Let's try this...again.

Greetings from far far away!  You might notice a little change here at the blog.  I'm trying.  Its been a long time since I even looked at this blog. I'm going to have to re-learn everything.  Ugh. But I have lots and lots of things to share, lots and lots to show you, lots and lots to teach you, and, well, frankly, I just feel like talking again.

The past couple of years have been a whirlwind of change and adventure.

I made a fool of myself. Again. A few times. No big surprise there, but this time in a much more public manner than usual, perhaps you saw it.  No worries, its still out there in the ether for now and for always. I also did a few things I'm very proud of and I have plans for the future I had never even considered before. The kids have gotten older, the grandkids have gotten older, and regrettably I have gotten older. BUT I wanna talk about it.  So over the next couple of weeks I will get this blog all snarky and fresh, and begin telling you about everything.

Talk to you soonish.

Random is the flow today

I know I shouldn't do this. Posting on my blog without a single second of forethought is not a good idea, but if I'm ever going to get back into the groove of posting I just have to do it, be that boring and awfully stupid posts or not, so here goes.

Bare with me, my photography skills have gotten even worse, if that was possible, nonetheless I'll favor you with a couple pix cuz I really don't have anything to talk about. lol
A couple of people asked about the sizes of my wheels. I know seeing the individual pix doesn't give a good sense of perspective so here's a group pic so you can get some idea of the range of sizes. Unfortunately my spinning ability on these wheels has flown the coop. Antique wheels can be finicky, and tend to be stubborn in the cold dry doldrums of winter. Everyone is going to get a spa treatment this week. If I can't spin on them the least I can do is pamper with them.

Was I spinning before? Yes, I was. See?The bobbin on the left is from the wheel shown in the far left of the group photo. The bobbin on the right is the tiny wheel in the center. I think it's really interesting how much larger the flyer and bobbin are on the tiny wheel compared to other wheel.

I want another one of these Itty Bitty wheels. It really isn't an antique but I adore her just the same. I like her style. I like her portability. I like the way she spins, but it could be improved a tad. There are a couple right now on ebay exactly like her, but they are in the Netherlands and with an extra $60 for shipping they are going to be priced out of my budget soon. They have been selling lately for around $125- $175 which to me is kinda high for the quality of this wheel. Plus I can't get beyond the fact that I got mine for $20, I know that was prob'ly a major fluke, but still... Why do I want a wheel exactly or very similar to one I already have? I want to steampunk one and add some modifications but I don't want to screw it up so I need an extra in case I do something really stupid. (that is not outside the realm of possibilities ya know) I have been playing around in my workroom with all manner of spinning wheel like pieces and parts. Who knows, maybe I'll have one made from scratch done before I find another Itty Bitty to mess with.

WARNING RANDOMNESS AHEAD

And while I had my camera out...
Dang I wish I could take decent pictures, then I could show you how utterly awesome the platter Bart gave me is. It's waaaaay too beautiful not to be hung on the wall doncha think?


Hmmm anymore strange unconnected thoughts floating around in my head? Why yes there is!

Liam came this weekend to visit grandma and grandpa. The kid slays me. He's 16 mo running all around, loves to climb, and loves, loves, loves, to dance. Any kind of tone or sound he hears, he will stop whatever he's doing and dance. He dances to cell phone ringtones, he dances to the clock chiming the hour, and the alarm on the ovens. He will dance to anything. I was somewhat surprised though on Saturday when he stopped playing and started dancing to the sound of the trash compactor! LOL

Enough already, some randomness is too chaotic even for me.

Just braggin' again

that's what moms do.

So very proud of my youngest daughter Gillian. She'll be graduating this May from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) with a double major in Advertising and Graphic Design. Aside from her exceptional grades, she has had at least one, if not two, if not three jobs while carrying her full load of classes while attending SCAD.

One of her three concurrent jobs this past year has been the Art Director for the magazine District Quarterly. In September she received the Farce Award which is a SCAD traveling trophy she will pass on to this year's recipient. You can read the Fall issue here. This issue, which was also the inaugural issue, won 5th place honors in the Magazine Literary category, at the 88th annual Associated Collegiate Press/College Media Advisers National College Media Convention in Austin, Texas this pass December.


In January, Gillian was a finalist for a SCADDY having her copywriting entry chosen as one of the 100 out of 1500 entries to be on exhibit prior to and following the awards ceremony. A SCADDY, which honors excellence in advertising, is the only college sponsored event of it's type in the nation and is judged by industry professionals.

Gillian has also received a Bronze Student ADDY Award from the American Advertising Federation Savannah for the "Flow of Life" spread in the Fall issue of the District Quarterly.

snippet from the AAF website: "With over 60,000 entries annually, the ADDY Awards are the world's largest and arguably toughest advertising competition. The ADDY Awards represent the true spirit of creative excellence by recognizing all forms of advertising from media of all types, creative by all sizes and entrants of all levels from around in the world. The American Advertising Federation, a not-for-profit, conducts the ADDY Awards across 200 advertising clubs and 15 districts. It is the only creative awards program administered by the advertising industry for the industry."

