Category: Uncategorized

Was it worth it? You be the judge.

Before:

During:

After:

Yeah, it was worth it – even if it did cost more than my first car! Of course, my last sewing machine cost more than my first car. We were all set to take delivery on the new countertop, with the old one torn off and the water shut off to the kitchen, when Mother Nature intervened. A terrible snow/ice storm hit our area and the contractor couldn’t get here on our original install date on Tuesday. So, we had to do without the kitchen for a few days. But doing dishes in the bathroom sink really made us appreciate our dishwasher. Now all that’s left is to put up the new wallpaper. I ordered that today and fate smiled on us – the store had two rolls of my pattern left from a case that they had on sale for 75% off! That saved us enough to buy a new coffeemaker. That’s the trouble with remodeling – it makes everything else look shabby. As Sockbug wisely pointed out, the four most expensive words in remodeling are, “While we’re at it!” Boy, can we identify!

On the knitting front, I was working away on the socks for my secret pal at work when they began to speak to me. Does your knitting ever talk to you? I finished the first sock, but when I got just past the heel on the second, it said, “Pssst! Hey, you! I don’t want to be a sock. I want to be a fingerless mitt.” Well, I’ve learned to listen to my knitting and in this case, the sock was right. I had begun to think twice about doing both socks and mitts for my secret pal, and I know she would rather have a pair of fingerless mitts. So, voila:

Now I just have to rip back the other sock and reknit to match. This was an easy redo and I think you could use just about any sock pattern. Just knit until the mitt reaches the desired length to the bottom of the thumb. Using waste yarn, knit a thumb’s width worth of stitches (in this case, 71 stitches to start with because the cables draw in a lot, 12 stitches for the thumb). Slip those stitches back to your right hand needle and continue on with the pattern until the mitt is an inch or so from the desired length, end with ribbing. Pull out the waste yarn and place the stitches on the needles (24 stitches – remember, you have a top and bottom). Pick up two stitches in each corner to close the gaps and knit an inch or so or desired length for thumb, bind off. This particular pattern was taken from Charlene Schurch’s “Sensational Socks”.

Tomorrow we’re off for a relaxing day on the “Spirit of Washington Dinner Train” – or in this case “Brunch Train”, courtesy of my boss. Thanks boss!

Under the heading of “It seemed like a good idea at the time”, I present my kitchen:

It started innocently enough, as these things often do. We came into a little extra money and Home Depot had Corian countertops on sale. So we ordered a new countertop with an integrated sink – to be installed Tuesday. By tomorrow Bill has to have all the old countertops uninstalled (i.e. – torn out!). And, of course, the new countertop would make the 20-year old wallpaper look a little shabby, to say nothing of the fact that taking off the old backsplashes pretty much destroyed the wallpaper on those walls. So far, I think we can hold it at that. Anything else that looks shabby is just going to have to suck it up and deal with it! I’ve got the new wallpaper all picked out – just hold your collective breath that when I go in to order it that it’s not discontinued or backordered or whatnot. And that what I’ve got picked out actually goes well with the countertop. On the advice of the contractor, I’m waiting to order the wallpaper until I can compare it to the actual countertop. As it is, I will be frantically wallpapering mid December.

It’s a good thing we have indoor projects because this is our outdoors:

So far about an inch with 4-8 inches predicted. This is unusual for us! We will go years with no snow at all or just a dusting that melts in a few hours. But we have nowhere to go – I even have tomorrow off! As soon as Allen gets home (he went out on his bike before all this started), I’ll relax and enjoy it. Hopefully he’ll show up soon or give us a call to come pick him up in the truck. No sooner said – he just called and asked if we could come pick him up as soon as his boss says he can go. So, I won’t have to worry that he’s out in this.

Not much knitting to show at this point. I have one sock finished for my secret pal, but will wait until the pair is done to post a picture. I had planned to work on Izzy’s Christmas sweater today, but got sidetracked by the kitchen. I’ll probably work on that tomorrow while trying to stay out of Bill’s way while he deconstructs the kitchen!

However, I will leave you with a little teaser – one wee armhole:

Major Happy Dance! STATISTICS IS FINISHED!! Hmmm – or should that be Statistics are finished. Hey, I’m a college senior – I should know that. Anyhow, can we have a Woo! and a Hoo! I went in to work today and things were really slow and we were tripping all over each other, so I decided to take the day off. And, as much as I dreaded it, I decided I should just suck it up and take the final exam. So, after two hours of studying, I did it. It’s over. I felt a little panicky mid-test – my mind just kind of went blank. But when I got home and reviewed the material, I felt really good about the test. It will probably be a week or so before I get the final results, but it’s looking good!

