Pink Swap Goodies

Gosh, another one week and just one post. I took the pictures for this post on Thursday, but never got around to doing anything with them.

Anyhoo... I took part in a swap through the Think Pink group on Ravelry. My package arrived last week (well, after a couple days of exile at the post office) from Leesa aka Woody's Gal.

How adorable is that basket she packed everything in. I sort of collect baskets, although I'm pretty sure she didn't know that.

And what was inside?

All sorts of goodies! On the left is a pink Beanie Baby whose name is escaping me (I'm at my mom's, and my goodies are at home...) but who is awfully cute. Sort of behind him are stickers, including some knitting ones (I used to be really into scrapbooking, but it occurs to me that I don't think I've ever scrapbooked any of my knitting adventures). Then there are all sorts of interesting teas, packed in a little cloth bag that will be a great for socks. Speaking of socks -- there were two pink-themed pairs! And last but not least, see the paisley and rose printed scarf beneath all the goodie? She sent that, too. I LOVE paisley!

OH -- and there was yarn, too!

At the top is a ball of Glimmer from The Alpaca Yarn Co. Pink baby alpaca with sparkles -- what's not to love?? And in the front are two skeins of Tahki Cotton Classic, a yarn I've heard about but I have never use. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever even seen it before!

Thanks so much, Leesa!

Stitches and Stash Enhancement

On Saturday, I drove to Schaumburg, IL, supposedly to attend Stitches Midwest. But since I was only there for 24 hours, and only visited the Market, actually, I went to shop!

I should thank Helen for enabling this stash enhancement -- she offered me a place to sleep, so I wouldn't have the stress of driving 3 1/2 hours, shopping like crazy, and driving back home in the same day. This way, I had time to shop at the Market twice AND hit Woodfield Mall on my way home!

At the top is my splurge: a sweater's worth of Brooks Farm Mas Acero in a nice, nameless rosey pink. Right now, I'm thinking this will someday become the February Lady Sweater. Just under the Brooks Farm is Socks That Rock Mediumweight in Gypsum, from the Fold, and under that, a tiny skein (but 470 yards) of Malabrigo Lace in Little Lovely. I'm blanking on where I bought it, but it's so pretty! And to the right is a skein of Geisha -- 500 yards of lacewight dupion bombyx silk from Just Our Yarn. Both the Malabrigo and the Geisha will be perfect for Anne's Little Nothings, and since I already own the patterns for at least three of them -- but had only bought one yarn previously -- I think I'm set!

And then there were the "accessories."

The stitch markers and the sock blockers are from Chappy, who is an absolutely doll. The needles are size 0 Darn Pretty Needles from Grafton Fibers, just because I NEEDED pink needles. And at the top -- a Knitphomaniac night shirt, which I have no excuse for except that I had inhaled too many yarn fumes.

Also coming home with me was a gorgeous little knitting bag/purse from Susan's, which is upstairs, and I'm too lazy to go up two flights to get it, and a single DP WIP Tube. Helen and I split the pair.

In addition to shopping, I also had a great time socializing -- thanks so much to Helen and to Whichy for putting me up! (And to the lovely-but-blogless Elizabeth, who left before the picture taking.)

Spreading the Happy Flu!

I'm happy because today I took a day off, and tomorrow, I'm going to Stitches Midwest, with an added bonus trip to Woodfield Mall!

Red Scarf Project

Just a reminder -- this year, the Red Scarf Project will be accepting scarves for college-age orphans from September 1 to October 15. Visit that link for more information. The amazing Norma is the knitting force behind this project, which is run by the Orphan Foundation of America (still more info about the project at that link -- plus pictures of last year's scarves and their recipients).

I think this is a great project. It's easy enough to whip out a scarf, and I love red! It's also a great cause -- at age 18, kids "age out" of the foster program. Some of them, luckily, still get support and love from their former families, but others are truly on their own. This project targets kids who have gone on to college, on their own. As much as I loved going off to college and being kind of on my own, I can't imagine doing that without family behind me. These scarves are just a little sign for these kids that there are people out there thinking of them.

(Oh - and if you post something about this by 6:00 mountain time today, you might win a prize from Scout!)

Oh! Hi!

