kmkat and her kneedles

2011: a year in knitting.

January.

A Simple Things shawlette/scarf from two skeins of Koigu for Jen, our now-former librarian. In September she moved to La Crosse, where she manages the circulation desk at the central library.

Finished off a long-standing UFO with attached i-cord and an i-cord bindoff. That i-cord thing had kept it in UFO status since 2005; I finally found some better directions and conquered it. I gave the felted bag to Alex and Matthew as a market bag, since the red coat I had selected the colors to coordinate with was ancient history by the time I finished it.

Finished another major project that had been OTN for nearly a year. Triumph!

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February.

There was a plethora of were eight hats that went to senators and representatives in Washington for Warm Hats, Not Hot Heads.

 

Two pairs of felted slippers for a friend's birthday. The pattern as written did not turn as well as it might have; that is why the second pair. It was NOT the Fiber Trend pattern for felted clogs, but it should have been; that pattern is a well-written classic.

Made two headbands in Malabrigo worsted for Alex: two for same reason as above, although this was my own design. This was my first experience with Malabrigo. Nice stuff.

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March.

March = taxes = working. A lot of working, not so much with the knitting.

Worked on a Citron of Misti Alpaca Hand Paint sock yarn for our assistant librarian.

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April.

No knitting on my blog in April. None, zero, zip, zilch. Apparently I was too brain-dead from taxes to do any real knitting, so I swatched several wool-cotton blends for possible future sweaters. The swatches made it to the blog in early May.

  

 

After I had recovered (most of) my brain cells, I cast on for my first lace project, Haruni, for Alex using Dream in Color laceweight and my new Signature US#4 needle.

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May.

Finished the pair of socks that I had cast in back in February, right before I went back to work (left), and made another pair (right).

 

There was also a water bottle cozy that, while stunningly* and awesomely** attractive, did not insulate as well as I had hoped.

 

  * Irony.

** More irony.

 

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June.

The Citron was finished, thanks to a second skein of yarn provided by a new friend I have never met.

Prepared for packing Lucy The Wonder Dog's meds when we went on vacation.

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July.

Vacation, and the Haruni knitting continued. I learned the inestimable value of life lines, pattern tape, row counters, careful chart reading, and an abundance of stitch markers.

Worked on two scarves for The Red Scarf Project.

 

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August.

Knit a whack of squares for Trailing Yarn's Blankets for Birmingham, but only these made it onto the blog in August. ***

Finished the two red scarves, which still languish -- unblocked, unloved, and unmailed -- on my laundry room table.

We spent a week on the North Shore, and I cast on for a Tappan Zee for myself.

Crocheted a case for my new Nook.

Most significantly, I began the bindoff of the Haruni.

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September. 

Back at work in September. The blog and my knitting suffered.

Kept working on my Tappan Zee, which suffered more frogging and reknitting than any garment should. But the yarn -- Brooks Farm Acero -- came through like a trooper.

Found a couple dropped stitches in the Haruni bindoff. Sewed them down.

The shawl hit the big-time, being displayed at a one-day yarny festival nearby.

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October & November.

Knitted constantly during these two months, although you would never have guessed from reading my blog. 

Started a sweater for Ser Percival The Energetic.

Started a scarf for Alex. Frogged it when it wasn't working (bad design, not bad knitting) and I couldn't see any way to make it better. 

Made it to the armholes on Tappan Zee after even more frogging and reknitting.

Started a sweater for a co-worker's baby due January 1. Photo of the finished sweater has vanished from my iPhoto, although I know I took one, and apparently I never blogged the FO. 

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December.

Started a different scarf for Alex with the same Kill Bill yarn and another new Signature needle.

Finished Percy's sweater.

Started a hat for Alex. It really will be a hat, even though it bears no resemblance to a head in this photo.

Started (and will finish before midnight today) a pair of blurry, cabled fingerless mitts for Alex. For extra credit, find the mis-crossed cable, which is has since been fixed.

Doing this post made me realize I did accomplish  a fair bit of knitting this year. The disappointing ratio of FOs to actual knitting resulted from more frogging and tinking and reknitting than I am used to, but that meant I was trying some new things -- my first lace, a somewhat poorly designed sweater pattern (Tappan Zee) that needed some tweaking, designing a dog sweater on the fly. So I will count this year as a win!

