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April 30, 2007

I Believe in Miracles

Our third annual living history this past Saturday was a big success. As always, Dale did a lot of work to pull this together. And, as always, we had fabulous friends and volunteers who helped us with everything. But there was one thing we had this year that we haven't had before - blue sky!

Thank you all so much for your good thoughts, prayers and positive energy. It worked. Despite the forecast - which was for showers and clouds - the weather was perfect. I truly believe we owe that to the power of the knitbloggers!

If you had been a visitor on Saturday, here are a few things you would have seen:

Soldiers drilling. These guys put on a fine demonstration for the spectators. They even taught some willing participants how to be a Civil War soldier.

Me spinning. The wheel was a huge success. People had a lot of questions about it and I think I was able to teach them a bit. I plan to talk more about this tomorrow.

A fashion show. Hannah volunteered to speak about the various women's clothing and she did a terrific job.

Campfire cooking. We ate a wonderful meal of pot roast, potatoes and carrots, along with chicken cooked on a spit.

Laughing and talking! Here is Blogless Sharon and she's having a terrific time - can't you tell?

And at the end of the day we went to bed. Exhausted but satisfied. Our tent never felt so much like home.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (59)

April 27, 2007

Eye Candy Friday

You're my blue sky, you're my sunny day

Please keep sending those sunny day thoughts my way for our living history tomorrow. Thanks and have a fabulous weekend!

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (35)

April 26, 2007

Let's Hang On!

Sometimes I have great success plying from a center pull ball and sometimes I wind up with a tangled mess. I've heard that letting the singles relax before winding them onto the ball winder can help but I'm usually not patient enough to wait at that point. So, I was thrilled when Laura shared a tip that she had read on Spinning Spider Jenny's blog.

Jenny's method, which comes from her good friend Rita Buchanan, involved a flower pot and a felted ball. Laura's recap of the technique was a little simpler. In her words, "You take the inner strand and the outer strand which you will ply together. Hold them together and make a ball of yarn with the entire bit so that you have a 2-strand ball of yarn, just not plied and twisted together. THEN, when you now have this new ball of yarn, which is in a ball like wound around a felt ball or something like that.... THEN you start from the outside, which is supposedly the center point of the original center pull ball and is just the loop/bent piece and should be on the outside of the new ball, that's what you start plying with. It's already all there held together, no kinks that can't be worked out as you go, no clumps."

I tried it Laura's way on Monday night and it worked like a charm. No kinks, no tangled mess, no waste! Woo and also Hoo. I did have one issue, though. Sometimes when I'm plying, my singles either break because they are over spun or fall apart because they are under spun. When I'm plying with regular ole wool I just spit splice the ends together. However, that doesn't work with super wash and I've had to tie the ends together. Is there a better way to handle this situation? Other than spinning singles that don't break or fall apart, that is? I'd appreciate any advice you have on this.

Joining problems aside, I wound up with two skeins (260 yards each) of this beautiful superwash from Crown Mountain Farms in the colorway "Let's Hang On."

I love it! The colors, the barber poley-ness of the whole thing makes me happy.

And happy is good.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (47)

April 25, 2007

Things That Make Me Go Hmmm

~Thanks so much for all your nice compliments on the Bloomin' Feet socks. A few people asked about the sock label so I thought I should link back to the post I wrote about how to make a sock label. Go here and read. Simple but a very nice touch on a pair of gift socks.

~We are having our Civil War Living History in memory of East Bridgewater native Frank Harlow this Saturday. I'd appreciate any thoughts for sunny weather as we have had pouring rain at this event the last two years. And, if anyone is going to be in the neighborhood and would like to come and see what we do, just let me know and I'll send you directions and information.

~I shouldn't even tell you this but I won another contest. I got a fabulous box of prezzies from Kirsten last week. There was candy and roving dyed by Kirsten as well as Koigu and Misti Alpaca yarn. Thanks for the terrific prize package, Kirsten!

