• Cruise to Alaska with JC Briar and me aboard a Craft Cruise scheduled for September 6-13, 2009! We promise it will be full of knitting and great fun!

November 29, 2008: Creativity Every Day

Our pastor came up with an interesting Sunday School class this quarter. We've been watching videos. DVD's are so cheap to create and mail that our church has been inundated with lots of videos on all sorts of topics. He decided that we would spend 12 weeks watching some of them. We've run the gamut from videos on peace to living with bipolar disorder. Last Sunday's video was Everyday Creativity with DeWitt Jones, a photographer for National Geographic.

A couple of things really caught my interest in this video. First, Jones says that he loves photography so much because it allows him to fall in love (with the world) over and over again. I long ago gave up trying to explain to people why I love knitting—and especially cables—so much. For me, it's like falling in love over and over again every time I cast on for a new project. So, I concluded that I am not as weird as I thought I was.

Second, he says that there is no one right answer to a creative problem. He gave as his examples some assignments for Nat Geo in which he had to provide a photographic "answer" to go with an article. I thought to myself, "It's just like that in knitting." I can say that I want to design a black cardigan; that's the creative "problem." I can answer that creative problem in many different ways: with my choice of yarn, choice of silhouette, choice of stitch pattern. Some of the "answers" may not be as visually appealing as others, but there is no single "right answer" to that creative problem.

I'm working on the last design for the Spring issue right now. I have some wonderful yarn and I know what kind of silhouette I want, but I was getting hung up with the stitch pattern. Much of yesterday was spent trying out different "answers"to the creative problem of what stitches will work well with the yarn and silhouette. I love what I finally decided to use, and I am falling in love with my knitting all over again.

Something else has happened during this video quarter at church, and I think it's really cool. I looked around during the video last week and there were three of us knitting and one of us working on a cross-stitch pattern. It's like a dam has burst. I used to be the only knitter, and I confined my knitting to business meetings. Now half a dozen of us regularly bring knitting projects to all our meetings and Sunday School—mostly charity projects. I keep a baby blanket in the truck to work on, and several of the other women are making prayer shawls. I can't quite bring myself to knit in church (although our pastor says he doesn't mind—he'd rather see people knitting than falling asleep), but I like it that we're all getting a lot of work done when we'd mostly be twiddling our thumbs.

My kids are bored (I am not bored, I have too much to do). We may make a grocery store run today to break up the tedium. They cleaned yesterday so I don't even have that to fall back on.

November 28, 2008: The Perfect Mug for Tea

I think this mug was made especially for me:

I saw it on someone else's blog, so the other day the girls and I stopped at the Starbucks in Kalispell and there they were! I bought one for myself as a birthday present.

Alert: I am actually going to talk about yarn and knitting.

DD#2 and I inventoried the stash of Brunswick Germantown the other night. I don't have enough black to knit a sweater, so I've been shopping for something else. It's at times like this that I seriously consider starting my own line of yarns. I know what I want and it doesn't exist.

I want to make myself a black, cabled cardigan that I can use when we go to Europe. My first choice of yarn would be a Bluefaced Leicester, but in a DK weight, not the Aran or worsted weights that are widely available. I want a worsted-spun, 3-ply or 4-ply yarn, NOT superwash. Ashland Bay Trading Company has this:

The Klickitat (on the left) is just about the perfect weight, but it only comes in natural. I am just not at the place right now where I want to dye my own yarn. Lot of places are selling BFL yarn, but it's all space-dyed and not good for cablework.

Cascade 200 would give me the gauge I want (as it's really closer to a light worsted than a true worsted yarn), but I am just not as enamored of that yarn as are lots of other knitters. Back when I started designing I made half a dozen sweaters with Cascade 220 and Plymouth Galway (basically the same yarn). My reaction when I pick up that yarn is "eh." It's like being offered a hamburger after you've tasted an elk steak.

And so I ordered a batch of black Lion Brand Lion Wool. If I can't have Brunswick Germantown, this is the next-best thing. I've already designed and knit two sweaters out of Lion Wool. It is a smooth worsted-style yarn and it wears like iron.

Before I can start that black cardigan, though, I have to get one more design cast on and knit for the Spring issue. That's on the schedule for today (we're not going shopping), as is the final run-through of the DVD, working on Cables 2, and putting the finishing touches on DD#2's sweater. I should have plenty to keep me busy, and the best part is that it's all knitting!

November 27, 2008: Happy Thanksgiving!

We have lots to be grateful for, even in the midst of turmoil. Let's not forget that.

November 25, 2008: Celebrate at School

I've decided that from now on, I am going to arrange it so that I am working at the school on my birthday. Yesterday morning DD#2's class came filing into the office, bearing lemon cake and singing "Happy Birthday" to me. I did not get a picture of the cake before I ate it, unfortunately. It was yummy.

My friend Michelle, who splits subbing duties with me, brought me a balloon (she said the selection at the grocery store was pretty limited):

and some candy:

And at the end of the day, the first-graders brought me birthday cards and hugs:

It was a lovely way to spend my birthday.

I came home, did some knitting, and sat and talked to the husband while we watched football. My mother sent me a beautiful card with some birthday money (thanks, Mom!) which presents me with a dilemma: I don't know what to buy myself. I need to think on that a bit.

I got the (hopefully) final version of the DVD yesterday. I'll watch it this weekend and it should be available for sale in a couple of weeks.