*** It appears that a great number of photos may have mysteriously disappeared from my iPhoto, the pictures of the stack of completed squares among them. I had noticed this a couple months ago when I went looking for the photos of the Haruni taken while I worked on it during our vacation in Wyoming. I'm not sure whether to blame iPhoto or my own faulty memory or what. 

That was Christmas.

We spent Christmas day with Alex and Matthew. It was delightful to see them hosting the gathering of our little family. They had clearly put a lot of thought and effort into the day -- food (tossed salad and pad thai -- yummy! I brought dessert), presents (perfect, every one!), and they even got dressed up. Not Smokey nor I nor Andrew; we were all in jeans, although I did wear a handknit scarflet to dress up my sweater.

There was festive dress.

Smokey always wears his Santa hat when he works on Christmas, and he brought it along. In the photo above, Andrew had just attempted -- unsuccessfully -- to put the hat on an attentive but uncooperative Ser Percival, so he donned St. Nick's chapeau himself.

Matthew had recently shaved his head.

Smokey was delighted to get a calendar from Alex. He has always been a big fan of Xena, Warrior Princess. (He was gobsmacked also to receive an automotive code reader, but that is not a particularly photogenic object, being basically just a black box.)

I got tags for my handknit items (sadly, they had not arrived by Christmas) and an iPod dock and a Mac Magic Mouse.

Andrew also got an iPod dock, but I neglected to get a photo. His looks approximately like this:

I had put together a basket containing a couple of beginner's supply kits for Alex. There was a knitter's kit: US#7 Dreamz needles, a ball of dishcloth cotton to learn on, and two skeins of Cascade 220 in soft yellow for a scarf once she has mastered the knit stitch, plus assorted small tools, and a How to Knit pamplet from the The Knitters' Guild of America for when I am not around to help her. The other half of the basket was a beginner's sewing kit -- shears, seam ripper, pins, needles, thread. I have found myself with three sewing machines, and one will be hers. She wants me to teach her to sew and to knit, yay!

Smokey had put together a similar gift for Matthew with assorted tools and gadgets, including a set of lighted jumper cables. Go ahead and laugh, but Matthew was pleased with them; you will wish you had them yourself next time your car will not start on a cold dark night.

Ser Percy's sweater was finally done and presented to Himself.

It fits him pretty well, considering I had no pattern and had very limited access to the actual dog's body for fitting. The next one will be better. Please note Percy's bow tie and Alex's sparkly shoes. It was a very festive day!

* * * * *

I had hoped to finish a pair of fingerless gloves for Alex by Christmas, but it was not to be.

The pattern is Vancouver Fog on Ravelry, the yarn is Knit Picks Andean Dream (alpaca, silk, merino worsted). I bound off the first one tonight and cast on the second. They go very quickly except for the idiot who crosses cables the wrong way and loses track of where she is in the pattern. That does slow them down a mite.

The Christmas letter.

It has been a good BAD! year here on Antler Lake.

2011 has been a hard year. The Jeep snowplow broke last winter and got stuck at the bottom of an icy hill, leaving us snowbound until spring. The freight elevator we use to ferry packages from the ground floor garage to the second (main) floor stopped working. This has required us to carry every single thing we consume up the stairs. Golly gosh, it is hard enough getting ourselves up the stairs without the added burden of dog food, cat litter, 24-packs of soda, and assorted other groceries.

The water softener caught a virus and threw up. The heat pump compressor vibrated apart. One of the vans misted US Hwy 8 with four quarts of transmission fluid. Countless electronic gadgets – cell phones, cordless phones, the wireless router, and an e-book reader, to name just a few – up and died. The oven thermostat jammed full on, requiring us to cook everything at 800˚.

   

Like everyone else of advancing age we have been witness to incredible changes in technology. We have seen 78s, 45s, 33s, reel-to-reel, 4-tracks, 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs, MP3s, MP4s, AM, FM, satellite, and HD radio – and that is just audio. But every new wave brings its share of expense, teething problems, and landfills full of items that were last year’s must-have Christmas presents. Can we interest anyone in several hundred pounds of computers that have hard drives so small they can only load Windows 95? Wireless and cordless phones the size of Maxwell Smart’s shoe, obsolete car stereos, analog televisions, speakers that buzz and hum? How about fifty pounds of a/c adapters from various dead technologies or a vacuum tube oscilloscope?

