Giving Thanks, November 1st

Every morning this month, as I sit at my desk eating my breakfast yogurt, I'm going to think about all the things for which I am thankful, and I'm going to share one of those things here on the blog. I tend to think too much about the problems in my life and too little about the benefits, so this will be good practice for me, and maybe it will even inspire someone out there to do something similar.

Today, I am thankful for uninterrupted sleep.

My job and I have just parted ways, and as soon as it was official, I found myself finally able to relax. I hadn't realized just how tense I'd been, and how scared I was to go to work every morning. Just a week ago I was having trouble falling asleep. I would wake up a few times a night in a panic about work, and struggle to get back to sleep amid the chatter in my mind. Now, my sleep is peaceful, I wake up rested and optimistic about the day, and I feel very productive (which is good, because job hunting takes a LOT of work!).

Like Martha says, sleep: it's a good thing!

What are you thankful for today?

Rhinebeck, the Move, and Everything

Holy neglected blog, Batman! In my defense, I've been working and moving house and visiting friends and going to Rhinebeck and knitting, so I haven't had a lot of time for blogging. Now it's time to catch y'all up! Grab a cuppa before you start, 'cause this is gonna take a while.

Moving!

I'm almost finished (or at least that's what I'm telling myself -- five moves worth of culling and leaving things behind, and I still have way too much stuff that I don't want to give up) moving from my cozy urban (for Vermont) attic apartment to a roomy house that, while not far from the beaten path, is remote enough to be on a rural postal route. The fella and I are blending our households, which means twice as much stuff, twice as many cats, and a closet devoted exclusively to high heels and firearms (heels mine, guns his). We also have a room for crafts (with a door!) that's off-limits to the cats, meaning both the fiber and the model airplanes can frolic in the open without fear of feline intervention. We're very, very happy with the new place, and looking forward to being completely moved in so we can start enjoying our weekends again.

Rhinebeck!

In the Spring, I thought I might be going to Rhinebeck this year. By the summer, I was worried I wouldn't be able to afford it. A few weeks ago, though, I realized that the stars were aligning in just the right way so I could make the trip and even have a little fun money, so I got in touch with my bestest fiber buddy, Jenny, and we made plans. I came down Saturday night, catching-up was done, hilarity was had, Red vs Blue was watched, and then Sunday morning she and Angie and I went off to the festival. Sheep were pet, fiber was fondled, friends were hugged, money was exchanged for pretties, and the bestest diner food ever was nommed at the Eveready Diner (now within sight of the fairgrounds!!!)... just another Rhinebeck, y'know? I came home with a hand-thrown mug from Brier Street Pottery, four bars of soap from Simpler Thyme, four ounces of undyed Pollworth/silk from The Sheep Shed (which I want Dan from Gnomespun to dye for me), and a bag of maple cotton candy. It was a good Rhinebeck, spent with excellent people, and I'm looking forward to next year.

Knitting!

One of the joys of having a job with an official lunch break is that I get way more knitting done than I used to. The Rose of England shawl was my lunch knitting project for a while, but I've needed some instant-gratification projects to balance out its monotony lately, so... there have been hats.



This is the Druidess Beret by Anna Bright, knit up in Green Mountain Spinnery's Alpaca Elegance in Ceylon. Sadly, the finished hat doesn't look especially flattering on me, but it was lots of fun to knit.



A Ravelry friend mentioned having made this hat for a swap, and I fell in love with the pattern instantly, so I made one...



...and then I made another! The second one I tried to modify a bit, and it didn't work out the way I wanted, so I'm thinking about ripping back and trying again, since I like the yarn combo so much. The first Capucine (by Adela Illichmanova) is three fingering-weight wools from two different commercially-made sweaters (yay, recycling!) held together. The second is a combination of my handspun (Sheep Shed merino/tencel in "Dusk" chain-plied to worsted weight) and Green Mountain Spinnery's Mountain Mohair in Raspberry (I think it was extra-light and I doubled it). I may make a few more of these before the first snow, if I can find/spin the right yarn.



Okay, not a hat, but still something to keep me toasty as the weather gets chilly. This is just a bias-knit piece that I cast on and knit without thinking about it. The buttons were an afterthought to make the seam look more like a design element than an eyesore. It's two strands of Malabrigo worsted held together: white with teal and white with purple. The teal is left over from my Mother of Invention hat and the purple is left over from the tassel hat I made for David (Sweater Project) a while back.

There's also a scarf that I made over Rhinebeck weekend from some handspun BFL (from Spunky Eclectic) using the Harlot's One Row Scarf pattern, but I haven't gotten around to taking pics yet.

*whew!* Okay, now that we're all caught up, I'm going to wander off for another month and leave y'all in suspense about the scarf. I'm evil like that. Happy knitting!

KnitMeme

I've seen this making the rounds on Ravelry and some blogs lately, and since I'm too sleep-deprived for a real post (not to mention distracted by the free live stream of the WFTDA East Region Playoffs), doing this meme seems like a good idea.

