There's Winners and Losers

Day of the Great Scrabble Smuckin'

I think I may have mentioned it before. We have a traditional family Sunday Scrabble Match after lunch at Mom's nearly every week. We eat and then the table is cleared. A little digesting and then it's "Who's up for a game of Scrabble?" Any given week may see 2 to 6 players.
This week there were 6.

Six players of Scrabble means the letters disappear fast. The game would be over quickly, but for the thinking time taken by some to choose a word. My sister-in-law went first and I was third. On her 2nd turn she was able to make 7 letter word and if only there had been an E for me to get onto I would have as well. Alas. I had to settle for a triple word off of her 7 letter contribution and take 5 letters.

With 3 players to wait out before it was my turn again, I spied another 7 letter word opportunity. Saying nothing (for a change) I hoped the spot would remain mine.

tick...

...tock

Oh, baby!

As I gleefully plunked my letters into place, Steph picked the last of the letters. I didn't realize the letters were gone. And I went out. It has to be some kind of record?
They were left with 33 letters between them. All MINE!

74 bonus points for me for going out, along with my 68 point word just created...

High score 192. (Me in 3 turns)

Low score: 2 (because of only getting 2 turns and then losing 7 letters. Sorry mom!~)

I've been thinking of doing the 6 Weird Things post other Bloggers are doing. The girls declared I ought not get to choose what makes me weird. But we agreed on a couple.
My slightly unsportsmanlike conduct on the rare occasion of a win at Scrabble would be one of them.

There's gloating.
And a winner/loser chant.
Sometimes accompanied by a dance worthy of a football player in the end zone.

I'll be wagging this score sheet in front of them many more times yet. ;)
(Brought home & hung on the fridge, of course!)

Bottoms up!

Owl socks from the toe-up are finished

Sara is wearing them already and declares they fit as if they were made especially for her.

Possibly the fact that I crawled under the table while she was eating breakfast the other day and tore her sock off so I could measure her foot gave me away? Sara's small feet benefit from sock experiments I want to be done with quickly. Steph benefits from any that I might make for myself since our feet are almost the same size.

Will add more stitches and possibly look for a stretchier bind-off for the cuff.

(Picture of pattern in Workbasket Dec 1971 with the owl design)

It's my 1st toe-up sock!

An Owl Sock
Toe-Up :)

With a little technique help from Sensational Socks, instructions for the Easy Toe at Knitty and from this free pattern at Knitaddicted, I have attempted socks from the toe up.

It probably would have been wiser to pick a pattern and actually follow it, this being the 1st attempt.
Instead of making it up as I went along?

But I wound the yarn into 2 balls, hoped for about a size 5 sock and just started knitting.
It's free yarn...recently given to me. (No label, probably acrylic; not a problem as this was practice!)
There's only 36 stitches on size 4 needles because if this method sucked, 60 or 70 stitches cast-on per sock is a lot of damn work.

Previously, I had no interest in giving this method a try as I already have a perfectly functioning method of sock making: from the cuff-down.
Mom taught me and it works well enough. So why bother?

It occurred to me that if I'm able to beat the 128th person in line for Sock Madness, there's a pretty good chance one of the patterns will start off with the instruction: cast on provisional stitches and begin toe. And I would be seriously screwed. Eliminated even.
One of the strictest rules appears to be "Follow the DIRECTIONS! Exactly."

Hopefully this is no longer a problem.

Long, have I wanted to recreate this owl on the side of a sock.
Original pattern motif comes from WORKBASKET Dec 1971.
I liberated this copy from Mom's vintage collection nearly a year ago.
So I could figure out how to cable knit and then put this owl on the side of my sock.

Except I knew very little next to nothing about knitting a cable. And after an hour of attempting to chart out the front of the baby sweater so I could see how to do the owl, it became apparent there was a problem: My cuff-down sock owl would be upside down.

While toe-up socks will not likely become my method of choice. Seriously!
Look at that owl.
Right side up and everything.

I'm thinking a provisional cast-on could be worked just above the ankle for a directional motif (such as these owl cables) and then I could still do the gusset-to-toe sock Mom's way.

Then again, if I knew more about knitting cables I might understand how to just turn the pattern around?