It's been a week and I thought I didn't have anything to blog about, but then it occurred to me that I did have a little knitting I could show you. I've got two projects going, but one is a gift, so no pictures (even though my sister knows she's getting a pair of socks). The other is the Daedelus shawl I'm test-knitting for Helen. I'm finally well into the second chart and have begun the beaded section. See them, up near the top? (You can click to enbiggen.)

As usual, it doesn't look like much, but you know lace -- it will definitely get better!

This photo shows a little more, although I don't think you can see the beads.

The yarn is JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk, which is lovely to work with.

So, that's the knitting content, but I have more! The Iowa State Fair!

My boss and I went over to Des Moines on Monday to work at the University's booth at the State Fair.

We rolled football schedules.

We also hung out at my library's booth, promoting our GoLocal site. (More about GoLocal here.)

We had some free time so we ate some fair food (yum, corn dogs!) and explored.

We found the butter cow

and the largest boar. (His name is Freight Train, and he weighs in at over 1250 pounds.)

We saw sheep in jackets.

All in all - a lot of fun!

More H for Harley

Back in April, my ABC-Along H was for Harley. In that post, I left a space for a picture that I had of her from when she was still feral, standing on my friend's porch, waiting for food to appear.

Last week, while looking for scanned family photos that weren't in iPhoto, I found that picture. Harley was probably about 18 months old when this was taken, and she came to live with me a month or so later, in November 2002.

Look at how teeny she is! And look how long her tail looks. As the fuzzy picture below shows, it doesn't look so long anymore, although I suspect it's the same length -- the rest of Harley is just bigger now!

"What? Yes, I guess I have put on a few pounds,
but what if that bowl of food in the kitchen disappeared?"

K is for...

Kin.

Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in.
-- Robert Frost, The Death of the Hired Man

It would have been so easy for K to be for knitting. I considered having K be for Ken, my brother, but then L would need to be for Linda, and I have something else in mind for L. I was considering if K could be for Ken&Linda, when I thought, "Not Ken, but kin!"

The Robert Frost quote is about home, and to me that means family. I've been thinking of family a lot lately. It's one reason I decided to move back to the Midwest. Since I've moved back, I've seen a lot more of my family -- my aunts, uncles, cousins.

My dad's side of the family is large. He was one of 9 surviving children, and they had 29 children. Twenty-seven of us are still around, and I've seen all but two in the last year or so. I once laughed that we range from poor white trash to PhD's, and that's when my sister pointed out that any one of them would take any of the others in, if needed. And she's right -- we're a diverse bunch, but we're definitely family. Most of us are outgoing and have a sort of goofy sense of humor. And even those who don't have that sense of humor appreciates it in the rest of us! We like each other and even if years have past since we last saw each other, it's like those days when we were kids and saw each other frequently.

This picture was taken in the spring of 1957 -- probably Easter (which was late, April 21, that year) or Mother's Day -- notice that Grandma is wearing a corsage. I'm the baby being held in the middle of the top row. See the arc of four little girls all dressed alike on the right side of the photo? Not surprisingly, they are sisters and, together, four of the funniest women I've ever met. Not only do they get the funny gene from their dad's side of the family, but their mother is probably the absolute funniest woman I know. She was recently hospitalized with a little heart problem, and was shocked to discover after her release that she was supposed to refrain from laughing -- absolutely not a possibility, even while she was in the hospital!

And here's my dad and his siblings with Grandma, the same day. Dad's the one in the upper right. The aunt hiding behind her sisters in the upper left must have been very pregnant, especially if this picture was taken on Mother's Day -- her younger son, my cousin Bill, was born on May 20, 1957!

There are 21 cousins in the picture up there -- the previously mentioned Bill and two others were born later in 1957 and one in 1958. The final four arrived later, spread between 1963 and 1969. Two of those late arrivals were my brother and sister, Ken and Linda. Linda always complains that there aren't pictures of them, so here they are, with Mom in late 1965, at my other grandma's house. (That's my cousin Gary on the floor next to them -- and notice the extra hand there behind Ken!)

This picture was taken at my other grandma's house. You saw most of those cousins here -- missing were Ken, Linda, Gary, and Carol, born the same year as Gary and the year after Teresa, the baby in that picture. My mom's side of the family is much smaller, much quieter, and in many ways, much more complicated than Dad's side. But still, I think, any one of us would take in any of the others. That's what family is for.

