California Dreamin'

We're in southern CA for a quilt show - the wonderful Road to California. Our road here was a bit much, but we're really enjoying the weather!

We got a later start than expected/planned. Bob thought we didn't have enough dowels and we would just have to make do with what we had. While I was at work Fri night, he found more. I got home from work about midnight to a new plan. Bob's idea was to leave later Sat and spend the day making more product to take with us - including cutting and sanding all the dowels he found. The dowels are the necessary part of the thread organizers that we make. So instead of leaving around 10 am, we managed to pull out of the driveway at 11:55 pm! My son Pete was going with us.

He's lived in the San Francisco area for three years and decided that he wanted to move to NYC. He stayed in PA for about a month before he decided that he'd had enough of the cold and wanted CA weather back.

Pete being with us worked wonderfully. It was his idea to alternate driving and just drive straight through. Since we were tired enough to sleep in the car and Pete can sleep just about anywhere, that's exactly what we did. And by saying that "we" drove, I mean that in the broadest sense possible. I think I drove one hour!

Southern CA in the "winter" just can't be beat. On Tues, we sat outside at In-n-Out for several hours enjoying the winter weather (mid-70's) and sunshine. Due to the seasonal shift in the wind direction, the sky is beautifully blue and clear. There are roses, primroses and bird of paradise blooming everywhere. So much for winter!

Cowls and mittens and shawls, Oh my!

What is on your knitting schedule? Mine seems to be over run with knit alongs and goals! From Ravelry - the Woolgirl group is having a fingerles gloves/mitts KAL which coincides with National Knit Mittens Month. It's rather nice to have one project fit into multiple spots! The Embrace the Lace bonus kit is a very lovely cowl and the pattern being used in the Cowl group's Jan KAL is also lovely - and those who have knit it already have commented on what a quick knit it is. The Sivia Harding group is having a KAL for the Heart to Heart beaded scarf this month. I've knit one and gave it as a gift to my cousin. Since then I've bought the cashmere yarn and beads to make another for myself.

And then the shawls! The end of last year - no I think most of last year! - didn't see much positive progress on shawls for me. My aeolian is only four rows away from being bound off and is waiting patiently to be finished. I spent quite awhile knitting my Norwegian Woods shawl only to completely rip out all progress. And yet I somehow managed to get sucked into the idea of 10 shawls in 2010. Conveniently the Seasons of Lace winter KAL is (of course!) a shawl! It's a free pattern entitled Echo Flowers. I spent too long dithering about which yarn to use. I've wound one of the two skeins in a silk/cashmere blend I bought several months ago.

Looks like I have my work cut out for me this month! Now to see just how much of it I can actually accomplish.

Do you believe in the power of prayer?

It should be obvious from the title, but if you have no religious belief, move along!

I received some bad financial news last week. And then a few days later received even worse financial news. Cancelled a Woolgirl subscription (Alice in Wonderland series), evaluated a few things, etc. Got info on where to go to sell blood plasma, evaluated things around here that might be sold.

And I prayed. A lot. Asked God for a Christmas miracle. And today that miracle was delivered by the USPS. It doesn't completely solve Problem #1, but it solves even worse Problem 2 and makes #1 easier to handle. I've been in tears ever since.

That light at the end of the tunnel?

Nope, not the rescue team. Fully loaded train barreling into me. For the first time in my life I'm having to remind myself that buying a lottery ticket is not a wise investment of a dollar. I've never been tempted to buy lottery tickets before. The odds of winning are so terribly bad, I've figured that my odds of winning without a ticket were just slightly lower than if I had a ticket. Sitting down and crying won't help. Maybe I'll go scrub something. It doesn't cost me anything and has good results.

If someone wanted to share the winning numbers I wouldn't turn them down.

RIP Norwegian Woods Shawl

Let's all have a moment of silence in respect for Felicia's Norwegian Woods shawl. NW met her demise this evening due to a severe run-in with a drunken frog. NW was completely ripped while in the frog pond and her remains have been rewound into a fresh clean center pull ball. No beads were sacrificed but were carefully scooped up and put back into the altoids tin to rest with their friends until knitting recommences.

After becoming suspicious about the size of the remaining ball of yarn, Felicia realized that her shawl plus beads and needles weighed over 160 gms and the remaining yarn was under 50 gms. While NW was in the stages of Chart B, Felicia knew there would not be enough yarn remaining. In an act of supreme self sacrifice, Felicia pulled the plug/needle out so that NW would not have to suffer.