Bloggers (silent) Poetry Reading

Second Annual Brigid in Cyberspace Poetry Reading

WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading
WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2007
WHERE: Your blog
WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day
HOW: Select a poem you like - by a favorite poet or one of your own - to post February 2nd.

Intrigued by the thought of helping create a cyberweb of poetry. (You can thank me later for not inflicting poetry of my own into space!)

From my most favorite writer, my daughter...

After Training Wheels

brooklyn

unseasonable january saturday

black non-deadbeat non-absent father

in stocking cap and overstuffed jacket

trails daughter on bike

hand bracing her small of back

pushing then lifting then letting go

she collapses at the bottom of the hill in heap

later leaving the park

I see the family homing, too,

father up ahead carrying the pink and purple bike

with its gay betraying streamers

little girl scowling

glowing old kneepads over jeans

scunned palms

mother calling out from behind,

insisting to those closed ears,

listen

that’s

how you learn!

~Stephani Nola~

D is for Delayed

2nd attempt at Stranded Knitting

"Almost Laila" socks are finished!
Pattern I almost followed is from Nancy Bush's Folk Knitting in Estonia.

These are my January socks, but they were delayed a few hours into February while I finished up the Kindergartner's 41 freaking little Letter Friend D's. I finished the toe decreases this morning and now I'm ready to race for the starting line of Sock Madness. Hoping to make it into the sign-up on time, as there's a limit to participants for this adventure.

Changes:
Leg is 2 "pattern stripes" shorter. (On purpose.)
2 different pattern stripes were combined into one right after the gusset stitches were picked up. (On purpose for the second sock - so they matched :)
Followed mom's heel turning recipe out of habit.
Idea for color choice stolen from here.

Patons Kroy Socks colors are NOT as vibrant, however. And what the hell did they put into this yarn to make it so scratchy? Did you people make this yarn the texture of spun straw on purpose? I'm probably done with you. ACMOORE just started carrying this brand and I used a Christmas gift card to buy the yarn in early January. Not sure if last year's gift card money counts as 2007 stash? Need to check with the Knit from your Stash judges maybe!

Happy 1st Blogiversary to me!

A year of knitting (mostly) socks & blogging about it

A year ago today I started this blog. For the most part it was intended as a Mom Blog. A way to keep in touch with my youngest daughter while she was away in New York. It was her 2nd semester as an Exchange Student at Hunter College and I wasn't taking my half-empty nest quite as bravely as I thought I would.
There was sobbing.

I wasn't taking these politically trying times very well, either.
There was screaming and swearing.

Actually, it feels like I've been angry for a very long time. Since the Supreme Court decided America did not need to recount votes and picked a president. Because it would take too long if they counted EVERY vote over again? Seriously? Before that I would have called myself a moderate. I've even voted for republicans! Mostly because they were women. That's NOT happening again. Ever. And this country's voting system is a joke. The real crime is it's still not fixed and papertrail/recountable ballots are not the law of the land in all 50 states. WTF?

Knitting as therapy has improved my sense of well-being. Really! ;)

Okay fine: I've been caught daydreaming recently. It involves a presidential bicycle built for two, onto which we talk dick & george into starting their next listening tour. From the top of Mt. Washington. Or some other place really twisty and steep. Slippery works, too. If secret service could just give them a little shove over the side to get them started?

Shut up. It's my daydream. Perhaps I need to knit faster?

It also happened that I was in the process of knitting my first pairs of socks one year ago. Six socks were in different stages of doneness as I learned each new segment of Mom's Basic Sock recipe. My first sock lesson was December 23 if this blog post is to be believed. Knitting had not yet taken over most all spare time. The name I came up with for this blog might have been a clue of things to come, had I given it a moments thought!

The year has seen my knitting skills stretch a little and improve. More difficult stitches have been attempted. Yarn Overs to make holes on purpose and now cables! I must try more cables.

My death grip on needles has eased up a bit. DPN's actually fall to the floor from time to time. Early on I teased mom as she made a grab to save one of my needles, the only it would ever fall was if she kept pulling on it.

My knitting library has grown to 6 books. I've only put 3 of them to use so far so my goal for the new year is to try something from each of the others. Before buying anything new.
I'll be knitting from my stash in 2007 x 2. (Personalized rules includes yarn & books.)
But sock yarn doesn't count? Cool!

Hey. I didn't make up the rules!

What good is a compass?