November 24, 2008: Happy Birthday to Me

I am 43 today. Because there was a time when I didn't think I'd see 30, turning 43 makes me very happy indeed. I just wish I'd stop getting carded at the grocery store.

And because we desperately need a picture (even a four decades-old one), here I am at my first birthday party. Love that doll cake!

A friend of mine was going to take me out to lunch today, but our school secretary had a death in her family and I am subbing for her today. I was already on the schedule to sub for her tomorrow, so I just told her to stay home with her family and I'd cover both days. The kids only have two days of school this week.

I've already told the husband and the girls that all I want to do from Wednesday to Sunday is cook Thanksgiving dinner and knit. I might take them to a movie on Thursday afternoon, but the rest of the time I just want to stay home. That will be my birthday present to myself.

November 23, 2008: Lame Blogger

I'd like to have some pictures to show you, but 1) it's too dark and 2) the pictures I DO take are coming out blurry and useless. Yesterday morning I was on my way to the high school to judge the speech and debate competition and I stopped on Main Street in Kalispell and tried to take some pictures. It was still dark and all the Christmas lights were lit. There were no other cars on the road. It was so pretty, but I could not get a picture to do it justice.

It's a good thing I left home early yesterday morning. Kalispell now has two high schools. For the last four years I have judged at the old high school. I wandered in there yesterday morning and wondered why it was so quiet. Then I looked at my judging card. I was supposed to be at the other high school! I drove over there (it's about 15 minutes away) and arrived one minute before my scheduled judging time. Whew!

After judging, I headed to Camas Creek to work. It was a busy day! I had four new adult knitting students in the morning (the store gives free knitting lessons on Saturdays). I like teaching new knitters. Everything about knitting is a joy and wonder to them.

Last time I worked on a Saturday, traffic slowed down about 3 p.m. Not yesterday. In fact, I got a call at about 4 p.m. from a mother who wondered if she and her seven year-old daughter could come in and learn to knit. I said sure, I'll be here until 6 p.m. They got there around 5 p.m. The little girl was just adorable—very smart, and very motivated to learn to knit. She picked out some yarn and needles, I cast on, showed her how to make the knit stitch a couple of times, and away she went! She was already planning her next three projects (socks!—she wants to make socks!). Mom also learned to knit, although I think she'll be asking her daughter to help her, not the other way around. It was a nice end to the day.

My naturopath and his wife and kid wandered in, too. His wife knits. He looked surprised to see me and said, "What are you doing here?" I said, "Oh, this is another one of my many jobs."

Perhaps if it's light long enough and I am home long enough this afternoon, I'll be able to find something interesting to photograph.

November 22, 2008: And Now, Back To Knitting

Yesterday was a lovely day. I did not have to go anywhere. I made a pot of chicken soup, did some laundry, got the hard copies of the Winter issue of the newsletter ready to mail next week, sent the digital subscribers' copies out (so far, no glitches), and got the body of DD#2's sweater done (yay!—some knitting!). The sleeves should be easy to knock out—they are set-in sleeves but I plan to knit them from the top down to make it easy to lengthen them later if necessary. She should be wearing this by Thanksgiving.

I wanted to show you the Ford F-150 commercial we saw the other night while watching Cleveland play Buffalo, but it's not posted on YouTube (the other F-150 commercials are, just not this particular one). The commercial touts the wonders of the 2009 Ford F-150 and at one point makes the comment, "this truck isn't for you if all you haul is yarn." I heard that and almost fell off my chair. The husband was laughing so hard I thought he was going to fall out of his recliner. I told him I was going to load all my yarn—and I have a fair bit, mind you—into the bed of MY truck (which is coughDodgecough just a tad bigger than the F-150), take a picture, and send it to Ford. I do haul yarn with my truck. I've also hauled a two-ton pallet of clay, a load of floor tiles, lumber, and lots of other Very Heavy Stuff.

So there.

The husband said he was surprised that there was an advertising company out there which was once again risking the ire of knitters (and one knitter in particular) by making fun of us.

I am heading to the high school shortly to be a judge for the speech and debate invitational. I've done this for the past three years and it's great fun. The first year I judged legislative debate, which was fascinating, but takes about two hours. The past two years I've judged Lincoln-Douglas debate. That's a much shorter debate format. I'm hoping to do L-D again, as I have to be at Camas Creek to work at 10 a.m. (I judge at 8 a.m.). It's supposed to be a cold, rainy day. I hope we get lots of knitters in the store.

And Chester is still doing just fine. He wants to eat everything in sight, and he gets very annoyed when we won't play fetch. I'm gradually switching him over to a higher-calorie dog food recommended by the vet. What a lucky dog he is.

November 20, 2008: Miracle Dog

The vet was just blown away by how well Chester is doing. There is a chance—a small one, but a chance—that he will relapse again in a few days, but the vet said he thinks Chester has "turned a corner" and will continue to do well. I brought him home yesterday and kept him in our laundry room. I think he is bored to tears and would like to go find some tennis balls. I am not taking any chances. I am going to make him lie low for a few days. We've adjusted his meds, and I am going to change his diet slightly. The vet says there is no reason why Chester can't have some veggies raw or cooked (the last time he sneaked into the kitchen he went straight for the butternut squash on the counter).