Felicia does not have exact plans at this moment. She has been knitting for months without any finished objects - or at this point, any knitting to show for her efforts. She is currently torn between the idea of casting on the current Embrace the Lace club shipment of a cowl for some quick and easy gratification or resuming NW. NW II could be reincarnated in the current fingering weight yarn and the smaller size or in the correct lace weight yarn in the desired large size.

Please send wine. Cheese, crackers and maybe a tissue or two would also be appreciated.

First Snow

We had our first winter snowfall today. Well, technically, it was yesterday. But I just got home from work, so to me, it's still today. If that makes any sense at all! Anyway......on Saturday we had our first snowfall.

I will be the first one to tell you that I am not a big winter fan. I don't participate in any winter sports. I don't ski or snowmobile or even snowshoe. So for me snow is just something to shovel and it makes a mess.

But the first snowfall? Magical. We're not far from the full moon and combine that with everything covered in white and it is very bright out there! I really enjoyed my drive home from work tonight. It was a fairly wet snow so everything is covered with an edge of white. Tree branches are no longer invisible in the night but are instead beautifully covered in snow. They stand out in ghostly silhouette against the night sky. Pine and hemlock needles are gently bowed under the weight of the snow. Fence lines and electric poles have this magical white glow about them. This is the time to take a professional camera outside and set it to the slowest shutter speed possible to capture the magic and beauty of the night.

There isn't enough snow to break brances or down power lines. Depending upon the temperature, we might even lose all the snow tomorrow. The ground isn't really cold enough for the snow to stick around. Next time? It won't be too long before it is cold enough for the snow to stick around until spring. It gets dirty and dingy and we all become sick and tired of shoveling this blasted stuff.

But for now? Magic.

Two Weeks? Really?

I was awfully busy at work, but I also know I'm not the only one. How on earth does everyone else manage? Or is it that I've never made blogging a habit? That is probably it. I can't guarantee daily posting (ha!) but I'll make an effort towards more reliable posting.

1. Bob is home. Which threw my whole schedule cattywampus. Still recovering from that!

2. My dryer broke as soon as I got home in Oct and I still haven't been able to replace it. If you can't count on Lowe's to run a fork lift into a dryer, what can you count on!

3. Turning wood is lots of fun. New stuff coming soon.

4. Pictures too.

5. I am very thankful - that I really don't have holiday knitting to do!

No Knitting Going on Around here!

I haven't knit a stitch in weeks! Which is really unusual. Usually I have my knitting always with me. And I'll confess to getting tons of knitting done while sitting in the passenger seat of the car. Obviously with Bob gone, I'm doing all my own driving. But I'm also still sorta working both jobs - which hasn't left much free time. I came home from Quilt Festival, Houston with several new cross stitch charts I bought from The Silver Needle. If you like cross stitch at all, you really need to go check out their website. I can't imagine how, but one of these days, I will be in Tulsa, OK and be able to spend the day in the store. Actually, one of these years, I'd love to attend Camp Wannasew, but we'll see about that.

I haven't even been working on anything new either! The Silver Needle has a monthly mailing I subscribed to for awhile called Secret Needle Night. (Bet you don't see what's coming.....oh. You figured it out?) Because the whole thing is ..... a secret! Fun fibers, cute designs stitched on 10 count so they don't take long. Well, when I became a "collector" instead of a stitcher, I stopped the subscription. I knew I had other cross stitch kits laying around besides these.

Well, this week I bought a small tote with a lid. It's only a 12 quart and slightly larger than a sheet of paper. I've spent odd bits of time finding all(?) my cross stitch kits and putting them all together in this little tote. Actually, I liked this so much, I bought another one today to put all my needlepunch stuff into.

So I finished a Bent Creek design and I've been working on a Christmas Secret Needle Night kit from 2003! The idea is that I'll get to spend a bit of time each week working on a cross stitch design. It may take quite awhile to finish anything, but at least there will be progress!

What's Your Weekend Like?

What are your plans for the weekend? I read other people's posts and am amazed at the things people do, places they go, and events they attend. They have a much busier life than I do, that's for darn sure! But I'll admit that there usually isn't a whole lot going on around here. Without school age children, that also cuts out a lot of activities.

And when is your weekend? With this new job of mine, my "weekend" is actually Monday and Tuesday. My minister always said that his sabbath day was Monday. Sunday was (obviously) a heavy work day for him. And at the time, he was minister to three churches each Sunday. But this job is also a second job for me. So Mon & Tues are spent pretty heavy working in the basement in the woodshop. I've decided to declare Wed my "day off." Which is odd since I do go to work - but usually I only work Wed from 5-9 (pm). I did little bits of nothing this past Wed and it was wonderfully refreshing.

