kmkat and her kneedles

Ten on Tuesday, the September edition.

Ten Things I Love About September.

1. The end of one of the hottest summers on record.
2. Cooler weather means not being confined to short and t-shirts. I can pull out some long-sleeved things and I can layer things. That is a much more comfortable look for me.
   
   
    
3. The trees start to turn. Fall is glorious around here when the maples are red and orange and the sumac and oaks are crimson and the birch and aspen are gold, all punctuated by deep green pines. Driving down our road on a sunny day is like driving through a tunnel of golden light.
4. I can knit on the deck again. It was too hot for most of the summer.
5. Sleeping with the windows open.
   
   
    
6. Swapping out the chilled white wine for red. Three Buck Chuck rules!
7. Honeycrisp apples!
8. Thinking about the woolens, although it won't be cold enough for them for a few more weeks.
9. Thinking about knitting sweaters and warm, cozy things without cringing.
   
   
   
   
10. Did I mention the trees turning? 

Nest.

Matthew is here today to get new brakes on his car and to help Smokey do some other car stuff. A few minutes ago he came running into the house to show me what he had just snapped with his camera phone.

Behold: the biggest wasp nest we have seen in recent memory.

Hmm, guess we don't use that door much. Maybe when I was designing the house I could have left it out...

Watch out, little ladybu-- oh, wait, that's one of those annoying Asian ladybugs.

Kill!

For now, while the wasps are active, we will just let them be. In a few weeks it will be cold enough that they will be sluggish. Then we will knock down the nest and burn it. ::wicked laugh::

Ten on Tuesday, the fall edition.

Ten Things To Love About Fall.

1. The colors.
2. I can dress in layers and long sleeves again.
3. The opportunity, nay, the obligation, to break out the hand knits. Which in my case are socks, scarves, fingerless gloves, and One Sweater. That will change, though -- multi-colored striped raglan is close to done.
4. Cold-weather food: crock pot meals, oven-roasted root vegies, baked goods. Hot cider, pots of tea.
5. It is cool enough that knitting a wool sweater is not sweat-inducing. In fact, very few things are sweat-inducing now.
6. The gorgeous colors.
7. Football. Nah, not a football fan.
8. My kids are back in school and the day is my own again. Nah, empty-nester here.
9. Campgrounds are largely populated by senior citizens. No crying babies, no screaming toddlers, no overly friendly 8-year-olds, no sullen teenagers. Quiet. Peaceful.
10. It's time for the Second Annual 35th Anniversary Trip to Lamb's Resort on the North Shore.
11. The glorious colorful display Nature puts on every year.
12. Did I mention the colors?

2009: That was the year that was.

January.

Well, there was this (bad).

And there was this (good) (from left, Wendy, me, Chris, and Susan).

On the knitting front:


 

February.

Good intentions.

 

Snow and cold.

Knitting:

March.

Winter melted away.

Knitting.

April.

Spring arrived in earnest.

Yarnover.

End of tax season.

Taste of St. Croix.
 

Knitting resumed after tax season.

 

May.

I scored big at Macy's sale racks, I helped Norm go away, I celebrated Mother's Day in an eco-friendly way, the bears and the ticks came out of hibernation, I picked up trash, I enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend, I bid farewell to our local librarian, and Hannibal discovered the joys of catnip.

Knitting was primarily of a stealth nature, but did include scientific swatching and the F'ing of a couple of O's that had been OTN for nearly, and over a year, respectively. (I am rather proud of that sentence -- and its punctuation -- awkward though it may be.)

 

June

June was for knitting and vacation and celebrating that brief magical time that is summer in the north woods.

 

 

Lots of knitting.

 

 

July.

July was for more vacation -- the rest of the one in Wyoming and another on the North Shore.

And summer.
 

And injuries.
 

And knitting.

 

August.

It was a very good month. I turned 60, had a contest, and laughed. We went to a concert.
 

I learned the difference between eagles and turkey vultures, and I had surgery to remove some extra/unneeded bits and pieces and repair that torn cartilage in my knee.
 

Knitknitknit.

 

September.

In September I had lots of cats on the blog, it was my turn to give the prayer at the beginning of the monthly county board meeting, the county budget process blew up, and the most gloriously gorgeous month of the year was here.

 

The knitting, she continued.

 

October.

I became a biker by proxy,

more new-to-me music found its way into my iTunes, and we celebrated 35 years together

by not-camping on Lake Superior.

The kneedles continued to fly.
 
 

November.