So I've dealt with that crisis. I was hoping to have a few days to decompress, but it looks like that is not to be. More unexpected stuff has come up. I am so looking forward to having a quiet Thanksgiving next week.

I was doing the daily debriefing to the husband the other night while cooking dinner, and halfway through I stopped and said, "You know, you used to be married to a famous knitting designer. Any idea where she went?" I do try to be flexible—stuff like this happens from time to time and I recognize that I need to put my work on the back burner and deal with it. But it really increases my stress level when I see work piling up on my desk.

I am hoping to have something really interesting to post tomorrow. I saw it during the Cleveland—Buffalo game on Monday Night Football.

November 18, 2008: Still With Us

I fully expected to call the vet's office this morning and hear that Chester was not doing well. Instead, I found out that he was up and moving around and had gone outside for a few minutes. The woman I spoke with said it would be fine for me to stop in and check on him, so after I dropped DD#1 off at school, DD#2 and I went to see how he was doing.

He looks much better. The vet says he's not out of the woods yet, though. He wants to keep him on IV fluids for one more day, at which point he'll check his kidneys again. If we're lucky, this was an isolated crisis and he'll recover. If not, he will probably continue to decline.

November 17, 2008: Crash

I apologize for the abysmal lack of knitting content in my blog in recent days. Stars must be misaligned somewhere, at least that's what it feels like to me.

I have to get Chester to the vet this morning. If you remember, Chester has Addison's disease, in which the body doesn't make enough cortisol. Without cortisol, you die (kinda like thyroid hormone). Fortunately we have a great vet who got Chester onto prednisone and fludrocortisone and for the most part he is stable and acts like a normal dog. Every so often, though, he gets more stressed-out than usual, uses up his cortisol supply, and "crashes." It almost always happens when we have houseguests, but occasionally happens for no reason.

And it's fast. I got home yesterday afternoon and noticed that he was drooling excessively (one of the signs of an imminent crash). I got half a prednisone (hidden in a piece of bread) into him right away, planning to give him another half a bit later.

A bit later he refused to eat, so I couldn't get any more prednisone into him. I hate when this happens, because the husband and I have to pry his mouth open and make him take it. Chesapeakes are very stubborn. I called the vet around 6 p.m., and he said to get two full prednisone tablets into him and see how he did (the usual daily dose is one-fourth of a prednisone tablet). When we've done that in the past, he's perked up within a couple of hours and been fine the next day. By bedtime last night he was better, but not great.

I am a bit distressed this morning to see he has not recovered like he normally does. He is still drooling, but he got up and went outside for a few minutes. I am going to call the vet in a bit and ask if I can drop the dog off on my way to my doctor's appointment. The vet said last night that he wants to do another blood test anyway this week to see if Chester's meds need adjustment, and he can also give him a cortisone shot that will work more effectively than the pills. And I would feel better having him somewhere where they can treat him immediately if he starts to go downhill.

The vet warned me two years ago when we discovered the Addison's that Chester might not have a normal lifespan (he turned 8 in July). I've made it my mission to keep this dog alive as long as possible (it's not only the dog who is stubborn). The vet has been wonderful—he doesn't mind my emergency calls on weekends, which is always when this seems to happen. Whenever he sees Chester he tells him what a lucky dog he is.

And I hope when I see my doctor this morning that we can get the new thyroid meds underway. I hate feeling like I am only operating with 50% of my brainpower and energy, especially when these unforeseen crises pop up.

The stromboli-making turned out to be a rousing success. The kids had a great time making it, and everyone had a great time eating it. Choir practice was terrific. Our choir is the biggest it has been in a long time (the children of those of us who usually sing are now also singing with us). Even though I am not playing the accompaniment for the performance, I love to play it for practice and listen to all the voices. We are a church full of accomplished singers.

Off to town. Wish me luck.

November 16, 2008: Duty Calls

I would like nothing more than to stay home today but I can't. The youth (including DD#1) are responsible for the meal today after church. One of our members is a baker and he suggested that we make stromboli. He offered to come and show the kids how to do it. I went and bought all the supplies on Friday (it really throws the supermarket deli people for a loop when you ask them to slice the pepperoni lengthwise). He called me yesterday and said he had just gotten a new job and had to begin work this morning, so he won't be there. I got a crash course over the phone on stromboli construction (amazingly like kolache).

So I will go up to the church at 8 a.m. and help supervise the stromboli making. There really isn't any point in coming home; we also have choir practice after lunch. I can't sing with this cold (unless it's with the basses), but I have to play parts on the piano. We're using an accompaniment CD for the actual performance, but in order for everyone to learn their parts, we practice with the piano, first. Me not there = no way to practice.

The husband says I have an overblown sense of duty (thanks, Mom) and that other people can pick up the slack. He's right—to a point. Not everyone can play parts so the choir can learn a piece of music.

Enough whining.

I went back to Camas Creek for an hour or so yesterday morning and marveled at the lovely gloves the students were making in Terri's Selbuvotter class. I hope that Terri enjoyed her visit and comes back again. I would liked to have spent more time visiting with her, but I really wanted to come home and rest knit. So I did.

I worked on DD#2's design for a while, but I ran into a snag and ripped out most of what I had gotten done. The issue is with the placement of the armhole openings. I knit the body in one piece because the yarn is chunky and I didn't want seams. However, the front is cabled and the back is plain stockinette (thus, differing gauges) and I really need to block the body to determine where to place the armhole openings. The swatch bloomed and grew quite a bit; I know the sweater will do the same thing. So I put the body on a piece of waste yarn and I'll wash it today.

