More Snow

The weather people were right. I woke up Tuesday to this and it didn't stop there and kept snowing all day.

Work closed on Tuesday but the snow had lightened to flurries by Wednesday so it was back to work.

Between the two storms I made a bitter bitter effort to find a snow shovel. I was irritated to be looking for something I didn't want that I knew didn't exists. I have nothing against snow shovels but my apartment has two closets. The coat closet and the clothes closet. So I could store it in with my dress coats or tucked in with my everyday clothes. I was pouty and bitter about either option. Well it was no surprise I didn't find a shovel and I stopped driving around looking once I felt that my duty as a work going adult was satisfied.

So Wednesday I need to dig my car out with no shovel. It wasn't nearly as buried as last time and this time it was only a 2 foot ridge blocking me from backing up. I can do this. I start in the smartest way possible. I start making a snowman.

It wasn't long until a little boy offered to loan me his toy snow shovel. Personally, I thought my snowman was doing a nice job of using up the snow but he is sweet so I accept. The toy shovel is brilliant. The scoop was a foot across and it held enough heavy wet snow I didn't want to lift more. It's small enough I can tuck it away in the truck of my car or under my bed. The label looked like it came from the dollar store so I could have one in the trunk of my car and under my bed. I'm going to have to remember to find one next fall.

 

 Joey's planning on not getting up until the snow goes away. yucky yucky snow gets between his toes.

Snow Days

Snow was forecasted and everyone was getting worked up about it. I had thought in passing about buying groceries before the snow hit but I always stretch it as far as I can at the end of the month. I really don't want to go before the first.

I checked and I had a dozen eggs

and icecream so I would be able to live for 3 days in a pinch if it really snowed enough I couldn't get out and I called it good. After all, it never snows enough that I can't get out.

And then it did. Eleven inches that closed work and clogged my parking lot burying my car. I couldn't get out for two and a half days.

About four hours in the first day I was bored and decided to play my version of the tv show where the chef knocks on random peoples doors and cooks dinner with what they have. I miss that show.

That is all I had in my dry goods cabinet.

Ok, time to get creative. The brown rice and broccoli is a given. The large plastic container is sushi rice and very creamy so a Tex Mex Pilaf with that. Finally, an onion pork stew with the rest. 

All was going as planned until I tried to open the little cans of tomato sauce. The can actually exploded.  Botulism?  Botulism! My whole kitchen is covered in botulism spores and I'm going to die and I'll have to throw everything away even the pans and everything!!! The splatter is on my spice basket there. It's also on the walls and the ceiling.

Ok, ok. Good thing I have the Internet. I just need to wash my kitchen like normal. It doesn't look like any got near the food I was already cooking in a covered pan but if it did 10 minutes of boiling will kill it. whew. I throw away the second can of tomato sauce without trying to open it and move on.

Tex Mex Pilaf made with the canned jalapenos, frozen bell peppers, and Velveeta. Then topped with roasted chipotle. This is so good. Like creamy sophisticated nacho sauce that is ok to eat with a spoon.

The onion pork stew made with diced tomatoes rather than tomato sauce. The onions caramelized just right. This is what a snow day should be.

I didn't take photos of brown rice and broccoli since everyone knows what that looks like. I cooked the brown rice in bouillon. Half I left plain and the other half I made cheesy. 

Finally with nothing left but the Half and Half and the last two pound bag of broccoli I decided to make curry.  Yummm I do love curry and it turns out broccoli curry is just as good as any other kind.

My car is now freed from the snow and I can get out again and the weather people say 10 more inches will be falling tomorrow.  I could go grocery shopping but I now have 14 meals in the freezer with the icecream and I still have the eggs. The eggs are just begging to be made into cornbread, chocolate cupcakes, and waffles. I think I'll just wait until the first.

2007

Look what came in the mail.

It's a gift from work for being performer of the month back in December. I've officially joined 2007.

Now I just have to learn about this thing called wifi. Is it ironic that I will have to drive to the Library to make my eReader work?

Running Behind

I'm knitting Magical right now. It's a brilliant sweater design but it has a flaw so common in kid sweater patterns today. Too many sizes.

Not that many years ago knitters whined and moaned about no patterns for big kids. They pretty much stopped at a 4T or maybe a 6. Never mind that an adult small is only 32 inches around the the  sweaters I knit for the 5 year olds are pretty trim fitting at 26 inches.They reach an adult small in a blink of an eye. Just knit the sleeves shorter.

