kmkat and her kneedles

Not that anyone is counting.

Four days until the hip replacement. 

Per doctor's orders, I had to stop taking ibuprofen last weekend and instead take Tylenol until the surgery. The latter does not work nearly as well as the former for joint pain. Just in case you were wondering.

On the knitting front, I finished Scotty's mittens (New Year's Day) and Younger Son's hat (New Year's Eve) as promised. Cast on for a pair of fingerless gloves for a friend; she runs a drive-through coffee kiosk in town so has to open and shut her window all morning long. Although she claims it is warm inside the kiosk, I bet her hands get cold. Thus, the fingerless gloves.

As an added benefit, I realized that the yarn I am using -- Colorado Yarns Durango -- would be perfect for the extra-long fingerless gloves I want for myself, to wear when I am reading in bed. I have 4 or 5 skeins of the ecru -- plenty! I shall cast on for them next.

Smokey wants a tuque for himself like the ones I made for Harley and Peter. I don't have any more of that yarn, Phildar Pure Laine 3-1/2 DK, and it is discontinued. I have been searching for a suitable substitute. He desires the hat to be wooly and (probably) blue. As I am determined to knit exclusively from stash for the foreseeable future, this has necessitated some serious stash diving. But I may have found the solution: the Rowan Pure Wool 4-ply fingering weight I got when I subscribed to the Rowan magazine. If I double-strand it, it should be roughly DK weight. The tuque requires about 350 yards of DK weight, so that would be 700 yards of the fingering weight; if Ravelry is to be believed, I have a little over 1,000 yards. Score!

It has been snowing nonstop for two days, with a total accumulation <1/4". Such is January on The Great Frozen Tundra.

Ramblings.

My hip replacement surgery is scheduled for Monday, January 7. There may be a slight tremor in The Force that day, but fear not, my friends. Tis only the mightiness of my new hip.

I may have neglected to mention that this was on the horizon. Back in May when I saw the ortho PA and she recommended, among other things, going gluten-free, the x-ray showed my hip was bone on bone. No wonder it hurt. My surgery had to wait until Smokey was recovered from his back surgery, then until after the October 15 tax season, then for a new x-ray and a CAT scan, then for surgeon to get it scheduled.

I am looking forward to this big-time. Surgery does not scare me at all, even though it probably should; this will be my ninth (2 C-sections, 2 polinidal cysts, twice for the broken ankle, a few other things) so I know much of what to expect. The aftermath may be painful but the eventual ability to walk easily should be worth it.

* * * * *

That massive blizzard that hit the Midwest yesterday mostly missed us. We got less than 1/4" of snow but lots of wind and cold. Temp this morning was 6˚F; 18˚ now.

We are not plowed out yet from the last snow dump that occurred almost two weeks ago. Smokey managed to make one plowing pass from the house to the road before Da Yeep broke. And broke again. And possibly again. We can drive from the road to the garage and pole barn that are 75 feet uphill from the house but must walk the rest of the way. Yep, these northern winters do make one hardy. 

Elder Son is supposed to be driving home from Ann Arbor yesterday and today. We have not heard anything from him. I hope he checked the weather before he left and waited a day. (He may be brillliant, but sometimes his common sense falters. Also, his phone appears to be off.) When he does get here I hope he does not attempt to drive down to the house. The two cars blocking the driveway may be enough of a hint.

* * * * *

I was reading blogs in my Google Reader this morning and saw this over at sneezingcow.com, Michael Perry's website:

Al is married to my good friend Colleen. That quote sounds just like him. Al, a retired English teacher, is also notable for having taught Neil Gaiman's son, Mike, at Menominie HS.

* * * * *

Our geothermal heat system has been giving us fits for several years. The major problem was that the installer's crew(s) knew not what they were doing back in the early aughts, not to mention that the unit we got seems to have been a lemon. After spending thousands (and thou$and$) of dollars having it fixed and replaced and fixed and fixed yet again, we hired a different contractor to replace it. He seems to have somehow missed that fact during the preliminary talks and bid that, while his unit needs 14 gallons/minute to work most efficiently and effectively, our well only produces 6 gallons/minute. So we will perhaps be relying on (expensive!) electric heat to supplement the geothermal. Rats.

