Good Night Irene!

Hurricane Irene was all over the news and any program I watched on TV was interrupted by someone saying I was in the flood zone.  Yikes!  Sure, it was raining hard, but no wind.  Was it possible I could get off so easy.  When I went to sleep last night I figured my area would be surrounded by dirty water.

This morning I was not surrounded by water, but I was so scared.  Scared to open the basement door where I was sure all my junk would be to the top step floating on 12 feet of water.  I braced myself and put on my rain boots - just in case.  No water.  Yay!

My heart goes out to all the folks who are suffering through flooded houses, flooded cars and had a tree fall on their house and/or car.  I swear, if that was me, I'd want to pack my bags and move to the desert.  It's very costly damage that water does and I am thankful it wasn't me, but I wish it wasn't them either.

With relief in my heart, I took to the wheel today and did a little spinning on some FatCatKnits merino in Seaside Cottage that was left over from the Tour de Fleece:

It's way prettier in person, and if the sun had shone today I'd have a better picture.  I'm almost done spinning it up, maybe by tomorrow, and then I plan to make myself something nice.

I also had time to knit up some mittens from fiber I purchased from Will-Ewe Farm:

The pattern is called Feminine Mittens which I pulled of the Knitting Daily website.  I think you have to sign up to get the pattern, though.

These mittens won't keep my hands warm in winter, but they will keep them kind of warm in the fall.  There was so little fiber that there was nothing I could make other than mittens, and I like the pattern.  Too bad I'm not in love with the color, but I could always dye them, right?

My son starts classes tomorrow.  He called tonight to see if I was OK and to make sure that the house was still standing.  Wasn't that sweet?

What Will You Do?

My friends were asking me what I will do now that my son is off to college.  Will I be bored? Lonely? Depressed?  I miss my son, but I've talked and or exchanged text messages with him every day since Thursday.  When he was home he never answered my text messages.

So since he's been gone, the only thing I have to do is housework (and once it's clean, it'll stay clean) and  anything else I want to do, whenever I want to do it.

Today was a good day.  Mail brought me this Abstract Fiber, BFL in Hopworks purchased from Webs:

And the micro trindle I won for spinning with Team Trindle in the Tour de Fleece:

Wow!  Skull heads?  I have other 'arms' for the trindle which I can use when my son is home.  I think he'll make some wise crack about the Crypt Keeper (me) spinning with skulls!  The freebie that came with it is silk hankies from Gale's Art.  I couldn't resist working just one.  So I separated one hankie (easier said than done):

And I spun it up:

Yesterday I washed this fiber of unknown origin purchased at Rhinebeck last year from Will-Ewe Farm, they don't have a website.  It kind of feels like coopworth but softer, and if I remember correctly, the lady at the booth told me it was angora and something:

These were spun up on my regular Trindle and both skeins are singles.  I was going to ply them, but it's kind of scratchy, so I think the best thing to do would be to make a pair of mittens, I found the perfect pattern for them.

Hurricane Irene is here in the Bronx.  Mercifully the rain is coming down, but there is no thunder or wind. All mass transit if cancelled, and some of the Con Edison transformers were shut off to avoid them from shorting out, so some folks may end up with no electricity.  Hopefully I won't be one of them!

My son said it's not raining where he is.  My mother is in Maryland and the south has been really hard hit.  Lots of flooding there.  She's not due home until Monday, and only if Peter Pan bus is running, but she's safe with family so I'm not worried.

Anyway, for you experienced New York knitters, most of you know you can knit by candlelight and some of you can knit in complete darkness so have at it.

Stay dry.

My New Life

I may have mentioned already (about 600 times) that my son is leaving for college soon.  It's not that I'm overly excited about his leaving, but I knew this day was coming and that I'd be a swinging single again, and I prepared for it.

Talking with the ladies in knitting class I announced what I know is going to be my new life.  Like on television when the folks come home and pour themselves a glass of wine while they prepare dinner, that is going to be me.  With variations, of course.

I will come home from work, head for the shower and slip into something more comfortable (the $12.99 K Mart cotton house dress).  I'll slip into my comfortable slippers (flip flops from the 99 cent store) and I will sail downstairs to make myself a fancy dinner (Chunky Soup).  I will pour my glass (grape jelly jar) of (Boone's Farm Pink) wine and I will settle in my (rarely used by me) living room on the sofa with my (rot gut) wine,  some knitting and watch television while my dinner cooks.

And when the fire department shows up at 10p to put the fire out (soup burned), they will find me clutching the bottle of wine and muttering about my 'new life'.

