by Kat | Feb 5, 2008 | General
Super Sunday followed by a so so Monday and now it is Super Tuesday again?
So, I am calling it for tomorrow – Wacky Wednesday!
Wacky weather – it was raining tonight – now it is sleeting – soon to be snowing.
And it seems we are in for a large volume of snowfall.
Visions of Snowdays are dancing in my head.
We shall see what the morning brings!
As for tonight, I went to spinning and had a marvelous time! There was a great group there and much fun was had by all.
And there was even some spinning done.
Now -I am getting in bed with some knitting and trying to figure out how really super this Tuesday turned out to be!
Have a nice night all!
by Kat | Feb 4, 2008 | General
That would be me – drained of my brain…
I had my final on the book portion of my class today.
I hate trick questions – I mean really. Hate. Them.
Anyways – I got an 88% on my final which gives me a cumulative score of 95% thus far.
I am not disappointed in that at all.
Now starts the hard part.
So, I came home tonight, after finding some appropriate shoes for tomorrow (white crocs… I will post a photo when I have some daylight tomorrow), made myself a bowl of Special K Red Berry, had a yogurt and a glass of milk for dessert and got out Alice.
I plied together the Cashmere/Silk blend I got from Threadbear and the Alpaca that I got for Christmas from Blogless Mary.
A little meditation and the rhythm of Alice is the start of the cure of what ails you.
And, Alice certainly works some magic – the month of NaSpiMoMo really helped me with my technique – both of spinning singles and plying. I am exceedingly happy with the outcome. I learned to spin from the fold making this exquisite fiber. It is hanging in my bathroom drying right now – I promise to get photo’s posted here soon!
Now – in case you all missed it but Project Spectrum #3 Elements has begun – and February and March are Fire! And, there is some knitting that is burning with the warmth of fire happening here at “The Home for the Unemployed”. I have a gorgeous blanket in progress – a blanket of Hemlock Ring fame… I will snap a picture tomorrow before the light is all gone.
I also called my local elementary school this afternoon – I hope to be helping there soon….
Stay tuned for more pictures, but I am turning into a pumpkin and I need to get to bed!
Night all!
by Kat | Feb 3, 2008 | General
Well, it was a busy day here at “The Home For The Unemployed” – lots of work to get done and lots of reading to do for school tomorrow.
I did find time to read the Sunday Paper, and there was an excellent commentary by Garrison Keillor that was extremely thought provoking and something that has ever since been rumbling around my brain.
I know many of you knit many items that you donate to causes all over this glorious planet. I think that is just wonderful – but, I think we can all do more – starting with me.
I have kind of been bemoaning my children growing older in conversations with friends. Just recently I was talking with a friend who is pregnant and we were talking about reading and kids. I was sad that I no longer (and have not in years) get a request for “Goodnight Moon” before bed. No one comes to me with “Caps For Sale” wanting to crawl in my lap for me to read it to them. Now, my girlfriend is also struggling trying to balance work and home and finding time to read to her 3 year old – and she is worried how much more hectic that will be after baby #2 arrives….
Then I read Garrison Keillor’s pointed commentary today.
It has been prickling me ever since.
Yes, we as a nation, have a large percentage of the population that is somehow slipping though the cracks and they are struggling with reading. Maybe they have hard working parents who, like my girlfriend, are struggling to balance life. Maybe they only have one overworked parent, who is exhausted when they return home from the one or two jobs they have in order to maintain a home for their family. Those children are our future….
And, I for one, am going to make a difference in a childs life.
Won’t you join me? After all, I know that knitters “get it”. In the words of the Yarn Harlot we all understand how one person can make a difference. We are knitters after all.
I challenge all of you, gentle readers, to call your local elementary school in the morning. Tell them you want to read to a child – or a group of children. Trust me, they won’t say no. A simple hour a week reading with a child will make a huge difference. If you don’t like reading – let them read to you!
I challenge you all to post this challenge on your blogs as well.
Let’s get all of us reading to a child.
Think of the change we could make…
by Kat | Feb 2, 2008 | General
I found this most appropriate of poems for the Blogland Silent Poetry Reading Day….