The van that took us on some wonderful vacations met up with an unfortunate bear on the road and was replaced by an older but bigger and more customized van.

Cold weather arrived, and once more I cooked and baked.

 

Mostly, though, I knitted.




Apparently I can crank out hats like other knitters crank out... sweaters

December.

I continued to be thankful (there is a lot to be thankful for).

With the help of Matthew and Maggie, I decorated for Christmas. This decorating thing is never a given.

I showed you my ornaments, y'all showed me yours.

 

We ate well.
 

A bit more knitting* for others.

I pretty much finished my Christmas knitting. (Shhh, the Calorimetry is a surprise.)


The medical mittens are still OTN -- stay tuned.

*For someone who doesn't like pink, I sure knit a lot of it lately...

Thankful Thursday the first.

Carole proposed the idea of Thankful Thursdays, which she picked up from Kate -- isn't this a great idea?

Three things I am thankful for:

1. My health, although far from perfect, is certainly good enough to be thankful for. Hey, any day spent above ground (and not in a wheelchair) is a good one!
2. Smokey Bear, my life's companion and all-around good guy.
3. Our boys, who I am proud to say have turned out to be well-adjusted -- albeit crazy, in a good way -- and happy and productive citizens, plus they are just plain fun to have around.

I wrote the above, then read Kate's post, where she said the same thing in almost the same words. I really am thankful for those three things, but I pride myself on being An Original. Hence, I immediately began thinking of other things to be thankful for.

1. I am thankful for our high-speed internet, recently upgraded (for free!) by the local telecom. Now I can watch stupid YouTube videos right away instead of waiting for them to load first.
2. I am thankful for the beauty of the fall colors, although they are akin to getting the lollipop and sticker right before the excruciating medical procedure that lasts for six months and involves snow shovels, tow ropes, and jumper cables.
3. I am thankful for Hannibal's and En Esch's excellent table manners. Unlike every other cat we have been owned by in the past 35 years, they do not bolt their food and immediately vomit it up. It's the little things, guys.

* * * *

I forgot a few things in my "Current Knitting" post a few days ago. There were those two squares for Carrie's blanket

 

and some more squares for Lucia's blanket(s) for supportive housing:

Square #1 is some unknown sock yarn held double, knit into a 6" square on US #6 needles using a stitch pattern from one of the Barbara Walker treasuries. Square #2 is another 6" square knit in 8 tints/shades of blue yarn from an afghan kit I bought at an estate sale years ago, knit on an unknown size needle -- maybe a US #4? -- and using a Barbara Walker slipped stitch pattern. It was shown in the BW book using two colors; I used all eight to produce the plaid. It was a PITA to knit, but Carrie says that square in the afghan is little Eddie's favorite, so it was totally worth it.

The three squares in photo #3 are all Knit Picks Wool of the Andes knit on a US #7 in La Harlot's One-Row Handspun Scarf stitch pattern. Lucia told me she had a thing about reversible stitch patterns, so I made sure to use one so her head wouldn't explode :-)

* * * * *

The Friends of the Polk County Libraries have a table at a craft fair on Saturday, and I have been busily knitting some more wine bottle cozies. Here are two lying on the washer so I don't forget to felt them when I do the laundry today.

 

Here's the third and final one in progress.

 

I have also made a whack of tissue cozies, but I gave most of them to Colleen, the library director, to sew up, so I don't have a photo. I'll get on on Saturday -- they turned out cute¹⁰, if I do say so myself. Here are three I sewed up myself.

Saturday.

A couple weekends ago I attended the (second annual!) autumn festival in a nearby city. ("City" is misleading. St. Croix Falls has a population of about 2,000, but it is officially a city for governmental purposes. Wisconsin distinguishes between cities and villages, but don't ask me the differences. I know those differences exist but they do not concern me so I do not clutter my brain with them.)

It was a beautiful, sunny day. So sunny, in fact, that I had to stop at Wally World to buy some sunglasses.

What I saw in the parking lot:

 

Buggy on a flatbed trailer behind a pickup. (In literary circles, this is known as foreshadowing.)

I had signed up to work at the Friends of the Polk County Libraries stand. Here is my friend Colleen, the librarian. You can see my felted wine bottle cozies at the left. She had already sold two ($10 each! thanks!) by the time I got there at ten o'clock.

 

Thanks to all of you who helped me with the marketing. The tags described them as both reusable gift bags and wine bottle cozies and had a paragraph describing what the money would be for. The Friends are trying to raise money for a $25,000 matching grant, funds to be used to hire a technical support person to serve the ten municipal libraries.

