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August 31, 2008: I Am A Blonde Belly-Dancer I signed up for Goggle Alerts about a year ago. This nifty Google tool crawls the web looking for whatever search term you specify, then e-mails you when it finds it. I have it looking for "Janet Szabo" so I can be up-to-date on stuff people write about my books and patterns. Yesterday it found this: Belly Dancers Coin It In from the Bolton News Who knew? There is a blonde belly dancer somewhere in the UK named Janet Szabo. I'd be willing to bet that when she Googles "Janet Szabo," she wonders who that woman in Montana is with her name. I put seven loaves of zucchini bread into the freezer yesterday (we kept the eighth one out to eat). I would have made more but I ran out of flour, so I made zucchini pasta for myself for dinner with what was left. As I was mixing up the batter for loaf #5, I realized that I am so happy women no longer have to have gigantic gardens so they can freeze and can the harvest in order to feed their families during the winter. Knowing there was all that produce to process at the end might suck all the fun out of gardening for me. But I suppose, too, that we should all be glad that we can knit because we want to, not because we have to keep our family from freezing to death. DD#2 and I picked beans (finally!—I was worried), tomatoes, and zucchini yesterday (the source of the bread batter) and there will be another two zucchini ready today, and two more tomorrow, and two more after that . . . this is a very prolific plant. But I know that the husband will be happy to be eating homemade zucchini bread in January. And yes, knitting continues. Tomorrow's post will have details.
August 28, 2008: My Twice-Yearly Fashion Rant This past spring I did a pretty thorough cleaning of my closet and got rid of a lot of clothes that no longer fit me because I lost a lot of weight after going on thyroid meds. I figured I would buy what I needed this fall. This is Montana. My shopping choices are extremely limited. I shop at TJ Maxx, Ross, and Herbergers (the local department store). That's it. I used to find lots of nice stuff at Target (I have a long black 100% merino wool dress I got there 10 years ago that I love), but about five years ago they began selling stuff that looked like it came out of my mother's dusting rag drawer. I refuse to buy clothing with unfinished or serged edges. The one brand I can rely on to fit me perfectly and look nice is Liz Claiborne. Herberger's had quite a large Liz section and I'd say that 85% of the clothes in my closet are either Liz Claiborne or Jones New York. I'm not a clotheshorse, by any stretch of the imagination, but I like to wear something other than jeans and T-shirts when I get the chance. I went to the department store last week and it had been completely rearranged to make room for a new line—Victor Alfaro, all black and cream and gold (I am so tired of black) and obviously aimed at 20-somethings. There was a small display of Liz stuff. I asked the saleslady if they were getting rid of the Liz line and she said, "Have you seen our new Victor Alfaro line?" (Yep, saw it and moved on.) I said something again about the Liz Claiborne line and she said, "Well, we just haven't gotten any of the fall stuff in," which I thought was odd considering they usually have fall stuff on display by the fourth of July. My mother sent me the link to this article yesterday. It explains a lot. I hope the Liz Claiborne brand does not disappear. I am heartened by the fact that they hired Izaak Mizrahi as their creative director, because I love his stuff. I just want to be able to go to the store and find things that fit me and look nice. That's all. Herbergers has a house brand that has also gone trendy. I found a pair of navy blue dress pants that I just fell in love with—until I tried them on. The 12s fit in the waist but the hips were so big I looked like I was wearing saddle bags. The 10s fit in the waist but the hips were still too big. The 8s fit in the hips but the waist was too small. Sigh.
August 27, 2008: Ramp Up the Productivity The husband came home yesterday and asked me how my day was and I responded, "Very productive," and he said, "That's great." He's been listening to me whine about not having any energy or motivation for the past two weeks so I think he is just as happy as I am that I am back on the Armour thyroid. One of the classes I am teaching in Portland is a class I've taught probably 25 times—as a three-hour class. It's going to be a six-hour class in Portland. I am thrilled about that, because it will allow me to cover some things I've had to gloss over quickly in the three-hour version. However, it means a total revamp of the class handout. The girls were busy getting their stuff together for school and enjoying their last day of all-Disney Channel, all-day, so I went to my office and got started on the new handout. You know what it's like when you start a project and you hit a groove and everything just falls into place? That's what happened yesterday. I added all the new material and then went to my chair to knit swatches of the new stitch patterns both to check my instructions and so I'll have swatches to pass around in class. I finished the swatches and then went back to work on the gray mohair sweater. I got the upper body done; I'll start the sleeves today. One thing I had forgotten about being hypothryoid—I become a very S-L-O-W knitter. I am not a speedy knitter on the best of days, but allow me to become hypo and my knitting slows down to the speed of a glacier. It's almost comical how drawn out and slow the motions become. And I notice it only when I am NOT hypo and I start knocking out my knitting at a much faster pace. It's been raining here since yesterday. I am making beef stew for dinner because I am sure the husband will be cold and tired when he gets home. He's not having a very good month and he could certainly use all the cheering-up we can give him.
August 26, 2008: Pie Central The girls and I knocked out 21 pies in about two hours yesterday. It doesn't really take all that long to assemble them because I draw the line at making pie crusts from scratch. The husband does not care if the pies are made with generic ready-crusts from a box (he knows that if he did, the likelihood that he would get any pies would plummet to zero). I also know that using pie crusts from a box diminishes my standing among my Mennonite women friends, but that's okay. We set up an assembly line. DD#2 peeled the apples with the little peeling machine, I cut them up and mixed in the sugar and spices, and DD#1 put the pies together. I can only fit four pies at a time in my oven, though, so the baking part took most of the rest of the day.