(if you don't have a clue how to use one :)

Yes. Once again I have become Stranded.
But I found my compass!
(For all the good that will do?)

More importantly, my map to Estonia arrived in the mail last week. (Folk Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush) I love this book! I borrowed it from the library through the Interloan program but they wouldn't renew, even once.
Decided owning this one would be worth it.

I've been trying the different cast-on methods and the braids demonstrated in the book are tempting. I may even try mittens with actual complete thumbs in the very near future. I'm squeezing in a little reward Stranded knitting for each batch of Letter People I work on.
To confess I would rather be knitting might be an understatement. But there will be no disappointing the Kindergartner's of 14th Street School, trying to convince them there are only 10 letters of the alphabet. I may have started looking forward to the end way too soon - not even half way through yet? Yikes!

I've also finished a second pair of the Fetching fingerless mitts. This pair have no picots at the knuckles; I did two rows of linen stitch and then a Kitchener rib bind-off. Sara now owns them, although Stephani may do a secret-sister switch when nobody is looking.

Both girls like the second pair better, without the curling picot edge.
Someone is suffering from 1st pair grab-itis?

Fetching, indeed!

A little therapy knitting

I cut my thumb a week and a half ago, cutting potatoes. With a really dull knife that I should have known better than to be using; slicing into my thumb with as much force as I had planned for the spud. Bad enough that knitting hurt like hell.

Working plastic canvas Letter People hurt just as much, but their class lessons have gotten ahead of me so I forced myself to stick to the Kindergarten project and try to catch up.

I'm still a bit behind, but I rewarded myself with some therapy knitting yesterday, now that the throbbing has eased.

With Letter S finished finally (and in less than 24 hours!) I've finished a pair of Knitty's Fetching Fingerless Mitts. I don't have size 6 needles as called for so I went with 5. A size smaller still might work just as well, especially with yarn any thinner that the Caron Simply Soft - Dark Moss - Shadows that I used.

Stephani has already claimed them as her own and is off today to the University of Maine to show them off to a friend who will "be so jealous!" I've teased her into practicing the right tone she should use, should anyone comment on knitted socks, felted bag, woven scarf and now mitts: "My mom made them!" with just the right amount of daughterly pride expected of one hoping to be gifted with more of the same. ;)

This was my first project knitting cables, using a cable needle. Perhaps a good thing each mitt only had 4 rows of actual manipulating of the stitches with that fidgety little crooked needle or it might have been discouraging. My technique needs some work! As it is I feel quite pleased with my first efforts and plan more of these fingerless gloves.

This pattern had several firsts for me as I also did my first waste yarn knitting for the thumbs and the Picot Bind Off, as well as the cables. I may skip the Picots on mine as they curl quite a bit. It may be that I just didn't do it right!

It occurred to me the same cable cuff pattern of the mitts might look cool on socks as well.
At least those would not have thumbs. Not even these half thumbs have changed my dislike of knitting thumbs quite yet.

Stranded Without A Compass

Which came first?

Another Knit-a-long started in December. Perfect timing...
My first Stranded project is finished.

The group has been divided into categories and I'm in the last one.
(Actually, I'm listed Seventh of Nine in the last group! ;)

"Stranded Without A Compass Which way are you going, folks?"

I think I'll push to keep this a category. Not sure what project I'll do next.
Folk Knitting from Estonia is on order, but without a compass, a map or much of a sense of direction. . . I may already be in the right group!

My first fair isle socks attempt

A sock love letter ...

Dear Pink Sock Yarn,

I love you. Now.

Look at what you've become!

I'm sorry I began to wonder what on earth I was thinking. You were 40% off. My understanding of the level of acceptance with which certain family members would greet such a girlie color was clearly out of touch with reality.

Likewise, my purchase of multiple colorations of variegated skeins of yarn was called into question, when inevitably the resulting socks would have the most gawd awful mismatched stripes & pooling.

My only defense up until now for this tote box full of yarn: It Was On Sale!

But now you have a true & clear reason for being. When paired together these questionable colors might just end up a thing of wonder. (Continued knitting of this sock will hinge upon progress made on getting 41 Letter P's done by Friday.)

