell phone, sunglasses, book, bag, coat and shoes in another bin. Jewelry can generally go through the machine on your person unless you are wearing aproximately $50,000 worth or are wearing a huge belt buckle bearing the Smith and Wesson logo. If you are wearing both, please just turn around and go home to get therapy before you fly. If you choose to ignore this warning, please God don't be in the seat next to me. While you cannot bring an un-zip locked tube of tooth paste through to the plane, feel free to bring your knitting. Addi turbos are a-okay. They will come in handy if you end up next to the ostrich boot woman (did I mention she bathed in Calvin Klein's Obsession?) on the plane and have the urge to hang yourself from the overhead bins.

Once through the metal detector you can have a choice of being wanded or you may have your bags swabbed for gunpowder residue! Being swabbed is preferrable to being wanded. At least you know where your bag is. If you are a woman, being wanded involves waiting for the next available TSA wand woman (so you don't feel harrassed while being wanded by a man. I have felt harrassed since the cabbie dropped me off at the airport) while watching the conveyor frantically to make sure your bag doesn't get stolen.

Now you are free to board your plane. Or sit on the dirty carpet at the gate (there are 250 people on your flight and 80 chairs at the gate) waiting to board. When they call first class everyone will lurch to the gate hauling their zip locks. There are 16 seats in first class and 75 people lined up when they call boarding for first class. Figure that.

Gone are the days of sitting in first class sharing a bag of candy orange slices with the head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves (he is pretty cute and single btw), I'm now in the middle seat in coach stuck between guy who has asked for a seatbelt extension and close-talker-guy who has decided to take off his shoes. Behind me are seniors who talk very loudly. Perhaps they have been rendered deaf by being yelled at so many times before boarding. Now the flight attendants can tell everyone to put their seats up and turn off their blackberries and cell phones. We are off! There are no peanuts, pretzels, magazines or horrible food to distribute anymore so the flight attendants can now gather to complain about the airline, the passengers, the gate agents, and how much their feet hurt.

When the plane lands and they tell you that you can fire up your cell phones, please participate in the "I'm so important that the Stock Exchange has probably crashed while I was out of touch for one hour" ritual of firing up your cell phone. If it doesn't start immediately buzzing with messages, frantically dial someone to tell them you have landed. It could be your mother on the other end of the phone, but make it look like you are speaking to the chairman of a Fortune 100 company.

I travel for business so my journey ends at the cab stand. If you are traveling for pleasure (can travel be a pleasure these days?) you must go to the airport holding pen to try to find your loved ones. The holding pens vary from airport to airport, but are designed to keep dangerous non-flyers from infiltrating the system. Personally I think the most dangerous person in the airport is whomever just sat next to the ostrich boot woman, who has spent the entire flight whining about her lost Lancome. I hope your loved ones have their cell phones with them because calling them and trying to explain your general location is the only way they will find you.

Fun huh? Glamorous! It's a party in the sky! Don't you wish you traveled for business? Maybe next time I'll tell you about how much I love staying in hotels! Bring your Clorox cleanup wipes.

In The Words of Pink

I'm not dead. I just seem to have lost my zest for blogging lately. What with work keeping me busy and stressed out, stuff to do with the family and around the house, I just haven't had it in me. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was the big controversy about aggregators using content and putting ads on it. When I discovered that my blog was not even captured by any aggregators, I started to realize that only a few people read this thing anyway and I felt a bit defeated. I know that is a little like chasing a robber down the street because he broke into the house next door while shouting "hey, what's the matter, isn't my house good enough to rob?!" but I'm weird that way.

So, I'm back. I don't know if I'm back daily but I think I can manage three times a week. I have been knitting. I finished this:

It's for my friend's baby. Born in September, family schedules haven't allowed us to get together yet, but I'm hoping soon. First of course, I'll have to get rid of the three freaking cold sores on my mouth, but soon. The pattern was free on Jimmy Beans. It is made with two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherds Worsted. I added the little flower on the hat to make it more girly.

