Mom's birthday present

I've been trying and trying to post something to the blog for a couple weeks now. I get started on this wonderful epic post, get interrupted and never get around to finishing. So, forget all that. Short post. Then maybe in a few days another short post. It's not like I have nothing to say. I've got tons to say, so much that I can't seem to organize it all into a post. So I'm gonna save all those other ideas for later and just tell you about my mom's month-of-May present.


Mom's birthday is in early May. Then there's mother's day shortly after. And a few weeks later is my parents' wedding anniversary. So I spend a lot of time in May thinking about mom. Truth is, I think about Mom all the time, but usually it's "when's the last time I called Mom?" or "I wonder if Mom heard about this?" or "I need to get that recipe from Mom." In May I'm a bit more sentimental and I spend a lot of time thinking about how lucky I am to have such a great Mom. I think about what a hard time I gave her when I was a teenager and I'm thankful that she seems to have forgiven me. I think about how much I enjoy spending time with her now that I'm an adult and I think about what a warm loving and wonderful person she is. Then I think again about how lucky I am that she's my Mom. And then I wonder if my brother realizes how lucky he is...

This year, way back near the end of February I thought about the fact that May was just two short months away and I decided I wanted to do something special for mom. So I spent March and April knitting this lap blanket for her:


I had lots of fun picking out 20 different stitch patterns and learning how to knit them all. I improved my mattress stitch skills tremendously while stitching them all together. And I recalled my meager crochet skills adding the little border. My favorite square is the green one near the middle with the leaves on a vine.

I forgot to tell Mom the best feature of this blanket: It's made out of a superwash/acrylic blend so she can just toss it in the washer and dryer and it'll come out just fine.

I hope she likes it. It's not terribly big but it's stitched full of love!

A neglected blog, some socks, and other random bits

I appear to be guilty of blog neglect. I have been ever so gently, and probably unintentionally, reminded of this by a wonderful friend that I think of often and communicate with far too rarely. She tells me that she is one of my six readers. (The "six" thing, that's just a guess. It's probably only four.)

So, what the heck have I been up to for the last month?

We've had an offer on the extra house so Buster and I have been busy negotiating that and crossing our fingers that nothing goes wrong. It's all very good news and we're through the most nail-biting bits, but I'll refrain from too much excitement until the deal is closed.

There are little buds on the trees here and an occasional small pile of un-melted snow on the roadside. Yes, it is springtime in Michigan and I've started riding my bicycle outside from time to time. It's still a little on the chilly side and the roads close into town (used for shorter spring rides) are full of nasty potholes and cars that have forgotten, over the long Michigan winter, how to comfortably dodge bicycles. So long as it's over 50 degrees and dry, outdoor riding is still better than in, but the really fun cycling is yet to come.

On the knitting front, I've been working on various little things.

I finished this pair of socks for myself:

Yes, I'm aware that there's only one sock in that picture. There is a second sock, I promise.

I also made a thin little beanie cap for myself for wearing under my bicycle helmet. I don't have a picture of the finished product. It is finished but, as yet, untested.



And I finished my first pair of soldier socks a while back.


These Jolly Green Socks are on their way to Afghanistan (or maybe Iraq, I'm not quite sure) for some lucky soldier with male size 9-10 feet. If I hear from the soldier that gets these I'll be sure to share.

After these socks passed inspection I ordered more yarn to start on more soldier socks. This time Kim (the Socks for Soldiers Sarge) was out of olive drab Regia stretch sock yarn so she sent me camouflage Regia sock yarn instead. It's surprisingly pretty. I have to keep reminding myself that this yarn is not my own and that, having bought it at a discount through SFS, I'm not allowed to use it for personal projects (I might have to find some of this stuff through a retail source -- it's pretty!!).

It actually reminds me of the variegated yarn I used for the hat in my previous post. I'm not entirely sure this sort of camo works in the dessert. It's a bit too lush with all the greens and blues I'd think. But apparently this will pass muster for regulation socks and since they'll be inside combat boots and under pant legs I suppose it doesn't really matter.

I've got about 3 pair worth of camo yarn here and I'm told we mostly need to be making male size 9-10 socks since most of the deployed soldier feet fit that category. So those legs are the beginnings of another size 9-10 pair. I think I'll make the next pair for a female soldier. A woman might be more likely to appreciate the pretty colors in this camo patterned yarn.

I'm currently searching for another knitting project. I might make myself a cardigan (though I've promised myself I'd do that AFTER I lost a certian amount of weight and I'm not to that goal yet so I probably should wait), or I might make a second attempt at a lace project, or maybe...



(Don't think about Pink Elephants!)

my new hat

It's a new hat! Just in time for spring when, really, there is no need for hats. So why in the world did I knit myself a hat just as spring was approaching?

It was the yarn... I couldn't resist the beautiful silk/merino blend Manos yarn. It's so soft and the colors are so pretty.
No, no, it was the colorwork. I was just itching to practice some stranded colorwork. There's a very pretty vine pattern there. It's tough to see because the contrast yarn has so many pretty colors.
No, no, I just wanted to try my hand at a fancy tubular cast-on (totally tubular, dude!) even though this pattern didn't call for it and it's really supposed to go with a ribbed edge, not a garter stitch edge.


Or maybe I just wanted Jayavarman Bhudda to have a hat that fits his serene expression. The poor guy has been hatless since we brought him home from Cambodia.

How to Knit Wacky Ankle socks

I finished my wacky ankle socks and I just know you couldn't wait to see them.


All bright and cheerful with their carnival colors and mismatched ankles!


Actually, this was a bit of an experiment. I've been seeking a good sock pattern to use for cycling socks and I think this one will do quite nicely.

If you don't really care about how to knit socks, the rest will likely bore you to tears. Personally, I find sock construction, in it's zillions of variations, quite fascinating. I also do math for fun. I'm weird.

To make my toes up socks I start with a provisional cast-on over the cable of my second circular needle like in this video (the provisional cast on I use is the second of the four she demonstrates):



Then I knit a short row toe similar to the toe in Wendy's generic toe up sock pattern. Both the cast on and the short row toe take some practice. There's a short row toe tutorial on Knitty using a crochet provisional cast on. I don't like the crochet chain cast on, but I found the rest of the tutorial useful.