Twisted Collective

Have you seen it? Wow! Lots of stuff to love. I restrained myself and only added three -- Jaali, Linden, and Gnarled Oakwoods -- to my Ravelry queue. The first two are sweaters, so I really should finish the two I've begun first. The third is a shawl by Anne Hanson -- do you KNOW how many of her designs are in my queue? I've even got the pattern and yarn for several. In my own defense, I feel the need to point out that I have finished two of her designs, including my giant Honeybee.

I haven't actually bought any of the patterns yet. That's restraint!

Three Quick Things

1. A couple of you mentioned that the STR in my last post was extremely pastel for Blue Moon yarn. You're right -- the dyers are just now moving into pastels. Pastels get a bad rap, and I'd hate to have only pastel colors to choose from, but some of my favorite colors are pastels.
2. Bezzie -- there were TWO patterns with the yarn, which is called Goody Goody, and while neither was called Two Shoes (although wouldn't that be a great name for a sock pattern?), one is called Gumdrops and the other is called Sweet Tart.
   
3. Saturday, I was the target of a RAOK. When I attempted to pay for my grande non-fat two-pump-hazelnut latte' at the drive-through of the Starbucks at Clearlake and Dirksen in Springfield, IL (the closest Starbucks to my mom's house), I was told it had already been paid for by the woman in the car in front of me. Wow! I can't tell you a thing about her or the car -- I wish I could! Now I owe one...
   

Pinkness

One of the reasons I joined the Blue Moon Fibers Arts Rockin' Sock Club was to force myself out of my comfort zone color-wise. However, I must say that this month's yarns excites me WAAAY more than any of the previous 3 shipments.

What can I say? It's pretty and girly and has a good dose of pink! It's called Goody Goody (and it's only available to members at this point).

Other recent stash enhancements will further emphasize my love of pink:

Silkie Socks that Rock in Quilla
(81% merino, 19% silk)

Kaalund Yarns Enchante' in Guava (pinks and corals and golds)
(100% cultivated silk)

Lone Tree Wools Mohair and Wool roving in Peony
It's not quite this intense in real life, but it's the best I could do. Lone Tree Wools is owned by Betty Shreeves, my spinning teaching. She's also married to a co-worker, which means the fact that she has no online presence doesn't really matter -- my orders are hand-delivered!

And I now have a Flickr tag for pink! I just need to go through my entire photostream and tag all the pink.

I always need help with blocking

And Harley is always happy to assist.

Specifics:
Pattern: Anne Hanson's Brambler
Yarn: Handmaiden Camelspin (30% camel and 70% silk). I used maybe 2/3 of the 328 yard skein.
Needles: US size 6
Notes: Although this wasn't a hard pattern, I never really got the rhythm down. The yarn is nice -- very soft -- and the fact that it partly camel is interesting, but the color (which I think they call Ivory, although I can't find it on their website) was really much prettier in the skein. This is a gift (very late) for a friend in Houston, and the light and airy texture will be great for what passes as winter there.

ETA because it's not worth a post of its own (plus, it looks like Blogger doesn't understand the border color html, and I'm too tired to figure out why that is):

you are dodgerblue #1E90FF

Your dominant hues are cyan and blue. You like people and enjoy making friends. You're conservative and like to make sure things make sense before you step into them, especially in relationships. You are curious but respected for your opinions by people who you sometimes wouldn't even suspect. Your saturation level is high - you get into life and have a strong personality. Everyone you meet will either love you or hate you - either way, your goal is to get them to change the world with you. You are very hard working and don't have much patience for people without your initiative. Your outlook on life is very bright. You are sunny and optimistic about life and others find it very encouraging, but remember to tone it down if you sense irritation.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Okay - this is a very positive description, and I wonder if they all are! But that said, this is pretty much me, or at least part of me (except that I'm not all that crazy about blue in general!). I don't like the word "conservative" in there, except that in the way it's being used here, it really does describe me. I am pretty much the opposite of impulsive, which has worked against me in the past, but is useful in my current work situation. And that sentence about being respected for my opinions? That's something I've only become aware of recently, and it's kind of scary -- apparently, there are people who think I know what I'm doing!