I've also been working on this, also in Lornas Laces. Which, if I haven't mentioned it before, I love. It's the softest washable wool I've ever used and it really is washable.
This particular color is Mother Lode. I found it on sale, sale, sale at Little Knits. I don't know if I would have picked the color if not for the sale, but as it turns out I love it. The pattern is one of Wendy's (Knit and Tonic Wendy) that I bought at the Garter Belt. Her patterns are terrific. Wearable, mostly top down, and easy. Not mind-numbingly, death march knitting easy, but just easy enough to make yourself a cute little cardigan and watch "Dancing with the Stars".

So there you go, I'm alive and knitting. I'll be back. Soon.

Happy Halloween!

From Maggie and Maxine

The boys have decorated the house. This weekend we were at Target where I was eyeing some tasteful grapevine pumpkins with little white twinkle lights. I was promptly told that I get to decorate for Christmas, but Halloween is for my husband and son. Tasteful is not the goal. Well, they don't have to worry, there is nothing tasteful in their decorating.

Their favorite new decoration was obtained while I was away. It is a battery operated rock with a motion detector. When someone walks by it lights up and moans. Imagine my joy at finding this while walking up the walk to the door in the dark one night. By the time my shaking hand was able to unlock the front door, my son was down the stairs laughing so hard he was doubled over.

Son: "Mom, I could hear you scream all the way up in my room!"
Me: "mrrgfl"

Yeah, they are a funny bunch around here. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Chicago Bound

I'm off to Chicago until the weekend. I'm attending a conference on the aging workforce. Sounds like fun, huh?

I will leave you with a picture of my new special knitting assistant.

Albert the cat has been bravely (okay timidly) venturing out of my son's room these days. Of course Maxine Louise the BHFH wants to play with him and he wants absolutely nothing to do with dogs. But we are making progress.

That cat better stay away from my yarn!

No Time For Knitting

I'm trying to get myself organized so I haven't been blogging or doing much knitting. My apologies!

I spent the last three days getting organized. Friday I got all my summer clothes put away and hauled all the winter stuff out. My sweaters! I love my sweaters! This will be good news for all of us here in Minnesota who have been dealing with an early cold snap. Taking out all my warm clothing will certainly bring the mercury back to the 70's soon. It has been in the 30's and 40's most of the last couple weeks and the sun has been a no-show. This is too early for cold, even here on the frozen tundra and it's making people crabby. If it doesn't warm up again here soon, expect a February of crankiness and possible road rage. Of course road rage here consists primarily of rude gestures, but still. . .

This weekend was spent cleaning our garage. I know that there are men out there who take a great deal of pride in a perfect garage. My husband is not one of them. Our garage has been an absolute wreck for two years. I've left it to him to do whatever cleaning or organizing there is to do. He is generally very organized. So much so that at one point when he was laid off, he reorganized my cupboards, drawers and the credit cards in my purse. This lead to a heartful (and loud) discussion of when a man should go rummaging in his wife's purse (NEVER). Anyway, I pitched in and helped this time out. I found some interesting stuff:

1. Jack stands. We have never once, no matter how strapped for cash, worked on our own cars. Never. Now that he has a hybrid, my husband can't even get his oil changed anyplace but the dealership. When I lobbied for donating said jack stands to charity I was turned down.
2. Four 5 gallon buckets of floor adhesive, primer, etc. from when the house was built 7 years ago.
3. Five big, giant tubs of fabric and pillow forms from when I used to sew all the time.
4. My antique, mahogany, Georgian drop leaf table. Yikes!
5. A bucket of pieces of brick?

Why we were holding on to this stuff I'll never know. Thank goodness for dumpster service. In the end, I can actually drive my car into the garage and leave it there all night. I can get out of the car and walk in the side door without climbing over things too! Next week after the last of the stuff has been hauled to charity, we will be able to fit both cars in the garage. I know that many of you do this every day, but in our household, this is a major accomplishment!