In real life, I don't drink and my bedtime is 10p.  I've been a shining example of a parent for the past 18 years and college is the turning point.  For my son it's that place in between living home and visiting home, between parenting and and being a parent.  I'm going to have to adjust.

And truly, when you have only one child and 99% of your existence is mothering what do you do?  I think I might start following the cat around the house trying to figure out how I can mother her.  I might be reduced to putting her every move on video and forcing her to wear clothes I made just for her.  I'd better prepare Miss Kitty for her new life as well.

Some new life, eh?

I'd better start arranging to have people come check on me.  Yikes!  If I don't start defining myself in some other way because if no one does, someone will catch me trying to rig the TV antenna in the window to see if I can communicate with alien life.

Score!

I did something the other day that I never thought I'd do in a yarn store.  It happens so rarely that it's worth mentioning here because I am proof that it can and does happen.

You would be impressed by my restraint (it was miraculous!) considering it was my intention to go in the store and buy 12 skeins of sock yarn because I 'accidentally' signed up for the Tour de Sock on Ravelry.  Oy!  Like the Tour de Fleece wasn't maddening enough!  But I'm a sucker for a cause and the registration fee was a mere $7.50 and $6 f it is going to Doctors Without Borders.

Like I said, I'm a sucker for a cause.

In the face of all that yarn at Seaport Yarns (it truly is a 'yarn candy store'), and the wall of sock yarn staring me in the face (Koigu, Malabrigo, Jitterbug) I only purchased five things and not one skein was sock yarn.

The color isn't true on my monitor, but it's Plymouth Yarn's Ampato (baby alpaca) in green.  It's actually gray/green and it's going to be just what I need to make this hat.  I'm not used to using yarn in aran weight, but I bet the hat will be done in no time.

Since I was on a roll with 'fat' yarn that is phat (pretty hot and tempting), I picked up these two lovey skeins:

This is Rowan big wool fusion (as if you couldn't read the label), in gray.  I don't know what I'm going to make with it, but when I saw the color, I couldn't resist.  It's like gray mist, it's mostly soft and why shouldn't it live at my house with it's other yarn cousins?

Lastly, I couldn't resist helping out the breast cancer cause so I bought this:

These ChiaoGoo needles sport a cute pink ribbon and a fine sentiment, 'Find a Cure' for breast cancer.  I wish they could:

I adore the pink glass beads on top.

And that was it.  I managed to get out of the store without spending my usual huge sum.  Yay!

Fake Isle Done

I finished the Fake Isle hat yesterday.  I love this hat!  I can see myself making a few more of these.  The black yarn is Classic Elite's Bam Boo and the multi is my own.

This hat is up there with my all time favorites because the pattern is simple, but the effect is great.  I see myself making this hat in various colors and sizes in the near future.  Someone is going to have a warm head this winter.

Recently I purchased Autobahn from the Twist Collective site (if you haven't been to their site, take a peek).  They have such great patterns - all stuff I wish I had the time to make for myself.  Autobahn calls for thick yarn, and I don't have any that isn't acrylic.  Not that there's anything wrong with acrylic, it's just that I'd prefer Cascade 220.

I also cast on for a pair of mittens, and last night I finished one:

There's a few wonky stitches which I believe means that a needle came out and I just stuck it back in and kept going.  Not good, but not disastrous.  What's not good is the boring color.  These mittens were intended for a boy, but when I think about it, I've never seen a boy over the age of 6 wearing mittens.

Today when I opened the mailbox I saw a package there and thought it was the micro trindle I'm waiting for.  Instead it's the new arms for my regular trindle.  Yay!  I've been waiting for those too.

The ones on the left which aren't photographed very well are called 'root beer' and the ones on the right are called 'purple chalcedony'.  Sadly, they are not nearly as pretty as my old beads, but I'm happy with them and besides, I've got to adapt and move on.

Anyone thinking about holiday knitting?  What's on your list of things to make?

Victory at Last!

After a few false starts and lots of frustration, Winnie finally did it.  She made her Nutkin Socks (yay!) and presented them in class on Saturday.  It was a beautiful sight to behold.

The satisfaction that one gets when any project is finished is doubled when that project is for yourself.  Congratulations, Miss Winnie.  You did good, gal!

I finished a pair of socks too.  They're for my son who requested I spin this yarn up just for these socks (remember the Frabjous Fibers in high tide?):

The picture shows the striping much better than the real socks.  They are fraternal twins for sure.  There was no way for me to figure out how to make them match because the colors were all over the place.  I still have about 300 yards of it left over, but I'm sure I'll figure out something to do with it.