The tricky part is cooking them about 90% of the way, then taking them out— because they're going to be frozen and reheated. We did cook one all the way so we could do some quality control testing on it. It was yummy. The pies were done in time for us to make a quick run to town so I could pick up some Armour thyroid. I called the pharmacy and they had JUST—and I mean JUST—gotten a shipment of Armour thyroid in, so they said to come get some. I'm feeling better already. I just hope they don't run out again in a month when I need to get it refilled. Today is the last day of DD#2's summer vacation—she heads back to school tomorrow. DD#1 gets an extra day as an upperclassman, because the first day of school is for freshmen only. She'll go back Thursday. Ahhh, freedom.
August 25, 2008: Errands I left the house before everyone was up Saturday morning—that was a calculated move on my part to have some alone time. The husband knew I was going. The girls didn't. I got a lot done. I went to the bank, got a new Wacoal bra for $25 because it was on the clearance rack AND I had a 20% off coupon, found two very nice Liz Claiborne T-shirts, also on sale (I am woefully lacking in longer-sleeved shirts for fall so these were a nice find), and made a much-needed Costco run. While I was driving around, the local produce market called my cell phone to let me know that they had gotten a shipment of Gingergold apples. I ran over and picked up two cases, then stopped at the grocery store to get pie crusts and sugar. The girls and I will make about two dozen apple pies today and stick them in the freezer for the husband to eat this winter. I also went to the pharmacy to get my thyroid meds refilled. I have had an awful time with my meds over the past month. When we came back from Cleveland, I tried to get my Armour thyroid prescription refilled and discovered the pharmacy was out of it. The manufacturer has had some kind of "process change in manufacturing" that caused a shortage of 2- and 3-grain pills. Well, everyone who was taking 2- and 3-grain pills began getting their prescriptions filled with 1-grain pills (that's what I take), so the shortage spread to the 1-grain pills, too. My doctor switched me to Naturethroid, which is supposed to be equivalent to Armour, but it most certainly is not. First of all, it's coated, so it doesn't dissolve sublingually like Armour unless you bite it in half, and the taste is awful. Secondly, it's much less potent. I don't know whether that's because this is from a bad batch, or it's close to the expiration date, or what. I've been on Naturethroid for a month. About two weeks after I began taking it, my hair started falling out again and I had such bad brain fog that even my kids commented on what a space cadet I was. Believe me, once you've been hypothyroid and been treated successfully, you don't want to go back to feeling that lousy. I can't function on Naturethroid. So I stopped at the pharmacy and begged them to find me some Armour. They said they thought they could fill my prescription with the 1/2-grain pills, at least until those run out. I have to call them today and see if they were able to do that. I certainly hope the manufacturer gets their processing issues straightened out, and soon. This isn't medication I take for fun. It's medication I need to survive. And function. I've been working on a cardigan out of Sublime Kid Mohair. Don't let the picture on KFI's website fool you—it looks like dead muppet yarn but it's really not. I'd like to get it done in time to wear it in Portland. It's an easy cable pattern, although working with this mohair is kind of fiddly. But oh—it is so soft and beautiful when it's knitted up.
August 23, 2008: The Calendar I spent an hour or so this week collecting school, church, fire department, and knitting schedules and entering all the information into iCal. I printed out a very nice color-coded calendar which shows where each of us is at any given time during the week. It's hanging on the fridge. I showed it to the husband and he said, "Does it raise your anxiety level to have it all laid out there in living color?" (He should talk—he has a Daytimer, too.) I said, "No, it's actually helping my anxiety level." It occurred to me the other day that now we have a kid with wheels, so she's going to have a bit more freedom to participate in some after-school activities. The first two weeks of September are going to be a meat grinder. I found out yesterday that Bev Galeskas is coming to Camas Creek to do a Fiber Trends trunk show the weekend of September 6-7. That's the same weekend DD#1 has an IB (International Baccalaureate) retreat. And my FIL is going to be at his time-share in Seeley Lake (about an hour and a half southeast of us) and wants us to come down to see him there. I may just have to send DD#2 and the husband while I stay here. My FIL is coming up to stay with us the same day I leave for Portland for the TKGA conference. In some ways that's great, because he'll be here all day and I won't have to make after-school arrangements for the girls, but now I have to worry about making sure they all have something to eat other than frozen pizzas. I don't teach at the conference until Friday, but I am getting to Portland on Wendesday so I can pop over to the KnitPicks headquarters and work on a quick project with them. Then on Thursday I am going to help out in the Craft Cruises booth in the market. I don't get home until Monday. It's a bit longer than I wanted to be gone, but that's the way things worked out. I can tell I am stressing about this more than I usually do because last night I dreamed I got to Portland and had left all my teaching supplies and handouts at home. I've already started packing the sweaters I want to take with me. I am going on the train, and they don't charge for extra suitcases, hooray! And the train station is right across the river from the convention center. I love the train. And there is all that knitting time while I watch the scenery go by! I need to figure out what to take as my trip knitting. The projects I am working on right now are pretty fiddly. I've got some luscious black alpaca down in the stash that would make a wonderful shawl. That should work.
August 22, 2008: Delayed, But Not Forever It figures that the month I am all organized and get the preview pics of the Fall issue of the newsletter up is the same month that it's a week behind. This issue includes one pattern by a new designer. She did a fabulous job with her pattern instructions, but it was a complicated-enough pattern that I wanted to go over it (and have her go over it as well) a few extra times. Throw in the fact that the USPS takes three days to deliver an envelope from Corvallis, OR to Kalispell, MT (really, that's a bit ridiculous), and editing took a bit longer than planned. But the newsletter is at the printer and I asked them to put a rush on it. I still plan to get the hard copies in the mail by the end of August. The girls start school the middle of next week and I have stopped feeling any guilt about wanting them to go back. Right now it's noon on Friday and everyone is home—the husband included—and as soon as I get this blog post done I am going up to lock myself in the bedroom where I can knit and watch my last Eureka Season 1 DVD. I am so looking forward to having the house to myself during the day so I can get some work done. Here is another bee balm pic. This is one of the burgundy double flowers. I think these are so cool. I wonder if anyone has developed a triple-flowered variety?