My Celebrity Rant Plus Before & After

Does anyone else find this phenomenon of celebrities visiting impoverished countries and coming home with a baby, strange? I understand there isn't a Barneys in Africa. Madonna couldn't buy the new Prada boots on her trip so she brought home a child? Did her daughter get a t-shirt that says, "My Mom Went to Africa and All I Got Was a Dumb Ol' Baby Brother"? Aren't there nice middle class folk using their savings to travel back and forth battling other countries' red tape for months or years waiting to adopt? I'm just saying. END OF RANT

So here is the before:

And the after felting:
This is my first felting project using Brown Sheep. Three strands are used throughout. I really liked this pattern. The lifted increases create a strong ridge that mimics the ridges found in a pumpkin. Looking at the sample picture, it appears they felted it more than I did mine, but I wanted to keep it a little larger. Overall, I'm pleased. The pattern is in the newest Magknits, uses four skeins of Brown Sheep or Cascade 220. I started this last Thursday night and as you know, I didn't get as much knitting time as I would have liked this weekend. I think it could be a weekend project.
Pumpkin? I thought I was mom's little pumpkin!! Anyone know how I get this fridge open?

Mysteries of Life

My knitting life has been rather uneventful lately, I just haven't gotten all that much done. I should have a before and after on the felted pumpkin for you soon though.

I've spent the last three days driving back and forth to and from St. Cloud. It's about 60 miles north of here. Saturday I went up because my SIL (yes, RC's wife) had a Tastefully Simple party that I promised I would attend. My dislike of home parties is legendary amongst my friends and family so my attendance at one of these things is a gesture of love. Especially driving 60 miles to attend a dreaded home party. Luckily the Tastefully Simple party involves a lot of food and some wine. Plus my SIL's friend who is the rep doesn't pressure everyone else to throw a party. And she is relatively normal. Part of what I hate about home parties of any kind is an uber-perky sales person trying to get me to host a party of my own, or worse work for her giving home parties. "But you can get up to $100 of free merchandise!", howse about I give you $100 to leave me the hell alone?

Sunday the whole famdamily drove back to St. Cloud to set up a booth for a trade show. Being in the car for more than an hour makes my son squirrely. After a half hour stuck in "coming home from up north" Sunday afternoon traffic, listening to him sing commercials and make up songs, I nearly put him out on the side of the road.

Yesterday I drove BACK to St. Cloud for the trade show where I spent 8 hours on my feet in heels smiling at people who were only there for the free stuff. As my free stuff basically sucked, I practically had to be a carnival barker to get people into my booth. I've got a basket full of business cards and really sore feet to show for it. Yippee.

Last night we attended parent teacher conferences at the High School to find the answer to the burning question, why is my son getting a better grade in French than in English? English being his native tongue and all. The high school was built a zillion years ago and is a one story building laid out like a maze. Much of our two hours there was spent looking at the provided map and arguing about whether hallway F is really next to hallway G or inexplicably next to hallway A. After stumbling around lost, we discovered the answer to the French vs. English question and discovered that if he doesn't start paying more attention in Social Studies he will make a fine and funny feature on the Tonight Show's Jaywalking segment. He is, however, getting A's in math and gym.

So with all the driving and the smiling and the parenting I haven't gotten much knitting done.

A Rather Blustery Day

I've been up on and off all night. The wind has been blowing so hard that the rocking chair on our deck has been rocking. Unfortunately the deck is attached to the wall by our bedroom so all night long it sounded like people were walking around on our deck. Of course our crack team of watch dogs was snoring soundly (while trying to push me off the bed and stealing the blankets) and I was wide awake. Finally at about 3:30, I woke my husband and made him check out the noises. This prompted instant action on the part of the watch dog team. They jumped up and moved to the warm spot on the bed he had left and went back to sleep. At least I got my blankets back. So if my writing seems groggy today, it is.