For the record, I like my socks to be 60 stitches around (on size 1's) so I cast on 30 stitches (plus the 30 on the second needle which hangs out of the way, or sometimes frustratingly in the way, while you make the toe). I knit back one complete row, turn and start my short rows by purling 29, wrap the 30th stitch and turn, knit back to the second to last stitch, wrap the last stitch and turn, etc until there are 14 unwrapped stitches in the middle and 8 wrapped stitches on either end.

Wendy's instructions, both in her pattern and on Knitty start the short rows with a knit row. I found that when I started with a purl row, I ended up picking up the last wrapped stitch on a knit row and could continue strait away in the round. Doing it Wendy's way had me finishing with a purl row, then having to knit back to start the round and for me that left too big of a gap when I moved to the second needle to work in the round and I ended up with little holes on either side of the toe. Perhaps I'm not following Wendy's instructions quit correctly. Not sure. Anyhow, I get holes Wendy's way. You might not.

Once the toes are both finished I arrange them on two circs and start knitting in the round. I did a 2x2 rib on the top of these sock and stockinette stitch on the bottom.

My ginormous feet are 10 inches long (really, I might be the only girl on the planet that dreads shoe shopping) so I start me heel work at 7 inches using the heel from Wendy's toe up socks with a difference. Instead of working gussets on the sides of the heel, this pattern puts the increases under the heel. It ends up looking like a little wedge under your foot. I was a bit skeptical about putting anything other than stockinette stitch under my foot until I tried this. The increases are quite flat and you will not be able to feel them.

Side view:

bottom view:



Then I work back and forth on the heel needle turning the heels with short rows and continuing with the heel flaps as described in the pattern. Once you've figured out the short rows for the toes, the short row heel turn is a piece of cake. I work up the heel flap sucking up stitches on either side as I go. Once all the stitches are worked in and I'm down to just the flap, I still have a few more stitches on the heel needle than the instep needles so I start working in the round again and swallow up those extra stitches as I go.

For these socks I knit 1 1/2 inches of 2x2 rib for the ankle, adding in the mismatched yarn as needed, then bound off in pattern with a number 3 needle.

And there you have it, toes up ankle socks suitable for cycling!

my mismatched socks (oops!)

My new ankle socks started out like this. Two little short-row toes and two little half skeins of very bright yarn. The other half of those two skeins went to knit these bright and cheery little ankle socks last June for my marvelous friend Mary (who now has two blogs). Before I started knitting my own pair of bright and cheerful socks I weighed one of the two half skeins to be sure it really was at least half a skein. The skein I weighed was 25g (exactly half of the original 50g). Good! Of course I had forgotten 3 things. One: I knit Mary's socks on size 2 needles and I'm knitting my socks on size 1 needles. Guess which one uses more yarn. Two: after knitting several pair of socks I've discovered that a bit of ribbing on the instep keeps the feet from getting baggy so I knew I wanted to do that, too. Ribbing tends to use more yarn than stockinette stitch. And finally, three: When I started Mary's socks I discarded a lengthy chunk of yarn from one of the skeins so the patterns in the self patterning yarn would match up. These two half skeins were not the same size. Oblivious to all of these potential pitfalls, I cast on for my bright and cheery ankle socks toes first.

I'm kinda regretting that toes-first choice I made. You see, if I'd started at the ankles, at least the parts of my socks that show above my shoes would match.


One of my little half skeins was smaller than the other and, not surprisingly, I ran out. These are quirky socks to begin with so all is not lost. I simply grabbed the leftover yarn from these socks, joined it in, and kept on knitting. Maybe no one will notice... some of the colors are similar. There's light blue checks and dark blue and a mustardy yellow in both. So what if they're different shades. Who looks that closely at someone else's socks anyhow?

Aw heck, I don't know who I'm trying to fool. If I wear these mismatched socks out of the house everyone is going to know I'm the crazy sock knitting lady. Oh well, that was bound to happen eventually.

---

A more thrust, less drag update: 2 more pounds this week for a total of 13 pounds lost. I've got 52 pounds to go. Pass the salad...

Buster got a new hat (also, How to double knit)

I finished knitting Buster's new hat yesterday. It's maroon because he likes that color and dark-gray because that matches his coat. It is NOT scarlet and gray. It is maroon and dark-gray. I would NOT give my husband a scarlet and gray hat any more than I would give him an green and white hat. That would be mean. [If you have no clue what I'm talking about, think college football and repeat after me: "Go Blue!". Ok, that's better.]

I used this pattern by Allison Hansel. sorta...

I made the hat bigger around than the pattern calls for (Buster has a big noggin), and several inches taller than the pattern (Buster likes tall hats), and I used a slightly different knitting method. So... is it still the same pattern? I don't know. Allison can have the credit. I did start out with her pattern.

The hat is "double knit" which means that it's two layers knit simultaneously. If you look closely at the picture above you can see that both the outside of the hat and the folded up brim (the inside of the hat) look like stockinette stitch. That's because they both ARE stockinette stitch. It's two layers with the purl sides together. The hat is reversible. Buster can have a maroon hat with dark-gray stripes or a dark-gray hat with maroon stripes (but he cannot have a scarlet and gray hat -- that's not welcome in this house).

There are a few ways to accomplish this double knitting thing. You could, I suppose, knit one big long tube then fold it in on itself and cinch the ends up, but that would be cheating. And it would look bad. Or you could just knit two stockinette stitch hats and sew them together. That might look a little better but it's still cheating.

If you're really knitting both layers at the same time you end up with the stitches from each layer staggered on your needles. So if the first stitch is from the maroon layer, the next is from the dark-gray layer, then maroon, and so on around.

Alison Hansel's original pattern describes a method where, once you've got the whole thing started, you carry only the maroon yarn for a full round knitting the maroon stitches and slipping each dark-gray stitch with the yarn in front, then drop the maroon and carry the dark-gray yarn, purling into the dark gray stitches and slipping the maroon stitches with the yarn in the back. So, for every row you need to go around the hat twice, handling each stitch twice and constantly moving the yarn back and forth. This seems terribly inefficient to me. And somehow it still feels like cheating.

