Am I Crazy, or What?

I'm so far behind with updates, but I have some valid (or crazy) reasons for that.

It's greenhouse season.  So obviously it's very busy around here.

So I took on a project (actually many projects) for the Citadel Theatre.  I mentioned in a previous post about the chain mail for "Spamalot"--this turned out to be outfits for King Arthur and for four Knights as well as some extra hoods.  Each character got a hood or a cowl, a set of sleeves, and all but one got a set of leggings.  That added up to about 160 hours of knitting, using up 10,120 yards of  metallic cord.   My hands had callouses, which I didn't notice until I tried knitting finer stuff.  I'd get up at 6 am, knit till 9:00, work in the greenhouse till late afternoon, then knit again until 11:00 or so.  Am I crazy or what?

Richard's Green lined mitts and a reversible scarf are also finished, as well as some surgery to shorten his pullover, which I hadn't knit for him.  The mittens were lined with some really nice variegated merino yarn.

Right about the same time as the chain link was started, I signed up to do a test knit of a lovely cardigan.  Am I crazy or what?  Unfortunately I couldn't finish it by the deadline, so it's priority one right now.  This photo is the designer's prototype.  Mine is rust and olive.

I've also been asked to conduct a knitting machine tutorial weekend retreat.  Am I crazy or what?  It's not going to be until late summer, so things will be slower around here by then.  I have some trepidations (will I be able to give a quality workshop?), but am also looking forward to it at the same time.

Greenhouse work takes up most of the day now.  And I haven't done my income tax yet, but have the papers organized and it's a "work in progress".  Deadline is Tuesday. Am I crazy or what?

I discovered a site called "Duolingo" where one can learn languages (for free) online.  I'm brushing up my German--not too tough since it's my mother tongue, but I make a lot of errors due to typing too fast, and overconfidence.  I'm also brushing up my French--going through that quickly and well--I do speak French, but don't practice it much, so this is good.  And to top it all off, I'm learning Spanish.  That's slow going, since it's a new language to me.  Am I crazy or what?  

I've done well with my yarn and pattern buying diet--only bought some sock yarn needed for Christmas gifts and some yarn for the Master Knitter Vest project--the requirements are very specific and I had nothing in my stash that would do. 
Sock yarn (but not for socks).

 Master Knitter Vest yarn:  had to be sportsweight to worsted weight, light color and not heathered.

Weather wise, this is Thursday morning:

And Thursday evening: 

There are still a lot of "Mom" moments.  With spring coming, planting at the hospital will be weird without her.  I'll really miss the walks around the big pond behind the Nursing Home.  Most of all I really miss her welcoming smile when I came through the door to visit her.

And just for a big smile of humor, I found this:

 Keep safe and well, and be a little crazy once in a while.


 

 






Keifer Sutherlans

Master Knitter Level 2 Update and Other (Hopefully) Interesting Stuff

I've been working on the Level 2 of the program.  This level involves 24 swatches(notice the fat binder), involving lots of finishing techniques, lace and cables,  There is a lot more writing in the level: 4 knitting book reviews (middle photo), patterns and instructions, many questions to answer (third photo), and a very long history

report.  The projects are a fair isle wristlet, an argyle sock, and a vest.  I have everything done but the report and the projects.  Report before projects--the ending to the report is done, and most of the research is done.

I had a frustrating experience this past week with an overspun alpaca yarn.  No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get a nice stockinette tension--and that's knitting in the round, where no purling is involved.  I saved this piece to show the yarn shop, then to be able to complete the project these liners are intended for, I pinned the strand of yarn to the ball of yarn, stood up, and let it unspin a few yards at a time.  Not much fun for a $20 small skein of yarn.  So all this work went into the orange mittens which had been shown before, but now are nicely lined.  Their owner loves them.
For the same person, a lovely green cabled hat, lined with some really funky yarn that he chose.  The hat is Briggs and Little Heritage, the liner is Mirasol Chirapa.  Here is the Ravelry link.