Well times have changed. We are now flooded with patterns that start a 6 months at 17 inches and give every size up to kids 12 at 30 inches. I hate it. I have 14 pages of paper and I need to read 5 lines off of each page for the size I need.

Most knitters knit a pattern only once. I do like to knit patterns over but after knitting it one time I don't much need the pattern anymore. If the designers would sell 3 separate patterns baby, little kid, and big kid, they would have the same work in designing and formatting. Just place it in 3 files, not one. They would have to upload 3 PDF but I don't think that would be hard. Then the knitter could buy the size they needed. The designer would make the same number of sales.

The only person this would affect is the knitter that wanted to knit the same sweater for a baby and a preteen. And really, in that case they probably deserve to have to buy two patterns. It would give them the chance to think through that decision.

I need to get this sweater in the mail today. I'm working on it now but soon I leave for work and 4 hours of overtime. The only way I'm getting it in the mail today is if I use the 24 hour kiosk and call the early hours of the morning today "because I haven't gone to bed yet". I also want to have some cool labels and nice wrapping. Right now it looks like the cool labels will be a hand written card and the wrapping the shipper envelope. Maybe Monday morning will be soon enough.

Freedom

This ABC meme originally came form an online writing class. I didn't know anything about the class but other blogs I read were doing it. One and all they didn't make it past ABC. I watched them start strong with very interesting posts, then fading out for a week or so, then coming back like it never happened. I was intrigued. I plotted out some post ideas. It didn't look hard and if I started I could be well sure I finished it.

Well, I finished it. Since this was a writing assignment let me list the things I learned.

1. Yes. I finished but it's a rather hollow victory. Everyone that stopped got to go out an play. The only thing that kept me going is I knew I would suffer never ending disappointment going back and reading the posts if I didn't finish. This is my diary and how I remember things. I didn't want 2012 to be a never ending disappointment. It is a little bit cool now that it's done.

2. No. It wasn't hard. It just wasn't fun. Pay attention and if I see everyone else bail after a few posts, just like a pattern on Ravelry that has been knitted only 5 times and nobody posted a photo it's because the pattern sucks. Don't buy into it.

3. Plotting a post out in advance makes it feel like it's already written.Then I feel no need to write it. I'm going to keep on composing on the fly, bad spelling and grammar mistakes and all.

4. Gratuitous yarn photo just because I can. 

Zuzu's Petals

I want to cast on Zuzu's Petals next, as soon as I'm done with the baby shower knits that I have to mail on Monday, but I'm having a real hard time picking a yarn.

This would be perfect. It's Pigeon Roof Studio yarn that I won from Stash and Burn slog-a-thon in 2010. It would be fitting for it to be a UILI project.

I love the color but I want the scarf to be one I can wear to work. My work clothes are mostly pink, lavender, and aqua and not colors I would wear with red. I'm going to have to check to see if I own enough white and black to make this yarn worth while

Yak

Yak down is the softest fiber I've ever touched. This is a blend of 50% yak 50%silk and I've been saving it for special for a long time. I've taken it out of protective storage and placed it in my spinning queue. I don't know if I'll be able to spin it anytime soon but at least I'll be thinking about it.

XOX Cable

I've always loved the look of the XOX cable.

I decided I would give knitting it a go with the Hugs-and-Kisses-with-Love Hand Warmers.

There has never been anything I hated to knit so much. Ever.

I do really enjoy the finished product so I may chart the pattern out and try again but for now they are in timeout, in the naughty knit basket, for all around unpleasantness.

Weaving Conference

When I originally went to write this post last night I had cold feet. I've spent the last 3 years on this with more dedication than I give my paying job, and that is saying something. Some days it is more hours too. Today was 15 hours at the computer entering data. That's because today registration opened!


Prairie Winds 2013 Midwest Weavers' Conference

So last night all I could see was the potential teacher I didn't cold call. By the time I reached the end of the list I had developed such a phone phobia that the very last call never got made. She would have been a great addition too and I've always been disappointed that I never asked her why she didn't submit a proposal. That was last night.

Today the registrations came pouring in (we are at 26% already) and at the end of the night when it came time for me to enroll I couldn't decide on my own class choice. That is when I finally knew we have something great going on. I had always hoped but the confirmation is overwhelming.

Do you have your weaving conference confirmation email yet? Registration is until May but it's filling up fast.

Viking

It's time for a new Nerd Wars dissertation submission.