To double knit in the traditional manner, you carry both yarns at the same time knitting the maroon yarn into the maroon knit stitches and purling the dark-gray yarn into the dark gray purl stitches (until you want to change color). You still have to swing the yarns to the other side of the needles between each stitch, but at least you're making a new stitch each time and not slipping every other stitch to save it for later.

The real catch here, and the reason so many people prefer the knit-slip method, is that holding the two strands at the same time can be awkward and you have to be careful not to cross them. Ideally you want the two layers to be attached only at the edges and the color changes. Every time you accidentally cross the strands you attach the two layers together and the contrasting color may show through especially if one or both colors are particularly bright.

You'll find a great little video showing this method of double knitting here, about two thirds of the way down the page. In the video she knits continental (holding the yarn with her left hand), tensions both yarns over her pinky, and holds the colors over different fingers. I work very similarly but hold both yarns over my index finger and tension them with different fingers to keep them from twisting in my hand. Like I said, either way is a bit awkward and you just have to find what works best for you.

Double knitting is not just for super warm reversible ski caps. You can also make double layer pot holders or cushy baby blankets. And you can even do fancy parlor tricks like knitting two socks at the same time on DPNs (double pointed needles), one inside the other. I don't think I've got enough patience for doing socks this way, but I might do a few colorful pot holders and another hat or two.

Next up, some toes-up socks in frighteningly bright colors and a color-work hat for me out of some very beautiful yarn I just bought from jimmy beans wool. I might try a tubular cast-on for that hat. Should be fun!

Actions Speak Louder Than Bumper Stickers

Lately I've been feeling a great fondness for my country and a great appreciation for our military. I've been a bit nervous about the escalating animosity toward the War on Terror and I fear (God forbid!) that this animosity might be directed toward the men and women involved in that action. Frankly, I fear that some of the same folks that rudely and childishly boo'ed George W. Bush as he stepped down on January 20th may also feel inclined to boo returning soldiers. I'm horrified by the possibility. I feel a great need to show my support for the men and women in the US Military. A bumper sticker just isn't enough (and I don't really like bumper stickers anyhow).

Also, I really like knitting socks.

So I signed on with a group called Socks for Soldiers, Inc. It's a group of knitters run by a woman named Kim Opperman. We knit regulation socks and caps, along with a few "leisure" socks and caps, for the men and women in the US Military. If you've never experienced the joy of a pair of well made hand knit socks you may think we're nuts. Just trust me, they're wonderful! Besides, socks are just plain fun to knit.

I purchased a Socks for Soldiers kit when I signed on with the group so I'd have everything I'd need to make soldier socks (well, almost everything):

I had to supplement the kit with a few additional knitting needles (you need three different sizes to follow the pattern), but everything else was there. There's olive drab Regia Stretch yarn, red white and blue beaded stitch markers, a tape measure, darning needles, an official Socks for Soldiers sock band, a copy of the pattern (not pictured), KnitPicks Harmony needles, and a vintage medic's personal effects bag.

I'm really pleased with the supplies. I've never worked with the Regia Stretch yarn before. It's really great stuff! Apparently it holds up to military laundry (machine wash hot, tumble dry hot) and military combat (24+ hours between a soldier's hard working feet and a pair of combat boots). Nice, eh? I think I'm gonna get me some of this stuff in some non-military color and knit myself some bike socks!

When I first started knitting socks I was warned away from stretchy yarns -- very difficult to work with, I was told. But this stuff is pretty easy to deal with. I think the stretch in this yarn comes from the way it's spun rather than any material (elastic) added to the yarn. Maybe that's the difference, or maybe stretchy yarns simply aren't as difficult as I was told.

Regia Stretch isn't as stretchy as elastic yarns but it's certainly stretchy enough. Laid flat, these 2x2 rib sock legs measure about 2.5 inches across, but they'll stretch over a 2 liter pop bottle.

This is one of the tests we're supposed to do as we knit to make sure that our socks will fit over the most buff of military legs.

I'm also liking the Knit Picks Harmony needles. I've been using Addi Turbo Lace needles for a vast majority of my knitting because, frankly, they're the best. But they're a little expensive, running around $15 for a single circular needle (I use two matching circs to make socks). The Knit Picks Harmony needles run a bit less than half that price. They're nice and sharp like the Addis and the highly polished wood needles grip and release the stitches nearly as well as the brass coated Addis. While the Addis warm up almost immediately when you pick them up, the Knit Picks are wood and thus never feel cold (this is very nice in the winter when my fingers tend to get chilly). The only possible complaint I have is that these size zero Knit Picks feel rather flexible. I'm sure I'll get used to that.

I'm about half way through my first pair of soldier socks. No one in my family is in the military. And, with the exception of a friend from college that I've since lost touch with, none of my friends are in the military. I feel really good about this project. I'm so happy to have this opportunity to connect in a small way with a few of the folks that have taken on the job of defending my country, my freedom, and my way of life. I'm very pleased to be able to thank them and show my appreciation with something more than words.

If you want to join Socks for Soldiers check out this informational site or the main Yahoo Socks for Soldiers group site. If you don't knit (you don't know what you're missing) but you want to help out, Socks for Soldiers, Inc. takes donations toward shipping costs and other goodies that go in the care packages with the socks.

Off I go to knit some socks!

More Thrust, Less Drag: an update. And a few other random bits.

Perhaps you recall project "more thrust, less drag" that I began back in June. The truth is, that project really never got off the ground. I lost a couple pounds. I got a bit stronger. In August I was strong enough to ride every last mile of Dalmac (except the stinkin' wall -- I'll get you Wall, next time you will not beat me!) without significant suffering. When I got off the bike in late October, the tiny bit of progress I'd been making came to a screeching halt. The holidays hit me like a ton of sweet buttery brick shaped Christmas cookies. The project had utterly failed.

[A side note: This is NOT, I repeat, NOT, a new year's resolution. I don't believe in that fiddle faddle. Those silly things last until February at best when the resolutioner looks around and says, "eh, this is hard, I gave it a whirl, maybe next year!" As a rule I do not make new year's resolutions. I just decide to do stuff whenever it is I decide it should be done.]