No wonder she doesn't call as much as she use to. ;o)

Love you Silly.

Happy Holidays

So where were we? Oh yes, it was the end of July, shortly after I had broke a couple ribs, Gillian and Nick were about to come home for a wedding, and Annie was still pregnant.

Um yeah, a few things have happened since then. Gillian's visit turned into a whirlwind of activity with having no less than four extra people sleeping here which continued to grow in number until the climatic night where there were 14 young adults slumbering under the sheets and blanket fort they had created in the livingroom.


It's the simple pleasures in life that mean the most and create lasting memories, whether it's building a fort in the livingroom, playing Simon Says, Twister, Wiffleball, or Hide and Go Seek after dark, regardless of your age.

Fast forward to the month of September and my ribs are finally mended, and Annie's pregnancy took yet another turn. She was put on modified bedrest, meaning no activity, just sitting. I sure could have used her help during her move out of my sister's house and into the home of her childhood where her brothers live. A little cleaning, sanding, plastering, painting, plumbing, etc help wouldn't have hurt either, not to mention grocery shopping, laundry, and nursery set up. :o) Most days in September and October found me doing one or more of the aforementioned chores each day at the kids house with the hopes that the remodel would be completed before the baby was born.

We almost made it.

Due to all the other complications Annie had with her pregnancy she was to be induced on Monday November 1. We were thrilled when it looked like she was going to be able to carry this baby full term. (Oct 30 was the beginning of her 39th week). Not sure why I thought the end was in sight at that point, apparently it was just wishful thinking.

Midday Thursday Oct 29 , while I was painting, Annie went into labor. As any of you know who have gone through labor yourself, in the beginning it wasn't bad, we (Annie) worked through it until they were coming at 4 minutes intervals and were getting a little intense. Off to the hospital we went, it was now early evening on Thursday. We stayed in the OB triage unit until late night (11:00 pm-ish) and they sent us home. Contractions 3 minutes apart. By 6AM Friday her contractions were 2.5 - 2 min apart and we were still at home. We stayed home until sometime Friday afternoon. (memories are kinda foggy I hadn't slept for more than 30 hours by then) By Saturday early early morning (pre-dawn? dawn?) I was ready to hit the wall, I can only imagine what Annie truly felt. That's when they gave the OK and she got an epidural. She was finally able to catch a catnap here and there, I was more concerned with other issues and couldn't sleep. The baby was showing signs of distress with each contraction and Annie's blood pressure was very unstable. The decision to take the baby by c-section was made at 8:30ish. At this point I'm sure there are plenty of you out there thinking they should have done that sooner, but they couldn't. Annie had been on blood thinning meds throughout the pregnancy because of that blood clot in her chest so any kind of surgery (including the epidural) until the meds were out of her system was too great a risk.

At 9:38 AM October 31, 2009 William "Liam" John was born.


7 lbs. 15 oz, 19.5"....I remember cuz I wrote it on my hand, see below. giggle/snort



How about another picture with some knitterly stuff?


All the babes in the nursery got pumpkin hats for their Halloween Birthdays. :o) I can hear your collective "awwww". Thanx to the stealth knitter who made these hats.

While Liam is a very easy baby, calm and peaceful, healthy eater, good sleeper, and just the most adorable baby ever, (no grandmotherly bias here) the last two months haven't been easy. I really really figured the tough stuff was over. Annie's pregnancy had been a long one, punctuated with lots of problems and difficulties. I had really thought she had had her share and it was going to be smooth sailing from here on out. I thought wrong. After being discharged Mom and babe were healthy and happy. I was staying with Annie to help out where I could and maybe just maybe get some of those last minute house remodel things done too. It didn't work out that way. After a few days Annie was admitted into the hospital due to complications with her c-section incision and a large hematoma beneath the abdominal wall. She was there a week. I was at her house with a nursing newborn who couldn't nurse, cuz of the IV meds his mom was on. I remember one particular night 'round about 3:00AM while I was changing a diaper and Bart came in to see what was going on. He grinned and said something like, 'Gee Mom this is the 5th time around for you' I replied that yes while it was the 5th time I was taking care of a brand new baby all by myself, the other 4 times I didn't have to make up bottles in the wee hours nor was I 50 years old, there IS a reason people my age don't have babies. I'm pretty sure its mostly cuz of that lack of sleep thing.

Liam and I while the kids were down stairs eating dinner, apparently I was tired.


It is now Christmas day. I have been at home sleeping in my own bed since Dec 16, having been staying with Annie and Liam since Oct. 29th. Even though Annie's hospital stay was only a week, she had come home with a drain in one side of her abdomen, and portion of her c-section incision re-opened. A nurse came to the house twice a day to change the dressing, the packing within the incision wound and drain the drain. The extent of baby care Annie was able to do was minimal at best, at times even nursing was too much. A week later the drain was removed. After a few more weeks with her incisional wound continuing to worsen, her care was transferred to a surgeon who immediately re-opened her entire c-section incision. The wound is still open, healing from the inside out. The nurses still come to the house every other day now due to a new type of packing they were able to get for her. It will take several more weeks at best to be healed to the point where Annie is on her feet again, doing anything much more than baby care, but at least she is healing now.