Name: TangledThread

Team: Browncoat

Summary: Knit a sweater

Pattern: Armenius

Yarn: Cascade Eco

Swatch: size 6 needles at 4.5 stitches per inch

Category: Encyclopedia

I appreciate the intertwining designs of Viking carvings and the balance of line they used in their work. I especially enjoy their rune carvings in stone and wood along with their metalworking. wonderful photoblog here and I want to knit a sweater in that aesthetic. The knot-work in the pattern reflects that style.

The Old Norse noun víking refers to an expedition overseas. It occurs in Viking Age runic inscriptions and in later medieval writings in set expressions such as the phrasal verb fara í víking "to go on an expedition" In later texts such as the Icelandic sagas, the phrase "to go viking" implies participation in raiding activity or piracy, and not simply seaborne missions of trade and commerce

Team tie-in: The Serenity crew is on an expedition of their own. In the episode The Train Job they leave their normal trade of commerce to do some Viking style raiding when they heist the goods from the mining colony Paradiso.

The sweater style is one that the Paradiso Sheriff would wear in his off duty hours.

Use It or Loose It

My favorite Podcast is hosting a year long knit-a-long with the theme Use It or Loose It (UILI). The premise is to pull 13 old projects worth of yarn out of your stash and knit it up or get rid of it. That can be selling it, gifting it, or throwing it in the trash. Whatever the yarn deserves. The idea is to evaluate these yarns that linger. Are they good yarns that have been pushed aside and for the new and sexy? Are they hanging out because in a moment of 50% off the wrong color was bought? Or maybe after years of exposure, Mohair is now too itchy to knit but the yarn is still there.

I'm all over this. I still have yarn from 2004. With my smaller numbers I will be knitting it all and this is the perfect time to dedicate myself to using the oldest. Part of the theme is taking a yarn and searching until the right pattern or project is found to best use it's potential. This part, rather than the stash busting, is what I'm interested in.

 So lets talk yarn.

This is the oldest yarn in my stash. It’s 10 balls of Galway that was to be Her and His sweaters. I bought in 2004 and as of 2006 there hasn’t been a him. I’ve held onto this because it’s GOOD yarn in my favorite color. The day I bought it was a good day and good memories but the reason I bought it…. well, not so much. For years I had planned to knit Rouge out of it but just never got around to it, to the point I deleted it from my queue months ago.

When UILI was announced I knew this would be my first yarn. I was going to swatch around trying different sweater patterns. Maybe A Very Plucky Cardigan or Alpine Meadow or Maijapaita - Maija Pullover but I was prepared to loose it at the end of the first 4 week check in. I suspected that nothing about this yarn would ever be right. Then Doubleknit Podcast talked about Rouge and it was back on my radar and I had thoughts of really and truly knitting the yarn into a sweater instead of trading it away.

Until I saw the yarn on my living room rug.

It’s perfect.

It's not Noro and I can't use it for the Ten Stitch pattern but surely I can find something inspiring in the blanket category. It took all morning searching patterns and Curve of Pursuit is the solution! I’m going to use scrap yarn for contrasting squares for as long as they hold out then knit the remainder of the blanket in this yarn as a solid color.

Now to convince myself that what I want is the finished end project of a blanket not the process of knitting the little color bits of Noro. Point is this has color bits too.

Ten Stitch Pillow

When I bought my futon I did not get the futon cover. So I've been knitting pillow covers for the pillows. 1.5 down 3.5 to go. When I was searching for ideas I found the Ten Stitch Blanket buried deep down in my favorited patterns. It looked promising and I had been gifted 2.5 balls of Noro for my birthday so I decided to give it a go.

I just finished it. I loved knitting this! Every stitch was a joy. The whole time I was knitting this I was plotting ways to knit it blanket sized.

I've never wanted to knit a blanket. They seemed large and boring. But with this I was burning to make it. I was stalking website for discounted Noro, stalking websites for less expensive yarn options, plotting ways to buy one ball a month at the local store. That seemed doable. Except they don't reorder the same colors. Once they sell out completely new colors comes in. I spent hours looking over weeks but really knew buying a blanket wasn't going to be an option anytime soon and it's unlikely buying a blanket of Noro will ever be an option.

Was I all adult like and shelve the idea and move onto practical things? No. I've resorted to trickery. I've promised myself a blanket of yarn at the Webs sale in April for my birthday. One of the other striping yarns if one I like is available and Noro if they aren't. The part of me that granted permission hopes that by April I'll have forgotten the blanket and moved onto new and shiny things.

I decided all of this before doing the stash evaluation but I haven't taken it back either. I really want to knit this blanket. By saying I could have it, but later, was the only way I could sleep at night. It had taken over my brain.