Well, ladies and gents, I'm back in the saddle and this time I ain't kiddin' around. I headed back to Weight Watcher meetings because that's what works for me. Each week I have to step on that scale and, under the watchful eye of the WW receptionists, I have to face the numbers. I know better than to think this game is all about numbers on a scale, but there's no easy/cheep way to measure a human's thrust to drag ratio (or, more properly, strength to weight ratio which, side by side with my overall health, is what I'm ultimately concerned about).

Let's throw some numbers out there so we've all got a good picture of where I'm at and where I'm headed. I'm actually hoping to achieve what I will call "wedding weight". That would be the weight I was when Buster and I got married in September of 2006. Here's a picture:

I wasn't tiny. I was actually 13lbs heavier than the highest weight WW recommends for my height. That's ok. I was comfortable and healthy and I was able to maintain that weight for several months. Wedding weight is my long term goal.

When I signed up for WW a couple weeks ago I weighed exactly 65lbs (Yikes!) over wedding weight. That first week I was on my ultimate best behavior because I really wanted to start off with a bang. I dropped 6.2 lbs. That would be a bang. The goal is actually to lose 1 to 2 lbs per week, but the first week is often an aberration. We'll see how it goes from here. Next weigh-in is Wednesday evening. 58.8lbs to wedding weight.

With that business out of the way I will move on to the other tidbits. First, Dad wanted me to know that he also loves his scarf. I'm told he wears it when he goes out to clear snow off the driveway.
He looks a little ominous in that photo. Don't let him fool you. He's actually a very nice guy (but he probably wouldn't want me to tell everyone that). I hope the scarf keeps him nice and warm while he's clearing snow because it's been downright frigid here lately.

While I'm waiting for my soldier socks kit to arrive I've been doing a bit more selfish knitting. Leftover from Christmas projects I had one more ball of that wonderful Shepard's Wool yarn from Stonehedge Fiber Mills in northern lower Michigan. From deep in the recesses of the hall closet I could hear it calling to me: "Sara, you really must knit me into something wonderful for yourself. Don't knit me up just to give me away! You lost 6lbs and you deserve something nice!". I had to agree with it.

Through this cold snap I've been wearing a very nice scarf that my mom knit for me years ago. I love it, but it's on the bulky side and it's a bit too much to fuss with when I'm grocery shopping and running other such errands where I have to carry it around with me. But it's just too cold around here to NOT wear something around my neck. Poking around on ravelry I found a cowl pattern that looked interesting and I knew the Shepard's Wool would be perfect for it.

I wasn't sure I would like a cowl, but it turns out I LOVE it. The pattern makes a big loose cowl so it doesn't cling to my neck uncomfortably (some cowls are like too tight turtle necks) and I can put it on and take it off without making my hair all staticky. I finished it late last night and I've been wearing it around the house all day today. It's warm without being bulky and the Shepard's Wool is super soft and not the slightest bit itchy.

Here it is, laid out flat on the table:


And here it is on my neck. It would look quite dressy with a shawl pin...

Kinda funny looking picture, but you get the idea.

And that's all the tidbits I've got today. Time to head for spinning class!

Mom's Scarf

After reading the previous entry Mom sent pictures of her scarf. Here they are:



I'm kinda proud of it. It's definitely one of the prettiest things I've knit so far.

Thanks, Mom, for the pictures and especially for teaching me to knit.

Christmas knitting

It's been a while... a long while. Bet you thought I was all done with this blogging thing. Bet you thought the facebook thing had won and I wasn't going to bother with this anymore.

Yeah, I was starting to think that, too. But I've kinda missed writing. So, to get this wagon rolling again I'll share with you my Christmas knitting. This is what kept my fingers very busy from mid November through all of December. With all this knitting to do there was no time for blogging.

For my Mommy I knit a beautiful Chicabean scarf with cables and lace in a subtly variegated blue wool. I'd bought the yarn months ago and was saving it for something special. I can't think of anything more special than a gift for my Mom. I think this scarf was the prettiest thing I made this Christmas. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture. I hope my Mom likes it. I have a feeling she tucked it carefully in a drawer and is saving it for a special occasion. I wish she wouldn't! I want her to enjoy it! If it gets worn or stained or lost or anything bad at all happens to it I will happily knit her another.

I knit socks for my grandmother. I used a worsted weight red tweed yarn. They're really meant more as house socks or sleeping socks. I forgot to take a picture of these, too. But I gotta tell ya, it was nice to knit some socks in the middle of all these scarves.

I knit a thick chunky scarf for my Dad. The pattern called for super bulky yarn but I couldn't find any I liked so I knit with two worsted weight yarns held together. One was a standard brown wool. The other was a truly wonderful yarn called Shepard's Wool, a local Michigan yarn, in a color appropriately called chocolate milk. In hindsight I wish I would have used Shepard's Wool for both strands. The resulting fabric would have been much softer. Dad doesn't often wear scarves but it's been so cold and snowy here, perhaps he's put it to good use.


I knit yet another scarf, this one for Sara-with-an-h. It's a simple brioche stitch pattern in a variegated alpaca yarn. I thought it came out very nice, though the bind-off was a little on the tight side. I can't really tell if she liked it but I enjoyed learning the stitch and working with the pretty yarn.


For my mother-in-law I made a Stolen Moments Wrap with a bulky weight merino blend in a very pretty sea green color. It came out a little smaller than the pattern example appeared and I didn't get a chance to block it (forcing it to grow). If she uses it, it should grow and get more drapy. Again, I can't really tell if she liked it but it, too, was fun to knit.


For both of Buster's sisters I made a popular knitty.com pattern called Clapotis. Neither one of them are very fond of wool so I sacrificed warmth and found a nice soft, drapy acrylic yarn. While Clapotis is quite simple to knit, it is a rather large bit of fabric so it took a lot more time than many of my other projects. I had Kate's completed before Christmas, but we had to ship it to her along with all her other gifts. Poor Kate was stuck in Portland due to the snow. We all missed her terribly.

I managed to finish Mary's about a week after Christmas but she was already on her way home by then. It's still sitting on my desk. I will be sending it to her as a an early birthday present. Her birthday is in late March but I imagine this will be much more useful to her in February than it would be in April.