I've tried not to get too graphic in the explanations of what is happening to Annie right now. I hope I have not been guilty of TMI, but I just wanted to let you know what has been going on in and around the Hermitage, and in it's secondary locale, cuz truly the kid's house in town has been nothing more than another hermitage within the city. I've been seeing and doing nothing outside its four walls for a very long time other than taking Annie or Liam to their doc appointments and maybe getting out to grocery shop every now and then.

Hermitage II is also filled with the people I love most so it too is Home even if Joe wasn't there, and it wasn't my bed. Gillian came home earlier than planned for the holidays to help out with Annie and Liam so once again I found myself living in the old homestead with ALL my kids. It's nice to know that I wasn't the only one who had a tough time staying awake during her turn of baby care. :oP


At Home just like before, just me and my kids, before Joe, before they grew into adulthood, cooking meals for 5, doing one or two loads of laundry a day, playing games, and changing diapers. Home, where three simple stomps on the floor means drop everything and come running someone needs help upstairs, where Mom's car is never parked on the street, and where a good nights sleep means you only wake once or twice through the night.

Home IS where the heart is.

Happy Holidays

The Great Exodus

Last Thursday the crew from Christman's Wildlife Service arrived to put an end to the long ongoing, heretofore, futile battle between Us, the inhabitants of the Hermitage, and Them, the bats who are the unwanted guests of aforementioned domicile. Unfortunately I was not at home when they came to do the work, and Joe, dear sweet Joe, didn't think to give me a call. (how he could not recognize the blogworthyness of the days events?!???) For this reason, alas, there are no photos of the crew nimbly crawling about the exterior of the house caulking, stuffing, and plugging every minuscule gap, crack, and void of the house....sigh

What I do have are pix of the "one-way doors" the crew installed. There are three of them. One toward the front of the house and two toward the back.



As you can see, they aren't the prettiest things, made primarily of 4 inch pvc pipe, expanding foam, and duct tape, but you really don't notice them much from the ground looking up. See?




If they were clad in flashy red glitter, 3 feet in diameter, with horns, bells and whistles I'd be OK with them if they got rid of the bats. Right?

A little refresher course on the procedure of "bat exclusion".....

The law says you can't kill the little buggers, (bummer, I know) so what you have to do is seal every conceivable point of entry a structure might have so they can't get in. Be aware that anything the size of 1/4 inch is big enough for a bat to get in. (this crew is very thorough they seal everything) Remember too that we aren't just interested in preventing more bats from roosting within the walls of the Hermitage but we do, in fact, have bats already residing here. So, what do you do about those bats? All...um...er...30, cough, spasm, gag, choke, spit, to 50 of them. Yes, you read that correctly, the Bat Guy said we had 30 to 50 bats in the house. Hold on a sec, I still get faint when I think about that.

Whoosh, better now, I just have to remember to breathe and find my happy place.

To get rid of bats already in residence you have to seal all possible points of entry and exit except their favorite ones and install "one-way doors" at those points. In other words, all points of escape for the inhabitants are barred except for a few which allow them to exit but no longer enter. The "doors" are simplistic and crude as you can see in the pictures. Just a tube of plastic with a 90 degree downward turn. The bats sort of , crawl/fall out the door when they leave but can't fly or crawl back up the door when they want to return "home".

A cautionary note here. The Bat Guy told me, in some cases, if the wrong exit point(s) are closed up, you could conceivably have the entire colony swarm(?) flock(?) into the main living area of the house searching for an exit. Whoa.....swooning again...hold on.

find a happy place find a happy place find a happy place

OK back to Thursday the day the guys came and installed the bat doors. I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing. Better yet, they came on a day when Joe didn't have to work at night and I wasn't going to have the face possibility, however remote it might be cuz my Bat Guy and his crew really do know how to do this stuff, of having a swarm of bats in my house. I was also thrilled that with Joe here I just might be courageous enough to actually sit outside and watch the exodus of the bats....maybe even document it! And maybe just maybe even sit outside (or perhaps sit in the car) and watch when the evicted-at-last bats return after their night of foraging and try as they may can't find a way to get back home. After all the Bat Guy said about 80% of the bats will leave the first night. When they return and realize they can't get back in a bunch of ticked off bats will keep circling the house searching for entry. OK perhaps the bats aren't really angry just a little confused, but I kinda like the thought of pissing them off rather than just confusing them. (vengeful much? who me?)

So after dinner Thursday I set up a table and chairs out in the yard so we could see one of the bat doors clearly. A pair of binoculars for each of us, note cards and pens to keep a tally of how many bats we each saw, and my camera ready, fresh batteries, empty memory and I even reviewed how to take a video. I was a little dismayed by the fact that we could only see one door at a time. While we were watching one door how could we know if they were leaving by another, but oh well, it was the best I could do and later would extrapolate how many left from the other doors.

