Knitting Catch-up!

Posted on November 2, 2011 by dagny

It’s been a while since I’ve updated the knitting…

The Minni Slippers went from this -

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To this -

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Crocheted in about an hour per slipper, H hook, unknown farm, handspun from a few years ago that has been clogging up the stash. Lots of veggie matter in the yarn, but still lovely. Edged with Nashua’s Sitar. A touch big, but great fitting with socks on.

Another Puppy Sweater turned out like this -
IMG_20111026_095915

It’s just awaiting a button for the neck strap. This is based on Linda’s Chihuahua Sweater, except when I reach the neck, I don’t rejoin and add 5-8 stitches to make a neck strap. Then I don’t have to worry about struggling to fit it over the pup’s head. This one done in Malabrigo Merino. Cause, you know, one can never have enough dog sweaters in luxury fibers…

The Bandwagon Scarf is trucking along, when I get time to sit down and work on it -

IMG_20111018_124640

Yes, that’s a Noro Striped Scarf. In Noro Silk Garden. Which I effing hate. With a passion. And a LOT of spitting. Not only is there veggie matter, which I can live with, and random strings of undyed silk, which I can live with, but there are also razor sharp pieces of plastic.

Yes, plastic. I know this, because after picking out the 40th thousand piece, I grabbed a couple and tried burning it. It melted and the house stank and the cat looked at me like I was crazy before going back to muffin making on Harrison’s new blanket. I don’t care how nice it is finished, never again Noro. Never again.

Speaking of Harrison’s Big Blanket -

harris blanket

It’s done. And Harris loves it! Always a bonus when making something for a 12 year old boy with Asperger’s.

And finally, I give you the craziest of all crazy ideas -

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Yes, that’s a HexiPuff. Only 800 more to go to make a king sized quilt!

Not pictured (because I think I may crash someone’s computer with all these pictures) is Hayes’ Brownstone Sweater. The sleeves are done, and the body has been started. Saving the body knitting for the drive to Florida.

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Packing. Still.

Posted on November 1, 2011 by dagny

We’re still packing and cleaning. Naturally, Mother Nature decided to dump a foot of snow on us the day before Halloween. One last joke before the sunshine state, I guess.

Just 10 days until we move!

 

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A knitter’s guide to moving long distance.

Posted on October 17, 2011 by dagny

Fiber folk are hoarders. There’s no way around this – we stockpile it all. Fiber, yarn, needles, hooks, patterns, magazines, books, gadgets, and on and on. For most sane people, those who move to a new place in the same town or even state, it’s really not a big deal to pack all your stuff up. But when you are moving a long distance… say, 1500 miles? Far more of a challenge.

A few ideas to help you manage moving long distance with your yarn -
1. Dig it all out. You don’t know what you have until you can see it all. Get it all into one spot. Now, I realize that few people have owned a yarn shop and have all the leftovers like I did. And that few will need a full week to dig out 20 totes of yarn, and 6 of patterns. But you have to do it. Put all of it, the stuff you love and the stuff that you are lukewarm too. Everything.

2. Sort it out. Make 2 piles – Love, and Like. In the Love pile, put the stuff you won’t part with. Everything else goes in the Like pile.

3. Be ruthless. This is the hard part. Look at your Love pile. Choose a realistic amount of space (I choose 2 totes, but ended up with 3 in the end) and start filling it. When you run out of room, it’s time to take out what you can replace easily, what you will never knit, what you can do without. This is hard, as you will likely have half finished projects to fill up a lot of space, and you may need a large glass of wine. Push on!

4. Move it. Whatever doesn’t fit in your Love pile, list on eBay, Craigslist, Ravelry, anywhere you can. Get rid of it, FAST. Don’t look back, and don’t regret! Someone is going to get some awesome yarn at a wicked good price! Pay it forward! And know that you have better, nicer, more loved yarn that going to stay with you.

5. Donate it. What doesn’t sell, donate. Project Linus was our choice – A group that makes blankets for kids in the hospital. As soon as you know what won’t sell, get it out of your house and off to a great cause. If it sits around, you will be tempted to keep it. Don’t forget to ask for a tax receipt when you drop it off.

 

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Moving, with hair.

Posted on October 10, 2011 by dagny

I have long hair. I mean, really long hair. It reaches my waist. And it usually is this long, aside from a few notable incidents involving (possibly) wine. Having had long hair since I was a teenager, I’ve come to know a few things about hair, and about how to manage a move with long hair.

Yes, I hear you thinking it right now “WTF??” But seriously, moving is one of the most stressful times of your life, and a few simple steps will go a long way to making you feel better. Don’t believe me? Three words – Bad Hair Day. There, now you are picturing your own bad hair day, and you can tell, just by thinking back, how horrible you felt about yourself. As silly as it may seem, something as little as having your hair look great as you tote box number 476 through a hurricane and/or blizzard on your move day, well that can make all the differance in the world.

Let’s face it, few of us have the funds for movers, so few of us will be wearing make-up for the first week or two after a move. We will be lucky to get out of our PJs before stumbling to our new kitchen, and letting fly a few choice swears when we realize we have no idea where the coffee machine is.