When I realized I would have to clone myself and stop time all together in order to finish Mary's Clapotis by Christmas, I decided to knit up a quick little button tab hat to put under the tree for her. It took me less than two days to knit and I thought it a poor substitute for the big wrap/scarf, but it was very well received. This is made from the exact same yarn as her Clapotis but the color in the hat picture is more accurate (probably because there's white tissue paper in the picture for something called white balance -- I know just enough about photography to sound really silly trying to discuss it). Sadly, the better color in the picture hides all the detail. The top of the hat is stockinette and the brim is seed stitch with a little tab held down by the button.


Moving on to my most recent sister-in-law, my brother's lovely wife, I knit yet another scarf. I used another knitty pattern, the lace ribbon scarf, but I modified it a bit so I could use a striking chili pepper red, light worsted, bamboo wool. I really enjoyed knitting this pattern. It's a charted lace that's simple enough I could watch TV while I was knitting, but not so simple as to get boring. I enjoyed knitting this one so much that I may knit another just for me (after I'm finished with a couple other projects and feed my sock obsession a bit). Merri Su agreed to model for this picture. I think the red is a very good color for her.


Finally I knit some simple ribbed hats for my bother-in-law and my father-in-law. I knit my father-in-law's hat from the same chocolate milk Shepard's Wool that I used in my dad's scarf. I need to get more of that stuff, it's wonderful! And my brother-in-law's hat was made from a multicolored wool in blues and browns that spiraled up the hat. Buster has been appointed quality control manager of hat knitting. All the hats I've made for him so far he claims are too short. Men's stocking hats, he and his dad both insisted, should be extra long so that when you fold up the brim and pull it down to cover your ears, you still have an air pocket in the top. This, they say, keeps your head extra warm. It also looks extra silly if you put on the hat without folding the brim.

That's my father-in-law modeling his own Christmas hat, my niece modeling her dad's Christmas hat, and Buster modeling the first hat I ever made (notice how it's shorter than that others). I love this picture. Just looking at those three goofs makes me laugh.

The post-Christmas knitting continues. I knit a hat for myself because I didn't have one I liked and I finished a pair of socks that I'd started before the Christmas knitting began and I'm now working on a quick little gift. Hopefully, by the time I'm done with this gift, my Socks for Soldiers kit will have arrived (because actions speak louder than "support our troops" bumper stickers).

I'll leave you with a nice big picture of my new socks. They're keeping my toes nice and warm while yet more snow falls and the temperatures dip even lower and I dream of June.

Home Improvement

I have been a very handy girl lately. These things come with the territory when one moves into a new house. There are a zillion little projects. Most of them are nagging little things that are easy to ignore once the place is really home and you've left your mark. We're not there yet. These things are not so easy for me to ignore -- though I think Buster could care less. He's not as picky as I am.

Some wives make a honey-do list then wait patiently or nag until their husbands take care of it. That's definitely not my style. I'm proud of being a handy girl and I don't like waiting or nagging. Besides, if I do it it'll be done my way, and I like that. Don't worry, Buster has plenty of his own projects.

I started my extra long to-do list a week or so ago and took most of the day off work today to tackle a few more of these little buggers.

The thermostat was digital, but not programmable so I installed this one last week:


To be honest, it was a lot easier to install than to program. Might have to replace it with something a little less obtuse sometime in the not too distant future.

The bedroom windows were all covered by nasty old roller shades, some of which were not exactly functional. Yesterday I started hanging curtains in the master bedroom. I still have to do the two smaller windows, but the big window is all done:

No, we don't have astro-turf for bedroom carpet, but it is the same color. That's on the list of big money projects. We're not ready to tackle those yet, sadly.

Today I started in my office. The dimmer switch no longer dimmed, it just turned the light on and off. I replaced it. Now I can have the right amount of light for any occasion, and the switch looks much nicer, too.


Moving on to the livingroom, this dimmer switch worked, but it was.. well.. backwards:

When I turned the dial it would click on to the brightest setting then dim as I kept turning. I know plenty of people wouldn't think twice about this but I found it really irritating. So I replaced it. Turns out that the installed dimmer was actually meant to be a fan control, not a light control. Maybe that explains the backwards operation.

This was the only project that gave me any trouble. You see, I've been stubborn and I refused to turn off the electricity to do any of the electrical work. The breakers aren't properly labeled and it's always an adventure (rebooting computers and resetting clocks) when I need to turn off a breaker. Anyhow, as I was hooking up the new switch, it bit me. It was just a little jolt to the thumb and I'm not really sure how it happened because I don't think I was even touching anything with that thumb! No harm done and I managed to finish hooking up the switch without any more zaps. It works like a champ.

In case you might think I learned a lesson from that project, I moved right on to my smoke alarm project without even thinking about flipping breakers.

The old smoke alarm seemed non-functional. I wasn't going to test it with actual smoke, but the test button didn't work. That was making me a bit nervous.

I've never had a smoke alarm that was wired into the house electricity before. Regular battery powered smoke alarms are super easy to replace but I wasn't sure about the wired kind. No problem. Turned out to be a piece of cake. No zaps this time and the new smoke alarm nearly deafened me when I hit the test button:

It's also got a "it's not a real fire, I'm just cooking" button. I need one of those.

Next up, the blinds in the bathroom.


Those are standard aluminum blinds, but that is not a standard bathroom window. It comes down a lot lower than bathroom windows should. There is no way to open those blinds without completely sacrificing all modesty. So I replaced them with a top down pleated shade.


Now we can enjoy natural light in the bathroom without sitting naked in front of our neighbors. And, the new shade is very pretty. You probably can't see it in the photo, but it's got a very nice little leaf pattern. I like this shade so much that I'm thinking about ordering more for windows in the livingroom and guestroom.

Tomorrow I have the day off work (it's my birthday) so I'll work on the rest of my list. I still need to

• Hang a top down shade in the other bathroom
• Hang the rest of the bedroom curtains
• Put up a second smoke alarm (no wiring for this one)
• Put up a CO alarm in the basement (furnace 10+ years old? Get a CO alarm.)
  
