In memoriam

Me and Jim's son, Stephen

June 2001

Random thoughts for a holiday weekend

Friday morning I missed my train (I've had trouble making my train all week), so I decided to treat myself to a latte at the coffee shop in Babylon Village. As I pulled up in front of the shop, look what I saw across the street.

Can you read that sign?

YES! COMING SOON! MY OWN LYS! BARELY THREE MILES FROM MY HOUSE!!!

I. am. psyched. Can you tell? ;-)

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Friday night I worked until 9, and Saturday I had to go back into the office again. What better way to celebrate labor day than to put in a 12-hour work day. Well, at least I got a Saturday Sky picture out of it.

Babylon LIRR station

Just another drizzly, wind swept day.

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I'm trying to decide on my next knitting project--definitely has to be one of my UFOs. I was going to get back to the cryptic "Christmas Gift #3" A.K.A "Bluefoot" (just a pair of basic 2x2 rib socks in Karabella's Majestic (knitting both at the same time)), but I can't tell where I am with them. It looks like I didn't quite finish the heel turn on one of them, and it looks like I picked up twice as many gusset stitches than I should have on the other. You know, I think it's been about nine months since I last touched them and looking at them now I can really see that I've learned a whole lot about sock knitting. What a difference a year makes!

So, do muddle through and try to figure out where I am and how to proceed, or should I pay a visit to Frog Pond? I have no idea what I should do.

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Well, later this morning (it is already Sunday morning), I'm heading up to the Columbia County Fair. First of all--my reenacting unit has a display set up, and Jim's been there since Tuesday. Secondly--Jim's giving the truck and gun to another member of the unit for the unit's next event, which Jim and I will miss because I'm going with him on one of his Elderhotel programs, so I have to give him a ride home from the fair. We won't get home until really, really late on Monday, so I'm going to work from the house (in Vermont) on Tuesday. And then drive home Tuesday night. (Can I do any more traveling this weekend???)

And the best part--there's really no place for me to change into period attire when I get to the fair, so I have to dress before I leave the house. Oh yeah, a 3-hour drive wearing a corset. Not a good thing--19th century undergarments and 21st century car seats are definitely not compatible. Of course, maybe a pit stop at Morehouse Merino will make it more tolerable. I just might have to see if it helps...

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Labor day weekend. The end of the summer. The beginning of our busy season at work. And a 12-day working vacation.

September's going to be an interesting month...

Finished object... puzzling

I have another finished object! My red socks!!!

However, do you notice something here? Look closely...

Yup. One sock is darker, the other is pinker. And the two skeins I used were from the same dye lot. WTF?!?!?!?

Details
Yarn: Claudia Hand Painted Fingering Yarn in Chocolate Cherry -- less than two skeins
Pattern: Four-Stitch Ribbing Pattern--Baby Cable Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks
Needles: Addi Turbos Size 2.5 mm, length 100 cm (Magic Loop)
Started: April 8, 2006
Finished: August 28, 2006

I've got a third skein of this (same dye lot). I was afraid two wouldn't be enough, but I had leftover yarn from each skein. I was wondering what to do with the third skein. Looks like I'm going to have to knit a third sock and see which one it matches. I know, I'm assuming that there will be a match, and we all know what happens when we ass-u-me stuff... Then I'll frog the mismatch and maybe make a CrackBerry cozy for it. It's a plan.

Sadly, now I really can't wear these until the third sock is done. They'll show wear, and the third sock will still look different. Bummer...

Anybody out there have this same thing happen to them? What did you do???

Alpacas and reenactments

OK, so you want to know what and have in common? Well, two weeks ago I attended the Battle of Bennington reenactment at Scare Cro Farm, which just happened to be one house away from Shaftsbury Alpacas! I've been wanting to stop by this place, but we never seem to have the time, and when we do they were always closed. But this year, I was able to sneak away from the event for an hour and got to meet Sandy and Johan Harder. They gave me a tour and introduced me to "their girls." Unfortunately, my camera battery died on me, but I did manage a few shots.

Here are the boys...







And here's one of the girls...













By the way, according to Sandy, the alpacas had absolutely no problem with all the gunfire and cannon shot going on at the reenactment. On the other hand, their rottweiler had some issues with it.

I got to visit the Alpaca Shack and, of course, bought some worsted weight alpaca yarn in a pretty baby blue (sorry, no picture yet) which will be an arm sock for Jim. And for future reference, they've got alpaca roving! Once I get a little spinning experience, I'm going to be back for the roving--and to see how Sandy, Johan, and the girls are doing.