Same person has a sweater from the same yarn, beautiful workmanship (not by me), but it is too long.  So I have mutilated the sweater in preparation for re-grafting the ribbing onto the shortened sweater.  I chose to graft because some of the ribbing knit columns continued up through the sweater, framing the cables.  If I simply re-knit the ribbing downward, I would lose this continuity, but if the grafting gets too complicated, I can still do the downward ribbing as a last resort.

And now the next big project, the chain mail for the theatre.  This is the prototype on my lovely visage.

And the cording, all dyed, waiting to be rendered into the cowls.

I have a baby shower on Monday, so I whipped up these to go along with the gift.  Someone on Ravelry was having trouble with the pattern, so I offered to help, and in that process I whipped these up.  Parfait!!

And every knitter (aka as stasher) can relate to this image from Facebook.  So instead of some wise saying, this time I will end up with this thought:

Till next time:  keep healthy , keep safe, be happy.

Oh Dear, Oh Deer!!!

 The biggest news of the time interval since the last post is my encounter with a deer.

Not this particular deer--so beautiful and gentle-looking, yet so destructive.  I had just stopped on my way to the city (a mile and a half from home) for another group of about 20, pulled over to let them cross, slowly proceeded, when another group appeared suddenly, obscured by dense trees and some grain bins. Now the Tundra is in the body shop having $7000+ in repairs done.  No injury to myself, Praise the Lord.

Then I had an all-day Catholic Women's League Meeting on the following Saturday.  Some boring business, lots of fun, good food, and meeting up with good friends.

 And the renos go on (Master Bedroom):
1.  Clean out closets and make a big mess to be sorted through.

2.  Strip off old wallpaper

3.  Patch, prime, and 2 coats of paint (closets and feature wall done)--crown moulding to come later (since the blizzard and very small box rental truck prevent me from going to the lumber store).

3.  Shop for new furniture.  Can't believe that oak is less costly than maple--almost $1000 less on the total cost of all the pieces.

Master Knitter work is going along well--except for keeping the living room tidy.

I finished a sweater for a friend who started it for a Christmas gift (2011) and life--in the form of 3 little boys and a new baby daughter--got in the way, so I finished it for her.

Family Day Pot Luck after Church on Sunday:

A birthday party for Kubota Man, at a fancy restaurant--whole family in attendance.

And a trip down memory lane.  DGD2's boyfriend's sister had twin boys, so DD2 wanted to make the "cookie monster sweater" for the babies.  So, in looking for the pattern, I was missing a page, and had to find DD3's little sweater to make a chart.  I found so many cute baby things in that box.  That would be a good future visit with the kids--look at their baby clothes.

We will start working in the greenhouse this weekend (DH has already been working to get ready), but first we have to find the greenhouse:

Till next time:  A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver.   (Thomas A. Kempis)


















flooring

Lost a Day This week--and found it again

I've been working hard to get the house organized and tidied since we start the Greenhouse work soon, and every week before then I have to make two trips to the city which will take all day (well, one of them is a trip for a valid reason extended to all-day because I want to visit one of my knitting groups and visit my favorite LYS--just to chat, not to buy).
So, on Friday I thought it was Saturday, set the alarm clock in the evening so I wouldn't miss church.  Went to bed early.  Got up before the alarm in the morning, and when I went for my vitamin supplements (in a 7-day dosette box), I noticed I was on Saturday's vitamins.  I sometimes forget to take them, so when Kubota Man got up, I asked him what day it was, and he said it's Saturday.  I'd have had my pick of seats at church that day.  So, I found a day and that was a very productive one, because it seemed like a bonus.  I sorted out my recycling and loaded up the cab of the truck, and sorted out my CWL (Catholic Women's League, I am president of my chapter) papers, which had been spread out all over the spare bed), and, what else?  Started some new knitting (not to be revealed until later).  Oh, and deleted about 1300 old e-mails after reading them to see if they could be trashed.  Funny how what I thought might be important at the time didn't matter 2 years later.

I finished all the parts to Richard's orange set:  Briggs and Little Heritage.  The hat is a bought pattern, the scarf is a fully reversible cable pattern, Palindrome Scarf, a Ravelry link, and the mittens I made up, adapting the cable on the hat band.