August 21, 2008: Conflicted We've had almost 24 hours of a good soaking rain and cooler temps. I'm still hoping to get some beans. The plants got shell-shocked by that snowstorm on June 10 and didn't really recover until mid-July. The vines are huge and covered with blossoms. Maybe it will stay warm enough for a couple of weeks yet. I always feel so conflicted at this time of year. Part of me is tired of the heat and can't wait to get back to sweater-wearing weather, and of course school starts soon. Getting back to some solitude and a work routine makes me very happy. I miss the early sunrises, though. Now it's dark when I get up, and there aren't as many birds singing. It makes me wonder—if we have another cold spring like we did this year, will it be nine months until I see sunshine again? I like winter, but not when it stretches on endlessly like it did last year. And I always go into squirrel-mode about now, a leftover reaction from the years right after we moved here when the husband didn't work for a couple of months during the winter because of the weather. I absolutely have to have enough money socked away (which I've been able to do this month) to get us through the possibility of some lean months if things slow down. This year we have to worry about the economy impacting construction as much as the weather might. So I am not facing this year's transition with as much equanimity as I might otherwise. I will be sad to see the garden go into hibernation. I will miss snakes lying in wait for me at the bottom of the porch steps (I almost crushed one the other day but saw it and leaped over it at the last second). I will have to remember to start the truck ten minutes before I leave for town so it will be warmed up enough that my butt won't freeze. I won't be able to walk out and get the newspaper in my robe and slippers in the morning. But we'll have lots of cozy fires in the fireplace and I can indulge in my love of making soup. I won't want to go anywhere and that will mean lots of knitting time. The tourists will leave and my blood pressure will no longer spike when I get to town. I won't have to shave my legs every other day or paint my toenails unless I want to. And Chester will be thrilled to be an avalanche dog again. There are advantages to winter, as long as it doesn't last until June 10.
August 20, 2008: Planting Trees in Colombia
When we were in Maryland in June we got to see the husband's sister and her family, who were also visiting my in-laws. They live in California and my SIL works for an organization called Greenwala. The work they are doing is quite fascinating. This morning she sent me the link for a new game they've created. For every 20 questions you answer correctly, an organization helps plants trees in Las Gaviotas, Colombia. Las Gaviotas sounds like a great place. On the Greenwala website, it states:
It has to be a wonderful place if they are making biodiesel there! I played the game this morning while drinking my coffee and got three trees. It was kind of like taking a biology test. Please spread the word around to other people you think might enjoy it. A front came through (finally) yesterday and cooled things off quite a bit. We're supposed to get another front today with some much-needed rain. Hooray! It'll be a good day to sit and knit and watch the rest of my Eureka DVDs from Netflix. I'm really enjoying this series. After I get through these I need to go back and catch up on the Firefly episodes I missed.
August 18, 2008: Bathing Sweaters Kayla, you asked how I wash my sweaters. In the days when I had a regular washing machine, this is what I did:
Sometimes I would put a cup of white vinegar in the rinse, as we have very hard water here and it cuts the soap curds. Now I have a front-loader. It's a great machine. However, I will not wash my sweaters in it. There is no way to fill it with water and then spin the water out. Even on the "drain and spin" cycle (as opposed to the "rinse and spin" cycle), the machine squirts water onto the garments. It does have a wool cycle, but I washed some of the husband's sweaters in that machine on the wool cycle and they came out slightly felted. That's okay for him, not for me. I am back to washing my sweaters in the bathtub. I wish now that I had gotten another top-loader, but my old machine went out one weekend and I had 6 hours in which to decide what kind of machine I wanted to replace it. For some reason I was not thinking about all the sweaters I needed to wash when I chose this one. Monica, you wanted to see pics of the bee balm. I have a few; the deep purple ones aren't blooming yet, and I cut all of the plants back so much this spring that I don't have as many blossoms as I usually do. But here's what is blooming right now (it was hard to get pics so some of them are a bit blurry): This is one of the red ones. The hummers and butterflies likes these the best. They are showy and dramatic. Some are bright red and some are more of a burgundy red.
This is one called "Rose Geranium" and my friend Susan gave it to me when we moved here 15 years ago. It is my favorite and gets lots of TLC.
This is another one I like, because I think the lipstick pink color is so nice. Not many blossoms this year.
I lost my white bee balm this year and need to replace it. It's been struggling for the past couple of years. Some of them like wetter soil than others, and I think the white one wasn't getting enough moisture. The deep purple ones are always the last to bloom. When they come out next week I'll try to get pics of them. Some of them have double flowers and they are quite cool. And here is my zucchini plant. I think this plant is just enormous, but maybe this is how big it's supposed to get? I can't remember—I haven't grown zucchini for a while. You could easily lose a small child in there.