It should be a terrific day though. As the firm made our 3rd quarter financial goals the managing director has declared that we may wear "smart" outfits with jeans on Fridays for the remainder of the month. There has been considerable discussion around the office about a)what constitutes smart and who will be the judge; b)when we became English without anyone telling us. Okay our resident managing director's boss is English, an import from the London office, and he may be influencing things. Smart or professional I don't care, I'm just happy to get the chance to wear jeans. It's so much easier. There is much less outfit coordination involved in jeans. Men don't entirely understand this, but it's true. Everything goes with jeans. Including this:

It's my $9 cardigan! I finally got it blocked and sewed on a button. Plus it's certainly cold enough to wear it today so wear it I will. Just to refresh everyone's memory, I bought the yarn for this when visiting my parents in SD back in August. The JoAnn at their mall was going out of business and clearancing everything. The yarn was 80% off and cost a total of $9, hence the $9 cardigan. The yarn is bulky and has a little shine to it. I used this top down pattern from Knitting Pure & Simple bought from Jimmy Beans. I really like their patterns. Most are top down and they are well written and easy to follow.

Gotta run and load up on coffee. Tonight I have my first dance class. I haven't taken one in 15 years so I will probably be hobbling around stiff and sore tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

Catching Up

And I am. Catching up. Caught up. Tuesday in New Ulm I was sad to see Nadel Kunst is closed. If you remember my last trip to New Ulm, I met the shop owner Nutty Cindy and really liked her and the shop. I imagine it's hard to sustain a yarn shop in a town of 13,000 but Nutty Cindy seemed to be flourishing in June. I somehow imagine her at home in front of the fire knitting her inventory now. (Now that would be a stash!)

I did make a stop at Mary Lue's (sorry Chris I couldn't find Tangled Skeins) where I ran into a group of three ladies, all over 75 years old, who were out on a shopping excursion. It seems one of them is working on her first felted project and she's trying to get her pals hooked on felting too. I chatted with them over the bins of Brown Sheep and they were the coolest. I bought some Brown Sheep to make this, some clearance, clearance Katrina, and scored a couple of skeins of Kureyon in shades I don't already have.

Yesterday I really caught up. I took a day of vacation as I had the world's longest dentist appointment scheduled and thought I could make some progress on my deadline projects. I'm happy to say that I finished Grandma Purl's squares, blocked my Lizard Ridge squares that I'm donating to Stephania's Afghans for Afghans project, finished the spa wash cloth for my SP angel-ing, and got Chris' prize together for Look Back and Cringe! I picked up buttons for both the $9 cardigan and the baby sweater and finished a sleeve on the baby sweater. By the time the boys got home yesterday afternoon, the kitchen and living room looked like some crazy yarn studio. The winder and swift were attached to the kitchen counter and there was stuff blocking on just about every flat surface imaginable. Today I can go to the post office and get everything out in the mail. A huge relief.

I have until Saturday afternoon to finish the baby cardigan as Saturday I get to go meet the baby (finally!) on my way to St. Cloud. The finishing should not be a problem as I only have one sleeve to go. I am hoping I can finish it tonight.

I will have achieved project freedom. I still have sleeves to finish for my jean jacket vest, but I won't have any obligation knitting to do on tight deadlines. I'm going to say "no" to further deadline knitting until after the holidays. I do have some holiday knitting to do but nothing elaborate. Whew! I feel like the weight of world is off my shoulders.

Another Road Trip

I'm hitting the road to New Ulm again. I'm sure I will have to hit a couple of shops on the way home. Post to come later.

Monday, Monday

Just today I wish I worked for the government. My dad did for 30+ years and always had Columbus Day off. No one who lives here in Little Scandanavia actually believes Columbus discovered the U.S., but it's still a national holiday. Couldn't they re-designate this day for someone who accomplished something more significant for our country? Susan B. Anthony or Thomas Edison or Lewis & Clark or even Martin & Lewis Day? I don't mean to downplay the accomplishment of introducing small pox to the natives of the Cayman Islands, but it seems like there are a whole lot of people (and there are no national holidays designated for a woman) who have made a bigger contribution than Columbus.

Anyway, I could use another day to get some stuff done. I got some things done around the house this weekend. All four bathrooms are clean and dusting was done. I spent lots of quality time with my son. All the laundry is done. I finished a square for Grandma Purl and I hope to finish another tonight. But I still have a ton of deadline knitting to do and I have to get packages ready to mail. I'm still feeling behind.