I did get a nice surprise when I came home yesterday. Apprently the three other people who live here realized that I wasn't joking when I said that we DON'T have a maid and that the house doesn't magically clean itself, especially when I am out running construction company and school errands. The husband organized the girls and they swept, mopped, dusted and cleaned the living room and all of the bathrooms. (I was tempted to come through and mess things up like they do when I clean, but I am not that cruel—and besides, I wanted to enjoy the cleanliness.)

The earrings came out. My ears were starting to bother me so I took one of the earrings out and was suprised to see how red and angry the hole looked (you couldn't see that with the earring in). Rather than tempt fate, I just took them out. I think I will just have to refrain from wearing those earrings except on special occasions when I only leave them in for a few hours. Bummer.

November 15, 2008: Take Your Vitamin C

I discovered Emergen-C about two years ago. There may be no scientific basis for its efficacy, but as I always tell my doctor, the only clinical trials whose results interest me are the ones I do on myself. Once I began taking Emergen-C every day, the rate at which I contracted cold viruses dropped dramatically. The immunity extended even to working at the germ factory elementary school.

It has one flaw—it doesn't work if you don't take it. I have been really good about drinking a glass of Emergen-C every morning and this year have avoided all but one very minor cold (which I got right after school started). However, I've been so busy this week running hither and yon that I completely forgot to take the stuff. And guess what I have now? A cold.

I will double-up on the Emergen-C for the next couple of days. It might not make the cold go away, but it should help make it less annoying.

I went to Terri Shea's presentation at Camas Creek last night. Wow! It was fascinating, and Terri is an energetic and engaging teacher. Unfortunately, I had to leave early to retrieve children from evening activities. I don't do a lot of stranded knitting, but I love knitting history. Terri told us about Marit, an enterprising 16 year-old girl who designed the first pair of Selbuvotter and launched an entire knitting tradition. And at some point (I don't remember the exact date), a law was passed in Norway that allowed women knitters to keep all of the income they earned instead of having to turn it over to their husbands. Yay Norway!

I was going to spend the day at Camas Creek, but I think I am only going to go in for an hour or so. What I really want is to stay home, build a fire, make a pot of soup, and sit in my chair and knit. There has been precious little actual knitting happening here lately.

The earrings are still in, but unfortunately my ears are still mildly itchy. I haven't had earrings in for a number of years, so I am wondering if the holes just need to heal up and become tough again the way they do after an intial piercing. I'll give it a few more days.

What are all of you knitting?

November 14, 2008: Earrings?

I would like you all to look at this:

That is my ear. With an earring in it. It has been there for twelve hours (which is eleven hours and 59.9 minutes longer than I've been able to wear any other earrings). I bought a pair of titanium earrings to see if I could wear them. The experiment has not been an unqualified success—my ears are still slightly red and itchy, but the discomfort is bearable. I am going to see how long I can wear these earrings without my ears getting infected. If it turns out I cannot wear titanium, palladium is my last hope (and I hear it's pretty expensive). All I want is one nice pair of earrings that I can wear comfortably.

The husband assures me that he doesn't care if I wear earrings or not, but I told him it's not about him. It's about me. And I am at a loss how someone could be so allergic to metal.

Doreen, if you're still reading this blog, do you remember a Darkover story about poisoned metal catenas bracelets that caused the wearer to do strange things? She only got relief when she wrapped the bracelet in a cloth so that it was no longer touching her skin? That's what I feel like.

Other news and updates: The visit with our accountant went well. He had some comforting information about the local economy.

We had a fire department meeting last night and got the news that the 911 center bond finally did pass—by something like 206 votes. God bless those 206 people. Work on the center will begin in the spring and hopefully dispatch will be in the new center a year from now. We're also getting new repeaters on top of some of the mountains which will help get the signals out to us. One of the county commissioners is a member of our fire department and I am so impressed at the amount of work he has done to make this a reality. I just think it's a shame that there are 20,000+ people in Flathead County who believe that quality emergency service is a luxury and one they don't want to pay for.

And this is a big weekend at Camas Creek Yarn—Terri Shea, author of Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition, will be presenting a talk on the subject, and teaching a workshop at the store tomorrow. I didn't sign up for the class (there were only 10 spots and I wanted knitters in Kalispell to have a chance to experience it), but I'll be at the store tonight and tomorrow to help out. Terri is a fellow self-publisher and I am excited about getting to meet her in person.

November 13, 2008: Getting Ready for 2009

I have a meeting with our accountant today. Yes, it's only November, but I discovered that it makes the end-of-the-year go a lot more smoothly if I meet with him now. I spent some time yesterday organizing files and paperwork. My goal is to get everything to him for tax prep no later than the second week of January. I like to get it over and done with so it's not hanging over my head.

The husband and I had a long talk about the current state of affairs last night. I could obssess endlessly about things so it's nice to have him around for periodic reality checks. Both of us think things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Fortunately, I am relatively conservative with our finances. Four of us live on a lot less than most people, and that includes paying for our own health insurance. We've been self-employed for 20 years—and there were some pretty lean times in there. So while we think we're positioned to ride out this economic downturn, the big unknown is how much we'll be affected by other peoples' inability to do so.