Stash

Early 2012 I said I wouldn't buy any yarn. I had helped pay for my brothers surgery and needed a down payment for my apartment and yarn just wasn't in the budget.

This is all I bought.

It's not zero but it's not much either. It's nine small projects worth and two, maybe three, months of knitting. It's that long only because the blue sock yarn on the right is for a lace shawlet and lace is slow going.

Back in 2010 I tracked all I knit and what I knit. I found that I really won't knit a yarn until it's been in my stash for 3 years. It takes that long to go from too special to knit, no project is good enough to live up to it's potential, to being usable yarn. So while I may knit some of that sooner most of that is for 2015. The thought that is all I have 2015 makes me all gaspy and light headed. I keep telling myself it will be ok. I did get gift yarn too and when I add in that yardage in and I have five, maybe six, months of knitting.


Mulling that over, I decided it was time to look at my whole stash and evaluate.

Yarn that is older than three years old. This yarn is well aged and ready to knit. This is from 2004 to the end of 2009. I've been knitting since 2000 but I don't have any yarn left from before 2004. At 21,617 yards that is thirteen months of knitting.

2010, 2011 and 2012, gift yarn and all. The yarn that is marinating and most of it is still too special to knit, although a few of the balls on the bottom from the beginning of 2010 are almost ready. This is 26,180 yards and fifteen months of knitting.

Add all that together and I'm going to be completely out of yarn 3 months into 2015. On top of that, the yarn I buy this year would really be for 2016 for it to have aged correctly. It's all a bit terrifying.

When I started tracking my stash on the blog in 2006 I had seven years of knitting on hand. I decided that was excessive and put myself on a yarn diet. It's now been seven years of limited yarn buying and I'm down to two years and three months. That is less than I'm comfortable with. I miss going to my stash and finding what I need to make whatever I want. The stash dresser I couldn't fit all of the stash into now has plenty of room. However, my budget isn't ready for me to start buying yarn again, so 2013 is another year of no yarn.

Instead of fretting about it, I've pulled my spinning wheel next to the computer and I spin while playing Sims 3. It has ponies!

I'll just make my own yarn. I have plenty of potential in my fiber stash.

Rabbit

I cast on the Rabbit pattern from my queue.

It's part of the most FANtastic baby shower present ever. But, shhhhhhhhh, it's a surprise.

Queue

My knitting queue, in no special order, subject to change at any time.

Rabbit
Ripples
Wirbel
Shawl Collared Cowl
Dak Mai
Dimorphous Mittens
Hermione Hearts Ron
Taiga cowichan 
Oak Park
Celestarium or Queen of the Night but not both
Cupid
Temple Cats 
Poema
Armenius
Maijapaita - Maija Pullover
Magical
Greta the Captivating Cat
Hedgehog Family
Zuzu's Petals
Shake the Barley Hat

 

Performer of the Month

Yep. That's me again. For the month of January again. Did I get Amazon gift cards again so I can buy more seasons of Doctor Who again? Sadly, no.

so I'll show a project

A Doctor Who washcloth.

A pity, not getting gift cards. I'm a season behind.

Owl

I have an owl.

Rather, I should say my building has an owl. When he is out everyone is taking photos and gawking. And on an owl sighting day, when we run into each other on the walk, we ask "Did you see the Owl this morning?".

I noted the heart shaped face and I've watched the falcon show at the Renaissance Festival every year and I know the heart shaped face is a Barn Owl. Except this is not a Barn Owl.It looks nothing like a Barn Owl. The shape is wrong, the size is wrong, the color is wrong. I dug deep into the internet- Ok I looked at List of birds of Kansas on wikipedia

and I have a Barred Owl

He's not here every day. He's not even here every week but he's here often enough and he is staying here through the seasons. I've seen him every time of day too. Flying at night and perching all day long.

He's not the only wildlife outside my door. I already mentioned the Blue Hereon fishing at dawn. And there is the possum that crashes through the underbrush making more noise than a person walking. The fat squirrels are always frolicking in the trees and bounding on the rocks in the steam. I say frolicking they are probably running the other squirrel off their turf in fierce battle but I think they are cute. Some feral cats and kittens are always around too and the rabbit tracks are thick in the snow even if I rarely see a rabbit.

I've seen a saucy coyote trotting down the walk and a mink slipping into the water. That one was a start. A mink. Who would have thought?

Although, at the bottom of the wiki page it says Barred owls eat, among other things, rats, squirrels, rabbits, bats, moles, opossums, cats, and mink. I guess I shouldn't be surprised after all.

Nerd Wars Dissertation Hand In

Name: TangledThread

Team: Browncoat

Summary: Knit 8 baby, toddler, and kiddo sweaters.