If I could only open the door...

J is for....

Janna! Actually, when I was growing up, it seemed that J was for everyone! A very high proportion of my childhood friends had names beginning with the letter J -- Jennifer, Joanie, two Julies, Joey, my cousins John and Joe. I thought about using pictures of all of them, but then realized that they probably wouldn't like their high school (or even grade school) pictures broadcast over the internet!

So - J is for me! I hope you enjoy this little trip through my first five years!

If you want a closer look at any of these pictures, click on the mosaic to go to Flickr, then click on the photo name in the caption to go to the individual photo on Flickr.

The upper left photo is the first picture of me that I know of -- it's my mom when she was pregnant with me. This photo's been around a while and is kind of hacked up, but notice the contraption on the left side of the photo -- that's what TVs looked like in the mid-1950s.

Top row middle: that's me at 2 months.

Top row right: Mom, Dad, and me, when I was about 7 months old

Middle left: I love this picture! In spite of the 1960 written in the margin in my grandmother's hand, I think it's more likely this picture was taken in late 1958. The baby on the far right, my cousin Teresa, was born in February 1958. I'm the second little girl from the left -- the unhappy one! The unhappy little boy just right of me is my cousin John. He's a year old than me, and when we were little, I followed him around like a puppy. The older boy with a smirk on his face is John's brother Steve. I suspect he had done something to get us into trouble! The little girl on the far left is my sister Karen and the men are my Grandpa and my Uncle Jerry (who appears to have his pant legs rolled up).

Center: Me, obviously more recently.

Middle right: This one is my favorite. Dad, Karen (left) and me (right). My sister Karen was 11 and a half months younger than me, and was killed in a car accident when I was four and a half and she was three and a half. I actually have a lot of memories of her. I remember (more than once, I think) sitting in the photo booth at the J.C. Penney's where my dad worked. When my dad passed away, we found the top photo in his wallet. A few months later, cousin's wife mailed Mom the other, which my cousin had found with his late mother's belongings. I don't know what happened to the other two photos which would have been in the strip, but I've Photoshopped these two back together.

Bottom left: Me on the left and Karen on the right.

Bottom center: This is the classic 1950s photo -- the subject posed next to a car! I think it was probably taken in the Spring or Summer of 1961, just before I turned 5. I don't know whose car it is, but I know it's in Grandma and Grandpa's lane.*

Bottom right: In front of my grade school, one block from our house, about the time I started kindergarten.


* Lane = long driveway out in the country. Does everyone everywhere call them that?

Just a little fiber-related content

As I mentioned before, I'm taking a spinning class. Let me just say that I am not the star pupil! However, I'm getting better, I think.

That's wool that I hand-carded myself to spin. I think I find the "fluff" that hand-carding produces to be a whole lot easier to spin than roving. However, maybe it's because I'm finally getting the way spinning is supposed to feel. Tomorrow night is our last class, but I think I can keep the wheel until the next class series begins in September. If that's the case, I'll buy some roving in some pretty color and work on it a while.

On the knitting front, despite that fact that I'm pretty sure she knows I'm one of the world's slowest knitters, Helen is letting me test knit Daedelus for her. I've barely begun.

Sorry about the blurry picture - and I think I see a mistake over on the left side. Uh, oh....

One of my co-workers is greatly amused by the idea of test knitting. Today, he was trying to decide what kind of uniform test knitters should wear -- jumpsuits, with lots of patches, and Raybans, like test pilots? We finally decided that a hand-knit sweater and socks would be more appropriate!

I is for....

(ETA: I keep thinking of people I should have included below. But I think I could edit forever, so, if you're not listed, don't take it personally!)


My loss of knitting and blogging mojo (which is not a complete loss -- I am still knitting several times a week and am reading blogs) coincided with a lot of turmoil in my life. First I was out of town for weeks in May (two conferences back to back), and then after a week or so back, the floods began. Although I was not directly affected -- my house and work are both fine -- you can't live in this area without being affected.

Although I haven't been posting very much, I've been writing lots of posts in my head. So - I'm going to attempt to actually get some of them up here!