On top of that, I’ve finished all of the knitting for Izzy’s Christmas outfit. Now, it’s just the neckbands and sewing up. Since I’m so far ahead on that project, I decided to wing my way down to our LYS and get some yarn for my secret pal at work. She’s expressed a longing for fingerless mitts, so I will make a pair for her along with some coordinating socks. Here’s Still Life With Yarn:

You might sense that I am a little relaxed about tomorrow (besides having Statistics off my back) and you would be correct. I don’t have to cook at all! About 5 or 6 years ago a local restaurant owner decided to start a Community Thanksgiving Feast for those who either couldn’t afford it or didn’t have family in town to share with. We’re a Navy community and a lot of people are away from their extended family. Well, it has really snowballed and now is a real tradition. All kinds of people come – even those who can well afford it. Those who are able throw some money or checks in a container at the front door, but no one really cares. It’s open to all. Bill, my sister and I will be runners – delivering meals to those who can’t get out. It will be a great time! Ironically, last year the man who started the feast died of a heart attack on Thanksgiving day – in the kitchen, cooking turkeys. What a wonderful legacy he has left. Hope you all have wonderful friends and family to share the day with!

We’re still here! I wasn’t so sure for a while that we weren’t going to blow away. No floods for us, but a severe windstorm whipped through on Wednesday, knocking out our power for about 12 hours. It happened about 12:00 noon and thank goodness we weren’t right inthe middle of any procedures at work. We were just getting ready for a staff meeting/pot luck over the lunch hour, so we accomplished that and went home. We have a generator and gas stove, so were warm and had lights (but no water). I contemplated the idea of settling in for an afternoon of study, but decided this “found” time should be used wisely – so I knitted. I got all of the edgings knitted on one portion of Izzy’s Christmas outfit and now have about a gazillion ends to weave in. Next year it’s a one-color sweater for her!

Just so I don’t have a picture-less post – I’ve pictured these sweaters before, but this is for anyone linking from the CIC group:

These two ganseys were mailed off yesterday to help with the challenge. And, speaking of charity knitting, after the first of the year I’m going to start a charity knitting group! There are so many wonderful groups out there and I have some knitting friends that are interested. Many of these friends aren’t Knitters, they’re knitters, but they would like to contribute and learn more. A few are even non-knitters and want to learn. In the past I’ve found that having knitting lessons in my home for free has been less than successful. So, these lessons won’t be “free”. The price will be to commit to making at least one item for the charity of your choice.

I can’t thank everyone enough for all their comments about Kongsberg. Once I posted the picture I realized that there is no way I could frog that beautiful sweater! Abby did confirm for me that it’s not really her style and I appreciate her honesty. Better that than a sweater that she hates stuffed into a drawer! I will finish it and then decide what to do with it. Maybe I’ll just save it for Izzy – who knows where she’ll end up for college or medical school. It might be cold there! : )

Well, Dorothy’s a dull girl today – studying will do that to you. But I did take my Abnormal Psych final and turned in my paper for my other Psych class. That means I’m done with everything except Statistics! Hubby is gone today, so I’ve set aside the day to work on that. I have two projects and one discussion left. One project is done so all I need to do today is the other project and the discussion. Then, all that will be left will be the final – and it’s not comprehensive, it’s only on this one section. Woo Hoo!! The biggest problem is that I’m STILL waiting on my grade for the test on the last section. Supposedly I can’t hand in anything on this last section until it’s official that I passed the last one. Believe me, this professor is NOT going to get a good evaluation. Maybe by next week I’ll have more exciting things to talk about.

Oh, I did acquire a new/old knitting book. Family Knits by Debbie Bliss. I had checked it out of the library and liked it so much I bought a used copy off Amazon. It’s got some cute patterns for both children and adults. More on that later.