• fix a bathroom faucet (ooh! plumbing! this should be fun.)
  
• Install some GFIs (none of the bathroom or kitchen outlets are GFIs -- maybe I oughtta find the right breakers before I tackle this one...)
  

And that's just the stuff I already have parts for. If I can get all those things done I might go buy some paint -- that's when the real fun starts!

P.S. Sorry for the dark photos. I used my new iPhone (Thanks, Mom and Dad, this thing rocks!). As soon as I remember where I put away the cable for my real camera I'll start using a flash indoors again.

A New Home

Departing from politics for a bit....

We're all moved into our new house.


Sorry, it was pretty cloudy when I took that picture so it looks a wee bit ominous. I promise, the house is not quite so imposing. It's warm and welcoming and bright and I like it very much. I especially like it now that I've gotten most of our stuff out of boxes...

Most. Not all.


Too many books. Not enough shelves. I need to fix that. Also on the list of things to fix:

• My office has no doors (once a dining room, then a den, now my office).
• Our dishwasher, garage door openers, and window shades are all so old I think Cleopatra may have been the original owner.
• Our cooktop is electric (EWWW! the horror!!).
• The bathrooms are painted in flat white (flat paint in a bathroom = dirty walls).

We still own the old house and until that's sold, we don't have the extra cash to do too much on our to do list. We've had a fair number of showings and we're reasonably optimistic that it will sell, perhaps early next year, sooner if we're lucky.

In the mean time, winter has arrived.


The first snow of the year is clinging to the grass in our back yard. With a heavy heart I declare the end of my 2008 road biking season. I'm going to get my mountain bike tuned up and see if I can't find warm enough clothes to spend some time exploring the many dirt roads near my house this winter. I'm also planning to spend lots of time at the gym. I want to start the 2009 road biking season strong!

Conservative Fundamentals

Thank goodness, the election is over. For the first time ever the American people have elected a racial minority to the highest office in the country. That's very exciting! He happens to have been the most liberal Congressman in the Senate. That's not so exciting. I hope the conservative media are wrong about Obama. I hope he turns out to be more moderate than expected. I hope he's able to unite the country and keep taxes reasonable and improve our foreign relations and do many of the other things he's promised.

I have many fears and hopes for the next two years while the Democrats rule the roost, but that's not what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about the Republicans, a party that, with a good deal of personal and ideological compromise, I've recently embraced. I want to talk about the future of conservatism and my hopes and fears on that front.

Jed Babbin wrote:

Cong. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc) got it right last night. He said the Republicans need a housecleaning. They need to reclaim the title of the “party of big ideas.” Those ideas have to be conservative ideas: smaller government, strong defense, and individual freedom.

This is a popular notion among conservatives right now. Get back to fundamentals. Get back to conservative idealism and reform: Small government, strong defense, individual freedom, and a strong commitment to the Constitution. Boy, does that ever sound good! A small government that allows capitalistic free markets to function with little or no interference. A government that provides for the defense of it's citizens and defends individual freedoms. A government that focuses on staying small so taxes can stay low across the board. A government that seeks to reduce it's responsibilities rather than grow it's power. A government that seeks to abide by both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution. It warms my libertarian-leaning heart.

The problem with the Republican party arrives in the baggage. In recent conservative ideology, individual freedom doesn't appear to include the freedom to marry someone of the same gender. Nor does it include a woman's reproductive freedom. The Constitutional tradition of separation of Church and State doesn't seem to stop the far right from endorsing the ridiculous notion that the public schools should teach creationism. This is all baggage that the Christian Coalition dropped on the Republican Party. These three ideas in particular don't fit on a true conservative agenda.

For some reason a vast majority of conservatives have jumped on the anti-gay marriage band wagon. Not one single person has given me a good solid reason why we should disallow two people from marrying no matter their genders. People argue that a marriage should be about the potential to have children. If that's so, then why are infertile people allowed to marry? Or women past menopause? Technology and adoption allow same sex couples to have children just as they allow infertile hetero couples to have children. Others argue that the traditional family (man, woman, children) is the backbone of society. To that I say look at the rising divorce rate, look at all the single parent homes. Divorce is causing a lot more damage to the traditional family than gay marriage! Would it be right to ban divorce to protect the institution of marriage? I don't understand how people can oppose gay marriage for any reason other than pure bigotry. This is in direct opposition to the notion of personal freedoms.

Abortion is a tough issue and I don't believe that either party has it figured out. The folks on the far left want it flat out legal even when the baby is already half born. The folks on the far right want every abortion banned even when the mother's life is at risk and the baby has little chance for a meaningful life. Both sides take it too far. Either way I personally think decisions about abortions should be left to individuals and their doctors. Until we can objectively determine at what point a fetus becomes an individual human being, any legal restrictions on abortions should come at a state or municipal level where local custom and the local moral majority can decide for themselves. If we really want to minimize government and maximize personal freedoms, such questions should not be handled at a federal level.

The ridiculous notion of creationism is just that: ridiculous. How any right thinking intelligent person could embrace such an idea is beyond my comprehension. How anyone could want such bull-hockey taught to impressionable children is again beyond my ability to comprehend. In any case, the first amendment to the Constitution guarantees your right to practice whatever religion you like. There's a tradition of separation of Church and State in this country (contrary to popular belief, the separation of Church and State is NOT part of the constitution, but a concept adopted to help uphold the first amendment). Creationism is a religious concept, NOT a scientific one. If you wish to teach your children creationism, you are free to do so, just don't ask the public school to do so.

When faced with these issues I'm embarrassed to call myself a conservative. On nearly any other topic I'm likely to agree with the conservative point of view. Smaller government, strong defense, individual freedoms, free market economics, flatter taxes, fewer social programs, patriotism, tradition, and strong adherence to the Constitution, these are conservative notions I can get behind. If the Republican party is going to make a fresh start perhaps it should shed the anti-gay pro-life creationist ideologies. Such ideas are contrary to the most fundamental of conservative ideals. I'm all for getting back to the fundamentals.