 Given all that trouble with modern technology, can you blame us for wanting to go back to the simpler life of days past? While we were camping in the Black Hills, we had the following family picture taken and pledged ourselves to a simpler life.

That lasted for a couple hours, as we we cooked our dinner over a campfire, used the campground’s rustic outhouses, and pumped our water with a hand pump. But then we wanted a snack before bed, so we fetched the ice cream from the RVs propane freezer/fridge. We played some video games, Smokey watched a DVD, and Kathy read an e-book. Since then we have continued to backslide from everything rustic and natural.

 Our troubles were not all technology-based. There was the ice sheet that slid off the garage roof, taking out a deck and a window and bouncing off the hood of a two-week-old car. Total damage: $5,000. There was the pontoon boat that spent the winter in the lake. Tiny cracks in the top of one pontoon allowed water from snowmelt and rain to enter; in the spring we rechristened it Titanic. As far as we know, no lives were lost, and we now have a newer, bigger, and better pontoon boat.

 

Okay, now that you are all depressed and feeling sorry for us – and maybe secretly glad this all happened us instead of to you – let’s talk about the good stuff, m’kay?

First of all, we are both still above the sod (ice!) and in relatively good health, thanks mainly to modern pharmacology. Crestor, Lisinopril, Lovastatin, Cardizem – sometimes our shopping list reads like a Physician’s Desk Reference. Smokey discovered the wonder that is a shot of steroids and anesthetic in the lower back, resulting in three months of feeling downright perky and full of vinegar… right up until he broke a rib in a fall. Kathy had a similar injection in an aching hip that had been keeping her awake at night; success! All of which is not to say we are ready to run any 5K races, but while the shots lasted we were both able to walk, bend, stretch, and lift better than before. We are now on round two – please wish us a continued low-pain existence. 

Last December Kathy was told that her pancreas had “an abnormal curve,” and that it required further investigation. When you are older you realize that abnormal is sometimes a code word for cancer, and cancer of the pancreas is often lethal.  On Christmas Eve day, however, Kathy received word that her pancreas was just fine, although perhaps a bit funny looking.

Aside: when did we become the old people who talk about their health all the time? Even worse, when did we get OLD? Recently we watched a PBS rock and roll special that featured Peter Noone (of Herman’s Hermits), Davy Jones (of the Monkees), Mitch Ryder (name that group), Gary Lewis (ditto), and several others. Gosh, did they look old!  

In 2010 Kathy’s CPA firm did not require her services; in 2011 they realized they cannot get along without her. She is no longer a seasonal CPA; she is now a year-round, part-time employee. Her hours per week vary week-to-week depending on the workload, but net effect is that she is working more total hours. She will run for a third term as county supervisor in April,  is on the boards of several community organizations, and volunteers with several others. Drop some money in her Salvation Army bucket at Wal*Mart this season. If you ever want to know what is going on with us during the rest of the year, check out Kathy’s blog at www.kmkat.typepad.com. Although purportedly a knitting blog, it often features whatever she may be thinking about that day. In its five-year history it has had 10,000+ hits.

Last spring Smokey worked a lot during the installation of a new computer system at the hospital. Not just a lot – three consecutive 90-hour weeks. Since then he has only worked one additional shift beyond his scheduled two days per week. His plan is to work about 1,000 hours a year, which would be half time. This Christmas he will don a Santa suit and pass out gifts to the children at the hospital. People think he looks like Santa. “I get that all the time,” he says. “Personally, I think I look like John Travolta.” It has been nice for him to catch up on the aforementioned broken things at home now that he is there more. His car collection shrinks and grows; the latest acquisition is a 2002 Chrysler Sebring convertible with 97,000 miles in perfect condition. Craigslist, $2500. (December is a great time to buy a convertible!) The car has been dubbed “Walter” after Walter P. Chrysler, the founder of Chrysler. 

Last May we spent a few days in New York City with Andrew. While the highlight of the trip was being with him, we did some other fun things, too: a trip for Kathy to a renowned yarn shop on the Upper West Side, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot in concert, genuine New York-style pizza (see photo at left), and the Sunday gospel brunch at Sylvia’s Soul Food Restaurant at 126^th and Lenox in Harlem.