Rain, rain go away! Like most Pacific Northwesterners, I love the rain. But this is too much even for me. We’ve had record rains here, as you may have heard on the news. Normal for Seattle for November is 1.58 inches – so far they’ve already had 8.8 inches! There has been terrible flooding with whole houses washing down the river. We’re fortunate in that we are not affected. We live on an island with no rivers or streams nearby and we’re at a relatively high spot on the island. The worst we’ve had to deal with is some standing water in the backyard:

Still dealing with school stuff, but it’s getting better. Although, if I get an A in statistics, it will be in spite of the professor rather than because of him! We get an opportunity for one retake on each of our exams. So far, I’ve not had to take advantage of that, thank goodness! In order to get the course finished on time he has dates by which you must take the test to allow a retake if necessary. However, he suggests that you wait to have your projects graded before taking the exams. This last exam deadline was November 10th. I turned my projects in TWO WEEKS ago and by the morning of the 10th, they still weren’t graded! It’s not as if there’s mail time involved – they’re submitted electronically and he has them in his mailbox within minutes after I submit them. Fortunately I am doing well in the class and haven’t needed the retakes. And, I didn’t listen to him, but took the exam a week ago. But I really feel for the students who are struggling in the class. By the way, I finally got my projects back about noon and got 34 out of 35 possible points. Ok, rant over.

I have managed to get some knitting done. One of the three pairs of socks I pictured last week is finished and I’m past the heel on one of the others. The rather garish ones are for my mom – not to wear, but to gift to a teenaged friend. She wanted something loud and I think those definitely fit the bill. And look, all of the major knitting on Izzy’s Christmas project is done:

Now all that’s left is the finishing – neck and armhole bands, cutting, steeking and sewing. I’ve been really contemplating my knitting and think I am going to make some rather drastic changes come the first of the year. One of the things I’m going to do is take a critical look at each of my projects and make a decision whether I’m really committed to finishing it and enjoying it. If not – frog pond, here we come. Generally frogging something doesn’t bother me too much, but I am dithering over this project:

I started Kongsberg as a gift for my daughter-in-law Abby. However, she now lives in Orlando and probably has no use at all for a Norwegian sweater (although it is in fingering weight). And now that I know her better, I think this is too fancy for her. A solid color gansey in a simple design would be more her speed. (Abby – correct me if I’m wrong! If you absolutely love this, I will finish it!). There is already so much work involved in this, I hate frogging, but if I finish – who will wear it? It’s a small size and I don’t know anyone that size that I would give it to – and I obviously can’t wear it. So, dear readers – what’s your advice?

Do you think I have a bit of a problem focusing?

I blame this on statistics. Can’t focus on a single project? My mind is fried from statistics. In a cranky mood? Trying to wrap my mind around an illogical statistics problem. House is in a mess? Working on a statistics project. Neglecting my poor husband? Gotta study for a statistics test. Lack of world peace? Well, you get the idea. The good news is that I took the test on Unit 3 yesterday. Still waiting to hear if I passed the unit, but I’m pretty confident. One more unit to go! I’m also ahead on my Abnormal Psych. I’ll finish up my last assignment today and take the final next weekend.

I did manage to focus long enough to finish something – a CIC gansey:

I will mail this and the blue one off this week and probably won’t start another until after the New Year. Marguerite pointed out that I have a lot of projects I want to start after the New Year, and she’s right! After Christmas I’m going to sit down and give a long, hard look at all my current projects to see if they are worth continuing. Stay tuned – there may be frogging. I have been sadly lacking in knitting peace lately, but I blame (you guessed it!) statistics!

My cousin Margaret (who is learning to knit – Hurray Margaret!) pointed out that the site has been sadly lacking in Izzy pictures, so I give you the following.

She is growing so quickly. She’s losing that little pudgy baby look and looking more like a little girl. I can’t wait to see her in December.

Ok, so I was supposed to study tonight. But how could I do that when this was waiting for me when I came home?

First, a little background. Several months ago a friend brought some knitting books that she wanted to sell to our knitting group. One of them was a book I had seen offered on Ebay for over $100. She was asking $2.00!! I pulled the book out and told her that she couldn’t sell it for that much – she should put it on Ebay. She said that she didn’t know how to do it, so I offered to sell it for her. Well – the book sold for $268.00!! We were both stunned. She was away on vacation when it sold, so I sent her a check. When she returned, she gave me an envelope and told me it was my finder’s fee. I was surprised to find out that she had split the windfall with me. I protested, but she insisted, saying that she would have sold it for $2.00. So, I decided to have a shopping spree with KnitPicks. Here is my loot:

I got the yarn for the Snowman Vest (for me), a 16″ circular needle, the books Knit Fix, Aran Sweater Design and
Cables Untangled and the entire set of KIP bags.
It was such fun to go through the catalog and order some things that I’d really been wanting.