As far as President-elect Obama goes, I'm planning to give him the benefit of the doubt across the board. I will set aside my concerns about his past and judge him based on his actions from this day forward. A clean slate and a fresh start. I hope that we can look back in 20 years and remember our first black president with pride and honor.

Journalism, Politics, and Sci-Fi

We're moving this weekend to that new house I mentioned a while back so I really don't have time for a nice long well thought out piece here. But a friend of mine sent me this article: Would the last Honest Reporter Please Turn on the Lights by Orson Scott Card and I wish I could read it aloud to the whole country. Everyone should hear this message. It's a call for a return to journalistic integrity and honesty. Card discusses the reporting of the mortgage crisis and the current presidential campaign and shows how very biased the media has been. He seems to be specifically directing his message to newspaper reporters but I believe the mainstream television media is even more guilty. It's important to note that Orson Scott Card is a Democrat. He's also an award winning sci-fi/fantasy author, loved by his fans and respected by his peers, a majority of whom are also Democrats.

These two paragraphs from Card's article really struck home for me:

If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth — even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.

Because that's what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don't like the probable consequences. That's what honesty means . That's how trust is earned.

How can we, the consumers of the media, hope to learn what's really happening in the world? How can we hope to make a well informed decision at the polls when our media, our supposed watchdogs, have taken it upon themselves to make our decisions for us? We should be outraged.

The best we can do is watch Fox News in equal doses with MSNBC and CNN, read humanevents.com to balance out what we read at nytimes.com and washingtonpost.com, listen to Micheal Savage and Thayrone on the radio to balance out the major networks' nightly news broadcasts. It takes effort and judgment and a discerning ear to sort through the bias leaning to both sides. And, sadly, there's no guarantee that you'll actually discover the truth.

I'm off to pack. Go read Orson Scott Card's article. It's also available here.

Senator Government

Now that I've opened this can of worms I might as well keep going.

My favorite part of the entire presidential debate last night was when McCain slipped up and called Obama "Senator Government". Ahh, here we have the biggest difference between the candidates.

Senator Government, true to the ways of a far left Democrat (is there actually a difference between a far left Democrat and a Socialist? really, not so much), wants bigger government, more programs, more mandates, more taxes. "Big Daddy government will come take care of you, just give us all your money and play by our rules. Oh, you don't have any money? That's ok. No, no, don't get off the couch, we'll just go get money from your hardworking neighbor to pay your bills."

As a moderate Republican, McCain is planning to cut taxes across the board, shrink government, and reduce pork barrel expenditures. Ahh, just the mere thought of a smaller federal government warms my little libertarian leaning heart. I thought I was falling in love with the old man when he called himself a federalist (he's using the contemporary "New Federalism" meaning of the word here which is actually anti-federalism -- It's a Bush thing. Bush. words. stumble. You get it.) and discussed giving more power and autonomy to the state governments. Boy, that's just too good to be true.

I was pretty upset, however, when both candidates started talking about bailing homeowners out of bad mortgages. And who's money do you plan to use to do that, gentlemen? Mine? I sure as heck hope not! I didn't take on a loan I can't afford. Foreclose that house and let the bank sell it to someone that can afford it. Or let the local community buy it and turn it into a park or a community garden. I heard a brief snippet of something on NPR the other day about people doing just that in Flint, MI. Wow, what a great idea. Keep it local, though. I do not want to see federal government involved in this! Property values in Flint plummeted long before the rest of the country started to feel this downturn. Auto companies had shut down plants and people had left and there were too many houses and no buyers. This community project reduces the supply of properties on the market -- basic supply and demand economics; and it intrinsically increases the value of the homes in the neighborhood -- more green space tends to do that. It's a win-win so long as your not picking the pockets of folks that live hundreds of miles away to make it happen.

Back to the big government thing here. Even if you don't believe that Obama's very very scary past has any relevance, how can you buy into his idea of an ever expanding government? Big government needs big money and that means big taxes. Obama may be talking about cutting taxes now, but he's going to find his scalpel isn't sharp enough to keep all the programs he wants, add more programs, AND reduce the budget. It's a logical impossibility. Bigger government ALWAYS means higher taxes.

If you really honestly think you want Big Government, take a really close look at some place that already has it. Really check it out first because once you start nationalizing it's nearly impossible to reverse course. Let's use a fairly benign example like France. France has big government and I'll readily admit, big government yields mighty fine wine. However, I would never want to actually become a French citizen. In France it's extremely difficult to get a job. Why? Because France has a slew of "labor friendly" laws preventing people from getting fired even due to poor performance... even when small reduction in force would prevent an entire company from collapsing. Employers are honestly afraid to hire folks because it's so difficult to fire them if things don't work out. Oh, and enjoy all the labor strikes. Get to know the entire Metro map well because at any given time one of the lines will be shutdown due to a strike. If you by chance own a vineyard, you will grow what the government tells you to grow. It matters not if the entire world has decided to stop drinking Chardonnay, the government mandates you grow those grapes anyhow because that's what grows best in your climate and soil. Good for wine, not so good, perhaps, for your bottom line. And if you get sick, I mean really sick, good luck. A nationalized health care system can't afford the state of the art equipment or the specialists that might be able to save you. Better find a way to get to the US where we still have semi free market medicine... unless you vote in Obama, then I think you just might be screwed.

Seriously folks, do you really want Big Daddy Government to take care of you? Or do you want a chance at the American Dream, earning a good living through hard work and smart choices, unfettered by overwhelming taxes and government mandates? Do you deserve to keep your own money spending any excess as you see fit to help out those you believe deserve your help? Or do you want the government to redistribute your hard earned wealth as they see fit, through an expensive bureaucracy and on to programs that you may or may not wish to support?

It's up to you. Vote with your brain, folks.

On no! Politics!

oh dear... I can't hold it in any longer. I try to avoid talking politics in public because I have a lot of friends on both sides and about half of them might not like me anymore after reading this.

In general I don't like radicalism. The far religious right with their creationism in public schools, anti-abortion, anti-queer, anti-science outlook incites the same level of rage in me as the far left that think it's the government's job to ensure the same level of comfort and luxury to everyone no matter how hard they work or how valuable their skills. The far right wants to legislate morality, the far left wants to use my hard earned money to pay someone else's bills.