Andrew will finish medical school this spring. When you see him thereafter you can officially ask him, “What’s up, doc?” It will be another four years or so before he will become established in his chosen specialty. Next year he will go to graduate school to get a masters degree in public health; he is currently sending in applications. (Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Emory, Tulane – the man thinks big.) The following year he will begin his residency in family medicine. He hopes eventually to work for the US Public Health Service and thereby pay off a large chunk of those annoying medical school loans. We fully expect that, given his love of cold and snow, he will request to be sent somewhere in Alaska.

Matthew and his girlfriend Alexandra got engaged last summer after being together for a year. They traveled to her ancestral home in Baton Rouge twice in 2011, and we understand that Matthew has been found worthy in the eyes of those that matter to Alexandra. She is currently working at Banana Republic in retail sales and plans to start school in cosmetology next year. They plan to marry after she graduates, probably in 2013. We couldn’t be happier to welcome her to our family, especially since she is an excellent cook. She specializes in the Cajun dishes of her ancestors, and they have invited us to their apartment for Christmas dinner. 

Last summer they got a dog, an American Staffordshire terrier, one of the breeds more often called a pit bull (but Percy is not at all aggressive). He is still under a year old and has oodles of energy. We dog-sat him while they were in Louisiana last month (he came to us adorned; see photo at right); he spent a week playing with our dog Lucy until they were both exhausted,

Matthew continues to work at the video postproduction firm but is now the resident engineer. He maintains and repairs the electronic gizmos (including the million-dollar whatsit) needed to accomplish the video magic that they do. The job is perfect fit for his talents and temperament. We benefit, too; when our computers or network stop working (see “dead electronics, above”) he is our go-to guy. He continues to be an avid bicyclist. He has one of our cars but uses it mostly to make the 75-mile trip to visit us. He rides his bike to work every day no matter how deep the snow or how low the temperature. Last summer he was part of a 5-man team cyclists that participated in a 24-hour endurance race in Milwaukee. They bested about 200 other teams to come in first. The trip to Milwaukee was fun as well. The team played video games as they coaxed our old conversion van to Milwaukee, as the picture at left shows.

For the last fifteen years we had a big, friendly, sweet-natured dog named Bear, a chow/Newfoundland cross. We got her when she was about two, so she had a long life for such a big dog. A conversion table Smokey found online claimed that a 17-year-old large dog was similar in age to a 110-year-old human. She and Andrew had always had a special bond, ever since we first got her and he would take her for a long walk every day after school without being asked. For the last few years Andrew would say a long goodbye to his dog before he returned to New York, wondering if he would see her again.  But time after time he would return home to find her waiting for him, tail a-waggin’. Shortly after he left last Christmas she began to shut down; she couldn’t walk very well and slept almost all the time. We took her on that last long ride to the vet in early January. We miss her still.

In the best tradition of the-king-is-dead-long-live-the-king, Smokey has been on the lookout for another dog ever since we lost Bear. It had to be the perfect dog – big, gentle, furry, low-energy, and willing to be cuddled. We may have found her; we just adopted Keesha, another Newfoundland cross, from an animal rescue organization in central Wisconsin. We renamed her Mischa after the little bear mascot of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.

We vacationed again in our ancient (1988) Dodge motor home, spending a month camping in Wyoming with a brief break so that Kathy could fly to New York to qualify as a Jeopardy contestant. She passed the tests and audition (again; this is the third time). Now she waits for Alex Trabek to call. While Kathy was in New York Smokey visited his Aunt Ruth and cousins in Laramie, WY. Dear aunt is 93. Look at the picture. Who looks younger?

At the end of the vacation Matthew and Alex met up with us in the Black Hills, and we all spent a long weekend together in a campground near Mt. Rushmore. A good time was had by all: biking and swimming (them), napping (Smokey and Lucy), knitting (Kathy), sightseeing (all of us). The pre-technology portrait was taken in Hill City. We made one more camping trip last summer, a week on the North Shore of Lake Superior. That gave us nearly two months of vacations last summer. This semi-retirement thing ain’t so bad!

Have a great holiday season and an even better 2012!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Kathy & Smokey

Can you name these Christmas Carols?