As the sun began to set, and the sounds of day changed into the sounds of night Joe and I faithfully watched one of the bat doors. It grew dusky. No bats. The bugs began to bite. No bats. It grew dark. No bats. Joe by now had long ago lost interest in watching for bats, if he really had any interest in it at all, but Joe being Joe sat there with me still. I too had begun to grow weary of this now all too boring task (you can't knit and hold binoculars) The fact that I was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes wasn't helping my waning enthusiasm either. Yes, I know, the irony was not lost on me. At approximately 9:45 we called the bat vigil quits. Yes, I was disappointed. Yes, images of a swarm of bats flying out of the house as I opened the door to go in did cross my mind.

There was no swarm, but there also wasn't a mass exodus of bats which I was really hoping for. Maybe in the morning I would be rewarded with pictures of displaced bats hanging around the doorways they could no longer enter. (one of the crew told Joe there might be a few hanging in the eaves having failed to gain entry still hoping to get in the following night) There were no bats hanging around Friday morning. There were no bats hanging around Saturday morning. Sunday morning around 4:00-4:30 the dog and cat were restless. Joe got up and the animals followed him to the kitchen. I fluffed my pillow to lay back down and that was when I heard it too, the unmistakable chipping ping. There were some pissed offed bats circling the house searching for a way to get in. I snuggled down with a smile on face and fell asleep to the lullaby of echo distancing.

While My Pretty One Knits

Have you read it?

I did, last night. What a fun read, and real page turner too. Perhaps some of that rapid page turning was spurred on by self interest too. ;o) I'm mentioned in the book. Rather this blog and something I did and wrote about a while ago is referenced within the confines of the book covers. giggle/snort

This yarn (I know, groan I couldn't resist) is a peek into the lives of 5 knitting buddies. And we all know how wonderful knitting buddies can be, so varied in life, style, and age, seemingly incompatible.

Knitting is the thread that binds us together but the fabric of friendship we create is rich in color and deep in texture, person by person, stitch, by stitch.

I am truly thankful for my knitting buddies.

Hey look over there!

Yep, another distraction cuz I'm under the afghan.*




Thanx to Monika for starting my day with this video.


*under the afghan = under the gun, swamped with work, super busy, no time to blog, etc.

Think

Yet another distraction to keep you from wondering where I am, and what I'm doing....

Your Word is "Think"

You see life as an amazing mix of possibilities, ideas, and fascinations. And sometimes you feel like you don't have enough time to take it all in. You love learning. Whether you're in school or not, you're probably immersed in several subjects right now. When you're not learning, you're busy reflecting. You think a lot about the people you know and the things you've experienced.

What's Your Word?

Isn't it funny how little online quizzes can be so on target it is nearly frightening? Think. hmmm. How apropos. I've mention here before that I have journals I call my think books. I have files on my computer named think. I have a think tag in my Ravelry queue. I envy people with jobs in think tanks, although the subject matter of many of those would not be for me. giggle/snort

Just a note to clarify, the little copper bowl in the last post was not knitted. It was worked in a technique called "Viking Knitting" but it's not really knitting....confusing, I know. I imagine some anthropologist/archaeologist not extremely learned in the needle arts called it that one day and the name stuck. To him/her 's credit, the end product does look like knitting, and whether the term was coined cuz he/she thought it was knitting or just looked like knitting I can't say. I could prob'ly render a very close facsimile of Viking Knitting by using two needles but I didn't. I could also create other nearly indiscernible replicas using other known techniques and therein lies my profound interest.

IMHO Viking Knitting is more closely related to knotless netting, or even embroidery than knitting (pedantically speaking). For those of you familiar with embroidery Viking Knitting is akin to a series of the ceylon stitches but worked in a spiral 3-dimensionally, thus having no long loop on the back of the fabric. Does that make sense to you embroidery people?

Now for you knitting peeps....anybody got Debbie New's book "Unexpected Knitting"? (if you don't you really should) If I'm not mistaken, and I can't confirm this cuz a friend has my copy right now, BUT...check out her chapter on "Virtual Knitting". I'm fairly certain, in that chapter she is manipulating the yarn similarly, if not in the exact same manner, one would work the ceylon stitch, or do some flat Viking Knitting. I could be wrong it's been a while since I've read that chapter.

But now let's take it a step further. Let's think on it some more. What and how are techniques named? Are they named for the manner in which the material is worked, ie what kind of tool is used? Or are they named for the characteristics of the end product? Or how about how the actual "path" if you will of the yarn/fiber/thread/string? Named for procedural methods? Does the actual material used have any bearing on the naming of the technique? Could any single technique have more than one "known" or "accepted" name? To all of these questions, an many more like them I've found the answer to be often yes.

Let's water this down to a really simple example that I don't think will get me into any trouble. :o) (please take this next part with a grain of salt in that I'm not going to spend time making sure every little nit-picky thing is 100% accurate, I'm just trying to make a point and if I mis-speak don't hold it against me just over look it as I try to make my point) Some people knit with the working yarn in their right hand and some people knit with the working yarn in their left hand. (some do both by I digress) The path the yarn follows throughout the finished fabric is identical, and yet there are many names of just what kind of knitting is being done because of the way that yarn path was achieved. ie, continental, english, german, american etc.....oh yeah don't forget portugesse knitting, but that uses hooks and not needles. ;-) Remember....I said the path of the yarn in the finished fabric....I'm not talking about the crossed stitch fabric, just the bare bones plain knit and purls oriented "correctly".