Barack Obama is about as far left as left gets. John McCain is a moderate Republican. Can you see where I'm going here? Is it clear who I'm planning to vote for?

Here's why I fear Obama:
- Health care: Obama has said outright that he believes that health care is a RIGHT. Health care is NOT a right. It is a service provided by highly trained and highly skilled individuals that deserve to be well compensated for their work. You may not agree with me here but nationalizing health care will shred our world class medical system.
- Ayers: Obama says he was only 8 yrs old when Bill Ayers was blowing things up. Obama says he was just a neighbor. But Ayers hosted the party when Obama launched his political career. Obama and Ayers worked together on an education project in Chicago. Ayers is a radical leftist with a history of violence and even if they aren't buddies, he and Obama are definitely running in the same circles. And the "I didn't know" defense doesn't work here either. As a politician you really should know who you're associating with.
- Rev. Jeremiah Wright: Obama's own pastor, his teacher in spiritual and moral matters, is a scary scary man. He preaches anti-Americanism and spews hatred from the pulpit. I really don't understand how Obama weaseled away from this one. Even the media, so clearly in love with Obama, thinks that Wright is wrong. How can everyone simply shrug this off?
- Acorn: Obama was their lawyer. Maybe it's not a huge conspiracy. Maybe the folks that run Acorn are just too stupid to teach their canvassers that registering false voters is against the law. And that's not the only scary thing Acorn has done. They also strong armed banks into giving home loans to low income folks, most of whom couldn't actually afford to make the payments. Now the entire world economy is suffering in part because of such loans.
- Citizenship controversy: Phillip J. Berg, a lawyer and a Democrat, has filed a lawsuit against Obama asking Obama to produce proof that he's a natural born US citizen (a constitutional requirement for the presidency). Obama has yet to produce more than a short form copy of his birth certificate and the short form will not hold up in a court of law. Obama was apparently born in Hawaii (though his grandmother claims to have been present at his birth in Kenya). Even if he was born in the US, there's evidence that he had forsaken his US citizenship so he could attend school when he lived with hist stepfather in Indonesia. In order to attend school in Indonesia at that time you had to be a citizen of Indonesia and neither Indonesia nor the US allow for dual citizenship. His school paperwork claimed he was a citizen of Indonesia. That would mean he returned to the US through immigration and is now a naturalized citizen (NOT a natural born citizen) or an illegal alien. Berg's website all about the lawsuit is here. Maybe it's all a big conspiracy theory. If it is, why in the world won't Obama just get a legal copy of his birth certificate and render the whole thing moot?!?

Obama has me shaking in my boots. He associates with some people and organizations that are downright frightening. Buster noted something rather astonishing while we watched Obama on TV the other day. Obama delivers eloquent oratory. He has the ability to inspire an audience and make people want to agree with him and believe in him no matter what he's saying. Buster said it reminded him of Hitler. I was initially shocked by the comparison but I had to agree. Obama's charisma has carried him past the controversy with Wright and it seems to be floating him by Ayers and Acorn as well.

Now, I believe people can change over time. Once upon a time I was a practicing Lutheran. Later, in college, I became an atheist Objectivist Libertarian. Now I'm an agnostic independent. But I do find that my past informs my present. I still have libertarian leanings and I still rely on a personal moral code taught to me by my parents and reinforced by my childhood church.

Obama is trying to sweep his past under a rug. He's trying to tell us all that Ayers and Acorn and Write are all "distractions". Perhaps. But perhaps his past informs his present. How could it not? At the very beginning of his political career he associated with a man so far to the political left that he was willing to bomb buildings and homes to make his point. Obama was a lawyer for a far left organization with a sketchy past and fraudulent present. And Sunday after Sunday Obama sat in a pew and listened to his spiritual leader preach anti-American sentiment, hatred, and reverse racism. And he seems reluctant to produce documentation to prove that he's constitutionally eligible to hold the office of president. Could that mean he's willing to bypass the constitution to get what he wants? How can all this be irrelevant?

Here's what I really think: Obama is so far to the left of left that you might as well call him a radical socialist. And that, all by itself, is enough to make me run screaming.

McCain is not perfect. I don't agree with his stance on abortion but I know he can't really do anything about it so I figure that one is a non-issue. What I know of his health care plan sounds sketchy if not worthless, but at least he's not trying to socialize medicine. He's getting up there in age, and he's chosen a VP without a whole lot of experience. But I think I can trust him to choose good advisers and I believe that Palin would maintain those advisers if she had to take over the presidency.

I do like McCain's plan for Iraq. And I do believe that even though McCain helped to write the economic bailout plan that eventually passed congress, he would work to restore free market banking.

Most importantly I believe in McCain's integrity. And that, more than anything else, is why I'm going to vote for him.

a little news

I wish I could tell you that I've had nothing of any interest to write about and that's why it's been so gosh darn quiet around here. Truth is I've had plenty to write about, I've just been lazy! So, here are the two biggest events of the last month:

Baby K:
Baby K was born while I was away on dalmac. He's absolutely the cutest little guy I've ever seen, but so far I've only seen pictures! I've been so busy over the last month that I haven't had a chance to see him in person. I'm planning to fix that this evening. Sadly I'm still a few days away from finishing the little present I'm making for him. I'll have to mail it... or just drive over to see him again soon. Pictures of both the baby and the present are forthcoming.

Our anniversary present:
The traditional second anniversary gift is cotton and the modern gift is china. We shrugged all that off and bought a house instead. This is actually something we've been working on for about a year now. We finally have a signed sales agreement and we just need to do the inspection. Looks like we'll be moving in about a month. The new house is in a very nice area just outside of Saline. It's bigger and better laid out than our current house and it has a much bigger yard. It also has an extra garage for Buster's toys and a much larger space inside for my office and Buster's fly tying.

Once we move, we're going to replace the carpet in our old house and put it on the market. We know that buying another house before we sell this one is a risky move. But it's a calculated risk. We have a very old kitty that is prone to accidents and as long as that cat is in the house I know we'll have a terrible time selling. Also, we're prepared to sell below market price for our area so we should be able to sell quickly. Hopefully the recent economic upheaval won't screw us up too badly.