I'm so far behind the ABCalong that I had almost decided to give up. But then I had a sudden inspiration for I! I wasn't excited about my previous ideas, Iowa or Illinois, but suddenly the perfect I came to me, although it doesn't lend itself to pictures.

I is for....

my Imaginary/Internet friends! Yes, that would be you! You're the group that I depended on, even though you may not have known it, to get me through my move last year and to provide some continuity in my life at a time when everything was changing.

Now, all of my Internet friends aren't really Imaginary. An awful lot of you -- Susan, Kim, Amy, Mary, David, Courtney, the other Kim, Michelle, Enid, Bezzie, Eileen -- either live in San Antonio or used to live there. And there are other San Antonio knitters who I stay in touch with through the SA knitters Yahoo! list -- I can't bring myself to 'unjoin' it. And I'll include Steven in this group -- he's in Austin, but I knew him IRL before we started blogging.

There are also some of you whom I met after I began reading your blogs: Christine, Caro, Julia, Hedgie, and, most recently, Helen.

And then there's the huge list of those of you who I feel I know, even though we've never met. And this is where Imaginary, and maybe even a little weird, comes in! Some of the folks on this list definitely know who I am, but others, if they were to see this, would probably wonder who this crazy woman is! There's Chris, of course (I think Chris might be everyone's favorite Imaginary Friend!), and Risa, Rachael, Cari, Ashley, Theresa, Rebecca, Marguerite, not to mention people like Stephanie and Laurie (they both signed books for me - does that count?), Wendy and Wendy, Lorette, Kay and Ann, Annie, Cathy-Cate, Franklin, Norma, Cara, and the 100 or so other people on my bloglines. Oh, and the group of former co-workers whose emails I look forward to (at least once a week, we share a Dilbert and reminisce about the not-so-good-old-days that were pretty fun nonetheless).

Even if you don't know me, all of you are special to me!

Oh, no! What have I done?

Some of you have heard me state that I don't want to learn to spin. However, when Betty Shreeves, a local spinner, told me that she was teaching a 4-session spinning course at the Craft Guild of Iowa City, and that the $60 fee included borrowing a wheel and Guild membership for the rest of the year, I really couldn't resist.

Last night was our first class. Tonight, I need to work on treadling sloooooooowly..... I don't think this is can be called yarn yet.

Speaking of yarn -- here's what Helen forced me to buy watched me buy last week.

From Needleworks, already wound up:

From the top center, that's Dream in Color Classy, in Lipstick Lava; 8 skeins of Bristol Yarn Gallery Lyndon Hill, in 102 (85% Pima cotton and 15% silk, destined to be the Paisley Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark); Berrocco Sox in 1424 (oops! I bought that at Nanncy's in Springfield, without Helen's help); and 2 skeins of Koigu KPPPM in P320L.

After Needleworks, we went to Klose Knit, where I bought just a little more.

That's two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Flame on the left and two skeins of Louet Gems Bulky in Crabapple. And on top, you might notice a package of little ring stitch markers.

I've also frogged the Primavera socks I told you about last night. The yarn and the pattern just weren't working together. I think I'll move on to the Paisley Shawl (Ravelry link). That is, after I practice treadling a bit!

Knitting Content

There HAS been knitting and knitting-related activity going on.

First, I started and finished a warshrag for my mom. Here it is in its natural habitat:

Peaches'n'Creme and the Ballband pattern, of course.

I'm working on Brambler for a friend's (late) birthday. It's out of CAMEL and SILK. It's wonderful to touch. Unfortunately, I'm bored with it, and I realize I made a mistake a ways back. If I could figure out what I did, I'd do it again at the other end....

I was also sockless (unless you count those toe-up Illini socks, which I may never finish), so I cast on Primavera using the May Sock Club yarn.

And, finally, I took advantage of my unexpected visit to central Illinois to go to Champaign and meet up with Helen for yarn shopping and gyros. We had someone take our picture. This, unfortunately, is the good one... We were actually having a great time, weren't we, Helen?

And I'm now also taking part in Summer of Lace. I was tempted by the possibility of getting a prize for something I'd already be doing anyway!