So what's my point? My point is there are many names for several methods that produce the same end product. As with the Viking knitting, I could use a embroidery needle and work the same stitch on a 3-D surface, or maybe use a shuttle and "net" a piece in mid-air. What if I'm making a reverse half hitch knot? Is it still Viking Knitting? Am I doing macrame'? If I have a shuttle in my hand am I tatting?

I find this sort of inter-connectivity of "linear manipulation" fascinating. It is why I hesitate to call myself a knitter, crocheter, embroiderer, macrame'er, weaver, stitcher, etc. All those names are so limiting. It is why I find the "battles" between knitters and crocheter so nauseating, and the chicken vs egg debates tiresome. If pushed to label my passion I'd like to say I'm a linear manipulator, although without explanation it doesn't mean much to anyone but me. Just as the name of the this blog doesn't mean much to most people, most prob'ly think I misspelled "activity". LOL given my penchant for spelling errors and typos I can understand that. But no, it actually was spelled that way on purpose, cuz to me "Stringativity" is a noun meaning 'the relative natures of string manipulation'. (string being used here as the most generic description of any linear substance.) I couldn't in conscience call this a knitting blog or a craft blog, or even a fiber blog, any and all of those thing would be misleading.

Yes, admittedly so, this blog has been a little heavy on knitting content for a while, and most recently on wire work, but it will change. It always does. Perhaps, at some point, some topics will be revisited in the future, who knows what will tickle my fancy on any given day at any given hour......sort of like "a gnat in sandstorm"......unable to steer my destiny in the swirling winds of all things I've not yet learned, catching a ride on a single crystal, one of the bazillions that makeup the whole.

Gotta go manipulate something linear.
:o)

Hibernating???

I think not.

Guess who dropped in to say hello?

Again.



Damn it.

To all flying mammals residing within the confines of the Hermitage:

I regret to inform you that your continued existence in this domicile is not desired by the owners. Your feeble attempts of neighborly visits have merely caused our owner/squatter relationship to swiftly deteriorate into an ever deepening loathing of you and your kind.

You have shown a blatant disregard for the boundaries that have been set. We, although it is our right, have not ventured into the nether reaches of the attic, walls, chimney, basement, heat ducts, or wherever you have your illicit roost, and yet you continue to boldly fly into each and every room of the Hermitage. It is abundantly clear you can not be trusted. The trespassing alone is enough cause for eviction, but now this second display of aberrant behavior of flying instead of hibernating, cannot be overlooked. If you do not voluntarily vacate in a timely manner, please note that you will be forced to go.

Signed,
The Owners of the Hermitage


This is war.

Giggle Snort

I'm sure most have seen this already but for the few muggles who read this blog, behold:


What really gets me is that it took her (and a small crew) only a week! (article here).

So what's left I ask you? Here are some favs of mine in no particular order and yes, crochet is included cuz after all relatively speaking it's all string.
Houses here, here and here, gas stations,
cars here and here, and here,
motorcycles, tanks and here,
trees here, here, here , here, here, here, here, and here,
signs,
all manner of furniture has all been done. here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
This doesn't even begin to "cover" it (giggle/snort) If you want to see knitted food, gadgets and miscellany do your own search, there's plenty out there. I'm just tired of linking. :o)

Year of Natural Fibers

Did you know today is the start of the International Year of Natural Fiber?



Ahhhhh natural fibers.


Catching up cuz I've been gone sooooo long. Even though my last post was just after Christmas and was only a snark post aimed at Joe, you'd think I'd have lots to tell you. You'd be wrong. Not a lot of blog worthy things have been happening (The Inauguration not withstanding of course. WOW. I'm so proud of us now) and when there were blog worthy happenings I was without camera. Honestly, how boring is it to read a post that is long list of FO's with no pictures? Super boring. So for the sake of reader boredom there will not be a recap of all X-mas knitting. It's a shame cuz there as a lot of it. And then what happens so often after marathon knitting episodes, the mojo disappeared. (I hadn't knitted a stitch from X-mas til a couple days ago, and even then I wasn't feeling the love......sigh)

I suppose I could have posted something about all the storms we endured, but many of you did as well so why bother posting pix of snow drifts 5+ feet high when you could see the same thing or worse, out your own front door? I could have told you about a couple of power outages we had and how we coped snuggled in our bedroom, (it was 38 degrees in my kitchen) or told you about the two crashed laptops but either of those stories would have to had endured a lot of editing for content and/or language. ;0)

I could have told you a charming little story about teaching my 7 year old granddaughter how to knit last week but without pix it just wasn't the same. What the hell was I thinking not taking my camera with me that day?!? She even called me to remind me to bring "stuff" so she could learn. She did a marvelous job. Such an adorable child as all g-kids are, she said the cutest thing.....she kept calling her knitting needles "wands". Ya know, I think she gets it already, knitting needles are magic wands.