Rear view of a book browser:

 

The theme of the festival was "Buy Local" so there were lots of local vendors.

 

 

 

 

Some vendors were not as obviously local.

 

There is a substantial Somali population in the Twin Cities, but I had no idea it had expanded to the St. Croix Valley. Hurrah for diversity!

 

Speaking of local diversity...

 

The professional theater (where #2 son was a stagehand and later ran sound and lights) sold old costumes -- just in time for Halloween.

 

Remember the buggy on the flatbed? I saw it again, this time hard at work.

 

Hey! What's that down in the parking lot?

 

Every good festival has a sandpile for the kids.

My lunch was local...

 

...from here:

 

I love their barbecue. And all their meat comes from a local butcher, just down the street from their bricks-and-mortar restaurant.

Part of the festival was the dedication of the new library, which is now located in a building that used to be a Holiday Foods supermarket but had sat empty for a number of years. This little town raised $1 million (a million dollars!) to renovate the building and parking lot and make the structure energy efficient.

Solar panels on the roof:

There were elected officials. The state senator and assemblyperson who represent this city:

 

The mayor and the librarian (the mayor is elected; the librarian is not):

 

There was a harpist before the dedication and a signer during the speeches. (What do you call the person who signs? "Signer" doesn't sound right.)

  

After the dedication I worked in the festival information booth until 4:30 when the vendor booths closed. The lady running the booth across the street from the info booth gave me some red and some orange tomatoes plus a small basket of cherry tomatoes, all from her garden. The cherry tomatoes were the best I have ever eaten. I need to find that woman and learn what breed they were and how she raised them. Yummmm.

And now, a bonus -- that day's Saturday sky:

Fulling for the Friends.

I finished the things I was knitting for the Friends of the Polk County Libraries booth at Autumnfest. These are fulled wine bottle sacks -- a re-usable gift wrap when you give a bottle of wine.

Hmmm. I really need to restain the deck railing.

Anyway...

Let's take a closer look. Aren't they cute and colorful?

These were tremendous fun to make, although I was getting a just a teensy bit tired of them by #5.

The big question is, how much to charge for one? What say y'all? Keep in mind this is an impoverished rural county. I am thinking $10/each, but that may be more than people are willing to pay. There will be at least two local wineries exhibiting at the festival; I'm hoping I can get one of them to put one of our sacks in their display.

The dirty deets:

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, except for the blue in the center sack which was some Lopi Lite left over from another project. It didn't felt quite as well as the WotA but that didn't spoil the end result.
Needles: Knit Picks Options circ, US#8/5mm (I'm trying to learn the metric sizes); Magic Loop.
Pattern: A freebie that another member of the Friends found here.
Mods: None, except that due to inadequate pattern reading, I decreased on every row of the bottom instead of every other row. A tribute to felted knitting: it didn't matter.

Oh, and the pattern called for the tie to be a crochet chain; I made I-cord for the first two, but then switched to the chain. A crocheted chain takes roughly a minute and a half, I-cord of the same length somewhat longer. The Kat™ = Lazy.

The big fun of the project was choosing the colors. I put one skein of each color that could possibly be considered autumnal into a laundry basket; I picked one or two colors that appealed to me, then added and swapped out other colors until I had five that went together. I seemed to always end up with three darker, more intense colors and two lighter, more neutral colors.

I used a variation of the Fibonacci sequence for the stripe pattern: 2, 2, 4, 6. Since I had five colors and a 4-stripe pattern, the color sequence shifted over the course of the knitting. This had the added benefit that I used roughly the same amount of each color yarn in any particular sack.

It turns out that my Maytag front-loader fulls/felts just fine, even on the warm wash/cool rinse cycle. The sack at the far right in the first photo that is a bit shorter than the others didn't felt quite enough the first time through, so I threw it back into the washer for another go. That made it smaller than the others, but still okay. As Smokey and I like to tell each other when we find ourselves being way too anal over some inconsequential matter, This ain't brain surgery. Just do it and let's move on.

Autumn.

Remember how much I like to see the isolated red maple blazing out among the green? I spotted another one whilst knitting on the deck.

Can you see it?

How about now?

I'm working on some items* to be sold at the Friends of the Polk County Libraries booth in a week. Since the booth will be at Autumnfest, I am trying to make them with autumn colors.

I think I've got it.

* Full details in a post later this week. I finished knitting the last one today.