It just fries me, for example, that there will be homeowners getting their mortgages rewritten to much more favorable terms than we have, just because they overextended themselves and were irresponsible with their finances. I half-jokingly said to the husband the other night that perhaps I won't pay the mortgage for three months just to see if the bank calls and offers to do the same for us. Of course they won't—they need responsible people like us to help pay for the losses they are going to take rewriting all those loans.

Sophfronia Scott (who is married to an old friend of mine), was one of the authors of the Time Magazine article in 1990 that introduced the term "Generation X." From her bio page:

Just one month after graduating in 1988 Sophfronia went to work for Time Magazine. She started off as a researcher but, in early 1990, she and colleague David Gross conceived a cover story that came to be known as “Twentysomething”. They became the magazine’s youngest cover story writers and in the process sparked a worldwide social examination of the phenomenon then known as Generation X.

One of the things I remember about that article was a sentence to the effect that we Gen X'ers are the ones who are going to come behind and pick up the pieces after the world goes to hell in a handbasket. It looks like the world is well on its way to hell, so I guess we should get our brooms and shovels ready.

Moving on to less depressing topics . . .

DD#2 designed a sweater and I think I am going to include it in the Spring issue of the newsletter. She told me what she wanted, and now I am knitting it up (it's weird to be the test-knitter instead of a designer). The sweater is so darling that I'd like to knit one for myself. It should be done in another week or so—the yarn is Araucania Nature Wool Chunky on size 9 needles. It's a fast knit.

I'd like to knit myself a cardigan to wear on the Europe trip. It should be either gray or black so I can wear it with all my outfits. I know I have some black Brunswick Germantown in my stash; the question is, "Do I have enough?" I think a visit to my stash is in order. I thought about making it in the new Rowan Bluefaced Leicester yarn (I picked up a batch of that a few months ago), but I am not sure how practical a cream-colored sweater would be. Oh well. Something along those lines will be next up in the queue, along with another design for the Spring issue.

November 11, 2008: Baking

Yesterday all of this:

became this:

and then this:

and finally, this:

What is "this"? It's an eastern European pastry called kolache (that's just one of many permutations of the spelling, depending upon what area of eastern Europe one's family hails from). It's a sweet dough filled with ground walnuts, or poppyseed, or lekvar—prune butter. I grew up eating kolache and many of my favorite memories from my childhood have to do with this stuff, like the year someone in my family came up with the idea of making lots of kolache to sell for Christmas. For several weekends, my mother, her three sisters, and their mother gathered in my grandmother's kitchen and churned out kolache after kolache to fill orders. And yes, five women together in a kitchen is exactly as bad as you're imagining right now.

When the husband and I got married, my two grandmothers engaged in "kolache wars." They would both show up at church and one would say, "I made 12 kolache for Janet's wedding!" and the other one would say, "I made 15 kolache for Janet's wedding!" We did not lack for kolache at the wedding.

I've made kolache enough times that people around here anticipate my Christmas baking and I've already gotten questions about the availability of this year's batch. I like to do it in early November, before things get crazy.

Alas, making kolache at sea level is much easier than making it up here in the mountains. One year I could not get the dough to rise to save my life. Yeast behaves differently 4000 feet up, apparently. Yesterday I took no chances. I bought fresh yeast and used it generously—perhaps too generously, because if you look at the second picture, you can see how big the dough got! The kolache came out okay, but the dough rose a bit too much and the kolache are more like bread and less like pastry. We're still eating them. I'll pass this batch around to people who don't know any better and make a second batch to put in the freezer. I think my grandmother uses the refrigerator version of that sweet yeast dough, so I think I'll try that with the second batch.

Did you notice my nice bread board? My mother had a similar one that always got used for baking anything, and when I got married, my sister had one made for me. It weighs about 25 pounds but it's impossible to make kolache without it.

I am still knitting, just nothing picture-worthy.

November 10, 2008: Part B—The Pink Pig

You get a two-part post today. We've been sorely lacking in pics on this blog, and tomorrow's post will be very pic-intensive, so I am posting one today.

For my mother, who was enchanted with the pink pig at the processing place when we took last year's deer in:

I remembered to take the camera with me when I dropped the deer off this morning.

The guy in line in front of me was unloading the largest animal I've ever seen. I thought it was an elk (it had spiky antlers), but when I unloaded the deer, the guy from the processing place said it actually was a moose. Unbelievable.

November 10, 2008: Ignore the Boyfriend Curse

A young man (20's) came into Camas Creek (alone) Saturday while I was working. He said he was in town visiting his girlfriend, a knitter, and wanted to see what all the excitement of knitting was about. He asked some questions and looked around at the yarns and said he'd bring her back to buy her some yarn. I hope she knows what a treasure she's got and ignores the boyfriend curse. I knit stuff for my boyfriend and he married me (at which point I promptly stopped knitting stuff for him—heh).

I love the fact that Camas Creek is a place that's comfortable for everyone. We have lots of guys come through there, whether they are husbands of knitters or knitters themselves. Some get a cup of coffee and park themselves in a comfy chair to read a magazine, some help their wives choose projects, and the occasional guy chooses yarn for a project for himself.

I've made enough trips to the auto parts store and the lumber yard that I now speak fairly fluent guy-talk, but it took a while to reach that point. When guys come in to Camas Creek (for whatever reason) I don't want them to feel like they wandered in to the wrong place. I'm sure it helps that Melanie's husband—who is usually dressed as though he's about to go hang out in the wilderness for few days—is often at the store.