Bold means I've done it, italics means I want to. Here we go...

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn (well, 50 camel/50 tussah)
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down (gloves, actually)
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater (it's almost finished! really!)
Drop stitch patterns (swatched, meh)
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn
Domino knitting
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own hand-spun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garment
Cable stitch patterns
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Participate in an exchange
Scarf
American/English knitting
Knitting to make money
Buttonholes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on one or two circulars
Knitting with someone else’s hand-spun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching someone how to knit (I suck at this. Srsly.)
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener stitch
Knitted flowers
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards (getting there...)
Machine knitting
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn
Stuffed toys
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Free-form knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/arm-warmers
Pillows (halfway there...)
Knitting a pattern from an on-line knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public
Russian join
Knit a hoodie (started one, never got past the sleeve)
Follow a chart
magic loop knitting (eww)

Wow. So does that mean I'm not a beginner anymore? ;)

PS. The red was too dreary, so I switched to a happy green. I think I'm done with the tinkering for a while. Maybe.

Stripes!

It was time for a change, y'all. I hope it's not to jarring. Tell me what you think! Unless you hate it, in which case I don't want to know.

(Kidding! Tell me anyway!)

Srsly, d00d...

After such a heavy post, it's time for a little lightness. But it's me, and I'm having a bad week, so it's grumpy lightness. You've been warned.

Dear Google,

Okay, so what's with the constant redesigning of the iGoogle page? First you turned a perfectly usable toolbar from white to black, which forced me to change my theme to something that I really don't like, but that doesn't look terrible with the new color. Then, you altered the GMail gadget's looks, but... only in Chrome. The Firefox version is still neat and trim, but the Chrome version, which I use on my laptop, is chunky and hideous. Now you've turned a neutral grey button into a BRIGHT BLUE one that doesn't work with *any* theme, and the whole mess is off-center, presumably to piss off those of us who are just a wee bit obsessive-compulsive.

So what's the deal? Is the design team off its Ritalin? Are you trying to keep things "fresh" and "dynamic" like the marketing guys told you to, forgetting that one should usually do exactly the opposite of what the marketing guys say? Are you deliberately trying to tank your company by pissing people off to the point where they stop using your service?

Whatever the reason, could you please just stop it? I'd like to have a few months to get used to a look before you go screwing it up again. Please?

Sincerely,
Grumpy Girl

The Aftermath

Irene was down to being a tropical storm by the time she got to New England, but that didn't stop her from doing a TON of damage. I'm one of the lucky ones -- never lost power, no flooding, no wind damage. But based on the pictures I'm seeing and the people I'm hearing from, I'm in the minority.

The route to the fella's house was closed in at least three places this morning, two have since been cleared, but the last one I know of (the Agency of Transportation isn't keeping their map updated, so there may be more) is a major washout on a divided highway, and unlikely to be fixed any time soon.

Many of Vermont's picturesque covered bridges are gone or in pieces. Several towns are cut off from everything, including emergency services. Even the emergency services headquarters had to move mid-storm because of flooding. Crops are ruined, houses are falling apart, roads are gone, cars and propane tanks and decks are floating downriver, and several people have drowned because they got too close to the flooding.

The Red Cross and FEMA are out there along with local emergency personnel trying to put the state back together, but it's going to take a long time. Just getting a couple of temporary roads built so emergency services and utility repair crews can get to our now-isolated towns will take a week. There are volunteer groups offering to hike into places where vehicles can't go to deliver supplies or walk people out.

It's a mess. If you're able, please donate to the Red Cross in Vermont.

Stormy Weather

Irene's been drenching this part of Vermont for about twelve hours now. It's steady, uneventful, monsoon-type rain, as opposed to the more variable showers or thunderstorms we're used to.

In other words, it's dull. I'm almost looking forward to the tropical storm winds just to mix things up a little, even though it means we'll probably lose power. While we're still getting juice, though, I'm enjoying its benefits. The kettle's on, Pandora's pumping wartime tunes to my studio, and I'm knitting by the warm glow of CFLs.



Rose of England, because of the absurd number of stitches per row near the end, both feels like it's almost finished, and like I still have ages to go. I'm eight rows from the end, not counting the crocheted edging, but those eight rows contain a little over ten thousand stitches. That's almost an eighth of the total stitch count for the project.

I keep telling myself that the end result will be so awe-inspiring that it'll be worth the frustration of the end being so near and yet so far. I'm not sure I believe it, but I'm trying.

Tommy Dorsey is helping.

Gonna Rip It Up...

Remember how last year I started an ambitious lace project, a circular shawl called Rose of England? It was in hibernation for a while, since the rows were getting long (~1200 sts each) and I was never in one place long enough to remember where I was, let alone make any progress, but I hauled it back out recently and have been giving it a lot of attention. I had done about half a dozen post-hibernation rows as of last week, when I hit a snag. Starting a new pattern row, I got into the third of 40 repeats in that row and realized that in the previous pattern row, I'd screwed up over half the repeats in a way that couldn't be fixed on the fly.

