Knitter's Geek Code

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KCm+++ Exp++ SPM++ Bam++ Options+++ Addi Den+ Wool+++ Lux+ Syn- Nov- Stash++ Scale+ Fin Ent+ Felt++ Tex+ Circ++ DPN+ ML++ Swatch KIP++ Blog++ EZ++ FO+ WIP+++ W++ S++ F+ B Cr+ Sw+++

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And if you want to know how to do your own code, go to:

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring04/FEATgeekcode.html

Opening Day in Cleveland

Today's is the Indians Home Opener. On a beautiful sunny day, this is what Jacob's field looks like:

When I went by the stadium this morning, all the grass, seats, sidewalks were covered with SNOW.

Home opener forecast:

Lake Effect Snow Advisory extended through 4 p.m. this afternoon.

Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Ashtabula and Trumbull counties are all under the advisory.

In these areas 1 to 3 inches of additional snow accumulation is possible today.

Plan on more snow tomorrow with an additional 2 to 4 inches of snow.

So what is Miss Lulu doing this evening?

Hey, Miss Lulu, my view isn't of lots of trees but I do have some wine . . . come on over and I'll let you play with the stash (I know where she hides it).

A simple little square

So for the Whoduknit March project, we are knitting 12" squares. A simple thing. Bought the woolese in lovely shades of green, decided on a couple of patterns (and printed them on 4x6" cards so that they are handy).

And probably have frogged the stupid thing more than just about any other project (well, except for Lindsey's KnitWit hat . . . which I hate and will probably leave behind somewhere). The biggest problem is that it is like doing a swatch, a large swatch but a swatch nevertheless. So, I started the first one which had a couple of repeats of a simple cable pattern, figured out how many stitches, did a couple of measurements and figured that I would be about a 1/2" short of 12 inches, which could easily be adjusted with a crocheted edge (even made a note to self: "SELF: don't forget to measure and adjust final row to end up with an 11-1/2" square").

So, cast on, do three or four rows, and, keeping in mind that my pattern is on a 4x6" card, I whip out my card, use it as a psuedo ruler, only to discover . . . its about 12-1/2" and not 11-1/2". So then, thinking that maybe the cards aren't really 4x6" but maybe a tad off, I find a ruler and remeasure. F-R-O-G. And, because that was so much fun, I did it again with the same pattern, fewer stitches and still ended up making a mess of it, plus I am having to adjust the repeat on the pattern.

Then decided that I would try a new pattern.

Well, then I decided that I would just do a simple knit . . . no pattern, maybe a seed stitch.

BLECHHHHH.

So, now I have a very nice square more than half way done. A simple pattern, reverse diamonds. While I'm not thrilled with it, and have decided that the pattern would be better in a finer yarn and smaller needle, it is nice, a little blurry but nice.

Of course, it is also sitting on the dining room table. Stupid square.

Yarn Harlot's coming to Cleveland & I can't go

I wanted to go New York to be part of the knitters invading New York for the Yarn Harlot. I really was hoping to go but I have two finals and a paper due on Saturday (and shouldn't be visiting blogland).

But the Yarn Harlot is coming to Cleveland on March 30 @ 2:00p. Unfortunately, I will be at the very first class of the capstone course (my very LAST class for my MBA) . . . and the stupid syllabus is big enough that it can be bound in a friggin book . . . so I cannot go there either.

I am hoping, however, that the prof announces at 1:00 p.m. that he has to leave because there is an important speaker at Jos.Beth at Legacy Village. Or maybe if he sees me working on my knitting, he might pop up with "did you know that the YH is at Jos.Beth today? Why don't you leave early?" It can happen. Oh, look, and there goes another flying pig!

Books . . . read or to be read

Look at the list of books below: * Bold the ones you’ve read * Italicize the ones you want to read

* Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in. If you are reading this (and haven't participated yet), tag, you’re it!

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Other things I would recommend:
A. Wicked (the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West) (Gregory Maguire)
B. Artemis Fowl (all of them) (Eoin Colfer)
C. Haunted Ground (Erin Hart)
D. Lake of Sorrows (Erin Hart)
E. Cross (James Patterson)
F. Eragon (Christopher Paolini)
G. World is Flat (Thomas Friedman)
H. Freakenomics (Steven Levitt)
I. Beyond Bullet Points (really lame for actual reading but if ever need to do more than one powerpoint presentation and people have fallen asleep during your first one . . . this is a must) (Cliff Atkinson)
J. Knitting Rules (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee)
K. Knitting Without Tears (Elizabeth Zimmerman)
L. Scarlett (Alexandria Ripley)
M. Son of a Witch (Gregory Maguire)
N. I'll Always Love You (Hans Wilhelm . . . children's book about a boy and his dog . . . my kids love this one as do I . . . "I'll tell them every day, I'll always love you" a perfect message to your children)

There are many others . . .