~I like that when I see the national weather map on the morning news I can picture so many of you and know what type of weather you're having. I worry about tornadoes, storms and wildfire, and rejoice when you're having sunny, pleasant weather. It's a great way to feel connected to our knitting community.

~As Lolly mentioned the other day, it seems like "going green" is becoming trendy. That can only be a good thing, I believe. I urge you to find one thing that you can do to make a difference in your carbon footprint. Change your light bulbs from incandescent ones to compact fluorescent ones, wrap your hot water heater with an insulating blanket, turn down your thermostat, use reusable grocery sacks, recycle more - there are lots of very simple things you can do. Something new that I found last week is www.greendimes.com and they will work to eliminate your junk mail AND plant a tree in your name every month. It's only 10 ¢ a day and for a great cause.

~My current sock in progress. The pattern is Mad Weave from Sock Madness Round Four. I may be out of the competition but I'm still knitting the patterns and this one is very cool. The yarn is from A Piece of Vermont and I love the way it looks with the pattern - which I changed around a bit because I can now that I'm not knitting these competitively. And yet, I'm bored as hell with it and I don't know why. But you know me, I'll be plodding along and they'll be finished soon. I'll love them again when fall rolls around and there's a brand new pair of wool socks in my drawer.

Have you read The Thirteenth Tale yet? You need to read this book. It's got all the elements of a great gothic novel and the author sucks you right in with the first chapter. This book had me reading last weekend instead of knitting and you know how unusual that is these days. Really, read this book. You won't be sorry.

~This profusion of daffodils is by my back door. They make me glad every time I walk by them. Why not order your fall bulbs now while you're inspired by their beauty everywhere? You'll receive them automatically when it's time to plant them in the fall and next spring you'll be glad, too.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (56)

April 24, 2007

Bloomin' Feet Socks Finis

I finished the socks for the Bloomin' Feet Sock Swap at the end of last week and blocked them over the weekend. The pattern is the Merino Lace Socks from the Interweave Knits Favorite Socks book.

Aren't they pretty? The yarn is Schaefer Anne, which I've knit with before for my Swallowtail Shawl, but this is the first time I've actually used it for socks. It's very soft and very fine and has a nice halo from the mohair content. It sort of stripes but not really and the colors blend together in a lovely fashion.

I chose this particular pattern because of something very specific my sock pal said. I'm not going to give it away but, if the recipient is reading this post and remembers what she wrote in her questionnaire, well, this picture is a pretty big hint. As for the pattern, there were some details that were kind of wacky. Beth wrote about the heel issue and Anne clued me in that there was an error in the charts for the foot. But even more than that, I felt the directions were lacking a bit. I've knit plenty of socks on circular needles before and that's a good thing because the pattern didn't really provide great instructions on that technique, even though it was written for that method. I took good notes and moved forward because I liked the design so much but be warned, there are some glitches.

I made one of my standard sock labels - the name is blacked out so no hints there - and will be shipping them off with some other goodies today.

Hope you like them, sock pal!

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (50)

April 23, 2007

Home Safe and Sound

Hannah went on a school trip with the history club last week. You may recall that she made a similar trip last year. Anyway, she left our town on Saturday morning at oh-dark-thirty and headed south to tour some Civil War battlefields and museums as well as Washington, DC. She was in Virginia last Monday. Did you hear me? Virginia. On Monday, April 16th.

Now, I had an itinerary and a vague idea of where she would be each day. But I'm not real big on geography and certainly not the geography of the Commonwealth of Virginia. So when the news broke about the horrible tragedy at Virginia Tech I kind of panicked a little bit. I grabbed her itinerary and saw that she was visiting the Museum of the Confederate Soldier. I had no idea where that was. At that moment, as far as I was concerned, it could have been on the campus of Virginia Tech. I may have freaked out a little bit while Dale and I googled to find the location of Virginia Tech and then checked a map to find Blacksburg in relation to Richmond. When I saw they were miles and miles away from each other I was able to speak again. But for those few moments I was a wee bit frantic. If you asked Dale about it, he'd tell you I was absolutely fine. Calm might be a word he would use to describe my behavior. And yet inside I was freaking out. Call it not-wanting-to-jinx-things or denial-it-ain't-just-a-river-in-Egypt but outwardly I acted like Hannah being on this trip (and then being in Virgina on April 16th!!) was no big deal.