* * * * *

On the (very slightly) bright side, the Christmas mittens for our teenage helper are turning out quite nicely. So nicely, in fact, that I am tempted to make a pair for myself in different colors. 

I'd really like to to show how they look, but a few days ago my computer/iPhoto announced that it could not find my iPhoto library of several thousand photographs. I have searched the hard drive myself to no avail. My Mac Mini had been acting unreliably this fall, so about six weeks ago I hooked up a backup drive and turned on Time Machine to back up my hard drive. Great, I thought, I'll just do a restore. So far repeated Restores have not helped, nor have they actually restored anything. Neither the Apple site nor Google have been particularly helpful so far, either; their tips on fixing iPhoto don't work for my problem.

So you won't be seeing any photos here for awhile...

* * * * *

Have I bummed you out sufficiently with all my (admittedly minor) complaints? Good, my work here is done.

Why, yes, we DID get some snow.

Good thing I know how to knit. Baby, it's cold out there!

Sunday stuff.

1. Complications :: from surgery.
2. Bell :: toll.
3. Sunshine :: on my shoulders.
4. Laundry :: room.
5. Grumpy :: Doc (also Sneezy, Dopey, et al)
6. Throat :: strep.
7. Vitamin :: C.
8. Tell :: all.
9. Potent :: omen. (Wait. Omen is like portent, right? Score one for careless reading.)
10. Radio :: Free Europe.

* * * * *

We finally got some snow worthy of a photo.

We are about halfway through a winter storm alert. Six - twelve* predicted.

Whew. For a few weeks there I thought winter had forgotten us.

* * * * *

I finished whatever it was I was working on when last we discussed knitting. (What was it? My mind is a blank. Luckily, I have a blog so I can go back and check. Theoretically.)

Cast on for the mittens for our teenage slave helper, Scotty.

The pattern is Striped Mittens from Favorite Mittens (such catchy names, eh?), checked out from the library.

A couple weeks ago Carole's Ten on Tuesday topic was Ten Mittens/Mitts I Want To Knit. Having only minimal interest in mittens -- I prefer leather gloves in order to have a better grip on the steering wheel -- I did not participate nor pay much attention to the others' blog posts. A few days later Scotty's mother replied to my email about what I could knit for him for Christmas: mittens! Carole's topic was suddenly relevant, and I carefully perused all those posts for conservative masculine mittens. Voila, Striped Mittens, courtesy of Woolyheaded Ruth! Scotty's jacket and hat are gray, so these should be right up his street.

All that double knitting I practiced last month made this stranded knitting super easy. It's the holding of two strands of yarn that to me is the challenge of stranded knitting. But I now have that down pat. Win!

* That would be inches. Fifteen to thirty for those of you metrically inclined.

Minnesotans are crazy. Knitters.

You have got to go see this over on soxanne's blog.

Winter on the ice.

Just in case you live where people are sane winters are mild, let me show you something I saw earlier this week. (Crappy photos taken with my iPod because I had left my camera at home.)

In summer, this is the swimming beach on a nearby lake. 

In winter it is the place where those crazy Norwegians Danes locals drive onto the lake to get to their fish houses. While I was sitting there, two pickup trucks went past me.

Now, ice houses on the lake are no big thing. Anyone who saw Grumpy Old Men knows about the ice house villages that spring up on northern lakes in winter. I spent my high school years in northern Minnesota, where the village plowed a road across the frozen-over lake on the edge of town so that residents on the other side didn't have to drive so far to get into town. I have even grown to accept driving on the lake, although I will not do it myself.

What drew my attention this time are the two fuzzy gray things in the photo below.

Those are fuel tanks -- BIG fuel tanks -- to run the heaters inside the fish houses next to them.