Saturday morning . . .

Saturday morning was lovely . . . it is Spring break so no classes for me. Zachariah came trotting in around 6:40 wanting to know if he could climb into bed with me . . . too early, go back to your room for awhile. 7:15, he was back and I was too. You know, he always wants to snuggle, but then starts squirming and doing the countdown "what time are we getting up? 7:30. 7:30? Its 7:18? How much longer is it until 7:30?"

And then when I got up and opened the shades, it had snowed. AGAIN. Bah humbug.

So, I worked on the info necessary for my final in Innovations & Technology class, including the 12 page paper that is due Saturday. Finished work on the taxes, played Candyland, Chutes and Ladders and Hang Man with Zachariah, cleaned Lindsey's drawers (the 13 year old princess (and yes sunshine just because you can get your skinny butt into those jeans, doesn't mean that Momma will let you wear them in public)) and convinced the 20 year old that taking public transportation to the parade was the best thing to do (and no I do not want to go with you or even anywhere near the parade, thank you very much).

I did not make pancakes or waffles but did make eggs to order (actually, green eggs . . . the scrambled we added blue food coloring to and the fried eggs got green food coloring added to the whites . . . the scrambled looked icky, the fried had a lovely varigated design . . . didn't take pics though).

I never left the house the entire weekend. We were going to 8:00 Mass on Sunday but I woke with a splitting headache (staying up until 3:00 a.m. working on taxes a direct contributor) and horrible aches in my hips and knees (probably from the drawer cleaning).

Lindsey is leaving for Florida on Wednesday with a dear friend and her husband. She will end up missing three days of school. We did the battle of what all a 13 year old needs to pack when she is going some place that has a washer and dryer and will be only bringing a carry-on on the return flight. She was most particularly upset when I informed her that she could not bring large bottles of anything as she will be flying home.

Oh, yeah, and I blocked my entrelac scarf! Finished, blocked and done. And, I wish I had made it just a tad longer . . . ah well.

Entrelac . . . pseudo blocked

Here is the scarf which is almost done. I am on the last tier but needed to get a pic done for the Whoduknit KAL. I love the colors and love doing this. It is not complicated although I did have to frog on more than one occasion.

I am also working on some squares for the Whoduknit afghan project.

Next up is socks for the April project. I have the most perfect yarn. Very spring!

Lindsey tried on her entire outfit for graduation and Confirmation. She picked out the shoes first (big mistake). They are in a madras plaid. THEN we got to find an outfit that would go with the shoes. The other problem that happens is that she just turned 13 and has a 20 year old sister. Often she thinks she should be able to wear stuff that her sister does. In any event, I think we did good.

Victorian Lace Today

Wow, oh, wow!!

Look at what I got from my SP8 . . .

I have been lusting over this book ever since I read a preview by Grumperina http://www.grumperina.com/knitblog/archives/2006/11/replacement_in.htm

This book is to drool over. The photos are fabulous and the colors of the lace are just incredible. Most of the lace has been made up in different weights and yarns and the author gives a grand background of the origins of the lace.

Now while all the yarn and scarves and shawls and photos are fabulous, if you ever have the opportunity to lay your hands on this book, there is the obligatory techniques, cast-ons and basics, BUT this book continues where others just dream of going. Go to page 180 which starts with Understanding Lace Design, How to Make Your Own Wide Border, Other Borders and, finally, on pages 184 and 185, an honest to Pete discussion on how to design your own lace, including plotting repeats, etc. FABULOUS.

Wow!

He cleans up well

Isn't he just too cute. Sometimes, Zachariah and Lindsey will get dressed up for dinner. Usually, his hair is standing on end and he looks like the wild man. He cleans up really well.

While now its all slush . . .

This pics are from a couple of weeks ago . . . actually, it is how we spent Valentine's Day! The girls were working the drive, in front of the garage. Dave was doing closer to the street when a neighbor came over with his snow blower!! Thank you very, very much.

They had waited until after most of the blowing had stopped, but you can see from this pic of Lindsey, that there were still times when the blowing was still going on.

This is the garden. It is important to note that we used raised beds and the beds are 10 inches high. The vegation that is poking through are the dead pepper/tomato plants from last summer. In the spring, we (i.e., Dave), will rota-till all the dead stuff, including the tree leaves that were dumped on the garden back into the whole thing.

And then it all started clearing out and we were left with this wonderful sunset. A perfect end to a snowy and blowy and cold Valentine's Day!

The scarf . . . a love/hate relationship

I love the entrelac scarf. And it is beautiful:

but, what is that you say, "is it done?" Don't be silly. If you look real close, you can see the needle up at the top.