Yesterday I visited Borders to see if I could find a copy of Wrap Style. I keep seeing posts of the Shetland Triangle and I think I have to try it. I like that it is worked from the wide end down to the point. I think this is one I can do. I was in front of the knitting magazines and made a comment about the cover of Knit Scene to the woman crouched next to me. Turns out she's a knitter too. So fifteen minutes of conversation later we had exchanged the names of our favorite pattern websites, yarn shops, and books. Talked about why our puppies want our yarn and gotten to know each other a bit. I've never had a hobby that seems to bond people like knitting does. The knitting community is a weird and wonderful thing.

I have to run. Monday morning sales meeting. Happy fill in the blank Day. Whose day should this be?

Thank Heavens for Crazy Friends

I've been a bad blogger, but I've milked the birthday girl thing all week long. Obviously my friends and family know the way to my heart is with yarn. My sister took me out to lunch at PF Chang's and gave me a card with yarn money inside. My guys gave me a Knit Picks gift certificate and MFF (my friend Fritz) gave me this:



I, of course, pulled some needles out of my purse and started gauge swatching immediately. I'm getting about 6 stitches per inch on number 4 needles. Now I have to figure out what I'm going to make. Thank you Linda for helping MFF out with this purchase. You must have thought he was nuts (he is a little). Now I finally understand your comment Linda. I'll stop in next week. Poor MFF has been dragged to so many knit shops. He's my non-knitting, knitting pal. I don't really have other knitters to hang out with (which I know is my own damn fault) so it's nice to have a friend that understands and even encourages my obsession. His personal obsession is very expensive foreign sports cars so my yarn buying seems like an inexpensive hobby to him.

But before I start indulging myself with birthday present knitting, I have a lot of things to finish. Like this:

I gave up on all the Samantha lace and cuteness and decided to go simple for my friend's new baby. It's my absolute favorite Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted. I love how soft it is. I love that it can be washed (perfect for baby stuff). I love the colors. I love knitting with it. I can't find it in any of the LYSs I've visited. I've been told by one shop owner that they are too unreliable as far as shipping and availability for shops to stock. (I take this with a grain of salt as this particular shop owner still won't stock Brown Sheep because of the wait she had on orders after their factory burned down a couple years ago. Hardly their fault I would say.) So I've bought all my Lorna's from Jimmy Beans and Little Knits. Little Knits is closing it out and not selling it anymore, but they have a few skeins left on sale, sale, sale. Every time I've ordered it from Jimmy Beans they have had to substitute colors for me, but they've been great to work with. So I'm hoping to finish this sweater this weekend and get it in the mail.

I feel so behind. I've got so much to finish and not enough time. And I really do have to get some stuff done in the yard before the weather turns on me and it's too late.

I'm out here. A little overwhelmed a lot behind, but I'm out here.

Don't Try This At Home

We interrupt this family free-for-all to bring you some knitting. Or some unsolicited knitting advice, cos doesn't everyone love a little unsolicited advice? I know I do! Especially from the lunch room ladies!

Remember that garterlac dish rag I whipped out one Saturday morning not too long ago? Yeah, that made me cocky and too sure of my self. Too sure of myself.

I volunteered to be an angel for the One Skein Secret Pal exchange. I felt terrible that some people got nothing. I have to come up with a hand knit gift and quick. My SP lives in the south so a wool hat or some such thing would be useless to her. So I thought, what about a garterlac done in cotton chenille as a spa wash cloth? Some nice soap, etc. I'd be all set.

In retrospect I think the vareigation in the Peaches n' Cream helped me keep track of where I was at in the pattern when I did the dish cloth. I also think (and this is perhaps the most important factor) that doing in alone in a room was the key to my earlier success. Not so with the spa cloth. First, it's all one color. Second, I tried to do it while watching t.v. with a 14 year old and two dogs. Bad idea. I've ripped it out twice all ready. The cotton chenille is not loving the frogging.