Considering that I have NEVER attempted to knit a fair isle sock, it's uncertain what possessed me to go in search of Sara's Scientific graph paper. This Harlot's sock seduced me into thinking I could do such a thing as study a picture of a masterpiece and attempt to copy it. It was with greatest admiration and respect I studied this wondrous sock and attempted my own. (Opposite relief?)

• Without a pattern; just a picture to go by.
  
• Without a clue as to what size needles to use.
• How many stitches to cast on?
• How many repeats of the pattern - once I figured that out?
  
• What colors might work, given the limited choices available in my stash.
  

I'm so glad we've found each other. Maybe you'll warm the feet of someone on my Christmas list.

I may just keep My First Fair Isle all for myself.

It's been suggested I'm going to look a little silly with my jeans rolled up so people can see these socks. I have one pair of jeans just short enough that hiking the leg up for some Show & Tell won't be too hard to do, though!

*I fully admit to looking at a Yarn Harlot sock and being inspired & compelled (almost beyond all reason) to grab up some graph paper and try figuring out her pattern.
Not sure how to properly credit copying from a picture?

A pile of socks!

9 pair of socks

Knit between Nov. 18-Dec. 2, 2006 for Knit Unto Others to be donated to a local charity.

Not sure why this knit-a-long tickled me. Maybe it's the spiritual bond of a common cause?
Knowing strangers from across the country (and even around the world) were linked by the relaxing effort of knitting for others.

I enjoyed taking part in this project.

Still inflicting 'em with knitting

Simply Soft.

Really.

I had it from a reliable Sheep that this stuff might just live up to it's name. I thought I would try it on socks. 3 colorful skeins were among a basket of generous thank-you gifts from last year's Kindergarten Letter People parents. (Letter A should have been finished this week but a sock virus seems to have taken over all reason.)


Economical: Yes.
Washable: Yes.
Very Soft: Yes.
Acrylic: Well, yes. (Acrylic fume warning right there on the label.)

These are Very Soft Socks.

7 pair of socks are now finished in about 13 days of Knit Unto Others.

I increased cast-0n stitches to 36 and followed the basic recipe of the Basket Weave pattern.
I don't really know Little People Feet proportions, being as my little people grew up! So I just knit each section a little bigger that the pattern called for. I knit until the voices in my head said to stop.

Quick consultation with designer suggests I should have told the voices to shut up and kept knitting another repeat or so. Hopefully they'll fit someone.

Simply Soft Slipper Socks. I'm making me some.

Next week, maybe.

Inflicting Knitting Unto Others - week 1

Progress report: 5 pair!

That's 10 socks. In a week.

Admittedly, they're getting smaller. And how does anyone EVER trust the dye lot on a skein of yarn? I bought 2 skeins (same lot) of the Sassy Stripes - Crayons by Moda Dea during a going out of business 40% off sale last summer. (I'm determined to use it all up this week.) I decided to use the 2nd skein for the second sock since the starting color was closer to where it would "match".

Except they didn't.

So I decided to make 2 more just like them.
And now they match nearly perfectly! 3rd pair were basic sock pattern but I like the basket weave better for their stretchiness. There should be enough for one more pair.

The color grows on you. No?

Determined to Inflict Knitting Unto Others

5 socks in 5 days!

Yarn for 5th sock (from pattern found here) is Sassy Stripes by Moda-Dea.

I've started and aborted at least 5 different sock attempts of multiple sizes & patterns using this skein of yarn.

I've hated this yarn EVERY TIME.

5th sock cast-on at 4 am. Finished by 9 am. Perhaps the colors as they appeared down the foot redeemed it. But now I have to do another one.
Just like it? Sorry kid!

Possible sock 5 captions as they occurred to me this morning.

YISH! (inch or so past at cuff)
Mother of God. (couple of inches later)
Sweet Jesus! (at heel flap)
WTF?
WTF!
Mama, don't make me wear those yucky socks (at heel - looks like someone stepped in baby poop?)
ACK! My eyes...they burns.
So ugly it's cute. NOT!

Steph wishes it were bigger as it has all of her favorite colors.
Some colors just don't belong together. Is all I'm saying.

I really enjoyed the pattern and will try it again in plain or confetti colors. I think it deserves better! Did have to convert pattern from circular needles to DPN's so I may not have gotten it exactly as written.

Cat on a Pillow

The gift of weaving.