The thing I despise about this, is frogging it is a royal pain . . . both in the pattern AND the yarn.

So "don't frog" you say. Ha! You must frog when you discover that somehow you got twisted around and started going the wrong way.

And, then you ask "how did you get twisted around?" Its easy, especially when you don't complete a tier and then pick it up and start working on it, on the bus going home, when you are so sleepy that the only thing you should be doing is listening to your book (Haunted Ground by the way) or maybe just closing your eyes and relaxing (although there is the fear of snoring).

I have to say that I am so tired lately that I can hardly stand it. I get home from school on Mondays and Wednesdays at 10:00 and usually Dave and I will sit and talk, enjoy a glass of wine and spend sometime together (it is rather nice to have the kids already tucked up and I do very much enjoy this time and the fact that he waits until I home to go to bed . . . he usually goes to bed at 9:00 cause he gets up at 3:00 to grade papers). But on those days where I'm not getting home late, I too have been going to bed by 9:30 (fortunately, last night Grey's Anatomy was a repeat). But I'm still tired in the morning/afternoon/evening. Arghhh, I'm sleepy and making stupid mistakes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have bought the yarn for the Whoduknit from Joann's. I bought Lion's Brand Wool-Ease in a Forest Heather Green. It is very lush. I have yet to decide on what pattern I will do but have to look at the patterns to find one with a repeat that will even out to 12 inches . . . or maybe and 11 square of pattern with 1/2 inch edge all around. We will see.

So why do we do this??

I have to be honest. I am cheap. Seriously cheap. I shop for the best bang for my buck and seriously object to paying full price for anything. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't . . . usually not for me but will for my kids (just ask my daughters about the shopping expedition of this past Sunday . . . Confirmation/Graduation clothing were the goal of the expedition and we were successful and nothing was on sale).

I would NOT spend $30 on a scarf or gloves or hat. I will however spend $30 on yarn to make a scarf or gloves or hat . . . well maybe not $30 . . . but pretty close when you consider that the Noro Silk Garden was $7 a skein and the scarf took three skeins.

This is a discussion that my hubby and I have had for years. For our oldest daughter, I would make super fabulous dresses . . . until she decided that she wouldn't wear them. My Mom made her First Communion dress . . . I was going to but my Mom asked if she could. It is a gift.

I made Lindsey's First Communion dress and the dresses the girls wore for a wedding. The wedding dresses did cost less to make than to buy. The First Communion dresses were iffy.

The difference that my hubby and I have is the value of the time. For the wedding dresses, once I focused (and built up my nerve to actually CUT the fabric), I worked on them mostly in one evening . . . up until the point where I would have had to wake the girls to try them on for fitting. I recall climbing into bed at 5:00 a.m. on a Sunday morning . . . I had started on them at 8:00 p.m. the evening before.

So, again, why do we do this? Why do we spend hours knitting/crocheting/sewing when we could buy a similar product.

For me, it is the satisfaction. It is in seeing something done and you know, you get that smile. Awesome.

It is also the fact that I am cheap. I recognize that I could not buy a hand-made silk scarf for $30. Therefore, if I want a hand-made silk scarf, I will have to do it myself . . . and the time spent . . . well, its my time anyway.

More non-knitting; rather weepy for me at least

Let me tell you why I feel sorry for Brittany Spears and Anna Nicole Smith and why Craig Ferguson has earned my respect. It goes back many, many years.

When my husband and I got married in 1980, my niece was 11. Depending on whom you talk to, she started drinking at age 12 or 13. Life went on. Her parents dealt with counselling (individual and family). She had court enforced treatments . . . going as well as those types of things usually do. Sometimes she lived with someone and held a job and sometimes, she called the streets her home.

When she was 25, she had a baby. For her 27th birthday, she, her current beau (aka provider of the proverbial "roof") and baby celebrated her birthday until the wee hours of the morning. Things happened and our local Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) stepped in. Her daughter was removed from her custody and placed with a family member. Because she has never changed her lifestyle, she has never seen her daughter since. The daughter was adopted when she was 3-1/2. She will be 13 next month.

Seven years later, she had another daughter. The baby tested positive for cocaine at birth. The father's mother stepped in and has custody of that child who is now 7.

A year later, she had a son, by the same father as her second child. We were all amazed. For whatever reason, DCFS decided to give her a chance with this one. When he was four months old, he was removed and placed with the family that had the oldest daughter. He was adopted when he was 2-1/2.

A year later, she had another daughter, again by the same father (at least she thinks so). DCFS decided that she would not take this one home and another family member (bless her) stepped in and volunteered to help. She was adopted by them when she was 1.

She calls me. A lot. She remembers to call on my birthday and my husbands and her kids. She calls on holidays and has an incredible sense of knowing when the rest of the family will be at the house for non-holidays gatherings. She sends me Mother's Day cards.