August 16, 2008: I Heart Netflix, Sort Of I was all set to write a blog post this week about how much I love Netflix. I still do love Netflix, but I am kind of disappointed that I couldn't do some marathons while the girls were away. We have the three-DVD plan and the arrangement is that they each get to order one and I get to order one (and sometimes if one of us is feeling generous, we let the husband order one). In preparation for my week sans children, I re-ordered the Netflix queue and put the first season of Eureka at the top. It's a series on the SciFi channel (I heart the SciFi channel, too) and I wanted to start at the beginning with the ones I've missed. Three DVDs came—but Season 1: Disc 1 of Eureka was out of stock. I got Season 1: Disc 2 and Season 1: Disc 3 of Eureka and Season1: Disc 1 of Bones instead. Hmmmm. I wanted to start at the beginning of Eureka, not halfway through Season 1. So last Sunday I watched all of the disc of Bones (more on that in a minute). I popped it back into the mail Monday morning and waited for Disc 1 of Eureka. And waited. And waited. Bummer. This would have to be the week that they had problems at the Netflix distribution centers. And now my kids are home and they have re-ordered the Netflix queue again. But I see that Disc 1 of Eureka is on its way to me, so I should be able to have a marathon and watch all three of the discs I have. I know, in the grand scheme of things this is a minor issue. A very minor issue. But the Netflix distribution center meltdown is just another of the really weird things that have been happening this month. I can't get my Armour thyroid, either, because of some change in the manufacturing process that caused a global shortage (now I am on Naturethroid and I don't like it). What's going on? About Bones: It's an interesting show and I'll work my way through all of the episodes, but I have enough scientific training that its entertainment value (for me) lies in finding the greatest number of scientific inaccuracies/inconsistencies in each episode. I also think the lead character needs to gain a little weight so she doesn't look like one of the corpses she's investigating. We went to the water park yesterday; I figured I could sit and knit there just as well as I could here at home. We got a spot under one of the big umbrellas and my friend Susan and I visited (and I knitted) while the kids went down the waterslides. After about an hour I put my suit on and took a dozen trips around the lazy river. They got the heater working again so the water was pleasant. And despite the heat, the park wasn't very crowded. Everyone must have been at the fair. Eleanor, you asked about how the Lion Brand Lion Wool wears. I have another sweater (the gray one) I've made with that yarn and it looks new every time I put it on. One of the things I like about the Lion Wool is that it is very much a "worsted-spun" yarn—the fibers are long and smooth and tightly-spun. Those kinds of yarns do not tend to pill very much. This week's gratuitous garden pictures:
That vine on the fence is my hops plant. It's being especially prolific this year (this is after I trimmed it back in the spring). Heck, if I had known hops would do so well in Montana, I would have dug up an acre or two of our yard and become a hops farmer. I'm sure I could find a brewery interested in my crop. The hops fruit is very pretty. They look like little lanterns:
I'm picking stuff out of the garden every morning. We're having a potluck at church next week and it came up for discussion at a council meeting last night. I suggested that we make it a themed potluck: "Interesting Things to Do With Zucchini" and require that every dish have zucchini in it.
August 15, 2008: Interview With the Husband I saw an interview like this on Cottage46 Knitter's blog (she did the index for Cables 1) and thought it was fun, so I asked the husband to play along. Me: What is your favorite thing about my knitting? The husband: I don't think about it like that. It's just something you do. Me: What is your least favorite thing about my knitting? The Husband: Sitting on those little needles you sometimes leave in my recliner, the endless sheep paraphernalia . . .
Me: What is something I have knitted that you recall as good? The Husband: Good in what way? I think of it all as good—unless you're swearing at it and ripping it apart. Me: Do you think knitters have an expensive hobby? The Husband: Compared to mine, no.
Me: Do you have a stash of any kind? The Husband: Something that I store or hide? No.
Me: Have I ever embarrassed you, knitting in public? The Husband: I don't find anything embarrassing about it. Me: Do you know my favorite kind of yarn? The Husband: No.
Me: Can you name another blog? The Husband: Knitting related blog? No. Me: Do you mind my wanting to stop at knit shops wherever we go? The Husband: Not really. Me: Do you understand the importance of a swatch? The Husband: In a general sort of way. Me: Do you read my blog? The Husband: No.
Me: Have you ever left a comment? The Husband: Obviously not. Me: Do you think the house would be cleaner if I didn't knit? The Husband: I don't see a relationship there.
Me: Anything you'd like to add? The Husband: I love you. I love you, too, bud. After a fair bit of ripping out and swearing yesterday (see note from the husband, above), I think I have wrestled this latest design into submission. Part of the reason I love knitting from the top down so much is because I hate to have to begin a design with the ribbing. To my mind, the ribbing is the "frame" you add to after the artwork is done. Having to start with ribbing (or whatever edging I've decided on) causes a huge mental block for me. Unfortunately, this particular design has a stitch pattern (not a cable, but a texture stitch) that wouldn't look right if it were oriented upside down. So I am stuck knitting from the bottom up. And yes—I could have begun with a provisional cast-on and come back later and picked up for the ribbing, but I am not a fan of that particular technique, especially when knitting a cable pattern. I gutted it out and finally got the design underway. The yarn is Lion Brand Wool, my new favorite—the closest substitute that I could find for my beloved Brunswick Germantown. There is something about the way that this yarn feels when it runs through my fingers that really jazzes me. I don't get that feeling with every yarn. We may be making a trip to the waterpark today. It's supposed to be in the 90's from now until the middle of next week. Ugh.