Some other pictures from that weekend...

Here's Jim napping during a quiet moment.

And there was this really cute puppy...

And on Saturday here's what I spent most of my day doing.

Not exactly the work of the early colonists, is it.

But on Sunday, I got to do some of this!

Actual knitting content. It happens every now and then, ya know?

I is for...

...ice

and I'm really behind on my ABC-Along. But I'm determined to catch up!

Quick update, or what I've been doing (other than work) over the last couple of weeks

An emergency project at work over that last week and a half has greatly interfered with my ability to blog. However, I think that the worst is over--for now, at least. So without any further delay, here's a quick update...

There's been knitting. My friend, Joanne, has developed an interest in knitting socks. One night I'm showing her different skanks of sock yarn from my stash, and next thing I know she's ordering sock yarn from KnitPicks! And needles! And more sock yarn!!! A week ago Saturday I went over her house to show her teach her Magic Loop. Look at the cute little sample socks we made! (She made the pink one, mine's the green one.) She's going to turn hers into a Christmas ornament. I think I'm going to do the same.

She wouldn't let me leave her house until we finished those socks. That wound up being 12:30 am. We started at 5:30ish. And had BBQ in the middle.

I also manage to make some progress on red sock number two that night as well. I'm now on the foot of that second sock (updated picture to come).

I think I'm starting to get the sewing bug again. I made a lunchtime trip to my favorite fabric store in NYC just because I felt like touching fabric and wound up with a swatch of this:

I'm thinking, maybe a skirt? Luckily for me, Joann's had a sale on patterns. I went a little nuts.
Some patterns for me, and some for the house!

There have been some pretty sunsets...

...and some drizzly skys.

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OK, it's late, and I need some sleep. Next time I'll fill you in on
this past weekend and tell you what this

and this have in common.

Overheard on the train

So Wednesday night I'm sitting on the train headed home from work. In front of me there are these two middle-aged women talking to each other. Loud enough for everyone in the car to hear. They had just finished discussing in great detail another woman's divorce--including this "new Lexus every three years" part of her settlement. Then a subject change--one of them starts talking about this trip she had recently made to to Boston, which included a visit to Paul Revere's house. As she starts to describe what his house looks like, the other woman asks her "now what was it that Paul Revere was noted for?"

????????????????????????????????????????????

I just had to share that. Tomorrow, a return to knitting content.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

It's Saturday. I'm in the office. It's a great day.

Wait--how can it be a great day if I'm in the office on a Saturday???

Because... this morning I stopped at The Point on my way to work. They're having their end of summer sale this weekend. 40 percent off a bunch of stuff. Look what I walked out with:

Can't see what it is? Need a closeup on the label? Well, here ya go...

Yup. You're seeing clearly. And it was 40 percent off. FORTY. FREAKIN'. PERCENT. OFF!!!

It's enough for a clapotis, or something clapotis-like. How could I not? It will keep me warm this winter. And it will go with the color scheme in the living room. So, actually, I bought it for the house. Which makes it OK, right?

So you see, even though I had to work today, it really was a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

I got socks

See, I haven't forgotten that this is a knitting blog...

The blue sock (Cascade 220) is Jim's. The red sock (Claudia Hand Painted) is mine. Their mates are in progress.


They're so comfy, I would wear them just like this... except of course that it's 100 freakin' degrees outside.

No wool sock wearing until it gets down to at least 80.

Feast and famine

Well, I lucked out this past weekend. The rains stopped and the weather was beautiful. However it was a weekend of feast and famine--opposites and contrasts...

Feast... of beautiful weather,

a gorgeous setting,
and a nice little living history event.

And there was even knitting! Before the weekend I finished the first of the Claudia Handpaint socks, and over the weekend I wound another ball to start the second sock and resized/refinished the first of Jim's soldier socks.

Famine--

• Not a single freakin' knitting picture! No proof of the progress I made. I'll remedy that this week.
• Sleep--Despite the nice camping weather, I had trouble sleeping Friday and especially Saturday night, due to the... feast that the skeeters were having on me! Some 40+ bites. Primarily on my forearms and backs of my thighs, but the bites were on my calves, neck, face, back, hips, and even one on my ass. And I used bug spray with DEET--lots of it! What the #$%^@ ????????
• Thankfully, there are not pictures of these bites.

For now, I'll leave you with a recent picture of my knitting/sewing/spinning/fiber sanctuary. It's no longer a carpentry work room and definitely has potential, as well as some nice late afternoon sun.