Author: missouristar

Here’s what little puppies get into when Mom and Dad are away:

The little one up to his eyeballs in toilet paper is Pistage while Blue looks on from his beanbag saying, “Who, me? I’m innocent!” These little darlings belong to my son and daughter-in-law.

And tomorrow, Bill flies out to pick up his new toy:

Some of you may recall that he sold his 1958 BMW Isetta this summer to a guy in San Francisco. This is the replacement and Bill is going down (to San Francisco, no less) to pick it up. I told him he could have saved himself a lot of trouble if he had found it earlier and combined the trips. He’s going to drive this back to Washington, but it’s equipped with more up to date safety features than original, so I feel a little better. But it’s still awfully small to be out on the road with all the big guys.

On the knitting front I am taking a break from baby knitting on tiny needles and am working on Tilt (see June 6th post). This is Noro Silk Garden and I do like working with it, despite the occasional piece of grass. It’s fun watching the colors develop. This has been a relatively quick knit and now I’m on the long straight pieces – no shaping, just stockinette stitch, which is nice for a change. I know I’ll get tired of it soon enough and want to go back to intricate stuff on teeny weeny needles. But I do need to get cracking on Tilt, because it’s a promised Christmas present for my sister (it’s ok, she doesn’t read my blog and she already knows it’s coming) and I certainly don’t want her to think she’s less important than the new grandbaby.

Got lots to do today before we leave for Seattle – bills, laundry, all those fun things. Have a great weekend all.

Wow – two posts in one week! Just goes to show what can happen when I don’t have to work. I’ve had most of the week off and only have to work tomorrow (whine, whine). I’ve gotten a lot of school work done and taken one exam. I thought the exam was terribly hard and then came to find out that the professor had sent all the students a study guide for the exam. Except me!! Talk about feeling paranoid. All of this came to light because she returned a paper I had written with a B+, indicating that it was very well written and would have been an A if I had followed the guidelines she had sent the class. And I wrote back – WHAT guidelines? She checked, and sure enough, no guidelines for me. So she’s going to revisit my grade on that and will perhaps even cut me a break on my exam. Sigh!

And look at this – cute, huh?
This is the little boy set, all done except for buttons and blocking. I’m not making any booties because I hate knitted baby booties – they won’t stay on. I’ll buy some of the little stay-on socks to match. I’ve cast on for the little girl set. At this rate, I’ll be done by Christmas! Just a little grandma adrenaline going, don’t you know?

Being this far ahead has gotten me interested in revisiting some languishing projects. Remember the Mediterranean Shawl? Absence really has made the heart grow, if not fonder, at least less nauseous! I made a decision – I will frog! I know, I know, that’s about 6 months worth of work, but I am a firm believer that continuing a wrong does not make a right. In pulling out the shawl and looking at it:

I realized that it is already HUGE! Trying to plug on and getting a dubious match on the yarn resulting in a mismatched border just doesn’t make sense. (For those of you just tuning in, I ran out of yarn on the border). So, I am ripping and will find a small edging border to replace the very wide leaf border. It’s already got some beautiful patterns in it and I don’t think leaving out the wide border will diminish it in any way. Of course, it will probably take me a while to rip it out, winding the yarn as I go and when I get down to the shawl itself I will have some “live” stitches that will take some real finesse not to drop. That will have to be done on a day when I can devote my full attention to it. So, it sits in my sewing room in the corner with the yarn winder to await periodic attention.

And, breaking news! Just got an email from my professor that she is raising the grade on my paper to an A+. She reviewed the outdated syllabus that I was using, and she said I followed those guidelines perfectly and it was an outstanding paper. Yahoo!!

Rain, rain everywhere. I think fall is officially here. The ground is squishing and mushrooms have overtaken our front yard. So nothing to do but sit inside and knit! Well, and study too. I spent so much time on my paper Friday I worked myself into a bad headache. Gotta learn to pace myself. I did take time out to take Kirby to the groomer. This is a new lady and he came out a little shorter than I really like, but doesn’t he look cute in his little pumpkin scarf?