It was steadily busy Saturday. I got there about 10 a.m., looked at my watch and it was time for lunch, then looked at my watch again and it was 3 p.m. I taught four beginning knitters. Now that I am trying to teach myself to play the guitar, it was very easy to sympathize with their frustration at not being able to make their brain communicate with their hands.

Squeamish alert: stop reading now. The husband got a deer last night. I was cooking dinner and he called me to come down the road and pick him up (there is a bunch of state land across the road so he doesn't have to travel far to hunt). As I was driving down the road, a HUGE buck walked out right in front of my truck. It was enormous, with a huge rack. I was shocked, as most of the bucks know the minute hunting season starts and disappear. Of course, I didn't have a rifle and it walked right onto private property.

The husband got a doe; he got two B tags and one A tag this year so he could afford to take something a bit smaller than trophy—or as he put it, "to at least get on the scoreboard." DD#2 was hassling him this week about not having gotten a deer yet. The three of them plowed through last year's supply of deer jerky like there was no tomorrow, and she was concerned that we weren't going to have any this year. (Nothing like pressure from one's kids to make hunting really enjoyable.)

I'll take the deer to the processor today and we should have more jerky in a week or so. A local recycling place takes hides and gives a nice pair of leather gloves in exchange. And the husband still has two weeks left to impress his kids with his hunting ability.

November 8, 2008: Save the Date!

I so enjoyed teaching at TKGA's Fall Knit & Crochet Show in Portland in September. We talked to the organizers about the odds of TKGA doing another show in Portland (Stitches was there twice but moved to California) and yesterday I got the news—

TKGA's Spring Knit and Crochet Show will be held in Portland the weekend of May 14-17, 2009!

I plan to submit teaching proposals; if they are accepted, you can bet I will be there again.

Check out the Gallery from the Fall Knit and Crochet Show. You have to search a bit, but there are a few pics of me in there. In one I am teaching, in another I am in the group of Master Knitters at the banquet, and in the last one I am with ChrissyG, Lily Chin, and Chrissy's friend whose name escapes me at the moment (sorry!). We're all standing in Chrissy's booth (Gardiner Yarnworks) at the Market and I am wearing a very comfortable top that makes me look 7 months pregnant. And my cowboy boots.

One of the activities on my to-do list yesterday was winding yarn. I've got a bunch of projects for which the yarn is still in skeins, and work on those projects had stalled. I wound the yarn and put it all in the basket by my knitting chair. And I got the latest round of swatches scanned in to Cables 2, so work is continuing on that.

I'm in kind of holding pattern on this thyroid thing. My doctor wants to try a different treatment protocol, but the thyroid meds we're going to use have to be ordered from an out-of-state pharmacy. I feel better than I did a few weeks ago, although I wouldn't say I am at 100%—more like 75%. I'll be on this new protocol for 3-6 months.

I am working at Camas Creek today. I told Melanie that I would be available as a sub or a floater if someone else couldn't come in to work. I'll probably end up doing just a couple of days a month. On Saturdays the store offers free knitting lessons, so that's what I'll be doing if any newbie knitters come in. It should be fun!

November 7, 2008: The Best Thing About Me

My mother and my sister will not be surprised by this:

Your result for The Best Thing About You Test...

Intelligence

Take The Best Thing About You Test at HelloQuizzy

Of course, there are always exceptions. I taught kindergarten for two days; you'd think I would have figured this out: there were two little girls sitting at two different tables. Both had cute, round faces and dark, wavy hair. I kept getting their names mixed up because they were so hard to tell apart. I mentioned this to DD#2 after school and she said, "Oh, you mean the twins?"

Yes, apparently there are twin sisters in that class and that fact totally escaped me. But I'm still pretty smart.

I plan to stay home today. Kindergarten notwithstanding, I didn't see much of the best of humanity around here this week. Instead, I saw a lot of attitudes and behavior that made me angry and sad. I'd rather be home with my family and my knitting. I've got about two dozen swatches to scan into the layout of Cables 2, and then I'm going to my knitting chair.

November 6, 2008: Blobbles and Knots

We have entered the period of the year where we have a whopping 7 hours of daylight. I feel bad about not having any pictures, but it's been so dark and gloomy that it's hard to take any good ones. How about more of the projects that will be in the Winter issue of Twists and Turns©: The Newsletter for Lovers of Cable Knitting?

This is one of the Blobble Mittens. The stitch pattern creates a bump that's not really a bobble, but more of a blob—hence the name. It's hard to find cable patterns that look good in the small real estate of a mitten, but this pattern worked nicely. The little blobs are in the form of ribbing, so the mitten snugs up on the hand. I'm not usually a mitten person, but I like these a lot.

[Yes, that's snow on the grass behind my hand.]

And this is the True Love Knot Pillow. It features a knot that I translated into knitted form after a discussion on one of the Ravelry forums. I've made the chart available as a free download. It's used here on a pillow, the pattern for which will be in the Winter issue.

This project is an example of me running out of steam on a design. It was getting close to deadline time and it took me a fair bit of experimenting to chart the knot and then knit it up. I crocheted the two pieces of the pillow together but I wasn't happy with the way it looked. I tried I-cord. Nope. I tried some other techniques. Finally I went back to crocheting the pieces together. It's okay, but I still think it needs something.