Enjoy…
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Sheep
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Thousands of sheep, soft-footed, black-nosed sheep–
one by one going up the hill and over the fence–one by
one four-footed pattering up and over–one by one wiggling
their stub tails as they take the short jump and go
over–one by one silently unless for the multitudinous
drumming of their hoofs as they move on and go over–
thousands and thousands of them in the grey haze of
evening just after sundown–one by one slanting in a
long line to pass over the hill–
I am the slow, long-legged Sleepyman and I love you
sheep in Persia, California, Argentine, Australia, or
Spain–you are the thoughts that help me when I, the
Sleepyman, lay my hands on the eyelids of the children
of the world at eight o’clock every night–you thousands
and thousands of sheep in a procession of dusk making
an endless multitudinous drumming on the hills with
your hoofs.
Carl Sandburg |
by Kat | Feb 2, 2008 | General
I really need James Taylor in my car singing to me this morning while I was driving to school on the road with 10,000 idiots.
Here is a question for all of you… how come the idiots all get on the road at 7AM?
And, why doesn’t anyone know how to drive?????
So, my trek to school today – one hour and forty-five minutes… one way.
People, it is 37 miles one way from my house to school…
So, you can obviously see that I was driving less than one mile per hour!
Yeah… so, in the words of the amazing James Taylor… Damn, this traffic jam…
Times 10.
Week one of school was okay… my grade is an A… but I have a huge final test on Monday (due to a snow day on Wednesday everything is pushed back a day… )
Then labs…
Then clinicals…
Here is hoping none of my gentle readers reside in the senior care facility that I have to go be “clinical” in…
Yeah… there is some food for thought!
Have a good evening all….
by Kat | Jan 31, 2008 | General
Well, in a world where every other day we get a blanket of white this knitter is fighting back with some blankets of a different kind!
I am working on blankets – the Manos Four Season Throw – in lovely Autumnal colors… This is for the knit along that Country Needle Works is having this year – so I am finished with my first block… just in time for February’s installment will be due!
And, this week I cast on Brooklyn Tweed’s Lovely Hemlock Ring Blanket with some Cascade 129 that I got at Mecca in the most lovely dark orange shade. This is incredibly genius – and I would never have thought to do something so creative at to take a doily pattern and knit it from a bulky weight yarn. I am loving this knit – and Heidi saw the blanket tonight. I think if I don’t watch this one – it will wander off with her!
And – since it is so dratted cold out – my dear friend Susan is in need of some warmth… so I will be working on that this weekend.
Now, back to the books – I have a big test tomorrow.
by Kat | Jan 30, 2008 | General
If you seek a pleasant peninsula, you might want to head to Florida this morning. If you can get there from here, that is.
All of West Michigan is having some difficulty in travel today. Yesterday we had that nice, if brief, January Thaw – and over night Old Man Winter roared back in – in less that 4 hours we had dropped from 47 balmy degrees to temperatures in the single digits – with below zero wind chills.
Thunder was replaced with gale force winds that raced around my condo all night.
All that rain – flash frozen on the roads.
But the precipitation did not stop – the rain changed to snow and that is now still falling. The winds are still howling and they are causing large snow drifts to pile up in open spaces.
No school for the kids today – and no school for the mom either!
As you can see – the snow is covering windows, siding, bushes, any nook or cranny it has been driven in to.
So, I might have to sit down with Alice today and see if I cannot fill up some more of these….
Have Baby Alpaca – will spin! And, look – an empty bobbin to fill!
Hopefully the “cleaning lady” will have her work done shortly and I will be able to devote the afternoon to some one on one time with dear Alice!
Stay warm and safe today, gentle readers!
by Kat | Jan 29, 2008 | General
The weather has warmed up considerably. The snow is almost all melted.
So, the 2 feet or so that we had is but a few crusty inches. And, I have a river running through my back yard which is quite lovely, not!
Currently it is 46 degrees outside (that is Farenheit for all you International readers!)….
But, never fear – before midnight it will be a whopping ZERO outside with a wind chill factor that is supposed to be well into the negative numbers.
And, there will be snow – truck loads of it.
Insanity, thy name is Weather!
I cannot believe how exhausted I am at the end of the day.
Brain Dead.
Thought Free.
And, I still have one more chapter to read for school tomorrow – and then there is the studying for the big test on Friday.
I am off to finish up, gentle readers.
Have a peaceful evening!
by Kat | Jan 28, 2008 | General
Homework – done.
Dinner – done.
Laundry – done.
Knitting time – you have got to be kidding me!
Who’d of ever thunk that I’d find myself at the end of a day and not wanting to pick up a knitting needle and while away the time knitting.