The Queen of Brooklyn sits upon her co-pilot chair.
On a cushion worthy of her presence. :)

Knit Unto Others

Knit Unto Others
Knitting for the next 2 weeks for the charity of our choice.

This will be all about socks, of course. Day 3 and I have just cast on for a third sock!

I confess the second pair will be baby socks, as 2 adult size 8 socks in 2 days may have been over doing it a bit!

I cast-on Saturday morning for Sock 1 while waiting for mom at the veterinarian's. Cast-on and did the first row before realizing the MOTHER OF ALL KNOTS had emerged from the skein of yarn. It would have been easier/quicker to cut the damn thing and start over. But no! On we went to my next location of waiting. Mom decided it would be nice if she could try a walk-in appointment to get her hair cut. An hour later I had the damn thing untangled & about an inch and a half of the cuff done.

Yarn Harlot's recent topics have been all about a SOCK A DAY. She's going to be on TV and needs them for demonstration purposes. Doubt very seriously this pace will last much longer for me. I may throw in a dishcloth or two to break up the routine. Thinking my charity will be a woman's shelter, although I'm sadly lacking knowledge about where anything local might be located.

I knit while waiting... all weekend. Every spare moment when I probably should have been doing something else. It's for charity, though. And if being charitable isn't worthy enough reason to knit all by itself, the hosts of this knit-a-long are dangling a chance at prizes before our eyes.

(And YES, I did win a prize recently. Here! You might not understand the joy of running around the house yelling "I won some Sock Pr0n!! Until it happens to you ;)

Oh. And I lust after these socks.
If I figure out how to do this...charity begins at home.

I'm just askin'!

"Ask me about Turducken"

My grocery store moment for today: Cashier is wearing a button on her shirt just daring her customers to ask. I wonder WTF? Do I want to know. Really?

I sound it out very carefully, "Um, so what is Turd-uck-en?"

Her answer: "Well, it's turkey, duck and chicken all rolled into one...no bones!"

I have to ask: "Have you ever had it?" No? So you don't really know?

I pause before continuing: "Yeah. Not sure I want to eat anything that starts with the word TURD. Seems like it has a marketing issue?"

She may still be rolling on the floor, but promises to mention this moment to management.

Mmm. Smells like Thanksgiving!

Time to build an ark yet?

Weaving, knitting and Letter H.

FINISHED 2 more weaving projects!
(Perhaps I should have been building an ARK?)

"Kitty Pillow" was seamed by machine at the ends, blanket stitched along the sides with matching yarn and stuffed & tufted by Steph...for her cat. (Stuffed with Letter People hair trimmings from 2 years of Letter People haircuts saved... 'cause someday I'm going to "do something with it"!)

Letter H was sent off to Kindergarten on Thursday. Seen here with one pile of hair clippings.

FINISHED socks! Designed using Barbara Walker's Treasury of Stitches book.

4 repeats, plus row 1 of Waterfall Pattern from page 151 on each side of both socks.
(Not sure if I changed row 5 correctly from her back & forth pattern to in the round. Changed P2, P2tog into K2tog, K2. Seems like it worked?!

(Link is current lowest priced book through FetchBook.info.
Seriously! $10.91 - no affiliation but one of my favorite book searches!)

And a FINISHED scarf! Another project off Dorothy.
Some might say 4 projects in 16 years.

I think prefer 3 projects in 3 weeks.
If I can get away with it?

Let me have a moment...

Third in line for the Presidency.

Forgive my dream bubble. Lost again just for a minute with the thought of it really.
Women, unite.

Weaving: learning process continues

What's up with Dorothy?

My 3rd effort came off the loom this morning.

I don't have immediate access to some of the wonderful fibers that I would like to try weaving with and so this short sample was made from stash wool & nubby acrylic blends already on hand. I wanted to see what happens if you just weave what you own.

I experimented with threading the warp through every other space in the reed.
I experimented with the draft; threading through heddles in combinations of zig zags & pyramids: 1-2-3-4-3-2-1; 1-2-1; 3-4-3; 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4. And so on...

(Winging it would be a good description, as you might already suspect?)

Making the design up as I went along didn't work out quite as well as I hoped. I couldn't use a 1/2 tie up without making a long weft row stretch unsecured by 7 or 8 warps in one spot.
In hand quilting terms it would be called a "toe catcher"- stitches way too long; long enough to stick your toe through if it was a quilt on the bed.
I'm thinking long stitches are not desirable traits in weaving, either?