I've been fairly busy while Bob is gone cleaning up stuff around here. I live in a very small house with a full basement. The basement is where we do all our work stuff and unfortunately too much of it migrates upstairs into the living room. So I have been cleaning up, organizing, and carting things back where they belong. I know that it won't last too long once he is home again - we will have a bunch of orders for stuff that will need packaged and shipped out and that will happen in the living room.

But I'm hoping it will be a bit easier this time. I haven't had a kitchen table since I bought this house. And while I regretted the lack, it wasn't as if there was a lot of room around here anyway. I went to the local Salvation Army the other day looking for new work shirts. And they had a nice (small) kitchen table and two chairs! I went home to measure - taking the chance the table would still be there the next day. And it was! Picture a table and chairs from probably the 50's and you've got a good idea what mine looks like. But it is in wonderful shape! I cleaned it up good when I got the set home. Stopped at the store and bought new rubber feet for all the metal legs. And some rustoleum primer and new paint for all the legs. I'm really hoping that the weather will stay decent so I can paint everything before Bob gets home. Especially since he doesn't know anything about it!

Light Bulb Moment?

I think I've just had an "ah ha!" moment and I'm hoping that any sweater knitters who happen to stop by can confirm.

I don't have a whole lot of luck with sweater sizing. I'm always just a bit off. I knit swatches and manage to get and keep gauge. I wear a size 36 bra and usually knit the size closest to 36. The lightbulb moment came here....we're supposed to measure around the fullest part of the bust, right? Because I wear a 36D - so the fullest part is actually 41". So when I'm knitting the pattern somewhere in the 36" - 38" range, I'm dooming myself to failure, aren't I?

Shoot! And wow.

Totally Random. Without Pictures.

1. I love people's random posts. Disjointed "comments" and pictures thrown together.

2. Bob still has my camera. No pictures. Makes me wish I was rolling in a few extra dollars and could go buy a second camera.

3. If he didn't take any pictures, he's not getting the camera next trip, that's for certain.

4. After much angst, lathe problems solved. It took an extra trip to the store (1.5 hours away) and several phone calls to get everything solved, assembled and working.

5. I so wish I had asked if I could buy the display model.

6. So I was late sending out my prize contribution to Chan and haven't taken the time yet to see if it has even arrived at her house. But it was shipped out last week and I hope the winner loves it.

7. World Series! I don't have a tv. Well, technically, I own a television, just no cable. Which means i don't get to watch anything except dvds. But I own a stereo.

8. On the radio, I can get Eagles and Penn State football games. Nascar races. Rap, country, rock, and oldies. Christian and spanish speaking stations. Do you think I could find even ONE station that I could listen to the ball game on for longer than three pitches??? Is that really so much to ask for??

9. Apparently it is too much to ask for. No, I am not willing to pay for cable.

10. I ripped out my Norwegian Woods shawl back to the first bead row. The beads were just too small. I got really lucky and found some beads (on sale even!) at the local A.C. Moore that will go wonderfully.

11. I am taking another turning class tonight. Actually, it is a class on how to sharpen our chisels. Can't wait because everything downstairs is dull as dishwater.

12. Dinner at Carraba's on the way home!

Contest Fever

I was busy and hadn't been reading my usual blogs recently. But I'm trying to catch up with friends. And it seems that lots are having a contest! Darcy is awarding a copy of Kate Jacob's newest book in the Friday Night Knitting series. And while I haven't even read the second book, I'm still gonna try for winning the third. The second won't be hard to read. I've always been a reader. I did buy the first book in the series and then included the book in a swap package I was sending out. Darcy also has a wonderful story posted on her blog with a background story about going to Kate Jacob's book signings. I haven't ever lived near an area that had book signings - I'm a bit jealous!

Thoughts on Blessings

I haven't been taking the time to read many (or hardly any) blogs lately. And I had to scroll quite a ways before finding this post with all the details. But Chan - and a ravelry post I put up earlier got me thinking about blessings.

It's been a tough week - in a very odd sort of way. And yesterday didn't end the wierdness either. Last night my dryer died. I tumbled the clothes around for about 10 minutes and then just quit. I opened the dryer door (no light, bad sign) to obviously wet clothes - and a bad "burnt" smell. Worse sign. So I hung up all the clothes and went back to bed.

Where is the blessing here? Well, I could have been gone for a few days and come home to moldy clothes. Since the dryer just quit, I'm not even gonna talk about fire.

But I have the money to buy another one. Mind you, I am gonna stalk Lowe's and Home Depot looking for a discounted scratched model. I'm hoping that savings will balance out the delivery fee since I'm home alone for the next 5 weeks and there is absolutely no way I can wrangle a dryer by myself.