Inside, though, part of me was holding my breath until this moment.

Home. Safe and Sound. Thank you, God.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (54)

April 20, 2007

Eye Candy Friday

Sand and sea grass along a fence at the beach. Cold and deserted now, but not for long.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (20)

April 19, 2007

Closet Overhaul

I live in a really old house. We've never actually done research to confirm the age of this house but we're pretty sure it's at least 150 years old. People back then didn't have a lot of clothes and therefore they didn't have need for many closets so you shouldn't be shocked when I tell you that my entire 4 bedroom house has only 3 closets. Total.

We've done our best over the years to find creative ways of storing our stuff but the one thing we had never dealt with successfully was our bedroom closet -- until now. We bought one of those expandable closet organizer things at Lowe's months ago and it has been sitting in the garage, mostly because I was dreading dealing with the closet. Dale is off this week for school vacation and he finally took the hint and started the closet project himself.

I don't have a "before" picture that shows how disastrous and messy our closet was so you'll just have to imagine an overcrowded rack with a shelf above loaded down with bags and boxes. The floor was covered with shoes and discarded clothes and empty bags. It was a pit, I tell you.

Just like "clean sweep" the first thing to do was empty everything out. I did get a picture of that. Like most home improvement projects, things had to look worse before they could look better.

Then Dale swept and painted while I sorted through clothes and shoes and junk. He said the unit was pretty straight forward to install. It took longer than he thought it would but I think that's true of most projects.

While he worked on the installation I mostly sat around knitting. When things got close to being done, though, I sorted through shoes and clothes and stuff. I made some tough decisions, including getting rid of a sweater that I wore the weekend we went away to celebrate our engagement and the shoes I wore with my wedding gown, but when you have limited space you have to be brutal about how you allocate it. By the time Dale was finished installing the unit, I was ready to "move in" to our new closet.

I was a little disappointed that the "full length" side of the unit is wider than I had hoped but it was important to get the shelves directly in front of the doorway and this was the sacrifice we had to make. Everything fit and the shelves are a wonderful addition to our space.

The trick, of course, will be keeping it this neat.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (48)

April 18, 2007

Nothing To See Here

I got nothing today - everything is not-quite-finished. My Bloomin' Feet socks are almost done, I tried plying from a center pull ball and wound up with a tangled mess and we are Dale is in the midst of a major closet overhaul. And, it's still raining. And gray. Blech.

So, I'll do what knitbloggers everywhere do when there's nothing to talk about. I'll show you a picture of Mason the Wonder Cat.

Even he looks unimpressed. It's boring as hell around here, I tell you.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (42)

April 17, 2007

Water, Water Everywhere

As you may have heard, we've had some wild weather lately here in New England. Yesterday's Nor'Easter brought lots of rain and wind, local flooding, and very high tides. So, when the rain let up, Dale and I went out for a drive to see what we could see. What we mostly saw was water.

First stop:

My front yard. New daffodils blossoming. Note the water droplets.

Next stop:

The Herring Run in Pembroke. The herring aren't running yet and it's probably just as well because the water was rushing in extra rapid fashion. Those fish would have a hard time going up stream, even with the help of the fish ladder. The ground was very soggy but we did walk around a bit. Hopefully we'll get back when the fish are heading upstream to spawn and I'll have pictures to show you.