So, let’s start with a month before your move…

Condition. Learn to love your conditioner, and deep condition at least once a week. Spring for the good stuff too – Garnier makes one called Length and Strength, and it’s thick and heavy and perfect for a nice deep condition. The hot oil stuff really isn’t that great, instead invest in a weekly deep recovery conditioner. A month ahead, you will be already packing, and a shower once a day will help with the stress of that.

Cut it. Now, don’t misread me – Do NOT get your hair cut more than an inch!! No matter how long or short it is, doing something drastic now will inevitably lead to you sitting on the kitchen floor with ice cream and crying about how stupid this all is, and how you want your old life/place/hair back. Just get a trim, get rid of the dead ends. Now is not the time to bother with a new style, it’s time to pack! Have your hair trimmed about 2 or 3 weeks before you move. This will give you the time to be over the “they cut off too much!” phase.

Color it. If you color or perm, do so 2 weeks before your move. You can have it cut then too. There are a few reasons here for the timing. 1 – You need time for the smell to go away. Even with the newer colors, there could still be a lingering smell for up to a week. 2 – You need time for the color to set. Again, it can take a week to have the dye set, and in the case of some of the red shades, longer. 3 – You need to get used to it. Even if it’s the same color as always, any little change right now may be enough to cause you to freak out and dive for the ice cream. And the final reason? About 2 weeks before you move, you will be in desperate need of the alone time!

The day before you move, get up an hour early, and deep condition your hair. Take the time to let it air dry, then braid it and/or tie it up. Make sure there are towels and shower items left unpacked for the morning. Make sure you brush your hair out before bed.

On your moving day, make sure you get up early enough to let your hair air dry again (use regular conditioner). Long hair has a funny way of tangling up, even when in a pony tail, so consider braids or a wrap of some type.

The first month in your new house, deep condition once a week. If at all possible, let your hair air dry before starting in on the unpacking or heading to work. A little known fact – if you tie back wet hair everyday, it can actually grow mold in the elastic and even in your hair. Gross. Air dry,  blow dry, whatever you need to do.

 

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This can go. And this. And this too.

Posted on October 2, 2011 by dagny

For the past week, I have gotten up, and looked around this house. We have three bedrooms here, plus a three story barn. And it’s jam packed. Full of… clutter. There are boxes in the barn that we haven’t opened in years. And some that have been boxes since we moved to Maine, more than 8 years ago.

There is no way we can afford to rent a 3 or 4 bedroom place in Florida. Nor do we want to. After much talk about driving a rental truck (too much money) and having a mover help us (way too much money!) we came up with a plan.

We are packing the van up, and renting a tag-along trailer, about 8 feet long. And the rest of our stuff… is not coming with us.

I thought at first that this would be hard – All our books, clothes that we did this or that while wearing, knick knacks and and things we think we should hang onto because we may use it or wear it next year, or the year after, or a decade from now.

Yeah, enough.

It’s all going. The furniture, for the most part, we don’t need. Our dressers, the dining room table, the beds will all fit nicely. The rest is not something we love enough to pay to move it. Bookcases? Easily replaced. End tables? Found at most any store. Books? We have room for a dozen, but we also have a Kindle.

And who needs heavy winter coats in Florida? Or 42 sweatshirts? Do we really need 4 full sets of dishes? Or 50 random glasses and cups?

Instead of focusing on giving this stuff up, we’ve both found it liberating. The stuff we love we will find room for. The stuff we have hung onto because of silly reasons or because we are both hoarders to some extent, it will be far batter off with someone who can actually use it.

It’s good to let go, now and then.

 

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A change of scenery.

Posted on October 1, 2011 by dagny

What a month it has been… We haven’t been able to make our mortgage payments, which are wicked high for this house (thanks so much, exs who destroyed our credit ratings!) So we came up with an idea.

Pack up just the basics, let go of the rest, and move to Florida.

While this seems like a radical step, it’s not. The memories here are thick, and painful. Neither of us can really move on without some type of change. And the schools there are top-notch, the special ed school plentiful, the cost of living is lower, there is no snow to shovel or worry that Merrill will decide to wander of through. The draw of Disney is huge…

So we have spent two weeks talking, debating, planning, cost-comparing. We found a great community, nice apartments with big rooms, three pools, even it’s own public library. Palm trees are plentiful, and we keep thinking of Harrison being able to ride a bike, something that is not possible here as we have no sidewalks. Less than 10 miles to Disney World, yet far enough out of Orlando that we would be “in the sticks.”

The joy of letting go has been a welcomed release for me. Instead of feeling regret, I wake up each morning and look around, seeing all the things I can sell or donate. Being a list maker, I get to indulge my OCD with lists of packing, selling, cleaning (yuck) and to-do worksheets. Even our parents like the idea, something which we weren’t too sure about at first.

And then Hayes’ mom mentioned that there is a lawsuit against our mortgage company… and how according to the attorney general, the company is being forced to stop all foreclosures and offer every home owner a new set of rate terms.