Because I have to churn out four newsletters year full of designs, I've just had to let go of my personal expectation that every single design is going to be a masterwork. Some of them are, but some fall short. The creation of that love knot cable was no small feat, so I am still pleased with what I came up with.

The 911 center bond is passing by a margin of only 200 votes, and we won't know the official outcome until all the absentee votes are counted. I just can't believe that anyone would vote "no" on something like that, but I've seen it happen here before. I just want to shake those people and ask them how they'd like to pay for a full staff of firefighters at their fire stations instead of this much smaller cost which will make it possible for volunteers to continue to respond to emergencies. My husband gives up a lot to serve as a volunteer firefighter and EMT and it disappoints me that his neighbors don't value that enough to pony up an extra $6 a year. So much for "community."

DD#1 and I went to a dinner/meeting last night about our trip to Europe in February. We all had to pick rommates. Fortunately the mother of one of DD#1's friends is going on the trip, too, and she is a knitter, so we're rooming together. I've already started thinking about what I can take with me that won't require a lot of space in the suitcase. I think it will probably a lace shawl of some sort.

November 5, 2008: I Won't Pay For It

I do not have to sub today. Today I need to locate the top of my desk. I know it's here somewhere. I have book orders to fill. The Winter issue is about to go to the printer. It's the week to pay construction company bills. There is some fire department and church business to attend to. Still lots to do, but I have to find the top of my desk, first.

I am waiting to hear the results of our county bond issue for a new 911 center. Our emergency dispatch system is fragmented, understaffed, and uses equipment we purchased used from a large east-coast city way back in 1981. In the 15 years that the husband has been on the fire department, the number of fire department dispatches that we miss has risen dramatically (we miss them because the aging equipment is no longer able to get the signal out to our house). We've had to install a scanner in our house; the fire department bought us a special pager; and in the past couple of months we've had to set up a telephone system with our neighbor—who is also on the department—to make sure neither he nor the husband is missing a big call. Sometimes those extra fixes work, sometimes they don't.

This is a $6.9 million dollar bond issue, and will levy an additional $6 per $200,000 taxable property value per year. The fact that it's only "narrowly passing" in early vote tallies just frosts me. I just hope that the people who refused to give up a couple of lattes and voted "no" on the bond issue never have a house fire, or a loved one having a heart attack, because if the VOLUNTEER fire department members don't get the message that someone needs help, no one will show up.

I love Montana, but sometimes not the people who live here. Getting any kind of bond passed to provide additional services is like pulling teeth. People vote down anything that might raise their taxes (six dollars, people!), and yet they expect all kinds of services to appear like manna from heaven. Missoula has a similar bond issue on their ballot and I see that it's NOT passing.

There is one thing that I wish would change about this country, and it's the attitude of selfish entitlement that seems to have developed in my lifetime. Imagine where we could be as a country if everyone just gave up a little—gave up some money, some time, or even gave up some of their selfish attitude. It's about all of us, not just some of us.

I wish I had some knitting news to share with you. Things have been so topsy-turvy here in the past week that I haven't been working on anything besides swatches for Cables 2. But I've gotten all sorts of neat new yarns from Camas Creek and I am waiting for a chance to knit some of them up. Stay tuned.

November 4, 2008: Election Day

It seems like the presidential campaign has gone on forever, but today is the day—please exercise your right to vote!

I had great fun in kindergarten yesterday. My friend Michelle was the sub for the other kindergarten teacher. Our classrooms were right next to each other, and we had a good time. The nice thing about kinders is that they get 1) a lot of recesses to burn off all that excess energy and 2) quiet time right after lunch.

We had a bit of confusion in the morning about what to call me. Some of the kids know me from church or the neighborhood. I introduced myself to the other kids as "Mrs. S-------" (I go by the husband's name at school because it's much less confusing and easier to pronounce than "Szabo") and one of the little boys who knows me blurted out, "But your name is 'Janet'!" So then I had 15 kinders calling me Janet. We compromised on Mrs. Janet and that seemed to satisfy them.

It's all good.

My teeth are clean and I have no cavities, although I am heading back early this morning to have some cosmetic work done. A couple of months ago I bit into a piece of hard candy and chipped the bottom of one of my front teeth. It's a tiny tiny chip and I wasn't even going to have it fixed, but the dentist said she could do it easily and it wouldn't require any anesthesia. I dread getting fillings because I often require ridiculous amounts of Novacaine. Two years ago I had a filling replaced on one of my teeth and they had to shoot me up with so much Novacaine that I got a large bruise on my face. For a week I looked as though the husband had backhanded me.

The school just called and I need to be Mrs. Janet again today after my dentist appointment. Michelle is an election judge today, so she'll be at school, but not subbing.

Oh, and I got my blood test back and—as I suspected—the levels were high. I have an appointment with my doctor in two weeks. In the meantime, I am going to increase my thyroid meds back to what I was taking last January when I felt so much better. Maybe I can get something accomplished.

November 3, 2008: 10,000 Hours of Guitar

A friend of mine and his wife came over for dinner last night. We agreed that I would make him chicken and dumplings and he would give me a guitar lesson. I've been teaching myself how to play, but I really needed someone to help me with technique and give me some things to practice. He was very helpful. He's been playing for 35 years—as long as I've been playing the piano—and he says that I just need to practice practice practice. He asked how often I practice the piano and I said, "I try to get in a half an hour every day," and he said, "There you go—same with the guitar."