Final destination:

Duxbury Beach. The waves were huge and the wind was blowing like crazy. It was totally worth it, though, for the smell of salt water - it's been way too long since I smelled that. A few of the roads were slightly flooded but nothing we couldn't drive across easily in the Jeep. We saw lots of tree limbs down and some pretty substantial local flooding but it was much less severe here than in other places.

After our sight seeing expedition we headed to Plymouth for lobster rolls and then it was home for knitting and vegging in front of the television. All things considered, it was a damn fine day.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (44)

April 16, 2007

Happy Patriot's Day

Today is Patriot's Day here in Massachusetts which means no work for me. Let's hear it for 3 day weekends! So, because I'm in a patriotic mood and all, I thought this would be a good time to show the photos I took on a trip we made to the State House a couple of weeks ago.

Every year in April we take a bus to the State House to lobby for libraries. I fondly refer to the bus full of library supporters as the "freedom bus" and it drops us off right in front of the State House which is quite convenient. This year Dale had the day off and I invited him to go with me. He had never been inside the State House before and was excited to go along. Frankly, the man loves his libraries and his librarians and he'd do anything to spend a day with his favorite people in an historical setting.

We registered, had coffee and cheese danish (mmmm!) in the Great Hall and then went off to listen to various speakers extol the virtues of libraries. We then spent some time speaking with our representatives and explaining to them the legislative agenda in support of libraries. The budget in Massachusetts is tough this year and money for libraries will be hard won but we're hoping to see some increases. Once we got all the business out of the way we had some free time to do a little sight seeing.

Dale loved the Hall of Flags and spent a (really) long time studying the various Civil War flag transparencies on display. The State House has over 400 flags in its collection and supposedly rotates these images but I haven't seen them changed in years.

I've always been enchanted by the stained glass skylight but never knew until this trip that the seals around the center Massachusetts seal are actually the seals of the original 13 colonies. Leave it to Dale to find that out.

After a fabulous lunch of sandwiches and quite possibly the best brownies ever, it was time to board the bus and head for home. We did so filled with the knowledge that we had done our part for libraries that day. Now we just have to sit back and see if the legislators do their part, too.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (39)

April 13, 2007

Eye Candy Friday

This beauty, and several others like it, is in bloom by my back door. It makes me smile every time I walk past it.
It says "Happy Spring" despite our very un-spring like temperatures.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (25)

April 12, 2007

Flower Basket Shawl

The Flower Basket Shawl had been on my "to knit" list for ages - before I even started knitting lace, in fact. The problem was, I had sort of moved beyond a beginner lace project and I wasn't all that interested anymore. Then I had a moment of brilliance and decided to knit a Flower Basket Shawl for my dear friend Lois' birthday.

The yarn is some unknown hand painted lace weight I had in the stash and the colors are perfectly Lois. While I generally prefer to knit shawls with solid color yarns, I do think this pattern works well with the variegated yarn. I knit 14 repeats of the flower basket pattern and used a size 4 Knit Picks options needle. It took me just about two weeks to complete the project. Hannah was thrilled to model it for me this week and I gifted it to Lois last night. She's even more thrilled than Hannah and has promised to wear it on her European cruise this summer.

Sigh.

I suppose that one of my handknit items cruising through Europe is almost as good as cruising through Europe myself.

Sigh.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (72)

April 11, 2007

Lucky Me!

I have been a very lucky blogger lately, winning prizes just about everywhere. Okay, not everywhere. But enough that I need to tell you about my prezzies.

First up:

ALL of this yarn was a gift from my grrlfriends over at kpixie. Missa and Jessica take really good care of me. And you guys know that kpixie is right in my own town, right? Plus, Hannah is BFF with Jessica's daughter. So, when Hannah was over there the other day she came home with a big bag of yarn just for ME. There's yummy sock yarn in Easter-y colors and there's cotton and stitch markers and cool scissors and notions, too. Thanks. you grrls rock!