I have always, ALWAYS been honest with her.
I have cried with her and laughed with her.
I have yelled at her, told her I was disappointed and pled with her to get help.
I have told her that she has wasted her life.
I have been nasty and mean and kind and gentle.
I have tried tough love and forgiving love.
When she has told me that I am not being "fair," I point out that what is not fair is that someday, I will have to explain to those beautiful children that their Mom choose a beer over them.
I will not allow my children, who were born from her womb, to see her or be seen by her.
I believe in my heart, that it would serve no purpose whatsoever and would cause more pain than necessary.
I have also told her that when it is needed, I will tell our children that their Mom loved them, but I will not lie to them.
She gave us an incredible gift, actually two. Lindsey will be 13 in two weeks. Zachariah just turned 6, and we are the ones they call Mommy and Daddy. We share the butterfly kisses and snuggles and hugs.
She is dying. She is 38. Her kidneys and liver are failing. She has been spending more time in the hospital than out of it. She is a terrible patient, checking herself out against medical advice and still not listening to those of us who love her.

And then there are times that I see

this beautiful little blonde girl

. . . dancing and singing . . .

. . . so innocent and kind . . .

. . . full of laughter and . . .

. . . hope for the future . . .

While the little blonde girl was my niece at my wedding, it could have easily been Anna Nicole or Brittany. Hopefully, someone will be able to reach Brittany who is teetering on the edge of destruction. It is too late for my niece and Anna Nicole.

And to Craig Ferguson, you are gentleman. You will always have my respect.

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Cold . . . its cold

Our Whoduknit for February was Northern Lights by Nora Roberts. It is based in Alaska. The description of how cold it is there made me cold. However, Cleveland's weather later has been trying very hard to compete with Alaska. It has been cold. Really, really cold.

And it snowed. We have about 18 inches in my yard and with blowing and drifting, there are areas in our yard that have about four feet. Couple that with zero degree temperatures and wind chill, it has made going to/from work miserable and cold. I've taken pics but have yet to download them. I will. Chilly.

On the upside, we are getting a heatwave . . . next Tuesday, the high is to be 32!

Entrelac done with first skein

I know that this is getting boring . . . BUT, I finally finished the first skein for the entrelac scarf. I know that we talked about following the colorway's repeat. In laying this out though, I'm not sure that it matters. First of all, there doesn't seem to be a repeat. It seems that at the beginning the color is teal, going to purple, then aqua then a clear green (almost Kelly green), then a tweading green to the teal and purple but then it is aqua fading into lots of purple (almost three full rectangles). Plus, this is a scarf. If it were a sweater or something I would need to match later on, I would be concerned. It isn't and I'm not.

I love the colors and the way they switch. Very Northern Lights.

I changed needles (but not needle size) and I'm knitting with my Options tighter than I knit with the Denise needles. Again, this is a scarf. It is for me and I'm not frogging it.

Entrelac . . . almost to the end of ball 1

This is very addicting . . . of course, I guess there could be worse things to be addicated to. This is seven tiers of entrelac . . . more importantly, it is getting close to the end of the first skein.

The colors are fabulous and thoroughly enjoying the way this is going together. The colors do not repeat often and the blending from one color to the next is very nice. The color that I am on now is only repeating for the first time. The darkest color which is showing up as a dark blue, is actually more of a purple tweady color.

It takes me one bus ride to do a tier. When you get right down to it, this requires more knitting than a simple scarf (which also explains why it takes three skeins). Each rectangle is fifteen rows of knitting, granted you are only doing eight stitches in those fifteen rows but it is still 15 x 3 rectangles x 8 stitches = 360 . . . I hope that works out right.

I also know that this is awesome since both my daughters have fondled it and wanted to know WHO it was for . . . the looks on their face were great when I said "me."

More Entrelac

This is the next tier . . . not very clear (I'm using Zachariah's camera.

And to the right is the next tier which actually because of the change in color makes it a little easier to see how the entrelac is developing.

Again, Deb (from Whoduknit) Rocks!! Thanks so much for sharing this technique.

Learning Entrelac

I have always wanted to learn Entrelac . . . because of other commitments, I have never taken a class on it. Anyway, the Whoduknit group has decided to do an Entrelac KAL. Today was our first "lesson." Here are my initial results, although I am thinking about taking it out and maybe using a smaller needle. I tend to knit loose.

It does look a tad lopsided but we were told that it will. I am using Noro Silk Garden which is Silk/Mohair/Wool. It is Color No. 8 which is blues/green but it also has areas of purple in it too.

Given that I'm so busy with school and work, I like doing stuff like this . . . I may not finish it as I really don't have the time BUT I do very much enjoy learning it. My theory is that after June 30, I will not have school anymore . . . only five more months.