Unplugged and Unknit

Well, here we are, back to the land of technology. With the harsh weather in our area we ended up losing power for a bit. First on Wednesday night we lost power in the middle of cooking dinner. Fortunately for us it was closer to the end of cooking dinner and we were able to still eat the meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn. The potatoes were a bit lumpy and the corn was not quite hot enough but the meatloaf reach temp so it worked. We were only out for about 2 and a half hours before the power came back on but it was tough to keep the kids calm and get them to bed in the dark. The power was on all night and then went out at about 7 the next morning just after Brian had finished his shower. Poor Jake was in the shower (after jumping in after Brian was done with it) and it freaked him out a little. We got everything sorted out and Brian headed off to work. 

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.

Will all of the goings on this weekend and how I am feeling right now I am not sure what was knit on what day but what it boils down too is that this is where I am at on the sock and I have made sure to knit at least one row per day (have not attempted today's row yet). I think I have knit about 18 rows since I last posted about it.

This weekend was busy - Saturday it started snowing which caused some problems for my folks getting here but they made it safe and sound none the less. The kids and I met up with them at Toy R Us so Jacob could pick out his birthday present. Then we headed home and ordered pizza for dinner. Abby had started running a fever and throughout the night she woke up about every 10 - 15 minutes (oh how I wish I was exaggerating that). All day Sunday she was calm, quite, tired and at times, downright groggy (absolutely the opposite of Abigail). The kids took it easy all day and I did not even make them get out of their jammies. My brother and his wife came down and later in the day Brian's mom and step dad came too and Jake opened gifts and we had cake. Today I took Abby into the doctor and it was confirmed that she too has pneumonia. I did not know that pneumonia could be communicable, but I guess so. I also started feeling ill today (runny nose and fever is all for now thank goodness but if I start having a cough I'll be calling a doctor). After doctors it was off to the pharmacy for antibiotics then to the deli to grab a quick lunch and drop some by Brian's office so he could have lunch too. By the time we got home, had lunch and I got the kids down for a nap I was wiped so I had a little lie down on the couch until it was time to make dinner.
My darling Jacob came up to me after waking up from his nap and said "why are lying down mommy?" I told him "Mommy doesn't feel very good right now" So he sits down next to me, starts rubbing my arm and says "is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" All I could do was say "how about a hug" and gave him one - it was that or start crying with how sweet he was being. About 2 minutes later after I had got myself sat up and prepared to do some workbook stuff with him he walks up to me and hands me a glass of water "for you to feel better mommy" I have the sweetest kid in the world.

Bummer

My poor son. I feel so bad for the boy. He has had a fever for several days so we decided to call the doctor. They wanted to see him and after doing so diagnosed him with pneumonia. Which means that we had to cancel his birthday party on Sunday. This made him so sad and that broke my heart. By the end of the day he had come to accept it but still it makes me sad to see him so upset.

That being said I spent my day consoling my son and therefore did not get a blog post done and managed to only knit one row on the sock. So here is the knitting for the last two days:

Stupid teeth

A few days ago I woke up with an odd feeling in my teeth, like I had slept with shims in between them. Slowly over the next few days one tooth started to be very sensitive to cold and even the act of air passing over it. Anyway long story short I went in to the dentist today and the good news is it's not a cavity. The bad news is it could be worse. It's either a dying tooth (dentist doesn't think this is it and let's hope not) or perhaps the way I grind my teeth at night is affecting it. Either way it will probably cost about 500 bucks minimum to solve the problem (night guard or root canal).
Anyway here is the sock progress for yesterday's knitting:

Moving forward

Progress! This sock is knitting up wonderfully! Can't wait to put them on me feet. Now, back to Battlestar Galactica while I knit.

Did you hear that?

That was the sound of my knitting hitting the frog pond. I finally admitted to myself that the stitch pattern was getting lost in the beautiful coloring of the yarn and because I am testing the pattern for the designer I wanted to be sure her beautiful design could be seen. Also, cables seem to be a bit of a challenge for me so I don't want to go to the trouble of a cable if it can't be seen. I did not post yesterday as it seemed silly to do a progress update on something that lost ground to the point it doesn't exist anymore. On the plus side the new sock is knitting up much faster. I don't know if it's because of the different yarn or because I have started this sock 4 times now (1st was wrong #of sts cast on - this is why designers have their patterns tested - to catch little typo's like this; 2nd was I realized it was coming out too big; 3rd I CO weird and couldn't fix it so here we are on the 4th go). I am really glad I chose to start again. I am much happier with the results.

Two more

As the day before I only knit two rows yesterday but those rows did finish up the first half of the pattern repeat. I worry that the pattern will be a bit lost in the coloring of the yarn. We will see.

Two Rows

Yup two rows is all I got in yesterday so I am not going to bore anyone with another horrible phone picture of essentially the same damn thing as yesterday...Hopefully I make more progress than that tonight...we shall see.

New Socks

So the current knitting is a pair of socks. I am conducting a test knit for a Ravelry designer. I really like this pattern - it is simple enough to be easy complex enough I won't get bored. If you are a wiz at cabling this one is probably a do in your sleep pattern.