Next we have:

This basket of lovelies came from Anne. She had a contest to celebrate her newly opened shop, Wooly Wonka Fibers (don't you just love that name) and I won $25 worth of stuff. The coolest part - I got to choose the stuff myself! So there's a bit of yarn and quite a bit of roving. Ahem. I may have sent her some of my own money as this added up to a wee bit more than my allowance. And those new chocolate covered Altoids and hand lotions and wool wash, too. Thanks so much, Anne!

Finally:

I won Scout's preppy contest. Good thing, too, since I subjected myself to public humiliation by posting all those old college photos. Heh. Not only did Scout send me the oh-so-preppy yarn that she dyed but she also tossed in a yarn ball keychain - just because I mentioned that I liked it. Speaking of Scout, did you see her on Knitty Gritty this past Monday? She was absolutely fabulous!

I rarely win anything in "real" life so I feel very lucky indeed to be the winner of all these wonderful goodies. Just please don't hate me because I'm beautiful lucky.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (48)

April 10, 2007

What I Did for Easter

Easter is not an easy holiday for me. My older brother Donald had a motorcycle accident on April 1, 1983 and it was also Good Friday. He died a week later on April 8th and Easter has been just a little bit tragic ever since. This year's Easter actually fell on the 24th anniversary of his death. So, I did what any smart woman would do. I armed myself with family, good food, and a couple of mimosas.

We had all the kids and grandkids over for a yummy dinner of ham, Parmesan mashed potatoes, asparagus and carrots. There was coconut cake and cheesecake for dessert. We had an egg hunt - inside due to the unseasonably cold weather - and an all around pleasant day. I loved how noisy and chaotic it all was, a sharp contrast to Easter 1983 when we were in the midst of tragedy and grief.

I have some close blog friends who have recently experienced personal loss and I just want to say things do get better. Not all at once and not always when you want. But it does get better. Time and family and love - those are the things that have brought healing to my life.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (49)

April 9, 2007

Sock Madness: I'm Done and Out

I may have been beaten by my opponent but I did not abandon my Sock Madness Round Three socks. I finished the Painted Madness Socks on Saturday afternoon and I gifted them to Hannah.

Purty, yes?

The pointed edges on the cuff are knit in a long strip. You then turn the strip and pick up the edge stitches along the length. Join that into a round and wah-la, you have the start of your cuff.

Once that's done the rest is just knit, knit, knit with a bit of ribbing thrown in for good measure. The yarn is from Laura in the colorway "October" and it's soft and lovely and Hannah is quite thrilled to have new socks!

And I knit my first star toe. I like this toe quite a bit. It seemed faster to me and, while I have no problem kitchenering, I didn't mind skipping it either.

I thank you for all the good cheer you sent my way during the Sock Madness competition. I was challenged to learn new techniques like short row heels and star toes and oblique spirals and it was good to work outside my comfort zone. I may be out of the competition now but I'll still get the patterns for the rest of the rounds and I intend to knit them all as they arrive.

After all, I am a sock knitting addict.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (47)

April 6, 2007

Eye Candy Friday

I made it to the heel flap on sock two by the time I went to bed last night at midnight. I got up this morning at 6 AM only to find that my opponent had finished her socks. I did my best but I'm out of Sock Madness.

The good news is that now I can relax and enjoy the holiday weekend. There will be cooking and baking and decorating and churching and dining with the kids.

Pick the one you like: Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy Weekend.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (41)

April 5, 2007

Can't Blog, Must Knit

Remember that Schaefer Anne from Tuesday's post? I'm turning it into Merino Lace Socks from the Interweave Knits Favorite Socks book. These are for my Bloomin' Feet pal who says she likes blue, green and purple. I hope she likes lace, too.

However, Sock Madness Round 3 started yesterday morning and the Bloomin' Feet socks have been cast aside for Painted Madness socks. I love this pattern even more than the previous two Sock Madness patterns!