Somehow that struck me as... weird.

As I look at the photo now, it occurs to me to wonder if the two side-by-side blue things at right are Port-o-Potties for the convenience of the fisherfolk...

Oh, by the way...

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.

.

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

.

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.

Addition to yesterday's snow post.

We got snow (see yesterday's post for the evidence). 

And on Tuesday Smokey went to check on the pontoon boat and motor he bought, sight unseen, a month or so ago. (Ours was partially but fatally sunk when one of the pontoons sprung an unreachable leak after spending last winter in the lake.)

What, doesn't everyone buy their boats in the fall?

 

When the going gets tough cold, the tough cold... is everywhere.

I woke up this morning to... this.

Not only did it snow last night, but it is cold and very windy out there. 

Crap.

Summer/autumn = gone. Winter = now. (Of course, it is mid-November in n.w. Wisconsin, so what did I expect -- sunshine and palms?)

On the bright side, that means that this little thing OTN:

will be very welcome. It is a dog sweater for Ser Percival The Energetic, who has a very, very short coat and a naked pink underside. Poor baby needs a sweater.

.

P.S.

Anything still green in the woods in November (except conifers) is an exotic. This is a Tartarian honeysuckle that was here when we bought the place and that I have intended to remove for... a long time.

Catching up.

It is tough to find time to blog these days. I signed up to work 30 hours a week during this tax season. That was fine and dandy until we got busy a couple weeks ago. I have worked more than 60 hours in each of the past two weeks. This week will be not quite so bad, mainly because I took Monday off -- mental health day. It was marked as OFF in my original schedule, so I don't feel too guilty. (Until I look at my to-do list of 10+ returns that are waiting for me to review them, and fix them, and send them on to the next level of review, and fix them again, and do all the steps required to efile them, and, and, and...)

But I have a stash of photos from the past few weeks so we are gonna do Random Photos And The Stories That Go With Them, 'kay?

Random Thing #1.

Back in January a county board  committee of which I am a member toured the county jail. Interesting; I had only seen jails on TV.

The kitchen:

  

The county contracts with a food service to prepare the meals. They also prepare the meals here for the Meals-on-Wheels program.

Guess what this is:

The machine with the LED readout on the desk is the Breathalyzer. Happily, I had never seen one before.

A cell, this one for eight inmates. This one is in the less-restrictive area, to which prisoners are moved if they behave themselves. It was empty when we were in there because maintenence was working on the lights.

The uniformed man in the back, newly elected last November; he had been an investigator before his election (I voted for him because he was experienced and low-key; the other guy was experienced but seemed to want to build a paramilitary police force). The man at right is the jail sargeant who led the tour.

If your husband/wife/father/mother/sweetheart/brother/sister/son/daughter is in the Polk County jail and you come to visit, this is where the two of you will meet, you on the green chair on the far side and the inmate on the stainless steel stool:

Random Thing #2.

Remember the Spring Wine Sale? That beautiful and creative sign didn't last long. This was about a week later:

Random Thing #3.

A couple weekends ago I worked on a Saturday; my team took over a conference room that faced west.

The big building with the white rim around it just beyond the high-rise is Target Center, an indoor arena where the Timberwolves play. Beyond that and to the right is Target Field, where the Minnesota Twins play. The plume of smoke/steam just beyond that is... the city garbage burner.

Our office is on the 29th floor so we have a fabulous view. I'm not a baseball fan nor will I be here during baseball season, but with a pair of binoculars one could watch the action around home plate quite easily. If one were not too busy.

If you look carefully you can see the people lined up to buy tickets. That Saturday was the first day single game tickets went on sale.

Random Thing #4.

I really, really wish I had better photographs for this item. But I don't, so we'll just have to deal.

The aerator keeps some water open on our lake all winter, plus our groundwater heat pump outflow keeps a small area open next to our dock. A few weeks ago half-a-dozen raptors, mostly bald eagles, discovered the open water. They hung around for days. I don't know if they were finding fish or getting drinks or pretending they were ducks; I just know that we would see them swooping over the lake or over our house, and we had a great view of them.