I had to rip back. Two rows. Almost 3000 stitches, total.

Did I mention this is fairly complex lace? (For those of you who've made it, I was in Part G where the leaves start branching out.) There are YOs and SL2, PSSOs and all manner of other holes and bunches (no nupps, thank goodness), and I'd spent hours wrestling with the last mistake I made (somehow removing an entire repeat in a netting-like section and not realizing it until the next chunk of solid patterning started), so I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about having to fix this one.

Over the course of two or three lunch breaks, I meticulously picked up stitches with the same needle that was in the rest of the piece (because I only have one US#2 that long), working my way around, dropping stitches off one end of the circ after I had picked up below the error. And y'know what?

It worked perfectly.

I was terrified as I unraveled the two dropped rows, hoping I'd managed to catch every stitch at the correct point in the pattern, but it turns out I've been at this knitting thing long enough that I do, miraculously, know what I'm doing.

Since then, I've re-knit those two rows (paying close attention to the pattern this time), and am back where I was, ready to continue. Only another two dozen rows until this sucker is finished!

I'm trying very hard to forget that two dozen rows works out to something like 30K stitches. It's not working, but I'm still trying.

Blocking Bolero

It figures that I have to be seriously under the weather for a day or two in order to post about knitting. Boo, sick, but yay, blogging!

Leading up to New Hampshire Sheep & Wool in May, I knew I'd be working the event and knew I wanted to show off some knitting, so I started a quick-and-easy project thinking I'd have plenty of time to get it done. As with everything I've ever tried to do on a deadline, I heard that whooshing sound Douglas Adams used to talk about, and had to pull a backup plan out of the closet. I ended up wearing my Tangerine shawl over black (looked awesome, if I do say so myself) and working on the other project at the show. That other project was bound off a few days later, and then hibernated until I had the time to block it (and babysit to make sure the cats didn't kill it while it dried), which ended up being today.

This is the Ribbed Lace Bolero by Kelly Maher, and it's probably going to be my new favorite thing to throw on over a tank top on chilly summer evenings.



It's aaaaaaalmost dry, and I'll probably seam it tonight before I pass out. Kira, the troublemaker, spent the day investigating the blocking process, and finally got the hint (with help of squirt bottle) that she could be next to the project but not on it, so I forgave her when she shifted in her sleep and crossed the boundary a little.



The edges of the bolero are bowed out like that because I didn't like how closed the lace looked when the edges were straight. The little bit of extra length will be on the "sleeves" and should keep my arms a smidge warmer.

I've also finished (but not blocked) a scarf/wrap thing that I'll tell you all about... some other time. Meanwhile, I'm hoping I'll feel well enough to go back to work tomorrow, and then Saturday the fella and I are off to a Tour de Fleece kickoff party, even though I'm not doing the competition. Any excuse to see my CT SnB buddies!

Food Fury

Warning: There is no knitting content in this post. I'm furious about something else, and want to share my fury with all of you in the hope that it may inspire change.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution is am amazing movement. With childhood obesity reaching epidemic proportions, along with childhood diabetes and other diet-related chronic illnesses, there needs to be a paradigm shift in how we feed our children, both at school and at home. Educating students, parents, and staff face-to-face in the schools is a great way to make that change happen. Filming that education and broadcasting it on national television is another excellent way to make it happen. Re-learning how to feed our children (and the rest of us) is an obvious, critical step toward improving the health of our country.

So why in hell are school districts making this impossible?

School boards are trying to prevent Jamie from coming into their schools and making changes because they fear bad publicity. They're afraid of Jamie pointing out that the average American school lunch is packed with empty calories and preservatives, and utterly lacking in the nutrients necessary for healthy bodies. They're afraid that if Jamie broadcasts anything negative about their school lunch programs, that parents will stop having their children buy lunches at school, and revenues will fall.

This. Is. Bullshit.

There are schools that are providing healthy, locally-grown, freshly-prepared food for their students, and doing it in a cost-effective way. There are schools that are educating students and parents about nutrition so the diet changes extend to the home kitchen. There are families whose lives have been improved dramatically for the better thanks to Jamie and his show.

It can be done. It is being done, but it's also being opposed, and that's what scares me. As long as there are people actively inhibiting such a beneficial project, we, as a society, have more work to do.

Start here. Sign the petition, find out what you can do on a local level, and make this change happen. Watch episodes on Hulu to see exactly what Jamie is doing, and get ideas that you can use at your school and at home.

Don't wait for someone else to raise the subject, and don't let the school board tell you that it can't be done, that it's too expensive, or that the pre-processed, long-distance, preservative-laden food they're serving is healthy enough.

Nearly two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese (a percentage which is almost identical in Vermont, by the way -- we're not as healthy a state as we think), and the kids who are in grade school now will add to that statistic in the next dozen years. Change the eating habits of our children today, and the adults of tomorrow will be healthier. Simple as that.

I'm gonna go try to calm down now.