August 14, 2008: A Blast From the Past I was knitting last night, waiting to leave for the airport to pick up the travelers, when the phone rang. I answered and it turned out to be someone from my class in high school (Debbie, if you're reading this—hello again!). Debbie had run into another woman from our class and somehow the talk turned to knitting and the second woman mentioned to Debbie that she should look me up on the Internet. So Debbie did, and then she picked up the phone and called me. We had a nice chat and did some catching up. Debbie teaches 5th-grade math in the town where we grew up. Last year she had a knitting club of kids. How cool is that? I love the Internet. I'm not feeling so much love for my knitting, however. I am not quite sure what is going on. Getting my ideas from my brain to my needles is like pulling teeth. Last night I tried to start a new sweater design and it just wouldn't cooperate. I finally set it aside and went to the airport. I'll deal with it when I have more patience. The girls had a great time in LA. They went to the beach, Disneyland, horseback riding by the Hollywood sign, and—because my sister-in-law works in the film industry—they attended the world premiere of the Cheetah Girls' new movie on Tuesday night (if you watch the Disney Channel you will know who the Cheetah Girls are). As much as I enjoyed the week alone with the husband, I was very happy to see them and have all of us together again under one roof. The husband had to fire two of his employees this week, one of whom has worked for us for 6 or 7 years (that's a long time in the construction business). These two employees got along fine at work, but they had a history of drinking together and getting into fights with each other. This time the fight ended up with one of them being arrested and the other one needing surgery. We really don't care what our employees do off the clock, but when they pull stunts like this that impact the husband's ability to get jobs done on time, then it becomes our business. I really don't understand what motivates people sometimes. The construction business is slowing down here, as it is everywhere, and if I had a job that paid me well, with a great boss who was willing to cut me some slack every now and then so I could meet with my parole officer, I'd make darn sure I didn't do anything stupid that might get me fired. But I know that some people don't think, and that's what gets them into trouble over and over and over again. I made a pot of pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans) yesterday. The zucchini are appearing in my garden and I am trying to find things to do with them. I love pasta e fagioli. No one else here gets excited about my vegetarian creations so I get to eat them all by myself. And I did. In fact, I am going to have some for breakfast right now.
August 13, 2008: Just Doing His Job, Again Rusty would not stop barking last night. He was down in the laundry room having a fit and we assumed there was wildlife wandering around outside. The husband came down and yelled at him and eventually he stopped. The husband was reading the paper this morning when Rusty began barking and bouncing around the laundry room again. He was trying to get something under the laundry tub, so the husband moved some stuff around and lo and behold—there was a garter snake hiding out there! An immature one, but a snake nonetheless. I think that's a first for us. We had black snakes in our house in Pennsylvania (and therefore no mice), but we've never had snakes in this house. The husband collected the snake and took it out to my garden (he was dressed, I wasn't). I hope this was an isolated incident. I like snakes—in my garden, not my house. Really. If I wanted to be side-by-side with wildlife, I'd live in a tent in the yard. The mitten is an unqualified success! I am so tickled with the way it turned out that I just want to wear it all the time. I settled for putting it on my hand mannequin and placing it on my desk. I'll take it to Camas Creek tomorrow and get the yarn to make the real pair. I have to stay tied to the computer today; I have a bunch of layout work (ads and stuff) that needs to get finished and sent to the appropriate parties. I'm also getting wary of being away from the house for too long. We had a lightning storm over the weekend and some spot fires up have popped up in the mountains. It's been more windy than usual and the temps are supposed to heat up—not a good combination. Our fire chief always says that Fair Week is the unofficial start of fire season around here. He should know—he's lived here all his life and he's seen plenty of wildfires. You cat lovers out there might want to check out the sister's fiance's blog with pics of their four cats playing with the catnip rat I made for them (no synchronized sleeping at their house!).
August 12, 2008: A Shot of Color I'm still here. I wanted to get that bedroom done this week. I am making progress.
I love the color. It makes me happy every time I go into this room. The quilt was an unplanned flash of inspiration: I have lots of framed "sheep" art and after I got it all put back up on the walls the way I wanted, I still had a large expanse of blank wall. As much as I like the color, that wall needed something. The quilt has been hanging on a wall rack in my hallway for the past couple of years. The husband's (now 95 year-old) grandmother made it. As I passed it the other day, I realized that it was the right size and the colors would coordinate nicely with the rest of the bedroom. So yesterday I stopped at the quilt store in town and picked up some nifty quilt clamps—they are blocks of wood with a groove and a marble. You slide the quilt in front of the marble and the weight of the quilt pulling down on the marble holds the quilt in place. Genius! No damage to the quilt. While I was at Bed Bath & Beyond picking out the valance, I also got a new pillow. It's one of those latex foam ones inside a cover filled with goose down and it's specifically designed for side sleepers. I've had so much trouble with my neck over the past year and the chiropractor said the right pillow should fix the problem. I think I found the right pillow. I woke up this morning and for the first time in many months my head feels like it's properly balanced on my neck. And I did not have to keep waking up during the night to beat my pillow into submission in order to sleep on it. We need a couple more items to finish off the room. One of them is something the husband requested. He wants a bench under the window, preferably with some storage for his jeans (I kicked him out of the closet a long time ago because I needed the space). I did some looking on the Internet but couldn't find anything I liked (if it was the right color—oak—it was the wrong style and if it was the right style, it was the wrong color). I stopped at one of the furniture stores in town yesterday and found an oak bench with storage in the seat. I had to order it, so we won't have it for a couple of weeks yet. The other thing I'd like to get is a headboard for our bed. It needs something to "anchor" it to the room. I'm sure there are some other things we could change (like the lights by the bed), but it's a process. We've also had some weird stuff going on around here—things happening on the fire department and some issues with the husband's business. None of it is anything we can't deal with; it's just interesting that this stuff is happening now and it makes me wonder if the stars are misaligned again or something. And my knitting has been frustrating me to no end. I am teaching a mitten class this fall at Camas Creek. Melanie asked for a shop model to display which I thought was a great idea because I want to include a mitten pattern in the Winter newsletter anyway. I picked out yarn. The yarn wasn't right for the pattern I chose. I picked out more yarn. Nope, still no luck. Finally I went and dug some yarn out of my stash, tossed out the pattern I originally wanted to use, and came up with something completely different. Cross your fingers—this seems to be working. The husband came over by my knitting chair last night (after about my 50th long-winded sigh, I think) and asked me what I was trying to make. "A mitten! A simple mitten!" I said. "I can design and knit the most complicated Arans and I cannot make a simple mitten!" Actually, I think mittens (and by extension, gloves) are some of the most diffcult items to cable. The shaping doesn't bother me—it's trying to put a cable pattern into that tiny amount of real estate in a way that looks nice and with numbers that work out properly (for instance, you cannot allocate half the stitches to the back of the mitten and half to the palm, because the cables will make the back narrower than the palm—not good design). But I like what I've come up with. I will knit this prototype in my stash yarn and then I will go back to I leave you with a picture of the gold medal winners in the Olympic event of Synchronized Sleeping: Chester and Rusty. It's not a great picture because I was trying to get it without waking them up.
