I am really glad that our gas fireplace works without electricity (wasn't sure it would come on as you do so by flipping a switch on the wall but it did). Were it not for that fireplace we would not have stayed warm enough. The power stayed off all day and I am really glad that we don't make a bunch of TV part of our daily routine. Yes of course I let the kids watch TV but I try not to let them ever have more than 2 hours a day so that made filling in that time from our normal routine not too bad. Cooking was a bit of a challenge and I had no coffee but my wonderful Brian brought us dinner home and picked me up a camp stove and some propane. We played board games on the floor by the fireplace with the kids and had some wonderful family time. The power was still out throughout the night and so we fired up the camp stove for boiling water (coffee oh sweet coffee - thank goodness for the french press).
It turns out that we were one of the lucky areas that got our power back on around 4pm that day (Friday) and oh it was so nice to feel that furnace kick on and my poor fish were on the brink of suffocation without the aerator going but they pulled through too.
On the knitting front I got my minimum stitches knit on Thursday but alas on Friday I did not knit a single stitch...I have decided to give up on these socks. I dropped out of the test knit ion Wednesday night as I knew I would not be able to meet the deadline. I also have finally come to accept that I detest cabling. I don't mind it if I have to pick up a cable needle every so often but when I have to cable on every single row I can't stand it. Now I know to think carefully and thoroughly examine patterns that contain cabling so I know which ones to avoid. Now the difficult task it to decide which socks I DO want to knit as I am sure I want another pair of socks on the needles.
Then I put a pot of water on the stove to boil and dropped the cotton in to set the twist. I was surprised at how much color was left in the water. I guess I assumed that because it was naturally colored that there would not be any color in the water (then again grass is naturally green and if I boil that the water will turn green too...). Boiling it also darkened the yarn slightly (again that is counter intuitive to the color seeping into the water, but I guess that's the way it works). 
This will be a washcloth as that is really the only thing I do with cotton. 
I grabbed that, some empty bobbins, my lazy kate and they plying head for the wheel and brought them down. I got the plying head put on so I could ply the singles that I had been working on from the roving that Brian brought home for me one night. Some of you know that story and the rest will just have to wonder. I started plying but was not making a dent at all in the singles bobbins. It was very similar to the knitting black hole in which you measure your knitting and get say, 3 inches and then you knit for an hour and still have 3 inches...yeah, that black hole. Same with the singles: treadle and treadle and treadle and NO progress seems to be made. I gave up for a while to tend to the kids and visit with my friend. We decided to make a run to the store and pick up stuff for dinner. We ended up making a chicken fettuccini with a tomato cream sauce from the Williams-Sonoma cook book. It was simple and fabulous. It didn't hurt that we made fresh pasta for the dish. After the kids were in bed we started watching a movie. 'Zack and Miri Make a Porno.' It was funny and sweet. Very graphic as you might assume from the title (really? there are naked people bumpin' uglies in a movie with a title like that? who would have thunk it?) Anyway while we watched I plyed. and plyed. Then Brian got home and started watching the movie and we started it over for him so he could see the whole thing. I plyed and plyed and plyed. When I finally stood up I thought my legs were going to fall off. I probably should have gotten the clue when I started using the wheel as a single treadle - trading off legs. I still wasn't done yet by the time the movie was over. I think I plyed for 3 hours straight.
I was worried that I was not going to have enough room on the bobbin but it fit fine. After breakfast we got dressed and mowed the front and back lawns. That was work but it was also kinda nice too...glad I did it before the sun came out though. When I put the lawnmower away I figured I was in the garage, I may as well haul out the camping gear we are going to need...so I got that all pulled out and into the house. I fed Abby and Jake had a snack and we headed out to WalMart to get a few things for the camping trip. Once we got home we had lunch and Jake had a nap. While I was up in his room I got all of the kids clothed out and dug out the swim diapers, air mattress and other bedding for the trip. I fed Abby again (these kids keep wanting food, like several times a day - sheesh) and then got all of the kids clothes sorted and folded and put into the camping pile. I decided I was exhausted and should rest while the kids were sleeping. So just as I give myself permission to drift off the phone rings. Damn. Good thing I didn't get too far into sleep mode since it was a realtor wanting to show the house - Yay! But now I had to bust my ass to clean not only the standard shit but I had all the camping gear to deal with too. Short version is I tossed most of the camping gear in the car and got my house cleaned up. I had my friend come over and help me move the old mattress out of the hallway and into the garage (yeah, I know we got the new mattress a week ago - what's your point?) I finished with the house about 5 minutes into the window for the agent to show up and headed out with the kids to meet up with Brian at the used bookstore. We wandered there for about a half an hour and then decided to have dinner at the teriyaki joint right next door. Finally home for a little sit down. I was pretty beat by the end of the evening.
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