That day has arrived, gentle readers.
My brain is officially fried.
Last night I gleefully finished my edited version of Sonnet – Sonnetina. And, then I went to get the buttons to sew them on. And, they were not in my knitting bag….
Okay, maybe they are in the other knitting bag….
I could not find those buttons anywhere.
My vest could not be finished…. Alas, poor Yorick!
Actually-
Alas, poor Wallet!
Yes, I had to stop and purchase 3 more buttons today after school to finish my vest.
But, it is now completed – and I have proof. These buttons are divine – as well they should be as they cost me almost $5 a piece!
Okay – without further adieu – I present to you Sonnetina!
The required “in the mirror self-portrait”…
Note the amazingly expensive glorious buttons. See the little “peplum-ish” added edging – I like how this turned out. I think it will lay flatter when I block it. But I am so wearing this tomorrow! Blocking, be damned!
Again – note the buttons! FIRMLY attached to the vest. There will be no loosing these babies!
And finally – a nice view of the neck – both inside and out. And – one last shot of those AMAZING buttons.
So, I will leave you with the specks of my Sonnetina.
Cast on – Friday January 18, 2008
Finished – Monday January 28, 2008.
Yarn – Now discontinued Classic Elite Gatsby
Needles – Addi 10 1/2 for body of vest.
Addi 13 for applied i-cord.
This is truly the fastest thing I have ever knit and I am so happy with the end result.
Now, I think I hear Bonnie and Clyde calling my name…. stay tuned.
by Kat | Jan 27, 2008 | General
Hold the phone, gentle readers, I have success!!
Yes, after much trial and tribulation and a couple of trips to the frog pond – the answer came to me today as I showered.
Here is the test of true knitterly thinking, you cannot stop puzzling over a problem – it swirls and swirls around in your head until the logic of the solution steps up and scrubs your back (figuratively) in the shower early on a Sunday morning.
I have arrived!
My brain is a knitting test ground.
Must be the great company of yesterday – or the great thoughts of an amazing fiber artist (Hello Beth!!)…
Anyway – I have solved the attached i-cord dilema.
Beatifully solved, I might add!
I even have proof… see for yourselves!
Note the seamless attachment. It is truly a thing of wonder!
Here – a bit closer for you to see both the front and back sides… see – no funky ridge from my picked up stitches….
Here is the back side – sorry it is a bit blurry – but as you can see, no funky ridge here either!
So, are you curious, gentle reader, how I accomplished this knitterly feat????
I shall share with you – when I picked up stitches – I just picked up the stitch – no pulling yarn through to “create a new stitch”. I just picked up a portion of the existing stitch of my fabric.
The end result – no funky ridge at all. My applied i-cord is the perfect finish for this vest. I am working on finishing the arm holes. Then all I need to do is sew on buttons – and voila! A completed object! My plan is to wear it to school on day one.
Proof to my ability to figure out a solution to a dilema.
A good way to start – as the amazing Brenda Dayne says – “Start as you mean to go on”… And, Dame Brenda – I most certainly will!
Then, if this was not the best and most amazing thing of the weekend – I got this award from not one, but two amazing bloggers.
I am so honored that I make their day, but truly – they inspire me. So, here is a huge thanks to both The Incomparable Judy at Persistent Illusion and The Brilliant and Talented Susan at A Few Stitches Short (of a full row). These women are truly amazing women. I am humbled by this reward – truly humbled.
And, in my attempt to share the love with others out there… I want to share with you all those bloggers that Make My Day!
Cheryl at A Simple Yarn
Rob at the Black Dog
Jane at By Jane
Matt at the Crowing Ram
Tracey at Extreme Adventures in Knitting and Motherhood
Sarah (I knew her when) at Hand Knitter
Lynne at I was knit together in my mothers womb
Wendy at Knit and the City
Brilliant and Prolific Anne at Knitspot
Marica at Purls Before Swine
Marie at Raggedy Reee
Wanda – The Wanda Woman Knits
Ann at Punkie 53
Elizabeth at Random Snapshots
Kimberly at Woven Spun
Julia The Yarn Maven
The One and Only Yarn Harlot – Stephanie Pearl McPhee
These bloggers inspire me daily in ways that help me daily to be a better person than I was the day before.
If you are not reading their blogs – do so. They may inspire you as well!
Have a blessed evening everyone!