They're good, aren't they? It's all that training they do.
August 8, 2008: Second Honeymoon My girls and my mother-in-law left for Los Angeles yesterday. They (and my father-in-law) are spending a week with the husband's sister, who lives there. The husband and I are alone for the first time since DD#1 was born. Don't worry, we have plenty to keep us occupied. It was a gorgeous night last night, so I went to fire training with the guys. They took the engines up to the north end of a local lake and set up a dump tank:
They filled it with water (and got a shower in the process—that water was
They transferred the water from the dump tank to the engine:
And then they shot water from the deck gun on top of the engine:
That's the husband manning the deck gun. I can't help myself—he's so darn handsome in his fire gear that I had to take another picture:
A family was swimming up where we set up the dump tank. They got out of the water, but stayed around to watch the festivities. I talked to them a bit about what was happening. I think our department is very good about public relations and we try to make ourselves accessible to our customers as much as possible. They seemed to be impressed that we were out practicing for wildfire season (let's hope we don't need to use the skills we practiced). I got our bedroom cleaned out yesterday in preparation for painting. I just need to have the husband help me move a few pieces of furniture so I can give the carpet a good thorough vacuuming. Today I will patch some holes in the walls (from where I hung pictures) and tape off all the woodwork. It's supposed to rain tomorrow. That will squash all temptation to be outside and we'll be able to get this room finished. I've been doing a bit of knitting here and there, but nothing really exciting enough to show you or talk about. This always happens after I finish a newsletter. It's like I need a few days to decompress and do something other than knit.
August 7, 2008: Tag, You're It Joan, at FugueStateKnits, has tagged me for a meme. I have never been tagged before so this is a new experience! Thanks, Joan. Here is what I am supposed to do: 1. Put the logo on your blog:
I will admit that I am a blog-reading fanatic. I've got 145 blog feeds listed on Bloglines, and reading new entries is one of the things I do every morning while reading my coffee at 4:30 a.m. (or earlier, depending upon Chester's mood). Here are my favorites (not all knitting, sorry): 1. I love Fran Malone's blog Where Fiber Meets Mud. Fran has such an interesting perspective on things and I've told her before that if she compiled all her blog posts, she'd have a great little book. 2. Chrissy Gardiner's blog Knittin' Mom is always good for a laugh and not just because she posted about her visit to Montana. Chrissy is very honest and funny about what it's like to be a knitting designer with kids and I can relate to everything she says. 3. I am not officially a vegetarian but I like vegetarian recipes and Kathleen's Vegetarian Kitchen is full of them. I have gotten more good recipes from this blog than just about anywhere else. 4. Booksquare is my favorite blog about life in the publishing industry. The author pulls no punches when talking about the way things are and the way they are going. Plus, she is a knitter. 5. When I check in to Deb Robson's The Independent Stitch, I never know if I am going to be treated to a post about knitting, spinning, or indie publishing, but it doesn't matter—they are all good! 6. I also read a couple of firefighting blogs so I can keep up with discussions that happen at fire department business meetings. Firefighter Hourly is an excellent blog. (Firefighter Close Calls is another one, but I try not to check that one too often as it makes me nuts.) 7. I would nominate my sister's blog but she's not very good about posting regularly (hint, hint), so I will list her fiance's blog, Skulls in the Stars, instead. It's subtitled "Physics, pulp fantasy and horror, and a bit of politics" and that's a pretty accurate description. I will admit that sometimes the posts on physics leave me in the dust (college physics was 20 years ago), but it's still an interesting read. So there you have it—a bit of my morning reading. When last I saw the baby robins, the mama and daddy had them over by the edge of the woods, out of Rusty-range. I think we got them safely launched without incident. Chester gave me a bit of a scare yesterday—he was fine Tuesday, but when I came down to let him out yesterday morning he was staggering around. I know that's a signal that he's having an adrenal crash from too much stress, so I loaded him up with some extra prednisone and kept him inside. We're supposed to "stress dose" him with a bit of extra meds when we think he's going to be under extra pressure, but I never know when that will be, although I am seeing a pattern emerge—when we have houseguests. My mother-in-law is here and that must have thrown him. He's much better this morning.
August 6, 2008: Leaving the Nest Today was fledging day for the baby robins. I've been watching them for the past couple of days and I figured they were ready to go; I was worried that they were going to bump each other out because they were moving around so much. One left early this morning—I can only hope that Rusty didn't get it. I don't think so. He did position himself below the nest, though, and wouldn't move. I finally made him come into the house. It was a good thing because not 10 minutes later, the second baby bird climbed out of the nest, spread his wings, and leaped off the porch rafter. He made it safely into the garden where Mama was waiting. Now we're just waiting for this little fellow (I know, I'm calling them all males) to head out:
It's been three hours since baby #2 left, and I can hear Mama calling for this one, but he won't go. He climbs out of the nest, looks down, then climbs back in again. If Rusty needs to go out, I'm taking him out on the leash and bringing him right back in. We're painting our bedroom this weekend. I picked out two shades of the same color (a rich gold) and it's a good thing I checked them on the walls because one of them is a brassy gold with green undertones that really fights with the red duvet cover I chose. So tomorrow I am off to Sherwin-Williams to buy paint and the husband and I will get that done on Saturday. I think Sunday will be the day for our hike to the Numa Ridge Fire Lookout (if it's not raining). It should be fun. I definitely will take pictures.