Oh, yeah. I have to build up some callouses on my fingers. I also need a good chord chart. And at least I'm not trying to learn music theory at the same time.

I read a very interesting book over the summer—This Is Your Brain on Music.

In it, the author (David Levitin), talks about the various ways the human brain process music and what it does with it. I found one of his ideas very intriguing: although some people seem predisposed with a greater amount of musical talent, he believes that anyone can become an expert at anything after a minimum of 10,000 hours of practice.

So if someone can find me another 24 hours in the day in which to practice, it will only take me 416 days to become an expert guitar player. I'll settle for becoming a simply okay guitar player. It's not like I'm going to join a band or anything. I just wish I had done this 35 years ago when my brain was way more plastic.

I was gone most of the weekend, so the knitting time was pretty minimal—hence the off-topic blog posts. I've got a dentist appointment (cleaning) this morning and then I am off to the school. I just got a call that about half the staff is out with some virus, so I will be subbing in kindergarten. They get to take naps in the afternoon. I may just join them.

November 2, 2008: Community

I hated it when I was growing up (someone always knew where you were and what you were doing), but as an adult, I love "community" and what it means. It means that if you can't get home for some reason, your neighbors will get your kids off the bus and feed them an after-school snack. It means that if you break your leg, a bunch of people will come and fill your woodshed so you don't freeze over the winter. It means that a group of volunteers will drop what they are doing at any hour of the day or night to come fight a fire at your house or give you help until the ambulance arrives.

Our chief likes to refer to our fire department as "the Creston Fire family," and he's right. Our lives are intertwined in ways that have nothing to do with fire or medical emergencies. The whole department watches the Super Bowl together every year. We celebrate our birthdays and our kids' birthdays. We go to the same church. Our kids go to the same schools. And it doesn't matter if you just joined the department or you've been there 20 years. If you wear the Creston turnouts, you belong to us.

The gentleman whose wife died this week hasn't been in Montana long. They moved here about two years ago and he joined the department a year ago. Her family lives in Canada and they will have a service there later this month. Our department pulled together and gave her a memorial service here because he is a member of the Creston Fire family. He was completely blown away that we would do such a thing. A dozen people put together a meal of baked chicken, cole slaw, potato salad, and carrot cake. Someone else made a PowerPoint presentation of pictures of his wife. When her family leaves, he will be by himself. We wanted him to know that he won't be alone.

He shared a story at the service about moving here. Friends of theirs from the east coast came to visit and after a day or so his friend said to him, "Why do you wave at everyone you see? Do you know all these people?" He told his friend, "No, I don't know them. I wave at everyone because that's what they do here."

That's what we do here.

November 1, 2008: My Favorite Month

I like November. It's my favorite month. My birthday is this month, as well as my favorite holiday—Thanksgiving. Yum. Good times all around. I think we may finally get snow, too. We've had an unbelievably long Indian summer. It was 55 degrees here yesterday, and everything is nice and golden. Poor Chester wonders if he will get to be an avalanche dog this year.

I've got my computer back—temporarily. It sat in the repair shop all week because my computer guy was extremely busy. I popped into the shop yesterday and even though he was on his way out the door for yet another site visit, he stopped and took my machine back to the workbench and opened it up. After 20 minutes of looking and listening, we determined that the backup drive is the one that is flaking out (it very obligingly made a nice clunking noise), so he popped it out and I brought the computer home. We'll replace the backup drive first, and then the main drive just to be on the safe side.

Working without a backup drive makes me nervous, but I really couldn't stand to be without my desktop computer. My laptop is not a slug. However, it only has one processor and my desktop has eight. It's the difference between driving a Yugo and a Maserati. I can work on the laptop for a few days, but any longer and I start to twitch.

It's been rather a trying week (remember what I said about "quiet weeks" and "unexpected emergencies"?—see last month's blog). We had a family emergency (not my immediate family, but a cousin), and the wife of one of our firefighters died. My cousin is okay. The death of the firefighter's wife was not unexpected—she had Lou Gehrig's Disease—but it still required some last-minute preparations for the memorial service this afternoon.

And I am waiting on the results of that second thyroid test I had ten days ago. It's an unusual test and the local hospital can't do it. They have to send it to Spokane and the results take a minimum of a week to arrive. My doctor isn't in the office on Fridays, so if the results arrived late Thursday (which would have been a week), he won't see them until the beginning of next week.

I spent this past Monday afternoon cleaning the living room—moving furniture, dusting, mopping the hardwood floor, etc.—and on Tuesday I was so wiped out I could hardly get out of my knitting chair. An afternoon of cleaning should not do that to me. Before I was diagnosed hypothyroid, though, that was a regular occurrance. I got really good at portioning out my energy reserves, so if I knew I had to go somewhere in the evening, I made sure I didn't overdo it during the day. I hate that it's happening again. I would like to be able to stop complaining about not having enough energy to get everything done that I need to.

Of course, being stuck in my knitting chair with no computer means that I did get a fair bit of knitting done—swatches for Cables 2. I've designed some really cool cable stitch patterns. A couple of them are just screaming to be used in a project. I need to knock out another half a dozen swatches, though, and get everything scanned in and placed in the book layout. Lots to do.

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