Last night, we talked quietly for a few hours about what this means. We wouldn’t lose the house. We wouldn’t have to move. We could stay here.

And then Hayes looked at me, and said how he wants to get Harrison a new bike the first few days we are in Florida. Asked me to help update his resume. Looked at the apartment again.

Looks like we are Florida bound, after all…

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Just keep knitting.

Posted on September 10, 2011 by dagny

brownstone 2

Brownstone, one sleeve done. I had issues though… I got to the last 4 increases, and measured. The blasted sleeve was already 17 inches long! Whoops. Switched to shorter increases, and it all worked out fine, Hayes likes longer sleeves and blocking works wonders. Turns out my stitch gauge was spot on, and my row gauge was waaaaaay off.

I put it down for a few days when I got hit with a stomach bug, and felt restless yesterday, so I dug this out -
big bad blankie 1

That’s my Big Bad Blankie, which has been hibernating for… um… TWO YEARS. Yikes. I am still feeling very dizzy at times, so only had enough energy to disassemble a block and figure out how I had worked it, and added one diamond. Still very happy with this, and I still think I can make a whole blanket without repeating a yarn. If I ever get this finished, it would be a great gift for Mom, since it will have a square of lots of yarns from our (now closed) yarn shop.

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Changing, changing.

Posted on September 4, 2011 by dagny

So I no longer work on the ambulance. It is a long story, one in which I am wronged by those I have served faithfully, but I just can’t talk about it yet. So instead… knitting!
2011-09-03 15.49.11

I made Hayes a Cobblestone, but other than that he has seen a lack of sweaters knit for him. His grandma used to be a crazy knitter too – a sweater a week, knitting while watching tv – and one of my biggest regrets is that she passed away before I was a part of the family. I would have loved to meet her, as she apparently put up with nothing and made no excuses, something I need to live like right now. Since her passing, it has fallen onto me to become “the crazy-pants family knitter.” I enjoy the role, and hopefully now have the time to work through my monstrous stash.

I found Brownstone ages ago when it came out, and had it filed away for future reference. Of course I do that with every pattern I see, so there are (no kidding) nearly 2600 patterns in my queue. I was digging around the Brooklyn Tweed website and came across Brownstone again, and it all just… clicked.

Bought the pattern, printed it off, and grabbed my measuring tape. Hayes stood dutifully as I wrapped it here and back again, making my notes and “hrmph-ing” over his belly which means more knitting to cover (to be fair, I have one too!) The pattern was noted, circled, highlighted, and I dug through the projects on Ravely to read all the notes of others. Then the job thing happened, and everything sat quiet while I contemplated alcohol poisoning.

Yesterday, as I was cleaning out my work bag (which I plan to burn symbolically on the front lawn at some point), the pattern jumped into my hand. I stared for a moment, remembering that afternoon with Hayes at work, then smiled… because I had used the printer there instead of ours, and therefore used up (hopefully) all their ink! I ran to my closet and dug through totes until I found the Irish Aran totes. Most of what is in there is single skeins, and a whole lot of Purple Mystery, but I found 3 of a nice purple-merlot tweed, and a 4th skein across the house in some cubbies (a side note here – YES my stash is large enough to be in multiple rooms. The “closet” has a dozen shirts on hangers, and 14 plastic totes of yarn. The barn has another 15 totes. There are bags and shelves and cubbies where yarn sits, ready to pounce. That’s the danger of owning a yarn shop, when you close you are left with 1 or 2 balls of… everything.)

So off to find the swift (on a shelf next to the bathroom) and ball winder (basket on the stairs, still don’t know why) and gather needles and a marker. I cast on (with mismatched needles, since the double points I had planned to use were in my current project bag, in the van, which Hayes had) and started in on a sleeve.

I knit away while reading (bless you, stockinette stitch!) and realized that Jared is, in fact, a genius - He has you work the sleeves first, then the body, then join. Why, it’s casting on (my favorite part) 3 new times! And when you join, which is always a chore, there is the neck shaping to take your mind of the 279 stitches you are working on! Brilliant!

I woke up today at 9am, 3 hours later than I would have, if I had to have been at work. And my first thought was the sleeve that I am working on… Not a bad start to my new life as a housewife.

Now, if only the same loving urge to do the laundry would strike, we’d be all set.

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The Autistic Mouse

Posted on August 18, 2011 by dagny

Well the website is up and running, with a photo gallery (on Flickr for easy access), message boards, blog, and details on the upcoming book, The Autistic Mouse.

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As the summer winds down.

Posted on August 16, 2011 by dagny

The heat seems to be backing off again, meaning it will soon be time for sweaters. And for me to panic, as there are never enough sweaters to go around. Actually, that’s not right… there are loads of sweaters knit up, but they just don’t have sleeves yet.

So I’m avoiding the hassle, and planning on just knitting vests for the little guys this year. One piece, pullover, few to no seams, and no damned sleeves to cause them to never be finished!

kids vest 1

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