August 5, 2008: The Book Becomes a Monster (Again) One of the things I hear from knitting designers who've been published by traditional publishing companies is that they don't like the loss of control of their creative vision that seems to accompany the experience. The most common complaint I've heard is that too much material gets cut. Let me tell you, after yesterday, I was wishing for an editor who could ruthlessly pare down the contents of Cables 2. I am still mired in Chapter 1. The problem is that every time I choose or design a cable pattern that illustrates what I want to talk about in that chapter, I get hit with another idea—what if I changed this, or tried that?—and the next thing you know, the book has another two pages. I know, there are worse problems I could have, but I do need to get this book finished and there are 11 more chapters ahead of me. It's time to channel Mary Poppins and declare "Enough is as good as it gets," and move on to Chapter 2, where I'm sure I'll encounter the exact same problem. Oh well, at least I am making some forward progress. My sister requested a large catnip mouse for her cats, so last night I dug out some bulky brown yarn from my stash and whipped up something that more closely resembles a rat. I hope the kitties like it. I only have dogs, so I have no idea what turns cats on.
August 4, 2008: Art vs Engineering? Madame de Farge, you brought up a thought-provoking point. Thank you and Donna both for your comments. I think I've blogged about this before—it's interesting that it keeps coming up again and again. Is what I do art, or engineering? I'm going to plant myself firmly in the middle of the fence and say it's both. While I never wanted to be an engineer like my father, I have always had a great appreciation for all things geeky and if you could have seen me locked in my room with my Commodore 64 computer when I was 16, you would have despaired of the possibility that I would ever get married and have children. However, I also remember that somewhere back then, I had a very strong desire to create and that desire somehow found its outlet in knitting. I knit in college. I was the only person I knew who knit in college. I had a subscription to Vogue Knitting, and I had two books: Great Knitting in Vogue (a collection of their patterns from the 50s, 60s, and 70s); and All Sweaters in Every Gauge, by Barbara Goldstein. I knit quite a few sweaters from the Vogue book, but I was intrigued by the Goldstein book and the possibility that I could create—not just follow a pattern, but actually conceive and plan for—a sweater from the ground up. All of the sweaters I created using the Goldstein book were plain stockinette-stitch sweaters, some with crew necks, some with V-necks—one even had a shawl collar. I didn't think of myself as a "designer" when I was making those sweaters. It was more like I was immersing myself in the fundamentals of pattern drafting. If I had to put a label on that activity, I would say it was more along the lines of "textile engineering." It was a process of taking measurements, plugging in numbers, and following a pattern. Although it was clear by the time I graduated from college that I could draft a basic knitting pattern, I never thought of myself as having the potential to be a "designer." Design was something artists did. I was not an artist. I was going to be a scientist (and how sad for science that much of the "art" associated with that profession has been drummed out of it, for science can be a very artistic endeavor indeed). People even told me I could never be a designer because I approached knitting from a technical angle, not a creative one. As far as I knew, designers were those people with some mystical ability to see a design in their heads and sit down with yarn and needles and make it happen, and that was so not me. When did that change? In 1997 I was working on the last level of the Master Knitting program from TKGA and one of the requirements was to design and knit an Aran sweater. That was one of the few times in my life when I had a vision in my mind and I sat down without a plan and just cast on. That sweater came to life on the needles and I finished it in three weeks. I looked at it when it was done and thought, "Wow, I am a designer." Unfortunately, those lightning strikes of inspiration come few and far between and just aren't a reliable means of creation for me. I've had to come to terms with the way I design, which is to approach things from a technical angle. And that's okay, although I do run the risk of getting stuck within a framework of rules. Sometimes I have to force myself to throw a monkey wrench into the design because it's begging for something a little unusual. And sometimes, even when I have a vision for a design, things don't work out the way I thought they would. One thing I emphasize in my classes is that everyone—everyone—has the potential to be a designer. I have a friend who is an ex-art teacher and he says that he can teach anyone to draw (and I believe him). I think everyone has the potential to create. It just comes more easily/instinctively for some people than others, and we've all got different approaches. At a band concert a few months ago I talked a gentleman well-known here in Kalispell as a big band leader and trombone player. He told me an interesting story about a famous trombonist. This gentleman had been at a conference where the famous trombonist led a master class (that's where musicians come and learn from a great artist in that field). One of the students asked the trombonist how he did it—what were the things that made someone a great musician? I'm sure the student was hoping to get some tips he could apply to his own playing. The great musician's response?—"I just do it." Now there was someone whose innate talent was such that he couldn't communicate what he did beyond "I just do it." I know there are lots of people out there like that. I've always wanted to play music by ear. I am a good pianist, but I can't play by ear to save my life. Part of that (I think) is because at the time I could have learned to play by ear pretty easily, I was taking piano lessons at a music school where playing by ear was NOT encouraged. Playing the notes on the page exactly as written was expected; improvisation was frowned upon. So was playing anything written later than about 1900. However, as a church pianist, improvisation is exactly what I need to do sometimes. But I can't hear how a song is supposed to modulate from one key to another, so I have had to sit down and teach myself different modulations from a book so I can incorporate them into my playing. In that sense I am "engineering" my playing rather than hearing it and allowing it to happen naturally. But hey—I get the same result and you'd be hard pressed to know if I were doing it by ear or playing a modulation I had memorized. The brain is an amazing thing. I worry when we limit ourselves and divide people into categories based on what they can and cannot do naturally. We should all challenge ourselves to stretch mentally, every day. We can do both art and engineering.