I started the Dreambird, Ravelry link shawl pattern,  this pattern was ambiguous for a lot of people, so I took the challenge.  Held another knitter's virtual hand through the first feather, then made a chart for it.

Helped another Ravelry member interpret this little preemie bootie pattern, and committed myself to re-writing all the sizes for it, as well as the hat and sweater.  These little knits sure are fast.

And last, but not least, the raw materials for Chain Mail which I have to knit for the Theatre.  The gold is for King Arthur, the silver for the Knights.  The cord has to be dyed first since it swells up (as I found out when the holes disappeared on the prototype hood), so my first task was to skein it up so the wardrobe dept. can dye it:  the white will be dyed shades of grey, the gold will be dyed some mustard shade so it looks more antique.  Then I will get it back to do the knitting (10 cowls, mayb 10 pairs of sleeves) for a mid-April production.

It's only a couple of weeks till we get started in the Greenhouse.

Till next time:  It's important to have a twinkle in your wrinkle. (author unknown)

Life is Different

Life is different without Mom.  I don't know how to feel, so I'm going with the flow.
Christmas was noisy as usual--all the kids came home except Kubota Man Jr.  who was on call and couldn't leave the city.  The food was great, some of them played board games (NOISY) some of them watched movies (NOISY).  And I hovered on the sidelines, happy in the presence of my family, and horribly sensitive to the noise.  This is the first time ever that I was glad to see my family all leave.

I had the funeral arrangements to make.  I determined that I would have a Celebration of Life.  I spent several days choosing photos for the slide show, and choosing music. That was sad and joyful at the same time.  I went through all of Mom's photo albums, from her childhood through all the kids' weddings, and the grandkids, and the great-grands.  She loved kids.  I wrote the Eulogy.  I must admit that it was beautiful.  The whole process was good for me, opening rawness and healing, all at the same time.

The Celebration of life did take place on my birthday--I wanted it that way.  Afterwards Kubota Man and all the kids and grandkids took me out for my birthday to Montana's, and I got to wear a birthday Moose Hat--I'm sure Mom was with us enjoying that.

Suddenly all was quiet again, and I hovered around the house like a ghost, not knowing what to do with myself.  I decided to go with it and only do what I felt like doing.  Well, that isn't housework, it's KNITTING.

I finished DD2's black cabled hoodie (a duplicate of the ecru one I made her a couple of years ago), one she requested.

I can't do better with photographing the black pattern.

I made her a skull scarf (illusion knitting--from most angles it's just a grey and black striped scarf), a last minute addition to Christmas knitting, but ready for Christmas.

And a last-minute gift for a friend who usually gets baking, but both she and her hubby have to lose weight, so, being the friend that I am, didn't tempt her.  She loved the mitts--her first hand-made gift.

Richard's scarf--totally reversible--same cables on both sides.  In the meantime, the hat and one matching mitten are finished (no photos yet).

As a reward to myself for stash-bustin' and not buying yarn for almost a year, I started my Marina sweater--it's about 5" long, but I won't take a picture till a whole pattern repeat is finished.

The pictures above are my Philosopher's Wool Mandala sweater.  I have joined a KAL to finish PW projects that have been languishing.  The body consists of 8 squares, the sleeves are larger squares.  The squares are knit on circular needles from the outside-in (sort of like a tam).  I've had this kit for a long time, and don't like things so bulky any more.  The third photo is the bottom of the sleeve with ribbing attached.  I don't like how that is so bulky.  I am working on two ideas to solve this:  either re-chart the sleeve to incorporate shapings (I have both sleeve squares finished), or take the sewing machine, sew a tapered seam and then cut out the excess.  The second option is fast and easy, the former one is teasing my intellect.

Tomorrow I am going to the city to join one of my knitting groups for knit and chat, and then some errands.

For my birthday, DD1 bought me a lovely book: Chicken Soup for the Soul:  The Magic of Mothers and Daughters.  This year I plan to go back to my old habit of leaving my readers with a thought.  In memory of Mom and in honor of my daughters, I will select these from that book.

Till next time: Kids spell love T-I-M-E.  (John Crudele)