1. Oh, member of the round table with missing areas

2. Boulder of the tinkling metal spheres 

3. Wanted in December: top forward incisors  

4. The lad is a diminutive percussionist 

5. Sir Lancelot with laryngitis 

6. Decorate the entryways

7. Cup-shaped instruments fashioned of a whitish metallic element 

8. Oh small Israel urban center

9. Far off in a haybin

 10. We are Kong, Lear, and Nat Cole

11. Duodecimal enumeration of the passage of the Yuletide season  

12. Leave and broadcast from an elevation

13. Our fervent hope is that you thoroughly enjoy your Yuletide season  

14. Listen, the winged heavenly messengers are proclaiming tunefully  

15. As the guardians of the woolly animals protected their charges in the dark hours

16. I beheld a trio of nautical vessels moving in this direction 

17. Jubilation to the entire terrestrial globe 

18. Do you perceive the same vibrations which stimulate my auditory sense organ?  

19. A joyful song of reverence relative to hollow metallic vessels which vibrate and bring forth a ringing sound when struck 

20. Parent was observed osculating a red-coated unshaven teamster  

21. May the Deity bestow an absence of fatigue to mild male humans  

22. Rose-colored uncouth dolt is aware of the nature of precipitation, darling 

23. Vehicular homicide was committed on Dad's mom by a precipitous darling

 1. O, Holy Night
 2. Jingle Bell Rock
 3. All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth
 4. The Little Drummer Boy
 5. Silent Night
 6. Deck the Halls
 7. Silver Bells
 8. O, Little Town of Bethlehem
 9. Away in a Manger
10. We Three Kings
11. The Twelve Days of Christmas 
12. Go Tell It on the Mountain 
13. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
14. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing 
15. As Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night 
16. I Saw Three Ships A’ Sailing 
17. Joy to the World 
18. Do You Hear What I Hear? 
19. Carol of the Bells 
20. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus 
21. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen 
22. Rudolf, the Red-Nosed Reindeer
23. Grandma Was Run Over by a Reindeer 

 

Somehow I missed getting the answers for this last one, so you are on your own here.

X. The apartment of two psychiatrists

Today is Alexandra's birthday.

I will leave it up to you to decide which is Alex and which is Matthew.

 

Happy birthday, Alex (whoever you are)!

Let's see how well-informed my readers are.

Take this quiz at the Pew Research Center site and report your results in the comments. There are only 13 questions and the whole thing will probably take you less than a minute.

From the email wherein I found this quiz:

"This is a terrific and reasonably  easy 13-question test. And it shows results in a number of ways. It clearly indicates that the majority of Americans don't have a clue about what's going on in the world. No wonder our politicians take such advantage of us. It's astonishing that so many people got less than half right. These results say that 80% of the (voting) public doesn't have a clue, and that's pretty scary.

"There are no tricks here - just a simple test to see if you are current on your information. This is quite good and the results are shocking.

"I believe it was Winston Churchill who opined that ' . . . the biggest argument against democracy is a 5-minute conversation with the average voter . . .' "

p.s. I got one wrong.

Did I ever show you this?

After searching the blog it seems to me that I never showed you photos of Alex's lace shawl after it was blocked. How I could have forgotten to do this is a mystery, since this is a project of which I am over-proud. If pride were a sin, I am doomed. Oops.

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And now, the money shot.

Pattern: Haruni by Emily Ross
Yarn: Dream in Color Baby in 'Spring Tickle'
Needle: Signature US#4 circ, an awesome needle.
Mods: None (on purpose; a few inadvertent ones that of the type that are usually referred to as "mistakes") 

A meme! A meme!

Bold the ones you have done/used.

Techniques:
Bind off, any extra stretchy one
Bind off, I-cord
Bind off, sewn (photo, left)
Bind off, tubular
Bobbles
Buttonholes
Cables (photo, right)
Cast on, any extra stretchy one
Cast on, backwards loop
Cast on, long tail
Cast on, provisional
Cast on, tubular
Colorwork, intarsia
Colorwork, slipped stitch
Colorwork, stranded
Darning
Double knitting, reversible
Double knitting, tube (photo, left)
Drop stitch (anyone who has knit a Clapotis, stand up!)
Entrelac
Felted (accidentally)
Felted (on purpose! yay!)
Garter stitch
Graffiti knitting, aka knit tagging
I-cord
Kitchenered a sock
Kitchenered something larger than a sock (photo, right)
Knitted a sock using two circular needles
Knitted and purled backwards
Knitted Continental style, aka picking
Knitted English style, aka throwing
Knitted Portuguese style
Knitted two socks on two circs simultaneously
Knitted with beads
Lace (photo, left)
Magic loop
Short rows
Smocking
Steek
Stockinette
Swatched
Thrummed knitting
Twisted stitch