Category: Geek Pride

INARA
Yes. Great. I wish you hundreds of fat children.

MAL
Aw, could you imagine that? Me with a whole
passel of critters underfoot? Hell, ten
years time I could --

With only 14 episodes and a movie we never got to meet any of the children and as such I’m knitting a sweater for each member of the crew of Serenity from the TV show Firefly. I’m knitting 8 instead of nine because Wash and Zoe will be sharing a sweater.

I have a detailed description of why for each sweater but that write up is for the reveal and I'm keeping the proposal to the point.

ZOE
I don’t give a good gorram about
relevant, Wash. Or objective. And I
ain’t so afraid of losing something
that I ain’t gonna try to have it. You and
I would make one beautiful baby. And I
want to meet that child one day.
Period.

So let’s meet the sweaters.

Shepard Derrial 'Don't call me Grandpa' Book never had children. However, at Southdown Abbey he set up a Co-op. He convinced a weaving mill to make their cones ends of hemp yarn available to anyone that would knit shirts for the orphanage.

The hemp tunics are incredibly sturdy and last through the wearings of several children. They also get softer with age. Like any knitting for charity, the shirts are executed with varying amounts of skill. Some are little masterpieces but most are dashed off by busy knitters in stolen moments of down time between their chores. The wood buttons are caved by the Shepherds. 

Three years after the visit to Canton Jayne receives a message to pick up his son. While he was pleased to have fathered a child he had no interest in stopping his career in "Public Relations". Jayne drops the child off to be raised by Ma Cobb. He sends a a vid message whenever he thinks of it, which is almost never, money with every paying job, and he takes the kid for a month ever year.

Ma Cobb has improved as a knitter but she still knits up every single scrap of what she has on hand and has a whimsical idea of what is tasteful.

Once Cassandra has been exposed to the verse and River has woken up life becomes easier for the Firefly crew. The Alliance doesn't have time to worry about hunting them down and River starts to leave the ship working her own jobs on occasion.  Mal is able to pick up the legal cargo just as often as any other and the pay is more steady.

Simon stays on board for Kaylee for a while but eventually decides that it's time to move back to the core. Kaylee is unwilling to leave to become a doctor's wife. They split as amicably as possible and the crew helps sets Simon up with a very expensive new identity that allows him to be a surgeon at Saint Lucy on Ariel

He's still estranged from his parents but when he marries another doctor and they have a child this hand knit sweater is delivered from a high end boutique shop with a card from Grandma.

Nobody knows why Inara, on the verge of becoming house priestess, let herself get pregnant. Or why she took an extended sabbatical and settled in a tiny cottage on Persephone. She is still invited to the parties of high society but chooses to live a rather quiet life.

Mal is the godfather to her little girl and he visits them as often as jobs bring them to the area. He and Inara are no warmer to each other, nor bicker anymore, than before and if Kaylee and Zoe whisper how the child is the splitting image of Mal there is no indication that he has any sort of notion she might be his.

Inara knit the dress while she was expecting. In her companion training she had learned making lace but she had never picked up knitting needles. It's also not surprising that her first, and only, knitted project was perfection. She would have it no other way and would do each stitch over until it was just right.

 

Kaylee is the one that finds a new ship medic for the crew. He may be in the top 30% of his class rather than the top 3% but he has a neat hand sewing up bullet wounds. He also worships Kaylee. 

After a year of him romancing her they get married and have a boy. There is never any talk of Kaylee leaving the ship and they raise him on board. The sweater is a gift from Simon from the same boutique shop that his mother sends gifts.

Simon will take an occasional trip on Serenity as the best way to see River. On one such visit Zoë pulls him aside and they have a long discussion that results in Simon checking the med supply of frozen blood and tissue on board. Not long after, Zoë takes a leave of absence and comes back pregnant with her and Wash's child. The sweater is a gift from Kaylee

 River knits her baby gifts. This sweater is cotton and silk blend for Inara but she usually knits in acrylic.

River points out that every baby needs to be able to protect itself. That the ties come in handy for tying things and acrylic will cut flesh before it will break. That it melts when exposed to flame. That it's indestructible and lasts forever. All very handy in an emergency.

 

Mal is tolerant but resistant to it all. It's years later until he marries. It's a good match too. She is strong and has a mischief twinkling in her eyes.

They set out making their own passel of critters and if Mal puffs up a bit looking at them in their brown sweater coats she knows that brown is the only sensible color for ship wear when washing happens about once a month with water so scarce.