Hailie wasn't the only person I taught to knit recently. While Gillian and her beau Nick were home Nov/Dec I taught Nick how to knit. So how's it going Nick? Is that scarf done yet?????

I promised myself I'd post today. I didn't realize the International Year of Natural Fiber was beginning today so my planned posted is taking a backseat. Later today or maybe tomorrow I'll have pix of what has been keeping my hands busy. I've been making leather bound journals. Similar to the one I made before during my Leather Coat Project. I've made 6 books this time. Three are bound with a fourth one maybe completed today, we'll see how the day goes.

Vindicated

I know, I know it's been forever since I've blogged. I even began going through pix I've taken over the last couple weeks to create a single huge catch-up post. It soon proved to be overwhelming. Waaay too many things to tell you, waaaay too many knitting FO's to show off, even if I do have pix of less than half of them. Suffice to say, I didn't really plan on doing any Holiday knitting, but with the many days of being homebound due to snow, ice, blowing snow and power outage I did in fact get a LOT knitted. Nearly everyone at our big family x-mas that was psotponed until Sunday, got a little something handknitted by me, those who didn't as well as some repeat "customers" have placed their orders for more. It's really nice to have some goals in mind when picking up the needles and casting on.

OK enough catching up, on to the real reason that finally prompted me to write a new post.

Vindication. It is an excellent motivator. Yes, I'm feeling snarky and smug. Joe has thought I was crazy for nearly a year, now I have proof it is not so. OK it is true in most aspects in my life I am in fact a tad bit "touched" but there is this one thing for which I was thought to be crazy, delusional, or perhaps merely hallcinating but now I have proof that he was grossly mistaken in doubting me.......Last year I saw a black bear not too far from the house and now I have proof that the creature does exist. On the Quad City news tonight they showed pix of the bear. Here is a link to the story.

Ahhhhh I feel so good right now. Crazy for crazy's sake is one thing, crazy because of doubt is damaging to one's psyche.

Braggin'on my boy

....again. But I'm pretty sure you're gonna love this.


Toraason Glass from Videogénique on Vimeo.


The one in the lighter shirt with the ball cap on, is Bart Grawey my son. Hiram Toraason is the other dude whom I love as a son.

The real thing

Just had to share this with you......

The Oompa Loompas:

Fuzzeled*

Typical of days following a rather long interlude of dancing**, I'll be rather fuzzy. On occasion there will be aftershocks, Wednesday and Tuesday were aftershock days. Days spent out of sorts, with low energy and episodic riffs of the dance*** revisited. What I find immensely curious regarding these days is my level of creativity. That is to say creativity on the thinking side of the equation not the actual production side. I come up with some of the most outrageous ideas on days like this.

Obviously I can't tell you why this is, I'm not a doctor, but I can play one at times (giggle/snort) and this is what I think. I think the reason is two-fold.

The first reason could be cuz for several days previous I am desperately placing myself into self-induced hypnotic-meditative state of sorts. Consciously trying to induce a "coma" for the sake of pain relief....sortof. Maybe a bio-rhythm/transcendental meditative kind of thing, I don't know I've never read up on any of those techniques, it's just a "thing" I've been doing all my life to escape the dance. Perhaps it is this "biotranscend-rhythmative state" I had been so completely immersed in during the days of the dance is what sparks the creativity. And just maybe this recently immersed, often practiced, somewhat easy to slide into, "altered state" is close to, or at least passes along the way, the place where new ideas are hatched in my brain. Or maybe it's just that being so close to that "calm center" lets the thoughts and ideas flow.

The second reason for an increase in creativity might be, perhaps these brow beating sessions actually do spark areas of the gray matter that are usually overlooked or run rough shod over when "normal" brain activity is going on. And on these fuzzy days and aftershock days I can actually stop and smell the newly bloomed roses.

Whatever the reason, these spurts of creativity that come following a dance, I'll take them, and chalk them up to the one and only good reason I can find for having these episodes.

Oh yeah, and did I tell you I have a tendency to babble on these days as well? :o)

So what does all this rambling about altered states have to do with knitting? Here's what, an example of something born of my state of fuzzle-ness.


It's half done and it's going to be felted. Any guesses?


And the footnotes for those of you who are completely confused as to what it is I'm rambling about:

*Fuzzled v., being in a state of contemplative fuzziness, usually accompanied by a strong focus on puzzle solving

**Dancing v., being in the throes of a migraine.

***Dance n., a migraine

Yes we did.

Stand By Me

I'm usually not a bandwagon type person, but having seen this on a few blogs already, I'm jumping on with both feet and adding this here for your enjoyment.



You can find out more about Playing For Change here.

Lust

This past Saturday was the SpinIn sponsored by the Bishop Hill Fiber Guild. It was fabulous as always. The men and women of the guild have once again out done themselves. It is/was a fiber filled day at an extremely low, low, price. Tell me please, when you have ever gone to a fiber conference and the total cost of attendance plus lunch with choice of attending two classes throughout the day (not to mention the on going knitting, crocheting, drop spindle, and spinning workshops) was $18.00 ($12 w/o lunch) for the early bird registration and a whopping $21.00 ($15.00 w/o lunch) for day of registration. Guess I should have posted a reminder of the upcoming SpinIn rather than reviewing it after the fact, huh. Just to rub it in and be a bigger schmuck than I am being right now, you can go here and see what you missed.