That's my progress as of this morning. Can't blog. Must knit.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (50)

April 4, 2007

Preppy Is As Preppy Does

There I was on Monday, innocently reading Scout's Swag, and she starts talking about being preppy. I went to high school and college in the 80s. I may have been a bit of a prep. Ahem.

These pictures are for you, Scout. The rest of you may want to avert your eyes.

February 1984. Eagle Eye sweater with strawberry grosgrain ribbon button band, oxford shirt, corduroys. You can't see them but I bet I'm wearing Tretorns.

September 1984. Oxford shirt, knee length navy blue wool shorts, penny loafers without socks.

June 1985. White eyelet dress by Laura Ashley. Blue satin ribbon that matched my blue shoes. I changed the ribbon color to match whatever shoes I happened to be wearing.

September 1986. Champion Wheaton sweatshirt, knee length denim shorts, Tretorns, no socks. Please note the turned up collar from the Izod shirt I'm wearing under the sweatshirt. The kid belonged to a neighbor. She's 24 now. Yikes.

June 1988. Laura Ashley dress. Please note the black and white striped hair bow. Oy. I had the most fabulous shoes that I wore with this dress. They were white leather and they looked like eyelet. They didn't fit after I had Hannah and boy was I pissed about that.

I have many more pictures I could show you but I think I've made my point. Oxford shirts were a wardrobe staple for me, as were corduroys and knee length shorts and penny loafers. I had a navy blue blazer and a grey one, too. My dresses were usually either Laura Ashley or Eileen West and I had a Papagallo "Bermuda Bag" with covers in every color.

In short, I was a prep. Okay, you all can just stop laughing now.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (79)

April 3, 2007

Sock Addicts Unite

Hi. My name is Carole and I'm a sock knitting addict. All you other sock knitting addicts out there - and you know who you are - should be raising your hand right now and saying, "Hi, Carole." This is the part of SKA where I tell you my story so just sit back and relax.

On Saturday I finished my Trekking Ice Cream Socks.

Aren't they pretty? Ooooh, the colors. Too bad this color combo (#126) has been discontinued. I found it on ebay, though, and you probably could, too.

These are my standard 72 stitch picot edge stockinette socks knit on size 0s. They fit me perfectly every time, even if they do take forever and a day.

Anyway, I finished these on Saturday and decided to give the sock knitting a rest. After all, I've finished two rounds of sock madness in the last few weeks and the sock knitting has been a bit intense around here as a result. Round Three starts tomorrow and I thought a few days rest from socks would be a good plan. Smart, right?

Ahem. I lasted until Monday afternoon and then I caved and wound up this Schaefer Anne and started the socks for my Bloomin' Feet pal. I simply cannot be without socks on the needles.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (65)

April 2, 2007

Success!

Yes indeed, I walked 100 miles from January 1st to April 1st. I walked the final 2 miles on Saturday by going to the river with Dale and Dixie.

There were many times when I felt like I couldn't do this. 100 miles is a lot, especially for someone like me who doesn't like to exercise. But every time I felt like quitting I imagined what it would be like to have to tell you all that I didn't do it. And then I imagined how great it would be to tell you that I did do it. The overachiever in me won out every time. I want to thank all of you for your encouragement and support. I really felt like you guys were walking right along with me and that helped more than I can say.

The Runagogo blog is continuing and people are signing up to walk another 100 miles in the next 3 months. I'm not going to do that. Don't look at me like that - I'm not going to stop exercising. But what I am going to do is change my routine a bit. I know from personal experience that if I want to lose weight I've got to use the weight training equipment. And there's only so much time in a day, people. I am not willing to spend 50 minutes on the treadmill and then another 30 minutes on the weight circuit. So, I am going to drop back the treadmill to 20 minutes and add 30 minutes of weight lifting. I think I'll be in better shape in three months even if I haven't walked another 100 miles. I'm counting on you guys for encouragement and support.

In the meantime . . . cue the Rocky theme music.

Posted by Carole at 7:00 AM | Comments (65)