I also made progress on the blue baby sweater:

I also have one sleeve done and am up to the armhole shaping on the other. I should have that done today and then need to start sewing. I absolutely hate sewing up sweaters. I have an Elspeth Lavold sweater for me that is sitting in the basket all finished except for the sewing up. I just can’t make myself do it. This should be a little better because those are pretty short little seams. As I mentioned before, the Stork is a lovely yarn. This is my first experience ever knitting with cotton and it can be a little tiring on the hands.

And, Friday night Bill and I went out with my boss and his wife to celebrate our 32nd wedding anniversary. Thanks sweetie – it’s been a great 32 years – here’s to 32 more!

This new grandchild is going to be one lucky dude (or dudette)! The day after I announced the impending arrival to my mom, she started on a quilt. And it’s done already! Can you tell she’s excited about her first great-grandchild? The quilt arrived in the mail the other day and it’s just too cute. I wasn’t able to get a very good picture, but here it is. If you can’t make out the detail, it’s Noah’s ark with all the little animals.

Of course, not to be outdone, I completed something as well:

This is made from Plymouth Encore. It was good to knit with – more acrylic than I prefer, but enough wool to make it acceptable. But the good thing is that it can be used and thrown into the washer without fear. I must admit, though, that I caved and decided that I really need to make a more heirloom style blanket, so have started on an Estonian Shawl in white Baby Ull. This yarn is perhaps my mostest favorite that I have ever worked with. It has all the qualities of 100% wool, but is very, very soft. Although it is machine washable, I don’t machine wash my projects anyway. I made myself a sweater from it several years ago and it is one of my favorites.

The Stork sweater is coming along nicely, although cotton on size 0 needles does tend to be a little hard on the hands. I give that as my excuse for starting the shawl – so I have something easier to trade off with.

And, the benefits of having a computer literate daughter-in-law. Abby is working on a program to help me keep track of all of my yarns, needles, books, patterns and projects. It will be available in Macintosh format and is in the testing stages now. She hopes to market it, so I will keep all you Mac addicts out there informed!

For now I am going to get off the computer. I have spent the last 5 hours working on school papers. For my Sociology class I had to write three (thankfully short) papers on the following subjects: Should violent content in movies and video games be censored by the government? (No, but they should be labeled), Is Sweden correct in outlawing corporal punishment? (No, but the government should step in when a child is in danger of physical harm) and Should drugs be legalized? (No, but some minor possessions should be decriminalized and more money should be diverted from enforcement to prevention). So there you have all of my opinions in a nutshell. The real challenge was stretching them out into at least three pages each. Actually, not as hard as it sounds – I tend to run on and had trouble keeping them to three pages. So, a break is in order and I’m off to knit!

And the baby knitting continues! I’m only three repeats away from finishing the baby afghan, so I cast on for this. This will be the “boy” set in blue Dale Stork. I really like this yarn. It is soft and knits easily, although you do have to be careful of splitting, especially with yarn than has been frogged a couple of times. Yes, ripping has been done. I seem to have a terrible time with gauge on Dale patterns. I did a gauge (my LEAST favorite part of knitting) and was about ½ stitch per inch off on size 2 needles. So, I naively thought that if I went down one size I’d be just fine. “Hah,” she says, “Hah!”. I blithely cast on and after two inches measured. I was still ½ stitch off. So I ripped and decided that rather than go down to size 0 I would go back up to 2’s and just rewrite the pattern. Now, I am perfectly capable of doing this. I have knit several sweaters and a Shetland shawl of my own design. But after a few inches of this, I changed my mind and decided I really didn’t want to have to rewrite the whole pattern. So, I ripped again and decided to proceed with size 0’s. I’m not even going to measure gauge – I will just let the chips fall where they may and assume that this sweater will fit the baby sometime in his life – who says I’m not a cockeyed optimist? Since the “girl” set is also Dale and in the same weight yarn I will do the same thing. I think there is no chance that it will be too small – if anything a little large. The funny thing is that my LYS has the same sweater knit up in the same yarn and they are also ½ stitch per inch off! Go figure.