I realized possible thread drafting problems as I was tying the ends onto the loom. I'd left open heddle wires scattered across the harness, thinking I could run a single strand of warp randomly - maybe something contrasting in color or glitzy - that might add just a touch of sparkle.
And close the toe catchers.

In the end I just started weaving to see what happens.

It's more open weave made it softer than my last effort. (The grey sample had wool so I thought it would be softer than it actually was. "Beating it" with all my might may have added to the not so soft texture, I guess.

I'm not sorry for trying this latest effort using just knitting yarn, as imperfect as it is. 3 strands of warp broke at different intervals near the end so I go to practice a warp fix as described in the Learning to Weave book. Not sure what to do with the hanging ends on back where each new spool was joined. Seems like they could be clipped since they were overlapped as they were woven in.

The learning process will continue before more dust settles on Dorothy, so I guess that's half of the battle! The gray sample may be cut down and sewed into a clutch style purse or small totebag. This project may become a kitty pillow for Steph's cat, still living back in New York with Her Boy.

Letter N and other things

"N" is for NO MORE Knitting or Weaving until Letter Friend N is finished!

This scarf was started Sunday morning.



I thought I was done with all of the N's but discovered Monday morning I was short one.

My counting issues continue even when I'm NOT knitting.

I did take time out last week to write an editorial that ran last Thursday on the OP-ED side of the Bangor Daily News.

Letter to the editor

BDN tells us to return Senator Snowe to Washington. (10/23/06) If Snowe votes with Republicans 82% of the time, how can Democrats, Independents and Others be content with 18% representation? We‚’ll have no right to complain if one-party control continues two more years with the help of Maine voters. I FINALLY get it! "Party" does matter. It’s all about the power of control; one-party control works no better in DC than it does in Augusta.

Take a chance and vote for Jean Hay Bright. If she fails to prove herself she‚’ll be easy enough to vote out. Consider it a term-limit statement until more well-known candidates find courage to run against tough odds.

Otherwise, perhaps you’re hoping voters in the other 49 states will vote for change and fix this mess?

Laurie Walton
Glenburn

Consider it my protest sign held proudly (if somewhat lonely) aloft. For all the good it will do. Come election day I have no doubt the same republican senator we've had for the last 16 years will return to D.C. and continue rubber stamping (nearly) every guilt ridden dumb assed idea the idiots running this country come up with.

Turns out writing editorials that actually get printed is not all that hard to do. I quite enjoy it and have had a dozen or more printed over the years. I did a search through the Bangor Public Library Marvel search engine a couple of years ago. It presented me with a every letter to the editor I had ever written.

Reading them all in consecutive order I was forced to conclude the following:
I am a cranky, sarcastic bitch.

I'm good with that.

Time for a new obsession?

Yes, Dorothy. Let's be friends again!

This weaving thing turns out to be quite addictive. Certain family members have already wondered aloud if they've seen the last of the Mom Socks. I should think not! A loom is not exactly a project for on the go.

Monday I prepared the warp threads, setting the loom up: step-by-step. I would like to say I followed all of the steps from the Learning to Weave book exactly. Seriously. That would be expecting a little too much! Mistakes were made that hopefully won't be made the next time.

Yes. There will be a next time. Less than 16 years from now, even! It was NOT picture perfect like in the book. But how relaxing is this?

Tuesday was for actual weaving. This first project may actually get some use as a scarf...Steph wanted to know if it would be done by today. It almost was except I took time out to make an apple pie and then had to register the Jeep and go to town to pay the insurance.

I finished 5 pair of socks for Socktoberfest:
3 pair in a basic pattern, 1 with the Dublin Bay lace sides and one using the Picot tutorial. Ran out of purple Jelly Beenz so the toes are watermelon. Tried the Socktoberfest tutorial for weaving in ends while joining.

Truth. And owning it.

Meet Dorothy.
Right up front: NO WAY am I likely to come out looking good, once this tale is written down for all to read. For the record, I fully recognize this and am willing to admit once more, my character flaws. Compulsive. Obsessive. Flighty?
(Moves on to new obsessions with wild abandon.)