My verdict on the haul? The vest will have to wait until next year sometime, so no real opinion on the yarn yet. Janet Szabo’s book? Divine!! It’s a wonderful tutorial on designing your own Aran sweater top down, bottom up, seamless or not, set in sleeve, drop sleeve, raglan sleeve – well, you name it. And if you don’t want to design there are some stunning ready made patterns. The Cables Uncrossed book is also nice. There are several nice sweaters, several afghans and accessories. It’s not quite as good as Janet’s book, but still worth the price if you love cables. The Knit Fix book? I was very disappointed. In fact, I will return it if they take books back. Don’t waste your money. It’s way too basic. Even for beginners I think there are better options. I didn’t find a single piece of useful information in the book.

The bags? I think I’m really going to like them. I probably have a dozen tote bags, but these are a little more stylish. There’s a little notions bag that I can transfer between them and even a purse that snaps on. I think these will be great for traveling! The price was right too as long as they hold up ok.

And I leave you with this adorable picture. Remember the little blue sweater set I made for my great newphew? Here is Drew modeling it – pretty cute, huh?

Grab a cup of coffee (or tea) and settle in, because I have a lot to catch up on in this post. You’ll probably be happy to hear that for the most part, it does not include school. I’m at the point at which it is sheer drudgery and you really don’t want to hear about it. However, all is well in that area and I do find myself a little ahead of the game, so there is definitely a lessening of stress. Did you ever hear about Missourians being stubborn (we prefer the term tenacious)? Believe me, at this point it’s a positive trait!

Lots of photos to follow. All of this has not been accomplished in the last week. But after studying all night, when I have an hour to steal, I have to choose between knitting and blogging. And you know which one wins out. So here goes:

First up – the Great American Afghan. Two more squares accomplished. The first looks a little plain jane:

But the interesting technique in this is the reversible cables. I won’t bore you with pictures – they look the same on the back. It is an interesting technique, but one that I don’t think has much application in the real world. They are bulky and not appropriate for a sweater (who’d ever see the back?). And they’re much too fiddly to try to do for a whole scarf or afghan. But interesting nevertheless.

The next was designed as a replication of a ceiling tile:

I love this square – so delicate and feminine. It was knit from the outside in and seemed to go very quickly. At the end you have a flurry of bobbles, with the last bobble accomplished by pulling the yarn through all the stitches to cinch up the center, then pulling the yarn tail through and knitting a bobble right in the center to finish off. Ingenious! Alas, these are probably the last two I will finish before Christmas. I have gift knitting to finish and some CIC projects that also need time invested.

Here is the progress on the little red heart gansey:

Front and back done, shoulders three needle bound off, neckline done and one sleeve started. In picking up the stitches for the sleeve, however, I found out that I made a bonehead mistake. For some unknown reason, when I put the underarm gussets on a holder when separating the front and back, I added three stitches from the back on one side. I have no idea what I was thinking (or not thinking). It wasn’t discovered until picking up the stitches for the sleeve and at that point, the neckline was finished and all ends woven in – so I ain’t goin’ back! I just comfort myself that it will make no difference in keeping a little body warm, and, as my mother is always fond of saying, “It won’t be noticed from a galloping horse.” To see an adorable finished version of this same sweater, head on over to Marguerite’s blog. And just to be on the safe side, I’m grateful that I have a Ferocious Yarn Protector for the rest of the yarn:

While Kirby can be counted on not to chew up things, apparently the same cannot be said for Hester. I often comment about what a good dog she is. Just to let you know that she is no Goody Two Shoes (or wouldn’t be even if she wore shoes) – here is the damage she inflicted on one of my knitting bags during our weekend getaway:

Do you think she was bored – or lonesome? Thank goodness the yarn and projects escaped unscathed. All of the finished pieces to Izzy’s Christmas project were in this bag!!! And the damage is confined to the handles, so I can just take them off and use some webbing to replace them. We’ve tried getting chew toys for Hester to work on when she’s bored, but anything we get is chewed up in about 5 minutes. The only time she has done damage in the past was at night, but we put her in her crate and that solves the problem. Any suggestions for when we go away and leave her alone for a weekend? We have our son come in and feed and play with them a little and they have access to a small yard via the doggy door. But apparently that was not enough for her. This is the first time she’s ever done this while we were away.