Lastly, I'm working on the Fake Isle Hat which I tried to make the hat 'jogless', but my attempt failed miserably.  Maybe you will have better luck.:

The black yarn is store bought merino/bamboo, I think since the ball band has been lost to history.  The multi-color is Louet wool I scored from Sojourn Knitter after I offered (read begged) to help her reduce her stash.  I have a nerve to offer help with destashing when I can't even make a dent in my own stash (unless it's during the Tour de Fleece, of course).

One of the knitting ladies, Carol, asked the class if they would knit matching hats/scarves/mittens to donate.  It's due on Saturday 8/27 and so far all I've gotten done is one mitten.  Shame on me!  I'll post my set when is done.

Then & Now

Knitting is happening, but posting pictures is not because Blogger is having some issues tonight and while I can't be sure, I think it's aimed at me.  Yesterdaywas one of those up and down days that skid into neutral by the end of the day.

For instance, I got dressed up in my suit for work, thought I was looking hotter than lava until I saw my reflection in a glass store front. My, how my opinion of cute has changed.

Back then my jeans couldn't be snug enough.  Right now, I'm wondering if I can buy jeans that look like the real McCoy but have an elastic waistband.

Back then, I saw and heard everything with my own eyes and ears.  Now, I don't hear crap, but I can lip read (if I have my glasses on).  And in a few years, I'm wondering how many times I can say "Huh?" before someone starts using sign language to talk to me.

Back then, I could tell you what I wore on April 21, 1985.  Now I can't remember what I ate for lunch an hour after I've eaten.

Back then, I did everything at hyperspeed and multi-tasking was my way of life.  Now I need a nap after every chore.

Back then I could go up and down the stairs a million times to get what I want or need, now I have to make a list before I go in either direction because I don't have to go more than one step before I have forgotten why I was going anywhere in the first place.

Enough of that.

My son leaves for college on August 25.  The common sentiment I'm getting from everyone is that I'll be sad and/or lonely.  I don't know if that's true because I swear on a bag of rocks that I will miss him, but sad?  I don't think so.*

It means that he is on the way to becoming an independent adult with all of the best teaching I had to offer.  It means that all of my hooping and hollering  is going to stick or fail and he now has the opportunity to implement or discard what he's learned from me and apply it to the life he is going to make for himself.  He is on the way to becoming an adult.

I'm sad to see the 'baby' go, but I'm going to enjoy going through this process with him as he becomes a smart, independent young man.

*Check back in a few weeks.  I might be on the news for trying to move onto campus and have to be forcibly removed.

Tour de What?

Just when you thought it was over, the spinning starts all over again.  While the tour is over (and I repeat 'over'), the spinning continues.  That hard little stool is hard to resist.

During the tour I committed to spinning 4 ounces of FatCatKnits merino & bamboo in Seaside Cottage on my trindle.  Remember this fiber?:

Well, the trindle took a little trip across town my room and got a little boo-boo.  Then at the office, an arm fell off and the bead cracked and now the trindle is wobbly - which is a bad thing.  As a result of  several little 'trips' that caused it to malfunction, I only got this far:

My poor trindle had so many accidents it was like the real Tour de France!  I was derailed!  It is a sad sight seeing my trindle wobble like that.  Now that the tour is over, I'm spinning up the rest of this braid on my Golding spindle.

The second braid still has this much to be spun up:

But now that I'm not in a 'contest' anymore, I cheated:

Today I ordered two new sets of arms for my trindle, and then ... today I went on Ravelry and into the Trindle room and learned that I (the same "I" that never wins a darned thing) won a micro trindle from Team Trindle!  Yay!  I'm a winner!  Never again can I say, my chances of winning are somewhere between 'not a chance' and 'never'.   Woo hoo!  Pics to follow when the new trindle arrives.

My DS picked some fiber for me to spin (Frabjous Fibers BFL in High Tide) so that I could make him some socks with it.  Yesterday I cast on for a pair of no frills short socks (he dislikes socks with 'designs').  Who knew he'd follow in my footsteps with cankles?  LOL

No doubt these socks will be fraternal.  And I'm looking at the colors and thinking to myself, this fiber doesn't look anything like it did when it was singles.  All plied up it became a different animal altogether.  I'm still happy with it.

Joyce's socks got finished during the tour also, Dragonfly Socks from Cavyshops on Ravelry, made with Liberty Fibers merino in Forest Walk:

I did not continue the pattern down to the toes because I was lazy, but the pattern is easier than pie to memorize.  (Don't ask me what's wrong with this picture.  My camera does whatever it wants.  Anything to punish me.)

And finally, I used the leftover merino/silk sock yarn to make a basic preemie hat, and when socks and hat were done, I still had a lot of yarn left over.

How does it feel to be knitting again?  Wonderful!