Stephani asked me about Dorothy's history the other day. Making me put into words for the first time how Dorothy came to be with me. It's kind of sad that she's just been here for nearly all of my daughters' lives. That they were probably too young to remember her arrival; too young and for so long ago that she's just THAT THING IN THE LAUNDRY ROOM NOBODY USES.

Long ago. (Whispering.) December 1990 and my name are written in the front of a book that came with Dorothy.

My husband gave her to me as a secret Christmas present. He enlisted his mom's help ordering her. Audrey lived on Cape Cod with her friend Jean. Purchased in Massachusetts, they had it shipped to his dad's house in Dixmont, Maine. For hiding purposes. It was such a shock to get it. I had been saying how much I would like a loom for a while; but one those wistful dreams of someday. Maybe. Maybe someday.

And then there she was. My most expensive present ever. Tom and I had always given each other gifts we picked out together in those early days. Like cross-country ski packages for each other. A waterbed one year. Bathrobes the year things were tight. Down payment on our house.
You know - useful things to be shared because we are happy to be married; happily together since December 1980. So how did my special gift end up in storage? Hardly used.

I went to the library and read up all I could about weaving on a tabletop loom and the first project didn't go so bad. Except it went on FOREVER. It's still in a " just removed from the loom" state, as I had no idea what to do with a really, really long table runner. With fringe. Placemats. Or one half of a door curtain if I did the whole thing again. NO!

The second attempt went terrible. Threads were cut from the loom and thrown away as a bad idea. Come to think of it, kind of like knitting now: I have no idea about choosing proper fibers. Clueless even. Ha! (Actual name of the quilting group I belong to ;)

Over time I seemed to have just moved on to other things. Things that came easier to me. Things I could teach myself; things that didn't go so dreadfully wrong.

Embroidery, handquilting, machine quilting, applique, cross-stitch, hardanger, plastic canvas, stamp collecting, knitting, getting african violets to live, a little painting & drawing; some photography & scrapbooking. Fabric Postcards!

All things I could read up on. Teach myself. LOVE. Do pretty darn well even as a bit of a perfectionist.

And then move on. Again.
Something new. Challenging. Different.

I had a teacher in high school who taught us by example never to be afraid to try something new. He said he had needed a painting for behind his couch as a young married man. So he taught himself to oil paint. I can still remember the beauty of the paintings he brought to class to show us. He said he painted for as long as he wanted. Until his house was filled with paintings. And then he moved on to other interests. New interests he was willing to try. (He also bragged about drinking champaign from a lady's slipper.)

He was about 80 if he was a day and goofy as hell! Taught "modern history" but we started with ancient wars with AC/ BC dates and never got past the beginning of Vietnam. I'm not sure what we thought modern was in 1977? I remember thinking it was not this.

Fast Forward:
I joined a Yahoo group for weavers a few weeks ago. Finally made first contact last week. A lady a few miles up the road has offered to help me give Dorothy another try. And the name of her local Guild.

As soon as I dust Dorothy off and read up a bit more, I'll get started once again. I've been thinking about it for a while now. Ever since I read a blog written by a crazy chick with a god damn hammer. Brave enough to try building something to weave on.

One more character flaw perhaps: Optimistic. Here's hoping the socks in my knitting bucket don't become UFO's. Maybe I'll end up weaving some very colorful Kool-Aid dyed wool one day?

Unintended Consequences

Kool-Aid + Yarn = Moments of Chaos
(How I spent Sunday morning!)

An old skein of white wool has lingered a while now in my stash basket - a freebie that I wasn't sure what to do with. I've had it in my head I wanted to try the Kool-Aid/Dyeing thing with the 3 probably very old packets of Kool-aid found in a kitchen drawer.

Online instructions for dyeing yarn with Kool-Aid were consulted. Probably should have read up on the process a little longer before deciding today was the day I would give it a try.

It was not without its moments. The line from Armageddon about a "god dam Greek tragedy" leapt to mind when the hank of soggy vinegar & warm water soaked yarn fell from its bonds. Into a tangled mess of knots that could easily have prompted the decision to deposit the entire slightly stinky (vinegar) mess into the trash bin. But not I. Onward.

Um. GLOVES next time for sure! Thank goodness for Comet, a nail scrubber & yesterday's sink full of dirty dishes or my hands would still be this Strawberry/Orange/Tropical Punch combo.

Also: Finished Socktoberfest Socks - pair 3.