Iowa City Flooding

This is just a short post to let you know I'm okay and am at my mom's in central Illinois. I will say that I am totally freaked out by the flooding and although I'm fairly certain my townhouse will be safe, I decided that the kitties and I would be better off somewhere else. My usual route to Mom's involves I-80, which is a mess, so I drove south and crossed the Mississippi at Quincy, IL, where the river is very, very high but, as of this morning, both bridges were still open.

Yesterday afternoon, the University of Iowa shut down because of the flooding. All but essential services will be closed until Monday, June 23. The UI Hospital and Clinics are still open, although routine appointment have of course been cancelled/rescheduled.

My library, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, is fine, although closed. We are on high ground on the west side of the river. The Main Library, though, is just to the east of the river, maybe a block away from it. There was a massive effort yesterday to get as much as possible out of the basement and up to higher floors. There are picture here of that. The building was also sandbagged. There are pictures here of that effort. Notice the Amish men in the sandbagging pictures. Although there is a very large Amish community in the vicinity, they don't often mix with non-Amish. Seeing them come into town to help with sandbagging really touched me.

The sandbagging efforts all over Iowa City and Coralville was awe-inspiring. The effort of volunteers - many of them students - was amazing.

The Iowa River will probably crest early Tuesday morning. If you've seen pictures of the devastation in nearby Cedar Rapids, were the Cedar River crested on Friday, you can understand why these measures were taken. Unlike Cedar Rapids, downtown Iowa City is on high ground, overlooking the river, and should be mostly okay. Coralville's business district (the "Strip") is a different matter. And it's estimated that 19 buildings on the UI campus are in danger of flooding. This includes not just the Main Library, but the Museum of Art. (I've heard that all of the good stuff, like the Pollack were removed early in the week, when we first became aware of the potential for flooding.) The local paper has lots of pictures and has been good at doing updates.

Quick Photoless Post

So my MacBook Air and I went over to Des Moines to the Apple Store yesterday to visit the GeniusBar. I'm not sure the guy was really a genius, but it's working now, and has been two days in a row. So.... I'm hoping for the best.

While I was in Des Moines, I did a little bit of shopping - places we don't have in Iowa City that I was accustomed to having in San Antonio, like Sephora, Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma, the Body Shop. I didn't spend much money, but it was nice to browse. Call me shallow... I miss good shopping and wish it wasn't 120 miles away.

We've got major flooding here in Iowa City. I doubt it will affect me, but it's still pretty amazing. And scary. And it's still raining -- right now we're under a severe thunderstorm watch.

I'm sort of addicted to watching the radar online, which probably isn't a good thing. It just freaks me out!

I'm in a little knitting doldrum. I'm knitting, but not much. I'm not taking pictures of my knitting (I'm over half done with Brambler, and haven't taken a single photo). I'm reading blogs, but only a few. This will pass, I'm sure, but in the meantime, my blog will be pretty boring. Sorry...

Where have I been?

I've been busy!

I did, though, finish the Baby Cable Rib Socks (from Sensational Knitted Socks).

I love this pattern and I love the yarn (Nature's Palette fingering weight from Hand Jive Knits in Indian Paintbrush). The only thing I changed in the pattern was adding a 2x2 ribbing on the toes, during the every-other-row decreases, to match the top ribbing. (More details on Ravelry.)

I also got a new computer -- a MacBook Air. I love it... when it's working right. There are reports of "issues" with connectivity, and I seem to have them. I'm posting from it now, so obviously I do connect eventually, but it's really annoying. And as a longtime (20 year) Mac person, I find it really disappointing, too. I may be taking a trip to the GeniusBar at the Apple Store this weekend...

I spent last weekend at Mom's, helping with a bridal shower for my cousin. Mom had bunion surgery a couple weeks ago, so still isn't highly mobile! It was fun -- all relatives -- and we didn't play any silly games. I believe a good time was had by all.

Driving there Friday evening, I realized that I was trailing a line of thunderstorms/tornadoes. Luckily, I was only about 10 miles from Mom's when I turned on the radio and heard the warnings which, by that time, were for an area beyond where Mom lives. I'm sort of glad I hadn't heard the warnings earlier -- maybe sometimes ignorance is bliss!

And I'm WAY behind in the ABC-Along. I wonder how many letters I can combine in one post????