But during the craziness of this week, I had one neighbor pick me up at the airport (at 10:45 PM thankyouverymuch), a friend drive me around to get the keys made for my car yesterday, and another neighbor come over and put my new 100 pound lathe up on the work counter.

And aside from the obvious - I have heat in my home, a roof over my head and wool to knit with. And I didn't hesitate to buy some silk/cashmere yarn at the show last week from the Jade Sapphire booth.

I think I'm gonna contact Chan about donating a prize! Stay tuned. Oh, wait! No camera. Well, Chan will have to post a picture for me when the prize arrives at her house.

In which I prove (again) that I am an idiot

Well, I made it home late last night. And today I feel rather like I've been beat. My contacts are funny, I have a horrid headache and just feel like I've been through the mill.

I've taken a part time job, so I needed to return after the Houston show. Plan A involved driving both vehicles and me driving home afterwards. Well, that plan just worried Bob too much. So we switched to Plan B - ride out with him and then fly home. Which would have worked great if I had a brain.

So I make my plane reservation flying one way from Houston to Scranton - and actually get a decent rate. The day before, I try going on-line to check in ahead of time and I can't. Try again that morning - no luck. So I go downstairs and ask Bob's friend that we stayed with (who is also a Bob. Must have been hysterical when they were high school buddies and ran around together all the time.) to see what the problem was. Well, the problem was that I was trying to check in two weeks early. Yep. I made the reservation for the wrong date.

So I couldn't get another flight out of Houston to Scranton that day. But Bob was driving to Kansas City and I could get a flight from there home. So I got to ride along to KC. Get to the airport and they very nicely ask if I want to get on an earlier flight to Chicago where I changed planes. Jump on that hoping to get onto an earlier flight into Scranton. There wasn't an earlier flight, but at least Chicago had better food options than KC.

My neighbor picked me up from the airport and it wasn't until I got to his house that I found out I didn't have keys. Bob has torn apart our van and I really do remember putting them into my suitcase. So somewhere along the way, United airlines has lost my keys.

I finally got help on the phone when I broke down and was almost hysterical. I kept being sent to voice-mail hell. When the airline loses something of yours, you have to call each airport because there isn't a centralized lost and found. One of the numbers was disconnected. And the very nich people on the phone kept giving me the disconnected number. When I explained (over and over) that the number didn't work, I would get rerouted into the automated system.

I did have one stroke of great luck today though. I called a locksmith to see how on earth I could get another key for my 1989 car. She explained about key codes and told me who to call - and what to do if the new key didn't work well in my old locks, etc. So while the day was wasted on the phone call to hades/United, I now have a working key for just under $20.

I think I'm going to go buy a coffee and a new lathe. Gee....I wonder if all those wonderful calls have anything to do with my headache???

Posts will be picture-less. Bob has the camera in Kansas City. Bob and the camera are leaving there and going to several other states, so I will be cameraless until Thanksgiving!

There has got to be a storm coming

This morning I woke up feeling pretty darn good. Several hours later, my eyes are puffy, I have a horrid headache and I pretty much feel like I've been beaten. There has got to be a big storm coming through here. It's rather cloudy and very windy right now.

I was an idiot and thought my new skein of yarn from Embrace the Lace was 470 yards. Nope. It's 740 yards. Definately plenty of yarn to make the Norwegian Woods shawl I mentioned in the previous post. Now I'm gonna see if some beads I bought a couple months ago will work! Oh, wait! I'll be in Houston next week and there will be plenty of beads to choose from if the ones I have on hand don't work.

I'm having fun playing on the lathe. Drilled out the centers on some wood blanks last night to make some needle cases for our booth. And some acrylic blanks came in the mail today. Gosh, this will be fun! Talk to ya in a couple of days probably!

Look What I Got, Part 2

Last week was a great mail week. While not "fun," I did receive some black sock yarn. For some bizarre reason, I'm not especially excited about knitting these socks. But I've started a new part time job and I'm required to wear black socks. So I stopped at the store and bought two pair. Do you have any idea how odd it felt to put on store bought socks after several years of wearing only handknit?? So while not fun, black sock knitting is a bit important. I'm trying out some Knit Picks sock yarn.



Also last week, I received my Sep Embrace the Lace shipment. Much more fun than black sock yarn. Although oddly enough, this is also sock yarn!



Well, it is 470 yards (!) of merino in fingering weight. And the pattern included this month is a pair of knee socks. And while the pattern is nice, I just can't imagine hiding this pretty yarn in my shoes.