Well, there’s still more to talk about. New knitting needles, a new book, but I think I’ll save it for another post. Otherwise I may not have anything new to blog about for a month. So – back to studying!

Did anyone read the comments on my last post? Hubby really does read my blog! And he reminded me that it has been 34 years, not 32. Apparently I can do complicated statistical computations, but simple math eludes me.

The weekend started out on Friday the 13th. Appropriately enough, I started off by taking my statistics exam. It was hard, but I think I did ok. At least I could face the weekend knowing it was over. So we packed up and headed off for our weekend getaway – only to be greeted by the notice, “All ferries cancelled due to fog.” Oh the joys of living on an island. We decided to wait it out. Driving off the north end of the island and going around would have taken us 6 hours. So instead, we waited for 3 hours for the ferries to start running again. Thankfully we came prepared with hot coffee, snacks, books and knitting. Waiting in line, I finished these:

Just in time for fall! The yarn is On Line Supersocke 100 that I bought at Weaving Works during my yarn crawl with Lorette and Kris. Once over on the Olympic peninsula, we decided to head on up to Hurricane Ridge. Bad weather was predicted and we wanted to get up there while we still had some sunshine. We were rewarded with a spectacular view:

As predicted, crummy weather moved in by Saturday. It was gloomy and overcast. After exploring downtown, we decided to head on up to some falls nearby and then to a yarn shop in Sequim. We got to the falls and found a sign informing us that the falls were a 45 minute uphill hike. My husband turned to me and said, “I’d rather go to the yarn shop!” Well, it didn’t take much convincing for me. A wet, soggy uphill hike or a warm, cozy yarn shop. So off we headed to “A Mingled Yarn” only to be greeted by this sign (by this time I’m getting tired of signs!) – “Last Day. Going Out of Business” Well, rats! Everything was 50% off, but it was pretty slim pickings. However, I did score a book (Miss Bea’s Rainy Day – a Rowan book of children’s sweaters), the Fiber Trends Peace Shawl pattern, 10 skeins of Encore DK for a sweater for Izzy and 10 skeins of Cascade 220 in a bright kelly green for CIC sweaters.

All told, it was a nice relaxing weekend, but it certainly didn’t turn out as we expected. But we enjoyed celebrating 34 (that’s right, isn’t it?) years together and look forward to 34 more! And I did get in some nice knitting time, – besides finishing the socks, I turned out this:

One-half of a pair of fingerless mitts for me. This is Knit Picks Merino sock yarn. My office can get chilly in the mornings during winter and these will help keep me toasty warm. Tomorrow it’s back to the grind at work and more statistics!

Those of you who are regular readers of this blog know that I definitely have Knitter’s ADD. I have absolutely no problem frogging something when either boredom hits or the project just doesn’t seem right. The latest victim – the Jamieson and Smith afghan. I do love this pattern, but it just doesn’t suit the yarn. It needs something in color – soft and heathery and all wool. The wool/acrylic Encore in off white just wasn’t hacking it. In addition, I had originally thought I needed this for my “mindless knitting” project, but that wasn’t working either. It was so mindless that the thought of 5 1/2 more feet of it was enough to enduce catatonia. Not that I won’t want to do it later, but definitely not in off white! So. rethinking things, I returned to the pattern that I originally bought the yarn for – The Great American Aran Afghan. Now, this is definitely not mindless knitting, but because it’s done in squares, there’s always a little “finishing high” coming really soon. I need that right now. The first square:

Yes, that’s the ticket – amost immediate gratification. This was my reward for not squirting blood out of my eyeballs this week. (See previous post if that one throws you for a loop!).

On the school front, I took my psychology midterm this morning. It was pretty hard, but I think I did ok. And, it means the class is half over. The statistics midterm will come next week, and I will really celebrate the halfway mark on that one.

Not much else to tell – my life has pretty much consisted of studying, studying and more studying this week, with a little work thrown in there. Next weekend hubby and I are going to get away for the weekend to celebrate our 32nd anniversary! We’ve lived here for 26 years and have never been over to Hurricane Ridge, so we’re going there. There are supposed to be gorgeous views (weather permitting), so maybe I’ll have some great pictures for you next week.