inspiration struck

You have to check out what Kitten did with the pattern sent to him!  I'm inspired!  I need to try his mods, they're brilliant.

Sexy knitting, my friend.

how much trouble can I really get into?

This weekend is going to be either an event in self control .... or lack thereof.

I am going on a field trip with my children to a working Alpaca Farm.  Sadly, it's for sale.  But they have this weird string like thing that they sell there....

On the same day, there will be SOAR with vendors open to the public.

AND on Saturday... my town... gets a

YARN SHOP

Within walking distance from my house.

Yeah, I can hear my savings account weeping too.  I'd say wish me luck, but I'm not 100% certain what side of luck staying away or running to constitutes.

Thank you Kitten!

The second wonderful thing I need to say thank you for is a package I received from Kitten-With-A-Whiplash.  It was sent with things to make baby items.  Kitten discovered that I don't have a whole lot of little kid patterns, and so sent me a box of fun stuff to enable me to make baby items that have a chance of fitting an actual human baby!

Let's start here:

Can you believe how much yarn he managed to fit in that box??  It's like opening Fibber McGee's Closet!  More yarn than I though possible popped out at me, and it just kept coming and coming.  But this is only part of what Kitten managed to fit in there. 

Here's everything all together:

In an amazing display of generosity and non-euclidean geometry, Kitten-With-A-Whiplash has sent me more beautiful yarn and patterns than I could have imagined.  I am humbled and touched.  Thank you.

Let's get a closer look at the patterns.  They're really something special.

I've got the card with the Unicorns and poppies also on my cork-board so I can see it when work decides to stink.

While I've been stupidly sick and unhappy about it, I've been reading the books.  I haven't been able to knit because I've been grossly sick, so these books have been a life-line for me.  Thank you again. 

And if that wasn't generous enough, these were sent for me particularly!

Aren't they gorgeous?  I am so grateful and excited to use them!  I've been petting the pink when my fiber-withdrawal gets too tough to take. ;-)

So, I must thank you from the bottom of my heart.  These have helped me to be happy even when the cold swelled up my hands so I couldn't type or knit (although truthfully the knitting thing was more of a blow than the typing thing).  I am overwhelmed by your generosity, and I feel really blessed in the people I've met in this last year.

Thank you again!

thank you Rusty

Good grief, I had no intention of abandoning this for a week.  I swear I just set my head down for a minute and a week passed.

Today, (well last Tuesday really) I owe 2 people thanks.  I got some amazing things in the mail & am really excited to share.  This post is about a package of brightly colored cards that I received.

Look, aren't they pretty?

And these as well!

Apparently, the cold is affecting my ability to take a decent picture... but the cards are so lovely I wanted to share even if  they are a bit dark. 

I love the colors and actually have them set up on pins (as opposed to with pins through them) on my cork board so I can look at them while I work.  They are lovely, and you do fabulous work!  Thank you!!

fall in the air

I had a lot of things I wanted to write about today.  The different things that let you know it's actually fall again.  But the specific one that is on my mind right now is 'you know it's really fall when your kid brings home a super-cold and spreads it around the house.'

*sigh*

Oh!  I have a picture post I'm working on for either this afternoon or tomorrow morning depending on when my camera re-charges.  I've written all the words, but the camera took a nap after only a single picture.  Luckily, I've got a new battery charger!

Today is rainy and grey, with a moderate breeze.  It's perfect knitting weather, and I don't intend to let it go to waste.  I have a grey stripey blanket I need to finish (30 rows, and 1 million ends to weave in from done), and I need to spend some concentrated time doing suggested (and MUCH appreciated!!) edits to a couple of patterns.  Plus, I have a little boy sweater to finish sleeves on.  Bless stockinette for it's simplicity!

Hopefully by 5 today there will be a much more colorful post.

AH, yes.  If you don't read Knitty's Blog today is a good day to check them out (although really, there's no bad time).  They partnered with Quince and Co for a giveaway and a code for 10% off.  You  know I love their yarn.  It's a great value for the money, never mind that it's delicious to work with... so if you've got the opportunity definitely treat yourself to a perusal of Knitty Blog and the 10% off code for Quince.  Your needles will thank you!

SWEEEET

Also, whomever the brave soul is who got to my little space on the web by google-ing "knitting hockey sticks"?

 Let me know if you do it, because that is a Challenge!

Braaaaaaiiiiiins

Without getting into how I know, let me assure you that being oncall for an extended period of time drains braincells.  In fact, after being oncall for a long time you may well find yourself brushing your teeth with hand soap because you are no longer awake enough to distinguish it from toothpaste.

Yeah.

Here's where Tuesday's sneaky peaks stand right now:

I suspect it needs a ghost writer... or a writer with a brain... but we'll see how it proofs out, shall we?

Yay, go knitters! ZZZZZzzzzzzzz.....

value, 3000 words

Long time no post.  As you can see, I've been busy.  So, I designed this thing for a friend of mine and all the boys at my house wanted in on the act.  Four serious scarves later... I'm back at the blog.


I've charted out the pattern, and need to get some decent shots of the scarf in action.  But look for it Friday-ish, it worked up quickly and charted well.

So, about planning for power outages in the Summer.

I have a box filled with 4 flashlights, and 3 LED lanterns.  I also have a gas-range top which allows me to cook camp-style.  When I had my last child, I invested in a chest freezer.  In the spring, I make up a bunch of ice cubes, and keep them in 2 large bags.  If we lose power, we can move our most perishable items into the chest freezer to keep them cold for up to 3 days.

Otherwise, I also make sure that we do a lot of stir-fry meals, and a lot of soup in the summer.  All stuff that doesn't involve a functioning oven.

Then, just make sure that I have fresh water in case the town water gets nasty (it did one year, so I make sure to keep 5 gallons of fresh water bottled in the house).

And then, we play a lot of board games.  Lots of them.  Criminal amounts of card games too.

And then there's always the manual preparations for winter that can be done when there's no power.  For instance, knitting...

eventually I'll show you the figures on how the power of wool saves us roughly 400 USD a year over the course of the winter.  Knitting, there's very little it's not useful for.

what to do when there's no electricity

Us New Englanders are hardy (see also cranky) folk.

We get sub zero temperatures with biting windchill in the winter, and we have 100+ degree Farenheit with humidity you can almost drink out of the air in the summer.

We know suffering.  One might almost say we welcome it, because really?  There are more temperate places we could live.

So, if you ever find yourself without power (again, almost a sport in New England) and you haven't sold the 100 shawls necessary to purchase one of them nifty generators.... here's a list of things you can do to keep you occupied.

1.  Play a rousing game of 'which of the trees do you think is going to kill us'
2.  Knit.
3.  Contemplate whether the roof is still water proof.
4.  Think about knitting.
5.  Board games (during which you will either knit or think about it longingly)
6.  Catch up on your reading  (possibly of knitting magazines)
7.  Be really glad that you washed the floor and the dishes before power went out.
8.  Take COLD @$$ showers.
9.  Cook camp-style on your gas range top.
10.  Catch up on sleep.
11.  Surreptitiously knit in candle light after the family falls asleep.

Well, at least you'd get a lot of knitting done!

Tomorrow I'll put up a list of what we really do to get prepared and how we actually weather the storms.  But today?  Today I'm taking a hot shower and rejoicing.


Ah yes, let me also assure people that everything has been posted.

My post office can't decide whether they love or hate me, but they haven't kicked me out yet.

In other news, the river has totally receded!  This is great!