Knitted with any of these fibers:
Alpaca
Bamboo (photo, right)
Banana
Buffalo
Camel
Cashmere
Corn
Cotton
Hemp
Linen
Milk
Quivit
Silk
Soy
Synthetic (acrylic, nylon, etc.)
Wool


Projects:
Afghan (photo, right)
Alice Starmore pattern, any
Armwarmers
Baby items
Gloves
Hat
Holiday-related knitting (photo, left)
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies, etc.)
Knitted a gift
Knitted for a pet, garment
Knitted for a pet, toy
Knitted item for a bride
Mitts, fingerless
Mittens, cuff-up
Mittens, tip-down
Moebius band (on purpose!)
Purse or bag
Scarf
Shawl
Shrug/bolero
Slippers
Socks, toe-up
Socks, top-down
Stuffed toys
Sweater, cardigan
Sweater, pullover
Sweater, top-down (photo, right)
Toy/doll clothing


Designed:
Dress
Hat
Lace garment
Mitts
Published a knitting book
Scarf
Skirt
Socks
Stitch pattern
Sweater, cardigan
Sweater, pullover,
Sweater, top-down


Other:
Dyed yarn or fiber
Knitted for charity
Knitted in public
Learned a new technique on YouTube
Participated in a KAL
Spun your own yarn
Taught a child to knit
Taught a male to knit
Wrote a knitting blog (duh)

Adapted from a meme on CanaryKnits.

Behind the scenes with sheep.

Many thanks to Bullwinkle, who linked to this behind-the-scenes video in her comment on Saturday. (If none of this makes sense, welcome to my world take a look at Friday's post.) 

Flash mob.

My alma mater has changed a bit since I was there.

Somewhere in that crowd are my future co-workers :-)

Friday fun, with scarves.

Found via zippiknits.

Psycho weirdness: a fanblog post.

As some of you may know, I <3 Neil Gaiman and have done so ever since I saw/heard him speak at a library conference in about 2002*. He is thoughtful, kind, brilliant, and a marvelous writer. Plus, although he is British he lives only about 90 miles south of me in a gorgeous old Addams Family-type house that looks like it should be haunted.

He has a lamppost, straight out of Narnia, in his woods.

I read his blogs, both the one on his website and the one on Tumblr. I follow him and Amanda Palmer on Twitter. Does that make me a stalker? Maybe, but I prefer to think of it as being A Dedicated Fan. 

If you have never heard of Neil Gaiman, here is a long clip of him on Craig Ferguson's show last June:

As much as I admire him, though, I have a hard time reading his books. I can listen to them on audio, especially when he reads them. (If you haven't listened to The Graveyard Book, I direct you to acquire the audio version forthwith and listen.) Except for Stardust and Neverwhere; those two are much gentler books. I struggled through American Gods a number of years ago. This year is the tenth anniversary of its publication, and there was a bit of hoopla about it, including a special tenth anniversary edition with 12,000 additional words. I chose American Gods for my book in my book group's November read. We all agreed that it is a strange, many-layered book, and one that we all found intriguing.

Gaiman is also very, very weird, and I mean that in the best possible way.

From An Evening With Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer:

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* After he spoke, my librarian friend and I ambushed him in the hall. She put her arm around him and I snapped a photo. Flashed it right in his face. She has the photo in her office, and I cringe every time I see it, remembering how rude we were to get it. He was far more gracious than we had any right to expect.

WIP Wednesday.

Still working on the dog sweater for Ser Perival The Energetic. I am at the part between front legs and neck and need to try it on him again to figure out the shaping.

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Frogged the first Kill Bill scarf, started it again with a different pattern. Clearly, I have a ways to go.

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Tappan Zee has not glimpsed the light of day since you last saw it.