August 3, 2008: Thump There is nothing like a little reality check to put things into perspective. I appreciate everyone's comments on yesterday's blog post. You all gave me a lot to think about, and believe me, I've been thinking about it. I haven't worked through it all yet, but I'm not going to let that stop me from getting Cables 2 done. I made quite a bit of progress on it yesterday. Of course, along with the progress came a thousand ideas of things I wanted to do with all of those cables . . . We went to the most wonderful wedding last night. Our minister's daughter got married, and the service was outside in her parents' back yard (they live up the road from us a few miles). She and her fiance planned the whole event. After the service we walked over to the neighbor's yard, which was set up for the reception. The food was wonderful—the bride and groom love to cook, so they made bread for all the tables and a chocolate wedding cake with raspberry sauce. I was sitting there with the husband watching the sunset and I said to him that at that moment there wasn't anywhere else on the planet that could possibly be as perfect as that spot.
August 2, 2008: Back to the Book The Fall issue of Twists and Turns is with my tech editor and scheduled to arrive back here next week. The husband and kids were otherwise occupied yesterday, so I hauled Cables 2 out of the filing cabinet and began going through it again. I've been feeling a bit bothered lately, wondering why I am spending so much time on my knitting business because a lot of joy has just gone out of it. It's been that way, off and on, for several months now. I don't like the feeling that has developed in the industry over the past couple of years, and I can't find a good word to describe it. Maybe I am the only one feeling it, but it seems like everyone is chasing after that one pattern that is going to define knitting as we know it. The problem is, knitting can't be distilled down to one thing, one style, one fashion. I felt a little better after working on Cables 2 yesterday. I am so proud of the work I've done on this series of books. I just feel as though they are underappreciated—Cables 1 even more so than Aran Sweater Design. It's hard to put into words, but all my life I've been so far ahead of the curve that I never seem to be in the right place at the right time. It's like when Apple released the Newton in 1993. The world wasn't ready for a PDA in 1993, but now it seems like we can't live without them. They had a great idea; it was just too early. I was a self-publishing maverick—I've been self-publishing since 1996. Now self-publishing is being lauded as the new driving force in the knitting industry. Back in 1996 I said the knitting world needed a book on finishing techniques and people laughed at my idea. Huh. Now there are several books on finishing. Maybe it wasn't such a stupid idea after all. I often indulge in this fantasy that after I am gone, the knitting world will suddenly "discover" me and my work, and knitters will be asking each other, "Why didn't I know about her when she was alive?" (and I'll be up there scratching my head and saying, "But I spent $4000 a year on advertising in Interweave Knits!"). I envision my books and newsletters selling for hundreds of dollars on eBay because people don't want to pass up the opportunity to have the huge amount of knowledge that's packed into my publications. Perhaps I am delusional. I believe in the power of the free market, and I've always believed that if something is excellent, it will be successful. I also know, though, that there are plenty of great creative works out there that languish in oblivion—through no fault of the creator—just as lots of stuff that probably shouldn't ends up on best-seller lists. It's the way things work. This sounds like a self-indulgent pity party and it's not meant to be. It's more me trying to work through the existential knitting crisis that's been plaguing me for the past six months. I felt better after working on Cables 2 yesterday, because I know that when this series of books is done, there isn't going to be anything else like it on the planet. And even if the books never make the knitting best-seller list, I will find great satisfaction in having written them. So that's what I am going to do.
August 1, 2008: Fall Issue Sneak Peek! I am trying to be better about getting the sneak peeks for each issue up on the website (this is also a separate web page but I am putting the photos here for you to view).
Subscribers should expect to see this issue around the middle to end of August. What else is happening? My mother says I should find a better picture of her to post on my blog (her excuse is that she was pregnant with my sister and thus the bad hair day) so I am working on that. I took the four projects pictured above which I designed to Camas Creek for Melanie to use as shop models. She was very excited about the Perendale yarn used in the Aran and plans to order some. Yay! The husband and I were sitting on the porch yesterday afternoon watching the mama robin feed grasshoppers to the babies (there are three). I told Rusty to forget about having cornish game hen for dinner and that he should just leave the babies alone. He got distracted by a couple of squirrels and stopped listening to me. Debbie, I don't know if I should show you pictures of my stash. It is embarrassing. Perhaps I will show you pictures of my stash of Brunswick Germantown. It increased by a couple of skeins last week when the lovely Whit Robbins of Atlanta sent me some in a pretty heathered navy blue. I think it's so cool that so many of my friends have sent me Germantown in coordinating colors, and I think I should make myself an afghan using it. That way I can look at it and remember what great friends I have. My kids are going to Los Angeles next week with my in-laws, and I have a whole list of projects planned. Yesterday I bought a new duvet cover for our bed and picked up a selection of paint chips so DD#2 and I could pick out the color for the walls (our bedroom is the only room is the house that hasn't ever been painted, and we've lived here 12 years—I am tired of white walls). Today I need to get quarts of a couple of the colors we liked, and paint them on the walls. It's too hard to tell from a 3" x 3" paint chip if a color is going to work, and it's a big room. I started a man's sweater design and I doubt very much this one is going to tell me it wants to be something different. The yarn is from The Irish Ewe in a deep brown color. It's kind of scratchy to knit with, but I made a large swatch (6" x 6") and when I washed it, the yarn softened up nicely. We made another chocolate cake.
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