I promise to remind you guys before it happens next year, but just in case I forget next year too...mark your calendars for the 2nd Saturday in October, it typically falls on that day.

I didn't actually take any classes this year, I was too busy hanging with met-for-the-first-time-in-real-life Ravelry peeps! I also spent a good deal of time hanging out in the spinning wheel circle. Part of my circle time was spent teaching a wanna be spinner, Sister Mary Stephen, and briefly helping Sister Mary Lawrence, and Brother Gregory also wanna be spinners. It totally flipped me out that they were there and I was compelled to help them. I don't why, I suppose cuz the whole full habit thing churned up childhood memories of Sister Mary Francis one of my best loved teachers. Thank god Sister Lizarian didn't come to mind otherwise I would have fled screaming incoherently and prob'ly found later cowering in a bale of fleece fretting over the specter of ruler blistered palms. The other part of my circle time was spent wheel hopping. There were several types and brands of wheels for anyone to try. Louet, Ladybugs, Ashfords, etc.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not really in the market for a new wheel. I love Levi my Babe's Fiber Garden Wheel. But I did want to see how well Levi held his own compared to other wheels on the market. Levi did beautifully. IMHO he out did most brands and styles, was dead even with one other, but did lose just a tad bit to the new objects of my lust.
Majacraft's Little Gem and a woolee winder. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


But I like Jimmy Carter will merely lust in my heart. I'm not going to spend that much $$ for a wheel, nor for a woolee winder. Although you won't hold it against me if I do succumb will you?

And to continue in the same frame of mind, or rather a lusting heart...

While I did not attend any classes at SpinIn one of the classes I was considering was the class on spinning luxury fibers. At the end of the day I ran into the teacher and mentioned that I had considered attending her class and she graciously offer me the handouts for the class and all the fiber samples. YUM!

Most of the samples are in sliver, top, and cloud forms. The fibers themselves are Quivet, Quivet/silk blend, Camel, Baby Camel, Cashmere, Mohair lock, Silk top and Silk hankie, Yak and Bison. YUM YUM YUM More lusty reporting after I get a chance to spin these fibers will be forth coming.

I haven't knitted a stitch since Saturday. I've been spinning, thus all of Whirling Dervish I is spun. So far so good, I can't wait to begin plying! Unfortunately most of what you can see here is yellow but believe me there are plenty of other colors in there. :o)

Team Effort

It was a team effort last night with all members of the Team Hermitage united under a single goal. The tally for the 2008 season, Team Hermitage: 2 Visitors: 0

It began with me kicking things off, a firing of the starting gun if you will, or to put it in non-metaphoric terms, throwing the quilt over my head and shrieking, "Bat!!!" to my slumbering spouse. Having completed my only role to play in the events of the night, I scurried off the playing field and allowed the other members of Team Hermitage to step up to the plate and do what was expected of them.

As you may recall, the MVP of the last game was the Hermitage Hall of Famer Joe. Last night the MVP must be awarded jointly to IdaMae and Benjamin although Joe did have a stellar night himself. The first real blow to the opposition came as IdaMae, the gentle kindhearted canine that she is, sized up the visitor and snatched it mid-flight. Having captured the opposition, both pleased and proud of herself, she spit him out for closer inspection. This action, while sounding foolhardy to some, and could have, and in fact did, cause Team Hermitage to lose some yardage, could have been understandably be expected. Ida has never tasted nor experienced the flavor and texture of bat before.

Now, on the defense the visitor as able to regrouped during this rookie mistake of IdaMae's and flew to the sidelines to access the damage of being caught. Being a shrewd adversary the little bugger flew under the bed. It was a wise defensive play. The under regions of the bed are quiet the out-of-bounds, no-mans land. Our bed is a platform bed with a single cave-like area that runs the length of the bed. A small approximately 2'x2'x7' cave that no man, nor dog, can breach. It is an area used for storage, nothing more, nothing less, and within that storage area a fake x-mas tree is stuffed. Said stuffed x-mas tree granting the visiting player near perfect cover, thwarting any advancing attack from Team Hermitage.

Team Hermitage, now on the defense, made a vital, game winning substitution. Team Captain Joe subbed out IdaMae and replaced her with Ben. Benjamin, or "Killer", as he is affectionately known to us here, is a strong proud feline that has proven his prowess in bringing down birds and mice, and if you remember his lackluster performance in the last game, had a little something to prove to his team.

It was a hard fought battle of stealth and cunning, in which Joe and Ben, working in tandem, brought down the opposition once and for all.

Wanna see???? Scroll quickly pass the next 3 pix if you don't!




The remains of the day....ur...night.