There's a lovely project bag also included. In each lace club shipment, there is also a coordinating stitch marker. Each very nice. I did notice that I was so impressed with the pattern that I didn't even include it in the pictures! I do truly like the pattern. I'm thinking of making Sivia Harding's Norwegian Woods shawl with the yarn. There are several people in the lace club who don't like the yarn and would be happy to sell it. I haven't even asked how much they want. I'd like a large cozy shawl, but the yarn is handdyed and I know two skeins would never match. Ah, well...

Look What I Got, Part 1

It is a week before we leave for Houston so spare time is rather sparse on the ground. But I'm gonna try to get a few posts up. I haven't ever been a very regular poster. But I miss doing so when I haven't posted in a few days. Must be a good sign!

My team in Dish Rag Tag isn't doing too well. There was a bit of a problem right before the end and our last person had to drop out. And I think it took about 2 days to get the replacement all lined up. Drat! Guess it was too much to hope for to be on the winning team two years in a row! But my personal DRT glory is unabated. My prize from Emily's favorite dishcloth contest arrived in the mail. What a fun pattern booklet plus two skeins of cotton and some bamboo straights. These just might actually be my first pair of straight knitting needles! Oops! I'm further behind than I thought - give me a minute to transfer the pictures from the camera onto the computer. Ok, let's try this...

Son of Dish Rag Tag!

This is the third year that I've participated in Dish Rag Tag (DRT). Emily is the brain behind DRT. There are teams all across the US. Each person on the team will receive a box that includes the pattern you are to use to knit a dishcloth, a ball of cotton yarn, a dishcloth already knit and a small treat for yourself. The idea is to keep the dishcloth and treat and use the yarn to knit a cloth for the next person on the list. The unknown part of the race comes in with the US postal service! We use a flat rate priority mail box ONLY.

This is what arrived at my house -



At the top of the picture, you can see the tiny bundle of goodies sent to me - some mixes to add to a water bottle, little packs of candy and some tea.

And pre-packing, this is what I sent off -



Here you can see the cloth I knit with the yarn, the new ball of cotton, and you can't really make them out, but there are stitch markers there for the next person. Which was a great thing to be able to include since they are so small! That small flat rate box is rather stuffed by the time we're through with it!

Well, on Emily's blog earlier this week, she ran a small contest. Leave a comment with a link or info on your favorite dishcloth pattern and you'll have a chance to win so cotton, needles and patterns. Well, I popped over to her blog this afternoon and found out I won! It's not often I win something, so this is wonderfully sweet.

Last year, my DRT team came in first place. We'll see how we fare this year, but it doesn't feel like the post office is being especially nice to my team this year.

Learning on a Lathe

We sell products to quilters at major shows. Organizers for rulers and thread is our main focus. Until recently, we had a local young man make wooden needle cases that we bought from him and sold in the booth. He was a pen turner and we asked him to branch out into the needle cases. Well, he's graduated from high school and started college. He's pre-med. So we really don't see him at all any more. But the needlecases were a popular item. So when a local store offered a pen turning class, we jumped on the chance.

Making the needlecases will be my job. Which is fine since playing on the lathe is fun! The things we make are made from oak. And oak isn't the best wood for turning because it is an open grain wood. But we have lots of wood scraps laying around. While learning what the different chisels would do, the scraps seemed the perfect choice. And I've been asking Bob to turn some of our scraps into "wooden irons." Quilters use them for "finger pressing" a seam. So I've been making wooden irons! My first batch sold last weekend at a quilt show in Marietta, GA. Bob took 12 with him and came back with only 3, so I would say they were a hit!

I don't usually have a mental image of what I want the finished product to look like. I just play around with the chisels and see what comes out! This picture is of the wooden irons Bob is taking with him this weekend to a show in Novi, MI.



The two pieces at the bottom of the picture on the left are ones that Bob made. I'm pretty sure I made all the rest. I think he throws something fancy in there just to see where I'll go with the idea!

Catching Up

Here's a peek into parts of what was keeping me busy! I was canning:


I made chow chow - a cabbage based relish with hot peppers.


I made some mild salsa and 24 hour garlic dill pickles.


And I had to leave the house while Bob made hot salsa. His main ingredient was habanero peppers. And I have an allergy to the oils in hot peppers - I truly can't even be in the same house while these are being processed.


And we took a pen turning class! Bob's is on the top in the picture. He has prior experience working on a lathe. I made the mistake of asking the instructor for help with what the different chisels would do. I should have asked Bob. The instructor was great with how to turn a straight sided pen - plus assembly, etc. But Bob has the chisel and lathe knowledge that the instructor didn't have. More work from the lathe coming next!