You can just make out a bald eagle in flight through the tree branches:

Here's one sitting on the ice:

The open water by the dock:

The tracks around it were made by the eagles. (And probably other animals, but it's cool to think of the eagles leaving footprints in the snow.)

Random Thing #5.

There are always lots of fun little distractions at work during busy season. One Friday afternoon my neighborhood (the office is divided into "neighbborhoods" of twelve to twenty people, which are easily determined by the physical layout of the office.) There was beer and wine and snacks and... Jenga!

Pardon the photos; taken with my iPod.

 

We also have a daily trivia question that comes by email; s/he who has submitted the most correct answers by the end of busy season will get a prize. Last Friday's Happy Hour (beer, wine, snacks) featured a Name That Tune contest; winning team took away a mini-keg of Heinekin. There are email bingo games and guess-the-number-of-pieces-of-candy-in-the-jar contests, prizes being gift cards to Starbucks ro some such.

There are also impromtu antics. Look for the suction bup dart on the mirror. (Sorry, more iPod photos.)

Once they had the technique down, they attacked from afar, over cube walls.

And that is what I have been up to. Darned little knitting, and what there has been was never photographed. But there are only thirteen days to go!

Gulp. I have a lot to do before then.

We have an insurance claim.

We had a rather massive ice dam on the roof of the addition. It was right above the laundry / sewing / craft room. I took this photo on January 12, and you know it hadn't gotten any smaller in the last two months.

Our roof is only a few years old, is very well built, and we have never had any damage or leakage from previous ice dams in that same place so we didn't worry about it.

This week the weather is starting to warm up. Lots of melting going on.

Tuesday afternoon Smokey heard a big Thwump! but didn't think much about it. Probably just the cat getting something he isn't supposed to, he thought.

But when he came out later to drive to town, he discovered what had made the noise. The entire ice dam and the snowbank behind it had slid off the roof... and onto the small deck on that side of the house.

Those are some m%^&% f^&*ing big ice cubes lying on our driveway there.

Late last night when I came home after the monthly county board meeting, I backed my car down the driveway (because it is easier to get it up the next day if I don't have to deal with turning it around on the ice) not realizing that there was, er, debris down there.

Happily, I missed the railing...

...and the nails sticking up from the board (in the red circle). 

Part of the deck took out a side window in the entryway (barely visible above the roof of the yellow Aveo in the first photo) and bounced off the hood of the car. Said car has only a couple tiny dents in the fender and the hood; said window needs new thermopane. Or entire new window; insurance adjuster hasn't been here yet.

No animals were injured in the making of this blog post, and we needed a new barbecue grill anyway. 

Irony.

On Friday I saw irony personified. Didn't have my camera with me so had to come back on Saturday. Forgot about it Saturday morning on the way to work so had to take a swing back after work to grab a photo before I headed home to Wisconsin.

This is between the street and the parking lot of my neighborhood liquor store.

Happily I caught the red light -- I took these from my car -- so I got an even better shot.

Advertising a *spring* wine sale... on a ginormous pile of snow. Yep, that's Minneapolis, all right!

This is how we get our dinner in the Great Frozen North.

Click on the burger to see another snow- and hop-filled video.

* * * * *

Thanks for all the input on the shawlette bind-off yesterday. I am taking it all into consideration. Hope to finish and block it this weekend and present it to the recipient next week when I am home for a couple days.

Ten on Tuesday, not.

This week's topic is Ten Favorite Cocktails/Mocktails. Since I drink mixed drinks pretty much never, I shall abstain from the topic. Beer and wine and the rare margarita, that's me.

Instead, I shall give you ten images of what we have rather a lot of right now: snow.

 

 ^From Ice Bike.

 

 

 

It's cold. And other items of marginal interest.