On the non-knitting front, I am now the wife of an officially retired firefighter. The first few days have gone very well, but I think the last week of work was rather emotional for him. The hardest was saying goodbye at the Daycare Center on base. Bill has been responsible for years for fire safety education and fire drills at the center. All the staff and kids know “Fireman Bill”. The center director was in tears when she said goodbye. His first day of retirement, Bill went down and had coffee with his car club buddies (think a male “Stitch and Bitch” without the stitch). That was great fun for him and I think will be a good replacement for all of his work buddies. Wouldn’t you know though – we went out to dinner to celebrate on his last day and ran into another old retired fireman who insisted we join him for dinner and then regaled us for an hour with old fireman stories. The perils of living in a small town!

Ain’t these purty? The fire department sent these to me as thanks for supporting Bill through his years of service. Of course, Bill says the flowers are mine, but he gets to keep the little fire truck! Thursday will be his last day and it’s been a little emotional at times. Since he’s on days and won’t spend another night at the fire station, he cleaned out his locker last week. Twenty years worth of stuff was spread out over our living room floor as he went through it.

While he was doing that, I was spending most of my week at the chiropractor. I’ve been having some fairly significant neck and shoulder pain. It’s been bothering my work for a while, but when it started interfering with my knitting – well, something had to be done. Seems like my neck is severely out of alignment due to years of poor posture (no surprise there!). The problem is that when I practice good posture, (shoulders down and back, chin tucked down) I lose my chin altogether. Now how fair is that? Of course, I came to terms a long time ago with the fact that most of the time you can look good or feel good. That’s why my high heels only come out on special occasion. The good news is that not only have the treatments made me feel better, but this doctor believes in curing the underlying problem rather than just treating symptoms. So I am on a regimen of exercises, and friends and family have been given permission to nag me about my posture. So . . . if you see me slouching, tell me to STAND UP STRAIGHT!

And the other good news is that I’m knitting relatively pain free and have made quite a bit of progress on the baby afghan:

The colors look a little washed out in the picture. They are a little more vibrant, but still pastel. I’ve been feeling so much better that I even started quilting on a quilt top that I had made years ago and put away for my first grandchild. But tomorrow I go back to work after a five day break, so knitting and quilting time will diminish considerably. I think I need to retire too!

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I posted. Plus, I think I goofed in my archiving choices because my previous post has already been archived. I guess that’s how you learn about blogging – by trial and error! But never fear, I’m still here. Becoming a grandma has not caused me to go completely over the edge! Part of the reason for falling behind is that I’ve been too busy to take pictures and I much prefer blogs with pictures. I’ve also been terribly busy with school. This past weekend we took a drive across the state to WSU so that I could attend a seminar and my husband could attend a football game. Both were successes. WSU won by a huge margin and the professor said those of us attending the seminar did not have to submit a paper! I found that being on campus and meeting with my advisor and fellow students really gave me a lot of encouragement.

I am in full gear on the baby knitting front. I decided on a unisex color for the afghan and bought both blue and lavendar of the Dale Stork for sweater sets. Pictures will follow later in the week. I have some time off from work, so in between studying I hope to get in some blogging catch up time. See you then!

I’m going to be a grandma! Ooooh – thiat sounds so good, let me try it again. I’m going to be a grandma! Wow, sounds just as good the second time around. The newlyweds have wasted no time in starting their family. Thanks guys! Although, sorry about the morning sickness, Abby. I have promised my husband I will not go overboard (tho his idea of “overboard” and mine may vary), but I couldn’t resist buying my grandchild his/her first stuffed animal:

A sheep, of course. And of course, baby knitting must commence as soon as possible. To that end, I hope to go yarn shopping tomorrow. I’m thinking a newborn set out of the new Dale Stork cotton. Has anyone out there used it? Any feedback? And of course, a baby afghan. I’m feeling particularly ambitious right now and am thinking one pink, one blue, just in case. But cooler heads will probably prevail and I’ll go with a unisex color.

And Bill’s retirement has come through! As of September 30, he will be officially retired. He’s already using up some leave and has been home for the past two weeks. He’ll go back about a week before retirement to tie up some loose ends and then that’s that! He is outrageously happy and wanders around with this silly grin on his face, although becoming a grandpa probably has something to do with that, too. I am somewhat envious, as retirement is still a few years away for me. But I must admit that he is taking over a lot of the household chores and has taken a huge burden off me. He will probably get some kind of part-time job for awhile and I will miss having him picking up the slack at home.