Knit one stitch

I have a goal from this year separate from any resolution I may have made. My goal is to knit at least once every day this year. I also aim to post a picture of said knitting to my blog but no promises on that one. Because today is the second of the year there will be an offset so i can show the previous days' knitting each day before I start to knit. More details on this project tomorrow.

Weaving, knitting, spinning, oh my!

The scarf I had on the loom which had some issues that seemed to resolve themselves in the fulling.

Some felted slippers I test knit the pattern for. 

A poncho for Abigail. It's a bit big but should fit her for longer that way right? 

A bit of spinning on the drying rack destined for my first tapestry attempt.

And the ribbon for our Sheep to Shawl entry.

Settle In - It's A Long One Today

I have been a bit (completely) absent from my blog for a while as I have been rather busy with things. Life things like going on a vacation for our ten year anniversary, going to see Les Miserables, and visiting my parents; as well as crafty things like the sweater I showed you a peek of in my last post, a couple of quick projects for the kids and a couple of teddy bears. Now that I am back to blog world I can show you some of the things I have been up to.Let's see first up is the sweater. The pattern is Wish Me Luck and I was one of the test knitters for the pattern. I finished it and my cousin Melanie took a few photo's for me (it was in the 90's so I did not keep it on very long). I worked on this thing pretty much every spare minute I had during the testing period and barely made it. It was definitely the most challenging thing I have completed so far in my knitting adventures. I even took it with me on our anniversary trip to wine country. That was spectacular let me tell you! We stayed at The Cozy Rose bed and breakfast in Grandview and love the place. I think this was our 5th time staying there and we look forward to going back. You can't beat a gorgeous room with a private entrance, a huge shower, a soaking tub and delicious breakfast brought to your door. We tried wine and had great food and it was a really nice little getaway for us. Here is a view from one of the wineries where we had a ton of wine and some lunch.I also met up with my spinning guild and we hand dyed the warp for our upcoming sheep to shawl competition for which I will be the weaver this year. We went round and round about the color choice (nothing gets decided quickly when doing it via committee) but ultimately decided on fall colors. I think it will turn out beautifully with the combination of color and weave structure that we have chosen. We will be weaving it at the Puyallup Fair on Sept. 11th somewhere under the grandstands...I think near the Artists in Action area.Near the end of the sweater making I was getting a little bit over it as happens at some point in all of my knitting projects...the point where your eyes start to wander and you start to think about the next thing you want to knit. I resisted this with much difficulty and only succeeded because I was on a deadline and didn't want to be the one holding up the bus. That was until I had to wait for the sleeves and button bands to dry while blocking. At that point I allowed myself to knit a little something for Abby. A while back Abigail really wanted to spin 'for real' (not just treadle an empty bobbin). So I made up some rolags of the Romney fleece I have and had her sit on my lap. I treadled and she helped me draft. I was very impressed with how Abby stayed focused and actually listened to what I told her to do. I would hold the fiber in my left hand and put her hands on the single we were making. Then I guided her through the 'pinch, pull, slide-back' motion of drafting out fiber. She had the hang of it rather quickly and together we were able to make a pretty consistent yarn. Then I plied it back on itself to make a 2 ply bulky yarn. Then the real fun began. She really wanted purple yarn so I soaked the yarn in some warm water and a dash of vinegar while we mixed up the grape Kool-Aid. Then we laid out the yarn in a 9x13in casserole dish and poured the Kool-Aid over it and mixed it up thoroughly so the color would take evenly. Then a cover of plastic wrap and some time in the microwave and it was done. But something interesting happened. The color went onto the yarn evenly but they dye took unevenly. It worked out that the red pigment sunk to the bottom and the blue floated to the top so we ended up with a range of purples from 'starting to be reddish' to 'that's a bit blue' and the yarn is gorgeous. I could not have hoped for anything more beautiful even if I had done it on purpose (Or I guess I should say Abby since she was the one driving this train.)Anyway it was this yarn that I used for her little project. She has been asking me to make her a 'snuggle bug' for a while and so I got online to look for a pattern but couldn't find one I liked so I ended up making one up and it turned out pretty good. The face could be better but embroidery is not my strong suit.After the sweater was done I made a beret for my cousin Melanie but it only turned out so-so. I did not get a picture of the one I made but you can see what it was supposed to look like here. After that Jacob really wanted me to knit him a 'snuggle worm' so after I finished the beret I got back online to find a suitable pattern and alas, nothing fit the bill so I Frankensteined a few patterns together to make Wordsworth the Worm. And finally fresh from the bear nursery (my sewing machine) I have two new teddies for my friend Lee. I finished these up yesterday afternoon and they will be cared for lovingly (set on a shelf far out of the reach of my children) until they can be handed over for adoption.

Another Test Knit

I am currently working on another test knit of a pattern from a designer on Ravelry. So far it's coming out well and I am eager to wear it - this one is eventually going to be a cardigan. So far I have the bottom of the body and the waist shaping done:Here is a close up of the lace pattern:

The pattern will of course show up much better once it has been blocked.