The temperature in Minneapolis was, I think, around zero or colder every morning of this, my first week back at work. Thanks, weather gods, for giving me such a memorable welcome.

Note: photo above is Lucy at the lake house, not in Minneapolis. The only difference is that the snow in Minneapolis is dirtier and piled higher.

Just to give you an idea of what sub-zero temperatures are like:

• The inside of one's nose frosts up when one inhales;
• When I get home after work I tend not to get really warm again until I am in bed under a couple comforters (the radiator in the bedroom has been turned off for a couple years and now the handle doesn't turn; I may need to employ Large Tools);
• The digital read-out on my car radio changes v-e-r-y slowly, if at all, when I change radio stations;
• On Thursday morning, the coldest one so far, the driver's window, which I had put down so I could see the outside rear-view mirror, would not go back up. I had to pull up on the button with one hand and pull the window itself with the other. I did NOT want to get onto the freeway with an open window.

Last night I came back home to Wisconsin; temperature on the only outdoor thermometer I saw was -3˚ F. For various reasons I had a lot of trouble warming up once I got home. Three comforters, two pairs of sweats including a hoodie with the hood UP, wool knee socks, a dog, and two cats... and I finally got warm. It was the second set of sweats and the hood that did it.

Today I am still in the sweats and wool socks and perfectly comfortable.

Look what the wind has done to the snow that piles up on the railing outside my office:

That black silhouette is En Esch glaring at me. Why are you messing around with that little box? Why are you not petting me?

* * * * *

I came upon  this video in praise of Minneapolis over at twentytwowords.com. #2 Son says he knows a couple people in the video -- the bicyclist and his girlfriend, of course.

* * * * *

In knitting news, by request I made a headband for #2's GF. She picked out the pattern on Ravelry but asked that it be wider. I recommended Malabrigo worsted for purely selfish reasons -- I had never knit with it -- and she picked out a gorgeous teal color (called "Aguas" at the link). My efforts at widening the pattern were for naught. Take it away, Bubbles!

(Bubbles's head is significantly smaller than Alex's; when the headband is stretched a bit more, as it would be on Alex's head, the seed stitch edging lies down flat. So I tried again, this time with a wider cable and a different edge treatment. Perfect -- 3-1/2 inches wide, just like she asked for! 

 

The cable is one from Barbara Walker. The edge is (on the right side) sl1, p1, k1, p1, k1, (cable panel) k1, p1, k2.

After I finish the cabled section I will pull out the provisional cast on and knit both ends at the same time, tapering them to a point. A button loop at the end of one, a button on the other. I'll give both headbands to her; if she doesn't want the narrower one I'll reclaim the yarn and dream about what to make from it and the rest of the skein.

* * * *

I finished the first hat for Warm Heads, Not Hot Heads last weekend. It can be worn with the brim flipped up or down, depending on the head size of the wearer.

 

Minneesota. Or Weesconsin.

This is about the blizzards of December last year, but other areas of the county have enjoyed this same kind of fine weather since then. I dedicate this to you!

Last week Smokey heard on the news that it had snowed 55 out of the last 60 days. I'm not sure of the exact count now, but it has snowed every day since then. Ah, the theater of the seasons...

Things that make me say, Hmmm. And stuff.

From today's Interweave Knit's daily email:

How can ebooks be all gone? They are not physical objects that exist in a limited number. I think what they mean is that the 70% off sale will end on a specific date, but the books will not be *gone*, just more expensive.

* * * * *

 

Do any of you ever wear your socks and high heels together? Have you ever seen ANYONE actually do this? I live out in the sticks where a clean flannel shirt and bib overalls counts as Sunday best, so I may be a bit out of touch.

* * * * *

This one doesn't make me go Hmmm but it did make me laugh.

* * * * * *

Aren't these just the cutest things you have ever seen?

Found via knithacker.

* * * * *

I got a package from Amazon today. Lost one of my Yak Trax a couple weeks ago so had to get some more. These are glow-in-the-dark!