Back to it. Wish me luck.

BTW, did you read my sister's comments? As if anything I've ever done that my parents don't already know about would shock them!

And He Confesses!!!

So in case you didn't read my comments here is one from Anonymous:

And I would have got away with it too, if it wasn't for your meddling blogsters and your stupid dog too!!! Oh, wait, that was for when I was secretly revealed as Captain Cutler, The Black Night Ghost, or Miner 49er. Easy on the "respectable citizen" stuff, I have a reputation to keep poor. So it's true, I am RC. For you regular blog readers, I am Kate and Susan's blacksheep brother. The sibling who smokes cigars, gambles and swears. Well, the one who smokes cigars, gambles and swears but doesn't knit. At least Susan is respectable. Occasionally I've been known to wear a purse on my head and walk like the monkeys from Oz. On a more interesting note, today is Kate's birthday!!!! You can see from her pictures she has posted that she looks much younger than her 49 years. The next one will be THE BIG 50!! Happy Birthday big sister!!! Stay tuned for future comments, including "10 things you didn't know about Kate".He He He He He Dave

I'm a little afraid about the "10 Things You Didn't Know About Kate". Okay I'm very afraid. And I will have it known that I am actually 42 today. He's 10 years younger, so if I were 49, that would make his next birthday 40. So don't push my age along. And it just so happens I gave up cigars after a really bad incident involving duty-free Irish whiskey and cuban cigars. (there is no worse hangover. you're just praying to die)

So mystery solved but I may have opened a giant sized can of worms.

Presenting Roger Clinton

A few months ago I started getting anonymous comments on the blog from someone who signed themselves Roger Clinton. This person was sarcastic and funny. Commented some on my knitting, but never on their own.

Nancy Drew Clue Alert: I don't think Roger is a knitter

Then a few weeks ago there was an incident at the Minnesota Zoo involving meerkats. 5 had to be euthanized after someone let their 9 year old into their habitat and the 9 year old was bitten. Roger Clinton commented on my blog referencing dead meerkats.

NDCA: Roger Clinton is from Minnesota

A light bulb went off and I suspected I might know the identity of Roger. But he is elusive and laid low after I said as much on the blog.

Then it came back to me. Last winter I wrote a letter to the editor of our local paper after our latest school funding levy failed. I was really ticked off because I saw on the local news a bunch of 70 and 80-something women coming out of the polling place declaring they already paid too much taxes. This pissed me off. I know that they probably contributed very little to Social Security and that it takes 3 currently employed people to support one senior on Social Security. I have no problem paying my taxes to support them, but they can't give up Caribou Coffee once a week to improve my kid's school. ANYWAY. (I'm jumping off my soapbox now) Needless to say my letter was not well received by some of the senior citizens in my neighborhood. I got an e-mail of support though from the person I now suspect is Roger Clinton.

In the e-mail he said I should run for Governor and as my brother he will be happy to act as the family Billy Carter or Roger Clinton. Getting boozy at all the wrong times and embarrassing me publicly in the proud tradition of Roger Clinton.

NDCA: Roger Clinton is my little brother David.

Drumroll please. Presenting Roger Clinton:

Here is he is now, getting in shape for his role should I ever hold public office. Yes, that is a Lucy bag on his head. I knit it for my sister last winter. He is a more responsible citizen than he appears in this picture. (I wasn't going to show a picture where he actually LOOKS like a responsible citizen, how would that be any fun?) He holds a management position. He is a good dad. He follows all the DNR rules about how many fish you can catch. He has a near photographic memory that is very annoying at times because the things he chooses to remember are things like the entire script of Airplane, but all in all he's a good guy. Slippery though. The general consensus amongst the family is that he is indeed Roger Clinton but will probably never admit to it.

When everyone replied to my question yesterday that they have never received comments from Roger Clinton. My suspicions were confirmed. And when he threatened to out himself, I had to take immediate action. So HAH Roger Clinton. You're out there baby (and you're loving it!)