I do have an FO to report:

I finished my Making Waves socks. I like the look of them, although they could fit a little better. I was reading another blog (sorry, but forgot whose) and she mentioned liking the fit of toe-up socks better. I think I have to agree. The flap heel always comes out a little bulky for me. A short row heel seems to be slimmer and more snuggly. In light of recent events, I may have to pace myself and will probably drop out of the Six Socks knitalong, although I have some time to decide. Must get priorities straight. And working, school and knitting for baby will leave plenty on my plate!

I’m sitting at the computer watching the rain pour down outside. It looks wonderful! We Pacific Northwesterners love our rain and it has been a really dry summer. I’m so anxious for fall to come. It’s hard to knit when it’s hot and humid.

This week has really been a tough one for us. Neither one of us has bounced back from our jet lag very well. Just getting old? It could be too that we spent more time there and our bodies were more adjusted to London time. But we’re getting there. We can actually stay up until 9:00 p.m. now! Just like the grown-ups. Bill still hasn’t heard about his early retirement. The deadline was supposed to be the 16th, but this is the federal government, so what can you expect?

On the knitting front I’ve been plugging away on my Making Waves socks. I was distressed to discover that I am running out of yarn, even though I supposedly bought the right amount. Fortunately a speed run to the yarn shop yielded the last two skeins in the right dye lot. Do those of you with a LYS nearby really appreciate it? I hope so! I have to go off island – not a terribly long trip, but can be dicey if there’s an accident on the two lane road. Which there was today. Coming home I barely got onto the island when I got caught in a several mile long backup due to an accident. But I got a few rows of knitting done while waiting and was grateful I wasn’t actually in the accident – thank goodness it didn’t look too bad. But even a fender bender can tie traffic up for an hour.

School officially starts Monday, so my knitting progress may come to a screeching halt. For those of you who don’t know, I am currently, at the belated age of 54, working towards my bachelor’s degree. I am a junior at Washington State University, but have been plugging along for about six years now. I figure by the time I graduate it will be a ten year process. But there’s only so many credits I can take and continue to work full time. However, by the end of next semester I should be a senior!! I’m hoping that I will be able to keep up on my blogging, at least on a weekly basis, but we shall see.

And, no knitting photos this week, but this cute picture from our vacation. Three worn out little boys! The one without fur is my husband.

My namesake was right – there really is no place like home. I just wish I had some ruby slippers to click together rather than traveling the traditional way. Maybe I’m just getting older, but this trip home really wore me out! It was fairly uneventful – except for horrible traffic in London that turned an hour and half trip into almost double that. Fortunately we had left ourselves plenty of time and got there with just the right amount of time. The flight was long and boring and by the time we collected our baggage and got across the Canadian border to home, we had been up almost 24 hours. Neither one of us can sleep on planes. Kirby was ecstatic to see us – if you can imagine a dog crying with joy, I could swear that was what he was doing.

And now comes the job of easing (or jumping) back into the fray. We were both up at 4:00 a.m. this morning, but that’s an improvement over 3:00 a.m. yesterday. At this rate it will only be a couple more days before we are back on track. Today Bill finds our whether his application for early retirement has been accepted. Scuttlebutt around the fire station is that all applications have been approved. Financially it’s a good decision for us because it comes with a huge bonus and no reduction in retirement benefits. But it is a huge change and I think we’re both a little nervous about it. Even good change can be stressful!

On the knitting front I haven’t touched a thing since I got home. Probably a good thing because with the jet lag fog I’m in, I’d probably end up frogging anyway. However, here is a progress photo of my Making Waves socks.

I like them well enough, but would probably not make them again. A little too slow going for me with all the cables. I like my socks to be quick, whip ‘em out projects. I’ll save the cables for Aran sweaters and the like.

By the way, it probably was just as well that I didn’t finish the Mediterranean Shawl for the wedding. It was so hot and muggy in London that day that I wouldn’t have been able to wear it. Now that I have some distance I’m really considering ripping out the border and just starting over with new yarn, providing I can find a close match. It’s pretty generic off-white so that shouldn’t be a problem. But it will have to wait a few months. School starts next week and then I’m really off and running!