And of course had to add a book from my wish list in order to get free shipping. Fiscally responsible, that's me!

Ten lights, the meme.

I was tagged by Jen, who didn't actually explain what the meme was. Judging by her post, I think it means ten things that make me light up with pleasure. So I will go with that.

1. When Hannibal The FluffBall Of Doom realizes at 2 a.m. that he is cold and decides to

come snuggle my head and sleep on my ear and purr. And give my nose or temple the occasional sleepy lick.

2. When I remember, whilst lying in my cozy warm bed in the chilly, chilly bedroom in the morning, that if I get up and get dressed I can have... COFFEE!

3. Noticing that I have a bunch of tabs open and remembering that two of them concern my

registration for the 2011 Yarnover. Ah, the exquisite joy and pain of narrowing my class choices down to just two! Or one, if I decide to take an all-day class instead of two half-day classes. So far I have it narrowed down to three all-day classes, three morning classes, and five afternoon classes. Decisions, decisions...

4. YouTube. By searching YouTube I found video tutorials for Japanese short rows and double knitting in colors. This means I can eliminate those two classes from my Yarnover list. Now to search for Bavarian and Austrian twisted stitches. If I can learn those from YouTube I will have eliminated the all-day class on my list.

5. When Smokey says, Hey, ya wanna do some quizzes? We have done the Asimov Superquiz on the Star Tribune website for years but now he has found a website with a seemingly infinite number of trivia quizzes. Yeah, we are nerds, but we are happy nerds.

6. Casting on a new project. Binding off a finished project. Which is better? Yes.

8. Turning the key in my car and having it start right up. That may not seem like much, but when the temperature is somewhere south of zero degrees Fahrenheit, it is a downright miracle. Definitely smile-worthy.

9. Super-cold weather. It means I can bundle up when I venture out -- Dimorphous mittens on my hands, Noro striped scarf wrapped around my neck, Calorimetry to cover my ears, double-thick wool socks on my feet. Plus the bedroom is extra chilly so we both sleep better, snuggled down under a couple-three comforters with a dog and/or cat(s) for extra warmth. I'll be tired of it by March, but for now I am enjoying it.

10. How pretty the world is when the weather is this cold. The snow is pristine and

white, like the frosting on a cake. When the sun shines the world is brilliant and sparkly.

 

 

 

Winter is icumin in.

Sumer  Winter is icumen in,
Lhude sing cuccu snowplow!

I don't know how much it snowed here.  We are on the northern tier of The Great Blizzard of Aught Ten and probably didn't get as much snow as the Twin Cities; 17" at the airport there and 22" in the far southwestern suburbs. I'd guess we got something in the 8-10" range. The reason I cannot be more precise is that I have not gone out and do not intend to. Smokey is in Minneapolis working doubles and the snowplow is broken, so I am not going anywhere.

Matthew The Invincible emailed me last night about the bike ride he took on Saturday. Actually, he wrote that mostly he walked the bike. Even with those super-fat tires, 16" of snow is a bit of an obstacle to pedaling.

The view from my desk chair.

Usually we can tell how much snow has fallen by the depth on the railing, but it has been so windy that that is not an accurate measure right now. At least I don't have to worry about the roof caving in... like the Metrodome. (When I googled to find a link to the Metrodome story the first one I clicked on was from the India Times site. I guess it is Big News.)

The forecast:

Those are the raw F˚, folks, none of your wimpy C˚ or your inflatable wind chill temps. I knew it was cold when I woke up this morning because it was 57˚ in the house. I'm comfortable in two pairs of pants, a t-neck, a sweatshirt, and wool socks. Plus fingerless gloves and a Calorimetry if necessary. If all else fails I can burn the cats for warmth.

Wait. Don't tell them I said that. I would never burn them. Not enough BTUs in a flaming cat.

I'd burn the dogs.

Wait. They would yield more heat if I put away the matches and strapped one on each side of me. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Okay, Kat™ out. I'm off to find a dog and some straps.