Ya know, even though in this pic he looks sort of kitten-ish cute, and I'm kinda of wonderin' what a bat fur coat might be like (I loves my fur).....if any more of his kin show up they'll meet a similar fate. He's about the size as a large field mouse, not counting wingspan of course, 'round about 4 inches in length and a little chubbier than a mouse, a monster in my book nonetheless.

In knitting news, I've been feverishly working to complete Mr. Greenjeans for the July KAL in the Sleeves Off Buttons On group in Ravelry. The end date was yesterday, but the mods gave me a reprieve and I have until Sept 1. I'm really surprised at how long it is taking to do these sleeves. Even Joe questioned how many hours I put in on these sleeves over the last couple of days. I don't get it, but I'm nearly there now.



The sleeve length is OK (I think) so all I have to do today are the cuffs. I am beginning to wonder though if I'm going to have enough yarn left to do the front/neck band as written in the pattern. The two balls I'm using to work the sleeves are beginning to look a bit skimpy and when it's gone it's gone. The yarn here is 100% cotton reclaimed from a thrift store sweater. It was originally a solid, dark almost black, navy. After reclaiming the yarn I randomly splashed the single huge skein with bleach. Like I said, when this is gone it is gone....sigh.

Math problem update:
First off I just wanna say I love you guys and you all crack me up. As you are well aware I need no encouragement to fall head first into lunatic ramblings, but it's nice to know that at least on occasion there are people out there that appreciate the strangeness with me, or at least ponder the same weird things :o)

My niece has gotten credit for her answer to the problem. The problem was in fact an estimation/approximation word problem (duh it said "About how many...") wedged in between a slew of word problems requesting precise calculations of 3 digit numbers (addition or subtraction). The teacher's note said that she was expecting an answer of 150 (that's reasonable and what most of us thought) but would accept the answer of 151. No other explanation.

Well, it's not my battle to fight, it never was, and I'm not going to fight it now, but I'm not overly thrilled with the outcome of all this. To merely give the kid the grade just cuz her folks questioned it isn't a solution. I was hoping for something more I guess. I better standard maybe? Hoping that this teacher will proofread her work pages better in the future? Hoping that the teacher herself realized how strange the problem was? I don't know. All I know is that having been a Math and Science teacher I feel like she (the teacher) let us (other teachers) down, not to mention the students.

BTW for those of you who still need help figuring this problem out:

5 x 30 = 150

(except there was no other multiplication problems on the page)

so maybe she was looking for

30+30+30+30+30=150

(not quiet the same as all other problems that were only two 3 digits number added or subtracted from each other, but addition nevertheless)

I'm done. Crawling off my soapbox now, sorry.

Please explain

Just popping in to add my Ravelympic medals. I failed at two events but succeeded at three. All in all a decent enough showing considering. I'll report on them in another day or two but tonight I have other things in the fire and no time to post a "real" blog entry.

As stated in the title of this mini post I am in need of a plausible explanation for something and I thought perhaps some of you out might be able to enlighten me. My sister just called. She admittedly is not a math person, never has been, but I, on the other hand, have always loved mathematics so when the need arises she calls. Tonight such a need arose, but I couldn't help, perhaps one of you guys can????

The directions written at the top of her daughter's 4th grade math worksheet were simple.

Solve.

The problem in question read thus:

The month of February has 28 days. Some months have 30 or 31 days. About how many days are there in 5 months?

First off, I'm just not going to address the misnomer that February as 28 days, cuz 1) they all have 28 days, and 2) sometimes February has 29 days. I'll cut the teacher some slack and allow her premise to stand as is with its assumed intent.

Without going into a very long involved equation that is well beyond 4th grade math that I can't imagine a teacher with such a shaky premise even considered, I'll assume that the answer she was looking for was a simple one. Very simple, in light of the fact that all other word problems on the worksheet were no more involved than adding or subtracting 3 digit numbers.

Now comes really troublesome part I:
What 5 month span of the year is she expecting the child to use? Does she expect the child to begin the 5 month span with January or February? Does February even have to be included in the span of the 5 months? Does it even have to be a span of 5 months???

Really troublesome part II a:
"About"?????? Really? She wants to know about how many? Doesn't that just compound the inaccuracy of this word problem??? Mathematics is a perfect language. It is precise. It is concrete. It is logical. There is no "about" about it! Sure I suppose you could argue that rounding off to the nearest 10 or 5 or whatever and approximations are legitimate exercises but the directions are to "solve" the problem, no hint of rounding or approximations in your answers.

Really troublesome part II b:
Doesn't the word "about" leave the door open for more than one acceptable answer???

Really, really troublesome part III:
My niece's answer to the question:

151

It was wrong.

WTF?!?!?

Computing this ludicrous problem with every 5 consecutive calendar year months, will give you the answers 150, 151, or 153.

I'm thinking 151 is about as about you can get.

What say you?

I suppose you could argue that more often than not you get 153 days, but in those instances the month of February is not part of the 5 month span, therefore it is merely a red herring of info. A common tactic in grade school story problems, but please, a red herring and an approximation in the same problem?!? In fourth grade?!?

What am I missing here??? Have we stumbled upon an example why the state in which my niece lives is at the bottom of all national standard testing????