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Cast on for a hat for BGFE. Yarn is Knit Picks Sugar Bunny, a merino-angora worsted; color (Wine) is less brick and more maroon than my photo. If you are having difficulty imagining how that strip will turn into a hat, click on the first link to look at the pattern -- it is adorable.

* * * * *

Yesterday I was a bell ringer for the Salvation Army again 3:00 to 5:00 pm in front of the local Wal*Mart. This is how it looked when I left home:

19˚ F (-7˚ C), but happily there was little wind. I wore a Calorimetry, a Noro striped scarf, a turtleneck and sweater, a down parka, leggings, jeans, and snowpants; and Sorel boots. Those of you in warmer climes probably know nothing of Sorels; those of you north of the 40th parallel probably do. They are awesomely warm. 

Lucy The Wonder Dog went with me. She charmed passersby, kept my legs warm, and prompted at least two people to donate. The last half hour of my two-hour shift was hard to get through because both of us were starting to get cold; I have to admit I left a couple minutes early. But my bucket got full. It was very apparent when the customers changed from home-all-day types to stopping-in-after-work types -- the donations picked up noticeably. Some of the earlier people probably count on the Salvation Army for help.

Please give generously to the bell ringers you see. The Salvation Army an organization that helps the down-and-out get back on their feet.

Ten on Tuesday, the traditional edition.

Ten Favorite Holiday Traditions.

1. Listening to Alice's Restaurant on Thanksgiving Day. Somehow we missed that one this year. Maybe we will do it on Christmas instead. One year #1 Son spent T'day with a friend and her family who had never heard Alice's Restaurant. He introduced them to the tradition.
    
2. Not having turkey on Thanksgiving or Christmas. I am the only one who likes turkey, so we go non-traditional these days. In the years when #1 Son came home for Thanksgiving we had ribs and sauerkraut. Last year it was enchiladas. One year only #2 Son and I were home, so we volunteered at local church that serves a free will turkey feast. This year it was a beef roast in the crock pot (the meat is nothing special, having given up all its flavor to the gravy, but the gravy is to die for) and roasted root vegies, cheesecake (purchased) with blueberry sauce (homemade).
    
3. Addressing the Christmas cards on the evening before Thanksgiving while the pies are baking. This one was just me and was relatively short-lived, only for a few years in the early 1990s. Then we started writing a Christmas letter instead, and that takes weeks.
    
4. Smokey writes the first draft of the Christmas letter and I edit, add, and insert photos. He is so much more verbal than I, and I am an excellent editor if I do say so myself.
    
5. Taking turns opening Christmas gifts one at a time so everyone can see and admire. I love watching everyone open their gifts.
    
6. Christmas dinner sponsored by a local civic group at a beautiful lodge in the next village over. The boys and I have done that several years. (I used to love to cook, but big holiday meals are too much work for my lazy a$$ these days.)
    
7. Spending Christmas with both sons here together. Who knows how many years we will able to do that? Now we have added BGFE to the mix, and it is better than ever.
    
8. Watching Love Actually. Such a sweet movie that happens to be set at Christmas.
    
9. Not decorating for Christmas. I used to do the whole enchilada -- a lighted wreath on the door, one year a lighted swag around the entrance, the tree, a Christmas village on the mantel, a couple of framed needlepoint nutcrackers (made when I was in my needlepoint phase) on the wall where the clock usually hung, mistletoe in the doorway, electric candles in the all the windows. Now all that work makes me tired just to think about. I hang a wreath on the door and Smokey brings home a poinsettia or two in late November. Some years we have a tree, some years we do not. The tree is still up from last year (obviously an artifial one; prelit and still decorated); I need to blow the dust off it.
    
10. Not traveling far, far away for the holidays. From the mid-80s to the mid-90s we went to Florida for two weeks every year to spend the holidays with Smokey's parents. Some years we also spent part of those two weeks camping in the Keys. Imagine doing all the usual getting-ready-for-Christmas stuff, plus packing for a two-week trip with two small children, plus sometimes also packing for a camping trip. I know it may be difficult for you to feel sorry for anyone who gets two weeks in Florida in the winter, but the whole thing was a lot of work. I loved being there and being with my in-laws and having my children spend lots of time with their grandparents; it was the weeks beforehand that were annoying.

Murmuration.

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

Found via blackbird.

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